Game 256: Vyros2 vs Harbinger

Game 256 – Vs Justin Du– Protectorate of Menoth – 12/09/18

My list:

Vryos, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon      

-Griffon

-Aspis

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

The Harbinger of Menoth (The Faithful Masses)

-Hierophant

-Devout

-Purifier

-Sanctifier

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Champion of the Order of the Wall

Champion of the Order of the Wall

High Paladin Dartan Vilmon

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

The Covenant of Menoth

Wrack

Min Choir of Menoth

Max Horgenhold Forge Guard

-Attendant Priest

Max Idrian Skirmishers

-Chieftain & Guide

There were a number of players staying near our Warsaw apartment, and plenty popped in throughout the day to hang out or play games. Justin Du came in looking for a game with his Menoth pair of Harbinger and Reclaimer, and with both of those being useful practice, I asked him for a game. He dropped Harbinger and with me winning the first turn we got moving. Note: We played this game on a board that was on top of a bed, it was pretty low down, but meant that I was able to get a cool angle for the photos, which I quite liked.

Vyros caste Deceleration and everything runs up the table. Taking up table space is vital against Harbinger, and I think Justin has been a bit adventurous with his positioning of the theme wall. I am threatening the space behind it with Vyros and a couple of Griffons.

Harbinger moves up and casts Purification, stripping Synergy from Vyros. Her army runs up, with the Idrians taking some shots at my jacks, but dealing pretty minimal damage. The two Champions run up very aggressively to sit right in front of my army.

I power up my jacks with the support and get to work. I am able to take out 4 Idrians as well as one of the Champions, unhorsing the other, and have reduced Harbinger well down on health. I put a Covering Fire down in front of the Forge Guard to make it expensive for Harbinger to get them charging through it.

Justin power up his jacks and attacks back into my army. He takes out my Aspis and deals some reasonable damage scattered around into the rest of my jacks. The Idrians run to engage me and he starts taking positions to score points. Harbinger scores her zone and a Monk scores the left flag to give Justin a 2-0 lead.

This turn is pretty key to how the Vyros2/Harbinger matchup plays, so warrants a bit of talking about. Harbinger is within 13” of Vyros (given Pathfinder from the objective) but behind cover, there is a single Idrian in the charge lane. I can get 9 attacks onto the Idrian with the 2 Griffons on that flank, leaving Harbinger in a very shaky position. Justin makes the decision to let the Idrian die quickly, thinking that the best way to survive (behind cover with boxes, so essentially 18/19 against Mat10/Pow17) is to camp her stack. I hold off on Vyros’ activation for the entire turn, taking out the rest of the Idrians, Purifier, Sanctifier, Champion and a number of Forge Guard with no Martyrdom reprisal because every health Harbinger loses makes my assassination more and more likely. At the end of the turn I look at the table, am miles ahead on attrition, and reject the assassination run. I score my zone to close to 2-1.

Justin doesn’t want to kill anything on my Feat turn, as doing so will lose the control he has over my assassination angles, so he chooses to just continue taking chunks out of my jacks. We both have the scoring elements pretty locked down now, so nobody scores to leave Justin leading 2-1.

Justin rolls pretty high on his Martyrdom rolls this turn, making my life a bit easier. I take out all but one of the Forge Guard, and remove the Devout. Monks stop me scoring any flags and I foolishly fail to score my zone, but there is barely anything left on the Menoth side.

Justin is forced into an assassination attempt as he has barely anything left on the table. Harbinger charges in and casts 2 fully boosted Cataclysms from 4 inches away, reducing me to a handful of boxes. The Monk on the right charges in and misses both attacks. Justin concedes.

VICTORY

A really good game against a great opponent. I always enjoy Vyros against Harbinger games as they quite often play out like this and ask a lot of questions to each side. My assassination odds would have been around 84% had I gone in a couple of turns before the game, so maybe I should have done, but the attrition game felt pretty comfortable from that point so I felt that I would be better off just playing it out. Justin played in the Solo Masters at the WTC, finishing in 3^rd place.