50pts Maelok (Gators) vs. Madrak2 (Trollbloods) The Posse rematch

  So the last post was the Triple Gator Posse w/ a Sacral Vault.  My opponent didn't feel like Rask was a super awesome matchup against Madrak2 because of Madrak's feat, and wanted to try Maelok against him.

  For me, I just wanted to deal with Triple Posse and the Sacral Vault at once, and I felt like Madrak2 could do it.  Grim2 could struggle through it a bit more (mainly through mortality and bypassing Unyielding by doing the work with ranged attacks), and I think Borka2 might have an ok shot at it, but overall, Madrak2 just crushes ARM skews so well.  So we rematched.

  He traded his list up a little, mainly with a caster change, which in Gators, doesn't do a great deal.  It changes the way the list is played a little, but not the list itself.

Maelok
*Boneswarm
*Spiny Growth Bot
*Spiny Growth Bot
Sacral Vault
Max Posse
Max Posse
Max Posse
Witch Doc Croc
Witch Doc Croc
Victor Pendrake
Totem Hunter

  The main changes to the list is a slightly different BG, the inclusion of Pendrake which worries me not at all, and the double Witch Doc Crocs because of Maelok's feat, oh and the Totem Hunter, which worries my Fire Eaters a little.  This means the everlasting supply of Shamblers is gone, which makes me super happy.  On top of that, incorporeal on feat turn is super pointless when I have a stone in my list.

  Which, because it's Madrak2, I do.

Madrak2
*Runebearer
*Storm Troll
*Pyre Troll
Max Fenns w/UA
Max Burrowers
Min Scats w/UA
Min KSB w/UA
Fell Caller
Fell Caller (Kithkar proxy)
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Fire Eaters
Fire Eaters

  Major changes to this list? Very little. I dumped the Kriel Warriors though and dropped in the Scattergunners.  I don't expect this to make any major differences, but I definitely feel like I'll get more out of the Scats than I do Kriels.  'Clear!' lets me do a bit more work, and can definitely touch the Vault a little safer, but for the most part, I'm just to a point where I hate Kriel Warriors.  Other options are the Sons of Bragg, but the Scats get me 8 models for I think 7 pts, instead of 3 for 6.  I'm considering purchasing Shamblers for Madrak2, but haven't done it yet.  I used to run Warders, and I may go back to that, but meh.  So, we roll off, and I lose, but take the more open side, hoping to pin him in a bit with the forest and the obstruction in the middle.

  The Scenario is also a much better option this time than Incursion.  Madrak and his 10'' control radius prefers central zones much more than things like Incursion or Outflank.  The sweet thing about this one is that unlike Destruction, and it being a game of who can hold 1 zone and who can't (Sacral Vault becomes a must-kill object), this one has flags off to the side that people can dominate for 1 point instead.

  So we deploy.  Because this scenario has objectives, we actually get to pick some.  Arcane Wonder goes to Maelok, and I pick Effigy of Valor because I failed probably 5 CMD checks last game.  So it's pretty key in this list.

  The Fire Eaters on the left land Prey, and the Totem hunter moves through the woods towards them.  I figure 4pts vs. 3pts is fairly ok, especially when it's the Totem Hunter.  Everything else pushes forward.  Death Pact goes on the center gators for +2ARM and undead.  I don't remember if Malediction does down or not.  I don't think so.

  My stuff runs.  Fenns spread way out.  The Scattergunners fill in behind.  Burrowers burrow.  Madrak dumps fury to the stone and moves forward.  KSB pushes hard and pops aura.  Beast rile up to 5, and Fire Eaters do nonchalant things and pretend they're not going to wreck the whole army next turn.  Maybe.  The left guys move away from the Fire Eater though.  Hero's Tragedy goes on the Fenns in an attempt to stave off the Gators getting a solid alpha.

  Maelok upkeeps Death Pact.  The Totem Hunter walks in and hops over the first rank, landing in the Scats.  He hits one that toughs, and kills the other.  Then sprints away because he's a turd.  The Crocs all run, some farther than others trying to engage and cause problems, trying to force me to feat early to clear them.  The Witch Doc Crocs (WDC hereon out) get Zombify out there so that Undead is on all three units, and that's pretty much it.  

  Burrowers emerge in pairs and hang out, one specifically within four of the objective.

 So right off the bat, the Fire Eaters on the left assault the Totem hunter and toast him easily.  I position the two big guys in melee and slam the little guy into the back, failing the charge but getting the assault off and lighting the other two on fire.  The Totem Hunter died in flames.  

  Right Pyre throws an AOE into the right Fire Eaters, lights them up  They walk forward and kill the Gator engaging my Fenn.  Burrowers aim and fire, killing three, maybe four gators.  Madrak activates, moves a little.  I really want to get him into the zone, but I want Blood Fury on the Fenns, and they need to move out of his way.  I could use the Runebearer, but I want to save his minifeat for the feat turn, which is not this turn.  So he activates, shuffles forward a little, lands Blood Fury on the Fenns and fills the stone.  Fell Caller warcries the fenns and the Fenns charge, and kill another three gators.

  The dead pile is looking good for a non-feat turn.  I'm reasonably ok with this.  The Scattergunners move around a bit, put some more damage on more gators, and pile around Madrak for Grim Salvation.  The Stone moves forward, tries to block LOS to the stone as much as possible because I fully expect Maelok's feat.  My stone will shut it down for the most part, but the Vault is going to try to shoot it.  Or Maelok will revive gators into it and kill it.  It's probably going to die, but I'm still trying.

  My storm moves up and looks mean.  That's pretty much it for now.

    So this is probably Maelok's feat turn.  If you haven't been caught by that particular gotcha, everything that is undead gains Incorporeal.  This means Maelok brings lots of Croc Docs, and between them and his upkeep, three units of Gators are undead.  They also gain +2 ARM.  Against a lot of trollblood lists, the Incorporeal doesn't bother us at all because the KSB Elder gets rid of Incorporeal in the Stone aura.  

  So my opponent needs to kill the Stone.  I've blocked LOS halfway decent, but there's a few tricks Maelok is known for.  First off, the Vault can probably get LOS, but there's one Fenn, maybe two in the way.  I've only got one Self-Sac target nearby for the stone, so he's only got to kill it twice, unless he toughs.  I don't want him to tough, because then he's KD and the Aura is down.

  So the Vault opens fire.  I think it hangs out where it's at, and rolls a D3 for shots.  It gets two shots I think.  He wanted three, but he'll take two.  There's one Fennblade , right behind the burrowers, in the way blocking LOS, and he shoots it.  I tough, but now it's KD.  The second shot goes into the stone, shoots it, and I self sac the one guy I have within 3''.

  Maelok activates, feats, and revives three gators out of the right most unit, keeping them in command and getting one within charge range of the stone.  They pray for rerolls, charge and the one that gets to the stone misses everything or fails to break arm.  The dice absolutely abandon him.  He doesn't fare much better against the Fire Eaters he charged with the other two outside of tieing them up.  So for the most part, the feat does nothing because of the stone.

  Gators on the left move up and kill burrowers.  Croc Docs do Croc Doc things.  

  It's feat turn for me.  I need all his stuff to die.  I'm not too worried about the Sacral Vault, even though it's going to contest the zone every turn.  However, I can start pushing right to dominate the flag.  I really want my Fire Eaters to go to town on the right though, but they're tied up.  Fenns Vengeance and kill a few things, nothing crazy.  The Fell Caller gives himself +2 to hit, and charges into the Gator on the far right, killing him easily.  

  The Pyre troll charges into the gator still engaging those Fire Eaters, and fails to kill him with Tough, and being crazy hi-ARM.  The Chronicler does Charge of the Trolls, and fails to kill him.  The Fenn Blades activate, move and and one charges him and HE FAILS TOO.  So the Scats go, and they shuffle around. The leader moves way over and sprays across.  That doesn't work either.  The stone pops aura, shuffles around, and Madrak activates, feats.  Everything tries again, and still cannot kill him.  I end up using one of the Fire Eaters, who's still on fire miraculously, to spray across, and he kills the Gator, which finally fails tough, and I kill the Chronicler too.  The fenns all swing at stuff again, the Scats spray stuff, and all the Burrowers kill some things in the feat too.  There's one gator left on the far left side.  I think the Center unit is dead completely, and right unit still has a few models.  There were three gators dead Center that I really wanted the Fire Eaters to kill, but by the time the eaters are free, I've actually killed all of those gators.  So they assault into the ones left in the back and kill one, but not the other.  The Sacral Vault is down a few boxes from a Blood Fury Fennblade UA going after him, but it's still largely ok.

  Maelok's grasping for strings at this point.  He revives a gator on the right, revives two on the left and kills all the Fire Eaters.  The two beasts get involved, but that's largely it.  The Stormtroll on the left is an issue for him because he wants to get the Vault further into the zone, but the Fennblade UA hangs on with Tough and the Stormtroll won't die even though it's waaaaaaaay out of Madrak's control.

  Fenns Vengeance around a bit.  The Burrowers are mostly dead.  The Scats focus on clearing Gators out of the zone so they can't revive towards the flag that Madrak is headed towards.  I fail to kill one, and the Storm troll is really struggling at MAT5 to kill the other.  Blood Furied Fennblades kill the Bull Snapper, and Madrak personally charges the other two on the right, annihilates them and uses the 1'' movement after each kill to move base to base with the flag.  I score 1CP I think....  I don't think it's 2 for some reason to do with the Scenario.  Otherwise this game would have ended quickly after this.

  Maelok's down to one unit of Gators.  He revives most of them and kills most of the Trolls in the Zone and starts working on the objective.  He reeeaally needs to kill the Stormtroll though because that's what is blocking him from moving into the zone with the Vault and being relevant.  However, between the Croc, the Croc Doc, the Vault and Maelok himself, his dice are not cooperating and the Stormtroll survives.  He does not contest and I go to 2 CP.

    Blood Fury is upkept on the Fenns.  They wipe out the Objective, taking me to 3CP.  Madrak moves Blood Fury to the Krielstone unit.  The Pyre Troll shoots a Gator and kills it.  Fell Caller lands War Cry on the KrielStone dudes, and they kill some gators, leaving just one.  Again.  Which the Storm Troll leaves alive, again.  I dominate for a 4th CP.

     The last Gator charges the two Fenns near the Vault, and Maelok kills the Stormtroll, then revives two more gators to contest the flag.  The Vault moves in, kills everthing left in the zone, but does not score because my Objective contests.  

  Fell Caller puts War Cry on Maddy, who (with Harmonious Exhaltation from Moses) puts Blood Fury on himself.  He kills both Gators easily, moves back to the Flag and dominates for the 5th and final CP, winning the game.

Thoughts on the game:

  1.  I felt like I did much better handling the Vault this game.  As in, I didn't kill it, but didn't let it stop me too much either.  I won with a slow CP victory, but overall was pretty content with everything.  I kind of wish I had moved more central with Madrak2 and cleared the zone with him instead, but that would have been an even longer game.  However, he could have killed the gators, got the Stormtroll back into range and cleaned up everything that was left, leaving Maelok and the Vault which is hardly enough to deal with Madrak2 and the number of models I had left.

  2.  Fire Eaters are stupid good.  They didn't do much this game, but I don't think I've played a game since without them.

  3.  Revive is annoying.  

Honestly, this game was two or three weeks ago.  So many turns, so it took forever to write.  I'm fuzzy on most of the details, but overall I'm pleased with Madrak2 as an answer to Gators in general.  I'm pretty confident that the matchup, even with the Vault, is at least even and I can make a game of it.  I'm liking the 2 lights intead of a heavy so far as well, and don't really feel like it needs to change atm.

Other news.  I now have a twitter feed.  It's here.  I haven't decided if it's useful or not, but most Warmachine news seems like it trails in over Twitter faster than it does elsewhere, so I at least wanted to have an account to follow with.  If you like my batreps/tutorials, follow me there for more instantaneous haranguing of my methods.  

I'm also in the middle of a commission job for Soulhunters, Daragh Wrathe and Goreshade3, so expect them to pop up before too long.  

I also bought Grissel2 finally.  A friend of mine asked me a few weeks ago how shy I was of the full Troll army, and I'm actually only 6 models/units shy of the whole selection.  I'm mostly ok with that.  I bought Gunnbjorn (Next batrep I think, actually), Grissel2, and the only other purchases I'm liable to make are the Thumper (Grim2 shenanigans, maybe), and the Night Troll (Painting purposes only).  I have no interest in Sluggers, Bushwackers, Scouts or Skinners.  So I'm pretty happy with what I own trollwise now.  I would like a few more minion units (Gators, Shamblers) but overall I'm pretty good.

 That being said, I found out that I love playing Grissel2 with Highwaymen.  Not quite meat mountain, but definitely 2 units of Warders.  Dash is stupid.  Expect to see more of that.

  Anyways, that's it for now.  Check out twitter.  KingdomCon just happened, and that had some interesting results including a ton of Legion, Cryx and Cygnar in the finals, with Jeremy Lee taking Denny2 Body and Soul all the way.  Last round was Haley2 vs. Denny2 in a pretty tight game.  Another large tournament happened in Springfield, MO, with the local Omaha guys taking 1st and 3rd, Josh Carpentier with Trolls and Dan Sammons with Circle respectively.  Sounds like EE and Grissel1 MMM for Josh and Brad/Krueger2 for Dan.  Excited to see what the new Warmachine book will do to the meta.  You guys enjoy the warmer weather and I'm going to put texture on a ceiling at home.

Fire Eaters painted and bad dojo

  I've got one unit of Fire Eaters painted.  I have a second unit to go that I did the flames on, but the first unit is done.  At the very least, I know which is which on the table.  Because they're  always on the table together.

  I love these models.  The Pyg is probably my least favorite, and he's still not bad.  The other two are phenomenal though.  So I sat them down and started working on them and Maximus.  Maximus is mostly there but there's details yet on him.  

  I ended up going with a confederate looking style from them.  Between some of the caps (Gunnbjorn) and hats (Highwaymen or stuff I modeled), there's a western theme going for them, and I like the grey a lot.  This jacket I got kind of carried away on though, and I liked it.

  The image I used for reference is not mine, it's a fire blower image I found on Google that probably has rights to it, so I won't go there.  But googling Fire Blower will pull it up.  After some gloss varnish on the bottles and tophat and some airbrush OSL, this is where I ended up.

  The yellow OSL looks a little too green in this picture, and it's not green at all on the model.

  Or is it?

  My background here is kind of rough.  I found a good spot for lighting in the house and added some of my own, but I need to build another lightbox and figure out what I what in the back.  Pretty wood grain isn't really doing it here, so idk.  The black/blue stormy background I used to have was too much I think.

  Anyways.  These guys are done.  I have the second unit to do, and a whole ton of other stuff.  My Highwaymen are partly done, Maximus...  Now I have Pendrake, Bone Grinders (They'll probably never get painted lol), Kriels (Since I dislike them, they'll probably not get painted for a long time either), and I finally cracked and got Gunnbjorn, and he stands in an unpainted spot with Calandra and Borka1.

   Which leads me to terrible Dojo.  Between Dozer (arguably) and the Highwaymen, I think Gunnbjorn's got a shot to be on the competitive scene without being toted by special snowflake players.  Snipe on the Highwaymen is pretty solid, and makes them incredibly good.  I started writing lists for him, and it feels like he just has too much going on.  I want to spam Guided Fire, but that doesn't work on Kraye either.  I may try double bomber w/Highwaymen and chaff (Fenns and such) and see what it does.  What the Highwaymen need is a flare model somewhere.  I really think they're good, but a flare would help so much.  Without that, the Scats still have solid territory and it's hard to ignore them in an anti-cryx list.

  Secondly, the Efaarit are inbound.  I'll need two of those for the models alone.  There's some people repeating the anti-Hunter argument with these guys, and if you've seen my Kraye reports, you know I hate hunters.  With a passion.  Efaarit, on the other hand, while not obviously competitive, can do work.  For the price of one hunter, I can get a AP shot at 1 higher POW (basically +2 compared to the pow6 on the Hunter) with all the same tricks a Kraye Hunter has.  People who like the Hunters spout how amazing they are on Kraye.  Well, Efaarit run just like that, without focus.  Sure, damage isn't boosted.  I'm ok with that.  On top of that, they completely ignore what I find frustrating about the hunter, the struggle to kill a grunt with a POW6.  Sniper bypasses that completely.  Just need one reliable shot into a grunt to clear a lane?  RAT7, RAT9 with aim, pop, walk away.  Shieldwalled IFP?  One point, done.  That's gold.  I'm willing to pay 6pts for 2 of those every turn.  Will it go in every list?  Absolutely not.  But I gaurantee I'll be finding places for them in my gunlines.  They're not bad at all.

  It's going to be a good year for trolls.

  Other news.  I'm dabbling in commission work.  You saw the Kraken.  There's more inbound from that it sounds like.  I'm also doing a display piece with my Dynamo, so that's coming.  My wife just got ahold of the 2player Circle kit, so her army just pretty much doubled, and more importantly, she got Skinwalkers.  So some of that may come across here too.  I've also got the Croc rematch half written and that'll drop this week as well.  Stay tuned folks.

  All like, three of you.

50pts Rask (Minions) vs. Madrak2 (Trollbloods)

  I watched the tail end of a game between two friends of mine Saturday.  3x Posse and Jaga-jaga vs. Skarre1 w/ Kraken, DJ and lots of Satyxis.  Was a pretty rough game for the Cryx guy, especially with Spellpiercer out there all game from Jaga-Jaga.  After the game was up, I took on the Minions, and he traded warcasters out for Rask.

  There's been a lot of discussion about the new Fire Eaters, and with Madrak2 specifically.  I think they'll work very well with him, and I think he's pretty decent against 3 units of Gators too.  The main concern I had was the Sacral vault in the list.  80% of my army can't even get near it, so that was an issue.

Rask
*Spiny Growth bot (Let's be honest)
*Swamp Horror
Sacral Vault
Gator Posse
Gator Posse
Gator Posse
Bog Trog Shamblers
Witch Doc Croc

  This was a Blindwater pact, so he got two water templates to put in place.  I came wanting to play Madrak2 or Borka2's tier.  Looking back, I think Borka2 would be playable into the list, but the low model count would have struggled against 15 gators.  Madrak2 was a better matchup against Minions in general, be it Jaga or Rask.  I built this list earlier this week, and it was a delivery module for Fire Eaters, and Kriel Warriors, because I'm trying to make 100$ work for me.  So far, the Kriel Warriors are looking like a waste of time on anyone but Grissel1, much to the chagrin of the Trollblood forums or facebook group.

Madrak2
*Runebearer
*Storm
*Pyre
Max Burrowers
Max Fenns w/UA
Min Kriels w/ 3 Cabers and UA
Fire Eaters
Fire Eaters
Min KSB w/UA
Fell Caller
Fell Caller

  We rolled off and I won, electing to go first.  My opponent chose the side with the wall for Rask to hide behind.

Deployment was pretty straightforward, and I tried to line the Fire Eaters up to flank, and take a unit of Posse each.



  Everything runs on my side, and I cast nothing.  Madrak fully loads the stone.  I'd just as soon not have -2 DEF on anything because of Blood Fury.  Looking back, the only ranged attacks he had was Rask or the Vault, so I probably would have been fine, but meh.  I was expecting Rask's feat on my opponent's turn to hurt my alpha, so my opponent would probably get the alpha, so it made sense to keep the DEF normal for the fenns.

  Pretty simple reply.  Rask put Boundless Charge on the Vault, Fury on posse, and Admonition on himself, and Feats, which I expected.  The Shamblers run up, the Vault charges one of them, kills it in melee, and then uses the rest of it's shots on the fire eaters, killing one, much to my frustration.  The Posses move up, but only use about half of their full movement, playing it very conservatively.

  So I've got a couple of options.  The Burrowers are going to pop up, and definitely be in range of shooting the battle engine once they've moved.  The question here is how much I want to focus on the Vault.  It honestly me worries me some, and most of my army can't do a lot about it.  At ARM20, the warbeasts are pretty much useless against it, so that leaves Madrak, Burrowers (shooting) or the Fire Eaters.  

  Madrak's feat is incredibly adaptive.  You can clear tarpits engaging you with it, you can run through forests and then attack after the run with it, (suck it Bradigus), you can charge a bunch of stuff, and kill everything else you engaged with it, all sorts of things.  An ideal Madrak2 feat turn for me is Blood Furied, War-Cried Fenns charging in a 24'' line with the UA/Drummer duo centered, forcing CMD checks on the world, engaging as much as possible, getting off a bunch of decent attacks at MAT8 Weapon Master, and then Madrak feating, and killing everything else.  It's a thirty minute turn but it's amazing.

  However, here, I can use it run fenns into the faraway gators, get really agressive with Madrak2, and maybe kill some gators early.  However, I'm really worried about the Vault still, so I decide to make it up as I go, and pop the Burrowers. I carefully move them to within 5'', but not within 2'', and all but 1 Burrower makes it.  At RAT4, I need 6s to hit, and I think most of them hit ok.  I got like six or seven hits out of nine.  

  Then I rolled like crazy for damage, and left like, two boxes on this thing.  Really frustrating.

  So my Fenns run.  They can't charge anything, so they just sprint around in a tarpitty sort of way and mini-feat because I expect Terror checks here shortly from the Gators.  This leaves my Fire Eaters on the right.  The Pyre hits them directly and lights them on fire, for little to no damage.  The little guy assaults a Burrower (conveniently landing the Vault in the spray) and the other guy assaults a juicy row of gators by targetting a Fenn.

  The little guy, of course, hits the Vault and fails to do damage.  Horrible damage roll.  The other guy scratches a few gators, but I'm so used to 8'' sprays on the Scats that 6'' sprays catch me off guard.  Everything else runs, and here's where I debate.  I can feat with Madrak, and with 2 boxes left, definitely kill the Vault, or I can save it.  I debate, and debate, and debate, and feat.  The second or third burrower kills the vault, and I kill a gator or two.  Worst feat ever.

   Then the Gators proceed to come in.  The unit on the far right does work.  The unit in the middle runs into the Burrowers which miraculously pass their CMD, and the unit on the left tears into the Kriel Warriors.  At two attacks each, most with rerolls, they did work.  Even the Swamp Horror moved in and cleared at least three models.  I think one model toughed out of the whole group.  The attrition level very clearly swings in my opponent's direction.  I lose 7 Fenns, most of the Kriels, the Fire Eaters on the right and a few Burrowers.

  This is where it gets rough.  My Fenns use vengeance, move into melee, and fail CMD.  Just like that.  I was hoping to clear the center unit of gators, but with five badly needed models now fleeing, it's not going to happen.

  I still think I can clear the left flag and control it with the Fire Eaters and the Kriels though, and I think Madrak can start doing work on the right flank, so it's still possible.  However, the order of activation issues are crazy.  My brilliant plan involves the Fire Eaters on the left assaulting the gators on that flag.  One can target a dude, land in melee with him and stay base to base with the flag  The other can spray him, and two more badguys, and do it first so as to light the other guy on fire for his boosted damage.  I try this, and realize I need 9 to hit my guy on the hill in the back, and I make it.  Sweet, high rolls.  Then I do damage and roll and eleven, then fail the tough, killing him.  And the plan goes to pieces.  The kriels get in there a little bit, but it's a lost cause there, and I leave one gator alive.

  The Stormtroll goes after the Swamp Horror with flaming fists, barely scratches it.  The Caber misses the attack against the same beast.  The Burrowers scrape some damage onto the Gators, and Madrak kills like three.  The stone charges into combat, passing CMD, and starts trying to provide Grim Salvation targets.  The one gator on the left and the one gator on the right are both contesting, or it would have been a point each.

  On the plus side, I just remembered how much damage my MAT4 burrowers did that turn.  Three gators are dead.  This game was about a month ago, so remembering everything is rough.  My fenns did pass CMD though and are back.

  Speaking of rough, this following picture is crap.  The gist of it though is that the Gators are attritioning better than I am at two attacks each, and the Gator Bokor is getting all kinds of corpses from me.

  Rask and crew clears most of the left flag, and the Shamblers start CRAing on the Burrowers.  The Gators on the right start working their way into Madrak.

  Madrak moves right, with blood fury on him at this point, and kills all four gators at the flag, and goes base to base with it.  Go Tide of Death or whatever it's called.  The Burrowers keep working on the Center Gators leader, who has toughed by now.  And they're killing shamblers because DEF10 is in their comfort zone.  The Pyre moves to the center flag to control and bombs a bunch of shamblers, but one contests, putting me at 1 CP for the one Madrak is on.  My Kriel flag contests left flag.

  The Swamp Horror charges in and kills the Pyre.  The Bokor drops a bunch more shamblers and these both contest, and kill things.  He has to fight Madrak instead of contesting his own flag because Madrak will definitely clear his own flag faster than Rask can.  He outnumbers me all day long and I'm losing models, but he has to keep coming to me.  

 I'm down to one Burrower at this point, a couple of KSB, and a Fennblade UA.  One shambler contests me.

  At this point in the game, it's been going on four hours, and we're just going through the motions.  I'm pretty sure I'm missing pictures here, but you're not missing much.  My opponent clears contesting models and contests my flag.  I'm at 2 CP, but I get up to 4 at some point, Madrak just cutting for fury lol.

  Yeah, I'm missing pictures.  There's like a whole other round after this, but you can see the writing on the wall.  It ends with just Madrak, by himself, swinging an axe.  The Shambler Bokor gets in there and finishes him finally, but I'm at 4CP when I die, all of those gained after the game went against me.

  Victory to Minions.

Thoughts on the game:

1.  Most important:  The Sacral Vault is not that scary.  Is it a problem?  Sure.  It's Defenses are many and prevent me from doing much about it throughout the game.  However, it can't do much while it's alive.  It takes huge parts of the board, but really, the only other thing it does is shoot things, and it's D3 at best.  I should not have Feated to kill it.  That's where I lost the game I think.

2.  Failing CMDs and inopportune dice rolls begone, I almost had 5CP in at least 3 different spots.  At some point in the game, I gave up on it and was just finishing it, and I gave it a good try, but I just wasn't in it, and I could have gotten that 5th CP.   

3.  Rask didn't feel like much of a threat.  The Shamblers really turn him up since he has sac pawn to them all day long, and I basically fed him bodies for it, but really, Triple Posse is a Hipster MMM, and Madrak2 eats it up all day long.  We go for a rematch a week after this, and he changes his caster, and I drop:

4.  The Kriel Warriors.  I really get a lot of flak for disliking these guys, but I really do.  No Vengeance, Set Defense, Minifeat, nothing.  I think Jarl and Grissel1 can probably use them, but Madrak2 has got better things.  In the next game, I replace them with Min Scats w/UA, and I like that considerably more.  Here, they really didn't do anything.  They need Tough to work before they're making points back, and I've got no use for that.

  Excellent game though, and I've only played against Rask a handful of times.  Really enjoyed the matchup, even with some lousy CMD checks on the Fenns.