Steamstorm Report - Day 1 - Thursday.

So there we are, Pat Dunford and I, sitting in Gamer's World, Dublin, waiting for other members of the WTC Ireland Team to show up for some practice games. Of course they don't, which means I get to be smacked around by Pat 3 times. Arseholes.

Funtimes!

Game 9/100
eAbyslonia Vs Siege
Opponent: Patrick Dunford
Scenario: Fire Support

This is Pat's second list in most 2-list format tournaments. He's been playing Siege for a number of years, and the list has gone through a few variations, but its current form is very strong! Harlan Versh punishes Legion especially, who rely on defensive Animi and Upkeeps to protect their beasts from heavy shooting threats.

Not a great matchup for Aby2, who really dislikes lists that can sit back and kill all her things without entering her predictable threat. I'll be able to trigger conferred rage off Pat's objective, but that means weathering a feat turn in the face.

Major Markus 'Siege' Brisbane (*5pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Sentinel (4pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Harlan Versh (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)

So many guns :(

Game:

I won first turn and came up aggressively. My plan was that if I'm going to have to eat a turn of shooting, I might as well put some scenario pressure on Pat if I can.

Pat advanced pretty cagily and didn't pull the trigger on his Feat, as it'd guarantee me Conferred Rage and likely only finish off a single beast. He denies me both Conferred Rage and any charges, which is one of Aby's major problems. If a canny opponent with both speed and ranged threat simple plays around her threat ranges, she loses a huge chunk of her power.

My only option here is to throw everything forward, jam as much as I can, and hope he can only kill a single heavy. I manage to catch Eyriss with a Ravagore blast... and she lives. This is huge, she knocks off Fortify and Spiny from my Carnivean, and Pat takes the Scythean and Carnivean with his Feat.

I'm super down on points now and Pat just finishes me off.

Assassination LOSS!

Game 10/100
Absylonia2 Vs eHaley
Opponent: Patrick Dunford
Scenario: Close Quarters

Pat wants to try a double Stormwall Haley build vs Aby, so I indulge his sadistic tendencies. I make a swap, dropping the Ravagore from my normal Aby2 list for a Naga and Protector.

Major Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)

Game:

Of course, the big question is: Can I kill a Stormwall before losing too much?

The short answer was no. With no models that needed to be in Conferred Rage range to ever trigger it, the Stormwalls out-threat me. Pat studiously avoids putting down Stormpods so I can't trigger off them and there's no Objectives for me to cheekily kill. In combination with Feat, I lose two heavies before I'm able to affect the game in any way. My Feat is fine, I put one Stormwall on 10 or so, and the other below half, but by that point I've committed everything to a wild melee, and Stormwall just punches Aby to death.

Assassination LOSS!

 Game 11/100
Saeryn (Fallen Angels - Tier 4) Vs pStryker
Opponent: Patrick Dunford
Scenario: Incoming

Pat's been testing pStryker as a potential drop so we decided to have a "Control Feat vs Control Feat" game. I've found with Saeryn though that she's really suffered since the release of Colossals. Having a model on the table that can shoot an Angelius to death under Saeryn's Feat is really bad, and it's not just Cygnar that can manage it. The Earthbreaker is a particularly egregious model for this, as is Conquest in some circumstances (generally in combination with Ice Cage from some Greylords).


Take Stormwall's ability to shoot heavies under feat, add in Sniped Stormblades, the B13th and other generic shooting, and it's a big problem.

I also have to be wary of Stryker's assassination threat. The ability to simple Earthquake things and apply assaulting Stormblades has caught many players out - once you're knocked down and that Stormblade Gunner hits, it's goodnight for any caster in the game.

Commander Coleman Stryker (*6pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Storm Lances (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 3 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Stormblade Captain (2pts)

Activate anti-Earthquake formation!

 Game:

Turn one I come up the table and Pat advances cautiously again. He's got enough threat that he only needs to advance a few inches, and it's a slow enough Scenario that he can sacrifice a few points to not let me double-alpha him.

Realising his plan, I deploy into an anti-earthquake brick, with Wind Ravager protecting from Assault, Two Angelii and Zuriel (Safeguarded) up front, then Saeryn (Safeguarded) and the protectors covering them with Shield Guards. I put my Harrier in the far, far corner of the Red zone, forcing him to commit something to deal with it and the only things over there are the Lances and Stormwall, which should protect me from them for another turn.  

Pat has to come forward next turn if he wants to stop me getting a free point, and that should let me hit him hard.

Saeryn is in there somewhere!

Pat does come forward and shoot but doesn't achieve a huge amount, then Feats, clears the Harrier with his Stormlances and charges Stryker into his Zone, netting the first point, and gets ready for my counter. I do so, manage to clear the zone with repulses and feat back. 

Eventually I kill his objective to go to 3 points, but then Stormwall finally makes it to the game and this list has trouble, real trouble, with an ARM 22 Colossal. Despite Armour Pierces and Zuriel I just can't get through it and run out of toys, eventually losing on Scenario after I can no longer clear the zone.

Scenario LOSS!

Yeah, Pat's a shark. He's rocking a 90% winrate over his last 150+ games. Let that settle in. He beat me up and made my toys sad. Meany.

Friday morning we fly out to Bratislava to be hosted by The Don at Steamstorm III! Pat is many people's favourite to win the event, but first there's some drinking to be done.

More soon! Thanks for reading!

MORE GAMES - 2

The last 2 games from the weekend, then there'll be a short break as I travel to Slovakia for STEAMSTORM, a European tournament run by Martin "the Don" Hornáček every year. My initial plan was to bring Aby2 and Saeryn's Theme, but it appears I may be without Zuriel - That'd mean falling back on one of our other casters, most likely eThags or pVayl.

But first, the weekend games:

Game 7/100
Absylonia2 Vs Caine2
Opponent: Pat Dunford
Scenario: Outflank

Pat's trying a gimmicky eCaine list which has led to some real hilarity, including Magic Bulleting 8 points of support on Turn 1 and 2 against another poor Cygnar player. I'm playing my Aby2 list from previous posts.

Captain Allister Caine (*5pts)
* Dynamo (10pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
* Sword Knight Officer & Standard (2pts)
Archduke Alain Runewood (3pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)

Action shot!

Game:

Started off quite cagey, with Pat being concerned about Caine getting tagged by my shooting. I actually cast Return Fire here to keep Caine honest - I clearly won't hit him with an unboosted RAT 5, but even POW 8 blast vs Caine is scary for his ARM 13. Return Fire paid off as Holt took a shot at my Ravagore, was just out of range, and my Ravagore calmly rolled an 11 to hit and blew his face off.

Caine is a big swinger though, and the swingiest thing about him is his Feat. Pat's plan was the clear the left zone, by killing the Raek and Ravagore in it, and win on Scenario. Pat's dice truly betrayed him and he rolled 4 Snakeeyes on Feat Turn doing almost no damage to my Ravagore. Then 3 more the next turn after I'd feated and killed Dynamo and mostly everything else.

By this point, Pat had very few models left as I'd feated and killed ALL the things, but Caine was still an assassination threat. He charged my Raek, Gatecrashed into Aby and tried to roll lots of hard 7s (7s to hit, 7s to force a transfer due to previous Magic Bullet related injuries). He got a few,, but left her on 2 boxes. Aby cut for 1, then sliced his face off.

Assassination WIN!

Game 8/100
Saeryn (Fallen Angels - Tier 4) Vs Calandra (Elemental Communion - Tier 3)
Opponent: John Boyling
Scenario: Close Quarters

This list is WACKY and if I played Trolls I'd totally play this. You could have some real fun with each Light Troll, characterising them through small conversions and paint jobs, and despite the list inevitably being multiples of the same model you could really make it look cool!

Calandra (*5pts)
*Runebearer (2pts)
*Pyre Troll (5pts)
*Pyre Troll (5pts)
*Pyre Troll (5pts)
*Slag Troll (6pts)
*Slag Troll (6pts)
*Slag Troll (6pts)
*Slag Troll (6pts)
*Winter Troll (5pts)
*Storm Troll (5pts)
*Storm Troll (5pts)
*Storm Troll (5pts)
Krielstone (max, Leader+5) (4pts)
*Stone Scribe Elder (Krielstone UA) (1pt)

SO MANY TROLLS

 Game:

So I didn't even know what to DO against this list. It's wacky. I settled for the "Kill all the things before you run out of toys" strategy.

John feated early and left an Angelius on Fire and Corroded with 2 boxes left, then Fire went out (HA!) His feat was terrifying. Really. Starcrossed is BULLSHIT. Keeping track of Corrosion and Fire is rubbish. The Stone is complete BS. Arrrrrrrrrgh Trollllllsssssssssss.

I charged in and crippled 5 lights or so and feated. Then we just mushed our toys against each others until I won 5-0 on Scenario by standing on my flag all game. It was a ridiculous grind, with repeated moments of "I befuddle Zuriel out of combat. 3 lights shoot him, he dies, he respawns back into combat". Zuriel died 3 times in this game!

Eventually my Heavies just won out the grind after a failed assassination on Calandra. I will play against this list again, possibly with Aby, to get more experience against it.

Scenario WIN!

Best thing about the weekend is getting 5 games of Warmachine in, and I will do more this weekend! It's getting towards time where I need to get my lists ready for serious practice, and Aby2 is becoming more and more likely!

Next update will be Tuesday!

Current Stats:

Absylonia2: 5 games played (4/1)
Saeryn: 3 games played (2/1)

Faction Stats:

Skorne: 2 games played (2/0)
Retribution: 1 game played (1/0)
Trollbloods: 2 games played (2/0) 
Cygnar: 3 games played (1/2)

WTC Practice - MOAR GAMES pt.1!

More! A weekend full of Warmachine practice, 5 games in total! I'll probably split them into 2 posts for ease of reading.

Game 4/100
Saeryn (Tier 4) Vs Dominaar Rasheth (Tier 4)
Opponent: Keith Boardman
Scenario: Recon

I'm testing a list taken from a great thread on the Legion of Everblight forums as I've been eyeing up the Fallen Angels Theme Force for a while, and this list seems pretty interesting!

Tiers: 4
Benefits: AD on Spell Martyrs, +1 to the starting die roll, +2" deployment, free Nephilim.
Saeryn, Omen of Everblight (*5pts)
* Harrier (2pts)
* Nephilim Bloodseer (0pts)
* Nephilim Protector (5pts)
* Nephilim Protector (5pts)
* Zuriel (10pts)
* Angelius (9pts)
* Angelius (9pts)
* Seraph (8pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Blighted Nyss Sorceress and Hellion (4pts)
1 Spell Martyr (1pts)

It has all the best Theme benefits, but it is fairly restricted. This is not the sort of list you want to be dropping into heavy armour, but it's very strong on fast scenarios and excellent against aggressive melee infantry lists.

Keith has Chain Gang, which should be an interesting test!

Tiers: 4
Dominar Rasheth (*5pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Bronzeback Titan (9pts)
* Titan Gladiator (7pts)
* Titan Gladiator (7pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Paingiver Task Master (2pts)
Paingiver Task Master (2pts)

 

Deployment

Game:

Crocs come up aggressively but a Turn 1 Breathstealer sees one unit slowed, while I shoot a couple of them down. I switch the Battlegroup towards the right hand flag (opposite the debuffed unit) to avoid charges.

Game turns into a slog but I remove both Agonisers on my Feat Turn, which allows me to armour pierce and Zuriel the big elephants down. Once that's done Rasheth is out of toys to play with, and eventually gets pierced.

Assassination WIN!

Game 5/100
Saeryn (Tier 4) Vs Haley2
Opponent: Pat Dunford
Scenario: Destruction

 I volunteered as tribute to play versus Pat, who is an exceptional Haley2 player. His list as below:

 Major Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Storm Lances (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 3 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (3pts)
Anastasia di Bray (2pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Stormblade Captain (2pts)

Bottom of 1 - Saeryn's Turn.

Game:

I lose the roll to go first and Pat comes forward aggressively. I create a screening wall out of the light Nephilim and spread my heavies to try and avoid having them all feated on. Breathstealer hits the Stormlances to stop the assault on Turn 1. Pat's feat removes all 3 lights and catches everything except my support and a single Angelius who's in a poor position. I counter-feat but Pat's able to remove an Angelius through shooting and eventually gets a kill on Saeryn.

Not the best game. Pat's eHaley games are often brutally one-sided - just ask some Irish Masters Bradgius players for corroboration! More experience with the Saeryn list would've seen me do better, but there's too many high-power, auto-hitting (and Deadeyed!) guns for this to deal with.

Assassination LOSS!

Game 6/100 
Absylonia2 Vs Haley2
Opponent: Pat Dunford
Scenario: Two Fronts

Playing against the same list, I wanted to try Absylonia into it this time, to see how it went.

Top of 2.

Game:

This one was better, but not great. I basically armoured up, spread out so not too much would get blinded in a single bomb, and tried to weather the Storm.. lances. One Raek was exceptional, holding the Nyss off for most of the game. Haley's feat saw him take no heavies, but engage everything at reach. My next turn does very little as he doesn't engage the Scythean. On Pat's next turn, he doesn't kill a heavy, then Anastasia gets TK'd, triggers espionage and the extra moves finish off both my Scythean and Carnivean, despite being ARM 22 and ARM 20 respectively. Aby also gets blinded.

I actually get a turn now and between the Ravagore, Absylonia, the Seraph and a Raek, I clear a huge number of models. Aby's Feat and Conferred Rage are really quite great. Aby kills a Stormlance despite being blind. The Stormclad dies to my Ravagore, the Lances lose 3/5 and break, the Seraph kills Gorman and 3 Stormblades, the Raek goes and kills 5 Blades. 

Unfortunately I have no way of killing Anastasia. Pat's retaliation is weak as the impetus is with me now, but double attack and moves are still too strong and he puts Aby in the dirt with a couple of attacks.

 Assassination LOSS!

That's it for Part 1!

Current Stats:

Absylonia2: 4 games played (3/1)
Saeryn: 2 games played (1/1)

Faction Stats:

Skorne: 2 games played (2/0)
Retribution: 1 game played (1/0)
Trollbloods: 1 game played (1/0) 
Cygnar: 2 games played (0/2)