Round 1: Vs Max Kenney
Scenario: The Pit 2
Coming into this Scrum, I knew I had committed to playing Denny2 in Dark Host as one of my lists for the foreseeable future. However, Skarre3 and all the Slaughter Fleet Raiders models had just come in and I was anxious to play with Cryx's new toys. I wanted to play Skarre3, but looked at his lists and assumed I would see Madrak1 with the troll champs. I figured either of my lists could handle the Calandra list that he might put forth. The real question was can Skarre3 handle DEF 16 champs? The kraken is a decent answer, as it can get to effective MAT 10 against a single unit for any given turn. If I could keep the kraken safe behind a unit of bloodgorgers and make use of the 4" reach, that would be viable. I also knew that my marauders have CRA and could possibly use that to good effect also.
Ultimately, Denny2 is probably the "correct" choice for this, as breath stealer just makes champs super sad. Losing 2 SPD makes it hard for them to get to the fight and the DEF debuff is big when they can get to DEF 16 in melee. However, I thought I had enough game with Skarre3 that I was going to play it anyway. It's not a bad matchup, I just think Denny2 is probably a better one. Both of my lists out threat him, so I felt good about that. Kraken handles the champs for Skarre while the bane riders would likely take that duty for Denny. I went back and forth a lot, but ultimately I want to play Skarre3 and that will likely be a big factor in most of my matchups for this Scrum. As I expected, Max went with Madrak.
(Madrak 1) Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain [+29] - Storm of the North
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Fell Caller Hero [0(5)]
Trollkin Champion Hero [5]
Valka Curseborn, Chieftain of the North [0(6)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Northkin Bear Handle & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Bear Handle & Battle Bears [10]
Trollkin Champions (max) [16]
- Skaldi Bonehammer [5]
Trollkin Champions (max) [16]
(Skarre 3) Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27] - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
- Kraken [36]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [0(4)]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Black Ogrun Iron Mongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
Deploy: My opponent won the roll and chose to go first. Max declined to place his 4" snow drift templates from his theme benefits. His deployment ended up being fairly symmetrical. Madrak was deployed just left of the center of the board. The two units of champs were placed on either side of Madrak. A unit of bears went on either flank. One mauler was placed between his left champs and bears. The other went behind his right champs and bears. His krielstone was spread out across the back line. The champ hero was placed behind the left champs and Valka was behind the right champs. The fell caller was to the left of the krielstone, behind his left mauler. I was a little surprised that he chose not to ambush with the bears, but he stated that when he did this in the past they died without getting any work done. If he can keep them in Madrak's control range, the DEF bonus could be a benefit to them.
I deployed my marauders centrally to be able to fire on both units of champs when they came into range. Skarre went to the right of the marauders and the kraken was to their left. A unit of bloodgorgers was deployed on either flank, with the left flank getting the unit with Jussika. I was hoping to keep her close enough to the kraken that her no sleeping on the job aura would benefit both the left bloodgorgers and the marauders. The blood priestess was behind Skarre. Her job would be mostly to stay out of the line of fire. Axiara and Gerlack were both deployed behind the marauders to the right of the kraken. Axiara's tactician would be key for allowing the medium bases to not block each other up and Gerlack granting the blighted trollkin +1 to attack rolls would be important with the DEF across the table. Finally, the dirge seers were spread out across the back of the marauders. I wasn't sure what role, if any, they would have in this fight.
Top 1: Madrak dumped all his fury into the krielstone and ran forward. The units of champs ran forward to stand in front of Madrak, while also switching which side of the table they were on. The bears ran and remained on the immediate flank of the champs. The maulers kept position behind the units. The krielstone and various solos ran forward, largely keeping the deployment formation in tact. Max later acknowledged that he forgot Madrak had tactician and probably could have pushed everything a little further up the board if he has remembered that rule.
Bottom 1: My plan for this turn was to get in position for my alpha strike on the bottom of turn two. I knew my army had a longer threat range than his, so my goal was to keep everything just outside his charge ranges. Skarre activated first and cast dash. She also put draconic blessing on the marauders. She then sailed forward into the acid pool, sitting on her remaining focus. The marauders ran forward, with Axiara and Gerlack running up and maintaining their position between the kraken and marauders. The kraken advanced and took a shot with its main gun, but the attack missed and the AOE drifted off to nowhere. The bloodgorders ran forward on either flank, with Jussika continuing to keep her position near the kraken. The iron mongers moved up so one was base to base with the kraken and the other was base to base with Skarre and the leader remained central behind the marauders. The dirge seers moved up behind the marauders and the blood priestess stayed behind Skarre.
Top 2: With no charge targets available, Max elected to run his brick forward. He knew he was going to take the charge and made sure he would not get jammed out of scenario as a result. The champs ran forward again, remaining base to base and again reversing which flank they were on. Valka stood in the back ranks between the two units of champs. The left bears moved forward aggressively to tie up some of the left unit of bloodgorgers. The right bears moved into the forest in the center of the circle zone, with a mauler backing them up. The second mauler played far back. The krielstone pulled activated it armor buff and pulled back just a little too far. Only the back line of champs was actually within its aura. The fell caller stood behind his objective. Madrak moved up to stand inside the circle zone and cast even ground.
Bottom 2: It was time for my alpha. I was hoping to remove almost all the champs and bears from the board, which would mean I only needed the deal with Madrak and maulers. Skarre upkept draconic blessing for free and took a point of corrosion damage. The marauders activated first and the entire unit forfeited movement to get the aiming bonus. I was at first considering two man CRAs, until it was pointed out that the champ's defensive line bonus only applies to melee attacks. With the aiming bonus and Gerlack's veteran leadership, the marauders were effectively RAT 8 and needed 6's to hit. With this in mind, I took individual shots. Some missed, many hit. By the end, all the champs except the two farthest back on the right were on fire. A couple of the champs died directly from the attack, due to not being covered by the aura and draconic blessing applying to thrown weapons. Axiara charged in and took a counter charge from Valka. He connected, but did not move far enough for a charge bonus and a poor damage roll left Axiara on one box. She hit and killed one of the champs. Gerlack followed her in, missing his attack. Any damage they did was considered a bonus, as their job was to apply the gang fighter bonus to the kraken. Skarre3 activated and popped her feat. She moved draconic blessing to the right unit of bloodgorgers and also cast dash and guided fire. She then took a shot at Madrak with one cannon and her hand cannon. Both connected, with the cannon doing minimal damage and the hand cannon putting a decent chunk into him. The left bloodgorgers charged into the left bears and ran to apply gang fighter to more of the champs. Both bears died to the charge.
The iron mongers activated, repaired Skarre and cursed one of the units of champs. It was now the kraken's turn. At this point, I realized that medium bases are difficult to work with and even with 4" reach, the kraken did not have a good spot to land. I also realized that I failed to allocate any additional focus to the kraken and it wouldn't even get to kill all the targets it could get into melee. The kraken killed two champs with its attacks and it's killshot missed because I forgot about guided fire. The right bloodgorgers charged the right bears, killing both and putting a screen of medium bases between Skarre and the enemy trolls. One of the dirge seers also charged in, putting a single point of damage on a champ. At this point, I had killed three of the grey champs and three of the black champs while also killing all of the bears. I had hoped for more, but was thinking he would not be able to effectively get anything onto the kraken. Hopefully next turn would be just cleaning up the champs and starting in on the maulers.
Top 3: His turn started with one of the grey champs burning to death. I think he could see how the battle was starting to go, as unless he killed the kraken, I had iron mongers ready to repair it right back up. He started with having the right champs move forward a little and take some swings into Gerlack and Axiara. Axiara was missed and dodged away. Gerlack took a hit, but not enough damage to force a tough roll. The champ on the far right killed one of the bloodgorgers screening Skarre. Next, Valka stepped up and cut down Gerlack. It was disappointing for me to lose the veteran leader bonus, especially because of my misplays with the kraken. Gerlack never needed to move up to apply gang fighter. The bear handler on the left charged into a pocket of bloodgorgers to tie them up, but he was unable to kill any of them. The stone activated its ARM bonus and ran forward. The fellcaller hero moved behind the last grey champ and sprayed. He did a little damage to the champ and killed two bloodgorgers. The bear handler on the right moved out of the way so the mauler behind it could charge in. The mauler ended up killing two bloodgorgers, which cleared a path for Madrak to come in on Skarre.
Skarre was camping 5 focus, so I was feeling quite safe when this started. The charge attack put a few points of damage on her. I spent a focus on a second attack to cancel out all five points of damage. The remaining attacks all either missed or failed to deal any damage. Madrak was left on zero fury standing in front of Skarre.
Bottom 3: Skarre allocated the full amount to the kraken. The marauders activated first, moving out of the way for both Skarre and the kraken to get into position, except on who stood next to Madrak to grant gang fighter. Skarre activated, moved over, cast draconic blessing on the kraken and boosted a ram attack into Madrak, knocking him down and dealing a little damage. The kraken then moved over and killed Madrak with a single hit.
Analysis: When I put this list together, I had dreams about the kraken hitting enemy infantry at effective MAT 10, P+S 23 or higher and staying safe behind a screen of medium bases. It was quite nice to see that plan come together. The marauders were fantastic. Having their ranged presence in the list is quite nice. I will need to wait for another game to see if the dirge seers are worth their points, as this matchup was not what they are in the list for.
On the other hand, my final turn should have gone much differently. If I had played it differently, I could have at least had a chance at scoring one or two control points. I also could have tried to score some army kill points. My total was the 10 points earned for assassination, as I failed to finish off any of the units that I was putting work into. I also need to work on my medium base placement. The idea of having the kraken stand behind ranks of medium bases is great, but in this game I closed off the landing spot that I really wanted to have. Some of that was due to the marauders standing still and aiming, which was also not the best idea. I could have moved them and taken shots using CRA in groups of two and still accomplished close to the same amount of work, while not blocking off the kraken.
When Max and I spoke after the game, he acknowledged that he forgot a number of rules on his cards, including that Madrak has tactician. There were a couple points during his turns where he was running models around other models instead of pushing straight through them. We didn't get a chance to talk about it, but at the time I thought sending Madrak in on Skarre was a mistake. It's possible he wasn't aware of how resilient she is or how much the focus I was camping on was going to skew the math.
Overall, this was another good scrum game against a great opponent. Max was great to play against and his list presented me with a good challenge for my first time out with Skarre3. Time to prep for round two!
Scenario: The Pit 2
Coming into this Scrum, I knew I had committed to playing Denny2 in Dark Host as one of my lists for the foreseeable future. However, Skarre3 and all the Slaughter Fleet Raiders models had just come in and I was anxious to play with Cryx's new toys. I wanted to play Skarre3, but looked at his lists and assumed I would see Madrak1 with the troll champs. I figured either of my lists could handle the Calandra list that he might put forth. The real question was can Skarre3 handle DEF 16 champs? The kraken is a decent answer, as it can get to effective MAT 10 against a single unit for any given turn. If I could keep the kraken safe behind a unit of bloodgorgers and make use of the 4" reach, that would be viable. I also knew that my marauders have CRA and could possibly use that to good effect also.
Ultimately, Denny2 is probably the "correct" choice for this, as breath stealer just makes champs super sad. Losing 2 SPD makes it hard for them to get to the fight and the DEF debuff is big when they can get to DEF 16 in melee. However, I thought I had enough game with Skarre3 that I was going to play it anyway. It's not a bad matchup, I just think Denny2 is probably a better one. Both of my lists out threat him, so I felt good about that. Kraken handles the champs for Skarre while the bane riders would likely take that duty for Denny. I went back and forth a lot, but ultimately I want to play Skarre3 and that will likely be a big factor in most of my matchups for this Scrum. As I expected, Max went with Madrak.
(Madrak 1) Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain [+29] - Storm of the North
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Dire Troll Mauler [15]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Fell Caller Hero [0(5)]
Trollkin Champion Hero [5]
Valka Curseborn, Chieftain of the North [0(6)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) [9]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Northkin Bear Handle & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Bear Handle & Battle Bears [10]
Trollkin Champions (max) [16]
- Skaldi Bonehammer [5]
Trollkin Champions (max) [16]
(Skarre 3) Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27] - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
- Kraken [36]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [0(4)]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Black Ogrun Iron Mongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
Deploy: My opponent won the roll and chose to go first. Max declined to place his 4" snow drift templates from his theme benefits. His deployment ended up being fairly symmetrical. Madrak was deployed just left of the center of the board. The two units of champs were placed on either side of Madrak. A unit of bears went on either flank. One mauler was placed between his left champs and bears. The other went behind his right champs and bears. His krielstone was spread out across the back line. The champ hero was placed behind the left champs and Valka was behind the right champs. The fell caller was to the left of the krielstone, behind his left mauler. I was a little surprised that he chose not to ambush with the bears, but he stated that when he did this in the past they died without getting any work done. If he can keep them in Madrak's control range, the DEF bonus could be a benefit to them.
I deployed my marauders centrally to be able to fire on both units of champs when they came into range. Skarre went to the right of the marauders and the kraken was to their left. A unit of bloodgorgers was deployed on either flank, with the left flank getting the unit with Jussika. I was hoping to keep her close enough to the kraken that her no sleeping on the job aura would benefit both the left bloodgorgers and the marauders. The blood priestess was behind Skarre. Her job would be mostly to stay out of the line of fire. Axiara and Gerlack were both deployed behind the marauders to the right of the kraken. Axiara's tactician would be key for allowing the medium bases to not block each other up and Gerlack granting the blighted trollkin +1 to attack rolls would be important with the DEF across the table. Finally, the dirge seers were spread out across the back of the marauders. I wasn't sure what role, if any, they would have in this fight.
Top 1: Madrak dumped all his fury into the krielstone and ran forward. The units of champs ran forward to stand in front of Madrak, while also switching which side of the table they were on. The bears ran and remained on the immediate flank of the champs. The maulers kept position behind the units. The krielstone and various solos ran forward, largely keeping the deployment formation in tact. Max later acknowledged that he forgot Madrak had tactician and probably could have pushed everything a little further up the board if he has remembered that rule.
Bottom 1: My plan for this turn was to get in position for my alpha strike on the bottom of turn two. I knew my army had a longer threat range than his, so my goal was to keep everything just outside his charge ranges. Skarre activated first and cast dash. She also put draconic blessing on the marauders. She then sailed forward into the acid pool, sitting on her remaining focus. The marauders ran forward, with Axiara and Gerlack running up and maintaining their position between the kraken and marauders. The kraken advanced and took a shot with its main gun, but the attack missed and the AOE drifted off to nowhere. The bloodgorders ran forward on either flank, with Jussika continuing to keep her position near the kraken. The iron mongers moved up so one was base to base with the kraken and the other was base to base with Skarre and the leader remained central behind the marauders. The dirge seers moved up behind the marauders and the blood priestess stayed behind Skarre.
Top 2: With no charge targets available, Max elected to run his brick forward. He knew he was going to take the charge and made sure he would not get jammed out of scenario as a result. The champs ran forward again, remaining base to base and again reversing which flank they were on. Valka stood in the back ranks between the two units of champs. The left bears moved forward aggressively to tie up some of the left unit of bloodgorgers. The right bears moved into the forest in the center of the circle zone, with a mauler backing them up. The second mauler played far back. The krielstone pulled activated it armor buff and pulled back just a little too far. Only the back line of champs was actually within its aura. The fell caller stood behind his objective. Madrak moved up to stand inside the circle zone and cast even ground.
Bottom 2: It was time for my alpha. I was hoping to remove almost all the champs and bears from the board, which would mean I only needed the deal with Madrak and maulers. Skarre upkept draconic blessing for free and took a point of corrosion damage. The marauders activated first and the entire unit forfeited movement to get the aiming bonus. I was at first considering two man CRAs, until it was pointed out that the champ's defensive line bonus only applies to melee attacks. With the aiming bonus and Gerlack's veteran leadership, the marauders were effectively RAT 8 and needed 6's to hit. With this in mind, I took individual shots. Some missed, many hit. By the end, all the champs except the two farthest back on the right were on fire. A couple of the champs died directly from the attack, due to not being covered by the aura and draconic blessing applying to thrown weapons. Axiara charged in and took a counter charge from Valka. He connected, but did not move far enough for a charge bonus and a poor damage roll left Axiara on one box. She hit and killed one of the champs. Gerlack followed her in, missing his attack. Any damage they did was considered a bonus, as their job was to apply the gang fighter bonus to the kraken. Skarre3 activated and popped her feat. She moved draconic blessing to the right unit of bloodgorgers and also cast dash and guided fire. She then took a shot at Madrak with one cannon and her hand cannon. Both connected, with the cannon doing minimal damage and the hand cannon putting a decent chunk into him. The left bloodgorgers charged into the left bears and ran to apply gang fighter to more of the champs. Both bears died to the charge.
The iron mongers activated, repaired Skarre and cursed one of the units of champs. It was now the kraken's turn. At this point, I realized that medium bases are difficult to work with and even with 4" reach, the kraken did not have a good spot to land. I also realized that I failed to allocate any additional focus to the kraken and it wouldn't even get to kill all the targets it could get into melee. The kraken killed two champs with its attacks and it's killshot missed because I forgot about guided fire. The right bloodgorgers charged the right bears, killing both and putting a screen of medium bases between Skarre and the enemy trolls. One of the dirge seers also charged in, putting a single point of damage on a champ. At this point, I had killed three of the grey champs and three of the black champs while also killing all of the bears. I had hoped for more, but was thinking he would not be able to effectively get anything onto the kraken. Hopefully next turn would be just cleaning up the champs and starting in on the maulers.
Top 3: His turn started with one of the grey champs burning to death. I think he could see how the battle was starting to go, as unless he killed the kraken, I had iron mongers ready to repair it right back up. He started with having the right champs move forward a little and take some swings into Gerlack and Axiara. Axiara was missed and dodged away. Gerlack took a hit, but not enough damage to force a tough roll. The champ on the far right killed one of the bloodgorgers screening Skarre. Next, Valka stepped up and cut down Gerlack. It was disappointing for me to lose the veteran leader bonus, especially because of my misplays with the kraken. Gerlack never needed to move up to apply gang fighter. The bear handler on the left charged into a pocket of bloodgorgers to tie them up, but he was unable to kill any of them. The stone activated its ARM bonus and ran forward. The fellcaller hero moved behind the last grey champ and sprayed. He did a little damage to the champ and killed two bloodgorgers. The bear handler on the right moved out of the way so the mauler behind it could charge in. The mauler ended up killing two bloodgorgers, which cleared a path for Madrak to come in on Skarre.
Skarre was camping 5 focus, so I was feeling quite safe when this started. The charge attack put a few points of damage on her. I spent a focus on a second attack to cancel out all five points of damage. The remaining attacks all either missed or failed to deal any damage. Madrak was left on zero fury standing in front of Skarre.
Bottom 3: Skarre allocated the full amount to the kraken. The marauders activated first, moving out of the way for both Skarre and the kraken to get into position, except on who stood next to Madrak to grant gang fighter. Skarre activated, moved over, cast draconic blessing on the kraken and boosted a ram attack into Madrak, knocking him down and dealing a little damage. The kraken then moved over and killed Madrak with a single hit.
Analysis: When I put this list together, I had dreams about the kraken hitting enemy infantry at effective MAT 10, P+S 23 or higher and staying safe behind a screen of medium bases. It was quite nice to see that plan come together. The marauders were fantastic. Having their ranged presence in the list is quite nice. I will need to wait for another game to see if the dirge seers are worth their points, as this matchup was not what they are in the list for.
On the other hand, my final turn should have gone much differently. If I had played it differently, I could have at least had a chance at scoring one or two control points. I also could have tried to score some army kill points. My total was the 10 points earned for assassination, as I failed to finish off any of the units that I was putting work into. I also need to work on my medium base placement. The idea of having the kraken stand behind ranks of medium bases is great, but in this game I closed off the landing spot that I really wanted to have. Some of that was due to the marauders standing still and aiming, which was also not the best idea. I could have moved them and taken shots using CRA in groups of two and still accomplished close to the same amount of work, while not blocking off the kraken.
When Max and I spoke after the game, he acknowledged that he forgot a number of rules on his cards, including that Madrak has tactician. There were a couple points during his turns where he was running models around other models instead of pushing straight through them. We didn't get a chance to talk about it, but at the time I thought sending Madrak in on Skarre was a mistake. It's possible he wasn't aware of how resilient she is or how much the focus I was camping on was going to skew the math.
Overall, this was another good scrum game against a great opponent. Max was great to play against and his list presented me with a good challenge for my first time out with Skarre3. Time to prep for round two!
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