Controlled Warping: Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls

I was able to attend another tournament this past Saturday, this time a little closer to home at Fair Game in Downer's Grove. This one is part of a series that they're doing, but I've already missed the first event, and I'd say its likely I will miss at least one of the others, so that concerned me less. It was a 50-point Divide and Conquer event though and with Warmachine Weekend right around the corner I figured that it'd be good practice and good fun!

Round one has me paired up with Tony, a fellow Press Ganger and he's brought Trollbloods. He brought a Grim Angus list and Runes of War. I had my Bradigus and Krueger lists with me that I've been putting through the ropes lately. I'm pretty much expecting Runes of War to be what he chooses here, so I figure that Bradigus is probably going to be a better matchup there since he's going to have 3 serious heavies to deal with.

Lists

^{Image Courtesy of Griffon's Roost Painting*}

Woldwar - Tier 4

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)

* Woldwatcher (0pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldguardian (9pts)

* Woldwarden (9pts)

Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)

Shifting Stones (2pts)

Runes of War - Tier 4

Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)

* Troll Axer (6pts)

* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)

* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)

* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)

Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)

* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)

Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)

Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

Scenario

Supply and Demand

Special Rules

Mark a zone (12 inch-diameter circle) and place two Supply Cache objectives in accordance with the diagram below. The objective on Player 1's side of the table is a friendly Faction model to Player 1 and vice versa. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:

Artifice: Kill Box

Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

Enemy Objective: Destroyed/Removed from Play = 1 CP (once per objective)

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within the zone

Game

We have quite the hilly table, with a couple of pieces that are rather large on it. I lose the die roll, and my opponent opts to go first. I'm ok with the side that I'm standing on. He tries to deploy the walls from his theme force benefit, but due to the placement of the terrain he's only really able to sneak one wall out there.

Round 1

Fairly typical turn as far as I can recall. Doomshaper fills up the Krielstone and gets the aura out there. Rune shapers start to flank on either side of the table as well. Beasts move ahead, Jannisa runs, Krielstone runs to a good position.

There's a forest on my left and the objective on my right. I go ahead and start with my Mannikins filling the front of my army with a bunch of forests. I probably should have gone ahead and sacrificed another 2 of them to cast the net a little wider so that I'm not susceptible to Runeshaper AOEs the next turn, but I thought I'd be ok. Other than that, everything moves up, gets into Shifting Stones.

Round 2

He does see a couple of openings for himself with the Runeshapers and I believe I lose 2 Mannikins on my left and maybe 1 on my right. That's unfortunate, but I should be ok. The rest of his army mostly just moves up, Janissa does put out a wall, Mulg gets Elemental Communion. Doomshaper ends up on the hill behind the wall and out of the killbox as well.

I look at the table and see that I can take some fury off of the Krielstone with at least one of my Sentry Stones, and I have all of the Mannikins from it. This whole turn I had been looking for if I had an assassination or if I could get his beasts off the table. I actually think its going to be hard for me to get my Synergy count high enough because he's stayed just far enough back. I might have been able to position a little better so that I would have been more effective here, but that's what happened. So the next thing that I did, was use that Sentry Stone as I described. Really, then I look and realize that I can just forest across the army again and he's screwed. I had already used a Mannikin though so my wall isn't going to quite be complete. The only other thing that I realized as I was typing this blog up is that I should have measured 7.5" from my Woldwatcher and than made sure he was just a bit farther from him than that since he can't charge me through the forest.

Round 3

He goes to work trying to take out some of the Sentry Stones and Mannikins with the Runeshapers. I think he does get a large majority of the Mannikins dead, and maybe one of the Sentry Stones. Due to my foreshadowing last round, he puts Rush on his Earthborn, and then walks into the forest in front of the Woldwatcher. He makes an attack on the Watcher, does only a little damage because he has Stone Form up. Then he figures he needs to kill a Shifting Stone, which ends up taking 2 attacks to kill. He then puts another 4 attacks into the Watcher, and doesn't manage to even take out an aspect. Then Doomshaper feats, which is going to be painful.

I've still got 2 functional units of Shifting Stones, and they both have a Woldguardian occupying them. His feat is up, but I think that I have to go ahead and risk it. Bradigus upkeeps Synergy and takes a d6 of damage for doing so. First thing's first, I start Synergy. First a Woldwatcher kills off a couple of Runeshapers, Stone Form costs me a d6 but that's ok. Then the Watcher in base with the Earthborn already goes ahead and gets an attack off on the Earthborn, so Synergy goes up. Bradigus throws a rock at the Earthborn too. I then proceed to teleport one Guardian into Mulg and another one into the Mauler. Both Woldwardens are needed to take down the Earthborn (though only one needs all its fury). Lots of d6s there. Woldguardian goes to town on the Mauler, he's at dice plus 2, I kill him with 3 attacks, so that's nice. The other Guardian goes through all of his fury and loses his body but manages to drop Mulg. My beasts take a beating from the feat and have a lot of fury on them, but I think its pretty worthwhile here.

Round 4

So, now he's starting a turn with only the Axer, Runeshapers, and some Krielstone guys against a lot of ARM. Runeshapers start throwing Rock Hammers at Bradigus, this results in a couple of transfers which probably only helped me out since I had 5 Fury on Bradigus. Janissa tries to go in on the Guardian, does a little bit of damage. The Axer goes in, does some noticable damage, but it still has its Spirit. Few other attempts to do damage on my Guardian and Watcher on my left, but to no avail. Doomshaper throws a Stranglehold on the Warden that can most likely just charge and get to him, manages to damage so only Movement or Action out of him next turn.

I figure that I can get Bradigus on Doomshaper with a full Synergy bonus probably, or close to it. I strategically select which fury to bring in, and use Serenity to remove as much as I can like normal. The Watchers and the minimally damaged Guardian on my left start things off. That lets me throw a punch at the Axer with my Guardian, boost to hit with the one boost I left him, 2 dice, roll a 3 needing I think a 4. Try again with the 1 die, get the 4, he's knocked down and takes a few points I think. The other Warden goes up and makes short work of him after that. Bradigus feats for I think 3" and then charges Doomshaper and I kill him with I think the 2nd attack. In hindsight I think he forgot to take his Tough check here, but I could buy a lot more attacks.

Analysis

I think this matchup was solid. He really can do very little about the forest wall coming into him. Had he stayed back any farther on that scenario I think I'd just kill a few token models, take out the objective and start scoring points. That's probably something I should consider looking for a little more frequently, I was watching for it this game, but I might be able to figure out more ways to manufacture points. Might be even more important if I happen across a timed turns event.

That said, my game plan with Bradigus which basically is to hide my army and then assassinate either their caster or their biggest threats seems to be doing fine. Definitely going to keep giving the guy more reps though as I think getting more out of the feat and knowing when to feat or not feat is good.

^{*Griffon's Roost Painting is my wife Lauren's commission painting, she does fabulous work so feel free to contact her!}

Controlled Warping

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls