Cygnar vs Khador (eHaley vs Vlad3) 50pts - Battle Report

My Khador playing friend recently bought Vlad3 and a bunch of Uhlans and wanted to give them a try. I said "Sure, but I'll bring the same eHaley force I used at the tournament"... he really hate to play against Haley. We're playing the "Supply and Demand" scenario from Steamroller 2013, and theses are the lists. 

Points: 50/50
Major Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Lancer (6pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Storm Strider (9pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)

Points: 50/50

Tiers: 3
Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey (*5pts)
* Conquest (19pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
* Battle Mechanik Officer (2pts)
Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Fenris (5pts)
Kovnik Markov (4pts)

The battlefield

Setup - Khador won the roll and choose to be player 1 and get the first turn of running. He deployed everything pretty much in the center and placed the mechanics behind Conquest, and finally decided to put Fenris on the flank to my left.

I choose to deploy Stormwall and B13 on one flank to handle a unit of Uhlans, and I thought that Tempest Blazers and Lancer could take care of the other unit. The Storm Strider got the middle to try and find an angel to electrocute the mechanics later in the game.

Round 1
Khador - Vlad cast "Infernal Machine" on Conquest and "Dash" before he moved forward. The Uhlans ran almost their full distance. He was a bit unsure when I would use the feat, so they stopped about halfway across the field. Conquest ran 16"(!!!) into the control zone. Mechanics followed behind. Fenris ran down the flank and hid behind a chest-high wall.

Cygnar - I gave Stormwall 3 focus because one of the Uhlans groups was well within firing range. eHaley cast "Temporal Acceleration" on the Stormwall and "Dead Eye" on the Blazers. Stormwall moved up and shot with his cannons, killing one Uhlan and wounding another. Tempest Blazers tried to shoot Fenris but only did 2-3 boxes of damage, the last Blazer instead shot and killed a Uhlan from the other unit. Lancer moved up behind the Blazers, and the Storm Strider moved a few inches forward. Journeyman Warcaster cast Arcane Shield on the Stormwall and then kept it on him the rest of the battle.

Round 2 
Khador - eHaley was within shooting range for the Conquest so he moved it forward and gave it a shot... and missed. Fenris and Uhlans on the flank charged the Blazers but not a single attack hit due to poor dice rolls, and my Blazers made their command check against the abomination Fenris. A single Uhlan from the second unit ran and engaged the Stormwall in melee, the rest of the unit prepared for a charge the following turn.

Cygnar - Stormwall got 4 Focus this turn. B13 shot and killed the engaging Uhlan giving the Stormwall a clear path to the Conquest. Blazers and Lancer killed a few of the Uhlans engaging them and Storm Strider managed to kill one. eHaley activated and cast Temporal Acceleration, moved up behind the Storm Strider and popped her feat... I did however kill box myself this turn giving Khador 2 free Control Points. The Stormwall then charged the Conquest and just did enough damage to destroy his left grid.

Round 3
Khador - Not much he could do this turn as Haleys feat prevented everyone except Vlad and the Mechanics from doing their full action/movement. Conquest did some damage to Stormwall, but not much. Fenris and the Uhlans that was still alive didn't manage to inflict any damage or kill any models this turn, once again thanks to poor dice rolls. Only one mechanic made his repair roll and repaired 2 boxes on Conquest.

Cygnar - Stormwall wrecked Conquest and electro leaps killed all the mechanics. Blazers and Storm Strider shot and killed Fenris, Markov and the few Uhlans that was still standing. eHaley moved forward just so she wouldn't be kill-boxed again (not that it would have made any difference). She was now camping 5 focus but perhaps she was within reach for Vlad.

Round 4
Khador - Vlad only had one option. Go for the assassination. He popped his feat and moved forward towards Haley. However one of his attacks missed the Stormwall (snake eyes) and he only had 5 focus when he came within reach of Haley. First boosted attack did 10 damage. Second attack did 2 damage. Third and final attack did... 2 damage. Haley was still standing with 1 box left. Khador forfeited the game.

In the end I killed 47pts of his army and he killed 0pts of mine. Victory for the Swans.

"Come at me bro"

50pts Steamroller write up

I just arrived home from my first ever 50pts Steamroller tournament. I was a good and fun tournament and I got the chance to play a bunch of new (to me) players and armies. I had some real trouble to decide what lists I wanted to plays with. But in the end I ended up with the Haleys... yes, both the Prime and Epic version. This will just be a quick write up of my four games.

Game 1 - Supply & Demand

First game was against Erik who played Menoth with eFeora with 3 heavy jacks, Redeemer and a bunch of Zealots. I choose to play Epic Haley and this turned out to be a very intense game. I took 2 early control points by controlling the zone and destroying his objective. In the end it became a game of attrition. I had 4 control points and I had killed everything in his army except Feora, Holt and some Choir members. My clock was on 15 seconds during my last turn, and I didn't have time to kill the last few models he had in my zone so I lost on Death Clock.

Result: Lost by Death Clock

Game 2 - Close Quarter

My opponent was Johan who played Skorne with a Xerxis infantry block. A shit load of medium based units with 8 wounds each and with Marshall Discipline. I choose my pHaley list this time, as I didn't think I would have enough models otherwise to handle his list. He basically ran his entire army forward and started to dominate his flag right from the start. I did what I could to kill as much of his army as possible, but when he killed all my Stormblades and Storm Strider during his feat turn I knew I couldn't win. Instead I tried to kill as much as possible to at least score some points, but it was a crushing defeat.

Result: Lost by Scenario

Game 3 - Ammunition Run

My third game was against this hilarious guy called "Osten" (Swedish for The Cheese). He played a very non-cheesy pDenny list with Bane Knights, Bile Thralls and 5 light jacks and 1 Slayer. I played eHaley this game. I think he was a bit tired because he ran most of his Banes into the objective in the middle. My Stormwall shot and destroyed the objective (everything within 2" takes a POW 12) and killed 5 Banes and 2 Bile Thralls. With the help of eHaleys feat and Tempest Blazers I killed the rest of his infantry without trouble. In the end it turned into a slug fest with my Stormwall against the rest of his jacks. On one occasion my Stormwall got charged by 3 fully loaded jacks, but only suffered 5 damage. During my turn the Stormwall missed 6 attacks(!!!). In the end I took 5 control points with the Tempest Blazers.

Result: Won by Scenario

Game 4 - Incursion

My last game of the day was against another Menoth played called Björn. He played with an Amon list that contained a battle group made up of 4 Heavy Jack and 2 Light. It was however a very short game as I once again played with eHaley. I got the first turn and ran as far as possible. He did the same his turn, but left Amon with 0 focus and he didn't cover him with his jacks. I gave 3 Focus to the Stormwall and cast Temporal Acceleration. Three boosted shots and Amon was killed. Won by assassination in less than 4 minutes. Mage Hunter baby!

Result: Won by Assassination

Conclusion - I was really surprised on how well my eHaley list was. I didn't think that such low model count could do so much damage. But with both Tempest Blazers and B13 you can drop 9 Brutal Shots each turn, and that's a lot of damage. The Storm Strider was also very effective at killing both heavy targets and clearing infantry with electro leaps. I think this will be a crutch list that I'll play again. I just need to find a list that can cover it's weaknesses... I'm looking at you Caine.

Storm-theory-crafting

Got my Storm Strider painted for this weekends 50 points tournament. I'm still not 100% sure on which lists I should bring. I've been play testing with Kara Sloan, pHaley, eHaley and eNemo. Stormwall is almost auto-include in any list. But I want to field my latest toy - the Storm Strider. And I also have a unit of Tempest Blazers that I want to play with.

My biggest problem is to build 2 lists that compliment each other. I think a Tier 1 with eNemo could handle any beast/jack heavy list, and it's pretty straight forward and don't "require" that much. Basically you just need to get into position, cast Energizer and the upkeeps of you choice, pop the feat and let the Jacks to the work.

I've had some problem with eNemo against infantry heavy lists, so I've been thinking of something to handle that. My pHaley lists with both a Stormwall and a Storm Strider have proven solid before, and is probably the list I'll choose. But recently I saw a list on PP's forum with eHaley that looked like this:

Points: 50/50
Major Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Lancer (6pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Storm Strider (9pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)

The idea is to but Arcane Shield on the Blazers and cast Deceleration giving them 17/18 against shooting. They run forward and shoot stuff dead, and don't give the opponent a chance to counter charge. Use the Lancer to cast Telekinesis when the opportunity arrives, or just give Dead Eye to the Blazers. The Stormwall and Strider is the main force. Advance with the Stormwall and keep the Strider slightly behind it. Arlan keeps behind them to repair if needed or spray something in melee. 

Cygnar vs Khador (Kara Sloan vs Vlad3) 35pts - Battle Report

Challenged my friend to a quick 35 points game since I knew he had bought some new cavalry models and a new caster. I kinda of knew what I was facing but I still choose to play a list full of Gun Mages (and my new unit of Tempest Blazers) and see how they could handle it. The lists were:

Points: 35/35
Captain Kara Sloan (*6pts)
* Defender (9pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts) - Whom I forgot to put on the table

Points: 34/35
Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey (*5pts)
* Beast-09 (11pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Black Dragon Officer & Standard (2pts)
Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Fenris (5pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)

Setup - Process of Elimination

Khador won the roll and wanted to go second. I choose to deploy the Tempest Blazers in front of the forest as they are the only unit with pathfinder in my army. I but ATGM and Boomhowlers on each flank to be able to contest both. B13 was placed so they could support either side. And I forgot about Reinholdt...

He deployed with Pikemens against Boomhowlers and the Uhlans against the ATGM. Fenris got put on far on the flank to do his work.

Cygnar - Turn 1

Kara gave 1 focus to the Defender and cast "Refuge" on herself. Everything ran.

Khador - Turn 1

Vlad kept his focus this turn. Pikemen used "Iron Zeal" and ran as far as possible. Vlad moved up behind them and cast "Windwall" and "Dash". Uhlans ran forward, and a single model ran far enough to engage Tempest Blazers in combat. Fenris moved up behind cover on the flank.

Cygnar - Turn 2

Kara gave 2 focus to Defender and up kept "Refuge". She started her activation by popping her feat and shot the Uhlans engaged in combat with the Tempest Blazers, the boosted damage roll did no damage as I rolled 1-1-1-2(!!!). Defender shot and killed a Uhlan out of activation. Tempest Blazers activated and killed the Uhlan in melee with them, and one pikeman.

B13 activated and killed a Uhlan. Defender activated and killed a Uhlan, and Kara managed to kill one with her out of activation shot. But the last remaining Uhlan made his command check without problem. ATGM activated and shot a Fenris, and did 0 damage to him. I did however knock him down with one Thunderstrike. Boomhowler charged the Pikemen and killed two of them.

Khador - Turn 2

Vlad kept all his focus this turn but activated first casting "Dash" and "Infernal Machine" on Beast 09. Pikemen then charged into the both Tempest Blazers and the Boomhowlers but only managed to kill two trolls. The last Uhlans charged the Defender but rolled snake-eyes on the attack. Fenris moved into combat with the ATGM who then failed their command check against abomination. Beast moved into combat with the Boomhowlers, and thanks to Infernal Machine he now caused terror, and of course the Boomhowlers also failed their command check...

Cygnar - Turn 3

Kara gave 2 focus to the Defender and up kept "Refuge". B13 activated first and killed the last Uhlan and Gorman. ATGM made their rally check but 2 models moved out of combat with Fenris and were killed by the free strikes. Defender activated and shot Fenris for about 8 wounds. Kara then activated and shot and killed Fenris, but he made his tough roll. Tempest Blazers activated, one shot Fenris (who once again made his tough roll) the rest shot and killed two pikemen, one being the officer. Boomhowlers also rallied this turn but couldn't do much else.

Khador - Turn 3

Vlad gave 3 focus to Beast 09 this turn. The pikemens managed to kill the Boomhowler in front of Beast. Vlad activated and popped his feat. Beast 09 charged into B13 and with a thresher attack he killed Watt, Ryan and two Tempest Blazers. He then side-stepped into combat with Kara and with his two remaining focus he manged to kill her. Axe to face, the Khador way.

Conclusion

I had never faced Vlad3 before, but I knew the could give Beast a huge threat range, but I still thought I was safe with Kara. It was also a huge deal to fail command checks with both ATGM and Boomhowlers on the same turn. Also my dice rolls are really odd, I can could hit Eiryss hiding inside of a bunker from across the table but my damage rolls are so low I couldn't even kill Reinholdt with a Stormwall... and I didn't help that I also forgot about the gobber this battle.

Khador vs Retribution (Strakhov vs Garryth) 35pts - Battle Report

This weekend I held a Steamroller Tournament at a local convention called Nordsken. We had 10 dedicated players showed up to battle for the Archangel trophy. In the end it came down to Khador and Retribution to battle it out to decide the winner of the tournament. This is the final battle of the day. The lists were:

Points: 35/35
Kommander Strakhov (*6pts)
* Beast-09 (11pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Greylord Escort (2pts)
Kayazy Eliminators (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Man-o-war Demolition Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Widowmaker Marksman (2pts)

Points: 35/35
Garryth, Blade of Retribution (*5pts)
* Banshee (10pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

Setup

Khador got the first turn and deployed the main of his force in the middle of the board to be able to contest any flag, the Doom Reavers advance deployed far away from his main force and was set to capture the flag on the right side.

Retribution had the same plan as he deployed his force across from the Khador army, with his Mage Hunter Strike force on the flank to handle the Doom Reavers. The Mage Hunter Assassins got the other flank.

Khador - Turn 1

The entire Khador army advanced carefully towards the elves. Strakhov cast "Occulation" on the Demolition Corps and "Superiority" on Beast 09.

Retribution - Turn 1

Retribution did pretty much the same as Khador - advanced. Garryth cast "Mirage" on the Sentinels and then joined the Mage Hunters in the forest. The Mage Hunters advanced and got within range of some of the Doom Reavers, they then shot and killed 3 of them. Ayana & Holt advanced along with the Mage Hunter Assassins towards the Widowmakers.

Incursion - the flag closest to the camera was removed.

Khador - Turn 2

Strakhov up kept both Occultation and Superiority this turn. Doom Reavers and the Kayazy Eliminators charged the Mage Hunters but only managed to kill one. Widowmakers advanced towards the Sentinels and shot and killed 3 of them. Both Man-o-Wars and Beast 09 stayed back this turn, preparing to make the charge next turn. 

Retribution - Turn 2

Garryth gave 2 focus to the Banshee and kept Mirage on the Sentinels this turn. The 3 Mage Hunters in melee with the Doom Reavers and Eliminators all backed away and got killed with the free strikes. The Remaining Mage Hunters and the Banshee then shot and killed the Doom Reavers and Eliminators, leaving only the Greylord Escort standing. 

The Mage Hunter Assassins charged and killed 2 of the Widowmakers. Holt then shot and killed the last two. The Sentinels then ran as far as possible towards the main Khador force to "lock" them in melee and to prevent them from coming closer to the flags. Garryth then moved up and killed the Greylord Escort before he popped his feat. 

Khador - Turn 3

Strakov kept Superiority (with Sylys) and dropped Occultation from the Man-o-Wars. Beast 09 also got allocated 3 focus this turn. Man-o-Wars activated and moved into melee with the Sentinels and killed 5 of them. The Widowmaker Marksman then ran towards the flag to score a point.

Beast 09 charged into combat with the Mage Hunter Assassins and killed them both. The Battle Mechanics also charged into combat with the Sentinels and managed to kill one. Strakhov moved up behind the Man-o-Wars.

Khador Control Points: 1
Retribution Control Points: 0

Retribution - Turn 3

Garryth charged and killed the Widowmaker Marksman and dominated the flag this turn. The Banshee moved up and killed a Man-o-War. The Sentinels that was left also charged the Man-o-Wars and killed another 2, and one moved into combat with Beast 09. The Mage Hunter Strike Force ran towards the middle flag to control it and to prevent Khador from taking any objectives.

Khador Control Points: 1

Retribution Control Points: 3

Khador - Turn 4

Things started to look grim for the Khador. Strakhov moved into combat to clear a path for the Man-o-War, he managed to kill both a Sentinel and a Mage Hunter before popping his feat. The Man-o-War then charged into Garryth and did about 9 damage to the Warcaster and contested the flag. Beast 09 took a free strike and moved closer to the middle flag where he killed both Ayana, Holt and another Mage Hunter. 

Khador Control Points: 1

Retribution Control Points: 3

Retribution - Turn 4

All that was left to do for Garryth was to kill a Man-o-War and dominate the flag another turn to win the game... which he did without breaking a sweat. A glorious win for the elves! 

Khador Control Points: 1

Retribution Control Points: 5

The winner, Niclas Ledin, holding the "Archangel Trophy"