Game 6--Jarl vs Rask 35pts (REMATCH)

After my first defeat of the night, another guy asked if I wanted to play a game at 35pts-- he was using the Rask list he lent to the TO at the Hardcore event last Saturday.

We set up terrain and rolled the Ammunition Run scenario which I played against Garryth last week.

We Rolled off and I nabbed the first turn.

Jarl put Quicken on the Fenns and advanced, pretty standard.  The Fennblades ran 16" but instead of exposing them like a huge line, I put 3 forward sort of screening the rest of the unit.  Everything else ran up behind them.

My opponent ran everything up and used Rask's feat (friendly models in his control area can't be targeted by attacks or charges from >5" away).

I basically scooted forward a little bit and counter-feated with Jarl.

One unit of Gators got Dirge of Mists and ran to engage some of my forward Fennblades.  Rask walked up behind a wall and put Fury on his Swamp Horror.  I placed the clouds so that a little sliver of the middle objective was visible to the Swamp Horror, and he charged and killed it.  1CP to Rask.  The second gator unit got March and charged from the forest they were in and killed my objective, putting rask at 2CPs.  Both witch doctors used zombify on the gator units.

It bears mentioning that at this point, I had to roll a command check because the gators had Terror from Dirge.  And the Fennblades failed.  Craaaaaap.  My opponent said to forget it because that would be game over.  So, we continued.

Dropping the pretense of competition, the game took on a more educational posture from hereon in.  We discussed the best course of action for the fennblades-- They ended up managing to charge the front line of engaging gators, and 3 managed to charge the swamp horror, and they killed the gators and almost killed the Swamp Horror.  (It bears mentioning that in 6 games, this is the first time I've felt good about them).  Jarl toed into the zone, cast MB and shot the swamp horror, boosted damage, and finished it off.  MB bounced onto Rask and did a couple of points I think.

His turn, he decided he couldn't attrition against trolls and that he should go for an assassination-- He moved Rask out from behind the wall and used his energy siphon shot and took one of my Fury and used it to boost damage on Jarl and did a respectable amount.  The two witch doctors managed to do some sac strikes and got Jarl down to 6 boxes, but they couldn't seal the deal.

My turn, the fennblades get out of the way and do some attacks and maybe kill a gator.  The Mauler charges his Wrastler (the only beast left on his side) for 11 damage on the charge, then hits it again, and gets headbutt from his chain attack, and then manages to do like 2 points every attack after that.  Lame, Mauler, Lame.  I then take my Bomber and run up and beat the Wrastler the rest of the way to death--Rask now has nothing to transfer to.

Jarl stands still and takes two fully boosted shots at Rask (-3 to damage), and finishes him off

Jarl Wins-Assassination

Finally! A win!

Now, this is largely due to my opponent being gracious, so I can't really claim that my strategic mind was better than his or anything like that.  I just managed to take advantage of a failed assassination attempt.

Overall, I thought I played the list pretty well--For the first time, the Mauler felt like he belonged!  After my last game with just the Bomber and the Impaler, 2 beasts just didn't feel like enough.  I think keeping the Mauler as a second wave behind the fennblades and being more aggressive about using him is a good way to go.

Game 5--Jarl vs Venethrax 35pts

Headed up to DLair to try and grab a quick game or two-- First game against Venethrax

I brought my normal Jarl list, but subbed out the Mauler for some Gatormen.

He ran something like:
Venethrax
-Reaper
-Skarlock
Full Bane Thralls w/ UA
Min Biles
Tartarus
Gorman
Saxon
Pistol Wraith
Maybe something else? I don't really remember.

I don't remember the game enough to parse it out like I usually do, but It went something like this:

I ran everything forward and so did he, putting his Banes easily within charge range of my Fennblades.  So, I charged, getting about 5 engaged?  They all hit and manage to wound, but ALL  of the banes make their Tough roll.  That's pretty much how the game would go from hereon out. Jarl popped some Bile thralls with MB and managed to take them out, and the Bomber got overexposed throwing some 12" bombs their way.  I feated and placed a bunch of clouds in the way.

His banes stood up and fought back, killing basically all of those Fennblades who failed to kill them. (So I guess they bought me a turn?).  The Reaper got 3 Focus and walked up, and shot the bomber and dragged him into melee where he beat him pretty close to death, then Venethrax ran up and finished him off, and got extra focus for Dragonslayer, putting his ARM WAY too high for me to damage, and me down to a single impaler for fury.  Best case, I'd have to cut 3 times a turn from hereon out to be full up.

My turn, I just did ineffective stuff?  Basically from here it just attritioned out-- I jammed with some fennblades who couldn't kill any Banes, and then the banes wiped them off the face of the earth and something killed the impaler and then Venethrax killed Jarl.

Venethrax Wins--Assassination

What would I have done differently?  Gone after the Bane Thrall UA first thing.  But with Stealth, I don't really know how I'd do that... Run a Fennblade up and shoot him in the back with MB? The fennblades were at their all-time least useful in this game, they just kind of... did nothing?  I should know better than to count on Tough to do anything-- But it's hard not to.

People advised me after the game that I was playing the Fenns too aggressively--That I should try and expose only 3-4 of them initially to sort of butter my opponents up to expose their tarpit unit to a catastrophic countercharge.  So, that's a thought.

DLair Hardcore Game 2--Jarl vs eAsphyxious

So after a pretty rough first game, I'm feeling like 5min turns are rough, but I'm sticking it out.  Names are drawn and such and I get paired against our Meta's resident Cryx expert.  I know from the start that it'll be an uphill battle, but I'm determined to come away with some good lessons--and I did just that.

I brought my same Jarl list from earlier

My opponent brought:
eAsphyxious
-Ripjaw
Full Bane Knights
Min Bane Thralls w/ UA
Min Blood Witches w/ UA
Min Biles
Tartarus
Gorman di Wulfe

We roll for setup and I nab the first turn (I'm 4-0 at this point)

Top of 1:  Jarl puts Quicken on the Fenns and advances.  Fenns run up pretty far.  Battlegroup run/riles for Fury, support pieces keep up.

Bottom of 1: The infantryspam shitstorm that is my opponent's list all runs.  Incorporeal Blood Witches end up RIGHT on my doorstep.  Biles are pretty spread out throughout his mid/back field so it'll be hard to get them.  Gaspy puts two clouds down right in front of my Fennblades--if they advance, they take a point of damage.  Bummer.

Top of 2: I FINALLY see a chance for the Bomber to bomb things-- so the Impaler puts his animus on the bomber and the Bomber goes to town-- He manages to take out a couple of Bile Thralls, a Bane Thrall, and knock Tartarus down to one box.  Jarl activates and sacs his movement.  He puts up Magic Bullet and shoots one of the Witches--Magic Bullet bounces into their UA and knocks her down to one point.  A second Magic Buller shot kills another Witch and finishes off the UA.  AND THEN I RUN OUT OF TIME.  SHIT.

Bottom of 2: Gaspy's clouds go away and a Bile Thrall purges all over my Fenns-- curiously, 4/5 of them make their Tough Rolls.  After that, the Fenns eat a HUGE charge from the Bane Knights which basically wipes them out of the zone.  A Blood Witch engages my Bomber, and the Bane Thralls run further up the board.  Gaspy moves into the zone (and, because I have nothing left, Dominates it) and I think Excarnates one of the poor Fennblades.  Jarl takes 5pts of Grievous Wounds damage for the scenario.

Top of 3: I finally remember Vengeance and the Fenns do OK-- Killing off almost all the Bane Knights they can get to.  I then see another good opportunity for the Bomber (who is engaged)-- so the Impaler puts up his animus again, advances into Melee, and kills the Blood Witch.  Then the Bomber throws at something which I forget, but misses and it deviates right into 3 of my already dwindled Fennblades, and kills 1 or 2 of them.  D'oh.  His second bomb misses as well, but deviates and kills Gorman and a Bane Thrall or two. I don't really remember what I did with Jarl, but I'm sure he Magic Bulleted a few infantry models.  AND THEN I RUN OUT OF TIME AGAIN. Double shit.  I forget what, but I had something in the zone.

Bottom of 3: The Bane Knights Vengeance and kill essentially what's left of the Fennblades.  They charge some stuff in my backfield (the Runebearer, the Fell Caller?) and my Mauler--Doing some damage, presumably.  They kill the Fell Caller, but the Runebearer makes his Tough Check.  Bane thralls charge my Bomber and Impaler, they kill the Impaler and take out the Bomber's Spirit.  Tartarus ends up pretty close to Jarl, and other assorted things are threatening me everywhere--My memory's pretty fuzzy here.  Gaspy Dominates the zone again, and Jarl takes another 5 Grievous Wounds Damage (he's at 6 points now).

Top of 4: At this point, my army is reduced to: A spiritless Bomber, a beat-up Mauler, my knocked down Runebearer, and Jarl.  Damn.  The Mauler Tramples through some Bane Knights just so I can get SOMETHING in the zone. He takes a pretty beefy Free Strike on the way. Jarl activates, shoots down a bane knight and Tartarus, but I forget to heal the Bomber with him.  The Bomber, still unable to force, misses both of his attacks on the Bane Thralls that are engaging him, and the Runebearer stands up and basically does nothing.

Bottom of 4: The Bane Knights Vengeance and get ready to charge my Mauler.  Then they do that, and they kill him.  The Runebearer makes a few Touch Checks, and the Bomber gets beat up some more.  Gaspy Dominates the zone once more and knocks Jarl down to 1 box.

Top of 5: Jarl shoots some stuff to un-engage the Runebearer, and heals the Bomber, who beats the shit out of 3 Bane thralls in Melee with him (the last of whom toughs, to spite me)  I run the Runebearer into the zone.

Bottom of 5: My opponent kills the Bomber (I reave the Fury because, why not), and then the Runebearer makes a couple of tough rolls, and then finally kills him and Dominates the zone once again to finish Jarl off for good.

eAsphyxious Wins-- Scenario Assassination?!?

So, I got tabled which isn't a GREAT feeling, but I feel as though this had potential to be one of my better showings if not for the timed turns.

The Fennblades were able to dispatch the infantry they came up against, and, if I'd had time to fully activate them, they might have made a more meaningful dent in my opponent's forces.  The Bomber did OK-- Being able to throw 4" AOE's 12" into my opponent's backfield, he managed to (accidentally) take Gorman out, so I see that as having some definite potential in later games. The Mauler, as my opponent put it, just felt out of place, having no real synergy with the rest of the army other than his basic beatstick usefulness.  (for the record, he's in the list because he's painted)

My opponent recommended I work on target priority-- Biles were a big problem, and I see Jarl as a good match for these with Magic bullet and being able to effectively stand still and shoot 16" at RAT 9.  I managed to kill Gorman accidentally, but I don't know that I could have managed anything else-- having stealth sort of undoes all my shooting abilities except the AOEs.

I forgot the freakin' whelps again, so I need to work on that.

So, I think more practice with the list will see me improve some. He's got some really good support tricks and Magic Bullet is a really cool trick for attrition.  I'm thinking of running a sort of wonky minion-heavy list with Jarl, but I'll get into that later.

Overall, the event was really fun!  Glad to be getting back out and playing the game more, and seeing friends and losing to them.

Looking at my first week with Jarl and the blog, 4 games and 6 posts isn't half bad.  I feel like I've definitely learned some lessons, now I just have to keep getting experience with it and try and build on those.

DLair Hardcore Game 1--Jarl vs Rask 35pts

Back from the Soft-Hardcore event up at DLair, had a good time!  Suffered two pretty crushing defeats, but for games 3 and 4 with Jarl (and Trolls) that's to be expected.  Pretty small turnout overall (5 of us, plus the TO), so the event wrapped up pretty quickly.

Game 1, I got the bye and played the TO using one of the players' Blindwater Congregation.

I brought the same Jarl list I've been running:
Jarl
-Mauler
-Bomber
-Impaler
-Runebearer
Max Fennblades w/ UA
Fell Caller
Whelps

he brought:
Rask
-Wrastler
-Swamp Horror
Max Gatorman Posse
Max Gatorman Posse
2 Gatorman Witch Doctors

We rolled and I got first turn.

Top of 1: I advance Jarl up, put Tactical Supremacy on myself and put Quicken on the Fennblades who advanced 8"--I wanted to try and keep from getting too exposed early on. The Beasts basically just advance and rile/run for the correct amount of Fury.  I accidentally advanced the Mauler out of Jarl's Control Area, but Tactical supremacy at the end of my turn let Jarl side-step to get the Mauler back in.

Bottom of 1: Pretty much the same thing.  Stuff ran, a few Gatormen toed the edge of the zone, and chanted Dirge of Mists for +1 DEF and Terror. (DEF 13 Overall)

Top of 2: Let me say first that 5 minute turns are a bitch.  Moving forward, I see the chance to alpha-strike.  With the Gators' ability to WRECK living models (so, everything I have), it seemed important to get there first.  Jarl tried some Magic Bullet shenanigans, attempting to bounce it off of a Posse member into a Witch Doctor, but I didn't manage to kill either.  Meanwhile, the Fell Caller calls +2 MAT on the Fennblades, who minifeat and charge-- about 6/12 manage to engage Gators-- and then it all goes wrong.  At MAT 8 rolling against DEF 13, 4/6 Fennblades miss their attacks, and the ones that hit barely scratch the gators.  Moving the whole unit and doing those attacks (none of which were lethal) took up a great deal of time.  Once that was finished, I barely had time to rile the Bomber for more fury before time ran out.

Bottom of 2: After my Fennblades just bounced off the wall of Gatormen, they retaliated, and wiped all of them out. Some who were not already engaged managed to engage others further back in the unit, and the Fenns took heavy losses.  Not much happened, just an attrition war going against me.

Top of 3: Concerned about time, I completely space out and blow by the remaining Fennblades' Vengeance Moves/Attacks.  The Fennblades activate normally, and continue to miss attack rolls and underperform on damage rolls.  I see a chance with Jarl to take a shot at Rask (who is sitting on several fury and 2 largely unused warbeasts, so the Impaler puts his animus on Jarl, and Jarl takes a shot... and misses.  His second shot hits and does a respectable amount of damage (which is immediately transferred).  The Mauler charges and kills a Gatorman, and I pretty much ran out of time for everyone else.

Bottom of 3: My opponent sees a chance to go for the assassination.  One Witch Doctor walks up and uses Sacrificial Strike to kill a Fennblade and open up a charge lane.  Then, 3 Posse charge Jarl and beat him to feakin' death.

Rask wins by Assassination.

Looking back at it, I think a lot of went wrong came down to dice-- Charging at -6 against models with 8 Boxes and Tough was going to be a tall order, but I didn't expect 66% of them to miss their 5-to-hit rolls.  Yikes.  Overall, I'm feeling pretty down on the Fenns at this point, but I'm trying to give them their due and get some more experience with them.

My battlegroup ended up being largely irrelevant in the game-- being so short on time, and not having any particularly juicy targets for the bomber (everything in the list had boxes), he ended up just being a Fury battery.  The Mauler charged and killed a Gatorman, but he should have been doing way more than that.  My major issue is time, I just don't really know how I would have activated all of that meaningfully in 5 minutes--at least at this stage, given my lack of familiarity with Trolls.

I'm not really sure how I could have defended better against the Assassination, probably just placing Jarl more centrally to have more stuff in the way.

First thoughts: Dragon's Lair 35pts Hardcore-ish

So, with only a few hours till I pack my bags up and bike over to Dragon's Lair for a test run through the new Hardcore 2013 rules at 35 Points, I can't help but think about it some.

At first glance, here's what I'm looking at:
-5 Minute Turns (w/ one 2 Minute Extension)
-Killbox is now 14" and essentially a 5 Damage Grievous Wounds hit.
-When you dominate the central zone (and your opponent doesn't contest it), your opponent's caster takes a 5 Damage Grievous Wounds hit.  If 2 casters are in the zone, the active one dominates it.
-There's a zone and tiebreakers and such, so it's not simply an auto-lose if you fail to assassinate.

Thinking about how I'm going to go at the event, I've decided to do nothing special and just treat it as a chance to get in a few more games with my Jarl list.  As of this writing, I'm pretty sure that the list is going to be completely gutted and changed, but I figure it will be a good chance to try out a few things, so here are my goals tonight:

• Don't worry about the timed turns.  I'm going to play my game, and if I clock myself, that's better than making a bunch of mistakes trying to rush.
• I want to get some more practice timing Jarl's feat.  It's subpar, but I think with proper timing I can get some use out of it.
• 2 games in, I'm not much of a fan of Fennblades but I think that if I slow down some and exercise some more patience with their alpha strike, I can get some more use out of them.  This won't help the issue of their survivability, but if I can get more use out of them before they all die horrible deaths, I might reconsider.
• I'd like to actually use the Bomber's bombs with some success.
• I'm going to remember Whelps and Rage this time.  I'm pretty sure.

I feel like that's a pretty good set of goals for the night.  We'll see how it goes!

Game 2--Jarl v Garryth 35pts

Right after my first loss, I decided to play another pick-up game with another friend playing Retribution at 35pts

I brought:
Jarl
-Mauler
-Bomber
-Impaler
-Runeshaper
Full Fennblades w/ UA
Fell Caller
Whelps

He was running (I think):
Garryth
-Phoenix
Full Sentinels w/ UA
Aiyana and Holt
House Shyeel Artificer
Mage Hunter Assassin
Akantrik Force Generator

We rolled the Ammunition Run Scenario, and I got first turn.

Top of 1: I put Quicken on the Fennblades and Weald Secrets on Jarl, and advanced into a forest. (I think I thought Weald Secrets gave me Prowl instead of Camouflage, but a DEF bonus is always nice I guess).  The Fennblades run up a respectable 16" into the center zone and everything else plays catchup.

Bottom of 1: He moves his Sentinels up into defensive line (I think they ran?).  Garryth moved up behind a wall, and I totally miss him putting Mirage up on the Sentinels.  Other stuff moves up, and the AFG shoots a 4" difficult terrain AOE into the zone, killing one unlucky Fennblade.

Top of 2: I see a chance to mess stuff up.  I upkeep Quicken and Weald Secrets.  The Fell Caller moves up and chants +2 MAT on the Fennblades.  The Fennblades UA pops their Mini-Feat, and they charge across the table, with 4 or 5 making it into the Sentinels, 1 into Holt, and another into the Mage Hunter Assassin.  The rest make it well into the zone.  They kill 4 Sentinels, and miss Holt and the Assassin.  Bummer.  The Impaler puts Far Strike on Jarl and advances.  The Bomber and Mauler Rile/Run to get enough Fury on the board.  The Mauler is poised to take out the central objective next turn.  The Runebearer puts his Discount on Jarl and advances.  Jarl advances, casts Magic Bullet and takes a 16" shot at the Phoenix, for 6 points of Damage on its field.  Magic Bullet bounces into Aiyana and kills her.  Jarl then casts Tactical Supremacy on the Fennblades, and pops his feat, placing a full 6 clouds in a sort of arc.  The Fennblades use their Tactical Supremacy move to micro back 3" into the clouds.

Bottom of 2: The Sentinels move up with vengeance, and a couple are able to kill Fennblades.  They then get to move for Mirage, and all get in position to charge.  Then they charge and just about annihilate my Fennblade unit.  Bummer. the AFG and Holt gun down a few more Fennblades, and the Assassin kills the one in Melee with her.  This leaves me with about 2 left?  A few of the Sentinels were bunched up, so the House Shyeel Artificer advances and makes them all immune to Blast Damage.The clouds didn't do a whole lot, but they did block line of sight to more important targets.

Top of 3: Clouds disappear, I drop all my upkeeps.  I'm looking at an assload of really fast weaponmasters on my doorstep, and I need to do something about it.  A lot of them are bunched up, perfect for my Bomber (although, probably a little too high armor for the bomber to be WILDLY effective, but who knows) but they're immune to Blast Damage, so the Artificer is public enemy #1.  The Impaler advances and puts Far Strike on Jarl, then throws a spear and Crit Smites one Sentinel through another, killing them both.  Jarl advances, and takes a shot at him, and does some damage.  He takes a second shot and misses or doesn't do enough damage, I don't recall.  Seeing himself hella exposed, he puts Tactical Supremacy on himself in hopes of surviving.  The Mauler advances and beats the central objective to death, which then explodes and kills one Sentinel and earns me a Control Point (and sets the mauler on fire!).  The Bomber advances and tries to throw a bomb at the Artificer, but misses or something.  The Fell Caller and other stuff moves into the zone to try and help contest, and finally Jarl backs up some with Tactical Supremacy.

Bottom of 3: Garryth gives 3 Focus to the Phoenix.  The Sentinels use their Vengeance Move and Mirage to get in position, then HELLA CHARGE my Bomber and other stuff, killing all of it.  YIKES!  Some stuff might have made their Tough Rolls, but still, yikes.  The Phoenix charges the Mauler and beats it up pretty bad. The AFG takes a shot at poor, defenseless Jarl and does like 15 points of Damage. I transfer to the Mauler, which kills him and sends 2 damage back at Jarl.  Garryth moves up and takes a few shots, which Kill Jarl, but I make a Tough Check.  Holt shoots Jarl, and I tough.  Then he shoots him again and I finally die.

Garryth Wins by Assassination.

So, looking back, the first thing I have to question was the use of Tactical Supremacy to move the Fennblades backwards.  Maybe if I'd moved them up and jammed the rest of the Sentinels, they wouldn't have punched so far into my lines?  Although, there's always the chance that they'd wipe the fenns off the board with just Vengeance Attacks, so who knows  Maybe if I ran Jarl up turn 1 to try and get the feat clouds to debuff the Sentinels' MAT when I jammed them that would have helped, but that'd be a lot of running for poor Jarl.

The Fennblades' survivability is called into question again.  I feel like I need a unit that can dish out some hurt, but be able to hold the line against standard frontline infantry like Sentinels or Praetorian Swordsmen.  Kriel Warriors with Steady could be a big plus, or Boomhowlers with +4 Tough (as well as Rage Howler, etc.).

I left the Mauler and the Bomber WAY too close together at the end of Turn 3, which made it pretty easy for him to take both out.  And, finally, Jarl was just too exposed.  Maybe if I'd brought Swamp Gobbers, that would have helped some.  Janissa's wall would be nice, but I feel like she's inevitably going to want to go with the pDoomshaper list I'll want to build, so I'm trying to avoid needing her in this list.

One thing I feel like I'm missing is adequate Ranged Attrition?  I feel as though relying on the Bomber may not be a good call, although at this point the Bomber hasn't really been able to do anything, so there may be hope for him yet.

Lessons Learned:
- Whelps, Whelps, Whelps
- Spread Beasts out more
- MAYBE I should have waited some on the ridiculous Fennblade charge.  They killed all the Sentinels they touched, so maybe if I'd waited for them to come into range, I would have been able to clear them out.
- Instead of shooting at the Artificer, I should have taken Jarl and Magic Bullet to reduce the Sentinels, probably 2-4 guys.

Overall, I'm really happy with Jarl.  I really enjoy his ability to take the Impaler's animus and scalpel out key models (Aiyana, in this game).  Though, I feel like Magic Bullet should be explored against infantry grunts as well, because they ended up being a bigger problem.  I want to play a few more games with this list, but at the moment, I'm on the fence about Fennblades and the Bomber.  At this point, though, I'm willing to entertain the possibility that the Fennblades' lack of success is due to my not using them correctly, and the Bomber's lack of success has been mostly that there haven't been any real targets for him to shoot at, but we'll see.

I feel like I played better in this game than my first, which is always a good sign.

Game 1-- Jarl v eDoomshaper 35pts

First game with Trolls, and more specifically Jarl.  Got a 35 point game set up against eDoomshaper.

I had:
Jarl
-Mauler
-Bomber
-Impaler
-Runebearer
Full Fennblades w/ UA
Fell Caller
Whelps

He had something like:
eDoomshaper
-Mulg
-Rok
-Earthborn
Krielstone (full? min? don't really remember)
Janissa
Feralgeist

We rolled to set up terrain, and I went first-- Set up a hill for Jarl to stand on in my right lower quarter of the board.  My opponent put down a water feature in his lower right, then I placed some rough terrain out of the way, and he placed an obstacle right in the middle of the board--Problematic.  Overall I don't really like setting up terrain this way, I sort of prefer just generally setting it up as a "tourney table."

My initial reaction was that it didn't feel like I had an adequate answer to the amount of really heavy armor I was looking at, and that Magic Bullet would be of some use for taking out key support pieces.

Rolled for initiative and I got the first turn:
Top of 1: I Pretty much just ran stuff. Jarl got up on the hill, Quicken went on the Fennblades, Tactical Supremacy went on Jarl for some reason.  (I then promptly forgot about it at the end of my turn)

Bottom of 1: He moved up with the brick, passed around the Earthborn's animus and Janissa put a wall in front of them.

Top of 2: Upkept Quicken and Tactical Supremacy. The Fennblades advanced 8" with Quicken.  Impaler put Far Strike on Jarl.  Mauler and Bomber moved up.  Jarl cast Magic Bullet on himself and took a 16" shot at Mulg, doing no damage (of course).  Magic Bullet hit Janissa for half her health. Jarl feated and put out 5 3" templates (I then realized I should have brought my 4" templates. in front of the Fenns.  I then forgot Tactical Supremacy for the second time.

Bottom of 2: My opponent mentioned a potential assassination on Jarl.  Doomshaper put Primal and Wild Aggression on Mulg, then Mulg trampled forward and bought an attack on a Fennblade.  The feat clouds made little difference to his buffed MAT, and he killed it.  Mulg goaded 2" forward and killed another fennblade, and couldn't quite get to Jarl, so he beat my Bomber down to 7 boxes. Rok trampled forward and berserk/goaded his way through several more Fennblades, and then the Earthborn did the same thing.  The Krielstone bearer ran WAY up the board, and he left his buddies behind.  Janissa put a wall up in front of Doomshaper.

Top of 3: A couple of the Fennblades used their vengeance moves to line up better charges-- I thought with pathfinder I could put one on Janissa, but wasn't sure.  Another got in position to charge the Krielstone Bearer, and a final one, if he could survive a freestrike from Mulg, could charge Doomshaper.  The vengeance attacks did precisely nothing.  The Fellcaller called Parthfinder on the Fennblades.  I then became aware that I would be woefully out of command range if I charged Janissa.  So that one charged the Earthborn and did nothing.  Another charged the Krielstone and missed.  The final took a HUGE freestrike from Mulg and made his tough roll.
The Impaler moved up and put Far Strike on Jarl, and tried to throw a spear at Mulg (which missed). Jarl healed the Bomber for 2 and presumably shot something I don't really remember-- I'm pretty sure it was the Krielstone Bearer, who was too far away .
The Mauler beat the Earthborn to death and the Feralgeist brought it back to life-ish.  The bomber threw Rok into Mulg and knocked them both down and did negligible damage.

Bottom of 3: I don't remember a lot of what he did.  Mulg frenzied from Primal and ended up killing the knocked-down Fennblade.  Rok did something that escapes me--He might have killed the bomber?  The Earthborn hit the Mauler and took out his body, and I managed to remember to spawn a Whelp.  Janissa put another wall up in front of Doomy.

Top of 4: Things here are pretty fuzzy. I had the whelp wipe the fury off the Mauler to avoid frenzying. I let quicken drop on the couple remaining Fennblades.  I don't remember what they did.  I think they tried to get in the way of Rok.  The Mauler advances into Rok (a tiny bit-they were pretty close), and buys a bunch of attacks.  The FellCaller charges Rok and nearly kills him. The impaler puts Far Strike on Jarl, then tries to Slam Mulg.  He misses (I would have boosted, but he was full up) and is left sitting there.  Runebearer puts discount on Jarl.  Jarl puts up Magic Bullet and takes a shot at Doomshaper, for 12 damage. This triggers Mulg's Protective Fit.  He advances up, but I don't think he actually hits Jarl.  Magic Bullet off of Doomshaper hits and kills Janissa.  He then casts Tactical Supremacy on himself and backs away from Mulg--Evasive lets me back up without taking a free strike.

Bottom of 4: All hell breaks loose.  Rok does something or other and through some Goad/Berserk Shenanigans moves over and finishes off Jarl, who doesn't make his tough check.

Game Over-eDoomshaper Wins by Assassination


Lessons Learned:
-REMEMBER MULG HAS PROTECTIVE FIT
-eDoomshaper's beasts are coming from DOWNTOWN
-Fennblades are about as survivable as Farrow Brigands (meh), but can't be trampled over (a plus)
-Remember to spawn whelps when my beasts take damage (although I managed to do that at the right time)
-Remember Rage--this would have been a better answer to the high ARM I came up against.

I came away from the game feeling like Fennblades and the Bomber were "meh," although I guess I can't blame the Fenns for not surviving an alpha-strike by 3 pretty badass heavies, and the Bomber for not having anything to bomb.

My play overall was sloppy (to be expected, I haven't played in some time), but I think I came away with some good lessons learned.

Resolutions

So after a long, tumultuous process that would take too long to go into here, I've decided that my goals for 2013 are as follows:

• Learn to play Trollbloods Competitively
• Play as many games as I can, and document them here (mostly for myself, but hey, if you're reading, great)
• Play fully painted (I'm well on this track)
• Don't buy Convergence of Cyriss this Summer.

So, that all being said, things are looking pretty good!  So far I've painted a Mauler, a Bomber, an Impaler, and a full unit of Fennblades, and I got 2 games in with Jarl at 35 points last night.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up!