Game 153: Helynna vs Venethrax

Game 153 – Vs Brian Russell – Cryx – 01/02/18

My list:

Magister Helynna (Legion of Dawn)

-Harpy

-Siren

-Siren

-Chimera

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer & Standard Bearer

His List:

Lich Lord Venethrax (Black Industries)

-Kraken

-Deathjack

-Slayer

-Slayer

-Leviathan

-Ripjaw

-Ripjaw

-Ripjaw

Soul Trapper

Soul Trapper

Warwitch Siren

Game 2 of my retesting of Helynna and I am up against Brian using his Venethrax list. A lot of Counter-Charge means I would have to be pretty careful with positioning but I should be able to grind through the jacks with sheer weight of Weapon Masters. Brian wins the roll to go first and we get moving.

Venethrax puts out Lamentation and the Jacks run up the table, with Deathjack holding back a bit to avoid being taken out early.

I run up as far as I can whilst staying out of his charge threats with Terminal Velocity. Helynna sets up Rhythm of War and casts Deceleration to reduce the impact of his shooting.

A Ripjaw is able to get a Terminal Velocity charge off onto the furthest forward Manticore, but without rolling a Crit he does pretty minimal damage. The Leviathan shoots into my Sentinels, killing 2, before Brian takes advantage of a positional mistake by me and is able to walk up, toe the forest, and put 4” reach attacks into the Manticore, killing it. The Kill Shot removes another Sentinel from the right unit.

Time to clear out some Cryx jacks. The Chimera runs up to allow Helynna to cast Hand of Destruction onto the Kraken, before using her gun to push the left Slayer towards more Sentinels. I start charging Sentinels into the Kraken, followed by the Manticore, who is unfortunately Counter-Charged by the Slayer, but deals no damage under Helynna’s Feat. The left Sentinels take out an Arc Node and leave the Kraken on 2 boxes. The right Sentinels take out the charging Ripjaw and leave the Slayer with just it’s right arm. My last activation is shooting a boosted Pow12 from a Siren into the Kraken, but dice fail me and it does no damage. I score both outer zones to lead 2-0.

Brian continues to grind through my forces, but can’t do too much to ARM23 Sentinels. The Leviathan charges in and kills 3, contesting the right zone, whilst the remaining heavies also remove a few from the blue unit which had been Mortalitied by Deathjack. Venethrax moves up to get aggressive and nobody scores.

I need 3 points to score and with just 4 models across the zone’s I think I can do it. Vengeance finished the Kraken and the blue Sentinels move carefully to all be able to charge the Slayer, leaving Deathjack unengaged but unable to Countercharge. They destroy the Slayer. Helynna aims and uses her gun to push Deathjack out of the left zone, leaving just the Leviathan scoring. A Siren and 3 charging Sentinels are enough to destroy it, allowing me to score 3 and win 5-0 on scenario.

VICTORY

After a couple of practice games back with Helynna I am quickly coming back round to why I dropped her in the first place. She delivers Sentinels pretty well but not as well as Kaelyssa, she has some good battlegroup buffs but not as good as Vyros2, leaving her in an awkward spot. She is great with the new lights and I am seriously considering a list with double Sentinels and then 7 or so lights instead of the Manticores, but then that just feels like a Vyros2 list to me, so I suspect I will be trying that with him pretty soon. Rhythm of War is an incredible spell and the rest of her tools are situationally great, but it just doesn’t add up to enough for me, so I will be looking elsewhere.