Warmachine Battle Reports - Khador vs. Trollbloods - 50 Point Steamroller

Last night I was able to play Scott again at GMI games but this time he brought out his super Trollbloods. His list was not something I've played before and it had a lot of unique stuff including 2 units of Minions that did fancy things.

Butcher 3/3 + Snipers (50 Points)

Warcaster: Butcher Unleashed (Butcher 3) (-4)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Devastator (+9)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Nyss Hunters (+8)
Unit Attachment: Valachev (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (+3)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)
Solo: Kell Bailoch (+2)
Solo: Marksman (+2)
Objective: Fuel Cache

List building: I've been toying with this list for a while as I love Butcher 3 and I'm pretty good with him. Butcher 3's major problems are things that hinder his Flashing Blade and Impending Doom. (The Book, Orin Midwinter, Mulg, Druids, etc) I have the Widowmakers and Marksman to take out Orin and the Book and I have eEiryss for Mulg's animus. I wanted this list to have a large focus of highly accurate long ranged snipers to soften up my opponent while Butcher 3 and his 3 Warjacks come in and clean up the big stuff. The Nyss are there to be accurate, high defense guys who can contest on the opposite side of the map.

VS.

Scott's Trollbloods (50 Points)

Warlock: Grim Angus (-6)
Warbeast: Mountain King (+20)
Warbeast: Slag Troll (+6)
Warbeast: Troll Impaler (+5)
Unit: Pyg Burrowers (+6)
Unit: Bog Trog Ambushers (+8)
Unit: Farrow Bone Grinders (+2)
Unit: Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew (+1)
Solo: Fell Caller Hero (+3)
Solo: Totem Hunter (+3)
Solo: Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorrceress (+2)
Objective: Bunker

List Building: I hadn't played a list like his before. The Burrow is definitely something interesting that countered my snipers and the Ambushing Bog Trogs make his positioning unpredictable.

Round 1

Khador Turn 1 - Scott chose Butcher as his Prey target for the Totem Hunter which got me worried. On my turn I simply ran everything up and got it ready for the incoming advance. I was kind of worried about his Bog Trog Ambushers because he mentioned something to Andrew, another player at GMI, about how he was going to try to assassinate Butcher 3 with them. I ran my army up and then Advanced Butcher and used Energizer to give my battlegroup an extra 3" move. My plan was to hold the Left flag and use my high DEF models to contests the other.  I was able to get a couple snipes off on to his Burrowers and boxed his Officer which he toughed.

Trollbloods Turn 1 - Scott favored the right side of the board a little by advancing his Mountain King to that side. He then used the Fell Caller to stand up his Officer of the Burrowers and burrowed them 5" up from his advanced deploy. This made it so I could not target them on my turn. He them moved the rest of his army up the center leaning a little towards the right side. He then ran his Totem Hunter up the left flank.

Round 2

Khador Turn 2 - When I saw his Burrow marker I figured it'd be a perfect time to set my Devastator up for an awesome Rein of Death turn. I ran him into place next to the marker hoping that when he popped up, I would just destroy his entire unit.  I saw that the Totem Hunter was just in Ruin's threat ranged and since I was not familiar with his army, I thought he was trying to bait me to get close to the side of the board for his Ambush. I decided to take out the Totem Hunter anyway and easily dispatched him with Ruin and 3 focus.

I then set up Juggernaut and one of the dogs to block a charge lane to Butcher from the Left side of the board in case he decided to Ambush. I also was very cautious and popped my feat defensively to get Butcher back up to 6 focus. I debated on this because I wanted to save the feat to deal with the Mountain King but I figured Scott has something tricky up with the Bog Trogs and the Burrowers that I couldn't take any chances.

My Widowmakers, Marksman, eEiryss, and Kell Bailoch were able to take out his Fell Caller under the smoke of the Swamp Gobbers. The Nyss were able to charge the Mountain King and did a good chunk of damage on him. I didn't realize that he spawned Whelps each time I hit him and there was no limit to how many came out. It was probably a bad idea. I should have just stayed back and did a combined attack.

Trollbloods Turn 2 - This is the turn I feared. Scott debated a while and came to the conclusion that he probably would not kill Butcher at 14/24. He decided to do as much damage to my Warjacks as possible. His Burrowers came up and charged Ruin and did a small amount of damage. He then Ambushed me and charged Bog Trogs into Ruin, Juggernaut, and Madelyn Corbeau. His rolls were below average but he was able to do minor damage to the Warjack and take out the Cortex of Ruin. He definitely gummed up that side of the board with 20 infantry.

He then activated Grim and popped his feat catching the Devastator, my sniper crew, and some Nyss Hunters. He then cast Marked for Death on the Nyss reducing their DEF to a 13. After that he activated the Mountain King right side he ate all his Whelps and healed him almost to full health. Grim was able to kill Valechev with a shot as I positioned him too close. With Marked for Death Scott was able to Power Sweep and kill the 4 Nyss that were surrounding him and luckily I passed a command check.

I was ok with this as I figured the Nyss were there to just contest and be annoying. Marked for Death really made the Nyss suffer. I didn't know the Mountain King spawned unlimited Whelps so I probably should have just done a combined ranged attack and hit the Mountain King for 1 shot.

Round 3 

Khador Turn 3 -  I didn't get a good picture of it but Ruin and the Juggernaut were completely surrounded by a combination of 20 Bog Trogs and Burrowers. My goal was to wipe them out using Ruin and Butcher and pick off the stragglers with my snipers.

My first move was with Ruin. I started with his little first and missed and then moved on to my big weapon and began decimating his Bog Trogs. Even with his Cortex out, Ruin was able to kill all the Bog Trogs except for the 2 that were behind the Juggernaut by using the souls he collected to buy attacks. He can wipe out entire units that way.

Madelyn Corbeau tries to do some seducing but the Bog Trogs fail to hit each other. The Devastator uses his Rein of Death and smashes 3 Burrowers that surrounded him. He was debuffed under Grim's feat along withe the snipers. My sniper crew takes some shots and they are able to kill one Swamp Gobber who has DEF 19 and a couple of Burrowers who end up Toughing. The Bokur is able to kill 1 Bog Trog with his spear.

Butcher and his Wardogs Activate in hopes to kill all the remaining Bog Trogs and Burrowers. The dogs easily dispatch of the last Bog Trog and Butcher goes in for the remaining 7 Burrowers with Flashing Blade. After Toughing multiple times, Butcher is able to finish everyone off with 2 Focus to spare. He uses 1 to Energize back 1" so he is touching the flag and moves the rest of his battlegroup up 1".

Trollbloods Turn 3 - Scott is in an interesting position because now I've put some scenario pressure on him. Butcher is pretty safe at the moment because of distance so he decides to return some scenario pressure to me. The first thing he does is upkeep Mark of Death on the Nyss and then uses Hunters Mark on my Fuel Cache objective with Lanyssa. He then uses Bait the Line on the objective as well giving models +4 to Charge on it. He then uses the Mountain King and assaulted the objective easily killing it for 1 point. He then shot a spray into my sniper crew but was only able to kill 1 Widowmaker. He then uses the rest of his focus to wipe out 2 of the Widowmakers closest to him.

With his Farrow Bone Grinders, Scott tries to finish off my Marked for Death-ed Nyss but fails to kill them due to some below average dice rolls. His Slag Troll tries to wipe out my ARM 17 Devastator with his Acid with Erosion but also rolls below average and leaves the vulnerable Devastator with all his systems.

The Impaler then shoots a spear at the Devastator failing to crit and does a few points of damage. He ends his turn by running his last remaining Swamp Gobber to contest the left most flag.

The Game is tied 1 - 1.

Round 4

Khador Turn 4 - I was quite lucky that Scott was not able to finish off my Nyss because it gave me a good shot at retaliation. Without Cylena I was not able to combine but I easily shot off the Farrow Bone Griders and Lanyssa which freed up the right side of the board for me. I then used the remaining snipers to do a couple damage points to the Slag.

All I needed to do now was set up my Warjacks to block line of sight to Butcher and position them so that I can kill his Bunker objective next round, oh, and kill that stinking Swamp Gobber contesting my flag which I failed to do with an aiming eEiryss but was able to do with my Ogrun Bokur.

This gave me my much needed 2nd point and put in position to win next turn.

Score: Khador - 2 vs. Trollbloods - 1

Trollbloods Turn 4 - Scott was in a little trouble with his fury leeching and had to make Frenzy checks for all his Warbeasts. He passes both the Impaler and the Slag but fails on the Mountain King which Frenzies and kills a Widowmaker. This is a huge turning point in the game as the Mountain King would have probably been able to clear the center zone putting him up 3 points vs my 2 if he manages to contest the right flag with his Impaler or Slag which would require them to run.

Scott then uses his slag to try to clear Kell Bailoch and the Winterguard but fail to do so even with boosted rolls. He ends his turn with the Impaler and is able to land a crit on the Devastator which pushes him back 1" but fails to do damage.

Score: Khador - 3 vs. Trollbloods - 1

Finishing Move

Khador Turn 5 - If I can manage to kill the Objective with Ruin (minus Cortex), Ogrun Bokur, eEiryss, Kell Bailoch, and 1 Widowmaker I can win the game. The first thing I do is activate Butcher and Energize everyone up 3". I then charge with Ruin at the objective doing only about 5 damage to it. I use my offhand and do 8 more damage putting it at 2 Life. The Ogrun Bokur leaves his client and is able to finish off the Bunker for the win.

Final Score: Khador - 5 vs. Trollbloods - 1

After Game Thoughts - I really enjoyed playing against Scott's Trollblood list. I had never fought against Bog Trogs, Farrow Bone Grinders, Burrowers, Lanyssa, or a Mountain King before so it was a good model learning game for me. It was really cool how how much flexibility he had with his Ambush and Burrowers. The match up was probably not the best for him because of my Warjacks and 14/24 Warcaster but it was interesting.

This was the first time I played with Madelyn Corbeau and I didn't feel like I got a ton of use out of her. Butcher is normally behind a wall of Warjacks so getting that 3" move in my maintenance phase wasn't all that useful. I almost always play very cautiously with him, trying to camp as much as I can and keep my distance while moving towards a flag or zone. Opponents also play very cautiously against him so I rarely have a chance to assassinate making Corbeau not as effective.

I might switch up and replace her after I try her a few more times. I might go for the whole sniper package and put in Alten Ashely. I was also thinking of swapping out the Devastator and Juggernaut for Beast 09, a War Dog, Alten, and Goreman. It would definitely help me against the Domination spell which the Haleys have and give me a fairly accurate high POW Thresher Reach weapon with a threat range of 12" with Energizer. It also saves me a focus because Beast 09 runs for free.

I would be losing an ARM 25 Bulldozer and a 7 point Warjack to piece trade though. I also lose a large base blocking LOS.

I'll have to do some testing to see which is better. I'll most likely be playing Circle of Orboros for the next 3 weeks because of the Devastation Event we are having at GMI. I look forward to winning another coin!