In gearing up for the ATC in two weeks, I've built my Circle pairing running Loki in both lists. This unfortunately means that I'm not allowed to play him in events until next Wednesday, and my buddy Chandler needed someone to test out his Menoth pairing for him.
I had nothing better to play, so I decided to help him out.
Don't worry guys, I'm still a Druid at heart.
Going into the event, these were my lists:
Anson Durst, ROCK OF FAITH (love that name)
- Heirophant (free! Theme!)
- Castigator x2
- Templar x2
- Indictor x2
Vassal x2 (free! Theme!)
Wrack x2
Min Choir x2
Bunker
Theme: Creator's Wrath
And then Chandler's Sevy list:
Sevy 1
- Heirophant
- Blessing of Vengeance
- Hand of Judgment
- Eye of Truth
Avatar of Menoth
Vassal x2
Vassal Mechanik x2
Wrack x2
Min Choir
Rhoven and Co.
Round one I got paired into a Cygnar player running Caine 2 and Haley 2. This is a no brainer drop - Durst has to be the one I play here. Caine kills Sevy far, far too easily.
My opponent drops:
Caine 2
- Reinholdt
- Stormclad
- Lancer
Jr.
- Firefly
Arlan
Eiryss 1
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Stormlances
Tempest Blazers
We were playing Recon, and Durst absolutely loves this Scenario. I get to just run Jacks up the middle and dare my opponent to come at me.
I won the roll off and windmill slammed going first. The Theme giving me Bulwark for free at the beginning of the game is so great since it allows me to put out three Boundless Charges on the first turn and increase the speed/move range of my speed four heavies by 1.
Druidic Menites turn 1:
Well the plan is to run at him and...run at him and...run at him some more.
Durst gets Harmonious Exaltation from the Heirophant, who then repositions up.
Three Boundless Charges are cast, and Durst himself charges up.
Everything else runs.
Cygnar turn 1:
My opponent runs things at me, staying outside of my 11 inch threat ranges. Little does he know that I've no intention at all of charging him next turn.
Fire for Effect goes onto the Gun Mage Captain Adept, and Caine and his battlegroup move up.
Arcane Shield goes onto the Storm Lances.
Druidic Menites turn 2:
I have basically the same plan for this turn, except swapping out Deceleration for Boundless Charge.
Everything runs. Heirophant casts Harmonious Exaltation and repositions into a jack.
Durst pulls from a Wrack and casts Deceleration, pops his feat, and then charges a Blazer to end base to base with a jack.
His Devout runs up behind him, and so do all the choir members to hug their jacks.
Cygnar turn 2:
My opponent is facing down a horde of angry looking warjacks, and goes into the tank hard.
He begins by shooting my front right jacks with eLeap shots, eventually killing a couple of choir members.
His Lancer charges my Castigator, and at dice off 10 does 7 damage to the four, leaving him on one cortex box. He then baps him with the shield and kills the last cortex box. Sighhhh
The Gun Mage Captain Adept aims and shoots at the Templar in front of Durst with Shadow Fire and Brutal damage.
I shield guard the shot to the Devout, and he rolls absurd damage again, doing 8 to my poor jack.
Lances back up, away from the jacks. Eiryss moves up and shoots the Templar in front of Durst again, making it Shadow Fired.
Caine gets reloaded, and goes for the feat, only to find that Durst is able to suck shots off to his battlegroup (this was his first time against Durst).
After doing one damage to the Templar, Caine casts Gatecrasher and gets behind the cloud.
The Firefly moves up and zaps down the choir dude by the objective, bouncing into the objective, the Heirophant, and the Vassal. He kills the choir boy and the Heirophant sadly.
Druidic Menites turn 3:
I've just got to kill the Objective and the Firefly to dominate the zone.
It takes every attack I have. I just cannot hit the DEF 13 Firefly with anything, and the Devout has to go in and finish it off after I've committed multiple heavies to it.
Durst sits in the back with a bunch of focus.
The Castigator on the left moves up and combusts on Eiryss, killing her.
I get three points.
Score 3-0
Advantage Druidic Menites
Cygnar turn 3:
My opponent has very few options here, and I'm desperately hoping he doesn't go for the assassination run.
I really needed to not have to commit the Devout to killing the Firefly, and then everything would be fine. Instead, I feel extremely vulnerable to my opponent doing something like this:
GMCA aims and Flares/Brutal Damage shots Durst for an average of six (1 after focus soak) thanks for fire for effect.
Each Tempest blazer that's not engaged shoots him for another 3 each on average.
Caine, with Reload, moves around and gets Durst in his sights, firing four fully boosted POW 12s, each doing 5 damage on average.
Durst can soak 20 damage with focus and has 19 boxes, and my opponent does 28 damage on average here, and the way my opponents dice have been going, he's likely to do a lot more.
Oddsmachine puts this in the 40% ish range of likelihood, which to be honest, is much better than any of his other options, even if it's not as likely to work as it is to fail.
Fortunately, my opponent loads up his Stormclad and upkeeps Fire for Effect, and I breathe an internal sigh of relief.
The GMCA still aims and Flare/Brutal damage shots at Durst, doing five which I power field.
The Stormclad goes in and nearly wrecks the front Templar, leaving just the cortex and flail intact.
The Blazers do shoot at Durst, but he takes minimal damage. At this point, I think I would have lived through Caine going at me, even if he hadn't loaded the Stormclad. Durst still had 16 hit points and three focus left, and Caine was only going to be able to do approximately half that much damage.
Stormlances charge the Castigator and the Indictor, wrecking the Castigator with some excellent damage rolls (dice -4 on three dice three times should only be 21 damage, not 32).
The Lancer pokes at the other Templar's cortex.
Druidic Menites turn 4:
It's go time, so I allocate a bunch of focus.
Durst charges and wrecks the Lancer.
The Stormclad goes down between the two Templars, and it takes one Indictor to kill off the Stormlances under battle.
I dominate the zone again, getting two more control points and the win.
Score 5-0
Victory for the Druidic Menites!
Post-Game Thoughts:
I got both extraordinarily unlucky and extraordinarily lucky here. I should have had ample resources to kill the Firefly sitting in the zone before the Devout went in, which would have meant I had very, very low chances of dying to shooting in this situation.
Instead, I had to leave Durst sitting out naked against a bunch of accurate, boosted POW 10's and 12's.
Other than that, the list did exactly what it was supposed to do. I ran up the table and pushed my opponent out of the important areas with a wall of nearly unkillable warjacks.
On to game two!
Would have been interesting playing against a different Caine in that situation. ;)
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