The Slow Burn: Round Two - Feora, Protector of the Flames vs. Lord Arcanist Ossyan

THE MATCH-UP

The holiday battle season continues with FatValKilmer going up against Dweomer. FatValKilmer's lists were Lord Arcanist Ossyan and Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard. Dweomer rotated Feora, Protector of the Flame into his pairing with Grand Exemplar Kreoss because he felt the random pulling of fate pushing one of the two Retribution players his way. The scenario for the round was Fire Support from the 2014 Steamroller packet. The table was set by a neutral third party (our Trollblood friend from other battle reports). Central to the field was a rocky obstruction with a clear lane running diagonally through it. There was a shallow spot of water spanned by a bridge - the walls of which counted as linear obstacles. There was also a rolling hill, an obstruction of rocks, a trench and a linear obstacle. It was an interesting field and we appreciated having a neutral party put it together.

Dweomer:

I had been waffling over my list selection for a long time and even up until that afternoon was considering the sanity of Kreoss. In practice matches leading up to the game, I had yet to win with my Feora list and felt that it lacked a few tools and punches. Additionally, I was having trouble with the clock. I consider Retribution my worst match and have performed poorly against it. To date, my only win was Kreoss2 vs. Vyros2 … one of the exact matchups possible in this game (literally the same lists and players). If FatValKilmer selected Vyros and I selected Kreoss, I felt like I had the advantage. If he went Ossyan and I went Kreoss, it would be a fast game and we would go upstairs and watch football. FatValKilmer felt that playing Ossyan into Feora would be in my favor, but not necessarily as heavily as Kreoss2 vs Vyros2. So after all that mental list chicked, we went with the expected selection: Ossyan vs. Feora. I won initiative, gave it more than a minute of thought, and elected to go first.

THE LISTS

Lord Arcanist Ossyan

- Banshee

Houseguard Thane

Arcanist

Lady Aiyana and Master Holt

Houseguard Riflemen

Rifleman Officer and Standard

Mage Hunter Strike Force

- Strike Force Commander

Stormfall Archers

Stormfall Archers

Houseguard Halberdiers

- Halberdier Officer and Standard

Feora, Protector of the Flame

- Judicator (bonded)

- Vanquisher

- Templar

The Covenant of Menoth

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Vassal of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Choir of Menoth (min)

Holy Zealots (max)

- Monolith Bearer

KEYS TO THE MATCH

Dweomer:

Glim gave me a practice match versus his Ossyan list a few weeks ago. In that one he had the AFG. FatValKilmer had more guns, but spread out into more units. The key for me was going to be sticking with Passage on my Jacks to force Aiyana to give out Magic Weapon instead of Kiss. I also have learned to stop putting my Judicator in the center of the table where all of my opponent's forces can get to it. From prior practice on Fire Support, I knew that contesting the off-side was going to be crucial for me. I had lost on scenario twice in practice. In previous games, I assigned one Monk to each flag. After advice from Monokrol, I started moving them more like a unit and assigned them both to managing my off-side. If I was given an opportunity to jam the MHSF, I would. Other than that, I was going to need to play quickly, accurately, and aggressively in order to keep his guns from taking me off the table. My highest priority target was Aiyana.

FatValKimer:

I have a confession to make:  I might be the world’s worst Ossyan player.  Coming from Cryx, you’d think I’d be good at moving all those infantry, and to some extent I am:  I can cruise through my turns, and Deathclock just doesn’t scare me no matter how many people I’ve got on the board.  That said, as soon as those same infantry shoot instead of charge, I get scared and confused and make horrible mistakes.  Because I know that I still have a lot to learn about playing Ossyan, and because I know that Dweomer’s Judicator will mulch my poor, flammable infantry while simultaneously mulching Dweomer’s clock, my plan out the gate was to jam hard, not lose on scenario, and win by Deathclock.  It’s not the way I’d like to win if I had a choice, but I also know it’s my best chance.

DEPLOYMENT

Dweomer:

Since I wanted Aiyana on fire, I felt like the best play would be to put the Judicator on the hill. It would not give me much of the board and it would make contesting the flag with the Colossal difficult because of the linear obstacle on one side of the hill (like a retaining wall). I fiddled with the Judicator for over a minute on pre-deployment before settling him down. The issue was that the hill was a bit farther from the center of the board than I would have liked and I knew the linear obstacle on the end of it would force me to go around it to get to the center of the table. The Zealots were going to need to fill the middle and use the LOS blocking centerpiece to whatever advantage they could get. That left the Monks and the Vanquisher on the other flank and the Templar for escort duty / late game work.

FatValkimer:

I forgot that the Judicator was on the hill, or maybe I didn’t notice, so I went through a whole bunch of effort to try and screen my halberdier officer from direct fire.  That whole unit got deployed on my right to rush at Dweomer’s heavily defended flag and try to contest it.  The two units of Storm Fall Archers were deployed in the middle so that they could threaten anything that didn’t get Hymn of Passage.  The rest of my army went on my left to put a lot of pressure onto my friendly objective/flag.

TURN 1: PROTECTORATE OF MENOTH

Dweomer:

I took a minute or two considering advance and shoot distances from the MHSF. I decide not to mini-feat the Zealots. They pray for Warding and run forward, stopping short of their max distance to save themselves from easy guns. With Escort up, Feora Fire Steps and advances to the left of center. The Judicator runs and gets an ancillary attack that goes nowhere and does nothing. The Templar shifts left towards Feora and behind the Zealots. I accidentally jammed one of my monks, so he goes into the Shifting Sands stance and advances. The other Monk runs and buttons up to a linear obstacle on the bridge. The Book advances and intones no Knockdown. The Choir advances and sings Passage. Passage is going to be what keeps me in the game versus Retribution guns. i do not anticipate ever chanting Battle this game.

TURN 1: RETRIBUTION OF SCYRAH

FatValKilmer:

I put quicken and desperate pace on the Halbs.  They shield wall and advance toward the right flag, then reform until they’re basically on it. The rest of my army goes in the direction of my objective.  One of the Mage Hunters shoots a single Zealot.

TURN 2: PROTECTORATE OF MENOTH

Dweomer:

Feat turn. Feora upkeeps Escort. The Choir puts Passage back on the Jacks. The Judicator advances to the edge of the hill and launches all sorts of ranged attacks against the Halberdiers (technically looking for long deviations). One of the Halberdiers drops and a pair are lit on fire. The Zealots pray for Warding again, mini-feat, and charge/run. Feora advances, sprays through several Zealots, feats, and fire-steps away towards the hill. The fire is pulled from the two Zealots and collected from four Halberdiers, then redistributed onto the front line. One focus gets allocated to the Templar. The Templar runs to the center of the board. The Vassal Enlivens the Vanquisher. The Vanquisher advances and shoots towards the MHSF. I get another terrible deviation and only managed to catch one MHSF (he dies to blast damage). The Monks raise the Shifting Sands stance and advance towards flag. One is in position to contest. Again the Book advances and chants for no Knockdown. Orin advances and raises a Null Magic zone.

I made a huge mistake with Feora this turn by completely forgetting about the sides of the Killbox. I catch it during my opponent's next turn and award him two control points. This is not the first time I have Killboxed myself with Feora (with this list!) in this scenario.

SCORE: RETRIBUTION 2, PROTECTORATE 0

TURN 2: RETRIBUTION OF SCYRAH

FatValKilmer:

Feora’s fire does good work and nearly every Halberdier dies to fire.  Most of the Stormfall archers shoot Star strike shots onto the mini-feated zealots, catching most of them on fire (take that, Feora!) while a few (and the Banshee) shoot at the objective.  I roll like crap, it takes some damage, but I don’t kill it.

The MHSF get magic weapons for Aiyana, and advance recklessly to (I think) toast the Vanquisher.  I’ve somehow forgotten about Enliven, and the warjack takes one good shot and then waddles (This is how I imagine it moves under Enliven as well  - Dweomer) away from the rest of my jack hunters.

SCORE: RETRIBUTION 2, PROTECTORATE 0

TURN 3: PROTECTORATE OF MENOTH

Dweomer:

Dropping fire on the Zealots was a great play, but there was little I could do to prevent it. In fact, it is about the least damaging thing that could happen to my force because it gives my grunts a chance at living. True to math, two of the six fires go out while the other four Zealots burn to death. The Templar attempts to clear off the remaining Halberdiers, but only takes out one. The Judicator advances and rockets and sprays the remaining Halberdiers away. A long deviation hits the Arcanist but fails to kill. One Monk attempts to tackle the Objective but only drops it to about 7 boxes. The other stances and jams the MHSF. The remaining Zealots throw some bombs, killing a few MHSF and an archer. The Vanquisher takes out some Riflemen and gets Enlivened. Orin runs to control the flag. Feora runs to a safe Killbox spot.

At this point I have burned so much clock. Turn ends with 30 minutes on FatValKilmer's clock and just over 3 minutes on mine. I don't know where it all went. I lost 5 minutes to deployment and 10 minutes to turn 1. Somehow Turn 2 and Turn 3 took a total of 42 minutes. Looking back I don't know where it went. I feel disappointed that I am doing well and about to lose to the clock.

SCORE: RETRIBUTION 2, PROTECTORATE 1

TURN 3: RETRIBUTION OF SCYRAH

FatValKilmer:

My remaining Stormfall Archers advanced and shot at the opposing objective and actually managed to kill it this turn.  I then charged my fully-loaded Banshee (with concentrated power) into his Templar but only took out his movement.  That’s okay, though, because killing a jack takes time, and I just need to stall for three more minutes.

My MHSF activate, and three walk out of melee with the kicky-monk.  They get punched to death handily. The others (with magic weapons from aiyana) move up and shoot the Vanquisher, standing in a formation that will prevent all of the contesting mage hunters from getting killed by the same Thresher.  The Riflemen mini-feat, aim, and blow the monks off the table.  I’m actually surprised with by how effectively that worked--I hadn’t expected to clear the flag.  Because of this, my caster is blocked in by my objective and my Riflemen, so I won’t be able to run him over, Dominate the Flag and win.  I want to say that it might have been toward the end of this turn that Dweomer realized he’d Killboxed himself earlier in the game, and so until that point I hadn’t been planning on being in a position to win at all, but I might be mis-remembering (It was the prior Turn, your Turn 2  - Dweomer).

SCORE: RETRIBUTION 3, PROTECTORATE 1

TURN 4: PROTECTORATE OF MENOTH

Dweomer:

I have three minutes. The loss of the Monks basically put the game away from me. I had a shot at scoring four points with them still in the mix. I probably should have run Feora to the flag for Domination and risked the attack by the Banshee. Then I would have only needed three to win which was possible (clear the Banshee, dominate my Flag, Vanquisher the Objective. Looking at the picture of the board now, away from the game, I can see the optimal play. But with three minutes on my clock and embarrassed at how poorly I managed it, I couldn't unlock the puzzle at the table. The Templar gets three focus and uses Beat Back to put the Banshee out of range, except I roll fire and take it off the table. Feora runs to dominate. I activate the Judicator to take a downtown shot towards the objective and time expires.

SCORE: RETRIBUTION 3, PROTECTORATE 3

VICTORY FOR RETRIBUTION!

Thoughts on the Match:

Dweomer:

We talked about it after the match and summarized my play the following way: "I made excellent decisions slowly." I had to be careful because of the threat of his guns, but I was probably overly careful (which translated into slow play) because of my overall struggle with Retribution. The entire time I believed that one wrong footed step and I would be completely wiped off the table. This is probably not a thing that would happen. I felt like with ten more minutes on my clock, I would have had the scenario victory. I made the right choice with list selection, but some combination of missing tools and cautious play buried me. FatValKilmer, even though his strategy was to watch me burn up my clock, was a fantastic sportsman and helped me with all the fiddly bits of deviations. Even on my last turn, he did what he could to make my Banshee-wrecking Templar activation as zippy as possible (it was essentially me just calling out damage and neither of us worrying about the Beat Back distance as it happened).

Things I did wrong:

1. There was zero excuse for me to Kill Box myself. Considering that I did it to myself with the same list on the same scenario two weeks prior to this match should have burned in to me the dangers of the table edge.
2. I burned five minutes deploying and ten minutes on turn one. That is inexcusable as well. Somehow I let 42 minutes go by in two turns. I have practiced my Judicator play, my opponent helped me out on all of the deviations, and the minutes still cooked away. Slow play is my bane. I feel like I make good decisions, but I need accept slightly less optimal plays much much faster.
3. I should have recognized the challenge of needing to score on three turns versus on two turns to win. I should look more into two point turns and three point turns (versus one point, three points, one point) until I can get my clock issues improved.

Things I did right (in my opinion):

1. Although I burned too much time to do it, I made good positioning choices, good buff choices, and good target selections. I never gave my opponent very clean opportunities to remove my pieces. At the end of the day, he only capped nine army points (half the Zealots, half the Choir, and both Monks)
2. I feated at the right time. I took the first opportunity I could to make something of my feat. I was able to strip almost all of the Halberdiers off of my side of the board. That made scenario live for me. If I had failed to do so, I would have been picking them off too slowly to accomplish anything for the rest of the game.

Overall, it was a good game. FatValKilmer is always a fun opponent. We have a great time playing each other and push ourselves to play clean, ordered matches. Thanks for the game FatValKilmer, we are allies now, so let's start teching against the rest of the field!

FatValKilmer:

Knowing that Dweomer plays slowly, my plan boiled down to:  do dumb things fast, try to have the best feat I can.  I never ended up feating because of where I committed my army (and if I had feated, it never would have been great) but I certainly did plenty of dumb things fast.

Things I did wrong:

I either over- or under- committed the Halberdiers.  I needed to remember that Shieldwall wasn’t worth very much in this fight, and so I could have run them a lot further forward to claim board space.

I forgot about Enliven.  It would have been easy as pie to knock down his Vanquisher.  Banshee’s gun is pretty great at that.  After that:  no more Vanquisher, and an easy path to a scenario victory.  

I needed to keep Ossyan freed up in order to be able to run to a Flag that needed dominatin’.

Things I did right (in my opinion):

Dumb things fast.

I used the Riflemen well to clear the kicky monks off the flag.  No one else in my army was going to be able to do it.  

Warmachine Battle Report: Feora, Protector of the Flames vs. Artificer General Nemo

Several of the gents in my local meta had a day off recently and we spent it at our localish gaming store throwing models at each other from across a four foot table. Recently I had picked up a few extra pieces for my Menoth collection and wanted to try them out in a list I had had tossed at me over a year ago. It was round three of my first tournament and I had no idea Feora2 could project so much threat across the battlefield. A year later and I have … probably too many Menoth models in my collection and the ability (thanks to a kind holiday gift) to field Defenders of the Temple. My good buddy Shamrod had completed his always stellar work on Dynamo and had spent the day dropping his Nemo3 theme force. We decided to pit the two forces against each other … mostly for the lols of watching scores of Menites drop to non-attack Electroleaps. Thus battle was met: Defenders of the Temple vs Lightning War in the 2015 scenario Destruction!

THE LISTS

Defenders of the Temple, Tier 4

Feora, Protector of the Flame

- Templar

Daughters of the Flame

Daughters of the Flame

Daughters of the Flame

Daughters of the Flame

Temple Flameguard (max) + Officer & Standard

Temple Flameguard (max) + Officer & Standard

Flameguard Cleansers (min)

Flameguard Cleansers (min)

Viscount Juviah Rhovan & Honor Guard

Objective: Armory

(I usually take Effigy of Valor when I have Daughters, but I figured they would be so far up the field it wouldn't matter and I wanted Asset Protection because of all the grunts on my side of the table.)

Tier 1: All Flameguard units are FA:U.

Tier 2: Free Temple Flameguard UA, ignoring FA limits.

Tier 3: All Flameguard units get a SPD bonus during your first turn.

Tier 4: Deployment zone extended 2".

Lightning War Tier 4

Artificer General Nemo

- Storm Chaser Adept Caitlin Finch

- Stormwall

- Dynamo

Storm Strider

Journeyman Warcaster

Silverline Stormguard (max)

Stormsmith Storm Tower

Stormsmith Storm Tower

Objective: I do not recall, maybe Stockpile?

Tier 1: Stormguard units cost one less

Tier 2: Stormwall stormpod deployment bonus before game

Tier 3: Deployment zone bonus.

Tier 4: Nemo's battlegroup gains free focus during 1st turn

THE ENEMY

Shamrod has some serious chops in the painting department. I love playing against his armies because it embodies the beauty of "play it painted" every time we battle. Dynamo might look like the little brother here, but he is really really cool, folks.

TURN 1 (MENOTH)

Nemo gives Feora first turn and I use it to motor. Within the tier, Daughters deploy on the 15" line and have Speed like cats have lives. I've been having clock issues lately, so one of my goals was to just throw models around the table and avoid clocking. Short story of it: the Daughters run like crazy pants, forcing the issue of dealing with them in Cygnar's immediate future. The forward TFG mini feat and run. Everything else trots along behind. I want to approach the fight in waves and see what happens. If I play my cards right, I will get him to spend large amounts of activations on relatively cheap models.

TURN 1 (CYGNAR) [no picture]

Out of 24 Daughters, he murders 13, so by the end of the turn I am down about 10 points of models. However, he hasn't advanced very far. Sadly, he also manages to smoke half of the forward TFG. Seriously … Dynamo … the number of times my heart rose on a miss only to be squashed by his ability to reroll misses. When I say my opponent managed to take out half my forward TFG, I think it was mostly Dynamo doing the work. So that is another 4 points off the table. Of note, the brave Daughters trying to slow down the advance of the Stormwall broke upon seeing three of their number evaporate like they were extras in Saving Private Ryan.

TURN 2 (MENOTH)

My ranges aren't exactly what I wanted because the Stormguards can't be charged and didn't move up as far as I hoped they would. However, I am able to get a couple Daughters on Nemo to scratch him up a bit. Again, the goal is to slow my opponent's roll. I can't start scoring until my next turn. I should probably look at going second with this list. I need to start scoring before everything gets wiped off the table. I do manage to take out three Stormguards and create more nuisance positions with my remaining Daughters. Feora has to move towards the Stormwall to rally the broken Daughters. I felt clever about that, even though it was not the direction I wanted to travel. The thinned out TFG advanced into a Shield Wall. Everything else moved up and attempted to screen Feora. The right flank Cleansers advanced but failed to clear anything. I am hoping to get something out of them next turn. I never get to spray stuff and I am excited by the chance.

TURN 2 (CYGNAR) [no picture]

The thirteen Daughters are zapped down to one by the end of my opponent's turn. The Strider moves forward some, as does the Stormwall. However, Dynamo aims and clears out more TFG. My objective takes a shot, but I luck out a bit as my opponent fails to allocate to the Stormwall. The Stormguards advance into my screen, but the TFG mostly hold out. Primary attacks and electroleaps have eliminated about half of my army. But the sacrifice was not in vain. The only enemy models contesting the zone are a pair of lightning pods, a few Stormguards, and the Objective.

TURN 3 (MENOTH)

For some reason, I get it in my head that the most important thing in the world is lighting Nemo on fire. Step one is getting any sort of fire on the table. Step two is feating that fire onto Nemo. Step three, obviously, is profit. I forget about the Daughter in the backfield. The right Cleansers start spraying all over the place. Sorry / Not Sorry, they kill everything they hit except the Objective. The TFG advance and light Dynamo on fire and try to jam the Strider. I wanted more fire on the table, but the Cleaners cleansed all the Stormguards. Technically for my tunnel vision plan, I only need one fire … I just wanted more focus / armor. I decide I need to confirm the Objective, in part because I need a few things out of the way for Feora to pull off a charge and a feat. I derp and have the other Cleansers wipe the Lightning Pods. I was supposed to save one to charge. The Honor Guard charge the Objective and wreck it. Feora advances, feats, and puts fire on Nemo. Success! Oh wait … I am way too close and for some reason I moved the Templar away from her. So I spent two focus to Fire Step into Escort range and hope armor 23 is enough to live through the next turn. On the bright side, I see what I should have noticed at the beginning of the turn. With the zone clear and Feora dominating, I score three and crank the scenario pressure.

SCORE: MENOTH 3, CYGNAR 0

Turn 3 Cygnar

The Stormwall advances but does not make it to the zone. It does manage to blow a hole straight through my minifeated, Shield Walled TFG. Then Dynamo starts in on me. After all the zaps and bangs settle out, Feora is sitting on one box. This included two attacks needing a 9 on two dice to kill and then one needing an 11 on three dice. With nothing making it into the zone except the Lightning Pod, the jig is up on scenario at the top of Turn 4.

SCORE: MENOTH 3, CYGNAR 0

TURN 4 (MENOTH)

I advance the Templar and smash the Lightning Pod to clear the zone. Feora dominates for the win.

SCORE: MENOTH 5, CYGNAR 0

VICTORY FOR MENOTH!!

Thoughts on the game:

Defenders of the Temple is fast up the field, but I definitely just threw my Daughters into the jaws of Electroleap City. I never really planned on trying to take down the Stormwall. My hope was to push scenario and if it became untenable, try to burn Nemo to the ground. Dynamo was fantastic at causing me trouble throughout the entire match. In Nemo's hands he is terrifying. This was only the third game that Shamrod fielded him and he was already clicking. So many shots, so many rerolls. so much electricity. I love it and hate it a bit.

Not sure where this is going to fall in my normal meta play right now, but I had the models and wanted to try it out. Putting four units of Daughters on either your opponent's 15" line on Turn 1 is kind of ridiculous. I played for scenario and then almost blew it when I got it in my head that lighting Nemo up was incredibly important. Although the turn I actually got a fire roll, Nemo didn't even blink. The smarter play was to see the scenario play and go for it while staying safe. Then, if the zone became contested by something large and ugly, dedicate resources to cracking it. Odds are I wouldn't have enough muscle to take down both Dynamo and the Stormwall.

Thanks for a fun matchup, Shamrod. You'll probably clean my clock when we cross swords again. And thanks for reading!

Warmachine Battle Report: Intercessor Kreoss vs. Lord Arcanist Ossyan

Recently several members of my local meta had a holiday and chose to spend it at one of our FLGSs rolling dice and pushing little figures across a table. This game was a rematch of sorts with my recent Slow Burn opponent, FatValKilmer. He was practicing his Retribution for TempleCon and I was trying to get better at my worst matchup. Also, it gave me a chance to get another game in with my 2015 Caster focus: Intercessor Kreoss. The scenario was Recon which feels like a giant trap. Scoring is probably going to be after attrition.

THE LISTS

Intercessor Kreoss

- Hierophant

- Reckoner

- Templar

- Vanquisher

Vassal of Menoth

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Exemplar Vengers (max)

Temple Flameguard (max) + UA

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Choir of Menoth (min)

Objective: Fuel Cache (because free charges means focus efficiency which is very important to Kreoss3)

Lord Arcanist Ossyan

- Banshee

Houseguard Thane

Arcanist

Lady Aiyana and Master Holt

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Houseguard Riflemen

Rifleman Officer and Standard

Mage Hunter Strike Force (min)

- Strike Force Commander

Stormfall Archers

Stormfall Archers

Houseguard Halberdiers

- Halberdier Officer and Standard

Objective: Arcane Wonder?

DEPLOYMENT (MENOTH)

I don't want to cede the hill and I thought the elevation might help the Vengers so they line up on the side with the hill. Everything else gears up for a run straight up the center. At this point I start thinking about the opportunity cost of going first and the lack of chance to counter deploy. There is no Killbox, so Kreoss is going to hang out near that linear obstacle all game. Some of FVK's stuff ignores cover and some doesn't.

DEPLOYMENT (RETRIBUTION)

I have a hard time determining which of my opponent's models are which, but I know the Halberdiers are out front. The MHSF is going to head straight for the fence in front of them (a tactic cleverly revealed when FatValkilmer accidentally advanced deployed them directly behind the wall, aka about 22" up the table). I plan on ignoring that side of the board unless or until Lady Aiyana gives them magical guns. For the moment, she is on the opposite flank. I think in the future FatValKilmer is going to realize he needs to park Lady Aiyana right behind his advance deploy guns.

TURN 1 (MENOTH)

My goal this game is to play faster than the last time I faced Ossyan. Kreoss hands out a focus to his jacks. The TFG advance and Shield Wall. Rhupert gives them Dirge of Mists. The Vengers run forward aggressively, and a few gain the hill. Aiyana & Holt swing out behind the Vengers. All the Jacks run forward and the Vassal practices Enlivening the Vanquisher. The Choir advances and sings Passage - my primary mode of defense against the Retribution guns. Kreoss puts Holy Ward on the TFG and puts Warpath on himself. Holy Warded, Dirge of Misted Temple Flameguard are my new jam (in both senses of the word). They are irritating to remove and if you leave them alone, they are going to clog up everything all game.

TURN 1 (RETRIBUTION)

As expected the MHSF gains the fence. The Halberdiers get Quicken and advance in Shield Wall. Everything else either runs or advances into a favorable position. Several of the Riflemen drop a hammer on the lead Venger, triggering Battle Driven.

TURN 2 (MENOTH)

Kreoss upkeeps Holy Ward and Warpath. Aiyana Kisses the Halberdiers and Holt shoots at a few. I am tempted to try adding an Attendant Priest into the A&H pair because it seems like Holt is always trying to trigger Warpath. The Vengers charge/run. Reflecting on my Venger activations, FVK and I both think I kind of wasted them. Yeah, I threw them into his face and made him have to clear them out, but they are not supposed to be a lead screen. They are supposed to be the hammer that rockets into my opponent's ranks after the initial engagement. I also misjudged the distance and didn't really smash into the Halberdiers like I wanted. Several are killed and I take my Warpath triggers on the Vanquisher and Templar. The TFG minifeat and run because I need to keep the remaining Halberdiers contained. They are the time-sink garbage chaff of the list and I have to limit the time I use up dealing with them. The warjacks get Passaged by the Choir and advance. The Vanquisher drifts fire onto the UA for the Halberdiers but the blast damage fails to kill. Rhupert plays another dirge and the Vassal puts Enliven on the Vanquisher.

TURN 2 (RETRIBUTION)

Well, FatValKilmer counter attacks and wipes out the remaining four Vengers, half the TFG, and Aiyana. The Halberdiers are split oh so carefully such that the five remaining grunts are all in formation with the Officer standing in the center of the zone. The Banshee makes an appearance and I learn that I can't receive orders within 5" of him. This match is heading downhill and I am again burning too much clock.

TURN 3 (MENOTH)

Feat turn. Kreoss drops all his upkeeps because it is time to feat. He loads up the Templar and holds on to a few focus for a Crevasse. I scheme and plot and position and burn clock by spending more activations than I wanted taking Banshee off the table. Because of activation orders and things that need to happen, Kreoss declares a Ride by Attack, advances, and feats. The TFG get Holy Ward, the Templar gets Ignite, Kreoss takes Warpath, and Death Sentence is attempted on the Halberdiers but fails to land. Kreoss hits the Halbardier Officer with a Crevasse and the Templar takes a pair of free strikes from the Warpath. I advance the TFG out of the way of the eventual charge lane and flail pathetically at the Objective. Then FatValkilmer gets a surprise as I take my free charge from my Objective. With the math suddenly changed, the Templar has little trouble smashing the Banshee into an almost wreck. Unfortunately, I only get one attack (my Shield) on the Objective and I fail to finish it off (thanks TFG!). The Vanquisher advances to do what he can, misses and it deviates onto a Rifleman. Holt has to finish the Banshee and once again, I fail to get a Warpath trigger (thanks Holt!). The Reckoner is thoroughly stuck flailing at in formation Halberdiers. Without Battle my one attack whiffs. Rhupert advances and puts Tough on Holt. I still feel ok with my board position, but I have burned up most of my clock by this point … again … sigh.

TURN 3 (RETRIBUTION) [NO PIC]

Feat turn. Under feat and without too much trouble, Lady Aiyana's magic and Ossyan himself take the Templar off the table. The Vanquisher was too far upfield for an Enliven because at least I derped that part of my turn well and good. So the hammer comes down on the Vanquisher. Fortunately, Vanquishers don't really care if they have a broken gun. Sadly, two of the Choir are killed. Holt get's dropped (even with a tough check from Rhupert!). All the TFG except Flag Bearer killed. I still have a Reckoner, but the writing is on the wall.

TURN 4 (MENOTH)

Somehow I have burned all my clock again. I have about 3 or 4 minutes. I need to free up my Choir. I move the TFG and line up a Crevasse to spray down the Halberdiers tieing up the Reckoner and Choir. One dies, the Reckoner kills the other, but the last one is still holding me back. Rhupert and the other Choir screen the Vassal who tries to make it to the Vanquisher (in my haste I forgot about Warpath). The Vassal doesn't make distance. I try my Vanquisher shot, except I am under feat. I clock. My opponent wants to see if his list could actually finish the game, so we turn off the clocks and roll back a bunch of my turn (eliminating the frantic and mostly dumb things I did trying for a low percentage kill).

We allow the Warpath, back the Vanquisher up and get the Enliven from the Vassal. We both agree all my attempts to free the Choir were things I would normally try to do, so I activate the Vanquisher and advance and shoot. We keep the same die roll deviation. I catch Ossyan on fire. Choir drops Passage on the Reckoner. Annoyed that clock continues to be my biggest enemy, I pass the turn.

TURN 4 (RETRIBUTION)

After all that I forget about Enliven and the Vanquisher gets hammered into mostly scrap. There is a difference between not caring about a broken gun, and having two boxes while being engaged and debuffed. The Halberdiers kill the Vassal and the rest of the Choir.  FatValkilmer advances Eiryss and wants to shoot the Reckoner but forgets about Passage. However, Eiryss is threatening to disrupt the Reckoner for the rest of the game because I am out of songs. He also eliminates the Objective, scores a point, and removes my free charge.

SCORE: MENOTH 0, RETRIBUTION 1

TURN 5 (MENOTH) (no picture)

Things are going to be even more difficult for me if the Reckoner gets Disrupted for the rest of the game. I am annoyed that I forgot Enliven. Having a second heavy would be pretty great. I clear out some stuff and kill some stuff and get a charge on Eiryss, killing her. Rhupert fails to kill the Halberdier in front of him again. Kreoss repositions behind the Reckoner and camps five.

SCORE: MENOTH 0, RETRIBUTION 1

TURN 5 (RETRIBUTION)

My opponent clears the Vanquisher out of the zone and scores another point. He also manages to remove the Reckoner after sacrificing everything surrounding it to free strikes to get it out of melee. We forget to put a wreck marker on the table.

SCORE: MENOTH 0, RETRIBUTION 2

TURN 6 (MENOTH)

The Hierophant runs to contest the zone. Rhupert fails to kill the Halberdier. Kreoss full camps and runs down the field.

SCORE: MENOTH 0, RETRIBUTION 2

TURN 6 (RETRIBUTION) (no picture)

Hierophant is killed. Ossyan upkeeps Admonition and runs into the zone onto a few wreck markers. (Banshee and Templar). Retribution dominates the zone for two more points.

SCORE: MENOTH 0, RETRIBUTION 4

TURN 6 (MENOTH)

I am able to Force Hammer Ossyan to the ground, but not out of the zone. I cannot reach him to kill. I don't even think I tried to move Rhupert to contest. We call it a game.

SCORE: MENOTH 0, RETRIBUTION 5

VICTORY FOR RETRIBUTION!!

Thoughts on the game:

I have a real problem that has started to rear its head more and more lately. I can't manage my clock. I looked back through the stats on my games in my local meta, and a large chunk of them are death by clock. It is becoming enough of an issue that angling for death by clock is now an excellent and viable strategy for my friends when they play me. As in consistently viable and always on the table. I feel like I make good choices with my activations, but I execute them slowly. I do not sit in the tank at the top of my turn for very long. I think about my turn during my opponent's turn. I'm not exactly sure how to improve this portion of my game. Suggestions are welcome.

For this game, specifically, I did end up having a bit of a challenge managing my feat turn. Part of that was trying to unstick my Templar to charge the Banshee. I definitely tossed my Vengers away. In my head, I thought I would be able to smash into his Riflemen and that maybe the hill would help protect me for the turn I needed to get their. In reality the distance was too far and the guns just advanced onto the hill and shot me down. About the only thing I felt I did right was to deny him easy Jack Hunter kills with Passage. Next time, however, I expect Aiyanna to camp next to the MHSF.

All in all, Ossyan and Retribution remain my Kryptonite. To date, I think my only victory has been a Vyros2 vs Kreoss2 fight that I won on scenario by jamming Imperitus away from my scoring zone.

Better luck next time, I suppose. Although I am serious about suggestions for improving my use of the clock.

Warcaster Focus take-aways: This list used the three jack approach, dropping the Vessel and trying to push more Warpath options. Kreoss3 wants to take everything, and whenever I start putting together a list, it floats up to 70 points before I can focus. What I have found so far: Temple Flameguard are an amazing screen when properly supported. Aiyana and Holt get work done and help take heavies off the table, but lack of Warpath triggers hurts. Ignited Templars are incredible, even when you can't put Battle on them.

Thanks for reading!