Game 70: Issyria vs Damiano

Game 70 – Vs Mark Ellis – Mercenaries – 16/08/17

My list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Hemera

-Sphynx

-Chimera

Arcanist Mechanik

Mage Hunter Assassin

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

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

His List:

Captain Damiano (The Kingmaker’s Army)

-Nomad

-Nomad

-Buccaneer

Dirty Meg

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Kell Bailoch

Stannis Brocker

Min Steelhead Halberdiers

Max Steelhead Halberdiers

Max Trencher Infantry

-Officer & Sniper

-Rifle Grenadier

-Rifle Grenadier

-Rifle Grenadier

Max Trencher Infantry

-Officer & Sniper

-Rifle Grenadier

-Rifle Grenadier

-Rifle Grenadier

Game by game I am feeling more and more comfortable with using Issyria with no Hyperion. The new terrain rules usually give her somewhere to be safe from most shooting, she can’t be assassinated by spells unless you stop paying attention and as long as you don’t drop Admonition (see last game…) she is very difficult to catch in melee. Next test was back into Mercenaries and Mark had his Damiano Kingmaker list. I lost first turn and chose the side with a useful building to hide behind.

I don’t usually comment on deployment in my reports as it can ususally be understood by the first turn pictures but this game was different. After standard deployment Mark set us his AD trenchers, and I put my Mage Hunters in a big clump opposite them, ready to spread out on my turn 1.

Mark started the game by activating his Trenchers, moving forwards under Cautious Advance and firing the AOEs in the general direction of my Mage Hunters. By the time the 6 had fired I had lost 11 Mage Hunters and Eiryss. Before Moving. The rest of Mark’s forces ran up to consolidate a very strong starting position. I tilted hard enough to forget to take a picture, but managed to keep my head in the game pretty well.

After a rough start it was time to find a way back into the game and the first thing was finding a way to kill the Grenades. Whilst they were dug in to DEF17 I had a couple of ways to dig them out. Issyria cast Crusader’s Call allowing Narn to charge and kill one of the Trenchers, and his sprint moe tracked across the unit, engaging and undigging most of the unit. On the right, I did the same trick with a Mage Hunter Assassin, who ran up with her 4” melee, engaging 6 including all 3 prime targets, before shrinking back to 2” melee to disengage at the end of her activation. The Mage Hunters then opened fire killing off 4 of the grenadiers and a couple of other Trenchers. The rest of my forces move up behind to prepare for next turn.

Mark’s right unit of Trenchers charges into my forces, killing a decent number of Mage Hunters and the left unit again used Cautious Advance to shave off more of my units. His Halberdiers killed of Narn and continued to advance forwards. Damiano moved forwards but the Buccaneer failed to knock him down and trigger Feign Death. I was rapidly running out of units.

With Mark’s misfortune in failing to knock his caster down I possibly have an assassination angle, but he is still behind a forest camping 3 focus. At best I can get 5 or 6 attacks on him but it just isn’t going to work. 2 more people arrive at the club for a game so we call it. I run out of all the zones allowing him to score 3CP on my turn, and 3 on his to win.

DEFEAT

An easy lesson to take from this defeat. Don’t clump up if going second against Trencher Rifle Grenadiers. I was in such a bad position after losing effectively 22 points before moving and where was no way to come back from it. I kept my head well which is another good positive and still found some good ways to get work done the next turn. A horrid game but a vital learning opportunity. Mark is a player much more used to playing with small model count armies but he played this list with 50 infantry really quickly and well, and very much caught me by surprise.