Post by Trollock on Apr 8, 2017 21:01:59 GMT
I just got back from my own tournament, and it went pretty well. I decided to play 1 list Jarl to make sure i didnt power game and win my own tournament, but also because Jarl is calling to me still, and i actually wanted to play him more. Bringing only one list assures that i get to play against awful match ups, but Jarl is very all round, and who doesn't love a challenge, right?
For my list, i went with PoD (Duh?), but decided to change the 5 heavies version i played earlier, for one with 4 heavies and 2 lights, including a SWAMP TROLL. I do not think it is a super good piece with Jarl, but the change gets me better game against infantry, and only slightly worse game against jacks, since the Slag is good at that too.
Trollbloods Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Power of Dhunia
(Skuld 1) Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood [+30]
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Earthborn Dire Troll [15]
- Slag Troll [10]
- Swamp Troll [8]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(4)]
Janissa Stonetide [0(4)]
Troll Whelps [0(4)]
Troll Whelps [4]
Dhunian Knot [6]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Lets get started!
Game 1: Bye
Since i organized the tournament i took the first bye. Easy victory!
Game 2: Jarl vs Axis
OK, so do you remember when i said that Jarl was a balanced list, and insinuated that he has no real bad match ups? This is one of them. He has 2 TEP, 3 heavies, 2 lights and a swarm of servitor shield guards. I want to hang back and shoot, but he makes 6 free shield guards every turn. Not cool! I get to go first though, and that is nice. We are playing Take and Hold.
I run forward a lot to pressure him.
He advances bu fairly carefully. He does not enter my 11" threat on the EBDT and that EBDT had gone 14" straight ahead.
I advance the EBDT up to contest his flag, and i keep his animus on him, as well as quicken. He can get to it if he feats or if he sticks beacon (but at RAT 2, that is a bit hard). I shoot a bit at the TEPs and kill a few servitors, but i should probably have focused else where. between Jarl, magic bullet and 2 bombers i do no important damage. I do NOT feat this turn He can shoot me with the TEPs, but the feat does not really prevent that anyway.
He decides to feat to get to the EBDT and kill it with a Dongelator. Axis goes up to his flag (in cover) to start scoring. He shoots at my bomber and swamp troll (who is just outside the aura) and kills the swamp troll. This already feels horrible. 1-0 to him.
I decide that i probably have to kill him. He has 4 shield guards and is in cover, but perhaps Jarl can solve it with magic bullet? I boost to hit and hit the first, but he does not shield guard. I get one with magic bullet though. I recast magic bullet and shoot again, but miss, and miss the reroll too. I go in the tank a while and decide that this will not work. Instead i feat and my bombers and slag troll shoot down the Dongelator heavy that killed my EBDT. I can not contest him though, because i do not want to risk countercharge. 2-0 to him
Now he gets greedy... He decides to advance the TEPs in to the cloud wall and shoot down one of my bombers. He runs in another Dongelator to engage my remaining Bomber, Slag and Mauler. He scores again. 3-0 to him.
All of a sudden though, this is not bad for me. Jarl shoots down a few servitors in front of the TEP to make space, and then cast RAGE on all 3 remaining beasts. The Bomber murders the Dongelator, freeing up his two pals. Janissa charges a TEP and does good damage to it.The Mauler can now walk up to kill both TEPs, with 2 fury to spare! The Slag charges his last heavy and scraps it, as well as contesting his flag. No scoring, but his army is basically gone
He gets the bulldoze spell up, and push out my slag and a whelp who was contesting. He also runs a galvanizer to push and block off the Mauler. He scores to 4-0, but he can not do anything on attrition, and i have a time advantage too.
Janissa pushes back the Galvanizer and the Mauler charges the Corollary. I should have Raged him, but didnt, and i miss a lot. The Mauler also go in on him and fails to kill it (but he is contesting). Due to poor placement, the Slag can not reach the Corollary, and he kills a servitor and that is it. but he is contesting. I run in some whelps and a DK model too just to jam him and prevent his last point. I also score my flag.
He goes in the tank for almost 15 minutes before he can unravel the knot i have placed before him. He manages to push out the last model literally as his time expires and scores to 5-2 and wins on scenario.
Much closer game than i thought in the beginning. Shooting down the TEPs were just never going to happen, but i might have been able to get a Dongelator on turn 2 if i had focused on that instead. Aborting he assassination was the right play though, and it payed off big time. the TEPs are absolutely bonkers though. If you havent played against them, you have no idea how good they are. Feels like every list should have 2. They are great against everything. I should have Raged the Mauler on the last turn there and boosted all hit rolls to scrap that corollary. That would have given him 1 less jack to bulldoze with, and it would have been even more difficult. I possibly could have gotten another model in there too to mes things up. He would have easily succeeded if he hadnt tried to shoot a whelp with a spike servitor, missed and hit and damaged the Mauler, spawning yet another whelp that needed to die before the Mauler could be pushed away.
So, lessons learned:
TEPs are incredible
So are troll heavies
And whelps too!
Game 3: Jarl vs Madrak 2
This was against PG_ryssen2 who has traditionally been a Jarl enthusiast (while i have hated Jarl since he was released basically). Last we met, he played Jarl against my Calandra. This time i had Jarl, and he had Calandra and Madrak 2, but he went Madrak instead of making some sort of parallel reality game... Anyway, we play Extraction (two neutral flags at the mid line, and one objective each) and i get to go first. This feels like a really big deal since he is playing a fast infantry list. He has double fennblades with CA, double kithkars, fellcaller, Chronicler, Bomber, EBDT and the stone.
I run up full speed to get as much ground as possible. This makes it easier to contest the flags and still be behind the feat clouds on turn 2.
He runs up in cloud formation. He does not go full speed ahead with everything, but he is threatening the flags for sure.
I decide that i do not want to trigger vengeance, so instead i try and shoot down his Bomber. I have to go with one of the bombers before Jarl though since Jarl is a bit blocked in, and i forget to activate Jarl (and kill the stone) before the second bomber though, so his bomber lives, and also the stone toughed
I feat and have a Bomber and Mauler contest the left flag (behind clouds) and have the EBDT contest the right flag (also behind cloud). I accidentally triggered vengeance on the left unit of fenns with blast damage from bombing his bomber (and he toughed to boot!) but they will not reach my clouds to charge anyway. He can walk in and attack though.
He decides not to engage me really, and his fenns fan out around both flags, waiting for my feat to go away. He does not do much, but it will be tough for me to kill 4-5 fenblades that contest the flags with my low volume of atacks.
I decide that i want to shoot down his EBDT now. His Bomber is pretty far back, and i can not get to it without being engaged by fennblades. Jarl actually manages to kill the stone now, and the Bombers go to town, but i end up maybe 3 boxes short of killing him. The Slag cant chip in due to immunities, so that really stinks. I have only killed very few Fenns from either unit, and next round the battle will really begin. I use my slag to try and block off his EBDT from reaching my caster next turn, though i am not really scared of that assassination. MAT 6 POW 15 will not really threaten me since i am camping 2, but you never know. The Swamp tossed one Fen in to another, but Hard apparently prevents the knock down from collateral damage even, and i think i miss the shot. My EBDT is standing in a really bad place and can not get to more than one guy without taking a free strike.
He gets all the buffs on to the Fenns on the right and they kill my EBDT. The Swamp and a couple of whelps are still contesting when he is done though, so he wont score. On the left he charges the whelps that were going to manage the Fury on my bombers, but does not punch the beasts to prevent more whelps from spawning. The EBDT go healed up and punched my Slag a bit, but thanks to a whelp spawning he missed some attacks and basically i am just fine. The thing though is that Madrak actually charged forward, to kill a whelp and gained a Fury, which he gave to the stone. He is camping only 1 and has no EBDT animus up, and he is within walking distance of one of my Bombers...
He has 4 Grim Salvation targets, 1 transfer (to a beast with 8 HP) and he is not immune to knock down... Since he sniped out my whelps, one of my bombers will have 4 Fury left on it. Attrition doesnt look great, but assassination seems very possible. The Bomber that frenzies goes on his fennblade who was engaging Jarl and kills him, freeing Jarl to shoot. Jarl shoots twice with Magic Bullet and Gets all the 4 Grim salvation targets down, though 1 toughs. The Slag troll walks up and punches that guy though. My Mauler can pick up a fennblade and do a laser guided throw against Madrak. Needing a boosted 6 with reroll he gets it just fine and Madrak is knocked down. Then the Mauler Rages the remaining Bomber who walks up and punches Madrak at straight dice damage and auto hitting. Game over.
So, getting Madrak that involved was a huge play mistake on his part. There was no real reason to do it and he payed the price. Attrition wise it looked pretty good for him. Forcing a frenzy on one of the Bombers meant that i would be hard pressed to do enough work against the fennblades on the following turn, so assassination was probably my best shot at victory, and he made it way too easy for me.
Match up wise, i think that if i get to go first, it is a fair game, but if he gets to go first, he has an advantage with such a fast list against my defensive ranged focused build. Me gaining ll that ground on turn 1 meant that scenario was very difficult for either of us to claim. Madrak is a hard guy to kill, but Jarl actually has really good tools against this type of list. He can remove 4 Grim salvation targets himself, and that really reduces his chances of surviving. It is really great to have access to such good spot removal!
Lessons learned:
Madrak is not unkillable.
His MAT 9, weaponmaster Fennblades can murder my heavies, but it still takes a fair few of them. I could perhaps have tried to focus down 1 unit of fenns on turn 2 instead of going for the Bomber and then he might have struggled to win attrition without putting Madrak at serious risk.
Make sure to activate Jarl first to shoot down the stone if you are going to try and shoot down Troll heavies...
Game 4: Jarl vs Krueger 2
Last game of the day and i am up against circle. He had Baldur 2 with wolves and Krueger 2, but he didn't feel like dropping a brick in to trolls cause he felt like trolls usually do it better. I am not at all sure on that here, but we will never know now. He has Krueger 2 with 3 stone shrimps, Stalker, Feral, Megalith, double sentry stones, and arc node, a Blackclad and some chefs. We are playing Recon and i get to go first for the 3rd time in a row which feels amazing.
I run really far up the table, and i have Jarl touching my objective to the side. The EBDT ran 14" and is now standing in water with Quicken. The rest of the list just runs ahead.
He asks me "erm... what is making your caster safe?" I am camping 0 and ran like 12". My answer is "distance, i hope?". He starts measuring and he could actually just place his arc node and gallows me, BUT since i am slightly behind the center of the objective, he has to place at an angle to be able to push me, and he is just out. Saved by dumb luck... However, he can get a TK on my EBDT, and he places it 2" forward, i have no stone aura up, since "he couldnt reach me" and he turns it around and two shrimps can now shoot him off the table trivially thanks to quicken... Ooops. I knew Quicken would have to go next turn, but i did not take the turn one TK in to account, and i am already down a heavy. The rest of his stuff moves up pretty carefully though, so i can not charge anything meaningful on the next turn.
My turn, i decide to try and shoot down Megalith, but i only get him to 4 boxes. The swamp is just outside assault range, otherwise i could have gotten him. I feat and place clouds right in front of my army, and one on top of Jarl. My army tries to place as far forward as possible while still being behind clouds so i can threaten him next turn.
Again he contemplates going for an assassination that i am not thinking about. Megalith can trample in to the cloud and place Jarl with TK. He needs a boosted 10 to do it and if that stick i think i just die barring divine intervention. If he misses i can dodge away, and since he is up one heavy he feels like he can go for attrition instead. He tramples Megalith in to a cloud and TKs a Bomber in to the cloud. He them walks up with his Stalker and gets within 2" (but not 1") and starts punching. His plan is to not Primal and to use Sprint, but it turns out that math just isnt right. With 4 attacks at dice-2 he should only do 20 damage. He buys the last attack too though, and gets me to 2 boxes. He finishes it off with shooting, but now he has given me 2 heavies to kill one of mine.
I try to get clever now. I slam Megalith in to the Stalker with my remaining Bomber, killing Megalith. Then i Rage the Slag and Swamp trolls and send in the Swamp against the knocked down stalker. I roll fairly poorly though and have to use the slag to finish him off. Key thing is that Jarl kills the Gallows Grove though, cause he had been placed outside the forest just to get out of the way. My Mauler stays defensive to kill the feral if it tries to go in on the Slag/Swamp.
He is not done yet though. His Sentry Stones actually spray down the Kriel stone except 1 guy, and they managed to destroy the actual stone, so the aura is gone. He then shoots down the slag with his shrimp (no upkeeps on him, but ARM 17 is not enough). He uses sprays and most importantly Krueger himself to get rid of the whelps who are blocking the lane to the Mauler, and TKs and Primals the Feral who easily kills the Mauler. Krueger is in the forest, just over 3" in it and he has a Chef just in front of him. He has no transfers though...
So, he has a heavy (that will frenzy on a whelp) and 3 shooty lights left. I have a Bomber and a Swamp troll and Janissa and that is pretty much it. I feel like attrition is too hard, and i will have to try and kill him some how. Jarl shoots the Chef blocking the line to Krueger and gets Magic Bullet on the caster. He then casts another MB and shoots the shrimp standing near Krueger and bounces another POW 12 in to him. Then i cast a last MB on the Bomber if things go to hell. The bomber COULD aim, shoot the shrimp and get a boosted POW 8 blast plus a POW 12 MB in to Krueger, but plan A was for the Swamp to walk in to the forest and pull Krueger out so the Bomber could charge. He needs a Boosted 11 with reroll to do it, but had i been smart i would have cast Weald Secrets on the Swamp instead of that last MB, so he gets a chance at a boosted 9 with reroll instead... The Swamp walks up and shoots... Misses. I reroll... 5, 5, 1! I pull Krueger in, and punch him twice with boosted fists, missing the first but hitting the second. The Bomber charges him and one shots him. SWAMP TROLL ASSASSINATION!
It was a fun game but i played WAY too reckless with my stuff in the beginning. I basically played like he did not have access to TK and Gallows, and it turns out that he does. I was just luckey he didnt go for that 50/50 assassination on my feat turn. I think this game is totally playable though if i respect his threat ranges. I lost the EBDT for NOTHING, and i lost the Mauler to the Feral too, just cause i didnt count on him having TK to increase his threat. I could easily have been further back. I got lucky that he was camping 0 in the end too. He could not really have feated to protect himself though, because then the Mauler would have been pushed too far back for the Feral to get to him, so if you though him not feating was strange, this was why.
Lessons learned:
TK and Gallows are spells that exist, and Arc Nodes and Geomancy are also things that exist.
Those Woldwyrds are really good. I knew it, cause i had ben burned once before, but they were still amazing.
I am needlessly reckless with the placement of Jarl. He dies if they can get to him, and i made that a little bit too easy. This has happened before too.
So, i had great fun at the tournament. I ended up 3rd and i showed once again that Jarl (with PoD mind you) seems totally legit. I do not think he is a very strong caster, but he can play a game and have a chance against most lists. Since i only had 1 list, i always got to face their "Jarl counter list" and it still worked out just fine. I am now 10-4 with Jarl and many of the wins have been absolutely brutal, while all of the losses have been fairly close games. Now i am on to playing other casters (tonight will be Gunnbjorn with a Swamp troll) for a while, but maybe i will return for some more vitamin J later on. It is really refreshing actually.
Tanks for reading.
/T
For my list, i went with PoD (Duh?), but decided to change the 5 heavies version i played earlier, for one with 4 heavies and 2 lights, including a SWAMP TROLL. I do not think it is a super good piece with Jarl, but the change gets me better game against infantry, and only slightly worse game against jacks, since the Slag is good at that too.
Trollbloods Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Power of Dhunia
(Skuld 1) Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood [+30]
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Earthborn Dire Troll [15]
- Slag Troll [10]
- Swamp Troll [8]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(4)]
Janissa Stonetide [0(4)]
Troll Whelps [0(4)]
Troll Whelps [4]
Dhunian Knot [6]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Lets get started!
Game 1: Bye
Since i organized the tournament i took the first bye. Easy victory!
Game 2: Jarl vs Axis
OK, so do you remember when i said that Jarl was a balanced list, and insinuated that he has no real bad match ups? This is one of them. He has 2 TEP, 3 heavies, 2 lights and a swarm of servitor shield guards. I want to hang back and shoot, but he makes 6 free shield guards every turn. Not cool! I get to go first though, and that is nice. We are playing Take and Hold.
I run forward a lot to pressure him.
He advances bu fairly carefully. He does not enter my 11" threat on the EBDT and that EBDT had gone 14" straight ahead.
I advance the EBDT up to contest his flag, and i keep his animus on him, as well as quicken. He can get to it if he feats or if he sticks beacon (but at RAT 2, that is a bit hard). I shoot a bit at the TEPs and kill a few servitors, but i should probably have focused else where. between Jarl, magic bullet and 2 bombers i do no important damage. I do NOT feat this turn He can shoot me with the TEPs, but the feat does not really prevent that anyway.
He decides to feat to get to the EBDT and kill it with a Dongelator. Axis goes up to his flag (in cover) to start scoring. He shoots at my bomber and swamp troll (who is just outside the aura) and kills the swamp troll. This already feels horrible. 1-0 to him.
I decide that i probably have to kill him. He has 4 shield guards and is in cover, but perhaps Jarl can solve it with magic bullet? I boost to hit and hit the first, but he does not shield guard. I get one with magic bullet though. I recast magic bullet and shoot again, but miss, and miss the reroll too. I go in the tank a while and decide that this will not work. Instead i feat and my bombers and slag troll shoot down the Dongelator heavy that killed my EBDT. I can not contest him though, because i do not want to risk countercharge. 2-0 to him
Now he gets greedy... He decides to advance the TEPs in to the cloud wall and shoot down one of my bombers. He runs in another Dongelator to engage my remaining Bomber, Slag and Mauler. He scores again. 3-0 to him.
All of a sudden though, this is not bad for me. Jarl shoots down a few servitors in front of the TEP to make space, and then cast RAGE on all 3 remaining beasts. The Bomber murders the Dongelator, freeing up his two pals. Janissa charges a TEP and does good damage to it.The Mauler can now walk up to kill both TEPs, with 2 fury to spare! The Slag charges his last heavy and scraps it, as well as contesting his flag. No scoring, but his army is basically gone
He gets the bulldoze spell up, and push out my slag and a whelp who was contesting. He also runs a galvanizer to push and block off the Mauler. He scores to 4-0, but he can not do anything on attrition, and i have a time advantage too.
Janissa pushes back the Galvanizer and the Mauler charges the Corollary. I should have Raged him, but didnt, and i miss a lot. The Mauler also go in on him and fails to kill it (but he is contesting). Due to poor placement, the Slag can not reach the Corollary, and he kills a servitor and that is it. but he is contesting. I run in some whelps and a DK model too just to jam him and prevent his last point. I also score my flag.
He goes in the tank for almost 15 minutes before he can unravel the knot i have placed before him. He manages to push out the last model literally as his time expires and scores to 5-2 and wins on scenario.
Much closer game than i thought in the beginning. Shooting down the TEPs were just never going to happen, but i might have been able to get a Dongelator on turn 2 if i had focused on that instead. Aborting he assassination was the right play though, and it payed off big time. the TEPs are absolutely bonkers though. If you havent played against them, you have no idea how good they are. Feels like every list should have 2. They are great against everything. I should have Raged the Mauler on the last turn there and boosted all hit rolls to scrap that corollary. That would have given him 1 less jack to bulldoze with, and it would have been even more difficult. I possibly could have gotten another model in there too to mes things up. He would have easily succeeded if he hadnt tried to shoot a whelp with a spike servitor, missed and hit and damaged the Mauler, spawning yet another whelp that needed to die before the Mauler could be pushed away.
So, lessons learned:
TEPs are incredible
So are troll heavies
And whelps too!
Game 3: Jarl vs Madrak 2
This was against PG_ryssen2 who has traditionally been a Jarl enthusiast (while i have hated Jarl since he was released basically). Last we met, he played Jarl against my Calandra. This time i had Jarl, and he had Calandra and Madrak 2, but he went Madrak instead of making some sort of parallel reality game... Anyway, we play Extraction (two neutral flags at the mid line, and one objective each) and i get to go first. This feels like a really big deal since he is playing a fast infantry list. He has double fennblades with CA, double kithkars, fellcaller, Chronicler, Bomber, EBDT and the stone.
I run up full speed to get as much ground as possible. This makes it easier to contest the flags and still be behind the feat clouds on turn 2.
He runs up in cloud formation. He does not go full speed ahead with everything, but he is threatening the flags for sure.
I decide that i do not want to trigger vengeance, so instead i try and shoot down his Bomber. I have to go with one of the bombers before Jarl though since Jarl is a bit blocked in, and i forget to activate Jarl (and kill the stone) before the second bomber though, so his bomber lives, and also the stone toughed
I feat and have a Bomber and Mauler contest the left flag (behind clouds) and have the EBDT contest the right flag (also behind cloud). I accidentally triggered vengeance on the left unit of fenns with blast damage from bombing his bomber (and he toughed to boot!) but they will not reach my clouds to charge anyway. He can walk in and attack though.
He decides not to engage me really, and his fenns fan out around both flags, waiting for my feat to go away. He does not do much, but it will be tough for me to kill 4-5 fenblades that contest the flags with my low volume of atacks.
I decide that i want to shoot down his EBDT now. His Bomber is pretty far back, and i can not get to it without being engaged by fennblades. Jarl actually manages to kill the stone now, and the Bombers go to town, but i end up maybe 3 boxes short of killing him. The Slag cant chip in due to immunities, so that really stinks. I have only killed very few Fenns from either unit, and next round the battle will really begin. I use my slag to try and block off his EBDT from reaching my caster next turn, though i am not really scared of that assassination. MAT 6 POW 15 will not really threaten me since i am camping 2, but you never know. The Swamp tossed one Fen in to another, but Hard apparently prevents the knock down from collateral damage even, and i think i miss the shot. My EBDT is standing in a really bad place and can not get to more than one guy without taking a free strike.
He gets all the buffs on to the Fenns on the right and they kill my EBDT. The Swamp and a couple of whelps are still contesting when he is done though, so he wont score. On the left he charges the whelps that were going to manage the Fury on my bombers, but does not punch the beasts to prevent more whelps from spawning. The EBDT go healed up and punched my Slag a bit, but thanks to a whelp spawning he missed some attacks and basically i am just fine. The thing though is that Madrak actually charged forward, to kill a whelp and gained a Fury, which he gave to the stone. He is camping only 1 and has no EBDT animus up, and he is within walking distance of one of my Bombers...
He has 4 Grim Salvation targets, 1 transfer (to a beast with 8 HP) and he is not immune to knock down... Since he sniped out my whelps, one of my bombers will have 4 Fury left on it. Attrition doesnt look great, but assassination seems very possible. The Bomber that frenzies goes on his fennblade who was engaging Jarl and kills him, freeing Jarl to shoot. Jarl shoots twice with Magic Bullet and Gets all the 4 Grim salvation targets down, though 1 toughs. The Slag troll walks up and punches that guy though. My Mauler can pick up a fennblade and do a laser guided throw against Madrak. Needing a boosted 6 with reroll he gets it just fine and Madrak is knocked down. Then the Mauler Rages the remaining Bomber who walks up and punches Madrak at straight dice damage and auto hitting. Game over.
So, getting Madrak that involved was a huge play mistake on his part. There was no real reason to do it and he payed the price. Attrition wise it looked pretty good for him. Forcing a frenzy on one of the Bombers meant that i would be hard pressed to do enough work against the fennblades on the following turn, so assassination was probably my best shot at victory, and he made it way too easy for me.
Match up wise, i think that if i get to go first, it is a fair game, but if he gets to go first, he has an advantage with such a fast list against my defensive ranged focused build. Me gaining ll that ground on turn 1 meant that scenario was very difficult for either of us to claim. Madrak is a hard guy to kill, but Jarl actually has really good tools against this type of list. He can remove 4 Grim salvation targets himself, and that really reduces his chances of surviving. It is really great to have access to such good spot removal!
Lessons learned:
Madrak is not unkillable.
His MAT 9, weaponmaster Fennblades can murder my heavies, but it still takes a fair few of them. I could perhaps have tried to focus down 1 unit of fenns on turn 2 instead of going for the Bomber and then he might have struggled to win attrition without putting Madrak at serious risk.
Make sure to activate Jarl first to shoot down the stone if you are going to try and shoot down Troll heavies...
Game 4: Jarl vs Krueger 2
Last game of the day and i am up against circle. He had Baldur 2 with wolves and Krueger 2, but he didn't feel like dropping a brick in to trolls cause he felt like trolls usually do it better. I am not at all sure on that here, but we will never know now. He has Krueger 2 with 3 stone shrimps, Stalker, Feral, Megalith, double sentry stones, and arc node, a Blackclad and some chefs. We are playing Recon and i get to go first for the 3rd time in a row which feels amazing.
I run really far up the table, and i have Jarl touching my objective to the side. The EBDT ran 14" and is now standing in water with Quicken. The rest of the list just runs ahead.
He asks me "erm... what is making your caster safe?" I am camping 0 and ran like 12". My answer is "distance, i hope?". He starts measuring and he could actually just place his arc node and gallows me, BUT since i am slightly behind the center of the objective, he has to place at an angle to be able to push me, and he is just out. Saved by dumb luck... However, he can get a TK on my EBDT, and he places it 2" forward, i have no stone aura up, since "he couldnt reach me" and he turns it around and two shrimps can now shoot him off the table trivially thanks to quicken... Ooops. I knew Quicken would have to go next turn, but i did not take the turn one TK in to account, and i am already down a heavy. The rest of his stuff moves up pretty carefully though, so i can not charge anything meaningful on the next turn.
My turn, i decide to try and shoot down Megalith, but i only get him to 4 boxes. The swamp is just outside assault range, otherwise i could have gotten him. I feat and place clouds right in front of my army, and one on top of Jarl. My army tries to place as far forward as possible while still being behind clouds so i can threaten him next turn.
Again he contemplates going for an assassination that i am not thinking about. Megalith can trample in to the cloud and place Jarl with TK. He needs a boosted 10 to do it and if that stick i think i just die barring divine intervention. If he misses i can dodge away, and since he is up one heavy he feels like he can go for attrition instead. He tramples Megalith in to a cloud and TKs a Bomber in to the cloud. He them walks up with his Stalker and gets within 2" (but not 1") and starts punching. His plan is to not Primal and to use Sprint, but it turns out that math just isnt right. With 4 attacks at dice-2 he should only do 20 damage. He buys the last attack too though, and gets me to 2 boxes. He finishes it off with shooting, but now he has given me 2 heavies to kill one of mine.
I try to get clever now. I slam Megalith in to the Stalker with my remaining Bomber, killing Megalith. Then i Rage the Slag and Swamp trolls and send in the Swamp against the knocked down stalker. I roll fairly poorly though and have to use the slag to finish him off. Key thing is that Jarl kills the Gallows Grove though, cause he had been placed outside the forest just to get out of the way. My Mauler stays defensive to kill the feral if it tries to go in on the Slag/Swamp.
He is not done yet though. His Sentry Stones actually spray down the Kriel stone except 1 guy, and they managed to destroy the actual stone, so the aura is gone. He then shoots down the slag with his shrimp (no upkeeps on him, but ARM 17 is not enough). He uses sprays and most importantly Krueger himself to get rid of the whelps who are blocking the lane to the Mauler, and TKs and Primals the Feral who easily kills the Mauler. Krueger is in the forest, just over 3" in it and he has a Chef just in front of him. He has no transfers though...
So, he has a heavy (that will frenzy on a whelp) and 3 shooty lights left. I have a Bomber and a Swamp troll and Janissa and that is pretty much it. I feel like attrition is too hard, and i will have to try and kill him some how. Jarl shoots the Chef blocking the line to Krueger and gets Magic Bullet on the caster. He then casts another MB and shoots the shrimp standing near Krueger and bounces another POW 12 in to him. Then i cast a last MB on the Bomber if things go to hell. The bomber COULD aim, shoot the shrimp and get a boosted POW 8 blast plus a POW 12 MB in to Krueger, but plan A was for the Swamp to walk in to the forest and pull Krueger out so the Bomber could charge. He needs a Boosted 11 with reroll to do it, but had i been smart i would have cast Weald Secrets on the Swamp instead of that last MB, so he gets a chance at a boosted 9 with reroll instead... The Swamp walks up and shoots... Misses. I reroll... 5, 5, 1! I pull Krueger in, and punch him twice with boosted fists, missing the first but hitting the second. The Bomber charges him and one shots him. SWAMP TROLL ASSASSINATION!
It was a fun game but i played WAY too reckless with my stuff in the beginning. I basically played like he did not have access to TK and Gallows, and it turns out that he does. I was just luckey he didnt go for that 50/50 assassination on my feat turn. I think this game is totally playable though if i respect his threat ranges. I lost the EBDT for NOTHING, and i lost the Mauler to the Feral too, just cause i didnt count on him having TK to increase his threat. I could easily have been further back. I got lucky that he was camping 0 in the end too. He could not really have feated to protect himself though, because then the Mauler would have been pushed too far back for the Feral to get to him, so if you though him not feating was strange, this was why.
Lessons learned:
TK and Gallows are spells that exist, and Arc Nodes and Geomancy are also things that exist.
Those Woldwyrds are really good. I knew it, cause i had ben burned once before, but they were still amazing.
I am needlessly reckless with the placement of Jarl. He dies if they can get to him, and i made that a little bit too easy. This has happened before too.
So, i had great fun at the tournament. I ended up 3rd and i showed once again that Jarl (with PoD mind you) seems totally legit. I do not think he is a very strong caster, but he can play a game and have a chance against most lists. Since i only had 1 list, i always got to face their "Jarl counter list" and it still worked out just fine. I am now 10-4 with Jarl and many of the wins have been absolutely brutal, while all of the losses have been fairly close games. Now i am on to playing other casters (tonight will be Gunnbjorn with a Swamp troll) for a while, but maybe i will return for some more vitamin J later on. It is really refreshing actually.
Tanks for reading.
/T
