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!

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

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:

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 7/1/12

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!