097 Damiano1 SoF vs Haley3 GD
2d6 BrawlMachine #1 – Game 2
For my second game of the tournament I get paired up against a Haley3 Gravediggers list. Again this is a caster and theme I have played a whole lot myself so I was very happy to not have any surprises coming my way on the opposite side of the table. On the other hand I am well aware that it will be a strong list. His other list was Caine2, so I had to drop Damiano in any case.
On paper I feel that Damiano should have a decent chance since I have good hit fixing and I know that Haley3 can struggle to deal a lot of damage in one single turn. The Steelhead Arcanist gives me an out against the cloud wall and incorporeal stuff. But I also know that my opponent is a strong player so this will for sure be a tough match!
Mercenaries
[Theme] Soldiers of Fortune
[Damiano 1] Captain Damiano [+28]
– Nomad [12]
– Rocinante [16]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [0(7)]
Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [6]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
https://conflictchamber.com/?c1200p_-1KeS9B9AamoM9T9W
Cygnar
[Theme] Gravediggers
[Haley 3] Major Prime Victoria Haley [+25]
– Centurion [17]
– Thorn [13]
Captain Maxwell Finn [0(6)]
Thamarite Archon [8]
Trencher Infantry (min) [10]
– Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier (1) [2]
Deployment
Even with my opponent having reroll I manage to win the roll-off and choose to go first. This was not a very easy choice for me because the table is really awkward on the side with a huge central obstruction and a windswept forest blocking almost all access to the far zone.
My reasoning for going first is that my experience from 75p is that Haley wants to establish the echoes early in order spread Temporal flux and gain access to the extra spells. That way she can slow down the game before I can get a scenario or attrition advantage. On the other hand, this is BrawlMachine so I have no idea how this is going to play out when the game is shorter but also with a 4 point mercy rule. And to be honest I didn’t fully process that the windswept forest would also shut down Ghost Walk, so maybe that would have changed my conclusion.
Turn 1A
I throw out the usual upkeeps and run up staying away from the Thamarite Archon’s threat range. The last thing I want is to lose 6 Halbs first turn, three of which getting removed from play. I spend some time considering where to place the Steelhead Archanist. I end up putting him 19” away from the trenchers just out of pure fear of getting assaulted. This is way too paranoid because my opponent would never sacrifice his cloud wall just so that two or three Trenchers maybe get some shots off. Needing 7s to hit and kill it is not even that good odds.
Turn 1B
Echoes, flux and cloud wall goes up. My opponent forgets that the crater is rough terrain so Thorn gets a bit stuck. Finn goes over on my right side which immediately seems reasonable since that’s where my Halbs are, but as my opponent noted that creates a problem because it locks the Thamarite Archon to flag duty later on in the game.
Turn 2A
My passive placement of the Arcanist didn’t end up punishing me and I now have the possibility to remove the cloud wall on either side.
If I go for the left side I can shoot the cannon at the Centurion to knock it down (Centurions have Shield Guard now), and then I can get a solid Rocinante shot at the Thamarite archon and clipping two Trenchers. The risk here is that Rocinante could miss the boosted 8 which means that I would give away the Archanist for nothing. At dice -3 and 10 boxes I am highly unlikely to one-shot the archon anyway.
So I decide to instead remove the clouds on the right side. This lets me charge in three Halbs. Then by using a Halb as a beacon for Rocinante I get to blast two of the Trenchers on the left side. In my head this means that I can potentially kill 5 of his 7 Trenchers. This would mean that I didn’t have to worry about cloud walls for the rest of the game. Unfortunately my opponent makes three tough rolls so I only kill two Trenchers. In hindsight I see that it is not unreasonable that he makes 1-2 toughs and then maybe I would miss an attack or damage roll, so if I wanted to go for this play I should have feated and pushed in a lot harder with more Halbs and the Nomad.
Alternatively I could go for the left side and get my Rocinante shot while staying way back with the Halbs. Then I will need to give away the right zone, but I sort of did that anyway by not pushing more aggressively and my opponent will have no trouble clearing six un-feated Halbs.
Turn 2B
Baby Haley, Trenchers and Finn easily clear out the right zone. Grandma Haley shoots down the Archanst. The Thamarite Archon sits on the flag and sinks some damage into Rocinante. Ideally he should have taken out the Steelhead Cannon this turn, but as noted earlier my opponent’s list lacks solos to capture flags and with Finn over on the right side the archon needs to secure the point.
Centurion walks to the zone and says “don’t charge me”. Thorn runs out of the crater. One unfortunate Trencher is left in front of the cloud wall because the rough terrain cuts his repos down to 1.5” inches. This could probably have been avoided either by more precise cloud placement or by giving them Ghost walk.
Score 1-2
Turn 3A
My goal for this turn is to feat and send in the Nomad on Grandma Haley. I have to chances at a boosted 12, so it is not an unreasonable kill. To do that I need a Road to War trigger, so I start sending in Halbs and Thrall Warriors on Finn. But at Def 16 they all miss. I later realized that the two Thrall Warriors were outside of Damiano’s control range so they wouldn’t have triggered RtW anyway. This also means that they won’t benefit from the +3 ARM from Damiano’s feat.
Things are looking desperate when I go over to the left side and take the shot at the Thamarite Archon which I was considering the previous turn. To my and my opponent’s great surprise I roll the 13 I need to one shot the Thamarite Archon! This turn of events may be enough to bring me back into the game because not only does it ensure that my opponent can’t score the flag this turn and probably not on his next turn also, but it gives me the RtW trigger I need to go after Grandma Haley. If I can get rid of her now my opponent will have much less resources to deal with my feat. But unfortunately the Nomad misses both the attacks, and even misses the buckler charge attack on the Trencher I used as a beacon.
Aside from leaving the two Thrall warriors outside of feat I think I played this turn reasonably well. There is one Halb just sitting outside the zone for some reason and I could maybe have made better use of the wall to give some cover. Leaving Finn alive is very unfortunate since he will have no trouble killing ARM 14 Thralls and ARM 16 Halbs in the zone. The question will be if the rest of my opponent’s army will be able to deal with the Nomad under feat.
Score 2-2
Turn 3B
As predicted Finn makes short work of the single wound infantry in the zone. With both echoes still alive Haley gets her value feat and the echoes together with the Centurion removes the Nomad quite comfortably.
Thorn sets up shop in my zone and the Trenchers establish a new cloud wall around the central obstruction.
Score 2-3
Turn 4A
My inability to deal with the Trenchers on previous turns is now punishing me and there is not much I can do. My turn is spent trying to deal with the lone Trencher who was contesting my flag, which is easier said than done through Temporal flux and tough. I also send in three Thrall warriors on the Centurion, but they don’t do any significant amounts of damage.
I realize that I need to threaten to score my opponent’s flag next turn so I run up Damiano and Rocinante to more aggressive positions. Maybe they should have been even more aggressive, but I was trying to stay outside of walking range of the Centurion.
Score 3-3
Turn 4B
Haley runs her unit to the flag and everything else takes up annoying spots in the zones. Finn clears the zone and contests my flag in the process.
Score 3-5
Turn 5A
With both echoes incorporeal and contesting both the flag and the zone I quickly realize that I can maximum score one point. I do have a small chance for a caster kill though since Haley is in range of Rocinante, the cannon crew and a hand cannon shot from Damiano. Unfortunately I make a critical mistake and forget to cast about Deadeye. The Steelhead cannon therefore misses its attack and fails to knock down Haley. Rocinante hits his charge attack, but misses the remaining attacks leaving Haley on 4 boxes.
Had I remembered Deadeye I would have needed to roll a boosted 9 from the Cannon. This assassination run would actually have had a 74.1% chance of success. But without the Deadeye it ended up being just a 24% chance.
Sadly, a loss for the Mercenaries
:: Evaluation ::
Wow this was a great game! Dice had both some huge ups and some frustrating downs, and there were multiple points of the game where I had to make tough decisions. In the end I think I lost the game because my Turn 2 play was too risky. Leaving too many Trenchers while giving up my Arcanist punished me later on in the game. I also gave away the top zone too easily for two turns and ended up not getting any value out of my Nomad and the entire Halberdier unit (or any of the 6 Thrall Warriors from Alexia2). I also think the scenario and terrain setup was to my disadvantage with a great pocket with easy access to three scenario elements behind the obstruction in the middle. In hindsight I think this terrain setup meant that I would have been better off going second.