SYNERGY!!!

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)

Is the Avatar really the centre piece of my army?

Is the Avatar of Menoth really supposed to be the centrepiece of my army? The fluff and the artwork certainly say so. But the model itself? While I was waiting last night for the undercoat to dry on my Daughters, I decided to put together all of my unassembled jacks. As I finished each one, I stood them next to the Avatar. The Avatar has been sitting on my paint table for a while now. Up until recently he has been flanked by two Road Hogs. Firstly, The Road Hogs look more substantial than the AoM and don’t have those pathetic looking legs. Secondly, the new plastic kits look more substantial than the AoM. Having put the AoM next to the Sanctifier (which looks good, I’m so glad I’ve got one now) and I asked my wife which one she thought was better and she pointed to the Sanctifier. I did not mention their abilities or stats for fear of getting that glazed-over look (the one I usually give her when she talks (lectures) me about the similarity between paintings by Claude Vernet and Richard Parkes Bonnington). While I like the Avatar for what it can do on the tabletop but now that I’m enjoying painting a little more these days, I just can’t face finishing it.

I am currently making my way through all of the rest of my jacks hoping to field an almost fully painted force for an Unbound game. I’ve just now finished off a Devout and a Revenger and am now working on my three Dervishes. It’s quite rare that I use a light jack in my army and have forgotten how ridiculous the feet of the Devouts and Dervishes are (talk about clown shoes). After these, I’ll hopefully move on to another Devout, a Redeemer and a couple of Repenters, before moving onto a Sanctifier and Vanquisher and then my three remaining character jacks. The last of these character jacks will undoubtedly be the AoM. In fact I’m almost convinced that I will commission someone to paint him.