Retribution takes Wolf Cry: My take on the "non standard meta" win.

This was a bit late coming to the blog but I got lost in other activities, posted up a quick report on the PP forums and forgot about it.

Long story short, I won. Yay!

Here is my Forum report.

Hello chaps, had a one day event called Wolf Cry in my little corner of the world in New Zealand.
50 point 4 round format where you choose between 1 and 4 lists but you had to play at least each one once.

I took first place and top Control Points over the following games.

My lists were

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel
Aspis
Phoenix x2
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Houseguard Halberdiers Officer & Standard
Soulless Escort
Arcanist x2
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
House Shyeel Artificer
House Shyeel Magister
Mage Hunter Assassin x2
Narn

Ravyn, Eternal Light
Manticore x2
Arcantrik Force Generator
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard2
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Mage Hunter Commander
Arcanist
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Dawnlord Vyros
Banshee
Hyperion
Phoenix
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Houseguard Halberdiers Officer & Standard
Soulless Escort
Arcanist
Arcanist
House Shyeel Magister
Lanyssa Ryssyll, Nyss Sorceress

First game vs Vindictus, Menoth vs pVyros, Supply and Demand.
I'm not sure if this was a tier list but it was pretty scary. He had the battle engine, 2 units of Bastions with the UA on each one, Zealots with the Monolith and a min unit of cleansers, choir and mechanics and 2 light flamethrower jacks.

It was pretty scary looking at that list, he only had the one so left the ball in my court. Thankfully I decided to run with three lists, I almost did not take pVyros.

I chose pVyros to play against him and took first turn. Hype got a nice crit consume off on the Zealots while they had mini feat up and removed the monolith, I positioned around to cut down the charge from his Bastions with Halberdiers on my left flank, on my right I threw the Banshee out so the other unit of Bastions couldn't charge it or my Pheonix who was also on that flank.

The Banshee took a few Bastions while the Pheonix took the rest, they couldn't charge so damage was minimal. Cleansers started work on clearing out my Halberdiers but only got about 3 of them, he then feated. The Bastions worked on a few more of the Halberdiers reducing them to about half. The Zealots attacked Hype and barely scratch him with Invoiable resolve up.

Pvyros feated dropped 1 focus on Hype and one on the Pheonix and moved to the edge of the scenario zone. Hype made a power attack sweep on 5 Zealots and 2 Bastions but only connected with 2 of the zealots. With some bought attacks and some help from the remaining Halberdiers I fueled up the Pheonix and the Banshee. The Banshee cleared out the opposing objective and put some damage on the Bastions around it and the Pheonix cleared out a few more. I ended my turn on 1 points.
The following turn he wrecked Hype with the other unit of Bastions + UA and threw his entire army at it. I was pretty much left with Vyros and the 2 Jacks who were getting field repairs all the way through this. The Battle Engine was doing a good job of finishing up my Halbs.

So Vyros charged the Bastion UA and killed it, and the 2 jacks cleared out the zone for Vyros to dominate. He rocked into the Hypes wreck, camped focus and girded his loins. He responded by Killing the Banshee dropping a load of flame attacks on Vyros, some of which killed off his own Bastions. Obviously he re contested the zone. In order to score again I needed to kill a few things + finish off the unit of Bastions (2 guys) my Pheonix was 3 inches away from Vindictus and Vyros was less than 7".

So Lanyssa Charged one Bastion finishing it off and the Pheonix moved in to engage Vindictus and killed the other bastion. Rather than clearing the zone with Vyros I charged and killed Vindictus with 2 attacks.

Second game Trolls with eGrimm vs Rahn, Amunition Run.
This guy had 2 lists but it was his second game so he was free with his choice.
I knew this player, he was good. There is not much to say here, I took second turn? Basically he jammed me with the fast running mini feat guys, and lobbed some aoes at me. He positioned Grimm up behind a wall and put his Bomber in front of it. Early on he had some good scatters and luck killing off some support.

Anyway I start my 3rd turn and see the opportunity to slam his Bomber over Grimm. I feat and do this, clearing out some room with my Halbs to get my Mittens in range. He is on 2 transfers but from the Collateral damage + the full unit of Batte Mages I get the kill, tho he toughed twice first. I also moved my Pheonix around to kill the opposing objective and score a point.

Third game I play pHexeris vs pVyros, Into the Breach.
He had 3 lists but didnt want to be locked into the last match up so went with Hex.
I was expecting this match up, and I was expecting who I would play if I won this game. So I took pVyros fully knowing I was locking myself in on Ravyn for the last game.

Happy with the choice however. He had the Mammoth, 2 of the lizard dog things, 2 guys who did puppet master, unit of Gators with the UA and a unit of Nihilators. Also had a Cyclops with a gun. His turns were spent running at me while I walked forward and shot things. Halbs took a charge from his Gators and half the Nihilators and kept kicking back. I strangle held one the light Warbeasts that he was using as arc nodes early on and in the second turn killed it with a Pheonix combustion while the Banshee killed the other and cleared the zone letting me control it for a point. I planned to trade the Banshee and let Hyperion kill the Mammoth.

There was a hairy moment when an AoE drifted over the Banshee and banged up Lanyssa pretty bad but she pulled through...
His Gators were tied up with my Halbs and a couple of his remaining Nihilators put some damage on the Pheonix. He charged the Mammoth at the Pheonix and one shot it, and proceeded to have the reach and fury to kill the Banshee also. He only toed the zone with the Mammoth however so, my next turn I put three on Hype, concentrated powered him and hit the Mammoth with hunters mark. Hype charged it and killed it and Vyros camped and ran into the zone to dominate. He responded by trying to shoot Vyros with his Cyclops which did 3 damage, then Charged hype with Hexeris and went for a spell assassination on Vyros which did nothing. I cleared the solo soul catching spell castery thingee he had in the zone with Lanyssa charging it, Hype power attack head butted Hexeris into the dirt with Arcanist focus and Vyros finished him off. I won on full points.

Game 4 was Mercenaries Bart vs Ravyn, Fire Control.
He was Bart, Galleon, Wrong Eye, Snap Jaw, Bull Snapper, Sylys, Aiyanna and Holt, eEyriss, Thror, a light jack another light jack with Shield Guard, Gorman, Dougal Mcnail.
Basically it was Team Galleon.

The scenario was not in his favor, and I was more than happy to be locked into my Ravyn list. He was super extra scared of the snipe feat go assassination run, almost to the point where he would have kill boxed himself. However he was also show boating a little, I figured he wanted to bait it out of me early, considering Bart was 15/16 I'd say there was a good chance of failure.

However he did bait it out. In his second turn he killed 2 Strike Force with AOE's and walked back as close to his table edge while being able to walk back into the kill box next turn. I feated and moved in with the Strike Force. 5 were in range, 4 hit one was shield guarded but I rolled above average and put 8 damage on him. The following turn he killed all but one of the strike force, killed one of my Manticores, killed pEyriss, moved Galleon up and put Bart behind him, then blocked his left flank LOS with the Shield Guard Jack.

I switched snipe on to the Invictors. The Force Generator momentum cannoned his Light Jack down and away freeing up the LOS on that flank and dropping his Shield Guard. The Invictors went in with mini feat for 18" combines, of the unit 8 were in range and the others couldn't draw LOS or were out of range. 3 combines were enough however ( re roll misses are amazing) and I took him down. Failing the AFG slam shot I was ready to score 3 points on scenario potentially

I have placed decently in tournaments before and took out a small 6 man one not long ago, but this is my first first place and many of them were some of the best players in the Meta. Won a Cryx Battle Box tho, any buyers?

Also pVyros, totally legit.

TLDR
The lists represented in this tournament were considered by some to not be standard for the local Meta. I don't quite agree, Auckland sees a strong Hordes following and the lack of Khador and Menoth are quite normal.
While I did crutch my third caster with being Ravyn I hardly ever play her before, but I knew she was a strong match up against some of those stronger tournament lists so thats why I put her in. The other two were to give me scenario and assassination options.
I specifically locked myself in for Ravyn expecting who I would be playing off against, and am happy about that strategy. I think in 3 lists formats retribution really starts to get some good flexibility and work around their bad match ups. Ret does get bad match ups I agree, but Ret has the tools to fight them if they can take them. The problem is fitting all of those tools into 2 lists. 3 lists gave me a lot more breathing space.