Doc Brown
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Continuing the Retribution saga, others may not find it interesting, but I always like to look back and see what I could’ve done. Took the Retribution to their second tournament. It was a 35 pt Steamroller with 10 minute turns and 2 lists. I don’t have anything particularly inspired for a second list and my default Ravyn list has a solid record. When I get the models for a Rahn list, he’ll be the B (or possibly A) list, but until then, it’s going to be Ravyn. That being said, the only armies I’ve noticed the list has distinct issues with are Legion and Skorne, so I don’t feel it’s a particular problem. The list for those of you just tuning in is:
Ravyn
-Manticore
Mage Hunter Strike Force + UA
2x Stormfall Archer units
Ghost Sniper
2x Mage Hunter Assassins
eEiryss
Lady A & Master Holt
The field is pretty interesting; out of 11 armies there are 6 Khador, 2 Cryx, 1 Ret (me), 1 Legion, and 1 Circle. In short, a sea of red. The casters for Khador are nicely varied though. With 6 players and 2 lists each (for most anyways) the roster is pretty large without an abundance of overlap. My worst matchup here is without question the Legion. He’s a friend and I know he’s got a Lylyth list which is a problem and a half when nothing in the entirety of the retribution save 1 caster ignores stealth. In general there isn’t much here I haven’t played against, so there shouldn’t be many surprises.
Round 1
pVlad
-Berserker
-Berserker
-Beast 09
-Decimator
Irong Fang Cav
Scenario: Mosh Pit/Assassination
Assessment going in: That’s a lot of jacks, but my opponent is pretty new to the game. It could actually be an issue if he just uses Vlad’s feat to blitz into the mosh pit and run the cav 16”. We’ll see.
Turn 1
My opponent get’s first and runs his jacks casting Wind Wall.
I went for the assassination (admittedly probably early). Ravyn casts snipe on the MHSF, feats, Lady A gives them Magic Weapons and they open fire. When all is said and done Vlad is down to 5 or 6 boxes. The rest of the army gets in position using some barricades in the middle of the field to force Vlad to cast Boundless Charge in order to get jacks to me.
Turn 2
My opponent was shaken really bad by the fact that not only could I shoot Vlad, but there wasn’t a way to stop me from doing it again. He’s pretty fatalistic and advances forward with Vlad’s feat up.
Since he hasn’t made an attempt to engage the MHSF and Vlad is still in range, they take the aiming bonus and put him down.
Final Assessment: It’s hard to put in words exactly how shaken up my opponent was by that initial volley. I pointed out after the game that he could’ve used Vlads feat to run to engage the MHSF and prevent another volley, but looking back almost none of his jacks had reach, so the 3-4 shots that finished him still would’ve gone off unless Vlad had left his jacks with no focus for the next turn or two. Morale of the story: Adjusting to a situation when your gimmick doesn’t work is vital, my opponent mentally lost this game when the first MHSF model shot at Vlad.
As an important note: We had a few minutes before the game when we were waiting for others to finish setting up where I asked my opponent if he wanted to know about any of my units. After walking him through the models he seemed to understand, but seemed genuinely surprised when he realized the jacks couldn’t block LoS to Vlad. Second morale of the story: If your opponent offers to walk you through his army and you don’t know anything about it, ask about everything.
Round 2
eSorscha
-Beast 09
War Dog
Iron Fang Pikemen (full size)
Winterguard Rifles (full size)
Doom Reavers
Great Bears
Kovnik Joe
Scenario: There’s an actual title for this, but I can’t recall it, it involves a 6”x24” box in the middle of the table. You score points like mosh pit i.e. you have models/units in it and they don’t and 2 points gives you a win. Also there’s assassination.
Turn 1
My opponent gets first turn and blitzes forward with the winterguard in the lead. Sorscha casts Iron Flesh on the winterguard and Joe makes them tough. I should note that after a previous game where I used Star Strike rounds from the Stormfalls to kill almost the entire Iron Fang unit, the Iron Fangs aren’t shield walling.
Eiryss kicks things off by dropping a winterguard and removing Iron Flesh from the unit. From then on it’s pretty much just a shooting gallery. My opponent’s tough rolls are pretty light, but for me all that really meant was that a unit of stormfalls got to be bored for a turn. All but 1 of the winterguard are gone and the doom reavers took a hit or two.
Turn 2
Send in the next wave. The box in the middle is now full of Iron Fangs with Iron Flesh and a survivor from the winterguard. The winterguard survivor does get in some revenge thanks a spell from Sorscha that does some kind of AoE killing a Stormfall and Master Holt and pinging Lady A for 3.
Feat time. Eiryss yet again turned off Iron Flesh (a boosted attack roll from Ravyn’s feat didn’t hurt). The rest of the turn was borderline insulting as my units not only killed everything in the box, but used the swift hunter moves from the kills to get inside, so effectively I was farming my opponent for extra movement. All of the Iron Fangs, the last winterguard, the remaining doom reavers and the Great Bears all meet their ends. I score a point at the end of the turn, 1 more and it’s game.
Turn 3
All he has left is Beast 09, Kovnik Joe, the Dog and of course Sorscha. Sorscha feats because why not, but doesn’t go into the box. Beast 09 charges the Manticore and…do I even need to say what happened with Beast charging on Sorcha’s feat turn? The threasher drops some stormfalls as well. Joe does his part putting a bullet in Eiryss’ skull, but a few turns too late.
A Stormfall puts an aimed brutal shot into Joe easily dropping him. Lady A blows a kiss to Beast 09. Then I sent Ravyn in for the kill. It might seem desperate, but with the damage buff from Lady A, Vortex of Destruction, hitting on 3’s and 5 focus, it really wasn’t. She put Beast 09 down with some focus to spare for the win.
Final Assessment: My opponent was a good bit more fatalistic than it felt like he needed to be. I’m not sure I would say it was an even matchup, but it seems like there was a better way to approach this game.
At this point all Khador armies have a loss and first place is between me, Legion and Cryx. The Cryx is the Terminus army my army has manhandled in our last few encouters, but I still don’t like my chances against Legion.
Round 3 (I get paired down, Cryx and Legion fight)
The Old Witch
-Scrapjack
-Destroyer
War Dog
Iron Fang Pikemen (full size +UA)
Widowmakers
Greylord Ternion
Widowmaker Marksman
Great Bears
eEiryss
Scenario: Killbox/Assassination
Assessment going in: While I really don’t care about most of the army, the old with is a problem. Again back to that whole Retribution being abysmal at dealing with Stealth. And for some bizarre reason ignoring cover, concealment and LoS doesn’t get you past prowl. It won’t be fun.
I’m not sure I could actually go blow-by-blow here because there was a lot of turns (10 or more). In general both armies fought over the middle, the Eiryss’ did nothing. The Iron Fangs lost half their models to Star Strike rounds. All of the Greylords, the widowmakers and the dog died on turn 2. The MHSF charged the scrapjack and with 6 jack hunters only managed 3 damage (arrrgg), it then proceeded to murder a lot of the unit thanks to Avatar of Slaughter and the old witch teleported over and killed the rest. The destroyer mostly hung around, it rarely hit and ate a volley of brutal shots while cursed by Lady A eating a good chunk of its health. In the last few turns I made a judgment call and sent Ravyn into the fray. She killed 2 Great Bears (third died to a brutal shot earlier) the last 6 Iron Fangs, the Scrapjack, and the Destroyer all without dropping below ARM21. In the last turn I was faced with a dilemma. I had Ravyn and Lady A left and he had the Widowmaker Marksman (engaged with Ravyn) and the Old Witch. Given the Witch’s position and how much time we had left, I could’ve just had Ravyn drop the Marksman and withdrawn and just had Lady A wander the killbox casting veil until time ran out. There was little chance the old Witch would be able to kill either in the time left. Alternatively, Ravyn was easily within 6” of the Witch. In the end I went for the much riskier route to victory and tried to assassinate the Witch (with Iron Flesh). She didn’t have much focus left after trying to gallows Ravyn into melee, but my damage rolls were wretched. With no focus to camp, the execution was just a formality.
Final Assessment: I’d like to say that I should’ve gone for the safe route, but it wouldn’t have felt right to win that way. As an insult to injury, the Terminus list won the other matchup, so if Ravyn had gotten the damage to drop the Witch I had really good odds of getting first place. This game is a reason why I like Ravyn as a caster. Between Vortex, Virtuoso, Gunfighter, Quick Work, and Thresher, Ravyn can do a lot without using a point of focus. She doesn’t get chances to show off often, but more than few opponents have discovered their own little slice of hell in her abilities. I can’t be too sad about the loss simply because it was a really good game. I told my opponent about turn 4 or so that I was going to make the Old Witch get Ravyn out of the Killbox personally and it ended up being strangely prophetic.
Final Result had me tied for third with Cryx taking first and Legion taking second.
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