Journeyman League Preseason: pSorscha vs pStriker

The Journeyman League for our club starts next week but Ben and I wanted to try out some battlebox games in the mean time.  It was pSorscha, Juggernaut, and a Destroyer, vs pStriker, Iron Clad, Lancer, and a Charger. 

First game I went first and ran my 'Jacks up with Sorscha under cover of Wind Rush and Fog of War getting her Defense up to 20.  As our forces closed, I charged the Destroyer into his Lancer and Wind Rushed Sorscha to the outside on my right.  My thinking was that the Destroyer would tie up the 'Jacks and maybe Sorscha would get an angle to assassinate.  After Ben's next turn, I feated and later realized that Sorscha can't charge through frozen models (duh).  I ended up losing the Destroyer in melee and what followed was Ben's tactic of constantly disrupting the Juggernaut.  It's a very good tactic.  Not sure if he also knocked down the Jugg.  Didn't quite see a way to come back so I charged Sorscha into Striker a few turns later but the odds were against her and she couldn't bring him down.  Ben ended up knocking her down with Earthquake and then the Lancer and Iron Clad walked over to finish her off.

Mistake was not understanding Stationary lol.  On feat turn, I could have charged my 'Jacks into his and because of stationary they would have basically auto hit (or does it auto hit?  Good thing we're playing battlebox games.  I should know that).  Also messed up when I shot a bombard at the Lancer but could have just used the axe instead and boosted the damage roll. 

For the second game my goal was not to lose the Destroyer so easily and just try to stay back and soften up the  Cygnar 'Jacks a little.  My formation was a triangle with Sorscha in the back and all of my models were about 4 inches from each other-- so a little spread out.  What followed was more knockdown and disruption mainly focused on the Destroyer.  Ben walked up the Lancer and arced Earthquake through him and then walked Striker with snipe to disrupt.  Ugly stuff.  Sorscha died when I exposed her to a shot from the Charger and it was aiming against Sorscha's DEF 18 (no FOW).  So it hit and then rolled triple 6 haha.  Another shot and that was it.

Some pretty bad games on my part and GG to Ben although the last game didn't really feel like it was a good one because it was over so fast :P  but of course, always fun to play him and talk strategy afterwards. 

But wow, feel really lost about what to do against the Cygnar Battlebox.  I like the challenge though and it's time for me to hit the drawing board and think about this particular matchup. 

So let's start with things to remember:

• If I'm going to expose Sorscha to a shot, make sure it's under Wind Rush and Fog of War for DEF 20.
• If I Wind Rush, do it away from the Charger to force it to move and give up it's aiming bonus
• Stationary does not let me charge over bases ><;
• Ben creates a wall of 'Jacks in front of Striker so how about this on feat turn: Destroyer gets 1 focus to boost damage on a POW 14 shot.  Jugg gets Boundless Charge probably.  That's 3 focus.  And then an extra one for another P+S 19 attack.  And Sorscha can Wind Rush the heck out of there.  Just gottta make sure that she catches all the targets in her control area.  hmmm~ Destoryer will probably be distrupted so Jugg doesn't get that extra focus.
• Also against the wall of 'Jacks, might consider just knocking them all down with Tempest.  Sorscha can still Wind Rush away and the Destroyer will get a POW 14 bombard if that should hit.  
• Also, Sorscha HAS A GUN!  Couple turns she was in range to shoot it but I just forgot about it.  POW 12 could do a little damage to those light jacks.   

more thoughts later :P

Journeyman League

A lot of people in my gaming club recently got interested in starting the Journeyman League for Warmcahine.  For those of you who haven't heard of this, it's an official league that you can run that Privateer Press has created rules for. 

http://privateerpress.com/organized-play/leagues/journeyman-league-rules

The basic idea is that you start with a Faction Battlebox and slowly grow your army all the way to 35pts.  You earn points every week for games you play, minis you paint, and a third score for both your game points and painting points added up. 

Week 1 you play with the Battlebox.
Week 2 is 15 points with Battlebox
Week 3 is 25 points with Battlebox
Week 4 is 25 points with Battlebox plus Caster swap allowed
Week 5 is 35 points with Battlebox, either original Caster or Caster swapped one.
Week 6 is 35 points, anything goes!

At first I wasn't too excited as I wasn't sure how fun it would be to run a Juggernaut and a Destroyer for 5 weeks but after looking at pSorscha I realized there's a lot I could learn by playing her, especially her assassination playstyle.  I've never played her before ever so I'm really looking forward to it now.  Also, although the Khador 'Jacks are pretty basic, I'm going in with an open mind trying to see if there are new things I can learn.  If anything, this "slow grow" league will give me a chance to relearn the basics and get a solid foundation on the game's mechanics.  When I first started, I progressed pretty rapidly to 25 points and then to 25 points but I never really got a solid grasp of power attacks and to this day I still have to look up how to do one.  I know that's a very important part of gameplay and I'd like to get better at that aspect of my game. 

I'll document the League as it progresses and share what I learn along the way.  Here's my tentative plan so far for my lists.

Week 1- Battlebox
During the first week we'll all be playing A TON of Battlebox games and they should go really quick.  So I'll try to experiment a lot and see how to get a basic assassination off.  Besides that I'll just run through her spells and make sure I use them in my games.  Also want to focus on power attacks like slams; don't do those enough.

Week 2- 15pts
eEiryss and the Dog! just kidding.  Widowmakers seem like the no brainer upgrade at this level as they add a manageable unit to the game with some tricky things like sniper.  Some cool synergy with Sorscha as Fog of War lets the Widowmakers get to DEF 18 in the open.  Not sure how many targets they will have but if they have to hit heavies, I can experiment with trying to snipe out a column.

Week 3- 25 points
Assault Kommandos! Now that's no joke.  I'm being totally serious lol.  I love this unit despite their lackluster performance.  The Journeyman League gives me the opportunity to try them out.  Sorscha can help them hit targets with her feat or by knocking down things with Tempest.  She can also freezing grip them.  Likewise, the AKs can help her hit with spells by potentially lowering the targets DEF with gas grenades.  Not sure how much they help with the Assassination but I'm looking forward to painting these guys and seeing how the trench on their bases will turn out.

Week 4- 25 points, possible caster swap
I'll play it by ear but I'm hoping to take pSorscha all the way to the end and not swap her out.  There's no way that I can learn all her tricks in 4 weeks so at that time, I'm sure I'll still be digging for tactics and strategy.  Can I try other units in my games and keep swapping them?  I recently got a female manhunter so maybe I'll try her.  Another Camo model to benefit from Fog of War and a pretty decent threat range.

Weeks 5-6
I haven't thought this far ahead and I'm sure when I get there I'll have a better idea of what I want to try after playing pSorscha for a month.  pEiryss seems fun to try to help with the Assassination and she has some tricky shots that she can do.  Need the model though.