Battle Report #392: Nemo3 vs Wurmwood

:: Prologue ::

One of my main reasons for giving Nemo3 a try is that I have this hypothesis that he can be a decent Circle drop, handling both Wurmwood and Una2. If this is viable, I have some interesting tweaks to Haley3 in mind (seeing as she no longer has to care about these matchups) which I believe will make her even more lethal in other matchups.

Yesterday I got the chance to play two games into Wurmwood. My opponent's still finding his way in Mk. 3 but Wurmwood's Wurmwood after all. We played The Pit and I reverted back to my Stormwall-list following the version with Thorn and Dynamo which I unfortunately didn't care that much for.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Nemo 3) Artificer General Nemo [+25]
- Storm Chaser Adept Caitlin Finch
- Stormwall [39]
- Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator [4]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
- Firefly [8]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]
Gun Mage Captain Adept [5]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (min) [12]

Opponent:

Wurmwood
- Pureblood
- Feral
- Megalith
Blackclad
Swamp Gobbers
Max Farrows
Max Reeves
- UA
2x Sentry Stones
Shifting Stones

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Wurmwood's going first. The Pit is a terrible scenario in general and Wurmwood's one of the worse guys to face here. My idea going into this game was to apply pressure asap, allow Nemo to perhaps go aggressive personally and have the Stormwall contest the central zone.

:: Game ::

Wurmwood runs up. Reeves stay far away from any zzzzaps!

By trampling the Stormwall and podding I am able to get the Blackclad with lightning bounces from the Firefly, Laddermore and Nemo.

Wurmwood realizes that from a scenario point of view he's made a bit of a bad move turn 1: He's way too far left, as is Cassius. He basically has two options here the way I see it: Play it aggro and basically sit himself in the middle of the table under feat, or chill out near the flag and feat defensively to get in position. He chooses the latter. Man, I would be excited to see how the former had played out.

In any case the Reeves receive Wraithbane and start unloading on a Stormwall which has been Cursed and Strangleheld. Double shots with Curse and Blessed mean they do quite a bit of damage. Reeves can be scary.

Well, that feat sucks big time, but at least I have some options. I can either hold back defensively or try and counter-feat and see how much zzzap! I can bring to bear.

I go for the latter. Why? If I don't, the Stormwall either dies or I concede the middle zone. If I don't feat there's no way I'm getting Sentry Stones so scenario looks absolutely terrible. Furthermore I can get the Firefly within 4" of Megalith which is pretty good.

I'm hoping to get a Sentry and Megalith. The stone dies but unfortunately Megalith survives.

Another round from the Reeves with Wraithbane plus Megalith finish off my Stormwall. My opponent forgets the pod and doesn't have anything to contest with so it's 2-1 in my favour. A few Lances are lost as well.

With all the Reeves alive on the opposite side of the table I basically have to pressure scenario here. This means killing the rest of his heavies and the Sentry Stone. Megalith survives on about a handful of boxes or so but he is knocked down from Force Hammer. The Wolves die. The Sentry dies. I move to 3 CP.

Wurmwood again fails to contest so the game is over.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This unfortunately felt way worse than I had hoped it would. In a nutshell the problem is that I cannot reliably deal enough damage with leaps without vision I think. This means that Wurmwood can likely play hyper-aggressively on his feat turn. That being said, The Pit is an atrocious scenario which I rarely play, and this being my first time with the matchup I made a good few mistakes. The Stormwall was too exposed to Reeves, I've simply forgotten how much they hurt it with Wraithbane and Curse. Over 2 turns they will likely cripple a side on their own, at which point it goes down to a single heavy (which is exactly what happened), and half the point behind taking the Stormwall in the first place is that it cannot be alpha'd by one Circle heavy!

Magnetic Field surprised me. Not having your caster vulnerable to Hellmouth shenanigans -and- Finch being another immovable piece on top of that provided me with a sudden opportunity to play rather far up the table (for facing Wurmwood at least). This is interesting because Wurmwood can suddenly find himself losing on scenario, which is exactly what happened here. For all of the strengths of LoS-denial, he does struggle to get close against a list like this, no doubt. Sentries are also highly exposed.

In conclusion it felt worse than I had hoped it would, but I also learned a lot. I think I simply need to play this more before I feel comfortable evaluating the matchup. We also had time for a rematch, report is coming right up!