Steam Rollin': 7/5 Tournament Battle Report

 

This past Saturday I attended a 15 man 50 pt Steamroller at one of my local game stores. As I've mentioned on the blog, I'm working on developing Ossyan and Vyros2 for competitive play, so they were my choices for the tournament.



You've seen the Ossyan list before, but to reiterate:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan, First of His Name, Destroyer of Worlds

-Banshee

Arcantrik Force Generator

Houseguard Thane

Arcanist

Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt

Max Houseguard Halberdiers + UA

Max Houseguard Rifleman + UA

Stormfall Archers x 2

Paired with this is my take on Vyros2:

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard

-Griffon x 5

-Phoenix

-Sphinx

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Arcanist x 2

Max Dawnguard Invictors + UA

This list is actually playing a point down because I a) wasn't able to finish building my second Aspis, the pair of which would replace the Sphinx (&*^&ing hip joint!) and b) I apparently don't own any Soulless Escorts. I also hadn't practiced with this list at 50 pts before, my only experience with the Incissar being at 35 pts.

The general strategy is that Ossyan is my general drop while Vyros2 comes in against Circle and Legion and potentially other jack or beast heavy builds. Also, the combined lists can comfortably fit on my tournament tray as evidenced above. Hooray!

Game 1: vs Circle (Mike), Close Quarters

Mike is new in town and this was his debut on the Madison Warmachine scene. He was playing some very nicely painted winter themed Circle (LOVE the blues on them). He had Krueger1 and Kaya2 as his warlocks and, since he could safely assume which list I'd be running, dropped the following Kaya list:

Kaya2

-Feral Warpwolf x 2

-Warpwolf Stalker

-Laris

-Druid Gone Wilder

-Gorax

Shifting Stones + UA

Shifting Stones

Druids + UA (can't remember max vs min)

Tharn Bloodweavers

I of course dropped Vyros2. I won the roll off and chose to go first. I deployed with the Sphinx on the left, Phoenix on the right, Invictors in front and Griffons mixed about the second line with Vyros in the rear.

He deployed from left to right Druids, Stones + Beasts and Kaya, with the Bloodweavers off on the far right side as they weren't going to get much done this game.

  

Retribution turn 1:

Run! Vyros allocated all but two focus, so everything but one Griffon got to run forwards. He cast Synergy on himself and ambled forward.

Circle turn 1:

Stones shifted up, Druids moved up to the left flag and put down clouds to protect the Stalker. The beasts ran up, Ferals warping for armor and the Stalker warping for Prowl. Kaya cast Forced Evolution on the Feral that was in a cloud and cast Shadowpack to protect them from Invictor and Eiryss fire. Finally the Bloodweavers ran up the far right flank.

Retribution turn 2:

Here's where I made a few mistakes as I learned how Synergy works. The game plan was to use the Griffons on either flank to smash a stone from each unit, rendering them useless and get my Synergy chain up to 2, then send a fully loaded Griffon into the un-enhanced Warpwolf and tear it to pieces.

So, Vyros upkept Synergy, allocated one focus to one of the stone smashers and three to the far right Griffon. The first Griffon charged in and easily smashed the stone, getting the Synergy chain to 1. My Sphinx got out of the way of the far left Griffon that also charged in and smashed its stone… but ended up out of Vyros' control range as I hadn't moved him up yet, so didn't bump the chain. Vyros swore, activated and wandered up four inches (measuring to make sure that he would be able to cover the landing spot for my loaded up Griffon) and popped his feat.

The far right Griffon activated, declared a charge… and came up about an inch short. Those Halberdier charge ranges must be going to my head. If I had used Fleet I could have probably gotten him in, but alas it was not meant to be.

Realizing that I had made a potentially fatal mistake, I decided to throw the Invictors forwards and  jam the Ferals as much as possible while my jacks advanced cautiously behind them.

Circle turn 2:

Kaya upkept Forced Evolution. The Druids started things off by trying to push my Griffons around so that they wouldn't be in the way or, for my Griffon on the left flank, not contesting the flag. They did so admirably, pushing or pulling them as needed out of the way. Then one of them killed an Invictor, triggering my feat… and moving the left Griffon back into a contesting position, but one where the Stalker couldn't get to it without trampling his own models. The Stonekeeper then used his Rock Hammer attack, killing another Invictor, which caused my Griffon that failed its charge to advance back to safety.

Annoyed with my feat and with how resilient the Invictors were proving to enemy fire, the Ferals activated. The Forced Evo one warped strength and trampled straight back to the wall, killing four Invictors along the way (feat move: a Griffon moved into its back arc). It didn't have melee range on anything at that point and ended its activation. The second Feral also warped strength, trampled a few more Invictors (feat move: the Sphinx moved into position to charge the F.E. Feral) and tore a Griffon to pieces and put some damage on a second.

Finally the Bloodweavers ran into my backfield to threaten Vyros while two stuck around to contest my flag.

Retribution turn 3:

The plan this turn was to kill at least the Forced Evolution Feral and put some damage on the other Feral. I also needed to use my Phoenix to murder the Bloodweavers in my back arc, which meant that I couldn't use it to finish off the second Feral. I debated having Eiryss shoot the Feral to get F.E. off of it, but couldn't figure out a way that wouldn't involved shooting over a wall. I allocated three focus to the Sphinx and two to the Griffon behind the wall and upkept Synergy, leaving Vyros camping zero.

The far left Griffon started things off by getting a focus from the Arcanist and smacking a Druid (Synergy: 1). The Phoenix activated, backed up and, spinning to use its reach to only catch three of the Bloodweavers in its Combustion, farted fire on them and killed them. One of my Griffons suffered minor damage and was set on fire. Vyros then charged the remaining Tharn and killed it with an impact attack (Synergy: 3).

The Sphinx, loaded up and ready for bear, wandered over to the F.E. Feral and clawed it to ribbons using all of its focus (Synergy: 4). Eiryss then got out of the way and moved to base to base with the flag and shot the second to last Bloodweaver. Finally my last Griffon walked over to the Feral and did about half of its health in damage.

Circle turn 3:

One heavy down and the other was bloodied, but the forces of Orboros were not out of it quite yet. Stones activated and healed the Feral a bit. The Feral got Primal, warped Strength and tore two of my damaged Griffons to pieces. I think I accidentally used the half damaged card instead of a fresh one for one of the Griffons due to using it as a proxy base and then just keeping it there, but oh well…

The Druids then activated, pushed my contesting Griffon out of range, and got out of the way of the Stalker. The Stalker had Sprint cast on it and it charged the Sphinx while warping for Strength, hacking it apart with its sword. It then sprinted across the wall and engaged Vyros. Kaya then ran over to the flag… but my Griffon was just in to contest, preventing her from dominating.

Retribution turn 4:

I had a Stalker in my grill and needed to do something about it, as well as the stupid half dead Feral. Vyros allocated three to the Phoenix, one to my midfield Griffon and kept one for himself. Eiryss killed herself trying to get free of some engaging Bloodweavers to try and snipe Forced Evo off of the Stalker.

The left most Griffon wandered over and hacked at a stone (Synergy: 1) while staying in contesting range of the flag. Vyros then boosted an attack roll at the Feral, hit and did some damage (Synergy: 2). The Phoenix then got Concentrated Power and went to town on the Stalker, killing it in two swings (Synergy: 3).

Feeling a bit silly that I had allocated three to the Phoenix my remaining Griffon activated and  almost killed the Feral, getting it down to 6 or so boxes remaining and taking out its mind with some pretty poor damage rolls.

Circle turn 4:

Primal did what Primal does and caused the Feral to frenzy, putting some serious hurt on the Griffon that was engaging it. The Gorax charged it as well and lay about the face and neck with its fists of fury, getting it down to 4-5 boxes with only the shield and movement still up.

His beatdown exhausted, he now focused on getting some scenario points. The Druids pushed the Griffon out of contesting range for real this time and killed my last Arcanist and Laris ran across the board to protect his master. Kaya dominated the flag for 1 and ended the turn.

Retribution turn 5:

My opponent was running out of gas at this point and I still had a fully intact heavy and a mostly intact Griffon, aka Good Enough for the Incissar. Vyros allocated three to the live Griffon and one to the Phoenix.

The wounded Griffon bashed a stone to start the Synergy chain and Vyros added to it by impact crushing the last Bloodweaver. The Phoenix easily finished off the Feral while the intact Griffon wandered into the forest and carved through Laris and a Druid while contesting the flag.

Circle turn 5:

Running out of options, the Griffon was once again pushed back by the remaining Druids with some good Force Bolt rolls. The Gorax continued to pummel at the damaged Griffon and finally succeeded in doing so.

Retribution turn 6:

Vyros beat up a stone (Synergy: 1), the Phoenix cleaved the Gorax in twain (Synergy: 2) and the last Griffon killed the remaining Druids and put 10 damage on Kaya with a single swing.

  

Beast-less and with no way to prevent the Griffon or Phoenix from finishing her on the following turn my opponent conceded.

Victory to the Retribution!

After thoughts:

For my first run with Vyros2 I think I did all right. My biggest mistakes were on turn 2, but I won't forget how Synergy works for a while now at least. I also probably should have focused on killing the second Feral rather than having the Phoenix kill the Bloodweavers, as Vyros could have dealt with at least two of them thanks to impact and sword attacks and possibly more if I had more focus available.

On the plus side my use of the Invictors was pretty much spot on. Jamming with them really saved my bacon, and theoretically their flank attacks could have been extremely useful… if any of them had actually hit, of course… I can also see how they would be really useful if my opponent had more infantry or brought a non-Shadowpack caster, but this game there wasn't a whole lot to shoot at.

Game 2: vs Mercs (Josh), Incursion

Josh is one of my regular opponents at Pegasus so I mostly knew what to expect. His lists were the Damiano dude spam list that I faced with Force Wall the other day and an interesting Durgen list that he chose to face me:

Durgen Madhammer

-Ghordson Earthbreaker

Gastonne Cross

-Galleon

Master Gunner Dougal McNaile

Thor Steinhammer

Raluk Moorclaw

Max Kayazy Assassins + UA

I actually didn't see the second colossal on his list at first just because it was so unexpected. It's also one of those times where I really regret not bringing Mage Hunter Strike Force in one of my two lists.

In the end I decided that Ossyan would be my preferred list for this matchup, as he can fairly trivially remove Colossals from the table and strangely wouldn't be as vulnerable to assassination as Vyros due to being able to hide.

I won the roll off and immediately made my first mistake by choosing to go first. If I had chosen to go second I could have placed the Riflemen to counter the Kayazy, which would have been pretty clutch. I also didn't choose to place the Riflemen to attempt to get shots on Gastonne, which I vaguely knew the placement of due to the Galleon's pre deployment.

As it was I deployed my Riflemen and Stormfalls on the left, the former to screen the latter from the Earthbreaker and threaten it on feat turn, the AFG smack dab in the middle to shield Ossyan and Aiyanna and Holt and the Halberdiers on the right with the Thane. Josh countered by deploying the Kayazy across from the Halberdiers and putting his solos behind his two Colossals.

Retribution turn 1:

Pretty standard Ossyan first turn. Quicken and Desperate Pace on the Halberdiers and they Shield Wall and Reform'ed 13" up the board. Everything else ran.

Mercenaries turn 1:

The colossals cautiously advanced as Josh was very familiar with Ossyan's feat. The Galleon took some pot shots at the Halberdiers but only managed to kill one. The Kayazy were Primed and ran up the field as fast as possible.

We rolled and the right flag disappeared.

Retribution turn 2:

Ossyan upkept Quicken. The Halberdiers got Desperate Pace and Shield Walled up to kill a few Kayazy and reformed back to prevent them from getting past the shield wall with the Underboss's mini feat.

I then made a series of mistakes. The far left Stormfalls ran over to the extreme left flank instead of onto the flag, mostly because I was extremely afraid of the  Earthbreaker's threat range. My other Stormfalls also advanced too cautiously, again trying to stay out of blast range. I then, instead of running or firing a rought terrain remplate at the Kayazy, moved the AFG and came up short on a shot against Raluk. Finally I ran up the Banshee onto the flag- not necessarily a bad choice, but I forgot to cast Admonition on it.

To finish up the turn the Riflemen did a 7-man CRA on the Earthbreaker, putting a few points of damage on it.

Mercenaries turn 2:

My opponent also made mistakes this round, not allocating any focus to the colossals and forgetting to upkeep Redline on the Earthbreaker.

The Earthbreaker killed a few Riflemen and threw down some rough terrain templates while the Galleon dragged in the Banshee and took out the cortex, but couldn't finish it off due to lack of focus.

The Kayazy charged my Halberdiers and two ran to engage the AFG, killing half of the poor elves.

Retribution turn 3:

The Earthbreaker was getting up in my grill, so I figured that this needed to be feat turn. I dropped Quicken off of the Halberdiers.

Aiyanna and Holt started the turn by casting Kiss of Lyliss on the Earthbreaker and Holt stabbed a Kayazy to death. The assassin promptly exploded, killing Holt and caused Aiyanna to fall into hysterics. Ossyan followed up by feating and shooting the Earthbreaker.

I then moved up my central Stormfalls… and was frustratingly just out of Brutal shot range with most of them. One got a Brutal off, one attempted to do so and came up short, and the other two fired Snipe shots. The same scene played out on the left side of the board, and I didn't even get in base to base with the flag to start scoring. The Riflemen and Banshee tried to finish off the Earthbreaker but left it at 10-15 boxes.

I tried to clear off the AFG but ended up having to use its gun to kill the last Kayazy- damn it for not having Virtuoso! I also now realize that I should have been able to just, y'know, move the AFG a bit backwards, take a free strike, and then be able to shoot… dangit. The Halberdiers killed a few more Kayazy (including the Underboss) and got two of their own killed in the ensuing explosions. The Arcanist repaired the AFG back to almost full.

So… that could have gone better. Time to reap the whirlwind…

Mercenaries turn 3:

The Earthbreaker got repaired back to full functionality by Raluk and Thor tuned it up for boosted Hit rolls. The ensuing fusillade killed five of the remaining Riflemen and half of the left most Stormfall Archer unit as well as Aiyanna. The Kayazy killed more of the Halberdiers and once again engaged the AFG. To finish off the turn the Galleon smashed the Banshee to pieces.

Retribution turn 4:

The attrition tide was quickly turning against me and I was starting to run down on clock. The Stormfalls finally finished off the Earthbreaker and killed one of the Kayazy jamming the AFG, which was forced to clear off the remaining two assassins. The Arcanist repaired the damage that was dealt by their explosions.

Finally cottoning on to the idea that this needed to go to scenario I ran Ossyan over towards the flag.

Mercenaries turn 4:

More Stormfalls died and Gastonne and the Galleon gunned down my remaining Houseguard and destroyed the AFG. Thor, Raluk and Dougal McNaile all ran towards the left flag to try and contest it.

Retribution turn 5:

My remaining Stormfalls knocked Dougal down and Ossyan charged one of them with full camp onto the flag to dominate for 2. I should have cast Quicken on him to be harder to hit, but dem's the breaks.

Mercenaries turn 5:

The Galleon dragged Ossyan in and somehow failed to kill him (woo DEF 15 and ARM 22!). Durgen also didn't manage to finish him off and Raluk and Thor ran to jam him up.

Retribution turn 6:

With just a couple of minutes on the clock I ruled out assassinating Durgen and instead used two Arcantrik Bolts to kill Gastonne after clearing Raluk and Thor with Stormfall fire. If Raluk had actually died instead of toughing I may have been able to run Ossyan back to the flag and the Arcanist to the center flag for the win, but the Galleon may have been contesting.

A loss for the brave heroes of the Retribution.

After thoughts:

As I mentioned I made a lot of mistakes this game that cost me it starting with deployment. Getting the Riflemen to focus on killing Gastonne and other support staff should have been my number one priority as they didn't really have anything else to do this game, and killing Thor is pretty much like killing the Earthbreaker, or at least so I'm told.

I also really need to focus more on getting the scenario as my primary focus, especially in cases where the opponent has forces that I am simply not equipped to handle. Starting to score on turn 2 would have been huge, potentially getting me up to 2 control points right off the bat which would have made it much easier to go for a late game Dominate. I also need to look at casting Quicken on Ossyan in these cases, as being able to run 14" at Def 17 onto the objective is no joke.

Still, it was a knock down drag out fight, and next time I'll be better prepared.

The other two games and tournament after thoughts will be on Thursday. Until then, shank a round ear for me!