Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince (Vlad1) vs. Major Markus ‘Siege’ Brisbane (Siege1)

Cygnar is once again making incursions into Khador territories. This time, Siege1 is brining some Heavy Metal. Who else but Vlad and his trusted Winter Guards can clean up the Cygnar trouble. It turns out to be a pretty simple exercise for the long term veterans. Khador metal is simply just heavier than Cygnar metal. Vlad is victories despite being on the receiving end of an assassination attempt under Siege1’s feat. As an extra bonus, in this game Vlad never did get to use his feat!

I have only faced Siege once before, but that was in his epic version; and Irusk was dispatched for that intermezzo. Irusk was clearly not up for the task. Despite a heroic effort from the Winter Guards, they had to admit defeat on scenario (battle report here). This time, Vlad moves to intercept. He brings his standard Winter Guard list (detailed here). This is the post-Oblivion version, which only differs in an additional Artillery Kapitan.

Cygnar [Theme] Heavy Metal [Brisbane 1] Major Markus “Siege” Brisbane [+28] .    – Hurricane [35] – Triumph [18] – Squire [0(5)] Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine [0(5)] – Ace [10] Journeyman Warcaster [0(4)] – Charger [9] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen [10] Field Mechaniks (min) [3] Storm Strider [18]

Khador [Theme] Winter Guard Kommand [Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [0(4)] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4] Winter Guard Mortar Crew [0(5)] Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8] – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6] Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8] – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17]

I have never faced Siege1 before. I have, however had my behind handed to me by his epic incarnation. Siege1 is a 6 focus caster who brings five spells to the table, who carries a really big gun. This gun can place a 4″ AOE anywhere completely within 14″. Everybody within this AOE suffers a POW 14. This makes Winter Guards really sad.

His most famous spell is probably Foxhole, which allows him to place, basically a AOE 5″ trench (almost) anywhere within 14″ (thanks to the Squire). Siege likes to hide in such a hole. A lot of models can hide in a foxhole. This is unfortunate, as Vlad has quite a few models that like to blast stuff. He can also cast Mage Sight, which puts a 5″ AOE completely within 14″ (thanks to the Squire). Siege’s models can ignore forrest, clouds and stealth when attacking. He can also slam stuff using Force Hammer. Rift is a 4″ AOE, which also leaves rough terrain. Explosivo allows a model to gain Magical Weapons and 3″ blast. Finally, his feat allows him to remove all walls in his control and his models basically gets Armor Piercing when damaging a model in Seige’s control area (14″ due to the Squire).

The battlegroup includes the ubiquitous Squire, a Hurricane, and his pet ‘jack Triumph. The Squire does quite a few neat tricks for Siege. First and foremost, it extends his control range to 14″. It also allows him to reroll one magic attack roll per turn. Finally, it has a 5 focus battery, which Siege can user in his control phase.

Siege’s pet ‘jack Triumph has a bond that gives it boosted range attack rolls. Triumph is a surprisingly shooty ‘jack. It carries a range 16″ gun, POW 15 gun, which it can fire both in normal activation, but also in the Maintenance phase. At RAT 7 (automatically boosted), it is going to hit must stuff (DEF 17 on average); also because it has True Sight. As an extra bonus, it is a Shield Guard.

The Hurricane is the largest Arc Node around. It is a standard colossal with ARM 19 (probably 22 under the Journeyman Warcaster’s Arcane Shield), 56 boxes and two massive fists; the latter causes Cortex damage. So, Warjacks beware. It has four guns, two range 12″, POW 16, which slams small- and medium-based models; and two range 14″, POW 13 AOE 4″ guns. The Hurricane is actually not too scary. It will still go down to two Marauders, using just two focus in addition to feat and power up).

Siege brings two junior Warcaster. The ever present Journeyman Warcaster, and Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine. The standard Journeyman Warcaster is basically there for Arcane Shield (+3 ARM to a model). Here he is bringing a Charger as his little friend. The Charger is actually a quite nifty light warjack. It can shoot twice with its range 12″ POW 12 gun, and using Powerfull Attack it can boost all attack and damage rolls. This means hitting DEF 16 for 22 points of damage on average.

Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine, carries two POW 10, range 10″ magelock pistols that can either shoot 14″, push stuff D3″, or hit a model within 4″ of the original model hit. In this setup, I do however think his most important role is to bring his pet ‘jack Ace, and the spell Fire for Effect (we all know and love this one. How Cygnar has stolen it from Irusk needs to be investigated). Ace is a small shooty ‘jack. It carries a POW 12, range 14″ gun, which like Caine’s guns also can do three different things: Shadow Fire, which stops the target model from blocking LOS; Thunderbolt, which pushes D3″; and Trick Shot, which hits another model within 4″ of the original model hit.

Siege also bring a Battle Engine, namely the Storm Strider. It has a ROF 2, range 14″, POW 15 gun, which also arcs lightning to D3 nearby models. Not nice behaviour against the Winter Guards. It generates its own power tokens (fake focus). Finally, and quite important it adds +2 to friendly Faction model’s range attack roll targeting an enemy model within 10″ of it. It is probably going to be close to the Hurricane. At ARM 18 and 28 boxes, a single fully powered Marauder can take it out.

There are two units in this army, a minimum unit of Field Mechaniks, and Alexia1. The former basically does what it says on the tin. Yet the Heavy Metal theme allows the Reposition [3″], and that they repair for an addition 1 point.

The final unit is Alexia Ciannor & the Risen, who has been payed, handsomely I hope to assist Cygnar here. Alexia1 can make solos (Thrall Warriors) and is in her self actually pretty dangerous as long as there are Risen around. Unfortunately for her, she needs to restock her supply of Risen to really function, and there are mostly Winter Guards around to do that. Not having an ample supply of bodies on her own side will probably make her less efficient.

All in all, Vald is not too scared. The huge-bases should be manageable. Siege needs to get within charge range (under feat) of the Marauders to really do something. Alexia is probably going to run suboptimal. There is, however and tremendous amount of potential very damaging shooting. In particular when Siege feats.

Deployment

We are playing Steamroller 2019 King of the hill. Probably the best scenario for Vlad and his happy Winter Guards (more on this later). We both picked the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). Siege opted to go first. So, Vlad chose the side with a nice wall in the middle. He has developed a tradition of standing behind walls enjoying the view.

Siege deploys in the middle with all the solos and Alexia around him. The two huge-bases deploy on the left and all the remaining ‘jacks on the right. The Risen and Mechaniks deploy in the back. 

Vlad deploys pretty standard. Him in the middle surrounded by a unit of Winter Guards. All artillery in the middle, along with the ‘jacks. The solos deploy in the back. A Gun Carriage deploys on each flank. King of the hill is really good for this list. Vlad can bring a Gun Carriage into each of the rectangular zones in turn 1! Winter guards can concentrate on the middle zone. The picture above depicts the end of deployment. 

Round 1 is always about positioning. We both really need to get up the field to do some scenario work. Siege in particular as he, in principal has a slower army! 

Siege starts by dropping a Foxhole near the edge of the circular zone. He then moves into it, hiding from all the shooting. The Storm Strider and Hurricane cautiously moves forward on the left flank. Triumph moves into the Foxhole with his best friend, and the two other ‘jacks also moves forward. For some strange reason, all the rest stays at the back. I guess they are scared of the shooting capabilities of Vlad’s forces. The picture above shows the end of Siege’s turn.

We need to get forward, yet without being shot to death by the Hurricane. The two Gun Carriages runs forward into the two rectangular zones. They are now ready to score or contest. The three Marauders advance and spread out. Two to the left to engage the two huge bases. The Winter Guards spread out to avoid Electro Leap from the Hurricane, and just in case, Joe goes Courage of the Motherland on the left most Rifle Corps. The artillery goes behind the wall or stay out of the threat range from the Hurricane.

This is probably the round where Cygnar will go electric.

On the left flank, the Storm Strider and Hurricane advance surprisingly short. They do all the shooting they can, and three Winter Guards. The middle Marauder also gets hit by the Storm Strider, it is pushed backwards, and is disrupted. On the right flank, the ‘jacks move around, and one of Alexia’s new Thralls moves into the zone. The troops in the back move around a bit. A surprisingly uneventful turn. The picture above depicts the end of Cygnar’s turn.

Hey ho, let’s go. Vlad is on a roll. Vlad stays where he is. He casts Signs & Portens, and Wind Wall. The Winter Guards begins. One of the Artillery Kapitans uses Artillerist on the Mortar, and moves to the left. The second one runs to score the flag. Joe moves up near Vlad to stay inside Wind Wall, and says For the Motherland to the Mortar. It drops a shot at the Hurricane and does some damage. The leftmost Field Gun runs forward, the other own moves over the wall a shoots the Cygnar objective. All the remaining Winter Guards move forward, and might have shot at something.

The rightmost Gun Carriage charges the Thrall and takes it out. It the shoots Ace and the Charger. It the repositions into the zone to score. On the left flank, the other Gun Carriage charges the objective and takes it out. It the proceeds to shoot at the Hurricane. The leftmost Marauder moves through the forrest and lines up to charge either the Storm Strider or the Hurricane. The middle one (disrupted) just moves forward. The right one moves between the flag and the house to protect the Artillery Kapitan.

That was it. This makes four scenario points for Vlad: two zones, a flag, and killing the objective. The scenario score is now 4-0 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the end of Vlad’s scenario turn.

Siege is in trouble. Vlad just needs one more scenario point to win (assuming that Siege does not score).

End of round 3, end of game

Siege deceides to go for the assassination. Luckily, Vlad is nicely placed. He is behind a wall, under Wind Wall, and with nine Sacrificial Pawns near by. Nevertheless, that is probably the only choice for Siege.

There is some tricks that Siege can do. He can cast Explosivo to give a model Magical Weapons, Triumph has a Magical gun, Caine has a magical gun, Ace has a magical gun (but can’t reach Vlad), So Siege begins. He feats, casts Explosivo on the Hurricane, moves forward and starts shooting Winter Guards. I think Siege either made an error here, or Vlad is not behind a Wall template. Siege’s feat can remove walls in this control (14″ with the Squire). So he either should have moved, and then feated; or he forgot. All in all, Winter Guards are dying.

Next up is Ace, which shoots the right most Marauder using Shadow Fire to hinder it in blocking LOS. The Hurricane also kills Winter Guards (Vlad is running low). The Charger moves up and shoots Vlad. Triumph follows up with the same procedure. Vlad is left with five boxes!

Siege did not kill Vlad. He did not score any points either. He did manage to contest the circular zone and the flag. Vlad manages to score two more points leaving him at 7-0. Thus, the game is won. The picture above shows Vlad’s victorious moment. 

This was easy. Despite Siege (perhaps) forgetting an effect of his feat. I did not do the calculations, but I do not think that it would have changed so much. As I remember, none of the Cygnar shooting missed (perhaps once or twice).

Vlad is a beast behind a wall (or not) under Wind Wall, and with enough Sacrificial Pawns. There is no way to assassinate him by shooting.

Even if Vlad did not win on scenario, he would probably have won in the next turn. The picture below demonstrates the plan. Vlad would give focus to a sensible number of ‘jacks, feat, and cast S&P. The two leftmost ‘jacks can trivially remove the Hurricane, and the last one can kill Siege. This still leaves the havoc that the two Gun Carriages and the remaining Winter Guards can cause.

The winning plan

Until next time.

For the Motherland!