So my next playtest game was also against circle, this time against eKaya. The lists this time were:
Grissel Bloodsong
Winter Troll
Pyre Troll
Bouncer
10 Kriel Warriors + Standard & Piper + Caber Thrower
5 Champions
4 Long Riders
Fell Caller
Hero
Viktor Pendrake
Totem Hunter
vs
Kaya the Moonhunter
Laris
Megalith
Warpwolf
Woldwyrd
Dahlia & Skarrath
6 Wolves of Oberos
6 Tharn Bloodtrackers
3 Gatormen
Blackclad Wayfarer
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Deployment
My opponent won the roll and opted for me to set up and go first, we had a river with three crossings running down the board from my zone to his about 6 inches off center, a forest on the far left just past the midway point of the board, with a building in the middle and a few rock pieces scattered around for cover.
I opted to roll with the Long Riders on the left side across the river with the Kriel Warriors spread out evenly across the center of the board covering both sides of the river. The champions were deployed on the right along with the hero, while Grissel and the Fell Caller took up central position alongside the path of the river. The bouncer went with Grissel, the winter troll on the same flank as the long riders, and the pyre troll nearby the champions.
Circle player chose to deploy Kaya near the front along with all of the warbeasts, with the bloodtrackers (who chose the long riders as their prey) on his far right nearest the woods and the wolves on his left covering the ford across the river. Concentrating his forces on the smaller portion of the river, he deployed the gatormen to cover the river itself with Dahlia and Skarrath loitering towards the back along with the wayfarer.
Trollblood Turn 1
The fell caller used pathfinder on the Kriel Warriors, who ran across the river so that the entire unit was on the smaller section serving as a wide ranging road block in front of the rest of my army, with the Long Riders and Winter Troll running up behind them. The Totem Hunter ran up the river along with Pendrake and the Pyre Troll. Grissel used Hoof It on the champions before running across the ford followed closely by the Bouncer. The Champions and Hero ran up across the open ground towards the central building, intending to flank my opponent and box them in by cutting off any escape routes across the river. End of the turn, the Champions moved a few extra inches.
Circle Turn 1
The Warpwolf made a full advance towards the Kriel Warrior line and opted to go with +2ARM, followed by Megalith who cast eKaya's enforced evolution on the Warpwolf. Laris took up a position between the two heavy warbeasts with the Woldwyrd loitering around behind them. The wolves advanced to the flank of Megalith, keeping pace about 4 inches behind him, with the bloodtrackers doing the same on the opposite side with the Warpwolf. The gatormen moved to face the river crossing intending to intercept the champions, while Dahlia cast her anti orders spell. eKaya cast her stealth spell and waits towards the back of the army.
Trollblood Turn 2
Grissel runs across the ford and uses Hoof It on the Kriel Warriors, followed once more by her trusty bouncer. Seeing that the opponent has no intentions of splitting his forces, the Hero chooses to cross the river ready for where the main melee will happen. The Kriel Warriors pop their mini feat and run full out towards the warbeast line, with the shaman piper and caber thrower hanging towards the back while maintaining cavalry formation. The Long Riders run up behind them followed by the Winter Troll, with the Pyre Troll running up the river to close the distance on the enemy. The Champions run around the building, about twelve inches or so from the top most fording point (which is a stone bridge with lips high enough to count as cover), with the Totem Hunter advancing into a position where he still has cover if necessary but a line of sight towards anyone he can get close enough to. Pendrake similarly runs along the river bank ready to be available to assist the champions or the totem hunter as needed. Hoof it movement brings the Kriel Warriors right into the midst of the warbeast line, engaging every single one of them except the Woldwyrd.
Circle Turn 2
eKaya upkeeps forced evolution but doesn't bother upkeeping stealth. A bit surprised by the tactics of the Kriel Warriors, she opts to go first and pops her feat, but makes a major mistake by forgetting to discard her fury remembering only after activating two warbeasts later. As we are prepping for a tournament game I advise my opponent to stick to the rules and just deal with it rather than going back and dropping the fury even though it's way too late. With his options for spending fury limited, the Warpwolf goes after the Kriel Warriors engaging him, spending all his fury (he hadn't noticed his fury problem yet), killing three Kriel Warriors as I pass only one tough roll out of four before teleporting back to eKaya behind the infantry line. Megalith manages to kill one (doesn't spend any fury for extra attacks) before teleporting back behind the line as well, while Laris fails to kill any before again porting back behind the line. The Woldwyrd takes a shot but fails to kill any, opts to buy a second shot which kills a Kriel Warrior before he too teleports behind the line. The bloodtrackers ambuscade the Kriel Warriors, failing to kill any as the tough rolls are now rolling well, and the Wolves of Oberos manage to kill only the standard bearer, who passes the standard on to the dude behind him. Dahlia casts Skarrath's animus on one wolf, while Skarrath himself does the same on another, before the Swamp Gobbers drop a smoke cloud on top of the two of them.
Trollblood Turn 3
I have lost six Kriel Warriors, but they have performed their job admirably, holding the enemy line, forcing Kaya to waste her feat on the second turn, and even luring in both infantry units. Grissel activates first, advancing into a position to affect the entire army before popping her own feat, giving every unit hoof it and heroic ballad. She takes a pot shot at Skarrath with her handcannon, unfortunately missing him before casting the Winter Troll animus on a long rider and the bouncer. The Winter Troll casts his animus on the Caber Thrower before advancing and using his breath attack through the combat, missing both the wolf and the kriel warrior but killing one bloodtracker and one bone grinder. The Kriel Warriors advance into the middle of the infantry line and go with rapid strikes for three attacks per kriel warrior. One Kriel Warrior manages to kill two wolves on his own even though he requires eights to hit, while a series of combined melee attacks sees two blood trackers die. The caber thrower moves into the combat, using the caber toss special attack, missing one wolf, killing another, the Blackclad Wayfarer and manages to catch a gatorman with the tail end of the attack rolling enough to kill him outright. The piper uses instep for the unit to advance an inch, catching the rest of the wolves, killing all but one of the two who were in the cloud effect who retaliates and manages to kill the shaman (who went for a CMA against him missing three times needing sevens!). The long riders charge into the gaps created by the Kriel Warriors, killing the last remaining wolf of oberos. The champions advance to the river edge with the Totem Hunter sitting behind them, while the Pyre Troll advances to use the topmost bridge as cover with Pendrake sat behind him. The Bouncer runs up ahead of Grissel to interpose any possible charge lanes. Hoof It movement brings all the remaining blood trackers into combat with either Kriel Warriors or Long Riders all of whom have the Winter Trolls animus on them. The bouncer sits just outside of reach of Skarrath while the Champions begin to cross the river. The Hero sits behind the Long Riders ready as the third wave along with the Bouncer.
Circle Turn 3
His wolves wiped out to a man and his bloodtrackers all engaged, it isn't looking good for eKaya. The Bloodtrackers swing ineffectually at the Kriel Warriors and Long Riders, becoming stationary for their Troubles. The Gatormen drop their Swamp to try to keep the Champions occupied before charging one of the Long Riders, one of them taking a free strike from another long rider, leaving him on 1 wound. Between them they kill that Long Rider, but find themselves stationary thanks to the Long Rider they charged past (who they couldnt see to charge). Megalith charges into the Long Rider with freezer, managing to take him down. eKaya casts dogpile onto the Champions and the Warpwolf warps for +2 movement before charging the Champions, failing to land a single hit with two attacks and two purchased attacks before running out of fury. Skarrath kills another Long Rider while Dahlia casts his animus on the Warpwolf while the Swamp Gobbers center their cloud effect on him as well. Laris moves to look after the other flank along with the Woldwyrd.
Trollblood Turn 4
Sensing that victory was drawing near I move to cripple as much of the enemy force as I can. Grissel uses heroic ballad on the Kriel Warriors before casting flaming fists on both the hero and the remaining long rider (who happens to be the leader). The Kriel Warriors advance so two of them are engaging Megalith while the remainder autokill the four stationary bloodtrackers. The piper uses in step to create a gap big enough for the long rider Kithkar to get a line of sight to Laris, he chooses to go for it and manages to land his impact attack, inflicting a respectable ten damage points. His charge attack also hits, inflicting nineteen more damage, taking out Laris by himself. The Hero charges the Gatorman Bokur killing him with his first attack before finishing off the last Gatorman who had one wound left. The Pyre Troll takes a shot at Skarrath boosting his attack roll and getting the critical fire, the AoE also catches one swap gobber and Dahlia, setting them both on fire. An unboosted damage roll only does one damage to Skarrath, but boosts against the Gobber kills him and inflicts eight damage to Dahlia, who wisely chooses to transfer it to Skarrath. The fell caller finishes his trek up the river to give pathfinder to the Champions, who advance across the river and swamp (leaving two champs in base to base engaging the Warpwolf) killing a bone grinder and building up damage on Skarrath, choosing to pass on the remaining three attacks when Skarrath was left on two wounds, the two Champions with the Warpwolf choose not to attack the effectively DEF18 Warpwolf who gets to attack back if they miss! Pendrake walks up and uses dismember on the Totem Hunter who charges Skarrath, rolling enough to almost one shot him by himself before also killing Dahlia, earning himself two totem tokens.
Circle Turn 4
Left with only Megalith (swamped by what will be wave after wave of Kriel Warriors), a Warpwolf (stuck with Champions), a Woldwyrd, eKaya, one gobber and two bone Grinders (failed command check) against my entire army my opponents chooses to forfeit. A crushing victory for the Trollbloods!
Thoughts
Grissel: Once again proved to be a very effective caster, she was never in any danger through the whole battle and constantly forced my opponent onto the defensive. Did nothing more than throw around a few animi and some fell calls but then again was never really called upon to do much more than that.
Pyre Troll: Besides being present for burning fists, he only got to make one ranged attack but the one he made was worth it. If all the models who had been set on fire hadn't been killed already, then there was good chance they would have as they were all fragile models.
Winter Troll: OK I have used him in three seperate games now, and he has caused total carnage and destruction in every game so I cannot see where the hate for him comes from (except the awful pose of the model itself). He was single handedly responsible for the deaths of four out of the six blood trackers and my enemy was constantly wary of his animus being throwned around on my troopers. I think he has definitely made the list over the Impaler for Grissel.
Bouncer: Never had to be called into action all game, he sat there blocking charge lanes to Grissel and just looked big and scary. Didn't have to do anything but was always there if needed.
Pendrake: The totem hunter didn't need dismember, but it was nice to have it there ready in case it was needed. Pendrake didn't do much all game but again he never really needed to.
Totem Hunter: Killed both Skarrath and Dahlia though the Champions were easily capable of finishing off Skarrath by themselves. This had left him in a well protected position where he could easily have moved on up to engage Megalith from behind or possibly even eKaya and continued racking up the tokens. Seemed to justify his points value in this game.
Fell Caller: Spent the entirety of this game just throwing around buffs, but the terrain setup meant that Pathfinder was needed almost every turn, so his activities were limited just because of the terrain factor.
Hero: Killed the Gatormen and was (like the Totem Hunter) in a position to charge the Megalith next turn who was being swamped by waves of Kriel Warriors. Between the two of them, I felt confident that Megalith wouldn't have survived another turn.
Kriel Warriors: The real stars of this battle, they got in the way and kept my opponent bogged down for the entire match, everywhere he turned the Kriel Warriors were there and they just would not die. At the end of the game, I still had 3 Warriors, plus the Standard and Piper (the caber was one of the three surviving warriors) so my opponent scored zero VPs for them. For their points value they were absolutely superb, I would run them with Grissel every time.
Long Riders: Only killed the odd trooper or two, but ARM18 and 8 wounds combined with reach and tall in the saddle makes them ideal candidates for the Winter Troll animus. Driving into the heart of the enemy's army on my feat turn meant sacrificing three of the four long riders, but Freezer on them meant they could not be ignored. The leader killing Laris by himself was just the icing on the cake.
Champions: Didn't get to do much, but they sucked in the Warpwolf into their own brand of Tarpit. The DEF18 trick with counter attack made me choose not to retaliate, but the Bouncer's animus on the guy he was engaging meant that next turn he had one attack maximum to drop him before being pushed out of melee range and at the mercy of the unit in its entirety without the benefits of the gobber cloud or Skarrath's animus, and that would not have ended well for him.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Random musing: Scattergunners
So yeah, following the rather successful 550point outing of my Winter Troll on Monday night, I have been thinking about trying to include more spray templates in my army, so barring the inclusion of an army of Winter Trolls the only other option for me to look at is the oft maligned scattergunners. But how terrible are they really? Lets take a look...
SPD6 is great for Trollbloods, its on the upper end of the scale in an army where the most effective units are predominantly SPD5. They have average MAT and RAT, values that are easily boosted by our fell callers and by certain debuffs thrown onto an enemy (Grissel and Grim). DEF and ARM wise they suffer a little but in reality they should never end up on the front lines until you are ready for them to go out and do their thing.
So now we come down to their weapons, spray templates have a fixed range of 8 inches, but get to ignore cover, concealment and screening. With good positioning you could spray your own models to attack invisible units (though you would need to roll high to score a successful hit on most such units), but the obvious tactic is to hit big units at an angle, scoring multiple potential hits over and over again. POW12 will kill most single wound infantry on averages, even most shield walled units only reach ARM18, with Grissel (my current lock of choice) you can be hitting POW14 against a unit with calamity, even warbeasts and warjacks will start feeling the hurt.
The true flaws of these guys? Sadly there are two, as well as suffering the eternal curse of being medium based models and thus getting in each other's way when it comes to lining up your attacks, they also suffer from being hideously expensive, 10 points less than Long Riders for a unit which can only hack it in melee if they charge and is as fragile as Pyg Bushwhackers.
Is it possible to make them work? Perhaps at 950 but currently at 750 I just cannot see what I would drop besides the Long Riders, who were just as integral to my victory at 550 on Monday night. Without my Kriel Warriors to provide them with cover (and being cheap enough that I wouldnt mind sacrificing by shooting through them if needed) I start swiftly running out of options regarding what to drop.
SPD6 is great for Trollbloods, its on the upper end of the scale in an army where the most effective units are predominantly SPD5. They have average MAT and RAT, values that are easily boosted by our fell callers and by certain debuffs thrown onto an enemy (Grissel and Grim). DEF and ARM wise they suffer a little but in reality they should never end up on the front lines until you are ready for them to go out and do their thing.
So now we come down to their weapons, spray templates have a fixed range of 8 inches, but get to ignore cover, concealment and screening. With good positioning you could spray your own models to attack invisible units (though you would need to roll high to score a successful hit on most such units), but the obvious tactic is to hit big units at an angle, scoring multiple potential hits over and over again. POW12 will kill most single wound infantry on averages, even most shield walled units only reach ARM18, with Grissel (my current lock of choice) you can be hitting POW14 against a unit with calamity, even warbeasts and warjacks will start feeling the hurt.
The true flaws of these guys? Sadly there are two, as well as suffering the eternal curse of being medium based models and thus getting in each other's way when it comes to lining up your attacks, they also suffer from being hideously expensive, 10 points less than Long Riders for a unit which can only hack it in melee if they charge and is as fragile as Pyg Bushwhackers.
Is it possible to make them work? Perhaps at 950 but currently at 750 I just cannot see what I would drop besides the Long Riders, who were just as integral to my victory at 550 on Monday night. Without my Kriel Warriors to provide them with cover (and being cheap enough that I wouldnt mind sacrificing by shooting through them if needed) I start swiftly running out of options regarding what to drop.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Tourney prep Game: Grissel vs Kreuger 550pts
So I got my first prep game in since starting this blog last night, a 550pt match against Kreuger. The lineups were:
Grissel Bloodsong
Pyre Troll
Winter Troll
Bouncer
Fell Caller
Hero
Long Riders (3)
Champions (5)
Kreuger the Stormwrath
Warpwolf
Megalith
Blackclad Wayfarer
Wolves of Oberos (6)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (6)
Gatormen Posse (3)
Farrow Bone Grinders (4)
The terrain setup had some woods on the middle left, a rock formation on the middle right, a hill at the center of each deployment zone and a building in the center of the battlefield. My opponent won the roll and forced me to set up and go first.
I set up my champs in the center of the battlefield with the hero and fell caller just behind them, flanked by the Pyre and Winter trolls, with the Long Riders to the right of them and Grissel and the Bouncer just behind the champs.
My opponent curiously opted to deploy his entire force in his top right corner in a box formation, obviously intending to use the woods as an annoyance against me. He set the bloodtracker's prey as the champs.
Turn 1
The champs ran up alongside the the right hand side of the building followed by the Winter Troll, Fell Caller and Hero. The Long Riders ran across the front of my deployment zone towards the woods in the center of the table. Grissel used Hoof it on the Long Riders and ran up along with the Bouncer around by the building. The pyre Troll runs up to the left of the building, using the corner of it for cover. The Long Riders used their Hoof it movement to get a little closer to the woods (about 16 inches away).
As predicted, my opponent runs his blood trackers into the woods to protect them from charges, uses the Bone Grinders to boost his spell range, and walks up Megalith to cast Forked Lightning at the Pyre Troll, boosts his attack roll and misses the DEF17 pyre. Kreuger walks up and tries his luck, boosts his attack and scores a hit, arcing onto one long rider. He chooses to boost both damage rolls, scoring 6 damage on the Pyre and no damage at all on the long rider. His Wolves run up to interpose themselves between the champions and Kreuger, with the Gatormen posse running up just behind them. The Warpwolf runs up behind Kreuger ready to jump into the action as needed. The blackclad wayfarer runs up to the edge of the woods.
Turn 2
I start off by activating the Pyre Troll, who walks up and has a spit at Kreuger, but sadly finds himself about half inch out of range, the scatter deviates onto the gatormen but doesn't do a lot. I then run the Bouncer up about seven inches short of Kreuger and turn his back to him to face Grissel, who promptly charges him and misses (hooray!) and pops her feat, catching Kreuger, Megalith, the Wolves, the Wayfarer and the Gatormen in her control area, as well as the entirety of my army except for the Fell Caller. The Long Riders run right up to the edge of the woods, while the Champs, Winter Troll, Hero and Fell Caller all run up around the building. Hoof it movement brings 2 of the Long Riders into the woods, while the other has enough movement to get around the back of the woods engaging all of the Tharn Bloodtrackers between them. The Pyre moves to interpose himself between Grissel, the Bouncer and the Warpwolf, while the Champs and Hero walk up about 4 inches away from the Wolves of Oberos. The Winter Troll follows up just behind them.
My feat has caught my opponent cold, he activates the Bloodtrackers first who all attack the Long Riders and bounce off them without causing any damage. Next he activates Megalith, who walks through the forest to attack the Long Rider engaging the bloodtrackers from the rear, missing his first two attacks, hitting and doing six damage with his first purchased attack, then forcing three consecutive successful tough rolls with his remaining fury. The blackclad wayfarer charges another long rider, but misses with his charge attack. This forces Kreuger to move in to attack the same long rider as the wayfarer, boosting his to hit roll and scoring a hit, but a string of boosted damage rolls only succeeds in bringing the long rider down to one wound remaining. The warpwolf takes the bait and charges the Pyre Troll, taking him down but leaving his back exposed to the champions. The wolves retreat six inches from the champions and the gatormen pull back as well dropping a swamp between the champs and the wolves. Anticipating the possible loss of the warpwolf he conga lines his bone grinders from the warpwolf to Kreuger.
Turn 3
Grissel activates first, boosts an attack roll with calamity against the warpwolf but misses, then resigns herself to firing a shot with her handcannon at him, also promptly missing before using heroic ballad on the long riders, leaving herself with 2 fury just in case of a Kreuger assassination run. The Winter Troll advances and uses his breath attack against the warpwolf from behind, scoring the critical frost and using his animus on the nearest champion. The fell caller then uses pathfinder on the champs who just run through the swamp, before the hero charges through the swamp killing two wolves with his backswing attacks. The champs then run past the hero forming a defensive line facing the remaining wolves and the gatormen, with the nearest champion standing behind the immobile warpwolf. The long riders activate, the leader killing two bloodtrackers, the one engaging the megalith hitting twice, scoring 6 damage off his body, and the other engaging Kreuger decided to take some shots at the Stormwrath himself, missing once but scoring a hit on the second attack, dishing out 7 damage which he cannot transfer because both his beasts are maxed out on fury. The Bouncer charges the warpwolf, taking two free whacks with his reach weapon but leaving his last fury point free for transfers.
Faced with his warpwolf unable to move, he activates him first and just pops +2ARM warping hoping it will save him next turn. The bloodtrackers try to kill the two long riders who are each on 1 wound, but cannot get through their armour values. Megalith (who he could only leach 1 fury from as he took 4 from the warpwolf) misses with a boosted forked lightning against the long rider engaging him, and proceeds to also miss with both melee attacks against the ninja long rider facing him in combat, this bison knows how to duck and weave! Kreuger activates and spams more melee attacks, finally killing the long Rider before camping his last 2 focus points. 3 of the remaining wolves charge the end champion, with the leader having a line of sight to the hero so chooses to charge him. The 3 wolves together just about manage to kill the champion, while the leader takes 3 damage off the hero, who proceeds to smack him into the dirt with his retaliatory strike. The gatormen charge in as well, managing to miss with every charge attack, scoring only one tail slap hit for no damage and one polearm hit for 2 damage to one champ. The wayfarer, warpwolf, 3 bonegrinders all find themselves stationary thanks to freezer.
Turn 4
Grissel activates first, casting calamity on the now DEF5 warp wolf and shooting it with her handcannon, again keeping 2 fury on herself just in case and using heroic ballad again on the long riders. The Fell Caller charges two wolves, killing one with his charge attack and missing the other, but does his job in triggering inspire on the hero and champions. Two champs move into the back of the warpwolf while the remaining two stay in melee combat with the gatormen, the two on the warpwolf proceed to murder him boosting up the concern bonus for the two fighting the gatormen, killing one normal gatorman and the bokur in the process. The winter troll sees an opportunity and advances close enough to use his breath attack, killing two stationary bone grinders, the blackclad wayfarer and chooses to boost his to hit roll against Kreuger, scoring a hit! Its an unexpected bonus and so I choose to boost my damage roll figuring I can whittle him down enough for a long rider or hero to finish him off, but the winter troll only goes and rolls a 17 for his damage roll, putting the Stormwrath permanently on ice.
Thoughts
In this game the mobility of Grissel's force paid off, and the gamble of charging the bouncer and triggering her feat crippled the enemy force leaving my whole army able to move up without taking any damage.
Grissel: Did well, whiffed a boosted calamity attack roll which should have been a foregone conclusion but besides that, she managed to catch my enemy cold with the sudden speed of my army. Didn't really do much killing, just threw around the buffs and debuffs to let my troops do the heavy lifting for me.
Pyre Troll: Didn't do much, but then again he didn't need to. I used him as a sacrifice to draw out the warpwolf and had the unexpected bonus of him requiring the warpwolf to use up his entire fury allowance to kill it.
Winter Troll: Ultimately he was the game winner in this match, he single handedly brought about the death of the warpwolf as well as scoring the very lucky hit on Kreuger that ended the game.
Bouncer: My enemy never did go for the throat against Grissel, but then again he was forced into a corner the whole match and was forced to react to my army the whole game. As a result the bouncer didn't need to do much, just walked around a bit and took a few free whacks at the immobilised warpwolf.
Long Riders: It was a bit of a gamble taking them in a 550pt game alongside the champions, but they effectively neutralised the bloodtrackers, wayfarer and Megalith for the whole match. So they made back easily over double their points value. No devastating cavalry charge, but against circle hiding in the woods it was never likely to happen anyway.
Champions: Did what they were good at and did it well, taking on the remaining wolves, the gatormen and the warpwolf and proceeding to tear them apart. A solid inclusion who always do well for themselves.
Fell Caller: Did his part, threw around a few buffs and even got to kill something for once. Without pathfinder the champion with freezer on him would never have reached the warpwolf.
Hero: Didn't get to do a lot, just killed 3 wolves but was in a good position to charge Kreuger (at an effective MAT of 11 and POW14) so if the winter troll hadn't finished him off, the Hero probably would have.
Grissel Bloodsong
Pyre Troll
Winter Troll
Bouncer
Fell Caller
Hero
Long Riders (3)
Champions (5)
Kreuger the Stormwrath
Warpwolf
Megalith
Blackclad Wayfarer
Wolves of Oberos (6)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (6)
Gatormen Posse (3)
Farrow Bone Grinders (4)
The terrain setup had some woods on the middle left, a rock formation on the middle right, a hill at the center of each deployment zone and a building in the center of the battlefield. My opponent won the roll and forced me to set up and go first.
I set up my champs in the center of the battlefield with the hero and fell caller just behind them, flanked by the Pyre and Winter trolls, with the Long Riders to the right of them and Grissel and the Bouncer just behind the champs.
My opponent curiously opted to deploy his entire force in his top right corner in a box formation, obviously intending to use the woods as an annoyance against me. He set the bloodtracker's prey as the champs.
Turn 1
The champs ran up alongside the the right hand side of the building followed by the Winter Troll, Fell Caller and Hero. The Long Riders ran across the front of my deployment zone towards the woods in the center of the table. Grissel used Hoof it on the Long Riders and ran up along with the Bouncer around by the building. The pyre Troll runs up to the left of the building, using the corner of it for cover. The Long Riders used their Hoof it movement to get a little closer to the woods (about 16 inches away).
As predicted, my opponent runs his blood trackers into the woods to protect them from charges, uses the Bone Grinders to boost his spell range, and walks up Megalith to cast Forked Lightning at the Pyre Troll, boosts his attack roll and misses the DEF17 pyre. Kreuger walks up and tries his luck, boosts his attack and scores a hit, arcing onto one long rider. He chooses to boost both damage rolls, scoring 6 damage on the Pyre and no damage at all on the long rider. His Wolves run up to interpose themselves between the champions and Kreuger, with the Gatormen posse running up just behind them. The Warpwolf runs up behind Kreuger ready to jump into the action as needed. The blackclad wayfarer runs up to the edge of the woods.
Turn 2
I start off by activating the Pyre Troll, who walks up and has a spit at Kreuger, but sadly finds himself about half inch out of range, the scatter deviates onto the gatormen but doesn't do a lot. I then run the Bouncer up about seven inches short of Kreuger and turn his back to him to face Grissel, who promptly charges him and misses (hooray!) and pops her feat, catching Kreuger, Megalith, the Wolves, the Wayfarer and the Gatormen in her control area, as well as the entirety of my army except for the Fell Caller. The Long Riders run right up to the edge of the woods, while the Champs, Winter Troll, Hero and Fell Caller all run up around the building. Hoof it movement brings 2 of the Long Riders into the woods, while the other has enough movement to get around the back of the woods engaging all of the Tharn Bloodtrackers between them. The Pyre moves to interpose himself between Grissel, the Bouncer and the Warpwolf, while the Champs and Hero walk up about 4 inches away from the Wolves of Oberos. The Winter Troll follows up just behind them.
My feat has caught my opponent cold, he activates the Bloodtrackers first who all attack the Long Riders and bounce off them without causing any damage. Next he activates Megalith, who walks through the forest to attack the Long Rider engaging the bloodtrackers from the rear, missing his first two attacks, hitting and doing six damage with his first purchased attack, then forcing three consecutive successful tough rolls with his remaining fury. The blackclad wayfarer charges another long rider, but misses with his charge attack. This forces Kreuger to move in to attack the same long rider as the wayfarer, boosting his to hit roll and scoring a hit, but a string of boosted damage rolls only succeeds in bringing the long rider down to one wound remaining. The warpwolf takes the bait and charges the Pyre Troll, taking him down but leaving his back exposed to the champions. The wolves retreat six inches from the champions and the gatormen pull back as well dropping a swamp between the champs and the wolves. Anticipating the possible loss of the warpwolf he conga lines his bone grinders from the warpwolf to Kreuger.
Turn 3
Grissel activates first, boosts an attack roll with calamity against the warpwolf but misses, then resigns herself to firing a shot with her handcannon at him, also promptly missing before using heroic ballad on the long riders, leaving herself with 2 fury just in case of a Kreuger assassination run. The Winter Troll advances and uses his breath attack against the warpwolf from behind, scoring the critical frost and using his animus on the nearest champion. The fell caller then uses pathfinder on the champs who just run through the swamp, before the hero charges through the swamp killing two wolves with his backswing attacks. The champs then run past the hero forming a defensive line facing the remaining wolves and the gatormen, with the nearest champion standing behind the immobile warpwolf. The long riders activate, the leader killing two bloodtrackers, the one engaging the megalith hitting twice, scoring 6 damage off his body, and the other engaging Kreuger decided to take some shots at the Stormwrath himself, missing once but scoring a hit on the second attack, dishing out 7 damage which he cannot transfer because both his beasts are maxed out on fury. The Bouncer charges the warpwolf, taking two free whacks with his reach weapon but leaving his last fury point free for transfers.
Faced with his warpwolf unable to move, he activates him first and just pops +2ARM warping hoping it will save him next turn. The bloodtrackers try to kill the two long riders who are each on 1 wound, but cannot get through their armour values. Megalith (who he could only leach 1 fury from as he took 4 from the warpwolf) misses with a boosted forked lightning against the long rider engaging him, and proceeds to also miss with both melee attacks against the ninja long rider facing him in combat, this bison knows how to duck and weave! Kreuger activates and spams more melee attacks, finally killing the long Rider before camping his last 2 focus points. 3 of the remaining wolves charge the end champion, with the leader having a line of sight to the hero so chooses to charge him. The 3 wolves together just about manage to kill the champion, while the leader takes 3 damage off the hero, who proceeds to smack him into the dirt with his retaliatory strike. The gatormen charge in as well, managing to miss with every charge attack, scoring only one tail slap hit for no damage and one polearm hit for 2 damage to one champ. The wayfarer, warpwolf, 3 bonegrinders all find themselves stationary thanks to freezer.
Turn 4
Grissel activates first, casting calamity on the now DEF5 warp wolf and shooting it with her handcannon, again keeping 2 fury on herself just in case and using heroic ballad again on the long riders. The Fell Caller charges two wolves, killing one with his charge attack and missing the other, but does his job in triggering inspire on the hero and champions. Two champs move into the back of the warpwolf while the remaining two stay in melee combat with the gatormen, the two on the warpwolf proceed to murder him boosting up the concern bonus for the two fighting the gatormen, killing one normal gatorman and the bokur in the process. The winter troll sees an opportunity and advances close enough to use his breath attack, killing two stationary bone grinders, the blackclad wayfarer and chooses to boost his to hit roll against Kreuger, scoring a hit! Its an unexpected bonus and so I choose to boost my damage roll figuring I can whittle him down enough for a long rider or hero to finish him off, but the winter troll only goes and rolls a 17 for his damage roll, putting the Stormwrath permanently on ice.
Thoughts
In this game the mobility of Grissel's force paid off, and the gamble of charging the bouncer and triggering her feat crippled the enemy force leaving my whole army able to move up without taking any damage.
Grissel: Did well, whiffed a boosted calamity attack roll which should have been a foregone conclusion but besides that, she managed to catch my enemy cold with the sudden speed of my army. Didn't really do much killing, just threw around the buffs and debuffs to let my troops do the heavy lifting for me.
Pyre Troll: Didn't do much, but then again he didn't need to. I used him as a sacrifice to draw out the warpwolf and had the unexpected bonus of him requiring the warpwolf to use up his entire fury allowance to kill it.
Winter Troll: Ultimately he was the game winner in this match, he single handedly brought about the death of the warpwolf as well as scoring the very lucky hit on Kreuger that ended the game.
Bouncer: My enemy never did go for the throat against Grissel, but then again he was forced into a corner the whole match and was forced to react to my army the whole game. As a result the bouncer didn't need to do much, just walked around a bit and took a few free whacks at the immobilised warpwolf.
Long Riders: It was a bit of a gamble taking them in a 550pt game alongside the champions, but they effectively neutralised the bloodtrackers, wayfarer and Megalith for the whole match. So they made back easily over double their points value. No devastating cavalry charge, but against circle hiding in the woods it was never likely to happen anyway.
Champions: Did what they were good at and did it well, taking on the remaining wolves, the gatormen and the warpwolf and proceeding to tear them apart. A solid inclusion who always do well for themselves.
Fell Caller: Did his part, threw around a few buffs and even got to kill something for once. Without pathfinder the champion with freezer on him would never have reached the warpwolf.
Hero: Didn't get to do a lot, just killed 3 wolves but was in a good position to charge Kreuger (at an effective MAT of 11 and POW14) so if the winter troll hadn't finished him off, the Hero probably would have.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Another Trollblood Blog? Hmmm...
Greetings all and welcome to my Trollbloods blog, home of my random hordes and warmachine musings, battle reports and the ongoing development of my Trollblood forces. I might as well kick this off with a list of what I own, and some thoughts about an upcoming tournament on 25th July that I am preparing and playtesting heavily for:
Thanks to some recent purchases, I am now the owner of:
Madrak Ironhide
Grissel Bloodsong
Calandra Truthsayer (already advance ordered and prepaid for)
Mauler Extreme
Earthborn Dire Troll
Axer
Impaler
Slag Troll
Winter Troll
Bouncer
Pyre Troll
10 Kriel Warriors, plus Standard, Piper and Caber
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes, plus Stone Scribe Elder
4 Long Riders
5 Champions
6 Pyg Burrowers
Fell Caller
Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Viktor Pendrake
Last year with my Cygnar I came in second place at this same tournament, but the format this year has changed quite a bit and I have since decided to abandon my blues to the display shelf and focus on the Trollbloods. This year the tournament will be played over only three rounds, one each at 550, 750 and 950 points. You are allowed to have an alternate list at the 550 and 750 point brackets, but only one list at 950. A total wipeout of the enemy's forces awards you a bonus 10VPs, so focusing more on army destruction than an early assassination is key for scoring highly in the tournament.
My plan over the coming weeks is to post regular updates on battle reports with my Trollbloods as I test out armies at different points brackets to find the ones that seem to work the best for me.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see some regular visitors.
Thanks to some recent purchases, I am now the owner of:
Madrak Ironhide
Grissel Bloodsong
Calandra Truthsayer (already advance ordered and prepaid for)
Mauler Extreme
Earthborn Dire Troll
Axer
Impaler
Slag Troll
Winter Troll
Bouncer
Pyre Troll
10 Kriel Warriors, plus Standard, Piper and Caber
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes, plus Stone Scribe Elder
4 Long Riders
5 Champions
6 Pyg Burrowers
Fell Caller
Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Viktor Pendrake
Last year with my Cygnar I came in second place at this same tournament, but the format this year has changed quite a bit and I have since decided to abandon my blues to the display shelf and focus on the Trollbloods. This year the tournament will be played over only three rounds, one each at 550, 750 and 950 points. You are allowed to have an alternate list at the 550 and 750 point brackets, but only one list at 950. A total wipeout of the enemy's forces awards you a bonus 10VPs, so focusing more on army destruction than an early assassination is key for scoring highly in the tournament.
My plan over the coming weeks is to post regular updates on battle reports with my Trollbloods as I test out armies at different points brackets to find the ones that seem to work the best for me.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see some regular visitors.
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