I got a couple more games in with Retribution last Friday, and here is one of them. Enjoy! Once again, I don't remember my opponent's name, so I apologize :P
Lord Arcanist Ossyan (+6)
*Banshee (10)
*Manticore (8)
10 Dawnguard Invictors (10)
*Officer and Standard Bearer (2)
10 Mage Hunter Strike Force (8)
*Strike Force Commander (2)
Arcanist (1)
My opponent's list:
Cassius the Oathkeeper (+6)
*Wurwood (-)
*Megalith (11)
*Warp Wolf Stalker (10)
6 Tharn Ravagers (9)
*Tharn Ravager Chieftain (2)
Shifting Stones (2)
*Stone Keeper (1)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (1)
Tharn Ravager Whitemane (3)
Gallows Grove (1)
Gallows Grove (1)
My opponent won the roll off, and went first. During regular deployment, he deployed Cassius, Megalith, and the Whitemane in a little cluster in the center of his deployment zone. I deployed everything except the Mage Hunters opposite him, ready to take advantage of whatever cover showed itself.
During his advance deploy, he placed the Stones in a large triangle with Wurmwood in the middle. The Gallows Groves went on either side. The Tharn Ravagers deployed on my left, opposite my Invictors. Then I set up the Mage Hunters to counter his Ravagers. Ravager defensive stats aren't naturally great, and Mage Hunters can ignore just about every buff they can get.
Turn 1
All the circle models ran except the Shifting Stones, who teleported Wurmwood 8" toward the center of the field, and Cassius, who cast Unseen Path to get himself and Wurmwood even further up, then Feated, creating a 10" radius forest centered on Wurmwood. The whole Circle army was now screened from most of my shooting.
Ossyan advanced, put Admonition on the Banshee and Quicken on the Manticore. The Banshee and Invictors ran. The Mage Hunters advanced, and did as much damage as they could to the Ravagers, which turned out to be about 4pts of damage to one of them. :( The Manticore advanced about 8", and put a Covering Fire template in front of some of the Ravagers. It would be enough to damage one or two of them, but it wouldn't be a serious deterrent.
Turn 2
The Ravagers charged in at the Mage Hunters, killing about half of them, and engaged the Manticore. The Stalker ran to a flanking position to get to my heavies. The rest of Cassius' army moved up in support. Megalith cast Curse of Shadows at a Mage Hunter, but missed.
I allocated a bunch of Focus to the Manticore. Ossyan advanced, Feated to give my guns an extra damage die, and shot a Ravager, killing it. The Mage Hunters did some more damage to the other Ravagers. The Invictors used Extent Fire, and took down Megalith. The Banshee advanced attacked the Ravagers engaging the Manticore, but rolled very badly, and didn't un-engage it. The Manticore mananged to un-engage itself, but ended up sitting on 2 Focus it wouldn't use.
Turn 3
The Ravagers killed off all but 3 of my Mage Hunters, then the Whitemane charged through them at my bunched up Invictors. I'd forgotten about Tactician, and there was a very good chance he could munch through all my Invictors this turn. He rolled snake-eyes on his initial attack. :( On my opponent's behalf. Cassius fired Stranglehold at the Manticore, forcing it to forfeit its movement or action next turn, and cast Curse of Shadows on the Banshee to reduce its Arm. The Warpwolf charged and destroyed the Banshee.
My Invictors had survived, which was good because I really needed them to kill the Warpwolf. The Mage Hunters swatted at the Ravagers engaging them, doing a little more damage. The Manticore walked into melee with the Warpwolf Stalker, and sat there looking pleased with itself. I needed to clear off the Whitemane so my Invictors could charge, so Ossyan charged and killed him. The Invictors charged in and killed the Warpwolf (thanks to Flank) and most of the remaining Ravagers.
Turn 4
With limited resources, my opponent decided to try for a spell assassination. Cassius got a casting line on Ossyan, but didn't roll well. He at least managed to land one stranglehold, so Ossyan's options would be limited.
It looked like the game was in the bag. I allocated three Focus to the Manticore, cleared off the last of the Tharn, and shot everything else at Cassius - yet failed to take him down! D:
Turn 5
My opponent was pretty surprised to have lived through that, and didn't waste it. A shifting stone popped up next to Ossyan, and Cassius hit it with Hellmouth, which dragged Ossyan to his death.
Victory to the Circle!
Thoughts
Luck was all over the place this game, but my opponent definitely outplayed me. My biggest mistake was forgetting about Tactician on the Whitemane. I didn't try to neutralize it on turn 2 because it didn't have any charge angles. It was a huge lucky break that it missed with its first attack. If it had managed to chomp through even half my Invictors, I would have had no answer to the Stalker, and I would more or less have lost right there. I also handled the 'jacks a little badly, and I didn't space my Mage Hunters properly on turn 1 - I misjudged the size of gaps I needed, and the Ravagers were able to get to the second line. I think that overall, I played in Skorne mode too. I was a little too willing to get my 'jacks into melee, and a little too willing to go head to head rather than maneuvering and shooting a little more.
I'll definitely be trying this list again, but I might just go back to min Mage Hunters, another Arcanist, and a Phoenix in place of the Manticore. I really felt like the Phoenix added a lot to my army's adaptability when I played it. The Manticore did have more shots, but I wasn't using them very well. This was partly because I failed to free it up with the Banshee, but the Manticore is very focus-hungry.
My opponent didn't make many big mistakes. He knew both our armies well (he also plays Ret), and was able to exploit my weaknesses consistently. He almost cut me out of the game entirely with he Whitemane (he needed anything but snake eyes to hit with that charge attack, though he was looking at 4's afterward). He did leave Cassius exposed on his fourth turn, although I'd pulled ahead in the attrition game and he didn't have much else left. I ended up having my turn of bad luck then, though, so it worked out.
The Cassius list was cool, and very different from what Caleb was running when he played Circle. If I were running it, I'd be worried about the low model count. Tharn are not durable, and there were only two beasts. Even though my opponent got the jump on me, I managed to pull ahead in attrition. Still the list seemed to work well as a unit, and my opponent handled it well. At 50pts, it probably adds the edge it needs to make up for its relative fragility.
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