I'm back! Going to try (again) to be more brief; writing long posts was part of what wore me out I think, and got me a little less likely to post. So here goes!
My List:
Jarl
-Rune
-Impaler
-Bomber
Horgle
-Slag Troll
Highwaymen + Braylen
Warders
SoBragg
Swamp Gobbers
Chronicler
Totem Hunter
His List:
Stryker2
-Squire
-Stormclad
-2x Sentinel
2x max Stormlances
Stormblades
-UA + 1 WA
Stormblades
2x Stormblade Captain
Scenario: Close Quarters
Terrain: Forest touching my flag, forest just on the other side of his. Hill on his side opposite my flag, hill on my side opposite his flag. Random obstruction in the middle.
Quick Assessment: Lots of infantry for me to kill! Not so fond of the Deflection, though, since that'll put especially the Stormlances in an awkward spot to kill. 19 ARM + 5 boxes leaves only the Bomber as reliable at ranged, really. And he's got a lot of heavy hitting, so my Warders are probably forfeit.
Deployment: I put the Highwaymen to the left with Braylen and Horgle & co. Bomber, Jarl, and Rune went right, Warders central, SoBragg far right (near the forest) with the Totem Hunter. Chronicler behind the Warders and Highwaymen.
All his Stormblades were in 2 clumps centrally with Stryker. The Stormclad was line up with his flag, Sentinels to either side, Stryker with the Stormclad, and the Stormlances hard to either flank.
Game Time: This section will be a little different than previous writings. I'm going to be a little more succinct about the happenings.
We both ran up, mostly, in Round 1. I'd preyed one unit of Stormblades, and he kept them back to deny the Prey bonus. On Turn 2, I decided my priority was finishing off the Stormclad; I wanted his heavy out of the way, because most everything else could be killed by normal PS 12 shots or CRA's from the Highwaymen. He shield guarded a Slag shot, but the other shot + 2 Bomber shots (I rolled the 7 to hit like a boss, unboosted) + 2 Warders got the 'Clad, and half-crippled a Sentinel (I blew out the damage). A Highwaymen CRA took down 1 lance, while the Assaulting SoBragg crapped out to do minimal damage.
He feated, and he took out a ton of guys. He took down about 6-7 Highwaymen, at the cost of 3 of the 4 Lances knocked down (Chronicler w/ Hero's Tragedy), all but 1 Warder, all but the 2 swords guy of SoBragg. He also got a few damage into either the Bomber or Impaler, I forget which.
My retaliation involved killing as much shit as I could manage. I managed to take him down to about ~6 Stormblades + 2 Stormlances on one side, and about 2 Lances on the other, plus the Captains on either side. The Slag Troll finished a Sentinel, while the Impaler slapped down the other.
He did what he could to retaliate; he removed another Highwayman or two, and put some damage into the Slag and Bomber, but he was running out of guys at this point. The one Stormlance got the last SoBragg, but he toughed.
On my turn, I wiped up the remaining Blades, cleared the Captain on my flag side, and took out the Sentinel, along with a Lance or two. I made one big error, though, and left Jarl in range for a Velocity + charge from Stryker on my Tactical Supremacy move... Shit. I should've just kept him back and fed contesting models into his flag repeatedly, since he was nearly out of models that could contest and won the long game. So, crap.
On his turn, he velocity'd for 2 into Jarl, who was on a 2 camp, leaving him on 5. His overboost put him at PS 26, or Dice +11 into a 16 box Jarl. his first two hit, and blasted me hard, leaving both the Impaler and Bomber on a single box each, with no transfers. His third shot hit... and snake eyes, leaving me on 3 HP. So then Horgle got a Slag bonus, walked up behind Stryker, and gave him a hammer to the back of the head.
Post-Match: We both made a lot of mistakes, playing with unfamiliar lists. We forgot abilities, or placed in bad spots; I left Jarl way too far forward a couple of times, trying to do too much. That said, I was incredibly happy with my infantry shredding on my guys, as well as general mobility. The Totem Hunter, Jarl, and Braylen all dashed in and out with ease, giving me a lot of board movement. If I'd played the game the way I intended to early, then Swift Hunter + Tac Supremacy would've moved the Highwaymen all over the board, but I screwed up and failed at that, and made it way easier for him to kill the Highwaymen.
The Warders will become Gators, too, after I move some points around. I felt like I had to pull the Warders along, somewhat, and I like the volume of attacks as well as potentially higher DEF better from the Gators, particularly in synergizing with the feat (-2 to attack rolls). I have other changes I'd like to make that I've discussed with another local player, so I'll be probably maneuvering a couple more things around and trying a couple of new ideas.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 10/8/2014
Lots of games against Khador lately, because that's who I've been able to get a game with regularly!
My List:
pDoomshaper, Runes of War (Tier 4)
-Runebearer
-Mountain King
-Earthborn
-Mauler
max Stone (no UA)
3x Runeshapers
Janissa
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Zerker
Junior Malakov
-Decimator
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (1 or 2)
2x Doom Reavers
Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
Aiyana and Holt
Scenario:
Close Quarters
Terrain:
Forest on my near right, hill on my near left, a couple of central walls, one going parallel to my deployment and one perpendicular. Hills on his side, forest on his side (never mattered really).
Match Assessment:
The Doom Reavers present an interesting problem. They're the majority of his hitting power for armor (he has the one Malakov jack too), but they need charges to do it. However, they also can't be targeted by the Runeshapers. So this'll be weird.
I think if I can keep him from getting all the Reavers and the jack to me, I should be able to hold my Mountain King up and keep healing him. He has a lot of hitting power, but if I can force him to plink, I don't think it'll be enough. Between snacking the guys hitting and the Whelps, it's a lot of healing potential.
I don't really have an assassination run in this list, so instead it'll probably be mostly attrition. Just grind him out and make him work his way through the King and the two accompanying beasts. The Runeshapers can make a solid jam.
Deployment:
I put the MK central, stupidly about half an inch outside of the 2 speed for a forest. Doh. 2 units of Runeshapers went left to challenge his flag, one unit went right. Earthborn left, Mauler right.
He put the Winterguard to come in left, one unit of Reavers left, one unit right, and the Kommandos coming up my right (at my flag). Malakov with 'jack were there also. All else was fairly central.
Game Time:
He ran the masses forward! The Doomies ran up to the front, with a couple way forward and the rest behind. The Winterguard made a giant blob, while the models on my right side scattered in a wide area to watch out for Rock Hammers.
I just moved the King up 5" (should've been 7 had I not placed him away from the forest) and sprayed down a Doomy. I transmuted him, and drifted a ton of AE's into the Doomies needing 8's to kill. Never got one :( Everything else advanced up, Transmute on the King and Mauler with a wall covering parts of them.
He charged 1 or 2 Doomies into my Mauler, some into my Runeshapers. 2 units broke, one passed, and I ended up with about 4-5 of them dead. The Mauler took a few points. The Berserker took up a central position across from the MK MK, and his Decimator shot into the Mauler (before the Doomy) to get a few more points, taking about 15 points off the Mauler (I think. Either this turn or the next one).
I charged the King in and took a handful of guys off the board - I think it was some Doomies and a couple of WG, including the officer maybe? My 2 Shapers rallied, while one killed a Doomy in melee. I threw one Shaper at another Doomy with the Earthborn, and rolled 1-2 for damage on my Shaper! So no damage me, killed his guy, and I'm steady. Excellent. Doomy stayed behind a wall, transmute on the Mauler, and so on.
He came back into me, charging a Doomy at the EBDT but ending out of command. He left 1 Runeshaper alive on the left, and took out one on the right. the Berserker plinked 1 into the MK, triggering a whelp. Not much else.
The MK failed to kill the Zerker even with fortune (6 to hit, I missed 3 attacks on him. ugh), but got a few other guys, healing back up to full. I cleared my side and decided to play aggressive, moving Doomy to the flag to start getting cps with 2 transfers at 13/19 or 17/19. I also strangleheld Malakov's jack for good measure.
Turns out I forgot Sorscha's feat. Oops. Doomy got blasted off the board after being frozen, and that was that. Didn't help that I forgot my feat last turn :(
Post-Game:
Oops. Mostly felt good about the game, but I played too aggressive with Doomy when I was pretty much in command, and I paid for it. I was down to 4 Runeshapers left, but the Zerker was likely to be dead, I had Stranglehold on his jack so he couldn't get in... I was in a good spot, and his cracking potential on the MK was dropping extremely quickly. All I had to do was ride it out, and I didn't; I played aggressive and made a bad move.
He realized quickly that he could only win by assassination really, and he went for it and got it. I actually kept good positioning to limit the Doom Reavers ability to get to the MK with more than 2-3 guys at a time, but Doomy was the weak link to the army.
Not much else to learn except to play Doomy a little more safely :-/
My List:
pDoomshaper, Runes of War (Tier 4)
-Runebearer
-Mountain King
-Earthborn
-Mauler
max Stone (no UA)
3x Runeshapers
Janissa
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Zerker
Junior Malakov
-Decimator
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (1 or 2)
2x Doom Reavers
Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
Aiyana and Holt
Scenario:
Close Quarters
Terrain:
Forest on my near right, hill on my near left, a couple of central walls, one going parallel to my deployment and one perpendicular. Hills on his side, forest on his side (never mattered really).
Match Assessment:
The Doom Reavers present an interesting problem. They're the majority of his hitting power for armor (he has the one Malakov jack too), but they need charges to do it. However, they also can't be targeted by the Runeshapers. So this'll be weird.
I think if I can keep him from getting all the Reavers and the jack to me, I should be able to hold my Mountain King up and keep healing him. He has a lot of hitting power, but if I can force him to plink, I don't think it'll be enough. Between snacking the guys hitting and the Whelps, it's a lot of healing potential.
I don't really have an assassination run in this list, so instead it'll probably be mostly attrition. Just grind him out and make him work his way through the King and the two accompanying beasts. The Runeshapers can make a solid jam.
Deployment:
I put the MK central, stupidly about half an inch outside of the 2 speed for a forest. Doh. 2 units of Runeshapers went left to challenge his flag, one unit went right. Earthborn left, Mauler right.
He put the Winterguard to come in left, one unit of Reavers left, one unit right, and the Kommandos coming up my right (at my flag). Malakov with 'jack were there also. All else was fairly central.
Game Time:
He ran the masses forward! The Doomies ran up to the front, with a couple way forward and the rest behind. The Winterguard made a giant blob, while the models on my right side scattered in a wide area to watch out for Rock Hammers.
I just moved the King up 5" (should've been 7 had I not placed him away from the forest) and sprayed down a Doomy. I transmuted him, and drifted a ton of AE's into the Doomies needing 8's to kill. Never got one :( Everything else advanced up, Transmute on the King and Mauler with a wall covering parts of them.
He charged 1 or 2 Doomies into my Mauler, some into my Runeshapers. 2 units broke, one passed, and I ended up with about 4-5 of them dead. The Mauler took a few points. The Berserker took up a central position across from the MK MK, and his Decimator shot into the Mauler (before the Doomy) to get a few more points, taking about 15 points off the Mauler (I think. Either this turn or the next one).
I charged the King in and took a handful of guys off the board - I think it was some Doomies and a couple of WG, including the officer maybe? My 2 Shapers rallied, while one killed a Doomy in melee. I threw one Shaper at another Doomy with the Earthborn, and rolled 1-2 for damage on my Shaper! So no damage me, killed his guy, and I'm steady. Excellent. Doomy stayed behind a wall, transmute on the Mauler, and so on.
He came back into me, charging a Doomy at the EBDT but ending out of command. He left 1 Runeshaper alive on the left, and took out one on the right. the Berserker plinked 1 into the MK, triggering a whelp. Not much else.
The MK failed to kill the Zerker even with fortune (6 to hit, I missed 3 attacks on him. ugh), but got a few other guys, healing back up to full. I cleared my side and decided to play aggressive, moving Doomy to the flag to start getting cps with 2 transfers at 13/19 or 17/19. I also strangleheld Malakov's jack for good measure.
Turns out I forgot Sorscha's feat. Oops. Doomy got blasted off the board after being frozen, and that was that. Didn't help that I forgot my feat last turn :(
Post-Game:
Oops. Mostly felt good about the game, but I played too aggressive with Doomy when I was pretty much in command, and I paid for it. I was down to 4 Runeshapers left, but the Zerker was likely to be dead, I had Stranglehold on his jack so he couldn't get in... I was in a good spot, and his cracking potential on the MK was dropping extremely quickly. All I had to do was ride it out, and I didn't; I played aggressive and made a bad move.
He realized quickly that he could only win by assassination really, and he went for it and got it. I actually kept good positioning to limit the Doom Reavers ability to get to the MK with more than 2-3 guys at a time, but Doomy was the weak link to the army.
Not much else to learn except to play Doomy a little more safely :-/
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 10/2/2014
My List:
pGrissel
-Pyre
-Storm
max Long Riders
max Fennblades + UA
max Warders
max Stone + UA
Horthol
Fell Caller
Saxon
Sorcerer (on Riders)
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Zerker
Junior Malakov
-Decimator
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (1 or 2)
2x Doom Reavers
Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
Aiyana and Holt
I think that's all.
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Forest right side between my deployment and his objective/flag, forest left side between his deployment and my objective/flag. Hills on the near left and far right from me, obstacle left, obstacle far right.
Match Assessment:
So, round 2. I've thought about this in my head since the loss 2 weeks ago, and I came to a couple of conclusions:
1) Leverage the Storm Troll. Dat Animus. I did (mostly) last time, but played stupid late out of frustration. Don't get frustrated, protect the Storm and ride it out.
2) Do my best to set up so that no matter what is frozen, lanes can be opened. That's not easy - lots of medium bases get in the way - but if I can keep it so that some of my guys can still activate, it'll help.
He brought more beef this time, but I really don't feel horrible about breaking it with Calamity, Flaming Fists, and Stone Strength. That's a pretty big swing. The 2x Doomies is still saddening, though. I also feel like I have a strong scenario play here; Grissel can swing her entire army to a weak side really quickly and start working on CPs.
Deployment:
I kept up my fairly standard deployment. Fennblades with Long Riders scattered between them, Warders went all right side (I thought I might need to pressure this side hard). Support was central, Horthol went to the side with my objective. Grissel was central to respond anywhere.
He put the Assault Kommandos to oppose my left side with the Zerker, Winterguard right side, the support package central with Malakov and Decimator central. One unit of Doomies went hard left, one hard right.
Game Time!
So, looking at the board, I felt like he was very weak on my left side, giving me the chance to dominate the flag on my left fairly quickly. My Long Riders went up first, then my Fennblades, scattered across the board but (crucially) NOT in such a position that he could get a first turn Icy Grip (on any unit). Everything else came in behind, with the Storm Troll running across the board in such a way as to bring him behind Grissel on the left side, since I wanted him tossing leaps around and clearing Doomies/Kommandos. The support came in behind, with the Warders getting Hoof It to slog through the forest (no pathfinder - I put it on everyone else that needed it).
He came up with a couple of Winter Guard getting aggressively up the board, but the Doomies on either side being fairly safe. The left side Doom Reavers made a large arc to that side, with one or two using the obstacle to hide them. The right side Doomies did similarly, but a little further upl. The Winter Guard clogged most of the middle right. The Zerker ran to a position to threaten my flag, while the Demolisher positioned similarly on the right side.
I thought for about 2 minutes, and decided to go ahead and pop the feat. The number of attacks was lower than I like for Grissel, but I thought that I wouldn't have another particularly good feat turn, and this would shut down Doom Reaver charges from the left side. Unfortunately, I placed just wrong to have any good charges to get some clearing models out of Horthol's way, or he would've gone into the Zerker hard. Instead, I cleared a couple of Kommandos with Horthol and moved him out of the way. Some Lightning Fisted Fennblades killed 2 Kommandos and a couple of Winterguard, using the 'jacks for easy hits to bounce electroleaps into his models (DAT ANIMUS).
All told, I got about 4 or so Winterguard approximately, and about 5 of the 8 Assault Kommandos. My biggest win, however, was that I managed to do exactly 12 damage to the Decimator, which went into the 4 and 5, PERFECTLY blowing out the cortex. Hellllllz yeah. He has a Ripsaw with Sustained, but only a single attack, and now ROF 1. I would've liked to do more damage, but quite frankly it wasn't happening, because he positioned too well, but I really needed the army to be able to reposition. After repositioning, I put Horthol on my flag in case he couldn't contest, several screening models, and held my ground in the board middle. 7 on the Stone for a maximum aura.
So, feat. Yup. Sorscha moved around to an ideal position and froze most of my army, but left me a few activations. He pulled a bit of unexpected cleverness, however, and Icy Gripped a frozen Fennblade in order to freeze the ones she could not see. Ugh. That made it much harder for my screening models to survive. She went to work clearing, but my Tough rolls went stupid hot. All told, on my feat he killed about 9 Fenns (who had mini feated, so they were fine on command), put a Warder to 1 with 2 passed Toughs, and Horthol on 9 damage to his mounted form. The Zerker got to him after his last gunshot killed a Fennblade that toughed 2-3 times, but he went low on the 50/50 point to dismount Horthol, leaving him up, but knocked down (Brutality -> Headbutt).
So, I was frozen, but had a few options. First, I did some Long Rider ride bys and cleared the Zerker, and went for an unboosted Calamity. I wanted to boost, but I also wanted to boost a spray on a Doomy, so I just went for the 5... And got a 4. Doh. Hoof It went on the Sorcerer, who picked off a Kommando with his spell. So the Fell Caller charged the Zerker, stood up Horthol, and laid a good bit into the Zerker. Horthol then beat on him too, leaving him on a few boxes, but with Right Arm still up. The Storm Troll managed to get a Doomy in range, and got a 3 for leaps after hitting! I plinked damage on one Doom, but managed to kill 3 Doomies (initial + 2 on leaps) and a Kommando. Sadly, due to the Zerker's remaining few boxes, I didn't get to dominate for 2. :( The missed Calamity hurt.
He just tried to do what he could, laying some damage into the Riders and Warders, but he even stated he was fighting uphill. He didn't think I could clear that side so easily, and was going to have more and more trouble contesting. He took out one Rider on the left side but failed to hit my Fell with a Reaver. He plowed damage into the Warders and Long Riders he could, but failed to kill much (a few guys) and couldn't clear his side to get points. Oh, and he froze my Warders.
From there, I just cleared my side, dominated for 2, and tried to jam. It was less successful than hoped because the Pyre frenzied on one (ugh) and killed the Fennblade I was counting on using. Oh well.
This turn, he charged a Rider with Sorscha, then tried an Arcane Secrets Icy Grip needing 6, and... 1-2-1. Fail. She also missed her charge, first bought, and finally hit on the last attack. He plowed around some damage, but was in charge range of 2 Long Riders, which ended predictably on my turn.
Post-Game:
So, this went much, much more nicely. My positionings were mostly good, other than one misplacement that meant Horthol had to Ride By instead of charging/slamming his Berserker, but he also placed in response to my own. The Storm Troll did end up clogged up, though, on the first 2 turns, which I need to improve against infantry swarms.
I got a bit lucky on his dice crapping out in odd places, but mostly I don't think it was a huge problem; it just put him in some odd situations. He had a really slick play on using Freezing Grip on the Fenns to freeze all of them (on a feated one), which I thought was really smart. It let him autohit my screening models that were otherwise unfrozen.
Mostly, I felt much better about this game. I kept Grissel easily safe and didn't put her in stupid places, and I was able to follow out my game plan. A scenario that let me spread really let me take advantage of my armies ability to cover a lot of board, and Sorscha has a feat that just simply makes my life very difficult; most drops I hope to play this against won't. I had some bad luck on my Calamity and it failed to hit needing a 5, but that happens, so oh well. Otherwise I would've dominated for 2 a turn earlier. I probably could have taken Grissel to 1 fury, and I honestly don't think he could've done much about it, but I was trying to play on the safe side.
Overall, this game was much, much nicer. I played all my strengths the way I should, and I was able to easily chew through his infantry over the course of the game. The extra beef was obnoxious, but still was something I could deal with.
pGrissel
-Pyre
-Storm
max Long Riders
max Fennblades + UA
max Warders
max Stone + UA
Horthol
Fell Caller
Saxon
Sorcerer (on Riders)
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Zerker
Junior Malakov
-Decimator
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (1 or 2)
2x Doom Reavers
Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
Aiyana and Holt
I think that's all.
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Forest right side between my deployment and his objective/flag, forest left side between his deployment and my objective/flag. Hills on the near left and far right from me, obstacle left, obstacle far right.
Match Assessment:
So, round 2. I've thought about this in my head since the loss 2 weeks ago, and I came to a couple of conclusions:
1) Leverage the Storm Troll. Dat Animus. I did (mostly) last time, but played stupid late out of frustration. Don't get frustrated, protect the Storm and ride it out.
2) Do my best to set up so that no matter what is frozen, lanes can be opened. That's not easy - lots of medium bases get in the way - but if I can keep it so that some of my guys can still activate, it'll help.
He brought more beef this time, but I really don't feel horrible about breaking it with Calamity, Flaming Fists, and Stone Strength. That's a pretty big swing. The 2x Doomies is still saddening, though. I also feel like I have a strong scenario play here; Grissel can swing her entire army to a weak side really quickly and start working on CPs.
Deployment:
I kept up my fairly standard deployment. Fennblades with Long Riders scattered between them, Warders went all right side (I thought I might need to pressure this side hard). Support was central, Horthol went to the side with my objective. Grissel was central to respond anywhere.
He put the Assault Kommandos to oppose my left side with the Zerker, Winterguard right side, the support package central with Malakov and Decimator central. One unit of Doomies went hard left, one hard right.
Game Time!
So, looking at the board, I felt like he was very weak on my left side, giving me the chance to dominate the flag on my left fairly quickly. My Long Riders went up first, then my Fennblades, scattered across the board but (crucially) NOT in such a position that he could get a first turn Icy Grip (on any unit). Everything else came in behind, with the Storm Troll running across the board in such a way as to bring him behind Grissel on the left side, since I wanted him tossing leaps around and clearing Doomies/Kommandos. The support came in behind, with the Warders getting Hoof It to slog through the forest (no pathfinder - I put it on everyone else that needed it).
He came up with a couple of Winter Guard getting aggressively up the board, but the Doomies on either side being fairly safe. The left side Doom Reavers made a large arc to that side, with one or two using the obstacle to hide them. The right side Doomies did similarly, but a little further upl. The Winter Guard clogged most of the middle right. The Zerker ran to a position to threaten my flag, while the Demolisher positioned similarly on the right side.
I thought for about 2 minutes, and decided to go ahead and pop the feat. The number of attacks was lower than I like for Grissel, but I thought that I wouldn't have another particularly good feat turn, and this would shut down Doom Reaver charges from the left side. Unfortunately, I placed just wrong to have any good charges to get some clearing models out of Horthol's way, or he would've gone into the Zerker hard. Instead, I cleared a couple of Kommandos with Horthol and moved him out of the way. Some Lightning Fisted Fennblades killed 2 Kommandos and a couple of Winterguard, using the 'jacks for easy hits to bounce electroleaps into his models (DAT ANIMUS).
All told, I got about 4 or so Winterguard approximately, and about 5 of the 8 Assault Kommandos. My biggest win, however, was that I managed to do exactly 12 damage to the Decimator, which went into the 4 and 5, PERFECTLY blowing out the cortex. Hellllllz yeah. He has a Ripsaw with Sustained, but only a single attack, and now ROF 1. I would've liked to do more damage, but quite frankly it wasn't happening, because he positioned too well, but I really needed the army to be able to reposition. After repositioning, I put Horthol on my flag in case he couldn't contest, several screening models, and held my ground in the board middle. 7 on the Stone for a maximum aura.
So, feat. Yup. Sorscha moved around to an ideal position and froze most of my army, but left me a few activations. He pulled a bit of unexpected cleverness, however, and Icy Gripped a frozen Fennblade in order to freeze the ones she could not see. Ugh. That made it much harder for my screening models to survive. She went to work clearing, but my Tough rolls went stupid hot. All told, on my feat he killed about 9 Fenns (who had mini feated, so they were fine on command), put a Warder to 1 with 2 passed Toughs, and Horthol on 9 damage to his mounted form. The Zerker got to him after his last gunshot killed a Fennblade that toughed 2-3 times, but he went low on the 50/50 point to dismount Horthol, leaving him up, but knocked down (Brutality -> Headbutt).
So, I was frozen, but had a few options. First, I did some Long Rider ride bys and cleared the Zerker, and went for an unboosted Calamity. I wanted to boost, but I also wanted to boost a spray on a Doomy, so I just went for the 5... And got a 4. Doh. Hoof It went on the Sorcerer, who picked off a Kommando with his spell. So the Fell Caller charged the Zerker, stood up Horthol, and laid a good bit into the Zerker. Horthol then beat on him too, leaving him on a few boxes, but with Right Arm still up. The Storm Troll managed to get a Doomy in range, and got a 3 for leaps after hitting! I plinked damage on one Doom, but managed to kill 3 Doomies (initial + 2 on leaps) and a Kommando. Sadly, due to the Zerker's remaining few boxes, I didn't get to dominate for 2. :( The missed Calamity hurt.
He just tried to do what he could, laying some damage into the Riders and Warders, but he even stated he was fighting uphill. He didn't think I could clear that side so easily, and was going to have more and more trouble contesting. He took out one Rider on the left side but failed to hit my Fell with a Reaver. He plowed damage into the Warders and Long Riders he could, but failed to kill much (a few guys) and couldn't clear his side to get points. Oh, and he froze my Warders.
From there, I just cleared my side, dominated for 2, and tried to jam. It was less successful than hoped because the Pyre frenzied on one (ugh) and killed the Fennblade I was counting on using. Oh well.
This turn, he charged a Rider with Sorscha, then tried an Arcane Secrets Icy Grip needing 6, and... 1-2-1. Fail. She also missed her charge, first bought, and finally hit on the last attack. He plowed around some damage, but was in charge range of 2 Long Riders, which ended predictably on my turn.
Post-Game:
So, this went much, much more nicely. My positionings were mostly good, other than one misplacement that meant Horthol had to Ride By instead of charging/slamming his Berserker, but he also placed in response to my own. The Storm Troll did end up clogged up, though, on the first 2 turns, which I need to improve against infantry swarms.
I got a bit lucky on his dice crapping out in odd places, but mostly I don't think it was a huge problem; it just put him in some odd situations. He had a really slick play on using Freezing Grip on the Fenns to freeze all of them (on a feated one), which I thought was really smart. It let him autohit my screening models that were otherwise unfrozen.
Mostly, I felt much better about this game. I kept Grissel easily safe and didn't put her in stupid places, and I was able to follow out my game plan. A scenario that let me spread really let me take advantage of my armies ability to cover a lot of board, and Sorscha has a feat that just simply makes my life very difficult; most drops I hope to play this against won't. I had some bad luck on my Calamity and it failed to hit needing a 5, but that happens, so oh well. Otherwise I would've dominated for 2 a turn earlier. I probably could have taken Grissel to 1 fury, and I honestly don't think he could've done much about it, but I was trying to play on the safe side.
Overall, this game was much, much nicer. I played all my strengths the way I should, and I was able to easily chew through his infantry over the course of the game. The extra beef was obnoxious, but still was something I could deal with.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Difficulties with pGrissel (and Infantry Swarms in General) pt. 1
This post is going to be in lieu of a Battle Report, because although the game last night I played was interesting and fairly fun, I'm of the opinion that a discussion of the things I'm finding difficult is more useful than a discussion of the entire game in this case. This post will be followed up by a post assessing some of what I can do to work on clearing up these problems, since they've been recurring.
I've had my 3 casters for MACE picked for a few weeks now, and I'm trying to iron out the wrinkles and get the lists operating smoothly. I actually feel quite good about my 3, but a substantial amount of work remains in getting them settled. Barring a late change (always possible, as I changed late in the first year of the Invitational), I'll be settled into pBorka, pGrissel, and pDoomy, who I feel have a fantastic set of different abilities and list builds while still being able to cover a lot of matchups.
I've actually gotten fairly comfortable with unpacking pBorka. This is partially because of the ease of use of the Dygmies in the early game; AD allows a board spread that helps quite a lot, and if they burrow, there is even less hassle. Additionally, the Fennblades can spread over a huge area, and the Gators don't mind if it takes an extra turn or 2 to engage if the Fennblades and Dygmies do some heavy lifting.
However, I'm running into a problem with pGrissel that I've had before with eMadrak and with other infantry swarms: it can be exceedingly difficult to get formations, model placement, and general "resource allocation" correct to ensure that I can unpack my army correctly. This is particularly true with the somewhat different formations I've been playing with.
In the past, I've usually just put an entire unit to a side, an entire unit to another side, and not made use of my entire possible command (Fennblades generally being an exception, because 12" command is bonkers). Units end up somewhat clumped, so that they take some serious casualties if a couple of heavy hitters can get in, because multiple guys will generally die.
Lately, however, I've been attempting to spread my forces, taking advantage - in deployment, rather than just in field positioning) of my command bubble. This carries risks, but it also has a lot of advantages. In this case, I can get some serious positioning advantage from spreading a unit like Long Riders, which have a number of unique capabilities, giving better use of the Bull Rush order if I need slams, or simply for massacring a large swath of infantry - possibly up to 5-6 models with Impact Attacks and extra Grissel attacks.
However, in back to back weeks, I've played in central scenario games (Destruction), and been unable to unpack my army successfully. I'm continually tripping over my own guys, blocking off charge lanes, and making life exceedingly difficult for myself. This included leaving Grissel open to 2 possible assassination runs last night, one of which failed because my opponent was millimeters out from getting to Grissel off side steps at (at least) mat 12 or 13 and PS 25-26 because one of his models was millimeters too far forward and blocking off charge lanes. And because I seriously rolled about 2/3 of my Tough checks last night. It was beyond insane. The way those were going, Grissel might've just toughed 5 times.
The second assassination run was harder, but possible still. I could have probably done more to prevent it, but part of it was dictated by the necessity of ensuring Imperatus died. I probably could have gotten some Krielstone Bearers in the way, though, which would've been enough most likely.
As it was, I ultimately clocked myself, but most of my time on the clock was eaten up by unpacking my army and trying to fix my errors. Trolls present unique problems, particularly due to the space medium bases take up. They're a blessing and a curse, in equal proportions. Lately, I'd gotten a little sloppier from running the Kithkar (Tactician), but now I'm needing to tighten my formations back up.
In the next post (soon?), I'll talk about how I'd like to try addressing these problems. Some of them involve entire formation changes, while some of them simply involve being more conscious of where I want models going on Turn 2. I've never been very good at that aspect of the game; I play a much more reactive style. I never played chess well because I lived for the board as it was now, not as it could be in 3-4 moves. This is recurring in this game, and is leaving a hole in my game I need to correct.
I've had my 3 casters for MACE picked for a few weeks now, and I'm trying to iron out the wrinkles and get the lists operating smoothly. I actually feel quite good about my 3, but a substantial amount of work remains in getting them settled. Barring a late change (always possible, as I changed late in the first year of the Invitational), I'll be settled into pBorka, pGrissel, and pDoomy, who I feel have a fantastic set of different abilities and list builds while still being able to cover a lot of matchups.
I've actually gotten fairly comfortable with unpacking pBorka. This is partially because of the ease of use of the Dygmies in the early game; AD allows a board spread that helps quite a lot, and if they burrow, there is even less hassle. Additionally, the Fennblades can spread over a huge area, and the Gators don't mind if it takes an extra turn or 2 to engage if the Fennblades and Dygmies do some heavy lifting.
However, I'm running into a problem with pGrissel that I've had before with eMadrak and with other infantry swarms: it can be exceedingly difficult to get formations, model placement, and general "resource allocation" correct to ensure that I can unpack my army correctly. This is particularly true with the somewhat different formations I've been playing with.
In the past, I've usually just put an entire unit to a side, an entire unit to another side, and not made use of my entire possible command (Fennblades generally being an exception, because 12" command is bonkers). Units end up somewhat clumped, so that they take some serious casualties if a couple of heavy hitters can get in, because multiple guys will generally die.
Lately, however, I've been attempting to spread my forces, taking advantage - in deployment, rather than just in field positioning) of my command bubble. This carries risks, but it also has a lot of advantages. In this case, I can get some serious positioning advantage from spreading a unit like Long Riders, which have a number of unique capabilities, giving better use of the Bull Rush order if I need slams, or simply for massacring a large swath of infantry - possibly up to 5-6 models with Impact Attacks and extra Grissel attacks.
However, in back to back weeks, I've played in central scenario games (Destruction), and been unable to unpack my army successfully. I'm continually tripping over my own guys, blocking off charge lanes, and making life exceedingly difficult for myself. This included leaving Grissel open to 2 possible assassination runs last night, one of which failed because my opponent was millimeters out from getting to Grissel off side steps at (at least) mat 12 or 13 and PS 25-26 because one of his models was millimeters too far forward and blocking off charge lanes. And because I seriously rolled about 2/3 of my Tough checks last night. It was beyond insane. The way those were going, Grissel might've just toughed 5 times.
The second assassination run was harder, but possible still. I could have probably done more to prevent it, but part of it was dictated by the necessity of ensuring Imperatus died. I probably could have gotten some Krielstone Bearers in the way, though, which would've been enough most likely.
As it was, I ultimately clocked myself, but most of my time on the clock was eaten up by unpacking my army and trying to fix my errors. Trolls present unique problems, particularly due to the space medium bases take up. They're a blessing and a curse, in equal proportions. Lately, I'd gotten a little sloppier from running the Kithkar (Tactician), but now I'm needing to tighten my formations back up.
In the next post (soon?), I'll talk about how I'd like to try addressing these problems. Some of them involve entire formation changes, while some of them simply involve being more conscious of where I want models going on Turn 2. I've never been very good at that aspect of the game; I play a much more reactive style. I never played chess well because I lived for the board as it was now, not as it could be in 3-4 moves. This is recurring in this game, and is leaving a hole in my game I need to correct.
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 9-17-2014
Apologies! I hit Save, not Publish, so this never got put up; only a week late!
My List:
pGrissel
-Pyre
-Storm
max Long Riders
max Fennblades + UA
max Warders
max Stone + UA
Horthol
Fell Caller
Saxon
Sorcerer (on Riders)
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Torch
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (2 or 3)
2x Doom Reavers
2x Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments each
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
I think that's all, that's the core of the list.
Scenario:
Destruction
Terrain:
Forest near objective on my side, forest on his side of board, left side of zone from my perspective. Pair of central linear obstacles, large obstruction to right side, hill on right.
Along with it being Destruction, this table funneled everything centrally; the terrain forced everything in that direction. That actually ended up hurting a good bit, because I couldn't really use my list to get out on a flank, which could have worked well with the Riders probably.
Match Assessment:
Ugh. Dat Feat. This was actually a good chance to test a lot of things about the pGrissel list, in that I wanted it to be an infantry shredding list that has a good denial aspect. But I also had to contend with Sorscha's ability to freeze life itself. This was not something I was overly eager about.
So, I felt good about the fact that this was a practically ideal setup for electroleaps and pGrissels feat. Lots of low ARM infantry, with the Kommandos setting up a good charge target if available. Cacophany shuts down charges, Bob & Weave, and Shield Wall, so I felt comfortable about that.
I also didn't think that he'd have a ton of pieces outside Torch to crack my heavy infantry such as the Warders and Riders. ARM 19 or 19/21 (Warders) is a lot, especially with 8 boxes. Lacking charges, that put him into a pretty severe bind, I felt.
I figured I'd just try to weather the feat and do my best against it.
Deployment:
I tried something new with my deployment. I put the Fennblade officer centrally, next to Grissel with the Drummer just behind, with 5 on the left and 5 on the right. The Warders were 3 to one side and 2 to another, while the Riders spread out 2 left, 2 right, leader centrally. Because it's Destruction, I wanted to have my forces spread out to the limited extent I could.
Most everything else was central, Grissel definitely was.
He put Assault Kommandos to either side, Doom Reavers far out to either side, and the Winterguard centrally with Sorscha. Torch was somewhere nearby. It was a giant blob of people.
Game Time!
So, this game was kinda sloppy in terms of my ability to retell it. A lot of single wound models died; I know that happened.
Basically, I ran up first turn, but through some bad rearranging of my Fennblades with Hoof It, I left my Fennblades blocking in my Tuffalo's. I kept Grissel centrally oriented with the support team, while the Fennblades spread out in front of the entire line.
So, he ran up one of his units (I think Kommandos?) and charged one with Sorscha, with Arcane Secrets, and... Missed the 6 for an Icy Grip on the Fennblades. Shiiiiiit, I just got LUCKY. He got a charge off with a Doomy on one Fenn, but missed the attack and I passed the command check. Otherwise, he ran up and made a giant blob of guys.
So, since he had a giant blob of guys, I put around several electroleaps and charged into the giant blob with feat. After my Fennblades alone, I probably killed about 15-20 of his models, approximately, with Electroleaps. The Tuffalos got a couple more, but that was most of it. The Winterguard were down a few guys, I wiped out most of both Assault Kommandos, a portion of the Doom Reavers on either side... Lotta stuff died. It was kinda glorious. Would've been even better had I not blocked in my Tuffalo's and screwed up those charges! Also, he let me light 2 Winterguard on fire from blowing up the Kommando Weapon Attachment.
So, with Grissels feat, I did a huge chunk of damage, then jammed a few guys into his face and the rest back, preserving the Tuffalo's as best I could.
He counterfeats me, getting most of my army (ugh), and wipes the Fennblades off the face of the earth. I think he got a couple of other things, including the Fell Caller, with his Kossites. Pretty much what I predicted, but still sucks.
So, I jockeyed as best as I could, but instead of being intelligent and hiding Grissel safely, I left her up near the front lines. Because I'm a freaking donkey. I killed a few more infantry model, my Storm Troll missed needing a boosted 10, but I mostly was able to lay out most of the damage I felt I could. Grissel was now tucked between a long Rider and a Warder.
So, he managed to clear the Rider, hit the Warder with a Strangling Gas grenade (so Grissel's now 13/18 effectively) and Torch annihilated Grissel. Shit. Shook my opponents hand and started punching myself in the brain.
Post-Game:
I was pissed at myself after this game. I had a practically ideal situation, and model placement along with tunnel vision screwed me. Major, major set of mistakes in this one. I got way too much tunnel vision about Cacophany, instead of just taking my lumps and working with what I had.
So, first off: my Fennblades should've been frozen by his Icy Grip. No reason I couldn't do the math and figure out what was coming - literally, no reason. So my initial placement was bad to get them into Icy Grip range. I got lucky and he missed, so instead I had flexibility, rather than being penned in. That was a huge lucky break I won't often get.
Second: My placement after my first turn was bad. Really bad. I had the Long Riders way too far back, and I didn't leave myself good alleys if the Fenns were frozen. I could've been locked out of scenario easily by my own models. I dodged a giant, giant bullet. I think this can be remedied by 2 things: 1) more careful placement if I keep my deployment, or 2) by putting the units to different sides so they don't stumble over each other. each have advantages and disadvantages.
The thing is, though, my Riders could've easily been in a spot where the Fenns could've carved some nice holes, then the Riders come in, slam his models back, and Follow Up deep into his formations. I failed to have the Riders far enough up, and thus missed out.
So next: I tunnel visioned on using Cacophany. Sometimes I just need to take my lumps and eat charges, and I should have. I got it in my head that I needed to use it, and it was a poor decision. That's life, and it's a lesson I can learn quickly. However, tunnel vision is really easy to acquire, especially with the frustrating nature of a feat like Sorscha's.
Next: GRISSEL ISN'T THAT DURABLE. She's a 15/18, far short of Borka. Maybe that's part of the problem: too much Borka lately, so I went, "Oh, I'm fine!" Stop that. Stop it now. I had her too far up, when she should have been more of a general commanding from the back. On his 3rd turn, he was down nearly half the Winterguard, with several too far back to affect it, about 5/12 Reavers alive, and about 4-5 Assault Kommandos alive, along with Torch. Even after some seriously painful dice, I still had Horthol, I think 3 or 4 Riders left? Along with 4 Warders, the Storm and Pyre. If I removed the Doomies, then his hitting power and volume of attacks drops quickly.
Given what he had on the board, average from a Storm Troll if I hit removes 3 models - the initial and 1d3. If I toss out a couple of Lightning Fists, I could easily have removed most of what he had left, along with Grissel spraying. Grissel's ability to give extra attacks reinforces that, too. Torch was going to be a little more difficult, but even a single Rider with extra attacks and the Pyre animus has an impact at D-4, a charge at D-4, and a second attack at D-6, coming to... Somewhere around 10-12 damage probably. If I don't Calamity him, which adds on another 2 per hit. Torch is very killable under that scenario.
This section is really long, I know, but this game was really a pretty long list of easily rectified mistakes. Many of them come to positioning, while some are to think more clearly during the game. It was a very winnable game - I probably had the attrition advantage, I just made some crucial brainfarts that gave him a reliable, easy assassination.
My List:
pGrissel
-Pyre
-Storm
max Long Riders
max Fennblades + UA
max Warders
max Stone + UA
Horthol
Fell Caller
Saxon
Sorcerer (on Riders)
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Torch
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (2 or 3)
2x Doom Reavers
2x Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments each
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
I think that's all, that's the core of the list.
Scenario:
Destruction
Terrain:
Forest near objective on my side, forest on his side of board, left side of zone from my perspective. Pair of central linear obstacles, large obstruction to right side, hill on right.
Along with it being Destruction, this table funneled everything centrally; the terrain forced everything in that direction. That actually ended up hurting a good bit, because I couldn't really use my list to get out on a flank, which could have worked well with the Riders probably.
Match Assessment:
Ugh. Dat Feat. This was actually a good chance to test a lot of things about the pGrissel list, in that I wanted it to be an infantry shredding list that has a good denial aspect. But I also had to contend with Sorscha's ability to freeze life itself. This was not something I was overly eager about.
So, I felt good about the fact that this was a practically ideal setup for electroleaps and pGrissels feat. Lots of low ARM infantry, with the Kommandos setting up a good charge target if available. Cacophany shuts down charges, Bob & Weave, and Shield Wall, so I felt comfortable about that.
I also didn't think that he'd have a ton of pieces outside Torch to crack my heavy infantry such as the Warders and Riders. ARM 19 or 19/21 (Warders) is a lot, especially with 8 boxes. Lacking charges, that put him into a pretty severe bind, I felt.
I figured I'd just try to weather the feat and do my best against it.
Deployment:
I tried something new with my deployment. I put the Fennblade officer centrally, next to Grissel with the Drummer just behind, with 5 on the left and 5 on the right. The Warders were 3 to one side and 2 to another, while the Riders spread out 2 left, 2 right, leader centrally. Because it's Destruction, I wanted to have my forces spread out to the limited extent I could.
Most everything else was central, Grissel definitely was.
He put Assault Kommandos to either side, Doom Reavers far out to either side, and the Winterguard centrally with Sorscha. Torch was somewhere nearby. It was a giant blob of people.
Game Time!
So, this game was kinda sloppy in terms of my ability to retell it. A lot of single wound models died; I know that happened.
Basically, I ran up first turn, but through some bad rearranging of my Fennblades with Hoof It, I left my Fennblades blocking in my Tuffalo's. I kept Grissel centrally oriented with the support team, while the Fennblades spread out in front of the entire line.
So, he ran up one of his units (I think Kommandos?) and charged one with Sorscha, with Arcane Secrets, and... Missed the 6 for an Icy Grip on the Fennblades. Shiiiiiit, I just got LUCKY. He got a charge off with a Doomy on one Fenn, but missed the attack and I passed the command check. Otherwise, he ran up and made a giant blob of guys.
So, since he had a giant blob of guys, I put around several electroleaps and charged into the giant blob with feat. After my Fennblades alone, I probably killed about 15-20 of his models, approximately, with Electroleaps. The Tuffalos got a couple more, but that was most of it. The Winterguard were down a few guys, I wiped out most of both Assault Kommandos, a portion of the Doom Reavers on either side... Lotta stuff died. It was kinda glorious. Would've been even better had I not blocked in my Tuffalo's and screwed up those charges! Also, he let me light 2 Winterguard on fire from blowing up the Kommando Weapon Attachment.
So, with Grissels feat, I did a huge chunk of damage, then jammed a few guys into his face and the rest back, preserving the Tuffalo's as best I could.
He counterfeats me, getting most of my army (ugh), and wipes the Fennblades off the face of the earth. I think he got a couple of other things, including the Fell Caller, with his Kossites. Pretty much what I predicted, but still sucks.
So, I jockeyed as best as I could, but instead of being intelligent and hiding Grissel safely, I left her up near the front lines. Because I'm a freaking donkey. I killed a few more infantry model, my Storm Troll missed needing a boosted 10, but I mostly was able to lay out most of the damage I felt I could. Grissel was now tucked between a long Rider and a Warder.
So, he managed to clear the Rider, hit the Warder with a Strangling Gas grenade (so Grissel's now 13/18 effectively) and Torch annihilated Grissel. Shit. Shook my opponents hand and started punching myself in the brain.
Post-Game:
I was pissed at myself after this game. I had a practically ideal situation, and model placement along with tunnel vision screwed me. Major, major set of mistakes in this one. I got way too much tunnel vision about Cacophany, instead of just taking my lumps and working with what I had.
So, first off: my Fennblades should've been frozen by his Icy Grip. No reason I couldn't do the math and figure out what was coming - literally, no reason. So my initial placement was bad to get them into Icy Grip range. I got lucky and he missed, so instead I had flexibility, rather than being penned in. That was a huge lucky break I won't often get.
Second: My placement after my first turn was bad. Really bad. I had the Long Riders way too far back, and I didn't leave myself good alleys if the Fenns were frozen. I could've been locked out of scenario easily by my own models. I dodged a giant, giant bullet. I think this can be remedied by 2 things: 1) more careful placement if I keep my deployment, or 2) by putting the units to different sides so they don't stumble over each other. each have advantages and disadvantages.
The thing is, though, my Riders could've easily been in a spot where the Fenns could've carved some nice holes, then the Riders come in, slam his models back, and Follow Up deep into his formations. I failed to have the Riders far enough up, and thus missed out.
So next: I tunnel visioned on using Cacophany. Sometimes I just need to take my lumps and eat charges, and I should have. I got it in my head that I needed to use it, and it was a poor decision. That's life, and it's a lesson I can learn quickly. However, tunnel vision is really easy to acquire, especially with the frustrating nature of a feat like Sorscha's.
Next: GRISSEL ISN'T THAT DURABLE. She's a 15/18, far short of Borka. Maybe that's part of the problem: too much Borka lately, so I went, "Oh, I'm fine!" Stop that. Stop it now. I had her too far up, when she should have been more of a general commanding from the back. On his 3rd turn, he was down nearly half the Winterguard, with several too far back to affect it, about 5/12 Reavers alive, and about 4-5 Assault Kommandos alive, along with Torch. Even after some seriously painful dice, I still had Horthol, I think 3 or 4 Riders left? Along with 4 Warders, the Storm and Pyre. If I removed the Doomies, then his hitting power and volume of attacks drops quickly.
Given what he had on the board, average from a Storm Troll if I hit removes 3 models - the initial and 1d3. If I toss out a couple of Lightning Fists, I could easily have removed most of what he had left, along with Grissel spraying. Grissel's ability to give extra attacks reinforces that, too. Torch was going to be a little more difficult, but even a single Rider with extra attacks and the Pyre animus has an impact at D-4, a charge at D-4, and a second attack at D-6, coming to... Somewhere around 10-12 damage probably. If I don't Calamity him, which adds on another 2 per hit. Torch is very killable under that scenario.
This section is really long, I know, but this game was really a pretty long list of easily rectified mistakes. Many of them come to positioning, while some are to think more clearly during the game. It was a very winnable game - I probably had the attrition advantage, I just made some crucial brainfarts that gave him a reliable, easy assassination.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Skorne, 9-15-2014
My List:
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Victor Pendrake
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Dominar Rasheth (Fatty Cakes!), Tier 4 Siege Column
-Mammoth
-Krea
-Raider
2x Siege Animantarax
Reiver Artillery Gun
2x Beast Handlers
TyCommander
Agonizer
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Forest over his flag/objective, obstruction (house) his side central, hill to the left of my flag/objective, rough terrain my near right, linear obstacle (wall) a bit on my side of central.
Match Assessment:
This is a true first - the first time I've seen 3 Huge bases on the board simultaneously, much less in one army. Shoulda run pDoomy with MK to make it 4 so nobody moved - EVER - because there was no board space!
I was worried about beating through 3 Huge bases, but I felt good about the reduction in volume of attacks with every lost guy for him. His feat would really cripple my damage, which sucked. Burst Fire really kinda bites, but the Mammoth would struggle to hit the guys most susceptible to blast was my initial assessment. Plus they'd be underground a turn.
I wasn't happy that the Gators wouldn't be able to get extra charge distance on the Battle Engine, neutering some of them, but I just had to go with it. I did think that Borka would need to get involved when he safely could - I made a note early (which I promptly forgot) that all his ranged were non-Magic, so Wind Wall was nice. Note: this is important! I felt that if Borka could get in with Rage up from the Mauler, he could probably clear a Battle Engine safely himself while still being in a good camping position.
The Mammoth felt a bit tricky to clear, but board positioning created a really interesting dilemma: with him having 3 Huge bases, but a house centrally, I thought I could gum up the works on him with Dygmies, keeping the Mammoth's effect minimized.
Deployment:
He had the fastest deployment I've seen in a while: Siege left, Siege right, Mammoth center. One Paingivers left, one right, TyCom left, artillery right (with Advance Move) and everything else central.
I put the Gators left with Borka, planning on trying to get Borka to my flag and maybe start scoring. The Fenns went right to start pushing on his side, with everything else relatively central. Dygmies went left of center, shying away from Mammoth range.
Game Time!
He ran up, threatening the two sides with the Sieges, and the Mammoth assaulted. He missed my Dygmies, getting one Paingiver I believe on the deviation. Might be wrong about that, might be Turn 2 that happened. Otherwise, he occupied a lot of space. Everything else worked its way up the center.
My Dygmies went under, as normal, while the Fenns ran up with a large spread. The Gators spread on the left side, maneuvering to get around my objective and the wall, and got Iron Fleshed. Borka put 4 in the Stone and sat behind the wall on 1. I took a shot with the Pyre, hoping to light a little cluster of Paingivers on fire, but the deviation went way off the mark.
On his turn, he shot up my Fenns, but I toughed a good bit and Tale of Mists protected them solidly, also. I think I lost 2 or so. I lost 1 Gator and 1 ended up at 1 after a Breath of Corruption, while he shot into my crowd of support and blew up the dice on the Pyre Troll, doing about 9 points at D-8 (after he feated). Ugh. That hurt. He took up central space with the Paingivers to clog up charge lanes, while the TyCom blocked off one Siege.
I enacted Plan: Jam with Dygmies on this turn. A few got onto the Mammoth and did some damage at D-5 mostly. The Fenns did about 3 points to one Siege, but his feat REALLY hurt for trying to plink in points. I cleared the Paingivers jamming, prior to the Dygmies, and the Gators ate the TyCom. I made a decision to move up Borka more aggressively, but made a critical error: I Iron Fleshed the Dygmies (generally fine), but I put 3 in the Stone, camping on 2, rather than Wind Walling. I also was in range of walk and shoot from the Krea - shit. I could've put 1 on the Stone, Wind Walled, and been fairly safe, mostly likely, with Stumbling Drunk.
So, seeing as how I left Borka's ass out in the wind, he promptly shot him up. The Krea paralyzed Borka, and the Siege on that side moved up, gacked some Gators (leaving me on 2 I think), and shot up Borka, as did the Mammoth, pushing some Dygmies out of his way. On a side note - why the hell does every Colossal/Garg not have Bulldoze? It actually seems logical to me.
After all was said and done, Borka had 1 health left exactly, and was out of transfers, but he ran out of shots. So now Borka went from hardiest caster in the game to, "Oh god oh god I'm gonna die". However, he was in position to finish off one Siege himself with some Rage help, while the Fennblades blew the hell up on dice and killed the other. This shouldn't have happened - I didn't think it would, either. I rolled trip 6's on the first charge, and averaged about 14-15 on dice on 4 charges probably. I think one lowballed (a 6 or so?), but the other 3 were all high. I thought I'd take him down to a little below half-health, but I was simply stalling for time on that side. I did have the sense to put Borka on the flag, though, while the 2 remaining Gators jammed the Krea, and so I went up to 2 CP's to 0. The Mauler hid behind jamming Dygmies and hoped to live.
On his next turn, he hit up Borka a bit, with damage being transferred to my beasts, and the Krea's dice crapped out to fail to extricate himself from Gators. The Mammoth killed more Dygmies I think, although I'm not 100% sure. He may have shot at someone. Borka was on IF, though, so I felt confident in his survival, especially with the Krea jammed up.
I cleared the Mammoth on the next turn, although I ran Borka 1 transfer lower than I should've let myself killing the Raider, and he again went to assassinate Borka, with me being lucky that he missed an attack roll needing hard 9's and it drifted off Borka (Breath of Corruption). Borka then applied mace to Rasheth for game (although he killed my Mauler with a transfer in the process!).
Post-Game:
I was mostly OK with how I played, but I made one major, potentially game-ending mistake that I got away with purely because of dice rolls. Late in the game, I also failed to get the Keg Carrier to Borka due to bad positioning of my Impaler blocking a route to Borka, which I could have done first before I moved the Impaler. I survived, but not in the kind of shape I really want to.
I also got a bit of luck in hot dice. I didn't really have anything in position to deal with a second Siege Animantarax, just the Fennblades. Tough rolls and some hot dice helped me pull that one out; I probably should have had some Fenns in a position where I could throw animi on 2-3 of them, taking them to D-4 or 5 depending on the animus, which would've helped bring the Siege much more within a killable range. Still not easy, but not as hard as I was making it.
The mistake with Borka should've cost me the game; it was pure dice luck that it didn't. I still felt like I was in a competitive/viable position, and that nearly gave it away. After that, I pulled ahead, but it had a lot to do with the fact that Borka not dying left things in vulnerable positions.
Borka himself is probably going to be less of the beater in the coming iterations of this list; I'll probably be moving Mulg in and seeing how it affects the list. I want Mulg's set of abilities to complement Borka's, including being a beater with a longer threat range than the Mauler, and his animus for matchups like Butcher3.
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Victor Pendrake
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Dominar Rasheth (Fatty Cakes!), Tier 4 Siege Column
-Mammoth
-Krea
-Raider
2x Siege Animantarax
Reiver Artillery Gun
2x Beast Handlers
TyCommander
Agonizer
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Forest over his flag/objective, obstruction (house) his side central, hill to the left of my flag/objective, rough terrain my near right, linear obstacle (wall) a bit on my side of central.
Match Assessment:
This is a true first - the first time I've seen 3 Huge bases on the board simultaneously, much less in one army. Shoulda run pDoomy with MK to make it 4 so nobody moved - EVER - because there was no board space!
I was worried about beating through 3 Huge bases, but I felt good about the reduction in volume of attacks with every lost guy for him. His feat would really cripple my damage, which sucked. Burst Fire really kinda bites, but the Mammoth would struggle to hit the guys most susceptible to blast was my initial assessment. Plus they'd be underground a turn.
I wasn't happy that the Gators wouldn't be able to get extra charge distance on the Battle Engine, neutering some of them, but I just had to go with it. I did think that Borka would need to get involved when he safely could - I made a note early (which I promptly forgot) that all his ranged were non-Magic, so Wind Wall was nice. Note: this is important! I felt that if Borka could get in with Rage up from the Mauler, he could probably clear a Battle Engine safely himself while still being in a good camping position.
The Mammoth felt a bit tricky to clear, but board positioning created a really interesting dilemma: with him having 3 Huge bases, but a house centrally, I thought I could gum up the works on him with Dygmies, keeping the Mammoth's effect minimized.
Deployment:
He had the fastest deployment I've seen in a while: Siege left, Siege right, Mammoth center. One Paingivers left, one right, TyCom left, artillery right (with Advance Move) and everything else central.
I put the Gators left with Borka, planning on trying to get Borka to my flag and maybe start scoring. The Fenns went right to start pushing on his side, with everything else relatively central. Dygmies went left of center, shying away from Mammoth range.
Game Time!
He ran up, threatening the two sides with the Sieges, and the Mammoth assaulted. He missed my Dygmies, getting one Paingiver I believe on the deviation. Might be wrong about that, might be Turn 2 that happened. Otherwise, he occupied a lot of space. Everything else worked its way up the center.
My Dygmies went under, as normal, while the Fenns ran up with a large spread. The Gators spread on the left side, maneuvering to get around my objective and the wall, and got Iron Fleshed. Borka put 4 in the Stone and sat behind the wall on 1. I took a shot with the Pyre, hoping to light a little cluster of Paingivers on fire, but the deviation went way off the mark.
On his turn, he shot up my Fenns, but I toughed a good bit and Tale of Mists protected them solidly, also. I think I lost 2 or so. I lost 1 Gator and 1 ended up at 1 after a Breath of Corruption, while he shot into my crowd of support and blew up the dice on the Pyre Troll, doing about 9 points at D-8 (after he feated). Ugh. That hurt. He took up central space with the Paingivers to clog up charge lanes, while the TyCom blocked off one Siege.
I enacted Plan: Jam with Dygmies on this turn. A few got onto the Mammoth and did some damage at D-5 mostly. The Fenns did about 3 points to one Siege, but his feat REALLY hurt for trying to plink in points. I cleared the Paingivers jamming, prior to the Dygmies, and the Gators ate the TyCom. I made a decision to move up Borka more aggressively, but made a critical error: I Iron Fleshed the Dygmies (generally fine), but I put 3 in the Stone, camping on 2, rather than Wind Walling. I also was in range of walk and shoot from the Krea - shit. I could've put 1 on the Stone, Wind Walled, and been fairly safe, mostly likely, with Stumbling Drunk.
So, seeing as how I left Borka's ass out in the wind, he promptly shot him up. The Krea paralyzed Borka, and the Siege on that side moved up, gacked some Gators (leaving me on 2 I think), and shot up Borka, as did the Mammoth, pushing some Dygmies out of his way. On a side note - why the hell does every Colossal/Garg not have Bulldoze? It actually seems logical to me.
After all was said and done, Borka had 1 health left exactly, and was out of transfers, but he ran out of shots. So now Borka went from hardiest caster in the game to, "Oh god oh god I'm gonna die". However, he was in position to finish off one Siege himself with some Rage help, while the Fennblades blew the hell up on dice and killed the other. This shouldn't have happened - I didn't think it would, either. I rolled trip 6's on the first charge, and averaged about 14-15 on dice on 4 charges probably. I think one lowballed (a 6 or so?), but the other 3 were all high. I thought I'd take him down to a little below half-health, but I was simply stalling for time on that side. I did have the sense to put Borka on the flag, though, while the 2 remaining Gators jammed the Krea, and so I went up to 2 CP's to 0. The Mauler hid behind jamming Dygmies and hoped to live.
On his next turn, he hit up Borka a bit, with damage being transferred to my beasts, and the Krea's dice crapped out to fail to extricate himself from Gators. The Mammoth killed more Dygmies I think, although I'm not 100% sure. He may have shot at someone. Borka was on IF, though, so I felt confident in his survival, especially with the Krea jammed up.
I cleared the Mammoth on the next turn, although I ran Borka 1 transfer lower than I should've let myself killing the Raider, and he again went to assassinate Borka, with me being lucky that he missed an attack roll needing hard 9's and it drifted off Borka (Breath of Corruption). Borka then applied mace to Rasheth for game (although he killed my Mauler with a transfer in the process!).
Post-Game:
I was mostly OK with how I played, but I made one major, potentially game-ending mistake that I got away with purely because of dice rolls. Late in the game, I also failed to get the Keg Carrier to Borka due to bad positioning of my Impaler blocking a route to Borka, which I could have done first before I moved the Impaler. I survived, but not in the kind of shape I really want to.
I also got a bit of luck in hot dice. I didn't really have anything in position to deal with a second Siege Animantarax, just the Fennblades. Tough rolls and some hot dice helped me pull that one out; I probably should have had some Fenns in a position where I could throw animi on 2-3 of them, taking them to D-4 or 5 depending on the animus, which would've helped bring the Siege much more within a killable range. Still not easy, but not as hard as I was making it.
The mistake with Borka should've cost me the game; it was pure dice luck that it didn't. I still felt like I was in a competitive/viable position, and that nearly gave it away. After that, I pulled ahead, but it had a lot to do with the fact that Borka not dying left things in vulnerable positions.
Borka himself is probably going to be less of the beater in the coming iterations of this list; I'll probably be moving Mulg in and seeing how it affects the list. I want Mulg's set of abilities to complement Borka's, including being a beater with a longer threat range than the Mauler, and his animus for matchups like Butcher3.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Cygnar, 9-10-2014
My List:
Grissel Bloodsong
* Troll Axer
* Mulg the Ancient
* Trollkin Runebearer
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
2x Runeshapers
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Captain Caine
-Hammer Jack
-Squire
Gun Mages w/ UA
-Hunter
Tempest Blazers
Boomhowlers (max)
Eiryss2
Reinholdt
Aiyana & Holt
(maybe a missing solo?)
Scenario:
Incoming
Terrain:
Central hill, obstruction in front of his zone on my side, hill in front of my zone on my side, obstruction on his side of my zone, forest on the left side of his zone (from my side).
Match Assessment:
Looking at the board, I felt like my Fennblades were likely not long for this world. I went first, so I just had to take my chances. I placed my army to put a lot of pressure on his zone in hopes that I could wrack up a ton of scenario pressure. My fear was not getting enough time to really get lots of work out of the Fenns. However, Grissel's feat allows me to cover a ton of distance, so I thought maybe I could at least get in with the mini feat, cause Terror checks, and at least control what they could do.
Looking at the Warders, I felt only Caine on feat turn, the Hunter, and the Hammersmith could reliably harm them without Aiyana. Luckily, the Hammersmith's threat is lower than the Warders, so that was predictable. I wanted to try to get the Hunter particularly off the board when possible.
My Fennblades went mostly central, somewhat in my zone, so they could sweep across, while the Warders went straight towards the middle of his zone with Mulg. I took the Runeshapers up the center, and Grissel moved to where she could get into either zone quickly to begin getting scenario pressure.
He deployed his Gun Mages across the Warders (sweet!) with the Fenns and Boomies dancing, so I felt like this was an advantageous matchup (mostly). The Blazers were also across from the Warders on my left, so the Boomies went towards my zone. Everything else was fairly central.
Game Time!
Our first turns were mostly just a ton of running. I struggled to get Mulg around the building because I took him down the wrong way at first. The Warders got Hoof It to get way across the board, while the Fenns swept up the center. Everything else just sort of positioned to try to cover space as well as possible. I dumped 5 in the stone, forgetting to put Hallowed Avenger on Mulg (whoops).
He mostly ran up, getting 2 or so Boomies into my zone. Ryan of the B13 shot a Mage Storm which clipped 2 of his Boomies, but they both Toughed, and now there was a Mage Storm directly where I wanted my guys going. Frack. The Hunter removed a single Runeshaper, but everything else just ran.
Most of my work this turn was on the Boomies. A Rift and 2 Runeshaper shots deviated horribly (the 4 EVERY TIME) to miss all the Gun Mages except maybe 1. I thought I had decent odds of killing 3-4 potentially because of clustering and volume of shots. I killed 5 Boomies, but the one in the zone toughed 5 or so times (feat turn), which meant I couldn't attain my original objective of clearing the zone, jamming with the Fenns, and scoring in my zone on his Turn 2 to get off to a fast start. Otherwise, I still jammed the crap out of him, although he passed every Terror check (doh). I left more Gun Mages on the board than desired, but they mostly had to commit to killing Fennblades because of jamming, which I could work with.
Because of my jamming, he decided to go for a bottom of 2 assassination. He cleared a lot of intervening Fenns and moved Caine to start shooting at Grissel with his feat. Grissel was on a 3 camp, in the stone, which he all but cleared because my positioning sucked and I gave him easy electroleaps. However, this was an all-or-nothing, because Caine could not Gatecrash due to my feat.
After all was said and done, Caine hit on about 6/10 shots, but damage rolls didn't help him out much, so I transferred maybe 1 shot, and he conceded since Mulg was about 4" away on a 0 camp Caine. I rolled it out, and would have 1-shotted him (I boosted damage cause I'm an ass).
Post-Game:
Despite a fairly quick win, I wasn't happy with my play and positioning. The buildings on the board gave me a huge amount of trouble, unfortunately, since medium bases clog the board so much. I probably should have taken the Fennblades up into his zone and Warders centrally, which would have run the risk of losing a lot of Fenns, but it I could bait him into triggering Vengeance, I could get the Fenns so far across the board it was obscene by my Turn 2, with a possible scenario jam out.
I kept Mulg out of the game because of my own shoddy positioning, and had he taken it he could've likely removed Mulg. I had him too far from Grissel so that he wasn't well protected by the feat, but probably in range of the Hammersmith and Aiyana. I wasn't happy about that, but I know part of it was the buildings. The buildings presented a little jamming point in the center (where the Mage Storm landed) that I struggled to get around.
The game was mostly a good education in positioning better for me, trying to not keep my key pieces out of the game. I think Mulg's coming out of my list though, and moving to Borka, so I'll have a new positioning game to work on!
Grissel Bloodsong
* Troll Axer
* Mulg the Ancient
* Trollkin Runebearer
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
2x Runeshapers
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Captain Caine
-Hammer Jack
-Squire
Gun Mages w/ UA
-Hunter
Tempest Blazers
Boomhowlers (max)
Eiryss2
Reinholdt
Aiyana & Holt
(maybe a missing solo?)
Scenario:
Incoming
Terrain:
Central hill, obstruction in front of his zone on my side, hill in front of my zone on my side, obstruction on his side of my zone, forest on the left side of his zone (from my side).
Match Assessment:
Looking at the board, I felt like my Fennblades were likely not long for this world. I went first, so I just had to take my chances. I placed my army to put a lot of pressure on his zone in hopes that I could wrack up a ton of scenario pressure. My fear was not getting enough time to really get lots of work out of the Fenns. However, Grissel's feat allows me to cover a ton of distance, so I thought maybe I could at least get in with the mini feat, cause Terror checks, and at least control what they could do.
Looking at the Warders, I felt only Caine on feat turn, the Hunter, and the Hammersmith could reliably harm them without Aiyana. Luckily, the Hammersmith's threat is lower than the Warders, so that was predictable. I wanted to try to get the Hunter particularly off the board when possible.
My Fennblades went mostly central, somewhat in my zone, so they could sweep across, while the Warders went straight towards the middle of his zone with Mulg. I took the Runeshapers up the center, and Grissel moved to where she could get into either zone quickly to begin getting scenario pressure.
He deployed his Gun Mages across the Warders (sweet!) with the Fenns and Boomies dancing, so I felt like this was an advantageous matchup (mostly). The Blazers were also across from the Warders on my left, so the Boomies went towards my zone. Everything else was fairly central.
Game Time!
Our first turns were mostly just a ton of running. I struggled to get Mulg around the building because I took him down the wrong way at first. The Warders got Hoof It to get way across the board, while the Fenns swept up the center. Everything else just sort of positioned to try to cover space as well as possible. I dumped 5 in the stone, forgetting to put Hallowed Avenger on Mulg (whoops).
He mostly ran up, getting 2 or so Boomies into my zone. Ryan of the B13 shot a Mage Storm which clipped 2 of his Boomies, but they both Toughed, and now there was a Mage Storm directly where I wanted my guys going. Frack. The Hunter removed a single Runeshaper, but everything else just ran.
Most of my work this turn was on the Boomies. A Rift and 2 Runeshaper shots deviated horribly (the 4 EVERY TIME) to miss all the Gun Mages except maybe 1. I thought I had decent odds of killing 3-4 potentially because of clustering and volume of shots. I killed 5 Boomies, but the one in the zone toughed 5 or so times (feat turn), which meant I couldn't attain my original objective of clearing the zone, jamming with the Fenns, and scoring in my zone on his Turn 2 to get off to a fast start. Otherwise, I still jammed the crap out of him, although he passed every Terror check (doh). I left more Gun Mages on the board than desired, but they mostly had to commit to killing Fennblades because of jamming, which I could work with.
Because of my jamming, he decided to go for a bottom of 2 assassination. He cleared a lot of intervening Fenns and moved Caine to start shooting at Grissel with his feat. Grissel was on a 3 camp, in the stone, which he all but cleared because my positioning sucked and I gave him easy electroleaps. However, this was an all-or-nothing, because Caine could not Gatecrash due to my feat.
After all was said and done, Caine hit on about 6/10 shots, but damage rolls didn't help him out much, so I transferred maybe 1 shot, and he conceded since Mulg was about 4" away on a 0 camp Caine. I rolled it out, and would have 1-shotted him (I boosted damage cause I'm an ass).
Post-Game:
Despite a fairly quick win, I wasn't happy with my play and positioning. The buildings on the board gave me a huge amount of trouble, unfortunately, since medium bases clog the board so much. I probably should have taken the Fennblades up into his zone and Warders centrally, which would have run the risk of losing a lot of Fenns, but it I could bait him into triggering Vengeance, I could get the Fenns so far across the board it was obscene by my Turn 2, with a possible scenario jam out.
I kept Mulg out of the game because of my own shoddy positioning, and had he taken it he could've likely removed Mulg. I had him too far from Grissel so that he wasn't well protected by the feat, but probably in range of the Hammersmith and Aiyana. I wasn't happy about that, but I know part of it was the buildings. The buildings presented a little jamming point in the center (where the Mage Storm landed) that I struggled to get around.
The game was mostly a good education in positioning better for me, trying to not keep my key pieces out of the game. I think Mulg's coming out of my list though, and moving to Borka, so I'll have a new positioning game to work on!
Friday, September 5, 2014
Trip to Ames, IA
So, now the post that's actually talking about going to Iowa...
I was sent out to Ames, IA from August 3 - 14th for work, working during the day but having my evenings to myself. Since I had the chance, I contacted the Muse on Minis guys and got to meet up and play some games with them.
First off, they were a really cool group; it was a ton of fun to get to meet them, and I got to sit and listen in to one of their podcasts, which I enjoyed immensely. Watching John's pain during the pirate jokes is far, far better than it is even on the cast; it's all in the details. But getting to see the easy friendship and banter between them in person was a lot of fun, and shows why MoM has been so successful.
Second, I found out a lot more about flying with minis. It's a pain, but I figured out a lot about packing carefully and making sure that my guys aren't shifting too much. I had a few guys that popped off limbs, which have been corrected, but I know a lot better now what to watch out for.
Sadly, I didn't get to play as many games as I'd like; a couple of games against locals, and I got to play Colin and Adam. However, I was out there to work, not to play, so I can't gripe too much; anything I got was a bonus.
What I did get to learn mostly came in the forms of list testing/revisement, and getting to bounce ideas off of people out there. First off: it's a very knowledgeable group, who are very conscious of the rules and interactions of the game very, very quickly. Second, they were really receptive to hearing ideas thrown out and bouncing them around. I got less opportunity to toss out Troll ideas than I would've liked, except in riding with Chad, but I still got the opportunity to see what he thought.
One of those is feeling a bit better about my growing idea that Axers are intended to be "mediums" for Trolls. I've written about this a little, and I've been steadily building on the idea that Axers may be the Reach beast to rely upon for the near future. With proper buffing, they can hit at levels equivalent to lower heavies, but have the benefit of also triggering effects such as Charge of the Trolls from Reach, not just in 1/2" melee, allowing our infantry to help support. They also have the upside of being one of two lights with MAT 6, with the other lacking reach.
The trip did, however, put me back on the drawing board for my idea with one of my lists. My Jarl list that I'd been testing is proving to be a little too reliant on getting up in piece trade, and when I've been unable to comfortably do that, the list begins to fall apart. So I'm putting the idea on the back burner temporarily; I still find the concept worth exploring, but I need to figure out how to rework some core list components to bring it to a successful point. I do think, however, that Horgle may continue to be an answer to helping Jarl.
Mostly, what I got out of my trip to Iowa is a feeling of a bit of rejuvenation. I was feeling a little stale/stagnant with my lists and my play, and was a bit unsure of myself and the directions I was going with lists and Trolls, and a little bit with the game. I came back out feeling revitalized; I think going to a different meta helped me get in games with different people, and honestly just see that you get a lot of very similar people wherever you go.
I think I'm also going to set myself some goals for what I want to do with my blog. With MACE approaching in about 2 months, I'm thinking about the post-MACE cycle, and what I want to do with list building/testing. I might start doing a series of articles laying out ideas for lists, what the ideas I want to build in/goals of the list are, and so on. I'm likely going to be trying out the new Borka post-MACE (I may propose the names Beerka and Bearka - I think it fits!), partially because he's a really sweet model.
So, to those few people who do read this, there's a small taste of what I'm considering! And because I keep meaning to post it anyway: A somewhat outdated WIP of my (still headless) MK. Not the best lighting, but maybe this'll inspire me to work faster on him!
I was sent out to Ames, IA from August 3 - 14th for work, working during the day but having my evenings to myself. Since I had the chance, I contacted the Muse on Minis guys and got to meet up and play some games with them.
First off, they were a really cool group; it was a ton of fun to get to meet them, and I got to sit and listen in to one of their podcasts, which I enjoyed immensely. Watching John's pain during the pirate jokes is far, far better than it is even on the cast; it's all in the details. But getting to see the easy friendship and banter between them in person was a lot of fun, and shows why MoM has been so successful.
Second, I found out a lot more about flying with minis. It's a pain, but I figured out a lot about packing carefully and making sure that my guys aren't shifting too much. I had a few guys that popped off limbs, which have been corrected, but I know a lot better now what to watch out for.
Sadly, I didn't get to play as many games as I'd like; a couple of games against locals, and I got to play Colin and Adam. However, I was out there to work, not to play, so I can't gripe too much; anything I got was a bonus.
What I did get to learn mostly came in the forms of list testing/revisement, and getting to bounce ideas off of people out there. First off: it's a very knowledgeable group, who are very conscious of the rules and interactions of the game very, very quickly. Second, they were really receptive to hearing ideas thrown out and bouncing them around. I got less opportunity to toss out Troll ideas than I would've liked, except in riding with Chad, but I still got the opportunity to see what he thought.
One of those is feeling a bit better about my growing idea that Axers are intended to be "mediums" for Trolls. I've written about this a little, and I've been steadily building on the idea that Axers may be the Reach beast to rely upon for the near future. With proper buffing, they can hit at levels equivalent to lower heavies, but have the benefit of also triggering effects such as Charge of the Trolls from Reach, not just in 1/2" melee, allowing our infantry to help support. They also have the upside of being one of two lights with MAT 6, with the other lacking reach.
The trip did, however, put me back on the drawing board for my idea with one of my lists. My Jarl list that I'd been testing is proving to be a little too reliant on getting up in piece trade, and when I've been unable to comfortably do that, the list begins to fall apart. So I'm putting the idea on the back burner temporarily; I still find the concept worth exploring, but I need to figure out how to rework some core list components to bring it to a successful point. I do think, however, that Horgle may continue to be an answer to helping Jarl.
Mostly, what I got out of my trip to Iowa is a feeling of a bit of rejuvenation. I was feeling a little stale/stagnant with my lists and my play, and was a bit unsure of myself and the directions I was going with lists and Trolls, and a little bit with the game. I came back out feeling revitalized; I think going to a different meta helped me get in games with different people, and honestly just see that you get a lot of very similar people wherever you go.
I think I'm also going to set myself some goals for what I want to do with my blog. With MACE approaching in about 2 months, I'm thinking about the post-MACE cycle, and what I want to do with list building/testing. I might start doing a series of articles laying out ideas for lists, what the ideas I want to build in/goals of the list are, and so on. I'm likely going to be trying out the new Borka post-MACE (I may propose the names Beerka and Bearka - I think it fits!), partially because he's a really sweet model.
So, to those few people who do read this, there's a small taste of what I'm considering! And because I keep meaning to post it anyway: A somewhat outdated WIP of my (still headless) MK. Not the best lighting, but maybe this'll inspire me to work faster on him!
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Skorne, 9-3-2014
My List:
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Fennblade Kithkar
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Xerxis, Fury of Halaak
-Marketh
-Archidon (Bonded)
-Gladiator
-KAAAAAAARN!
-Drake
-Krea
max Reivers + UA
Willbreaker, I think?
2x min Handlers
Might be a solo or a small unit missing, but I think this is it. He had a few proxies, so I'm trying to keep them separate in my brainbox.
Terrain:
From my perspective: Forest on the far right, on his side of his zone. Small house/obstruction central, hill on the right side, slightly closer to me than his zone. Hill on the closest side of my zone to him. Maybe a small forest on my side, but had no game effect.
Scenario:
Rectangular scenarios oriented long ways across the board, central objectives on either side. Can't remember the name.
Match Assessment:
Oof. I felt like there's a lot of beef to chew through. I like the speed of my list, and the fact that I go first feels huge for getting board positioning. However, the Reivers are a solid enough counter to my infantry swarm, the Drake can spray them, and Karn can rocket around a lot. That combo is fairly nervewracking.
That said, Iron Flesh and Tale of Mists put my guys at anywhere from DEF 14-18 depending on stacking, meaning that his Reivers will struggle somewhat, and Tough is always nice when it hits. Karn can chew apart guys, but lack of reach elsewhere means that with good spread, I might be able to limit his ability to get multiple targets with some beasts.
I really like the fact that my ability to self-buff with Pyre and Mauler means that my Fenns or Dygmies can get a lot of work done on any of his beasts, though. This means that those guys can get some beast-killing work done.
Deployment:
I throw Borka central with Keggy next to him, Gators to eat up space in my zone, Fenns to the right, and the beasts trailing a hair behind with the support staff. Burrowers end up centrally AD.
He puts Xerxis center, Molik on his zone, Gladiator central also, Archidon on the left, Reivers on the left. Support staff coming in behind. Krea goes rightish of center, Drake a bit to the left.
Game Time!
Thankfully, I won to go first, which means I can top off the stone easily. I burrowed the Dygmies (mistake), ran the Gators their 10, and ran the Fenns their 12, trying to get a wide spread on my units to protect them. Iron Flesh on the Gators and top off the Stone, while my Impaler and Pyre move left to get ready to shoot into the Reivers. Borka stays central, moving up towards the obstruction.
He runs forward his Reivers to stay out of Gator range, with his Archidon behind them. Xerxis advances forward and a little towards his zone to get Mobility up. Gladiator stays central, near his objective, while Karn hides behind the forest on the right side (fantastic move by my opponent). Krea puts up Aura and parks near Xerxis, while the Drake advances a bit forward. Karn was able to ping pong throughout the game from this point due to Mobility; it was very intelligent and heads up combo and positioning on his part that was consistently troublesome.
The Dygmies came out, and I decided to make a few aggressive moves. The Gators charged/ran (one charged, shorting by 1/2" or so) on a Reiver, while Borka feated and the Dygmies charged up. Borka + the Pyre failed to catch anything in deviations shooting at the Reivers, sadly. The Dygmies did their best on the Drake, needing 7's to hit, but left him with a single HP left with 3 of them getting him. One got the Glad, but whiffed both (Fell Called, btw). The Fenns spread heavily, with one or two engaging Karn to annoy him, and the rest spreading wildly to prevent Karn from getting too many good targets. The Kithkar toed his zone, my near left corner, and I made a mistake with IF on the Gators. It was an OK target, but not really optimal; Dygmies or Fenns might've been better.
He feated to help himself out and started shooting. He took a bunch of single wound off, reducing the Dygmies to about 3ish models left. The Fenns lost about 4-5 all told, I believe. One Gator was reduced to 2 HP, but that was about it. He didn't shift much positioning, so the Reivers were contesting my zone, the Archidon was threatening my zone but out of my range, the Drake was fairly central with the Glad, and Xerxis was fairly far back (no killbox) on 0 camp. Karn behind a forest.
The Fenns vengeance set up charge angles on Karn, as did Righteous. After 2 Fenns and a Raged Kithkar, Karn lost about... Maybe 8-10 boxes at most? At D-2, my Kithkar did 4 damage on 2 attacks. Diiiiice. But I kept a good spread (12" Fenn Command, woot!) that minimized his ability to remove too many. The Gators cleared about half the Reivers, while the Pyre Troll finished the Drake from range. Not much else, just holding firm and not giving too much. I brought Borka centrally to get him more involved, because Borka gives no fucks.
He killed off a Gator, brought the Dygmies to 1 guy left, and killed a few Fenns. Paralyzed the officer to prevent charges. The remaining Dygmy toughed twice to cancel the Archidon's sprint (woot woot).
At this point, I decided to engage Borka is a Beast mode and he destroyed the crap out of the Gladiator. Rage + Stone Strength is rough on Borka. At straight dice, rolled 16 on the charge, then 2 more killed him. Iron Fleshed myself, and fortuitously whacked the Krea, causing Brain Damage and disabling his ability to cast animi for a turn. The Gators chomped hard, not quite killing the Archidon, but close.
Because of my aggressive Borka play, he realized he needed to kill Borka quickly or it was going to roll downhill fast. Borka was getting less killable very, very quickly. He clogged up Borka, and cleared some lanes. Xerxis did some work on Borka, forcing one transfer on the charge, and Karn forced the other transfer, but only left Borka on 2 damage, with about 14 or so transferred onto the Mauler (from 2 transfers). Borka decided to show Xerxis what hitting hard means, and finished what Grayle started.
Post-Game:
Lining up against Xerxis2 for the first time, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I've faced Reivers enough to be wary, knowing that they can do some serious damage from shooting. I probably brought a few Fennblades too far over towards the Reivers, letting him do more work shooting them than I liked, but it wasn't too bad.
I was able to get a lot of board control because of the speed of my guys. That worked to my advantage, giving me the ability to push the battle well across the middle of the board. Had I played it, I could have put a lot of scenario pressure from dominating my friendly zone. I was able to effectively stall him out on his scenario zone, giving me time to take my own. However, to test Borka out a bit, I made a more conscious decision to play aggressively, putting Borka more central into my 3rd and 4th turns, because I need to know how far I can push him.
I was extremely happy with my ability to stall for time on Karn. I know I'm going to lose a few guys a turn to Karn, that's just life. However, I was able to space Karn out to needing 3-4 turns to clear my Fenns, buying me plenty of time to clear up the left flank if need be, or to bring Borka out to exert a lot of pressure. It's a little startling to realize exactly how brutal Borka's board presence can be once the number of answers to the big guy himself start shrinking.
I made life harder on my end, however, by burrowing Turn 1. Sure, it let me lock up and kill the drake, but I could probably have Turn 1 ran (just a few inches) with Iron Flesh and Tale of Mist, then Turn 2 burrow and shred his lines. It took a lot of pressure off of the Gators, however, so it may have still been the better play. A turn 2 burrow is nearly impossible for the opponent to avoid, though, so it's worth testing further. The Reivers would have had a very hard time, though, trying to hit DEF 18 (Iron Flesh + ToMist), making it a relatively safe play.
My opponent played very tightly, using Karn very effectively, but a couple of timely tough rolls and Borka's emergence to exert an influence on the board put him in a bind. He played Karn very well, using him to scalpel out at low risk. He took good shots with the Reivers and did some very good work there, as well. Sprint coming onto Karn over and over from Xerxis gave him a lot of good mobility and the ability to preserve Karn.
Mostly, this game ended up coming down to Borka's ability to exert an influence once he becomes active. With Rage, Stone Strength, and the Fell Caller he removes most models from the board, while being nigh unkillable himself.
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Fennblade Kithkar
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Xerxis, Fury of Halaak
-Marketh
-Archidon (Bonded)
-Gladiator
-KAAAAAAARN!
-Drake
-Krea
max Reivers + UA
Willbreaker, I think?
2x min Handlers
Might be a solo or a small unit missing, but I think this is it. He had a few proxies, so I'm trying to keep them separate in my brainbox.
Terrain:
From my perspective: Forest on the far right, on his side of his zone. Small house/obstruction central, hill on the right side, slightly closer to me than his zone. Hill on the closest side of my zone to him. Maybe a small forest on my side, but had no game effect.
Scenario:
Rectangular scenarios oriented long ways across the board, central objectives on either side. Can't remember the name.
Match Assessment:
Oof. I felt like there's a lot of beef to chew through. I like the speed of my list, and the fact that I go first feels huge for getting board positioning. However, the Reivers are a solid enough counter to my infantry swarm, the Drake can spray them, and Karn can rocket around a lot. That combo is fairly nervewracking.
That said, Iron Flesh and Tale of Mists put my guys at anywhere from DEF 14-18 depending on stacking, meaning that his Reivers will struggle somewhat, and Tough is always nice when it hits. Karn can chew apart guys, but lack of reach elsewhere means that with good spread, I might be able to limit his ability to get multiple targets with some beasts.
I really like the fact that my ability to self-buff with Pyre and Mauler means that my Fenns or Dygmies can get a lot of work done on any of his beasts, though. This means that those guys can get some beast-killing work done.
Deployment:
I throw Borka central with Keggy next to him, Gators to eat up space in my zone, Fenns to the right, and the beasts trailing a hair behind with the support staff. Burrowers end up centrally AD.
He puts Xerxis center, Molik on his zone, Gladiator central also, Archidon on the left, Reivers on the left. Support staff coming in behind. Krea goes rightish of center, Drake a bit to the left.
Game Time!
Thankfully, I won to go first, which means I can top off the stone easily. I burrowed the Dygmies (mistake), ran the Gators their 10, and ran the Fenns their 12, trying to get a wide spread on my units to protect them. Iron Flesh on the Gators and top off the Stone, while my Impaler and Pyre move left to get ready to shoot into the Reivers. Borka stays central, moving up towards the obstruction.
He runs forward his Reivers to stay out of Gator range, with his Archidon behind them. Xerxis advances forward and a little towards his zone to get Mobility up. Gladiator stays central, near his objective, while Karn hides behind the forest on the right side (fantastic move by my opponent). Krea puts up Aura and parks near Xerxis, while the Drake advances a bit forward. Karn was able to ping pong throughout the game from this point due to Mobility; it was very intelligent and heads up combo and positioning on his part that was consistently troublesome.
The Dygmies came out, and I decided to make a few aggressive moves. The Gators charged/ran (one charged, shorting by 1/2" or so) on a Reiver, while Borka feated and the Dygmies charged up. Borka + the Pyre failed to catch anything in deviations shooting at the Reivers, sadly. The Dygmies did their best on the Drake, needing 7's to hit, but left him with a single HP left with 3 of them getting him. One got the Glad, but whiffed both (Fell Called, btw). The Fenns spread heavily, with one or two engaging Karn to annoy him, and the rest spreading wildly to prevent Karn from getting too many good targets. The Kithkar toed his zone, my near left corner, and I made a mistake with IF on the Gators. It was an OK target, but not really optimal; Dygmies or Fenns might've been better.
He feated to help himself out and started shooting. He took a bunch of single wound off, reducing the Dygmies to about 3ish models left. The Fenns lost about 4-5 all told, I believe. One Gator was reduced to 2 HP, but that was about it. He didn't shift much positioning, so the Reivers were contesting my zone, the Archidon was threatening my zone but out of my range, the Drake was fairly central with the Glad, and Xerxis was fairly far back (no killbox) on 0 camp. Karn behind a forest.
The Fenns vengeance set up charge angles on Karn, as did Righteous. After 2 Fenns and a Raged Kithkar, Karn lost about... Maybe 8-10 boxes at most? At D-2, my Kithkar did 4 damage on 2 attacks. Diiiiice. But I kept a good spread (12" Fenn Command, woot!) that minimized his ability to remove too many. The Gators cleared about half the Reivers, while the Pyre Troll finished the Drake from range. Not much else, just holding firm and not giving too much. I brought Borka centrally to get him more involved, because Borka gives no fucks.
He killed off a Gator, brought the Dygmies to 1 guy left, and killed a few Fenns. Paralyzed the officer to prevent charges. The remaining Dygmy toughed twice to cancel the Archidon's sprint (woot woot).
At this point, I decided to engage Borka is a Beast mode and he destroyed the crap out of the Gladiator. Rage + Stone Strength is rough on Borka. At straight dice, rolled 16 on the charge, then 2 more killed him. Iron Fleshed myself, and fortuitously whacked the Krea, causing Brain Damage and disabling his ability to cast animi for a turn. The Gators chomped hard, not quite killing the Archidon, but close.
Because of my aggressive Borka play, he realized he needed to kill Borka quickly or it was going to roll downhill fast. Borka was getting less killable very, very quickly. He clogged up Borka, and cleared some lanes. Xerxis did some work on Borka, forcing one transfer on the charge, and Karn forced the other transfer, but only left Borka on 2 damage, with about 14 or so transferred onto the Mauler (from 2 transfers). Borka decided to show Xerxis what hitting hard means, and finished what Grayle started.
Post-Game:
Lining up against Xerxis2 for the first time, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I've faced Reivers enough to be wary, knowing that they can do some serious damage from shooting. I probably brought a few Fennblades too far over towards the Reivers, letting him do more work shooting them than I liked, but it wasn't too bad.
I was able to get a lot of board control because of the speed of my guys. That worked to my advantage, giving me the ability to push the battle well across the middle of the board. Had I played it, I could have put a lot of scenario pressure from dominating my friendly zone. I was able to effectively stall him out on his scenario zone, giving me time to take my own. However, to test Borka out a bit, I made a more conscious decision to play aggressively, putting Borka more central into my 3rd and 4th turns, because I need to know how far I can push him.
I was extremely happy with my ability to stall for time on Karn. I know I'm going to lose a few guys a turn to Karn, that's just life. However, I was able to space Karn out to needing 3-4 turns to clear my Fenns, buying me plenty of time to clear up the left flank if need be, or to bring Borka out to exert a lot of pressure. It's a little startling to realize exactly how brutal Borka's board presence can be once the number of answers to the big guy himself start shrinking.
I made life harder on my end, however, by burrowing Turn 1. Sure, it let me lock up and kill the drake, but I could probably have Turn 1 ran (just a few inches) with Iron Flesh and Tale of Mist, then Turn 2 burrow and shred his lines. It took a lot of pressure off of the Gators, however, so it may have still been the better play. A turn 2 burrow is nearly impossible for the opponent to avoid, though, so it's worth testing further. The Reivers would have had a very hard time, though, trying to hit DEF 18 (Iron Flesh + ToMist), making it a relatively safe play.
My opponent played very tightly, using Karn very effectively, but a couple of timely tough rolls and Borka's emergence to exert an influence on the board put him in a bind. He played Karn very well, using him to scalpel out at low risk. He took good shots with the Reivers and did some very good work there, as well. Sprint coming onto Karn over and over from Xerxis gave him a lot of good mobility and the ability to preserve Karn.
Mostly, this game ended up coming down to Borka's ability to exert an influence once he becomes active. With Rage, Stone Strength, and the Fell Caller he removes most models from the board, while being nigh unkillable himself.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Cygnar, 8-27-14
Back on the horse! Time to get some battle reports going again. I'll have another post discussing my trip to Iowa (not in huge detail, but generally) coming up soon, but I wanna get the battle reports going first, since that's my main focus for the time being.
My List:
Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
His List:
Commander Dalin Sturgis (*6pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Lieutnant Allison Jakes (3pts)
* Centurion (9pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Terrain:
Forest on my near left, hill on my near right, forest on the far right (his near left), something else on the far left from me, hill somewhat central.
Scenario:
Rally Point
Match Assessment:
Well rounded list on his part, has hitting power, has some utility. My list isn't an armor list, despite the Warders and Mulg, so I'm not going to try to overwhelm him with being unable to crack. The Blazers are a problem; luckily, they don't ignore concealment, so Tale of Mists helps. I decided to put the Fenns against them and tempt fate, just going balls to the wall forward with them, in hopes that enough survive that I can do some serious damage to the Blazers.
Unfortunately, the Blazers are just flat out a problem. However, my hope is that if I can slow up the Knights and Forge Guard with Cacophany/Warders, I can try to clear the Centurion and Rowdy over time and then the Blazers will struggle with Mulg.
Gorman is the usual problem, and Sturgis has Snipe. Assballs.
Deployment:
Warders left, Grissel central with Mulg and Axer, support just behind her, Fenns right, Scatters far right (mistake here. Should've had the Scatters central to react to wherever he put his infantry. Fenns were there to challenge his zone with speed.).
Sword Knights and Forge Guard opposite my zone, Blazers on his zone, everything else centralish. Scattergunners are now wildly out of position.
Game Time!
First turn: lots o running. Fennblades scream up the board, Scatters behind, Warders rumble up left, all else central, 6 on the stone, popped it and covered most Fenns, didn't care about Warders.
His turn: Lots o Running forward, Shield on Rowdy and the Sword Knights (frustrating, but would've been worse on Rowdy + Centurion. That would've sucked assballs). Blazers get Sniped, shoot my Fenns and Scatters but only hit 1 Fenn (tough) and 1 Scatter (dead) needing 7's to hit (hill and/or forest). Wanted the Fenn dead for Vengeance, oh well. His dice went cold in trying to blast the Fenns.
My turn: Feat, jam hard. Fennblades scream forward into his Blazers, but just out of charge range. Scatters run to get near the Sword Knights and Forge Guard. Warders take "We own this zone" positions, out of his range but in range to hit the far side of the zone. Hooray Cacophany! Position Mulg and Axer to be annoying, jam.
His turn: Clear as much of jam as possible. Shoots up some Fenns, not that badly. Light cavs backwards for protection. Moves up Rowdy and Centurion (Fortify on Centurion btw from Jakes) to occupy space, infantry walk forward. He kills a few Fenns, thats all.
My turn: Rune once per game Calamity on Rowdy lands. Axer charges, does a few. 2x Warders charge, add more. Mulg charges my Scattergunner, plows him with fist, then buys and misses almost all on Centurion. Bad move here: should've just gone for Rowdy. Needed not snakes (Calamity) vs 6's, both of them at D-1. Warders had plowed some damage into Rowdy, so he was a likely kill. Mistake was thinking Centurion was PS 19, not PS 18 for some reason. Lesson learned. Scattergunners and Warders (Warders with extra attack from Grissel) shred Forgeguard and Sword Knights. About 4 Swords dead, about 7-8 Forgeguard. Sweet.
His turn: Feat drags a bunch of people in. He doesn't allocate to Rowdy, thinking Sturgis's feat will give him enough focus, 3 on Centurion from Jakes. Results in Mulg living with 9 HP left with Rowdy only getting 1 from Sturgist feat (2 guys in 3", 1 toughs). Blazers keep shooting up Fenns, with more success, but moot at this point. Sword Knights and Forge Guard wound warders, piss off everyone.
My Turn: all that matters is both jacks died and I cleared most of his infantry. Mulg frenzied but did solid to Rowdy, Axer did too on Rowdy. Warders finished, Grissel said "F all this noise", spiked hard and slapped down the Centurion on 2 rolls. She knows how to roll!
His turn: Tried to shoot up Grissel, missed all but 1 maybe, concedes cause no way to break Mulg now and his army is decimated. I'm on a wounded Mulg, but full Warders, 3-4 Fenns, half Scatters vs his Blazers and 3-4 Sword Knights. And Mulg's about to start eating.
Post-Game:
Mostly played well, a few clear mistakes. I should've just finished off Rowdy with Mulg when I had the chance, which takes his chance to kill Mulg very low. Focused too hard on the Centurion, and made a mistake, simple as that.
Also made a major deployment mistake. Scatters were well out of position, and I had to spend their feat turn running them over to help with the Sword Knights and Forgeguard.
However, along with my last game, I've gotten enough to conclude that I'm not comfortable with the Scatters in this list at the moment. I thought Calamity would fix their problems, but I need it on armor targets too badly, so I'm spreading myself thin. I think I'll be moving to 2x Runeshapers, I just need to manipulate the points to get 1 more besides the Scatters (7 points). I like the fact that the Shapers also give me help against Kayazy, Nyss, etc., which is a struggle point for this list. Magic 7 is significantly more accurate than RAT 5, although the ability to damage multiple moderate-high armor targets is gone. But I think that the value I'll get will be worth it most likely.
I actually played the Fenns vs. Blazers game as well as I could have, I think. I don't know that it was a very good decision, but I was hoping that with him needing 7's to hit, a couple of attacks would miss, and then he needed 7's to kill, making electroleaps riskier. I got a bit dice lucky that he missed 3 of 4 on the Fenns, but a little unlucky in that I toughed; had Vengeance triggered, he might lose a Blazer or two from the Fenns. Dice giveth, dice taketh.
pGrissel is beautifully solid though. I love her game tremendously. I'm mildly debating a return to a previous list iteration, involving 2x Warders rather than Fenns, but I love the speed Fenns give me. The alternative would be 2x min Champs to have a bit of mobility, armor, and hitting power, but not sure it's worth it; the Fenns jamming and forcing my opponents into positioning problems is so much fun.
My List:
Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
His List:
Commander Dalin Sturgis (*6pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Lieutnant Allison Jakes (3pts)
* Centurion (9pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Terrain:
Forest on my near left, hill on my near right, forest on the far right (his near left), something else on the far left from me, hill somewhat central.
Scenario:
Rally Point
Match Assessment:
Well rounded list on his part, has hitting power, has some utility. My list isn't an armor list, despite the Warders and Mulg, so I'm not going to try to overwhelm him with being unable to crack. The Blazers are a problem; luckily, they don't ignore concealment, so Tale of Mists helps. I decided to put the Fenns against them and tempt fate, just going balls to the wall forward with them, in hopes that enough survive that I can do some serious damage to the Blazers.
Unfortunately, the Blazers are just flat out a problem. However, my hope is that if I can slow up the Knights and Forge Guard with Cacophany/Warders, I can try to clear the Centurion and Rowdy over time and then the Blazers will struggle with Mulg.
Gorman is the usual problem, and Sturgis has Snipe. Assballs.
Deployment:
Warders left, Grissel central with Mulg and Axer, support just behind her, Fenns right, Scatters far right (mistake here. Should've had the Scatters central to react to wherever he put his infantry. Fenns were there to challenge his zone with speed.).
Sword Knights and Forge Guard opposite my zone, Blazers on his zone, everything else centralish. Scattergunners are now wildly out of position.
Game Time!
First turn: lots o running. Fennblades scream up the board, Scatters behind, Warders rumble up left, all else central, 6 on the stone, popped it and covered most Fenns, didn't care about Warders.
His turn: Lots o Running forward, Shield on Rowdy and the Sword Knights (frustrating, but would've been worse on Rowdy + Centurion. That would've sucked assballs). Blazers get Sniped, shoot my Fenns and Scatters but only hit 1 Fenn (tough) and 1 Scatter (dead) needing 7's to hit (hill and/or forest). Wanted the Fenn dead for Vengeance, oh well. His dice went cold in trying to blast the Fenns.
My turn: Feat, jam hard. Fennblades scream forward into his Blazers, but just out of charge range. Scatters run to get near the Sword Knights and Forge Guard. Warders take "We own this zone" positions, out of his range but in range to hit the far side of the zone. Hooray Cacophany! Position Mulg and Axer to be annoying, jam.
His turn: Clear as much of jam as possible. Shoots up some Fenns, not that badly. Light cavs backwards for protection. Moves up Rowdy and Centurion (Fortify on Centurion btw from Jakes) to occupy space, infantry walk forward. He kills a few Fenns, thats all.
My turn: Rune once per game Calamity on Rowdy lands. Axer charges, does a few. 2x Warders charge, add more. Mulg charges my Scattergunner, plows him with fist, then buys and misses almost all on Centurion. Bad move here: should've just gone for Rowdy. Needed not snakes (Calamity) vs 6's, both of them at D-1. Warders had plowed some damage into Rowdy, so he was a likely kill. Mistake was thinking Centurion was PS 19, not PS 18 for some reason. Lesson learned. Scattergunners and Warders (Warders with extra attack from Grissel) shred Forgeguard and Sword Knights. About 4 Swords dead, about 7-8 Forgeguard. Sweet.
His turn: Feat drags a bunch of people in. He doesn't allocate to Rowdy, thinking Sturgis's feat will give him enough focus, 3 on Centurion from Jakes. Results in Mulg living with 9 HP left with Rowdy only getting 1 from Sturgist feat (2 guys in 3", 1 toughs). Blazers keep shooting up Fenns, with more success, but moot at this point. Sword Knights and Forge Guard wound warders, piss off everyone.
My Turn: all that matters is both jacks died and I cleared most of his infantry. Mulg frenzied but did solid to Rowdy, Axer did too on Rowdy. Warders finished, Grissel said "F all this noise", spiked hard and slapped down the Centurion on 2 rolls. She knows how to roll!
His turn: Tried to shoot up Grissel, missed all but 1 maybe, concedes cause no way to break Mulg now and his army is decimated. I'm on a wounded Mulg, but full Warders, 3-4 Fenns, half Scatters vs his Blazers and 3-4 Sword Knights. And Mulg's about to start eating.
Post-Game:
Mostly played well, a few clear mistakes. I should've just finished off Rowdy with Mulg when I had the chance, which takes his chance to kill Mulg very low. Focused too hard on the Centurion, and made a mistake, simple as that.
Also made a major deployment mistake. Scatters were well out of position, and I had to spend their feat turn running them over to help with the Sword Knights and Forgeguard.
However, along with my last game, I've gotten enough to conclude that I'm not comfortable with the Scatters in this list at the moment. I thought Calamity would fix their problems, but I need it on armor targets too badly, so I'm spreading myself thin. I think I'll be moving to 2x Runeshapers, I just need to manipulate the points to get 1 more besides the Scatters (7 points). I like the fact that the Shapers also give me help against Kayazy, Nyss, etc., which is a struggle point for this list. Magic 7 is significantly more accurate than RAT 5, although the ability to damage multiple moderate-high armor targets is gone. But I think that the value I'll get will be worth it most likely.
I actually played the Fenns vs. Blazers game as well as I could have, I think. I don't know that it was a very good decision, but I was hoping that with him needing 7's to hit, a couple of attacks would miss, and then he needed 7's to kill, making electroleaps riskier. I got a bit dice lucky that he missed 3 of 4 on the Fenns, but a little unlucky in that I toughed; had Vengeance triggered, he might lose a Blazer or two from the Fenns. Dice giveth, dice taketh.
pGrissel is beautifully solid though. I love her game tremendously. I'm mildly debating a return to a previous list iteration, involving 2x Warders rather than Fenns, but I love the speed Fenns give me. The alternative would be 2x min Champs to have a bit of mobility, armor, and hitting power, but not sure it's worth it; the Fenns jamming and forcing my opponents into positioning problems is so much fun.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Tournament Report, 7-19-2014
This post is going to be a changeup from my normal description, because honestly my games at this past weekend's tourney weren't really that great for battle reporting. I didn't play particularly well, but I came out of it with a few lessons instead. Additionally, I didn't get to run the Jarl list I wanted to due to slacking on my part in building my beasts (Rok, Wrongeye and Snapjaw), so it's not quite as interesting as I wanted to.
My three games were:
1) pDoomy vs. Kromac, assassination loss top of 3. I misplayed and left Doomy wide open in really bad shape, which left an easy kill for my opponent. I was playing a Doomy MK list against Kromac, 2x Stalkers, Skinwalkers, and other trappings.
2) Jarl vs Ossrum. Jarl featured Horgle with his Slag, along with Mauler, Bomber, SoB, Impaler, and Gators. Other trappings also, but they had less effect. I misplayed and didn't get a good angle to get my Bomber or Mauler on the Earthbreaker, but won the game by jamming him up in his scenario and dominating mine one point at a time.
3) Jarl vs. Butcher3. Our local Khador player just started B3, and I had no good answer. I rolled with Jarl because I figured he might have my best infantry clearing chances (correctly), but I just didn't have good Butcher3 answers. A misplacement on my part cost me both the Bomber and the Mauler (the Bomber was about 1/4 inch from safety, sadly), but I still brought B3 down to 4 HP before he won on scenario. Had I not misplaced the Bomber, I'd have had a good chance at winning. C'est la vie.
But I learned a few things, from this weekend and previous games:
1) The MK is really, really freaking intimidating to players who can't answer ARM 23. The Kromac list featured no Gorax, meaning PS 18 was his highest PS potentially, and it would've been under pDoomy's feat had I played correctly. At d-5, with all the boosting, the King is a hard out, especially since I'll heal up from Whelps and killing his Stalkers, assuming I hit them. And the attrition scales massively in my favor the longer the King stays alive. Unfortunately, I did not play this well, and I was unable to test him out as thoroughly as desired.
2) Jarl has the ability to do a ton of work, then hide on a 1 or 0 camp. This won't work on some factions, of course, but it easily worked in my game. I had him in a forest, darted out, shot, and used Tactical Supremacy to slip back. Jarl himself killed at least 10-12 models over the course of the game probably. If you can keep him safe, he's magical.
3) Butcher3 is intimidating as all get out. I had to play extremely consciously of his threat ranges, and it made my game much harder. I was mostly successful, but some bad placements cost me a chance at the game. It was a fixable mistake, but I very much prefer to have the option of a form of shutdown (a la Grissel1, Mulg, etc.) available.
4) I need to find ways to kill Thor. F that guy.
My three games were:
1) pDoomy vs. Kromac, assassination loss top of 3. I misplayed and left Doomy wide open in really bad shape, which left an easy kill for my opponent. I was playing a Doomy MK list against Kromac, 2x Stalkers, Skinwalkers, and other trappings.
2) Jarl vs Ossrum. Jarl featured Horgle with his Slag, along with Mauler, Bomber, SoB, Impaler, and Gators. Other trappings also, but they had less effect. I misplayed and didn't get a good angle to get my Bomber or Mauler on the Earthbreaker, but won the game by jamming him up in his scenario and dominating mine one point at a time.
3) Jarl vs. Butcher3. Our local Khador player just started B3, and I had no good answer. I rolled with Jarl because I figured he might have my best infantry clearing chances (correctly), but I just didn't have good Butcher3 answers. A misplacement on my part cost me both the Bomber and the Mauler (the Bomber was about 1/4 inch from safety, sadly), but I still brought B3 down to 4 HP before he won on scenario. Had I not misplaced the Bomber, I'd have had a good chance at winning. C'est la vie.
But I learned a few things, from this weekend and previous games:
1) The MK is really, really freaking intimidating to players who can't answer ARM 23. The Kromac list featured no Gorax, meaning PS 18 was his highest PS potentially, and it would've been under pDoomy's feat had I played correctly. At d-5, with all the boosting, the King is a hard out, especially since I'll heal up from Whelps and killing his Stalkers, assuming I hit them. And the attrition scales massively in my favor the longer the King stays alive. Unfortunately, I did not play this well, and I was unable to test him out as thoroughly as desired.
2) Jarl has the ability to do a ton of work, then hide on a 1 or 0 camp. This won't work on some factions, of course, but it easily worked in my game. I had him in a forest, darted out, shot, and used Tactical Supremacy to slip back. Jarl himself killed at least 10-12 models over the course of the game probably. If you can keep him safe, he's magical.
3) Butcher3 is intimidating as all get out. I had to play extremely consciously of his threat ranges, and it made my game much harder. I was mostly successful, but some bad placements cost me a chance at the game. It was a fixable mistake, but I very much prefer to have the option of a form of shutdown (a la Grissel1, Mulg, etc.) available.
4) I need to find ways to kill Thor. F that guy.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Skorne, 7-13-14
My List:
eGrissel's Meat Mountain (look at previous posts for a summation)
His List:
Xerxis' Fist of Halaak
-Tibers
-Archidon
1 unit (max?) of Cetratii
2 units of Arcuraii (spelling? Not sure if it was 2 units, either?)
1 or 2 units of Incendiarii?
Paingivers
This is extremely rough because quite frankly, there were enough models in my opponents list that they jumbled together. And the details of this particular matchup are hazy because it wasn't incredibly distinctive - we had a lot of beating the crap out of each other in the middle, and not much else.
Terrain: Some hills and houses, not much else. Didn't really play a roll.
Scenario: Destruction
Match Assessment: Massive grindfest. Defensive feat on my part, both offensive and defensive on his. These are two "Meat Mountain" lists against each other, so it'll be roughly the equivalent of the Rocky & Apollo fights: we beat the crap out of each other and either 1 or both of us fall over. Movie reference, yeah!
Basically, I felt like I needed to weather his feat as best as possible. I made a mistake pregame, and I did my math wrong: I thought I could jam him out of scenario potentially. 2 problems: the math was wrong, in that I couldn't, and he has Martial Discipline, so if he kills my front lines, he can just move guys in. Fuck.
Outside of that, I just felt this was a case of two attrition lists against each other, and the one that could get up and ride it had a good chance to win. Mulg and Tiberion were roughly equal in the way they affected the match, although Mulg's threat is larger.
Deployment: There were a lot of medium bases lined up. Mine had Warders left, Champs and Grissel central, Warders right, everything else right behind. His... Had a shit ton of medium bases in a long line. The units are so hard to tell apart I'd have trouble telling you perfectly, to be honest. I know he had Cetratii fairly central with Arcuraii, and some Incendiarii right.
Game Time! Instead of my normal trying to describe events, I'm going to go for key moments here, because a few key moments shifted things - usually giant "I'm a donkey" moments on my part.
My turn 2: After a Turn 1 in which we both ran, I unpacked aggressively. As mentioned, I mathed wrong, and though I could scenario jam. Didn't work, and I ended up popping my feat to try to keep a lot of guys alive while jamming him up. Unfortunately, Fury Weapon Master Charges are a thing, and he was able to break more than I expected, with little ability to retaliate on my part. Not nearly enough to win me out the game. Shit.
By my Turn 3, we were thoroughly jammed into the middle of the board. My right side Warders crapped the bed with their dice and failed to kill the Incendiarii as quickly as I needed. Additionally, I'd taken them too far out to the right, and they had little-no effect on the game until too late. I did have probably one of my relatively smarter moves of the game, and got the Axer in at POW 15 on a thresher that hit 5 of his models and one of mine, clearing all but one with buys. That was sweeeeeet. Sadly, the Axer ate the dust right after that from charging Feated Weapon Masters.
His Turn 3: He feats, and he wipes a ton of stuff, including laying about 20ish damage into Mulg with Cetratii. Mulg eats them and heals back up some, but (donkey move!) I moved too far up and was in range of the Archidon with Fury and Paingivers the next turn, so... POW 20 Archidon got a Mulg lunch.
Essentially, he just continually weathered what I could do. I made poor model placements early game, and lost too much for too little gain; I needed to be coming out at least model for model on my Champs and Warders, and I was coming out well below that.
Post-Game: I'm concentrating more on this part, because this is what I refer to as a learning game, aka I got roflstomped. I made a few key mistakes, which I'll enumerate:
1) Bad positioning on my Turn 2. I gave him way too much, and could've saved my feat for Turn 3 potentially.
2) I didn't use Grissel's shots effectively early game. I tried to clear with the wrong models, when I could have gotten a lot of good mileage out of her spray. Additionally, I never - never - used her POW 12 template that stays in play. That was a major mistake; a lot his army is ARM 15, meaning that that Template will plink damage over time and make him a lot easier to clear. That was a giant mistake on my part.
3) Biggest mistake. INHOSPITABLE FREAKING GROUND. He had Xerxis for pathfinder ONLY, and I forgot to use Inhospitable Ground REPEATEDLY. I'm still pissed at myself for this, nearly 24 hours later. He could get one unit charging, sure, but in combination with better positioning (see Point 1), I could have dictated the flow of play. That would have put me in a much, much stronger position than I left myself in. It was a huge mistake on my part, a game changing one. I could have put him in positions where only one unit could really move per turn, allowing me to use Mulg and good positioning to control the pace of the game, and force Tibers to commit in a place Mulg liked potentially. Again: I'm a donkey.
We're going to try to play this match again soon, which will hopefully help teach me not to be silly and stupid. I hope.
eGrissel's Meat Mountain (look at previous posts for a summation)
His List:
Xerxis' Fist of Halaak
-Tibers
-Archidon
1 unit (max?) of Cetratii
2 units of Arcuraii (spelling? Not sure if it was 2 units, either?)
1 or 2 units of Incendiarii?
Paingivers
This is extremely rough because quite frankly, there were enough models in my opponents list that they jumbled together. And the details of this particular matchup are hazy because it wasn't incredibly distinctive - we had a lot of beating the crap out of each other in the middle, and not much else.
Terrain: Some hills and houses, not much else. Didn't really play a roll.
Scenario: Destruction
Match Assessment: Massive grindfest. Defensive feat on my part, both offensive and defensive on his. These are two "Meat Mountain" lists against each other, so it'll be roughly the equivalent of the Rocky & Apollo fights: we beat the crap out of each other and either 1 or both of us fall over. Movie reference, yeah!
Basically, I felt like I needed to weather his feat as best as possible. I made a mistake pregame, and I did my math wrong: I thought I could jam him out of scenario potentially. 2 problems: the math was wrong, in that I couldn't, and he has Martial Discipline, so if he kills my front lines, he can just move guys in. Fuck.
Outside of that, I just felt this was a case of two attrition lists against each other, and the one that could get up and ride it had a good chance to win. Mulg and Tiberion were roughly equal in the way they affected the match, although Mulg's threat is larger.
Deployment: There were a lot of medium bases lined up. Mine had Warders left, Champs and Grissel central, Warders right, everything else right behind. His... Had a shit ton of medium bases in a long line. The units are so hard to tell apart I'd have trouble telling you perfectly, to be honest. I know he had Cetratii fairly central with Arcuraii, and some Incendiarii right.
Game Time! Instead of my normal trying to describe events, I'm going to go for key moments here, because a few key moments shifted things - usually giant "I'm a donkey" moments on my part.
My turn 2: After a Turn 1 in which we both ran, I unpacked aggressively. As mentioned, I mathed wrong, and though I could scenario jam. Didn't work, and I ended up popping my feat to try to keep a lot of guys alive while jamming him up. Unfortunately, Fury Weapon Master Charges are a thing, and he was able to break more than I expected, with little ability to retaliate on my part. Not nearly enough to win me out the game. Shit.
By my Turn 3, we were thoroughly jammed into the middle of the board. My right side Warders crapped the bed with their dice and failed to kill the Incendiarii as quickly as I needed. Additionally, I'd taken them too far out to the right, and they had little-no effect on the game until too late. I did have probably one of my relatively smarter moves of the game, and got the Axer in at POW 15 on a thresher that hit 5 of his models and one of mine, clearing all but one with buys. That was sweeeeeet. Sadly, the Axer ate the dust right after that from charging Feated Weapon Masters.
His Turn 3: He feats, and he wipes a ton of stuff, including laying about 20ish damage into Mulg with Cetratii. Mulg eats them and heals back up some, but (donkey move!) I moved too far up and was in range of the Archidon with Fury and Paingivers the next turn, so... POW 20 Archidon got a Mulg lunch.
Essentially, he just continually weathered what I could do. I made poor model placements early game, and lost too much for too little gain; I needed to be coming out at least model for model on my Champs and Warders, and I was coming out well below that.
Post-Game: I'm concentrating more on this part, because this is what I refer to as a learning game, aka I got roflstomped. I made a few key mistakes, which I'll enumerate:
1) Bad positioning on my Turn 2. I gave him way too much, and could've saved my feat for Turn 3 potentially.
2) I didn't use Grissel's shots effectively early game. I tried to clear with the wrong models, when I could have gotten a lot of good mileage out of her spray. Additionally, I never - never - used her POW 12 template that stays in play. That was a major mistake; a lot his army is ARM 15, meaning that that Template will plink damage over time and make him a lot easier to clear. That was a giant mistake on my part.
3) Biggest mistake. INHOSPITABLE FREAKING GROUND. He had Xerxis for pathfinder ONLY, and I forgot to use Inhospitable Ground REPEATEDLY. I'm still pissed at myself for this, nearly 24 hours later. He could get one unit charging, sure, but in combination with better positioning (see Point 1), I could have dictated the flow of play. That would have put me in a much, much stronger position than I left myself in. It was a huge mistake on my part, a game changing one. I could have put him in positions where only one unit could really move per turn, allowing me to use Mulg and good positioning to control the pace of the game, and force Tibers to commit in a place Mulg liked potentially. Again: I'm a donkey.
We're going to try to play this match again soon, which will hopefully help teach me not to be silly and stupid. I hope.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Cygnar, 7-9-13
My List:
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Fennblade Kithkar (2pts)
Horgle Ironstrike (3pts)
* Slag Troll (5pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
Opponents List:
Major Markus 'Siege' Brisbane (*5pts)
* Sentinel (4pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Press Gangers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Got lazy and didn't feel like cleaning up Forward Kommander text. Sorry guys!
Scenario: Fire Support
Terrain: Hill near his objective, hill a few inches closer to me than his objective's flag. Forest to the left of my objective, obstruction closer to me and slightly left of board center. Linear obstacle central, a few inches closer to him than center. Linear obstacle about 8-10" outside of his deployment on my left side, obstruction (building) left of that from my view.
Matchup Assessment: I was pretty sure this was going to be an odd game from the start. He had a lot of infantry killing, but Rangers were his only RAT buffer, and I had Iron Flesh. So... Weird, sorta? I wasn't as worried about Siege as I would've been under the Meat Mountain, which really suffers against Siege, but his ability to take my infantry models off the board was pretty intense.
I also wasn't entirely confident in my ability to remove Stormwall with Arcane Shield. This list was kinda fudged together to try out things, sorting out my Borka direction, and so it lost some cohesiveness and hitting power. Plus, I love Clyde (the Earthborn), but against Colossals he loses a lot of strength. I did like, though, having a bit more shooting, and all his infantry was fairly blast susceptible, so the Runeshapers and Borka's AE bomb might do some work.
He won the roll and decided to go first, so I was having to do a lot of threat range calculation in my head. I felt that if I could get the Fenns into the Gun Mages, they could win that battle, but getting them to the Mages can be problematic. Go-go Iron Flesh?
I really was not supremely confident going into this match.
Deployment: He put Stormwall center, ATGM behind his objective, Siege central to get to the linear obstacle with Junior, Squire, and Reinholdt. Sentinel was with them. Sentinel may actually have been on Junior - never was sure.
I put the Fenns against the ATGM, Borka central to get behind the obstruction I had on my side, Clyde left to bounce off the forest with faster speed. Horgle and Slag were central also, Impaler slightly left of Borka, and the support rear central.
He put the Rangers hard left (far side of the board from ATGM), and the Press Gangers central. I responded with central Dygmies.
Game Time! He ran forward. A lot forward. Press Gangers were all up in my junk - although less so than Satyxis. That's about it.
Him running that far forward and clearly attempting to jam with Gangers freaked me out, so I was thoughtful but hitting the panic button. Thoughtfully panicking? I've gone first too much lately, and not been jammed in a while.
I basically used my ranged attacks to clear the jam, but stupidly popped my feat to get larger charge ranges for the Dygmies and tried to get the Gangers cleared. Not a wise decision, really - I should've just dug them in and remained calm. I cleared most of them, but lost the 2" threat of my feat for the rest of the game. Through panicking, I also screwed up and didn't get IF on the Fenns against the ATGM, which I thought would put me into really good shape - they'd need 8's to hit. I was smart, though, and didn't blast the Fenns too far forward, instead using the hill to make the Gun Mages need 7's to hit.
He cleared all but like 2-3 Dygmies, of course. Stormwall held down the center, while the Rangers ran. Eiryss hid behind a building where he kept forgetting her. My move with the hill paid off - his dice went a little cold and my Toughs got a little hot, so I ended the turn with 1 dead and 2 knocked down Fenns. Near perfect for Vengeance <fist pump>.
From here, the game was a really awkward skirmish in the center, while my Fenns collapsed his left/my right flank. Vengeance + Minifeat = long range movement for Fenns. Needed 7's to hit, killed 3 or 4 in the first turn, and slowly whittled it down.
In the center, over a few turns, we both jostled for position, lobbing shots; I worked off the Sentinel (slowly - dice went cold on my damage shots), while he pumped shots into my Slag that I spent time regenning (his dice went cold on the Slag, too). It was fairly uneventful, primarily because Borka was threatening Sieges life if he came too close, and the Stormwall was somewhat terrain constrained, being unable to move as well as he might like due to the linear obstacle. Additionally, Iron Flesh on Borka made killing him a risky game - he needed 11's to hit, with me camping transfers, so there weren't very good odds.
Finally, when I managed to clear the Gun Mages, I was able to charge my Fenns on his objective and kill it. I then ran Borka over with IF upkept, and dominated to go to 3. He couldn't move in the Stormwall, and conceded on scenario.
Postgame: This was really freaking weird. I ended the game with only 3-4 minutes remaining to his 10-12 (I was slow on my initial turn from jam-panic), but not that much was dead - only like 20ish points on either side. There was a lot of skirmishing, but because of terrain and the difficulty in breaking either defense or armor (my defense, his Stormwall) limited our ability to commit too heavily to one side or another.
I was really happy with my ability to get the Fenns into the Gun Mages effectively, but I'm not happy that I panic-feated on the Press Gangers. I didn't gain enough to justify the feat, and I actually could have really kept Siege back if I still had my feat for Borka, giving me a 13" threat range rather than 11" for beating on him with Trauma.
Also, I didn't do a good job using Wind Wall, which could have been useful for limiting his shooting of both Borka and the Slag Troll. Awkward dice kept me from clearing the Sentinel earlier, but it would have helped had I burrowed the Dygmies and just soaked whatever the Press Gangers put into me.
Mostly, I learned that I want to shift up Borka's battlegroup. I'm not very happy with it so far, and it's changing my level of comfort. I think that I want a two heavy battlegroup, possibly Bomber and Mauler. Mosh Pit helps enough with hitting that I feel it'll probably be sufficient for what I need in setting up the Bomber, and Rage + Krielstone give me a PS 19 Bomber in melee.
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Fennblade Kithkar (2pts)
Horgle Ironstrike (3pts)
* Slag Troll (5pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
Opponents List:
Major Markus 'Siege' Brisbane (*5pts)
* Sentinel (4pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Press Gangers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (3pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Got lazy and didn't feel like cleaning up Forward Kommander text. Sorry guys!
Scenario: Fire Support
Terrain: Hill near his objective, hill a few inches closer to me than his objective's flag. Forest to the left of my objective, obstruction closer to me and slightly left of board center. Linear obstacle central, a few inches closer to him than center. Linear obstacle about 8-10" outside of his deployment on my left side, obstruction (building) left of that from my view.
Matchup Assessment: I was pretty sure this was going to be an odd game from the start. He had a lot of infantry killing, but Rangers were his only RAT buffer, and I had Iron Flesh. So... Weird, sorta? I wasn't as worried about Siege as I would've been under the Meat Mountain, which really suffers against Siege, but his ability to take my infantry models off the board was pretty intense.
I also wasn't entirely confident in my ability to remove Stormwall with Arcane Shield. This list was kinda fudged together to try out things, sorting out my Borka direction, and so it lost some cohesiveness and hitting power. Plus, I love Clyde (the Earthborn), but against Colossals he loses a lot of strength. I did like, though, having a bit more shooting, and all his infantry was fairly blast susceptible, so the Runeshapers and Borka's AE bomb might do some work.
He won the roll and decided to go first, so I was having to do a lot of threat range calculation in my head. I felt that if I could get the Fenns into the Gun Mages, they could win that battle, but getting them to the Mages can be problematic. Go-go Iron Flesh?
I really was not supremely confident going into this match.
Deployment: He put Stormwall center, ATGM behind his objective, Siege central to get to the linear obstacle with Junior, Squire, and Reinholdt. Sentinel was with them. Sentinel may actually have been on Junior - never was sure.
I put the Fenns against the ATGM, Borka central to get behind the obstruction I had on my side, Clyde left to bounce off the forest with faster speed. Horgle and Slag were central also, Impaler slightly left of Borka, and the support rear central.
He put the Rangers hard left (far side of the board from ATGM), and the Press Gangers central. I responded with central Dygmies.
Game Time! He ran forward. A lot forward. Press Gangers were all up in my junk - although less so than Satyxis. That's about it.
Him running that far forward and clearly attempting to jam with Gangers freaked me out, so I was thoughtful but hitting the panic button. Thoughtfully panicking? I've gone first too much lately, and not been jammed in a while.
I basically used my ranged attacks to clear the jam, but stupidly popped my feat to get larger charge ranges for the Dygmies and tried to get the Gangers cleared. Not a wise decision, really - I should've just dug them in and remained calm. I cleared most of them, but lost the 2" threat of my feat for the rest of the game. Through panicking, I also screwed up and didn't get IF on the Fenns against the ATGM, which I thought would put me into really good shape - they'd need 8's to hit. I was smart, though, and didn't blast the Fenns too far forward, instead using the hill to make the Gun Mages need 7's to hit.
He cleared all but like 2-3 Dygmies, of course. Stormwall held down the center, while the Rangers ran. Eiryss hid behind a building where he kept forgetting her. My move with the hill paid off - his dice went a little cold and my Toughs got a little hot, so I ended the turn with 1 dead and 2 knocked down Fenns. Near perfect for Vengeance <fist pump>.
From here, the game was a really awkward skirmish in the center, while my Fenns collapsed his left/my right flank. Vengeance + Minifeat = long range movement for Fenns. Needed 7's to hit, killed 3 or 4 in the first turn, and slowly whittled it down.
In the center, over a few turns, we both jostled for position, lobbing shots; I worked off the Sentinel (slowly - dice went cold on my damage shots), while he pumped shots into my Slag that I spent time regenning (his dice went cold on the Slag, too). It was fairly uneventful, primarily because Borka was threatening Sieges life if he came too close, and the Stormwall was somewhat terrain constrained, being unable to move as well as he might like due to the linear obstacle. Additionally, Iron Flesh on Borka made killing him a risky game - he needed 11's to hit, with me camping transfers, so there weren't very good odds.
Finally, when I managed to clear the Gun Mages, I was able to charge my Fenns on his objective and kill it. I then ran Borka over with IF upkept, and dominated to go to 3. He couldn't move in the Stormwall, and conceded on scenario.
Postgame: This was really freaking weird. I ended the game with only 3-4 minutes remaining to his 10-12 (I was slow on my initial turn from jam-panic), but not that much was dead - only like 20ish points on either side. There was a lot of skirmishing, but because of terrain and the difficulty in breaking either defense or armor (my defense, his Stormwall) limited our ability to commit too heavily to one side or another.
I was really happy with my ability to get the Fenns into the Gun Mages effectively, but I'm not happy that I panic-feated on the Press Gangers. I didn't gain enough to justify the feat, and I actually could have really kept Siege back if I still had my feat for Borka, giving me a 13" threat range rather than 11" for beating on him with Trauma.
Also, I didn't do a good job using Wind Wall, which could have been useful for limiting his shooting of both Borka and the Slag Troll. Awkward dice kept me from clearing the Sentinel earlier, but it would have helped had I burrowed the Dygmies and just soaked whatever the Press Gangers put into me.
Mostly, I learned that I want to shift up Borka's battlegroup. I'm not very happy with it so far, and it's changing my level of comfort. I think that I want a two heavy battlegroup, possibly Bomber and Mauler. Mosh Pit helps enough with hitting that I feel it'll probably be sufficient for what I need in setting up the Bomber, and Rage + Krielstone give me a PS 19 Bomber in melee.
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Cryx, 7-2-14
Early apology here: the late game gets hazy because I lost track of what happened where, so I just sum up the end game. It was mostly jockeying for position and attrition anyway, so there's not a ton of detail to give.
My List:
Borka Kegslayer
* Swamp Troll
* Troll Axer
* Dire Troll Mauler
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Sons of Bragg
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Trollkin Champion Hero
Trollkin Sorcerer
Opponents List:
Lich Lord Asphyxious
* Nightwretch
* Nightwretch
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Satyxis Blood Hag
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Scenario: Two Fronts
Terrain: Central forest just outside deployment on each players side. Hill central, linear obstacle partially in his zone, relatively central. None other that really mattered.
Matchup Assessment:
This is a list I may have to face that I've theorycrafted in my head more than most others; I didn't actually expect to get it today, but I'm looking at Borka1 as my third caster in my lineup, so I wanted to play with it and see how it went.
My first reaction was "Shit," because it's Gaspy2, and I had a lot of infantry vulnerable to Bile Thralls. I didn't have much denial (a la pGrim), and I knew that I'd have a ton of vulnerability to purges. I started trying to ration out in my brain how much damage I needed to do and how I needed to initiate the piece trade, and I didn't feel amazing about it.
However, I did feel great about one thing - if I could minimize the Bile Thralls, he didn't have great hitting odds elsewhere. The Fenns were DEF 17 against charges with Iron Flesh, which (even with Tartarus) was long odds to hit. Borka himself could put his defense to stupid levels, and Gaspy's feat, while always scary, wasn't as intimidating as it might have been had I run a high ARM skew.
My initial plan in running this list was to make Borka go "Super Solo" with Swarm on him and make him nigh unkillable. I switched back to Conservative Borka mode, instead, playing to try to keep a good attrition pace and get good piece trades. His feat is devastasting, but only once per game, so if I could try to force him to feat to clear infantry rather than to go all in on Borka or a beast, I felt good.
Although... Seriously, what the hell? Clouds, Excarnate with Biles, Parasite, and the Feat? That's an intimidating freaking package to look at.
Deployment: I decided to play conservative, and maybe try to sneak a few scenario points from my own zone. I put Borka with his beasts mostly there, central Fenns, central Dygs, and SoB right side with the champs. Krielstone was central just behind.
His deployment, he put the Thralls threatening my zone, Witches on his zone, and Knights central, with Nodes to either side. Tartarus went on the side where he could get my Dygs and Fenns.
I put the Burrowers under, and the Fenns ran most of the way up, although I concaved a bit to be wary of the Biles. I wanted to play it cautiously to be as careful as possible. The SoB and Champs went up to threaten the other zone, staying cautious. Borka put 5 on the Stone and Iron Flesh on the Fenns.
He rolled straight forward, setting up all his angles for other turns. An Arced Excarnate got a SoBragg that I left about half an inch outside my Krielstone and half an inch too far forward (good job to me!). Failed Tough, add a Bile. Doh. Other than that, all running.
I made a mistake here, and got a little too aggressive with my Dygmies. I put them all way forward, and left about 5-6 in Purge range. I should have been more cautious and put a few up for messing with his angles, but the rest back out of Purge, or forcing an awkward one. My mistake. I did clear out about 4 Knights, 2 Thralls, and 2 Witches with my Dygmies, so... Jesus. Their dice went stupid. I cleared a few other Thralls with the Fenn minifeat + Charge, added more to the stone, and put IF on the Fenns. Charge me, fool!
He used Gaspy's Soul Collector Thingy to put down a pie that got 5-6 Dygmies, and ended up after Purges (all of this central to the board) getting 7 extra Souls, ouch. Bad placement is bad on my part. He pulled an Excarnate somewhere, set Gaspy back to safety, and then did some SoB damage with Witches. The Banes all missed Fenn attacks because IF + Set Defense, thankfully.
From here on out it's some awkward trading. I tried to clear my zone but one Thrall went on a Tough spree, leaving a single Thrall in the zone. I landed some objective damage, but nothing much, while I just kept holding a contesting angle on the other zone. I coulda gone up 2-0 without the toughs and better target priority, but that was my own mistake. Shoulda-coulda-woulda.
He kept on whittling away at me, and positioned Gaspy to try to start dominating his side. I toughed out just enough, though, and he couldn't clear it. He whittled most of the Fenns and got Purges on my Stone, but Tough rocks.
I cleared the zone and dominated here, and went into Borka with IF mode. Didn't quite get to the objective, but I set myself in good position. I offered up the Axer as feat-bait for him; I didn't want to lose it, really, but it was a better loss than the Mauler based on board position. He retaliated by clearing his zone and jamming mine, so we went to 1-1. Critically, however, he left Gaspy on the corner of the zone closest to me.
I was low on time here, so I went for the kill. I finagled things around a bit, got lucky blast damage and offed an arc node in the way, put up Mosh Pit, and the Swamp Troll got the dice to drag in Gaspy. A Krielstone grunt needed a 10 to hit on him and got it (holy hell), and then the Axer got Raged from the Mauler and ended Gaspy's night with a few attacks to the head.
Post-Game: I got really lucky in a few places, including my opponents inexperience with Gaspy and not using Clouds. Those woulda really, really hurt me. That said, I made my own errors that he exploited, such as bad Dygmy positioning, that gave him some major momentum. We both had inexperience with our lists, and it showed.
That said, I really, really liked aspects of my list. The Fenns got major mileage, and earned their points back easily in the Thralls and Knights because of being hard to hit. I didn't use the SoB very well, honestly; I should've put the Dygs more on one side and the SoB behind them, but that was my mistake. The Satyxis are an eternal problem because of Incorp, but unfortunately since I deployed first, I wasn't able to bring all I wanted to bear there.
Also, I think I should've used Borka more aggressively, probably going after his zone and setting more forces to defend my zone. I think, had I done that, I might've honestly been able to clear and dominate - my infantry clearing was fairly solid, and I could mess with his ability to hit me big time. That would've put serious pressure on him very quickly.
An OK win, though; we both played a bit awkwardly because of new lists. I think I want to shift my list a bit to try to bring in more spot-removal, such as maybe Impaler and some shooting (Saxon or Alten?) to try to clear those long threats. If I coulda taken out the Biles (or at least most of them), I would've removed a huge set of threats to my guys.
My List:
Borka Kegslayer
* Swamp Troll
* Troll Axer
* Dire Troll Mauler
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Sons of Bragg
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Trollkin Champion Hero
Trollkin Sorcerer
Opponents List:
Lich Lord Asphyxious
* Nightwretch
* Nightwretch
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Satyxis Blood Hag
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Scenario: Two Fronts
Terrain: Central forest just outside deployment on each players side. Hill central, linear obstacle partially in his zone, relatively central. None other that really mattered.
Matchup Assessment:
This is a list I may have to face that I've theorycrafted in my head more than most others; I didn't actually expect to get it today, but I'm looking at Borka1 as my third caster in my lineup, so I wanted to play with it and see how it went.
My first reaction was "Shit," because it's Gaspy2, and I had a lot of infantry vulnerable to Bile Thralls. I didn't have much denial (a la pGrim), and I knew that I'd have a ton of vulnerability to purges. I started trying to ration out in my brain how much damage I needed to do and how I needed to initiate the piece trade, and I didn't feel amazing about it.
However, I did feel great about one thing - if I could minimize the Bile Thralls, he didn't have great hitting odds elsewhere. The Fenns were DEF 17 against charges with Iron Flesh, which (even with Tartarus) was long odds to hit. Borka himself could put his defense to stupid levels, and Gaspy's feat, while always scary, wasn't as intimidating as it might have been had I run a high ARM skew.
My initial plan in running this list was to make Borka go "Super Solo" with Swarm on him and make him nigh unkillable. I switched back to Conservative Borka mode, instead, playing to try to keep a good attrition pace and get good piece trades. His feat is devastasting, but only once per game, so if I could try to force him to feat to clear infantry rather than to go all in on Borka or a beast, I felt good.
Although... Seriously, what the hell? Clouds, Excarnate with Biles, Parasite, and the Feat? That's an intimidating freaking package to look at.
Deployment: I decided to play conservative, and maybe try to sneak a few scenario points from my own zone. I put Borka with his beasts mostly there, central Fenns, central Dygs, and SoB right side with the champs. Krielstone was central just behind.
His deployment, he put the Thralls threatening my zone, Witches on his zone, and Knights central, with Nodes to either side. Tartarus went on the side where he could get my Dygs and Fenns.
I put the Burrowers under, and the Fenns ran most of the way up, although I concaved a bit to be wary of the Biles. I wanted to play it cautiously to be as careful as possible. The SoB and Champs went up to threaten the other zone, staying cautious. Borka put 5 on the Stone and Iron Flesh on the Fenns.
He rolled straight forward, setting up all his angles for other turns. An Arced Excarnate got a SoBragg that I left about half an inch outside my Krielstone and half an inch too far forward (good job to me!). Failed Tough, add a Bile. Doh. Other than that, all running.
I made a mistake here, and got a little too aggressive with my Dygmies. I put them all way forward, and left about 5-6 in Purge range. I should have been more cautious and put a few up for messing with his angles, but the rest back out of Purge, or forcing an awkward one. My mistake. I did clear out about 4 Knights, 2 Thralls, and 2 Witches with my Dygmies, so... Jesus. Their dice went stupid. I cleared a few other Thralls with the Fenn minifeat + Charge, added more to the stone, and put IF on the Fenns. Charge me, fool!
He used Gaspy's Soul Collector Thingy to put down a pie that got 5-6 Dygmies, and ended up after Purges (all of this central to the board) getting 7 extra Souls, ouch. Bad placement is bad on my part. He pulled an Excarnate somewhere, set Gaspy back to safety, and then did some SoB damage with Witches. The Banes all missed Fenn attacks because IF + Set Defense, thankfully.
From here on out it's some awkward trading. I tried to clear my zone but one Thrall went on a Tough spree, leaving a single Thrall in the zone. I landed some objective damage, but nothing much, while I just kept holding a contesting angle on the other zone. I coulda gone up 2-0 without the toughs and better target priority, but that was my own mistake. Shoulda-coulda-woulda.
He kept on whittling away at me, and positioned Gaspy to try to start dominating his side. I toughed out just enough, though, and he couldn't clear it. He whittled most of the Fenns and got Purges on my Stone, but Tough rocks.
I cleared the zone and dominated here, and went into Borka with IF mode. Didn't quite get to the objective, but I set myself in good position. I offered up the Axer as feat-bait for him; I didn't want to lose it, really, but it was a better loss than the Mauler based on board position. He retaliated by clearing his zone and jamming mine, so we went to 1-1. Critically, however, he left Gaspy on the corner of the zone closest to me.
I was low on time here, so I went for the kill. I finagled things around a bit, got lucky blast damage and offed an arc node in the way, put up Mosh Pit, and the Swamp Troll got the dice to drag in Gaspy. A Krielstone grunt needed a 10 to hit on him and got it (holy hell), and then the Axer got Raged from the Mauler and ended Gaspy's night with a few attacks to the head.
Post-Game: I got really lucky in a few places, including my opponents inexperience with Gaspy and not using Clouds. Those woulda really, really hurt me. That said, I made my own errors that he exploited, such as bad Dygmy positioning, that gave him some major momentum. We both had inexperience with our lists, and it showed.
That said, I really, really liked aspects of my list. The Fenns got major mileage, and earned their points back easily in the Thralls and Knights because of being hard to hit. I didn't use the SoB very well, honestly; I should've put the Dygs more on one side and the SoB behind them, but that was my mistake. The Satyxis are an eternal problem because of Incorp, but unfortunately since I deployed first, I wasn't able to bring all I wanted to bear there.
Also, I think I should've used Borka more aggressively, probably going after his zone and setting more forces to defend my zone. I think, had I done that, I might've honestly been able to clear and dominate - my infantry clearing was fairly solid, and I could mess with his ability to hit me big time. That would've put serious pressure on him very quickly.
An OK win, though; we both played a bit awkwardly because of new lists. I think I want to shift my list a bit to try to bring in more spot-removal, such as maybe Impaler and some shooting (Saxon or Alten?) to try to clear those long threats. If I coulda taken out the Biles (or at least most of them), I would've removed a huge set of threats to my guys.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Take Your Soul Back from Cryx!
Continuing from Part 1, in this part I'll delve into the pieces Trolls have that I feel line up particularly well against the Dragonfather's forces. No list builds, because in all honesty, these are out there in spades, but just an assessment of pieces.
Casters
So, taking a few of these ideas into consideration, the next obvious question is where to start caster-wise. Some of our casters simply manage this better than others. I would argue against a brick-style build - such as a Runes of War, or the Miserable Meat Mountain - particularly because it gives the opponent some high value targets to hit. Cryx, more than most any faction, loves to see high value, lower DEF, even high ARM targets, because they can and will crack it with Banes, Parasite, Scything Touch, etc. Even Mulg, the king of our beasts, can fall when a 5 ARM swing brings him down to effective ARM 18 (assuming Earthborn and Krielstone) so he's only being hit at D-5 and 6. It takes fewer shots than you'd think on a charge to finish that.
I won't go through every caster, but here are a few highlights for me:
Grim Angus (prime): Sweeeeeet! Grim brings to the table elements you really, really want here: he can disable Special Attacks with his feat (Purge), he slows down the opponent on the way in with the feat, he can remove key targets himself from 17" away (23" with his advance), and he drops DEF remarkably. Grim turns on pretty much every element we have that you can want him to here. Additionally, he has ways of removing Stealth and Incorp, plus he can give Hunter, which can aid in board position.
Hunters Grim: I'm starting to really see it with these guys. His feat gives our guns snipe, he has Mortality so he can shut down Tough or bring down the armor of models such as Knights, and his feat brings our shooting into a good hitting range, needing 5's or 6's much of the time. Less with a good aiming bonus. Additionally, he can use Mage Sight to see key portions of the field (although this is limited), and Mirage can un-engage our forces to allow better use of guns, better field positioning, etc.
Calandra: Against a lot of Cryx armies, Star Crossed can help a lot. Their MAT values are OK, but SC can help keep unexpected models alive. This declines with Tartarus or Skarre's Dark Guidance, but definitely has merits. Additionally, her ability to grant rerolls help ensure that we're hitting and getting the damage we need to where we need it.
Jarl: I pointed out earlier that Grim can spot remove. As long as it's not Stealth, Jarl does it as well or better. RNG 16 shots, Swift Hunter, and Magic Bullet put your shots where you need them. His spell list helps get your army into their lines faster - useful with models like Fennblades if you want to jam to bring up other models - or repositions to minimize damage. His feat is OK against Cryx, but not wonderful. Blocking off LOS for a turn is absolutely nice, for sure, but it stinks that the -2 doesn't work. Definitely don't overlook him, however; he has some very interesting abilities, and he himself can do work turn after turn against Cryx.
pGrissel: Grissel presents a somewhat interesting case. She wants to hit the board with infantry, which isn't always wonderful against some Cryxian lists, but she has some brutal denial and shutdown abilities - particularly Cacophany - that can hose a lot of their lists by preventing them from receiving orders. I like Grissel a lot here; the right list builds can really cause a ton of problems for Cryx.
Units/Solos/Beasts:
Fenns/Kriels/Scouts/Burrowers: All of these have their pluses. I would add to this any cheap Minion units, too, that won't cost you a lot. These trade up fairly easily because they have low points value, although they're all susceptible to Bile Thralls, too. YMMV. But they should definitely be mentioned because their fairly steady game generally works just fine against Cryx.
Scattergunners: These boys can do WORK. Their RAT 5 is generally not nearly as bad against the DEF 12 you'll see with Cryx, Quick Work and Clear can get them unjammed, and POW 12 is reliable kills on most Cryxian models. Susceptible to the Raiders, but that's not precisely uncommon. Particularly with the Grims, these boys can do some serious work.
Storm Troll: Oh yea. C'mere boy, lemme get some electro-leapin' action. The Storm's POW 10 on his shot or on his animus are relatively reliable kills against most Cryxian infantry, doubling the work our models can do. Bonus points here for working with the Fennblades; Reach lets you really spread your guys into fantastic positions for good e-Leaps. There's a lot of potential work that can be done here.
Bomber: I'll mention this guy, although he potentially suffers a bit. He's got POW 8 blast damage, but that's far from guaranteed against Banes, doesn't work until the Sea Witch is out, and Incorp is a thing on the Blood Witches. So... It's awkward. He can do work, but you really may need to give him a little help. Bonus points for eGrim, where Mortality - if landed - makes him POW 10 blast, so Banes start getting a little nervy.
There are a number of other pieces that can work - arguably the Blitzer has ways to do work, and Runeshapers are relatively cheap options that have a good amount of utility also. Bushwhackers could also potentially do work, if you can mitigate RAT problems, since POW 10's will be relatively fine against most Cryx models.
If you're interested in seeing some serious anti-Cryx tech, look up Jason Flanzer's WMW 2013 pGrim list, or look for Chad Shonkwiler's pGrissel list. Both of these have serious game against Cryx; Flanzer relied on Scattergunners and Grim's spell list + feat to buy himself time, while Chad's liberal use of Cacophany helps limit Cryxian retaliation. Plus, with Chad, you can see Long Riders used in a near perfect manner, being bounced in and out to wreak havoc and prevent retaliation.
These are just some early thoughts; there's plenty of other ways to go about it. In theorycrafting, I would argue pDoomshaper has game, too, outside of Runes of War - the flaw to this is that I think it starts negating some of Doomy's best assets, which lie in his anti-Hordes game and the fact that Runes is a brutally well-tuned list.
That's just some thoughts; as always, email me if you're curious or disagree, and I'll be glad to discuss. Keep on Trollin'!
Casters
So, taking a few of these ideas into consideration, the next obvious question is where to start caster-wise. Some of our casters simply manage this better than others. I would argue against a brick-style build - such as a Runes of War, or the Miserable Meat Mountain - particularly because it gives the opponent some high value targets to hit. Cryx, more than most any faction, loves to see high value, lower DEF, even high ARM targets, because they can and will crack it with Banes, Parasite, Scything Touch, etc. Even Mulg, the king of our beasts, can fall when a 5 ARM swing brings him down to effective ARM 18 (assuming Earthborn and Krielstone) so he's only being hit at D-5 and 6. It takes fewer shots than you'd think on a charge to finish that.
I won't go through every caster, but here are a few highlights for me:
Grim Angus (prime): Sweeeeeet! Grim brings to the table elements you really, really want here: he can disable Special Attacks with his feat (Purge), he slows down the opponent on the way in with the feat, he can remove key targets himself from 17" away (23" with his advance), and he drops DEF remarkably. Grim turns on pretty much every element we have that you can want him to here. Additionally, he has ways of removing Stealth and Incorp, plus he can give Hunter, which can aid in board position.
Hunters Grim: I'm starting to really see it with these guys. His feat gives our guns snipe, he has Mortality so he can shut down Tough or bring down the armor of models such as Knights, and his feat brings our shooting into a good hitting range, needing 5's or 6's much of the time. Less with a good aiming bonus. Additionally, he can use Mage Sight to see key portions of the field (although this is limited), and Mirage can un-engage our forces to allow better use of guns, better field positioning, etc.
Calandra: Against a lot of Cryx armies, Star Crossed can help a lot. Their MAT values are OK, but SC can help keep unexpected models alive. This declines with Tartarus or Skarre's Dark Guidance, but definitely has merits. Additionally, her ability to grant rerolls help ensure that we're hitting and getting the damage we need to where we need it.
Jarl: I pointed out earlier that Grim can spot remove. As long as it's not Stealth, Jarl does it as well or better. RNG 16 shots, Swift Hunter, and Magic Bullet put your shots where you need them. His spell list helps get your army into their lines faster - useful with models like Fennblades if you want to jam to bring up other models - or repositions to minimize damage. His feat is OK against Cryx, but not wonderful. Blocking off LOS for a turn is absolutely nice, for sure, but it stinks that the -2 doesn't work. Definitely don't overlook him, however; he has some very interesting abilities, and he himself can do work turn after turn against Cryx.
pGrissel: Grissel presents a somewhat interesting case. She wants to hit the board with infantry, which isn't always wonderful against some Cryxian lists, but she has some brutal denial and shutdown abilities - particularly Cacophany - that can hose a lot of their lists by preventing them from receiving orders. I like Grissel a lot here; the right list builds can really cause a ton of problems for Cryx.
Units/Solos/Beasts:
Fenns/Kriels/Scouts/Burrowers: All of these have their pluses. I would add to this any cheap Minion units, too, that won't cost you a lot. These trade up fairly easily because they have low points value, although they're all susceptible to Bile Thralls, too. YMMV. But they should definitely be mentioned because their fairly steady game generally works just fine against Cryx.
Scattergunners: These boys can do WORK. Their RAT 5 is generally not nearly as bad against the DEF 12 you'll see with Cryx, Quick Work and Clear can get them unjammed, and POW 12 is reliable kills on most Cryxian models. Susceptible to the Raiders, but that's not precisely uncommon. Particularly with the Grims, these boys can do some serious work.
Storm Troll: Oh yea. C'mere boy, lemme get some electro-leapin' action. The Storm's POW 10 on his shot or on his animus are relatively reliable kills against most Cryxian infantry, doubling the work our models can do. Bonus points here for working with the Fennblades; Reach lets you really spread your guys into fantastic positions for good e-Leaps. There's a lot of potential work that can be done here.
Bomber: I'll mention this guy, although he potentially suffers a bit. He's got POW 8 blast damage, but that's far from guaranteed against Banes, doesn't work until the Sea Witch is out, and Incorp is a thing on the Blood Witches. So... It's awkward. He can do work, but you really may need to give him a little help. Bonus points for eGrim, where Mortality - if landed - makes him POW 10 blast, so Banes start getting a little nervy.
There are a number of other pieces that can work - arguably the Blitzer has ways to do work, and Runeshapers are relatively cheap options that have a good amount of utility also. Bushwhackers could also potentially do work, if you can mitigate RAT problems, since POW 10's will be relatively fine against most Cryx models.
If you're interested in seeing some serious anti-Cryx tech, look up Jason Flanzer's WMW 2013 pGrim list, or look for Chad Shonkwiler's pGrissel list. Both of these have serious game against Cryx; Flanzer relied on Scattergunners and Grim's spell list + feat to buy himself time, while Chad's liberal use of Cacophany helps limit Cryxian retaliation. Plus, with Chad, you can see Long Riders used in a near perfect manner, being bounced in and out to wreak havoc and prevent retaliation.
These are just some early thoughts; there's plenty of other ways to go about it. In theorycrafting, I would argue pDoomshaper has game, too, outside of Runes of War - the flaw to this is that I think it starts negating some of Doomy's best assets, which lie in his anti-Hordes game and the fact that Runes is a brutally well-tuned list.
That's just some thoughts; as always, email me if you're curious or disagree, and I'll be glad to discuss. Keep on Trollin'!
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