Grim Angus faced off against the Harbinger of Menoth tonight. It was a pretty grinding fight, and a lot slower paced than the other recent battles I've played. It was also my first game with Grim, and also my first game against the Harbinger, so there was a lot of learning on my part.
Basically I think this was possibly one of the wort matchups for Grim due to the fact that the army I took was very heavy shooting oriented, and the Harbinger army was pretty strong against ranged attacks. I had a really hard time cracking the Menoth knot today. I definitely credit Broken Zealot for an excellent use of his resources to totally neutralize my strengths.
Here are the lists:
Trolls
Grim Angus
Blitzer
Impaler x2
Champions
Alten Ashley
Swamp Gobbers
Menoth
Harbinger
Crusader
Castigator
Devout
Vilmon
Paladin
Seneschal
Choir
Wrack x2
Deployment
Basically, the Menoth deployed in a brick, with the two heavies completely blocking line of sight to the Harbinger, the Devout to her right, Choir following behind chanting no shooting, and the solos on the flanks.
My deployment was warbeasts on the left, Grim and the gobbers in the middle, and Champs to the right. Alten was only deployed slightly forward in a forest.
The Game
I'll skip most of the turn-by-turn commentary and just hit the highlights because there wasn't a lot of action going on for the first few turns. Basically the warjack wall with no shooting made all my guys mill about aimlessly as they advanced. I did try to hit Vilmon with Grim's Man trap, but kept missing horribly (on 3 dice even, needing only a 7 to hit!). He also missed a rifle shot at a choir member and a snare gun shot at Vilmon in the opening turns. I blame his non-painted goggles! (they are still primed black...he was obviously having trouble seeing through them)
Eventually, the Champions got stuck in with Vilmon and the Paladin, who promptly then got butchered by said Paladins. Also, the Harbinger's feat did a ton of damage to the Champions...finishing off any that the Paladins didn't down. The Blitzer took the Crusader down to just systems left (did damage evenly across all the columns, but unable to take anything out), but then the next turn the Blitzer was killed by a fully focus laden Crusader. Ouch, that guy can put out a ton of hurt against other heavies! The Castigator also downed one of my Impalers.
Alten got a couple shots at the Paladin, dropping him twice, but he was brought back by the Harbinger's resurection ability. Vilmon was also killed a few times during the game as well as the Seneschal, but that darn resurection spell kept bringing them back. Alten was also able to cap the Choir leader eventually which definitely helped. But it was a little too late since the warjacks were now in melee. Still it meant that they didn't get the bonus to hit and damage.
One bright point was when the swamp gobbers charged the Seneschal and killed him while he was knocked down (from the resurection ability). The swamp gobbers also helped quite a bit all game with the fog cloud effect. Sadly, I didn't realize I could use it to block line of sight from my own guys to the Harbinger during the feat turn. That would have saved a ton of damage on the first Impaler and also the Champions. Doh.
On the second to last turn, Grim and the remaining Imapler were able to finally take out the Castigator and Crusader, but by then they were the only things I had left. Meanwhile, the Harbinger, Devout, Vilmon, and Paladin were still left. I could have kept running backward and taking shots at the remaining Menoth, but I opted to just go for the kill.
The Harbinger was down to 9hp from all the resurections, but the Devout was still ready to jump in the way of a shot with his shielding stance. So Grim walked up, man trapped the Devout, knocking it down so it couldn't intercept the shot. He then shot at the Harbinger, doing 7 damage (another low roll here with an 8 on 3d6). The Impaler walks up to finish the job, needing a 9 to hit, sadly the spear just misses wide of the Harbinger (8 on 3d6, doh!). Next turn Vilmon and the Paladin finish off Grim.
Conclusion
I guess the theme of the night was a lot of missing on my side. I just could not hit the broad side of a barn/warjack/etc. Even when needing really low rolls (like 6 on 3d6) I just couldn't hit. It was pretty frustrating, but that's just the way of the dice. I guess this game balances out the horrible dice rolling game that Broken Zealot had a few weeks back where he just couldn't hit my guys.
The other thing was that the no-shooting Menoth special ability from the Choir coupled with the warjack wall really threw me for a loop. I just am not sure how to get past that since it's near impossible to kill the Choir since they're behind the wall too. I definitely credit Broken Zealot with totally neutralizing my army's strengths with his list and formation.
That and the fact that I didn't have a way to reliably boost my damage output either through a Mauler or some other spell. This really hurt me because I couldn't take out the heavy jacks with the Blitzer. He's just too weak at POW 15 vs. ARM 19. This makes me sad because I really want the Blitzer to be useful with Grim, but I'm just not seeing him being better than a Mauler which is sad. Instead of two Impalers, the Pyre might have been a better choice also. At least that way I could bump the Blitzer up to POW 17.
Actually one way I thought of to beat the warjack wall is to move the Blitzer up and two hand throw the warjack out of the way. Then I'd need to shoot and magic with everything I had at the Harbinger and then run in a second melee beast. Even then, I'm not sure if I could take her down, especially if she is camping focus to overboost her armor.
Also, the Champions really lose a lot of staying power without the Krielstone Bearer and Surefoot. At 14 DEF they were pretty easily hit by the Paladins. The Harbinger's feat did hurt them quite a bit though, maybe if I had shielded them with a fog cloud they would have been better off.
The best performers for me this game though were clearly the swamp gobbers. These guys blocked charges, lowered melee attack, and even took out the Seneschal. For 15 points, they were well worth the points.
Worst performer had to be Grim. Not being able to hit anything was horrible. Clearly I've overestimated his shooting ability. Thinking back on things though, I really can't see doing anything differently except for the fog cloud blocking LOS to the Harbinger. It was just a tough matchup. Hopefully he'll do better next game though! He definitely very different from either of my other warlocks, and I have a feeling he's going to be a lot harder to learn.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Finished Trollblood Axer Photos
Here's my finished Axer. But as usual I've found several problems with him after examining the big photos. There's several places where the blending just isn't smooth enough. I've also decided that I don't really like how the axe came out.Lastly, I don't really like how his bracers and his neck guard look. The bracers are not shaded enough and are too washed out while I think the neck guard transition from light to dark is too fast and so doesn't really look natural.
I've definitely learned a ton about painting NMM (non-metallic metal) from this guy. Honestly though, I don't think I'm going to be doing NMM on such a large scale anymore. It was just super time consuming, even frustrating at times. The end result I think is not bad for a first real attempt, but I think I could do an even better job with just regular metallics.
I will still probably do some NMM on models that don't really have a lot of metallic parts though...just not fully armored guys. (E.g. I'll be doing some NMM work on Grim Angus' gun barrel and nick-nacks).The good thing about this whole process though is that I feel it will really help me to shade and highlight better and more naturally. Highlighting skin, leather, etc. all seems tons easier to do now that I've tried out NMM.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Axer finished!
Finally finished off the Axer today. He's looking ok, though I didn't especially like how the leather came out. I also need to touch up a couple spots on his skin where little paint flecks got on it, but other than that he's done.
Pics tomorrow when there is some better lighting.
Pics tomorrow when there is some better lighting.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Madrak and Doomshaper take to the field
So in my previous post I mentioned that I played two games against Broken Zealot and his Amon army. Both games were really fun, and both games really made me think about my moves. We both won one game which was also nice. I don't really have detailed battle reports for these games since I've forgotten most of the details by now. Doh! I should really write these up the night of the game...but I was just really tired and hungry after getting home.
Game 1
For the first game, it was a very similar list to last week's game I believe. I brought my normal Madrak list. Basically there was a big scrum in the middle in turn two or three when I ran my Champions into melee with his Daughters of the Flame and Herne and Jonne. Madrak got a nice axe throw and ricochet off of an unsuspecting choir boy into Amon, doing a massive 10 damage. During this fight, the Daughters vaulted over my front line of Champions and assasinated the entire Krielstone bearer crew. Ouch! They then proceeded to plink the Impaler to near death by the end of the game.
Luckily for Madrak though, the Mauler picked up the Revenger and chucked it at Amon. Although he missed, since he was so close to Amon, it didn't scatter far at all (half an inch) and knocked them both down. Madrak then hurled his axe into Amon and finished things off.
Game 2
In the second game, Amon came up against Doomshaper and his beast list. Amon brought a lot more bodies this time though, with a full unit of Zealots and Knights Exemplar. Yikes. I think I was outnumbered about 3:1 or 4:1! A notable event in this game was a huge trample attack by the Dire Troll Blitzer, who ran over 3-4 Knights, killing them outright. Had the Zealots not been invulnerable that turn (stupid Monolith Bearer!) he would have snacked on a few zealots as well. Sadly, he wasn't able to kill the Seneschal with the slugger gun after the trample, which proved to be my undoing. The Seneschal and remaining Knights proceeded to slam the Blitzer back with his smite attack and then chop him to pieces. This basically collapsed my whole left flank, leaving Doomshaper very exposed.
At this point I could have tried to pull back and hope to consolidate my forces or go for the all out attack. The Axer had an opening to Amon though, and so I opted to attack. Sadly, because Amon camped all his focus from his last turn (since I feated on my turn, he didn't want to take damage from the feat), he was ARM 20, and the Axer just couldn't do enough damage. The following turn, Doomshaper was bombed to death by the Zealots. Ouch!
Things I Learned:
Game 1
For the first game, it was a very similar list to last week's game I believe. I brought my normal Madrak list. Basically there was a big scrum in the middle in turn two or three when I ran my Champions into melee with his Daughters of the Flame and Herne and Jonne. Madrak got a nice axe throw and ricochet off of an unsuspecting choir boy into Amon, doing a massive 10 damage. During this fight, the Daughters vaulted over my front line of Champions and assasinated the entire Krielstone bearer crew. Ouch! They then proceeded to plink the Impaler to near death by the end of the game.
Luckily for Madrak though, the Mauler picked up the Revenger and chucked it at Amon. Although he missed, since he was so close to Amon, it didn't scatter far at all (half an inch) and knocked them both down. Madrak then hurled his axe into Amon and finished things off.
Game 2
In the second game, Amon came up against Doomshaper and his beast list. Amon brought a lot more bodies this time though, with a full unit of Zealots and Knights Exemplar. Yikes. I think I was outnumbered about 3:1 or 4:1! A notable event in this game was a huge trample attack by the Dire Troll Blitzer, who ran over 3-4 Knights, killing them outright. Had the Zealots not been invulnerable that turn (stupid Monolith Bearer!) he would have snacked on a few zealots as well. Sadly, he wasn't able to kill the Seneschal with the slugger gun after the trample, which proved to be my undoing. The Seneschal and remaining Knights proceeded to slam the Blitzer back with his smite attack and then chop him to pieces. This basically collapsed my whole left flank, leaving Doomshaper very exposed.
At this point I could have tried to pull back and hope to consolidate my forces or go for the all out attack. The Axer had an opening to Amon though, and so I opted to attack. Sadly, because Amon camped all his focus from his last turn (since I feated on my turn, he didn't want to take damage from the feat), he was ARM 20, and the Axer just couldn't do enough damage. The following turn, Doomshaper was bombed to death by the Zealots. Ouch!
Things I Learned:
- Trample is awesome when you can pull it off. I was really impressed by how well a trample attack can thin down infantry ranks. I'll definitely be looking to use this option in the future as well.
- The Mauler is still awesome. He pretty much scrapped a heavy warjack in one turn in the second game. Also, letting him frenzy is actually a *good* thing sometimes. He can still do a ton of damage and it allows you to leech fury from other beasts you don't want frenzying. Plus his two handed throw of the Revenger into Amon was a key game winning move for the first game.
- Madrak's thrown axe is really really nice. Especially with the ricochet rule. Bouncing it into Amon was great.
- Fighting in the middle of the board with Doomshaper's beast army is a bad idea. Once my Blitzer went down, my whole left side collapsed. I suddenly found myself surrounded because I didn't have enough guys to screen/block for Doomshaper.
- I need to plan out my Feat turn better. I don't want to be feating the turn before I plan to go for the caster kill. Warcaster camping focus = sad times for the Axer.
- Daughters of the Flame are just gross. Not only can they leap over units, but they ignore free strikes while doing so. AND they can move around to the back side of a model without taking free strikes either. They basically kept jumping behind my Impaler and plinked him to death with POW 9s. I totally underestimated these gals because of how poorly they did in the last game (though I did remember they were fast). I'll definitely have to be more careful next time!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Colonel Angus Reporting for Duty!
I finally got my Grim Angus last night while over at GameKastle. Woohoo! The lame thing was apparently mine didn't come with a medium base, and upon inspecting the other ones in the store, none of them had medium bases either. DOH! I guess there was some QC issues over at Privateer with these. Luckily there was a nice guy over at the store that had a spare base and he gave it to me so I could start working on him last night.
I also picked up a Rhyas just to paint up for fun too (ninjas rule!). I finished assembling both of them last night while watching the Shining for the first time. Pretty freaky movie. I liked Jack's weird axe murderer limp. That and his crazy expressions.
Anyway, I played two games last night against Broken Zealot. Both really fun games. I actually enjoyed the one I lost better than the one that I won. :) Battle reports coming in another post. The nice thing was that I think I'm getting faster at doing my turns since we finished the first game in just under 2 hours. The second game we also finished in about 2 hours.
And a last bit of news, I'm pretty much done with my Axer. Just need to finish up the leather straps and his axe and he'll be all done. I'm going to see if I can finish him up tomorrow night. I'm thinking about doing Grim Angus first before the Krielstone bearer so that I can use him in a game. Plus, he doesn't look hard to paint at all...most of him is just leather armor and a few nick-nacks. Should be fairly quick and easy. I'm thinking about not doing him as an albino though...I never liked that look.
Plus, I'm picking up a Swamp Gobber crew and Alten Ashley for my new Grim Angus list. I'm thinking about taking the following:
Grim Angus
>Dire Troll Blitzer
>Troll Impaler
>Troll Impaler
Champions
Swamp Gobbers
Alten Ashley
I might swap out one impaler for an Axer though...I also really wanted to fit in Pygmy Bushwhackers too, but I'd have to drop the Champions for them...and I think I need the Champions more. This list is pretty shooty, but it's still got some melee punch to it. I'm hoping it does well. I think the Impaler and the Blitzer really synergize well with Grim, and Alten should be nice to have too against Hordes armies, though not as much against Menoth. Still, it's another guy who can shoot really far and take out those annoying solos and maybe even some unit leaders. The gobbers are just there to fill up points, but they should help with some nice clouds to obscure certain things.
I also picked up a Rhyas just to paint up for fun too (ninjas rule!). I finished assembling both of them last night while watching the Shining for the first time. Pretty freaky movie. I liked Jack's weird axe murderer limp. That and his crazy expressions.
Anyway, I played two games last night against Broken Zealot. Both really fun games. I actually enjoyed the one I lost better than the one that I won. :) Battle reports coming in another post. The nice thing was that I think I'm getting faster at doing my turns since we finished the first game in just under 2 hours. The second game we also finished in about 2 hours.
And a last bit of news, I'm pretty much done with my Axer. Just need to finish up the leather straps and his axe and he'll be all done. I'm going to see if I can finish him up tomorrow night. I'm thinking about doing Grim Angus first before the Krielstone bearer so that I can use him in a game. Plus, he doesn't look hard to paint at all...most of him is just leather armor and a few nick-nacks. Should be fairly quick and easy. I'm thinking about not doing him as an albino though...I never liked that look.
Plus, I'm picking up a Swamp Gobber crew and Alten Ashley for my new Grim Angus list. I'm thinking about taking the following:
Grim Angus
>Dire Troll Blitzer
>Troll Impaler
>Troll Impaler
Champions
Swamp Gobbers
Alten Ashley
I might swap out one impaler for an Axer though...I also really wanted to fit in Pygmy Bushwhackers too, but I'd have to drop the Champions for them...and I think I need the Champions more. This list is pretty shooty, but it's still got some melee punch to it. I'm hoping it does well. I think the Impaler and the Blitzer really synergize well with Grim, and Alten should be nice to have too against Hordes armies, though not as much against Menoth. Still, it's another guy who can shoot really far and take out those annoying solos and maybe even some unit leaders. The gobbers are just there to fill up points, but they should help with some nice clouds to obscure certain things.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
No game this week...
No gaming this week sadly, I have finals for my classes. Bah. I did get a little more painting done on the Axer though. I finished up his right leg armor, but it didn't come out as nicely as his left leg. Ah well, it's still looking ok. Hopefully next week I'll have him completely done by Thursday or Friday.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
First battle on wednesday night - league game
So for my first and more enjoyable game on Wednesday night, I played against Broken Zealot and a tweaked Amon ad-Raza list. There were the choir and the same solos as always (Vilmon and his two Paladin entourage, a Seneschal, and Gorman). The difference this time was that he brought a Repenter, a Guardian, and his newly painted Daughters of the Flame. I thought that they looked great for the speed that they were painted with.
I forgot to bring one of my Champions, so I instead used my original Doomshaper list. We played one of the Spring League scenarios (Khador vs. Protectorate), where there is one big hill in the center, with four small forests around the hill. The flash flood rule was also used, but there weren't any floods all game. The objective is to claim the hill by having more units on the hill than your opponent at the end of each round.
Menoth Turn 1
Everything runs up toward the hill, with the Seneschal sneaking around the left woods, the Guardian, Repenter, Amon, and Choir moving onto the hill, and the Paladins, Vilmon, and Gorman also move onto the hill, to the right of the warjacks. The Daughters running incredibly fast onto the right side of the hill, but still screening the Paladins, Vilmon, and Gorman. They are almost in charge range of my army already! That is a truly scary move.
Trolls Turn 1
I now need to get some guys onto the hill as well, else I'll start losing control points. Due to the slow speed of the Trolls, I know I need to run most of my guys, else they will not get there until turn 3 or later. The Axer and Impaler both run onto the hill. Doomshaper casts fortune on the Blitzer and advances. The Krielstone Bearer, Mauler, and Fell Caller all toward the hill as well but don't make it onto the hill. The Blitzer runs onto the hill and now has a clear shot at the Seneschal, to the left of the hill. The Pyg Ace gets two shots with the chain gun, and mows down the Seneschal.
Since Broken Zealot has more units on the hill he gets one control point.
Menoth Turn 2
The Repenter moves up and shoots a gout of flame at both the Blitzer and Impaler, missing the Blitzer, but setting the Impaler on fire. The Guardian moves up and engages the Blitzer in hand to hand and takes some swings at him doing a moderate amount of damage. Amon then casts a Sandblast at the Blitzer through the arcnode on the Guardian, but fortunately doesn't knock it back.
The Daughters of the Flame move off the hill to the right and into a flanking position, also clearing the way for the solo group. Thrice cursed Gorman walks up and chucks his evil black oil onto the Impaler and Axer, blinding them. Vilmon sacrifices his action to enter Impervious wall and moves into combat with the Blitzer, Axer, and Impaler. One of his Paladins also manages to charge as well, doing a bit of damage to the Axer.
Trolls Turn 2
(Here I actually messed up the rules on the two handed throw, where I threw the Guardian at Amon and actually killed him, forgetting that the two-handed throw is only at Str /2 not (Str + Pow) /2. So we had to do a big rewind. Below is what correctly happened after the rewind. OOPS!).
The Mauler moves up onto the hill and casts Rage on the Blitzer causing its muscles to bulge with Troll fury. The Blitzer walks up to the Guardian, grabs a hold of it with both hands, and with a loud roar hurls it toward the Repenter, knocking both of them down and doing a large amount of damage to the Repenter, destroying its cortex. The Pyg Ace riding on top of the Blitzer gets a bead on the Paladin and Gorman not in combat and lights them both up with the chain gun, killing them both!
The Impaler takes some fire damage this turn, and pretty much misses a lot due to the black oil in his eyes, and the Axer, with help from Doomshaper and a fortune cast on him, is able to take out the Paladin. The Krielstone bearer moves onto the hill and casts his aura. All the scribes move behind the woods to get out of Line of Sight of the Daughters of the Flame, and the Fell Caller moves up slightly, as does Doomshaper.
No control points are given out as we both have 5 units on the hill now.
Menoth Turn 3
The Daughters of the Flame run through the woods and engage the the Krielstone bearer and scribes, and one Daughter is just short of getting into combat with Doomshaper. Yikes! I totally underestimated their move distance again. Luckily for me, she was about half an inch short.
The Repenter stands up and flames the Blitzer setting it on fire. The Guardian stands up and (thanks to its reach) stabs the Blitzer, severely hurting him. Amon then casts Sandblast through the arcnode and kills the Blitzer. Vilmon gets three attacks this turn, chopping up the Axer, but it barely hangs on by a thread and has 4 hp left.
Trolls Turn 3
With the noble Krielstone Bearer in danger, the scribes heft their axes and, in a flurry of death and dismemberment, they actually take down 3 Daughters of the Flame! The Fell Caller charges into the Daughters near Doomshaper and kills two as well. He then lets loose his blood curdling Rebel Yell and the Daughters actually turn and flee!
Doomshaper moves over to get a line on the Repenter, but misses with Accursed, needing only a 5 to hit. Doomshaper casts Rage on the Mauler. The Mauler charges the Guardian and slaps him around and then takes a big chomp out of it. He takes one last whack at it and puts it out of commision, having only generated two fury. I'm still amazed how easily the Mauler is able to take things out and still have so much Fury left over. (I bet he could take out two Carniveans at once with a little support from Doomshaper...can't wait to try that out on the Legion player...the guy thinks the Carniveans are the best heavy ever. He hasn't seen a Mauler in action yet though heh heh).
The Impaler and Axer together are able to drop Vilmon. I now get one control point.
Menoth Turn 4
The Daughters of the Flame flee and no longer have any impact on the game. The Repenter moves over and has a clear shot at Doomshaper. He only needs a 7 to hit, but fortunately the flame goes wide. Amon charges into melee with the Impaler and the Mauler. He uses his special "crack the whip" attack on the Mauler, slamming it back through my Axer and the Krielstone bearers, knocking them all down. Ugly. I think a couple of scribes die, but none of the beasts are hurt badly. The Choir charges in to the fray and actually do some damage to the Impaler, who is now at 8 hp left. They also block off all the charge lanes to Amon.
Trolls Turn 4
Doomshaper takes aim at the Repenter, needing a 5 to hit with Accursed, and misses! They seem to be trading misses at each other. Doomshaper then casts Rage and Fortune on the Impaler, and also heals him for some crucial damage. The Fell Caller moves up and uses his special action, Reveille, to stand everyone up that was knocked down. The Mauler comes to, slams one of the Choir into Amon, knocking him down, and splattering the poor Choir boy. The Impaler then, seeing the prone Amon, gives him a couple good stabs and finishes him off.
Victory for the Kriels!
Conclusion
That was a really fun game, and we both had a lot of fun. It's really quite fun playing against Amon as he's got all these neat little tricks and slams that send my guys flying all over the place. The battles between the trolls and Amon have been like watching a WWE wrestling match, with people and trolls flying left and right.
The battle could have gone either way a couple of times, like if the Repenter had actually hit with his flamer those two times on Doomshaper, things would have been very different, and it's likely Doomshaper would have burned to death.
I also learned to really watch out for the super fast moving Daughters of the Flame. The amount of ground they can cover is truly amazing. Thankfully the stone scribes are actually decent in melee with light infantry, and so were able to send them packing. The Fell Caller also proved invaluable once again, standing big blue guys up, and also his Rebel Yell that made the rest of the Daughters flee in terror.
The Blitzer in this game was a terror. Truly amazing. He did it all this game with his throwing and shooting, accounting for the deaths of three solos with the chain gun, and taking the Repenter's cortex down (no focus allocation to it, so it couldn't boost to hit Doomshaper) and damaging the Guardian. Not to mention knocking them both down for a turn. Honestly, I was thinking about not playing the Blitzer anymore and just using Champions instead, but he really showed his stuff this game, and I will definitely not give up on him, especially at 750pts.
Aside from my rules screw up, the game went much more smoothly, and I think I'm getting faster at playing my turns, as the game only took about two hours instead of the usual three. I'm also feeling a lot more confident with how to use the Fell Caller and the warbeasts I have in general. What I need to be more careful with though is the Impaler. I seem to be getting him stuck into melee too early on now. That or Broken Zealot has gotten a lot better at tying him up early. :) Next game I may try to hold him back some and instead let the Axer and Blitzer take the lead.
Sadly, I won't be able to make it down to GameKastle next Wednesday as I have a final early next morning.
I forgot to bring one of my Champions, so I instead used my original Doomshaper list. We played one of the Spring League scenarios (Khador vs. Protectorate), where there is one big hill in the center, with four small forests around the hill. The flash flood rule was also used, but there weren't any floods all game. The objective is to claim the hill by having more units on the hill than your opponent at the end of each round.
Menoth Turn 1
Everything runs up toward the hill, with the Seneschal sneaking around the left woods, the Guardian, Repenter, Amon, and Choir moving onto the hill, and the Paladins, Vilmon, and Gorman also move onto the hill, to the right of the warjacks. The Daughters running incredibly fast onto the right side of the hill, but still screening the Paladins, Vilmon, and Gorman. They are almost in charge range of my army already! That is a truly scary move.
Trolls Turn 1
I now need to get some guys onto the hill as well, else I'll start losing control points. Due to the slow speed of the Trolls, I know I need to run most of my guys, else they will not get there until turn 3 or later. The Axer and Impaler both run onto the hill. Doomshaper casts fortune on the Blitzer and advances. The Krielstone Bearer, Mauler, and Fell Caller all toward the hill as well but don't make it onto the hill. The Blitzer runs onto the hill and now has a clear shot at the Seneschal, to the left of the hill. The Pyg Ace gets two shots with the chain gun, and mows down the Seneschal.
Since Broken Zealot has more units on the hill he gets one control point.
Menoth Turn 2
The Repenter moves up and shoots a gout of flame at both the Blitzer and Impaler, missing the Blitzer, but setting the Impaler on fire. The Guardian moves up and engages the Blitzer in hand to hand and takes some swings at him doing a moderate amount of damage. Amon then casts a Sandblast at the Blitzer through the arcnode on the Guardian, but fortunately doesn't knock it back.
The Daughters of the Flame move off the hill to the right and into a flanking position, also clearing the way for the solo group. Thrice cursed Gorman walks up and chucks his evil black oil onto the Impaler and Axer, blinding them. Vilmon sacrifices his action to enter Impervious wall and moves into combat with the Blitzer, Axer, and Impaler. One of his Paladins also manages to charge as well, doing a bit of damage to the Axer.
Trolls Turn 2
(Here I actually messed up the rules on the two handed throw, where I threw the Guardian at Amon and actually killed him, forgetting that the two-handed throw is only at Str /2 not (Str + Pow) /2. So we had to do a big rewind. Below is what correctly happened after the rewind. OOPS!).
The Mauler moves up onto the hill and casts Rage on the Blitzer causing its muscles to bulge with Troll fury. The Blitzer walks up to the Guardian, grabs a hold of it with both hands, and with a loud roar hurls it toward the Repenter, knocking both of them down and doing a large amount of damage to the Repenter, destroying its cortex. The Pyg Ace riding on top of the Blitzer gets a bead on the Paladin and Gorman not in combat and lights them both up with the chain gun, killing them both!
The Impaler takes some fire damage this turn, and pretty much misses a lot due to the black oil in his eyes, and the Axer, with help from Doomshaper and a fortune cast on him, is able to take out the Paladin. The Krielstone bearer moves onto the hill and casts his aura. All the scribes move behind the woods to get out of Line of Sight of the Daughters of the Flame, and the Fell Caller moves up slightly, as does Doomshaper.
No control points are given out as we both have 5 units on the hill now.
Menoth Turn 3
The Daughters of the Flame run through the woods and engage the the Krielstone bearer and scribes, and one Daughter is just short of getting into combat with Doomshaper. Yikes! I totally underestimated their move distance again. Luckily for me, she was about half an inch short.
The Repenter stands up and flames the Blitzer setting it on fire. The Guardian stands up and (thanks to its reach) stabs the Blitzer, severely hurting him. Amon then casts Sandblast through the arcnode and kills the Blitzer. Vilmon gets three attacks this turn, chopping up the Axer, but it barely hangs on by a thread and has 4 hp left.
Trolls Turn 3
With the noble Krielstone Bearer in danger, the scribes heft their axes and, in a flurry of death and dismemberment, they actually take down 3 Daughters of the Flame! The Fell Caller charges into the Daughters near Doomshaper and kills two as well. He then lets loose his blood curdling Rebel Yell and the Daughters actually turn and flee!
Doomshaper moves over to get a line on the Repenter, but misses with Accursed, needing only a 5 to hit. Doomshaper casts Rage on the Mauler. The Mauler charges the Guardian and slaps him around and then takes a big chomp out of it. He takes one last whack at it and puts it out of commision, having only generated two fury. I'm still amazed how easily the Mauler is able to take things out and still have so much Fury left over. (I bet he could take out two Carniveans at once with a little support from Doomshaper...can't wait to try that out on the Legion player...the guy thinks the Carniveans are the best heavy ever. He hasn't seen a Mauler in action yet though heh heh).
The Impaler and Axer together are able to drop Vilmon. I now get one control point.
Menoth Turn 4
The Daughters of the Flame flee and no longer have any impact on the game. The Repenter moves over and has a clear shot at Doomshaper. He only needs a 7 to hit, but fortunately the flame goes wide. Amon charges into melee with the Impaler and the Mauler. He uses his special "crack the whip" attack on the Mauler, slamming it back through my Axer and the Krielstone bearers, knocking them all down. Ugly. I think a couple of scribes die, but none of the beasts are hurt badly. The Choir charges in to the fray and actually do some damage to the Impaler, who is now at 8 hp left. They also block off all the charge lanes to Amon.
Trolls Turn 4
Doomshaper takes aim at the Repenter, needing a 5 to hit with Accursed, and misses! They seem to be trading misses at each other. Doomshaper then casts Rage and Fortune on the Impaler, and also heals him for some crucial damage. The Fell Caller moves up and uses his special action, Reveille, to stand everyone up that was knocked down. The Mauler comes to, slams one of the Choir into Amon, knocking him down, and splattering the poor Choir boy. The Impaler then, seeing the prone Amon, gives him a couple good stabs and finishes him off.
Victory for the Kriels!
Conclusion
That was a really fun game, and we both had a lot of fun. It's really quite fun playing against Amon as he's got all these neat little tricks and slams that send my guys flying all over the place. The battles between the trolls and Amon have been like watching a WWE wrestling match, with people and trolls flying left and right.
The battle could have gone either way a couple of times, like if the Repenter had actually hit with his flamer those two times on Doomshaper, things would have been very different, and it's likely Doomshaper would have burned to death.
I also learned to really watch out for the super fast moving Daughters of the Flame. The amount of ground they can cover is truly amazing. Thankfully the stone scribes are actually decent in melee with light infantry, and so were able to send them packing. The Fell Caller also proved invaluable once again, standing big blue guys up, and also his Rebel Yell that made the rest of the Daughters flee in terror.
The Blitzer in this game was a terror. Truly amazing. He did it all this game with his throwing and shooting, accounting for the deaths of three solos with the chain gun, and taking the Repenter's cortex down (no focus allocation to it, so it couldn't boost to hit Doomshaper) and damaging the Guardian. Not to mention knocking them both down for a turn. Honestly, I was thinking about not playing the Blitzer anymore and just using Champions instead, but he really showed his stuff this game, and I will definitely not give up on him, especially at 750pts.
Aside from my rules screw up, the game went much more smoothly, and I think I'm getting faster at playing my turns, as the game only took about two hours instead of the usual three. I'm also feeling a lot more confident with how to use the Fell Caller and the warbeasts I have in general. What I need to be more careful with though is the Impaler. I seem to be getting him stuck into melee too early on now. That or Broken Zealot has gotten a lot better at tying him up early. :) Next game I may try to hold him back some and instead let the Axer and Blitzer take the lead.
Sadly, I won't be able to make it down to GameKastle next Wednesday as I have a final early next morning.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Two battle reports tonight...here's number two...
The first game was with Broken Zealot, and was a blast to play through. We both also learned a lot of rules. The second game was with the Legion of Everblight player, but since it was super short I'll go over that one first.
Battle 1: Trolls vs. Everblight 350pts.
I had about 20 minutes to kill and so we played a quick 350pt. game. I took Doomshaper, a Mauler, an Axer, and Impaler, and a Fell Caller. He had Thagrosh, two Carniveans, and a Shredder. Basically, I went for the turn 2 kill. I had Doomshaper move up and cast Acursed on Thagrosh, doing only a little damage due to poor rolls. He pops his feat and has two fury left on him. Then I had my Mauler through Rage on the Impaler, and then throw the Impaler toward Thagrosh. What I should have done though was throw him AT Thagrosh, thus knocking them both down. Oh well.
Instead, I walked my Fell Caller over, stood the Impaler up and then had the Impaler beat down on Thagrosh. Unfortunately, due to my bad dice rolling (need only average to below average rolls on the two attacks to kill him) Thagrosh had 5hp left. So then I had the Axer charge Thagrosh, needing an 8 to hit, I miss with a 7. Doh. The Axer would have most likely killed him since he was doing straight damage and only needed to roll a 5+ on two dice. What I should have done too, was move the Fell Caller into melee with the Carnivean, speed bumping him for a turn so that he couldn't charge Doomshaper. You make dumb mistakes while playing under a super time crunch.
Next turn, two Carniveans charge Doomshaper and kill him. Once again I forget to roll my tough roll. Grr. Thagrosh lives with 2hp (took 3 damage from the feat). Oh well. The smart thing to do if I had more time to stick around, would have been to instead have the Fell Caller charge and kill the Shredder that was in melee with the Impaler. Then use the Impaler to spear slam the front Carnivean into the back one (they were lined up nicely). If no crit slam happened, the Axer could still slam the Carnivean. And if he missed, the Mauler could have too. Then Doomshaper could cast Acursed on both Carniveans, taking them both out of the battle for a turn (no movement or action after standing up). Then it would have just been a mop up the third turn, where everything just charges Thagrosh and beats him down.
I'm confident this plan would have worked, had I had the time to implement it. Sadly, by the time it got to my turn, I had to go in like 5 minutes, so wouldn't have time for my third turn. Anyway if we play again, I'm pretty confident against his chosen list. It's all about slamming those big beasts out of the way and smashing Thagrosh, who is really squishy compared to the Menoth guys I'm normally facing. If only my dice didn't suck today, it would have been a cool move.
Battle 1: Trolls vs. Everblight 350pts.
I had about 20 minutes to kill and so we played a quick 350pt. game. I took Doomshaper, a Mauler, an Axer, and Impaler, and a Fell Caller. He had Thagrosh, two Carniveans, and a Shredder. Basically, I went for the turn 2 kill. I had Doomshaper move up and cast Acursed on Thagrosh, doing only a little damage due to poor rolls. He pops his feat and has two fury left on him. Then I had my Mauler through Rage on the Impaler, and then throw the Impaler toward Thagrosh. What I should have done though was throw him AT Thagrosh, thus knocking them both down. Oh well.
Instead, I walked my Fell Caller over, stood the Impaler up and then had the Impaler beat down on Thagrosh. Unfortunately, due to my bad dice rolling (need only average to below average rolls on the two attacks to kill him) Thagrosh had 5hp left. So then I had the Axer charge Thagrosh, needing an 8 to hit, I miss with a 7. Doh. The Axer would have most likely killed him since he was doing straight damage and only needed to roll a 5+ on two dice. What I should have done too, was move the Fell Caller into melee with the Carnivean, speed bumping him for a turn so that he couldn't charge Doomshaper. You make dumb mistakes while playing under a super time crunch.
Next turn, two Carniveans charge Doomshaper and kill him. Once again I forget to roll my tough roll. Grr. Thagrosh lives with 2hp (took 3 damage from the feat). Oh well. The smart thing to do if I had more time to stick around, would have been to instead have the Fell Caller charge and kill the Shredder that was in melee with the Impaler. Then use the Impaler to spear slam the front Carnivean into the back one (they were lined up nicely). If no crit slam happened, the Axer could still slam the Carnivean. And if he missed, the Mauler could have too. Then Doomshaper could cast Acursed on both Carniveans, taking them both out of the battle for a turn (no movement or action after standing up). Then it would have just been a mop up the third turn, where everything just charges Thagrosh and beats him down.
I'm confident this plan would have worked, had I had the time to implement it. Sadly, by the time it got to my turn, I had to go in like 5 minutes, so wouldn't have time for my third turn. Anyway if we play again, I'm pretty confident against his chosen list. It's all about slamming those big beasts out of the way and smashing Thagrosh, who is really squishy compared to the Menoth guys I'm normally facing. If only my dice didn't suck today, it would have been a cool move.
Axer pics so far...
Here is a picture of the Axer's left leg plates. I think these came out looking really nice for NMM. The collar though needs some more work, as does the axe.The back plates also are done, but they don't seem as nice looking to me as the leg plates. It makes sense since I acutally tried to do the axe and the back plates first...I was still trying to figure out how to get the highlighting just right.
The final picture is of the lower back/side plates. I think these along with the knee plate came out looking the best.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
NMM Success!
So I did a lot more work on the Axer's armor plates today, and I think I've finally got some good looking NMM on him now! I'm pretty stoked as it's been a pretty long road of trial and error with NMM painting, but I think I've got it down, at least for armor plating now. Yay! I finished up his chest, back, and left leg armor plates. I tried to add some rust effect, but it came out looking funny. So I guess no rust for this guy for now. Sadly, I won't have this guy completely finished for my game tomorrow. Ah well. Hopefully he'll be done by next week's game.
I tried to get some pics, but they all look pretty bad now since it's dark...I'll see if I can get some good pics of him tomorrow when the sun is out.
Once I'm done with this guy, I'm not sure who to do next...maybe the Krielstone Bearer and crew...they're always in any list I play, so he might be a good choice for the next up. Plus it will be a nice change of pace from the warbeasts I've been doing.
I tried to get some pics, but they all look pretty bad now since it's dark...I'll see if I can get some good pics of him tomorrow when the sun is out.
Once I'm done with this guy, I'm not sure who to do next...maybe the Krielstone Bearer and crew...they're always in any list I play, so he might be a good choice for the next up. Plus it will be a nice change of pace from the warbeasts I've been doing.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Some NMM work on the Axer
I did some NMM work on the Axer's axe and an armor plate today. I'm not sure I like how it came out though. I think the highlights are in the wrong place again (as is usual with me I suppose). Anyway, I'm too bleary eyed to fix it now. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a look at it with fresh eyes and see what can be done. I think the armor plate did come out looking better than the axe, though it's a bit too clean looking and needs some rust/dirt added to it.
No pictures right now, I want to see what I can do to fix it before snapping photos.
No pictures right now, I want to see what I can do to fix it before snapping photos.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
An Unlikely Alliance - The enemy of my enemy is...my friend?
Played a 2 vs. 2 game with Broken Zealot against a couple of other folks at the game store today. It was Menoth and Trolls vs. Circle of Orboros and Everblight. While the fighting with Menoth has been fierce these last few weeks, we decided to group up to eliminate the mutual enemies in the Dragonspawn and the betrayers of the Kriels, Krueger.
Broken Zealot used his Amon ad-Raza list from the previous week and I used my Madrak list, also used the last week. I'm going to try to recount all the parts I can remember, but after the first turn, the battle sort of split into two games, with Trolls vs. Circle, and Menoth vs. Everblight. Here are the Everblight and Circle lists to the best of my memory.
Everblight
Thagrosh
Carnivean x2
Seraph
Shredders x4
Circle (of Betrayers)
Krueger
Woldwarden
Warpwolf
Tharn Ravagers x6
Shifting Stones
Druids (the Circle player totally forgot to put these on the board, so he was down about 84 points this game)
The battle took place on a fairly forested area, four woods in each table corner, about 4 walls in the mid-field, and a medium sized hill right in the middle of the field. The terrain didn't really play much effect all game.
Deployment
The Trolls and Menoth deploy first in a cental position. I am holding the left flank, and Menoth has the right flank. Across from me is the Circle army, and the Everblight army is staring down the Menites.
Turn 1 - The Good Guys
Everything in the troll army runs forward. The Menites mostly run forward as well, some taking cover behind the walls in the midfield. Madrak puts up Surefoot on himself and the champs. Vilmon goes into his Impervious Wall.
Turn 1 - The Betrayers
The Tharn declare a charge on nothing for some odd reason, or maybe one that I don't understand, instead of just running. Weird. The Woldwarden moves up and takes a potshot at the Impaler with Forked Lightning but is just short. Krueger gives the Tharn Lightning Tendrils. On the Everblight side, the Carniveans move through the woods, and the Seraph flies over and I think takes some shots at Gorman. Krueger pops his feat and drops three storm templates, one on the Impaler and Axer, one in front of the Warpwolf who moved up, and the last one on Vilmon and the Paladins. Vilmon takes a couple points of damage, the Impaler takes a few points and that's the end of the first turn.
Turn 2 - The Good Guys
The beasts under the templates now have to test for frenzy due to the special effect of the storm clouds, and the Impaler fails with double sixes! The only thing in line of sight is Vilmon, unfortunately, and the Impaler, remembering the previous fights I suppose, lets loose a loud shout and runs Vilmon through with his spear, doing 27 damage on the attack. DOH! Sorry Broken Zealot!
The Revenger moves forward to line up a beautiful Sand Blast on a Carnivean and Thagrosh, fires and knocks the Carnivean into Thagrosh, knocking them both down, and doing some damage to Thagrosh. Other than that, not much else seems to happen on the Menoth side.
I decide to try and tie up the Warpwolf with my Champions, and so I run them into melee, but can't attack since I ran them. Madrak moves up and casts Surefoot on the champs and, thinking that he was safe, drops the rest of his fury on the Krielstone bearer. This would prove to be a big mistake in the next turn. The Axer, Mauler, and Krielstone bearer both move up near, but behind Madrak.
Turn 2 - The Betrayers
The Circle player start cackling madly, and I wonder what's going to happen. Well, he moves his Shifting Stones so that the Warpwolf's base is now within the three and then teleports the Warpwolf into melee with Madrak. DOH! (Question: Can shifting stones move and then still teleport something?)
The Wolf unleashes on Madrak, and through the flurry of attacks Madrak has to use his scroll and still take I think 8-10 damage. Thankfully, Madrak is tough as a rock and lives through it. There will be much pain for the Wolf next turn, oh yes.
The Woldwarden takes another shot at the Champions with Forked Lightning, but misses due to screening. Go troll brick. The Tharn charge into Melee with the Impaler, Champions, Axer, and Paladins. The kill one paladin, damage the Impaler, and take the Axer down to around half. Again, troll toughness impresses. Armor 20 on the Axer and 18 on the Impaler blunt most of the damage, and they miss or do little damage to a couple of the Champions. Krueger flies over to the middle of the field and casts forked lightning at the Champions. He hits, does some meager damage thanks to the Champion's 19 armor, and ends his activation.
On the Everblight side of the board. The Carnivean charges the Revenger and rips off the Revenger's shield arm, and does a fair amount of damage to it. The Seraph shoots and kills the Seneschal and Gormon. I think Shredders also charge into the Seneschal as well, but I don't think anything else of significance happened.
Turn 3 - The Good Guys
Broken Zealot and I both look at each other and both say, "It's Feat time!" First though, the Dire Troll Mauler needs to take care of business. He shows the Warpwolf what a real beatdown is, killing it in three hits. He also pops Rage up on the Kithkar Champion. Madrak casts Guided Hand on the Champions as well and then announces his CRUSHER feat. The Fell Caller walks into melee with a Tharn, easily kills it, takes his 1" crusher move, and easily kills another. Weapon Master + Crusher = total Tharn ownage. The Axer also moves up, regenerates his Spirit and Body some, and then easily drops another Tharn. Sadly, there is no one within crusher range of him anymore.
On the Menoth side, the Paladin kills a Tharn, which now frees up the Impaler to move. The Impaler charges the Tharn leader, but fails to kill him. However, he's now within melee range of Krueger. He takes a swing and does about 4 damage to him (horrible die rolls since the damage was boosted too...I think I rolled a 5 on 3 dice). The Champions then charge Krueger. Needing 10s to hit on three dice (guided hand) with 3 attacks, and 3 more attacks coming on two dice, I think that this is pretty much a done deal. Not to mention that each hit makes it easier by 1 to hit with the next guy.
The first Champion hits and does about 10 damage to him, but misses his second attack. I then forget to add the +1 to hit for the second guy. Ugh. He misses both attacks, I think one of which only by 1. Agh! The Kithkar, who only needs a 9 to hit, almost misses both attacks due to horrible die rolls. Krueger lives with 2 hp left. GRR!
Back to the Menoth side, I missed most of what happened this turn since I was busy dealing with Krueger, but vaguely, I think Amon casts some spells, and the Castigator slams a Carnivean away, and then beats down Thagrosh in melee, killing him. Here's a link to Broken Zealot's account of his caster kill.
Turn 3 - The Betrayers
Without much left to do, Krueger goes Skyborne and flies next to Madrak to try and finish him off. He takes several attacks, and after a couple of damage transfers, Madrak lives with 1 hp. We call the game there as Krueger is completely surrounded and only has the one Woldwarden left.
Victory for the Kriels! (and Menoth)
Conclusion
Well I have to say, that was a pretty interesting first game against Circle. Initially, I was pretty scared of the Tharn, but it turns out they are really squishy in melee, and they just don't hit hard enough to take down my light beasts, unless all of them are attacking the same one. Even then, with the Krielstone, 20 armor is tough for them to bust through. I'm definitely less scared of them now after seeing what they can do.
Trolls are just so durable and tough, it amazes me every game. I only lost 2 stone scribes the entire game.
One thing I did learn though is *don't forget about Standing Stones teleport ability*! That one mistake almost cost me the game. If I didn't have the scroll, Madrak would have bought the farm on that one turn. The other thing is to remember the Concert bonus for the Champs. That +1 for the second champion and kithkars would have been one more hit that they should have had, which would have finished off Krueger earlier.
The MVP had to be the Krielstone bearer. This guy blocked so much incoming damage, it unbelieveable. Probably upwards of 20-30 damage blocked over the course of the game. The worst performers were probably the Champions...not being able to hit Krueger, even though below average rolls were needed, was really annoying. Next time I might just try slamming one of my own guys into him to knock him down. Actually, I should have just slammed the Tharn into Krueger before charging in with my Champs. Ah well, something to remember for next time.
Lastly, while the Circle player was down one unit of druids, I honestly don't see how they could have really made a big impact. They would have had only one turn to shoot the Champions, and they wouldn't have killed any with average rolls. Maybe one or two with really good rolls. But then, only 3 champs were able to get into contact with Krueger anyway, so again, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be a huge impact.
Oh something else weird I just thought of. So after I killed the Warpwolf, how was Krueger able to get full fury the next turn...doh. He should have only been at 3 max fury from the Woldwarden. So he would have only been able to take the one attack against Madrak the last turn.
While the game was pretty engaging, I felt like it wasn't quite as fun or friendly as the games I normally have playing against Broken Zealot. Our opponents were a lot more high strung during the game, and sometimes it seemed like they weren't having much fun either. I guess it felt more like a tournament game, where people were more concerned with getting the win rather than having a friendly game. One of the guys seriously lost his cool after his caster was killed, and that kinda put a downer on the whole thing. Maybe it was just me though. Hopefully next week people will be more relaxed now that the first game is out of the way. Then again maybe I'm just spoiled playing against Broken Zealot all the time, who is an ace opponent. :)
I still had a good time, and I definitely learned more about Circle, I mean, the betrayers.
Broken Zealot used his Amon ad-Raza list from the previous week and I used my Madrak list, also used the last week. I'm going to try to recount all the parts I can remember, but after the first turn, the battle sort of split into two games, with Trolls vs. Circle, and Menoth vs. Everblight. Here are the Everblight and Circle lists to the best of my memory.
Everblight
Thagrosh
Carnivean x2
Seraph
Shredders x4
Circle (of Betrayers)
Krueger
Woldwarden
Warpwolf
Tharn Ravagers x6
Shifting Stones
Druids (the Circle player totally forgot to put these on the board, so he was down about 84 points this game)
The battle took place on a fairly forested area, four woods in each table corner, about 4 walls in the mid-field, and a medium sized hill right in the middle of the field. The terrain didn't really play much effect all game.
Deployment
The Trolls and Menoth deploy first in a cental position. I am holding the left flank, and Menoth has the right flank. Across from me is the Circle army, and the Everblight army is staring down the Menites.
Turn 1 - The Good Guys
Everything in the troll army runs forward. The Menites mostly run forward as well, some taking cover behind the walls in the midfield. Madrak puts up Surefoot on himself and the champs. Vilmon goes into his Impervious Wall.
Turn 1 - The Betrayers
The Tharn declare a charge on nothing for some odd reason, or maybe one that I don't understand, instead of just running. Weird. The Woldwarden moves up and takes a potshot at the Impaler with Forked Lightning but is just short. Krueger gives the Tharn Lightning Tendrils. On the Everblight side, the Carniveans move through the woods, and the Seraph flies over and I think takes some shots at Gorman. Krueger pops his feat and drops three storm templates, one on the Impaler and Axer, one in front of the Warpwolf who moved up, and the last one on Vilmon and the Paladins. Vilmon takes a couple points of damage, the Impaler takes a few points and that's the end of the first turn.
Turn 2 - The Good Guys
The beasts under the templates now have to test for frenzy due to the special effect of the storm clouds, and the Impaler fails with double sixes! The only thing in line of sight is Vilmon, unfortunately, and the Impaler, remembering the previous fights I suppose, lets loose a loud shout and runs Vilmon through with his spear, doing 27 damage on the attack. DOH! Sorry Broken Zealot!
The Revenger moves forward to line up a beautiful Sand Blast on a Carnivean and Thagrosh, fires and knocks the Carnivean into Thagrosh, knocking them both down, and doing some damage to Thagrosh. Other than that, not much else seems to happen on the Menoth side.
I decide to try and tie up the Warpwolf with my Champions, and so I run them into melee, but can't attack since I ran them. Madrak moves up and casts Surefoot on the champs and, thinking that he was safe, drops the rest of his fury on the Krielstone bearer. This would prove to be a big mistake in the next turn. The Axer, Mauler, and Krielstone bearer both move up near, but behind Madrak.
Turn 2 - The Betrayers
The Circle player start cackling madly, and I wonder what's going to happen. Well, he moves his Shifting Stones so that the Warpwolf's base is now within the three and then teleports the Warpwolf into melee with Madrak. DOH! (Question: Can shifting stones move and then still teleport something?)
The Wolf unleashes on Madrak, and through the flurry of attacks Madrak has to use his scroll and still take I think 8-10 damage. Thankfully, Madrak is tough as a rock and lives through it. There will be much pain for the Wolf next turn, oh yes.
The Woldwarden takes another shot at the Champions with Forked Lightning, but misses due to screening. Go troll brick. The Tharn charge into Melee with the Impaler, Champions, Axer, and Paladins. The kill one paladin, damage the Impaler, and take the Axer down to around half. Again, troll toughness impresses. Armor 20 on the Axer and 18 on the Impaler blunt most of the damage, and they miss or do little damage to a couple of the Champions. Krueger flies over to the middle of the field and casts forked lightning at the Champions. He hits, does some meager damage thanks to the Champion's 19 armor, and ends his activation.
On the Everblight side of the board. The Carnivean charges the Revenger and rips off the Revenger's shield arm, and does a fair amount of damage to it. The Seraph shoots and kills the Seneschal and Gormon. I think Shredders also charge into the Seneschal as well, but I don't think anything else of significance happened.
Turn 3 - The Good Guys
Broken Zealot and I both look at each other and both say, "It's Feat time!" First though, the Dire Troll Mauler needs to take care of business. He shows the Warpwolf what a real beatdown is, killing it in three hits. He also pops Rage up on the Kithkar Champion. Madrak casts Guided Hand on the Champions as well and then announces his CRUSHER feat. The Fell Caller walks into melee with a Tharn, easily kills it, takes his 1" crusher move, and easily kills another. Weapon Master + Crusher = total Tharn ownage. The Axer also moves up, regenerates his Spirit and Body some, and then easily drops another Tharn. Sadly, there is no one within crusher range of him anymore.
On the Menoth side, the Paladin kills a Tharn, which now frees up the Impaler to move. The Impaler charges the Tharn leader, but fails to kill him. However, he's now within melee range of Krueger. He takes a swing and does about 4 damage to him (horrible die rolls since the damage was boosted too...I think I rolled a 5 on 3 dice). The Champions then charge Krueger. Needing 10s to hit on three dice (guided hand) with 3 attacks, and 3 more attacks coming on two dice, I think that this is pretty much a done deal. Not to mention that each hit makes it easier by 1 to hit with the next guy.
The first Champion hits and does about 10 damage to him, but misses his second attack. I then forget to add the +1 to hit for the second guy. Ugh. He misses both attacks, I think one of which only by 1. Agh! The Kithkar, who only needs a 9 to hit, almost misses both attacks due to horrible die rolls. Krueger lives with 2 hp left. GRR!
Back to the Menoth side, I missed most of what happened this turn since I was busy dealing with Krueger, but vaguely, I think Amon casts some spells, and the Castigator slams a Carnivean away, and then beats down Thagrosh in melee, killing him. Here's a link to Broken Zealot's account of his caster kill.
Turn 3 - The Betrayers
Without much left to do, Krueger goes Skyborne and flies next to Madrak to try and finish him off. He takes several attacks, and after a couple of damage transfers, Madrak lives with 1 hp. We call the game there as Krueger is completely surrounded and only has the one Woldwarden left.
Victory for the Kriels! (and Menoth)
Conclusion
Well I have to say, that was a pretty interesting first game against Circle. Initially, I was pretty scared of the Tharn, but it turns out they are really squishy in melee, and they just don't hit hard enough to take down my light beasts, unless all of them are attacking the same one. Even then, with the Krielstone, 20 armor is tough for them to bust through. I'm definitely less scared of them now after seeing what they can do.
Trolls are just so durable and tough, it amazes me every game. I only lost 2 stone scribes the entire game.
One thing I did learn though is *don't forget about Standing Stones teleport ability*! That one mistake almost cost me the game. If I didn't have the scroll, Madrak would have bought the farm on that one turn. The other thing is to remember the Concert bonus for the Champs. That +1 for the second champion and kithkars would have been one more hit that they should have had, which would have finished off Krueger earlier.
The MVP had to be the Krielstone bearer. This guy blocked so much incoming damage, it unbelieveable. Probably upwards of 20-30 damage blocked over the course of the game. The worst performers were probably the Champions...not being able to hit Krueger, even though below average rolls were needed, was really annoying. Next time I might just try slamming one of my own guys into him to knock him down. Actually, I should have just slammed the Tharn into Krueger before charging in with my Champs. Ah well, something to remember for next time.
Lastly, while the Circle player was down one unit of druids, I honestly don't see how they could have really made a big impact. They would have had only one turn to shoot the Champions, and they wouldn't have killed any with average rolls. Maybe one or two with really good rolls. But then, only 3 champs were able to get into contact with Krueger anyway, so again, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be a huge impact.
Oh something else weird I just thought of. So after I killed the Warpwolf, how was Krueger able to get full fury the next turn...doh. He should have only been at 3 max fury from the Woldwarden. So he would have only been able to take the one attack against Madrak the last turn.
While the game was pretty engaging, I felt like it wasn't quite as fun or friendly as the games I normally have playing against Broken Zealot. Our opponents were a lot more high strung during the game, and sometimes it seemed like they weren't having much fun either. I guess it felt more like a tournament game, where people were more concerned with getting the win rather than having a friendly game. One of the guys seriously lost his cool after his caster was killed, and that kinda put a downer on the whole thing. Maybe it was just me though. Hopefully next week people will be more relaxed now that the first game is out of the way. Then again maybe I'm just spoiled playing against Broken Zealot all the time, who is an ace opponent. :)
I still had a good time, and I definitely learned more about Circle, I mean, the betrayers.
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