Swans: Journeyman League Week 1: Major Beth Maddox

I was matched against a local player called Will, who had opted to run a pKreoss 'pop n drop' style list.

Scenario 3: Take and Hold

CYGNAR
Major Beth Maddox
-Ironclad
-Lancer
-Firefly

PROTECTORATE OF MENOTH
High Exemplar Kreoss
-Reckoner
-Redeemer

Initial thoughts: Right, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what my opponents list is trying to do. Kreoss moves up, feats on my caster, the Warjacks shoot her to death. This being a kill box scenario makes this very hard to avoid, but I had a game plan and was sticking with it.

DEPLOYMENT
I won the roll to go first and picked side, in hind sight, I should have picked the other side to benefit from the obstruction, but I was too enticed by the hill and wall. My opponent dropped his Reckoner nearest his own flag, the Redeemer near mine and Kreoss in the middle. I dropped the Lancer opposite his Reckoner, so he could stand on the hill to avoid being shot on the way in. I deployed Maddox and the Ironclad centrally to threaten the Reckoner. I put the Firefly nearest my own flag to hopefully draw out the fire from the Redeemer.

TURN 1
PROTECTORATE
My opponent runs both Warjacks in front of the obstruction, and moves Kreoss up behind it, but not before putting Defenders Ward on the Reckoner.

CYGNAR
I run the Lancer onto the hill, the Ironclad behind the wall and the Firefly into the forest. Maddox puts Snipe on herself and Assail goes on the Ironclad.

TURN 2
PROTECTORATE
Defenders Ward is upkept and Kreoss shuffles in behind the obstruction.  The Reckoner toes into the woods, staying outside the Ironclad 11" charge range. He then shoots at the Ironclad dealing a few point of damage. The Redeemer stands still and shoots at the Ironclad, missing all three shots and dealing 1 point of damage to Maddox on a scatter.

CYGNAR
I can see how my opponent wants the next turn to play out. I let both upkeeps drop, to hopefully put him off the assassination this round. With all my models out of range I needed to set myself up for the next turn. The Lancer runs up into the cloud, Maddox activates and arcs an Electrical Blast, through the Lancer and into the Reckoner, I boost the damage and distrupt the Warjack. Maddox then moves outside of Kreoss's threat range so she isn't effected by the feat. She is left camping two, standing on the border of the killbox. The Ironclad moves over the wall, out of threat of the distrupted Reckoner, ready to attack next turn. The Firefly shuffles further through the forest and shoots at the Redeemer, dealing a few points of damage and getting an electro leap onto Kreoss.

TURN 3
PROTECTORATE
My opponent enters the think tank here, knowing I will surely wreck his heavy next turn, being unable to move out of charge range. He starts by moving the Reckoner to block any possible charge lanes to Kreoss, and takes a shot into the Ironclad. Kreoss then shuffles forward and feats, knocking down all my Warjacks. The Redeemer stands still to gain the aiming bonus, and takes three shots at the Ironclad, boosting damage each time. The Ironclad crumbles at this onslaught of pow 12s taking a total of 26 damage across the three shots...

CYGNAR
Now I enter the 'GG' think tank, without a heavy myself, Maddox under feat is my only chance of taking care of the Reckoner. I run the two Warjacks to engage the Reckoner, and move Maddox behind the wall camping her stack.

TURN 4
PROTECTORATE
My opponent has a massive edge on me now and moves in to finish off my Warjacks with the Reckoner, almost killing the Firefly. The Redeemer moves up and takes a few shots at Maddox, missing all of them. Kreoss camps hid stack and hides behind the obstruction.

CYGNAR
I see my chance to finish off the Reckoner, I cast Onslaught, Feat and charge in. Hitting all my attacks, I deal a spectacular 8 damage, rolling three 1s on the charge and two 1s on the subsequent attack. The Warjacks now activate, hoping to take the Reckoner's cortex, in the slim hope that Maddox can survive. I fail to do so, leaving him on 1 box on his cortex, apart from that, he is fully functional... Sad times.

TURN 5
PROTECTORATE
The Reckoner wrecks the Firefly with two attacks. Kreoss keeps all the focus, drops Defenders Ward, charges Maddox and kills her on the first attack.

CYGNAR DEFEAT!!
AFTER THOUGHTS: I think I played this game well up until the point I got tilted by loosing my heavy to the Redeemer. My game plan worked well by slowing my opponent with disruption to ensure the alpha with my feat. With my heavy alive,  I should have made light work of the Reckoner, and my opponent would have been left in a very unfortunate situation, but as we know the Dice Gods giveth and taketh away.

I will be posting another game at the same points value next week. Hope you enjoyed.

Christian

Swans: Journeyman League into All New War, Major Beth Maddox 75 Points List

So my club is running a Journeyman League this year and I thought it was the perfect chance to learn Major Beth Maddox. Due to a large number of participants my club decided not to restrict the casters to only the new battleboxes, so there is a fairly decent mix of casters and factions. We will also be running on a bi-weekly schedule.

If you've been keeping up with this blog, you will have seen my final 75 points list already, having played it,  to some success,  against Morghoul last week. The list will break down as follows...

Week 1
Major Beth Maddox - WJ: +30
-    Squire - PC: 5
-    Firefly - PC: 8
-    Ironclad - PC: 12
-    Lancer - PC: 10

Week 2
Being restricted to only adding to the battlegroup, I decided my best bet was to play the Charger. This would allow me to Marshal him onto a Journeyman the week after. I don't feel like normally it would be worth sinking thirteen points into the Charger/Journeyman module, but with the need to add only to Battlegroup in week two, this made sense.

-    Charger - PC: 9

Week 3
The list here can finally start fleshing out and taking advantage of having both Arcane Shield on the Ironclad, and Dauntless Resolve on the Stormblades to make both more survivable. The Stormblades can also synergise well with the Firefly's +2 to electrical damage.

Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: PC: 10

Week 4
Here I decided to drop in the Officer and Standard to get a higher body count in the Stormblade unit. I then dropped a full unit of Stormlances so I could have a quick, hard hitting flank unit that could take advantage of Maddox's feat. I put a min unit of Trenchers in to hopefully act as a tarpit and to block LoS and absorb some shots from the other infantry.

Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20
10
-    Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 5
-    Stormblade Gunner: 2
Trencher Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10

Week 5
For my final addition I added in Ragman to help with armour cracking and I moved the Trenchers up to a full unit.

Ragman: PC 4

So this is the list I will be building and painting over the next few weeks. Please feel free to leave suggestions on how you would paint, play or change this list :)

Swans: 75 Points - Cygnar, Major Beth Maddox Vs Skorne, Master Tormentor Morghoul

So this game was very interesting, not only did I show up at my club and get told immediately that I was on the live stream, but after my opponent declared he only had one list, I said "well I will just play my Maddox list into whatever you're running". I should have checked his list... He had a mammoth.

Scenario: The Pit

CYGNAR

Major Beth Maddox - WJ: +30

-    Squire - PC: 5

-    Firefly - PC: 8

-    Ironclad - PC: 12

-    Lancer - PC: 10

Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 4

-    Charger - PC: 9

Ragman - PC: 4

Storm Lances - Leader & 4 Grunts: 20

Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10

-    Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 5

-    Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner - PC: 2

Trencher Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16

SKORNE
Master Tormentor Morghoul
-Mammoth
-Titan Gladiator
-Cyclops Brute

Croak Raiders
Paingiver Beast Handlers
Cataphract Incindiarii

Paingiver Task Master

**THIS LIST MAY BE WRONG**

The list I chose is a test for where I want to take Maddox for the Journeyman league. I usually wouldn't take the Journeyman Warcaster as taking the Charger is a big tax to pay for access to Arcane Shield, but I needed it as a transition from adding 10 points to the battlegroup in week 2, so I could justify it.

I won the roll and chose to go first. My opponent picked the table edge with the flag in the trench and a nicely positioned wall. I noted that the wall on my side was partly outside of kill box and the smoke by my flag was a good addition.

DEPLOYMENT
I deployed centrally and scratched my head thinking how I would kill the Mammoth. I deployed the Stormlances on my right flank and my heavy hitter centrally. The Firefly was deployed to the left with the Stormblades to helpfully get some use from the +2 damage to electrical attacks. I was worried about the Croak Raiders killing the Stormblades so the smoke here helped to give them some much needed concealment. The Trenchers advance deployed up front.

My opponent deployed his caster nearer to his own flag and dropped his beasts next to him. The Beast Handlers took up the rear. The Incindiarii and Croaks took the other side.

TURN 1
CYGNAR
I moved Maddox up behind the wall, then cast Dauntless Resolve on the Stormblades and Snipe on the Trenchers. The 'Sniped' Trenchers moved up and popped a couple or Croaks, the rest of the unit dug in, or popped smoke. Stormblades ran up the flank, utilising the smoke to hide behind, and the Stormlances made a break up the other flank to threaten my opponents flag. The jacks ran up to get into position. Oh and the Journeyman casts Arcane Shield on the Stormlances.

SKORNE
My opponent began by moving the Croaks up and picking off a few Trenchers on retaliation, then shuffled the Incindiarii behind. The Titan trampled towards the zone and the Mammoth moved up and began shooting toward my lines for some lucky scatters, which he got, killing a couple more Trenchers. Morghoul moved into the trench with his Cyclops Brute.

TURN 2
CYGNAR
I upkeep my spells and begin by moving the Trenchers up and taking an 8 man CRA into Morghoul, which is unfortunately shield guarded but deals massive example to the Cyclops Brute. The Stormlances run further up the flank and I run one directly into the enemy lines. I do the same on the left flank keeping some of the Stormblades back and running one into the Croaks to tie them up, in hindsight I should have used Iron Zeal this turn, but oh well. The jacks move forward again and the Ironclad move to toe the zone, shielded by a wall of Trenchers. Maddox moved further up the wall to be outside of the killbox and camped.

SKORNE
This turn my opponent starts by moving the Croaks and Incindiarii up to start work on my Lancer and a few Trenchers, the Lancer was left with 4 boxes, oil + Incindiarii = profit. The Titan shuffled back to toe the zone, and the Mammoth moved up to pot shot a few more Trenchers, killed Ragman  with blast damage (big problem for me) and punched my Stormlance to death. Morghoul, fearing the raw power of another Trencher CRA, moves behind the Mammoth and cast Admonition on the Titan. Unfortunately my opponent ended his turn inside the killbox, and I scored 2 CPs.

TURN 3
CYGNAR
Right, this is feat turn! Loosing Ragman was a big loss here but my opponent dedicated to hold his feat, and not cast Spiney Growth on the Mammoth. So Maddox moves up, casts Assail on the Ironclad and feats. Then she stays behind her wall and camps. Then the Firefly runs next to the Mammoth for the damage buff, this triggers Admonition, and the Titan leaves the zone. I then proceed to throw every available assault shot and charge attack into the Mammoth, it was finally finished off by the Ironclad, who I knew was Titan food next turn.

SKORNE
My opponent now enters fists on table, think tank mode. He decides to activate Morghoul and move him up to the wall, he then casts Rush on the Titan, then feats. The Titan then advances to the Ironclad, murders him with his initials, and kills some of the surrounding Stromblades. The Croaks and Incindiarii do their best to free themselves up, but largely fail at this, they do kill some of the remaining Trenchers and a few Stormblades though.

TURN 4
CYGNAR
Being on two CPs I decided to push for the scenario. The Stormlances charge and kill the Cyclops Brute contesting his flag. The remaining infantry run to engage as much of his army as possible. Maddox camps her entire stacks and runs to my flag and I block LoS to her with the Journeyman and Squire. I end my turn at 4 CPs.

SKORNE
My opponent is left in a very difficult situation here. He moves the Titan up to his flag to contest,  while keeping a toe in the zone. He kills a few Stormlances and a Trencher. He then proceeds to run models taking free strikes on the other flank to contest my flag, after 3 failed attempts my opponent concedes. As anything he can run into my flag can be trivially killed and I can dominate my own flag again the next turn.

CYGNAR VICTORY!
AFTER THOUGHTS: I made some major mistakes in this game, loosing Ragman being a huge one, at least I now know you can't Sacrificial Pawn blast damage. I am pretty sure I made a few rules mistakes too, but as my third MK3 game I didn't do terribly. I feel I may have lost this game had my opponent not kill boxed himself.

If anyone has any reflections or advice, on the game, my write up or my list, please feel free to post below.

Thanks for reading.

Christian