Friday 23 December 2011

Road to Smogcon: 35pt Tier EMadrak vs EMagnus

While perusing the beautifully produced Smogcon entry pack it occurred to Max that we were lining up to dish out a beat down on each other in the Friday night steamroller event for no good reason (other than comedy and bragging rights).  Smogcon is the first UK version of an American style 'Con' tournament and features a wide range of qualifying events that will allow the winning player (or top 2 for bigger qualifiers) to participate in the final 'Masters' event on the Sunday.  Now, there is really no guarantee that either Max or myself will make it through to this event.  Their are plenty of high quality, veteran players entered for the qualifying tournaments.  It does seem a silly decision however to volunteer for the opportunity to play each other when their is such a variety of events available and so we decided to explore the possiblities inherent in the 35pt tier events on offer.

So, for a bit of pre-christmas gaming, Max decided to 'work from home' and I dropped the missus off at the office and ventured back to the capital of culture that is Warrington for some 35 pt gaming.  Looking through the troll book there are not many stunning tier lists, unless you are willing to invest in about a million runeshapers for some PDoomy craziness it is all relatively standard stuff with few bonuses worth shouting about.  I had previously decided that the simplest option for me was to run a EMadrak tier that used models I already possessed, was relatively familiar to me in terms of playstyle and most importantly, was simple to run.

EMadrak
Dire Troll Mauler
Storm Troll

Horthol Long Rider Hero
5 Trollkin Long Riders
10 Trollkin Fennblades plus Officer and Standard

Not a complex list. Line up and run at them, use Blood Fury to hit like a ton of bricks, Killing Ground to mitigate pathfinder issues and Warpath to get the Mauler in.  The 'rage' animus helps the Long Riders open up heavies and the Storm Troll offers a ranged option as well as a way to get round high def troops.

Max has recently discovered the EMagnus theme list 'The Bad Seeds', a list that was initially very popular on 'teh forumz' but has recently gone quiet.  It is a tier that certainly allows you to get a lot of troops on the table with the cheap as chips Sword Knights and has the ever present threat of a pair of Renegades.  Max was planning on using the list to dominate scenario play using his speed, numbers and impressive feat.

EMagnus
Nomad
Renegade 
Renegade
Talon

10 Sword Knights with Officer and Standard marshaling:
Sentinel 
6 Rangers
Orin Midwinter
Kell Bailoch

Setup and Turn 1

Having won the roll off for the first time in a few games I leapt at the chance to choose sides and go second (going second being the new black).  This was a mistake.  As I had been on the receiving end of some bad terrain in our last few games and was feeling like I hadn't won a deployment roll for a while I didn't think before electing to go second.  Under SR2012 going second has become much more powerful than it ever was before but only if it still allows you to compete in the scenario - I had an aggressive list that needed to get up the table and going second had played right into Max's hands.


For this game we were continuing our tour through the SR2012 scenarios, I had chosen 'Restoration' for this game as it was new to both of us.  Yet again, I repeated my signature trick of choosing, reading and then gleefully ignoring the scenario.  Max, with his usual focus, did not.



Max began by gleefully handing out his free focus (a nice tier benefit).  He had deployed  his Sword Knights with their marshaled Sentinel centrally, flanked at either end by the two Renegades.  The Nomad had deployed to the left and the Talon to the right of the unit, maximising the potential for the Sword Knights 'Flank' bonus as they are both reach Jacks.  Magnus was central with Orin to his left.  Kell and the Ranger's AD'd with the rangers spread in front of the left flank and Kell in the difficult ground to the right


What followed was a fairly simple but quite scary turn 1.  The Sword Knights ran in a group up the middle of the board, maintaining their defensive line and the Sentinel used his Jack marshall pseudo focus to run up beside them. The rangers also ran, maintaining a very spread formation across the front of Max's lines.  Magnus activated, put up mobility and then charged up the hill 'unfortunately' falling short of engaging a Sword Knight.  The battlegroup jacks were now free to run with their extra movements and came tearing forward at a scary pace, taking up positions at either end of the line of Sword Knights.  As Max ended his turn it became apparent to me that my choice to go second had been an error, I was seriously under pressure as Max's army was virtually on the centre line and was now being forced out and sideways to try and mitigate the feat I knew was coming in the next turn.


My turn was spent in what was becoming a pretty standard manoeuvre for me, the out, back and sideways spread.  I was conscious that I didn't want to give Max an easy clump of models to feat and was aware that I would have to have models free to move and contest zones or this could be a very easy win for him.  To this end my entire army took a run order, Horthol and the Long Rider cavalry fanning out across the middle and up Max's right flank, the Fennblades and the Mauler heading left towards my objective and zone.  At the end of the turn I was still fairly unconvinced I had spread far enough thanks to my bunched deployment.



The Board at the end of turn 1

Turn 2

With some glee Max began measuring his control area and planning this turn's feat goodness.  Magnus was going to be hanging himself forward it was clear but with such a powerful scenario position available and very little potential for ranged retaliation it looked like he would be very safe.  Focus was given to both Renegades and the Nomad and Max began the turn by running the rangers into positions where he could take advantage of their 'mark target' ability, leaving one ready for Magnus to 'failcharge' into.  Next, the left hand Renegade advanced and picked the Long Rider stood on the hill and the Fennblade next to him; fortunately I had, on the whole, managed to spread my troops far enough not to give Max easy clumps to knockdown/kill.  The right hand Renegade went for an aimed shot at Horthol who was beginning to threaten the right flank but poor damage rolls left him knocked down but still mounted. 

Deciding he didn't like the ranged threat of the Storm troll the Nomad barrelled forward but again, poor damage rolls left Stormy limping but still (just) in the fight.  The Sword Knights advanced into the zone, leaving a channel for Magnus to charge through later and maintained their defensive line; the Officer pronto'd the Sentinal forward, allowing it to advance but then still take the aiming bonus in its activation.  It went to work next, picking the two foremost Fennblades off the top of the hill and the Talon advanced across and poked a knocked down Horthol with his spear, again doing little damage.  Finally, Magnus activated, popped his feat and 'failcharged' the furthest ranger to get as far up the board as possible, unsurprisingly nominating the top and bottom edges of the board. 


Max had finished in a very strong position, he had flooded the zone with troops, was well advanced and was threatening my objective which I had, in usual and expect fashion, failed miserably to protect.  I also had very little I could use to effectively threaten Magnus as most of my stuff was busy line dancing sideways.  After a lot of head scratching and far too much hard thought I began by using my vengeance moves to kill a couple of Rangers and reposition some Fennblades for better angles. The bulk of this turn was to be taken up with killing the Nomad and potentially throwing him and Magnus for some knockdown goodness.  Madrak activated first, put up warpath and killing ground and then advanced and boosted a thrown axe into a ranger, triggering warpath and moving the Mauler.  The Mauler was then able to activate, charge over the wall for free (thank you killing ground), use its 'Rage' animus and with two boosted attack rolls triggered his smash and grab attack to fling the Nomad into Magnus (boosting the to hit roll).  Magnus was now on his arse and the Nomad was badly beat up, sadly, my stunning positioning had left the Mauler outside of the circular zone 


This is still something I am having big issues with.  The top players are so precise with their movements, anticipating where their models need to be looking in following turns and adjusting facing for maximum effect. In this instance the Mauler's 1/2" melee range left it plenty of opportunity to end its charge still in the zone but a lack of focus when placing the model had left Max with a gilt edged opportunity


As I had not yet noticed my poor positioning (Max was to joyfully highlight it in his next turn) I then proceeded to compound my mistake by charging the Fennblades sideways, out of the zone to finish of the Nomad.  A few short whacks later and the Nomad was a wreck but I was again badly out of position.  I finished my somewhat restricted turn by standing Horthol and having a fairly ineffective whack at the Talon nearby and running the only Cavalry unaffected by the feat to engage Magnus and two Sword Knights.  I had done a little damage and threatened Magnus but was dangerously exposed in the Scenario. 


The board at the end of turn 2
Turn 3

Max had already done his maths before beginning this turn and had clocked the easy scenario win available to him.  If he could clear the zone and destroy the exposed objective he would score the required points at the end of his turn and it would be game over.  Unfortunately for me, this didn't seem like much of a challenge.  Max began by clearing the central zone, Magnus filled up the left hand renegade, spent one to stand and began by casting mobility to ensure the renegade could reach the objective.  He then attacked the Longrider engaging him and in a moment of utter comedy failed miserably to kill him.  The Sentinal was next to go, with a ranger bonus and aiming it easily picked off two of the Fennbades in the Zone and the other was finished by the Rangers.  With the centre now nearly clear all Max needed was an easy kill on the objective and Long Rider and the game was his.  First up was the Renegade, charging in and with two additional attacks it rolled well doing 7 points of damage and left the objective with 8 remaining

On the maths this should have been an easy kill for Max, the charging Renegade should do 3 or 4 points of damage (P+S 13 plus 3d6) and then two additional attacks doing a couple of points with a potential crit shred for even more bites at the cherry.  The 8 points remaining should be easily taken care of by 2 Sword Knights who with the 'Flank' bonus were at P+S 10 plus 4d6, doing an average 4 damage each.


Things didn't quite pan out however, the Sword Knights charged in and in the centre easily killed the Long Rider.  On the flank however 3 Knights made it to the objective and with a series of unfortunate dice rolls failed utterly to finish off the structure, despite having one more model than the averages deemed necessary.  With the game now turned on the dice all that remained was for the Talon and Renegade on the left to poke ineffectually at Horthol and for me to enact my fortuitous escape.

What remained was a relatively simple run on Magnus.  Madrak upkept Warpath, cast Rage on the Mauler and then advanced and threw his axe at the enemy to trigger the warpath and reposition the Mauler.  With a clear charge line the Mauler bounded in and after a couple of big meaty fists Magnus was down and the game was over.




The board at the end of the game
This was an interesting game and a very fortunate win. Poor decisions throughout, from going second, to the lack of focus on the scenario and poor positioning on the Mauler meant that I really should have lost.  Max's only mistake might have been wasting the Renegade rockets, boosted shots into the objective would have really hurt it, making it all the easier to kill in the end game.  I did not play well but am on the whole happy with the list.  As always, more practice required.









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