Monday, July 30, 2012

Current W/L for Trollbloods

Just a quick tally as of today, I do not claim to be a good player, this is more of a note for myself!

pMadrak 2-1
eMadrak 1-1
Grim Angus 2-7
eGrissel  3-0
Jarl Skuld 0-1
Calandra 5-2
Borka  0-1

That puts me at a total of 26 games with my Trolls, and an overall record of 13 Wins to 13 Losses.  I am okay with that ratio!

Internet Terrible defeats Karchev the Terrible

Before I start this post, let me begin by saying that I am a fan of eGrissel.

That doesn't make me a good player, and it doesn't mean I use her wonderfully, it is just a fun fact considering the level of vitriol that can be leveled at that babe with the huge... hammer.

eGrissel works well for me, Dash is almost always useful, I cast it first turn and upkeep it.  Inhospitable Ground can be useful in most matchups, there are certainly some where it isn't as useful I am not going to argue that.  Nuke is a nuke, never used it, I usually bring an Impaler and have not run into a situation where 2 Focus for that is better than buying another Fell Blast.  I suppose the day may come where I need her to make 3 Fell Blasts and 2 Arcane Bolts, but it has not arrived yet.

My list:


Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels
* Pyre Troll
* Troll Impaler
* Dire Troll Bomber
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt)
Trollkin Sluggers (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero
Janissa Stonetide

So I came up with this list on the way to the LGS; I purchased the Sluggers for the Thornwood League, and wanted to see how I could put them into a list.  I felt this did a good job.  Against shooting they became 16/16 if it was coming over Janissa's wall or 14/16 otherwise (concealment from the Gobbers); with 8 wounds a piece that is solid enough.

I also felt that eGrissel was a great caster (out of the ones I own) to run them with.  Dash allows them to disengage from Combat with impunity.  I didn't want to move them too often, but at least if they survived Melee I could step back and shoot (same change of hit with +2 Pow over just staying in melee).  Her Feat would also A) make them more survivable if they did get locked up in Melee, or B) give them out of activation movement, which means they have more opportunities to Rapid Fire.

This was a little "eggs in one basket" for me, but I thought it was worth putting them on the table and seeing how they do without the Thornwood version of Finn to assist them.

For Warbeasts I took the trio I have been using for the last month in my T4 Grim Angus list, the Bomber works as a type of "combined arms" in this list, Bombing from downtown (Impaler animus) with POW16, AOE4 blasts or wading into Melee with 2 POW17 (Pyre animus) Open Fists with Crit Fire (Pyre animus).  He isn't a Mauler or the Earthborn, but I have caught quite a few people off guard with the Bomber suddenly charging in and scrapping a Heavy without breaking a sweat.

His list:



Karchev the Terrible
* Juggernaut
* Juggernaut
* Marauder
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)
Widowmaker Marksman

Looking across the table I was a bit worried.  I have not run into the Great Bears before, and 4 'jack level Arm/Hit Boxes meant my Bomber was probably going to have to the heavy lifting.  How he was going to take down a Warlock and 3 Heavies was beyond me, but I opted to go second and let my opponent deploy.

His turn 1:

He put Karchev in the middle of his line of jacks, advanced and turned around, Towing the others with him.  His Mortar Crew ran so they could set up on a hill, Doom Reavers ran, Great Bears ran, Battle Mechanics moved up with Karchev and crew.

My turn 1:

I activated eGrissel first, throwing up Inhospitable Ground and casting Dash (camping 1). Impaler walked in front of eGrissel and put his animus on the Bomber, Bomber walked into rough terrain and managed to get a vector on the center of the tightly packed Doom Reaver unit, managing to get all 6 under his blast.  Six damage rolls later and only one Doom Reaver remained.  Bomber bought an attack, threw another barrel and deviated to nowhere.  Pyre Troll advanced through the rough terrain, Sluggers moved up a few inches, Gobbers dropped smoke over the brick of themselves, Sluggers, Stone, eGrissel, Janissa, and the Impaler; Janissa puts up a wall in front of most of the Sluggers.  Horthol charges the Widowmaker for some extra movement but does not get to her this turn.

His turn 2:


The lone Doom Reaver charges my Bomber, but falls 3" short (so 1" out of reach range) due to Inhospitable Ground, the Widowmaker moves and shoots at Horthol and misses, the Mortar crew aims and fires, missing and not managing to damage anything on deviation, Karchev & crew advance forward but don't get anywhere dangerous due to Inhospitable Ground and Janissa's wall.  Battle Mechanics move up, and my opponent ends his turn, camping 4 on Karchev at that point (though I don't remember exactly what he spent the other focus on).

My turn 2:


I upkeep Dash, Pyre Troll charges the lone Doom Reaver, easily dispatching it, Horthol charges the Widowmaker who gets trampled beneath Tuffalo hooves.  eGrissel casts Inhospitable Ground again, the Impaler animus on herself and then uses Quake on the Marauder, boosting to hit and catching Karchev's entire battlegroup under the template.  Four Sluggers sacrifice their movement, the Fifth needs to move, they all fire at Karchev getting roughly 8 shots and at Dice -10 do..... 4 damage overall.  Bomber walks forward drops two barrels on the Great Bears and drops them.  Pyre Troll moves up, Impaler moves over behind and to the right of the Sluggers, puts his Animus on himself and throws at Karchev and boosts damage but only does a few more.  Horthol moves closer.  Janissa puts up her wall, Gobbers drop their cloud.

His turn 3: 


eGrissel is at 0 Fury, but I am feeling pretty confidant, as not only does Karchev and his boys need to stand up, but I have Inhospitable ground up still!  Turns out that Karchev's feat gives them Pathfinder.  Mortar takes a pot shot and hits, killing the Slugger who moved and one of the Gobbers.  Karchev stands folks up casts Unearthly Rage and Feats.  The first Juggernaut slams the Bomber, moving him past eGrissel who is then Knocked Down and doing collateral damage to both of them.  The second Juggernaut charges eGrissel, auto hits at Dice +2 and rolls Triple 1s, doing 5 damage.  His second hit however, (Dice -2) fairs much better and hits eGrissel for 13 our of her remain 12 health...

It all comes down to a Tough roll, I look at my opponent and say "If this isn't a 5 or 6, you win." and roll the die.  It is interesting how anxious I was for that result, Karchev now had no focus, so I had a feeling I could turn the game around if I could just see a little luck...

SIX!  I get a Turn 3!

My turn 3:


eGrissel pulls 4 off the Bomber and 2 off the Impaler (leaving him with 1) and then upkeeps Dash.  Impaler makes a Threshold Check against an 8 and fails, killing the Slugger closest to him, that was disappointing, but   such is the risk vs. reward of the Fury system.

Horthol is in a perfect spot to Slam the Marauder, and does so, hitting Karchev with his own Warjack and knocking them both down.  50mm is ~1.96", so with Reach he is in range of Karchev, who he hits, doing some damage.  The remaining three Sluggers sacrifice their movement and get 7 attacks between them at Dice -6, and put some more boxes on Karchev (with 3 of those attacks doing 5 or 6 damage).  eGrissel stands up and lobs some Fell Blasts Karchev's way, doing quite a bit of damage, and finally the Bomber forces to stand up and takes a Free Strike from the Juggernaut, forces to Regenerate and drops 2 Barrels on Karchev's head, one with boosted damage, ending the game.

Aftergame Thoughts:


Remember how I took the Stone and the UA?  Yeah, they never saw a single point of Fury.  Because I went second it was a choice of tossing some on them or using Inhospitable Ground.  I think I made the right choice, but due to my 2nd turn they didn't see any either and by 3rd turn it was all or nothing.  I think in a slower game, or if I had taken 1st turn they would have come into play more.  I also had no idea that Karchev could give his battlegroup Pathfinder.  Live (thanks to Tough) and learn!

Third win for eGrissel, bringing her to 3-0.

Friday, July 13, 2012

The 29 point match!

Last night was the last night of the League, and while I had accomplished my goal (all four patches), I still definitely wanted to throw down.  I got a chance to play someone I hadn't played before, which is always awesome.  We decided on 35pts, and put our junk on the table.

I took a note of the models in my opponent's list, but being unfamiliar with a few I assumed he was at 35 points.  He actually was at 29, he is pretty new, so I am thinking he may not know what Warcaster 'jack points are.

Of course, probably the reason I didn't notice he was playing 29 points and forgot about Warjack points is because I did the SAME THING.

His list, for reference:

Harbinger of Menoth
* Repenter
* Crusader
* Vanquisher
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Cinerators (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

My list:

Grim Angus
* Troll Impaler
Rök
Dannon Blythe & Bull
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
Fell Caller Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler

So the battle of the "people who forgot about 'jack/'beast points" began.

My turn 1:

I won the roll and opted to go first, nominating the Choir as Blythe's prey.  I knew he wasn't moving anywhere quickly with that list, so I opted to simply advance my first turn, with the exception of Dannon Blythe & Bull, who ran up a flank.  Between Grim w/ Farstrike and the Fennblade minifeat, I knew I had a significant threat range advantage on him.

His turn 1:

Choir moved up and sang no normal shooting; the Cinerators and Warjacks all ran, the Cincerators, Crusader and Vanquisher toward my Fennblades/Grim, the Repenter toward Blythe & Bull.  Everything else made a full advance.

My turn 2:

Blythe & Bull played a little cat and mouse with the Repenter, trying to draw him away from the main conflict.  Fell Caller moved forward and gave the Fennblades Pathfinder, Fennblades moved forward, with some in cover, Chronicler moved forward and used Tale of Mist, Impaler moved forward and put Far Strike on Grim, Grim advanced and killed a Cinerator (which the Harby martyr'd) then he gave Rök Cross-Country who ran forward, ending his movement at the very edge of the forest.

His turn 2:

Everything moves up again, Eiryss tried to shoot a Fennblade and misses, Vanquisher throws out a shot, kills a Fennblade, knocks another down, and puts 3 damage on Grim himself.  Things were looking good for mini-feating next turn (with the extra movement from Vengeance) and killing off those Cinerators, and I think my opponent realized that, as Harbinger walked forward and popped feat.

My turn 3:

Fennblades took their Vengeance move to reform (without moving closer to Harby), Impaler put Far Strike on Grim, who hit the Harbinger for some reasonable damage.  Rök charged the Cinerators and... fell an inch and half short - those who are paying attention will see that I should have shot a Cinerator, then Rök would have been in melee range for at least 3 attacks.  Rök does have assault though, so he sprayed and caught two of the Cinerators in the template, he missed the attack on the first one, so I boosted my second roll and got Crit Freeze off on the second Cinerator, unfortunately I didn't do any damage.  Chronicler uses Tale of Mist again, and Blythe & Bull continue their threat range shenanigans with the Repenter.

His turn 3:

Harbinger moves back and heals herself with Focus, Vanquisher tries to shoot Grim, but even with the Choir bonus he can't hit Def 16, scatter kills some more Fennblades though.  Repenter moves forward and tries to spray Blythe & Bull but falls short.  Cinerators scrap Rök.  Crusader walks forward and will be in Melee next turn.

My turn 4:

I have been playing fairly Fury efficient, so I am not super concerned about losing Rök from a Fury standpoint, but he was my only Heavy, so now I am in a little bit of trouble once that Crusader and Vanquisher get into Melee.

Impaler gives Grim Far Strike, I walk Grim up, Feat, have Grim cast Far Strike on himself and then shoot Harbinger some more, she has 7 boxes left at this point.  The Fennblades Mini-Feat, kill three Cinerators pluys Eiryss and tie up the Vanquisher and the Crusader.  Impaler walks forward, decides the Vanquisher (who is effectively Def 11 with Grim's feat plus firing into Melee penalty) is the bigger threat, and tries to put some damage on it, roll to hit, double 5s, also known as "to Crit Slam or not to Crit Slam", I check the line, and I think if I get a 6 I can put some serious collateral damage on the Harby; unfortunately I roll a 2, just enough to disengage him from my Fennblade.  Blythe & Bull make a cautious advance, hopefully I can land Marked for Death on the Harbinger next turn and they can put some boxes on her.


His turn 5:

He allocates two to the Crusader and holds eight, I have a feeling I know what is coming.  The Vanquisher sacrifices it's movement to stand up, lobs a shot at Grim, misses again, but kills two more Fennblades, Crusader moves an inch to it's right, kills one Fennblade, boosts his attack on the second Fennblade, and then decided to boost damage as well (he was already at Dice + 4 against him), I imagine he figured he had nothing else to do as no other Fennblades were in range.  That Fennblade (who he hit with an impressive 31 Damage) made his Tough roll though.  The last few Cinerators made their combat actions, one turned a Fennblade into a fine red mist, the other made his Tough check.  The Harbinger was out of Grim's feat range, so she got her full movement and ended 6" away from Grim and cast Cataclysm twice.

The first one did something like 8 damage which left Grim at 2 boxes, the second one hit for a mighty 4 damage... which Grim transferred to the Impaler.  The Harbinger was forward, and out of focus.

My turn 5:

Impaler tosses at the Cinerator that would get a free strike if Grim charges the Harbinger, boost hit, boost damage, no crit but he kills him.  Harby did not matyr (which might have saved her), Grim charges, hits, and kills.



Afterthoughts:
I can't believe I forgot Beast points, once I found out that he forgot Warjack points though, I felt better as it was no longer a 35pt list beating on a 29 point, it was 29 on 29.  Still, I should know better.  Rök died because I wasn't thinking, and to be fair, haven't played Grim enough.  I will definitely remember Bait the Line for next time.

As an aside, my charge on Harby was with the thought that while I probably could have killed her from range, I didn't want to take that chance, rather to have to run in and buy two extra boosted attacks (hit and damage) than to shoot once and miss/not damage her enough.  I could have gotten her MAYBE with Blythe & Bull if I had put a bit of damage on her with Grim, but again, not worth the risk.



So ends the Thornwood League, I earned 11 League Points and ended with an overall W-L of 3-4.

Breakdown:

Borka 0-1
Calandra 1-0
pMadrak 1-0
eMadrka 0-1
Grim 1-1
Jarl 0-1




Monday, July 9, 2012

Grim T4 25pts

I am going to a 25pt/single-list tournament on the 23rd that uses an "achievement" system, one of said achievements is bringing a T4 list.  So here is the T4 Grim list I will be playing:


Grim Angus
* Pyre Troll
* Troll Impaler
* Dire Troll Bomber
Dannon Blythe & Bull
Trollkin Scouts (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter

I think my beasts should handle infantry swarms well, and hopefully the Bomber and Alten can lay some damage down on any beast heavy lists.  I think the list is fairly well rounded; the Scouts are a bit lacking in defenses outside of concealment for me, but they are a Tier requirement, and at such low points I couldn't fit another unit in that I thought would actually be worth dropping something for.


Sunday, July 8, 2012

Friday, July 6, 2012

League Complete!

So the League has one week left in it, but as of last night I had played two team games and three other games, each with a different painted Warcaster (Jarl, eMadrak, pMadrak, Borka, Calandra).  This got me all four commendation patches for the league:


Duos with Legion

My second game was a team game; I (Calandra) was paired with Legion (Saryn) against Trolls (pMadrak) and Cryx (eSkarre played by the same guy who just beat me down with eGaspy).

The game went fairly quickly, the Cryx player managed to kill both of my beasts, but between the 5 damage from eSkarre's feat turn and two Force Blows, eSkarre was dropped down to dead.  My partner lost both his Warbeasts as well, but pulled off the assassination on pMadrak.

So to recap this fairly quick game, myself and my partner had no Beasts left, and the other team had all their Beasts/Jacks in play when their Warnouns got popped.

BatRep - Borka loses a Barfight

Got 3 games in last night!  Here is the rundown on the first:

My list (Borka - Drunk and Disorderly T1):

Borka Kegslayer
* Earthborn Dire Troll
* Rök
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer
Fell Caller Hero
Secluded Savage (League Model)

His list (what I remember, I left my notes at home)

Lich Lord Asphyxious
* Deathripper
* Stalker
* Seether
* Skarlock Thrall
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* 1 Brute Thrall
Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls
Pistol Wraith
3 Scrap Thrall
Warwitch Siren

So off the bat it is my 11 models versus his 37 - I was a bit concerned.  We ended up playing one of the League Scenarios, Domination.  Without getting too into detail, it involves trying to get members of your Battlegroup into your opponents half of the Control Zone and then surviving your opponent's turn to score control points.  This is done through an 18" x 24" pass in the middle of the table though, the other 30 inches are 15" x 6" Mountain Wall obstructions.

Vastly outnumbered, defending a mountain pass meant that Borka and his drinking buddies were going to play "300" while they tried to push forward and win by Scenario.

I am not going to go into every turn here because this game lasted a LONG time, we went through a number of turns where it felt like my opponent was just waves crashing against the Champion shore.  However I will relate two great moments for me.

When the Mechanithralls charged, they got practically every piece into melee with the Champions + Secluded Savage.  Skaldi Counter-Charged the Brute Thrall, not wanting him to stick around, and then killed off a Mechanithrall.  My opponent's second attack landed on the Secluded Savage, unfortunately for him the Savage was not killed/knocked down so he took his Retaliatory Strike, which hit and killed a model, so using Killing Spree he moved 1" and took another swing... and killed another model.  Suffice to say, by the time my opponent activated his next unit, only one Mechanithrall was still in play.

The second great moment for me was my opponent's reaction to this, which was to charge he Bane Thralls in.  They did not manage to kill any of the Iron Flesh/Defensive Line Champs, but did kill Skaldi, Kenny, my Fell Caller and the Secluded Savage.  There was a bit more he did, but it only ended up killing a single Champ.  He passed the turn and Borka feated, hit Seether twice and cast Iron Flesh on himself, Rök trampled into a nice, perfect space in the middle of the Bane Thralls.  He killed four on the trample and another four with Berserk attacks, the Earthborn also charged Seether and created some.

At this point, my graveyard looked like this:


My opponent's looked like this:


The table at this point (well, right before the Earthborn scrapped Seether):


Borka was a little open at this point, but at Def 17, Armor 19 (21 in melee) with 2 Transfers available, I was feeling pretty confident that he could survive the turn.

On my opponent's turn, he popped feat and sent in some Bane Thralls at Rök and Borka.  He did some damage to Rök, and three came in at Borka - two missed, third one hit like a truck and Borka transferred to Rök, killing him.  The Stalker also came in at Borka, doing so damage but not killing him.

Back on my turn, I felt the best option was to try and score some Control Points, try as I might I needed Borka out of the way to get at the Stalker though, so Borka took a free strike (at Arm 21) and...

Failed his tough roll, Cryx wins!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Hobby Update 7/5/12

Two quick updates:

Trollkin Champions

Grim Angus

League night is tonight, so no painting tonight; next thing on the table is Rök

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Hobby Update 7/4/12

Since work closed early for the holiday yesterday, I managed to get a jump on some painting, here is what I turned out:

Stone Scribe Elder

The much maligned Trollkin Skinner

Skaldi Bonehammer


Also, due to getting the SSE and Skinner painted, The Thornwood League List is fully painted:


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Hobby Update 7/1/12

Starting the month strong with another Warlock painted:



And 5pts in Beasts to go with him.



On a side note, now all of my Warbeasts are painted; I am probably going to pick up Rök this week though!