WMW Recap: Less on Strategy, More on Play Habits

Well, I'm only a couple of weeks late in recapping WMW!

This year was my first visit to the convention, and it was an absolute blast.  Luckily, we had an easy time with flights, hotels, and all the essentials of getting there, so I was able to go in on a low stress, focus on having fun note.  For a brief recap of LCQ games:

Round 1 was Butcher3 vs. Doomy3 with Destruction.  I blew game one because I made order of activation mistakes, got rattled, and make stupid decisions that ended up feeding Butcher3 one piece after another for no gain.  I wasn't aggressive enough on my feat turn, when I had the potential to clear out nearly or all of an IFP unit and maybe take zone control.

Round 2 was Carver vs. Doomy3, and it ended all in favor of D3.  Only the Dygmies were lost.  Scenario was Recon, and I just took command of the zone and he didn't have enough to break me.

Round 3 was Fire Support, Bradigus vs. Doomy3.  I got to play Josh Wheeler of Chain Attack, giving me a game against a prominent podcaster for the weekend - a side goal!  I'm not sure I played correctly into Brad, but I broke 2 sets of stones top of 2 and essentially killed a Watcher (also feat turn), then Admonitioned Mulg out on an order of activations error on his part and he couldn't get to him due to broken stones.  From there, I got the heavies down and simply ground the game out.

Round 4 was Close Quarters, Kreoss2 Tier vs. Doomy3.  Shoulda taken pGrissel, but it turned out OK!  Calculated to approximately 90 points of healing across the course of this game, including the Mauler to 3 at one point, and back up to 20 by the end.   He jammed into me but I was able to use Whelps and the Storm Troll to contest (they died) but it bought me enough time to clear his army.  Because we were X-1 and couldn't go to Top 8 probably, he just went into me on my feat turn to see how bad it was.  It was even worse than he expected.  Also, I was aggressive enough on my feat to remove more than half of his army, which was huge.

Round 5 was Incursion, Butcher2 Dogs of War vs. pGrissel.  I got rolled pretty badly - I was doing OK removing guys, but I hadn't played pGrissel enough and I had a lot of order of activation trouble, clock trouble, etc.  I just didn't do a good job of managing my attacks and placements, and I ended up getting rolled pretty hard.  My opponent did a good job of taking advantage of my inexperience with my own list - and against his - and he easily won.

So, I learned a few key lessons.

Lesson 1: I'm going to pick 2-3 lists for the coming 6 months (or at least for the Jan - June period) and stick on them.  Currently I'm trying Gunny and either Madrak2 or pGrissel, one of the two.  I want to get months of reps in with them so I know my own lists as well as I can manage.

Lesson 2: Get Timed Turns reps in.  I hate Timed Turns, I really don't like the style, but I need the practice.  It should make me an overall better player, too, but I definitely need to work on it.

Lesson 3: Force the scenario more often.  I had multiple times in LCQ or other games where I should have put scenario pressure, and I didn't.  I need to get the hang of putting on better scenario pressure and trying to ride that out to victory.  Scenario play is still a major weakness; I focus too much on tabling the opponent and then using scenario to close out after the table is clear.  I had multiple times over the weekend where, had I simply slammed my army/caster in to one scenario point and chased that, I could have easily won.

Outside of these games, I got in a game with Josh of Muse on Minis also, and games against the Atlanta players Akira and Stephen.  All 3 of them were absolute pleasures to play, and I had a great time getting to know them.  Hopefully I'll be taking trips down there in the near future to get in some more practice, since I learned a lot in all the games.

Doomshaper 3: More Games Played, More to Conclude

Just a continuation of my thoughts on Doomshaper 3, thus far!

This post is a little less focused than others, and is primarily to make some observations about Doomshaper.  I'm enjoying him greatly so far, but I've definitely seen some trends that I need to start getting used to.  So here we go!

Thought #1:
I need to choose my targets wisely.  I know that's not much of a statement, coming from a beast heavy list, but I'm not really used to it that much at this point, coming from more infantry heavy lists.  In recent games, that's been a little bit of a problem,and I need to smooth that out.  The feat gives me a little bit of leeway, meaning that I can make some poor choices, but I need to be better about prioritizing.

Thought #2:
Most games, you need to feat aggressively.  That MAT 6 for Trolls can be a real holdback in some cases; it's unfortunate, but it keeps coming up.  I've been learning to position aggressively so that I can get the feat burned on a turn I really have a chance to dig in with the boosted attacks.  The Mauler gets really stupid on that turn, and Mulg is himself, of course.  Interesting, I'm starting to think that a non-tier list with Rok has potential to give a strong infantry clear AND a strong beater.  However, it loses out on some serious benefits, and I'm not 100% sure it shouldn't be a Doomy2 list instead for Refuge and Wild Aggression.  Still, thoughts to consider.

Thought #3:
The feat doesn't want to just be aggressive in terms of offensive output; the more I've played it, the more I think, especially against an infantry army relying on charges, you REALLY want to jam your guys into their face.  Get every bit of pressure you can going, really.  I learned some major lessons in my game against Liam, including that I really, really wish I had simply slammed my entire freaking army into his face on the feat turn and dug in, went hot on fury, whatever was necessary to do a ton of work.  I actually lost Mulg on feat turn (fucking Blood Hag is the stupidest damned model around) because I couldn't heal, and it turns out a 5 armor swing from Gaspy1 is a thing.  Had I maybe slammed in a bit harder, screwed up charge angles, etc., I might've been in a better spot.  Hard to tell now, but lessons learned.

And thank you to everyone who doesn't run Gaspy1.  You're making the world a better place for everyone else.  Nobody gives that guy enough credit, really.

Thought #4:
A fast army can put this army on the back foot, and make the positioning game very dicey.  A game with Liam taught me that; running a lot of Cav models, so his threat ranges were all in the 12-13" range or better, put me heavily on the back foot.  I had to be very careful about timing, positioning, etc.  That's where I like some ranged presence, and it's giving me some list thoughts going forward.  It's actually very strange; with the tier and the feat, this list plays like a strange combo of Doomy1 and Doomy2 in some places.

Doomshaper 3: List Thoughts

From thinking, a little table time, and talking with others, I've decided that I think Doomy3 has quite a variety of possibilities to unlock.  I don't think he's list locked into a certain particular list, the way Runes of War essentially is, but I do think he wants to build the vast majority of his army for beasts.  Beasts feel like they tend to synergize best with his set of abilities, particularly the feat, but also his free animus scroll, Admonition, and Implacability.  Additionally, Goad is always useful with Doomshaper.

So here are a few list builds that I've thought up, tried out, talked about or seen.  Some of them I'll leave free points, because I think they'll be "season to taste" lists.  Others I think build pretty tightly.  For a quick reference, tier benefits are as listed:
Tier 1: Army has +2 Armor first round of game
Tier 2: +2 Battlegroup Speed first round
Tier 3: +1 to Starting
Tier 4: -2 points to Gargantuans

I might do more list builds in the future; each one takes up a good bit of space, so I don't want to go beyond 3-4.

Runes of War Doomy3:
Doomshaper + Scroll, Mulg, Earthborn, Mauler, Axer, Janissa, Krielstone, flavor to taste (Runeshapers, Fire Eaters, etc.)

This is the classic Troll beast brick.  It hinges on Janissa, but it's a solid hitting, powerful brick with a lot of armor.  It synergizes well with Doomshapers feat, and it can remove pretty much any piece from the board in one round.

It does suffer from lack of activations, particularly short 2 units of Runeshapers, so every attack has to be valuable.  However, this Mulg is as close to as invincible as this game can introduce, especially on feat turn.  Not much else to say about this; the list speaks for its own style.

Tier 4 Doomshaper: Hail to the (Ice) King Baby
Note: I'm assuming most people will go double Glacier King here.  I'm not 100% certain on whether I like this or Glacier and Mountain; the problem with the Mountain is you're highly reliant on the spray.  And it's 2 points more, but not really better.

Anyway, it's Doomshaper Unit, 2x Ice King, Whelps, max Stone + UA, probably 2x Fire Eaters, and 6 to play with (Axer maybe?).  The unit and last six can be variable, depending on list goals. But this is likely approximately the list you'll see.

This list has the benefit of 16 point GK's, which are pretty much a steal.  However, it's all-in on the Gargantuans and assuming they'll be able to stick around long enough.  Frequently this is true, since it's a lot of boxes at good ARM and the feat, but still worth noting.  With this list, if you don't pick your targets 100% perfectly, you could end up swamped early.  I don't believe it's bad, necessarily, but it will take a very careful amount of testing to make sure this works the way you want.

I can't say much about this, since I've never gone 2x Gargantuan before.  I think it's highly viable, but might suffer in scenario in some cases, and lack of attack volume might result in it being swamped sometimes.

Tier 3 Doomshaper: Movin' On From Runes (My current build)
Doomy Unit, Mulg, Mauler, Axer, Bouncer, either 1 Pyre 1 Storm or 2x Storm, max Stone, 1 unit of Fire Eaters, Whelps

This list still uses some of the Runes of War core, but moves away a little into other beast packages.  It takes advantage of the tier benefits to get board position and claim space, and brings a bit higher volume of attacks, plus the electro leaps from the Storm to help deal with infantry more than other list styles.

It's still reliant on good attack choices being made, but it's not quite as restrictive; it relies heavily on the Storm Troll to get volume out with his shots.  Bouncer could be subbed out for Impaler here and be quite viable, but I went with the Bouncer for protection value and because Bump + Admonition can introduce weird attack angles.

This list doesn't hit as hard as the other two lists, but I think it plays into more matchups, thus far.  The Storms, Axer with Thresher, and Electroleaps can remove a fairly large chunk of models from the board, helping deal with infantry swarming.  I've given some consideration to finding a way to rework the points and possibly try to give Bushwhackers + UA a shot.  It's really weird, but I think it might be able to do a lot of work infantry clearing, or (when needed) flanking hard and shooting support in the back.  I've had good luck with Bushwhackers in this before, so it's under consideration.  The problem is thus far, the points don't add up well.

More to come!

Doomshaper 3: Game Experience

Well, it's been a couple of weeks of theorycrafting and one round of game experience, but I'm back with more thoughts.  So here's a little bit of impression about Doomy3.  I'll probably follow up in a later post with more in depth list thoughts!

Thoughts: Doomshaper is really the biggest weakness of his own list.  I was significantly up in a game versus an Axis tier list, controlling the scenario with all of his heavies dead, and still he was able to pull up a good shot at an assassination run.  Granted, I'd flubbed mine the turn before and made a maneuver that left me open, but I realized very quickly after my opponent started that I could die.  Luckily, free strikes from Mulg, an Axer, and a Mauler were a bit too much for him to overcome (Rage on Mulg and the Mauler, too!)

So this leads to my next thought: Implacability will win games for Doomshaper.  My opponent wanted to set up an Axis assassination run, but the inability to push my warbeasts backwards meant he had to go for a much jankier move around that put him down to his very last attack in our simulated run.  Additionally, Implacability stopped Axis from moving my beasts around with battering ram, AND stopped the Inverter's counter charge.  So... It's huge, at certain times.  Some games it won't matter, but I think it will flat out win some games.

However, there was a notable problem: The only thing that forced my opponent into me in my games was a central scenario.  Had my opponent been in a slower scenario, he could have drawn back and bought time.  The scenario and terrain really set me up for an ideal situation, which was nice, but unreliable at best.

So my next thought: Doomy lacks a way to force an opponent into him.  As much as I enjoyed my Fire Eaters, I think they're not necessarily where I want to go, AND I don't know that I want to stay with the normal "Beast Brick" style that has been heralded via Runes.  While I think this beast brick is effective, I think - from early, snap judgements that I may rethink - Runes does it better due to walls and 8 more points (tier and beast points).

From bouncing ideas off of other players and some suggestions for what else to throw in (Thanks Liam!), I think bringing in a longer ranged game to force the opponent to come meet me is a highly advantageous game plan.  I actually think I want to try Bushwhackers and maybe 1-2 ranged beasts that can get into my opponent to feel as if they have to move in somewhat, and I think it might - in some game situations - allow me to delay my feat one turn.  I think, if you can force a Turn 3 feat from Doomshaper, it will be way more devastating.  I think there are some exceptions, but being able to wait and really put the offensive feat portion to use feels huge.

Finally, and this may shift as I try different list builds and ideas, but I think that Tier - for now - is the way to go.  I don't have double Garg's to try Tier 4, but I think that the +1 to starting and +2 speed are huge.  Going first enables Doomshapers army to get incredibly forward - 21"+ even going first - and to allow zone control.  If the opponent comes in too fast, a feat turn 2 can be devastating.  Not fast enough, and a Turn 3 feat might occur, which has a much higher potential for the offensive portion of the feat to be used.

Once I have a Glacier King, I'll probably try a single GK list; it won't be Tier4, so no point reduction, but I think that the GK plus other beasts to allow zone control and sheer power has a lot of merit.  Post-WMW, I'll probably proxy and try it, but for now I'm just going with what's out (beyond proxying Doomshaper himself!)

Doomshaper 3: Spells, Scrolls, Whelps and Pygs

Continuing with Doomshaper3, I'll provide my thoughts on his spells, his once-per-games (because we needed 3 mini-feats that rivalled top quality spells!), and why the Scroll Bearer looks better than you and your army.

Spell List of Doom: Giving a Troll warbeast Admonition, alone, would have made me ecstatic.  Just imagine killing Mulg when he can bounce away from your location and get into a more awkward spot.  Or moving Doomshaper out of the assassination run, or closer to Mulg so he can get those Protective Fit swings.  All I have to say is: Giggity.

The cherry on top?  Implacability.  A brand new spell that basically means that Troll beast line you see is not moving.  So g'luck with that one, buddy.  No knocking Mulg or Doomy down to prevent the Admonition or Protective Fit, now.  Kreoss1?  Aww, you're cute, buddy.  Gimme a hug.  Doomy ain't going down that easy.

In all honesty, Implacability would only be an OK spell, except one critical fact: It's NOT an upkeep, so all those Purification casters are stuck with it.  Eiryss2 can't clear it for Haley TK's.  Sure, you have to cast it every turn, but there is almost no reason not to in a matchup where it's useful.  Some games it will never come up, obviously; it may only be a 30-40% use.  But certain matchups that give Trolls problems - Krueger2, for example - are now brutally harder on the Krueger player, in combination with the feat particularly. 

The rest of the spells are interesting supplements.  Stranglehold makes its return as one of the best "shitty nukes"; any time you can force half of an action to be forfeited is pretty sexy.  Repudiate is what Purification probably should be - or at least many of the casters with Purification should probably have this instead.

The spell with probably the highest highs and lowest lows is Unminding.  Unminding is probably a 15-20% spell, at best.  Probably even less a lot of the time.  But it may be a game winner sometimes, for the sheer combination of abilities it contains.  Reducing a beast by 2 fury is already outstanding; stealing their animus is just a cherry on top.  Against Hordes, it means that Doomshaper's capabilities get strangely unpredictable; he may be stealing that Rush to deny it to the opponent, or Sprint to send Mulg to strange places.  Repulse could be a surprising benefit sometimes, for surprise scenario wins.  It gives a strange amount of flexibility for Doomy into Hordes, which I find highly fascinating and fun-sounding to play.

Scroll Bearer: First off, this may be one of my favorite models, visually.  It screams out everything I love about Trolls - the goofy sense of humor, the scroll/pseudo-tribal aesthetic, and the fact that even our whelps stand up and scream at you.  I love this little guy.


From a control standpoint, his set of abilities are quite excellent.  Hand of Yolandi, in particular, feels like it can be used to control the field at a pivotal moment; for example, if you need to overextend or put Doomshaper a little further forward against a caster like Sorscha2 or Butcher3.  Hand ensures that he's burning nearly his entire stack just to move himself or other models (Energizer/Impending), and removes much of the fury efficiency of Flashing Blade, or can be used to exert heavy control over low fury casters particularly.

The other two scrolls both have an, "Expend this to up the brutality of your alpha" feeling.  They don't provide the direct control characteristic of the rest of Doom3, but instead help keep fury costs lower for a turn, or ensure that you do maximum damage on turns when you need it.  Any model with sprays or multiple attacks feels likely to benefit particularly; Champions also come to mind and fit well with his tanky theme, although benefitting less from his other abilities.

These scrolls, in a fashion, feel as if they give Doomshaper 3 a similar feel to Grissel, but tailored to a different set of conditions and matchups.  The 3 minifeats combined feel somewhat less than Grissels feat - but they're not even the full feat, just additional "use as needed" abilities!  Doomshaper feels as if he has roughly 2-2.5 feats across the game based on these scrolls, which I think help him deal with the fact that his spell list has a few spells that are highly situational.

Up next, thoughts on matchups and army compositions!

Doomshaper 3 Spoilers: First Thoughts and Feat

Caveat: This post may need to be updated to reflect any possible changes/incorrect spoilers.  Not expected, but just in case :)  This series will be in multiple parts to break it into slightly more manageable chunks.  I am combining the Feat with the First Thoughts, because quite frankly, my first thoughts came from this feat, before I ever saw the spell list, and I was already drooling.

So... The angry, human-hating shaman returns in all his battlegroup-supporting glory.  And it's one hell of a return.

I'll avoid precise spoilers, because they're easily available a number of other places, so I'll simply assume that readers can go elsewhere.  Instead, I'll attempt to concentrate on impressions, and a bit of theorycrafting, for our upcoming Troll overlord.  From my initial thoughts and views, I feel that Doomshaper has some very obvious ways he can be played, including the traditional beast brick, but I feel like this might miss viable alternatives.

First Thoughts: PP wants Trolls to play more beasts.  Hands down, I cannot draw any other conclusion from this.  It seems clear that Privateer Press wants to emphasize beasts more within the faction, especially when taken in consideration with epic Borka.  My guess would be that the designers have looked at the Troll lists/lineup, and felt there was an overreliance on Runes of War and infantry swarms, and sought to correct this.

I know that the design of characters occurs long before public playing, but I can't help but see Doomshaper as, in some ways, an evolution/improvement on Borka2.  His feat doesn't stop opposing armies cold (rimshot) in the same manner, but I think his play initially seems more dynamic from my first impressions, largely because of the sheer power of his spell list, and the brutal nature of his feat.

His Field Marshal feels like a nice, supplementary set of healing in addition to normal Troll healing.  If you don't get our beasts off the table, between natural Regen and Hyper Regen, given a couple of a turns a beast could be back up to half health from being nearly dead.  And that should frighten a lot of opponents.

As always with Doomshaper, Goad is wonderful.  It gives an unpredictable edge to otherwise frequently static Troll threats and angles, which often sets up assassinations or helps preserve our beasts.

Feat: How did we get a 3 for 1 feat?  I don't know, but I love it.  Boosting our melee attacks was already a huge boon to fury efficiency, mitigating very average attack values (5-6 is our average outside of Mulg and Rok).  Now, we can focus more heavily on inflicting maximum damage, providing us with more high-value attacks.

Additionally, we take the already hardy Troll beast package, and it takes LESS DAMAGE?  Holy. Crap.  Quite frankly, this seemed unbelievable when I saw it.  And then - the beasts heal when damaged?  That seemed beyond insane.  This feat - with some help from Implacable, particularly - screams at me they they want beasts on the table.  Some of our lights are essentially unkillable by heavies now, which blows me away.  Mulg, Clyde (EBDT), or our Gargantuans?  Nigh immortal, short of Silence of Death or the very highest Synergy chains.

Doomshaper brought the Dire Trolls to the Kriels.  Now, I think PP wants Trollblood players to unleash the beasts of war onto Immoren with Doomshaper3.

Next: Spell List and Scrolls (Or: How Whelps Look More Awesome Than Your Army)

Trolls vs. Cygnar, 12-18-2014

I'm back!  Going to try (again) to be more brief; writing long posts was part of what wore me out I think, and got me a little less likely to post.  So here goes!

My List:
Jarl
-Rune
-Impaler
-Bomber
Horgle
-Slag Troll
Highwaymen + Braylen
Warders
SoBragg
Swamp Gobbers
Chronicler
Totem Hunter

His List:
Stryker2
-Squire
-Stormclad
-2x Sentinel
2x max Stormlances
Stormblades
-UA + 1 WA
Stormblades
2x Stormblade Captain

Scenario: Close Quarters

Terrain: Forest touching my flag, forest just on the other side of his.  Hill on his side opposite my flag, hill on my side opposite his flag.  Random obstruction in the middle.

Quick Assessment: Lots of infantry for me to kill!  Not so fond of the Deflection, though, since that'll put especially the Stormlances in an awkward spot to kill.  19 ARM + 5 boxes leaves only the Bomber as reliable at ranged, really.  And he's got a lot of heavy hitting, so my Warders are probably forfeit.

Deployment: I put the Highwaymen to the left with Braylen and Horgle & co.  Bomber, Jarl, and Rune went right, Warders central, SoBragg far right (near the forest) with the Totem Hunter.  Chronicler behind the Warders and Highwaymen.

All his Stormblades were in 2 clumps centrally with Stryker.  The Stormclad was line up with his flag, Sentinels to either side, Stryker with the Stormclad, and the Stormlances hard to either flank.

Game Time: This section will be a little different than previous writings.  I'm going to be a little more succinct about the happenings.

We both ran up, mostly, in Round 1.  I'd preyed one unit of Stormblades, and he kept them back to deny the Prey bonus.  On Turn 2, I decided my priority was finishing off the Stormclad; I wanted his heavy out of the way, because most everything else could be killed by normal PS 12 shots or CRA's from the Highwaymen.  He shield guarded a Slag shot, but the other shot + 2 Bomber shots (I rolled the 7 to hit like a boss, unboosted) + 2 Warders got the 'Clad, and half-crippled a Sentinel (I blew out the damage).  A Highwaymen CRA took down 1 lance, while the Assaulting SoBragg crapped out to do minimal damage.

He feated, and he took out a ton of guys.  He took down about 6-7 Highwaymen, at the cost of 3 of the 4 Lances knocked down (Chronicler w/ Hero's Tragedy), all but 1 Warder, all but the 2 swords guy of SoBragg.  He also got a few damage into either the Bomber or Impaler, I forget which.

My retaliation involved killing as much shit as I could manage.  I managed to take him down to about ~6 Stormblades + 2 Stormlances on one side, and about 2 Lances on the other, plus the Captains on either side.  The Slag Troll finished a Sentinel, while the Impaler slapped down the other.

He did what he could to retaliate; he removed another Highwayman or two, and put some damage into the Slag and Bomber, but he was running out of guys at this point.  The one Stormlance got the last SoBragg, but he toughed.

On my turn, I wiped up the remaining Blades, cleared the Captain on my flag side, and took out the Sentinel, along with a Lance or two.  I made one big error, though, and left Jarl in range for a Velocity + charge from Stryker on my Tactical Supremacy move... Shit.  I should've just kept him back and fed contesting models into his flag repeatedly, since he was nearly out of models that could contest and won the long game.  So, crap.

On his turn, he velocity'd for 2 into Jarl, who was on a 2 camp, leaving him on 5.  His overboost put him at PS 26, or Dice +11 into a 16 box Jarl.  his first two hit, and blasted me hard, leaving both the Impaler and Bomber on a single box each, with no transfers.  His third shot hit... and snake eyes, leaving me on 3 HP.  So then Horgle got a Slag bonus, walked up behind Stryker, and gave him a hammer to the back of the head.

Post-Match: We both made a lot of mistakes, playing with unfamiliar lists.  We forgot abilities, or placed in bad spots; I left Jarl way too far forward a couple of times, trying to do too much.  That said, I was incredibly happy with my infantry shredding on my guys, as well as general mobility.  The Totem Hunter, Jarl, and Braylen all dashed in and out with ease, giving me a lot of board movement.  If I'd played the game the way I intended to early, then Swift Hunter + Tac Supremacy would've moved the Highwaymen all over the board, but I screwed up and failed at that, and made it way easier for him to kill the Highwaymen.

The Warders will become Gators, too, after I move some points around.  I felt like I had to pull the Warders along, somewhat, and I like the volume of attacks as well as potentially higher DEF better from the Gators, particularly in synergizing with the feat (-2 to attack rolls).  I have other changes I'd like to make that I've discussed with another local player, so I'll be probably maneuvering a couple more things around and trying a couple of new ideas.

Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 10/8/2014

Lots of games against Khador lately, because that's who I've been able to get a game with regularly!

My List:
pDoomshaper, Runes of War (Tier 4)
-Runebearer
-Mountain King
-Earthborn
-Mauler
max Stone (no UA)
3x Runeshapers
Janissa

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

Scenario:
Close Quarters

Terrain:
Forest on my near right, hill on my near left, a couple of central walls, one going parallel to my deployment and one perpendicular.  Hills on his side, forest on his side (never mattered really).

Match Assessment:
The Doom Reavers present an interesting problem.  They're the majority of his hitting power for armor (he has the one Malakov jack too), but they need charges to do it.  However, they also can't be targeted by the Runeshapers.  So this'll be weird.

I think if I can keep him from getting all the Reavers and the jack to me, I should be able to hold my Mountain King up and keep healing him.  He has a lot of hitting power, but if I can force him to plink, I don't think it'll be enough.  Between snacking the guys hitting and the Whelps, it's a lot of healing potential.

I don't really have an assassination run in this list, so instead it'll probably be mostly attrition.  Just grind him out and make him work his way through the King and the two accompanying beasts.  The Runeshapers can make a solid jam.

Deployment:
I put the MK central, stupidly about half an inch outside of the 2 speed for a forest.  Doh.  2 units of Runeshapers went left to challenge his flag, one unit went right.  Earthborn left, Mauler right.

He put the Winterguard to come in left, one unit of Reavers left, one unit right, and the Kommandos coming up my right (at my flag).  Malakov with 'jack were there also.  All else was fairly central.

Game Time:

He ran the masses forward!  The Doomies ran up to the front, with a couple way forward and the rest behind.  The Winterguard made a giant blob, while the models on my right side scattered in a wide area to watch out for Rock Hammers.

I just moved the King up 5" (should've been 7 had I not placed him away from the forest) and sprayed down a Doomy.  I transmuted him, and drifted a ton of AE's into the Doomies needing 8's to kill.  Never got one :(  Everything else advanced up, Transmute on the King and Mauler with a wall covering parts of them.

He charged 1 or 2 Doomies into my Mauler, some into my Runeshapers.  2 units broke, one passed, and I ended up with about 4-5 of them dead.  The Mauler took a few points.  The Berserker took up a central position across from the MK MK, and his Decimator shot into the Mauler (before the Doomy) to get a few more points, taking about 15 points off the Mauler (I think.  Either this turn or the next one).

I charged the King in and took a handful of guys off the board - I think it was some Doomies and a couple of WG, including the officer maybe?  My 2 Shapers rallied, while one killed a Doomy in melee.  I threw one Shaper at another Doomy with the Earthborn, and rolled 1-2 for damage on my Shaper!  So no damage me, killed his guy, and I'm steady.  Excellent.  Doomy stayed behind a wall, transmute on the Mauler, and so on.

He came back into me, charging a Doomy at the EBDT but ending out of command.  He left 1 Runeshaper alive on the left, and took out one on the right.  the Berserker plinked 1 into the MK, triggering a whelp.  Not much else.

The MK failed to kill the Zerker even with fortune (6 to hit, I missed 3 attacks on him.  ugh), but got a few other guys, healing back up to full.  I cleared my side and decided to play aggressive, moving Doomy to the flag to start getting cps with 2 transfers at 13/19 or 17/19.  I also strangleheld Malakov's jack for good measure.

Turns out I forgot Sorscha's feat.  Oops.  Doomy got blasted off the board after being frozen, and that was that.  Didn't help that I forgot my feat last turn :(

Post-Game:
Oops.  Mostly felt good about the game, but I played too aggressive with Doomy when I was pretty much in command, and I paid for it.  I was down to 4 Runeshapers left, but the Zerker was likely to be dead, I had Stranglehold on his jack so he couldn't get in...  I was in a good spot, and his cracking potential on the MK was dropping extremely quickly.  All I had to do was ride it out, and I didn't; I played aggressive and made a bad move.

He realized quickly that he could only win by assassination really, and he went for it and got it.  I actually kept good positioning to limit the Doom Reavers ability to get to the MK with more than 2-3 guys at a time, but Doomy was the weak link to the army.

Not much else to learn except to play Doomy a little more safely :-/

Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 10/2/2014

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.

Difficulties with pGrissel (and Infantry Swarms in General) pt. 1

This post is going to be in lieu of a Battle Report, because although the game last night I played was interesting and fairly fun, I'm of the opinion that a discussion of the things I'm finding difficult is more useful than a discussion of the entire game in this case.  This post will be followed up by a post assessing some of what I can do to work on clearing up these problems, since they've been recurring.

I've had my 3 casters for MACE picked for a few weeks now, and I'm trying to iron out the wrinkles and get the lists operating smoothly.  I actually feel quite good about my 3, but a substantial amount of work remains in getting them settled.  Barring a late change (always possible, as I changed late in the first year of the Invitational), I'll be settled into pBorka, pGrissel, and pDoomy, who I feel have a fantastic set of different abilities and list builds while still being able to cover a lot of matchups.

I've actually gotten fairly comfortable with unpacking pBorka.  This is partially because of the ease of use of the Dygmies in the early game; AD allows a board spread that helps quite a lot, and if they burrow, there is even less hassle.  Additionally, the Fennblades can spread over a huge area, and the Gators don't mind if it takes an extra turn or 2 to engage if the Fennblades and Dygmies do some heavy lifting.

However, I'm running into a problem with pGrissel that I've had before with eMadrak and with other infantry swarms: it can be exceedingly difficult to get formations, model placement, and general "resource allocation" correct to ensure that I can unpack my army correctly.  This is particularly true with the somewhat different formations I've been playing with.

In the past, I've usually just put an entire unit to a side, an entire unit to another side, and not made use of my entire possible command (Fennblades generally being an exception, because 12" command is bonkers).  Units end up somewhat clumped, so that they take some serious casualties if a couple of heavy hitters can get in, because multiple guys will generally die.

Lately, however, I've been attempting to spread my forces, taking advantage - in deployment, rather than just in field positioning) of my command bubble.  This carries risks, but it also has a lot of advantages.  In this case, I can get some serious positioning advantage from spreading a unit like Long Riders, which have a number of unique capabilities, giving better use of the Bull Rush order if I need slams, or simply for massacring a large swath of infantry - possibly up to 5-6 models with Impact Attacks and extra Grissel attacks.

However, in back to back weeks, I've played in central scenario games (Destruction), and been unable to unpack my army successfully.  I'm continually tripping over my own guys, blocking off charge lanes, and making life exceedingly difficult for myself.  This included leaving Grissel open to 2 possible assassination runs last night, one of which failed because my opponent was millimeters out from getting to Grissel off side steps at (at least) mat 12 or 13 and PS 25-26 because one of his models was millimeters too far forward and blocking off charge lanes.  And because I seriously rolled about 2/3 of my Tough checks last night.  It was beyond insane.  The way those were going, Grissel might've just toughed 5 times.

The second assassination run was harder, but possible still.  I could have probably done more to prevent it, but part of it was dictated by the necessity of ensuring Imperatus died.  I probably could have gotten some Krielstone Bearers in the way, though, which would've been enough most likely.

As it was, I ultimately clocked myself, but most of my time on the clock was eaten up by unpacking my army and trying to fix my errors.  Trolls present unique problems, particularly due to the space medium bases take up.  They're a blessing and a curse, in equal proportions.  Lately, I'd gotten a little sloppier from running the Kithkar (Tactician), but now I'm needing to tighten my formations back up.

In the next post (soon?), I'll talk about how I'd like to try addressing these problems.  Some of them involve entire formation changes, while some of them simply involve being more conscious of where I want models going on Turn 2.  I've never been very good at that aspect of the game; I play a much more reactive style.  I never played chess well because I lived for the board as it was now, not as it could be in 3-4 moves.  This is recurring in this game, and is leaving a hole in my game I need to correct.

Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 9-17-2014

Apologies!  I hit Save, not Publish, so this never got put up; only a week late!

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
-Torch
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (2 or 3)
2x Doom Reavers
2x Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments each
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe

I think that's all, that's the core of the list.

Scenario:
Destruction

Terrain:
Forest near objective on my side, forest on his side of board, left side of zone from my perspective.  Pair of central linear obstacles, large obstruction to right side, hill on right.

Along with it being Destruction, this table funneled everything centrally; the terrain forced everything in that direction.  That actually ended up hurting a good bit, because I couldn't really use my list to get out on a flank, which could have worked well with the Riders probably.

Match Assessment:
Ugh.  Dat Feat.  This was actually a good chance to test a lot of things about the pGrissel list, in that I wanted it to be an infantry shredding list that has a good denial aspect.  But I also had to contend with Sorscha's ability to freeze life itself.  This was not something I was overly eager about.

So, I felt good about the fact that this was a practically ideal setup for electroleaps and pGrissels feat.  Lots of low ARM infantry, with the Kommandos setting up a good charge target if available.  Cacophany shuts down charges, Bob & Weave, and Shield Wall, so I felt comfortable about that.

I also didn't think that he'd have a ton of pieces outside Torch to crack my heavy infantry such as the Warders and Riders.  ARM 19 or 19/21 (Warders) is a lot, especially with 8 boxes.  Lacking charges, that put him into a pretty severe bind, I felt.

I figured I'd just try to weather the feat and do my best against it.

Deployment:
I tried something new with my deployment.  I put the Fennblade officer centrally, next to Grissel with the Drummer just behind, with 5 on the left and 5 on the right.  The Warders were 3 to one side and 2 to another, while the Riders spread out 2 left, 2 right, leader centrally.  Because it's Destruction, I wanted to have my forces spread out to the limited extent I could.

Most everything else was central, Grissel definitely was.

He put Assault Kommandos to either side, Doom Reavers far out to either side, and the Winterguard centrally with Sorscha.  Torch was somewhere nearby.  It was a giant blob of people.

Game Time!
So, this game was kinda sloppy in terms of my ability to retell it.  A lot of single wound models died; I know that happened.

Basically, I ran up first turn, but through some bad rearranging of my Fennblades with Hoof It, I left my Fennblades blocking in my Tuffalo's.  I kept Grissel centrally oriented with the support team, while the Fennblades spread out in front of the entire line.

So, he ran up one of his units (I think Kommandos?) and charged one with Sorscha, with Arcane Secrets, and...  Missed the 6 for an Icy Grip on the Fennblades.  Shiiiiiit, I just got LUCKY.  He got a charge off with a Doomy on one Fenn, but missed the attack and I passed the command check.  Otherwise, he ran up and made a giant blob of guys.

So, since he had a giant blob of guys, I put around several electroleaps and charged into the giant blob with feat.  After my Fennblades alone, I probably killed about 15-20 of his models, approximately, with Electroleaps.  The Tuffalos got a couple more, but that was most of it.  The Winterguard were down a few guys, I wiped out most of both Assault Kommandos, a portion of the Doom Reavers on either side... Lotta stuff died.  It was kinda glorious.  Would've been even better had I not blocked in my Tuffalo's and screwed up those charges!  Also, he let me light 2 Winterguard on fire from blowing up the Kommando Weapon Attachment.

So, with Grissels feat, I did a huge chunk of damage, then jammed a few guys into his face and the rest back, preserving the Tuffalo's as best I could.

He counterfeats me, getting most of my army (ugh), and wipes the Fennblades off the face of the earth.  I think he got a couple of other things, including the Fell Caller, with his Kossites.  Pretty much what I predicted, but still sucks.

So, I jockeyed as best as I could, but instead of being intelligent and hiding Grissel safely, I left her up near the front lines.  Because I'm a freaking donkey.  I killed a few more infantry model, my Storm Troll missed needing a boosted 10, but I mostly was able to lay out most of the damage I felt I could.  Grissel was now tucked between a long Rider and a Warder.

So, he managed to clear the Rider, hit the Warder with a Strangling Gas grenade (so Grissel's now 13/18 effectively) and Torch annihilated Grissel.  Shit.  Shook my opponents hand and started punching myself in the brain.

Post-Game:
I was pissed at myself after this game.  I had a practically ideal situation, and model placement along with tunnel vision screwed me.  Major, major set of mistakes in this one.  I got way too much tunnel vision about Cacophany, instead of just taking my lumps and working with what I had.

So, first off: my Fennblades should've been frozen by his Icy Grip.  No reason I couldn't do the math and figure out what was coming - literally, no reason.  So my initial placement was bad to get them into Icy Grip range.  I got lucky and he missed, so instead I had flexibility, rather than being penned in.  That was a huge lucky break I won't often get.

Second: My placement after my first turn was bad.  Really bad.  I had the Long Riders way too far back, and I didn't leave myself good alleys if the Fenns were frozen.  I could've been locked out of scenario easily by my own models.  I dodged a giant, giant bullet.  I think this can be remedied by 2 things: 1) more careful placement if I keep my deployment, or 2) by putting the units to different sides so they don't stumble over each other.  each have advantages and disadvantages.

The thing is, though, my Riders could've easily been in a spot where the Fenns could've carved some nice holes, then the Riders come in, slam his models back, and Follow Up deep into his formations.  I failed to have the Riders far enough up, and thus missed out.

So next: I tunnel visioned on using Cacophany.  Sometimes I just need to take my lumps and eat charges, and I should have.  I got it in my head that I needed to use it, and it was a poor decision.  That's life, and it's a lesson I can learn quickly.  However, tunnel vision is really easy to acquire, especially with the frustrating nature of a feat like Sorscha's.

Next: GRISSEL ISN'T THAT DURABLE.  She's a 15/18, far short of Borka.  Maybe that's part of the problem: too much Borka lately, so I went, "Oh, I'm fine!"  Stop that.  Stop it now.  I had her too far up, when she should have been more of a general commanding from the back.  On his 3rd turn, he was down nearly half the Winterguard, with several too far back to affect it, about 5/12 Reavers alive, and about 4-5 Assault Kommandos alive, along with Torch.  Even after some seriously painful dice, I still had Horthol, I think 3 or 4 Riders left?  Along with 4 Warders, the Storm and Pyre.  If I removed the Doomies, then his hitting power and volume of attacks drops quickly.

Given what he had on the board, average from a Storm Troll if I hit removes 3 models - the initial and 1d3.  If I toss out a couple of Lightning Fists, I could easily have removed most of what he had left, along with Grissel spraying.  Grissel's ability to give extra attacks reinforces that, too.  Torch was going to be a little more difficult, but even a single Rider with extra attacks and the Pyre animus has an impact at D-4, a charge at D-4, and a second attack at D-6, coming to...  Somewhere around 10-12 damage probably.  If I don't Calamity him, which adds on another 2 per hit.  Torch is very killable under that scenario.

This section is really long, I know, but this game was really a pretty long list of easily rectified mistakes.  Many of them come to positioning, while some are to think more clearly during the game.  It was a very winnable game - I probably had the attrition advantage, I just made some crucial brainfarts that gave him a reliable, easy assassination.

Battle Report, Trolls vs. Skorne, 9-15-2014

My List:
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Victor Pendrake
Stone Scribe Chronicler

His List:
Dominar Rasheth (Fatty Cakes!), Tier 4 Siege Column
-Mammoth
-Krea
-Raider
2x Siege Animantarax
Reiver Artillery Gun
2x Beast Handlers
TyCommander
Agonizer

Scenario:
Fire Support

Terrain:
Forest over his flag/objective, obstruction (house) his side central, hill to the left of my flag/objective, rough terrain my near right, linear obstacle (wall) a bit on my side of central.

Match Assessment:
This is a true first - the first time I've seen 3 Huge bases on the board simultaneously, much less in one army.  Shoulda run pDoomy with MK to make it 4 so nobody moved - EVER - because there was no board space!

I was worried about beating through 3 Huge bases, but I felt good about the reduction in volume of attacks with every lost guy for him.  His feat would really cripple my damage, which sucked.  Burst Fire really kinda bites, but the Mammoth would struggle to hit the guys most susceptible to blast was my initial assessment.  Plus they'd be underground a turn.

I wasn't happy that the Gators wouldn't be able to get extra charge distance on the Battle Engine, neutering some of them, but I just had to go with it.  I did think that Borka would need to get involved when he safely could - I made a note early (which I promptly forgot) that all his ranged were non-Magic, so Wind Wall was nice.  Note: this is important!  I felt that if Borka could get in with Rage up from the Mauler, he could probably clear a Battle Engine safely himself while still being in a good camping position.

The Mammoth felt a bit tricky to clear, but board positioning created a really interesting dilemma: with him having 3 Huge bases, but a house centrally, I thought I could gum up the works on him with Dygmies, keeping the Mammoth's effect minimized.

Deployment:
He had the fastest deployment I've seen in a while: Siege left, Siege right, Mammoth center.  One Paingivers left, one right, TyCom left, artillery right (with Advance Move) and everything else central.

I put the Gators left with Borka, planning on trying to get Borka to my flag and maybe start scoring.  The Fenns went right to start pushing on his side, with everything else relatively central.  Dygmies went left of center, shying away from Mammoth range.

Game Time!
He ran up, threatening the two sides with the Sieges, and the Mammoth assaulted.  He missed my Dygmies, getting one Paingiver I believe on the deviation.  Might be wrong about that, might be Turn 2 that happened.  Otherwise, he occupied a lot of space.  Everything else worked its way up the center.

My Dygmies went under, as normal, while the Fenns ran up with a large spread.  The Gators spread on the left side, maneuvering to get around my objective and the wall, and got Iron Fleshed.  Borka put 4 in the Stone and sat behind the wall on 1.  I took a shot with the Pyre, hoping to light a little cluster of Paingivers on fire, but the deviation went way off the mark.

On his turn, he shot up my Fenns, but I toughed a good bit and Tale of Mists protected them solidly, also.  I think I lost 2 or so.  I lost 1 Gator and 1 ended up at 1 after a Breath of Corruption, while he shot into my crowd of support and blew up the dice on the Pyre Troll, doing about 9 points at D-8 (after he feated).  Ugh.  That hurt.  He took up central space with the Paingivers to clog up charge lanes, while the TyCom blocked off one Siege.

I enacted Plan: Jam with Dygmies on this turn.  A few got onto the Mammoth and did some damage at D-5 mostly.  The Fenns did about 3 points to one Siege, but his feat REALLY hurt for trying to plink in points.  I cleared the Paingivers jamming, prior to the Dygmies, and the Gators ate the TyCom.  I made a decision to move up Borka more aggressively, but made a critical error: I Iron Fleshed the Dygmies (generally fine), but I put 3 in the Stone, camping on 2, rather than Wind Walling.  I also was in range of walk and shoot from the Krea - shit.  I could've put 1 on the Stone, Wind Walled, and been fairly safe, mostly likely, with Stumbling Drunk.

So, seeing as how I left Borka's ass out in the wind, he promptly shot him up.  The Krea paralyzed Borka, and the Siege on that side moved up, gacked some Gators (leaving me on 2 I think), and shot up Borka, as did the Mammoth, pushing some Dygmies out of his way.  On a side note - why the hell does every Colossal/Garg not have Bulldoze?  It actually seems logical to me.

After all was said and done, Borka had 1 health left exactly, and was out of transfers, but he ran out of shots.  So now Borka went from hardiest caster in the game to, "Oh god oh god I'm gonna die".  However, he was in position to finish off one Siege himself with some Rage help, while the Fennblades blew the hell up on dice and killed the other.  This shouldn't have happened - I didn't think it would, either.  I rolled trip 6's on the first charge, and averaged about 14-15 on dice on 4 charges probably.  I think one lowballed (a 6 or so?), but the other 3 were all high.  I thought I'd take him down to a little below half-health, but I was simply stalling for time on that side.  I did have the sense to put Borka on the flag, though, while the 2 remaining Gators jammed the Krea, and so I went up to 2 CP's to 0.  The Mauler hid behind jamming Dygmies and hoped to live.

On his next turn, he hit up Borka a bit, with damage being transferred to my beasts, and the Krea's dice crapped out to fail to extricate himself from Gators.  The Mammoth killed more Dygmies I think, although I'm not 100% sure.  He may have shot at someone.  Borka was on IF, though, so I felt confident in his survival, especially with the Krea jammed up.

I cleared the Mammoth on the next turn, although I ran Borka 1 transfer lower than I should've let myself killing the Raider, and he again went to assassinate Borka, with me being lucky that he missed an attack roll needing hard 9's and it drifted off Borka (Breath of Corruption).  Borka then applied mace to Rasheth for game (although he killed my Mauler with a transfer in the process!).

Post-Game:
I was mostly OK with how I played, but I made one major, potentially game-ending mistake that I got away with purely because of dice rolls.  Late in the game, I also failed to get the Keg Carrier to Borka due to bad positioning of my Impaler blocking a route to Borka, which I could have done first before I moved the Impaler.  I survived, but not in the kind of shape I really want to.

I also got a bit of luck in hot dice.  I didn't really have anything in position to deal with a second Siege Animantarax, just the Fennblades.  Tough rolls and some hot dice helped me pull that one out; I probably should have had some Fenns in a position where I could throw animi on 2-3 of them, taking them to D-4 or 5 depending on the animus, which would've helped bring the Siege much more within a killable range.  Still not easy, but not as hard as I was making it.

The mistake with Borka should've cost me the game; it was pure dice luck that it didn't.  I still felt like I was in a competitive/viable position, and that nearly gave it away.  After that, I pulled ahead, but it had a lot to do with the fact that Borka not dying left things in vulnerable positions.

Borka himself is probably going to be less of the beater in the coming iterations of  this list; I'll probably be moving Mulg in and seeing how it affects the list.  I want Mulg's set of abilities to complement Borka's, including being a beater with a longer threat range than the Mauler, and his animus for matchups like Butcher3.

Battle Report, Trolls vs. Cygnar, 9-10-2014

My List:
Grissel Bloodsong
* Troll Axer
* Mulg the Ancient
* Trollkin Runebearer
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
2x Runeshapers
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler

His List:
Captain Caine
-Hammer Jack
-Squire
Gun Mages w/ UA
-Hunter
Tempest Blazers
Boomhowlers (max)
Eiryss2
Reinholdt
Aiyana & Holt
(maybe a missing solo?)

Scenario:
Incoming

Terrain:
Central hill, obstruction in front of his zone on my side, hill in front of my zone on my side, obstruction on his side of my zone, forest on the left side of his zone (from my side).

Match Assessment:
Looking at the board, I felt like my Fennblades were likely not long for this world.  I went first, so I just had to take my chances.  I placed my army to put a lot of pressure on his zone in hopes that I could wrack up a ton of scenario pressure.  My fear was not getting enough time to really get lots of work out of the Fenns.  However, Grissel's feat allows me to cover a ton of distance, so I thought maybe I could at least get in with the mini feat, cause Terror checks, and at least control what they could do.

Looking at the Warders, I felt only Caine on feat turn, the Hunter, and the Hammersmith could reliably harm them without Aiyana.  Luckily, the Hammersmith's threat is lower than the Warders, so that was predictable.  I wanted to try to get the Hunter particularly off the board when possible.

My Fennblades went mostly central, somewhat in my zone, so they could sweep across, while the Warders went straight towards the middle of his zone with Mulg.  I took the Runeshapers up the center, and Grissel moved to where she could get into either zone quickly to begin getting scenario pressure.

He deployed his Gun Mages across the Warders (sweet!) with the Fenns and Boomies dancing, so I felt like this was an advantageous matchup (mostly).  The Blazers were also across from the Warders on my left, so the Boomies went towards my zone.  Everything else was fairly central.

Game Time! 
Our first turns were mostly just a ton of running.  I struggled to get Mulg around the building because I took him down the wrong way at first.  The Warders got Hoof It to get way across the board, while the Fenns swept up the center.  Everything else just sort of positioned to try to cover space as well as possible.  I dumped 5 in the stone, forgetting to put Hallowed Avenger on Mulg (whoops).

He mostly ran up, getting 2 or so Boomies into my zone.  Ryan of the B13 shot a Mage Storm which clipped 2 of his Boomies, but they both Toughed, and now there was a Mage Storm directly where I wanted my guys going.  Frack.  The Hunter removed a single Runeshaper, but everything else just ran.

Most of my work this turn was on the Boomies.  A Rift and 2 Runeshaper shots deviated horribly (the 4 EVERY TIME) to miss all the Gun Mages except maybe 1.  I thought I had decent odds of killing 3-4 potentially because of clustering and volume of shots.  I killed 5 Boomies, but the one in the zone toughed 5 or so times (feat turn), which meant I couldn't attain my original objective of clearing the zone, jamming with the Fenns, and scoring in my zone on his Turn 2 to get off to a fast start.  Otherwise, I still jammed the crap out of him, although he passed every Terror check (doh).  I left more Gun Mages on the board than desired, but they mostly had to commit to killing Fennblades because of jamming, which I could work with.

Because of my jamming, he decided to go for a bottom of 2 assassination.  He cleared a lot of intervening Fenns and moved Caine to start shooting at Grissel with his feat.  Grissel was on a 3 camp, in the stone, which he all but cleared because my positioning sucked and I gave him easy electroleaps.  However, this was an all-or-nothing, because Caine could not Gatecrash due to my feat.

After all was said and done, Caine hit on about 6/10 shots, but damage rolls didn't help him out much, so I transferred maybe 1 shot, and he conceded since Mulg was about 4" away on a 0 camp Caine.  I rolled it out, and would have 1-shotted him (I boosted damage cause I'm an ass).

Post-Game:
Despite a fairly quick win, I wasn't happy with my play and positioning.  The buildings on the board gave me a huge amount of trouble, unfortunately, since medium bases clog the board so much.  I probably should have taken the Fennblades up into his zone and Warders centrally, which would have run the risk of losing a lot of Fenns, but it I could bait him into triggering Vengeance, I could get the Fenns so far across the board it was obscene by my Turn 2, with a possible scenario jam out.

I kept Mulg out of the game because of my own shoddy positioning, and had he taken it he could've likely removed Mulg.  I had him too far from Grissel so that he wasn't well protected by the feat, but probably in range of the Hammersmith and Aiyana.  I wasn't happy about that, but I know part of it was the buildings.  The buildings presented a little jamming point in the center (where the Mage Storm landed) that I struggled to get around.

The game was mostly a good education in positioning better for me, trying to not keep my key pieces out of the game.  I think Mulg's coming out of my list though, and moving to Borka, so I'll have a new positioning game to work on!

Trip to Ames, IA

So, now the post that's actually talking about going to Iowa...

I was sent out to Ames, IA from August 3 - 14th for work, working during the day but having my evenings to myself.  Since I had the chance, I contacted the Muse on Minis guys and got to meet up and play some games with them.

First off, they were a really cool group; it was a ton of fun to get to meet them, and I got to sit and listen in to one of their podcasts, which I enjoyed immensely.  Watching John's pain during the pirate jokes is far, far better than it is even on the cast; it's all in the details.  But getting to see the easy friendship and banter between them in person was a lot of fun, and shows why MoM has been so successful.

Second, I found out a lot more about flying with minis.  It's a pain, but I figured out a lot about packing carefully and making sure that my guys aren't shifting too much.  I had a few guys that popped off limbs, which have been corrected, but I know a lot better now what to watch out for.

Sadly, I didn't get to play as many games as I'd like; a couple of games against locals, and I got to play Colin and Adam.  However, I was out there to work, not to play, so I can't gripe too much; anything I got was a bonus.

What I did get to learn mostly came in the forms of list testing/revisement, and getting to bounce ideas off of people out there.  First off: it's a very knowledgeable group, who are very conscious of the rules and interactions of the game very, very quickly.  Second, they were really receptive to hearing ideas thrown out and bouncing them around.  I got less opportunity to toss out Troll ideas than I would've liked, except in riding with Chad, but I still got the opportunity to see what he thought.

One of those is feeling a bit better about my growing idea that Axers are intended to be "mediums" for Trolls.  I've written about this a little, and I've been steadily building on the idea that Axers may be the Reach beast to rely upon for the near future.  With proper buffing, they can hit at levels equivalent to lower heavies, but have the benefit of also triggering effects such as Charge of the Trolls from Reach, not just in 1/2" melee, allowing our infantry to help support.  They also have the upside of being one of two lights with MAT 6, with the other lacking reach.

The trip did, however, put me back on the drawing board for my idea with one of my lists.  My Jarl list that I'd been testing is proving to be a little too reliant on getting up in piece trade, and when I've been unable to comfortably do that, the list begins to fall apart.  So I'm putting the idea on the back burner temporarily; I still find the concept worth exploring, but I need to figure out how to rework some core list components to bring it to a successful point.  I do think, however, that Horgle may continue to be an answer to helping Jarl.

Mostly, what I got out of my trip to Iowa is a feeling of a bit of rejuvenation.  I was feeling a little stale/stagnant with my lists and my play, and was a bit unsure of myself and the directions I was going with lists and Trolls, and a little bit with the game.  I came back out feeling revitalized; I think going to a different meta helped me get in games with different people, and honestly just see that you get a lot of very similar people wherever you go.

I think I'm also going to set myself some goals for what I want to do with my blog.  With MACE approaching in about 2 months, I'm thinking about the post-MACE cycle, and what I want to do with list building/testing.  I might start doing a series of articles laying out ideas for lists, what the ideas I want to build in/goals of the list are, and so on.  I'm likely going to be trying out the new Borka post-MACE (I may propose the names Beerka and Bearka - I think it fits!), partially because he's a really sweet model.

So, to those few people who do read this, there's a small taste of what I'm considering!  And because I keep meaning to post it anyway:  A somewhat outdated WIP of my (still headless) MK.  Not the best lighting, but maybe this'll inspire me to work faster on him!

Battle Report, Trolls vs. Skorne, 9-3-2014

My List:
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Fennblade Kithkar
Stone Scribe Chronicler

His List:
Xerxis, Fury of Halaak
-Marketh
-Archidon (Bonded)
-Gladiator
-KAAAAAAARN!
-Drake
-Krea
max Reivers + UA
Willbreaker, I think?
2x min Handlers
Might be a solo or a small unit missing, but I think this is it.  He had a few proxies, so I'm trying to keep them separate in my brainbox.

Terrain:
From my perspective: Forest on the far right, on his side of his zone.  Small house/obstruction central, hill on the right side, slightly closer to me than his zone.  Hill on the closest side of my zone to him.  Maybe a small forest on my side, but had no game effect.

Scenario:
Rectangular scenarios oriented long ways across the board, central objectives on either side.  Can't remember the name.

Match Assessment:
Oof.  I felt like there's a lot of beef to chew through.  I like the speed of my list, and the fact that I go first feels huge for getting board positioning.  However, the Reivers are a solid enough counter to my infantry swarm, the Drake can spray them, and Karn can rocket around a lot.  That combo is fairly nervewracking.

That said, Iron Flesh and Tale of Mists put my guys at anywhere from DEF 14-18 depending on stacking, meaning that his Reivers will struggle somewhat, and Tough is always nice when it hits.  Karn can chew apart guys, but lack of reach elsewhere means that with good spread, I might be able to limit his ability to get multiple targets with some beasts.

I really like the fact that my ability to self-buff with Pyre and Mauler means that my Fenns or Dygmies can get a lot of work done on any of his beasts, though.  This means that those guys can get some beast-killing work done.

Deployment:
I throw Borka central with Keggy next to him, Gators to eat up space in my zone, Fenns to the right, and the beasts trailing a hair behind with the support staff.  Burrowers end up centrally AD.

He puts Xerxis center, Molik on his zone, Gladiator central also, Archidon on the left, Reivers on the left.  Support staff coming in behind.  Krea goes rightish of center, Drake a bit to the left.

Game Time!
Thankfully, I won to go first, which means I can top off the stone easily.  I burrowed the Dygmies (mistake), ran the Gators their 10, and ran the Fenns their 12, trying to get a wide spread on my units to protect them.  Iron Flesh on the Gators and top off the Stone, while my Impaler and Pyre move left to get ready to shoot into the Reivers.  Borka stays central, moving up towards the obstruction.

He runs forward his Reivers to stay out of Gator range, with his Archidon behind them.  Xerxis advances forward and a little towards his zone to get Mobility up.  Gladiator stays central, near his objective, while Karn hides behind the forest on the right side (fantastic move by my opponent).  Krea puts up Aura and parks near Xerxis, while the Drake advances a bit forward.  Karn was able to ping pong throughout the game from this point due to Mobility; it was very intelligent and heads up combo and positioning on his part that was consistently troublesome.

The Dygmies came out, and I decided to make a few aggressive moves.  The Gators charged/ran (one charged, shorting by 1/2" or so) on a Reiver, while Borka feated and the Dygmies charged up.  Borka + the Pyre failed to catch anything in deviations shooting at the Reivers, sadly.  The Dygmies did their best on the Drake, needing 7's to hit, but left him with a single HP left with 3 of them getting him.  One got the Glad, but whiffed both (Fell Called, btw).  The Fenns spread heavily, with one or two engaging Karn to annoy him, and the rest spreading wildly to prevent Karn from getting too many good targets.  The Kithkar toed his zone, my near left corner, and I made a mistake with IF on the Gators.  It was an OK target, but not really optimal; Dygmies or Fenns might've been better.

He feated to help himself out and started shooting.  He took a bunch of single wound off, reducing the Dygmies to about 3ish models left.  The Fenns lost about 4-5 all told, I believe.  One Gator was reduced to 2 HP, but that was about it.  He didn't shift much positioning, so the Reivers were contesting my zone, the Archidon was threatening my zone but out of my range, the Drake was fairly central with the Glad, and Xerxis was fairly far back (no killbox) on 0 camp.  Karn behind a forest.

The Fenns vengeance set up charge angles on Karn, as did Righteous.  After 2 Fenns and a Raged Kithkar, Karn lost about... Maybe 8-10 boxes at most?  At D-2, my Kithkar did 4 damage on 2 attacks.  Diiiiice.  But I kept a good spread (12" Fenn Command, woot!) that minimized his ability to remove too many.  The Gators cleared about half the Reivers, while the Pyre Troll finished the Drake from range.  Not much else, just holding firm and not giving too much.  I brought Borka centrally to get him more involved, because Borka gives no fucks.

He killed off a Gator, brought the Dygmies to 1 guy left, and killed a few Fenns.  Paralyzed the officer to prevent charges.  The remaining Dygmy toughed twice to cancel the Archidon's sprint (woot woot).

At this point, I decided to engage Borka is a Beast mode and he destroyed the crap out of the Gladiator.  Rage + Stone Strength is rough on Borka.  At straight dice, rolled 16 on the charge, then 2 more killed him.  Iron Fleshed myself, and fortuitously whacked the Krea, causing Brain Damage and disabling his ability to cast animi for a turn.  The Gators chomped hard, not quite killing the Archidon, but close.

Because of my aggressive Borka play, he realized he needed to kill Borka quickly or it was going to roll downhill fast.  Borka was getting less killable very, very quickly.  He clogged up Borka, and cleared some lanes.  Xerxis did some work on Borka, forcing one transfer on the charge, and Karn forced the other transfer, but only left Borka on 2 damage, with about 14 or so transferred onto the Mauler (from 2 transfers).  Borka decided to show Xerxis what hitting hard means, and finished what Grayle started.

Post-Game:
Lining up against Xerxis2 for the first time, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.  I've faced Reivers enough to be wary, knowing that they can do some serious damage from shooting.  I probably brought a few Fennblades too far over towards the Reivers, letting him do more work shooting them than I liked, but it wasn't too bad.

I was able to get a lot of board control because of the speed of my guys.  That worked to my advantage, giving me the ability to push the battle well across the middle of the board.  Had I played it, I could have put a lot of scenario pressure from dominating my friendly zone.  I was able to effectively stall him out on his scenario zone, giving me time to take my own.  However, to test Borka out a bit, I made a more conscious decision to play aggressively, putting Borka more central into my 3rd and 4th turns, because I need to know how far I can push him.

I was extremely happy with my ability to stall for time on Karn.  I know I'm going to lose a few guys a turn to Karn, that's just life.  However, I was able to space Karn out to needing 3-4 turns to clear my Fenns, buying me plenty of time to clear up the left flank if need be, or to bring Borka out to exert a lot of pressure.  It's a little startling to realize exactly how brutal Borka's board presence can be once the number of answers to the big guy himself start shrinking.

I made life harder on my end, however, by burrowing Turn 1.  Sure, it let me lock up and kill the drake, but I could probably have Turn 1 ran (just a few inches) with Iron Flesh and Tale of Mist, then Turn 2 burrow and shred his lines.  It took a lot of pressure off of the Gators, however, so it may have still been the better play.  A turn 2 burrow is nearly impossible for the opponent to avoid, though, so it's worth testing further.  The Reivers would have had a very hard time, though, trying to hit DEF 18 (Iron Flesh + ToMist), making it a relatively safe play.

My opponent played very tightly, using Karn very effectively, but a couple of timely tough rolls and Borka's emergence to exert an influence on the board put him in a bind.  He played Karn very well, using him to scalpel out at low risk.  He took good shots with the Reivers and did some very good work there, as well.  Sprint coming onto Karn over and over from Xerxis gave him a lot of good mobility and the ability to preserve Karn.

Mostly, this game ended up coming down to Borka's ability to exert an influence once he becomes active.  With Rage, Stone Strength, and the Fell Caller he removes most models from the board, while being nigh unkillable himself.

Battle Report, Trolls vs. Cygnar, 8-27-14

Back on the horse!  Time to get some battle reports going again.  I'll have another post discussing my trip to Iowa (not in huge detail, but generally) coming up soon, but I wanna get the battle reports going first, since that's my main focus for the time being.

My List:
Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)

His List:
Commander Dalin Sturgis (*6pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Lieutnant Allison Jakes (3pts)
* Centurion (9pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)

Terrain:
Forest on my near left, hill on my near right, forest on the far right (his near left), something else on the far left from me, hill somewhat central.

Scenario:
Rally Point

Match Assessment:
Well rounded list on his part, has hitting power, has some utility.  My list isn't an armor list, despite the Warders and Mulg, so I'm not going to try to overwhelm him with being unable to crack.  The Blazers are a problem; luckily, they don't ignore concealment, so Tale of Mists helps.  I decided to put the Fenns against them and tempt fate, just going balls to the wall forward with them, in hopes that enough survive that I can do some serious damage to the Blazers.

Unfortunately, the Blazers are just flat out a problem.  However, my hope is that if I can slow up the Knights and Forge Guard with Cacophany/Warders, I can try to clear the Centurion and Rowdy over time and then the Blazers will struggle with Mulg.

Gorman is the usual problem, and Sturgis has Snipe.  Assballs.

Deployment:
Warders left, Grissel central with Mulg and Axer, support just behind her, Fenns right, Scatters far right (mistake here.  Should've had the Scatters central to react to wherever he put his infantry.  Fenns were there to challenge his zone with speed.).

Sword Knights and Forge Guard opposite my zone, Blazers on his zone, everything else centralish.  Scattergunners are now wildly out of position.

Game Time! 
First turn: lots o running.  Fennblades scream up the board, Scatters behind, Warders rumble up left, all else central, 6 on the stone, popped it and covered most Fenns, didn't care about Warders.

His turn: Lots o Running forward, Shield on Rowdy and the Sword Knights (frustrating, but would've been worse on Rowdy + Centurion.  That would've sucked assballs).  Blazers get Sniped, shoot my Fenns and Scatters but only hit 1 Fenn (tough) and 1 Scatter (dead) needing 7's to hit (hill and/or forest).  Wanted the Fenn dead for Vengeance, oh well.  His dice went cold in trying to blast the Fenns.

My turn: Feat, jam hard.  Fennblades scream forward into his Blazers, but just out of charge range.  Scatters run to get near the Sword Knights and Forge Guard.  Warders take "We own this zone" positions, out of his range but in range to hit the far side of the zone.  Hooray Cacophany!  Position Mulg and Axer to be annoying, jam.

His turn: Clear as much of jam as possible.  Shoots up some Fenns, not that badly.  Light cavs backwards for protection.  Moves up Rowdy and Centurion (Fortify on Centurion btw from Jakes) to occupy space, infantry walk forward.  He kills a few Fenns, thats all.

My turn: Rune once per game Calamity on Rowdy lands.  Axer charges, does a few.  2x Warders charge, add more.  Mulg charges my Scattergunner, plows him with fist, then buys and misses almost all on Centurion.  Bad move here: should've just gone for Rowdy.  Needed not snakes (Calamity) vs 6's, both of them at D-1.  Warders had plowed some damage into Rowdy, so he was a likely kill.  Mistake was thinking Centurion was PS 19, not PS 18 for some reason.  Lesson learned.  Scattergunners and Warders (Warders with extra attack from Grissel) shred Forgeguard and Sword Knights.  About 4 Swords dead, about 7-8 Forgeguard.  Sweet.

His turn: Feat drags a bunch of people in.  He doesn't allocate to Rowdy, thinking Sturgis's feat will give him enough focus, 3 on Centurion from Jakes.  Results in Mulg living with 9 HP left with Rowdy only getting 1 from Sturgist feat (2 guys in 3", 1 toughs).  Blazers keep shooting up Fenns, with more success, but moot at this point.  Sword Knights and Forge Guard wound warders, piss off everyone.

My Turn: all that matters is both jacks died and I cleared most of his infantry.  Mulg frenzied but did solid to Rowdy, Axer did too on Rowdy.  Warders finished, Grissel said "F all this noise", spiked hard and slapped down the Centurion on 2 rolls.  She knows how to roll!

His turn: Tried to shoot up Grissel, missed all but 1 maybe, concedes cause no way to break Mulg now and his army is decimated.  I'm on a wounded Mulg, but full Warders, 3-4 Fenns, half Scatters vs his Blazers and 3-4 Sword Knights.  And Mulg's about to start eating.

Post-Game:
 Mostly played well, a few clear mistakes.  I should've just finished off Rowdy with Mulg when I had the chance, which takes his chance to kill Mulg very low.  Focused too hard on the Centurion, and made a mistake, simple as that.

Also made a major deployment mistake.  Scatters were well out of position, and I had to spend their feat turn running them over to help with the Sword Knights and Forgeguard.

However, along with my last game, I've gotten enough to conclude that I'm not comfortable with the Scatters in this list at the moment.  I thought Calamity would fix their problems, but I need it on armor targets too badly, so I'm spreading myself thin.  I think I'll be moving to 2x Runeshapers, I just need to manipulate the points to get 1 more besides the Scatters (7 points).  I like the fact that the Shapers also give me help against Kayazy, Nyss, etc., which is a struggle point for this list.  Magic 7 is significantly more accurate than RAT 5, although the ability to damage multiple moderate-high armor targets is gone.  But I think that the value I'll get will be worth it most likely.

I actually played the Fenns vs. Blazers game as well as I could have, I think.  I don't know that it was a very good decision, but I was hoping that with him needing 7's to hit, a couple of attacks would miss, and then he needed 7's to kill, making electroleaps riskier.  I got a bit dice lucky that he missed 3 of 4 on the Fenns, but a little unlucky in that I toughed; had Vengeance triggered, he might lose a Blazer or two from the Fenns.  Dice giveth, dice taketh.

pGrissel is beautifully solid though.  I love her game tremendously.  I'm mildly debating a return to a previous list iteration, involving 2x Warders rather than Fenns, but I love the speed Fenns give me.  The alternative would be 2x min Champs to have a bit of mobility, armor, and hitting power, but not sure it's worth it; the Fenns jamming and forcing my opponents into positioning problems is so much fun.

Tournament Report, 7-19-2014

This post is going to be a changeup from my normal description, because honestly my games at this past weekend's tourney weren't really that great for battle reporting.  I didn't play particularly well, but I came out of it with a few lessons instead.  Additionally, I didn't get to run the Jarl list I wanted to due to slacking on my part in building my beasts (Rok, Wrongeye and Snapjaw), so it's not quite as interesting as I wanted to.

My three games were:

1) pDoomy vs. Kromac, assassination loss top of 3.  I misplayed and left Doomy wide open in really bad shape, which left an easy kill for my opponent.  I was playing a Doomy MK list against Kromac, 2x Stalkers, Skinwalkers, and other trappings.

2) Jarl vs Ossrum.  Jarl featured Horgle with his Slag, along with Mauler, Bomber, SoB, Impaler, and Gators.  Other trappings also, but they had less effect.  I misplayed and didn't get a good angle to get my Bomber or Mauler on the Earthbreaker, but won the game by jamming him up in his scenario and dominating mine one point at a time.

3) Jarl vs. Butcher3.  Our local Khador player just started B3, and I had no good answer.  I rolled with Jarl because I figured he might have my best infantry clearing chances (correctly), but I just didn't have good Butcher3 answers.  A misplacement on my part cost me both the Bomber and the Mauler (the Bomber was about 1/4 inch from safety, sadly), but I still brought B3 down to 4 HP before he won on scenario.  Had I not misplaced the Bomber, I'd have had a good chance at winning.  C'est la vie.

But I learned a few things, from this weekend and previous games:

1) The MK is really, really freaking intimidating to players who can't answer ARM 23.  The Kromac list featured no Gorax, meaning PS 18 was his highest PS potentially, and it would've been under pDoomy's feat had I played correctly.  At d-5, with all the boosting, the King is a hard out, especially since I'll heal up from Whelps and killing his Stalkers, assuming I hit them.  And the attrition scales massively in my favor the longer the King stays alive.  Unfortunately, I did not play this well, and I was unable to test him out as thoroughly as desired.

2) Jarl has the ability to do a ton of work, then hide on a 1 or 0 camp.  This won't work on some factions, of course, but it easily worked in my game.  I had him in a forest, darted out, shot, and used Tactical Supremacy to slip back.  Jarl himself killed at least 10-12 models over the course of the game probably.  If you can keep him safe, he's magical.

3) Butcher3 is intimidating as all get out.  I had to play extremely consciously of his threat ranges, and it made my game much harder.  I was mostly successful, but some bad placements cost me a chance at the game.  It was a fixable mistake, but I very much prefer to have the option of a form of shutdown (a la Grissel1, Mulg, etc.) available.

4) I need to find ways to kill Thor.  F that guy.