Kaelyssa Experiments

This article is going to be a series of lists, why they were built and how they did. Then each list will be modified based off the first one in the hopes of tuning my Kaelyssa list into a tournament caliber one.

First list:

Points: 50/50
Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (*7pts)
* Hydra (9pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard (2pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

Prediction: Lots of weapon masters + Aiyanna and Holt to hit hard move fast. Hydra with phantom hunter to snipe out key pieces then threaten caster late game. Assassins for threat, and battle mages to force my opponent to avoid getting plucked out easily.

Results: Hydra did exactly what he was bought for. Did amazingly well at threatening the caster and when necessary Aiyanna damage buff + Hydra did get some work done. Nyss Hunters failed miserably for the most part. Don't like Mat 6 weapon masters, I missed a lot.

Second List:

Points: 50/50
Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (*7pts)
* Aspis (4pts)
* Banshee (10pts)
* Daemon (9pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard (2pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Dawnguard Destor Thane (4pts)
Dawnguard Destor Thane (4pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

Prediction: Daemon is going to get the phantom hunter this time. See if he plays better then the Hydra, though I enjoyed the Hydra. Banshee instead of Phoenix might be a mistake, but I enjoy the idea of denying orders and spells. Sentinels are staying in for the power since they work so well with the feat. Thanes are to replace Nyss hunters and gave room for Aspis to help with Kaelyssa dying from ranged.

Results: Daemon was very effective though Phantom hunter on him wasn't necessary. This is much more dependent on the match up. The banshee is a nice beat stick, but with the way the jack is played in this list (a giant gun) might be better to run Hydra + Daemon instead? Though this doesn't give me a reliable beater incase I hit big stuff leaving all the heavy lifting to Sentinels. With out a arc node no need for Sylys.

Third List:

Points: 50/50
Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (*7pts)
* Aspis (4pts)
* Daemon (9pts)
* Hydra (9pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard (2pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Dawnguard Destor Thane (4pts)
Dawnguard Destor Thane (4pts)
House Shyeel Magister (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

Prediction: The prediction this game is I'm going to miss having a solid melee reach jack. But I want to give it a shot with a very powerful pair of shooting jacks. My guess is Hydra will be replaced back too a Banshee or Phoenix after a few tests.

Results: I played against a heavy jam list and my army reacted very well. The sentinels, thanes counter punched hard, with daemon creating a large whole in the middle of his army. The reach beater wasn't needed vs. the list so I'm still unsure of Hydra + Arcanist vs. Phoenix or Banshee yet. But this will have to wait until I can get some more games in. 

Warlock Round up -- Kaya1 Part 1

Prime Kaya is a very interesting warlock. Her signature spell is spirit door, allowing you to teleport models in your battle group around the battlefield, though they can not attack or move once teleported. This allows for a lot of yo-yo style strategies with her. She also has a fury management spell, a very solid nuke in spirit fang, and occultation. The main thing that makes spirit fang a solid nuke is the ability too lower a targets defense with a boosted attack so the rest of your army can hit it easier.

To start out trying Kaya1 I decided to try and make her tier list work. My first list I brought to the table was.

Kaya the Wildborne (*6pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
* Shadowhorn Satyr (7pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Reeves of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Reeves of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Wolves of Orboros (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Wolf of Orboros Officer & Standard (2pts)
Reeve Hunter (2pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
Wolflord Morraig (5pts)

I enjoyed playing this list. One of the key strategies was to position my Shadowhorn Satyr in a position where he can bounding leap next to heavies toss them at my army then remove them from the table with my warpwolves. All the while keeping my heavies safe from counter attacks with spirit door. I believe this to be an effective strategy for heavy removal, but I find the list isn't capable of dealing with elite infantry or very heavy swarms. This was a bit surprising and can be due to my lack of experience with it. Or maybe due to the fact my opponent was Kallus, who I've decided can be a real nightmare. His feat when properly executed makes his army very powerful at jamming you.

Turn 1 after Kallus moved up.

I lost the game vs. Kallus due to over extending on an assassination run when I thought the situation was too desperate to fight out normally. In hindsight I do think I would've done a better job fighting him then I had originally thought. The stalker's berserk and the fact my Shadowhorn Satyr tossed me a Carnivean early on to gobble up means I should've been able to effectively weather his feat though it was going to hurt.

I did play another game vs. a Retribution player, but I'm not counting it as 1 of my 2 games due to it being a 35 point game. Though I did learn how to move my army along and that the Gnarlhorn Satyr is very effective with Kaya. In the end I was able to kill Kaelyssa, but the game was very well fought by one our newest members of our gaming group, Roman.

So far with Kaya1
0-1 50 pts.
1-0 35 pts.

One more game to go! I wanted to post this now though before I forgot everything. The next list I plan on trying won't be a tier list. I feel the reeves just aren't worth their points. Snap fire and cra aren't very synergistic abilities and a base rat 5 makes it hard to reposition and still hit valuable targets.

I should be able to rap up Kaya1 this weekend and hopefully start on a new warcaster, who I'm hoping to be Cassius due to having the battle engine, which I'm hoping can hide his tree well.