Grissel found that she like Grim's Earthborn called 'Cannonball'. Being a Dire Troll did not hide the intelligence in the eyes of Cannonball, and Grissel was even suprised when he began speaking to her in very broken and simple Molgur-Trul. He had carried a message to her from Grim warning her of Elven activity in the area... Elven activity? Grissel was pretty sure she had never seen an elf, though Cannonball seemed to know them as indicated through the bond. The Dire Troll didn't seem to like them much.
"We have found them," the Stormfall Leader relayed to Ravyn. Ravyn didn't even hesitate, "then it is time to remove them from our path, they grow too close to interfeering with out plans here." The Archer smiled with his salute and began to prepare to hunt some Trolls and Trollkin. He had long hoped to meet Trolls in battle as he had never seen in before. One of the Mage-Hunters travelling with them had cautioned them all to take care when killing Trolls as they had a tendency to stay alive when they should be dead from their wounds. This gave him no small pause, having the respect of those assassins was no small thing, though it hardle dissuaded his willingness to battle with them. After all, they all fell to the arrows of the Stormfall...
My list (35pts)
Grissel Bloodsong -5
Slag Troll 6
Dire Troll Mauler 9
Earthborn Dire Troll 10
Scattergunners (Min) 5
Kriel Warriors (Max) 8
Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower 1
Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower 1
Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper 2
His List (35pts)
Ravyn, Eternal Light -6
Griffon 4
Discordia 10
Dawnguard Invictors (Max) 10
Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard Bearer 2
Stormfall Archers 5
Stormfall Archers 5
Arcanist 1
Mage Hunter Assassin 2
Mage Hunter Assassin 2
The Field was set with a big rock on his side of the table to my right a forest in the middle closer to me. Some stuff on my left side of the table that didn't come into play and a low wall about 8" forward of my deployment line and just to the right of the forest and some elevation towards the middle right side of the table.
Deployment.
Trolls ~ Grissel rolled highest and opted to go first. The Scattergunners lined up to run to the wall with the Kriels setup to run to the hill. Grissel lined up behind the Scattergunners with the Slag to her right the Earthborn to her side and the Mauler behind the trees.
Retribution ~ He put one unit of Stromfalls on the right side table edge and the other across from my Mauler on the other side of the forest. The arcanist, Mage Hunters Ravyn and the Griffon all lined up kinda behind his stone with Discordia on its right to get an angle on incoming Kriels. His Invictors were just to my left of the stone in small clumps of three (he seems to always set them up this way, dunno why, but it seems to work.
Grib lit his cigar and began chewing on it, seeing the Warriors running with abandon at the elves made him wary. He ordered his men up to a low wall as more arrows rained in, mostly falling short of his position. "All right boys, they're not big enough to be a hearty stew so we'll make some snacks out of them for the Dire Trolls eh."
Turn 1
Trolls ~ Scattergunners run up to the wall, the Mauler runs up to the forest edge. Grissel moves up and Hoofs the Kriels. The Earthborn moves over to Grissel and puts his animus on her giving her a bonus from the wall. The Kriels run up the front few clearing the hill and the unit spreading out from the forest edge in the middle to the right table edge (I love having them spread waaay way out with the Leader 11" back from the front line and the Standard and Piper sitting 11" behind him nice and safe.
Retribution ~ He goes to work using his stormfalls and invictors to start working on killing some Kriels, along with Discordia. He Successfully kills 11 Kriels but only three of them die thanks to some sweet tough rolls. His mage Hunters run up and hide behind the stone and the Griffon moves up just to my right of the stone a few inches up from discordia. Ravyn having cast snipe on the Invictors is forced to stay well back behind the stone with the Arcanist.
The archer nodded to himself knowingly, it would not be the first time or the last time that his foes would die to a man... err Troll, to a hail of arrows. It seems these crude beasts would prove little in the way of a challenge. Even the Invictors should be able to cut them down with their inferior sword guns. It wasn't a bad thing of course, no friendly casualties was always a good thing. As they let fly their arrows he was satisfied to see each arrow shot from his band find a mark in the chest of a Troll. As he glanced back up to ready another shot his confidence quickly turned to worry. Four of the Five Trollkin they had shot hadn't even slowed down as they ran with abandon straight for them.
Turn 2
Trolls ~ Grissel moves up into a pocket and feats catching my whole army and none of his, also casting Rage on a Caber. Kriels go first and a couple of them are in range along with a Caber Tosser on the Griffon. Not a single one of them hit anything, but his front line is pretty well tied up and a second Caber is behind the stone just waiting for Discordia to poke her head around the corner. Scattergunners go next with nothing in range the run the front two engaging his line with the other four spread back. Mauler gets into position around the forest to counter-charge into invictors and Stormfall that will be forced to deal with Kriel and Scattergunners. The Earthborn takes up defensive posture near Grissel giving him a line to anything that comes around the stone. Slag takes to the hill hoping to get one of his jacks in range on the next turn. Hoof it activates and I get about half my Kriels up into engaging his lines to try and take away shooty.
Grib saw the gap and line to Grissel and made the hard choice, "Fill the hole boys, those elves have a line to Grissel and she already owes us a beer." Looking over a Grissel he could see her worry, she gave him a look of gratitude and sadness as if he was already dead. In response he spat through his cigar and roared, "Go get em boys, I heard them Warriors gloating they were tougher than you gun toating weenies. Well... are ya?" With that they broke from the wall and tried to get in the way of the oncoming shots at Grissel, but too many of them sailed past them right at her.
Retribution ~ Seeing his chance to kill Grissel he goes for it, first activiating Ravyn, feating and moving in to clear Trolls from in front of the invictors. She kills 5 of them, but 3 of the are too tough to die, though the two dead Kriels and the now pair of knocked down Scattergunners have freed the invictors for shooting. The Stormfall archers shoot a lot of things but fail to kill naught but a Kriel. A mage hunter decides she doesn't care about tough and sends the Caber to his maker, the other Mage Hunter taking up defensive posture between Ravyn and the rock. Griffon and Discordia kill the Kriels engaging them but they are now waay out of position since they couldn't move. Invictors move up in front of Ravyn and all of them now have a line to Grissel. He opts to shoot each of them one at a time instead of Combining is ranged attacks. At dice -3 on damage with only two fury for transfers Grissel is in trouble. Out of 11 possible hits under Ravyn's feat all but one of them does so. So with 10 damage rolls on an average of 4 damage per hit, Grissel would take 40 damage on average dice 32 if she transfers some. All said and done, the dice gods smile on Grissel and she escapes it all with 1 health remaining and a Slag Troll that is only half dead from transfers.
The Stormfall archer had to give it to the Invictors, though he would never tell them to their face. Seeing them run right up in the middle of the massing Trollkin and fire at their leader was impressive. Seeing the battle near its end he ordered his archers up and took aim at a Trollkin smoking a giant cigar and carrying what looked to be some sort of large handcannon barking orders and running right towards them and flanking the invictors now huddled in front of Ravyn and shooting in unision at the Troll leader. He watched the arrow of his companion take the the Troll right in the chest. As the Troll staggered his own arrow slammed into the Trolls chest barely an inch below his companions shot and he watched the big Troll stagger to his knees. He was about to congratulate his companions when he heard something behind him. As he turned that same Troll was looking right at them grinning through his cigar and aiming his weapon right at them...
Turn 3
Trolls ~ This far into the game and he has killed 9 Kriels and two Scattergunners and I have killed NOTHING. With Grissel near death it was time to dig a hole trough invictors to try and beat down Ravyn. Grissel goes first by moving up towards invictors and casting Calamity on the invictors and letting go with a spray that kills none of them. The Remainig Kriels just get out of the way moving over to clog lanes in front of his jacks. Scattergunners go next, two of them unable to move if they want to shoot. The first one stands up and takes aim on Stormfalls since he is aimed away from the invictors and kills the whole unit (Boo-yah). The next one stands up and lets fly into the Invictors. With Calamity on them the Scattergunners are RAT 7 POW 14 Sprays. Needles to say he kills 5 of the 12. The next one shoots good into them killing another 4, leaving the unit with 5. The last gunner Sprays through his own guy NOT hurting him and kills 4 of the remaining Invictors leaving the standard bearer standing behind Ravyn. With an open highway to Ravyn for both the Earthborn and Mauler Ravyn is in trouble. The Slag uses his animus on the Earthborn who charges in missing his boosted charge roll but hitting on his next boosted attack. With Ravyn's POW 7 weapon and the Slag animus the Earthborn is sitting at a whopping PS 21. Which proves to be enough to drop her is one boosted damage swing. The Mauler looks forlorn since he no longer has anything to do.
Synopsis
It was a good move of his to NOT CRA Grissel and take all those shots. I am very lucky he didn't roll better on damage.
Say what you will about Scattergunners, but like many things in our army with a small application of an easy buff 4 Scattergunners can kill 15 models in one turn.
The Arrows Grib had taken to the chest had hurt him more than he thought. He was certain at least two of his ribs had been broken, but worst of all it felt like his lung was on fire. As he staggered toward Grissel he almost passed out until he noticed that she looked like she had been hit by near a dozen shots from the sword cannon thingies. No way could he pass out from only two shots with her standing there like she wasn't bleeding from near a dozen spots. Grib opened his mouth to report to her and ended up in the mud. He looked up to see Grissel standing over him lighting one of his Cigars and then putting in his mouth, "Too tough to die are ya Grib? You just rest a little, it looks like you may regenerate yet."
Ravyn opened her eyes to a splitting headache, her chest felt like it had been crushed under stone. Then she remembered the Dire Troll. Seeing it bound towards her with agility beyond what a beast that size should have she could barely react as its fist came crashing into her chest sending her flying. Just before it hit her she made eye contact with the beast and saw... intelligence in its eyes, it made her shudder a little at beasts as large as their machines. She tried to move and realized she had been tied to the leg of Discordia, at least they had suffered her one of the Myrmidons though it appeared nothing living from her army survived the fray. Wondering how she was going to get out of this mess she also wondered why she was spared by the Trollkin. Just then one of the mage hunters that had accompanied her into battle limped up to her and began to wordlessly work on her bindings. Ravyn looked the mage hunter in the eyes but could only see sadness...-
Thanks, very interesting article.
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