Kromac 1 vs Jaga Jaga
I played a game against my Skorne/Ret/Minions buddy. I had decided on the Kromac list before i came and he had decided on Jaga Jaga on beforehand. I think that Kromac is a pretty bad drop in to something like this, but he IS assassinatable for sure, so even if attrition goes poorly i might be able to kill him.
Lists
Circle Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Devourer's Host
[Kromac 1] Kromac the Ravenous [+26] (does any one else wonder why he has so few warbeast points?)
- Ghetorix [19]
- Loki [19]
- Warpwolf Stalker [17]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [4]
Tharn Ravager White Mane [5]
Tharn Wolf Rider Champion [0(7)]
Tharn Wolf Rider Champion [0(7)]
Shifting Stones [3]
Tharn Blood Pack (max) [15]
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max) [15]
- Nuala the Huntress [4]
Minion Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Blindwater Congregation
[Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27]
- Blackhide Wrastler [16]
- Ironback Spitter [14]
- Ironback Spitter [14]
- Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)]
Bog Trog Mist Speaker [4]
Gatorman Witch Doctor [4]
Totem Hunter [0(6)]
Croak Raiders (max) [16]
- Void Leech (1) [1]
Croak Raiders (max) [16]
- Void Leech (1) [1]
Gatorman Posse (max) [16]
Scenario, Terrain and Deployment
We play Stand off and the pic should be pretty clear about the terrain. Three forests, a central obstruction and a trench. He has some Rubble and a wall, and there is a tiny acid pool in the west zone.
I win the roll off and chose to go first. This is really important cause i think i get murdered too much if he gets to run up turn 1.
I deploy the battle group centrally with Bloodtrackers on the west and Blood Pack (proxied ravagers) on the east. One champion on each side and the two support solos (proxied by the Ravager UA and Wrong Eye) go with the Blood Pack.
He places his BG centrally too and has Gators on the east flank. Jaga-Jaga wants to hide behind his forest, as does the support in general. Croaks on each side. The Totem hunter goes to the west.
Bloodtracker Prey on the blue croaks, the TH Preys the Bloodtrackers.
Circle T1
I decide that Kromac (proxied by Baldur 1) REALLY wants to be in that Trench, so i get IR and WP up, then walk forward and have the stones port him in to the Trench. He is DEF 19 which should prevent more than super lucky hits from the croaks. Loki runs up behind to shield guard if needed. The Champion both run up in the forest. Im betting that stealth plus the high DEF should save them from shooting, and they can start doing work next turn. Bloodtrackers stay outside 11" to benefit from stealth and Blood Pack stay outside 16", except two who are in the forest and cant really be seen. Ghetorix does SG + Trample to be hard to kill. Stalker runs to the forest and Prowls there. It honestly felt really good to be able to be so aggressive against such a far reaching gunline and still be sort of OK.
Minions T1
Jaga-Jaga gets her speed buff out and S&P. She walks up behind the forest. He gets Eyless on to the east Spitter and it can actually walk to the east, get LoS to the Champ and boost a shot, easily killing it. On the west the croaks walk up and gets 3 in range of that champion. He needs 11s to hit and kills her in the first shot. Sad panda
He also shoots Loki with the Croaks, but he needs 8s to hit and is dice-8 on damage, so he does like 10-15 damage in total. His last Spitter can reach Kromac so he tries for the boosted 14 needed to hit, gets it and does 14(!) points of damage that i transfer to the Stalker. Yikes! His Gators are very passive, since they are scared of the Blood Pack.
Circle T2
Towards the end of his turn we discover that jaga-Jaga is actually within 13" of Kromac camping 0. I tell him to move back so we can play a game hehe. However, there is ANOTHER assassination where Loki warpaths and then walks to drag in JJ. He needs a Boosted 8 to do it, and i only have to kill 3 croaks who are very easily accessible. We decide that i just pretend i do not dare to try that assassination even though it is very likely to succeed and requires very little resources to try.
Instead we keep playing and i go for attrition. I shoot down 2 Gators and tough a third with the Blood Pack. The Blood Trackers kills most of the blue Croaks. Loki drags in the east Spitter and does like 6 damage in 3 fury spent... The Stalker easily finishes it off though and sprint back, while Loki back out with Warpath. Ghetorix goes full ham and kills a bunch of Croaks with overtakes. He only spends 3 Fury, and forgets Animus. He is contesting the north zone. I feel very good about attrition...
Minions T2
...Until he starts activating. Turns out that Ghetorix is just barely in LoS of the Wrastler, and in charge range. He is also ARM 19 rather than 21. In short he gets Ghost Walk on the Wrastler with the Doctor. He gets GW on the yelllow Croaks with the spell slave. JJ feats and gets damage on Ghetorix and Loki by blowing up two Gators. She also casts S&P. The Spitter shoots Loki and so do the Yellow Croaks killing him. The stalker is DEF 18 though so that is untouched. The Wrastler murders Ghetorix, but might not have managed if SG was up. The Blue Croaks and Totem Hunter kill a handful of Bloodtrackers. All of a sudden, it seems we have a game again
[forgot to take pic here]
Circle T3
However, third time is the charm. The Stalker can charge his objective, Kill it and Warpath in to JJ who is camping 0 again. I need to kill 2 Croaks first, which i easily do with the Bloodpack. The trackers throws two spears at the objective to soften it up. The third guy abstains from shooting it as a 17+ roll would actually kill the objective, making the assassination impossible. Kromac gets Wild Aggression on the stalker and gets up enough to force the Stalker. He charges the objective for free, kills it with his claw and then easily murders JJ after his Warpath move.
Post Game
So, this list certainly has outs for assassination! The assassination could have been avoided by playing further back, but i think i then do enough attrition to win later on. I had a clock advantage as well. I definitely needed to be more precise with the positioning of Ghetorix, and i definitely should have killed one less croak to afford SG and still be on 3. At ARM 21 he is a totally different problem and if he needs to trample up to me there is no way he kills me. Contesting his zone should not have been so highly prioritized either imo, as i could afford to go down a point and then just murder his entire army next turn. Imagine if Ghetorix is alive and roughly in the same aggressive position. He will at the very least murder the Wrastler pretty much no matter what he does next turn, and where is safe for JJ to be?
I counted on the Prowl of the champions too much. The east one was easily dead, and could have been further back and still been relevant. The west one should probably have lived though. 3 shots at an 11 with S&P... Dont know how likely that is. Still, that gal could have been behind the forest and still been super relevant next turn. Lessons learned.
I spend 9 points of support on the Blood Pack. Both the White Mane and the Shaman feel mandatory, but 9 points are a lot. The Blood Pack were really good though. RAT 7 POW 14 did serious work on the Gators (ARM 16 against shooting is SOOO much worse than the Maelok crap he usually plays) and Croaks just fell over to them too.
This list is definitely NOT built to handle shooting, but going first allowed me to kill off enough Croaks to survive. Had i gone second i do not know what had happened.
Oh, and i missplayed the first turn. I ported up Kromac in to the Trench, but i should instead have ported up Loki in to the Trench, leaving Kromac back. On turn 2 i should have ported up Kromac. That would have been way safer and Loki would not have suffered to the Croak shooting. DEF 18 stops that pretty cold.
I had a lot of fun with the list though. Ill probably play it once more, BUT i got super stoked on Kromac 2. I had planned on skipping both Kromac 1 and 2 since i didnt think they synergized at all with Tharn, but i was WRONG. The synergies are just less obvious than with Iona and Baldur.