108 Thexus1 OT vs Helynna1 DoI

108 Thexus1 OT vs Helynna1 DoI

24.09.2021

My Ret opponent hasn’t played for a while and wanted to have a nice and relaxed Helynna game instead of dropping the craziest Garry2/Issy/Falcir met lists. I take the opportunity to drop my new and improved Thexus list. 

Mercenaries

Thexus

• 3x Wardens
• Stygius

2x Pistol Wraiths

2x Void Archons

Agitator

Overlords

Gaspy4

• Blockader

vs

Retribution

Defenders of Ios

Magister Helynna

• Harpy
• Phoenix 
• Aternae
• Fane Knight Guardian 

Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen 

Hermit of Henge Hold 

Dawnguard Trident 

Dawnguard Trident 

Elouwyr Wardens

2x Warden Executioners

Mechanic

Deployment

I win the roll-off and take first turn. I go for the pathfinder objective, while my opponent chooses the anchor objective. After considering where to put my Blockader I end up placing him in the right because I can cloud wall the center and don’t want the Blockader to be a charge target. My opponent deploys heavily skewed to my left. 

Turn 1A

I run everything up max distance and cloud wall the middle.

Turn 1B

Opponent stays out of spray range from the Blockader. Tridents stay outside of TK+charge range, where the rightmost uses the scenario elements to prevent TK landing spots. 

Turn 2A

I creep up slowly and make sure to contest both the circular zone and flag with the Blockader. I am a bit too afraid to put the Overlord unit in the zone just to force my opponent to contest, but realistically there is no way for him to remove the whole unit anyway. 

Turn 2B

The leftmost Trident gets the anchor objective and sneaks around to destroy my objective. This not only scores him the point, but also removes my ability to gain Pathfinder which means that I will be unable to retaliate. In hindsight I should at least have put the Warden within 3” of the objective so that I could have Shield Guarded and Hyper Aggressive moved closer towards the Trident. 

Score 1-2

Turn 3A

I try to look for some angles to get to the Trident on my left, but with the opponent’s Anchor objective active and my own pathfinder objective removed it is completely impossible. I therefore decide to set up camp again, but this time I put only the Agitator on the flag since I don’t want my opponent to sneak a Trident around again and destroy a Void Archon for free. I know that my opponent can always put the Trident in the forest, but at that point he would be open for counter attack.

On my right side I score the flag and circular zone and push up the Blockader as far as I can without entering melee threat and also staying outside of 17” of the other Trident (since I don’t want to give it something useful to do)

Score 3-2

Turn 3B

The leftmost Trident swoops in, but between my shield guards and maybe some below average hit rolls he fails to kill my Void archon. Unfortunately I never thought about measuring the walking threat range of the Fane Knight and it turns out that he is just about to walk in and punch the archon to death. I could easily have stayed another inch furter back to prevent that from happening. 

Helynna feats and casts up Hand of descruction on the Blocader. The Harpy and Aternae deals a good chunk of ranged damage to the colossal. The Wardens run in to jam.  

Score 3-3

Turn 4A

I send in the Void archon and my two Wardens to kill the Trident who was contesting my flag. The Overlords pull back out of the zone and actually manage to kill one Elouwyr Warden who got feated outside of Helynna’s control range. 

Blockader placement is a huge dilemma for me this turn. Both Ret heavies threaten 11”, but one can go 13” due to Slipstream from the Trident. The Wardens threaten 11”. This gives the me the following set of options:

1. If I want to contest the flag I can get away from the Aternae, but will be within 13” of the Phoenix and in threat of all the Wardens. 
2. I can stay out of 13” of Aternae and still be in the zone, but again I will still be within 13” of the Phoenix and in range of all the Wardens. 
3. I could go in and melee punch the Wardens or even the Phoenix. I need 6s to hit and 6s to kill the Wardens under feat so I will probably kill two Wardens.
4. Pull back out of the zone and outside of all melee threat ranges.

None of the alternatives seem very good. I go with option 1) which in hindsight probably was not the best way to go. This lets me spray all the Wardens and I somehow have the expectation that the fire rolls are going to deal a lot of damage. But they are ARM 18 with 5 boxes so this was never going to be very effective. I think I needed to just bite the bullet and run back out of the zone (option 4).

I am a bit concerned for Gaspy4’s safety, but judge that he would not be that much better off staying back. Keeping him close to the obstruction lets him threaten a lot of the board next turn. 

Score 4-3

Turn 4B

Opponent puts up Hand of Descrution on the Blockader and between his shooting and Aternae going in he finishes it off with ease. Fane knight Guardian claims the flag and the Wardens stay in the zone. The Warden Executioner and the Fane Knight on horse almost kills one of my wardens on the left. 

Score 4-6

Turn 5A

It is starting to look a bit rough for me at this point and I decide that I need to trade Gaspy4 for his Trident. Thexus heals up my Monstrosities and moves over towards the trench by my flag. The Void archon fails to kill the Hermit, but the last Warden successfully kills the Fane Knight on horse. I drip feed in an overlord on the flag. 

On the right side I try to use Stygius to set up a cute slam angle so that I can kill two Elouwyr Wardens and the Executioner with my warden, but I miss the attack and end up just killing the Elouwyr Wardens. 

Score 5-6

Turn 5B

Hermit goes to contest my flag and the Wardens kill one of the Wardens. The Phoenix makes short work of Gaspy4. The Executioner on the right kills two of my Overlords, but misses the last. 

However, not everything goes according to plan for my opponent. First the Harpy shoots a Thunderbolt shot at my Void Archon. This pushes him further into the forest and out of sight for the second shot. Then the Aternae goes in to kill the Warden, but fails to deal enough damage. With the Hyper aggressive move I am able to sneak in to contest the flag. 

Score 5-7

Turn 6A

At this point I am down to Stygius, one Overlord, the Agitator, a Void archon and two near dead monstrosities against my opponent’s entire battlegroup, two Wardens and a buch of solos. The way I see it I can either go for assassination now or kill the Phoenix and then get tabled on my next turn. Besides, I am already down on scenario so my opponent doesn’t really need to do anything except contest on his two last turns. 

So I go for the caster kill and two-shot Helynna with Hex blasts. 

Technically, a win for the Mercenaries!

:: Evaluation ::

Even though I did win the game it felt like a loss because my opponent could have prevented the assassination if he had been a little bit more cautious. He had the game in the bag on attrition and would easily have taken over the scenario over the last turns. 

Mid-way through this game the nerfs from the upcoming October Dynamic Update were dropped. The October DU buffs are yet to be revealed, but for now it unfortunately looks like Thexus will be going right back on the shelf.