Game 124: Ossyan vs Wanderer

Game 124 – Vs Aaron Edwards – 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 Heretic (Dark Menagerie)

-Cage Rager

-Crabbit

-Crabbit

-Crabbit

-Gorehound

-Gorehound

-Skin & Moans

-Skin & Moans

-Skin & Moans

Lady Karianna Rose

Gremlin Swarm

Gremlin Swarm

Gremlin Swarm

Gremlin Swarm

Min Dread Rots

Death Knell

Final round of the Chorley Christmas Steamroller and I again face Grymkin, this time with Aaron running Heretic and Child. As per the first game I feel that there is too much anti-magic on the table to drop Rahn, especially with Heretic having Sacred Ward. I drop Ossyan, Aaron drops Heretic, and he goes first.

Aaron runs up all his forces, leading front and centre with the 3 Skin and Moans. The two Gorehounds flank hard on either side of the table and the support pieces hang out behind the front lines.

I wonder whether I can take out an early Gremlin Swarm, and so put Quicken on Hypnos, advance him up and shoot his gun towards the nearest Swarm. It scatters in the wrong direction but does Shadow Bind 2 Dread Rots. The rest of my forces run up, with Fortune on the left unit of Destors and Admonition on the Banshee. Ossyan moves towards the right flag to hopefully start scoring as soon as possible.

Aaron knows that he is massively out-threated by me and so continues to push up into my face, knowing that he has to take the alpha strike. The left Gorehound takes out the furthest up Destor before Sprinting further into my lines with Lightening Strike. Fury is put on the Dread Rots ready for a later turn.

I need to get in a strong alpha to take control of the game, and the order of activations is difficult. Ossyan Feats and switches around some upkeeps, before the Nyss start shooting, dealing decent damage into the front Skin & Moans. The Blue Destors charge through the other unit to take out the left Gorehound and finish off the Skin & Moans. Hypnos simply clears out a Gremlin Swarm, triggering the Trump Arcana, before the Fortuned Destors charge into the left Skin & Moans, killing it through sheer volume of attacks. The Banshee finishes the turn by charging the last Skin & Moans, leaving it on about half life. It felt like a very strong turn but I was going to lose stuff in response. Nobody scores

Aaron retaliates and tries to take some scenario presence. He kills off all of the Destors, but can barely get to Hypnos to make use of his Feat. The living Skin & Moans heals itself and takes out the Banshee. The right Gorehound runs up to engage a load of the Nyss. The Crabbit fails to take out my Scyir, meaning that I contest the left zone and nobody scores.

In hindsight I didn’t play this turn particularly well. I threw the left Destors in for fairly minimal gain and leave them in a position to be removed. I trigger Shadow to have a temporary Skin & Moans hit the table, but I am able to walk Hypnos round it to get into the permanent one, finishing it off. The Nyss try to take out the Gorehound, but can’t roll enough 8s to hit and the beast lives. Hypnos backs off to safety and nobody scores.

Aaron pushes up on the left, taking out 2 of the Destors and clearing the area around the flag, only there is no solo on the flag to score it. The Gorehound kills a Nyss and Sprints away to a more annoying position. The Shadow beast takes out Hypnos, removing my last really heavy hitter from the table.

This game is going to go long, and so Control Points are going to be very important. I put Fortune on the Nyss and they finish off the Gorehound, clearing the flag for an Arcanist to score it. The Destors but some damage on the Heretic and flood the zone, with my support pieces contesting it in the rear. I move into a 1-0 lead.

Aaron tries to clear out the left zone, but can’t get to the Arcanist in the rear corner, and so has to be satisfied with scoring the flag. He runs his right most Gremlin Swarm to contest my flag to move the score to 1-1.

Ossyan moves into the right zone and takes out the Gremlin Swarm with his gun. I charge a load of Nyss into the Cage Rager dealing some damage to it. I am unable to contest his flag but I score mine and the zone, to take a 3-2 lead. If I can keep contesting then scoring last should mean I can win but I need to keep the Cage Rager out of my zone.

Aaron’s turn 6 sees the Cage Rager trample over the Nyss, killing a number of them and taking some damage from a free strike. The Heretic finishes clearing out the left zone, and we both score 2 points to leave me a point ahead at 5-4.

My turn 6 and I am really running low on time. I move Ossyan to safety behind a wall and shoot the Cage Rager with his gun to slow him down. I spread the Nyss, one blocking the Cage Rager, one contesting the zone and another the flag. I score 2 more points to lead 7-4.

Aaron has too many models to clear out to score and stop me contesting next turn. He goes for a very long odds assassination instead, which fails. The Cage Rager gets into my zone to contest but nobody scores.

I don’t need to do anything, so simply end my turn to win the game.

VICTORY

A real grind of a game but I’m really pleased that I am able to grind out these games now. This was a great fun game and Aaron was a great opponent throughout. I’m not convinced by my list, but it is very good fun to play. I finished the event in 5^th place out of 16, going 3-1, which was a nice way to finish the year. Next big event is the UK Invitational in February, so I need some time to work out an exact list pair for that. I’m certainly interested in going for Rahn, but I’m not sure how to build a pair around him.