I was fortunate enough to be able to get a second game in last week, and I decided I want to start practicing my Convergence.
Since Friday was the release date for Crucible Guard, my FLGS had my preorder for Locke in and I was able to pick her up and assemble it that evening. On Saturday afternoon I was ready to drop her into whatever my opponent brought.
Honestly I think Locke is a better Convergence caster than she is in Crucible Guard, and frankly she's going to be more appreciated in CoC than CG because of her spell combination and what it brings to the table for us. Hence the hashtag: #RockLockeInCoC
For my list I decided I wanted to run a TEP with her, despite the common opinion that it's best to run more heavies. Part of this was that I've yet to play with a TEP at all and I wanted to see what it can do, but also because it gives us a strong Road to War trigger in that it can fire off at least two shots near guaranteed to kill something, possibly more depending on the matchup.
Here's what I went with:
Locke in Destruction Initiative
-Corollary
-Inverter
-Inverter
-Assimilator
-Cipher
TEP
ADO
ADO
Elimination Servitors
Elimination Servitors
Elimination Servitors
Attunement Servitors
Attunement Servitors
Eilish
Optifex Directive
My friend Brian showed up with Khador and decided to try out Armored Corps:
Irusk2
-Spriggan
-Rager
Man-o-War Shocktroopers + UA
Man-o-War Demo Corps + Dragos
Man-o-War Siege Chariot
Man-o-War Drakhun
Man-o-War Kovnik
Kommandant Atanas Arconovich & Standard
Man-o-War Suppression Tanker
Man-o-War Suppression Tanker
Kayazy Eliminators
We rolled for scenario and got the brand new Mirage, which is incredibly live.
Brian set the terrain around the table and I won the roll off, he picked sides.
Deployment, Mistakes, and My Turn 1
I didn't get a picture of the pure deployment, and after the game we realized Brian didn't take any advanced moves from his theme benefit. Neither of us thought it would have been particularly impactful to how the game played out given that I out threat his units by a decent amount and the fact that Locke doesn't need to cast Engine of Destruction to be able to easily hit the Man-o-War troops, especially if I play my Attunement Servitors correctly. This lets her hot swap around Red Line if necessary and with two Inverters that have chain weapons to ignore shield bonuses, further swinging things my way.
Of note: Brian is proxying Sorcha3 as the Shocktrooper UA.
I do however have a picture of my turn 1 after I ran everything forward:
I will likely put another post up expressly about how to deploy Locke and her Vector package so that she can cast all her upkeeps on turn 1 and still have the Corollary's free focus allow all the jacks to run turn 1, while ending things so that the Corollary can get the focus back at the end of the run/induction sequence. There are at least a few other casters in Convergence who need to use the Corollary/Induction focus game to get their spells cast turn 1 while also ensuring the Corollary can be primed for turn 2.
Brian's Turn 1
Brian runs basically everything up, though he keeps the Siege Chariot back a bit further than I expected. He is flanking hard with the Drakhun to threaten my TEP once it comes up to shoot. One mistake I think Brian has made was not positioning so that Irusk could cast Fire for Effect on the Chariot, though against Destruction Initiative the Siege Chariot is going to really struggle due to all my shield guards.
My Turn 2
Pre-measuring shows me that I can safely get the Drakhun in range of the TEP while also staying back far enough to avoid the Shock Troopers. I configure the TEP to use 2 dice to hit, 4 dice to damage, and one extra shot. Between that and one Elimination Servitor shot, the Drakhun dies.
I also use the Assimilator to catch three Shocktroopers in a ground pounder, which was particularly effective since the Shocktroopers needed to run on turn 1. This put some damage into the unit while I managed to spike and kill one Shocktrooper outright.
I position the Redline Inverter on the right to be just out of the Spriggan's 11" max melee threat. I position a servitor on both the middle and right flags to force contesting. I don't bother with the left flag since he doesn't have any solos close enough to take it and is already contesting in a way I can't meaningfully kill anyway.
I do however position two servitors on the left flank and shoot them with rough terrain from the Cipher to make things at least inconvenient for the Eliminators. I could have done better with placement.
Brian's Turn 2
Brian runs his Kayazy around the rough terrain to contest my zone. Atanas gives the Demo Corps pathfinder and they run/charge to clear a servitor and contest the center flag. Irusk puts Artifice of Deviation on the lake and the Shocktroopers shield wall up.
The Siege Chariot takes a shot at my Cipher and I shield guard, however I do it to a servitor that is then in line to slam into on of my ADO's, which I was planning on to arc spells over to the Kayazy. Note for next time, pick better shield guard targets.
Brian of course feats this turn to slow down my reprisal, though he is unable to catch the TEP and Cipher in his feat.
Brian scores his zone but I'm able to score my right flag, so we tie scenario 1-1.
My Turn 3
Locke allocates two focus to Cipher and holds onto 5 to try and spell down the Eliminators. The Cipher takes its sentry shot with the POW6 blast at the Eliminators but it scatters far off of them.
The Optifex directive moves up and gets into my zone fully while also giving the Cipher and left Inverter pathfinder. Then I move on to Flare Time from the Attunement servitors: My left most Attunement servitor aims and is within 5" of the Eliminators. I manage to nail the 8 to hit and flare both Eliminators. I then use another servitor to flare the Spriggan and another two servitors are able to flare the entire Shocktrooper units.
The Corollary fills to 3 Focus and transfers it to the Assimilator. The Assimilator then moves its paltry 2" to get out of the TEP's way and drops shots onto four Shocktroopers via ground pounder. I'm able to boost three damage rolls and kill two outright, damaging two others. This focus inducts to the Redline Inverter on the right.
This proc's Road to War for the right Redline Inverter and the left Inverter. The TEP moves up and I consider just trying to spray the Objective down but I figure the Inverter should be able to pull that off. I then start using 5 dice to damage shots into the cluster of three Shocktroopers still alive. After both shots I leave the UA on one box, and it passes its tough checks from Elimination servitor shots.
Locke activates and feats, moving 2" into the zone to get in range of the Eliminators. I boost to hit Bombshell on them and hit, then boost blast on the second Eliminator to....eliminate both of them and clear my zone. With Solid Ground purified off, the Redline Inverter charges into the Spriggan (induct to Corollary) and puts a Macropummler + precision strike to take out the Cortex and knock the jack down. I then take two swings with the chain arm into the objective, killing it, and then take my last two swings into the Spriggan (induct to the other Inverter), ignoring its shield and crippling its lance arm.
I charge the left Inverter into the Demo Corps but only get one in melee (this inducts to the Corollary). This was the only one that was contesting the center flag however. I'm unable to buy more attacks and the focus sits. I then use the Cipher to walk into the Demo Corps and start wailing, doing damage but not killing any models yet due to Sanguine Bond.
Once everything was done, I scored 4 points this turn: My zone, Brian's Objective, Center Flag, and the Right Flag. Brian scores nothing and I'm up 5-1.
Brian's Turn 3
The Demo Corps get Vengeance moves/attacks which result in getting a crit stationary result on my Inverter, who then starts taking tons of damage. Luckily my Cipher gets missed by both Demo Corps.
Irusk allocates one to the Rager, then moves up and casts Battle Lust on the Demo Corps and cast a second spell that I don't remember, giving me two feat tokens that I put on my Cipher.
Dragos annihilates the stationary Inverter, but the other Demo Corps start missing/not doing enough damage to my Cipher to take any systems out. The Siege Chariot impacts its way into the zone and takes a shot at my objective, which I shield guard to a servitor that doesn't slam into the objective.
Then Brian makes a mistake by using the Rager to try and attack my Inverter, using focus to boost damage rolls which then gives me more feat tokens which I put on the Inverter. Not much damage is done and to put insult over injury the Rager rolls a 2 and blows itself up. What Brian should have done was run to contest my flag.
Brian moves up the Suppresion tankers and sprays down the servitors on my flags, but isn't close enough to contest.
Realizing his error he charges the Shocktrooper UA into the TEP, doing decent damage but not enough to kill it. Neither of us score any CP's this turn.
My Turn 4
To end the game I simply move an Elimination servitor up behind the lone Shock Trooper and use gun fighter to plink her to death. An ADO moves to my right flag and I win the game on scenario 6-1.
Conclusions
After the game we spoke about how the Armored Corps list was slow, and then we remembered he would have had advanced move on a bunch of models.
After writing the report it's clear this would have helped him more than we initially thought about the game. He would have at least been in shield wall for my turn two shooting instead of having had to run, or he would have been significantly closer to charging me. The downside to this is that he potentially gets into my threat ranges with the Shock Troops who match up very poorly into Chain Weapon wielding Inverters.
The Siege Chariot ends up being effectively terrible in this match due to my high number of shield guards, and my winning the dice roll to go first really hurts on a scenario this live vs. a list as slow as his where he will be out threat significantly due to Road to War and Redline. Since he's so low on DEF I don't need Engine of Destruction to hit, allowing me to cycle Redline easily which would punish him moving up enough for scenario.
I think Brian just needs a few mods to his list and he can be in a much better position for this game, though I'm not sure this kind of melee oriented Armored Corps wants to fight into #RockLockeInCoC. Convergence guns can eat through Demo Corps and our best melee Jack can power right on through Shocktroopers shield wall.
As for evaluating Locke herself and CoC in general, I definitely liked the list. I appreciated the amount of firepower I can bring to bear in a jack focused list design while also having a high enough model count to be relevant at least early on in scenario and being able to have a competent melee threat as well.
I do however position two servitors on the left flank and shoot them with rough terrain from the Cipher to make things at least inconvenient for the Eliminators. I could have done better with placement.
Brian's Turn 2
Brian runs his Kayazy around the rough terrain to contest my zone. Atanas gives the Demo Corps pathfinder and they run/charge to clear a servitor and contest the center flag. Irusk puts Artifice of Deviation on the lake and the Shocktroopers shield wall up.
The Siege Chariot takes a shot at my Cipher and I shield guard, however I do it to a servitor that is then in line to slam into on of my ADO's, which I was planning on to arc spells over to the Kayazy. Note for next time, pick better shield guard targets.
Brian of course feats this turn to slow down my reprisal, though he is unable to catch the TEP and Cipher in his feat.
Brian scores his zone but I'm able to score my right flag, so we tie scenario 1-1.
My Turn 3
Locke allocates two focus to Cipher and holds onto 5 to try and spell down the Eliminators. The Cipher takes its sentry shot with the POW6 blast at the Eliminators but it scatters far off of them.
The Optifex directive moves up and gets into my zone fully while also giving the Cipher and left Inverter pathfinder. Then I move on to Flare Time from the Attunement servitors: My left most Attunement servitor aims and is within 5" of the Eliminators. I manage to nail the 8 to hit and flare both Eliminators. I then use another servitor to flare the Spriggan and another two servitors are able to flare the entire Shocktrooper units.
The Corollary fills to 3 Focus and transfers it to the Assimilator. The Assimilator then moves its paltry 2" to get out of the TEP's way and drops shots onto four Shocktroopers via ground pounder. I'm able to boost three damage rolls and kill two outright, damaging two others. This focus inducts to the Redline Inverter on the right.
This proc's Road to War for the right Redline Inverter and the left Inverter. The TEP moves up and I consider just trying to spray the Objective down but I figure the Inverter should be able to pull that off. I then start using 5 dice to damage shots into the cluster of three Shocktroopers still alive. After both shots I leave the UA on one box, and it passes its tough checks from Elimination servitor shots.
Locke activates and feats, moving 2" into the zone to get in range of the Eliminators. I boost to hit Bombshell on them and hit, then boost blast on the second Eliminator to....eliminate both of them and clear my zone. With Solid Ground purified off, the Redline Inverter charges into the Spriggan (induct to Corollary) and puts a Macropummler + precision strike to take out the Cortex and knock the jack down. I then take two swings with the chain arm into the objective, killing it, and then take my last two swings into the Spriggan (induct to the other Inverter), ignoring its shield and crippling its lance arm.
I charge the left Inverter into the Demo Corps but only get one in melee (this inducts to the Corollary). This was the only one that was contesting the center flag however. I'm unable to buy more attacks and the focus sits. I then use the Cipher to walk into the Demo Corps and start wailing, doing damage but not killing any models yet due to Sanguine Bond.
Once everything was done, I scored 4 points this turn: My zone, Brian's Objective, Center Flag, and the Right Flag. Brian scores nothing and I'm up 5-1.
Brian's Turn 3
The Demo Corps get Vengeance moves/attacks which result in getting a crit stationary result on my Inverter, who then starts taking tons of damage. Luckily my Cipher gets missed by both Demo Corps.
Irusk allocates one to the Rager, then moves up and casts Battle Lust on the Demo Corps and cast a second spell that I don't remember, giving me two feat tokens that I put on my Cipher.
Dragos annihilates the stationary Inverter, but the other Demo Corps start missing/not doing enough damage to my Cipher to take any systems out. The Siege Chariot impacts its way into the zone and takes a shot at my objective, which I shield guard to a servitor that doesn't slam into the objective.
Then Brian makes a mistake by using the Rager to try and attack my Inverter, using focus to boost damage rolls which then gives me more feat tokens which I put on the Inverter. Not much damage is done and to put insult over injury the Rager rolls a 2 and blows itself up. What Brian should have done was run to contest my flag.
Brian moves up the Suppresion tankers and sprays down the servitors on my flags, but isn't close enough to contest.
Realizing his error he charges the Shocktrooper UA into the TEP, doing decent damage but not enough to kill it. Neither of us score any CP's this turn.
My Turn 4
To end the game I simply move an Elimination servitor up behind the lone Shock Trooper and use gun fighter to plink her to death. An ADO moves to my right flag and I win the game on scenario 6-1.
Conclusions
After the game we spoke about how the Armored Corps list was slow, and then we remembered he would have had advanced move on a bunch of models.
After writing the report it's clear this would have helped him more than we initially thought about the game. He would have at least been in shield wall for my turn two shooting instead of having had to run, or he would have been significantly closer to charging me. The downside to this is that he potentially gets into my threat ranges with the Shock Troops who match up very poorly into Chain Weapon wielding Inverters.
The Siege Chariot ends up being effectively terrible in this match due to my high number of shield guards, and my winning the dice roll to go first really hurts on a scenario this live vs. a list as slow as his where he will be out threat significantly due to Road to War and Redline. Since he's so low on DEF I don't need Engine of Destruction to hit, allowing me to cycle Redline easily which would punish him moving up enough for scenario.
I think Brian just needs a few mods to his list and he can be in a much better position for this game, though I'm not sure this kind of melee oriented Armored Corps wants to fight into #RockLockeInCoC. Convergence guns can eat through Demo Corps and our best melee Jack can power right on through Shocktroopers shield wall.
As for evaluating Locke herself and CoC in general, I definitely liked the list. I appreciated the amount of firepower I can bring to bear in a jack focused list design while also having a high enough model count to be relevant at least early on in scenario and being able to have a competent melee threat as well.
I'm overall very excited to play CoC once the Scrum is over and enjoy the change of pace from Trolls. I think Destruction Initiative is very well positioned to excel in SR2018, and there may be some really strong play that can be done with a Prime Axiom that can create "free" servitors every turn to contest or score. Similarly I think that if I owned all the Obstructors I needed there may be some game for Clockwork Legion as well, but that's a separate question that requires some testing.
Finally, if you're playing Locke in Convergence, make sure to let PP know how much we appreciate her with #RockLockeInCoC
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