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 pGrissel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pGrissel. 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.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs Mercs, 4-26-14
My List:
Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller
Storm Troll
Pyre Troll
Troll Impaler
min Champs + Skaldi
min Champs
max Warders
min Stone + UA
2x Champ Hero
Fennblade Kithkar
S.S. Chronicler
2x Sorcerer
Swamp Gobbers
Opponent:
Damiano
Rocinante
Nomad
max Boomies
Gun Mages + UA
TAC
Rorsh & Brine
Alexia2
Ogrun Bokur
Rockbottom
(maybe something else? Don't have a way to calculate points right now)
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Rock walls on my near left and on the far right, close to the destroyable objectives. Forest central-left on my side, largish obstacle near my opponents flag, hill on his side. Maybe something else I'm forgetting.
This battle was a giant slugfest, so I may be off or hazy on some details; I'll try to get the points that had the biggest effects. I won the roll and went first. Sorcerer's on the 2x Champs, Warders central, one champ unit and hero on the side of my objective and flag, the one with Skaldi on the other side. Grissel central, stone central, Kithkar to the right side, Pyre to the left, Storm to the right, impaler central.
He put the Boomhowlers mostly central, Gun Mages to my right, Alexia and other solos central to central right with Damiano. Both jacks were pretty much central, Rorsh and brine off to the left flank. All solo's were AD because Highborn.
I just rolled fast up the field. Warders ran, got Hoof It, went further. Champs ran up on each side, Grissel put 5 in the Stone, Stone popped for No Continous, and all that jazz.
His turn, he rolled forward, Rocinante rolled fire and blasted a Warder off the table - he was actually sad, he wanted Alexia to get a soul early. I knew that I'd lose a chunk of health on the warder, thought he'd still be up! But at least Righteous Vengeance was triggered. Boomies 4+ Tough, spread out to eat up room, Warpath and Death March out (DM on Boomies).
I normally like a turn 2 feat, but it wasn't happening here. So, instead, jam. Hoof It went on Warders, I deviated a Pyre shot into 2 of them and lit em up. Warders ran up to jam the area and occupy space. Stone got maxed out (9" aura), while I went for broke with the Kithkar. I put Lightning Fists on him and charged into the Gun Mages, but failed to hit either shot needing 8's. If I got lucky and hit 1, 2 dead mages; if I got really lucky and hit 2, then 4 dead Gun Mages. It was a risk I was willing to take.
His turn, he sent Brine into the objective on my side and put it down. Damiano feated, the Boomies came in and slapped around Warders, but ARM 21's quite a lot (after the first damage taken). I think he took out another Warder this turn, maybe 2 - I think one though. Kithkar got beat to hell and didn't Tough, but most importantly, the Gun Mages thunderbolted the Storm Troll, knocked him down... And out of control. Fuck. Skaldi got beat the hell down by Thralls after a Thunderbolt crit, when I placed him on the wrong side of the Champs formation - my bad. That was about it.
My Storm Troll didn't frenzy, but couldn't be forced to stand, so that sucked. I was going to use his shot to try and bounce around the Gun Mages, too, since taking 2-3 of them out is a big step up for me to take out his board manipulation. So he just had to walk up to get back in range and hope it'd be enough.
It was a good feat turn now, as everything was in range of good charge targets, so I opened fire with all cylinders. Grissel aiming knocked down a Boomie, who she then Calamatied (I really wanted to make sure I cleared their feat armor - 19 is annoying, and relies on Weaponmaster rolls. Average breaks, but still...) I threw down a lot of attacks that took out Big Pig, Boomhowler, a few Boomies, and plinked some damage elsewhere, but wasn't nearly as effective as I'd like. The army rearrangement was very nice, however, and kept the warders jammed up. I made a couple of bad decisions, though, including choosing poor charge targets - I should have cleared the objective on his side, while I had a fantastic lane at it.
On his turn, he cleared all but 1 or 2 Warders, knocked down all my Champs on the right side (where Skaldi was) and failed to bump the Storm Troll out of contesting (I think that was this turn). Brine came up and parked on my flag, and he rotated the Nomad around to the left side.
I finished off the Boomhowlers pretty much this turn, but the problem I ended up having was missing Brine on 1/3 champ attacks and getting him only Tough, not dead, so I failed to get CPs that would have been a huge help. Also, I made a bad charge decision and got a Champ toughed on a free strike, while the other champ crapped his pants on dice and only plinked damage into a nomad.
I think this turn is when he started controlling for CPs again; he got the Storm Troll back out, cleared the Warders, cleared my Champs, and started the CP train. Nomad cleared a Champ or two, and he killed a Sorcerer and damaged another Champ.
I killed Brine, started the domination train, contested the other side, and did some more damage in other places - nothing important. From there, we traded a few pieces, but I deathclocked out - I could maybe have won through scenario with a little luck, but I never had time to try and get there.
Biggest mistake: I should have played harder for scenario. I could have taken out his objective early, which would have set me up to dominate twice on the left flag and win, but I didn't. No matter what, I would've only been able to hit 4 CPs, not enough to win. I didn't play badly, just a few mistakes that were enough to hold me out. He played a very good game and deserved the win!
Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller
Storm Troll
Pyre Troll
Troll Impaler
min Champs + Skaldi
min Champs
max Warders
min Stone + UA
2x Champ Hero
Fennblade Kithkar
S.S. Chronicler
2x Sorcerer
Swamp Gobbers
Opponent:
Damiano
Rocinante
Nomad
max Boomies
Gun Mages + UA
TAC
Rorsh & Brine
Alexia2
Ogrun Bokur
Rockbottom
(maybe something else? Don't have a way to calculate points right now)
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Rock walls on my near left and on the far right, close to the destroyable objectives. Forest central-left on my side, largish obstacle near my opponents flag, hill on his side. Maybe something else I'm forgetting.
This battle was a giant slugfest, so I may be off or hazy on some details; I'll try to get the points that had the biggest effects. I won the roll and went first. Sorcerer's on the 2x Champs, Warders central, one champ unit and hero on the side of my objective and flag, the one with Skaldi on the other side. Grissel central, stone central, Kithkar to the right side, Pyre to the left, Storm to the right, impaler central.
He put the Boomhowlers mostly central, Gun Mages to my right, Alexia and other solos central to central right with Damiano. Both jacks were pretty much central, Rorsh and brine off to the left flank. All solo's were AD because Highborn.
I just rolled fast up the field. Warders ran, got Hoof It, went further. Champs ran up on each side, Grissel put 5 in the Stone, Stone popped for No Continous, and all that jazz.
His turn, he rolled forward, Rocinante rolled fire and blasted a Warder off the table - he was actually sad, he wanted Alexia to get a soul early. I knew that I'd lose a chunk of health on the warder, thought he'd still be up! But at least Righteous Vengeance was triggered. Boomies 4+ Tough, spread out to eat up room, Warpath and Death March out (DM on Boomies).
I normally like a turn 2 feat, but it wasn't happening here. So, instead, jam. Hoof It went on Warders, I deviated a Pyre shot into 2 of them and lit em up. Warders ran up to jam the area and occupy space. Stone got maxed out (9" aura), while I went for broke with the Kithkar. I put Lightning Fists on him and charged into the Gun Mages, but failed to hit either shot needing 8's. If I got lucky and hit 1, 2 dead mages; if I got really lucky and hit 2, then 4 dead Gun Mages. It was a risk I was willing to take.
His turn, he sent Brine into the objective on my side and put it down. Damiano feated, the Boomies came in and slapped around Warders, but ARM 21's quite a lot (after the first damage taken). I think he took out another Warder this turn, maybe 2 - I think one though. Kithkar got beat to hell and didn't Tough, but most importantly, the Gun Mages thunderbolted the Storm Troll, knocked him down... And out of control. Fuck. Skaldi got beat the hell down by Thralls after a Thunderbolt crit, when I placed him on the wrong side of the Champs formation - my bad. That was about it.
My Storm Troll didn't frenzy, but couldn't be forced to stand, so that sucked. I was going to use his shot to try and bounce around the Gun Mages, too, since taking 2-3 of them out is a big step up for me to take out his board manipulation. So he just had to walk up to get back in range and hope it'd be enough.
It was a good feat turn now, as everything was in range of good charge targets, so I opened fire with all cylinders. Grissel aiming knocked down a Boomie, who she then Calamatied (I really wanted to make sure I cleared their feat armor - 19 is annoying, and relies on Weaponmaster rolls. Average breaks, but still...) I threw down a lot of attacks that took out Big Pig, Boomhowler, a few Boomies, and plinked some damage elsewhere, but wasn't nearly as effective as I'd like. The army rearrangement was very nice, however, and kept the warders jammed up. I made a couple of bad decisions, though, including choosing poor charge targets - I should have cleared the objective on his side, while I had a fantastic lane at it.
On his turn, he cleared all but 1 or 2 Warders, knocked down all my Champs on the right side (where Skaldi was) and failed to bump the Storm Troll out of contesting (I think that was this turn). Brine came up and parked on my flag, and he rotated the Nomad around to the left side.
I finished off the Boomhowlers pretty much this turn, but the problem I ended up having was missing Brine on 1/3 champ attacks and getting him only Tough, not dead, so I failed to get CPs that would have been a huge help. Also, I made a bad charge decision and got a Champ toughed on a free strike, while the other champ crapped his pants on dice and only plinked damage into a nomad.
I think this turn is when he started controlling for CPs again; he got the Storm Troll back out, cleared the Warders, cleared my Champs, and started the CP train. Nomad cleared a Champ or two, and he killed a Sorcerer and damaged another Champ.
I killed Brine, started the domination train, contested the other side, and did some more damage in other places - nothing important. From there, we traded a few pieces, but I deathclocked out - I could maybe have won through scenario with a little luck, but I never had time to try and get there.
Biggest mistake: I should have played harder for scenario. I could have taken out his objective early, which would have set me up to dominate twice on the left flag and win, but I didn't. No matter what, I would've only been able to hit 4 CPs, not enough to win. I didn't play badly, just a few mistakes that were enough to hold me out. He played a very good game and deserved the win!
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Battle Report 4-12, Atomic Empire Tourney Game 1, Trolls vs. Legion
Quick note: Sadly, despite this being a potential 3 game tourney, I had to bail after Game 2, so I left an unresolved game with Andy with us both at 2-0. We had 6 people attend, with 2 Legion, 2 Trollbloods, 1 Khador, and 1 Circle.
Scenario: Close Quarters
My List:
pGrissel
Storm Troll
Pyre Troll
Impaler
Max Long Riders
- Sorcerer Adjunct
Horthol
Max Warders
Min Champs + Skaldi
- Sorcerer Adjunct
min Krielstone + UA
Swamp Gobbers
Opponents List:
Vayl, Consul of Everblight
* Angelius
* Angelius
* Ravagore
Blighted Ogrun Warspears (Leader and 4 Grunts)
* Warspear Chieftan
Blighted Ogrun Warspears (Leader and 4 Grunts)
* Warspear Chieftan
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
I lost the roll for choice of first/second, and my opponent elected to go first. Terrain was forest on opposite corners of the board (my close right, his close right), random walls that had little/no effect, and that was about it I believe. Fairly sparse for the game.
I'm a little hazy on his deployment, but I know there was a unit of Spears threatening on my flag, a unit fairly central, I believe both Angelii were near his flag with the pot, and the Ravagore on the right side. Approximately. Both Deathstalkers were threatening my flag.
I put my Long Riders mostly on the right, one or two in the back-central region, Grissel central right to attempt to dominate my friendly flag (similar to my last game), with the Warders left and the Champs on the center. Beasts and support were fairly central, as I recall. I decided to attempt an early game plan similar to that of a few days ago; attempt to dominate my flag and keep my points rolling in while using the Warders and Champs to contest his flag and jam up. It wasn't as successful as the day before, due to different lists and a few mistakes on my part, but still had moderate success. After I deployed, the unit of Spears across from the Long Rider Preyed them, while the other unit preyed the Champs.
He simply ran up, mostly straight forward, with Angellii threatening central/center left from my position, Ravagore central right, and the War Spears threatening middle and right. The Deathstalkers ran up, one moving way up the board into my side, the other moving about halfway up, right side.
I moved up a little cautiously - I gave him 1-2 Long Rider targets that were OK, but I tried to limit how much I gave him. The Warders went full bore and ended up getting Hoof It from Grissel, advancing relatively aggressively, although still remaining far enough away to not eat too much damage; I learned from the other day to be a little more cautious. Champions went up, but I held them a bit in reserve to protect them from the Warspears.
Top of 2, the Warspears assaulted/ran on each side. One of the Warders got damage plinked in, and one Long Rider died that I moved a hair too far forward and a Spear had him, along with some random Assault shots from other Spears. One Angel finished off a Warder, but I actually came out mostly intact; I was fairly content. At the end of this turn, the Ravagore had Admonition, one Angel had Refuge, and he had fairly solid threats across the board. Oh, and a Deathstalker knocked out a Sorcerer (failed Tough check) but failed to hit a Gobber in the cloud near Grissel (needed 11, rolled 10, yeesh!).
I decided it was time for the pain train, and lit the world up with Grissel's beautiful chorus of songs. The Pyre Troll, Impaler, and Storm Trolls all got random shots into the Warspears, resulting in 2-3 dead Warspears, as well as a dead Deathstalker. After Warder and Long Rider charges, I left him sitting on 1 Chieftain in one group, a Chieftain and Grunt in the other, as well as a single deathstalker, with no Champion hitting required. I repositioned to jam up the works hard with the Warders - pretty much sacrificing them for the next turn, because I was fairly sure it would take most of what he had to jam them - Champs went central, and the Long Riders stayed on the right. One Rider repositioned to tie up the Deathstalker, along with the Impaler.
However, I made one HUGE error on this turn; instead of charging the Long Rider into one of the Warspears, I decided to impact attack with Flaming Fists (taking impact to pow 16 on a Spear missing 4 already), since I needed 7 on 3 dice to hit... And failed to hit. Had I charged that guy, also, I would have needed 5 on two dice to hit a charge, then 5 on two dice for a Feat attack, at PS 16 and 14 for the two attacks. That would have let me dominate now, getting my scenario game going 2 turns earlier; instead, I lost the opportunity and ran out of attacks to finish the Warspear. Additionally, I made a smaller error in that I played too cautiously with the Champions, and they weren't in as good retaliatory position as I wanted next turn.
Next turn, he cleared the Warders with Angels, dismounted Horthol (I placed him about 11 inches away from an Angel; bad positioning on my part, but he did take a Skaldi Bonehammer counter charge which blew out Spirit on a Refuged Angel), killed a Champ, lost a Deathstalker to free strikes, and shot with the Ravagore but didn't accomplish much due to No Continuous Effects aura and the dice kinda crapping out. I believe Admonition stayed on the Ravagore if I remember correctly... Not 100% sure.
I was a bit counter-jammed, now, in my ability to get repositioning, but did my best, and freed up a few Champs to kill a Stinger with Skaldi (he'd spawned one by this point from the Pot), and cleared the War Spears, to get some better repositioning. Horthol crapped out on me for once :( and missed needing 6 to hit on an Angel to put more damage at D-3. I forgot to use Grissel's fell call, stupidly, but got her in dominating position to go up 1-0 on scenario. The forgotten Fell Call was huge, actually, in that it cost me Skaldi and good Champion position with Hoof It.
My opponent took this opportunity to wreck Horthol and refuge away (he was way outta the Stone's aura), then brought in a Ravagore to finish off a Long Rider near my point and contest. Skaldi got a random counter charge that didn't really matter, and was eaten by an Angel - I thought he would be anyway, because he was out of position, but oh well. He did some work for me, putting 11 on an Angel and killing a Stinger. Good boy. He ran the Shepherd in between my Impaler and his Ravagore, trying to minimize the number of beasts I could get on the Ravagore, as the Pyre and Impaler were in position to attempt to kill the Ravagore. A Stinger was spawned again and did some work in the middle, but Vayl couldn't quite dominate her side to take advantage of my position, so I remained up 1-0.
With the Shepherd in the way I was in a very awkward position, trying to figure out how to unjam myself. I was struggling to figure it out until I realized the Storm Troll's Lightning Generator might be just what I needed. I moved him into position, boosted to hit, and got 2 jumps (to the Shepherd and my Impaler), boosted slight damage into the Rava, and killed the Impaler. The Impaler was given Flaming Fists by Grissel, the Stone popped for +1 STR, and I walked around and started beating on him at dice -2. I left him at about 1/3 boxes or so, and the Pyre managed to finish him on the last attack.(retrospectively, I should have probably tried to get Calamity on the Ravagore, as that would have been better than Flaming Fists on one beast, but hindsight's 20/20). The Angel's had come up to threaten the center, and had been attacked by the Krielstone members and champs, but I failed to kill the badly wounded Angel (bad decision making with the Champs combined with failing to hit needing 7's on all the Champion attacks. Ouch.)
On his next turn, he moved Vayl into position to dominate, cleared the area around the objective, removed both remaining Champs (and one remaining Long Rider, I believe), and started threatening Grissel, leaving me in a pretty tough spot, having to clear 2 Angels, a Stinger, and still contest.
My next turn, I ran a Sorcerer around to contest, along with random Krielstone members getting in with the Vessel members, and was about to start pounding the Angel when dice down was called, giving me a 2-1 scenario win in a very tough match.
I made some key mistakes that really left me a bit further behind than I should have been, including not focusing more attention on a nearly-dead Angel, but I luckily got away with my mistakes and made it out of a very tough round with the victory. The early CP's managed to win the day for me!
Scenario: Close Quarters
My List:
pGrissel
Storm Troll
Pyre Troll
Impaler
Max Long Riders
- Sorcerer Adjunct
Horthol
Max Warders
Min Champs + Skaldi
- Sorcerer Adjunct
min Krielstone + UA
Swamp Gobbers
Opponents List:
Vayl, Consul of Everblight
* Angelius
* Angelius
* Ravagore
Blighted Ogrun Warspears (Leader and 4 Grunts)
* Warspear Chieftan
Blighted Ogrun Warspears (Leader and 4 Grunts)
* Warspear Chieftan
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
I lost the roll for choice of first/second, and my opponent elected to go first. Terrain was forest on opposite corners of the board (my close right, his close right), random walls that had little/no effect, and that was about it I believe. Fairly sparse for the game.
I'm a little hazy on his deployment, but I know there was a unit of Spears threatening on my flag, a unit fairly central, I believe both Angelii were near his flag with the pot, and the Ravagore on the right side. Approximately. Both Deathstalkers were threatening my flag.
I put my Long Riders mostly on the right, one or two in the back-central region, Grissel central right to attempt to dominate my friendly flag (similar to my last game), with the Warders left and the Champs on the center. Beasts and support were fairly central, as I recall. I decided to attempt an early game plan similar to that of a few days ago; attempt to dominate my flag and keep my points rolling in while using the Warders and Champs to contest his flag and jam up. It wasn't as successful as the day before, due to different lists and a few mistakes on my part, but still had moderate success. After I deployed, the unit of Spears across from the Long Rider Preyed them, while the other unit preyed the Champs.
He simply ran up, mostly straight forward, with Angellii threatening central/center left from my position, Ravagore central right, and the War Spears threatening middle and right. The Deathstalkers ran up, one moving way up the board into my side, the other moving about halfway up, right side.
I moved up a little cautiously - I gave him 1-2 Long Rider targets that were OK, but I tried to limit how much I gave him. The Warders went full bore and ended up getting Hoof It from Grissel, advancing relatively aggressively, although still remaining far enough away to not eat too much damage; I learned from the other day to be a little more cautious. Champions went up, but I held them a bit in reserve to protect them from the Warspears.
Top of 2, the Warspears assaulted/ran on each side. One of the Warders got damage plinked in, and one Long Rider died that I moved a hair too far forward and a Spear had him, along with some random Assault shots from other Spears. One Angel finished off a Warder, but I actually came out mostly intact; I was fairly content. At the end of this turn, the Ravagore had Admonition, one Angel had Refuge, and he had fairly solid threats across the board. Oh, and a Deathstalker knocked out a Sorcerer (failed Tough check) but failed to hit a Gobber in the cloud near Grissel (needed 11, rolled 10, yeesh!).
I decided it was time for the pain train, and lit the world up with Grissel's beautiful chorus of songs. The Pyre Troll, Impaler, and Storm Trolls all got random shots into the Warspears, resulting in 2-3 dead Warspears, as well as a dead Deathstalker. After Warder and Long Rider charges, I left him sitting on 1 Chieftain in one group, a Chieftain and Grunt in the other, as well as a single deathstalker, with no Champion hitting required. I repositioned to jam up the works hard with the Warders - pretty much sacrificing them for the next turn, because I was fairly sure it would take most of what he had to jam them - Champs went central, and the Long Riders stayed on the right. One Rider repositioned to tie up the Deathstalker, along with the Impaler.
However, I made one HUGE error on this turn; instead of charging the Long Rider into one of the Warspears, I decided to impact attack with Flaming Fists (taking impact to pow 16 on a Spear missing 4 already), since I needed 7 on 3 dice to hit... And failed to hit. Had I charged that guy, also, I would have needed 5 on two dice to hit a charge, then 5 on two dice for a Feat attack, at PS 16 and 14 for the two attacks. That would have let me dominate now, getting my scenario game going 2 turns earlier; instead, I lost the opportunity and ran out of attacks to finish the Warspear. Additionally, I made a smaller error in that I played too cautiously with the Champions, and they weren't in as good retaliatory position as I wanted next turn.
Next turn, he cleared the Warders with Angels, dismounted Horthol (I placed him about 11 inches away from an Angel; bad positioning on my part, but he did take a Skaldi Bonehammer counter charge which blew out Spirit on a Refuged Angel), killed a Champ, lost a Deathstalker to free strikes, and shot with the Ravagore but didn't accomplish much due to No Continuous Effects aura and the dice kinda crapping out. I believe Admonition stayed on the Ravagore if I remember correctly... Not 100% sure.
I was a bit counter-jammed, now, in my ability to get repositioning, but did my best, and freed up a few Champs to kill a Stinger with Skaldi (he'd spawned one by this point from the Pot), and cleared the War Spears, to get some better repositioning. Horthol crapped out on me for once :( and missed needing 6 to hit on an Angel to put more damage at D-3. I forgot to use Grissel's fell call, stupidly, but got her in dominating position to go up 1-0 on scenario. The forgotten Fell Call was huge, actually, in that it cost me Skaldi and good Champion position with Hoof It.
My opponent took this opportunity to wreck Horthol and refuge away (he was way outta the Stone's aura), then brought in a Ravagore to finish off a Long Rider near my point and contest. Skaldi got a random counter charge that didn't really matter, and was eaten by an Angel - I thought he would be anyway, because he was out of position, but oh well. He did some work for me, putting 11 on an Angel and killing a Stinger. Good boy. He ran the Shepherd in between my Impaler and his Ravagore, trying to minimize the number of beasts I could get on the Ravagore, as the Pyre and Impaler were in position to attempt to kill the Ravagore. A Stinger was spawned again and did some work in the middle, but Vayl couldn't quite dominate her side to take advantage of my position, so I remained up 1-0.
With the Shepherd in the way I was in a very awkward position, trying to figure out how to unjam myself. I was struggling to figure it out until I realized the Storm Troll's Lightning Generator might be just what I needed. I moved him into position, boosted to hit, and got 2 jumps (to the Shepherd and my Impaler), boosted slight damage into the Rava, and killed the Impaler. The Impaler was given Flaming Fists by Grissel, the Stone popped for +1 STR, and I walked around and started beating on him at dice -2. I left him at about 1/3 boxes or so, and the Pyre managed to finish him on the last attack.(retrospectively, I should have probably tried to get Calamity on the Ravagore, as that would have been better than Flaming Fists on one beast, but hindsight's 20/20). The Angel's had come up to threaten the center, and had been attacked by the Krielstone members and champs, but I failed to kill the badly wounded Angel (bad decision making with the Champs combined with failing to hit needing 7's on all the Champion attacks. Ouch.)
On his next turn, he moved Vayl into position to dominate, cleared the area around the objective, removed both remaining Champs (and one remaining Long Rider, I believe), and started threatening Grissel, leaving me in a pretty tough spot, having to clear 2 Angels, a Stinger, and still contest.
My next turn, I ran a Sorcerer around to contest, along with random Krielstone members getting in with the Vessel members, and was about to start pounding the Angel when dice down was called, giving me a 2-1 scenario win in a very tough match.
I made some key mistakes that really left me a bit further behind than I should have been, including not focusing more attention on a nearly-dead Angel, but I luckily got away with my mistakes and made it out of a very tough round with the victory. The early CP's managed to win the day for me!
Thursday, April 10, 2014
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.
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.
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