Game 157: Rahn vs Stryker3

Game 157 – Vs Stuart Cargill – Cygnar – 10/03/18

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

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr

His List:

Lord General Coleman Stryker (Gravediggers)

-Ol’ Rowdy

-Stormclad

Captain Maxwell Finn

Commander Anson Hitch

Patrol Dog

Trench Buster

Trench Buster

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Max Trencher Commandos

-Officer

Max Trencher Infantry

Max Trencher Long Gunners

-Officer

My next game testing Rahn with Defenders saw me up against Stu with his Stryker3 Gravediggers list. A whole load of infantry with potentially super strong charge attacks would be a good test for my list. I won the roll to go first and we got moving.

The high amount of quality Advanced Deployed guns mean I have to be fairly cautious in my early movements. Both Halberdier units go into Shield Wall and advance up, whiles both AFGs run and are TK’d further up the table. Rahn puts Polarity Shield onto the right unit of Halberdiers and I wait to see what opportunities open up next turn.

With most of his guns out of range and no desire to just move into my threat ranges Stu opts to just move up, spread out and put up clouds with the Trencher Infantry to limit what I can achieve in my turn. Stryker puts up Iron Aggression onto the Stormclad and Escort up onto himself, moving his battlegroup up behind the cloud wall.

One of the things I was considering when putting this list together is its ability to clear out infantry if needed, and this turn was a perfect opportunity to test what my list can do in that regard. Rahn starts the turn by Feating and flinging 2 Chain Blasts into the Commandos, killing several, before TKing the right AFG into the zone. The AFGs then open fire, using Momentum shots to shoot the front Trenchers into the back ones, taking out Finn in the process. By the end of the turn 7 Infantry and 5 Commandos have been taken down, which feels like a decent enough attrition turn.

I had positioned pretty well last turn but my decision to Shield Wall the right unit into pods of three was a mistake that was punished by Stu. The remaining Commandos used their Mini-Feat for Prey on the Halberdiers, and by targeting the models at the back of the triangles he was able to get reliable POW8 blast damage ignoring the Shield Wall benefit. All of the Halberdiers in the right zone were destroyed, with a reasonable chunk of damage put into the Chimera as well. The Long Gunners moved up and took a few shots at me but I had positioned well on the left and didn’t lose too much. We both scored out rectangular zones to start at 1-1

A couple of mistakes that Stu made in the last turn mean that an Assassination is on the table now (Stryker not B2B with Rowdy, Trench Busters out of range). The Chimera Apparitions out of combat and moves into position, before Rahn Arcs a Force Hammer into the Stormclad, knocking down it and Stryker. Eiryss strips his Focus with a Disruptor Bolt before the AFGs shoot him dead.

VICTORY

It was nice to get a first win with this list that didn’t involve taking an assassination run to the face and very satisfying to see how the list attritioned into infantry. Trenchers are pretty sturdy troops and the fact that I was able to remove 12 in a turn speaks highly of how effective this list can be. Stu could have positioned better to make the assassination harder or impossible, but even if he had I think I could have taken most of his army in the next turn and taken an unassailable lead. It was nice to see Stu playing the game again after a bit of a break, and always useful to see a lesser seen caster like Stryker3.

Game 156: Vyros2 vs Terminus

Game 156 – Vs Glen Wareing – Cryx – 10/03/18

My list:

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard (Legions of Dawn)

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Harpy

-Harpy

-Griffon

-Siren

-Siren

-Siren

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

-Soulless Escort

-Soulless Escort

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

His List:

Lich Lord Terminus (The Ghost Fleet)

-Deathripper

-Deathripper

-Barathrum

Wraith Engine

Min Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders

Min Revenant Crew of the Atramentous

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

Min Revenant Crew of the Atramentous

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

Min Revenant Crew of the Atramentous

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

-Revenant Crew Rifleman

Revenant Cannon Crew

Captain Rengrave

Agrimony, Crone of the Dying Strands

Hellslinger Phantom

As discussed in my Helynna testing a week or so ago I thought that looking at Vyros2 in Legions of Dawn was worthwhile, as Rean in America has been having a lot of success with the list. I put a list together that I liked the feel off with a few tricks up its sleeve. My first opponent was Glen with his Terminus Ghost Fleet. I won the roll to go first despite him having +1 and we got moving.

Having to cast Synergy feels odd having exclusively played Vyros2 in Forges, but I do so along with Deceleration and get up the table. Then I quickly realise that the other big change in this list to my usual is that Vyros is the quickest thing in it. The rest of my forces dawdle behind and get ready for next turn.

With my forces out of range all there is for Glen to do is to set up Malediction and get his forces up the table. Barathrum moves up to the edge of the zone and Digs In to reduce the impact of my shooting. The Ghost Raiders move most aggressively up in the centre with the cannon sitting on the far left flank, and the Hellslinger on the far right.

Most of my troops are out of charge range but I have a lot of guns in this list and it is time to see what they can do. Vyros and the 5 Vyre lights shoot into the Cryx forces, and whilst no Revenant leaders were RFP’d, I was able to take out Blackbane and all but one of his Raiders (one of whom took out Agrimony with a Devildriver attack) and the Hellslinger phantom. 2 Sentinels charged into Barathrum, taking out it’s Cortex, before Vyros recast Deceleration and Feated.

Most Terminus games seem to see him Feat turn 2 and get really aggressive, and this was no different. He Assault sprayed 4 Sentinels, killing a couple, before getting up to 5 total souls from other attacks in his army. In doing so however he triggered Vengeance on both units, giving me the opportunity to strike back hard in my next turn. The Wraith Engine runs aggressively into the middle of my army and Rengrave scores his flag to give Glen a 1-0 lead.

This needs to be my big attrition turn and it goes incredibly well. Vengeance moves, a Griffon and my Scyir finish off Barathrum, before the magical melee weapons of the Sirens are turned onto the Wraith Engine, killing it with focus to spare. A final Siren is able to RFP a Revenant leader, switching off the recursion, and the left unit is reduced to just a single Rifleman by my Sentinels. I score the right zone and my flag for a 2-1 lead, as well as a huge advantage on attrition.

Whilst I had been careful to keep Vyros out of Terminus’ walking threat range I had made a mistake that turned out to be fatal. The Siren was in the forest, and in LOS to Terminus, allowing him to charge it in a way that kept him in melee with Vyros. A few bought attacks later and my caster was dead.

DEFEAT

An unfortunate defeat, caused by a single slight positioning error. I only went into the forest in order to get the half inch range claw into the Battle Engine, and would have easily taken it down without it. In terms of the list though I really liked it. It feels so much stronger than the Helynna version, and has a lot more to offer. I don’t like the Griffon in the list, and would prefer a 4^th Siren instead, but do appreciate the extra bit of Pathfinder that the Griffon offers. I definitely want to play this more to see if it has merit over the Forges version.

Game 155: Rahn vs Kolgrimma

Game 155 – Vs Ste Passey – Trollbloods – 08/03/18

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

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Houseguard Halberdiers

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr

His List:

Kolgrimma Stonetruth, Winter Witch (Storm of the North)

-Trollkin Runebearer

-Dire Troll Mauler

-Rok

Northkin Shaman

Valka Curseborn, Chieftain of the North

Swamp Gobber Chef

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes

-Northkin Elder

Northkin Bear Handler & Battle Bears

Northkin Bear Handler & Battle Bears

Max Trollkin Champions

-Skaldi Bonehammer

Max Trollkin Champions

Second game with my new Rahn list gives me the opportunity to use the anti-cloud tech that I put in the list, with Ste dropping Kolgrimma into me. Again I won the first turn and we got moving.

With no real shooting on Ste’s side of the table I can afford to get pretty fruity on my first turn. Again Rahn puts out Polarity Shield onto a unit of Halberdiers (this should probably have been on the Phoenix in hindsight) and TKs up both AFGs. The rest of my forces all run, taking up a pretty aggressive board space and posing some difficult questions for Ste.

Ste needs to work out how to get his forces as far up the table as he can, whilst keeping as safe as he can. He moves up to roughly the edges of the zones, then uses Kolgrimma to cover herself and the right part of the board with a cloud wall. Rok and the Mauler sit behind the Champions to attack as a second line.

My turn starts with Edrea removing 2 of the flags, giving me a number of attack lines into the right side of the table. Rahn TKs both AFGs into better positions, before arcing a Force Hammer into 2 Champions, though they both pass tough checks. The AFGs then open fire and deal a huge amount of damage. Once they and the Halberdiers have all activated all the Champions and Valka are dead on the left, and only 1 Champion and Skaldi survive on the right. It was a pretty devastating turn.

I did make one mistake though. With Rahn camping nothing Kolgrimma can get to him with her sprays by charging a central Halberdier with the speed boost from the stone, Vanishing further forward, and spending her Focus on sprays. Once she has finished Rahn is left on 2 boxes, but there is nothing else that can get to him. I breathe a sigh of relief.

The left AFG aims and slams Kolgrimma into Skaldi, before the Fane Knight charges and kills the troll caster.

VICTORY

I thought I was pretty safe from Kolgrimma’s assassination nonsense without Mulg on the table but I really wasn’t. 22” is a really long way, but again there were things that I could have done to prevent it. In hindsight the Force Hammer was greedy, as if I were camping 4 the assassination would have been completely off the table, and if I had known about the distance I could have had the 2 central Halberdiers over to one side to remove the charge targets. Nonetheless it was still only a 32% shot, but I really need to stop giving these to people. I love the feel of this list, and a bit more game time with it should help me tighten my game up and not give my opponents a way out.