Sunday 16 May 2010

Chewing Jerky

Interesting couple of games against Jim in our efforts to prepare for the UK Masters. A much better performance from both of us today than on Tuesday - I think sleeping at regular GMT hours may have helped my cause. Anyway, the first game I tried out eIrusk to help Jim test out his eSkarre list and it eventually turned into a bit of a grind.

Khador mechanics are stupid. I'm sure Cygnar mechanics are too, but honestly, 3 turns of the Deathjack wailing on my poor Behemoth. Fortunately for Jim he took out its Cortex every single time so I could never detonate the Deathjack in return. The list I put together really didn't work all that well with eIrusk, as Jim commented later, eIrusk probably works best with things like Man'o'War. There were a lot of shiny moving parts to the machine, but actual function was lacking.

The second game moved me back into familiar territory, I brought my Trollbloods with me. Using pDoomshaper against eDeneghra was something of an eye-opening experience. I've never been able to nullify her feat before and having stymied Jim's assault - though hitting the Deathjack with Stranglehold - her assault really petered out. Jim saw a very long and complicated opportunity to assassinate pDoomshaper but needed some help with the technical details. Eventually a Whelp was placed on the table that thwarted the entire effort but it felt like cheating and we just called it quits then.

I really don't know if I'd have put the Whelp there to deny Jim if I hadn't known what he wanted to do for the assassination run. Playing against someone like Jim you drop Whelps down wherever you can in *front* of your important things, rather than behind for the warbeasts to eat. This saves you a world of pain in the long run. Sure you can remove 12 damage next turn from Mulg, but that's no good if you just lost your 9 point Mauler that you could have saved by spawning 2 Whelps in front of it.

At the end I feel like I could have won simply by grinding Jim down with my superior troll toughness, though I was a few points down on the points left on the table when we stopped. It's a bit of a mystery however as one of us (me) could have made a mistake and ended it all in tears, or Jim's McThralls could have rolled a bajillion damage if they eventually got to attack Mulg... Or I could have wiped out Jim's McThralls and remaining Banes with my Nyss Hunters (HAH, Cylena stabbaged BLT!) and warbeasts... A little too much to work out without moving into the realm of pure TheoryMachine.

An interesting thing to find out was that pDoomshaper has more answers to the problems I encounter than eDoomshaper. Heavy {something} about to rampage into your army? Stranglehold it. Enemy about to attempt spell assassination? Feat or Banishing Ward. I'm going to see if I have enough Press Ganger points to get him before the UK Masters anyway. He definitely deserves more playtesting.

As for the Mercenaries? They just don't bring the hitting power with them, nor the answers I really needed. Today's game really clinched it so I'm going to see if I can get my entire Trollblood collection painted in 3 weeks. My goal is at least 5 miniatures a week. They'll have to be completed as well. Luckily my collection of light warbeasts is already done, so I've saved myself a little time.

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