Christmas tournament game 2 vs Axis 75pts

After the quick scenario in round one the second, and last, game of the day would be against a Convergence player. He had brought Iron Mother and Axis. Seeing the double TEP list I knew I would be up against that from the get go and therefore I wanted to drop my Horgle2 list to have the survivability against it. He chose Axis, his list:

Axis
- Inverter
- Inverter
- Diffuser
- Corollary
Transfinite Emgerence Projector
Transfinite Emgerence Projector
Clockwork Angels
Optifex Directive
Optifex Directive
Reflex Servitors
Steelsoul protector
Steelsoul protector

The Pit

My list:
Horgle2
- Mountain King
- Bomber
- Bouncer
- Runebearer
Braylen Wanderhart
Min. Stone+Ua
Max Sluggers
Min Highwaymen
Fire eaters

We played the scenario The Pit, which is a scenario that fits very well with the list I have with Horgle2. He won the roll off and chose to go first. I chose table sides with a long wall to hide behind, and set up my list to skew onto his flag side with my mountain king thought as an anchor in the center. The highwaymen went to flank to the opposite side of the TEPs which he had place opposing my flag, so going for my flag was not a good idea. A mistake I made here was placing the bouncer centrally. He was not needed in the middle and would have been much better to make sure my flag was not taken.

Round 1 - Always this running

Round 1 CoC has started their advance

My opponent ran, placed Axis so that he could take his flag on his turn and dug in the servitors so that if I came to close he could counter charge. I ran everything forward and with the mountain king getting inviolable resolve and the bomber fire starter. My sluggers started moving to the left to fit behind the MK.

Round 2 - The feat off

After round 1

Axis moves up to the flag and feats. He places both inverters in the zone to threaten my Mountain King next turn, outside my threat, One TEP does 11 damage to the MK with one spray, the other does nothing. The other TEP runs.

On my turn, I contemplate whether I should go for a long shot assassination or not. I decide against it, since I see an opening to kill one of his inverters and then hope for the sprays not do deal enough damage on the MK. So I feat with horgle and throw a consuming flames on one of his inverters dealing a whopping 6 damage. I feel a little out in the open where I am standing, but have to be there to reach enough with the feat and consuming flames. The bouncer just runs out of the way and the MK moves up to spray the now burning inverter but rolls a triple one and misses. The sluggers save the day by killing it, although I forgot to move one close enough to my flag to contest. My fire eaters move up and put Axis on fire, dealing no damage, The highwaymen inch forward. My opponent scores one on his flag.

The MK still stands, CoC turn 3

Round 3 - Arm 23 Mountain King is tough AF
His game plan on his turn is obvious. Kill the Mountain king, place angels on my flag and double score. However, the 4 sprays do not do enough damage on the MK for the Inverter to finish him of and he lives with something like 13 HP, as the last hits were taken on the bouncer, to remove him from the equation. For the MK not to get free access to the TEPs, the Mechanics move up to jam him.
Axis scores two additional points on my his turn.

I am happy the MK survived and by spellslaving consuming flames, I manage to clear of two mechanics blocking my MK so that it reaches one TEP and the last Inverter. The MK easily kills both and a mechanic, the sluggers move in to contest the flag and manage to kill one of the angels. The fire eaters move to contest his flag and the highwaymen continue to flank. This was a crucial mistake. Since time was on my side now, I should have just contested his flag with all of the highwaymen.

After my turn 3, Not running the highwaymen to contest...

Round 4 - Game over
Axis just needs to clear two fire eaters and two sluggers. No problem and game over for me.

Afterthought
I was a bit sloppy with my round 3, thinking I had it in the bag when I managed to survive with the MK and kill the last inverter and a TEP. I should have moved my highwaymen much more aggressively. This combined with the disrespect of not contesting my own flag cost me the game. But my god how hard the MK is with arm 23. The sluggers also pulled their part, but I don't really think the fire eaters pulled their part. I should probably just have moved them in to contest. Not at all an unplayable match up, probably a rather good one for Horgle2. And he is rather fun to play!

Christmas tournament game 1 vs Kaelyssa 75pts

Kaekae is craycray

We had a small two round Christmas tournament at our local LGS where I participated. I brought my new Jarl/Horgle2 to the event to try them out. The first game I was paired up with one of the newer players in my meta and he had only brought one list.

Kaelyssa
-Discordia
-Banshee
Max. Nyss hunters + Soulless
Max. Sentinels + Ua + Soulless
Max. Halberdiers + Ua + Soulless
2x Arcanists
Lanyssa

Since he only had one list, I offered him to chose which list of mine he wanted to face, he chose Jarl. Kaelyssa is a rather bad match up for both of my lists. Upkeep hate, along with a strong denial feat is really not in my favour, so it would be a tough match up. My list:

Outlast

Jarl
-Runebearer
-Bomber
-Mauler
Fell caller hero
Stone scribe chronicler
Braylen Wanderhart
Max Fennblades +Ua
Min Highwaymen
Max Champions
Northkin fire eaters

The scenario was the old outflank, now named outlast. The scenario was very good for Jarl as he is more geared toward a wide scenario played as opposed to Horgle2 which rather plays a central one.
I got to start, don't remember who won the roll off, an my opponent chose the side with a wall in one of the zones and a building to hide behind.

After my first turn.

Round 1 - running is cool, feating is cooler
Placing quicken on the fennblades, running them up to threaten his lines. Highwaymen flank to the left zone with braylen, seeking the forest there. Bomber moves up centrally, champs run up behind the fennblades. My opponent moves his things up, triggers vengeance on my fenns without killing one of them. He feats with kaelyssa, keeping things in her reach. This means he does not really try to contest the left zone, which is good for me.

Round 2 - Counter feat, fennblades die

End of my turn 2

Kaelyssa feat really hampers my game plan of having the fennblades charge in and jarl shooting things. Fortunately for me, the fennblades are within vengeance and walk threat. They do just that, after getting buffs from the chronicler and the fell caller. The manage to kill two nyss, one sentinel and two halberdiers and reposition to really be in the way. The bomber manages to kill two nyss who are not in the Disco imprint. I feat with Jarl to hide my champs, bomber and mauler and toe in the rightmost zone. In the left zone I moved the highwaymen forward to kill one nyss and make it difficult to enter the zone. On my opponents turn, he kills most of the fennblades and a fire eater. The sentinels walk into the rightmost zone to contest. I score one point on his turn.

Round 3 - I clear the zone and game over

En of my turn 3 with me on 4 cp.

In my turn, the objective is to clear the right zone to  dominate it. The fire eaters do a great job of killing sentinels, I think two sprays killed 7 of them. The fennblades and champs kill the remaining ones. Jarl stands in place and really does nothing, in hindsight he should just have camped. I score three more points on my turn and stand at 4. My opponent tries to go for an assassination but when he misses the first shot with kaelyssa, Jarl dodges away and game over.

End game analysis
This list works quite well on wide scenario. The weak point of the list is Jarl himself. He is rather squishy and wants to use his fury, which is not the best of combinations. The fire eaters did a lot work this time around. The champions continue to not do so much. This game only made it to round 3, so they did not really get to the action, but they are a big point sink for not doing much work so far. We will see. I think that my opponent played his list a bit to passive and really was hampered by really wanting to get as much use of the feat as possible. The nyss hunters should be able to range out my highwaymen, so giving me that zone for free is not worth it. Even just putting one nyss in the zone to contest would have been a good option. I also need to think more about protecting my own caster.

The second list - who will be lucky match for Jarl?

Now that I have chosen to run Jarl as my first list in a two list pairing, I need his partner for the pairing. Since I see Jarl as much of a generalist who can deal with most things except high armor, I need the second list to deal with that.

Looking through the troll casters, Madrak2, Ragnor and Horgle2 stand out to me as casters for this job. However, Ragnor I do not own yet, despite ordering the battle box with PG-points this summer, and Madrak2 I am really tired of playing since mk2 already, plus the fact that another infantry heavy army would have the same weaknesses as the Jarl army.

That leaves Horgle2, the fire guy. He has the output needed to crack armor and also can place arm 23 gargantuans on the field. I like the idea to have one list consisting of lots of infantry and one which is more beast focused.

But how to focus on beasts? Do I want many beasts on the field or is it enough with a gargantuan? Which gargantuan in that case? Despite having just painted my glacier king, I think that the gargantuan I want to field is the Mountain King. He has the extra umpf in output that might be needed for some high armor techs out there such as Baldur2. 

Using a gargantuan will be a starting point for me with Horgle2 and this will of course have to be evaluated during games to see if it is better to switch to multiple beasts instead. So what would a starting point look like with Horgle2? For starters, I want a runebearer to assist in getting his upkeeps out and also to use the nuke Consuming Flames as much as possible. Of course I will need a stone with the elder, and I want a bomber to make use of Fire Starter. A Shield Guard is a must with a gargantuan, so it is not tagged by Alten, which means a Bouncer. Then I have 27 points left for other units and solos. I want the min. highwaymen + Braylen package as they get boosted shots during his feat, and the 13 remaining points slot will initially be filled with Sluggers. Yes Sluggers. I think that they will be able to do work during the feat and also outside of it. The list:

Horgle2

-Runebearer

-Mountain King

-Dire Troll Bomber

-Troll Bouncer

Braylen

min. Krielstone +Elder

Max Sluggers

Min Highwaymen

So how will the list work? Well, everything will probably be centered around the Mountain King with inviolable resolve and around the stone. The sluggers will hang back generally, so they are not picked of too easily. The only flankers I have are the highwaymen, so they will need to secure the most crucial flank. I think this will be a fun list to play that can also dish out a lot of damage during the feat turn and pose a significant assassination threat with quite a lot of shooting. Just horgle and his battle group can hand out three boosted pow 16s and two pow 12s during the feat. Adding the highwaymen they have anything between 12 boosted pow 10s or 2 boosted pow 16s, It should be fun to play!

First game with Jarl1 - it's hammer time!

So I played my first game with one of the Jarl lists I was discussing in the previous post. I chose to go with the infantry list, because I believe it is a better list than the beast-heavy option. My list:

Jarl
-Runebearer
-Bomber
-Mauler
Braylen, Fell caller, Chronicler
Max Champions
Max Fennblades+Ua
Min Highwaymen
Fire eaters

The Axis list i was facing would be a tough match:

Axis
- Inverter
- Inverter
- Diffuser
- Corollary
Transfinite Emergence Projector
Transfinite Emergence Projector
Clockwork Angels
Optifex Directive
Optifex Directive
Reflex Servitors
Steelsoul protector
Steelsoul protector

Not only does axis have a feat that shuts down infantry quite well since they cannot charge. He also has a lot of tools that work well against them, such as razor wall, counter charge for his battle group. The two TEPs also will have a lot of things to spray, and the two shield guards are a pain for Jarl. I knew this would be a tough matchup for me.

Entrenched

We rolled for scenario, using the app Roll for Scenario on android, and ended up on entrenched. My opponent won the roll of  and chose to go first. While going first is something I usually always want with a troll army, I feel that without the stone and with an army rather geared for going on scenario, I don't mind going second although I still think going first is better due to the fact that I threat far with this list and therefore it is possible to push the opponent back, forcing them out of the scenario.

Round 1 - where nothing happens but running and missed shots
My opponent runs everything up. He has his two TEPs and angels opposing my zone, and the rest on the other side of a forest, effectively dividing his army into two distinct pieces. His angels hide behind cover in the middle of the board and his reflex servitors dig in in the far edge of his zone. On my turn I luckily scatter away one of the angels with my bomber, miss two boosted shots on one of the reflex servitors, needing nines, wasting my magic bullets. Fennblades gets quickened and run up to threat into my opponents zone. I try and stay out of the TEPs walk and shoot range.


Round 2 - where fennblades go to die and I misplay
the reflex servitors start of by killing some of my Fennblades. Axis positions himself in the zone and places an irritating razor wall in front of most of my remaining Fennblades. The angels kill one highwayman and stay behind the wall. The Teps move forward and don't do anything. On my turn, I make a play for scenario. I fan out my champs, move Jarl into my uncontested zone and shoot my opponents objective, putting some damage on it, and feats, placing clouds to block vision into my zone. The bomber moves up slightly and shots the objective, killing the shield guard with the first shot and getting the objective down to 3 boxes. My fennblades activate after having received warcry from the fell caller and tales of mist from the chronicler. The charge all across, trying to tie up as much as possible. One fennblade charges one of the angels on outside my zone, the officer charges one of the TEPs, and two of the fennblades charge into the opponent zone. However, I forgot that the steelsoul protector has defensive strike and kills one of them. I still was fine with the result until i rolled snake eyes on the angel. I also do a mistake when repositioning, allowing axis to get a counter charge. I end my turn after the fire eaters do not manage to turn each other on fire, nor kill the objective, left at 1 box.

Round 3 - Axis counter feats and clears the zone effectively

After my round 3.  How I wish my right champ
would have moved to the left!

Axis charges to the front central corner of his zone and feats, getting most of my army and his in the bubble. He trivially clears my zone and leaves me very few options to get back in there during the feat. One of the TEPs clear the second one, removing the fennblade officer jamming, and kills one of the champs. The second TEP moves into the cloud to put damage on the Mauler and Jarl, forgetting to calculate quicken when thinking about the threat ranges. The angels jam up the zone. On my turn, the bomber finishes of the objective and puts some damage on the closes inverter. Jarl gives the mauler quicken and rage, shoots one of the angels and then hides in the fuel cache cloud. The mauler moves up and kills one one of the TEPs and the last clockwork angel. Champs, only two left, do nothing except run forward, (this was also a mistake, if I would have moved the second champ to the other side of the wall I would have effectively blocked the TEP out of my zone and that would have won me the game). Highwaymen circle around to get back shots next turn on the remaining TEP.

Round 4 - Game over

Since I couldn't contest Axis zone, he will go up to 3 points. He gets a turn of setting up so that I will have a difficult time running things into the zone that will  not just die to counter charges. His remaining TEP moves up and kill my objective, placing one servitor in the zone to contest. On my last turn, the mauler frenzies with one remaining fury on him and then I do not have enough things to get into the zone. We play the turn out, the highwaymen kill the TEP (opportunist with braylen is very nice) but I do not have enough shooting or infantry to kill axis.

After Axis turn 4. Game over. 

Post game thoughts
I made some crucial mistakes during the game, misplaying against counter charge and also misplaying the champions. I should have run them more centrally on the feat turn. The fire eaters also should have gone around the far left flank instead of going straight on the zone, I still have not really gotten the hang of them. I also committed too many fennblades early, should have kept more back. The champions did not make one attack during the game and that is quite bad for a 17 point unit. I have not given up on them yet, but I am very much on the fence after the games I have fielded them in MK3.

The matchup was not so bad as I had though, I even had the opportunity to win if I just blocked my zone better. I feel the list is good and definitely playable, so it was a good test for the list. Jarl is also very fun to play and I enjoyed the game immensely despite rolling a bit badly in the first two rounds.

Mk3 and future pairings

During the last two three years of MK2, I was using the pairing of pMadrak and eMadrak to a rather successful degree, but I was getting really tired of the two when MK3 was announced.

To me, the news was rather good. I was feeling a little burnout on my pairing and the meta in itself as well. Knowing I would have very little time to play for the coming time, MK3 definitely could not have come at a better time. This way, it can give me some time to see where the meta is and plan accordingly.

However, with the balance erratas coming every year, this is more difficult than I first anticipated, so I decided to just chose my favourite caster to play, add another caster that could fill out his weaknesses, create two lists and then just play to become better and refine the lists. After having looked at a lot of tournaments online, such as the WTC, Warmachine Weekend and Clogcon, I think the meta has really not found its place yet and is still rather unstable. So I definitely think there is much merit to just play the game to get better and faster playing it, rather than waiting for something to change or get nerfed or buffed. 

In my mind, the choice was very simple to choose the first caster. Jarl Skuld, devil of the Thornwood. He is my absolute favourite caster in trolls. He plays a very active roll in his armies, having the ability to either be aggressive and remove support from far away, or just clear the lanes for quickened beasts or infantry. He has some glaring weaknesses, such as no damage buff nor to hit buff. His feat is also rather lack luster compared to the cloud and forest walls in the meta now. That he is considered to be the worst caster in trolls by some also fuels my energy to make him work. 

So I played Jarl quite a bit in MK2 as well and while he did not change much, the rest of the army did. I started to create my typical Jarlish infantry army that could strike from a mile away and quickly jam my opponent to create scenario pressure. The list is as follows:

Jarl Skuld

-Runebearer, Dire Troll Bomber, Dire Troll Mauler

Fell Caller Hero, Stone Scribe Chronicler, Braylen Wanderhart

Northkin Fire Eaters

Max. Fennblades + Officer and Drummer

Max Trollkin Champions

Min Trollkin Highwaymen

So the first thing to note here is that the list does not contain a Kriel Stone. The reasons for this being that a large part of the army will not really benefit from it, the fennblades, fire eaters and highwaymen, and the fact that Jarl has some difficulties running it at all. The core strategy of this army is rather straight forward. Flank with highwaymen+braylen and fire eaters on either flank, and use fennblades to gum up the center to allow the champions to move up and Jarl+Bomber to do work. This is meant as a very much 'all comers' lists, meaning I want it do be able to play in to most things. Jarl supplies a very good tool for this in his Magic bullet, but I am not sure Fennblades are up to any task currently. Charging pow 12 is a bit sad, even if it is coming from 15" away. 

With this in mind, maybe I want a more heavy hitting and a list that can take a punch. So I created:

Jarl Skuld

-Runebearer, Dire Troll Bomber, Dire Troll Mauler, Dire Troll Blitzer, Dozer & Smigg, Earthborn Dire troll

Whelps

Lanyssa Ryssyl

Min Stone+Elder

Swamp gobber bellows crew.

So what is this? This is essentially a lot of beasts with support for those beasts. Bomber, Dozer and Blitzer provide ranged threat, the mauler and earthborn provide some threat in melee. Jarl also does his of clearing jamming infantry to allow for the shooting beasts to be effective. Here, there are no obvious targets for his upkeeps, I believe that it will be very situational depending on what is on the other side. I will have to try and see how the list functions, but there are lot of interesting things that can be done with reposition and swift hunter and this list has the umpf to beat down most of the heavy armour that is seen in the current meta. 

What is left now, is to try these two lists to see which one I feel the most for. It will of course also depend on what the other caster will be! Either way, I am very stoked for the future and just want to play more and more.

New edition, new life

Hello blog!

I have been very absent the last few months. But with good reason.
This summer I had a son, about the same time as MK3 dropped. Which is why I have not really played many games at all. But now life has started to stabilize and I have gotten the hype back and starting to arrange some tournaments locally. This sunday a tournament will take place here and I am super stoked to play.

What I really want to play is Horgle2 but it seems as though the local swedish mail are idiots who cannot deliver packages on time, so I will probably play Calandra and Gunbjörn.

But what are we fighting for this sunday? I will let my Glacier King (WIP) show!