Invasion
Travelled up to the wild north for a 3 rounder, slothful contentment outwieghed exuberant experimentation and Winions it was. Still Rask and Arkadius, though I'd changed the Arkadius list a little for the first time in yonks, dropping the third pair of Razor Boars for a Gorax and a Road Hog out for another War hog.
Those changes didn't matter that much in the opening round, as it was Trolls. I don't really get Trolls at the moment, the lists being Gunnbjorn and Madrak2. I opted for Rask, there'll be some form of game there. Realistically Arkadius might have been fine, except this is one of those lists I would have preffered to have a pair of Road Hogs instead of one.
I lose the roll, get given first. Sold! Table has a central forest, I get a trench, there's rubble to the right and some other bits that don't have any effect. The opposing list has double War Wagon, no stone, bunch of shooting units, Dozer/Smigg and an Impaler.
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Round 1: I forget to nominate a Prey with Totem Hunter, I'm just that good.
Stuff runs up, the Trolls do have an ambush unit, so Dahlia goes on the left to neutralise them, if they pop up on the right then that's a problem to be solved in later rounds.
Ninja Pigs go up on the right, across from the War Wagons.My other stuff is mostly central, Totem Hunter goes up behind the forest with Fury on him. Pots throw out Corpses.
Trolls move up, their's an advance deployed unit of small mini-Troll whatsits who get Snipe, then CRA a Bone Swarm for a whack of damage taking out his body.
The War Wagons runs super far forward, which seems unadvisable.
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Minion 2: Well, they're right there. Kill some Wagons time.
Rask pops feat, Brine and one Bone Swarm get Boundless Charge, Fury (One cast by the Wrastler) and Puppet Strings (One Eilish, one Pot).
Brine goes in, easily kills the right one. Rorsh drops his Fury, Souie's him back and has a Bone Swarm run to mini-Pigs side to body block the Ambushers trying to come in, walk up and pop him.
Good start. Living the dream. Lack of a Stone made that a lot easier than my brain calculated for.
Other Wagon gets charged by the suped up Boneswam (My mental picture here is a Bone Swarm forcibly melded with a Hot Rod). It isn't a Ninja Pig obviously, puts the other Wagon on 15 boxes.
I do some serious umming and arring here, Totem Hunter could try to pop it then Sprint back, the math is against it though. WOULD'VE BEEN A LOT BETTER WITH PREY FUTURE ME IF YOU EVER READ THIS AGAIN.
I put Puppet Strings on Totem Boi, he goes in. Alas it left on one box, so into the wastebin he goes.
This is considerably salved by Alten Ashley popping a shot and doing the last damage point exactly.
Other stuff runs around, Snek puts up Counter Charge while Dahlia hide in the trench.
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Troll 2: The ambushers pop in from the left, a few get in rane of Alten and try to pop him without success.
Gunnbjorn throws out a wall, various CRA's pop the forward Bone Swarm and (sob) the Totem Hunter. It was for the great non-Battle Engine good is the lie I tell myself as his life partner stares at me from the models shelf.
Tinker runs to contest the right zone.
Gunnbjorn also pops his feat, no one scores.
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Minion 3: Time to get some points on the board and wait out the scenario grind.
Left wise, the ambushers are well out of Gunny's feat range so they are vulnerable to ranged attacks.
Alten and Skarath kill all bar one, who toughs out and is corroded. Snek also puts up Counterblast, though isn't ideally placed to cause issues for contestors coming in. Oh well.
Dahlia goes up to hide behind the forest and be super painful to deal with.
One Boneswarm goes into the Troll Highwaymans, 7's to hit and no knock down tough is super awkward so I end up giving up after a couple attacks and casting Swarm. When in doubt, throw up and Animus and see what happens.
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Another Bone Swarm charges in and pops the Troll objetive. I gave it Fury to do so, which is madness when it's disposable and not stacking with Rage. Just objectively the wrong choice.
On the right I'm unable to kill the Tinker as a resultof mispositioning previously, should have had Rorsh further in to be safe from ambushers and had the other Bone Swarm in range of arcing from the Bone Shrine to charge up. Oh well.
Swamp Gobber and a Veil of Mists extends the forest down the centre of the board, invested in ensuring that nothing gets up my objective.
I score the left and objective kill, 2-0.
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Troll 3: The forward two Bone Swarms prove surprisingly resistant to the Trolls, one of them needing to be punched down by Dozer while the other Swarmed up fella lives on.
Minja Pigs and right Boneswarm get shot by Rockets, Gunny himself with a crit Devestate and the titchy troll pew pew unit, turns out to be pretty tough Bacon though and it lives on.
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Round 4 + Minion 5: Still playing on the slow end, so the photos stop.
I clear out the left zone, using a Skarath spray to pop the Highway person solo that gives the annoying Opportunistic thing. He also positions with a Counterblast to stop contesting models.
Bone Swarms manage to kill most of the Highway trolls at this point.
Acceding to clock pressure I just contest the centre and right zones, get up 3-0.
I get a point, then the Trolls kill a couple models but are unable to move everything in time, flipping the clock with 26 seconds to go, so I score the left zone in both turns and win.
Hmmm. That was much more of a slow whittle out than it should have been after that alpha on my feat turn. Just lacked an easy means of popping the Tinker.
Anyway, up we go, it's a small tourney so literally anyone else in the room is a potential heabutt partner (Come on pair down! We can do it! We can coast!).
