I got up the the Gamer's Sanctuary in Flint for a 15 point mini tournament on Monday. I fully expected to do poorly, as I wanted play Constance Blaize and she's not highly regarded in online forums.
I brought two lists, one for Blaize as Cygnar and one for her as a mercenary. She's unique as an "ally" warcaster, so she can either be run as a faction Cygnar queenpin, or in a mercenary contract that accepts mercs who will work for Cygnar (currently, the only such contract is the Highborn Covenant, which can -only- include mercs who will work for Cygnar). I asked Ray whether I should go merc or Cyg and he suggested merc.
So that's what I did.
Blaize 6 'jack points
Gallant 9 Pts
Cylena and her Nyss Hunters 10 Pts
Harlan Versh, the Illuminated One 2 Pts
Everything in the list is a mercenary (either straight up or because of the "ally" rule), so Blaize's "friendly faction" buffs and feat affect the whole force.
The idea is to give the Nyss banishing ward to protect them from spells on the approach, then have them alpha strike with Crusader's Call from 12" away with the feat up. I'll lose a bunch of Nyss to the counterstroke but with the feat up it should make Blaize tough as nails the next turn. Harlan shoots buffed units like a cannon, and Gallant is a good basic beater.
Game 1 was against Cygnar Constance Blaize. Hilarious.
My opponent won the roll and asked me to go first. He had
Blaize
Gallant
6 Precusor Knights with Battle Chaplain and Standard
Black 13th Gun Mage strike team
Stormsmith Stormcaller
I had seen him prepping for the tournament, and he had a different list during prep. Instead of the B13 and Stormcaller he had Reinholdt the Gobber Speculator and 6 Sword Knights.
I thought that wasn't bad, but I offered to loan him a Stormcaller because they are better for Constance than Reinholdt for 1-point filler.
He may have also overheard me lamenting the loss of the B13 in my own list by playing Highborn instead of Cygnar. Either way, I thought the list he actually played looked strong.
I set up the Nyss to take the hill on my side of the board with a first turn run. Gallant, Blaize, and Harlan went up the center-left near a building. Blaize put Banishing Ward on the Nyss to stop Sunburst attacks and Transference on herself.
He moved his PKs up in shield wall, and his Blaize and Gallant mirrored mine, though he played more conservatively back. The B13 got Banishing Ward (drat!) and he also cast Transference. B13 hid behind the PKs and the Stormsmith (who terrified me) hid behind a wall.
I decided to play the next round conservatively, and almost lost the game because of it. I moved the Nyss up a bit and had them do combined ranged attacks, which were moderately successful, killing two PKs. Gallant and Constance hung back, and Harlan moved behind my troops.
I did NOT use my feat. I thought my Nyss with Banishing Ward could survive mostly intact for the next round. I thought I might lose 3, maybe four.
My opponent popped his feat, and cast Crusader's Call for the bonus to charges. I had deliberately kept my Gallant 12.5 inches away from his in an attempt to goad him into failing a charge (Gallant under Crusdar's Call can charge 10" and has 2" Reach on his magic beatstick). I had measured the range for a bowshot from one of my Nyss (12" range), so I was certain if he went for the bait I'd come out ahead.
He didn't take the bait. Instead, after getting her Call in Blaize stayed back. Then his Gallant charged a Nyss, and using Purgation for an extra die on attacks he killed two. Then the PKs charged in and killed two more with boosts from Transference.
This is all according to plan; I was expecting as much. I wasn't expecting the Black 13th to kill 4 more Nyss, including Cylena. I had feared them, and rightly so. I knew he was going to use his Stormsmith to disrupt Gallant and end his turn. . . But he didn't. The SS dropped a lightning strike on Blaize instead, doing no damage.
I was back in, because I knew if I could kill the PK officer and Gallant my next turn then I still had a beatstick and my foe would have trouble with Gallant.
I gave Gallant two focus and dropped all upkeeps. I moved Harlan up and took a shot at a PK, but missed. Gallant charged Gallant and hit him a bit. With the buckler attack Gallant squished the PK Battle chaplain (mission one accomplished). Then Gallant beat on Gallant with his sword twice more, missing once and hitting for a bunch with the second.
The Nyss killed a PK between them.
Constance activated last, and utilizing flank with her Gallant managed to wreck (barely) the other Gallant. She popped her feat with no focus, standing at midfield near a wreck marker.
My opponent moved the B13 first and shot at Blaize, doing about 5 damage with a good brutal damage shot and 4 from Ryan's Mage storm (which targeted Gallant because Blaize had cover even after Ryan had moved). The PKs got the run order (not charge, for some reason) so that one could rush to my backfield and engage Harlan.
Constance moved up and hit Constance (his hit mine) with a boosted Sunfire, doing a few more damage. I should have had gallant eat the shot from Watts earlier. Meh. I was down to 5 wounds and desperate.
The Stormsmith moved up. . .and did two more damage to my Blaize with a stormcall. Again, disrupting my gallant would have been better.
I looked at the table and decided I had a shot at a hail Mary assassination run. Gallant gained his free focus and ran to his Constance, just to engage her and enable my flank bonuses.
Then my Blaize activated. With 7 focus (feat was largely lame) I cast sunburst at Ryan, who was blocking my path to the other Blaize. I hit on the boost, and the damage killed her. Then Blaize charged through the gap and stabbed her counterpart, boosting the hit roll. I hit and did 8 damage. I spent another focus to flashing blade, and killed Watts and other Blaize with a good roll (she was sitting on 2 focus so dice -5 on three dice for damage). That was game.
My opponent said he should have won, and that he made a few mistakes. He was about to tell me about it when I told him I was terrified of his Stormsmith all game, and was surprised when he didn't disrupt Gallant.
He was not happy about that.
Game MVP: Blaize. Flank will bring some pain. Wrecked an ARM 19 heavy with flank.
Game 2 vs. Rhyas of the Legion of EverblightThe scenario is Killbox, which means kill the other casterlock before they kill you, and if your casterlock leaves the center of the board after two turn, you automatically lose.
My opponent lost the roll and I choose to go first after examining his army stats. He was running:
Rhyas
4 Shredder light warbeasts
1 Stinger light warbeast
Full 10-dude unit of Blighted Nyss Swordsmen with the Unit Attachment (2 more dudes for 12 total).
I looked at it, and saw no offensive spells. So no need for Banishing Ward. It was a fast list, but didn't have many ranged attacks. Only the Stinger had a short-ranged spray attack. When I went first I ran my whole force. My Nyss were as fast as his. Blaize, Gallant, and Harlan went to meet the Swordsmen head-on while my Nyss went for a flanking strike.
He counter-ran with his force, pushing two Shredders halfway down the field, and keeping his other beasts and Rhyas behind the Swordsmen's advance. He put Occultation on the Swordsmen, which gives a unit stealth (ranged attacks from more than 5" away automiss).
I walked Harlan to within 2" of the lead swordsman and blew him away with Mallus, Harlan's magical quadiron gun. Mallus works like this: Harlan is only RAT 6, so he's not terribly accurate, but the quadiron allows an extra attack up to four (it's a four-barreled magic revolver) as long as Harlan keeps hitting. RAT 6 isn't so good against the Swordsmen's 14 defense. On average rolls Harlan will miss. But Harlan is a witch hunter. His weapons are Blessed, so they ignore defensive buffs from spells, and they have Purgation, so he rolls an extra attack and damage die if his target has an upkeep spell on them (like Occultation). Harlan killed 3 Swordsmen.
I activated Blaize and moved her left a bit, popped her feat and cast Crusader's Call. Gallant did a similar conservative shimmy. My Nyss Hunters charged into the fray, killing two more Swordsmen and annihilating the two shredders that had run forward.
My opponent didn't seem concerned. He activated the Stinger first and killed two of my Nyss with its fire-spray attack(+2 souls). The blighted Swordsmen activated and did some attacking shenanigans to get extra attacks, but the whole unit only managed to kill Harlan and 2 more of my Nyss (+3 souls).
What really floored me is this: my opponent then activated his warlock, Rhyas, and charged her ninja ass up into a Nyss Hunter something like 11 inches with her movement buff spell, using acrobatics to hop over a few other targets on the way.
And she missed her attack. She needed a 7 to hit, and didn't get it. I thought for sure my foe would spend one of her remaining two Fury to buy another attack and murder the spiteful elf in front of her, as Rhyas also has Sprint. Sprint allows her to move a full advance away if she's killed a model after her activation.
But he didn't. Instead he ended his turn by running his remaining shredders into the backfield.
So I started my turn with +5 focus on Blaize, less than 8" from my opponent's warlock. To top it off, Gallant was also less than 10" from Rhyas. So my goal was to go for the throat and finish the game quickly.
There was a Nyss hunter in my way. I had to figure out how to either move or kill it to clear my attack lane. I allocated 2 focus to Gallant, and activated him first. He gained another focus from his Morrowan Accumulator ability (to his max of 3) and slammed the intervening Nyss, boosting the to-hit because he still needed an 8 (that Nyss defense!). I hit, however, slamming the poor elf into Rhyas and doing a strength-based (power 11) collateral damage roll to both of them. The Nyss didn't make it. Rhyas took a damage or two.
So now Rhyas was knocked down, reducing her defense from 17 (with the Tenacity animus from the shredders) to melee attacks auto-hit. Gallant bought an extra sword attack and stabbed the hell out of her. she transfered the damage, blowing up a shredder instead.
The remaining Nyss Hunters activated, most of them missing the Swordsmen they were engaged with, but Cylena and one pal were free and able to charge the downed Rhyas. They did a lot of damage, but one hit was transfered to the last shredder, killing it.
Blaize didn't have a clear charge lane to Rhyas and needed the extra movement from the charge to engage her to buy extra attacks. But Blaize could see Cylena just fine, and poor Cylena was standing next to Rhyas. Blaize charged and killed Cylena, and then she was standing over the prone enemy warlock with Gallant in range for a flank bonus and nine focus left for stabs.
Game over for Rhyas.
Game MVP: Blaize again, getting it done herself.
I'm seeing a pattern here.
Game 3 vs. Prime Deneghra of CryxThe scenario is Process of Elimination, which has two large squares in the center of the table, which extend well into both players' sides of the table.
Deneghra's list was spell-assassination heavy:
Deneghra
4 Deathripper bonejacks
Skarlock Thrall
Captain Rengrave
It's a tough list to play against, but I had a hard counter in the form of Blaize's spell Banishing Ward, which makes it impossible to target a model/unit with spells. Deneghra's list is 4 arc nodes (the deathrippers) to fire spells through, a Skarlock 'caster attachment who casts a spell for free each turn, and Rengrave, who is a decent solo.
I decided to park the Nyss in the woods turn one with Banishing Ward, and use Harlan to flank and Gallant to protect Blaize. I won the roll but made my opponent go first. The table was littered with terrain, with woods on either side and a river that ran all over the board.
Denny ran her whole force through the rivers and woods first turn. I did the same from my side but cast Transference and Banishing Ward on the Nyss.
Denny spent the next turn positioning arc nodes weirdly to aim Venom sprays near the Nyss without actually targeting the Nyss, to get around Banishing Ward. He wound up hurting and corroding a deathripper and killing one Nyss. The node he ran over to shoot at Blaize with was an inch out of Denny's control range, so he couldn't spray my caster. Rengrave took an ineffective shot.
I upkept Transference and gave Gallant some focus. Gallant tore the node off the deathripper that had run by Blaize. Blaize cast Crusader's Call and parked in the back of the forest to evade spell assassination. She also popped her feat. The Nyss charged the arc nodes in the midfield and mostly missed. They used two of Blaize's focus to boost attacks and mugged two of the deathrippers, ruining their cortexes but leaving the arc nodes intact.
Denny used her feat to counteract my own (hers, and fired a Scourge at my now-weaker Nyss. Somehow she managed to miss and the deviation flew away to little effect. Her deathrippers, engaged and/or cortex-crippled, swung at the Nyss ineffectively. Rengrave killed a Nyss.
My troops were now also -2 to their melee attack, so they were gonna have trouble hitting the arc nodes without Transference and I had had to drop that spell.
The thing was, the deathrippers and Nyss Hunters were squared off in a struggle, and they're both defense 15 and Melee attack 6, needing 9s on two dice to hit. We fought for the center for several turns. Gallant scrapped an arc node. I decided that the only safe play was to put Banishing Ward on Blaize, and it sat on her the rest of the game.
Eventually, I cleared a lane for Gallant to charge near Denny with Crusader's Call up for +2 inches on the charge. Denny took some beats and tried to retreat. Gallant charged again the next turn, and that was game.
Took a long time, but I pulled it out.
Game MVP: Gallant, who was pretty badass.
Harlan didn't do much in most of the third game, though he did manage some hurt on the back arc of an arc node with three shots hitting in a single turn.
I was 3-0 but the other 3-0 player won the event with a stronger play record. I came in third, actually, though I'm not sure how the 2-1 guy came in second in front of me.
-Merlin out
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