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:

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 7/4/12

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:

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.

Pre-Game 6/28/12

As I sit here during my last few hours of work, I can almost here the drums outside the dull gray walls of my cube, calling me to something greater, calling me to WAR; or possibly just calling me to a cramped room with smelly dudes.

It's Thursday, and that means it is the one night I get to play WM/H (outside of random Menoth vs. Trollbloods games on my table at home).

This is Week 2 of the Thornwood League (and I am in last place with a single point!), and as much as I would like to play that Jarl list again, I need to get four games in over the next three weeks with different painted Warlocks.  Tonight I will be pulling out Epic Madrak (and insisting on League Scenario).

Any how, here is the list:

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender
* Dire Troll Bomber
* Dire Troll Mauler
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
Trollkin Scouts (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Fell Caller Hero


I should have no problem cracking High Armor with this list (my problem last week), and for High Defense I have the Bomber and two Beasts who can throw Fennblades/Scouts.  The Fennblades eat up board space, the Scouts are intended as a counter charge unit, and the Krielstone Bearer and Scribes will stick close to the middle of the bodies.  With 21 medium base Warrior Models on the field (besides Madrak), I should have plentiful Grim Salvation targets.

Hobby Update 6/26/12

Although not Trolls, both will be used with them!

Alten Ashey:

and Maxwell Finn:

Hobby Update 6/25/12

Sluggers, as promised!

Hobby Update 6/24/12

Scouts are painted, based, and sealed!

Next up?  Trollkin Sluggers!

The Jaws of (Un)Life

So last night was the first night of the Thornwood League for me.  As I was driving to the FLGS, I realized that I was expecting about 50/50 Warmachine/Hordes breakdown (we have a fairly balanced group of players).  So I made a small adjustment to the League list, dropping the Skinner in favor of the Runebearer AKA Trollses.

We did not play a scenario, my opponent had his daughter with him (who not only rolled all his dice, but was rolling well!) so we just played a friendly game.

The list he brought was:


Maelok, the Dreadbound
* Bull Snapper
* Blackhide Wrastler
* Ironback Spitter
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Spellstarved Thrullg (League Model)


He won the roll, but opted to go second, so I deployed first.  I put Maxwell Finn and the Sluggers on my left flank.  Jarl, the Mauler, Impaler, Trollses, and Krielstone Bearer + UA were deployed a little more centrally, with the Secluded Savage to their right, looking to punish anything that came in.  The Scouts and Chronicler decided to attempt an extreme flanking maneuver to my right.

My opponent deployed most of his units dead center with a unit of Posse leading the way, trailed by the Wrastler and Spitter.  Thrullg was deployed on my opponent's right (my left) facing the Sluggers.


My turn one:


The Scouts activated and advanced, then the Chronicler brought up the back and gave them Concealment (which does not trigger Prowl unfortunately).  Maxwell Finn ran forward, and now in LoS of all the Sluggers, they charged him (using Relentless Charge) to setup in some Rough Terrain.  The Mauler moved cautiously forward, wary of threat ranges on the Posse facing him, the Impaler came up and put Far Strike on Jarl.  Jarl moved forward (keeping charge lanes blocked) cast Magic Bullet and shot a Posse member, failed to kill him, Magic Bullet'ed the same model, STILL failed to kill him, took his second shot and finally managed to drop him.  Stone moved up and popped aura (+STR as I did not realize the Spitter caused Corrosion).



His turn one:


I learned two very important lessons:

1. The Spitter causes Corrosion!
2. I had SERIOUSLY underestimated the threat ranges on his Posse.

He activated Maelok, through out some buffs and Revives his destroyed Posse Member, after which the Spitter moved up, boosted to hit, and launched his AoE on the Krielstone Bearer (catching the Bearer and 2 Scribes).  AoE killed 1 of the Scribes, Bearer and the second Scribe lived, but had the Corrosion effect on them.  His next move was to charge the Mauler with the first Posse group, but only three make it into Melee (the second Posse group was keeping my Scouts in check; not wanting to charge in, but keeping the Scouts from having juicy targets).  Snapper also puts his animus on Maelok.

Mauler takes some damage, but doesn't lose any aspects.

My turn two:

Stonebearer survives Corrosion (but it does not go away), final Scout dies; Command test is passed.  Jarl activates first, sacs his Movement, pops the left Gatorman Posse on the Mauler, take a 2" step and puts 5 boxes on the right Posse member.  Mauler activates, picks up the center Gatorman Posse member (who has 1 health, he was the Revived one), and throws him at the right Posse member.  My intent here was that the Mauler would kill the one he was throwing, if the second one survived, it was no longer "In Melee" so the Impaler could finish it off.  I ended up killing the the right Posse member and the thrown one survived.  Mauler buys an attack, killed the center Posse member and eats him, then forces to Regenerate.  Impaler walks up, launches a spear at another Posse member, kills him, and is out of range for the other two.

At this point it was time to see what the Sluggers could do.  They could see Finn still, so they were a RAT 7, they sac'd their Movement and aimed, bringing the 5 of them to a D3 shots, now at RAT 9 versus the remaining 2 Posse members.  3 were in range of Posse Member 4, and 1 + Finn were in range of Posse Member 5.  Shots did not go as well as you would have expected based on averages.  I managed to kill Posse member 5, but left #4 with 1 box, which meant...


His turn two:


Snapper frenzies and hits Maelok for 4.  Maelok moves up, and revives a Posse member from the forward unit.  He throws Death Pact on the Wrastler, who moves up again, but does not get into range on anything.  The forward Posse unit charges again, this time one going at the Impaler and the other going after the Secluded Savage.  They kill the Savage and put some hurt on the Imapler.

2nd Posse/Scouts continue to have their standoff.  I am just outside of his range, but if he moves toward those Scouts they will counter-charge next turn.  Bull Snapper puts his animus on Maelok and the Spitter, well, spits.  He hits the Impaler, does some solid damage and kills him.


My turn three:


Stonebearer succumbs to Corrosion.  At this point I have lost one of my two beasts and I have Posse members in my grill with a Wrastler coming behind them.  The Posse member that killed the Impaler is close enough to the Mauler that he can't charge the Wrastler without taking a free strike, and he is still hurt enough that I am concerned a good damage roll will end him, so instead he eats that Posse member and gets his d3 back.

Finn activates and realizes Thrullg is nice and close.  He sac's movement, and gets 2 shots that turn, which is all it takes to remove Thrullg.  The Sluggers follow suit, all targeting the Wrastler, and despite getting a large number of shots, are at Dice minus 8 for damage.  They drops some 1s and 2s on him but don't do anything substantial.  Jarl casts Magic Bullet on himself, shoots at the final Posse member from the front group, misses, shoots again and misses.  At that point he buys two more attacks for 1 Fury and misses for a third time in a row, finally hitting (and killing) the Gator.  He moves 2" away from the Wrastler and pops feat.

So it turns out I didn't know how Cloud Effects and targeting worked.  I centered my clouds on models I wanted to protect, but then found out that if they are in the cloud they are targetable, the clouds only block LOS from one side of it to the other.  Live (or don't) and learn.


His turn three:


Bull Snapper makes a Frenzy check, fails, and charges Maelok in the back doing 14 damage; Maelok transfers to that same Snapper.  Maelok pops feat, puts Death Pact on himself, and moves forward.
Wrastler charges the Mauler, and drops him on the first hit.  Second Gatorman Posse runs from the back of my opponent's half to mid-table.

Everything else is too far away/does not have LOS, so his turn ends.


My turn four:


Jarl moves forward and cuts himself for 4 to bring himself to full, hoping to end Maelok (who is down to 1 Fury).  At this point, Maelok is DEF 14/ARM 21 with 13 Boxes on him still.  Based on averages, Jarl's best option (at Dice minus 9) was to hope to land 4 shots, with 3 of those Boosted, doing an average of 4 damage.  I don't remember the exact numbers, but things worked out a bit better, Maelok had ~7 boxes left.  The Sluggers move forward and take 1 shot each at Dice -8, but they could not close the deal.  The Scouts charged Maelok (who was out of range), but got their Assault throw, only two were in dange, but at Dice minus 10 they couldn't put any boxes on him.


His turn five:


Wrastler charges Jarl, Jarl fails his Tough roll.


Thoughts:
I made some pretty big mistakes in this game.  That said, I think I learned from all of them.  I was playing a bit too conservatively, part of that is because most of my experience being with Calandra, and the other part is probably missing my 12 Fennblades between the enemy and my caster.

This was also my first game against Blindwater, so there was a lot of things that I did not expect (which I enjoy) and I think next time I would be more prepared for some of the things that caught me offguard.  Running those Scouts up the flank was good and bad.  On one hand, they tied up a 9pt unit for literally the entire game, but that was 7 points committed to doing that (Scouts + Chronicler).  If I had kept them closer to home, they could have laid down a bit of smack between Gang, the +1 Str from the Krielstone UA.  That would have given them an Assault throw at POW14, and a followup Melee Charge attack at P+S14.  I don't know how things would have changed, but I feel like they would have earned more than 5 points of tradeoff.

Finally, the table had no Forests.  This list is not a permanent list, but I wrote it based on the Thornwood Fluff/Scenarios, and when not playing them, all of the Camouflage and Prowl was wasted.

Moving Forward:
I wasn't a huge fan of the Runebearer, which is to really say, I was not a fan of how I played him.  I didn't do any Quicken shenanigans or anything like that.  All that said, I think versus Hordes I will probably bring out Alten Ashey, and keep Trollses in there for vs. Warmachine.

Pre-Game 6/21/12

So as I have said before, I hate fielding unpainted models; unfortunately I could not pick up my Scouts, Sluggers, and Maxwell Finn until today.  So think of this as a "Pre" picture, something you can compare the paint jobs to.

Hobby Update 6/21/2012

My involvement in the FLGS Thornwood League starts tonight, and while I really hate putting unpainted models on the table, I won't have my Scouts, Sluggers, or Maxwell Finn until much later today.  That said, I was able to paint up my Dire Troll Mauler:

This means, that while I won't be able to field a fully painted army tonight, Jarl's battlegroup is complete:

Hobby Update 6/19/12

Just a quick hobby update, I received Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood yesterday, and painted him up in preparation for my first Thornwood League game on Thursday.

As you start to see stuff I paint, you will quickly see that I am a "tabletop quality" painter.  That doesn't mean I don't try, just that I lack the skill at this time.  Regardless, I feel that Jarl is a step up from my earlier painting attempts, and I am happy with how he came out.

Service Shoutout

If you read my post about my Thornwood Theme list, I needed to purchase Jarl Skuld, but the FLGS did not have him in stock.  As an avid Chain Attack listener, I decided to give Discount Games Inc. a try.  I placed my order on Friday 6/15 morning, and received Jarl yesterday, Monday 6/18.

That was awesome, if you can't find what you need at the FLGS, I suggest giving them a try!

Thornwood League

So the FLGS is running a Thornwood League starting 6/18/2012.  For those who haven't seen the info on the League, here is the relevant PP page:

http://privateerpress.com/organized-play/leagues/thornwood

Now that the link is out of the way, on to the meat and potatoes of this post.  I looked at these league rules and I saw a great reason to try out one of the most maligned units in the Trollblood lineup, the Trollkin Sluggers.

To get the most out of these guys, they need to be relatively immobile.  The get d3 attacks (and their aiming bonus of course) if they sacrifice their movement.  When considering that in a vacuum, that is pretty solid.  The concern comes from the fact that if they do need to move, their RAT is kinda low (they are Trollkin after all) and they now only get 1 attack.  Not terrible, but at 8 points for 5 of them, there is an issue there.

Enter Thornwood League, or more importantly:

Captain Maxwell Finn, Thornwood Survivor.  Max here normally only plays for Cygnar, but for Thornwood he will work for Trollbloods as well as Cygnar.  Not only does he bring a solid Ranged Solo to the table (something Trolls lack), but he gives the guys above Camouflage, Relentless Charge (Pathfinder Charges help when they do need to move), and +2 RAT.  While he may be 3 points, I feel that what he adds to the Sluggers, plus himself, is well worth 11 points.

We also get a nifty alternate Trollkin Champion Hero, the "Secluded Savage" we can field.  He trades in Relentless Charge, Tactician, and Thresher for Camouflage, Killing Spree and Pathfinder.  I think all in all this is a solid trade.  If you are taking Champions, you probably want the stock Champ Hero, but if you are not, I think this is a friendlier Melee Solo who now doesn't need to worry about hitting his own boys in that 2" melee range.

All that is a lead-up to this, I like Theme Armies (note that I did not say "Tier Lists"), so I wrote up a Theme Army for the League.  I do intend to use 5 different Warlocks to get that Commendation (Borka, Calandra, eGrissel, Jarl and pMadrak); but this will be my list for the other games (and the Commendation Jarl game) that I will be playing:

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood

* Troll Impaler

* Dire Troll Mauler

Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes

* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder

Trollkin Scouts (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Trollkin Sluggers (Leader and 4 Grunts) 

Stone Scribe Chronicler

Trollblood Skinner

Secluded Savage 

Captain Maxwell Finn, Thornwood Survivor

We'll see how it goes, first game will probably be in a week (waiting on models to arrive).