Game 103: Vyros1 vs Gaspy3

Game 103 – Vs Duncan Harradine – Cryx – 13/10/17

My list:

Dawnlord Vyros (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Imperatus

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

House Shyeel Magister

Max Cylena Raefull & Nyss Hunters

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Asphyxious the Hellbringer (Scourge of the Broken Coast)

-Vociferon

-Kraken

-Cankerworm

- Deathripper

Satyxis Raider Captain

Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Max Satyxis Raider

-Sea Witch

Min Blood Witched

-Blood Hag

After a very quick Rahn game we both switched lists and re-racked, with my Vyros1 matching up against Gaspy3 in the new Satyxis theme, with the list based around how difficult it is to remove Ashen Veil Satyxis under Star-Crossed. This time Duncan won the roll to go first and we got moving.

Duncan puts up Ashen Veil on the Satyxis along with their own Whipping Winds before running up. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw both Submerge and charge, getting up the table behind the Satyxis. The Jacks run up under Mobility getting aggressively up the board.

I consider the position, but with Duncan’s high threat ranges I decide that the best course of action is to just get up in his face. 2 Griffons run up to get in the way of the Kraken, Imperatus takes up a defensive position behind the building and surrounds himself with Nyss to die and trigger Righteous Vengeance. The 3 remaining Griffons on the right run up aggressively to prepare for the Satyxis.

The Cryx forces come into me for pretty impressive damage. The Kraken destroys one Griffon, and leaves a second with only a single box. On the right 3 or so Nyss are killed along with one Griffon, with significant damage being put into a second. Gaspy feats ready to take advantage of whatever focus I use next turn.

I don’t usually reveal the result of a game until the end, but I am going to do so on this occasion. I go for an assassination, fail, and lose next turn. The reason I went for the kill is the same reason I won’t be using this list again, it is SO reliant on Imperatus for damage that if, as in the game state now, I can’t see how to keep him safe, then going for a long odds assassination is the only play. On this occasion the run is based on Vyros killing the blocking Arc Node, Nyss running through taking free strikes from the Kraken, and Imperatus using a single Side-Step to get to a Flanked Gaspy. Unfortunately all 6 Nyss die to free strikes (needing 6s, so it was likely that one might get through) and the Imperatus run becomes very long odds (it was only 32% with Flank), and inevitably fails. By the end of the turn Gaspy has around 20 souls from his feat,

No point messing around here. The Raider Captain knocks Vyros down and the Kraken destroys him.

DEFEAT

Yep, interesting experiment. I was really excited to see that Nyss might open up Vyros1 in Forges but this version of the list doesn’t work. I might go back to the drawing board in the future with it but with a major event coming up this isn’t the time. The third list slot is narrowed down to Rahn or Kaelyssa.

Game 102: Rahn vs Venethrax

Game 102 – Vs Duncan Harradine – Cryx – 13/10/17

My list:

Adeptis Rahn (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Chimera

-Phoenix

-Aspis

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

House Shyeel Artificer

-Hydra

House Shyeel Magister

House Shyeel Battle Mages

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Lich Lord Venethrax (Black Indutries)

-The Withershadow Combine

-Deathjack

-Ripjaw

-Ripjaw

-Scavenger

-Inflictor

-Stalker

-Leviathan

-Harrower

-Desecrator

Machine Wraith

Pretty late in the day I have picked up a ticket for Blood and Oil, a 3 list 128 player Masters event on the 11^th and 12^th of November. With little time to prepare new lists I have decided to pretty much stick with what I was playing at the Nationals, with Vyros2 and Issyria making up the backbone of the lists. Which again leaves me with a 3^rd list problem. I have 3 lists in my consideration, the Rahn list I’ve been playing, the Vyros1 with Nyss that I played last game, and a rewriting of my Kaelyssa list in the new theme. I have 5 games over the weekend to make a decision, the first against Duncan and his Cryx. I dropped Rahn into his jack heavy Venethrax list. He as a lot of threats with countercharge but no real defence against spells, so if I can play tidily I should be able to find an opportunity. I won the first turn and got moving.

I start the game with Polarity Shield on the Phonenix and flank hard with him, casting Telekinesis on it and the other 3 heavies to get them into more aggressive positions, running up the battle mages between them and the support staff behind.

I had got a little too excited with the Phoenix and had moved him into range of several of Duncan’s guns, who, after a casting of Mortality from Deathjack, moved up and put a big hole in him, before the Stalker leapt in and dealt some more damage, most importantly finishing off the Arc Node. The rest of Duncan’s forces move up with Venethrax putting up Lamentation to ensure I would have to be careful with Rahn’s positioning.

I really hadn’t appreciated how much shooting firepower this Cryx list could put out, but D3 effectively POW17 shots into heavies really can’t be ignored. I decided that the easiest way to deal with this would be to kill his caster. Chimera runs into position, made slightly difficult by having to keep away from Countercharges, Rahn activates and feats, TKing the Inflictor in front of the caster before Force Hammering them both down. Eiryss shoots off his Focus, the Battle Mages move up to pull him in, and the heavies open fire. Some really bad dice actually made this a bit shaky, but the last Manticore finishes the job.

VICTORY

Duncan and I discussed this game briefly afterwards, an there were things that he could have done to make this harder or take it off the table completely but he got distracted by my mistake on the right flank and didn’t pay enough attention to the assassination. It is probably partly due to the fact that not many people are playing Rahn at the moment. Still, another scalp for the list and a pretty satisfying one at that.

Game 101: Vyros1 vs Vlad1

Game 101 – Vs Chris Campbell – Khador – 12/10/17

My list:

Dawnlord Vyros (Forges of War)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Imperatus

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

House Shyeel Magister

Max Cylena Raefull & Nyss Hunters

House Shyeel Arcanists

House Shyeel Arcanists

His List:

Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince (Winterguard Kommand)

-Destroyer

-Destroyer

Kovnik Joe

Min Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

Min Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

-Rocketeer

Max Winterguard Infantry

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Winterguard Gun Carriage

Widowmaker Marksman

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

-Koldun Kapitan Valachev

Winterguard Mortar Crew

Oh Vlad1, it has been a while. The moving meta had forced Vlad out, at least locally, due to a lack of magical attacks in his favoured theme, but now with Mercanary options open to him, Aiyana&Holt have brought him back to the fore. Chris was using a version of the list with the Gun Carriage, and despite winning the roll to go first, opted to choose sides. So I got moving.

The theme allowed me to start with Hallowed Avenger on Imperatus and Inviolable Resolve on the Nyss to protect them against blast damage, which makes Vyros’ first turn so much easier. He casts Mobility and runs up the table, followed by his Jacks. The Nyss take positions where they can be killed by Shield Guarding an AOE onto one of the Griffons to trigger Hallowed Avenger. The support staff follow.

Chris advances up and starts shooting into my forces, dealing scratch damage to some of the Griffons, and killing 3 Nyss, triggering Righteous Vengeance. A lucky scatter vitally drifts perfectly to take out one of my Arcanists, reducing me to just one source of Concentrated Power for the rest of the game.

Losing an Arcanist made me panic somewhat, as with only Imperatus able to take out his heavies I felt I had to go for the assassination. Vyros feats and uses an Eliminator to clear some Winter Guard before casting Mobility to give Imperatus threat range to Vlad, who was camping 1. I would have to get lucky to get a Nyss to Vlad but I felt it was worth the attempt. I messed up my implementation though and wasn’t able to get a Flanking model there, but did take out the axe and Cortex of one Destroyer. Imperatus went in, intending to fully boost both initials. The first rolled only a 5 for damage, doing a single point after focus, so I switched to trying to hard roll 8s. I failed them all and ended my turn in a bad position.

Almost all failed assassinations like that end up in instant losses, but I was still in the game here. Chris pours all his resources this turn into removing Imperatus (Vlad walked away with Parry, who knew he had that…). The Gun Carriage moved in to knock him down, before the Winter Guard Rifles opened up on him. Some huge Signs & Portents damage rolls meant that he went down quickly, even through Phoenix Protocol and Chris had enough attacks left to kill 5 Nyss and reduce a Griffon to a single box. Now I was in a bad position, but did move up 1-0 on scenario.

With the game essentially over (I looked for a scenario angle, but decided there was nothing there) I decided it was time to see what Vyros’ melee potential. With full Focus and Flank being provided by the crippled Griffon, he charges the untouched Destroyer, and through some spikey dice of my own, destroys it with 3 bought attacks. Awesome. This opens up a Griffon to get to Vlad but the dice would have needed to be insane, and he is left on a handful of boxes. I score again to lead 2-0.

At this stage Chris only has around 8 minutes on his clock, but it is more than enough to get the job done. The Gun Carriage slams a Griffon into Vyros, knocking him down before sealing the deal with Rockets.

DEFEAT

Ok, so I don’t like the list. I keep trying to make Vyros1 work but since I have seen the light with his Epic version I just can’t justify it. Mobility is an amazing spell that I loved in Mk2 with Amon, but Ret jacks are quick enough to not need it in the same way that Menoth do. The list is SO dependent on Imperatus getting the work done that it falls apart once he goes down or is neutered. That being said I did not play this game well. The assassination that I felt pretty good about turned out to only be 38% once I used Oddsmachine after the game, so I should probably have just played an attrition game for another turn and see how the game played out. The turn after Imperatus went down I pretty quickly declined the scenario play once I realised that I couldn’t win that turn. Had I committed my resources to clearing the left zone and destroying his objective I could have gone 4-0 up with Vyros safe, and only needed to find a point or 2 in the next turn. Lots to learn, and I’ll decide at a later date whether to keep going with this list.