7/27/13 TH goes a wanderin'

So this past week was kind of a big deal for my playtime as I will be switching to graveyard shifts at work which will cut into my playtime dramatically.  As such, I was looking for pretty much any event to attend this weekend.  I found out that Game On in Warwick, RI was hosting a 25pt CoC event, with a Convergence Battle Box going to the winner.

I packed the Trolls and drove down.

I managed to get to the store just as they were opening, which is good as signups started immediately.  Unfortunately after some back and forth it turned out that they had to cancel the event due to lack of players.  Fortunately, one of the guys there, Eric I believe (will have to check my notes) was up for playing some games.  I asked him to pick his poison and he chose 25pts.  I decided against cutting the Jarl list down to 25pts; I felt like I would have to change it so much more than just "cut 25pts" that it would defeat the point of learning the list, so I decided to run eDoomshaper, and Eric played eVayl.  We both actually ran 5 model armies.

I ran a list, which has quickly become what I dub the "BFF Forever" list, and even has its own themesong:

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
* Troll Axer
* Earthborn Dire Troll
* Mulg the Ancient
Janissa Stonetide

This list does one thing pretty well, delivers heavy beasts.

My dance partner ran 1pt down with:

Vayl, Consul of Everblight
* Angelius
* Ravagore
* Scythean
The Forsaken

Scenario: Supply and Demand (SR2013 #2)

My immediate concern was Ravagore shots on Doomshaper and Scythean coming in and denying Tough with Slaughterhouse.  We started off the game moving forward.  I ended up going second, so I positioned the Earthborn against the Angelius with wall-toting Janissa behind him on the same side of the board as the only rough terrain, Mulg and Doomshaper, with the Axer ready to toss it up with the Ravagore to keep him from shooting.

My opponent ran his beasts forward, riled all of them, moved up his Forsaken and stole the Fury from the Angelius with Vayl set to remove the Fury from the Scythean and Ravagore.  He put out Occultation on the Forsaken, Refuge on the Angelius and Admonition on the Scythean.

I moved forward on my team with most of my beasts running, the Earthborn setting up for a +2" Spd charge being near the rough terrain and Janissa dropping her wall to make him armor 20.  Doom put Wild Agression on Mulg and then walked over near the wall, putting the Earthborn's animus on himself, bringing himself to Def 17/Arm 17 vs. any Ravagore shots.  Mulg activated and ran to tow into the center zone and the Axer came up behind him, ready to charge off at the Ravagore next turn when I popped feat.

With the turn passed, my opponent let Occultation fall off and charged the Angelius at the Earthborn doing some fairly significant damage as Dice +2 before Refuging away.  He then moved Vayl to ~3" away from his friendly objective and swung the Scythean around to run up that flank.  Finally he brought the Ravagore centrally into the zone as his only contesting model.  The Ravagore then took a boosted shot at Mulg and hit, doing three damage.  With that my opponent passed the turn.

I upkept Wild Agression, scooped my Fury and checked my control range, finding that the enemy objective was roughly 14" from Mulg.  It was time to live the dream.  I activated Doomshaper, who popped feat, put the Acer animus on Mulg and charged the Angelius 11" (bringing him just past center line).  The Earthborn activated and declared a Slam against the Ravagore moving way less than his possible distance of 13" and knocking it a clear 6" back, leaving Mulg an open line to the enemy objective.  Mulg charged 14" in all his glory and was successful in charging the enemy objective.  Once he did, the Scythean called its Admonition move and tried to get inbetween Mulg and eVayl, but was too far out to cause issue.  Mulg blew up the objective in one shot from his Open Fist at Dice +2, Goaded 2" and then brought his Rune Club to bear against Vayl with 3 dice to hit, and Dice +5 on Damage.  With only two Transfers and six possible swings (second initial, +4 bought attacks, +Doomshaper Affinity) from Mulg, the match ended in my favor.

At  this point my opponent asked if I would be willing to reset and play again, same list, same scenario.  I said I was happy to, and pulled things back.  I knew Mulg wasn't going to live the dream this turn, but I was eager to play again.  The game started with him winning initiative and our setups and first turns looking the same.  The second turn is where things differentiated.  As there is no Killbox artifice in this scenario he kept Vayl 5" from any of her friendly models at any time and avoided damaging Mulg, instead sending the Angelius (who once more Refuged away) and the Scythean in trying to kill my Earthborn Dire Troll.  He failed however.

On my second turn I had Mulg charge the Scythean (who was still engaging the Earthborn), kill it, and then try to Goad into range of the Ravagore (but fell less than .5" short).  After that I activated Doomshaper, popped feat and tossed Wild Aggression over to the Earthborn, then cast a Primal Shock through him to kill the Forsaken.  The Earthborn then charged the Angelius and scrapped him.  At this point my opponent only had a Ravagore and Vayl, I had lost Janissa and had no Fury on Doomshaper.  He ran his Ravagore over to get in range of Doomshaper, but Mulg got a free strike in crushing the Ravagore's spirit.  I was pretty sure that was game, but then Vayl moved forward, popped feat and went for the spell assassination on Doom by shooting the Ravagore in the back and channeling through it.  Her final Obliteration took me below 0.  I picked up a single die and rolled a Tough check...

...and passed.

At that point, Vayl had no Fury and was in charge range of both Mulg and the Earthborn, so he conceded the game.  All in all, two very fun matches!

The Old Man and Witch Coven come knocking

At our FLGS one of our players is a grandfather who I have known for almost two decades; he shall henceforth be referred to here as "The Old Man".  As the FLGS was wrapping up their league which I chose to not join this time around due mostly to time constraints, The Old Man, who plays Cryx, was trailing in second.

One way he could get points is by playing someone he hasn't played in the league and playing against a faction he hadn't played.  He asked me for a game as we had not played, nor had he played Trollbloods.  I agreed to do so.

I took The Jarl List

He took a Witch Coven Tier List:

The Witch Coven of Garlghast
* Defiler
* Stalker
* Deathjack
* Skarlock Thrall
Bane Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Satyxis Blood Hag
Soulhunters (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Darragh Wrathe
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall
Pistol Wraith

Let me start by saying there is a guy from Ottawa, we'll call him The Viking, I have played a few times and he runs with Coven.  I have never done well against Coven, but this list was a special kind of hell for Trolls.  It has the Stalker, which ignores Tough, the Blood Hag which strips Tough off of anything within 8", and Darragh Wraithe with 5 Light Cav who are Incorporeal every other round.

That puts me with two things denying or ignoring my faction wide advantage, and 6 Light Cav (one of them a Dragoon), and a minifeat on an entire unit who I will have a hard time dealing with as only Jarl and Janissa have Magical Weapons in my list.  The short version is, you would be hard pressed to find a list more skewed toward anti-Trolls.  My initial reaction, internally, was fairly poor; however I figured I was bound to see these types of lists here and there, so I decided to play through.  Pictures are below, I am not going to go into Turn by Turn as it was a pretty crushing defeat, I think I prioritized targets well (taking the Hag out Top of Turn 2 with her only denying Tough to one Fennblade who I shot in the back to Magic Bullet her).

I had a chance to put some Magic Bullets into the Coven, but failed to do so due to getting ahead of myself and ending Jarl's activation too soon.  On the plus side, Jarl proved to be extraordinarily resilient to the Coven's attempts to kill him, lasting over 5 rounds.

I had a chance in the final turn to clear out the the troops tying up the Bomber and toss on the Coven, but my plan going into the turn did not survive the round as I forgot the extra Fury I was camping was supposed to be used to heal a point of Spirit on the Bomber so he could Trample and toss.

All in all, very tough match up, but I learned a lot about my list and the mistakes I made.  I don't feel that I automatically lost when my opponent list skewed against me, but it was definitely an uphill battle.  One thing I think I did well was counter-feating.

Jarl list moves to 1 Win, 1 Loss; 8 games to go.

The Motherland is thrown from the Thornwood

So, I brought The Jarl List to the FLGS last night, and as my mortal enemy good friend is thinking about getting in to Khador, so he had a 50pt list that was mostly proxies.  I am not a huge fan of proxies of course, but I understand the need in circumstances like this.  Just keep that in mind as you check out a few of the photos.  We decided to play Incursion.

His List:

Kommandant Irusk
* Spriggan
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts)
* Koldun Kapitan Valachev
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
* Greylord Escort
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard
Man-o-war Kovnik
* Demolisher
Manhunter

My opponent won the roll and opted to go first.  Doomreavers and the Greylord Escort ran to the flag on my left, IFP advanced into Shield Wall toward the middle flag with Irusk, the Spriggan and Sylys in tow.  The MoW Kovnik and Demolisher played shortstop between the middle flag and the flag on my right.  Finally, he sent the Nyss Hunters & Valachev to the flag on my right.

I deployed placing my bets on the flag on my right disappearing.  My first objective was to clear the Doomreavers and Greylord Escort.  My Fennblades were on the 10" line, so I knew that if I cast Quicken on them and mini-feated they could charge 13" and threaten to 15" which would bring them right to the Doomreavers, but not the Escort. Doomreavers are enough of an issue, I didn't want to let them keep Tough.  One thing was for sure, I did not want to be on the receiving end of a Doomreaver charge.

I took a look at the board and felt like my best bet was to take the Escort out first first.  Doing some quick control zone measuring with Jarl, I found my answer.  The Troll Runebearer activated first and used Power Glyphs to cast one of Jarl's spells, Quicken, on Jarl himself.  After that was done, he moved up a bit.  The Impaler activated next, moved out of Jarl's way and cast Far Strike on Jarl.  Jarl himself then activated and advanced 8" cast Magic Bullet on himself, followed by declaring a ranged attack at a Doomreaver, measured distance and found him at about the 14" mark.  Jarl boosted the hit on the Doomreaver (killed) as I really needed that Magic Bullet to go off. Hindsight Mistake #1: I thought that Magic Bullet was a Magic Attack with an unboostable Damage roll, and as such I boosted the hit on the Greylord Escort; it actually autohits and I am a moron.  I put 4 damage on the Escort, but that wasn't enough to kill him.  At this point I had a hard decision, I could cast Magic Bullet again and shoot again, looking for the Escort kill, or I could cast Quicken on the Fennblades and charge the Doomreavers.  I decided to drop the second Magic Bullet, targeting a Doomreaver 16" away, killed it, and bounced it to the Escort again, killing the Escort.

At this point, the Fennblades couldn't get a charge off on the Doomreavers, and would be Doomreaver chow next turn, so I did what I thought was pretty much the only valid move there, I ran them into melee range of the Doomreavers.  This accomplished a couple things, it brought me into contest range of two flags, the one on my left and the center flag, brought the skirmish line to the middle of the table, and controlled how I took the Doomreaver attacks.  Tuffalo followed them, setting up as a second wave, or charging through them on Feat Turn.  Horthol moved up mid-field looking for opportunities to... well, be Horthol.  He also blocked some line of sight from the Nyss to 0 Fury Jarl.  Janissa moved up and dropped a wall incase those Ironfang Pikeman has shenanigans/additional Defense for Jarl.  Earthborn set up a charge at the right flag if it stayed in play and riled for 2, Bomber smiled at the Nyss but riled for 2 instead of, y'know, killing some (Hindsight Mistake #2).

We rolled flag removal and lost the middle flag, because that is how Incursion always seems to happen.

By the end of turn 1, things looked like this:

My opponent's hand is covering pIrusk (who was proxied by pBaldur) and Wysh (proxied by Druid Wilder).

Second turn saw some heavy damage to the Fennblades, which was expected; on a special note, they probably toughed 80% of the attacks that came their way this turn.  My Tough rolls never go that well, and it certainly was nice to see a tarpit unit be a tarpit unit.My oppoent moved up and Feated, making everything but some of the Nyss and all of the remaining Doomreavers Super Tough (4, 5, or 6) and Immune to Knockdown.  With that he passed the turn to me, and my Fennblades were down to just the Officer and the Drummer.

I took my second turn, moving my Fennblade Officer over to the nearest Doomreaver and killed him with my Vengeance attack.  After that I activated the Fennblades, charges the Officer at the Manhunter and dropped him while the Drummer, a trooper to the end, put himself in harm's way to slow down any advancing units.  Next up was the Longriders, they charged the last of the Doomreavers, but due to positioning couldn't get to one, even with Reach.  They dirtnapped what they hit, Impaler put Far Strike on Jarl, then Jarl cast Quicken on the Bomber and then advanced up (instead of running to dominate unfortunately) and shot the last Doomreaver contesting the flag.  The Bomber walked forward his 7 and threw a bomb at pIrusk falling .5" short of him, deviation didn't do much; through a second bomb, same story.  Earthborn hung back, ready to charge if my opponent tried to bring pIrusk over to dominate the flag on my right.

Horthol charged the Iron Fleshed IFP; who were Def 16/Arm 19, Super Tough and couldn't be Knocked Down.  He didn't manage to kill anyone, thanks to Super Tough.  Janissa walked forward and put up a wall.  I looked down and said "Man!  This would be a great time to feat... damnit!" (Hindsight Mistake #3).  I pass the turn to my opponent, we both score a Control Point.

The best thing to happen to me this in Turn 3 was Horthol.  It took both Warjack's activation, pIrusk, and half the IFP to take him down from Mounted to dead.  He moved some more of the IFP into contesting position for the flag on my left.  The Nyss dropped 8 damage on the Bomber but stayed near their flag.  He ended his turn and scored his second control point, but none for me due to contesting, so it was now 2-1.

I had to redo my turn 3 as  (Hindsight Mistake #4) I forgot to heal my Bomber, who was missing his Spirit, but was boosting shots on pIrusk, so what follows is the results of that.  Jarl activates, heals the Bomber, grabs the Impaler animus, walks up on to a hill and takes a shot at pIrusk with boosted hit and damage and puts a bit of damage on the Pride of the Motherland, leaving Irusk with 7 health.  Bomber walks forward, boost his first barrel, needs a 10 to hit on 3 dice and misses.  Bomber buys an attack, boosts the hit, needs a 10 on 3 dice and... hits.  Boosts the damage, needing 7 on 3 dice to end the game and the dice come up with a 9, bringing the reign of terror in the Thornwood to an end.  Here is how the table looked when all was said and done:

Pre-Game 7/18/2013

So with NETT behind me, and an excellent article over at MoM (http://museonminis.com/regression-and-why-morghoul-is-dying-on-the-inside/) I realized that there was a particular thing lacking from my playstyle.

When I decided to get into Trolls and back into Warmahordes, a buddy snagged me a second hand Trollbloods Battle Box as a gift.  To say I jumped in the deep end is putting it mildly.  Within a month I had 6 Warcasters and over 150pts of new toys.  That all sounds well and good, but as a person who averages 20 games a year, the urge to use all my different options overruled an important facet, knowing the models inside and out.

To that, I have put together a list I believe to be fairly balanced.  While I don't think it will shut down any particular list, I do think it balanced enough to not have any particularly terrible matchups aside from skew lists.

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood

* Troll Impaler

* Dire Troll Bomber

* Earthborn Dire Troll

* Trollkin Runebearer

Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)

* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer

Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Horthol, Long Rider Hero

Janissa Stonetide

My goal is to play this list 10 times, unedited.

Stregnths

-----------

The list started with a core of things I consider myself comfortable with (EBDT) or extremely comfortable with (Fennblades).  My objective here was to combine those with models that I would like to play better, namely the Tuffalo units (shout out to the blog title of course!) and Jarl.  My final step was to round out the last 12 points with what I felt would be most useful, Impaler for Jarl and Bomber, Janissa for, well, Janissa, and Runebearer as Jarl feels like he isn't the best as camping Fury.

My goal is not to win games here, though if that happens, awesome.  My goal is to lock these models down.  I want to be able to write Horthol's card from memory, or look down at the board and immediately identify Magic Bullet targets.

Jarl seems to have a somewhat cult following in the Troll circles, and I think for decent reason, he brings a decent amount to the table.  Trevor from Chain-Attack played a 50pt match with him recently against pKaya, and during discussion the hosts noted that while Jarl's package is okay, he doesn't do anything better than another Troll caster.  To be fair, I agree with them, but I don't think that is bad, especially in casual play.  It is the options he brings to the table that make him interesting for me.

Challenges

-----------

Originally I wrote the list as a "Troll Allstars" list where the Runebearer and EBDT were replaced by Mulg.  Mat 7 Pow 19s are no joke, but I feel like, for this list, the Earthborn (backed by Horthol) is hitting at Mat 6, Pow 18s with an extra swing, has two open fists, and I am a huge fan of Elemental Communion, especially with Janissa in tow.  Of course Mulg has Protective Fit, but I feel like with how squishy Jarl is, and the fact that he will probably be running low on Fury stack, that the trade off is worthwhile.

There is a possibility I would switch out the Runebearer for a Fenblade Kithkar when he comes out, as Vengeance and possibly Tactical Supremacy movements letting the Fennblades move through each other would be nice.  Additionally, if I find I am having trouble with high defense, I may have to drop Janissa in favor of a Fell Caller, if I did that I would probably bring Mulg back.  Finally, there is an outside chance that I would drop the EBDT for a Mauler and a Sorcerer to make sure the Fennblades don't get anything dumb dropped on them/add a Magical Attack.

Conclusion

-----------

I need a goto list, and I think this has the makings of it.  We'll see where 10 games take me, with number 1 (and hopefully 2) happening tonight!  I am going to hold myself to only one change at a time, and require 10 games between changes.

NETT Recap

So, like a chump I showed up at NETT completely unprepared; I also neglected to take pictures or notes.  One list was with a familiar 'lock who I stuck onto a Borka list I liked hoping to see similar results with better flexability; another was a brand new 'lock who I had barely finished painting and had yet to play a game with.

Here were my lists:

Grim Angus
* Pyre Troll
* Troll Impaler
* Dire Troll Bomber
* Earthborn Dire Troll
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer
Fell Caller Hero
Janissa Stonetide
Trollkin Champion Hero

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
* Pyre Troll
* Troll Axer
* Dire Troll Mauler
* Earthborn Dire Troll
* Mulg the Ancient
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer

My idea here was that Doomshaper was going to handle Gargossals, while Grim was more of an all comers based on an old Borka list I had a lot of fun with.  Point in case, Grim is not Borka, and practice is an important thing.

Round 1

eDoomshaper vs. Darius

I got matched up against a Cygnar player.  He played Darius with a Stormwall, Jr., a number of light ranged jacks, Rangers and another tarpit unit (Sword Knights maybe).  In a lucky strike, he brought the Stormwall into the zone, and I knew I had to commit to taking it down in a single turn, else Darius would just undo my hard work.

When you absolutely, positively need to put something in the dirt, few things get the job done like Wild Aggression + Rage Mulg under eDoomy's feat.  Charged for free, and after 2 initials and 5 bought attacks, the Fortification buffed Stormwall was sitting at 3 hit points.  My opponent sighed in relief, but it was Mulg with eDoom, the free attack ended the Stormwall.  I was pretty happy with the outcome, it took my feat, and I had offered Mulg up on a silver platter but I was now significantly ahead of my opponent in points on the board.

My opponent, for better or worse, was concerned with Mulg being within charge range of Darius so he opted to commit to making roadblocks for Mulg, rather than putting dents in him; which I imagine was probably the best idea, as his chances of chewing through 35 boxes at Arm 21 without the Stormwall was a problem for his list.

We went back and forth a bit, with Mulg wrecking some troops before the Earthborn got to Darius and left him on 1 health.  Darius decided to try and make a run for eDoomshaper in an attempt to sneak out an assassination, but forgot Mulg had reach, and a Free Strike that would have been hard to miss (Mat 7 +2 +Wild Aggression) ended things handily.

My two teammates, playing Circle and Cygnar both won their games.

And then it went downhill...

Round 2

pGrim vs. Ossyan

In my defense, the team that we played here ended up taking second place.

My opponent decimated me.  Between the Mage Hunter Assassins and just general craziness he made me look like exactly what I was, a chump who got lucky with his first match and trampolined up against other teams who went 3-0.  I had an outside chance of assassination on my last turn as the Bomber launched two barrels at Ossyan, but needing 14s to hit on three dice didn't go my way.

Ossyan won on scenario.

My Circle teammate lost his game and our Cygnar player tied his.

Round 3

eDoomshaper vs. eCaine

eCaine, Stormblades, and... stuff?  I want to forget this game, not because I lost, but because I was such an idiot.  Remember that foreshadowing about practice is good and playing casters you have never played before can lead to issues?  Yeah.

So the Stormwall came into the zone, and Mulg was looking to go for 2 for 2 on putting Colossals into the dirt; but he was going to need feat and the Axer animus to get there.  Unfortunately, while I was remembering my previous Stormwall dirtnapping, I ran on autopilot.  eDoom feated and put the Mauler animus on Mulg while the Axer charged off to Thresher some troops.  Axer killed half a unit.

Mulg charges!... 10"... wait, didn't I need 13"?  CRAP!  I put the wrong Animus on him.

So Mulg makes his offering to the Stormwall gods, and none of my other beasts can capitalize on eDoom's feat turn.

A wasted feat turn and being now within striking distance of pretty much everything in his army was a bad thing.  After one turn of pouring shots into my army it was looking very sparse.  eDoomshaper had 3 health left.  I tried to maneuver a bit, but eCaine is a little tough to hide from!

On his next turn he did exactly three damage to eDoomshaper after transfers and I didn't roll Tough.  As I was walking away from the table I remembered a little something... eDoomshaper has Regeneration, which I didn't use.

Chalk one up to being an idiot.

My teammates both lost their games.

Final Round

Grim vs. Harbinger

This was probably my favorite game of the day, my opponent brought Harby, the full Errants package minus the Seneschal, the Book, Rhoven & Co., a Revenger, Repenter, and Reckoner along with a Vassal of Menoth, but no Choir.

We played a pretty good game of cat and mouse here, with what he had having trouble damaging the Champions reliably, but working as a wonderful tarpit to prevent me from getting to Harbinger who was dominating the zone.  I did lost most of my Krielstone Bearer unit on her feat turn as, for whatever reason, I thought her feat cause Continuous Effect Fire, not a Fire damage roll.

My opponent won on control points, but it was hard fought and well won, it was an awesome game to end a great event on.

My teammates both lost their last games as well.

Hobby Update Wrap-Up, July

So here is a better (slightly) picture of eGrissel and some non-Trolls I painted this month:

Hobby Update 7/31/12

Epic Grissel, better picture to come tonight!

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.

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

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.

Hobby Update 7/8/12

Over the weekend I managed to paint up three models:

Rök

Dannon Blythe and Bull

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!

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

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:

Hobby Update 7/3/12

Just a quick hobby update!

Tomorrow I should have 3 models done!

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!

Hobby Update 6/30/12

Finishing out the month strong with getting 10 more points painted:

eMadrak gets stomped, pMadrak goes stomping

So I devised what I considered a solid eMadrak list based on what I own.  Showed up at the FLGS last night and first game was a 15 point Team Game.  As I wasn't sure I would get more than 5 games in for the league, I wanted to make sure I played every game with a new, painted Warlock, so I brought eMadrak (though I probably should have brought out Calandra).

Game 1:

I was paired with a Cygnar player vs. my Arch-Nemesis playing Circle and his Cryx partner.

My list was eMadrak, Axer, Impaler, Mauler.  My idea here was to hopefully make some people unhappy with Madrak throwing his Axe, while the Axer and Mauler had fun.  My partner ran pNemo and 3 Ironclads.

Our Circle opponent brought eBaldur with Megalith and the Woldguardian, his partner played eSkarre, with Deathjack and a Leviathan.

The Cryx and Circle team played fairly aggressively, and myself and the Cygnar player were a bit more cautious in meeting their approach.  eSkarre's feat ruined our best turn to really do any damage, but I did trample my Mauler close enough to put pressure on eSkarre and eBaldur.  Baldur's beasts beat down my Impaler, so my Axer moved to about 1.5" from them so he was threatening both, trying to tie them up for a turn, as I could see that Deathjack was in an eBaldur forest, so there was no way he could charge eMadrak.

Unfortunately I didn't realize that rough terrain was only in play as long as eBaldur wanted it to be (for some reason I thought it stayed in play for 2 turns?), he removed the forest and Deathjack charged eMadrak, hit, and at Dice + 1 rolled a 17, doing 18; which forced a tough roll... that eMadrak failed.  The Cygnar player tried to mop up, but two one one was too much and he fell soon after.

Game 2:

Because I wanted more league points so I could FINALLY get my first upgrade, I convinced my Arch-Nemesis to play a quick 15pt game against me.

My list:

Chief Madrak Ironhide
* Pyre Troll
* Troll Impaler
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Trollkin Scouts (Leader and 5 Grunts)

I ran 1 point down, but I thought the Pyre Troll would be a nice addition in such a small point game.

Arch-Nemesis' list:

Kromac the Ravenous
* Warpwolf Stalker
Stoneward and 5 Woldstalkers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder


Deployment:

I set up my Fennblades centrally, with Madrak right in the middle of them, the Impaler and Pyre to their right.

He deployed Stalker centrally, Kromac behind him, and the Wilder nearby; he then put the Wayfarer and Woldstalkers to the left of the Madrak mini-brick.

I advance deployed the Scouts into a forest directly across from the Woldstalkers.

My turn 1:

Fennblades move up, Madrak moves up behind them and casts Sure Foot.  The Impaler and Pyre Troll move up.  The Scouts move up.

His turn 1:

Stalker warps for Prowl and runs into a Forest to the right of the mini-brick.  Everything else moves forward.

My turn 2:

Fennblades move up, Madrak upkeeps Sure Foot and walks forward, not yet in range of Kromac.  Scouts charge the Woldstalkers and Wayfarer, they don't get into melee range, but get their axe throw because of Assault.  They manage to kill one of the Woldstalkers and the Blackclad Wayfarer.

I was feeling pretty confident I could get the alpha strike on Kromac next turn, I would have the Fennblades pop their mini-feat and... oh, they don't have the UA, no mini-feat, I may need to re-examine my plans...

His turn 2:

His Woldstalkers Zephyr, and take some shots at the Scouts, they kill three, with the last Scout unharmed.  Warpwolf Stalker moves over directly in front of the Fennblades, but doesn't do anything else, Kromac moves forward a bit more, but plays it s a bit safe, keeping the Stalker between my Fennblades/Madrak and him, then casts Inviolable Resolve on the Woldstalkers and Wild Agression on the Stalker.  The Wayfarer moves up.  Woldstalkers Zephyr away and then start shooting the Scouts.  They end up getting 3 kills and 2 knocked down from successful Tough checks.

My turn 3:

Scouts make their morale check, Fennblades move up and fan out just enough to give Madrak LoS to the Stalker, Madrak upkeeps Sure Foot, walks forward and pops feat, then spends 3 Fury, 2 for Stranglehold and 1 to boost the Attack roll, but misses the Stalker, leaving Madrak with 1 Fury.  Under feat, the two knocked down scouts sacrifice their action and the unit advances, my hope here was that with Overtake & Gang I could get through a number of the Woldstalkers, unfortunately I don't kill any, as I roll a 3 for damage, 2 less than I needed to kill the Woldstalker and activate Overtake.

His turn 3:

Kromac upkeeps Wild Aggression, Woldstalkers Zephyr and kill 2 of the Scouts, leaving the last one knocked down on a successful Tough check.  Wilder uses Sprint on the Stalker, and the Stalker warps for Berserk and charges one of the Fennblade flanks.  He hits the first one, he Toughs, buys an attack, hits him again, kills him, Berserk attack the second one, and is then out of range of the rest, so he Sprints away.

The battle music plays as Kromac walks forward and Jumps into Melee range with Madrak.  Kromac has 6 Fury on him, is MAT 8 and gets two initial attacks.  He hits with the first attack, Madrak uses Scroll of Grindar's Perseverance to ignore it, missed his second attack, bought an attack, hit with it for 10 damage (which Madrak then transferred to the Pyre Troll) and then gets a string of misses and a single low damage hit.  By the time he is out of Fury, Madrak has taken three damage.  Kromac then feats, cuts himself for 7 and gets 7 Fury back, which he then proceeds to unleash against Madrak, however Dhunia smiled upon the Chieftain, and when Kromac had exhausted all of his attacks, Madrak stood defiantly with 2 Boxes left and 0 Fury.

My turn 4:

Madrak pulls 4 from his beasts, then cuts himself for 1; bringing him back to 5 Fury.  He boosts his first attack and lands Critical Grievous Wounds (though at this point it wasn't a big deal, Kromac had no Fury) and does some damage.  Buys another attack, boosts to hit, does some damage.  Buys a third attack, hits, boosts damage, and Kromac falls with his tail between his legs.

Wrap-Up:

Madrak should not have survived that assault, at DEF/ARM 16/16 with 18 boxes, ~42% of Kromac's unboosted attacks should have hit, doing ~5 damage per hit.  That means had the dice been average for my opponent, he would have need 4 unbooted attacks to hit for average damage.  Considering that 13 Fury was thrown into the assassination attempt, Kromac's player (Arch-Nemesis) got hosed by bad dice.