Second 100 games with Retribution
As I did after my first 100 games,
I though it worth having a little recap of where I’m at after my second hundred
games with Retribution, as well as offer a bit of an update as to where the
blog will be going over the next few months.
I’ll start with this, as I wouldn’t
want it to be missed by people not getting to the end of my stat-apocalypse. I
decided a while ago that after the Welsh I would be taking a break from publishing
my blog posts. I will still be writing them, and will put them up in time, but
they will not be of the same depth that they are at the moment. The reason for
this change is that I am delighted to have been invited onto the England Roses
team at the WTC in September, and with that there needs to be a certain level
of secrecy, not only for my own lists, but also my opponents as I play in more
and more practice events. Following the WTC, everything will be published en
masse, and the blog will continue as it has done so far. I hope you will all
come back and continue supporting the blog as you have done so far.
Results
The main target for me in this
batch of games was to show real improvement from my first 100 where I was
really just learning how the faction worked, and I think the results show that
I’ve been successful in this regard. In my first 100 games I won 60, a
reasonable start. In my second 100 games I have pushed this up to 75, which is
really where I want to be. This is down to increased experience of the faction,
but also much more focus on a handful of casters and really drilling down into
what they can do.
Tournament Results
|
Event
|
Date
|
Results
|
Position
|
|
Blood & Oil
|
11-12/11/17
|
5W 1L
|
5/82
|
|
Chorley Steamroller
|
17/12/17
|
3W 1L
|
-
|
|
Wirral WMHUKISS Qualifier
|
20/01/18
|
4W 0L
|
1/20
|
|
Southport WMHUKISS Qualifier
|
03/02/18
|
4W 0L
|
1/16
|
|
Sheffield WMHUKISS Qualifier
|
24/02/18
|
3W 1L
|
-
|
|
Preston WMHUKISS Qualifier
|
17/03/18
|
2W 1L
|
2/8
|
|
Powerfist Steamroller
|
15/04/18
|
2W 1L
|
4/8
|
|
Leeds Steamroller
|
29/04/18
|
1W 2L
|
6/8
|
|
Wigan Steamroller
|
6/5/18
|
3W 1L
|
5/16
|
|
Welsh Masters
|
19-20/05/18
|
5W 2L
|
20/160
|
Blood and Oil was a real turning
point in my becoming a really competitive player with Ret. I beat both of the
players who beat me in the Nationals earlier in the year, and only lost an
extremely close game in the semi-final to Mickael Dick. From there I have just
become really consistent in events, only going below average in an 8 man event
featuring 7 England WTC players. Getting my first Steamroller wins was a great
feeling as well, and the next target has to be to start seriously fighting for
a major victory. The Welsh was slightly disappointing in this regard, as I lost
pretty early in Round 3, though it was against Tom Escaffier, the French player
who ended the event in 3rd.
Themes
Themes continue to be the primary way
the game is played currently, and there is no real impression that things will
change any time soon. I did not play a single game out of theme in this batch
of 100 games, and only played against 5 opponents who were not in a theme, with
the latest of them being on the 3rd of February.
|
Theme
|
Games Played
|
Games Won
|
Win %
|
|
Forges of War
|
36
|
27
|
75
|
|
Shadows of Retribution
|
7
|
5
|
71
|
|
Defenders of Ios
|
24
|
18
|
75
|
|
Legion of Dawn
|
34
|
25
|
74
|
Well, I guess I’ll hold my hands up
and admit that I just straight don’t like Shadows. I did quite enjoy my Elara
list in that theme, but it didn’t stick and I’ve really just been concentrating
on the other 3 themes since. I am surprised to see such equality on my win
rates on the three, but I think the Legion of Dawn result is slightly held back
by some experimenting with bad lists when the theme first came out. I still
feel that I need to experiment more with Defenders of Ios, as there are so many
options in that theme, but so often they just feel inferior to AFGs and
Halberdiers.
Casters
As with my first 100 games, I have
again played 9 of our 12 available casters in this batch of games, with just
Garryth, Thyron and (surprisingly) Issyria not making the cut. I am very aware
that Issyria is a strong caster, and I think I’ve spent a lot of time assuming
I don’t like her, wheras I think the issue is that I don’t like her in Shadows.
I will definitely be testing her in Legions or Defenders at some point to see
if that inspires me a bit more.
|
Caster
|
Games Played
|
Games Won
|
Win %
|
|
Elara2
|
13
|
8
|
62
|
|
Goreshade4
|
3
|
1
|
33
|
|
Helynna
|
3
|
1
|
33
|
|
Kaelyssa
|
24
|
22
|
92
|
|
Ossyan
|
2
|
1
|
50
|
|
Rahn
|
20
|
16
|
80
|
|
Ravyn
|
1
|
1
|
100
|
|
Vyros1
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
|
Vyros2
|
33
|
25
|
76
|
After my first 100 games I had a
clear “top” caster in Vyros2, but was critical of myself for possibly
protecting him in the list selection process slightly too often. I think I have
managed to get better at that now, and he has been dropped into some really
horrific match-ups. I don’t think I’ve been as protective with Kaelyssa, her
only losses have been into Legion and I genuinely think the list (in Legions)
is one of the strongest that we have access to. 4 casters cover 89% of my
games, and I think that they, along with Issyria, are pretty comfortably our
top 5 casters at the moment, but throwing a few games in every now and then
with some of our lesser casters is good for the soul. Except Goreshade, he is
horrendous.
Opposing Armies
I’m planning a blog post in the
near future as to where I think we are against the other factions, so I won’t
add too much commentary to this section, but now that factions have stabilised
a bit following Theme-pocalypse it is certainly interesting to see where I am
at personally.
|
Faction
|
Games Played
|
Games Won
|
Win %
|
|
Circle
|
4
|
2
|
50
|
|
Convergence
|
1
|
1
|
100
|
|
Cryx
|
22
|
16
|
73
|
|
Cygnar
|
7
|
6
|
86
|
|
Grymkin
|
6
|
5
|
83
|
|
Khador
|
11
|
8
|
73
|
|
Legion
|
20
|
15
|
75
|
|
Menoth
|
4
|
1
|
25
|
|
Mercenaries
|
4
|
4
|
100
|
|
Minions
|
4
|
1
|
25
|
|
Retribution
|
2
|
2
|
100
|
|
Skorne
|
6
|
5
|
83
|
|
Trollbloods
|
10
|
9
|
90
|
My main surprise here is the 73%
win rate against Cryx, as this whole section of games is since their theme
dump. They are the faction I often feel most “back to the wall” against but it
looks like I am able to dig my way out of trouble more often than I thought. Menoth
are one of my biggest fears, as they aren’t seen much locally and Harbinger is
back in the game, which is just great… As I said, there will be a more thorough
blog post on this in the near future.
The Future
As I said above, I will be taking a
break from publishing battle reports until after the WTC, so I apologise for
the relative silence for the next 4 months or so. I will be posting up other
bits and pieces though, almost certainly including some thoughts on our
upcoming CID.
On that point, I am excited for what
is going to come out of it, a few leaks have come up so far and look
interesting, but it is all in isolation so far so too early to say. The big
question on my part is whether any changes will go “live” before WTC list
submission. Either way, I feel pretty good about where the faction is out, and
I can’t wait to test myself at the very highest level.
Thank you all for reading, and I’ll
catch up with you all again soon.
