The Shattered Kriel of Madrot Marsh - Week 2 Report

15 point list:
Grim Angus [pic 1 / pic 2 / pic 3]
* Irontooth the Dire Troll Mauler [pic 1 / pic 2]
* Jurt the Impaler [pic 1 / pic 2]
* Swampfire Troll (aka Pyre) [pic 1 / pic 2]
* Comfort Food (aka Whelps) [pic 1]

Painting & Modeling:

Wow these guys turned out great (compared to my usual standard)! I love the bases, a lot easier to do than I would have expected although still very time consuming.

Battle Report #1: 15pt vs Skorne (run by fellow Gamer’s Journaler GeminiX6)
[pic 1 / pic 2 / pic 3]

Skorne player brought Makeda, a Gladiator, Savage, Shaman, and Paingivers.

The long and the short of it was that Grim failed to hit a DEF12 Gladiator with a boosted Headhunter shot, which meant that my Rage’d Mauler couldn’t make the charge distance for the intended alpha strike. I tried to reposition the army to deal with the incoming Skorne charge, but the Gladiator had juuust enough of an angle to slam the Mauler across Grim’s base. This knocked out the Mauler’s spirit, so I couldn’t force him to shake off, so he was basically unable to help on the next turn, during which Grim had to try and deal with the Titan himself. Unwilling to risk a free strike to walk Grim out of melee, I tried dealing with the Gladiator with a Rage’d Pyre and a Rage’d Impaler, but had no luck. The Gladiator almost destroyed the entire army through transfers, then finally got Grim for the win.

Battle Report #2: 15pt vs Protectorate of Menoth
[pic 1 / pic 2 / pic 3]

PoM player had eFeora, Vanquisher, Redeemer, 2 Vassals, min Choir, and Wracks.

This game was frighteningly like the first. Grim failed to hit DEF10 Vanquisher out front (yes, he rolled two 1’s), so the Mauler was unable to hit it first. Pyre was the MVP, landing an AOE smack over the support pieces and killing two Vassals and a Choir boy. Vanquisher ended up in melee with Grim, Grim walked out (and transferred a terrifyingly strong free strike away) and KD’d him with the snare gun, and then I unleashed a Rage’d Mauler on it, wrecking the jack without even maxing out the Mauler’s Fury. Of course, moments later eFeora charged Grim and removed all but one Fury through transfers, and left 2 health on Grim. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t transfer Continuous Fire damage, hence holding the one last Fury, and then since Cont. Fire can’t expire in eFeora’s area, he had to basically roll a 5+ on the fire damage roll to kill Grim. Failed Tough, and that was game.

Moving from 15 to 25pts:

I’ve learned from these games that I have absolutely no idea how to play Grim! I’m going to try and hedge up some weaknesses in my 25pt list. I’m considering the following choices:

* Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (4): On turn one, I don’t have anything to do with Grim’s Fury other than Cross Country, so I can fill it up then. The ARM buff would have done wonders with my list, especially with all of the damage transfers I had to make. If I have the points, the Elder UA would go in, but I probably won’t max the unit out at 25pts.

* Fennblades (6): Reach tarpit unit, hard to kill, and can spread out to protect Grim from getting tied up.

* Champions (3): Bait the Line can get them charging 10” and Grim has lots of DEF debuffs to help their freight train attacks hit.

* Stone Scribe Chronicler: To buff either unit I end up taking.

* Swamp Gobbers: Thematic, and they can plop a big cloud down in front of Grim for LOS blocking. Since Grim can see through it too, there won’t be a lot of concern on my part for the order of operations with these guys.