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.

Iron Moot: Invitationals #1 (#272): Haley2 vs Rask

:: Prologue ::

After 11 games and a tournament win we were down to game 3. In a 3-day convention you can get exhausted and in my (limited) experience, Sunday Syndrome is a thing: Fatigue kicks in and you no longer manage to focus properly. I got up at 06:30 on Friday to take on a 3.5 hour drive, played from 12 to midnight day 1, started again at 9 the next day and played until midnight again, celebrated the tournament win with a couple of beers and friends and we were now up again for day 3. To make matters worse this was the Invitationals where only the top players from the previous events were playing. Considering the shark tank nature of this event in the first place I had a long day ahead of me.

First up was Rickard and his Minions who I faced in the semi-finals of the IG qualifier on Saturday. Luckily for me, the scenario was The Pit and I got first turn.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]
- Thorn [13]
- Stormwall [39]
- Squire [5]
- Ironclad [12]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
- Minuteman [9]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [4]
Gobber Tinker [2]
Storm Lances (min) [12]

Opponent:

Rask - WB: +27
-    Targ - PC: 4
-    Blackhide Wrastler - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
-    Blackhide Wrastler - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 11)
Wrong Eye - Wrong Eye & Snapjaw: 17
-    Snapjaw
Dahlia Hallyr - Hallyr & Skarath: 17
-    Skarath
Totem Hunter - PC: 6
Bog Trog Mist Speaker - PC: 4
Rorsh - Rorsh & Brine: 15
-    Brine
-    Battle Boar - PC: 7

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Going first on The Pit is a dream come true for Haley2 in most matchups. It stresses out opponents immensely because not only is it pretty much impossible to contest her on scenario bottom of 2 if she feats, it is also hard to jam the zone so that she can't move to 3-0 top of 3. I knew this and I wanted to exploit it so I deployed the Stormwall to be a typical anchor and had the rest of my army flank on the other side, barring the Minuteman who I intended to hide behind the obstruction in front of my flag.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs.

Wrongeye moves up on the left, taking care not to be within any serious threat ranges. The snake goes in Veil of Mists with Prowl and the right flank hangs back.

I figure I can severely damage a Wrastler by putting 5 shots at POW14-15 into it. Spikes occur and it goes down. I realize that Wrongeye can make a move on my left flank too easily so I shift the Ironclad over there. Haley feats, which is possibly/probably too early as I can't really capitalize on the feat if Rask counter-feats.

Wrongeye + Snapjaw move out to the left. A brilliant move because Rask disrupts the Ironclad so I can't punish him for making this flank attack without committing the Stormwall. A wall of beasts move up in front of Rask and he feats of course so the idea for him is to prevent the Stormwall from doing too much. The remaining Wrastler is outside of my feat range so it kills the Minuteman. However to do so he spends -all- his fury...

...and it takes me about 5 minutes or so to realize that Rask can't transfer! However when I do the plan is quite simple to kill Rask. I spend a lot of time looking for angles to get some shots onto Rask as well from the Stormwall (the plan is originally to just TK + TA Thorn and walk him up, as the proxy bases in the picture below shows) but it's not possible. In any case Thorn gets the job done and Rask goes down!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

Rickard is a solid player and I think his Wrastler play here simply boils down to Sunday Syndrome. We are all tired and mistakes happen in any games.

In this particular game I had my Lances on the wrong flank. If they were deployed on my left I could have held the feat, blocked off Haley with Stormwall + IC and still probably have prevented Rickard from both getting a decent alpha (at best he sends the PS22 snake into the 'wall for 5 attacks at dice damage) and contesting me. Inexperience with the matchup shows as I default to a play I'm comfortable with but which is really putting me in a fairly bad position here. I don't know what I'd do if I hadn't gotten such a big opening to be honest. I'd probably have to try and take out both Dahlia and Wrongeye but how on Earth that was supposed to happen I have no idea.

In any case Thorn got the job done and I got off to a great start! 

Iron Moot: Iron Gauntlet Semi-Finals (#270): Haley2 vs Rask

:: Prologue ::

For the semi-finals of the Gauntlet Rounds I drew Rickard and his Minions. My experience against Minions is limited to a couple of games against Arkadius basically, however Rickard's rumour preceeds him and I knew he was all about throwing a snake around and that his list was bricky as hell. He had played Rask in all of his 4 games thus far and as such he was locked. Due to my mind-game mistake in game 4 I had dropped all of mine however and could thus tool the Haley2 drop as needed (I didn't even consider neither Caine nor Sloan for this matchup). I took out the Minuteman and got Lanyssa back in because I figured solid alphas and threat ranges would be big here.

This game was streamed live with two commentators. I recommend you watch the video as well as read this report. The YouTube link is here (this game is from the start until ~1 hour).

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
-    Squire - PC: 5
-    Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 25)
-    Lightning Pod
-    Thorn - PC: 13
-    Ironclad - PC: 12
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
-    Firefly - PC: 8
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 4
Storm Lances - Leader & 2 Grunts: 12

Opponent:

Rask - WB: +27
-    Targ - PC: 4
-    Blackhide Wrastler - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
-    Blackhide Wrastler - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 11)
Wrong Eye - Wrong Eye & Snapjaw: 17
-    Snapjaw
Dahlia Hallyr - Hallyr & Skarath: 17
-    Skarath
Totem Hunter - PC: 6
Bog Trog Mist Speaker - PC: 4
Rorsh - Rorsh & Brine: 15
-    Brine
-    Battle Boar - PC: 7

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Ok so he has one super-strong spell on Rask and 2 different animi which stack with it which makes any of his beasts single-handedly capable of one-rounding a Stormwall (assuming Rask can land his shot to strip Arcane Shield). I have no idea how I'll deal with all his heavies considering that his feat completely kills long threat ranges -and- Thorn's ability to make Haley's presence felt. Anyway. I put down my models so that I can make a push for his flag (we are playing Take and Hold) and possibly force out a scenario angle. I go first so at least I'm getting up the field!

:: Game ::

I have no idea how far he can get the snake actually so I settle for the strategy not to bother with it and just be safe. I stop behind a wall which is ridiculously far away. If he manages to bot of 1 assassinate me here I'll just take it I suppose. The left flank sees all my jacks barring Thorn pushing hard.

Minions move up. Veil of Mists are put down to protect the center with Rickard pre-measuring his models 2.1" away from it so I can't TK him in and charge with Lances. He also pre-measures the left-most Wrastler to be over 15" away from the Ironclad...

Rickard has a problem however. The Wrastler does have Admonition up on it so I can't alpha it regardless, but by TK-ing it out and Hunter's Marking it I can get the Ironclad into melee with Wrongeye! That's a pretty huge win so I go for it. I make an uncharacteristically poor mistake as I don't take care to turn the Wrastler around properly, it ends up having the Ironclad in its front arc. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter as it has Admonition and could thus have turned around anyway though. In any case the Ironclad kills the Wrastler. I run the Firefly up to the flag with Junior behind and Stormwall nearby as well. Lances set up to threaten the center and Shift is up.

Unfortunately, and this is a biggie, I made a big mistake with Haley here: I did not move her far enough up and thus I didn't get his annoying little solo behind Rask in my feat. It turns out said annoying little solo was able to run within 4" of the flag, denying me a CP. That is so bad. The different is that if I move Haley correctly I can go to 1-0, move Haley to the flag and thus be 3-0 followed by an immediate 5-0 if he doesn't contest me (which can be really hard given the state of the table). Oh well. Anyway Rask feats and switches Admonition to the other Wrastler.

I have absolutely no idea what Rorsh and Brine and doing like way out on the right flank. I am however very thankful that they are there and not in a more central position because this allows me to go for an interesting play on the left flank: If I can kill both Wrastlers I have an opening for sure. It's not that far off either to be honest because the Lances can jam in the Wrastler with Admonition so that it can't get away. I originally try and run them but the leader was in Dahlia's control area and she had the "rebuke aura" up. I was however able to move them far enough up by simply walking them and this had the added benefit of dealing quite a bit of damage to it as well, between so many attacks at PS12 and PS13 some of it got through. The Firefly moved up to beat the second Wrastler (everything counts and getting it within 5" provides +2 damage on all electro leap rolls from the Stormwall) and did a few more boxes. Haley would optimally have gone on the hill but I was afraid he would be able to find an angle to throw the snake on me there so instead she went behind the wall. I would have to score double now to have a scenario angle anyway. The Stormwall goes in and it's so incredibly close, but I manage to barely kill both Wrastlers thanks to the Firefly and its +2! Thorn stabs the snake as much as he can and cripples mind I think.

Rask shoots off Arcane Shield and puts up +3 STR and Boundless Charge on the snake. Battle Boar Primals the snake and it takes the Stormwall down to a single box. Careless positioning of Thorn allows it to charge without tanking a free strike, so annoying. Targ has ancillary attack however and that means the Stormwall is going down. I forgot about Boundless charge and the Ancillary Attack but at the end of the day it wouldn't have mattered because I had to go for the play I went for anyway. Rorsh primals Brine and smokes him further up. He starts beating on thorn and I'm hoping he'll miss one of the early attacks because Rask has nothing left to transfer to but it was not to be. Adding insult to injury all the Lances die as well.

The situation however isn't nearly as bleak as it looks. Both the snake and Brine are primaled so they won't be doing any work anytime soon. The snake is on full fury so Dahlia can't transfer damage to it either (Rickard claimed to have 1 fury token on her but there was no token present. We had a brief discussion about it. After seeing the game on youtube afterwards I noticed that the fury token was actually there after her activation, but it disappeared when he hit it with a dice and discarded it. Luckily it didn't matter as the snake was full anyway. Tokens represent the state of the board and it's not that I don't trust Rickard but I can't back-track what happened a full turn earlier when the token isn't there). The Firefly boosts a shot onto the pod behind her and she cut herself for 1 which means it's 4+ to kill. I make the roll and she disappears along with the snake. Lanyssa moves up to deny the Totem Hunter pathfinder (first time I've ever cast that spell!) and Haley runs to the flag. 4-0.

The Totem Hunter has jump and Lanyssa is preyed. He reaches her and sprints to contest me. Brine kills Targ with Frenzy.

I have to kill the Totem Hunter to win. I TK it around so that Junior can charge if Haley fails (Firefly was disrupted by Rask), however she stops and deals the killing blow herself, Echo's taking her to PS13 being a thing!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

When in doubt, push! Going aggressive with Haley2 is often the right choice and indeed it paid off here as well. The opening move which allowed me to take out Wrongeye and Snapjaw was a huge enabler and if I had caught his solo in my feat as well the game would have been a lot easier I think. Not knowing exactly what he can and cannot do with the snake I imagine is a lot like playing against Haley2. Throughout the game though I was pretty certain that he was unable to reach me. After all it's the stacking of throws which makes said snake ridiculous and there was never a chance to get the ball rolling on this.

The Wrastlers going down was a huge deal and the game could possibly have broken here. I think committing everything here was the right play. It was extremely close and at this point in time I kind of wished I had brought Ragman instead of Arlan. My thinking in ditching Ragman was that the list would be too fast for him. While arguably true, he might be a highly valuable for the post-feat action. I'm not sure, again my experience against Minions is very limited.

A great game and luckily for me another win for the Swans. Next up I had the finals against the worst skew list I have ever seen...

Battle at Lund Practice Game 2 (#120): Haley2 vs Dr. Arkadius

:: Prologue ::

After I finished with Magnus I was lucky enough to get a game against one of the organizers who go by the name of Jens. This was an excellent opportunity because Jens brought Minions! I have only ever played Minions once and that was at 35 points. Then, as now, I faced Dr. Arkadius and he seems almost tailor made to counter Cygnar with his tech (feat and spell list is amazing and once he's dealt with the Stormwall the game swings in his favor).

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gastone Crosse - PC: 3
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 4
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2

Opponent:

Dr. Arkadius - WB: +6
- Targ
- Gun Boar - PC: 5
- Gun Boar - PC: 5
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Road Hog - PC: 9
- Road Hog - PC: 9
- War Hog - PC: 8
- War Hog - PC: 8
- Gorax - PC: 4
- Gorax - PC: 4
Farrow Bone Grinders - Leader & 3 Grunts: 2
THEME: Nature of the Beast - Tier 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Outflank and I went first. The idea was to play this as a game of attrition and establish control in one zone top of 2-3 to allow the Stormwall to contest the other zone top of 4 (i.e. I'd allow him to get 2 points). To this end I had ATGM on one flank and strong shooters in the center with Stormwall in-between.

:: Game ::

Stormwall tramples and pods. Ryan Mage Storms pod to create a no-vision zone in the center, allowing Haley to get far up without the threat of crazy Arkadius-slingshots.

Arkadius does indeed go for the slingshot but into the Stormwall instead of Haley. He is unlucky as he is just outside of Crippling Grasp range. He also forgets to give his beasts Primal from Gorax. The end result is that the few beasts getting into the Stormwall don't do significant amounts of damage. On top of that he misses Eiryss with a boosted attack. That could have been way worse!

Given the development and the early feat I forget my original plan. Instead I am too focused on the left zone. Haley TKs Eiryss out of danger, moves to the left, Deadeyes ATGM and feats. ATGM all aim (and this means they won't be in a position to help out so as I can contest the zone with the Stormwall quickly enough) and thunderbolt away beasts engaging the Stormwall. This opens up a door for him to move up. I kill quite a few beasts but there are so many left.

Despite feat being dropped he scores 2 points. His beasts all jam me up as best as they can.

Hyper aggressive is a thing and I need to consider what I can do. I have to set up so that I can get something nasty into his zone next turn because if not it's game over. I now realize that ATGM should've moved last turn because they are horribly out of position. I am tempted to run them but figure they'll likely do more if I don't. I pod the zone to contest. 2-2.

Arkadius moves a lot of beasts to jam me up, however he also casts Crippling Grasp on the Stormwall which exposes him to an assassination run.

Thorn moves up and Haley one-shots Dr. Arkadius with a lucky charm + boosted time bomb damage roll. Crazy dice but I had focus to follow up with TK and lots of shooting behind, so a fairly safe run.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

I don't know if it's the specifics of the lists, the matchup in general, lack of experience or something else, but I find Dr. Arkadius to be a strong caster into Haley2. Hyper Aggressive on the entire battlegroup of 3 million beasts gives me a headache just considering how to approach the ranged game (which I rely so heavily on), Forced Evolution is brilliant defensively and Crippling Grasp is a killer if he can safely get in range of the Stormwall. Also the feat is incredibly flexible, it can allow him a devastating alpha or basically negate a huge part of my own feat (not a lot of things in this game can basically nullify Temporal Shift).

My original strategy was sound but I should've kept Eiryss as a reserve piece behind the Stormwall, not opposite it. This allows her to run in a wide circle around my strong flank and either shoot off Crippling Grasp or Forced Evolution depending on what I need. Also I need to keep in mind my game plan despite my opponent finding openings. With ATGM moving T2 I could probably have freed the Stormwall, shot off Grasp and cast Temporal Acceleration on him to have him walk over to the other zone. Outflank is a tricky scenario because you score insanely fast, but it can certainly be dealt with if you plan ahead, especially if you play a control caster yourself like Haley2.

2d6 Challenge Game 1: Haley2 vs Dr. Arkadius

:: Prologue ::

For my first game I drew Minions and I could not be more happy about this: I have never played against Minions before and I need to expand my horizons beyond what I usually play against. Add to that, a really nice guy who I haven't met before with a beautiful army (he ended up winning best painted, well deserved!).


:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19 (bonded)
- Lightning Pod
- Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4

Opponent:

Dr. Arkadius - WB: +6
- Targ
- Gorax - PC: 4
- Gun Boar - PC: 5
- Gun Boar - PC: 5
- War Hog - PC: 8
- War Hog - PC: 8
- Road Hog - PC: 9
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
- Razor Boar - PC: 0
THEME: Nature of the Beast - Tier 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We were playing Close Quarters on a fairly open map. I quickly saw that he had a bunch of utility upkeep spells (cue need for Eiryss2 here), 2 shooters, 3 beatsticks, 2 support models and 5 jammers. I deployed everything fairly centrally intending to either go for attrition or scenario depending upon his level of aggression. He deployed opposite me so right off the bat I put the scenario idea to rest unless he'd advance slowly.

:: Game ::

I had turn 1 and wasted no time claiming the table. Temporal on Stormwall, running with the jacks and infantry. The Black 13th toed the woods for Stealth. Haley put up Deceleration.

The Minions reply by sending up a beatstick as bait. The 2 shooty-beasts target the B13th and Thorn. Lynch goes down (scatter) and Thorn suffers a whooping 6 boxes worth of damage.

Arkadius had put up hyper aggressive for his entire army, basically. This was a bit of an issue since I had to target him in a very careful sequence to make it all work. I was also afraid he'd get too much stuff into me so I decided to feat this turn. This was premature, more on this matter later. The feat however did allow me to play a little careless. I TK'd the beatstick around to get backstrike bonus with the Stormwall who killed him. After a miserable display of dice one of his jammers ended up surviving B13th, Thorn and Junior, jamming Ryan even.

With the feat spent and my opponent having learned to keep his beatsticks together to threaten the Stormwall the game hardened. The Minions came on and put +2 DEF +2 STR on one of the beatsticks.

I'm not a fan of prematurely committing the colossal. I gathered that I could probably kill one beatstick, but the second? Crippling grasp, force +2 STR, Gorax and suddenly he's dice damage. That's ~6 attacks or so at dice damage. With a bit of luck or perhaps support from the rest of the army, the Stormwall goes down. Instead I did what I should've done last turn: I TK'd the Beatsticks around. At this point in time I realized I could probably keep this up more or less indefinitely and hence the feat should have been conserved for a more tight spot. As such I resorted to a scenario game. Hardly optimal to determine this at this late hour, but given the table position I considered it the safest way ahead. The Stormwall + Thorn cleared his jammers.

Minions had a big advantage on the clock, but the scenario situation was looking grim and attrition wasn't getting them anywhere either. With the TAC clouding up, going for Haley would also be a longshot to say the least. My opponent decided to go for a feat to put some damage on the Stormwall and force my hand. However he got eager and activated stuff in the wrong order, messing it up. As such he was stranded in a fairly poor position without having touched my colossal. At the very least Crippling Grasp did go up on the Stormwall.

I was at 2-0 CP-wise at this point in time. Due to my inexperience against Minions however my clock was way down. I figured if I continued to play for attrition I could easily get jammed up and lose. While I'm not a fan of Assassination in general because of its dicey nature, I figured this was an excellent situation to go for just that. I TK'd Arkadius around (he had only 1 fury point to transfer damage with) and the pain train from a max-focused Temporal Stormwall began. Despite crippling grasp bringing the Stormwall down to Pow18 Arkadius received more than he could handle.

Assassination victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

My inexperience with Minions definitely showed in this game. His second list was a battle engine + gatormen something something. I should perhaps have played out Stryker here as I can't see any of his lists dealing with the wombo-combo of Stormwall + Ol' Rowdy backed by Earthquake and Thunderbolts galore.

I spent a lot of time early game trying to figure out just how I was supposed to approach him. With both Thorn + Stormwall at 35 points there's not a whole lot of points left to flesh out the army with and that definitely showed in this game: The jammers and shooty beasts he sent up my right flank were a real pain to deal with. Doubly so with hyper aggressive.

The feat timing was horrible. I should've either played Haley more aggressive T1 (charge + TK out of charge reach) -or- simply play as I did and TK'd the beatsticks around.

These things highlight why I enjoy facing new things. It's important to know how an army plays to be able to play optimally against it. The next time I face Arkadius I'll hopefully remember these lessons. I'll also hopefully play at 50 points so Eiryss2 can help me out a bit with all those upkeeps ;)