Game 101: Vyros1 vs Vlad1

Game 101 – Vs Chris Campbell – Khador – 12/10/17

My list:

Dawnlord Vyros (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Imperatus

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

House Shyeel Magister

Max Cylena Raefull & Nyss Hunters

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince (Winterguard Kommand)

-Destroyer

-Destroyer

Kovnik Joe

Min Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

Min Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

Max Winterguard Infantry

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Winterguard Gun Carriage

Widowmaker Marksman

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

-Koldun Kapitan Valachev

Winterguard Mortar Crew

Oh Vlad1, it has been a while. The moving meta had forced Vlad out, at least locally, due to a lack of magical attacks in his favoured theme, but now with Mercanary options open to him, Aiyana&Holt have brought him back to the fore. Chris was using a version of the list with the Gun Carriage, and despite winning the roll to go first, opted to choose sides. So I got moving.

The theme allowed me to start with Hallowed Avenger on Imperatus and Inviolable Resolve on the Nyss to protect them against blast damage, which makes Vyros’ first turn so much easier. He casts Mobility and runs up the table, followed by his Jacks. The Nyss take positions where they can be killed by Shield Guarding an AOE onto one of the Griffons to trigger Hallowed Avenger. The support staff follow.

Chris advances up and starts shooting into my forces, dealing scratch damage to some of the Griffons, and killing 3 Nyss, triggering Righteous Vengeance. A lucky scatter vitally drifts perfectly to take out one of my Arcanists, reducing me to just one source of Concentrated Power for the rest of the game.

Losing an Arcanist made me panic somewhat, as with only Imperatus able to take out his heavies I felt I had to go for the assassination. Vyros feats and uses an Eliminator to clear some Winter Guard before casting Mobility to give Imperatus threat range to Vlad, who was camping 1. I would have to get lucky to get a Nyss to Vlad but I felt it was worth the attempt. I messed up my implementation though and wasn’t able to get a Flanking model there, but did take out the axe and Cortex of one Destroyer. Imperatus went in, intending to fully boost both initials. The first rolled only a 5 for damage, doing a single point after focus, so I switched to trying to hard roll 8s. I failed them all and ended my turn in a bad position.

Almost all failed assassinations like that end up in instant losses, but I was still in the game here. Chris pours all his resources this turn into removing Imperatus (Vlad walked away with Parry, who knew he had that…). The Gun Carriage moved in to knock him down, before the Winter Guard Rifles opened up on him. Some huge Signs & Portents damage rolls meant that he went down quickly, even through Phoenix Protocol and Chris had enough attacks left to kill 5 Nyss and reduce a Griffon to a single box. Now I was in a bad position, but did move up 1-0 on scenario.

With the game essentially over (I looked for a scenario angle, but decided there was nothing there) I decided it was time to see what Vyros’ melee potential. With full Focus and Flank being provided by the crippled Griffon, he charges the untouched Destroyer, and through some spikey dice of my own, destroys it with 3 bought attacks. Awesome. This opens up a Griffon to get to Vlad but the dice would have needed to be insane, and he is left on a handful of boxes. I score again to lead 2-0.

At this stage Chris only has around 8 minutes on his clock, but it is more than enough to get the job done. The Gun Carriage slams a Griffon into Vyros, knocking him down before sealing the deal with Rockets.

DEFEAT

Ok, so I don’t like the list. I keep trying to make Vyros1 work but since I have seen the light with his Epic version I just can’t justify it. Mobility is an amazing spell that I loved in Mk2 with Amon, but Ret jacks are quick enough to not need it in the same way that Menoth do. The list is SO dependent on Imperatus getting the work done that it falls apart once he goes down or is neutered. That being said I did not play this game well. The assassination that I felt pretty good about turned out to only be 38% once I used Oddsmachine after the game, so I should probably have just played an attrition game for another turn and see how the game played out. The turn after Imperatus went down I pretty quickly declined the scenario play once I realised that I couldn’t win that turn. Had I committed my resources to clearing the left zone and destroying his objective I could have gone 4-0 up with Vyros safe, and only needed to find a point or 2 in the next turn. Lots to learn, and I’ll decide at a later date whether to keep going with this list.