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!
Showing posts with label Cygnar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cygnar. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2014
Monday, September 1, 2014
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.
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.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs Cygnar, 4-23-14
My list:
Grim Angus
2x Bombers
Impaler
Storm Troll
Fennblades + UA
Min Bushwhackers
Sons of Bragg
Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers
Whelps
Opponents List:
Siege Tier List (the new one)
-Triumph
Allison Jakes
-Charger
Journeyman Warcaster
-Hunter
Journeyman Warcaster
AT Gun Mages w/ UA
-Defender
Black 13th
Field Mechaniks (max)
Arlan Strangeways
Scenario: Destruction
I may be missing something on my opponents list - I'm not 100% sure. This is close, though, and if I'm missing something I'm having trouble figuring out what it might be.
Terrain: Hill on my close left, near my objective, forest on my near right, near the corner of my zone. Large obstruction on right side, a few inches away from his objective, and forest on the left side (opposite diagonal of the other forest).
I lost the roll, and my opponent picked a board edge, setting me to go first. I deployed my Fennblades mostly on the left side, relatively opposite the hill, one Bomber centrally, one Bomber to the right behind the forest, with Grim right behind him, Impaler and Storm just behind those, SoB off to the right to go to the right side of the forest, 3 Whelps on the board. Bushwhackers ended up on the right side in front of Grim (I really wanted to abuse the forest).
Opponent put the Gun Mages hard left from my view to go around his forest and flank with defender, the two Journeyman were just behind the forest, Hunter ended up in his forest, Siege central with Triumph so they could abuse a Trench, Jakes to the right with her Charge, Arlan somewhere near the Defender. B13th went into the forest. All these are from my perspective.
I did math really quick, and realize the only two things that should be able to reliably shoot my Fenns if I was careful were the Defender and Hunter because of the angles with the Fenns and Gun Mages, so I sent two of them max distance forward, the rest hanging back just an inch or two behind (ie, baiting out the Vengeance). SoB just busted up the field because the Charger and Triumph couldn't get them, Bushwhackers advanced (a little too far, oops), Grim put Cross Country on the Bomber going into the forest and charged a Fennblade (short!), both Bombers ran max.
He advanced up the Hunter, shot up a Fenn (tough), put out Arcane Shield on the Hunter and on Siege with the two J-Men. Arlan powered up the Defender, who walked forward, sniped, and removed another Fenn. Gun Mages walked up but couldn't get in range (math!), Triumph ran but couldn't quite get in a trench, Siege foxholed and charged to put himself in the middle. the Charger advanced to take shots, Jakes put on Sidekick. Charger removed 1 Bushwhacker that I put about 1/2" too far forward - I'm not always smart.
Vengeance! I moved my guys forward - nothing in range to attack, but my mini feat distance was now in play. I looked at the board, and concluded the Gun Mages were probably out of play for at least another turn, so I thought I'd take a couple of chances. Based on the board, I really didn't feel that Grim would be in good position to support the Fenns with Feat or Marked for Death, so I just resigned them to their fate - they could screen and buy shots, and let me work on the big boys. If I could weather Siege's feat (thought it might be coming soon), I felt good about my odds. Fennblades mini feated, two charged the Hunter, one charged Ryan (B13), and one ran to engage a Gun Mage. ATGM failed Terror (whoo!), Ryan passed. Missed 2/3 charges, plinked damage into the Hunter, while the rest of the Fenns just took a really spread position to cover board space.
Otherwise, I plowed a shit ton of damage into Triumph - left him on 4 boxes, but missed the cortex - with two Bomber sets, put some damage into the Charger with Grim and an assaulting Tor (SoBragg), and removed 5/6 mechaniks, including the leader. Sadly left one standing - dammit. I put out Girded to protect some Bushwhackers from an Explosivo charged round, and braced myself.
He feated (as expected), and laid out a Ground Pounder, but needing a lot of 6's and 7's (and a 10 on Grim), he didn't get a lot laid out on my Bomber, Grim, and some Whackers, so I made it out fairly safely. The Bomber lost about 10, and then got shot by Triump to take him down to 9 health or so. The Charger lit into an SoB who made his Tough, Gun Mages rallied, and one Fenn toughed out a B13 shot. Ryan lit up two of them herself, and the Defender removed the officer. I was down to about 4 Fenns (including Drummer) or so, maybe a little more, but most everything. Importantly, he had nothing in the zone.
I decided it still wasnt a good Feat turn yet, and decided to just lay out damage. Triumph got removed by one Bomber, the other Bomber and a Fenn took off the objective. the Storm Troll with Snipe shot my own knocked down Fenn, and I got two jumps - which coincided with the two B13th almost on top of my guy. I killed my own guy, but got 2 of 3 B13th, so I'll take that trade. Fenns just annoyed the Hunter more, while the SoBragg charged the Charger, using the Standup call to get off the ground. That was a mistake - I shouldve gone Fervor, just moved the gun on the ground out of the way, and charged, because Sidekicks is a really, really nice spell for making hitting a Charger very difficult. Lesson learned. After all was said and done, Triumph was gone, the Charger was banged up really badly but still alive, and I had 3 CPs, with my feat still up. Oh, and Grim actually got a shot on Jakes - but sadly, I needed a 5 to kill on dice, and rolled a 4. Oh, dice. Silly, silly boys.
His next turn, he removed the SoB with Jakes and the Charger, Siege lit up some more guys, the Gun Mages ran back somewhat into the action, the Defender killed something (don't remember what), and the Hunter moved into the zone.
I cleared the Hunter, and that was game. 5-0 on CPs.
Grim Angus
2x Bombers
Impaler
Storm Troll
Fennblades + UA
Min Bushwhackers
Sons of Bragg
Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers
Whelps
Opponents List:
Siege Tier List (the new one)
-Triumph
Allison Jakes
-Charger
Journeyman Warcaster
-Hunter
Journeyman Warcaster
AT Gun Mages w/ UA
-Defender
Black 13th
Field Mechaniks (max)
Arlan Strangeways
Scenario: Destruction
I may be missing something on my opponents list - I'm not 100% sure. This is close, though, and if I'm missing something I'm having trouble figuring out what it might be.
Terrain: Hill on my close left, near my objective, forest on my near right, near the corner of my zone. Large obstruction on right side, a few inches away from his objective, and forest on the left side (opposite diagonal of the other forest).
I lost the roll, and my opponent picked a board edge, setting me to go first. I deployed my Fennblades mostly on the left side, relatively opposite the hill, one Bomber centrally, one Bomber to the right behind the forest, with Grim right behind him, Impaler and Storm just behind those, SoB off to the right to go to the right side of the forest, 3 Whelps on the board. Bushwhackers ended up on the right side in front of Grim (I really wanted to abuse the forest).
Opponent put the Gun Mages hard left from my view to go around his forest and flank with defender, the two Journeyman were just behind the forest, Hunter ended up in his forest, Siege central with Triumph so they could abuse a Trench, Jakes to the right with her Charge, Arlan somewhere near the Defender. B13th went into the forest. All these are from my perspective.
I did math really quick, and realize the only two things that should be able to reliably shoot my Fenns if I was careful were the Defender and Hunter because of the angles with the Fenns and Gun Mages, so I sent two of them max distance forward, the rest hanging back just an inch or two behind (ie, baiting out the Vengeance). SoB just busted up the field because the Charger and Triumph couldn't get them, Bushwhackers advanced (a little too far, oops), Grim put Cross Country on the Bomber going into the forest and charged a Fennblade (short!), both Bombers ran max.
He advanced up the Hunter, shot up a Fenn (tough), put out Arcane Shield on the Hunter and on Siege with the two J-Men. Arlan powered up the Defender, who walked forward, sniped, and removed another Fenn. Gun Mages walked up but couldn't get in range (math!), Triumph ran but couldn't quite get in a trench, Siege foxholed and charged to put himself in the middle. the Charger advanced to take shots, Jakes put on Sidekick. Charger removed 1 Bushwhacker that I put about 1/2" too far forward - I'm not always smart.
Vengeance! I moved my guys forward - nothing in range to attack, but my mini feat distance was now in play. I looked at the board, and concluded the Gun Mages were probably out of play for at least another turn, so I thought I'd take a couple of chances. Based on the board, I really didn't feel that Grim would be in good position to support the Fenns with Feat or Marked for Death, so I just resigned them to their fate - they could screen and buy shots, and let me work on the big boys. If I could weather Siege's feat (thought it might be coming soon), I felt good about my odds. Fennblades mini feated, two charged the Hunter, one charged Ryan (B13), and one ran to engage a Gun Mage. ATGM failed Terror (whoo!), Ryan passed. Missed 2/3 charges, plinked damage into the Hunter, while the rest of the Fenns just took a really spread position to cover board space.
Otherwise, I plowed a shit ton of damage into Triumph - left him on 4 boxes, but missed the cortex - with two Bomber sets, put some damage into the Charger with Grim and an assaulting Tor (SoBragg), and removed 5/6 mechaniks, including the leader. Sadly left one standing - dammit. I put out Girded to protect some Bushwhackers from an Explosivo charged round, and braced myself.
He feated (as expected), and laid out a Ground Pounder, but needing a lot of 6's and 7's (and a 10 on Grim), he didn't get a lot laid out on my Bomber, Grim, and some Whackers, so I made it out fairly safely. The Bomber lost about 10, and then got shot by Triump to take him down to 9 health or so. The Charger lit into an SoB who made his Tough, Gun Mages rallied, and one Fenn toughed out a B13 shot. Ryan lit up two of them herself, and the Defender removed the officer. I was down to about 4 Fenns (including Drummer) or so, maybe a little more, but most everything. Importantly, he had nothing in the zone.
I decided it still wasnt a good Feat turn yet, and decided to just lay out damage. Triumph got removed by one Bomber, the other Bomber and a Fenn took off the objective. the Storm Troll with Snipe shot my own knocked down Fenn, and I got two jumps - which coincided with the two B13th almost on top of my guy. I killed my own guy, but got 2 of 3 B13th, so I'll take that trade. Fenns just annoyed the Hunter more, while the SoBragg charged the Charger, using the Standup call to get off the ground. That was a mistake - I shouldve gone Fervor, just moved the gun on the ground out of the way, and charged, because Sidekicks is a really, really nice spell for making hitting a Charger very difficult. Lesson learned. After all was said and done, Triumph was gone, the Charger was banged up really badly but still alive, and I had 3 CPs, with my feat still up. Oh, and Grim actually got a shot on Jakes - but sadly, I needed a 5 to kill on dice, and rolled a 4. Oh, dice. Silly, silly boys.
His next turn, he removed the SoB with Jakes and the Charger, Siege lit up some more guys, the Gun Mages ran back somewhat into the action, the Defender killed something (don't remember what), and the Hunter moved into the zone.
I cleared the Hunter, and that was game. 5-0 on CPs.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Battle Report 3-12, Trolls vs Cygnar
Sorry for the delay posting last Wednesday's game folks; I got a combination of busy and distracted. I made the mistake of starting to play Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, and... Well, it was a mistake. A tasty, fun mistake.
So, one of my worries with my Calanda list was getting shot up on the way in; I was worried Cygnar in particular could put in enough damage to remove Gators or Boomhowlers while avoiding Star Crossed. I didn't actually get to test that theory this week!
My opponent, a local Cygnar player named Joe, decided to try out a Darius tier list and see how it would work. For my part, I wanted to try out a variation on my Calandra list, subbing in a Bomber, Impaler, and Slag for Mulg, Pyre, and the Runeshapers; I feel that Calandra can support the list fairly well through fury soaking with Soothing Song and Star Crossed. Scenario was fire support. My list:
Calandra Truthsayer
Runebearer
Bomber
Impaler
Slag Troll
Max Gator Posse
Max Nyss Hunters
Max Boomhowlers
Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers
Feralgeist
Joe's list, as close as I can manage:
Darius Wrecking Crew Tier 2:
Darius
Centurion
Minuteman
Journeyman Warcaster
2x Sword Knight Units with UA
**Both units marshalling 2 Hunters each
I ended up going first. I had a rock in front of me that blocked LOS (not linear obstacle, the bigger size), a house off to my right, and a linear obstacle to my left that had little impact. Joe had a forest in the middle of the board, but fairly clear access to either side.
I sent my Nyss down one flank, Calandra + Battlegroup + Protection down the center, and my Gators + Boomhowlers (Boomies in front) on the left. Calandra put up Bullet Dodger and Star Crossed, camping on three. I made an early mistake with her, in that I did not put up the Gobber cloud to put her into concealment, and I charged her up the middle not behind the rock, so I did not have cover or LOS. My early worry was the Hunters shooting up my Gatorman posse, so I tried to screen them behind Boomies, and I wanted to get Calandra up the board aggressively to abuse Star Crossed, which may not have been a mistake, but I went about it poorly.
Joe responded by Prontoing all 4 Hunters forward and running the Knights up behind them. The Minuteman got 3, moved, jumped, and shot two Boomhowlers, both failing tough checks (they never passed a single one all game). Then the pain started, with the Hunters beginning to shoot up Calandra bottom of 1. Because of Pronto, they were able to aim, needing only 7's to hit and boosting to hit to get around Star Crossed. At this point I started swearing, because there was a reasonable chance that I would half-kill most of my beasts with transfers. Both damage rolls on Calandra spiked at dice -1, producing more swearing, before the third boosted failed to hit due to Star Crossed, and she took her Evasive move behind cover; the final shot went into the Bomber, plugging more damage into him. Darius and the Centurion both just ran through the forest (Pathfinder from the Tier bonus).
Calandra cut for two, I sighed from relief that I hadn't quite gotten Calandra killed bottom of 1, and I decided to start the slaughter. Calandra went first, popped feat, befuddled a Hunter to send its ass to me and move forward, and the beatings commenced. I took down 3 of the 4 Hunters plus a Minuteman, along with a few Sword Knights from Boomy shots. The Bomber claimed one Hunter, the Slag claimed another, four Nyss 2-man's at Dice - 3 claimed the third, and Boomies + Gators took down the Minuteman. I felt a lot safer at this point, getting Calandra behind smoke to deny LOS, and sat back to see the return.
At this point the game will get a little hazy, because it bogged down - Joe engaged the Sword Knights into the Nyss on the right, the Sword Knights into the Boomies and Gators on the left, and we bogged down a couple of turns. He got the Centurion in the mix, but Befuddle and some spiked dice left him nearly dead - had I not forgotten to put more effort into killing Junior, I would have killed him, but Darius's feat put him fully operational again. We bounced attacks around in the Nyss and Sword Knights, but as the clock was winding down, I realized that I didn't really need to spike any more damage into him, blew up the objective with the Bomber, and put the Feralgeist onto his flag to go to 2 CPs. He had little way to retaliate and conceded.
My alternate Calandra battlegroup worked extremely well - I was very happy with its performance, as the ranged attacks that it can put out really take advantage of her feat while remaining at a distance, and really help aid the slog that she creates with Star Crossed. All the pieces pretty much worked nicely with each other; my major mistakes came in the form of bad first turn issues that I learned quickly from.
My next post will be giddiness about new Troll news (and won't really be a post as much as me just being happy), but I'm going to post some theory about a new Calandra list modification soon; hopefully by tomorrow. It may not be practical, but it'll be cramming as much denial into one list as possible and giggling manically.
So, one of my worries with my Calanda list was getting shot up on the way in; I was worried Cygnar in particular could put in enough damage to remove Gators or Boomhowlers while avoiding Star Crossed. I didn't actually get to test that theory this week!
My opponent, a local Cygnar player named Joe, decided to try out a Darius tier list and see how it would work. For my part, I wanted to try out a variation on my Calandra list, subbing in a Bomber, Impaler, and Slag for Mulg, Pyre, and the Runeshapers; I feel that Calandra can support the list fairly well through fury soaking with Soothing Song and Star Crossed. Scenario was fire support. My list:
Calandra Truthsayer
Runebearer
Bomber
Impaler
Slag Troll
Max Gator Posse
Max Nyss Hunters
Max Boomhowlers
Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers
Feralgeist
Joe's list, as close as I can manage:
Darius Wrecking Crew Tier 2:
Darius
Centurion
Minuteman
Journeyman Warcaster
2x Sword Knight Units with UA
**Both units marshalling 2 Hunters each
I ended up going first. I had a rock in front of me that blocked LOS (not linear obstacle, the bigger size), a house off to my right, and a linear obstacle to my left that had little impact. Joe had a forest in the middle of the board, but fairly clear access to either side.
I sent my Nyss down one flank, Calandra + Battlegroup + Protection down the center, and my Gators + Boomhowlers (Boomies in front) on the left. Calandra put up Bullet Dodger and Star Crossed, camping on three. I made an early mistake with her, in that I did not put up the Gobber cloud to put her into concealment, and I charged her up the middle not behind the rock, so I did not have cover or LOS. My early worry was the Hunters shooting up my Gatorman posse, so I tried to screen them behind Boomies, and I wanted to get Calandra up the board aggressively to abuse Star Crossed, which may not have been a mistake, but I went about it poorly.
Joe responded by Prontoing all 4 Hunters forward and running the Knights up behind them. The Minuteman got 3, moved, jumped, and shot two Boomhowlers, both failing tough checks (they never passed a single one all game). Then the pain started, with the Hunters beginning to shoot up Calandra bottom of 1. Because of Pronto, they were able to aim, needing only 7's to hit and boosting to hit to get around Star Crossed. At this point I started swearing, because there was a reasonable chance that I would half-kill most of my beasts with transfers. Both damage rolls on Calandra spiked at dice -1, producing more swearing, before the third boosted failed to hit due to Star Crossed, and she took her Evasive move behind cover; the final shot went into the Bomber, plugging more damage into him. Darius and the Centurion both just ran through the forest (Pathfinder from the Tier bonus).
Calandra cut for two, I sighed from relief that I hadn't quite gotten Calandra killed bottom of 1, and I decided to start the slaughter. Calandra went first, popped feat, befuddled a Hunter to send its ass to me and move forward, and the beatings commenced. I took down 3 of the 4 Hunters plus a Minuteman, along with a few Sword Knights from Boomy shots. The Bomber claimed one Hunter, the Slag claimed another, four Nyss 2-man's at Dice - 3 claimed the third, and Boomies + Gators took down the Minuteman. I felt a lot safer at this point, getting Calandra behind smoke to deny LOS, and sat back to see the return.
At this point the game will get a little hazy, because it bogged down - Joe engaged the Sword Knights into the Nyss on the right, the Sword Knights into the Boomies and Gators on the left, and we bogged down a couple of turns. He got the Centurion in the mix, but Befuddle and some spiked dice left him nearly dead - had I not forgotten to put more effort into killing Junior, I would have killed him, but Darius's feat put him fully operational again. We bounced attacks around in the Nyss and Sword Knights, but as the clock was winding down, I realized that I didn't really need to spike any more damage into him, blew up the objective with the Bomber, and put the Feralgeist onto his flag to go to 2 CPs. He had little way to retaliate and conceded.
My alternate Calandra battlegroup worked extremely well - I was very happy with its performance, as the ranged attacks that it can put out really take advantage of her feat while remaining at a distance, and really help aid the slog that she creates with Star Crossed. All the pieces pretty much worked nicely with each other; my major mistakes came in the form of bad first turn issues that I learned quickly from.
My next post will be giddiness about new Troll news (and won't really be a post as much as me just being happy), but I'm going to post some theory about a new Calandra list modification soon; hopefully by tomorrow. It may not be practical, but it'll be cramming as much denial into one list as possible and giggling manically.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
March 1st Steamroller, Final Table
My final game was on Destruction, with my opponent running Cygnar's Lieutenant Caine in a Tier 4 list; second lists were optional, and this was his only list. His list (as close as I can replicate) was:
Lieutenant Allister Caine (*6pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (0pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
I tabbed the Hunters Grim to close out my day, and promptly lost the dice roll to make the day 3/3 for my opponents having choice of 1st or 2nd. He opted to go first, and I held the same side of the table, which had a comfortable wall that I felt Grim could hide behind.
Our table contained a wall about an inch outside the control zone on my side, an obstruction (house) a few inches away from the zone on the side, forest on the right side of the zone from my view, and rough terrain and a wall on the left side, with the wall on his side.
He sent the two units of Gun Mages down the center and side with the rough terrain on either side of the Storm Wall, and the Tempest Blazers on the far side to take advantage of the forest as best as possible, and the Hunters ADed in front of the marshalling Gun Mages.
I countered with the Bushwhackers across from the Hunters, Burrowers a little right of center, an Axer on either flank, Grim Center, and the Fennblades spread out around him. The support staff went fairly central, able to respond wherever was necessary.
He ran everything first turn, sending the Hunters up to near the halfway line on my left flank, Blazers into the forest on the right, and as many Gun Mages into cover as possible. The Stormwall ran the max distance a little to the left of central.
I decided to try to get some early damage with the Bushwhackers, since the Hunters had moved easily into range, hit, and promptly blasted it as hard as possible with boxcars! I plinked in more ranged damage, leaving it on four boxes, but the main gun up. The Burrowers went under, and the rest of my army moved up fairly centrally, taking cover or concealment where possible.
His next turn involved blasting one Axer completely off the table, and knocking about half the Fennblades off. A few shots went into Grim to do some early damage, but at DEF 20 behind the wall he was a hard out. The Stormwall advanced to contest the zone, toeing a corner, and the Blazers worked on my right flank, ending up near the objective I would be gunning for. The other Gun Mages slowly advanced up the field as they shot.
I took Vengeance and Mirage moves on the Fenns to reposition, used the Runebearer to hit a Mortality on the Stormwall, and laid in some damage with the Fennblades. The Bushwhackers finished off the wounded Hunter, Grim feated, shot the Stormwall, and Mortalitied a knocked down Blazer. The Mauler got Rush and pounded the Stormwall into unrecognizable electronic bits, while the burrowers had emerged within range of the Blazers and took 4 of them off the table, as well as the objective, with help from an Axer. The Black 13th lost two members to an angry Kithkar, and I was left in position to control the zone for my first CP.
Caine responded by feating and killing most of the single wound models remaining, leaving a few Fennblades and Burrowers, sending the Burrowers screaming at the site of their own blood. The Gun Mages shot some more Fennblades off the table, while one set full CRA'd into the Mauler but rolled low to barely scratch him. The remaining Blazer contested the zone to try to hold him in the game.
My Burrowers responded by screaming more and running even further away, but my beasts held up and removed more threats. I killed a few Gun Mages, but primarily set up Fort Grim with Gobber clouds and medium based models to completely screen Grim and allow him to safely dominate. For safety, I camped on 4, taking me to 3 CPs. On his next turn, he ran some pieces in to contest, but I was able to clear them again and take it to 5 CPs, sending me to 3-0 for the day and taking the tourney!
Thanks for reading, and for bearing with me as I'll be figuring out how to deliver battle reports succinctly but clearly! I may do some list assessment in coming days, analyzing how I felt about my lists, if I can figure out a format!
Lieutenant Allister Caine (*6pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (0pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
* * Hunter (6pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Tempest Blazers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
I tabbed the Hunters Grim to close out my day, and promptly lost the dice roll to make the day 3/3 for my opponents having choice of 1st or 2nd. He opted to go first, and I held the same side of the table, which had a comfortable wall that I felt Grim could hide behind.
Our table contained a wall about an inch outside the control zone on my side, an obstruction (house) a few inches away from the zone on the side, forest on the right side of the zone from my view, and rough terrain and a wall on the left side, with the wall on his side.
He sent the two units of Gun Mages down the center and side with the rough terrain on either side of the Storm Wall, and the Tempest Blazers on the far side to take advantage of the forest as best as possible, and the Hunters ADed in front of the marshalling Gun Mages.
I countered with the Bushwhackers across from the Hunters, Burrowers a little right of center, an Axer on either flank, Grim Center, and the Fennblades spread out around him. The support staff went fairly central, able to respond wherever was necessary.
He ran everything first turn, sending the Hunters up to near the halfway line on my left flank, Blazers into the forest on the right, and as many Gun Mages into cover as possible. The Stormwall ran the max distance a little to the left of central.
I decided to try to get some early damage with the Bushwhackers, since the Hunters had moved easily into range, hit, and promptly blasted it as hard as possible with boxcars! I plinked in more ranged damage, leaving it on four boxes, but the main gun up. The Burrowers went under, and the rest of my army moved up fairly centrally, taking cover or concealment where possible.
His next turn involved blasting one Axer completely off the table, and knocking about half the Fennblades off. A few shots went into Grim to do some early damage, but at DEF 20 behind the wall he was a hard out. The Stormwall advanced to contest the zone, toeing a corner, and the Blazers worked on my right flank, ending up near the objective I would be gunning for. The other Gun Mages slowly advanced up the field as they shot.
I took Vengeance and Mirage moves on the Fenns to reposition, used the Runebearer to hit a Mortality on the Stormwall, and laid in some damage with the Fennblades. The Bushwhackers finished off the wounded Hunter, Grim feated, shot the Stormwall, and Mortalitied a knocked down Blazer. The Mauler got Rush and pounded the Stormwall into unrecognizable electronic bits, while the burrowers had emerged within range of the Blazers and took 4 of them off the table, as well as the objective, with help from an Axer. The Black 13th lost two members to an angry Kithkar, and I was left in position to control the zone for my first CP.
Caine responded by feating and killing most of the single wound models remaining, leaving a few Fennblades and Burrowers, sending the Burrowers screaming at the site of their own blood. The Gun Mages shot some more Fennblades off the table, while one set full CRA'd into the Mauler but rolled low to barely scratch him. The remaining Blazer contested the zone to try to hold him in the game.
My Burrowers responded by screaming more and running even further away, but my beasts held up and removed more threats. I killed a few Gun Mages, but primarily set up Fort Grim with Gobber clouds and medium based models to completely screen Grim and allow him to safely dominate. For safety, I camped on 4, taking me to 3 CPs. On his next turn, he ran some pieces in to contest, but I was able to clear them again and take it to 5 CPs, sending me to 3-0 for the day and taking the tourney!
Thanks for reading, and for bearing with me as I'll be figuring out how to deliver battle reports succinctly but clearly! I may do some list assessment in coming days, analyzing how I felt about my lists, if I can figure out a format!
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