Snuck out to game night to test some more Maelok, so this time there is a real battle report. I kept my list the same as last time.
Maelok, the Dreadbound
-Wrastler
-Wrastler
Gatorman Posse (max)
Gatorman Posse (max)
Gatorman Posse (max)
Gatorman Posse (max)
Swamp Gobbo Bellows Crew
Gobber Chef (left in the bag because who cares really)
Totem Hunter (free)
Witch Doc Croc (free)
Witch Doc Croc (free)
After digging into the list a little more, I think I have a better grip on its strengths and weaknesses. The strength is summed up really in wound count, this particular build clocks in at 220+ boxes. From Maelok, as opposed to any other caster, the Posse get the benefits of the feat, both Armor and Incorporeal. Mortality is semi-equivalent to Fury, or Parasite, etc. in application. I remain concerned by the Mat 6, the lack of threat projection, and the ability to gut through a truly heavy armor list.
I went up against Intercessor Kreoss, maybe my first game versus PoM since the edition change?
Intercessor Kreoss
-Madelyn Corbeau
-Templar
-Blessing of Vengeance
Visgoth Rhoven and Honor Guard
Exemplar Vengers (max)
Daughters of the Flame
Flamebringers (max)
Choir (min)
Rhupert Carvolo
Anastasia di Bray
Mechanik
Mechanik
Wrack
Wrack
This is my first time playing him with PoM, but last we played he cleaned my clock with Sturm vs. eAbby, so it’s revenge time.
This is pretty scary, there is a massive amount of long distance threat, the Vengers and Flamebringers hit RIDICULOUSLY hard with iKreoss, and he has a def buff. And Assail. And his feat stips Death Pact. God he is such a good caster...anyway...
Thankfully I win the roll to go first, I want to be able to get out the gate before he can set his own positioning. Prey goes on the Daughters of the Flame.
Turn 1 I Death Pact a Posse and run up. He puts Arcane Ward on the Daughters, Ignite on the Vengers, and Assail on Blessing. Daughters jam, everything else runs.
Turn 2, I toyed with feating this turn, but he really isn’t close enough for it to be effective, so instead I am going to work on clearing out the Daughter jam and minimizing his alpha. Wrastler tries to 2 Handed Throw a Daughter, misses. Totem leaps and kills two, sprints to jam a Venger. Posse with Rerolls kill 1. They get Zombified, everyone else backs up a bit, makes room for Maelok to run to the flag and threaten scenario. I can’t stop all the cavalry charges, but I can minimize them.
He lets Assail and Arcane Ward drop, then the Daughters go in and punk my Doc Croc. I am a moron for leaving that one wide open. Gah, so dumb. Oh well, good play on his part. Rhoven charges in and KD’s one GMP. Amusing I accidentally placed Totem Hunter perfectly so that Rhoven couldn’t get to him to unjam the Vengers, and neither could Kreoss. So the Vengers don’t get to charge, they just advance and kill Totem and reposition. Templar runs up, Kreoss grabs the flag, moves Arcane Ward to the Flamebringers. Only one FB can charge, so she kills a GMP and finishes off the KD one. They jam and contest. 0-1 CP.
Patience was the right move, as this gives me positioning for a much stronger feat turn. Maelok feats, puts Rage on the far Wrastler and claws at a Flamebringer, to little avail. Blue Posse go, chant rerolls, kill of di Bray, and 2 FBs (in the back arcs too, sigh). Red Posse go next, grab 1 more FB and whiff all over Gius and Cassian. Since they have magical weapons, it is important to me to kill them off. So White Posse go in and bounce off of Gius (they do also kill 2 Vengers). Then Motely Posse go in, kill a 4th FB, and finally, finally kill Gius, and finish off the Daughters. New Age Wrastler charges Blessing, misses most of his attacks, and leaves it at half-ish health (no movement or shield). This frees up the Wrastler to go in and take down the Templar (the dice finally turned in my favor and I ripped off the Shield on the charge attack). Annoying I am unable to do anything about the contesting Flamebringer, but otherwise I think I took out a huge chunk of his offensive power this turn.
Revenge of the Kreoss turn, he drops Arcane Ward from the Flamebringers. 2 Vengers and Blessing kill New Age Wrastler, Kreoss and a 3rd Venger kill off OG Wrastler and contesting Posse. Corbeau does her thing where I cannot attack Kreoss. The Flamebringer comes around and stabs Maelok a bunch of times for...1 damage. A Mechanik repairs up Blessing as well, 0-2 CP.
And with the major turns out of the way, the slow grind begins. Maelok actually has 9 Fury this turn from tasty Flamebringer souls. He Mortality’s the Vengers and Revives a Posse. Posse go in, scratch up Blessing again, eat the Mechanik, kill 3 Vengers, nosh Rhupert, and contest the flag by chowing on Mechanik x2. Witch Doc Croc uses Sac Strike on the Revive’d Posse to kill of the last Flamebringer. 1-2 CP.
Blessing stabs some Posse, Kreoss stabs some Posse. 2-3 CP.
We go ahead and call the game there, I can keep contesting and he cannot, so eventually I will win on CP, regardless of whether or not the zone gets cleared, which it eventually will.
Lessons Learned: This was a really, really, really good practice/learning game. I certainly had my mistakes, such as the Witch Doc, and unpacking the army, particularly trying to get around the building in front of my deployment zone was messy, and made it easier to jam me up. He had a huge threat range advantage on me, but was also respectful of the max threat ranges of the Posse, so we ended up in a little bit of a stand off there.
Ultimately, what made this a good test game was that a) he eliminated or had ways to eliminate my undeadness on the Posse, denying me feat Arm, b) I couldn’t target with Mortality, and c) he had a Def buff. All these things took away a lot of my tools to handle issues, and shifted the entirety of the workload not just onto the shoulders of the Posse, but onto them without any real buffs as well. And they stepped up, and they performed.
A couple of concerns regarding the list style: sans Mortality, you’re stuck on Mat 6 w/ rerolls, which blows. This has come up over and over again with both this list and the Rask Posse build. And this list is not fantastic about landing Mortality, especially if you want to tie Maelok down to a flag or other scenario piece. This list also doesn’t crack super high armor. This fact builds towards a strategy concept more than anything else--the Wrastlers are there to kill what the Posse cannot. It doesn’t matter if you are trading up, or down, or sideways or if you lose the Wrastlers the next turn. They kill what the Posse can’t, that is their purpose and job. I also am not keen on the lack of threat projection from the list (read: there are no guns and I like guns). It is a moderately slow list as well. Off feat turn, Pathfinder will continue to be an issue. Finally, it is a grinder, which is probably more a feature of the overall Bindwater theme. At this point I have played 5 games in theme, and won 4 on Scenario.
Would I change the list? Not without more testing. This list brings a Firetrucking ton of beef onto the table. Any changes require removing that beef, and therefore weakening the core concept that the list is built around. That being said, as it progresses more towards a list pairing phase, I may swap around solos, etc. I really like the Totem Hunter, he is great for unjamming, but if I am building towards a Circle/Legion drop, then Pendrake is more valuable. If the hitting issues continue, then a Bokur and Shamblers may be in order, although Hand of Glory would have been small use in this particular match up.