Warmachine Batrep: Siege vs Ravyn

Major Markus 'Siege' Brisbane

Finally got a chance to play against Mike G. this week. We've been trying to play for months, but schedules never seemed to work out, until now.

Mike has several armies, but tonight he brought Cygnar and insisted on a 35 point game. What the heck. I put the Rahn list away and started rummaging iBodger until I found an incomplete 35-point Ravyn list from before the holidays. It felt too light on melee units, lacked any tar pit, and didn't have enough shooting to take good advantage of Ravyn's feat.

Or so I thought.

Mike put Siege on the table and a beautifully painted black storm strider. His list was:

Major Markus 'Siege' Brisbane

- Defender

- Squire

Captain Jonas Murdoch

Nyss Hunters

Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Stormblades (5+leader+UA)

Stormsmith Stormcaller

Storm Strider

(Note that Mike's list is over by one point. We didn't catch this until the battle report write-ups.)

Any my untested list was:

Ravyn, Eternal Light

- 2x Phoenix

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

2x Mage Hunter Assassin

Mage Hunter Strike Force (9+leader+UA)

Setup

We randomly selected Overrun (mission 3) from Steamroller 2012.  This mission places a single 36" wide by 8" deep zone on the table mid-line.  Players score a point for controlling it beginning on the second player's second turn.  Two points wins the game.  Cygnar won the roll and setup first, centrally, in a tight bundle.  Nyss hunters were on my right, stormblades on my left.  The defender and storm strider were central.

The battlefield

Strategy

Looking across the table, the only models I'd ever seen on the table were Rhupert, the defender, and the stormcaller. I knew enough to be worried about Siege and the Nyss hunters, so I decided to shy left, against the stormblades.  That would give me a nice, large hill for a defensive bonus and force him across the board without cover.  And if I was lucky, all those bodies between the defender/storm strider and my guys would give me protection from lighting leaps and ranged attacks.  I assumed the nyss would sprint straight for the mage hunters, so I setup Eiryss and the assassins to either catch them or flank behind them, assuming two assassins could take out the storm strider by themselves.

Astute viewers will notice that I only have thirty-one points on the table.  I did not.  Fortunately, one of the other club members reminded me and Aiyana & Holt landed between Ravyn and the right-side phoenix.  Two demerits!

Now let's see if that plan survives contact with the enemy.

Round 1: Cygnar

Stormblades advanced to the wall.  Rhupert sang them a song of toughness.  Siege dropped a foxhole for the nyss.  Everything advanced.

End of Cygnar Turn 1

Round 1: Retribution

Concealment?  Ha!  I laugh at your concealment.  Ravyn dropped Snipe on the mage hunter and they proceeded to pew-pew pointy death into the stormblades.  Who naturally proceeded to roll an unnaturally large number of toughness rolls.  Three died, plus the stormsmith stormcaller.  Since Cygnar was not going for the jam I expected, the assassins and Eiryss rolled left.  At this point I was thinking Mike's left flank was not going to hold and my assassins should flank left.  The phoenixes moved up and central to prepare to countercharge the nyss and present a credible threat to the storm strider so he wouldn't shred my mage hunters.

Why does Ravyn have Vortex of Destruction on herself?  Clearly there will be nothing in melee any time soon.  I should have spent the focus casting Locomotion on one of my myrmidons.  One demerit for me.

End of Retribution Turn 1

Round 2: Cygnar

The nyss thought that arrow stuff was a great idea, so they departed the fox hole for the hill and laid into my phoenix with a combined ranged attack, taking a good chunk out of its force field.  The storm strider fired a few electrical bolts into the phoenix for good measure, causing critical disruption on one.  Rhupert sang another song of toughness to the stormblades and then he, Siege, and Rheinholt booked it as fast as they could away from the mage hunters.  The wounded stormblades (i.e. the tough survivors) stood up and boldly advanced over their wall.  Why?  I have no idea.  Usually at an archery competition you move the targets farther away for the second round.  The defender took a focus-less shot at my phoenix, but missed.

End of Cygnar Turn 2

Round 2: Retribution

The disruption on my lead phoenix was a big problem.  I'd been planning to use locomotion on him to allow an advance and Combustion *attack on the nyss.  You can't see it in the photo, but he's well within 3+6+2 inches of all but the back-left one.  This would have cleared them from the scoring zone. With some good shooting on the stormblades, I could have scored a point this turn.  But, plans must change.

Eiryss dropped a bolt into the stormblades thinking this would strip off the Tough buff.  Turns out Rhupert's songs don't count as spells.  Good lesson there.  Aiyana cast Kiss of Lyliss on the stormblades and then Holt and the mage hunters finished them off.  The functional phoenix got Snipe and 2" of Locomotion from Ravyn and made a hail-mary halo cannon shot into the clump of nyss on the hill.  They're DEF 17 on the hill, so I needed a 12 on three dice.  And I got it, erasing Celyna and two of the hunters.  The sparking, damaged phoenix repaired his shield a bit and fell back behind a short wall to recoup.  One assassin sprinted far left, out of the photo, and the other swung back right, again ready to deal with any charging nyss.  Ravyn moved back to center to be within command range of her myrmidons.

There was still one nyss contesting the scoring zone, so no one scored any points.

End of Retribution Turn 2

Round 3: Cygnar

Siege gave a couple focus to defender, then he and Rheinholt scooted over behind the hill.  Rhupert decided the stormblades were a lost cause and began singing to the nyss, instead.  They, too, felt much tougher and assaulted off their hill into a couple mage hunters, missing their shots.  The defender took a boosted shot into my phoenix.  The storm strider climbed the hill and then dropped a couple lightning bolts into the phoenix as well.  The bolts arced into two mage hunters, burning them to death.

If I recall correctly, this is the round Siege activates his feat and drops two rockets into my right-most phoenix, destroying both his arms and leaving him with about nine boxes.

Again, both armies had forces within the scoring zone, so it remained 0-0.

(Hey, that's not where that wall started.  So much easier to see in the time-lapse photos.  We never noticed during the game.)

End of Cygnar Turn 3

Round 3: Retribution

Flaming death and decapitation.  We used all the Retribution tricks this turn.  Ravyn activated her feat and gave Snipe back to the mage hunters.  Assassins decapitated Murdoch and the stormblade officer.  One phoenix advanced into the remaining nyss and combusted, burning them to the ground.  The other phoenix fired a halo cannon shot into the storm strider, setting it ablaze and doing eight boxes of damage.  Then the mage hunters advanced and dropped eight boosted jack-hunter shots into the defender, beating him senseless (eight boxes left!), but somehow not taking out a single system.  That's a well-built 'jack.

The storm strider was still contesting the zone, so the score remained 0-0.

I was feeling pretty good at this point.  Which is precisely when you fail to see the assassination lane.

End of Retribution Turn 3

Round 4: Cygnar

Whoops!  Siege loaded up the defender with focus.  It and the storm strider march down from the hill.  One lighting strike into a phoenix leaps and kills two mage hunters.  The second shot hits Ravyn for eight boxes.  Uh oh!  Worse, it leaps into Eiryss and kills her outright.  Then the defender lines up with two focus.  He needs a nine on three dice, but gets a seven.  We can't believe it.  He had the game right there.  Squire and Rhupert run forward to shield Siege from the inevitable charge.

At least during the maintenance phase the storm strider took a ton of fire damage.  Burn!

End of Cygnar turn 4

Round 4: Retribution

It's cleanup at this point.  Ravyn floods the good phoenix with focus and moves up.  Aiyana kisses the defender for +2 damage.  Holt and the mage hunters pincushion it to death.  The wounded phoenix advances and combusts, burning Rhupert and squire to death.  The beefy phoenix charges the storm strider and proceeds to miss everything.  Sigh.  The assassin cleans up, decapitating the storm strider for sixteen boxes.  Decapitating.  The battle engine.  I didn't even know they could do that!  The battle engine pushes her back 1" with its dying repulsors.

With no Cygnar models in the zone, Retribution scores a point.  1-0.

End of Retribution turn 4

Round 5: Cygnar

Siege advances down the hill and tries a shot at Ravyn, but is about 1.5 inches out of range.  One of my assassins died this turn, but I don't remember how.  Must have been a second shot from Siege.

Siege is contesting the zone, so no one scores.

End of Cygnar turn 5

Round 5: Retribution

Broken phoenix advances and combusts again, burning Rheinholdt to death.  I'm starting to worry about that phoenix.  It's a got a thing for fire all of a sudden.  Put on the maintenance notes to watch for any Protectorate tendencies in the cortex.  Assassin charges in and misses, of course.

Un-broken phoenix charges Siege, hits, and rolls P+S 17 + 6, 6, 5 for damage.  Checkmate.

End of Retribution turn 5

Lessons Learned

- Rhupert's can buff and still run
- Rhupert's buffs cannot be stripped by Eiryss' weapons
- Damage from Continuous Effect: Fire does not grant a storm strider power tokens
- Learn to eyeball four inches to save models from electro-leap.
- Decapitation works on everything.

Wrap Up

Mike is a great opponent. He knows the game well, and was a total gentleman the one time several times I screwed up the rules.

We had a good, long chat about the two lists afterwards.  I hadn't realized how this list countered (in Mike's opinion) Siege's strengths, and the list wasn't fast enough to close distance against my shooting.  Mike felt he couldn't bring Siege "out" due to the two phoenix myrmidons.  He would crack one, but would be vulnerable to the second. His planned strategy of advancing nyss under cover of fox holes didn't work against my mage hunters, and the assassins were murderous against his battle engine.

Plus, I must say, the dice were good to me.  Some times they're not. Sometime they are.  This was a banner game.  The dice were hot.  I wouldn't expect to see that again.

Thanks for the game, Mike. Would love to play again any time.