Guess whos' really bad at theorymachine? This guy!
I had a chance to put my lists on the table recently and a few things became clear:
- I much prefer Impaler (as expensive as he is) + 5 points than the Blitzer.
- Fire Eaters without a Pyre or something else to set them on fire are not the greatest. Especially only one unit and with my playstyle (I'm too defensive I guess).
- Fell Caller without a big unit to work on is an expensive solo hunter (although decent at it).
- Either Runeshapers are not as good as I think they are ("RAT"7, 15" threat and POW 14 AOE's is good, right?) or I'm just not good at getting the most out of them (highly likely).
Game1 vs Venethrax:I struggle to hit Cryx and always worry about Venny shutting me down by making my spells and Animus and Fury usage all doubled or causing frenzy everywhere because I can't leech.
Add in the countercharge across all 3 heavies and his 2 lights and I was legitimately worried going into this one.
I massively mispositioned Earthborn turn 1 - ran way out on flank outside of Jarls control! Wasted the next 3 turns trying to get him back under control, ended up frenzying into and killing one of my own Runeshapers turn 2. However, both the known threat of the EB and the opportunity for easy meat saw my opponent pile 2 heavies and a light into the EB to try and take him down. Whilst unintentional on my part and definitely a mistake, the EB tied up 3 out of 5 jacks for most of the game and didn't die even with back arc advantage (was in shallow water so that negated it).
Jarl and Stormy did wipe out an entire unit of MechThralls between themselves. That was great and I feel between the two they have enough infantry removal for the list. Unless stealth (more on that later in game 3).
One smart move on my part was using the last remaining FE (the pyg, it's always the pyg that dies last
) to charge and kill his Bloat Thrall and force his arc node jack to countercharge away from Venny to try and kill the FE pyg. He missed! FE pyg then killed Bloat Thrall which blew up and took out 1 of the 3 members of the Withershadow Combine who were too close!
The other highlight was rolling the full 3 shots on the Blitzer to ping Venny and use up his focus for damage prevention. Only got him to drop 1 of 3 focus that he had though (16 points paid for that and plinking a few boxes of the Bloat Thrall in a previous turn. Ugh.) I then used Jarl to do the same and soak up Venny's last 2 focus, then Raged my Mauler and sent him in for the assassination. Troll win!
I played a terrible game with lots of mistakes (haven't played for months so this was expected) but ended up pulling out a win and actually enjoyed this game a lot. My new strategy against Venny is keep away, bait countercharge away from Venny, send everything else in to assassinate him.
Game2 vs Carver:This game was a big down in the mud punch for punch slugfest. I always like playing my Trolls into Hordes as it feels like a balanced fight rather than an uphill battle relying on a hail mary to win.
I was winning on attrition and ended up so focused on taking out his army that I forgot to play to the scenario (always play to the scenario!).
He ended up winning on points by Carver dominating a flag after he tied me up good with heavies. Tied me up for ages with the Brigands too. They're a great unit and nowhere near as easy to remove as MechThralls. Lesson learnt - go for the points, not the army.
Game3 vs Fiona the Black:This game sucked, from my side of the table. From his side it was a glorious turn 2 win.
He brought Fiona, the Commodore cannon, all the Kayazi (stealth!), Eyriss and some filler. I should have read his cards more carefully as this was the first time I played against this list. I knew I had to avoid the cannon but that was about it.
First turn, he ran up and I then did the same. I popped clouds to hide everything.
Second turn, he walked Kayazi assassins into clouds to engage everything. Ran Kayazi Elimintors through everything to get into back arc of Jarl!
This was a problem because Fiona had made the Elimitaors an arc node. Fiona then dropped two spell attacks through the arc node Eliminators into Jarl, from behind and forced me to make a tough check. I toughed. She feated. I was in a bad place. To seal the deal, Eyriss then ran to be within whatever distance of Jarl that meant if I cast anything she would be allowed to shoot him.
So there I am (on turn 2!) with his whole army up in my grill, if I cast a spell Eyriss will probably kill me, all my rolls are on one dice due to Fiona's feat and the way I'm positioned I can't take out both Eliminators and Eyriss this turn. And if I can't do that then I'm guaranteed to be assassinated next turn. I can't clear the rest of his army as I'm on one dice for all rolls and he has high DEF everywhere. I conceded.
That game was very frustrating for me. I ran and then I lost.
The only thing I could think to have done differently was to not leave my deployment zone ... and then I would have lost turn 3 instead of turn 2. I have no idea how to deal with this Fiona list and will have to spend a lot of time thinking it out. It's a killer.
OutcomesSee list above + I think I want better infantry. I am however really happy with my battlegroup! I love this:
Jarl
*Runebearer
*Mauler
*Earthborn
*Storm Troll
*Impaler
It gives me all the tools I need and it is a lot of fun!
So, how to complete this list now that the theorymachine has been blown away by actual play?
At the moment, I'm thinking max Warders and Runeshapers. That gets me to 50 points (which is what we play).
However, if I go to min Warders then I have 7 points to play around with. Put Braylen back in and add Swamp Gobbers to protect Jarl?
I'll keep trying to find time to play and share my experience as well as hopefully grow as a player and end up with a 50 point Jarl list that I can have fun with no matter what I face ... but I'm also open to suggestions for the extra 7 points I can free up.
P.S. I'm still steering clear of our current theme lists (even if it gimps me!
) mostly because there's always at least one model or unit I really want to take that either theme doesn't allow. I see the themes as infantry skew and beast skew whereas I really like to try and build a 'balanced' 'all comers' list, especially when playing Jarl.
Fingers crossed our 3rd or 4th theme is a closer match to my interests.
On a side note, thank you to everyone who has contributed and responded, I do genuinely appreciate it and I know I can be difficult/stubborn in my opinions/approach. Thanks for putting up with me and I will try to be more open minded but at the end of the day I like what I like and that's how I play (which I think is ok, I just have to communicate better I think).
Finally, I hope at least some of the above is interesting or useful and I'll do my best to play more games and bring back the feedback on my experience.
) to charge and kill his Bloat Thrall and force his arc node jack to countercharge away from Venny to try and kill the FE pyg. He missed! FE pyg then killed Bloat Thrall which blew up and took out 1 of the 3 members of the Withershadow Combine who were too close!
