Kommander Tatiana Sikora vs. Captain Madison Calder

Apparently, the new shiny version of Cygnar is not sufficiently preoccupied with the Orgoth invasion. They are back to their old tricks of invading the Empress' rightful domain. Captain Madison Calder is leading the army. For the first time, Kommander Tatiana Sikora is dispatched along the new Man-O-Wars to intercept her. It could have gone both ways. However, Calder comes out on top. 

 

I have always had trouble with Cygnar. It is a long ans proud tradition to loose. So, I'm worried. In addition, it is NuCygnar, which I honestly don't really know a lot about, except my complains about Cygnar getting the long end of the stick in the army starter boxes. You can read my complaining here. Nevertheless, I'll do my best. I'm going to try out some version of Tatiana and Man-O-Wars. Probably not the last iteration, though. Let's see what happens. The two lists facing off are: 

Khador - Winter Korps Kommander Tatiana Sikora    - Iron Flesh    - Puissance    - Dire Wolf [9]      HEAD - Shield Guard      RIGHT ARM - Ice Hammer      LEFT ARM - Plow-Shield    - Dire Wolf [9]      HEAD - Shield Guard      RIGHT ARM - Ice Hammer      LEFT ARM - Plow-Shield    - Dire Wolf [10]      HEAD - Shield Guard      RIGHT ARM - Long Axe      LEFT ARM - Plow-Shield Koldun Lord Damien Korovnik [3] Sergeant Sergei Krol [5] Winter Korps Officer [2] Winter Korps Officer [2] Arkanists [4] Arkanists [4] Man-O-War Suppressors [11] Man-O-War Suppressors [11] Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10] Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10] Winter Korps Snipers [4]    - Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1] Winter Korps Snipers [4]    - Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1] Defenses    - Barrier    - Barrier    - Barrier Command cards     - Defenses     - Hit & Run     - Old Faithful     - Power Swell     - Put the Fires Out Total Points   100/100

Cygnar - Storm Legion Captain Madison Calder - Arcane Shield - Deflection - Electrify - Courser [7] Head - Advance Deployment Right arm - Heavy Stormthrower Left arm - Voltaic Punching Spike - Courser [7] Head - Advance Deployment Right arm - Heavy Stormthrower Left arm - Voltaic Punching Spike - Courser [7] Head - Shield Guard Right arm - Heavy Stormthrower Left arm - Voltaic Punching Spike - Stryker [11] Head - Relentless Charge Right arm - Voltaic Halberd Left arm - Power Fist - Stryker [11] Head - Relentless Charge Right arm - Voltaic Hammer Left arm - Power Fist - The General [17] Head - The General Left arm - Polarity Fist Right arm - Quicksilver Mk III Legionnaire Officer [3] Legionnaire Officer [3] Arcane Mechaniks [5] Arcane Mechaniks [5] Storm Callers [5] Storm Lance Legionnaires [10] Storm Vanes [4] Stormguard Legionnaires [7] - Legionnaire Standard Bearer [2] Command cards - Break Through - Careful Reconnaissance - Duck and Cover! [1] - Old Faithful - Power Swell Total points    100/100

Initial Thoughts

Tatiana Sikora is the new shining Cadre 'caster clad in Man-O-War armour. In an sense that brings back memories of Sorscha3 who was surprisingly brittel give she was in aa huge armour. I wonder if looks also deceive when it comes to Tatiana?

I'm not going to do a very thorough walk through of Tatiana's list; that will be for a later time. Yet, she is bringing three Dire Wolfs, all with shields (never leave home without them), two with the nice Ice-Hammer and one with a Long Axe for a bit of extra reach. Dire Wolfs in this type of configuration must be among the cheapest beat sticks in the game.

At a mere nine points a Dire Wolf comes with 30 boxes, ARM 21 a POW 17 weapon and a POW 14 Shield. In addition it is a Shield Guard with Anchor and Girded. We get to pay an additional point to exchange the Ice-Hammer with a POW 16, reach two Axe without critical freeze. This is a steal.

The 'jacks are supported by two units of Arkanists, which might be a bit over the top. However, after power-up, six Arkanists can fill three 'jacks with focus; and I like duplicating stuf. So, why not?

The main force consists of two units of Man-O-War Wrecking Crew and two units of Man-O-War Suppressors (look, duplication again!). This is a lot of boxes with some armour (I still believe that Khador should have one or two points more of armour). 

They are supported by their Sergeant, Sergei Krol. He gives them tough, which us nice; in particular in combination with build in Steady. They can also be helped by Tatiana's Iron Flesh spell, and clever use of Puissance and Positive Charge. Suppressors can't hit anything smaller than large base. So, feating at the right time will bring them from large and noisy lumps of metal to killing machines.There are also two Officers that can help with Pathfinder and perhaps Swift Hunter.

To take out small stuff and perhaps assist the Suppressors in hitting, two units of Snipers with dogs are around. They still need an extra point of RAT to be truly useful. Also, the dogs tend to die very fast. Apparently, I'm only playing cat lovers.

Finally, Damien is here. He can only Spell Slave Positive Charge, which can be useful. He also has a nice spray, which I tend to forget. Also, he is a solo so there are probably some objective around he can work with (or against).

Madison Calder is brings the ability to ignore clouds, forrest and intervening models to her battlegroup. That is highly annoying as it remove most options for hiding. She also brings Arcane Shield (+3 ARM). How I wish we could learn that; Crusader's Call (+2 SPD for everybody); Deflection (+2 DEF against ranged and arcane attacks); Electrify (+2 melee attack for a 'jack); and Rhythm of War (kind of 3" reposition for all 'jacks). Her feat gives her battlegroup +3 DEF, Dodge (advance 2" if an attack misses this model), and Riposte (if an attack misses a Cygnar battlegroup model, it gets to hit back). This all makes for a pretty mobile force with a decent amount of Armour.

She brings six 'jacks! The main beat-stick, the General is there; Two Strykers with hammer og halberd; and two Coursers with sprays. Except for the General, the remaining 'jacks are also quite cheap. So so well protected (without spells) as Khador 'jacks. Yet, they are full of tricks.

Despite having six 'jacks there are still room for quite a lot of boots on the group. Primarily, there is a unit of Storm Lancers, Cygnar's fast, hard hitting and well armoured cavalry. I really don't like them. A unit of Stormguards who are really dangerous agains 'jacks. A unit of Storm Callers who are really annoying. The tend to move forward, kill my Snipers, and then make an Cygnar advance (running away). They are also rather hard to shoot. Effective DEF 15, plus any terrain. That means a 9 to hit on the average for Snipers.

All of this is support by the extremely good Mechaniks; they are basically our Mechaniks and Arkanists wrapped into one nice heavy armoured package. There are also two Legionnaire Officers and a unit of Storm Vanes. 

I'm not completely sure what to do about this army. I'll just stick to my standard plan for Tatiana and Man-O-Wars: move as fast as Khador possible up the board and grab some real estate. Then feat, survive and kill stuff. No point in making plans to complicated.

A note to the reader: I'm proxying two units: One of the Wrecking Crews is Man-O-War Demolition Corps on large bases. The other one, is one of the Suppressor units that are Man-O-War Bombardiers on large bases. Both are painted red.

Deployment

War are playing the Steamroller 2024 scenario Battle Lines. Tatiana wins the roll-off and goes first. Madison picks the side with the nice L-shaped wall, which will be very nice to hide behind. Tatiana drops two barriers where the Suppressors should be able to reach them before the opposing force gets there.

Tatiana deploys in a standard pattern. There is a unit of Snipers on each flank; all the Man-O-Wars are in the middle with 'jacks evenly spaced; an Officer and a unit of Arkanists on each side; and Tatiana with slave in the middle.

End of deployment

Madison deploys herself in the middle, ready to run and hide behind the wall. She packs all of her troops and one of the light 'jacks, save for the Storm Callers and Storm Lances, to the left where they are protected by the Storm Vanes. The two remaining units goes on the right flank. The five remaining 'jacks are placed around Madison in the middle.

The picture above shows the end of the deployment phase.

Round 1

Tatiana starts by sticking to the plan. She puts Iron Flesh on the Supressor unit to the right to make it annoying for the Storm Lancers to deal with. She puts Puissance on the Wrecking Crew to the left and finally casts Tactical Supremacy.

Everything with armour then moves forward with the Suppressors attempting to move in and screen everything behind. It quickly turns into a trafic jam. However, the unit movement rules in MK IV actually makes it less messy.

Arkanists and Officers move in behind the wall of steel to be ready to support. The Snipers move forward, hugging a forest on the left where there are no Storm Callers and trying to hide behind stuff on the right.

The picture below shows the result of attempting to navigate 16 large bases in the middle of the board.

End of turn 1

After the eventful first turn it is now Madison's turn. She casts Deflection to annoy my Suppressors, and I think Arcane Shield on one of the 'jacks. She feats to speed up the army and basically make it more annoying. 

She then basically moves everything up. Though, surprisingly not the Strom Lancers. They normally tend to be in my face before I know it. She also draws first blood and kills the dog on the left flank. My opponent is clearly not a dog person. It gets sprayed from the light 'jack. Finally, Madison moves up and hides behind the wall. I suspect she will stay there forever. 

End of round 1

That is basically it. A rather uneventful round. The picture above depicts the end of the first round. The game is still very much open. 

Round 2

Round 2 is normally when the action happens. Games are won and lost here. Let's see what happens. 

End of turn 1

Tatiana starts by upkeeping her spells. Having watch her precursor, Sorscha3 die too many times by standing in the frontline trusting her armour, she decides to hang back and watch the show. She does, however remember to feat. She also says Desperate Pace to the Wrecking Crew on the left to enable them to get into the opposing 'jacks on the left.

On the right, the Snipers are well aware that there is no chance of them actually hitting the Storm Callers, so they just charge them instead. Not that it actually helps a lot, but it does get the remaining dog near something that the Suppressors wants to shoot.

The Suppressors starts unloading into the the General. Even with the feat they do miss a few times. This activates Dodge and the General moves forward until it is in the Suppressors faces; stopping the barrage. The Suppressors do have Pistol on their weapon (ignores the target in melee bonus). I just think I forgot that. The right most Dire Wolf moves in for the kill but leaves the General at 2-3 boxes.

The right most Wrecking Crew attempts to box in the Stryker in the middle to stop Dodge. But it is too far, leaving room for it to escape. I was fishing for knockdown (actually Smite) from the Ram Piston. But no fish would bite.

The second Suppressor unit opened fire on the dog-killing Courser getting it to Dodge out of range, which is nice as it leaves room for the second Wrecking Crew. This one could actually charge the Stryker (with a bit of help from an Officer, giving them Pathfinder). However, the Stryker survived.

The two remaining 'jacks were caught in a trafic jam. The picture above depicts the end of Tatiana's feat turn. I think the damage output was lacking.

End of round 2

Madison strikes back. She now has Rhythm of War up; Electrify on the Styrker to the left and Arcane Shield on the second Styker.

On the right side, the Storm Callers moves out of combat, using the Break Through card and shoots my Snipers to kingdom come; including another dog! The Storm Lancers charge in along the right flank, but does really nothing to write home about. It is followed up by a Courser, also not really doing anything. The General is in a bad shape and can't really contribute. Finally, a unit of Mechanics also join the fun. All in all, the right flank is solid. Unfortunately, the Storm Callers can score and a Legionnaire Officers runs to the right most objective and can also score.

In the middle, I loose two members of the Wrecking Crew. To something I forgot. This opens up a route for the Stryker to move into the Suppressor unit. But, again without must effect.

On the right, the combined work of a Courser, a unit of Mechanics and a unit of Storm Vanes removes the Wrecking Crew. It really means a lot being outside Tatiana's feat. This enables the Stryker to move up to the wall.

Finally, the unit of Stormguards now have a free line to the left Dire Wolf. Despite being under feat, five Stormguards are too much.

At the end of this turn Madison manages to score 3 points whilst denying any for the Empress. The picture above shows the sorry state of affairs after the second round.

Round 3

I'm in trouble. Unless something brutal is pulled out of a helmet I'm loosing on Scenario. Assassination is out of the question. Madison is dug in too good. I need to contest and score... a lot.

End of game

On the right flank the Dire Wolf get to work after being Empowered by some Arkanists. It gets rid of the General and the Courser. Freeing the Suppressors to shoot stuff. They remove one Mechanik and makes a decent attempt on the left Stryker.

The Suppressors in the middle moves up to the objective to contest and shoots the Styrker and some Stormguards. The Styrker goes down and as a miracle so does a few of the Stormguards. This leaves room for the Dire Wolf with the axe that takes on the last Stryker, without killing it.

On the left side, Officers, Sergei Krol and Damien cleans out the remaining Stormguards, leaving room for the Snipes to move and contest the objective. They also shoot and kill the Legionnaire Officer.

That is really it. Madison manage to score an additional two points and Tatiana only one. That leaves Madison the three points ahead and the game ends. The picture above shows the end of the pary.

Final Thoughts

This was rough. It is strikingly clear that scenarion is so much more important in this version of Steamroller. Having 3 additional scenario points after scoring in the opponent's turn is nice in the sense that the opponent gets a chance. However, contesting hard becomes really important. The old approach of just killing enough stuff seems deprecated.

I'm convinced that Tatiana with Man-O-Wars has game. There is a lot of boxes and armour. I still think that Khador needs an extra point of armour. It is basically only under feat that we are somewhat safe.

It is also clear that shooty Khador requires much more finess than I can currently manage. The Suppressors are good when they can use Volley Fire against their opponents. Snipers are still underwhelming. I need to figure out how to keep the dog alive.

Nevertheless, we had fun! More practice with Tatiana is required and perhaps some fine tuning of the list.

Until next time.
For the Motherland!