Game 66: Vyros2 vs Kaelyssa

Game 66 – Vs Niels Jensen – Retribution of Scyrah – 26/07/17

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:

Kaelyssa, Night’s Whisper

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Banshee

Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber

-Discordia

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Mage Hunter Assassin

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Second game of Vyros evening saw me play against Niels, who had also been at the last Steamroller but who I didn’t end up playing. I know really that Issyria is going to be my drop into most Warmachine but wanted to see how Vyros felt in the mirror. Niels dropped his Kaelyssa list, and I won the roll to go first.

I cast Deceleration and run up, Griffons on the right and Manticores on the left. In hindsight this was probably the wrong way round, as the rubble on the left caused issues that would have been avoided by the innate Pathfinder on the lights.

Niels put out his upkeeps and advanced up the board. Refuge went on Kaelyssa herself, Blur on the Sentinels and Speed of Death on Elara, to give Discordia permanent Refuge. Kaelyssa Feats, giving her army Stealth and stopping me from charging. The Sentinels advance up, remaining out of threat of my Griffons.

With limited options on his Feat turn I reposition a lot of my forces, toe the left zone with a full unit of Arcanists, and throw up 2 Griffons as a sacrifice. I use my own Feat to be able to take advantage of their noble deaths. My Magister toes the zone behind the cloud, making it very difficult for Niels to remove her and score.

Niels kills the 2 Griffons, and between his order of activation being perfect, and Kaelyssa using her gun to Stall 2 warjacks I find it difficult to make any particularly useful moves. The Mage Hunter Assassin and three Sentinels run up to engage my Magister and they use Iron Zeal to protect themselves. Discordia takes a big chunk out of a Manticore before moving away. The left zone is not contested, so I score a CP to lead 1-0.

I plan out a million moving part plan to assassinate Kaelyssa. Imperatus has no charge target but if I push the Banshee back with the Magister (after clearing off the Assassin with a Griffon charge) I would be able to charge with Impy, and either side-step to Kaelyssa or just move into a strong attrition position. Unfortunately, the plan went wrong early, with the Magister missing needing only a 5 to hit. I tilted pretty hard at this point and made a lot of mistakes, including killing a single Sentinel, triggering Vengeance. I put some damage on Discordia with my damaged Manticore, but fail to take out any systems. I feel like the game is over, but do score a second point to lead 2-0.

Niels keeps up the attrition pressure, finishing off the Manticore, killing the central Griffon and all but destroying the one on the right. His Sentinels take the zone but mine is still uncontested, so I lead 3-1 but am fast running out of useful models.

I have a lifeline, in that Kaelyssa is on 0 Focus, but on a hill. I have 3-5 shots that I can get on her depending on the Manticore’s roll, and with a couple of boosted power 12/14 shots she had a decent chance to go down, I just needed to roll high and hit Def18. Vyros goes first, casts Easy Rider to get out of the rubble, hits the first shot and boosts damage to do 9 or so boxes. The Manticore goes next, rolls a single shot, hits and boosts damage to kill Kaelyssa.

VICTORY

An odd game, and one difficult to take too much from. Whilst I had no right to win the game at the end (the assassination was around 20%) my play on turn 3 would have put me in a very strong position had the Magister hit her push shot. I am not pleased with how I reacted to things going wrong, as I ended up compounding mistakes, but just about managed to stay in the game enough for the dice to come back and rescue me. This will probably be the last game with the Manticore build, and I will be seeing how the list fares with just Imperatus and a sea of lights.