Phoenix Force Hyperion GO!!!

I got in a game recently against Russell, who used to be one of my more frequent opponents, and his Skorne. I hadn't tried Retribution against the hordes of elephants in a while, so I was interested to see how they'd fare now that I had some actual experience with my faction. Originally I was going to try out Vyros2 (as I really, really need to get some practice in with him!) but Russell wanted to see how my latest version of Force Wall fared, so out came Kaelyssa once again.

Since I've been a bit disappointed with the Manticore heavy build I decided to try something a bit different this time…

Phoenix Force Hyperion GO!!!! Tier 4

Kaelyssa

• Hyperion
• Phoenix
• Phoenix (proxied by a Banshee)
• Aspis

House Shyeel Artificer

House Shyeel Battle Mages

House Shyeel Battle Mages

Arcanist x 6

The thought process was for the force to be faster and better able to clear infantry than the Manticore heavy build. The Phoenixes can Combust to murder troops, have Reach to get into combat quicker and have decent guns should an assassination present itself. Plus they allow me to throw out some rough terrain should my opponent not have the tools to deal with it.

Against this Russell dropped what he considered to be his prime Retribution list:

Hexeris2

• Gladiator
• Bronzeback
• Cyclops Brute

Cataphract Cetrati

Cataphract Incendiarii

Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer

Nihilators

Some number of Paingivers

I won the roll and chose to go first while Russell chose the side with a nice wall on it. We rolled up and off we went. Vyros2 and the Manticore chassis were our objectives. I pre deployed the Hyperion across from

Round 1:

I ran forwards with the speed of a pointy eared jackrabbit. Russell (after being reminded about Force Wall's tier 3 ability and a lot of cursing) waddled forwards.

Round 2:

I couldn't smash the objectives this turn, so instead most of my force spread out to claim the left zone. Kaelyssa arced a pair of Rifts off of my lead Phoenix while the Hyperion ran into the right zone, and with some Force Bolts I managed to kill most of the Nihilators. I'm pretty sure I popped my feat this turn, but I can honestly not remember.

The Skorne were nonplussed about my rough terrain but were annoyed that they couldn't charge me. The Incendiarii set to work setting my mages on fire while the Nihilators ran to engage. The Cetrati advanced in shield wall while the Bronzeback and Gladiator postioned themselves to counter charge my Hyperion.

Round 3:

Roughly half of my Battle Mages died due to fire… that stuff hurts! But my game plan was the same: kill the Nihilators that were in my zone, smash the objective and dominate for 3.  I also debated dragging in some Cetrati to murder, but figured that I would need all hands on deck to finish my plan.

The few remaining mages from my left squad activated first and managed to kill one of the Nihilators, but only managed to Tough the second. A juiced up Phoenix smashed the objective, but I had to devote part of my second Mage squad, the second Phoenix and Kaelyssa to finish clearing out the zone. My Hyperion backed up to the edge of the right zone, as I didn't want to get charged by one, let alone two, enraged elephants. I ended my turn and scored 3 points.

Now that all of my shenanigans had expired Russell moved to stop me from ever taking that zone back. More Incediarii fire set most of my remaining Mages ablaze while the Cetrati attacked one of my Phoenixes and dealt a fair bit of damage but failed to kill it. The Gladiator smashed his objective while the Bronzeback repositioned to counter any moves that my Hyperion made.

Round 4:

Most of my Mages died to fire… except 1. This was key, as there was a single Cetrati between my lowly Aspis and his Bronzeback. The plan: clear the right zone and dominate for the win. I allocated 2 focus to the undamaged Phoenix as a back up plan.

First part was to eliminate the lone Cetrati. My Battle Mage put on his big boy pants and dragged him 3" out of the way and also knocked him down. Next my Aspis got three focus and charged into the Bronzeback. Four attacks, a Hyper Aggressive and a counter charge later I still managed to punch the stupid elephant out of the zone. That left the Hyperion to get allocated 3 focus, wander over to the Gladiator and two handed throw it far and away from the zone. Kaelyssa ran over and dominated for the final 2 points, securing me a scenario victory.

Victory for the Retribution!

After the game Russell wanted to rerack with his take on Fist of Halaak, for which I donated a few o fmy medium based models. The list was as follows:

Xerxis

• Tiberion
• Gladiator

Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer

Cataphract Cetrati

Min Cataphract Arcuarii x 2

Min Cataphract Incendiarii x 2

There are tons of proxies in this list as Russell is still painting/assembling his army, so any Griffons and light warbeasts are all some variation of Cataphract :P

Russell won the roll to go first and I took the side with the wall.

Round 1:

Running! Well, at least for me. Stupid Skorne had to walk :P

Round 2:

His forces advanced and he managed to get three Defender's Warded Cetrati into the right zone while a unit of Arcuarii and Tiberion headed for the left zone, but none made it in. Xerxis put up Inhospitable Ground.

Seeing this I was faced with a conundrum- should I  attempt to clear the right zone and leave the left for a later turn power grab like before, or should I take the effectively free points that the left zone was giving me? Or should I try for an assassination, as I knew that Xerxis was on just 1 transfer and since he was perched on the edge of a hill was in LOS of both of my Phoenixes? The assassination plan got ruled out after some internal debate, and I measured my control radius and found that I wouldn't be able to run into the left zone, so I decided to plan on taking the right and allocated 3 to one of my Phoenixes.

The plan was to drag in the three Cetrati and murder them with Kaelyssa's gun, the full attention of one Phoenix and opportunity strikes from the second after it ended the objective. However I had discounted how frustrating Defender's Ward was and  only managed to drag two of the Cetrati. I killed them easily with a Phoenix with focus to spare, but decided that the plan was going pear shaped and chose to not spend the focus. Kaelyssa arced a Rift through one of the Phoenixes and walked over towards the left zone (and popped her feat) while the Hyperion destroyed the objective there at range and scored 2 points.

Round 3:

Two very important things happened this turn for Skorne. First, Tiberion toed into the left zone. Second, a metric ton of Cataphracts entered the right zone, sealing it off from me pretty much for good. They scratched up one of my Phoenixes and set my Mages on fire as well, but from here on out it was going to go down hill for me.

On my turn I started planning out how to take the left zone. The Hyperion attempted to gun down the four Arcuarii but missed with the Starburst gun, leaving one left alive and requiring help from one of my  Phoenixes to clear it out. And since I needed to aim with the Hyperion to clear them out I wasn't able to move it forward to start getting the drop on Tiberion, even though I blocked its charge range with my Aspis. I also carved up a few Cetrati.

Round 4:

Xerxis feated, and even with an epically bad feat turn managed to clear the right zone as I had foolishly left my second Phoenix just outside of it. Tiberion smashed my Aspis to smithereens.

Seeing as I had no way to get close on Tiberion I tried to go for an ill conceived assassination and failed. On the following turn Xerxis cleared the zone and dominated for the final points.

A defeat for the brave heroes of the Retribution.

Thoughts:
Force Wall has the tools to handle this match up, but I think it will involve switching up my list a bit. For the next version I'll be dropping an Artificer and a group of Mages for three Magisters which will allow my Phoenixes to better get the drop on enemy troops, as well as provide a more reliable form of drag should I need it.

Fist of Halaak has... a lot of boxes. I definitely think that going for the assassination on turn 2 would have been the correct course of action, especially since I still could have snatched two control points to keep him on the defensive. Even if I failed to kill Xerxis it would have wounded him and opened up the opportunity to get him on subsequent turns, especially since with Phantom Hunter it's very, very difficult for him to hide.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and until next time shank a round ear for me!