Game 96: Rahn vs Magnus2

Game 96 – Vs Mark Ellis – Mercenaries – 20/09/17

My list:

Adeptis Rahn (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Chimera

-Phoenix

-Aspis

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

-Hydra

House Shyeel Magister

House Shyeel Battle Mages

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Magnus the Warlord

-Gallant

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Renegade

Anastacia di Bray

Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Harlan Versh, Illuminated One

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

Dannon Blythe & Bull

First game after the UK Nationals and I’m feeling in a bit of an odd spot. I have no big events on the horizon, and we’re stuck in a tricky spot of knowing that the new themes are coming, but with no idea what there are, which makes list teching an awkward task. So I decided to wheel out the caster that I had only played the once, but that definitely wants to be in one of the existing themes. Enter Rahn. Mark was in a similar position to me and wanted to try out a high armour Magnus2 list. He won first turn and we got moving.

No surprises here, as Mark runs up his forces. Escort is cast on Magnus and Bullet Dodger on to Gallant, making it a DEF17 model that I can’t attack with spells. His jacks spread out around the central forest, 3 Nomads to the left and 2 and Gallant to the right (here I am…) with the Arc Node flanking on the right. Versh can be a real issue to my Battle Mages and so keeps protected behind his forces.

I had started the game with Polarity Shield on the Phoenix, intending to get pretty aggressive with it. It runs up the left flank, keeping out of the 9” Advance and Reach range of the Nomads. Manticores move up and place Covering Fire templates, whilst the Hydra is filled up by Arcanists, and TK’d so that it could Advance up and shoot a Nomad. I only do 1 damage before the other Arcanist unit top him up with Focus. On the right flank I keep my Chimera as safe as possible, in a trench under Force Barrier waiting for an opportunity next turn.

I had thrown up a sacrificial Aspis and Mark moves up a Nomad to attack it, but misses 2 attacks and only scratches the paint. The rest of his turn is planning the best possible landing spot for Magnus’ feat, and running up his other forces. His Feat catches most of my forces, apart from some of the support at the back, the Phoenix on the left flank and my Artificer, declaring that I cannot move towards either of our board edges. In the picture below, Magnus is directly behind Gallant. Hiding like a big coward.

But he didn’t hide enough. The Chimera on the right was within the feat, but could Apparition out of the feat and still activate freely. This allowed it to run into the ideal position for Rahn to TK him to the side of Gallant and turn him around. A Magno Bolt onto Magnus from the Artificer pushed Gallant an inch away, opening up the pull routes for the Battle Mages. 4 pushes and a bit of damage later Magnus was out of Escort range and was promptly shot to death with my Jacks.

VICTORY

My first ever Rahn assassination run and it did feel good. Not an ideal situation given Magnus’ feat and the Spell Warded Gallant in the way, but I took my time and found the solution. I like this list a lot as the 4 heavies have such a good threat. I am considering mixing up the heavies a bit using the points from dropping the Aspis, but the basics of the list feel pretty good.