Game 137: Kaelyssa vs Orion

Game 137 – Vs Chris Young – Convergence – 25/01/18

My list:

Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper (Legions of Dawn)

-Helios

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

Min Dawnguard Destors

Min Dawnguard Destors

His List:

Eminent Configurator Orion (Destruction Initiative)

-Corollary

-Assimilator

-Assimilator

-Inverter

-Inverter

-Monitor

Transfinite Emergence Projector

Attunement Servitors

Reflex Servitors

Elimination Servitors

Elimination Servitors

Elimination Servitors

With a big event in York on the horizon and my list pair decided after a successful Steamroller at the weekend I just needed reps with my pair to be prepared for whatever I was likely to see. Chris was looking for a game with his Convergence and it was something that I definitely wanted to test Kaelyssa into. He was using the interesting new caster Orion, who seems like a really great toolbox caster. I win the first turn and we get moving.

I’m up against a gunline so it’s the usual suite of Blur on Helios and Refuge on Elara before running everything up. One unit of Destors flanks really hard on the right with an eye to going after Servitors on a later turn. Eiryss shoots at one of the Dug In Reflex Servitors but can’t break armour.

I have made a pretty significant positioning error and Chris punishes me for it. Orion puts up Avenging Force ready for next turn, and casts Magic Bullet on the Monitor. I have left a Destor within the Monitor’s range, and Eiryss was within 4” of him, so the Magic Bullet takes her out. The rest of Chris’ forces advance up outside of my threat ranges.

I’m not absolutely sure how to go about my next turn, but know that if I take control of the zones Chris has to come into me eventually. I respect the threat ranges of his guns and largely stay out of them. Helios moves up into an advanced position. Kaelyssa Feats before casting Phantom Hunter on herself and shooting off all 3 Reflex Servitors. The right Destors move a long way round the flank, ready to cause trouble next turn.

Chris doesn’t want to walk into all my threat ranges, and can’t do too much damage to me through Stealth anyway, so he contests the zones with Servitors, and takes what shots he can into Helios, removing pat of his Force Field. The right Invertor gets into the right zone to contest and a Servitor takes advantage of a slight positioning error on my part by blocking up 2 of my flanking Destors.

Usually the turn after Kaelyssa’s feat is when everything charges in but Chris’ positioning has made this impossible, so I need to just score 3 CPs, weather the Convergence Feat and then see what I have left to work with. My Destors on the right unjam each other allowing one to charge through and kill a couple of Servitors, the ones on the left deal with the contesting models to score the left zone and clear the centre for Helios. Helios himself charges in and kills the contesting Invertor and Kaelyssa simply runs into the right zone to take a 3-0 lead.

Time for me to suffer Orion’s Feat turn for the first time, and it really is impressive. He casts Forced Induction onto Helios, to put a Focus on it, before concentrating on shooting off my forces, killing around 10 of them with the Ground Pounder shots. The TEP clears off all 3 Destors but he has no units with which to score the zone. The Inverter goes into Helios dealing an impressive amount of damage, taking out well over half of the colossal. I don’t feel that I have lost enough to lose me the game, but the mispositioning of my Sentinels on the right has made life difficult for me. All the zones are contested so we remain at 3-0 to me.

With most of Helios gone an attrition game feels like it will be a real struggle, but I do only need to score 2 CPs to win. 3 heavies are contesting the right and central zones and all are within 3” of being pushed out, so Helios can get that done. There are a number of Shield Guard Servitors making life difficult so Kaelyssa and the Sentinels have to deal with that, and thankfully I hit the 5s I need to clear them out. Helios has 3 focus and boosts all 3 shots to remove the Heavies from the zones, allowing me to score 2 more points and win 5-0.

VICTORY

This was a really tough game positionally with the impressive threat from Orion’s guns. I was at risk of a Magic Bullet assassination early in the game but the dice weren’t quite in Chris’ favour so he opted against it. The blue unit of Sentinels were mispositioned all game. They were on that side due to the difficult terrain near my deployment zone, but I should have recognised that the game was going to be played further up the field, and that the ability of Helios to gain Phantom Hunter would have been much more beneficial to deal with that forest.