I had a chance to get in a game with a friend recently, in his unused garage which he's dubbed "The Battlebarn". Interestingly, as we started pulling out models, a thunderstorm began rolling in. This would be quite the thematic battle for Cygnar.
His list was played in the Hammer Strike theme, and had Gorten with a bunch of jacks. His idea with this list is that with that many boxes, he wouldn't need to fully fuel all those jacks. Power-up focus should be enough.
Gorten Grundback
Ghordson Driller
Ghordson Driller
Ghordson Driller
Ghordson Driller
Wroughthammer Rockram
Wroughthammer Rockram
Grundback Gunner
Grundback Gunner
Grundback Gunner
Ghordson Basher
Ghordson Basher
For my list, I brought a non-theme toned down version of my normal Stryker2 list, mostly because I wanted to try out that sweet new Gibbs model I'd painted and never used. I call this list "Support Bloat". At the last moment, I swapped in an arcane tempest rifleman to deal with the artillery I was sure would show up. Spoiler: he had no artillery.
Lord General Coleman Stryker
Squire
Ol' Rowdy
Thorn
Stormblade Infantry
Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard
Storm Gunner
Storm Gunner
Stormlances (max)
Arlan Strangewayes
Major Harrison Gibbs
Rhupert Carvolo
Arcane Tempest Rifleman
Journeyman Warcaster
Firefly (Joules)
The roll-off for this game was pretty hilarious. I rolled a 1, and said "Beat that!" He rolled a 1 as well, and then got a 1 on his re-roll. My second roll was a 2, so I won. I chose to go second, and picked the side of the map without a giant wall of fire blocking a flag. This also gave him some large buildings blocking his unpacking.
This was our final Steamroller 2016 game.
My opponent deployed centrally, and then I counter-deployed with a left skew. I'm quite pleased with this decision - I think it was perhaps my best strategic move of the game. Firstly, I was able to apply my entire army to a small portion of his, ensuring that his entire left flank couldn't participate in at least one round of the battle. Additionally, going second allows me to score first, and by scoring first and ensuring that he can't clear the zone, I had planned to make sure that he had no chance at a scenario win. Stryker being the badass that he is, I had plans to set camp on that flag.
Rhulic Turn 1
The gun bunny goes on a hill, a driller and basher run to peek around the building, and the rest of the slow Rhulic force slowly lumbers forward.
Cygnar Turn 1
Cygnar rushes up the left flank, Rowdy positions to threat a countercharge, and the stormblade infantry positions for a turn 2 feat charge.
Rhupert ends this turn positioned so badly that he'll be useless for the rest of the game. A small mistake on my part, but certainly a mistake.
Rhulic Turn 2
The gun bunny on the hill kills a stormlance, Gorten puts up a rock wall, and the bulk of the mercenary forces are unable to engage.
On the far flank, a gun bunny runs up to jam the stormblades and prevent them from charging into the brick of heavies.
Cygnar Turn 2
Time for the big Stryker2 alpha. One thing I've noticed about Stryker's feat turn is that it always takes such a long time. Especially with the stormblades, whose attacks vary so greatly based on whether they're in range of the leader's storm rod, the firefly's ionization, or a jack's positive charge, calculating damage isn't quick and easy.
The stormlances charge, wrecking the basher, putting some damage on the gun bunny, and jamming it up.
The stormblades have an even more devastating alpha. Stryker casts positive charge on Thorn and feats. Rowdy charges and kills the gun bunny blocking the stormblade charge, then the stormblades assault, each getting a POW14 shot, a POW17 charge attack, and a POW17 feat attack. Drillers take a lot of damage.
(close up photo)
Stryker ends his turn dominating the flag as planned, but here I make my first big mistake of the game: I'm within range of Gorten's feat. I'd thought to put Rowdy B2B with Stryker so as to prevent being pushed, but I didn't make it happen. Also, I hadn't realized that Gorten's feat includes a DEF debuff, which is a big deal. I was too confident of Stryker's 16/19 statline, and felt like nothing could touch him while he was camping four.
(Rhuls 0, Cygnar 1)
Rhulic Turn 3
Stryker2's feat alpha may have been devastating, but Gorten's counter-feat was no less impressive, if more focused. His feat pulls Stryker into threat of two heavies and out of range of the squire, pulls the Firefly out of the Journeyman's control area, pulls the stormblade leader away from his grunts, and makes sure Stryker's two jacks are out of his control area. It also makes sure Stryker is even further away from Rowdy, compounding an error I had made.
Stryker is camping four focus and has arcane shield, and it's a good thing. The jacks need 8s to hit, and every hit connects from two fully loaded heavies. Stryker uses all his focus and ends the turn on five boxes. It's amazing that he survived.
On the far flank, heavies beat up Thorn, but every hit results in damage to a cortex. Thorn is left on one box, which of course is his shock shield.
(Rhuls 0, Cygnar 1)
Cygnar Turn 3
I was now in a position to close out the game, and I should have been able to. But so many of my models couldn't act. Most of the stormblades are out of formation due to Gorten's feat, and none of the three Cygnar jacks could power up.
Rowdy runs (for free) to engage the Rockram which is about to kill Stryker. Stormlances charge and kill the Driller that was threatening Stryker. Thorn, who is on one box, kills a driller with an initial attack from his shock shield, then disrupts another with his gimped disruption spear. Gibbs pulls out a hot meal and heals both Stryker and the storm lances to full boxes. Despite the bad position Cygnar was in, this hasn't been a terrible round so far.
Then I make my second big mistake and have Stryker overload for only one die rather than two.
He has six focus, since he can't draw one from the out-of-range squire. He's lost an initial attack to the rockram's critical stagger, and he misses one attack with snake eyes. His overload does only one damage to him, but increases his POW by only 2, meaning he's making POW17 attacks. After five hits, he leaves the rockram on three boxes, which happen to be a cortex, a movement, and a melee arm.
(Rhuls 0, Cygnar 1)
Rhulic Turn 4
The rockram gets strength of iron and kills Stryker.
(Mercenaries win!)
(Mercs 0, Cygnar 1)
Final Thoughts
Despite losing, and despite the fact that I woke up the next day with (no joke) 18 mosquito bites on my feet, this was a really fun game. The thunderstorm was awesome, I love the new terrain layout rules we've used the last couple games, and both players got to do some very cool things, which made the game fun. Close games are always more fun than when someone gets wrecked in a blowout game.
My first error was bringing Stryker within range of Gorten's feat without Rowdy there to prevent me from being pulled in. I was so focused on the big alpha and the flag at that point that I didn't even consider retaliation. My second big mistake was only overloading with one die - if I'd used two, I'd have taken a maximum of 12 damage and I could definitely have wrecked the rockram. Alternately, if I'd held the rifleman's shot, I could have aimed and done a deadly shot, doing an auto three damage which would have finished the job on the rockram.I'm a little sad that the burning earth terrain never became relevant. That's a cool terrain piece.
I feel that this game was a big part of me learning Stryker2. I remember going through the same process of many losses with Nemo1 before I got comfortable playing him and learned his strengths and weaknesses. I've learned from my mistakes in this game.
