Battle Report #227: Sloan vs Naaresh

:: Prologue ::

In my evaluation of the Sloanwall list, it was time to face up against Skorne today. Skorne is an interesting matchup because they have certain elements which scare me a lot, but if they can be neutralized it's usually smooth sailing.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Captain Kara Sloan - WJ: +28
- Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 4
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Stormwall - PC: 11
- Lightning Pod
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 4
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 4
Gobber Tinker - PC: 2
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20

Opponent:

Master Ascetic Naaresh - WB: +32
-    Titan Sentry - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
-    Titan Gladiator - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 14)
-    Tiberion - PC: 22 (Battlegroup Points Used: 3)
-    Bronzeback Titan - PC: 18
-    Agonizer - PC: 7
-    Cyclops Brute - PC: 8
Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor - PC: 4
Paingiver Bloodrunners - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
Paingiver Beast Handlers - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Paingiver Beast Handlers - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

First reaction: No Ferox! Second reaction: Hmmm feat is a thing. Basically Ferox is what I struggle with the most in Skorne. In an otherwise seemingly weak faction they are a solid unit which I find it very hard to play against. So many things can go wrong. Anyway. Naaresh looked like more of an old school Skorne approach caster, getting a ton of hyped up beasts so far up the table that sooner or later I'll struggle.

We were playing Line Breaker and I went first. From experience I know that this scenario can be tricky for Sloan because it can be hard to defend both flags at once. I anticipated my opponent weighing left because of the Rubble on the right and the hill + wall on the left and had my Stormwall there with Sloan a little to the right. This proved to be true and I was happy with the deployment:

:: Game ::

Lances move slightly right, Stormwall further left. One hunter took out an infantry dude on the right.

Skorne run up. The infantry dudes take care to stay out of Lances' threat range.

I have to be a little careful here because his next turn is a feat turn, most likely. At the same time I can't give him too much space. The idea then is to feat now, a little early perhaps, and try to wipe out the Gladiator to deny him Rush. This worked out just fine and the firefly managed to clear the infantry on the right as well.

Naaresh takes the central hill with a wall of warbeasts and feats.

There is no choice for me but to back off. I can't do meaningful damage now. My heavy shooters take pot shots at Tiberion. His position betrays his plan: He is the only Warbeast which can get meaningfully close to Sloan and thus disrupt my center. The Lances + Firefly and a Hunter take out the objective. 2-0.

I made 2 poor mistakes in my last turn: The Stormwall was outside of 4" of the flag, as was the Hunter. Only the Tinker, who I had ironically taken care to set up within 4", was contesting the flag. Naaresh was in a shitty spot from an attrition point of view but this provided him with an opening. After all he still had 3 heavies alive. The idea then was to throw the Sentry on the Tinker with the Bronzeback, have Tiberion charge the middle to take out a Lance + objective and simply run Naaresh on full focus to the flag to move to 3 points. the Cyclops could run and contest the upper right flag so as to deny me a lead. This all panned out and the score was thus 2-3.

The Hunter runs up next to the flag. The Stormwall follows suit, fully loaded on focus, and I intend to throw the Hunter on a pod right behind Naaresh to KD him. The rest of the army would then follow up with shots which would leave the beasts taking horrible damage, if even alive. As the Stormwall closed in however the Bronzeback counter-charged. Interesting. I decided to simply bash him instead with all my focus, reasoning that if he gets taken out then he probably can't kill the Stormwall + Hunter. The Stormwall alone isn't enough but Sloan seals the deal and puts a hefty bullet in Tiberion as well. The Lances then charge Tiberion and he's left at 1 or 2 boxes.

It's down to the Sentry and Naaresh himself to kill the Stormwall. Despite Naaresh getting +4 tokens from the Beasthandlers the two of them don't have enough power to bring down the Stormwall and the Hunter wasn't even scratched. With that plan foiled my opponent conceded the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

An interesting game which highlights the double-edged nature of Line Breaker. In a way for lists like mine, it's a trap. I am often in situations where I can move up and take a point or two as I did her, but more often than not it backfires. True, in this case I could've been more careful with my positioning to avoid it, but mistakes happen. It's just a part of the game.

Naaresh was fairly straight-forward to play against and I think that if I had kept my cool and not tried to skew the battle line I would've held him at bay, scenario-wise, easier. Without Ferox or anything similar he doesn't have the threat projection to really scare me.

The lack of Arcane Shield in this game was irrelevant. By the time Skorne gets up there shouldn't be enough of them left to make this an issue. Indeed that was what happened this game, the base ARM19 and 56 boxes was enough defensively to keep him alive as per my needs at the time.

That said, I feel I play a lot more predictably with the Stormwall and perhaps more clumsily. I believe there are certain ways this colossal dictates how Sloan plays that I haven't realized and started capitalizing on yet. It is something I am paying attention to in all of my games these days but I have yet to find an answer.