So....three lists. Going off people's last minute pulling together of a third list, I'd put forward the high likelihood of it mostly being a normal two list pairing plus a list that wasn't considered at all.
I was lazy, so rather than testing something useful I threw in Bart hoping it might wrongfoot people in weird ways, though I'd hardly be affected if they didn't.
Gorten1: Usual mix of jacks, pair of Lessers and some stabby individuals
Thexus1: 7 Monstrosities plus Eliminators
Bart1: Double Galleon, Boomhowlers, Rangers (Kingmaker)
So...you can see the stupidity here right?
I will complement my two lists with push based feats with a list centred on two hyper expensive models whose most powerful ability is....a push. Genius.
Sod it, we all know it'll be Gorten all day anyway.
Round 1, it's Nemo3, Maddox1 and another list I don't recall beyond it wasn't Haley. Doesn't matter, from what I saw Nemo was clearly the right choice for the Swans. Sure enough:
Nemo3 (Storm Bringers) - Dynamo, Centurion, Firefly, Squire, Junior w/Firefly, Storm Strider, Storm Lancers, Laddermore, Stormcallers, Field Mechanic and Gobbers
Objective: Bunker
Scenario is Extraction.
Terrain wise, both sides have a wall an off one flag and a trench in the backfield, then there's a central and flanking hill, last the less hilly side has a forest.
I win the roll. My feat isn't going to be pushing anything, the opposing list has lots of tools that will threaten my armour debuff solos, so lets get up the board and slow these guys while chilling in flag land (It's a really lame version of Lego Land, or possibly a niche cool subset of Lego Land?) .
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Merc 1: Gorten and jacks go up the left side of my Objective, Lessers go up on the right. Acosta and one unit of Vengeance trigger Eliminators go up on the right white hill (White terrain on white table. I have selected poorly). Other Eliminators go waaay left.
Eliminators went in their locations because in my heart they are already dead to copious lightning leaps. Acosta is hilarious to have in this matchup, just have to keep him away from pointy bits and he dance in the ranged attacks all day.
[img] https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5_Q7mxYmIVIGSxRM5Zs7ndHwomVK_SQAwmWAXKxyon9qiY4BxREl16wZJk1OQyszl6gwzx6WnduifmiyaMFAnNJsLNOOUn_bRDPkhtC6Yun0aHXeQq2axIUE5IbcJfbpDFkkiJe_Hxs-d/s1600/002+%2528800x450%2529.jpg[/img]
Cygnar 1: No dramatic redeployments, Nemo and the jack bros face off against my own battlegroup, they run up. Centurion is anchoring the far left, gets the "I'm super zappy" spell. Nemo casts the no Push spell, this'll happen a lot.
On the right, Stormstrider runs up behind the forest.
Junior puts Arcane Shield on the Lancers, who spread out with Laddermore in the rear.
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Merc 2: This is the turn in which we wait. Nemo will likely feat shortly and blat jacks, so the plan is to not give away more than we need to with that, we can do the threat range dance on the left and wait for the Lancers to come forward on the right.
Extreme left, the Red Eliminators run way up, now in line with all the Swan robots. One goes behind the mini-wall, the other hangs behind her just in command.
Left Centre, three of the Bunnies walk into a line and confess to the crime. By which I mean they killed a pair of mechanics. Gorten went behind them, camped three (Upkept Strength of Granite and Solid Ground). Acosta runs from the right to near the Bunny line, as the Stormlancers are the mostly likely to kill him and no viable ranged opposing attacks make him super worth keeping alive.
To the right of my objective, the Crocs Submerge, I keep transfers around instead of Star Crossed because Nemo Lightning bad. One Spray Bunny and Driller go tot eh right of the Crocs, barely toeing control area. The Driller is intended to kill stuff on the flag, the Spray Bunny is there to die as there isn't a super amount for it to do and I need disposable contesting pieces potentially.
On the far right, the world looks like a different place. The Green Eliminators run up and chock up the Stormlancers, I'm expecting they'll die easy to leaps but they are their primarily as an annoyance anyway. Pigs actually walk back a bit with a smoke drop, keeping things that might go on the flag in threat range.
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Cygnar 2: Nemo, Finch and Squire chill in the trench, pop feat.
To my utter surprise the Centurion charges team Eliminator Distraction. Gets the kill, be he's well away from the flag so everything is good. Dynamo then opens up its Speculum arm, shoots away the left Driller. Fireflies pings the Bunnies, kill the front Gunner and do some zaps on the other two.
On the right, Junior slogs his way into the forest, allowing the Stormstrider to shoot him and kill the left most Green Eliminator on the Lancers, Laddermore tries and fails to clear off the other one.
The Lancers then shift around a little, one of them shoots their bro to lightning kill the remaining Green Kayazy, who as far as I'm concerned are a complete success, like the reverse of pop up internet ads.
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Merc 3: The plan is working out. The Driller loss was saddening, but well within the average damage. What surprised me were the amount of attacks put into the bunnies, rather than trying to screw around and kill my support pieces.
Far left, Green Eliminator moves up into the Cygnar backfield. Probably dead next turn, but if not its Finch and Squire stab time (Model moved after photo taken).
Gorten moves up to be behind the fog that has managed to persist all game, I feat on the Centurion, Dynamo and Firefly. All Nemo's, so they don't move. The Centurion is far enough and slow enough that it won't be able to contest next turn, which makes things easier.
He then pops a shot into Dynamo, does a good hit with a boosted damage roll.
The Gunner goes to the left flag, also shoots Dynamo.
Spray Bunny moves up, lightly touches Dynamo and kills the remaining two mechanics.
I then um and arr over sending Acosta in, as my pieces to fight the Centurion in the closing stages aren't in good spots. I decide it was worth getting some damage out, so Savio charges in, manages to spoon out the Cortex. Sweet.
Now that Dynamo can't stab heavies to death, Snapjaw charges and eats Nemo's Firefly with a charge and a bought attack. Wrongeye hangs back on high camp, I'm expecting Snappy will just frenzy on a swan model anyway.
On the right, Aiyanna/Holt stay stealthy in the backfield. The Spray Bunny moves up, gets a bead on Junior, manages to do a couple boxes (Odds of outright killing were low, but not like the Bunny will get better plays).
Brine gets smoked and charges up into two Lancers, easily eats them. Rorsh stays on reasonable camp, again I expect the Pig to die or Frenzy on something not mine.
I foolishly didn't put the Spray Bunny in base with the flag, so the Driller has to tap to score, which isn't ideal placement, he ought to be further left in case he is needed to kill the Objective or Storm strider.
Mercs go to 2 CP.
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Cygnar 3: Firefly on Junior still lives, so it transforms into a proxy base, rolls out to the right flag, stabs the Spray Bunny over there a bit.
Laddermore and Stormlancers come in, they kill Brine and finish off the Bunny, then reposition to spread out.
Centre wise, Dynamo and Storm Strider go into Snapjaw, damage him heavily but he stays both alive and with all aspects.
On left, Centurion limps back toward the flag. Finch hides behind the top left mini-wall. The Squire back up and shows Nemo it's backside, allowing a gun shot and lightning leap to kill the Green Eliminator, the Gollum of the match (Also participated in endless walking, only instead of a smooth eagle ride home dies to an environmental affect).
Nothing contests the left flag, so Mercs go to 3 CP.
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Mercs 4: Snapjaw frenzies, puts some points on the Stormstrider, gets pushed back a bit.
There's a Lancer, Firefly on the Stormstrider contesting the right flag, has Snapjaw not frenzied that'd be an easy prospect, as is I save my focus and plan on killing the Objective for the win.
Acosta walks around Dynamo, to be between the Swan jack, Strider and Snapjaw. Swing ont he objective, I was expecting him to do a good belt but rolls under average, leaving the Objective on an uncomfortable amount of health. It's a Bunker, so the guns are going to have trouble.
Nevertheless, Gorten, the Spray Bunny and the Gunner give it a shot, I believe it gets left on a couple boxes. Gorten also backed up up a bit before the inevitable assassination attempt, given my clock game is also going in my favour.
Well, game isn't over, so now it's do spot damage and hold tight.
I do what I should have done earlier to free up Acosta getting a charge, as Wrongeye charges Dynamo with his reach stick and kills it without to much trouble, given how damaged it was.
The Driller shuffles to be in base the Strider to stop it getting any closer to Gorten and add to the freestrike list, attacks Juniors Firefly on the right flag and kills it.
Between Aiyanna Kissing and the Holt/Rorsh guns I kill two more Storm Lancers, leaving one member of the unit still trucking.
Last of all Ragman, who has been super relevant, runs to get in the way of the Centurion.
Mercs go to 4 CP.
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Cygnar 4: They have to go for assassination and they are cognisant of that.
Nemo and the Strider both pew pew, Nemo does so little damage I don't even focus it down. The Storm Strider misses all its attacks (Def 13 is apparently boss).
After that its some kill points gained before the scenario loss, Centurion fails to kill Ragman so Finch gets it done, Laddermore/Junior/lancer try to kill the other Junior but don't quite manage it.
One up, another good start allowing us to get some height before plunging screaming on fire down to the ground. Like cousin Lucy Fur. Don't smoke and skydive people.
