After six odd months including an arbitrary extension cause I was slothful, the Swans are a go!
Thanks to Badge Vest Guy for being an enabler.
eCaine - 'Ol
Objective: Effigy of Valor
Basically cribbing off the most popular internet builds, with TAC thrown in because I fear Caine dying to a stiff breeze.
I hadn't really thought about Objective which is criminal, I went with Effigy for the Cover.
I went in against Southster, best of the Canberra lot at the Saturday heat with Kaelyssa using the stuff he doesn't normally indulge in.
Kaelyssa - Imperatus, Disco ball, Silly Wishes-he-could-nail, MHSF + UA, Infiltrators + 3Eiryss + 2x MHA, 2x Arcanists, Aiyanna + Holt
Objective: Effigy
As the first man points out after the game, a bunch of the stuff I did was irrelevant against Ret, but I was mainly concentrating on just learning how the list plays out in general so I was ok with some suboptimal plays for the matchup.
Caine Deploy: I won the die roll and picked first, at the time I was trying to remember how my opening turn was going to go, counter deploying under those circumstances seemed like a bad prospect. In hindsight, I think I spread out to much, the Boomhowlers could have been a single continuous line and Ol' Rowdy/Aiyanna + Holt behind them rather than out on the flank.
Ret Deploy: Painted unit on the left is the strike force, Infiltrators on the right. People doing acrobatics off Pillars and bird baths are the Assassins.
Caine 1: Next pic not as blurry, I promise...
The TAC end up intermingled with the Boomhowlers, I thought the right side were going to go around the Obstruction but the line of TAC mucked Murdochs placement. Ol' Rowdy and Aiyanna/Holt stay on the flank for no good reason.
Blur goes on the TAC, Heightened Reflexes on the Boomhowlers and True Shot on Caine. The Boomies also went to Ground this turn.
This is gong to take a bit more thought before next game. Go To Ground was one of the moves irrelevant in the matchup but that I wanted to impress on my brain was a rule Murdoch has.
Ret 1: It all runs up, Discordia pops the Armour buff imprint. One of the Mage Hunter Assassins ends up way forward to be mean and threaten Ol' Rowdy. I think anyway. Phantom Hunter went on Kaelyssa.
Caine 2: So, what I wanted to do was walk Caine forward, kill the Assassin on the hill and take a pot shot at any other Infiltrator in range then fall back, have the TAC move forward and cloud him to safety.
My TAC placement buggered that up, as Caine couldn't walk past them and his Teleport stops the range game. I end up clouding with the TAC first, one of them does an irrelevant Flameburst instead so that Caine can draw LoS to the smuck on the hill.
The Boomhowlers get the tough boost and assault forward, Greygore falls way back (More on that later). Gun Mages move up and pop off a few Strike Force. Alexia runs up to claim Corpses. I move Reinholdt/Squire behind the Obstruction, which cuts off the Lane Ol' Rowdy was going to take to get near Caine and some game relevancy. Instead the Jack mopes around next to the Rock. Anastasia goes in front of him to draw some Infiltrators out.
Gah, big and basic mistakes at this point. Greygore so far back would cancel the 4+ tough effect when Murdoch dies (Models have to be in formation), Reinholdt acted after Caine, Ol' Rowdy was in a pointless spot.
Ret 2: Infiltrators come in, they kill a TAC. Kaelyssa stays behind her wall. Narn charges a pair of Boomhowlers who both tough. Strike Force kill Murdoch and a few other models, Greygore is now well out of command of the unit. Anastasia also got popped by the Infiltrators, Rowdy counter charged in between to kill an Infiltrator. Discordia sprays a bunch of the Gun Mages down.
Caine 3: The Jam is down, my Heavy/Damage Buff won't be contributing for at least another turn and my units are in disarray. Time for my Caster to take the tools Q has given him and throw this villainous elf down a smoke stack.
I run a Ranger through the forest to be within 5 of Kaelyssa after upkeeping True Shot and pulling from the Squire. Gun Mages/TAC clear out some infiltrators. Caine gets Reloaded, walks forward, pops feat and burns all his focus buying attacks, killing Kaelyssa on the last shot.
Me on the right.
That was ugly. Southron pointed out that Imperatus could easily have been blocking Kaelyssa, my frazzled brain failed to spot it at the time but Taryn could have then walked forward and shadowfired anyway.
I'll play this iteration of the list at least another couple times, I think the TAC cloud wall will be easy to handle but I'm not sure if it's the best use of the points, with some added concern about the damage output of the list.
Current changes contemplated: Drop TAC/Taryn, add eEiryss and something.
