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pics at http://sining83.blogspot.com/2014/06/road2fifty-warmachine-tournament.html

For this tournament, I decided to go back to using Cygnar since I had used Khador and Menoth for the last few tournaments so I wanted to test out my Cygnar army, which had been sleeping in my storage area for the last few months.

To that end, I had prepared this two lists


Major Victoria Haley
- Squire
- Stormclad
- Thorn
- Stormclad
Journeyman Warcaster
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Greygore Boomhowler & Co

Lord General Coleman Stryker
- Squire
- Stormclad
- Ol' Rowdy
Stormblade Captain
Journeyman Warcaster
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Storm Lances
Stormblade Infantry
Silver Line Stormguard

The first list is a typical control/scenario list, with a fair amount of options to try and take down most infantry lists as well as having a fair bit of armor. Stryker3 however is simply an armor-cracker, although I didn't have as much time to test this list out as I would have liked due to having been overseas for a while before the tournament. However, the concept is simple, stormlances will wreck whatever colossal/jacks the enemies has.


So the day finally came. There's a fair amount of people that actually turned out. The actual turn-out was supposed to be over 20 but as the date got closer, more people dropped out.

Faction lists can be found here

For the first round, I was paired against my regular Cygnar opponent, the one match-up we both didn't really want to face.

Major Victoria Haley
- Squire
- Stormclad
- Thorn
- Stormclad
Journeyman Warcaster
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Greygore Boomhowler & Co

Captain Victoria Haley
- Centurion
- Squire

Journeyman Warcaster
Stormlances
Forgeguard
Rhupert
Tempest Blazers
ATGM with UA
Gorman

We end up playing Scenario 11, with me going 2nd.

Turn 1
-He gives 1 focus to the Centurion. Arcane shield goes onto the Stormlances. The Stormlances run up the right flank, towards the zone. The Tempest blazers run up the left flank towards the flag. The forgeguard run up the center, camping behind the objective. The ATGM are particularly brave and run up all the way in front. The Centurion runs up behind the forgeguard with pHaley moving up behind and giving Arcane shield to the ATGM.
+I give 1 focus to each of the jacks. The bonded stormclad runs up the center, towards the zone. The non-bonded one runs up the left flank, towards the flag. Thorn runs up towards the zone. Arcane shield goes onto the boomhowlers. The boomhowlers sing 4+ tough and run up towards the zone. Haley activates, casts deceleration, feats, TKs the bonded stormclad through Thorn and activates reaction drive, moving Thorn to camp behind a wall for cover. She then charges up and fails her charge. But I get enough distance that I cover most of her units+jacks in the feat. Squire runs to Haley2. ATGM activate and move up and try to shoot her ATGM. I hit one and kill it. eEiryss snipes Arcane shield off the Stormlances and she won't be able to recast it next turn as her journeyman is too far.

Turn 2
-Almost everything but pHaley, Journeyman and all his solos are caught in the feat. The forgeguard activate first but they're blocked by the objective so they can barely move. Same for the Centurion who is blocked by the forgeguard mostly. The Stormlances move up into the zone, choosing to forfeit their action to try and block me from controlling the zone. The tempest blazers shoot and then light cav forwards, towards the zone. pHaley casts temporal barrier, preventing my jacks and 1 boomhowler from charging.
+So I have one tempest blazer and two stormlances blocking the zone. I need to get rid of them to try and dominate the zone, which is my plan. I draw 1 focus from Squire. I need 3 to cast deceleration and I have 6. I give 2 focus to my bonded stormclad. Boomhowlers charge/run and kill 1 stormlance due to me forgetting to activate Rhupert beforehand and giving them pathfinder. Doh. Stormclad walks up, kills a tempest Blazer with a boosted attack roll and another Stormlance and misses his last attack on a Stormlance. Thorn walks up and hits the Stormlance but doesn't kill it. Haley casts TK on the Stormclad through Thorn and reaction drives backwards. She then casts Deceleration and deadeye on the ATGM and charges into the zone but fails to hit her target. However,I dominate the zone. ATGM walk up and thunderbolt the stormlance out of the zone with boosted attack rolls and shoots down a few Tempest blazers.


Turn 3
-3 focus to the Centurion. pHaley walks up and feats and casts temporal barrier. The Stormlances charge my boomhowlers, except for the one that was KDed by the ATGM previously. I make a few tough rolls but not enough. The tempest Blazers walk up and shoot the boomhowlers and use the feat shot to hit some of the ATGM with eleaps. Thanks to Rhupert, they tough some of them out. Centurion walks up and wrecks the Bonded stormclad. Forgeguard run forward. The ATGM walk up and shoot at the boomhowlers again, as well as thunderbolting the other Stormclad back.
+So one of my stormclads has died and I've been caught in his temporal barrier. This is a bit of an issue. Especially since I'm still caught in Temporal Barrier. I get one more focus from the Squire. Thorn walks up and kills a Stormlance. Haley2 casts timebomb on the centurion, hitting it and some ATGM. Amazingly, I don't roll high enough to kill 2 out of 3 of the ATGM I hit. I also hit the forgeguard, which is amazingly good for me since I need to delay them. I dominate the centurion and it walks backwards and beats their objective. Then I reaction drive backwards. Haley2 then deadeyes the ATGM. Boomhowlers walk up and kill Stormlances. ATGM shoot at the tempest blazers and ATGM with deadeyed shots. Eiryss disrupts the Centurion.

Turn 4
-Haley2 casts temporal barrier. His Centurion walks forwards and beats Thorn but misses. His forgeguard charge Thorn and rolls FOUR 6s on damage. Wth. The tempest blazers continue blazing away at the Boomhowlers and using eleap to take out the ATGM. ATGM kill eEiryss, meaning no more disruption.
+This has turned into a pretty brutal attrition match. I still have my stormclad but I've lost most of my boomhowlers and my ATGM. Otoh, the only unit he really has that threatens me are the Forgeguard. I still have an arcnode so I try to make use of it, casting deadeye on the boomhowlers and the ATGM while and then Timebombing more forgeguard. This is really more of a delaying action while I try to clear the forgeguard. The boomhowlers and ATGM fire at his units, wiping out the Tempest blazers and leaving the ATGM and some more forgeguard to deal with. However, at this point, I literally only have 30s on the clock. Thorn disrupts his Centurion.

Turn 5
-Centurion kills Thorn. The forgeguard and ATGM kill more of my boomies, including Greygore and my unit leader. The journeyman takes a pot shot at Haley2 and does 4 points of damage to her.
+I try to resolve everything as quick as I can but I time out in the end.

Thoughts on game
Man, time really flew by during that game. Despite all the practice I've had with Haley2, she still takes a fair bit of time for me to play. I don't really think I was in a horrible position at the end of the game. His forgeguard were wittled down and I was slowly time-bombing them and the Centurion to delay them. If I hadn't timed out, I think in the end I probably could have won by scenario. But again, we are playing deathclock for a reason.

Game 2 was against yet another Cygnar player. There were only 3 Cygnar players at this tournament and I was one of them and I've already hit all 2 of them within the first 2 rounds.

Game 2 was against yet another Cygnar player. There were only 3 Cygnar players at this tournament and I was one of them and I've already hit all 2 of them within the first 2 rounds.

Round 2


Lord General Coleman Stryker
- Squire
- Stormclad
- Ol' Rowdy
Stormblade Captain
Journeyman Warcaster
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Stormsmith Stormcaller


Storm Lances
Stormblade Infantry
Silver Line Stormguard

Nemo2
-Minuteman
-Stormwall
-Ol'Rowdy
-Squire

Silverline Stormguard
Journeyman
Gorman
Black13
Storm Smith Caller x 3



Okay, the only thing I'm really worried about in the entire list is the Stormwall. In fact, both his lists have a Stormwall so I decided to play my armor cracking list, Stryker 3. The scenario is #5 and he goes first.

Turn 1
-So 1 focus to Stormwall.Stormwall runs up the right flank, towards my flag. The B13 run up the left, towards their own flag and camp on a hill. Ol'Rowdy runs after them while the minuteman advances in their direction. The Silverline run up the center. The journeyman advances and casts Arcane shield on them. Nemo2 casts energiser, moves Ol'Rowdy, the minuteman and himself up 3" and then he casts polarity field on the Stormwall, preventing me from charging it. He then walks and hides behind a forest, blocking LOS to him.
+Journeyman casts arcane shield on the Stormlances. They run up the center. Stryker2 casts escort on himself and iron aggression on the Stormclad, then he walks up, onto a hill. Stormclad gets a focus from being near the Stormblades and runs up the center, looking at the Stormwall. Stormsmith caller runs up the left flank while the other runs up the right and hides behind a wall. Silverline run up the center but space out so I don't get hit by a magestorm. Stormblades run up behind the Stormclad. Stormblade Captain hides on a hill. Ol'Rowdy runs and touches Stryker.


Turn 2
-He gives 3 focus to the Stormwall and upkeeps polarity field. Arcane shield is kept on the Stormguard. The black13 advance and try to shoot the Stormlances. While I'm expecting a magestorm, he decides to use brutal shots on the stormlances instead. Needless to say, it's hard to crack armor 20 stormlances with pow10 brutal shots. Ol'Rowdy runs up to their flag. The Silverline run up the middle and clump together. Stormwall advances and shoots the Stormclad, dealing a fair bit of damage to it and then lays down some templates, as well as a lightning pod in front of my stormclad. Stormsmith callers miss my Stormclad. He ends up killboxing himself this turn.
+I draw a focus from the squire and upkeep Escort. I drop Iron Aggression cause his Stormwall can't be charged anyway. Arlan walks up and repairs the Stormclad. Stormsmith caller on the right walks over and kills the Lightning pod blocking the stormclad. Which means I now have a clear path to his Stormwall. Stormclad activates, gets focus from nearby stormblades, walks over and beats the Stormwall pretty nicely. Stryker3 casts fury on the Stormlances. and walks to the left and then he feats. Just for fun I try to shoot the b13 but I miss horribly. The Stormsmith caller on the left walks up and stormcalls Watts to death. The stormlances feat, impact kill the rest of the Black13 as well as some stormguard and then utterly decimate Ol'Rowdy. The Silverline run up and clump together this time to prevent charges, since there's no more b13. The stormblades run up to the Stormclad. Arcane shield is cast on Ol' Rowdy and Ol'Rowdy runs to Stryker.


Turn 3
-This is where things take a turn for the strange. 3 focus allocated to the Stormwall and Polarity field upkept. My opponent then decides to throw the Stormclad instead of just whacking it to death. He misses his 2H throw target and boosts the damage on the Stormclad instead when it lands. The minuteman shoots 2 of my Stormlances to death and then Gorman blackoils another 2. The Silverline charge and kill one. Stormsmith callers try and disrupt my Stormclad but fail.
+I drop fury on the Stormlances, give 2 focus to the Stormclad and upkeep escort. They activate. One moves up to Gorman while the other shoots my own Stormlance in the back. At this point, I make a mistake and forget my Stormlances are immune to my own shooting and I remove both gorman and my Stormlance from the table. Derp. Stormguard charge and kill the minuteman and some of their own stormguard. Stryker 3 casts fury on the Stormclad and moves even more to the left. Stormclad gets repaird by Arlan, gets a focus from the Stormblades. He walks up and wrecks the stormwall. Stormblades charge his journeyman and kill it.



Turn 4
-So things aren't looking good. With no Stormwall, some Stormguard left and Nemo, things don't look good. Stormguard charge my remaining stormlances and my stormblades and kill them. Nemo charges my Stormclad but it survives.
+I drop escort and fury. I wipe his stormguard off the table then Stryker 3 walks up and dominates his flag. I don't bother killing him cause I'm up on scenario and camping all my focus.


Turn 5
-I'm sure Nemo2 would love to get to me but I have way too many bodies in between. He tries to finish off the Stormclad and does so. He then ends his turn and I dominate again for the victory.

Thoughts on game
Losing Ol'Rowdy was brutal but expected. I was determined to kill off ONE jack with my Stormlances at least. Throwing the Stormclad however was what killed him though. Thanks to that, my stormclad was able to survive and walk over and finish him. Otherwise I would have had to jam him with furied Stormblades who still pack a mean punch but not +3 mean. So far, this is my first game with this new list and my 3rd game with Stryker3 and he's working out pretty well so far.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Round 3
The third round sees me facing off against Khador and one of the opponents from Malaysia and someone I've faced 2 times before. The record for W-L was 1-1 so I guess this would be a tie breaker.

He has 2 lists, which involves Strakhov and a Colossal and Butcher3 without a colossal. Not that B3 really needs a colossal...We both think about our list for a long while because frankly, I'm not sure I can crack a colossal with Haley2 and I'm not sure S3 really likes facing against B3. In the end I pick S3; thinking he would pick the colossal and he picks B3 thinking I would Haley2.

Lord General Coleman Stryker
- Squire
- Stormclad
- Ol' Rowdy
Stormblade Captain
Journeyman Warcaster
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Stormsmith Stormcaller


Storm Lances
Stormblade Infantry
Silver Line Stormguard

Butcher3
-Argus
-Argus
-wardog
-Spriggan

Widowmaker
Widowmaker Marskman
Koldun Lord
Greylord Ternions
Reinholdt
Madelyn Corbeau
eEiryss
Drakhun with Dismount
Fenris
Ogrun bokur
Ogrun bokur
Great Bears
Orin midwinter



This is a fairly strange list but it seems to work. He goes 2nd and I go first. We play Scenario #9.

Turn 1
-Arcane shield goes onto Stormlances. Stormlances run up in front, making sure to stay away from Butchers threatrange of 16. Stryker3 casts Escort and Iron Aggression on Stormclad. He then walks up. Silverline run up the right flank. Stormclad runs up the right flank. Ol'Rowdy follows behind Stryker. Stormsmith callers run up the right and left flank. Stormblades follow behind the Stormguard.
+No focus allocation. Drakhun and Fenris came running up the center. Fenris engages 1 stormlance and I pass my CMD check. Drakhun stays further behind. eEiryss snipes arcane shield off the Stormlances. Widowmakers with marksman walk up and snipe one Stormlance to death. Greylords cast smoke on them, concealing the widowmakers and themselves. Spriggan gets power boosted by the Koldun Lord and it runs up. Butcher3 runs into the ruins of Mordor and stays there, blocked from charge lanes by his argus. The left flag disappears.

Turn 2
-I'm almost tempted to try and assassinate him but right now isn't the time. Plus measuring the distance, I'm not sure it would work so I decide to bide my time. I upkeep both spells. Arlan powerboosts the Stormclad who then tries to assault Fenris. I hit and dismount him. Then a Stormsmith caller walks and somehow I lightning call him to death. 2nd Stormsmith caller walks up and tries to stormcall the marksman. I succeed but leave him with 2hp. Now that Fenris is dead, my stormlances run all the way to right flank. My Silverline run past them and clump together to block charge lanes. Arcane shield goes onto Ol'Rowdy. Stryker moves to the right flank, hoping to be able to dominate the right flag later on. Ol'Rowdy runs to be with him. Stormblades run up behind the Silverline.
+No focus allocation. The greatbears charge and almost wreck my Stormclad. It has to be finished off by the Drakhun. Butcher3 orders a run-charge, he charges his drakhun while the others charge/run my stormblades. He then kills off one stormblade and silverline with ganged attacks and then energisers away so he doesn't kill his own drakhun. However, he doesn't realise that my stormguard have reach for some reason so he ends up taking a freestrike that kills one argus. Widowmakers snipe down my stormguard/stormblades. Spriggan runs to contest the right flag.

Turn 3
-This is do or die turn. His Butcher is close enough that there is NOWHERE for me to run now. He's also camping 3 focus, which leaves him at armor 21. I drop escort, draw a focus from the Squire. I then feat and cast fury on the Stormlances. I charge the Spriggan, impact it, kill some widowmakers nearby and then hit it. Ol'Rowdy charges it as well. We don't really do enough to kill it. Stormblade Captain charges and dismounts the Drakhun. The stormblades and stormguard finish off the rest of the models blocking the way, thanks to being able to charge through each other due to the SBC. Thank you SBC. His argus is dead, his Wardog is dead. I remember to leave enough space for my Stormlances to go through. The first one impacts him and eEiryss. I actually forgot to assault again -_-, then the rest follow through with their charge. Altogether 3 charge him. I pass my CMD test. The first rolls 14 on charge 4d6. The next one rolls 13. Combined, they're enough to drop him.

Thoughts on game
That was a close one. Butcher3 pretty much almost outclasses Stryker3 in so many ways and his feat hits Cygnar so damn hard due to us having no fearless units at all. If he had feated and just camped there, I wouldn't have been able to charge him cause I would have auto-failed my CMD tests. But then he probably wanted to save his feat for the assassination run.

Which brings us to the last round of the day.

Round 4
So my final opponent is from Indonesia and a trollblood player. This pretty much means Stryker3. Again

Lord General Coleman Stryker
- Squire
- Stormclad
- Ol' Rowdy
Stormblade Captain
Journeyman Warcaster
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Stormsmith Stormcaller


Storm Lances
Stormblade Infantry
Silver Line Stormguard

pGrissel
-Mulg
-Axer

Fennblades with UA
Fellcaller hero
Chronicler
Champions
Min. Long riders
Horthol



I go 2nd and we end up play Scenario #12.

Turn 1
-He uses hoof it on the Fennblades and moves pGrissel up the center. The fennblades then run up the left flank, towards my stormlances. The long riders run up the right, followed by horthol and then the Champions and then the fellcaller hero. Mulg and the axer follows Grissel up the center. The fennblades advance again at the end of his turn due to hoof it.
+His fennblades are really close to my stormlances for some reason. I cast arcane shield on the Stormlances. They ride by and shoot the fennblades, using electroleap to deal a fair bit of damage. Overall, I think 3 of them die this turn. Then I reform backwards. Stormclad runs up the center with the focus from the stormblades. Silverline run up the right flank. Stormblades follow behind. The Stormsmith caller runs up the right flank while the other walks up and calls down the lightning on one Fennblade and kills it. Stryker 3 moves up the center, casts Escort and iron aggression on Stormclad. Ol'Rowdy joins him.


Turn 2
-Okay, pgrissel walks up and feats, catching everyone in her feat. The fennblades get heros tragedy from the chronicler and then charges into my Stormlance, stormsmith caller and stryker3. They kill a few, miss a few and I'm left with 4 stormlances. I totally forget Stryker3s ability which lets him shock people who hit him with a pow10 electrical attack. That would have been useful.His warbeasts advance to the flag but forget they can't control cause my objective is there to contest anyway. Longriders try to charge my stormblades, cause they can't charge the silverline, impact the silverline and then fail charge. As does Horthol. Champions run up behind the Long Riders, as does the fellcaller hero.
+Right, this is probably the best time to feat despite the fact I can't kill his warbeasts. 0 focus to anyone, I upkeep Escort and Iron Aggression. Arlan walks up and sprays quite a few trolls to death. Stryker3 does a ride by, shooting his units and then moving away and feating. Rowdy joins him. Stormclad kills off a few fennblades and a longrider, which then makes its tough roll. My stormblades finish the long riders off with ease. The Stormguard then proceed to decimate the champions, except for 2 instances where I actually bounce off armor 18 with pow 12 attacks +4d6 attacks... Horthol is dismounted handily and makes his tough roll when my second silverline hits him. Stormlances are a bit trickier since they have heros tragedy on them and I'm engaged by them already which means no charging. I position so that i can hit them and trigger eleaps for all of them, which I do, wiping out all but 1. 1 of the stormlances isn't knocked down as he ended up shooting instead since everyone engaging him died.

Turn 3
-Axer charges the stormlances on the leftmost side and threshers, killing his own fennblade in the process and failing to kill the other Stormlance. Mulg walks up and kills the objective while pGrissel dominates for two. His champions kill off quite a few of my stormguard while the fellcaller hero sprays my stormblades and kills off one.
+3 focus to Ol'Rowdy. I get 1 focus from Squire and upkeep Escort. Rhupert power boosts the stormclad and it gets 1 focus from the stormblades. It walks forward and beats Mulg. The other Stormlances walk and reform so they're contesting. Except the one engaged by the Axer who just beats the warbeast. My stormblades wipe out the Champions and the SBC wipes out the fellcaller hero. Stryker casts fury on Ol'Rowdy, assaults and kills off Horthol. Ol'Rowdy charges Mulg, positioning himself in such a way he can counter-charge later. He destroys Mulg with fury on. Journeyman runs to contest the zone.

Turn 4
-Axer tries to kill 2 of my stormlance but fails to kill one. Grissel walks up and tries to beat the Stormlance to death but that triggers Ol'Rowdys countercharge. I fail charge however since there is a flag in between me and her and I can't land on that. However, it's enough since I'm now contesting. Also, Ol'Rowdy is next to Grissel.
+Ol'Rowdy kills Grissel.

Thoughts on game
Wow, Ol' Rowdy's counter-charge came in pretty useful this time. I almost never get to pull it off. However, it just seemed strange my opponent would use Mulg just to take the objective. While I could have dragged this game out since I'm not sure grissel can kill 2 heavy warjacks, one with arcane shield on it and just gotten 5CP, it was late and I was hungry. So I ended the game.

In the end, it was a long tournament and other than timing out that first round, I don't think I ended up too badly during the matches. At least the guy I timed out to ended up getting 2nd. Stryker3 definitely had a fair bit more game than most people expected him to have, although there's also the fact he's fairly new in the regional meta it seems.

Overall, it was a good time for everyone even if it was a bit tiring at the end. My own position in the final rankings was 4th. While I had the same CP as 2nd and 3rd probably, it came down to Strength of Schedule before CP and since both had faced Peter; the champion, their SoS was greater than mine. Still a good lesson to learn from this though. Don't think so much during eHaleys turns.

I love that Styrker3 list, how did you feel about it after your games? You said you didn't have any real practice with him beforehand, how did it hold up

Well, it would die to anything with a really strong shooting presence since there are way too many def 12s and armor 15s in it. The stormblade captain is one of the key lynch pins of the entire list, since tactician stormknight is really useful on feat turn. Silverlines also worked better than stormguard I felt for their innate polarity field. I did miss eleap but I prefer not being charged more.

Some great bat reps, though pulling a pHaley/eHaley match the first game is tough.

Well done.

Was still better than having a pHaley vs Stryker3 match. That would have been so bad.