I got some extra time off work this week, and went down to Liam's place with Keith and Will for a little bit of extra table time. I learn some of the best information about my lists from gaming at Liam's, and I've probably made more progress as a player from that than any other time.
Liam wanted to test out Magnus the Warlord's Bad Seeds tier from No Quarter 36, figuring out if he wants that as one of his competitive lists going forward. His list (as always, as best as I can figure it out) was:
Magnus the Warlord (*6pts)
* Renegade (6pts)
* Renegade (6pts)
* Mangler (8pts)
* Mule (8pts)
Rangers (5pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trencher Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* 2 Trencher Infantry Grenadier (2pts)
* Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper (3pts)
Kell Bailoch (0pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
Trencher Master Gunner (2pts)
The Trencher infantry may be a hair off; something doesn't seem quite right, but I'm not sure I have the points precisely right. I ran my Hunters Grim list again, in my continuing effort to try this as an all-comers list. It has been described in my previous posts, so I'll save space on listing it.
Similar to my game with Andy, the scenario was Supply and Demand. I took my normal deployment of central Fennblades and Burrowers, Axer on either flank, Bushwhackers to a flank, and everything else fairly central with the Fenns.
Liam's jacks went central, Kell off to my right flank, the Rangers ended up on my left flank, Saxon and the Sword Knights ambushed, and the Trenchers went mostly central too.
We each had some careful advancing up the board, wary of being shot up too early. Liam knocked off a couple of Bushwhackers early with Rangers, and the Trenchers advanced carefully into the zone with Dig In. My Dygmies emerged and shot up a Mule and Renegade, taking out of much of the Mule and a chunk of the Renegade; again, I forgot to move Grim up far enough to lay out a Turn 2 Mortality. This recurring mistake may have cost me destroying the Mule, unfortunately. I sent some Fennblades in to do supporting damage, but didn't cause any major casualties for Liam.
Most of my Dygmies got killed off and more than half my Fenns on the next turn, as Liam took advantage of his heavy combined arms approach to reduce my numbers. He plugged the objective with a couple of Renegade shots to remove it, and placed scattered damage around, as well as getting Ambushing Sword Knights onto my Axer.
I was able over the next couple of turns to remove most of his jacks and to whittle his numbers down, but it had come at too high a cost; I was running out of pieces. His Trenchers were still on the board, and I simply couldn't do anything about it. The game ended officially when I clocked; I was slow on my early turns, and couldn't make up for it later, and he won 1-0 on scenario/clock.
Again, as with the game with Andy, the details are a little hazy, and I'm working on trying to be a little smoother on my reporting, so I'm glossing over details. My unhappiest mistake was a repeat of a previous one; I feel like I need to be more aware of getting Grim up the board for Mortality. I could consider the Bone Grinders, but I would actually like to build in more combat pieces currently, and those are decidedly support.
Additionally, I think I focused too much on his jacks, and not enough on infantry removal. I feel like I should have put more emphasis on removing some of his infantry, which chewed chunks through my Dygmies and Fenns. If I could have reduced his volume of attacks, I might have gotten better clogging on the board, although I'm not 100% sure. That's simply theorycraft.
Also, I let 8 points of Sword Knights + Saxon tie up 2-3 Fennblades, a Stone Scribe Chronicler, Fell Caller, Axer, and (somewhat) Bushwhackers. Liam got the better trade in this situation, preventing me from bringing more to bear on the center of the board. I may wish to keep the Axers a little more central to threaten into the center of the board; one Axer was a consistent threat on one side of the board all game, but the other Axer bogged down clearing Sword Knights, which was an unfavorable exchange I think over the game.
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