101 Rask1 WWFF vs Maddox1 SD

101 Rask1 WWFF vs Maddox1 SD

09.09.2021

As I have discovered for myself, Brawlmachine is a great format to get back into the game with. Today I got a chance to play against a returning Cygnar player who wanted to try out the new format. His favourite theme, Storm Division, has also recently received an update. I decided to try out a Rask list I had been thinking about. Unfortunately I forgot my Totem Hunter model at home, so I swapped him out for a Dhunian Archon. 

Minions: Rask1

Theme: Will Work for Food

Rask1

• Wrastler
• Spitter
• Soul Slave

Farrow Valkyries

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Dhunian Archon

Gudrun the Wanderer

Feralgeist

vs

Cygnar: Maddox1

Theme: Storm Division

Maddox1

• Stormclad
• Ironclad

Stormblade Infantry+UA+2xWA (edited)

Arlan Strangeways

Acosta

3x Stormsmith Stormcaller

Deployment

I win the roll-off and take first turn. The sides are pretty even so my opponent takes the side with less rough terrain. 

Turn 1A

Rask casts Admonition on the Wrastler and Fury on Valkyries. I spend my remaining two fury on a speculative Veil of Mists over the central obstruction in case it will be useful later on. I choose to go for a binge drink on Gudrun to proc Feign Death. Despite thinking long and hard about this I believe this was a mistake since I am already so far back and now I will need to give up movement or combat action next turn. 

Turn 1B

Opponent runs up respecting my threat ranges and also spreading out his infantry in order to protect against AoEs from the Spitter.  

Dauntless Resolve on the Stormblades, Assail on the Ironclad and Onslaught is up. 

Turn 2A

I upkeep all three spells and the Wrastler runs to contest the left flag and zone. The Spitter goes for a scatter and clips two Stormblades, killing one and corroding another. Feralgheist moves to contest the flag. Two of the Valkyries walk up and shoot their buckler cannons at the two forwardmost Stormblade. One breaks armour, but he toughs. Rask Feats.

Looking at this again I don’t understand why I feated here. I am 99% certain I could have set up in a defensive way which would have contested all the zones without feating: The Wrastler has Admonition up and should be pretty safe from the Ironclad. The only thing which can threaten the Feralgheist is one Stormsmith Stormcaller who needs 8s to hit. In the Center could not have gone for the buckler cannon shots with the Valkyries, but could have contested with Gudrun instead and used Veil of mists and Swamp gobbers to block off the Ironclad and shots from the Stormblades. The latter would even not be a concern had I not spent my Binge Drinking the previous turn. I would have needed to put another in model in the zone because the Stormclad can Trample for free with Assail. This leaves three attacks which is just enough to kill Gudrun twice plus threads of life from the Dhunian. But let’s say I put up the Swamp gobbers into the zone too. This would have set me up for a very strong Turn 3. 

Turn 2B

Opponent walks in to take some a couple of Stormblade shots, but otherwise just shuffles around making sure that there are Stormcallers on the best spots to contest the zones. The Stormblade minifieat for Iron Zeal. This puts them at a healthy ARM 23 vs melee with Dauntless Resolve and Unyielding. 

He leaves the left flag uncontested. I think this is a good move because the only model I have to grab that point with is the Dhunian Archon and for now I would much rather have it in the center since things are going to charge in this turn. 

Score 0-0

Turn 3A

The Stormcaller on the left side is really annoying for me because I have no available guns to clear it. I could send the Wrastler all the way over and hope to get an unboosted 8 in three tries. In hindsight that may actually be a reasonable play because my opponent is also lacking follow-up on that side. But at the time I reasoned that it would not be worth it. 

In the center the Valkyries unjam themselves and Gudrun charges in killing one Stormblade. The Spitter aims and snipes out Acosta. My opponent should probably have avoided giving me the aim, or alternatively just kept acosta somewhere in cover or out of range. 

For me I think it is a mistake to activate the Valkyries first to unjam. Instead I should have tried to get the Dhunian Archon involved. This would not only have helped with the unjam, but could also have dispelled Dauntless resolve. This would have put the ARM values to a manageable range plus removed the Tough – no knock down combo. The Veil of Mist was already in place so I could easily have upkept and recast later on to block the Stormclad. 

Speaking of Veil of mist I think I shoud have payed a bit more attention to blocking the Stormclad completely. As it is now it has just a tiny bit of line of sight to the Valkyrie in the cloud. Had I placed the Veil a little bit further to my left it would have been completely blocked off. 

Score 0-0

Turn 3B

The Stormsmith Stormcaller on the right walks up to the flag and miraculously hits the 8 it needed to take out the Feralgeist. This was a bit unfortunate, but could have been avoided for example if I had kept a shield guard nearby. 

The Stormclad takes the opportunity to charge the Valkyrie I had left visible in the cloud and continues to chew through my infantry with the help from Maddox’ feat. Electroleaps help clear the Swamp gobbers. Fortunately for me he is unable to clear out the Soul slave who is still remaining in the zone. 

The Stormblade easily kill Gudrun in the center of the zone. 

Score 0-1

Turn 4A

I am a bit on the back foot at this point. To come back into the game I plan to use the Soul slave to boneshaker the Stormsmith off the right flag. I can then use the Spitter with Rage to clear off the Stormclad and then go for the before mentioned play with the Wrastler on the left side to score two points. I am deliberating using the Spitter to clear the flag and run up the Soul Slave to score three points. But then the Stormclad will easily be able to clear the middle zone and I would be back to the starting point. Arlan has been making his way over to the right side so trying to disrupt the Stormclad with Rask’s gun would not have worked.

None of these plans pan out however, since the Soul slave misses the boosted attack roll for the Boneshaker. I therefore switch gears and start planning for an assassination run. The assassination involves the Wrastler getting two overtakes off some Stormblades. Maddox is camping two and through missing some attacks and not breaking armour the Wrastler is only able to get attack through. This deals limited damage. 

Score 1-2

Turn 4B

At this point it is just a matter of cleaning up for my opponent. He needs three points to win, and can get these easily by just killing my Dhunian Archon. The Ironclad charges up and one shots my Dhunian, and that’s game. 

Score 1-5

Sadly, a loss for the Minions

:: Evaluation ::

My opponent played well and waited out my feat before going in with Maddox feat on the subsequent turn. He also timed the Iron Zeal minifeat well which denied me a good post feat turn. I was unlucky to lose control of the right flag, but should probably have gone for the play to win the left zone and flag with the Wrastler. My Veil of Mist play in the center was not very good and with better line of sight blocking I think I would have had a decent chance to win the game.