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.
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