Game 5: Helynna vs Maddox

Game 5 – Vs Jon “Barry” Williams – Cygnar – 25/03/17

My list:

Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys

-Helios

-Helios

-Hyperion

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

His List:

Major Beth Maddox (Storm Division)

-Squire

-Stormclad

-Stormclad

-Defender

Journeyman Warcaster

-Firefly

Captain Arlan Strangeways

Max Storm Lances

Stormblade Infantry

-Officer and Stanard

-Stormgunner

-Stormgunner

-Stormgunner

Game 1 of a 4 game Steamroller event, my first with Retribution. I took the Pacific Rim list and paired it with a Kaelyssa list that I will go into in a couple of games time. Barry was using a double Storm Division pair of Haley2 and Maddox, and as my Kaelyssa lists has double Electromancers there would have been too many points wasted for my liking, so I dropped Helynna, with my opponent dropping Maddox knowing that he would have some serious armour and boxes to chew through.

The scenario is the Pit, a notoriously live scenario. I win the first turn and run up, casting Deceleration out of habit even though nothing of his was realistically going to be in range, he responds by running his models at me, with Dauntless Resolve on the Storm Blades, Arcane Shield on the Storm Lances, Snipe on the Defender and Onslaught on Maddox herself. Oh to be a Purification caster.

Barry has left me an opening here which I intend to exploit to get up in the game. The right Stormclad is within 17 inches of the right Helios, so I power him and the Hyperion up with focus, and put Concentrated Power on the Hyperion. I boost all 3 shots with Helios to make sure the Stormclad is dragged in and whilst Helios misses both his attacks, the Hyperion charges in and wrecks it. The other Helios pushes the other Stormclad back out of Assail and charge range, meaning that I don’t need to feat this turn. The Artificer flanks right hard to contest his flag should he choose to play for scenario. It feels like a very strong start.

I was expecting some damage in return and half expected Barry to feat and charge in, but he opts not to, waiting instead to feat when he could bring the Stromclad and Defender to bear on my colossals. Instead 3 Stormlances and most of the Infantry charge into me, dealing decent damage to all the jacks, but not so much that the feat won’t wipe most of it out. Unfortunately, Barry also killboxes himself this turn, giving me an early 2CP advantage

My next turn is simple, I am up on attrition, so stay that way. So killing Stormlances and Infantry while messing with his counterattack as much as possible. Hand of Destruction makes killing the Lances pretty trivial and Helios and Hyperion just buy attacks into the Infantry. Despite them having minifeated the turn before, Barry really fails on his tough checks and many of them perish.

Feat time for Maddox, and boy did it work out. Again (see previous reports) there was no real reason to not have Repulsor Field up here (I used my last focus to kill one more Stormlance instead). The left Helios is destroyed and Hyperion takes some damage from the Infantry. Vitally, two charging Stormblades fail to kill the Artificer. I look at the game and suddenly feel that it is looking a lot closer than I hoped it would be. This was also my first Retribution game on the clock, and whilst I was ahead on time we were both running low.

The minimum requirements of my turn are to kill the Stormclad and score a point with the Artificer on his flag. Helynna moves away to stay safe, and the plan works, with some additional damage put on the Defender.

With the model count becoming really low and me 3-0 up on scenario, it is a matter of me keeping a colossal alive long enough to score 2 more points. His Defender finished up Hyperion but is dragged in and killed by the Helios. Arlan and the remaining Storm Lance go for a last ditch assassination but it was never really on and is abandoned. My turn 6 reaches this point.

All I need to do to win is get the 3 models in the zone out of it or dead. Helios activates first, pushes the firefly out, the Stormlance towards Helynna and kills the Infantry. Helynna charges into the zone to kill the last Lance and win the game 5-0 on scenario.

VICTORY

This was an incredibly fun game against a great opponent. I think had I not fished out a Stormclad early on I would have been in a bad place attrition wise throughout the game. He could possibly have stopped it or at least forced me to feat on the same turn but we couldn’t think of a simple answer. Playing the list is starting to feel more comfortable and I will eventually learn to be less greedy with the Helii and put up the special abilities even if it means leaving a mode or 2 alive. Onwards to round 2.