NM Warm Up Game 2 (#403): Nemo3 vs Wurmwood

:: Prologue ::

The second game of the day saw me draw Circle: Wurmwood and Una2. I had little doubts my opponent would choose Wurmwood here and indeed I was correct. I naturally dropped Nemo3 and off we went!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Theme: Storm Division
(Nemo 3) Artificer General Nemo [+25]
- Storm Chaser Adept Caitlin Finch
- Squire [0]
- Firefly [8]
- Firefly [8]
- Firefly [8]
- Dynamo [18]
- Lancer [10]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (min) [12]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
- Firefly [8]

Opponent:

(Wurmwood 1) Wurmwood, Tree of Fate [+27]
 - Cassius the Oathkeeper
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
 - Megalith [20]
 - Feral Warpwolf [18]
Reeves of Orboros (max) [16]
 - Reeve of Orboros Chieftain & Standard [4]
Wolves of Orboros (max) [11]
Shifting Stones [3]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Outlast and Wurmwood got first turn. I would love to go first here, but the terrain was interesting: I figured I could likely sweep wide on both flanks, really force the issue on scenario and have a solid center. Magnetic Field is such an important spell in this matchup, letting me play fairly aggressively in the middle here. Wurmwood goes centrally, I skew right because I figure he can't counter that play and off we go!

:: Game ::

Fairly standard turn 1: Beasts go about as far as they can, Strange Growth is put up.

I don't need to contest yet, what I need to do however is to establish the flanking positions Wurmwood will hate. Oh, and get control of the center of course. Lancer + 2 Fireflies take the Center, Lances sweep wide on either side. On the right I run Lances up with Electrify and Dynamo covers Nemo. With Arcane Shield he should be solid.

Consider the position above, especially how bad it really is for Wurmwood. Incredibly hard to find openings, my forces are so spread out and no matter what he does he cannot cover everything. Very interesting position.

In the end Wurmwood decides to go far left, more or less give up the right zone and LoS-block his Reeves. However the LoS-block doesn't extend to the central forest. Lots of juicy options for me...

The first thing I start looking at is the assassination angle. Wurmwood has 2 Fury and 0 souls. I do the math in Odds Machine and end up with way above 70% (too many attacks, couldn't calculate all). I do look at other openings but there are none as good as ~80%+ to win the game. Attrition options like feating for Megalith + Feral sure exist, I can also run stuff up in the middle to get a ton of Reeves while moving to 1-0, however this assassination is just crazy.

Unfortunately I brainfarted. Electro Leaps are voluntary. Lighting Generators are not. This of course means that throughout my run, Wurmwood's armour will increase. Luckily for me, a couple of crazy rolls made up for this and the tree was cut down!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Nemo keeps impressing me. The angles he can create and the wide nature of his playstyle really appeal to me. I had so many options this game, tons of interesting plays. Of course my opponent's inexperience with the matchup matters a great deal, but what could he have done? Turn 1 I find hard to improve. Turn 2 might've seen an aggressive feat in the center, but to what end? He won't get an alpha and it won't set him for scenario just like that either. I can probably wait him out.

A very interesting game and the picture after my turn 1 really shows Wurmwood's dilemma here: He cannot commit with the feat and get meaningful work out of it. That is very, very problematic. Given the souls he got assassination might not have been the best option, but I had plenty of other openings as well. I'm confident that I can drop Nemo3 into Wurmwood and at least have game now. That's huge, in my book.