Game 25: Helynna vs Wurmwood

Game 25 – Vs Jakub Dutka – Circle Orboros – 13/05/17

My list:

Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys

-Helios

-Helios

-Hyperion

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

His List:

Wurmwood, Tree of Fate

-Feral Warpwolf

-Pureblood Warpwolf

-Ghetorix

-Woldwyrd

-Woldwyrd

Blackclad Stoneshaper

Blackclad Stoneshaper

Blackclad Wayfarer

Sentry Stone & Mannikins

Sentry Stone & Mannikins

Shifting Stones

Shifting Stones

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

The last game of the Saturday faced me off against Jakub Dutka, who had come over from Poland to take part in the festivities. He had a pairing of Wurmwood and Baldur2 so it was a very simple choice for me. He didn’t think he could grind through the colossals with Baldur so he drops Wurmwood. Jakub wins the roll to go first and off we go.

Jakub runs up behind a wall of cloud and forest, with everything clumped pretty centrally to contest the zone. I love watching good Circle players go about their game, and Jakub looked like he knew exactly where everything was going at all times. I respond by casting Deceleration and haphazardly running up the board, such is my way.

Jakub is tired after the 3 games in the day, all of which had gone to time for him, and goes all in on a top of 2 assassination. Wurmwood Hellmouths Helynna (camping 2) out of the Force Barrier range of the Artificer, both Woldwyrds get Blessed weapons and he goes to town. All told he gets the damage roll from Hellmouth, 6 shots from the 2 Woldwyrds, 3 Mannikin sprays and the Blackclad Wayfarer. With only the Wayfarer left Helynna is on 1 box with no focus. The Wayfarer needs an 8 to hit, but rolls snake eyes. Helynna lives.

Wurmwood is stood 8 inches in front of Hyperion with no Fury. Helynna walks up, moves Cassius away and casts Hand of Destruction on Wurmwood. Hyperion charges in and kills Wurmwood trivially.

VICTORY

Jakub and I tried to work out how the game would have gone on attrition, and the conclusion was that he would probably clock (apparently this is fairly common). As it were I was relieved to have a quick game in round 4 and headed off to get some food and watch Eurovision. I had not played well all day but had somehow come out of it 2-2. I knew I could do better and was ready to face tomorrow with the 4-3 target still in sight.

Game 24: Helynna vs Arkadius

Game 24 – Vs Richard Dunne – Minions – 13/05/17

My list:

Helynna (Forges of War)

-Sylys

-Helios

-Helios

-Hyperion

Arcanist

Arcanist

Artificer

His List:

Dr Arkadius

-Targ

-War Hog

-War Hog

-Road Hog

-Gun Boar

-Gun Boar

-Battle Boar

Min Bone Grinders

Wrongeye

-Snapjaw

Gremlin Swarm

Bog Trog Trawler

Victor Pendrake

Game 3 of the Welsh Masters put me up against Richard Dunne and his Minions, a faction that I still really don’t know anything about. I opted to drop Helynna as I feel more comfortable with her when I’m unsure, and he dropped Arkadius. On paper I didn’t think he would have enough hitting power to get through the colossals but I think I misjudged that situation. I win the first turn and we get going.

I run up to take board position and he runs in response. Wrongeye and Snapjaw are Submerged to protect against pushes and the other heavies use these and the central building to keep themselves safe. Richard plays this turn really nicely and give me absolutely nothing to go on, so in my turn 2 I opt to simply run up and feat, leaving it to him to work out what to do next.

Arkadius’ feat turn. 5 days on and having played a number of games since I will admit that the intricacies of this turn have been slightly forgotten, but the result of it is that horrible dice leave Helios alive on 3 boxes with the Road Hog and a War Hog both due to Frenzy next turn due to Primal. Richard’s dice really were awful this turn, he should have comfortably killed the Helios and had attacks left to move onto the next one, but I was lucky and still in the game. His Gremlin Swarm runs to the living Helios to be a pain. Arkadius scores his zone to lead 1-0.

My focus on this turn is obviously to take down the beasts that didn’t have Primal cast on them, to buy me a turn to deal with the rest. My first activation has to be Hyperion walking over to the Gremlin Swarm and killing it with the Magical Attacks granted by Armoury. The remaining Helios destroys the non-Primal War Hog and the heavily injured one damages the Road Hog. Attrition doesn’t feel great but his next turn will be lessened by Frenzy.

Frenzy happens and finishes off the damaged Helios. Unfortunately in doing so Snapjaw is blocked off from getting to the central Helios. A Gun Boar is ­Primaled and charges into Helios, dealing a massive amount of damage aided by Parasite.

Helios and Hyperion between them kill the remaining two Farrow heavies, but have to leave the right zone to do so

Snapjaw charges into the remaining Helios, killing it, and the Battle Boar and Gun Boar make a decent hole in Hyperion. Bad dice once again mean that Richard is unable to destroy my objective, leaving it on 2 boxes. He scores his own zone again to go 2-0 up.

From this position I can see no way to win other than assassinating Arkadius. My chances are low, needing to hit a boosted Arcane Secrets 12 to land Hand of Destruction, followed by a boosted Hand of Destruction boosted 14 to push him from behind the wall, and then ideally a crit knockdown from Force Strike to allow Hyperion to shoot him to death. I ran the maths on it earlier and for all of this to work the chance is about 11%. It didn’t all work. I failed and conceded.

DEFEAT

It’s a shame that I can’t remember more of the details for this game but there are two important things that I do remember. One, it was an extremely fun game. Two, my opponent outplayed me completely. This is a real example of how you need to know what every faction is capable of. We discussed the game afterwards and he suggested that I should have taken Garryth, as the rough terrain from the AFG would have been a real problem. One to remember for the future.

Game 23: Garryth vs Kromac1

Game 23 – Vs Rebecca Ward – Circle Orboros – 13/05/17

My list:

Garryth, Blade of Retribution

-Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker

-Helios

Arkantrik Force Generator

Dahlia & Skarath

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Lanyssa Ryssyl

Lys Healer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer and Standard

Her List:

Kromac the Ravenous

-Ghetorix

-Warpwolf Stalker

-Warpwolf Stalker

-Gorax

Blackclad Wayfarer

Lord of the Feast

Max Tharn Blood Pack

Shifting Stones

Shifting Stones

Game 2 saw me up against a clubmate Bex, but who I hadn’t played in a long time due to her moving away from the game a bit. She had a pair of Kromac1 and Krueger1 but both lists were slightly limited by the models she had painted (The Welsh runs prizes for those playing fully painted). I decided to drop Garryth as I liked his chances into either list and wanted to avoid being list-locked later in the event. Bex dropped Kromac1, and after a quick read to remind me how he worked, we got to it with me winning first turn.

Standard running up from Garryth with the Sentinels gaining Mirage and Sentry on the AFG. The scenario is the pit so my force keeps very tight together. The circle forces run in response, with the Tharn flanking and the beasts hugging the forest on the right. Wild Aggression goes on one Stalker, and Inviolable Resolve goes on the other.

My main aim this turn is to kill Ghetorix, and he is within 17” of the Helios so it is definitely possible. The Sentry shot from the AFG is out of range of the beasts and so attempts to scatter onto The Lord of the Feast, missing him. The Sentinels Mirage out of the way of Helios. Aiming for 2 shots, the AFG shoots a Knockdown shot at Ghetorix, hitting and putting him on the ground, the second shot destroys a stone. Helios advances up and pulls Ghetorix up the board before punching it dead with enough Focus left to put up both Repulsor Field and Distortion Field. On the left flank Skarath sprays off 2 of the Tharn and puts up Counterblast. Garryth runs to the flag, hoping to score next turn.

Circle turn 2 sees a lot of Sentinels die, but not too much else. Inviolable Resolve is dropped and The Lord of the Feast kills the 2 that were sent to engage him. Warpath is cast and the Wild Aggression Feral is sent in. He kills 4 Sentinels, moving the other Feral, before moving himself with Warpath and killing 3 more Sentinels, finally sprinting back to the forest. The other Feral doesn’t see any need to charge in but sadly can’t get fully back into the forest. The Tharn advance up allowing Skarath to Counterblast one, and the other 3 miss their attacks. We both score our flags to go to 1-1.

This turn’s mission is to kill the non-Prowled Feral, finish off the Tharns and clear the centre zone, allowing me to go to 3-1 with nothing being able to contest my flag. On the left Garryth shoots off one of the Tharn and Skarath kills the other 2 in melee. Between Vengeance and their charges the Sentinels clear the zone, with the banner running to contest Kromac’s flag. The last turn was repeated by the AFG knocking down the Feral and Helios pulling it in for the kill. 3-1 to Retribution.

With no way to catch me on scenario Bex concentrates on points. She finishes off the Sentinels and scores her own flag, going to 4-2 on her turn and I just end mine immediately to win 5-3.

VICTORY

The combination of AFG and Helios into Circle seems really good. Yes Bex could have used Inviolable Resolve and the forest better but the list has so many good angles that it is difficult to stop them all. Garryth once again did basically nothing but upkeep spells but sometimes that’s all he has to do. Glad to be on the board and ready to press on.