Battle Report: eVyros vs Iron Mother

I got in a battle report the other day against my friend Bob and his growing Convergence of Cyriss army. He only has 35 pts built at this point, so I decided to get in my first practice game with eVyros at that points level.

My list:

Incissar Vyros

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Sphinx

Arcanist

Arcanist

Max Dawnguard Sentinels + UA

I was originally planning on taking this list to a 35 pt Commander's Crucible tournament, but it serves as an excellent starting point for a tier 4 Guardians of the Gate list so I thought I would give it a go. I couldn't declare tier in this game due to the Sphinx and not knowing what I would drop to get it up to a Manticore, as the Arcanists are incredibly important to the Murder of Griffons game plan. Cuz after all, who says that Ret doesn't have medium based infantry?

His list (I'll include descriptions as I won't remember what they do otherwise :P):

Iron Mother Directrix and Exponent Servitors

-Cipher (mortar heavy)

-Corollary (focus battery)

-Diffuser (gives free charges and +2" of movement when charging models hit by its lucky gun)

-Mitigator (puncture AOE that does knock down on a direct hit)

-Monitor (Ellipsaw-flingin' heavy)

Optifex Directive (the repair dudes)

Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex (the living arc node)

Max Reciprocators (what Man-O-War Shocktroopers should have been)

So, a lot of robots and a unit of Man-o-War primes.

We set up the three flags scenario and got started. I won the roll off and he chose the side that did not have a forest in his deployment zone.

Deployment:

I deployed my Sentinels directly in front of a large forest as eVyros has Easy Rider on his spell card. In hindsight this was a stupid decision as Easy Rider costs 3 to cast, but whatever. It was fun. Griffons deployed along the line and the Sphinx went on my left side with the Inicissar smack dab in the middle. One Arcanist was on either side.

He deployed Iron Mother in the middle behind a wall, the Monitor and Mitigator opposite my Sentinels and the rest of the robots on my left flank. There was a forest on his side of the table at about the mid line that the Reciprocators would need to walk through.

Angry Elf Turn 1: 

Run! Everything except for the Sphinx (not enough focus) and eVyros (cast Easy Rider) runs forwards. The Sentinels almost clear the forest and my Griffons reach the 19" line.

Convergence turn 1: 

Induction shenanigans occur and everything runs off of 1 focus. The Reciprocators hide behind the forest while the Monitor takes a commanding view of the battlefield on a hill. 

We roll for which objective disappears and it's the one on the left flank. Works for me!

Retribution turn 2: 

I apparently forgot to take pics this turn. Sorry!

I only allocate 1 focus to the Griffon on my extreme right flank as I need the rest for Deflection (2) and Easy Rider (3). In hind sight Deflection was a wasted spell as he has Puncture all of the place, but whaddya gonna do? My guys advance cautiously, just getting to the midline. Most of his heavy hitters are behind the forest on my left side, so my Griffons are fairly safe. eVyros moves slightly so he can get everyone in his control area, casts Deflection and Easy Rider and feats. The Sentinels take advantage of this and run up in a proper Elven Vengeance Formation ™, clearing the forest. The Griffon on my extreme right flank runs to get in base to base with the flag.

Convergence turn 2: 

In which my opponent forgets that forests are things that exist. He starts off the turn by arcing Backlash on to one of my Griffons on the left flank. I had forgotten about that spell, but it is extremely effective against the Murder of Griffons due to there being so many warjacks around. Thankfully eVyros has 18 wounds to chew through, but still…

Anyway, he follows this up chucking a homing ripstrike from the Diffuser into the Backlashed Griffon and does a few points of damage (and 1 to eVyros). His plan was to gang up on the Griffon, get a few points in on Vyros and set up a spell assassination later on, but the Forest plays into my favor perfectly. Only one of the Reciprocators is able to get a charge in on it while the others either run into the forest or charge Sentinels (one of which ends up out of command range). The Griffon takes some damage (and 1 to eVyros) and one of the Sentinels is murdered. I shout VENGEANCE! because I'm contractually obligated to do so.

The Cipher throws some difficult terrain onto the Sentinels and the Monitor Elipsaw's a Griffon but misses. Other than that his forces shuffle forward and get ready for turn 3. I score 1 point thanks to my extreme right Griffon standing on the flag.

Retribution turn 3: Synergistic VENGEANCE.

At the start of the turn my Sentinels get their Vengeance moves… and are freakin' amazing. Three swings leads to three dead Reciprocators (rollin' twelves for damage ain't no thing), though to be fair I could have gotten two on each one if I wanted to. eVyros saves 2 focus for Synergy, 2 for camping and allocates the other two to needy Griffons.

I start with the Incissar, who casts Synergy and moves to get all of the 'jacks in his control area. I start with the left most Griffon to build up the Synergy chain, wapping at a Reciprocator but only doing 1 point of damage. The Backlashed Griffon goes next, hitting the same guy twice but still fails to kill it. An Arcanist gives the Sphinx a focus and he charges into the other Reciprocator but misses the charge attack needing 3s to hit, so he only manages to get 6 damage on the guy. The last Griffon on the left flank advances and hits the Diffuser three times taking out about half of its boxes.

The Sentinels activate next. Five of them wreck the Cipher on the charge, one of them finishes off the Diffuser and the other two smash the Mitigator to pieces. Finally my extreme right Griffon moves to just in front of the flag and scores again.

  

Convergence turn 3: End game.

Bob knew that he had to win this turn or it was game over. I was in position to dominate either the center or right flags next turn and was nearly guaranteed to score a third point on his turn. Unfortunately I had the path to Vyros fairly well blocked off and most of his arc nodes were engaged in melee. He manages to clear a path to get a shot on Vyros from Iron Mother, but that only does 4 points (hooray camping for ARM 20!). He concedes at the end of his turn.

Victory for the Retribution!

Post game thoughts:

My game plan seems to have worked out, but there are a few things that I learned from this game:

• Casting Easy Rider should only be done in extreme circumstances. It costs a bundle, but can be game changing if needed. In future games I won't deploy my Sentinels in front of forests unless I really need to, as basically everything else in the force has pathfinder naturally.
• With Synergy it's often better to just pile all of your focus on one or two jacks that are going to be at the end of the chain. The early hits are just there to build up the Synergy chain, but once it's built up each additional attack you buy gets 4-7 points more effective, meaning you get more work done with later attacks.
• The feat is pretty cool. I only got to move one warjack this time, but setting up Griffons to start off the chain without charging or shifting your force over by 6" seems like good times.
• Even though eVyros is a badass rockin'  15/18 I still need to make sure that I think about potential assassination vectors, especially since he is on a large base. After the game we decided to roll out the potential spell assassination that Bob was trying to get working and he came within 3 points of killing the Incissar. I fortunately had distance and a semicircle of melee badasses to take care of most things, but including an Aspis in any future expansions to 50 certainly sounds like an idea.

That's all for now. Until next time, shank a round ear for me!