I decided that if I play hardcore I want a light model count, which means a lot of warjacks or warbeasts. Further, since my Trollblood and Mercenaries collections are still light, I should go with my main faction, Cygnar.
Now, if I'm going 'jack heavy (and/or with heavy 'jacks) Cygnar doesn't have a lot of warcasters who support that build. Don't get me wrong, Commander Douche can help, and Captain SloMo is still a ball buster under any circumstance, but fueling warjacks with focus takes. . .well, focus. That really leaves only a few options in Cygnar:
Warcasters with "focus multiplier" spells or feats. Captain Darius has Full Throttle which gives all his 'jacks boosted melee attacks, and Captain Kraye has Guided Fire, which gives all his 'jacks boosted ranged attack rolls. Kraye's feat also gives his 'jacks boosted melee attacks. Kraye ALSO gives his warjacks some cool cavalry rules.
I don't own either of these warcasters.
Focus in spades: Haley2 has the most focus in Cygnar, but she also likes to spend it, and I don't own her either. Nemo1 has a big focus stat and he can gain extra when models cast spells in his control area. He also has a couple great 'jack buff abilities. He's fragile as a kitten though. Lastly, Nemo2 is still fragile, though less so, and his feat gives all his 'jacks 3 focus, which is quite a focus multiplier if he has a lot of 'jacks.
I decided to try Nemo2.
My plan was to abuse the sweet abilities on Cygnar character 'jacks.
My list was:
Army Name: Tonnes Of character
Cygnar
50+6 points, 14 models
General Adept Nemo +6 points
* Gallant 9 points
* Ol' Rowdy 9 points
* Thunderhead 12 points
* Triumph 11 points
* Squire 2 points
Journeyman Warcaster 3 points
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team 4 points
Captain Arlan Strangewayes 2 points
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One 2 points
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1 point
Stormsmith Stormcaller 1 point
In prepping for a game in Chicago I played my skilled and competitive friend Ray in two games. He cleaned my clock in both, but I needed to know my limitations. Keep Nemo way back is rule number 1.
Ray's first list was
Gaspy2
Cankerworm
Deathripper x2
Deathjack
Full Bane Knights
BLT
Min Bile Thralls
Skarlock
Withershadow Combine
Something else I forget? Seems like there should be more there. Maybe cankerworm is pretty expensive.
I won the roll and went first. The B13 took cover in the woods, everything else ran except Nemo and Jr, who put up some buffs. Thead got Failsafe, rowdy got arc shield, and Gallant got Lightning Shroud.
Gaspy put up Hellmouth and advanced everything up.
I decided to play a bit coy, and try to put some hurt on the Cankerworm and his arc node this turn. I allocated 3 to thunderhead and 1 to Triumph. The targets were behind a wall, but Thunderhead doesn't care. Nemo repositioned my stuff with Energizer for better attack angles and then Thead moved up and pulsed, hitting both of the Cryx 'jacks and then doing two sustained attacks on Cankerworm. I didn't roll much damage tho, so he didn't lose any systems. Triumph got a focus from Arlan and blasted the arc node off of the deathripper in a single devastating shot. Everything else just moved around.
Ray hurt the thunderhead pretty bad, sending in the Cankerworm and buying a lot of attacks. He realized that Failsafe was up on Thead about halfway through and decided it wasn't worth his effort to continue. The rest of his stuff repositioned for the next turn.
I had a bunch of Bane Knights in striking distance of my backfield at this point, and one had run forward to engage Ryan in the woods (stupid Ghostly). I needed to kill a bunch of them to alleviate the awesomeness of vengeance. Gaspy was way forward and close to Rowdy (who'd countercharged the second arc node when it advanced, a ploy Ray knew I would take because I kind of have to) and Thunderhead. My plan was to feat, use Gallant and electroleap with the b13 in the woods to clear out Bane Knights, and also try to put some hurt on the Lich. I decided to throw the Cankerworm at the Lich with thunderhead, then trample up Rowdy, but the wall in the way was a problem, and I only realized it after committing to the plan.
The other thing I considered was trying to get the Cankerworm and arc node off of Thunderhead using Triumph and Rowdy, then have the Thead pulse and autoshoot Gaspy for a Pow 12 and two pow 14s, one of them boosted.
That might have won me the game with some luck.
I didn't do that, and Gallant missed a bunch of attacks in the woods, rolling 3s and 2s against the bane knights. Triumph killed Admonitia from the withershadow combine.
Ray had Tarterus move up, curse Nemo, gave A reroll to Gaspy, stuck Parasite, and feated. He had about five Bane charges on Nemo, but the first one rolled fire and brought me low.
Game two Ray played his epic Sorcha list:
Sorcha2
War dog
Beast 09
Winterguard with all the trimmings
Joe too!
Full man o war shock troopers
Full man o war demolition corps
Great bears
Saxon orrik
Madelyn corbeau
Gorman di Wulfe
Ray won the roll but asked me to deploy first.
I did my first turn about the same as before.
Ray deployed beast way to one flank, supporting the winterguard. The beefy troops moved up the other side. Sorcha was in the middle with her support guys.
I had my storm caller kill Corbeau with a barely in range lightning strike. Triumph killed a winterguard rocketeer. Thunderhead moved up and killed two demo corps with his lightning coils, then Nemo cast energizer to pull him back out of reach. I positioned my jacks to terrorize his shock troopers the following turn and hopefully score a point.
The grenadiers killed the storm caller and shot a rocket into Arlan. Ray just advanced the rest of his stuff up.
I got ready to make some money but I played this turn pretty badly. I wanted Gallant to get his Lightning Shroud on all over the Shocktroopers, but they were in shield wall and he again whiffed some rolls. I had been hoping to not commit rowdy but wound up charging him in and tremoring the whole group down and then killing two with hammer attacks. I spent much of the turn trying to kill the great bears, who can each rip a heavy to bits on sorcha's feat turn. I Managed to kill them all. . .several times each as they were super tough. Two were finally dead at the end, but it took a pulse and two shots from thunderhead, and now he could retaliate with all his remaining demo corps.
I had Triumph murder a couple winterguard with his aoe shot. Harlan killed two as well (iron flesh just makes Harlan angry). The B13 tried to clean up Gallant's mess but somehow only killed Saxon Orrik between the three of them.
It was looking bad, but Ray would have to devote a lot to attacking my beef to clean it up.
He dropped all upkeeps, moved the war dog in a run past knocked down Gallant to the B13, and then had Sorcha Cyclone closer, charge Nemo (immune to free strikes because of the dog), get there with an inch to spare, pop feat, and two-hit Nemo dead.
So there's a bunch of tactics wasted by a long threat warcaster.
I almost had Jr recast arc shield on Nemo before ending turn, too. That would have saved me. Ah well.
I bungled up that turn anyway. Gallant and triumph aren't really pulling their weight and I think there will be some revisions to the list.
I will say that Triumph has been pretty good. He brings a super-accurate gun that ignores stealth to the party, and with Energizer Nemo can reposition him as-needed to get LOS or another couple inches while standing still to aim/be precise. I think ENemo is a good fit for him. I'm just not sure he's a good fit in this list. I need a few more models (the field was wide open for the assassination due to low model count).
-Merlin out
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Location:Flint
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