I took one of my amigos up there and for a $10 entry fee, I was in.
I brought two lists:
| Fires on High Tier 4 | |
| Adeptis Rahn | -6 |
| Hyperion | 18 |
| Eiryss, Angel of Retribution | 3 |
| House Shyeel Artificer | 3 |
| House Shyeel Artificer | 3 |
| House Shyeel Magister | 2 |
| Arcanist | 1 |
| Arcanist | 1 |
| Stormfall Archers | 5 |
| Stormfall Archers | 5 |
| 35 | |
| Will of the Nine Voices Tier 1 | |
| Ravyn, the Eternal Light | -6 |
| Phoenix | 10 |
| Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios | 3 |
| Mage Hunter Assassin | 2 |
| Mage Hunter Strike Force | 8 |
| Strike Force Commander | 2 |
| Souless Escort | 1 |
| Mage Hunter Strike Force | 8 |
| Strike Force Commander | 2 |
| Stormfall Archers | 5 |
| 35 | |
Now I can hear the groans at the Ravyn list.
But on the other hand, I'm a terrible player.
On the second other hand, I played only against Horde Players, 2 Troll Bloods and 2 Circle.
First game
Against a beast heavy Doom Shaper. The day previously, on Friday night, I had just played Fires on High at 50 points against Doom Shaper 3 so figured I'd go with Ravyn just for something different.
Problem is even with the dreaded "snipe, feat, go" that Doomshaper is sitting on 17 ARM with the stones. POW 10 vs ARM 17 is not a good thing.
The thing that has been cemented in my head against all trolls at this point? Shoot the stones. That +2 ARM and the no continuous effects? Yeah... I think I might have had a chance here with some better playing but overall I got a firm beat down.
Caster killed by an Earthborn using the POW of my Phoenix, which failed to kill the troll even thought it was in Ravyn's Vortex of Destruction and getting boosted damage rolls.
Second game
Against... trolls. But this list was light on the war beasts and was run by Calandra. She has a great spell, Star-Crossed. If you are within her control area, you gain an extra die on all attack rolls, both melee and ranged. The trick? You drop the highest.
It was a fun list to play against because there were a lot of light war beasts and the Storm Fall Archers, even with their RAT of 5, were able to shoot down a few of the enemy. My Hyperion was not played correctly. I'm used to having to buy three attacks and maybe kill a heavy so when the Hyperion charged into a light and splat it in like two hits so yeah, that three focus went to waste.
I had Rahn on a hill so DEF 16. War Beasts, even lights, that all have ranged attacks and can get Fate Blessed from Calandra don't care about that so in essence, I feed the opposite player my caster, which resulted in a loss.
Third game
A beast heavy game against Circle lead by Kaya the Wildborne. I picked Ravyn as it was a killbox scenario and I thought I might be able to knock out the support staff early. She was carrying with her two Warpwolf Stalkers and a Feral Warpwolf along with druids. The player was way too cautious thanks to the whole "Snip, Feat, Go" thing.
The caution also worked against the player in that they allowed me to get Narn and the Mage Hunter Assassin within charge range. The player decided to feat to get rid of Narn after some very bad dice rolls failed to do it the first time.
But the player also killboxed himself.
And he pointed out I could destroy the objective and Ravyn was already in the zone so... a win by scenario!
I try to learn from every game I play so I asked him why he didn't move the warpwolves into play and he was worried they'd get shot off the board.
I'm not saying that's impossible but at POW 10 against ARM 17, that would be a LOT of spiked rolls. That's assuming I hit. So if it was "Snipe, Feat, Go,", which wouldn't be necessary for Snipe as I moved the strike force up far, and assuming every shot hit, I'd be doing 5 points per hit max. A warpwolf stalker has 25 boxes. That would be 5 maximum shots. So with three wolves, that's 15 maximum shots. average dice though is going to be 6.5 or 7 so most of those shots would have plinked off.
Now mind you, if he didn't clear out the strike force, which again with berserk and lightning strike, shouldn't' have been too hard, I could potentially get off a charge and they do have combined melee attack but the POW on their melee weapons is worse, POW 9.
So personally I think I was lucky to get that win off but I'll take it. On scenario no less.
Fourth game
Three flags on the board... ugh! I played Rahn again this time against Circle lead by Krueger the Stormlord.
I don't want to say I 'gave' this one away too because the other player won. It was a bad miscalculation on my part on how 'safe' my warcaster was behind a wall but Krueger's feat pushed me far enough away from it that he was able to charge a warpwolf into me and even camping three focus it wasn't enough.
Which in this instance was his 'golden' ticket as I had taken out his Megalith, my Hyperion was almost at full health thanks to the two mechanics, and I was sitting on 3 control points about to score again on my turn.
Assuming I didn't clock myself out. Deviations eat up a lot of time folks!
I was a little annoyed at playing all four games against Hordes because I don't feel that outside of maybe Hypnos and E2 that Retribution brings a lot against them.
I also think that the ability to alpha strike with war beasts can often easily outpace a standard War Jack alpha strike with it's limit of 3 focus AND usually only 2 attacks.
This doesn't count the ability to transfer damage which renders the whole ability to ignore focus armor boosting ability useless.
But the players were all friendly and I had a good time and hope that I provided some entertaining to my fellow gamers.
Now in terms of what else was around? There were sixteen players including me and my buddy and while I'm not going to be able to pinpoint everything, and I should definitely have taken pictures, here's my recollection:
Khador: 2 lists each with the Butcher
Khador: 2 lists, one with EIrusk, the other with Vlad 2
Cryxis: I didn't see the lists in play, but my friend lost against E Denny.
Mercs: Didn't see the warcaster but it was Pirate based with a Galleon on the table.
Troll Bloods: See above
Troll Bloods: See above
Circle: See above
Circle: See above
Minions: Gators! I remember this one because the guy put the warcaster on a surfboard riding a bone swarm. It was highly original and well done.
I don't recall seeing any Menoth or Convergence. I was the only Retribution player.
