Game 47: Vyros1 vs Bart

Game 47 – Vs James Hockney – Mercenaries – 18/06/17

My list:

Dawnlord Vyros (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Imperatus

-Griffon

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Mage Hunter Strike Force Commander

-Soulless Escort

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Mage Hunter Strike Force Commander

His List:

Captain Bartolo Montador

-Reinholt, Gobber Speculator

-Galleon

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Rover

Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile

The Commodore Cannon & Crew

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Dirty Meg

Last game of the weekend saw me matched up against James with his Bart list. He had been playing double Galleon the day before but switched it up for the Sunday. I didn’t like the idea of playing Rahn into Batten Down the Hatches and so gave Vyros one last chance to impress me. The +1 helped me to go first and off we went.

I run up with Mobility up and Hallowed Avenger on Imperatus. I want to be ready to punish James if he doesn’t feat bottom of 1. Narn hides behind the central building with Imperatus and Eiryss flanks hard on the right.

James advances up with his forces and starts peppering me with AOEs. He kills a few Mage Hunters but doesn’t trigger Hallowed Avenger or kill anything important. Bart feats and starts moving towards his flag.

His feat takes my assassination off the table this turn so I sit back on my position and shoot into his forces. The mage hunters kill one Nomad, do a decent chunk to the other and take a handful of boxes off the Nomad. A manticore shoots at the cannon but leaves it on a few boxes. Narn just runs to engage Eiryss.

James continues shooting into my forces, killing a decent number this turn and he does trigger Hallowed Avenger. The cannon shoots and knocks down the left Manticore and the Griffon, and the remaining Nobad tramples up to engage a load of Mage Hunters and finish the heavy jack off. Dirty Meg hard rolls the 9 needed to hit and kill Narn.

Assassination time for Imperatus. I spend some time moving my models away to clear a path for Impy, and do some good damage to the Galleon whilst I’m at it. Eiryss runs to engage Bart and trigger Flank. Vyros feats and casts Mobility, setting up the assassination. Imperatus charges the Galleon, Side-steps off into Bart and then has 4 attacks, needing 5s to hit and doing straight Weaponmaster damage. First attack hits and rolls good damage, the second misses, the third misses, the 4^th hits but Bart toughs. He is on fire though.

The fire continues. Bart toughs again. Lame. Galleon drags Vyros in and punches him to death.

DEFEAT

Not a game that I felt I deserved to lose but it is why we play with dice. Oddsmachine puts the assassination at 96% before fire so I don’t think I was wrong to go for it, but every 1 in 20 times that will go wrong. I have a great time playing James and this game was no different.

On the event as a whole I feel pretty mixed. I was pleased with how I played most of the games but on some tables (my 1 and 2) the terrain was unplayably bad. I even bought Vyros on day 2 to be able to play on them really well. I learnt a lot about my lists though and came away even more enthused to try different things out. I am very happy with the Kaelyssa list and feel I’m getting closer to finding a good pair for her.

Game 46: Vyros1 vs Ossyan

Game 46 – Vs Retribution of Scyrah – 18/06/17

My list:

Dawnlord Vyros (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Imperatus

-Griffon

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Mage Hunter Strike Force Commander

-Soulless Escort

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Mage Hunter Strike Force Commander

His List:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Manticore

-Hypnos

Arcanist Mechanik

Mage Hunter Assassin

Mage Hunter Assassin

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

-Soulless Escort

Spears of Scyrah

Game 2 in the mediocre tier Steamroller put me in another Retribution mirror match. With both of us having a Shadows theme list, and another list that would be destroyed by it, the eventual matchup was pretty obvious. He had a more significant Mage Hunter presence but I had a larger battlegroup. My opponent won first turn which felt pretty important and we got moving.

My opponent runs up, staying out of advance and see through stealth range of all my models. Quicken goes on the Infiltrators, Shatterstorm on the left unit of Mage Hunters and Fortune on the right.

With no better ideas as to how to play this turn and matchup I just run everything up to engage as much as possible. Narn has a route into an awkward spot but missed the 6 needed to hit twice and is stuck in the middle of his army. The 2 Manticores advance and put down covering fires.

My opponent has no need to feat and so backs off with Ossyan and starts working on my front lines, killing more than half of each unit as well as Narn. He puts down his own covering fire to deny me some response charge lanes.

I am pretty certain I know how the game plays out from this point. I kill a handful of his Mage Hunters, then he feats to remove my battlegroup, and the game meanders towards a victory to him. I have an out though, both Manticores are within 20 inches of Ossyan who is camping 2. I clear out the route for them, fully power them up and send them on an assassination run. Of the 4 shots I manage to roll 2 hit but do nowhere near enough damage and I shake his hand.

DEFEAT

This feels like a matchup where first turn is key. With so much Advance Deploy the first player gets to set up an aggressive line and force the second player in. I am sure I could have played this better if I had thought about it more, possibly by loading one flank with all the Strike Force, but it feels like a really rough position. I’m not sure how many more chances I can give this list, I like a lot about it but I feel let down by it so often. Onto the last game of the middle Steamroller and a win would put me 4-2 over the weekend which would be pretty acceptable.

Game 45: Rahn vs Axis

Game 45 – Vs Stuart Rickards – Convergence of Cyriss – 18/06/17

My list:

Adeptis Rahn (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Helios

-Discordia

-Phoenix

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

-Hydra

House Shyeel Magister

House Shyeel Battle Mages

His List:

Axis, The Harmonic Enforcer (Destruction Initiative)

-Prime Axion

-Corollary

-Assimilator

-Inverter

-Mitigator

Transfinite Emergence Projector

Optifex Directive

Attunement Servitors

Accretion Servitors

Reflex Servitors

Reflex Servitors

Reflex Servitors

Having just missed out on the top8 event on day 2 I was put into the middle pod of 6 players, which included myself, another Retribution, Cygnar, Cryx, Skorne and Stuart playing Convergence. I have only played them once with my Ret and then when I was still learning the faction, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had brought Rahn and my Vyros1 list, and really wanted to test out the former, so dropped him in. Stuart picked Axis, and I won the first turn.

Turn 1 Rahn puts Polarity Shield on Helios, and charges up the table. Everything else runs up and the Arcanists power up the Marshalled Hydra ready for a later turn.

Stuart run all his stuff up, with Iron Aggression on the Prime Axiom, flooding the table with Servitors. 2 Heavies move round to the left of the building and the TEP sits to protect the right flank.

I don’t really fancy taking on the TEP any time soon, as I’ve seen and experienced what it can do, so I swing my forces pretty hard to the left. I throw the Hydra into the Prime Axiom with aid of a Telekinesis from Rahn, doing nearly half boxes, and Helios charges the heavies on the left, killing one and doing decent damage to the other. The Battle Mages get on Servitor killing duty, and kill 6 between them with spells or melee.

Axis feats and the Prime Axiom trivially kills the Hydra. The TEP sprays off 5 of the 6 Battle Mages and the second heavy on the left does around half boxes to Helios. A Servitor runs to the right flag to score but in order to feel safer from Rahn’s assassination Axis killboxes himself, making the score 2-1 to me.

With a surprise scenario lead I look to that as my win condition for the game. Helios and the Magister clear out the left flag to allow me to score there, and the Phoenix becomes the next model to be thrown into the Prime Axiom, however it rolls really poorly and does very little damage. My Battle Mage kills another Servitor and moves into range to contest the right flag. 3-1 to me.

Stuart continues to get ahead on the attrition game, killing the Phoenix, finishing off the Battle Mages and moving the light jack and 2 Servitors over to contest the flag. He scores the right to make it 3-2 to me.

Discordia is within TK and charge range of Stuart’s objective, so I see a way to finish the game this turn. Rahn feats to TK the Convergence light away and Discordia forwards, Helios and the Magister push away or kill the contesting Servitors, and Discordia charges and destroys the objective. I go to 5CP.

VICTORY

Despite winning this game I didn’t feel that I did very many Rahn things. TK is obviously a great spell but until the last turn I was only every using it as a threat extender. Polarity Shield is a great defensive spell on Helios and I do like the feel of the list. I want to try out the Arcanist unit with him but I can’t wait for more games to learn his toolbox.

Game 44: Helynna vs Ossyan

Game 44 – Vs Allan Gibb – Retribution – 17/06/17

My list:

Magister Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Hyperion

-Hydra

-Chimera

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Magister

His List:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Hydra

-Hydra

-Hypos

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

There was a lot of Retribution at this event, so running into the mirror twice in a row wasn’t really that much of a surprise. Allan’s lists were Ossyan and Helynna, with the latter being almost identical to mine. He dropped Ossyan and I went for Helynna in light of how close the last game had felt. Allan won first turn (the +1 to go first is really annoying when your opponent has it) and we got going.

Ossyan put Quicken on one unit of Strike Force, Shatterstorm on the other, Refuge on himself and charged forwards. The rest of his forces ran with the Arcanists putting focus on the Hydras ready for next turn.

Helynna activated, feated immediately and cast Deceleration before Arcing Hand of Destruction onto the right Mage Hunters. Hyperion advanced to get Narn within 10 and shot the cannon at it. The scatter clipped him and a Mage Hunter, with blast damage killing both. Everything else ran up the table, and used Rhythm of War moves to engage the front line of Mage Hunters.

Ossyan feat turn, I brace myself. Between the Mage Hunters that die trying to disengage, Shield Guards spreading the damage around, and some bad dice rolls by Allan the feat turn isn’t too devastating. The Manticore on the right goes down, and the one on the left is dead by most accounts with only a few boxes and no useful systems left, but on the whole I survive it pretty well.

In my turn I can choose either to attrition away or go for the kill. Ossyan is stood only 8 inches or so in front of my central Manticore and Hydra, but with Admonition would be able to move away and deny me a charge. I fuel the jacks up, knowing that whichever way the turn went they would need to do some work. The Chimera activates first, running into Ossyan’s back arc, and Helynna arcs a Force Strike through him, having been powered up by Arcane Secrets. I boost the hit, get the Critical Knock-Down and Allan shakes my hand, the writing being thoroughly on the wall.

VICTORY

I think that even had I not managed to knock Ossyan down and kill him I would still have been in a strong position. Hyperion and the other jacks would have killed a lot of his army and got to a point where the colossal could bully the table. That being said I was glad for the opportunity to end the game quickly.

What followed was a waiting game to see whether I had qualified for the top8 event the next day. Unfortunately when the smoke cleared I had narrowly missed out, and would be playing in the second tier steamroller the next day. The good news was that this meant I could change my lists, so I could go in and try out some different ideas.

Game 43: Kaelyssa vs Ossyan

Game 43 – Vs Paul Sheald – Retribution of Scyrah – 17/06/17

My list:

Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper

-Helios

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

His List:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Hypnos

-Banshee

-Hydra

-Aspis

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Game 2 of the Steamroller and I am predictably drawn against my most regular opponent Paul. He had forgotten to bring his AFG so wasn’t confident in his Kaelyssa list, so I was fairly sure he would bring Ossyan. I can’t remember my decision process to drop Kaelyssa but I did so anyway, I suspect I just wanted a change after the last game. Paul wins first turn and I pick the side less affected by the awful forests on the table.

Paul runs up, with Quicken on Hypnos and Admonition on the Banshee. The Mage Hunters spread out with Narn in an aggressive position behind the wall in the centre. Unlike last game the Mage Hunters stay out of max engagement range of my models.

Narn is within aim range of Kaelyssa so she Phantom Hunters and Refuges herself, and shoots him off the table, before repositioning behind the building. The AFG advances and fires an AOE at Eiryss, clipping her and doing 4 damage. The rest of my forces run up, under Kaelyssa’s feat and both Sentinel mini-feats.

With all my feats up Paul opts not to feat and instead backs off and takes some pot-shots into Helios, hitting first with Hypnos to reduce my defence, and then dealing some decent damage with the Mage Hunters. On the right the Hunters hide behind and within the forest ready for a feat next turn.

Unfortunately for Paul he had left Hypnos within 10” of Helios, so I decided that taking it was the best way to get up. The AFG knocked it down, and Helios charged in with Concentrated Power wrecking the jack in 3 attacks, Flame Burst setting 3 Mage Hunters of fire. Elsewhere my Sentinels ran to engage as best they could and I prepared to take the shooting.

Paul uses his feat and shoots off the Helios, with some shots spare to put into Sentinels, killing a handful of the right unit, but wisely leaving the left untouched.

My Sentinels close in on the flanks, the left unit killing most of the left Mage Hunters, whilst the right unit destroys the objective and puts some damage into the Hydra. Kaelyssa moves up, shoots and Refuges to the right flag to start scoring Control Points. I go 2-0 up.

During Paul’s turn I remember how quickly unsupported Sentinels die. Between the Hydra and Banshee most of the central ones perish, and the Aspis with Concentrated Power accounts for 3 or 4 more on the left. On the right the Mage Hunters take some more out with Combined Melee Attacks. Nothing contests the flag though so I take a 3-0 lead.

My options to win this turn are to either kill Ossyan or kill the Hydra and control the zone. I can get 4 Sentinel attacks on Ossyan or 2 Sentinels, 2 AFG shots and Kaelyssa’s gun onto the Hydra. I decide to take the Vengeance attacks on Ossyan and see how I get on. One hit and the damage spikes high so I decide to go for the kill. One of the other Sentinel attacks hits and Ossyan goes down.

  

VICTORY

A much closer game than I thought it was going to be early on. I got ahead pretty well but the feat turn was devastating enough to bring it right back. Through scenario pressure I was able to pressurise a victory but it was no sure thing at all. A great fun game and 5CPs should it come down to that on tie-breakers. Onwards into round 3.

Game 42: Helynna vs Vlad1

Game 42 – Vs Marc Williams – Khador – 17/06/17

My list:

Magister Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Hyperion

-Hydra

-Chimera

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Magister

His List:

Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince (Winterguard Kommand)

-Juggernaut

-Juggernaut

-Kodiak

-Marauder

-Marauder

Kovnik Joe

Min Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

Min Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

Min Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

Mortar Crew

Field Gun

This is the first game of a 2 day event at Element Games in Stockport. The event had an unusual (for the UK at least) set up in that day 1 would be a 3 round Steamroller. The top 8 would qualify for the finals on day 2 and the rest would be arranged into 8 man Steamroller pods. Due to their only being around 30 attendees, this meant that a number of 2-1 players would get through to the Sunday finals, and the first tie-break for this was to be Strength of Schedule (something that feels inappropriate in a 3 round event but there you go)

My first round matched me up against Marc Williams and his Khador. He was running Vlad1 and Zerkova1 and experience told me which would be dropped into me. I chose Helynna, he dropped Vlad and we got started, with Marc winning the roll and choosing to go first.

Marc ran up with all his troops, spreading them out between the 2 huge forests that dominated the centre of the table, with Vlad using Blood of Kings to get into an aggressive position behind a wall.

I ran up with everything under Deceleration and then used Rhythm of War to reposition out of most threats and behind a forest. Hyperion was in range of 2 jacks if they used Vlad’s feat and Boundless Charge.

Unfortunately between some rocket shots and charges from both jacks Hyperion did go down (the maths put it slightly in Marc’s favour, but not by much). The rest of Marc’s turn is repositioning, moving jacks onto flags and jamming me with a Marauder.

Whilst in a bad position I do not feel that I am out of the game. I need to kill a 2 or 3 heavies this turn and then feat in order to take the shooting as well as possible. Losing on scenario is a big risk but I should be able to hold him off long enough to get into contesting ranges. I start by activating Helynna to move the Juggernaut into range of the right Manticore, and then activate an arcanist, forgetting to both Feat and cast Deceleration. This effectively ends the game and I go on tilt super hard. My jacks are able to remove two jacks and put a big hole in another, but bad dice means I am unable to get to the centre Juggernaut and the flag. At the end of my turn I run the Chimera away from the flag, essentially conceding the game.

Marc did what he had to do, moving models to the flags and killing my models where he could to score VPs for tie-breaks; ending his turn and willing 5-0 on scenario

DEFEAT

No by any means my proudest performance on a Warmachine table. I don’t think I’ve tilted that hard in a very long time and I must apologise to my opponent for that. I do think I was still in the game after losing Hyperion, but not feating or casting Deceleration ended the game. At least there was still plenty to play for in the event, and Marc was a strong player in terms of my Strength of Schedule, so there was still a decent chance of making the top8 for Sunday.

Game 41: Helynna vs Ossyan

Game 41 – Vs Paul Sheard – Retribution – 14/06/17

My list:

Magister Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Hyperion

-Hydra

-Chimera

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Magister

His List:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Aspis

-Hydra

-Hypnos

-Banshee

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

With a 2 day steamroller event coming up at the weekend I wanted one more practice game with Helynna to get a proper feel for the list. Paul was also playing the event and wanted to try out his Ossyan list so we got going. Paul won 1^st turn thanks to his +1 to go first.

Paul is using a couple of proxy models/units in this game. The Invictors are actually a second unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force and the Mage Hunter Assassin is actually Narn. Regardless, it all runs up with Quicken on the Banshee and Admonition on Hypnos

Having played games with the Shadows theme myself I really shouldn’t have been surprised how quickly it can get up the table but I still was. Paul had probably advanced slightly too far however as some of his Strike Force were within run + Rhythm range of Helynna. Helynna kept outside of Narn’s threat range and feated, and I engaged as best I could, whilst keeping a shield guard up near my caster to protect against the Eiryss shot.

Unfortunately the picture I took at the end of this turn corrupted, so the next 2 turns may be slightly tricky to follow (for writer as well as reader). In essence Paul feated and shot the world into my battlegroup, after disengaging from the Mage Hunters. He rolled pretty poorly on the whole and by the end of the turn only 2 heavies were dead, with a 3^rd Disrupted and Shadow Bound.

As a part of Paul’s turn he had clumped up his right Mage Hunters pretty tightly, and the central one was within 10” of Hyperion. I walked up, boosted the main gun, and Critical Consumed all but 2 of the unit. The small guns removed the last 2. This cleared the zone for Helynna to dominate and start scoring points. On the left a Manticore got into Hypnos dealing good damage but not destroying it. The Rhythm moves built a fort around Helynna and I scored to go 2-0 up.

With the scenario game looking to be slipping away from him Paul looks for an assassination victory. I had foolishly forgotten about Quicken which would allow the Hydra on the right to get to Helynna. Paul had to do work in order to get it done though, and played his turn in the exact right order to get it done. I didn’t have enough Shield Guards around to protect from both the slam on the Chimera and the Shadow Bind shot from Hypnos. The latter comes off and hits Helynna, reducing her defence to a point where the Hydra could kill her comfortably.

DEFEAT

No entirely disassitfied with my game on this occasion. Despite losing I felt that I had managed to wrestle control of the game and if I had built Fort Helynna just a bit further back I think I would have been able to grind out the 5CPs. Either way I was happy enough with the list to feel confident taking it at the weekend.

Game 40: Helynna vs Vlad3 (CID)

Game 40 – Vs Richard Beech – Khador – 07/06/17

CID – 2017 Steamroller Pack used

My list:

Magister Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Hyperion

-Hydra

-Chimera

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Magister

His List:

Vladimir Tzepexci, Great Prince of Umbrey

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Kodiak

-Ruin

Great Bears of the Gallowswood

Max Iron Fang Pikemen

-Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Iron Fang Uhlans

Max Winter Guard Infantry

-Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard Bearer

-Winter Guard Rocketeer

-Winter Guard Rocketeer

-Winter Guard Rocketeer

Second practice game with the new Helynna list saw me play Richard Beech giving the much maligned Vlad3 a run out. I felt that the covering fires would give me a good chance in the matchup as the Pikemen couldn’t risk charging through it, and I should be able to use my shooting to deal with the Uhlans and heavy jacks. Richard won first turn and we got moving.

Richard ran up with Infernal Machine on Ruin, Hand of Fate on the Uhlans and Blur cast to get his models further up the table. His infantry all runs up and ends the turn much further up the table than I feel comfortable with.

I was desperate not to have to use my feat this turn so I advanced up fairly cautiously, with 2 Covering Fires in front of the Infantry, and one in front of the Pikemen. A Hand of Destruction boosted Hyperion shot drifted perfectly and killed off 3 of the Pikemen.

Richard isn’t certain how to proceed and knows he can’t just hang back so Minifeats wit the Pikemen and runs them into my lines. The rest of his forces take up offensive positions and he prepares to hopefully start scoring next turn.

I am able to clear the jam and kill off a significant amount of the models on the left flank. Helynna advances, casts Hand of Destruction on the Kodiak ready for a later turn, pushes it out of the zone with her gun and feats, ready to take the alpha from the Khador forces. We both score the rectangular zones for 1-1

Three Uhlans charge and wreck the Manticore in the central zone despite my feat being up (dice happen…), and the Kodiak moves up, does minimal damage to the Manticore by the building, but throws it into the Hydra, knocking both down. 2 Great Bears charge the left Manticore and again to little damage. Richard scores the central and right zones to lead 3-1

I feel like I am in a very weak position. With Richard starting to score on scenario I feel that the game will get out of hand very quickly. I could kill most of the Uhlans and Kodiak this turn but Helynna will have to be so careful to avoid a Vlad Feat assassination. I plot out an assassination run (using far more tokens than SR2017 allows, this is going to take some getting used to) but the number of moving parts makes it difficult. The only way to make it work involves landing an Arcane Secrets boosted Hand of Destruction needing an 8. This fails and a minute or so of looking at the table I concede.

DEFEAT

Too many mistakes made in this one, and you can’t afford to do that against a player like Rich. Losing first turn was a big deal but I have to be able to plan for that. Hyperion should have been front and centre, not on a flank, as Rich would have been unable to kill it on my feat turn. I should also have feated bottom of 1 and got further into the zone. This would have stopped Rich scoring early points as easily and have put a different slant on the attrition game. I was probably too stuck in the Pacific Rim mindset where it is all about picking out an early target so that you don’t have to feat, so I need to get better at recognising the situations like this where I just need the armour bonus to get into position. I do like the list though, and plan to test the pair further.