Testing shooty Trolls

+Botond Gati calculating threat ranges - you can't say that guy is not prepared!

So +Gergely Gati has this three games challenge going on where he tries to make me and +Botond Gati play more games by giving treats to the victor. Of course we'd also do it just for the fun of it, but I guess we won't tell him. :-D

The whole point behind this challenge is that pDoomshaper Runes of War T4 is my rock solid primary list:

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls - WB: 7
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 10
- Mulg the Ancient - PC: 12
- Mountain King - PC: 20
Janissa Stonetide - PC: 3
Troll Whelps - PC: 2
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
- Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Trollkin Runeshapers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Trollkin Runeshapers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3

However, I have been struggling a long time with what to pick as my secondary list; pMadrak, pGrim, eGrim, pGrissel, and eGrim again have all been in the loop. I obviously see the the benefits of eGrim, but I got quite disillusioned with him as he is not the über-assassination warlock that I hoped him to be. The problem I see with eGrim is ranges and LOS: he needs LOS to key pieces of the opponent's army to cast Mortality plus he needs to have them in range. Also all other units have to be well orchestrated to be in the proper positions on feat turn etc.

Disclaimer: whenever you see a Mauler in the pictures, he is proxying as a Bomber until the new Bomber arrives. ;-) I want to run two Bombers in the future because, you know, more Dakka. Botond resulted in calling them the "Bomber-Bomber" and the "Mauler-Bomber" for convenience which made perfect sense. :-D

We kept playing Incursion throughout all games.

Game 3/3 - Hunters Grim vs. eVayl

I went first, end of my first turn. The Burrowers got the Burrow order, the marker is in front of the Kriel Stone.

Botond started to shoot, but so far no significant losses.

On the left flank, the Fennblades start a piece trading game of vengeance and counter-vengeance. In the center, the Burrowers and the double Bombers take down the Angelius on eGrim's feat turn.

Botond kills the Burrowers and some Fenns, but other than that I am still ok. Then Botond puts his second Angelius right in front of eGrim's nose and tauntingly asks if I have a plan to deal with it. I honestly tell him I don't because the Angelius has reach, therefore is in melee, and therefore all my ranged attacks are useless. Now I know why +Robert Lundgren says that the Dire Troll Blitzer and his animus are worth something. ;-) 

In desperation, my best plan was this: ignore the Angelius and kill eVayl instead before the Angelius kills me next turn. Fennblades use Vengeance to get in melee with eVayl. Muggs got to do a useless attack against the Angelius while eGrim moved away and set the stage for the assassination. The two Bombers move and throw four Bombs onto the Fennblades, always boosting the blast damage against eVayl. eVayl dies thanks to some lucky dice rolling.

This was actually the first time ever that I defeated Botond. Yet the winning move was not the result of clever tactics that dominated the game, but grew out of desperation. On the other hand one can argue that if you can score a homerun in a desperate situation, that IS clever tactics. Either way, this game showed me how important the two Bombers are. If you want to defeat shooty Trolls, kill the Bombers first.

Game 1/3 - Calandra vs. pVayl

My Calandra list:

Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood - WB: +5
- Trollkin Runebearer
- Dire Troll Bomber - PC: 10
- Dire Troll Bomber - PC: 10
- Troll Impaler - PC: 5
- Pyre Troll - PC: 5
Gatorman Witch Doctor - PC: 3
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
- Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
Pyg Burrowers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6

Credits here belong to Daniel Pawelka aka. Snot as my Calandra list is heavily influenced from his WTC list.
The idea is here to do the same thing as with eGrim, yet with less complexity. Calandra basically buffs primarily her own units, key spells and the feat have RNG CTRL, and she has a comfortable 7 FURY, so she takes less thinking power which I hope will pay out while learning her list first and under stress at tournaments later.

Calandra is the one with the purple skirt so far. ;-)

This is how we set up.

This is how it ended. Botond used his Blighted Nyss Striders to quickly kill off my Nyss Hunters. After that his Warbeasts focused on killing my Bombers. After that he easily won on scenario with pVayl dominating one flag.

Lessons learned: Nyss Hunters are really hard to be kept alive because Calandra's Star Crossed spells doesn't protect them against ranged fire.

Game 2/3 - Calandra vs. pVayl

This is how we set up...

... and I decided to do the most stupid thing ever: protecting my Nyss Hunters with my Burrowers.

After Botond's turn 1, 3 out of 10 Burrowers were left. Blighted Nyss Striders again.

This is how it ended. Botond won on scenario again by dominating the flag. With my Pyg Burrowers all but gone and Botond's entire army out of charge range, my second big mistake was in this game to run my Nyss Hunters into B2B contact with the Blighted Nyss Striders to stop their shooting - but I forgot to zombify them with my Gatorman Witch Doctor, so that didn't help a lot. :-/

Lessons learned: ah **** it. Calandra isn't as easy to play as I envisioned. Any shooty army is a tough challenge to her weak defenses. I think I should challenge +Andre Suwanda and his retribution next.

Game 3/3 - Calandra vs. pVayl

This is how we started. Botond went first and was able to kill three Burrowers already in their AD zone, but right after that they successfully burrowed to safety.

My last turn which was a key moment. As usual the Nyss Hunters died quickly, though I left one back to zombify the unit. Then I spotted pVayl standing next to the Typhon, so Calandra cast Star Crossed, popped her feat and cast the Impaler's animus on each Bomber leaving her without any Fury. The Bombers dropped four bombs onto the Typhon and brought pVayl down to two health points.

After that, the Kettle had a Stinger emerge who killed Calandra in return.

Lessons from this game:

• If the Impaler had cast his animus onto a Bomber once, Calandra would still have had Fury left.
• If the Runebearer had decreased the cost of her Star Crossed spell, she'd still have had Fury left.
• Calandra is less complex to play than eGrim, but Calandra-Impaler-Runebearer need to be well orchestrated. Oh, and don't forget the Gatorman Witch Doctor.
• Calandra is as devastating with assassination on her feat turn as eGrim is. eGrim gives Snipe for free to anyone and can drop the target's defense up to four points, but Calandra hits like a train as soon as her Bombers are within range.

Conclusion

After these training games I feel very comfortable that Calandra finally IS my new secondary list for 2014, so expect me to play the pDoomshaper-Calandra combo. With my first victory against Botond eGrim has reestablished his honor, though, and I don't think he is that bad anymore. However, to all those guys who are rejoicing how often they win with eGrim: you are either way smarter than I am or you should get tougher opponents.