The new rules incentivise a melee-based force, with some heavy hitting firepower to trigger Strength from Death in the shooting phase.
Ynnari 1000 Points
Reborn Harlequin Detachment
HQ
The Visarch, Warlord - Master of Death
Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Power Sword, Relic - Hungering Blade, Exalted of Ynnead - Walker of Many Paths
Troops
Troupe, 5 Players
Troupe, 5 Players
Troupe, 5 Players
Elites
Death Jester, Artefacts of Death - Mirrorgaze
Harlequins Fortification Network
Fortification
Webway Gate
Iyanden Super-Heavy Auxilliary Detachment
Lord of War
Wraithknight, Suncannon, Scattershield, 2 Starcannon
The Reborn Harlequins are the assault core. Designed to get to combat quickly and get +1 to hit via Strength from Death, their 4 attacks each can put in a lot of work. Add re-rolls from the Visarch and the Troupe Master and they should mince units.
The Wraithknight's job was to take out a small unit each shooting phase, triggering Strength from Death for the Ynnari.
The Webway Gate both gives the Wraithknight protection and turns the whole thing into a "Distraction Carnifex", pulling firepower away from my fragile troops.
That was the plan. A quick test to see if Strength from Death is worth the effort and try out some of the Stratagems.
My usual Wednesday opponent, George, is a Necron player. He built his force to try out some more mobile units for his larger tournament force. He feels that many of his opponents control the board, leaving him struggling to score points.
Mobile Necrons 1000 points
Necron Outrider Detachment
HQ
Destroyer Lord
Fast Attack
6 Destroyers
6 Wraiths
9 Tomb Blades
High toughness, multiple wound models with mobility. This looked like it was going to b my worst nightmare. It would probably take my full force a combined shooting and assault phase to kill a unit, so Strength from Death was never going to trigger.
The Game
We set up terrain and rolled for a mission; Strategic Gamble, with Dawn of War deployment. With such small forces, scoring cards was going to be interesting but both forces we also quite mobile. I felt George had the edge with much more access to shooting. The Necrons deployed first and elected to go first, with me failing to seize. George also used a Stratagem to put the Destroyers in Reserve.
Round One
The Tomb Blade's shooting and the Wraith's assault did a bunch of wounds to the Webway Gate but failed to kill it. On my turn, I used a Stratagem to deploy the Wraithknight and he attacked the Tomb Blades while the Ynnari assaulted the Wraiths. The Wraithknight did very little damage but the Harlequins kill all but 2 of the Wraiths.
Amazingly, neither force had scored First Strike, although George got a slight lead on cards.
Round Two
The Tomb Blades and Wraiths fell back, and the Destroyers arrived. The Tomb Blades destroyed one unit of Harlequins, the Destroyers deployed their Stratagem and obliterated the Wraithknight and then the Wraiths charged the Visarch, with my Troupe Leader Heroicly Intervening. The Visarch lost a couple of wounds, but the combination of characters finished the Wraiths off. Killing the Wraiths was good but I could tell the loss of the Wraithknight was going to cost me.
My return punch had me gamble into Supremacy, so I sent the Troupes and the Death Jester to 3 different Objectives. Meanwhile, the Visarch charged the Tomb Blades and the Troupe Leader charged the Destroyer Lord. Amazingly, the Destroyer Lord fell, the Mortal Wounds from the Hungering Blade being the nail in his coffin. The Visarch killed enough Tomb Blades that they failed their Morale test. I also used the Souls of the Strongest Stratagem upon the Destroyer Lord's death to have Strength from Death be permanently turned on.
This amazing sequence of events allowed me to get ahead on points and left George with only his Destroyers.
Round Three
Sudden Death doesn't give you the automatic win in this mission, so George needed to play for points. The Destroyers we able to get to a Defend Objective and still have the range to kill the nearest Troupe.
My turn was focused on scoring points, I was unable to reach the Destroyers in one turn and feared their firepower. I did have to send the Death Jester out on a limb to reach one Objective, using Fire and Fade to gain enough movement to reach it, but risking the Destroyers moving to get a line of fire on him.
Round Four
The Destroyers moved to get as many guns pointed at the Jester as possible, and four of their number could see him. The Mirrorgaze put in a lot of work, and only 4 hits wounded. I checked his Wounds (5, I wasn't expecting to see a number that high) and then proceeded to make all 4 saves! That was probably the final turning point, as it stopped George from getting points that turn and allowed me to score some more in my turn.
Rounds Five and Six
George killed the final Troupe, but I was able to run ahead on points. The dice dictated that turn 6 was the final turn.
The game ended with victory to the Ynnari, 18 - 12.
Aftermath
The game was brutal in the early turns and then became cat and mouse in the later turns. Georges force was small, but each unit is difficult to kill in one phase, stopping a lot of the Ynnari power. Neither force had many models/units so each loss would hurt.
I honestly thought the game was over when the Wraithknight fell. Only passing 1 save didn't help my morale. It was a statistically unlikely set of shooting, but entirely possible with the Destroyer Stratagem re-rolling hits and wounds. So when the two characters put in work the very next turn, it gave me the opening I needed. It helped that the Destroyers were the other side of the battlefield at this point.
The victory came down to Playing the Mission. You can't win games if you get distracted by trying to kill the opponent's force or dismayed by losing a key unit. You should always keep the mission's victory condition in mind and act accordingly.
I will try some more games with the Ynnari, I really want to get some more use out of the melee-centric parts of the Aeldari. I should probably get some Wyches to help.....
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