Kara Sloan 50pt November Tournament - Bat-Rep # 1

Last weekend I played in a tournament in Southern Ontario.  50pt SR2012.

My goal was to test out two things in particular.  Kara Sloan, and Trencher Infantry.  I think the two go hand-in-hand fairly well, as Trenchers need boosted dice to hit, and Kara can provide the best to-hit bonuses in-faction.  They can also buy her some vital time to dismantle an opposing force and set-up for an assassination.  Finally, they're very quick under Desperate Pace and can contest zones fairly well.

Despite what my thoughts may have been at the beginning of the tournament, only the results would stand at the end of it.  My thanks go out to the following who helped me a great deal in the Cygnar-Forums Army List section of these forums: 

Brooks, Rob O'Boston, LordCommanderCavanaugh, Geekazoid92, cannonball, currentlyunknown, reerunz, PG_Endgame, silks, VagrantPoet… and who could forget Dino-Czar and his excellent work on his Kara Thread?

Feel free to check the brain-storming thread here:

http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?127855-Need-Specific-Tactics-for-Kara-Sloan-s-list-50pt-Tournament

Here's an account of how my games played out.  I took only a few pictures, as the turns were timed.  I'm going from memory so some of the details may be slightly off, but the core of how & what happened will be accurate.


Battle Report #1 - Kara Sloan vs. Prime Irusk

Scenario - #9 Outflank, Outfight, Outlast

Artifice - Reinforcements

My Opponent Paul's List:

pIrusk (+6)

-Conquest (19)
-Sylys (2)
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (5)
--Valachev (2)
Battle Mechaniks (max) (3)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5)
Kayazy Assassins (max) w UA (10)
Kayazy Eliminators (3)
Widowmakers (4)

Reinforcements:
Fenris (5)
Gorman Di Wulfe (2)
Kayazy Eliminators (3)

Pre-Thoughts -

It was one of my first times meeting Paul, and he seemed like a really nice guy.  I was told by one of the other guys at the club that he's a really good player and brings a strong list to the table, so when I saw his lists, I wasn't surprised.  Honestly, I didn't really care what my opponent was bringing because I had pretty much settled on bringing Kara for the first and last fights of the day, regardless of outcomes.  As it turned out, he would be bringing a lot of Kayazy, some key support units and a Conquest.  The Kayazy I was pretty sure I could take care of, and the Conquest I was pretty sure was pretty much untouchable, so I decided early to just go for both scenario and his caster while avoiding the Colossal.  I figured that I may be able to pull off the assassination while contesting the two circular zones so that I could get into attrition mode.  With my Fireflies coming in the right flank, I assumed that I could get them behind his lines and take apart his support (and possibly pAlexia/Valachev) while forcing his Colossal to turn around to deal with the threat.

Turn 1 -

I had first turn, and it was a pretty typical Kara Sloan turn.  Most of my turn 1s this tournament went like this:  Allocate 1 focus to Defender, keep 5 for Kara.  Run B13 into trees on a flank.  JWC advances and casts Arcane Shield on the Trenchers.  Finn stays Dug-in and uses Desperate Pace the Trenchers, who then Cautious Advance up 6-8" into a good position.  Advance Rhupert and give Tough/Fearless.  Advance Trencher Master Gunner and Dig in.  Advance Arlan Strangeways to Power-booster the Avenger.  Run both Jacks up about 8".  Advance Kara and cast Refuge on herself, and camp 3.  Everything else advances to keep up.

His turn had him run into position as well.  Superiority on Conquest, Inhospitable Ground, one focus on Conquest to run to the flank closest to Kara (and my eventual reinforcements.)  Everything else advanced up pretty far, or hid behind the Conquest.  The Widowmakers advanced onto a hill and started firing at my Def 17 Trenchers.  One was out of range, and the remaining three killed 2 of them with no toughs (this would be a trend throughout the tournament… I was keeping track at one point, but out of a possible 25 tough checks this tournament, I believe I made 4.)

Turn 2 -

This turn was an attrition turn, with the plan being to execute as many Kayazy as I possibly can.  Minute men arrive.  Reinholt reloads Kara, and Kara upkeeps Refuge, pulls from Squire, allocates 1 to the Defender, casts Firegroup, and feats. She advances up the field a little and takes a couple shots at the Widowmakers, missing one.  The Defender takes a shot via her feat and misses a Widowmakers as well.  She closes out her turn by advancing towards a hill near the centre of the board (but back enough that she won't get charged.)The Gun mages activate next, advance and snipe shot away about 4 of the Kayazy.  One of them manages to target the Underboss and bring him down, but he toughs it out.  The B13 activate next, with Lynch shooting down the Kayazy Underboss for a second time, who toughs it out again.  Ryan kills a couple with Magestorm (which conveniently drifted onto the Underboss who wasn't tough 3 times) and Watts misses (but was out of feat range for the boosts).  Then Rhupert advances and toughs the Trenchers.  The Defender advances and fires at a Widowmaker (the only non-stealthed target in range besides the Colossal) and misses.  Finn gives Desperate pace and advances towards the left objective.  The Trenchers Cautious advance, and shoot down another Widowmaker (who pass CMD check) and kill another few Kayazy (leaving 3, who pass CMD) as well as a few of the Risen.  They gum up the works.  Trencher Master Gunner uses Artilerist on the Avenger, and the Avenger advances and misses with its cannon shot due to range and manages to kill a single risen.  Finally, the Minute men realize that they'll be out of range to really threaten anything, and one advances up field to take down some risen with its Slug Guns and the other retreats to get into a better position for next turn.

His turn sees his reinforcements arrive, and they plow forward to threaten the zone on my left.  Irusk upkeeps Superiority, casts Battlelust on Alexia's unit, puts some on the Conquest and takes a shot at a Trencher that misses.  The Conquest advances up and threshers a couple infantry out of the way while contesting the Zone.  One Trencher toughs it out and is promptly squished with a bought attack.  pAlexia and the Risen (with Valachev) charge the Minute-man while under Battle lust and do some significant damage on the initial attacks with the Risen.  Then Alexia is up and she starts killing the Minute man single-handedly, but somehow her dice fail her, and with only 2 boxes left (movement being one of them) the Minuteman survives with a single Risen remaining who was out of her CMD range.  This is awesome luck for me.  The Widowmakers kill off my Sniper-Trencher who was at DEF 19, and the Kayazy kill off Lynch and Ryan.  Fenris runs up through a Forest to threaten by Defender and Kara next turn, and Gorman advances up field with the Eliminators to contest the Zone on the left… after the Eliminators eliminate Watts.

Turn 3 -

Kara upkeeps Refuge, pulls from Squire, gets Reloaded, Allocates no focus, casts Dead-eye twice (once on Gun Mages and once on Trenchers) and fires into Fenris, de-horsing him.  She shoots again and kills him, but he toughs it out.  The Defender makes short work of Fenris's Knocked Down body.  The Minuteman advances into Alexia and Valahev, and hits Flakfields into them.  Poor damage rolls ensue, and neither die.  The ATGM advance and kill off the remaining Kayazy Assassins, a single Widowmaker (who passes CMD) and one of the Kayazy Eliminators on the left flank.  Tough and Fearless on the Trenchers.  The Trenchers advance and kill off the last Widowmakers, the other Kayazy Eliminator, the last Risen, and miss eEiryss.  The Avenger gets Power-boosted, and Charges the Conquest to hit it with the Stall blade for some big damage, and more importantly the Stall Effect.  Finn runs for the left objective.

Irusk allocates some focus to Conquest to crush my Avenger and gain a Control point on that side.  The Great Bears finish off my Minuteman.  The Eliminators behind the Conquest advance and engage a cluster of Trenchers, killing off 2 of them, and gumming up the works.  pAlexia and Valachev advance up field.  Gorman blind grenades Finn.  eEiryss disrupts the Defender.  He clears anything else out the best he can, casts Inhospitable ground and he feats for 4+ Toughs that can't be knocked down.  He's on no focus.

Turn 4-

Time to hit him hard.  Reload on Kara, pull from Squire, upkeep Refuge, keep it all.  Arlan Powerboosters the Minuteman advances, jumps,  and hits the Kayazy Eliminators who are engaging my Trenchers with its Flak Field.  Poor damage rolls and only one has to roll tough (who makes it)  Trenchers advance and kill off Sylys, do nothing to the Kayazy in combat, and CRA to shoot Irusk for minimal damage.  Support Solos and what-not clogs up the right objective.  Gunmages advance and open up a line to pIrusk after several tough checks.  Kara advances and manages to get a thin bead on Irusk.  Cast Firegroup.  In range.  Two full-boosted shots later, and it's a 4+ Tough check for Irusk.  He fails, and it's hand-shakes.

Final Thoughts:

My first battle is over, and when all is said and done, we both had a good time.  Paul was a good combatant and didn't expect to get assassinated on his feat turn by Kara, but I feel like her ability to dance around back field and then advance when the time is right to pull off a later-game assassination is the way that she's meant to be played.  Despite the lack of Tough Checks, and some less-than-convenient dice, I managed to pull off a win, and move on to the next round.  I was happy and excited and actually rather impressed with the Trencher Infantry thus far.  Being able to Cautious Advance in order to not block LoS is pretty huge, especially when you can ensure that all of them have LoS to Max Finn in order to get the +2 to hit bonus.  Being RAT 7 never hurts, especially with the all too common boosted shots that Kara can provide.