For the final game of the night I wanted to see how Haley2 is into Vlad1. Vlad's shooting is absolutely terrifying and I wanted to see if she can get up the table and start creating space before it's too late.
:: Lists ::
Cygnar:
(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]
- Thorn [13]
- Stormwall [39]
- Squire [5]
- Ironclad [12]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
- Minuteman [9]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [4]
Gobber Tinker [2]
Storm Lances (min) [12]
Opponent:
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
I won the rollof and decided to go last. I figured this would likely be the hardest for me and wanted a real challenge. I placed everything centrally ish but in hindsight I should've gone further to the right. The woods between the objective and the flag there make it hard for him to contest - as last game indeed showed!
:: Game ::
One unit of rifles run right, the other stays behind the main lines. I think it's a mistake not to push all Rifles hard up as long as you can possibly get when you go first against Haley2...
...because as the picture below shows, I can send up quite a few of my models in return without fearing for their safety. The Stormwall takes care to be within 12" of his objective. The Ironclad is behind the cloud alongside the Minuteman and the Lances are all outside of the Rifles' threat range.
Rifles on the right sweep far right. Interesting move because I can't contest them even if I feat due to where I need Haley, but this also means they won't be participating much on the left flank - where I indeed have most of my weight. The rest of his list pushes up a bit.
It's go time! The idea is to have the Stormwall and Ironclad combine to take out the 2 Ragers and the objective. Lances jam Behemoth and Thorn scores me a point. However dice happen and not only do I not get the objective, I don't even kill both Ragers. I would've gone for a different play here by dominating out Behemoth but with Midwinter in play there was just no chance. At least the Stormwall killed him now. Feat is up.
The Rifles on the left get S&P and boosted rolls to clear out Lances. Behemoth shoots Thorn for a bit of damage. The rest shoot the Stormwall and Ironclad.
On the right the Minuteman is able to clear out 3 Rifles. Unfortunately no Rocketeers I think. On the left flank the idea is to have Thorn disrupt the Behemoth and the Rager just in case I fluke. However fluke takes on a whole new meaning here as the Stormwall and Ironclad fail to kill Ruin (granted the Ironclad spent both initials and possibly a focus to take out the objective). Fuck me those are some crazy dice. He's left on 1 box.
Weeell that's just pretty disastrous. Behemoth considers his options and kills Thorn. Ruin hits the wall and strips Shield. Shooting follows up for massive damage. S&P doing work as per usual.
Now with the current position Vlad is basically dead except for the fact that the Ironclad has to tank a free strike from Ruin to get in and get work done following a throw from the Stormwall. I've taken some damage and despite the systems being crippled I can't risk that. It's back to looking at other options. With Thorn dead I have no control of Behemoth and I can't get Shield back up on the 'wall. I decide to continue with the scenario play: Load up Stormwall, have it kill as many things as possible including the objective and hopefully disrupt Behemoth with its last pod. Haley TKs the Minuteman so it can get 3 dudes in its flak field: winning the attrition on the right flank is becoming very important. I throw up Deflection (which I forget during Khador's turn) and junior gives Haley Shield. The Behemoth disruption is successful. 3-0.
Having discovered the joy of killing my Stormwall in our first game today my opponent continues. Behemoth disrupted? No problem! Feat and charge for 28 boxes and we have ourselves another dead colossal.
Luckily the damage was rather spread last turn. I should've taken a lot less because of Deflection but I was tired and more than a little frustrated over how poorly the attrition part of this game was going. In any case I was still in a decent position, I just needed to move Haley slowly towards the top right flag but be careful to do so safely. I killed off a couple of models with her bolt + shot and the Ironclad killed 2 contesting Rifles while the Minuteman walked up for the 4-0.
Without any angles to reliably contest me my opponent tried for one last hail mary assassination: I had positioned Haley outside of 18" of the Behemoth so he needed lucky scatters. He didn't get them and the game was over.
:: Evaluation ::
I wonder what would have happened if Khador had instead pushed up all rifles to the max more or less, just pre-measuring to take care no Rockets could be taken out unless I had gone for crazy Thorn all-in moves. In doing so I believe he buys the space so I can't set up for a proper scenario threat in the first place. My list lacks elements to deal with shooting that threatens this far and in such large numbers and the Rifles with S&P support and For The Motherland are really effective against everything in my army barring the Stormwall.
The way this game developed I wasn't in as much control as I thought I would've been based on the position after I feated. Some of it definitely came down to dice, but the fact is that his army deals incredibly much damage. If he had gotten the second rifles relevant sooner this might have turned out ugly.
Vlad1 is a powerful caster for sure and this list is very strong for him. I find it almost builds itself and the points just add up perfectly. I'm glad Khador has more game into Cygnar than they did in Mk. 2. It's good for the game as a whole to eliminate matchups which are too one-dimensional.
Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince - WJ: +28
- Behemoth - PC: 24 (Battlegroup Points Used: 24)
- Ruin - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
- Rager - PC: 11
- Rager - PC: 11
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 4
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 5
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
I won the rollof and decided to go last. I figured this would likely be the hardest for me and wanted a real challenge. I placed everything centrally ish but in hindsight I should've gone further to the right. The woods between the objective and the flag there make it hard for him to contest - as last game indeed showed!
:: Game ::
One unit of rifles run right, the other stays behind the main lines. I think it's a mistake not to push all Rifles hard up as long as you can possibly get when you go first against Haley2...
...because as the picture below shows, I can send up quite a few of my models in return without fearing for their safety. The Stormwall takes care to be within 12" of his objective. The Ironclad is behind the cloud alongside the Minuteman and the Lances are all outside of the Rifles' threat range.
Rifles on the right sweep far right. Interesting move because I can't contest them even if I feat due to where I need Haley, but this also means they won't be participating much on the left flank - where I indeed have most of my weight. The rest of his list pushes up a bit.
It's go time! The idea is to have the Stormwall and Ironclad combine to take out the 2 Ragers and the objective. Lances jam Behemoth and Thorn scores me a point. However dice happen and not only do I not get the objective, I don't even kill both Ragers. I would've gone for a different play here by dominating out Behemoth but with Midwinter in play there was just no chance. At least the Stormwall killed him now. Feat is up.
The Rifles on the left get S&P and boosted rolls to clear out Lances. Behemoth shoots Thorn for a bit of damage. The rest shoot the Stormwall and Ironclad.
On the right the Minuteman is able to clear out 3 Rifles. Unfortunately no Rocketeers I think. On the left flank the idea is to have Thorn disrupt the Behemoth and the Rager just in case I fluke. However fluke takes on a whole new meaning here as the Stormwall and Ironclad fail to kill Ruin (granted the Ironclad spent both initials and possibly a focus to take out the objective). Fuck me those are some crazy dice. He's left on 1 box.
Weeell that's just pretty disastrous. Behemoth considers his options and kills Thorn. Ruin hits the wall and strips Shield. Shooting follows up for massive damage. S&P doing work as per usual.
Now with the current position Vlad is basically dead except for the fact that the Ironclad has to tank a free strike from Ruin to get in and get work done following a throw from the Stormwall. I've taken some damage and despite the systems being crippled I can't risk that. It's back to looking at other options. With Thorn dead I have no control of Behemoth and I can't get Shield back up on the 'wall. I decide to continue with the scenario play: Load up Stormwall, have it kill as many things as possible including the objective and hopefully disrupt Behemoth with its last pod. Haley TKs the Minuteman so it can get 3 dudes in its flak field: winning the attrition on the right flank is becoming very important. I throw up Deflection (which I forget during Khador's turn) and junior gives Haley Shield. The Behemoth disruption is successful. 3-0.
Having discovered the joy of killing my Stormwall in our first game today my opponent continues. Behemoth disrupted? No problem! Feat and charge for 28 boxes and we have ourselves another dead colossal.
Luckily the damage was rather spread last turn. I should've taken a lot less because of Deflection but I was tired and more than a little frustrated over how poorly the attrition part of this game was going. In any case I was still in a decent position, I just needed to move Haley slowly towards the top right flag but be careful to do so safely. I killed off a couple of models with her bolt + shot and the Ironclad killed 2 contesting Rifles while the Minuteman walked up for the 4-0.
Without any angles to reliably contest me my opponent tried for one last hail mary assassination: I had positioned Haley outside of 18" of the Behemoth so he needed lucky scatters. He didn't get them and the game was over.
Victory to the Swans!
:: Evaluation ::
I wonder what would have happened if Khador had instead pushed up all rifles to the max more or less, just pre-measuring to take care no Rockets could be taken out unless I had gone for crazy Thorn all-in moves. In doing so I believe he buys the space so I can't set up for a proper scenario threat in the first place. My list lacks elements to deal with shooting that threatens this far and in such large numbers and the Rifles with S&P support and For The Motherland are really effective against everything in my army barring the Stormwall.
The way this game developed I wasn't in as much control as I thought I would've been based on the position after I feated. Some of it definitely came down to dice, but the fact is that his army deals incredibly much damage. If he had gotten the second rifles relevant sooner this might have turned out ugly.
Vlad1 is a powerful caster for sure and this list is very strong for him. I find it almost builds itself and the points just add up perfectly. I'm glad Khador has more game into Cygnar than they did in Mk. 2. It's good for the game as a whole to eliminate matchups which are too one-dimensional.
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