Game 82: Helynna vs Butcher3

Game 82 – Vs Jonny Jennings – Khador – 27/08/17

My list:

Magister Helynna

-Sylys Wyshnaylrr, The Seeker

-Discordia

-Manticore

-Manticore

Arcanist Mechanik

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Max Dawnguard Sentinels

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Spears of Scyrah

His List:

Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed (Winterguard Kommand)

-War Argus

-War Argus

-Ruin

-Kodiak

-Juggernaut

-Devastator

Winterguard Gun Carriage

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Max Winterguard Rifle Corps

-Winterguard Rocketeer

-Winterguard Rocketeer

-Winterguard Rocketeer

Winterguard Mortar Crew

Min Winterguard Infantry

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Following the abandoning of my Ravyn list I am still looking for a 3^rd list to join Issyria and Vyros for the Nationals. I didn’t particularly enjoy using this list the first time I tried it but I think the theory is sound, so wanted to give it another shot. Jonny dropped Butcher3 against me, and I’ve played Sentinels (With Kaelyssa) against Butcher before, so had a decent idea how to play it. I win the first turn and, after Jonny’s Advance Moves, get going.

A standard starting turn sees Helynna cast Rhythm of War and Deceleration before running forward. Discordia Imprints for Kinetic Field, and after the Sentinels have run up to flank the jacks, the Manticores both move 3” further from Rhythm.

Butcher puts out Silence of Death on Ruin, before his forces advance up. Some shooting is put into a Manticore, but only take out the Force Field that will regenerate on my Feat turn. On the right flank the Gun Carriage toes the zone, keeping out of threat of the Sentinels.

This is definitely going to be my feat turn, as I need to shut down the Battle Engine on the right flank, but I need something out of the turn. Helynna advances to the flag, casts Hand of Destruction on the Juggernaut, before pushing it 3” towards the Manticores with her gun. The Manticores then charge and with Force Generator and Concentrated Power destroy the Juggernaut with an attack left over to scratch the paint on the Devastator. The Sentinels run and Mini-Feat up to Arm23, 3 of them sitting right in front of the Gun Carriage

Butcher’s turn went as you would expect with Ruin killing one Manticore and Butcher himself the other, but due to Helynna’s feat making them pretty tough, Butcher had to use his feat to safely do so. He and his jacks Energiser back to safety. On the right the Gun Carriage attempts to Impact some Sentinels, but luckily for Jonny failed completely. I should have left the front Sentinel out of B2B with the others, so as to encourage him to kill one and trigger Vengeance but I didn’t think of this at the time. Through all this, Jonny cannot contest my flag and I move to a 1-0 lead.

Having used my Feat and sacrificed 2 Manticores to deliver my army I need to get some work done with it. Helynna moves up into the right zone and pulls Ruin 3” forward, into threat of a decent number of Sentinels, Sylys takes her place on the flag. The right Sentinels charge and kill the Gun Carriage, and 4 charge Ruin, doing underwhelming damage. The left Sentinels charge with 2 going into Ruin, taking out it’s Cortex and main weapon but leaving it alive. They put some damage on other jacks. I can’t score his flag as planned but to score mine and the right zone to lead 3-0.

Jonny does some serious work on the left unit of Sentinels. Between a trampling Devastator (trampling into range to contest my flag), the Kodiak Venting Steam and the Winter Guard charging in with Bear’s Strength all the Sentinels in the zone are killed, but there is nothing in the Khador army that can score it himself. On the right the Artillery gets into the zone to contest. The score stays at 3-0.

Only Ruin and one Argus are contesting Jonny’s flag, and only the Artillery are in the right zone, so I only need to kill these to win on scenario. The Spears deal with the Mortar Crew, the last remaining Sentinel from the left kills the dog with a Vengeance and regular attack, and the full Sentinel unit finishes off Ruin. Sylys runs to switch flags and I win 5-0.

VICTORY

As boring as this list is to play, the sheer armour skew of it is enough to power through some games. I was pleased with how I dealt with this game, trading way down with the Manticores to buy a turn of heavy hitting with the Sentinels, and managing to carry that through to a scenario win. Jonny should have scored the left zone on his turn, and this would have forced the game to go longer, but I think that with a full unit of Sentinels and Discordia in the bag I should have had enough to attrition the game out.