2d6 Challenge Game 1: Haley2 vs Dr. Arkadius

:: Prologue ::

For my first game I drew Minions and I could not be more happy about this: I have never played against Minions before and I need to expand my horizons beyond what I usually play against. Add to that, a really nice guy who I haven't met before with a beautiful army (he ended up winning best painted, well deserved!).


:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19 (bonded)
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4

Opponent:

Dr. Arkadius - WB: +6
- Targ
- Gorax - PC: 4
- Gun Boar - PC: 5
- Gun Boar - PC: 5
- War Hog - PC: 8
- War Hog - PC: 8
- Road Hog - PC: 9
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
THEME: Nature of the Beast - Tier 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Close Quarters on a fairly open map. I quickly saw that he had a bunch of utility upkeep spells (cue need for Eiryss2 here), 2 shooters, 3 beatsticks, 2 support models and 5 jammers. I deployed everything fairly centrally intending to either go for attrition or scenario depending upon his level of aggression. He deployed opposite me so right off the bat I put the scenario idea to rest unless he'd advance slowly.

:: Game ::

I had turn 1 and wasted no time claiming the table. Temporal on Stormwall, running with the jacks and infantry. The Black 13th toed the woods for Stealth. Haley put up Deceleration.

The Minions reply by sending up a beatstick as bait. The 2 shooty-beasts target the B13th and Thorn. Lynch goes down (scatter) and Thorn suffers a whooping 6 boxes worth of damage.

Arkadius had put up hyper aggressive for his entire army, basically. This was a bit of an issue since I had to target him in a very careful sequence to make it all work. I was also afraid he'd get too much stuff into me so I decided to feat this turn. This was premature, more on this matter later. The feat however did allow me to play a little careless. I TK'd the beatstick around to get backstrike bonus with the Stormwall who killed him. After a miserable display of dice one of his jammers ended up surviving B13th, Thorn and Junior, jamming Ryan even.

With the feat spent and my opponent having learned to keep his beatsticks together to threaten the Stormwall the game hardened. The Minions came on and put +2 DEF +2 STR on one of the beatsticks.

I'm not a fan of prematurely committing the colossal. I gathered that I could probably kill one beatstick, but the second? Crippling grasp, force +2 STR, Gorax and suddenly he's dice damage. That's ~6 attacks or so at dice damage. With a bit of luck or perhaps support from the rest of the army, the Stormwall goes down. Instead I did what I should've done last turn: I TK'd the Beatsticks around. At this point in time I realized I could probably keep this up more or less indefinitely and hence the feat should have been conserved for a more tight spot. As such I resorted to a scenario game. Hardly optimal to determine this at this late hour, but given the table position I considered it the safest way ahead. The Stormwall + Thorn cleared his jammers.

Minions had a big advantage on the clock, but the scenario situation was looking grim and attrition wasn't getting them anywhere either. With the TAC clouding up, going for Haley would also be a longshot to say the least. My opponent decided to go for a feat to put some damage on the Stormwall and force my hand. However he got eager and activated stuff in the wrong order, messing it up. As such he was stranded in a fairly poor position without having touched my colossal. At the very least Crippling Grasp did go up on the Stormwall.

I was at 2-0 CP-wise at this point in time. Due to my inexperience against Minions however my clock was way down. I figured if I continued to play for attrition I could easily get jammed up and lose. While I'm not a fan of Assassination in general because of its dicey nature, I figured this was an excellent situation to go for just that. I TK'd Arkadius around (he had only 1 fury point to transfer damage with) and the pain train from a max-focused Temporal Stormwall began. Despite crippling grasp bringing the Stormwall down to Pow18 Arkadius received more than he could handle.

Assassination victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

My inexperience with Minions definitely showed in this game. His second list was a battle engine + gatormen something something. I should perhaps have played out Stryker here as I can't see any of his lists dealing with the wombo-combo of Stormwall + Ol' Rowdy backed by Earthquake and Thunderbolts galore.

I spent a lot of time early game trying to figure out just how I was supposed to approach him. With both Thorn + Stormwall at 35 points there's not a whole lot of points left to flesh out the army with and that definitely showed in this game: The jammers and shooty beasts he sent up my right flank were a real pain to deal with. Doubly so with hyper aggressive.

The feat timing was horrible. I should've either played Haley more aggressive T1 (charge + TK out of charge reach) -or- simply play as I did and TK'd the beatsticks around.

These things highlight why I enjoy facing new things. It's important to know how an army plays to be able to play optimally against it. The next time I face Arkadius I'll hopefully remember these lessons. I'll also hopefully play at 50 points so Eiryss2 can help me out a bit with all those upkeeps ;)