I'm back! Going to try (again) to be more brief; writing long posts was part of what wore me out I think, and got me a little less likely to post. So here goes!
My List:
Jarl
-Rune
-Impaler
-Bomber
Horgle
-Slag Troll
Highwaymen + Braylen
Warders
SoBragg
Swamp Gobbers
Chronicler
Totem Hunter
His List:
Stryker2
-Squire
-Stormclad
-2x Sentinel
2x max Stormlances
Stormblades
-UA + 1 WA
Stormblades
2x Stormblade Captain
Scenario: Close Quarters
Terrain: Forest touching my flag, forest just on the other side of his. Hill on his side opposite my flag, hill on my side opposite his flag. Random obstruction in the middle.
Quick Assessment: Lots of infantry for me to kill! Not so fond of the Deflection, though, since that'll put especially the Stormlances in an awkward spot to kill. 19 ARM + 5 boxes leaves only the Bomber as reliable at ranged, really. And he's got a lot of heavy hitting, so my Warders are probably forfeit.
Deployment: I put the Highwaymen to the left with Braylen and Horgle & co. Bomber, Jarl, and Rune went right, Warders central, SoBragg far right (near the forest) with the Totem Hunter. Chronicler behind the Warders and Highwaymen.
All his Stormblades were in 2 clumps centrally with Stryker. The Stormclad was line up with his flag, Sentinels to either side, Stryker with the Stormclad, and the Stormlances hard to either flank.
Game Time: This section will be a little different than previous writings. I'm going to be a little more succinct about the happenings.
We both ran up, mostly, in Round 1. I'd preyed one unit of Stormblades, and he kept them back to deny the Prey bonus. On Turn 2, I decided my priority was finishing off the Stormclad; I wanted his heavy out of the way, because most everything else could be killed by normal PS 12 shots or CRA's from the Highwaymen. He shield guarded a Slag shot, but the other shot + 2 Bomber shots (I rolled the 7 to hit like a boss, unboosted) + 2 Warders got the 'Clad, and half-crippled a Sentinel (I blew out the damage). A Highwaymen CRA took down 1 lance, while the Assaulting SoBragg crapped out to do minimal damage.
He feated, and he took out a ton of guys. He took down about 6-7 Highwaymen, at the cost of 3 of the 4 Lances knocked down (Chronicler w/ Hero's Tragedy), all but 1 Warder, all but the 2 swords guy of SoBragg. He also got a few damage into either the Bomber or Impaler, I forget which.
My retaliation involved killing as much shit as I could manage. I managed to take him down to about ~6 Stormblades + 2 Stormlances on one side, and about 2 Lances on the other, plus the Captains on either side. The Slag Troll finished a Sentinel, while the Impaler slapped down the other.
He did what he could to retaliate; he removed another Highwayman or two, and put some damage into the Slag and Bomber, but he was running out of guys at this point. The one Stormlance got the last SoBragg, but he toughed.
On my turn, I wiped up the remaining Blades, cleared the Captain on my flag side, and took out the Sentinel, along with a Lance or two. I made one big error, though, and left Jarl in range for a Velocity + charge from Stryker on my Tactical Supremacy move... Shit. I should've just kept him back and fed contesting models into his flag repeatedly, since he was nearly out of models that could contest and won the long game. So, crap.
On his turn, he velocity'd for 2 into Jarl, who was on a 2 camp, leaving him on 5. His overboost put him at PS 26, or Dice +11 into a 16 box Jarl. his first two hit, and blasted me hard, leaving both the Impaler and Bomber on a single box each, with no transfers. His third shot hit... and snake eyes, leaving me on 3 HP. So then Horgle got a Slag bonus, walked up behind Stryker, and gave him a hammer to the back of the head.
Post-Match: We both made a lot of mistakes, playing with unfamiliar lists. We forgot abilities, or placed in bad spots; I left Jarl way too far forward a couple of times, trying to do too much. That said, I was incredibly happy with my infantry shredding on my guys, as well as general mobility. The Totem Hunter, Jarl, and Braylen all dashed in and out with ease, giving me a lot of board movement. If I'd played the game the way I intended to early, then Swift Hunter + Tac Supremacy would've moved the Highwaymen all over the board, but I screwed up and failed at that, and made it way easier for him to kill the Highwaymen.
The Warders will become Gators, too, after I move some points around. I felt like I had to pull the Warders along, somewhat, and I like the volume of attacks as well as potentially higher DEF better from the Gators, particularly in synergizing with the feat (-2 to attack rolls). I have other changes I'd like to make that I've discussed with another local player, so I'll be probably maneuvering a couple more things around and trying a couple of new ideas.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 10/8/2014
Lots of games against Khador lately, because that's who I've been able to get a game with regularly!
My List:
pDoomshaper, Runes of War (Tier 4)
-Runebearer
-Mountain King
-Earthborn
-Mauler
max Stone (no UA)
3x Runeshapers
Janissa
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Zerker
Junior Malakov
-Decimator
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (1 or 2)
2x Doom Reavers
Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
Aiyana and Holt
Scenario:
Close Quarters
Terrain:
Forest on my near right, hill on my near left, a couple of central walls, one going parallel to my deployment and one perpendicular. Hills on his side, forest on his side (never mattered really).
Match Assessment:
The Doom Reavers present an interesting problem. They're the majority of his hitting power for armor (he has the one Malakov jack too), but they need charges to do it. However, they also can't be targeted by the Runeshapers. So this'll be weird.
I think if I can keep him from getting all the Reavers and the jack to me, I should be able to hold my Mountain King up and keep healing him. He has a lot of hitting power, but if I can force him to plink, I don't think it'll be enough. Between snacking the guys hitting and the Whelps, it's a lot of healing potential.
I don't really have an assassination run in this list, so instead it'll probably be mostly attrition. Just grind him out and make him work his way through the King and the two accompanying beasts. The Runeshapers can make a solid jam.
Deployment:
I put the MK central, stupidly about half an inch outside of the 2 speed for a forest. Doh. 2 units of Runeshapers went left to challenge his flag, one unit went right. Earthborn left, Mauler right.
He put the Winterguard to come in left, one unit of Reavers left, one unit right, and the Kommandos coming up my right (at my flag). Malakov with 'jack were there also. All else was fairly central.
Game Time:
He ran the masses forward! The Doomies ran up to the front, with a couple way forward and the rest behind. The Winterguard made a giant blob, while the models on my right side scattered in a wide area to watch out for Rock Hammers.
I just moved the King up 5" (should've been 7 had I not placed him away from the forest) and sprayed down a Doomy. I transmuted him, and drifted a ton of AE's into the Doomies needing 8's to kill. Never got one :( Everything else advanced up, Transmute on the King and Mauler with a wall covering parts of them.
He charged 1 or 2 Doomies into my Mauler, some into my Runeshapers. 2 units broke, one passed, and I ended up with about 4-5 of them dead. The Mauler took a few points. The Berserker took up a central position across from the MK MK, and his Decimator shot into the Mauler (before the Doomy) to get a few more points, taking about 15 points off the Mauler (I think. Either this turn or the next one).
I charged the King in and took a handful of guys off the board - I think it was some Doomies and a couple of WG, including the officer maybe? My 2 Shapers rallied, while one killed a Doomy in melee. I threw one Shaper at another Doomy with the Earthborn, and rolled 1-2 for damage on my Shaper! So no damage me, killed his guy, and I'm steady. Excellent. Doomy stayed behind a wall, transmute on the Mauler, and so on.
He came back into me, charging a Doomy at the EBDT but ending out of command. He left 1 Runeshaper alive on the left, and took out one on the right. the Berserker plinked 1 into the MK, triggering a whelp. Not much else.
The MK failed to kill the Zerker even with fortune (6 to hit, I missed 3 attacks on him. ugh), but got a few other guys, healing back up to full. I cleared my side and decided to play aggressive, moving Doomy to the flag to start getting cps with 2 transfers at 13/19 or 17/19. I also strangleheld Malakov's jack for good measure.
Turns out I forgot Sorscha's feat. Oops. Doomy got blasted off the board after being frozen, and that was that. Didn't help that I forgot my feat last turn :(
Post-Game:
Oops. Mostly felt good about the game, but I played too aggressive with Doomy when I was pretty much in command, and I paid for it. I was down to 4 Runeshapers left, but the Zerker was likely to be dead, I had Stranglehold on his jack so he couldn't get in... I was in a good spot, and his cracking potential on the MK was dropping extremely quickly. All I had to do was ride it out, and I didn't; I played aggressive and made a bad move.
He realized quickly that he could only win by assassination really, and he went for it and got it. I actually kept good positioning to limit the Doom Reavers ability to get to the MK with more than 2-3 guys at a time, but Doomy was the weak link to the army.
Not much else to learn except to play Doomy a little more safely :-/
My List:
pDoomshaper, Runes of War (Tier 4)
-Runebearer
-Mountain King
-Earthborn
-Mauler
max Stone (no UA)
3x Runeshapers
Janissa
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Zerker
Junior Malakov
-Decimator
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (1 or 2)
2x Doom Reavers
Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
Aiyana and Holt
Scenario:
Close Quarters
Terrain:
Forest on my near right, hill on my near left, a couple of central walls, one going parallel to my deployment and one perpendicular. Hills on his side, forest on his side (never mattered really).
Match Assessment:
The Doom Reavers present an interesting problem. They're the majority of his hitting power for armor (he has the one Malakov jack too), but they need charges to do it. However, they also can't be targeted by the Runeshapers. So this'll be weird.
I think if I can keep him from getting all the Reavers and the jack to me, I should be able to hold my Mountain King up and keep healing him. He has a lot of hitting power, but if I can force him to plink, I don't think it'll be enough. Between snacking the guys hitting and the Whelps, it's a lot of healing potential.
I don't really have an assassination run in this list, so instead it'll probably be mostly attrition. Just grind him out and make him work his way through the King and the two accompanying beasts. The Runeshapers can make a solid jam.
Deployment:
I put the MK central, stupidly about half an inch outside of the 2 speed for a forest. Doh. 2 units of Runeshapers went left to challenge his flag, one unit went right. Earthborn left, Mauler right.
He put the Winterguard to come in left, one unit of Reavers left, one unit right, and the Kommandos coming up my right (at my flag). Malakov with 'jack were there also. All else was fairly central.
Game Time:
He ran the masses forward! The Doomies ran up to the front, with a couple way forward and the rest behind. The Winterguard made a giant blob, while the models on my right side scattered in a wide area to watch out for Rock Hammers.
I just moved the King up 5" (should've been 7 had I not placed him away from the forest) and sprayed down a Doomy. I transmuted him, and drifted a ton of AE's into the Doomies needing 8's to kill. Never got one :( Everything else advanced up, Transmute on the King and Mauler with a wall covering parts of them.
He charged 1 or 2 Doomies into my Mauler, some into my Runeshapers. 2 units broke, one passed, and I ended up with about 4-5 of them dead. The Mauler took a few points. The Berserker took up a central position across from the MK MK, and his Decimator shot into the Mauler (before the Doomy) to get a few more points, taking about 15 points off the Mauler (I think. Either this turn or the next one).
I charged the King in and took a handful of guys off the board - I think it was some Doomies and a couple of WG, including the officer maybe? My 2 Shapers rallied, while one killed a Doomy in melee. I threw one Shaper at another Doomy with the Earthborn, and rolled 1-2 for damage on my Shaper! So no damage me, killed his guy, and I'm steady. Excellent. Doomy stayed behind a wall, transmute on the Mauler, and so on.
He came back into me, charging a Doomy at the EBDT but ending out of command. He left 1 Runeshaper alive on the left, and took out one on the right. the Berserker plinked 1 into the MK, triggering a whelp. Not much else.
The MK failed to kill the Zerker even with fortune (6 to hit, I missed 3 attacks on him. ugh), but got a few other guys, healing back up to full. I cleared my side and decided to play aggressive, moving Doomy to the flag to start getting cps with 2 transfers at 13/19 or 17/19. I also strangleheld Malakov's jack for good measure.
Turns out I forgot Sorscha's feat. Oops. Doomy got blasted off the board after being frozen, and that was that. Didn't help that I forgot my feat last turn :(
Post-Game:
Oops. Mostly felt good about the game, but I played too aggressive with Doomy when I was pretty much in command, and I paid for it. I was down to 4 Runeshapers left, but the Zerker was likely to be dead, I had Stranglehold on his jack so he couldn't get in... I was in a good spot, and his cracking potential on the MK was dropping extremely quickly. All I had to do was ride it out, and I didn't; I played aggressive and made a bad move.
He realized quickly that he could only win by assassination really, and he went for it and got it. I actually kept good positioning to limit the Doom Reavers ability to get to the MK with more than 2-3 guys at a time, but Doomy was the weak link to the army.
Not much else to learn except to play Doomy a little more safely :-/
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 10/2/2014
My List:
pGrissel
-Pyre
-Storm
max Long Riders
max Fennblades + UA
max Warders
max Stone + UA
Horthol
Fell Caller
Saxon
Sorcerer (on Riders)
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Zerker
Junior Malakov
-Decimator
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (1 or 2)
2x Doom Reavers
Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
Aiyana and Holt
I think that's all.
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Forest right side between my deployment and his objective/flag, forest left side between his deployment and my objective/flag. Hills on the near left and far right from me, obstacle left, obstacle far right.
Match Assessment:
So, round 2. I've thought about this in my head since the loss 2 weeks ago, and I came to a couple of conclusions:
1) Leverage the Storm Troll. Dat Animus. I did (mostly) last time, but played stupid late out of frustration. Don't get frustrated, protect the Storm and ride it out.
2) Do my best to set up so that no matter what is frozen, lanes can be opened. That's not easy - lots of medium bases get in the way - but if I can keep it so that some of my guys can still activate, it'll help.
He brought more beef this time, but I really don't feel horrible about breaking it with Calamity, Flaming Fists, and Stone Strength. That's a pretty big swing. The 2x Doomies is still saddening, though. I also feel like I have a strong scenario play here; Grissel can swing her entire army to a weak side really quickly and start working on CPs.
Deployment:
I kept up my fairly standard deployment. Fennblades with Long Riders scattered between them, Warders went all right side (I thought I might need to pressure this side hard). Support was central, Horthol went to the side with my objective. Grissel was central to respond anywhere.
He put the Assault Kommandos to oppose my left side with the Zerker, Winterguard right side, the support package central with Malakov and Decimator central. One unit of Doomies went hard left, one hard right.
Game Time!
So, looking at the board, I felt like he was very weak on my left side, giving me the chance to dominate the flag on my left fairly quickly. My Long Riders went up first, then my Fennblades, scattered across the board but (crucially) NOT in such a position that he could get a first turn Icy Grip (on any unit). Everything else came in behind, with the Storm Troll running across the board in such a way as to bring him behind Grissel on the left side, since I wanted him tossing leaps around and clearing Doomies/Kommandos. The support came in behind, with the Warders getting Hoof It to slog through the forest (no pathfinder - I put it on everyone else that needed it).
He came up with a couple of Winter Guard getting aggressively up the board, but the Doomies on either side being fairly safe. The left side Doom Reavers made a large arc to that side, with one or two using the obstacle to hide them. The right side Doomies did similarly, but a little further upl. The Winter Guard clogged most of the middle right. The Zerker ran to a position to threaten my flag, while the Demolisher positioned similarly on the right side.
I thought for about 2 minutes, and decided to go ahead and pop the feat. The number of attacks was lower than I like for Grissel, but I thought that I wouldn't have another particularly good feat turn, and this would shut down Doom Reaver charges from the left side. Unfortunately, I placed just wrong to have any good charges to get some clearing models out of Horthol's way, or he would've gone into the Zerker hard. Instead, I cleared a couple of Kommandos with Horthol and moved him out of the way. Some Lightning Fisted Fennblades killed 2 Kommandos and a couple of Winterguard, using the 'jacks for easy hits to bounce electroleaps into his models (DAT ANIMUS).
All told, I got about 4 or so Winterguard approximately, and about 5 of the 8 Assault Kommandos. My biggest win, however, was that I managed to do exactly 12 damage to the Decimator, which went into the 4 and 5, PERFECTLY blowing out the cortex. Hellllllz yeah. He has a Ripsaw with Sustained, but only a single attack, and now ROF 1. I would've liked to do more damage, but quite frankly it wasn't happening, because he positioned too well, but I really needed the army to be able to reposition. After repositioning, I put Horthol on my flag in case he couldn't contest, several screening models, and held my ground in the board middle. 7 on the Stone for a maximum aura.
So, feat. Yup. Sorscha moved around to an ideal position and froze most of my army, but left me a few activations. He pulled a bit of unexpected cleverness, however, and Icy Gripped a frozen Fennblade in order to freeze the ones she could not see. Ugh. That made it much harder for my screening models to survive. She went to work clearing, but my Tough rolls went stupid hot. All told, on my feat he killed about 9 Fenns (who had mini feated, so they were fine on command), put a Warder to 1 with 2 passed Toughs, and Horthol on 9 damage to his mounted form. The Zerker got to him after his last gunshot killed a Fennblade that toughed 2-3 times, but he went low on the 50/50 point to dismount Horthol, leaving him up, but knocked down (Brutality -> Headbutt).
So, I was frozen, but had a few options. First, I did some Long Rider ride bys and cleared the Zerker, and went for an unboosted Calamity. I wanted to boost, but I also wanted to boost a spray on a Doomy, so I just went for the 5... And got a 4. Doh. Hoof It went on the Sorcerer, who picked off a Kommando with his spell. So the Fell Caller charged the Zerker, stood up Horthol, and laid a good bit into the Zerker. Horthol then beat on him too, leaving him on a few boxes, but with Right Arm still up. The Storm Troll managed to get a Doomy in range, and got a 3 for leaps after hitting! I plinked damage on one Doom, but managed to kill 3 Doomies (initial + 2 on leaps) and a Kommando. Sadly, due to the Zerker's remaining few boxes, I didn't get to dominate for 2. :( The missed Calamity hurt.
He just tried to do what he could, laying some damage into the Riders and Warders, but he even stated he was fighting uphill. He didn't think I could clear that side so easily, and was going to have more and more trouble contesting. He took out one Rider on the left side but failed to hit my Fell with a Reaver. He plowed damage into the Warders and Long Riders he could, but failed to kill much (a few guys) and couldn't clear his side to get points. Oh, and he froze my Warders.
From there, I just cleared my side, dominated for 2, and tried to jam. It was less successful than hoped because the Pyre frenzied on one (ugh) and killed the Fennblade I was counting on using. Oh well.
This turn, he charged a Rider with Sorscha, then tried an Arcane Secrets Icy Grip needing 6, and... 1-2-1. Fail. She also missed her charge, first bought, and finally hit on the last attack. He plowed around some damage, but was in charge range of 2 Long Riders, which ended predictably on my turn.
Post-Game:
So, this went much, much more nicely. My positionings were mostly good, other than one misplacement that meant Horthol had to Ride By instead of charging/slamming his Berserker, but he also placed in response to my own. The Storm Troll did end up clogged up, though, on the first 2 turns, which I need to improve against infantry swarms.
I got a bit lucky on his dice crapping out in odd places, but mostly I don't think it was a huge problem; it just put him in some odd situations. He had a really slick play on using Freezing Grip on the Fenns to freeze all of them (on a feated one), which I thought was really smart. It let him autohit my screening models that were otherwise unfrozen.
Mostly, I felt much better about this game. I kept Grissel easily safe and didn't put her in stupid places, and I was able to follow out my game plan. A scenario that let me spread really let me take advantage of my armies ability to cover a lot of board, and Sorscha has a feat that just simply makes my life very difficult; most drops I hope to play this against won't. I had some bad luck on my Calamity and it failed to hit needing a 5, but that happens, so oh well. Otherwise I would've dominated for 2 a turn earlier. I probably could have taken Grissel to 1 fury, and I honestly don't think he could've done much about it, but I was trying to play on the safe side.
Overall, this game was much, much nicer. I played all my strengths the way I should, and I was able to easily chew through his infantry over the course of the game. The extra beef was obnoxious, but still was something I could deal with.
pGrissel
-Pyre
-Storm
max Long Riders
max Fennblades + UA
max Warders
max Stone + UA
Horthol
Fell Caller
Saxon
Sorcerer (on Riders)
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Zerker
Junior Malakov
-Decimator
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (1 or 2)
2x Doom Reavers
Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
Aiyana and Holt
I think that's all.
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Forest right side between my deployment and his objective/flag, forest left side between his deployment and my objective/flag. Hills on the near left and far right from me, obstacle left, obstacle far right.
Match Assessment:
So, round 2. I've thought about this in my head since the loss 2 weeks ago, and I came to a couple of conclusions:
1) Leverage the Storm Troll. Dat Animus. I did (mostly) last time, but played stupid late out of frustration. Don't get frustrated, protect the Storm and ride it out.
2) Do my best to set up so that no matter what is frozen, lanes can be opened. That's not easy - lots of medium bases get in the way - but if I can keep it so that some of my guys can still activate, it'll help.
He brought more beef this time, but I really don't feel horrible about breaking it with Calamity, Flaming Fists, and Stone Strength. That's a pretty big swing. The 2x Doomies is still saddening, though. I also feel like I have a strong scenario play here; Grissel can swing her entire army to a weak side really quickly and start working on CPs.
Deployment:
I kept up my fairly standard deployment. Fennblades with Long Riders scattered between them, Warders went all right side (I thought I might need to pressure this side hard). Support was central, Horthol went to the side with my objective. Grissel was central to respond anywhere.
He put the Assault Kommandos to oppose my left side with the Zerker, Winterguard right side, the support package central with Malakov and Decimator central. One unit of Doomies went hard left, one hard right.
Game Time!
So, looking at the board, I felt like he was very weak on my left side, giving me the chance to dominate the flag on my left fairly quickly. My Long Riders went up first, then my Fennblades, scattered across the board but (crucially) NOT in such a position that he could get a first turn Icy Grip (on any unit). Everything else came in behind, with the Storm Troll running across the board in such a way as to bring him behind Grissel on the left side, since I wanted him tossing leaps around and clearing Doomies/Kommandos. The support came in behind, with the Warders getting Hoof It to slog through the forest (no pathfinder - I put it on everyone else that needed it).
He came up with a couple of Winter Guard getting aggressively up the board, but the Doomies on either side being fairly safe. The left side Doom Reavers made a large arc to that side, with one or two using the obstacle to hide them. The right side Doomies did similarly, but a little further upl. The Winter Guard clogged most of the middle right. The Zerker ran to a position to threaten my flag, while the Demolisher positioned similarly on the right side.
I thought for about 2 minutes, and decided to go ahead and pop the feat. The number of attacks was lower than I like for Grissel, but I thought that I wouldn't have another particularly good feat turn, and this would shut down Doom Reaver charges from the left side. Unfortunately, I placed just wrong to have any good charges to get some clearing models out of Horthol's way, or he would've gone into the Zerker hard. Instead, I cleared a couple of Kommandos with Horthol and moved him out of the way. Some Lightning Fisted Fennblades killed 2 Kommandos and a couple of Winterguard, using the 'jacks for easy hits to bounce electroleaps into his models (DAT ANIMUS).
All told, I got about 4 or so Winterguard approximately, and about 5 of the 8 Assault Kommandos. My biggest win, however, was that I managed to do exactly 12 damage to the Decimator, which went into the 4 and 5, PERFECTLY blowing out the cortex. Hellllllz yeah. He has a Ripsaw with Sustained, but only a single attack, and now ROF 1. I would've liked to do more damage, but quite frankly it wasn't happening, because he positioned too well, but I really needed the army to be able to reposition. After repositioning, I put Horthol on my flag in case he couldn't contest, several screening models, and held my ground in the board middle. 7 on the Stone for a maximum aura.
So, feat. Yup. Sorscha moved around to an ideal position and froze most of my army, but left me a few activations. He pulled a bit of unexpected cleverness, however, and Icy Gripped a frozen Fennblade in order to freeze the ones she could not see. Ugh. That made it much harder for my screening models to survive. She went to work clearing, but my Tough rolls went stupid hot. All told, on my feat he killed about 9 Fenns (who had mini feated, so they were fine on command), put a Warder to 1 with 2 passed Toughs, and Horthol on 9 damage to his mounted form. The Zerker got to him after his last gunshot killed a Fennblade that toughed 2-3 times, but he went low on the 50/50 point to dismount Horthol, leaving him up, but knocked down (Brutality -> Headbutt).
So, I was frozen, but had a few options. First, I did some Long Rider ride bys and cleared the Zerker, and went for an unboosted Calamity. I wanted to boost, but I also wanted to boost a spray on a Doomy, so I just went for the 5... And got a 4. Doh. Hoof It went on the Sorcerer, who picked off a Kommando with his spell. So the Fell Caller charged the Zerker, stood up Horthol, and laid a good bit into the Zerker. Horthol then beat on him too, leaving him on a few boxes, but with Right Arm still up. The Storm Troll managed to get a Doomy in range, and got a 3 for leaps after hitting! I plinked damage on one Doom, but managed to kill 3 Doomies (initial + 2 on leaps) and a Kommando. Sadly, due to the Zerker's remaining few boxes, I didn't get to dominate for 2. :( The missed Calamity hurt.
He just tried to do what he could, laying some damage into the Riders and Warders, but he even stated he was fighting uphill. He didn't think I could clear that side so easily, and was going to have more and more trouble contesting. He took out one Rider on the left side but failed to hit my Fell with a Reaver. He plowed damage into the Warders and Long Riders he could, but failed to kill much (a few guys) and couldn't clear his side to get points. Oh, and he froze my Warders.
From there, I just cleared my side, dominated for 2, and tried to jam. It was less successful than hoped because the Pyre frenzied on one (ugh) and killed the Fennblade I was counting on using. Oh well.
This turn, he charged a Rider with Sorscha, then tried an Arcane Secrets Icy Grip needing 6, and... 1-2-1. Fail. She also missed her charge, first bought, and finally hit on the last attack. He plowed around some damage, but was in charge range of 2 Long Riders, which ended predictably on my turn.
Post-Game:
So, this went much, much more nicely. My positionings were mostly good, other than one misplacement that meant Horthol had to Ride By instead of charging/slamming his Berserker, but he also placed in response to my own. The Storm Troll did end up clogged up, though, on the first 2 turns, which I need to improve against infantry swarms.
I got a bit lucky on his dice crapping out in odd places, but mostly I don't think it was a huge problem; it just put him in some odd situations. He had a really slick play on using Freezing Grip on the Fenns to freeze all of them (on a feated one), which I thought was really smart. It let him autohit my screening models that were otherwise unfrozen.
Mostly, I felt much better about this game. I kept Grissel easily safe and didn't put her in stupid places, and I was able to follow out my game plan. A scenario that let me spread really let me take advantage of my armies ability to cover a lot of board, and Sorscha has a feat that just simply makes my life very difficult; most drops I hope to play this against won't. I had some bad luck on my Calamity and it failed to hit needing a 5, but that happens, so oh well. Otherwise I would've dominated for 2 a turn earlier. I probably could have taken Grissel to 1 fury, and I honestly don't think he could've done much about it, but I was trying to play on the safe side.
Overall, this game was much, much nicer. I played all my strengths the way I should, and I was able to easily chew through his infantry over the course of the game. The extra beef was obnoxious, but still was something I could deal with.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Difficulties with pGrissel (and Infantry Swarms in General) pt. 1
This post is going to be in lieu of a Battle Report, because although the game last night I played was interesting and fairly fun, I'm of the opinion that a discussion of the things I'm finding difficult is more useful than a discussion of the entire game in this case. This post will be followed up by a post assessing some of what I can do to work on clearing up these problems, since they've been recurring.
I've had my 3 casters for MACE picked for a few weeks now, and I'm trying to iron out the wrinkles and get the lists operating smoothly. I actually feel quite good about my 3, but a substantial amount of work remains in getting them settled. Barring a late change (always possible, as I changed late in the first year of the Invitational), I'll be settled into pBorka, pGrissel, and pDoomy, who I feel have a fantastic set of different abilities and list builds while still being able to cover a lot of matchups.
I've actually gotten fairly comfortable with unpacking pBorka. This is partially because of the ease of use of the Dygmies in the early game; AD allows a board spread that helps quite a lot, and if they burrow, there is even less hassle. Additionally, the Fennblades can spread over a huge area, and the Gators don't mind if it takes an extra turn or 2 to engage if the Fennblades and Dygmies do some heavy lifting.
However, I'm running into a problem with pGrissel that I've had before with eMadrak and with other infantry swarms: it can be exceedingly difficult to get formations, model placement, and general "resource allocation" correct to ensure that I can unpack my army correctly. This is particularly true with the somewhat different formations I've been playing with.
In the past, I've usually just put an entire unit to a side, an entire unit to another side, and not made use of my entire possible command (Fennblades generally being an exception, because 12" command is bonkers). Units end up somewhat clumped, so that they take some serious casualties if a couple of heavy hitters can get in, because multiple guys will generally die.
Lately, however, I've been attempting to spread my forces, taking advantage - in deployment, rather than just in field positioning) of my command bubble. This carries risks, but it also has a lot of advantages. In this case, I can get some serious positioning advantage from spreading a unit like Long Riders, which have a number of unique capabilities, giving better use of the Bull Rush order if I need slams, or simply for massacring a large swath of infantry - possibly up to 5-6 models with Impact Attacks and extra Grissel attacks.
However, in back to back weeks, I've played in central scenario games (Destruction), and been unable to unpack my army successfully. I'm continually tripping over my own guys, blocking off charge lanes, and making life exceedingly difficult for myself. This included leaving Grissel open to 2 possible assassination runs last night, one of which failed because my opponent was millimeters out from getting to Grissel off side steps at (at least) mat 12 or 13 and PS 25-26 because one of his models was millimeters too far forward and blocking off charge lanes. And because I seriously rolled about 2/3 of my Tough checks last night. It was beyond insane. The way those were going, Grissel might've just toughed 5 times.
The second assassination run was harder, but possible still. I could have probably done more to prevent it, but part of it was dictated by the necessity of ensuring Imperatus died. I probably could have gotten some Krielstone Bearers in the way, though, which would've been enough most likely.
As it was, I ultimately clocked myself, but most of my time on the clock was eaten up by unpacking my army and trying to fix my errors. Trolls present unique problems, particularly due to the space medium bases take up. They're a blessing and a curse, in equal proportions. Lately, I'd gotten a little sloppier from running the Kithkar (Tactician), but now I'm needing to tighten my formations back up.
In the next post (soon?), I'll talk about how I'd like to try addressing these problems. Some of them involve entire formation changes, while some of them simply involve being more conscious of where I want models going on Turn 2. I've never been very good at that aspect of the game; I play a much more reactive style. I never played chess well because I lived for the board as it was now, not as it could be in 3-4 moves. This is recurring in this game, and is leaving a hole in my game I need to correct.
I've had my 3 casters for MACE picked for a few weeks now, and I'm trying to iron out the wrinkles and get the lists operating smoothly. I actually feel quite good about my 3, but a substantial amount of work remains in getting them settled. Barring a late change (always possible, as I changed late in the first year of the Invitational), I'll be settled into pBorka, pGrissel, and pDoomy, who I feel have a fantastic set of different abilities and list builds while still being able to cover a lot of matchups.
I've actually gotten fairly comfortable with unpacking pBorka. This is partially because of the ease of use of the Dygmies in the early game; AD allows a board spread that helps quite a lot, and if they burrow, there is even less hassle. Additionally, the Fennblades can spread over a huge area, and the Gators don't mind if it takes an extra turn or 2 to engage if the Fennblades and Dygmies do some heavy lifting.
However, I'm running into a problem with pGrissel that I've had before with eMadrak and with other infantry swarms: it can be exceedingly difficult to get formations, model placement, and general "resource allocation" correct to ensure that I can unpack my army correctly. This is particularly true with the somewhat different formations I've been playing with.
In the past, I've usually just put an entire unit to a side, an entire unit to another side, and not made use of my entire possible command (Fennblades generally being an exception, because 12" command is bonkers). Units end up somewhat clumped, so that they take some serious casualties if a couple of heavy hitters can get in, because multiple guys will generally die.
Lately, however, I've been attempting to spread my forces, taking advantage - in deployment, rather than just in field positioning) of my command bubble. This carries risks, but it also has a lot of advantages. In this case, I can get some serious positioning advantage from spreading a unit like Long Riders, which have a number of unique capabilities, giving better use of the Bull Rush order if I need slams, or simply for massacring a large swath of infantry - possibly up to 5-6 models with Impact Attacks and extra Grissel attacks.
However, in back to back weeks, I've played in central scenario games (Destruction), and been unable to unpack my army successfully. I'm continually tripping over my own guys, blocking off charge lanes, and making life exceedingly difficult for myself. This included leaving Grissel open to 2 possible assassination runs last night, one of which failed because my opponent was millimeters out from getting to Grissel off side steps at (at least) mat 12 or 13 and PS 25-26 because one of his models was millimeters too far forward and blocking off charge lanes. And because I seriously rolled about 2/3 of my Tough checks last night. It was beyond insane. The way those were going, Grissel might've just toughed 5 times.
The second assassination run was harder, but possible still. I could have probably done more to prevent it, but part of it was dictated by the necessity of ensuring Imperatus died. I probably could have gotten some Krielstone Bearers in the way, though, which would've been enough most likely.
As it was, I ultimately clocked myself, but most of my time on the clock was eaten up by unpacking my army and trying to fix my errors. Trolls present unique problems, particularly due to the space medium bases take up. They're a blessing and a curse, in equal proportions. Lately, I'd gotten a little sloppier from running the Kithkar (Tactician), but now I'm needing to tighten my formations back up.
In the next post (soon?), I'll talk about how I'd like to try addressing these problems. Some of them involve entire formation changes, while some of them simply involve being more conscious of where I want models going on Turn 2. I've never been very good at that aspect of the game; I play a much more reactive style. I never played chess well because I lived for the board as it was now, not as it could be in 3-4 moves. This is recurring in this game, and is leaving a hole in my game I need to correct.
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Khador, 9-17-2014
Apologies! I hit Save, not Publish, so this never got put up; only a week late!
My List:
pGrissel
-Pyre
-Storm
max Long Riders
max Fennblades + UA
max Warders
max Stone + UA
Horthol
Fell Caller
Saxon
Sorcerer (on Riders)
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Torch
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (2 or 3)
2x Doom Reavers
2x Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments each
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
I think that's all, that's the core of the list.
Scenario:
Destruction
Terrain:
Forest near objective on my side, forest on his side of board, left side of zone from my perspective. Pair of central linear obstacles, large obstruction to right side, hill on right.
Along with it being Destruction, this table funneled everything centrally; the terrain forced everything in that direction. That actually ended up hurting a good bit, because I couldn't really use my list to get out on a flank, which could have worked well with the Riders probably.
Match Assessment:
Ugh. Dat Feat. This was actually a good chance to test a lot of things about the pGrissel list, in that I wanted it to be an infantry shredding list that has a good denial aspect. But I also had to contend with Sorscha's ability to freeze life itself. This was not something I was overly eager about.
So, I felt good about the fact that this was a practically ideal setup for electroleaps and pGrissels feat. Lots of low ARM infantry, with the Kommandos setting up a good charge target if available. Cacophany shuts down charges, Bob & Weave, and Shield Wall, so I felt comfortable about that.
I also didn't think that he'd have a ton of pieces outside Torch to crack my heavy infantry such as the Warders and Riders. ARM 19 or 19/21 (Warders) is a lot, especially with 8 boxes. Lacking charges, that put him into a pretty severe bind, I felt.
I figured I'd just try to weather the feat and do my best against it.
Deployment:
I tried something new with my deployment. I put the Fennblade officer centrally, next to Grissel with the Drummer just behind, with 5 on the left and 5 on the right. The Warders were 3 to one side and 2 to another, while the Riders spread out 2 left, 2 right, leader centrally. Because it's Destruction, I wanted to have my forces spread out to the limited extent I could.
Most everything else was central, Grissel definitely was.
He put Assault Kommandos to either side, Doom Reavers far out to either side, and the Winterguard centrally with Sorscha. Torch was somewhere nearby. It was a giant blob of people.
Game Time!
So, this game was kinda sloppy in terms of my ability to retell it. A lot of single wound models died; I know that happened.
Basically, I ran up first turn, but through some bad rearranging of my Fennblades with Hoof It, I left my Fennblades blocking in my Tuffalo's. I kept Grissel centrally oriented with the support team, while the Fennblades spread out in front of the entire line.
So, he ran up one of his units (I think Kommandos?) and charged one with Sorscha, with Arcane Secrets, and... Missed the 6 for an Icy Grip on the Fennblades. Shiiiiiit, I just got LUCKY. He got a charge off with a Doomy on one Fenn, but missed the attack and I passed the command check. Otherwise, he ran up and made a giant blob of guys.
So, since he had a giant blob of guys, I put around several electroleaps and charged into the giant blob with feat. After my Fennblades alone, I probably killed about 15-20 of his models, approximately, with Electroleaps. The Tuffalos got a couple more, but that was most of it. The Winterguard were down a few guys, I wiped out most of both Assault Kommandos, a portion of the Doom Reavers on either side... Lotta stuff died. It was kinda glorious. Would've been even better had I not blocked in my Tuffalo's and screwed up those charges! Also, he let me light 2 Winterguard on fire from blowing up the Kommando Weapon Attachment.
So, with Grissels feat, I did a huge chunk of damage, then jammed a few guys into his face and the rest back, preserving the Tuffalo's as best I could.
He counterfeats me, getting most of my army (ugh), and wipes the Fennblades off the face of the earth. I think he got a couple of other things, including the Fell Caller, with his Kossites. Pretty much what I predicted, but still sucks.
So, I jockeyed as best as I could, but instead of being intelligent and hiding Grissel safely, I left her up near the front lines. Because I'm a freaking donkey. I killed a few more infantry model, my Storm Troll missed needing a boosted 10, but I mostly was able to lay out most of the damage I felt I could. Grissel was now tucked between a long Rider and a Warder.
So, he managed to clear the Rider, hit the Warder with a Strangling Gas grenade (so Grissel's now 13/18 effectively) and Torch annihilated Grissel. Shit. Shook my opponents hand and started punching myself in the brain.
Post-Game:
I was pissed at myself after this game. I had a practically ideal situation, and model placement along with tunnel vision screwed me. Major, major set of mistakes in this one. I got way too much tunnel vision about Cacophany, instead of just taking my lumps and working with what I had.
So, first off: my Fennblades should've been frozen by his Icy Grip. No reason I couldn't do the math and figure out what was coming - literally, no reason. So my initial placement was bad to get them into Icy Grip range. I got lucky and he missed, so instead I had flexibility, rather than being penned in. That was a huge lucky break I won't often get.
Second: My placement after my first turn was bad. Really bad. I had the Long Riders way too far back, and I didn't leave myself good alleys if the Fenns were frozen. I could've been locked out of scenario easily by my own models. I dodged a giant, giant bullet. I think this can be remedied by 2 things: 1) more careful placement if I keep my deployment, or 2) by putting the units to different sides so they don't stumble over each other. each have advantages and disadvantages.
The thing is, though, my Riders could've easily been in a spot where the Fenns could've carved some nice holes, then the Riders come in, slam his models back, and Follow Up deep into his formations. I failed to have the Riders far enough up, and thus missed out.
So next: I tunnel visioned on using Cacophany. Sometimes I just need to take my lumps and eat charges, and I should have. I got it in my head that I needed to use it, and it was a poor decision. That's life, and it's a lesson I can learn quickly. However, tunnel vision is really easy to acquire, especially with the frustrating nature of a feat like Sorscha's.
Next: GRISSEL ISN'T THAT DURABLE. She's a 15/18, far short of Borka. Maybe that's part of the problem: too much Borka lately, so I went, "Oh, I'm fine!" Stop that. Stop it now. I had her too far up, when she should have been more of a general commanding from the back. On his 3rd turn, he was down nearly half the Winterguard, with several too far back to affect it, about 5/12 Reavers alive, and about 4-5 Assault Kommandos alive, along with Torch. Even after some seriously painful dice, I still had Horthol, I think 3 or 4 Riders left? Along with 4 Warders, the Storm and Pyre. If I removed the Doomies, then his hitting power and volume of attacks drops quickly.
Given what he had on the board, average from a Storm Troll if I hit removes 3 models - the initial and 1d3. If I toss out a couple of Lightning Fists, I could easily have removed most of what he had left, along with Grissel spraying. Grissel's ability to give extra attacks reinforces that, too. Torch was going to be a little more difficult, but even a single Rider with extra attacks and the Pyre animus has an impact at D-4, a charge at D-4, and a second attack at D-6, coming to... Somewhere around 10-12 damage probably. If I don't Calamity him, which adds on another 2 per hit. Torch is very killable under that scenario.
This section is really long, I know, but this game was really a pretty long list of easily rectified mistakes. Many of them come to positioning, while some are to think more clearly during the game. It was a very winnable game - I probably had the attrition advantage, I just made some crucial brainfarts that gave him a reliable, easy assassination.
My List:
pGrissel
-Pyre
-Storm
max Long Riders
max Fennblades + UA
max Warders
max Stone + UA
Horthol
Fell Caller
Saxon
Sorcerer (on Riders)
His List:
pSorscha
-Sylas
-Torch
max Winterguard + UA + weapon attachments (2 or 3)
2x Doom Reavers
2x Assault Kommandos with 2 Weapon Attachments each
Reinholdt
Kovnik Joe
I think that's all, that's the core of the list.
Scenario:
Destruction
Terrain:
Forest near objective on my side, forest on his side of board, left side of zone from my perspective. Pair of central linear obstacles, large obstruction to right side, hill on right.
Along with it being Destruction, this table funneled everything centrally; the terrain forced everything in that direction. That actually ended up hurting a good bit, because I couldn't really use my list to get out on a flank, which could have worked well with the Riders probably.
Match Assessment:
Ugh. Dat Feat. This was actually a good chance to test a lot of things about the pGrissel list, in that I wanted it to be an infantry shredding list that has a good denial aspect. But I also had to contend with Sorscha's ability to freeze life itself. This was not something I was overly eager about.
So, I felt good about the fact that this was a practically ideal setup for electroleaps and pGrissels feat. Lots of low ARM infantry, with the Kommandos setting up a good charge target if available. Cacophany shuts down charges, Bob & Weave, and Shield Wall, so I felt comfortable about that.
I also didn't think that he'd have a ton of pieces outside Torch to crack my heavy infantry such as the Warders and Riders. ARM 19 or 19/21 (Warders) is a lot, especially with 8 boxes. Lacking charges, that put him into a pretty severe bind, I felt.
I figured I'd just try to weather the feat and do my best against it.
Deployment:
I tried something new with my deployment. I put the Fennblade officer centrally, next to Grissel with the Drummer just behind, with 5 on the left and 5 on the right. The Warders were 3 to one side and 2 to another, while the Riders spread out 2 left, 2 right, leader centrally. Because it's Destruction, I wanted to have my forces spread out to the limited extent I could.
Most everything else was central, Grissel definitely was.
He put Assault Kommandos to either side, Doom Reavers far out to either side, and the Winterguard centrally with Sorscha. Torch was somewhere nearby. It was a giant blob of people.
Game Time!
So, this game was kinda sloppy in terms of my ability to retell it. A lot of single wound models died; I know that happened.
Basically, I ran up first turn, but through some bad rearranging of my Fennblades with Hoof It, I left my Fennblades blocking in my Tuffalo's. I kept Grissel centrally oriented with the support team, while the Fennblades spread out in front of the entire line.
So, he ran up one of his units (I think Kommandos?) and charged one with Sorscha, with Arcane Secrets, and... Missed the 6 for an Icy Grip on the Fennblades. Shiiiiiit, I just got LUCKY. He got a charge off with a Doomy on one Fenn, but missed the attack and I passed the command check. Otherwise, he ran up and made a giant blob of guys.
So, since he had a giant blob of guys, I put around several electroleaps and charged into the giant blob with feat. After my Fennblades alone, I probably killed about 15-20 of his models, approximately, with Electroleaps. The Tuffalos got a couple more, but that was most of it. The Winterguard were down a few guys, I wiped out most of both Assault Kommandos, a portion of the Doom Reavers on either side... Lotta stuff died. It was kinda glorious. Would've been even better had I not blocked in my Tuffalo's and screwed up those charges! Also, he let me light 2 Winterguard on fire from blowing up the Kommando Weapon Attachment.
So, with Grissels feat, I did a huge chunk of damage, then jammed a few guys into his face and the rest back, preserving the Tuffalo's as best I could.
He counterfeats me, getting most of my army (ugh), and wipes the Fennblades off the face of the earth. I think he got a couple of other things, including the Fell Caller, with his Kossites. Pretty much what I predicted, but still sucks.
So, I jockeyed as best as I could, but instead of being intelligent and hiding Grissel safely, I left her up near the front lines. Because I'm a freaking donkey. I killed a few more infantry model, my Storm Troll missed needing a boosted 10, but I mostly was able to lay out most of the damage I felt I could. Grissel was now tucked between a long Rider and a Warder.
So, he managed to clear the Rider, hit the Warder with a Strangling Gas grenade (so Grissel's now 13/18 effectively) and Torch annihilated Grissel. Shit. Shook my opponents hand and started punching myself in the brain.
Post-Game:
I was pissed at myself after this game. I had a practically ideal situation, and model placement along with tunnel vision screwed me. Major, major set of mistakes in this one. I got way too much tunnel vision about Cacophany, instead of just taking my lumps and working with what I had.
So, first off: my Fennblades should've been frozen by his Icy Grip. No reason I couldn't do the math and figure out what was coming - literally, no reason. So my initial placement was bad to get them into Icy Grip range. I got lucky and he missed, so instead I had flexibility, rather than being penned in. That was a huge lucky break I won't often get.
Second: My placement after my first turn was bad. Really bad. I had the Long Riders way too far back, and I didn't leave myself good alleys if the Fenns were frozen. I could've been locked out of scenario easily by my own models. I dodged a giant, giant bullet. I think this can be remedied by 2 things: 1) more careful placement if I keep my deployment, or 2) by putting the units to different sides so they don't stumble over each other. each have advantages and disadvantages.
The thing is, though, my Riders could've easily been in a spot where the Fenns could've carved some nice holes, then the Riders come in, slam his models back, and Follow Up deep into his formations. I failed to have the Riders far enough up, and thus missed out.
So next: I tunnel visioned on using Cacophany. Sometimes I just need to take my lumps and eat charges, and I should have. I got it in my head that I needed to use it, and it was a poor decision. That's life, and it's a lesson I can learn quickly. However, tunnel vision is really easy to acquire, especially with the frustrating nature of a feat like Sorscha's.
Next: GRISSEL ISN'T THAT DURABLE. She's a 15/18, far short of Borka. Maybe that's part of the problem: too much Borka lately, so I went, "Oh, I'm fine!" Stop that. Stop it now. I had her too far up, when she should have been more of a general commanding from the back. On his 3rd turn, he was down nearly half the Winterguard, with several too far back to affect it, about 5/12 Reavers alive, and about 4-5 Assault Kommandos alive, along with Torch. Even after some seriously painful dice, I still had Horthol, I think 3 or 4 Riders left? Along with 4 Warders, the Storm and Pyre. If I removed the Doomies, then his hitting power and volume of attacks drops quickly.
Given what he had on the board, average from a Storm Troll if I hit removes 3 models - the initial and 1d3. If I toss out a couple of Lightning Fists, I could easily have removed most of what he had left, along with Grissel spraying. Grissel's ability to give extra attacks reinforces that, too. Torch was going to be a little more difficult, but even a single Rider with extra attacks and the Pyre animus has an impact at D-4, a charge at D-4, and a second attack at D-6, coming to... Somewhere around 10-12 damage probably. If I don't Calamity him, which adds on another 2 per hit. Torch is very killable under that scenario.
This section is really long, I know, but this game was really a pretty long list of easily rectified mistakes. Many of them come to positioning, while some are to think more clearly during the game. It was a very winnable game - I probably had the attrition advantage, I just made some crucial brainfarts that gave him a reliable, easy assassination.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Skorne, 9-15-2014
My List:
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Victor Pendrake
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Dominar Rasheth (Fatty Cakes!), Tier 4 Siege Column
-Mammoth
-Krea
-Raider
2x Siege Animantarax
Reiver Artillery Gun
2x Beast Handlers
TyCommander
Agonizer
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Forest over his flag/objective, obstruction (house) his side central, hill to the left of my flag/objective, rough terrain my near right, linear obstacle (wall) a bit on my side of central.
Match Assessment:
This is a true first - the first time I've seen 3 Huge bases on the board simultaneously, much less in one army. Shoulda run pDoomy with MK to make it 4 so nobody moved - EVER - because there was no board space!
I was worried about beating through 3 Huge bases, but I felt good about the reduction in volume of attacks with every lost guy for him. His feat would really cripple my damage, which sucked. Burst Fire really kinda bites, but the Mammoth would struggle to hit the guys most susceptible to blast was my initial assessment. Plus they'd be underground a turn.
I wasn't happy that the Gators wouldn't be able to get extra charge distance on the Battle Engine, neutering some of them, but I just had to go with it. I did think that Borka would need to get involved when he safely could - I made a note early (which I promptly forgot) that all his ranged were non-Magic, so Wind Wall was nice. Note: this is important! I felt that if Borka could get in with Rage up from the Mauler, he could probably clear a Battle Engine safely himself while still being in a good camping position.
The Mammoth felt a bit tricky to clear, but board positioning created a really interesting dilemma: with him having 3 Huge bases, but a house centrally, I thought I could gum up the works on him with Dygmies, keeping the Mammoth's effect minimized.
Deployment:
He had the fastest deployment I've seen in a while: Siege left, Siege right, Mammoth center. One Paingivers left, one right, TyCom left, artillery right (with Advance Move) and everything else central.
I put the Gators left with Borka, planning on trying to get Borka to my flag and maybe start scoring. The Fenns went right to start pushing on his side, with everything else relatively central. Dygmies went left of center, shying away from Mammoth range.
Game Time!
He ran up, threatening the two sides with the Sieges, and the Mammoth assaulted. He missed my Dygmies, getting one Paingiver I believe on the deviation. Might be wrong about that, might be Turn 2 that happened. Otherwise, he occupied a lot of space. Everything else worked its way up the center.
My Dygmies went under, as normal, while the Fenns ran up with a large spread. The Gators spread on the left side, maneuvering to get around my objective and the wall, and got Iron Fleshed. Borka put 4 in the Stone and sat behind the wall on 1. I took a shot with the Pyre, hoping to light a little cluster of Paingivers on fire, but the deviation went way off the mark.
On his turn, he shot up my Fenns, but I toughed a good bit and Tale of Mists protected them solidly, also. I think I lost 2 or so. I lost 1 Gator and 1 ended up at 1 after a Breath of Corruption, while he shot into my crowd of support and blew up the dice on the Pyre Troll, doing about 9 points at D-8 (after he feated). Ugh. That hurt. He took up central space with the Paingivers to clog up charge lanes, while the TyCom blocked off one Siege.
I enacted Plan: Jam with Dygmies on this turn. A few got onto the Mammoth and did some damage at D-5 mostly. The Fenns did about 3 points to one Siege, but his feat REALLY hurt for trying to plink in points. I cleared the Paingivers jamming, prior to the Dygmies, and the Gators ate the TyCom. I made a decision to move up Borka more aggressively, but made a critical error: I Iron Fleshed the Dygmies (generally fine), but I put 3 in the Stone, camping on 2, rather than Wind Walling. I also was in range of walk and shoot from the Krea - shit. I could've put 1 on the Stone, Wind Walled, and been fairly safe, mostly likely, with Stumbling Drunk.
So, seeing as how I left Borka's ass out in the wind, he promptly shot him up. The Krea paralyzed Borka, and the Siege on that side moved up, gacked some Gators (leaving me on 2 I think), and shot up Borka, as did the Mammoth, pushing some Dygmies out of his way. On a side note - why the hell does every Colossal/Garg not have Bulldoze? It actually seems logical to me.
After all was said and done, Borka had 1 health left exactly, and was out of transfers, but he ran out of shots. So now Borka went from hardiest caster in the game to, "Oh god oh god I'm gonna die". However, he was in position to finish off one Siege himself with some Rage help, while the Fennblades blew the hell up on dice and killed the other. This shouldn't have happened - I didn't think it would, either. I rolled trip 6's on the first charge, and averaged about 14-15 on dice on 4 charges probably. I think one lowballed (a 6 or so?), but the other 3 were all high. I thought I'd take him down to a little below half-health, but I was simply stalling for time on that side. I did have the sense to put Borka on the flag, though, while the 2 remaining Gators jammed the Krea, and so I went up to 2 CP's to 0. The Mauler hid behind jamming Dygmies and hoped to live.
On his next turn, he hit up Borka a bit, with damage being transferred to my beasts, and the Krea's dice crapped out to fail to extricate himself from Gators. The Mammoth killed more Dygmies I think, although I'm not 100% sure. He may have shot at someone. Borka was on IF, though, so I felt confident in his survival, especially with the Krea jammed up.
I cleared the Mammoth on the next turn, although I ran Borka 1 transfer lower than I should've let myself killing the Raider, and he again went to assassinate Borka, with me being lucky that he missed an attack roll needing hard 9's and it drifted off Borka (Breath of Corruption). Borka then applied mace to Rasheth for game (although he killed my Mauler with a transfer in the process!).
Post-Game:
I was mostly OK with how I played, but I made one major, potentially game-ending mistake that I got away with purely because of dice rolls. Late in the game, I also failed to get the Keg Carrier to Borka due to bad positioning of my Impaler blocking a route to Borka, which I could have done first before I moved the Impaler. I survived, but not in the kind of shape I really want to.
I also got a bit of luck in hot dice. I didn't really have anything in position to deal with a second Siege Animantarax, just the Fennblades. Tough rolls and some hot dice helped me pull that one out; I probably should have had some Fenns in a position where I could throw animi on 2-3 of them, taking them to D-4 or 5 depending on the animus, which would've helped bring the Siege much more within a killable range. Still not easy, but not as hard as I was making it.
The mistake with Borka should've cost me the game; it was pure dice luck that it didn't. I still felt like I was in a competitive/viable position, and that nearly gave it away. After that, I pulled ahead, but it had a lot to do with the fact that Borka not dying left things in vulnerable positions.
Borka himself is probably going to be less of the beater in the coming iterations of this list; I'll probably be moving Mulg in and seeing how it affects the list. I want Mulg's set of abilities to complement Borka's, including being a beater with a longer threat range than the Mauler, and his animus for matchups like Butcher3.
Borka Kegslayer, Shaman of Dhunia
- Keggy (Timmy)
- Mauler
- Impaler
- Pyre
max Posse
max Fenns + UA
max Burrowers
min Stone + UA
Fell Caller Hero
Victor Pendrake
Stone Scribe Chronicler
His List:
Dominar Rasheth (Fatty Cakes!), Tier 4 Siege Column
-Mammoth
-Krea
-Raider
2x Siege Animantarax
Reiver Artillery Gun
2x Beast Handlers
TyCommander
Agonizer
Scenario:
Fire Support
Terrain:
Forest over his flag/objective, obstruction (house) his side central, hill to the left of my flag/objective, rough terrain my near right, linear obstacle (wall) a bit on my side of central.
Match Assessment:
This is a true first - the first time I've seen 3 Huge bases on the board simultaneously, much less in one army. Shoulda run pDoomy with MK to make it 4 so nobody moved - EVER - because there was no board space!
I was worried about beating through 3 Huge bases, but I felt good about the reduction in volume of attacks with every lost guy for him. His feat would really cripple my damage, which sucked. Burst Fire really kinda bites, but the Mammoth would struggle to hit the guys most susceptible to blast was my initial assessment. Plus they'd be underground a turn.
I wasn't happy that the Gators wouldn't be able to get extra charge distance on the Battle Engine, neutering some of them, but I just had to go with it. I did think that Borka would need to get involved when he safely could - I made a note early (which I promptly forgot) that all his ranged were non-Magic, so Wind Wall was nice. Note: this is important! I felt that if Borka could get in with Rage up from the Mauler, he could probably clear a Battle Engine safely himself while still being in a good camping position.
The Mammoth felt a bit tricky to clear, but board positioning created a really interesting dilemma: with him having 3 Huge bases, but a house centrally, I thought I could gum up the works on him with Dygmies, keeping the Mammoth's effect minimized.
Deployment:
He had the fastest deployment I've seen in a while: Siege left, Siege right, Mammoth center. One Paingivers left, one right, TyCom left, artillery right (with Advance Move) and everything else central.
I put the Gators left with Borka, planning on trying to get Borka to my flag and maybe start scoring. The Fenns went right to start pushing on his side, with everything else relatively central. Dygmies went left of center, shying away from Mammoth range.
Game Time!
He ran up, threatening the two sides with the Sieges, and the Mammoth assaulted. He missed my Dygmies, getting one Paingiver I believe on the deviation. Might be wrong about that, might be Turn 2 that happened. Otherwise, he occupied a lot of space. Everything else worked its way up the center.
My Dygmies went under, as normal, while the Fenns ran up with a large spread. The Gators spread on the left side, maneuvering to get around my objective and the wall, and got Iron Fleshed. Borka put 4 in the Stone and sat behind the wall on 1. I took a shot with the Pyre, hoping to light a little cluster of Paingivers on fire, but the deviation went way off the mark.
On his turn, he shot up my Fenns, but I toughed a good bit and Tale of Mists protected them solidly, also. I think I lost 2 or so. I lost 1 Gator and 1 ended up at 1 after a Breath of Corruption, while he shot into my crowd of support and blew up the dice on the Pyre Troll, doing about 9 points at D-8 (after he feated). Ugh. That hurt. He took up central space with the Paingivers to clog up charge lanes, while the TyCom blocked off one Siege.
I enacted Plan: Jam with Dygmies on this turn. A few got onto the Mammoth and did some damage at D-5 mostly. The Fenns did about 3 points to one Siege, but his feat REALLY hurt for trying to plink in points. I cleared the Paingivers jamming, prior to the Dygmies, and the Gators ate the TyCom. I made a decision to move up Borka more aggressively, but made a critical error: I Iron Fleshed the Dygmies (generally fine), but I put 3 in the Stone, camping on 2, rather than Wind Walling. I also was in range of walk and shoot from the Krea - shit. I could've put 1 on the Stone, Wind Walled, and been fairly safe, mostly likely, with Stumbling Drunk.
So, seeing as how I left Borka's ass out in the wind, he promptly shot him up. The Krea paralyzed Borka, and the Siege on that side moved up, gacked some Gators (leaving me on 2 I think), and shot up Borka, as did the Mammoth, pushing some Dygmies out of his way. On a side note - why the hell does every Colossal/Garg not have Bulldoze? It actually seems logical to me.
After all was said and done, Borka had 1 health left exactly, and was out of transfers, but he ran out of shots. So now Borka went from hardiest caster in the game to, "Oh god oh god I'm gonna die". However, he was in position to finish off one Siege himself with some Rage help, while the Fennblades blew the hell up on dice and killed the other. This shouldn't have happened - I didn't think it would, either. I rolled trip 6's on the first charge, and averaged about 14-15 on dice on 4 charges probably. I think one lowballed (a 6 or so?), but the other 3 were all high. I thought I'd take him down to a little below half-health, but I was simply stalling for time on that side. I did have the sense to put Borka on the flag, though, while the 2 remaining Gators jammed the Krea, and so I went up to 2 CP's to 0. The Mauler hid behind jamming Dygmies and hoped to live.
On his next turn, he hit up Borka a bit, with damage being transferred to my beasts, and the Krea's dice crapped out to fail to extricate himself from Gators. The Mammoth killed more Dygmies I think, although I'm not 100% sure. He may have shot at someone. Borka was on IF, though, so I felt confident in his survival, especially with the Krea jammed up.
I cleared the Mammoth on the next turn, although I ran Borka 1 transfer lower than I should've let myself killing the Raider, and he again went to assassinate Borka, with me being lucky that he missed an attack roll needing hard 9's and it drifted off Borka (Breath of Corruption). Borka then applied mace to Rasheth for game (although he killed my Mauler with a transfer in the process!).
Post-Game:
I was mostly OK with how I played, but I made one major, potentially game-ending mistake that I got away with purely because of dice rolls. Late in the game, I also failed to get the Keg Carrier to Borka due to bad positioning of my Impaler blocking a route to Borka, which I could have done first before I moved the Impaler. I survived, but not in the kind of shape I really want to.
I also got a bit of luck in hot dice. I didn't really have anything in position to deal with a second Siege Animantarax, just the Fennblades. Tough rolls and some hot dice helped me pull that one out; I probably should have had some Fenns in a position where I could throw animi on 2-3 of them, taking them to D-4 or 5 depending on the animus, which would've helped bring the Siege much more within a killable range. Still not easy, but not as hard as I was making it.
The mistake with Borka should've cost me the game; it was pure dice luck that it didn't. I still felt like I was in a competitive/viable position, and that nearly gave it away. After that, I pulled ahead, but it had a lot to do with the fact that Borka not dying left things in vulnerable positions.
Borka himself is probably going to be less of the beater in the coming iterations of this list; I'll probably be moving Mulg in and seeing how it affects the list. I want Mulg's set of abilities to complement Borka's, including being a beater with a longer threat range than the Mauler, and his animus for matchups like Butcher3.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Battle Report, Trolls vs. Cygnar, 9-10-2014
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!
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!
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