Game 173: Elara2 vs Dreamer

Game 173 – Vs Matt Harris – Grymkin – 07/04/18

My list:

Elara, Death’s Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Chimera

-Siren

-Siren

-Aspis

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Mage Hunter Assassin

Min Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

-Soulless Escort

His List:

The Dreamer (Dark Menagerie)

-Cage Rager

-Cage Rager

-Crabbit

-Gorehound

-Gourhound

-Rattler

-Skin & Moans

-Skin & Moans

Gremlin Swarm

Gremlin Swarm

Gremlin Swarm

Gremlin Swarm

Lady Karianna Rose

Min Dread Rots

Death Knell

Game 2 of Elara Shadows practice sees me play into Matt Harris with his Grymkin. I had never really considered this list as a Grymkin drop but any beast brick can struggle with this much high defence, so I was hoping that would be the case here. I made a small alteration with my list, with one of the Assassins being dropped for Narn. Matt ended up going for the dreamer after we discussed the potential interaction between Sirens and Cask Imps. With Matt winning the first turn we get moving.

The brick moves up the centre with the Rattler slightly off to the right and a Gorehound flanking hard on each side of the table. An Artifice of Deviation is set up and Mirage put up on the left Skin & Moans.

With pretty limited threat ranges on everything except the Gorehounds I just get up the table and sit out of threat of everything except the flanking beasts, who I accept will come in, deal some damage, but get removed in return. Scything Touch is put out on one of the Infiltrators (I did this all day, I’m still not clear why) and the Aspis takes up a position to Shield Guard The Dreamer’s sleep attack should it come in.

The Gorehound on the left kills off a few Mage Hunters before Sprinting back to the hill, whilst the one on the right moves over behind the building ready for next turn. The brick moves up the table with the Rattler holding back to threaten me with his Berserk/Overtake nonsense.

Order of activations is a real pain for me this turn so it ends up being a pretty long one, but successful. 3 of the Orange Infiltrator unit charge and take out the right Gorehound and the Blue unit take out the left one, with the Scything Touch model getting in to engage the Cage Rager. Narn walks over to take out a Gremlin Swarm before Sprinting over behind Karianna. The big hope of the turn is to take out the Cage Rager, so a fully loaded Siren and 2 Spears go in, but leave it on a single box. The other Mage Hunters take out most of the Dread Rots. A slight positioning error means I don’t score the left zone, so we start at 0-0.

The Dreamer puts up Manifest Destiny and her warbeasts start to get some work done into my infantry. The heavily wounded Cage Rager deals decent damage to my Siren, whilst the Skin & Moans on the left deals with some of my infantry. On the right the Cage Rager clears out my Arc Node and the Rattler is able to Beserk and Overtake through 7 or so Weakened Strike Force.

I feel in a good position attritionally so need to push on. Narn finishes off the Cage Rager and a Gremlin Swarm before Tte left Strike Force shoot off the lone Crabbit, triggering All Fall Down. Infantry and the Suren then combine to take out the left Skin & Moans. The most important model to remove this turn is the Rattler, as I can’t afford to let it get moving again, so I massively overcommit Infiltrators to it and kill it comfortable. Eiryss shoots off another Gremlin Swarm allowing me to score 2 points for a 2-0 lead.

I have the left zone pretty well locked down, so Matt just kills what he can (mainly the knocked down models) and tries to stay in the game. The Siren is taken out along with some more Mage Hunters, but he is careful not to trigger Vengeance on the Spears. His turn is hampered by the Cage Rages Frenzying, and his attempt to contest the left zone is stopped by a Free Strike taking out the Phantasm, so I move to a 3-0 lead.

I know that I just need to stall Matt out to win so I keep killing the potential contesting models, and grind out CPs. This turn I am able to take out Karianna Rose, the Death Knell and the last Dread Rot, putting some decent damage into the Cage Rager by getting Narn into the back of the Dreamer. I score again to lead 4-0.

Matt realises that he can’t stop me winning at the end of his turn and concedes.

VICTORY

A really good game, and nice to see that this list has good game even when not winning the roll for first turn. Had I concentrated more on scenarios and scored the left zone bottom of 2 it could have been an even harder game for Matt. I was impressed by the ability of the list to crack armour, even without triggering Jack Hunter on the Strike Force, and the sheer power of the Shadows theme benefit against Grymkin, who struggle with high defence swarms at the best of times, is really something.