The Swedish invasion of the Norwegian Masters had brought with it a ton of Mercenaries players who had been wreaking havoc left, right and center with their gunbunnies, Cephalyx etc. One of these players had, like myself, gone 5-0 thus far. It was time for a battle of the gunlines: Ossrum's dreaded nimble chickens against Cygnar's very own Thundergod: Nemo3.
:: Lists ::
Cygnar:
Theme: Storm Division
(Nemo 3) Artificer General Nemo [+25], Bunker
- 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:
:: Game ::
Ossrum runs up, Eiryss receives Snipe. Energize, of course.
Eiryss is a huge problem in this matchup because of how she keeps Dynamo in check. However in his first turn my opponent has placed her within 4" of the left flag. I run a Lance up and arc a chain lightning onto it, hoping to boost damage. It bounces but a single time and stops in the flag. One of the spectators calls out "it doesn't matter, objective is closer anyway". Please, Storm Division solves. As if I didn't think of that. Anyway, I have multiple sources for D3 bounces so eventually she goes down. I run my army into tempting positions, hoping Ossrum will commit and make a mistake. I take care to seal off my left flank from vital Anastasia shenanigans. At best she can get a Lance. I can live with that risk seeing as her staying off the table is a bigger problem.
Ossrum moves up and feats. Tough guy stands in the middle of no-where. His jacks then fan out and try and shoot my stuff dead. Bunnies figure out that Shielded Lances are hard as nails and the Artillery corps units both miss.
I have so many options now I don't even know what to do...
...however, Ossrum is well within 15" of Dynamo. ARM20 6 boxes = safe caster? I can run a Firefly up and Slam him onto Ossrum to KD him. I just need to hit the Force Hammer. If I do so I can shoot him with Nemo, Dynamo and some follow-up stuff.
I run the numbers in Odds Machine. It's not 100% accurate but the assassination run is well above 80% for me. Too good to not take. In runs the Firefly, Force Hammer connects, Nemo shoots his gun and it's time for Dynamo. Eager to prove to me why I need to have more faith in him he makes a mockery of Ossrum's defensive stats, taking him down in 2 shots!
What an amazing series of games and day! Through a combination of clever plays, sheer luck, fatigued opponents and Stryker3 finding possibly the best matchup I could've hoped for, I'm somehow left with winning the Norwegian Masters with a pairing I never thought I'd get anywhere close to this with.
This last game vs Ossrum showcases fatigue more than anything, I think. 6 games in a day takes its toll on anyone. I've been through this before and practice really helps. I was able to keep my mind sharp and I think my play here was close to perfect to be honest. I taunted him as I needed to, not feeting for him would've been disastrous as I'd have even more angles and he had to commit unfavourably. Had he somehow kept Ossrum safe I'd still have an amazing alpha with tons of charges and shooting going on with Ionization and feat applying to virtually every damage roll in my list.
In any case the assassination worked out. I remember when I first tried Storm Division I thought I'd miss Reinholdt and GMCA. Let me just say I've fallen in love with the Squire with Nemo. The extra focus, the added control range, the re-roll... All amazing. I find that due to Nemo's fragility he's often in a position where he cannot shoot. Slinging spells though? I love it! Setting up with Force Hammer is often legit and Chain Lightning having boostable tendrils is just amazing. Really helps threaten infantry as well.
Yet again, an amazing series. I'm still struggling to realize just how this all came together, yet very happy obviously. When game 4 was over we had 4 undefeated players. All but me were Swedish. More than anything I wanted the Norwegian Masters title to go back to a Norwegian again (Denis Korzun from Sweden won it last year), so no pressure. Just beat players from possibly the best Warmachine meta in the world.
No Haley will likely make the internets go mad. John, if you're reading this I hope you're happy with the outcome of this challenge. It will be a while until the next one. Stryker3 will see the shelf in short time. As the 5 games with Nemo and 1 game with Stryker allude to, he surely wasn't the backbone of my pairing, but I still needed to drop him and win a game (see game #5 vs Tanith to see how hard this can be).
NM overall was a big success, the event was amazing and I think everyone had a good time. I am left with tons of things to consider for the time to come. SmogCon is in under a month and I have Battle at Lund in April, where I'm hoping to defend my Swedish Masters title. Suffice is to say it's a very interesting time to play the Swans now, the meta is wide open and we have a lot of interesting options.
(Ossrum 1) General Ossrum [+28]
- Ghordson Driller [10]
- Ghordson Driller [10]
- Ghordson Driller [10]
- Ghordson Basher [9]
- Grundback Blaster [6]
- Grundback Gunner [6]
- Grundback Gunner [6]
- Grundback Gunner [6]
- Grundback Gunner [6]
- Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator [4]
Anastasia di Bray [3]
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [7]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [6]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [6]
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress [4]
Gobber Tinker [2]
Gobber Tinker [2]
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
We were playing Extraction and my opponent won the roll-off due to Anastasia. Luckily for me I had a side with amazing terrain, tons of defensive bonuses and a forest to hide Nemo behind. The idea here was to force Ossrum to commit and counter him from there. Let's get it on!
We were playing Extraction and my opponent won the roll-off due to Anastasia. Luckily for me I had a side with amazing terrain, tons of defensive bonuses and a forest to hide Nemo behind. The idea here was to force Ossrum to commit and counter him from there. Let's get it on!
:: Game ::
Ossrum runs up, Eiryss receives Snipe. Energize, of course.
Eiryss is a huge problem in this matchup because of how she keeps Dynamo in check. However in his first turn my opponent has placed her within 4" of the left flag. I run a Lance up and arc a chain lightning onto it, hoping to boost damage. It bounces but a single time and stops in the flag. One of the spectators calls out "it doesn't matter, objective is closer anyway". Please, Storm Division solves. As if I didn't think of that. Anyway, I have multiple sources for D3 bounces so eventually she goes down. I run my army into tempting positions, hoping Ossrum will commit and make a mistake. I take care to seal off my left flank from vital Anastasia shenanigans. At best she can get a Lance. I can live with that risk seeing as her staying off the table is a bigger problem.
Ossrum moves up and feats. Tough guy stands in the middle of no-where. His jacks then fan out and try and shoot my stuff dead. Bunnies figure out that Shielded Lances are hard as nails and the Artillery corps units both miss.
I have so many options now I don't even know what to do...
...however, Ossrum is well within 15" of Dynamo. ARM20 6 boxes = safe caster? I can run a Firefly up and Slam him onto Ossrum to KD him. I just need to hit the Force Hammer. If I do so I can shoot him with Nemo, Dynamo and some follow-up stuff.
I run the numbers in Odds Machine. It's not 100% accurate but the assassination run is well above 80% for me. Too good to not take. In runs the Firefly, Force Hammer connects, Nemo shoots his gun and it's time for Dynamo. Eager to prove to me why I need to have more faith in him he makes a mockery of Ossrum's defensive stats, taking him down in 2 shots!
Tournament Victory to the Swans!
:: Evaluation ::
What an amazing series of games and day! Through a combination of clever plays, sheer luck, fatigued opponents and Stryker3 finding possibly the best matchup I could've hoped for, I'm somehow left with winning the Norwegian Masters with a pairing I never thought I'd get anywhere close to this with.
This last game vs Ossrum showcases fatigue more than anything, I think. 6 games in a day takes its toll on anyone. I've been through this before and practice really helps. I was able to keep my mind sharp and I think my play here was close to perfect to be honest. I taunted him as I needed to, not feeting for him would've been disastrous as I'd have even more angles and he had to commit unfavourably. Had he somehow kept Ossrum safe I'd still have an amazing alpha with tons of charges and shooting going on with Ionization and feat applying to virtually every damage roll in my list.
In any case the assassination worked out. I remember when I first tried Storm Division I thought I'd miss Reinholdt and GMCA. Let me just say I've fallen in love with the Squire with Nemo. The extra focus, the added control range, the re-roll... All amazing. I find that due to Nemo's fragility he's often in a position where he cannot shoot. Slinging spells though? I love it! Setting up with Force Hammer is often legit and Chain Lightning having boostable tendrils is just amazing. Really helps threaten infantry as well.
Yet again, an amazing series. I'm still struggling to realize just how this all came together, yet very happy obviously. When game 4 was over we had 4 undefeated players. All but me were Swedish. More than anything I wanted the Norwegian Masters title to go back to a Norwegian again (Denis Korzun from Sweden won it last year), so no pressure. Just beat players from possibly the best Warmachine meta in the world.
No Haley will likely make the internets go mad. John, if you're reading this I hope you're happy with the outcome of this challenge. It will be a while until the next one. Stryker3 will see the shelf in short time. As the 5 games with Nemo and 1 game with Stryker allude to, he surely wasn't the backbone of my pairing, but I still needed to drop him and win a game (see game #5 vs Tanith to see how hard this can be).
NM overall was a big success, the event was amazing and I think everyone had a good time. I am left with tons of things to consider for the time to come. SmogCon is in under a month and I have Battle at Lund in April, where I'm hoping to defend my Swedish Masters title. Suffice is to say it's a very interesting time to play the Swans now, the meta is wide open and we have a lot of interesting options.
Nice series, I have enjoyed reading about Nemo3, it's always good to see less conventional casters being used.
SvarSlettThat being said, you frequently refer to Nemo3 being a difficult caster to play and at one point you called it "playing on hard mode", yet in nearly all of your games your plays seem to resolve around running everything up, feating, then removing more than half of the opponents army in one volley.
That doesn't exactly stink of 'hard mode' from a spectators point of view. Maybe it is your reports not detailed the games enough, but I have yet to see you play into a difficult spot that Nemo3 doesn't trivially answer.
I appreciate that you are a very skilled and experienced WMH player, but honestly, following your reports it just seems that Cygnar has easy answers for nearly every match up and has options to solve all it's own weaknesses.
Anyway, this is mainly just salty rambling from a Cryx player so I don't want to take anything away from your fantastic victory!!
Keep the reports coming.
Perhaps I have been unclear. I don't think Nemo3 is particularly hard to play. On the contrary he feels easier than both Haley2 and Haley3 for example. My experience sure helps me learn new things easier, but anyway. Stryker3 feels like the hard mode part. Having him in the pair hugely affects what matchups are good and what matchups are bad. Consider Cygnar mirror for example with Haley2 in theme on the other side of the table. A complete nightmare for this pairing and I was lucky to dodge these matches at NM.
SlettNemo's playstyle revolves around an insane alpha indeed. Accomplishing this depends on what you're up against. In this very game for example I had to be a lot more cautious than e.g. my last game vs Issyria. Nemo sure has his hard matchups as well, but so does virtually every caster.
Cygnar very much feels like an answer faction. I can empathize that other, weaker factions envy us. I think it's a pity that PP are not doing more to fix the bad factions in this game. I would definitely take a hard look at Cryx, Convergence and Trollbloods for example. That being said, Cygnar still has some really iffy challenges out there. The grass might be greener, but we are not simply cruising on a wave of OP lightning for great justice ;)