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

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

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

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

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

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

  Which, because it's Madrak2, I do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thoughts on the game:

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

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

  3.  Revive is annoying.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  Victory to Minions.

Thoughts on the game:

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

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

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

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

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

  

50pts Bradigus (Circle) vs. Madrak2 (Trollbloods) Circle's new theme sucks. Bonus Calandra vs. Bradigus game also.

Sucks for everyone else, I mean. Except maybe Legion. Legion's beasts won't care much, but that's about it. There's been a bunch of discussion on Bradigus's new tier. It's janky, but it presents some pretty difficult issues. For starters, he only brings Wolds, with or without theme. Oddly enough, his theme does not allow Megalith. What his theme does allow is 3 units of stones, 3 units of Sentry Mannikins, can redeploy a model or unit, and the Sentry Stones starts with 3 fury. This allows Bradigus to push hard turn one, and with the Mannikins, create 9 forests across the board in a solid line. This creates some obvious LOS issues, which makes getting the charge off against hi-armor Wolds pretty difficult.

The Trollbloods forum/facebook group has been struggling with the Bradigus theme since Exigence dropped, trying to figure out how to deal with it, and my argument was for Madrak2. Both Grims have answers for the LOS, but neither really has the damage output to deal with four to six Wold Watchers at ARM21. Assassinating Bradigus at range is pretty impossible as well because of the Flesh of Clay animus that the Wold Guardian brings (one less dice damage for ranged attacks against target)

On top of that, Bradigus can assassinate pretty well. This Theme brings 3 units of stones, which can launch a Wold a long ways. There's a specific assassination tactic that involves a specific stone formation for the three units. I think Party Foul has it up on Youtube. The stones go up, one unit to launch a stone, the second unit to launch the guardian into formation with the stone that just got launched, and the third unit that the previous stone belonged to launches a Wold into your AD lines. It's brutal.

My argument for that has been Madrak2. With his feat, my dudes can just flat out run through the woods with pathfinder, feat, and swing at everything with blood fury as if they got the charge. Seems legit. So the guy that has been killing me with Cryx, and just recently switched back to Circle, brought Bradigus, and we set up.

Bradigus Tier III
*Wold Guardian
*Wold Guardian
*Wold Watcher
*Wold Watcher
*Wold Watcher
*Wold Watcher
Blackclad Wayfarer
Sentry Stone w/ Mannikins
Sentry Stone w/ Mannikins
Sentry Stone w/ Mannikins
Shifting Stones w/UA
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones

My Madrak2 list is not specifically tailored for this matchup, and is my normal anti-ARM list.

Madrak2
*Bomber
*Impaler
*Runebearer
Max Fenns w/UA
Max Warders
Max Burrowers
Min KSB w/UA
Fell Caller
Kithkar
Chronicler
Janissa

I won the rolloff and elected to go first, trying to get farther up the board. I deployed, opting for splitting the Fenns up to either side of the BG and dropping the Warders to the right. My opponent's deployement is pretty straightforward. Fairly symmetrical.



A bonus shot, showing off my banners. I actually forgot to add the Warder's banner to the lineup in this shot, but it doesn't have the white decor yet.



Stuff runs. Chronicler gets Tale of Mists on the Fenns for some extra DEF but that's about it. Most of the ranged attacks are going to be sprays later on, so it's not a big deal. Chronicler's really just an extra model this game.



So, Sentry Stones started with 3 fury, right? They run up, all of them, and drop forests. This is pretty annoying. Everything else moves up behind the woods, and he tries to position his stones so I can't catch them in my pseudo alpha. Bradigus gets Synergy out there. All of the Wold Watchers animus for free (Basically Roots of the Earth, no pushing, pulling, knocking down and can't be made stationary), and do Stone Form for a fury each. This gets them to ARM21 at the price of DEF5. Their base DEF is 10, so fairly easily hit anyways by most things, so it's not a big deal. My burrowers are happy though. My fell caller wonders what his purpose in life is.



So, options here. Burrowers are not going to be able to pop up on his side of the forest. That hurts a little. He kept back that far at least. He told me after the game that he'd of been more concerned if I had run them. Popping them up top of 3 behind his woods would have been bad, so he feels that he would have needed to engage them turn 1, which means he wouldn't have gotten as many forests down. I didn't do that though, so my burrowers pop up outside of his forests. I decide to push them into the woods as much as I can without pathfinder, and elect to leave them outside of melee range. Point Blank (the thing that makes Burrowers super cool with Madrak2, moreso than most casters) doesn't actually get a chance to happen during his feat because Point Blank is something that can only happen during their activation. Madrak's feat is during his activation, so that can't happen. I decide to just shoot with them, for two reasons. 1) The Burrowers are RAT4, and are relishing the chance to shoot something without needing help (DEF5 Wold Watchers), and 2) Madrak2's feat also grants an extra shot for ranged attacks. This means that I can get another round of POW14s out there from the Burrowers if I don't engage with them.

So they fire away, and do some damage. Nothing super crazy, but we're just getting started. The highlight, however, was the one dude that I engaged his Blackclad with. That guy pulled his weight, rolled a 10 on the gun, and one-shotted the Blackclad. I don't even think the Druid saw him. I just imagine this guy walking through the woods, steps on something that suddenly squirms, and lo! a firearm! Blam. Just blows this druid away. Anyways. Runebearer minifeats and gets Blood Fury on the Fenns, who proceed to minifeat as well, somewhat pointlessly. They cause Terror, and gain 2'' of movement on a the charge. They can't charge though, and there's now only 2 models that can possibly be affected by terror. So basically, I'm expecting to get these Fenns murdered on the counterpunch, and I'd like them to not fail their CMD. They run in there and engage a bunch of stuff.

The Bomber runs. No pitching bombs. Too many burrowers out there. Impaler runs. KSB runs. Madrak charges.... something. Possibly my impaler. Something. I needed the extra 3'' really bad. I think I kill a burrower actually, that I left behind on purpose. I wipe him out, and Madrak feats.

So all of the Burrower and Fenns that I just finished activating go again. This is not a timed-turn list. When the dust settles though, even with above average damage rolls, all four Wold Watchers stand. I took out spirit and mind on two of them, that that's it. I leave Madrak on 3 fury and move on.

Madrak is way up forward, so I push Janissa up, but she's nowhere close enough to put a wall in front of him. I debate about putting the wall just behind Madrak so nothing can push him backwards, but the way is pretty clogged up in front of him, and I don't think he can get anything behind Madrak, so Janissa just drops the wall in front of herself. Warders run, trying to be relevant. Kithkar runs, having the same struggle. And that's turn.





My opponent pulls in all his fury, and debates about how to get his synergy chain rolling. He wants all 6 wolds to hit, but 2 of them are in pretty dire shape. The two important guys though, the Guardians, are undamaged, which is good. So, the Mannikins activate first. They spray some stuff, and my Fenns start toughing. Couple of them tough pretty reliably. Part of this is cool because he's trying to clear lanes, but part of it is bad because now he's building Synergy really easy. So the Mannikins spray stuff, and the two beat up Watchers both hit things. One moves across and kills a Warder, believe it or not. Synergy, yo. Overall though, they pretty much wipe out all but 5 Fenns, 3 burrowers, and 4 Warders, which is pretty solid. However, the main problem suddenly becomes clear when the stones activate, and double teleport a Guardian into Madrak's back arc.

Yeah. I keep misjudging this freaking stones and their threat ranges.

I think the teleport happened pretty early, actually, and Bradigus got up there and started the synergy chain, feating most of his stuff forward. The other Guardian teleports across, hoping that the first Guardian can push Madrak into range of him. The back Guardian activates, and sure enough, starts wailing away. I've got 3 transfers and 2 Grim Salvation targets, and the Guardian goes through all 5. When the second Guardian gets to him, he hits once and I fail the tough.

Note that Madrak2 is off to the side by the Warders, but where he belongs is actually in between the two Guardians.



Thoughts on the game:

1. This tier sucks to play against. I see a lot of people racking their brains on how to deal with it, and there's just really not many good options. I think Trolls have some of the best chances against it, honestly, and even then it's limited. Grim1 or 2 comes to mind with their ability to ignore forests, but most people don't bring Armor cracking lists with those guys. No LOS, High ARM, almost impossible ranged assassination, and serious assassination threat ranges of its own are 4 huge challenges you don't normally see all in the same list. Grim2 might be ok with Magesight and Mortality. He can soften stuff up with Mortality, but he's still going to have a very difficult time, and there's going to be a turn where you just send everything in and take the counter-attack on the chin just to open up the forests. My normal circle drop is Jarl, and he's just toast against this list.

2. I do think Madrak2 has game against the list. For sure. Not as much as I had hoped, but it can be done. For starters, I definitely should have pushed in the Burrowers with a run. Secondly, I so badly screwed up not putting the wall behind Madrak. I would have won if I had. Bradigus was in the open, the feat was spent, and the Warders would have started one-rounding what was left of the Wolds.

3. What Bradigus looks like he's going to struggle against are:

-1) Dudespam. He doesn't have a lot of fury. The Watchers are going to use their initials, and that's it. The Guardians are where it's at. If you can fill up his lines with dudes, he's going to have a very long and hard game trying to clear things out. A couple of Troll tiers, most Cryx lists, stuff like that will be ok I think. They'll take the forest on the chin, but once you get past that, you're golden.

-2) Removing stones. Sure, that's always key against Circle, but it's a pretty huge part of Bradigus's plan. Dropping a stone early on is a huge thing if you can do it.

-3) Killing Mannikins. The Mannikins are the problem early on, dropping forests everywhere. If you can get to them somehow, and drop them the turn before you alpha, you're really hurting him. Grim2 would help with this again with a Bomber/Dozer and Magesight.

-4) Guardians/Wardens. Some lists have just 1 Guardian to benefit from the end of the Synergy chain. Others have two. Either way, especially if there's just one, focus on it. A Wold Watcher with +7 MAT and STR is pretty neat, but he still doesn't do what a Guardian can do.

-5) Wide lists/ flank attacks. Centralized scenarios and brick lists are stuff that Bradigus excels in because he can block LOS super easy. Once you start spreading out and get stuff coming in from crazy angles, he has a hard time stopping you.



3. Stuff that Bradigus can do to you.

-1) Assassinate you. He can put a Guardian in your AD zone bottom of 1, top of 2 if you don't watch what you're doing.

-2) Mystic Ward. Didn't bother Madrak, but it'll bother a lot of stuff you have.

-3) We've beat the LOS problem to death.

-4) You can't assassinate him by ranged very well. Flesh of Clay is an animus he will definitely have up any time there's a threat of it. If you've got Eiryss, sweet. If not, think of something else. Oh, and heads up, all of the Wold Watchers have Shieldguard, so the one shot from Eiryss that you REALLY need to hit with? It's going to hit a Wold Watcher instead.

-5) Armor skew similar to what Baldur2 can put out. Cygnar is going to hate this list so much. Stryker3 got all excited. "Armor skew?! I got this! Wait, I can't see anything? Dangit. I'm going back to my better incarnation. Somebody take this stupid horse away."




GAME 2. Oh yeah. Bonus game. Full batrep? No. Basically, we had time left, and I had my new caster that I have vassaled, but never played, Calandra. I won her as my 3rd place prize in an SR event, so I was kinda excited to play her, even on her unfinished base.



The other option was her upside down, breakdancing, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

My Calandra list was pretty simple. I don't ever get to play Mulg, so I brought him, and I like the new Highwaymen, a lot, so I brought them. Calandra can do the Befuddle thing, so I wanted to see what Highwaymen and Opportunist (granted by the HWM Solo) could do to backwards wolds. It wasn't a good matchup for Calandra at all, her only damage buff being her reroll ability, but sometimes that's not bad.

I learned a few things from my first game. I spread out considerably wider, for starters.



Forcing him to back up, instead of pushing up. Because he's not a nice person.



I engaged him with everything again, and most stuff did pretty well. I focused a bit more on a few Watchers, instead of all four, and I think I killed one. I even got lucky and shot out a stone with a burrower, and a Highwaymen one-rounded the Blackclad, again. However, I befuddled a Guardian, and got Opportunist, but because he had Flesh of Clay, I wasn't going to get 3 dice damage with the Highwaymen, and because I'm an idiot, and I didn't leave Calandra enough Fury to use Runebreaker from Mulg, and I didn't leave a charge lane for Mulg himself to get in there and do the work. In fact, I shot a Highwayman in the back 4 times trying to clear a lane, and he toughed, four times. Was very frustrating. The game ended much the same as the first one, except that Bradigus did the assassination himself, and when I was trying to fill up spaces around Calandra so nothing could teleport to be next to her, I blocked Mulg from being able to reach Bradigus. I don't feel like this game was unwinnable either, though certainly more difficult. Most of my issues were unfamiliarity with Mulg and Calandra though. Believe it or not, Mulg isn't a staple in my lists yet. Yet.

So yeah. That was that. Hopefully this has been some insight to the Bradigus Tier III, and what it can bring. I've got another 2 batreps like this that I'll blend into one, Grim2 vs. Ossrum. My first time dealing with the Dwarf colossal, the Earthbreaker. It's also one of the games I get to break out the Highwaymen again, and don't screw it all up with them like I did with Calandra.

50pts Calandra vs. Madrak2. Evolutionary Elementalism vs. Blood Fury

In the nearly year that I've been playing trolls, I've not had any mirror matchups. Another gamer just switched from Khador and his infuriating Harkevich list (seriously), to Trollbloods, and an infuriating Calandra list (Starcrossed. Infuriating by nature). Not only is it Calandra, it's Calandra's NQ theme, Evolutionary Elementalism. It's a tier I've been wanting to play on the table for awhile, and have only vassaled. I don't know if it's got quite the power that Runes of War does, but it's a brutal theme non the less, and pairs well with RoW, as if Trolls needed another powerhouse theme force.

The kicker is all elemental lights (Winter, Storm, Pyre and Slag), and you can bring Warders, the KSB, Runeshapers, and whelps. Tier IV is to bring a Mountain King, but we don't talk about that. Most players hang out at Tier III, which grants cheaper warbeasts, AD warbeasts and for every unit of Runeshapers, you get a fury in the stone, all of which ammounts to a 4pt Pyre troll that starts 13-16'' up the board with +2 ARM. The downsides to this is a lot of fury ends up on the board, you can't bring most Troll support (Fell Caller, Chronicler), and I don't know how well this list would handle 2 stormwalls.

I don't have 2 stormwalls. I have Madrak2, my answer for any high-armor skews, which 10+ light trolls at ARM18-19 definitely is.

My opponent's list was:

Calandra
*Pyre
*Pyre
*Pyre
*Storm
*Storm
*Storm
*Slag
*Slag
Max KSB w/UA
Runeshapers
Runeshapers
Whelps
Whelps

Incidentally, this is an awesomely well painted force, and I was excited to get pics of it.

My list is my standard Madrak2 one. It's seen very little change over the last several months. I'd really like to be able to drop the Bomber and Impaler combo for two lights, but everytime I do that, someone brings Kayazy or Nyss, and My Fenns just swing hopelessly for four turns.

Madrak2
*Runebearer
*Bomber
*Impaler
Max Fenns w/UA
Kithkar
Max Warders
Min KSB w/UA
Max Burrowers
Janissa
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Fell Caller

We rolled off, I won, and chose second so I could pick sides of the actually fairly symmetrical map. Deployment was pretty straightforward since his stuff was pretty symmetrical, and mine ends up stacked anyways. I put Warders behind the woods because I could get them path finder and run them through. I do spread out the Burrowers though because this particular opponent is 2 for 2 for drifting AOEs into them on the top of Turn 1 and killing at least half.

It makes me sad.



His stuff moves up, the stone pops aura, yeah. My stuff runs, SSC gets Concealment on the Fenns, and the Bomber tries to drift into the other KSB. No luck. Burrowers burrow. KSB pops aura, and says no continuous effects.



The trolls move up. The Winter troll sprays the warders and tries to get the first two, but only hits the first. That crits though, and freezes him in place, essentially blocking my warders for a turn. The Storms and Pyres move up and force toughs on the four leading Fenns, boosting the shots on the guys behind the wall, needing 11s to hit, both of which hit. One may have used a reroll from Calandra, but I don't think so. One eleap hits Grim and forces a Grim Salvation, which takes a KSB dude. The Slags run around, and Calandra tucks in behind the wall on her side casts Soothing song (removing a point of fury from all beasts) and Starcrossed (Extra dice on my attacks, remove the highest) and the KSB spread out, popping aura.



Burrowers emerge. Fenns move up 3'' with Vengeance, including the Kithkar who moves 5. Fell Caller puts WarCry (+2 to hit in melee) Runebearer moves over, minifeats and puts Blood Fury on the Burrowers. Burrowers charge into three trolls, and under starcrossed, fail to kill a single light warbeast. I think I miiiiggggght have gotten half on one, but yeah. The Kithkar charges in, engaging three lights. He misses both times, needing just 5s to hit. So the Fenns charge, needing sixes to hit. Under Starcrossed, maybe four hit. As the light warbeasts are hit, they pop whelps, adding annoyance into the issue, which essentially ups my opponent's light warbeasts to DEF13. Trying to get sevens under starcrossed with the dice I had yesterday was pretty rough. I saw double ones out of three dice way more than I'd like to admit.

It's way to early to feat, but I'm going to lose most of these models in the next turn, and everything's really engaged except the Warders which are still locked behind Mr. Freeze. So the Impaler moves up, puts Farstrike on the Bomber and he puts two shots into the KSB, hitting both times, and it toughs both times. I shuffle warders, and one makes a run trying to engage stuff, but doesn't. Madrak moves up, feats. Bomber tosses another one, and I actually kill the KSB Bearer, and it self sacs to another dude. But at least the Aura is down.

Everything swings again, except the Burrowers who don't get to use their gun in the feat (Learned that one yesterday. Point-Blank is during activation only), and I kill one storm troll, leave the purple Pyre on 1 box, and the Kithkar misses everything except the DEF13 whelp. I needed fives. Fives, people, and I missed 5 times. Starcrossed and less-than-average dice are rage inducing. I kill one out of each Runeshaper unit, and they both pass CMD from Terror on the Fenns.

KSB moves up, pops aura. Janissa drops a wall. SSC runs and realizes he's pretty much useless in this matchup.

My opponent looks over his list, and realizes that he has two undamaged Storm trolls, and that he'd been putting all the damage from 2 trolls onto 1. So I probably shouldn't have even killed the one that I did. Calandra activates, loads the stone, casts Starcrossed, feats, and hangs out. The Runeshapers on the right activate, and one shoots the Winter in the back, doing no damage, but killing two of the Burrowers engaged with it, and toughing the third. The Winter aims and puts a spray right down my front lines, and kills most of my burrowers and Fenns right there.

Slag on the left moves up, puts two solid shots into my Bomber, but destroys no aspects. The Storm kills the useless Kithkar. The left Runeshapers free up the Pyres, and the Pyres put another shot into the Bomber, and the other drifts onto Janissa for no damage, Madrak tanks decent at ARM19 and 1 grunt dies. .

At the end of the turn, I have three Burrowers (One is a Khador arc node in the back), 2 Fenns, and all of my Warders. Calandra has forced maybe 2 rerolls, but for the most part, her feat has done the rest. A couple of whelps run up to block warder charge lanes and that's it.



Alright. Warder are what are left. The Fenns vengeance, and one tries to hit a Whelp in the back, needing a five, and misses. I drop upkeeps. The Fenns go. One stands up, misses the pyre, and the other kills the whelp. The two Burrowers that have been passing CMD great both miss the Pyre four times between the two of them. The Fell Caller put Warcry on the Warders. Madrak moves up, boosts to hit and puts his axe into what's left of the Pyre. He then puts Blood Fury on the Warders. Janissa drops a wall, and what's left of the KSB push in behind them and pop aura for +1 STR.

Impaler crit slams the Right slag all of 1'' back, and does no damage. The Bomber kills the KSB bearer, and I think leaves it at that. The Warders try to charge, but because they have no pathfinder, I only get one into charge range of the half-dead winter troll, and he actually hits, but fails to kill it. The rest of the Warders just run around. The SSC charges the black Slag, and misses.



So far, my opponent's fury management has been fantastic, between all of the whelps and soothing song, which is exactly how the list is supposed to run. The Pyre walks up, puts Flaming Fists on the Slag, and after the other Pyre and white Storm shoot the bomber (which arcs, kills another KSB grunt, and I think Janissa too finally), Slag charges in and kills him. The other slag puts more shots into Madrak, which may have actually killed Janissa (I know Grim Salvation took her, not actual damage). The Runeshapers work on Warders, and force tough on two of them, and kill another. One Fenn gets hit in there somewhere too and toughs. Starcrossed comes back out, since Calandra is perfectly safe behind her wall. Oh, and the Winter Troll sprays the Impaler and Madrak, and manages to get a crit freeze on Madrak. Of course.



All in. I've got four Warders left, my Impaler, Madrak2, and a smattering of other stuff. The KSB is completely gone. Madrak spends a fury to shake stationary. I figure if I can Blood Fury the Warders, get Warcry onto them, and get Madrak into the fight, I can kill maybe two trolls this turn, and make it difficult to kill Madrak, which if that happens, it's probably my game still. So Moses gets Harmonious Exaltation onto him, the Fell Caller Warcries the Warders. Madrak charges the Slag, hits him and does decent damage. He puts Blood Fury on the the Warders, and buys another attack on the Slag, which I believe misses (Starcrossed. The Table Flipper of the 21st century).

The Blood Furied Warders get two charges, and the other two just move to inconvenient locations. The one that charged the Storm troll... misses? Or something? I don't remember. The other one charged the winter troll and kills him. But that's the only troll that dies this turn.



The Storm troll walks into Madrak, picks him and throws him... into the Runeshaper to the left of the white Storm troll. Not very far. Doesn't do damage. The Runeshapers shoot Madrak for damage and I transfer both, expecting that the POW14s from the guns will be worse than what POW12 trolls will do. The yellow storm tries to walk over and punch a KD madrak in the face, but my Warder that gets a free strike and is still under blood fury while my opponent has not popped his KSB aura yet. On 5 dice, I oneshot the troll. I don't think he had damage before that, if he did, it wasn't much.

That's what should have been happening all game, dangit.

The Slag walks up though, and finishes Madrak, who does not tough.

And I forgot the picture...

Thoughts on the game:

1. I own Calandra. I actually bought her with my 3rd place cash prize I won two weeks ago at a small Steamroller. I've played her on Vassal some, but I really need to put her on the table. This game definitely cements that idea. I can't wait to get her out there with Highwaymen.

2. This was a terrible map. I had a wall and forest on either side, and Calandra had her own little bunker. That's acceptable with Janissa. Janissa wasn't here for Calandra. This map was built before I or my opponent got to it and played on it, but you can't tell. Calandra was pretty happy at DEF friggin 20 all game.

3. I botched a lot in this game. For starters, my Bomber should have been shooting trolls all game, not KSB. Although, it would have helped if he hadn't toughed three times, but still, my Bomber was outside of Starcrossed, and should have been doing boosted POW16s into ARM18 trolls.

4. I should have used Madrak to cast Killing Ground (Relentless Charge for faction models), and let more Warders charge. That at least would have got 2 warders into the Winter troll, and probably kill it, which would have not made for a stationary Madrak next turn, which would have helped a bit.

5. I needed to play Madrak more agressively. Janissa shouldn't be within an inch of him. Not till late game. If I had managed to keep her alive that last turn, she was charging with her AP attack everyone forgets she has. She'd of probably missed it, but ok.

I really don't think this was a horrible matchup for me. It wasn't amazing, and anytime there's Stormtrolls, any support is in jeapordy, but there was so many activation issues I had where I could have gotten +1 STR out there with the stone for the feat turn, and I didn't. That'd of been a dead Pyre. Maybe other stuff. I should have been using Moses as a Grim Salvation target later on in the game, and I never did. The Fell Caller is completely capable of doing work, but I wasn't able to squeeze him through the woods with the Warders in the way most of the game.

Overall, it was a good game, and I had a glimmer of hope there at the end, but it just wasn't meant to be. I definitely should have just done reville with the Fell Caller and let the Warders all stand up, maybe get more charges in, but I was so frustrated with missing when I just needed 5s and 4s that I couldn't see doing anything BUT warcry.

Incidentally, the rumors about GF9 dice being hot are all lies, and I'll be buying dice this week I think.