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.
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