Game 311: Helynna vs Terminus

Game 311 – Vs Becky Red – Cryx – 22/02/19

My list:

Magister Helynna (Forges of War)

-Chimera

-Discordia

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

Dawnguard Trident

Dawnguard Trident

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Lich Lord Terminus (Dark Host)

-Barathrum

-Slayer

-Nightwretch

Wraith Engine

Bane Lord Tartarus

Machine Wraith

Machine Wraith

Max Bane Knights

-Bane Knight Officer

Max Bane Warriors

-Bane Warrior Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Bane Warriors

-Bane Warrior Officer & Standard Bearer

It isn’t long now until the York event where I have to play Helynna so I wanted another practice game or two to get back into Rhythm with her. Bex wanted to try out the new Bane Knight Officer and so the leftmost unit of Bane Warriors are Knights. With Bex winning the first turn we get moving.

Terminue casts Malediction on himself and everything runs up, pushing over to the left flank under the protection of the forest and the theme benefit clouds.

The sheer number of Banes in this list is pretty intimidating, but right now I can afford to get up the table aggressively to try and exert some scenario pressure. I don’t have any cheap throwaway pieces to contest with so I need to take a strong opening position.

Becky pushes up further through the forest, moving her Machine Wraiths over to the right flank to contest and score the flag and my zone in later turns.

I want to start scoring as much as possible, and so concentrate on clearing the Banes out of the central zone. A Manticore and Discordia get the job done, allowing me to put down 2 Covering Fire templates down, before moving out of threat with Rhythm of War. I score to lead 3-1.

At this point Becky commits her force en masse, running through to engage my lines with the Bane Knights and some of the Warriors, holding back with others to charge into me next turn. One of the Machine Wraiths runs to the flag to contest, and so we both score our own zones to move to 4-2

I need to score 3 uncontested points to win, which realistically means m own zone and flag, and either the flag or central zone to win. The flag would be easier, so I arc a Force Strike from Helynna, taking out the machine Wraith. From here it is a matter of clearing out the Banes around my flag, which I manage before moving into Becky’s zone with Rhythm of War. I win 7-2 on scenario.

VICTORY

Becky was probably a bit slow to move towards the scenario elements in this game, and underestimated how easily I would be able to remove the Machine Wraiths. From there it was a matter of keeping the pressure on and killing the Banes as they came forward, which was honestly pretty satisfying

Game 309: Helynna vs Borka2

Game 309 – Vs Gary Stewart – Trollbloods – 17/02/19

My list:

Magister Helynna (Forges of War)

-Chimera

-Discordia

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

Dawnguard Trident

Dawnguard Trident

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Borka, Vengeance of the Rimeshaws (The Power of Dhunia)

-Trollkin Runebearer

-Earthborn Dire Troll

-Earthborn Dire Troll

-Mulg the Ancient

-Rok

-Storm Troll

-Troll Axer

Troll Whelps

Troll Whelps

Max Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes

-Stone Scribe Elder

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Another practice game with Helynna and I’m up against Borka2 again, but this time in the Beast theme. My game plan will be much the same as it was against Rob, but with three differences. Firstly, the beasts threaten a bit further as Gary has a Troll Axer for Rush. Secondly, we are on a much more live scenario than before and thirdly, I don’t win first turn this time. With some issues to play around, we get moving.

Borka puts up Counter-Charge and Snow Shroud and fuels the stone before everything runs forward.

I get up the table as far as safely possible. Neither Earthborn has a speed boost at the moment so the threat ranges are fairly manageable.

Gary Feats with Borka and moves his battlegroup up, putting the Earthborn animus on himself (as he would for the rest of the game). He moves a Whelp to the right flag to allow him to score in my turn.

One of the weaknesses in this list is not really having anything to score flags, so I have to take an Arcanist out of the right to do so. This turn is a lot of awkward positioning. I largely back off to avoid having to Feat, giving up some scenario presence in return for a turn of safety. To counteract this, I am able to charge a Trident up on the left, take out the Gobbers and a couple of Whelps before repositioning out of range of the Earthborn. I lead 2-1.

Gary is uncertain how to play this turn, as I don’t think he expected me to back off so aggressively. He charge the Axer into my left Trident, leaving it on 8 boxes, before pushing up with the rest of his battlegroup, hoping to overwhelm me with targets. 2-2.

This is the turn where I need to get work done, and I don’t do particularly well. The Earthborn on the right being Defence 16 against my shooting means the Trident doesn’t get much damage on it, and the Manticore I commit can’t finish it off due to having to boost to hit. On the left things go better, the Trident takes out the Axer, and Discordia and the Manticore combine to take out a Hand of Fated Mulg. 3-3.

Gary does what he can into my feat, but struggles to get too much damage done. The right earthborn gets Primal and reduces the Manticore to around 8 boxes, the left tickles Discordia a bit, and Rok walks through the forest to kill the Chimera. 4-4

Here we go, its been a long time since I had to write up a turn I played this badly. It should have been simple, kill 2 heavies, leave just Rok alive and stroll to victory. Instead I triggered Counter-Charge on Borka, who hit the Crit-Smite on my fully fuelled Manticore, as a result the left Earthborn survived to threaten me next turn. Then some pretty bad dice (Trident midding a boosted 8) meant that the right Earthborn just wouldn’t die, taking my entire right flank to remove it. I do clear the top left zone through to at least pull ahead 6-5 on scenario.

Time to see if I get away with my mistake or not. Helynna is behind a wall with 3 Focus so essentially a 17/20 caster but this could still easily go wrong. Gary plays it well, clearing out the blocking Manticore with Rok before putting Primal on the Earthborn and sending him in. He rolls pretty well on the assassination, hitting 2 of 3 unboosted 9s to hit, but some slightly under average damage rolls mean I survive with a single box, for the second time in a weekend. The game is over here, as I would go 2 CPs up in his turn (the assassination was his last activation) and would just need to clear my right zone to win.

VICTORY

I played a lot of this game really well, before completely falling apart at the end. I could easily have got both heavies onto the Earthborn without triggering Counter-Charge but just forgot about it and nearly threw away a really strong position. I really enjoy playing Gary, and he’s becoming a really strong opponent in what is a great Merseyside meta. I won’t have too many more games before the York event, and then after that I will be building towards the Welsh and then the WTC. Garryth2 coming out means it’s a really exciting time for the faction and there seem to be so many options at the moment. Its now been 40 games since I last played Vyros2, I feel like I need one of those Alcoholics Anonymous badges.

Game 307: Helynna vs Borka2

Game 307 – Vs Rob Brown – Trollbloods – 15/02/19

My list:

Magister Helynna (Forges of War)

-Chimera

-Discordia

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

Dawnguard Trident

Dawnguard Trident

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Borka, Vengeance of the Rimeshaws (Storm of the North)

-Trollkin Runebearer

-Earthborn Dire Troll

-Pyre Troll

-Rok

Fell Caller Hero

Valka Cursebor, Chieftain of the North

Max Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes

-Northkin Elder

Northkin Bear Handlers & Battle Bears

Northkin Bear Handlers & Battle Bears

Northkin Fire Eaters

Northkin Fire Eaters

Max Northkin Raiders

Second practice game with Helynna and I’m up against Borka2 played by my clubmate Rob, who inexplicably had avoided being on this blog up to now. I win the first turn and we get moving.

Helynna puts up Deceleration and everything gets up the table, with Rhythm of War allowing everybody to get into Discordia’s Kinetic Field bubble for some extra armour.

I’ve kept my support far enough back to be out of the Fire Eater’s threat (as much by luck as by judgement) and so they get lit up by the Pyre Troll and set some of my Jacks on fire. Other than that he gets up the table, with the Bears taking the snow drift to give themselves Stealth. Borka Feats.

Much like the last game, I don’t want to Feat this turn. If I can hold back just out of threat I can then take a strong attrition position next turn. I shoot off the Fire Eaters that had come forward, and Discordia sprayed down the conga line of Bears and Handler, killing one bear and Deafening the leader. She was then Slipstreamed and Rhythmed back to safety. I shoot off a handful of Raiders.

I had left both Tridents just within range of the ambushing bears, doing rough maths to work out that they shouldn’t kill it. And I was right; the unit ambushing on the left and rolling fairly well to leave me on 7 boxes. What I hadn’t calculated was Rob killing the Deafened leader, allowing the last Bear in the unit to charge and finish it off. Rob then turned to an attempted assassination, with my caster being on zero camp (probably an error). 2 Fire Eaters could get sprays on her, but one was killed by Covering Fire and the second missed. Rok’s spray made contact and left her on a handful of boxes, so Rob went all in and went for Borka’s Sprays. The first hit and left her on a single box, with the second (unboosted and needing a 10) thankfully missing. I survive the turn. 0-0

Despite Borka being right in front of my with no Fury, this still isn’t a trivial assassination as he ran up with everything he had to jam me. Eventually I solve the problem by smiting the Earthborn at Borka with a Chain Attack from Discordia, knocking him down and clearing a route for a Manticore to finish him off.

VICTORY

My mistake this game was thinking I needed Hand of Fate to take out the Fire Eaters. This cost me three focus on Helynna, but my jacks would still have easily been able to remove them. With 3 extra Focus (and ideally being in range of Kinetic Field) the assassination would never have been on. As it was, I had to rely on a bit of good luck to survive. Rob was a great opponent and we have a lot of fun in this game, Helynna isn’t as bad as I feared.

Game 306: Helynna vs Harbinger

Game 306 – Vs Nick Hancox – Protectorate of Menoth – 15/02/19

My list:

Magister Helynna (Forges of War)

-Chimera

-Discordia

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

Dawnguard Trident

Dawnguard Trident

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

-Soulless Escort

His List:

The Harbinger of Menoth (Exemplar Interdiction)

-Hierophant

-Reckoner

-Sanctifier

Exemplar Bastion Seneschal

High Exemplar Gravus

Scrutator Potentate Severius

-Dervish

Min Choir of Menoth

Max Exemplar Bastions

Max Exemplar Cinerators

-Exemplar Cinerator Officer

Max Exemplar Errants

-Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard

At the recent UK Invitationals two things came to light. The first was that my 3-2 performance was enough to get me a place on England Roses for the upcoming WTC, and I am delighted to be back on the team for another year. The second was that I lost a bet, resulting in my having to play Helynna at the next 2 day event I play in, which will be in York in early March. Not wanting to go in completely unprepared I wrote up a list that is similar to her old style, but with the additional tricks that we can pull now that we have the Trident and Discordia in the Forges theme. My first practice game is against Nick with his Menoth, and with me getting the first turn we get moving.

With Rhythm of War starting in play from my theme benefit, and Deceleration being pretty much useless due to all the Blessed weapons I don’t need to do anything with Helynna this turn, so everything just runs up the table, with Discordia putting out her Kinetic Field.

Harbinger also doesn’t have much to do with her Focus on turn 1, and so just gets up the table. Nick takes a few shots with Errants into my lines but gives up when he realises they are going to be pretty useless following my Feat.

I really want to hold my Feat for a turn, and so I decide just to hold back and shoot, putting some Covering Fire in front of the Errants. A number of the Bastions are out of Martyr range, so they go down quickly, with Nick choosing to save health on Harby rather than overly Martyr the rest. I Rhythm back to relative safety and hope that I survive the next turn in reasonable shape. On the left my Trident shoots off the Dervish.

The reasoning for Nick not Martyring the Bastions much was so that he could use his health resource to charge the Errants through the Covering Fire before my Feat was up. He does so and between them and Gravus they take a huge chunk out of one Manticore, and chip some damage onto another. The Cinerators move up on the left but it doesn’t feel that that will be where the game is won or lost. Harbinger ends the turn on around 10 health and with the score at 0-0.

The key for me this turn is to clear out the front line, take out the objective and Feat to really blunt Nick’s response. I know how much Nick wants to keep Gravus alive, so punch him down until he can’t afford to Martyr any more. I move the Reckoner in closer with a push from Helynna and a Smite from the left Trident, who also rolls some hot dice to take out the objective. The rest of my Battlegroup clear out the Errants and the right Trident pushes up to deal some damage to the Sanctifier. I score 2 to lead 2-0.

Nick now has the unpleasant task of playing an uphill attrition game into Helynna’s Feat. He puts every attack he can into my Tridents, but can only reduce both of them down to 5 boxes. In realisation that the game is lost, he tries to see if Harbinger can finish them both off. He rolls the boosted 12 needed to take out the right, but cant get close enough to get the Pow needed on the left, and leaves it on a couple of boxes. With Harbinger on no camp and 2 boxes in front of my army, Nick concedes.

VICTORY

Nick is new to Harbinger and probably didn’t play a perfect game here, but I was still really pleased with how I dictated the pace of the game and held my Feat back an extra turn. Doing do would have essentially given me two full turns of attrition, which was more than enough to win the game. I really enjoyed playing the list, which is a real change form how boring I found her pre-CID, so I was looking forward to getting in some more games.

Game 271: Vyros2 vs Xerxis2

Game 271– Vs Alun Barfoot – Skorne – 7/10/18

My list:

Vryos, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Aspis

-Discordia

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak (Imperial Warhost)

-Agonizer

-Basilisk Krea

-Basilisk Krea

-Desert Hydra

-Desert Hydra

-Titan Gladiator

Feralgeist

Min Paingiver Beast Handlers

Min Paingiver Beast Handlers

Round 5 of the UK Nationals and once again I'm faced with something I have no idea how to play against, so I'm dropping Vyros again. As suspected I get the double Hydra list, which I must admit absolutely terrifies me. Thankfully I win the roll to go first and we get moving.

Step 1 of “having no idea how to play a matchup” is to run as fast as I can up the table, keeping out of the significant 14” threat range of the Hydras.

Hydras move up followed by the support staff, staying out of threat of more than one or two Griffons each. Between the Krea animus and Sandstorm my shooting is going to be pretty ineffective.

I have a really tough turn of positioning ahead of me, as I need to tempt the Hydras in with enough firepower left over to take them out afterwards. I can get a Griffon to the Agoniser, and if this game goes long taking that out would be vital, so I build Synergy and send it in to take it out. I Feat with Vyros, and jam, hoping that something will come up next turn.

Alun plans out his turn really impressively, coming up with a way to deliver a Hydra into my heavies. Unfortunately he makes one mistake. After slamming the blocking Aspis out of the way with the Gladiator he buys attacks to take it out, allowing me to Feat move a Griffon in the way, saving the 2 Heavies. I end the turn having lost the Aspis and 3 Griffons, which under Xerxis' Feat seems reasonable. More importantly, I'd been able to move around the scenario elements, allowing me to score 2 unanswered CPS.

All I need to do to win is shoot off the Feralgeist and run Vyros to the flag. I get it done and win 5-0 on scenario

VICTORY

This was an odd feeling victory, whilst it was great to win the game I didn't particularly feel like I'd earned it. Alun played the game really well and one mistake cost him the game. Even so, I don't think I would win this game on any other scenario, and only how live Spread the Net is saved me. Still, with one round to go I was sat on 4-1, guaranteeing me a positive result. The Best in Ret award was also hotly contested, and that was my focus going into the final round.

Game 269: Vyros2 vs Locke

Game 269– Vs Andrew Murchie – Convergence of Cyriss – 6/10/18

My list:

Vryos, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Aspis

-Discordia

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Aurum Lucanum Athanor Locke (Destruction Initiative)

-Prime Axiom

-Corollary

-Inverter

-Inverter

-Conservator

-Conservator

Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex

Attunement Servitors

Elimination Servitors

Elimination Servitors

Reflex Servitors

Optifex Directive

Round 3 of the UK Nationals and my second against Convergence. Andrew dropped Locke who, unfortunately, I hadn't been able to get a game in against before the WTC. I won the first turn and we got moving.

I had no idea how to proceed in this game, but it can be a pretty live scenario if you can push on hard enough, so I eyed up that as a possibility. To that end, everything runs.

Redline is put up onto the Prime Axiom and everything gets up the table, but being careful to stay well out of my threat ranges.

I decide to spread out pretty severely, trying to tempt Andrew out and giving me the best opportunity to score zones next turn. The weakness of this list has always been contesting the enemy zone on this scenario, but that was a bridge to cross later.

Andrew takes out one Griffon before Warpathing the Conservator back slightly. The rest of the forces push up and he contests my zone to take a 1-0 lead.

I need to take some chances in this game, and so I decide to push hard. I shoot off the objective, contest Andrew's zone with a Griffon, and score both circular zones to take a 4-1 lead and put Andrew under some pressure.

However, in my haste to score points I have left Vyros within 16” of the Prime Axiom, so after a lucky Flare scatter lowers his defence, the Axiom runs up and takes Vyros out with Jackhammers.

DEFEAT

Whilst the Flare was a big deal (changed the Axiom from needing 8s to 6s) I shouldn't have taken my eye off the ball in that way. I really had no idea how to approach this game and was pretty please with the way I played it in general, as I got Andrew to the point where he felt he needed to go for the risky assassination. I need more practice into this matchup. Vyros isn't a perfect drop into Convergence and when I start investigating some of the new options we have, I'll be looking to see whether we have a better option into lists like this.