Happy new year! What better way to start 2016 than a couple of games of Warmachine, eh? For a long time I've missed out on facing a couple of matchups: Khador, Cygnar mirror and Trollbloods have all been few and far between. Today I got the opportunity to play Runes of War twice. I have a feeling that Haley is the caster I want into Trolls but I am very unsure of how much I'll miss an arc node: Few things hit as hard as a fully boosted Troll heavy!
:: Lists ::
Cygnar:
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
- Stormwall - PC: 19
- Lightning Pod
Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer - Officer 2
Tactical Arcanist Corps - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Opponent:
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls - WB: +7
- Mulg the Ancient - PC: 12
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
- Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 9
- Troll Axer - PC: 6
Janissa Stonetide - PC: 3
Trollkin Runeshapers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Trollkin Runeshapers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Trollkin Runeshapers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Trollkin Runeshapers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
THEME: Runes of War - Tier 4
I can't even remember when I faced Trolls last. I had a quick look through his list. Lots of armor and strength. Doomie's feat is almost as good as mine in this matchup in the sense that if a beatstick hits my Stormwall and Doomie follows up with a feat, said Stormwall dies (or, at best, tanks a freestrike with Haley/ATGM saving him). Pretty much the same as if this happens the other way around. So yeah, scenario time!
We were playing Fire Support and Trolls won the roll-off, opting to go first. I remembered a game against Cryx I believe it was some time ago in which I managed to take his objective + dominate flag T2 for 3 points. So my goal was to do the same thing here. Bondwall thus got an extreme flanking pre-deployment. Trolls deployed centrally and I followed up with ATGM even more extreme: With all the walls and whatnot I figured the only way Thunderbolt would be scenario-useful was if I could get an angle from a different position than Haley/Stormwalls.
Trolls run up. Trolls are not that fast, I realize.
I'm a little too afraid of Mulg so the left Stormwall goes a little less than it could've. Right Stormwall moves up 9" with Temporal and shoots off Runeshapers. ATGM run, as do TAC. Haley charges so as to be within 6" of the flag.
The Troll response is like music in my ears: There are very few models contesting and Doomie doesn't feat (!). Given the extreme situation on the board I am wondering how he intends to play this out.
So my idea is to clear the flag, move up with Haley and feat. There is only one problem: The one Runeshaper in b2b with the flag needs to die. The only guys I can devote to that is junior and the left Stormwall. Now, the idea for me is to run away with everything if he manages to jam me up thoroughly and simply go to my own flag for the last 2 points. As such I get a little greedy and put 2 focus on the left wall. Now, with Junior left to take out the Runeshaper he can't Arcane Shield Haley so she has to camp a bit of focus to be "safe" from having Doomie simply assassinate her with spells.
Junior starts the show and kills off the Runeshaper. Left Stormwall kills another Runeshaper on the right as well as one on the left. TAC run up, ready to assist in clouding if I need to get out played next turn. ATGM blast away. I have 3 pieces left to activate: Haley, bonded 'wall and the Squire. I try and use Haley's position to estimate whether the Stormwall can make the charge beyond the flag or not. Apparantly I'm not awake or aware enough to do this properly as it fails the charge on the objective with 0.5", something I easily should've seen. The thing is that I could've moved Haley first, cast Temporal on it and TK on myself to get out of the Stormwall's charge arc. Granted that would've put her in a super-exposed position.
The fact of the matter is that this was an extremely poorly played turn. I am 100% sure I could've gone to 3-0 here safely but I couldn't find the angle. I wanted to give up but decided to play it out just to see how bad attrition is against a list like this in a situation as terrible as mine. I had to feat to buy me some time at least.
Given my feat the Trolls obviously aren't doing much, yet. Problem is, they don't need to.
I try and shoot up his objective and control the flag, basically giving up the right Stormwall. Haley moves backwards so that if he over-commits to the bonded Stormwall she can temporal + tk herself to the other flag next turn (charging a pod or whatever). I fail to kill the objective because it's given +2 ARM from the stones and I'm still stuck at 0 points. Haley cast Time Bomb on a pod, keeping Mulg from charging at least.
The 2 other heavies reach one Stormwall each, cripple roughly half a side and Doomie feats.
Doomie is on 2 fury and I see no other option but to try for assassination here. 4 focus on the bonded 'wall, 2 on the other, temporal on the bonded. It's too bad that too many systems are crippled as I could really have used all 4 big guns here.
I come pretty close, he's left at 3 boxes with no fury left to transfer, but even then I was rolling quite well (making 3 hits on 8+ unboosted to take off his fury for example). It is a deserved loss and I have some thinking to do.
:: Evaluation ::
Trolls are slow and I'm a bit paranoid. This leads to my setup for T2 being inferior to what it should've been and I end up messing it up. That, in broad terms, sums up the game. To be honest, setting up for 3-0 safely is trivial. I don't know why I could've find an opening. I know that it all boils down to not taking the time to measure up my charge (as Haley was practically b2b with it this would be easy to do) and act accordingly. I needed Temporal. TAC could've taken out the Runeshaper with their bombs, I didn't *have* to run them. That would've allowed Arcane Shield on Haley, forcing Doomie to spend fury on Purification in the event of an assassination for example. Lots of examples like that.
Anyway I hope I've learned. Apart from that my strategy worked well, ATGM did their thing and junior actually participated quite a bit here and there. I also learned that attritioning here is extremely hard without an arc node and something I shouldn't aim to win by doing.
Trolls run up. Trolls are not that fast, I realize.
I'm a little too afraid of Mulg so the left Stormwall goes a little less than it could've. Right Stormwall moves up 9" with Temporal and shoots off Runeshapers. ATGM run, as do TAC. Haley charges so as to be within 6" of the flag.
The Troll response is like music in my ears: There are very few models contesting and Doomie doesn't feat (!). Given the extreme situation on the board I am wondering how he intends to play this out.
So my idea is to clear the flag, move up with Haley and feat. There is only one problem: The one Runeshaper in b2b with the flag needs to die. The only guys I can devote to that is junior and the left Stormwall. Now, the idea for me is to run away with everything if he manages to jam me up thoroughly and simply go to my own flag for the last 2 points. As such I get a little greedy and put 2 focus on the left wall. Now, with Junior left to take out the Runeshaper he can't Arcane Shield Haley so she has to camp a bit of focus to be "safe" from having Doomie simply assassinate her with spells.
Junior starts the show and kills off the Runeshaper. Left Stormwall kills another Runeshaper on the right as well as one on the left. TAC run up, ready to assist in clouding if I need to get out played next turn. ATGM blast away. I have 3 pieces left to activate: Haley, bonded 'wall and the Squire. I try and use Haley's position to estimate whether the Stormwall can make the charge beyond the flag or not. Apparantly I'm not awake or aware enough to do this properly as it fails the charge on the objective with 0.5", something I easily should've seen. The thing is that I could've moved Haley first, cast Temporal on it and TK on myself to get out of the Stormwall's charge arc. Granted that would've put her in a super-exposed position.
The fact of the matter is that this was an extremely poorly played turn. I am 100% sure I could've gone to 3-0 here safely but I couldn't find the angle. I wanted to give up but decided to play it out just to see how bad attrition is against a list like this in a situation as terrible as mine. I had to feat to buy me some time at least.
Given my feat the Trolls obviously aren't doing much, yet. Problem is, they don't need to.
I try and shoot up his objective and control the flag, basically giving up the right Stormwall. Haley moves backwards so that if he over-commits to the bonded Stormwall she can temporal + tk herself to the other flag next turn (charging a pod or whatever). I fail to kill the objective because it's given +2 ARM from the stones and I'm still stuck at 0 points. Haley cast Time Bomb on a pod, keeping Mulg from charging at least.
The 2 other heavies reach one Stormwall each, cripple roughly half a side and Doomie feats.
Doomie is on 2 fury and I see no other option but to try for assassination here. 4 focus on the bonded 'wall, 2 on the other, temporal on the bonded. It's too bad that too many systems are crippled as I could really have used all 4 big guns here.
I come pretty close, he's left at 3 boxes with no fury left to transfer, but even then I was rolling quite well (making 3 hits on 8+ unboosted to take off his fury for example). It is a deserved loss and I have some thinking to do.
:: Evaluation ::
Trolls are slow and I'm a bit paranoid. This leads to my setup for T2 being inferior to what it should've been and I end up messing it up. That, in broad terms, sums up the game. To be honest, setting up for 3-0 safely is trivial. I don't know why I could've find an opening. I know that it all boils down to not taking the time to measure up my charge (as Haley was practically b2b with it this would be easy to do) and act accordingly. I needed Temporal. TAC could've taken out the Runeshaper with their bombs, I didn't *have* to run them. That would've allowed Arcane Shield on Haley, forcing Doomie to spend fury on Purification in the event of an assassination for example. Lots of examples like that.
Anyway I hope I've learned. Apart from that my strategy worked well, ATGM did their thing and junior actually participated quite a bit here and there. I also learned that attritioning here is extremely hard without an arc node and something I shouldn't aim to win by doing.
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