The Talon

I took a small break from my Cygnar stuff to paint up my Talon. We've been playing a bunch of new players lately, and this has meant alot of battlebox games. Since some of them play Cygnar I have been playing my Highborn against them, and wanted a fully painted battlebox set. I also painted up the matching light wreck marker for my merc force as well.

Cygnar vs Retribution: The Revenge of Vyros

Nemo vs Vyros - Kill Box, 35 Points

Things have been busy with Spring Break and the kids, not to mention painting and playing games, but we've finally gotten around to writting up another report. I decided to take a jack heavy Nemo list while Myantek is sticking to her Dawngaurd army.

Army Lists

Cygnar

Commander Adept Nemo
Squire
Thunderhead
Ol'Rowdy
Lancer
10 Stormguard
Journeyman Warcaster





Retribution of Scyrah

Dawnlord Vyros
Manticore
Griffon
Dawngaurd Invictors
Invictor Officer & Standard
Dawngaurd Sentinels
Sentinel Officer & Standard
Arcanist
House Shyeel Magister

Scenario

Killbox

Mark a 24˝ square centered on the table parallel to the board edges. This is the kill box.Victory ConditionsAt the end of each player’s own turn, starting on the first player’s second turn, a player loses the match if he ends his own turn with any friendly warcaster or warlock not within the kill box.If time runs out before a player has won the match via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie using only the assassination and secondary tiebreaker rules outlined in “Victory & Tiebreakers.” For the secondary tiebreaker, count only the army points’ worth of models within the kill box

Setup

I set up my Cygnar first. Working from left to right, I put the Lancer on my left flank with Rowdy beside him. Junior stood behind them. The Stormguard formed a line in the centre with Nemo and the Squire behind them. The Thunderhead held the right flank.

Opposite them from left to right were the Sentinels + Unit Attachment with the Magister beside them. The Griffon and Vyros held the centre but were back a bit. In front were the Invictors + UA with the Manticore opposite the Thunderhead.

Turn 1

Cygnar

The Lancer and Thunderhead are assigned one focus. The Stormgaurd run, while the Journeyman advances behind them and casts Arcane Shield on them. Rowdy runs forward for free. The lancer and Thunderhead both run forward while the Squire advances. Nemo advances into the Kill Box and cast Deflection and then Electrify on the Thunderhead.

Retribution

The Invictors run into position. Vyros casts Mobility, advances and then casts Inviolable Resolve on the Invictors while the Griffin advances alongside him. The Arcanist advances and gives the Manticore a focus point with Power Booster. The Manticore then runs forward in front of the trees. The Sentinels run forward with the Magister behind them.

Turn 2

Cygnar

Nemo puts 5 focus on the Thunderhead after grabbing a point from the Squire, and then upkeeps electrify. The Stormguard advance followed by the Journeyman who recasts Arcane Shield on them to give Nemo a power token. The Lancer and Squire both advance with the Lancer putting itself in cover, followed by Nemo who advances and casts Chain Lightning through the Lancer into the Invictors. Their armour is up to the task and it does nothing. The Thunderhead then advances and unloads on the Manticore, but bad damage rolls result in only 8 damage to its power field.

Retribution

Vyros puts 3 focus on the Manticore and upkeeps Inviolable Resolve. The Arcanist activates first,advances to the Manticore, and gives it Conetrated Power. The Invictors advance and use their mini-feat Extended Fire to get +4 range. They have a mediocre round putting only three damage on the Lancer and killing just two Stormguard. The Sentinels, Magister, Vyros, and the Griffin all advance. The Manticore spends a focus to give itself +3 STR and then charges the Thunderhead. It combo-strikes the Thunderhead for 12 damage. Electrify goes off and pushes the Manticore back 2 inches, although the POW 14 hit does nothing. The Thunderhead loses no systems.

Turn 3

Cygnar

Nemo puts 4 focus on the Thunderhead and takes one from the Squire. The turn starts with Nemo activating and casting Disruption Field on the Thunderhead, before following up with another Chain Lightning on the Invictors. Like last time the Lightning bounces off. The Thunderhead does better, moving up and pounding the Manticore into the ground with two focus left over. The Stormguard charge and run, killing an Invictor, with Ol' Rowdy running into position behind them. The Journeymen casts Arcane Shield again.

Retribution

Vyros put 1 focus on the Griffon and upkeeps Inviolable Resolve. The Invictors advance, fail to kill the Stromguard tying them up in melee, do 3 more points to the Lancer, and manage to kill another Stormguard with their shooting. Vyros casts Mobility and charges the Arcanist, cleaving him in half. The Griffon runs to engage the Thunderhead while the Magister runs to the centre. The Sentinels advance around some more, still keeping out of charge range of the Stormguard.

Turn 4

Cygnar

Nemo puts 5 focus on the Thunderhead and grabs the last one from the Squire. The Thunderhead then walks out of combat with the Griffon, takes 2 points of damage from the free strike, and then starts shooting. At the end the Griffon is still there, although its Right Arm and Movement are both crippled. Nemo sends yet another Chain Lightning through the Lancer at the Invictors. Even with boosting damage and getting 7 hits he only kills one.The Stormguard charge and kill two more Invictors. Ol' Rowdy runs. the Journeyman casts Arcane Shield once again on the closest Stormguard. The Squire and Lancer advance.

Retribution

Vyros upkeeps Inviolable Resolve. The Invictors retaliate, killing 2 Stormgaurd and doing 6 more points to the Lancer. The Sentinels edge forward a bit more, content to let the Invictors handle things. The Magister casts at the Lancer and does no damage, but is able to push it back 2 inches. The Griffon advances into melee range of the Thunderhead and does nothing. Vyros casts Mobility, charges the Thunderhead, and destroys it single handedly.

Turn 5

Cygnar

Nemo puts 5 focus on Ol' Rowdy. Nemo aims and shoots Vyros for 2 points of damage, then Locomotions Rowdy 3 inches. Rowdy charges Vyros but is 1/4 inch short to get into engagement range, and so his activation ends (ouch). The Lancer advances and kills an Invictor. The Stormguard retreat back. The Journeyman advances up to cast Arcane Shield on Ol' Rowdy to try and help him weather the oncoming storm.

Retribution

Vyros upkeeps Inviolable Resolve. Vyros wrecks Ol'Rowdy with solid damage rolls. The Griffon advances to screen Vyros. The Magister misses the Lancer while the Invictors kill a Stormguard. The Sentinels sense their moment and run.

Turn 6

Cygnar

Nemo moves and shoots at Vyros through the doorway, but the shot misses. He then hits Vyros with a Chain Lightning spell that bounces off the Dawnlords armour. His second Chain Lightening misses. The Journeyman shows his mettle by advancing and shooting Vyros, reducing him to 6 points of life. The Stormguard charge and wreck the Griffon. The Lancer is less effective and does nothing except tie up Invictors. The Squire advances and blocks the door.

Retribution

Vyros upkeeps Inviolable Resolve. Vyros casts Mobility, advances, and destroys the Lancer. The Invictors advance and kill a Stormguard. The Sentinels charge and kill 2 Stormguard, at which point the final survivor fails his CMD check. The Magister advances and does 3 points of damage to the Squire, dragging it 3 inches forward.

Turn 7

Cygnar

Nemo advances up the stairs, shoots at Vyros again, and again misses. He casts Chain Lightning twice but doesn't even kill anyone as it bounces off their ARM. The Journeyman makes the unwise decision to kill a Sentinel.

Retribution

The Sentinels kill the Journeyman while the Magister casts and misses Nemo. The Invictors advance. Vyros casts Mobility, charges Nemo, and one shots him.

Afterward

Defenstrator

Well that was kind of brutal. I was doing ok there for awhile. The Stormguard were stymying both the Invictors and the Sentinels and the Thunderhead was doing ok. But then I made my first big mistake in not moving the Thunderhead back far enough when shooting the Griffon. I was paranoid of giving it cover from the Thunderhead when I should have been paranoid of what Vyros could do to it. My second mistake was trying to charge Vyros with Ol' Rowdy instead of just destroying the Griffon. With the Flank bonus gone Rowdy probably would have survived Vyros beating on him. It also didn't help that I just couldn't roll above a 7 for damage with my Chain Lightnings. I figured I could cut down the Invictors with just the shear volume of fire, but with Inviolable Resolve on them that just wasn't happening. I should have recognised that as well.

Myantek

The rest of my army did a little better this time but, again, Vyros was the go to guy to get things done. He does have other spells in his list... I just haven't managed to figure out a use for anything but Invioable Resolve and Mobility. I think I have to do a bit of experimenting. On the other hand, I finally won a game! Yay!

I don't know if the Magistar really fits with this army. I'm thinking of dropping him and maybe adding in one of the Eirysses, maybe a Soulless or two. I've actually been playing at 33 points because of what I've got built but I don't think it's been making that much difference. I've got a little room to play.

Stormclad

My Stormclad is now done. I had thought about doing some converting on him but didn't bother in the end. I left the banner off because 1) I think he looks better without it and 2) I had already used it on my Centurion. Like the Centurion I quartered the centre panel since there was no embossed Cygnus to paint.

Stormblades

I've had the Stormblades finished for a little while now, but I wanted to finish the unit attchment before I posted them. And then it took a while before I got around to photographing them. But they're done now and came out pretty much how I planned.

Hunter

Here is my Huneter all painted up. I'm sure I'll get another one at some point, but I can't say that he's so good that I'm in a rush. This model also reminds me to be humble. I like to think of myself as a decent painter. But as the squashed blob that is supposed to be a Cygnus on the Hunter reminds me, my freehand painting stinks.

Retribution of Scyra vs Cygnar: The Rematch

So Defenstrator wanted a rematch... Apparently he beat me too quickly last time and wanted to try again so that I could give him a challenge.

Retribution vs Cygnar - 35 points Kill Box

Retribution

Dawnlord Vyros
Griffon
Manticore
10 x Dawnguard Invictors with Unit Attachment
10 x Dawnguard Sentinels with Unit Attachment
Magistar
Arcanist








Cygnar

Captain Victoria Haley

Charger
Charger
Squire
Centurian
Lancer
Sword Knights
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Field Mechaniks
Captain Arlan Strangeways

Set Up

The board was set up the same as last time. Three hills made up the left hand side of the board and two copses of trees made up the right side of the board with a whole lot of nothing in between.

I learned from the last game that it was best to have Vyros stay a little further back so that was the sum of my plan going into this game. This time I won the roll to go first ('cause that'll make all the difference).

The Manticore and the Arcanist would take the left flank and the Sentinels would take the rights. The Griffon stood around to act as Vyros' personal shield and the Invictors were placed close to the middle so that I could have the possibilty to go to either side dependng on Defenstrator's deployment without a lot of repositioning. The Magistar hung back with Vyros.

On Defenstrator's side the two Chargers set up to face down the Manticore with the Mechaniks backing them up. Strangeways and the Centurian set up beside them and the Lancer stood on the far right of the zone. The Sword Knights and the Squire screened Haley in the centre of the field.

Retribution Turn 1

Vyros hung on to all his Focus this turn.

The Invictors and Sentinels both ran forward up the field with the Magistar and the Arcanist following behind them.

Vyros cast Mobility and then Inviolable Resolve on the Invictors and then moved into the Kill Box zone. The Griffon moved in front of Vyros to act as a shield and the Manticore moved up onto the hill to lay down some covering fire.

Cygnar Turn 1

Haley took 1 Focus from the Squire and then gave 3 Focus to each Charger.

Charger 1 moved forward and attempted to shoot the Manticore but was short so Charger 2 ran forward.

The Sword Knights ran forward. Haley followed behind then and cast Arcane Shield on the unit.

The Black 13th moved forward to the trees and attempted to shoot the Sentinels but were out of range. The Lancer followed behind them.

Strangeways moved forward and gave a Focus to the Centurian. The Centurian used the Focus to run up the field with the Mechaniks following behind.

Retribution Turn 2

Vyros upkept Inviolable Resolve and gave 3 Focus to the Manticore.

The Invictors moved forward and used their mini-feat to kill off the Sword Knights. The Sentinels ran through the trees to set themselves up for the next turn and Vyros moved in behind the Invictors.

The Griffon moved in front of Vryos. The Arcanist and the Magistar moved in behind them. The Manticore shot Charger 1 for 6 damage.

Cygnar Turn 2

Haley upkept Arcane Shield and took 1 Focus from the Squire. She then gave 3 Focus to the Centurian, 1 to Charger 1 and 3 to Charger 2. She then moved forward to shoot and kill one of the Invictors after using her feat.

The Black 13th moved forward to shoot the Sentinels killing 5 of them in total. The Sword Knights charged the Invictors to kill 7 of them.

Charger 1 moved forward and killed the Arcanist but missed on shooting the Invictors. The Centurian charged the Manticore and managed to do 23 points of damage. Charger 2 moved forward to shoot the Griffon for 9 points but did nothing to the Invictors.

The Mechaniks moved in front of Haley and then failed to fix Charger 1. Strangeways, the Squire and the Lancer simply moved forward.

Retribution Turn 3

The Sentinels made their move toward the Black 13th with Vengeance. Vyros dropped Inviolable Resolve and assigned 1 Focus to the Griffon. He used his Feat, cast Invioable Resolve on himself and then cast Mobility. He killed one Sword Knight and the Focus was assigned to the Manticore.

The Sentinels charged the Black 13th and the Sword Knights and... sucked? Nothing on the Black 13th and 2 dead Sword Knights (giving the Manticore 2 more Focus). The dice did not go my way. The Magister followed the Sentinels' lead and also accomplished nothing. The Invictors were able to do 7 points of damage to Charger 1.

The Griffon charged Charger 1 for an additional 8 points but wasn't able to take it down. The Manticore gave itself a boost in strength and tried to take down the Centurian but only managed 13 points of damage.

Not a stellar turn for the Retribution.

Cygnar Turn 3

Haley gave 1 Focus to the Lancer.

The Sword Knights and the Black 13th moved in to finish off the Sentinels and the Invictors killing most of them.

The Lancer moved up and Haley cast Chain Lightning through it (using a reroll from the Squire) to kill the Magistar, 2 more Sentinels and a couple of Sword Knights.

The Centurian killed the Manticore and did 14 points to the Griffon. The Mechaniks fixed pretty much all the minuscule amount of damage I'd been able to do up to this point. Strageways gave a Focus to Charger 1 who then shot and damaged the Griffon. Charger 2 actually missed.

Retribution Turn 4

So we probably should have called the game at this point. The chance of me winning were very slim. However, we'd forgotten to keep track of the amount of time we'd been playing so we decided to see just how long it would take to kill Vyros. (Or Haley... It's not impossible.)

Vyros upkept Inviolable Resolve on himself.

The Griffon was completely ineffective at this point but it could still flank things so it moved forward on the hill.

Vyros cast Mobility and charged the Centurian. The Centurian wasn't destroyed.

The Sentinel that refused to run away managed to kill a Sword Knight and the Invictors charge Charger 2 for 8 points of damage.

Cygnar Turn 4

Haley taunted Vyros with the amount of Focus she could still throw around. She gave 3 to the Centurian and 1 to each of the Chargers.

The Centurian failed to kill Vyros by only doing 7 points of damage. Charger 2 does manage to destroy the Griffon. Of course Vyros now has cover frm the wreck marker and is in melee, so Charger 1 didn't manage to kill him either.

The Mechaniks failed to repair the Centurian but returned 5 points to Charger 2. Strangeways repaired another 6 points.

Haley moved up and cast Arcane Shield on the Centurian. The Squire moved onot the hill and the Black 13th mopped up the last of the Invictors and the Sentinel.

Retribution Turn 5

Vyros upkept Inviolable Resolve and laughed at the Arcane Shield. Taking the adage, "If you want something done right, do it yourself" in mind he destroyed the Centurian since the rest of his army was gone.

Cygnar Turn 5

Haley gave 3 Focus to both Chargers.

The Mechaniks pulled back and Vyros killed 2 of them for daring to leave combat. The crew chief did manage to fix 2 points of damage to Charger 1. Strangeways pulled back as well, and Vyros murdered him also.

Charger 2 aimed and shot Vyros for 8 points, but didn't take him out. Charger 1 aimed and missed. The Black 13th moved in front of Haley to shoot at Vyros but not a single shot hit him. The Lancer moved up behind the Black 13th and the Squire moved forward to block the charge lane to Haley.

Retribution Turn 6

Vyros upkept Inviolable Resolve and walked over to Charger 1. He almost destroyed it but decided to save a couple of Focus to act as armour.

Cygnar Turn 6

Haley gave 3 Focus to Charger 2 and 1 to the Lancer.

The Squire ran forward.

Charger 1 moved out of the way so Vyros destroyed it with a free strike. Charger 2 had a clear shot and took it. It did just enough damage to finally kill the Dawnlord.

Afterword

Myantek

Apparently, the rest of his army was the only thing holding Vyros back. Things started to go a lot better for me once Defenstrator had killed most of my other models. The lack of performance from my Sentinels was a little disappointing. They should really be better than that.

Defenstrator

Wow. I was doing really well there with minimal casualties and a strong position. Little did I realise that the slaughter of his army would send Vyros into a killing frenzy so destructive that I was starting to get worried that he'd work his way over to Haley. With the Centurion down shooting was my only way to kill him, and so I had to keep exposing models to free strikes just to deny the +4 DEF bonus Vyros was getting for being in melee. Between that and the cover granted by the wreck markers of the Centurion and Griffon I had a terrible time finally putting him down.

Cygnar vs Retribution of Scyrah

Haley vs Vyros - Kill Box, 35 points.

It's been awhile since we put up a game. Between the Hordes MKII field test and holidays we were just pretty busy. But now we can get back on our regular schedule.

Cygnar

Captain Victoria Haley

Squire

Centurion

Lancer

Charger

Charger

Swordknights (full)

Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team

Field Mechaniks

Captain Arlan Strangeways

vs

Retribution

Dawnlord Vyros

Manticore

Griffon

Dawnguard Sentinels

Dawnguard Sentinels Unit Attachment

Dawnguard Invictors

Dawnguard Invictors Unit Attachment

Arcanist

Battle Mage

Scenario

Killbox

Mark a 24˝ square centered on the table parallel to the board edges. This is the kill box.
Victory Conditions
At the end of each player’s own turn, starting on the first player’s second turn, a player loses the match if he ends his own turn with any friendly warcaster or warlock not within the kill box.
If time runs out before a player has won the match via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie using only the assassination and secondary tiebreaker rules outlined in “Victory & Tiebreakers.” For the secondary
tiebreaker, count only the army points’ worth of models within the kill box.

Setup

I won the roll to go first. On the left flank were the two Chargers with the Centurion to support them. Behind the Chargers and Centurion were Strageways and the Mechaniks. The Sword Knights held the centre with Haley and the Squire centre right. The Lancer held the Swordknights rigth flank with the Black 13th taking cover behind it.

On the opposite side Myantek set up the Sentinels on the left supported by the Griffon. Vyros was centre left beside the Griffon and the Invictors were setup beside him. On the right was the Manticre with the Arcanist behind it and the Magister on the right flank.

Turn 1

Cygnar

Haley assigns focus to all the warjacks and they all run to the centre hill. The Sword Knights run onto the hill as well while Haley and the Squire advance behind them. Haley puts Arcane Shield on the Centurion. The Black 13th run to the left flank.

Retribution

Vyros assigns focus to the Manticore. The Sentinels run and pair up. The Invictors advance but their guns are just short of the Lancer. Vyros casts Mobility and advances, then puts Inviolable Resovle on the Sentinels. The Griffin advances up beside him. The Manticore advances and thanks to Mobility is in range of the Lancer which is shoots and hit, but only does 2 points of damage. The Arcanist and Magister advance behind.

Turn 2

After some eyeballing and measuring of control area Haley pulls one focus from the Squire, upkeeps Arcane Shield, and assigns the Chargers 3 focus each. The Charger #1 moves into the centre and is in range of Vyros. Two solid shots leave him almost dead. The second Charger moves into the centre and is in range. Vyros dies.

Afterward

Defenstrator

Well that was a sudden ending. My original plan was to give the Chargers 1 focus each and have them gun away while slowing down Myantek's army with Temporal Barrier. But then she put Inviolable Resolve on the Sentinels, which pushed their armour up to the point where that wasn't practical. I then decided to hammer the Griffon and try and deny it's use to Vyros, but realised that Vyros himself wasn't that far beyond the light warjack. Thanks to the Chargers Powerful Attack the shots hammered home and that was game. While a good demonstration of why it's a bad idea to leave your warcaster to exposed it didn't make for a satisfying game, so we're planning a rematch quite soon.

Myantek

Huh, the Chargers have guns. Kinda forgot about that. I had intended to put Vyros behind the Griffon but then when the time came to actually place the light 'jack totally forgot where it had been supposed to go. Vyros seems to be a front line caster, but maybe not that far to the front.