Battle Report #249: Caine2 vs Vlad1

:: Prologue ::

Following a quick game 1 we re-racked and played again.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Captain Allister Caine - WJ: +27
- Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 4
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 27)
- Lightning Pod
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 4
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
- Charger - PC: 9
Gobber Tinker - PC: 2
Ragman - PC: 4
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
Rangers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
Storm Lances - Leader & 2 Grunts: 12
Storm Lances - Leader & 2 Grunts: 12

Opponent:

Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince - WJ: +28
-    Behemoth - PC: 24 (Battlegroup Points Used: 24)
-    Ruin - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
-    Rager - PC: 11
-    Rager - PC: 11
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 4
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 5
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

This time I won the roll-off. I probably should've gone 2nd to better learn that dynamic (as I think it's a lot better for me to go first) but I chose to go first because I was also eager to see how that affects the game.

The idea was to overwhelm a flank and pressure scenario if he didn't play cautiously. For him to not respect that would probably give me a significant lead. I wanted the Stormwall left to anchor. With meks and 2 Shield Guards I wasn't expecting the 'wall to get a lot of work done early game anyway.

:: Game ::

All Lances run towards the right. I'm hoping to draw out his Rifles because if I can kill one unit quickly the game opens up so much for me. It doesn't matter if I lose a Lance or two because there are still enough left and Caine's presence to ensure the flank will be in dire straits for Khador.

The Rifles go for the Lances but only kill 1: Vlad moved to the left trench and thus not many of them could benefit from S&P.

I initiate the plan on the right flank. The remaining 2 Lances get a Press Forward order and 1 assaults while the other runs in position. The other Lances shoot 3 bolts in the back of the running one which takes out 2 boys. Caine finishes the rest and move behind. I spread out Rangers and the Charger while the Stormwall moves to shoot Behemoth, taking care to stay outside of 15" of Ruin. If he wants to solo-charge Behemoth without support of any kind (I don't think he can even get S&P from Vlad in range without compromising his safety) I'll happily accept it.

The Tinker finishes off my turn by contesting the lower left flag in case he wants to feat for a crazy scenario move.

Khador don't really know what to do and the position is basically just consolidated. It's funny how much the loss of the Rifles on the right flank meant to his ability to control the table, and by extension, the scenario.

The 3-0 opening is real: Caine can wipe out some Rifles and crash onto the flag. Lanyssa marks the objective and the Charger and a Lance kill it. The rest of my army all run up to jam him as best as I can with the exception of the 'wall which runs to counter any models trying to contest me. 3-0.

Vlad1 feats and Behemoth and a Rager get in contest range.

Ragman spins up Death Field, Stormwall goes in with power from Arlan and starts hitting Behemoth. When he's done Caine opens up with Feat and with a focus or two left he takes out the last jack contesting me.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

In this game I felt I was able to dictate the flow and the when and where the fights happened. I'm a little unsure of how cautiously I need to play Caine himself in this matchup but I think I'll simply have to allow Khador the chance to feat and try and pound him with Behemoth. Even with S&P he needs some pretty crazy rolls to kill me I think.

Playing both Lances on the same flank is definitely the right call. By having them on one flank, Caine in the middle and the Stormwall on the opposite flank Vlad really struggles with where he wants his jacks to go. Outside of feat he has big issues with mobility whereas Caine largely does not (basically only the Stormwall struggles). As long as the plan with the Stormwall is sound Caine is a happy camper. I think the trick here is to kind of force vlad into a position he doesn't want. He could've started pushing with jacks here but he could quickly find himself in a position where he doesn't really want to feat and commit them if he does do so.

I was very happy and satisfied with finding such a powerful play following a huge blunder in game 1. At least I learned my lesson!

Battle Report #248: Caine2 vs Vlad1

:: Prologue ::

I don't get to play Khador as much as I would've liked to, but today I had the opportunity to get in no less than three games! First up was Caine2. Haley2 doesn't like being shot so the working idea here is that if Khador doesn't go arm-skew in their pair, perhaps Caine2 is the drop?

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Captain Allister Caine - WJ: +27
- Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 4
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 27)
- Lightning Pod
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 4
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
- Charger - PC: 9
Gobber Tinker - PC: 2
Ragman - PC: 4
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
Rangers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
Storm Lances - Leader & 2 Grunts: 12
Storm Lances - Leader & 2 Grunts: 12

Opponent:

Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince - WJ: +28
-    Behemoth - PC: 24 (Battlegroup Points Used: 24)
-    Ruin - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
-    Rager - PC: 11
-    Rager - PC: 11
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 4
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 5
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
-    Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

We are playing Line Breaker and Khador moves first. Based on terrain I anticipate him having a hard time attacking my right flag so I skew a little left.

:: Game :: 

Khador runs up.

I put the Stormwall within feat + charge range of Ruin. I reasoned that it would be fine with tanking Ruin to the face as long as Behemoth doesn't get in as well. If I could do that and trade off I'd probably be in a good spot. The left Lances went towards the center while the right Lances set up for a possible scenario move.

Turns out Ruin + Winter Guard support shoot hard enough to just one-round a 'wall when backed up with Signs and Portents. Ooops. Should've taken my time to do the math here. Ruins is basically 4x8 = 32. 5 Rockets add another 25 and that's it. He even has Behemoth. Wow, ok.

So Ruin needs to die and in killing him I need to -not- lose anything else in return. I have no idea how that's going to work out. The Lances on the right can't help out here at all so they decide to go for the scenario pressure anyway. I'm hoping I can trade off to remove all the jacks somehow and get a scenario lead so that we'll have a lategame Caine2 vs the world scenario more or less but even that is looking dicey at this point in time to be honest.

I move up Ragman with Death Field and the Charger on full focus moves in to start hitting Ruin. It takes it down a bit. The central Lances get a charge on Ruin which does a fair bit of damage while the other charges a hunter's marked Behemoth. I follow up with what I have on Ruin but Caine has to help the right Lances complete their scenario play move so Ruin survives on like 3 boxes or so.

Ruin with Signs and Portents backed by Rifles with boosted attack rolls remove my Lances in the center and the Charger. A Rager contests the right flag.

Scenario is absolutely dead but crucially Caine can get an angle to Vlad. This is a serious misplay by my opponent as he's massively up and anything but putting Vlad within 19" of Caine is basically a win. I have no other angles here so I go for him. That means taking out the objective first but that's all ok. I get a ranger within 5" and Caine feats to take him down.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

A very poorly evaluated gambit turns this entire game on its head as early as top of 2. In general drawing out a beatstick with the Stormwall can be/is a good idea as you get a massive advantage in board control and possibly scenario. It fails miserably when said beatstick is able to kill the 'wall though.

In hindsight the mistake is obvious but this is why you simply gotta play matchups. We can't always stop and think about every little thing and calculate all the odds, many of the things we do we do on intuition (or gut feeling if you prefer). In any case it is an obvious blunder in hindsight. It should be noted that I was just barely within 13". This is kind of unnecessary because Vlad doesn't have the focus to fully fuel Ruin if he wants to charge him longer than 13" and still get Signs and Portents.

This game begs the question: If the Stormwall can't be within 15" of Ruin more or less, how does Caine approach it? Can he somehow create pressure on the table so that Ruin within 15" doesn't necessarily matter?

Battle Report #247: Haley2 vs Thyra

:: Prologue ::

After a very long game 1 it was time to go at it again. This time we chose more of a live scenario to see how Thyra might cope with that.

:: 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:

Thyra, Flame of Sorrow - WJ: +29
-    Hierophant - PC: 3
-    Scourge of Heresy - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
-    Blood of Martyrs - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
Avatar of Menoth - PC: 20
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - PC: 3
Vassal Mechanik - PC: 1
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 3
Wrack - PC: 1
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 4
Kell Bailoch - PC: 5
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts: 4
Flame Bringers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 17
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 8
-    Attendant Priest - PC: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Outlast and Thyra chose to move second. I deploy heavily on one side, intending to either attrition or move to a "you-can't-contest-me" classic Haley2 style top of 2.

:: Game ::

Stuff runs up. I expect Ironclad having to take the duty as a contest piece.

Flame Bringers go far behind so as to dodge my likely feat range. Avatar on the opposite flank with Gorman, Aiyana & Holt. Wise from game 1, my opponent Strangleholds the Minuteman.

I proxy-base a possible position I can hold to deny my opponent a contest possibility but it doesn't work: Kell and Thyra with Stranglehold can kill it and it's just not worth it: The PoM position is too passive so I'm better off attritioning. I put TA on the Stormwall, pull everything back and make sure the Ironclad is basically unkillable. The Stormwall puts the hurt on the central beatstick, doing 17 or so boxes.

Now a big advantage of not rushing offensive with Haley2 top of 2 in this scenario is that your opponent has to contest you for a top of 3 move. That is kind of hard here. Thyra goes for a play where she casts Stranglehold on the 'wall twice and it works: I'm stuck. Jacks move in.

Well the good news is that this is a pretty good time to feat anyway so the 'wall can shoot. I pulled the Minuteman back so he gets fully fueled now as well. The pew pew is real and a beatstick dies with a second taking massive damage as well. I clear out the monk and set up my pieces to counter a contest play as best as I can. Ironclad kills Gorman. 2-0.

Flame Bringers do their best to contest. Jacks move in a little following another successful stranglehold (this time following Kiss).

Minuteman + Stormwall shoot down another heavy, Thorn disrupts avatar, Flame Bringers get cleared out and my opponent concedes the game as I move to 4-0.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

As I anticipated the addition of a scenario element that is live made things way tougher for Thyra. The lack of speed, shenanigans and ranged presence combine to allow Haley to do whatever she wants basically and that's what inevitably gives me a win on attrition. 

The Minuteman participated with a lot of damage here and it was interesting to see that if I just held it back I had a tremendous amount of flexibility in terms of where and when I could help out my lines defensively. It was also good to see that the combined firepower I have here is enough to downright murder heavies before they get in. With Thorn for disruption as well the jacks were just never even close to threaten the 'wall, despite 2 successful, consecutive Strangleholds. 

I love that Thyra got a buff but I fail to see how she can be tailored into Haley2 to be honest. 

Battle Report #246: Haley2 vs Thyra

:: Prologue ::

I'm trying to help my regular Protectorate opponent come up with anti-Haley2 lists. Today we had scheduled a couple of games for a Thyra concept. Let's jump right in.

:: 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:

Thyra, Flame of Sorrow - WJ: +29
-    Hierophant - PC: 3
-    Scourge of Heresy - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 16)
-    Blood of Martyrs - PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
Avatar of Menoth - PC: 20
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - PC: 3
Vassal Mechanik - PC: 1
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 3
Wrack - PC: 1
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 4
Kell Bailoch - PC: 5
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts: 4
Flame Bringers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 17
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 8
-    Attendant Priest - PC: 3

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

To start things off we went with one of the most dead scenarios there is: Take and Hold. Largely a choice to see how this played out. I put Haley across Thyra's flag. The idea is basically that I can't imagine Thyra going for a scenario play on my flag and as such I expect him to deploy there and that allows my feat to cover more of his army. He obliges and we're good to go!

:: Game ::

Stuff runs. I am hyper-aggressive with Thorn on the right flank because I want to set up for disruptions and threaten solos. He doesn't really have any shooting so what's to fear?

Flamebringers run up to jam on the left. Kell takes the Minuteman-bait: He aims to get out a lance.

With Aiyana + Holt advancing quite far up on the right flank I want to take them out. I also want to take out the Monk and this is definitely feat turn: Buy the middle, get rid of the support, establish board control. To avoid Haley getting trapped in Gaze from Avatar the Ironclad runs up to block LoS next to the 'wall. Minuteman receives TK + TA and kills Kell -and- Gorman -and- Vassal.

I make a technical mistake on the left and a Flame Bringer survives. That's just bad. I also forget to reform away.

Avatar moves to Thyra's flag. Stranglehold lands on 'clad. Flamebringers kill a lance, jam the other and move up. Thyra hides behind forest.

TA on Stormwall which kills Avatar. Ironclad moves to jam. This is a big mistake as it means giving him up. Haley moves behind the house. Thorn disrupts both jacks and is TK'd away by Haley.

Flamebringers and Thyra kill Ironclad. Thorn nearly dies. Stormwall unscathed apart from a Stranglehold.

I clear up one of the jacks with the 'wall and TK the other away. Thyra has started a crazy Haley-run near my lines so I have to be careful.

Thorn is killed. Thyra moves up behind the pod.

Stormwall charges a choir dude to get some damage on the jack.

Thyra + Flamebringer move to block Haley in.

I TK Haley out of their melee range, TA her and charge the remaining jack.

At this point in time I'm basically home free. It takes 2 or 3 more turns to clear out the rest and win on CP but I get there eventually.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

A technical mistake with the Lances and giving away the Ironclad too easily allowed my opponent to win the left flank by far more than he should've. The resulting drawn out attrition game was unnecessarily clumsy because of this.

I also feel I gave up Thorn a little too easy. I could've had the Stormwall tank more damage I think instead of insisting on disrupting.

Those mistakes aside (and they are quite minor really), I think the list and strategy worked very well. Considering how devastating Haley2's feat could be in Mk. 2 (i.e. you shot up a ton, then feated, then shot up another ton and won the game) I am sometimes wondering like "wtf am I doing?" when I feat like I did in this game. However the way she plays the game now the feat is often more about owning parts of the table. It's difficult to judge but in this game it certainly worked out well. Put tons of pressure on Thyra and bought be a head start in the jack attrition game.

The idea behind Thyra was that the support would be hard to get to and constantly harass/threaten Haley's BG. Combined with Feat it's hard to lock down under Shift as well. In practice I find that it's too slow and predictable for Haley to counter.

Battle Report #245: Haley2 vs Issyria

:: Prologue ::

I'm positive that the Minuteman is one of the best cheap lights we can possibly take vs Wurmwood. He is certainly better than the Firefly in my Haley2 list for example. When it comes to tweaking the smaller points of a list, I like to do it so that I get more utility in the hard matchups. A bigger problem than one might think though is finding the 1 point to make this upgrade happen. I mean really, the list is super tight. It boils down to either Lanyssa, Lances or Ironclad getting the boot. After debating this with myself and my opponent for a while I ended up settling to go without Lanyssa first.

:: 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:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn - WJ: +29
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker - PC: 4
- Hyperion - PC: 36 (Battlegroup Points Used: 29)
- Chimera - PC: 8
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber - PC: 4
- Discordia - PC: 18
Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen - PC: 8
Dawnguard Invictors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
- Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

Same map and scenario and this time Retribution went first. He deployed centrally ish and I skewed slightly right so as to force him to deal with the water. Besides, with Hyperion going right of the objective I can run Stormwall to the left of mine T1 (he can't charge through his own objective) and force him into a tricky proposition: How do you prevent Cygnar from going 3-0?

:: Game ::

Retribution runs up. The Chimera on the right moves quite aggressively up. I tell my opponent that it likely dies there but he reasons that with admonition I can't charge it so he's happy to have it around.

Thorn runs right. I intend to kill the Chimera. An actual advantage of losing Lanyssa is that I get the Tinker which allows Thorn to play more aggressively without my constant fear of losing the Arc Node. So anyway. TK Thorn + Reaction drive into Trench, over 12" away from Hyperion. Dominate Chimera. Minuteman moves up, jumps into the forest for DEF16 and shoots it with 2x boosted POW14s. Stormwall kills it with boosted big gun shots.

As my opponent starts his turn I realize that in killing the Chimera I also gave away the strategical advantage my Stormwall would otherwise have had. Since I shot it I didn't get the 'wall into the position I originally intended to the left of my objective. As such the Hyperion was now free to move up and reliably contest the scenario. Discordia rolled a huge 16 (!) damage on the Minuteman which crippled its movement and the Hyperion was able to follow up and clear it out easily. It shot up Thorn a bit as well and Invictors minifeated for a couple more boxes. Eventually one CRA missed and I moved away to dodge the last shot. Skeryth sets up for the objective next turn.

I figure that while the Stormwall might not be able to get into the Hyperion, I can send in a couple of Lances and the Ironclad and TK them out again. I do this and it loses a little over half its boxes. 2 Lances engage the Invictors. Thorn is repaired a bit by Tinker and is back in his trench. Haley feats to cover the Stormwall moving up (it adds its shooting to the Hyperion combat).

I didn't have focus left for Temporal due to my TK shenanigans. The TK shenanigans here is probably a mistake. If he decides to stand and fight during feat I'm pretty sure he goes down horribly to the 'wall next turn and that is just game right there. In any case this meant that my Stormwall was unable to get within 7" of the Hyperion, which in turn meant it was able to simply backpedal 5" and be outside my threat range. Due to my oh-so-clever triple TK he didn't even tank any free strikes either. Ever felt like you're too clever for your own good? I certainly did.

The idea for me now is to send the Stormwall into Discordia and the 2 Lances + Ironclad into Hyperion again. I figured Hyperion would probably survive but he'd lose all his arcanists (he tried to repair it and thus they were all B2B and vulnerable to electro leaps) and possibly have a crippled cortex or 2 crippled arms or whatever. Even with all systems go he'd be looking for pretty crazy dice to one-round the wall without Concentrated Power. Haley puts up Temporal on the Stormwall and it charges in. My opponent had cleverly placed Skeryth B2B with the objective to get a free strike if I chose to do this, however his dice did not cooperate:

The Stormwall killed Discordia and then it was the Lances' turn to follow up after the Ironclad. To my surprise the Hyperion died despite average dice!

Now I hadn't done the math on this and I was thoroughly surprised: 2 Ironclad charges average 15 damage,4 Lance charges average 20 damage. We get 4 more Ironclad hits on top of that for 16 more damage. The Stormwall shot it at dice minus 8 for another 5 boxes. That brings the total to 15+20+16+5 = 56 boxes, leaving just 8 left. Between impacts, assault shots, the open fist attacks from the Ironclad it's actually not that unlikely to happen.

With this happening my opponent simply called the game, no reason to play on when he is this much down on attrition. I certainly have a new-found respect for my non-colossal damage dealers in this list!

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

The more I think about the Turn 1 move the more I think I walked into a trap. I don't see how the Chimera is that significant here. The Stormwall will rarely be shooting T2 anyway and there are no other prime targets for Blinding Light. I simply don't really care that much about it and, as the Hyperion demonstrated, not having the Stormwall run up diagonally opposite it allowed my opponent to block me out of any scenario plays. I think the opportunity for a 3-0 here is huge and I don't see how Issyria can effectively prevent that without taking big attrition risks.

Having the Tinker follow Thorn was liberating. I have often missed being able to play him offensively in fear of the arc node going down to a lucky spike or column rolled for damage. I don't miss Lanyssa in this matchup obviously because of Arcane Vortex but I'm sure I will eventually.

The Minuteman performed its job well and set up the piece trade and forced out Issyria's heavy hitters which I was able to capitalize on. I actually think it may have survived as well if only Discordia hadn't gone absolutely mental and at that point it would've been painful for Issyria having to deal with.

The big wtf moment of the game was how much damage output the Ironclad and the Lances did on an ARM21 target though. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this and what it means for how I can play these models in the future. A big eye opener for me for sure!

Battle Report #244: Haley3 vs Issyria

:: Prologue ::

The Tree, aka Wurmwood, is a thing. It's time to explore some potential counters. One idea I've discussed with other Cygnar players is a Haley3 variant with minutemen who can jump in and threaten stones and/or Cassius. While I wasn't able to play vs Circle today, you can often rationalize and reason how a list plays in another matchup just by fielding it. As such I played a wacky Haley3 list concept into Issyria.

:: Lists ::

Cygnar:

Major Prime Victoria Haley - WJ: +25
-    Haley Past
-    Haley Future
-    Minuteman - PC: 9 (Battlegroup Points Used: 9)
-    Thorn - PC: 13 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
-    Ironclad - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 3)
-    Minuteman - PC: 9
Ragman - PC: 4
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
-    Charger - PC: 9
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 4
Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16

Opponent:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn - WJ: +29
-    Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker - PC: 4
-    Hyperion - PC: 36 (Battlegroup Points Used: 29)
-    Chimera - PC: 8
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Arcanist Mechanik - PC: 2
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber - PC: 4
-    Discordia - PC: 18
Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen - PC: 8
Dawnguard Invictors - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
-    Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 4

:: Pre-Battle Thoughts & Deployment ::

The scenario was Recon and I got first turn. Now, considering the viability of this into Wurmwood I wanted to see if I could stretch out my front lines and perhaps play the Lances on a flank, much like I often did with Haley3 in Mk. 2. To this end I deployed Trenchers a little to the right and Lances a little to the left.

:: Game ::

Stuff moves up, I summon Past and Future and realize it's now completely within 2" just after I take this picture. Yet another small change. Trenchers make a wide cloud wall connecting with the Fuel Cache. After the picture is taken I also remember my Minutemen (proxied by Hunters). The idea was to force the Invictors to care about these early.

Retribution advances in return. Invictors spread out.

I decide to make a play to try and bait out his feat without it being too disastrous. However I make a mistake as I expose Future too easily to the Chimera. The Minutemen go in and together with the Charger I kill a handful or so of Invictors. Cloudwall is pushed up.

Much to my surprise my opponent does not feat. This ensures that both (!) Minutemen survive and Discordia never gets to spray Future following Blinding Light from the Chimera.

I punish my opponent for not feating: Minutemen kill Elara and more Invictors, I nearly kill Discordia, push the Cloudwall up and consolidate my backlines. I mistakenly thought Blinding Light was spells but it's "only" magical attacks so I should've put up Temporal Distortion here.

Finally the feat comes, but at this point in time neither Discordia (who is inert) nor the Invictors (who are nearly all dead) get to do much work. Hyperion moves up as he has to get into the scenario game. Ragman survives.

So this is a feat turn for me for sure. Now the idea was to have a Lance in reserve so that I could feat them back following Issyria's feat turn and keep playing for attrition. The idea was sound but I had placed Future and the Lance too far apart to effectively get what I wanted: I had to give the Haley unit a Press Forward order to get Past into Hyperion and as such Future needed to cast her spells before I moved her. This ended up having the Lances in a very awkward position. Prime repudiated off Inviolable Resolve, Ragman got up Death Field and I went in with Past. Unfortunately I forgot to load the Ironclad up with focus so it wasn't able to contribute significantly. I took out the objective with it instead of making a single, puny attack on Hyperion because I would've needed Ghost Walk to get in because of the Rubble in the middle.

Hyperion kills the Ironclad but fails to deal with Past.

Issyria is very exposed and Charger + Past take her down.

Victory to the Swans!

:: Evaluation ::

The Wurmwood viability of this list is unfortunately a no from me. The backlines are too crowded to the point where Hellmouth just gets too much work done. Wurmwood is also so tanky that he can afford to move up aggressively, feat and not fear getting killed off.

So: As to the game. Lances were played a little too much like Mk. 2 Lances I think. It would have been better to try and get them behind the clouds as well. With Tactical Supremacy now being after activation instead of end of turn it's a lot easier to set up lanes.

The Minutemen performed well on the right flank but it largely boiled down to my Ret opponent mistakenly allowing them both to get in range of 2 different Invictors. The aggressive run from the Invictors was uncalled for and they could have been 2" further behind without the difference in their position negatively affecting his strategical position.

The Hyperion was painful but I also found that it was unable to get much work done outside of feat turn. Effectively I found I was able to play around it. With better play from the Lances I might've been able to deal with it directly as well. If it goes forward, so does Issyria or else Repudiate and Ragman combine to make it fairly vulnerable.

The Haley3 list has potential but it's not what I'm looking for. It did give me a couple of interesting thoughts and insight but I doubt I'll be returning to her anytime soon. Time will show!

Indian Summer: Post-Tournament Analysis

Indian Summer is over and I had a blast! 6 games against a wide range of lists and factions. Some well known, some less known. Instead of focusing too much on the games I'll try and look at the bigger picture here. Where are we? What is the current meta? Who should we look out for? What Cygnar pairings can I go for?

First of all, Indian Summer was a fairly small event with lots of small, local metas converging for the sole purpose of playing a nice tournament. Before basically everyone switched from Warhammer this tournament had a well-earned and deserved reputation for being a really nice tournament with a great atmosphere and a laid-back attitude. This must also be kept in mind when we evaluate what worked and what didn't here. For example there was only a single Retribution player I believe and he played Helynna + Rahn in ADR. I also don't think I saw any Butcher3's or Vlad1's. I could be wrong on both accounts. Regardless, natural variance like this skews what works well and what doesn't, as always.

So what did people play and what did perform well? The Circle player I lost to in the 5th game took the tournament with a 6-0 record, pairing Wurmwood and Kromac2. He faced Cygnar no less than 3 games, taking down Stryker3, Haley2 (my list) and Haley2 (Stormclad + Trenchers instead of Stormwall). There is no doubt that Wurmwood is a powerful caster and now that the Circle players are figuring out how to build him and get the most out of him (not to mention play him), it's becoming increasingly hard for us Swans. The problem with Wurmwood in my experience is three-fold: You have to be able to deal with Sentry Stones, Stranglehold and Feat. Haley2 struggles with the former two. Don't get me wrong she's not amazing against him when he feats, but her own feat can accomplish more than his given the right situation. The combination of sentry stones buying incredible amounts of space and hiding out a ton of his army and Stranglehold threatening to "Haley2 feat" you makes it very hard to capitalize on her angles.

Apart from Wurmwood, Cygnar did very well. I placed 2nd and a friend of mine, Tor Egil (which I played in Game 4 - battle report is here) from www.playtestedforyears.com took 3rd. There was also a Cygnar player in 7th place with a 4-2 run. In 4th place we had Cryx, an interesting pair of Skarre1 and Coven. I believe the Cryx players will eventually find what works well for them and despite the salt there will be viable builds. Ending up 4th place is of course a testament to the player's skill as well. I believe he lost vs the winning Circle player as well.

The Protectorate was a popular faction but unfortunately didn't do too well. The ones at Indian Summer at least struggled heavily with Cygnar, more notably Haley2. The initial optimism at the start of Mk. 3 has drained away somewhat. Part of this possibly has to do with us swans adapting to a new playstyle for Haley2 as well though to be fair. I have a scheduled set of games against Christian, my regular Protectorate opponent (which I played in Game 1 - battle report is here) on Thursday and we have dojo'd a couple of interesting concepts which are solely made to be played into Haley2. This should be very interesting for both parties involved: The best part about this for me is that if it indeed works, I get to play it a lot and thus have more experience before meeting it in tournaments. Haley2 is a huge problem for Protectorate players and I can assure you that if there exists a silver bullet for them to counter her, they will find it.

Overall I see the control casters being on top. The ones dominating the top tables typically have Fury/Focus 7 or more and very strong abilities. The question is whether a stronger showing from factions like Khador, Retribution and possibly Skorne could have changed this. It's very hard to say and I really don't know, but it's important to remember the other top dogs as well and not just focus on the top X in any one given event.

What's up for me next? I want to start playtesting Haley1 and Haley3. I don't want to change up my Haley2 list just yet. I need more data on Wurmwood (both personal experience and meta-wise to understand what he'll end up looking like) at least before I make a decision. The Haley2 list I play now has been unchanged for a long time now for a reason: It just works damned well where it's meant to. Circle have other problematic casters as well, for example Kromac1, so I'm trying to look at perhaps handling this with the other caster anyway. The aforementioned Haley1 and Haley3 could both be interesting here. Haley1 can deal with Stones by way of GMCA and Stormwall/Storm Lances and Stranglehold through Arcane Vortex. Haley3 has a couple of interesting options against Sentry Stones and I don't think dealing with Trenchers is trivial for Wurmwood. Also Ghost Walk helps against his feat.

In a little less than 3 weeks I'm going to Iron Moot in Gothenburg, Sweden. I'm playing both two- and three list events there and I really don't know what I'll pair yet. I know I'll take Haley2 (shocker). I feel like I understand and play Caine2 and Sloan well enough to at least bring them. If I can manage enough games with Haley1 and/or Haley3 as well in the meantime I could bring all 5 casters and decide from day to day basically what to play. Hopefully I can make a strong showing and get some more answers as to what works, what doesn't, and what I'll need to practice more with towards the WTC and ClogCon!