No, Cryx isn't stealing me and dragging me off to the dark side. I'm not even playing them - they hold a certain level of appeal because I like their aesthetic, but I haven't ever played as them. So no, this isn't about Cryx making me one of their own.
Rather, this is about the (admittedly limited) experience I have with Cryx. This faction is one of the most commonly meta'd factions; everyone knows they'll need to deal with them, and plans accordingly. This seems to be primarily a result of the tricks that Cryx can pull that very few other factions can, as well as the fact that their warcasters tend to be very powerful in some fashion or another. Feats, spell lists, or combos, Cryx warcasters can really surprise an unwary player, changing a game very quickly.
Unfortunately, our meta in the Raleigh area is limited on Cryx. We have a few members, but not very many, so much of this is theorycrafting that I've done over time. So, without further ado, I'll try talk about a few of the problems I see from Cryx, and some Troll answers.
Problems:
1) Debuffing. This includes Parasite (which I'll get to in a moment in another number), but more particularly, Crippling Grasp. We have 2 sources of in-faction spell-clearing: pDoomy and the Sorcerer. Outside of that, we're pretty stuck. Crippling Grasp, in particular, can nearly remove a unit from the game if we have no way to clear it. For a faction that relies heavily on its units to do a lot of early lifting and board control - as well as soften up/finish off enemy jacks/beasts - CG can just floor us.
2) Armor Cracking. Specifically, they crack the shit out of our armor. Parasite, Bane Thralls, Banes in general, Scything Touch... It hurts. That really nails us, since armor skew is one of our best current tools.
3) Low DEF. Trolls are easily hittable by most of Cryx - we don't have many high-DEF options that push us into a really frustrating range. Especially with Tartarus, they hit us, and hit hard.
4) Model flooding/recursion/lots of guys. This isn't always a problem, but can be. Trolls and Cryx can get into very long attrition fights with Cryx recursion lists. This is less of a problem recently - particularly with the Scattergunner UA - but, even as good as Troll attrition is, it's a very careful line to ride of not giving up too much, and not fueling something like the Mechanithrall engine.
Strengths:
1) Reliance on infantry. This can be a huge help for Trolls, because when Cryx models are hitting lower value targets, they're not getting the most out of their hitting power. A Bane hitting a Fennblade is an autokill basically - and it's not a Bane hitting a Beast. Our strong infantry choices can trade favorably if used carefully.
2) Low DEF values, mostly. The Satyxis Raiders being a bit of an exception at DEF 14 obviously (16 against ranged), this rule is otherwise relatively true. Most of the rest of Cryx's lineup, particularly of infantry, are hittable with relatively few problems. This is key for our guns, which tend to be on the middling to lower side.
3) More squishy targets. Cryx don't have a ton of guys that can really take a beating - some exist, but not a ton. Hitting is usually the biggest problem - for their jacks at least - but Trolls are solid at fixing "to hit" in places, as well as pumping up our damage, so when we do hit their guys, it hurts, bad.
Approaching the Cryxian Problem:
Taking these pieces into consideration, many players - myself included - will approach Cryx with the feeling that they need to be able to deal with infantry swarms against Cryx, which holds a lot of truth. However, user beware: this is changing, slowly, I believe. Having watched games on Youtube, Chain Attack, etc., Mortenebra and other casters are starting to appear that just don't have the same problems, but present new ones instead. These tips are typically built for defending against Cryxian swarm involving infantry, not these newer schemes. So please take that into consideration.
When dealing with Cryx, presenting low-value targets can be huge. Our Fennblades, Warriors, or other similar infantry don't care that a Bane Thrall just hit them for 26 damage: they have 14 armor, a single wound, and a Touch check that can undo their work. In presenting models like Banes or Mechanithralls with low value targets, they don't gain nearly as much as they do by sticking 5 guys and wrecking a Heavy.
Additionally, sprays and blast damage can take apart large portions of their forces. Our sprays typically need 7's to hit, and at POW 12, they're near guaranteed kills against most of their forces. Even if we soak an alpha and lose more than we'd like, a few well positioned sprays can level the field again. Blast Damage declines against the Banes, but against non-Incorp Witches, or Mech Thralls, or against Raiders with no UA, models like the Bomber will shred their forces.
As a result, an army that presents denial aspects, ways to slow down their lines, or can deny their hitting power (particularly by keeping them from ever really getting into contact with our lines) can present major problems for Cryx players. Their casters will almost always do work, but if you can remove large portions of the army they're fueling, those casters tricks run out of steam.
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
Battle Report 6-25-14, Trolls vs. Legion
My list:
pDoomshaper
-The King, Baby!
-Earthborn (also known as Clyde, because Liam has named him so)
-Axer
max Warders
Runeshapers
min Stone
Janissa
Swamp Gobbers
Bone Grinders
Opponents List:
pVayl
-Typhon
-Ravagore
-Scythean
-Angel
-Shredder
min berserking Ogrun
Blackfrost Shard
2x Shepherds
Forsaken
(think that's all)
Scenario: Into the Breach
Terrain: Forest on my near left, in front of the zone, forest on my far right, diagonal off of the zone. Obstacle (wall) my near right, a bit in front of the flag, right of my objective, obstruction about 6" right of the flag, obstruction about 5" left of zone from my side, obstacle near one side of his zone.
He won the roll to go first, and chose me to deploy.
This was actually the second game I played today, but the first one was against a Vyros2 list that my opponent wanted to see if he could break through my armor. He was able to do a good bit of damage, but couldn't bring down the king, and I had a top of 3 kill on Vyros with relatively little difficulty.
List Assessment: With my list, I figured that I wanted to force him to come to me, making early infantry trades that left the MK basically unharmed, and make him bring his beasts into my Warders, leaving them vulnerable to my King and Clyde. I basically figured that the flag was probably out for this scenario; I should have kept my Runeshapers in a position to go cause him trouble if he tried to make a play, but I never needed to.
I felt that if I could get Typhon and the Scythean off the board, he couldn't break my armor. Yes, the Angel would damage, but I didn't think his single shot a turn would be enough to really break through the King, especially since my buff stacking left him at near even dice even on the AP. Incite was something I couldn't really stop, but if I kept the MK far enough back from Vayl, then she either couldn't get him in Incite range, or she'd be leaving herself open to other models getting in and beating on her, which is generally not where she wants to be.
Gametime: I deployed my MK roughly center of the zone, Clyde to his left, Runeshapers further left, and Warders far left to run around the forest. Stone went behind the MK. Doomy was to his right, Axer to Doomy's right, and Grinders behind Doomy with Janissa. Swamp Gobbers were with Doomy.
He put the Ravagore to go into the forest on his side, Vayl lined up central to the zone, with some permutation of the other 3 beasts around her her. Ogrun were to Vayl's right (left from my view), relatively opposite the Warders.
To account for the MK's somewhat lacking prowess in the art of actually hitting his target, I put Fortune on him and 4 in the stone. Everything ran relatively straight forward, setting up to start putting zone pressure on with the King in particular. The Warders went around the forest to the left.
He moved fairly straight forward - the Ravagore popped a shot but a crappy deviation left it doing no good whatsoever. The Ogrun got in position to threaten the zone on my left, while the rest of the beasts scattered to threaten various areas with minimal risk.
I got my Warders into the zone (SPD 4 kinda sucks, retrospectively), ran the Runeshapers forward to screen (sacrificed them basically), and the King stayed part in, part out of the zone, out of charge range of most of his beasts. Janissa's wall protected him, and I stacked my key pieces to ARM 23.
He decided to come in, Incite, and feat, removing the Runeshapers and laying damage into some Warders. His feat gave him some rearrangement but probably should've been saved a turn; he could have either toed the zone with a beast somewhere to prevent me from scoring easily or just given me a point. I think the rearrangement would have left him a little more trading options later.
Basically, the next turn was plinking a little damage into the Scythean, clearing some lanes, and trying to get some good threatening position. The Warders were in a good spot where if he didn't clear them they would get good charges, but they were also closing off the best angles to the King. I also feated and scored after a Scythean used a Dark Sentinel reposition and accidentally left the zone.
He cleared all but one of the Warders, but left a Scythean in range of Clyde, and left an Angel vulnerable to the King. I promptly fixed these two problems, and used animi to send an unhurt King to ARM 23 with Janissa's wall blocking him from more than one beast charging. My feat had put in some cursory damage, although the Angel got drilled, taking 9 damage from 2 forces, all to the Spirit. I also Banishing Warded the King to prevent the Shard's Harm.
He put up Incite and laid into the King with Typhon, but (particularly due to the lack of Harm) failed to kill. That left Vayl in easy kill range, so that pretty much wrapped up the game.
Post-Game Takeaways: I pretty much played the list out the way I'd theoried it in my head. Protect the King, use his ability to create a large, unmovable board presence that can kill most beasts. I thought I would use Rampager some, but it was never necessary. ARM 23 can definitely be broken, but it required a heavy commitment on his part that I never really let him make. He would generally have been at Dice -4 at best (outside of the Angel), so there's good odds that I would survive and have at least 5-6 whelps, giving me back on average 10-12 HP before anything else, which was a position I liked being in.
The King accounted for basically the entire Ogrun group, plus an Angel, plus (if he hadn't conceded) Vayl at the end, and had a heavy board presence that he couldn't get around. I used his spray liberally to clear board space or plink damage where I could, and it worked pretty well. This scenario played well into what I need him to be able to do, which I used to my advantage; I didn't need him to be mobile, so the downsides of a Huge base were mitigated.
I think that I'll make some considerations of whether the Warders are the right unit going forward, though. They were OK, but suffered from their typical SPD issues. I think, however, that the Bone Grinders will probably go out for the Runebearer, and leave Doomy to hotswap spells and cast animi; after seeing the way this plays out, I think that's my early change, to relieve his Fury burden a bit.
Additionally, I need to play more conservatively with the Runeshapers. Their Tremors would be a great way to set up the King and mitigate his MAT issues, which I think could be a bit help.
pDoomshaper
-The King, Baby!
-Earthborn (also known as Clyde, because Liam has named him so)
-Axer
max Warders
Runeshapers
min Stone
Janissa
Swamp Gobbers
Bone Grinders
Opponents List:
pVayl
-Typhon
-Ravagore
-Scythean
-Angel
-Shredder
min berserking Ogrun
Blackfrost Shard
2x Shepherds
Forsaken
(think that's all)
Scenario: Into the Breach
Terrain: Forest on my near left, in front of the zone, forest on my far right, diagonal off of the zone. Obstacle (wall) my near right, a bit in front of the flag, right of my objective, obstruction about 6" right of the flag, obstruction about 5" left of zone from my side, obstacle near one side of his zone.
He won the roll to go first, and chose me to deploy.
This was actually the second game I played today, but the first one was against a Vyros2 list that my opponent wanted to see if he could break through my armor. He was able to do a good bit of damage, but couldn't bring down the king, and I had a top of 3 kill on Vyros with relatively little difficulty.
List Assessment: With my list, I figured that I wanted to force him to come to me, making early infantry trades that left the MK basically unharmed, and make him bring his beasts into my Warders, leaving them vulnerable to my King and Clyde. I basically figured that the flag was probably out for this scenario; I should have kept my Runeshapers in a position to go cause him trouble if he tried to make a play, but I never needed to.
I felt that if I could get Typhon and the Scythean off the board, he couldn't break my armor. Yes, the Angel would damage, but I didn't think his single shot a turn would be enough to really break through the King, especially since my buff stacking left him at near even dice even on the AP. Incite was something I couldn't really stop, but if I kept the MK far enough back from Vayl, then she either couldn't get him in Incite range, or she'd be leaving herself open to other models getting in and beating on her, which is generally not where she wants to be.
Gametime: I deployed my MK roughly center of the zone, Clyde to his left, Runeshapers further left, and Warders far left to run around the forest. Stone went behind the MK. Doomy was to his right, Axer to Doomy's right, and Grinders behind Doomy with Janissa. Swamp Gobbers were with Doomy.
He put the Ravagore to go into the forest on his side, Vayl lined up central to the zone, with some permutation of the other 3 beasts around her her. Ogrun were to Vayl's right (left from my view), relatively opposite the Warders.
To account for the MK's somewhat lacking prowess in the art of actually hitting his target, I put Fortune on him and 4 in the stone. Everything ran relatively straight forward, setting up to start putting zone pressure on with the King in particular. The Warders went around the forest to the left.
He moved fairly straight forward - the Ravagore popped a shot but a crappy deviation left it doing no good whatsoever. The Ogrun got in position to threaten the zone on my left, while the rest of the beasts scattered to threaten various areas with minimal risk.
I got my Warders into the zone (SPD 4 kinda sucks, retrospectively), ran the Runeshapers forward to screen (sacrificed them basically), and the King stayed part in, part out of the zone, out of charge range of most of his beasts. Janissa's wall protected him, and I stacked my key pieces to ARM 23.
He decided to come in, Incite, and feat, removing the Runeshapers and laying damage into some Warders. His feat gave him some rearrangement but probably should've been saved a turn; he could have either toed the zone with a beast somewhere to prevent me from scoring easily or just given me a point. I think the rearrangement would have left him a little more trading options later.
Basically, the next turn was plinking a little damage into the Scythean, clearing some lanes, and trying to get some good threatening position. The Warders were in a good spot where if he didn't clear them they would get good charges, but they were also closing off the best angles to the King. I also feated and scored after a Scythean used a Dark Sentinel reposition and accidentally left the zone.
He cleared all but one of the Warders, but left a Scythean in range of Clyde, and left an Angel vulnerable to the King. I promptly fixed these two problems, and used animi to send an unhurt King to ARM 23 with Janissa's wall blocking him from more than one beast charging. My feat had put in some cursory damage, although the Angel got drilled, taking 9 damage from 2 forces, all to the Spirit. I also Banishing Warded the King to prevent the Shard's Harm.
He put up Incite and laid into the King with Typhon, but (particularly due to the lack of Harm) failed to kill. That left Vayl in easy kill range, so that pretty much wrapped up the game.
Post-Game Takeaways: I pretty much played the list out the way I'd theoried it in my head. Protect the King, use his ability to create a large, unmovable board presence that can kill most beasts. I thought I would use Rampager some, but it was never necessary. ARM 23 can definitely be broken, but it required a heavy commitment on his part that I never really let him make. He would generally have been at Dice -4 at best (outside of the Angel), so there's good odds that I would survive and have at least 5-6 whelps, giving me back on average 10-12 HP before anything else, which was a position I liked being in.
The King accounted for basically the entire Ogrun group, plus an Angel, plus (if he hadn't conceded) Vayl at the end, and had a heavy board presence that he couldn't get around. I used his spray liberally to clear board space or plink damage where I could, and it worked pretty well. This scenario played well into what I need him to be able to do, which I used to my advantage; I didn't need him to be mobile, so the downsides of a Huge base were mitigated.
I think that I'll make some considerations of whether the Warders are the right unit going forward, though. They were OK, but suffered from their typical SPD issues. I think, however, that the Bone Grinders will probably go out for the Runebearer, and leave Doomy to hotswap spells and cast animi; after seeing the way this plays out, I think that's my early change, to relieve his Fury burden a bit.
Additionally, I need to play more conservatively with the Runeshapers. Their Tremors would be a great way to set up the King and mitigate his MAT issues, which I think could be a bit help.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Battle Report 6-18-14, Trolls vs. Circle
My List:
Grim Angus
-Runebearer
-2x Bomber
-Impaler
-Mauler
Fennblades with UA
SoBragg
Alten Ashley
Whelps
Opponents List
eKrueger
-Wilder
-Ghetorix
-Stalker
-New Goat (can't remember name)
-Gorax
Druids (no UA)
Woldshrimp (the shooty unit)
One unit Shifting Stones w/ UA
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad
I think that's it? Sounds right, at least.
Scenario: Fire Support
Terrain: Forest middle, my side, to the right of my objective. Wall to the left of my objective, forest on top of his objective, hill on his side of the board.
So, I've been tinkering with 2x Bomber lists off and on for a while with Grim. I think it may be throwing a few too many eggs into one basket - ie, if you can't shoot well, you're pretty boned - but I think it's got a lot going for it that makes it worth seeing what I can get from it. This is the second incarnation of the list, bringing in the Mauler for extra hitting power/helping the Bombers out in melee. I don't like this variant, but I have another one I want to try out - more at the end.
I thought my opponent was dropping pKrueger at first, and I was much more excited - his feat would hurt the Fenns, but I felt like I had a good matchup outside of that, because Grim has good odds of being able to disable the Shifting Stones himself if he can get a decent angle, and Grim's feat disables the Druids and the Blackclad, preventing as much shifting. Then I saw that it was eKrueger, and I started swearing, because Stormwall. Yup.
I won the roll, but elected to go second, because I wanted to counterdeploy. I probably really want to go first in future games with this list, but I wasn't sure, having only tried this list/its variants a few times. He put the Shrimp to the left, Wilder and Goat center left, Krueger central, Ghetorix and Stalker mostly central, a little too the right. On his AD, the Shifting Stones were central, as were the Druids.
I put the Fennblades against the Shrimp and Goat, with the Bombers, Mauler, and SoB center and some off to the right. I thought the Shrimp would get a few Fenns, but with Vengeance and the minifeat, I thought I had good odds of clearing them with relatively few problems and getting the Fenns jammed in. I really wanted to be able to try to bring bombs to bear on his heavies, particularly Ghetorix, since my feat turn would help make his guys much more hittable. I kinda forgot Prowl on the Stalker, and a perfectly positioned forest for his benefit, but I was able to get away with it mostly.
He went first, and just ran his pieces up the board. The stones spread out widely across the board to allow for teleports, with the Keeper at the center. Everything ran up relatively straight, near to max runs. The Druids just advanced/ran, leaving the Stalker and Ghetorix threatening my right side where my Bombers are. Stormwall went up too (shocker).
I took a look at the Stone Keeper for the Shifting Stones, and decided he needed to disappear - quickly. I slid Alten Ashley up, tried to pop a shot at a Woldshrimp, but (I think) was out due to Stormwall. Grim got Exalted, put up Cross Country, sniped himself, and shot the Shifting Stones UA off the board, leaving them out of formation. Giggity. Other than that, I ran my guys forward; one Bomber went into the forest (I placed him really badly, he was mostly useless), while another went around. The Fenns went up cautiously, leaving a few in range to be shot, but trying to limit the damage, while the Mauler brought upt he rear. The SoB got Defiance and ran up the right.
On his turn, he had more limited options due to the Stones being out of formation, so he had to do some fast revising. He ended up shooting about 4-5 Fenns off the table with the Shrimp, making a couple of clouds, TKing around one SoB and using a Stalker to kill two (thanks, Defiance. Tough checks went nowhere >_<). He feated with Krueger, pushing everything back a bit and helping to reassert some board position. He also teleported Stones to get 2 of them in formation, still not enough to Teleport.
So, I started the turn by forgetting to vengeance. Nice. Now, instead of having great angles to try to remove most of the Shrimp, I could only get a few. So, the Fenns minifeated, ran around and charged places, failing to remove a Gallows Grove. Fuck. Dice - 4, and I rolled an 8 on 3 dice. Yippee. I 1-1'd a to hit roll on a Shrimp, but removed 1-2 more. The critical part started now: I moved up Grim as far as he could through the forest (he was in the forest almost the whole game) and feated, then shot his Stalker (warped for Strength last turn) with my normal gun and boosted damage. Alten shot, but missed, so I moved on to the Bombers. I left the Stalker on 2 HP left after my last attack missed needing 8's to hit, boosted. Had Alten hit, the Stalker was likely dead. Crap. The Impaler hilariously failed to kill a tree needing a boosted 8 on damage (thanks guys), while the remaining SoB just ran. Grim ended on a 4 camp.
I thought Grim was going to be dead, because I forgot something - his goat was a proxy; this wasn't the one that Bounding Leaps and all. Instead, he TKed Grim forward and facing backwards, TKed the stalker, and used Primal to make the Stalker as hard hitting as possible, but still needed 6's to hit. He walked over to Grim, regenned to get missing Aspects back, and hit me on 3 of 4 attacks. I soaked one, transferred two, but he couldn't get Ghetorix there because he was now SPD 3, and since I was thinking of the wrong goat, I survived.
My turn, I removed the Stalker with the Impaler (he had 5 HP left, double boosted), then the Impaler killed the Gallows he failed to kill before. Grim put Ghetorix on the ground with the Snare Gun, and I took Ghetorix off the board, too. I clogged up the area with some Fennblades, and my opponent conceded because he didn't think he could clear that many heavies with only a goat, the Mauler completely fine, and I was likely to start doing a lot of scenario work my next turn.
Takeaways: The 2x Bomber worked better than my last outing. I think the Mauler might be too many points invested in something that won't come into play until later game, and I'm not sure he's going to add all the right pieces; my Bombers generally should still be shooting on Grim's feat turn, but then they have MAT problems along with their hitting power.
The question is whether I go to Horgle + Slag - a possibly more versatile combo, allowing shooting and damage animi - or whether I bring in Rok, maybe in place of the Mauler + Alten. I'm not sure which. Rok brings both MAT and STR, at a price I'm willing to pay to clear off enemy heavies, but I think he might be 11 points that will only come into play way late.
If I go Horgle + Slag, I might also be able to slip in Bone Grinders, if I mess with my points elsewhere, in order to get Marked for Death out easier where I'd like it.
The other debate is whether I'm going to keep the SoB in, or if I might shift to Scattergunners. That would probably involve Alten and the SoB out, putting in the Bone Grinders with Scatter + UA. I'm still trying to figure out, though, if the 2x Bomber is really viable at the moment. It's hanging in there, but I need to keep tinkering.
Grim Angus
-Runebearer
-2x Bomber
-Impaler
-Mauler
Fennblades with UA
SoBragg
Alten Ashley
Whelps
Opponents List
eKrueger
-Wilder
-Ghetorix
-Stalker
-New Goat (can't remember name)
-Gorax
Druids (no UA)
Woldshrimp (the shooty unit)
One unit Shifting Stones w/ UA
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad
I think that's it? Sounds right, at least.
Scenario: Fire Support
Terrain: Forest middle, my side, to the right of my objective. Wall to the left of my objective, forest on top of his objective, hill on his side of the board.
So, I've been tinkering with 2x Bomber lists off and on for a while with Grim. I think it may be throwing a few too many eggs into one basket - ie, if you can't shoot well, you're pretty boned - but I think it's got a lot going for it that makes it worth seeing what I can get from it. This is the second incarnation of the list, bringing in the Mauler for extra hitting power/helping the Bombers out in melee. I don't like this variant, but I have another one I want to try out - more at the end.
I thought my opponent was dropping pKrueger at first, and I was much more excited - his feat would hurt the Fenns, but I felt like I had a good matchup outside of that, because Grim has good odds of being able to disable the Shifting Stones himself if he can get a decent angle, and Grim's feat disables the Druids and the Blackclad, preventing as much shifting. Then I saw that it was eKrueger, and I started swearing, because Stormwall. Yup.
I won the roll, but elected to go second, because I wanted to counterdeploy. I probably really want to go first in future games with this list, but I wasn't sure, having only tried this list/its variants a few times. He put the Shrimp to the left, Wilder and Goat center left, Krueger central, Ghetorix and Stalker mostly central, a little too the right. On his AD, the Shifting Stones were central, as were the Druids.
I put the Fennblades against the Shrimp and Goat, with the Bombers, Mauler, and SoB center and some off to the right. I thought the Shrimp would get a few Fenns, but with Vengeance and the minifeat, I thought I had good odds of clearing them with relatively few problems and getting the Fenns jammed in. I really wanted to be able to try to bring bombs to bear on his heavies, particularly Ghetorix, since my feat turn would help make his guys much more hittable. I kinda forgot Prowl on the Stalker, and a perfectly positioned forest for his benefit, but I was able to get away with it mostly.
He went first, and just ran his pieces up the board. The stones spread out widely across the board to allow for teleports, with the Keeper at the center. Everything ran up relatively straight, near to max runs. The Druids just advanced/ran, leaving the Stalker and Ghetorix threatening my right side where my Bombers are. Stormwall went up too (shocker).
I took a look at the Stone Keeper for the Shifting Stones, and decided he needed to disappear - quickly. I slid Alten Ashley up, tried to pop a shot at a Woldshrimp, but (I think) was out due to Stormwall. Grim got Exalted, put up Cross Country, sniped himself, and shot the Shifting Stones UA off the board, leaving them out of formation. Giggity. Other than that, I ran my guys forward; one Bomber went into the forest (I placed him really badly, he was mostly useless), while another went around. The Fenns went up cautiously, leaving a few in range to be shot, but trying to limit the damage, while the Mauler brought upt he rear. The SoB got Defiance and ran up the right.
On his turn, he had more limited options due to the Stones being out of formation, so he had to do some fast revising. He ended up shooting about 4-5 Fenns off the table with the Shrimp, making a couple of clouds, TKing around one SoB and using a Stalker to kill two (thanks, Defiance. Tough checks went nowhere >_<). He feated with Krueger, pushing everything back a bit and helping to reassert some board position. He also teleported Stones to get 2 of them in formation, still not enough to Teleport.
So, I started the turn by forgetting to vengeance. Nice. Now, instead of having great angles to try to remove most of the Shrimp, I could only get a few. So, the Fenns minifeated, ran around and charged places, failing to remove a Gallows Grove. Fuck. Dice - 4, and I rolled an 8 on 3 dice. Yippee. I 1-1'd a to hit roll on a Shrimp, but removed 1-2 more. The critical part started now: I moved up Grim as far as he could through the forest (he was in the forest almost the whole game) and feated, then shot his Stalker (warped for Strength last turn) with my normal gun and boosted damage. Alten shot, but missed, so I moved on to the Bombers. I left the Stalker on 2 HP left after my last attack missed needing 8's to hit, boosted. Had Alten hit, the Stalker was likely dead. Crap. The Impaler hilariously failed to kill a tree needing a boosted 8 on damage (thanks guys), while the remaining SoB just ran. Grim ended on a 4 camp.
I thought Grim was going to be dead, because I forgot something - his goat was a proxy; this wasn't the one that Bounding Leaps and all. Instead, he TKed Grim forward and facing backwards, TKed the stalker, and used Primal to make the Stalker as hard hitting as possible, but still needed 6's to hit. He walked over to Grim, regenned to get missing Aspects back, and hit me on 3 of 4 attacks. I soaked one, transferred two, but he couldn't get Ghetorix there because he was now SPD 3, and since I was thinking of the wrong goat, I survived.
My turn, I removed the Stalker with the Impaler (he had 5 HP left, double boosted), then the Impaler killed the Gallows he failed to kill before. Grim put Ghetorix on the ground with the Snare Gun, and I took Ghetorix off the board, too. I clogged up the area with some Fennblades, and my opponent conceded because he didn't think he could clear that many heavies with only a goat, the Mauler completely fine, and I was likely to start doing a lot of scenario work my next turn.
Takeaways: The 2x Bomber worked better than my last outing. I think the Mauler might be too many points invested in something that won't come into play until later game, and I'm not sure he's going to add all the right pieces; my Bombers generally should still be shooting on Grim's feat turn, but then they have MAT problems along with their hitting power.
The question is whether I go to Horgle + Slag - a possibly more versatile combo, allowing shooting and damage animi - or whether I bring in Rok, maybe in place of the Mauler + Alten. I'm not sure which. Rok brings both MAT and STR, at a price I'm willing to pay to clear off enemy heavies, but I think he might be 11 points that will only come into play way late.
If I go Horgle + Slag, I might also be able to slip in Bone Grinders, if I mess with my points elsewhere, in order to get Marked for Death out easier where I'd like it.
The other debate is whether I'm going to keep the SoB in, or if I might shift to Scattergunners. That would probably involve Alten and the SoB out, putting in the Bone Grinders with Scatter + UA. I'm still trying to figure out, though, if the 2x Bomber is really viable at the moment. It's hanging in there, but I need to keep tinkering.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Battle Report 6-11-13, Trolls vs. Menoth
My List:
Jarl Skuld
-Runebearer
-Rok
-Impaler
Horgle Ironstrike
-Slag Troll
Wrongeye
-Snapjaw
max Gatorman Posse
Sons of Bragg
Swamp Gobbers
Alten Ashley
Totem Hunter
Opponents List:
pSeverius
-Hierophant
-Blessing of Vengeance
-Devout
-Vanquisher
Exemplar Errants with UA
Knights Exemplar
max Flameguard w/ UA
min Choir
Nicia
Vassal of Menoth
(maybe one more solo?)
Scenario: Center circular zone, objectives on either diagonal corner (my near left, my far right)
Terrain: Forest on either diagonal corner (my near left, my far right side) of the zone, over the objectives. Hill in center of zone.
I won the roll to choose and elected to go first. Jarl went a little off center to get behind the forest, the SoB spread wide, with Horgle & Slag next to WE&SJ on the right side. Gatormen were central, Rok and Impaler trailing a little behind everything else. Totem Hunter was on the far right flank.
He put the Flameguard and Knights Exemplar going directly into the center of the zone, the Exemplars coming through the forest on his side (near his objective), and his jacks central-right. Nicia was right side. I chose his Errants for prey.
I just ran my guys up to get into good contesting/charging positions, using the forest to cover Jarl. The Gators got Quicken, Jarl got Tac Supremacy, and the SoB got Weald Secrets. I set up so that the gators had ridiculously long charges and easy angles next turn, with their extra 2" on living charges + quicken.
He brought the Flameguard and the Exemplar up near the zone, while the Errants moved through the woods. His jacks went mostly behind the forest to protect from ranged shots. He didn't Shield Wall the Flameguard, instead just running them up.
Since the turns are a little blurred, I spent my first turn chewing apart Flameguard, shooting him down several of them and throwing 2 Gators into them, partially to stall up the Exemplar behind them. I forgot to feat, however, and lost 2 of my 3 SoB and 3 Gators to the retaliation, which I could have reduced likely to 2 Gators with a decent feat placement. Crap.
'
I chewed all the Knights off the board with my next round, reducing him to errants, and he kept retaliating using Ashes to Ashes through Blessing, whittling away at my guys. Ashes was his crutch spell the whole game, using it to send a lot of damage into my guys. Snapjaw took the brunt of the entire beating, but I held him up using Life Drinker and Errants. Ashes worked down my army slowly but surely, particularly when I failed to get Blessing off the board, leaving me in a bad spot.
Horgle and the Slag were huge the whole game; they plowed a good amount of damage, and key shots, wherever needed. Jarl, though, was wonderful, picking off 3-4 guys per turn usually between his shots and Magic Bullet. I was able to use him to chew apart the enemy along with Alten, and Jarl put a pair of gunshots into Sevvy, ending the game with a win for me!
I actually played poorly, which is part of why this is a vague account. I missed obvious chances to get scenario points by clearing the zone, instead choosing to put shots into bad model choices, when I could have started the scenario pressure much earlier and easier.
However, I'm getting happier with the Jarl list; it's not quite there, but my early playtesting has been extremely successful.
Jarl Skuld
-Runebearer
-Rok
-Impaler
Horgle Ironstrike
-Slag Troll
Wrongeye
-Snapjaw
max Gatorman Posse
Sons of Bragg
Swamp Gobbers
Alten Ashley
Totem Hunter
Opponents List:
pSeverius
-Hierophant
-Blessing of Vengeance
-Devout
-Vanquisher
Exemplar Errants with UA
Knights Exemplar
max Flameguard w/ UA
min Choir
Nicia
Vassal of Menoth
(maybe one more solo?)
Scenario: Center circular zone, objectives on either diagonal corner (my near left, my far right)
Terrain: Forest on either diagonal corner (my near left, my far right side) of the zone, over the objectives. Hill in center of zone.
I won the roll to choose and elected to go first. Jarl went a little off center to get behind the forest, the SoB spread wide, with Horgle & Slag next to WE&SJ on the right side. Gatormen were central, Rok and Impaler trailing a little behind everything else. Totem Hunter was on the far right flank.
He put the Flameguard and Knights Exemplar going directly into the center of the zone, the Exemplars coming through the forest on his side (near his objective), and his jacks central-right. Nicia was right side. I chose his Errants for prey.
I just ran my guys up to get into good contesting/charging positions, using the forest to cover Jarl. The Gators got Quicken, Jarl got Tac Supremacy, and the SoB got Weald Secrets. I set up so that the gators had ridiculously long charges and easy angles next turn, with their extra 2" on living charges + quicken.
He brought the Flameguard and the Exemplar up near the zone, while the Errants moved through the woods. His jacks went mostly behind the forest to protect from ranged shots. He didn't Shield Wall the Flameguard, instead just running them up.
Since the turns are a little blurred, I spent my first turn chewing apart Flameguard, shooting him down several of them and throwing 2 Gators into them, partially to stall up the Exemplar behind them. I forgot to feat, however, and lost 2 of my 3 SoB and 3 Gators to the retaliation, which I could have reduced likely to 2 Gators with a decent feat placement. Crap.
'
I chewed all the Knights off the board with my next round, reducing him to errants, and he kept retaliating using Ashes to Ashes through Blessing, whittling away at my guys. Ashes was his crutch spell the whole game, using it to send a lot of damage into my guys. Snapjaw took the brunt of the entire beating, but I held him up using Life Drinker and Errants. Ashes worked down my army slowly but surely, particularly when I failed to get Blessing off the board, leaving me in a bad spot.
Horgle and the Slag were huge the whole game; they plowed a good amount of damage, and key shots, wherever needed. Jarl, though, was wonderful, picking off 3-4 guys per turn usually between his shots and Magic Bullet. I was able to use him to chew apart the enemy along with Alten, and Jarl put a pair of gunshots into Sevvy, ending the game with a win for me!
I actually played poorly, which is part of why this is a vague account. I missed obvious chances to get scenario points by clearing the zone, instead choosing to put shots into bad model choices, when I could have started the scenario pressure much earlier and easier.
However, I'm getting happier with the Jarl list; it's not quite there, but my early playtesting has been extremely successful.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
GA Tourney Battle Report, 6/7/2014, Trolls vs. Legion
eGrissel, same list, one more time!
Opponents List:
eThagrosh
-2x Scythean
-Seraph
-Angelius
-Afflictor
-Raek
2x Shredder
2 Shepherds
2 Forsaken
I think that's the entire list, IIRC.
Scenario: Outflank
Terrain: Hill on my side, middle, linear obstacle on the far side of the left zone (just out of the zone on his side)
So, at this point, my brain was pretty shot. I haven't played that many multi-game days recently, so I was a little worn; I have to work myself up to that level of concentration. We almost got the PG to just let us Ship, Captain, Crew it, but no dice (ha ha!). Rather than go home and sleep, I was now playing against Legion.
My opponent had qualified for MACE some time back, so he was trying out different lists to fill out his 3rd slot, to accompany his Saeryn-Vayl combo. We rolled off, I think he won and elected to go second rather than first. I went through the same deployment (described it four times already!), and he faced off with Angelius and Scythean left with the Afflictor, Thags central with the Seraph, and Scythean-Raek right.
I just did the standard Dash-Dump-Run combo to get my stone loaded, keeping my Champs central to respond where needed. He ran up, using the Seraph to bounce Thags around a little on the way, and took good zone-threatening positions, trying to put his beasts in points in the zone where I had no good way to get to them easily.
I can't remember whether we jockeyed for one turn or two, but ultimately it came to me popping my feat with the two units of warders each occupying space in the two zonesand No Continuous on the Stone. Champs were central, Mulg just behind the right side Warders (which I spread better than the left) with Runebreaker up, while Grissel was on the left side with it up also.
He put up Manifest Destiny, popped his feat, and came in. He was going to use the Scytheans Take Down animus, but forgot Runebreaker until he was in range, so he just whaled on my Warders. Some hot dice took me down to 3 Warders on the left dead (seriously, he had multiple rolls where he had nothing less than 4 on dice. He didn't need Manifest Destiny!). The Angelius forced a Tough on another, while the Scythean on the right and the Raek went to work. Because of his positioning (and me playing less dumb on the right side), he could only get one Warder with the Scythean, while the Raek plinked a few. The Seraph came into the Warders and plinked some, too, but I only lost maybe 1 Warder on the right, leaving me in good shape. He just used his feat to dig further in, playing as aggressively as possible to see how much damage he could do. I don't think that's what he typically would have done, but he had little to lose in this game. Oh, and the right side Scythean Bloodbathed his own Shredder, which was kinda hilarious, one shotting it due to Manifest. I laughed a good bit at that.
I responded by seeing if I could remove 3 heavies in a turn, because it would amuse me. The Axer and Warders plinked some damage on the Raek, but his DEF was brutally hard to get through, so he was fine. Mulg took down the Scythean with ease, while Grissel put the other Scythean's ass on the ground with a knockdown shot. The two warders on that side plugged some damage, and the champs spread to come help out, finishing off the Seraph and other Scythean, leaving him on an Afflictor, Raek, and Angel. Oh, and a random Incubus from a dead Warder and Afflictor.
He went for an assassination run on Grissel, thinking if he killed Mulg that I had no transfer targets, so he took Thags into Mulg, but failed to kill (dice crapped out horribly - probably should've had it!). He also didn't realize the Axer was only on 2 Fury, not 3, so I had two targets, with the Axer unwounded. Mulg didn't die, though, and there wasn't enough firepower to take down Grissel, so Mulg ended it by slapping a no-transfer Thags repeatedly until he went down for a long nap.
After that, I was 5-0, and had managed to win myself a MACE Invitational qualifier spot!
Opponents List:
eThagrosh
-2x Scythean
-Seraph
-Angelius
-Afflictor
-Raek
2x Shredder
2 Shepherds
2 Forsaken
I think that's the entire list, IIRC.
Scenario: Outflank
Terrain: Hill on my side, middle, linear obstacle on the far side of the left zone (just out of the zone on his side)
So, at this point, my brain was pretty shot. I haven't played that many multi-game days recently, so I was a little worn; I have to work myself up to that level of concentration. We almost got the PG to just let us Ship, Captain, Crew it, but no dice (ha ha!). Rather than go home and sleep, I was now playing against Legion.
My opponent had qualified for MACE some time back, so he was trying out different lists to fill out his 3rd slot, to accompany his Saeryn-Vayl combo. We rolled off, I think he won and elected to go second rather than first. I went through the same deployment (described it four times already!), and he faced off with Angelius and Scythean left with the Afflictor, Thags central with the Seraph, and Scythean-Raek right.
I just did the standard Dash-Dump-Run combo to get my stone loaded, keeping my Champs central to respond where needed. He ran up, using the Seraph to bounce Thags around a little on the way, and took good zone-threatening positions, trying to put his beasts in points in the zone where I had no good way to get to them easily.
I can't remember whether we jockeyed for one turn or two, but ultimately it came to me popping my feat with the two units of warders each occupying space in the two zonesand No Continuous on the Stone. Champs were central, Mulg just behind the right side Warders (which I spread better than the left) with Runebreaker up, while Grissel was on the left side with it up also.
He put up Manifest Destiny, popped his feat, and came in. He was going to use the Scytheans Take Down animus, but forgot Runebreaker until he was in range, so he just whaled on my Warders. Some hot dice took me down to 3 Warders on the left dead (seriously, he had multiple rolls where he had nothing less than 4 on dice. He didn't need Manifest Destiny!). The Angelius forced a Tough on another, while the Scythean on the right and the Raek went to work. Because of his positioning (and me playing less dumb on the right side), he could only get one Warder with the Scythean, while the Raek plinked a few. The Seraph came into the Warders and plinked some, too, but I only lost maybe 1 Warder on the right, leaving me in good shape. He just used his feat to dig further in, playing as aggressively as possible to see how much damage he could do. I don't think that's what he typically would have done, but he had little to lose in this game. Oh, and the right side Scythean Bloodbathed his own Shredder, which was kinda hilarious, one shotting it due to Manifest. I laughed a good bit at that.
I responded by seeing if I could remove 3 heavies in a turn, because it would amuse me. The Axer and Warders plinked some damage on the Raek, but his DEF was brutally hard to get through, so he was fine. Mulg took down the Scythean with ease, while Grissel put the other Scythean's ass on the ground with a knockdown shot. The two warders on that side plugged some damage, and the champs spread to come help out, finishing off the Seraph and other Scythean, leaving him on an Afflictor, Raek, and Angel. Oh, and a random Incubus from a dead Warder and Afflictor.
He went for an assassination run on Grissel, thinking if he killed Mulg that I had no transfer targets, so he took Thags into Mulg, but failed to kill (dice crapped out horribly - probably should've had it!). He also didn't realize the Axer was only on 2 Fury, not 3, so I had two targets, with the Axer unwounded. Mulg didn't die, though, and there wasn't enough firepower to take down Grissel, so Mulg ended it by slapping a no-transfer Thags repeatedly until he went down for a long nap.
After that, I was 5-0, and had managed to win myself a MACE Invitational qualifier spot!
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
GA Tourney Battle Report, 6/7/2014, Trolls vs. Trolls
Same List!
Opponents List:
Almost the same list!
eGrissel
-Runebearer
-Pyre
-Impaler
2x max Warders
max Champs + Skaldi
max Stone
Fell Caller Hero
Champ Hero
Janissa Stonetide
Feralgeist
Scenario: Process of Elimination
Terrain: Forest partially intruding on the right zone on my side of the board. Not much else that mattered (random hills, obstructions that never mattered).
Holy crap, this looked (listwise) to feature the two most attritiony lists this faction could provide, practically.
Looking at our lists, I decided I wanted to do two things: make sure I got more charges off than he did, and try to use my beasts for a strong push. I felt like Mulg and the Axer's hitting power could give me the stronger push.
I won the roll and went first so I could assume standard "Dump fury into stone" protocol. I deployed pretty much the same as prior. Warders far left flank, Champs center, Mulg and Grissel, warders right flank, others behind.
He nearly mirrored me, I think. It was very similar.
I just ran forward Turn 1, getting into positions for contesting and charging potentially. 5 on the stone, Mulg sticking with Grissel. Opponent ran forward, keeping a close mirror, Pyre and Impaler on the left side pretty much across from Mulg.
First, Grissel put up Dash, one in the stone, and 3 for Inhospitable, leaving her on one (after the Runebearer). The stone went and popped for strength. I decided I didn't want to go full out and run straight into him, so I gave a Charge order on my left side, sending two Warders into the opponent, but most importantly, I positioned them so it was nigh impossible for him to just charge his warders and get them onto all my guys. Based on our positioning, I didn't think he'd be able to get many full charges off, and then what he did would be coming into range for Mulg to come over to help clean up. Two warders both made it, with one missing and one doing 7 damage (so close to a Tough!)
My champs just jockeyed for position, with Mulg and my Champs staying just barely outside of the opponents champs threat range, but in Mulgs. With Inhospitable up, it meant he could either Charge and short it, or he could just run, but Mulg was going to be eating faces shortly regardly. This left me in a fairly comfortable position, while my other warders simply jockeyed with his.
He tried to swing back into my warders, but due to missing 3 or 4 of 5 attacks needing 5's (Seriously dude, I'm sorry. That sucked) I only took some relatively superficial damage, and I was going to have 3 more charges coming in next turn. His Champs advanced some up, while our Warders kept jockeying, and he popped his feat.
So, now I needed to figure out how to break ARM 22 and 23. This oughta be fun. Luckily, all his Champs were clustered, so I could knock down 5 in one shot with Grissel. I Dashed, put one or two in the stone, and boosted to hit and damage, knocking down 5 Champs, and feated. Because I'm a donkey, I placed my guys badly, and I only got the Champs into their Champs, but I left him 3 Champions lighter after the turn. Both sets of Warders charged, but neither of these mattered in any meaningful way; it just turned into the plinkfest against each other. Plus almost all my left side warders missed - slapfights galore!
So now he had to break my feat, but minus the charge. He tried to plow damage into me where he could, but it was quickly becoming a bit more one sided. Some Champs took some damage, I think one died, but he couldn't do a ton. I know Grissel knocked them down, though; he wanted to cut out my feat with them like I did his (smart move).
Next turn, Mulg got in, and continued his string of crappy rolling from earlier. He knocked out 2 Champs, including Skaldi, to snack back up (he'd been shot at by the Impaler and others a bit, so he was a bit wounded, including being knocked down I think by Grissel's shot). He had about 7-8 damage at the end of the turn; I'd been hoping to have enough extra Fury to regen, but a couple of Tough rolls knocked that out. The Axer got in and helped finish off some Warders, too, and triggering some Charge of the Trolls to help work them off the board.
His next turn, he kept trying to get some damage in, but his dice rolls really just weren't helping. By the end of the turn, he'd removed one or two guys, and hit some good damage into the Axer with a charging Champ Hero, but not much more. I was down a few Warders and Champs, but no unit was below half strength, and I only had about 10-12 damage points between my beasts.
The Axer decided to frenzy from his 1 Fury I couldn't pull, and obliterated the Champ Hero heroically (I think it was like 6-5-4 on damage). At this point, we'd each removed a objective to sit at 1-1, but he was losing the attrition fight rapidly; my dead pile wasn't nearly as high as his. I sent Mulg into Grissel to plow some damage around where I could, and my opponent ultimately conceded; he felt he couldn't break Mulg, we were all pretty tired, and he didn't believe he had much of a chance of winning at this point.
This game pretty much hinged around a few bad dice rolls (his, almost entirely), and the difference Mulg makes. Mulg was a game changer - his presence quite frankly just changed the entire tenor of the game. Once I started working out the Champions, his main armor breakers disappeared, while his Warders dueled with mine, and I could simply start cleaning up the pile piece by piece.
So, my reward for going 4-0 so far? My friend winning the play-down game to make sure there was a round 5 so I could face Legion. Lucky me!
Opponents List:
Almost the same list!
eGrissel
-Runebearer
-Pyre
-Impaler
2x max Warders
max Champs + Skaldi
max Stone
Fell Caller Hero
Champ Hero
Janissa Stonetide
Feralgeist
Scenario: Process of Elimination
Terrain: Forest partially intruding on the right zone on my side of the board. Not much else that mattered (random hills, obstructions that never mattered).
Holy crap, this looked (listwise) to feature the two most attritiony lists this faction could provide, practically.
Looking at our lists, I decided I wanted to do two things: make sure I got more charges off than he did, and try to use my beasts for a strong push. I felt like Mulg and the Axer's hitting power could give me the stronger push.
I won the roll and went first so I could assume standard "Dump fury into stone" protocol. I deployed pretty much the same as prior. Warders far left flank, Champs center, Mulg and Grissel, warders right flank, others behind.
He nearly mirrored me, I think. It was very similar.
I just ran forward Turn 1, getting into positions for contesting and charging potentially. 5 on the stone, Mulg sticking with Grissel. Opponent ran forward, keeping a close mirror, Pyre and Impaler on the left side pretty much across from Mulg.
First, Grissel put up Dash, one in the stone, and 3 for Inhospitable, leaving her on one (after the Runebearer). The stone went and popped for strength. I decided I didn't want to go full out and run straight into him, so I gave a Charge order on my left side, sending two Warders into the opponent, but most importantly, I positioned them so it was nigh impossible for him to just charge his warders and get them onto all my guys. Based on our positioning, I didn't think he'd be able to get many full charges off, and then what he did would be coming into range for Mulg to come over to help clean up. Two warders both made it, with one missing and one doing 7 damage (so close to a Tough!)
My champs just jockeyed for position, with Mulg and my Champs staying just barely outside of the opponents champs threat range, but in Mulgs. With Inhospitable up, it meant he could either Charge and short it, or he could just run, but Mulg was going to be eating faces shortly regardly. This left me in a fairly comfortable position, while my other warders simply jockeyed with his.
He tried to swing back into my warders, but due to missing 3 or 4 of 5 attacks needing 5's (Seriously dude, I'm sorry. That sucked) I only took some relatively superficial damage, and I was going to have 3 more charges coming in next turn. His Champs advanced some up, while our Warders kept jockeying, and he popped his feat.
So, now I needed to figure out how to break ARM 22 and 23. This oughta be fun. Luckily, all his Champs were clustered, so I could knock down 5 in one shot with Grissel. I Dashed, put one or two in the stone, and boosted to hit and damage, knocking down 5 Champs, and feated. Because I'm a donkey, I placed my guys badly, and I only got the Champs into their Champs, but I left him 3 Champions lighter after the turn. Both sets of Warders charged, but neither of these mattered in any meaningful way; it just turned into the plinkfest against each other. Plus almost all my left side warders missed - slapfights galore!
So now he had to break my feat, but minus the charge. He tried to plow damage into me where he could, but it was quickly becoming a bit more one sided. Some Champs took some damage, I think one died, but he couldn't do a ton. I know Grissel knocked them down, though; he wanted to cut out my feat with them like I did his (smart move).
Next turn, Mulg got in, and continued his string of crappy rolling from earlier. He knocked out 2 Champs, including Skaldi, to snack back up (he'd been shot at by the Impaler and others a bit, so he was a bit wounded, including being knocked down I think by Grissel's shot). He had about 7-8 damage at the end of the turn; I'd been hoping to have enough extra Fury to regen, but a couple of Tough rolls knocked that out. The Axer got in and helped finish off some Warders, too, and triggering some Charge of the Trolls to help work them off the board.
His next turn, he kept trying to get some damage in, but his dice rolls really just weren't helping. By the end of the turn, he'd removed one or two guys, and hit some good damage into the Axer with a charging Champ Hero, but not much more. I was down a few Warders and Champs, but no unit was below half strength, and I only had about 10-12 damage points between my beasts.
The Axer decided to frenzy from his 1 Fury I couldn't pull, and obliterated the Champ Hero heroically (I think it was like 6-5-4 on damage). At this point, we'd each removed a objective to sit at 1-1, but he was losing the attrition fight rapidly; my dead pile wasn't nearly as high as his. I sent Mulg into Grissel to plow some damage around where I could, and my opponent ultimately conceded; he felt he couldn't break Mulg, we were all pretty tired, and he didn't believe he had much of a chance of winning at this point.
This game pretty much hinged around a few bad dice rolls (his, almost entirely), and the difference Mulg makes. Mulg was a game changer - his presence quite frankly just changed the entire tenor of the game. Once I started working out the Champions, his main armor breakers disappeared, while his Warders dueled with mine, and I could simply start cleaning up the pile piece by piece.
So, my reward for going 4-0 so far? My friend winning the play-down game to make sure there was a round 5 so I could face Legion. Lucky me!
Monday, June 9, 2014
GA Tourney Battle Report, 6/7/2014, Trolls vs. Mercs
Same List for Me.
Opponents List:
Durgen Madhammer
* Ghordson Earthbreaker
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Press Gangers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
First Mate Hawk
Goblin Tinker
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Taryn di la Rovissi
Thor Steinhammer
Scenario: Destruction
Terrain: Wall on his side central, forest in the center, nothing else really of consequence.
Having played against this list before, I knew what was likely: a really, really nasty assassination run with the EB and Durgen. I'd been almost killed by it just a little before, so I wanted to be extremely careful. This game is also one of the haziest, so the details may have slipped some.
I won the roll to go first. He swapped sides to achieve the terrain lineup above - mostly to get Durgen right behind the wall. I put up a similar lineup to previously; I put Grissel in position to get behind the forest, Champs central, some warders left, some warders right, Mulg with Grissel, the rest behind.
The Earthbreaker was central, Nyss left, Press Gang right, Hawk with the Press Gang, and the other solos scattered around.
I ran forward, dumping 5 into the stone and dashing. Pretty much everything went straight forward from where it started.
He mostly advanced pretty much straight forward, also, as best as I can remember. He spaced the Nyss and Gangers out heavily, EB took a central position just running (no Redline), while Durgen tucked behind the wall.
I can't remember specifically whether it all started on his turn 2 or his turn 3, but everything prior to that was skirmishes; putting random damage into random places. Whichever round this was, I had moved Grissel up, 3 camped after Dash, and had shot a pirate or two off. I had screened Grissel with the forest and a couple of Warders - and I believe the feat - but I forgot that the Earthbreaker had an AE 4 knockdown, not AE 3. Crap. Guess where this goes.
After clearing some space, Durgen popped feat and started pounding away at Grissel, who he could get due to Arcing Fire. I can't remember if I transferred both shots or not, but there was at least one. Then the Earthbreaker opened up (after a Thor tuneup), rolling 2 shots on one gun and 3 on the other. One shot knocked the Warder in front of Grissel down, catching her too, and then he blew her halfway to hell. The only reason it was halfway? Two passed Toughs by Grissel. Holy crap.
My two big mistakes here: I boxed Mulg in so he couldn't Protective Fit up to try and help out and block LOS, and the Warder placement. That really, really sucked.
He tried to get some Nyss 2 and 3 mans on Grissel, but the dice crapped out and he failed to break armor each time, leaving me with 4 Fury to pull in, Grissel seriously damaged, but still alive, and Mulg was now in Rushed walking range of the Earthbreaker. I wasn't dead, although I was making a good show of it.
I leached the 4 I could get, and the Fell Caller walked up to stand everyone up. Grissel Dashed and walked to hide in the very back of the forest, I put up the Krielstone for Strength, and cleared some roads. Some Champs activated first, clearing out models (although I forgot to use one of them on the Earthbreaker - should've only been a few damage at D-8, but every bit helps). The Chronicler was still up, so I could at least get Charge of the Trolls off. Mulg got Rushed and went to work, and between him and 3 Warder charges, the EB went down.
From here on out the game was a pure slogfest, simply beating each other up and attritioning out. I won only because of the clock; a lot of time was burned on the one turn Grissel got shot up. He clocked out, sending me to the next round.
Now, in full disclosure: I made the bigger mistakes, and left myself open for a reliable kill, but made the Tough rolls. He deserved the win; he generally outplayed me, and I held in purely because the dice came up for me to keep Grissel alive.
Also, I had previously marked my guys damage boxes with dice, then moved to only marking on cards because dice kept getting left behind; I'm now going to try to do both. Because of the number of Warders and Champs on the board, there was a constant back and forth about the number of HP on each unit, burning some of my opponents time. I want to start using cards as a backup, but dice to make it more obvious where possible for them.
This was one of the least satisfying wins I have had in some time, I'll fully admit; I just didn't feel good about it. I'll take it, but winning by clock out and some dice help felt very unsatisfying. I left Grissel a little too far out for too little gain, and I should've lost for it.
Opponents List:
Durgen Madhammer
* Ghordson Earthbreaker
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Press Gangers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
First Mate Hawk
Goblin Tinker
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Taryn di la Rovissi
Thor Steinhammer
Scenario: Destruction
Terrain: Wall on his side central, forest in the center, nothing else really of consequence.
Having played against this list before, I knew what was likely: a really, really nasty assassination run with the EB and Durgen. I'd been almost killed by it just a little before, so I wanted to be extremely careful. This game is also one of the haziest, so the details may have slipped some.
I won the roll to go first. He swapped sides to achieve the terrain lineup above - mostly to get Durgen right behind the wall. I put up a similar lineup to previously; I put Grissel in position to get behind the forest, Champs central, some warders left, some warders right, Mulg with Grissel, the rest behind.
The Earthbreaker was central, Nyss left, Press Gang right, Hawk with the Press Gang, and the other solos scattered around.
I ran forward, dumping 5 into the stone and dashing. Pretty much everything went straight forward from where it started.
He mostly advanced pretty much straight forward, also, as best as I can remember. He spaced the Nyss and Gangers out heavily, EB took a central position just running (no Redline), while Durgen tucked behind the wall.
I can't remember specifically whether it all started on his turn 2 or his turn 3, but everything prior to that was skirmishes; putting random damage into random places. Whichever round this was, I had moved Grissel up, 3 camped after Dash, and had shot a pirate or two off. I had screened Grissel with the forest and a couple of Warders - and I believe the feat - but I forgot that the Earthbreaker had an AE 4 knockdown, not AE 3. Crap. Guess where this goes.
After clearing some space, Durgen popped feat and started pounding away at Grissel, who he could get due to Arcing Fire. I can't remember if I transferred both shots or not, but there was at least one. Then the Earthbreaker opened up (after a Thor tuneup), rolling 2 shots on one gun and 3 on the other. One shot knocked the Warder in front of Grissel down, catching her too, and then he blew her halfway to hell. The only reason it was halfway? Two passed Toughs by Grissel. Holy crap.
My two big mistakes here: I boxed Mulg in so he couldn't Protective Fit up to try and help out and block LOS, and the Warder placement. That really, really sucked.
He tried to get some Nyss 2 and 3 mans on Grissel, but the dice crapped out and he failed to break armor each time, leaving me with 4 Fury to pull in, Grissel seriously damaged, but still alive, and Mulg was now in Rushed walking range of the Earthbreaker. I wasn't dead, although I was making a good show of it.
I leached the 4 I could get, and the Fell Caller walked up to stand everyone up. Grissel Dashed and walked to hide in the very back of the forest, I put up the Krielstone for Strength, and cleared some roads. Some Champs activated first, clearing out models (although I forgot to use one of them on the Earthbreaker - should've only been a few damage at D-8, but every bit helps). The Chronicler was still up, so I could at least get Charge of the Trolls off. Mulg got Rushed and went to work, and between him and 3 Warder charges, the EB went down.
From here on out the game was a pure slogfest, simply beating each other up and attritioning out. I won only because of the clock; a lot of time was burned on the one turn Grissel got shot up. He clocked out, sending me to the next round.
Now, in full disclosure: I made the bigger mistakes, and left myself open for a reliable kill, but made the Tough rolls. He deserved the win; he generally outplayed me, and I held in purely because the dice came up for me to keep Grissel alive.
Also, I had previously marked my guys damage boxes with dice, then moved to only marking on cards because dice kept getting left behind; I'm now going to try to do both. Because of the number of Warders and Champs on the board, there was a constant back and forth about the number of HP on each unit, burning some of my opponents time. I want to start using cards as a backup, but dice to make it more obvious where possible for them.
This was one of the least satisfying wins I have had in some time, I'll fully admit; I just didn't feel good about it. I'll take it, but winning by clock out and some dice help felt very unsatisfying. I left Grissel a little too far out for too little gain, and I should've lost for it.
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