Friday 10 April 2009

I love Scattergunners!

As I mentioned briefly yesterday the Scattergunners really were the stars of the show. Not in that they killed the most things or Doomy or anything but they enabled the others to do so.

I was using

Grissel
Fell Caller
KSB + UA
Champions
Min Scattergunners
2 Impalers

And I was facing

Doomy
Mauler
2 Impalers
Champions
KSB
Fell Caller
Alten Ashley

(Yes, it turns out it's over points. Didn't really matter)

My setup was fairly compact, with the champions next to a ruin, the Scattergunners behind the ruin, the KSB, Fellcaller and Grissel behind the infantry and an Impaler on each flank. I would have concentrated them a bit more if I could but I was setting up first so had to cover both flanks.

His set up was a bit to the left of mine, but almost the same. A line of champions in front, two Impalers to the left of them, Doomy, KSB, Fell Caller and Mauler behind and Alten a bit to the right up front behind a hedge.

Alten managed to kill a Scattergunner behind they blasted him to bits. I didn't wanted him to shoot my Impalers so the one on the right hid behind the ruin while the Scattergunners ran through it with the help of the Fellcaller. In turn two they moved up further and since sprays ignored the concealment and shot him to bits. They also managed to put a bit of damage on the Champions(being barely in range). It also saw some exchange of fire between the Impalers and things but nothing overly important. The two champion units had lined up just over 9" from each other so it was a bit of a stalemate. And that's where the Scattergunners made the difference. In turn 3 they moved up to blast the champions some more, even killing one of them! And then Grissel put Hoof it on them and moved then up to stand there, tempting the champions to engage the annoying Scattergunners.

And my opponent duly took the bait. Admittedly it was only his third hordes game and he said up front that he was puzzled why I had moved the Scattergunners that way. I promised to explain, but not until after his turn. You shouldn't exploit newer players, but as long as you are nice I firmly believe the best way to learn is to actually see it work.

So his Champions and the Mauler engaged. They killed all but one scattergunner who was then blasted apart by the Fellcaller screaming at him(range attacks was hitting all over the place in this game!).

But it did mean my Champions could get the charge on his. Using the +2 strenght from the KSB and Grissels feat I engaged both Impalers and the Champions. Due to bad positioning on my part only the champions made it in. In the end the Imaplers took a bunch of damage and his champions got decimated.

I lost my Fell Caller on his counter attack but essentiall it was a big sprawling melee in the middle with the advantage to me. After then it was just chipping away at things on the edges and slowly walking through his models.

The game ended with Doomy showing that he can hit pretty hard by killing an Impaler (the other got eaten by the Mauler) before getting charged and killed by Grissel. At that stage he had the Mauler, the KSB and one scribe left.

I lost both Impalers, the Scattergunners, a couple of the Scribes and the Fellcaller. Grissel took some damage as well (slams from the Impalers and Doomys feat).

Lessons learned:
Mirror matches are fun!

Second, I love sprays. I was very impressed by the Scattergunners. Killing Alten early saved me a lot of headache, and being able to put a couple of damage points on the champions (yes, I know that was at least partially luck) made all the difference. Not only did it help with taking them down, it also meant they were annoying enough that something had to be done about them.

I'm still liking the Trolls a lot. They really are very different from Cygnar and I'm very much enjoying that. I'm still liking my Swan people, but it's cool to actually have beatdown casters and true heavy infantry (and sprays!).

Oh, and third lesson. Remember what your damn caster does! I only remembered Grissels fellcalls like half the turns in the game. Practice, practice, practice!

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like your having fun, quite different from Cygnar eh? Keep it up, im having quite a bit of fun with Calandra myself, her feat/star-crossed/and befuddled are all just so wrong.

    PT_Shane

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aye, very different, Trolls scratch the itch you can't get to with Cygnar so for me they are a great combo.

    And yes, Calandra is just naughty! Can't wait for her model.

    ReplyDelete