Road Trip to GDC 2017 - Day 3

We were still pretty jet lagged. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning. The clouds had disappeared, and we had a beautiful view of the stars and Milky Way. Jørgen took a bunch of photos. My dinky iPhone camera can't take pictures of stars, of course, but I got the sunrise over Monument Valley!

Big black birds were gliding over the hotel.

Breakfast just after sunrise.

After breakfast we drove down to Horseshoe Bend. Jørgen crawled up to the edge to take photos. I did not, just thinking about it made me dizzy.

This is as close as I will get to a 300m drop. It was an incredible view!

This seemed to be a common trick - having a normal car attached to your huge camping car.

We drove by a huge power plant on our way to Page.

In page, we went on a tour into a slot canyon. These are canyons that are really narrow and built up by millions of years of flash floods. These shots are from the bottom looking up.

The canyon is about 400m through. Here I am at the entrance!

We stopped for BBQ in Flagstaff. It was really good. :D

And then, we drove for hours down to Phoenix and got a late flight to San Francisco. It was a great road trip, we got to see quite a lot and drove about 1250 km in two days!

Road Trip to GDC 2017 - Day 1 and 2

Next week is GDC (Game Developers Convention) 2017, and our company Megapop is traveling to San Franscisco to be there in force - 5 people showing off our Trolls vs Vikings 2, our latest game.

I am travelling down a couple of days before the conference with my friend & and Megapop CEO, Jørgen Tharaldsen, for a couple of days of driving through Arizona and Utah. We're flying Oslo - Los Angeles - Phoenix, landing around midnight. We picked up a rental. The one we had booked was a convertible or something. This is what they actually had:

Enough room for both our families in this monster

The plan was to just find a motel along the road to Monument Valley in Utah, but it turned out that several festivals were happening, so we drove for two hours before we were finally able to find a place to sleep in Sedona. We went to bed at 4:30 in the morning after almost 24 hours of travel. Fortunately they allowed us to keep the room a bit longer, so I got a good night's sleep.

Jørgen is a really good amateur photographer and crazy person, so of course he went up at 7 in the morning to drive around Sedona taking pictures while I slept. I woke up to this view of of the hotel room:

Johnny Cash on the stereo, driving through Sedona. This town is very proud of their (probably rather imaginary) magical vortexes, which even feature on the tourist maps. There are places selling crystals and stuff everywhere. While driving we spotted a bunch of people standing on the top of a rock, probably being vortexed or something.

On the road again...

We drive up to a lookout point above Sedona.

Jørgen and the view of Sedona

Yours truly has forgotten his sunglasses

 After driving through Flagstaff we see these beautiful peaks in the distance.

A sign along the road says "Dinosaur Tracks"! Of course we go to investigate. After a little while we find the tracks!

We are getting closer to monument valley. There are beautiful rock formations everywhere. Jørgen is cursing the poor lighting conditions.

Monument Valley itself is breathtaking. This is the view from our room at the rather aptly named The View, the only hotel in the Navajo Reservation.

We had both been looking forward to a nice beer after a long drive. Turns out that alcohol is banned in Navajo Nation. We try out the local tea and some Navajo dishes for dinner, pretty good stuff!

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 #77: Maddox vs Vlad1

I decided to try out a variant Maddox list, where the Stormclad is replaced by twin Chargers. I also replace Acosta with Arlan, since repairs are more useful with multiple ranged jacks. The idea is to bring it a bit of ranged threat at the cost of some melee punch.

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

Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince (75 points)

Objective: Bunker
Theme: Winter Guard Kommand

Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince (Vlad1)
* 2x Juggernaut
* 3x Marauder
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
4 Battle Mechanics

2x Winter Guard Field Gun Crew

6 Winter Guard Rifle Corps
* 3x Winter Guard Rocketeer
6 Winter Guard Rifle Corps
* 3x Winter Guard Rocketeer

6 Winter Guard Rifle Corps
* 3x Winter Guard Rocketeer

Deployment

Vlad wins the roll. I decide to go for a skew and try to dominate one zone from turn 2 onwards.

Round 1

Vlad moves up.

I make two major mistakes here. If I want to play this aggressively, I must commit harder. Also, I should have placed the lights further to the right so they can contest and pressure the right side Winter guard.

Round 2

I am rightly punished for my weak play. Vlad can remove enough models, without committing heavily, to prevent me from clearing the zone.

I have to option of doing a half-assed feat on just a few models, or not. I decide to not feat, but fail to clear the zone. Also, I start to lose points in the right zone. The game is lost.

0-1

Round 3

Vlad kills most of my Lances and I can no longer prevent him from winning on scneario.

0-2

Post Mortem

I skewed too much, and I did not commit hard enough. Vlad1 is strong and the Rocketeers are really scary, but with such poor play I had no chance.

Battle Report #76: Maddox vs Ossrum (Internal Affairs VIII #3)

After getting my well deserved revenge in the previous game, I face one of the strongest lists in the game - Ossrum and the gun bunnies. I always struggle against this list. Maybe it's just me, but I am not sure whether Cygnar has any really good answers. At the best it's an even game.

Well, it's time to put Maddox into something totally overpowered and see if she can do it. I have faith!

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

General Ossrum (75 points)

General Ossrum
* Reinholdt
* 3x Ghordson Driller
* 2x Grundback Blaster
* 5x Grundback Gunner
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
2x Horgenhold Artillery Corps

Deployment

Nico wins the die roll (which is pretty important in this matchup). I see that one side has two nice rocks for Maddox to hide behind while capping, so i take that zone.

Ossrum deploys centrally and I deploy on each flank.

Round 1

Bunnies move up outside all my threat ranges.

I decide to skew left. My game plan is to contest the right zone a bit, while hiding Maddox behind the rock inside my zone. The Blades get Dauntless Resolve, Assail is on the Ironclad, and Snipe on the left flank Lances.

Round 2

Gunbunnies shoot away a Lance. The rest of the fire is concentrated on the Stormblades, and he rolls high! 10+ to wound and no knockdown tough should not die like that, but only two remain standing.

Acosta gets a Righteous Vengeance move and moves into the open, charging a gunbunny and doing serious damage.

Lances flood into the left zone. I shoot at some Bunnies but they all live. I swap Arcane Shield onto the front Lances, but forget to move Dauntless Resolve onto the rear Lances. Anyway, Maddox is camping and behind a rock, at DEF 19 it's going to be hard to land a lot of shots at her.

2-0

Nico is thinking hard...

Round 3

Bunnies have crazy damage rolls again and 2 more Lances die. My Ironclad dies. Acosta is shot after free striking a bunny to death. Ossrum feats.

2-1

The big question now is whether I can clear the zone. Unfortunately, I am not able to do it, and two bunnies remain.

2-2

Round 4

More Lances die to all that firepower. I am now down to only 2 of them. It's looking bad.

2-3

There is only one play for me, and that is to be lucky. Maddox charges in and kills the two bunnies and I score two more points. I know he will probably assassinate me but it's all I have left. The Squire sneaks in to stand behind a rock and stop his scoring.

4-3

My only real hope is that Eyriss will miss on her 6+ shot to strip my remaining Focus. She doesn't, and Maddox goes down!

Mercenaries win by assassination!

Post Mortem

Well played by Nico there, and he also had pretty crazy dice all trough the game. I think my overall game plan was good - start scoring and force him to deal with my feat. Obviously I cannot out shoot that army, so I need to force a pitched battle!

I am now 2-1, and unfortunately I get a bye in the last round. My final standing is 4th place out of 15 players, I am pretty happy with that. Maddox is proving her worth on the battlefield!

Battle Report #75: Haley2 vs Stryker1 (Internal Affairs VIII #2)

After that long fight against Axis I meet my old nemesis from Norwegian Masters again. This time we will not have a bullshit Nemo3 against Stryker1 match, but a real fight! I was thinking about dropping Maddox here, but I want to see if Haley2 or Stryker1 can win this one. And also I have some bad experience with getting list locked recently...

Major Victoria Haley (75 points)

Theme: Storm Division
Objective: Fuel Cache

Major Victoria Haley (Haley2)
* Squire
* Stormwall
* Thorn
Journeyman Warcaster
* Firefly
Major Katherine Laddermore
5+3 Storm Lances

Commander Coleman Stryker (75 points)

Theme: Storm Division

Commander Coleman Stryker (Stryker1)
* Squire
* Stormwall
* Charger
Journeyman Warcaster
* Charger
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Major Katherine Laddermore
Stormblade Captain
5+3 Storm Lances

Deployment

Lasse wins the die roll and puts his Stormwall on the right. My plan is then to clear the left flag and spend my forces capping that area, use the small Lance unit to harass the other flag, and use my Stormwall to physically block him out near the central stone.

Round 1

He runs up.

I Accelerate my Stormwall up and set up outside his Lance threat ranges (mine are 2" longer due to Telekinesis - something that is quite important in Lance on Lance action!

Round 2

I get jammed on the left flank. The Stormwall shoots away two Lances, silly of me to put 2 in range of his big guns. His other 3 right flank Lances move down to pin down the last Lance, nice play there!

Fireflies and Lances have no problems clearing the jam. I do what every Haley2 player must not do, I forget to feat.

1-0

Round 3

His Stormwall is trapped between his objective and the central stone, so he proceeds to just shoot and charge me a lot. My Stormwall is half dead. A pod contests. Lasse seems to be quite confused since I forgot to feat, so he also forgets to feat.

Now I feat, kill the objective and kill more models in that central cluster****.

3-0

Round 4

He can't do much under my feat, but caps the right objective, and feats.

3-1

I cap yet again.

4-1

Round 5

Finally he finishes off my Stormwall, which did an excellent job keeping his entire army busy for the entire game.

I kill the only contesting piece, and win!

5-1

Cygnar wins by scenario!

Post Mortem

Typical Cygnar Haley2 game here, trading pieces for scenario points all game long! I am 2-0 so far, this is going well! :D