RoW twice, Abby2 and Zerkova NQ T4

  I've tried to write this batrep about five times over the last month, and the computer issues have dumped it every time.  It's to the point I don't remember the details even, and I'd dump the batreps completely but the Zerkova one was pretty interesting, so I'd like to at least hit the highlights.  First off, Zerkova.

  Zerkova isn't a caster I see often.  In a meta with at least 7 consistent Khador players, that's kinda funny.  To be fair, I don't see Strakhov either, and oddly enough, I rarely see Old witch.  I see every Butcher, some Sorschas and a lot of Harkevich oddly enough.  Nobody admits that Karchev exists.

  However, my opponent is a Khador player who regularly beats me fine.  Our two lists were Hark/Zerkova and RoW/Grim2.  His Hark list is a really difficult matchup for my Cygnar, and I wasn't too comfortable dealing with it in Hordes, so I rolled with RoW.  PS23 Mulg can handle ARM25 clamjacks, and I don't think they can handle him.  My opponent, knowing this, drops Zerkova.

  Zerkova gets a lot of hate.  This new tier is not bad though.  It gives her FA:2 on Kayazy UAs, and makes the Vanguard a faction warjack.  Gorman is also in-tier, which is super nice in a list with access to Shield Guard.  Zerkova and Gorman both appreciate that.

Zerkova NQ T4 "Hunting Wolves".  Warjacks wearing Wolves not allowed, oddly enough.
*Vanguard
*Vanguard
*Vanguard
Max Kayazy w/UA
Max Kayazy w/UA
Eliminators
Eliminators
Eliminators
Gorman
Greylord Ternions
Greylord Outriders

  My list is a run of the mill Runes.  I don't want to change it for the first drive out of the garage without knowing what I don't like.

Doomy1
*Mulg
*Earthborn
*Mauler
*Axer
Max KSB w/UA
Janissa
Runebearers
Runebearers
Runebearers
Runebearers

  That many Kayazy are an issue, and so are the Outriders.  I feel like I can brick hard enough to prevent landing spots on Doomy, and I can mitigate the Kayazy quite a bit with walls.  Outriders, however, are a major issue.  They'll be in my back arc in two flanks, spraying and running away.  I'll be lucky to have KSB by turn 3.

  I win the rolloff to go first.  My opponent builds the map and we land Fire Support for scenario.  He leaves me a wall on my side, and gives me a giant obstruction in the middle of the map, essentially dividing the map.  It also gives me another block from Kayazy.  Something they can't actually charge through.  With a 7 Khador meta, I've lost both doomys to Kayazy on multiple occasions.

  So, major mistakes.  My walls are all good.  The center one is not Janissa's, it's the terrain.  Janissa ran.  The problem is that I ran all four beasts.  Doomy filled the KSB to the top, cast Fortune (Rerolls) on the front left unit, and did something else.  Oh, put Rush on Mulg to get him up the board farther.  This left me on one Fury, with four in the field.  Top of 2, Doomy will have to cut. Brilliant.

  The game starts into a drag.  The Kayazy sprint forward in a horde, and the unit on my right lands Banishing Ward, so I cannot target them with AOEs.  I think about purification but it's not overall worth it.  Incidentally, non-Iron Fleshed Kayazy against Runeshapers get hit on 7s.  Not bad.  I'm feeling better about this already.  I was hoping for Force Lock from Janissa to do work, but I'll be too spread out for that.  

  I push the Runeshapers pretty hard on my flanks, getting the Warder proxies out there first and bunkering the other units.  I'm trying to keep the Outriders out of my KSB, and I'm trying to keep the Kayazy out of them too.  Between the wall on my right, the wall that was there when I started and Janissa, I can block my beasts in well enough that Kayazy will really struggle to land in there.  I do throw the Axer forward, trying to force them to kill him to get Gorman close.  Pathfinder isn't much of a concern here, and there's too many models and Vanguards to think that if Mulg gets an assassination run, it won't be done with Goad.

  There's a few key moments on my opponent's coming turns.  On the bottom of 2, Gorman misses a blind bomb on Mulg (DEF15 behind the wall), and it drifts, catching the Earthborn just barely.  The Outriders start killing Runeshapers, and the Kayazy are killing about 2 runeshapers per turn.  His right unit gets deep in my right flank, starting to work on my back right and getting towards the KSB.  On his next turn, I've moved up quite a bit, and KSB moves up to keep track, and I pack models around the KSB.  This is where the Kayazy minifeat and Outriders get busy and go for the kill.  Five sprays into my KSB later over the top of minifeated Kayazy, I've lost maybe two KSB models.  Either he missed, or failed to break ARM, or I tough.  Either way, there were about 30 terrible rolls.  The Outriders back up and the Kayazy stay packed in.  Because I dominated the flag on the previous turn, I'm at 2CP.  Zerkova runs for the hills away from Mulg.

  When it cycles back to me, the Axer moves into the Vanguards, threshers, boosts to hit on Gorman and ends that menace.  He doesn't do much else, but I goad him to the left and try to get him out of the way.  I feel like Mulg can goad into Zerkova, and I've got the attacks to make it happen.  The Earthborn moves out of the way, and Mulg goes into the Underboss.  However, he misses both initials, and that's off the table. So he moves around and kills the the Vanguards.  I want to go after the Outriders because I'm 1 domination and an objective away from winning the game.  All of which will happen.  However, Mulg doesn't have a way to get into the Outriders behind the wall and goad into the rest of them, so yeah.  Both Vanguards die and everything around him.  Also, the Vanguards are only alive because the Mauler couldn't kill them to save his life.  So Mulg does it.

  There's 5 Outriders, and a one Kayazy that can get into Doomy.  The entire left army has been held up by Runeshapers, down to the last man.  There's one left standing, and one eliminator has got past him, but she's out of range of Doomy.  So it's just these six, and Zerkova going for it.  There's a couple transfers.  The Outriders get in there, and only two manage to connect, one being high enough damage for me to transfer.  Mulg kills one with protective fit.  The Kayazy gets in there, damages him, then forces the last transfer.  Zerkova charges in at a Kayazy that runs to be in place just for that reason, and she's a half inch out of range of reaching Doomy, even with her +3RNG.  We go ahead and roll it out for kicks and giggles, and Doomshaper toughs.  I don't even think we roll it out after that.  The objective will die, Doomy will dominate, and Mulg will kill Zerkova easily.

Thoughts:
1.  I thought I played it decently for being outnumbered as badly as I was.  Runeshapers can hang onto their own pretty well.  Versatile, and it's fun to use that many of them.  I built a list with 10 units, Mulg and an Axer w/Janissa and full KSB.  It's a list I want to vassal once lol.
2.  The big points in this game where I won weren't really on my turn.  I just cleared lines, pushed forward and killed things.  The most important thing I did was kill Gorman.  The 3 big points of this game for me were when A) Gorman missed.  Blind would have taken Mulg, the EBDT and the Mauler all at once.  Would have been brutal.  I legitimately don't know how to handle Gorman except to throw a 6pt Axer at him.  B)  The Outriders chopped off their hands and tried to do magical sprays while intoxicated.  They should have killed all of the KSB and put a lot of damage into Doomy.  Did not happen.  C)  My opponent ran Zerkova too far.  It was an afterthought for him, he was just getting away from Mulg.  If he'd of thought of it just one more time, he'd of kept her just out of range of a Rushed Mulg and he'd of been plenty close for the assassination.
3.  Overall, solid game.  I felt like the matchup was pretty even, but the map helped me more than anything.  Being able to isolate half his army from me and go all in helped quite a bit.  I think with a different map, I'd of just been swarmed and would have had a really difficult time clearing Kayazy.  Runeshaper AOEs help, but on the off chance I get a crit too close to my beast, I'm dead.

  The next matchup is into Abby2.  The Legion matchup isn't always a super rough one for trolls, but gearing for them and keeping a list that can be used elsewhere too is somewhat difficult as it is for a lot of factions.  Runes of War straight up shuts them down, and after the Saeryn matchup awhile back with Borka2, I broke out Runes.  Yesterday, I brought Borka2 out again for three games, all of them pretty close, but Runes is still a hard counter to most Legion lists whereas Borka2 is counting on a non-saeryn, non-ravagore matchup.

  There's a couple of casters in Legion I worry about with Runes.  Lylyth1 with Raptors is somewhat concerning, but it's on a timer that I'll win.  The other is Abby2.  Everything w/Reach, flight and +2SPD can be an issue that will mostly ignore walls that make RoW so stupid.  However, if you can force the issue and feat first on Abby2's best chance to do work, you'll neuter a lot of what she can do.  Also, limiting the models that she can kill will help as well and try to prevent Conferred Rage.

Abby2
*Typhon
*Angelius
*Scythean
*Scythean
*Raek
*Raek
*Shredder
Forsaken
Shepherd.  Maybe two.

  This is my second Runes game in that week, and my original list against Zerkova had a Mauler.  In this list, I try a Pyre, Runebearer and Whelps.  The Mauler is nice, but I don't feel like he does a whole lot that the Pyre could.  I'll sacrifice 1 point of damage per attack on PS19 mulg any day for Fire Immunity on Doomshaper, a boostable AOE, and Whelps, Runebearer.  Mulg will still get to PS22 easily in this list.  It'll be ok.

Doomshaper1
*Runebearer
*Mulg
*Earthborn
*Axer
*Pyre
Janissa
Runeshapers
Runeshapers
Runeshapers (Proxied by Warders)
Runeshapers (Proxied by Warders)
Whelps

  Scenario is Recon, which is perfect for Runes.  Objective is right center where I can protect it, and it's a single zone scenario, in range of my walls being placed on either side of it.

  I win the rolloff, we deploy, and I move, and this is my first turn here.  Stuff is moved up,

  So yeah.  New favorite scenario.  At some point, something will go kill the objective, and the rest of the time I'm just clearing zones and hanging out at the edges of walls.  I can dominate the zone from behind cover without using Janissa.  Not broken at all.  RoW is getting nerfed SR2015.  Sure.

His stuff moves up and plays the tenacity game.  The Raeks get close and a deathstalker goes waaaay wide on me, KSB hunting.  Doomy upkeeps Fortune for free.  The unit with it moves up and shoots at a Raek, killing it.  Doomy moves up, casts Fortune on the unit closest to the Deathstalker and then spams the EBDT animi everywhere.  The front right Runeshapers somehow botch killing the Deathstalker, so the Runebearer has to minifeat and put fortune down on the next unit.  Finally kills him, but six Runeshapers are out in the right field now.  Janissa drops a wall, everything pushes up, and I realize I forgot to feat.  

That's pretty dumb folks.

  This is the turn Abby2 has to do things.  I suppose she could just wait a turn, but if she doesn't, I just charge up the field, kill the objective, dominate the zone, and now I just have to weather the next turn and let Mulg do his thing.  She's got to go now, and the best way to limit her is feat and I forget about it.  Brilliant.

  Abby2 does indeed feat, and charges into my Runeshapers I left out there shooting at the Raek so handily.  We were both impressed they killed one Raek and severely hampered the second.  Was some solid shooting.  Anyways, She uses Slaughterhouse animus to make sure no runeshapers tough and clears out charge lanes as best she can before fleeing.

  Typhon goes in first, trying to spray through Mulg and get the KSB and maybe Doomshaper.  He hits Mulg, and then rolls terrible for damage.  Then he hits Doomy, and again rolls terrible for damage.  He damages everything else, including Janissa, and maybe gets a KSB.  What I needed though was that damage on Doomy.  He rolled like, double ones or something.  I wanted Mulg to get in there and change his spray directions (Typhon has Gunfighter, so he can spray in melee, but has to target who he's in melee with.  If it's Mulg, I can direct the spray), but because he rolled crap on Doomy, no dice.  The next shot spikes hard and kills Janissa.  Everything else Typhon does is pretty ineffectual.  KSB is spread out pretty decent.

  Then come the Scytheans and Angelius.  Nothing can get to Mulg, so they go all in on the Pyre, Axer and Earthborn.  With walls and whelps, everything is at DEF15 which isn't horrible, even with Abby2's feat and conferred rage.  Also, ARM20 minimum, everywhere.  Even the Pyre is ARM20.  When it's all said and done, the Pyre is on maybe two boxes, the EBDT is in the single digits as well, and the Axer is pretty decent since he ends up running his last Scythean, trying to save him for endgame.  The last Raek jumps the lines and lands in my back arc just to irritate things.

  

   Janissa's wall drops.  All of the whelps get eaten and bring the Pyre into a manageable state.  He puts Flaming Fists on the Axer, and moves into the scythean to swing.  Nothing crazy.  Does some decent work but he's just getting out of the way.  The Stone shuffles in, pops aura.  Runeshapers on the right send some POW14s into the Angelius.  The Axer moves into the hole left between the Scytheans and Typhon, and threshers for some sweet POW17 damage.

  Doomy gets flaming fists on the Earthborn, who sidles up into the Axer for some adaption goodness.  He's STR12 POW3 base.  Flaming Fists take him to PS17.  The Stone goes to PS18.  The Axer is POW5, so now EBDT is POW20.  He's +3 on the Angelius.  Between that and the POW14s from the Runeshapers, the EBDT kills the Angelius in a few swings, goads into the Scythean, kills him too.

  Mulg turns, smashes the Raek, smashes Typhon.  Pretty simple.

  I unfortunately did not get the objective.  The EBDT had enough fury left to Goad that way, but he wouldn't have reached it, and I could have reached the Forsaken, but I was like "Meh, not worth it."

 Oh ho ho.

  My opponent looks at my EBDT with 4 fury on it, the Pyre with 3, and the Axer with 3.  He cracks his knuckles and tells his friend "Watch this".  Then the Forsaken goes jihad, moves in with all of the tokens already on it and blows up.  It's like 9 dice damage on my EBDT.  Does maybe four damage.

  The Pyre has 6 or 7 boxes left.  Doesn't kill it.

  Axer doesn't even notice.

  I've never seen so many ones and twos rolled simultaneously.  

  The Sycthean moves in, misses one of his initials, but still kills the Pyre finally and the EBDT.  However, Mulg is well within Rush range of Abby since she moves up to dominate a side flag, and the game ends pretty quickly.  Otherwise it was a matter of clearing the zone and dominating.  

Thoughts: 

1.  I really prefer the Pyre/Whelps list to the Mauler.  The Runebearer is also really nice for bouncing Fortune.  If I had to change something, I might drop the Runebearer for more whelps because 5 isn't always enough, but overall, I like this list.  Getting Mulg to DEF14 is stupid.  God forbid I get him in water with Transmute.  DEF16, ARM23.  Go.

2.  I was really proud of myself for killing the Raek with Runeshapers, but I gave Abby a great target for conferred rage.  If I had just held back and filled places for the Raeks to land, I'd of been in better shape,  

3.  Forgetting to feat.  Twice, actually, since I meant to on the following turn as well.  Pretty dumb.

Overall, I feel like Abby2 probably has more game against RoW than a lot of Legion, but it's still pretty difficult since I can control so much of the landing places with Runeshapers and walls.  And whelps now too.  I am enjoy RoW though, and I'm looking forward to fielding it more often.  To me it's an enjoyable list.  It gets a bit of a rap for being a boring list to play, but against high-model count lists, it's really interesting to figure out how to mitigate so many different avenues when all you've got is Runeshapers.  It can be a different game every time even though the end result is usually the same.  Mulg gets within range and goes to town.  

  Anyways, hope you enjoyed this semi-quick overview.  In the works:

1.  As a PG, I'm doing demos pretty regularly, meaning I need to flesh out my battleboxes and paint them.  I'm working through the Menoth one currently.

2.  As a commission painter, I'm still getting Cryx in, including the Witch coven, and now Ruin.  I opened my mouth and mentioned how much better Ruin would look with a space-wolf like cloak instead of the little dog carpet he has on his shoulder.  Now I have a Ruin commission.

3.  I ordered my first mold from Hirst arts and plaster too.  That'll be here this week.  I'm excited to start working with that again.  I've been reading Poppabear's threads for awhile, absolutely fascinated by what he can do.  I don't think I want any of the 200lb tables he has, but I definitey would like to incorporate more stonework and such into my bases and terrain without having to cut it out of foam or sculpt it every time.  

4.  That being said, a new board needs built.  One with less permanent terrain, non-folding and scottish bluffs looking.  I'll end up building 2 I think.  A small one for Demos and a full size for home.  I'm waiting for Hirst Arts to start that.  

5. I'll be doing another overview soon on Borka2.  For all my complaining about his Saeryn matchup, I fielded him all day last week and went into Lylyth1, Butcher1, and Abby2 with him.  He's a fun caster, but a good shooting list that ignores stealth will kill him pretty quickly.  Which takes him out of the running for Legion and Cygnar.

  Anyways, enjoy your summer folks.  The weather's getting nice in some places, and the water getting deep in others.  We'll see you around.  Follow me on twitter if you haven't already @diceotfirstdegree and I'll look forward to my followers pushing further along in the single digits.

50pts Morvahna2 (Circle) vs. Grissel1 (Trollbloods)

The Wife is playing more. A bunch of used models showed up at a FLGS, and she picked up several of them, including the LoTF. She hasn't played him yet, but the day she does...

Anyways. Morvahna2 is a purchase my brother got her for Christmas awhile back and we've been held up on playing her for a long time because we simply didn't have anything close to what she needed for a list for her. Now, we're up to 3 warpwolves (one magnetized), 3 units plus Nyss, solos and some lights. She's got most of the basics. I wanted her to try some of the more competitive options for Circle, and looking at Morv's card, my wife wasn't super impressed. In fact, to her, Kaya1 looks like more fun because she can protect her animals as long as possible. Morv2 wants stuff to die. But we tried it.

Morvahna2
*Gorax
*Ghetorix
*Stalker
Max Bloodtrackers w/ UA
Max Skinwalkers w/UA
Stones w/ UA (proxied by Druid)
Gallows Grove x2 (Proxied by a Thrullg and the stone formation)
Blackclad
Maximus

Jess wants Gallows Groves, but she wants Baobab trees that I'm probably going to sculpt, but I'm backed up on commissions atm, so we'll see when those happen. Also, all of Omaha is out of stock on Stone UAs. I'm going to have to actually order one.

For my list, I'm bringing out a caster I don't play very often. In fact, very rarely. I think I've played Grissel1 twice. She looks super good on the card, but I honestly don't know how to run her. I like reasons to bring Long Riders though.

Grissel1
*Runebearer
*Mauler
Max Fenns w/UA
Max Long Riders
Horthol
Max Burrowers
Min KSB w/UA
Fell Caller
Janissa
Min Bone Grinders

I won the rolloff, Jess stuck to her side and I deployed. Nothing crazy. Fenns on the right to get Pathfinder in the woods, Long Riders on the left so they don't have to deal with rough terrain and forests. Jess deployed her Bloodtrackers opposite my Long Riders and preyed them, and the Skinwalkers took to the right to deal with Fenns.



All the things run. KSB gets loaded by Grissel, and she puts Hallowed Avenger on the Mauler. Pretty simple stuff. Grissel1 gets Hoof It onto the Long Riders, and they run far away from the Bloodtrackers.

Bloodtrackers run forward, Trees teleport around. Beasts inch up a bit, keeping to cover. Morvahna gets Fog of War out there and puts Carnivore on the Trackers. Maximus runs wide, forcing me to deal with him.



Grissel1 upkeeps Hallowed Avenger. Burrowers come up and move up. They aim as much as they can and shoot down a few Bloodtrackers, and they kill a Stone. Haha. Grissel1 loads the stone, puts Rage from the Mauler onto Horthol, and gets... Hoof It on the long riders I think. She also feats so the Fenns/Burrowers can get multiple attacks and I can hopefull get some damage down with the Long Riders as well.. Horthol Bullrushes the nearest Skinwalker and drives him back into the unit, then gets snakeyes on the Skinwalker UA, and does very little with his second attack. Stupid. Dice even on the UA would have been good. Get him down early and force Morvahna to think seriously about feating. Fenns Mini feat and charge into stuff, but the Skinwalkers weather most of it and pass CMD. Long Riders bull rush, but I only get a few into melee, mainly trying to get the tree on the right but I butcher the damage and everything lives. They run back with Hoof It. Janissa drops the wall in front of Grissel1.



Ghetorix opens the ball and moves up and kills Horthol easily and the fenn nearby. He thens adds his Animus for ornery. Morvahna purifies Hallowed Avenger off the Mauler. The Skinwalkers charge in and kill a few more Fenns, all of this needing rerolls. Suddenly Jess finds out why this caster is so good. Stalker walks in, beserks on a ton of dudes and walks away. The Bloodtrackers go nuts and kill most of the fenns and Burrowers. Between Quickwork, rerolls and healing Morvahna2, she goes to full health and they kill pretty nearly everything. To make matters worse, the Blackclad moves into the flag, sprays the Bone Grinders and kills 3 of the 4, and they fail CMD. Blackclad controls the flag for 1CP.






Grissel pushes to the flag and sprays bloodtrackers. Heroic Ballad goes on the Long Riders for that second attack again. Janissa moves up and puts the wall down, KSB engage some trackers and pops aura. Fell Caller war cries the Long Riders who bull rush into the Skinwalkers. I don't think I can win this game at this point, but I'd like to at least wipe the Skinwalkers out so Morv can't bring them back. However, the one I have issues getting to is the one behind the gallows grove. I do get two attacks on him, but both miss horribly, leaving him alive. I killed all the others, but lost a Long Rider to the retaliatory strike from Ghetorix and Ornery. Mauler charges the blackclad and kills him and a bloodtracker, but has no way to remove the last Tracker within 4.



Ghetorix gets Primal from the Gorax. Maximus berserks into the Riders, damaging two. Ghetorix walks in and kills every single Long Rider with some help from Morvahna2. Jess is looking for a scenario win, but decides she's actually got a decent chance at assassination. The tree teleports forward on the right. The last Skinwalker charges into the Fell Caller but fails to kill him. Morvahna feats back all skinwalkers, the blackclad and 3 Bloodtrackers, leaving her at 1 health after rerolling for Ghetorix. She then arcs Death Knell from the tree on the right into Grissel, and gets a POW15 out of it, killing the stones nearby and such, then puts Primal on the Stalker. Bloodtrackers walk in as much as possible, focusing on killing fennblades and geting Quickwork. There's not a lot left, but they manage to get a few kills, pulling in six health for Morv to help with the Stalker.

Stalker charges in at Morv. He's MAT9 under Primal, PS21 I think. Charge, hits (with reroll maybe) and does damage. I've only got maybe one transfer on Grissel, and she transfers pretty quickly. The next attack puts her into the dirt.



Thoughts on the game:

1. I feated too early. Waaaay too early. I did not get a good return for the feat, at all. Killed maybe two or three extra models and really just botched it. I should have held it a turn.

2. Morv's solid. Super good. I would rather have a list that is able to put damage on her every turn. Something like Grim1/2 that can just make sure he puts a shot into her. Every turn. Keeps the rerolls down, keeps the feat to a minimum. I don't have a way to do that with this list.

3. Single Mauler wasn't bad. Generally had enough fury, I just don't think I used him very well. He didn't get much done, but was outthreatened every game by both heavies. It was difficult to get him involved.

4. Really, the feat I think is what got me. Morv didn't even really need to feat back to win, it was contingency in case the assassination failed. My own feat got me. I really needed it to leg up on the attrition and it just did not, and it was my fault in positioning. I also don't know that Burrowers are that great with Griss. I'd rather have another unit. Maaaaaaaaaayyyybbeee even Kriels, but probably Sons of Bragg.

5. I never got Calamity off. I tried to on Ghet and it missed. RNG8 sucks, and it's just as pivotal a moment as Grim2's mortality.

Great game though, really enjoyed it. Any game with my wife is fun. She actually turned around and played this list last game day, playing warmachine in public for the first time. She played Legion's Vayl1.... She can beat the daylights out of Khador and Trolls because she knows those factions, but she'd never played Legion and that was a rough game for her I think. Probably ended her game career right there lol. I hope not. Anyways, enjoy your mothers day! Hope you enjoyed the batrep. Comments and Critique welcome.

50pts Kaya1 (Circle) vs. Grissel2 (Trollbloods)

This is probably the coolest batrep this year. You know why? It's at home, in my Warmachine room.

Well, Warmachine room for now. My office is off to the side, completely untouched remodeling wise. That's where everything will actually go. For now though, what used to be an apartment upstairs is now essentially a giant mancave for warmachine. That's what happens when you get 2200 sq ft in a house and you have no kids.

So yeah, there's a painting desk in there, a recently built cardboard airbrush booth (I'm beginning to worry about developing acrylic lung cancer), another work table, and my folding Warmachine table in the middle. On sawhorses. Super developed. And crappy lightbulbs. But it's home, and it's awesome. Nevermind the shag carpet from before the Vietnam war. Heck, the house was built when Germany was ruled by a Kaiser. The shag carpet's an upgrade.

Anyways. I smashed a guy's Kaya1 list with Grissel2. I felt slightly bad about it, but I also hadn't played Grissel2 before, and I wasn't running the typical MMM list. I realized a few weeks ago that I was two casters short of the full Troll compliment (in comparison with my first faction Cygnar, where I still only own less than half of them. Maybe a third), and so 50$ later for two models (slight exaggeration) I got Gunnbjorn and then Grissel2. The main reason I got Grissel2 is because someone on the facebook group pointed out that Dash ignores freestrikes. That's pretty slick. It'd be sweet if we had something in this faction that had opportunist.

Heyo.

So I ran:

Grissel2
*Pyre
*Pyre
Max Warders
Max Warders
Max Highwaymen
Braylen
Fell Caller
Chronicler
Fire Eaters
Fire Eaters
Victor Pendrake
Min KSB w/UA

Victor Pendrake could possibly go away in favor of a Runebearer. I haven't decided yet. Between Opportunist and the Fell Caller, I have a lot of ways to hit/shoot pretty accurately. Other than that, I really like the list, even though I didn't once get Opportunist off. Turns out Kaya1 yoyoing everything around is hard to get behind. On the other hand, I won pretty handily at scenario, even with his Gnarlhorn bulldozing through my models every turn and throwing another troll at Grissel.

Every.

Turn.

He ran Kaya1 with Gnarlhorn, a Feral and Megs. Then full Reeves w/ UA and full Wolves of Orberos with UA as well. Plus other stuff. Most of it really struggled against the ARM I was bringing, and he never flanked hard enough with his Reeves to really bug Grissel. So we spent the next week Dojoing it, and my wife fielded the test. The idea was that a Pureblood could be juggled, spraying 10'' every turn, and be pretty effective, especially with a Moonhound in the turn. Anchor it with Ghetorix and a Gorax, hold a cloud line with druids and slow me down with Skinwalkers, and it should be a game.

Kaya1
*Ghetorix
*Pureblood
*Gorax (Proxied by a stormtroll)
*Argus Moonhound
Max Skinwalkers w/UA
Max Druids w/UA
Stones w/UA (Proxied by a bloodtracker)
Maximus
Blackclad
Gallows (Proxied by the grey stone column looking thing)

Mine was the same as it was previously. Identical. We rolled off, I won, Jessica stuck to her side, citing that she could used the ruined building to stage out of. Scenario was incursion because I don't have square zones yet, and they wouldn't fit on this map well anyways if I did.



My stuff runs. Grissel2 casts Dash, dumps everything else to the stone and charges. Highwaymen get Tales of Mist (Concealment, and since they have camoulfage, DEF16) and run a whopping 14''. I brick up a little in front of her with them, and everything else just tries to keep up.

Jessica's stuff does pretty nearly the same thing. She plays it pretty conservatively, moving the Druids up first and clouding, and immunity to elemental damage. The Skinwalkers run. Kaya puts Occultation on them, and then moves up. Stones teleport around, setting up. She keeps them pretty far back too. That's what caught my last opponent was Fire Eaters under Dash have a 16'' threat range, and when they're on fire, it's not too hard to take a stone out. Maximus runs wide to my right. She's drawing out my right Fire Eaters. And I can't ignore him either. He'll easily shut down half a unit of Highwaymen on his own if I ignore him



Pyre on the left puts fire on the eaters there, lights them up. The KSB pops aura and shuffles, and the right Pyre lights the other unit on fire. I've rolled 11s before and killed my dudes, so my left unit made it out, but with the KSB aura up, it's impossible to kill the one directly hit, so that worked out, The Grissel moves up about two inches. I've boxed her in with the HWM, but I'm not too worried. My line of battle is already pretty far ahead. She casts Dash, and feats and launches an AOE at the skinwalkers which drifts back and remains in play.

The left Fire Eaters go and kill two Skinwalkers easily. I was pretty nearly three. If I'd had another inch, I'd of cut the unit down pretty bad with them. That was just sprays. The right Fire Eaters go, and one goes into Maximus. I wanted the other to hit the groves, but I didn't have LOS. So one went into a Druid, and the leader maintained CMD with them both. Because the Druids ignore fire right now, I do nothing to them, and I'm out of range of the stone, and the little guy fails to kill Maximus. Meh.

The Highwaymen move up, and I can't get within stealth with most of them against the Skinwalkers, so one or two put shots in, but it's not very crazy. The Warders run, staying under the KSB as much as possible. Victor shuffles in.



Jess drops Occultation. The Blackclad moves up and sprays the Fire Eaters, killing 2, but not the little guy. The Druids activate, two cloud, and the others try to kill things. One tries to kill the Fire Eater but fails. Two other try to push a Highwayman out of the way of the Pureblood. The first hits, toughs him, moves him a little. The Second hits him, toughs him again, but pushes him far enough out of the way. The Pureblood walks forward and sprays into my army, hitting all of the KSB unit, but my tough rolls are crazy good and she only kills one of them. The Aura is still up, and she missed a few anyways. The Moonhound was too far back to get involved. The Gallows grove moves in and Ghetorix ports up and lays waste to a bunch of Highwaymen, and one Warder now not needing tough. Maximus moves into melee with the Fire Eater leader and kills both of the medium based guys. That looks like this.



Then Kaya spirit doors both heavies back to her, behind the clouds and feats to handle the fury. The Skin Walkers charge in , completely unbothered by Grissel's AOE, and start wiping out Highwaymen and trying to get Warders. At ARM23 currently, they're only putting a box in here or there, but they force tough/kill a bunch of Highwaymen. Enough that I have to pass a CMD check, which I do.

So many KD tokens...



This is also my wife's first game with her own Circle tokens. She finally got tired of using Khador ones, and now has her own circle ones. AND she downloaded War Room to her phone. This girl's friggin perfect for me, guys.

Also, I just realized I didn't move any Warders forward at all when the Skinwalkers damaged them. Anyways. The Fire Eater on the right dies. The Fire Eater on the left swings at a Skin Walker but doesn't do much. Fire went out on him I think.

I really want to get into Kaya's line, but I have four Skinwalkers in my face and no chargelanes. Braylen starts the day off and shoots Maximus dead. You go girl. She guns and runs b2b with the flag. Looking at the pics now, this was a pretty solid chance to use Dash and Opportunist on the few Highwaymen I had left, but I failed to do so. I don't even know that I cast Dash this turn.

The Warders on the right go. One goes into the Gallows grove and somehow fails to kill it at PS12 4d6. Another engages a Druid over the wall and misses. The other two just push foward. The KSB moves up and pops Aura. Grissel refills it as much as she can. I consider inhospitable ground, but at this point, stuff is teleporting and it won't do me much good. Inhospitable ground would have been better the turn before when the Skinwalkers charged. Nope, they have pathfinder. Nevermind.

Warders on the left go, and they end the skinwalkers pretty easy except one the HWM are engaged with. I'm pretty sure I forgot about the best part of Dash at this point. Chronicler runs to left flag and controls it. I'm at 2 CP now between Braylen, the Chronicler. Looking at the pic, I see 3 CP, because I don't know what was contesting the center flag. Must have been something. Anyways. Jessica's in a pinch, and she's a little frustrated with this list. We don't normally play competitively against eachother, and right now she feels like a guinea pig.



So the Skinwalker that's left kills both Highwaymen. Jess wants to get the Pureblood forward and kill the KSB, but decides to soften them up with the Blackclad first. He moves up, sprays in. Hits a Warder for a few points, hits Grissel for a couple, and completely wipes out the KSB. Every one of them die, including the UA, and all fail their tough. So the Moonhound runs around to the Warders, charging one and failing. The Druids move out of the way of things and three of them get into the one Warder and Fell Caller on the right, failing to kill them, but contesting the flag. Two of them shoot a Warder and pull it towards them. The Pureblood walks up and sprays the left Warders, leaving them on one or two boxes each, killing one. Then Ghetorix ports. He lands on my side of the building. Gorax primals him, and then things go down. He warps for strength first off, and he's MAT9 PS21 atm. My KSB is gone. The first Warder he hits he oneshots at Dice +2. I tough, so she moves on. She kills four more warders, including the one the Druids pulled closer early (all part of the plan apparently), and then buys a last attack to finish the toughed one. She doesn't spirit door any of them back, daring me to try to take the central flag back. Kaya Occultates herself and moves in behind the Gorax and Pureblood.



My wife's first experience with a Double Warder list. Seems like she's doing ok.



The problem is that she failed to contest my left flag, and I score another CP, taking me to 3. If I end my turn right now I get four. I could try to kill Ghetorix and clear the center flag, and I may or may not have enough to do that atm (My warders went from 9 to 2 or 3), but it's way easier for the Fell Caller and Warder to clear the far right flag. So I go for that. The Fell Caller gives himself and the one warder left from that unit Warcry, and the Fell Caller kills 2 druids by himself. The Warder kills the last, and that's game at 5CP.

Thoughts on the game:

1. My wife was pretty sure by turn 2 she was going to lose. She didn't feel like she had a way to handle ARM23, and she was pretty much right. Not without comitting and losing Ghetorix. She made the best of it though. By turn 3, she saw the light and made a major push and she nearly got me. Her major mistake was not running the Argus right at the flag and contesting the Chronicler. That would have made my following turn far more difficult. Probably still could have done it, but it would have forced me to do more work. Otherwise, I thought she did pretty well. She's never seen Grissel2 before, it's not like she listens to podcasts, and she handled it pretty well.

2. The list needs work. The Skinwalkers really went in because we wanted a unit that could use stealth, and she hadn't played them yet and really wanted to. In the future, she'll probably almost always use Bloodtrackers. They'll tarpit far better, and Occultation can go on Ghetorix.

3. The Argus Moonhound / Pureblood strategy wasn't that great. You only get one shot with the Argus, and then he will die. It's a four or five point commitment per 10'' Spray. Probably not worth it. Nice, but probably not worth it. The Pureblood is better off just porting in and aiming.

4. The future list will probably be Ghetorix and a Stalker, and maybe the Pureblood still. Otherwise it'll be double Stalker. Gorax for sure will stay. Double Groves would be nice, but yeah.

5. For my part, I love Dash and I'm loving Grissel2. I wish I'd remembered to use Dash and Opportunist more, and I just didn't. I'm in the middle of another game on Vassal with the original guy and he's trying a Morvahna2 list into my Grissel2 list, so we'll see how that goes. I'd kinda like to get Mulg into this list, but idk that it's worth it. It probably is, but I have to get over my infatuation with Fire Eaters first. He'd fit perfectly into the Fire Eater x2 + Pyre troll slot and leave me a point extra. I do like Fire Eaters though...

Anyways. Hope you enjoyed the batrep. Check me out at Diceotfirstdegree.blogspot.com or follow it on twitter, @diceotfirstdegree. Cya around!

Two short reports, 50pts. Witch Coven vs. Gunnbjorn and Saeryn vs. Borka2

I was thumbing through the pictures on my camera looking for these games and realized that one game was pretty short, and the other, I didn't get that many pictures of.  I thought they were both fairly interesting games though, so I'll hit them both here.

50 pts Witch Coven (Cryx) vs. Gunnbjorn (Trolls)

  The guy that I'm doing Cryx commission work for really like the Coven.  They're a solid dark horse caster unit and they usually catch me off guard every time someone plays them.  I think I've beaten them pretty consistently, but it's usually pretty tight.  Having that much focus and an 18'' control is crazy.

  I picked up Gunnbjorn a few weeks ago.  I realized that the only 2 casters I don't own for trolls are Gunnbjorn and Grissel2.  Both have since been rectified, and the next batrep is Grissel2.  Gunnbjorn though, I've always liked the model, just not the rules.  With Highwaymen out, I think he's got a bit more game, but we'll see.  I dropped him in this matchup, and my opponent brought out the Coven.  There was some jank on both sides.

  Witch Coven
*Kraken
*Deathripper
*Deathripper
Max Soulhunters
Max Soulhunters
Daragh Wrathe
Skarlock...  I think?
War Witch Siren

Double Soulhunters is weird.  I see them pretty rarely, especially with the advent of Bane Cav, but they've got game against trolls.  I think this is a Coven tier list too, so there's that.  My list is possibly jankier though, simply because I brought my own colossal.

Gunnbjorn
*Runebearer
*Mountain King
*Pyre Troll
Max Fenns w/UA
Max Highwaymen
Chronicler
Maximus

The King is there for Guided Fire, Pyre for damage buff, Highwaymen for Snipe and Maximus because he was mostly painted and looked cool.  The main jank in this list is no fire eaters.  That's dumb.  They should be in every list.  Anyways, we deployed, I think I lost the rolloff.

  Cryx stuff runs. The soulhunter unit on my left gets Occultation, simply because they're across from the Highwaymen.  Infernal Machine goes on the Kracken.  Stuff runs.

  Everything runs.  Highwaymen get snipe.  Maximus flanks hard.  King runs...  Highwaymen run...  Bruce actually moves up to try and spray but I'm waaaaay short.  Gunnbjorn drops a wall in front of the juiciest group of targets, and feats to grant at least +2 to everything else.  Against charge attacks, Fenns are now DEF16.  However, because of the Coven tier, the Soulhunters start with souls, so if needed they can boost the attack.  They have two initials though too, so if the first attack doesn't work, the second might.  Hero's Tragedy goes on the Fenns though.  I'm going to make him pay.

  I haven't decided how I feel about the matchup.  It's playable at least.  For landing a cryx opponent, this could have been much worse.  I've got enough beef in the list to handle the Kracken, it's really the only thing that threatens the King.  The Soul Hunters are an issue, but I feel like I have answers for them, and Fennblades are especially good against them.  The problem is that they kill my stuff on average stats, and if I'm grouped too close together, one Soul Hunter will kill a half dozen models.  I try to spread out as much as I can, but he's got a lot of models with reach, and Occultation is on the units across from my ranged guys, which I expected.  The tradeoff is that if I land the right spray, lots of stuff will die.  He's got solid models, but POW16 SP10 under Guided Fire will level the playing field pretty quickly.

  Somehow, I skip the next turn of events in picture.  The coven drops Occulation.  The Soul Hunters on the right kill my front three Fenns, AND absolutely smash the Pyre troll.  He rolled some crazy dice and just demolished that beast.  That was pretty frustrating.  A chicken on the left runs in, and Stygian Abbyses the King, and fails to crit.  The right deathchicken runs wide to spray Fenns and finds out he's way out of Control.  The Kracken shoots the King, and some more fenns.  The left Soul Hunters get into the Highwaymen, kill a few models, and everything backs out five inches with the light cav move, and the Coven feat.  Expected.  

 The Fenns Vengeance a bit which does very little.  The problem is that he feated way too far back, so the front line of his feat only barely catches the king and the front line, so everything outside of the Coven control is unaffected by the feat.  Most of my stuff can charge, and even the Highwaymen can CRA as long as they're outside the control.  So I drop Snipe.  The Highwaymen try to get some attacks in, but I think I might only kill one.  Braylen wounds another.  Gunnbjorn does Guided fire, shoots the chicken for some serious damage.  I screw up with the King here.  He's got two soul hunters engaging him, but Daragh Wrathe is in range to spray, and I reeeeaaaally want that guy dead.  So he shifts up, targets a soul hunter from the right unit he can see and the spray catches Daragh.  Boost damage, and I unhorse the guy and I kill the Soul Hunter too, leaving the chicken and the other soul hunter.  That was a mistake because I forgot about Killshot.  I could have had my whole melee activation, killed everything engaged, AND sprayed Daragh, and I forgot about it.  

  On the right, the Fenns get +2 to his from the Fell Caller, who sprays two of the Soul Hunters.  Maximus goes ballistic and oneshots two soul hunters on the right side of the zone, and beserks into the chicken there and hits for some damage.  The Fenns charge in and kill everything that's left of that unit.  

  Apparently I have more pictures than I thought.  When I browsed through here, I thought for sure that I was missing a whole turn, there's so much stuff missing.

  The Coven activate again, move up to dominate the zone and Stygian abbyss the King.  This time, it crits, and the King can not move except to change facing.  That's different than stationary.  The remaining Soul Hunters on the left go in and kill a few more Highwaymen, forcing a CMD check which they fail and whats left of the Fenns on the left side.  Two of them get into the King for a little damage.  The Kracken starts punching Fenns, and the chicken on the right is still out of Control, so he tries to kill Maximus.  Daragh Wrathe charges in, trying to be relevant without his pony.  The Siren on the right tries to spray Maximus off, but fails.  Covenent go to 2 CP.

  Back to the trolls.  I want Maximus free, so the Fell Caller gets Warcry onto the few fenns that remain, and charges the Chicken, staying out of Maximus's melee range.  He hits, and rolls 1,1,2,1 for damage...  So since Maximus is still engaged, he hits  the thing but it's still kicking.  Gunnbjorn casts guided fire, shoots the chicken engaging the King and kills it.  Braylen moves up and kills a Soul Hunter.  The Highwaymen rally.  Chronicler charges in and tries to kill the last soul hunter but it's not working.  However, the King whacks the last soul hunter, kills it, gets Killshot, sprays, targetting the ball because for some reason they weren't stealthed, and he gets 9 damage on Eregor, which gets divvied out, and then kills two of the witches, leaving just one of the coven remaining and her 3 focus.  

  She Stygian abbyses the King one more time and it crits...  Stupid.  Then she runs away.  The Kracken can't get any focus, but it's got enough souls and the Skarlock that it's full.  It charges the King, and leaves him on maybe a dozen boxes and lots of whelps.  There's a war witch siren on the left I've forgotten about all game.  She moves in and sprays down the line of my Highwaymen and killing most of them.  Daragh gets in there and kills my chronicler and everything the Siren left.  

  

  Gunnbjorn is bottom center of this frame.  The Witch and Eregor did not stay together, so they're not stealthed.  I might possibly be able to get Gunnbjorn around the King to shoot her, but it's going to require a 10 to hit.  Average dice, right?  I also need to kill these two models in the way.  Braylen makes her money, killing the Siren, and the King kills Daragh.  Runebearer does Harmonious Exhaltation.  Gunnbjorn takes Snipe, moves up, has range, boosts to hit, hits her and puts her in the dirt.

Trollblood Victory.

  And huge base picture.

Thoughts on this game:

1.  It looks like I could have started dominating and winning on Scenario, but the King only had 20 boxes left at this point after eating all the whelps, and I didn't feel like he'd survive the Kracken again.  I was surprised he lived the first time.  If it wasn't for being Stygian Abbysed twice, I think the King could have handled the Kracken just fine, especially once the Fell Caller and/or Maximus got free.  

2.  The Kracken was honestly the only holding power in the list.  If I could have gotten a charge off into it, I think I would have been fine, Soul Hunters or not.  He wouldn't have had anything that could deal with the King at that point, and I'd of just stood on zones and sprayed everything.  Stygian Abyss, however, pretty much nipped that.  It didn't limit me as much as my opponent hoped, but still, 20pts in a 50pt army being unable to move twice in a game is pretty lousy.

3.  The Gunnbjorn...  For all the desire of wanting to test HWM with snipe, I never used it on them once.  Everything had stealth any time I wanted to shoot from that far away.  Against a non-stealth army, it's probably great but I didn't find out this game.  What trolls need is a Flare solo.

50pts, Saeryn (Legion) vs. Borka2 (Trolls)

  I've been wanting to play Borka2 more into legion, and I landed a Saeryn T4 list.  This is a pretty short game, so we're going to blaze through it.  The biggest thing I wanted to know is if Tier 4 is worth it with Borka2.  Are the snowdrifts game changing enough to go tier, and is +2 SPD on turn 1 really that awesome?  I means bringing a War Wagon, so we'll see.

Saeryn

*Nephilim Bloodseer

*Nephilim Bloodseer

*Nephilim Protector

*Angelius

*Angelius

*Angelius (proxied by Seraph)

*Zuriel

Shepherd

Shepherd

Sorceress

  Pretty much maximizing the feat.  The Sorceress specifically really hurts trolls because it shuts down shooting within 8''.  With trolls, that's really all we have for a baseline, though we do have snipe on a stick.

Borka2

*Rok

*Axer

*Axer

*Winter Troll

*Pyre Troll

Fire Eaters

Fire Eaters

War Wagon

Max KSB w/ UA

  My normal Borka2 list has Mulg in there, and more bouncers/axers instead of Pyres/Winters.  I also use Highwaymen to tarpit instead of Fire Eaters.  Fire Eaters are good, but they really need protection going in, and idk that stealth is enough sometimes.  Anyways, I lose the rolloff.  His stuff moves up.  Respawn might go on Zuriel.

  I generally move up.  Snow shroud goes on the War Wagon, Fire Eaters cautiously advance.  KSB pops aura.

  Zuriel comes flying in first, and I immediately countercharge in with the Wintertroll because why not.  He's in for the Tier benefits and very little else.  He misses the attack.  An angel pretty easily kills him, and another flies in as far as he can and lands in front of my Fire Eaters on the right, engaging all of them.  Saeryn moves in and feats, and everything else comes in, stacking around the sorceress.  Can't melee, can't shoot, Fire Eaters are engaged, I'm ready to flip the table.

  The War Wagon backs up and shoots, missing.  Borka moves into the zone on the left, feats, and tosses a bomb at the Bloodseer.  Everything else pretty much runs around, and the Fire Eaters try to get away from the Angelius.  It goes stationary when it hits, but they really fail to do much.  There's very little I can do because I can't get LOS to the sorcerer, and I can't get a melee attack into it at all because the Bloodseer on my left is in the way.  I push an Axer into his group to tie them up some but that's about it.  

  This is why we bring RoW to everything.  It's basically a BS for BS exchange.

  He tries to go for the assassination a little bit.  My Axer countercharges in and ties some stuff up, but misses the attack.  The Seer slams into Borka, KDing him,  My pyre countercharges him, blocking some charge lanes, but misses.  The Fire Eaters on the right all die.  Some ranged attacks go out, but the main thing is that he contests my zone, and Saeryn dominates hers for two.

  In the end, there's nothing I can do.  I try to assault in with the Fire Eater unit that's left but they're way out of range.  I fail to contest the zone, and my opponent ends his turn.

Thoughts on the game:

1.  The final score was way closer than this batrep sounds.  We scored 4-6 CP, because Borka does kill the Bloodseer in the way.  However, I hate this list.  I hate his list too, but I hate this list.  I will probably never run tier again, and if I do, it will not be Tier 4.  The War Wagon has sat on my shelf for a year, and after this batrep, it went back on the shelf, and it will not be coming back out.  RAT5 on a 9pt model that can not boost is the most worthless thing in the world when I have better options.

2.  Snowdrifts are pretty worthless.  Concealment and rough terrain on your side of the board isn't super useful.  Certainly not like forests or walls.  Borka2 is a great caster.  Out of tier.

3.  He played his list very well, and I simply was not set up for what was about to happen.  My normal list is Mulg and Highwaymen, and that would have been better I think.  HWM could have tarpitted and shot beasts from outside the Sorceress's range (only just though.)  A few good CRAs would have been alright, and the counterfeat would have protected my BG a bit more.  I also let him have too much ground.  He was in the zone and I walked away from it.  I should have just got up in his face, feated, and weathered it as best I could.

4.  Runes of War exists for a reason.  I need to get my other 2 units of Runeshapers and run it.  I've proxied it a bit and played it, and I'm not nearly familiar enough with it.  It'd be nice for Legion/Circle period.

  That's pretty much it.  I have a batrep in the works for Grissel2 w/HWM, a list I'm super enjoying.  The next batrep is actually against my wife.  I played against a friend last weekend and pretty much smashed him scenario wise with Grissel2 vs. Kaya1, so we spent the week Dojoing what Kaya1 or Kaya2 could against a MMM style list.  My wife built the list and we ran it against eachother this week.  She's an interesting caster, and we're amassing enough circle for Jessica now that we can do more than just Baldur1 and Nyss/Bloodtracker spam.  She's got Kaya1 and Morvahna2 both now so I expect we'll see them here shortly.

  Enjoy your weekend fellas!  A shoutout to my local fellow PG, Josh Carpentier at the WMW qualifier in Springfield last weekend.  He took 1st with Trolls, EE and Grissel1 MMM, and won against Absylonia2, but Body and Soul as well.  Pretty excellent player, and we're excited for him.