Gaelcon Practice

Just going to run through a 50pt game played on Monday, with 90% painted toys.

I finished off painting Siege Dougal and Gastonne so I wanted to take them for a run about.

The Boys

Here's the list I took for Siege:
55 / 55 (50+5)
Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane - WJ: +5
-    Squire - PC: 2
-    Stormwall - PC: 19
-    Lightning Pod
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Ogrun Bokur - PC: 3
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile - PC: 2
Gastone Crosse - PC: 3
-    Galleon - PC: 18
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4

The idea behind this list is very simple; I get to play with two massive robots!

Siege and the Stormwall go hand in hand, plenty of high power shooting to leverage the feat and nice area denial if required.

Reinholdt tags along for that extra shot on the Rocket Launcher.

Gastonne and Galleon mean that I have a fully fueled Colossal to shoot and hit things, Dougal makes the AoEs even better with the RAT boost and deviation fixings.

Using Fire Group and Dougals Mini Feat means an effective snipe on the Harpoon, 19" threat with Boostable hits.

Junior is there because of Arcane Shield

The Bokur makes sure critical ranged attacks can be soaked

The TAC are there to provide a wall of smoke or under feat run sling some AoEs or even BATTLE WIZARD!

I was playing against my most regular of opponents, my brother he was of course playing Legion with the following list:

55 / 55 (50+5)
Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight - WB: +5
-    Succubus
-    Ravagore - PC: 10
-    Ravagore - PC: 10
-    Ravagore - PC: 10
-    Naga Nightlurker - PC: 5
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Blighted Nyss Shepherd - PC: 1
Fyanna the Lash - PC: 3
Strider Deathstalker - PC: 2
Strider Deathstalker - PC: 2
Strider Rangers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
-    Strider Rangers Officer & Musician - Blighted Nyss Strider Officer & Musician 3

There is a lot of shooting.

I win the roll off and as I want to deny the forest and hill I pick sides.

Deployment

I put the Galleon on the right, Stormwall on the left, TAC centrally, behind them Siege, Bokur, Squire, Reinholdt, Jr, Gastonne and Dougal.

Legion deploy with 3 Ravagores opposite the Galleon and Lylyth Succubus and Naga next to them, Shepherds behind, Fyanna on the far left.

AD'd Strider Deathstalkers on my right, Striders AD'd on the centre left.

Deployment

Legion Turn 1
Shadow Pack goes up from Lylyth and everything runs into position.

Cygnar Turn 1

The dwarves move up and try and drift AoEs onto Striders, Dougal Artillerists the Galleon, that moves up and B2B with the dwarves, manages to drift an AoE onto a Strider.

>> This brings up an interesting point about the Minimum distance for AoEs and certain base sizes. An AoE 3 misses any size base, excluding Huge, on a distance of 3+. 
Here's a useful Table I'm going to print out for Games with the Galleon.

The Stormwall Wanders up in B2B with the other end of the TAC line and pods another Strider and puts down covering fire.

Jr. puts Arcane Shield on Siege and everyone else advances.

Legion Turn 2

Lylth upkeeps Shadow Pack and then casts Pincushion on the Stormwall and feats. The Deasthstalkers manage to kill one for the dwarves.

Each of the Ravagores goes, the first one hits siege and the Bokur, doing no damage but setting them on fire. The other five shots land on the Stormwall.

The Striders and the Naga also shoot the Stormwall, it ends on one Box on it's left side with no movement, Cortex or Pod system oh and it's on fire

Cygnar Turn 2

The fire goes out on the Stormwall, Siege and the Bokur take no damage. The Galleon gets 3 focus, the Stormwall none, because it can't have any.

The Stormwall walks up and manages to use its unbroken cannon to damage the Naga and put a few points on the Objective.

Dougal Artillerists the Galleon which then advances drifting AoEs onto the Striders and kills both DeathStalkers.

Siege GroundPounds some more damage onto the Naga and kills a Strider and puts down a foxhole to hide in, the Striders flee.

The assorted support pieces mill around.

Legion Turn 3

Shadow Pack is upkept.

Fyanna charges and gets the last box on the Stormwall, its wrecked now.

Lylyth pincushions the Galleon.

The Naga Charges and kills a dwarf, causing them to flee.

The three Ravagores shoot the Galleon and start to put points on it.

>> It's around this point I accidentally pick up the Bokur with the loop on my tape  and break him into three pieces, he becomes a wreck marker for the rest of the game and the tape has its loop removed.

Cygnar Turn 3

Siege drops Foxhole and keeps his focus.

Gastonne advances and Shoots Fyanna to death

Siege walks into the wreck of the Stormwall and GroundPounds a Shepherd and Stalker to death.

The Bokur charges the Naga and misses with his spear but finishes it off with his shield.

Dougal Artillerists the Galleon which then advances slings out some AoEs at things including the last Strider.

The dwarves rallied

Legion Turn 4

Lylyth upkeeps Pincushion and Shadow Pack.

The Ravagores shoot the Galleon again.

Lylyth gets rid of the Stompod but opts not to kill the remaining dwarf.

Cygnar Turn 4

The last dwarf is rallied and throws and AoE at Lylyth which misses and doesn't scatter well.

Reinholdt reloads Siege and he Mage Sights onto Lylyth with the aiming bonus he hits with the first rocket but doesn't do enough damage and she has a transfer left so he shoots again and feats on the damage that gets transferred.

Dougal Artillerists the Galleon which then advances slings out some AoEs and Harpoons the Objective destroying it and Controlling the zone.

The now empty Squire runs towards my objective.

I score 2 CPs

Legion Turn 5

A Ravagore charges and kills the Galleon.

One shoots Siege which drifts and kills Reinholdt.

Lylth kills the last dwarf and stake some pot shots on the objective, just as its about to die the squire takes one for the team per the scenario and keeps it alive, a Ravagore finishes it off.

Mike scores 2 CPs

Cygnar Turn 5

Dougal walks into the Zone and Galleon wreck to contest and shoots at a Ravagore.

Siege, Junior and Gastonne, in the Stormwalls wreck also shoot at the same one killing it.

Legion Turn 6

Jr Gets shot by Lylth and a Ravagore headbutts Siege but can't seal the deal.

The other one advances to threaten him.

Mike scores another CP

Cygnar Turn 6

Gastonne shoots the Ravagore that knocked Siege down.

Then Siege stands up and hammers it to death.

Mike goes up to 4 CPs

Legion Turn 7

Mike scores and I lose.

So, 3 Ravagores can pretty much 1 round a Stormwall under Lylyths feat, I think had I used Arcane Shield on it then Siege would be dead.

Stealth is a real issue for Galleon with highish ARM models.

I spent my first couple of turns having to worry about the accurate solo killers which meant I couldn't be that aggressive and my ranged threat on the Galleon (walk 5 shoot 5 because of Stealth) meant I was always at the mercy of the Ravagores.

Perhaps I should have been more aggressive with the Wall and Siege and got up into the Zone to threaten a bit better instead of hanging back, I didn't really get to use my feat.

Overall it was a great close game and it came down to about 4 toys.

Double Vision.

Last weekend there was a fun little Doubles Tournament taking place locally.

I'd already decided on pCaine Tier as one list because it's a bit of fun and ever so slightly filthy.

Lieutenant Allister Caine - WJ: +6
-    Hunter - PC: 6
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
-    Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 0
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
-    Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 3
Tempest Blazers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 10

My Second list was a shrunk down pNemo looking to Arc some chain lightning and use Rowdy with 5 Focus and +2 STR to beat things to death.

Commander Adept Nemo - WJ: +6
-    Squire - PC: 2
-    Lancer - PC: 6
-    Ol' Rowdy - PC: 9
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
-    Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2

The format was doubles but with random teammates for each round, meant there was no Strength of Schedule, just fun games and new opponents and partners each round.

Game 1 starts

Round 1
I was paired with a Khador player who bought a filthy B3 list.
We were playing against Minions with Rask and Circle with eMorv

Turn 1
Both armies ran and the Hunter killed one Tharn Ravager, the gun Mages managed to do 6 damage to another.

So many Gun Mages!

Turn 2
Gun Mages get DeathKnelled and 4 die instantly, a few BDIFP die to Charging Ravagers, Rask Feats.
We then Check the Killbox, Rask and Morv are both fully in it from the side, we go up to 4 points.
Butcher 3 can't charge Gators so one of his Argus gets charged in the back, the kills a bunch of stuff and clears the Zone. The Blazers Brutal the objective in the zone and we Dominate for 2 as well as getting 1 for the objective.
The game ends 7-0 on CPs.


Round 2
I am paired with a Legion player who is using eAbby
We are playing against my partner from Round 1, with B3 again and a CoC player with Syntherion.
I opt to bring pNemo to this party as the Legion list has 3 Heavies in in and the lightning should be pretty good against the CoC support, not to mention Voltaic Snare.

Turn 1
Both armies advance up, the Khador opposite one zone and the CoC opposite the other. We opt to commit hard to the CoC zone and hopefully kill the beasts.

Turn 2
Khador get into the Zone with the IFP and the CoC spread a bit, getting a light vector and Arc node into the zone managing to magnetic hold a Warbeast and a Ground Ponder kills a gun mage.
My partner then turns to me and says he reckons he can assassinate Syntherion. So eAbby Feats and kills the Arc Node to confer some rage, Then a Sycthean gets slipstreamed and it charges off into Syntherion.
Syntherion dies, the Convergence force is now 2 units of Optifex directives, all huddled up to Jacks so pNemo now gets to shine.
2 Chain Lightning’s take care of all but one of the models and a Voltaic Snare hits the Khador Devastator, the Gun Mages polish off the last converge model and we Dominate the Zone with Abby for 2.

Turn 3
Butcher comes into the zone with the gun mages and kills them all but 1. A BDIFP manages to make it into the other zone to stop us dominating again.
We attempt to set up a fancy Assassination on Butcher involving a 5 focus Rowdy by clearing a charge lane with the Scythean but Abby needs to confer rage so we get the Lancer to push the Pikeman into her threat but this means we end up blocking the Scythean charge....
So we just kill as many things as possible and the Squire Beep Boops his way into the zone to stop Butcher scoring again we go up to 4 points.

Turn 4
Butcher has to assassinate Nemo and Abby in one turn to win the game, he can't and there aren't enough models that could possibly get into and stay in the zone for us not to clear it, the game gets called and we win 6-4 on CPs


Round 3
My Partner from the previous round betrays me and switches to the Dark side, I gain another Legion ally with Saeryn whilst opponent No.2 is Cygnar with pNemo!

Turn 1
The guys run everything. We advance and try to hit Thorn with a couple of shots. I attempt to spread out the Gun Mages but pNemo is going to fry them

Turn 2
pNemo fries a bunch of Gun Mages.... We manage to kill the enemy Lynch and get a few more points on Thorn.

Turn 3
A lot of things are up in our face but we haven't provided any targets for the Legion player, pNemo fries more Gun Mages :(. My Gun Mages manage to clear two TAC dwarves out of the way, pCaine pops snipe on the Ravagore and it shoots at Nemo, hits and then boots damage, he gets one shot exactly.

Turn 4
There are 4 Cygnar toys left including Jr who can potentially reactivate Jacks. We clear an objective and Dominate the zone, sending a Scythean to hold off the Legion beasts.

Turn 5
eAbyy feats and her beasts smash Saeryn into the ground. pCaine Feats in an attempt to finish things and all the guns are aimed at eAbyy on one transfer but dice aren't great and she doesn't die, thankfully dice down is called and we win 3-0 on CPs


And with that we take first place with a collective 6 wins.


This time next Friday its Gaelcon, I am taking 3 lists, one of which is pCaine Tier 4
This is what I have to paint!

Couple of Casters, Units, Solos and a Colossal

Hopefully, I'll get it all done in time.

It's been 223 days.

It's been 223 days since this blog was updated...

I have been more than lax, no updates have occurred and I even left out the last update not finishing the tournament report.
I lost the last game and came 2nd overall.

So now I'm back with a serious intent to do some more reporting on my hobby activities.

This has been spurred along by the conclusion of the WTC just last weekend and the fact it's going to be in Ireland next year.

I am still debating whether I'd like to try out to be on a team but that is a long way off, all I know is that I want to play more games and be more active playing.

I have a few upcoming events as well.
This Sunday the 12th of October there is a little 25pt doubles tournament.
On the 24th-27th of October Gaelcon  is taking place in Dublin with a 50pt Iron Gauntlet followed by Spell draft or maybe X-Wing/Star Trek.
February the 20th-22nd is Smogcon in England, PPs first full European convention.

So on Monday I got two games in at 25 Points against my Brother using slightly silly lists for 25 Points.

pCaine, who I picked up recently, and Sloan.

THEME: Sons of the Tempest - Tier 2
31 / 31 (25+6)
Lieutenant Allister Caine - WJ: +6
-    Hunter - PC: 6
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
-    Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 0
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
-    Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 3
Tempest Blazers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 10

It gives me a point off each unit of Gun Mages and the B13 as well as a free Dude, basically 5 free points. Any sort of high ARM makes this list shudder in fear but its got great control and can really deal with infantry.

31 / 31 (25+6)
Captain Kara Sloan - WJ: +6
-    Squire
-    Avenger - PC: 9
-    Charger - PC: 4
-    Defender - PC: 9
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Rangers - Leader & Grunts: 5

Sloan is just about having a Battlegroup with guns, shooting stuff with the rangers helping and making the most of the feat turn and Fire Group.

I won with pCaine against a pAbby list with a Ravagore, Angel, full Striders and the Pot, I was able to kill all the small things and used deadeyed gun Mages to take Abby down.

That's some amount of dudes for 25pts

Kara was up against eLylyth with a Ravagore, Striders, Annyssa, Strider Deathstalker and another beast I forget.
Everything had Stealth in the army and I couldn't leverage anything against his stuff and even though I was able to attrition it okay towards the end Kara ended up dead.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I invited over Local Meta Stomper and all round bad boy of Warmachine Pat 'Pat' Dunford.
Fresh from his adventures at the WTC he was looking to play MORE games, a lot of commitment from him.

As I was feeling Saucy I thought I'd have a go at pCaine but at 50pts Tier 4, my list was:
THEME: Sons of the Tempest - Tier 4
56 / 56 (50+6)
Lieutenant Allister Caine - WJ: +6
-    Stormwall - PC: 19
-    Lightning Pod
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
-    Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 0
-    Hunter - PC: 6
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 3
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
-    Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2
-    Hunter - PC: 6
Tempest Blazers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 10

Tier Benefits:
1: Non-character Arcane Tempest Gun Mage units become FA U. Reduce the point cost of each Arcane Tempest Gun Mage unit by 1.
2: Add a unit attachment to one Arcane Tempest Gun Mage unit free of cost. This attachment ignores FA restrictions.
3: You gain +1 on your starting game roll.
4: Caine and Arcane Tempest models/units gain Stealth during the first round of the game.


This list takes the Tier and pops in some anti Armour Threats with the Hunters and the Stormwall to give that extra power.
Snipe is great on the Blazers and the Stormwall and all of the Gun Mage Units love to get Deadeye.
Caines range amplifier means that he can hang out at the back but still buff effectively and if necessary move up aggressively and teleport back.
Deadeyed Boosted Thunderbolts from hunters have a 72% or so chance of knocking something down. RAT 7 RNG 14 really helps, not to mention, armour piercing for heavies that it completely out threats and can be pushed about by the Gun Mages.


Pat was playing pNemo, one of my favourite Cygnar casters and he's totally becoming a thing, we are skewing the Cygnar Meta.

Commander Adept Nemo - WJ: +6
-    Squire
-    Stormwall - PC: 19
-    Lightning Pod
-    Thorn - PC: 8
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Captain Arlan Strangewayes - PC: 2
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. - Boomhowler and 9 Grunts: 9
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Tempest Blazers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 6

So Voltaic snare is pretty broken but hilariously fun, also it turns out Gun Mages REALLY hate chain lightning.
I did get to weapon lock his Stormwall with mine which was fun, but I really made a poor positioning mistake and badly judged ranges.
The End game came down to not much but I had nothing to take care of his Wall and it eventually pushed Caine into the ground.
The Blazers did spend the Game runnig around the flank and killing things, the B13 are bosses and the Gun Mage Units really are good.
Overall it was an enjoyable game I felt I might have been a bit too aggressive with the Hunters, AD isn't always required, but also dealing with Chain Lightning is pretty difficult.

It's a Stormwall off.

So here ends the first in what I hope will be many more chronicling my Cygnaran exploits.

Oh I also finished pHaley on Monday, she is painted, yet to be played...