New Dominion Expansion: Empires

We don't only play miniature games! Here we are trying out Empires, the most recent Dominion expansion.

Empires!

First impressions are really good. The cards are interesting, and the two new mechanics are great.

Debt allows to you to take a card now and pay later, which is cool, but not really game-changing.

The other one, Landmarks, is an even cooler version of the Event cards. These cards globally change every player's win conditions. You might get extra points for each card you trash during the game, or lose points for having single copies of cards.

There might have been an infinite number of possible Dominion setups before, but now it's even infinit-er!

Battle Report #8: Caine2 vs Gunnbjorn

Boy has Gunnbjorn gotten a boost in Mk3. No ranged damage on feat turn is a pretty good deal! We'll see how the firefight turns out.

Captain Allister Caine (75pts)

I have changed by list slightly, removing the Storm Tower that was always out of Pod range, and adding in my lucky Gorman for some more anti-armor.

Captain Allister Caine (+27)
- Reinholdt (4)
- Stormwall (39)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
- Firefly
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (4)
Gorman (4)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (5)
Lanyssa Ryssyl (3)
Ragman (4)
Rhupert (4)
6 Rangers (9)
6 Trencher Infantry (10)
- 2 Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier (4)

Captain Gunnbjorn (75pts)

The Dhunian Knot is new to me. Really nice ability to give out all those rerolls!

Captain Gunnbjorn (+28)
- Mountain King (36)
- Dire Troll Bomber (19)
- Winter Troll (8)
Lanyssa (3)
Feralgeist (1)
Pyg Bushwhackers (15)
- Officer & Mortar (5)
4 Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes (6)
- Stone Scribe Elder (3)
Dhunian Knot (6)

I need to place Lanyssa closer to the action.

Turn 1

I move first, move up and dig in with the Trenchers. Arcane Shield goes on the Stormwall and Bullet Dodger on Caine2.

Moving up

Mats shoot away a Trencher and a couple of Rangers, and puts some boxes on the Journeyman. Gunnbjorn saves his feat for later. Maybe a mistake? His front line will die now.

Trolls take some potshots 

Turn 2

I use my Rangers And Trenchers to clear out the Bushwhackers. The Feralgeist gets shot my Caine. Lanyssa gets podded after trampling up with the Stormwall. A good alpha, I think. If I can now only resist doing any janky assassinations this will go fine.

Pew pew pew pew pew

My opponent is wondering whether he can kill Caine. He has some sprays but I am camping two, looks dodgy.

I always hate seeing templates over Caine

It does not work. Unfortunately I lose Ragman to a Bomber.

Turn 3

I make a poor decision here to go for the assassination (always so tempting!) I cannot shoot Gunnbjorn but I need to clear one single troll and electroleap away the Stone, and then I can land both the Stormwall and the Firefly and start hitting him. It should be 7 attacks
 + seven Trick Shots off my own Firefly, and he's sitting at only two fury. Easy peasy, no?

I blind Gunnbjorn with Gorman and move in with the Firefly. That one damn troll in front makes like 7 tough checks in a row. I have to spend all my Firefly attacks and all of Caine's focus to clear two models (!!!). In addition my Stormwall charge attack misses. Gunnbjorn lives!

I charge the Mountain King with my Trenchers and do quite a lot of damage, and think I place stuff so that he cannot reach Caine easily. But, I did not remember Bulldoze on the Mountain King. I think Mats told me, but I forgot.

Caine2 is not in a good spot.

The Mountain King walks up and with some Dhunian Knot aid he hits on two 12+ attacks. 2 strikes, and Caine is out!

King takes Gunmage

Post Mortem

I really need to learn to play for attrition with Caine. I'm still in Mk2 mode, it seems!
I had a great start, and I could just have started hammering his Mountain King with my Stormwall. Even if the King had lived, it would have been nearly impossible for him to kill my Stormwall with Arcane Shield up.

Painting: Stormwall

I was looking through my unpainted models in order to sell off stuff that I was unlikely to use in the near future. Guess who I found at the bottom of a drawer? I could not even remember buying this dude.

Every time I say I do not play with a Stormwall or Storm Lances, Jarle looks at me sadly. I am pretty sure he is thinking about whether I have brain damage and if it's best to get help, run away, or just stay really really quiet.

Well, I better get this dude done before they stage an intervention.

Step 1: Primer.

Basecoat from Army Painter. Fairly expensive but this stuff is great.

Step 2: Basecoat

First, I threw all my GW and PP metallics in the garbage and bought a set of new ones from Army Painter. I lie, I always recycle.

I am keeping the color scheme from the rest of the army. Since the model is so large I am alternating the colors of the different sections more than I do for smaller models.

• Blue body: PP Cygnar Blue Base
• Purple body: PP  Non-Covering Purple, I Must Buy A New One
• Grey body: PP Ironhull Grey
• Steel is AP bluegrey base first and then AP Gunmetal
• Bronze is PP Brown mixed 50/50 with AP Bronze
• Insignia: GW White first, 3 Layers PP Non-Covering Sunburst Yellow
• Coils: PP Arcane Blue

Step 3: Shade and highlight

All layering and some blends, using brushes. I like to have a popping cartoony look to my models, though after spending 14 hours painting this guy I can understand why people buy an airbrush.

• Blue body: Black + Blue -> Blue -> Blue Hightlight -> GW Light Blue
• Purple body: Purple -> Purple + Light Grey
• Grey body: Grey -> Light Grey
• Steel: Black ink wash -> Gunmetal+Silver -> Silver
• Bronze: Bronze -> Bronze + Silver, Dark Brown lines
• Insignia: Blended edges with Orange
• Coils: Arcane Blue + White

Grass is AP Tuft and the stones are from my driveway.

Front

Back

Side

Step 4: Get murdered by the Protectorate

Paint sure does not protect against poor positioning.

Battle Report #7: Caine2 vs Severius1

Today I face the Protectorate again! My opponent, Christian, has Severius1 and Harbinger as his pair. I have Caine2 and Haley2. He does not want to drop the Holy Piñata since Caine2 counters her healing ability. I think the correct pick here for me is Haley2, but I wanted to have more newly painted Stormwall fun with Caine2. Anyway, playing worse matchups is better training. Even if he can set all my stuff on fire (spoiler: All my stuff gets set on fire).

Captain Allister Caine (75pts)

I have changed by list slightly, removing the Storm Tower that was always out of Pod range, and adding in my lucky Gorman for some more anti-armor.

Captain Allister Caine (+27)
- Reinholdt (4)
- Stormwall (39)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
- Firefly
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (4)
Gorman (4)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (5)
Lanyssa Ryssyl (3)
Ragman (4)
Rhupert (4)
6 Rangers (9)
6 Trencher Infantry (10)
- 2 Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier (4)

Grand Scrutator Severius (75pts)

Grand Scrutator Severius (+28)
- Blessing of Vengenace (13)
- Hand of Judgement (18)
- Reckoner (16)
- Redeemer (11)
2 Allegiant of the Order of the Fist (6)
Vassal of Menoth (3)
Vassal Mechanik (1)
Wrack (1)
4 Choir of Menoth (4)
2x3 Deliverer Sunburst Crew (10)

Deployment

He winds the roll and wants to go first. There is a trench on one side. I want that sweet, sweet trench to avoid blasts on Caine and Junior.

Turn 1

He moves up. Monks go left and right. Severus hides far away.

I want to remove a Monk. I trample with Stormwall and drop a Pod within 4" of the right hand Monk. The Firefly moves up and fries the Monk by leaping off the Pod. It is but not enough. GMCA uses Shadow Fire on Stormwall to give Caine sight of the Pod. He tricks shots the Monk away.

Armies looks menacingly at eash other

Turn 2

The rain of fire begins. Junior gets hit but survives with 1 box. Caine starts burning but takes minimal damage. Severus camps 6 focus - something tells me my opponent has played against Caine before...

Caine keeps burning, which costs me a focus to prevent damage. Some more infantry gets incinerated.

I am most worried about his Arcnode. Spells into my backline + all the AOEs sounds really bad.

First, the Rangers and Trenchers clear most of his infantry.

The Gun Mage flares Blessing. Stormwall gets magic weapons and pumps a couple of shots into it. Caine feats and starts shooting. Rolls are crap and I keep missing both the shield and the Arcnode, so I end up spending all my shots and focus before I take it out. I stand in a trench, with Bullet Dodger, but still... 5 boostable AOEs... I am not feeling safe at all.

The assassination run begins

Turn 3

The temptation is too large and he goes for the kill. Both the Sunbursts, Reckoner and Hand of Judgement start firing at Caine2. I take little damage until the Reckoner clips Caine with the first shot. He needs a 17 to kill me and dice come up 5-6-6. If he had rolled less I would have dodged into a position where he would have had a hard time hitting me. Anyway, I have only myself to blame, this was all totally avoidable.

Cygnar loses by assassination!

Post Mortem

My biggest mistake was that I could have placed the Firefly and the Stormwall to hide Caine from direct line of sight. There was no reason to have any openings there at all!

I should have had better spacing overall and worked harder at keeping easy to hit stuff away from hard to hit stuff.

Except for that I think my tactics were good. My opponent agreed that feating away the Arcnode was the best play, It's crippling for Sevvy to not be able to cast his offensive spells.

Battle Report #6: Caine2 vs High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza

I am facing the Protectorate and a wall of jacks. I probably would try to avoid dropping Caine2 into Geir's wall of synergized iron, but I want more Stormwall practice!

Captain Allister Caine (75pts)

Captain Allister Caine (+27)
- Reinholdt (4)
- Stormwall (39)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
- Firefly
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (4)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (5)
Lanyssa Ryssyl (3)
Ragman (4)
Rhupert (4)
6 Rangers (9)
6 Trencher Infantry (16)
- 2 Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier (4)
Stormsmith Storm Tower (4)

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza (75 pts)

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza (+29)
- Hierophant (3)
- Devout (9)
- 4 Crusader (40)
- 2 Templar (30)

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist (3)
The Covenant of Menoth (4)
2 Vassal Mechanik (2)
Vassal of Menoth (3)
2 Wrack (2)

2x4 Choir of Menoth (8)

Deployment

OK, this looks bad. I don't have nearly enough armor cracking to deal with this stuff. My plan will be to try to remove his support with Caine to hopefully reduce the effectiveness of his army. Also I will try to use my Trenchers and Heavies to jam him as much as possible, maybe buy me an extra turn. But -  6 heavies? Haley2, where are you when I need you!

Deployment 

Turn 1

Amon moves up outside my threat range, I do the same. Nothing dies. The armies stare menacingly at each other.

Add caption

Turn 2

Wall of jacks deploy in the center. So many jacks... in a straight line... right near my Stormwall... whatever can we do about that? :D

Ready to engage the jackwall in the centre

A Ranger peeks around the jack wall and picks off a Vassal, and the GMCA shadow fires the center jack to give me vision of all the support.

Caine moves up and does what Caine does best - he shoots away the entire right flank Choir, the Mechanic, and one more support model (the Hierophant? Not sure). The Covenant is an excellent Trick Shot target, guaranteed to not die before I have bounced off him 5 times! He then Gate Crashes behind the objective. I think he is safe but boy am I wrong.

I move my Firefly up and do little damage.

Stormwall moves up and pods 3 of his jacks, disrupting them. It then punches a Templar to death with focus from Arlan and Death Field from Ragman. The Trenchers charge but do not do a lot of damage.

Chaaaarge!

Turn 3

I have forgotten about Trample and Parry! I should have placed some models to make it impossible to land before Caine - but I have not.

Amon builds up the Synergy chain. The Firefly dies in three swings. My Stormwall is left at 11 boxes. And then, a Templar tramples up to Caine. It has only 2 focus now, of course, and can only buy one boosted attack. Luckily the Templar is outside Synergy range now!

He takes the swing, it connects, but with 1 Focus camp Caine survives at 7 boxes.

Trample and Swing

Looking at the board it seems clear that I cannot kill his jacks and win on attrition. The next turn I would surely see the Stormwall dead, and then I have nothing,

Amon is within 19" of Caine, but behind a rock and a light jack. But, there are other ways to get at him rather than shooting at him directly.

The Stormwall runs across the wall and lands barely within 4" of Amon. He pods Amon for 3 damage.

I count the shots and focus, and give Reload to Caine.

Moving out of melee with the Templar will give a free strike on Caine at 9+ on 2 dice, and I see no way to avoid it. I cast Bullet Dodger on myself to increase it to 11+ and walk out... and he swings and rolls a 9. Good call! One boosted swing from that dude would probably have turned Caine into mincemeat,

Caine then starts firing Tricks Shots off the Stormwall into Amon. Amon dies while Caine still has two rounds in the chamber!

The shots, so trick.

Yes we Caine! Cygnar wins on assassination!

Post game thoughts

This is a hard matchup for Caine. My list is focused against warrior spam and cloud walls, with some armor cracking thrown in. Amon's army is exactly the type of list I do not want to face. I would much prefer dropping Haley2 into this.

Maybe I should have had Bullet Dodger on Caine from the beginning instead of Heightened Reflexes, but I was worried about any possible throws, they are so hard to spot. Come to think of it is hard for him to follow up the throws with anything, so maybe I was worried about nothing.

Possibly Amon was too far forward here, but on the other hand he cannot be further away and still fuel the Synergy chain. He can have Synergy up, though, do the attacks, and then back out for 1 turn.

Thanks to Geir for a great game!

I love his high contrast color scheme, very nice for the tabletop. When the army is finished is going to look amazing.

Rule blunders

I forgot to add in all bonuses from Ragman and Firefly when doing my attacks.

The Lightning Pod needs to damage to disrupt. It would have been POW14, but still it's very possible I would not have disrupted all three of his jacks.

I see that I had changed the list back and forth so many times that I had not noticed I had put in Min Trenchers in the list, but put Max Trenchers on the table. As the games developed the amount of Trenchers did not matter, but still, got to be more careful!

Battle Report #5: Caine2 vs Rask

Rematch time against Halvor! After my sad loss on scenario against Rask I was ready for revenge. I am currently painting my Stormwall, and I wanted to take it for a spin. Yes, I am actually a Stormwall virgin, and even if it's my first time I am sure Rask will not be gentle with me.

Captain Allister Caine (75pts)

Captain Allister Caine (+27)
- Reinholdt (4)
- Stormwall (39)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
- Firefly
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (4)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (5)
Lanyssa Ryssyl (3)
Ragman (4)
Rhupert (4)
6 Rangers (9)
6 Trencher Infantry (16)
- 2 Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier (4)
Stormsmith Storm Tower (4)

Rask (75pts)

Rask (+27)
- Backhide Wrastler x2 (32)
- Swamp Horror (14)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (17)
Bog Trog Mist Speaker (4)
Lanyssa (3)
Maximus (4)
Saxon Orrik (4)
Farrow Slaughterhousers (11)
Gatorman Bokor (11)
Swamp Gobbers (2)

Deployment

I put my Stormwall up the centre with the goal of preventing him from daring Rask to stand anywhere near his flag. Solos spread out

Turn 1

I win the roll. Since Rask has no shooting I decide to go first and run like an idiot. Fire for Effect goes on GMCA, Arcane Shield on Stormwall, and Caine puts Heightened Reflexes on himself, since I am most worried about throw shenanigans. I can't wait for PP to fix those laser guided missile throw rules.

Invisible Rangers move up

 I makes spaces in my front line to give space for the solos to move.

Purple Cygnar are in position

Fairly passive play by my opponent. Rask feats in turn 1 and keeps mostly outside my threat ranges.

Rask moves up, but not very far

Turn 2

I can't do much under the feat. I drop a pod outside the Storm Tower's range. But hey, why premeasure when you can herp derp. Rangers move up and shoot a few Shamblers and I pick off a Slaughterhouser. Covering fire goes down to pin his infantry in. Rangers get Tough from Rhupert.

Waiting for the alpha

Tactics discussion about whether feating turn 1 is good or not

Gators go! The Swamp Horror tramples in, and it and the Wrastler and Maximus clean off some Trenchers and Rangers. Again a bit passive, I feel. Don't give me any more shooting turns than strictly necessary!

Turn 3

Some infantry died

But worse, Rask is 16" away from Caine. The assassination run seems almost impossible to fail.

Within 19" of Caine2? Oh yes.

Rangers move up to Mark Target on Rask. GMCA puts Flare on Rask, so that's +4 to hit. Caine feats and moves up, using Trick Shots on Rask to clear out his sacrificial Bog Trogs at double time.

Rask dies while Caine2 still has 3 rounds in the chamber.

I had forgotten about the Bog Trog sacrifice, actually! It did not come up in the previous game since I never went for Rask then. Halvor was kind enough to allow me to take the Trick Shots I should have had, but even without those three I had plenty shots left, and all the shots from the Stormwall to go.

Yes we Caine! Cygnar wins on assassination!

Post battle thoughts

I had explained how Caine2 works before we started the game, but the Caine2 usually has to be seen to be believed.

I am sure that Rask has game into Caine2, but I think he must play much more aggressively. His melee threat ranges are way longer than mine. Rask must move up and force the issue, he cannot give me extra turns of free shooting stuff.

I have game here due to my 19" threat keeping Rask away, but if I lose my Stormwall I will have great problems dealing with any armor. There is no armor cracking plan B in this list.

Rules errors

It got pointed out to me later that Rask's Call to Sacrifice doesn't work against Caine's Grievous Wounds shot, since it's a remove damage ability. Thanks Nicholas!

Battle Report #4: Haley2 vs Magnus2

This was a rematch, after playing half a game with Amund a few days ago. I had to leave early the previous time to have dinner with my mom. The Swans are always nice and polite to their mother, you know.

Haley2 Rookie Squad (75 points)

List is unchanged from the previous game.

Haley2 (+25)
- Squire (5)
- Defender (16)
- Ironclad (12)
- Thorn (13)
Journeyman Warcaster (4)
- Firefly (8)
Jakes1 (4)
- Thunderhead (20)
Arlan (4)
Ragman (4)
6 Trenchers (10)

Magnus the Warlord (75 points)

Lots of armor, and very hard to kill Trenchers.

Magnus the Warlord (+28) "The Kingmaker's Army"
- Renegade (10)
- Vanguard (11)
- 3 Nomad (33)
- Talon (7)
- Mangler (15)
Kell Bailoch (5)
Orin Midwinter (0)
10 Trencher Infantry (16)
- Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper (5)

I knew from the previous game that he had a grindy list with 6 jacks and feign death Trenchers. and Magnus2 has a very good feat, though not as good as Haley2! I have slightly better threat ranges, so my plan is to get Haley2 on the flag and start scoring, while taking the alpha, feating, and then win the game on attrition.

Deployment

I put Haley2 near my flag and sent my army up against the center zone.


Being wary of my Thunderhead, Magnus deploys his Trenchers on the other flank and has a row of jacks in the center. Magnus2 is ready to capture his flag,

Deployment done

Turn 1

I win the roll and elect to go first. I cast Deflection, and cast Telekinesis on the Ironclad and Thunderhead and run up. Trenchers choose to dig in, since he cannot really threaten my solos his first turn.

Haley2 zooms up the field

Magnus moves up and clouds.

Wall of Smoke deployed

Turn 2(a) - Alternate Reality Version

Magnus has moved slightly out of Escort range and is a sitting duck at ARM 16 and 2 focus. We use proxy bases and do the Defender + Firefly + Temporal Acceleration Thunderhead assassination run. It's solid, Magnus dies. We revert the moves, place Magnus closer to his jacks, and continue the game.

Turn 2(b) - What Actually Happened

I engage. I feat and start casting Telekinesis to move his jacks into the clouds so I can get to them. He cancels 2 of these casts with Orin Midwinter. I cast Telekinesis on the Vanguard and kill it. Thunderhead and the other jacks kill most of the Trencher frontline. 2 Trenchers feign death.

Half of Magnus' Traitor Trenchers die

Less than I wanted, but still OK. At least I am quickly running Orin out of Vortexes.

Magnus counterfeats, catching a few of my models, and moves his jacks to be outside 4" of my jacks.

Kell snipes away the arcnode on Thorn, trying to prevent me from casting Telekinesis on his jacks without exposing Haley.

We both score on the flag.

Score: 1-1

Turn 3

I move Thorn back, moving Arlan who is outside the feat up, repairing, and then Arcing Telekinesis on the jacks. Thorn moves away so Kell cannot hit him twice. Thunderhead and the Ironclad kills one and a half heavies. I am well up on attrition.

2 Jacks down, 5 to go.

We both score on the flag again

Score: 2-2

My Ironclad gets killed in retaliation by the Mangler and a Vanguard, and a damn Trencher stops me from scoring on the flag,

Hey, who cast Blur. Someone is cheating for sure.

Score: 2-3

Turn 4

I have to be careful now, to make sure he cannot score two more points. If I do not contest I lose.

The Firefly and Defender murders the second Nomad and the Mangler. Thorn disrupts all remaining jacks except the far away Renegade, preventing any real retaliation.

Junior takes one for the team

I have to sacrifice Junior to stop him from getting to 4 points. This time I remember to move Jakes away behind the clouds, since he cannot safely end up within 8" of Thunderhead.

Junior gets murdered by the Talon and the Firefly goes inert.

Stuff runs into the zone to contest, but it cannot be enough to hold it.

Orin's time to play the hero

Turn 5

I clear the zone with a Thunderhead Pulse and a Telekinesis.

I then get both the Firefly and Defender in range to contest his flag. He does not have an assassination in Haley, and not nearly enough models to score again. There is no way for him to stop me from scoring and winning.

Magnus' army is gone and he won't be able score again

Score: 4-3
Amund resigns - Cygnar wins!

Post game thoughts

I was happy with how I played this game, no major mistakes, even if I still play much too slowly. I think the matchup is in my favor.

I still need to work on Trencher positioning, so that I can move all my jacks around but still keep clouds up for all my frail warcasters.

I need to keep an eye out for that Kell, if Thorn is within 14" of him he gets almost certain arc node removal.

Amund was very unsure about how he could get a win here. He cannot catch my army without putting Magnus2 far up, but then he cannot score on scenario for two turns, which would be  lethal.