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.