Pages

Monday 5 August 2013

Siege vs Grim

It's a battle of people whose armies ignore forests/clouds etc...

Cygnar
Siege
-Minutemen
-Defender
-Squire

Stormguard
Stormblade Captain
Gunmages with UA
Tempest Blazers
Journeyman warcaster
Rhupert Carvolo
Rangers

Trollbloods
Grim Angus
-Impaler
-Mauler

Longriders
Horthol
Nyss Hunters
Fennblades with UA
Fellcaller Hero
Stonescribe chronicler

So we're playing deathclock again and using scenario 1 from SR2013. This obviously means we're not going to be going for a scenario win at all but trying to assassinate each other. To top it off, there's a nice big forest in the middle of the table that BOTH our armies can ignore if we want to. Well, his more than mine anyway. I end up going first. 

Turn 1
-1 focus to minutemen and defender. They both run forward. My tempest blazers run up the right flank, towards his Nyss and Horthol but I make sure to stay out of Horthol's charge range. My ATGM follow close to them, skirting around the zone on the right side. Rangers run up to behind the forest in the zone. Minutemen runs up towards the zone. So does the defender. Stormguards flank the left, followed by the SBC. Rhupert moves up and gives them +1 DEF. Journeyman moves up and casts Arcane shield on Siege.

+His fennblades run up the center. The nyss move up and take pot shots at my Tempest Blazers and damage 1 and kills another. Horthol runs up to engage the tempest blazers. The longriders run up towards the stormguard but make sure to stay out of charge range. Grim moves up and takes a shot at the Rangers but misses. Mauler follows up to the zone, as does the impaler. 

Turn 2
-2 focus to defender, 1 focus to minutemen. I upkeep arcane shield. Tempest Blazers stand still where possible and shoot the Nyss with electro shots. The ones engaged with Horthol shoot him with brutal shots and manage to dismount him. Lots of Nyss die this turn. Rangers move forward and shoot the fennblades, with the aiming bonus they give each other, I kill quite a few of them as well. ATGM stand still and snipe the Nyss as well. It's not easy due to them being on a hill but I still hit a fair number of them. They pass their CMD check. Defender stands still and shoots Horthol, boosts attack and then damage and kills him. Siege groundpounders the fennblades and there are very few of them left. Stormguard run up and try to position themselves so that they can block charges towards the back lanes. Rhupert gives them +1 DEF again. I forgot that Long Riders get boosted attack rolls when impacting so it really would have been a lot better to give them tough. The minutemen runs into the forest. Or jumps into it actually. 
+The fennblades take their vengeance move but it leaves them out of reach of everyone anyway. Fellcaller hero gives the fennblades +2 to attack and they charge the rangers, killing all of them. The Nyss CRA the tempest blazers but have some really really horrible rolls, killing none of them. The Longriders have the most success this round, charging and impacting 50% of my stormguard unit and killing them. Thanks to the Captain, they pass their leadership check though. For some reason, he puts Hero's Tragedy on the fennblades and I point out to him that basically, I'm not going to be meleeing his fennblades at all. 

Turn 3
-Fail assassination run is a GO. He has 3 fury on him but I try it anyway. Siege grabs a focus, gives 2 to Minutemen and 2 to Defender. He moves up, casts mage sight on Grim, feats and ground pounders him. Technically I should have just hit him first and then feated so my defender could use the feat bonus to deal +7 damage to him. I roll low enough that he doesn't transfer. My defender shoots him, boosts to hit and boosts the damage. He transfers this one. I jump the minutemen next to him and use its flakfield on Siege, which was a mistake because it left me in melee with Siege. I roll high enough that he transfers the damage as well, downing the body of the Mauler. Then I beat him with my puny pow 9 fists. This is why you should NEVER go into melee with a minutemen. Stormguards charge and kill the 2 longriders next to them. Rhupert Carvolo gives them +1 DEF again because apparently I haven't learnt my lesson. The captain charges one, finishes it off and then quickworks into another Longrider and damages it. The tempest blazers and the ATGM make short work of more Nyss Riders and Fennblades. 
+This will be painful. I'm fairly out in the open and I'm dry on focus. Granted, I'm still armor 20 due to Arcane shield but still. Anyway, the fennblades take their vengeance move but there's nothing in range to hit. The mauler tries to throw my minutemen away but fails his boosted attack roll. Grim then walks up and casts Rage on 2 fennblades and hunter. He feats and also gives the fennblades cross-country, which is Hunter+Pathfinder. The fellcaller hero gives them +2Mat. They charge Siege. And it hurts a lot. However, I survive with 1 hp left, leaving my opponent very very unhappy. With some good positioning and impact attacks, his long riders wipe out the rest of my stormguard along with my stormblade captain. 

Turn 4
-This is do or die. I upkeep arcane shield. I draw 1 focus from Squire,  give 2 focus to Minutemen, 2 to Defender and upkeep Mage Sight. Rhupert charges the fennblades engaging me and gives +1 DEF to the ATGM. The fennblades then fail their terror rest surprisingly. This frees Siege up. The minutemen activates, jumps out of combat with the Mauler and Grim and then shoots Grim in the back. Siege walks out of reach with the fennblades and then ground pounders Grim. I boost the hit and boost the damage and force him to take a tough check. He passes. I shoot him with the defender, he passes that tough check too. Shoot him with the ATGM, he passes their tough checks too. Shoot him with the tempest blazers until he finally fails. That was 7 tough checks he made in a row. 

Thoughts on game
Next time, I'm going to put tough on the stormguards. While def 15 against charge attacks is nice, it doesn't work as well against Long riders. Or anything with boosted attack rolls or mat 8 and above. 

Also, I got greedy and tried to assassinate him even while he had 3 fury on him, which was a bad mistake. I really should have just flakfielded and wiped out his entire unit of fennblades, which would have severely crippled his army, leaving him with the two warbeasts and me with a minutemen and defender and lots of shooting units. 

Overall, the list works though I'm still not that happy with the Stormguards and may end up replacing them for something else. 

No comments:

Post a Comment