New Church League Round 6

With EvilFuzzyDoom

These posts document the NEW CHURCH LEAGUE (named after our regular gaming venue, affectionately nicknamed "the Church"). The NCL has ten participants, and will take place over nine two-week, Round Robin rounds with elimination finals for the top four players. Each player picks two casters for the duration of the League. The match-ups, scenarios and any special rules are posted at the outset. Scenarios are from the PP Official Steamroller 2011 Rules. We should be wrapping by about mid-march.

My Warlocks for the League are pMadrak & pGrissel.

This Round, I played against Cygnar!

Round Six of the New Church League

This round took place between 14 and 29 January.

For the Sixth Round, we are playing Sacrifice, one caster, 35 points, Go for the throat (Caster-kill victories are worth 4 League Points, Scenario victories 2).

Owing to a pair of withdrawals from the league, my opponent this round changed from Cygnar… to Cygnar! Everyone who would have played the chaps who withdrew have been paired up against each other for the rest of the League, leaving me to play my opponent from the first round. Rematch time!

Lists:

Well, a Krielstone and heavy worked for me at 15 points, so I figure it’ll be a good plan to go with something similar (honestly I’d picked out a list already for my other opponent, and I figured it was something I wanted to try). I decide to forego the big tarpit approach and skip Kriel Warriors and Fennblades. Instead I go with a full unit of Krielstone & Scribes, a few beasts and some support.

Chief Madrak Ironhide (*6pts)

* Troll Axer (6pts)

* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)

* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)

* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)

Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)

* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)

Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)

Troll Whelps (2pts)

Cygnar goes for quite a bit of le pewpew, bringing more guns than I’m really comfortable with and Reinholdt, who really is a bit of a star player in his own right. Ol’Rowdy isn’t really a concern for me, but having seen the Storm Strider in action (even if it did roll really badly in Round One!) I’m a little anxious when it hits the table.

Major Markus 'Siege' Brisbane (*5pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Defender (9pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Storm Strider (9pts)

Battle Report:

I take first setup (after the Storm Strider pre-deploys, of course). The battlefield is fairly open, with chunks of rough terrain and forests around the outside and a swamp and building in the middle area. I take the side with more cover, and deploy with Mulg & the Axer in a forest on one flank, Mauler on the other and Madrak in the middle with everything else. Cygnar deploys with the Storm Strider in the centre, the Gun mages on a flank to run through the swamp and take pot shots as I advance, and everything else lined up with my lads in blue and the building I’m using for cover.

Turn one, I advance. I fling Rush around to get good speed, but I suck at Tetris today and Mulg gets stuck behind the Axer. Janissa’s wall goes in front of Madrak and the Stone’s aura goes up, with the Scribes spread out in front (three of them next to the stone for Sacrificing).

On Cygnar’s turn, he advances. Just about everything runs, the gun mages swinging out on one side to make sure they can all get a decent shot in. The only thing with range this turn is the Defender, who gets a Snipe’d shot from the Gunmage Captain Adept. He’s just out, and Siege drops a Rift to annoy me.

Round two, I advance and can get the Axer into a charge. Not so good, but I can at least prevent three Gunmages from attacking. Mulg follows close behind but can’t quite make the gap, even with Rush. Madrak keeps 2 Fury and the wall goes up. Cygnar makes this a worthwhile action, letting loose against my Stone Scribes (killing about half of them) and Madrak. He gets down to 7 boxes and the scroll of Grinndar’s Perseverance goes. Mulg gets a Protective Fit and I bring him up to engage some of the gunmages. The Stone Scribe and Janissa also go down, but I’m not worried. I’ve got things for the Axer, Mulg and Mauler to kill next turn…

Round three is Feat turn! The Axer has another go at the Gun Mages, not doing too well against their high DEF. Mulg, on the other hand, chomps through about five of them and I line up for a trample into Siege’s battlegroup next turn. Madrak lobs his axe at a Gunmage, while the Mauler hucks into the Storm Strider. Of course, I forget about the bump-back and the Mauler does little damage.

Siege feats, opening up with all he’s got. The Gunmages’ Thundershot knocks Madrak away from the wall, dropping him to a pitiful 16 Def. Of course, the damage means I can bring Mulg up and whack some The Defender, Storm Strider and Siege all plug away, costing me the Fury I had left on him. One shot, one box and I make my Tough roll. Wooh! The Squire valiantly stands between Siege and the Mauler.

Round four and it’s do or die time. I can see my assassination run lined up. Madrak activates, throws a boosted Rathrok at the Squire to turn it into scrap, then casts Carnage. The Axer has a go at the Gunmages some more (I think I killed one, but probably not). Mulg Tramples through… damn, I forgot Rush. Mulg tramples into Strangeways and a Gunmage and turns them into meat paste, but falls well short of Ol’ Rowdy or the Defender on account of the swamp he’s standing in. Never mind. The Mauler, undamaged and packing five Fury, casts Rage on himself and charges Siege. Despite packing a MAT of 8 and P+S 19, I completely fail to kill him, managing to miss on my second initial attack (losing Grab & Smash) and at no point roll higher than 6 on my damage dice.

The Storm Strider waltzes up and lights up Madrak like a Christmas tree. Thankfully for my dignity, I fail the first tough roll.

Debrief:

I no longer remain undefeated! It was bound to happen eventually, and it burns a little that this game came down to dice. I probably screwed up somewhere leading up to Siege’s feat turn – I really shouldn’t have had to make that Tough roll and I probably could have prevented it. But really, if you’d seen the dice on my Mauler’s attack run you’d have cried. Simply put, I think the Church has decided that the Assassination Run is not a tactic that it approves of and it will not be rewarded. It’s just happened that way so often…

Anywho, whinge whinge it was the dice. Now that that’s over, what did I learn? Well, against a shooty opponent, I probably should have gone for a faster list. Less time shooting is more time axeing difficult questions like “Where did your head go?” But then, is there really a list than can cope with so much pewpew?

Answers should be addressed to EvilFuzzyDoom c/o Madrak, 1 Hole in the Ground Crescent, the Gnarls, Immoren.

This defeat puts me at twelve points at the end of the Sixth round and third on the ladder.

Next round, I’m playing Cygnar again (really?!) (Sloan or Constance Blaize), playing Destruction, one caster, 35 points, Character Restriction (only one choice with FA: C is allowed in the list).