My regular opponent Josh elected to throw down the gauntlet with an experimental 3Denny list. The thought process being that pCaine simply wouldn't have the muscle to chew through a camping Denehgra.
The lists:
David:
pCaine - Sons of the tempest T4
pCaine
- Stormwall
Gun mages
- UA
- Hunter
Gun mages
- UA
- Hunter
B13th
Blazers Full
Josh:
3Denehgra (proxied with a wraith engine)
- Skarlock Thrall
- Nightmare
- Deathjack
Daragh Wraith
2x Pistol Wraiths
2x Warwitch sirens
Gorman di Wulf
Withershadow combine
Soulhunters full
My list is fully explained in the link to Darkshard. Josh built his Denny list to try and maximize her soul collection potential. The theory being the more souls she pulls the harder she'll be to assassinate and the more she can bully the zones.
We set up for scenario #8: recon. I won the roll electing to go first and then we're off to deployment. (note all left and right references are from the cygnar perspective since I had the camera)
Cygnar Deployment: The blazers were set up on the left flank in the hopes that they'd be able to hard flank and get at some of his squishier support elements. Gunmages were deployed centrally and right flank to give me as much ranged coverage as possible. Cain and the stormwall were set to charge right up the center in the hopes of a big feat turn and bullying the zone. The advance deployed hunters were counter deployed to start lobbing shots into his jacks as soon as possible.
Cryx Deployment: Josh set his soulhunters, Daragh, Gorman and a warwitch on the left flank to face off against the blazers. Denny, nightmare and DJ were deployed centrally to attempt to control the scenario and on the right two pistol wraiths, the skarlock and a warwitch prepared to face off against the gun mages.
Turn 1: (I actually started my turn before taking the picture so the right gun mages were actually further back)
Typical turn one for warmachine with upkeep spells handed out and a lot of running for position. For cygnar the blazers got snipe from Caine and blur went up on the left unit of gun mages. Everything else ran and took positions as shown in the photo.
For Cryx nightmare received grave wind from the skarlock and all other elements of his army ran for position with the soulhunters and deathjack using the forest on the left to cover their approach and the right hand solos doing the same on their side. Denny moved forward her 9" and feated to give herself a big armor boost on turn 2.
Cygnar turn 2:
Caine upkept both spells and allocated 2 focus to the stormwall. The gunmages on the right moved up just clearing the edges of the forest to get LOS to the pistol wraiths and promptly made short work of them. Range 14 magic weapons are awesome for clearing incorporeal models. The rest of the unit put thunderbolt shots into nightmare hoping for a crit knockdown which didn't happen.
The B13th moved up and attempted to land a flare on nightmare to open him up for a barrage form the wall and hunters. The flare missed and deviated too far to be of any use. Ryan dropped a mage storm which did clip nightmare for 1 damage.
Failing to drop stealth on nightmare I knew that I had to switch gears and focus on deathjack. If I failed to remove or at least cripple one of the jacks I was going to be in trouble next turn. The huntner on the right moved up and dropped a snipe shot into Deathjack dealing a moderate amount of damage. I misjudged the range on the left hunter and his shot landed short missing entirely. The left gun mages moved up and were able to push Deathjack out of the forest and put a small amount of damage on him with the remaining shots.
Enter the blazers. With snipe upkept on them these badboys are shooting at range 14" with a light cav movement of 5" after to get them to safety. They stepped up and unloaded with the very first shot into death jack resulting in this:
Triple 6's for damage on the brutal shot. That put 10 damage in Deathjacks column 5. The leftmost blazer hit a soulhunter with the electroleap shot damaging it and leaping to Gorman removing him from the game. The remaining 3 added more damage to deathjack and killed a soulhunter. Stormwall was able to seal the deal with its first boosted damage cannon shot ending Deathjack and killing another soulhunter with the second shot. Covering fire and the pod went down.
Feeling pretty confident at this point I knew I just had to settle in and play smart attrition to bring it home. So caine moved to the right and dropped blur on the clumped up gunmages to protect them from the warwitch spray coming their way next turn. Def 18 is not an easy target.
Cryx Turn 2:
Faced with the loss of deathjack Josh had some difficult decisions to make for turn 2. Denny got 14 focus with 7 extra coming from the souls her feat provided last turn. Admonia upkept grave wind for free, Denny allocated 2 to nightmare and the turn began.
On the left the soul hunters ran/charged. The one that was able to make it into combat whiffed his attack roll on the gun mage but managed to tie up both of them in combat. The other two held back in forest with Daragh providing the -2 to damage rolls protection.
The wither shadow combine moved up to contest the zone and cleared the stormpod. The left warwitch ran to contest the zone the one on the right sprayed down Watts from the B13th.
Nightmare charged the right gunmages killing two. The big question for josh was what to do with Denny. Option 1 was charging my objective and removing it forcing me into contesting the zone or option 2: attempting to clear the right flag and start scoring. He elected for option 2 and charged Denny in clearing 2 more gun mages including the UA but then stopping to preserve his armor camp against an anticipated charge from the stormwall. Denny cast grave wind on herself and Josh passed the turn back to me.
Cygnar Turn 3:
Caine upkept snipe and allocated 3 to the stormwall letting blur on the gun mages drop. The gun mages on the right thunderbolt shot nightmare attempting to knock him down but only succeed in pushing him towards the zone. Between two armor piercing hunter shots and the stormwall nightmare is destroyed.
The gun mages and blazers on the left manage to bring the cryxian objective down to 1 health and miss all of the other shots directed at the soulhunters and wither shadow combine. Caine moves back to the right and teleports to safety behind the wall. Passing the turn back to Josh.
Cryx Turn 3:
Seeing an opportunity to try and finish the game Josh goes for it. Gravewind is upkept by admonia and Denny holds all of her focus.
On the right Denny clears out the remaining gun mages with her melee attack and a well placed scourge also knocking down the hunter. The hunter is a couple millimeters out from contesting the flag so Josh will score one point.
The warwitch siren moves in and sprays down Ryan of the B13th missing Lynch. In the center of the board the withershadow put a good amount of damage on the hunter there crippling both arms.
Now Josh makes his play and goes for the kill. The skarlock moves over and casts ghost walk on the soul hunters. They then receive incorporeal from daragh when they activate. The forward soul hunter charges caine over the wall taking no free strikes thanks to ghost walk. The other two charge the blazer and a gun mage. After all of the movement is done we measure and the soul hunter that charged Caine is 3/4 of an inch out of command and can't make its attack. *phew* bullet dodged. Given the low armor on Caine and the fact that I wasn't camping any focus that charge had the potential to end the game. The other two soul hunters kill a blazer. and then light cav move to bring the other soul hunter into command ending the cryx turn.
Cygnar Turn 4:
Cygnar turn 4 is the beginning of the end for Josh. Caine lets all of the upkeeps drop and allocates 3 focus to the stormwall.
On the right the hunter sacks action to stand up and moves out of the way. Lynch steps up and kills the warwitch siren avenging his fallen comrades. The stormwall charges Denny and has to boost to hit as she's sitting at defense 17 so he needs 11's to hit. He sticks the charge attack and at dice +1 does 8 damage. I boost to hit on the second attack and only roll a 9 meaning we're headed into Cryx turn 4.
On the left the blazers clear the rest of the soul hunters from the board and kill the cryxian objective. Caine moves in to dominate the zone and the gun mages kill the withershadow combine member making 1-3 for Cygnar.
Cryx Turn 4:
Sensing the scenario turning against him Josh attempts to run Denny back into the center of the board to help out risking the free strike from the stormwall. Unfortunately for him I roll the hard 9 needed to hit and do 10 damage on the boosted damage roll to put Denny in the dirt.
Final result Cygnar Victory!
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