Normally the torch on this model ends with an opening up top, but the model's owner wanted me to take the fire cone that came with his Pyre Troll for use as a breath weapon and use it here so I pinned it on up top. Considering how bad it looks on the Pyre Troll I think the owner made a good choice.

• Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Trollbloods
• Mini Name: Fell Caller
• Painted: 2007

With a number of Trollkin rescued from the Skorne at Ternon Crag, the Trollbloods were in desperate need of supplies to feed the newly freed hungry mouths. To assist their kin fighting in the area, Madrak had decided to lead an attack on an recently constructed supply fortress south of the town. Unfortunately unbeknownst to Madrak Everblight had claimed the supply depot as his own only shortly before. At the Trolls push for the fortress the blighted Nyss stationed there rally to defend their newly claimed prize.

Prorpger declared his first attack on one of his Strategic Objective deep in my territory for round 2. The fortress itself was a 6" x 10" structure located in the middle of the defender's deployment zone with a lone door facing the defender's table edge. The Trollbloods had two opportunities to win: destroy the structure (ARM 18, can take 10 damage per 1") or hold the structure for one round.

Although the space between the fortress and his closest territory was enough to qualify for Distant, he payed a hefty 15 VPs from his war chest to reduce this to Near. This was significant since the fortress was armed with large cannons, and a Distant attack would allow the defender to fire 3 cannons per round instead of the 2 the defender could fire in a Near attack. To fire a cannon the defender selected a point at least 20" from the back of his deployment zone. Once all points were nominated, each blast deviated 2d6" in a direction determined by the blast template and any models caught under the resulting 4" AOE suffered a POW 12 damage roll.

Everblight - Myself

• Lylyth, Herald of Everblight
• Angelius
• Seraph x2
• Teraph
• Shredder x3
• The Forsaken x2
• Incubi x5 (Proxied by Bog Trog Ambushers)
• Shepherd (Proxied by a Druid of Orboros)
• Feralgeist (Proxied by an old Mage Knight figure)
• Blighted Swordsmen x10
• Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Trollbloods - Prorpger

• Madrak Ironhide
• Dire Troll Mauler x2
• Winter Troll
• Feralgeist (Proxied by an old Mage Knight figure)
• Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes
• Trollkin Champions x2
• Trollkin Long Riders
• Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

I won the roll to go first so started by deploying Lylyth and most of my beasts to the right of the fortress. The Gobbers were put nearby but far enough from the Angelius' Forsaken to not suffer from Abomination. The other Forsaken and the Shepherd went on the other side of the fortress with my second Seraph and the Swordsmen. I figured if Prorpger deployed in such a way to let me flank with that side, the Shepherd and Forsaken could help me run the Seraph further from Lylyth than usual.

Prorpger didn't really give me the chance to do so, though. He deployed most of his trolls in a block positioned to try to dash between the ruined building and the rough terrain that was placed near the front of his deployment zone. Out on the flank across from my Seraph/Swordsman group he put his three Long Riders and his second Mauler. Keeping his beasts that far apart would be difficult for Madrak's shorter control radius but it was still a deterrent for me.

Turn 1

Everblight
At the start of my Maintenance Phase I was able to fire the cannons on the fortress twice. I nominated both to fire at a point behind the Troll brick, hoping for decent deviations. One shot went off into the middle of nowhere but another landed on Madrak and a Champion. the Champion escaped unscathed but Madrak suffered a point of damage from the blast.

I didn't want to just sit in my deployment zone and wait for Prorpger to get to me so I rushed my forces forward first turn. Over on the left flank, the Seraph was forced to run forward. The swordsmen, Forsaken, and Shepherd file in behind. On the other side of the folder paper we were using as the fortress the rest of the beasts advanced upfield. The Angelius uses its animus and runs up to the linear obstacle and its Forsaken sidekick advanced and consumed the Fury.

The right Seraph advances up towards the wall, dragging the Teraph along with it. After it lands the Teraph makes its advance and Digs In. The Feralgeist runs through the Supply Fortress and Lylyth and the Shredders advance, throwing Tenacities around like candy. I didn't have enough Tenacity counters so had to use Rabid counters to represent them this turn. Finally the Swamp Gobbers moved up and tossed a cloud down in front of Lylyth.

Trollbloods
The trollblood turn begins with the entire brick running forward. One of the Champion units is forced to make a detour through the ruined building but they all surge forward regardless. Madrak advances and dumps all five of his fury into the Kreilstone. The Winter troll advances beside the tail of the brick, where it is forced once to use Rhime and twice more to rile. The Gobbers advanced and placed concealment on the Champions on the right side of the wedge. The Dire Troll out on the left flank runs forward to the edge of Madrak's control area while his Long Rider escort runs out ahead.

Turn 2

Everblight
The second turn of cannon fire from the fortress was kind to me. One blast drifted over the Swamp Gobbers, killing them instantly and the other drifted into the middle of the brick, catching the stone scribe unit. Two scribes and the Krielstone itself were killed, though another scribe was sacrificed so the stone would survive.

The unpainted Seraph starts off by shooting the Mauler, nickeling and diming him across his spiral. Then the Swordsmen spread out to form a perimeter around that Seraph to provide threats of Incubi and to slow down any attempt to get to my little gun platform. The Incubi on that flank then consumed the Fury back off the Seraph while the Shepherd headed to the center of the table.

I wanted to try to keep the painted Seraph back behind cover and just had it shoot at the same Mauler but it was just out of range and missed. The Angelius and the Forsaken beside him shifted back fully behind the low wall and waited. The Teraph pushed up to the edge of the rough terrain, dug in, and used Counterblast to try to slow the Trolls down a bit.

Lylyth advanced and put Tenacity on herself, the Shepherd, and the unpainted Seraph. One of her Shredders ran up in front of her and the others stayed a little behind the Angelius on the right flank. Finally the Swamp Gobbers put another smoke cloud down in front of Lylyth.

Trollbloods
Out on the left flank the Long Riders charged into the Swordsmen. They killed a few but started taking casualties as Incubi were bursting out of the corpses to exact Everblight's vengeance. The left hand group of Champions charged the line as well. Incubi tried to get a few licks in as well but the Champions just used their second attacks to cut them down. It wasn't the best use of Incubi in the world but it was either use them or loose them by the end of the turn. The Teraph used a Counterblast on one of the Champions that couldn't reach the Swordsmen but only did a couple points.

Then Madrak sent the unpainted Mauler toward the Teraph. His goal was to two handed throw it into my backfield but wound up a quarter of an inch short and couldn't attempt the throw. The Winter troll advanced and tried to spray the Teraph but wound up too far from Madrak to be forced and missed. The painted Mauler then ran to the center of the field where Madrak put Sure Foot on him before advancing himself. With space tight between the patch of rough terrain and the building, the right group of Champions ran around it instead of trying to squeeze past the Krielstone, which had advanced forward slightly and used its aura.

Yup - forgot pictures here.

Turn 3

Everblight
Out on the left flank the Incubi finish off one of the Long Riders and damage another (not the leader). Nearby the Swordsmen charge the Champions that had engage them, but are unable to do any significant damage. The Sheperd runs up in front of the linear obstacle (behind the Angelius in the second picture) to extend Lylyth's control radius and the Teraph is forced to charge the Winter Troll. He crits with the tail and destroys the troll's Mind but the bite only does minimal damage.

Lylyth steps up and fires Hellsinger at the unpainted Dire Troll, doing minimal damage but marking the beast with Witch Mark and Blood Lure. Using the former she casts Eruption of Spines, doing no damage to the Mauler but killing two stone scribes (and knocking down the Bearer) and damaging my own Seraph (the painted one). That Seraph then tries to slam the Mauler, hoping to knock it back into the troll lines. It hits, but only slams the Mauler back 1" and thanks to Sure Foot on the other Mauler it even keeps its feet.

The Angelius uses Blood Lure and it's reach to charge that Mauler, killing it. The Trollblood Feralgeist inhabited the dead troll so the Angelius bought another attack and killed it again before retreating back 3" due to Ravenous. The unpainted Seraph maneuvered for line of sight and finished off the Krielstone unit. The two Forsaken advance, the right one consuming Fury from the Angelius and the left one consuming Fury from the painted Seraph. This fills both of them up. All three Shredders advance out from behind the low wall where they can get to the Champions next turn. The Feralgeist heads up behind the low wall and finally the gobbers put another smoke cloud down over the unpainted Seraph and in front of Lylyth.

Trollbloods
Out on the left flank the Long Riders and Champions finish off the Swordsmen and the Incubi, brutally wiping them off the table completely. Although out of Madrak's control, the Winter Troll slides to the edge of the Teraph's melee range and attacks the Teraph and scores two hits. The Chain Attack Spray misses the Teraph but winds up crit'ing the painted Seraph, rooting it in place for a round. The Champions then advanced on the Teraph, circling around (and over) the rough terrain but only one can reach and falls short of killing the beast, leaving it with its Mind and Body intact.

Madrak then advances out to the relatively sparse left flank, putting Sure Foot on the Mauler then bringing the beast in front of himself to try to block the Angelius' access to himself.

Turn 4

Everblight
The unpainted Seraph passed its threshhold check, but the Teraph failed, frenzying on and subsequently killing the Winter Troll. The unpainted Seraph activates slipstream and moves out to the left flank to the extent of Lylyth's control area, dragging the nearby Forsaken along with it a short ways. It then opens upon the Mauler, strafing half a dozen damage to him spread across his aspects. Madrak took a big hit but used his scroll to spare the Mauler a damage roll that would have nearly killed it. The Forsaken then advances into the midst of the left group of Champions and Blight Shrouds, catching both Madrak (2 Fury) and the Dire Troll Mauler(3 Fury), doing about 6 points of damage to each.

Lylyth activates and shoots a couple Champions. A boosted damage roll caused one to make its Tough roll and the other didn't suffer enough damage to be destroyed. She then placed Tenacity on herself and sat on 2 Fury. Two of the Shredders then make use of Blood Lure and go Rabid and charge. The one on the knocked down Champion kills it two more times but it makes each Tough roll. The other eats his Champion on the first attack.

I ran the Shepherd forward with the intent to move the painted Seraph forward and shoot at the Mauler but then I remembered the Seraph had been crit'ed by the Winter Troll and wasn't going anywhere. He took some shots at one the Champions near the Teraph but didn't do any damage. The Angelius moved up to get to a position where it could threaten Madrak's side of the table the following turn but minimize it's exposure to the mess of Champions on the table.

The Forsaken that had been hanging out on the right flank ran back to the center of the table, the remaining Shredder shifted in front of Lylyth, and the Swamp Gobbers put a cloud down in front of Lylyth just to block charges from the nearest Champions.

Trollbloods
Prorpger started the turn by breaking the Long Riders off from the fight and running them towards the structure, planning on racing to the fortress and holding it for the win. The left unit of Champions clean up one of the Shredders that had attacked them as well as the Forsaken that had just Blight Shrouded Madrak. The right unit turns on the Teraph, killing it and allowing the Trollblood Feralgeist to inhabit it.

The Teraph then activated and circled behind the Angelius, stabbing it with its tail and getting a Crit Poison on the roll. He did 8 damage and another 4 with the bite but spread it across its aspects so the Angelius was still up and going.

Finally Madrak stepped back up on a hill, put Sure Foot on himself, and backed the Mauler up to get them both away from the Angelius hoping to stay alive long enough to get a win on scenario.

Turn 5

Everblight
The painted Seraph frenzied, killing the second Shredder that had engaged the Champions on the previous turn. The unpainted Seraph fires on the Champions, damaging them. The Angelius engages the Champions, killing one with a Thrust attack, moving, killing a second, then falls back back a bit. Lylyth then boosts attack and damage rolls on one of the two remaining Champions in the left-group, kills it, then Bushwhacked around and behind the Swamp Gobbers so that the linear obstacle was between her and the right group of Champions.

The surviving Forsaken then advanced through the area now clear of Champions and throws another Blight Shroud, catching Madrak and the Mauler (3 Fury on each). The Mauler took a decent hit but the roll against Madrak was botched and barely broke his armor.

The Feralgiest stayed put, the surviving Shredder hung back to serve as a damage sink and Tenacity battery, and the Shepherd retreated back near the Angelius to end the Legion turn.

Trollbloods
After the Long Riders make it into the Fortress and block the door, the surviving Mauler charges the unpainted Seraph (which was spun around so the Mauler would fit between its wings). Even boosting its attack rolls the Mauler burns through 4 Fury but mostly missed and left the Seraph alive with only its Spirit out. Madrak steps down forward off the hill and casts Sure Foot on himself, dumps 1 Fury, then orders the surviving Champion from the left group to charge. That Champion goes after the Forsaken but misses both of its attacks. Finally the possessed Teraph charges the Angelius, killing it with another poison tail strike and a good damage roll on the bite. My Feralgeist could have inhabited the creature, but I had needed it for another use...

Turn 6

Everblight
After leeching the both Seraph were left with a single point of Fury. The unpainted Seraph failed its threshold check and frenzied on the Mauler, doing nothing. The other Seraph passed its threshold check. My first activation after that was the send the incorporeal Feralgeist running through the wall of the Supply Fortress to deny the Long Riders their hold to prolong the game.

I had planned on sending both Seraphs after Madrak to try to end the game but with one failing its threshold check I was a little worried. Still I decided to give it a go. Lylyth advanced to get the painted Seraph in her control area and feated. She then boosted a shot at the Champion that was engaged with the Forsaken. The shot killed him and luckily he failed his Tough check. Lylyth then put Tenacity on herself and camped on 2 Fury. The now free Forsaken then to move towards the painted Seraph to consume the 1 Fury on him so he'd be empty for his assassination attempt. Then the Seraph advanced towards Madrak and fired. Unfortunately I only rolled 1 extra attack and Madrak survived the attack with 3 life left.

The Shredder went Rabid and killed the Teraph to protect Lylyth from it and the Swamp Gobbers advanced and put a cloud around the unpainted Seraph and the Mauler to try to debuff the Mauler's MAT enough that the Seraph would survive the next turn.

Trollbloods
Madrak feated and charged the painted Seraph. A couple swings of Rathrok tore the beast apart (which the trollblood's Feralgeist quickly inhabited) but for some reason Madrak couldn't seem to connect with the Shepherd. The Chieftan ended his activation with 1 Fury left for transferring. The geisted Seraph then flew back and fired at Lylyth, but even boosting it found her DEF 17 too high to hit. The Mauler tried to finish off the Seraph but couldn't hit between its hit DEF and the gobbers' smoke cloud. Then the remaining Champion unit runs forward to get in Lylyth's face and threaten her if she stuck around next turn. Finally the Long Riders beat on the Fortress walls to little effect before Prorpger ended his turn.

Turn 7

Everblight
Lylyth fit a single arrow to Hellsinger, drew back, and finished off the beleaguered trollkin chieftain.

Post Mortem

The scenario was interesting but I shouldn't have forgotten about the cannons I could fire. I stopped mid-game once everything got engaged then forgot to do it again once Madrak had gotten far enough back that I could put the point near him and hope for a good deviation.

Other than that, this was a pretty fun game. Plenty deaths all around and a lot of beasts sticking around longer than they should due to Prorpger's Feralgeist. I still had a couple beasts left on the board by the end of the game but the second Champion unit was closing in fast. I think that they were part of why I wound up winning - when Prorpger devoted them to killing the Teraph back on his side of the table and off to one flank it took them out of the game for the next few rounds. They did give him the tool he needed to kill my Angelius (the geisted Teraph) but they really didn't contribute much after that.

War Chest

• Legion of Everblight: +18 VPs (37 Total)
• Trollbloods: +9 VP (-15 spent, 15 Total)

Result: Victory for Legion, Trollkin Strategic Objective 2 Incomplete.

Bonds: Lylyth's surviving Seraph scored a Bond, but with an unlucky roll for which bond it would get it wound up with Lap Dog.

The next week after this game was played, Prorpger and Saultydog finished the last game of the round. I wound up with the most VPs for this turn and declared an attack on my final Strategic objective. It was going to have to do it from an adjacent territory but I figured why not gamble?

The second and final fight for a strategic objective of the first round in our Bloodstone Marches Theater of War campaign was Saultydog's Circle trying to contain the outbreak of Dragonblight at the castle of the keys. Unfortunately for the druids they ran afoul of a group of Prorpger's trolls who, still bitter over the Circle's betrayal of Madrak Ironhide and unaware of the Circle's goal decided to take the opportunity to strike at the Blackclads.

This game was fought on a table bisected from left to right by a 4" stream of Blighted Shallow water. The blighted energies in this region had two effects: first living non-Legion models in the blighted water suffer -2 MAT, RAT, and STR. However we made a mistake and only played this as a -1 penalty. Second, all Tough rolls in this scenario only succeed on a roll of 6. The Circle's goal was to damn this river by collapsing six of the eight columns surrounding the river and using the rubble to stop it. The columns were positioned with four on each side of the river, each 1" from the river and 8" from the columns to its right and left or 10" from a table edge if there was no column to that side of it. The columns were ARM 18 structures that could take 20 damage points before being destroyed. This scenario used the Siege Attrition rules for the campaign, meaning if any columns were destroyed but Circle lost, the next time they attempted the scenario whatever columns had been destroyed in previous attempts would remain begin the game already destroyed.

Other than the river and columns, each player placed four terrain pieces but could only select obstructions, obstacles, and structures. We also allowed open pits to be used, feeling it felt in theme with the ruined castle. These terrain features had to be at least 6" away from the channel and 3" from each other. Both players primarily selected linear obstacles for their terrain pieces, resulting in a relatively open table with regards to LOS. Saultydog did place a couple pits on the Trollblood side to try to slow them down while Prorpger put a couple of structures over on the Circle side for the same reason. In addition we wound up using P3 paints for columns again. We really need to add some more variety of terrain pieces but time to make terrain always seems hard to find.

As I mentioned in the previous post about our campaign we were allowing proxies so both players took the opportunity to break out some new models and try them out. They fielded the following:

Circle Orboros (Saultydog)

• Balder the Stonecleaver
• Woldwarden
• Woldwatcher x2
• Blackclad Wayfarer (Proxied by Gorman)
• Druids of Orboros
• Reeves of Orboros x10 (Proxied by Bile Thralls)
• Shifting Stones x2
• Tharn Ravagers x6
• Farrow Bone Grinders x4 (Proxied by Satyxis)
• Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

• Grissel Bloodsong
• Earthborn Dire Troll
• Troll Impaler
• Winter Troll
• Stone Scribe Chronicler (Proxied by a Fell Caller)
• Feralgeist (Proxied by an old Mage Knight figure on a 40mm base)
• Gudrun the Wanderer (Proxied by a Bokur)
• Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes x6
• Thumper Crew (Proxied by the Avatar of Menoth and 2 Kriel Warriors)
• Trollkin Champions
• Trollkin Long Riders x5 (2 Proxied by Exemplar Vengers)

Saultydog deployed most of his forces on the near flank of his deployment zone. The Ravagers were set up betweenthe nearest two columns so they could get to both on turn 1. The Reeves were deployed beside them near the center of the table, then Baulder and his Woldwarden. Finally the Druids were placed on his far flank.

Prorpger countered the Ravagers by putting his Champions, Krielstone Bearer, and Chronicler across the table for them. the Thumper was put at the center of the table and Grissel, the beasts, and the feralgeist congregated just past it. Finally the Long Riders were put on the far flank.

For Advance Deployment Saultydog placed his Woldwatchers front and center with access to a couple columns first turn. One unit of Shifting Stones was put on the far flank near the furthest column and the other was put centrally behind one of the structures. Prorpger deployed Gudrun up near the two central columns on his side of the table, intending to throw him away to slow the Circle down.

Turn 1

Circle Orboros
Saultydog's first order of business was to charge the Ravagers at the nearest two colums. He was able to get five of them up there, the other one having to run to bridge the gap between the units. The Ravagers were P+S 13 to the ARM 18 of the stones but managed to cause 10 and 11 damage to the two stones with their charges.

Circle then went to work on the third stone up on their side of the table, starting with an Earth Spike from the Woldwarden that had advanced into position and followed by some melee attacks from the nearest Woldwatcher to finish it off. The second Woldwatcher was riled for 2 to raise the total fury on the table to 6; Balder's max.

The Blackclad used the nearby Shifting Stone to teleport all the way out to the Cavalry's flank, then the stones shifted up around the building they had been concealed behind. Druids and Reeves both ran forward before Balder activated, moved forward, Earthspiked the third column up on the Troll side of the table for a few damage, then placed a forest in front of Gudrun to prevent the ogrun from charging. He could still walk across with Pathfinder but at least no LOS meant no charges on Baldur's Woldwatchers. Finally the Bone Grinders and Swamp Gobbers moved up as far as they could behind the druid.

Trollbloods
The turn I forgot to take pictures came early this game.

All in all the first Trollblood turn was uneventful. The Champions, Krielstone, and Chronicler ran up the near flank while the Cavalry ran up the far flank. Grissel dumped all of her fury in the Krielstone and she and her beasts advanced and were riled. The Feralgeist ran forward to where Gudrun was before Gudrun walked across the river and attacked one of the Woldwatchers, doing a few points of damage. Finally the Thumper advanced and Prorpger ended his turn.

Turn 2

Circle Orboros
After Balder leeching Fury the Ravagers charge the stones again, shifting over at angles to try to get the charge die on their damage rolls. A couple do, but all told they're only able to do around 4 points to each column - not enough to destroy them. The Woldwarden stepped up and Earth Spiked the third column up on the Troll side of the table, boosting damage both on it and on the Feralgeist that was hiding behind it. The Feralgeist died and the column took five points of damage.

Meanwhile one of the Woldwatchers attacked Gudrun, "killing" him for the first time. Baldur stepped up and placed a forest in front of the Thumper, blocking it's LOS to he and his Woldwarden. Then he Feated and forgot to spend more of his Fury before ending his activation. The Reeves and Bone Grinders ran forward and the Swamp Gobbers advanced behind Balder. The Druids sent a Devouring at the far column on the troll side to try catch some of the Cavalry but only succeeded in scratching the column and not damaging the buffalo. The Wayfarer then used the Wilding on the trailing Long Rider (who would have frenzied on the unit leader) but the trollkin made his command check.

Trollbloods
Baldur's feat really messed with the Trollblood advance, stopping them from getting to the heart of the Circle lines. Out on the far flank the Long Riders got the run order to try to slog through the blighted river. The front three made it across but the trailing two would start their next activation in the morass.

On the near flank the Champions, Krielstone, and Chronicler all edged around Balder's control area under the protection of the Krielstone's aura. The Chronicler recited his first passage and the Wintertroll shuffled nearby and put Freezer on the lead Champion to deter an attack.

In the center of the field, the Thumper shot at the lead Druid (who was out of range) and the scatter sent the shot off in the middle of nowhere. The Earthborn and Grissel advanced and the Impaler used his animus and threw a spear at the Woldwarden, doing a couple damage and slaming it back and inch and over the Swamp Gobber crewman, killing him.

Turn 3

Circle Orboros
After forgetting to dump more fury, Balder was thankful that Elemental Constructs don't frenzy - he pulled a couple fury off of the Woldwarden but left both Woldwatchers full. Once again the Ravagers started the turn, this time deciding to abandon the stone nearest Balder. Two Ravagers charged the second stone up on the Trollblood side of the table, three stayed back by the nearest column on the Circle side, and one ran into the middle of the river to keep both groups in formation. The three Ravagers on the near column got it down to 1 damage left but couldn't finish it, while the two that charged across the river put six points onto their column. Frustrated, Saultydog had his Reeves, his ranged troops, charge the near column and they finally finished it off for the Ravagers.

Balder activates and charges the nearest column, taking two attacks to kill it before putting up another forest in the middle of the river to slow the Champions down. The Bone Grinders move up in front of him and the remaining Swamp Gobber advances and puts a cloud down between the Thumper and Baldur.

Across the table the Wayfarer tried the Wilding again on the trailing Long Rider but failed. The Druids used the Devouring again on the far column that the Cavalry had moved next to but failed to hurt them. Finally the Shifting Stones that had been out on the far flank moved around the Cavalry to disrupt their movement on the following turn.

Trollbloods
On the far side of the table, the Long Riders broke out of the Shifting Stones. One Long Rider was able to get a charge off on the Druid leader (killing him with his impact attack) and the others ran to spread out and engage the Druids and the Wayfarer.

On the near flank the Winter Troll advanced on the near Ravager and took a couple swings, but couldn't manage to hit the Tharn. The Champions advanced, trudging through the forest and the river, to occupy the space between the two nearest columns on their side of the table and threaten any model that got close enough to damage the columns. The Champion leader took a couple swings at the Ravager that had charged the nearby column, but couldn't manage to hit it, either. That's one dodgy Ravager. The Krielstone advanced and put up its protective aura again to help protect the Champions.

The Thumper advanced to its right and Grissel and the Earthborn advanced back to the Champion Flank. Grissel took a shot at the Woldwatcher for a couple damage and shed fury. The Impaler threw a spear at the near Woldwatcher, critting and slamming it back a couple inches but only doing four damage.

Turn 4

Circle Orboros
On the far flank of the table, the Druids use Elemental Blasts against the Long Riders in hopes of knocking them down. The Wayfarer teleported to the center of the Circle lines next to a Shifting Stone near Balder. The two Woldwatchers use their ranged weapons on another Long Rider, which makes its Tough roll to the first one but fails to the second and becomes a forest.

From the center of the table, the Bone Grinders increase the range of Baldur's spells so that the Woldwarden can throw an Earth Spikes spell at the third column up on the troll side of the table, doing a couple points of damage. Baldur follows suit to similar effect, then put a forest on the table between the Impaler and he and the Woldwarden. The Shifting Stones move up to surround Baldur and the Bone Grinders for teleporting purpose. The surviving Swamp Gobber puts down a small cloud touching the forest to block the Thumper's LOS as well.

The Ravagers get a charge order, with two going towards each of the nearest columns on the troll side of the table. The fifth charges a Champion to bridge the gap between the two groups, and a sixth gets to Grissel. The Ravagers on the stone only succeeds in doing minor damage to the two stones and they missed Grissel. Finally the Reeves get a run order and fill in the area between the Ravagers and Baldur, getting into position for next round.

Trollbloods
The Winter Troll activated first and tried to kill the Tharn engaging it but couldn't finish it off. The Earthborn started off the turn by eating the Tharn that had attacked Grissel (boosting attack and damage). Grissel then casts Uproar on the lead Shifting Stone catching it, three Bone Grinders, and three Reeves in the AOE. A couple of boosts later and one of the Bone Grinders was the only survivor. Grissel then hustled over towards the Champions and Feated, catching their entire flank. The Chronicler reads the second passage for the Champions, who then start in on the Ravagers and wipe them off the table. The Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes move forward behind the Champions and activate the Protective Aura.

Across the table the Long Riders kill a couple more Druids and the Thumper advances forward. The Impaler throws a spear at a Woldwatcher, hitting for another four damage (but still not taking a system out) but not slamming it.

After everything had activated, the Trolls on the near flank Hoofed It forward through the river, engaging a couple Reeves. The Krielstone Bearer followed behind and the Troll turn was ended.

Turn 5

Circle Orboros
The Druids continue to engage the Long Riders, doing minimal damage. The Woldwatchers both turn to the nearest Long Rider and kill it a couple times but Prorpger kept making his Tough rolls. The Shifting Stones warp to keep the Cavalry pinned on the far flank away from the rest of the army.

In the center of the table, Saultydog decides the column thing isn't working and that he needs to try to kill Grissel. Seeing the Earthborn just in front of the pit, the Wold Warden went for a Slam. He easily hit, and rolled a 6 for distance. Unfortunately a little measuring revealed 1" would have put the Earthborn short of the pit and 6" put him just past, so the Dire Troll would survive. However it was 6" back and knocked down, effectively out of the game for a turn or two.

In order to help him get in to position to go for an assassination on the following turn, Baldur ran out into the middle of the river, keeping his focus to transfer. The Swamp Gobber advanced and put a cloud between the Impaler and the Woldwatcher to keep the Impaler from being able to free up the Troll Cavalry. The Wayfarer advanced and tried the Wilding on a Champion but the troll made his Command Check. Finally the Reeves advanced into the middle of the river and CRAed at the Champion Kithkar in an attempt to kill him, but he only did five points to the troll.

Trollbloods
The Earthborn started the turn outside of Grissel's control area and she was unable to leech the two fury off of it but the beast passed its frenzy check. It then starts the turn by advancing back to the fight, unable to be forced to run because it was still outside Grissel's control area. With the Reeves lined up in front of them, the Champions advanced forward and chopped them down. Across the field the Long Riders fared worse with the Druids, struggling to get through their DEF. The Winter Troll advanced towards Baldur and tried to spray him but even boosting can't manage to hit.

The Impaler stayed put and boosted a spear toss at Baldur and managed to hit and crit, throwing him back 5" right in front of the Champions. Grissel decides to swing back behind the nearby column, dumping her fury then running around it. The Krielstone bearer and Stone Scribes run as well, getting in front of her to keep the Woldwarden back.

Turn 6

Circle Orboros
While the Druids continue to distract the Long Riders, the nearest Woldwatcher turns another Long Rider into a forest with a well-placed Elemental Strike. The Woldwarden turns on the Winter Troll and throws it at the column near all of the Champions, doing a few damage points to the Winter Troll and nothing to the column. The second Woldwatcher shoots the Winter Troll but still can't finish it off. The Wayfarer charges a Champion, hitting for two points of damage and Baldur stands up and spends a couple Fury to kill the Champion in front of him. With nowhere to go he sits on his remaining 4 fury. The Swamp Gobbers put a cloud down in front of the Impaler to end the Circle turn.

Trollbloods
The final turn is quick and brutal - the Winter Troll and Earthborn kill the Woldwarden then the Champions activate and trudge forward, three of them engaging Baldur. With no Fury to transfer, they finish him off to end the game.

Post Mortem

This game just didn't go Saultydog's way from the start. His Ravagers should have done a fair bit more damage to the stones than they did and as a result the Trollbloods were able to surge up to the river and block access to the rear stones before he could get to them. On top of that there were a couple of turns where he ended Baldur's activation before he wanted to and that threw off his fury management. That said, he did do a great job of neutering the Thumper and for the most part the Impaler with forests and cloud templates, especially considering how little LOS blocking terrain was on the table to begin with.

Prorpger played a slow beatstick army and came to the table to grind out as many VPs as he could for his war chest and he succeeded in doing so. Killing Balder bumped him up to 13 for the game, and considering I scored a single VP in my first game and Saultydog had 2 over 2 games, he all but guaranteed himself initiative for round 2.

War Chest

• Trollbloods: +13 VPs (21 Total)
• Circle Orboros: +2 VPs (2 Total)

Result: Defense successful for Trollbloods, Circle Strategic Objective 1 incomplete.

Campaign Round 1 Wrap Up

The final battle of round one was a land grab between Prorpger's Trollbloods and my Legion of Everblight. We fought a game of Killing Fields for control of the mountainous region in the central Marches which ultimately ended with Legion gaining a new foothold as they press towards their Strategic Objectives.

Prorpger came out tops on the round and I followed behind in second. In addition to the VPs earned in my fights, I gained a bonus 5 VPs for retaining control of the Sacred Site deep within my territory. Saultydog had bad luck this round. His game with me was quick and over before there were really any casualties and when playing Prorpger he devoted his resources to the columns and only took out a couple solos so he didn't get many VPs this round.

War Chests and Attack Declarations

• Trollbloods: 21
  • Attack vs. Legion for Strategic Objective 1
  • Attack vs. Circle for the diamond-shaped territory just northeast of the strip Legion just took from him
• Legion of Everblight: 11
  • Attack vs. Circle for Strategic Objective 2
• Circle Orboros: 2

Result: Defense successful for Trollbloods, Circle Strategic Objective 1 incomplete.

About five years ago or so I was starting an Earthdawn RPG campaign for a group of friends. I decided to start the campaign off with the published adventure titled Terror in the Skies which would feature some airships and expose the PCs to that quickly. One character was a Sky Raider so I felt it was appropriate, plus I had run the adventure before and was comfortable with it. The group like using miniatures for combat so I got a crazy idea. The adventure had deck plans for the two large galleons that were in the adventure and would inevitably wind up in a battle in the skies. So one day I scanned the two upper decks into photoshop, resized them to scale for 25mm miniatures, and printed them out. I then took the pages, glued them down to cardboard, and cut them out for use on the table top. The group loved them and they made the boarding actions really fun, but then the ships got tossed into the closet and remained unused until recently. After debating what scenario to play for a little while, Prorpger, Superduck, and I came up with the idea to use the cardboard ships to do a variation of the Smoke on the Water scenario from the campaign in the back of Escalation.

The rules of Smoke on the Water were pretty simple - two barges pass each other on the table. Each barge was its owner's deployment zone and moving d6" during its owner's maintenance phase. Each barge can be damaged like a structure and is ARM 16. When either barge touches the opposite table edge, both barges immediately stop and whichever had sustained the most damage immediately sinks. Whoever holds the last barge wins. If a model was knocked off the barges, it was removed from play.

For Smoke in the Skies, we added a few rules based on the ships we were using.

• The blue edging was deck railing, which provided cover and was effectively an obstacle. It also meant you could get slammed into the wall but not over the edge. However the main deck had weaker railing - no obstacle, and you could be slammed right through it. Basically it was all open ground.
• The red areas were the raised decks and counted as higher ground.
• You could cross between decks of equal height or from higher to lower, but not from lower to higher. So no going from main deck on one ship to the forecastle on the other.
• The green locations were the ships masts that were impassable terrain, provided cover, etc.
• Since the ships weren't flat and weren't going to line up perfectly, a model could cross the distance between the two ships as long as the distance between was less than 2". They were either leaping across or swinging on rope or whatever swashbuckler imagery you wanted to apply there. Yes, jacks too.

With that we put together a couple forces to do battle.

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

• Grim Angus
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Winte Troll
• Impaler
• Champions
• Thumper Crew (proxied: Blitzer and Stone Scribes)
• Fell Caller
• Stone Scribe Chronicler (proxied: primered Fell Caller)

Prorpger's proxied the Chronicler and the Thumper a few times and has liked them so far.

Protectorate (Myself)

• Harbinger of Menoth
• Castigator
• Crusader
• Devout
• Dervish
• Seneschal
• Choir

Finally, a chance to field the Harbinger now that she's been painted. It's about time!

Turn 1
Trollblood
Prorpger's airship started off moving 3"

Prorpger started off by having his Thumper shoot at the Crusader. The cannon hit and did a trio of damage to column four but he only rolled 1 for the bounce and it didn't catch anything else. Then the Impaler threw its spear at the Crusader, boosting to hit and scoring a critical hit. It took another three points of damage to column five but tumbled over a couple choir boys who were flattened by the impact. The Stone Scribe read the first passage for the Champions and they gathered near the side of the deck. The Winter Troll put Freezer on the near champion and Grim gave them Return Fire as well. I'm pretty sure Grim shot the Dervish for a few points of damage, but I can't recall how many.

Protectorate
The slower Protectorate vessel only moved 1" first turn.

I gave the Dervish 3 focus and started off moving up and casting Purification, getting rid of Return Fire and Freezer. Then the Seneschal charged the Impaler, reaching across the small space between boats. The first attack missed and the second hit for about 6 points of damage. The choir moved forward and sang Infuse then the Dervish charged the Champions. His first attack on the one in front missed, but he boosted to hit and damage on the leader with his second attack scoring 3 points of damage. The Devout and Castigator moved up to block the edge of the boat, hoping that no matter how far the Troll ship moved the Impaler would still be in melee and unable to slam a jack off the ship. Finally the Crusader stood up and advanced back to its starting position.

Turn 2
Trollblood
The troll vessel zips 6" towards me. Prorpger's ship's mast makes moving his champions a bit difficult. The Impaler boosts a stab in the Dervish's back doing some good damage. The Chronicler moves back, as does the Fell Caller before giving the Champions War Cry. The Champs then spread out circle the Dervish. Only two can reach it, but they both succeed in hitting and stripping the jack of it's right arm and cortex. The Winter Troll tries to breathe on the Seneschal but misses due to being in combat and hits his own troll in the back for a few points of damage. Unfortunately he critted and froze the poor troll in place for a turn. Grim moves up to the rail and caps the Devout for about five points of damage and sheds some fury down to 2

Protectorate
The slower Protectorate ship again fails to match the pace of the troll vessel, only moving 4". I gave the Devout three fury and started a small push. The Dervish took an ineffectual swing at Champion in front of it before the Devout moved up and tried to get the Kithkar... but it was out of reach. So he spent his attacks on the Impaler, taking out its Mind and most of its Body. The Castigator got as far to the rails as possible and the Harbinger followed behind and threw a Cataclysm on the Kithkar. The POW 18 killed him and the blast damage did 3 points to the Chronicler and Fell Caller and killed the swamp gobber bellows (the crewman was sacced instead). Then she feated. The Crusader turned slightly on the fore deck to enable a charge if anyone crossed to my boat and the choir ran up to the deck to block access and use their reach to just be annoying. The seneschal stayed in place with nothing to do.

Turn 3
Trollblood
Another 4" move for the trolls. The Harbinger's feat really messed with the trolls. The solos and gobber moved down the boat away from her and turned around to make room for the Champions to go. The Champions moved down near the Dervish and finished it off. The one that was frozen was stuck looking at the Harbinger and was killed by her feat. The Impaler tossed at the Castigator and took out a column with a lucky damage roll. The Winter Troll stepped back and breathed at the Harbinger. When he scored a crit I decided to let the Devout take it (he was barely screening her already). He boosted damage and took out column 2 but no systems. Grim moved back from the rail and took the POW 12, then shot the Harbinger for I think three points of damage then tried a Mantrap but missed. Then the Mauler stood up and moved in front of him, taking two damage from the feat. The Thumper crew all took damage, but only one crewman died while the other two made their tough rolls.

And this is the required one turn per game I forgot pictures. 

Protectorate
I finally have a 6" move on my boat and it rockets forward. The Castigator got a couple of focus and the choir runs to the back of the boat to get out of my way and clear a path so the Seneschal can get to the Mauler. He chain attack slams it back into the mast and over Grim, doing a few points to the bounty hunter but not removing any aspects on the beast. At this point I decided to try the ole' holy hand grenade. The castigator repositioned slightly, spend one focus to two-handed throw the Harbinger, and one to boost... and failed miserably. Well, there went the possibility of slicing up Grim. Instead I cast a couple Tremor of Faith's, boosting the damage on one but only doing about six damage total between both spells. Then the Harbinger fell back, staying within 2" of the Devout but getting behind the cover of the mast.

Turn 4
Trollblood
The Troll ship advance to within a few inches of the table, signaling that the game was approaching the end. After Grim leeched his fury, the Mauler stood up and moved to engage the Seneschal. The Imapler turned and threw his spear at the Devout, taking out another column but not slamming and not removing a system. The Thumper crew stood up and moved to the edge of the boat. The Champions ran over to get on the Protectorate boat, only two making it over. The Chronicler and the Fell Caller advance, the Chronicler reading the second passage for the Champions. The Winter Troll walks over to in front of the Champions on the Protectorate ship and sprays on the Devout and the Castigator, only doing a couple points of damage to each. Finally Grim stands up and realizes he doesn't have a path to cross to the Protectorate ship. He steps back and heals the Dire Troll with four of his fury.

Protectorate
The Protectorate ship advances another single inch. The two heavies each get a single focus and the Devout gets three. The Seneschal rotates around the Dire Troll slightly and attacks but misses, ruining a chance for a slam. The Castigator ran over onto the Troll Ship and the Crusader ran down to the main deck. The Devout advanced toward the winter troll, swinging his shield at it and missing, then attacking the Troll ship with his halberd and buying three more attacks on it. Finally the Harbinger skirted up towards the rail but away from the trolls and threw a Cataclysm at the troll ship (which was just under 2 inches away). The two models were able to tally up 28 damage on the Trollblood ship.

Turn 5
Trollblood
The troll ship moves to within .5" of the table edge, guaranteeing it will reach the end next turn. Most of his trolls are blocked on his own ship so Prorpger tries to do what he can to damage the Protectorate one, including two Mantraps from Grim and the Champions beating on the deck at their feet but he isn't able to quite match damage the Protectorate did to his vessel and we call the game, realizing the game would end with a Protectorate win at the start of turn 6.

Summary
The first time we tried this scenario we thought it was going to be pretty boring, but it turned out to just be a lot of fun knocking models around. Obviously with the cardboard ships we play a little fast and loose with rules. There's a gentleman's agreement to just go out and have fun and not abuse the scenario to go for the win.

I think there are two things about the scenario that needs addressing, particularly related to our use of the airships. Making it impossible to go from the main deck of one ship to the upper decks of another really limits how much crossing can happen. I think we need to allow it, but count it as going over an obstacle (so walking and running is fine, just no charging). We should probably try that out and see how it goes.

The second thing is the gap between the ships. Because they don't touch (the ship's sides aren't strait) and since a model has to completely cross the gap to get to the other side, models without reach are winding up SOL if there's no space to cross. I can see two potential ways to fix this for now:

• Allow models to be standing in the space between ships since the barges in the original scenario were flush with each other.
• Allow warrior models/units (maybe non-Warcasters only?) starting their activation within an inch of the edge of the ship to move over models within 1" of the rail on the opposing deck. Basically call it swinging on the rigging, don't let people charge but they could run or advance and do it and no free strikes.

One way or the other people need to be able to get from boat to boat and get in each other's faces.

Problems aside the scenario has proven a nice diversion from regular assassination games and has been fun to just play around with.

The gauntlet was thrown Sunday - a team game where Prorpger and Saultydog would each bring 500 points against a 1000-point Legion army. We had to make sure to arrive at the store early so we'd have time to get everything set up and get started quickly, and it's a good thing we did. There were quite a few models on the table and a lot of strategic decisions to be made each turn.

The table was set up as pictured here and Saultydog and Prorpger won the initiative roll and elected to go first.

Circle Orboros (Saultydog)

• Kaya the Wildborne
• Warpwolf
• Warpwolf
• Woldwatchers
• Woldwyrd
• Shifting Stones
• Shifting Stones
• Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter

474 Points, 20 VPs

Saultydog's force was pretty compact for 500 points. On one hand I was surprised Kaya didn't have more light beasts, but on the other Warpwolfs are fast enough that they can get her where she needs to be almost as easily as an Argus with the added benefit of being terrors on their own.

Kaya, the Warpwolves, and the Wyrd deployed to my left flank in a tight group. After my deployment he set Alten Ashley, the Watcher, and his two units of shifting stones out in front of the rest of his army. Alten was positioned behind one of the low walls on the table which I was rather displeased to see; cover is one of the few benefits Eyeless Sight doesn't ignore.

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

• Grissel Bloodsong (Proxied by Madrak)
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Winter Troll
• Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes x6
• Trollkin Champions
• Trollkin Champions

518 Points, 18 VPs

At least I didn't have to face two Altens. Two units of Champions and a Krielstone is enough right there. Adding the beasts and Grissel did nothing to make it more palpable. And with AK and Saultydog explaining the Troll Block to Prorpger before the game I figured I was going to have one hell of a time getting through all those models.

Prorpger set up his forces to my right in a pretty solid block with the Winter Troll deployed to the side as a flanker. Both units of Champions were set in a V in front of the rest of his forces. The Mauler was a the front of the inside of the V, with the Krielstone just behind him. Grissel brought up the rear.

Legion of Everblight (Myself)

• Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
• Saeryn, Omen of Everblight
• Angelius
• Carnivean
• Nephilim Soldier
• Seraph
• Harrier
• Shredder
• Shredder
• The Forsaken
• Blighted Archers x9
• Blighted Swordsmen x6
• Raptors x5
• Warmongers x5
• Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

999 Points, 35 VPs

I put together a list for this game guessing I was going to be facing Grim Angus and Kromac the Ravenous. Kaya instead of Kromac didn't bother me, but I've got a pretty strong dislike for the Troll block that Grissel and Madrak run so well. Champions trump all of my infantry (even more so with the Krielstone) so I was going to have to try and keep from getting bogged down. Luckily I had brought Raptors (well, the Ulk parts anyway ) and winged beasts to try to out maneuver the trolls. I just had to keep Kaya at bay while I did it.

I decided to keep most of my forces more towards the left of the table to force Prorpger's trolls to cross more open ground to get to me. So I started by deploying my flanking forces to my right - the Archers and Raptors. I anchored the center of my army with my Warmongers, who were put up on the front line. Space was made between them for Rhyas so she could Dash and move first thing and everyone could swarm around her. I also filled in my Swordsmen, Nephilim, and Carnivean behind the Warmongers. Saeryn and the winged beasts went to the left behind the forest. Finally I tossed the light beasts, Forsaken, and Gobbers in the back behind everything else.

Turn 1

Circle and Trollbloods
And so the battle begins.

The Circle half of Turn 1 was pretty strait forward. The Warpwolfs were riled and ran (the front one warping for speed), the Kaya shed fury and ran behind Alten's wall, where the monster hunter stayed for his turn. The Wyrd advanced behind Kaya and the Watched advanced up behind the right group of shifting stones.

The Trolls followed by advancing their block up field. Both units of Champions walked, followed by the Mauler who was riled for five. The Winter Troll advanced outside the wall and was riled for one. The Kreilstone advanced back into the middle of the mass of trolls and Grissel brought up the rear, dumping all 6 of her Fury into the stone for use starting next turn.

Legion
For two games in a row now I've made the mistake of being careful not to put the swamp gobbers within 3" of the Forsaken but then putting non-fearless units right next to them. So the first thing I got to do on my turn was make some command checks. :/

After that I activated Rhyas first. She cast Dash, put Rapport on the Angelius, then advanced about 7" up field. The Archers then ran forward to get in Volley position for the following turn. The Raptors ran up the right flank, ready to come around the forest from the trolls next turn. After filling in the Swordsmen behind the Warmongers Saeryn activated. She put Blight Bringer on the two outside lead Warmongers, overlapping the middle one, then advanced.

The beasts advanced and uses animi enough to generate enough Fury for the twins to leech next turn (both had ended their activations with 1 Fury each) plus 3. The Nephilim ran up to the hill behind the Archers to threaten with his ability go glide over them SPD+5". The Carnivean anchored the space between the Archers and Warmongers with its animus up. The Shredders each put Tenacity on a twin and the Seraph and Angelius headed up into the woods.

The Forsaken moved up and leeched the 3 extra fury off of the Seraph and the Swamp Gobbers put a smoke template down in the middle of my central forces, ending my turn.

Turn 2

Circle and Trollbloods
Circle starts off to make room for the Troll block to continue forward. The Standing Stones start off by moving to the side out of the way. Then Alten steps up and shoots at a Warmonger but misses. The near Warpwolf warps for speed, charges the nearest Warmonger and winds up engaging two. After taking a point of damage for Blight Bringer the beast ripped in to both Warmongers, killing them.

Before the Circle finished the Trolls brought their block in much in the same manner as last round - the Champion V surrounding the Mauler and Krielstone (which put up its aura). The Winter Troll stepped into the woods and put Freezer on one of the Champion Kithkar. Grissel put a fury back on the stone and shed a second one then advanced.

Back to the Circle: the Woldwatcher advanced and put Vigilance up on himself. The trailing Warpwolf warped for armor and stepped over near the Troll block. Kaya then Spirit Doored the Warpwolf that had charged back near her and shed her Fury. Finally The Woldwyrd moved up and took a boosted shot at a Warmonger, hitting and doing 3 points of damage.

Legion
Rhyas upkept Rapport on the Angelius. The Archers start the turn by bravely advancing towards the Trollblood line, staying about 3" back. The front eight (I didn't think the leader was close enough) then drop a Concentrated Volley template into the back of the trollblood line, covering the Krielstone and three scribes. Although all the attacks hit I only rolled well enough to kill the Stone and one Scribe, and Prorpger sac'ed a second nearby Scribe to save the stone. The Raptors went next, advancing 9" up around and through the forest before shooting at the trailing Scribes. Only 3 Raptors got in range; the first killed a scribe that made its Tough roll, the hit and killed that scribe, and the third failed to break armor on the second trailing scribe. The Raptors then used their free post-action move to fall back out of retaliation range.

That was a pretty weak showing, but then things got a bit nastier. Saeryn feated, full on fury at this point, affecting 12 models. She chose:

• Saeryn
• Rhyas
• Angelius
• Carnivean
• Warmonger x3
• Swordsmen x4

Somewhere I forgot to allocate the twelfth token. Saeryn then cast Tenacty on herself and Rhyas, stepped forward a bit, and hit the front Warpwolf with a boosted Breath Stealer. The Seraph advanced and Slipstreamed the Angelius forward for range but didn't have any good shots. The Angelius then advanced on the standing stones. His thrust killed one, then he shifted 3" to the left, bought an attack, didn't kill, then bought another attack on a stone in the other unit, finally killing it (that made 1 in each unit gone). The beast then shifted 3" to engage Alten and the Warpwolf. He bought an attack against Alten but missed.

The Warmongers charged the Woldwatcher but only one could reach. The Watcher attacked but only did a couple points to the monger. Then the monger attacked and did about 6 points back to the Watcher. Next the Swordsmen charged the Warpwolf that had Breath Stealer on it. Three engaged it while the others spread out - the ones affected by Saeryn's feat acting blocking what lanes they could. All three that charged the Warpwolf were able to hit and the last one finally finished the beast off.

The Carnivean advanced and put his animus on himself. The Harrier and Forsaken advanced to the middle of my backfield and the left Shredder ran to catch up to them. The right Shredder advanced to the hill by the Archers then Rhyas followed, dropping Tenacity on that Shredder and the Nephilim before ending her turn. The Gobbers stepped up and put concealment on the Archers and the Nephilim ran out to the right flank behind the Archers to put a charge thread on that side of the table.

I didn't kill a whole lot (though I got a Warpwolf) but now I had melee-immune models up in the fray.

Turn 3

Circle and Trollbloods
After the warlocks finished leeching the Woldwyrd stepped to the side and took some boosted shots the closest unengaged Warmonger, doing 3 damage. Alten tried to break combat with the Angelius so he could shoot (no melee because of Foreboding) but died to a free strike. Upon killing Alten, The Angelius a bit forward to engage the Woldwyrd and Woldwatcher. The Watcher used its animus and went into stone form and the surviving Shifting Stones moved behind the swordsmen that had charged to block further charge lanes.

Grissel swung back to the center of the backfield and cast Uproar at the middle of the feat-protected Swordsmen and missed but the AOE drifted only 1" back, still catching two of them and killing one with the blast damage. The Winter Troll stepped up and unleashed its ice breath on the archers, killing one in the back but missing the leader even though he boosted. It then put Freezer on the leader of the unprimed Champions who then engaged my Archers and killed the front three. The other unit spread out and engaged my Feated swordsmen, killing the one in back that wasn't protected. The Mauler advanced and was riled for three and the Krielstone put up its Aura. Kaya stepped over the low wall closer to the troll lines and Spirit Doored the surviving Warpwolf to her and out of melee with the Angelius, then camped on her remaining three Fury.

Legion
Saeryn took all four Fury off the Angelius and one from the Seraph to fill up. Rhyas took two from the Carnivean and one from the Nephilim. That left a Shredder on the table with a lone Fury point, but he passed his Threshhold check. Rhyas then upkept Rapport.

Rhyas went first and cast Tenacity on herself before charged one of the shifting stones that had come back to get in the way. I wanted a Critical Decapitation to boost my army so rolled to hit and didn't get it, but did kill the stone. Rhyas then feated, catching most of my army. She then shed the last two fury and ended her turn. The Carnivean advanced and try to get to the Champions but Rhyas' base was blocking the way so he put up his Animus and was riled for 1. The Seraph activated and Slipstreamed Rhyas back two inches. With no good shots it then ended its activation. The Angelius went next and flew back to engage both Warlocks and the Warpwolf. It took all its fury and the extra attack from Rhyas' feat but it finally killed the Warpwolf.

The Warmongers charged the Woldwatcher, who Vigilanced and put another three damage on a Warmonger. Only one monger went far enough to get boosted damage rolls, and after his first hit he teleported up on the other side of the Watcher to engage the Wyrd and a Champion. All three mongers spent their attacks flailing on the Watcher but couldn't bring it down. I don't think they even took out an aspect.

The swordsmens started swinging on the Champions to no effect. The Nephilim was forced to charge one of the central champions in an effort to break up their lines. It took him all his fury to finally kill it, then he went stationary due to Freezer on the Champion leader. The Archers shifted to the left and put another Concentrated Volley down and left the Kreilstone unit with the stone and one scribe. The Raptors then charged the Champions (I wanted to see how they'd do) and even with the extra attack from Rhyas' feat, three of them succeeded in doing 4 points of damage to one Champion and one did 2 whole points to another. ::sigh:: They then retreated back away so as to not become stationary.

My lesser beasts came in tighter in the center of my army to block access to my warlocks before Saeryn went. She started by putting Breath Stealer on the pewter Champions (which would have been tons cooler if I had done that BEFORE the Raptors went) and put Tenacity on herself. She then moved up a bit and ended her activation. The Forsaken moved up next to her and the Gobbers put concealment on the Raptors since they couldn't get close enough to help anyone who needed it.

Turn 4

Circle and Trollbloods
After leeching fury the surviving Shifting Stones shifted off to the left to clear up space. Prorpger tried to clear room for Kaya to Spirit Door in and attack Rhyas, starting by having Grissel feat. He then moved on without having her do anything else, leaving her with all six fury instead of pounding on the Angelius and most likely killing it. He sent the left Champions against my swordsmen. He killed all he could reach but couldn't quite reach the leader who was further back. The Winter Troll put Freezer on the central Champion of that group, then the other group came around and decimated the Nephilim.

The Woldwyrd backed out of melee with the Warmonger, surviving the free strike. He shot the wounded warmonger and killed it. Then the Woldwatcher circled around and pounded on my lead monger but only did a few points. Kaya then cast Spirit Door and moved in as close as she could but couldn't reach Rhyas so she started attacking the Seraph. Even though she Feated and refilled her focus as she attacked she missed a few times before she finally critted and knocked the beast down. Unfortunately she didn't have enough fury left to finish it off before running herself dry.

The Dire Troll turned around and engaged the Angelius, beating on it and taking out its body but he couldn't kill it - the beast's high defense meant boosting was a must, which meant fewer attacks. The Krielstone advanced to the middle of the champion line and used the aura, protecting them as much as possible.

Legion
I leeched all the Fury off my beasts, leaving three on the Carnivean and one on the Seraph. The Carnivean passed his threshold check but the Seraph failed, so it stood up and advanced on the Swordsman leader (the only surviving member of the unit). Rhyas upkept Rapport and then switched places with Saeryn.

Now further back, Rhyas declared a charge on Kaya. MAT 7, DEF 16; 9 to hit. I boosted the first to hit, hoping for a Crit, and rolled 1-2-2. Ok, swordsmaster attack, 2-2-4 it's a crit, but not enough to hit. Three fury down (including the upkeep), spent one for another attack, rolled 4-4. ::sigh:: At that point I stopped with her with 1 Fury left.

Saeryn went next and but Blight Bringer on Rhyas, doing an auto POW 12 on Kaya (who has ARM 13). She boosts and proceeds to roll 6-6-5, killing the druid outright. Saeryn then casts equilibrium on the Carnivean and moves one fury from it to the Winter Troll, filling it up and leaving Grissel no one to transfer to. The Angelius then Thrust the troll warlock and boosted, killing her in one roll (she failed her Tough roll).

I then realized I forgot to heal the Angelius' body and would have done one damage die less, but it was late and we decided to wind up there anyway. The Angelius still could be forced two more times and even with -1d6 damage could have easily finished Grissel off on the next attack. Given that it was past the mall's closing time we called the game there.

Summation

Circle
One thing I think can be said is that Josh is doing a great job with painting his Circle. He's flying through them far faster than his trolls and they look good, too. As far as this game goes I think he just fielded a lot of what he had painted, which left him with a compact list. I went with more infantry expecting to be dealing with more Tharn so was able to provide his heavies with too many targets to effectively deal with. Keeping my warlocks back left the Wyrd as a mobile attack platform and not a lamentation engine. Vigilance did prove to be a problem, though. I had to be careful with where I moved so as to not loose anything important to those free attacks.

Trollbloods
Stupid troll block. I think now that Prorpger's been exposed to it he'll use it a little more. At first it didn't seem like it did much but when you look at all the options I didn't have and how feeble most of my melee attacks are against it, then it's pretty clear how well the block works. Prorpger's only mistake was not doing anything with Grissel after he Feated. He would have likely killed the Angelius and been in a much better spot had he done so. He still would have had to deal with both twins on the following turn but it would have been without that amazing beast.

Everblight
Both of the twins are really nice warlocks, but I'm not convinced what they get by playing together is really that great. I think I used them to arc spells all of once and when they switched places it really wasn't necessary. Had Saeryn been in a place to get attacked in melee, then maybe getting Riposte from Rhyas would have been valuable but as is it really didn't do anything.

Not to take away from the twins individually, though. Rhyas didn't so much this game but I've had success with her in the past so I know how well she can work. Saeryn is just proving to be vicious when I use here. I don't know what else can say, but her feat and spell selection is awesome and the abilities on her knives give her yet another tool to mess with warlocks on the assassination run.

Oh, and the Angelius rocks.

While Prorpger and I were finishing up some delicious food court delectables a couple local players asked me to set up an American Hill battle for them. Considering how long the last oversized America Hill game went I was surprised people still wanted to play but what the hell, right? So four of us sat down for yet another rumble for bragging rights up on high.

For those who haven't read an America hill report yet, the rules are as follows:

• At the end of each turn, the player with the most models on the hill gains 1 VP.
  • A unit counts as 1 model, regardless of the number of members on the hill
  • In the case of a tie, VPs are awarded to all players tied for most models on the hill
• At the end of a turn where a player has his warcaster/warlock on the hill, the controlling player rolls 1d6 and gains the following bonus:

1. Immediately activate the Yellow Woldwomper
2. Immediately activate the Blue Woldwomper
3. Immediately activate the Red Woldwomper
4. Place any one model currently on the hill or within 3" of the hill within 6" of its current location. Model may not be placed more than 4" above the table surface. There must be room for the model’s base at the destination.
5. Place 1d4 3" cloud effects in play anywhere completely within the warlock/warcaster’s control radius. These clouds remain in play for one round.
6. Place 1 3" fire storm template anywhere within completely within the warlock/warcaster’s control radius. The warcaster/warlock must make a magic attack roll against each model in the AOE ignoring LOS, cover, concealment, elevation, Stealth, Invisibility, or intervening models. Each model hit suffers an unboostable POW 12 damage roll and the Fire continuous effect.

I didn't expect anyone to want to play American Hill this week so I left the Woldwomper models at home. For replacements we used some of my Protectorate warjacks: two Crusaders and a Vanquisher.

Red Khador (Garret)

• Butcher
• Devastator
• Iron Fang Pikemen + Unit Attachment
• Man-o-War Shocktroopers

Garret is a newcomer to Warmachine and his models are with another local whom he commissioned to do some painting. He was using a few borrowed figs and had to proxy a Juggernaut for the Devastator. His list was a pretty defensively-built, consisting of shield wall troops and the thick shelled Devastator. Pretty simply concept, but when you're talking about Khador simplicity doesn't necessarily mean inefficiency.

Legion of Everblight (Myself)

• Saeryn
• Angelius
• Seraph
• Shredder x3

I really wanted to try out Saeryn to decide if I wanted to use her in the 750-point mixed locally event this weekend but both she and her sister were still on my painting desk so I wound up using my recently painted Vayl to stand in for her. I decided to throw in a couple winged beasts - the Angelius to deal with hard targets and the Seraph to deal with infantry. I then tossed in a few Shredders to fill out.

Blue Khador (Mark)

• Old Witch
• Scrapjack
• Manhunter
• Gorman di Wulf
• Man-o-War Demo Corp.
• Widowmakers
• Greylords

Mark brought out an infantry-heavy Khador list. He had the Old Witch for board (or hill) control, Gorman for cloud placement, MOW:DC as his heavy hitters and some lighter infantry for support. It was a fairly solid list, and the number of different units and solos meant he had plenty of models to claim the hill.

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

• Horluk (proxied by Madrak)
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Winter Troll
• Champions

Prorpger had initially built the list using Grissel, but wound up a few points over and had to sub in Horluk. Unfortunately that's the only warlock he doesn't own so he proxied in Madrak for the battle. Lots of hard hitting multi-wound models in that list; it's performance was just going to be a question of getting to the hill.

Turn 1

Red Khador
Garrett went with a defensive tactic. The butcher only spared a single focus for the Devastator to run. Both infantry units formed up in Shield Walls and marched up field while the Butcher followed behind to drop Iron Flesh on the Shocktroopers.

Legion
Surrounded by hard-hitting Khadorans, I decided to concentrate on the Legion's speed and maneuverability and try to get to the hill first to try and build an early lead. Saeryn dropped Respawn on the Angelius just in case and advanced before putting Tenacity on herself. She discarded 2 more Fury (leaving her with 1) and advanced to toe the woods. I forced the Seraph to run and toe the nearby woods then turned to the Shredders. The right shredder went rabid (for movement) and advanced, putting Tenacity on the Seraph. The center Shredder walked forward towards Saeryn, and the left Shredder went rabid, walked to the woods, and put Tenacity on the center Shredder.

+1 VPs Legion for models on the hill.

Blue Khador
Mark started his bid for the hill by running his Manhunter up onto the lowest level, tying me for most models at a whopping 1. The Man-o-War Demo Corp ran forward then the Old Witch advanced behind before dropping Iron Flesh on the Widowmakers and Wold Secrets on the Demo Corp. The Greylords ran up behind and Gorman advanced and dropped a cloud on the Old Witch.

+1 VP Legion/Red Khador for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
Prorpger ran most of his models first turn to try and overcome his speed deficiency so he could try to claim and defend the hill. Both the Dire Troll and the Winter Troll ran forward, followed by the Champions. Then Horluk advanced and put Freezer on the Winter troll for a bit of defense.

Score

• Red Khador: 0
• Everblight: 3 (+3 Hill)
• Blue Khador: 2 (+2 Hill)
• Trollbloods: 0

Turn 2

Red Khador
Second verse, same as the first. The Red Khador continued to advance under shield wall while the Devastator ran back to the center of the line, staying near the Butcher.

+1 VP Legion/Red Khador for models on the hill.

Legion
Having claimed the hill, it was time to try and start eliminating the competition. First I leeched all the fury on the board and let Respawn expires since I planned on having a different beast be in danger at the end of my turn. I started with the Angelius who shifted to the side to get line of sight on the Manhunter and took a boosted ranged attack at him. Unfortunately the boosted damage roll came up 1-2-2, doing a measly 3 damage. I just had to cross my fingers and hope he didn't do do much damage next turn.

Saeryn went next and cast slipstream, shifted towards the Seraph, then moved back and forward. I placed the Seraph 2" forward with Slipstream, then Saeryn put Respawn on the Seraph and Tenacity on the Angelius. The Seraph then activated, flew to the hill, and took a boosted shot at the Scrapjack. That was my real target - I wanted to get the Old Witch's arc node off the table to try and cripple her a bit. My first shot wound up doing 9 damage but I didn't take out any systems. The second shot did a couple more to a clean column and the third and final one missed. Not what I was hoping for, but it was a start.

The shredders went last. The left shredder stepped out of the woods and advanced, the center shredder put Tenacity on Saeryn and moved forward, and the right shredder advanced and put Tenacity on the Seraph. I knew I'd have a couple extra fury on the table the following turn but I figured it was worth the risk to help out in the defense area.

+1 VP Legion for models on the hill

Blue Khador
The Old Witch upkept Iron Flesh on the Widowmakers for free using her staff, then the Manhunter slipped around the Wold Womper staying out of melee range and engaged my Seraph. The first hit failed to break armor but the second did about five points but didn't take out any aspects. The Demo Corp ran for the hill, forming a line of metal just off of the bottom layer. Scrapjack ran forward up onto the middle of the hill. Gorman advanced and dropped a smoke cloud on the Old Witch who then used it to teleport to the small round woods near the hill's base. She then advanced to tag the bottom of the hill, put Iron Flesh on herself, and ended her turn with one focus left, giving him the most models on the hill. Finally the Greylords advanced towards my Seraph and thought about trying to Ice Cage it until Mark realized my DEF was 20 counting elevation and being in melee with the Manhunter.

After ending his turn Mark rolled for the random hill effect and wound up getting to activate the Wold Womper nearest Prorpger's Trollbloods. He decided to have it charge down off the hill at the Winter Troll and pounded on it twice, leaving the beast with just three health before becoming stationary due to Freezer which Horluk had put on the Winter Troll.

+1 VP Blue Khador for models on the hill

Trollbloods
Wounded, Prorpger sought Vengeance. Madrak advanced behind his beasts, cast the Dire Troll's animus on the Dire Troll then dumped his remaining fury into healing the Winter Troll. The Dire Troll executed a two-handed throw on the Wold Womper, targeting the Old Witch. With his strength boosted by his animus, the Dire Troll was able to throw the Wold Womper up to 7.5"... which happened to put the witch just in range.

Between being elevated and having Iron Flesh, the old witch was sitting on a DEF of 20 so it was no surprise when the toss, even boosted missed. But deviation roll came up 1" long, placing the airborne Womper right on the Old Witch, knocking her down, and causing 9 points of damage to her. The Winter troll then advanced and unleashed its Ice Breath spray, boosting the damage roll but only doing another 5 points, leaving the old witch with 3 health left. Unable to reach the Old Witch, the Champions ran for the hill to start laying Trollblood claim to it and ended his turn leaving the Old Witch knocked down and near death.

+1 VP Blue Khador for models on the hill

Score

• Red Khador: 0
• Everblight: 5 (+2 Hill)
• Blue Khador: 5 (+3 Hill)
• Trollbloods: 0

Turn 3

Red Khador
Garret was finally able to reach the hill this turn. The Shocktroopers advanced under Shield Wall again and stepped up on the hill. The IFP received the Run order but the Standard Bearer also popped his mini-feat - the troops surged forward then formed up a Shield Wall in front of the Shocktroopers to get a second model on the hill. Finally the Devastator and Butcher walked forward, the Butcher camping on focus for armor. However with two model/units on the hill, Blue Khador still held the lead with three.

+1 VP Blue Khador for models on the hill

Legion
This was the turn I decided to see what Saeryn could do. I leeched all the fury of the table I could but left two on the Seraph. I figured I'd use the last one to boost an attack against the Manhunter and kill him but I failed my Threshhold check and the Seraph frenzied then missed the Manhunter with its boosted attack. Great way to start the round.

First things first the Angelius flew up to the top of the hill and took a boosted attack on the Old Witch (I wasn't trusting my luck this turn). He hit and the boosted damage finished her off and causing the Scrapjack to go inert. The left Shredder went rabid and ran, using it's increased speed to wind up in the middle of the pikemen. The right shredder then went Rabbid and walked up and ate the Manhunter.

Saeryn then advanced onto the lower level of the hill and dropped Blight Bringer on the Shredder that had engaged the Iron Fang Pikement. I wasn't able to kill their leader even boosting, but even in Shield Wall I was able to kill five pikemen. She then Feated; with only 6 models on the table I was easily able to select all of them to be untargetable by melee attacks next turn. Somewhere I spent one more Fury - maybe to boost a damage roll on Blight Bringer? And Saeryn ended her activation with 2 on her for transfer. I knew I had overspent Fury again this turn, but no matter. I figured I could draw from the beasts that really need and if the others frenzied it wouldn't be a gamebreaker. My final Shredder walked up and stood in front of Saeryn to screen her.

After I ended my turn I rolled my random effect for getting Saeryn to the hill and got a 5. I placed one smoke cloud on the Angelius, one on Saeryn,and one in the space between Saeryn and the IFP to block line of sight, just in case the butcher decided to try and shoot or spell her.

+1 VP Legion for the models on the hill.

Blue Khador
Witch he Old Witch killed, the rest of the Blue Khadoran forces went to work avenging her loss. The Demo Corp received a Charge order and two charged the Winter Troll, finishing it off. The other three ran forward but trailed back so as to not get caught by the Trollblood forces' retaliation the following turn. Then the Greylords and Gorman ran to get in the middle of his army so they could contribute the next turn. Finally the Widowmakers advanced into the woods and started shooting Horluk, doing a total of 7 points of damage to the elderly shaman before Mark ended his turn.

+1 VP Legion for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
My feat put Prorpger in a bad spot. He had the nearly pristine Red Khadoron his right who was going to gun for him next turn since they couldn't do anything to my forces and the vengeance-hungry Blue Khador on his left. He decided to split his forces - the Champions received a charge order and rushed into the Red Khadoran lines. They butchered a pair of pikement and dented the armor of the one Shocktrooper they could reach but the Man-o-Wars' shield wall saved them.

On the other flank the Dire Troll Mauler charged the Man-O-War line and killed the two exposed Demo Corp. Then Horluk advanced into the woods with the Widowmakers and took a swing at the nearest but missed. Prorpger decided to camp on his Fury instead of taking extra swings and ended his turn there.

+1 VP Legion for models on the hill

Score

• Red Khador: 0
• Everblight: 16 (+3 Hill, +5 Old Witch, +2 Scrapjack, +1 Manhunter)
• Blue Khador: 8 (+1 Hill, +2 Winter Troll)
• Trollbloods: 0

Turn 4

Red Khador
After finally reaching the hill, Red Khador was trapped between the tough Trolls and the untargetable Legion, so he turned on the only models he could hit. The Shocktroopers turned and engaged the Champions but with the trolls +2 DEF for being in base-to-base with each other the Shocktroopers wound up missing their attacks. One wound up staying too close to the Shredder's Blight Bringer cloud and took a point of damage.

The Devastator ran towards the Legion flank to engage on the following turn using the 1 focus the Butcher had allocated him. The Butcher advanced up on to the hill and cast Iron Flesh on the Shocktroopers to help them handle the Champions. He then cast Avalanche on the Angelius but missed. The AOE drifted directly over the Shredder next to Saeryn and it lost its Mind and most of its Body on the blast damage roll. Then the Butcher ended his activation on the hill without any Focus. Finally the surviving four Pikemen fell back out of the Shredder's Blight Bringer cloud so they wouldn't die, but one was killed by a free strike leaving just three.

After the end of his turn Garret rolled for a random effect with the Butcher on the hill. As luck would have it he got to activate the Wold Womper next to Saeryn. Fortunately for me Saeryn's feat meant the Wold Womper couldn't hit her so Garret walked it over and engaged her so she couldn't go anywhere on my upcoming turn.

+1 VP Legion for models on the hill

Legion
I leeched what Fury I could off the my beasts, leaving two on the Shredder that had been the Blight Bringer and one on the Shredder that had killed the Manhunter. That Blight Bringer Shredder failed it check and charged a nearby Champion, missing him. The other beast passed. My Seraph moved up to the top of the hill and launched a boosted ranged attack at the butcher but missed. Saeryn then moved ever so slightly to the side and threw Breath Stealer on the Butcher (I really should have done that first) to lower his Defense. Then she used Mirror Magic to put Iron Flesh on the Angelius to raise its DEF to 17. Finally she cast Respawn on the Seraph.

The Angelius then flew down over the Shocktroopers to engage the Butcher. I boosted the first attack roll on the Thrust special attack just to be safe then boosted the damage, doing 14 points past the Butcher's halved armor. I then forced for an extra attack, hit, and forced to boost doing another 11 points past armor, killing the Butcher and rendering the Devastator inert.

I shifted my right Shredder up a bit and ended my turn, rolling another 5 for my random effect. I put a cloud on the Seraph, a cloud on Saeryn, and a cloud on the Angelius.

+1 VP Legion for models on the hill

Blue Khador
Mark was making a fair showing without a Warlock. His Greylords Ice Caged the Dire Troll to cause it to be stationary and the Demo Corp charged. They all chose the dual-swing option and finished the Dire Troll off with the last swing. Gorman advanced and the Widowmakers shifted away from Horluk, losing two on the free strike. The remaining members made their command check and shot at Horluk, missing him.

+1 VP Legion for models on the hill

Trollbloods
Unable to afford to leave Horluk exposed, Prorpger chose not to have him stick around and attack the Widowmakers. Instead he ran up to the hill behind his Champions. The trailing Champion then fell back to protect Horluk from the Demo Corp and the others started attacking the Shocktroopers. The first couple champions were able to hit but not do much damage through armor, but the third one was able to finish off a Shocktrooper before the fourth one killed my Shredder.

For his random effect Prorpger rolled the Firestorm which he dropped on the Demo Corp. He did five damage to the two on the outside and lit all three on fire in an attempt to protect his flank.

+1 VP Legion for models on the hill

Score

• Red Khador: 0
• Everblight: 29 (+4 Hill, +5 Butcher, +4 Devastator)
• Blue Khador: 11 (+3 Mauler)
• Trollbloods: 1 (+1 Shredder)

Turn 5

Red Khador
Garret's Shocktroopes swung back at the Champions but both missed. He decided not to even bother with his Pikemen and ended his turn.

+1 VP Legion for models on the hill

Legion
Saeryn leeched all four Fury from the Angelius and one from the rear Shredder. The Seraph Frenzied and charged the Angelius but missed. The two Shredders passed their check. Saeryn let Iron Flesh drop on the Angelius so it would have extra movement and it flew behind Horluck, boosted to hit with a Thrust special attack, and boosted damage to finish off the last warlock.

Score

• Red Khador: 0
• Everblight: 35 (+1 Hill, +5 Horluk)
• Blue Khador: 11
• Trollbloods: 1

Summation

Red Khador
Garret's a new Warmachine player. He likes the Butcher and the heavy armor of Khador but unfortunately got to stuck in the shield wall train of thought and didn't get to the hill quickly enough to make an impact. He seemed unsure what to do with his Devastator as well, moving it back and forth a couple times over the course of the game. I expect his skill to improve as he gets a few more games under his belt.

Legion
The Angelius was unquestionably the MVP of the match, brining down three warcasters/warlocks. I added him to my army since I had been using Carniveans the last few times we played the hill and I stumbled onto Legions exploit of the scenario - their speed lets them get to the hill first, the elevation of the hill lets them see to their opponents' back lines, and their wings let them past their opponents without having to go through them. Combined with the fact that both Prorpger and Mark had medium base warcasters it looked like I brought paper to the group's collective rock this time.

Blue Khador
Mark made quite the showing after he lost his caster. I think that his turning point was not feating on turn 2. That would have really messed with Prorpger's and my movements and may have kept the Old Witch alive. He probably wanted to do it the next turn and get the whole hill under the effect but sometimes you need to blow a feat just to stay alive.

Trollbloods
Prorpger's Womper-lobbing was the coolest thing in the game. It was a perfect through and by all rights he should have gotten the kill on the Old Witch. That seemed to be the theme for the night for Prorpger... he was weakening both Khador players but didn't get any finishing blows in.

After last week's massive multiplayer brawl Prorpger and I set up to play some 500-point Hordes games to help him get back into the fury-management frame of mind before he started purchasing Trollbloods in earnest. We were able to squeeze in two games, and after the first one Prorpger decided to swap out his unit of Scattergunners for a unit of Champions and we replayed the game (same terrain, otherwise same forces) to see how the change would effect the game. This second game turned out much closer and more exciting, so it's the one I'm writing up.

The game store is in the process of building some new tables and the plywood isn't covered in felt yet. So just ignore the bare wood look.

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

• Grissel
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Impaler
• Fell Caller
• Krielstone Bearer
• Champions
• Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
• Alten Ashley

Legion of Everblight (Myself)

• Thagrosh
• Carnivean
• Nephilim Soldier
• Seraph
• Warmongers x3
• Striders

I gave Prorpger first turn. He set up with his Champions and Fell Caller as his central block with his Krielstone unit off to one side. Grissel set up in the middle behind the Champions and split her beasts - Impaler to the Kreilstone's side and Mauler to the opposite. Alten Ashley set up behind a low wall in the center of the table.

With an odd rock central on my side of the table, I split my forces a bit. To my right was the Warmongers, Thagrosh, and the Carnivean while the Nephilim and Seraph deployed to run around the other side of the rock. The Striders set up behind a wall on my side of the table, ready to hunt some trolls.

Turn 1

Trollbloods
The Champions ran first turn to get into engagement range. Grissel followed behind and dumped her fury onto the Krielstone. The Impaler snuck up behind the Kreilstone and the Mauler ran up its flank. The Fellcaller ran up behind the Champions where he could support them on his turn. Alten stayed behind the cover of the low wall and waited for my beasts to get into range.

Legion
I didn't want Alten shoot up my beasts again after he did so the first game so I decided to sack my Striders to take care of him early. After breaking from cover, the front five Striders put a CRA into him, getting him off the table right away.

The Warmongers ran up behind the Striders, careful to stay more than 3" away. Thagrosh followed behind them, slipstreaming the Carnivean forward, putting Draconic Blessing on the Warmongers, and casting Death Shroud. C-Rex then ran up beside the Striders, using the wall to make sure that he wouldn't be charged. The Seraph and Nephilim ran up their flank, the Seraph getting into forest and the Nephilim stepping just behind the Striders.

Turn 2

Trollbloods
The turn began with the Fell Caller give the Champions Pathfinder so they can charge over the obstacle and at the Striders. They make quick work of half the unit while simultaneously staying in base-to-base for their defensive bonus in melee. The Kreilstone follows forward and puts up its aura, adding to the Champions' annoyance factor.

The Mauler swings into the middle of the backfield while the Impaler throws at and misses the Seraph. Grissel uses the Impaler's animus and shoots the Seraph but doesn't remove a system.

Legion
With Alten down, I turned to the next threat I had to deal with - the Kreilstone. If I would be able to get that off the table, the Champions might be manageable. I started with the Seraph, who rolled well on Strafes and killed four stone scribes and the krielstone itself -- which made its tough roll. The Striders the skirted around the Champions and started firing at the knocked down stone bearer. All three hit but only one rolled high enough to kill the bearer, who failed its tough roll and sacrificed the last scribe. Finally the Nephilim charged past the Champions and pounded on the stone bearer a couple times, finishing him off.

With the stone gone I sent in the Warmongers to tie up the Champions. All three charged in but only one hit and killed its targets. Thagrosh advanced up on a nearby hill and put up Death Shroud, hoping it would help protect the Warmongers. He also cast Draconic Blessing on them. The Carnivean stepped over the wall but behind the Striders, ready to try to deal with the Mauler next turn.

Turn 3

Trollbloods
Prorpger started putting the beat down on my Warmongers quickly. With Death Shroud their P+S 10 made it hard to get through my ARM 17, but after a few attacks to build up Concert the Champions took down my Warmonger Apostle. The Impaler charged the Nephilim and tied it up. The Fell Caller engaged a Strider but missed twice before the Mauler came in and helped out. Grissel cast Uproar on the Carnivean, killing another Strider with the blast, leaving me only my leader. The Swamp Gobbers through down their smoke template, but didn't place it on the Warmongers, sparing them the -2 MAT penalty.

Legion
After having Draconic Blessing upkept, the Warmongers whiffed on the Champions. With no space on that side of the table to get a clean shot, the Seraph ran to the middle of the field to line up better shots in future rounds. The brave Strider leader stood and aimed, killing the Fell Caller. Thagrosh advanced, throwing up Death Shroud and switching Draconic Blessing to the Carnivean (and accidentally getting the Nephilim out of my Control Area). The Carnivean then killed the Mauler. The Nephilim missed the Impaler.

At this point I was doing ok -- keeping the Champions tied up while my beasts went to work on the rest of Prorpger's forces. That wasn't going to last, though.

Turn 4

Trollbloods
Grissel lead off the turn by feating, then walking up to my Nephilim and pounding into it, killing it. The Impaler went next and slammed the Carnivean back into the forest. The Swamp Gobbers engaged the Strider and the Champions teamed up to take another Warmonger down and leave the last one with just a couple wounds.

With her Hoof It movement, Grissel headed down behind the Impaler to keep away from the Carnivean. The Champions swarmed around the last warmonger, staying in base to base and guaranteeing its last turn in play would be futile.

Legion
I was starting to worry. There were still four Champions on the table and I hadn't gotten any hits in on Grissel yet. I decided to send the Seraph over the Champions to Strafe Grissel. I was able to find a place to land it where it wasn't engaged and it proceeded to do 8 damage to Grissel before missing its remaining attacks.

Thagrosh stepped up (recast Death Shroud) and killed off the Swamp Gobbers, making room for the Carnivean to stand up and advance out of the forest. He then Feated and brought the Nephilim back - I needed another good sword to deal with the Champions. The Warmonger did what he does best - swing and miss - and the Strider moved up and around and took a pot shot at the Impaler, failing to do any damage.

Turn 5

Trollbloods
Prorpger quickly jumped on some poor model placement on my part by sending his Impaler up and scoring a Crit Slam on the Carnivean, sending it back into Thagrosh AND the Nephilim. The resulting knockdown guaranteed to slow down my advance for the turn. Grissel spent two of her three Fury to pound on the Seraph but Death Shroud helped insure she left him with just a few boxes left. After getting the +1 Attack Fell Call, the Champions laid into the Warmonger and Death Shroud wasn't enough to save it.

Legion
The Carnivean stood up and breathed on the Champions, catching three. He only killed one, but it made its tough roll. The Nephilim advanced and engaged the Champions to slow them down while Thagrosh put up Death Shroud and healed the Seraph's systems back into existence. The Seraph went for a slam on the Impaler but missed. At least it was tied up, though. The lone Strider fired a single shot at Grissel's back but failed to breach armor.

Turn 6

Trollbloods
Grissel gave the Champions +1 attack and moved to engage the Nephilim, but with Death Shroud up she and her two cohorts were unable to finish it off. Another Champion went for the Seraph but missed on its attacks, as did the Impaler.

Legion
The Nephilim stepped back a hair so Thagrosh could reach between him and the Champions to hit Grissel if necessary and boosted and attack and damage roll against the trollblood warlock, killing her before the blighted ogrun had to make things personal.

Summation

Trollbloods
I think Prorpger fell in love with the Champions, and I don't blame them - they're vile bastards. He also got to see Advance Deployement being a detriment and will probably be more conservative with Alten in the future. Unfortunately he doesn't always do much on Turn 1 if he goes first since all the enemy's beasts are still in their deployment zone, so starting a bit further back won't slow him down too much.

I think the next thing Prorpger will work on will be the use of the Mauler. He really didn't get much use out of it in either game - the speed and All Terrain of the Carnivean allowed me to get the jump on it both times before it could do much damage. With a little bit of practice I'm sure Prorpger will be cramming it down my throat with the rest of his Menoth-forsaken Tough models in the near future.

Legion
Death Shroud was amazing this game - it kept the trollblood damage output to a managable level while I worked on trying to get to targets of opportunity. And the last remaining Strider was a brave tribute to his fellow nyss, making his command checks and killing the Fell Caller and getting a shot on Grissel before the game was all over.

I was able to go at Prorpger's forces pretty surgically the first few turns - with Alten and the Kreilstone out of the way I felt a little more comfortable. Not that I could actually hit the Champions, though... that 14 DEF against the Warmonger MAT 6 is horrible. At least I was able to tie them up, though... Their P+S 10 (with Death Shroud) against the Warmonger ARM 17 and 8 Wounds wasn't too easy for Prorpger to deal with either.

Shortly before Grissel's demise, Thagrosh was heard to say...

"Woman, come meet the pimp hand of justice!"

With our league starting up next week, this was most likely to be the last America Hill game we'd be playing for awhile. In addition it may be my last battle report for a while. While I'm playing a league game I'm not going to be able take the time to take pictures of everything between turns. So don't be expecting a new post every week.

This time around we went with some changes to the hill rules. To emphasize getting to to the hill even more, we required

• At the end of each turn, the player with the most models on the hill gains 1 VP.
  • A unit counts as 1 model, regardless of the number of members on the hill
  • In the case of a tie, VPs are awarded to all players tied for most models on the hill
• At the end of a turn where a player has his warcaster/warlock on the hill, the controlling player rolls 1d6 and gains the following bonus:

1. Immediately activate the Yellow Woldwomper
2. Immediately activate the Blue Woldwomper
3. Immediately activate the Red Woldwomper
4. Place any one model currently on the hill or within 3” of the hill within 6” of its current location. Model may not be placed more than 4” above the table surface. There must be room for the model’s base at the destination.
5. Place 1d4 3” cloud effects in play anywhere completely within the warlock/warcaster’s control radius. These clouds remain in play for one round.
6. Place 1 3” fire storm template anywhere within completely within the warlock/warcaster’s control radius. The warcaster/warlock must make a magic attack roll against each model in the AOE ignoring LOS, cover, concealment, elevation, Stealth, Invisibility, or intervening models. Each model hit suffers an unboostable POW 12 damage roll and the Fire continuous effect.

We also decided to fight it out on a large molded plastic terrain board and had to use a smaller hill for the center of the table. Most of the rocks and rubble provided cover, and we let people move out of their deployment areas without movement penalties on the first turn because it would have been too unfair to a couple players.

James, the Cryxian player, opted to go last so I wound up going first. We deployed and set up in the following order:

Protectorate (Myself)

• Kreoss
• Crusader
• Crusader
• Vilmon
• Paladin
• Paladin
• Choir

Cygnar (Patman)

• Siege
• Centurion
• Lancer
• Junior
• GMAC
• Reinholdt

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

• Grissel
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Pyre Troll
• Scattergunners

Prprpger was trying out some Trollblood models he didn't own, so Madrack was standing in for Grissel and he had a couple bonejacks for use as Scattergunners.

Cryx (James)

• Skarre
• Helldiver
• Helldiver
• Bane Thralls
• Mechanithralls
• Skarlock
• Necrotech

Turn 1

Protectorate
When setting up, I noticed that Skarre had no arc nodes so I decided to throw Vilmon over in that direction to force James to have to deal with him with Skarre. I started the turn by running both Crusaders forward, then Kreoss put Protection of Menoth on Vilmon and moved forward. Vilmon activated Impervious Wall and ran to the hill, claiming it in Menoth's name. The Paladins moved up to flank Vilmon and the Choir advanced in the rear and put Ward on the Crusaders.

+1 VP Menoth for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Cygnar's gunmen moved forward but were just short of range to the choir near Kreoss. The Centurion moved towards the hill and the Lancer ran, getting on the hill. Siege lobbed a Shockwave through it at Vilmon and hit, doing 2 points of damage and pushing him 6" back off the hill. Junior cast Arcane Shield on Siege.+1 VP Cygnar for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
The Mauler raced to the hill, getting his base up on it. The Pyre Troll then advanced and boosted an attack and damage roll against the lancer, dishing out about 5 points of damage. Then the rest of the troll troops walked forward, with Grissel dumping off some fury so she could leech next turn.

+1 VP Cygnar, Trollbloods for models on the hill.

Cryx
Seeing Vilmon knocked back off the hill and closer to her, Skarre decided to take care of the Paladin. After giving a focus to each Helldiver so they could run onto the hill she cast a fully boosted Hellfire at him, then walked up towards the hill.

After Skarre finished, the thralls spread out massing forward. The Mechanithralls spread out on my flank and the Banes positioned themselves to face Prprpger. The Skarlock Sac Lambed a Mechthrall, rolling a 4 for focus.

+1 VP Cryx for models on the hill.

Score

• Protectorate: 1 (+1 Hill)
• Cygnar: 2 (+2 Hill)
• Trollbloods: 1 (+1 Hill)
• Cryx: 1 (+1 Hill)

Turn 2

Protectorate
I felt dirty, but, well, it was either this or eat a Skarre Bomb next turn. Kreoss put three focus on his left crusader then walked up and feated, catching the Centurion, Lancer, Mauler, and all of the Cryxian forces except four Bane Thralls in the very back. He then walked forward. The focused Crusader then charged the knocked down Skarre (who had spent all her focus killing Vilmon), Inferno Mace insuring she was done for the day.

The other Crusader moved forward to catch the edge of the hill and the Choir moved up to block access to Kreoss before singing Ward on the Crusader on the hill. My left Paladin charged the Mechanithrall leader, killing him and the right Paladin stepped out towards the Cygnar line to serve as a distraction.

+1 Protectorate, Cygnar, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Siege moved a bit towards Kreoss, putting Explosive on himself and Jr. He used Ground Pounder to take out the Choir around Kreoss, killing the only one not in the template by using the Exoplosivo attack on the one next to him. GMAC shot and killed the Paladin. The Centurion continued its advance towards the hill. Jr moves towards the trolls to put some threat on that side of the table. He shoots a Scattergunner (with Explosivo), killing one.+1 Protectorate, Cygnar, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
The Scattergunners move up and start spraying banes, killing two, missing a few because of stealth, and actually rolling low enough to fail to kill a couple. The Mauler stands up and Walks to the middle of the hill, and the Pyre Troll walks onto the hill and boosts a shot at the Lancer, missing but doing minimal damage on the scatter. Then Grissel goes, walking towards the hill and putting Hoof It on the Scattergunners, who shuffle up so a couple of their members are on the hill as well.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
With most of his forces knocked down, his Banes surround my Crusader and his Mechanithralls surround the Paladin. The one Bane able to attack takes five points out of the Crusader.+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Score

• Protectorate: 10 (+2 Hill, +5 Skarre, +2 Helldiver x2, )
• Cygnar: 5 (+2 Hill, +1 Paladin)
• Trollbloods: 3 (+2 Hill)
• Cryx: 1

Turn 3

Protectorate
With Siege and his gunmen so close, I needed to keep focus on Kreoss to try to live out the turn, but need to clear the hill a bit. So Kreoss placed two focus on the Crusader on the hill and kept the rest. Said Crusader slammed the Mauler, but only knocked it back one inch, killing a single Scattergunner. I needed him to go further back but it didn't work out for me. The Paladin actually missed a Mechanithrall with his MAT 8 but the Crusader hit with both attacks, rolling too poorly on his open fist but killing one with his mace. Kreoss activated, telling the last choir boy to run before walking to the edge of the hill and casting Protection of Menoth on himself. Then the choir boy ran to the hill to give me three models on it.

Finally, someone got a caster to the hill. I rolled on the chart and got a 4. With Cygnar going next, I decided to move the Centurion 6" away from Siege so it couldn't get focus and couldn't attack Kreoss. That Piston Spear would have been painful.

+1 VP Protectorate, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
The Centurion wound up just out of Siege's control area, so it wasn't able to get any focus this turn. Siege started by feating then channeled shockwave through the lancer at a nearby Scattergunner, sending them bouncing off each other and killing three in the process. Then dropped a ground pounder on Kreoss and the last Choir member, killing the choir boy but missing Kreoss. He then tried shooting Kreoss but missed when we realized Kreoss was within 2" of the Woldwomper, thus engaged by it and in melee. GMAC and Jr. tried to shoot him as well but both missed. The Centurion walked up onto the hill, bashing the Pyre Troll with his shield but missing with the spear.

With the loss of the choir, the trolls owned the hill with 3 models.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
Prprpger had a good turn, despite the Pyre Troll frenzing on the Centurion and doing no damage. He started out by having Mauler stand up and walk to the top of the hill. The Scattergunners walked around the Mauler, shooting a Bane Thrall and otherwise getting between the Crusader and Mauler. Then Grissel walked to the Centurion, put Calamity on it, and whacked it with her maul, deafening it. After that she used Hoof It on herself and walked away and up onto the hill, ignoring free strikes.

With Grissel finally on the hill, he rolled on the chart and got to activate the Woldwomper next to the Centurion. With the jack still deafened and unable to take free strikes, Prprpger walked the Woldwomper back behind it and between bypassing its shield and Calamity still being up, the Woldwomper wrecked the Centurion.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
The Mechanithralls on the Paladin finally killed him. The Necrotech walked up and immobilized the Crusader and the two surviving banes did a few more points of damage to it (one actually missed its melee attack).

Score

• Protectorate: 11 (+1 Hill)
• Cygnar: 6 (+2 Choir)
• Trollbloods: 9 (+3 Hill, +3 Centurion)
• Cryx: 2 (+1 Paladin)

Turn 4

Protectorate
Kreoss dropped his upkeep spells and charged Siege, making sure to engage the GMAC as well with his reach. Thanks to Spellbreaker's Dispel ability, the first hit nullified Arcane Shield and Kreoss was able to kill Siege (though it cost all his focus to do so). The crusaders flailed at the various infantry around them without killing any and I ended my turn.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Rineholt fled with his caster dead, dying to Kreoss's free strike. Jr charged Kreoss and hit him (boosting), doing 8 points of damage. His second attack hit but didn't get through armor. The GMAC sidestepped around JR to get out of melee without taking a free strike (using Jr. to block melee access to him), but couldn't hit Kreoss with the defensive bonus for being in melee.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
Grissel leeched the only two fury she had on the table from the Pyre Troll and Feated, then put the Mauler's animus on himself. The Mauler then charged Kreoss (taking a free strike from a Woldwomper but not loosing an aspect) and ate him.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
We had to pick up and turn in at this point, so the Cryx player didn't bother with his last turn.

Final Score

• Protectorate: 19 (+5 Siege, +2 Lancer, +1 Rineholdt)
• Cygnar: 6
• Trollbloods: 23 (+3 Hill, +5 Kreoss, +6 Crusader x2)
• Cryx: 2

My Thoughts

Protectorate
Vilmon was a huge distraction, and I think he knocked the Cryxian player off his game enough to leave Skarre out infront of the Crusader. I'm going to enjoy using him in the league. I got lucky when I accidently engaged the Woldwomper with Kreoss's reach - that extra defense saved his butt when Siege feated.

Cygnar
I don't think Patman realized how powerful having a caster on the hill was. When I was able to move the Centruion out of his control area, that really hurt his plans for the following round and really blunted its use. He spent most of the game trying to eliminate my ranks and he did a good job with most of it, but in the end Kreoss's melee ability proved why it's so underrated. MAT 7 POW 14 Reach that dispels upkeeps? Yes, please.

Trollbloods
Talk about getting the roll when he needed it, by activating the Woldwomper on turn 3 Prprpger was able to kill the Centurion instead of just deafening it, taking VPs I would have otherwise earned when I killed Siege. That 3 point swing would have made the difference in the end.

Those damn trolls are resilient. Prprpger's growing fond of them as well, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him fielding a Trollblood army before too long.

Cryx
James had a bad day. He was getting himself ready for a big turn 2, unfortunately looked too far past turn 1 and made a mistake. I felt a little dirty killing him after he only got one turn, but I think he'll be more concious of his placement when he plays in the league after having suffered that, so I hope it was more of a good lesson than a jerk Protectorate player.

America Hill
The terrain on this table sucked. We really should have put down more terrain between the armies to force most of the fighting to take place on or around the hill. The rules however worked pretty well. Accumulating hill VPs on a tie meant people who dedicated forces to it would pull ahead of those who didn't, even if they were fighting each other for most models. And the randomness of the Hill benefits meant that no one would get two extra Woldwompers fighting them but at the same time the benefits that were given proved very effective. There's defintely an incentive to get to the hill quickly. And with the game going past caster kill, you could risk him/her to do so if you wanted.

This week we discovered that the hills we had been fighting over were really the wrong hill. Luckily we finally found the right one this week.

Before I get started, I have to make a couple notes:

• It's been a while since this game was played, so I'm a little iffy on all the details. I'll try and fill in as best I can, though.
• This took place before Remix and we played throws the old way when they happened.

Here's a copy-paste of the rules from the last hill fight:

To help encourage people to take the hill, we added Woldwompers. Woldwompers were independent models that could be activated by various warcasters or warlocks if they were in control of the hill. Woldwompers had the same stat line as a Woldwarden but with -1 SPD and -1 ARM. They also had a fury of two and could be forced by any controlling warcaster/warlock, and the fury would dissipate at the end of each player's turn. Woldwompers had no animus, no chain attack, but maintained All Terrain, Elemental Construct, and Spell Strike.

• At the end if each turn, the player with the most models on the hill gained 1 VP. This is turn, not round - we went this way to place more value on the hill.
• At the end of a turn, if a player had their warcaster/warlock on the hill, they could activate one of the three Woldwompers immediately.
• At the end of a turn, if a player had their wracaster/warlock on the hill and had or tied for the most models on the hill (units counted as 1 model), they could activate two of the three Woldwompers immediately.

Despite the steps we played the hill as "smooth" so it could be climbed freely. We didn't want to overemphasize the steps too much.

= = = = =

Khador (Mark)

• Irusk
• Kovnik
• Kodiak (on Kovnik) x2

This time Mark changed up his list just slightly, swapping out the Butcher for Irusk. After seeing how slow the Butcher was, he decided to try to rush the hill and use Inhospitable Ground to protect it this time around.

Everblight (Myself)

• Thagrosh
• Carnivean
• Seraph
• Shredder x3

With four opponents on the table, I decided to bring my hardiest warlock - Thagrosh. I hoped his Death Shroud would keep my beasts alive long enough to take control of the hill.

Protectorate (Phenominal_1)

• Kreoss
• Revenger x2
• Choir
• Exemplar Seneschal
• Knights Exemplar
• Wrack x2

P1 brought out Kreoss for this game, and decided to go with more infantry than jacks, specifically the hard-hitting Knights Exemplar. Those relic blades could hurt a lot, especially if they were auto-hitting after Kreoss' feat.

Trollbloods (Aslain Kheog)

• Horluk
• Dire Troll Mauler x2
• Fell Caller
• Kreilstone Bearer

I'm not a fan of the big trolls - I was just glad that AK was wedged between the Protectorate and Cryx.

Cryx (Gary)

• Deneghra
• Deathripper x2
• Nightwretch
• Skarlock
• Ogrun Bokur
• Pistol Wraith
• Mechanithralls x10

Gary brought a nice little force to America Hill - Denny and three arc nodes was pretty core, but the a Pistol Wraith, Bokur, and a unit of Mechanithralls to tie up his opponents looked pretty solid.

Turn 1

Khador
This time Mark decided to run his forces all out, and reached the hill first turn. Irusk walked so that he could put up Inhospitable Ground and everyone else hit the hill.

+1 VP Khador for most models on the hill

Everblight
I decided to risk not casting any spells this turn by just running Thagrosh up onto the hill to activate Woldwompers. He barely made it with Slipstream and running to get through Inhospitable Ground. A Shredder went Rabbid and joined him while the Seraph (who did the Slipstreaming) and the Carnivean move up to Thagrosh's right. The final two Shredders trail behind. I ended the turn with Thagrosh still at 7 fury, one shredder at 2, and the Seraph at 1.

I activated the Woldwomper between Khador and I to throw the Kodiak off the hill, then I activated the one between the Protectorate at and I to try to Spell Strike the Choir Warpriest, but it was out of range.

+1 VP for the hill

Protectorate
Phenomenal_1 decided to split his forces and sent his Exemplar and his Seneschal up the left flank towards the Trollbloods. The Choir stepped back by the woods and the Revengers ran forward to get in the way of the Woldwomper. Kreoss moved up behind, putting Retribution on one Revenger and Protection of Menoth on the other.

+1 VP Everblight for the hill

Trollbloods
AK sent one Mauler and the Fell Caller towards the Exemplar line and moved the second Mauler towards the hill. Horluk advanced, dumping fury in the Kreilstone which also advanced and put up its protective aura.

+1 VP Everblight for the hill

Cryx
Gary's mess of Cryx went to the hill quickly. The Mechanithtralls rushed toward Khador while one of the Bonejacks and Deneghra ran to the hill. The bokur and pistol wraith fell in behind the Mechanithralls while the Skarlock brought up the rear (after Ghost Walking Deneghra so she could run through models).

Since he tied me for most models on the hill, Gray picked the two Woldwompers near Khador. They each attacked the Khodiaks, taking out about a column apiece.

No Hill VPs.

Score

• Khador: 1 (+1 Hill)
• Everblight: 3 (+3 Hill)
• Protectorate: 0
• Trollbloods: 0
• Cryx: 0

Turn 2

Khador
Although he had gotten stuck in, this is where Khador shined. The Kodiak nearest my side of the table stood up and grabbed the Woldwomper, tossing it away. The second tried to throw the second Woldwomper at Deneghra but deviation caused it to knock into his own base, knocking them both back down. That was a tough break or Mark and really hurt his plans. The Kovnik cut down a couple Mechanithralls, but there were plenty left on the table. Irusk moved up a bit, shot another Mechanithrall with his gun, and put up Inhospitable Ground again.

No Hill VPs.

Everblight
It was a gamble last turn, and sure enough my Seraph frenzied first thing, going after my Carnivean and laying down the Poison Tail. Luckily it only did about 3 points of damage, but worse was the fact I couldn't do anything with the Seraph this turn. I spent the rest of my turn fortifying my claim on the hill. The Carnivean moved up next to Thagrosh and put its animus on itself. The two most forward Shredders moved up in front of and beside Thagrosh, turning to face the Protectorate lines. Thagrosh turned a bit and put the Carnivean's animus on himself then cast Death Shroud, blanketing the field in the blessing of the better dragon.

Four models on the hill let me activate two Woldwompers. The one that Khador had thrown away went first, moving back into melee. The second moved up and threw one of the Protectorate Revengers back into Kreoss, doing a bit of damage to both. Death Shroud really messed with the Woldwompers' strength scores, making them less effective.

+1 VP for hill.

Protectorate
Out on the flank, the Knights Exemplar charged the Mauler and Fell Caller, leaving space for the Seneschal to get to the Mauler if it survived. The three Exemplar took down the Fell Caller without any problem, but the Seneschal had to come in to help out on the Mauler. He couldn't finish it, but he did chain-attack slam it back into Horluck, which was rather entertaining. The Mauler wasn't dead, but it would be stalled for a round.

Meanwhile the unthrown Revenger whacked on the Woldwomper a few times, doing a fair bit of damage (but not as much as it would have without Death Shroud). Kreoss moved behind the Choir and the other Revenger moved forward to re-engage the Woldwomper.

+1 VP Everblight for the hill

Trollbloods
The Trolls turned their attention of the Protectorate forces, not wanting to get attacked from behind. The Mauler that had gotten slammed ran up to re-engage the Exemplar while the second Mauler turned to engage a couple more, killing three. Horluck tried to cast Vexation on the Seneschal but missed. The Kreilstone put up its aura again.

+1 VP Everblight for the hill

Cryx
Deneghra and her bone jacks jocky a bit up on the hill. The War Witch steps back from the Kodiaks, putting an arc node between her and my forces. The Bokur hits the hill as well, and the other two arc nodes and the pistol wraith fill in around them, netting Gary the most models on the hill. I believe Deneghra cast Parasite on the Kodiak nearest her as well. The Pistol Wraith Death Chilled the Kodiak with arms on it.

The Mechanithralls swarm the Kovnik and Kodiaks, but between Inhospitable Ground preventing charges and Death Shroud lowering Strength, they're not able to kill either. However one of the Woldwompers that Gary activates does manage to rip off both arms from the Kodiak nearest him.

+1 Hill VP Cryx

Score

• Khador: 1
• Everblight: 6 (+3 Hill)
• Protectorate: 1 (+1 Fell Caller)
• Trollbloods: 1 (+1 half the Exemplar)
• Cryx: 1

Turn 3

Khador
The armless Kodiak wasn't quite defenseless and vented steam, catching a couple Mechanithralls and damaging the Woldwomper in front of it. The Kovnik killed another Mechanithrall and Irusk shot a third before putting Inhospitable Ground back up. The other Kodiak tore into the second Woldwomper, but with its strength lowered with Death Shroud it left the construct with just a couple boxes left.

+1 VP Cryx for hill

Everblight
I decided it was time to try and pounce. Deneghra was hiding behind a bone jack, but I had two things in my favor - the ability to slam the bonejack and Eyeless Sight - so I decided to go for it. The Carnivean needed a 12 to slam the Bonejack, but I managed to get it, sending the node over Deneghra and knocking her down. I sent a Shredder up to attack the Pistol Wraithon the Cryxian side of the hill and killed it. Then the Seraph stepped up and attacked the knocked down Deneghra, hitting and rolling 6 additional attacks, sealing her fate. The Shredders moved to face the Protectorate forces and Thagrosh threw up Death Shroud, Spiny Growth on himself, and dumped fury down to 1.

The first Woldwomper activated was the one near the Protectorate lines, which threw the Revenger over the choir at Kreoss. A perfect deviation roll insured every model was hit, killing the Choir and knocking down the caster. I then activated the Womper near the armless Kodiak and finished it off.

+1 VP for hill.

Protectorate
The remaining Knights finished off the wounded Mauler while Kreoss's unthrown revenger beat on the Woldwomper some more, but couldn't kill it with -2 strength.

+1 VP Everblight for the hill

Trollbloods
The Krielstone moved over by the remaining Mauler, which used its animus on itself and two-handed-threw a stone scribe over the entire line of knights. Each knight (including the Seneschal) was killed and the stone scribe actually made its Tough roll upon landing.

+1 VP Everblight for the hill

Cryx
Without Deneghra, the Mechanithralls still couldn't quite get through the Kovniks armor. The Bokur attacked the Shredder but missed it's one attack (rolled bad on Flying Steel) to end the game.

+1 Hill VP Everblight

Score

• Khador: 1
• Everblight: 22 (+4 Hill, +5 Deneghra, +3 Bonejack x3, +1 Pistol Wraith, +3 Kodiak)
• Protectorate: 4 (+3 Mauler)
• Trollbloods: 3 (+1 other half of Exemplar, Seneschal)
• Cryx: 2 (+1 Hill)

My Thoughts

Khador
Mark got teamed up on and it hurt. It seemed everyone was always picking on his jacks with the Woldwompers, keeping them out of combat. He was resilient but just couldn't mount the offense he otherwise would have been able to.

Everblight
Thagrosh's Death Shroud was just mean this game. It really hurt everyone on the table so much more than just a 2-player game. I'm not sure I'll take him anymore in this format because of that. He's just vile. Other than that, my early gambit to take the hill first turn and keep fighting for it was paying off. Even if I hadn't gotten to Deneghra, I was building a lead on hill VPs that I should have been able to maintain.

Protectorate
Phenomenal_1 hurt himself a bit when he split his forces, sending most of his offense around the flank. He basically yielded his claim on the hill, which cost him VPs. He did fairly well against the Trolls, though.

Trollbloods
Because he had a load of knights heading his way, AK couldn't afford to go strait for the hill or they'd just come up behind him. Because of that, he got punished a bit and had to split his force, then allocated his whole force towards the Protectorate, missing out on the hill.

Cryx
The Cryxian swarm was nasty. I think Death Shroud was the primary reason Khador lasted as long as it did against all those McThralls and Womper attacks. Gary realized as I started my turn he should have had Deneghra feat to deny me the slam, but it was a bit too late.

America Hill
I'm looking at some changes to the hill to make it a bit more fair:

• Weakening the Woldwompers just a bit, probably by lowering their POW on their fists and maybe taking away another point of armor
• Making which Woldwompers get activated random each time. That should make it a bit harder to pick on one player to much.
• Maybe making it so you only activate one per turn no matter what.

Chad's challenge for this Wednesday may be the last hill fight for a while once we start the league. It also might be my last battle report for a while, since I probably won't be worrying about taking pictures and what not during my league matches. If I'm not playing and one of the forum goers asks, I might be able to do some pictures of their match as they play but I don't want to be disruptive. We'll just have to see what happens.

After the fun we had with the first attempt at the Fight for America Hill we decided to try to tweak the rules to encourage people to take and hold the hill instead of hiding on the edges and sniping adjacent opponents. Our first try was to add VP rewards for claiming the hill.

Scoring:

• Having the most models on the hill at the end of your turn scores 1 VP
• Having the most models on the hill at the end of the turn of the player across from you scores you 1 VP

With those changes we rolled for initiatve and picked starting locations for the second try at taking America Hill.

Circle (Eye Tyrant)

• Baldur
• Warpwolf
• Woldwarden
• Argus

This had become a fairly standard list for Eye Tyrant at this point. The Woldwarden was a giant hard to kill beatstick while the Warpwolf had the speed and maneuverability to get the charge in. The Argus was a point filler but it's higher speed and Doppler Bark can come in handy, especially if a knocked down enemy beast is nearby to use the bark on.

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

• Horluk
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Pyre Troll
• Fell Caller
• Kriel Warriors (Proxied by Scattergunners)

Prorpger decided to try out some Kriel Warriors, so tossed them into a Horluk list. I wasn't overly worried about their damage output as much as I was from the Mauler, though the Kriel Warriors did have CMA to help combat my Dervishes' higher DEF. It looked like his plan was going to be to use the smaller models to tie up the rest of us and try to hold the hill.

Protectorate (Myself)

• Amon Ad-Raza
• Guardian
• Dervish (Proxied by two Revengers)
• Choir

Upon request I brought out Amon, and decided to field him with a pair of Dervishes to try them out. I needed an Arc Node and wanted a heavy so I added a Guardian and a choir and called it done. My hope was between the Guardian’s Ward of Retribution, the Dervish’s Riposte ability, and choir chants I’d dissuade attention for a round or two, instead I think that worked against me, and people seemed to rush toward me instead. D’oh!

Everblight (Nick)

• Lylyth
• Carnivean
• Forsaken
• Shredder x6

Nick's list boiled down to a Shredder swarm with a Carnivean backup. It was ugly to see adjacent to me, but my hope was that he'd go towards Eye Tyrant's Circle instead where the Forsaken could do more damage.

Once again the plastic American Flag was placed atop the hill that dominated the table. Then to separate each army we placed either ruins or a forest between the deployment zones to help funnel everyone into the middle of the table.

Turn 1

Circle
Eye Tyrant started this game the same way he did the last one – the Argus ran to toe the hill, then the other beasts advanced with the Woldwarden using its animus to help defend them both. Baldur brought up the rear.

Trollbloods
The Mauler ran and took the hill (and flag). The kreil warriors followed suit to swarm around him. The Pyre troll got on one edge and shot at the Woldwarden, hitting and doing some fair damage to it after boosting. The Fell Caller brought up the rear but got on the hill as well. Horluk walked up and threw Fortune on the Kreil warriors, leaving him in the back and off the hill.

Protectorate
With the trolls already positioned atop the hill and Everblight following me to swoop in, I decided try a little more cautious of an advance. The turn started with the Choir moving up and circling Amon before Infusing (not much range could affect me so I decided to buff any Riposte attacks that might be generated). I gave the Guardian one focus to run and had him move up about seven inches. The Dervishes then advanced to either side of him, staggered a little further back. Amon dropped into Meditative Stance, threw up Synergy, and arced Sandblast at the Dire Troll on the hill. Two champions were killed but I rolled 1-1-2 on the attack roll against the Dire Troll, denying me a hit let alone the crit I really wanted. I had made a little mistake – I ended the turn with one focus on Amon instead of the Guardian to trigger its Ward of Retribution.

Everblight
Nick decide to shift towards my lines, though I don’t know if it was because of the only woods on the table he could take refuge in or a decision based on my army composition. Either way a majority of his Shredders either ran or went rabid to get to the woods and everything else moved forward. Lylyth took two fully boosted shots at the Dire Troll Mauler up on the hill doing a little damage but leaving her without any fury to transfer damage with.

Score:

• Circle: 0
• Trollbloods: 0
• Protectorate: 0
• Everblight: 0

Turn 2

Circle
Eye Tyrant shifts off the hill in an early bid for a warlock kill. The Woldwarden moves up and throws a Earth Spikes at Lylyth, missing but catching her on the deviation. Baldur then shifts over and tries as well but she’s out of range and the deviation drifts in the middle of nowhere. The Warpwolf runs over go get in the way and the Argus charges Lylyth from its spot atop the hill. Lylyth survives with 7 wounds left, but she’s still hurting.

Trollbloods
Prorpger decides to turn his attention on my Protectorate forces early in an attempt to stop the mad monk. Horluk puts Fortune on the Dire Troll Mauler and hangs out in the back off the hill. The Pyre Troll moves onto the hill and launches an AOE at the Woldwarden, doing some more damage to it. Then the Mauler activates and puts his own Animus on himself and charges the Guardian. Doing even dice damage to it’s ARM 19, the Mauler rips off its Flame Pike and gets one point away from taking the open fist as well. Although he didn’t destroy the jack, he took my biggest POW weapon away and engaged my arc node at the same time. The Fell Caller and Kriel Warriors moved entirely up on the hill and Prorpger ended his turn with the most models on the hill.

Protectorate
Having the Guardian’s spear ripped off didn’t make me too happy. Looking at the table my right Dervish had a clear line at Horluk, but was about a foot away – to far to charge. The warlock also had a couple of fury on him to transfer damage. The Dire Troll was full, but the Pyre Troll was unwounded and could probably soak two attacks without much overflow back on to Horluk. Still, I decided to try and take the shot.

I stared by putting one focus on my left Dervish and upkeeping Synergy. The choir started the turn and circled to the right a bit before Infusing all my jacks. Amon went second and feated, casting Mobility and then throwing those focus on the right Dervish. He then walked up and used the Crack the Whip ability on his weapon to slam the right Dervish forward, doing a whole 2 damage to it. Next the left Dervish activated and walked up to the Dire Troll and spent its focus to boost the to-hit roll on a combo strike. That hit, then my Chain Attack Sidestep hit and I moved the Dervish back away from the Dire Troll to keep it out of retaliation range and block any charge lanes Everblight might have at Amon. The Guardian went next and punched the Dire Troll for minimal damage.

Lastly I activated the right Dervish. With Infuse and Synergy going, he was set up to be +4/+5 on the first attack and +5/+5 on all additional attacks. The Dervish was knocked down but thanks to Mobility the jack stood up, dusted himself off, and walked right up to Horluk and proceeded to lay into him with his now MAT 9/10 POW 18 swords. He killed Horluk with one focus left, but luckily the trollkin failed his tough roll and it wasn’t needed.

It wasn't until after the game I realized I forgot that if you're knocked down on your own turn, you can't stand up that turn. Without the extra movement I wouldn't have been able to reach Horluk that turn. Fortunately the players are all good guys and didn't mind - they got to see how nasty Synergy and Infuse can stack together, even if it was on an illegal target.

Everblight
Nick decides not to try and pounce on my somewhat extended lines and instead turns to face the Circle that was suddenly in his face. The Carnivean charged and took care of the Argus before the Forsaken came and consumed its fury. One shredder charged the Warpwolf but wound up just out of range. Lylyth backed away and shot at Baldur, then sat on a couple fury points. The rest of the shredders went rabid or ran to get over into position for next turn.

At the end of this turn Prorpger still had the most models no the hill, scoring him another VP.

Score:

• Circle: 0
• Trollbloods: 2 (+2 Hill)
• Protectorate: 10 (+5 Horluk, +3 Dire Troll, +2 Pyre Troll)
• Everblight: 2 (+2 Argus)

Turn 3

Circle
Baldur charges the Shredder near the Warpwolf and kills it, then feats to prevent all the nearby Shredders from eating him alive the following turn. The Woldwarden moves up and throws out its animus to debuff Everblight’s defense. Then the Warpwolf charges the Carnivean and tears into it. Unfortunately he comes up just a couple boxes short before running out of fury and can’t finish it off. (Edit: as an afterthought, two-handed throwing the Carnivean at Lylyth [and thus over all the Shredders] would have been beautiful here.)

Trollbloods
The Dire Troll, now Wild, runs for the Trollblood table edge. After that Prorpger decides to try and get some vengeance on the Protectorate. The Fell Caller uses War Cry on itself and it walks up to the Dervish and lays into it. Then the Kriel Warriors follow and the few that can reach CMA it as well. At the end of the round the Dervish as lost it’s left sword and its movement systems.

Sigh. That's right; you can't use War Cry and attack in the same round. We sure were off our game

Protectorate
Amon’s jacks are nasty, but I wanted to get some action with the monk himself. Amon let Synergy drop (I wasn’t going to attack with Jacks and planned on ending the turn engaged so wanted the armor), then charged the nearest Kreil Warrior. Special Attack: Circular Strike. Unfortunately one Kreil Warrior made its tough roll and the Fell Caller survived with one damage point (even with boosted damage roll). The untouched Dervish and the Guardian walked onto the hill, claming a point for most models on the hill. Then the Choir gets the run order and acolytes run up around Amon to prevent him from being swarmed. The Kreil Warriors couldn’t CMA him, but with enough attacks there’s always the chance for the lucky roll to get through.

Everblight
The turns starts with the Forsaken edging around to keep from violating Baldur’s feat and moving right next to all the beasties then unloading a four-fury Blight Shroud. The Warpwolf had four fury, the Woldwarden two, and Baldur four. Many things were critically injured. Lylyth shot Baldur twice, killing the Woldwarden with damage transfers then healed herself, leaving her without fury again. Then the Carnivean stood up and finished off the Warpwolf, leaving Baldur full on fury from reaving but without any beasts.

At this point Nick had to leave so had started packing up, but gave Eye Tyrant the chance to retaliate on his round before heading out.

I stopped taking pictures here as I didn’t expect anything else to happen in the game and one of the players was leaving.

Score:

• Circle: 2 (+1 Shredder, +1 Hill)
• Trollbloods: 2
• Protectorate: 11 (+1 hill)
• Everblight: 8 (+3 Warpwolf, +3 Woldwarden)

Turn 4

Circle
Eye Tyrant’s turn was pretty strait forward. Lylyth was too far to charge, so Earth Spikes it was. He got a critical on the attack roll that proved meaningless when the boosted damage roll finished her off. That little shot took down all the remaining Everblight beasts as well, scoring him 12 VPs in one turn.

Trollbloods
The Kriel warriors circle the Dervish, with one moving around to kill the choirboy blocking the Fell Caller from getting to Amon. A CMA finishes off the Dervish and the choirboy dies, leaving the Fell Caller to walk to Amon and attack him twice, dealing a total of 10 damage.

We ended the game here, not going through my turn. Between a meditative stance, a circular strike, and a couple sandblasts it was pretty likely that there weren’t going to be any trolls left at the end of the round. And Everblight only had a fury-less forsaken sitting around. The mall was closing soon and we wanted dinner so we broke up and called the game here.

Score:

• Circle: 14 (+5 Lylyth, +2 Carnivean, +5 Shredderx5)
• Trollbloods: 0 (+2 Dervish)
• Protectorate: 11 (+1 Hill)
• Everblight: 0

Eye Tyrant had the lead on VPs, but I would have liked to have had one more turn. I still had Amon, a pristing Dervish, and an arc node that I could have used.

My Thoughts

Circle
I know Eye Tyrant’s loosing some love for Baldur and the Woldwarden, but I think that might be at least partly due to the fact that we haven’t had many forests on the table when we play. And he’s been using the Woldwarden relatively defensively, relying primarily on Spell Strike and Undergrowth. I wonder how it would do when used more aggressively to throw and Chain Attack Druid’s Wrath beasts and jacks around the board.

Trollbloods
With so many models all on medium or large bases, I wouldn’t have looked forward to trying to dislodge Prorpger from the hill had Horluk survived. And watching the Mauler do even dice in damage to my Guardian I couldn’t help but think how mangled a warbeast that suffered that would have been in the end. From what Prorpger said he enjoyed the faction though and I agree with his assessment 100% - that faction has Protectorate-style synergy but are much more durable. It’s like the Protectorate of Khador.

Protectorate
Amon Ad-Raza is a bad bad man. He doesn’t quite have the focus to fully feed to his warjacks but between Infuse and Synergy he doesn’t necessarily need it. After feeding one jack to kick start Synergy everything just builds up from there. I wish I had remembered about the knockdown rule during the game, but no one minded in the end. It's good to have great players in the area who are forgiving of little mistakes.

I didn’t really get to use the Dervishes’ Riposte ability this game but they worked out fairly well regardless and are a great value at 65 points each. Especially with Amon and a Choir boosting them up. Had I remembered to give the Guardian my extra focus the first turn he might have been a little meaner (and had a chance to take out an aspect on the Mauler’s first hit), but he was able to hold on long enough to do his part and slap the Dire Troll to help build Synergy.

Everblight
Nick is a new player in our group, but he did ok all things considered. He really pounced on Eye Tyrant with his superior numbers, but unfortunately left Lylyth in the open with no fury on her twice and Eye Tyrant took advantage of it. Still, he did pretty well against the Circle up until that point and will probably get better as he learns how to avoid big mistakes.