Lando's Friday Challenge - Newby's Sisters of Battle

This week saw my first challenge game, against Dave Newby's Sisters of Battle. For reference, my army is here;

http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.com/2018/06/landos-friday-challenge.html

Newby took the following;

Sisters of Battle Battalion

• Cannoness (Warlord)
• Cannoness
• Battle Sister Squad
• Battle Sister Squad
• Battle Sister Squad
• Battle Sister Squad
• Imagifier
• Imagifier
• Imagifier
• Exorcist
• Exorcist
• Exorcist
• Immolator
• Immolator
• Immolator

Sisters of Battle Outrider

• Cannoness
• Seraphim Squad
• Dominion Squad
• Dominion Squad
• Dominion Squad
• Immolator
• Immolator
• Immolator

That's a lot of Tanks to deal with, especially protecting the Sisters from my melee capabilities. I could see this being a difficult game. I was going to have to focus on the mission, killing what I can while trying to keep enough of my units alive to keep the game going. Once the Sisters disembark, they become much easier to shift, but that still leaves their transports.

Newby chose the Cloak and Shadows mission, which has the standard 3 Objective cards a turn but if you shoot a unit over 18" away, you get -1 to hit. There is a 1 point Stratagem to ignore this for a phase against one unit. While that feels like it helps should he get the first turn, it potentially hurts what little early shooting I have, and his army is pretty mobile too.

The Game

After setting up the objectives, I rolled on the deployment table and got Vanguard Strike. Due to all of his Transports, Newby easily finished deploying before me. Here came his first mistake.

Given the option of choosing to go first or second (we are playing the rules as written), he chose to let me go first!

I had a die in hand ready to try and Seize the Initiative. I think you need a really good reason to choose to go second. Some mission types favour the player who has the final turn, for instance. The majority of the time, however, I feel you want the first turn when possible.

His second mistake came shortly thereafter. Dominion Squads and their Immolators have the ability to make a free move at the start of the game after the first player has been determined. This allows them to get closer to the enemy and start using their Immolation Flamers sooner, as well as get to Objectives quicker. Newby chose to not use this ability.

Talking to him after the game, I saw his reasoning. He let me go first as Harlequins want to close with their opponents. That would allow him to maximise his firepower in his first turn. He also didn't scout move in an effort to minimize my ability to get First Blood.

I'll discuss why both of these ideas were wrong after the report.

Round 1

Harlequins turn 1

My priority this turn was scoring points and minimizing which units he could kill during his turn. I had to keep the core of my force back due to some of the Objective cards I drew, which also meant I had to be surgical. I moved a Shadowseer, the Voidweavers, the Starweaver, the Skyweavers and used Heroes Path to move the relic-bearing Shadowseer, a Death Jester and the Solitaire.

My Psychic Phase saw me cast a few powers, the two key ones being Path of Twilight on the Starweaver to get deep into his lines and Mirror of Minds, which killed a surprising 3 members of the only Sister unit not in a Transport.

In the Shooting Phase, I opened up with the Skyweavers against one of the Exorcists, using the Stratagem to negate the shadows for the turn. Haywire is insane. I managed 6 Mortal Wounds just from the 4s and 5s to wound, let alone the d3s from the 6s. They deleted their target and I used Fire and Fade to move them back behind terrain. The Voidweavers also killed the Seraphim,

My characters charged 3 of the Immolators (not the Flamer ones) to lock them down and cause a couple of wounds, while the Starweaver managed to charge BOTH Exorcists to remove their firepower.

I scored First Blood, Secure Objective 3 and Secure Objective 6 (both in my deployment zone) to make the score 3-0.

Sisters of Battle turn 1

He moved up one Immolator to get some shots on the Skyweavers and fell his other stuff back from combat. The lead Cannoness and the Sister squad with her moved to deal with the Starweaver, and the rest of the tanks that could shoot attempted to deal with my Heroes.

His shooting phase was ineffective, and he caused 6 wounds across his targets but failed to force me to remove a model. I suspect he may have needed to disembark more units to get more shots.

The Cannoness and Sisters charged the Starweaver and continued to fail to bring it down. It survived quite a bit from them, only losing 1 Wound across the turn.

He scored Secure Objective 5 to make the score 3-1

Round 2
  
Harlequins turn 2

I moved the Great Harlequin, a Shadowseer and two of the Troupes to deal with the Immolator nearing my lines and moved the other Troupes up towards his deployment zone. My Heroes prepared to take on specific targets, with the Solitaire rolling a double 6 for his Blitz. All the skimmers moved into the deployment zone, with the Starweaver dropping off it's Troupe.

My Psychic Phase was spent baiting out his Deny Stratagem and causing Mortal Wounds to nearby targets.

In the Shooting Phase, the Skyweavers claimed their second Exorcist, some Fusion Pistols killed the Immolator near my lines to force the units inside to disembark. My shooting at his few disembarked units was a little lacklustre, however.

In the Charge Phase, my Solitaire went for his Warlord, my Shadowseer went for an Imagafier and the Great Harlequin and support went for the Dominions and Imagifier. Everything else charged the nearest tank in an effort to jam Newby up and remove movement options. The Skyweavers charged and surrounded the final Exorcist, meaning of the 3 the only one that got to fire did it as Overwatch.

The Solitaire killed his Cannoness to grant me Warlord kill, the Troupes killed the Dominion and Imagifier, the other Troupe reduced their foes to 1 model. The damage done to the tanks was inconsequential, but the key was removing their firepower for the next turn.

I scored Strike and Evade, Dominate, Psychological Warfare and Warlord to make the score 9-1.

Sisters of Battle turn 2

This turn is where the full impact of his mistake cost him. He couldn't get the majority of his units out of combat, nor could he disembark the units within them. There simply wasn't enough room. I had successfully jammed him into his own deployment zone. This left him only a couple of units to work with.

They put in work, managing to finish off the original Shadowseer and the Starweaver to score some points. But that was literally all he was able to do with his turn. He scooped as he felt that he was losing too many points and expected to be hit heavily as my Troupes would reach his lines in my next turn.

He scored Witch Hunter and Scour the Skies, but the game end meant I scored Linebreaker to make the score 10-3.

Aftermath

As I said, we discussed the rationale for his costly decisions. Letting me go first gave me the ability to dictate the flow of the game, and shut down a lot of his firepower. Not scouting with the Dominions meant he was stuck in his corner deployment zone, which robbed him of the ability to move in the second turn. These are the things, as a Harlequin player, that are key to victory.

If you can decide where the fights are happening and lock the opponent's key shooting in combat you control the game. This battle was an extreme example of that, as normally there is some counterplay. But those early decisions proved costly.

Whenever a game presents a decision to you, always consider why you are making the choice you are making. Every decision is important, that's the nature of games.

I look forward to facing my next opponent.