Cinci Warmahordes

So, this week I had a job in Cincinnati. I decided to look up local playgroups and found one connected to the Prime Generation podcast. They have a forum so I posted that I was looking for a game and someone offered to be around for some at Eastside Games.

I played three games.

Game 1 vs Khador

I generally like to play scenario games, as they prepare me for tournament play (though I rarely play in actual tournaments). The scenario was Destruction, which features two monoliths on each side of the board. They are armor 20 structures with 20 hit boxes each. Destroy your opponent's monoliths to win.

Easy enough.

My opponent played epic Butcher, with
Beast 09
Fenris
ManOWar Drakhun
Full Nyss Hunters
Madelyn Corbeau
War dog
Great Bears

I played a prime Madrak list I've been mulling over.

Madrak
Impaler
Swamp Troll
Dire troll mauler
Min champs
Max burrowers
Fell caller hero
Stone scribe chronicler
Min Krielstone with elder

It was a rough game for the trolls. I had to deploy right because I went second and protecting the objective was going to be incredibly difficult. I essentially lost during deployment because I didn't put sacrificial models up near the objective. The issue was with my slow trolls not being able to screen the objective.

In hindsight I should have left my burrowers undug to screen the monolith, keeping Fenris and the Drakhun from reaching it.

Instead I did not do this, and Fenris and the ManOWar managed to wreck it quickly (I underestimated their threat). My opponent then positioned the Butcher, full Nyss, Beast 09, and the great bears to threaten the second objective.

I tried to damage control with my burrowers, but the damage was done, and eButcher got to the objective and I lost by scenario right quick.

Game two I played a different opponent who was a Retribution of Scyrah player, who played

Garrath
Gorgon
Magister
Madelyn Corbeau
Two Mage hunter assassins
Narn
Full sentinels with ua and soulless
Full Mage hunters with ua

The scenario was supply and demand. There are two objectives on the board, and to score is actually easy, have your warcaster stand near the objective on your side of the board and run a model to contest the zone surrounding the opponents objective.

There's a lot of shenanigans that can go on and other scoring conditions, but it's kind of a wash because I ignored my objective and went for my opponents force. It's actually difficult to play for scenario with the Mage hunters around. They are a long range threat that needs dealing with ASAP.

So I deployed aggressively in the hopes that I could jam my burrowers into the strike force on turn 2. That's precisely what happened. I won the roll to go first, moved up my stuff and burrowed, and my opponent moved up and put Mirage on the Sentinals.

I popped the burrowers into a threatening position, and decided to b e aggressive and put madrak's feat and crusher into play. This is dangerous against Garrath, because Garrath (especially with Corbeau), has great threat range and Grievous weapon master blades, meaning my tough trolls aren't tough against him, and Madrak also can't transfer his attacks. Camping fury is useless.

I decided I had to gamble on the Krielstone and madrak's scroll of "I get to ignore one attack's damage roll" to keep him safe. Maddy moved up and popped feat and carnage. The stone gave bonus strength and armor. The fell caller and chronicler gave +2 mat to the burrowers and if a warrior model killed one with a melee attack they would fall down. Then I sent in the clowns. They managed to carve up 4 Mage hunters and the commander from that unit and 4 sentinels from the other, which overall isn't bad.

Then I had the impaler spear another sentinel, the mauler moved up and riled a bit (unnecessarily and stupidly I might add), the swamp troll moved to contest my zone for no good reason, and I moved the champs in front of madrak as an armor 20 8-wounds tough screen.

My opponent had an assassination vector if he played his cards right, but again the dice weren't great unless he could get some attacks on madrak before Garrath got there. His sentinels with vengeance and mirage managed to position for some good charges and kill a few burrowers.

Then the strike force killed some burrowers, the sentinels killed some more and charged the champs and mauler but did negligible damage. Corbeau allowed Garrath to move during the maintenance phase, and then the magister let him move again with whipsnap. I was surprised at the last, as force bolting a champ out of base to base would have reduced their armor enough to make them killable.

The Mage hunters and narn did some damage, but not enough to kill anything except a stone scribe.

My opponent decided that the assassination was a go anyway, but after mulling over the dice myself it was a bit sketchy. Garrath got to madrak, but he couldn't charge so no autoboost on the first attack, and when he boosted damage I canceled the roll with Maddy's scroll. He hit twice more for 12 wounds, but his turn was over with Garrath standing next to a very alive madrak on zero focus.

The mauler gave fury to madrak. The stone gave him strength. He hit with the first attack and I rolled an 11 for 15 wounds. Madrak missed his next two boosted attacks needing 9s. The fell caller charged into Garrath's back arc and killed him with a weapon master attack.

If Garrath had gotten a charge off on madrak for a free boost it might have gone differently, but my opponent still would have had to crank a damage roll on the last hit (and hit 4 times needing 6s on two dice, never a guarantee) to finish it out. Might have still been sketchy.

Nonetheless it was pretty fun and I learned a lot about retribution shenanigans.



Game three was again against the Khador player who brought

Old Witch
Scrapjack
Behemoth
Full winterguard with Joe
Full winterguard riflemen
Gorman di Wulfe
Epic Eiryss

Against my Grim list

Grim
Earthborn Dire Troll
Impaler
Axer
Full burrowers
Fell caller
Champ hero
Janissa
Runeshapers
Swamp Gobbers

The Scenario was incursion, with 3 flags in the center of the table, one of which disappears at the end of turn 1. First to score 3 points wins.

The old witch's feat does a power 14 attack to any model in her 14" control bubble (if they end their movement in it). The witch went first and so she had the initiative. She hit mid table on turn two and popped feat. None of my burrowers could do much but walk out of her control area and try to kill winter guard. Further, my opponent showed me how the behemoth works and managed to kill a bunch of my stuff with it's bombards. At the end of my turn two my opponent had an easy time getting two control points. I tried some hail Mary nonsense but it was essentially over, and he scored again on his turn 4 to win.

I don't understand why folks don't like the old witch. She's a baller. Lots of good table control, which is one of the only ways to deal with burrowers: deny real estate. I was thoroughly impressed.

Also impressed with the behemoth play. I hadn't seen that jack do much, and maybe it's better against my lower-defense trolls, but it picked off 3-point solos in my backfield like a boss.

I might swap the earthborn for a bomber and see how that works for me. I've heard good things.

My madrak list didn't impress me. It needs some work, and maybe more screening infantry. I may drop my burrowers package for some Kriel warriors and change the beast composition as well. Madrak's fury 5 really hurts his play, and his style tends to be brickish, which I'm not sure I like.

I'm working on pDoomy and eGrissel next, with maybe eMadrak in the works. I'm also considering some Cygnar lists. I still do love me some swan meat.

-Merlin out
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Cincinnati, OH

Ilin' in Illinois

I realize it's a pretty bad pun. I like them.

I got out to a nice little game store called Unique Games & Gifts (which in my head, is sometimes pronounced as "eunuch") while out of town for business in Illinois. I'm going to temporarily be traveling a bit for the job, so occasionally I'm going to seek out other game stores and play groups and play some more warmachine and hordes.

It's great because I'm out of town with nothing to do anyway, and this way my hobbies aren't cutting into family time.

I have been feverishly painting my Grim Angus list in preparation for some playtime, and I set myself a New Year's goal to get it done (well, by New Year's day, which it was). I managed to finish my Champion Hero solo on December 30th, so it's all done. I got some more Troll models for Christmas, so I'm now far from done with Trolls (again), but I'm hoping to devote most of the winter to Troll painting, with a few possible exceptions.

I decided to take this list with me to IL. I also grabbed a few more pieces to vary up my list if I got a few games in, as I actually hate playing a single list/deck/whatever multiple times in a day (tournaments! Bah.).

I arrived early, but eventually someone showed up to play with, and we decided to get it going.

The scenario was Overrun, which features a huge, ridiculous rectangle in the middle of the board, and to score a player has to have a model or unit in the rectangle, and the opponent can't have anything in it. It's tough to score. The foe can easily run a model around a flank into a hard-to-reach corner to prevent scoring, or just jam up the middle and fight for the center. It does promote aggressive play, which is nice.

I played

Grim Shot First

Grim Angus, Bad Ass Troll
Earthborn Dire Troll
Troll Axer
Troll Impaler
Full Pyg Burrowers (Dygmies)
Fell Caller Hero
Champion Hero
Janissa Stonetide
Trollkin Runeshapers
Swamp Gobber Belows Crew

The gobbers are mostly filler, though I try to run them with the Runeshapers to give them concealment or block LOS. I won the roll to go first and deployed first. I put most of the battlegroup in the center of the table, with the Runeshapers on my right and the support staff for Dygmies on my left. There was a wall in the center of the table gumming up the works. There was also a building on either side of the table near the center, and a forest and hill on each side of the table, more central to the 4 1'x1' quadrants.

My opponent played prime Irusk, with:
Behemoth
Full Iron Fang Pikemen with UA
Man-o-War Drakhun
Great Bears of Brokenness
A Manhunter
Yuri the Manhunter Axe
Widowmaker Marksman
War Dog (?)

It was a bit of a mirror to my own list: a big unit to gum up the middle, a 3-man specialist unit (well, the Bears are specialist at wrecking whatever they hit), and a lot of expensive support. He didn't have any extra 'jacks, but the Behemoth is a huge pile of points and tends to murder stuff pretty well if it can get to and hit it (it's slow and inaccurate for an expensive character heavy) . The IFP set up across from Grim's battlegroup, with the Bears to my right (across from the Runeshapers), and Irusk, the Drakhun, and Behemoth between the Bears and the IFP. The 3 solos hung out in the forest on the other flank, opposite my support staff (not so good).

I read Irusk's cards (I hadn't played against him) and I was impressed. He's got a spell to increase the damage output of a model/unit, and his feat makes all his warriors super-Tough. He also has one of the best jack-buff spells in the game in Superiority, which gives a 'jack bonus accuracy in melee and speed, both of which the Behemoth needs. Nice.

First turn I ran all my stuff and fail-charged Grim up. The Dygmies burrowed.

My opponent put Superiority on the Behemoth and moved his stuff up a bit, but not the full movement. He moved a manhunter into a building on the centerline, in cover, but kept his other two solos back in the woods.

I popped up the Burrowers, saw that they were going to get to the IFP and Drakhun easily, and decided to pop Grim's feat to improve their meager attack skills. Grim moved up behind the recently un-burrowed and did so, then shot at and killed the manhunter in the building (true sight and a decent RAT help) and put the Earthborn's animus on himself.

The Runeshapers moved up and dropped their Rock Hammer attacks on the Drakhun, but the thing was too tough. It absorbed the 3 POW 14s like it wasn't a thing. I buffed the Dygmies' accuracy further with the Fell Caller, and they charged in and killed 8 of the 12 Iron Fang models on the table. I would have killed more, but the last four were a second line, and the Dygmies' attacks are both melee (they are an odd unit). Still, they already killed their points worth of models, and any that survive are gravy after that as far as I'm concerned. They also unhorsed the Drakhun with some fancy rollin', but his unhorsed self was back from their melee range so they couldn't continue to pound on them.

The Champ Hero moved up behind the Dygmies to shore up their command for the inevitable massive casualties check. Grim's beasts moved up, but not much. The impaler threw a spear at one of the IFP in the back, but missed by a wide margin. Janissa put up her wall in front of Grim. The gobbers blew smoke between Yuri and the marksman and the support staff (Champ Hero etc.).

My opponent hadn't expected the Dygmies to massacre so much of his infantry. He spent most of the turn retaliating, with the IFP killing a pair of Dygmies (one was tough), Yuri threshing to kill 4 (one was tough), and the Drakhun and one of the Great Bears killing another 3 (one was tough). This forced the massive casualties check, but they passed easily.

He also popped Irusk's feat and the Behemoth tossed a couple rockets at my backfield (that's what it does, but it's terribly inaccurate) to little effect. At the end of his turn he realized I was going to score a point, and then another on mine assuming I didn't move all my models out of the zone (most of them were in or close to in it). So I won by scenario. Boo. I asked him if he wanted to play it out and he said no. He was done with those Dygmies.

Still, a win by any other name.

I switched opponents for game two. A local Retribution of Scyrah player wanted to show me how nasty Ossyan can be, and I said sure. He built a list on the spot and we set up for game two. I played the same list. We moved terrain around a bit, with the hills in the center of each of our half of the board, and forests flanking on our right-hand sides. The buildings got shucked to the sides (by him so as not to block LOS for his arrowstorm), and I put a pond near my half (for earthborn animus shenanigans).

His list was something like:

Ossyan
Wishnailer (I know it isn't right, but for real: hell no)
Phoenix
Hypnos
Arcanist
Two units of Stormfall Archers
Full Dawnguard Invictors

The scenario was Gaining Ground, with three rectangles on the board, and scoring can only be done on the center one or the one on the opponent's side of the board.

I lost the roll to go first, but my opponent asked me to go first anyways. I did pretty much the same thing I did the previous game, though Grim cast the Earthborn animus on himself. My opponent fired some long shots with Snipe on the Stormfall Archers (who seem pretty sweet unbuffed to me, but I guess they are reviled  by Ret players? I like AOEs I suppose), but they didn't do much, as most of my stuff is multiwound, except for the Dygmies, and the Dygmies were underground. He ran with much of his other stuff, and moved the jacks to the middle of the table, on the other side of a rock wall on the center line. Ossyan was a bit to the side of that, and the Invictors got Quicken and flanked hard on my left hand side (they were opposed by my Runeshapers this game). Admonition went on the Pheonix.

I popped the Dygmies back onto the table and then started planning my turn. I should have reversed that order. After popping them up I realized I might be able to move Grim up, pop his feat, catch Ossyan, knock him down with a boosted snare gun shot, and then have the Dygmies walk into him and fill him full of slugs. I vacillated for a second, and decided that the game is really about these Rube Goldberg assassination runs, so I went for it. I was thinking out loud as I did it, and after successfully knocking down Ossyan and popping the feat, I moved up the burrowers and my opponent said "this is where your plan falls flat", and he moved the Admonition Pheonix to engage my Dygmies. In hindsight, I remember thinking I should knock the Pheonix down with the snare gun or try to slam it with the Impaler, but alas. Only one Dygmy escaped the Pheonix's reach, but he cranked his damage roll with the slug gun, rolling boxcars and doing 10 damage to Ossyan. (in double-hindsight, I think I could have just charged 3 or 4 Dygmies into Ossyan with impunity and gotten more attacks that could have ended him quicker and in that event Admonition wouldn't save him as easy.)

I made some room for the Impaler to move up by charging in the Axer at the Pheonix and doing a substantial amount of damage, breaking the sword arm. I also moved up the Champ for that command check. Then the Impaler had a window to get LOS to Ossyan, moved up, hit, boosted damage, needing a 9 to kill, and rolling a 9.

So I diced my opponent in that game. He asked to play it out so we did. Of course, if the assassination run fails then the failing side tends to be overexposed. So I moved up Janissa and put a rock wall in front of Grim (who was on a hill; in hindsight I can't place the rock wall on other terrain, but the hill was a flat circle, so I did during the game without thinking. I might not have been able to get the cover bonus from the wall, which might have made a difference the next turn, though Grim still would have been at 18DEF on the hill from the mess of ranged attacks), and had the Earthborn put his animus on Grim (who would have gotten the armor buff regardless; he was close enough to the edge of the hill for a rock wall to be within 2"). The Fell Caller hung back, the Runeshapers killed two (one?) Invictors and the gobbers dropped some smoke for cover.

Ossyan's feat is a mess of ranged damage. My opponent allocated 3 to the Pheonix in preparation for some beatdowns. Then he moved the Arcanist up, but it failed the repair check. The Pheonix hit the Axer for a handful of damage and killed two Dygmies, one of which was tough. Then Ossyan popped his feat and missed with his gun at my backfield. He put Admonition on the Pheonix again. Hypnos moved in front of Ossyan to cover him (he may have had to run with the speed debuff from Grim's feat) and had it slap two burrowers around, one was tough though. Then the Stormfall archers activated and killed the Earthborn with authority. The next group killed a bunch of Dygmies but they passed their command check. The Invictors moved up, but did not engage anything, instead shooting at the Runshapers, Fell Caller, and Impaler. 4 of them managed to kill the Impaler. Another killed a Runeshaper, another missed, and then next two shots killed but their targets (Runeshaper and Fell Caller) were tough.

Ossyan hadn't landed his DEF debuff to go at Grim. Grim was DEF 22 on the hill with the wall (without the cover he would have been 18, still a tough call for most of the enemy shots at RAT 5-7), and ARM 17 with the animus. So he ignored Grim.

My army was decimated when my turn began. However, Ossyan was still pretty close with only Hypnos blocking the path to victory (again). I moved up Grim. My opponent triggered Admonition, but the clusterfuck of Burrowers, Champ Hero, Axer, and Hypnos left him little space to move. The Pheonix siddled up next to Hypnos. However, my target wasn't the man himself but Hypnos. Grim nailed a snare gun shot on the warjack to knock it down and get LOS on Ossyan. Then Grim managed to land Marked for Death on Ossyan, debuffing his DEF by 2. I decided not to try a Lock the Target as well.

Then the Runeshapers, who weren't engaged, moved to take Rock Hammer shots at Ossyan. One missed. One hit and did 7 damage, more than enough to rekill him. Janissa moved up and hit him again for 4 more.

So that worked out. I'm thinking Janissa with the Earthborn is absolutely ridiculous with Grim. His naturally high defense really milks that cover for all it's worth.

I played another game, again against the first player I'd played against. However, I switched lists to mix things up for myself. My thoughts on the Grim list, as this is the first time I've actually played it against people are that it isn't as pillowfisted as I thought. Sure, the Dygmies and Runeshapers are only (only!) kicking POW 14s, but that's more than enough to mug infantry and threatens a lot of multi-wound stuff too. The solos which I was fearing wouldn't pull their points in weight (the Fell Caller and Troll Hero) didn't get to do a lot, but the games were both over quick and they aren't normally in the thick of things until turn 3. I was afraid the Axer would be pillowfisted, but he cranked the Pheonix pretty well with two boosted Axe hits under Grim's feat for accuracy. Overall I still like it. I might drop the Axer for a Slag Troll, or the Axer and Swamp Gobbers for a Pyre and the Stone Scribe Chronicler, who makes the Dygmies _even more_ annoying.

For game three my Khador-playing opponent decided he wanted to Butcher my Dygmies with prime Butcher. I wanted to switch lists, but it was late and I wanted to keep things moving. I swapped warlocks, but instead of playing my normal prime Doomshaper list (feat. the Nyss Hunters and a pile of the warbeasts I own), I just swapped out Grim for Doomy and the Impaler and Gobbers for a Slag Troll.

I realized later that Doomy has 7 warbeast points and could have kept the goblins. Ah well.

Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls
Earthborn
Axer
Slag Troll
Full Burrowers
Fell Caller
Champ Hero
Runeshapers
Janissa

My opponent played

Butcher
Juggernaut
Beast 09
Full Man-o-War Demolition Corps
Yuri the Axe
Great Bears
Kovnik Joe, the Winterguard buffing agent
Winterguard Mortar Crew

The scenario was a radial (corner-to-corner) scenario called Sacrifice. The players start corner to corner, and on the first player's left hand side is a control zone 8" or 10" in diameter (we never measured, just marked the center and contested thereby). On the first player's right side is an objective. To score the player must control the zone (his doods in it and the other guys doods not in the circle) and have a model base-to-base (B2B) with the objective. It looked incredibly difficult. To really make it work for many warcasters and warlocks they have to sit midfield and disperse their troops all over. Otherwise they would have to have excellent, self-sufficient flanking forces and hope the opponent didn't allocate enough resources to get at them.

I won the die roll and went first. I deployed pretty centrally, which was an issue since we left terrain as-it-was from the previous game. So my battlegroup started the game in the woods. The Runeshapers were on my left with the support solos, and I kept the Axer in reserve to move toward the objective. My opponent deployed the Great Bears closest to the objective (an incredible and self-sufficient flanking force, damn), with the Demo Corps central, Beast 09 in the very center of deployment, and the Juggernaut on my left/his right, ready to go contest the zone (Khador 'jacks are excellent zone contesters, they're stupid-durable and can be tough to move via slams and throws because of their strength). My burrowers deployed centrally with Advanced Deploy, as did Yuri the Axe.

First turn I had to cast a lot of Animi to get moving, due to the silly rough terrain. I had the Earthborn go with pathfinder first and run out of the woods at +2" because of the rough terrain. Then Doomy went and cast the Earthborn animus on himself to get some extra movement (without pathfinder) and the Axer animus on the other two beasts to give them +2" and pathfinder, allowing them to move out of the woods with ease. The Dygmies had burrowed before this, of course. The rest of my stuff just ran up, with the Axer being closest to the Objective and Runeshapers closest to the control zone.

My opponent ran most of his stuff, but was careful to keep out of my threat ranges for the most part. He moved the Bears toward the Objective, and the Juggernaut toward the zone. The mortar fired a shot into the Slag troll and did a few damage (20" range?! I had no idea!). Yuri moved into the center of the table, behind a wall that was on the center line in a normal game, but because of the corner-to-corner nature of the radial scenario it was diagonal to our play now.

Dygmies popped up. I moved around my support staff to get the Fell Caller to buff their melee attacks. The Runeshapers tried to lob AOEs at the DemoCorps but were out of range and the blasts didn't deviate well. They were in the control zone at least. The Dygmies didn't really have targets aside from Yuri. I had two of them get to him and manage to kill him with their attacks. Other than that they just gummed up the center of the board. I positioned my Earthborn and Axer what I thought was about 12" away from the Great Bears. This turned out to be a mistake. They were closer.

My opponent sent in the 'jacks, with the Juggernaut killing a Runeshaper and Beast massacring three Dygmies. The DemoCorp managed to kill a couple more, dropping the unit to 4 (some were Tough, but the Demo Corps have two attacks and finished a lot of them). They made their command check for casualties. My opponent sent two Bears into the Axer and killed it easily (it's tough as nails! It stood up to the Phoenix no problem the previous game!) and put a bunch of damage onto the Earthborn. If he'd charged differently I think he had a shot at getting two on the Earthborn, and that would have ruined my game, I think.

As it was I was still bogged down by a lot of big, tough buggers. I had some tough choices to make. First off the Bears had to die. But there wasn't anyone to get to them aside from the Earthborn, which one of them was engaging, or maybe Doomy himself. If I moved some pieces around I could get a Fell Caller on them, but that was no guarantee of killing Tough bears. I also wanted to get the Earthborn onto Beast 09, as otherwise he was going to ruin my day next turn. I moved the Slag and shot at Beast, but I'd forgotten that Beast 09 is Hyper Aggressive, so he walked into combat with a Burrower after my first shot and the second missed. Sad. Whoops.

I made up for it when the Fell Caller buffed his own melee attacks (he's reasonably accurate anyway) and charged at the two Bears who'd killed the Axer. He managed to kill both of them and neither were Tough (whew!). Then Doomy himself charged the last Bear and killed him, but he was Tough. I had Doomy beat that Bear with a stick until he wasn't tough. Then he healed the Earthborn's broken mind aspect, cast the Earthborn Animus on himself, and the Slag Troll animus on the Earthborn. He also popped his feat (spending focus in his control area HURTS). Then the burrowers burrowed again to get out of the way. The Earthborn walked into Beast 09 and used the power 8 Ice Axe to hit for P+S 22 with the Slag animus. Beast didn't make it. I only had 3 fury on the EBDT so I regened him for one as well. The Runeshapers and the Champ Hero managed to kill two of the Demo Corp so there were only 3 left. If I could keep the Earthborn alive another turn I might be able to table the Butcher. I put Janissa's rock wall up perpendicular to another wall in play, so that the Demo Corps still alive couldn't charge the Earthborn.

Butcher moved around a bit behind his stuff and popped his own feat, choosing not to spend any other focus due to Doomy's silly feat. He managed to blunderbuss a Runeshaper, but it was tough (and steady). The DemoCorps moved up and pounded the champ hero and runeshaper, but failed to kill the former and the latter was tough (again). The other two DemoCorps engaged the earthborn, and one of them managed a big 4-die roll to nearly kill it, but then the last missed his two backswing attacks because of the wall between the earthborn and him. The Juggernaut killed the runeshaper in front of it twice with boosted melee attacks (taking 4 damage for the boosts), but the 'shaper was tough twice. My opponent was not happy. Tough can be infuriating like that. The Mortar missed the champ hero but the deviation still did a bunch of blast damage, but left the Champ on 1 box. 

So now the game is looking mighty different. I was worried that the Butcher could camp all day and stay alive, and without the Earthborn I wouldn't have an answer for that. However, the earthborn was hurt badly but survived. I popped the Dygmies up behind the Butcher, but only one had a backstrike on the dog. The dog had to go before I had a chance to hit Doomy. The Dygmy managed to hit the dog with his gun (aiming at RAT6, meh) and kill him. The dog was not tough. The other three Dygmies shot the butcher in the back, and two hit, but he was sitting on a pile of focus and I only managed 2 damage.  Now I needed to get rid of the DemoCorp engaging him and heal him up with Doomshaper. The Champ Hero managed to kill one quite handily, but the Fell Caller and Doomy had to kill the other. Doomy used Stranglehold to nuke him after the Fell Caller spray didn't do much. Then the EBDT backed away from the butcher and regenerated for 6 with that damn trollblood regeneration ability.

The Runeshapers knocked the Juggernaut down with Tremor and hit the last DemoCorp with a Rock Hammer but didn't kill it. The Slag Troll maxed out spitting corrosive acid on the Juggie, but it had a few boxes left. Janissa's armor piercing pick finished it off. Now I had the control zone, but nothing B2B with the flag.

Butcher went into "endgame" mode. He moved, shot the Fell Caller to death (no tough) and cast Iron Flesh well away from the EBDT. The last demo corp killed the champ hero and either missed the runeshaper or it was tough (again!). The mortar cranked a shot at Doomshaper, who I'd left close enough to be hit by it, without a rock wall or any protective hookups. That hurt, but I lived.

Next turn the Dygmies ran to engage the mortar crew and Joe. The Runeshapers killed the last DemoCorps and I actually prepared for a butcher rush by backing up and healing the crap out of the EBDT. Janissa gave Doomy cover and he used the EBDT animus for protection.

Butcher was alone except for the mortar. He upkept Iron Flesh, moved forward camping a bunch, and shot a blunderbuss at Doomy, but missed. The next turn I had Doomshaper Purification the Iron Flesh, cast Corrosive Fists on the EBDT, and the EBDT made short work of the Butcher, using the huge power of Lola against the maniac. I think he was rolling dice +1, boosting his to-hits. Two hits finished the job. It was a pretty epic game. Not sure I like the scenario though.

Overall it was a damn good time. I'm thinking that Janissa and Earthborn are absolutely ridiculous together, but going into 2012 I can only take Janissa in one list for multi-list tournaments. The burrowers are pretty mighty as well, and the support they require is good when it gets to the front. The Fell Caller and Champ did a lot of melee damage against the Butcher's front line after the dygmies made a mockery of the front line, so I don't mind the support I like to take, but early spot removal of those key pieces could be really rough.

-Merlin out

Chitown Game

I played a game of warmachine while on business in Chicago recently. I found the place on the privateer press forums, and they happened to have open warmachine and hordes the night I was in town.

It's a little store called Unique Games & Gifts, in Grayslake IL, north of Chicago proper. I started a game with a small child there, but he had to leave unexpectedly, and so I faced off against one of the local players.

He wanted to try Circle Orboros' new warlock, epic Baldur, the Stonesoul. I had only brought the mercenary stuff I'd taken to the latest Flint not-tournament. I played Constance Blaize.

Constance
Gallant

Full Precusor Knights and UA
Full Nyss Hunters
Gorman di Wulfe
Epic Eiryss, Angel of Brokeness
Harlan Versh
Ogrun Bokur on Blaize

His list was full of new Circle proxies

EBaldur
Megalith
Ghetorix
Gorax
Druids and UA
Shifting Stones and keeper
2 gallows grove

The scenario was killbox.

His only ranged attacks were magic attacks, so I put Banishing Ward on the Nyss and moved everything up. He did the same with his stuff; standard first turn advancing. He kept his troops out of my infantry charge range.

So I had Harlan advance and shoot one of his trees to death. Then I had the PKs advance a bit in shield wall. The Nyss shot a Druid with CRA and everything else stayed back a bit.

However, I'd left a hole in the middle of my troops for the battlegroup, and my foe decided to pull Gallant through it toward his Druids so that ghetorix could wreck it. Ghetorix did wreck gallant. Then Baldur put a rock wall in front of Ghetorix to protect him and the rest of his troops hung back. He also popped his feat and put Roots of the Earth on a few models.

The PKs charged up and hit the other tree, but because I was in shield wall I didn't actually charge and the lack of boosted damage hurt me (I had transference up but hadn't realized the tree was at like 19 Armor with the feat).

I wound up charging the Nyss into the Druids, shooting Megalith With Harlan and Eiryss, counterfeating, and having Gorman auto-deviate black oil onto Ghetorix.

Ghetorix forfeited his action and advanced into Blaize. The Gorax killed Gorman and the Bokur. The Druids and megalith struggled against the defense 15 spellwarded Nyss. My foe put Roots of the earth on Ghetorix and Baldur and a wall in front of Baldur (he'd moved up a bit to keep Ghetorix in his control area).

I don't think my foe was expecting the PKs to kill the Gorax or maul Ghetorix. I popped their mini feat and they made short work of the Gorax and the Battle Chaplain put 10 wounds on Ghetorix. I also don't think he was planning on Blaize finishing off Ghetorix herself. But she had a few extra focus from losing solos on her feat turn and managed to get him. The Nyss killed another Druid and popped Megalith for a bit more with another CRA. Eiryss knocked Megalith's animus out (she did this several times). The PKs also slapped the other Gallows Grove a bit, and destroyed a Shifting Stone during their charge.

My opponent was on his back foot. Baldur was 12" from Blaize and that was too far for him to assassinate. We'd traded heavies, but the Druids and Megalith were struggling with the Nyss. Baldur killed a Druid to drop a crevasse on some PKs and Megalith killed Harlan and a few Nyss Hunters, but I was winning the attrition war.

The Nyss charged Megalith and hurt him badly. Eiryss mugged a shifting stone to no avail. Baldur backed up and tossed out a Rock Wall.

Rupert gave the PKs tough and they advanced into Baldur, hitting him with transference for boosted damage. He was down to like 5 wounds. The Nyss got megalith down to 1 wound, and Eiryss used Sniper to finish him. Blaize put a huge obstruction between Baldur and herself.

Baldur had like 5 Wurm tokens at this point, and without Megalith to heal he was looking bad. He used his self-nuke to kill a couple PKs on him (one was tough) and moved back to heal on a shifting stone.

Constance moved up so that the PKs could use transference to attack and damage Baldur again. He lived due to poor rolls.

Baldur gave up and charged forward to kill some PKs, and with flank Blaize finished him. It was inevitable at that point.

It was a good game. Took about 3 hours.

I forgot to take a pic of the game, but here's the Thai food I ate in Chicago.



-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday Warmahordes Games

I went to the Gamer's Sanctuary in Flint last Saturday for a tournament that did not take place due to low attendance. I was still able to get in four games of Warmachine, two against a fellow I did not know, and two against the nemesis Ray.

John played Trolls and had only Grim Angus with him. He played Grim twice against my Constance Blaize list. The lists were something like:

Blaize
Gallant
Sylas
10 PKs + UA
10 Nyss Hunters
Epic Eiryss
Harlan Versh
Gorman Di Wulfe
Rupert Songman
Reinholdt

Grim
Dire Troll Mauler
Troll Impaler
Troll Axer
Troll Champ Hero
3 Long Riders
6 Bushwackers
Fell Caller
Some pig artillery thing, the razorback crew?

We played scenarios. In the first game, we ran at each other, I feated and left Blaize at zero focus trying to mug the Axer with Nyss, and then John managed to kill Blaize with an Impaler under Rage and a Long Rider charge.

The second game was more interesting. We played the Revelation scenario, which has two flags, and both must be scored upon to win. We both advanced again, and again we clashed, but this time Gorman dropped Black Oil on the Long Riders and Blaize camped enough to be relatively safe from the Impaler. We chewed through each other's forces, and when the dust had settled it was 5 PKs, Gallant, and Blaize against Grim, 2 Bushwackers, the Axer, and the Mauler. However, I'd started off the scoring on flag #1, and Blaize was sitting on flag #2. John planned to camp his mauler on Flag #1 and thereby keep the score constantly tied while we jockeyed for position (Grim was Locking down Gallant), but I realized after a turn of this that each player can only score 2 points per flag. So I wound up winning by scenario.

Ray stepped in while John got Taco Bell and showed me the fury of Cryx.

I played

MacBain
Sylas
Gallant
Nomad
10 PKs + UA
Bloody Bradigan
Gorman di Wulfe
Epic Elf
Aiyana and Holt
Ogrun Bokur attached to PK officer

He played prime Skarre with a pile of mcThralls, full Soulhunters with Darragh Wrathe, a Slayer, and some other junk in the backfield.

We ran at each other, but I didn't feat the turn of engagement, and the PKs failed a terror test against Gerlak Slaughterborn (with the reroll; two 10s). So they were out. I managed to put some fear of God into Skarre by putting a Nomad into her backfield, but she just feated and the Soulhunters charged through my shit with Incorporeal and that was game.

Ray and I played again, and he played Venethrax with a pile of Bloodgorgers. This game was awesome.

I played something like

Ashlynn
Gallant
Sylas
ATGM + UA
Mule
6 PKS + UA
Harlan Versh
Gorman di Wulfe
Taryn di Rovissi
Reinholdt

We both ran first turn, but Venethrax also feated. I feated in response and promptly killed most of the bloodgorgers. He jammed up my lines in response, and things got ugly. Venethrax pushed forward on one flank, and the ATGMs met him and managed to not die, by having the Mule occasionally crit-toss him in an AOE backwards. Gerlak and most of the support staff got pimped by PKs on a weird flanking mission. The backfield got murdered by Taryn di Rovissi, who managed to kill a lot of stuff this game, including the Withershadow reroller.

The game came down to Ashlynn (with goblin and seeker), Gallant, the Dude, Taryn, and some PKs against Venethrax, darraghe wrathe unhorsed, and Malice (who was mugged). It was my game to lose at that point, because Admonition was keeping Venethrax away from Ashlynn while Gallant whittled away at him. But I decided to charge Ashlynn into Malice, doing some damage, but giving myself little means of escape from Venethrax, who was too far away to retaliate except for Wrathe's death ride. Which is ridiculous.

So I learned something there. That game needed to end tho, and I still feel it was my game to lose.

Overall some sweet stuff. I didn't take a pic of the games, but I've got something around here. . .

Ashlynn is pretty awesome

-Merlin out

Dungeons, Dragons, Character, & Identity

I'm playing D & D again, with an entirely new group. Apparently I get invited to established RPG groups somehow. That's all right. We only just began playing, and it's got me thinking about character creation, role playing, and identity.

Two of the players in the new group have never played RPGs. That in and of itself is fine, but maybe I'm just an actor-type player; newer players tend to make two-dimensional characters. One of the new players is literally playing a version of He-Man. The character's backstory is that he is from the planet Eternia and he's a prince etc. He seems to be garnering most of his inspiration from the Dolph Lundgren version, which is actually better than the alternatives (the He-man cartoon from my youth does NOT hold up well). Still, the character is a meathead and a goon, a caricature and a one-note joke. I guess we'll see how long the charm lasts.



The other new player didn't even create their own character, and so wasn't involved in the process at all (the DM put everything together for them). This new player, through no fault of their own, only understands the rude mechanical core of the game. Their character, at the end of the day, is a list of powers and abilities. Perhaps eventually they will work to create a deeper personality. They didn't have a character name until the DM gave them one two sessions in.

Conversely, myself and at least one other player tend to create characters with depth. Deep characters engage with the story more, as they have complex motivations and a rich backstory can give the DM opportunities for engagement. If my character explicitly has a sister which he worries about, then the DM has a ready-made source of adventure engagement and conflict. On the other hand, the DM gave new player 2 above a sister and used them as a plot device to get them working with the rest of the party. However, the sister wasn't much motivation, and the new player balked at the idea of rescuing for a second (which is sad really).

Normally I create characters based on motivations and (at least in real-world RPGs like Vampire) accents which can let me slip in and out of character to the group through aural cues. It's difficult to try and work with accents in D & D, though not impossible. This time I eschewed that practice and made a character based on the needs of the group (4th Edition D & D is a team effort). Then I sort of built them up around that concept.

My own character is in fact uncomfortably close to a facet of myself, the happy-go-lucky night owl socialite. It has gotten me thinking about D & D as either a source or a solution for identity crisis. Many are familiar with the supposed dangers of the game and it's ability to change or warp a person's mindset.
But what about D & D as therapy? What about exploring a facet of one's own personality, not in order to change the self wholesale, but to gain a greater self-understanding? I'm not sure if what I'm doing in this game is at that level of soul-searching, but I will admit that I sometimes miss my hard-partying late nights from a decade ago. Perhaps this character can allow me to relive those days in a more responsible fashion.

The other player in the new group who creates deep characters (player 3?) is still trying to solidify who their character is. I like this approach as well as the deep backstory one. As long as the player is working to create a character rather than a caricature then the story will feel more alive. It was still amusing watching them question their character's motivations during the first session (why would I do this? Why now? Etc).

This whole experience actually makes me long a bit for my other RPG group, who haven't met in nearly a year now. Those guys all created rich characters; some of them explored them while playing, and some of them spent time before games working out backstory. It was great roleplaying in the end, the characters were vivid and three-dimensional, and at times I felt that the scenes created were poignant.

I guess as long as everyone's having fun playing the game then it's all good, but for me character depth is more rewarding than anything else. It's better than +5 baldrics of efficacious stabinating or slaying ancient mauve dragons.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Elder Sign: Omens for iPhone

I have to admit, the setup for this game is significantly less time-consuming than that of its forebear. As an iPhone game, I can use this app to get my Lovecraftian horror on from just about anywhere. The game features many of the same characters and much of the artwork from Arkham Horror.

Gameplay-wise, the player controls a group of investigators maneuvering through a museum which has many breaches into various other terrible dimensions. There is an ancient one (always Azathoth for simplicity) who awakes and destroys the world if the doom track fills. The investigators must acquire 14 elder signs before Azathoth awakens.



As the game begins, there are 6 randomly chosen adventures scattered through the museum. The investigator who is active chooses one to do, or spends their turn doing some bureaucracy at the museum entrance (buying or selling items, etc.). After choosing an adventure, the investigator enters the adventure screen.



On the adventure screen, the investigator conjures various random runes necessary for completing adventures. With luck, special abilities to manipulate runes, or items to change them around, the investigator can complete the adventure and gain the rewards, which can be items, spells, or even elder signs if the adventure is challenging enough.



Failing to complete the adventure will have consequences that range from stamina or sanity loss to spawning monsters and adding to the doom track. Most adventures are set up with risks and rewards that are reflective of the adventure's difficulty. Tough adventures yield elder signs and lots of items, whereas simpler adventures will give an item or a clue.



Each investigator has a sanity and stamina level that will deteriorate as they complete and fail tasks. If either trait goes to zero the investigator is deceased of insane and no longer helps the team against the mythos.

Adding to the "race against the clock" feel of the game, there is a literal clock on the screen which advances with each investigator's turn. It periodically strikes midnight, and a random bad thing happens then, usually more doom and monsters.



It's a fun little game. I lost my first few games while learning how to play, but since then I rarely lose. Managing the investigators' sanity, stamina, items, and skills and matching those to appropriately difficult adventures is easy enough. As long as the team is completing adventures I seem to do well.

I think it's pretty good, though it suffers from a grind-y vibe as there is always more adventures spawning to complete. I quite like the art style and general mood of the game, but I'm not sure how often I'll come back to it. Few iPhone games have captured my long-term attention span. We'll see if this one holds up. Overall a 3.0.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Board Games on the Road: Arkham Horror

I actually got this last Christmas, and I hadn't played it until recently. It's a big time-sink, and a massive game. Luckily, it can be played single player, and since I apparently like single player games from Fantasy Flight Games, I decided it was time.

I'm traveling a bit for work here and there, and since I'm spending some time alone in hotel rooms I thought I should direct that time toward the blog and gaming. To this end I'm going to try and play some single player board games here and there during my travels.

Arkham Horror is an investigation and horror game based on the writing of H. P. Lovecraft. I'm a fan of his work, and the RPG community that's grown around his mythos is impressive. In the game, the players take the role of distinct investigators who must stop the otherworldly entities from devouring humankind.




The set up for the game took a long time. There are over a dozen different decks of cards, another dozen types of chit or counter, and some large cardstock pieces that represent the investigators and the Ancient One, one of eight mythos entities that represent the games antagonist element.

I played two games during an overnight stay. It took about 45 minutes to set up the game for the first time, but I imagine that it will be significantly easier and could be streamlined further by packing the game away in an organized fashion.

Game one featured the investigator Michael McGlen, the Gangster, pitted against the Ancient One Shub-Niggurath. McGlen has a high stamina, starts with a Tommy Gun (one of the more powerful mundane weapons), and takes less damage during combat. Shub-Niggurath makes her creatures more difficult to kill as well. So it was a toughness battle.




Each turn the game has several phases. Each investigator gets to move, do some encounters, collect clues, and so forth. They may even step through gates to Other Worlds. The last phase of each turn is the Mythos phase. During this phase gates open, monsters spawn and move, and additional clues and effects happen.

Each turn a gate will open at one of the dangerous locations on the map unless an elder sign token is on the location drawn, or a gate already exists there. If there's already a gate there, monsters pour out of the gates already on the board.

Here's a list of bad things that will awaken the Ancient One and force a difficult final battle:

Too many gates open on the board (8 for single player).
The Terror Track is filled (starts at 0 and advances every time there is an overflow of monsters).
The Ancient One's Doom track is filled (each time a gate opens a doom token is added)
There's more but I'm forgetting some. . .

To seal a gate requires 5 clue tokens, a successful check against the gate, and requires that the investigator has explored the other world to which the gate leads. It takes at least 3, sometimes 4-5 turns to seal one. A single-player experience seems to require the player to aggressively seal 2-3 gates ASAP to keep the ancient one from awakening due to the amount of gates on the board.

Mike did okay sealing his first two, but by then a Rumor Mythos card had popped up. Rumors are bad effects which linger until a specific condition is met. In this case the Rumor had a 33% chance to increase the Terror level. Mike had to get two gate trophies (seal gates for trophies) to stop the rumor. He did manage it, but by then the Terror track was almost full, and he'd been Cursed as well. Being Cursed is all kinds of bad.



So Shub-Niggurath woke up and ate Mike.

The Rumor card really did him in. It was fun, but difficult.




I played another game as Bob Jenkins, the salesman. Bob's special ability gives him extra items. He also starts with a number of items. I happened to draw two Elder Sign unique items (two of the same unique item?) which I thought was pretty awesome. Bob managed to seal two gates right quick and had saved up enough clues to do a third. He'd also managed to get a Tommy Gun during character creation, so he was tough.

However, a number of difficult monsters have Physical Resistance or Immunity, which makes fighting them without spells terribly rough. A Rumor popped up that put a pile of monsters into Miskatonic University, and if the pile ever grew to 8 (it gains one per turn) the terror track would max out and the final battle would begin.

Thing was, the Ancient One against Bob was Azathoth, and there is no final battle with Azathoth. He (it?) just destroys the world.

Bob spent several turns trying to prune the monsters at Miskatonic U while creatures and gates continued to spawn (because the game doesn't stop while you're dealing with a Rumor). Eventually the list of monsters at the University was just filled with ghosts and spectral beasts who didn't give a shit about Bob's machine gun. The number grew to 8 after a fire vampire knocked out Bob's last stamina and he wound up in the hospital. Azathoth destroyed the world.

So that was cool.

Overall, it's a fun game, but it has some trouble at the single player level. Perhaps since it's co-op, I will try it again and control 2 or more investigators at a time. I'm sure this will change the game in a number of ways, but hopefully it's a bit less challenging.

Perhaps it's meant to be super-challenging? The Lovecraftian mythos doesn't have a lot of rays of hope going for it. Maybe the difficult choices in the game are meant to represent the inevitable decline of humankind as Elder Gods and Things From Beyond encroach on our world.

Flavor-wise, it certainly gets an A. Gameplay-wise, it felt a bit like a gate-sealing grind, with so many additional complications that it felt impossible to win. I know that solitaire games tend to be brutally difficult, but Arkham Horror is the toughest I've played.I'd give it an overall grade-point (on the community-college 4.0-0.0 scale) of 3.0.

There's a stripped-down version of the game available, called Elder Sign. There's also an iPhone game just released called Elder Sign:Omens. I picked it up, and I'll talk about that soon.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Building Lists v. Building Factions

Many excellent warmachine and hordes players recognize that playing factions is alright, but playing one caster or warlock and building a single solid list is cheaper and tends to be a better play experience. I'm not necessarily a good WarmaHordes player, but I can see the advantages.

I chose to play Cygnar, and I've collect a good portion of the faction, which gives me lots of options when playing Cygnar. However, I've only been playing the Warcaster Constance Blaize in the last two months, and so much of my Cygnar stuff is dusty.

Also, getting skills requires some dedication to a strategy. Having a single 'caster to work with makes it easier to become jouzu at the game. Having a huge faction worth of possibilities leads to a shallow understanding of a broad range of things instead of a deep understanding of a few.

Further, my Trollbloods exploration has made me rethink buying into a whole 'nother faction. I'd rather build a couple solid lists and work from there.

Don't get me wrong: tournament play generally requires several lists from the same faction, but in general it's cheaper to work in lists rather than factions.



To this end, I decided to build a Trollbloods Grim Angus list. One reason is cost: Grim supports mercenaries as well as his own troops, unlike most Troll warlocks, so my Nyss Hunters are ready to work for him. Another reason is that Grim looks like a lot of fun, with a series of debuffs to help his army land hits and buffs to help his stuff move and target. He's really all about buffing accuracy. On top of the rest, he's got a gun, so I can shoot with him. That's something I like about Cygnar warcasters, so it fits into my comfort zone despite being in a different faction.

Looking through the Trollbloods faction book, I decided I would buy a heavy warbeast (because the goddamn warpack didn't come with one) and a full unit of trolls. Then I would cherry pick support solos and the like to support those troop choices, and add in the Nyss Hunters to fill out the list.

I read Sevwall's strategy article about the Pygmy Burrowers unit ("Dygmies") on the Privateer Press forums, and it paints a convincing picture of the Dygmies as a versatile, difficult-to-deal-with unit. They are dirt cheap in army-points cost, but they're also terribly, awfully inaccurate. Trolls have access to a lot of solos who buff units, however, and many warlocks also help. I decided to buy me some Dygmies.

For a heavy, I took a look at the several options available and decided that the Earthborn Dire Troll was the most versatile. It's got a lot of terrain-variable buffs, it can often hit as hard as whatever it's hitting, and it's animus can give buffs to other friendliest based on nearby terrain. It's good. It also has pathfinder, just like Grim, and just like the burrowers, and just like the Nyss Hunters.

So my Grim list is very much shaping up to be a list built around taking advantage of available terrain.

At 15 points it looks like:

Army Name: Grim Beginnings
Trollbloods
15+6 points, 13 models

Grim Angus +6 points
* Earthborn Dire Troll 10 points
* Troll Impaler 5 points

10 Pyg Burrowers 6 points

It has quite a few weaknesses at this level. With only one heavy hitter it will have trouble killing the tougher enemy warcasters and warlocks. I won't be able to afford trading the Earthborn Dire Troll (EBDT) for an enemy heavy unless I feel the burrowers and Impaler can finish the caster. The Dygmies really require some support solos to shine. They have a miserable melee attack stat and a similarly poor command check. To buff those they need a Fell Caller Hero and Trollkin Champion Hero nearby. Grim buffs their accuracy somewhat, but the additional buff from the Fell Caller takes them from good with Grim's feat to hitting just about everything on average rolls. Their poor command leaves them vulnerable to Terrifying entities (lich lords and such) or Abominations (bigger lich lords and such), but the Champ Hero is a battlefield commander with a respectable Command stat.

So to pump the list up to 25 I would take those two solos, each of which cost 3 points (they also kick butt themselves, so the cost isn't too painful). With the remaining 4 points I had a lot of choices, but I would settle on either Janissa Stonetide, another 3 pt solo, and the Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew, or a 3 troll, 4 pt unit of Runeshapers. Probably the former.

These support pieces add a lot to the burrowers and Grim's survivability without reducing their overall punch. However, at 25 the lack of a second heavy might hurt the list's performance somewhat. High-armor opponents might give it trouble, but hopefully if I can kill a heavy with the burrowers, or with the Earthborn during Grim's feat turn, I can win the attrition war. If I can get an Earthborn charge on an enemy 'caster they will probably also die, so that's a secondary option. The EDT can get a 12" charge if circumstances permit, so that can surprise some players.

At 35 points, I still don't add a second heavy, mostly because I don't own one. Instead I add the Troll Axer for his animus and his infantry-clearing thresher attack, and with the last 4 PTs put the Runeshapers in. I could add the Krielstone bearers with UA instead of the Runeshapers (dropping the Gobbers for a full unit) instead, but I don't have the stone yet, and I'm not sure Grim really needs it.

The Runeshapers give the list 3 magical aoe attacks, and if they crit they cause knockdown. At this point the list is very much about clearing a charge lane for the EDT to get an assassination. The aoes, the thresher attacks, and the burrowers cause a lot of problems for enemy infantry, and they can open some serious holes for the Dire Troll to fly across the board.

Grim's Cross Country spell can even allow the EDT to target enemies through forests which normally would block LOS, and the Axer animus can give the Earthborn yet another 2". If it gets all the buffs in a single turn (Axer animus, starts w/i 2" of rough terrain for +2 spd, and Grim shoots the target with his rifle to add 2" with Bait the Line) it can charge 14" away, and with its melee range of a half inch it can get to a lot of enemies. The thing to remember is to move Grim far enough forward that the EDT is still in his control to be forced.

That can be dangerous of course, but on the feat turn the speed debuff can keep Grim safe from much reprisal.

At 50 I add in my aforementioned Nyss Hunters, and. . .another Impaler at the moment. It's not optimal, but with the models I currently own that's where I'm at. I'll eventually get a Slag Troll and fit that in at 50 instead. That thing can wreck it some constructs.

Overall the list will struggle with high armor, but with any luck I can control the board enough to outflank or out last my opponent.

-Merlin out