Learning Legion – Moocon 2013 Tournament Report – Game 1.

I’m back again! Real life and vacation swallowed my gaming time but I marked my return by taking part in a local 50pt, 1 day Steamroller.

“But Pete!” I hear you cry, “What could possibly be more real than seeing your enemies driven before you and hearing the lamentation of their women?!?”

Booze. Blizzcon. More Booze.

I found myself somewhat short for this tournament as my normal tournament crutch, eVayl, was in the paint shop getting made all pretty like, so I went all hipster with my lists.

List 1:

pVayl
– Typhon
– Ravagore
– Scythean
– Seraph
– Shredder
Max Raptors
Forsaken
Forsaken
Spell Martyr

Yeah it’s JVM’s pVayl list, it’s awesome.

List 2:

pLylyth
– Ravagore
– Ravagore
– Shredder
Max Warspears w/UA
Max Warspears w/UA
Blackfrost Shard
Max Swordsmen
Shepherd

It’s a cool pLylyth list, maximum armour swing, big scary Ogrun and a unit of Weapon Masters. Yes, I wish they were Hex Hunters too, but I don’t own the little blighters.

Houseguard what?! You mean.. I’m not the best 2pt “unit fixer” any more? *runs away crying*

Game 1 –
Opponent: Alan B. – Same Alan I played first at NWG.
Faction: Cygnar
Scenario: Close Quarters
Terrain:  A wall dead centre, just outside the killbox for me. Halfway up on the left is a big patch of impassable terrain, with a Building in the middle of it. On my right on my side there’s a house. On his side a forest.

List:

My opponent has eStryker and eHaley available.

eHaley (FUCK YEAH I NEVER PLAY VS EHALEY WOOO)
– Stormwall
– Stormwall
– Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
Arlan Strangewayes
Max Tempest Blazers

A variation on the typical eHaley dub-SW list that’s doing the rounds. I dropped pLylyth against it, as I wanted to give her a go. My standard practice partner Pat said “You can probably outplay Haley with Vayl, and just muscle through it with Lylyth.” Considering I’d got back from LA 3 days before, and was feeling a little delicate, I went with a muscley opening (eww). There’s some more thought behind it though:

1) Everything in the list bar the Shepherd and Shredder threatens Stormwall, especially with Kiss + Parasite on the table. Hell, even a POW 17 Shredder will do some hurt.

2) eHaley needs to be very concerned about two Ravagores with 4dice to hit on Feat Turn. It also means that if she wants to score scenario points, she needs to be dominating her flag, either sitting her Stormwalls in front of her to do so, or opening herself up to the Ravagores.

3) I fuckin’ love pLylyth.

Better than eHaley.

Deployment:

I won the roll to go first, and chose to do so. I never let Haley go first if I can help it! He pre-deploys his two Stormwalls dead centre, in base-to-base, with a little buttcheek between their two bases for Haley. I stick Lylyth and her Battlegroup + Shepherd opposite both Stormwalls. Importantly, there’s a wall about 1/2″ outside the killbox, which is where Lylyth will be spending the entire game. Swordsmen go on Lylyth’s right, both units of Ogrun on the left. Both units put prey on the same Stormwall, the one on Lylyth’s left. The Blackfrost Shard go just by Lylyth.

He puts the Blazers opposite the Ogrun. Personally, I would’ve used them to clear the Swordsmen, and focus Stormwall on the Ogrun, but he decides to switch it up. The support goes behind the Stormwalls, surprisingly.

Turn 1 – Legion

Everything runs forward. Tenacity goes on Lylyth and both Ravagores. Man writing Battlereports for Lylyth is easy.

Turn 1 – Cygnar

Arcane Shield goes on the non-preyed, bonded, Stormwall (I thought this was a bit strange) they both waddle forward, fire pods, big guns go at Ravagores, Covering fire goes down four times, layering the field.  The Blazers go flanking around/through some difficult terrain to harry the Ogruns (that means “to persistently carry out attacks on” not “They’re going towards Harry, the Ogrun” – just to be clear). Haley camps her stack, walks between the buttcheek, so does everything else.

Turn 2 – Legion

Warspear Unit 1 assaults the Blazers. I kill one with a melee attack, and that’s it. Def 15 is hard yo! Unit 2 goes assaulting on Stormwall, 2 get shots off  and put a few points on it, Prey making it Dice -4. They take a few hits from the Covering Fire, but nothing major. Ravagore 1 gets the JVM treatment and puts some more points on the same Stormwall and sets it on fire. Then I activate my Shepherd to remove the fury. Ravagore 2 does the same without the Animus. So far Stormwall 1 has taken a good bit of damage and we’ve not even got to the good bits yet! The Swordsmen run as far as they can towards the other Stormwall. Blackfrost shard walk up and stealth.

Turn 2 – Cygnar

He upkeeps Arcane Shield. His Tempest Blazers go into the Ogrun, engaging both units and passing both Terror Checks. He kills two, one from each unit, with Brutal Damage, and dings up one more. Crucially, this unengages the Blazers from Warspear Unit 2.

The bonded Stormwall puts a big gun shot into one of my Ravagores, then uses his nipple guns to clear out some Swordsmen. The pod gets 2 more. There’s about 5 dead so far. The other Stormwall moves up to engage the Warspear that chucked at it last turn, puts damage on the same Ravagore, wastes some shots trying for DEF 21 Lylyth, and generally putters about being all Roboty. Haley moves up and feats, catching everything apart from Lylyth, the Shredder and the Shepherd.

Turn 3 – Legion (kinda)

I get my half a turn, though it’s not all bad! He tells me to activate Warspear Unit 1, they generally sacrifice Movement and throw/stab at some Horsies really ineffectually. He tells me to activate Warspear Unit 2, one moves to re-engage the Blazers, and they fail their terror check. Awwww yis. The others poke at Stormwall and do more damage. Ravagores next, they do exactly the same as last turn without the Aiming/Animus, and put two more boosted shots into the preyed Stormwall, which is now half dead. The Blackfrost shard just stealth where they are, they’re in range anyway for what I need them to do next turn. The Swordsmen walk to engage the bonded Stormwall.

Lylyth camps behind the wall and shoots at the Stormwall and does no damage, she throws out 3 tenacities again. The Shepherd removes fury from a Ravagore, the Shredder picks his teeth.

Turn 3 – Cygnar

This is the turn where he wants to be smashing, but his Blazers are still crying about Scary Harry, his one Stormwall is looking gimpy, and the other is engaged by 5 dudes with swords. He upkeeps Arcane Shield.

The Blazers activate first and fail their command check. Result! Haley puts Deadeye on gimpy Stormwall , it fires a pod, shoots its big gun at Lylyth and misses (DEF 21 is sweet) he uses the rest on the Ravagore more and cripples it. Bonded Stormwall clears out all but 1 Swordsman.

Turn 4 – Legion

My Haley gameplan is on track – I have almost killed a Stormwall and I still have both Heavies. I have survived the feat. I am good to go! I realise I can kill both Stormwalls this turn, so that’s what I’ll do. Lylyth activates first, feats, shoots the bonded Stormwall and puts Parasite on it, she spends 1 to heal the Crippled Ravagore. The Blackfrost Shard activate next, advance to within 12″ of both Stormwalls. They kiss the bonded + Parasited Stormwall (That’s effectively -5 ARM now), and Ice Bolt the Gimpy Stormwall, doing some more points.

Warspear Unit 1 activates and, free from the Blazers, assault Gimpy, killing it easily. Both units shift their Prey to the Bonded Stormwall. I activate my last remaining Swordsman and he charges Bonded. Maths comes into play now (boooo, maths) and it’s POW 11 + 2 vs ARM 22 – 3. Or simply, and ARM 17 Stormwall including Arcane Shield. The single charging Swordsman does 8 points. Nice! Warspear Unit 2 has 5 guys left. They assault Stormwall and it dies before the third Melee attack. Turns out POW 15 vs ARM 17 is really good when you have 10 attacks, 5 of them boosted. The Warspears swap both Preys to Haley.

Now I’ve killed both Stormwalls and my Ravagores haven’t activated yet. Great success. First one does the full JVM again and sets Haley on fire and leaves her on 8 boxes. Second one tries to do the same but fails, only killing Arlan.

The shredder does shreddery things.

Turn 4 – Cygnar

My opponent charges Haley into the Warspear unit that killed her Bonded Stormwall and kills all of them, spending his full stack of focus.

Turn 5 – Legion

A Ravagore punches her in the face. I could’ve spent time hunting down Army points, and probably ran Lylyth on to my flag for a CP, but meh, it seems unsporting.

Result:

WIN! – 0 Control Points (sad) and something like 46 Army Points.

Stormwall. x2

A good first outing for pLylyth today. I had a game plan and stuck to it, and was able to muscle through. One of the problems with eHaley Dubs is that even though it seems simple, it has a very high skillcap, and does require a lot of practice to get right. Having played against eHaley a lot, I knew what I had to do and executed my plan.

Had my opponent focused on removing the Warspears, he would’ve had a much better time of it. Both Stormwalls should be able to remove most of a unit each turn, and the Tempest Blazers will mow through Swordsmen without breaking a sweat. Prioritising the Chieftains removes Prey, which drops the pseudo armour-swing of the list from 7 to 5, which can help.

Rounds are drawn up and I’m playing against Christian, who is a frequent practice opponent. He’s packing eBaldur and someone unimportant.

Tune in soon for Round 2 – pVayl vs eBaldur!