042 Siege1 HM vs Zaateroth1 DL
https://conflictchamber.com/?c1201b_-1L919b9bicaklNf5oJoM6iaebzbz
Cygnar
[Theme] Heavy Metal
[Brisbane 1] Major Markus “Siege” Brisbane [+28]
– Charger [9]
– Charger [9]
– Triumph [18]
– Squire [0(5)]
Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine [0(5)]
– Ace [10]
Savio Montero Acosta [0(6)]
Thamarite Archon [8]
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen [10]
Field Mechaniks (min) [3]
Storm Strider [18]
Storm Strider [18]
https://conflictchamber.com/?cg201b_-1yo8oboeoaoaoaolosonoSoqopogovogou
Infernals
[Theme] Dark Legacy
!!! This army contains a pre-release entry.
[Zaateroth 1] Zaateroth, The Weaver of Shadows [+26]
– Foreboder [4]
– Tormentor [12]
– Tormentor [12]
– Tormentor [12]
– Tormentor [12]
– Lord Roget d’Vyaros [4]
Alain Runewood, Lord of Ash [0(5)]
Great Princess Regna Gravnoy [0(6)]
Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)]
The Wretch [4]
The Wretch [4]
Valin Hauke, The Fallen Knight [7]
Cultist Band (max) [7]
– Master Preceptor Orin Midwinter [4]
Cultist Band (max) [7]
Infernal Gate [12]
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Turn 1A
I lose the die roll and get second turn. I try to learn from the Syvestro game I had recently and choose the side with the forest so that my opponent can’t use it to ambush my Battle engines. I try to make sure to deploy my True sight units on the left where there is a cloud.
Zaateroth spawns a Desolator and Regna spawns a Shrieker who take up aggressive positions behind the obstruction. Other than that my opponent respects my threat ranges and takes care to keep within Long Shadows.
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Turn 1B
I try to set up such that I don’t give away any Rites of Torment targets. This means that I only need to respect 9” and 11” from the heavies (depending on if they are within gate or not). I probably keep Ace a little bit too far back, but I am afraid that he can kill him with ranged attacks and set off the whole RoT chain if he gets some good dice.
The rightmost Storm Strider should have been spread out further towards my right, but more on that next turn.
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Turn 2A
My opponent sees a nice line of play and uses Runewood to remove pathfinder from the rightmost Storm Strider and runs up a Tormentor to contest my zone. The Shrieker and Runewood actually deal quite a nice chunk of damage to the Strider with their ranged attacks.
Zaateroth boosts a Stygian Abyss on the other Storm Strider and gets the Crit: Blind. He then summons a desolator to make a cloud in the center and bricks up behind it and the rock.
My opponent pointed out after the game that he spread out a bit too much here, especially on my left side. He is not contesting my flag anyway so he could have stayed more centrally.
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Turn 2B
I figure I still need to go for feat this turn while I still have an army. My opponent reminds me that Mage Sight is a spell on my card so I use it to remove the cloud. This is not necessary for Siege’s Ground Pounder attack, but it lets me keep the Chargers a bit further back. This leaves Siege on 0 camp in a pretty exposed position since he is trying to catch the rightmost tormentor within feat. The Ground pounder kills the Shrieker. I spend the rest of my attacks trying to kill the two Desolators, but fail to finish off either. This means that after my feat turn I have only killed one light and damaged two of his heavies. In hindsight I think it was clearly a mistake to feat this turn.
I do the traditional forgetting of Counter charge when I move my rightmost Strider, so the Tormentor in my zone charges to be completely within my right field of fire. I also forget to walk up the mechanics for the repairs.
A spectator points out that I have forgotten to deploy Acosta, so he magically appears on the battlefield.
Score 1-0
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Turn 3A
I don’t think it would have been to difficult for my opponent to use RoT and Ghost walk to clear out Acosta and the Charger in front of Siege to get the caster kill this turn, but he decides to go for attrition instead. He is really far ahead at this point so that this is probably the smart choice.
Tormentor and Desolator finishes off the rightmost Strider and two Tormentors kill the Chargers and Acosta. Zaateroth feats, toes the zone and tries to blind the remaining Strider, but doesn’t get the crit. The Desolator and Tormentor on the left kill the Thamarite archon and clears is rectangle zone.
Score 1-3
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Turn 3B
I need to go for the caster kill and come surprisingly close. I have range with Triumph, Ace and Siege. Zaateroth is camping nothing, but DEF 18 on feat and the first dodge means she is out of range of my remaining attacks. It starts off great with both Triumph and Ace hitting and taking her down to ~4 boxes. I need to do some Force Hammer shenanigans (staying out of Wailing) to get Siege into range without triggering Counter Charge. I succeed to get the shot off, but miss needing 12s to hit.
Due to the Dodge mechanic it is hard to calculate the odds for this assassination, but it was a long shot for sure and I was surprised to even get her down to so few boxes. With the current game state I think this was my best (only) chance to win the game.
I have spent all my contesting pieces to stop counter charges, so my opponent scores two points.
Score 1-5
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Turn 4A
Opponent kills Siege and scores two points for the double win.
Score 1-7
Sadly, a loss for the Swans
:: Evaluation ::
My opponent played well and got to live the dream on his second turn to completely shut down my alpha strike. I should have realised how bad the situation was and tried to set up in a way where I could hold my feat while still conserving as much as possible of my forces and not giving up too many scenario points. Zaateroth seems to have the tools to deal with this army if she is played well, and my opponent didn’t even bring any Umbral Guardians.