New Church League Round 3

With EvilFuzzyDoom

These posts document the NEW CHURCH LEAGUE (named after our regular gaming venue, affectionately nicknamed "the Church"). The NCL has ten participants, and will take place over nine two-week, Round Robin rounds with elimination finals for the top four players. Each player picks two casters for the duration of the League, unless they only own one caster, in which case they can pick their second caster at some point before the 5th Round. The match-ups, scenarios and any special rules are posted at the outset. Scenarios are from the PP Official Steamroller 2011 Rules. We should be wrapping by about mid-march.

My Warlocks for the League are pMadrak & pGrissel.

This Round, I played against Cygnar!

Round Three of the New Church League


This round took place between 19 November and 2 December.


For the third round, we are playing Capture the Flag, one caster, 15 points, Highlander (Armies must include One Warlock/caster, one Warjack/beast, one unit, one solo).

Lists:

We both take fairly straightforward lists. My opponent is a Cygnar player whom I haven't faced before but I know is running Kara Sloan or Constance Blaize. I end up not going with anything new or outlandish, instead running with pretty much what I know (exception being the Kriel Warriors, whose Cabers' smashing power I couldn't resist trying out in a league game). The list is fast, can hit hard, and has some shooting mitigation in the form of the SSC & Steady.

Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* 3 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)

My opponent takes a shooty/denial list - what the Long Gunners can't kill, the Cyclone can discourage.

Captain Kara Sloan (*6pts)
* Cyclone (9pts)
Long Gunner Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (2pts)

Battle Report:

I won the roll-off and decided to go second, figuring that the extra 2" deployment would be worth it for getting to the objectives quicker. My opponent deployed his Long Gunners in two ranks between some forests with a good field of fire about the central open area; Sloan and the Cyclone went on the flank closest to his target objective, while the Gunmage captain advance-deployed on that side as well. I deployed in a brick in the middle, Grissel in front so she could act first while the Warriors fanned out in front of her.

On the first round Cygnar moved up his long gunners and ran Sloan, the Cyclone and his solo around in a wide arc to go for his objective. I ran up, putting eleven Kriel Warriors in the midfield with Tale of Mists on them for a bit of protection.

Second Round, Cygnar moved Sloan & the Gunmage up, and kept the Long Gunners static to fire four big CRAs at my KWs, taking out three of them (I rolled pretty poorly for Tough), including one of my Cabers. The Cyclone dropped his Covering Fire templates to keep me away from his Caster. I JAMMED, using as many movement shenanigans as I could to engage all of the Long Gunners with Kriel Warriors and prevent them from shooting. The other KWs lined up behind what cover they could find in order to prevent the Cyclone from doing much shooting the next turn, and I ran the SSC onto my flag. With no enemy models within 4" I got a control point and, unless Cygnar could kill the SSC, I'd win the match.

Third round, the Long Gunners did their very best to get a clear shot on the SSC; they managed to kill two of the three Kriel Warriors engaging them (including my second Caber), but couldn't kill the SSC due to some poor rolling - one shot missed, one didn't punch through his armour and one only did three points of damage. For a final grasp, Cygnar took some shots at Grissel but I had a lot of Fury left on her and she either took the damage like a champ or transferred it to the Mauler (who was probably feeling a bit left out by now). 

Realising I'd won, but not wanting to just end the turn and let the game fizzle, I Feated- since I really wanted to see what my last remaining Caber could do (just because he was the proxy'd one...). I put Rage on the Caber, Calamity on the Cyclone and used Fervor for the KWs' prayer. The first KW alone took out half the Cyclone's damage boxes, and the Caber turned it into scrap metal. My turn ended, the SSC was still on the flag and I got the control point to take the match.

Debrief:

Not an awful lot to discuss here; my list was solid, I used (ignored) terrain well, kept to the scenario and didn't make any screw-ups. Lots of practice with jamming Fennblades has put me in good practice for sacrificing my tarpit unit for advantage; the main difference being that instead of Vengeance I get +1 ARM and Steady - which is neat. The Mauler was almost pointless, doing nothing except supplying his animus and generating Fury. I've also learned that Cabers are fun, 

The Stone Scribe Chronicler, on the other hand, took man of the match. I was thinking of not taking him and a third Caber and bringing a Champion Hero instead, but I really think I made the right choice in bringing DEF 14 ARM 15 KWs to the fight. AND he took the objective, which I probably wouldn't have through to do with a non-support solo.

We played another game as well (practice for next round), at 25 points, theme forces, caster-kill; again, jamming took me the match as massed bodies prevented Cygnar's Warjack gunline from getting through to Grissel, but opened up a charge lane for me to take down Sloan with Resounder. My Scattergunners actually did nothing all game except serve as meat shields, while my light Beasts failed spectacularly to do much damage. Lessons learned for next time...

My first scenario victory puts me at 8 points at the end of the third round, equal second on the ladder.

Next round, I am facing Retribution of Scyrah (Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper or Dawnlord Vyros), playing Incursion, one caster, 25 points, Blood Sweat & Tiers (Armies must be at least Tier 1).