Iosan Civil War: Vyros2 vs Ossyan

Vyros and his small force of Dawnguard had come across an unexpected prize- one of the scions of House Vyre outside of the capitol's battlements, and defending a ley line extractor at that. The Dawnlord thought only of vengeance, and the myrmidons at his command responded in kind.

This past week I got in a game against one of our other local Retribution players, Sean, and his burgeoning Ossyan list. Since I'm practicing with Vyros2's Guardians of the Gate, I figured it would be a good thematic match for him.

At 35 points this is what I came up with:

Guardians of the Gate, Tier 2 (Bonus: Sentinels get Advanced Deploy)

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard

• Imperatus
• Griffon x 4
• Aspis

Arcanist

Arcanist

Min Dawnguard Sentinels

The Vyre rebels we ambushed consisted of the following assortment of traitors:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan, of House Vyre

• Banshee

Houseguard Thane

Max Houseguard Halberdiers + Officer and Standard

Max Houseguard Riflemen + Officer and Standard

Max Mage Hunter Strikeforce + Commander

We rolled up the scenario with a large circular zone in the center and two fuel objectives on either side. I got first turn and Sean chose the side that had a wall on it.

I deployed my 'jacks in a line with Vyros and Imperatus at the center, Arcanists on the flanks, with my Sentinels AD'ing ahead of my armored column in a gap between a wall and some woods. My general game plan involved the following:

• Neuter the Strike Force. With 'Jack Hunter they can seriously chew up my Murder of Griffons, especially on Ossyan's feat turn. While I didn't have the number of attacks to kill them, engaging them with a Griffon would be just as good.

• Weather/lock down the feat as much as possible. Ossyan can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time,  and I don't exactly have the number of models necessary to deal with it well. Again, running to engage is well worth sacrificing a Griffon to cut down on the number of feat shots.

• Keep an eye on assassination. Vyros rocks a pretty awesome statline, but with the Banshee and Ossyan's gun it's a possibility.
• Aim to go for assassination myself. Vyros' feat and Imperatus' insane mobility can generally get it done.

Turn 1:

With a mighty yell the concealed Dawnguard charged at the rebel column. Seizing the initiative as well Vyros willed his charges to burst forward as well, seeking to close the distance with the enemy.

Here's where I had a long thought about potentially feating on turn 1. Since my Sentinels are AD they are in striking distance from the Strike Force and potentially either the Halberdiers (10" deploy + Quicken + Desperate Pace + Reach for  25") or Riflemen on turn 1. In the end I didn't think that he could get the number of guns needed to threaten me, so chose to forego it.

Vyros allocates out 4 focus to 4 jacks, Arcanists fuel the remaining two. My jacks run up, with two Griffons on my left flank looking to get into Fuel range of my objective for turn two jamming. The Sentinels run about 8-9" to keep them out of the melee threat and I choose to keep them in base to base to neuter Strike Force shooting. Finally Vyros casts Synergy and charges 11" at the enemy Banshee.

His turn 1 sees the Strike Force advance and shoot my forward most left Griffon, getting it to about half health but with all systems still operational. Ossyan shoots but fails to kill one of my Sentinels, allowing the Banshee to easily slam two of them into each other and kill them both. His Halberdiers get a run charge order, but after the first one fails he runs the rest into threatening positions.

Turn 2:

Having weathered the rebels' first volley, the Dawnlord was intent on not giving them a second shot. Like the mythical beasts of old his myrmidons shot forth, swiftly closing the gap and engaging their foes. The Dawnguard sallied forth bravely, attracting as much attention to themselves as they could in order to bring about the next part of Vyros' master plan.

The Strike Force didn't manage to take out my Griffon, which was good, but now they have a Halberdier in the way of Operation Space Jam. Vyros upkeeps Synergy and hogs all of that delicious focus for himself.

My Sentinels activate and attempt to lay the smack down. I use the Cone of Shame to my advantage and kill three Halberdiers, but I don't manage to kill the Halberdier that's threatening a free strike on my wounded Griffon's charge lane to the Strike Force. After thinking for a while I run him (for free thanks to Fuel) into the Strike Force and engage three of them including the Commander. On the opposite flank I Power Boost a Griffon and run it into the Riflemen.

At this point I've accomplished my objectives and don't really know what to do with the rest of my pieces. Imperatus wanders to a point where only two Halberdiers could get to him and misses a shot at the leader (should've boosted, forgot about Quicken!). The Aspis wanders within 2" of him, Vyros moves behind the both of them (while still keeping everyone but my far flanking Griffon in control area) and feats. Finally my last right Griffon walks and kills a Halberdier while my left Griffon gets a focus from his Arcanist, charges a Mage Hunter for free (thanks Fuel!), kills it… then thinks better about killing the Halberdier that it's engaged with and sits on the focus.

His turn 2, as expected, was a play for the assassination, but started out fairly differently than I expected. Ossyan dropped Quicken, allocated nothing to the Banshee, and proceeded to Arcantrik Bolt the Griffon engaging his Riflemen and the other Griffon I had on my right flank, spending his stack to do so. He then feats, but forgets to fire his gun. The Banshee activates next and shoots a Sentinel, triggering my feat and allowing my far left Griffon to move and engage all but three of his Strike Force. The Halberdiers activate and charge to kill the rest of my Sentinels and one of the stationaried Griffons, allowing Imperatus to advance 6" closer to his caster, an Arcanist to advance 6" closer to Imperatus, and Vyros to advance into engaged range of a Rifleman while staying hidden behind a forest. His Riflemen try to get Vyros, but only do one point of damage. His Strike Force manage to kill the wounded Griffon in close combat, but the four that were unengaged don't have range to do much.

Turn 3:

While necessary for his plan to work, the deaths of his brothers in arms filled the Dawnlord with rage. Beating the cadence of battle with his sword and sorcery to a fevered pitch, Vyros turned to his favored myrmidon, his Imperatus, and thought: "Kill. Maim. Burn."

Vyros upkeeps Synergy, allocates three to Imperatus and one to shake my frozen Griffon. Imperatus gets Concentrated Power, my Aspis gets Power Boostered, and a chain of attacks gets my Synergy chain up to 3. Imperatus takes a free strike from a Halberdier to get to the Banshee, nearly kills it with initials while Side Stepping around to where Ossyan is, and slices the traitor in half with two dice+7 MAT 10 attacks.

Standing over the charred, mangled corpse of the Vyre warcaster, Imperatus let out baleful shriek of victory. Silhouetted by the burning, half dismembered Banshee the myrmidon looked like the very visage of Lurynsar, God of War, come once again. What else could the rebel do but flee in the face of such majesty?

Victory to the armed forces of Ios!

Thoughts:

Always interesting to fight against another knife ear, especially with a list that is very similar to one of mine. As far as my play goes, my second turn was a bit of a mess at least as far as my long term plan went- mostly I was just shuffling around and setting up for assassination. If more Halberdiers had focused on Imperatus it could have been bad news for me, but it seemed to work out in the end.

I think that Sean would have had better luck if he focused on using his feat for attrition rather than assassination. With that focus he very could have taken out Imperatus and my Sentinels while still keeping his Banshee alive, which would have put him in a dominating position. Casting Admonition also always helps.

Still, fun game and I hope to face Sean again. Next time… will be something, but until then, shank a round ear for me!