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.

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!

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.