Monkey and I faced off for some Warmahordes, my Trollbloods versus his Retribution of Scyrah. As this only my 15th game, we played 50 points (I understand that 50 and 75 are standard Warmahordes tourney levels), lists as follows:
Lists
Monkey
System: Warmachine
Faction: Retribution of Scyrah
Warcaster
Lord Arcanist Ossyan
Warcaster’s Battlegroup
Hydra
Hypnos
Banshee
Solos
Arcanist Mechanik
Lys Healer
Units
House Vyre Electromancers – Leader & 2 Grunt
Mage Hunter Strike Force – Leader & 5 Grunts
Heavy Rifle Team – Leader & Grunt
rob Grimnak
System: Hordes
Faction: Trollbloods
Warlock
Ragnor Skysplitter, the Runemaster
Warlock’s Battlegroup
Trollkin Runebearer
Dire Troll Mauler
Troll Axer
Troll Bouncer
Solos
Horgle Ironstrike
- Pyre Troll
Fell Caller Hero
Units
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes – Leader & 3 Grunts
Northkin Fire Eaters – Leader, Trollkin Grunt, and Pyg Grunt
Trollkin Runeshapers – Leader & 2 Grunts
Scenario
We randomly rolled for one of the 2016 Steamroller tourney pack scenarios (you can get them from the Privateer Press website here) and got Scenario 1, Entrenched. The deployment map looks like the adjacent, with the two boxes being zones with objectives in the middle. You score a point for destroying the enemy objective, a point for dominating your own zone, and then, once your opponent’s objective is destroyed you get 1 point for controlling and 2 points for dominating their zone – first to 5 points wins.
The objectives each have a special rule, chosen by the owner, there’s six to choose from in the pack. Monkey chose the Arcane Wonder objective (-2 range to magic attacks against his models within 4” of the objective) and I took Effigy of Valor (provides cover to models behind it and allows knocked down models to get up for free within 4”). In hindsight, I think I chose the wrong objective choice and should’ve taken something else given I’m pushing knock downs so much in my list.
Deployment
Monkey wins the roll (I roll one and he rolls two) and decides to go second, leaving me to set-up first. I deploy so that Ragnor and his warbeasts can make a beeline for Monkey’s objective, with Horgle and the Runeshapers to protect my own objective – sort of a refused flank with Ragnor having the bulk of the army with him. The Northkin Fire Eaters have advanced deployment, so they are deployed up to 6” beyond my deployment zone after Monkey deploys and allow me to react a bit to his deployment.
Monkey sets himself with a strong right flank, with all three jacks supported by his caster, arcanist and rifle team. The mage hunters deploy behind a forest on the left (we’d missed that they have advanced deployment).
I then place my Fire Eaters on my right flank with a view to having them rush up to take out the Mage Hunters (mistakenly, it turns out!).
Turn One
Trollbloods
I unpack my army (spread out from the tight deployment), putting four fury on the Krielstone and running most other things to position for charges on Monkey’s objective – pretty boring opening.
Retribution
Monkey comes forward, gets a shot off with Hydra (the two fisted jack) on my Dire Troll Mauler, doing seven damage. He proceeds to put dead eye on the Mage Hunters then has them wipe out my Fire Eaters… Looks like I made a mistake playing them so aggressively and need to be more conscious of my units survivability.
Turn 2
Trollbloods
I declare a bunch of charges which fail to get positioned a bit better in Monkey’s control zone. Key here was my Axer charging Monkey’s objective and destroying it in melee, providing me a control point. I also pop my feat this turn (when friendly faction models within Ragnor’s control range are attacked the enemy rolls one less damage dice – turns out to be huge).
Retribution
Monkey starts rolling this turn, popping his feat to counter mine (his feat provides an extra damage dice to ranged attacks). Monkey’s dice are all over the place across the game, with some key eggs laid here. Electromancers fire on the Krielstone, hoping to knock it out and remove the +2 armour buff to everyone else. Their shooting fails pretty hard, resulting in one knocked down grunt after he passed his Tough roll.
The Mage Hunters have gotten deadeye from caster again and proceed to shoot at the pyre troll, they destroy it, just, and I think Monkey was expecting to get a bit more out of them this turn, but due to poor dice only got the pyre troll.
The Banshee charges the Runeshapers in the middle, and kills the two it is in range of, leaving one alive. He is effectively neutralised, though, as Banshee prevents spells being cast within 5”. The Hydra shoots at the Dire Troll Mauler and does three damage (i.e. not much), with Hypnos getting buffed by the Arcanist and then charging the Dire Troll Mauler. He pounds away, but after all attacks are accounted for, the Mauler is still standing with two boxes left. Monkey elects to make the risky move of shooting his Rifle team into the Mauler in an attempt to finish him off, missing the Mauler and instead hitting his own jack, doing four damage.
Turn 3
Trollbloods
I get the Rune Bearer to cast shockwave on the Banshee, hitting and knocking it down, with Horgle then assaulting it. With 17 damage done to it over the turn it should’ve been the worse for wear, but the trolls managed to miss all critical systems and it remains fully operational.
I activate Ragnor and spend fury healing the Mauler to get it’s spirit and body functioning again, whilst also popping rage on to it and Earth’s sanctuary on Ragnor. The Mauler then proceeds to start smashing Hypnos, ultimately getting a throw power attack off and throwing it into the Lys Healer, who had an ability preventing knockdown. The bouncer then charges Hypnos, but deals limited damage. The Axer then makes a slam attack against Hydra, hoping to cause the final damage to Hypnos via collateral damage after the slam. Didn’t quite work out that way but did knock both of the jacks down. I make a critical mistake here and charge the fell caller hero in to finish off Hypnos, which he does handily, but leaves an open corridor from Banshee through to Ragnor allowing Monkey an opportunity for an assassination run.
Retribution
Rifle team moves up and takes a shot at Ragnor, dealing seven damage, reducing him to about half. I take that on the chin, preserving his last fury to ensure I can transfer the brutal amount of damage likely coming in from the Banshee. The Electromancers shoot at the Krielstone again in the hopes of removing the armour buff from Ragnor. They deal enough damage to kill all bar one minion, leaving the Krielstone in place. The Banshee then comes in on the charge, with Horgle missing his free strike. Monkey’s dice then proceed to lay an egg again, with the first two attacks missing Ragnor, before connecting and dealing 7 damage which Ragnor passes off to the Bouncer with his last fury.
The Hydra gets up and attacks the Axer, doing a ton of damage and knocking him down.
Turn 4
Trollbloods
I form a rough plan in my mind for an assassination run (effectively using the Rune Bearer to cast Shockwave to knock down Monkey’s caster and then charging one of my warbeasts in), which effectively hinges on me making an 8+ roll to hit with Shockwave. The good thing here is that I can effectively complete the spell without repositioning anything else, so optionality is open should it fail. Moving the Rune Bearer first, I line up for the spell and… I roll double one – back to the drawing board.
The fell caller hero walks in and weathers a bunch of free strikes before executing the Arcanist – I’ve done this to ensure he’s out of my warbeasts charge lanes to Monkey’s caster and to clear the Arcanist from same as well. This, however, triggers a spell on Monkey’s caster which sees him move 3”, which he uses to duck out of my charge lanes.
Ragnor puts Rage on himself (buffing strength) and attacks Banshee. I boost the attack roll to maximise my chances of getting a critical, which happens, knocking down the Banshee. Ragnor retains two fury this turn to allow for damage transfer next turn in case my dice don’t co-operate with my plan to kill the Banshee.
The Bouncer then charges into the Banshee, and kills it after buying an attack; with this also positioning him within 3” of Ragnor, which allows him to absorb a ranged attack that targets Ragnor once next turn using his Shield Guard rule.
I move the Mauler at the Electromancers and finish them off easily (didn’t have sufficient distance to charge). Horgle then spends his one fury to get up, then charges and kills the Rifle team.
Monkey calls it at this point given he is fast running out of bodies on the table, and my positioning will prevent him from killing Ragnor next turn.
Wrap-up
This was a very close game and swung back and forth a bit over the course of it. Monkey’s dice were on the poor side (probably all the unpainted models…), allowing me to have models up where they should probably have been killed. If I understand correctly, Monkey’s list was also sub-optimal, being a more anti-jack style list, so he was coming from behind a bit on that front as well.
I wrote this post a month ago, so our game has moved on a bit since then (although not as much with Marvel Universe Miniatures providing a distraction for me!), and I’ve got a (close to) 75 point force painted and ready to roll now.
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