Yesterday saw us kick off the latest league from Privateer Press and I was able to get in two games. The first was against Josh, he'll be covering that one, and the second was against our local Circle player Al as discussed below. Now before we begin I will mention that this was Al's first game ever using Bradigus. So its not a typical example of how Brad is usually played and I mention it up front just to pre-empt any comments pointing this out.
The lists for this game were as follows:
Scenario: SR2015 Incoming
David - Cygnar
Points: 50/50
Commander Sturgis (*6pts)
* Cyclone (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Centurion (9pts)
* Sword Knight Officer & Standard (2pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (2pts) (League Hero!! Gustav Montcalm)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Commander Sturgis (*6pts)
* Cyclone (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Centurion (9pts)
* Sword Knight Officer & Standard (2pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gun Mage Captain Adept (2pts) (League Hero!! Gustav Montcalm)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Arcane Wonder
Al - Circle
Points: 49/50
Bradigus (Tier 4)
* Wold Guardian (9pts)
* Wold Warden (9pts)
* Wold Watcher x 6 (25pts)
Sentry Stone x2 (6pts)
Shifting Stones x3 (6pts)
Fuel Cache
Deployment
I won the roll off and elected to take first turn. Terrain had a forest on my left and a small cluster of building on my right creating a fairly narrow corridor to move up the center. I deployed Cyclone, Sturgis and the centurion centrally to move up between the zones. To their right I had the sword knights and far to the left the gun mages and hunter. The solos were mostly deployed behind Sturgis except for Eiryss and my hero gun mage captain adept who were placed in among the buildings.
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| Cygnar Deployment |
Al deployed with his warlock and two heavies in a central position behind his mixed line up of watchers, sentries and shifting stones.
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| Circle Deployment |
Turn 1
For turn 1 my main goal was to aquire as much board position as possible without giving up easy forests to the watchers. Arlan power boosted the cyclone and it ran up to just past the objective. Sturgis handed out arcane shield to the centurion and snipe to the cyclone and moved up behind the objective. Rhuper toughed the sword knights and Jr gave them arcane shield as well. Everything else ran.
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| Cygnar Turn 1 |
Circle turn one is where Al started to surprise me. Instead of moving up in a tight brick as would be expected from Brad he started to pull his forces apart to try and address threats moving down each flank and the center. One wold watcher moved towards the left flank, three towards the sword knights on my right and another two down the center. He laid down some forests, mostly for difficult terrain as his line was too long to effectively block LOS. The warden trampled up and loosed a rift to further complicate movement on my turn. The guardian ran and Bradigus moved up cast Synergy.
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| Circle Turn 1 |
Turn 2:
From the photo you can see the critical error where Al left me line of sight to the two central shifting stones in front of his objective each from a different set. There was no way I was going to let an opportunity like that pass me by. Two arcane shields were up kept as well as snipe. I allocated three to the cyclone and started the turn.
The cylone moved up to in front of the objective and started firing for the stones. I got lucky and rolled 3 shots on each arm. This easily overwhelmed the shield guards and with boosted damage rolls I was able to clear both stones ... HUGE!
On the left flank the gun mages ran for position and the hunter tried a pot shot on Bradigus missing horribly. On the right the sword knights charged/ran for position to try and tie up the watchers and mannikins on that side. Eiryss hard flanked. My "hero" decided to try for his aiming bonus and a brutal shot to kill the sentry stone on that side but came up 1.5" short ... way to go Gustav. Ruhpert toughs the knights and everything else shuffles for position
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| Cygnar Turn 2 |
Al starts to take the bait hard on turn 2. His ingrained circle mindset of Alpha strike at all costs starts to show and instead of playing the patient brick he strikes. On the right he uses his two wold watchers to try and build synergy. Needing 8's to hit the first one wiffs on a boosted attack and misses its second attack. The second watcher hits but the sword knight toughs it out.
Bradigus and his battle group move up and into the left zone which critically ends up leaving the right hand watchers out of control for the next turn. He made this move so that the left watchers could attack the gun mages and hunter as he got freaked out by the armor piercing shot wizzing by Brad last turn. He manages to kill one gun mage with a boosted attack (forgot to place the forest) and does minor damage to the hunter. Sitting on synergy +3 he sends the last watcher charging into cyclone. At dice -3 he manages to put about 6 damage on it, after missing the charge attack on double 1's.
The mannikins on the right sprayed the sword knights missing everything and the ones on the left shuffle for position. The wold warden drops another rift in my face.
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| Circle Turn 2 |
Turn 3
Turn 3 the swans decide to go big or go home. The watchers are all sitting at arm 21 making them a hard target for this relatively pillow fisted list. So the best way to get damage on them was through Bradigus himself. Al didn't put up flesh of clay so any ranged attacks I can get on the B-man are going to hurt at his much lower arm 16.
I pull one from the squire and let snipe drop and allocate three to the cyclone. Both arcane shields are upkept. Ragman starts the turn and moves forward and casts death field. The centurion manages to three shot the watcher with one focus from Arlan and the charge from the jack marshal. Sword knights pronto him back to clear a little room between my two jacks to keep them from getting killed together.
Not taking any chances with range Sturgis puts snipe back on the cyclone for 1 focus (thanks arcane wonder) and camps the rest. Rolling for shots on the cylone nets me 4 total. Every shot connects and bradigus is forced into three transfers with one shot doing 1 damage to B-man himself. In total about 14 damage is handed out to the wolds. Eiryss moves forward as far as possible and comes up about 1" too short to clear synergy.
The hunter decides that now is a good time to be a champ and walks away from the watcher engaging him (Parry for the win!) and drops a crit brutal shot into brad getting the crit. Using the boost from the jack marshal at dice -2 he drops 8 damage into Brad which gets transferred to the warden. The gun mages drop an arcane inferno shot into brad for an additional 8 damage which Al elects to let Brad take.
Jr. steps up with his mighty Rat 4 and drops the ball needing a boosted 10 to hit.
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| Cygnar Turn 3 |
With the two watchers on the right out of coontrol Al clears all of the fury from the beasts on the left, upkeeps synergy and starts his turn.
Al was beginning to understand his earlier errors in pulling his brick apart and maneuvering was becoming a challenge for him. In an effort to pull things back together and try to kill my heavies he uses his feat turn to slide 5" right. He manages to build up a mighty synergy of 4 as one of the left watchers misses a gun mage. One sword knight died on the right and thither toughs it out. He jams Eiryss with the watcher and some mannikins. At this point the Centurion is sitting at Arm 24 (native 19 + 2 shield + 3 arcane shield) but he doesn't have any choice but to go for it as attrition is swinging away from him.
The Guardian charges in with an angry angry glow in his eye but manages to swing with a set of double 1's for the big miss. After that he gets his next blow to land the centurion is knocked down. Three more swings at dice -3 leaves the jack with about half health and all of its systems. intact. The warden comes charging in next and finishes the job.
The remaining shifting stones encircle Brad and Al elects not to use the second part of his feat.
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| Circle Turn 3 |
Turn 4
This is it. The do or die turn for Cygnar. Brad is sitting out in the open will all of his beasts full of fury. I know I need to kill the guardian to deny transfers if I want any shot of killing Brad.
Sturgis pulls one from the squire and keeps it all. AS is upkept on the knights. Ragman starts the turn by shuffling over and using death field next to the objective. Sturgis charges in within 3" of ragman and lays into the warden killing it. After taking two unboosted swings at the guardian for 5 damage he then teleports back behind the objective.
At this point I'm not 100% confident that the sword knights can get the job done on the guardian so I use my hunter shot on Brad with the aiming bonus. No crit this time but Brad still has to transfer about 7 damage to the wold. Gustav moves up and drops 2 damage into a stone with his brutal shot.
Ruhpert pathfinders the sword knights and they get a charge run order. 5 of them get into melee with the guardian and one with Brad himself. The guardian falls after only three knights take their flanking + 2 damage swings (thanks cyclone and ragman!). Now the knight that charged Brad swings connects, and needs to roll a 14 on boosted dice to kill. He only drops 2 damage into Brad but gets a B+ for effort.
Now I'm scrambling as I should've shot brad with gun mages before engaging him (rookie mistake Dave). No problem though as Arlan looks around and nods to Sturgis. The sturge knows Arlan's got this. He steps up and unleashes a SP8 blast of electricity needing a 9 to hit and nails it exactly. Now the moment of truth, with 4 health left a damage roll of 8 is required and like a boss Arlan puts Brad down.
All hail the match all star:
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| All star spray for the win! |
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| Cygnar turn 4 end game |
So Brad's reputation of being brutal to play until you learn him holds up. Even with the misplays on the brick though it was an absolutely brutal amount of boxes and armor to try and chew through. If Al had kept casting flesh of clay on Brad I'm not sure how I would've played this.
I'm sure a rematch will be incoming soon though as the league play is just getting started.
This game saw 6XP doled out to Al and another 7 to me. Got that sweet sweet scope upkeep for Gustav so that maybe he can contribute next game. YOU LISTENING GUSTAV!? Get in gear or you're cut!
Until the next one.
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