Game 1: Helynna vs Garryth

Game 1 vs David Newton - Retribution - 23/02/17

Right then, on with the first battle report. For my first game with a new faction I thought that there would be nothing better than to play the mirror, so that at least one of us would have half a clue what was going on. David hadn’t played in a while so was a bit rusty but the game was still an excellent learning experience for us both.

My List:

Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys

-Helios

-Helios

-Hyperion

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

David’s List:

Garryth

-Sylys

-Moros

-Phoenix

Heavy Rifle Team

AFG

Max Halberdiers + UA + Soulless

Max Sentinels + UA

Arcanist

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

David went first and the early turns were spent with the predictable running. His T2 saw some shots (including a Sentry shot from the AFG) go into the jacks, but were spread with Shield Guards to maximise my feat, his Halberdiers moved up into an advanced Shield Wall and Sentinels got ready to charge into the right Helios.

My turn 2 saw some shooting take place whilst slowly advancing forward. In my head I saw the Helioses (need to work on a plural for this) aggressively running forwards early game but in practice it just can’t be done. I feat, but foolishly don’t cast Deceleration, and the Hyperion shoots the objective for 6 points, sadly failing the Critical Consume that would have removed Sylys, the Soulless, an Arcanist (who died to blast anyway) and several Halberdiers. I will have to live the dream another day. I began my new favourite game of moving his Phoenix behind terrain to stop him being able to charge.

Despite it being my feat turn David felt it was necessary to send in the Sentinels onto the right most Helios. I think he was right as he used Iron Zeal the turn before and without it and under Hand of Destruction he would have lost a lot of the unit to the Hyperion’s guns. He did a fair chunk of damage to the Helios, destroying about half of it once the force field was taken into account. I won’t mention it each turn, but the three AFG shots and the HRT were starting to do significant damage to the left Helios, and this turn in particular stung as there was no reason for me not to have Deceleration up.

The above picture shows the beautiful sweep opportunity that the right Helios was presented with, and it was taken killing 4 of the 6 Sentinels, with a bought attack taking out another. Several Halberdiers are removed allowing me to score on the left flag and the objective is finished off by the Hyperion. Deceleration is put up as it should have been the turn before.

The remaining Sentinels charge in and, without Helynna’s feat being up, effortlessly scrap the right Helios. More shots occur, I didn’t give the amount of shooting in his list enough credit, and my boxes are slowly starting to run out. With the right Helios down, Garryth comes out of hiding and heads towards the right flag.

The game somewhat breaks down at this point sadly, as we both forgot about Killbox, but we eventually reach the point at the start of my turn in the below picture, with Garryth up 4-3 on scenario and my having removed both the AFG and the Phoenix, the latter of which was dragged in by Helios and splattered by Hyperion. An incident of not was that whilst under Garryth’s feat, Hyperion fired his Starburst Cannon at a clump of 5 Sentinels who were effected by Hand of Destruction. I rolled 4,4,5 to hit and was ecstatic right until realising the spell effect meant I had to drop the lowest, not one of my choice.

Whether I blame tiredness or inexperience for what happened after this picture was taken is unclear, but it was a real mess regardless. I fuelled both colossals in order to take out Garryth, and moved Helynna to hit him with Hand of Destruction, forgetting that he has Stealth, and leaving me within 10" of Garryth, Sylys long since having perished. The plan to knock down Garryth with Hyperion and then drag him in with Helios was out of the window too, so I had to get it done with Hyperion alone. I basically needed to hit 2 boosted 11s, and I hit neither.

Then Garryth jumped over Hyperion and effortlessly cut Helynna to pieces.

DEFEAT

For a first game I was pretty pleased with how this went. The list has so much beef to it and an impressive amount of control. My main concern for the list was that there would be no room to improve with it but that is certainly not the case, as there are many areas of improvement that I need to tap. Activation order, focus management and activation efficiency are so much more vital when you only have 8 models, so I need to improve on this. This was a highly enjoyable first game against a great opponent, and I can’t wait to get more games in.

Thanks again for reading, more should follow next week after gaming on Saturday.