Body and Soul vs. Haley 3

Hello everyone! Been quite a while since I have been able to write a post on here, but I'm hoping to get them going on a fairly regular basis again. The report this week is between my forces of Cryx vs. Dave's Cygnar. The list that I am running is a fairly standard Body and Soul:

Wraith Witch Deneghra (*6pts)
* Deathripper (4pts)
* Deathjack (12pts)
* Nightmare (10pts)
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & 9 Drudges (5pts)
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & 5 Drudges (3pts)
Cephalyx Mind Slaver & 5 Drudges (3pts)
Cephalyx Overlords (3pts)
Cephalyx Overlords (3pts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts)
Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)

This was my first time running with B&S, so I figured I would try out the standard list a few times before I start tweaking it around. This game was played post-errata, so enemy casters, jacks, etc... are now able to shake the effect from Denny's feat, making things much more dangerous for her on feat turn. (In the pictures, Alexia and some risen are proxying for a mind slaver and some drudges as I haven't been able to get my other unit yet).

Dave was running the following 50 point Cygnar list:

Major Prime Victoria Haley (*3pts)
* Lancer (6pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Storm Lances (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 2 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (2pts)
Trencher Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Stormblade Captain (2pts)

This is a Haley 3 list that he has been trying with her for a while, and it seems to be really strong. The trenchers love the ability to put up their cloud wall and move back behind it, and revive on the storm lances is really powerful.

The scenario we were playing was recon. We rolled off, and I won the roll choosing to go first. Dave chose the side of the table mainly based on the fact that all of his models were already there, as the sides were fairly similar. For clarity, the pile of rubble that is in the zone was just being treated as rough terrain, and the grassy circles are forests (removed the trees sot that models could move around).

Cryx Deployment:
I forgot to take pictures of deployment, but it was fairly straight forward. I chose not to put up my upkeeps, as that is just giving Haley a free 3d3 of damage onto Denny. I deployed everything in a line, with Denny in the middle and Nightmare (prey went on Haley) to her right. The arcnode went to the left, with a warwitch siren and unit of overlords flanking either side.

The drudges, getting AD from the tier, went in the front, trying to spread out to cover as much of the table as possible, and Deathjack went in the middle to threaten the zone.

Cygnar Deployment:
I did squeeze in a picture of Dave's deployment, after he had moved a Ranger or two:

Trenchers and rangers in the front, haley in the middle with the stormblades. Storm Lances on my right, with the arc node on my left, and solos spread out in between.

Cryx Turn 1:

Everything ran. 

I knew that I was going to be getting shot to hell every turn, so I figured my best bet was to just run everything screaming at the other side of the table and hope that some of it lives to engage next turn.

Cygnar Turn 1: 

One of Dave's rangers runs its full speed to get in front of my army and get his bonus to shooting, and the rest of the unit moves up to get in a better position for next turn. The trenchers move up and take some shots killing a couple up drudges and putting up two clouds. The Storm lances and their solo flank really hard on my right side (after getting arcane shield from the journeyman) and the rest of the army moves up behind the trenchers. (Sorry, missed the picture again. Need to get back in the habit of taking them every turn.) Dave also cast out both baby haley and space haley this turn.

Cryx Turn 2:

A lot more running on my side. The warwitch siren on my right charged a storm lance, hitting it and shadow binding it in place and threatening a free strike on the lances on either side of the one she charged.

The drudges run forward to engage some of the shooting and be in the way, and they manage to take out a ranger. The warwtich siren on the left side walks forward and sprays down a second ranger. Deathjack and nightmare move up into a position to threaten anything that enters the zone (and to be in range of charging the objective next turn). Denny moves up behind the objective to get cover (using Valor) and getting ready to go into the zone next turn when I am able to score.

Cygnar Turn 2:
Dave upkeeps both of the Haley's, and arcane shield. Gorman walks up and throws a black oil at the warwitch siren but rolls max deviation and just misses her. The trenchers stand still and shoot down a stich thrall, denying me a lot of corpses, and then kill a bunch of drudges, some making their tough rolls but most of them dying. The storm blades receive and assault order and charge in, killing more drudges from the middle and left units. The rangers take a few shots, killing another few drudges, and the one in melee swings at the drudge in front of it but does nothing.

The Haley unit moves forward. Space haley casts ghost walk on the storm lances, allowing them to charge past the siren. Big Haley casts temporal flux (I think is the name?) giving models near a Haley +2 Def. Baby haley tosses out a chain blast and kills a few more models. The storm lances charge into the right unit of drudges, killing 3 drudges and the overlord from the unit, and also taking out an overlord from the unit in the back with lightening leaps. They also manage to take out all three stitch thralls on that flank, but one of the cav and the solo are both unable to kill the warwitch siren (the storm lance that was shadow bound ended up out of command and couldn't attack).

Cryx Turn 3:

At this point I have lost a lot of drudges, but not much else, which means that I am in a pretty good position. Denny keeps all of her focus and chooses to go incorporeal this turn. My middle drudge unit activates first, shuffling out of the way, and I choose to leave the middle drudge knocked down.

Denny moves forward through the objective and casts hellmouth on the knocked down drudge, and boosts to hit because I have had some bad experiences with double ones. She hits the drudge killing the drudge and the three storm blades in the zone. Death jack charges the objective and kills it easily. The overlords on the left side move forward and spray down two rangers and Gorman. The left drudges move forward to jam a bit more and kill another ranger. On the left side I made a mistake. What I should have done was have nightmare move up behind deathjack to block line of sight to Denny. What I did instead was have him move to the right and kill two storm lances. This was bad for two reasons. The first was that it left a straight line from baby Haley to Denny. The second was that it gave Haley two revive targets that would not be affected by the feat. Mechanithralls run forward into the zone after getting a few extra bodies from the necrosurgeons, and I end my turn with Denny dominating, putting me at three points.

Cygnar Turn 3:

Dave let Space Haley dropped, and activated Aiyana and Holy. Aiyanna gave magical weapoins to the trencher unit and they stood still and took a CRA on Denny, doing some light damage. Dave then had some of his models kill his models that were in the way (as they were stuck in place from the feat) and activated the Haley unit (spending a focus to shake the feat), popping his feat. Baby Haley charged a mechanithrall going right past deathjack thanks to incorp (as if he doesn't have magic weapons!) and blasts Denny in the face with a full boosted force hammer, doing a ton of damage to her. Big Haley charged deathjack and sends another fully boosted force hammer into Denny, killing her with focus to spare for another shot.

Victory to Cygnar!

I'm really happy with the way that the list played out. If I had played a bit safer there was a good chance that I could have stopped the assissination, and Dave wasn't able to get anything in the zone to contest (as the warjack was too far away). If Denny had lived I would have won on scenario, which would be my first win against Cygnar in a while.

As it stands I messed up and got her killed, but I really enjoyed the list, and I am looking forward to getting some more time with it on the table.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

List of the Week 1 - pCaine vs 3Denny

Its Dave back again, after a long hiatus, with another Beat Back battle report.  I had the pleasure of fielding the first challenge to my list of the week articles I'm posting over on the Sudbury Darkshard forums:  http://darkshard.ca/darkshard/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=4002.

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!