Battle Report #180: Sloan vs Lylyth3

:: Prologue ::

For the last game of the day we were playing another new scenario - Line Breaker. My opponent switched to a bit of an anti-Sloan list: Lylyth3. Without Stormwall + Arlan I can imagine this being very, very hard.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Sloan
- Reinholdt
- Defender
- Defender
- Hunter
- Hunter
- Grenadier
- Firefly
Maxwell Finn
Trench Buster
Trench Buster
Trencher Infantry (min)

 Legion:

Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight - WB: +29
- Angelius - PC: 0
- Angelius - PC: 5
- Ravagore - PC: 19
- Ravagore - PC: 19
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower - PC: 11
The Forsaken - PC: 4
The Forsaken - PC: 4
Strider Scouts - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Strider Scout Officer & Musician - Officer & Musician: 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I didn't really know what to do here. I expected him to keep all beasts close to Lylyth3 and just waltz up. That pretty much negates my entire army. I deployed sort of wide compared to the last games as I wanted to stretch out and perhaps look for scenario openings if any were to be found.

:: Game ::

I cast Refuge on Kara and sent Hunters to start working on the Scouts. Worked well enough as I got a couple. Trenchers and Grenadier dug in.

I should probably have asked closer to the rules as I thought I took out hunter. That however is a tactic so the Trenchers died in droves. All beasts barring one got in Lylyth's don't-hit-me-aura.

I took the one Ravagore outside of the bubble and killed him along with the remaining scouts (1 survived). I had both Trench Busters within 3" of Sloan.

At this point the game is pretty much over. Lylyth can either take the flag and kill my objective for 3-0 at which point I've lost. Alternatively she can go for Sloan. 12+ is a lot but she has 3 attempts and with feat, any hits = game over. Alternative 3 is to just kill the last Trencher and keep attritioning. My opponent decided for the latter but for some reason decided to put a shot into the Grenadier first. The remaining 2 shots failed to hit and without his protection he just conceded the game there and then as my feat was intact.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation :: 

If Lylyth3 becomes a thing for Legion, I fear Sloan at the very least needs Arlan, probably Stormwall as well. This was a terrifying list to face and I saw it on paper before we even started. It could probably do with some fine tuning but to be fair this was my opponent's very first game with it. I don't know Legion's pairings well enough to determine if she may be a legit caster though.

As far as the game was concerned I think it pretty much played itself. I tried to keep Sloan as safe as I could, which is really hard when you are facing a fast battlegroup with added speed whose caster is SPD9 RNG16. The stationary part of the feat is terrifying as the Busters don't have a lot of expected longevity here. That is on top of already being behind in terms of attrition since I cannot touch him and possibly scenario. Having a Stormwall probably helps as it gives Sloan something to play around better. Refuge is probably a must regardless though.

For now I'll just wait and see how the meta shakes out. Too many unknowns to pass judgement on what Sloan needs and not I think. I am starting to see her overall strengths and weaknesses though so it's just a matter of waiting for lists and pairings to stabilize somewhat. At least I hope so.