NM Warm Up Game 1 (#402): Stryker3 vs Amon

:: Prologue ::

Final practice games before Norwegian Masters in a week. One of the guys at our club organized a small, 3-game, warm-up tournament today. Excellent! First up was the new Protectorate super-pairing: Amon in theme with High Reclaimer. I figured my opponent might drop Amon so I took a risk and dropped Stryker to get him out of the list-lock. I got lucky and got Amon in return. Game time!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Stryker 3) Lord General Coleman Stryker [+28]
- Thorn [13]
- Gallant [17]
- Squire [5]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (min) [12]
Trencher Infantry (max) [16]
Trencher Infantry (max) [16]
Archduke Alain Runewood, Lord of Fharin [4]

Opponent:

Theme: The Creator's Might
(Amon 1) High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza [+29]
- Dervish [7]
- Dervish [7]
- Dervish [7]
- Dervish [7]
- Devout [9]
- Templar [15]
- Crusader [10]
- Crusader [10]
- Crusader [10]
- Crusader [10]
- Hierophant [0]
Choir of Menoth (min) [4]
Choir of Menoth (min) [4]
The Covenant of Menoth [0]
Vassal of Menoth [0]
Vassal Mechanik [1]
Vassal Mechanik [1]
Wrack [1]
Wrack [1]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Entrenched and luckily I won first turn. The idea was to claim as much table space as possible and ensure he couldn't jam me. Interestingly my opponent chose a rather aggressive deployment pattern with a lot of jacks opposite my zone and Amon centrally placed instead of aiming to go for his own zone.

:: Game ::

I put up Fury on big Lances in case Amon wants to take it slow. This ensures that anything move on my right flank will likely get smashed without me having to spend my feat. Iron Aggression is put up on Gallant and Escort goes up, of course.

Amon replies with an all-out move, sending most things in my face.

Feat turn! I make a little mistake here. A big one, actually. The Dervish on the far left (the one behind the objective) is one I can charge with 2 Trenchers, however without feat I likely won't do a lot. I thus have a choice: Do I send Stryker further towards the middle to lend his feat power to them or do I send him into the zone? I choose the former, should have chosen the latter. I also forget that the Templar with Fortify has Enliven so the would've game-breaking Gallant charging in gets but a single swing at him before he steps away. Together with Thorn he does a bit of damage to the 2 Crusaders there, but it wasn't quite what I had hoped for.

The Trenchers and Lances kill a couple of jacks and it's not looking too bad, but I'm concerned that my own jacks are exposed in the face of this synergy madness. Scenario pressure sure would've helped.

Thorn and Gallant are destroyed, some Lances and Trenchers die.

I can clear his zone fairly easily. The rest are sent into his central heavies. I go to 3-0.

The heavy jacks centrally trample to reduce Trenchers, however tough rolls are there and roughly half survive. Stryker was just out range, luckily. Poor play from me not to check that.

I clear out the Crusader in my zone with the remaining Lances and Alain. This leaves Stryker to try his luck vs the Templar. I have a back arc charge angle so I switch Fury around and charge him. He kills the big guy and repositions back. Trenchers move in the way and one clouds up to deny the Dervish and Amon LoS to Stryker. 4-0.

With Mobility the Devout can run and contest my zone. It does do so, but in the following turn I can both try and clear my opponent's zone and kill the Devout. Any of these is a game-winning move. The first works out and I move to 5CP!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I sure was lucky not to get HR in return! Ok so this matchup is interesting, both sides have a lot of options. The first turn is so big here because it sets up for who gets the scenario pressure. I did, however, waste a lot of potential when I grabbed the initiative. T1 was decent, a few sub-optimal positions but overall fairly good. However T2 was very bad, both strategically (not putting Stryker in my zone) and technically with forgetting to charge the Dervish behind the water etc. It does show how brutal Stryker's feat is though.

The way the game developed it was back and forth there for a little while. The initial beating from Gallant and Thorn eventually let me grind down the Crusaders and the Templar with depleted forces. Had they been full health it would've been a much bigger problem.

Interesting game, lucky I got the right drop and somewhat lucky it worked out following my second turn. 1-0 and Stryker was gone from list-locking me!