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.
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