Battle Report 4-16-14, Trolls vs. Circle

My list:

Grim Angus
2x Bombers
Impaler
Storm Troll
Fennblades + UA
Min Bushwhackers
Sons of Bragg
Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers
Whelps

Opponents List:
Grayle
Warpwolf Stalker
Feral Warpwolf
Gorax
Winter Argus
Stones + UA
Max Wolves of Orboros + UA
min Tharn Riders (light cav)
Lord of the Feast
Lord Morraig
Blackclad Wayfarer

Scenario: Outflank

So, first off - confession time.  I tilted, badly, in this game.  The dice were very swingy, lots of spikes in both directions, and I really got tilted early because of a big swing.  I've worked hard on not having those moments, but it happened.  Unfortunately, it colored a lot of my decision making the rest of the game, because I was still rather cheesed off.

So, my general thought was have the Fennblades screening around the middle of the board, with the Bushwhackers on one side shooting away at whatever was available.  The Sons of Bragg and a Bomber would go other side, supported by the Impaler and possibly Grim, with the other Bomber and Impaler roaming to support whereever was needed.

I sent the SoB to the left zone, Bomber with them, Fennblades central, Bushwhackers to the right, a Bomber between the Fenns and Whackers, and the rest spread out in the second line to react.  He placed the Wolves of Orboros on my right zone, the Feral central, Stalker left, riders left, Morraig right, Lord of the Feast central with the stones around for first turn teleport.

I pretty much knew Lord of the Feast was going to be getting into me Turn 1, so I spread to accomodate.  The Bombers ran up, Fenns ran up with a side spread, the Whackers spread in a forest to the right, while I (stupidly) ran the SoB back across my back lines because they'd been Preyed by the Riders and I got really nervous about that.  I should have kept them left, back behind the Bomber, but I got too preservationist and moved them, which took them mostly out of the game.  I figured the Lord of the Feast would do damage, but I'd just cope, clear him, and move on.

Little did I know that he's really called Lord of the Dice, apparently.  He got teleported, shot the Bomber and rolled in, threshered, killed a Fennblade, one Fenn toughed, and a Bushwhacker, all Terror's passed.  And in the process, he managed to roll, with Storm Rager, at Dice - 3, 25 damage into the Bomber across 3 shots, sending me on tilt.  Otherwise, the Wolves advanced with a huge spread, Grayle stayed central, the Stalker went left, Feral central, and the Riders hard left on the flank.

So now I had to try and clear the Lord.  I had a backstriking Impaler, though, and at D-6, I figured I might max him out, but had a good shot at clearing.  After the Impaler, Storm Troll, and Wrathor (SoB) I still was jammed.  Crap.

So, the Bomber turned slightly, ate Lord (finally), ate a whelp, and forced to heal to get him back up to 8 boxes, so at least functional.  The other Bomber and Grim shot at a Stalker, and my consolation prize was blowing the Stalker off the board - I didn't want to boost a second attack roll with the Bomber, so I just rolled a cold 10 on dice to hit a 15 (he's a 14), and boosted damage to smack him off the board.  So... That's a thing I guess.  It calmed me down a bit, and got me back into my game for the moment.

So the game kinda progressed, nothing else was really consequential on this turn.  His next turn, he removed the Bomber that had just eaten a Stalker with a Feral - he almost failed to kill, I spawned a Whelp to take the Bomber to DEF 13, and he had to burn all the way to his last fury to kill the Bomber.  So close.  Grayle had popped his feat to pull it off, so now I was staring at all Stealthed models in his control.

So, Grim moved up, feated, shot the Feral to get charge distance for the Bomber (+2" charge from Bait the Line) and plinked some damage.  Unfortunately, I made a mistake and put Marked for Death on the Wolves of Orboros, rather than the Feral - bad decision.  The Bomber charged, and managed to miss 2 of 5 attacks needing 6's to hit on Grim's feat, with one of the attacks that did hit rolling snakes on damage at dice-1.  That was when I started having some more tilting feelings.  2 more Fennblades charged in, but despite all the attacks combined (Grim, 2 Fenns, Bomber), he still had 5 boxes or so (assuming 10 is average charge value, if the Fenns and Grim hit, on them alone it should've been around 19 damage... Yowch.  That kinda stung).

Basically, the rest of the game involved him just sweeping up.  I basically had lost too much for no return, he'd dominated twice to go 4-0, and I just couldn't get bodies in the zone.  The SoB being out of position really hurt me for most of the game, unfortunately, because they would've been good cleanup on the Feral at MAT 9, PS 12/14 Weaponmasters, but that was my mistake.  I tilted, and I made some bad decisions, and that prevented me from actually getting decent analysis.  Not happy with myself, not happy bout the game - so now I just have to blow off steam and wait til next week to try it again!

I do think, though, that it may not be my go-to list against Circle.  It clears infantry pretty well, with a solid screen, but I think that Circle's shenanigans, including Stealth, may be a bit much, and I'm not sure if Marked for Death is sufficient to help me through that.  More testing to come, I suppose!

March 1st Steamroller at Gamer's Armory

One our local PG's Chris ran a 50 point Steamroller tourney for us today; we were missing a few regulars because they were down in Florida, attempting to bust up the scene at Crucible, but we still had several people up for attendance.  It was a 2 list format, second list optional, no divide and conquer.  My casters were Calandra and the Huntersgrim, previously chosen in a challenge by local Will, who is one of the two voices behind the NC Gunbunnies podcast - check them at at Muse on Minis!

A special thanks to Phillip, who drove all the way down from Baltimore and joined us to game and visit family in the same trip.  It was great having you here, wish I'd gotten to play against you, but hopefully sometime soon!

Battle reports will be spaced out into three separate posts to keep them a little more readable, so results from the first game below.  Sorry about the lengthy post, but this was a bit more complicated game than the others in places!

My first game was against a local Circle player, who I hadn't had the pleasure of playing against until today.  The scenario was Close Quarters.  After we chose our lists, we diced off and he won, electing to go second.

My list:

Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)

Lawson's List (as closely as I can rebuild it):
Krueger the Stormwrath (*5pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Megalith (11pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Nuala the Huntress (2pts)
Tharn Bloodweavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Wolves of Orboros (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Wolf of Orboros Officer & Standard (2pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)
Wolflord Morraig (5pts)

My list was basically simply designed to abuse Star Crossed and take advantage of three powerful Minion units.  Terror checks from the Gators and Rage Howler could abound, while the Runeshaper and Pyre Troll AE's could scatter into low armor guys theoretically.  Mulg provided a solid beater and protection, with the Swamp Gobbers blocking LOS to Calandra and the Feralgeist to fill things out.

For deployment, the Runeshapers went on the left flank behind a forest, supporting a portion of the Gatorman Posse split behind the Boomhowlers in the center.  Calandra was fairly central, with her protection staff brought along, and the Nyss Hunters to the right closest to my scenario

My opponent countered the Hunters with the Weavers and Trackers, taking Lord Morraig against some of my Gatormen and Runeshapers, the Wolves central with Megalith and the Feral, and one Grove on either flank.

I advanced the Boomhowlers aggressively to claim the center, while the Gatormen advanced spread behind them, the Runeshapers ran full speed into the forest, and Calandra's crew (beasts + protection) went a little right of central for potential friendly domination points, with Bullet Dodger on Calandra and Star Crossed up.  The Nyss Hunters advanced very cautiously, trying to protect against the Bloodtrackers and not lose anything early, but hoping I could bait the Bloodtrackers into trying for shots, aiding my board position a bit.

The Circle countered by running the Bloodtrackers up the board, with three advancing well ahead with Lightning Tendrils to jam my Nyss, while the Bloodweavers came in behind.  The Wolves advanced with a good amount of spread to claim a major chunk of the center of the board, while Megalith came in with the Weavers.  The Feral stayed fairly central, with the Shifting Stones placed to allow some double teleport action.  Morraig advanced towards the Runeshapers, taking advantage of the forest for Stealth via Prowl.

For my second turn, Mulg advanced, and with a well timed Crit Slam removed the three jamming Bloodtrackers, followed by Calandra activating and feating to start the carnage, and putting up Star Crossed, since I needed a lot of 7's and 8's, and even a few 9's, to hit.  A lot of death occurred, but the sum total was the Boomies and Gators advanced further into the center after removing several Wolves and a couple of Tharn (can't remember which kind).  The Nyss advanced up and put a serious hurting into the Bloodtrackers and Weavers, and a flat double 5 roll on Morraig from a Runeshaper's Rock Hammer dropped him on the ground.  A little more than half the Wolves were dead, about 7 of 11 Trackers, and 2 Bloodweavers were gone, with solid board positioning resulting.

Unfortunately, a misunderstanding about rules of Protective Fit from Mulg and the movement from Bullet Dodger highlighted the next turn and my survival.  The Trackers activated and managed to off 4 of the Nyss despite Star Crossed due to Lightning Tendrils, but the Bloodweavers failed a command check from Dirged Gators to take them out of the game for the moment.  The Wolves put some damage into the Boomies, but my Tough rolls blew up, and Morraig advanced around to engage two Runeshapers.  Krueger feated, putting lightning circles down in several places, killing more Nyss but Tough kept up the Boomies.  This also put a single damage onto Calandra, triggering Protective Fit from Mulg to move him a little further up the board and out from in front of Calandra.  He tried for an assassination run, not realizing Bullet Dodger allowed me to move away on any missed attack, by double teleporting the Feral with Tendrils in front of Calandra, but missed the first attack, so he killed the Pyre Troll as a consolation prize.

I followed this turn with a severe set of derps.  I managed to get the Gators and Calandra onto the Feral to kill it, and killed a few more bits and pieces across the board.  However, this set Krueger on 4 transfers rather than the 1 he should have had.  I still charged Mulg into Krueger, rather than simply charging Megalith and removing his last heavy from the board, and only hit Krueger once due to Skyborne, with approximately 19 damage transferred into Megalith.  At Dice +2 (due to the Pyre animus from Bone Grinders) I should have simply finished Megalith, but instead failed to finish the kill on Krueger.

He tried for one last Calandra kill, teleporting Megalith on Calandra, and I forgot to move Calandra out when Megalith 1-2-1'd the attack roll, but the second shot hit Calandra with a low damage dice roll, and Mulg's protective fit blew out Mind and Body on Megalith.  I closed out the game by simply going and beating Krueger into the ground.

So, despite a series of severe derps on my part in protecting Calandra and not prioritizing targets well, I got a little luck from Star Crossed to get out of game 1 with a win!