That Sevy2 matchup does indeed look pretty darn rough and highlights the big issue with Gun Mages and their fragility. Casters that can protect them are definitely the best to run the list. Caine1 is indeed probably better in Gravediggers, although that feels like it's starting to be the case for more than a few of our casters
You've inspired me to do a writeup of my SotT games to date, so brace yourselves for text:
Siege1 vs Vlad1 in Breakdown
Opponent was playing the usual triple rockets + Marauder spam. Foxhole was the big winner here, and kept the Gun Mages safe from retaliatory fire as they blasted WGR. Black13th absolutely exploded on feat turn as I was able to get them into melee with some marauders. Falk was also a superstar, despite only getting to make one spray all game. The game ended with my opponent losing all of his warjacks and rockets, and Siege using ground pounder to clear out the WG around Vlad so that I could blast him to death. Explosivo also shone here on the Arcane Tempest Riflemen, allowing me to punish my opponent for clumping up a couple of times.
Siege1 vs Harbinger in Outlast
My opponent thought he was safe with a Vigilant and three shield guards. He was not. Spent the second turn killing the Vigilant, and then top of three blasting Harby away with help from the feat.
Siege1 vs Calaban in Outlast
My opponent was running a gunline with double vaults, croak raiders and double spitters. Foxhole was once again the star as it kept all of my fragile infantry extremely safe. I was able to blow away a Vault pre-feat (Cygnar thanks you for your sacrifice, Falk), and then used the feat to kill the other vault along with softening up his heavies. My opponent had to keep Calaban way back to not die, which meant once I had dealt with the Blind Walker I was relatively safe from getting spells slung at me. I eventually won on turn 7 with a decisive scenario advantage.
Siege1 vs Denny1 in The Pit II
My opponent was running Denny1 in the Satyxis theme. I used my guns to ping away at the satyxis as best as I could, and got feated on bottom of 2. Despite warning him beforehand, my opponent did not play around my ability to ignore forests and Siege one-shotted Denny with his rock launcher thanks to the feat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Kraye vs Durst in Standoff
My opponent was playing a dedicated anti-Cygnar list with double Vessels and three Templars - the shots from the vessels quickly took their toll on the Hammersmiths and their crappy damage grids. The repair in my list helped make up for this a smidge, and I ended up taking gambling with the feat to go for 60% to kill a vessel. It worked out, and this collapsed one flank which allowed me to feed gun mages into his other zones for the eventual scenario win. This game made me hate hammersmiths and their propensity for losing their arms.
Haley2 vs Kallus 2 in The Pit II
My opponent was playing CotD with Azrael, Zuriel, Bolt Thrower and double raptors. I can't really think of a worse matchup for him - between the Stormwall, Hunter and Arcane Bolts the Raptors died in droves while I got to hang back completely safe. Haley's Field Marshal allowed me to maximize the murder, and I think I rolled higher for the feat than he had relevant models left. Kallus eventually got TKed and blasted back to Everblight.
Siege1 vs Malekus
My opponent was playing with a Revelator, Eye of Truth, two Repenters and a Reckoner along with support. I started by peppering his jacks with defender fire - their 16" range kept them safe from the Revelator's range 10 guns which was pretty key. I underestimated Eye of Truth's survivability and gave my opponent a relatively likely assassination run, but he did not see it and I got to breathe a sigh of relief - instead he just tried to lob rat 5 shots into Foxholed warjacks. My following turn had me kill ~80 points of warjacks after which my opponent conceded. Having Arlan give a Defender a magic hammer so it could go into a Rune-Marked Revelator was pretty darn saucy.
Siege1 vs Absylonia2 in Recon II
This matchup went how a lot of Abby2 games go - kill Proteus and the rest will follow. My opponent was running two Neraphs, one Carni, a Seraph, a Naga and two units of wasps. I was able to remove Proteus from the equation while also doing decent damage elsewhere thanks to Siege's feat - this was followed up with Gun Mages to push the other heavies away because if Siege is able to feat on a heavy, Abby can feat + slipstream + alpha hunter to get them into melee with Siege. My opponent retaliated by removing a defender with his two Neraphs, and hosing down a couple gun mages with his guns. He over committed Absylonia in the process, however an aiming GMCA failed to land his brutal/flare shot on her which would have made the assassination extremely likely. Ragman allowed the remaining ATGM to make life very difficult for one of the neraphs, and I eventually took over one of the zones while feeding models to contest the other one.
Haley2 vs Coven in Standoff
My opponent was playing Slaughter Fleet with 2 stalkers, 2 seethers, a couple chickens and double bloodgorgers. I went first which let me force the bottom of 1 feat - I counter feated on top of 2, catching all of his jacks, and used the opportunity to lob whatever shots still had LOS into his dumb trolls while also denying scenario. My opponent mostly durdled around on bottom of 2, having neither a good shot to score points or much of an opportunity to do damage thanks to covering fire - he *did* put up curse of shadows on the Stormwall however. On the top of three I was able to use Thorn and the Stormwall to kill a Seether and disrupt/de-cortexify the rest of his warjacks. I continued to thin out his trolls, and eventually cleared out one side of the board one of the circular zones. My opponent did decent damage into the Stormwall even without focus, but my follow up on top of 4 left him with just a few mopey trolls facing off against a stormwall at 60% health - he was also out of nodes and Haley was camping enough to make Stygian Abyss a non-issue.
Siege1 vs Absylonia2 in Recon II
A repeat of the matchup just a couple of games up, this was however with a different opponent who had dropped the two neraphs for a second carnivean and some additional support. All of my games into legion in the past two months have highlighted the huge, Protector-shaped hole that exists in most legion lists. As above, my goal was to kill Proteus ASAP, so that's what I did - I was completely happy trading my feat for this. Without Neraphs he struggled to keep up with both flanks as the Carnis were busy blocking LOS to Absylonia. As I was able to remove one heavy per turn afterwards, I eventually ground him down and took the scenario victory.
Siege1 vs Jaga-Jaga in Outlast
Opponent was running a gunline with double croaks and double Vaults along with two Spitters. This one went similar to the Calaban game above - my opponent could not deal with the ranged advantage. I scalpeled out a Vault early, and then the plethora of snipe shots meant very few croaks actually got to make attacks. The interesting difference was that the Spitters actually out threat the Defenders in melee, and so I ended up having to concede one of the zones while denying contesting on the other one so that I could slug it out for the eventual scenario win.
Siege1 vs Krueger2 in Standoff
My opponent was playing the now-common triple heavy, double wyrd + Fulcrum list in Bones. He ended up going first, and for some reason ran + ported his Fulcrum to deny LOS to the rest of his army - this also meant the Fulcrum was within 16" of triumph on bottom of one. After blowing away the fulcrum with shots to spare, I cautiously moved up with my army - the Arcane Tempest Riflemen went extremely wide but within 9" of the circular zones so they could contest while still getting shots off on the next turn. My opponent spent his turn trying to kill Falk and failed due to some pretty unlucky dice while also having windstorm up. I blew away a Woldwarden, tagged a Sentry Stone with a Snipe/Flare shot so Jr's Defender could kill it and otherwise braced myself for his feat. He had an outside shot at clearing all of the scenario elements to go 5-0, but the dice did not go for him and he ended up only scoring three points. I retaliated by scoring 2 of my own and killing both of his heavies, leading him to concede as he was down to Krueger, a single Wyrd and a Sentry stone.
The lists:
****
Haley2
Thorn
Stormwall
Squire
Falk
B13
ATGM + CA
Arlan
Ragman
Jr
Hunter
****
Kraye
Hammersmith X3
Centurion
Squire
Jr
Charger
Falk
B13
ATGM + CA
Min Mechs
Arlan
Ragman
****
Siege1
Triumph
Defender
Squire
Jr
Defender
GMCA X2
ATR X2
ATGM + CA
B13
Falk
Arlan
Ragman
