Game 64: Issyria vs Vyros2

Game 64 – Vs Adam Bailey – Retribution of Scyrah – 22/07/17

My list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Hyperion

-Chimera

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Spears of Scyrah

-Soulless Escort

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Min Mage Hunter Infiltrators

His List:

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Imperatus

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon (9, for those not counting)

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Arcanists

-Soulless Escort

The final round of the Steamroller saw a final table as mirrory as they come. Vyros2/Issyria vs Vyros2/Issyria, both in Forges/Shadows respectively. In terms of the match up we knew the Issyria mirror would be pretty miserable, but I know that my Vyros list would lose to his due to the Manticores being pretty dead weight. So I had to drop Issyria and he chose Vyros. I won first turn after a reroll and we were off. Strap yourselves in…

I run up. The fact that there is a building not a forest in the middle of the table helps me, and gives me somewhere to place Issyria aggressively later on. For now Inviolable Resolve goes on Hyperion and everything runs into place, with the Mage Hunters focusing on the left side of the building.

Adam pulls his jacks in to create Fort Vyros. Vyros fires a speculative Twister into my lines, scattering onto Narn and killing him. The challenge is set.

Feat turn. Issyria advances and Velocities into the central zone behind the building and casts Crusader’s Call. On the right 2 Spears are able to charge a Griffon but bad dice mean I only really take out the Force Field. The blue Mage Hunters shoot into the Griffons, doing some decent damage through the many Shield Guards and setting up for the orange unit to charge in. Again the dice are cold and only one Griffon is destroyed, with a number of others badly damaged, but it doesn’t feel like enough. The Infiltrators spread out ensuring that there is no Side-Step path to get to Issyria.

Adam’s response hurts, but doesn’t feel like the game is over. The innate high Defence of the Mage Hunters mean he struggles to build the chain easily, and still needs 5s to hit once he is at the +3. As a result only one Griffon is able to break through the first line, killing 3 or so from the back lines. All the zones are contested and nobody scores. I feel like I am down in the game, but not completely out of it.

In goes the next wave. Hyperion and the Infiltrators charge in on the right, killing off 2 more Griffons. On the left the Mage Hunters charge where they can, and continue to grind away, killing another Groffon and leaving the rest looking pretty unhealthy. Issyria moves to the back of the right zone to score, taking a 1-0 lead.

Vyros’ forces go into Hyperion, leaving it on only 2 boxes, one in Movement and one in Cortex. More Mage Hunters die in the left zone but they are still hanging on pretty well. Nobody scores, I retain a 1-0 lead.

Despite having no arms Hyperion manages to connect with a Griffon on his second attack, taking out its movement and allowing me to finish it off with the remaining attacks. The Mage Hunters heroically finish off another Griffon and the Chimera gets involved to add some more damage. An Infiltrator charges the Mechanik he was using to contest my zone and I score again to lead 2-0.

A Griffon finished off Hyperion but Imperatus fails his attacks on the Infiltrator in my zone. More Mage Hunters die, but nobody scores. 2-0 (end of turn 4)

The 3 remaining Mage Hunters kill off the last Griffon on the left, and the Chimera starts killing off some Artificers. I score the left zone but Adam scores the middle, making the score 3-1.

Vyros finishes off the Mage Hunters and Imperatus finally kills the Infiltrator. The last Griffon scores the central zone. 3-2 to me. (end of turn 5)

The Chimera moves to contest both zones and kills off the Soulless. Nobody scores and it remains 3-2.

Imperatus shoots off the last Mechanik, and Vyros kills off the Chimera. The score moves to 3-5 on his turn. (end of turn 6)

And then with nothing to contest, Adam wins 8-3 at the top of turn 7.

DEFEAT

Wow. An amazingly fun final to finish a great day of games. I am surprised at how well the list hung in there after a really poor feat turn, but it really shows the staying power of that much Def14. Congratulations to Adam for winning the event.

All my opponents from the day won the rest of their games, so my Strength of Schedule was comfortably good enough for me to finish 2^nd and complete a Retribution 1^st and 2^nd at the event. I’m not completely happy with my Vyros list (the Mantocores don’t feel right), and have some things I want to try with Issyria, but can’t wait to play around and tweak these 2 lists.

We have another Steamroller in a month at the club, and the Nationals a few weeks after that so there is plenty of buzz about the place.

Game 63: Vyros2 vs Tanith

Game 63 – Vs Paul Sheard – Circle Orboros – 22/07/17

My list:

Vryos, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Imperatus

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Magister

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Tanith the Feral Song

-Warpwolf Stalker

-Pureblood Warpwolf

-Pureblood Warpwolf

-Gorax

Bloodweaver Night Witch

Blackclad Wayfarer

Gallows Grove

Gobber Chef

Max Reeves of Orboros

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Sentry Stone & Mannikins

Sentry Stone & Mannikins

Shifting Stones

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

As is becoming standard I am drawn against Paul in round 3 of a Steamroller, and again I am relieved to have brought Vyros2 to the event. Paul has no interest in dropping Wurmwood into me and so plays Tanith instead. Paul wins the first turn and I pick the side with a useful forest to hide behind.

Nothing too surprising in the first turn as Paul runs up into position, putting up a forest wall with the Sentry Stones to give them Stealth against my shooting. The Gobbers put up a cloud to trigger all his Prowl models.

My first turn is simply running into position. Vyros casts Deceleration so that anything without Afflicion is unlikely to be hurt by his shooting. My two units of Artificers move towards each zone in the hope of scoring them in a turn or so.

Paul’s second turn is mainly used to put damage onto Imperatus, recognising that he is the biggest threat in my list. Tanith casts Affliction through the Gallows Grove and the Reeves start shooting. A couple miss but roughly 18 or so points of damage are put on the jack. The Pureblood on that flank has Admonition put on him and sprays at Imperatus, dealing a decent chunk of damage and taking out Movement and an arm. The Sentry stones move up the middle and are unlucky not to take out Sylys, leaving him on 1 box. The pureblood on the right advances aggressively, killing an Arcanist with its spray.

Paul has presented me with a lot of targets this turn, but with my focus pile and a bit of luck I can take advantage of all of it. Imperatus activates Phoenix Protocol, Focus and Concentrated Power are given out to the jacks, before the Artificer charges and Combo Smites the right Pureblood, dealing decent damage. The Manticores kill a couple of Reeves and put some damage into the left Warpwolf. The Griffons on the left charge 2 Reeves to start the Synergy chain. The middle Griffon kills the Sentry stone to max out Synergy, before Imperatus and the right Griffon get to work. The right Griffon charges the Sentry stone, but is in range of the knocked down Pureblood, and is able to kill both. Imperatus charges the left Pureblood, who Admonishes away, but I am able to redirect onto the Gallows Grove and Side-Step into the Wolf, killing it. By the end of the turn 4 Reeves, both Purebloods and both Sentry Stones are destroyed. I score on the left zone and my zone to take a 2-0 lead.

In a rough spot Paul does what he can, upkeeping Affliction and finishing off Imperatus with the Reeves. The Stalker kills one Griffon and damages another, and Paul keeps the zones contested to stop me getting further ahead. The Gobber Chef kills the Artificer with a Backstab. We both score 1 point and I lead 3-1.

Only needing to score 3 points to win and with one safe in the bag, I have to kill the Night Witch and either his objective or the Warpwolf and Blackclad. I opt for the former, kill the witch with the Magister, and shoot the objective off with the Manticores. I score 3 unanswered points to win 6-1.

VICTORY

This was a really difficult matchup for Paul, and one that I had planned for and was the reason I brought Vyros. Also tilting this game in my favour was the fact that he had played a very gruelling 2 hour game the round before and had a very short turnaround. He gave far too much away in turn 2 but I’m not absolutely sure what else he could have done. The list felt great in this game and the Manticore shooting really added something to the list. I was through to the final against another Retribution player, also with a pair of Issyria and Vyros2.

Game 62: Vyros2 vs Arkadius

Game 62 – Vs Adam Jones – Minions – 22/07/17

My list:

Vryos, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Imperatus

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Magister

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Dr Arkadius (Thornfall Alliance)

-Road Hog

-Road Hog

-War Hog

-War Hog

-War Hog

-Gorax

-Gorax

Rorsh

-Brine

Gobber Chef

Round 2 saw me play Adam, who is continuing his journey through faction ADHD by playing Minions. He dropped Arkadius and I chose Vyros, not wanting Hyperion to have any business with his debuffs. I won first turn and got moving.

I run up my forces, with the Artificer heading straight or my friendly flag and the Magister running up the right flank to go after his. Griffon Squad take up position behind the forest to gain an advantage from it.

Arkadius advances up, putting Forced Evolution onto Brine and casting Hyper-Aggressive for his own battlegroup. He stays out of my threat, knowing that with his ranges he can out-threat me comfortably on the next turn.

In order to try and contain his threat ranges I push my army hard to the left, staying out of threat as best I can. On the right, one Manticore shoots at a Roady Hog, who moves forwards, and I charge it with the other Manticore, killing it. On the face of it this was a mistake by Adam, but had I failed to kill the beast I would have been in real danger of losing my caster, and he had a Critical Knockdown retaliatory strike which could have easily ended my attack. Thankfully I got away with it and gained an early heavy. Vyros feats to protect as many jacks as possible.

Adam’s feat turn. He starts the turn my almost fully killing the Manticore, leaving it on a handful of boxes, before feating to finish it off and moving the rest of his beasts up. Brine kills off a Griffon, the Gorax goes into another but fails to take out any systems, and the other Road Hog walks up to my second Manticore and kills it. I use my feat moves to either protect my Griffons, and latterly to move them into more offensive positions. Adam scores his rectangular zone and his flag, and I my own flag, and Adam leads 2-1.

I eye up a potential assassination but give up on the idea as I would need to Fleet and charge with the Griffon. Instead I look to kill his far up Road Hog and Gorax, clearing a route to put 2 Griffons onto Rorsch, removing him and his pig brother. With Synergy in place all of this works and as Imperats kills the Road Hog with his second attack (Vyros did some work first) he is able to Side-Step back out of any threat ranges. My Magister kills the Gobber Chef off his flag, taking it’s place and scoring. I also score my own flag, his rectangular zone and the central zone, taking a strong 5-2 lead.

Adam’s 2 War Hogs on the left each kill one of my Griffons, whilst Arkadius and his final War Hog move to his flag to keep his CPs ticking over. The Gorax moves into the centre to kill a couple of Arcanists an contest. Adam scores 2 points, and I score 1. I lead 6-4.

I need to score 3 points without reply to win the game, and with my flag and rectangular zone unprotected I only need to clear out the Gorax. The Griffon adds a point of Synergy, and Imperatus effortlessly kills the light beast. My arcanist unit run into the centre, Vyros to the right zone and an Arcanist contests his flag. I score the 3 points I need to win 9-4.

VICTORY

This is the first SR2017 game where I really felt the effects of the new scenario scoring. Being able to score 4 points early on gave me a great position and scoring 3 points in the late game is not ever going to be too difficult on this scenario. I think I played my feat turn and the forest well to not lose too much to his alpha strike, but even so I’m not sure I would have had enough left to take his last 3 heavies down. A great fun game and it is always nice to be in a 2-0 position at an event.

Game 61: Vyros2 vs Makeda2

Game 61 – Vs Ryan Longthorne – Skorne – 22/07/17

My list:

Vryos, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Imperatus

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Magister

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Supreme Archdomina Makeda

-Despoiler

-Basilisk Krea

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Tyrant Rhadeim

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Min Paingiver Beast Handlers

Legends of Halaak

Max Praetorian Ferox

Max Praetorian Ferox

Today was the latest in the series of Steamrollers at the Wargamestore in The Wirral, and the first of SR2017, so nobody really knew how the event would go. After my games the previous Wednesday I felt that something differently needed to be done, so despite having never used him before I put Vyros 2 in as my pair to Issyria. I knew that there was going to be a Wurmwood player, a Mak2Cats player, a Legion player and Rich with the out there list I played on Wednesday, and I felt that Vyros gave me strong game into all of them.

At most Steamrollers you want a nice easy round 1 to get into the swing of things but that wasn’t to be the case today, with me bring drawn against Ryan who has been tearing up the meta with his Makeda2 list. Not the easiest game to drop a new list but I knew I had to go with Vyros. Ryan won the roll to go first and off we went.

Ryan casts Storm Rager on Rhadeim and runs up, protecting his cats with the building in the middle of the table.

I run up in response. 2 Griffons Fleet and run far up to tempt him out and I feat to take advantage when then die. A single Griffon flanks hard on the right to put pressure on the right zone.

Ryan leaps the cats in, killing one Griffon and almost completely crippling the other. On the death of the one Griffon I feated forward the one on the right flank, only to move him to close to the Legends, and getting myself Combo-Smited right back again. Best Feat 2017. Makeda sits on 6 fury for Stay Death.

Lacklustre feat aside my counter-attack is pretty impressive. Between the 9 Empowers I have on the table and the focus Vyros can afford to give out I have so many high quality attacks once Synergy starts to kick in. Ryan’s tough dice are super-cold this turn and I am able to remove 7 cats and the Legends of Halaak. It felt great having that much focus to throw around, and it seemed like I was in a pretty strong attrition position.

Ryan feats and attempts to come back into the game but with so few attacks he has limited success. He takes out the injured Griffon as well as a fresh one and one of the Manticores, reducing me to Imperatus, a Manticore and a Griffon to close the game out with. I still feel in a decent position but have a lot of work to do. He scores the left zone with Despoiler to start the scoring, and leads 1-0.

I want to use my turn to kill off both beasts and put some pressure on Makeda. I build up the Synergy chain a bit and manage to remove the Krea with my Griffon and Despoiler with Imperatus. My turn order is not ideal and I give Makeda more Stay Death fury half way through my turn, so I only kill a single cat, leaving 2 on the table.

Ryan realises that the attrition game is up and he has to go for an assassination. Vyros is camping 3 focus but has to take 2 cats, Rhadeim and 3 Paingivers to the face. Rhadeim rolled low on his damage but the rest of his forces rolled pretty well, and when the dust settled Vyros was left on 2 boxes.

With nothing to transfer to I look to assassinate Makeda. I build up Synergy using Vyros and the Manticore, do a load of damage to her with the Griffon, before Imperatus Side-Steps off Rhadeim into her, killing her with a single attack.

VICTORY

Not bad for a first run with a list. I didn’t play turn 2 particularly well but the sheer power of the list was enough to make up for it in turn 3, and I was able to ride the advantage out for the win. I can’t wait to play this list more and get a good feel for it.

Game 60: Issyria vs Zerkova1

Game 60 – Vs Richard Beech – Khador – 19/07/17

My list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Hyperion

-Chimera

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Spears of Scyrah

-Soulless Escort

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Min Mage Hunter Infiltrators

His List:

Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova

-Destroyer

-Destroyer

Man-O-War Drakhun

Man-O-War Kovnik

Man-O-War Kovnik

Ragman

Min Iron Fang Uhlans

Max Man-O-War Shocktroopers

-Officer

Max Man-O-War Shocktroopers

-Officer

My final game of the evening saw me play Richard Beech with his unusual Zerkova list. Having just played against one unit of Shocktroopers I did not like the idea of facing 2, but knew that if I dropped the Sentinels I would just get clogged up with a cloud wall, so dropped Issyria instead. I won the roll to go first and got on.

Everything ran up, with Inviolable Resolve on Hyperion. The Chimera and Narn ran up the right flank hoping to stall the Ulans a while whilst the shooting flooded the centre of the board.

Richard moves up with the Destroyers shooting into my mass of infantry, killing 2 Mage Hunters and one Spear, triggering Vengeance. His Man-O-War lines run up the board and the Uhlans spread out on the flank.

With their Vengeance moves the 2 remaining Spears are able to get onto the Man-O-War Drakhun, dismounting him. The rest of my forces shoot into the Destroyers, dealing decent damage and taking out the gun on the left one. Narn is sent up to engage the Uhlans, and I prepare to take the brunt of Richard’s attack.

Between Man-O-War attacks, Destroyer shots and sprays from Zerkova the vast majority of my forces are removed, with Zerkova protected from response by feating. No points are scored but I am a very long way down on attrition.

Despite Zerkova’s feat Hyerion is able to advance up and kill 2 of the Man-O-War. The Chimera is sent to buy more time on the right flank. The remaining Mage Hunters shoot into the right Destroyer, again dealing good damage but not taking out any systems. I brace myself for the inevitable attack.

Richard moves Ragman’s Death Field to cover Hyperion, before charging in with the Man-O-Wars, killing the colossal once his attacks were done. Zerkova recognises that the last threat on the table is Eiryss, and turns to spray her off the table. With no way left to win the game, I concede.

DEFEAT

Man-O-War units are going to become a real problem if the theme turns out to be any good. The sheer amount of high armour boxes to grind through is so difficult, and with Zerkova’s feat adding to it there didn’t feel like a lot I could have done this game. In hindsight I should have run to engage with my forces and try to last out on scenario, and will have to remember this as a tool I have in future games.

Game 59: Kaelyssa vs Sorscha2

Game 59 – Vs Chris Young – Khador – 19/07/17

My list:

Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper

-Helios

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

His List:

Forward Kommander Sorscha

-Marauder

-Ruin

Winter Guard Gun Carriage

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Man-O-War Kovnik

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

-Koldun Kapitan Valachev

Max Man-O-War Shocktroopers

-Officer

Min Assault Kommanos

-Flame Thrower

-Flame Thrower

-Flame Thrower

I apologise to any readers bored of reading about games against Khador. I live in a Khador and Retribution heavy meta. I’m no happier about it than anyone else is. Today’s Khador fun time was presented by Chris, trying out Sorscha2 to see if she could answer other lists outside of Ghost Fleet. I dropped my dedicated Khador list Kaelyss, and Chris won the roll to go first.

Not much unusual in the first turn. Man-O-Wars gain Desperate Pace and run up with everything else following. The Marauder flanks on the right with the Gun Carriage moving hard up on the left, staying out of threat range of the AFG.

I take quite a cautious approach to my turn. I don’t want to feat, but I don’t want to get charged either, so advanced up to the edge of his threat range, with the left unit of Sentinels using Iron Zeal to protect against any blast damage that may come in from the Gun Carriage.

Chris also plays his turn cautiously. The Gun Carriage advances far up the left flank, leaving 2 AOEs of rough terrain for the Sentinels to deal with. The rest of his forced moved forward slightly and Orin moved to the flag to be ready to score next turn.

I needed to get a move on if I wasn’t going to fall behind on scenario. The AFG put 2 Brutal Shots into the Gun Carriage, taking off maybe a third of its boxes. Kaelyssa moved up, cast Phantom Hunter on herself, and shot Orin off the flag before Refuging back to her flag and Feating. The Sentinels move up out of walking threat of his models and prepare for next turn. Nobody scores.

Despite my feat being up Chris managed to do some serious work on the left unit of Sentinels, with the Gun Carriage and 3 Flame Throwers combining to kill 7 out of the unit. I had missed my shot to Disrupt the Marauder the last zone so it was able to run and engage Eiryss on the right flank. Nobody scores again.

Vengeance attacks from the Sentinels reduce the Gun Carriage to around 12 boxes. The AFG shoots it with one shot and kills 3 Kommandos with a slam. The sentinels finish off the battle engine and a couple more Kommandos. Kaelyssa casts Phantom Hunter on both herself and Helios, before Stalling Ruin. Helios charges a Man-O-War, pulling in Ruin to put 4 attacks into the jack, sadly not taking out any systems. The right Sentinels roll very well on the Marauder, killing it, and put some damage on the Man-O-Wars. Taking advantage of my good fortune, Eiryss moves round and kills Valachev. Still nobody scores.

Sorscha feats and does destroys Helios between Ruin and the Man-O-Wars, taking out all but 2 Sentinels on the left and causing 3 more deaths on the right. The table is clearing but I feel like I am in a strong position. I score the left zone but Chris scores his flag with the Kovnik. 1-1.

Between Vengeance moves and their activations the Sentinels all but clear the field, leaving only Aiyana, Holt, one Kommando and Sorscha alive. I score on my own flag and again on the left zone to lead 3-1, and Chris concedes the game.

VICTORY

This was an extremely enjoyable game. The first turns were extremely edgy and tactical with only one model being destroyed in the first 2 rounds. From there the dice went my way and I was able to pull ahead but it could as easily have gone the other way. Man-0-Wars are an extremely tough nut to crack, I am worried for what will come when they gain their upcoming theme list, and I was pretty impressed by the Flame Thrower Kommandos, but appreciate that they are an expensive unit with a perfect enemy in this game.

Game 58: Issyria vs Shae

Game 58 – Vs Mark Ellis – Mercenaries – 19/07/17

My list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Hyperion

-Chimera

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Spears of Scyrah

-Soulless Escort

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Min Mage Hunter Infiltrators

His List:

Captain Phinneus Shae

-Sylys Wyshnaylyr, The Seeker

-Galleon

Bosun Grogspar

First Mate Hawk

Doc Killingsworth

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Min Press Gangers

Min Press Gangers

Max Sea Dog Pirates

-Mr Walls, The Quartermaster

The Commodore Cannon & Crew

And so we move into a new era, SR 2017. I had pretty much avoided the CID process but was excited to get going now that we had a proper release. I managed to get 3 games at the club this Wednesday evening to continue my testing of Issyria, the first being against Mark and his new Pirate list. I won first turn and got moving.

I ran everything up, Inviolable Resolve on the Hyperion as is standard. Narn flanked on the left and Eiryss on the right.

Mark shoots and charges the left Mage Hunters, killing 3 and adding a couple of pirates to his Pressgang. The rest of his forces run up and a Veil of Mists to increase the coverage of the cover in the middle of the table. Aiyana and Holt ran away from the Hyperion’s AOE shot.

I decide to hold onto my feat until I can bring more force to bear on the Galleon, and instead shoot off as many pirates as I can, killing off all but the Lass in one unit and 3 pirates in the other, shutting down most of his recursion. Narn does his thing and charges Hawk, aided by Crusader’s Call, killing her and sprinting to a safer position. I manage to really misplace my Hyperion this turn, getting it blocked in with Mage Hunters and having to hold it back. Issyria casts Blinding Light on the Galleon, as she will for the rest of the game. Eiryss runs to his flag, hoping to score there if he doesn’t contest next turn. The right Mage Hunters but some shots into the Galleon, doing maybe 15 points of damage.

Mark feats and gets some huge charges from his pirates, reaching and killing most of my Mage Hunter unit on the left flank. Hyperion backs off to his rectangle zone to stay out of threat of Hyperion. By the end of the turn my left flank is looking pretty rough, but I am in a very strong position on the right. Mark scores his zone, but I score mine and his flag to lead 2-1.

Feat turn for Issyria, and I get a lot of work done. Hyperion lands a crit consume on the Sea Dogs, killing 6 or so, and finishes off more with his smaller guns. The Spears clear out even more and carve out space for the Mage Hunters to charge in to finish off one half of the colossal. We score as per last turn and I lead 4-2.

Mark’s remaining forces charge in but can’t do too much to me. His colossal swings ineffectually at Mage Hunters and 2 of the Spears of Scyrah are killed, but the attrition is only going one way. I take a 6-3 lead.

All I need to do to win is contest Mark’s zone with a Mage Hunter, scoring 2 more points to win 8-3, but it is far too tempting to take out the Galleon first. I do so, and then contest his zone to win the game.

VICTORY

Another good feeling game with this list. Blinding Light was a huge part of this win as is essentially shut down his colossal all game, allowing me to shoot away at it before taking it out with Hyperion. The pirates do present a pretty scary melee threat, but a lot of the time he was unable to get Gang bonuses and so struggled to hit DEF14 troops. Narn proved useful in this game and bought himself some extra time.