35pt Bat-Rep: Cygnar (3Mo) vs Cryx (eGaspy)

Battle Report #2 - Meeplemart on a Tuesday evening


Pre-game Thoughts:
Wow!  Finally I'm able to get a hand on the new Legendary Nemo and Finch models.  They're super-highly detailed, and seem quite small in comparison to some of the other models in the line. They're also a little more realistically thin in parts. (Think Kayazy Eliminators.)  After reading the spoilers and looking at the card in person, I decided to assemble them right then and there are the store, and proceed to play a 35pt Caster Kill vs... at the time I had no idea who I was up against.  I just made a generic 35pt list that was pretty much all lightning and went for it.  Turns out it was against a super infantry-heavy eGaspy, and an experienced player, but a player who hasn't played in a few months and was quite rusty.

N3mo (+3)
-Thunderhead (12)
-Stormclad (10)
-Finch (0)
Stormblades w UA (8)
Storm Tower (2)
Storm Tower (2)
Stormsmith Stormcaller x 3 (3)
Reinholt (1) - The only non-lightning immune model in the army


eGaspy (+6)
-Canker Wurm
-Boneripper
Bane Knights (max)
Bane Thralls (max) w UA
Bile Thralls (max)
Bane Lord Terminous
Gerlack Slaughterborn
Gorman

Mission: Caster-Kill
... As a general rule, I'm not too keen on Caster Kill w/o the receding Killbox rule.  (Receding is something that a different circle of players and I have used in the past, where each turn the space gets smaller by an Inch.  So it starts at 10" from table-edges, then becomes 11", then 12", etc.  Without Killbox I feel like casters that can teleport can become nigh unkillable.)

TURN 1
Cygnar wins the roll off, and does what most Warmachine Armies do best, run and apply upkeeps.  The Towers take to advangeous positions, the Blades run forward, T-Head and Stormy also run forward while N3mo casts Failsafe on the Stormclad, and Electrify on T-Head.  The Smiths run to keep clear Triangulation lines.

Cryx does something very similar, and advances eGaspy behind a house and throws down some Caustic Mist templates to cover his advance.  He also casts Hellbound.  His Bane Thralls advance warily, as do his Bane Knights and Bile Thralls.  Gorman drops a cloud to protect more infantry.  He does not like the idea of electro-leaping attacks into his valuable and deadly infantry.



TURN 2
N3mo upkeeps Electrify for free due to Finch, and Failsafe for 1, and then extends his CTRL radius by 2" leaving him with 4 focus.  Reinholt activates and uses Reload on N3mo.  The Blades advance but stay pretty far back, mostly just re-positioning.  The Storm Towers shuffle about a little for better positioning, the Thunderhead moves to take advantage of a wall, and the Stormclad shuffles a little as well.  Sacrificing himself for N3mo's cause, the lone Stormsmith on the right flank runs upwards towards the Bane Thralls on Cygnar's right, and turns himself so that his back is facing N3mo and isn't engaging the Bane Thrall in front of him.  N3mo sees his chance to fry some stealthed Bane's and 2 shots from his Accumulator into the back of the Stormsmith yields 4 leaps total, which N3mo promptly boosts damage on, scoring 4 kills.  The other two Stormsmiths advance up the left flank.

Cryx seems taken aback from this technique, and immediately is put on the back heel.  eGaspy upkeeps Hellbound and places his Soul Collection template under the Stormsmith in front of his Bane Thralls, and then his forces shuffle forward a little bit, and proceed cautiously under Caustic Mist and Gorman's cloud.  Gerlack follows the Bane Knights down towards the Forest, and Bane Lord Tarterous gets some vengeance for his fallen Banes, charging and killing the Stormsmith and adding back at least one more member to his ranks.



TURN 3
With no significant Cryx advance, N3mo's forces move on the defensive, hiding behind their advanced technology.  N3mo upkeeps Electrify for free, and Failsafe for 1.  He again extends his control radius by 2".  The Blades shimmy more towards the left flank, selecting that area as their battleground for later in the match.  Reinholt reloads N3mo.  The two Stormsmiths advance up the left flank, with the far one being just out of range for a Strike, and the other one failing his check.  The Storm Tower on the left fires into the back of the Stormsmith and misses on a 3.  The Jacks retreat a little, keeping the Banes at arms length.  N3mo steps up to plate and advances, and boosts a shot into the back of the Stormsmith, landing a solid hit, and rolling a 2 for eleaps.  He then proceeds to boost those 2 damage rolls, and kills 2 Bane Knights.

Cryx uses the Vengeance move to get into better position with his Knights, preparing to kill some models.  eGaspy upkeeps Hellbound and Arcs an Excarnate into the Stormsmith engaging one of his Knights and forgets about the -4 penalty to hit due to being in melee and misses.  He finishes his activation by placing 2 Caustic Mists.  Cryx then advances with its forces just a little, keeping the Biles in the back.  The Banes on the right side move into the forest, with the goal to circle about the house and charge in from the side.  The Knights issue a charge order, and some run up while only 2 of them engage my Stormsmiths.  They both proceed to roll 6s to hit, and leave both Stormsmiths standing.



TURN 4
N3mo upkeeps Electrify & Failsafe for 1 focus, and holds on to the rest of his 6 focus.  The Stormblades finally get to assault, but mostly they run to the left side of the board.  One model however shoots at a Bane Knight engaging a Stormsmith and misses.  Also, one of the models ran out of formation and directly in front of the Caustic Mist.  The Smiths advanced and one of the failed his skill check against the Arc Node, but still managed to engage it in melee while staying engaged with the Bane Knight that attacked him last turn.  The other attempted a Surge between the two of them and although he succeeded with both skill checks, failed to pierce the armour of the Bane Knights on both accounts.  The left Stormtower shot the Stormblade in the back and the eleap couldn't pierce the armour of the Bane Knight.  Reinholt advanced and used Lucky Charm on N3mo.  Finally N3mo stepped up and targeted the Stormblade near the Caustic mist in the back with Chain lightning.  Hoping for some big leaps, he rolled a 2.  Sadly this wasn't nearly enough to chain into the Bile Thralls behind the Knights, and simply managed to kill off a couple Bane Knights.

The Cryxian forces finally saw a chance to inflict some pain.  The Knights Vengeance'd upwards and killed off the left Stormsmith.  eGaspy upkept Hellbound, advanced and used Daemortus to place a template to collect the souls of the Stormblade out of formation and the Stormsmith.  He then cast Caustic mist 3 more times to cover the advance of his Bane Thralls.  The Bane Knights received a Charge order and managed to kill off three Stormblades, as well as the Stormsmith, and move up into a very threatening position.  Gerlack Slaughterborn advanced up into the forest for added protection, ready to cleave the remaining Stormblades asunder.  The rest of his force advanced, getting ready to strike the Jacks... and ultimately N3mo.



TURN 5
N3mo doesn't like where this is going, and orders his forces to strike like a bolt of lightning in the name of King Leto.  He upkeeps Electrify and Failsafe, allocates 2 focus to the Thunderhead (which becomes 3 due to Finch) and keeps 4 focus for himself.  The Stormclad activates, gains a free focus from Storm Accumulator, advances and shoots a boosted shot into a Bane Knight in the forest, killing it and e-leaping into another, killing it as well.  The Storm Tower on the left shoots and kills the far left Bane knight, and leaps into one more, killing it as well.  The Stormblades assault, killing off the remaining Bane Knights.  Thunderhead advances to cover N3mo from the Arc Node and boosts a shot into Gerlack Slaughterborn.  He boosts the damage and kills Gerlack... but he's Tough!  Spending its last focus it buys and auto-hitting POW 14 and forces Gerlack to roll Tough again... and he does!  Reinholt re-loads N3mo, who then advances and fires into Gerlack Slaughterborn, boosting damage and forcing yet another Tough roll... and he's Tough!  Firing his last shot into the Evil Trollblood, and boosting the damage, Gerlack succumbs to his fate and dies.

The Cryxian forces need to strike now, and so they do.  eGaspy upkeeps Hellbound, advances and feats, summoning back his Spectral Legion.  He then places Daemortus' template over the far right Stormblade and ARCs Parasite into the Stormclad before teleporting back to safety.  Bane Lord Tarterous sees a chance to help out the newly summoned Banes and advances from safety and attempts to curse, but is just short.  The Bane Thralls follow him forward.  The Spectral Legion descend upon the Jacks, wrecking the ARM 19+2-2-3 (16) Stormclad in 3 hits.  The Thunderhead was hit by one attack from a Bane Knight, but that attack still managed to cleave 10 health from it before the Spectral Bane Knight was thrown back and killed due to Electrify.  They also killed the Stormblade, allowing eGaspy yet another soul.  The Cankerwurm advanced and Gorman again dropped smoke for protection.  The Biles milled about in the back rows, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

TURN 6
Realizing that his forces were damaged and that his Stormclad had been destroyed easily, N3mo allocates 2 Focus (3 Focus due to Finch) to the Thunderhead, and his forces rally around him.  N3mo hits the Bonejack with his ranged attack and it leaps into Gorman, killing him.  The Thunderhead advances and Pulses, hitting the DEF 17 Bonejack and a couple auto-hitting shots later and the Chicken is Fried.

eGaspy doesn't have much of an army left at this point, and needs to get the Cankerwurm into position to kill the Thunderhead.  As an act of desparation, he upkeeps Hellbound, and advances while placing 3 Caustic Mist clouds to cover his forces from ranged threats.

TURN 7
N3mo sees his chance for victory, and he allocates 2 focus to Thunderhead (3 from Finch) and activates, using his feat and casting Failsafe on the Thunderhead while holding on to the remainder of his 2 focus in case this fails.  The Stormblades assault, and with great rolling and bravery manage to kill the Dreaded Bane Lord Tarterous with a single Assault shot, as well as another ranged shot on a Thrall (who Toughs it out, but gets pulverized by the melee attack.)  Thunderhead advances into the Caustic mist, taking a point of damage to his Cortex, but he is now within 6" of both eGaspy and the Cankerwurm.  He pulses and boosts damage on eGaspy for 12+4d6, and then follows up with 2 auto-hitting POW 14+3d6 shots, killing off the Lich Lord in a spectacular display of Technological Jubilee.

AFTER THOUGHTS:
I had never really thought about N3mo as an attrition caster, and originally intended to charge forward and go for the throat.  Instead, I played a very conservative and reactionary game against a superior melee threat, which worked out wonderfully.  Because of my opponent's very infantry heavy forces, I believe that N3mo had a very good showing.  He played right into my strengths.  Being able to pretty-much just select which high DEF low ARM models to remove each turn from a considerable distance is as great an ability as it sounds.  If it hadn't been conclusively proven before, I believe N3mo & the fabled Stormwall are the final word stating that Cygnar are the undisputed champions of killing light infantry.  Had my opponent brought a heavier, quicker 'Jack-heavy list, I don't think the game would have been nearly as long, nor as easy for N3mo and his lack of movement enhancing abilities.  Overall, I think my opponent was too cautious, but he hadn't played in quite some time, and didn't even know that N3mo existed prior to our game.  Kudos to him for sticking it out in the heat and humidity for 7 turns, and being a good sport.