Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn (+6)
*Phoenix (10)
*Banshee (10)
10 Dawnguard Invictors (10)
*Officer and Standard Bearer (2)
10 Mage Hunter Strike Force (8)
*Strike Force Commander (2)
10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7)
*Officer and Standard Bearer (2)
*Soulless Escort (1)
Houseguard Thane (2)
Arcanist (1)
Arcanist (1)
It looks pretty balanced. It has a strong shooting game, and a very hard alpha strike with the Halberdiers. The 'jacks and Invictors are pretty good at melee in the second wave as well.
My regular opponent and co-blogger, Caleb, is just getting back into Circle Orboros after a long hiatus, and decided to run the following list.
Kaya the Moon Hunter and Laris (+3) - Call of the Wild Tier 4
*Warpwolf Stalker (9)
*Feral Warpwolf (8)
*Gnarlhorn Satyr (7)
*Gorax (4)
*Laris (-)
5 Warpborn Skinwalkers (8)
*Warpborn Alpha (3)
6 Druids of Orboros (7)
*Druids of Orboros Overseer (2)
3 Shifting Stones (2)
*Stone Keeper (1)
Druid Wilder (2)
This is a Tier 4 theme list, so all the heavy warbeasts have Advance Deploy and cost 1 point less. Additionally, Caleb will get +1 to his starting roll, and the Skinwalkers have Advance Move. As for the rest of the list, eKaya is plenty fast enough without having all her heavies AD. All three heavies are Spd 6, and can have an extra 4 to 6 inches of movement if they need it.
Since there are pictures, I should mention Caleb has a few proxies. The Feral is represented by a Wold Guardian. The Gorax is represented by a Wold Watcher. The Skinwalkers are represented by some Trollkin Warders, with Skaldi Bonehammer playing the part of the Alpha. Finally, Kaya is represented by Lanyssa Ryssyll, and Laris is represented by a Wold Stalker.
I didn't bring any proxies, although my army is still rocking its White Metal Silver and Unpigmented Plastic Gray color scheme until I get an actual scheme picked out.
And now, on to the game. We decided to play Incursion, since it was easy to set up, and we didn't feel like going back to the main floor and asking people to move so we could pull out the scenario box.
Deployment
Caleb won the roll-off, and decided to go first.
He deployed his Skinwalkers, the Wilder, the Gorax, Laris and Kaya in the middle-ish of his deployment zone.
I deployed in a pretty basic line. The Halberdiers went on the right, while the Invictors went on the left. The Phoenix went in the middle, while the Banshee went on the left behind the Invictors. Issyria deployed in the center, and the Arcanists deployed behind their respective 'jacks.
Caleb loaded his heavies and Shifting Stones into the center-left to oppose mine, and put the Druids on the right to support the Skinwalkers against my Halberdiers. Finally, I deployed the MHSF on the right to shoot those pesky druids.
After deployment, the Skinwalkers take their Advance Move 5" forward.
Circle, Turn 1
The Circle heavies and Skinwalkers ran forward cautiously. Caleb knew I had good range on my guns, and if he ran flat out, he'd be likely to pay for it. The Druids ran forward on the flank. The Lights and Wilder ran up to support the heavies. The Stones shifted up. Kaya put Forced Evolution on the Feral, and Shadow Pack on herself, and walked up to a few inches behind the heavies.
Caleb had put himself in a pretty good position. He was out of the threat range of anything but my MHSF. The Druids were in a little danger, but the rest of the army was safe behind its armor from their Pow 10 shots. I had no choice but to advance into Kaya's (frankly absurd) threat ranges. Hopefully, I'd be able to stick it out past the alpha strike and hit back hard enough to stay in the game.
Retribution, Turn 1
Issyria held onto all her Focus. The MHSF advanced and shot the Druids, but only hit twice (needing 8's I'd hoped for a little better), killing one Druid and doing 2 damage to the Overseer.
The Thane advanced, and used Desperate Pace on the Halberdiers, who ran to jam Caleb up and screen my heavies.
The Arcanists advanced, and handed out Focus with Power Booster, and the Myrmidons ran up to where I thought it would be tough to get to them. The Invictors ran up behind the Banshee. Issyria advanced, and put Inviolable Resolve on the Phoenix and Admonition on the Banshee.
I was well within Caleb's threat range here, but unfortunately, I didn't have much choice. I could only hope that my positioning was good enough limit the damage he could do enough that my counterattack would hurt. On paper, Issyria has serious trouble with attrition if she ever gets behind.
Circle, Turn 2
Caleb decided to drop Shadow Pack, since Issyria's feat gives True Sight, but Kaya upkept Forced Evolution.
The Druids all advanced, but didn't get quite within Stealth range of the Mage Hunters. Unperturbed, the Overseer cast The Devouring, a 4" AoE spell with a Pow of 8 +1 for every model in the unit. Unfortunately, he was unlucky with the scatter, and only killed one. The rest of the Druids tried to shoot the Halberdiers with Force Bolt, but were out of range thanks to the Soulless Escort's Mage Static ability.
The Skinwalkers charged in, but had a little trouble hitting the Mage Hunters and Halberdiers at Mat 6. They only killed 2 Mage Hunters. Laris ran up to just behind the Skinwalkers.
At this point, Caleb decided to go after my heavies. Kaya used her Feat, which allows her to force Warbeasts outside her CTRL, and allows them to teleprt back to within 3" of her after their activations. Then she channeled Dogpile through Laris onto the Phoenix, and hit.
The Gorax advanced, and cast Primal (+2 Str and Mat) on the Stalker, which the Shifting Stones teleported forward across the wall, and into melee with a Halberdier and the Banshee. Admonition doesn't trigger on place effects like teleportation, so my Banshee was out of luck. The Stalker warped for Strength, killed the Halberdier, and easily scrapped the Banshee, then teleported out next to Kaya and a Shifting Stone.
The Druid Wilder cast Primal on the Feral. Then the Feral Warped for Speed, and charged the Phoenix. It took all the Feral's attacks, but the Phoenix was also destroyed. Caleb decided not to teleport the Feral back, since that way, I'd have to deal with it.
Finally, Caleb saw an opportunity to really reduce my counterattack. The Gnarlhorn used its own Animus, Bounding, and slammed the Feral over 6 of my Dawnguard Invictors, killing them all despite their being Arm 17 from Defensive Line. The Gnarlhorn teleported back next to the Stalker.
Gross! Well, there went Issyria's ability to make any attacks of her own along with the Invictors' ability to Flank. Not to mention two 10pt Myrmidons. I really misjudged those threat ranges, and I really paid for it. I had two things going for me, however. First, the Feral and the Stalker would automatically Frenzy on Caleb's next turn due to Primal. Second, I did still have most of my infantry, and a Feat to make them hit at peak efficiency. The only question was, would that be enough?
Retribution, Turn 2
Issyria activated first, recast Inviolable Resolve on the Invictors, and Admonition on herself. Then she moved to get the whole army in her CTRL and popped her Feat, giving everybody True Sight (ignore Concealment Camouflage and Stealth), and an additional die on all attack and damage rolls, discarding the die of my choice.
The MHSF went next putting a little damage on the two Skinwalkers engaging them with CMA's, and killing 2 more Druids with extra-accurate aimed crossbow bolts, including the Overseer.
The Halberdiers used their mini-Feat to gain Gang, and charged the Skinwalkers, killing every one they could reach. Then they backed off, with Reform so the frenzying Stalker would attack Laris, and turned so that they could charge the Feral next turn if necessary. Then the Thane charged the remaining Skinwalker, but only did one damage.
The Invictors marched around the now knocked down Feral, used their Extend Fire mini-Feat for extra range, and pumped 3 CRA's into the Stalker, reducing it to 6 hit points.
The Arcanists looked at each other, shrugged, and milled around to stay out of my way, but get in the Feral's way.
That was...not so terrible. Damaging the Stalker was a huge boon. The Feral would be a serious problem next turn, but I'd freed up enough of the rest of my infantry that I was pretty optimistic about my odds of dealing with it. The Stalker was heavily damaged, and hopefully, I could finish both the wolves off, and come out ahead.
Circle, Turn 3
Caleb was suddenly faced with a dilemma. Kaya camped 3 Fury last turn to ward off any janky ranged assassination run I might have gone for, and had 6 Fury out on the table - 1 on Laris, 2 on the Gorax, and 3 on the Gnarlhorn. After some internal weighing of evils, Caleb decided to Leach from Laris and the Gorax, and let the Gnarlhorn take a Threshold check. It failed, and Frenzied into the Stalker, killing it. The Feral Warpwolf Frenzied automatically by standing up and walking at my Halberdier Standard Bearer - the closest model it could see.
Caleb was feeling a little desperate here, and decided to go for an assassination run. First, he needed to clear out my Halberdiers. The last Skinwalker killed the Thane to get rid of Inspiration. The Stone Keeper advanced, and killed one with a spell. Kaya advanced, and killed 2 more with her staff and one more with Muzzle. The three survivors took a Command check, but passed. The Wilder put Primal on Laris.
Laris charged at Issyria, but Caleb had forgotten about Admonition. (And I forgot to warn him beforehand, which I normally would do since it was his first game with circle in a looong time. But it was getting late, and I'd zoned out a bit.) So Issyria hopped away, unscathed. Laris used her Animus Spirit Shift to teleport back to Kaya and screen her as well as possible.
No pic for this turn, but Kaya was hugely exposed, and we just decided to finish it rather than take a break for pictures.
Retribution, Turn 3
I dropped Inviolable Resolve. Issyria advanced, cast Admonition on herself again, and cast Blinding Light at Kaya to reduce her Def by 2.
The Mage Hunters who weren't engaged either moved or aimed to shoot at Kaya, and reduced her to 2 hit boxes. The Invictors advanced, and finished her off with a single CRA.
Victory to the Retribution!
Thoughts
This was my first game with Issyria against an experienced opponent, and I definitely did some bungling. I went and lost both my heavies and half my Invictors by putting them too far forward on turn 1. I came back pretty well on turn 2, and not having to worry about any of the Circle heavies for a turn definitely helped. My target selection on turn 2 was good, and probably saved the game for me. There are a bunch of minor errors in positioning and deployment that made things harder than they needed to be, though. For instance, I probably should have deployed the Phoenix further out to the right, so that it could support the Mage Hunters a little better. And I could have jammed the Feral better on turn 2 with the by-then superfluous Arcanists.
The list was fun to play, and proved its ability to claw its way back into the game even after a lot of its options had been removed. Issyra's Feat is very good, and worked well with all the shooting. If I'd had even 2 more Invictors on that turn, I'd have killed the Stalker, and felt much better about my options. I need more games in with this incarnation of the list before I decide to swap anything around, but I'm definitely considering a few options. I'd really like some Mage Hunter Assassins to charge out with a 16" Threat under Crusader's Call and the hilarious accuracy and damage buff of the Feat. I'd also like another Arc Node in the list, probably a Chimera, but maybe a second Phoenix.
Caleb was coming back to Circle after a long stint playing only Trollbloods, and this was his first game with eKaya, so he made some mistakes as well. He planned his attack on turn 2 well, but didn't manage Fury or place his beasts after teleportation particularly well. He could have avoided killing his own Stalker by placing the Gnarlhorn differently, possibly getting it to Frenzy into a stone or the Wilder. I'm not convinced the Stalker should have gone after the Banshee, since it could have killed a lot of Halberdiers with Primal and Berserk, but on the other hand, the Banshee is pretty threatening at both melee and range.
Caleb's eKaya list was very cool. Her Tier gives some excellent benefits without preventing Kaya from taking the models she really wants to take. I might try to get a second set of stones in there, but otherwise, it looks very solid. Once Caleb starts getting the Circle playstyle down again, that list is going to serve him well.
Something else I noticed while writing this up is that I tend to narrate my opponent's turns in the present tense, and my own turns in the past tense. Weird.
Nice Game! Always glad to see a Ret victory
ReplyDeleteThanks! Soon I'll have enough models put together to take my Ret to local tournaments. I like Issyria pretty well, and I'll probably play her with Kaelyssa once I get the rest of my troops.
ReplyDelete