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Issyria vs High reclaimer 50 point batrep.

It was time to brush up on my Ret again, so I bought them out for a spin at 50 points against a new player who was pretty good although was starting out at Menoth.

Issyria and All The Guns
Issyria
Banshee
Mage Hunter Strike Force with UA
Invictors with UA
2 units Storm Fall Archers.
Artificer
Narn
2 Mage Hunter Assassin
Aiyanna and Holt

 First turn I had some lucky rolls against his Errants killing 3 from Strike Force and Storm Fall scatters.

He responded by advancing up, using all the ARMz and sitting behind a Beijing level of man made clouds.

 I honestly wasnt going to feat this turn but I figured 2 things.
1 a quick game is a good game and
2 there was a pretty good chance of it working.

So Issyria popped feat and the Strike Force advanced. However 4 advanced into the coulds in front of them, which was totally unnecessary. But it dropped thier Rat by 2 points. So after the assassination run I left him on about 8 boxes. Derp.
Never mind I still picked out the unit of Errants and pEyriss.

If I was not going for the assassination I simply would have put my effort into killing his Errants and held off on the feat.

Narn charges in and sprints off next to the book to hang out.

So he responds by killing off most of the strike force, failing to kill Narn and farting out an obscene amount of clouds.

This picture shows the turn after what actually happened.

What actually happened is Narn charged over the High Reclaimers troops like an Elf who gives no fucks and rolled both 8s he needed to hit the High Reclaimer and kill him.
This wasnt actually my plan. I had planned to just work on the attrition because I didnt expect Narn to boss mode it.

Oh well GG Narn.

Rahn v Witch coven and Ravyn v eKromac super fast batreps. Now with science!

Been about a month since I got to have any games. Trying to get some practice in before the October tournament and try out some list ideas.

I haven't committed to running Thyron. I want to I just think I won't get him in time. 

So today I played with:

• Rahn
• Pheonix
• Elara
• Moros
• Dahlia and Skarath
• HSBM
• Infiltrators with 3yriss
• Magister
• Arcanist
• Arcanist

Its a pretty terrible list but running it into Witch Coven was even worse.

I am pretty much shelving Rahn until Helios comes out. 

Deployment

So two turns in I was covincingly getting my shit pushed in and it was looking like a white wash, or brown wash.

Skarath was killed by one infernal machined jack and Elara was picked off by the charging stalker.

My battle mages and infiltrators were tied up in combat with ethereal jerks.

However he kill boxed himself, then kill boxed himself again the next turn.

Because 3 lots of warcasters are hard to manage I guess. So the Pheonix loaded up killed thr objective and I won on scenario, which I really REALLY should not have.

Second game

• Ravyn
• Imperitus
• Arcanist
• Artificer
• MHSF UA
• Invictors UA
• PEyriss
• Ghost sniper
• Ghost sniper
• Magister

This list went a little better. 

The Ghost snipers and Eyriss killed one shifting stone and Ravyn went central with the Artificer bubble and VoD up. So 17/18.

Invictors took snipe mini feated and combined 2 skinwalkers off the table.

Wold wyrd moved up rolled super well and left Ravyn on 4 hit points. Talk about squeaky bum moment.

Clockwork Oracle tells me that it was about average.

I whipsnapped Imperitus up to get an easy walk in on Ghettorix, went in with concentrated power missed Ghettorix twice so I contented myself with making 2 Skinwalkers tough and on fire.

With the Pureblood being tied up by the Remaining Strike Force. Kromak went in himself to kill Imperitus, who Pheonix Protocols then Ghettorix finishes him off.

If my opponent had been slightly more cautious he should have used the Winter Argus animus on Kromac and kept more transfers, letting Ghettorix finish off Imperitus twice.

He did not however. With 9 points of auto damage and a bit more from Ravyn the Invictors put combines down on Kromac and with lucky dice I get just enough to kill him.

Oracle tells me with 5 combines this should be easy. I guess I didn't get as lucky as I thought.

Thyron v Witch Coven, 50 point test run and proxy

Last night I got to put Thyron through his paces.

My list as follows

Thyron
Banshee
Moros
Griffon
Griffon
Madelyn Corbaeu
Invictors with UA
Storm Fall Archers
Storm Fall Archers
Artificer
Magister
Arcanist
Arcanist

My strategy

My worst match ups by far are tough spam. I am leaning on my Issyria Alpha force at the moment to take a lot of match ups and getting toughed out of a game is an issue. Before I would throw Ossyan or Garryth at the situation to try and out attrition them.
Now with a side stepping grievous wounds Moros and Banshee I can throw them into a line of tough trolls and watch them crumble.

Ideally the Griffons and maybe Moros charge up to sweep out the front skirmish line with the feat depending on necessity. Then after fire support from the units Moros and the Banshee can lock down targets for the Stormfall Archers and the Invictors can get good flanks into the harder stuff in the center if need be.

His list

Witch Coven
Skarlock
Deathripper
Deathrpper
Stalker
Iron Lich Overseer
Harrower
Slayer
Iron Lich Overseer
Reaper
Slayer
Machine Wraith
Machine Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech
Bile Thralls
Skarlock



My Tactics

Biles are only a threat to my support and infantry. I say only, its a very big threat but I feel like the archers should be far enough back to not worry and the Jacks also wouldn't care. I want to neutralise that threat as much as possible with my Invictors and trying to get lucky on some AOEs

Seeing as I don't need the feat sidesteps to clear out infantry I am planning to use them to step  around the marshalled jacks and kill the overseers.

Assassination is off the cards, and there is no killbox, so I only need to be as far forward with Thyron as I need to be. However it is my first test drive so I will get him stuck in later. I also have to worry about his Stalker, that could be bad news for Thyron.

Cryx turn 1

Ret turn 1

I wanted to mini feat the Invictors to take out some Biles on the first turn but didnt have the range. However I got some very lucky deviations and damage and AOEs piked off 3 biles.

Cryx turn 2

He advances and feats.

Ret turn 2

I step up with the Invictors, committing them to success or death. More fantastic deviations and one combine take out a few more Biles during his feat turn. I position up.
A griffon runs in to tie up his center.
He moved his units out of the zones and I scored 2 scenario points.

Cryx turn 3

Bile purge kills half the unit of Invictors, better results than I expected. Ghostly and Curse of shadows get used to make this happen.

Some token shooting goes down from the Cryx side but overall I mitigated his alpha successfully.

A War Witch Siren and  2 Machine Wraiths come in from the flanks to tie up my Stormfall Archers.

Ret turn 3

1. 
   Thyron upkeeps Stormrager on himself and assail on the Banshee.
2. Hands out Focus. Activates and casts spell piercer.
3. With Spell Piercer the Stormfall Achers on the left flank manage to kill teh Siren and the Machine Wraith however the ones on the right were not so successful. 2 of them however put some damage down on the jack in the middle of the zone.
4. The Artificer charges the jack in attempt to sidestep and Beatback off it into the Death Ripper and Beatback that out of the zone. However even under Thryrons feat with MAT7 it misses both attacks on the jack and fumbles my plan for that turn.
5. So the Banshee has to pick up where the Artificer let me down. With only 2 focus, a free charge and Concentrated power it charges off towards the central jack, leaving itself just at maximum reach range. It hits the jack, sidesteps to the overseer, hits the overseer and boosts damage to kill it, then it sidesteps back between both jacks, cleaves into its first target and wrecks it and then buys a final attack on the remaining jack.

Cryx turn 4

Cryx attempt to salvage the situation. The Stormfalls are half killed and break morale. The Slayer throws the Griffon into some Invictors killing 3. The Death ripper tries to kill the Artificer but he tanks it out. The other Slayer barely scratches the Banshee and the Slayer charges Moros but only takes off his force shield in damage.

Ret turn 4

At this stage I was pretty confident that I could ride out the scenario for victory, however that was not the point of playing this proxy game with Thyron, so I charged right in to see what he could do.
Sadly he missed his charge attack and didn't achieve much. On the other hand Moros killed the Stalker with only 2 focus and concentrated power so he was overloaded.
The Invictors picked up flank to kill the remaining Death Ripper and the Artificer did his job pushing the Slayer out of the zone, while the Banshee put some more damage on it.

Cryx turn 5

Cryx countered by a nice headbutt assassination run, but Thyron tanked it pretty well, standing up with 9 remaining hit points.

3 Scenario points for Ret

Ret turn 5

The overseer didnt die, but the artificer turned around and after the Stormfall Archers unengaged from the Machine Wraith he Magno Blasted it.

Still wanting to see what Thyron could do, he stood up and killed the Reaper then cleaved into the Slayer killing that too.

However after spending all of his focus he was still vulnerable to assassination. At defence 19 my opponent needed 10s to hit., boosted and connected.
Then followed up with boosted damage looking for dice minus 6, a roll of 15 to kill and landed it.

Thyron Sword of Truth first glance.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Looks good.

Steamroller Battle report Nakamurabashi Japan. 35 points! Earthquakes! Dodging Legion!

Life without Gators!

Just look at how relaxed these people are.

I had the supreme novelty of playing Warmachine on the floor, while not chasing terrain blown by the wind or stepping on models or all of the other inconveniences table-floor gaming induces.

In fact the tatame style Warmachine was quite a pleasure and authentically Japanese despite all of the white faces.

Onwards to victory.

This was a 10 player 35 point Steamroller event that essentially was run as hardcore with painting requirements and deathclock (chessclock).

The field was something like...

Trolls: Madrak, Doomshaper.

Trolls: Madrak, ...?

Convergence: Syntherion, ...?

Retribution: Kaelyssa, Rahn.

Retribution: Issyria, Garryth.

Menoth: Avataar, Kreoss.

Cryx: Goreshade3, Asphixious .

Cryx: Mortenebra, Sturgis2.

Circle: Kromac, Kaya.

Legion: Rhyas, Thagrosh2.

I ran the Retribution with Issyria and Garryth.

Serious business kill stuff good to win games list.
Issyria Sybil of Dawn
Banshee(10points)
Mage Hunter Assassin(2points)
Mage Hunter Assassin(2points)
Hunter Strikeforce(8points)
Mage Hunter Commander(2points)
Stormfall Archers(5points)
Stormfall Archers(5points)
House Shyeel Artificer
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Garyth support late game assassin list.
Garryth
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker(2points)
Chimera(6points)
Dawnguard Sentinels(9points)
Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard(2points)
Souless attachment
Dahlia Hallyr & Skarath(9points)
House Shyeel Artificer(3points)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce(5points)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander(3points)

I went 4 and 0 played each list twice, 11  Control points and about 120 destruction points.

Game 1, Scenario 1 Destruction.

We tried to imagine a serene battle of floating Zen babe versus Demi god duel but our Japanese infected minds could only come up with this.

Issyria Vs Harbinger

Harbinger

Avatar

Reckoner

Vanquisher

Daughters

Knights Exemplar?

Nicea

Chior.

Every game today started with my opponent winning the dice roll, going first then me choosing the side I'm sitting on. Except for the first game where he won but decided to go second.

Highlights

• Kill boxed himself to give me 2 CP after he feated because he didn't want Issy feated MHSF to kill Harby.
• First turn Issyria blinding lighted the daughters and aiming SFA and MHSF killed all but 1.
• On the next turn under Issyrias feat a MHA did 26 damage to the Avatar.
• The previous turn the Banshee went up to KD the Avatar but rolled snake eyes. I forgot about purification so Admonition did nothing and the Avatar wrecked the Banshee.
• Holt killed Nicea, good times.

Deployment

Issyria assumes the position.

 Assassins on the flank, Banshee center to inhibit daughters. Strike force fanning around him with the Archers in the back ranks.

Menoth turn 1

Menoth rushes forward and the Harbinger feats to hold my army in place.

Ret turn 2, during harbingers feat.

 The Banshee gets in the zone. With Issyrias blinding light the Strike Force and the Stormfalls clear out most of the infantry. Nothing else advances much for fear of that Menoth sillyness.

Menoth turn 2

 Hilariously forgetting about Purification and having rolled snake eyes to KD the Avataar it walks up and ruins the Banshee. Menoth wreck the objective and net 2 comfortable points. Well they would be comfortable if Harby didn't Killbox herself.

Ret turn 3.

Ret feat turn.
Opportunity seized, the Assassin rolls something like 6,6,5,4,1 with Issys feat and clefts Avatar of Menoth in twain. One Errant is left alive, 2 jacks killed, Nicea was dispatched by Holt and the remaining jack was crippled.

Menoth turn 3.

 The remaining jack and the Errant fail to achieve much of anything despite killing some elves.

Retribution turn 4

Retribution clear out the zone and the objective to let Issyria Dominate for 5 points.

Game 2 Scenario 2 two Fronts

Garryth Vs Madrak

Madrak
Mauler
Axer
Thrower/Tosser?
Pyre Troll
Fennblades no UA
Northkin Firetrolls?
Runeshapers

He won the roll, I went second.

I have to admit I am not proud of this game. At Ret turn 5 there was a fair amount of discussion if Garryth could fit into the gap to kill Madrak. We called over a couple of unbiased judges and they declared he couldn't charge. Which I could live with, except after they left they set it as a failed charge and had me killing an intervening troll. The thing is I had to rewind with my opponent pointing out that Garryth could walk to Madrak if he had the space, and I hadn't actually declared a charge. So I ended up walking into the trolls 4 inches to find I cant fit through the gap and then walking back 3.

I also feel like a giant douche for making my opponent miss a ranged attack he declared on Garyth with his axe. Stealth yo.

We had lunch before this game, I came back after 2 beers and a massive curry and felt this was in no way an advantage.

Troll turn 1

Ret turn 2

 The Dire Troll Mauler had set up, with the rest of his army very aggressively on the front lines. The sentinels however didn't have as much impact as I would like. 2 Sentinels and Skarath did manage to kill the Mauler however.

Ret turn 3

 Trolls went up on a Control point and I had to do some severe mental juggling to get Dahlia into the zone and do something productive with Skarath.  Eyriss was plinking the beasts to make Fury management a problem, causing Madrak to cut.

Ret turn 4

Ret turn 5

 Dahlia fluffs about in the zone stopping him from scoring, which gives Garryth time to play cautiously front line not spending his focus. Eyriss, Sylys and a mage hunter tried to clear the intervening troll blocking Garryths charge lane but all failed.

Trolls turn 5

So at this point the awkward squeeze moment was resolved and Garryth stepped back into the zone. I was pretty sure it was game over. I had a Mage Hunter, Sylys and Dahlia. Then a stroke of massive luck hit.
He was seriously running hot and could only leach from the Axer. As a result both the Pyre troll and the Spear Chucker/tosser/thrower frenzied taking out the Axers spirit. Never the less a fully loaded Madrak went in on Garryth and didn't even connect due horrible bad luck or the fact that Garryth is a badass.

Ret turn 6

Madrak kept 2 transfers, mistakenly thinking he could use them. Garryth still burnt all of his fury putting the troll down, although I had to remind him to use his scroll.

Game 3 Scenario 7 Outflank

Gaspy
some kind of tier
Those really bad infantry
machine Wraith
Deathripper
Cankerworm
Handful of jacks, no characters so no worries.
Mechanics to use the scrap tokens.

He prefaced the game with something like "My battle group gets plus 2 speed" to which my silent response was...

Honestly the faster things run into Issyrias gun line the happier she is. Well unless its too fast I suppose, then it would be horrible.

Deployment

Cryx run up first turn.

 There was a brief interlude for an earthquake in which I sat paniked and the Japanese people continued to play with 0 fucks given.

Ret turn 1

Issyria feats casts Crusaders call and puts Invoiable Resolve on the Strike Force.
One Assassin fluffs the dice and misses her jack, but the other Assassin lands a crippling blow leaving it on about 7 hit points.
Two Stormfall Archers finish off the crippled jack with Sniped shots and put some damage on the one the first assassin missed.
The second unit of Stormfalls put down some more damage on the jack with a mix of Brutals and Sniped shots. One shot went wide and landed on a pair of the Thralls behind.
Strike force advance, finish off the crippled jack and cripple the Cankerworm and put a dent into the remaining jack.

Cryx turn 2 damage control.

 With much lamenting of Issyias feat (the very fuel which powers it!) the arc node positions up on my right flank and his jacks/infantry kill my Assassins and put some Strike Force down.
He Caustic Mists Aiyanna and Holt and a pair of Stormfalls causing the other 2 in the unit to flee. Then charges a thrall he had set up, tries to parasite the Strike Force and fails, feats, kills nothing with the feat (needed nines to kill Strike force with IR and Stormfalls, got none) Camps 4 Focus and hopes he can take it on the chin. Then basically kills himself as he moves a jack and one of those crab mechanics up behind Gaspy.

Ret turn 3

Issyria gives the Banshee 2, floats over the wall she was behind, Blinding lights Gaspy then Ancillary attacks with the Banshee but misses, this however confirmed that the Banshee was in range.
The banshee aimed and boosted and slammed Gaspy into the jack behind him, boosting damage it half killed him.
The non fleeing stormfalls open up with Brutal damage shots and leave him on one box and set him on fire.
Then the artificer comes out, Magno blasts an exploding scrap thrall thing, dragging in another and killing both with the explosion.
Three Mage Hunters charge through the gap and finish Gaspy off.

At this stage I was on 3 wins and the only un defeated player. But because the TO hates me we had to do a fourth round.
Thankfully I got dropped against the other Ret player and dodged the guy using Convergence, and using it well.

Game 4 Scenario 8 Recon

Was super happy about this match up. He had Rahn with 2 units of Battle Mages and Force Wall with 2 units of Battle Mages. Garryth was my pick.

Kaelyssa Vs Garryth

Kaelyssa Force Wall tier 4

Pheonix

Manticore

Griffon

Griffon

Battle Mages x2

Arcanist x3

Kaelyssa turn 1

 He positions with decent threat.

Garryth turn 1

I walk forwards, Mirage the Sentinels and for the first time, ever in the recorded history of a Garryth game which was won, I cast Pyschic Vampire. The Strike Force kill 3 Battle Mages which was a stellar effort.

Kaelyssa turn 2

 One Griffon goes Fleet and charges Eyriss but misses. A covering fire goes down and then the Pheonix advances, Kaelyssa arcs a Rift but it lands on the covering fire.
Kaelyssa Feats.

Garryth turn 2

With all of the jacks and Kae relatively close Garryth decides its time to feat. The Chimera takes one and advances in front of Garryth. The Sentinels mirage forward then run, fanning out in front of his army.
The Mage Hunters fail to kill the Griffon and drastically Skarath uses four fury to try and kill it but leave it on a box.
Garryth feats and charges forward catching most of Kaes army in his feat.

Kaelyssa turn 3

 Kae withdraws her jacks from the zone to be able to use the focus on them. She shoots Dahlia and kills her because I am a chump.

Garryth turn 3

 However mistakes were made, pulling out of the zone made it easy for my Miraging Venganced sentinels to clear it out, the Chimera killed the objective and I happily scored 3 points.
Garryth gunned down a Battle mage and the Strike Force freed up from Vengeance tried to shoot up his Arcanists.
4 Sentinels charged his Pheonix and crippled it but not enough.

Kaelyssa turn 4

 Garryth was pretty terrified of getting shot by Kae so he was mostly hiding behind the Artificer.
The battle mages turned around and cleared off the Sentinels one used a force bolt (for the first time ever Psychic Vampire netted a kill, totally worth the 5 or so focus invested in it at this point.)  around the Pheonix which charged in and killed the Chimera. The Manticore toed the zone. Thinking he had enough models in the zone he killed a couple more Sentinels and the Souless and sat happy.

Garryth turn 4

Garryth kept all his focus, charged the Pheonix and killed it. Then in a short moment of insanity I almost gallowsed the jack, which would have been all kinds of bad.
I cast a Death Sentance on the Arcanist behind the jack and Garryth ended his turn, vulnerable.
The Artificer moved up, magno blasted the Arcanist and pulled the jack out of the zone. Game Over, I won 5 points.

At this stage there were many calls of segoy and sensei as the play had more swag than possibly...

this guy.

To be honest it was an extremely clutch play, as had my other Garryth game been.
I did have some good games but only as much as I got lucky.
Sadly not facing Butchers and masses of high armor shield wall Troll, Khador and Skorne infantry the Dahlia and Garryth combo isnt finding as much purchase as it did back in the Auckland meta.


Anyway after negotiating with the TO to give me my first place prize I thanked everyone for the excellent tournament. Went home and collapsed in a gibbering heap.

Congrats if you made it this far and thanks for reading!