Grim1 ADR to Pair With Doom2

The one in POD with the MK? I'm well pleased that you liked it but it is kind of funny that I mentioned Kaya 3 specifically as a good matchup. You mean the MK shot the wrong beast with the spray from Return Fire? Did that indeed catch your opponent off guard? Or was it something they had to be cagey about? I'm really curious about how the same list works at high-level play. On that point, do you have any videos of your LVO games?

As for Specialists, that gets me thinking- how about the 3x Slag & 1x Storm for Doomy so he can scare off jack spam and put the smackdown on Storm Division and more of a toolbox approach for Grim's? A Pyre to keep Grim from getting roasted by fire-breathing Archangels, stuff like that?

How much time do you have before you have to register a list? Do you play on Vassal? If so, I could try my Kozlov version of Legion of Steel against Grim.

I forgot that Mantrap does not require a direct hit for the KD. That could be pretty nasty with the Runebearer on the feat turn.

I tried my non-theme version and it has its advantages but it's just not worth it. He actually does need the Axer, for threat ranges if not PF, and it's hard to have too much pathfinder, especially on the local tables. I played against Irusk 2 and I really could have won despite some dumb mistakes. I'm sure the MK could have taken down a slightly damaged Conquest with better management of Fury and it would have all been downhill for Irusk after that. I was already up on CP. I had a decent plan and even managed to leverage two turns of board state out of my feat, but I really screwed up a LOT of positioning and resources.

Return Fire was a serious threat that he really had to play around the whole game. Losing a weapon crew and two rockets and spawning a whelp would NOT be worth a little damage on the MK. Return Fire every turn in that matchup makes chip damage on the king a losing proposition indeed.

I realized, though, that I was onto something with the Storm Troll because I kept wishing I had it in play. Blast immune WGI are a problem for the Bomber, but happy fun times for the Storm, and he would have been hilarious charging the Destroyer and bouncing leaps onto all the grunts, especially if he managed to disrupt it.

Return Fire on a gargantuan or battle engine is huge, pun intended. It's only a matter of time before the Strakhov 2 players figure that out too, especially with the big gun on Conquest.

Honestly, though, it's one of those things where the threat of it is probably greater than the reality. If my opponent had used any of his copious guns on the MK, that spray could have hit enough models that even with RAT 5 vs DEF 12 and Tough, Rex's 10-inch spray surely would have killed something, and that could easily have been multiple rockets or a weapon crew. I could have spawned a whelp to get the fury off of the MK as well. Irusk easily could have been worse off, especially if that happened more than once. He simply could not go after the MK until he was sure that he could kill it in one round. The only thing that could do that was Conquest, who could not get there because of my feat.

Return Fire helps a piece like the MK bully the board and it devalues chip damage against him. But it's not just the big boys. Grim also put a little damage on Conquest with a big damage roll, and with different positioning that could maybe have been a dead Field Gun. When you have lots of juicy targets like that, Return Fire on anything with decent RAT & sufficient POW is pretty good. And if I had the Storm Troll, another shot each turn into those WGI would have been nice. Without blast immunity, I'd say the same of the Bomber, of course.

I neglected to mention a slight tweak to the build. I decided that since this is a techy toolbox kind of list I actually don't want to double up on the Bombers and against Storm Division or Irusk 2 and others when a Storm Troll and Earthborn can answer that better. I make up the points by cutting the stone all the way down to the minimum size, which also makes it easier to maneuver around. I really only need to cover Grim, the MK, and Janissa with it anyway.

conflictchamber.com/#bn1b_-0b590r5-c67h0hbL7dfJfJ6R0kgu

Trollbloods Army - 74 / 75 points

[Theme] The Power of Dhunia
(Grim 1) Grim Angus [+29]
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Earthborn Dire Troll [15]
- Mountain King [36]
- Storm Troll [9]
- Troll Axer [10]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(4)]
Janissa Stonetide [0(4)]
Northkin Shaman [0(4)]
Northkin Shaman [4]
Troll Whelps [4]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
Fuel Cache (Steamroller) [0]

If the Runebearer isn't doing anything important (and they have guns) I'll put it on the MK. A pow 20 (under Krielstone) punch or a pow 16 spray 10 can do damage if people aren't paying attention.

I haven't double checked the wording, but is assault mandatory? Would be pretty painful if assault models had to think twice about going in on the MK.

It's not but it gets interesting with Storm Lances, because right after the first one shoots him he punches the second and has about a 58% chance of snacking it before it gets to attack at all.