Battle Report 83: Tanith, the Feral Song (The Wild Hunt) vs. Fyanna (Ravens of War)

Prologue:

I had a very long and involved love affair with Tanith in early Mark III. I played her in dozens of variations, teching for nearly any matchup available.

I even went so far as to consider dropping Wurmwood from my pairing to play ADR with her and Baldur, and that at the high of Wurmwood's amazing pre-errata power.

It's been a while (five months I think), since I last put her on the table, but I did tonight and boy was it a game.

Coincidentally, my roommate had just gotten a girls number and was feeling rather impressed with himself - what better time to take him down a notch?

Tanith
- Woldwyrd
- Woldwyrd
- Woldwyrd
- Loki
- Argus Moonhound
- Argus Moonhound

Reeves of Orboros (max)
- CA (free!)
Reeves of Orboros (max)
- CA (free!)
Wolves of Orboros (max)
- CA (not free :( )


Against:

Fyanna
- Angelius
- Neraph
- Seraph
- Naga

Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Forsaken
Anyssa

Raptors (max)
Raptors (max)

For once, I had no Advanced Deployment to get screwed over by the theme.

I (critically) won the roll off and opted to go first. Ambushing Wolves get far, far worse when you don't get to ambush them right off the bat.

We were playing The Pit, and my opponent took the side with a big forest in front of his flag.

My deployment plan was essentially to set up for a turn two where I could threaten the other side of the forest with Reeves, Loki, and a Wyrd but also be able to put tremendous amounts of fire power in the middle of the table.

The Argus Moonhounds really negate Fyanna's Feat, and Hunter on the Reeves makes the trench in the middle largely irrelevant.

Add to that that the sides of the table are VERY dangerous, and I felt like I had a solid game plan.

Prey goes on a Moonhound.

Circle turn 1:

Stuff runs up. Reeves move to just outside max threat of the Raptors, and I basically give up on any notion of keeping four of them alive (Deathstalkers are a pain).

I certainly wasn't going to give up table space to mini-feat turn one.

Tanith puts Admonition on herself after all the beasts have run up, and then dumps fury and charges a Raptor, bouncing into the House, and conveniently outside of killbox.

Legion turn 1:

My opponent has a couple of very unhappy choices to make here. Normally, the correct play is to dance outside of your opponents' threat ranges and then Feat turn 2 with a decisive alpha.

The problem here is that my threat ranges are actually huge, and if he doesn't Feat this turn, he has to keep far, far back.

My opponent opts to Feat this turn and just get as far up the table as he can. I am not sure what the correct play here was, it's possible that dancing far back is right, but I feel like he gives up too much table space.

Deathstalker #1 kills off two Reeves.

Deathstalker #2 gets Shield Guarded by Loki.

Raptors run, Anyssa runs, and beasts run. At some point, Fyanna dumps three Fury and Feats before charging my Woldwyrd. She gets a pair of heavies in front of her as escorts.

Annoyingly, my opponent hasn't given me anywhere devastating to Ambush my Wolves yet.

Circle turn 2:

This list is sooo accurate.

Tanith upkeeps Admonition. 

I run some numbers. The far left Raptor wasn't in Fyanna's Feat, so I throw a Woldwyrd at it to start things off - I really need the Moonhound up the table.

The Wyrd misses all of its shots *sigh*.

I run up the Argus, and then I premeasure out so that the left unit of Reeves can aim with two front models and CRA off them to the far back of the hill.

I manage to put three Raptors down, but I miss the last shot needing a four, and the cavalry dodges away. I mini-feat with the left unit.

I run the other Moonhound up to just within 5" of the Angelius. The idea here is that Loki can hook it needing a boosted nine, and then I can put two REALLY big Reeve CRAs into it.

The Hook is POW 17, which boosted should do 11.

With Scything Touch on Loki, the Reeve shots are RAT 19 POW 21, doing 9 damage each. I can then follow that up with a Woldwyrd in the back arc, which should kill the Angelius if the previous shots do not.

I Feat, put Scything Touch on Loki and drop a bunch of Fury.

Loki moves way off to the right - if he fails here, I want the retaliation to be in charge range of the Wolves - and misses his hook.

The Reeves move up and mini-feat.

Legion turn 2:

Both my opponent and I were expecting him to have two less Raptors and one less Angelius at the end of this turn. 

He capitalizes on it, killing 5 Reeves from the right unit needing 8s and 9s to hit.

His Seraph Slipstreams his Neraph up, scooting to the right to get LOS to Loki and tagging him with a Flare bolt. He also tags the Argus Moonhound in the forest with a Flare shot. 

The Angelius gets Fury put on it, and then charges and kills Loki before overtaking into the forest some more. 

The Neraph kills the Moonhound and Sprints out. 

Circle turn 3:

I ambush my Wolves on the right side as I can get 3-4 on the Angelius, a couple onto the Deathstalker, and then 4-5 on the Seraph. 

I upkeep Admonition again. 

Wolves go first, pop their mini- feat, and then charge in. 

Three of them drop the Angelius to two boxes, one kills the Deathstalker, and then five more of them take the Seraph out. 

Repositioning happens all over the place, but I screw up and engage the Forsaken. 

My Woldwyrd near the Angelius moves up and kills it, but then realizes that it needs an 11 to hit the Forsaken now that it is engaged. 

I try anyway, but miss both it and the Wolf I miss onto. 

Meanwhile, the left side of the board goes nuts. The left unit of Reeves kills Anyssa AND a Raptor with 2 CRAs. 

The Wyrds finish off a couple more, and then the other unit of Reeves moves up and shoots down another few. 

At the end of the turn, my opponent is left with a Neraph, a couple Raptors, a Naga, a Deathstalker, and a Forsaken. 

Legion turn 3:

The Deathstalker aims and kills a pair of the Wolves engaging the Forsaken. 

The Neraph kills the close Wyrd before Sprinting to engage more Reeves.

His remaining Raptor charges in, misses both impact attacks, and kills its charge target. 

Fyanna kills the remaining Wolf engaging the Forsaken, and then overtakes into the zone. 

The Forsaken explodes, killing off yet more wolves. 

Circle turn 4:

Minimal things happen this turn. 

Wolves charge and kill the Forsaken, and those that didn't run Reposition into controlling range of the flag. 

Tanith shoots and hits the Neraph, Shadowbinding it and Fyanna. 

I leave the Neraph on two boxes after all the Reeves are done with it (Spirit is out critically), and my Wyrd kills the Raptor. 

The Naga and the left hand Wyrd continue their slap fight. 

I score 1 point. 

Score 1-0

Advantage Circle

Legion turn 4:

My opponent can't shake Shadow Bind on the Neraph, and spends most of his resources trying to clear a charge lane for Fyanna to Tanith. 

Not only does that not work, but he then realizes that Tanith has Admonition on her, so Fyanna instead goes on a Reeve murdering spree. 

I score again. 

Score 2-0

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 5:

It's clean-up time. 

The left Wyrd spikes a damage roll and is able to kill the Naga. 

The Left unit of Reeves kills the Neraph, and my Woldwyrd moves up to shoot the Deathstalker down. 

Tanith moves up into the zone, and I score 3 more points to end the game. 

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

I have to say, I am very impressed with the first impression of this Tanith list. It's fast, accurate, and it can hit like a truck. 

The Argus Moonhounds were a bit of a joke inclusion, but they felt very, very important to the list once I got it on the table. Being able to more or less negate Fyanna's feat is very strong, and the shear threat ranges of all the guns/crossbows and the constant threat of ambushing Wolves can really bully the table. 

More testing is required, but what started out as a somewhat janky and jokey list might end up being fairly legit.