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"

Haley lists

So I'm planning on playing with Haley this weekend. She's a pretty new caster to me, and I haven't really enjoyed her so far. But people tend to use her a lot, and it will make good practice for both me and my gaming group to face her once in a while. Tomorrow I'll be practicing against Legion at 50 points, and these are the two lists that I've come up with. 

Major Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Stormsmith Stormcaller (1pts)
 
Captain Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Storm Strider (9pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 3 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Stormsmith Stormcaller (1pts)

I'll most likley play with the first (epic Haley) list, since it doens't have that many bad match ups. The prime Haley list is mostly focused on removing infantry, and I don't expect Legion to suprise me with such a list.

Cygnar vs Khador (pHaley vs pIrusk) 35pts - Battle Report

I also played with my pHaley list against Khador. He wanted to try this list with a bonded Black Ivan with DEF 14(!).

Kommandant Irusk (*6pts)
* Black Ivan (10pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Black Dragon Officer & Standard (2pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount) (5pts)
Widowmaker Marksman (2pts)

Setup

Setup:
Same scenario as the last battle report, Process of Elimination. My opponent won the roll and choose table edge and let me go first. I wanted the option to put my Stormblades in the forest (with the help of Rhuperts pathfinder), and I wanted both Haley and B13 in the middle so I could use them in both control zones.

Turn 1

Cygnar - Run with stuff. Arcane Shield was given to both Stormblades and Strider.

Khador - Stuff ran. Irusk gave Iron Flesh to the Pikemen and Superiority to Black Ivan.

Turn 2

Cygnar - Time to feat. Ol' Rowdy moved up and Haley close behind, she cast Deadeye on the Stormblades and Temporal Barrier before she popped her feat. Stormblades advanced and shot with their Stormgunners, killing all the Great Bears except one, who made his tough roll, and they did a couple of wounds to the Drakhun. B13 shot and killed a few pikemens as well. Stormstrider advanced towards the left zone and shot at a Great Bear and got 3 electro leaps that killed both Eiryss and a Widowmaker. The next shot killed the last Great Bear and 2 Widowmakers, the final shot killed Drakhun.

Khador - Irusk cast Battle Lust on the pikemen and popped his feat. The pikemen advanced into combat with Ol' Rowdy and the Stormstrider but missed with their attacks. Black Ivan shot at the Squire, but a poor roll and deviation made the blast ineffective.

Turn 3 

Cygnar - Ol' Rowdy, Storm Strider and the Stormblades all advanced into combat with the pikemen. It took a lot of effort before I finaly killed two pikemens that was engaged into combat with me. B13 took the zone on the right and shot and killed a pikeman, Ryan also made a Mage Storm that landed perfect and blocked the charge lane for the remaining pikemen.

Khador - Black Ivan got 2 focus this turn. Irusk moved into the zone to the right and cast Iron Flesh on the pikemen. Two pikemen still in combat with Ol' Rowdy got critical knock down but didn't do much damage. Black Ivan charged the knocked down Rowdy and did a couple of wounds, but didn't cripple any systems. The Widowmaker and Marksman shot and killed 2 Stormblades that wasn't in combat.

Turn 4 

Cygnar - B13 shot and killed the remaining pikemen and Ryan also shot at Irusk and did a couple of wounds. Haley activated and had all her focus available. She moved into range to cast spells at Irusk. A boosted Arcane Bolt put Irusk down to a single wound left, and I hade just enough to cast another one that also hit and did enough to kill him.

Cygnar vs Circle (pHaley vs eKaya) 35pts - Battle Report

Played two games today with Prime Haley, a caster I think is a lot more fun than her epic version. I also wanted to try out my Storm Strider which I've almost never played with as don't really know what kind of list and caster it synergies with. Anyway, this is the game versus Circle... the lists;

Points: 35/35
Captain Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 3 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Storm Strider (9pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)

Points: 35/35
Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Ghetorix (11pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Nuala the Huntress (2pts)

Setup

Setup:
The scenario is "Process of Elimination", where you need do control/dominate the zones, or you can destroy the objectives for some extra points. I won the roll and wanted to go first. I kinda knew he would place his Bloodtrackers in the wood, but with both Arcane Shield and Tough I didn't think they would be such a huge problem.

Turn 1:

Cygnar - Run phase. Storm Strider and Stormblades both got Arcane Shield, and Rhupert also gave the Stormblades tough this turn.

Circle - Stuff ran forward. Bloodtrackers went really aggressive and sent a couple of models into my charge range to bait me into a trap. Kaya cast "Forced Evolution" on Ghetorix and "Shadow Pack" on her battle group before she advanced.

Turn 2:

Cygnar - B13 started and tried to shoot Ghetorix with a Fire Beacon to get vision of his Shifting Stone, but missed. Having nothing to shot at the Storm Strider and Ol' Rowdy advanced. Stormblades got Deadeye and advanced and killed 2 Bloodtrackers that they could get vision of. Rhupert once again gave the Stormblades tough. Haley also cast Temporal Barrier this turn, but it didn't affect the Bloodtrackers due to poor placement by me.

Circle - Bloodtrackers charged the Stormblades but only killed 2 of them (I made 4 out of 6 tough rolls). Gorax cast his animus on Ghetorix who then got teleported into melee range with Ol' Rowdy. He then warped Strength and started hitting Ol' Rowdy down to 1 box.

Turn 3

Cygnar - Haley used her feat and camped all her focus this turn. B13 and Stormstrider both shot at Ghetorix but did hardly do any damage due to really poor dice rolls. Stormblades activated and started swinging away at the Bloodtrackers killing about 4-5 of them (but I forgot Haleys feat so I only made one attack with each).

Circle - Ghetorix frenzied and killed Ol' Rowdy. Bloodtrackers killed all of the Stormblades with the help of some insane dice rolls (not a single roll he made was less than 8). And without Stormblades and Ol' Rowdy I didn't really see a way out so I forfeited.