Sunday, September 17, 2017

Full Circle - Episode 42

This week I talk about Minion Solos and Units that would be good to play in themes, especially Secret Masters.  Discussion covers Farrow Bonegrinders, Gatorman Bokor and Swamp Shamblers, Gremlin Swarm, Brun & Lug and of course Wrong Eye & Snapjaw.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Saturday, September 2, 2017

Full Circle - Episode 40

Lot of changes on the CID are discussed in this episode, including several Wolds, Blackclad Stoneshaper, Bradigus and then the new model the Wold Wight!

Monday, August 28, 2017

WiTC 2017

This weekend I had the pleasure to attend the WiTC near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Team events are always a lot of fun, and this one had a unique format using 3-person teams, but where there is an interesting pairing process that is reminiscent of the WTC format, but adjusted to make sense for having the smaller teams.  I decided to pair up with a couple local pals of mine who opted to bring Convergence (Lucant/Mother) and Cygnar (Haley2/Haley3), and with me playing Circle I picked the cheesy name of C-Faction^3 (pronounced see-faction-cubed).

Leading into this event was a pretty crazy time as I recently bought a house and have been working on that and moving in and such.  As a result I definitely didn't get an opportunity to practice as much as I wanted.  When preparing for the event I started to think of the trends of what has been out there and what I've been playing, combined with the new SR2017.  I had played a Krueger2 quite a bit in quite a few different iterations.  One of the big things for him is that with Telekinesis, Gallows and Loki the list is able to really create situations where there is an answer to warjacks, but also answers a lot of mixed composition lists.  What I did not feel like it was good into is probably something like Ghost Fleet or any really infantry-heavy that Devourer's Host would be better.  Additionally having access to an armor debuff as well as a lot of forests made it seem like a natural fit.

So, here are the lists that I played:

Circle Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Devourer's Host

(Wurmwood 1) Wurmwood, Tree of Fate [+27]
 - Gorax Rager [7]
 - Warpwolf Stalker [19]
 - Warpwolf Stalker [19]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Death Wolves [9]
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]

Circle Army - 75 / 75 points

(Krueger 2) Krueger the Stormlord [+27]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Loki [19]
 - Megalith [20]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Druids of Orboros [12]
 - Druid of Orboros Overseer [4]
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]

Now, I had managed to get in a decent number of games with similar Krueger2 lists ahead of time, and a few with that exact list, so I did feel decent about playing him.  The Wurmwood list on the other hand I was not able to get in any actual games in advance for that.  I figured it would still be ok, I've played Wurmwood, I've played Devourer's Host, and the battlegroup as well so I went with it.

I'm not going to go over the pairing process, you can go to www.atcwmh.com and read the player's packet if you're interested in more detail.  I do want to do my best to step through the day as I played it.  Not promising that I'll document every single play, but I'll try to talk about what I remember from the round, how it went, my thoughts on the matchup and so forth.

Round 1 vs Fyanna2


The first scenario is Breakdown and my opponent presents me with Fyanna2 and Lylyth2.  Having never met this player I am unable to assess anything about which list I think he'll choose nor his skill level.  Having more reps in with Krueger2, and figuring that he has the tools to deal with each of them I go ahead and select him.  As the title of this section suggests he selects Fyanna2.  One important note about his list is that he's added a unit of Hex Hunters in place of another beast in the list, but otherwise its pretty standard.  I lose the die roll and he has me going second.

What I decide to do is have my Druids across from his Hex Hunters because the Hex Hunters should have a really hard time dealing with them and then I can start to score in that zone potentially if I can clear, or at the very least I prevent him from scoring.  Then I deploy my battlegroup more to the right.  There is also a building in the center of the table.  In hindsight I should actually have skewed more to the left with he Hex Hunters, easily wiped them out with some Lightning Storms and then started to slide back to the right throughout the game.

He moves up pretty aggressively since he has fast models and is going first.  I move up somewhat aggressively, but stay in a position where he can't really put anything into me.  His ranged attacks basically all end up short in the rebuttal, but he puts everything into zones and Fyanna feats camping three while toeing the central zone.  

He has Fyanna so close that at this point I realize that he's pretty inexperienced in the Circle matchup, but even under feat its pretty do-able to assassinate Fyanna.  I teleport Megalith up so that he's within 5" of Fyanna, use Undergrowth, and boost to hit a TK ... but I get triple 1s.  She dodges out.  So now we go back to plan A which was to use Krueger's feat in rebuttal to her feat, which I do while touching the building.  That pushes everything out of the middle, slowing almost everything but some of the Hex Hunters.  Battlegroup moves up protectively and I score a point.

His turn plays out sort of oddly, he's able to kill Megalith but because of the fury situation the turn before Fyanna is only on 2 fury and he elects not to cut for some reason.  He does some things with some of the beasts, but Fyanna is about 11" or so away from Ghetorix, but there is a model and building in the way.  Krueger flies over the building, TKs her back around, then Shifting Stones place Ghetorix so he's in her back arc.  Warp Murderous and that's the end of Fyanna even with two transfers.

My opponent was a really nice fella and definitely said that he only knew what Circle did from reading about it and hadn't ever really played against them.  Quite the learning experience for him.  The rest of my team are able to win their games so we go up 1-0 as a team with 3 wins.

Round 2 vs Lylyth3


Another round, another Legion matchup.  We're on The Pit II this round which is a fine scenario for either of my lists.  Honestly, I think all of the scenarios are fine for my lists, but I digress.  I think for a bit that I can probably play Krueger2 into Lylyth3 even though I don't really love it, but his other list is Thagrosh1 which prompted me to think that Wurmwood having access to RFP via Snacking on my warbeasts and Hellmouth would be good there while I had plenty of answers to his beasts.  He drops Lylyth.

I believe this time I won the die roll and opted to go second so that I can get a side that is barely advantageous and also score first potentially.  I position my battlegroup so that I basically have a Stalker poised to go into either zone and my Gorax more centrally to support either side. Units are central and a bit more to the side too (but mostly still near the circle).  He moves up pretty far, I move up about where I think I can with my beasts, making sure one of the Stalkers can get on the objective the following turn.

On his turn, basically he tries to see what work he can do with his guns, I lose a few Ravagers on my right side which gives me some souls as well as some Vengeance.  He tries to kill some of them on the other side as well, but dice don't play as nicely.  He's also barely contested any of the zones, the zone on my left is only contested with the objective and on the right only with a Hellion & Sorceress.  My play is first I clear out the zone on the right, and I put the Stalker into it so I know I'll score that.  I use the stalker on the other side to kill the objective off.  My Ravagers nearly kill an Angelius in the middle.  Wurmwood is sort of near the back of the zone, feats, uses a Stranglehold to kill the nearly dead Angelius, and casts a Rapid Growth.  Death Wolves run up.

Now, not necessarily going to go through all of this, but he makes an assassination attempt that ends up with Wurmwood on 2 boxes and 1 fury.  Had I planned smarter I should have had my Death Wolves all 2" + base (or close to) away from Wurmwood and there would never have been any landing spots whatsoever for any of his beasts.  He does put 3 souls on the tree though and ends up honestly coming pretty close.  Tharn making tough checks a time or two helps a lot, but his feat also helped him alot too.

He puts a few token models into the zones, but I'm able to clear pretty easily and get the win.  Another great opponent and a fun game for sure.  Definitely seeing how you have to be able to play a lot of the table in SR2017 and I do think going second is working out pretty well.  I do feel that having access to a list where you won't necessarily have to stay in any sort of central brick is going to be a boon.  We 3-0 this round again, and go to 2-0 as a team.

Round 3 vs Harkevich


I want to start by saying that this was the one round where I failed as a captain because I should have known to give the Khador matchup to the Convergence player on my team who should have had a better matchup into it.  I thought he'd be good into the Retribution matchup I gave him, but in hindsight it would have been a lot better to put me into that match and him into this one.  However, mistakes were made.

The scenario this round is Recon II and I'm still feeling like I can hopefully pick off a jack or two per round, use my warrior models to delay and try to look for scenario wins where I can get them.  I opt to go second so I can have a side.  His list has sufficient Kodiaks, so I don't have many good options to see his jacks much of the game.  We both move up on turn one.  On turn 2 he tries to drift a magic AOE at my Gremlin Swarm, fails.  I decide to setup so Krueger can score the flag on the right, and I can place Loki so that I can hook pull a Juggernaut in, kill it and TK Loki backwards ... except that Loki rolled a 3 for damage on the throw and I don't do it.  So I pull him back, but that prevents me from scoring that zone and this will just be the theme of the rest of this matchup.

After this I'm hoping that I can counterfeat to blunt the alpha.  He does feat, I believe I still lose Loki in the situation, even though I tried to put some Druids in the way.  I do go ahead and counter feat and I was able to clear out the left zone using the couple remaining druids and Megalith, but I messed up remembering to put a Shifting Stone in the way so I end up pushing one of the jacks into the zone.  I still score the flag that Krueger is on I believe, but that is it.

On his turn, even with the SPD penalty he's able to kill my Pureblood, Megalith and I think the remaining Druids, while surrounding Ghetorix with 4 heavies.   He had to use Jump Start to turn some of the jacks around and stand them up though, so Harkevich is on 2 focus is all.  My options don't look good, but Ghetorix is undamaged.  So, I decide I have to take some free strikes to get an assassination and 3 TKs.  I hit all the TKs that I need (needed a hard 7 on one of them).  Then Ghetorix charges the Juggernaut I had to move (because I needed a charge target).  One of the freestrikes hits and he rolls a 12 on his three dice to the 5 column which takes out my spirit, effectively meaning I have no chance.  If I lose any other column I'm ok because of Regeneration, and then he's hitting on 5s at dice + 3 which means with 4 attacks I should be alright.  But alas.

This is a matchup I haven't played nearly enough, certainly not with Krueger, which is already probably an uphill fight (ask any Circle player).  This one is particularly tough because of the clouds that the Kodiaks allow for, especially when the LOS blocking feature in the middle is a building rather than a forest or something else that can be passed through.  I think I could have played it differently and won, but my opponent did all of the right things and was again a good opponent, even with what was a minor dose of sodium from me.  Haley2 defeats the Coven, but Lucant was not able to chew through the Retribution list so we lose this round sitting at 2-1 as a team.

Round 4 vs The Child


I'm finally going to get a game into Grymkin! He has King of Nothing and The Child, both in Dark Menagerie.  I start looking at Krueger2 first thinking my normal thoughts that he's strong on scenario and should be able to pick apart his heavies, then I remember that Crabbits en masse are going to pretty much screw over my ability to use Loki effectively.  In hindsight, I probably could have used well placed TKs, Druid pushes and the feat to make it work, but it felt like he didn't have a ton of answers to Wurmwood either.  The scenario is Spread the Net so I feel good about the scenario game that I have.  I go with Wurmwood, he selects The Child as eluded to.  Arcana selected in addition to Wrath are Ruin and Ill Omens.  Ruin is definitely going to be something I have to play around, but Ill Omens he realizes isn't going to be as good for him as he would have liked due to a small amount of warrior models.  I still end up going second, but I believe its due to losing the die roll.

I setup similar to how I did in round 2 where I have a Stalker preparing to go into either of the rectangles, units ready to sit in the middle, and battlegroup central.  This is particular helpful to have this list because of something else I'm realizing, which is that you want a solo who can sit on your flag so you're free to have your Warlock be wherever you need it to be.  In this case too, I definitely realize that I have an advantage in this matchup because my infantry collect corpses, which means that his Death Knell does not.  Anyway, the first round is us moving up like you'd expect.  I don't even move Wurmwood from where he is on the AD line.  I do use him and Cassius to kill a Gremlin Swarm that was near more of his beasts than the others, thinking I'll get the model or he'll waste an arcana, and it was the former.

On his round 2 he puts a solo on his flag, and starts trying to kill some of the Ravagers.  He gets a few, enough to give me a soul or two and some Vengeance basically.  Additionally he's only got a couple of models in his rectangle.  On my turn I realize I'm never going to score the middle, so I just put the Stalker into my zone on the right, using the Tharn over there to try to put some work into some Crabbits and other things.  On the left, I use the Shaman to give out Magic Weapons to the Tharn unit he's babysitting and he goes on that flag.  I use Wurmwood to put Curse of Shadows onto the Skin & Moans that is in the zone after he uses Ruin to stop one of the attempts.  Ravagers kill off two more of the Gremlin Swarms, and don't do as much damage to the Skin & Moans as I'd like.  So instead of sending in the Stalker to finish off and sprint out, I decide to Primal him and make sure the deed is done.  He kills it, giving me a turn where I score 3.

On his turn he's able to clear out some more Ravagers (all but one on the right I believe), put a Gremlin Swarm on his flag so he can score that and contest all of the other zones except for my flag.  So we go to 4-1 in my favor on points.  I assess the situation, and honestly he isn't able to contest nearly hard enough and I basically only need 2 more points than him.  I kill his Gremlins with a spell off the flag, after I cleared out the light beast (I think) in my zone, and I run my Shaman to his flag scoring 3 more points and winning the game.

Finale


Again, another great game from one of my favorite opponents in Wisconsin (he knows who he is).  My teammate playing Convergence is able to win his game, the Cygnar player loses his game, so we end the event 3-1 as a team, and each player ending the day 3-1 which feels pretty solid.  That combined with our strength of schedule gave us 2nd place!  We also ended up winning a couple of the drawings which was nifty for sure.

Was a really excellent event run by some terrific folks and I'm really excited for ATC in January and to come back to WiTC again next summer since I believe it will be back again!

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Full Circle - Episode 39

This week we had the Secret Master's theme force revealed, so I spend a solid amount of time discussing it.  I follow that up with a discussion on Druid Mist Riders which are currently a very important part of the theme force.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Full Circle - Episode 38

This week I get some discussion going on the Gallows Grove, Lord of the Feast and the humble Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew!

Full Circle - Episode 37

Lots of great information and news to talk about following Lock & Load 2017. Many tidbits to tease what's coming up for the next year!