Vayl2 (Legion) vs. Doomshaper3 (Trolls) x2.

  It's been a weird month guys, but I've got some batreps at least.  This is the first non-beta scenario I've played in a month and a half, so I can use the batreps.  The Objectives, however, are in beta, but because they held no significant factor on the game, whatsoever, I can share the game with you.  For all intents and purposes, the objectives are SR2014 objectives that do nothing.

  Still playing Doomshaper3.  I've played this legion player several times, and his current pairing is Thags1 w/Blightbringer and 2x units of Warspears w/UA, and his other list is Vayl2.  He's tried the Thags1 list into my twice now and I've beaten it both times, though they've had the opportunity to go either way.  So he's trying Vayl2 into Doomy3 again.  We burn through the first game, and reset and go again, so I've got two batreps here, same lists, same scenario.

 Vayl2
*Angelius
*Angelius
*Scythean
*Seraph
*Ravagore
*Ravagore
Succubus
Shepherd
Shepherd
Spawning Vessel

  My Doomshaper3 list is unchanged, though I forgot my Mountain King so the large black base is the proxy.  It's been a busy month.

Doomshaper3
*Mountain King
*Mulg
*Axer
Max KSB w/UA
Max Burrowers
Whelps
Whelps

  This is a Tier 3 list.  Vayl2 is playing tier as well.  My opponent wants to play Recon so we throw the terrain together, roll off and I win the roll with a Seven thanks to tier.

  Deployment is pretty simple.  I only have a few models.  Mountain King is deployed left of the objective because there's a house on the right and more room to move on the left and that's the only important thing there.  This picture is after the Axer has rushed MtK and charged, and the Burrowers have run.

     Mountain King runs.  Doomshaper puts down Implacability, rushes Mulg, dumps the rest to the stone and charges the Mountain King.  KSB pops aura and runs.  The one whelp I deployed runs up too.

  My opponent decides that he thinks he can get an Angelius into the King this turn.  So a Ravagore shoots a Burrower and kills.  The Seraph animuses and Slipstreams the Angelius up a bit and moves to my left.  The Scythean pushes the Angel up.  The other Ravagore runs.  Vayl2 activates, puts Refuge on the Angel that's been pushed, puts Admonition on the other and that's all I remember that's pertinent.  The Angelius charges the Mountain King, armor pierces at dice even (19 rounded to 20, divided in half to 10 for armor piercing, +2 ARM from tier, +2 ARM from stone), and does seven or eight damage.  Buys an attack, hits him again.  It does about 15 damage to the King, leaving four whelps on the ground.  It refuges off to my left.  The pot dudes attack themselves and spawn a stinger which runs up to my Mountain King and is just a pest in general.

    It's feat turn for sure, so the Burrowers burrow.  This is probably the most thinking for this game, is running the Burrowers first turn or burrowing.  I like them to be underground for the feat so that there's really nothing for the opponent to do.  They help to either stall an alpha, or be a pain on the post-feat turn.  In this case, that's what I want, the post-feat turn speedblock.  So they burrow.  Doomshaper moves up a little, feats, does Admonition on Mulg, casts Implacability and puts 1 on the stone.  

  Mulg walks up, murders the Stinger and goads away.  The Axer moves up, rushes the Mountain King.  The Mountain King activates, rolls 5d3 to heal (Four whelps, 1 hyper regen from Doomy3) and rolls five fives, healing 15 damage, bringing him to full.  He then assaults into the Seraph.  The admonitioned Angel wanders past me into my back arc.  It takes four fury but I remove the seraph (Missed an attack and rolled terrible damage on another, leaving him on two boxes) and have a fury left.  I killshot the pot, hit, boost damage and remove it from the board, along with the unit.  The Mountain King has consistently removed that pot from the game.  It's pretty funny.  To me.

  The stone pops aura and runs to support the King and get +2 ARM out there.

    So it's go time.  The back right Ravagore aims, puts a shot into the stone unit and kills three models, including the stone bearer who self sacs to the one survivor in the group.  The angel that admonitioned walks up and kills the bearer himself, putting the Mountain King down to ARM19.  

  Don't remember how, and refuges the other Angel I think.  It moves in, hits the Mountain King some but not a lot and backs of.  The Scythean goes all in but really does very little.  Vayl activates and manages to get Admonition back on the angel in the zone, oblits some whelps off and the Ravagore gets some too.  That's turn.  Shepherds do some fury things but yeah.

  Burrowers come up around the Angel in the zone.  Mountain King eats a whelp to get rid of fury and Doomshaper takes everything back in and upkeeps Admonition.  The stone moves first to get stuff set up and open lanes, and in my idiocy, I run the KSB UA within 6 of the Angelius, which admos out of the burrowers, so four of them lose the back arc bonus.  Very dumb move on my part.

  Doomshaper goes ahead and moves into the zone, casts Implacability, and puts Rush on Mulg I think.  Maybe.  He camps three fury though.  The scroll does the "Signs and Portents" thing for warrior models and the Burrowers shuffle over unfortunately.  Of the six of them, three hit with their POW8s and do nearly nothing, and only 1 POW14 hits, doing three or four damage.  The other burrowers shoot at the objective and leave it on seven.  The Axer charges in, boosts to hit and does seven or eight damage.  Buy an attack, hits (rolling hard 8s) and then boosts damage, leaving the Angel still kicking.  Originally Mulg was going to go into the Ravagore in the upper right, but the Angel is more important.  He moves up to the objective, hits it, finishes it, goads back to the Angel and kills it.  The Mountain King removes the Scythean with ease.   With the Objective gone and Doomshaper in the zone, I go to three CP.

  Not a lot anyone can do.  Vayl2 moves in, feat, oblits Mulg twice, does some damage, and kills whelps that spawn with her occulus. She's also just out of range of the KSB dude, so she can't get the +2 ARM gone.  She does refuge the Ravagore though.  The Ravagore charges, but is just out, failing it.  The Angel goes in on Mulg, but only does about half damage, removing his spirit.  The second Ravagore goes in on the Mountain King but at dice -5, does very little.

  Pretty simple after that.  Doomshaper pulls fury off of Mulg and the Axer while the Mountain King eats a whelp.  Mulg heals 3 with the Hyper Regen and trivially kills the Ravagore, scoring the last two CP needed to win the game.

  Thoughts on the game.

  1.  Vayl2 is a concern for me, but she straight up has no damage buff so she really struggles to kill any ARM whatsoever, so I'm pretty comfortable tanking even when the feats not up.  She does out threat me with the Seraph's animi though, and I think once he figures out how to leverage that and force me to feat on his terms, 

 2.  I've played against Vayl2 tiers before, and had a lot more trouble against them.  I think normally they have the Blackfrost Shard though, and this guy doesn't have that.  Until then, a PS17 scythean doesn't scare me too much.  

 3.  I can't believe I forgot about Admonition.  I even have that spell.

Next game.  Same lists, same Scenario.  I even win the rolloff again.  We deploy exactly the same.  First turn goes exactly the same.

    His turn is vastly different however.  Everything essentially runs to the left with an Angel, Seraph and Ravagore putting shots into the Burrowers, killing three, and one bad drift way out to left field.   When it's all said and done, everything is way back and way left trying to flank hard and the Seraph has Admonition, really the only thing in Charge range.  There's one Ravagore tucked into the building on the right, but that's it.  The Pot tries to kill enough of it's own models to spawn something, but no luck.

  I decide that I can stay out of charge range of most of the things, so the Burrowers don't burrow, but run up the left flank and tarpit .  The KSB pushes right and up into the tall grass, pops Aura.  The Axer moves left and back a little, trying to protect the extreme left flank, Rushes the Mountain King.  The Mountain king walks forward seven inches with Rush, boosts to hit the Ravagore on the right, hits and boosts damage doing seven or so.  Mulg walks up.  Nothing crazy.  Doomshaper moves to the right, puts admonition on Mulg, loads the stone a bit and camps three.

So.  Vayl2 upkeeps admonition.  Seraph aims and shoots two burrowers, one toughs, shoots it again and kills it.  Ravagore on the right charges in and does some damage.  Mountain King whelps mostly to the back because I want to heal, and I expect Vayl2 to oblit and clear them if I place them in front.  

  Vayl2 activates, shoots another burrower in the way, puts refuge on an Angel and camps.  Burrowers fail CMD.  The Angel charges in, armor pierces decently, then overtakes around and kills more whelps.  Then it refuges away behind the objective.  Mountain King is about half health.  The other Angel runs up a bit, nothing crazy, the Scythean shuffles in somewhat, trying to force Mulg to get Rush if he's going to come.  The last Ravagore puts a shot into a whelp near the King on the back side, but misses and drifts onto 3 KSB dudes and kills them.  The pot manages to kill one more guy and pops a shredder when puts spiny growth on Vayl.

    So, definitely Feat turn this time.  D3 upeeks admonition and pulls in fury.  Stones shuffle into the tall grass and pop aura.  Doomshaper moves into the zone, casts Implacability, loads another onto the stone and puts Rush on Mulg.  Then he feats.

  Mulg walks into the objective, hits with his fist, then the club and kills it.  Then he buys into the Ravagore.  He kills it in four attacks and goads back out of the way.

  The Mountain King assaults the Angel hiding behind the objective.  The assault shot misses both the Angel and Vayl.  The charge attack hits though and cranks damage.  The second initial misses.  Third attack hits, fourth attack hits and I boost damage to finish the angel.  With Killshot, I target the pot, hit needing a 5 and boost damage, killing it and removing it from the table.  Axer runs to my left and tries to block some more of the zone.  I go to 3 CP.

    There's not much he can do.  Vayl2 upkeeps admo, because why not. The Angelius gets spiny growth from the shredder.  Vayl activates, put refuge on the Angel, moves back and tries to shoot the KSB but since he's trying to camp, he can't roll the 7 he needs because of concealment.  The KSB stays.  He does Icy grip the Mountain King though.

  Seraph shoots the whelp behind the wall and tries to slipstream the Scythean but is just out.  The Angel charges in, does a little to the King but not much.  Enough to whelp once.  It then refuges into the zone behind most of the stuff.  Ravagore charges in, does next to nothing.  Scythean charges mulg, Mulg admonitions because Vayl2 didn't Purify.  Scythean instead kills Burrowers.  Shepherd runs into the zone.

  Doomshaper pulls in fury, leaves one on the Axer which frenzies and does some damage to Mulg.  Not much.  Mountain King eats a whelp to get rid of his. Stone pops aura for +1 STR.  Doomshaper charges the Angel, and the scroll bearer does the Signs and Portents thing.  Doomshaper boosts a Repudiate, hits and removes Spiny Growth.  Then he hits, crits (pointless against the Angelius) and does eight or nine damage on his own.  Casts Implacability because why not.

  Mountain king can't sweep because of Icy grip, but he only needs sixes to hit the Scythean, so he goes for it.  He kills it with 2 fury to spare, buys and boosts a hit into the Shepherd and kills it.  Mulg walks into the Angel, needing sevens to hit.  Four or five attacks later, it's done, dead, and I score the last 2 CP needed.

Thoughts on the game:

1.  This game was more one-sided than the last one.  Being able to start scoring on my feat turn means I go to 3CP, he can't clear me out, remove any key models, and I get to finish off what's in the zone next turn.  It's pretty bad for him.  Flanking hard had some benefits, but allowing me to position back and dictate when I feat was really bad.  He needs to be able to keep enough of his army alive past the feat turn to remove either Mulg or the Mountain King.  If I go first, I can't score on turn 2, but I probably have to feat because of my position on the board.  So I'll score 3 on turn 3, but the feat is down.  If he's managed not to lose his heavy hitter(s), he counterpunches bottom of 3 and removes Mulg or the Mountain King and fills the zone, which he can do very easily with Refuge.  Now I have to clear the zone with just whatever's left.  With the number of beasts Vayl2 brings with her and the ability to Refuge them back trivially, she can really manage to only feed me one a turn.  That means she feeds the Seraph and Ravagores into the machine, saving the Angels and Scythean for the counterpunch on turn 3.  None of that happened in this game.

2.  No damage buff really hurts.  I think I might see the Blackfrost in the future.  

3.  Recon is Doomshaper territory anyways.  Unlike some of the other scenarios, Recon encourages a brick, and really rewards the good brick troll lists.  Vayl2 can afford to spread out and play things like Incursion and Outflank, and Doomshaper3 really doesn't want to.  Recon though, man, I love that Scenario with Doomshaper.

So, that's the batreps.  Hopefully they're some good information with the Doomshaper3/Mountain King combo.  Feel free to comment and critique.

50pts Grim1 (Trollbloods) vs. Vayl2 (Legion). Back to phonepics and storyless batreps. Sorry guys.

  In the midst of our Journeyman league and everything else we have going on, the errata dropped.  Killshot already existed, but the Mt. King got assault as well.  There's a lot of other things that got errata, but this is a Trollblood page.

  That being said, Cygnar players are hilarious.  It's like a 12 cylinder Corvette (nonexistent, I know) playing a cylinder down.  They'll be ok.

  Anyways, Bruce got assault.  That's 2 sprays per turn.  RAT5, POW16, SP10 x2.  If you weren't paying attention to Miniature Market, they were giving them away free with every purchase.  The day the errata dropped, they were gone.  PP will have to actually manufacture more of them.  There's four dudes standing around a table trying to remember how the Mt. King and Animithrax mould go together.

  Who wants him?  Doomy2 is obviously still an option, but with now 2 shots, he steps a bit more into the ranged game.  It's now a lot more possible for him to do more with with the ranged game than the melee game.  Although, lets be fair, that was already possible, but not because the ranged capabilities were so good.

  My criteria for building a list for the King and choosing the caster were the following:

1.  RAT boost of some sort.  Nothing like maximizing the newest best thing about this guy.
2.  Threat extension.  SPD5 + 3'' charge + 2'' reach sucks in most cases.  Most heavies that can one-round the king can also cover that distance more effectively.
3.  Enough support from the caster to not need support for the King.  I did not want to bring an EBDT or KSB.
4.  Plenty of room in the list for Infantry to screen.

  Doomshaper1, Grim1, Grim2, Gunnbjorn.  Doomshaper1 means Runes, and Fortune.  I'm not quite ready for that.  And if I'm going to put a Garg in that list, it'll probably be GK, not MK.  

  Grim2 has everything but threat extension (Mirage doesn't work on him).  The free charge is nice, the feat is bonkers, but no threat extension means I need an Axer.  Or Lanyssa.  20pts doesn't give me much room for anything.

  Gunnbjorn has a lot of uses for him, and I think he turns Gunny up quite a bit, but we're back to no threat extension.

  This leaves Grim1.  Grim1 makes him pretty accurate, can maybe protect him for a turn with the feat.  The boostable KD gun is a huge MAT/RAT buff of it's own, Headhunter is a threat extension, and Cross Country is great for a lot of things.

  Having said all of this, I realize now that Borka1 is pretty solid in this case.  Mosh Pit is a great accuracy buff, he's got a threat extension, he can screen stuff really well with Iron Flesh on the tarpit...  Yeah, Borka1 has game.  I may have to try that.

  Anyways, I built a Grim1 list.

Grim1
*Runebearer
*Mt. King
*Pyre
Janissa
Max Fenns w/UA
Max Highwaymen
Fire Eaters
Fire Eaters

  Highwaymen seemed smart at the time because of Grim1.  Looking back, idk.  Maybe Scats would be better.  Still, CRA and Cross Country or Marked for Death seemed good. Fenns would tarpit, HWM would shoot things, and basically, we move up the board with Janissa protecting Grim1 until I feel like I can deliver the King into whatever can kill him the easiest, and hopefully assault/killshot enough to make that possibility really unlikely.  Ideally, I'd feat for that.

  There were some different lists running around.  I dodged the Menoth guy because he was touting a Harby list, and I reeeaaaally wanted to Killshot something.  That left an Arkadius tier or a Vayl2 player.  I ended up against the Vayl2 player.

  First time I've seen Vayl2 outside of her Tier.

Vayl2
*Scythean
*Angelius
*Shredder
*Raek
*Naga
Shepherd
Shepherd
Max Pot (I think)
Anyssa Ryvaal
Max Raptors
Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Forsaken
Forsaken

  Low model count, but I've got to be constantly aware of Vayl2's ability to spell assassinate me all game.  He also nearly matches my threatrange on the King, so there's that, and he has refuge.  The scythean is my concern, but the Angelius can be dangerous to the King as well.

  We rolled a scenario, got Fire Support.  He took the no Knockdown objective, and I took Effigy of Valor.  I won the rolloff, took first.  He should have taken my side of the table, but at the time, it made sense to hang out on his side.

  We deployed.  His stalkers and raptors mostly across from the HWM, beasts centered on the King.  I have no Fell Caller, no Chronicler.  I'm relying on terrain for DEF boosts, and on Cross Country for pathfinder.  The Fenns have the Minifeat, so there's that, but otherwise, I'm counting on Grim.  The HWM get Cross Country, they run into the woods.  The King runs forward, and everything else follows.

    The Raptors all move up and shoot at HWM.  They are out of range.  They back up into the woods.  The Deathstalkers kill one HWM, but he toughs.  The Scythean runs up.  The Raek moves up.  The pot tucks in behind the obstruction on the left, and the Shepherds and Forsaken tuck in with them.  Angelius runs up to the woods, and Vayl2 moves up and considers feating.  It's not assassination, but he really wants to get all of his upkeeps out and still have fury.  He decides not to, puts Occultation on the Raptors, Admonition on the Scythean.  He throws an occulus at the Scythean, hits and arcs an Icy Grip at my Fenn behind cover.  He's out of range.  Another Fenn, outside of cover, was way closer, and he both A) Failed to measure his control and check it, and B) Failed to notice the closer Fenn.  I'm not sure how that happened, but Icy Grip fell flat on it's face.

    I really want to feat here.  Everything is too far back though.  I can move up with Grim and maaaaaybe have the Scythean within 8 for the KD shot, but my Fenns are in the way.  My HWM are too far away from much, and it's at this point that I remember why I don't like Grim1.  He really wants to play forward, and I usually can't keep him alive.  Grim2, and the HWM would be shooting  like crazy.  I can't ignore stealth, so there's that, but even then.  Grim1...  I have no Apparition or anything.  Grim1 upkeeps Crosscountry.  The HWM move forward, are out of range of everything. 

  Fenns minifeat and charge.  One charges in behind the Scythean, who admonitions straight back from the King.  I still have melee on him  though.  The rest of the Fenns run/charge.  Two are in melee with the Scythean, both hit needing 5s and do average damage on him.  Two miss the Raek, one engages Anyssa who has Parry anyways.  It was worth a shot though.  

  Grim1 is freed up now though, so he moves up, boosts a hit into the Scythean and hits.  There's "Bait the Line".  Boost damage for like, four points.  Nothing crazy.  Spend one for Return fire and camp 2.  

  The Mountain King goes for it.  He assaults.  The whole reason I'm playing him.  He goes all in, reaches melee on the Scythean, the shot goes through, hits the forsaken, a shepherd and a pot guy.  I miss all four.

  Sweet.

  I boost the melee hit though, and absolutely demolish the Scythean.  The pot gets a Corpse token.  The Mt. King gets Killshot, and sprays to his right at the Angelius.  I boost the hit, hit, and boost damage for 16 damage.  Or something like that.  It was crazy.  I boost a hit on one of the two raptors I hit behind him and kill one.  

  The fire eaters on the left run up to block LOS to Grim1.  Janissa drops her wall on his left, creating a little bunker for him with the pre-existing wall.  Fire eaters on the right move up a little.  This is it.  The Angelius has it's spirit out, but that's easily fixed.  If he doesn't kill the King this turn, it's probably over.  If he does, it's still a game, but a more difficult one.  

  First things first.  Vayl upkeeps nothing, I think.  Feat turn kinda thing.  The Deathstalkers move up, try to kill HWM and the Fenn on the hill.  HWM dies, the Fenn toughs.  He debates long and hard about going after Grim1, but at DEF20 from most angles, it probably can't happen.  The Raek is the kicker, he needs the headbutt but he can't get him there.  So he focuses on the King.  The Forsaken walk up on my King with 4 fury on him and there's two.  They both blow up and between the two of them, take most of a spiral with them.  I put my whelps up towards the Angelius, trying to eliminate landing spots but it's hard when they're required to be there B2B.

  The Shredder goes, kills one of the Fenns engaging the Raek.  Vayl activates, and starts throwing the Occulus around.  She hits the one on the hill.  He toughs again.  She hits one on my left that blocks LOS to Grim.  She hits him with an Obliteration and takes him and a whelp out.  She feats and puts Refuge on the Naga, Admonition on herself and I think Occultation back on the Raptors.  Not sure.  At some point, she's killed two or three Fenns or whelps, but the guy on the hill is still there, so she Oblits him, and he doesn't tough.

  The pot is full now, spawns a Shredder and it kills the other Fenn engaging the Raek.  The Angelius charges the King, hits him for 9, 10 damage on the first attack, and after a full activation, and one last attack to kill a whelp instead of the King, he takes out a spiral.  I've blocked out most of the upper right with whelps, so the Naga goes and kills them all and refuges away.  This leaves the Raptors.  Three charge, one runs into the HWM.  The three of them do little to no damage with the mounts, and the very very last Weapon Master attack kills the king with boxcars and double fives.  I remove the Mt. King from the board and leave a plethora of whelps.

    Then he said "Aw man." and points at his forsaken.  He rolls his dice, 2d6, and rolls an 11. "Put the King back on the table, they failed their CMD check."  Apparently Forsaken are abomination.  Which is funny because the Mt. King has Terror, and so do the Fenns.  All of which they were engaged with.  So the King came back on the board with a full spiral left and a couple of whelps behind him from previous attacks and we called the game.  

  Annyssa hadn't gone yet, but she couldn't kill Grim by herself, and the Raek simply didn't have the range.  On my turn, Grim1 would feat, the unit of Fire Eaters on the right would have killed all of the Raptors and Angelius.  The left Fire eaters would have killed the Pot guys and party, and the HWM would have mopped up everything else.  Vayl2 would have been left, on her own, and without a feat.  That's assuming the Mt. King dies.  With him alive, he sweeps with Amuck, kills all raptors and Angelius and killshots Vayl1.  Maybe he hits, maybe he doesn't, but its a boosted RAT8 on the feat from Grim1.  It was a bad spot. 

  Thoughts on the game:

1.  I really don't like Grim1.  He just doesn't click for me.  The feat is great, but he wants to push hard to get it.  Overall, I like Grim2 so much more.  I also like how much more he enables Trollblood shooters without having to push so far forward.  The only issue is not getting a SPD buff in there.

2.  Assault is really cool.  I didn't get to use it this game to any positive use lol.  Basically a normal Mt. King game.

3.  My opponent really felt like missing Icy Grip was the killer, but I think the Scythean would have died either way.  The KD shot from Grim would have negated Admonition and the need for the SPD buff.  I'm not sure where it fell apart.  The King lasted longer than I thought he would.  Some subpar dice from the Forsaken and Angelius certainly hurt.  I also feel like I didn't see any major Obliterations.  Usually Obliterations wreck huge swathes of my army and I lost 2 fenns to it.  Icy Grip hurt, sure, but the HWM were going to start wrecking face next turn.  CRAs love low model counts and eventually they'd get within 8''.

4.  Idk if I'll do another Grim1 game with the King or not.  It's probably back to Grim2 for me, maybe Borka1.  Borka1 seems like fun, but the first time I run into a KD immune list I'll be frustrated.  That's not super common though so as long as my other list can handle Menoth we're good.  

  Hopefully you enjoyed the batrep.  It's certainly not up to Arizona_Troll's standard lol, but this took three Scrubs episodes to write, not a day like I imagine his do.  We'll be heading back to hobby oriented stuff before too long, but with the Errata in place, a Mt. King batrep seemed like the thing.  Cya around guys!