I've been having an absolute blast the last two weeks and it's been a bit since I posted and I just want to talk about how the hobby has had a bit of a renaissance for me.
Riot Quest
Since I've got young kids, there was no way I'm making it to Gencon. Luckily a co-worker was going and was willing to Ninja for me. As such I've got nearly all of Riot Quest Wave 1 and the Oblivion Box.
I was interested in Riot Quest, primarily because it appeared to be something that I could use to teach my daughter to play and hopefully get something we can enjoy. I also have some other friends who aren't really down to play big games like WM/HD but would be in on Riot Quest.
This was my daughter after our first game. I'm calling it a win.
I'm looking forward to getting a bunch of the new releases and my daughter is just as excited for the new models as well. It's actually been a lot of fun just playing with her, and I should be playing with actual adults this weekend. It's absolutely great!
Oblivion
I splurged and got myself the Oblivion box. People can joke about the $60 Hermit model, but I primarily wanted it for the campaign system, though I won't lie - the Hermit is stupidly powerful and I'm glad I own him.
That said there has been one thing I've loved about getting the box: It's just nice to have an old school PP book again. I started this game by going through and reading all the rules and story in MK1 books and I loved the way the books flowed. I'm a sucker for fluff and I've slowly been reading the book at night before bed and loving it.
Playing in an Oblivion RemixSo it's been almost two weeks since Oblivion theme remixes and the dynamic update dropped. It was a great time for me since it was right before my birthday weekend.
My group of friends is having a number of people get back into WMHD again, and my birthday present was my wife watching our kids while I had four of my friends over to play games all day while drinking beer and getting some tacos.
I got to play two games. First into Ossrum in Irregulars where my Lylyth1 Jank list got crushed down. My scenario play was utterly terrible and neither of us scored well. I got up on attrition, slowly where my Archangel was about to run the table, but Lylyth just got killed. Note to self: you need a lot more bodies than what I had on the table for this match to play the new scenarios!
The second list was supposed to be a toned down list to play into my friend Russ's Cygnar to help ease him back into the game. I went with this Twins list that I ended up seriously liking:
Legion
[Theme] Children of the Dragon
[Twins 2] Saeryn & Rhyas, Talons of Everblight [+24]
- Blightbringer [32]
- Zuriel [18]
Annyssa Ryvaal [8]
Blighted Nyss Shepherd [1]
Incubus (5) [0(6)]
The Forsaken [0(4)]
Blackfrost Shard [9]
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (max) [13]
- Captain Farilor & Standard [0(5)]
Blighted Nyss Raptors (max) [18]
Unfortunately for Russ his inexperience made it so that he didn't really contest scenario (he had 4 models contesting scenario as I went into bottom of 2) on Bunkers. I could have actually won the game at that point, but I had a slight error and just went 4-0, which led to some back and forth but I still took a scenario win. My take away from this was that I actually want to experiment with the Twins some. Blightbringer + Black Frost Shard staying safe behind Legionaries + Rhyas = an INCREDIBLE amount of work.
The next week Russ came back for another game, this time using mostly the same list but with Stryker1 as his caster instead of Maddox:
Cygnar
[Theme] Storm Division
[Stryker 1] Commander Coleman Stryker [+30]
- Stormwall [36]
- Squire [0(5)]
Gobber Tinker [2]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
- Firefly [8]
Stormblade Captain [0(5)]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Stormblade Infantry [9]
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard [0(5)]
- Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (3) [6]
This played into my first Fyanna2 list in Ravens:
Legion
[Theme] Ravens of War
[Fyanna 2] Fyanna, Torment of Everblight [+28]
- Golab [17]
- Naga Nightlurker [8]
- Neraph [12]
- Neraph [12]
- Succubus [0(4)]
Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion [0(6)]
Grotesque Assassin [0(4)]
Strider Deathstalker [4]
Strider Deathstalker [4]
The Forsaken [4]
Blighted Nyss Raptors (max) [18]
Grotesque Raiders (max) [12]
Hellmouth [6]
Hellmouth [6]
I managed to win the roll to go first, which I quickly took because I was terrified of Russ being able to jam me hard on Turn 1, then feat on Turn 2 and just either force me to commit hard with my fast but squishy Legion things or risk just losing on Scenario. At least in this case I would get to better dictate the line of battle in terms of threat ranges.
Deployment
Top of 1
For reference: Iron Flesh goes on the Raiders, Admonition is on Golab, and Fury is on the Neraph hiding in the Forest.
Bottom of 1
Russ feels forced to feat bottom of 1 and gets up in my grill. His Storm Lances on my left hand side don't have everyone in feat range however. He manages to get some of the tentacles I had blocking up my left hand zone. Arcane shield is on the Lances to my left and on the Stormwall. Blur is on the Stormblades.
Top of 2
I drop Fury and Iron Flesh, moving Fury over to the Raiders, trying to go after two of the Lances without Arcane Shield and who are outside of Stryker's feat on my right. Due to bad to hit rolls I only kill one of the Lances. I do however get to aim with one Deathstalker and kill two Stormblades. The other Deathstalker gets Wraithbane and is able to walk into the forest, kill two more Stormblades and swift hunter back behind the forest.
I missed playing with Deathstalkers.
So. Much.I also managed to get a Tentacle to hit one of the Storm Lances with Arcane shield on my left, which promptly pulled it out of command of the unit and out of Stryker's feat, allowing the maw to kill it.
I move up and feat, contesting the zone with two Raptors and a tentacle. I move my Neraph to be out of the Stormwall's threat.
Bottom of 2
Russ comes back hard. Due to poor positioning on my part he realizes the Stormwall is only in threat range of one Neraph. He elects to put shots into my objective and uses a Storm pod to clear out some of my Raiders. The Lances come in and between impacts and assaults and charges kills even more, leaving me with only 4 left plus the assassin. Russ gets my objective.
Russ kills one of my Raptors on the charge and while he misses my back Raptor I have to repo out of melee range which takes me out of the zone contesting.
He then jams in the Stormblades as best he can and mini-feats with Iron Zeal. He also toe's the squire in to the back of the zone.
Russ ends the turn up 2-0. Ouch!
Top of 3
Feats are off the table, it's time for me to hit back!
My Raiders and Assassin kill of two Storm Lances, leaving us in a bit of stalemate on my right zone, however his cav is now nicely jammed up.
On my left I throw my Raptors in to the Lances, killing two and jamming with my repo moves.
Fyanna moves up and cycles Fury and Wraithbane on a Neraph. My Naga moves up and puts Wraithbane up on the Deathstalker again and takes a shot into the squire putting damage on it. The sorceress moves up to get my beasts into free charge ranges and spray the Squire to kill it.
My Deathstalkers do a repeat of last turn. One aims and kills two, the other with Wraithbane moves up and kills two, using swift hunter to end on the flag.
The unbuffed Neraph on my left kills the Stormblade Officer and Flag without having to spend any fury. This clears the zone allowing me to score 2 points.
I then send in the Sacrificial Neraph to get some work on the Stormwall. Between the free charge, Fury, and Wraithbane it does over half the damage. Golab with Admonition positions in the forest to finish off the Stormwall next turn.
The turn ends 2-2.
At this point we forgot to take pictures for bottom of 3.
What happens is that Russ is forced to move the Stormwall into the zone to contest it and the Stormwall kills the Neraph that attacked it. He also drops a Stormpod to kill my Deathstalker on my flag.
Russ also kills two of my remaining Raptors that were jamming up his lances, but after landing a hit with his Jr. on the remaining Raptor contesting my left zone and failing to kill it, the Stormblade Captain charges...and misses the Raptor, causing Russ to fail to clear the zone.
On my right Russ's two Storm lances kill off the rest of my Raiders, but my Assassin is still alive.
Top of 4
At this point Golab gets Fury and Wraithbane from Fyanna and charges into the Stormwall. Due to some bad dice it actually takes 3 fury to finish off the Stormwall, but Golab gets the work in.
My Assassin kills one of the Storm Lances on my right.
The Naga moves up and shoots the remaining storm Lance on my right, not killing it, but shadow binding it.
I use my Neraph to charge into the Stormblade Captain blocking my last remaining Raptor, I then sprint back to my central zone to threaten next turn.
My Sorceress moves up and sprays the Jr. hiding behind the wall, nails the dice and one shots him, knocking the Firefly inert. I jam the Lances in the left zone with a Hellmouth tentacle.
My Raptor charges the objective and I can't recall if it kills it or not, but I got my Deathstalker onto the central flag, bringing the score up to 4-2 in my favor and with Russ's lances out of commission there's nothing he can do to stop me from winning the game on my next turn.
Conclusions
This was a much better game than our last match and I feel as though I got a massive break in making it a game by winning the roll to go first. It's absolutely a much harder game for me to win if Russ got to go first with Stryker1 into this list.