Battle Report #311: Stryker3 vs Issyria

:: Prologue ::

Time for a rematch! This time I got to go first. Interesting...

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Stryker 3) Lord General Coleman Stryker [+28]
 - Squire [5]
 - Ironclad [12]
 - Ironclad [12]
 - Ironclad [12]
Trencher Infantry (max) [16]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress [3]
Gobber Tinker [2]

Opponent:

(Issyria 1) Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn [+29]
 - Hyperion [36]
 - Chimera [8]
Heavy Rifle Team [4]
Heavy Rifle Team [4]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber [4]
 - Discordia [18]
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (max) [19]
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution [6]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The general idea was the same as in my first game: Spread out Lances initially, reposition as needed, get jacks up the middle behind clouds. 

:: Game ::

I still forgot the Tinker... Anyway I put up Escort and Iron Aggression on the Ironclad to the right. I mess up with a Trencher so one clad doesn't go as far as I would've wished for. Note that Trenchers run here to buy me space.

Nyss try and buy space and time on the left flank. Hyperion and Issyria advance on the other flank with the rest in the center.

When in doubt, push! I'm not sure if I can afford to chill out here so I jam my entire army up the table, the Lances getting scapegoat duty. Hopefully he can't kill it all.

Issyria feats to try and get back from this position. The Lances suffer horribly on both flanks. One clad gets disrupted, another losing its hammer. The disrupted one was the one in front with Iron Aggression.

It's definitely feat time! I think I can kill Hyperion here. With Fury on the Trenchers and feat I should get a ton of work done. I also have one clad which I can send in on full focus and a Lance. That should do it. Furthermore, since impact attacks auto-hit on feat I can have the remaining Lance on the left flank get to Eiryss reliably. This looks super juicy!

Stryker goes, feats, boosts a shot to kill a Nyss, repositions on the flag with pre-measured elements in range. The Lance on the left kills a Nyss and Eiryss. The Trenchers, now with Fury, charge Hyperion and Chimera. 2 of them kill the Chimera on their own. Lol. The 4 that get into Hyperion get a ton of damage as well. The right Storm Lance charges Hyperion for another bunch of damage, then repositions left to give the clads an angle. Iron Aggression clad goes in, disrupted can't stop free charges so another bunch of damage there. Lastly the fully-fueled 'clad charges and the Hyperion goes down. Woho!

Unfortunately I had spent Lanyssa to deal damage to the Chimera already so I couldn't run her to my opponent's flag. Bummer. The last clad moved to protect Stryker, both through blocking LoS and through providing +2 ARM from Escort.

My opponent tries to retaliate but can't get enough work done and in my next turn I win on scenario. Basically Discordia tried to kill 2 nearly full-health Ironclads, she only got one and that was that.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Another interesting game! I think my hyper-aggressive T2 gambit is a little uncalled for. I allow him to get way too much work done on the Lances by sending them into the Hyperion. Flanking wide is plenty. Other than that I think it's the right play to send stuff up. 

The Nyss gambit initially seemed like a mistake to me but it did get him control of the left flank and he nearly killed all of my lances as well in the ensuing turn, indeed only 1 survived on 1 box. Possibly the correct play, I'm not sure. 

In this game I really noticed the absence of Tinker. One 'clad losing its hammer bottom of 2 hurt my setup a lot. With the Tinker my position becomes even more lethal, and perhaps more importantly it becomes a lot harder for him to deliver a successful shooting alpha. 

Some technical mistakes and poor priorities from Retribution made this matchup a little easier than it feels like it should be, but I am still very happy with starting off at 2-0 with this list!