Showdown #1, Game 1 (#477): Darius vs Rask

:: Prologue ::

I took part in a local Steamroller today. A club mate has started "Showdown", a new series of tournaments happening every once in a while. We were just shy of 16 people today and I took the opportunity to further explore the Cygnar casters out there, this time going with Darius paired with Haley2.

For my first game I drew Minions. My opponent had the new Gator theme with Rask and lots of heavies with Arkadius. I'm not the biggest fan of playing vs Arkadius with Haley2, mostly due to tons of angles and a lack of experience on my part, so I figured I'd drop Darius and see what would happen. My opponent, much to my surprise, dropped Rask!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

"Metal Daddy"
Theme: Heavy Metal
Captain E. Dominic Darius - WJ: +29
-    Halfjacks
-    Squire - PC: 0
-    Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 29)
-    Lightning Pod
-    Stormwall - PC: 39
-    Lightning Pod
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
-    Firefly - PC: 8
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
-    Stormclad - PC: 18

Opponent:

Theme: The Blindwater Congregation
2 / 2 Free Cards     75 / 75 Army
Rask - WB: +27
-    Blackhide Wrastler - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
-    Blackhide Wrastler - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 11)
Bog Trog Mist Speaker - PC: 0
Totem Hunter - PC: 0
Wrong Eye - Wrong Eye & Snapjaw: 17
-    Snapjaw
Gatorman Posse (Blindwater) - Leader & 4 Grunts: 17
Gatorman Posse (Blindwater) - Leader & 4 Grunts: 17
Gatorman Posse (Blindwater) - Leader & 4 Grunts: 17
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew - Leader & 1 Grunt: 2

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing Recon and I win the roll-off. I elect to go first because I don't want his Wrastlers far up the field before I get there and have a chance to pressure him.

:: Game ::

Refuge on the Stormclad, Fortify on the right 'wall, Arcane Shield on the left.

Gators spread out. The cloud tech isn't on point, my opponent also forgets Fuel Cache. Admonition gets put up on the Wrastler in front.

Refuge. Amazing ability. I want to clear Gators now and put the scare in my opponent with my list's ability to dish out hit'n'runs with the Stormclad. I charge the central Gator, which triggers the Wrastler to Admo away, as expected. Gator dies, I refuge out. Darius Cranes the Stormclad further back and together with the 4 big gun shots available, blows away the Wrastler. Just like that! The hand cannons and chain cannons also deal some damage to nearby Gators.

Rask elects to try and play a slow game and no feat. This time his cloud play is a lot better.

After this picture my opponent moved the Totem Hunter down to the left. I figure if I can wipe out the Gators close to me and said Totem Hunter I'm in a good spot. The Refuge Stormclad again takes out some guys in the center and bounces back, Crane and Energizer taking it to safety and setting up for my next turn. The Firefly gets thrown under the bus to help clear out some tough'd Gators following the left Stormwall's activation (Darius had also activated to do his jackhammer thing).

Rask's feat finally comes out. However with so few Gators left the remaining beasts are afraid of Jackhammer plays.

Rask can bring heavies up to stupid levels of P+S. Luckily for me, he doesn't have a lot of them left and he can only remove 1 upkeep. I run the math and figure he'll have to be very lucky to take out both Stormwalls. They both toe the zone and I clear out the remaining Gators, save for a single guy.

My opponent opts to just send in Snapjaw (fury + rage) and I lose the right Stormwall. Funnily enough Snapjaw himself didn't kill the 'wall but rather left it on 2 boxes. Before I could realize #theDream feat situation, the last Gator model charged in and showed me what's what, dealing exactly 2 more boxes.

I have to ensure I don't lose my 'wall. The Stormclad takes out Snapjaw and the Gatorman before Refuging back to contest outside of the Wrastler's threat range. The Stormwall backs out and I run up all Halfjacks (proxied by meks for the time being!) to claim space and set up for next turn.

Rask tries to slowly shift towards the right flag.

The Halfjacks run to block in the Wrastler from using Admonition effectively. After this little move the Stormwall runs up and Darius jackhammers both the Wrastler and the objective to death.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This felt like an iffy matchup and indeed might have been so as well. I think what saved me here was the fact that my opponent didn't push the Gators hard enough. Granted, sending them up in a bunch together would've let the Stormclad for example do a lot more work. However with proper cloud play bot of 1 and a feat bot of 2 with Gators just claiming table space and spreading out I'm not sure what I could've done. Shooting down that Wrastler top of 2 was a big deal here for sure. Even when we were down to my 2 colossals and heavy vs Rask's 2 heavies I didn't feel safe.

In hindsight I think Haley2 is probably the better drop here. Arkadius is hard to get right, but far from unplayable and with my current list I have a lot of punch even if the 'wall goes down. A good start to the tournament and a relief to feel that playing this Darius list wasn't that unusual and weird. It felt like Stryker1 largely like I want him to be, Refuge and Jackhammer enabling the 'walls to get the work done which I need them to, not waste their entire activation on clearing trivial jam etc.