Battle Report #525: Sloan vs Baldur2

:: Prologue ::

I'm a couple of reports behind now so it's time to get back up to date :) First up is an encounter between Sloan and Baldur2, the latter with CID Fulcrums!

:: 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 ::

Baldur2
- Woldwrath
- 3x Woldwyrd
2x Fulcrum
2x Stoneshaper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Shifting Stones

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Baldur wins the roll-off and goes first. My plan is to feat early and establish control on the left flank.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs up. Baldur puts up Roots on all huge bases.

I feat to kill the left engine and start working on the 'wrath. Dice are poor though, much to my dismay.

Baldur's forces start shifting left. No Rock Wall is put up so my Stormwall can charge his 'wrath.

I pour all my shooting and the 'wall in melee into the Woldwrath. It survives on way too many boxes compared to what it should have had now. Hammersmith is put up nearby.

While my dice are bad, Circle dice are hot. The 'wall goes down and with that, the game is basically over. I don't have enough power to take it out and deal additional damage to the Circle forces, which I really needed. If my Stormwall had lived on a couple of boxes I would be good to go, but without it this game is dead.

Sadly, a Loss for the Swans. 

:: Evaluation ::

Baldur2 is in my opinion the hardest caster to face for Cygnar. I think I prefer Sloan against him, but as with so many other matchups this is incredibly dicey. You have to jump on the openings presented to you and hope for the best. In this game I had two iffy turns in a row while Circle healed insane amounts and got the damage rolls needed to cripple me in return. I think the Woldwrath letting the Stormwall charge him was uncalled for and Circle could possibly have found a better position by backing off a little bit and let the shooting do some work. The second turn could've sent the shrimps up in front behind a rock wall with feat for example.

The CID Fulcrum is interesting for Baldur2. Two of these provide less melee presence than a second Woldwrath, but the shooting game becomes so much stronger. Provided you can afford to keep Roots up on all huge bases, the durability is comparable as well.

Internal Affairs Mk. XI Game 2 (#522): Sloan vs Krueger2

:: Prologue ::

For our second game we ran into the other Norwegian WTC team. Long story short they gave me Circle and this meant Sloan would come out. I received Krueger2 and off we went.

:: 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 ::

Krueger the Stormlord - WB: +27
- Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 17)
- Feral Warpwolf - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Woldwyrd - PC: 9
- Woldwyrd - PC: 9
Gallows Grove - PC: 0
War Wolf - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 2Wolves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain & Standard - Chieftain & Standard Bearer: 0
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
THEME: The Wild Hunt

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Breakdown and Krueger took first turn. My plan was to stay tight so as not to get screwed over by Ambushers.

:: Game :: 

Krueger casts Windstorm and charges up. His beasts run in front of him, into the trench...

Literally every heavy gun in my list can see Krueger since models in a trench don't block LoS to those behind. I feat and kill Krueger...

It turns out my opponent had received one job: Don't let me grab any CPs! The matchup was deemed so terrible that they agreed to just throw him under the bus completely. The "mistake" of letting me have LoS to Krueger was indeed intentional.

2 short games. Oh well, at least I got to take a picture of everyone else playing (this is our local club, by the way):

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Not much to say about this game. I will say though that a game is practically never 0%. We had CP as the second tie breaker so getting the mission to prevent CP scored seems extreme. Sloan is very strong into Circle and neither of the counters they have were present in my opponent's pairing. If it were me I'd still take my chances I think. Unfortunately our team lost again so we were 0-2 for the day.

Battle Report #514 & #515: Caine3 vs Krueger2

:: Prologue ::

After my game vs Thexus I got in two games against Krueger2! I was wondering how Caine would do in this matchup: -5 RNG is bad news, but can Krueger realistically apply it without just dying?

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

Cygnar - HurriCaine
Theme: Heavy Metal
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Caine's Hellslingers - WJ: +20
- Caine's Hellslingers (Cont.)
- Squire - PC: 0
- Ace - PC: 12
- Charger - PC: 9
- Charger - PC: 9
- Charger - PC: 9
- Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 20)
- Charger - PC: 9
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8

:: Opponent ::

Krueger the Stormlord - WB: +27
- Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 17)
- Feral Warpwolf - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Woldwyrd - PC: 9
- Woldwyrd - PC: 9
Gallows Grove - PC: 0
War Wolf - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 2Wolves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain & Standard - Chieftain & Standard Bearer: 0
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
THEME: The Wild Hunt

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing The Pit 2 and for the first game I go first. The idea is to claim a ton of table space.

:: Game 1 :: 

Ace runs up and mini-feats. Caine goes b2b. I place him so that if Krueger feats he'll push Caine out of threat ranges. I respect the 18" threat range on the Reeves on both flanks.

Krueger TKs a Reeve and casts Wind Storm. The Reeve hits the Hurricane and Wolves charge. Due to this bonus move they get to charge Ace. He takes some damage but nothing critical.

Krueger however has exposed himself. I can walk up, mage sight and shoot him with caine and a couple of chargers by casting Locomotion twice. Camping 2, he dies. We reset and this time Krueger starts to see how that affects the matchup.

:: Game 2 ::

This time Krueger's the one getting table space.

By locomoting a Charger on my right flank I can start working on the Reeves there. I let Ace kill Gallows Grove and trick shot a reeve on the right. Hero Charger fails me though, he kills 0 (!) Reeves! I take care to stay out of hard alpha ranges with crucial models.

Krueger wants to overload me. He kills the fail-Charger with some good rolls. This does expose a shrimp though as well as a ton of Reeves! Ambushing Wolves of Orboros enter the table to swarm me.

It's feat time! Hurricane's Cannons go to pretty stronk blast damage with +3 from feat and I kill a ton of Reeves and nearly all Wolves, as well as the shrimp.

It looks about over. Krueger has no scenario angle, no assassination angle and can't threaten my important pieces. He tries for an attrition play: Shoot the Charger on the right, send in the Feral against the one on the left.

I cast Calamity on the Feral then kill it. I start shooting the Pureblood as well but he lives on a handful of boxes.

Fort Caine is a little clumsily made so my opponent actually gets off a couple of shots on him by killing Arlan. DEF17 proves enough though and my opponent concedes.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Ok so the base threat range of Chargers with -5 RNG is 13". Caine threats 14" base. Between Flicker and Locomotion as well as Hurricane targeting nearby models and boosting blast damage on Krueger, it's incredibly hard to properly leverage Wind Storm. Krueger quite simply has to stay back and anyone wishing to be protected by Wind Storm has to do so too. I knew this in theory but in practice it's just the same: There's just no way he can properly push Caine3 and meanwhile he's losing models on the flank and I slowly converge on his castle.

I think it's hard to find Krueger builds which are better than this. The infantry models take a lot of time to clear and the Reeves in combination with shrimps ensure that he can dish out a significant amount of shooting. Even this isn't enough, there are too many lights with too many boxes. I doubt a more heavy-oriented build out of theme would help a lot more.

Overall Caine3 feels very solid into Circle.

Battle at Lund: Warm Up #3 (#489): Sloan vs Baldur2

:: Prologue ::

After the quick game against Una2 it was time for Baldur2. Baldur, like Una, isn't trivial to shoot down. He is however a very different kind of hard to shoot. Roots is a crazy strong spell vs Hunters. Let's get to it!

:: 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:

(Baldur 2) Baldur the Stonesoul [+30]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Loki [19]
 - Megalith [20]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
 - Woldwatcher [9]
Gallows Grove [2]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

This time Circle goes first. I deploy the Stormwall diagonally opposite his beasts and the Hunters directly across. The idea is to start shooting ASAP.

:: Game ::

Circle runs up and the Sentries buy some times with a round of forest creation. They both receive Roots.

I kill Sentries and set up to aim.

Baldur feats and puts his beasts behind a Rock Wall.

None of the beasts threaten the entire zone. I can thus safely place the 'wall to toe the zone and take it from there. I feat and manage to take out Loki (who had taken a few boxes the previous turn) as well as damage Megalith some. Good start!

The rock wall push continues.

I kill Megalith and use the Firefly to jam Circle.

The Woldwatcher throws the Firefly out and Ghetorix charges the Stormwall. As expected he cannot one-round it. With my entire army intact we call the game here.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

In many ways like the Una2 game, this felt like a race against the clock. If Baldur manages to get far up the table quickly I lose on scenario. If I do enough damage before that he doesn't have the power to force a scenario win. Baldur is also exposed to assassination angles here, which is a thing to consider. In this game my Hunters were a little too tight to present such a threat.

Ghetorix not threatening the entire zone in the second turn was a big mistake. Allowing the 'wall to go in and contest with impunity effectively gave me the time I needed.

All in all these were two very interesting games vs Circle and Sloan certainly had her hands full. I think Haley2 is a decent-ish drop as well into both.

Battle at Lund: Warm Up #2 (#488): Sloan vs Una2

:: Prologue ::

We arrived at the convention somewhere around 8 I believe. After going out for dinner we wanted to catch a game or two. I was fortunate enough to face Robin, a Swedish WTC player from the north of Sweden. Robin plays Circle and still has a bit of a hard-on for Una2. I figured that would be interesting to try out with Sloan!

:: 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:

(Una 2) Una the Skyhunter [+29]
 - Gorax Rager [7]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Scarsfell Griffon [8]
 - Woldwyrd [9]
 - Woldwyrd [9]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Recon and I got to move first. Unfortunately for me that's far from ideal in this matchup. On the bright side it allows me to really stress-test it. I deploy a little to the right because there's a forest on the left which screws with my firing lanes. Circle responds by going opposite me as opposed to flanking left.

:: Game ::

I run stuff into position. I place the Stormwall diagonally opposite his birds as this forces them to move further to get to me.

Fort Una goes up. She puts out Mirage on a bird and casts Windwall, camping 2.

I figure that with such a fort, my opponent can probably keep pushing me and eventually get the better end of an alpha. Despite having armory I reckon my feat is unlikely to do enough work to shut him down completely. I can conceivably kill all the birds which can reach the 'wall, but I'm not too confident.

With Una just camping 2 fury however and interesting play is to kill a bird and go for her. I figure that despite a bird dying giving her a third fury I should have enough to kill her: There's Sloan, a Hunter, the Stormwall, Firefly arcing leaps and Junior's Arcane Bolt. In any case the run fails and I concede the game.

Sadly, a Loss for the Swans

:: Evaluation ::

In hindsight it would've been interesting to see how feating for an alpha would have worked out here. By taking out all birds closest to the 'wall he could not have dominated the zone. Assuming he had not done so, would he have survived another round of shooting or what would he do? Jamming me is a big no-go with the Hammersmith.

The assassination run is a legit run I believe and quite frankly Una has to camp a lot. 2 is hardly sufficient.

A short game but very interesting! I'm a fan of shrimps in Una2, they present an element which gives you a catch22 in terms of defensive upkeeps.

Showdown #1, Finals (#480): Darius vs Krueger2

:: Prologue ::

If we're playing Darius, I'll make damn sure we actually play Darius! For the Showdown finals I was up against a Krueger2/Kromac2 pairing. I feel pretty certain that Haley2 is the correct drop here given my opponent's Krueger2 list (TL;DR it just has one shrimp), but I want to play Darius and Circle's one of the matchups he might just have to deal with. I receive Krueger2 in return and off we go.

:: 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:

Krueger2
- Loki
- Megalith
- Feral
- Pureblood
- Woldwyrd
Blackclad
Gallows Grove
Shifting Stones
2x Sentry Stones

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario is take and hold. There's a lot of defensively placed cover pieces on both sides. I win the roll-off and elect to go first. The way I see this game it's a game of attrition for me. I doubt I can win on scenario. Krueger might be able to make such a play so I have to keep my eyes open. I do contemplate going directly towards his flag but decide against it because I fear that a push towards my own flag coupled with a well-timed feat will spell GG for me due to a central rock.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs. I put up Fortify on the right 'wall and Refuge on the Stormclad.

Krueger advances.

I get a little too eager as I look for angles to wipe out Mannikins on the right and forget to allocate. That's... pretty bad. Dice agree with my though and Loki takes a real beating, losing roughly half his hp.

Krueger moves to the flag, scores 1. Feral and Pureblood try and flank me. Loki moves into the trench I believe. Megalith stays passive.

I figure if I can seriously hurt the Feral I can hopefully force the issue. Status quo is not enough for me, I need to whittle Circle down before we engage and I have to engage sooner or later to not lose on CP.

Dice are cray-cray and despite warping armor the Feral goes down. This is 20-25% likely to happen so it's not the most insane dice I've ever seen, but it sure came at the right time.

Shrimp shoots up a 'wall, getting better dice than last time. Loki is being healed by Stones, force heal etc. 0-2.

I run the numbers in Odds Machine on going directly for Krueger. As anticipated, not good. Less than 10%. I then run the numbers for the shrimp. Much better! I'll take it. Both 'walls receive max focus and I go for it. It works out and the shrimp dies. Both 'walls pod in front of the Pureblood. I figure that might be a bit of a pain to deal with. Little did I know!

I've made a big mistake on the right flank. Nothing contests my own flag. God fucking damn it I made this very same mistake last time I played Take and Hold. So stupid. The Firefly is a millimetre or two away. My opponent decides to go for a play to kill my left Stormwall. His Mannikins get pod-clearing duty. Krueger activates, feats and puts up Wraithbane + TK on Megalith. Blackclad lands Hunter's Mark on the left-most Stormwall. Megalith goes in. Poor dice however sees the 'wall survive on 14 boxes. The Mannikins activate and fail to kill either (!) pod. There are no models left to clear out both pods, which means the Pureblood has to trample (!!) to reach the Stormwall. Instead my opponent uses Loki's activation to grab 4 points. This accelerates the game a lot. I had anticipated being able to thoroughly contest Circle at 4 points, but with Megalith in my face and the 4th point coming one turn early, this looks dicey and ugly. MVP pods though! Go pods!!

With Krueger feat on my 'walls and the left 'wall having Weight of Stone as well, my mobility right now is kind of gimped. I look for openings so the rightmost Stormwall can contest and jackhammer Loki. These openings do not exist. I have to kill Loki with the Stormclad, Darius and Firefly then. Luckily he's still suffered some damage from earlier on and I just so happen to have a mine which can detonate, which I happily do.

Right 'wall runs to contest. Darius feats, casts Full Throttle (Megalith had cover and thus DEF12) and puts a boosted POW14 into Loki. Stormclad charges Loki, leaving him at a couple of boxes. Firefly luckily finishes him off. Phew!

The last Stormwall kills Megalith. Halfjacks repair everything.

The way I see it I lose this game one of two ways: I either lose the contesting Stormwall in a single turn or Darius gets killed now. There are no good odds for either. My opponent chooses the former. It fails and he concedes the game.

Tournament Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

This game evolved mostly like I thought it would. Some sloppy plays from me here and there like forgetting to allocate top of 2 or contesting my own flag mid-game. Those things aside though it was a race against the clock for me: Could I whittle down enough to reliably contest the flag before Krueger would reach 5CP? I believe the aggressive positioning of the Feral was the opening, followed by the Shrimp going down the ensuing turn. I wonder if my opponent could've tried to exploit the central-ish rubble to greater effect, neutralizing my shooting. Loki with Shield Guard could also definitely have helped out.

The Stormwall not dying I think would not have been that big of a deal if I had not given up my own flag. I will get Megalith and my feat will be intact. We're thus left with a Stormwall and a Stormclad vs a Pureblood and Loki. With my feat intact and the push stopped, I believe this is in Darius' favour. I wonder if perhaps the Stormclad should've been on the left flank all along. Old habit to play him on my caster flank, but I think this game called for something else. 20/20 hindsight is a nice thing to have when evaluating games!

I've never played Darius before and that's a big part of the reason why I dropped him so much this tournament. I wanted to test him out. It's been a good experiment and I really enjoy a couple of the things he brings to the table. The ping-pong Stormclad is all kinds of fun for example! He does struggle from not having a pre-emptive feat. In all three games I dropped him I had plays I wanted to go for but could not. There was a legitimate risk of losing both 'walls in a single turn: Rask with insane P+S levels and upkeep removal on one 'wall, Lucant with Discontinuity, Krueger with Wraithbane galore and multiple heavies. I got to work around this through what I feel is a combination of firepower, a new and unknown caster and some calculated scenario plays (both Lucant and Krueger got to 4 CP).

Winning a tournament with Darius sure was a good start! Cygnar has so many viable options now, it's really hard to tell which is best. It's a very interesting time to build a pairing though and I can tell we're far from the only faction with this "luxury problem".

Battle Report #469: Sloan vs Krueger2

:: Prologue ::

Following the Sloan vs Morvahna2 matchup we decided to try Sloan vs Krueger2. I anticipated this to be pretty one-sided but it's worth confirming. My opponent plays a dude-spam variant of Krueger2 which certainly feels better than heavies so there might be something there.

:: 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:

Theme: The Wild Hunt
Krueger the Stormlord - WB: +27
- Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 17)
- Feral Warpwolf - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Woldwyrd - PC: 9
- Woldwyrd - PC: 9
Gallows Grove - PC: 0
War Wolf - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 2
War Wolf - PC: 2
Wolves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 11
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain & Standard - Chieftain & Standard Bearer: 0
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Reeves of Orboros - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Same map and scenario, I win the roll-off so Krueger2 goes first. The Wolves go ambushing so I am somewhat aware of them, however I have to deploy "around" the woods I feel.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs.

Another bot of 1 feat. I get greedy and careless with the Hunters on the right. Having killed the shrimps here I should just chill out and start wiping Reeves on the left, really. The Feral doesn't matter that much now.

I am punished for my mistakes by Wolves who kill 2 Hunters.

Stormwall contests and I start clearing pieces.

Feral kills objective and is TK'd back. Wolves jam. Reeves to run to contest.

I kill Feral with shooting. Chain Cannons dig into the infantry.

With so many infantry dudes down, virtually no boxes on the 'wall and the Feral out, my opponent calls the game.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Lots of poor play and weird choices. Sloan still felt comfortably up though so my conclusion is that Krueger2 is just bad here pretty much regardless of list, unless terrain is extremely favourable. That -could- of course happen. There's not a lot more to say about this particular game I think.

Battle Report #468: Sloan vs Morvahna2

:: Prologue ::

The vacuum left behind by Una2 when she received her nerf recently has seen the Circle players in my area try and find various creative solutions. One of my regular opponents has gone all old school with a couple of highly original lists, one of which is Morvahna2 in theme! Interesting. On paper my Sloan list looks like it'll struggle with dude spam, in practice though I know that applying the support models can make a big difference so this was a matchup I was eager to play for sure!

:: 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:

Theme: The Devourer's Host
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Morvahna the Dawnshadow - WB: +27
- Gorax Rager - PC: 7 (Battlegroup Points Used: 7)
- Warpwolf Stalker - PC: 19 (Battlegroup Points Used: 19)
Bloodweaver Night Witch - PC: 0
Tharn Ravager Shaman - PC: 0
Death Wolves - Skoll, Tala & Caleb: 9
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Tharn Bloodtrackers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Tharn Wolf Riders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 18
Tharn Wolf Riders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 18
Tharn Ravagers - Leader & 3 Grunts: 11
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain - PC: 0

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing Entrenched and I lose the roll-off. My opponent has learned the "Sloan lesson" and forces me to go first. I set up rather defensively for my own zone. The idea is to clear out that part first because it's the most open.

:: Game ::

I start picking off Tharn and position myself.

The push comes.

I withdraw and clear out the front lines. I'm getting so much value here from so many models, literally every shot counts and I'm making sure I can apply as much as possible.

Stalker into 'wall, rest follow up behind.

I -have- to hold my feat until Morvahna's feated. I'm going to need a huge amount of shots then to clear stuff out. My goal now is to clear all HORSIHORSI nearby. Dice totally betray me as all the things in the world I apply to the last Wolf Rider on the left (including fully loaded jacks) don't ensure its demise. Ugh. The 'wall has to pod to contest. The Stalker lives, the 'wall failing to kill it. Primal means it's less of an issue though.

Morvahna feat + jam moment.

I fear in return, a lot of my things are able to aim and thus clear out various jams. Attrition is looking decent but Morvahna is on 3 CP.

My opponent throws everything he has at the Stormwall. It sits on 16 boxes when the dust clears and Morvahna is ported in by the stones with a full fury stack. Her ability to take one box of damage to basically become a weapon master in combination with sacking D3 boxes for re-rolls combine to ensure she can kill it. She repositions into my zone and wins the game 5-0 on CP.

Sadly, a Loss for the Swans. 

:: Evaluation ::

Interesting matchup! I keep shooting, he keeps coming. I think the main mistake I make here is to not pressure Morvahna more on her zone. Sure, there are defensive terrain pieces there but if I set up properly I don't think it matters -that- much because Morvahna can't go that aggressive. In a way this is like the Haley2 vs Lylyth3 game, I have to take control of a flank and in this particular situation the left flank is the one I need to take.

Sloan can be reliant on dice. The Stormwall does alleviate this somewhat but this game had a couple of crucial moments where the dice failed me and it just hurts so much. Sloan can be taxing to play technically, so many positions you have to consider and have the pieces mutually support each other while they keep safe etc.

A very interesting game though and I certainly think this is playable for Sloan, possibly even favourable! The picture after my feat turn speaks volumes about this list's attrition capabilities.