Battle Report #358, #359: Sloan vs Vlad2

:: Prologue ::

Rematch time! We agreed on two important aspects of this matchup: Vlad needs to feat defensively and I need to respect being jammed completely shut. Let's do this!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Sloan 1) Captain Kara Sloan [+28]
 - Grenadier [9]
 - Grenadier [9]
 - Hunter [11]
 - Hunter [11]
 - Hunter [11]
 - Hunter [11]
 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator [4]
Trencher Infantry (max) [16]
Rangers [9]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [4]
Gun Mage Captain Adept [5]
Anastasia di Bray [3]

Opponent:

(Vladimir 2) Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Champion [+27]
 - Conquest [37]
Iron Fang Uhlans (min) [12]
Iron Fang Uhlans (min) [12]
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (max) [13]
 - Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6]
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [4]
Man-O-War Drakhun [9]
Man-O-War Drakhun [9]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

To mix it up Vlad goes first this time around. We contemplate whether Vlad can feat top of 1 to simply force me back. Interesting.

:: Game ::

My opponent goes for the super-early feat and create a fort of Uhlans.

I feat to try and clear out his cav. This picture says it all.

Feating top of 1 doesn't work, so we reset.

The Khador cavalry use the defensive terrain on both sides while the Conquest takes the middle.

I contemplate feating for Conquest but decide against it because Sloan's not in range. With all the defensive terrain on his side it's really hard for me to get meaningful work done here, I'll simply be jammed so hard I won't have any shooting left. Instead I set up so that getting to my jacks will be hard for the Khador cav.

Feat and jam come out.

This turn is crucial. I need to kill Conquest and unhorse Drakhuns. This all works out well, luckily! Not sure on the math here to be honest but he did jam very few crucial jacks (1 Grenadier only I think it was). I forget to contest so he moves to 1-0.

His jam help him score the zone and Vlad moves to the flag. 3-0 for Khador. Or so we think. When Vlad is about to start running we measure his starting position and it turns out he killboxed himself, so it's 3-2.

I spent Anastasia clumsily and unnecessarily so contesting will likely be a problem for me now. I also have the Drakhuns and Uhlans to worry about. Bleh. This turn is very annoying because I make a number of technical mistakes which cost me so dearly, like forgetting to activate Reinholdt or shoot with the Rangers (one of the Uhlans survive on 1 box).

In the end my position is fairly shitty, unfortunately. I can only pray the zone holds, if not it's game over.

The WGRC struggle with Trenchers which enable 2 models to survive the onslaught and contest. Vlad is sitting at 4 CP, but since he killboxed himself top of 2 it's actually 4-2.

If I can just kill off the rest of Vlad's army he can't contest me. That means Sloan can move into the zone and move to 4-4, he can't contest me so I win with 6-4 in his turn.

Another couple of technical mistakes unfortunately make this harder than it should have been but this time the dice are with me and the Drakhun, Jozef and WGRC all die.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This matchup feels really close and interesting. I have a new-found respect for Vlad2, he seems like a really cool caster and I love that Khador have a ton of viable choices now in Mk. 3.

I'm really at a loss as for what I could've done T1. I should perhaps have offered up the Grenadiers to soften up the Conquest. After all they didn't really do all that much this game and T1 I could've cast fire group and fueled them both fully. That is significant damage to the colossal. It's easy to get greedy though but I think moving up the Hunters here means it's more or less game because I think I end up having nearly all of my jacks jammed. On feat the Uhlans move to DEF19 engaged, so granted Sloan can aim, cast guided fire and still hit fairly reliably with Rangers but it feels bad. Casting Guided Fire means way less boosted damage rolls and I -really- need that against that feat.

Like the first game of the series this was close-fought and a nail-biter right to the end. Still lots to learn but the last game I believe was of significantly higher quality than the first. Had I not thrown away Anastasia I believe the scenario angle would've been easier to contain as well.