Epic Recon
Troll shenanigans, what is this madness?
A returning player, so based on the Bathurst experience Rask is likely to lead toward a funner game if it ends up as a list mis-match (When Arky noob-stomps, he does it way to hard).
Rask1 (Blindwater Congregation) - Wrastler, 3x Boneswarms, Posse, Croak Raiders, Bokor + Shamblers, Bellows Crew, Totem Hunter, Gatorman Witch Doctor, Mist Speaker, Feralgeist, Tinker
vs
Madrak1 (Storm of the North) - Brawler, Mauler, Runebearer, 2x Champions (1 w/Skaldi), Kriel Stone w/ Northkin UA, Kriel Warriors, Fellcaller, Champion Hero, Bear unit
Recon is good for me. Definitely want to see how contesting that far flag goes.
I win the roll and take first, cause lazy. Also historically getting up the board has done well against the regenerative blue skins.
Sadly most of the terrain isn't super relevant. There's a central forest, some clouds in the right zone and trolls get a right side defensive forest.
Snow Drifts get placed toeing both zones.
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Minions 1: I don't feel the need to spread out hugely against the opposing list and on this scenario with the easy toeing of corners, so basically blob up the middle. Plus ambushing is something I like to do, not something I want done to me.
Croaks go front and centre, running up quite far with a few in the Trolls side of the centre forest. Fire can present annoying decision points to Sanguine Bond, however Madrak's stupid Def buff means that they need to be up their in order to aim to have reasonable chances of hitting.
The Vault runs left, as the Kriel Warriors are on that side and they are the logical snackrifice.
Swarms are on either side, left most has Admonition, right one has Fury.
Wrastler and Posse chill out in the middle like damn punk kids at the mall. Before the internet anyway. And that brief resurgent period where Pokemon Go was super popular and it's potato servers couldn't handle it.
Shamblers crowd up on an irrelevant hill and sing Kumba Yah. As Zombie bog amphibians they are super out of tune.
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Trolls 1: Kriel Warriors run up on the left and ready themselves to die.
Rest of the Trolls blob up on the right, with the Champs making the front row, Skaldi unit on the left half.
Madrak flings out his Mystical Ax of psychopathy, kills a Croak.
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Minions 2: Simple enough, get some fire on Skaldi's unit, see how many we can chip off before Madrak feats on them. If he doesn't then the lines close up and it's about managing what Troll models get damaged as the non-charge factor reduces a little.
The Vault and Feralgeist takes my edge of the left zone, they should be able to hold that without issue until Bears rock up. Worry about that when it happens, which is definitely an approach used by good warmachine players all the time...
Rask moves up in the Backfield, shoots a Champ in a trench with a Paralysing shot, intending to make a Croak Raider target. I boost the damage to get things rolling, I absolutely crank it so the Champ is just allowed to fail a tough roll and die. Woops.
Rask feats, I cycle Fury to the Posse, reasoning that they might have to commit next turn then can have Fury cycled off them.
Half the Croaks aim, enough for the left side Champions minus the one in the trench. Alas I get some imperfect Oils done, I end up with three Oiled and on Fire with some damage on them each.
Posse run around awkwardly, two on the left to get on the Objective if needed and the other three facing the Champs on the right.
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Trolls 2: Fire manages to kill off another Champ.
Proxied Bears pop in on the right.
Kriels spread out on the left, Madrak hangs back and feats, axes down another Croak.
Champs, Stone and Beasts blob up in the vicinity of the Troll Flag.
Bears run forward into the cloud terrain,one of them engages the right side Boneswarm.
We both score our flags, 1 all.
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Minion 3: I forget multiple times that Madrak's feat stops me charging and makes all sorts of planning mistakes.
On the left, the Vault kills the three contesting Kriel Warriors without to much issue.
Croaks shuffle around, put oil and fire on Skaldi and achieve nought else.
The Admonitioned Bone Swarm walks up and does about half a dozen points to the objective.
The Posse run around after I fail to charge the Objective like an idiot. They just hang back in the guts with Rask and the Totem Hunter.
Wrastler chills contesting on the right, the Bokor moves up and Stationaries one Bear while a Bone Swarm flails at a Bear and misses each time.
I fling out a Veil of Mists next to the forest to stop charges and whisper sweet nothings and lies to convince one of the Swamp Gobbers to run forward and contest the Troll flag.
I score the left flag and zone, now 3-1.
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Troll 3: Kriel Warriors swarm up to contest the left side elements.
Madrak toes the Veil of Mists, kills a Croak and misses the Totem Hunter with the Ricochet.
Admonitioned Bone Swarm manages to hold up the left Champs, before it's untimely death to the Troll beasts.
Champs run up in front of Madrak and kill the right Bone Swarm.
Bears kill the Bokor.
Trolls get their flag, now 3-2.
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Minion 4: Hmm....this doesn't feel like it's going well.
Left wise is easy, the Vault and some Croaks fail to clear the zone, though the flag is freed up. Two Kriel Warriors live on toughed out and on fire.
Clock is inevitable to me at this point, looking at other win conditions now feels poor without getting that left zone, so it's throw things forward, see if we can pop Madrak.
Skaldi and a Champ are in front of Madrak with two wound battery Champs further back. If I can kill either one then Rask paralyzes the troll Warlock and the Wrastler has an easy time of it.
Posse charge to various spots, alas they fail to get the job done, killing one Champ and leaving the remaining three on about 6 boxes across the unit.
Lacking a good plan occurring to, the Wrastler becomes a green Proxy base, gets Boundless Charged and Rage, goes into Madrak.
It.....was kinda sad. Scroll stops the charge attack that I mostly miss, aside from a hit that gets transferred to the Mauler.
I score the left flag, though I've functionally lost on attrition to my mind.
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Troll 4: The clock pings early for Trolls, we play it out anyway.
Injured Champ unit kills the blocking Posse. Healthy Champ unit kills the Wrastler.
Mauler puts Rage on the Brawler.
Brawler charges the Bone Swarm to get a bead on Rask. Woops.
Charging Initial kills the Bone Swarm, bought attacks leave Rask on 1 health with 4 Calls to Sacrifice remaining in range.
Madrak moves up, Rathroks two kill another pair of Call Sacs. Blows stack casting Jackhammer on the Brawler on Rask, first attacks kill the last Sac Pawn targets, last one manages to pop Rask.
Lols.
Hmm, fair few things to take away from that.
Even Ground is pretty good. Just got to throw these unpopular opinions out into the aether.
Madrak strikes me as being similar to Lylth 2 for me in Mark 2. Good, defeatable with my current lists if I plan a specific means of playing it (In Mark 2 it was realising Gorten could hug the Earthbreaker behind solos Sac Pawning to Gorman. Good times.).
For that game, Bokor throw away was awful, Stationary afflictors are vital and would have saved that entire assassination run.
Croak aiming and the value of oiled fire was there, just misapplied.
Bone Swarms have an Animus which would have been helpful, as well as some actual mental arithmetic on the value of how they are being used.
