For my regular Wednesday gaming at Game Theory, I played against Andy, one of our local Legion of Everblight players. He was wanting to test a new list, trying out the new pThagrosh tier list (New Blood from No Quarter 50), and I'm continuing my testing of my Hunters Grim list, trying to decide if I like its current incarnation, or if I have any improvements I would like to test.
Andy's list, as best as I can reassemble it:
Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight (*5pts)
* Carnivean (11pts)
* Scythean (9pts)
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Beast Mistress (3pts)
* Harrier (2pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Stinger (2pts)
Beast Mistress (3pts)
* Harrier (2pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Stinger (2pts)
Beast Mistress (3pts)
* Harrier (2pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Stinger (2pts)
My Hunter's Grim list remains the same as previous efforts; I may change some pieces, but I want to playtest it thoroughly in a variety of games before I draw any conclusions.
Hunters Grim (*4pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Pyg Bushwackers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Fennblade Kithkar (2pts)
Professor Victor Pendrake (2pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
Unfortunately, I'm writing this battle report a week after the fact, rather than the fairly immediate writing I would like to do, so the details are fuzzy; this may be more of a summary than a true report. Scenario was Supply and Demand; the objectives had no real effect on the game except getting in my way!
Early highlights: I went first, running up the board and advancing an Axer too far up the board, trying to be aggressive to bring him into the game early. The Dygmies went under, otherwise I kept a fairly central presence with a wide spread.
Andy moved up a Vessel, brought out a Stinger onto a Beast Mistress, and landed a pair of Stingers onto my Axer, leaving me an Axer short as of the bottom of round 1, a beast that would have been extremely useful across the rest of the game.
The Dygmies came up and with help blew up all three Spawning Vessels, which I had decided I needed to remove from the board to minimize his recursion throughout the game, and landed damage on the Scythean despite Spiny Growth, and I did some other tertiary damage. I did not move Grim far enough to land a Mortality, or I would have nigh-crippled the Scythean. I placed other random damage, and boxed some lessers in. Additionally, I didn't spread the Fennblades enough and left some of them in bad positions.
Andy retaliated, removing most of my Dygmies and Fennblades, and we banged out several turns of attrition. I removed the Scythean from the board but it came back from the feat, and Andy was able to put scenario pressure with a domination and objective destruction. On my last turn, I forgot to move the Mauler into the zone as I should have, preventing me from contesting with it, and letting Andy clear a single Fennblade to win the game.
I learned a few key lessons from this game, though; one is the brutal attrition of pThagrosh. Andy hasn't played him very regularly, so I simply was not aware of how nasty he can be. I learned a lesson from this game, and I have a better awareness now of what he brings to the table, as well as how hard it can be to remove him and his beasts.
Additionally, I need to bring more aggressive pressure with my beasts, particularly my Mauler and Axers, and be careful not to lose an Axer stupidly. There was no gain from my early Axer loss, and my Mauler was so far back as to be out of the game for the majority. Instead, I can use my Mauler's Rage animus and Grim to hand out Rage to key Fennblades for charges, bringing them to PS 15, or PS 17 effective with Mortality, which can do a lot of the needed damage while keeping my key pieces safe.
I also thing going for the pots may not have been the correct decision. Removing Andy's recursion was helpful, but I think that trying to force an early feat by removing a heavy from the board may have been better. If I can land a Mortality, the Dygmies guns are at dice - 4 effectively on a Spiny Growth'd beast, meaning the unit can potentially remove a heavy. That may be a more effective goal, as the trade of Thags feat for Dygmies is a fairly good one. If I can clear charge lanes for the Fennblades with my Dygmy placement, I bring additional pressure.
Andy played a very good game and taught me a couple of key lessons; I think the list is running nearly how I would like for it to, but I need to practice it more and figure out the wrinkles.
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