Game 121: Ossyan vs Wanderer

Game 121 – Vs Martin Conaghan – Grymkin – 17/12/17

My list:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (Legions of Dawn)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Hypnos

-Banshee

Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Dawnguard Destors

Max Dawnguard Destors

Max Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters

-Soulless Escort

His List:

The Wanderer (Bump in the Night)

-Gorehound

-Rattler

-Skin & Moans

-Crabbit

-Crabbit

-Crabbit

Lord Longfellow

Witchwood

Max Dread Rots

Murder Crows

Murder Crows

Max Hollowmen

-Lantern Man

Max Neigh Slayers

Max Neigh Slayers

Last year in one of my final events with Cygnar I played at an event in Chorley and had a great time, meeting some of the people that are my clubmates now. I went back this year to defend my crown, and to complete my challenge of playing every Retribution caster in the year. Game 1 put me up against Grymkin, and the sheer anti-magic of the lists made me avoid Rahn. I dropped Ossyan into Wanderer and won first turn. My apologies for this one, we got to bottom of 2 before I remembered to take pictures.

With +2 inches of deployment and 3 fast units, this list gets up the table very quickly. Ossyan casts Quicken on the Nyss, Fortune on the left Destors, and Admonition on himself, and everything runs up the table, staying out of threat ranges for the most part.

Martin advances up the table, again keeping back out of my threat ranges where he can. The tree teleports up, Bewitches one of my Destors to walk him in, and smacks it into the ground.

The Destors on the right go in, and with Fortune deal some pretty decent damage into the Grymkin forces. They take out several Dread Rots and a couple of Neight Slayers, as well as the Witchwood, putting me into what feels like a strong position on that flank. The Nyss shoot off another Neigh Slayer and keep themselves as safe as possible. On the left I hold back, attempting a few potshots into the Hollowmen. I shouldn’t have bothered and just repositioned my forces away from that flank.

Martin punished me hard for my mistake. CRAs from the Hollowmen rolled well and took out 3 of the Destors on the left, leaving the rest out of threat range. On the right Martin does a good job of unjamming himself and takes out all but one of my Destors. Ambushing Murder Crows come on, removing one of the Destors and reinforcing his strength on that flank. A number of Nyss are taken out as well and I move a long way behind on attrition, but I do score my zone to take a 1-0 lead.

Despite losing a lot of my force I spot an outside chance of an assassination. I can move Ossyan up to within 14” of all his flags, and hopefully find enough shots to take him down. Unfortunately the first part of the plan involves slamming a Nyss into Wanderer. I need to roll a 3 to reach the caster, and fail. I realise that the game is up and start fighting for control and victory points, I take some shots into the objective and do about half damage to it. I score my zone again to move into a 2-0 lead.

Martin continues his attrition on my force, finishing off all of my infantry. A huge CRA from the Hollowmen takes a big chunk out of the Banshee. He scores twice to even up to 2-2.

I kill what I can, taking out the Gorehound and Rattler with my heavily injured Banshee. I am able to score my own zone again but still finally go behind on scenario 4-3.

Neigh Slayers charge into the Banshee and finish it all, and a Beaconed Skin & Moans gets into Hypnos, destroying it in a few attacks. Martin floods my zone and scores both circle zones to lead 7-3.

I have no way out of the game so I decide to just go mad with Ossyan. He casts Shatterstorm on himself and charges into the Grymkin infantry, killing several models despite pretty grim dice. I can’t contest any of his zones so lose 10-3 on scenario.

DEFEAT

Martin played a super-solid game here, he got up early and never took his foot off the gas. It is always disappointing to start an event with a defeat, but Grymkin casters are just something you have to see a few times to get your head around. I threw too much up too early, as that’s how in my head this list had to be played, and as a result lost out on attrition very early. The good thing about losing early on though is that the pressure really gets taken off, so shoes off and ready to see what the rest of the event brings.