Second and last game of the day was against Lucant. Lucant was one of the harder matchups in Mk. 2 but both the explicit and implicit changes in Mk. 3 have made this matchup easier on paper. Let's check it out in practice!
:: Lists ::
Cygnar:
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 5
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Ironclad - PC: 12
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
- Firefly - PC: 8
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
Ragman - PC: 4
Storm Lances - Leader & 2 Grunts: 12
Opponent:
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
Same scenario and map as I had against Issyria and I'm moving second again. The plan is roughly the same.
:: Game ::
Lucant runs his army. Watcher is put up, as is Deflection.
I want to establish board presence and start hurting the rightmost TEP. I can run Thorn, Time Bomb it and reaction drive behind the cloud. I do this and deal like 8 or so damage to it. I put Lances 13.1" away from it. Unfortunately I don't respect it a lot and the Stormwall and Firefly both end up within 13" of it and are B2B.
Convergence waste no time capitalizing on my mistake. I like the play here! When in doubt: Aggro! Prime Axiom moves up and shoots the Stormwall for a few boxes. It launches a flare-bot which flares the Firefly. The right TEP moves up 3" and sprays the Firefly, hitting both. It maxes out damage, hits on all 4 attack rolls and the damage rolls are incredible: Stormwall loses 20 boxes and the Firefly dies. Lucant feats.
I do have an angle to get both the Stormwall and the Ironclad into the Prime Axiom. The problem with doing so is that I won't deal with any of the TEPs and even with Ragman in the mix I don't have the damage output to kill it. With the sprays and Inverter alive it's going to be really, really hard to make such a play work.
Instead I go for the 2x TEP move: Stormwall into the left one and the Lances + Thorn into the right one. I make an absolutely disgusting mistake with the Stormwall as I decide to walk over there instead of charging because I don't want to lose an attack. However in doing so I can't keep outside of 6" of Lucant so I trigger Watcher. The Inverter moves up and hits me for a ton of boxes, taking out my right arm. The TEP does die but a charge would allowed me to still have a very dangerous Stormwall alive still.
The Storm Lances and Thorn vs TEP is a miserable chapter. I have to TK it around because I'm no-where near killing it. I also mess up a Lance reposition so it gets to spray one under my feat.
The Inverter shows me what's what as it receives Positive Charge from Lucant and Discontinuity is cast. It rolls so well in fact that the Stormwall dies. When your Stormwall dies in melee with over a side's worth of boxes left under Haley2 feat, you are likely doing something wrong. Prime Axiom tries to hit Lances but does nothing.
The plan is to kill the TEP, kill the objective, take his zone and move to 4-1. To do so I have to block in the PA as best as I can and Time Bomb it. However my dice are next level crap as one Lance misses (!) the TEP on the charge while the other does but a box or two. Junior shoots it but does no damage. Thorn at least does something but it's not a lot. Haley thus has to spend focus killing both the TEP -and- the objective despite the Ironclad having 3 focus and Death Field so that means no Time Bomb for the PA. At least I could TK the Inverter around so it couldn't get to the Ironclad. My opponent would have to commit Lucant to deal with him.
Convergence opt to go for a stalling play: Send PA into my zone by running around Thorn and jam his own zone as much as possible. With Ragman in the trench and Thorn alive and healthy he doesn't dare to commit Lucant to trying to take out the Ironclad.
I think not going for the Ironclad is a big mistake here as I'm on 4 CP and with Haley's tricks I can put a ton of hurt onto the Prime Axiom. That is exactly what I do: TK Ironclad (to avoid Free strike KD), TK a Lance (to get front arc), load up on focus and start pounding that colossal! Lanyssa lands Hunter's Mark and Ragman gets in range of Death Field. My dice finally remember what 4s, 5s and 6s look like as opposed to the string of 1s and 2s and the odd 3s I've seen so much this game so luckily the Prime Axiom goes down and I move to 5 CP.
Ragman MVP.
:: Evaluation ::
Dice happen and I'm rarely one to make a big deal of it. Indeed, in this game I made significant mistakes which would have been avoided and had nothing to do with dice. That being said, the dice were on a new level this game. Crazy game is crazy.
Ok so deployment-wise the left TEP is a little too far out on the flank and its lack of pressure top of 2 is a problem for Convergence. Likewise my Thorn is a little too far from the center as I can't properly threaten both TEPs. I do manage to work around it though.
Stormwall and Firefly should both be outside of 13" of the right TEP. They were after all around 11.5" away or so and those last 1.5" were not crucial in any way. There's just no reason to start taking heat from these things at all. This is arguably my biggest mistake in this game. It competes with the Stormwall not charging the left TEP under my feat turn, which enabled the Inverter to take it out.
Lastly Ragman and Lanyssa were crucial here, the first easily MVP style with tons of clutch death fields. They definitely feel like the best way to spend those 7 points in so many matchups.
A great game and it was really close. I feel I've learned a lot and have started adapting to the Mk. 3 mindset of this matchup.
Father Lucant, The Divinity Architect - WJ: +28
- Inverter - PC: 15
- Prime Axiom - PC: 38 (Battlegroup Points Used: 28)
- Corollary - PC: 6
Transfinite Emergence Projector - PC: 19
- Permutation Servitors
Transfinite Emergence Projector - PC: 19
- Permutation Servitors
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex - PC: 2
Optifex Directive - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
Same scenario and map as I had against Issyria and I'm moving second again. The plan is roughly the same.
:: Game ::
Lucant runs his army. Watcher is put up, as is Deflection.
I want to establish board presence and start hurting the rightmost TEP. I can run Thorn, Time Bomb it and reaction drive behind the cloud. I do this and deal like 8 or so damage to it. I put Lances 13.1" away from it. Unfortunately I don't respect it a lot and the Stormwall and Firefly both end up within 13" of it and are B2B.
Convergence waste no time capitalizing on my mistake. I like the play here! When in doubt: Aggro! Prime Axiom moves up and shoots the Stormwall for a few boxes. It launches a flare-bot which flares the Firefly. The right TEP moves up 3" and sprays the Firefly, hitting both. It maxes out damage, hits on all 4 attack rolls and the damage rolls are incredible: Stormwall loses 20 boxes and the Firefly dies. Lucant feats.
I do have an angle to get both the Stormwall and the Ironclad into the Prime Axiom. The problem with doing so is that I won't deal with any of the TEPs and even with Ragman in the mix I don't have the damage output to kill it. With the sprays and Inverter alive it's going to be really, really hard to make such a play work.
Instead I go for the 2x TEP move: Stormwall into the left one and the Lances + Thorn into the right one. I make an absolutely disgusting mistake with the Stormwall as I decide to walk over there instead of charging because I don't want to lose an attack. However in doing so I can't keep outside of 6" of Lucant so I trigger Watcher. The Inverter moves up and hits me for a ton of boxes, taking out my right arm. The TEP does die but a charge would allowed me to still have a very dangerous Stormwall alive still.
The Storm Lances and Thorn vs TEP is a miserable chapter. I have to TK it around because I'm no-where near killing it. I also mess up a Lance reposition so it gets to spray one under my feat.
The Inverter shows me what's what as it receives Positive Charge from Lucant and Discontinuity is cast. It rolls so well in fact that the Stormwall dies. When your Stormwall dies in melee with over a side's worth of boxes left under Haley2 feat, you are likely doing something wrong. Prime Axiom tries to hit Lances but does nothing.
The plan is to kill the TEP, kill the objective, take his zone and move to 4-1. To do so I have to block in the PA as best as I can and Time Bomb it. However my dice are next level crap as one Lance misses (!) the TEP on the charge while the other does but a box or two. Junior shoots it but does no damage. Thorn at least does something but it's not a lot. Haley thus has to spend focus killing both the TEP -and- the objective despite the Ironclad having 3 focus and Death Field so that means no Time Bomb for the PA. At least I could TK the Inverter around so it couldn't get to the Ironclad. My opponent would have to commit Lucant to deal with him.
Convergence opt to go for a stalling play: Send PA into my zone by running around Thorn and jam his own zone as much as possible. With Ragman in the trench and Thorn alive and healthy he doesn't dare to commit Lucant to trying to take out the Ironclad.
I think not going for the Ironclad is a big mistake here as I'm on 4 CP and with Haley's tricks I can put a ton of hurt onto the Prime Axiom. That is exactly what I do: TK Ironclad (to avoid Free strike KD), TK a Lance (to get front arc), load up on focus and start pounding that colossal! Lanyssa lands Hunter's Mark and Ragman gets in range of Death Field. My dice finally remember what 4s, 5s and 6s look like as opposed to the string of 1s and 2s and the odd 3s I've seen so much this game so luckily the Prime Axiom goes down and I move to 5 CP.
Ragman MVP.
Victory to the Swans!_
:: Evaluation ::
Dice happen and I'm rarely one to make a big deal of it. Indeed, in this game I made significant mistakes which would have been avoided and had nothing to do with dice. That being said, the dice were on a new level this game. Crazy game is crazy.
Ok so deployment-wise the left TEP is a little too far out on the flank and its lack of pressure top of 2 is a problem for Convergence. Likewise my Thorn is a little too far from the center as I can't properly threaten both TEPs. I do manage to work around it though.
Stormwall and Firefly should both be outside of 13" of the right TEP. They were after all around 11.5" away or so and those last 1.5" were not crucial in any way. There's just no reason to start taking heat from these things at all. This is arguably my biggest mistake in this game. It competes with the Stormwall not charging the left TEP under my feat turn, which enabled the Inverter to take it out.
Lastly Ragman and Lanyssa were crucial here, the first easily MVP style with tons of clutch death fields. They definitely feel like the best way to spend those 7 points in so many matchups.
A great game and it was really close. I feel I've learned a lot and have started adapting to the Mk. 3 mindset of this matchup.
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