vs Derek Sennstrom
Scenario: Recon 2
Coming into this game, the January scrum had just completed and I was super pleased with the Coven list I ran. After some discussions, I had decided on Denny2 as my complementary list. I had several reps with the Coven list by now and wanted to get Denny2 back on the table. I knew that whoever I ended up playing this week, I was going to drop Denny2 and just start seeing how the list operates on the table.
Derek agreed to a game and brought his Crucible Guard. Normally Syvestro is part of his pair and that's his drop into Cryx. However, he told me he wanted to run this Mackay list as a potentially better Cryx drop. He hasn't been super pleased with how Syvestro plays into Black Industries, specifically, and wanted to explore some other options. Here are the lists.
Me:
[Deneghra 2] Wraith Witch Deneghra [+28] - Black Industries
- Barathrum [15]
- Deathjack [23]
- Deathripper [6]
- Deathripper [6]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
Hellslinger Phantom [0(7)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Soul Trapper [1]
Void Archon [8]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
- Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Derek:
[Mackay 1] Captain Eira Mackay [+19] - Prima Materia
- Vanguard [10]
- Vanguard [10]
- Vanguard [10]
- Vanguard [10]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [2]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [2]
Prospero [5]
- Vulcan [35]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Combat Alchemists [0(7)]
Dragon's Breath Rocket [5]
Dragon's Breath Rocket [5]
We rolled the scenario and the dice gods chose Recon 2 for us. I won the initiative roll. I knew if I didn't go first, mobility was going to put him uncomfortably far up the board on top of 1. This scenario is also generally not a hyper fast scoring one, so I didn't feel bad about giving up the first opportunity to score points.
Terrain featured a house in roughly the center of the board. The right zone had a fire cloud along the far edge and a water feature covering a good portion of the near side. Closer to me, behind the right zone, a trench was positioned. An acid pool sat partially under Derek's objective. Between my objective and my table edge there was a forest, aligned just to the left of the objective. The left zone had a wall overlapping the near left corner, however being behind the wall prevented being in the zone. The far side of the left zone had an odd shaped forest, which allowed the left, far corner of the zone to be accessed from the other side of the forest.
Derek selected the eyeless sight objective and I chose pathfinder.
Deployment:
I deployed the soul trapper (proxied by a white primed Saxon Orik) and Void archon straight behind my objective. To the right of the archon was a warwitch siren, followed by Denny2. Continuing down the line to the right, there was a necrotech, two slayers, another necrotech and a deathripper on the far right flank. Straight behind the forest I deployed the hellslinger. To it's left came the other warwitch siren, the second deathripper, the third slayer and the final necrotech on the far left.
Derek deployed the vulcan directly in line with the right zone (failsafe is already on the vulcan, due to the prima materia theme benefit). One vanguard stood to the vulcan's right, with a dragon's breath rocket on the far right with a mechanic standing behind the rocket. To the left of the vulcan stood Prospero followed by a second vanguard. Mackay was deployed in line with the central house with a third vanguard to her right. The other dragon's breath rocket stood to her left, followed by the second vanguard and the second mechanic.
For advanced deployment I put Deathjack inside the trench behind the right zone and Barathrum was dug in lined up with the center of the left zone.
Derek's advanced deployment featured a trancer aligned with each edge of the left zone and the alchemists just to the right of them and to the left of the acid pool. A third trancer was placed to the right of the acid pool with the final trancer aligned with the center of the right zone.
I apologize for the poor lightning in the pictures. My basement overhead light is not kind to these images and some of the models on both sides are primed black, which does not help.
Top 1: I allocate nothing and go right into activating my models. Everything runs this turn, as Denny2 has no buffs to hand out, I don't have to be too concerned. I make sure to stay out of his threat ranges. One slayer runs just over the wall to stand in the left zone. Barathrum walks forward to toe into the right corner of the left zone and digs in again. A necrotech positions to be able to walk and repair either of them, just in case he can somehow land attacks on me. One arcnode and a warwitch siren position behind Barathrum. The hellslinger and void archon run through the forest and stand to the left of the objective, with the second slayer to the right of the objective. The other warwitch siren stands behind this slayer. The third slayer stands a couple inches back from the flag in order to stay out of shooting threat range (although I probably shouldn't be too worried about that). Deathjack moves over to be in the right portion of the trench. The second deathripper and two necrotechs also get into the trench. Denny2 moves up to be to the left of the trench. Next turn I want her getting behind the house. My plan is to use the house to keep her safe, while threatening Mackay with Denny's ability to go incorporeal and charge through the house. Finally, the soul trapper positions to be 10 inches away from my flag. My turn ends with just under 54 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 1: Due to theme benefit, Derek upkeeps failsafe for free. He allocates nothing and goes into his turn. The combat alchemists run backwards and line up behind the acid pool. Mackay casts mobility and moves forward into the acid pool. The two vanguards that started around Mackay run to stand in a line behind the far flag. The dragon's breath rocket on the left runs up to stand behind the forest and the two trancers run to try and protect the guns from ambushers. The two mechanics run to be behind Mackay. On the right, the two trancers similarly take up positions to protect from ambushers and the dragon's breath rocket runs to stand behind the fire cloud. The two vanguards near the vulcan run to stand just to the left of the fire cloud and the vulcan runs forward to just get into the far left corner of the right zone. Prospero moves to stand behind the vulcan. Derek's turn ends with 52 minutes on his clock.
Top 2: Derek had positioned his forces to be able to threaten the two zones, while remaining outside most of my threat ranges. I could have tried to pull off some kind of hellmouth + damnation shenanigans, but due to the difficult terrain I would have also needed to burn my feat. Ultimately, I decided that wasn't worth it. I was going to need to take this turn as a positioning turn, but I also needed to set up so I could start threatening his two biggest key pieces: Mackay and the vulcan. Denny2 allocated nothing, the mechanithralls ambushed on the left side of the board and I began my turn. The deathripper on the right ran forward to stand exactly 10 inches away from the vulcan. The void archon advanced right up next to the house. I hoped to have it threatening to fly over the house to dark shroud a huge base while also putting it in a place where it might be able to collect souls. The hellslinger stayed in place. For the majority of the game, the hellslinger had no good targets and some turns, like this one, I forgot to do anything relevant with it. The slayer near the objective stayed put, while the one behind the flag moved up to toe into the zone. One necrotech walked forward to stand base to base with the flag. Likely he would die, but at least it would force Derek to target it with an attack. The right warwitch siren ran to stand in the trench. Deathjack walked forward to be just inside the near right corner of the right zone and the other necrotech in the trench walked over to where Deathjack had been standing previously. All this was to setup Denny2's activation, which was simply arcing a breath stealer onto the vulcan.
On the left side of the board, the warwitch siren stepped back a couple inches and the other deathripper ran back further. The slayer on the left ran forward to stand between the house and forest. Barathrum walked over to dig in just in front of the wall. The necrotech ran to stand in the near right corner of the left zone, making sure it was within 5 inches of the slayer and Barathrum. Finally, the mechanithralls received the press forward order. Two charged the closer trancer, while one charged the rear trancer. A single brute thrall also charged the rear trancer. Due to a mistake on how the rear trancer was facing, I was able to run a single brute thrall to engage his dragon's breath rocket. Both trancers were killed, and the resulting explosions killed all three mechanithralls in range and did six and seven damage to the two brute thralls in range. I had hoped that the slayer on the left would protect Barathrum. Ideally, he would need both of his lights to kill the slayer and Barathrum could come in behind. At that point, Mackay would need to either start moving away or commit herself to kill Barathrum. Next turn, I was hoping to start scoring the left zone, while controlling the vulcan with breath stealer and contesting the right zone. My turn ended with 40 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 2: I had not given Derek much in threat range, so his turn was also one full of positioning. Corrosion did not go out on Mackay, so she took a point of damage. Mackay gave the painted vanguard on the left two focus and held onto the rest. Prospero allocated two focus to the vulcan. Prospero cast guided fire and walked backward as far as possible. The vulcan had to turn its facing so that it's big gun had the option of firing on the entire right zone. His big gun shot the deathripper once, then the sprays finished it off. He took its second big gun shot at the necrotech to clear the flag. The two vanguards moved in front of the vulcan to screen it. The dragon's breath rocket ran around the right side of the fire cloud. The forward right trancer ran forward and way out wide on the flank, while the other moved back behind the vulcan.
Mackay backed up a bit and shot her guns at the slayer on the left, then repositioned back further away. A mechanic moved forward and killed the brute thrall engaging the dragon's breath rocket. The rocket and combat alchemists used their activations to kill all the thralls except a single mechanithrall. The vanguard that was loaded up with focus walked forward and attacked the left slayer. After all attacks were done, the slayer was left on a single box. Both arms and movement were crippled, but it still had cortex. The second vanguard on the left moved up closer to the flag. No one scored any points and Derek's turn ended with 36 minutes on the clock.
Top 3: This was turning into a very interested positioning game. The vulcan was going to be able to shoot me most turns, but breath stealer was going to allow me to control it's melee threat. This turn, I wanted to breath stealer the vulcan again, while starting to work on the screening vanguards and scoring the first control point of the game. Denny2 allocated two focus to the slayer next to my objective and the objective granted that slayer pathfinder. Denny2 walked out from behind the house, cast breath stealer on the vulcan and then used shadow step to get back behind the house again. The slayer with pathfinder charged into the vanguard, and did a chunk of damage to it. The second slayer on the right ran into the water. I was hoping that next turn would be feat turn, and that would allow me to ignore the terrain. Deathjack ran to stand next to the flag, getting the vulcan inside its charge threat, while keeping outside of its melee threat. The soul trapper ran onto the flag while the warwitch siren positioned inside the trench and the necrotech still on the right side ran to be within five inches of Deathjack.
The hellslinger joined the void archon, snuggled up against the house. The necrotech on the left walked base to base with the slayer on the left and repaired it for three, which was exactly enough to get all systems back online. That slayer put a combo strike into the vanguard in front of it, which crippled it's main weapon. Barathrum remained in place. The remaining deathripper ran up behind the wall and the warwitch siren ran to the near right corner of the left zone. The lone remaining mechanithrall charged the dragon's breath rocket, hitting with both attacks, effectively removing the two grunts from the unit. I scored one point on my flag, going up 1-0. My turn ended with 27 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 3: Mackay's corrosion remained, putting a second point of damage on her. She allocated some focus to the vanguards (I apologize for not recalling exactly which ones got how much). Mackay popped feat on this turn, but had no great shots to take. The vanguard already engaged with the damaged slayer walked around the side of it, but failed to kill. The other vanguard on the left charged and killed that slayer. The dragon's breath rocket shot and killed the necrotech on the left. A mechanic ran onto the flag.
The vulcan pulled back to get out of Deathjack's threat and took a couple shots into him, doing a little damage. The dragon's breath rocket took a shot at the slayer in the water, doing some damage. One trancer attacked the slayer not in the water, but missed the attack. The other ran to stand just inside the right zone. The two vanguards each charged a slayer, doing a bit of damage, but I do not believe any systems were crippled. Derek ended his turn scoring his flag, tying the score at 1-1. He had 21 minutes on the clock.
Top 4: I determined that there was no reason to feat this turn. I was going to need to start clearing out vanguards and press scenario. Denny allocated two focus to Barathrum and put a little more focus on the slayers in the right zone. The objective gave Deathjack pathfinder. The void archon charged the vanguard in front of the flag, doing a little damage. It then sprayed, hoping to catch the mechanic and dragon's breath rocket, but instead only killed an alchemist in the back. It then teleported to the other side of the zone, where it was protected by the forest. Barathrum charged the vanguard in front of the flag, killing it. The deathripper, warwitch siren and hellslinger all stayed in place.
The warwitch siren moved forward and cast venom on the trancer, but missed and got pushed back a little. The slayer in the water walked around the vanguard in front of it so it could kill the trancer. It then put a little damage on the vanguard. The other slayer attempted to do the same, but failed to hit the trancer and just damaged the vanguard a bit. The necrotech on the right walked to be base to base with both Deathjack and the flag. Deathjack was repaired for a few points of damage. Deathjack then walked into the water, getting the vulcan just inside ten inches and cast a breath stealer on the colossal again. A necrotech ran onto my flag. I scored the near flag and the left zone, going up 3-1. I ended my turn with 10 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 4: Derek had not anticipated Deathjack casting breath stealer on the vulcan. He had expected to be able to bring the vulcan into melee this turn. When he measured it out, the vulcan would only be able to get to a single slayer. Instead, he planned to have the vulcan stay back and shoot some more. The dragon's breath rocket moved forward to get within five inches of the warwitch siren on the right. The siren was shot and killed. The trancer attacked the forward slayer and boosted the attack, which killed it. The resulting explosion killed one of his vanguards and did some damage to my slayer. The vulcan sprayed my jack, killing both the vanguard and the slayer. It then put its big shots into Deathjack, doing damage but not crippling any systems. It was at this time he lamented not getting the dragon's breath rocket into the right zone.
On the left, Barathrum was destroyed by a combination of shots from Mackay and attacks from the vanguard. The mechanic stayed on the flag. Derek scored his flag, but I scored the right zone and my flag. This put the score at 5-2.
Top 5: Due to the board state, on this turn all I had to do was run the deathripper into the left zone and contesting that flag. This scored me three points, giving me the win at 8-2.
Analysis: This was my first time putting Denny2 on the table in about two years. Last time I ran her, I was playing a dark host list and the shift to black industries is a big change in playstyle. That said, the house was just huge in this matchup. Being able to stand near the middle of the table and be completely safe, while still threatening to tag Mackay and dark banish her into my army was a big deal. That said, breath stealer was the MVP of the game. Getting to control the vulcan so that Deathjack flat outthreatened it was a massive swing on the right side of the board. When I was playing the dark host version of this list, I almost never cast breath stealer. I have since been told that it might be the most important spell on her card and this game definitely showcased why.
I kept holding feat as I wanted to use it for one of two things. First was the assassination I was threatening all game long. If Denny had a chance to charge Mackay and throw her back towards my army, the feat would allow my jacks to ignore freestrikes and charge right into her. Second, and much more likely, I was going to need it to charge through the screen of vanguards to deliver Deathjack to the vulcan. The math isn't great on Deathjack finishing the vulcan on his own, but if I could stack curse of shadows and dark shroud from the void archon, it puts the vulcan at 17 arm (it had failsafe up all game). Deathjack does around 57 damage on average if I can stack those effects. This is right in the range of what I need and then one or two slayers getting combo strikes should easily put me over the top on removing the colossal. I really felt like the colossal was the only thing that really threatened Deathjack all game, but part of that was the positioning. If Deathjack is more toward the center, Mackay can catch him in her feat more easily, which means all attacks from the vanguard would be boosted. Not sure if that's enough to destroy Deathjack, but I did not want to take that chance and I am pretty sure he at least loses a couple systems.
I don't want to jump to too many conclusions based on a single game with a list, especially one where both Derek and I were playing new lists for the first time (and Derek was playing Mackay for the first time ever). However, I do like the list and the playstyle it brings. Piece trading and model placement are extremely important, but it always feels like there are options on the table to do interesting things. I will keep playing more games to get a better feel for the list, and hopefully I can write up a battle report every couple weeks. I think these are an invaluable tool for me, as it forces me to really go back and review the game and understand what I did right and wrong.
Scenario: Recon 2
Coming into this game, the January scrum had just completed and I was super pleased with the Coven list I ran. After some discussions, I had decided on Denny2 as my complementary list. I had several reps with the Coven list by now and wanted to get Denny2 back on the table. I knew that whoever I ended up playing this week, I was going to drop Denny2 and just start seeing how the list operates on the table.
Derek agreed to a game and brought his Crucible Guard. Normally Syvestro is part of his pair and that's his drop into Cryx. However, he told me he wanted to run this Mackay list as a potentially better Cryx drop. He hasn't been super pleased with how Syvestro plays into Black Industries, specifically, and wanted to explore some other options. Here are the lists.
Me:
[Deneghra 2] Wraith Witch Deneghra [+28] - Black Industries
- Barathrum [15]
- Deathjack [23]
- Deathripper [6]
- Deathripper [6]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
Hellslinger Phantom [0(7)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Soul Trapper [1]
Void Archon [8]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
- Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Derek:
[Mackay 1] Captain Eira Mackay [+19] - Prima Materia
- Vanguard [10]
- Vanguard [10]
- Vanguard [10]
- Vanguard [10]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [2]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [2]
Prospero [5]
- Vulcan [35]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Combat Alchemists [0(7)]
Dragon's Breath Rocket [5]
Dragon's Breath Rocket [5]
We rolled the scenario and the dice gods chose Recon 2 for us. I won the initiative roll. I knew if I didn't go first, mobility was going to put him uncomfortably far up the board on top of 1. This scenario is also generally not a hyper fast scoring one, so I didn't feel bad about giving up the first opportunity to score points.
Terrain featured a house in roughly the center of the board. The right zone had a fire cloud along the far edge and a water feature covering a good portion of the near side. Closer to me, behind the right zone, a trench was positioned. An acid pool sat partially under Derek's objective. Between my objective and my table edge there was a forest, aligned just to the left of the objective. The left zone had a wall overlapping the near left corner, however being behind the wall prevented being in the zone. The far side of the left zone had an odd shaped forest, which allowed the left, far corner of the zone to be accessed from the other side of the forest.
Derek selected the eyeless sight objective and I chose pathfinder.
Deployment:
I deployed the soul trapper (proxied by a white primed Saxon Orik) and Void archon straight behind my objective. To the right of the archon was a warwitch siren, followed by Denny2. Continuing down the line to the right, there was a necrotech, two slayers, another necrotech and a deathripper on the far right flank. Straight behind the forest I deployed the hellslinger. To it's left came the other warwitch siren, the second deathripper, the third slayer and the final necrotech on the far left.
Derek deployed the vulcan directly in line with the right zone (failsafe is already on the vulcan, due to the prima materia theme benefit). One vanguard stood to the vulcan's right, with a dragon's breath rocket on the far right with a mechanic standing behind the rocket. To the left of the vulcan stood Prospero followed by a second vanguard. Mackay was deployed in line with the central house with a third vanguard to her right. The other dragon's breath rocket stood to her left, followed by the second vanguard and the second mechanic.
For advanced deployment I put Deathjack inside the trench behind the right zone and Barathrum was dug in lined up with the center of the left zone.
Derek's advanced deployment featured a trancer aligned with each edge of the left zone and the alchemists just to the right of them and to the left of the acid pool. A third trancer was placed to the right of the acid pool with the final trancer aligned with the center of the right zone.
I apologize for the poor lightning in the pictures. My basement overhead light is not kind to these images and some of the models on both sides are primed black, which does not help.
Top 1: I allocate nothing and go right into activating my models. Everything runs this turn, as Denny2 has no buffs to hand out, I don't have to be too concerned. I make sure to stay out of his threat ranges. One slayer runs just over the wall to stand in the left zone. Barathrum walks forward to toe into the right corner of the left zone and digs in again. A necrotech positions to be able to walk and repair either of them, just in case he can somehow land attacks on me. One arcnode and a warwitch siren position behind Barathrum. The hellslinger and void archon run through the forest and stand to the left of the objective, with the second slayer to the right of the objective. The other warwitch siren stands behind this slayer. The third slayer stands a couple inches back from the flag in order to stay out of shooting threat range (although I probably shouldn't be too worried about that). Deathjack moves over to be in the right portion of the trench. The second deathripper and two necrotechs also get into the trench. Denny2 moves up to be to the left of the trench. Next turn I want her getting behind the house. My plan is to use the house to keep her safe, while threatening Mackay with Denny's ability to go incorporeal and charge through the house. Finally, the soul trapper positions to be 10 inches away from my flag. My turn ends with just under 54 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 1: Due to theme benefit, Derek upkeeps failsafe for free. He allocates nothing and goes into his turn. The combat alchemists run backwards and line up behind the acid pool. Mackay casts mobility and moves forward into the acid pool. The two vanguards that started around Mackay run to stand in a line behind the far flag. The dragon's breath rocket on the left runs up to stand behind the forest and the two trancers run to try and protect the guns from ambushers. The two mechanics run to be behind Mackay. On the right, the two trancers similarly take up positions to protect from ambushers and the dragon's breath rocket runs to stand behind the fire cloud. The two vanguards near the vulcan run to stand just to the left of the fire cloud and the vulcan runs forward to just get into the far left corner of the right zone. Prospero moves to stand behind the vulcan. Derek's turn ends with 52 minutes on his clock.
Top 2: Derek had positioned his forces to be able to threaten the two zones, while remaining outside most of my threat ranges. I could have tried to pull off some kind of hellmouth + damnation shenanigans, but due to the difficult terrain I would have also needed to burn my feat. Ultimately, I decided that wasn't worth it. I was going to need to take this turn as a positioning turn, but I also needed to set up so I could start threatening his two biggest key pieces: Mackay and the vulcan. Denny2 allocated nothing, the mechanithralls ambushed on the left side of the board and I began my turn. The deathripper on the right ran forward to stand exactly 10 inches away from the vulcan. The void archon advanced right up next to the house. I hoped to have it threatening to fly over the house to dark shroud a huge base while also putting it in a place where it might be able to collect souls. The hellslinger stayed in place. For the majority of the game, the hellslinger had no good targets and some turns, like this one, I forgot to do anything relevant with it. The slayer near the objective stayed put, while the one behind the flag moved up to toe into the zone. One necrotech walked forward to stand base to base with the flag. Likely he would die, but at least it would force Derek to target it with an attack. The right warwitch siren ran to stand in the trench. Deathjack walked forward to be just inside the near right corner of the right zone and the other necrotech in the trench walked over to where Deathjack had been standing previously. All this was to setup Denny2's activation, which was simply arcing a breath stealer onto the vulcan.
On the left side of the board, the warwitch siren stepped back a couple inches and the other deathripper ran back further. The slayer on the left ran forward to stand between the house and forest. Barathrum walked over to dig in just in front of the wall. The necrotech ran to stand in the near right corner of the left zone, making sure it was within 5 inches of the slayer and Barathrum. Finally, the mechanithralls received the press forward order. Two charged the closer trancer, while one charged the rear trancer. A single brute thrall also charged the rear trancer. Due to a mistake on how the rear trancer was facing, I was able to run a single brute thrall to engage his dragon's breath rocket. Both trancers were killed, and the resulting explosions killed all three mechanithralls in range and did six and seven damage to the two brute thralls in range. I had hoped that the slayer on the left would protect Barathrum. Ideally, he would need both of his lights to kill the slayer and Barathrum could come in behind. At that point, Mackay would need to either start moving away or commit herself to kill Barathrum. Next turn, I was hoping to start scoring the left zone, while controlling the vulcan with breath stealer and contesting the right zone. My turn ended with 40 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 2: I had not given Derek much in threat range, so his turn was also one full of positioning. Corrosion did not go out on Mackay, so she took a point of damage. Mackay gave the painted vanguard on the left two focus and held onto the rest. Prospero allocated two focus to the vulcan. Prospero cast guided fire and walked backward as far as possible. The vulcan had to turn its facing so that it's big gun had the option of firing on the entire right zone. His big gun shot the deathripper once, then the sprays finished it off. He took its second big gun shot at the necrotech to clear the flag. The two vanguards moved in front of the vulcan to screen it. The dragon's breath rocket ran around the right side of the fire cloud. The forward right trancer ran forward and way out wide on the flank, while the other moved back behind the vulcan.
Mackay backed up a bit and shot her guns at the slayer on the left, then repositioned back further away. A mechanic moved forward and killed the brute thrall engaging the dragon's breath rocket. The rocket and combat alchemists used their activations to kill all the thralls except a single mechanithrall. The vanguard that was loaded up with focus walked forward and attacked the left slayer. After all attacks were done, the slayer was left on a single box. Both arms and movement were crippled, but it still had cortex. The second vanguard on the left moved up closer to the flag. No one scored any points and Derek's turn ended with 36 minutes on the clock.
Top 3: This was turning into a very interested positioning game. The vulcan was going to be able to shoot me most turns, but breath stealer was going to allow me to control it's melee threat. This turn, I wanted to breath stealer the vulcan again, while starting to work on the screening vanguards and scoring the first control point of the game. Denny2 allocated two focus to the slayer next to my objective and the objective granted that slayer pathfinder. Denny2 walked out from behind the house, cast breath stealer on the vulcan and then used shadow step to get back behind the house again. The slayer with pathfinder charged into the vanguard, and did a chunk of damage to it. The second slayer on the right ran into the water. I was hoping that next turn would be feat turn, and that would allow me to ignore the terrain. Deathjack ran to stand next to the flag, getting the vulcan inside its charge threat, while keeping outside of its melee threat. The soul trapper ran onto the flag while the warwitch siren positioned inside the trench and the necrotech still on the right side ran to be within five inches of Deathjack.
The hellslinger joined the void archon, snuggled up against the house. The necrotech on the left walked base to base with the slayer on the left and repaired it for three, which was exactly enough to get all systems back online. That slayer put a combo strike into the vanguard in front of it, which crippled it's main weapon. Barathrum remained in place. The remaining deathripper ran up behind the wall and the warwitch siren ran to the near right corner of the left zone. The lone remaining mechanithrall charged the dragon's breath rocket, hitting with both attacks, effectively removing the two grunts from the unit. I scored one point on my flag, going up 1-0. My turn ended with 27 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 3: Mackay's corrosion remained, putting a second point of damage on her. She allocated some focus to the vanguards (I apologize for not recalling exactly which ones got how much). Mackay popped feat on this turn, but had no great shots to take. The vanguard already engaged with the damaged slayer walked around the side of it, but failed to kill. The other vanguard on the left charged and killed that slayer. The dragon's breath rocket shot and killed the necrotech on the left. A mechanic ran onto the flag.
The vulcan pulled back to get out of Deathjack's threat and took a couple shots into him, doing a little damage. The dragon's breath rocket took a shot at the slayer in the water, doing some damage. One trancer attacked the slayer not in the water, but missed the attack. The other ran to stand just inside the right zone. The two vanguards each charged a slayer, doing a bit of damage, but I do not believe any systems were crippled. Derek ended his turn scoring his flag, tying the score at 1-1. He had 21 minutes on the clock.
Top 4: I determined that there was no reason to feat this turn. I was going to need to start clearing out vanguards and press scenario. Denny allocated two focus to Barathrum and put a little more focus on the slayers in the right zone. The objective gave Deathjack pathfinder. The void archon charged the vanguard in front of the flag, doing a little damage. It then sprayed, hoping to catch the mechanic and dragon's breath rocket, but instead only killed an alchemist in the back. It then teleported to the other side of the zone, where it was protected by the forest. Barathrum charged the vanguard in front of the flag, killing it. The deathripper, warwitch siren and hellslinger all stayed in place.
The warwitch siren moved forward and cast venom on the trancer, but missed and got pushed back a little. The slayer in the water walked around the vanguard in front of it so it could kill the trancer. It then put a little damage on the vanguard. The other slayer attempted to do the same, but failed to hit the trancer and just damaged the vanguard a bit. The necrotech on the right walked to be base to base with both Deathjack and the flag. Deathjack was repaired for a few points of damage. Deathjack then walked into the water, getting the vulcan just inside ten inches and cast a breath stealer on the colossal again. A necrotech ran onto my flag. I scored the near flag and the left zone, going up 3-1. I ended my turn with 10 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 4: Derek had not anticipated Deathjack casting breath stealer on the vulcan. He had expected to be able to bring the vulcan into melee this turn. When he measured it out, the vulcan would only be able to get to a single slayer. Instead, he planned to have the vulcan stay back and shoot some more. The dragon's breath rocket moved forward to get within five inches of the warwitch siren on the right. The siren was shot and killed. The trancer attacked the forward slayer and boosted the attack, which killed it. The resulting explosion killed one of his vanguards and did some damage to my slayer. The vulcan sprayed my jack, killing both the vanguard and the slayer. It then put its big shots into Deathjack, doing damage but not crippling any systems. It was at this time he lamented not getting the dragon's breath rocket into the right zone.
On the left, Barathrum was destroyed by a combination of shots from Mackay and attacks from the vanguard. The mechanic stayed on the flag. Derek scored his flag, but I scored the right zone and my flag. This put the score at 5-2.
Top 5: Due to the board state, on this turn all I had to do was run the deathripper into the left zone and contesting that flag. This scored me three points, giving me the win at 8-2.
Analysis: This was my first time putting Denny2 on the table in about two years. Last time I ran her, I was playing a dark host list and the shift to black industries is a big change in playstyle. That said, the house was just huge in this matchup. Being able to stand near the middle of the table and be completely safe, while still threatening to tag Mackay and dark banish her into my army was a big deal. That said, breath stealer was the MVP of the game. Getting to control the vulcan so that Deathjack flat outthreatened it was a massive swing on the right side of the board. When I was playing the dark host version of this list, I almost never cast breath stealer. I have since been told that it might be the most important spell on her card and this game definitely showcased why.
I kept holding feat as I wanted to use it for one of two things. First was the assassination I was threatening all game long. If Denny had a chance to charge Mackay and throw her back towards my army, the feat would allow my jacks to ignore freestrikes and charge right into her. Second, and much more likely, I was going to need it to charge through the screen of vanguards to deliver Deathjack to the vulcan. The math isn't great on Deathjack finishing the vulcan on his own, but if I could stack curse of shadows and dark shroud from the void archon, it puts the vulcan at 17 arm (it had failsafe up all game). Deathjack does around 57 damage on average if I can stack those effects. This is right in the range of what I need and then one or two slayers getting combo strikes should easily put me over the top on removing the colossal. I really felt like the colossal was the only thing that really threatened Deathjack all game, but part of that was the positioning. If Deathjack is more toward the center, Mackay can catch him in her feat more easily, which means all attacks from the vanguard would be boosted. Not sure if that's enough to destroy Deathjack, but I did not want to take that chance and I am pretty sure he at least loses a couple systems.
I don't want to jump to too many conclusions based on a single game with a list, especially one where both Derek and I were playing new lists for the first time (and Derek was playing Mackay for the first time ever). However, I do like the list and the playstyle it brings. Piece trading and model placement are extremely important, but it always feels like there are options on the table to do interesting things. I will keep playing more games to get a better feel for the list, and hopefully I can write up a battle report every couple weeks. I think these are an invaluable tool for me, as it forces me to really go back and review the game and understand what I did right and wrong.
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