Iron Moot 2017 Steamroller Game 4: Damiano vs Issyria

Due to some people dropping from the tournament, this was to be the last game of the tournament. I was paired against Mark Whitenstall with retribution.

I didn't look through his lists for too long, simply assuming that the power of Damiano should be good enough for most things.

Mark chose to run Issyria. Here is his list:

Shadows of Retribution
Issyria
- Hyperion
- Chimera
- Hemera
2 Arcanists
Free Eiryss 1
Free Narn
2 x 10 MHSF with commander

I got the first turn and a side that was bad for unwinding. I decided to deploy pretty centrally. So did Mark, skewing his Hyperion a bit right.

On my first turn, I run everything forward behind the protection of the cloud wall and put up Sure Foot and Road to War.

I forgot to make a picture of Mark's turn but he also merely advanced a bit into position.

On my second turn, it is still not the time for a push as I see it, so I run some halberdiers on the left to engage, keeping most back, and bunker up my heavies behind a cloud wall. As Mark later told me, he was very surprised to see that. Thing is, I didn't read his Feat, and didn't know he can simply ignore the cloud wall during feat turn.

He feats and shoots everything he has at my heavies, taking down a mangler and a nomad and crippling another mangler. Eiryss 1 also disrupts the purple nomad.

I come in with my infantry, tying him up but not being able to kill a lot. I try a few swings also against the objective but have awful rolls. The three heavies kill the Chimera.

He finishes the mangler, does some work on my infantry, and cripples the blue nomad. The purple one is disrupted again. He also scores in the right zone, plus one point for my objective.

I finish killing his objective but don't score the zone. Again, the dice against the objective were really bad. We go to score 2-1.

Then he kills my heavies and all my models but one halberdier (and Kell, who I had forgotten about by now). He scores two more points, going to 4-1.

I see that the game is lost, as I can't possibly kill Issyria. I go and kill his Hemera with Damiano just to see if I can and how much focus it takes. Turns out, it takes four focus. He scores two points again, and wins 6-1.

Analysis

In general, this seems like a playable matchup if Damiano gets the first turn. Then he can exert enough scenario pressure to win, even though the attririon advantage is with Issyria. I didn't manage that because I didn't know what her feat does. Had I known, the play should have been to have dead eye on trenchers and go kill some MHSF, engage as many as possible with halberdiers, and feat for armor.