Core Concepts: Strategy, Tactics, Placement.... Part 1

Hello and welcome to the Scrumcast...

Oh crap, sorry about that. Sometimes I just miss those corny intros.


Intro

So way back I wrote about different strategies and tactics I would utilize to try to get the most effectiveness out of my army. I wanted to bring some of that back but start with a broader topic about the fundamentals of this game.

Now for many of you the topics covered in this article may seem rudimentary. I would urge you to not dismiss them because of this. Knowing these things and executing them in each game, turn, and move is completely different. Doing these things in a timely manner is to master the basics of this game.


Define it for me

So let's jump in by defining what I mean by strategy, tactics, and placement. Strategy is your over all vision of how you see the game playing out. Tactics are the means to which you achieve the milestones defined by your strategy. Placement is how you enable yourself to execute the tactics you are planning to utilize.


Let's Strategize

So once you know the scenario and opponent you are facing you should begin thinking about your path to victory. In this game we have a few paths to victory; Scenario, Caster Kill, and Clock. Now I know someone out there is going to start yelling about their screen "ATTRITION!!!". So let me explain, attrition is a means to any of those victory conditions. If attrition is as deep as your strategy goes, what will you do when you hit end game? For example when you finally choose scenario as your path to victory, will you have the pieces available and in place?

Of course you cannot expect everything to go as planned, after all your opponent has a brain too. So when working out your strategy it is key to identify the pieces that enable your path to victory. If you lose those pieces you need to have a back up plan. This may seem like I am telling you to be precog, but really with some experience you can identify the general flow of the game. And if something does happen that you never expected, in future games you can account for it.

The last piece for working out a sound strategy is identifying the pieces your opponent has that will hinder your path to victory. Again this takes experience and knowledge of your opponents army, so in each game you will be better able to do this. Sometimes you may even have to choose a different path to victory due to certain problem pieces. Identifying this before deployment is key to a winning strategy.

If you can come up with a basic strategy before deployment starts you are on the path to giving your opponent a great game. To wrap up this article lets try to lay out a very basic game plan.


Example???

The scenario is close quarters and I am playing Grim Angus vs. Cryx. I determine my best path to victory is scenario via dominating my flag. I set up 4 milestones;

Score turn 2 and contest the opponents flag
Clear my flag on turn 3 to score again, contest enemy flag, make Grim difficult to kill.
Clear my flag again turn 4 using feat for back to back points.
Clear my flag turn 5 for the win.

I know based on my milestones Grim and my flag cleaners are the key to victory. I can sacrifice much of my army as long as I have enough attacks to continue clearing my flag off. As for my jammers, I just need enough bodies to prevent my opponent from scoring back to back multiple times. Looking at my opponents deployment and army list I can determine the issues they will present and roughly what turn I will need to deal with them.

If I were to lose Grim, its game over, but if my opponent is able to swarm my flag or remove my enough of my flag cleaners I can attempt to audible to a caster kill. Because of the scenario and my mad grab for control points, my opponent is more than likely moving their caster forward to grab points of their own. If all hell has broken loose and there is no chance of getting their caster I will grab as many control and kill points as possible to help my tie breakers.

As for identifying the problem pieces my opponent has we know Raiders jamming into my flag can be a problem. As can a bile thrall getting too far forward and removing my flag cleaners. We won't dig much deeper than that for the sake of simplicity.


Next Time

That's all for part 1 of this series. Next time I will attempt to tackle tactics and give some examples from a game on vassal.

Thanks for reading,
-nosrek

List Creation Process and Tournament Performance - The Basics

                                 

  I have been really busy with current painting projects, that I haven't had a chance to actually write something for the Scrum; Even though my page is part of the Scrum. I just want to take a small break from writing painting articles, and try a different variety.

  I also saw that Removed From Play did a podcast with a section on this similar topic. I haven't had a chance to listen to it, but I don't want to intentionally steal their thunder. This is something that I feel inspired to write.

  Recently, I played in the largest tournament that Utah has to offer, the Intermountain Cup. I prepared a few lists, but had little time to play them all thoroughly, due to a busy work schedule. It was a full house! I believe there were 35 people at this tournament, and all the factions were represented except for minions and mercs (oh and please correct me if I am wrong). My only complaint that I had at the tournament was, that there were no chairs for the main tables. For those who don't know, I totally destroyed my knee when I lived in Switzerland, and it has never been the same. Anyway, I didn't do very well in the tourney, as I went 2-3 for the day. There were times of frustration, and also down right anger. I made a lot of mistakes, and thinking on it now my behavior was not at my best. My learning experience was not deterred, and I still had a lot of fun playing one of my favorite games.

Yeah....this was my inner dialog after game 2

ScrumCast Episode 8

We're Locked and Loaded, listen on for this Lock and Load Primer with a few small goodies for some select few attendees that play games against us.

Go listen on our SrumCast page HERE

Colossals and Gargantuans - Game Changers?

So it has been quite some time since my last blog post here on the Scrum, and even though I have always had ideas about to write about, I feel that I owe it to the Scrum followers out there to put out a post that not only gets across certain opinions of mine but also brings up food for thought, makes people think and hopefully sparks debate.  After all there is no such thing as a right or wrong opinion.

I had been brewing on the idea of the topic of this particular post for quite some time, but it was not until I basically walked Goris through my thought process that I was convinced that I was onto a winner.  Essentially this post will be all about why I think that even though Colossals will be well balanced by PP, they will still be game changing pieces on the battlefield for anyone who can afford them.

Essentially if you want to prevent an opponent from killing a valuable piece in your army there are three ways to do it: prevent him from targetting it at all (block LoS, stealth, keep it out of range, etc), buff up its DEF to a value where most enemy models will find hitting it to be extremely difficult, and finally buffing up its ARM to make damaging it just as difficult.

We know already that the first method will be impossible for Colossals (and Gargantuans but I will continue to use just Colossals for the rest of this post) thanks to the most recent NQ explaining that they have the same targetting rules as battle engines (ignore clouds and forests, can't benefit from cover or concealment and no penalties to shoot at them in combat) but in addition they also cannot benefit from stealth.  It remains to be seen if the Choir for Menoth will actually work on the Adjudicator to protect it from non magical shooting, technically however they are Warjacks so this might be the only such protection I can think of that will actually work.

It remains to be seen whether or not Colossals will be any harder to hit than Battle Engines (which are universally DEF10), but even if they are and have typical warjack DEF stats that isn't much to work with especially considering that they can never benefit from cover or concealment.  Actual DEF buffs that can be directly (or indirectly) cast on them are largely restricted to Cygnar, Menoth, Retribution and Skorne through spells such as Blur, Defender's Ward, Deceleration, Krea's Animus and Force Barrier.  These range from +2 to +3 and only Skorne have the ability to stack two of them.

ARM buffs on the other hand are widespread and available to every faction.  It is common knowledge that the more damage boxes a model has the more effective an increase in ARM becomes.  There are several factions out there as it stands who struggle to take down an ARM26 Centurion for Cygnar (easily possible with eStryker, pNemo and eHaley), especially at range before it can be delivered into melee combat.  Some factions (and warcasters/warlocks in particular) are extremely reliant upon their ability to decimate an army at range before it can get into melee combat with them.  I will spell out a couple of scenarios:

eLylyth vs Trollbloods:
Often this is a matchup that Trollbloods massively struggle with, they are not quick enough or have a high enough DEF to close the gap on eLylyth before she either obliterates the battlegroup or just opens up a hole and assassinates the warlock.  The only weapon that Trollbloods have against this is the Pyre Troll who can give immunity to fire to one model within 6" as his 2 fury animus.  The problem with that animus is casting it on several models immediately becomes a massive strain upon the warlock's fury resources (something that Trollbloods are not great at under the best of conditions).

Now let us introduce the Mountain King: judging by the teaser video's glimpse at the damage boxes on the Galleon we are talking at least 50 damage boxes and I cannot possible envision him having less ARM than a regular Dire Troll, so we are talking at least ARM18 (but for the purpose of this example we will use ARM18 as a conservative estimate).  I would seriously consider assuming unlimited resources a list with two Mountain Kings, eDoomshaper, a max KSB with Elder, Runebearer and a Pyre Troll.  We know all colossals will be in the 18-20 point range, so worst case scenario we have spent 41 points, still leaving enough points to add in a unit plus another solo or two for contesting objectives.

The traditional eLylyth lists with 2 Ravagores, 2 Nephilim Bolt Throwers will suddenly be left facing two blocks of 50+ health which are immune to fire, can't be pushed, slammed, thrown, knocked down, etc with an ARM of 20 and immunity to fire.  There is simply nothing that eLylyth (who typically is more interested in assassination than scenario victory) can do to take the Mountain Kings down before they can get into melee combat, and in eDoomshaper the Mountain Kings have access to all the warbeast support they need in the form of his feat, Wild Aggression and Goad, and will almost certainly have a STR even higher than Mulg, turning eDoomshaper into a perfectly viable spell assassin.

Cygnar vs anybody but Retribution:
Straight away just by looking at the Stormwall we know not only that he has guns, he is positively bristling with them.  We know that he has at least four guns (2 chain guns and 2 cannons) plus the as of yet unknown funtionality of his super structure which fires Lightning Pod solos onto the battlefield.  So not only is he formidable in melee combat (all Colossals have reach and can make a quadrant based thresher power attack) but he has guns enough to almost certainly be just as dangerous at a distance.  Again working off the theory that there is no way his ARM will be less than a Cygnar jack, we expect him to be at the very least ARM18 and with roughly equivalent damage boxes to the Galleon.

Cygnar do two things brilliantly, shoot and buff.  Taking the humble pStryker for our example, we have a warcaster with access to Snipe, Blur and Arcane Shield (plus of course Jr who can throw up a second Arcane Shield).  First turn casting Snipe on a Stormwall giving his small army of guns +4RNG, second turn allocating him focus and leaving two focus free on Stryker to cycle Arcane Shield.  Your Stormwall (who presumably ran 1st turn) now has at least 4 guns who I am certain will all be at least RNG10 and focus to burn.  He walks up and fires away into your army, he may be close enough to counter charge in your turn but wait, Stryker now activates next and casts Arcane Shield on him and pops his feat.

Suddenly you are facing a massive block of ARM26 with 50-odd damage boxes and lets face it, not even Trollbloods (with the best melee buffing of any faction) can take down that level of ARM and health.  You can't move him, you can't kill him and in his turn you know he is either just gonna shoot you again or start churning his way through your troops.  And he is still at worst a mere 14 points out of Stryker's 50pt list.  The introduction of the Colossal gives Cygnar something that they have always wanted, something durable enough to make the maximum use out of the multitude of ARM buffs available to them as a faction.

Conclusion:
Now I am not saying that Colossals will be the be all and end all of the game once they come out, I am certain that over time strategies will form that will help minimise the impact that a Colossal can have on the game until it has been slowly ground down and taken out.  However even if they were simply big jacks with more guns but statistically similar to for example the Ironclad, the very fact that they possess a literal half ton or more of damage boxes makes them game changers.

I am somewhat fortunate I feel in that my two factions are quite possibly the two factions best equipped to deal with Colossals.  Retribution have a widespread access to weapon master, blessed and arcane assassin (which eliminates most ARM buffs), and Trollbloods through their naturally synergistic playstyle are capable of buffing models/units to ungodly levels of damage which previously was simply overkill.  Now they might find themselves facing things where that insane level of damage output is actually required.

Trollblood Colossal

Well Warmachine is getting their goodies but we are getting ours too. High res picture from youtube guys here it is!  Brand spanking new from PP here is their video  HERE.  And of coarse this is a copy written work of Privateer Press and not out own work.

Breast Cancer Brawl ~ Phoenix Games & Comics

Phoenix Games & Comics in Logan, UT

will be hosting a Breast Cancer Brawl Tournament for Warmachine & Hordes players to kick off our Breast Cancer Brawl!!!

Thursday January 5th at 6PM MST

All proceeds will benefit the Huntsman Cancer Center in Logan, UT

Warmachine & Hordes Events

Raffle - Pink Magnus Battlebox - fully painted by our own Sid will be raffled using BCB tokens $1 per token.

Silent Auction - We have found a Breast Cancer Surviver that wants to fight for you.  Pink Thrullg to be auctioned online at Trollbloodscrum.com painted by Skywise.

Prizes - 'Pink' Warlock/Warcaster cards, Pink Paint and other prizes for those participating in the tourney.

Paint em Pink - Paint a 'Pink' themed peice from your army to enter in the painting contest. 

Brawl - Play Games, Save Boobs!  25 point Steamroller Tournament $10 entry.  $1 BCB tokens for in game benefits.

All this and much more will be available.  Who knows, it might even be a Pink Pyre Troll.

Constance and her warjack Gallant not only fight for the might of Morrow, she also leads the battle against Breast Cancer.  Keep and eye out for her appearance.

Take it big ~ Our Brawl is being extended to most of the big games being played in our lgs so players from all walks can participate.  From Magic The Gathering to Warhammer to the Board Game Club we're going all in.

Stay Tuned here at The Scrum for more info.

What to do when your plan rolls a double 1

I'm sure we have all been in the situation where you miss that critical double handed throw or your Mauler looses his Mind aspect due to free strikes on that all important trample.Dealing with that situation can be hard in some cases so here is how i usually handle it.

First thing to do is take a step back and not panic! It is incredibly easy to enter a state of panic when you see that Trample distance die just tip over onto the one eyed side.  This is perfectly natural, your plan failed and your in a bad spot,  but to make sure you dont do something hasty and loose the game, its so very important to just take a step back from the table and let that feeling of panic pass.

eHoarluk 50pt level by Beckman

eHoarluk, 50 PT level.

I'm a beast player at heart, but I like to have the best matchups that I can across the board. This is a problem, since infantry likes to eat beasts. So what's the answer? Ranged attacks. The bomber eats the infantry that eats the beasts and doesn't do badly against beasts. Let's take two. Good. Let's throw in an Impaler for the extra range. What if they have Solid Ground? Well, we'll throw in a Pyre for the Continous Effect: Fire and Strength Animus against high ARM. Add an Axer for the movement and pathfinder. I'm throwing in a Bouncer because I like Shield Guarding against CRAs and the Reaper's Drag. Add the KSB in for extra durability, some whelps, and the Runebearer (for the fury reduction on your animi) and you're good to go.

Alright, but which caster?

Grim is a good one. He has a SPD buff for your beasts on his gun, He can knockdown the enemy, can debuff DEF, make your beasts get Hunter, and has tremendous board denial - BUT the beasts run REALLY fury hot, and as a 6 FURY caster, it's hard to handle.

Calandra is also a good one, but she has no speed buffs for your troops or debuffs to speed for the enemy. She can make your beasts SING with rerolls, Star Crossed, and Soothing Song. Without her feat, your troops aren't really that great in melee. She doesn't have DEF debuffs like Grim and Stealth Lists are a serious problem.

Initially, I just considered the above two... as they were the ones that came to mind. I had developed a preconception that a certain angry old troll only wanted to work with a diversity of Dire Trolls and Mulg. Oh how wrong I was.

Finally, the list:

Trollblood Toolbox ~ Where to Start with Trolls

Rewritten HERE

Awesome Armies ~ Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia by Just Cabal

So here it is, our final installment of Awesome Armies.  Just Cabal was nice enough to put together his version of the eDoomshaper list he likes to run.  Included on the left is a poll about the Five armies contributed.  Which do you folks like the best... you can vote for multiples if you like.

(E) Hoarluk Doomshaper +6

Earthborn Dire Troll - 10

Dire Troll Mauler - 9

Krielstone Bearer (full) - 4

- Stone Scribe Elder - 1

Trollkin Champions - 10

Troll Whelps - 2

Troll Whelps - 2

Trollkin Champion Hero - 3

Total 35 Pts

Awesome Armies ~ Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia

I have to post it for one simple reason, at the 25point level, this army is undefeated for me with seven wins.  When I reduced the point level to 15 points it lost and when I upgraded to 35 points it lost.  25 seems to be just right.  So here it is, the list I have aptly named 'The Dire Three Way'.

Dire Three Way
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (*6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)

Awesome Armies ~ Madrak Ironhide, World Ender by Sevwall

I'm competative. I want to win. When I really want to win, I turn to this list. Its fast, its mean, and it tries to remove any good answer that your opponent has. It’s geared towards in your face aggression and centered in the fact that any model in the army has a decent chance of killing anything on the opposite side of the table. MadrakII may be fated to end the world, but he’s going to end the opposition first. As it is meant to be a tournament list, it is build for the 35 point level.

35/35
Madrak, World Ender (*5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Stone Scibe Chronicler (2pts)
Fellcaller Hero (3pts)
Totem Hunter (3pts)

Awesome Armies ~ Grim Angus by Theummhmmguy

So this list I have been tinkering with is different, but I have found it to be simply amazing at going in for the kill.  Grim Angus and his pair of Earthborn Dire Trolls that I have named Cannonball and Grapeshot.  The idea with this list is simple, send in your Earthborns to take em out.   Ideally I play this list at 25pts, and though I don't intend my 25pt list to be Tooth & Claw... it is, but when I extend to 35 I throw in a little ranged and call it good.  Before I get too far into it here is the list;

35/35
Grim Angus (*6pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
Pyg Bushwackers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Stone Scibe Chronicler (2pts)

Awesome Armies ~ Borka by Goris

To kick off our newest Series, Awesome Armies, Goris has given us a write up on Borka and the successes, strategies, strengths and weaknesses with the army he has chosen to go with it.  


Now, I am a huge fan of the eDoomy beast trifecta. However, that being such a popular list of late, I decided during nightfall to branch out and try our lower fury Melee centric casters. So I tailored a Borka list that has been working very well for me and provides a good number of troops, a few beasts and some great speed.

Points: 50
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* 1 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (1pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter (2pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Champion (5pts)

Nightfall Review ~ Solos

Fel Caller Hero ~ He is an animal.  Who would have though all you had to do was increase his RAT a little and he would become a killing machine?  I like him on offense much more than I used to, but losing the ability to buff RAT & MAT still stings a little every time I use him.  Nightfall killing machine he should have been... spraying five sword knights in one attack = good.  Hitting one of them = Bad.  Not killing the one he hit = Insulting.  Redemption came in the form of a mostly dead unit of exemplars in another game but the lack of damage was already done.

Nightfall Rating 3 Stars
Least Favorite Band ~ Kriss Kross

Nightfall Review ~ Warbeasts

Pyre Troll ~ Played a single game with this guy.  I think because I'm still reeling from when he got nerfed... yeah he is awesome again but I need to work him back in.

Nightfall Rating 2 Stars.

Nightfall Question ~ Are we there yet?

Slag Troll ~ Probably the reason why the Pyre Troll hasn't seen more action.  That and there are lots lots lots more Warmachine players in my lgs than there are Hordes.  That means we needs our jack killer.  For the record, my Slag Troll has been tearing it up in Nightfall.. though he does lack a little bit of punch... most our light beasts with two open fists do.
Nightfall Rating 4 Stars.
Nightfall Medical Condition ~ Mild Siderosis, with some outbreaks.

Player Spotlight ~ Goran75

Known to us on the PP forums as Goran75 he is a painter extraordinaire and of course awesome because he plays Trolls.  I sent him a small handful of questions and here are his responses.


Q. How long have you played WM/Hordes, and what got you started?
A. Been playing about 3 times a month for two years or so. Before that I was a 40k fiend (black Templars, Eldar). unfortunately, lately, I have been going through chemo to kick rectal cancer in the *** (eh, get it, subtle humor that). so sadly, I dont have the umph to game at the moment, somedays watching TV is taxing. dont worry this phase is just about over.

Bring the Pain!

So here is my shortlist of my new favorites in MKII. Yeah there are some other good and awesome things, Borka and Fenn Blades I'm looking at you two.

rMadrak - I have always loved him and his surefoot defense buffing goodness. Add in some Carnage and Snap fire and good gravy he is better than usual.

Grim Angus - A feat that is to die for, this Troll controls the battlefield better than he ever did in MKI. Now with the ability to grant hunter, a gun that will blow your shorts off, and a netgun that will make you wish you didn't get too close this Troll is the complete package for scenario play.

Point Of Order

This post is more a request for discussion/clarification than a proper Thought.

When he was introducing me, our gracious host thegreatblah said:

"I have always thought Cryx to be the army that is most like Trolls, though many will say it is Menoth or Khador."

I'd be interested in knowing more about the thought process behind this idea. I can certainly see parallels - both factions have a definite close-range tilt and are somewhat light on the conventional ranged attacks, although I'd argue that Trollbloods have access to more 'standards' (that's 'standard' in the sense that 'House of the Rising Sun' is a 'standard' song, appearing in the repertoire of many performers) in this field than Cryx, or at least more pieces which are taken because they have a ranged attack. Both factions punish you for engaging them - Trollbloods by hitting you back, harder, and Cryx by getting back up or walking through whatever just engaged them to get at the squashy bits behind.

I'd still be interested to know where else this came from, though.

Ave! duci novo, similis duci seneci...

Hello.

My name is Von, or at least I answer to that name on the Internet, and I'm a recovering Trollblood hater. I used to play Trollbloods (back when Primal first came out... ahh, the memories) and quite enjoyed throwing down with the battlebox, but I fell foul of the received wisdom that said you had to take the same boring, stodgy, slow-moving army in every game and fell out with the faction for a while, somewhere between Evolution and Metamorphosis.

What I've seen of Mark II has convinced me to come back. The Whelps, the Thumper and the Pyg Bushwhackers have convinced me that there's enough viability in running more warbeasts and ranged pieces around the mutually supportive melee core. I'm not going to pretend that the Trollbloods are a 'ranged faction', but I'm not going to bore myself by taking only melee pieces and spending the first three rounds of each game slogging forward and removing casualties and doing nothing else either.

I'm determined not to play the Trollbloods the same way I played them last time (Champions + Krielstone + Impaler + Axer + Mauler + Fell Caller + a warlock of my own choice, the only thing in the list that ever changed), and to actually learn how to paint tartan this time.

While I'm here I'm going to be writing about: my fonder memories of the Trollbloods from Mark I; my long-standing love of trolls and trollkin in the IKRPG; experiments in colourschemes and the like; eventual reports on actual games and the transition into Mark II; and other stuff. Stuff tangentially connected to Trollbloods in some way, shape or form.

Let's see how this works out.