Steamrolling with the Twins

Hi folks,

For those of you that read last week article, I've finished my formation of Marine Medical Care and yes, I now know how to stop a nose bleed with a urinary catheter (I don't understand how I could have lived so long without that precious information).

Meanwhile, I still have that problem to choose which casters to bring, since I sometimes feel that most of them are underperforming. But, since this Steamroller was a small one, I felt more inclined to bring a new caster, so I left the caster choice for my second list up to the good will of the Legion facebook page, and the winner of a poll was the Twins. Now, I don't know if the Twins are supposed to be a bad warlock or not, since I didn't own before today 1 pm (Friday[sometimes I write my article in advance, much to my own surprise]), but when I looked at their cards, I patted my beard quite a bit. I wasn't impressed by their spell book, nor their abilities, to say the least. Nonetheless, I had to build a list with them. Having that in mind, the first beast I choose was Zuriel, because he greatly benefits from both of them, and when you have sub-par stuff, it's better if you can use some list-combo to make them better. Then, I needed a list strategy around them. Having two warlock models has the advantage that they can both use animus, so I wanted to add a couple of great beasts in there, also because they need 12 Fury to fully regenerate... Since they don't really play the attrition game, don't bring any damage buff, nor speed buff, and only a very circumstantial hitting debuff, the scenario seemed like the way to go. As such, there is the list I ended up with:

Saeryn & Rhyas, Talons of Everblight
- Zuriel
- Angelius
- Angelius
- Seraph
- Nephilim Soldier
Blackfrost Shard
Sorceress & Hellion
The Forsaken
Gremlin Swarm
Feralgheist

The list is not the greatest thing out there, and if you want to play scenario, you might be better off with Ravens of War theme force (for the no AD), but since I don't own Grotesques, I went with Incorporeal models instead. The idea is quite simple but sadly requires you to actually play alone. Like, whatever your opponent brings, whatever he does, just ignore him, push him out the zone with 4+ Repulse a turn, cut key models, jam him out with the Incorporeals, contest him with the Incorporeals, and win on scenario. On paper, it works great. There is also an assassination threat with Flare, Kiss, Ice Cage, 3 Windy Blast from Saeryn and a charging Rhyas, so keep that in mind.

My other list is:

Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight
- Archangel
- Typhon
- Nephilim Protector
- Naga Nightlurker
Min. Raptors
Annyssa Ryvaal
The Forsaken
Shepherd

--- Tournament Underway ---

Hey, now my tourney is over ! And because I like to keep the suspense, you will need to wait until the end to now how it went down.

First game, Entrenched, against Circle of Orboros. Since he didn't has Una2, I didn't see the need to drop Lylyth3 and so I went straight for the Twins [go big or go home].

Baldur the Stonecleaver
- Megalith
- Ghetorix
- Feral Warpwolf
Max. Skinwalkers
- Alpha
Max. Bloodtrackers
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer

The game began strongly with me forgetting to deploy the Nephilim Soldier ! I would realise it around turn 3, where I started to wonder why I felt that I had so little hitting power. My opponent chose his table edge and so I went first. The first few turn went according to plan, as I started to score on turn two and sent in his zone my Incorporeal one at a time to stop him from scoring in his own turn. I successfully killed Ghetorix on turn 3, with a combined charge from an Angelius and Zuriel. The other Angelius die holding the Skinwalkers at bay, and Rhyas would dispatch in a couple of Flashing Blade. Still, his Feral under Primal and Stone Skin managed to kill both Zuriel and the Angelius, with some good dice. But, I had managed to get the upper hand on Scenario by scoring once during his turn while he didn't during mine. So we were 4-4, on my turn, with Rhyas, Saeryn and a Seraph against Baldur, Megalith, the full Sentry Stone and the last Shifting Stone was contesting my zone. My Seraph did a big run in a loop around his force to toe his zone and Rhyas killed the Stone, taking me to 5-4.

1-0

Second game, Linebreaker, against Cryx. My opponent being a very good player, I didn't want to drop the Twins here, and besides he had Goreshade 3 and Lylyth couldn't be put Stationary.

Goreshade, Lord of Ruin
- Inflictor
- Slayer
- Stalker
- Arc-Node Chicken (don't know which one)
Max. Bane Warrior
- Officer & Standard
Max. Satyxis Raiders (am I the only one that can't pronounce their name and call them Statistic instead ?)
- Sea Witch
Darragh Wrathe
Bane Lord Tartarus
2x Machine Wraith

The won the roll off and choose the table edge with a wall in front of my objective. I was afraid of the number of infantry he had, and rightly so as he jammed me so hard that even if I managed to kill almost all of them (2-3 models left in both units), plus the Slayer and Stalker, I didn't have enough resources to protect Lylyth, and while I was mulching throw wave off infantry, trying to get in range off his caster, the Inflictor managed to reach her and take off about half her life away. That put me in a really awkward position, with Lylyth having to take a free strike to leave, and also upkeep Battle Host for the armour bonus. The next turn, he killed her with two syphons, because the spell steals Fury from the model hit. I did have one opening during the game to try the assassination on turn two, with Lylyth, the Archangel and maybe the Bolt Thrower, but he was camping 5 Focus and with his ARM 17 I decided to wait and it did pay off.

1-1

Third and last game for the tournament. Take and Hold against Cygnar. While I could have play the Twins, Lylyth is my Cygnar drop since I designed her list, so I still went with Lylyth (but stay tuned for a fourth game, with the Twins).

Striker 1
- Reinholdt
- Centurion
- Centurion
2x Arcane Tempest Rifleman
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
- Hunter
Lieutenant Allison Jakes
- Galant
Alten Ashley
Gobber Tinker

I won the roll and choose my table edge. I choose it so that my opponent had nothing to hide his caster behind early, especially if he wanted to go for the scenario. Turn one, he cast Blur on Striker and ran almost everything forward. My first turn, Lylyth went forward and killed both Alten and the Gobber Tinker, thus casting Wind Wall. The rest of my army ran forward, in position. Hi second turn, he moved forward again, upkeep Blur and placed his army in a loose formation near his flag (Striker wasn't on it), with no direct line of sight to Striker. Even if Striker was camping three, with only armour 15, I went for the kill, with an option for scenario. First, the Naga cast Wraithbane on Lylyth. She moved forward, killed Reinholdt thus opening the line of sight between the two Centurions to Stryker. With that kill, she cast Battlehost then used her Feat. I missed the first attack on Striker with even with Wraithbane and boosting, but hit with the second and did a great damage roll. Then she repositioned herself on my flag. My Archangel went next, moved up, and I rolled 4 shots. Needing anything but double one to hit, and boosting all damage rolls, I killed him with the third shot.

2-1

That also put me ex aequo (is that a word in English ? Google tell me yes, but I don't trust him) with the other Legion player in second place. We probably had the same SoS and CP, but I'm sure one of us had more Army point destroyed then the other. Anyway, worst case I was third.

My third game being very quick, we decided to play a fourth game, both using our other list. So the Twins faced Haley2.

Haley 2
- Squire
- Thorn
- Ironclad
- Ironclad
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
- Officer
-- Hunter
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Captain Maxwell Finn
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
- Hunter

This game was a lot more intense than the first one. Without going too depth into the detail, my Warbeast were on very low health almost the entire game because of his Hunters (my Seraph did two turns on 3 health, one in each aspect). The Ironclad killed Zuriel, but in revenge, Rhyas, helped by the Gremlin Swarm, used Flashing blade to kill a Hunter and an Ironclad, while severely damaging the second. Once an almost dead Angelius killed the last Ironclad and the Soldier (this time I put him on the table) engaged the last Hunters, he only had left his Gun Mages (but the Officer was dead), Haley and the Squire. He want for the Assassination and killed Rhyas, which was camping nothing, used Telekinesis on the Soldier to disengage the Hunters and tried to kill Saeryn with them and the Gun Mages, but too few shots connected (only like 2 or 3) and she survived with 1 health and a transfer, who probably could have been lethal anyway since my beasts were pretty damaged. Still, she survived and Haley was not camping anything. With his Apparition move, the Seraph, on 3 health for the last two turn, but himself in Aim range. I don't remember if I did some Ice Cages and Kiss first or not, but the Seraph got two shots, hit with both, and with some good dice on the damage roll, killed Haley without my even needing to activate Saeryn. I was also at 3 on Scenario, and could have won by just placing my Soldier on his flag, but still.

So overall, the Twins weren't as bad as I expected, but they really need a list tailored for them, which mine was probably not. They do lack damage output, and while Rhyas can do some heavy lifting, you either need a Blightbringer or the cheaper Blackfrost Shard to try to level the field, because she doesn't go through heavy like butter as it was advertised. Their other thing is their Fury. Having 12 Fury is funny, but you need a bucketload of beasts to carry that, which leave little place for infantry to protect them from jam (I felt like my lines were too thin with them). On the plus side, the Incorporeals did a great job at flanking and contesting. I would probably play them again, but probably with a different beasts load-out (something like BB with Zuriel and an Angelius for Repulse)...

So, I hope you're all happy, I did try the Twins, and overall I would give them a 6,7/10. They are nice to play, but both games felt a bit too much like the battle of Helms Deep to my taste, were you just try to hold until something magical happen and you win.