As promised, I brought out Amon for a night of fun. Jack and
I had agreed on a 35 point game as he was fielding his list for an upcoming
Highlander one-dayer and I had to leave early to collect my wife from the
Eurostar.
Having used Amon just once before, I felt a little rusty
with him. But then again Amon is kind of a one-trick pony. The list I took was
a variation of the previous Amon list I had fielded. The main differences were
swapping the Vanquisher for a Reckoner and somehow squeezing in the Blood of
Martyrs. The trio of Dervishes and Devout remained the same.
High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Devout
* Repenter
* Blood of Martyrs
* Reckoner
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
* Banshee
* Discordia
* Phoenix
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Houseguard Halberdiers Officer & Standard
Arcanist
SmogCon dice
We chose the Close Quarters Scenario and Jack won the
roll-off and elected to go first. Jack set up with his Phoenix and Banshee to my
left and clumped his Halberdiers around the Discordia. Kaelyssa and the
Arcanist sat behind the infantry. I sort of set up all higgledy-piggledy with
the only real planning going into putting the Repenter out on my right with the
intention of spraying the Halberdiers.
Turn 1
Jack made a general advance with everything activating the
Discordia’s imprint to give a little more protection to the Halberdiers.
Kaelyssa helped out her infantry a bit more by putting banishing ward on them.
I allocated one point of focus to a dervish and my Devout to
start off. Amon then cast Synergy and Mobility and let his army make a general
advance. The Choir then move towards their jacks and used the Prayer of
Shielding (no magic); I figured this was the best they could do as the Prayer
of passage only stops non-magical ranged attacks (all of the Myrmidons had
magic ranged weapons).
Turn 2
Jack shuffles his Halberdiers forward some more alongside
the Discordia. Discordia attempts to spray one of my Dervishes but to little or
no effect. Kaelyssa feated first and then cast Phantom Hunter on the Banshee
who took a shot at my left-hand Dervish. The Dervish suffered a little bit of
damage and then squished a Choir boy when he was pushed back.
My turn would be a difficult one with the Elves being
un-chargeable and Stealthed. Synergy was upkept and two Focus was allocated to
the Reckoner and one to the Repenter. I started off by moving Amon inside my
lines and cast Mobility. The Repenter then moved forward so that he could get
the maximum number of elves under his spray. After catching six Halberdiers and
the Discordia, only one of the elves fell and the Discordia was set on fire but
suffered no damage (after being boosted). What I should have done was activate
the Choir beforehand and maybe some more elves would have burned. Next up was
the Choir (!?) who sung the Prayer of Battle making sure the Reckoner was
affected. Dervishes just shuffled out of the way of the Reckoner who moved so
he could see the Discordia. Boosting to hit and damage, the force field
suffered seven points of damage.
Turn 3
Jack rolled into action with his Halberdiers who used their
mini-feat to excellent effect. They charged the Reckoner and managed to scrap
it. They reformed slightly so they could be more of a nuisance. The Discordia waded
into the Repenter taking out his flail and movement. The Banshee took another
shot at the Dervish and managed to turn it into scrap. The Phoenix shuffled
forward and took a bit of a swing at the in front of it, but thankfully failed
to do anything.
My immediate reaction was to feat. I dropped Synergy only to
recast it and Mobility. With two focus left, I walked Amon forward so that he
could start the Synergy chain off by killing two elves. Having spent all of his
Focus, Amon dished it out; one to the Devout, two to the Dervish in front of
the Phoenix, two for Repenter and the last one for the last Dervish. The Choir
activated and sung the Prayer of Battle affecting both Dervishes, the Devout
and the BoM. And away we went. The Devout charged the Banshee, causing little
damage, but moving the Synergy chain up to +2. The Repenter moved out of Melee
with Discordia (thanks to getting Perfect Balance from the feat) and sprayed. I
think he only killed one Halberdier. The BoM tore through a few elves getting
the chain up to +3. The central Dervish filled his boots as well getting rid of
three pointy ears with the chain going up to +4. The last Dervish activated and
killed the Halberdier in front of him and Side Stepped into the Phoenix. With
one more initial attack and two Focus, I was hoping for some big damage.
Needing to roll anything but snake eyes, and now at P+S 19, this was going to
look good. And it was. The Phoenix was totalled by a four point jack. Such a
nice way to end the turn.
Turn 4
My turn three didn’t actually end with me doing the happy
dance. It ended with me crapping my pants because I realised where I left Amon.
Jack started off by getting the Banshee to smack up the
Devout a little, taking out its cortex. Then he activated Kaelyssa, who noticed
that Amon was in the open and aimed her ROF 3 gun at him. With no Focus to
steal from Amon, Kaelyssa double boosted the first shot for eleven damage,
bought her second shot, boosting the hit only for five damage, and then buying
her third and only needing a five or
more on two dice. Which she got, therefore winning the game.
A super game against someone I’ve never played against
before. I like the way that Amon works and getting the Synergy chain up can be
a beautiful thing if the last jack(s) is a Side Stepping Dervish.
The bad bits:
Remembering that I always have a problem with activating the
Choir before the jacks. In turn two, the Repenter might have toasted a few more
Halberdiers. This might have saved the Reckoner.
My positioning of Amon in my last turn. If I had got him to stand by the nearby wall while he
splattered an elf, then Jack might have had to get Kaelyssa to cast Phantom
Hunter so she can get a shot on Amon. Of course this would have been at the
expense of the third shot and a boost to damage which might have left Amon
standing.
The good points:
The P+S 19 Dervish. I can see the potential here as an assassination
tool. 10.5” on the charge with Mobility and then two Side Steps giving another
four inches gives a heck of a threat.
The list will need a little bit of tweaking, with the BoM
likely to be the first candidate to be dropped. It was the first time I used it
and I can see it being quite handy. I like the idea of its ability Hand of Vengeance
giving yet another boost to attack and damage rolls. This in addition to a
Choir and Synergy would make this a nightmare against big targets. The thing I
have to remember is that it only has Side Step when it is in Thyra’s
battlegroup (I used it last night).
The reason why I tweaked the list from the first time was
that I was worried about having a couple of SPD 4 jacks but I’m not sure that
it really mattered in the end. So for the next time that I rock Amon, It should
look a little bit like:
High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Devout
* Crusader
* Crusader
* Reckoner
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
