Game Time II. Help Mrs. NIGHTBRINGER fight my forces of Chaos!

Ah skullcrushers and their like were why I included the glade guard with arcane bodkins.

 

I'd like to tell you that such bravery is rewarded.
That the great plan steers those obedient and loyal to it to safety.
A world in which the noble underdog holds steadfast against impossible odds and prevails.
But that is only sweet fiction, nothing more.
In the end, there is no escape from Chaos, it marks us all.





If you guys are interested, I could share some observations of the match. I don't have anything approximating the level of a battle report, because I find that recording the play-by-play account of the game, slows it down too much and robs it of its enjoyment. However, a quick unit performance breakdown, strengths/weaknesses, and a general account of the match are still fresh in my mind.

 

Going into the match, I identified three units that posed a close combat threat on the other side: the Temple Guard deathstar, the Wild Riders and the Stegadon. These were the units I was most careful to get ideal matchups against, which luckily, I was able to manage.

In terms of victory points, I knew that if I eliminate the Temple Guard + Slann + Oldblood unit, I essentially win the game.


As far as my army goes, I'd rate the performance of my units as follows:

Top performers

• Trollstar - was the primary unit responsible for killing the Temple Guard deathstar. Throgg even managed to kill the opposing Oldblood in a glorious challenge with his copious vomit breath weapon. This unit essentially feared no single unit on the opposing side. As long as I avoided engaging the Temple Guard in the front and the Wild Riders (with flaming banner) in the flank, I had full confidence that the trolls would prevail. Luckily the Wild Riders were in no position to help their comrades out, and instead, I had dual charged the Temple Guard with the Trolls and K'daai Destroyer (both in the front), so their fate was sealed.
• Daemon Prince - my DP put in some heavy work. It did give me a bit of a scare as it managed to miscast twice in the game despite only ever casting using 2-4 power dice per spell. In the end it charged and killed the Stegadon (4 wounds via a casting of Cacophonic Choir and the last one in combat), a unit of Glade Guard with the Spellweaver and a skink unit via magic.
• Hellcannon - A hellcannon is a solid unit, but a hellcannon with a Daemonsmith standing nearby is superb. It softened up the Temple Guard unit turn one and then managed to panic a bunch of units off the board throughout the game. The issue with a 4,000 point army, is that it has a huge footprint, so many units find themselves outside the Slann's leadership and BSB bubble. The Hellcannon took full advantage of this as it causes a panic test off of a single wound caused with a -1 modifier.
• Daemonsmith Sorcerer (despite dying) - such a multi-purpose unit. Killed a Great Eagle via a very lucky fireball cast. The Chalice of Blood and Darkness really helped level out the magic advantage that the WE + LM should have enjoyed. However, most importantly, it was the key factor that really made the Hellcannon shine. An accurate hellcannon is a very scary prospect. In the end, it was killed by one wound lost due to the DP miscasting and its final wound due to the Chalice effect. It doesn't matter though, because it was well worth the points.

Solid performers

• K'daai Destroyer - helped destroy the Temple Guard, but the Trolls were a larger contributor to that combat. It did manage to fail it's burning bright toughness test and inflict 3 wounds upon itself.
• Magma Cannon - very very accurate, to the point where it is hard to miss. Unfortunately, I was a bit overprotective of it, so I castled it in the corner with the hellcannon, daemonsmith, hobgoblins and chariot. This worked fine of the hellcannon with a 60" range, but not so well for the Magma Cannon with its 24" range. The temple guard were too far away to target, but it still managed to cause some havoc on the flank.
• Skullcrushers - took down a unit of skinks and overran into the Wild Riders. You can imagine how the Wild Riders (without even the benefit of a charge) fared against Khorne's finest. After that, they never really got back into position to cause more mayhem, but they had already obliterated the left flank of the battlefield.
• Chimera - a general nuisance taking down Glade Guard and chaff as needed.

Mediocre Performers

• Hobgoblins - they survived, but never managed much other than some minor damage and finishing off some skinks.
• Chaos Chariot - I really should have put the Mark of Slaanesh on this guy. A unit of panicking warhounds fled through it causing it to panic as well. It did manage to rally, but it was out of position for most of the game. I think the only thing it did was run down a unit of skinks.
• Warhounds - they were a distraction, nothing more. They all died, but that was their job.

The final result was a tabling in the top of turn 6.


The keys to victory

• I managed to secure the Trollstar + Destroyer versus Temple Guard + Slann + Oldblood matchup that I wanted
• I denied the Stegadon its charge and took it down with the DP
• The DP managed to engage and kill the Spellweaver
• The Skullcrushers denied the Wild Riders their charge, and took them and their banner of Eternal flame off the board before they could hit the trolls or threaten my backfield
• the Chalice of Blood and Darkness helped equalize the magic phase
• Cacophonic Choir and Acquiescence proved to be a great nuisance.
• The hellcannon terrorized the flank, causing multiple panic tests where the opponent fled off the battlefield

 

Yea I would have focused on casting Fiery Convocation on the unit whenever possible if I played against it. In hindsight, I think I should have fit in a unit of glade guard or deepwood scouts with starfire shafts, with the idea of @Mrs Nightbringer getting a wound, stripping regen then machine gunning poison shots with skinks/giant blowpipes/terradons.

 

They are not without their limitations:

• they don't like fire
• even with Throgg in the unit or a Lord nearby, stupidity will sometimes come to bite you in the butt
• a purple sun will ruin their day in a hurry

That said, they are a really great unit in my opinion... which is why they proudly feature in my main list. At least they're not as powerful as the Beasts of Nurgle.

The Starfire Shafts would have been great against the Trolls (and Chimera), not only for the flaming attacks, but they would also benefit from +1 to wound. Along the same lines, I think the inclusion of a Salamander or two would really help the list out. Of course, this is list tailoring after the fact, when you created your list you had no idea what I was going to field.

Speaking of Enchanted Arrows, one of my two favourite arrow types, the Hagbane Tips, would also have been very useful. They could be used to take down the K'daai Destroyer and the Magma Cannon. While the Skinks already have poison, they don't have the 30" range that the Glade Guard have.

 

I suspected/expected you would take Throgg and retinue, I just didn't think in such a big unit. Also I was thinking that flaming strips regen for a turn, not just the relevant phase, it's been awhile.

 

That's a fair speculation. In my previous list I didn't field such a large unit, but instead split it into two equal sized halves (one with 9 trolls and one with 8 trolls + Throgg). This time around I had all my trolls assembled and neatly fitted into my 6X3 horde movement tray and I was eager to give it a try!

It's nice to be able to take such a potent unit and have it come out of core. All of a sudden the core tax doesn't feel like a tax anymore.

 

Got any further games planned?

 

Sadly, no. Probably not for a while... I can only coax her into so many.

 

They definitely have those. Tougher to manage than your average unit, but when correctly done so, they shine.

Of course if their leadership bubble is ever broken, they are bricked. However having a second leadership bubble, in the form of Throgg, greatly protects against this.

That's a good point. Orcs & Goblins also have access to Trolls (several variants in fact) but nobody really talks about them. Having to spend out of special or rare does bring them up against other more competitive units. O&G also have a harder time babysitting them.

The one saving grace (for non-WoC players) it that they are only viable as core choices in larger games because you have to purchase Throgg to do so. While Throgg is fantastic, if it comes down to him or a level 4 or bsb, the choice to field him becomes more difficult to justify.

Their vomit is what really seals the deal with them. Without it, they lose a great deal of versatility. With the vomit, they hard-counter the most highly armoured units in the game and become absolute character killers.

The question then becomes who can field the greatest deathstar? Trollstar? Gutstar? Witch Elves + Cauldron of blood? Phoenix Guard + BotWD + Wizard? Something else?

For me (back when I actually used to focus on Lizardmen) they were an auto-include, along with a Slann, Cowboy and Skink Skirmishers.

 

Next time the Lizardmen will have revenge for this divergence from the Great Plan!

 

I'd be curious to know. Does anybody have any thoughts on this?