Red, her Biel-Tan Ynnari fighting once again for the Imperium, ran her 2000 point list for another week of the Warhammer 40k Fate of Konor campaign.
My List
With how my list faired last game and my relatively little motivation to repack my carry case, I decided to continue running the 2000 point Ynnari list that I have been using.
Battalion Detachment
- The Visarch (Warlord)
- Warlock (Conceal/Reveal)
- Warlock (Conceal/Reveal)
- Guardians x10 + Bright Lance Heavy Weapon Platform
- Guardians x10 + AML Heavy Weapon Platform
- Rangers x5
Outrider Detachment
- Farseer Skyrunner + Singing Spear (Guide, Doom)
- Windriders + Shuriken Cannons x4
- Windriders + Shuriken Cannons x4
- Windriders + Shuriken Cannons x3
Vanguard Detachment
- Spiritseer (Enhance/Drain)
- Fire Dragons x5 + Exarch with Firepike
- Fire Dragons x5 + Exarch with Dragon’s Breath Flamer
- Wraithblades + Axe and Shield x5
- Wave Serpent + Twin Bright Lances + Shuriken Cannon
- Wave Serpent + Twin Bright Lances + Shuriken Cannon
The Opposing List
My opponent ran Thousand Sons, so I was not incredibly aware of what any of the models did since I had never played against them before.
- 2 sets of 10 Rubric Marines, each set with one Apsiring Sorcerer and one Soulreaper
- 2 Exalted Sorcerers
- Deredo Dreadnought
- 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts
- 2 Predators
It was surprising to run against this list since it seemed pretty similar to mine, although with one notable difference. While I wanted to run up right into the other army’s face, the Thousand Sons wanted to sit back and rain fire.
The Game
We played the Vanitor mission, which gave my army the Sustained Assault rule – meaning that whenever one of my units died, it came back on the roll of a 4+ or a 2+ if the unit was of the Troop Battlefield Role. Meanwhile, my opponent got to set up 3 objectives, each of which would be worth 3 points at the end of the game, in his deployment zone.
His deployment zone (24″ of the table with deployments along the long edges while I got 12″). I go first unless he seizes and he had to start deployment first
Deployment
The deployment zones were based on the long edges, my opponent having half of the table while I was given 12″ off my table edge. This left 12″ in between, and since I would be going first (thanks to the mission) unless my opponent seized, I deployed about as far forward as I could, bunching up my army behind a few wooded hills. Of course, the standard deployment method was in place, so we took turns placing units.
Still, it seemed we both had almost pre-determined what we were going to do. My opponent set up his Deredo and Predators on top of some rubble, while the Contemptors were hidden behind a tall ruin just barely within the deployment zone. The Rubric Marines were also placed in a forward position, one set within a ruined building and the other in the rubble around the base of another.
Turn 1
After my opponent failed to seize, I moved the majority of my army up. My Farseer cast smite against the farthest forward Contemptor, rolling a double to perils, which dealt 5 wounds to the Contemptor and 3 wounds to my Farseer. Otherwise, my army stripped 3 marines out of one Rubric squad and 2 out of another before handing over the turn to my opponent.
In response, the Thousand Sons focussed down the tank my Wraithblades were in, the collapsing armor killing my Spiritseer. One set of Windriders soulbursted off the tank to do minimal damage, but the Spiritseer’s death propelled the Wraithblades forward into a successful charge against the weakened Contemptor, who killed 3 of the wraithblades before they could strip 3 wounds off of him.
Turn 2
The sustained assault rule gave me a Wave Serpent back. Then the one Contemptor that was not locked in combat and the set of Rubric marines in the ruined building got finished off by eanged fired, and the Wraithblades finished off the other Contemptor before consolidating into the other set of Rubric marines. The Visarch, meanwhile, charged the rubrics as well and killed 3 of them, 2 more rubrics dying to morale because of the Visarch’s sword ability to decrease leadership.
The Thousand Sons then cast smite to kill the wraithblades before whittling down the Fire Dragons and killing the Visarch and other Wave Serpent. Thankfully, the Visarch came back because of Sustained Assault, although I used a command point to make sure.
Turn 3
As we went into the third turn and I advanced what remained of my army to get within Soulburst range of the Deredo and Predators, we decided to call the game on time since there were other obligations that needed tending to. This ended up with both of us holding one objective each. We were unsure if the Visarch dying counted for Slay the Warlord since he came back, and since we could not find anything similar in any of the FAQ’s at the time, we rolled for it, the dice deciding that he did not count as slain. Thus, it would have been a tie, so we rolled off for who got to score the points for Fate of Konor, and my opponent won there.
Conclusions
The more I play with this list, the more I realize that Ynnari make games take much longer than they should. It makes sense considering my army’s general gimmick is to interrupt turn sequence and add more actions, generally leaving me confused as to exactly when we were in my opponent’s turn. It has also made set-up and tear down a bit longer since I now use multiple dice types, the trackers from Shadow War: Armaggedon, and some extra odds and ends to keep track of exactly what is going on. Add the collapsable dice tower I need to keep my rolling anywhere near statistically average, and I become one of the slowest players in our area, even though I have memorized a decent amount of my army’s rules now.