eFeora +6
Vanquisher -8
Templar -8
Min Choir -2
Vassal -2
Max TFG with UA -8
Reclaimer -2
Wrack - 1
Min Cleansers -5
Nicia Tear of Vengence -3
Allegiant -2
This list contained a few things (Templar, Reclaimer, Nicia) that I hadn't tried before but wanted to give a shot to. My opponent was one of the many Legion players in the League and one of the better overall players. He fielded eLylyth with a Ravagore, two Nephalim Bolt Throwers, a Naga Nightstalker along with a Deathstalker, Shepherd, two Foresaken, a Succubus and Fyanna the Lash. My opponent was the other member of the league who was painting huge numbers of models in a short time and so he was putting out a few things, like Fyanna, who he was really just trying out, as he'd painted them up.
I won the roll for first turn and decided I'd go first. We were playing the Incoming scenario from the 2014 Steamroller packet, and I deployed my battlegroup opposite the opposing zone, and my infantry on the other side of the table. My opponent set up his battlegroup opposite my own near his friendly zone, with the Ravagore and Naga more towards my infantry, where they could do the most damage. The Deathstalker set up shop opposite the infantry to ping away at them from the start of the game.
I started with Feora, casting Escort on herself and Ignite on the TFG, using a focus from a wrack. Each of my jacks ran up the field and then received Passage from the choir. The monk and Nicia both ran up into position up the board and then the infantry followed suit, the cleansers being out of range and the TFG vulnerable to the Deathstalker's sniper regardless of shield wall. The Legion turn started with a bolt thrower perforating Nicia, who'd moved up too far, and the Deathstalker missing his shot at the TFG, nullifying his deadly shooting for this turn. The rest of the turn involved the majority of the army running up to get further up the field and the Foresaken starting to fill up on Fury.
I started my second turn by having both Jacks advance up, with the Templar shifting forwards alongside the Vanquisher, who took two (thanks to the Vassal) shots that set a bolt thrower and the Ravagore on fire thanks to scatters that did little damage. Continuing the scatter joy the cleansers used their combined ranged AOE to hit the Deathstalker, with the blast damage being enough to kill him, ending the sniper threat to the TFG who took advantage and shield walled and Iron Zeal'd and moved solidly into my zone. The Choir sang Passage again and Feora moved up into Escort range with the Vanquisher.
Lylyth started the turn by feating to give all models an extra shot and Snipe (+4 range to shooting) and proceeded to kill the choir and vassal blocking Feora, hitting Feora a couple of times herself, but with her camped focus and the benefit of Escort she was a high enough ARM that she only took a few boxes of damage. A Bolt Thrower activated and shot at Feora, pushing her back a couple of inches and dealing another couple of boxes of damage. The second Bolt Thrower managed to push her out of range to benefit from the armour buff from escort but rolled poorly for damage, meaning that Feora sat on around 6 boxes. My opponent then activated the Ravagore and moved up, before remembering that Feora was immune to fire and he wouldn't be able to get the job done, which he beat himself up about a bit before shooting at the TFG instead. Between the Ravagore and the Naga (both of whom had been out of range for the feat) they only managed to kill a couple of TFG but did clear a LOS to the Reclaimer who got sniped and killed before he could achieve anything. He then moved up Fyanna the Lash, who advanced into melee with the Templar, doing a pair of Beat Back attacks to move the jack away from his caster, but only doing minor damage to the heavy.
On my turn I allocated one focus to the Vanquisher and four to the Templar (bonded thanks to eFeora), activating them first. The Vanquisher moved into melee with Fyanna, avoiding blocking up the Templar, and squished her with a boosted attack roll. The Templar, now freed up, activated and charged Lylyth, who'd exposed herself running the assassination last turn. I was able to connect thanks to the speed bump from Escort and the distance from reach, and boosted to hit on the charge attack. I missed. I bought and boosted a second attack with the flail, connecting and doing dice +5 damage to her, taking most of her boxes and setting her on fire (thanks to the bond again), but failing to kill. I knew I was dead next turn so I moved up with Feora but, measuring my control range, I found I was just out to hit with her flamethrower and consigned myself to die, camping her remaining one focus. In a blaze of glory moment I killed a Foresaken and a shepherd with the Allegiant and TFG respectively.
As soon as the Legion turn started my opponent asked to measure my control range to see if his three burning models were within Feora's caustic presence. All of them were and I realised, to my horror, that I could have feated last turn to gain 3 additional focus, enough to fire step the extra distance to reach Lylyth with the flamethrower and have enough left to boost to hit and for damage! He rolled no significant fire damage on his beasts but rolled 4 damage for Lylyth, forcing her to use her last Fury to transfer, meaning my feat probably would have won me the game, had I been smart enough to think of it at the time! Lylyth moved up and took a couple of shots at Feora, but couldn't quite finish her, requiring a bolt thrower to finish the job, a small consolation!
In addition to forgetting to feat I realised the next day that I hadn't included my +2 to hit on my charge attack with the Templar from Battle, making me kick myself again for not being focused enough in the game. However to be honest it was only poor dice rolls that had allowed me to survive Lylyth's feat turn at all to get anything done!
Overall this was an educational game that brought home how important it is in this game to (when not playing timed) take your time and consider your options to make the most of your own abilities. While I lost I was close and I can see how I could (perhaps even should) have won the game so I feel like it's helped me improve. Couple that with the fact this game was much more competitive than my last game against this opponent (the first Legion game in Week 3), which he even commented on himself, made me feel I'd come along as a player, which is nice in itself!
Next week we'll be finding out the overall winner and I'll post a summary of my league experience. Stay tuned, wargamers!
-M
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