Monday, February 20, 2012

35pt Krueger battle vs Tyrant Grexeris - The Reckonering

This is about a week later (whoops), but last week I got a rematch in against everyone's favorite Skorne player, Tyrant Grexeris.  It proved to be a pretty quick game, and I've been procrastinating about posting the report.


Tyrant Grexeris' List:
Tyrant Xerxis (*5pts)
* Titan Cannoneer (9pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Venators Reivers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Extoler Soulward (2pts)


My List:
Krueger the Stormwrath (*5pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Megalith (11pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)


Pre-Game Thoughts:
 - 2 Heavies are going to be a much harder nut to crack, especially since one is a Gladiator... uh oh.
 - I've got to watch out for that Ancestral Guardian - my crafty opponent has no qualms against throwing a few venators under the bus to boost it's effectiveness.
 - That main bundle of cetrati and Xerxis is going to be a big problem.

Brief summaries here, as it's a little too foggy in my brain for more concise descriptions.
Turns 1:
We both advanced forward, titans on my right (on a hill) backed up by paingivers opposite my beasts, and the block of his other stuff behind a forest to my left with druids opposite them.

Chain Lightning through Megalith onto the Cannoneer managed to destroy a good chunk of the paingivers, and nearly took out the Extoler Soulward to boot.

Turn 2:
Poor placement on my part saw the gladiator (thanks to some speed boosts) charge up and destroy Megalith at the beginning of the turn (!!!) and the Cannoneer barely missing the woldwatcher. The rest of his line sauntered foward, but were taking their time.

I placed the druids poorly, being out of range of just about everything (moved the Ancestral Guardian around a little, but not much besides) but just in range of potential counter attack. The Warpwolf Stalker managed to damage the Gladiator a little bit, but only knocked out one aspect.

Turn 3:
Xerxis popped his feat, allowing the Gladiator (after some healing) to lay absolute waste to the warpwolf, eventually laying it low with the help of the Ancestral Guardian. The cannoneer destroyed half the druid unit with a single (lucky) shot, and Xerxis popped his feat to ensure any potential counter attack would pretty much fail miserably.

At this point, I conceded - I had nothing left that had much hope of dealing with high ARM, and he had a lot left that was chock full of it and in a good position to get kill Krueger unless I backpedaled pretty fast.


Post-Game Thoughts:
 - Krueger's infantry killing prowess clearly fails him against heavy infantry, and I did not include much in this list that can make up for it.
 - In retrospect, I should have sent the Stalker after the Cetrati block - berserk and P+S 17 would have had a good chance of mowing through them on anything but a feat turn. Oh well.
 - This I should have realized much sooner, but Circle beasts clearly cannot go toe-to-toe with enemy heavies: another holdover from my Khador days I need to work past.


I'm definitely going to stick with pBaldur for upcoming games, and look a little closer at eKrueger as a possible second caster.

1 comment:

  1. I've been doing some thinking about this battle, and I'm starting to suspect that you'd have a stronger game against heavy infantry with a third heavy in your list. If you had 2 Woldwardens instead of Megalith, a Wold Watcher, and the Blackclad, you'd have 3 heavies with good weapons against heavy infantry (or at least Xerxis' Cetrati, which really are the heaviest of the heavy).

    You do also have some good tools in this list, even if they require a little more practice to use them consistantly. The Druids can pull one or two Cetrati out of Shield Wall with Force Bolt, then the Stalker can kill them and Sprint out of range of my retaliation.

    Just some thoughts.

    ReplyDelete