I play-tested my new list today. It was awesome. Really, it was. It poses a much greater range of threats than my Magnus list. I played against Mark using his slightly odd Mortenebra list. This is my first foray into using Ashlynn and I have to say, I'm impressed.
Andy's List: Highborne Covenant 497/500
Ashlynn d'Elyse
*Mule
Anastasia di Bray
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
Ogrun Bokur
Rupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Stannis Brocker, Steelhead Commander
Steelhead Halberdiers (8)
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (3)
Mark's List: Cryx 496/500
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
*Deryliss
*Nightmare
*Slayer
*Nightwretch
*Nightwretch
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Mechanithralls (9)
We played two games tonight, the first one didn't last very long since Mark forgot about half the things he should have been doing so I destroyed both his warjacks, all the Mechanithralls and was poking Mortenebra with the Ogrun Bokur before he conceded. I think I'd lost a couple of Halberdiers... Mark also made the Steelhead Halberdiers Nightmare's prey in this game, wasn't the best choice really.
The second game was much better, but I delayed using my feat. I think if I'd used it a turn earlier, my losses would have been at least halved.
Deployment:
Mark won the starting roll and opted to deploy and go first, weighting his force heavily on my right. I plonked most of my stuff in the middle and behind a hill, with Ashlynn hiding behind the Mule at the left edge of my deployment brick. Stannis was advance deployed with his Ogrun Bokur buddy, but I just put them about 4 inches ahead of my main force of Steelheads. Anastasia wouldn't get to go Invisible before Mark could get to her, so I placed her pretty much in my normal advanced deployment zone, well away from any Mechanithralls and bonejacks. This time around Mark picked Ashlynn as Nightmare's Prey (a much better choice really - I would have gone with Anastasia first myself).
Turn One:
Mark advanced up the right side of the board, I moved to occupy the middle area. Mark put Spectral Steel on the Slayer, I put Quicken on my Steelhead Halberdiers and Feint up on Ashlynn - my experiences with Jim and his bloody Seether in my deployment zone on turn 2 have made me cautious about the helljacks in Mortenebra's battle group. Other than that, not a lot happened, I think I may have shot a Mechanithrall or two. Ah yes, I gave the Halberdiers Fearless and Tough from the Piper, a decision that paid strong dividends in the next turn.
Turn Two:
This turn involved a lot of moving forward but not into melee range of the Steelhead Halberdiers by Mark's Mechanithralls. No forfending makes Andy a sad panda. =( He then cast Death Race on Mortenebra and tried to nuke a Halberdier with Doom Spiral. Luckily for me I passed both Tough rolls so the Nightmare didn't end up 5 inches closer. Instead the Slayer and the Nightmare trampled through some of my Steelheads to engage some of my cavalry before I could get a charge off, the Slayer managed to miss all three of the Steelheads it was trampling over too.
I should have used my feat this turn, if the Nightmare had moved due to the Prey ability, then that would have been fine, I had enough troops around it to bog it down with free strikes and Ashlynn would have been able to use Feint during Mark's turn if it came down to that. Since I was afraid the Nightmare was going to appear next to Ashlynn I left her until last to activate - a big mistake. This meant I missed a few attacks that would have otherwise totalled or at least disabled Nightmare and the Slayer. As it was the Slayer took some damage to its paint work from a pair of March enhanced Steelhead cavalrymen, while the Nightmare lost an arm and its movement to a combination of my Bokur, a cavalryman and a couple of Halberdiers. I haven't had more than one attack from Flying Steel yet. It's early days however. I'd hoped for a Critical Slam with the shield on the Bokur so that the Nightmare would be in trouble next turn, but it wasn't meant to be. Anastasia also moved close enough to Mortenebra to learn a secret.
Turn Three:
This was an eventful turn as Mark activated Mortenebra's feat and most of my army died. Mortenebra took down Anastasia herself. He also gave the Slayer and Nightmare full focus and watched as they ate through my cavalry, Stannis Brocker and the Bokur. The Mechanithralls chewed through the remaining Steelheads. It wasn't pretty. I also used my feat this turn. Ashlynn charged the mostly undamaged Slayer and totalled it, much to my surprise. Don't be fooled by that P+S 9 sword, she can lay the beat down when she needs to! Then I proceeded to kill all the Mechanithralls but one, Lord Rockbottom managed to spray Mortenebra with his fiery gun and also killed Deryliss. I used my remaining Steelhead Halberdier to let Gorman throw a perfectly placed Black Oil grenade onto both of Mark's bonejacks.
Turn Four:
Mark had most of the last turn but we ran out of time since everyone else had packed up and was heading home. After Mortenebra burned for a bit from Lord Rockbottom's fire, he activated Nightmare and took a couple of swings at the Piper since Ashlynn had used Feint to get the hell away from the helljack. The Piper survived oddly. Then he moved Mortenebra forward and attempted to nuke Ashlynn down with a couple of boosted Doom Spirals. One hit but didn't kill Ashlynn. There was some more stuff moved but it's irrelevant since I would have just dumped some Black Oil on Mortenebra (my Gorman being 10 inches away and had a totally clear path to Mortenebra's back) and then charged her with a full focus Ashlynn on my turn.
Thoughts on Ashlynn
Ashlynn is much more fragile than Magnus but is much easier to get up the field and into the enemy forces. Despite being so fragile she's tremendously hard to pin down directly, you really have to take specific casters or some form of reliable knockdown to stop her from just ignoring you as you charge in and she Feints away. I'll have to try playing against different types of casters, especially those with good ways of dealing with high defence targets - for some reason I'm finding Terminus with his throw to be rather intimidating . If I can figure out how to keep Ashlynn alive against those types of caster I'll be sorted.
The fact I don't need to bother with a ton of warjacks also means I can have a wider variety of things to threaten the caster kill on my opponent. Having the option to use more these extra threats is a great eye opener to the limitations of Magnus and the dual Renegades. Ashlynn definitely moves your opponent to reacting to her rather than forcing you to react to them - something I've found I end up doing against Jim, I react to what he does rather than making him play my game.
At first I thought Ashlynn's spell list was quite weak. There are spells that are pretty feeble but the value of Feint and Quicken alone is worth her weight in gold. I'm yearning for the opportunity to land Distraction on Caine or Grim Angus, denying them the ability to make ranged attacks would be too priceless.
Ashlynn is also deceptively dangerous. The low power of her sword cunningly hides the fact she's a Weapon Master. She DESTROYED a Slayer tonight, pretty much on her own and didn't even use all her focus to do it. Roulette allows you to play a very risky style of play with her, putting her in situations where you wouldn't normally put a warcaster. She's definitely a step up from Magnus for me, I just need to ignore the big scary things I *think* might hurt her but really can't until she's made stationary somehow.
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