Junior Warcaster

"Are you going to paint robots and monsters tonight? Can I help?" She's too small to paint or play, but Hannah still makes a point of overseeing the entire Retribution war effort, from manufacturing through transport loading.

Here she's literally inspecting the primer coverage. Amazingly, she's pickier than me. Perhaps her heightened sparkle-detection ability is able to find shiny uncovered metal. She's quite good.

Her latest contribution has been organizing my paints into pretty colors (Necrotic Green, Beaten Purple, Carnal Pink, Molten Bronze, etc.) and ugly colors (anything remotely brown, grey, or ferrous).

Journeyman, Week 4

Played Monte this week. He's still at fifteen points with his Legion, so we didn't follow the week's rules (Battle Box upgraded to twenty-five points with a different caster).

Monte ran:

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight- Carnivean
- Shredder
- Shredder
- Shredder
- Shredder
The Forsaken

And I ran my fifteen pointer from week two, again:

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper- Manticore
- Griffon
- Chimera
Mage hunter assassin
Mage hunter assassin

Legion had advantage in mobility and model count, so the first order of business was to clear shredders and dent Lylyth's fury generation.

Journeyman, Week 3.5

Tonight was the second week of twenty-five point games in our Journeyman League. Over the weekend I finished the last two myrmidons from the battle box, a manticore and a griffon, and blocked out a full Mage hunter strike force and commander. So it was nice to field a nearly fully-painted army for the first time.

Turnout was up, but we gabbed a while and didn't start until almost eight.  Diane has a fully painted Circle army, so we had a beautiful table for Kill Box.


Kaya the Wildborne
* Argus
* Argus
* Feral Warpwolf
Druids of Orboros (+UA)
Lord of the Feast
(one point short)

And I ran my same list from last week, partly because it was designed for Warmachine opponents, and weak against Hordes; and partly because it's almost fully painted.

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
* Manticore
* Chimera
* Griffon
Mage hunter assassin
Mage hunter strike force (min+UA)
Mage hunter strike force (min+UA)

Kaya setup center with her beast, druids on her right in a forest, and LotF on her left on a hill. Kaelyssa setup center-left with both squads of mage hunters left on a hill and assassins far right across from LotF. My plan was to flush Kaya to my right using the mage hunters where she'd be open to an assassin or griffon charge. I'd use Kaelyssa's anti-magic spells (Arcane Reckoning and Banishing Ward) to counter the druids' spells. Oh, and Witch Hound, too (thanks, Brandon!).

Early Game

Everything was working great.  By the botton of turn two, things were looking great for Retribution.  The LotF had made a dangerous advance on turn one and fell to the griffon and assassin on turn two.  Kaya retreated to the back right corner of the kill box, fleeing the mage hunters.  A druid spell deviation onto my chimera got the griffon into melee with her.  Lovely.  All's well.

Mid Game

And then Circle shows why they are masters of movement and surprise.  One argus is waaay in the back, behind some forest, hiding.  I'm hardly thinking about him.  The second argus uses its animus to give the first one Pathfinder.  It runs through the woods, around my chimera, dodging two mage hunters and into the middle of my lines.  Kaya's standing in melee with my griffon on a hill in the back right.  She runs her warpwolf over, and then casts Spirit Door to teleport into the middle of my lines, about five inches from Kaelyssa.  Oop.  Not done yet.  She then teleports the warpwolf next to her, engaging Kaelyssa.  Yikes!  But, wait.  It gets better.  Then she feats, allocating three fury to all her warbeats and reaving six back to herself.  For three more she teleports the first argus up next to her and the warpwolf, about two inches from Kaelyssa.  Lucky for me we're in Mark II and none of them can activate after Spirit Door.

Late Game

Frightening and impressive as the situation was, it was a bad tactical move for Circle.  She had put her DEF 16 ARM 13 caster right in the middle of a fully-operational assassination army.  We played in for keeps.  The manticore got three focus, performed a two-handed grab on the argus and hurled him into Kaya.  Knocked down, she was easy prey for the thirteen remaning mage hunter strike force.  The end.

Lessons

Like my games against Kommander Sorscha, Kaya has taught me about movement and unorthodox charge lanes.  Watching the movement of the warbeasts will be a high priority in our next game.  The defense on the argus beasts was very impressive!  I had not expected warbeasts in the DEF 15-16 range.  Fortunately, I did not need to deal with them.  And I continue to enjoy the manticore in my lists.  Its utility has never disappointed.

Thanks for the game, Diane.

Gemology

Tonight was Manticore night. I planned to spend the evening finishing a heavy myrmidon for the Journeyman League tomorrow night. It was already base-coated and the weapons blended and washed. "How hard could it be?"

Fun Retribution Fact: A manticore heavy myrmidon figure sports sixty-seven metallic gems. If you ever want to become good at gems, forget Eldar: paint a manticore.

Journeyman, Week 3

Tonight began the third "week" of the Journeyman League, so lists bumped to twenty-five points. Mike K. and I played a nail-biter rematch of Kommander Sorscha versus Kaelyssa. Mike's list was:

Kommander Sorscha's Battlebox

Kommander Sorscha
* Juggernaut
* Destroyer
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Assault Kommandos (min+flamethrowers x2)
Widowmaker Marksman

Versus my:

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
* Manticore
* Chimera
* Griffon
Mage Hunter Assassin
Mage Hunter Strike Force (min+UA)
Mage Hunter Strike Force (min+UA)

We played Kill Box again, but on a regulation 4x4 table.




The Plan

Retribution's strategy was to use Kaelyssa's Backlash spell against the Khador 'jacks and then use my fourteen mage hunters, Manticore, and Kaelyssa to dink Sorscha to death, one hit at a time. It almost worked.

Early Game

The destroyer came forward, received Backlash through the chimera's arc node, took a hail of fire from two units of mage hunters, and fell back on turn two.  They had taken Sorscha down about a third.  This seemed to rattle the Khadorans, as they all rolled left and the destroyer fell back to get out of range.  The Great Bears stayed well out of range, and the kommandos formed up in shield wall centrally within some hills.  Juggernaut came forward to press the attack and cover the destroyer's retreat.

Mid Game

More Backlash, more shooting from the mage hunters, the manticore, and even Kaelyssa.  The kommandos moved forward for some countering fire through the chimera and griffon into mage hunters. By now I'd lost about six.  My assassin decapitated Volkov (grants Pathfinder on charge) to prevent the Bears coming across a linear obstacle, midfield.  Backlash damage against the 'jacks had left Sorscha with a dramatic single box remaining.  Uh oh.

Late Game

Sorscha outflanked on my left, passing the assassin, dashing through a mage hunter's threat range, and Windrushing/charging entirely behind my line and across the board to Kaelyssa, on my extreme right.  An intricate dance of Khadoran power ensued, as Mike and Doug (our Press Ganger) meticulously carved a charge lane for Sorscha from my left flank.  Tricks flew.  Great Bears were engaged by my griffon, but used his reach range to back off and pivot so they could swing at the assassin but still backswing at the griffon.  Assault kommandos fired flame templates through their own (immune) friends.  It was a beautiful display of game rules mastery.  By the end they had killed an assassin, formed a lane passing behind all three of my warjacks, and killed two of the three mage hunters who would have threatened free strikes.  Deep breath.

Then it was Sorscha's turn.  Seeing a full-focus warcaster charge twenty inches across the table never fails to impress.  Naturally, the mage hunter missed his free strike (MAT 6+2 versus DEF 16, I believe).  Had he hit, she would have died.  Kaelyssa, at full health but with no power field stood to take it on the chin.  Unfortunately, the dice were not with Mike, either, and he only scored a few points of damage. With one-health Sorscha three inches from a full-health manticore and a warcaster, Khador conceded.

Backlash... it almost worked.