Rask vs Ret Reports

I promised yesterday's Ret opponent that I would write some battle reports for yesterday's games, so that he remembers the day where he tried to play Garryth and raged hard.

In both games, I played a Rask list, with Rask proxied by a Croak Hunter (despite my general aversion to proxies, it's a nice model, and nobody would think I would play an actual Croak Hunter). We decided to play 35pts to get more games in (although 50pts is clearly better):


Rask
Wrastler
Horror
Full Posse
Min Posse
Min Trog Ambushers
Swamp Gobbers
Totem Hunter


Game 1:
This game was against Ossyan, who seems like a pretty awesome caster but doesn't do so well vs Gators since we have good anti-ranged tech.

Ossyan
Gorgon
Hypnos
Min Invictors + UA
Min Invictors
Min MHSF + UA
Arcanist
Skeryth aka Mk1 Vilmon on a horse


The scenario was Incursion (which I have grown to dislike very much with my Fury 6 casters). I got first turn. I preyed the Strike Force. Deployment was like this:

       [Invictors+UA][Ossyan][Hypnos][Skeryth][Gorgon][Invictors]

                                                   [MHSF]

 ----------X----------------------------X---------------------------------X-------
               

       [Wrastler][Min Posse][Horror][Rask][TH][Red/Full Posse]
                                                      [Trogs][Gobbers]






Turn 1: 
Rask and friends move up, Fury on Full Posse and Inhospitable Ground. The Totem Hunter ran left to stand sort of between the left and centre flag. A cloud was put on Rask, like every other turn this game.
Ossyan and friends move up, MHSF with Quicken shoot Rask once (first and only time I have taken damage on him in four games), and kill two Trogs. The Gorgon also ran towards the left flag, Skeryth to the right.

Left Flag disappears. Yay.

Turn 2:
Rask: The Full Posse managed to kill the MHSF without a breaking a sweat (partially because they are reptiles, and partially because elves die so easily). I switched Prey to the Invictors + UA, and lept TH over there to kill two and engage the rest. The rest of my stuff just moved up, Rask cast Inhospitable Ground, cycled Fury to the Swamp Horror and feated. The Wrastler ran right so he'd be able to get Skeryth next turn, or at least force the flag.
Ossyan: Not being able to shoot much with Ossyan kind of sucks. He ran the Gorgon into melee with the Totem Hunter, which allowed the Invictors to slice him up good with flank. Skeryth ran to take the right flag next turn. The rest of the list just moved up and dicked around. Skeryth took the right flag. Ossyan moved back so my frontline stuff was just in his control.  I think he feated at this point to kill a few Red Gators with Hypnos and a few Invictors, and put Admonition on Hypnos.

Turn 3:
Rask: I upkept Fury on the Swamp Horror, activated Rask, cast Inhospitable Ground, and shot Admonition off Hypnos. How good is that gun? The Swamp Horror charged Hypnos and did a meaty amount of damage, leaving Hypnos with about 10 boxes and killing a couple of Invictors (sans UA) with tentacle attacks. The Min Posse charged the Invictors with UA, killing a handful. The Wrastler charged and dismounted Skeryth, so still no point for me. Damn you, lack of reach!
Ossyan: The Invictors with UA managed to kill a single Gatorman and fluffed some dice rolls. The Arcanist failed to repair the disrupted Hypnos, who did a few points of damage on the Horror with his broken arm. The Invictors nearby managed to take out the Horror's body. Ossyan decided to man up and charge on of the min Posse members by putting Quicken on himself, then failed to do any damage. What a bitch. The Gorgon did end up killing that Gatorman in the end.

Turn 4:
Rask: The Wrastler frenzied onto dismounted Skeryth and killed him, getting me a point. Rask activated, healed the Horror's body, put Fury on the min Posse, and shot Ossyan with a Paralysis bolt, doing a few points of damage.
The Horror managed to take out Hypnos, the Arcanist and couple of Invictors, and one of the min Posse members charged a now DEF 7, ARM 16 Ossyan and one-shot him with his charge attack.

VICTORY TO THE SWAMP GODS

Rask seems pretty solid in this matchup as well, but for the most part I think Barnabas does better against Retribution unless they bring a Colossal. Swamp Pits, Warpath, good threat and being a tank are just such strong counters to a range-focused game.


The second game was against Garryth and wasn't all that exciting (I won on scenario after a slew of failed assassinations from both sides). Instead of a tedious battle report, I offer this guide:

How to Play Garryth Properly -
a purely theorymachine perspective born of irrational Elf hate

First, one must accept that Garryth is NOT an assassination caster. He is a caster who is pretty good at assassinating. A fine but crucial distinction.

Garryth should be played as an attrition caster for the first few turns, and only when you get to turn 4+ do you start even considering killing the enemy casters. When it comes down to it, one-on-one with full focus, Garryth can kill most casters and warlocks, but using heavy warjacks is almost as reliable and won't get you killed.

Still an elf, but at least has facial hair.

Here are some pro tips:

• Garryth has two hand cannon shots that ignore spell effects. That's pretty sweet, and should be used every turn to pick off front line troops and lighter jacks/beasts/solos.
• Apart from shooting hand cannons every turn, you want Garryth to do nothing but hand out focus to warjacks and cast Death Sentence or Gallows on enemy stuff. An arc node is therefore useful, especially when it comes with a badass fire sword.
• You do not want to put Mirage on Garryth unless you have nothing better do to. Put it on a unit or heavy warjack that your opponent actually has to be concerned about. An extra 2" of unpredictable threat is very potent.
• Cast Psychic Vampire if your opponent has any spell casting troops or solos. Because, why not? It has a long range, only costs 1 to upkeep, and can douche certain models pretty hard, at least by forcing them back.
• Gallows should NEVER EVER BE RELIED UPON FOR A GARRYTH ASSASSINATION. d6" is far too big a range of random to be reliable, and it costs half his focus. Gallows does have a long range though (even longer with Syllys), so it's still pretty good to cast on enemy front line warjacks to be pulled a few inches towards your own warjacks.
• Death Sentence is also pretty solid. I would know, since every Gatorman Posse gets it. For free. This gives you a leg up on dice reliability, which allows your stuff to kill more of their stuff.
• The feat isn't great, but is best used early on to shut down enemy warjacks from retaliating against yours, or late game when charging at an enemy caster so they can't easily get away from you.

 Basically, you want to try to get your force to kill much of their force as possible (especially anything capable of killing Garryth), until a time when you can either win on scenario or kill their caster. If you try for the assassination early on, you are very likely to fail and die.


The best thing of course, is to accept things for what they are and not play Garryth at all. He is the Calaban of Ret (although not really as broken, just frustrating).