Battle Report #459: Sloan vs Ossrum

:: Prologue ::

Testing, testing, testing! So many interesting lists, not enough time to play. Yeah I know, poor me. Following my somewhat lacklustre experiences with Stryker1's "Immovable Object" I am looking towards Sloan to fulfil the role of Haley2's companion in my pairing. It might seem counter-intuitive but in a nutshell Sloan's "Firing Solution" is trying to handle the same list, just in a different way.

For my first games with this list I was facing Ossrum and his dreaded gunbunnies. This is an important test for Sloan because I consider Mercenaries to be one of the top dogs and I sure find Ossrum to be probably their most common and powerful caster. Let's get to the game!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

"Firing Solution"
Theme: Heavy Metal
Captain Kara Sloan - WJ: +28 Armory
- Squire - PC: 0
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 28)
- Lightning Pod
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Charger - PC: 9
Archduke Alain Runewood, Lord of Fharin - PC: 0

Opponent:

(Ossrum 1) General Ossrum [+28]
 - Grundback Blaster [6]
 - Grundback Blaster [6]
 - Grundback Gunner [6]
 - Grundback Gunner [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]
Kell Bailoch [5]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [6]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [6]
Horgenhold Forge Guard (max) [16]
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt [8]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing Extraction and I win the dice-off. With Heavy Metal benefits and AD on Hunters, I think Sloan very often wants to go second. It slows down scenario for her, relatively speaking, because she gets more shooting done before the scoring starts. Furthermore it's easier on her in terms of handling the killbox. Lastly you get to choose the side and thus hopefully get preferable terrain.

:: Game ::

My opponent considers what he should do. After much deliberation he ends up feating top of 1 and running his bunnies to get defensive benefits from terrain. He's afraid of his utility pieces though and keeps them far back.

Given the big gap between us still and the fact that scoring doesn't happen until the end of my next turn, I simply withdraw everything and ensure that I have decent defensive benefits. Anastasia's threat ranges are carefully measured.

Bunnies try and get some work done. Damage allocation rolls are legit, my opponent cripples 2 guns with 2 shots. Luckily for me it largely stops there as he simply can't reach any more juicy targets and the Stormwall on ARM22 is, well, ARM22.

Feat turn! I roll fairly shitty here actually yet the damage done is still massive. Arlan repairs a crippled gun. He sure will be working overtime in this matchup.

The ensuing Mercenaries' turn doesn't get much accomplished at all. From here on out it's essentially mopping up for me.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Interesting first game! It sure showcased some of the virtues of my list. Having the Stormwall felt exactly as amazing as I had hoped it would: Sending a big piece forwards wherever I want to create space behind and have a huge melee threat opens up the board so much for sloan and she really does need this badly.

The lack of Reinholdt meant that I was very careful with what I shot with her. Refuge is great, yes, but if you don't get that hit then you can be seriously screwed. Other than that I found that the Stormwall and spells consumed a lot of focus so Squire over Reinholdt didn't feel like as bad a trade as you might think.

My opponent was too afraid of Sloan's usual ability to remove key pieces in this game I think. On his feat turn he needs to commit with everything, not just the jacks. Sure, I -can- take out artillery pieces, Eiryss etc, but if I do this I put my Hunters in the open where he can retaliate.

I considered feating into his feat but it felt bad. With Forge Guard around I think it's better to simply take out a handful, consolidate my position and wait it out. I think that with more bunnies in the open though it can definitely be worth feating into Ossrum's feat. I feel as though Sloan's feat here is more about preventing retaliation than it is about maximising damage output. Sooner or later you win the war of attrition, unless the Hunters get crippled early.