For my last game of the day, I faced my regular Convergence opponent with his usual Mother/Father pairing. A bit of a list chicken situation: I preferably want Haley2 vs Father and Darius vs Mother. He wants the opposite, naturally.
Part of bringing Darius today is to test him out in matchups which other Cygnar pairs don't handle that well. I certainly see a good few of these in Convergence, Iron Mother is such a strong drop vs Haley2 now with the Destruction Initiative letting her spam puncture bots -and- get a ton of battlegroup models. As such I dropped Darius and wouldn't mind either in return: Mother would be best for me but Father would help me evaluate Darius' worth in a pairing. I got the latter and off we went!
:: 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:
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
We are playing Entrenched and Lucant moves first. I take a side which I think will be hard for him to contest easily mid-late game. It also has a wall which I think is in my favour and I avoid a lot of rough terrain for the Stormclad. I believe said Stormclad is a key piece in this matchup, securing my strong flank is traditionally one of the most important things you can do vs Convergence. I dreadfully remember a game not too long ago with Haley2 vs Iron Mother (link) where I underestimated the important of this and got brutally punished for my ignorance. No more!
:: Game ::
Stuff runs.
I put a couple of big gun shots into the Convergence list. The right 'wall advances a little cautiously. Truth be told I was afraid the TEPs would advance and Lucant would feat. Stormclad runs up far on the right flank and receives Refuge. Fortify on the closest 'wall. I make a mine in the middle.
My opponent is afraid of Jackhammer and wants to draw the game out.
I stay outside of his threat ranges and keep putting shots into the jacks, slowly but surely dealing with the massive amounts of Shield Guards. I also clear some bots on my right flank and score. 1-0.
One TEP commits to try and take out my objective. Lucant doesn't feat to protect it however. Adding insult to injury, it fails to kill it. 1-1.
Reality check: Can I win this game on scenario. I try and visualize how the board looks like when we get to ~4 CP. We'll score relatively quickly both of us. We both have Bunkers which is in my opponent's favour as his TEPs can actually do stuff whereas my 'walls are kind of gimped vs tons of shield guards. My conclusion is that I likely can win on scenario, I just have to take care not to get him get too much space. I push up again and the Refuge Stormclad takes out a TEP, Crane helping him get even further back. I repair my objective back up to 12 boxes. 2-1.
The Convergence forces have to commit. The TEP sprays my objective to death, Lucant feats, a bot runs to contest (this was very hard for him to do actually and kind of why he feated). He also places a heavy on the central hill, though at the moment I don't remember why. 2-3.
I have to engage now and make the fights happen closer to his zone. The Firefly and the Juniors help clean up my right flank. The right 'wall with focus from Arlan and Jackhammer kill the TEP and exposed heavy, the Stormclad helping out as well. 3-3.
Lucant puts up discontinuity and positive charge. The jacks then kill the right 'wall. 3-4.
Jackhammer clears the jam on the left and the Stormwall kills Lucant's objective. I clean the bot in my zone to go to 5-4.
:: Evaluation ::
This game turned very tactical right off the bat and had an interesting sequence of cat-and-mouse moves throughout. I probably could have exposed my 'wall on the right somewhat more to gain more space and push the game closer to my opponent's core. However, without control of the TEPs I know that a hard line of jacks can form in front and I'll never get to them. Their sprays are next level crazy vs 'walls, especially with discontinuity.
I wonder if Lucant could have been more aggro early on, precisely to set up this safe haven for the TEPs. Feating earlier and grabbing the fence in the middle might have been a play for example. I can empathize that it's hard to go into two Stormwalls and Jackhammer even with feat, but I think the loss of the TEPs this game broke his back.
My overall impression is that Darius probably has game here, but it needs to be played more.
The tournament had another undefeated player. As with our last local event we decided to post-pone the finals. His pairing is Kromac2 + Krueger2 and I hope we'll find the time to play this game very soon. I'll let you know what happens!
Theme: Destruction Initiative
(Lucant 1) Father Lucant, Divinity Architect [+28]
- Conservator [12]
- Conservator [12]
- Conservator [12]
- Conservator [12]
- Corollary [6]
- Diffuser [6]
Optifex Directive [4]
Transfinite Emergence Projector [19]
- Permutation Servitors
Transfinite Emergence Projector [19]
- Permutation Servitors
Lots of free bots
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::
We are playing Entrenched and Lucant moves first. I take a side which I think will be hard for him to contest easily mid-late game. It also has a wall which I think is in my favour and I avoid a lot of rough terrain for the Stormclad. I believe said Stormclad is a key piece in this matchup, securing my strong flank is traditionally one of the most important things you can do vs Convergence. I dreadfully remember a game not too long ago with Haley2 vs Iron Mother (link) where I underestimated the important of this and got brutally punished for my ignorance. No more!
:: Game ::
Stuff runs.
I put a couple of big gun shots into the Convergence list. The right 'wall advances a little cautiously. Truth be told I was afraid the TEPs would advance and Lucant would feat. Stormclad runs up far on the right flank and receives Refuge. Fortify on the closest 'wall. I make a mine in the middle.
My opponent is afraid of Jackhammer and wants to draw the game out.
I stay outside of his threat ranges and keep putting shots into the jacks, slowly but surely dealing with the massive amounts of Shield Guards. I also clear some bots on my right flank and score. 1-0.
One TEP commits to try and take out my objective. Lucant doesn't feat to protect it however. Adding insult to injury, it fails to kill it. 1-1.
Reality check: Can I win this game on scenario. I try and visualize how the board looks like when we get to ~4 CP. We'll score relatively quickly both of us. We both have Bunkers which is in my opponent's favour as his TEPs can actually do stuff whereas my 'walls are kind of gimped vs tons of shield guards. My conclusion is that I likely can win on scenario, I just have to take care not to get him get too much space. I push up again and the Refuge Stormclad takes out a TEP, Crane helping him get even further back. I repair my objective back up to 12 boxes. 2-1.
The Convergence forces have to commit. The TEP sprays my objective to death, Lucant feats, a bot runs to contest (this was very hard for him to do actually and kind of why he feated). He also places a heavy on the central hill, though at the moment I don't remember why. 2-3.
I have to engage now and make the fights happen closer to his zone. The Firefly and the Juniors help clean up my right flank. The right 'wall with focus from Arlan and Jackhammer kill the TEP and exposed heavy, the Stormclad helping out as well. 3-3.
Lucant puts up discontinuity and positive charge. The jacks then kill the right 'wall. 3-4.
Jackhammer clears the jam on the left and the Stormwall kills Lucant's objective. I clean the bot in my zone to go to 5-4.
Victory to the Swans!
:: Evaluation ::
This game turned very tactical right off the bat and had an interesting sequence of cat-and-mouse moves throughout. I probably could have exposed my 'wall on the right somewhat more to gain more space and push the game closer to my opponent's core. However, without control of the TEPs I know that a hard line of jacks can form in front and I'll never get to them. Their sprays are next level crazy vs 'walls, especially with discontinuity.
I wonder if Lucant could have been more aggro early on, precisely to set up this safe haven for the TEPs. Feating earlier and grabbing the fence in the middle might have been a play for example. I can empathize that it's hard to go into two Stormwalls and Jackhammer even with feat, but I think the loss of the TEPs this game broke his back.
My overall impression is that Darius probably has game here, but it needs to be played more.
The tournament had another undefeated player. As with our last local event we decided to post-pone the finals. His pairing is Kromac2 + Krueger2 and I hope we'll find the time to play this game very soon. I'll let you know what happens!
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