LinCon 2017 ("battle reports" 26-30)

Greetings and salutations, time wizards!

LinCon is a tournament at a general nerd-con held in the city I live, Linköping, about this time every year. Being an (ex-)PG I signed up to run it. We wound up with 27 players and considering that'd mean byes I decided to play too. I had a couple of the other local players who'd help me with judge calls, and honestly there were very few of them.

Having to decide my lists on the fly, I opted for Haley2 (come on, she's a given still) and my favourite comfort caster, Haley3. The Haley2 list is common these days, and the Haley3 is a slight variation of my old list.

Haley2 in Heavy Metal
- Stormwall
- Ironclad
- Thorn
- Charger
- Squire
Junior
- Charger
Jakes
- Stormclad
Arlan Strangewayes

Haley3
- 2 Grenadiers
- Defender
- Thorn
Max Trenchers
Max Storm Lances
Junior
- Charger
Ragman

Sadly there'll be no pictures from this event. This means I'll be running from memory only, and that means errors and uncertainties.

GAME 1
I get paired up against Tobias Olsson, running Convergence of Cyriss. We wind up playing Haley2 HM and Syntherion in Destruction Initiative, respectively. Scenario is Recon.

Syntherion
- Prime Axiom
- 2 saw-wielding lights
- 2 ground pounder heavies
- Corollary
- 1 lightning shooty heavy
1 Arc Node guy
Mechanics
Lots of balls - I think 6 puncture servitors and 6 counter-charge

I guess I should've called him Swiss Army Knife-man..

This game starts pretty badly. I go first, advance aggressively to pressure Tobias back. He can just barely run the arc node and get Magnetic Hold on my Stormwall bottom of 1. Top of 2 I do decently: I get the ironclad doing more than half the Axiom with Temporal Acceleration and TK, and I get the Stormclad into the lightning heavy which dies. I also feat this turn. Two big mistakes nevertheless: Jakes is a coward and can't allocate next turn, and the Stormwall doesn't advance far enough to be able to get to the Axiom next turn.

Tobias does a bit his turn 2, as is expected. He hasn't got very many servitors left, and leaves Syntherion empty for some reason (there was one - I just can't remember it). I believe there was a fair bit of shooting and the Axiom killed the Ironclad. I decide I have an good assassination: I can run Thorn and arc on Syntherion. A telekinesis gets him away from his shield guards, and an arcane bolt can do some damage. Stormwall gets allocated and temporally accelerated and has to finish him. I wind up leaving him at 1 box, after missing a boosted 5.

Luckily Tobias fails an assassination of his own the following turn. He feats, builds the synergy and the Prime Axiom walks up to shoot his draggy guns on Haley. Luckily he misses both boosted 11s. As a result of trying though, he doesn't finish the Stormwall off.

From here on the Stormwall kills the Axiom and then dies, the Stormclad lives surprisingly long but without a sword arm. It comes down to me winning on scenario. A central house allows Haley to stay safe from harm whilst being active. Highlights include Haley charging a heavy on 10ish boxes and killing it, then charging the objective to score 3 the following turn, and finally charging the corollary, killing it to score the last 2. Both me and Tobias were down to our warcasters and a model or two at this point. Incredibly close fought and fun game.


GAME 2
I get paired versus a local player, Patrik Rasmusson. We played pretty recently at the club, Haley2 Heavy Metal into Wurmwood. Then as now, Patrik paired the tree with Krueger2. Another friend of ours plays a fair bit of Nemo3, which scares Patrik into Krueger2. He dropped Wurmwood then so I'm pretty sure he will again. I on the other hand decide to go for Haley3 over Haley2.

Wurmwood
- Loki
- Pureblood
- Ghetorix
- 2 Woldwyrds
2 Sentry Stones
2 Shifting Stones
2 Swamp Gobber Chefs
Blackclad Wayfarer
Min Farrow Bonegrinders

Scenario was Entrenched and Patrik goes first.

The game starts horribly and turn 1 Patrik Hellmouths and kills 4 trenchers. Another 2 tough. And the Cassius goes back to his master. Luckily Patrik gets his pureblood and woldwyrds a bit tangled up killing pigs so he can't pressure as far forward as I was afraid he would.

Poor fuckers

Down to 4 clouds I advance cautiously and lay down a pitiful excuse for a cloudwall. I kill 5 mannekins too. My army is hidden or out of range.

Turn 2 Patrik goes for another Hellmouth play onto a Grenadier, but luckily misses the boosted 9. I charge and almost kill the objective with a storm lance. Haley Prime goes into my zone I believe. I think I score 1-0 here. I wind up winning 5-2 on scenario anyway. I'm up on attrition too, I think. The Storm Lances get the objective but eventually die to woldwyrds and and pureblood, but they've drawn his battle group away from my zone.

Future Haley has managed to shoot down the sentry stone on my right, securing my zone more or less. I wind up killing Ghetorix and the pureblood the same turn I win on scenario.

GAME 3
The last game of day 1 matches me against Mattias Tell running Skorne. He's got Zaal2 and Zaadesh2. I feel like either of my casters are great into either of his, so I go for Haley3 again.

He chooses Zaadesh2.
- Agonizer
- Aradus Soldier
- Titan Gladiator
- Tiberion
- Archidon
Extoller Soulward
Cetratii with Vorkesh
Beast handlers (min)
Swamp Gobbers

Scenario is Take and Hold, I think I went first.

I push up very aggressively turn 1 to threaten far with my short range guns. Turn 2 I get my Storm Lances charging the Aradus on my left, and charge in with 5, killing the bug. I play very badly against the counter-charging BG; here the gladiator gets to kill a storm lance. Tiberion kills off all storm lances, but in return gets killed by Ragman-assisted Past Haley.

Meanwhile on my right, I trigger counter-charge on the archidon when trying to cloudwall up. As a result I have to put 2 more clouds in front of Prime, and spend my Defender shot killing the Extoller Soulward. The Archidon hurts the Defender after charging it, but it still has its systems so it kills the bird.

I get tangled up in the cetratii with Inviolable Resolve on the right with a couple of trenchers and a grenadier, stopping me from scoring. Grinding the skorne down on my left as well, Zaadesh eventually has to come in punching stuff himself to clear a charge path for the gladiator. It kills a Grenadier and in return I kill the gladiator with Past Haley and some assistance. I take two charger shots onto Zaadesh, having ground most things down by now, and accidentally kill him.

Boom, baby

Day 1 finished, and I'm one of 4 undefeated. I get informed that it apparently is poor form winning a tournament you're organising yourself. Not being much for Jantelagen (it's a Swedish thing) I say screw that and carry on into day 2.

GAME 4
By now we're two cygnar players, one mercenary and a ghost fleet player left undefeated. I get matched against Oskar Sibeck running mercs (or the merc boss, as he's known nationally). He's got Ossrum and Damiano. I weigh my options back and forth but decide I'm pretty comfortable with Haley3 and Damiano is running 50 dudes which I'm not liking my Haley2 into. Scenario is Incursion.

This is "the mercenary boss" according to google image search. I don't know what he's from

He winds up going for Ossrum anyway:
- Basher
- 2 Drillers
- 3 Gunners
- 3 Blasters
- Reinholdt
2 Artillery
Anastasia di Bray
Eiryss1
Gobber Tinker

Oskar wins the roll and goes first. This leaves me with the side with a cloud terrain piece which I can build my smokewall from.

I wind up doing just this. Ossrum feats to push his 6 lights into my smokewall and kill trenchers. Normally this isn't that bad, combined with Eiryss shooting a trencher most turns this'll make my cloudwall shrink quickly and the artillery corps can get going. In this case, the pre-existing smokecloud makes this too hard work. I kill or disrupt his bunnies.

Following that I can slowly grind his list down. The artillery is pretty useless. The heavies jam into my army the turn following the bunnies, but get slowly ground down by Past Haley and friends, and disrupted by Thorn until then. I run Storm Lances into the artillery by the time the trenchers have died off. Oskar gives me a half-decent assassination shot, charging Ossrum into one of the horses. I think he hoped I would go for it (and fail, the dwarf is deceptively survivable) but I continue grinding and eventually win on scenario, 5-1.

Oskar's shot at this game is feating and pushing his entire BG down my throat, and from there on hoping to bring down Thorn quickly and have enough left for me to choke on. By holding his heavies back a turn he put himself in a situation he's very hard-pressed to come back from.

GAME 5
In a big surprise, the final table consists of me and Arvid Nordland. I'm a big deal in my local meta and all, but this is only my second final table at a semi-national tournament or bigger. Arvid is pretty new to the game but has been practicing his Ghost Fleet a LOT I learn. He's played Deneghra1 Ghost Fleet four times so far, and I instantly regret making the tournament D&C 0.

He just knocked out Christoffer Wedding playing Haley2, but I think my Haley3 is pretty weak into Ghost Fleet so I decide I have to try the same caster Wedding tried.

Arvid drops Deneghra1
- 2 Leviathan
- Nightwretch
Captain Rengrave
Pistol Wraith
Hellslinger Phantom
Machine Wraith
Max Blackbane's Ghost Raiders
Min Revenant Crew with 3 rifles
Min Revenant Crew with 3 rifles
Min Revenant Crew with 3 rifles

Scenario is Extraction. I can't remember who went first, I think Arvid did.

Early game isn't very interesting. I refrain from shooting almost at all turn 1 even though I can, there's nothing I can kill which won't come back.

Arvid spends WAY too much time turn 2 positioning Deneghra. He's incredibly afraid of me being able to get Thorn and maybe a pod or something onto her. I'm pretty scared of Ghost Fleet, so I'd take even a half-decent chance at assassinating, but Arvid winds up spending 20 minutes on a turn where he accomplishes almost nothing. From here on I decide that I have a shot at timing Arvid, and that's my main plan now.

I wind up pushing for the left flag. This is mostly to conceal my real intentions of timing him out. Turn 2 I kill off tons of Revenant Crew (most come back of course) and leave his rifles out of command. He's kept one pirate from each unit way the fuck back so he doesn't risk losing any units. I wind up being scared into feating this turn too.

From here on Arvid slowly grinds me down, ignoring the stormwall but killing most other things slowly. I just barely miss out on scoring my left flag twice. Arvid goes to 3 eventually, scoring on my right flag. I stop killing dudes and spend my stormwall's shots killing a Leviathan. My final chance is running both Junior, camping 1, and Arlan to contest the flag he's scoring. At this point he's got less than a minute left.

I get really lucky and he can't kill both before he times out. Junior took 2 shots to kill since he camped, and Arlan survived at 1 box. I snatch an undeserving victory from the jaws of defeat.

Even an undeserving win is a win

POST-GAME
Arvid had my number for sure. I think Ghost Fleet is a list you need a few games of practice versus before you really know what to do (at least I need them). I'm told Haley2 can play into it, but I'm not sure how personally. If Ghost Fleet becomes a meta problem I think I have to consider dropping Haley3 for either Sloan or (less likely) Siege.

Other than that, my lists performed admirably. Haley3 did well as usual, and my track record with Haley2 in mk3 is (undeservedly) incredible. When battle engines gets updated I'm making room for the Storm Strider with Haley2. Even so, I think the Haley2 list is probably the second strongest list in the game right now.

For the future, I'm considering if Sloan warrants a slot in my pairing. Haley3 is weaker than Sloan in the mirror, but incredible in many match ups. She's also my favourite caster to play. Sloan on the other hand, well, is very strong albeit not as fun.

I get saved from peak awkwardness by local player David who grabs the first place trophy and takes over the prize ceremony when it's time for first place.

Battle Report 25: Caine3 vs Xerxis1

Greetings and salutations, lightning riders!

I'm not getting many games in. I've gotten a few which I have not written about - two more of Stryker1 SD vs Retribution (Ossyan, Rahn) which I won, a Haley3 into Magnus2 which I sadly lost, and then this one versus Xerxis1. After this I also played Haley2 into Harkevich, but I didn't take pictures so no report from that one.

This game was in SR17 CID, so it's a quite a few weeks old. We played Breakdown. 

Caine3
- Hurricane
- Ace 
- Stormclad
- 2 chargers
- Squire
Junior 
- Firefly
Arlan Strangewayes

I proxied a bit: Caine3 was represented by Caine2 and applicable B13 models, the hunter was Ace and a grenadier was a charger. Stormwall was the Hurricane, obviously.

Rickard piloted the Skorne.

Xerxis1
- Krea
- Bronzeback
- Gladiator
- Agonizer
- Cyclops Savage (or maybe Brute..)
Max Cetratii with Vorkesh
Max Swordsmen with UA
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Min Beasthandlers

I win the roll and want to choose sides. This game happened a while ago, so I don't remember the exact turns either of us scored CP. 

 Nothing much to say about deployment. Forest in the middle of the table will likely help me as much as than hinder me, considering Mage Sight can off set it to a large degree.

Post both players' turn 1: Nothing particular has happened. I advanced Ace to take a Trick Shot at the Savage and try to kill the Willbreaker, but I do no damage to either. 

Post both players' turn 2: Sadly I moved Ace close enough to be charged by said Savage. I honestly didn't even consider Skorne going that far. Ace dies. Nevertheless, at this point I've killed Xerxis. Mage Sight and Black Penny allows the Hurricane to shoot Xerxis, and through krea and 1 camp this is enough. I think I got Calamity up too, but it's so long ago I'm not sure.

We do a semi re-rack: I don't kill Xerxis and go for attrition instead. At this point I've countered by having the Stormclad kill the Savage. I've feated (and used Mage Sight) to kill the Krea, the agonizer, Vorkesh and the couple of Swordsmen jamming me. The Swordsmen UA toughs the Charger shooting it. 

The two lights screening the Hurricane has been dinged up (in the Charger's case) a bit, or been killed (as the Firefly) by the Cetratii. They did hold off the Bronzeback a turn so that's no matter. With Xerxis feat and Fury, the Swordsmen charged the Stormclad. The UA living allows them to Power Swell (and charge at all, due to Relentless Charge) and two of them kill the Stormclad. 

In my turn I answer by killing a couple of Cetratii after landing Calamity on them, and many of the Swordsmen. Since Xerxis has gone in to help his Cetratii kill the firefly, I could've killed Xerxis again this turn (we roll it out), but I chicken out. 

The Hurricane has tanked the Bronzeback at this picture, and a couple of attacks from other stuff too. Xerxis has decided to camp a lot so I probably couldn't kill him here. The Hurricane has instead killed Cetratii and done 12 to the Bronzeback. I'm scoring both side zones by now. 

This is the end of the game. I score my last needed CP with the Squire and Arlan charge in to contest the middle zone. Caine, Watts and Junior did 19 points and killed the Bronzeback. Calamity and boosted shots is incredible! 

Victory to Cygnar!

Well, twice (almost three times) really. Final score 8-2 I believe. We felt the scoring differential needed to win was a bit too high. Whilst Rickard didn't exactly have a list built to capitalise on scenario openings, we both felt I committed too much to the scenario early turns. 

Caine3 was surprisingly strong. I was inspired to try him after discussions with other Cygnar players, and I'm pleasantly proven wrong on his viability. I'm still not sure he's way in the top with the great Cygnar casters. The charger spam variant I've yet to try. I actually don't think I will - either it's as strong as some say and then it'll get taken care of eventually in the dynamic updates, wasting my money, or it's not and it's a waste of my money anyway.

I think my memory of this game was close to good enough. I would need to take pictures after each player's turn to get great battle reports. 

Battle Report 24: Cygnar versus Retribution of Scyrah

Greetings and salutations, soldiers of Caspia!

I finally got another game in. I wasn't sure what to play (if even Cygnar!) but in the end I decided to run the same list as I did last time I played and slammed down Stryker1 Storm Division. Now, I know the 'in' list is in Heavy Metal, but I don't own two Stormwalls so there's that. As usual I'm not great at taking pictures every turn...

Stryker1
- Stormwall
Max Storm Lances
Min Storm Lances
Stormblades
- UA (free)
- 2 Storm Gunners
Journeyman Warcaster (free)
- Firefly
Arlan Strangeways (free)
Kathrine Laddermore

I played vs Retribution of Scyrah, under Kaelyssa.

Kaelyssa1 [+29]
 - Chimera [8]
 - Discordia [18]
 - Manticore [14]
 - Manticore [14]
 - Griffon [8]
 - Griffon [8]
 - Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker [4]
Heavy Rifle Team [4]
Heavy Rifle Team [4]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Mage Hunter Assassin [4]
Mage Hunter Assassin [4]
House Vyre Electromancers [8]

Scenario was Outlast.

I go first and advance up like so. I don't go full tilt, because I want to spare my Storm Lances both MHA charges and Rifle Team shots (Dahlia and Skarath are proxies for another HRT). 

This is following my turn 2: Retribution has pushed up cautiously. I pushed up aggressively and feated. The Stormwall shot something I believe.

In response Kaelyssa gets nothing done really. He sends a griffon into my right hand zone, some electromancers into my left and a griffon into my Stormblades and killed two or something. A manticore goes after Laddermore, but she's feated on so she's fine. 

In return I killed the Griffon with some Stormblades. They also contribute to killing the Manticore. I score two. 

This is following Kaelyssa's turn. He had his Chimera punch a Stormblade so he can only contest my left zone with the HRT. Discordia (the robot without a torso) contests right. A manticore kills off most of my Stormblades. 

It's easy killing off the HRT on the left, and Discordia and whatever random guy he had contesting the right. Stormwall finally gets to punch something, after much shooting. Stryker runs into the right zone and dominates for the win.

Victory for Cygnar!

Honestly my opponent is still pretty fresh so this wasn't the most trying game for Stryker1. I like the list though. I'm not 100% about the Stormblades - they do shitloads of damage but Stryker cannot speed them up. He does protect them somewhat though which is great. Sadly they take a fair bit of real estate though. Considering I run 9 large bases and a colossal that speaks against their inclusion. 

I did play two more games versus Retribution, but I forgot to take any pictures at all. Stryker1 Storm Division won versus Rahn (same guy as this game) and versus Ossyan (not the same guy). It's a good list.

I did go to a tournament first weekend in March, with Circle Orboros. I played Wurmwood for 5 straight games and went 2-3. I'm a really bad Circle player it turns out (though I'm sure playing the lists beforehand at all would've helped a lot) so that's all I'm going to expand on that.

I'm getting another game in tomorrow, during which I hopefully remember to take pictures. With some luck it's not versus Retribution, though I might run Stryker1 again. I'm itching to bring Haley3 out again, but I feel I should investigate other lists. This is both so I can widen my repertoire and so that I can find a great list to pair with Haley3.

Battle Report 23: Cygnar vs Protectorate of Menoth

Greetings and salutations, swanophiles!

Long time no gaming, as they say. Christmas and finals and vacations etcetera. Let's get to the game instead.

I've played almost solely Haley2/Haley3 for the entirety of 2016, so I figured I could try something else for a change. Nemo3 is being talked about a lot in Swanworld lately so I was a bit interested in that. Stryker1 is another caster who's been mentioned increasingly lately. Hearing good things about Stryker1 from Patrick Dunford, and actually owning that model, I decided to go in that direction.

Theme: Storm Division
Stryker 1 [+30]
 - Hurricane [39]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (min) [12]
Stormblade Infantry [10]
 - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard [0]
 - Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (2) [4]
Journeyman Warcaster [0]
 - Firefly [8]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [4]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]
Bunker (Steamroller) [0]

Stormblades I hear you say?? Yeah I know, but they seem to fit well here. You get so many hard-hitting units this way. They're very good with Snipe, and they're good with Blur as well. You get two Arcane Shields, Iron Zeal, some models with natively high ARM to make sure the feat turn is a real time walk. Squire sure would've been cool but I think this is a better build than making room for it.

I know the Hurricane isn't out yet, but it seems so cool so I wanted to try the list with it anyway. It should work roughly as well with a Stormwall instead.

I faced off against Björn Wahlstrand, who used to be an aspiring swanlet but who betrayed us for the Creator of Man. He played Severius2.

Severius 2 [+26]
 - Reckoner [16]
 - Reckoner [16]
 - Reckoner [16]
 - Blessing of Vengeance [13]
Choir of Menoth (max) [6]
Idrian Skirmishers (max) [15]
 - Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide [5]
Vassal Mechanik [1]
Vassal of Menoth [3]
Wrack [1]
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard [9]
Bunker (Steamroller) [0]

We rolled up Extraction.

This looks rather stretched out here due to formatting.

Björn wins the roll and choses side, and lets me go first as a result. This was a tough choice since the side I wound up on really was bad, but on the other hand going first is often great. The table we play on has a fair bit more disruptive terrain than we're generally used to, which I found pretty interesting. Terrain being relevant is good for the game, I believe.

As always, I forget taking pictures sometimes. This game I got pictures of the end of my turn every time, but I didn't get any at the end of Björn's.


Deployment

Okay so there's a big fucking house right outside the middle of my deployment. That's shit. This picture was taken before I advance moved my stormblades, do that in front of the Hurricane. The three carnivean-bodies pretend they're Storm Lances this game, so as to stave off the feeling of irrelevancy which came with mk3.

Top of 1 looks like this. Not much to say. Storm Lances on the left should've been more aggressive. 

Here Blur is on the Stormblades, Snipe on the Hurricane, Arcane Shield on both units of Storm Lances.

Björn advanced a bit too warily his turn 1. He killed one storm lance with his idrians, and damaged a second one. Passage out on the warjacks. 

Top of 2:

I've killed 7 idrians here, and got some damage into one Reckoner (the one next to the objective) as well as knocked it down. One of Rhoven's buddies shield guarded a momentum shot so he and a choir member was killed as a result.

I feated this turn too, of course. The plan turn 2 is pressuring your opponent really hard. I should've played all my units a lot more aggressively here, and more than anything I should've put my lances around each of the flags to threaten scoring on his turn. I'm too rusty.

Nevertheless, the feat protects my army splendidly. Björn gets very little done, killing just one Storm Lance which was too far away to get the feat. He stripped Arcane Shield from the right-most storm lances, but junior put it back.

This is after my third turn. I've killed the remaining idrians since Björn used them to try jamming my army, which really didn't do him any good considering how many leaps and lightning generators I'm running. I got 13 damage into his Bunker objective and scored 2. 

At this point I'm feeling pretty in command with a good scenario lead, and I've got a sniped Hurricane doing decent damage behind all my dudes. What remains of Björn's army is very resilient though, considering Hymn of Passage and Field Marshal: Oracular Vision. Luckily for me he's got pretty few attacks though.

Björn feels really pressured on scenario here (rightly so) so he sends his 3 Reckoners up to contest both flags. He uses Severius' feat and a Hex Blast to kill 2 Storm Lances and a Storm Gunner. The latter is really annoying considering his feat now creates dangerous clouds and shit, protecting his objective really well.

I fail scoring any points at all my fourth turn. The Hurricane spreads his shooting between the Reckoner on the left and the central one (the hole near Laddermore and the firefly). Björn has been very disciplined about keeping a focus to mitigate a heavy hit on each of his warjack all game so the grind is slow. The leftmost Reckoner gets disrupted by Stryker, but I forget to move Snipe to the stormblades. This means 3 shots rather than 8, so that's boring. 

Björn gets a little little work done in return, killing only Laddermore and 2 Stormblades. 

By this point the game is over more or less. Hurricane and junior shot down the Reckoner contesting my left flag. He also shoots Rhoven who gets slammed into my own Storm Lance, which dies. The lance had already killed the objective so it doesn't really matter, but I feel a bit stupid anyway. 4 Stormblades charge Blessing of Vengeance and kill it. I'm at 4 CP and Björn cannot contest.

So instead he decides to kill as much as he can. Severius goes in and whacks two stormblades, and the admonisher from his staff kills off lots more of them. He also hex blasts the firefly for 10 points. The poor robot gets finished off by Gius and the Reckoner. 

Victory for the Swans!

I'm not sure what to say for the post-game summary. I did quite a few mistakes, mostly due to not playing much lately. The list seems really strong, and Stryker1 surprised me. He's got a great feat, a disruption gun, good spell list. He's not very dynamic or active himself though, which is something I value highly. Nevertheless, the sniped colossal is great fun and the supertanky army I enjoy. Versus an army without Oracular Vision and Hymn of Passage I think the list has tremendous damage output. Momentum guns work very well with storm knight shooting, and everybody knows how much Stormblades hurt in melee anyway.

Learning points to bring with me, I should've been a lot more aggressive top of 2. I think I could have pushed Björn really far back, or gotten a great attrition turn top of 3 if he decided he couldn't back up that far! 

Haley3 and the Errata

As everybody who reads WMH-blogs know by now, the errata was released just before Christmas. Being a Haley3-fan I considered writing some about how the errata affected Haley3, but there is not really a lot to say. I didn't expect Haley3 to get changed, instead hoping they remove the echoes' ability to contest in SR17, and she didn't. 

Assuming that I would be correct about that, I thought Haley3 would get comparatively buffed - throws would get hit because they were obviously fucked up and Haley3 skewing DEF so hard would as a result become an even happier camper. It was sort of correct, throws are worse now, but seeing how clumped up Haley3-lists often play there's sadly often going to be Cygnar models close enough to her for your opponent to have a good model to throw at her. Nevertheless, it's going to be harder than just running a model there so it's a small buff to her anyway. 

As for the other models being changed in the errata, Ossyan and the Karchev Mad Dogs list are the main problems being removed from the meta. Ossyan I think was playable (though I never got to try it) but Karchev Kennel was probably not so that's a good change. By now I think Haley3 plays well into anything Khador can come up with (at least everything I've seen), but maybe Zerkova1 or Vlad2 can build something to trouble the Queen.

Other than that, not much new for me. Here's to hoping Haley3 survives SR17 too!

The year in review - 2016

Greetings and salutations, boys in blue!

2016 was a good year for me in warmachine world. I won some smaller tournaments, placed well in big ones, was chosen for Sweden's third team in WTC and placed 11th in said tournament. I played Cygnar almost exclusively for the entire year too, which is a big thing for a (former?) faction hopper like me. And the last tournament I played was a very enjoyable team tournament in which my team ran Haley1-Haley2-Haley3 and won, to really hammer in who the top dog is. 

As for the number of games I played, the year was less impressive. I managed to rack up a total of 84 games played during 2016, which is fewer than many top tier players do and definitely too few for me to continue to increase my skill in a good pace. 

Nevertheless, the games were good. I've played almost solely Haley2 and Haley3 both in mk2 and mk3. 

38 games of mk2: 29-9
46 games of mk3: 32-14

For a total of 61-23 W/L record over the year, with many good opponents. Not too shabby. 

The lists themselves, and I'm focusing on mk3 here since that is what feels relevant, have been very good. I've felt slightly disadvantaged versus Circle and Mad Dogs, but not much else. The pairing got me to at least even versus everything else in my experience. Not only that, I often felt upon choosing lists that either of mine would give me an advantage versus either of theirs. Whether that is a result of faction imbalance or just that my lists are better developed than my opponents' is hard to say - a mixture likely. Cygnar has a very active community nowadays where ideas spread quickly and are improved upon. I guess the only negative thing with the Cygnar community is that Jarle's ideas (and perhaps Scandinavia in general's) have a profound effect on Cygnar players all over the globe. This is fine as long as Jarle knows what he's doing, though, and that doesn't look to change.

For next year I'm going to continue playing Haley3 for as long as I can before she gets changed (I still believe echoes should not contest scenario elements for the best of the game) but maybe change up her buddy. I'm really keen to try Nemo3 after talking to Jarle and some other Cygnar players about him (see I'm doing it too!) so hopefully I can get a chance to do that sometime soon.

As for goals for 2017, I'm not sure. 2016 I had the goal to beat current and former WTC-players, which I now have done a fair bit. I will probably not apply to the WTC teams for personal and financial reasons, though it was an incredible experience and I really enjoyed the preparation work too. 

I would like to win a big, national tournament in Sweden so I guess that will be my goal. If I can get top 10 on the Swedish ranking system that would be swell as well, but more than anything I think I will set a goal to get 100 games in during 2017. It's going to be tough, sadly, since I'll be spending a lot of time away from home due to my university studies sending me to small hospitals all around southern Sweden. Anyway, a goal is a goal is a goal :)

Painting wise I'm less impressive.. I finally finished my Haley3 unit lately, after playing her base coated for almost a year. I have to repaint my Stormwall too eventually (it was bought second hand already painted). 

A short mention of the errata - I'm slightly disappointed. I had hoped for more changes, it feels like there are more obvious problem models than those addressed, and more than anything I would have hoped for some more buffs to bad models. 

This post is probably of no use to anyone else, but it helps me gather my thoughts, or something.