Lists, specific test items in bold:
Gorten1 (Hammerstrike theme)
Driller
Driller
Driller
Blaster
Siege Crawler
Siege Crawler
Forge Guard (Max)
Tactical Arcanist Corp
Tactical Arcanist Corp
Horgenhold Artillery Corp (Free)
Horgenhold Artillery Corp (Free)
Ogrun Solo [Bonded to Gorten] (Free)
Objective: Armory
Goreshade1 (Thrall theme)
Stalker
Stalker
Bone Chicken
Bone Chicken
Bane Warriors (Max)
Bane Warrior US (Free)
Bane Knights
Bane Riders
Tartarus (Free)
Machine Wraith
Scrap Thralls (6)
Wraith Engine
Objective: Fuel Cache
Can't vouch 100% on the Cryx list, it matches what was on the table.
Matchup wise I thought this was going to be straight up awful for me, lots of opposing armour cracking and Stealth options.
Scenario was The Pit 2, Clustered Method terrain set up.
Terrain set up wise, tried it with the smallest amount of recommended pieces (6) to see how well it worked out. Initial attempt at Quadrant produced a poor result, so I swapped to cluster. put an obstruction down touching the centre point, then put down a fog, trench, wall, hill circling around it. One side needed to have a source of elevation to match the global terrain rules, so the last hill got plonked at the relevant distance on one flank.
I won the roll and opted to go first. The table looked sufficiently neutral that I went first, LoS was freely available, the centre obstruction was usable to counter Gortens feat somewhat from both sides and the hills were not going to be super relevant for me given the lack of opposing guns.
My deployment is highly symmetrical, TAC/Crawlers on both flanks, Jacks and Forge Guard central, Artillery in the backfield.
Cryx has a Stalker on the extremes of both flanks, then the Riders on the left, Bane Warriors left/centre, Goreshade in the middle, Wraith Engine on centre/right, Knights on the right.
Clouds are placed to the right of the wall, forming a line that blocks line of sight to the Knights to start with.
NOTE: MULTIPLE PROXIES USED BY ME. PHOTOS MAY HARD TO INTERPRET.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1sVom8r51eVnNe6mQtOyqmH0o5iDYHqGT7-tL_FrZmntFDxHaqSdmqECT8GpLOM70zc90kXSSbC4eJFwY-_aqGvSD615UtJZ3tPXmlAWO8sTPTd_EtE332yXQ-eBqMTQdTz5Lh94GpKU/s1600/002+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Merc 1: No super plans at this point, everything basically just runs up. Gorten pops out Strength of Granite/Solid Ground, though these would be dropped as irrelevancies next turn.
A TAC member hangs back to keep the Reinforcements going for the game, the opposing RFP being relatively limited. The other TAC members float out to the sides, the Hammer Dwarfs and Drillers go up the centre. Gorten leans up toward the right side, heading for the boundary between the circle zone and the right rectangle iteration.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdzuUgeFkcbzjTMVPAiF1ExJKhyphenhypheniX1SdUKm2Br_gDzi_3dwJY_KoV9XiYBbZ3qVT6yPV0ejoUX56YyDB6lVuYsqTXEwqaIGB3ZUrbu7m81Dih_TAdv1tnUYivaullEv3yPqUAvStqELeKD/s1600/003+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Cryx 1: The counter run up turn!
Stalkers go to the extreme flanks, a few outs to the side of either rectangle zone.
The Bane Riders spread out a bit, the Machine Wraith goes up in front of them next to the Cryian objective. Two of the Riders go into the trench.
Bane Warriors run up into the Cryx side of the Circle zone.
Bane Knights split into three base to base Wall of Steel mobs, two lots go into the Bane Theme clouds for Prowl, the remaining four go behind said clouds.
Goreshade moves up to be behind the wall, seeing the threat from a Driller getting magic weaponed by Armory the Wraith Engine moves to the centre in the backfield.
Scrapthralls break out some board games in the back field.
Mirage is on the Bane Riders, Occultation on the Bane Warriors.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBKwLsVi7l7s5MaVrWQCqTvws6B2xs51NtTFWqkMD7XlSiS5vjC8uuI2Cq6tUoCgmHcXZa1zklmFFi1-owWFW51tAkkSY0agv_X0AdLKn_HodcysfLLVO8LyU4oi4czEkDwR-dnaU1Neji/s1600/004+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Merc 2: The Banes have run up, however my shooting options are poor. I decide to fall back on the sides and use the obstruction to limit the alpha in the centre.
The Crawlers both inch backwards, the left one can't really get out of the Bane Rider threat with Mirage, so I end up with some Drillers and Hammer Dwarves sitting in threat range to try to tempt attacks away. The most vulnerable model available to the Crawlers is the Stalkers, so they both fling AoE's. The right Crawler achieves little, the left however manages to core out the Cortex.
Both TAC units have one Grunt fall back out of command to keep safe while the leader and other grunt advance and make attacks. The left unit kills the Machine Wraith, the right tries some AoE flinging at that sides Stalker that fail to achieve anything.
The Hammer Dwarves have a few members run up, as they won't be in Tartarus range, will be a distraction and with Reinforcements will return. Of particular note is the lone one that runs up on the right side of the Obstruction, who is then targeted by Gorten with a boosted Eruption as the warcaster mounts the hill, staying shy of the Bane Knight charge range. This increases the blocking capacity of the obstruction, my long term intent being to push the right side which the Crawler can score while Gorten and everything else fights over the centre and left zone.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ymegYbPIBUieWpfbgTEu5qD3RMc5Gl_lTNNz9tLxchEn4qq3l3C3hlocQyQA-nr2a2M42oQVxrfOnllq49ovzg7KVi5mVTQ-zgR3ueed-o78tzlVY5324ujDNlnEofeKZDnw5osh7UV9/s1600/005+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Cryx 2: Mirage upkept, Occultation gets dropped.
The left side Arcnode runs up to just get LoS around the cloud, Goreshade activates, arcs a Curse of Shadows on the Driller then puts Occultation on himself. He stays behind the wall of anti-drag protection.
The Banes do a proper alpha strike. The Riders come in on the left, one goes into the terrain cloud for Prowl, the other four kill the two forward TAC and a pair of Hammer Dwarves with Impact attacks. A pair go into the Crawler and knock it down to 21 boxes, the other pair go into the Curse of Shadowed Driller and knock off the Cortex and right arm.
The Warriors spread out in the left side of the Circle zone, with a pair of them getting into another Driller, they take out a bunch of armour boxes but no systems.
On the right, the Knights charge out of the theme bonus clouds to kill my Objective and stay in Wall of Steel blobs. The Wraith Engine, right side Stalker and Arcnode all toe different portions of the right zone, the Stalker killing the pair of forward TAC.
Scrapthralls roll a 5 and begin serious negotiations of wheat for sheep.
Cryx go to 3 CP.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCF0fz_XcAaDrrlfZxXgZQB_dBtyDJ2maDjzCsAhQlK_rdpNn09dOtholcc3LwRQld-4OA0PfooCOkM8XLYax5yNF17_CPbENsngkNS0YsypknYDTsKjseLnusAylu72ZCycKKbBNM1kzl/s1600/006+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Merc 3: My photo taking skills need work.
I need a good turn to spin the bottle around on this one. My regret at playing around with Eruption instead of putting a wall out on the left is large. I'm going to feat to wipe out the Knights and try to kill Stalkers, the centre zone is easily contested so if I kill the things that can score the side zones I won't lose out on scenario in the long game. Hopefully.
Excepting one Hammerdwarf, all warrior models return to play. That felt pretty good, and a little weird.
I start out on the left, where the Hammerdwarves charge in. They kill off two of the Riders to free up room for other plans.
The hyper damaged Driller gets out of the way, toeing the left zone. the not as damaged Driller walks sideways, having to take a Warrior free strike that hurts badly but thankfully doesn't take a system out. He throws a Bane Rider away from him into the arcnode and cloud Rider, knocking all three down. The Collateral throw is enough to kill the hurled rider and damages the arc node.
The artillery then scoots up the back, shoots the knocked down Arc Node and kills it then repoing back somewhat.
The Left Crawler now goes, he bulldozes the remaining Rider on him to move up the board. He uses his Bash attack to kill the Rider in front of him, alas he wastes a Crawler shot on the last Rider as Prowl is triggered in the cloud. The mini-gun then tries to shoot the Cryx objective, I fail to break armour on each shot. Alas, it looks like a perfect Goreshade feat turn will be incoming.
On the right, Thor, being one of the few speed 5 models, runs up on the border of the right rectangle and centre circle zone. Gorten then moves up and Erupts him, killing his fine fellow. He then feats and conveyor belts 9 of the Bane Knights to death, using his handcannon to kill the last one. He also catches most of the Bane Warriors, who get spread across to the left.
The Crawler on the right advances, toes the right rectangle zone and shoots the Stalker down with good damage rolls from the AoE's. The last remaining Driller runs up and toes the corner of the zone.
My last activation is the Blaster, who I thought would be needed to finish off Knights. he shuffles up, takes an optimistic shot at the Bane Rider. I spike the roll and kill the last Bane Rider. Things are now looking up.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpkoBas523P54iZNyFZYYBETSXsMc6PFKjU6g5pojRLfqZh8sSaC8OCThpaxSs8_siejWki-C0-WvcWuEwN8Ap5M2ovS6uAIjrU1AjerZ2QnJrC594eTli3rR7eVuDO-aq_7ZcNq43mgD5/s1600/008+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Cryx 3: There isn't a super amount for Cryx to do this turn with two units wiped out and most of the remaining models suffering Gortens feat.
Goreshade burns three Scrapthralls to return the Dead Bane Warriors back into play.
Two Bane Warriors can charge up, one is the Officer who finishes off the Driller that did the throw. The other goes into the Blaster and takes out the Head system.
Tartarus hangs out in the trench.
The Stalker, the left iteration, stumbles across and toes the left zone next to the Objective.
Goreshade stays hiding with Occultation up. He puts Mirage on the Warriors.
The Wraith Engine runs to the far half of the right rectangle, away from Gorten potentially charging and killing it. The Arc Node remains on this side, toeing the zone.
The remaining Scrap thralls moves up in the backyard.
Courtesy of the left side Stalker, Cryx go to 4 CP.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBwviT5wp2niTUdUUnDxcHSfarcL-zxi5uWuNXXFmHe5aWV2VeOnbSTOwIo64IgheVvDG_KhecFy6bDcYyZ9dRvp2V6lLsPIzz21XyOTlGXF1RUfLHsKF9LbONFBMX6zdfLcMTq9MiQGk7/s1600/009+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Merc 4: I'm in serious trouble here, my attrition advantage is immense but I have to contest, score and manage my time which is getting well and truly away from me.
All deceased Dwarf unit members come back to the table courtesy of Reinforcements.
The Hammer Dwarfs charge in and kill the front rank of Bane Warriors.
The Curse of Shadows Driller, a TAC member and the left damaged Crawler all toe the left zone. The Crawler flails at the objective, again does poorly on damage, does some damage to the Stalker with Blast and lands a Crit Stagger that stops it attacking.
The Blaster sprays at the Warriors, rolls poorly and kills just one.
The right Crawler aims and shoots down the Arcnode in the right zone. A driller stays contesting over there, Gorten puts a wall down in front of it and moves toward the left as I expect he'll be needed to handle the Warriors or draw in Goreshade for an attempted assassination. This was quite a mistake as he should have forced the Wraith Engine out of the right zone. The right unit of TAC throw Magic at the Wraith Engine, doing half a dozen damage points.
The artillery in the back just run up, I'm way down timewise to deal with their AoE's at this point.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMEdnazn32YCxfD9O3f-KpFny_4p98yL1HAk5RzkRb7J2sSLgBvvs_NSirNWdXEBPOhI7tWBrU5_zFR7Dc2H2pqRhna1wDxKEVURz-6Io_rpFtifrptMUuEcoGRrxUAj20SHLiPxNHgQ9Z/s1600/010+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Cryx 4: The Warriors Mirage around, they charge into the models contesting the left zone. Two go into the Crawler, taking it from 21 to 4 boxes. Two more go into the Curse of Shadowed Driller, leaving it on three boxes. Another kills a Hammer Dwarf.
Tartarus charges up, RFP's a TAC and a Hammer Dwarf to put two Warriors into play.
A Scrap Thrall charges the Blaster and puts it on three boxes with just its movement left.
The Wraith Engine moves back across the rectangle zone.
I didn't spot it at the time, but should have gained a point from the Scrapthrall exploding. Didn't click it at the time as the Thrall was removed late.
Missed the photo alas.
Merc 5: The left Crawler bulldozes some Thralls out of the way, gets within 5 inches of the Stalker. Shoots at the Objective, blast kills the movement system of the Stalker so it can be shot down by the mini gun. Artillery finishes the Objective off.
Hammer Dwarves charge across, don't get in the zone but kill a few of the Warriors.
Gorten just keeps back, I'm in a desperate rush for time so don't do anything meaningfull with him.
I score off the centre zone and the objective, now 4 to 2 in Cryxes favour.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNbFtaV_x8v0vdCB-Np4fRwnE1JkZ1bHyV69ErQ3TNqRZwlJWQg8xQ5jQIat5_e1ajBtogpMVikJe9FAaJ9SoR6opaloOfRKun3KsvPF2Q8F7FVeKzKjCIYI2daGI6OF0JEua6hC-Iw9xS/s1600/011+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Cryx 5: The Wraith Engine moves an inch across, now contesting the centre zone as well as the right.
Warriors and Tartarus kill off the Shadowed Driller, damaged Crawler and Blaster. Goreshade runs tot eh elft zone to score it.
5 v 2 to Cryx now.
[img]https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfwcQDZuviII0X-Y_Vki_cRK6KZjeykOyxKk7n64hCNQNsb8Pq0W0iizAjYr9uKlFVavGVbve9C7jEGkKhb5YYm56BlKiDihFhdRQb2w0n2O9clEEpqn_52ReRSQTPQmuZ6dkOroatCyKg/s1600/012+%2528800x450%2529+%2528800x450%2529.jpg [/img]
Round 6/Merc 7: I spend a turn with TAC throwing bombs at the Wraith Engine for another half a dozen damage. The Hammerdwarves kill off Tartarus and the remaining Banes.
I clock over with 5 seconds left. Goreshade kills a pair of TAC, clocks bag and Rhulics go down.
** Red ** (definite rule problems
/ abuses)
N/a
** Orange ** (serious concerns
over rules or balance)
SR2017 - Turn Counter. This is my first game in SR2017 where the Round counter was possibly relevant, it felt far more like a distracting irritant than something meaningful. When its the crunch time of a long game, it's painful to break the Ooda loop of what is occurring on the table to make sure the round timer is accurate. It's been pointed out that turn 7+ games are rare (My records indicate 1 in 35 of my pre-SR2017 CID games went that length or longer), however those are the matches that are the most memorable and usually interesting to me, the addition of a Round Counter detracts from that experience. I would vastly prefer it being a variant and letting Deathclock shoulder the burden of keeping games in reasonable time frames.
** Yellow ** (possible problems,
needs more testing)
Siege Crawler -
I enjoyed it thoroughly, to break that down:
·
* Reinforcements
as currently written made TAC feel like a viable choice which is counter to my
negative experience with them for the rest of Mark 3. It wasn't going to break
the game, my opponent saying that it didn't feel especially onerous for the
Dwarf units to be coming back when the models lacked attacks for that. The
large Command range was a particularly good enabler for the mechanical function
of the ability. I will say that it
didn't feel like it really fit the story of the model/game to have a constant
unending line of Dwarfs popping out of a barrel, there is a suggestion
elsewhere to make it a once per game "add d3+3 warriors to Rhulic units up
to normal unit size" which I feel would both fit better and make the
Crawler a more viable choice with Durgen, a point expanded in the Theme force
feedback.
·
* Stats -
The Crawler felt extremely hard to kill, surviving attacks that I would
normally expect to kill multiple jacks. That felt great and would be Green if
the Crawler is inteded to fulfill a "Tank" roll, however it
definitely feels like it's boxes put it into that archetype as compared to the
much smaller benefit of the Reinforcement rule that is meant to make it a
support piece. I would support the Crawler losing a couple boxes if the rest of
it remains unchaged and going to mid-30's if it gets particularly altered
elsewhere to better fit the "Support" role.
·
* Bulldoze
- Situationly useful, it was relevant for minor positioning this game and
generates no particular thoughts for me.
·
* Roadblock
- Simply not relevant with the lack of opposing Ranged presence, so no feedback
on this aspect from this batrep.
· *
Guns -
Reasonable, the lack of boosts limits their efficacy that target selection
solves up to a point. Feels reasonably balanced for a non-Gun Platform focused
Battle Engine.
Bane Warriors - Held
together well, doing most of the work after taking a hard hit in the attrition
fight.
Bane Knights - No real
conclusions to be drawn from this instance as they were spent using my feat.
Bane Riders - No real conclusions, as Vengeance did not get a chance to be utilized. Better placement or less spike rolls from me prevented a good test of their capabilities.
Hammerstrike Theme - The change for Battle Engines counting for the free models felt great, the Crawlers in turn enabling the TAC as viable choices that shores up the magic weapons issues that the Rhulic lists tend to have. The issue I have is that Ossrum is probably always the proper choice, which is limiting and makes the theme boring/stale. Even most of the batreps feature Ossrum with the Crawler, which concerns me that it will continue the trend in which the only Rhulic caster taking Rhulic things aside from the battlegroups.
Wraith Engine - My struggle with the Wraith Engine is that short of being an excellent and hard to deal with contesting piece it didn't feel like it had a role this game. There was no point when it was worth making attacks with it, the protective Aura deterred some AoE attacks for a round then had no effect, it was a tank for some minor attacks. I loathe the idea of its survivability being improved, I think it needs a proper roll defined for it and some changes scaled in that direction, the exact changes I'm hesitant to suggest at this point.
Objectives - Did not achieve anything this game by dint of player decisions.
** Green ** (good to go!)
Bane Thrall Theme - I
think it's very serviceable. The Clouds and Prowl were a good combination that
bought some good board position and synergized well, the free models were good
but not overwhelming. It did not feel especially deficient or powerful.
SR 2017 The Pit 2 -
Punishing the non-committal. I
undervalued the scoring ability here, which Cryx used to good effect. The
scenario forced me to come forward instead of backing up for more shots, it worked exactly as it should in this matchup.
SR2017 Killbox -
Unnecessary for pushing casters forward, Goreshade not conceding points by
coming forward to scoring felt like a common sense and excellent approach.
