Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Thagrosh, the Messiah vs Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller

Welcome back everyone! It's my latest battle report! This week I continued my test games with Thagrosh2, using the same list. If you're wondering or you've forgotten that list looks like this:

eThagrosh +3
-Scythean -9
-Scythean -9
-Scythean -9
-Shredder -2
-Raek -4
-Naga -5
Foresaken -2
Foresaken -2
Max Legionnaires -6
Incubus -5
Objective - Fuel Cashe

I think the list is really solid and does what I want it to well. The Scytheans are powerful tools in the list and the Naga and Raek answer questions pretty well for the list. I actually really like the Legionnaires and Incubus package. They're really great for jam and the Incubi can come out of pretty much anywhere with attacks. 

Pre-Game

This week I was playing my friend Mike who's recently had a bout of illness but thankfully is back in full swing again this week. Despite a brief sojourn into Khador he was back playing his 'home' faction of Trollbloods. He was trying out a new list and one of the first I'd seen him bring fully painted and they were looking pretty great. The list featured pGrissel and Mulg as the battlegroup and then was focused on infantry with two max units of Warders, a max unit of Long Riders a min unit of Krielstone, two fell callers and two Champion Heroes. This is a meaty list and there were a lot of wounds and high armour to get through. Urgh. The scenario I rolled was Outflank and I won the roll for the start of the game, deciding to go first. 

Deployment 

I set up with my Legionnaires and Naga to the left of my deployment zone, with the rest of the battlegroup to the right of centre. The Foresaken went on each flank. Mike set up a Fell Caller and a unit of Warders on each flank, the battlegroup and Stone central with the long riders spread out across the front line. 


Legion Turn One

I took the first turn and ran my Legionnaires, spreading them out and putting Dragon Blood on them for the extra armour. The Naga ran into the forest to take advantage of prowl. The three Scytheans ran up the board to take up some real estate. Thagrosh chugged up the board and put out a couple of Tenacities, getting one for himself from the Shredder. 


Trolls Turn One

On the first Troll turn the fell callers chucked out some pathfinder and let everything run slowly up the board, hampered by the terrain. 


Legion Turn Two

My second turn came around and I was concerned about wandering into threat ranges and giving away the alpha so I played very conservatively. The Scytheans on my right flank shuffled around but didn't really move too far up. On the other flank the other heavy inched up the board. The Legionnaires, though, ran up to take up a bunch of real estate in the zone to my left. They're in the list as the cannon fodder road bump so I don't care if they die anyway. Thagrosh continued his way up the board towards the safety of the nearby wall. 


Trolls Turn Two

On the Trolls turn Mike had the Warders on my left charge a couple of the legionnaires, the rest of them running up to the zone, ending up with two of them dying, giving me one incubus and Vengence. The Long Riders continued up the board, but didn't move too far into my threat. On my right the Warders continued to slug through the forest gumming up that side of the board. The stone and Grissel continued up the centre, hiding behind a nearby wall along with Mulg. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0


Legion Turn Three

On this turn I had a choice. I was confident that I could clear the two Warders in the right zone to dominate early and get a decent lead but it'd leave my beasts on the left out in the cold. In the end it was too tempting to pass up. I took my Vengence moves and a few attacks but did very little work, then the incubus popped up. The Naga moved up and took a shot at one of the Warders but didn't have an impact. The Legionnaires opened up a lane for the Scythean and took a couple of CMAs into the Warders and a champ hero but only did a little bit of damage. The Scythean then charged, getting on two Warders and killing them both with the animus. The Foresaken on that flank ate up the fury from the Scythean, filling her up but leaving him on one since she already had a couple on her. Thagrosh then activated and threw up Manifest Destiny before charging into the zone camping one after putting out Tenacities. The lead Scythean on my right activated and charged the two Warders in the zone. With the animus and Manifest destiny he managed to kill them both to secure my domination. I then had the Raek, my third Scythean and Shredder move up to cover my caster a little. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0


Trolls Turn Three

Mike opened his turn by having pGrissel use her feat, giving out a bunch of extra moves and extra attacks. In my left zone the three Warders charged the Scythean and killed it easily. A Long Rider and the Champions  managed to kill a bunch of Legionnaires, giving me three more incubus and Vengence for next turn. Mulg ran up towards the zone followed by the rest of the long riders. The Warders ran to get out of the forest they were locked in and then, thanks to the feat the Warders jammed into the zone, the long riders piled into Thagrosh and Mulg advanced into the zone. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0


Legion Turn Four

I was now thoroughly jammed up and needed to get some work done to free up my caster and not die horribly next turn. The Legionnaires took their Vengence but didn't achieve much and then I spat out another 3 Incubi. The Naga frenzied and chomped a warder, who passed their tough. In the heavy zone Thagrosh activated and put up manifest destiny and the Slaughterhouse animus then feated, taking a swing on the centre Longrider, missing despite the extra die drop the lowest. The big fist did some more damage and then I bought another couple of Rapture attacks, only actually killing one guy, but dropping an eruption of ash and doing a little more damage. The nearby Scythean turned to get all of the Longriders in Melee and bought until they were all dead as well as the champion he was engaging. The Raek managed to kill one of the Warders and the other Scythean cleared off the remaining Warders. On the other flank the legionnaires and Incubus managed to force a tough check on the Chanpion and killed the one wounded Warder. For my feat movement the zone was now cleared and so my two Scytheans and Raek jammed into Mulg, hoping he wouldn't be able to get to Thags, doing a reasonable amount of damage. The Shredder advanced up to block off the charge lane to Thagrosh. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0


Trolls Turn Four 

Mike felt that with the loss of his infantry on the right was too bad for him to come back from, (which I wasn't sure about) and then decided to try for an assassination. He had a Fell caller from the left flank to advance up and spray Thagrosh, cranking the roll for ten damage. He then had the champion clear off the legionnaires locking down the Long Rider, giving me Vengence and my last incubus. The long rider then ran to get position on Thagrosh next turn but was killed by a big roll from the Foresaken free strike. Grissel advanced up and put out Hoof it on Mulg and then sprayed the Scythean, catching Thagrosh again. She missed the Foresaken but hit Thagrosh and the Scythean, boosting to get another few points into him and doing a bit more damage to the Scythean. Mulg activated and did a throw on the Scythean, hitting and passing the check despite me rolling a 6, chucking him at Thagrosh, knocking them both down and doing some damage to them both. The final fell caller also moved up and sprayed over to catch Thagrosh, missing but killing the Foresaken and catching a few points into Mulg. The turn ended with 5 health left on Thagrosh. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0


Legion Turn Five 

On this turn the end was in sight. It was clear that the game was wrapping up and I had several different ways to win this turn. To start the Raek and Scythean engaging Mulg frenzied, but both did a decent chunk of damage. Like a good player I focused on the easier zone first, having the incubus clear out the stragglers, taking the control. The Naga advanced back into Thags' control and shot the Stones' UA, killing him. That done I then went for the stupid option. If I focused on clearing out the zone I win. If I throw out manifest destiny I could probably get the Scythean with animus into the zero camp Grissel and win. Instead I did neither, opting for the most cinematic approach of having Thagrosh put up the Raek animus and charging over Mulg and into Grissel. I boosted the hit on the charge with Rapture but missed. Then I took the fist attack. And missed. My final attack got double boosted and did hit but did nowhere near enough to kill her. The last Scythean activated and advanced into Mulg and the Fell Caller, the only troll models contesting, chain attacking on Mulg and killing him and forcing a game winning tough check on the fell caller. Which he passed. I'd failed to clear the zone or get the assassination and cost myself the game. 

Legion: 3 Trolls: 0


Trolls Turn Five 

The trolls turn was pretty straight forward. Grissel activated and splatted Thagrosh in the face with her hammer, winning Mike the game. 

Legion: 4 Trolls: 0

 
Post-Game

This was a great game and it felt like it swung back and forth throughout. I was a little disappointed in myself after the game since it felt a little like I'd managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Especially since I had so many better options to take the game instead of going for the assassination. I also should really have camped after missing my first two attacks and hoped to survive the retaliation. I also realised while writing this that I completely forgot the Blood Spawn rule that would've given me another lesser in the final turn and would've given me a great opportunity to finish off that Fell Caller, too! Kicking myself now! This was only a friendly game though, and in the end I went for the more dramatic, cinematic option. I'd like to think I'd play more conservatively in a competitive game! Regardless, though I enjoyed the game. For some reason I'm not really connecting with Thagrosh. It feels like his style is a little boring, though I do like having Greater Destiny Scytheans! Maybe I'll try a different warlock next, only one way to find out, though! Tune in again!

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

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