It's been a long month. If you'd had any ear to the news, you'll know that the midwest has had the crap kicked out of it with storms in the last three weeks. The first one totalled my Mustang with softball size hail, and set my town up as a temporary heaven for roofing companies everywhere. I missed out on a tournament in the search for a new vehicle, and finally got some games in again day before yesterday finally. On the plus side, the new Jeep can carry my gaming table much better than the Stang ever could...
Three weeks isn't a long time to be out of the game, so that's cool, but it's been busy. I'm coming off the tail end of getting my butt handed to me consistently by a local Cryx player. There's been a bunch of good learning games in there, so that's good as well, but yeah. So, three quick topics I'm brainstorming through.
I. The 2 list matchup, with Cryx as a priority.
II. Vengeance/Exigence Casters and handling them.
III. Bearka and Dozer.
I. The 2 list matchup, with Cryx as a priority.
Goreshade2 and Denny1 have been handling me pretty easy lately. The 2 list I have currently is Madrak2 and whoever I feel like. I've been through Grim1, Jarl, and have started vassaling Calandra, Grim2 and played my first game with Grissel1.
Grim1's not my playstyle. I can't explain it. He doesn't click. He's cool, but I simply can't make him work for how I want to play.
Jarl plays much more to my playstyle. Less straightforward, more tricks and angles. Still doesn't haven anything to scale up against Cryx though. He's not bad for some matchups, but with 2 lists, I can't find a place for him.
Calandra's a blast, but I'm only vassaling the Elemental Lights NQ tier, I haven't bought it yet. I hate to spend that much money on that many lights that I will Never use outside of her tier. It's a good tier though, and it's been working for me. It's not my cryx matchup though. So that's out. Calandra herself is good though, and I could see building an anti-cryx list with her specifically, tarpitting with star-crossed Nyss under a Witch Doctor (Nyss are not fearless. In fact, they are pansies), with max unit of Scattergunners behind them to wipe out Cryx hordes. Maybe a Thrullg in the back, and a heavy of choice for the armor cracking. Haven't decided.
Grissel1 is cool. I feel ashamed that I've had trolls for four, five months now and only just now played her. That model is so ugly though. But awesome caster. My strategy for list building her army was simple. All of the troll infantry I own... And Longriders. I have yet to make the Longriders work for me, and she seems to have everything they want. I will be playing her more just to give me a good reason to field Longriders more often. Otherwise, she seems like a decent counter for Cryx. Not because she can stop any of their shenanigans (Except charges and spells, which is nice), but she just brings that much infantry, her feat is appalling and giving everything two attacks is pretty baller good for scaling up in the attrition war.
Grim2, however, is my primary focus at the moment. I love his playstyle. I also like his feat. The snipe is cute, and helps him out a bit, but +2 to hit for Scattergunners is fantastic. I also like his toolbox. Oddly enough, I prefer Magesight to True sight. Being able to land a shot from Grim, and then also the Bomber, Impaler, or Dozer is fantastic. Can't beat that. I love Mortality more too. Can cast it twice, and it drops ARM and DEF both. He's got a lot of tricks. He likes to be up front, but between reform and the trap, is generally fairly safe. If you're super worried, bring Mulg. I'm really liking Grim2, and am going to try to push him hard for my Cryx matchup. I also like him against anything with lots of infantry. Cephalyx, Khador, some Menoth lists, some Circle. Really, anything Madrak2 doesn't want to deal with. Debuffs and DEF skews, mainly. Madrak2 really chews through most of everything else.
II. Vengeance/Exigence Casters
I didn't see any of them, and them all of the sudden, I fought 3, including the Cephalyx caster, Exulon Thexis. The other 2 were Issyria and Butcher3. Issyria, I should have handled just fine, but I brought Jarl and got shot to pieces and didn't have anything to shut down a Hyperion. Madrak2 would have eaten everything alive.
Butcher3 was interesting. I mainly got lucky there with Madrak2. The map had lots of rough terrain, and so the IFP were well behind Butcher most of the game, and his other main infantry unit, the Boomhowlers, failed CMD to the Fenns on turn 2. Butcher was an inexorable force though, and at one point, he killed 2 Warders, a Bomber, a Kithkar and something else in once turn, by himself. The IFP nearly caught up at that point, but the Burrowers stepped in, and even though they really failed to kill anything, they tarpitted so well that the IFP never were in the game really. Overall, I tarpitted his forces, and fed enough high-value targets to Butcher to keep him feeling like he was doing something until he got close enough for my last 3 Warders and Madrak2 to end him. Looking back, I'd rather have anyone with Mulg, or Grissel1. Either one would be super hard on Butcher3, since he needs orders. The new Dozer dire can put the hurt on his support too, like Maddie or Orin. Butcher can be a super problem for stuff like Cygnar, but against Trolls, for the most part, they can handle the stack of ARM that Butcher3 is. I packed Fennblades around him for the most part until I wanted him to come out.
Cephalyx was neat. Grissel1 was the girl for that game, and it was the first time I'd played her. Cephalyx bring a Lot of infantry.... Jarl would like to fight them too. Grissel did ok though. I had enough models to really tank what he was bringing, and got lucky with a few deviations from the Bomber and was killing support, and really, Cephalyx is incredibly support dependent. Any unit they bring relies on their UA and Agitators a lot. Jarl with Magic Bullet, Dozer, or the Impaler/Bomber combo killing those guys really cuts down on what they can do. They still have lots of models, and they don't die easily to blast damage, but they still are pretty weak offensively without their UAs. Exulon Thexus himself is a controlling nightmare. Telekinesis everywhere, lots of controlling your own dudes, things like that. The monstrosities are pretty cool too, but they die fairly quickly between taking D3 from Thexus for being arced through, and your models attacking them, it doesn't take much. They're awesome for 7pts, but a Bomber alone can put some serious hurt on them. A Jarl list with Dozer, Bomber, Boomies and whatever else would handle Cephalyx pretty well I think. Pair of Warders maybe.
III. Bearka and Dozer.
I like Dozer. He fits into a few lists without needing the Impaler. I swapped him out with the Bomber/Impaler combo in my Madrak2 list for solo removing support, and put the remaining 6pts to a Slag or a Pyre and put the other pt wherever I wanted. Dozer doesn't mind Snipe, but he doesn't really need it, and is plenty happy without it. A Slag or a Pyre can get him up to PS17, PS18 (W/ stone).The only thing I really miss from the list is the Girded animus, which is incredibly good for keeping Grim Salvation from triggering on lots of low-damage blasts. Also protects the KSB like a boss. But Dozer does have some cool things.
Bearka... is ok. Looks like fun, but without playing a 3 list format, I can't find a place for him. The forums don't seem to think he answers any questions, but I disagree. He definitely throws any shooting for a loop with Stealth on the feat, and he really makes you question charging him at any time between his feat and counter charge on everything. I particularly like the stealth though, and MHSF can suck it. But otherwise, he doesn't do much, and certainly doesn't replace anything I have already. Time will tell.
That's all I've got for now. Scattergunners and Grim2 have done well enough for me in proxy and Vassal that they're being assembled today, I'm headed back to that, and the Steam Sale...
Monday, June 23, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
Almost two weeks ago, I played one of our PGs, a normal trollblood player. He recently switched to Ret because he's a two timing, no good, bandwagon jumping, traitorous kind of player. Anyways. We led off, and I dropped Jarl, trying him out some more. I'm really having a difficult time finding a 2nd list for tournaments. Madrak2 is my 1st list, and there's so many options for my second. I have yet to try Madrak2 against Cryx, and I really need to. Madrak2 should have been my drop against this list, but I'd already played Madrak2 against the other PG (another batrep I'm also working on). I keep making the mistake, consistenly, that shooting casters in trolls are made to handle shooting armies, and that's just not the case, yet I keep doing it. Madrak2 shrugs the shooting off pretty consistently, and tears it up in melee, whereas Grim1 and Jarl hunt solos and support the melee line, but their playstyle isn't such that it protects the guys as they move up the board. Madrak bricks up, brings high armor, a stone, a wall, and just marches up the board inexorably. The shooting casters actually want to be engaged. Grim1 will strip defense and hand out debuffs while Jarl protects the dudes on the way in. Against a shooting list, that's not a sound strategy.
Yet, here we are, Jarl vs. Issyria.
Jarl
*Runebearer
*Impaler
*Bomber
*Storm
*Slag
Fenns w/UA
Kithkar
Boomhowlers
Whelps
Chronicler
Sons of Bragg
Fell Caller
The PG brought:
Issryia
*Hyperion
*Chimera
MHSF w/UA
Houseguard Halberdiers w/UA
Houseguard Thane
x2 Mage Hunter Assassin
Ayaina & Holt
Right off the bat, I was going to struggle to kill Hyperion, and I knew it. The Slag could put a few shots in, and the Bomber would too, but it would take a few rounds to carve through him. Secondly, the MHSF were an issue, because I hate them... The Fenns die to them on less than average dice, so that doesn't help anything. Otherwise, I had enough shooting to pick out support models, and with clouds, had a way to protect my guys moving up the field from the Hyperion at least. Not the MHSF, of course, but everything else.
On the plus side, I didn't really have anything for Issyria to shut down with Blinding Light, so that wasn't too much of an issue. Her feat turn would weather me down pretty well, but other than that, wasn't too big of a deal. Hyperion would be an issue though. And the MHSF are frustrating.
So, everything moved up from Ret. The Hyperion picked up Inviolable Resolve, and the Chimera arc node got Admonition. Otherwise, everything ran, and spread out.
Impaler puts Far Strike on the Bomber for some early drifting goodness, and walks up. Boomhowlers 4+ tough and run into the zone, and the Fenns run forward as well while the Chronicler gives then "Feign Death". Bomber stands on the hill, drifting AOEs. He kills an MHSF and a Halberdier, and then a Fenn, who toughs.
Runebearer puts Harmonious Exaltation down, and Jarl moves up, trying to Magic Bullet the MHSF UA off of Hyperion, which I promptly miss. I was going to try it again, and was informed that killing the UA doesn't remove the Phantom Hunter from the MHSF, so enough of that. Jarl hangs out and camps the remaining three Fury.
Issyria allocates a few to the Hyperion, and feats. The MHSF proceed to annihilate the Fenns, but with Tough rolls and Feign Death, I still have 7 of them. On MHSF hits a Boomhowler, but he toughs.
The Halberdiers move up. The Chimera runs around the Hyperion to get more central to the map. Assassins push forward, and that's pretty much it.
There's nothing to upkeep, so Jarl pulls everything in. Fell Caller pushes forward and does Reveille, standing the Fenns up, who minifeat, charge, and force CMD checks. The MHSF fail, and will flee, but unfortunately, with Inviolable Resolve from Issyria, she can cast it before they even activate and nothing will have changed except she's down 2 focus from what she would have had.
So. One MHSF dies, and two get into Hyperion, and do decent damage, but nothing crazy. The Bomber moves up, puts 2 shots into Hyperion, boosted for damage on them both, and the Slag hits twice, doing some serious damage as well. I don't think I crippled anything on either side, but I did do decent damage. Storm Troll tries to get in there and electro leap some things, but can't make it work.
Impaler gets Far Strike on Jarl. Jarl magic bullets off of the Hyperion and kills an MHA. He then feats, and hides all four beasts.
The Boomies do a 4+ tough and charge, only a few of them actually getting the charge. They spread out a bit and kill a few Halberds, but that's it.
Sure enough, Issyra puts IR on the MHSF, and velocities back. The mhsf activate, and try to clear off the Hyperion, but fail to kill the two Fenns engaging him. Not because they weren't hitting and doing damage, but because I had hot tough rolls. One, however, does tick me off by shooting down my whelp back by Jarl that I was hoping to reign in my fury with. So much for that.
Holt tries to do work and he can't get it done either. Hyperion can't take any shots against my trolls because he can't see them, but he can't move any because the Fenns are in the way. He ends up blowing his activation killing the two Fenns remaining.
The Halberds tangle with the Boomhowlers again, but only connect against 2, and both tough.
I have a ton of fury out there, probably seven, and Jarl is sitting on 3. I pull everything off of the Impaler, and one from the Slag, but the Bomber and Impaler both frenzy, the Bomber goes after the objective and the Stormtroll takes down some boxes on the Slag troll. The Slag troll, sitting two fury, throws a shot into the Hyperion, boosts damage, and hurts it again, but not bad.
Impaler Far Strikes Jarl, who kills Holt, but can't quite get Ayaina. The Boomhowlers push back into the Halberds and kill a few. It's just a slugfest from here on out.
Hyperion gets focus again, and the Chimera gets a few too. The Halberds get back into the Boomhowlers, hit and box every one of them, multiple times, and I pull off a 100% tough with them.
Chimera charges the Bomber and does some damage, but fails to cripple him, and I spawn whelps.
MHSF focus fire and kill Chronicler and Fell Caller. Hyperion walks up and kills both the Slag and Stormtroll.
Boomhowlers stand up and kill more Halberds. The Impaler and Bomber take the Chimera down to a few boxes. Runebearer puts Quicken on Jarl with the minifeat, and Jarl casts far strike on himself and goes wide, putting 2 fully boosted shots into Issyria, and leaving her on two boxes.
The Halberds no long outnumber the Boomies, in fact, there's only two. They keep trying, but the Boomies are still toughing like crazy. The Hyperion walks in and tries to smash Jarl, but he transfers to the Bomber and kills him.
Issyria sprints as far away as she can.
Boomhowlers converge on the Halberds, Impaler finishes the Chimera, and Jarl goes chasing after Issryia in a hopeless race.
MHA charges Jarl and murders him.
Thoughts:
1. Should have dropped madrak2. But, I wanted to try Jarl. Overall, Issyria isn't the end all the forums made her out to be, but I'm also playing trolls. She completely neuters a ranged unit, so Trolls don't mind that too much.
2. Hyperion was simply too much armor. I really didn't have anything to handle that, and I knew it from the start. The assassination was really the only chance I had, and I botched it the turn before hand by running my beasts hot. Impaler/Bomber and just 2 more boxes of blast damage and Issyria would have been gone.
3. Jarl is anti-ranged, no doubt, but MHSF counter that quite well, and love eating Fenns. A double warder list might have worked better, but overall, a typical brick of any sort would have done much better. Of course, there's Ossyan for that, but ok.
Yet, here we are, Jarl vs. Issyria.
Jarl
*Runebearer
*Impaler
*Bomber
*Storm
*Slag
Fenns w/UA
Kithkar
Boomhowlers
Whelps
Chronicler
Sons of Bragg
Fell Caller
The PG brought:
Issryia
*Hyperion
*Chimera
MHSF w/UA
Houseguard Halberdiers w/UA
Houseguard Thane
x2 Mage Hunter Assassin
Ayaina & Holt
Right off the bat, I was going to struggle to kill Hyperion, and I knew it. The Slag could put a few shots in, and the Bomber would too, but it would take a few rounds to carve through him. Secondly, the MHSF were an issue, because I hate them... The Fenns die to them on less than average dice, so that doesn't help anything. Otherwise, I had enough shooting to pick out support models, and with clouds, had a way to protect my guys moving up the field from the Hyperion at least. Not the MHSF, of course, but everything else.
On the plus side, I didn't really have anything for Issyria to shut down with Blinding Light, so that wasn't too much of an issue. Her feat turn would weather me down pretty well, but other than that, wasn't too big of a deal. Hyperion would be an issue though. And the MHSF are frustrating.
So, everything moved up from Ret. The Hyperion picked up Inviolable Resolve, and the Chimera arc node got Admonition. Otherwise, everything ran, and spread out.
Impaler puts Far Strike on the Bomber for some early drifting goodness, and walks up. Boomhowlers 4+ tough and run into the zone, and the Fenns run forward as well while the Chronicler gives then "Feign Death". Bomber stands on the hill, drifting AOEs. He kills an MHSF and a Halberdier, and then a Fenn, who toughs.
Runebearer puts Harmonious Exaltation down, and Jarl moves up, trying to Magic Bullet the MHSF UA off of Hyperion, which I promptly miss. I was going to try it again, and was informed that killing the UA doesn't remove the Phantom Hunter from the MHSF, so enough of that. Jarl hangs out and camps the remaining three Fury.
Issyria allocates a few to the Hyperion, and feats. The MHSF proceed to annihilate the Fenns, but with Tough rolls and Feign Death, I still have 7 of them. On MHSF hits a Boomhowler, but he toughs.
The Halberdiers move up. The Chimera runs around the Hyperion to get more central to the map. Assassins push forward, and that's pretty much it.
There's nothing to upkeep, so Jarl pulls everything in. Fell Caller pushes forward and does Reveille, standing the Fenns up, who minifeat, charge, and force CMD checks. The MHSF fail, and will flee, but unfortunately, with Inviolable Resolve from Issyria, she can cast it before they even activate and nothing will have changed except she's down 2 focus from what she would have had.
So. One MHSF dies, and two get into Hyperion, and do decent damage, but nothing crazy. The Bomber moves up, puts 2 shots into Hyperion, boosted for damage on them both, and the Slag hits twice, doing some serious damage as well. I don't think I crippled anything on either side, but I did do decent damage. Storm Troll tries to get in there and electro leap some things, but can't make it work.
Impaler gets Far Strike on Jarl. Jarl magic bullets off of the Hyperion and kills an MHA. He then feats, and hides all four beasts.
The Boomies do a 4+ tough and charge, only a few of them actually getting the charge. They spread out a bit and kill a few Halberds, but that's it.
Sure enough, Issyra puts IR on the MHSF, and velocities back. The mhsf activate, and try to clear off the Hyperion, but fail to kill the two Fenns engaging him. Not because they weren't hitting and doing damage, but because I had hot tough rolls. One, however, does tick me off by shooting down my whelp back by Jarl that I was hoping to reign in my fury with. So much for that.
Holt tries to do work and he can't get it done either. Hyperion can't take any shots against my trolls because he can't see them, but he can't move any because the Fenns are in the way. He ends up blowing his activation killing the two Fenns remaining.
The Halberds tangle with the Boomhowlers again, but only connect against 2, and both tough.
I have a ton of fury out there, probably seven, and Jarl is sitting on 3. I pull everything off of the Impaler, and one from the Slag, but the Bomber and Impaler both frenzy, the Bomber goes after the objective and the Stormtroll takes down some boxes on the Slag troll. The Slag troll, sitting two fury, throws a shot into the Hyperion, boosts damage, and hurts it again, but not bad.
Impaler Far Strikes Jarl, who kills Holt, but can't quite get Ayaina. The Boomhowlers push back into the Halberds and kill a few. It's just a slugfest from here on out.
Hyperion gets focus again, and the Chimera gets a few too. The Halberds get back into the Boomhowlers, hit and box every one of them, multiple times, and I pull off a 100% tough with them.
Chimera charges the Bomber and does some damage, but fails to cripple him, and I spawn whelps.
MHSF focus fire and kill Chronicler and Fell Caller. Hyperion walks up and kills both the Slag and Stormtroll.
Boomhowlers stand up and kill more Halberds. The Impaler and Bomber take the Chimera down to a few boxes. Runebearer puts Quicken on Jarl with the minifeat, and Jarl casts far strike on himself and goes wide, putting 2 fully boosted shots into Issyria, and leaving her on two boxes.
The Halberds no long outnumber the Boomies, in fact, there's only two. They keep trying, but the Boomies are still toughing like crazy. The Hyperion walks in and tries to smash Jarl, but he transfers to the Bomber and kills him.
Issyria sprints as far away as she can.
Boomhowlers converge on the Halberds, Impaler finishes the Chimera, and Jarl goes chasing after Issryia in a hopeless race.
MHA charges Jarl and murders him.
Thoughts:
1. Should have dropped madrak2. But, I wanted to try Jarl. Overall, Issyria isn't the end all the forums made her out to be, but I'm also playing trolls. She completely neuters a ranged unit, so Trolls don't mind that too much.
2. Hyperion was simply too much armor. I really didn't have anything to handle that, and I knew it from the start. The assassination was really the only chance I had, and I botched it the turn before hand by running my beasts hot. Impaler/Bomber and just 2 more boxes of blast damage and Issyria would have been gone.
3. Jarl is anti-ranged, no doubt, but MHSF counter that quite well, and love eating Fenns. A double warder list might have worked better, but overall, a typical brick of any sort would have done much better. Of course, there's Ossyan for that, but ok.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Thrullg Sapien, bought, based and painted
I don't know if you've been reading the last few blog batreps. No one's blaming you if you haven't, but I'm getting my butt handed to me by Cryx. I've tried Jarl, and you'll see my work with Grim1 a bit. I'm about to just drop Madrak2 for everything.
Incidentally, Fear of God from Severius2 ticked me off too.
Anyways, I noticed Thrullg, and while I'm completely aware that he's not Eiryss, he still seems like could be a decent backline support model able to free my Fenns of whatever Cryx has on them today. Him and the normally useless Drummer can be buddies.
I love the model though. Even with the Bull fighter flag arms he's got. So I picked him up, and he immediately struck me as similar to Abe Sapien from the Hellboy comics. So I wanted a swamp look, and the blue. I twisted his tentacles up a bit so they're not just straight out. Mixed up a base coat of 1:1 vallejo Electric Blue and Night Blue, then air brushed him today after work, and lightened the second coat from there.
The base, I coated in Citadel Loren Forest (a dark, earthy green) added grasses and coated in clear window sealant.
Incidentally, Fear of God from Severius2 ticked me off too.
Anyways, I noticed Thrullg, and while I'm completely aware that he's not Eiryss, he still seems like could be a decent backline support model able to free my Fenns of whatever Cryx has on them today. Him and the normally useless Drummer can be buddies.
I love the model though. Even with the Bull fighter flag arms he's got. So I picked him up, and he immediately struck me as similar to Abe Sapien from the Hellboy comics. So I wanted a swamp look, and the blue. I twisted his tentacles up a bit so they're not just straight out. Mixed up a base coat of 1:1 vallejo Electric Blue and Night Blue, then air brushed him today after work, and lightened the second coat from there.
I have no idea how he'll play, but the model is awesome. Except for how the arms adopt this attitude of "What, foam? Fit into square foam holes like everything else? NEVER."
Other than that, I'm debating dropping him into a tailored Grim1 list, or trying to adapt my Madrak2 list to handle Cryx as well. The third option is the expensive one, and that's buying Grim2 and seeing how that rolls. I'm getting the Hunter's Grim eventually, simply for painting purposes, but they seem fun to play. Anyways, that's the hobby post for now.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
50pts Bethayne (Legion) vs Grim1 (Trollbloods)
Got a chance for an impromptu game mid-week last week and busted out Grim1... because I could, I guess? I wanted to try him with Long Riders again, and Nyss. My opponent wanted to run his bethayne tier and see how it rolls. The Bethayne tier is legit, but cornercase. Anything that can deny magic/magic attacks will shut it down. It's two units of hex hunters that can capitalize on her feat, and two Nyss Sorceresses on Hellions, which are actually kind of annoying solos to deal with.
His list:
Bethayne
*Angelius
*Angelius
Hex Hunters
Hex Hunters
Black Frost Shard
2x Shepherds
2x Hellions
My list
Grim1
*Runebearer
*Bomber
*Impaler
*Stormtroll
Nyss
Fennblades w/UA
Long Riders
Fell Caller
He won the rolloff and deployed first, with the ability to redeploy the hex hunters because of tier.
I stayed center, and he redeployed the hex hunters back to a more normal state of things. Tricky legion players.
And everything ran. Angelius hauled up the board, Hex hunters all ran, Hellions all ran. One of the Hex hunter units got Carnivore, and an Angelius got Blood thorn.
I opened with farstriking the Bomber, who walked up, and chucked a bomb downfield at the right Angelius, and was just out. So it drifted, did very little. So he chucked one at the left, boosted to hit, and hit directly, doing about a spiral of damage. Grim1 moved up, with farstrike down, and put a shot into the right angelius. Then Cross country landed on the Riders. Fenns got pathfinder and ran to screen and get upfield. Stormtroll trudged in behind, and the Long Riders hung out in the woods.
The Nyss moved up 7'', and finished making Bethayne pay for getting her beasts so far up the board. 2 CRAs later, and the left Angelius was gone.
Did you see my screwup? It's right there.
Bethayne has Gallows. That bloody spell that pulls a person d6 if it hits? My opponent ran a Forsaken up, and Belphagor (Bethayne's ride), then arced through both of them. Grim1 got pulled in, and what was left of the first Angelius landed on him and killed him in the first AP hit.
Shortest batrep ever. Thoughts on the game.
1. Obvious mistake was obvious. I'd read the card. I knew she had gallows, and I didn't think to look at arc nodes. I just assumed Grim was far enough out of range. I had the opportunity to drop Fenns all around him and block things just like that from happening, and I didn't. Definitely dropped the ball on that one.
2. On the other hand, Nyss CRAs are awesome. That was fun. Killing an Angelius off the bat is legit. I think I was about to lose a lot of Fenns to the feat turn, and maybe some Nyss, but a lot of the punch was gone, and I had the shooting to take down the other one too.
So yeah. Silly short game, but it's there. Watch out for gallows, right?
In other news, I've got a unit of Warders and a unit of Burrowers on the painting table right now, plus my fancy Impaler. Trying to get them all playable for the weekend. I've been vassaling them both, and have enjoyed them a lot. The Warders take a bit to get used to. They out threat the Champions, but move up the board slower. They're doing good with Madrak2, but it makes his slow brick even slower. Burrowers, however, are amazing, and a blast, and employing the little guys almost wherever I want in the field, and getting Blood Fury on them, is hilarious.
His list:
Bethayne
*Angelius
*Angelius
Hex Hunters
Hex Hunters
Black Frost Shard
2x Shepherds
2x Hellions
My list
Grim1
*Runebearer
*Bomber
*Impaler
*Stormtroll
Nyss
Fennblades w/UA
Long Riders
Fell Caller
He won the rolloff and deployed first, with the ability to redeploy the hex hunters because of tier.
I stayed center, and he redeployed the hex hunters back to a more normal state of things. Tricky legion players.
And everything ran. Angelius hauled up the board, Hex hunters all ran, Hellions all ran. One of the Hex hunter units got Carnivore, and an Angelius got Blood thorn.
I opened with farstriking the Bomber, who walked up, and chucked a bomb downfield at the right Angelius, and was just out. So it drifted, did very little. So he chucked one at the left, boosted to hit, and hit directly, doing about a spiral of damage. Grim1 moved up, with farstrike down, and put a shot into the right angelius. Then Cross country landed on the Riders. Fenns got pathfinder and ran to screen and get upfield. Stormtroll trudged in behind, and the Long Riders hung out in the woods.
The Nyss moved up 7'', and finished making Bethayne pay for getting her beasts so far up the board. 2 CRAs later, and the left Angelius was gone.
Did you see my screwup? It's right there.
Bethayne has Gallows. That bloody spell that pulls a person d6 if it hits? My opponent ran a Forsaken up, and Belphagor (Bethayne's ride), then arced through both of them. Grim1 got pulled in, and what was left of the first Angelius landed on him and killed him in the first AP hit.
Shortest batrep ever. Thoughts on the game.
1. Obvious mistake was obvious. I'd read the card. I knew she had gallows, and I didn't think to look at arc nodes. I just assumed Grim was far enough out of range. I had the opportunity to drop Fenns all around him and block things just like that from happening, and I didn't. Definitely dropped the ball on that one.
2. On the other hand, Nyss CRAs are awesome. That was fun. Killing an Angelius off the bat is legit. I think I was about to lose a lot of Fenns to the feat turn, and maybe some Nyss, but a lot of the punch was gone, and I had the shooting to take down the other one too.
So yeah. Silly short game, but it's there. Watch out for gallows, right?
In other news, I've got a unit of Warders and a unit of Burrowers on the painting table right now, plus my fancy Impaler. Trying to get them all playable for the weekend. I've been vassaling them both, and have enjoyed them a lot. The Warders take a bit to get used to. They out threat the Champions, but move up the board slower. They're doing good with Madrak2, but it makes his slow brick even slower. Burrowers, however, are amazing, and a blast, and employing the little guys almost wherever I want in the field, and getting Blood Fury on them, is hilarious.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
50pts Goreshade2 (Cryx) vs. Jarl (Trollbloods). The Rematch.
If you missed the last one, I got my models handed to me by a Goreshade2 tier list that doesn't understand the meaning of dead models. The limits of my opponent are dictated by the number of Bane Thrall models he actually owns. He ran out at one point in the last game. Sanctjud would have been proud.
For my part, I got home and shelved the War Wagon. I still don't think that Jarl is a good matchup for Goreshade2, but I wanted to give it a shot with the bomber and try that a bit differently. The new lists were:
Goreshade2
*Ripjaw
Max Bane Thralls w/UA
Min Bane Thralls w/UA
Max Bane Knights
Bane Lord Tartarus
Max Bane Riders
2x Pistol Wraiths
9x Scrap thralls
Jarl
*Runebearer
*Bomber
*Impaler
*Stormtroll
Champions w/UA
Champion Hero
Fenns w/UA
Fenn Kithkar
Fell Caller
Chronicler
Sons of Bragg
He won the rolloff, deployed first.
Then everything ran. Occultation on the Riders.
Then my stuff ran. Champions to the left, Fenns spreading out on the right. I decided to try popping feat once stuff was engaged, so held off for a turn. Quicken went on the Fenns for +2 DEF against ranged/magic, and the Champs got Weald Secrets. Impaler Far Striked the Bomber, and the Bomber put some blast damage out there on the Riders, but not enough to kill anything.
Then the Riders charged. One tried to get into my Bomber, but failed charge. The Leader got into my Champions, and another failed charge as well. One more ran back. Because he's a chicken. The leader did healthy damage to the Champion he hit, but nothing crazy.
Everything else ran, and Sudden Death went on Tartarus, Curse of Shadows landed on the Champions, and I think the Bomber got Death Chilled by the Pistol Wraiths, while one shot a Fenn, giving me Vengeance.
Fenns Vengeance up, put some damage on the rider, but nothing more. The Kithkar, however, Vengeances and finishes him.
Jarl drops Weald Secrets, upkeeps Quicken. The Kithkar activates again, and charges the Bane rider on the right. This triggers Sudden Death from Tartarus, who charges into the Kithkar, and rolls double ones to miss. Haha.
The Kithkar then kills the Cavalry between his two attacks, and the Fenns charge with a Warcry from the Fell Caller. I try to get one up between Tartarus and the Kithkar to within reach of the rider waaaaay in the back, but I can't make it happen, and he fails charge. The rest of the Fenns charge into Bane Knights/Thralls, including 2 into Tartarus. For the most part, the Fenns murder their thralls, but leave Tartarus on one box, and with perfect thresher targets as he sits.
Great.
The Champions charge, and kill the two riders on the left, and with Overtake and the extra attack, creep forward and smack a couple more. The Bomber puts some AOEs in the backfield, but only kills one or two. Stormtroll kills 2 more Thralls. Jarl moves up, magic bullets and tries to kill the last Bane rider in the backfield, but just doesn't have range on anything that's not stealthed (Bloody occultation). So he takes a shot at something else and feats, dropping clouds on all the melee stuff.
Which does me 0 good against Cryx, mind you, since the debuff is only -2 to hit for Living Models. None of Cryx are apparently alive.
But on the plus side, my dice, for the most part, are doing good work. The Bomber is killing things, stuff's going ok. Sons of Bragg run, and the Chronicler gives the Fenns Hero's Tragedy.
Aaaand it's feat turn for Goreshade. He drops Occulation. Tartarus opens the ball with a Thresher that kills 3 fenns, misses one, and misses the Kithkar. Pops three Banes and adds them to the nearby unit.
Goreshade feats and brings back 4 riders and 5 thralls. He then drifts away, his work here being done.
Thralls charge, kill off all of the Fenns, the Kithkar still somehow being alive. Thralls on the left charge, and kill two Champions. Pistol Wraiths death Chill the Bomber again.
What's left of the Knights tangles with the Stormtroll, and one gets all the way into the Chronicler, but he toughs, and a Rider engages Tor, son of Bragg, while the rest fill in behind Thralls.
So, the Champions move in and start killing things. Each one hits, each one moves an inch with Overtake, and hits another one. Champions are doing work again this game. Champion hero plows through them, and threshers what's left.
Kithkar stands up, and whacks a few thralls. I should have whacked the Bane rider, but I didn't. Tor backs up since he's engaged by the Bane rider, (not the thrall, which is toughed at the moment), and dies to the Free strike. Wrathar and Rhudd do some work, but I really needed Tor's spray, and couldn't make it work.
Bomber kills a few things, Stormtroll shoots the leaps do some more work, but at this point, I'm grasping at straws, and don't have a way to contest this zone very well. In fact, I think at this point in the game, one of the Riders had killed my objective (it's been a week ago since this game happened lol).
Jarl finishes Tartarus though, and shoots another thrall down.
Knights and thralls push in, kill a few more models like Rhudd and another champion, but my tough rolls are hanging in there, and making life difficult. However, he does manage to score 2 CP, on top of the 1 he already has. My beasts are alive at the moment (though there is damage out there), but I don't have any good ways to contest the zone, and with Occultation down on Goreshade, I can't even see him. The Game store is closing in 5 minutes, so we let it go and call it game.
I gaurantee I got some of that wrong. It's been a week and I've played a few games since then. I'm about to invest in a notebook and just start doing shorthand notes as the game goes. Make things considerably simpler.
Thoughts:
1. Bomber was great. Much better than the Wagon. I don't think he made his points back (Not that it matters, because everything could have made points back, and he just kept creating them), but he removed some key models. There was one blast damage that cranked it and killed Bane rider even. I still don't know that he was the best model for this game, (Rok may have been better), but I liked him a lot more than the War Wagon.
2. Jarl. I like Jarl, I really do, but dealing with this much stealth (Thralls, Occultation) makes it really difficult to do what he wants to do. He can try to remove key units all day long, but either he can't see them or anyone within 5'', or Goreshade feats them back. I wouldn't drop Jarl against Cryx, which makes him difficult to take in a 2 list format if my other list won't handle cryx either (Probably Madrak2).
3. The key point of that game, I think, was Tartarus and the Kithkar duking it out in the middle. When Tartarus countercharged, he blocked the charge lane that I had to the last Bane rider, and killing the Bane rider was pretty instrumental in shutting down some of this list, I thought. ARM18 with boxes is tanky for that list, while everything else, I can generally kill with AOEs and stuff. 5 of them is a pain, 9 of them with the feat is ridiculous. I had a charge lane to the last one, and Tartarus blocked it. And then Tartarus wouldn't die. Either I couldn't hit him, or I couldn't roll damage. But, to my opponent's credit, he did it at the perfect moment. If Tartarus had countercharged the fenn I planned to send at the last rider, I'd of magic bulleted the rider off of Tartarus. After that, I just didn't have a way to reach him. Grim1 would have aimed and shot him off the board, but Jarl with neither True Sight, Mage Sight, or a Magic Bullet target, couldn't do it. After that, I struggled to get back in the lead attrition wise. The Champions did great, but for 15 pts, I was only getting 11 attacks, whereas with the Long Riders, I'd get the charge, impacts, and could slam Fenns all over the board. Idk if that would have been the right option, but it would be worth a shot.
Overall though, I wanted to try Jarl in the bad matchup again, and make sure I actually do hate the War Wagon, which I do. I'm curious if Madrak2 would handle this matchup better, and I feel like he would, simply because of the number of attacks he can dish out on his feat. But I think Grim1 will be my next shot, for kicks and giggles. I don't know that Madrak2 could handle most of the Cryx matchups, whereas Grim1 would be more suited for it I think. Idk. But I really enoyed the game, learned a lot from it and am looking forwards to the next one.
I have 3 batreps coming yet. Grim1 vs. Bethayne, Madrak2 vs Harkevich, and Jarl vs. Issyria. We'll see how it all goes.
For my part, I got home and shelved the War Wagon. I still don't think that Jarl is a good matchup for Goreshade2, but I wanted to give it a shot with the bomber and try that a bit differently. The new lists were:
Goreshade2
*Ripjaw
Max Bane Thralls w/UA
Min Bane Thralls w/UA
Max Bane Knights
Bane Lord Tartarus
Max Bane Riders
2x Pistol Wraiths
9x Scrap thralls
Jarl
*Runebearer
*Bomber
*Impaler
*Stormtroll
Champions w/UA
Champion Hero
Fenns w/UA
Fenn Kithkar
Fell Caller
Chronicler
Sons of Bragg
He won the rolloff, deployed first.
Then everything ran. Occultation on the Riders.
Then my stuff ran. Champions to the left, Fenns spreading out on the right. I decided to try popping feat once stuff was engaged, so held off for a turn. Quicken went on the Fenns for +2 DEF against ranged/magic, and the Champs got Weald Secrets. Impaler Far Striked the Bomber, and the Bomber put some blast damage out there on the Riders, but not enough to kill anything.
Then the Riders charged. One tried to get into my Bomber, but failed charge. The Leader got into my Champions, and another failed charge as well. One more ran back. Because he's a chicken. The leader did healthy damage to the Champion he hit, but nothing crazy.
Everything else ran, and Sudden Death went on Tartarus, Curse of Shadows landed on the Champions, and I think the Bomber got Death Chilled by the Pistol Wraiths, while one shot a Fenn, giving me Vengeance.
Fenns Vengeance up, put some damage on the rider, but nothing more. The Kithkar, however, Vengeances and finishes him.
Jarl drops Weald Secrets, upkeeps Quicken. The Kithkar activates again, and charges the Bane rider on the right. This triggers Sudden Death from Tartarus, who charges into the Kithkar, and rolls double ones to miss. Haha.
The Kithkar then kills the Cavalry between his two attacks, and the Fenns charge with a Warcry from the Fell Caller. I try to get one up between Tartarus and the Kithkar to within reach of the rider waaaaay in the back, but I can't make it happen, and he fails charge. The rest of the Fenns charge into Bane Knights/Thralls, including 2 into Tartarus. For the most part, the Fenns murder their thralls, but leave Tartarus on one box, and with perfect thresher targets as he sits.
Great.
The Champions charge, and kill the two riders on the left, and with Overtake and the extra attack, creep forward and smack a couple more. The Bomber puts some AOEs in the backfield, but only kills one or two. Stormtroll kills 2 more Thralls. Jarl moves up, magic bullets and tries to kill the last Bane rider in the backfield, but just doesn't have range on anything that's not stealthed (Bloody occultation). So he takes a shot at something else and feats, dropping clouds on all the melee stuff.
Which does me 0 good against Cryx, mind you, since the debuff is only -2 to hit for Living Models. None of Cryx are apparently alive.
But on the plus side, my dice, for the most part, are doing good work. The Bomber is killing things, stuff's going ok. Sons of Bragg run, and the Chronicler gives the Fenns Hero's Tragedy.
Aaaand it's feat turn for Goreshade. He drops Occulation. Tartarus opens the ball with a Thresher that kills 3 fenns, misses one, and misses the Kithkar. Pops three Banes and adds them to the nearby unit.
Goreshade feats and brings back 4 riders and 5 thralls. He then drifts away, his work here being done.
Thralls charge, kill off all of the Fenns, the Kithkar still somehow being alive. Thralls on the left charge, and kill two Champions. Pistol Wraiths death Chill the Bomber again.
What's left of the Knights tangles with the Stormtroll, and one gets all the way into the Chronicler, but he toughs, and a Rider engages Tor, son of Bragg, while the rest fill in behind Thralls.
So, the Champions move in and start killing things. Each one hits, each one moves an inch with Overtake, and hits another one. Champions are doing work again this game. Champion hero plows through them, and threshers what's left.
Kithkar stands up, and whacks a few thralls. I should have whacked the Bane rider, but I didn't. Tor backs up since he's engaged by the Bane rider, (not the thrall, which is toughed at the moment), and dies to the Free strike. Wrathar and Rhudd do some work, but I really needed Tor's spray, and couldn't make it work.
Bomber kills a few things, Stormtroll shoots the leaps do some more work, but at this point, I'm grasping at straws, and don't have a way to contest this zone very well. In fact, I think at this point in the game, one of the Riders had killed my objective (it's been a week ago since this game happened lol).
Jarl finishes Tartarus though, and shoots another thrall down.
Knights and thralls push in, kill a few more models like Rhudd and another champion, but my tough rolls are hanging in there, and making life difficult. However, he does manage to score 2 CP, on top of the 1 he already has. My beasts are alive at the moment (though there is damage out there), but I don't have any good ways to contest the zone, and with Occultation down on Goreshade, I can't even see him. The Game store is closing in 5 minutes, so we let it go and call it game.
I gaurantee I got some of that wrong. It's been a week and I've played a few games since then. I'm about to invest in a notebook and just start doing shorthand notes as the game goes. Make things considerably simpler.
Thoughts:
1. Bomber was great. Much better than the Wagon. I don't think he made his points back (Not that it matters, because everything could have made points back, and he just kept creating them), but he removed some key models. There was one blast damage that cranked it and killed Bane rider even. I still don't know that he was the best model for this game, (Rok may have been better), but I liked him a lot more than the War Wagon.
2. Jarl. I like Jarl, I really do, but dealing with this much stealth (Thralls, Occultation) makes it really difficult to do what he wants to do. He can try to remove key units all day long, but either he can't see them or anyone within 5'', or Goreshade feats them back. I wouldn't drop Jarl against Cryx, which makes him difficult to take in a 2 list format if my other list won't handle cryx either (Probably Madrak2).
3. The key point of that game, I think, was Tartarus and the Kithkar duking it out in the middle. When Tartarus countercharged, he blocked the charge lane that I had to the last Bane rider, and killing the Bane rider was pretty instrumental in shutting down some of this list, I thought. ARM18 with boxes is tanky for that list, while everything else, I can generally kill with AOEs and stuff. 5 of them is a pain, 9 of them with the feat is ridiculous. I had a charge lane to the last one, and Tartarus blocked it. And then Tartarus wouldn't die. Either I couldn't hit him, or I couldn't roll damage. But, to my opponent's credit, he did it at the perfect moment. If Tartarus had countercharged the fenn I planned to send at the last rider, I'd of magic bulleted the rider off of Tartarus. After that, I just didn't have a way to reach him. Grim1 would have aimed and shot him off the board, but Jarl with neither True Sight, Mage Sight, or a Magic Bullet target, couldn't do it. After that, I struggled to get back in the lead attrition wise. The Champions did great, but for 15 pts, I was only getting 11 attacks, whereas with the Long Riders, I'd get the charge, impacts, and could slam Fenns all over the board. Idk if that would have been the right option, but it would be worth a shot.
Overall though, I wanted to try Jarl in the bad matchup again, and make sure I actually do hate the War Wagon, which I do. I'm curious if Madrak2 would handle this matchup better, and I feel like he would, simply because of the number of attacks he can dish out on his feat. But I think Grim1 will be my next shot, for kicks and giggles. I don't know that Madrak2 could handle most of the Cryx matchups, whereas Grim1 would be more suited for it I think. Idk. But I really enoyed the game, learned a lot from it and am looking forwards to the next one.
I have 3 batreps coming yet. Grim1 vs. Bethayne, Madrak2 vs Harkevich, and Jarl vs. Issyria. We'll see how it all goes.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Warmachine to Hordes, and building lists for Circle
By building lists for Circle, I mean doing math, because there's really only 2 factors I have for building circle lists. A) I own this. B) It adds up to this.
My wife transitioned from Khador to Circle this week, and our first game was 50pts of Baldur1 vs. Madrak2. Looking back, 50pts is probably not where anyone wants to start with their first game of the most complicated faction. Baldur1, Bloodtrackers w/ Nuala, Druids w/ UA, Megalith, Warden, 2 units of Stones w/ UA and a Blackclad, and Nyss. Trying to figure out the synergies between a new caster, faction, 2 new infantry units, 2 beasts, and stones which are a mystery all their own, on top of trying out the fury mechanic... However, she didn't do bad, and had easily removed the Fenns, pretty nearly had the Champions gone, and SHOULD have killed my Impaler. I managed to get Madrak2 going on his Tide of Death, and tangled with Baldur, sitting on 3 fury. Luckily, my Bomber had been putting shots into Megalith, and cranking the damage rolls, so the second transfer killed Balder with the damage left over.
However, she liked the faction. She started painting the Bloodtrackers yesterday, rocking a red scheme. She won't paint Khador red, but Circle, sure. It looks pretty good though.
Essentially, she got tired of Khador and the focus stat. When I can run my beasts conservatively, hang back, then go all out on the turn I need to, whereas she's limited to a set number of focus, it gets frustrating. And against high P+S like Trolls can bring, she'd rather have Transfers than extra ARM. She rather enjoyed being able to wing it with the fury mechanic, and get more out of her beasts. As far as the fury mechanic goes, it clicked pretty well and she used it quite well.
Focus and Fury has always been something of a debate. It definitely leads to more infantry in Warmachine games. For a game that stars robots and beasts fighting eachother, there aren't many robots running around. It simply isn't efficient enough. Every turn of allocating focus is a bet against what you think you can accomplish. And after playing with Mulg, the Earthborn and a few others with 5 Fury, I don't know how I'll go back to a Stormclad with 3. When my Mauler at Fury 5 can charge for 1, use both initials and buy 4 more attacks vs. a Stormclad that charges for 1, uses 2 initials and buys 2 more attacks, it doesn't trade very well.
This limits Warjacks to being used only on casters that can help their focus efficiency or casters that don't require their jack to do more than one or two things. Casters that have a bond (4 focus), or casters that can give free charges, or boosted attacks (Kraye's pretty efficient with jacks) can get melee use out of their jacks. Otherwise, the jacks are for shooting, which they can do for one or two focus. Casters like Haley1, Haley2, Bart, so on, so forth. One of the few exceptions is a list in our meta under Khador's Harkevich. This guy runs 4 clamjacks and Black Ivan, and doesn't give them hardly any focus, all game. He casts Broadsides every turn, drops a ton of AOEs everywhere, and sits on scenario at ARM25. It's pretty hard to dislodge. These examples, of course, ignore Menoth, because Menoth can run four jacks with the Choir and be completely fine.
So in most cases, you have 1, maybe two jacks in a list, and all infantry otherwise in Warmachine, because it's really not efficient any other way. A spell like Blood Lust will do a lot more damage with a unit of Iron Fangs vs. 3 attacks from a Juggernaut.
Hordes doesn't have this issue as much. So how does this level out? At first glance, it doesn't, yet Warmachine factions continue to do well. For starters, they're a bit beefier and can take a bit more punishment. In some cases, they're cheaper. Trollblood's best beasts start at 9. Khador and Cygnar both have solid 7, 8pt options. Hordes casters also don't generally have as much fury. 5 is far more common in Hordes than it is in Warmachine. Secondly, a beast can frenzy. See, the betting is still there. Fury doesn't get out of the gambling game, it simply makes it more potent. Instead of having a focus or two left on a jack that didn't use it all, sure, your Mauler killed something, but it's probably out of the game next turn. It'll get one strong attack off at the closest enemy model, and it's done. The main advantage is being able to stop allocating Fury when you want to, and not overdoing it. You're able to push on the turn you need to as well, but you run the risk of not having any beasts next turn.
It does balance out, believe it or not, but if you're getting into the game to play large-based monsters of steel and flesh, you're not going to find it in most of Warmachine. You'll find that the infantry does much better, generally is cheaper and has more utility. However, it's easier with Hordes to make it up as you go. As you reach a point where you can plan a whole turn or two ahead, Warmachine starts to come back into it's own, but quite frankly, my wife and I are both enjoying the Hordes side of things. Jess loved the Fury, and played it like a boss.
Circle, on the other hand, was more difficult. First off, the Bloodtrackers preyed the Fenns. After the game, she realized she'd done that backwards. The Nyss were more than capable of handling the Fenns, whereas between Stone Skin (+2str, and the Tracker's ranged attack is a throw), and Prey, they could be POW13 boosted Damage (ranged attacks are weaponmaster) against Champions, and reform back. At RNG7 with the ranged attack, and reform from Nuala, they could be 10'' away from a unit with an 8.5'' threat range (except Skaldi). That's a good inch and a half of error for harassing my hard hitting unit every game. Next game, I expect to struggle keeping my melee alive long enough to get into contact.
She also feated turn 1, which worked out well for her as well, since between AD and the run, her Bloodtrackers were well within mini-feat range of the fenns. With Baldur's feat though, the Fenns were stuck.
Baldur1's Solid Ground spell is also hard to deal with. One of the best ways I have to deal with Hi-DEF infantry is blast damage, and Solid Ground cuts that out completely, for everyone.
She also wasn't sure what to do with the Druids. Next game, I imagine they'll be up front, putting out clouds all over the place, and I won't get any more Bomber shots into the Wolds. This game, they held back till late game. They managed to clear some champions, but really, didn't use much of their toolbox.
Then there was the stones. She used them to block charge lanes in the end game, which was difficult to deal with as well, and they healed the Wolds a bit, but the only teleportation they did was the Warden, who got diced. Out of 6 attacks, he missed 1 one against the Impaler, and at -3 dice, did 4 damage. She actually had charge range on him, and should have done that instead, but it still wouldn't have been enough. She got diced bad there.
Otherwise, she attritioned me much better than she has before, and only got caught by Tide of Death from Madrak2.
I'm considering a few units for her. I'd like to grab Morvahna1, and magnetize a Warpwolf for her (including Ghetorix). I'm also curious about Slaughterhousers to run on Baldur1, and I imagine she'll want a Gallows Grove as well.
Overall though, she's liking Circle, enjoying the Fury mechanic, and I expect, will be thrashing my trolls here shortly. I'm dreading the day when she picks up Morvahna2...
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
50pts Goreshade2 (Cryx) vs. Jarl (Trollbloods)
Last saturday I snuck in a game with a friend against his Cryx. He had a few casters lined up, Denny1 and Denny2, and a Goreshade2 tier list, and I had Madrak2, Doomy2, Grim1 and Jarl, all of which I was ok for trying that day. Against Cryx, Grim1 makes sense, but we're not talking to eachother at the moment, so I opted for Jarl, and tried to fit the War Wagon in, trying to make it work somewhere. I spent months painting, it'd be nice to field it, right?
Goreshade2
*Ripjaw
Max Bane Thralls w/UA
Max Bane Thralls w/UA
Max Bane Knights
Bane Lord Tartarus
Max Bane Knights
2x Pistol Wraiths
9x Scrap thralls
Pretty simple list, maximizing on lots of infantry, and the ability to replenish them. The Scrap thralls are simply there for feat.
Jarl
*Storm troll
*Impaler
*Runebearer
War Wagon
Max Fennblades w/UA
Max Champions w/UA
Champion Hero
Fell Caller Hero
Sons of Bragg
I dropped a bomber for the War Wagon I think. Really wanted to try the War Wagon again. Otherwise, fairly straightforward list. Between the sprays from the Sons of Bragg and the War Wagon, plus Black Penny on Jarl himself and Magic Bullet, and any help from the electro leaping Stormtroll, I was hoping to be able to clear off any engaging forces and get to charge every turn. Between Vengeance and that, I was expecting the Fenns to trade up in the fight pretty well.
We rolled off, and he won. He deployed pretty symmetrically, with Knights in the center and Thralls on either side. Lots of stealth. Grim1 would have been a good drop, but I haven't had any luck with him and wanted to try Jarl against Cryx.
I deployed Champs to the left, and Fenns to the right. Scenario was outflank, so I was hoping to focus on the right side, and let the champs contest the left. The sons would go whichever way was needed, and the Stormtroll would support from the middle. The corner pieces throughout the map became obstructions, instead of walls as we normally play them, so that was different, but it worked out ok.
First things first. The Santjud list runs forward. The Bane Riders push decently far on the right, but everything else is somewhat slow without the curse to help speed. Goreshade puts Occultation on the riders, and Sudden Death on himself for kicks and giggles.
My stuff moves up. The impaler moves up his 5'' and puts Far Strike on the War Wagon, or Jarl. Jarl moves up, and shoots a Bane Rider... except it's stealth. I consistently forget that almost every model in the front line has stealth. So Jarl feats, getting ready for the alpha. Nothing really was in charge range, so it wasn't the best time to feat, but I wasn't sure when the best time would be, so he feated. Quicken goes on the Fenns, and Tactical Supremacy on the Wagon.
Turns out, the best time to feat would have been after the War Wagon. The War Wagon now doesn't have a LOS to anything, but I did manage to leave a slight gap for it, so it moves up and throws a shot into the Thralls. It, of course, misses, because A) they're stealth, and B) It's got the RAT of a scoped slingshot without a sling. The deviation is solid though, and drifts to cover six Thralls. However, needing eights, I manage to box only 1, and it toughs.
Go war wagon, go!
The Champions run up on the left, Sons follow in, with the Stormtroll, and fell caller. And that's turn.
Goreshade drops Sudden Death, and drops Occultation as well, expecting the riders to be in Melee this turn. Essentially, everything spreads out, wary of the inneffective AOE5s now, and the Bane Riders ride into Melee with the Fenns. Goreshade puts Occultation on the Knights instead. The Pistol Wraith on the left moves up, hits the low DEF Wagon easily, and death chills it, blocking my Stormtroll in pretty effectively behind it, between the obstruction and the Wagon. Wraith on the right runs down my flank.
Feat's done now. Jarl upkeeps both Quicken and Tac Supremacy. So the War Wagon leads off, and puts a shot into the thralls again, and the deviation lands over three or four, and again, needing 8s, fails to break all but 1 dude, who doesn't tough. The Spray is even worse, and can't hit anything.
Moses activates and puts Harmonious Exaltation on Jarl. Jarl puts Magic Bullet down, and pops a shot into the Cavalry. Boost damage, and kills it, and the Magic bullet kills the Pistol Wraith that ran up the opposite flank of the first one previous turn. He puts another one into another rider, and boosts damage, only doing three damage. He camps 1 fury.
Impaler aims at the damaged, unengaged Rider, boosts to hit and kills it, but no crit. Champions on the left charge into the Knights, and kill them easily. The Hero charges through and threshers like, four of them, easily. Sons and Stormtroll shift around, and stay mad at the War Wagon. That's the end of the turn, so the Wagon shifts up and over 3'' with Tactical Supremacy. Fell caller gets the Fenns +2 to hit, and they wipe out all but four of the Riders, and a decent amount of Thralls.
Yes, the Feat rings are still there, but they had so many models on them that we left them.
The Knights vengeance, but don't do much. The Thralls charge into the Champions (What's left of the thralls, mind you), and one hits the Hero, who takes 1 pt of damage, and swings back with Retaliatory strike, and kills the Bane. They damage a few Champs, but nothing big. Tartarus, however, charges in, and threshers. He kills all but 2, but two of those tough, so I'm left with four. The Hero, the UA, and one Champ are gone, so that hurts, but they're hanging in there better than I thought they would.
Goreshade moves to the left, out of LOS of anything important, and casts Curse of Shadows through the arcnode Ripjaw, and hits the Fenns, dropping their ARM by 2 and giving his units the ability to move through them.
The other thralls move in and charge the fenns. Two hit the War Wagon, and do about half damage to it. The rest kill Fenns. The last Rider charges in, and gets a Fenn too.
Then my Opponent realized he forgot to feat, which was great, because it was my turn now, and I forgot to take a picture. First things first, Fenns vengeanced, and killed a few more thralls. Jarl upkept... Quicken I think.
The War Wagon had a number of models engaging it, and for a long while, I considered trying to clear out enough to get Quicken onto it, and trample it across the Banes on the right zone. I should have, but I decided I wanted to clear it out enough that I could aim and shoot, and maybe hit something. I'm pretty sure if I can get it loose, between it and the Fenns, I can kill off the right zone, and remove that unit from being feated back, not to mention, score a few CPs.
So the Sons Assault. Tor fervors and kills 3 of them engaging the Wagon. The Champions stand up, and kill seven or eight thralls (MAT7 weaponmaster, yo) and the Impaler charges the Rider, kills it, buys an attack, and misses a Thrall engaging the Wagon.
Jarl, however, aims, Magic bullets, and clears off the Wagon. Using swift hunter, he moves right 2'' and toes into the zone. I mean to take my second shot at Thralls again, but I've conveniently moved myself outside of 5'' of Thralls, and forgot they were stealthed again. I don't think I have enough fingers to count how often I forgot that.
However, I remembered long enough to realize that the war wagon had to move to be within 5'' of the Thrall UA (and the best Scatter target). So the Wagon charges, impacts a guy and murders him. Then it fires, misses, deviates ok (2.5'' scatter max) and fails to break a single ARM. So then I shoot with the spray, and it fails to hit anything.
And then I realized I have a wonderful spot on my shelf for the War Wagon, from which it will never come again, and that leaves a fantastic spot in my Jarl list for which a Bomber would be perfect.
To add insult to injury, the Fenns proceed to do the same thing, and every one of them misses their intended target as well, leaving 5 Thralls contesting my zone.
The Ripjaw gets 2 focus. Goreshade upkeeps Curse of Shadows. The then activates and feats, bringing back 7 Thralls and 2 Pistol wraiths, since I managed to kill the Bane riders when he conveniently forgot to feat. They, of course, can do nothing but move, but they're back. He brings back most of them to the left zone, and a few to the right.
The Thralls on the right charge into the Champions again, and after everything is said and done, one toughs through and is still contesting. A second gets missed on snake eyes, and hangs in there, but he doesn't contest. One thrall tangles with the Storm and takes out his body. A last Thrall charges Tor and kills him.
The Ripjaw walks in, and one rounds the War Wagon. Just like that. The Thralls in the right zone shuffle about and kill all but two Fenns, and put some hurt on the Impaler. The Pistol wraiths flank hard and get in behind the Sons of Bragg and Jarl, but can't do anything.
I'm running out of options. Fenns Vengeance, and can't kill anything. Champions, however, stand up and kill 4 more models each. Those guys are rocking out. I decide to go for the assassination, since my models are getting into the single digits, and I don't see me making it much farther. Tor assaults, and Wrathar kills the guy engaging the Stormtroll. Tor hits the little jack, doesn't quite get reach on Goreshade with the spray, and fails to kill the jack. I'm not sure how, but he does. Stormtroll moves up, boosts to hit, hits, boosts damage on Goreshade, but only gets maybe 3 damage. I decide to sit back with Jarl, and kill off the Jack, so he boosts to hit, and misses the Jack, even with black penny. The shot does, however, hit Tor, and rolls boxcars for damage on him, where he fails tough.
Jarl puts another shot into the Banes... except they're stealth, so he doesn't. Impaler charges in, kills the standard bearer. Fenns swing, and miss everything some more.
Thralls on the left kill all but the last Champion, who continues to tough like... a champion... They do kill the Stormtroll though. The bonejack forces Rhudd to tough, and another Thrall kills Wrathar and engages the Fell Caller. Thralls on the right kill every Fenn but the Drummer. They get the Impaler too. Goreshade runs away to the left.
Jarl goes all out, boosting to hit, boosting damage. He misses the second shot, only does a few damage on the first one.
I somehow don't get a picture of the very end, but it's pretty simple. Goreshade charges in and kills Jarl, twice, because he toughs the first time.
Thoughts:
1. That was a rough game. For starters, I wasn't sure what to do with the feat. I blunted his alpha, but the -2 to hit in the clouds (melee and ranged both) only applies to LIVING models, which none of Goreshade's list was.
2. Secondly, the War Wagon sucks. I'm pretty much done with it. This game seemed like it struggled dice wise, but I'm not quite as superstitious as that (I did change dice like, six times though). The Wagon's huge. It blocks my lanes, my LOS, and jams my own lines more often than not. I should probably have it way out on the flank, coming around, but I'm to the point that I like having AOEs in the army, but not being able to boost ANYTHING on it does not do me any good. On top of that, trample on a huge base like that is a joke. Very rarely do enough bases cooperate for that in a 10'' run. Any melee attacks are only half inch range which can be difficult to line up with a huge base against multiple targets. Even with FarStrike, I was struggling to accomplish anything with the Wagon. Sure, being death chilled lost me my aiming bonus, but I don't want the direct hit with an AOE, a drift is fine. The point is to kill things, and even at -8 dice, on 6 targets, I should get something. Nada, and no ability to boost either. I'll bring the Bomber, thanks.
3. I felt like I attritioned halfway decent till the last half of the game. The last turn that the War Wagon was alive, I fully expected to be able to clear out the right zone betwen Jarl, the Fenns, and the Wagon, and it just did not happen. Up to that point, I still felt like I could win the game. My opponent forgetting his feat for a round helped a lot, but even then, I felt like I was hanging in there ok.
I have a second batrep on the way that's pretty nearly identical to this. Same opponent, same Goreshade2 list, but I drop the Wagon and get a Bomber instead, trying that. I don't think Jarl's the best matchup against Goreshade2, but I wanted to at least try the uphill battle again, but direct comparison of bomber vs. wagon. My opponent was awesome, and I enjoyed both games a lot. The meta at our shoppe doesn't have much Cryx, and in fact, my opponent normally plays Mercs, or Circle (The Krueger2 vs. Stryker2 batrep from awhile back was against him), so I don't get to see them often. As popular as Goreshade2 is, this is the first time I've played him, so it's nice to get out there and see what I'm missing. I also realized why Grim1 is not as bad. I assumed Grim could fight a ranged army, but that's not the case at all. Grim1 likes a melee army to come to him, which is why he can get a RNG8 debuff spell out there. It's worth considering Grim1 again. I really like Jarl, but he might be more of a 3 list caster for me, rather than a 2list. That or I have to figure out a different Cryx matchup. I like to drop Madrak2 against everything, and I think Madrak2 would have handled a Goreshade2 list much, much better than Jarl did, but I don't know about a lot of the other Cryx matchups.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed the report! Comments, critique, insults and slander, mostly welcome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)