WarmaHordes Battle Report - Cygnar vs. Trollbloods - 35 pts

Back with another battle report pitting my Trollbloods against Beau's Cygnar. My List:

• Jarl
• Slag Troll
• Imapler
• Max. Fennblades + UA
• Max. Champions + Skadli
• Fell Caller
• Chronicler
• Runebearer

Beau's List:

• ENemo
• Thunderhead
• Hunter
• Charger
• Max. Sword Knights
• The Black 13th
• Trencher Chain Gun Crew
• Trencher Chain Gun Crew
• Arlan Strangeways
• Squire
• Storm Smith

Deployment: I won the roll off and chose to go first. From top to bottom I deployed: Fennblades, Impaler, Jarl, Chronicler, Runebearer, Slag Troll, Fell Caller and the Champions. From top to bottom Beau deployed: Sword Knights, Charger, Storm Smith, Nemo, Squire, Thunderhead, Strangeways and the Black 13th, with the Chain Gun Crews and Hunter AD'd.

The scenario we played was Gauntlet, in which there are two 6"x8" areas in the center and you score a point if you control the area closer to your opponents table edge, with the first to 2 points winning. The areas were marked with metal nuts and most of the terrain is obvious, with the hedges providing concealment.

Trollbloods turn 1: The Runebearer stood where he was penned in and used Harmonius Exaltation on Jarl (lets him cast one spell for 1 less fury once per turn), then Jarl cast Quicken (+2 SPD and +2 DEF from ranged and magic attacks) on the Champions, Weald Secrets (Pathfinder and Camoflage) on the Fennblades, Tactical Supremacy (can adavance 3" after everything activates) on himself and advanced towards the hedge. The Champions ran forward into my zone and the Fennblades ran into the forest. The Fell Caller ran up and the Chronicler gave Tale of Mists (concealment and Feign Death) to the Fennblades and advanced. Both beasts then riled for 2 fury and ran up behind the hedge and lastly Jarl moved up to the hedge via TS.

Cygnar turn 1: Nemo took a focus from the Squire and allocated 2 to the Hunter. The Hunter moved up and fired a fully boosted shot at the Champion on the end, in front of Skaldi, though only doing 2 damage. The Thunderhead and Charger advanced up, base to base, behind the hedge. Nemo cast Fail Safe (target warjack gets +2 ARM and ignores crippled systems) on the Thunderhead, Polarity Shield (target model/unit can't be charged from their front arc) on the Sword Knights and advanced to behind the jacks. The Sword Knights ran up, staying in pairs for Defensive Line and both of the Chain Gun Crew advanced and put down covering fire templates. The Black 13th ran into the forest to get Prowl, Beau being careful to keep them more than 4" away from other stuff to avoid them getting Magic Bulleted. Strangeways and the Squire hung back a bit for similar reasons and lastly the Storm Smith ran behind the Chain Gun Crew on the hill.

A Trollblood perspective.

A Cygnar perspective.

Trollbloods turn 2: Jarl only upkept Quicken on the Champions. The Runebearer advanced and used Harmonius Exaltation on Jarl again and the Imapler cast Far Strike (it's animus that grants +4" to ranged attacks) on Jarl (bringing his range to 16") and riled for 1. Jarl advanced forward, cast Magic Bullet on himself (if his next ranged attack hits, afterwards pick a model with 4" of the target to take a POW 12 magic damage roll) and fired his first shot at the Hunter, just boosting the hit and doing 6 damage, as well as killing a nearby Chain Gunner with the Magic Bullet. He then did the same thing again, doing a bit more to the Hunter and killing the other Chain Gunner. He then did his feat, generating six (D3+3) 4" clouds in which living enemy models suffer -2 to attack rolls and which don't block LOS for friendlies. The Slag Troll advanced and riled for 3, the Chronicler gave the Fennblades Tale of Mist again and everything else pretty much just moved up a bit.

Cygnar turn 2: Nemo upkept Fail Safe and Polarity Sheild and kept the rest. The Sword Knights moved up deeper into his zone, making a unchargable front line, with the Charger and Thunderhead advancing up behind them. The Storm Smith advanced and used Stromcall to kill a Fennblade and the Chain Gun Crew on the hill killed another one. The Hunter moved to the side, so that if I wanted to charge it with the Champions I'd be moving away from the meat of his army. The Black 13th, Strangeways, Nemo and the Squire all repositioned slightly for the rush.

Trollbloods turn 3: Even though the unchargeable Sword Knights were a bother, it was time to engage. For starters the Fennblades edged closer with their Vengence move and Jarl upkept nothing. The Runebearer advanced and used its once per game Spell Slave to give the Fennblades Quicken. The Champions got the charge order and three of them ran in a 3-man triangle into the Sword Knights and two charged the Hunter (scrapping it), with Skaldi running up behind them. The Impaler gave the Slag Troll Far Strike and hung back. The Slag Troll advanced and fired an unboosted shot at the Thunderhead, hitting and boosting for 4 dice of damage (it's Vitriol ability gives its ranged attacks an additional die of damage against non-living things), but rolled 6, 2, 2, 1 to only do 2 damage and continuous corrosion. Since it did so little, further attempts seemed somewhat pointless, so it fired it's second shot at the Charger, hitting and boosting the damage roll to do 8 points (plus corrosion), crippling nothing. Jarl sacc'd his movement to aim, cast Magic Bullet and shot a fully boosted shot (as I usually do when using Magic Bullet) at a Sword Knight in front of the Charger, killing it and moving 2" towards the forest thanks to his Swift Hunter ability. The Magic Bullet then targeted and killed the Sword Knight next to him in an attempt to make room for the Fennblades to charge/generally jam the jacks. Jarl then fired again at another Sword Knight, hit and boosted the damage, but rolled triple 1's, failing to kill him (which also denied him the Swift Hunter move into the adjacent forest) and sat on 1 fury. The Fell Caller gave the Fennblades War Cry (+2 to melee attack rolls) and advanced and the Chronicler gave them Hero's Tragedy (enemy warrior models that destroy the affected models with a melee attack are knocked down at the end of their activation) and moved into my zone. Finally, the Fennblades used their mini-feat (they gain +2 movement when charging, Pathfinder, Terror and Fearless for one round) and received the charge order, 1 charging the Chain Gun (missing), 1 charging the Thunderhead (doing minimal damage) and 3 charging the Charger (2 missing, 1 doing minimal damage). The others ran into position, 1 engaging the Storm Smith and Chain Gun Crew, 1 running to engage Strangeways and the Thunderhead and 1 running around back to engage Nemo and the Thunderhead. While the actual charges were pretty ineffective, the Storm Smith, Chain Gun and Sword Knights all failed thier CMD checks from the mini-feat induced Terror.

Cygnar turn 3: Corrosion went out on the Charger, but the not the Thunderhead. Nemo upkept Fail Safe and kept his focus. The Storm Smith failed to recover from his Terror induced panic, but the Chain Gun Crew did. Beau decided that, with a lot of Trolls in his face and his Sword Knights useless this turn, more than anything he needed to clear out some enemies. To do so he would use the Thunderhead's Energy Pulse special attack, in which everything within 6" of it takes a POW 12 electrical damage roll, but first he needed to free it from the models currently engaging it. First Ryan of the Black 13th advanced to within 4 " of the Fennblade to the Thunderhead's left (so that if she missed the deviation was still guaranteed to hit him) and fired her Mage Storm special attack, which is a 4" AOE that does POW 12 to everything in the blast and remains in play for one round. As the Fennblade was in engaged she did miss, but it only deviated 1" and hit and killed the Fennblade and did 2 damage to both Strangeways and the Thunderhead (with a high roll). The other two Black 13th aimed and fired Brutal Damage shots at the Champions who killed the Hunter, but missed with a 4 and a 5 as they were behind cover. Strangeways used Evasive Action on the Thunderhead, basically allowing it to ignore freestrikes. Nemo then used his feat to give the the jacks each 3 focus, changed his facing slightly so as to attack the Fennblade that ran around behind him, boosted and killed it. Realizing now that he would be knocked down at the end of his activation due to killing a Fennblade with Hero's Tragedy, he cast Polarity Shield on himself so that he couldn't be charged, sat on 4 focus (bringing him to ARM 20) and then fell over. The Charger advanced slightly and killed the last Fennblade engaging the Thunderhead. Finally it was time for the Thunderhead's pulse. It killed 4 Fennblades (would've been 7, but 3 made tough checks), 1 Champion, all the Sword Knights, Ryan of the Black 13th, the Squire (he just forgot to move it), did a couple damage to the Charger and crippled another Champion; it's Lightning Coil shots then killed the crippled Champion and crippled the remaining, nearby Champion. Nemo and Strangeways were, of course, immune to electrical damage.

Before the pulse.

After the pulse.

Trollbloods turn 4: The two Fennblades able to use Vengence (ie, the one's still standing) moved a bit and took out the remaining Chain Gun Crew and Jarl didn't upkeep Quicken. The Champions received the charge order, the original leader charging Watts of the Black 13th (missing with his first attack, killing him with the second) and the rest charging the Thunderhead, though due to some horrible rolls (managed to miss two charge attacks) only did a smattering of damage here and there. The Runebearer advanced and used HE on Jarl as usual and the Fell Caller advanced, sprayed the Charger for a few damage and gave the Fennblades War Cry again (though probably should've stood them up instead). With nothing else looking particularly promising and with Nemo some what vulnerable, I decided to try to take him out from range. The Impaler advanced and gave the Slag Troll Far Strike, then the Slag Troll advanced and spit at Nemo. Its first shot hit and with boosted damage rolled 15, doing 7 damage (half of Nemo's total health) and corrosion. It fired again, hitting and boosting the damage again, but only doing 1 more damage. It was up to Jarl, who cast Far Strike on himself, advanced to be able to barely draw a line to Nemo, shot, hit and boosted the damage, doing 5 and leaving Nemo with 1 health remaining. He fired again, boosting to avoid snake eyes, hit and boosted the damage, doing 2 damage to finish off Nemo.

Aftermath: During my first couple turns of advancing I felt somewhat hampered by the Polarity Shield + Energy Pulse combo, as even if I ran in to jam (as I did) the counter zap was really going to hurt (as it did). In hindsight I probably should've upkept Quicken on the Champions turn 3 and run a couple to engage the Thunderhead, then moved the Fennblades in. Before the game started I was also a bit concerned that Beau was going to run one of his models into the clouds on my feat turn and have Lynch of the Black 13th shoot him in the back with a  Fire Beacon shot, allowing his army to ignore a couple key clouds, but I feated far back enough that the Black 13th couldn't get within range. I can't complain too much as the game ended in my favor, but admit I was getting a bit demoralized by bad dice: MAT 8 Fennblades missing, triple 1's on Jarl's damage roll, the Slag Troll rolling garbage against the Thunderhead and the Champions either missing it or barely scratching its paint. I'm still not sure the Champions are worth their points with him, but with Quicken they just can't be that bad. Perhaps running a light beast with reach up to engage my target so the Chronicler can give them Charge of the Trolls is the way to go. I was somewhat lucky with the Fennblades' Terror spooking the Sword Knights. Beau originally wanted to have a Storm Blade/Guard unit so that he could pulse on them with impunity, but they weren't fully painted, which is how we're attempting to do each report. Beau also said in hindsight that he forgot to use Nemo's focus matrix to take a couple focus off the Charger, as it probably only needed 1 to kill/knock down via tough the Fennblade that was engaging the Thunderhead. During his 3rd turn, after realizing that he'd be knocked down from Hero's Tragedy, he was pondering casting Force Field on himself (to prevent him from being knocked down) rather than Polarity Shield. He still would've had some shots fired at him (probably just one from the Slag, as I'd need to boost the attack roll in that case), but also would've been charged by some Fennblades, so it's tough to tell which would've been more helpful. Either way, it's another one for the books.