Game 293: Issyria vs Thexus

Game 293 – Vs Mark Ellis – Mercenaries – 10/01/19

My list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (Legions of Dawn)

-Imperatus

-Phoenix

Dawnguard Trident

Dawnguard Trident

House Shyeel Artificer

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Min Dawnguard Destors

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Exulon Thexus (Operating Theater)

-Wrecker

-Warden

-Warden

Cephalyx Agitator

Cephalyx Agitator

Cephalyx Agitator

Max Cephalyx Mind Bender and Drudges

Max Cephalyx Mind Bender and Drudges

Max Cephalyx Mind Bender and Drudges

Max Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges

Min Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges

Min Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges

Cephalyx Overlords

Cephalyx Overlords

First game of 2019, but no new lists. I'm very close to having a list pair that I'm really happy with in Goreshade4 and Issyria and with a 2 day event coming up at the weekend I got a game in against regular opponent Mark to test Issy into a serious dude spam. Mark gets the first turn and we get moving.

Mark runs up with everything, casting Telekinesis on all 3 heavies to put them further up the table. The Overlords stab the monstrosities to give them all 2 Focus, with one spiking damage pretty majorly to put a bit of a hole in one.

There are ambushers, there is Thexus' Feat, there is Telekinesis and frankly there's the fact that it's been a while and I've lost track of what the various Cephalyx bits do. I'm out of threat for the time being so I decide that the best course of action is to bunch up as much as possible to make Mark's life difficult. Co-ordinated Movement and the new theme benefit means that the list unjams itself really well so that isn't a concern. I wait to see what happens.

Mark decides that it is too early to start firing superpowered Drudges at me, and so moves up and spreads out more ready to press forward next turn.

The things I know about Cephalyx can mostly be summed up to “if it wears a skirt, kill it” and with Issyria's Feat granting True Sight I have a real opportunity to take out a few here. I Feat, commit a couple of Destors and both Tridents and manage to take out 4 unit leaders, 2 Overlords and one of the Agitators, which seems like a decent start. We both score our own zones to start scoring at 1-1.

The piece trade starts in earnest with Mark's heavies charging into my Tridents. On average dice they would leave a Trident alive on a couple of boxes, and the numbers largely work out as one goes down with the other surviving. Mark scores twice to lead 3-1.

This is one of turns where the pictures don't really explain how the turn went down. I knew I could remove the two Wardens pretty easily, but getting the Wrecker was my real aim for the turn. Doing so required the Sentinels charging through the Trident to take out the Warden, and then the Phoenix charging through the Sentinels. This is the real strength of the list in my opinion as it is almost impossible to get yourself trapped. I take out three heavies and a few more infantry, scoring my own zone to close up to 3-2.

Mark needs to score 4 CP's to win, and has a look at whether he can get it done, but it would require taking out my objective and he just can't get anything there. With no way to kill my heavies he concedes.

VICTORY

Having essentially army wide Tactician was really key to this matchup, allowing me to bunch up to protect from Thexus' movement tricks. From there it was really just a matter of target prioritising to strip away at the threats and keeping my key pieces safe. Issyria being essentially immune to being moved in the matchup is pretty useful too. I really like this list, and can't wait to try it out in a tournament environment.

Game 288: Issyria vs Ossrum

Game 288 – Vs Sean Homan – Mercenaries – 21/12/18

My list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (Legions of Dawn)

-Imperatus

-Phoenix

Dawnguard Trident

Dawnguard Trident

House Shyeel Artificer

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Min Dawnguard Destors

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

His List:

General Ossrum (The Irregulars)

-Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker

-Ghordson Basher

-Ghordson Driller

-Ghordson Driller

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Gunner

-Grundback Gunner

-Grundback Gunner

Anastasia di Bray

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter

Herne & Jonne

Horgenhold Artillery Corps

Max Horgenhold Forge Guard

Tactical Arcanist Corps

Tactical Arcanist Corps

The Steamrollers that I played earlier in December have really thrown a spanner in the works in terms of my list pair. I wasn’t expecting to like Goreshade so much, nor was I expecting him to have game into such a wide field. As a result, I decided to put my Vyros2/Elara2 pair on hold for a while, and see if I could find a pair for Goreshade that I liked. And then I got a notice that my Tridents were in the UK, and list writing began in earnest. A bit of collaboration with some other Ret players later and I had come up with the above Issyria list. I quick paint job on the Tridents and I was ready to go. Sean was my opponent again, with a slightly modified Ossrum list, and with him going first we got moving.

Ossrum puts up Fire for Effect on the artillery, before everything runs up the table, sped up slightly by Energizer.

I put up Admonition onto the Phoenix, Inviolable Resolve onto the Sentinels and Velocity up into at trench. My deployment and turn 1 are a bit of a mess to be honest, but it’s my first time with the list and my first with some very mobile huge bases, so there’s a bit of a learning curve. I’m also terrified of Gorman, so concentrate on getting my Tridents away from him.

Sean shoots off my Destors and continues to push up the table, with the Basher running aggressively into my lines under Bullet Dodger. Anastasia and Hutchuk ambush on the left and right respectively, the former taking out a badly placed Eiryss.

I have a line onto Gorman with my left Trident, so that becomes my focus for the turn. My Sentinels charge in, taking out one gun bunny and crippling a Blaster, 3 charging and dealing reasonable damage to the Basher. Imperatus takes out Anastasia but unfortunately missed the Basher, allowing it to dodge away. The Trident takes out Gorman and the Cortex of the Basher, the Artificer deals with Hutchuk and the right Trident removes another Gunner. A reasonable turn.

And then Issyria gets shot to death.

DEFEAT

I don’t mean to diminish this game in any way but this was a frustrating way to lose. 3 shots that could get on her needing boosted 13s to hit all hitting and killing her was a bit much. But these things happen I suppose. I liked the feel of the list up to that point, and that was all without Issy’s Feat, so I can’t wait to get it back on the table.

Game 281: Elara2 vs Damiano

Game 281 – Vs Mark Ellis – Mercenaries – 1/12/18

My list:

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

-Siren

-Siren

-Chimera

-Aspis

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

His List:

Captain Damiano (Kingmaker’s Army)

-Buccaneer

-Nomad

-Nomad

Kell Bailoch

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Stannis Brocker

Min Greygore Boomhowler & Co.

Min Steelhead Halberdiers

Min Steelhead Halberdiers

Max Trencher Infantry

-Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper

-Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

-Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

Max Trencher Infantry

-Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper

-Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

-Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier

First tournament of the weekend is in Southport at the new “Dice & Decks” shop. 10 people attended meaning the event ended up going 3 rounds. In the first round I was unfortunately matched up against fairly regular opponent Mark, who was back on Mercenaries for a brief Legion break. He ended up dropping Damiano, a list that used to give me nightmares, and I went for Elara. Mark won the first turn and we got moving.

The last time I played Shadows against Mark’s Damiano list I deployed like an idiot and lost half of my army to Grenade blasts top of 1, not this time! Mark still moves up and takes some shots but doesn’t deal too much damage and I have a chance to get into position properly. He puts out Sure Foot onto the right Trenchers and Road to War up on himself.

With everything dug in I can’t do too much this turn so I shoot off a couple of Trenchers and run up to jam as best I can. I need to weather this turn to have time for my ambushers to come in.

I’d like to say at this point that I hadn’t completely forgotten about the ambushing Boomhowlers, but I’d be lying. They are the least of my issues though, as I lose a lot of Mage Hunters to super-accuate shooting from the Trenchers, with the Halberdiers running past to jam my lines. Boomhowlers don’t end up doing much, as they miss quite a few attacks into my Strike Force

I counter ambush my infiltrators on and manage to push back the Mercenary lines pretty successfully. The Sirens are great at unjamming my front lines and then everything just powers through from there. It wasn’t until I was looking back at these pictures now that I realise how strong a turn I had. I score the right zone to lead 1-0

And from there Mark doesn’t think he can come back, and concedes.

VICTORY

I don’t think Mark was in as bad a place as he thought, but I get how the turnaround in my last turn could make it look pretty awful. The game would have played out to me losing more Strike Force under Damiano’s Feat, then realistically removing everything that wasn’t a Nomad in the next turn. Nice to get an event off to a winning start especially against a top player like Mark. On to the next round.

Game 280: Goreshade4 vs Ossrum

Game 280 – Vs Sean Homan – Mercenaries – 30/11/18

My list:

Lord Ghyrrshyld, the Forgiven (Defenders of Ios)

-Chimera

-Harpy

-Harpy

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen

Ghost Sniper

Ghost Sniper

Heavy Rifle Team

Heavy Rifle Team

Min Houseguard Halberdiers

-Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Ryssovass Defenders

-Soulless Escort

Max Ryssovass Defenders

-Soulless Escort

His List:

General Ossrum (The Irregulars)

-Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker

-Ghordson Avalancher

-Ghordson Driller

-Ghordson Driller

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Gunner

-Grundback Gunner

-Grundback Gunner

-Wroughthammer Rockram

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Kell Bailoch

Thor Steinhammer

Herne & Jonne

Horgenhold Artillery Corps

Tactical Arcanist Corps

Those of you who read this blog in order will know that having tried Goreshade in Legions I’ve hardly been a fan of the list, so I made the decision to switch it up and have a go at a Defenders list instead, with some high quality shooting behind a pretty strong wall of infantry. My second warm-up game of the weekend was against Sean and his Ossrum list, and with him winning the roll to go first we got moving.

The Dwarfs “run” up the table, with the juicy centre protected by Arcanist clouds. Fire For Effect is cast on the artillery and Snipe on one of the heavies.

Between playing this game and writing this report I’ve played this game a fair few times and looking at the above picture now I cannot believe how badly I’ve deployed it. With this much infantry I really should have done a practice deployment before playing a proper game, but we are where we are! I put down some clouds and just run up the table, managing the threat of the spray bunnies as well as I can. Eiryss shoots Kell in the face.

The dwarf jacks move up the table and relieve me of a reasonable, but not disastrous, portion of my infantry. The cloud wall moves up but with no Feat I will have to remain cautious of the threat ranges next turn.

I have one aim this turn, kill both of the spray bunnies. I have so much infantry in this list that losing a couple of guys to single shots really isn’t the end of the world. They are both in range of my infantry and are both swiftly dispatched. I push up my battle line and take a strong scenario position. I don’t score the right zone, because I’m an idiot. The Ghost Snipers earn their keep and take out Jonne. 0-0

Sean does Feat and gets a pretty decent amount of work done, with the Tactical Arcanists especially managing to trigger Battle Wizard to really up their output. The warjacks press in, in the knowledge that their armour is going to be too high for me to reasonably deal with next turn. Nobody scores, but Sean has not been playing quickly and is down to 3 minutes on the clock. 0-0

I need to get rid of Eiryss, so I run up a Ryssovass and hit it with Light of Dawn to take her out with blast damage. A Harpy knocks down the front Driller and with my own Eiryss Disrupting it that was one issue down for the turn. I finally start scoring, taking out the objective and scoring the left zone to lead 2-0.

At this point I have just too much infantry for Sean to grind through, even if the clock weren’t an issue, and so he goes for an unlikely assassination, but doesn’t get the dice that he would need. I score the left zone again to go to 3-0.

Whilst I could win on clock or scenario but Ossrum is right up the table, so I shoot him with Eiryss, a Light of Dawn and then enough Harpy shots to see him dead.

VICTORY

Now this is more like it. I don’t know why the Legions list never clicked with me, but this feels so much more comfortable. I think it’s the board position at the bottom of 1. With advance move on all 4 melee units I can get into such an aggressive position, even going second against a slower force like this. There will be more games of this over the weekend. Stay tuned.

Game 265: Rahn vs Ossrum

Game 265 – Vs Wout Maerschalck – Mercenaries – 16/09/18

My list:

Adeptis Rahn (Defenders of Ios)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Chimera

-Phoenix

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen

Houseguard Thane

Ghost Sniper

Ghost Sniper

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Min Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

His List:

General Ossrum (The Irregulars)

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Gunner

-Grundback Gunner

Hammerfall Siege Crawler

Hammerfall Siege Crawler

Ogrun Bokur

Ogrun Bokur

Horgenhold Artillery Corps

Horgenhold Artillery Corps

Max Horgenhold Forge Guard

Max Horgenhold Forge Guard

One of the biggest weaknesses of my WTC pair is that neither of them are particularly good at playing the Standoff scenario. Neither have cheap contesting models to get into my opponent’s zone so I tend to tick along losing a CP a turn unless I can really overwhelm them. Round 5 of the WTC was against Belgium Sensual Chocolate on Standoff, so if there was a bus to throw somebody under, I was going to be the person thrown under it. That but took the form of Wout with his incredibly strong Ossrum list. I mentioned in my last report that some Ossrum lists are better into me than others, and this one on this scenario is as bad as it comes. I drop Rahn in the hope that he might make a small mistake and give me an assassination opening, but really we were accepting this as a loss in order to get better matches for the team. Wout wins the first turn and we get moving.

Dwarves run up either side of the central building, with Ossrum casting Energiser for an extra bit of movement and putting Fire for Effect up on the left Siege Crawler.

There are so many high powered guns on the Mercenaries side so I place as well as I can to protect against them. Both AFGs are TK’s and Polarity Shield goes on the left Halberdier unit.

The Dwarven guns open up and I lose an incredible amount. The left AFG is two-shot by some incredible dice spikes and the Halberdiers all go down to sprays or incidental shots from the Battle Engines. Ossrum Feats to limit my ability to respond. The game is lost at this point so I just look for ways to score some CPs.

I make a plan to take out the objective and do so with the AFG and Phoenix shooting and a Halberdier charge. I lead 2-0 (briefly)

Wout continues relentlessly removing all my forces, leaving me with just a handful of support left. 2-1 to me.

All I need to do is score 4CPs to win the game! I settle for scoring my zone again and essentially concede the game. Wout effortlessly wins in his next turn 9-3 on scenario.

DEFEAT

A really rough one, but I knew that from the start. With first turn I may have made a bit more of a game of it, but it wasn’t to be. Unfortunately the team lost another close round 3-2 to move to 2-3 overall for the weekend. Winning the next round to get to 3-3 was pretty vital at this point, as we didn’t feel that our level of play deserved to place us where we were.

Game 264: Vyros2 vs Ossrum

Game 264 – Vs Timur Iakubov – Mercenaries – 16/09/18

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:

General Ossrum (The Irregulars)

-Ghordson Basher

-Ghordson Driller

-Ghordson Driller

-Ghordson Driller

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Blaster

-Grundback Blaster

Alten Ashley

Eilish Garrity, the Occultist

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Ragman

Horgenhold Artillery Corps

Horgenhold Artillery Corps

Max Idrian Skirmishers

-Chieftain & Guide

Kayazy Eliminators

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Round 4 of the WTC and we are up against Russia Sputnik. They have some really interesting lists but by this time patterns are forming with regards to what lists people are using. My opponent for example had used his Ossrum list in all 3 rounds the previous day (not that I can talk…) so I was expecting to see that instead of his dudespam Damiano list. That was the way it worked out and with Timur winning the first turn we got moving.

Ossrum casts Snipe onto the Idrians (who had Preyed one of the Manticores) and Fire for Effect onto one of the Artillery Corps. The army moves up with the Jacks fairly centrally (aided by Advance Move to have reasonable board presence),

Ossrum’s threat with his jacks is pretty impressive, but for him to max it out at the 13” takes quite a lot of Focus, wheras I can get the same threat on a Griffon fairly trivially. As such I feel that I can take a turn standing outside the threat of the Jacks and cast Deceleration to reduce the shooting impact for a turn. I put down Covering Fire either side of the central cloud to hold back the Idrians. I play Lanyssa pretty aggressively, but under Force Wall with a couple of Shield Guards she should be ok

Timur feels that he has to Feat defensively in order to prevent me getting an alpha strike on him, and moves up to start contesting the zones and force me into them. Shooting deals some damage to my Jacks but nothing too substantial, and one of the Eliminators charges in to cause me some issues on the left.

A full Synergy Manticore gets to POW23 with all the buffs, so with a Hunter’s Mark I think I can take one of the Drillers down. I build Synergy taking out some Idrians and putting a bit of chip damage onto the jacks before sending in the Manticore and taking it out. I keep the rest in a defensive formation around Vyros and feel pretty pleased with the early attrition. I Feat to make the next turn harder for Timur and manage to take Ragman out with Lock the Target. 0-0

I think I use Vyros’ Feat pretty well in this turn, and whilst I lose the Aspis and 2 Griffons he isn’t ever really able to get attacks onto the Manticores, who end the turn in an ideal position to retaliate. The guns are starting to take their toll but I feel strong attritionally. 0-0

I have a really big attrition turn, taking out both remaining Drillers, crippling one of the Blasters and getting a Griffon into the support staff to take out Aiyana, Holt and all but the Guide for the Idrians. Vyros has lost a bit of his protection but he is still sitting at Def19 Arm20 with transfers on a hill, so I on’t see how an assassination could come about. 0-0

Timur agrees, as after a couple of fairly ineffective activations he shakes my hand.

VICTORY

A huge part of the strength of Ossrum is his ability to take a lot of different list styles and be able to make them all work. That being said I think this style of list is weaker into me than a battle engine/Forge Guard style of list. I was able to control the threats pretty well and the list doesn’t get close to the amount of shooting needed to grind through me, so I felt reasonably in control the whole game. The team won this round 5-0, which was a great confidence boost at the start of the day. We were back to 2-2 as a team now and were really focussed on clawing back to a 4-2 result overall.