Steamroller 2nd Place and Lessons Learned (or: How I learned that eMadrak's feat is ridiculous)

I participated in a Steamroller tournament today at my FLGS, and did quite well for myself. Before I get into specifics, there are a few things I wanted to mention:

There were only 6 entries into the tournament. We seem to get the worst Saturdays for our Warmachine tournaments. Additionally, I am planning to skip the first two game reports, as there was nothing spectacularly interesting about either of them (and I tested out my Ravyn list in the first match). Now follows the report for the last game, as well as my list:

Dawnlord Vyros +6
-Griffon 4
-Manticore 8
-Phoenix 10
Dawnguard Sentinels 9
-UA 2
-Soulless 1
Stormfall Archers 5
Arcanist 1
Arcanist 1

And my Opponent's list (as I can remember it):

Epic Madrak +5
-Dire Troll Bomber 10
-Troll Impaler 5
-Troll Axer 6
Fennblades 8
Fell Caller Hero 3
Stone Scribe Chronicler 2
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew 1
Bog Trog Ambushers 5

Unfortunately there are no pictures, and my memory of the match is a bit jumbled and chaotic, so I'll summarize as best I can.

Scenario: Kill box

Turn 1
A lot of moving and shuffling on both our parts.

Turn 2
More moving and shuffling. My Griffon charges the Impaler, knocking out its Mind. My stormfalls drop some templates on the fennblades, hoping more for successful tough rolls than actual kills. Unfortunately, one dies, giving the Fennblades a vengeance move. The fennblades charge, killing a couple of sentinels and a Stormfall. My griffon is wrecked. the Bomber kills one more sentinel. Bog Trogs arrive, and move around, and he runs his Axer to engage my Heavies.

Turn 3
The sentinels bring the pain with Vengeance. I feat, and give the phoenix 3 focus and the Manticore gets 2. The phoenix proceeds to kill the bomber after receiving Concentrated Power. Vyros and the Manticore kill a bog trog and his Axer. His turn, his fennblades kill some more sentinels and stormfalls with their vengeance move and normal activation. The impaler hurts the Phoenix, the Bog Trogs and Chronicler hurt it a bit more. Then Madrak hits the phoenix, casts his extra dice on damage spell, and feats. Up until this point, I was extremely confident. I had more than half of my sentinels (including leader) left to his 4 fennblades, two standing warjacks (though the phoenix was looking a bit beat up), 2 stormfalls, and both arcanists. After the dust settled, I am left with Vyros, 2 arcanists, 2 sentinels, and a beat up Manticore.

Turn 4
Not looking so hot anymore, I spend focus to stand up after the crit slam, and I have the arcanists repair the manticore's damage (though one fails his repair check). Vyros and the Manticore kill another couple of bog trogs and the Fell Caller Hero, and the two sentinels kill the Chronicler. His turn, he finishes the Sentinels off with the fennblades, and the manticore off with his impaler.

Turn 5.
Vyros kills the remainder of the bog trogs and finishes the Impaler. My arcanists run up to block charge lanes from the Fennblades and Madrak. On his turn, he tries to kill the arcanist blocking Madrak's path, but rolls snake eyes. Madrak kills both the arcanists, then ends his turn.

Unfortunately, this was where time was called. Madrak and Vyros were both hurt a bit, but I am confident that Vyros could have killed the warlock with few problems on my next turn. In a shocking twist of events, my opponent wins on VPs, due to the untouched swamp gobbers being in the kill box. Without them, it would have been a dead tie.

Thoughts on the game:
eMadrak's feat is insane. I was definitely not expecting to have the game shift that quickly, but I think I recovered as best I could from the nastiness. Everything did the job it was supposed to, but I think that if I had to do it again, I would have tried to wipe out the fennblades before the feat. The Bog Trogs were never a real threat to Vyros, especially without a charge and sent in piecemeal the way they were (though they did manage a few boxes). I also would have considered holding my Griffon back until later. The impaler can hurt, and the crit slam can impair my ability to be focus efficient, but having that missile in my back pocket also wouldn't be a bad idea. I am also reminded how much of a beatstick Vyros truly is. In this game, he killed 5 bog trogs, a troll Axer from full to zero, and a troll Impaler. While in this game "Leading from the front" is rarely a good idea, it's worth remembering that things that slip past can be taken care of by my leader.