Game 15: Garryth vs Rhyas

Game 15 – Vs Paul Cooper – Legion of Everblight – 23/04/17

My list:

Garryth, Blade of Retribution

-Sylys

-Helios

Arkantrik Force Generator

Dahlia & Skarath

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Lanyssa Ryssyl

Lys Healer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer and Standard

His List:

Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight

-Succubus

-Proteus

-Scythean

-Seraph

-Naga Nightlurker

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

Fyanna the Lash

Forsaken

Forsaken

Max Blighted Nyss Swordsmen

-Abbot & Champion

The final game of the Steamroller saw me face against Legion again, with Paul choosing to drop Rhyas without her sister. Again this is a Warlock I have no experience with but know that her feat can get models into crazy places, especially with Colossals on the table. Thankfully I wanted to get some more practice in with Garryth so only had 2, rather than 3, huge bases for her to abuse. I won first turn for the first time in the event.

I ran up with the usual combination of Mirage on the Sentinels and Sentry on the AFG. The Sentinels hold way back due to the presence of the 2 Deathstalkers, with the hope that the AFG can deal with them before they become an issue.

Paul aggressively runs up, spreading the Swordsmen out in order to mitigate the AFG’s blasts, but leaves Rhyas slightly to the side of the cloud that his Fuel Cache had put out.

I forgot to take a picture at this point due to the excitement of seeing an assassination opportunity. Not wanting to commit too soon I first fired the 3 AFG shots into the Swordsmen to see if I could thin them out. When only 1 died it became obvious that assassination was my only way out. I knew I could get Garryth within 12 of Rhyas to feat (meaning she couldn’t transfer damage) and put 2 fully boosted pistol shots into her, and Skarath could advance up 6 to get her within the 10 inch spray. This essentially meant that if I could hit 2 out of 3 boosted 10s the damage would almost definitely be there to kill her. Garryth’s first shot missed but the second spiked on damage to leave her on around 6 boxes, Skarath moved up and sprayed, getting the 10 to hit and killing Rhyas.

VICTORY

So often at the end of a 4 game day you just want to find a way to end the game quickly and I was really struggling to see what my path to victory was if the game went any distance. It would have been interesting to play it out but I think the Sentinels would have died quickly and left me with far too few attacks. Proteus with Rhyas seems a great combo to me too.

I finished the Steamroller at 2-2 which was my aim going in, and I am definitely leaning towards using this pair at the Welsh, partly as I’m running out of painting time. Still not certain that the Lys Healer is required but I know that as soon as I remove her I’ll get Garryth knocked down and killed so she’ll stay for a while at least. A fun day of games against a great variety of opponents.

Game 14: Garryth vs Makeda1

Game 14 – Vs Konrad Krolicki – Skorne – 23/04/17

My list:

Garryth, Blade of Retribution

-Sylys

-Helios

Arkantrik Force Generator

Dahlia & Skarath

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Lanyssa Ryssyl

Lys Healer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer and Standard

His List:

Archdomina Makeda

-Basilisk Krea

-Molik Karn

-Titan Gladiator

-Scarab Pack

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Tyrant Rhadeim

Orin Midwinter

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Max Praetorian Ferox

Min Paingiver Beast Handlers

Legends of Halaak

Game 3 of the Steamroller saw me finally face off against Skorne in Mark 3. I have very little understanding of what they do and know that Konrad is a good player with them, having won a steamroller himself a couple of weeks before. I had basically pre-decided to use Garryth in this round regardless of match-up and the fact that 2 of his 3 lists had Ferox made me think that Helynna wouldn’t be a great answer.

Konrad took the first turn and ran, with Quicken going onto the Ferox to further increase their threat range. Much of his force gathers around the Krea and Makeda to make use of the Krea’s animus. I run everything, but only advance with the AFG to put out some difficult terrain. Two Sentinels are thrown forward as a sacrifice in order to attempt to trigger Vengeance.

A fairly uneventful turn from Konrad sees a sole Ferox sent out to kill the 2 Sentinels, but fails to break armour on either. The rest of his force just shuffles around waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

I start to try and get some work done but the proliferation of Shield Guards just mean that nothing much happens. The two Sentinels that Konrad failed to kill Apparition beyone it to charge 2 others, with the rest of the unit charging the forward one; but a missed attack and a Tough means that the one he sent in was the only one to die. The AFG lays down a decent blanket of rough terrain and Garryth moves up to try to threaten.

Anyone who knows anything about Skorne (I do not count myself amongst their number) knows that Garryth is far too close. One sidestep from Molik is all that is needed and with Carnage he only needs 8s to hit and trivially kills Garryth.

DEFEAT

A frustrating loss as the game didn’t really go long enough for me to learn anything of significance other than “Molik Karn can charge a billion miles”, which I suppose is still a useful lesson to have reinforced. Thankfully the quick game gave me plenty of time to get my head together an prepare for the final game of the day.

Game 13: Helynna vs Twins

Game 13 – Vs Paul North – Legion of Everblight – 23/04/17

My list:

Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys

-Helios

-Helios

-Hyperion

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

His List:

Saeryn & Rhyas, Talons of Everblight

-Blightbringer

-Seraph

-Nephilim Protector

-Naga Nightlurker

Annyssa Ryvaal

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Spell Martyr

Max Blighted Nyss Raptors

Game 2 of the steamroller saw me paired against Paul North, England WTC captain, using Legion. The tournament was a 2 or 3 list event so he had a few options, but as I knew that I didn’t know Garryth well enough to play into a top opponent I was always going to use Helynna. Paul dropped the Twins and gave me first turn. I had never played against the twins before due to their being a terrible Cygnar drop, so whilst I knew some of the tricks they had I didn’t know how they worked in practice. If nothing else this would be an excellent learning experience.

I kept my Colossals close together and ran up under Deflection, and he responded by advancing behind his clouds and flanking hard with the Raptors. They were going to be a problem but with Occultation on them there wasn’t a great deal I could do about it.

With nothing in range to do particular damage to I just advanced up and took board position. The Hyperion shot its gun into the Blightbringer and took out its Spirit with a dice spike.

In Paul’s turn the Blightbringer moves up to put down the strength aura, and Rhyas charges into the Hyperion, doing decent damage and being in an extremely threatening position. The Raptors flank so hard that they are out of the next picture, and the Nephilim Protector moves up to provide Rhyas Guard Dog.

Rhyas’ position, along with the inclusion of Killbox in the scenario put me in an extremely difficult position. With as few models as I had I just didn’t know where I could put my caster to be safe. Without a decent plan I decided to just get up on attrition and hope that his assassination would fail. This wasn’t helped by my then forgetting to Feat, but things were looking rough even if I had. The left Helios killed Annyssa and the Spell Martyr, scoring a point on the left flag, whilst the right Helios killed the Blightbringer with help from Hand of Destruction. Hyperion puts his attacks into Rhyas (once the Helios had moved the Guard Dog away) and some damage was transferred onto the Naga.

Rhyas charged over the Hyperion, Saeryn channelled Marked for Death into Helynna, followed by a Razor Wind, and Rhyas’ melee attacks killed her comfortably, and with enough left in the tank that my forgetting to feat was not relevant.

DEFEAT

Not my best performance against a top player but games like this are how we get better. Reversing back up to my last turn we discussed afterwards some of the things that I could have done differently. The right play would probably have been to kill the Blightbringer on the right as I did, moving the Guard Dog away in the process. Hyperion should then have performed a Head Butt or Two Handed Throw Power Attack on Rhyas (needing a 10 to hit so by no means guaranteed) before using the left Helios to move her either out of threat range, or into melee with it and out of 10 inches of beasts to transfer to. This wouldn’t necessarily have won me the game, as the Raptors were still a huge problem, but it would certainly have prolonged the match.

At least I was into the “fun bracket” where I vowed to play Garryth at least a bit

Game 12: Helynna vs Karchev

Game 12 – Vs Alan Bullard – Khador – 23/04/17

My list:

Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys

-Helios

-Helios

-Hyperion

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

His List:

Karchev the Terrible (Winterguard Kommand)

-Juggernaut

-Juggernaut

-Marauder

-Marauder

-Marauder

-Marauder

-Marauder

Max Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

Kovnik Joe

Winterguard Field Gun

This weekend I played in a Steamroller in my local club in Stockport. We had a great turnout of 32 people so were split into 2 16 player fields, and it was the sharkiest of shark tanks, with several current, lapsed or hopeful WTC players so I knew I would have a great chance to learn things about my prospective Welsh Masters lists.

My first game put me up against a Khador player and as soon as we looked at each other’s lists we knew that the matchup was going to be Helynna against Karchev. On the face of it 5 Marauders may seem bad for 3 huge bases but with their very linear threat ranges and lack of any models to trigger Road to War. The scenario was The Pit and as a result despite winning the dice roll Alan put me in to go first, allowing him to score his own flag defensively first.

I ran my force up as I didn’t need to cast any spells; I had finished my first turn with 59:00 left on the clock, which was a great feeling. Karchev casts Battle Charged and ran up in response. With only about 5 minutes on our combined clocks the battle was starting before the tables nearby had finished deploying.

My objective this turn is simple. Pick 2 Khador heavies, drag them in and destroy them. Hyperion started the turn by critically hitting a Marauder, removing the Field Gun from play. The left Helios pulled in the nearest Marauder and destroyed it. The right Helios pulled in a Juggernaut and similarly removed it from the table, with a focus remaining to put up Distortion Field to make the Rifle’s shooting more difficult. With no Khador jacks in range there is no need to feat so I wait to see how Karchev responds.

With nothing in range but me not contesting his flag Alan starts a scenario play, running 3 jacks right into my face, with the next wave ready to come and deal damage afterwards. The Winterguard shoot into the right Helios but only deal 1 point of damage after the force field is removed. Karchev moves to 1-0.

Alan has given me 2 jacks centrally so the Helios on the left and Hyperion remove those, with the Helios also pushing the leftmost Marauder out of Karchev’s control area, reducing his potential impact next turn. Helynna put Hand of Destruction on the Marauder on the right and feats to prepare for Karchev’s counterpunch. The Helios charges the Hand of Destruction Marauder, getting within 4 inches of the flag, and destroys the jack. Khador remains 1-0 up.

Karchev’s feat turn. I thought that my feat would do a good job at negating it but it was still incredibly painful. The Marauder and Juggernaut in the centre wreck Hyperion whilst Karchev himself does about half of the boxes to Helios, although it doesn’t take out any systems and Karchev ends the turn on no camp.

With a fully operation colossal next to a caster with no focus the game should be over right… No. I fuel up the Helios and land a Hand of Destruction on Karchev, before moving up with Helios and starting attacks. One of the 5 swings misses and all told Karchev is left on 6 boxes, with his main weapon still intact. In order to scramble a defence the other Helios pushes the left Marauder even further away before punching the Marauder in the zone to death. The Artificer runs up to block the Juggernaut’s route to Helynna.

Karchev attacks the Helios leaving it on a handful of boxes and again sitting on no focus. The Juggernaut kills the Artificer and puts decent damage into the left Helios. The sad left Marauder wanders back towards the battle. Joe gives the Winterguard Bear Strength and one charging trooper finishes off the Helios. A new Kovnik is born! Karchev score

I try and work out a way to stop Karchev winning on scenario and eventually look down at Helynna’s card to see Obliteration. Dice-4 needing to do 6 damage with Arcane Secrets and Hand of Destruction. I roll enough damage and Karchev is killed.

VICTORY

This was an incredibly good fun game played in a great relaxed way. Paul was an excellent opponent and neither of us had any idea which way the game was going until I realised the Obliteration assassination. I feel that this is the game where I finally convinced myself that I am playing this list right, and that with a few more games under my belt I will be ready to take it to the Welsh Open, which is a good position to be in with 3 weeks to go.

Game 11: Garryth vs Kaya2

Game 11 – Vs Paul Sheard – Circle Orboros – 15/04/17

My list:

Garryth, Blade of Retribution

-Sylys

-Helios

Arkantrik Force Generator

Dahlia & Skarath

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Lanyssa Ryssyl

Lys Healer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer and Standard

His List:

Kaya the Moonhunter

-Laris

-Druid Wilder

-Feral Warpwolf

-Ghetorix

-Warpwolf Stalker

-Wild Argus

-Rip Horn Satyr

Blackclad Wayfarer

Gallows Grove

Sentry Stone & Mannekins

Shifting Stones

-Stone Keeper

My first game with the Retribution forum flavour of the month sees me up against Paul, a Retribution player himself who is making the switch over to Circle. As a side note, in my first 11 games with Retribution I have now played 10 different factions. The only change I made to the accepted Garryth wisdom was droppin the 3^rd Mechanik and the Soulless Escort for a Lys Healer, with the thought that it saves Garryth needing Heightened Reflexes on himself, or allows him to cast it on the Sentinels.

I won the first turn and ran my models up. Sentry was cast on the AFG and Mirage on the Sentinels. Paul responded by running his forces up and attempting a couple of Mannekin sprays on Skarath, but none of them did any damage.

My turn 2 was fairly uneventful with the huge amount of Stealth in the Circle force making it hard for me to damage anything. The AFG put a load of difficult terrain on the table and Lanyssa moved to within command of the Feral with Winter Storm up to deny it Pathfinder. Skarath sprays off the 3 Mannekins and Garryth shoots a stone like a badass.

Kaya’s feat turn strikes and is pretty devastating. The Stalker charges in assisted by Dogpile and Hunter’s Mark and killed around 6 Sentinels before teleporting back. I had misplaced Lanyssa by about 1/8^th of an inch so she met a similar fate by the hand of the Feral. A spawned Mannekin contests the left flag and sprays another Sentinel, and the Gallows Grove moves up to score on the right flag. 1-0 Circle

Despite being 1-0 down on scenario I realise that I can score 2 points this turn fairly safely and start to put pressure on Paul. His feat has probably moved his beasts too far back and as such I have a turn of relative safety. The Sentry shot kills the Gallows Grove and the Vengeance and Apparition moves put the Sentinels in position to charge. I have never played a list where there is so much to do in the Maintenance and Control phases. Skarath clears out the Mannekin, Helios charges and kills the Sentry Stone, pulls in the Argus and puts some damage on it, while on the right flank the AFG runs to the flag. In the centre the Sentinels kill the Wayfarer and generally just get in the way. 2-1 Retribution

Primaled, Forced Evolutioned Ghetorix hits pretty hard, and leaves the Helios on about 4 boxes. The Argus combostrikes and finishes it off but vitally fails to get within range of the flag. Not being able to charge the AFG is an issue for him so he opts to just run the Feral in to engage. All of my Sentinels give up their lives for a good cause. 3-1 Retribution

With Skarath sat on one flag getting my 4^th point I needed to remove either the Feral or the 2 Stones and Keeper. Either way the Feral needed to be on the ground so my Sentry shot knocked it down and did a few boxes of damage. The AFG could then aim and either put 2 POW 16s into the Wolf leaving Garryth to finish it off, or as I went with, put a shot into the Keeper and one in the stone, killing both. Garryth charged the last stone in contact with the flag and score the 5^th Control Point.

VICTORY

Well I wasn’t expecting scenario to be Garryth’s course to victory but I was pleased with how I switched up to a scenario game after Paul’s feat turn. He could and should have contested the left flag during his turn but I may still have been able to clear the 3 flags. The 3 AFG shots and 2 from Garryth would have gone into the Warpwolf (or even better, Gallows may have pulled it far enough away) and the Stones could have been removed by Skarath but it would have been tricky. I think had he not moved as far back on his feat turn I would have been in real trouble but that comes from experience. In general I really enjoyed Garryth and can’t wait to get more games in with him.

Game 10: Kaelyssa vs Mother

Game 10 – Vs Toby Jennings – Convergence of Cyriss – 11/04/17

My list:

Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper

-Sylys

-Helios

-Banshee

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

House Vyre Electormancers

House Vyre Electromancers

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer and Standard

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Iron Mother Directrix & Exponent Servitors (Destruction Initiative)

-Prime Axiom

-Corollary

-Assimilator

-Assimilator

-Diffuser

-Mitigator

3x Attunement Servitors

9x Elimination Servitors

9x Reflex Servitors

Optifex Directive

Third game with Kaelyssa sees me face Toby with my personally most hated theme list in the game. At least he had the decency not to have the battle engine in the list to spit out 3 more shield guards a turn, but it still shuts down shooting incredibly well. Electromancers clear out the servitors fairly well but it would still be a tough game.

I took the first turn and ran up, with Refuge on Kaelyssa and Blur on the Sentinels to protect them from Groundpounder shots. Toby advanced up behind his wall of dug in Servitors and set me a puzzle to try and unlock.

I did a fairly good job of clearing out the Servitors, but a few mistakes were made that I would hope not to again. Mainly this involved activating the Electromancers too early, whilst they were able to clear out several models, I unnecessarily lost 1 to a countercharge that wouldn’t have been possible had I activated Kaelyssa first and feated. Other than that I threw a Sentinel forward as Vengeance bait and advanced the Helios out of the Prime Axiom’s advance and attack range to threaten next turn.

Toby’s turn is his feat turn and it achieves more than I hoped, but less than he did. His 2 ground pounder shots and some servitor attacks killed all but 5 Sentinels and the light jacks on the right killed off 2 Electromancers. His Prime Axiom backed well off, and I felt at the time that he had really taken it out of the game.

Note: The above pic was taken after vengeance moves, but before the attacks which killed the Servitor.

My aim for this turn was to kill 2 heavies and clear out the rest of the servitors, leaving me in what felt like an insurmountable attrition position. The central Electromancers cleared out several of the Servitors, including those around the right Assimilator with Kaelyssa helping out with her gun to clear stragglers. The Sentinels charged into the left Assimilator, with one making sure to deal with the last Servitor in range of the other. Sadly, out of the 4 attacks on the jack 2 missed, but the 2 that connected did decent damage. The removal of the shield guards allowed the Banshee to knock down the right Assimilator, for Helios to drag it in and destroy it. I felt that I was in a very strong position despite the Sentinels failing. I wasn’t.

I think this is down to relatively few games against Convergence but I had left Toby several assassination opportunities. The first he tried was to dominate the Banshee to slam my Electromancer stood next to Kaelyssa over her, but thankfully this missed, leaving me to think I’d dodged a bullet, but he was then able to use Mother to clear out the Artificer, allowing the knockdown gun jack to hit the Electomancer, knocking down Kaelyssa. The Prime Axiom that I thought had been badly positioned then proved me wrong by walking up and shooting her to death.

DEFEAT

Toby doesn’t play as much as he once did but he really knows his way around his Mother list, and with the release of the theme list he now has the tools to play it very well. I was still pleased with how the list performed but will be putting it down after this game to concentrate on ADR casters for the Welsh Open. I will probably try a different list with her when I return (depending on how much I am able to get painted, my painting time will be split as soon as the Dark Souls board game comes out) but I’m not exactly sure how yet.

My next pairing will be Helynna with the much shared “Scary Garry” list first posted on Ghost Dice, to which I’ve made a slight alteration.

Game 9: Kaelyssa vs Bart

Game 9 – Vs James Hockney – Mercenaries – 05/04/17

My list:

Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper

-Sylys

-Helios

-Banshee

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

House Vyre Electormancers

House Vyre Electromancers

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer and Standard

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Captain Bartolo Montador

-Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker

-Galleon

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Buccaneer

Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile

The Commodore Cannon & Crew

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

After the steamroller I wanted to have a few more games with Kaelyssa to work out what she can do. The last game into a fast Legion force was such a bad matchup that nothing can really be learned from it. James was looking for a game with his Mercenaries do we threw down Bart vs Kaelyssa. I went first, put Blur on the Sentinels and Refuge on Kaelyssa and ran up the board, keeping out of non-drifting threat ranges. James puts Hotshot on the Galleon, casts Batten down the Hatches, and runs back.

On my turn 2 I spot an opportunity to take out one of the Nomads with Helios. Being under Batten means that the tractor beam hits very reliably, and even though I couldn’t live the dream of having the last push move him out of range for the armour buff I was still easily able to destroy it with my 5 attacks. On the other side of the table I advance with the Sentinels, leaving 2 up the table to trigger Vengeance and Kaelyssa feats.

Due to my feat being up James is able to achieve very little in his turn. He kills one of the Sentinels, recasts Batten and Hotshot (Kaelyssa had shot it off the turn before) and passes the turn back to me.

Here is where mistakes are made that probably lead to my eventual downfall in the game. I think that there is an assassination on the table and so base most of my turn around making that work. The plan is based around running an electromancer up to Bart, getting him knocked down due to the feat, and using the Banshee to slam him over Bart. Helios would then drag him in and finish him off. All of this plan went perfectly until James told me that Bart couldn’t be knocked down due to Batten. This left me in a very difficult position and my turn became a scramble to improve my position. I calculated that Galleon wouldn’t be able to 1 round Helios so moved aggressively upwards to threaten next turn whilst the Sentinels flanked hard to wait for an opportunity.

Whilst I was correct that the Galleon couldn’t kill Helios alone, I had left him within range of the Nomad, and so Helios went down. At this point the game felt very bad with me but I know how strong Kaelyssa is in terms of assassination so I started looking for solutions.

With Phantom Hunter ignoring the trench that Bart was sat in I had the opportunity to get some electromancer shots into him if the Banshee could knock him down. As he had not cast Batten this meant that I needed to roll an 11 to hit. I didn’t realise that Phantom Hunter was battlegroup only (this mistake is made next game as well) and so cast the spell on an Electromancer that would be able to get a shot off. The point was moot however as the Banshee missed the shot. Backlash on the left Nomad let the Sentinels put 4 points of damage on Bart but there was no longer an assassination on the table and I simply had to make James’ life as difficult as possible.

The Artificer in the way made the assassination somewhat awkward as it messed with his order of activation but he was able to come up with a route that needed the Galleon to hit a boosted 9 on Kaelyssa. This was successful and she was put in the ground.

DEFEAT

Mistakes were made in this game both in terms of strategy and rules, but I really enjoyed the game and think the list has a lot of strengths. The Electromancers were a constant threat and the Sentinels under Blur and/or her feat can be delivered reliably. I am leaning away from taking her to the Welsh Open as the ADR options are looking very tempting but I will certainly be looking at her again afterwards.

Game 8: Helynna vs Ragnor

Game 8 – Vs Kevin Jones – Trollbloods – 25/03/17

My list:

Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys

-Helios

-Helios

-Hyperion

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

His List:

Ragnor Skysplitter, The Runemaster 

-Runebearer

-Mountain King

-Troll Axer

-Mauler

Fell Caller

Stone-Scribe Chronicler

Feralgeist

Max Fennblades

-Officer + Drummer

Min Krielstone

-Stone-Scribe Elder

The last round put me up against Kev. Kev was a fairly new player and only had the one list, so I decided to drop the colossals list into him and just have a good old fashioned scrum. I will warn you now, this was game 4 of a long day and we were both tired and had played long games the round before. Mistakes were made. If you are looking for a good tactical game then you should move along (my next game was pretty tactical, I’d start there)

I went first and ran. Kev ran back with the +2 strength upkeep on the Mountain King. Tiredness also added to the fact that not many pictures were taken, especially early on. Put simply, Kev made the same mistake that my first 2 opponents did in this tournament, and gave me the opportunity to fish out the Mauler, significantly taking down his damage potential. The terrain in this game made my deployment difficult, with the Hyperion pinned in between objective and building. This didn’t seem like a problem as it would still be able to shoot away, and left the 2 Helii to double team and remove the Mauler; one boosting 3 drag shots, and the other taking it down in melee. In the excitement of this turn, I forgot to feat, leaving my Helios is range of the Mountain King.

Needing Rush in order to make it to my Helios meant that the Mountain King wasn’t quite able to kill me with his 6 attacks, but left me on 8 boxes. The Fennblades stepped up and the 4 that were able to charge put it in the dirt. Being one colossal down and another compromised in its position might have been a problem other than the fact that, out of solidarity, Kev also forgot to feat.

As a result, with Hand of Destruction on the Mountain King my other Helios was able to fairly trivially remove it from the table. I forgot to feat again, but on this occasion it didn’t matter as my opponent realised he couldn’t crack the armour and conceded. I think by this point we were both pretty relieved.

VICTORY

Not a great deal to learn from this game between 2 players whose brains had both turned to some sort of mush. I do feel like the Pacific Rim is fairly strong into Trolls as long as you can get rid of one of the army crackers early, as I was able to with the Mauler here. Kev was great fun to play against and it will be interesting to see how he evolves into the game.

In terms of the event as a whole 2-2 was pretty much what I was expected. I was pleased with how I played the first 2 games despite losing to Richard and do think I’m there about with how to play the Helynna list. The question now is what to pair it with for the Welsh and I’m not convinced by Kaelyssa yet. One of the main issues for me is that with Helynna being in ADR it seems very tempting to play a second ADR caster, which with my not owning Elara2 leaves the options of Thyron and Garryth. Food for thought, but I am really enjoying getting to grips with the faction.