First Game with Rasheth (Advice Wanted from Trollkin players)

I tried out Rasheth this past Friday, and I saw what all the fuss is about.

I'm not going to do a full report of this one, because it ended up being a pretty one-sided game.  I also took pictures, so I'll post them instead of a report.  I'd also like to ask Trollkin players what they think of the matchup.  The idea had been for me an Caleb to both try out a new Warlock, and play a couple of games, but it would be a lot more exciting if one of our Warlocks wasn't a terrible matchup for the other.

I went with the 35pt Dominar Rasheth list I cooked up.  Casey was around, and was nice enough to lend me some of his models, so I had no proxies.  Here's the list:

Dominar Rasheth (+5) - Chain Gang Tier 2
*Bronzeback Titan (9)
*Titan Cannoneer (8)
*Titan Gladiator (7)

5 Gatormen Posse (9)
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers (2)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (1)

Agonizer (2)
Paingiver Task Master (2)


Caleb decided to start trying Borka Kegslayer:

Borka Kegslayer (+5)
*Dire Troll Mauler (9)
*Troll Axer (6)
*Pyg Keg Carrier (-)

5 Trollkin Champions (10)
*Skaldi Bonehammer (3)
5 Trollkin Warders (8)
Kriel Stone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3)
*Stone Scribe Elder (1)

Our Deployment.  The Warders are sort of hidden behind the house.

We squared off in Close Quarters, and got ready for a slugfest.  Caleb went first.

The two armies thunder toward each other.

The Champs jam the Gators, and the Warders get into the zone.

The Gators charge into the Champs, but lose one of their number to Skaldi's Counter Charge.

The Trolls charge in, but Plague Wind and Diminish mean they bounce off.

End of the game.  Butts forward guys.

Thoughts:

After the game, Caleb wondered if Rasheth is just a bad matchup for Borka.  The game certainly didn't go well for him.  He did have some poor key rolls (he tried to get the Mauler to throw the Gladiator into Rasheth, which would have made my next turn's activations more complicated).  This is also his first game with Borka, so it may just be inexperience.  I definitely feel that Rasheth has a good suite of tools against Trollbloods in general, and Caleb's list was certainly on the back foot for most of the game.

If there are any other Trollkin players reading this, what would you do against Rasheth?  Is this a matchup Borka can handle?  Caleb's also considering delving into eGrimm and Jarl Skuld as his next warlock.  Would either one do better at handling Rasheth?  If Borka's fine, and Caleb just needs some practice or the list needs some tweaks, that would be good to know too.

My other main observation is that MVP for the match was the Cannoneer, not because of the cannon, but because of Diminish.  I normally give Diminish a hard time for not giving much support to models besides the Cannoneer, but this game it was great.  I managed to shelter both the Bronzeback and the Gladiator near the Cannoneer for the initial charge, and stack Diminish with Rasheth's Feat to really take the punch out of the Trollkin weapons.  My Titans would have been smashed up pretty well if I hadn't had Diminish affecting everything attacking them.