So just how many Kriel Warriors is too many?
As it turns out, 28.
I needed to see if the 30 KW army would be effective at all. With 28, that got me close enough. And the answer is no, it is not effective.
Today's list was:
eMadrak
Bouncer (Smiley B)
Impaler (Smiley)
Fell Caller
Fell Caller (Juan Cinco)
KW (10) + UA, + Caber
KW (9) + Caber
KW (9) + Caber
Kriel Stone Bearer & Stone Scribes (6) + SS Elder
Champions
49 models, 748 points, 25 VPs.
I tried something new with prepping the Pink Horde for painting -- I added 30+ drops of FFW to GW Magenta ink. Covers really nicely over the gray. Doing the guide coat with Citadel black wash; I think these will go fast when they take their turn on the table. There is a very small chance I would need to bring a fully painted Menoth or Cygnar force to another con in February, but I need to see if 1) I can afford it and 2) I should go. I would like to go, they have an awesome tourney format, but we'll see. Airfare is pretty low. I just don't know that I could get everything painted. But anyway.
I won the roll (after we tied on 4s) and went first. KW1 with caber, SS Chronicler, Champs and Cinco, Smiley B and Smiley, eMadrak, KW3 behind, KSB and SS Elder, KW3 with UA and caber.
Here's how things went down, assuming I can read this chicken scratch I call handwriting.
Jen Turn 1
EVERYBODY RUNS.
Mike Turn 1
- Thorn advances
- Hunter shoots Smiley for 4 points
- Finn shoots KW3, gets 2 on strafe attack. Murders the untough leader but doesn't damage the two other KWs targeted.
- Black 13th moves, wants to do some of this Troll murder like Finn!
Ryan shoots, misses; Ryan shoots, misses. Lynch misses. Watts misses. KWs rejoice!
- Haley activates, arcs Chain Lightning onto Sm
iley. Rolls snakes, Squire re-roll, attack hits. Mike rolls 6 for additional arcs. Smiley, 16 points, no damage; Bouncer, 18 points, no damage. Champ B, 17 points, no damage; Champ A, 19 points, 2 dmg; Champ C, no dmg; Champ D, no dmg; Kithkar, no dmg.
- Thorn yo-yo out of Champ charge range.
- GMCA advances, long shot Smiley, 16 points, no dmg.
Jen Turn 2
- KW1 run
- Champs run
- Bouncer adv
- Smiley boosts hit on Hunter, no crit. Does 6 points of dmg
- KW2 advances. Caber gets into position. Tosses onto Finn for 4 points; kills SK and SK leader. UA pops mini feat (tough on 4s or better)
- KW3 runs from position in the rear
- eMadrak advances and hugs tree
- KSB activates Protective Aura.
Hey, tree hugging is for Circle, damn hippie!
Mike Turn 2
- Finn shoots into KW2, gets 2 strafe again. Initial target tough; strafe 1 dead, strafe 2 lives (didn't need tough!)
- Hunter shoots Bouncer, 8 points of damage
- Storm Blades charge Champs and do their standard bearer eat electric death thingie. Champ B takes 3 hits -- tough, tough, not tough! Champ A takes 6 points, not tough. SBs have no targets for charge attacks!
- JWC advances, Arcane Shield on SB.
- Rowdy falls short on Bouncer charge
- Thorn moves
- Haley + Squire move; chain lightning into KW1. Spell misses. Squire re-roll misses.
- Thorn yo-yo to safety
- GMCA runs toward center of board
- Black 13th time... Lynch shoots first, KW tough; Watts hits KW tough on a 4; Ryan initial attack, no dmg, 2nd attack hits, no dmg. Time for 4" AOE. Gets 5 models for POW14: tough, tough, tough, tough, dead.
Orange dice indicate who was tough. Mike was displeased.
Jen Turn 3
KW1 were awfully close to where the SBs were. And had a fully loaded caber.
- Caber hops on hill with SB. Cinco does War Cry for +2 on attack; Prayer of Potency adds +2 for strength. Four SBs lined up for caber, all 4 die
- Impaler throws on Rowdy for 4 points of dmg
- Bouncer does no dmg to Rowdy
- Champs move in and finish off SB
- KW2 charge; Finn dies (not tough), SK lives, SK dies
Mike Turn 3
- GMCA shoots and misses non-Cinco Fell Caller
- Hunter misses Champ in melee, uses reserve tank to escape
- JWC throws Arcane Shield on SKs
- Rowdy smashes Bouncer. Night night, Smiley B
- Rhupert plays Heroic Call for SKs
- Thorn advances
- SK charge KW; 4 dead, 1 tough
- Black 13th moves again; Watts kills KW; Lynch murders piper; Ryan kills KW x2.
- Haley activates, arcs Chain Lightning at KSB; 3 arcs. Three dead KSB
- Thorn yo-yo
Jen Turn 4
Too few Kriel Warriors now.
Extremely ineffective turn.
- Smiley frenzies, murders KSB. Gee, thanks.
- Champs attack Rowdy, only D manages 3 points
- KW1 run
- Fell Caller does reveille on knocked down KW3.
- KW3 run to find targets
- eMadrak feat
- Chronicler attacks Rowdy for no dmg
- Champ D attacks Rowdy, no dmg
Mike Turn 4
- Arcane Shield upkeep
- SK advance to non-Cinco FC, gain flanking bonus from Thorn. SK does 1 dmg on 1st attack, 4 on second; SK misses, 27 dmg, tough; SK does 25 points, KW dead. KW cmd check, 3 flee
- GMCA blaze round on eMadrak, misses with 13
- Thorn moves
- JWC shoots @ caber, misses!
- Hunter moves, shoots Champ C for 7 points
- Piper Heroic Call on SK
- Black 13th activates; Watts shoots Champ C, misses; Lynch shoots Caber, tough; Ryan shoots KW, tough; shoots again, no dmg, here comes POW14, 4" AOE - caber tough, KW tough, KW - dead. Pass cmd check w/5.
- Haley activates, arcs Chain Lightning on KSB2: KW tough, SSE tough, Smiley takes a point (why the hate??), eMadrak 4 points
- Thorn yo-yo
- Temporal Barrier
- Rowdy quake attack, knocks down 2 champs, Chronicler.
Game called due to time; Mike 8, Jen 4
The biggest problem was getting stuck behind my own models. I will run 2 units of KW and I'm investigating a second unit of Champ. Tweaked the list yet again, we'll see what I can come up with. In the meantime, sleep sounds good.
Another great battle report!
ReplyDeleteNotes from the other side of the table:
My list:
pHailey
- Squire
- Ol' Rowdy
- Thorn!
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
Stormblades + UA
Sword Knights (x9) + UA
Piper of Ord
Black 13th
GMCA
Finn
Turn 1 was a disaster. Had to retire the GF9 dice and switch out to the reserve dice. The Cygnar faction dice spent the rest of the day on ice. Hopefully they will learn from the experience and not be as petulant next time. The reserve dice did their jobs well from that point on - although Jen's "tough" dice were once again amazing. Next time we play I want to track the percentage of tough rolls she makes to see if she is actually rolling better than average, or if it just my hatred of the tough roll that makes her seem like she is.
I played this game very "forward" for the first few rounds. I wasn't going to let 48 medium base models intimidate me. I wanted her to eat chain lightning every single round just so she would have something to look forward too. I *really* wanted to kill the Champions, and I went all in with my stormblades early hoping to get that done. I managed to take out two of them, but lost more than half of the unit to a crazy boosted caber toss. I hates me some cabers.
With the stormblades dead, I backed off the offensive and tried to open up one of the flanks, which was being held down by two untis of Kreil Warriors and a FC. A lucky shot had already killed one the the unit leaders in the first turn, so they were squishy. I was really happy to have the extra mobility of Thorn's yo-yo and the Hunter's reserve tank, which allowed me to colsolidate my army into a little knot, and then protect them with TB.
The turning point was when Jen tried to push through Ryan's arcane storm effect thing, and it decimated a unit a Kreil Warriors (the first time she failed tough rolls en masse). As that right flank (in the photos) collapsed, it looked brighter that I would probably be able to pull it out (the decimation of the Stormbades was pretty demoralizing for me). We ended up calling time, but the I was feeling much better about things.
In the end, I agree with Jen that the third unit of KWs was too much. Like a RTS video game, they came streaming at me one at a time, and I could deal with them. Had that been a second unit of champs on that flank, I would have been screwed.
As for my learning curve:
- I still can't make Stormblades earn their points.
- Thorn is my favorite thing in the game!
- Black Thirteenth are sick and wrong.
- Jr. lived! Promote him!
- It is hard to not be intimidated by this many trolls!!!
I've got my second unit of KWs in hand. I am contemplating a second unit of Champs as well. The list I want to try has an Earthborn Dire Troll... will have to see how that works. I will probably take this list against Kater's Circle on Friday.
ReplyDeleteAs for the tough rolls, I checked when I played Scott several weeks ago. I think I make 12 of 25, so just under 50%. I think I've been right around there the times we've played.
You would've smoked me if not for the tough rolls. :P
I need to get back to Cygnar so I can play with the Thorn yo-yo!