As those of you who regularly read my blog know, I've been on a bit of a Vindictus kick lately, so when I had a chance to go to Mox Boarding House in Bellevue to play in a Masters Event, I naturally jumped at the chance to play him a whole bunch.
The main problem was what to pair him with. I felt like my Vindictus list could handle almost everything except Deneghra 1 in Ghost Fleet and Haley 2 in Storm Division.
To that end, I got Chandler to Dojo with me and we came up with this:
Heirarch Severius (Creator's Might)
- Heirophant (free)
- Blessing of Vengeance
- Reckoner x2
- Sanctifier
- Vanquisher
- Devout
Vassal x2 (free)
Wrack
Choir
Rhoven and Co.
Main idea here is that the Sanctifier plus Severius' feat pretty much wreck Ghost Fleet, and this list has some decent game into Haley 2 just by nature of spell immune jacks with Oracular.
The event had 13 players, which meant definitely three rounds, with a possible fourth.
With that in mind, I was pretty sure I was just playing Vindictus every round and praying for no Fourth round.
The Faction Breakdowns were:
3 Menoth
3 Legion
3 Cygnar
1 Mercs
1 Ret
2 Circle
Into most of this, except the Cygnar players potentially, I was dropping Vindictus and not looking back.
Vindictus (Exemplar Interdiction)
- Reckoner x2
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (free)
High Exemplar Gravus
Wrack
Vengers x2
Knight Exemplar x2
- CA x2 (free)
Choir (min)
It's fast, it punches hard, it's hard to shoot at or alpha onto.
Game 1 I got dropped into Ret. My opponent was running Issyria and Vyros, and we were on Entrenched.
I already knew I was playing Vindictus, and my opponent dropped Issyria. He won the roll off and chose side.
Issyria
- Sylyss
- Hyperion
- Banshee
- Chimera
Lyss Healer
Arcanist x3
Houseguard Thane
Ghost Sniper x2
Heavy Rifle Team
- Soulless
Houseguard Halbardiers
- Soulless
- CA
He gets his advanced move with the Halbardiers and off we go.
Menoth turn 1:
Well...basically the plan is to run up just outside of walk and smack range, Feat, and alpha next turn.
Vindictus goes first and casts Defender's Ward on the painted Vengers, True Path on himself and pops his Feat.
Everything screams up the table, claiming all of the table space I could want. Both units of Vengers are completely inside the feat, and the Knights Exemplar are behind them as a counterpunch.
 |
| I can charge into his Deployment zone from here. |
The Halbs get Inviolable Resolve put on them, and the Banshee gets Admonition.
The Banshee whiffs a shot into the right unit of Vengers doing four damage to one, and Hyperion misses, but drifting blast damage manages to kill Venger outright and also destroy the other one.
Halbs all Shield Wall up.
Menoth turn 2:
The game plan is now to draw the line of engagement so far on his side of the table that Vindictus can take the zone and never get contested.
True Path goes up, Vindictus moves into the zone.
The right Vengers charge into Hyperion and do....like 10 damage. Impact attacks murder the Rifle Team.
Admonition triggers, preventing the left unit from charging him as well.
I send the left unit into the Banshee, getting three charges. My opponent takes a free strike, triggering Battle Driven, and at dice -3 the Banshee takes 9 damage from the three charges.
A few Halbs die to charging Vengers.
Knights Exemplar pop mini-feat and charge in, cleaving through a few guys.
The Reckoners make a bunker for Vindictus.
I set the right unit of Knights to be a counterpunch for whatever happens to the Vengers.
Ret turn 2:
My opponent loads up his jacks.
Hyperion sweeps and kills all three Vengers.
Banshee kills a couple of the other unit, and the Chimera charges in. My opponent doesn't boost anything, and all attacks miss thanks to Defenders Ward.
Halbs move up and...kill nothing, even with mini-feat.
I get one point.
Score 1-0
Advantage Menoth
Menoth turn 3:
I upkeep Defenders Ward again, and allocate a couple.
True Path goes up, and the Reckoners move forward to shoot Hyperion a couple of times.
The Seneschal charges the Chimera, triggering Admonition again, and the Banshee moves up to block charge lanes to the Hyperion.
Knights charge and wreck the Banshee.
Gravus moves in and destroys the objective, and I can't kill the couple of Halbs in the zone (dice continue to be unimpressive), so I only score two.
Score 3-0
Advantage Menoth
Ret turn 3:
Hyperion gets loaded up.
In the left zone, Halbs flail at my models, still not taking enough out.
Issyria Ancillary Attacks Hyperion after she Feats and casts Blinding Light on the Knights, and gets the Crit, RFPing four Knights Exemplar and the Seneschal.
Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough fury to cast Crusader's Call, so the Hyperion can't charge my Reckoners, nor can it or anything else get in the zone (Crusader's Call wouldn't have fixed that).
In an effort to get max points, he tramples over my Knights and buys an attack into the CA.
I get a fourth point.
Score 4-0
Advantage Menoth
Menoth turn 4:
Drop all upkeeps, allocate two to each Reckoner.
I ask my opponent if he minds me killing stuff for army points, and he acquiesces.
Two battled Reckoners kill Hyperion, and I'm finally able to clear the left zone for two more points.
Victory for the Menite Druids!
This game showcased many of the strengths of this list. Set the line of engagement in my opponents deployment zone, have wave after wave of alpha strikes, and leverage my crazy threat ranges to insure that I always come out ahead on trades.
With the turn one feat, my opponent literally had 2 guns that could interact with my army, and that's going to be the case with most factions/lists - just no way to do anything to you to prevent you from charging them the next turn.
Even with extremely poor dice rolls, I still was able to just pour enough attacks into the hard targets to 1) keep them far away and 2) kill them eventually.
On to game two!
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