Last time this happened (Canberra SS Heat?) I then went into Frawl's Cygnar and got drubbed. Good times.
So anyway, Frawls round 2. With Cygnar. Blergh.
Scenario is Recon, to re-iterate my lists, as scrolling up to other posts is lame:
Gorten - Earthbreaker, Thor, Hawk, Madelyn, Gorman, Tinker, Anastasia, 2x Press Gangers, pAlexia + Risen, Gun Mages + The Dude
Objective: Effigy of Valor
Durgen - Gunner, Blaster, eEiryss, Rorsh + Brine, Dougal, Reinholdt, Rockbottom, Ragman, eAlexia, Acosta, Gun Mages + UA, Aiyanna + Holt, 2x Press Gangers
Objective: Effigy of Valor
Frawlzed is rocking Haley2 and 3, I think either of my lists can make it a game of sorts, but Haley 3 with trencher smoke clouds is no good for Durgen, so Gorten it is. Frawliest drops Haley 2, so we have a rematch from our last game.
eHaley - Stormwall(Bonded), Thorn, Squire, Gun Mages + UA + Sentinel, Aiyanna + Holt, Black 13th, Junior, eEiryss
Objective: Bunker
Recon is a bit of a saving grace for me, as that is a scenario I can make a play for, trade feats to keep it going and have enough pieces at the end to close out.
Merc Deploy: I win the roll and pick first, I want to get up the board as quick as I can before Haley feat slows me up.
Cygnar Deploy: Stormwall is facing off against Earthbreaker, a necessity as nothing else in the list threatens my Colossal (Though Time Bombs can make it super sad). Normal Gun Mages go on the left, Aiyanna/Holt and the Black 13th on the right. EEiryss hides in the forest on the right.
Merc 1: I run stuff up, not as far as I could/should have. Last time we did this dance I tripped and lost a lot of Press Ganger corpses by pushing too far forward, I did the inverse this time and compressed myself by about 3 inches. Gorten puts up Strength of Granit and Solid Ground, these are upkept most of the game.
Cygnar 1: Stormwall Temporal Accelerates to toe the zone and puts down Covering Fire. Gun Mages/Black 13th advance, add the Ryan cloud to the Covering Fire Line. Haley casts Deflection and Cruises in the back. Arcane Shield goes on the Stormwall, where it stays for a loooooog time.
Merc 2: Haley was holding feat, which was unfortunate. The earlier she pops it the sooner I can start making effective plays, when that happened this was set to be a long grind unless I died early.
The Earthbreaker had to do work, which means stopping the Stormwall from smacking it. I can use a wall to stop the direct assault, but Haleys Colossal gets such speed it can charge me in the side, which means relying on tough models jamming those locations.
My junk runs forward, Alexia is key to Pirate Grind so she hides behind Gormans Cloud. Gorten stays completely hidden behind the Objective and Earthbreaker to ensure TK death doesn't happen. I spawn a Thrall, who charges Thorn and miss (But hey, I got an attack roll, so that's something I guess).
Hawk runs tot he right of the Press Gangers, intent being for her to hunt Eiryss or at least Engage and threaten a Free Strike (Eiryss has a lot of trouble killing Hawk herself).
I keep my Gun Mages back, as with Deflection/Dead Eye they lose to the opposing Gun Mages early on and I'll probably need them to push back the Cygnar lights out of the zone late game.
Cygnar 2: Haley stays way back and Deflects again. Gun Mages/Black 13th/Holt shoot down Press Gangers, though in the opening turns my tough rolls are on fire. Thorn charges in and arcs a pair of Arcane Bolts into Alexia, I lose about six or so Risen but Alexia is undamaged.
Eiryss runs in and Arcane Interferences the Earthbreaker.
Significantly, Stormwall doesn't activate. That's terrible for Frawleon, but I try to make it up to him afterwards.
Merc 3: Haley still hadn't feated to my surprise, I presume it's because she hadn't attritioned me down enough with Alexia still ticking, but that's merely a guess on my part.
I'd been planning the half activations in my head, that ended up not being the case and Covering Fire wasn't hemmingme in so I had to take as much advantage as I could. Initially I was settling on moving around a little, using a Risen to Blast Damage Eiryss dead and leaving it at that.
Having a real turn, I aimed to kill Thorn and Eiryss and jam up as much as I could, still keeping the Earthbreaker screened.
The Smurfs (Right Pressgangers) charges Eiryss and engaged Holt and a Black 13th. They killed the Assassin, so that was one job out of the way.
Gorman moves across to "Can't miss range" and Blinds a pair of Communists (Red, left Press Ganger unit) and Thorn.
Communists on the left engaged the Sentinel and a Gun Mage (Should have been two, but I didn't ensure the model was in melee range). One Blinded Ganger also died to a Thorn free strike.
Thorn Tunes up for Attack Rolls, Earthbreaker moves up a knocks Thorn down, does a couple shots then I give up on those because it isn't going to do much (Unboosted 13's on 20 is sad, and clock is a resource I can't throw away in this matchup).
Gorten moves up behind the Colossal, shoots Thorn with a Combo shot for some damage and puts a wall in front of the Earthbreaker again.
Alexia charges Thorn, three spawned Risen go into his back. One Risen also stands in front of the Stormwall and screams COME AT ME BRO. Alexia burns a number of backfield Risen to pop the jack.
Madelyn runs onto the wreck marker, because she's all about that.
Cygnar 3:The swans had tired of my shenanigans, it was go time.
Haley moves up a bit and feats, then Temporal Accelerates the fully loaded Stormwall. She TK'ed a friendly model, I think Aiyanna but I don't quite remember.
Aiyanna and Holt walk up to the engaging Smurfs, Aiyanna Harms the Earthbreaker. Holt kills one Pressganger, but misses a Gunfighter gun shot and ends up killing Aiyanna.
RIGHTEOUS.
He passes his command check, so maximum hilarity isn't quite achieved. Black 13th clear off the one Risen in front of the Stormwall and clear out the Smurf blockade/Earthbreaker screen, my die rolls for tough balancing out for their earlier success.
The Gun Mages advance and clear out the Commies, leaving one Survivor, ironically the most forward bloke engaging one of them.
Go time, Storm Wall charges Earthbreaker on the right side of it. The Pod puts the Tinker on one box and fails to hurt Anastasia. The Stormwall punches the Earthbreaker, leaves it on about six boxes on the left side, with a single one left in Cortex. Electro Leaps from its attacks also kill Gorman and do three boxes to Gorten.
Squire and Sentinel shield Haley.
Merc 4: Frawls had measured his Control area to make sure he nabbed Anastasia in feat, this meant I knew that I had full activations out of my support pieces and the Gun Mages.
Simple plan at this stage, I was going to get a huge load of Risen, they'd gum up the opposing Gun Mages, my own iteration would ping out the Squire, Earthbreaker would try to take out the Stormwall.
I drop the wall at this point, it has served it's purpose. I fully load the Breaker.
Tinker advances and repairs the right arm, Thor tunes for Damage, Earthbreaker makes four attacks, hitting on fours, boosted damage +2. I miss an attack alas, if they all hit then on average I kill it, but Defence 10 can have it's time in the sun I guess. Stormwall loses one side and has about 15 to 20 boxes to go.
The small amount of Press Gangers fuddle around in sadness, the last few Smurfs (Obscured in the shitty photo by the Earthbreaker) block up the Stormwall, as does Anastasia.
Risen swarm the Gun Mages, they kill one them at least.
The Gun Mages advance, finally there is no deflection so they make shots to kill the Squire. I get five shots on the squire, one gets Shield Guarded by the sentinel, one puts it on one box and the other three miss. Swallow Sadness.
I forgot to activate Gorten, but he wouldn't have done much (This is not where I flub up in a way that makes up for the lost Stormwall activation). The Gun Mages should have aimed to kill Holt, he's a much more valuable piece late game. My real saving Grace is that the Tinker wasn't hit by Haley's feat, so he could advance and repair the crippled Earthbreaker arm.
Cygnar 4: Stormwall moves around a bit, Pod kills Madelyn and hits Alexia down to a box and kills some Risen. He kills the Earthbreaker, leaps kill Tinker, buys and boosts to slaughter Anastasia.
Black 13th toe the zone and fail to kill Alexia. Gun Mages clear off the Risen that are gumming them up, Haley casts Deflection again and stays hidden. I have no idea what Holt did.
Merc 5: I'd hemmed the Stormwall out of the zone, this meant The objective and Black 13th were the only things stopping me scoring. Simple enough, kill what I can, clear zone, start pinging the Stormwall with Gorten as he prepares to man mode life.
Alexia goes into the objective and kills it, other Risen kill another couple Gun Mages whilst a few more, with the last Smurf, gum up Stormwall.
Gorten moves into the Earthbreaker wreck for his mighty two inches, feats on Stormwall and pushes the Black 13th out of the zone. He does a Combi shot into the Stormwall for nothing, then casts double Molten Metal to chisel of about eight health and the right arm.
Gun Mages move into the zone, most go into wrecks. They kill the Magestorm tosser.
Thor scratches his head in confusion on his purpose in life.
Mercs go to 3CP!
Cygnar 5: Haley Deadeyes both units, casts Deflection.
13th kill off Alexia, Holt toes the zone as does the Sentinel, clearing off a Risen/Smurf blocking the Stormwall.
Gun Mages stab more Risen, shoot down a pair of the Amethyst Rose not in cover.
Stormwall toes the zone, pods into the back of the zone, killing Piper and inflicting a point to Thor.
Merc 6: Must keep chipping at Stormwall and try to clear zone! If Gorten stays in the zone even on no camp he's very survivable, so I have to use that to live on.
Gorten drops Solid Ground for the first time in....I have no idea.
He Aims, does a double shot into the Stormwall and boosts damage, then casts a Molten Metal and kill it.
Like a boss.
The Gun Mages aim/toes wrecks, they Thundershot the Sentinel out of the zone.
I declare that the Risen and Thor forfeit and declare the win (Note: Be classy, thank your opponent instead of saying you win, it's waaaaaaaaaaay less douchey).
This is the point I finally make it up to Frawlein, as he points out the pod I'd forgotten about at the back of the zone.
He starts his turn while I slap my face (Photo is before we removed the Stormwall model).
Cygnar 7: Gun Mages, Squire and Holt walk into the zone and kill a Gun Mage (The Wreck Markers save me a lot here). The Sentinel runs into a more central location of the zone. Black 13th run to the Stormwall wreck. Haley becomes the recipient of Arcane Shield and holds back.
Picture above is the final board state, it goes a for at least another three turns or so.
Merc turn 7, at this point my only plan is to clear out the zone and get that CP win I'm one Domiante away from.
Thor turns around and Flamethrowers the back pair of Stormpods down.
The Gun Mages push Holt and knock him down, Deflection keeps him alive. They also knock back the Sentinel toward the opposing Gun Mages.
Gorten then casts Eruption, killing four Gun Mages and dinging up the sentinel, whom he also does a Combi Shot into for more damage.
We play multiple short turns after this. He casts Deflection constantly and keep Haley back, this keeps his Squire, Sentinel and Black 13th alive against my Gun Mages, who slowly get whittled away. I thundershot the Sentinel out a few times, using Eruption and Combi shots to strip off his arms early on.
On the final Cygnar turn, Haley runs to the right flag to score a point and leaves the Sentinel, now with just it's Cortex Boxes left, and one Gun Mage in the Thorn Wreck Marker to contest. I have Gorten and one last Gun Mage (Also the Objective stopping Cygnar going for a Domiante plan in this last game phase).
The Gun Mage aims, Thundershots the Sentinel out with, then rolls Box cars to kill it for some insult to Injury. Gorten then casts Eruption at the Storm Pod next to the final contesting Gun Mage, killing him and giving me the game, 5 CP to 2.
Me on the right.
That was amazing. Some screw ups on both sides, the Stormwall being the most significant, but this is easily my favourite game of the year at this point and will struggle to be toppled.
Definitely a few solo positioning errors I have to watch for int he case of this matchup, mainly the Tinker/Thor package, which I think I manage by keeping my feat available to threaten Haley. I'd love a way to kill Eiryss prior to the interference bomb, but that's not achievable with this list currently (Not reliably anyway).
I think this is the first time I've had to cast Eruption, definitely the first time for Molten metal. It's probably the first match where I cast everyone of my Warnouns spells and it was the right choice to use it, though I should have Molten Metalled prior to doing the Gun shots, as that is more likely to remove systems by stripping armour boxes.
