Battle Report #86: Nemo3 vs Makeda1 (Internal Affairs IX #4)

Last round in the tournament! I face another visiting player - Ole Christian is playing Makeda1. I think that Nemo3 will have a good shot at picking apart the army at range, or force an early defensive feat. Maddox seems more iffy, since Makeda will have an easier time holding the feat until we are engaged.

Artificer General Nemo (75 points)

Objective: Bunker
Theme: Storm Division

Artificer General Nemo & Storm Chaser Finch (Nemo3)
* Squire
* Dynamo
* 2x Firefly
* Lancer
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Major Katherine Laddermore
5+5 Storm Lances

Ole Christian is fit for fight

Archdomina Makeda (75 points)

Archdomina Makeda (Makeda1)
* Basilisk Krea
* Molik Karn
* Titan Gladiator
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Tyrant Radheim
Legends of Halaak
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers
5 Praetorian Ferox
10 Praetorian Swordsmen
* Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard

Deployment

Makeda goes first. He has skewed heavily towards the left zone, so I place Nemo3 near the left zone. I think my Lances will be able to keep him from scoring for a long time.

 Round 1

His models move up. Quicken goes on the Swordsmen, bringing them up to a decent DEF 15, and with Tough from the Mortitheurge to boot.

My opponent has neglected to measure the threat ranges. Three of the Swordsmen are within 22" of the Lancer, so I switch gears, pull Focus from the Squire, and use all my 8 Focus to cast 2 boosted to hit Chain Lightnings at the Swordsmen. Molik might reach the Lancer, but will get into problems with Control Range and won't be able to Sidestep into Dynamo. I am happy to trade the Lancer for Molik and some Swordsmen anyway.

The net result is that 4 of of the Swordsmen die bottom of 1. A great start!

Round 2

Swordsmen move up. Two Ferox jump on the one Lance I set up as sacrifice, but they fail to break the Arcane Shield. Makeda elects to not feat defensively (if she had, I would probably just have backed out a bit).

Everything is in range so here we go. I feat with Nemo, step into the zone, and the army blasts everything it can. Dynamo solos the Titan Gladiator at range (I elect not go go for Molik due to DEF 13 and Intuition greatly increasing the chance of a broken Multi-Fire chain). I kill two of the Ferox, but my main priority is wiping the left zone since everything is so far away. The Legends, a Swordsman and some Beast Handlers survive.

2-0

Round 3

Makeda feats, but has lost too much of her army. I had placed the front Firefly poorly, allowing Molik to side step around and also kill Dynamo. I lose a few Storm Lances but I have a lot of army left.

Again my main priority is to clear the poorly defended left flank, The Legends go down, and the rest of the support is engaged and unlikely to be able to contest. I cast Lightning Shroud on the Lancer and it murders Molik. Good Lancer!

4-0

Round 4

Makeda cannot contest.

5-0

Cygnar wins by scenario!

Post Mortem

My opponent made some mistakes which helped me a lot here. Makeda should have been closer to the center so that she could cover the left zone better. Usually a heavy skew play is dangerous when going first, since your opponent might get some opportunities.

I think that Nemo3 is pretty good in this matchup. Even if Makeda has sick threat ranges, Nemo's shooting threathens further, and Nemo3 feat turn annihilates all these low ARM models. Possibly I would have had bigger problems if he had done a heavier center push and feated - everything would have been covered, and he would have had better scenario pressure.

Battle Report #81: Maddox vs Xerxis2

Last time I played against Xerxis2 was using Siege Brisbane. Time to see if Maddox can follow in Siege's footsteps!

Major Beth Maddox (75 points)

Objective: Bunker
Theme: Storm Division

Major Beth Maddox (Maddox1)
* Squire
* Ironclad
* 2x Charger
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Major Katherine Laddermore
Stormblade Captain
5+5 Storm Lances
6 Stormblades
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Hans is born ready.

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak (75 points)

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak (Xerxis2)
* Basilisk Krea
* Tiberion
* Titan Gladiator
* 2x Archidon
Extoller Soulward
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers
10 Venator Reivers
* Officer & Standard
6 Venator Slingers
Venator Flayer Cannon Crew

Deployment

Xerxis wins the die roll. I know his list can shoot pretty hard so I grab a trench and wall to hide stuff behind.

Round 1

Xerxis moves up. Both the Krea and Xerxis use Force Aura, covering everything I can reach in the + DEF and ARM bubble. That is some solid anti-shooting tech. :D

I Snipe a Charger, Assail the Ironclad and throw Dauntless Resolve on the Stormblades. The Stormblades minifeat and spread out. Hopefully some of them will live and start jamming and killing stuff next round. The sniped Charger does some damage to the left Archidon.

Round 2

Venators Reivers CRA, and Slingers cover some of the blades in acid.

4 of my Stormblades have survived, and I am pretty happy with that. My opponent made a mistake in placing the left Archidon out of the bubble, allowing me to blast it away with the twin Chargers. A couple of the Reivers are within range of the right hand Storm Lances so I charge in and start murdering them. At the end of the turn Tiberion is half dead, most of the infantry is gone, as well as that Archidon. And I haven't even feated yet.


The Ironclad toes into the zone, I think he will have trouble clearing a path with so much stuff in his face. The left flank Lances get Dauntless Resolve now.

Round 3

Xerxis feats, but fortunately I have murdered a lot of his army already. A lot of my stuff dies even so, the right flank Lances are all killed and the last Stormblade falls. My opponent makes a mistake in not using Overtake with Tiberion, it's possible he could have reached my Ironclad and at least dinged it up a bit. I think my Ironclad play was too aggressive, even if it worked.

Now I feat. Tiberion goes down and I do some damage on the Gladiator. I fail to kill the Soulward so no points for me, but it's looking good.

Round 4

The Gladiator and Archidon takes out my Ironclad and Laddermore.

The Chargers and Lances clear out the rest. Maddox camps a big stack.

2-0

Round 5

He kills a Storm Lance.

At this point Hans has almost nothing left and he surrenders. There is no way he can stop me from removing the remainder of his army and dominate twice.

Cygnar wins by attrition!

Post Mortem

Quite a slog. My opponent made a couple of early positioning mistakes which allowed me to get up on attrition. I like that Xerxis2 list, it shoots really hard and also can deliver the pain in melee.

Next game Maddox faces Zerkova!

Battle Report #78: Brisbane vs Xerxis2

Markus "Siege" Brisbane can take 100 points of jacks and play Heavy Metal, so I threw together a Siege list to see whether it could work. I played Siege a bit back in Mk2, and he wasn't that good even then.

His feat looks bonkers on paper - but unfortunately it does not usually play out that way in practice. Using it means either killing a few models and having very little bonus from the feat, or killing nothing and having lots of damage from the feat.

Siege is fairly Focus starved. His gun is great... but firing and boosting a lot with the gun, filling several jacks with focus, and throwing out some spells will very quickly run him dry.

Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane (75 points)

Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane (Brisbane1)
* Squire
* Stormwall
* 2x Defender
Journeyman Warcaster
* Hunter
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Lieutenant Allison Jakes
* 2x Charger
4 Field Mechanics

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak (75 points)

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak (Xerxis2)
* Basilisk Krea
* Tiberion
* Titan Gladiator
* 2x Archidon
Extoller Soulward
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers
10 Venator Reivers
* Officer & Standard
6 Venator Slingers
Venator Flayer Cannon Crew

Deployment

I win the roll. I place the Stormwall so he can hopefully help clear my zone, and later go into this zone.

Round 1

Siege moves up into a Foxhole. Two Slingers get shot.

Tiberion places himself just outside 10" of the Stormwall. Having no speed buffs available sucks.

Round 2

Tiberion's 13" threat with Xerxis forces me to play defensively. I back out the Stormwall, since it would likely be one rounded under Xerxis' feat. Some more Slingers are shot. The Defenders use Explosivo to clear out some Reivers. I make a big mistake by not toeing into the left zone and right zone with more pieces.

Xerxis feats. The right flank Archidon has hot dice and one-rounds one Defender! Tiberion toes into the zone, outside Stormwalls' charge range. The leftmost Charger is shot 4 times by the artillery and loses its cortex. Both zones are capped and my objective smashed by Tiberion.

3-0

Round 3

This is the huge problem with Siege's feat. I must remove Tiberion or just lose on scenario. I feat. I manage to miss both Stormwall shots on 4+, and after that I barely manage to kill Tiberion.

The Gladiator murders my other Defender.

There is a tempting assassination opening for Xerxis. He decides to kill Siege with the Archidon and a Reiver CRA. Siege falls to the last attack... but he is Tough! I roll a 6 and Siege is only knocked down. Bit of luck there. My turn!

Round 4

My Charger clears out his artillery.

I have an undamaged Stormwall, and if I can kill the Gladiator and Archidon, and have Siege live until the next turn, he is big trouble. The Stormwall splats the Gladiator. Unfortunately I am unlucky when trying to hit the Archidon with Siege, and I am left at 1 focus. Junior scoots over and gives Siege Arcane Shield, since nothing on the table can now kill the Stormwall anyway.

Assassination run #2 commences. I have just a single box left on Siege, but Xerxis does not manage to breach Siege's ARM 20. He lives!

Round 5

Xerxis is now standing right in front of an angry Stormwall. GG.

Post Mortem

Terrible matchup for me since his list is so shooting resistant. If he had kept playing for scenario instead of going for some dodgy assassinations I would have lost the game for sure.

I cannot say that anything has changed here from Mk2. Siege just does not have the tools needed to play against strong casters. His shooting volume is too low to play the ranged game, his lack of threat extenders and defensive tricks makes it hard to play the melee game. His feat is good if the stars are right (lots of high armor troops that you can pew pew away), but if the enemy army is low ARM infantry or just a few strong models then the feat does almost nothing.

Back on the shelf with the Major. At least this means I will probably have a 100% win rate with Siege in Mk3!

Battle Report #71: Maddox vs Zaal2

Second Maddox game after facing Krueger2 in my first game. This time it's Skorne and Zaal2. Zaal2 is an amazingly cool Warlock, with the ability to suck in souls and use them for all kinds of shenanigans.

Major Beth Maddox (75 points)

Objective: Bunker
Theme; Storm Division

Major Beth Maddox (Maddox1)
* Squire
* Ironclad
* Stormclad
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Major Katherine Laddermore
Savio Montero Acosta
Stormblade Captain
5+5 Storm Lances
6 Stormblades
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Zaal, The Ancestral Advocate (75 points)

Zaal, The Ancestral Advocate (Zaal2)
* Basilisk Krea
* Cyclops Raider
* Cyclops Shaman
* Titan Cannoneer
2x Ancestal Guardian
Extoller Soulward
Hakaar the Destroyer
10 Immortals
* Extoller Advocate
10 Immortals
* Extoller Advocate

4 Paingiver Beast Handlers

Deployment

My opponent wins the die roll. I try a new deployment pattern to check out how the Captain works. I have never played with the Tactician ability before, but in theory it should allow wave after wave of Blades and Lances to flow through a sea of immortals.

Turn 1

Immortals run up.

I move up centrally, with a mass of Storm Lances on the right flank.

Turn 2

Zaal feats and runs up. A couple of Stormblades die.

And--- it works beautifully. ARM 22 Immortals are hard to kill with leaps, but they sure die fast to POW 18 feated Storm Lances, even impact attacks kill on 8+. Tactician allow Laddermore to go in first, followed by the Blades, followed by a wave of Storm Lances, then a wave of Arcane Shielded Storm Lances, and they all clear a lane for the ironclad that proceeds to smash Hakaar to bits. Zaal2 gets a stack of soul tokens so bigly it can make Skorne great again.

Turn 3

Skorne hits back, and boy do those Ancestral Guardians punch. One of them even murders my Stormclad (almost) single handedly! Even though I lose both jacks, it hardly seems to be enough.

Another wave goes in, murdering all the remaining Immortals and the Cannoneer.

Turn 4

The Skorne army is massively down on attrition. The left Ancestral Guardian murders Laddermore too. 26 points killed by a 5 point solo, he will be getting a post-posthumous medal from his Skorne overlords. Next time I am focusing down these bastards first!

It's all gone, Zaal.

Turn 5

But of course I have forgotten about his Righteous Vengeance! Zaal manages to scoot out, tank some free strikes, kill my Officer on the Vengeance strike, open a charge lane on Maddox, and kill her on the very last blow!

Skorne wins by assassination!

Post Mortem

You did not see that one coming, I guess! Neither did poor Maddox. Well, now I know about *that* trick and shall not fall for it again, and of course why expose your caster when you have tabled the opponent? Such a silly thing to do.

Still looking good for the list. In retrospect the Immortals should have spread out more and not given me so many models on my feat turn, but it's hard to know what lists do when you have never faced them before. No-one expects Cygnar to murder a swarm of ARM 22 dudes, but Maddox can deliver the hurt!

Battle Report #49 and #50: Caine2 vs Makeda2

After playing some Caine2 games against Baldur2 it was time to try the newly nerfed Caine2 into a matchup where he used to rock hard: Caine2 against Makeda2. Hans is running the Skorne forces.

Captain Allister Caine (75 points)

Back to my normal Caine2 list.


Captain Allister Caine
* Reinholdt
* Centurion
* Hunter
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Ragman
Rhupert
6 Rangers
5 Storm Lances
10 Trencher Infantry

Supreme Archdomina Makeda (75 points)

The trick in  this list is Makeda2 using Stay Death on her army of Tough & Steady kitties, either grinding me down or going for an assassination with the crazy mobility (up to 18" non-linear threat, including a 5" jump).

Supreme Archdomina Makeda (Makeda2)

* Basilisk Krea

* Despoiler

2x Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Tyrant Radheim

Void Spirit

2x5 Praetorian Ferox

4 Paingiver Beast Handlers

Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer

Tyrant Commander Hans is ready to deal the pain.

Deployment

I have never played this before, so I dunno. Hans wins the die roll and I decide to skew, maybe get one more turn of shooting.

Turn 1

Cats move up.

I circle left.

Turn 2

Boy do the kitties hit hard. Two Arcane Shielded Lances go down. Tyrant Radheim hits Caine2 hard, but he lives.

I put Grievous Wounds on three kitties and kill them, leaving way, way too many alive.

Clearly I cannot survive the next turn. We shake hands.

Skorne wins by assassination!

Post Mortem

This is one matchup where the nerfs to Caine are super bad! This matchup used to be a walk in the park for Caine2, since he could put Grievous on almost everything and murder a whole lot of kitties. Now that I can only kill around 3 a turn, things have changed a lot.

We talked through the game and clearly I made things a buit easy by going so aggressive and allowing him to jam so hard. We reset and try again!

The next game went exactly the same way. I tried to feat and not use Grievous and try to see how much I could get away just by volume of attacks. The answer: Not much.

Battle Report#30: Caine2 vs Zaadesh2

Today I played against Hans, who wanted to try out his new Skorne list. This list is his planned Cygnar drop, with some good anti-shooting tech.

Hans also has a blog!

Captain Allister Caine (75 points)

Still on the same list.

Captain Allister Caine
* Reinholdt
* Centurion
* Hunter
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Ragman
Rhupert
6 Rangers
5 Storm Lances
10 Trencher Infantry

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh (75 points)

Zaadesh is Skorne's control caster. With Countercharge, Defensive Strike, and a virtually unkillable caster, it has a lot of denial.

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh
* Aradus Sentinel
* Scarab Pack
* Tiberion
* Titan Gladiator
* Titan Sentry
2x Extoller Soulward
6 Paingiver Beasthandlers
10 Praetorian Karax
2 Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Deployment

I win the die roll and elect to claim the board.

Sac Pawn to the Sentinel makes Zaadesh practically immune to shooting, so Caine assassinations are off the table. I decide to deploy to try to deny the right zone with the Centurion, while putting Caine2 and all my punch in the left zone. From other games I have learnt that keeping Caine fairly central is a good idea. I am not confident I can get a scenario win anyway, so my main plan will be to try to attrition him to death.

Turn 1

Trenchers get Heightened Reflexes, Caine takes Bullet Dodger, and Rangers get Stealth. Lances get Arcane Shield. Caine charges forward and everything else runs up.

Zaadesh moves up and clouds. The Aradus Sentinel shoots at the Lances and kills one.

Turn 2

The cloud wall prevents me from charging, but since I vastly out-threat his heavies and he moved rather passively, I decide to just wait with my left flank Lances.

The Soulwards are dangerous and I want them gone. Between a Hunter shot and some Trick Shots they both die, together with the Gobbers and a Beast Handler. Since he has almost no shooting now it seems sensible to use the Trenchers to jam. I do some charges and assault shots and kill a couple of Karax.

Clearing the Trenchers is annoying. Zaadesh kills a few of them, unjams the heavies,  and toes a heavy into each zone. Zaadesh feats.

Turn 3

Lances get Tough. Ragman moves up, Caine2 feats. Tiberion smacks the Firefly and does a lot of damage, but no systems crippled. I remove Tiberion, take half the boxes from the Sentry, and Caine trick shots away all the remaining Beast Handlers. Caine is camping zero, which is too aggressive. I should have 1 to avoid getting single shotted by the Sentinel.

I made another mistake here. Junior is too far away to apply Arcane Shield on the Centurion, which I should have transferred this turn.

The sentinel misses. He needed an 11+ on 3D6 and then 15+ on 4D6, which is a 20% chance to kill me. Camping one focus would bring the chance down to a more acceptable 3%.

The Sentry kills a Lance, and the Gladiator rolls low and scratches the paint on the Centurion. This is looking good!

Turn 4

Time to force the issue. I clear the left zone and camp 1. Rhupert uses Mist on Caine to get his DEF up to 19.

2-0

Hans' Scarabs frenzy this turn. Hans realizes he cannot contest the left zone which will give me an automatic win. His only chance is to kill Caine now. Zaadesh clears a spot for the Sentinel, but the free strike hits hard and the Sentinel loses its Mind.

Unable to boost, he cannot kill me no matter what, and I must get 4 more points.

Cygnar wins on scenario!

Post Mortem

We talked over the battle and agreed that Hans was playing too passive. If he had pushed up further, I would not have gotten such good pressure. Also Zaadesh is unkillable at range. Usually it makes sense for most casters to stay 19" away from Caine, but Zaadesh is one of the casters that can just go straight in Caine's face.

Also, Skorne needs a buff badly. His models seem way overcosted. Tibbers at 22 points? He is not much stronger than my Centurion which costs 17. 14 points for pillow-fisted melee heavies? Mine hit harder for 12.

Crossing my fingers that PP fixes Skorne in January!