50pts Goreshade2 (Cryx) vs. Jarl (Trollbloods)

Last saturday I snuck in a game with a friend against his Cryx. He had a few casters lined up, Denny1 and Denny2, and a Goreshade2 tier list, and I had Madrak2, Doomy2, Grim1 and Jarl, all of which I was ok for trying that day. Against Cryx, Grim1 makes sense, but we're not talking to eachother at the moment, so I opted for Jarl, and tried to fit the War Wagon in, trying to make it work somewhere. I spent months painting, it'd be nice to field it, right?

Goreshade2
*Ripjaw
Max Bane Thralls w/UA
Max Bane Thralls w/UA
Max Bane Knights
Bane Lord Tartarus
Max Bane Knights
2x Pistol Wraiths
9x Scrap thralls

Pretty simple list, maximizing on lots of infantry, and the ability to replenish them. The Scrap thralls are simply there for feat.

Jarl
*Storm troll
*Impaler
*Runebearer
War Wagon
Max Fennblades w/UA
Max Champions w/UA
Champion Hero
Fell Caller Hero
Sons of Bragg

I dropped a bomber for the War Wagon I think. Really wanted to try the War Wagon again. Otherwise, fairly straightforward list. Between the sprays from the Sons of Bragg and the War Wagon, plus Black Penny on Jarl himself and Magic Bullet, and any help from the electro leaping Stormtroll, I was hoping to be able to clear off any engaging forces and get to charge every turn. Between Vengeance and that, I was expecting the Fenns to trade up in the fight pretty well.

We rolled off, and he won. He deployed pretty symmetrically, with Knights in the center and Thralls on either side. Lots of stealth. Grim1 would have been a good drop, but I haven't had any luck with him and wanted to try Jarl against Cryx.

I deployed Champs to the left, and Fenns to the right. Scenario was outflank, so I was hoping to focus on the right side, and let the champs contest the left. The sons would go whichever way was needed, and the Stormtroll would support from the middle. The corner pieces throughout the map became obstructions, instead of walls as we normally play them, so that was different, but it worked out ok.



First things first. The Santjud list runs forward. The Bane Riders push decently far on the right, but everything else is somewhat slow without the curse to help speed. Goreshade puts Occultation on the riders, and Sudden Death on himself for kicks and giggles.



My stuff moves up. The impaler moves up his 5'' and puts Far Strike on the War Wagon, or Jarl. Jarl moves up, and shoots a Bane Rider... except it's stealth. I consistently forget that almost every model in the front line has stealth. So Jarl feats, getting ready for the alpha. Nothing really was in charge range, so it wasn't the best time to feat, but I wasn't sure when the best time would be, so he feated. Quicken goes on the Fenns, and Tactical Supremacy on the Wagon.

Turns out, the best time to feat would have been after the War Wagon. The War Wagon now doesn't have a LOS to anything, but I did manage to leave a slight gap for it, so it moves up and throws a shot into the Thralls. It, of course, misses, because A) they're stealth, and B) It's got the RAT of a scoped slingshot without a sling. The deviation is solid though, and drifts to cover six Thralls. However, needing eights, I manage to box only 1, and it toughs.

Go war wagon, go!

The Champions run up on the left, Sons follow in, with the Stormtroll, and fell caller. And that's turn.



Goreshade drops Sudden Death, and drops Occultation as well, expecting the riders to be in Melee this turn. Essentially, everything spreads out, wary of the inneffective AOE5s now, and the Bane Riders ride into Melee with the Fenns. Goreshade puts Occultation on the Knights instead. The Pistol Wraith on the left moves up, hits the low DEF Wagon easily, and death chills it, blocking my Stormtroll in pretty effectively behind it, between the obstruction and the Wagon. Wraith on the right runs down my flank.






Feat's done now. Jarl upkeeps both Quicken and Tac Supremacy. So the War Wagon leads off, and puts a shot into the thralls again, and the deviation lands over three or four, and again, needing 8s, fails to break all but 1 dude, who doesn't tough. The Spray is even worse, and can't hit anything.

Moses activates and puts Harmonious Exaltation on Jarl. Jarl puts Magic Bullet down, and pops a shot into the Cavalry. Boost damage, and kills it, and the Magic bullet kills the Pistol Wraith that ran up the opposite flank of the first one previous turn. He puts another one into another rider, and boosts damage, only doing three damage. He camps 1 fury.

Impaler aims at the damaged, unengaged Rider, boosts to hit and kills it, but no crit. Champions on the left charge into the Knights, and kill them easily. The Hero charges through and threshers like, four of them, easily. Sons and Stormtroll shift around, and stay mad at the War Wagon. That's the end of the turn, so the Wagon shifts up and over 3'' with Tactical Supremacy. Fell caller gets the Fenns +2 to hit, and they wipe out all but four of the Riders, and a decent amount of Thralls.

Yes, the Feat rings are still there, but they had so many models on them that we left them.



The Knights vengeance, but don't do much. The Thralls charge into the Champions (What's left of the thralls, mind you), and one hits the Hero, who takes 1 pt of damage, and swings back with Retaliatory strike, and kills the Bane. They damage a few Champs, but nothing big. Tartarus, however, charges in, and threshers. He kills all but 2, but two of those tough, so I'm left with four. The Hero, the UA, and one Champ are gone, so that hurts, but they're hanging in there better than I thought they would.

Goreshade moves to the left, out of LOS of anything important, and casts Curse of Shadows through the arcnode Ripjaw, and hits the Fenns, dropping their ARM by 2 and giving his units the ability to move through them.

The other thralls move in and charge the fenns. Two hit the War Wagon, and do about half damage to it. The rest kill Fenns. The last Rider charges in, and gets a Fenn too.

Then my Opponent realized he forgot to feat, which was great, because it was my turn now, and I forgot to take a picture. First things first, Fenns vengeanced, and killed a few more thralls. Jarl upkept... Quicken I think.

The War Wagon had a number of models engaging it, and for a long while, I considered trying to clear out enough to get Quicken onto it, and trample it across the Banes on the right zone. I should have, but I decided I wanted to clear it out enough that I could aim and shoot, and maybe hit something. I'm pretty sure if I can get it loose, between it and the Fenns, I can kill off the right zone, and remove that unit from being feated back, not to mention, score a few CPs.

So the Sons Assault. Tor fervors and kills 3 of them engaging the Wagon. The Champions stand up, and kill seven or eight thralls (MAT7 weaponmaster, yo) and the Impaler charges the Rider, kills it, buys an attack, and misses a Thrall engaging the Wagon.

Jarl, however, aims, Magic bullets, and clears off the Wagon. Using swift hunter, he moves right 2'' and toes into the zone. I mean to take my second shot at Thralls again, but I've conveniently moved myself outside of 5'' of Thralls, and forgot they were stealthed again. I don't think I have enough fingers to count how often I forgot that.

However, I remembered long enough to realize that the war wagon had to move to be within 5'' of the Thrall UA (and the best Scatter target). So the Wagon charges, impacts a guy and murders him. Then it fires, misses, deviates ok (2.5'' scatter max) and fails to break a single ARM. So then I shoot with the spray, and it fails to hit anything.

And then I realized I have a wonderful spot on my shelf for the War Wagon, from which it will never come again, and that leaves a fantastic spot in my Jarl list for which a Bomber would be perfect.

To add insult to injury, the Fenns proceed to do the same thing, and every one of them misses their intended target as well, leaving 5 Thralls contesting my zone.



The Ripjaw gets 2 focus. Goreshade upkeeps Curse of Shadows. The then activates and feats, bringing back 7 Thralls and 2 Pistol wraiths, since I managed to kill the Bane riders when he conveniently forgot to feat. They, of course, can do nothing but move, but they're back. He brings back most of them to the left zone, and a few to the right.

The Thralls on the right charge into the Champions again, and after everything is said and done, one toughs through and is still contesting. A second gets missed on snake eyes, and hangs in there, but he doesn't contest. One thrall tangles with the Storm and takes out his body. A last Thrall charges Tor and kills him.

The Ripjaw walks in, and one rounds the War Wagon. Just like that. The Thralls in the right zone shuffle about and kill all but two Fenns, and put some hurt on the Impaler. The Pistol wraiths flank hard and get in behind the Sons of Bragg and Jarl, but can't do anything.



I'm running out of options. Fenns Vengeance, and can't kill anything. Champions, however, stand up and kill 4 more models each. Those guys are rocking out. I decide to go for the assassination, since my models are getting into the single digits, and I don't see me making it much farther. Tor assaults, and Wrathar kills the guy engaging the Stormtroll. Tor hits the little jack, doesn't quite get reach on Goreshade with the spray, and fails to kill the jack. I'm not sure how, but he does. Stormtroll moves up, boosts to hit, hits, boosts damage on Goreshade, but only gets maybe 3 damage. I decide to sit back with Jarl, and kill off the Jack, so he boosts to hit, and misses the Jack, even with black penny. The shot does, however, hit Tor, and rolls boxcars for damage on him, where he fails tough.

Jarl puts another shot into the Banes... except they're stealth, so he doesn't. Impaler charges in, kills the standard bearer. Fenns swing, and miss everything some more.



Thralls on the left kill all but the last Champion, who continues to tough like... a champion... They do kill the Stormtroll though. The bonejack forces Rhudd to tough, and another Thrall kills Wrathar and engages the Fell Caller. Thralls on the right kill every Fenn but the Drummer. They get the Impaler too. Goreshade runs away to the left.



Jarl goes all out, boosting to hit, boosting damage. He misses the second shot, only does a few damage on the first one.

I somehow don't get a picture of the very end, but it's pretty simple. Goreshade charges in and kills Jarl, twice, because he toughs the first time.




Thoughts:

1. That was a rough game. For starters, I wasn't sure what to do with the feat. I blunted his alpha, but the -2 to hit in the clouds (melee and ranged both) only applies to LIVING models, which none of Goreshade's list was.
2. Secondly, the War Wagon sucks. I'm pretty much done with it. This game seemed like it struggled dice wise, but I'm not quite as superstitious as that (I did change dice like, six times though). The Wagon's huge. It blocks my lanes, my LOS, and jams my own lines more often than not. I should probably have it way out on the flank, coming around, but I'm to the point that I like having AOEs in the army, but not being able to boost ANYTHING on it does not do me any good. On top of that, trample on a huge base like that is a joke. Very rarely do enough bases cooperate for that in a 10'' run. Any melee attacks are only half inch range which can be difficult to line up with a huge base against multiple targets. Even with FarStrike, I was struggling to accomplish anything with the Wagon. Sure, being death chilled lost me my aiming bonus, but I don't want the direct hit with an AOE, a drift is fine. The point is to kill things, and even at -8 dice, on 6 targets, I should get something. Nada, and no ability to boost either. I'll bring the Bomber, thanks.
3. I felt like I attritioned halfway decent till the last half of the game. The last turn that the War Wagon was alive, I fully expected to be able to clear out the right zone betwen Jarl, the Fenns, and the Wagon, and it just did not happen. Up to that point, I still felt like I could win the game. My opponent forgetting his feat for a round helped a lot, but even then, I felt like I was hanging in there ok.

I have a second batrep on the way that's pretty nearly identical to this. Same opponent, same Goreshade2 list, but I drop the Wagon and get a Bomber instead, trying that. I don't think Jarl's the best matchup against Goreshade2, but I wanted to at least try the uphill battle again, but direct comparison of bomber vs. wagon. My opponent was awesome, and I enjoyed both games a lot. The meta at our shoppe doesn't have much Cryx, and in fact, my opponent normally plays Mercs, or Circle (The Krueger2 vs. Stryker2 batrep from awhile back was against him), so I don't get to see them often. As popular as Goreshade2 is, this is the first time I've played him, so it's nice to get out there and see what I'm missing. I also realized why Grim1 is not as bad. I assumed Grim could fight a ranged army, but that's not the case at all. Grim1 likes a melee army to come to him, which is why he can get a RNG8 debuff spell out there. It's worth considering Grim1 again. I really like Jarl, but he might be more of a 3 list caster for me, rather than a 2list. That or I have to figure out a different Cryx matchup. I like to drop Madrak2 against everything, and I think Madrak2 would have handled a Goreshade2 list much, much better than Jarl did, but I don't know about a lot of the other Cryx matchups.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the report! Comments, critique, insults and slander, mostly welcome.