Game 299: Issyria vs Gearhart

Game 299 – Vs Patrick Dunford – Crucible Guard – 02/02/19

My list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (Legions of Dawn)

-Imperatus

-Phoenix

Dawnguard Trident

Dawnguard Trident

House Shyeel Artificer

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Min Dawnguard Destors

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart (Magnum Opus)

-Mr. Clogg

-Retaliator

-Retaliator

-Toro

-Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Hutchuk, Orgun Bounty Hunter

Trancer

Trancer

Trancer

Trancer

Max Crucible Guard Infantry

-Crucible Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

Min Crucible Guard Rocketmen

-Crucible guard Rocketman Captain

-Rocketman Gunner

Dragon’s Breath Rocket

Dragon’s Breath Rocket

This weekend was the UK Invitationals, held in York as a fundraiser for the English and Welsh WTC teams. A five round event with 30 players, guaranteed to be hard games against top opponents. I could go into my pair, but I played this Issyria list all five rounds. First up was Patrick Dunford, who you might have heard of, playing a Crucible Guard pair of Mackay and Baldwin. With him choosing the latter, and me winning first turn, we got moving.

Admonition onto the Phoenix, Inviolable Resolve onto the Sentinels, and everything runs up the table.

Gearhart puts up Snipe on himself and shoots into the Phoenix, dealing slightly more than his Forcefield. He then swaps Snipe onto the Infantry, and everything runs up the table.

I decide to make a Blinding Light play into the Infantry, as they are by far the greatest shooting threat into my list. This allows me to push up fairly aggressively in the centre. Both Tridents move up and take some shots, with the left taking out one of the Shocktroopers with a spiked damage roll.

Pat Shadowbinds my Phoenix (to prevent Admonition) and my right Phoenix, before making a start at shooting into my forces. He takes out 6 Sentinels with his guns and removes my Phoenix with the Toro. Nobody scores, so we start at 0-0.

Feat turn from Issyria, and I need to get a good chunk of attrition done if I want to be in this game. The Sentinels take out the Toro, allowing Imperatus to charge through and remove a Retaliator, Gorman and Alyce (who was in a position where she couldn’t transform). I shoot with both Tridents, and get reasonable, if unspectacular, work done. Again, nobody scores.

Patrick Feats with Gearhart, with the Prey being put onto Imperatus, who is additionally Shadowbound and knocked down. Again, Pat Shadowbinds my right Trident (he does this for the remainder of the game, I won’t mention it again). Imperatus goes down and Prey is switched onto the Sentinels. The unit is finished off pretty quickly, but Pat can’t get to the Soulless, stopping the Feat from passing on. My remaining Destors die and nobody scores.

I don’t have too much left at this point, but I do have both Tridents in play. My right one can’t move so just shoots off a few more Rocketmen, whilst the left charges up to clear the left zone. My mistake here is to not then reposition the Trident further in towards the objective. Doing so would have given me more options following the inevitable Shadowbinding. I score to lead 1-0.

Pat kills everything in the central zone and takes out the objective. The Tridents are both Shadowbound for the rest of time. 1-1

My left Trident clears the left zone again and Issyria runs in to score it. 2-1

Pat continues to push in the centre, moving his caster into the zone to start scoring. There is a relatively small area between my Trident threats, so he packs it full of guys, leaving a few models to contest. 2-2

I clear the left zone again and cast Blinding Light on the remaining Infantry. I no longer have anything to contest the central zone, so the score moves to 3-3

On Pat’s turn 6 he runs and charges his remaining Infantry into the left zone, failing to hit Issyria but removing my opportunity to score. From here, Pat scores the central zone on his 6, my 7, and his 7 to win 6-3.

DEFEAT

This was a really great game, and I’m very pleased with how I played against such a strong opponent. A couple of mistakes on positioning with the Tridents meant they got trapped in suboptimal positions. Had I been a bit less cautious with them and repositioned forwards the turn before each got stuck, my late game shooting would have been far harder for Pat to avoid. A really useful learning game into what is still a fairly new faction and on to round 2.