Battle Report: Makeda 3 vs. Stryker 2 (50pts)

I'm continuing to experiment with Makeda 3 and double Aradus Sentinels.  This time, I was up against Andy and his Cygnar.  I ran my version of the list with the Krea and Orin Midwinter:

Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Aradus Sentinel (8pts)
*Aradus Sentinel (8pts) - Proxied by a Cannoneer
*Cyclops Raider (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)

Objective: Bunker

The idea behind this list is that the Aradi can attrition the enemy down from range, and force them into my lines on my terms, where my counterattack can be most productive.  I'm running them with Makeda rather than a Warlock with more traditional ranged support because her Feat gives her one of the most explosive counterattacks in Skorne.  She can completely reverse the tempo on a lot of armies that are able to get through the Aradus shooting quickly, and charge them.  She also buffs the normally pillow-clawed Sentinels' damage output with Vortex of Destruction.


Andy played the following list:

Lord Commander Coleman Stryker (*6pts)
*Lancer (6pts)
*Squire (2pts)
Storm Lances (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts) - Proxied by Nyss Raptors
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Captain Jonas Murdoch (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
*Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Lieutenant Allison Jakes (3pts) - Proxied by a Beast Mistress
Journeywoman Warcaster (3pts)
Archduke Alain Runewood (3pts)
Captain Maxwell Finn (3pts)
Stormblade Captain (3pts) - Proxied by a Hex Hunter
Stormblade Captain (3pts) - Proxied by a Hex Hunter
Victor Pendrake (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pt)

Objective: I forget.  Effigy of Valor, maybe?  Seems good for this list?  It didn't come up...

I've only played Stryker 2 a couple of times before, but this looks like a fairly straightforward list for him.  The Forge Guard and Storm Lances are a lot of tough, hard-hitting models who can easily take advantage of the extra move and attack from Stryker's Feat, and the Storm Lances have a good gun on turns where they don't want to charge.  The Gun mages add extra ranged support, and a bit of flexibility with Thunderbolt shots and the ability to ignore Stealth.  There are also a lot of solos here adding extra support and extra hitting power (probably also with Stryker's Feat in mind).  The list as I've posted it is 3pts over, but I'm probably misremembering point costs.  I used to use Forward Kommander to reconstruct my opponents' lists for reports, and I make more mistakes than I used to now that it's down.




Secnario and Desployment

We rolled up Two Fronts, a split scenario with two rectangular zones slightly offset with the short ends facing the players' deployment zones, and the long ends facing the table edges.  Each zone belongs to one player, and that player gets an objective in the center.  Dominate the friendly zone, destroy the enemy objective, or control the enemy zone for 1CP, or dominate the enemy zone for t 2CP's.

Andy won the roll off, and decided to go first.  I chose the table side with a wall in the middle right at the back edge of my zone.  The wall wasn't in the zone, but it was a great place to keep my rear models pretty safe if necessary, and a decent place to hide Makeda from Stryker, who hits really hard and threats 17 inches.

Andy deployed the Forge Guard, Stryker, and Lancer in the center, surrounded by their support solos: the Journeywoman, the Squre, Runewood, and Reinholt.  One Stormblade Captain went on either side to support the army with Commander.  The Storm Lances deployed on the left flank with Jakes, and the Gun Mages deployed on the right flank with Pendrake.

I deployed Makeda and the Krea behind the wall, with the Bronzeback on their right and Molik on their left.  The Raider went on the left as well to oppose the Storm Lances.  I put some Paingivers on the starting line, since I'd need to start wiping Fury off the Aradi asap.  The Agonizer and Orin went in the second rank.

Andy advance deployed Finn in front of the Forge Guard to use Desperate Pace on them, and I deployed the Aradi behind the wall, ready to contest my zone and shoot some cavalry.

Andy just starting his first turn.

Cygnar Turn 1

Stryker allocated one Focus to the Lancer.

Most of the list ran.  The Storm Lances ran half the unit in front of the wall on the right flank to potentially get some charges off.  The Gun Mages ran behind a forest to screen themselves from Aradus shooting.  Pendrake ran to support the Gun Mages, and Jakes ran up behind the Storm Lances.

Maxwell stayed in place, and used Despereate Pace on the Forge Guard, who ran.  The Lancer ran.  Stryker walked, cast Deflection (+2Arm against ranged and magic attacks for 1 round), and used Velocity a bit to catch the whole army with it.  The Journeywoman walked, and put Arcane Shield on the Forge Guard so my Pow 7 Poison blasts wouldn't wreck them.  The Stormblade Captains and Runewood ran.

A fair amount happened for a top of turn one advance, but with the number of solos in this list, I'm not surprised.  The Storm Lances were threatening my left flank already, but that meant they'd be in range to shoot, and job number one was to whittle them down as much as possible.


Skorne Turn 1

The Bronzeback ran to just ahead of the wall on my center-right.

Makeda advanced to just behind the wall, put Far Strike on both Aradi to give them Snipe, and camped 2.  The Exalted Guardians walked up beside her, putting Shield Guard options on much of the list.  The Krea used Paralytic Aura, and walked up next to Makeda.  Both Aradi moved and shot.  Despite boosting, only one hit, and killed a Storm Lance.  I remembered to use Swarm with one Aradus, but forgot with the other one.  The Raider advanced, used Far Strike on itself, and tried to shoot a Storm Lance, but also missed.

The Paingivers advanced, and managed Fury.  Molik just walked up behind the Aradi.  The Agonizer and Orin moved around a bit too.

I'd really wanted to kill all three of the exposed Lances, but in the process of shooting at them, I'd determined that only one would be in range to charge me next turn, so that wasn't so bad.  I'd still have next turn to shoot for the most part.  Otherwise, my advance was fairly slow (as usual for this list), but put me in a fairly good position.  Makeda was in a good place behind her wall near my zone.


Cygnar Turn 2

Stryker allocated no Focus.  The Journeywoman upkept Arcane Shield.

Pendrake gave the Gun Mages an extra die on their attack rolls vs. Beasts.  The Gun Mages walked around the forest they'd hidden behind, and shot the Bronzeback.  The managed to knock it down (along with the Exalted Guardian who'd Shield Guarded the first Thunderbolt shot) and push it back into the wall, but did no damage.

The Storm Lances got a run/charge order.  One charged an Aradus, and hit it for 3 damage, while the rest ran into position to charge next turn.  The Forge Guard moved into position an inch or so outside of Molik's potential threat range, ready to charge home next turn and do even more damage with Stryker's Feat.

The Stormblade Captains ran up, to support their respective flanks, Jakes continued her sprint up the left flank (passing the Storm Lances), and the Squire, Journeywoman, Reinholt, and Runewood ran up to a hill just in front of Andy's zone.  Stryker advanced onto the hill (with a little help from Velocity), cast Deflection again, and camped 3 Focus.

Andy just finishing up his turn.

Andy was positioned pretty well in general, but would take some significant damage on the coming turn.  I'd still need to shoot out as many Storm Lances as possible, and I'd probably be able to kill a couple more.  He'd also made a significant mistake - leaving one Gun Mage within Molik's threat range.  That was all Molik would need to get into the Forge Guard, and kill a lot of them before they could attack.  If I could get the majority of the Storm Lancers and Forge Guard this turn, Stryker would have very little fuel for his Feat, and I'd be able keep the pressure up on attrition going forward.


Skorne Turn 2

Makeda leached Fury, but I hadn't cast Vortex of Destruction last turn, so she had nothing to upkeep.  The Bronzeback also shook off Knocked Down.

The Aradus who'd been charged advanced around the Storm Lance, and killed it with its claws.  The Other Aradus advanced, and killed the next Storm Lance in range.  The Raider also advanced, and killed a third Storm Lance, leaving just one.  The Aradi had also moved out of the line between Molik and the Gun Mage he was destined to charge, and one of them had used Swarm (I'd love to say this was intentional for Fury management, but I just forgot on the second one again).

The Bronzeback advanced to just ahead of the center of the wall, and used Train Wreck on Molik to give him Beat Back.  Makeda advanced to extend her CTRL a bit past the back Forge Guard, used her Feat, and cast Far Strike on the Krea and Fate Walker on herself.  The Exalted Guardians advanced to provide some Shield Guard where needed, but didn't do much else.  The Krea aimed, and took a Paralysis shot at the Gun Mage.  She hit, reducing its base Def to 7 for a round.

The Paingivers advanced, managed Fury on the Bronzeback, Raider, and Aradus who'd used Swarm, and Enraged Molik.

Molik charged, splattered the Gun Mage, and stepped into the Forge Guard.  He swept through 7 of them without needing to load any Fury on himself, and pretty much cleared the area between him and Stryker.  After a bit of measuring, I determined that he could get to melee range of Stryker and still be in Makeda's CTRL with less than half an inch to spare, so I had Molik bounce off the nearby Lancer twice, and get to Stryker.

The plan was to put a little damage on Stryker and leave Molik in front of him.  Hopefully, that would mean that Stryker would be too hurt to use Overload, and would have to use most of the rest of his army and Feat dealing with Molik.  Meanwhile, I'd be able to keep up the pressure with shooting, and hold Makeda's own melee power in reserve to clear my zone, start scoring, and eventually kill Stryker if he tried to break through my army himself.

What actually happened was that Molik rolled like a champ and killed Stryker.

Victory to the Skorne!


Thoughts

I played a pretty good game overall, although forgetting to use Swarm with both Aradi when I'd already positioned the Paingivers to clear Fury off them was irksome.  My targeting was good, and wiping out 4 of the Lancers would have saved me a lot of trouble if the game hadn't ended just then.  My main accomplishment was spotting Andy's one major mistake - leaving the Gun Mage in Molik's threat range - and capitalizing on it.

This list continues to impress me.  It plays very differently from the Brute Squad, and it's a lot of fun.  The shooting from the Aradi and Raider is incredibly powerful, and so far I've never felt like I need to run into someone's threat range just to move the game to melee.  I'm also enjoying how much I'm mixing up my starting turn.  With the Brute Squad, I had a pretty standard opening with very few decisions to make regarding what I did with Makeda's Fury.  With this list, I have a lot more to decide, since I'm often shooting on turn 1 if I go second.  Paralysis was a big factor again this game, although Paralytic Aura wasn't.  I've missed 2 attacks on boosted 8's enough times to be grateful that the Krea hit and made Molik's run on the Forge Guard that much smoother.

Andy played a solid game too.  His tunnel vision on knocking down and pushing the Bronzeback on turn 2 caused him to misplace the Gun Mage that ended up costing him the game, but otherwise his positioning was very good.  The Forge Guard were just outside of Molik's threat range, and well within range to charge my shooting battery.  They could have done a lot of damage by following up a strong charge on the ranged elements with a lot of powerful melee attacks on my second rank.  I probably would have started out with Arcane Shield on the Storm Lances, who ended up bearing the brunt of my shooting.  It's true that Arm 20 against ranged doesn't keep the Forge Guard safe from 4-die blast damage rolls, but the Storm Lances got into range faster, and posed a more pressing threat.  Making them tougher would probably have been better for Andy in the long run.

I like the Stryker 2 list he was running.  I do think he could drop a couple of the solos and possibly run another unit or either a Stormclad or Rowdy.  I don't know what unit he'd run.  Stormblade Infantry is solid, but squishy for the cost.  Storm Guard and Sword Knights are cool, and Flank stacks nicely with Positive Charge.  I don't know quite enough about Cygnar to make the call, but models started to get thin on the ground pretty quickly against my shooting, and it might benefit this list to have a few more bodies to take up the slack.  Alternately, the Stormclad and Rowdy are always solid, and Rowdy at least would have stopped me from going after Stryker.

Thanks for reading, and more reports to come!