Monkey and I got together for yet another showdown. I had planned to take a Power of Dhunia theme list, but hadn’t quite gotten time to build and paint the models required, so my usual Trolls list was on show. Monkey spent quite a bit of time pulling out his models and double checking that everything he had was in his list…
Monkey’s List
Retribution of Scyrah
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Phoenix
- Banshee
- Imperatus
- Manticore
Trollbloods
Ragnor Skysplitter
- Trollkin Runebearer
- Dire Troll Bomber
- Dire Troll Mauler
- Troll Axer
- Troll Bouncer
Fell Caller Hero
Horgle Ironstrike
- Pyre Troll
Kreilstone Bearer and 5 grunts
- Stone Scribe Elder
Northkin Fire Eaters
Trollkin Runeshapers
Set-up and Deployment
We roll on the Steamroller 2016 scenarios and get Linebreaker, which has an objective and two flags each, spread across our respective sides. Winner is first to five points, with controlling a flag producing one, dominating a flag producing two and destroying the enemy objective producing one. Monkey picks Effigy of Valour for his objective (given my propensity to knock things down) and I pick Bunker (as I’d assumed Monkey had much more ranged and magical attacks than he actually did).
I win the roll and choose to go first, deploying most of my heavy hitters slightly to my right flank to avoid the piece of terrain in front of my deployment zone. Horgle, the Pyre Troll and Runeshapers take the left flank. Monkey lines his wall of Warjacks up directly opposite my main force, and the Dawnguard Sentinels opposite Horgle and friends. My Northkin Fireeaters deploy directly in front of the Pyre Troll and across from the sentinels.
Turn One
I spend most of the turn moving, almost all runs. Two misplays on my part this turn, I forgot to set the Fireeaters alight with the Pyre Troll, and I ended up putting seven fury on my warbeasts which would force me to make a threshold check on one of them next turn.
Monkey has all his Warjacks run forward, as do the Dawnguard Sentinels (making nice little trios for the armour boost). He puts Sentry on Imperatus and Mirage on the Sentinels.
Turn Two
Fell Caller Hero gives the March call to the Runeshapers, giving them Pathfinder this turn. They then activate and move forward, casting Rockhammer on the Dawnguard Sentinels and killing one. The Northkin Fireeaters then assault the Sentinels, failing but killing four of them from their spray attacks. The Bomber moves forward and shoots at Banshee causing 11 damage which I’m happy with. Everything else moves forward and I pop Ragnor’s feat this turn (I think Ragnor may also have given Pulveriser to the Mauler).
Monkey uses sentry on Imperatus to shoot at the Fireeaters and kills one and the Dawnguard Sentinels reposition with Mirage.
An Arcanist drops +2 strength on it and then Manticore uses it’s ability to increase it’s strength a further 3. It then moves forward and starts laying into the Dire Troll Mauler, dealing 14 damage (ouch). Banshee then moves in and hits the Mauler but isn’t able to deal any damage. It buys two further attacks, with the first dealing seven damage and the second dealing nothing. Monkey is a little frustrated at this stage, and moves Imperatus into the Mauler as well, who deals five damage off his attack, leaving the Mauler standing with four boxes remaining. I think I got lucky here.
Phoenix charges the Troll Axer, deals two damage from it’s first attack, but misses with the Thermal Blade. IT then buys an attack with the Thermal Blade which hits but fails to do any damage.
The Sentinels charge the Pyre Troll and the Fireeaters, one of them dishes out seven damage to the Pyre Troll, but the Fireeaters somehow escape unscathed.
Monkey then uses his caster to shoot at the Mauler, the attack misses, going wide and hitting Imperatus and dealing five damage to him, with a second shot he completely misses.
Turn Three (my notes are a little shaky this turn)
I use Ragnor to heal the Mauler so he has no crippled aspects and position him so he’s safe from assassination during Monkey’s turn. The Dire Troll Mauler then activates and wails on Banshee, with Rage and Pulveriser putting him at super high strength. He hits with both his initial attacks and then throws Banshee at Sylys, killing the latter and leaving Banshee with two or three boxes remaining. I buy an attack and pound on Imperatus as well, but not sure it had great effect. The Bomber moves up to Imperatus and starts wailing on him, dishing out some damage.
Horgle moves to Phoenix and gets a critical off Smith’s Hammer which knocks him down, dealing five damage in the process. The Pyre Troll is not inspired by this and manages to miss every attack he makes.
I activate the Fireeaters now and use the fire breath attack to kill off four of the Dawnguard Sentinels. We checked the rules after this and turns out you can’t shoot when engaged or engaging, so Monkey gets the moral high ground this game after that cheat on my part. This was a fairly pivotal point, but had I just attack with them instead, I would then have used the Runeshapers (which I didn’t activate…) to drop Rockhammer down on the Sentinels as well, so could potentially have ended in the same position via a slightly different route…
I score one control point here, with a Fireeater uncontested Monkey’s flag.
Monkey starts with an Arcanist given Manticore +2 strength. Manticore then activates and pops his +3 strength ability, hits the Mauler and kills him handily. He then hits the Bouncer for six damage, buys an attack and hits the Bouncer for nine, crippling his spirit.
Imperatus attacks the Axer, dealing nine damage and crippling him heavily, before attacking again and finishing him off. He then buys three attacks on the Bomber, dealing close to 20 damage on it, but leaving it upright.
Phoenix stands up and moves to the Runebearer (taking three damage from Horgle on the way out of his zone) killing him.
The Dawnguard Sentinels kill the Pyg Fireeater, and then do some damage to Hrgle and the Pyre Troll but not enough to seriously hurt them.
Monkey’s caster then moves in and shoots at the Krielstone, killing one guy.
Another control point for me with my lone Fireeater holding the flag.
Turn Four
The Bomber uses Regeneration, getting one health back which I use to uncrippled his mind, he then moves and hits Monkey’s objective, wiping it out and generating one control point for me. The Pyre Troll makes up for the egg he laid last turn, killing two Dawnguard Sentinels, with the Runeshapers finishing off the last of the Sentinels with Rockhammers.
I decide that Horgle and the Fell Caller will double team Phoenix with the intention to keep him tied up so he can’t contest the flag. The Fell Caller Hero turns out to be pretty good on the offence, aided by my outrageously good dice, one damage roll saw triple sixes for damage and six on the column! So between the two of them they end up taking Phoenix out.
Ragnor moves back from the front line, looking to bunker down to deny an assassination run. The Bouncer then activates and moves back towards Ragnor also, luckily being missed by the Manticore’s free strike, and ends up within the 3” for Shield Block can be used.
The Krielstone unit then positions itself to prevent movement through to Ragnor and block line of sight to him also.
Another CP for the flag held, putting me up to four control points and seeing a scenario victory imminent.
Monkey uses his Arcanists to load up focus and strength on Imperatus and Manticore. Imperatus then kills two Krielstone models which were engaged by him, before dishing out some more damage to the Bomber. Manticore moves into line of sight of Ragnor and uses his Cyclone Cannon, but the D3 shots roll comes out a one and this shot fails to hit.
Monkey’s caster then moves over Imperatus and pops his feat, preventing me from spending fury. He shoots at Ragnor, with the Bouncer’s Shield Block taking it, his second shot hits, but only does five damage, leaving Ragnor hale and hearty.
At the end of Monkey’s turn I pick up the fifth control point and take the game.
Conclusion
Well, that game felt a lot more balanced than last time.
I’m curious how the game would’ve turned out without the shooting from the Fireeaters, as four Sentinels is much more than I would’ve killed with their melee attacks, but I did have the Runeshapers chilling nearby who could’ve got to work, albeit probably knocking down the Fireeaters. Again, not lighting up the Fireeaters on turn one turned out to be a huge mistake throughout the game.
My feeling is that this list lacks offensive punch after the Dire Troll Mauler goes down, and I struggle to find stopping power against large models. The Bomber is one model I’m still learning, so perhaps I need to utilise it differently, and the Runeshapers are feeling like an afterthought rather than a key piece in the list. Regardless, these thoughts are all based on only playing against Monkey’s Retribution, so it could be that it’s invalid or a crushing strategy against other opponents.
Lastly, I seem to struggle with Fury management as the game goes on, which is especially pointed with the theme list I’m intending to run, which effectively adds another Dire Troll Mauler. Perhaps I just need to run one Mauler way out in front of everything and write him off after he makes contact for the first time, or rewrite the list. Will think on this further, once I’ve got the last few models painted for different options.
Other Shots from the Game
Thought I’d share a few other photos from throughout the game for your viewing pleasure.
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