Diesel DM

Played in a 2-list, 35pt 10-minute timed-turn tournament on Saturday. As usual I was representing Cygnar, but I did add in a new caster: Captain Kara Sloan.

• Captain Kara Sloan +6
• Defender 9
• Hunter 6
• Reinholdt 1
• Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 6
• Officer 2
• Cyclone 9
• Boomhowler & Co. 6
• Captain Jonas Murdoch 2
• Reinforcements
• Journeyman Warcaster 3
• Charger 4

My second list was an evolution of a Stryker 25-pt list I had played in a previous tournament.  For those who have been following the Long Gunner painting fiasco, I have still not finished them, so I had to steal them off the painting table for this.

• Commander Coleman Stryker +6
• Ol’ Rowdy 9
• Stormclad 10
• Squire 2
• Stormblades 5
• Officer and Standard Bearer 3
• Black 13th 4
• Min. Long Gunners 6
• Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord 2
• Reinforcements
• Minimum Precursor Knights 5
• Officer and Standard Bearer 2

Round 1: Cygnar v. Legion

While the second list was optional, I started out with my Stryker list, facing off against Everblight’s Rhyas in the Sacrifice scenario. I had never seen this caster before, which isn’t surprising given how little I get to play. The list only featured one heavy warbeast and a lot of infantry, little ranged, so I felt like the Long Gunners might have a good go at softening them up. Stryker provided Snipe while Rhupert provided Pathfinder to the Long Gunners getting them setup in a forest, off to the right. The Black 13th ran up the far right flank to loop around the forest and get to the flag. Stryker hung back behind a linear with the Squire in the middle of the field, having given out Arcane Shield to the ‘blades, blur to Rowdy and snipe to the Gunners. with Rowdy advancing up the center. The ‘blades and the Stormclad ran for the zone to the left.
Second turn got the gunners setup on the edge of the forest to start picking off infantry, while the Black 13th approached the flag. I chose poorly here and had Ryan stand base to base with it, even though to score she would have to take a POW 20. Definitely more of a job for Watts or better still have a Gunner run over and sacrifice himself. Once the ‘blades secured the zone a turn or two later, Ryan got blown up, but made her Tough save, provided by a nearby Piper. The vast majority of my destroyed army points came from this first game as by the end all that remained was Rhyas and I think one member of a spear-throwing medium-based unit. Nevertheless I did lose as Stryker was decapitated by Rhyas and her feat turn by way of a poorly placed Squire.

MVP

There wasn’t one big standout in this game.  Everyone did their part well: the Long Gunners picked off some key infantry, Ol’ Rowdy smashed three or four infantry before being overwhelmed, Stryker got off an Earthquake and an Arcane Bolt to good effect.  The Stormblades took the control zone for a turn.  I think I’ll give it the MVP to the Stormclad though.  His Generator Blade with electroleap really chewed through the infantry in the control zone.

LVP

The Squire was the only disappointment in this round.  With only the two heavies and keeping Stryker back, I really didn’t have a need for extra focus.  At the end of the game he still had one or two points left on him.  Surprisingly I think those two points could have been better spent, even with pStryker.  Considering the amount of infantry and models with upkeeps, I think Harlan Versh would have done well here in place of the Squire.

Round 2: Cygnar v. Cygnar

This time I faced off against eStryker featuring the Black 13th, Ol’ Rowdy, a Lancer, Stormguard and Runewood among others.  Round 2 was the Flank Scenario: Envelopment.  I put Jonas with Boomhowler & Co on the far left to advance up to the zone I needed.  Next was the ATGM with their Cyclone, then the Defender and Kara with Reinholdt in the center.  To the right with AD was the Hunter.

This round featured spectacularly bad rolling on my part.  The Lancer came up field ahead of the Stormguard so I focused Kara’s battlegroup on him.  Thanks to my poor rolling it took both my first turn and part of Kara’s feat turn just to wreck it.  The ATGM suffered greatly as they were decimated by a Mage Storm shot from Ryan.  The officer lived on to keep marshaling the Cyclone.  Sadly the Cyclone never made a ranged attack.  He quickly ended up in melee, punching away. Greygore & Co. Did their best to progress up field, making tough rolls and using Dig In from Murdoch, but they never did make the control zone before they stalled out.

My reinforcements came in second turn and tried to take out Runewood, who kept sacrificing the Lancer to take the damage.  Eventually between the reinforcements and Kara, Runewood was killed.  After some additional infantry killing, the Journeyman died, leaving the Charger inert well up field from where the rest of my forces had stalled.

In the end it took so many bad rolls to take out the Lancer and Runewood that the mostly intact Stormguard pushed up to Kara with Ol’ Rowdy pressuring from the other side.  I think in the end the Black 13th took Kara out, I can’t remember for sure.

I think the mistake in this one was having Boomhowler & Co on the far left.  They should have come up the center of the board to stall out the bulk of the opposing force, while Kara and her battlegroup dealt with the priority targets.  The ATGM probably would have been better suited on the right, to sweep into the Stormguard.

MVP

This one is hard to choose as well, but not because everyone did well like the first game, but because everyone did poorly.  I think I’ll throw it out to the Reinforcements.  Until the Journeyman died, they came in off the flank to help kill Runewood and the Lancer, as well as thin out the Stormguard a bit.

LVP

The ATGM were the biggest disappointment here, simply because I had them too exposed and they were all wiped out before contributing anything at all.

Round 3: Cygnar v. Khador

Harkevich lead a group of four heavy ‘jacks with mechaniks, the Ternion, a Koldun Lord and a couple of Bokurs, one cliented to Harkevich and the other to a War Dog.  With the Khadoran wall of ‘jacks slowly heading my way, Kara used Fire Group to get an extra 2″ of RNG, combined with Refuge to get up-field and back safely and started picking off the mechaniks who were unfortunate enough to be out front, just in range.  Her battlegroup went to work on an exposed Juggernaut, while the rest benefited from Ternion generated clouds.  Having (hopefully) learned from the last game, Boomhowler went up the middle to hold the Khadoran advance from reaching Kara.  The ATGM worked up the left hand side, taking up behind some walls.

Kara’s feat turn was enough to bring down that first Juggernaut, who had seen some repairs along the way, while the the Boomhowlers generally tied up the center without doing much damage.  The ATGM went to work picking off Ternion and mechaniks who strayed too close.  The Cyclone got off a few shots trying to knock down the ‘jack that was blocking LOS to Harkevich, but failed.  Later the Cyclone would again get tied up in melee and fall back to punching.

As Kara’s battelgroup continued to work on the ‘jacks, the ATGM continued taking out support pieces, including the War Dog and the rest of the Ternion.  Eventually the wall of Boomhowler crumbled and Kara found herself engaged after a Spriggan ran up to her.  Risking her life to get a shot couple shots off at an exposed Harkevich, she disengaged from the Spriggan.  She survived the boosted free strike, and got off two hard-hitting shots on Harkevich leaving him with a handful of boxes left.  The ATGM came in from the left, the first killing an intervening mechanik and the rest taking Brutal Damage shots until one of them was able to finish off the club-wielding Khadoran.

MVP

This one goes solidly to Kara Sloan.  She kept up Refuge the entire game and continually laid out consistent damage.  And while she didn’t get the assassination, she did land a significant amount of damage that lead to his death.  Also her feat turn taking out the Juggernaut before he made midfield was also pretty slick.  The ATGM get an honorable mention for their efforts in killing a significant number of models and putting the nail in Harkevich’s coffin.

LVP

While everyone did quite well, the Cyclone was disappointing after getting tied up in melee early on.  Meanwhile the Boomhowlers did a good job of being a tarpit, but their lack of damage output was noticeable as they were worn down and run over.

Results

Thanks to the massive devastation caused by Stryker’s forces in Round 1, I took third place with most Army Points destroyed.  I had a really good time and enjoyed playing Kara.  I look forward to fielding her again.