Went ahead and threw out most of the 2 point models to get Eiryss/Journeyman in.
Threw in the Bunker as an experiment, that change will be short lived.
eCaine - 'Ol Rowdy, Squire, Rangers, Boomhowlers, Gun Mages + Dude, pAlexia + Risen, Aiyanna + Holt, TAC, Piper, Reinholdt, eEiryss, Journeyman Warcaster
Objective: Bunker
A wild Chris appears! He uses Menoth! It's....moderately effective, not bad but definitely not super.
Theoretical pair is eCaine/eStryker vs High Reclaimer/eFeora, all lists leaning toward the Dude patrol of warmachine.
After this game I'll start throwing in Stryker practice, but I was lazy and only had Caine out at this stage. so naturally:
High Reclaimer - Vanquisher, Vengers, 2x Knights Exemplar, Croes Cutthroats, Nicia, Gorman, Vassal, Orin, Anastasia, Wracks, Gastonne
Objective: Bunker
Scenario is Two Fronts. I figure I'll need to spread and try to do junk around the clouds, until people with a clue point out the Caine charge + Gatecrash assassination run means Reclaimer has to stay 18.5 away from Caine or die.
Menoth Deploy: I win the die roll and pick the side with a hill and linear. Croes go behind the forest, Knight flank either side of the normal deploy, Vengers are in the centre. The lone AD model on the right is Nicia.
Cygnar Deploy: Caine went near the wall to hide behind it in future turns, the loads of support behind him. I put the Gun Mages on the right theorising they'd need to spread out one side to try to stress the cloud wall.
Menoth 1: Croes take up the forest real estate, Vengers go to the front of the blob of models that stick behind the clouds.
Cygnar 1: Caine gets Reloaded, throws out his upkeeps, walks to the wrong side of the wall and shoots down two Croes. Gun Mages/Rangers spread out on the right, Boomhowlers shout for uber toughness and run to be in the way. Eiryss starts running up the right board edge. Junior puts Arcane Shield on Caine.
I'm flanking again, it feels so right.
Stupidly greedy with Caine here, if a couple Boomhowlers die then the Vengers can be killed by Menoth friendly, resurrected by Reclaimer feat, charge in and put a Spike through Caine's head. Unfortuante placement means that Rowdy isn't a position to Counter Charge because of the wall, but rally I shouldn't have put Caine in a dumb spot and just not killed some low value Croes.
Menoth 2: The Croes move up to try to get the assassination on. Luckily they suck so hard they only hit three times and the Boomies tough each one. The Vengers charge in, capping a pair of Boomhowlers. Nicia runs to the friendly objective, the intermingled Knights move up the middle and go behind the Cloud wall, one of them capping the suicide Ranger I used to boost Caines silly shots. Orin Null Magic's.
Tough and Crow incompetence saves me, I'll take it for now, hopefully I don't ever do it again (I will, but not in the short term memory future, so seven days or so).
Cygnar 2: I pull off the Squire, upkeep True Shot and Arcane Shield. I want to run Alexia up, feed her with Croe corpses and use my feat to box the Vengers. Its not game winning, but I lack other RFP and the Vengers are the best feat target unit in the Menoth list. Each Menoth unit has a far back straggler, so finishing off the units wholesale isn't really an option at this point.
Alexia runs to my Objective, Risen spread out in the back. Holt caps a couple Croes, Aiyanna Harms the Vengers. Rangers run around, one goes up on the hill to boost Caines shots.
Caine feats, aims, burns four focus buying shots to RFP the Vengers, aside from the lone straggler way back behind the Cloud Wall. TAC cloud in front of Caine, one throws a Flame Burst at a magical clump of Croes. He misses, because he is a git, ends up killing one Croe and an Exemplar Knight.
The Gun Mages coast on to the hill and pop another pair of Croes. The Boomhowlers charge, one misses a Croe, three of them slap the enemy Objective down to three boxes. Boomie shots 4+ tough and stands on the hill. Eiryss gets tot eh enemy deployment zone.
Because of my previous turn of lame Caine shenanigans, Reinholdt couldn't Reload this turn. I dislike my TAC positioning this turn, had I moved them further up then Caine wouldn't be in set-on-fire-by-the-Vanquisher potential position.
Menoth 3: The Croes make it known they are actually Melee kings, killing a Boomhowler and hitting Alexia, a thankfully low damage roll leavers her on a box with six Risen to ticking. Nicia goes into Rowdy, does three points, kills a TAC then Sprints to be behind my Jack engaging him and a pair of Gun Mages. Gorman throws the Green stuff at the Menoth Objective, Corrodes it and does a damage point and killing the three Boomhowlers engaging it. The Knights go in and finish off another Boomie but fail to kill Greygore. Vanquisher hits my Objective, does a couple points, kills a Croe and sets Alexia on fire. Reclaimer pumps out a load of clouds, Orin Null Magic's.
Cygnar 3: I want to start scoring defensively, having buggered it up last time and kill off one of the Exemplar units. Fire does six point to Alexia, exactly enough to remove the Risen in play at the time and leave her on a box, Risen then re-emerge. Caine taps the Squire, keeps True Shot and throws a focus to Rowdy.
Eiryss moves in and shoots the insurance Knight way up the back, had she missed I would have just had to jam in Rangers and be a weaker position.
Aiyanna Harms the target Knight unit, Holt shoots down Taryn.
Alexia and the Risen finish off the Croes, Greygore Rage Howls but Gorman/Orin both pass their checks. Caine caps a pair of Exemplars, clearing the zone, then Gate Crashes to the back of the zone. TAC cloud in front of him.
Rowdy turns a bit, one handed throws a Risen to knock down Nicia, as a bonus the damage roll flat out kills her saving the Junior having to do a shot.
At this juncture I realise the mistake I've made, the last Knight in the unit I'm trying to kill off is in the right zone and I've expended my high damage attacks.
The Gun Mages move up and do Crit Brutals. None of them Crit, but I luck out and roll and an eleven on the damage with a Gun Mage to go.
Cygnar go to 1 CP.
Menoth 4: Corrosion does a damage point to the objective, one health remaining. Gastonne shoots down Eiryss, sadness. Orin lightnings an Exemplar to pop a forward Risen, the Vanquisher Threshers to kill the other forward Risen and one of the Knights. Vassal Ancillaries the Vanquisher, who shoots my blob of Risen, setting the last Boomhowler Grunt and a Risen on fire. The last Venger goes into Greygore, leaves him on four boxes. Gorman throws the Green stuff, kills two Gun Mages.
Reclaimer moves to the left side of his zone, feats back the three Knights available to him and does a much reduced amount of clouds.
The resurrected Knights go, one puts the Objective down to two boxes, one caps Greygore and the three do some damage to Rowdy but take nothing out. Anastasia charges a contesting Ranger but misses.
Cygnar 4: Running low on clock now, plan is to rush scenario by killing Knights, jamming the Vanquisher and killing the Hierophant to stop any chances of fire going on Caine. Two focus to Rowdy, Squire is emptied. Fire kills another four Risen, but Alexia lives.
Rowdy tremors and knocks down the three Knights engaging him. Aiyanna then harms them, Holt kills the one on my Objective. Caine kills the Venger and centre Knight then Gate Crashes back to the edge of my zone. TAC charge and kill the knockdown Knights, Battle Wizarding Flame Bursts to finish off the unit.
The Rangers move around, they shoot down Gorman and surprisingly stab Anastasia to death.
Alexia and Risen jam around the Vanquisher, a pair go into the Hierophant and CMA him to death.
Junior puts Arcane Shield on Caine in case of random death syndrome.
Cygnar go to 2 CP.
Menoth 5: No pic as time is awasting. Corrosion kills the Menoth Objective. Gastonne toes the right zone and kills a Ranger then a Gun Mages. Reclaimer stabs a Ranger then clouds up. The Vanquisher tramples to my Objective, kills a pair of Risen on the way but misses a boosted attack on Alexia. He then kills my Bunker.
Cygnar go to 3 CP.
Menoth go to 1 CP.
Cygnar 5: Fire goes out on Alexia. Load up Rowdy, between Aiyanna Harm, a TAC charge and Rowdy walking in the Vanquisher pops.
A Gun Mage walks up, hits Gastonne with a Thunderbolt and kills him outright.
A Risen runs to the appropriate spot, Caine then charges him and Gate Crashes into the Menoth Zone for the winning Dominate.
Me on the left.
That early Caine move was obviously unwise, mostly happy with the overall play after that aside from fixable activation errors. Bunker was a pipe dream, back to Effigy. Aside from the early Venger charge and letting go of the Croes dream not sure how Menoth does this one differently, possibly try to force the scoring earlier?
Haven't got the Caine placement down, now at least aware of the Gatecrash threat but I feel very disinclined to use it. Will play out another couple games before changes again, currently contemplating for the TAC to go out and Gorman/Madelyn to go in.
