Game 36: Kaelyssa vs Helynna

Game 36 – Retribution of Scyrah – 03/06/17

My list:

Kaelyssa, The Night’s Whisper

-Helios

Arcantrik Force Generator

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and Standard Bearer

His List:

Magister Helynna

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Manticore

-Hydra

-Phoenix

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Of the 8 winners from Round 1 three of us were Retribution players and 5 of us were from the same club, and so hitting either a clubmate or mirror was pretty likely. I got the latter with my opponent using Rahn and Helynna, both in the Forges theme. He dropped Helynna with a list designed around the Rhythm of War ability, and I went for Kaelyssa, as Mage Hunters would struggle shooting into so many jacks, and the Covering Fires would ruin their day. My opponent won first turn and ran up the table under Deceleration making sure to stay out of range of the AFG.

My first turn was all about setting up board position and denying him the ability to do anything on his turn. To this end Kaelyssa but Blur onto Helios and Refuge on the AFG before Feating and moving up to a spot behind AFG and a building. Helios and Eiryss ran up the left flank and both units of Sentinels Minifeated and advanced on the right.

Under my feat my opponent wasn’t able to achieve too much so he lays down Covering Fire in front of my Sentinels and consolidates his position in the zones. Helynna arcs Hand of Destruction through the Phoenix onto Helios ready for next turn.

I can see an opportunity in my turn to get some serious work done. The central Covering Fire in front of my army is being controlled by a slightly isolated Manticore, and if my opponent doesn’t work out what I’m doing I think I can kill it with Helios, removing the template and allowing the Sentinels to charge in. The AFG and Eiryss shoot into the jacks on the left, tempting out the Shield Guard uses and managing to knock down the target Manticore. Helios charges in, pulls in the Manticore with 2 pushes as it no longer has any protection, and then pushes away the Hydra that had been the charge target. 3 attacks at dice+5 kill the Manticore and the last attack is put into the objective (this was a mistake, and a frustrating one as I should have spent the last focus on Repulsor Field). With the Covering Fire removed the Sentinels charge through, engaging all 3 Manticores on the right and dealing significant damage to them. Kaelyssa tried to shoot Hand of Destruction off Helios but missed because of Blur and because I’m an idiot.

My opponent feats to bring back the shields on the damaged Manticores and sets about dealing as much damage to my force as he can. The jacks on the left destroy Helios and the Manticores on the right kill around 6 Sentinels in the orange unit (he smartly leaves the blue unit untouched to avoid triggering Vengeance). Helynna dominates her defensive zone to lead 1-0.

Despite what felt like a strong last turn I suddenly feel in a pretty poor position and need to get some good work done on the right to clear my zone and start counter-scoring. Eiryss moves to toe the left zone in order to contest it and the Sentinels throw attacks at the Griffon and Manticores on the right. Dice do not comply and although I remove one Manticore, I leave the Griffon alive in the zone. Not being able to score means I keep Kaelyssa behind her building, just using her to make a couple of jacks Stationary. Nobody scores and Helynna leads 1-0

Between Stationary and Disruption Helynna’s forces are unable to do much on the left, instead just focussing on removing Eiryss with a Force Strike through the Phoenix, allowing Helynna to score again. On the right his remaining jacks continue on the Sentinels, removing the remaining orange Sentinels again without killing any of the blue. 2-0

I run up a Mechanik to contest his zone to slow down the scoring and work out how to deal with the jacks on the right. I feel like I need to get lucky with the AFG and shoot one of the engaged Griffons with a Momentum shot. I make the 7 to hit and one is slammed into the Manticore, doing some damage to both. I don’t want to try my luck with the other and so just shoot the same jack again, dealing more damage. Between this and previous damage the Sentinels are able to clear the right flank completely. Kaelyssa takes advantage of this my moving up, shooting a jack and Refuging into the zone. The score goes to 2-1.

With a sudden swing to the momentum of the game my opponent feels that he has to go for the assassination. He manages to land the Hand of Destruction on Kaelyssa but fails to get the Critical Knockdown from Force Strike. This leaves the assassination very unlikely and when the Manticore only rolls up a single shot the chance has realistically gone. Kaelyssa lives with around 10 boxes and my opponent calls the game.

VICTORY

A tough game against a very strong opponent. We both made various mistakes in this game, him by allowing me to scalpel out the important Manticore and then me for not prioritising the removal of Hand of Destruction and not putting up any of Helios’ defensive tech. I feel like I controlled the flow of the game pretty well and think I would have won eventually if the attrition/scenario game had continued. Into the last 4 of the event with another Retribution, Menoth and Khador in the mix, and I was feeling pretty good about my chances.