Battle Report #527: Haley2 vs Iron Mother

:: Prologue ::

After game 1 we decided to tweak Mother to go with 1 TEP, which lets her take an Assimilator and a couple of Diffusers. Sadly, it was pointed out to me after the game, my opponent forgot about the Assimilator altogether (!).

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

"TimeStorm"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Reliant - PC: 14
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

Iron Mother
- Prime Axiom
- Diffuser x3
- Assimilator
- Corollary
Meks
TEP
Free bots

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Same map and scenario, Mother goes first. I play the Storm Strider diagonally opposite the TEP now. The idea is that the TEP will have to commit itself heavily and thus open up a big vacuum if it wants to provide +3 shield guards every turn on the left flank.

:: Game ::

Convergence stuff runs up.

I go for pot-shots on a Diffuser with the Storm Strider. The dice aren't great. I figure my opponent is unlikely to one-round it and commitment-wise I'm establishing myself on the right flank.

Of course I didn't factor in harm. That alters the equation significantly. Sadly for my opponent the Harm shot misses as he doesn't want to feat. Sadly for me that doesn't matter as the Storm Strider goes down anyway. Pretty bad start, eh?

I have a pretty decent play by TK-ing the TEP around and running up hard with feat. I do this and Junior's Firefly contests on the left by running to engage a Diffuser. 1-0.

Mother again doesn't want to feat and this ensures that my Firefly survives (!), thus contesting. TEP has to withdraw which means no contest for Convergence. 2-0.

I figure that by blocking out Prime and killing the TEP I'll have an amazing position. I don't dare to put Haley on the flag (quite frankly it's impossible since I need to activate her before the Hurricane), but this still means I'll go to 3-0.

My opponent clears his zone, but he misses Thorn with an attack which lets me dodge away. Between the Reliant's AOE3 on his objective, the Hurricane and Thorn blocking tons of angles, it's impossible for him to contest me. That means I keep the 3 point lead, which in turn means I can kill the objective, take the flag, zone and contest to go +6 and win on scenario. My opponent concedes.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

The Storm Strider greed was terrible and set me up way, way behind. My opponent forgetting to put down the Assimilator though greatly affected the game as well.

Those things aside, I think this game highlights how crazy fast some scenarios can still be played -if- you get the necessary opening. Luring people out to commit too heavily can really be punished and that's exactly what happened here. As with the first game I struggled with taking out bots here as well, but I found plays which didn't mean that I had to.

I find this matchup to be exhausting to play. It requires experience and patience in great amounts. For Cygnar it's hard to protect against Domination/pull angles while removing bots. For Convergence it's hard to set up properly for feat, ensure scenario is held down and that you don't lose too many bots. Despite the mental load it's a lot of fun and I greatly enjoy these encounters!

Battle Report #526: Haley2 vs Iron Mother

:: Prologue ::

With the inclusion of the Storm Strider I believe Haley2 might yet again be an interesting drop against Iron Mother. My regular Convergence opponent had a couple of builds he wanted to try out as well. This

:: Lists ::

:: Cygnar ::

"TimeStorm"
Theme: Heavy Metal
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
- Squire - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
- Thorn - PC: 13
- Hurricane - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
Storm Strider - PC: 18
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
Lieutenant Allison Jakes - PC: 0
- Reliant - PC: 14
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 0

:: Opponent ::

Iron Mother
- Prime Axiom
- Diffuser
- Corollary
Meks
2x TEP
Free bots

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

I take first turn. My idea is to try and clear out bots and then start working on Prime with shooting, possibly a TEP if the chance presents itself. The right colossal proxies as a Storm Strider.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs. I take care to be out of Pull and Domination ranges.

CoC advance, mostly on the right flank. The left TEP receives tactical supremacy and repositions forward.

With the repos move I figure I can pull it down and possibly shoot it to death. My plan this turn is to TK the TEP closer, TK the Diffuser out of cover and blast them both to kingdom come. Junior's Firefly clears remaining Shield Guards for the TEP and the Hurricane blasts it apart. The Storm Strider finishes the Diffuser. Good position for me!

Mother gets very little work done. Prime moves up to tempt me...

...but I have played against Mother before and know that only backlash death awaits me if I engage. I cannot one-round Prime anyway, if I could it might be different. Anyway, I back off and blast Prime with everything I've got. This clears out a ton of bots and even puts some damage on it. On the left flank I have Fireflies lined up to score and threaten Ionization plays. I leave the Reliant on the right flank contesting and within melee range. I figure my opponent will have a couple of headaches to deal with: If he doesn't commit he risks actually being shot to death. I can also stall the game, keep scoring the left zone and win at the end of 7th: Prime is blocked in by the central impassable so realistically won't get anywhere anytime soon. Interesting position!

Mother does Mother things: Domination + Backlash on Haley's Firefly. I take ~7 damage I believe through Feedback.

Objective and focus heals me back up fully. With Prime electing to stay so close to me I can send in both the Reliant and the Hurricane. Since it took a few boxes last turn this should be well within one-rounding range (I later did the math in Odds Machine: 99%). However dice don't cooperate and it survives on 2 boxes.

Prime surviving is a disaster and Mother casts Backlash on Hurricane. With plenty of spikebots around Haley dies.

Sadly, a Loss for the Swans. 

:: Evaluation ::

Very interesting game! The Storm Strider was a welcome addition here. Between its guns and the Hurricane's firepower it's hard for Mother to keep a ton of bots alive. My opponent did manage to do so in this game and that was why I eventually lost. He did just barely kill Haley, had he had 1 less spike bot I would've survived.

The odds for one-rounding Prime were overwhelming. Had they not been I wonder if perhaps a wiser move would've been to keep drawing this game out: With the state of the table scoring was happening so easily for me whereas my opponent really strugged. I think I might've been able to simply go to the end of 7th by keeping the Mexican Standoff. Plays like this are still very new to me and I feel like mastering them will be key in SR2017.

Double TEP seems too much for Mother. I had a hunch prior to this game that it would be and this pretty much confirms it for me. I like one, I think, but 2 leaves her with too little flexibility.

Battle at Lund: Team Tournament #1 (#495): Nemo3 vs Iron Mother

:: Prologue ::

Following the Swedish Masters on Friday I didn't know what to do on Saturday. I knew that I wanted something relaxed as Sunday held the Invitationals tournament (the X best players from the other tournaments that weekend would each get a spot), which in my eyes is in many ways biggest to win. In any case more or less everyone at the convention wanted to play a team tournament so I got together with two other guys to take on a real challenge: Each round we would roll a dice each. The one who scored the lowest would have to try and lose his game. By that we didn't mean killbox yourself or kill your own caster, but rather make crazy plays, go for stupidly bad assassinations etc. We didn't mind winning or losing, we just wanted to have a good time and would happily go to the beer bracket.

Because of this I chose to leave Sloan at home and go with Nemo3. I love to play Nemo3 and this was the perfect format to take him out for a spin again. Our first game saw us pair up against a trio of Danes. I was delighted to see that one of them was playing Convergence, and since I didn't have to try and lose my game (our Circle player lost that roll-off for this round) I really wanted to try out Nemo3 against the CoC. "Please give me the CoC, I really need the CoC!" Somehow that got me the Convergence matchup!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Theme: Storm Division
(Nemo 3) Artificer General Nemo [+25], Bunker
- Storm Chaser Adept Caitlin Finch
- Squire [0]
- Firefly [8]
- Firefly [8]
- Firefly [8]
- Dynamo [18]
- Lancer [10]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (min) [12]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
- Firefly [8]

Opponent:

Theme: Destruction Initiative
Iron Mother
- Prime Axiom
- 2x Assimilators
- 2x Mitigators
- Diffuser
- Corollary
Tons of bots

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Entrenched and I got first turn. What is the game plan? Charge!! I wanted to respect Mother's threat ranges bottom of 1 and then simply take it from there. A viable approach is to give him semi-juicy targets and capitalize on greed. My feat is absolutely crazy in this matchup, virtually capable of killing all heavies and the Axiom if shield guards are dealt with, and the assassination potential is brutal. I have to beware of backlash plays and shield guards surviving for long. Lastly, Domination on key jacks like Lancer and Dynamo is an issue.

:: Game ::

I run stuff up and put up Arcane Shield on the big Lances, Electrify on the small ones. I take care to not have any jacks save for a Firefly in range of run + domination/backlash. I figured that if Mother wants to start getting aggressive bottom of 1 I can play from there.

Indeed Mother goes for the Firefly! A light vector runs up to arc Backlash. The Prime then follows up with a couple of attacks, doing 2-3 boxes to Nemo. All of this however leaves Mother on 0 camp, standing right next to an Assimilator...

Obviously, we cannot have that so the good ol' "let's-leap-off-of-a-friendly-model" trick came out in the shape of proxy bases. I did have quite a few direct attacks as well and Mother had 5 shield guards nearby. In any case I had such a huge volume of attacks I could get at her that it hardly mattered. 

The Lancer ran up, Nemo Force Hammered the Assimilator to KD Mother and from there it was a matter of feating and unleashing the lord of lightning. Before I had lept off of model at all, Mother was dead to direct attacks as all shield guards died to early D3 leap variants. 

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Nemo is a caster you simply have to know to avoid shenanigans like this. DEF19 is legit in most matchups, doubly so with 5 Shield Guards and closer targets all over the place. However enter the Lancer + Force Hammer combination and everything changes.

Had I not had an opening I would've consolidated my position, withdrawn the backlash'd Firefly, healed Nemo back up and camped. I would set up to punish both a scenario push and a push towards my zone. Iron Mother feels very hard to play vs Nemo3 in my opinion and probably Axis as well. Lucant is probably a nightmare but absent him, the pairing struggles.

My teammates both won their games. Our Circle player left his caster on 1 box in front of shooters and Butcher1's spell range, with his Khador opponent having Eiryss1. However Eiryss was engaged and didn't want to tempt her luck against a MAT6 Stalker so despite trying to lose, the Khador assassination just wasn't there. 

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. 

Showdown #1, Game 3 (#479): Darius vs Lucant

:: Prologue ::

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:

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! 

Battle Report #464: Stryker2 vs Lucant

:: Prologue ::

Stryker2 is a very interesting caster. I have this idea about him that he wants to play with a ton of models. His playstyle reminds me of Stryker3 in a way: The skill-set screams jacks initially but in practice troops work best. Therefore I've played Stryker2 in a Storm Division variant thus far which leans heavily on units. I haven't gotten to play this that much yet, but I got an interesting opportunity against Lucant yesterday. Let's see how that went!

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

"Lightning Stryke"
Theme: Storm Division
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Lord Commander Stryker - WJ: +28
- Squire - PC: 0
- Lancer - PC: 10 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Ol’ Rowdy - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 18)
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 0
- Firefly - PC: 8
Major Katherine Laddermore - PC: 8
Stormblade Captain - PC: 5
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
- Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner - PC: 2
- Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner - PC: 2
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 0

Opponent:

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 Incursion and Lucant goes first. I pick the side with the best contesting terrain. I want to secure a flank here and have big, open spaces for my Lances. He weighs slightly left, I weigh slightly right.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs.

I am somewhat cautious of the TEPs. I figure he'll likely feat top of 2 regardless of what I do so it's pretty bad to give him a ton of free kills. Arcane Shield goes on the right-most Lances and Stryker casts Deceleration.

After contemplating various plays from an all-out jam to a tactical withdrawal with the feat intact my opponent decides to commit with the feat. I think it's the best play: I am too far away to charge him which begs the question: How do I deal with this situation without just flat out losing on scenario?

This is one of those situations I positively (no pun intended) hate with Stryker2. I have no clue how I play my way out of this spot. The issue is that the left flank is impossible for me to deal with so at best I can contest that flag every second turn by sacrificing a model. I can't reach anything unless I feat and even if I do I'm unlikely to do a ton of damage anyway. I'm at a loss, quite frankly, and I feel as though Stryker2 often ends up in situations like this.

When in doubt I tend to push and I decide to do that here. While my opponent can push me out on the left flank, I start scoring first so I'm hoping to accomplish the same on the other side of the table. Stryker's within 17" of the TEP so he man-modes up and feats. TEP goes down. I cast Positive Charger on the Lancer before I went in, hoping to kill a heavy. Every single model in my list commits and I come pretty close to taking down one of the heavies but it survives on a handful of boxes.

I think I lack the punch needed to win attrition from this point but the scenario play could have been interesting. Sadly Stryker was poorly placed with my feat move so my opponent was -just- able to get a heavy an angle to charge him. This required a lot of work from the rest of his army but TL;DR he managed this just fine and poor Stryker went down to an angry Conservator.

Sadly, a Loss for the Swans.

:: Evaluation ::

Yeah, Stryker2 and I are still struggling. I'm beginning to question the list approach more and more. The caster certainly isn't a natural fit for me, but I've overcome that before (Haley3). I'll probably give him some more runs before I put him away.

My opponent was able to create a really hard situation for me top of 2. In hindsight I think a play might have been to send in Stryker without feating. That secures a flank and keeps my punch. I was afraid I'd be too exposed but some careful proxy-basing would've shown whether the play had been safe or not.

Convergence are strong now and I find them to be one of the harder matchups for Cygnar. 

Internal Affairs Mk. IX Game 3 (#456): Stryker1 vs Iron Mother

:: Prologue ::

The third game is Take and Hold and I draw Convergence. Great. A list chicken situation where I don't even know if my "upside" is particularly "up". My opponent has Father and Mother and ideally I want Haley2 vs Father, which is unlikely to happen. I think Haley2 vs Mother borders on unplayable with the Electrobots, and Stryker1 feels bad vs Father. However my opponent knows how badly Haley2 decimates father and he has dropped him twice already, in a 4-game tournament he'll be locked into Mother next game if he drops him again. I drop Stryker and luckily get Mother in return.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

"Immovable Object"
[Theme] Heavy Metal
(Stryker 1) Commander Coleman Stryker [+30]
- Firefly[8]
- Stormwall [39]
- Stormwall [39]
- Squire [0]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
- Charger [9]
Lieutenant Allison Jakes [0]
- Charger [9]

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 ::

This game is hard. I have to somehow remove all of his bots. It's not that they have Shield Guard, at least not primarily, it's that they are so strong with Backlash. In a nutshell I have to pressure his jacks, remove the bots, not spend focus from Stryker (since he has to heal and camp) and not lose on scenario. Easy!

:: Game ::

I run stuff just outside of his threat ranges.

He runs stuff just outside of my melee threat ranges.

I did consider feating here, running both Stormwalls up and jamming him. Against a weak player this might work, he might panic and I might win. However taking two seconds to consider this, my opponent can go for the Smart Play™ which is to apply backlash, hit with puncture bots, throw out Shrapnel Swarm twice and simply jam me. Very, very hard for Stryker to survive that considering the 'walls will be around next turn as well, at which point he can cycle (!) backlash to apply maximum damage. I don't see that as a likely win for me, sadly. Also, I can't one round Prime with a 'wall so I quickly discard that idea.

Instead I try and remove bots with shooting I clear a few and apply a protective field of covering fires. Snipe is up on the left 'wall to accomplish this.

Backlash is applied to the right 'wall and the fun begins! Stryker takes a couple of boxes, spending his focus to stop what can be stopped.

There are too many bots left still so I have to shoot, shoot and shoot bots. In my frustration over the matchup I forget covering fires from one wall, which is pretty bad.

The Conservators keep coming and my opponent scores my flag. 0-1.

I'm at the edge of the killbox, scenario pressure is mounting up and I have to make a play. I've saved the feat for so long, but if I can make decisive play now I might be able to stop Backlash slowly winning the game for Convergence. I heal up with most of my focus, allocating as little as possible. The Chargers, Jakes and the left 'wall kill a Conservator (woho!) and some bots with shooting. The right 'wall charges the Diffuser but dice don't agree and it survives. A pod disrupts a Conservator. The Firefly runs to score a point, forcing a distraction.

With bots out the Backlash threat isn't there any longer and my opponent instead decides to back off. The tide is turning!

I consolidate my position, happy to keep pounding him with shooting. I even score another point with a Charger on his flag.

Convergence is running low on time and the feat finally comes out with a last, desperate effort to kill Stryker with a Hail Mary run of epic proportions. It fails and I win the game!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Slowly whittling down the bots was crucial in this game. If this had somehow been prevented, my opponent might have been able to overload me and win. At one point he tried to wrap around on my right flank but the junior warcasters and Chargers stopped that effort dead in its tracks. I'm not sure exactly how Mother should've approached this differently, but leveraging the fact that I cannot commit, even with feat, when there are many puncture bots alive surely is possible somehow.

I was glad to walk away with a win. Iron Mother is naturally very strong against Stormwall-based Cygnar because of Backlash. Domination ensures that normal jacks, outside of Gallant anyway, are fairly poor as well. Lastly, Prime Axiom having tow cables can make life miserable. It should be noted though that my opponent's list struggles somewhat with defensively buffed Lances, especially Stryker1 Lances. Standard Stryker1 Storm Division might indeed be legit here, it certainly is better than this list.

3-0 thus far and it certainly wasn't easy. All games were close-fought and I feel as though they all could have tipped the other way. Time for the semi-finals!