Yesterday I had knee reconstruction for a torn ACL, and I have the next 2 weeks or so off. So I have a little time on my hands...admittedly 80% will probably be sunk in to playing on the Xbox, but anyway. I didn’t get a podium at CTA but I had a blast and thought I’d write a brief synopsis of my games.
CTA was an escalation tournament with games played at 20, 30 and 40 points. I decided to take my Legion and my ‘main’ lists were built around Saeryn with an Angelius, Scythean and Swordsmen. I have quite a lot of experience with Saeryn and feel I know how she works.
I have long struggled vs Cryx (shakes fist in the air!) so my secondary list was built to combat a Cryx infantry horde, this also complimented the Saeryn lists nicely since the Saeryn lists excels against heavy beast/jack armies. These lists were built around eLylyth with a Ravagore, Nephalim Bolt Thrower, Death Stalkers and a unit of Striders. Typhon was added in at the 40 point mark. The idea was that this army would tear in to an infantry heavy army during turn one or two under eLylyth’s feat turn, even a dirty stealthed Cryx infantry horde. I hadn’t had much practice with eLylyth but I was still confident.
So with a rock solid plan in place I entered day 1:
Game 1 - 20pts vs Iain Johnston playing Cryx – can’t remember the scenario
This is funny because I play Iain almost every week. I was already fairly familiar with Iain’s lists, as he was mine. This was my chance to use my anti-Cryx list and pay them back for ever existing. Iain was playing Scaverous and Venethrax. I opted for eLylyth and he took Venethrax.
It was probably a bad match up at 20 points either way for Iain but the anti-Cryx list performed like I had dreamed it would and I ended up taking out a large chunk of Iain’s army in the second turn under my feat. This made it very difficult to defend Venethrax with his medium base from all my shooting in the following turn. Win to me.
Game 2 – 20 pts vs Chris Baker playing Cygnar - again I can’t remember the scenario
Chris had a pHayley list and a Darius list. I was sure in my mind that he would not risk taking the Darius list in case he faced Saeryn and would instead take pHayley to cast Temporal Barrier and prevent my fast beasts from charging. So I took eLylyth thinking I could out shoot the more infantry based pHayley list...and he took Darius.
I wasn’t really sure how I was going to deal with the heavies as is the one thing the eLylyth list struggles with. I did however know that what I ever I did I had to completely take a jack when I went for it to prevent it from benefiting from Darius’s feat. Long story short I was facing down (IIRC) an ARM 21 Stormclad and ARM 20 Ironclad who had run full tilt up the table. eLylyth dropped her feat, moved up, and tried casting Pin Cushion on the Ironclad, boosted and needing 7...and failed. I foolishly used my last 2 fury to try and cast it again...and failed. I left the Ironclad with 2 damage boxes which Darius happily dropped his feat to repair to full health. Then, eLylyth standing out in the middle of the table like a fool, took a Stormclad to the face. On reflection, taking out the Ironclad would still not have prevented eLylyth taking a Stormclad to the face...Oh well. Loss to me.
Game 3 – 30 pts vs Thomas Cole playing Cygnar – radial scenario where you needed to be B2B with the flag and control the zone in the opposite corner to get a CP.
Thomas had an eHayley list, and IIRC an eCaine list. The eHayley list had a few heavy jacks and Thorn in it and I was again ‘sure’ that my opponent would not risk taking it vs the Saeryn list, even with eHayley’s feat. So I thought he would take eCaine and I thought eLylyth would be a good matchup. So I took eLylyth and he took...eHayley.
Thomas concentrated on both the zone and the flag while I just moved up the centre and made sure I could prevent him from controlling the flag. Again my feat did little vs the heavier targets. Thomas scored an early point with Thorn on the flag. I killed Thorn and moved the Striders up, with one within 4” of the flag to contest it while Thomas firmly held the zoned with an Ironclad. At the beginning of his turn Thomas announced that he had won since he just needed to run the Centurion in to B2B with the flag to get the last CP. I pointed out the Strider was contesting it but Thomas (and Sean the TO) correctly pointed out that you could not contest the flag in this scenario. Thomas pointed out it was a moot point anyway since he was confident with Temporal Acceleration and Telekinesis that the charging Centurion could get to the Strider and kill it. Loss for me.
Game 4 – 30 pts vs Craig Bishell playing Circle – the scenario was two rectangular zones running vertically along in the middle of the table.
Craig was playing eKaya and Kromac. IIRC correctly both had a fair number of beasts, with the eKaya list almost made up entirely of beasts. I couldn’t risk playing the eLylth list against the eKaya list, and besides I was tired of her losing ways, so I opted for Saeryn. Craig took eKaya.
The first couple turns were a little cat and mouse like as we both tried to out manoeuvre each other, being weary to stay outside of each other’s threat ranges. Craig dropped his feat early but got little out of it. I charged my swordsmen up in to some Shifting Stones Craig had moved up field. The following turn he charged his Feral in to the Swordsmen. This was what I had been waiting for, I charged or ran my two Angelius and Scythean up field in to the zones, killing the Feral and damaging a Stalker. Saeryn dropped her feat and an Angelius scored a CP using Repulsion to push models out of one of the zones. The next turn Craig could not target my beasts in melee and I again used repulsion to score the remaining CP. Win to me.
So at the end of day 1 I was 2-2 and having some serious words with eLylyth, hinting at possible performance management.
Game 5 – 40 pts vs Casey playing Minions – scenario was one flag in each table half and you had to control the one in your opponents half.
I had played Casey’s Gators at NiCon in Hamilton where he assassinated Saeryn. He had a Barnabas list and a Carver list. Both were fairly beast heavy, especially the Gators, so I went with Saeryn. Casey chose Barnabas.
The game was a real slugfest. I went for his flag a number times but Barnabas was camping B2B with it, upkeeping Ironflesh. With unyielding boosting his ARM up to something ridonculous he was too tough to crack and decided to try and clean up the rest of his army. Time was called, neither of us had any CP, and neither of us had any models within 4” of the other’s flag so it went to the third tie breaker army points destroyed. I had destroyed 40 pts of Casey’s army and he 26 of mine. Win for me.
Game 6 vs Luke playing Circle – radial scenario where we each had a flag and zone, you had to control the flag and be in the zone to get points.
Luke had an eKaya list and a Kromac list. After my success with Saeryn vs Craig’s eKaya at the end of day 1 I opted for Saeryn again. Luke chosehis very beast heavy eKaya list.
There was a huge forest in the middle of the table which, ironic considering I was playing against Circle, gave me a huge advantage since all 3 of my heavies had eyeless sight and wings/pathfinder. This allowed me to set my beasts up in the forest, out of site of Luke’s beasts. My Swordsmen had run/charged some of Lukes stuff, generally tying the up. This set me up for the next where I charged out of the forest, dropping my feat, and scoring a CP with the Black Frost Shard on the flag. Saeryn had no Fury, but no problem since she was deep in the forest. I had the game all tied up...except that I forgot about the assassination run available to eKaya by running Laris up and then teleporting. Luke freed up Laris with the help of a Gorax and went for it. eKaya arrived on Saeryn’s doorstep with 4 Fury and a confident look in her eyes. With 4 Fury it was touch or go whether or not eKaya could kill Saeryn, even though Saeryn had no Fury to transfer with. Luke needed to boost to hit since Kaya is only MAT 6, he hit. He then boosted the damage at -3 needing a half decent roll to have a chance...and rolled triple 1, no damage at all. This meant with his last 2 Fury he couldn’t kill me and I got the last CP I needed. Win to me.
Game 7 vs Ric playing Khador – scenario where we had opposing zones and we had to control the one on our opponents side of the table.
Ric had a Karchev list and a very heavy infantry eSorscha list. We discussed how it was kind of touch and go for both of us since Saeryn would be excellent vs Karchev but not so great vs eSorscha, and that eLylyth would be useless vs Karchev but potentially devastating vs all the infantry in eSorscha’s list. Even though I was sure Ric would not take Karchev (he’s played my Saeryn list a few times in the past) I also knew that the Saeryn list still had a fighting chance against eSorscha so was much safer than facing a potential Karchev vs eLylyth match up.
I chose Saeryn, and Ric took eSorscha.
I went first moving cautiously, Ric ran the Winter Guard deathstar up and Iron Fleshed them. I luckily got disbinding off on them with the Black Frost Shard, removing Iron Flesh. The Swordsmen ran/charged, doing some damage and getting way up field. This allowed me to run my beasts up a little more safely. Next turn I feated and charged in with my beasts, managing to clear out a bunch of infantry and score a CP. Ric counter feated, managing to take out an Angelius and for the other one to Respawn with a combination of shooting and Greylord sprays.
I had lost a lot but had a chance to win by scoring the 2nd CP I needed. My Scythean killed some guys in the zone, Saeryn killed one more with a thrown knife, it was looking very good. The Swordsmen Abbot and Champion moved in to kill off the Kayazy boss for the win. The Champion missed with both his attacks, needing 8. The Abbot hit and killed! But the boss has Tough...and he rolled a 5. What looked like sure(ish) thing had just fallen apart and I had thrown everything forward, including Saeryn. Ric methodically killed off the Abbot, Champion and Scythean, clearing a path for Beast 09 to charge Saeryn. Beast used his imprint to gain boosted attack and damage roles vs living models, and charged Saeryn. His first attack missed, so did his second but with 4 Focus remaining the outcome was inevitable. He bought a third attack...and hit...dice down is called. Saeryn lives but I’m sure Ric has won on tiebreaker since he has so much stuff left until he reminds me that I have one CP. Definitely one of the craziest games I’ve played – what seemed like a definite win, turned in to what seemed like definite loss, becoming a win.
So in the end I went 5-2, picked up 6th place, and had a great time. Thanks to all my opponents.
p.s Saeryn is my favy fav, eLylyth is on the naughty chair.
Chris P
