Constance: the Blaizening

I was in IL again recently, and as I said previously I was hoping to help Tmage prep for Hardcore at Adepticon. Also, he said there was a 25 point tier tourney he might play in.

In preparation for these things, I packed my small PACK case with a 50 point eNemo list and a 25 point tier 2 Ashlynn list. My eNemo isn't great and I'm not practiced with either of those 'casters, but I hoped to give my opponent a decent match.

At the last minute he emailed me and said he would be late. I grabbed Constance impulsively in case I got a casual game in. I wound up playing her twice. I guess I just can't stay away. Why can't I quit you, Constance?

I played her as a merc in my first game. It wasn't a great list, as most of the models were cherry picked for other lists, mainly my Ashlynn list.

Army Name: Constance in the bag
Highborn Covenant
35+6 points, 25 models

Constance Blaize +6 points
* Gallant 9 points

Anastasia Di Bray 2 points
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 6 points
* Gun Mage Officer 2 points
** Mule 8 points
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist 2 points
10 Precursor Knights 8 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard 2 points
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord 2 points

Additional Rules

Solos gain Advance Deployment.

My opponent was a cool local dude who I hadn't had the pleasure to play yet, as I waited for T to arrive. His list was Zerkova's new Vanguard tier from NQ magazine, or as I like to call it, "assassins LOL!".

Zerkova
Spriggan
Vanguard
Marauder
Min Kayazy assassins w UA
Kayazy Eliminators x2
Greylord ternien(sp)
Koldun lord
Gorman di Wulfe

The Scenario was Guidons, which can be a whack scenario, but it turned out to be a non-issue. In fact, no points were scored all game.

My opponent won the roll off and decided to go first. He set up his jacks in front of Z with the greylords behind for smoke clouds. Gorman was nearby. The assassins were spread out, some central and some on his left flank. The two units of Eliminators were sent to the two far flanks.



I set my gun mages on the right opposite most of his stealth stuff and within range of his guidon in case I wanted the Mule to shoot at it. My real problem with the Mule is that it's absolutely bananas with Ashlynn and way Meh with anyone else. I really don't like models that can only shine in particular circumstances. The PKs and Constance stayed in the middle of the board, but there was a forest near my deployment that caused me some grief. Gorman took the left flank, Anastasia the right.

I deployed to the scenario but then didn't really play for it, which was bad. Instead I should have played for the enemy (gunmages kill assassins dead) and worked that angle. Also, I forgot how ballbusting Z's feat is.



My opponent advanced and put up watcher. I advanced and put up Transference. He advanced again and feated (no initial ranged attacks for my gunmages, no charging. Sad). He also ran an eliminator into Gorman so that I couldn't toss black oil.

I advanced the PKs in shield wall, kept Constance back, managed to kill a few Kayazy with transference boosts, and gave my PKs terror for command check spam. One unit of Eliminators shat itself. Constance counterfeated. The Mule was ineffectual.

Z's force didn't have a lot of juicy targets, but my opponent did a good job of layering his attacks for maximum effectiveness during my feat (weakest power attacks start the round). The eliminator engaging Gorman missed him twice. Z moved behind the Spriggan. I Lost a lot of knights.

I was sitting on a pile of focus, trying to figure out how best to spend it. After a big feat turn where Constance loses a bunch of dudes she needs to counterpunch hard. I was down to 3 knights, 5 gun mages, and the jacks and solos.

I upkept transference. I had the Piper kill the eliminator engaging Gorman. With the 12 or 13 other focus I wasn't sure what to do. I could probably send Gallant in to the Marauder and follow up with Blaize to finish the job, or move a PK into the Spriggan and have Blaize flashing blade that half of the table.

I decided on the later option. The gunmages killed all kinds of Kayazy. The PKs killed a few with help from transference. The Mule went for a brutal devastation shot at the Marauder (hoping to throw it into Z) but failed. Gallant killed an assassin. Gorman put black oil onto the Spriggan, Blaize charged up. . .and my opponent used Watcher to move the Spriggan away. He'd used it earlier in the turn and mentioned that NOT attacking means the spell doesn't go away, but I hadn't realized that he could watcher move more than once per turn. It was good.

My plan was scrapped, and I had Blaize way up in the mix. Gorman was close to her. He had to die. She fired Sunburst at him, missed, and the blast damage didn't hurt him. Spending more focus was bad. Gorman had to die. Fired again. Missed. Blast damage didn't kill him.

Terrible. Constance was like 5" from Z with 2 focus and there was a Spriggan and Gorman RIGHT THERE.

I conceded.

2nd game I played Cygnar Blaize against T after watching him play a painful battlebox game:

Army Name: Constance in the bag 2
Cygnar
35+6 points, 25 models

Constance Blaize +6 points
* Gallant 9 points
* Squire 2 points

Journeyman Warcaster 3 points

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 6 points
* Gun Mage Officer 2 points
** Charger 4 points
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team 4 points
Captain Arlan Strangewayes 2 points
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist 2 points
6 Precursor Knights 5 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard 2 points

We had to play fast b/c it was late. So we stuck with casters we were comfortable with. T played epic Caine

Caine2
Rowdy
Squire
Reinholdt, Gobber Lumpkiner
Gun mages with UA
Black 13th
Boomhowler and Co
Stormsmith
Epic Eiryss

T's list has a huge assassination threat. Caine's feat allows him to ramp up his pistol attack's damage to heavy warjack or dire troll levels. It's nuts.

I lost the roll but T asked me to go first. We were playing a radial scenario called diversion. The basic idea is that each player needs to control a flag on their right and run a model to contest a zone on the far side of the table. It's difficult to stop the last from happening but not the former.

I parked my gunmages and charger "module" with arlan over near the flag T had to control for points. There was a wall there for cover. Constance, the Squire, Gorman, and the B13 hid behind a building on the opposite flank. The PKs had to work around a water hazard in the middle of the board. Gallant stuck near Blaize. Jr put arcane shield on Blaize and moved into a different time zone.

T put Blur on the gunmages, Heightened Reflexes on Boomhowler & Co, and had Caine take the center. His B13, epic Eiryss, and Stormsmith hid in some woods across from my gunmages. I got the chance to alpha strike on my turn two.

My Black 13th moved up and Ryan got a weird deviation from her Mage Storm, but it blocked line of sight from T's gunmages to them. Lynch and Watts killed a Boomhowler troll twice (he made a Tough roll the first time).

My gunmages managed to kill T's Ryan in the woods, which was both lucky and good for me. I could ignore them for a bit. The Charger killed a Troll and the Stormsmith. Constance didn't do much. Gallant got into position about 10" from Rowdy. I screened him with PKs and Blaize had popped feat.

T did what some players do and ignored most of my troops during the feat turn, instead focusing on Gallant and key solos. This didn't work out for him in the long run. Lynch and Watts failed to kill Arlan. Boomie took the center some more. Rowdy moved up into countercharge position. T's gunmages dropped a massive power 17 CRA on Gallant but only did 4 or 5 damage to him. A lot of stuff just repositioned instead of killing my doods.

I went for the scenario. The black 13th took the flag and Ryan got a BONKERS deviation on Mage storm. T had bunched up his gun mages to CRA gallant, and while I couldn't hit them with blur on them, the deviation was great and killed 6 out of 7, leaving only the dude. The dude abides.

I allocated 2 to gallant and had him kill 3 trolls (only one tough roll made. Killed that one twice). I had the Gunmages and charger kill a LOT more trollkin, leaving only two of them left. Gorman moved up to Black Oil Rowdy. Rowdy pasted him with counter charge. The PKs attacked Rowdy and I ran one across the table to toe into the zone. I scored a point.

T decided he had to go for it. He knew it was a long shot. He dropped his upkeeps, gave 2 focus to Rowdy and had Rowdy tremor to knock down most of the stuff I had screening Constance. Eeiryss went for her shot but missed by being 2 inches out of range. Caine popped his feat, charged up to kill a PK, shot a bunch of the guys who were knocked down to jack his damage up, and wound up with three shots on Constance. All of them hit, but he was at dice-5 because I'd left her on 5 focus with arcane shield for 24 armor. He did 1 damage, and 1 damage, and 4 damage. She had lots of hit points left. He still had the dude, two black 13th, and a couple trollkin to activate, but conceded. Caine was flapping in the breeze.

I told him to make me finish it. I had the PKs move to engage, moved Gallant out of the charge lane (he was down to 3 boxes), and had Constance cast Crusader's Call and charge. She needed 8s to hit, so I could have lost to dice, but she hit. And her charge damage roll with flank was 6 6 6 4. So Caine did not make it. If my assassination run failed I still could have won on scenario I think.

Overall they were two great games that expanded my understanding of more models. I don't think I've dealt much with Kayazy before now, and eCaine commands a chunk of the board with his threat range. It was interesting.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Grayslake, IL