Iron Moot 2017 Steamroller Game 2: Damiano vs Kaelyssa

For my second game, I am paired against Denis Korzun with Retribution. I am not sure which of my casters are better into retribution (he has Kaelyssa and Helynna), so I go with the caster I want to play more: Damiano.

Denis chooses Kaelyssa, on pretty much the same grounds. His list:

No Theme
Kaelyssa
- Banshee
- Hydra
- Discordia
Skeryth
2 Arcanists
Ghost Sniper
6 Battle Mages with Soulless
10 Sentinels with UA and Soulless

I won the right to go first, and set up symmetrically. The two circular zones actually favor symmetrical deployment for me.

In my first turn, I simply run up with everything. Trenchers set up a smoke screen. Sure Foot on them and Death March on right Halberdiers.

Denis advances cautiously. Refuge goes on Disco, which is opposite my Death March-ed halberdiers.

I flood the left zone, use some caution in the right one (keeping out of range of all but one sentinel), and use full caution in the middle (still smoke wall, jacks up right behind it). I also cast road to war.

Denis starts Kaelyssa's game of shoot and back off. He destroys all but one halberdier in the left zone, and also quite a few in the right one. Skeryth kills a trencher and hides behind the rock. This was Kaelyssa's feat turn, which he hopes will help him to keep things alive.

Road to war is a great way to counter this feat. Trenchers get out of the way and shoot down a battle mage, which allows the green Mangler to advance 3". The red mangler dismounts Skeryth. The green nomad comes up and finishes him. The green mangler goes and kills the Banshee (I feated). Two halberdiers in the left zone combine an attack to kill one sentinel. Blue nomad finishes the other and uses Road to War to back off. Purple Nomad covers Orin, who goes to score on the flag. I score three points, and I have my heavies with ARM22 blocking any possible lanes to my flag.

Denis tries to do some work, but as expected he can't get anything into contesting range. Maybe he should have killed Orin with Kaelyssa, but it's likely to would have been too little too late. Anyway, I win 5-0 on points.

Analysis

I remember three minor mistakes from this game:
1. Forgetting that Disco has a spray, and not putting halberdiers in right zone accordingly (he was able to get five guys).
2. Not activating the one remaining halberdier in left zone in my third turn - he should have run to hide behind he forest, to be able to score later if needed.
3. In my second turn, not moving Orin a few mm more to touch the flag. Then Denis would have had to make sure he has something to contest it already on his 2nd turn.