Road to Smogcon: Practice 1 Grim Vs PVlad

After a week of hectic blogging trying to get my initial thoughts down on paper it was time for my first real practice game.  Helen was in London on a work Christmas do and so I was free to meet Max at the Northwest Gaming Centre for a bit of Friday night geekery.

I wanted to run out my Grim list that had taken a small tweak in the week after being slapped around by Jamie P's Old Witch, if you haven't read the blog posts below the list is:

Grim Angus
Earthborn Dire Troll
Dire Troll Bomber
Troll Impaler

10 Nyss Hunters
10 Bog Trog Ambushers
3 Long Rider Cavalry
Horthol
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Reinforcements: 5 Gatorman Posse, Feralgeist


As stated before, this is an attempt at a well rounded list that will encourage me to learn to play the game rather than relying on over powered tricks.  Max was running his recently updated PVlad gunline, now sporting his own unit of Nyss (having swapped the WG DEFstar into his PIrusk list);


PVlad

Behemoth
Drago

Gun Carriage
10 Nyss Hunters with Ranking Officer Valachev
Great Bears
Grey Lord Ternion
Koldrun Lord
Widowmaker Marksman


Reinforcements: 10 IFP plus Officer and Standard.


Max and I are regular opponents and I have played against what we have come to term 'a bit of S+P' many times.  His is a list that pummels you on the way in and then slaps you for having the temerity to get the tattered remains of units into his half of the board.  Under signs and portents his shots rarely miss and the damage output, especially on boosted rolls, can be insane


Deployment

(Apologies for the blurry pictures, shit cameraphone FTL) 


As you can see, the two zones are marked using the white gauze.   Max scores in the right hand zone, I score in the left.  Max won the initial dice roll and elected to deploy first and go first.  He set up the Gun Carriage, Behemoth and Drago as close to my scoring zone as possible, with Vlad, the Great Bears and the various Greylords loitering behind.  The Nyss were set up staring at his own scoring zone.  In response I decided to take advantage of the wood on my side (pathfinder being something Grim really doesn't struggle with).  The Nyss and Horthol deployed directly below my scoring zone, supported by the Earthborn.  They would be heading in to try and score while the Longriders, the Impaler, Grim and the Bomber would drive up the middle, deal with Max's fake replica Nyss and swing across, accompanied by the Gatormen reinforcements.  I was also anticipating a nice bit of rear action from the bog trogs on Max's IFP as they would likely be on the table before my ambushers (how wrong I was...)


Turn 1

Max began his turn by allocating 1 focus to the Behemoth's legs.  The GunCarriage then trampled out to the right, stuck its toe in the back of the zone a launched a couple of very speculative shots towards the Nyss, missing completely. The Widowmaker Marksman advanced through the wood into the back of the zone,  Behemoth ran forward and Vlad BoK'd up and shuffled in behind.  The Koldrun Lord advanced, Drago ran straight forward,  the Great Bears stepped in behind the Gun Carriage and Behemoth.  The Greylord Ternion then activated, advanced and placed blizzards on the two jacks and a Nyss. Finally, the Nyss ran forward, one carrying a blizzard to finish off Max's defensive snow wall and the rest toward his scoring zone.


Having played against this 'Signs and Portents' buffed gunline before I immediately started my turn by breaking a number of the cardinal rules for combating effective heavy shooting.  If you can't stop him shooting you, give him too many targets to deal with.  With this firmly forgotten I promptly ran my cavalry into cover behind the building, from where they could happily not really effect the game. To compound my stupidity I then ran the Earthborn to the front of the wood, just neatly into aiming bombard range.  The Nyss adopted the famous Perkins 'out, sideways and backward' shuffle to get themselves spread and hopefully out of range of the reinforcing IFP.  The Impaler activated, sniped up the bomber and advanced to the back of the wood.  Next up, Grim activated, cast Cross Country on the Bomber, sniped himself, advanced and boosted a shot into a Nyss, killing it.  Finally, the bomber advanced through the would, chucked two speculative bombs at the Nyss, killing one and the Gobbers snuck round the edge of the wood and pumped some smoke up to block LOS to Grim.


Stupidly I had given Max a very easy target with my over ambitious run for the Earthborn and had left his Nyss unthreatened by my Cav.

The board at the end of Turn 1

Turn 2


Max began turn 2 with a bit of a surprise, he decided that with few real targets for his reinforcements he would elect not to bring them on.  As he had been a part of my list building theorymachine I knew that he was aware of the Bog Trog ambushers who would be able to give him a bit of a bumming if the IFP appeared on the table first.  What this did mean though was that I would have a numerical advantage for a short while with both my Gators and the Trogs available to me this round...


I was fairly sure at the end of my last turn that the Earthborn was in bother and Max was soon to prove me right.  Vlad stuck 3 focus in Behemoths guns, shuffled in behind his oversized jack and cast Signs and Portents ready for a turn of bombard comedy.  First up was the Gun Carriage who sidestepped to ensure it was solidly in the zone and able to bring both bombards to bear on the Earthborn. The carriage lacks the ability to boost so at DEF 14 in the wood this was really my only hope for a missed shot this turn.  Two direct hits later and half the Earthborn's grid was coloured in, Signs and Portents is so brutal.  Thanks to my stunning positioning the Behemoth had the option to aim but Max was keen to get up the table and dominate the centre of the board, keeping me pinned down in the wood.   Behemoth stepped towards my scoring zone, boosted two shots into the Earthborn and boosted the damage on one.  Now I was really limping with only about 5 damage boxes left and the Nyss and the Widowmaker Marksman yet to activate.


The Nyss activated and advanced toward the wood containing the Earthborn and the Bomber. Thanks to my superb flanking maneuver with the Longriders they were free to do this completely unthreatened, with no fear of retaliation as my cav were busy playing tag with a stone wall.  2 Large CRA's later and the Earthborn was extremely dead.  The turn finished with the Greylords dropping blizzards back on the jacks, the Koldun Lord shuffled again and Drago  ran into base to base with the Behemoth (please note in the picture his base is twisted sideways to fit him in, he is actually looking forward).  The Great Bears continued to pitch tents by the Gun Carriage and the Widowmaker Marksman tried a swift leroy out to ping Cylena but was half an inch short and was left holding his cock in the middle of the zone.


Now lacking a beatstick heavy I had some real problems this turn, I decided to bring on both my reinforcements and my ambushers.  I needed to reduce Max's ranged threat and force him to play to the scenario rather than just blowing me off the table.  Interestingly, if I could take out the Gun Carriage and the Widowmaker marksman I could go a point up and with my Gatormen arriving this turn I could put a large multiwound presence in Max's scoring zone that he would struggle to shift.  The Nyss were also now dangerously close and I needed to find a solution them.   


The Bomber was my ideal solution to the Gun Carriage, I was also fairly sure that my ambushingBog Trogs were in range for a cheeky flank charge.  I began by upkeeping Cross Country; wantingto keep Grim for later, the Impaler then activated, advanced towards the Nyss, sniped up the bomber and took a cheeky unboosted shot that unsurprisingly missed the nearest Nyss.  Now the Bomber could go to work, an advance followed by two boosted shots did disappointing damage and the Gun Carriage still had 9 boxes remaining.  This left me with a debate, I was unsure how many Trogs were in range, 3 two man CMA's should just do it, 2 would not be enough.  The big question was over the Nyss; once the carriage was engaged I would be unable to CRA into it, however, using them may well have been overkill and I needed them to deal with Max's fake Nyss.  


In the end I decided to save the Nyss.  The Trogs charged in and unfortunately poor judgement on my part meant that only 4 were in range.  2 two man CMA's later and the carriage was left on 3 health, as a small bonus, they did manage to take out the Widowmaker marksman but the scenario point was now beyond my reach.  As we discovered later, my poor positioning of the Trogs unable to get into combat was going to cost me, I had also realized that advancing the Bomber had put him easily in Drago's charge range.  Time for Grim to come to the rescue;  a stroll forward put both Behemoth and Drago in feat range as well as most of the Nyss.  The feat was popped, Marked for Death was boosted into the Nyss and then Grim picked one off with headhunter and sat on two transfers.  The Nyss were now free to destroy the evil red impersonators and went to work, requiring no line of sight and only 4's to hit, it wasn't too difficult, soon only Valachev and one elf remained.  Horthol wandered forward slightly behind the Nyss, the Longriders emerged from the cover of the building and ran to the middle, the Gatormen appeared and ran into the zone and again the gobbers finished the turn by advancing and pumping some smoke to try and block line of sight to Grim.


Irritatingly I had again fallen victim to not having a clear plan and sticking to it.  I should have gone all out for the scenario point, used my feat to slow the Nyss down and relied on the smoke to hide Grim.  Max was now in a great position to use his IFP to wipe out the Bog Trogs and pack the zone, effectively making the remainder of the game a war of attrition that he was likely to win.

The board at the end of Turn 2

Turn 3


Max took a long, long look at the gap between the Bomber and the smoke cloud and pointed out to me a clear line of sight.  Whilst I knew it was there, I had not realised was that under Vlad's feat the jacks would be doubling their move before applying Grim's -3 spd debuff.  Behemoth could clearly walk to take advantage of the gap and drop double boosted 'S+P'd' bombards on Grim's head.  Fortunately for me, I had not fully racked up the fury on the Impaler and had two transfers available.  Deciding against going for it Max allocated two focus to Behemoth's guns, bought on the reinforcing IFP, activated Vlad, cast Signs and Portents, danced around like a big gay behind his jack wall and camped 1 focus without really moving.  


It was time for the Koldun Lord to open up with some sprays.  Having shuffled around in the rear for two turns he now stepped up, taking down three trogs with a well placed spray. Next the IFP went to town with rear charges galore on the Bog Trogs.  What I had realised is that the spare trogs, instead of running behind and around the battle engine, should have turned around and formed a well spaced line of reach models that the IFP would have had to engage and kill or risk being free struck.  As it was, they rampaged in, wiped out the remaining trogs and then minifeated into the zone to create a lovely shield walled blob.

Now that the Gun Carriage was free it began launching shots into the Nyss, killing 3 of them.  Max had decided that he really needed to thin out my troops but it was a tough choice between them or lifting off the Bomber as he had done with the Earthborn.  Behemoth stepped up and with his two shots dismounted Horthol and killed one of the cavalry that were threatening to get back in the game. Again, the Great Bears shuffled, waiting for the inevitable arrival of my reinforcements and Drago advanced to reform Vlad's jack wall.  Finally the Greylord Ternion popped down blizzards on the two jacks and Valachev.


In a similar fashion to Max it was now my turn to stare hard at the board, we had discussed during the previous turn that Vlad seemed vulnerable to a CritSlam from the Impaler, through Drago for a knockdown.  To me, Vlad now seemed even closer to the jacks but it would require some decent rolls to pull off.  


Trying to keep my options open Grim upkept Cross Country (my new fave spell) and I spent some time figuring out my activations.  In case the assassination run failed I was keen to have at least done some substantial damage to Max's firepower.  To this end, the Nyss activated first, advanced through the wood and put a 6 man CRA in to the battle engine that failed miserably to kill it off.  This was not starting well.  


In order to pull of the assassination I needed the Impaler to snipe itself, advance at a slight angle to ensure Drago wouldn't hit the Behemoth if i got the CritSlam, and roll well enough to hit.  In a moment of good fortune it managed all of this (8's to hit, boosting, rolled a double 4 and a 5) and then proceeded to roll the 3+ required to slam drago back 2 inches into Vlad.  Things had now got a little easier.  Next up was Grim, he sniped the bomber and promptly fell back to relative safety in the rear of the wood in case things went dramatically wrong.  Now the Bomber just needed to apply the finishing touches, advancing out he dropped his first bomb on Vlad's head but rolled poorly for damage, buying the second shot he again hit easily and required 12 on 3 dice to finish him.  With a lovely (albeit above average) roll of 14 Vlad was down and it was game over

The board at the end of the game

Birds Eye View of Assasination Run

Post Game Thoughts

I have been feeling for a while that to really take advantage of Grim's feat he need to be able to get further up the board,  at the moment he seems very vulnerable.  To this end I will be dropping to min Bog Trogs and adding Janissa to the list (as for Smogcon I only need two lists and she is therefore available).  


I am also very aware that my placement and positioning need a huge amount of practice, offering up the Earthborn turn one was stupid, especially as I had decided to hide the cavalry.  I am also still placing models so they look pretty, facing their targets, I MUST remember to think about potential threats and where they want to be facing the turn after, they have a 180 Degree LOS and I am not using it to its fullest potential


Happy to get the win but in all honesty it was not a well played game from my side. Still months to go yet, next up, first practice with Calandra...