Oblivion Game 41/42 - Mini tourney MacBain/Gorten vs Maddox/Garryth2
*Some poetic stuff about the sun going up, which is a grand lie*
Tourney time! Small three rounder as the planned returned event was done in by ye olde plagueness. Running Gorten/MacBain. Intent being to not disgrace myself for 50% of games. First round I got the Bye, so one of two desired wins straight on the books, ooh yeah!
Actual Dolly time, of the 8 list pairs I was happy to drop him into......one of them. Voids/Wretches for days. Bizarrely I drew the one list combo where it felt safe, so bam! MacBain is in!
Opposing list was Stryker 2 Morrow infantry spam and Maddox high armour stuff. Gorten had Spray Bunny jacks, so down Maddox went and we were off. Spread the Net scenario.
MacBain w/Galleon, Machorne w/Freebooter, Kayazy Assassins/Eliminators max, Boomhowlers1 min, bucketload of solos
Maddox w/Hurricane, Storm Lancers max, Storm Strider, Junio with Firefly, couple other solos (Well short of said bucket)
I won the die roll, opted second taking the side with less annoying obstructions for the Galleon to maneuver around and without forests that would slow me down in annoying ways.
Swans run up, Cav on the sides, Huge bases central, Maddox hides behind the defensively placed obstruction. Armour buff spells on the cav.
Galleon was on the right, intending to anchor my friendly zone in the manner I failed to in this exact practice match. Freebooter and a mix of solos went to fight for it in the left, Kayazy/Boomhowlers up the guts with Counter Measures on the former. Eliminators on either flank.
As usual the real MacBain consideration is when to feat, normally circling on if I'm taking a hard alpha or not in round 2. In this instance it's a mixed bag, where I'll take a bunch of shots but not to a degree where I'm screwed, so I settle for staying out of the Cav charge ranges for the most part spacing models to avoid Electro leaps where I can.
Top 2 Cygnar: Where we go, we don't need no picture quality
The Cav get some charges on Eliminators, killing one on the left.
The Storm Strider gets True Sight off the objective and mulches the Underboss, the leaps killing a couple Kayazy. It misses Greygore at least, so that's something.
Hurricane pops off some of the Boomhowlers and toes the centre zone.
Some unsurprising casualties and the Swans haven't advanced to heavily, so it mostly worked out. Can't remember the last time someone sniped out the Underboss, given my dismissiveness of his once per game it's not super concerning.
Bottom 2 Merc: Let the annoyance healing begin (As in caused by, not recovering from)
Plan is feat, score and contest with semi invulnerable models.
Slight pickle of wanting to get Machorne, which requires MacBain to move across. Originally his desired landing spot was blocked by Kayazy, thankfully solved by the Storm Strider zapping them, the true Xanatos Gambit for your own casualties.
Countermeasures/Failsafe upkept, MacBain moves across and we see if the feat die roll kills our plans. It's a 3! Sweet averages! We pick MacHorne, Alexia3, Greygore, Eilish and the rest go on Kayazy.
MacHorne is needed to contest the left flag, Greygore for a potential Reveille, Eilish to knock off an armour upkeep in a future turn (He was kept way back initially to allow this, learnt from the last time we screwed up this matchup), Alexia becaause I like Thrall Warriors and Kayazy to do the rest of the contesting.
Leftwise, Machorne runs up to engage/be in the way of the left cav unit whilst contesting the flag.The surviving Eliminator runs up the board edge for future turn insurance, the Freebooter runs to a spot where hopefully it is shielded from Cav charges by the Machorne block. Lanyssa runs to the flag, the Gobber Tinker runs to be in repair range of the jack.
Centrally, the Kayazy just run up and contest the zones/Cygnar flag. Greygore/Alexia move up into the back of the zone.
Rightwise the Galleon tries to kill Deryfuss, who is camping the Cygnar flag. Leaves him on one box, so that wasn't ideal. The Eliminators on this flank charge Storm Cav and get in their way. Orin twiddles his mustache and twirls his thumbs in the background, as his only role is to try to score the swan flag in the late game (Lighting immune and no offensive spells make Orin a spectator to the sport).
I score my flag and zone, 2-0.
Top 3 Cygnar: Come on man, just die
Sweet sweet MacBain feat reply turn.
Left wise, the Lancer unit kills Lanyssa and puts Machorne down to her feat box, miss an attack on the remaining Kayazy.
Centrally the Hurricane kills the Kayazy it can kill. Maddox/Junior remain hidden.
Rightwise Dreyfus tries to clear up the blocking Eliminators and botches it, the Lances try to make up for it but also swing and miss, one does end up contesting my zone.
Swans can't line up any scores, so happy days.
Bottom 3: Mercs trying to Barny
Not going to be too involved here, just aim for the reliable scores and carry on. Don't really have a great option to kill the Hurricane sadly, so the centre zone will remain a null on the scoring.
Leftwise the Eliminator runs into the Cygnar backfield where giggles can be had. Machorne, sttod up by Greygore, contests the Swan rectangle and knocks down a pair of Storm Lances on my flag who are trivially killed by the Freebooter. Tinker moves up to get the point.
Centrally Greygore did Reveille, efforts to kill a Storm Lancer with him and Alexia go abysmally. The Kayazy Assassins, now few in number, kill the support solo set to score the Swan flag and otherwise position to annoy the Hurricane.
Rightwise Eilish knocks off the Storm Lancer armour buff, the Galleon clears the zone, the Eliminator pops Dreyfuss and Eiryss deathbolts another that had been previously winged. Orin runs to the right board edge and ponders his fate.
MacBain chills in the trench camping 3.
I score my flag/rectangle again, now 4-0.
It's not looking amazing Swan wise on the points, so they go for killing enough of my stuff to make closing out difficult. Which is clearly rude.
Left wise, there's three Storm Lancers left. One limps into their rectangle, one kills Machorne, the last charges and brutalises the Gobber Tinker. Poor chap. The Storm Strider moves up while toeing the Swan rectangle, kills Greygore and Kayzy but fails abysmally on Alexia3.
The Hurricane pummels the Gallon for some damage. Countermeasures is good stuff. It remains toeing the centre zone. Maddox pops around the side of the defensive obstruction to fling out some spells.
Rightwise, the Storm Lancers over here charge into my zone, finishing off the Galleons left side and yet again missing an attack on the Green Eliminator. The Firefly guts an Assassin, leaving one heroic leader model beside the Swan flag, presumably pondering the perilous nature of treating pantaloons as armour.
Swans score their rectangle, now 4-1.
Bottom 4 Merc: Time to seal the deal. I believe this involves a rock of some kind.
Alright, just needs to score two points. My rectangle is a trivial prospect, then it's either pop the swan objective or nab one of the flag.
Countermeasures has been heroic, however it's time is now gone. We upkeep Failsafe so our Galleon does not care about having a Phantom of the Opera style face, but applied to the whole body. Eilish Puppet Strings the big fella, as 7's to hit Storm Lancers is lame. MacBain chills in the trench, Jackhammer kills the two Lancers. There's a single Boomhowler left in my rectangle, he charges and kills the last Storm Lancer for giggles (It's so much nicer when they don't have an armour buff).
Alright, one point in the bag. One to go.
The most straightforward point seems to be the Swan flag, contested by the Firefly. The last Assassin is giving away a melee bonus, we want none of that so he runs up and engages Junior. Galleon moves up to harpoon, unfortunately there's no way to deny the cover bonus. Still, boosted 12 with a re-roll and the damage roll is inconsequential, feels....acceptable?
Yeah, that misses hard. As does the re-roll. Kogsarnat. Glutton for punishment, what the odds on that? 60.94%. Oh well, not brilliant.
The hero Eliminator (I kid on the "the". All Eliminators are heroes.) on this flank charges the Firefly for a whack of damage, which I guess has to count as future prep as I have nothing else meaningful on this flag. Orin/Eilish maneuver for future scoring if it comes to that.
Alright, next plan. Scoring my own flag. One Storm Lancer contesting, Hutchuck was plopped in at last to run and score my flag. It's all on the Freebooter, who cops a freestrike to walk into the back arc. 5's to hit, needs a damage spike or two however with the chain attack I'm optimistic. Horrendously so it turns out, he misses the first swing so no chain attack for him. Mathing out the chances on that one were poor anyway. Alexia tries to land a magic pew pew and misses.
The leftside Eliminator charges the objective, does 6 points. Gurk, should have lined up the objective kill with a Hutchuck charge (I think I didn't as the Freebooter was shy on walk up and punch range? Yeah, let's go with that).
I'm a little stumped at this point. MacBain is in a trench, but presumably still just dies to the Hurrican pew pewing him.
Having nothing left to do, Eirss1 moves up and tries a Disruptor pop shot on Maddox in cover, needing 10's. Lands it. Well well well, maybe we aren't quite Shatner in Kingdom of Spiders yet (Don't watch, it's terrible).
Score our rectangle, now at 5-1.
Top 5 Cygnar: Courage of men speech from that movie that takes forever
It's time for MacBain to die. My protests against this response fail, as drift further and further from the age of Diplomacy (Never played it, sounds......horrible?.
The left Storm Lancers kill Hutchuck and Alexia, freeing up the Storm Strider.
Strider and the Hurricane are the instruments of intended ruin, though thankfully Snipe cycling is off the table (Cheers Eiryss!). Strider lumbers up first, lands it's first hit for 10 points. Eek. Second shot misses, he futzes around in the trench with his dodge. Hurricane gets a focus off Arlen, walks up and....is just in range, because I'm a fool. First attack misses, MacBain does the righty this time and dodges out of range. Success!
The Firefly in an act of final cruelty kills the Eliminator on the right flank, who finally falls into the dirt. It's a trivial scenario win for me at this point (Nothing to contest my rectangle), so that's game. Rockin (Junior missed his attack on the Assassin, so Maddox score centre I score rectangle, Strider had to leave the Swan rectangle for the assassination run. We end 6-2, my turn something contests centre and I win 7-2).
Never in doubt, aside from all those things that happened.
Nect up, we go into the former badgevest of legend, pulled into twisted elvish ways by chonky boys. There's a Falcir list with a Void, so Gorten drop it is.
Gorten remains Rockram, 3x spray bunnies, Nyss, Nemo4 with Freebooter, Eliminators, stack of solos, Dahlia and Skarath.
It's Garryth2 with a pair of Tridents, Moros, another light, two heavies (Look, it's been years. I will never be able to tell the Retribution jacks apart), double Stormfall Archers, double chunky boy solos (Wardens), support solos.
Dangit, MacBain would be fine here. Oh well.
King of the Hill, I won the roll and picked the side with a defensive trench. Also have an obstruction on the centre, a centre forest doesn't really help against Mage Sight Elves. Mostly I avoided irritating water/forests on the elvish side.
Round Uno: Everything is going to be fine....
The Tridents run up the flanks, rest of the Ret stuff moves up as a block between them.
The Rockhammer moves up the left, a pair of Eliminators in the front. Gorten and bunnies scream "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" and get into the trench. Nyss fan out in the centre as Boomie2 throws out some Covering Fire, there's not much RFP on the opposing side so I'm down with them popping (*Something* of mine is getting shot at after all).
Nemo leans toward the right, where it looks like there'll be less shots overall. He camps hard, I lack Shield Guards and he feels like a prime target. Alas his upkeeps. His Freebooter gets the other Eliminaotr unit blocking up in front.
Dahlia/Skarath go extreme right flank, thinking being that they'll be the scorers/contestants for that sides rectangle zone.
Solid Ground is up, I put Strength of Granite on the Rockram. Nemo pulled a (sigh) Steelhead Ironhead out of time in case he doesn't get the chance in the future due to death.
So, the thing about Warden Executioners it they do a weird Vortex Chain attack. Which bypasses Solid Ground. Makes putting Eliminators in front of your low defence Heavies a dumb move. I've played these things before, you wouldn't know it from this match.
Anyway, Elves start doing stuff and it's awful.
Leftwise, the Trident moves up aggressively. The Retribution jacks blob up in the centre. Stormfalls chill back as does Garryth. The right Trident hovers in the relevant rectangle with Scythe.
Casualty wise, the Rockram had both it's arms perfectly sheared off and the attending Kayazy vaporised. Centrally Boomhowler 2, seven Nyss and another Eliminator pop. Rightwise Scythe/Trident kill Skarath. Freebooter also gets dinged up a fair bit.
Writing it out it doesn't seem so bad, on the table it felt catastrophic. The Rockram is no where near any repair and for whatever reason I never considered the Trident might...move forward? I genuinely can't contest the left Rectangle due to the building. Awful misplay deployment wise there (Literally a building Skarath could have hid behind. Yeech.). Oh well, see what we can do.
So, normally when your decisions/RNG have dunked on you it's feat time to rubberband. However, I think feating with Gorten in this instance, which only nets me moving the Ret central Jacks and stat penalising the Tridents, doesn't actually save me. Garryth still has his feat in the wings and I'd have no reply agency. I also don't have any Nyss for disposable charges, that unit needs to be built back up by Nemo.
So it's eek it out and just have a regular turn of disaster recovery.
Leftwise, EIlish pops around the building to contest the left in the future. The Rockram tries a boosted melee attack, I'm just hoping for a low odds Crit stagger. Doesn't pan out, oh well.
Centrally one Bunny got a focus and EIlish' re-roll. He Slams one Retribution heavy into another around the flag. The Steelhead Ironhead Power Lifts Ragman and starts making his way to the Rockram, Ragman moves up and Dark Shrouds. The other two Bunnies try to kill the Warden Executioner, they leave him on a box. Doh.
Nemo's Freebooter gets Lightning Shroud, Locomotion for 1, burns a movement box and trivially kills a knockdowned heavy. Eiryss1 disrupts the other Ret heavy. The last Kayazy stabs a pair of Stormfalls.
Gorten shuffles in the Trench with a couple camp and Solid Ground, Nyss respawn in the Vicinity.
Rightwise, Nemo had to camp a few to live, Signs and Portents isn't enough to help out his shots as he misses the rightside Trident by a mile. Dahlia runs into the right rectangle to contest.
Retribution score the left rectangle on the bottom of two, so 0-1 which feels Icky in a suspicious fluid way rather than a Thump.
Ret 3: We are the Bob Mortimers to your apple
Garryth chills up the back, where he feats and giggles. Has a round of Dogmeat or two (Referring to Pai Gow obv).
Leftwise the Trident smacks the Rockram for a bit more, dings the Spray bunnies for a bit and does a solitary point to the Steelhead Ironhead.
Centrally, Moros comes in from reserve, with the other Ret jacks pops the Freebooter and one Bunny. The Warden Executioners decide they've done enough and start rolling their faces into the dirt, doing abysmally and leaving a Bunny and Ragman alive, contesting away. Sweet.
Rightwise, the Trident also had to contribute to Bunny murder, as Dwarf light Jacks are basically great, plus popping my objective. Scythe trivially kills Dahlia (Haunting Melody wasn't worth putting up this game).
Ret score the rectangle and my objective, now 0-4. We get another turn! Gambit success!
Merc 3: Breathe. Eat some eggs. Chockeslam Mankind on top of a steel cage.
No matter what we must score points this turn to keep the game ticking over. Lacking the tools to kill the Tridents, it has to be push up the centre and score there.
The Eliminator is a bad spot feat wise, runs to the right rectangle and engages Scythe.
Gorten has to get up in the guts and camp, this is the stage where the warcaster *has* to contribute for us to have a chance. The bunny moves across for a pointless melee attack, freeing up a spot for Gorten to charge an Executioner, who he kills, then feats all the Ret jacks back. Also pings the left Trident and sends Garryth/support pieces into Whoop Whoop.
Ragman magic pops the other Executioner, puppeting him into punching a jack before he dies. Eiryss disrupts a jack again. Unfortunately the remaining Ret heavy stays contesting the zone, his push blocked by support solos and the theme wall. Oh well.
Left wise, Orin lightnings Stormfall archers. The Ironhead was out of repair range, so charges the Trident for some points. The Crit Stagger wonder bus continues to not work out, dammit Rockram man. Eilish does a Bleed attack and contests the zone, hugging the house obstruction.
Rightwise, Nemo ports forward, dings the Trident and gets into the zone. Nyss charge and do some damage to the battle engine as well.
We score the flag, now 1-4. Ret models are feated on, so might still be able to limp along.
Leftwise, the Trident backs. Eilish hugs the obstruction and prays hard, which works out as he lives! Trident does tire of the Rockram and finally finishes it off. Ironhead gets left on a couple boxes. -3 RAT is good for ya.
Rightwise, the non-feated on Trident spins a bit and kills the last Bunny, Cylena and one of Nemo's repair boys. Scythe tries and fails to kill the Kayazy engaging her.
Centrally, the jacks limp forward and try to shoot down Ragman. The RAT penalty helps out again, the final shot lands but alas, gets Sucker! onto Gorten who it bounces off of. The heavy did limp into contesting range.
Garryth repos back to his spot behind the wall.
No one scores, remains 1-4.
Merc 4: Yeah baby, swing that....1....inch.......stick......
This is it, a good turn here and we've turned around for a probably win! just need to contest the left, clear the right and jam the middle!
Left wise, the Ironhead dings the enemy objective while Eilish Bleeds. This Trident is sadly super healthy, not much to be done about that. Orin hangs in the trench to contest next turn.
Centrally, Ragman Dar Shrouds, Gorten crits the Ret Heavy back. Eiryss disrupts Moros.
Rightwise, Scythe in the forest is a difficult prospect. We need multiple boosted attack attempts, so we do the oddest of things and charge Nemo4. He lands his initial and splats her. Everything about it felt weird.
The Kayazy charges the back of the Trident, it's a 50/50 to finish it off. Leaves it on two boxes. Dangit. We desperately need the Nyss to go into the Ret jacks.
In desperation we cast out Sauron-esque gaze on the last, unexpected heroes available. Nemo's repair goons. There's two left, we hurridely read their stats, they should both be able to get their 2 inch poles in and it's good odds of......oh......they have 1 inch melee range.......
What in the Phantom Zone is this?! Look at the size of the sticks! Well, we can get one in, just not two. Our potential hero lines, dashes forward, lands the attack and.....leaves the Trident on one box.
Yeah, this is the point I cursed activating Eiryss early.
The Nyss are all engaged by the Trident, they have no choice but to attack it. They get it done, but Gorten is flapping in the breeze, the Retribution jacks no longer penalised by his feat.
I score the right, now 2-4.
Ret 5: Pizza goin out, COME OOOONN
Garryth starts the pot noodle throwing, afterwhich the jacks go in. Gorten needs 3-4 tough rolls to survive, alas he's only good for 2.
Super happy with the crawl back, if not the initial choices. MacBain drops out of the pairing, the optimism of his return now expended. Gorten list not currently up for changes, but who to partner him with?
You know those notions you get, where you it's a bad idea but you have to try it out anyway? Maybe not if your better adjusted than me and don't try dropping MacBain into Archon meta. Sod it, let madness reign.
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