Game 159: Vyros2 vs Morghoul2

Game 159 – Konrad Krolicki – Skorne – 17/03/18

My list:

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Legions of Dawn)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Harpy

-Harpy

-Aspis

-Siren

-Siren

-Siren

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

-Soulless Escort

-Soulless Escort

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Lord Assassin Morghoul (Disciples of Agony)

-Basilisk Krea

-Battle Boar

-Blind Walker

-Blind Walker

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Paingiver Task Master

Paingiver Task Master

Max Croak Raiders

Max Croak Raiders

Farrow Valkyries

Farrow Valkyries

Farrow Valkyries

Min Paingiver Beast Handlers

Paingiver Blood Runners

I played in an 8 man steamroller on Saturday using the same Vyros2/Rahn pair I’ve been playing around with recently, but with a couple of changes to the Vyros list to put in an Aspis and some additional Soulless Escorts. Round 1 put me up against Konrad with his Skorne, using the really interesting Disciples of Agony theme with Mordikaar2. Not wanting to have to deal with Blind Battle Engines I dropped Vyros2. I won the roll to go first and we got moving.

I find Croak Raiders really difficult to play against with Sentinels. There is such a difficult balance to find between getting up the table, but staying out of range as much as possible, and between having high enough armour to protect against the attacks, but not so high that they can just set all the Sentinels on fire and not trigger Vengeance. I opt to cast Synergy and Deceleration but only have the jacks and models out of threat within the bubble, pushing up a few Sentinels from each unit to tempt attacks.

Konrad start moving up his forces and takes shots into me where he can, taking out the Soulless on the left and 2 Soulless and a Sentinel from the right, more than acceptable losses to have Vengeance triggered on both units. The rest of the units move up behind, covering his army pretty well with his 11 Shield Guards.

With an extra 3” move from Vengeance my forces are in a strong position to push deep into his army. My jacks put some shots into him but achieve little due to the quantity of Shield Guards, but the Sentinels charge in and kill of 4 Croak Raiders. Both units Minifeat for Iron Zeal, and Vyros Feats hoping for the chance to open up opportunities next turn.

Croak Raiders become pretty sad once they’re engaged, so Konrad doesn’t get an incredible amount done this turn. He Feats to Blind several of my Sentinels and 2 Jacks, before putting Mortality on the right unit. His Bloodrunners Ambush on and between them, the Valkyries and the Croaks they are able to take out around a dozen Sentinels. Konrad doesn’t contest my flag however and so I score it to take a 1-0 lead.

An unexpected CP up with few models contesting the zone leaves an opportunity to take an early scenario win. I need to clear both zones and destroy the objective but it seems possible. A combination of shooting and Sentinels successfully clear the left zone, with 2 Sentinels charging and destroying the objective before I start on the right. Some slight miscalculations on Shield Guards mean I don’t play it out perfectly, but it still comes down to 4 Tough Croaks against 3 Sentinels and the Scyir. The first Sentinel kills, the second Sentinel kills, the third is toughed leaving the Scyir to charge in and finish the job, but he misses, leaving a single Croak Raider denying me victory. I move to a 4-0 lead.

Konrad grasps his new lease of life and has a huge turn of attrition. Most of my remaining Sentinels are taken out by Konrad’s infantry, and the Croaks put a load of damage into my Jacks. The left Blindwalker then charges in and takes out my Aspis. Konrad scores his flag to start turning scenario back to 4-1.

I have a half hearted look at an assassination run but quickly rule it out, opting instead to go for a more dishonourable win condition of clocking my opponent. I move through my turn quickly, taking out the Blindwalker at the end of a Synergy chain, before hitting back the clock at 4-2 to me.

Conscious of his low clock Konrad chooses to go for the assassination. Morghoul charges up into range to cast Mortality onto Vyros, but misses the re-rollable 11 needed to hit. He is all in at this point to the Blindwalker goes in, but needs to boost hits and so leaves Vyros alive on a handful of boxes. The Scores level at 4-4, but Konrad has less than 15 seconds left.

I consider looking at how to kill off the caster, but opt to just take the clock win. I contest the left zone and hit the clock back, it timing out a few seconds later to give me the win.

VICTORY

Quite lucky to win in the end, but with a couple more things going my way I could have easily taken the game at the top of 3 so I’m not disappointed with the result. I am however a bit uncertain about the list. It certainly isn’t a bad list, but something about it does feel very uncomfortable. I want to test it more, but I can’t help thinking that this game would have been pretty comfortable for my usual Vyros2 list. Still, on to round 2 with a win, with 2 Khador and some Trolls my potential opponents