Iron Moot 2017 Sunday Steamroller Game 3: Damiano vs Issyria

For my third game of the Sunday steamroller, I was facing Mark Whitenstall, who I had faced the day before and failed miserably by not reading his feat. You can see that previous game here.

We chose the same list again, although arguably Ossrum might have been better into the same Issyria list. Unsurprisingly, he chose the same Issyria list.

I didn't make a picture afer deployment, so the first picture available is afterk Mark's first turn.

Mark deployed symmetrically, and I decided to skew to the right, deploying both of my halberdiers units there. On his first turn, Mark advances very aggresively with his MHSF. Admonition goes on Hemera and Inviolable Resolve on Hyperion. Narn is in the forest, and Eiryss is behind it.

Because I lost the roll off, I have to feat turn 1. So I feat and put Dead Eye and Surefoot on Trenchers. Trenchers do an assault and kill quite a few of the MHSF. As you can see, I have halberdiers on my right flank threatening zones, but not so on the left flank. It was at this moment that I realized skewing right was a mistake.

Mark doesn't have to feat. He works on my trenchers, killing all but one. Also, three halberdiers die. Eiryss is still hidden behind the forest.

I feel that I have to push forward because of the scenario pressure on the left flank. I drop surefoot, put up road to war and flood the right zone. I can only contest the left one with Orin. My heavies can't get to any good targets because of Admonition on Hemera.

With the left MHSF unckecked andmy heavies far up, Mark feats and uses a combination of shooting and Hyperion's charge to kill three of my heavies. Eiryss moves to disrupt a Mangler. By killing Orin, Mark scores a point.

I contest the left zone with the last trencher and put all I have into Hyperion. This is not nearly enough. Of the purple halberdiers, I use some to clear lanes and forget to move the rest.

Mark finishes my heavies, kills the contesting trencher and scores another point.

I put the rest of my halberdiers into the Hyperion but there is just nothing they can do about the high armor. Mark scores another point. Next turn, he clears the cenral zone and scores two points for a 5-0 victory.

Analysis

This is a very tough match up for Damiano, especially if Issyria gets the first turn. However, in addition to the difficulty of the match up, I made a very serious mistake by skewing right. This left the left zone uncontested and the left MHSF free to do work. A unit of halberdiers there would have allowed me to avoid going forward too much with my heavies, and to take a much more central position, hidden from Hyperion behind the wood while also being able to score.

Without my feat turn, I need two fully loaded heavies to hope to kill Hyperion, and even then maybe the help of one more with just the power up focus might be needed. This means, I absolutely have to keep them all safe and to get an alpha. With my higher melee threat range, it is possible, but only if the heavies aren't killed by MHSF first. Deploying halberdiers to prevent that is essential, as is shooting with Trenchers.

Additionally, I think that the changes that I plan to make to this Damiano list (one less nomad, and use the 11 points for a bucaneer and two extra trencher grenadiers) will make the match up more favourable. The bucaneer is a good way to deal with admonition, and the grenadiers can help to clear more MHSF with their assault shots.