Game 291: Issyria vs Ravyn

Game 291 – Vs Paul Garrett – Retribution – 28/12/18

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:

Ravyn, the Eternal Light (Slaughter Fleet Raiders)

-Hyperion

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Ghost Sniper

Ghost Sniper

Houseguard Thane

Houseguard Thane

Heavy Rifle Team

Heavy Rifle Team

House Vyre Electromancers

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard

Stormfall Archers

A rare mirror match. Paul was watching my previous game against Cryx and between us were wondering whether my list would be able to handle the combination of Countermeasures and highly accurate shooting that his list had. Despite me having +1, Paul won the roll to go first, which certainly made things a bit more difficult.

After Advance Moving up, Paul runs up all his troops, with Snipe on Hyperion and Countermeasures on the left unit of Halberdiers (the ones in front of my Tridents, in a shock turn of events)

I’m under the cosh pretty early here, and now I know how it feels playing into an aggressive Defenders list, but I also know that the first thing an opponent needs to do is not panic. I spready out pretty wide, take defensive positions where possible, and stay largely out of threat. The Phoenix pushes up a bit further as with Admonition it is going to be tricky to deal with.

Ravyn’s Feat turn, and a pretty devastating volley of shooting. Imperatus takes a pretty big hit, and is then Disrupted by Eiryss, with the nearby Eiryss being Consumed by Hyperion. The Phoenix takes some damage, but following an advance up with the Halberdiers is able to Admonition into combat, which thankfully meant that even Feat boosted Stormfalls missed. On the left the Countermeasured Halberdiers run up in an attempt to shut down my Tridents.

I am set a pretty difficult puzzle to solve, but have enough tools to be able to work it out. Issyria moves up and Feats, allowing the Destors and Imperatus to clear out the front line of Halberdiers. One Trident takes out the rest of the unit, allowing the other to deal about a third of the boxes to Hyperion. On the right I manage to clear a route for the Phoenix to get a good Combustion off, but don’t roll particularly well. I clear the left zone, but didn’t have the foresight to have a unit in it. 0-0

Paul starts playing fairly hard for scenario, taking out the objective to clear the central zone. Again, Imperatus is Disrupted by Eiryss, and Hyperion moves up aggressively into the left zone. On the right, the Phoenix is finished off by the Halberdiers, and the Stormfalls set 5 of the Sentinels on fire, hoping to kill them without triggering Vengeance. Paul leads 2-0.

I have one job this turn, kill Hyperion. I have 2 Tridents, guns from 2 Destors and a Disrupted Imperatus to do it, and whilst both tridents only rolled up a single Power Token, I am just about able to take it down. On the right I take out most of the Halberdiers, and sitting looking uncomfortable in front of the Stormfalls and Ghost Snipers. 2-1 to Paul.

Paul can fairly easily score the middle zone this turn, but the left has gone completely and there would be no way to score further points from there. He is also fairly low on time, and so makes a big play and tries to take out a Trident with Ravyn. Even with her new martial prowess she leaves it on about 10 boxes, and unable to Sprint away, sits in front of my army. Paul concedes.

VICTORY

This was the first game where I really appreciated the strength of this list. Paul is a really strong opponent and played this game well, but even when under severe pressure in the early turns the list was able to play around it and get ahead in the game. I just want to play this list all the time, it has so many answers to things. I’m not sure with it as a pair to Goreshade, but I have a 2 day event in January to work that out.

Game 188: Kaelyssa vs Ossyan

Game 188 – Vs Paul Sheard – Retribution – 06/05/18

My list:

Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper (Legions of Dawn)

-Helios

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir

Dawnguard Destor Thane

Dawnguard Destor Thane

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

Min Dawnguard Destors

His List:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (Defenders of Ios)

-Harpy

-Hypnos

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcanist Mechanik

Fane Knight Skyreth Issyen

Heavy Rifle Team

Heavy Rifle Team

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr

The final round of the Steamroller put me against club mate Paul. Paul was borrowing some of my models to add to his own Ret for the weekend, so I apologise for any confusion there may be in the photos. I wanted to try my Kaelyssa list out, and thankfully had an opportunity to do so here. I won the first turn and we got moving.

I haven’t played this list for a while but it all comes back to me pretty quickly. Refuge onto Kaelyssa, Blur on Helios and everything runs up the table, being careful to stay out of the AFG threat ranges.

Ossyan puts up Quicken onto the left AFG to get it further up the table, and Admonition on himself. Paul’s army then get up the table, with both Halberdier units advancing in Shield Wall to make them slightly harder to kill.

The plan this turn is to deal what damage I can and Feat to protect against reprisal. My number 1 target is Hypnos, as him Shadow Binding areas of my Sentinels. Kaelyssa advances and uses 2 shots to make it Stationary, before Helios charges a Halberdier to get position, killing it and setting 4 others on fire, before pushing Hypnos towards the Sentinels who charge and kill it. A few other Sentinels and the Destor Thane on the right take out some Halberdiers, whilst the left Thane takes out Lynus and Edrea.

3 of the 4 aflame Halberdiers die to the fire, and Paul tries to plan his way back into the game. He attempts to shoot Helios with Ossyan’s gun but unfortunately misses before Ossyan Feats. All but the right AFG shoot into it, leaving it on a dozen or so boxes. The right AFG is engaged by 2 Sentinels and a Soulless, so does what he can to disengage himself without triggering too much Vengeance. The Halberds try to get some work done but can only take out a few Sentinels. Nobody scores.

Kaelyssa and Eiryss combine to lock down the Harpy before the Destor Thane deals some damage to it. Helios tramples over the Halberdiers before buying 2 attacks to kill the left AFG. On the right, boosted by Tactician the Sentinels and Destors destroy the AFG, one of the Rifle Teams, and most of the remaining Halberdiers, leaving Paul with very little left. It was a pretty brutal turn of attrition that effectively ended the game. Again, nobody scored.

Paul uses his few remaining models to try and take out Helios, but leaves the colossal on a handful of boxes. He isn’t happy about how this game is going. We still don’t score.

I’m on tidy up this turn as the Destor Thane finishes off the Harpy, Helios destroys the objective and my Dawnguard finish off everything else that isn’t Ossyan. I finally start scoring, taking a 3-0 lead.

Ossyan finishes off Helios. I move to 4-0.

Kaelyssa shoots the single Focus off Ossyan, allowing the Destor Thane to charge and kill Ossyan. I finish at 6-0 on scenario.

VICTORY

This was pretty brutal for Paul, and could look extremely one sided, but a couple of dice rolls and one mistake by Paul made a huge difference. When I tried to Stall Hypnos with Kaelyssa Paul decided to Shield Guard it onto Issyen, forgetting that she had Reload. This meant that I could still use all 3 pushes from Helios, had one of those been Shield Guarded my positioning would have been much harder for my Sentinels to get into it. Ossyan missing the boosted 9 to hit Helios was also pretty painful for Paul, as with it Helios would have been only DEF15 and would likely have died on his feat turn. All these things aside though, taking a friend’s army off the table was very satisfying indeed.

I finished the event on 3-1 putting me in 4^th place. A pretty satisfying result especially given the nature of my loss, and I was happy with the changes I’d made to the 2 lists. 2 weeks to go until the Welsh and I am starting to feel pretty well prepared.

Game 147: Kaelyssa vs Kaelyssa

Game 147 – Vs Paul Garratt – Retribution of Scyrah – 22/02/18

My list:

Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper (Legions of Dawn)

-Helios

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

Min Dawnguard Destors

Min Dawnguard Destors

His List:

 Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper (Defenders of Ios)

-Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker

-Hydra

-Phoenix

Arcantrik Force Generator

Aelyth Vyr, Blade of Nyssor

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Ghost Sniper

Ghost Sniper

Lys Healer

Priest of Nyssor

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Ryssovass Defenders

Well this is awkward. I wanted to test my Kaelyssa list as an answer into the mirror match (which I have minimal recent experience in) and it turns out that Paul had the exact same idea, resulting in a full mirror match. Paul’s list has much greater assassination threat than mine, whilst mine attritions harder on paper, so the game from my point of view was going to be all about staying safe and grinding the game out. Paul won the roll but favoured the side with the hill to give some protection against Phantom Hunter shooting, so I got moving.

Whilst Paul doesn’t have too much shooting in his list there is definitely enough to make putting Blur on Helios worthwhile, with Kaelyssa putting Refuge on herself as is pretty standard. My forces run up, slightly awkwardly due to the positioning of some terrain, with the Destors flanking on each side, being careful to stay out of the Hydra’s walk and shoot range.

Not careful enough, unfortunately. I had managed to forget about the +2 inches of range that the AFG gives jacks, so after the Battle Engine runs up, a Phantom Hunter boosted Hydra is able to take out one of my Destors on the right. The rest of Paul’s troops move up, with Blur on Kaelyssa herself. The Halberdiers Shield Wall and move up to jam my Sentinels.

A bit of a shame to lose a Destor unnecessarily like that but really nowhere is safe from the range of the Hydra. My plan this turn is to take out the Phoenix and as many Halberdiers as I can get to. Helios moves up into the zone and pushes the Phoenix twice into range of many Sentinels, who charge and destroy it, and 3 of the 4 Halberdiers in front of them. Kealyssa feats and both units Mini-Feat to protect against any blasts from the AFG.

With Stealth up across my army and not wanting to trigger Vengeance on the Sentinels Paul is fairly limited with what he can do this turn. He takes out the Sentinel Scyir, removing Tactician from my forces and puts some damage into Destors on the left but generally just Feats and moves to make my next turn as difficult as possible. Nobody scores.

Paul has jammed me up pretty well and losing the Scyir really reduces the effectiveness of the army. Eiryss shoots out the Halberdier Banner, reducing the bubble of command and allowing the Destors a bit of freedom. The Sentinels take out a handful more Halbs, with 2 running through to engage the AFG. Helios walks up, pulls in the Hydra and kills it, setting 4 Defenders on fire with Flame Burst. I could score this turn but it is quickly becoming apparent that I only lose this game by assassination, so keep Kaelyssa safe instead.

This was the turn I was worried about as finally Paul’s ranged models have a chance to do significant damage to me. He needs to clear out the models engaging the AFG first, and unfortunately the Priest’s spray only kills one, requiring Eiryss and a Defender to take out the rest. The remaining Defenders charge into Helios and deal decent damage including taking off it’s right arm with Precision Strikes. The Halberdiers continue to jam Kealyysa clears out the right zone to move into a 1-0 lead.

With Feats gone and with me in an attrition advantage it is time to get work done. The Sentinels finish off the Halberdiers and put attacks onto the Ghost Snipers, and though all 5 attempts at a 7 fail, at least they are tied up. The rest destroy the objective and swarm the AFG, ready to attack next turn. Helios kills 3 of the Defenders, setting the rest on fire. I score the left zone, objective and right flag for a 3-1 lead.

Despite most of the Defenders burning to death Paul kills a lot of my army here, using the AFG Momentum Shots to clear out a load of Sentinels, clearing up a Ghost Smiper to finish off a Destor. Kaelyssa moves up and kills both Arcanists before Refuging to the flag. Paul scores 2 to close up to 3-3.

Helios walks in to contest the right zone before punching the AFG to death. Sentinels take out the Ghost Sniper and clear out the flag for Eiryss to score it. Score moves to 5-4 to me but attritionally I am well up in the game.

Paul fails to contest my flag, with the remaining Sniper dying to a Free Strike. He settles for killing off more Sentinels, with the clock being his only viable win condition with me on only 5 minutes. I end the turn 7-5 ahead.

I could possibly win this turn but decide that it isn’t worth the time to try and work it out. I run Helios to contest the flag to stop Paul’s scoring, and run my Sentiels to block Eiryss. I score 2 to lead 9-5.

And Paul knows the game is up, with me winning 11-5 on scenario.

VICTORY

Some mirror matches can be a really tedious affair, or simply decided by first turn, but this one actually felt quite interesting. With us both having Phantom Hunter on both our casters and Eiryss there were always threats on the table. I was always going to have a stronger attrition force and kept Kae safe for the whole game whilst grinding out a win.

Game 66: Vyros2 vs Kaelyssa

Game 66 – Vs Niels Jensen – Retribution of Scyrah – 26/07/17

My list:

Vryos, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Imperatus

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Magister

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Kaelyssa, Night’s Whisper

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Banshee

Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber

-Discordia

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Mage Hunter Assassin

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Second game of Vyros evening saw me play against Niels, who had also been at the last Steamroller but who I didn’t end up playing. I know really that Issyria is going to be my drop into most Warmachine but wanted to see how Vyros felt in the mirror. Niels dropped his Kaelyssa list, and I won the roll to go first.

I cast Deceleration and run up, Griffons on the right and Manticores on the left. In hindsight this was probably the wrong way round, as the rubble on the left caused issues that would have been avoided by the innate Pathfinder on the lights.

Niels put out his upkeeps and advanced up the board. Refuge went on Kaelyssa herself, Blur on the Sentinels and Speed of Death on Elara, to give Discordia permanent Refuge. Kaelyssa Feats, giving her army Stealth and stopping me from charging. The Sentinels advance up, remaining out of threat of my Griffons.

With limited options on his Feat turn I reposition a lot of my forces, toe the left zone with a full unit of Arcanists, and throw up 2 Griffons as a sacrifice. I use my own Feat to be able to take advantage of their noble deaths. My Magister toes the zone behind the cloud, making it very difficult for Niels to remove her and score.

Niels kills the 2 Griffons, and between his order of activation being perfect, and Kaelyssa using her gun to Stall 2 warjacks I find it difficult to make any particularly useful moves. The Mage Hunter Assassin and three Sentinels run up to engage my Magister and they use Iron Zeal to protect themselves. Discordia takes a big chunk out of a Manticore before moving away. The left zone is not contested, so I score a CP to lead 1-0.

I plan out a million moving part plan to assassinate Kaelyssa. Imperatus has no charge target but if I push the Banshee back with the Magister (after clearing off the Assassin with a Griffon charge) I would be able to charge with Impy, and either side-step to Kaelyssa or just move into a strong attrition position. Unfortunately, the plan went wrong early, with the Magister missing needing only a 5 to hit. I tilted pretty hard at this point and made a lot of mistakes, including killing a single Sentinel, triggering Vengeance. I put some damage on Discordia with my damaged Manticore, but fail to take out any systems. I feel like the game is over, but do score a second point to lead 2-0.

Niels keeps up the attrition pressure, finishing off the Manticore, killing the central Griffon and all but destroying the one on the right. His Sentinels take the zone but mine is still uncontested, so I lead 3-1 but am fast running out of useful models.

I have a lifeline, in that Kaelyssa is on 0 Focus, but on a hill. I have 3-5 shots that I can get on her depending on the Manticore’s roll, and with a couple of boosted power 12/14 shots she had a decent chance to go down, I just needed to roll high and hit Def18. Vyros goes first, casts Easy Rider to get out of the rubble, hits the first shot and boosts damage to do 9 or so boxes. The Manticore goes next, rolls a single shot, hits and boosts damage to kill Kaelyssa.

VICTORY

An odd game, and one difficult to take too much from. Whilst I had no right to win the game at the end (the assassination was around 20%) my play on turn 3 would have put me in a very strong position had the Magister hit her push shot. I am not pleased with how I reacted to things going wrong, as I ended up compounding mistakes, but just about managed to stay in the game enough for the dice to come back and rescue me. This will probably be the last game with the Manticore build, and I will be seeing how the list fares with just Imperatus and a sea of lights. 

Game 64: Issyria vs Vyros2

Game 64 – Vs Adam Bailey – Retribution of Scyrah – 22/07/17

My list:

Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Hyperion

-Chimera

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Spears of Scyrah

-Soulless Escort

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Min Mage Hunter Infiltrators

His List:

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Imperatus

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon (9, for those not counting)

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Arcanists

-Soulless Escort

The final round of the Steamroller saw a final table as mirrory as they come. Vyros2/Issyria vs Vyros2/Issyria, both in Forges/Shadows respectively. In terms of the match up we knew the Issyria mirror would be pretty miserable, but I know that my Vyros list would lose to his due to the Manticores being pretty dead weight. So I had to drop Issyria and he chose Vyros. I won first turn after a reroll and we were off. Strap yourselves in…

I run up. The fact that there is a building not a forest in the middle of the table helps me, and gives me somewhere to place Issyria aggressively later on. For now Inviolable Resolve goes on Hyperion and everything runs into place, with the Mage Hunters focusing on the left side of the building.

Adam pulls his jacks in to create Fort Vyros. Vyros fires a speculative Twister into my lines, scattering onto Narn and killing him. The challenge is set.

Feat turn. Issyria advances and Velocities into the central zone behind the building and casts Crusader’s Call. On the right 2 Spears are able to charge a Griffon but bad dice mean I only really take out the Force Field. The blue Mage Hunters shoot into the Griffons, doing some decent damage through the many Shield Guards and setting up for the orange unit to charge in. Again the dice are cold and only one Griffon is destroyed, with a number of others badly damaged, but it doesn’t feel like enough. The Infiltrators spread out ensuring that there is no Side-Step path to get to Issyria.

Adam’s response hurts, but doesn’t feel like the game is over. The innate high Defence of the Mage Hunters mean he struggles to build the chain easily, and still needs 5s to hit once he is at the +3. As a result only one Griffon is able to break through the first line, killing 3 or so from the back lines. All the zones are contested and nobody scores. I feel like I am down in the game, but not completely out of it.

In goes the next wave. Hyperion and the Infiltrators charge in on the right, killing off 2 more Griffons. On the left the Mage Hunters charge where they can, and continue to grind away, killing another Groffon and leaving the rest looking pretty unhealthy. Issyria moves to the back of the right zone to score, taking a 1-0 lead.

Vyros’ forces go into Hyperion, leaving it on only 2 boxes, one in Movement and one in Cortex. More Mage Hunters die in the left zone but they are still hanging on pretty well. Nobody scores, I retain a 1-0 lead.

Despite having no arms Hyperion manages to connect with a Griffon on his second attack, taking out its movement and allowing me to finish it off with the remaining attacks. The Mage Hunters heroically finish off another Griffon and the Chimera gets involved to add some more damage. An Infiltrator charges the Mechanik he was using to contest my zone and I score again to lead 2-0.

A Griffon finished off Hyperion but Imperatus fails his attacks on the Infiltrator in my zone. More Mage Hunters die, but nobody scores. 2-0 (end of turn 4)

The 3 remaining Mage Hunters kill off the last Griffon on the left, and the Chimera starts killing off some Artificers. I score the left zone but Adam scores the middle, making the score 3-1.

Vyros finishes off the Mage Hunters and Imperatus finally kills the Infiltrator. The last Griffon scores the central zone. 3-2 to me. (end of turn 5)

The Chimera moves to contest both zones and kills off the Soulless. Nobody scores and it remains 3-2.

Imperatus shoots off the last Mechanik, and Vyros kills off the Chimera. The score moves to 3-5 on his turn. (end of turn 6)

And then with nothing to contest, Adam wins 8-3 at the top of turn 7.

DEFEAT

Wow. An amazingly fun final to finish a great day of games. I am surprised at how well the list hung in there after a really poor feat turn, but it really shows the staying power of that much Def14. Congratulations to Adam for winning the event.

All my opponents from the day won the rest of their games, so my Strength of Schedule was comfortably good enough for me to finish 2^nd and complete a Retribution 1^st and 2^nd at the event. I’m not completely happy with my Vyros list (the Mantocores don’t feel right), and have some things I want to try with Issyria, but can’t wait to play around and tweak these 2 lists.

We have another Steamroller in a month at the club, and the Nationals a few weeks after that so there is plenty of buzz about the place.