Battle Report 6-11-13, Trolls vs. Menoth

My List:

Jarl Skuld
-Runebearer
-Rok
-Impaler
Horgle Ironstrike
-Slag Troll
Wrongeye
-Snapjaw
max Gatorman Posse
Sons of Bragg
Swamp Gobbers
Alten Ashley
Totem Hunter

Opponents List:

pSeverius
-Hierophant
-Blessing of Vengeance
-Devout
-Vanquisher
Exemplar Errants with UA
Knights Exemplar
max Flameguard w/ UA
min Choir
Nicia
Vassal of Menoth
(maybe one more solo?)

Scenario: Center circular zone, objectives on either diagonal corner (my near left, my far right)

Terrain: Forest on either diagonal corner (my near left, my far right side) of the zone, over the objectives.  Hill in center of zone.

I won the roll to choose and elected to go first.  Jarl went a little off center to get behind the forest, the SoB spread wide, with Horgle & Slag next to WE&SJ on the right side.  Gatormen were central, Rok and Impaler trailing a little behind everything else.  Totem Hunter was on the far right flank.

He put the Flameguard and Knights Exemplar going directly into the center of the zone, the Exemplars coming through the forest on his side (near his objective), and his jacks central-right.  Nicia was right side.  I chose his Errants for prey.

I just ran my guys up to get into good contesting/charging positions, using the forest to cover Jarl.  The Gators got Quicken, Jarl got Tac Supremacy, and the SoB got Weald Secrets.  I set up so that the gators had ridiculously long charges and easy angles next turn, with their extra 2" on living charges + quicken.

He brought the Flameguard and the Exemplar up near the zone, while the Errants moved through the woods.  His jacks went mostly behind the forest to protect from ranged shots.  He didn't Shield Wall the Flameguard, instead just running them up.

Since the turns are a little blurred, I spent my first turn chewing apart Flameguard, shooting him down several of them and throwing 2 Gators into them, partially to stall up the Exemplar behind them.  I forgot to feat, however, and lost 2 of my 3 SoB and 3 Gators to the retaliation, which I could have reduced likely to 2 Gators with a decent feat placement.  Crap.
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I chewed all the Knights off the board with my next round, reducing him to errants, and he kept retaliating using Ashes to Ashes through Blessing, whittling away at my guys.  Ashes was his crutch spell the whole game, using it to send a lot of damage into my guys.  Snapjaw took the brunt of the entire beating, but I held him up using Life Drinker and Errants.  Ashes worked down my army slowly but surely, particularly when I failed to get Blessing off the board, leaving me in a bad spot.

Horgle and the Slag were huge the whole game; they plowed a good amount of damage, and key shots, wherever needed.  Jarl, though, was wonderful, picking off 3-4 guys per turn usually between his shots and Magic Bullet.  I was able to use him to chew apart the enemy along with Alten, and Jarl put a pair of gunshots into Sevvy, ending the game with a win for me!

I actually played poorly, which is part of why this is a vague account.  I missed obvious chances to get scenario points by clearing the zone, instead choosing to put shots into bad model choices, when I could have started the scenario pressure much earlier and easier.

However, I'm getting happier with the Jarl list; it's not quite there, but my early playtesting has been extremely successful.