This was a fun Friday night game at my friend's house. I brought a variation on one of my oldest and most favorite Stryker1 lists, and he brought his first-ever caster, Denny1.
Cygnar (Storm Division)
- Commander Coleman Stryker
- Squire
- Lancer (Gremlin)
- Centurion (Molehill)
- Centurion (Hardship)
- Storm Strider
- Journeyman Warcaster
- Charger (Scarecrow)
- Eiryss, Mage Hunter
- Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine
- Ace
- Field Mechanics
- Alexia & the Risen
Cryx (Black Industries)
- Warwitch Deneghra
- The Withershadow Combine
- Barathrum
- Ripjaw
- Ripjaw
- Corruptor (Grim)
- Hellslinger Phantom
- Pistol Wraith
- Pistol Wraith
- Ol' Grim
- Bloat Thrall
- Gorman Di Wulfe
- Bile Thralls (min)
- Skarlock Commander
- Necro surgeon & Stitch Thralls
- Necro surgeon & Stitch Thralls
- Mechanithralls (min)
- Croe's Cutthroats
Deployment
I'd played my friend and his evil, evil Denny lists before, and I had a clue that he'd be bringing her again, so I brought a list I'd built entitled “How do you solve a problem like Deneghra?”, which had Ace for true sight and Eiryss to mess with Denny should she get too close.
We rolled Scenario 1: King of the Hill, and the terrain was very woodsy - I've never played on a table with four forests. The left side had three forests lined up, and the right had two small lakes and the Khador building frame.
My opponent won the roll and chose the side with all the forests. He chose the observatory to deal with Eiryss, and I chose the observatory to deal with Denny.
Cygnar Turn 1
Cygnar runs forward. The centurions both get arcane shields, the storm strider gets snipe, and Eiryss gets blur, making her DEF19 against shooting.
Cryx Turn 1
Cryx moves up cautiously. This is why I went first - now they have to fear my shooting.
Cygnar Turn 2
The storm strider and charger shoot out one of the ripjaws. One centurion runs to engage the other ripjaw, and the other centurion runs up to the flag. Both centurions get polarity field.
Eiryss disrupts the corruptor, and Ace and Caine shoot at some of the Cutthroats.
Cryx Turn 2
Deneghra feats, and The Withering makes everyone sad. The mechanithralls charge and destroy the Cygnar objective.
With Denny's feat, the bile thralls need a 6 to hit a thrall warrior, and every one misses. Barathrum also misses. Ol'Grim finally kills it.
The central centurion gets Gorman's rust bomb, Deneghra's parasite, a pistol wraith makes it stationary, and I think there's a token in there somewhere that says he got a piña colada. It's just too many tokens. Barathrum charges in and puts the centurion out of his misery. Ol'Grim sets the centurion on fire.
Cryx scores a point for having destroyed the objective, although I'm not certain why they didn't score the far rectangular zone - perhaps the entire unit wasn't inside.
(Cryx 1, Cygnar 0)
Cygnar Turn 3
The storm strider charges the unit of mechanithralls and lightning goes everywhere, wrecking the whole unit.
The remaining centurion walks up and destroys the Cryx objective, but fails to kill the ripjaw because he's withered.
Eiryss gets fire for effect, planning on walking up and shooting Deneghra with a boosted RAT 9 shot to disrupt her, but is about a quarter inch too far away, so she disrupts the corruptor again. Afterwards, my opponent points out that if she had moved up, she would have been countercharged by Barathrum, so it seems that plan was doomed from the start.
Stryker gives himself snipe and disrupts Barathrum. He also channels arcane shield onto the storm strider and feats.
Cryx gets no points this turn, Cygnar gets one for the far zone and one for destroying the objective.
(Cryx 1, Cygnar 2)
Cryx Turn 3
Both helljacks are disrupted, and Stryker's +5 armor feat is up. This is going to be a tough turn for Cryx. Cryx spends an inordinate amount of time trying to kill the thrall warrior on the flag. Barathrum finally charges Eiryss and misses. Denny casts dark seduction on Eiryss and walks her in backwards, Gorman blind bombs her, and the skarlock commander shoots her in the back, killing her. My personal fear was that Denny would seduce Eiryss into shooting and disrupting Stryker, but that didn't happen.
Other than that, Cryx struggles with Stryker's feat this turn.
Cygnar scores a zone, Cryx scores the flag.
(Cryx 2, Cygnar 3)
Cygnar Turn 4
The lancer moves up to Barathrum and takes out his cortex, then the risen charge, CMA, and do a little.
The centurion moves up and tries to kill the corruptor, but fails. He does kill the bloat thrall with his shield, and it blows up like a disgusting balloon full of bile, afflicting the centurion with continuous corrosion, while the corruptor is immune. Now the centurion is corroded and on fire.
Ace and Caine take out most of Croe's Cutthroats, but are not able to take out the last one and clear the zone. The charger and storm strider take out much of the blob of infantry between the two far zones.
The only point this turn is Cygnar for the far zone.
(Cryx 2, Cygnar 4)
Cryx Turn 4
Bile thralls move forward and purge, killing all of Alexia's risen and the thrall warrior, and damaging the lancer. Barathrum fails to kill the lancer.
Denegra casts parasite on the centurion, and the last cutthroat charges. He and the ripjaw aren't able to significantly injure the centurion.
(Cryx 2, Cygnar 5)
Cygnar Turn 5
The fully-loaded lancer finishes off Barathrum, the fully-loaded centurion finishes off the corruptor, ripjaw, and cutthroat. Caine finishes off Ol'Grim.
The journeyman warcaster runs forward, and Cygnar scores all three zones and the flag.
(Cryx 2, Cygnar 8)
(Cygnar Win!)
Final Thoughts
- I'd initially thought that moving the centurion into such a vulnerable spot on turn 2 was a mistake, but perhaps spending it to take up so many of Denny's resources on her feat turn was a good use.
- My opponent's dice this game were just terrible. I rolled slightly above average in general - really well early on, then had some bad dice towards the end.
- The storm strider into low-armor infantry is just bonkers, especially when it rolls a lot of lightning generator leaps.
