Game 174: Elara2 vs Skarre1

Game 174 – Vs Rob Tilsten – Cryx – 07/04/18

My list:

Elara, Death’s Shadow (Shadows of the Retribution)

-Chimera

-Siren

-Siren

-Aspis

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Mage Hunter Assassin

Min Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Infiltrators

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Max Mage Hunter Strike Force

-Commander

Spears of Scyrah

-Soulless Escort

His List:

Pirate Queen Skarre (Dark Host)

-Skarlock Thrall

-Stalker

-Stalker

-Stalker

-Stalker

-Stalker

Wraith Engine

Bane Lord Tartarus

Darragh Wrathe

Soul Trapper

Max Bane Knights

Min Bane Warriors

-Officer & Standard Bearer

Cephalyx Overlords

The final game of my Elara2 testing day saw me up against Cryx again, this time with Skarre1 in Dark Host being played by Rob. He had gone for a pretty jack heavy build with 5 Stalkers which would be a real threat under Dark Guidence and Skarre’s Feat. I won the roll to go first and we got moving.

I put out Scything Touch onto an Infiltrator and run all my forces up out of range of the Stalkers, hoping to get a decent alpha strike or at least force an early Feat next turn.

Rob then makes a move that I wasn’t particularly prepared for, but liked a lot. He runs all 5 Stalkers to the centre of my army with Skarre Feating to protect all 5 as well as the Battle Engine and some support pieces. The rest of the Cryx forces move up behind to act as a second wave.

Well this is a pretty interesting puzzle to solve. Elara Feats as Ghostly is vital to unlocking this mess and she starts the damage train into the Stalkers before Teleporting back to as safe a position as she can. I figure that I can knock 2 down with a Slam, but I miss the boosted 9 required so I’m forced to accept that there will be Stalkers left at the end of my turn. I kill 2 and rip both arms off a third, before blocking the area around Elara to prevent the assassination run next turn. I throw a few models forward, killing a couple of Banes, but mainly to buy me some time.

I have done a decent enough job blocking the assassination (it could have been better, as a couple of differently placed Infiltrators would have made the Wraith Engine’s life very difficult) so Rob plays for attrition instead. With Dark Guidance he is able to take out a good number of Mage Hunters but struggled to deal with my more elite solos. I lose a Siren but am still well in the game which was all that could be hoped for after the failed Slam. Nobody scores.

With the Feat gone it is time for a proper attrition turn. I am able to finish off the Stalkers and take out the Wraith Engine with the remaining Siren. My infantry then gets stuck into the Banes and remove all but one of the Knights and around half of the Warriors. Again though no zones are clear, and I didn’t have a spare solo to get to my flag.

Rob starts his turn by making a few attacks into my infantry before quickly realising that he doesn’t have enough left for the attrition game and conceding.

VICTORY

An interesting game that was much harder work than I needed to make it. I was far too focussed on keeping out of the Stalker’s threat ranges on turn 1 that it resulted in me being incredibly bunched up and caused a huge problem when I was rushed. Had I accepted some losses on turn 1 I would have been in a far better position to unjam myself and probably would have had a far smoother game. I was really pleased with the list over the 3 games, and am definitely going to give it a decent go as a pair to Vyros2.