Friday 13 January 2012

Road to Smogcon: 50pt Grim vs PIrusk (again...)

So it seems my new year has come with a number of treats, most notably a new structure to my week that involves my much better half finding dance classes on a Monday and Thursday freeing me up for two (yes two!) nights of gaming.  Returning to the busy gaming hub that is Max's lounge I arrived to the scent of Marks and Spencer Beef and Horseradish sandwich's, clearly someone had upgraded the catering ready for a 2012 full of fun, frolics and quite poor warmachine play.

Tonight we had opted for a 50pt game as I was playing in a small one day tournament at the North West Gaming Centre on the following Sunday (appearing soon on this blog).  Determined to stick with my trolls throughout 2012 this would be their first competitive run out and I was setting myself the target of winning 2 out of my 3 games.  



As an interesting aside here it is beginning to amaze me how I have not seen eHaley dominating major UK tournaments.  It may be that the supporting Cygnar list is hard to design/master, but recently I keep thinking after games "god that would have been so easy with Haley".  Haley's hard counters were for me lists that could alpha strike her key toys (stormclad, arc node) and I wonder in 'Crutch free' 2012 if her feat/spell list hasn't become even more powerful as others lose their key pieces...

Rambling aside, today we were playing 'resupply' from the SR 2012 pack and I was determined to focus on the scenario as this had been a real weakness in my last two games. The scenario involves holding a circular zone on your own side of the table and preventing the opponent from destroying the objective at the centre, while simultaneously attempting to destroy your opponent's objective and control his zone.

The Lists and Deployment

Today, Max was getting a little frisky with his Irusk list.  Discussions over the last month or so had led us to the conclusion that the availability of Wishnailer had probably pushed Irusk to the top of the Khador caster tree and now Max was experimenting to find his 'optimal' list. Today's experiment consisted of dropping down to a single heavy Jack and running 3 units as well as ambushers.  The real challenge with this list was going to be moving all the models within 12 minutes....



PIrusk
Spriggan
Wishnailer

10 Iron Fang Pike with Officer and Standard
10 Kayzay with Underboss
10 Nyss Hunters with Valchev
Grey Lord Ternion
6 Kossite Woodsmen
Aiyana and Holt


I was continuing to practice what will hopefully be my standard Grim list. Recently I had been feeling like I had not been getting any real use out of the Earthborn due to poor positioning and was struggling to make the Cav have significant impact.


Grim
Dire Troll Bomber
Earthborn Dire Troll
Troll Impaler


10 Nyss Hunters
3 Long Riders
Horthol Long Rider Hero
Jannisa Stonetide
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
6 Bog Trog Ambushers


One of the issues with having a regular opponent is that you become very used to playing each other's lists.  Irusk is a great caster in his own right but is a particularly hard counter to Grim as he is able to effectively neuter Grim's armies ranged threat with Iron Flesh and his feat.  In reverse, Max is well aware that I will be picking off Valachev at the first opportunity and then winning the 'Nyss off', giving me a real ranged advantage.


I was glad to win the roll off for this game as I had not been able to practice going first much recently.  Max elected to keep the side with the easy access to the forest and I deployed and set up first, it was my intention to get Grim and the heavies into my Zone, and to aggressively threaten the scenario by bombing Max's objective, denying him the opportunity to score on his own zone and keeping mine.  I wanted the mulitwound cav in my zone also to prevent an easy clear by Max



In response Max accepted my Nyss off challenge (he had a sneaky plan i was later to discover)  deploying his Nyss opposite mine with the Spriggan and Kayzay central and the Iron Fang Pike holding the left flank.  Looking at that many infantry I knew this was going to be an uphill struggle

Deployment



Turn 1


Wanting to get Grim up the board to maximise the effectiveness of his feat I started aggressively, running the Earthborn 14" into my zone.  The Cav followed on the right flank and the Bomber, Impaler, Grim and Jannissa all ran also. I really wanted pack the zone, put the pressure on Max, give myself a chance to score early points and prevent him from destroying my objective.  On the left the Nyss ran and spread out, being sure not to give Max any easy targets of opportunity in his turn

End of Troll Turn 1

Max then adopted an equally aggressive approach to his first turn, one that was to make me regret my own.  On my right flank the Kayzay ran forward and the IFP advanced in a double banked shield wall behind, with a pair of models turned to protect them from potential Bog Trog attack.  The Nyss took a run with Valachev hiding at the back, spreading out opposite their clearly superior cousins.  Irusk advanced, cast Superiority on the Spriggan, Iron Flesh Nyss and feated, taking me somewhat by surprise.  He was then sheltered behind the Greylord Ternion and their incessant clouds and the Spriggan finished the turn with a run up the middle.


Max had really caught me out with his first turn feat, my aggressive run up the board had given him a really goog opportunity to jam me up with his high def, 4+ tough troops.  I now faced a sea of hard to hit, hard to kill troops and had put myself in the position of only having one shot at maximising my ranged superiority.  With the wonderful benefit of hindsight I could have easily stood off him for one more turn and had not anticipated the early feat.


Sorry, forgot to get end of turn Photo!!!


Turn 2


As I began I was extremely conscious of the fact that we were playing under timed turns. Despite this I still took 2 minutes before deciding on my course of action - something I should have done as Max's turn drew to a close.  Deciding that I was now far too threatened by the close proximity of Max's army I decided that I would use my feat defensively and try to slow Max down and give myself two bites at the cherry.  Very kindly Max reminded me about my Bog Trogs which I deployed in range of the Nyss near the woods


On the left I could see that Valachev was vulnerable, Max had parked him behind a hedge, forgetting I think that the Nyss would ignore the concealment bonus.  I needed to activate Grim early in order to get his debuff's up and running but this would involve shifting a number of the troops in front of him.  I began by charging the Cav into the available Kayzay, a silly move in hindsight as this only took them closer to Max's horde and engaged them with high def, tough Kayzay.  As it was, some good impact hit rolls and some failed tough's meant that I actually managed to remove 4 of the hateful little assassins.  Grim could now manoeuvre around the back of the objective, feat and boost a successful 'Marked for Death' into the Nyss (needing a 9 to hit thanks to Iron Flesh!).  Feeling somewhat pressured for time I promptly forgot to shoot or shed any fury and left him standing, still sat on three transfers.  


The Nyss were up next advancing forward to shoot the imposters.  First was a two man CRA that hit but failed to kill (snake eyes damage!) the ranking officer, fortunately for me (very fortunately!) the third lone Nyss hit and damaged Valachev, forcing a tough roll that Max was kind enough to fail.  The remaining seven Nyss then threw a combination of CRA's and solo shots into the opposing unit, killing 3 of them.  Max's use of Iron Flesh on this flank had given me real problems and meant that even after my feat and Marked for Death I still needed 7's to hit Def 13 with single Nyss.  The Bog Trogs now charged but were only able to reach two Nyss, as these far models were outside of the Feat (but still Marked for Death) I need to hit Def 16.  Charging CMA'd pairs of trogs are effectively MAT 10 so requiring 6's, one pair hit and one pair missed.  


Now it was time for the beasts, as I hadn't really planned this turn very well it was down to the Impaler to snipe the Bomber, with this done I tried to execute my plan, take out the objective and force Max to devote more resources to protecting it.    The first bomb hit but boosted damage only yielded 1 point on the structure, my plan ruined I then wasted the second bomb on a single offending Nyss.  To finish the turn Horthol advanced to threaten the Spriggan, Janissa advanced and put a wall in front of Grim and the Swamp gobbers smoked up the clump of beasts and solos.


End of Troll Turn 2



Now Max was free to bring the pain.  He was likely to use his 5 min extension to get all the killing in but would end the turn in a position of real power.  To begin, Wishnailer upkept Superiority and Irusk stepped out and Battle Lusted both the Kayzay and the IFP.  Behind the Bog Trogs, Max's Kossites came on and reminded me (not for the first time) that the two spare trogs really should have been behind their brethren, facing the board edge to protect them.



As my feat was running Max's available movement was restricted on his left. He began on the right by charging in the Kossites, with rear attacks and charge bonuses it was a matter of moments for them to kill 5 of my 6 Trogs.  With the Nyss now less threatened they advanced in an inverted V around his objective and with some well placed CRA's picked off 3 (including the key piece, Cylena) of mine leaving the battle for his objective nicely even.  

On the other flank he began by advancing the evil elf witch and 'Kissing' the Cav for +2 DMG, Holt advanced and picked off a Nyss. Then the Kayzay that were in range advanced into the Long riders, a pair of assassins reached each one but with some poor dice rolling only one  dropped dead. 


With the closest Cav now dead Max realised he may have slightly misjudged the range between the Cav and the IFP.  Without many attacks available he settled for a short Shield Walled advanced that bought him ever closer to the zone.  Feeling a little under protected in his zone the Spriggan performed a short run over the hedge and to finish the Greylords provided their usual smokey cover for Irusk.


It had not been a devastating turn as I had managed to catch most of Max's forces in Grim's feat.  The problem was that I was slowly loosing the war of attrition.


Sorry, again I forgot to take a photo at this point


Turn 3


I had used my extension, the red horde was looking ominously close and I had no feat left to combat Iron Flesh.   On the bright side, Max's troops were now killable again and I still had most of my forces intact (barring the Bog Trogs that I had handed Max in a lovely Trog happy meal.) I had run a little hot last turn and my mistake of leaving 3 fury on Grim now gave me a problem.  I cleared down the Bomber and the Impaler passed his threshold, leaving 2 fury on him.


I began with the Nyss; making a choice between shooting the kossites and the imitation Nyss I made (with retrospect) the wrong choice and went after the Kossites.  The Nyss were still Iron Fleshed and without the ability to CRA, even aiming meant I needed 8's to hit (as they were still Marked for Death).  However, with 7 shots I could expect to kill 3 of the remaining 5 and give me a real ranged advantage, especially when the kossites would be returning fire needing even higher.  As it was I removed 5 of the 6 Kossites and one Nyss with good rolls but still felt they were a threat.

Grim decided it was about time to get the fuck out of dodge and began furiously back pedalling, having upkept MfD he had 5 fury remaining.  He stopped toward the rear of the zone, sniped up the bomber and then put a boosted shot into Cylena, killing her outright

In the melee on the right the Cav had become bogged down.  Deciding they could serve as an excellent speed bump the unengaged trooper charged in but some unimpressive dice and high DEF Kayzay combined to make them both fairly ineffective.  I was running out of effective ways to deal with the infantry swarm.  The bomber stepped up and landed a lovely shot right on Aiyana's head, removing her from the game, this also clipped the Kayzay underboss but even with a damage boost was unable to 'tough' him.  The second bomb was sent in the same direction, auto scattering from the Underboss just enough to clip him; this time it was a tough but to add insult to injury he passed it and was nicely set for a minifeat next turn.


As I was again running hot and their were few targets for him the Earthborn continued to shuffle near my objective, Janissa backed off and placed a wall in the way of the onrushing horde and Horthol resumed his perennial role as loiterer extraordinaire.  Finally the gobber popped a big smoke cloud up, blocking line of sight to Grim.


End of Troll Turn 3


I wasn't really doing enough damage and this was the turn Max took full advantage


It was at this point that we made a number of scenario errors.  We mistakenly thought I was now one point up in the scenario, forgetting that I had in fact scored at the end of Max's turn 2 and was 2 up.  As it was this had little effect on the eventual outcome of the game but has made me realise just how powerful Grim's feat can be in denying your opponent access to scoring zones.

Max began by clearing his own zone to draw level in the scenario.  Holt stood still and aimed at the Nyss removing 2 of them easily.  The last 3 Nyss also aimed but poor rolls and no CMA meant they could only kill one Nyss. However, this had been anticipated and Irusk had put three focus in the Spriggan for some grenade goodness which took out 2 more and cleared the zone barring Horthol. To add insult to injury the Kossite woodsman at the back managed with a mighty swing of his chopper to remove the final Bog Trog.  Now all Max needed was a dead or dismounted Horthol and the Scenario point was his

Irusk Battle Lusted the Kayzay again and then retired back behind a triumverate of Ternion blizzards with one focus remaining.  The Underboss popped his minifeat and suddenly acrobatic assassins were everywhere.  Two ran to engage Grim, the others charging Horthol and dismounted him easily, removing him from the zone and guaranteeing the scenario point.  To finish, the IFP charged and minifeated, easily rolling through the remaining Cavalry and into my zone.  Things were starting to look decidedly dicey.

End of Khador turn 3

Turn 4


I had been swamped, Max was easily now controlling his zone and was happily chewing his way through mine.  I spent some time pondering and reached the conclusion that a bomber assassination run was the only way forward.  I needed to kill the two clouds in front of Irusk and then hit with the bomber but it was at least a slim chance.  


Job number one was move the no brainers.  The Nyss advanced and with a couple of fortunate rolls removed the two Ternion members.  Now I needed to free up the bomber.  Some more simple stuff saw the Impaler miss his melee attack and the gobbers run out of combat, one dying in the process.  I really wanted to try and avoid the free strikes so Horthol reached in and knocked an IFP dead (really needed to avoid that crit KD). Next I wanted Grim free so Janissa slid one of the engaging Kayzay away and the other missed his free strike as Grim stepped out.  He sniped the bomber, shot and killed an IFP and then finished.


The problem was, I was still taking one IFP free strike and the Bomber now had to walk around the Kayzay to the left of Horthol.  The Bomber set off but unfortunately the free strike I had been trying to avoid hit and with perfect number Max rolled 10 damage and spiral 5, removing his spirit.  No boosting for me then.  With the run looking more and more unlikely I measured the shot and realised that I was half an inch out due to walking round the assassin.


The game was over, I had no comeback at this point, Max's next turn would be simply an exercise in mopping up...


The board at the end of the game
It was an ambitious run to say the least, even if the Bomber had got free he still needed 10's to hit, needed both shots to hit and needed averages on the 5D6 damage.  Max had really outfoxed me with the early feat and despite us making scenario mistakes the eventual outcome would not have changed. I was too aggressive early game and left myself unable to maximise my ranged superiority.  I also should have made damn sure I killed Max's objective, instead, I took my eye of that ball after one poor damage roll.

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