Some more Stryker2 action today! The first game was against an interesting Legion list: Featuring lots of troops and Lylyth1. While I suppose there's a reason we don't see her often I'm always eager to face casters I haven't played against before. Game on!
:: Lists ::
Cygnar:
Lord Commander Stryker - WJ: +6Opponent:
- Squire
- Lancer - PC: 6
Archduke Alain Runewood, Lord of Fharin - PC: 3
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 2
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan - PC: 2
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
Sword Knights - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
- Sword Knight Officer & Standard - PC: 2
- Stormclad - PC: 10
- Stormclad - PC: 10
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Lylyth, Herald of Everblight - WB: +6
- Succubus
- Raek - PC: 4
- Nephilim Protector - PC: 5
- Shredder - PC: 2
Strider Deathstalker - PC: 2
Strider Deathstalker - PC: 2
Gatorman Posse - Leader & 4 Grunts: 9
Blighted Ogrun Warspears - Leader & 4 Grunts: 8
- Warspear Chieftan - PC: 2
Strider Rangers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Strider Rangers Officer & Musician - Blighted Nyss Strider Officer & Musician 3
Spawning Vessel - Vessel & 6 Grunts: 3
Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
We were playing Incoming and I got first turn. I deployed highly aggressively on his flank, intending to really put the pressure on him to mitigate the fact that if I'm not careful he'll take me apart at a distance and ensure I can't favourably alpha with my feat.
:: Game ::
T1 I run stuff up. The only ones I run far are the tough things. I really can't afford to lose infantry already and even where they're placed now they'll have enough movement to get where they need to be T2. A+H take up positions behind the wall so as not to leave my right side completely alone.
Legion spreads out and Lylyth2 heads straight for my zone. A big challenge for my strategy is the fact that he does begin the scoring...
However, with a lack of heavy hitters I don't see how he can remove a Stormclad so I move one over there with A+H in support. I don't want to lose infantry to reform-shooters so I weigh them left and move Stryker into the zone with tons of focus + Arcane Shield, putting up the Lancer to Rebuke the Warspears because I can't have them run into the middle of the table. In the process of taking on the left flank I kill a couple of Hex Hunters. Electroleaps galore!
The Legion strike begins! The Lancer dies (many thanks to parasite), the Striders CRA on Stryker for a couple of boxes and the pot puts a Harrier with True Strike in his face. Overall, not too bad.
I'm struggling with how to approach this. Truth be told I wasn't sufficiently confident in my list's ability to clear the middle. The original plan was to feat and take apart the middle but I switched my mind mid-turn because I struggled to deal with the Harrier. Aiyana + Holt thus tried to kill a Gator but failed miserably. Because of this Stryker had no angle to Lylyth and I had to revert to clearing the zone, this time with essentially having thrown away A+H.
The TL;DR is that the Stormclads, one of which had positive charge, did tons of work. The right one charged due to Fuel Cache and thus got into the mess. The officer drove it further into the middle and the other one tanked free strikes to get in there as well. Inbetween the 2, positive charge, Arlan's focus, electro leaps and feat, they pretty much wrecked face on their own. Stryker had spent a lot of focus so he just made sure to stay safe and spent his last focus points healing a bit back up.
2-1 (Strider solo in "my" zone).
The Legion counter-charge seeks to jam me out of the middle and take on the Stormclads but alas, it cannot be done as his list simply lacks enough power to handle them effectively, even with pray + parasite. Still, Lylyth goes into my zone and it's thus 2-3.
Stryker sits on 12 boxes. The idea is to have him clear the middle, positive charge the left Clad and have it take out the objective. The Stormblades + Sword Knights cleared out the pot-summoned Harrier, the latter reforming away to clear a path for Stryker. Stryker healed 1 point to get to 13 boxes and then boosted damage by 2d6 to get some work done. He charged in, positive charge on the Stormclad, killed a couple of Gators, used Velocity to toe the zone, killed another model and ended his activation B2B with the zone. Arlan gave the Clad a focus, it activated well within both Officer and Stormblades range and with 4 attacks at P+S21, the objective didn't last long.
Reinholdt ran over to contest "my" zone since Holt was fleeing. With that, the score went to 5-3.
:: Evaluation ::
Well, my deployment probably was a tad bit aggressive. If I had realized how much he'd struggle with armor I might've been able to drive up the middle instead. Furthermore if he counters middle-with-middle he'll struggle to contest his own zone because of the big obstacle behind it, I think. The problem going middle though is the slow scoring coupled with his ranged advantage and the rough terrain which seriously limits me. Alain can only help 1 unit/solo per turn.
I realized in this game that I'm not a fan of the Lancer for this list. It's too many points to get off a Rebuke (which is all it does the way this list plays). I need more punchy-punchy.
Lastly I don't like playing when the clock really is ticking on the attrition part of things and I'm outgunned. Without feating my threat ranges are abysmal, save for the Stormclads, and if they go in alone they're in trouble. However setting up for the feat is also kind of hard because of the threat ranges in play. It's a catch22: Move too far and you lose models before the feat goes off, don't move far enough and you won't even threaten with feat. What broke this game I think was largely Lylyth's decision to go crazy for Stryker with CRA + Harrier instead of playing an attrition game. If he can jam the zone shut with gators and warspears while having taken out enough infantry I can't win because the right zone is open. The Legion T2 could have been spent either killing infantry -or- setting up for a T3 super-jam. Killing the Lancer took a lot of effort that didn't help his position on the board. Remember that all he'd need to do was block me from getting the objective (that crucial 5th point), he could probably systematically got to 5 first by taking out contesting elements and blocking me out.
:: Game ::
T1 I run stuff up. The only ones I run far are the tough things. I really can't afford to lose infantry already and even where they're placed now they'll have enough movement to get where they need to be T2. A+H take up positions behind the wall so as not to leave my right side completely alone.
Legion spreads out and Lylyth2 heads straight for my zone. A big challenge for my strategy is the fact that he does begin the scoring...
However, with a lack of heavy hitters I don't see how he can remove a Stormclad so I move one over there with A+H in support. I don't want to lose infantry to reform-shooters so I weigh them left and move Stryker into the zone with tons of focus + Arcane Shield, putting up the Lancer to Rebuke the Warspears because I can't have them run into the middle of the table. In the process of taking on the left flank I kill a couple of Hex Hunters. Electroleaps galore!
The Legion strike begins! The Lancer dies (many thanks to parasite), the Striders CRA on Stryker for a couple of boxes and the pot puts a Harrier with True Strike in his face. Overall, not too bad.
I'm struggling with how to approach this. Truth be told I wasn't sufficiently confident in my list's ability to clear the middle. The original plan was to feat and take apart the middle but I switched my mind mid-turn because I struggled to deal with the Harrier. Aiyana + Holt thus tried to kill a Gator but failed miserably. Because of this Stryker had no angle to Lylyth and I had to revert to clearing the zone, this time with essentially having thrown away A+H.
The TL;DR is that the Stormclads, one of which had positive charge, did tons of work. The right one charged due to Fuel Cache and thus got into the mess. The officer drove it further into the middle and the other one tanked free strikes to get in there as well. Inbetween the 2, positive charge, Arlan's focus, electro leaps and feat, they pretty much wrecked face on their own. Stryker had spent a lot of focus so he just made sure to stay safe and spent his last focus points healing a bit back up.
2-1 (Strider solo in "my" zone).
The Legion counter-charge seeks to jam me out of the middle and take on the Stormclads but alas, it cannot be done as his list simply lacks enough power to handle them effectively, even with pray + parasite. Still, Lylyth goes into my zone and it's thus 2-3.
Stryker sits on 12 boxes. The idea is to have him clear the middle, positive charge the left Clad and have it take out the objective. The Stormblades + Sword Knights cleared out the pot-summoned Harrier, the latter reforming away to clear a path for Stryker. Stryker healed 1 point to get to 13 boxes and then boosted damage by 2d6 to get some work done. He charged in, positive charge on the Stormclad, killed a couple of Gators, used Velocity to toe the zone, killed another model and ended his activation B2B with the zone. Arlan gave the Clad a focus, it activated well within both Officer and Stormblades range and with 4 attacks at P+S21, the objective didn't last long.
Reinholdt ran over to contest "my" zone since Holt was fleeing. With that, the score went to 5-3.
Victory to the Swans!
:: Evaluation ::
Well, my deployment probably was a tad bit aggressive. If I had realized how much he'd struggle with armor I might've been able to drive up the middle instead. Furthermore if he counters middle-with-middle he'll struggle to contest his own zone because of the big obstacle behind it, I think. The problem going middle though is the slow scoring coupled with his ranged advantage and the rough terrain which seriously limits me. Alain can only help 1 unit/solo per turn.
I realized in this game that I'm not a fan of the Lancer for this list. It's too many points to get off a Rebuke (which is all it does the way this list plays). I need more punchy-punchy.
Lastly I don't like playing when the clock really is ticking on the attrition part of things and I'm outgunned. Without feating my threat ranges are abysmal, save for the Stormclads, and if they go in alone they're in trouble. However setting up for the feat is also kind of hard because of the threat ranges in play. It's a catch22: Move too far and you lose models before the feat goes off, don't move far enough and you won't even threaten with feat. What broke this game I think was largely Lylyth's decision to go crazy for Stryker with CRA + Harrier instead of playing an attrition game. If he can jam the zone shut with gators and warspears while having taken out enough infantry I can't win because the right zone is open. The Legion T2 could have been spent either killing infantry -or- setting up for a T3 super-jam. Killing the Lancer took a lot of effort that didn't help his position on the board. Remember that all he'd need to do was block me from getting the objective (that crucial 5th point), he could probably systematically got to 5 first by taking out contesting elements and blocking me out.
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