Iron Moot 2017 Champions Game 2: Magnus 2 vs Caine 3

My second game at Iron Moot Champions was against Morgan Åkesson, who chose Caine 3. I got my second game in a row against the same caster.

Morgan's list:

Heavy Metal
Caine 3
- Free Squire
- Stormwall
- 2 Cyclones
- Ace
Free Alain Runewood
Free Strangewayes
Journeyman
- Charger
Field mechanics

As Morgan commented, this list was somewhat teched against Cryx, with four Covering Fire templates. As a result, though, the list has significantly less conventional firepower.

Morgan won the roll off and decided that he wants to go second. A big mistake in my book.

I see his Stormwall deployed in the middle, and so put my jacks centrally. There is a unit of halberdiers on either side. The plan is to flood the zones with them, discouraging enemy lights from getting there, and then to go for scenario play, using the feat to secure a very solid lead. Kell is deployed in the wood to get the protection of stealth.

I advance with Kell and put 3 damage into Ace. Then I create a cloud wall, and make sure to cover Kell with my two Talons (Ace has True Sight), who are by the way not so bad at killing lights. The rest of the army advances behind the cover of the cloud wall, preparing to flood zones.

Morgan's response is to advance cautiously, putting a bunch of covering fire templates to slow down the advance of my infantry. The storm pod is placed in a gap for the same reason. Both Caine 3 and Ace get stealth (Ace minifeats).

I measure, and Ace is within 13" of both Talons, as well as within 16" of the Renegade. I decide to go for killing Ace.

First, I activated Kell, aimed and killed the pod. Second shot is not needed. Then I ran with the trenchers, and one of them gets close to Ace, being engaged but most importantly within the 4" AOE range. The rest of the trenchers just run away to free up charge lanes and running lanes. Renegade aims into the back of the trencher and boosts the hit. It connects (needed a 7 on three dice) and gets Ace knocked down and the Trencher dead. I charge two fully loaded Talons into it and kill it (two focus left over). Halberdiers flood the zones, Blue nomad goes into the uncontested right zone, Orin gets to my flag and activates Stealth. Magnus feats, choosing front and back directions, and then charges the Stormwall. Bucaneer knocks Magnus down to ensure his safety.

Caine 3 feats and does some damage to me but not enough. The left zone can't be contested, and neiher can my flag. I score two points.

I kill his objective and get three more points. 5-0 victory on scenario.

Analysis:

I don't feel that I made any mistakes here. Morgan's mistakes were:
- Allowing me to go first when he could have gone first.
- Not respecting Talons' threat ranges with Ace.
- Not contesting both zones in his first turn.

Magnus getting first turn in this scenario means that I can force my opponent into a situation where he either has to come much closer from turn one, giving me an attrition advantage (huge alpha in my turn three after my feat), or giving me too much scenario pressure.

Regarding Ace, even without the renegade knock down trick, I could have made Ace stationary with the first Talon (they are MAT8 on the charge) and kill him with the second.

Not contesting the zone is a smaller mistake, as I could have won on his turn three instead of my own by simply scoring with Orin once again.