For the very last game of the tournament I find myself in yet another mirror match. Thomas, my opponent, has a Haley3 + Caine2 pairing. However his Haley3 list is light on shooting so I feel most comfortable dropping Haley2 here. He drops Caine2 in return and we're good to go!
:: 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 ::
The scenario is Extraction and Thomas wins the roll-off, opting to go first. He places Caine on the right flank, anchored by the Stormwall and I counter with Haley diagonally opposite Caine to be as safe as possible while the Stormwall goes directly opposite Caine to put on the pressure ASAP.
:: Game ::
Caine puts up FFE on the GMCA and HR on the Trenchers. His forces advance and the Trenchers all dig in.
Eiryss1 cannot be allowed to live. I run a Lance up to her and shoot it in the back twice with the Firefly who received TA. She dies and takes a Trencher with her. Stormwall runs to 12.1" from his Stormwall and my other jacks are cautious so as not to tank Caine's madness.
I've made a mistake putting my leftmost Lance a little too far ahead. Should've pre-measured the GMCA. I lose 2, which is 1 too many. You really can't afford mistakes like that with this list, they simply are too costly.
Trenchers move up against and Dig in, still with HR up. Stormwall shoots my 'wall for a couple of boxes. Caine casts Bullet Dodger on himself and receives Dirge from Rhupert, however he makes a -big- mistake as he is left in front of my Stormwall without anything to stop, say, a large base from flying in...
The Trenchers combined with the DEF19 in melee makes it a decent enough play I guess from Caine, however without HR he is all too vulnerable to shenanigans. You can read about throws and janky assassinations as much as you want but for most players you have to experience it to keep an eye out for it.
The Stormwall pods behind Caine and throws an Ironclad on the pod. Caine is knocked down. Firefly moves up and shoots him and with the boosted damage roll Caine actually dies before Thorn can even run up to make Haley's presence felt!
:: Evaluation ::
The game ends very abruptly but I think I'm so massively up here that it doesn't change a whole lot. There's not much he can do to stop me from getting a meaningful alpha at some point regardless of what he does and when I do it's really hard for Caine to get work done. It might not look like it based on the table but on feat turn I just cripple Caine so badly it's not even funny. The Stormwall is also way too tanky to be dealt with effectively.
The throw-ironclad-assassinate-caine win is a bit of a cheap shot but as I've said before I'll take the best shot at winning the game regardless of what it is. The assassination run here is such a safe bet that it would be crazy not to take it in my opinion.
Throughout my 5 games I faced Legion twice and Cygnar twice as well as Trollbloods. The majority of my opponents won a lot of their games and I ended up with a SOS of 17. I had anticipated to face the Tree at least once as there were 3 Wurmwood players attending. I was also lucky that Tor, the Cygnar player I faced in game 4, won against Ossyan so I didn't have to face him. Haley3 can play that matchup but it's uphill so you know, I'd rather just not. Regardless I had a few great games, the Madrak2 and Haley mirror matchups stand out as the closets and most memorable ones, and at the end of the day the comparative strength of a specific matchup isn't all this game is about. One Tree was cut down mercilessly by Skorne I believe (the Skorne player blogs here - Skornergybuster, I hope he puts up some reports from this event), another messed up big time against Caine2 etc.
All that being said, the podium was about as good as it gets for us Swans: I won the event, Thomas took second and Tor took third for a true Age of Cygnar result! You can check out the complete standings here.
I hope you've enjoyed the reports! It was a great event and I'd like to thank Franz, Mats, Stian, Tor and Thomas for amazing games.
Captain Allister Caine - WJ: +27
- Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 4
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 27)
- Lightning Pod
Captain Maxwell Finn - PC: 6
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
- Charger - PC: 9
Gun Mage Captain Adept - PC: 5
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios - PC: 7
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 4
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - Lynus & Edrea: 5
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
The scenario is Extraction and Thomas wins the roll-off, opting to go first. He places Caine on the right flank, anchored by the Stormwall and I counter with Haley diagonally opposite Caine to be as safe as possible while the Stormwall goes directly opposite Caine to put on the pressure ASAP.
:: Game ::
Caine puts up FFE on the GMCA and HR on the Trenchers. His forces advance and the Trenchers all dig in.
Eiryss1 cannot be allowed to live. I run a Lance up to her and shoot it in the back twice with the Firefly who received TA. She dies and takes a Trencher with her. Stormwall runs to 12.1" from his Stormwall and my other jacks are cautious so as not to tank Caine's madness.
I've made a mistake putting my leftmost Lance a little too far ahead. Should've pre-measured the GMCA. I lose 2, which is 1 too many. You really can't afford mistakes like that with this list, they simply are too costly.
Trenchers move up against and Dig in, still with HR up. Stormwall shoots my 'wall for a couple of boxes. Caine casts Bullet Dodger on himself and receives Dirge from Rhupert, however he makes a -big- mistake as he is left in front of my Stormwall without anything to stop, say, a large base from flying in...
The Trenchers combined with the DEF19 in melee makes it a decent enough play I guess from Caine, however without HR he is all too vulnerable to shenanigans. You can read about throws and janky assassinations as much as you want but for most players you have to experience it to keep an eye out for it.
The Stormwall pods behind Caine and throws an Ironclad on the pod. Caine is knocked down. Firefly moves up and shoots him and with the boosted damage roll Caine actually dies before Thorn can even run up to make Haley's presence felt!
Tournament Victory to the Swans!
:: Evaluation ::
The game ends very abruptly but I think I'm so massively up here that it doesn't change a whole lot. There's not much he can do to stop me from getting a meaningful alpha at some point regardless of what he does and when I do it's really hard for Caine to get work done. It might not look like it based on the table but on feat turn I just cripple Caine so badly it's not even funny. The Stormwall is also way too tanky to be dealt with effectively.
The throw-ironclad-assassinate-caine win is a bit of a cheap shot but as I've said before I'll take the best shot at winning the game regardless of what it is. The assassination run here is such a safe bet that it would be crazy not to take it in my opinion.
Throughout my 5 games I faced Legion twice and Cygnar twice as well as Trollbloods. The majority of my opponents won a lot of their games and I ended up with a SOS of 17. I had anticipated to face the Tree at least once as there were 3 Wurmwood players attending. I was also lucky that Tor, the Cygnar player I faced in game 4, won against Ossyan so I didn't have to face him. Haley3 can play that matchup but it's uphill so you know, I'd rather just not. Regardless I had a few great games, the Madrak2 and Haley mirror matchups stand out as the closets and most memorable ones, and at the end of the day the comparative strength of a specific matchup isn't all this game is about. One Tree was cut down mercilessly by Skorne I believe (the Skorne player blogs here - Skornergybuster, I hope he puts up some reports from this event), another messed up big time against Caine2 etc.
All that being said, the podium was about as good as it gets for us Swans: I won the event, Thomas took second and Tor took third for a true Age of Cygnar result! You can check out the complete standings here.
I hope you've enjoyed the reports! It was a great event and I'd like to thank Franz, Mats, Stian, Tor and Thomas for amazing games.
Congrats!
SvarSlettThanks :)
Slett