Battle Report: pHexeris vs eGrissel (50pts)

I got 2 games in this past Friday.  This is one of them*.

I played:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris (+6)
*Bronzeback Titan (10)**
*Titan Cannoneer (9)
*Titan Gladiator (8)
*Archidon (7)
*Basilisk Krea (4)
*Aptimus Marketh (3)

10 Praetorian Swordsmen(6)
*Officer and Standard Bearer (2)
6 Paingiver Beast Handlers (3)

Extoller Soulward (2)
Agonizer (2)

I consider this a pretty well rounded list for pHexeris at 50pts.  It has a solid group of heavy hitters in the Titans, a lot of flexibility with the Archidon, and a competent infantry screen in the Praetorian Swordsmen.  It's beast heavy, but he'll have little trouble managing the Fury with beast handlers around, and he needs enough heavy hitters to take care of high armor.

I don't see this list as having any glaring weaknesses.  It's reasonably tough, has high armor, and the tools to deal with infantry or beast heavy lists.  The only damage buff is Enrage, so stacking armor buffs might give me some trouble.  My tools against high-Def infantry are also limited, but the biggest offenders tend to be single units buffed by Iron Flesh or the like, and I do have up to 3 AoE attacks if I need them.

This is a Tier 1 Kingdom of Shadow theme list, so Hexeris can start the game with all his upkeep spells in play.  Soul Slave would start out on the Archidon, Death March would start out on the Swordsmen, and Psychic Vampire would start out on Hexeris.

My opponent, Jason, played:

Grissel Bloodsong, Marshall of the Kriels (+6)
*Mountain King (20)
*Earthborn Dire Troll (10)
*Troll Impaler (5)

3 Trollkin Rune Shapers (4)
6 Kriel Stone Bearers (4)
*Stone Scribe Elder (1)

Janissa Stonetide (3)

Trollkin War Wagon (9)

I haven't faced either the Mountain King or eGrissel before.  Just looking at the list, there's a lot of high armor, further boosted by the Kriel Stone.  There's a reasonable balance between melee and ranged attacks.  Grissel, the War Wagon and the Mountain King all have good ranged attacks they can use on the way into melee.  There's also a lot of knockdown ability.  The War Wagon, Rune Shapers and Grissel herself all have the ability to knock models down at a variety of ranges.  A lot of the attacks are AoE's so light infantry won't be a problem, and the Mountain King and Earthborn are both excellent armor crackers.

While I have little experience with this list, it does seem vulnerable to opponents with multiple fast heavy hitters capable of cracking its armor.  It lacks an infantry screen, and anything that can get a hard first strike in on the Mountain King and War Wagon might be trouble.

Deployment:

Jason won the roll off, and chose to go second. He picked a table edge which gave him easy access to a low wall in the middle of the field, as well as a forest near his Deployment Zone.  The Mountain King predeployed near the forest, while the War Wagon predeployed a few inches away near the other side of the low wall.

I had a hill and another forest on my side of the table.  There were also a building and another low hill at around the center of the table.  I deployed my Swordsmen in a tight clump behind the closer low hill, the Titans in a tight clump next to them, with the Paingivers in the second rank with the Agonizer and Extoller.  Hexeris went in between the Titans and the Swordsmen, and Marketh went behind the Swordsmen.  Finally, the Archidon went on my left flank.

Jason deployed Grissel and the Impaler between the Mountain King and the War Wagon.  The Rune Shapers deployed behind the Mountain King, as did Janissa.  The Earthborn deployed just to the Mountain King's right (from my perspective).  The Kriel Stone Bearers went in the back.

Turn 1: Skorne

Most of my army ran forward.  Hexeris dumped 5 Fury onto the Agonizer.  My beasts made for a patch of Concealment-granting grass near a hill in the center-left of the field.  The Swordsmen started moving to screen the beasts, and spread out a lot to avoid being splattered by the War Wagon's and Grissel's guns.  The Krea used Paralytic Aura and charged up right behind the Titans.  The Archidon ran up to just ahead of the Titans.  It would have to fly around the Mountain King, but its job was to let Hexeris take out the Rune Shapers and Kriel Stone Bearers with spells.

I was set up pretty well.  My heavies were close enough to support each other, and they were all near the Krea.  Now I would see what my opponent's army could do.

Turn 1: Trollbloods

The Earthborn used its animus, Transmute, on the Mountain King, granting it a variety of good buffs depending on what kind of terrain it was near, and advanced to near a low wall on Jason's half of the table.  The Impaler used its animus, Far Strike, on the War Wagon, granting it +4 Range on its cannon, and likewise advanced.  The War Wagon advanced to just behind the wall, and fired at a central Praetorian Swordsman.  The shot scattered, but still killed a Swordsman.  The Mountain King, benefiting from +2 Speed thanks to Transmute and being near a forest, ran to just behind the low wall.  Although it wouldn't get Cover, the Mountain King would receive +2 Arm from Transmute thanks to being near the wall.  Grissel advanced, cast Far Strike on herself, put 4 Fury on the Kriel Stone, and shot at the Swordsmen.  The shot was out of range, but did throw down a 4" covering fire AoE which would kill any Swordsmen who advanced into it.  The Kriel Stone Bearers used their Protective Aura, and ran forward.  Finally, the Rune Shapers ran behind the Mountain King to hide from my spells.

Eww.  With the defense/armor buffs from the wall as well as the Protective Aura, this was going to be a tough nut to crack.  While my opponent definitely had a melee focused army, he could also stand and shoot me apart from his position behind the wall.  All his shooting was high enough Power to at least do damage.  My shooting and spells would do almost nothing against his high Arm.  I'd have to approach planning for melee.  My plan was to screen my beasts this turn with my Swordsmen, and lay the groundwork for an attack on turn 3.

Turn 2: Skorne

In my Maintenance Phase, the Swordsmen took their 3" moves around to screen my Warbeasts.  Hexeris leached Fury, dropped Psychic Vampire, and he and Marketh (who'd picked up a Soul token), upkept Death March and Soul Slave.  The Swordsmen ran to around 6" in front of the Mountain King and spread out.  The Archidon advanced into the wheat field, and prepared to flank.  The Gladiator Rushed the Channoneer, and advanced.  The Bronzeback advanced.  The Cannoneer advanced to a point position ahead of my other beasts, and used Diminish to debuff the Strength of nearby warbeasts. The Krea used Paralytic Aura, and advanced to screen the 3 Titans.  The Agonizer used Gnawing Pain, and ran to debuff any warbeasts (looking at you, Mountain King) who managed to charge my Titans if the Swordsmen were cleared out.  Hexeris cast Paralytic Aura, filled the Agonizer up to five Fury, and discarded down to 2 points of Fury himself.  The Paingivers advanced, as did the Extoller Soulward and Marketh.

I was fairly ready to take a charge or charge in myself on the next turn.  My Swordsmen were screening my beasts thoroughly.  They could be killed off, but I was hoping the Mountain King would have to spend its activation helping out.  If it or the Earthborn did manage to get into my beasts, they'd be looking at a total of -4 to their damage rolls thanks to the Agonizer's Gnawing Pain and the Cannoneer's Diminish.

Turn 2: Trollbloods

Grissel leached fury.  The War Wagon started off by charging a Swordsman and killing it.  Then it shot into another cluster of Swordsmen, killing several between its 5" AoE cannon and 8" Spray scattergun.  The Impaler put Far Strike on Grissel, who shot and hit the Cannoneer, knocking down it, the Gladiator and the Krea.  Then she fired again, killing another Swordsman, and used her Feat to give everything in her CTRL Unyielding and Hyper Aggressive.  Then the Rune Shapers advanced around the the Mountain King, and killed 3 more Swordsmen with their spells.  Janissa also advanced, and took out the last one between the Mountain King and my Titan cluster.  The remaining two Swordsmen failed their Cmd check, and would flee next turn.  The Kriel Stone Bearers advanced, and used their Protective Aura, granting +2 Arm and +1 Str to the Trollblood army.

The Earthborn advanced to the wall, and used Transmute on the Mountain King again.  Due to being near a forest, the Mountain King would gain +2 Speed.  It charged my Gladiator.  Despite being at -4 damage, it killed the Gladiator easily, sent a boosted spray at Hexeris (who transferred), and hit the Archidon with its final attack.

Yikes!  It was do or die this turn.  I'd need to kill the Mountain King with my heavies if I were to have a chance of winning.  I had the power to do it - the Cannoneer, Bronzeback and Archidon were all in range.  It wouldn't be a sure thing though.  The Mountain King was sitting on Arm 23, and had a lot of hit boxes.  Then I'd still have to contend with the EBDT and War Wagon, but I'd still have a lot of models intact.

Turn 3: Skorne

Hexeris leached fury, and the Cannoneer shook off Knocked Down.  The 2 remaining Swordsmen activated first, and ran out of the way, the officer dying to a Free Strike from the Mountain King.  The Krea forfeited her activation to stand, used Paralytic Aura, and advanced to within 2" of the Mountain King to debuff its Def to 7.  The Paingivers advanced, and Enraged the Cannoneer and the Bronzeback.  The Cannoneer charged into the Mountain King, and did some damage.  The Mountain King responded by shedding Whelps right into the Bronzeback's charge lane.  I'd planned on that, however.  The Extoller took a boosted shot at the Mountain King with its Annihilating Gaze, and did some more damage.  The Agonizer used Gnawing Pain again, and moved out of Hexeris' way.

Then, Hexeris cast Lightning Strike on himself, and charged the Whelps, killing the three in the Bronzeback's way, and Sprinting back behind the Beast Handlers.  He took a Free Strike from the Mountain King because I accidentally put him too close, but he transferred the damage safely to the Krea.  The Bronzeback charged in, and wailed on the Mountain King for all it was worth.  I had some pretty bad luck on the damage rolls, and the Mountain King was still alive with 10 or so hit boxes.  The Archidon couldn't quite make it into melee, due to screening Whelps.

This was bad.  My only chance was if Jason had terrible luck in his turn, and left my Bronzeback alive.  Given that it was in combat with a Gargantuan though, that didn't seem likely.

Turn 3: Trollbloods

It didn't happen.  Grissel and the War Wagon knocked down the Cannoneer and Bronzeback, and the Mountain King and Earthborn finished them and the Archidon off.  Janissa created a wall right in front of Grissel.

Given that it was just Hexeris, a Krea and a handful of support models against the entire Trollblood army, I decided to concede.

Victory to the Trollbloods!

Thoughts

I made a bunch of small mistakes this game. There was a turn where I forgot to Condition with my Beast Handlers, and I accidentally put pHexeris within the Mountain King's melee range on Turn 3 when he had to clear out the Whelps.  I also left my Warbeasts too close together on turn 2.  I've lost 2 Titans in 1 turn to Trollblood heavies before, and Jason was able to Knock most of my clump down and pound on more than one of them with the Mountain King.  He also engaged the Archidon, which would have been nice to have active on my 3rd turn.  I feel I handled the threat of the Mountain King pretty well.  I jammed it with Swordsmen to slow it down, and damped its damage output with my Cannoneer and Agonizer so it could only kill one heavy on its turn.  I planned my attack on the Mountain King pretty well also.  I just had mediocre luck in the execution, and that wasn't enough.  I also and screened my warbeasts reasonably well with the Swordsmen, who were able to spread out nicely.

I like this list a lot, and I'm thinking that adding the Bronzeback and Krea at 50pts was the right move.  The Krea adds a lot of defense against ranged attacks (I was very glad of the +2 Arm this game), and grants a Mat buff to Hexeris' beasts, something he can't do himself.  The Bronzeback is also a key armor cracker for this list, and actually turned out not to be enough against the Armor buffed Mountain King.  Marketh didn't have much to do this game, but there wasn't a lot for Hexeris to do with his Fury for most of the game.

Jason played a strong game, and clearly knew how to work his list.  He did well to protect his more vulnerable Rune Shapers, Kriel Stone Bearers, and Janissa from my Archidon's LoS.  His position would have been a lot weaker if I'd managed to start slinging spells at his support models on turn 2.  He methodically cleared out my Swordsmen, and knocked his targets down before moving in for the kill.  He did risk the Mountain King on his second turn.  If it had died, things might have gone badly for him.  I certainly would still have been in the game, and I would have had a good chance of grinding out a win against the Earthborn and War Wagon.

I also want to give special attention to Jason's list, which was really well designed.  I've read a lot of complaints about the Mountain King and eGrissel, and he made them work together beautifully.  The Mountain King's low Mat of 5 was never an issue, because of the amount of ranged Knockdown in the list.  Its relatively low base Armor and hit boxes were also never an issue.  It stayed at Armor 23 the whole game due to a combination of the KSB's Protective Aura, staying near a wall with Transmute on it, and having Unyielding during Grissel's feat turn.  If Janissa hadn't needed to use a spell to kill one of my Swordsmen in the Mountain King's way, she'd have been able to cast Rock Wall behind the Mountain King on the Feat turn and bring it to Arm 25, which I wouldn't have been able to handle at all.

All in all, a great game against a really cool list (and a nice opponent too).  Thanks.



*In the other game, I managed to get a bottom of Turn 1 spell assassination off with Hexeris.  My opponent had left their caster exposed, and had no idea it was coming.  It was kind of a sad game, and I won't be writing the report.

**Sadly, Baxter is not finished yet, but everyone wanted to play 50pt games, so I caved in and ran his legs as a full Bronzeback.  Willpower : /