Battle Report - 4/10/2014 Trolls vs. Convergence of Cyriss

Alright, new format for my battle reports.  Going to try to make it concise and to the point for the intro, and lay out something I'm going to try and follow.

Scenario: Close Quarters

My List (a.k.a. "YUMMMM BEEFY!", courtesy Liam)
pGrissel
Storm Troll
Pyre Troll
Impaler
Max Long Riders
- Sorcerer Adjunct
Horthol
Max Warders
Min Champs + Skaldi
- Sorcerer Adjunct
min Krielstone + UA
Swamp Gobbers

Opponent (Convergence of Cyriss):
Syntherion
Corollary
Prime Axiom
2 Galvanizers
1 Mitigator
1 Cipher
1 Monitor
1 Inverter
Optifex Directive

For my list, I chose to modify my previous pGrissel list that I had run - very similar to a common set of pGrissel lists I've seen from a number of other players - into a little bit beefier, hardier list, but with less field spread (potentially).  My thought was that I really was not feeling comfortable with my positioning with the Kriel Warriors, and going into a Timed Turns event on Saturday, I didn't want to be fighting myself with my board positioning for the entire tourney.  As a result, I decided to bring the beef.

This game went up against a Syntherion list looking to utilize Synergy and Hotshot to his best advantage.  Luckily for me, Hotshot was less worrisome, but Synergy could really cramp my style.  It can guarantee that the models across from me got to the higher POW values that would easily crack my ARM.

The board had two obstructions, one a bit beyond his flag, and one a little off to the right of mine.  Large forests were present on my left on my side, and on his side on the right, with scattered other terrain and a hill.

He won the roll and let me go first.  I decided to send my Long Riders on the right flank, towards my near flag, with the Champs straight up the middle and the Warders a little off to the left, but mostly center, near directly across from his flag.  Grissel was dead center in front of the Stone.  Horthol was off to the left of the Warders, while everything else came a little in back, with the Sorcerers supporting.
had deployed Axiom dead center, and spread his jacks along the front.  I honestly cannot remember which jacks are which, but the one that created rough terrain templates was across from my Riders.

I decided, as I looked at the board, that I didn't think I had very good odds of controlling/dominating his flag, but I had very good odds of jamming on my flag and setting the battle line where he couldn't contest my flag.  So, I dropped 5 in the Stone from Grissel, put Hoof It on the Warders, and ran her towards my flag.  The Long Riders ran up and took up a spread set of positions near my flag, while the Champs went dead center and the Warders came up to the left.  Everything else advanced fairly centrally.

He advanced his guys, I believe running most jacks, but moving the Axiom up and popping a shot to see if a Rider was in range (he wasn't) and shooting out Rough Terrain templates.  I can't keep Convergence jacks straight, so I won't try.  Synergy went up, as did Hotshot on the Axiom.

I looked at the board, wasn't really feeling good about a jam feat (although I was tempted), so I decided to just sacrifice a few Warders for the good of the rest of my army to get myself good position.  The Warders ran, got Hoof It from Grissel who moved to dominate the near flag, while the Champs stayed central.  A single Rider charged, managing to barely get one of his heavies, while the rest ran and positioned for a (hopefully) awesome feat turn.  The Stone had 5 (Grissel pumped one more in) after putting up the aura and picking one up from Grissel after the fact, giving a solid 9" bubble.  I clouded up that got 3 Riders and Grissel, making her DEF 17 and I was careful to put models in the way to prevent drag (screw you Axiom!)

He decided he'd try a feat pop, and laid out a lot of damage.  All told, he put about 3 wounds each on 2 champs, killed 3 or 4 Warders, and I think killed one Rider.  Can't remember all the specifics, but Axiom advanced to get more central to get maximum damage, while he advanced as much as possible near the Riders.  Critically, he was not able to get into position to contest my dominating (both of us continually forgot in this game that he could make Servitors and run them from Axiom.  Oops).

I looked at the board and knew I had a near perfect feat turn for laying out damage.  I got Flaming Fists on a Champ, Horthol, and a Long Rider, refilled the stone (it activated first, put up Strength and moved aggressively forward), feated, and started.  The Pyre Troll managed to get 4 models on fire, including an Optifex.  Horthol took out about half or more of a heavy, a Champ sliced the crap out of Axiom (1 champ took like 1/3 his boxes.  Wtf?).  One Heavy went down to 3 Champ Charges, and after my Long Riders collective crapped their pants, he had half a heavy on that side.  I then repositioned to jam up with 2 Champs and the lone remaining warder, as well as a pair of Long Riders, while everything else backed out for Round 2.  I was now at 2 CP's and rolling.

He laid out pretty much all the damage he could, but my Tough rolls went hot this turn, and I think he only killed 1 model.  I had 1 Champ left, the Warder was still up, and I think both Riders toughed.  Horthol was screened by a Sorcerer, who also toughed to prevent a charge on him.  So, yeah - Tough's a thing.

My next turn wasn't much - Horthol finished a heavy, I did extraneous damage, and I jammed with every model I had because I was at 4 CP's after this turn, and I wanted to get to 5 quickly.  I didn't think I had the damage to put Axiom in the ground, and my crap rolls on the other heavies were leaving me in a bad spot, with my damage output disappearing quickly.  He was winning the attrition, but he couldn't clear my jam well enough.  He couldn't clear after the next round, and I got to 5-0 on CPs.

So...  My biggest mistake probably was that I was too concerned with early contesting, and I should have preserved the Warders - I lost 3 or 4 bottom of 2, when I could have lost 1-2 probably.  I should have conceded him an early point, preserved the Warders, and I honestly think that he would have lost 2 Heavies on my Turn 3, along with damage into Axiom, and maybe 1-2 lights with it.  Not a horrible mistake, but one that could have been more costly.

His big mistake, I think, was advancing and shooting Turn 1.  He should've gone balls to the wall up the field, trying to get up, because his positioning let me get my full jam.  That's an easy mistake to make, though, when you know your shooting range will be close.

Also, he forgot the Servitors for contesting - woulda helped a lot and slowed the game down.  I think on one turn he couldn't have because I had a lot of reach models for him to move around to get there, but he might have bought one more turn.

It was a good game, and a good initial test run of YUMMM BEEFY.  I think I like it; it's not the Miserable Meat Mountain, but I think it has staying power, and pGris's Fell Calls really knock it out.