Game 102: Rahn vs Venethrax

Game 102 – Vs Duncan Harradine – Cryx – 13/10/17

My list:

Adeptis Rahn (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Chimera

-Phoenix

-Aspis

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

-Hydra

House Shyeel Magister

House Shyeel Battle Mages

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Lich Lord Venethrax (Black Indutries)

-The Withershadow Combine

-Deathjack

-Ripjaw

-Ripjaw

-Scavenger

-Inflictor

-Stalker

-Leviathan

-Harrower

-Desecrator

Machine Wraith

Pretty late in the day I have picked up a ticket for Blood and Oil, a 3 list 128 player Masters event on the 11^th and 12^th of November. With little time to prepare new lists I have decided to pretty much stick with what I was playing at the Nationals, with Vyros2 and Issyria making up the backbone of the lists. Which again leaves me with a 3^rd list problem. I have 3 lists in my consideration, the Rahn list I’ve been playing, the Vyros1 with Nyss that I played last game, and a rewriting of my Kaelyssa list in the new theme. I have 5 games over the weekend to make a decision, the first against Duncan and his Cryx. I dropped Rahn into his jack heavy Venethrax list. He as a lot of threats with countercharge but no real defence against spells, so if I can play tidily I should be able to find an opportunity. I won the first turn and got moving.

I start the game with Polarity Shield on the Phonenix and flank hard with him, casting Telekinesis on it and the other 3 heavies to get them into more aggressive positions, running up the battle mages between them and the support staff behind.

I had got a little too excited with the Phoenix and had moved him into range of several of Duncan’s guns, who, after a casting of Mortality from Deathjack, moved up and put a big hole in him, before the Stalker leapt in and dealt some more damage, most importantly finishing off the Arc Node. The rest of Duncan’s forces move up with Venethrax putting up Lamentation to ensure I would have to be careful with Rahn’s positioning.

I really hadn’t appreciated how much shooting firepower this Cryx list could put out, but D3 effectively POW17 shots into heavies really can’t be ignored. I decided that the easiest way to deal with this would be to kill his caster. Chimera runs into position, made slightly difficult by having to keep away from Countercharges, Rahn activates and feats, TKing the Inflictor in front of the caster before Force Hammering them both down. Eiryss shoots off his Focus, the Battle Mages move up to pull him in, and the heavies open fire. Some really bad dice actually made this a bit shaky, but the last Manticore finishes the job.

VICTORY

Duncan and I discussed this game briefly afterwards, an there were things that he could have done to make this harder or take it off the table completely but he got distracted by my mistake on the right flank and didn’t pay enough attention to the assassination. It is probably partly due to the fact that not many people are playing Rahn at the moment. Still, another scalp for the list and a pretty satisfying one at that.