Going into the rematch we discussed the role of the MHSF unit here. I was looking forward to see how he'd approach this game with all of the lessons from the last one!
:: Lists ::
Cygnar:
Major Prime Victoria Haley - WJ: +3
- Squire
- Lancer - PC: 6
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Haley Future - PC: 0
Haley Past - PC: 0
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Ragman - PC: 2
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Savio Montero Acosta - PC: 3
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2
Opponent:
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
I won the roll-off again but went second to see how that would affect the dynamic. I hate going 2nd with Haley because she can't do anything T1, just about, since neither Past nor Future are available. I deployed largely the same but upon seeing MHSF opposite Haley I pushed Trenchers back just over 3" to ensure he couldn't alpha them before I'd even moved.
:: Game ::
Infiltrators spreads out on the left. MHSF sets up. Hyperion runs.
I'm a little unsure of how I should approach this. I believe his MHSF have gone up so that I can take out 2-3 guys with ATGM. I start with this but I only get 1, 2 others are a whisker away from me getting shots off at them. Haley has to be very careful so she stays deep. Her position is attempting in the sense that he might get 7-8 on me, but if he misjudges the distance with feat it's game over. I give her Dirge just to be sure and put up the cloudwall, taking care to have 1 Trencher deep (though to be fair probably not deep enough: Note to self - Trencher Leader has to act as an intermediary here so that I can push 1 Trencher far behind vs MHSF with Snipe).
The rest of my models just jam up high behind the clouds. If he wants to alpha with feat, he can do so, but regardless of what he kills there'll be something left to return the favour.
Ain't no thing like a snipe-feat-go! He doesn't try for Haley though, which is good for him as we measure for when and. barring insane dice, it would've been disastrous. Instead they take out ~8-9 models or so but they are spread out across multiple units so it's not that bad. I'm losing left flank completely but it doesn't worry me that much because I'll be the one to start scoring and I don't even have to contest it. Yet.
With such a devastating blow I'm forced to feat in return, which leaves me wondering how I'll deal with Hyperion later on. I bring back 2 Trenchers and 2 Storm Lances. Ryan is close enough to MHSF that she can walk up and shoot. ATGM take out 3 models as well and with Past throwing Chain Blast under Feat as well and Acosta charging in they are almost killed to a man. I score the left flag for 1-0 and Haley takes a decent spot. The only problem I have is that my engaged force is a little too far ahead of the rest, meaning it'll be hard to support Lances with Stormblades.
My opponent has made a big mistake which I'm not even aware of: The model closest to Hyperion is its junior warcaster. This, combined with some decent dice, means that Electroleaps is a nightmare and indeed Hyperion ends up without a controller. Wow!
Retribution takes the left flag, contests mine and clear out a couple of Lances. Ravyn takes control of Hyperion.
I don't know exactly how but I manage to stay way too passive this turn, not moving my cloudwall nearly as much as I should have. I revive Storm Lances again which run to contest and charge as per usual. Acosta takes out another 2 MHSF models and I score the right flag.
Storm Lances are cleared and he takes the flag on the left, unable to contest my right at this point in time.
Hyperion is basically full health, or close to, and I can't take him down reliably, meaning I can't score to go to 5 this turn. Furthermore Ravyn is sitting in the trench on a single focus. I decide to go for her. B13th run behind her. Lancer runs behind B13th again. Past casts Force Hammer. Prime recasts it at Ryan through the Lancer, boosted, but even with the Squire re-roll I can't meet the required 7+ to hit her. I learned a very imporant lesson here: Before initiating this I simply ran Stormblades out of the way to the get remaining Storm Lance in melee with Ravyn to get the Dark Shroud -2 ARM effect, but in doing so they didn't finish the Sphinx (which they easily could've).
I had a huge mess on my hands and trying to salvage this situation came down to contesting the middle flag with enough models while keeping Haley alive. The awkward picture below shows my position at the end of my turn:
Ravyn, The Eternal Light - WJ: +6
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Sphinx - PC: 7
Arcanist - PC: 1
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber - PC: 3
- Hyperion - PC: 18
Houseguard Thane - PC: 2
Mage Hunter Infiltrators - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander - PC: 3
Mage Hunter Strike Force - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Strike Force Commander - Commander 2
Houseguard Riflemen - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
I won the roll-off again but went second to see how that would affect the dynamic. I hate going 2nd with Haley because she can't do anything T1, just about, since neither Past nor Future are available. I deployed largely the same but upon seeing MHSF opposite Haley I pushed Trenchers back just over 3" to ensure he couldn't alpha them before I'd even moved.
:: Game ::
Infiltrators spreads out on the left. MHSF sets up. Hyperion runs.
I'm a little unsure of how I should approach this. I believe his MHSF have gone up so that I can take out 2-3 guys with ATGM. I start with this but I only get 1, 2 others are a whisker away from me getting shots off at them. Haley has to be very careful so she stays deep. Her position is attempting in the sense that he might get 7-8 on me, but if he misjudges the distance with feat it's game over. I give her Dirge just to be sure and put up the cloudwall, taking care to have 1 Trencher deep (though to be fair probably not deep enough: Note to self - Trencher Leader has to act as an intermediary here so that I can push 1 Trencher far behind vs MHSF with Snipe).
The rest of my models just jam up high behind the clouds. If he wants to alpha with feat, he can do so, but regardless of what he kills there'll be something left to return the favour.
Ain't no thing like a snipe-feat-go! He doesn't try for Haley though, which is good for him as we measure for when and. barring insane dice, it would've been disastrous. Instead they take out ~8-9 models or so but they are spread out across multiple units so it's not that bad. I'm losing left flank completely but it doesn't worry me that much because I'll be the one to start scoring and I don't even have to contest it. Yet.
With such a devastating blow I'm forced to feat in return, which leaves me wondering how I'll deal with Hyperion later on. I bring back 2 Trenchers and 2 Storm Lances. Ryan is close enough to MHSF that she can walk up and shoot. ATGM take out 3 models as well and with Past throwing Chain Blast under Feat as well and Acosta charging in they are almost killed to a man. I score the left flag for 1-0 and Haley takes a decent spot. The only problem I have is that my engaged force is a little too far ahead of the rest, meaning it'll be hard to support Lances with Stormblades.
My opponent has made a big mistake which I'm not even aware of: The model closest to Hyperion is its junior warcaster. This, combined with some decent dice, means that Electroleaps is a nightmare and indeed Hyperion ends up without a controller. Wow!
Retribution takes the left flag, contests mine and clear out a couple of Lances. Ravyn takes control of Hyperion.
I don't know exactly how but I manage to stay way too passive this turn, not moving my cloudwall nearly as much as I should have. I revive Storm Lances again which run to contest and charge as per usual. Acosta takes out another 2 MHSF models and I score the right flag.
Storm Lances are cleared and he takes the flag on the left, unable to contest my right at this point in time.
Hyperion is basically full health, or close to, and I can't take him down reliably, meaning I can't score to go to 5 this turn. Furthermore Ravyn is sitting in the trench on a single focus. I decide to go for her. B13th run behind her. Lancer runs behind B13th again. Past casts Force Hammer. Prime recasts it at Ryan through the Lancer, boosted, but even with the Squire re-roll I can't meet the required 7+ to hit her. I learned a very imporant lesson here: Before initiating this I simply ran Stormblades out of the way to the get remaining Storm Lance in melee with Ravyn to get the Dark Shroud -2 ARM effect, but in doing so they didn't finish the Sphinx (which they easily could've).
I had a huge mess on my hands and trying to salvage this situation came down to contesting the middle flag with enough models while keeping Haley alive. The awkward picture below shows my position at the end of my turn:
'
The score at this point in time was 4-4. He would thus need to take the middle + left flag or take the left and contest my right flag. As casters do not contest he pretty much couldn't contest the right so it was down to clearing the middle. Hyperion started with a nice, big critical hit which evaporated quite a few models there. The Retribution forces were really reduced though and there weren't that many sources of damage left. In the end I had a single Gun Mage left within 4" of the flag. He had to take a command check. I rolled an 8 and thus passed. Close one!
Victory to the Swans!
:: Evaluation ::
First things first: Acosta is out. Sure he will almost always get Swift Vengeance, but too often that's not the answer as he goes in, kills a couple of models, then checks out. I'm bringing Alexia back in. She's an excellent target for Arcane Shield, her Thralls benefit a lot from Temporal Flux and her continuous spawns complement Haley's attrition game very well. Further on list thoughts: Retribution is a matchup where I'd expect Blazers to be good. Maybe they are, but I would rather have ATGM, even with the fairly little support they get here.Ragman also gives this list significantly stronger counter-push.
In this game the Retribution forces committed to a swift onslaught which forced me to react. It took a great amount of models away but I fear the lack of taking down one target (e.g. Trenchers) left too many things alive that could, with a couple of revives, simply be operational post-feat again. True enough, ATGM never truly recovered but they weren't that essential either.
It should be noted that in this game of attrition, losing a full turn on Hyperion really hurt. That was kind of lucky for me and I doubt my opponent will make the electroleap mistake again anytime soon. It would be interesting to see how the game would've played out as my inability to bring the Stormblades up quick enough meant that support was too far away. Meanwhile I was also struggling with the left flag because I basically had to revive a Storm Lance to keep that flag in check every other turn.
Lastly, when going for an assassination run, regardless of how easy it is, if there are other ways to win the models should at least be moved accordingly first. I simply pushed the Stormblades out of the way when they could've contributed significantly. Hopefully, lesson learned ;)
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar