Battle Report #486: Sloan vs Iron Mother

:: Prologue ::

For the last game yesterday I faced Convergence. My opponent brought Iron Mother - by my request - as I wanted to test Sloan here. The question is quite simply whether Iron Mother can get her stuff in range in time or if the shield guards just blow apart too quickly, leading to the demise of key pieces. Let's check it out!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Cygnar - Firing Solution v4
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Armory - Steamroller Objective
Captain Kara Sloan - WJ: +28
- Squire - PC: 0
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Hunter - PC: 11
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 28)
- Lightning Pod
- Firefly - PC: 8
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Hunter - PC: 11
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Hammersmith - PC: 12

Opponent:

Theme: Destruction Initiative
Iron Mother
- Prime Axiom
- Assimilator
- Assimilator
- Assimilator
- Corollary
- Diffuser
Min Meks
One million bots from theme benefits

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::


I got to start. I wasn't sure how to approach this but I knew I wanted to split up Iron Mother's forces. To this end I simply used AD to choose my skew after my opponent had committed. 

:: Game :: 

I run up Hunters on what I believe will be my "strong" flank. Sloan casts Refuge on a Hunter: I anticipate I'll have to do some hit'n'run action prior to the big alpha here.

Stuff runs, but everything except for the Prime Axiom takes care to force me into a very committing position if I want to do anything.

I place the Hammersmith outside of 13" of the Prime Axiom. I can't realistically move out of Domination range if he wants to run the PA, but outside of 13" he has to not shoot with it if he wants to arc onto the Hammersmith. I also take care to be outside of 18" of the closest Assimilator. Unfortunately Jakes cannot be placed outside of 20" of the PA and within 4" of the Hammersmith, which means that if Domination lands and he moves directly away I won't get to allocate focus. I'll simply have to live with it.

On the right I take pot shots with 2 Hunters as I cycle Refuge. I contest the zone with one Hunter. Stormwall pot-shots the Prime Axiom. Annoyingly I forget covering fires.

One piece I had not considered was the Corollary. It just so happens to be able to run and end up within 8" of the Hammersmith. Annoying! My opponent goes for a play to kill it with Prime. Somehow, super-flukey dice leaves it alive on 10-ish boxes. Mat5 isn't much to write home about!

The game suddenly opened up big for me. I figure this is an excellent situation to feat from: Firefly can fry bots, I can take a CP lead and heavily contest him on the right side. The feat damage dice are terrible though and I don't take out nearly as much as I had hoped to. Prime loses a side. 1-0

I was worried about Sloan's positioning. She camped a ton because I feared a ranged assassination might be possible. I did forget that Prime could probably pull her in and simply kill her though. In any case my opponent oversaw it as well and went for a play to kill Junior (!) by means of Domination + Backlash. It fell just short because his jacks frankly rolled too high on damage rolls. This meant Arcane Shield wasn't removed from the 'wall so it didn't die either. At this point we simply called the game as it was basically over.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This is a tricky matchup, but luckily not as bad as I had feared. Haley2 feels really iffy vs Mother because of Backlash plays. Sloan however has the crazy output to punish aggressive plays and a few ways to deal with the shield guard spam. It's all about being patient and respecting Convergence's threat ranges. Sooner or later an opening presents itself and from there on it's all good. 

Losing the threat of the Hammersmith was bad. I should obviously have considered the Corollary. Field Marshal Arc Node is just so crazy. I mean people complain about Thorn and how he enables Haley2, but he is literally trivial to shut down compared to trying to prevent Mother from slinging spells. In the end I think it boils down to the simple fact that you cannot stop her from doing so. You have to set up for it so that it doesn't destroy you. Experience sure helps here and I've been lucky enough to get plenty of practice vs Convergence lately.