Post by matsif on Nov 18, 2018 23:57:17 GMT
figured I'd make one of these just to keep track of things for myself, although I likely won't have pictures or anything for any of it and won't guarantee regular updating (although I'll try to post my weekly game at the minimum). C&C welcome etc and so forth.
for starters, something I posted in the ret forum a few weeks ago (with a few edits): goreshade4 (shadows of the retribution) vs stryker2 (storm division) on invasion.
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the lists: (note: I'm not 100% sure on the stryker2 list, but it was near as makes no difference to what is listed)
Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Shadows of the Retribution
[Goreshade 4] Lord Ghyrrshyld, the Forgiven [+28]
- Aspis [6]
- Banshee [18]
- Phoenix [17]
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [4]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Mage Hunter Assassin [4]
Mage Hunter Assassin [4]
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(6)]
Mage Hunter Infiltrators (max) [15]
Mage Hunter Strike Force (max) [16]
- Mage Hunter Strike Force Commander [4]
- Soulless Escort (1) [1]
Spears of Scyrah [9]
- Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander [0(6)]
- Soulless Escort (1) [1]
Cygnar Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Storm Division
[Stryker 2] Lord Commander Stryker [+28]
- Lancer [10]
- Ol' Rowdy [18]
- Squire [0(5)]
Journeyman Warcaster [0(4)]
- Firefly [8]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord [4]
Stormblade Captain [0(5)]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Stormblade Infantry [10]
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard [5]
this is my first time ever running 4shade. basically I wanted to see how tough on a unit of spears with eiryss3 went and use the clouds to cloud wall and hopefully save these squishy mage hunters from getting charged. aspis is basically just there to fill out points, but there is a reasonable synergy with keeping a focus on a shield guard jack that gets arcane vortex and can repair its shields. the list overall is the same basic module I've always ran SotR with, using different casters and battlegroups and amounts of solos for different things.
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scenario: invasion
I won the roll and chose to go first. I took stockpile (repairs) as my objective, while my opponent took fuel cache (pathfinder).
ret turn 1:
I put dauntless resolve on my spears and just got things up the table. I should have spent some focus to put up some clouds from freezing mist and then just continued to move things up further, but I just sat on 5 focus and instead mostly kept my infantry behind the midline in order to stay out of his threat for assaults, since eleaps just completely ravage mage hunters. narn camps behind a mid-board forest that puts him in a fairly advantageous position to walk through the forest and beat on the objective if nothing else, the MHAs camp flanks, the spears move up on a side with a house that forms a chokepoint on his side of the table between the house and mid-board forest, and I pass the turn.
cygnar turn 1:
my opponent was scared of my ambushing MHI unit, so he moved all of his models centrally to stay out of the charge range for the ambush and called it a day, willing to accept whatever I threw at him first. he also minifeated his stormblade unit and had rhupert put tough on the unit of lances closest to my MHSF. nothing else of note other than running or otherwise moving forward.
ret turn 2:
I ambushed my MHIs in on the side with my MHSF and my arcanists got some focus on my phoenix and banshee, hoping to clear out a few models and then just accept whatever my feat gave me, knowing if he killed anything in melee I was countering his feat and getting more souls. phoenix took out some stormblades with his gun and got in position to arc hand of ice and light of wrath at the stormblades and the unit of lances behind them with the captain. banshee killed a lance with its gun after getting ghost walked to get into a forest without penalty. 4shade activates, moves up a bit, feats, does his spells to get hand of ice and light of wrath and ghost walk off, and sits with 0 with an aspis nearby camping a focus for arcane vortex. my MHAs killed a blade on one side and a lance on the other, narn killed a lance and sprinted back, and I spiked 3 CRAs from the MHSF into the firefly, killing it outright. my MHIs just ran in to try to jam up the route to my MHSF, but with how he positioned I wasn't able to cut off things as much as I wanted with the 14" run. spears moved up to attack the blades (couldn't charge due to the house in the way), which got the soulless countercharged from rowdy, but I hit the tough check, and the rest of the spears and eiryss kill some stormblades.
cygnar turn 2:
his turn he feats, takes out a bunch of my MHSF, MHI, the soulless and eiryss and 2 spears, and both my MHAs giving me a total of 7 souls, but otherwise an uneventful turn that left him with ol' rowdy stationary and within reach of my banshee, along with 3 stationary lances.
ret turn 3:
I have 14 focus as I let DR on my remaining spear drop, juice my jacks up, concentrate power on them, vengeance my remaining spear to kill a stationary lance, and turn the game around after losing a lot of models. banshee gets ghost walk and kills rowdy outright, leaving a hole for phoenix to charge in and combust, killing the rest of the stormblades and then knocking out some lances with bought attacks. I revive 2 spears and use the last one to kill another lance, and then try to use my MHSF with some CMAs to kill the 2 stationary lances in the zone they were in, but they failed on damage pretty hard. I moved hand of ice to the lances on that side that I killed, although it turns out I should have just kept DR up and camped one. spending all 14 focus on the turn and leaving me with 0 turned out to be a lot riskier than I thought it would be, but with my aspis camping 1 nearby and a forest central to the table, I felt safe. MHI knock laddermore off her horse and kill the journeyman whose firefly I blew up on turn 1, and I end my turn feeling pretty safe considering the whole situation.
cygnar turn 3:
I underestimate how far stryker2 can get on a single turn and left a hole for him to charge my banshee and velocity himself to just within 2" of 4shade. opponent uses rhupert to put pathfinder on his lancer to try to kill the banshee first to avoid stryker taking a free strike, but fails to take out the banshee's big sword arm at the minimum. he then uses his objective to pathfinder stryker, charges banshee and then velocities up to 4shade since I completely forgot wailing prevents casting, eating a nasty free strike from the banshee along the way (12 damage after he spent a focus to reduce), and gets 2 attacks into 4shade, but rolls way below average and leaves me on 7 boxes, and then concedes as between the banshee he left in his back arc and 4shade himself with a stationary weapon stryker wasn't living through my next turn.
victory: Retribution
thoughts/conclusions:
I probably could drop sylys for FKG or just 4 more points to do something else with. that 1 extra focus isn't a huge deal when you can turn around and get more focus from feat turn, and you can juggle upkeeps to not really need sylys' free focus. lanyssa ryssyl's hunter's mark as a threat extender to the already large threat spears or the jacks fits nicely in there, as could an eilish for puppet master. or even running the banshee on elara1 to speed of death a banshee, ghost walk it through an obstruction, beat on things, and then walk it back through the obstruction. or potentially a lys healer to stop knockdown on my tough spears, potentially making them even sillier.
I absolutely could have saved some models with better usage of freezing mist (eiryss, my MHAs, my spears), which I didn't cast once despite wanting to use a cloud wall as half the reason to run 4shade, but then again having a 14 focus turn let me do a ton of work that more or less won me the game despite not having those models on the board. the potential for a stupidly strong cloud wall after 4shade's feat is potentially really annoying with high-DEF infantry on the other side of the clouds, as even if your opponent moves in to attack them they're likely eating a -2 to attack rolls. things to learn with a new caster.
the squishy mage hunter infantry charges up 4shade's feat really well, which lets you turn around and have a brutal turn afterwards while bringing back a few of your other infantry to compensate for their squishiness. and after looking him over again and doing some more theorycraft, he's definitely becoming one of my favorite casters right now, since he's relevant in every theme (except FoW because vyre/shyeel split) thanks to his strong and versatile spell list and fun feat.
tough on spears and eiryss3 is mean. having since played a retooled version of this list again with a lys healer (which makes the unit tough with no knockdown, guaranteeing their vengeance moves), it's even meaner.
for starters, something I posted in the ret forum a few weeks ago (with a few edits): goreshade4 (shadows of the retribution) vs stryker2 (storm division) on invasion.
----------
the lists: (note: I'm not 100% sure on the stryker2 list, but it was near as makes no difference to what is listed)
Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Shadows of the Retribution
[Goreshade 4] Lord Ghyrrshyld, the Forgiven [+28]
- Aspis [6]
- Banshee [18]
- Phoenix [17]
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [4]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Mage Hunter Assassin [4]
Mage Hunter Assassin [4]
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(6)]
Mage Hunter Infiltrators (max) [15]
Mage Hunter Strike Force (max) [16]
- Mage Hunter Strike Force Commander [4]
- Soulless Escort (1) [1]
Spears of Scyrah [9]
- Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander [0(6)]
- Soulless Escort (1) [1]
Cygnar Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Storm Division
[Stryker 2] Lord Commander Stryker [+28]
- Lancer [10]
- Ol' Rowdy [18]
- Squire [0(5)]
Journeyman Warcaster [0(4)]
- Firefly [8]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord [4]
Stormblade Captain [0(5)]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Stormblade Infantry [10]
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard [5]
this is my first time ever running 4shade. basically I wanted to see how tough on a unit of spears with eiryss3 went and use the clouds to cloud wall and hopefully save these squishy mage hunters from getting charged. aspis is basically just there to fill out points, but there is a reasonable synergy with keeping a focus on a shield guard jack that gets arcane vortex and can repair its shields. the list overall is the same basic module I've always ran SotR with, using different casters and battlegroups and amounts of solos for different things.
----------
scenario: invasion
I won the roll and chose to go first. I took stockpile (repairs) as my objective, while my opponent took fuel cache (pathfinder).
ret turn 1:
I put dauntless resolve on my spears and just got things up the table. I should have spent some focus to put up some clouds from freezing mist and then just continued to move things up further, but I just sat on 5 focus and instead mostly kept my infantry behind the midline in order to stay out of his threat for assaults, since eleaps just completely ravage mage hunters. narn camps behind a mid-board forest that puts him in a fairly advantageous position to walk through the forest and beat on the objective if nothing else, the MHAs camp flanks, the spears move up on a side with a house that forms a chokepoint on his side of the table between the house and mid-board forest, and I pass the turn.
cygnar turn 1:
my opponent was scared of my ambushing MHI unit, so he moved all of his models centrally to stay out of the charge range for the ambush and called it a day, willing to accept whatever I threw at him first. he also minifeated his stormblade unit and had rhupert put tough on the unit of lances closest to my MHSF. nothing else of note other than running or otherwise moving forward.
ret turn 2:
I ambushed my MHIs in on the side with my MHSF and my arcanists got some focus on my phoenix and banshee, hoping to clear out a few models and then just accept whatever my feat gave me, knowing if he killed anything in melee I was countering his feat and getting more souls. phoenix took out some stormblades with his gun and got in position to arc hand of ice and light of wrath at the stormblades and the unit of lances behind them with the captain. banshee killed a lance with its gun after getting ghost walked to get into a forest without penalty. 4shade activates, moves up a bit, feats, does his spells to get hand of ice and light of wrath and ghost walk off, and sits with 0 with an aspis nearby camping a focus for arcane vortex. my MHAs killed a blade on one side and a lance on the other, narn killed a lance and sprinted back, and I spiked 3 CRAs from the MHSF into the firefly, killing it outright. my MHIs just ran in to try to jam up the route to my MHSF, but with how he positioned I wasn't able to cut off things as much as I wanted with the 14" run. spears moved up to attack the blades (couldn't charge due to the house in the way), which got the soulless countercharged from rowdy, but I hit the tough check, and the rest of the spears and eiryss kill some stormblades.
cygnar turn 2:
his turn he feats, takes out a bunch of my MHSF, MHI, the soulless and eiryss and 2 spears, and both my MHAs giving me a total of 7 souls, but otherwise an uneventful turn that left him with ol' rowdy stationary and within reach of my banshee, along with 3 stationary lances.
ret turn 3:
I have 14 focus as I let DR on my remaining spear drop, juice my jacks up, concentrate power on them, vengeance my remaining spear to kill a stationary lance, and turn the game around after losing a lot of models. banshee gets ghost walk and kills rowdy outright, leaving a hole for phoenix to charge in and combust, killing the rest of the stormblades and then knocking out some lances with bought attacks. I revive 2 spears and use the last one to kill another lance, and then try to use my MHSF with some CMAs to kill the 2 stationary lances in the zone they were in, but they failed on damage pretty hard. I moved hand of ice to the lances on that side that I killed, although it turns out I should have just kept DR up and camped one. spending all 14 focus on the turn and leaving me with 0 turned out to be a lot riskier than I thought it would be, but with my aspis camping 1 nearby and a forest central to the table, I felt safe. MHI knock laddermore off her horse and kill the journeyman whose firefly I blew up on turn 1, and I end my turn feeling pretty safe considering the whole situation.
cygnar turn 3:
I underestimate how far stryker2 can get on a single turn and left a hole for him to charge my banshee and velocity himself to just within 2" of 4shade. opponent uses rhupert to put pathfinder on his lancer to try to kill the banshee first to avoid stryker taking a free strike, but fails to take out the banshee's big sword arm at the minimum. he then uses his objective to pathfinder stryker, charges banshee and then velocities up to 4shade since I completely forgot wailing prevents casting, eating a nasty free strike from the banshee along the way (12 damage after he spent a focus to reduce), and gets 2 attacks into 4shade, but rolls way below average and leaves me on 7 boxes, and then concedes as between the banshee he left in his back arc and 4shade himself with a stationary weapon stryker wasn't living through my next turn.
victory: Retribution
thoughts/conclusions:
I probably could drop sylys for FKG or just 4 more points to do something else with. that 1 extra focus isn't a huge deal when you can turn around and get more focus from feat turn, and you can juggle upkeeps to not really need sylys' free focus. lanyssa ryssyl's hunter's mark as a threat extender to the already large threat spears or the jacks fits nicely in there, as could an eilish for puppet master. or even running the banshee on elara1 to speed of death a banshee, ghost walk it through an obstruction, beat on things, and then walk it back through the obstruction. or potentially a lys healer to stop knockdown on my tough spears, potentially making them even sillier.
I absolutely could have saved some models with better usage of freezing mist (eiryss, my MHAs, my spears), which I didn't cast once despite wanting to use a cloud wall as half the reason to run 4shade, but then again having a 14 focus turn let me do a ton of work that more or less won me the game despite not having those models on the board. the potential for a stupidly strong cloud wall after 4shade's feat is potentially really annoying with high-DEF infantry on the other side of the clouds, as even if your opponent moves in to attack them they're likely eating a -2 to attack rolls. things to learn with a new caster.
the squishy mage hunter infantry charges up 4shade's feat really well, which lets you turn around and have a brutal turn afterwards while bringing back a few of your other infantry to compensate for their squishiness. and after looking him over again and doing some more theorycraft, he's definitely becoming one of my favorite casters right now, since he's relevant in every theme (except FoW because vyre/shyeel split) thanks to his strong and versatile spell list and fun feat.
tough on spears and eiryss3 is mean. having since played a retooled version of this list again with a lys healer (which makes the unit tough with no knockdown, guaranteeing their vengeance moves), it's even meaner.