Battle Report, Minions vs Mercenaries, 4/12/18 [Warmahordes]

Whew, took a long time to post this!  Lots going on in my life, so having time to sit in front of the computer has been tough.  But hey, finally have it written up and posted.

This game was against Joey again.  I wanted to put some new stuff on the table, and figured I'd try a caster I haven't used in MkIII- Jaga-Jaga.  To further my effort to try something new, I decided to finally try another Minions theme.  I don't own enough Farrow to actually do the Thornfall Alliance, so with a few last minute purchases, I went with a Will Work for Food list.

https://conflictchamber.com/#cb201b_-0PjP4c4djTjMjWk7jSbOjV7Fk64n2N

Minion Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Will Work for Food

[Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27]
 - Blackhide Wrastler [16]
 - Bull Snapper [5]
 - Dracodile [36]
 - Ironback Spitter [14]
 - Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)]
Croak Hunter [3]
Gatorman Husk [3]
Gatorman Witch Doctor [4]
Kwaak Slickspine & Gub, Croak Sorcerers [4]
Rorsh [15]
Thrullg [0(5)]
Totem Hunter [0(6)]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]

Plenty of stuff new to me in this list.  Like I said, I have never tried Jaga-Jaga in any edition of the game, let alone the current one.  The Gatorman Husk was a new purchase for this game (as I needed to fill the final three points).  And Rorsh/Brine were a completely new model for me, also purchased the day of the game (you may notice the lack of assembly on them in pictures below).

I also bought new dice for this game.  I'm sick of my old dice.

Anything more exciting than a picture of DICE?

Joey took his usual list:

https://conflictchamber.com/#c6201b_-0mb_9494949393it98iriripipiEhX

Mercenary Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Hammer Strike

[Ossrum 1] General Ossrum [+28]
 - Ghordson Driller [10]
 - Ghordson Driller [10]
 - Ghordson Driller [10]
 - Grundback Gunner [6]
 - Grundback Gunner [6]
Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (max) [16]
 - Hammerfall High Shield Officer & Standard [0(5)]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [0(6)]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [0(6)]
Horgenhold Forge Guard (min) [10]
Horgenhold Forge Guard (min) [10]
Tactical Arcanist Corps [7]
Hammerfall Siege Crawler [18]

Pretty solid, dependable list.

We rolled up The Pit II, and per the usual, I lost the roll to go first (and Joey elected to have me go first).

Deployment:

Minion Deployment

Mercenary Deployment

I had my Husk Ambush onto the board from my left (Joey's right) right next to one of his unit of Forge Guard.

Turn 1:
I run everything forward, trying to keep the Dracodile out of range of the Siege Crawler (I don't want to deal with Stagger quite yet).  Jaga-Jaga casts Battle Host, and casts Death Wind on the Wrastler, and advances forward.

Joey moves his Dwarfs ever so slowly forward.  I think they are running, but it's hard to tell *chuckle*.

Ossrum puts Fire for Effect on one of the Artillery, Snipe on the Battle Engine, and advances up behind the wall on his side of the board.  The FFE'd Artillery takes a shot at the Spitter, and deals four damage.  Joey then spends a few minutes thinking about how he's going to handle the Dracodile, who can really screw with his Siege Crawler (with the spray).  He decides that having the Siege Engine staying too far back isn't going to help him, and moves it forward to shoot at the Spitter as well, dealing an additional four damage, and Staggering it.

Turn 2:
The Husk ambushes on Joey's side of the board, on my left, and manages to kill a Forge Guard.  The Totem Hunter then kills another, and sprints behind the building where he can't be seen.

The Dracodile heads up, sprays the Battle Engine for 10 damage, as well as Blinding it.  One less thing to deal with on my next turn.  The Croak Hunter in the center begins to try to chip away at that High Shield unit, and kills one.  Thrullg deals a few damage to the Gunner who ventured up to the forest, and I put a smoke screen on my right with the Swamp Gobbers to get Rorsh and Brine a bit closer to the action.

Joey starts hit turn by dropping Snipe off the Battle Engine (who can't shoot anyway), and allocating two focus to a Driller.  Joey's primary goal this turn is to drop the Dracodile, and he juggles Fire For Effect onto the Artillery pieces, shoots at the Dracodile with both Artillery pieces, Ossrum, and charges a unit of Forge Guard and a Driller into it.... but it stays standing (although not by much).  Elsewhere, the High Shields and a Gunner attempt to handle Rorsh, but the killing shot causes him to go Tough, which keeps him alive and impossible to shoot, meaning Brine is going to be able to get into the action on my turn.

Realizing he can't kill the Dracodile with his remaining pieces, Joey attempts to handle some of the support pieces, shooting at Kwaak, but only dealing two, but managing to kill Thrullg with his other unit of Forge Guard.

Turn 3:
I get to work, since everything in my army is basically where it needs to be.  The Spitter kills two Forge Guard, The Wrastler kills a Driller and badly damages another, who the Dracodile finishes off (although critically, I can't get a spray off to blind anything).  Brine charges into the Gun Corps, killing a few.  The Totem Hunter gets to work on one of the Artillery.

Really, even with getting basically optimal work from everyone (thanks to Jaga-Jaga's Signs and Portents), I don't really feel like I've taken a big chunk from his army.  Ugh.

Ossrum upkeeps Fire for Effect, allocates a few to the remaining Driller, and the artillery takes a shot at the Dracodile, doing some damage.  That's enough for the one remaining Driller to charge it, killing it.  He has a few focus remaining, and uses it to attack the Wrastler, dealing a few damage.

His artillery attempts to clear the Totem Hunter off them, but are unable to, so Ossrum moves backwards to kill the Totem Hunter, then casts Bullet Dodger on himself.

The Gun Corps figure their best bet to handle Brine is large CMAs, and attempt one... but roll double ones and miss.  However, they are saved from stressing too much, as the nearby Gunner has no problem killing Rorsh (I think some unengaged Gun Corps shot at him first, to remove the fury he was holding).

With the Dracodile gone, the two Forge Guard in the left hand unit charge the Dracodile, killing it, and the game is basically over except for cleanup (which Joey manages to do next turn).

Minions lose!

Thoughts:
I figured this would probably be an uphill battle, as I was running a caster I haven't used before (Jaga-Jaga), and a new theme.  But even with experience... I don't know how I could win against Hammerstrike with this theme.  It just doesn't seem to generate the volume of attacks I would need to handle all the bodies.  I suppose for this matchup, I'll need to stick with Blindwater Congregation for the Hammerstrike matchup, and try WWFF against other opponents.  It'd probably be better if I had some more lesser warlocks as well, which I'm working on ordering. 

I rolled well, didn't play too too terribly, I think, so I just got outplayed and out-attritioned, which I can live with.  I really liked Jaga-Jaga, even though she didn't really do all that much but cast S&P every turn.  But heck, I really loved having that available.  I don't know that I missed many attacks at all this game!

I've played two more games since this post, both against Rob, only one of which was played to conclusion (against Primal Terrors).  I am slowly getting my Minions 'tournament pair' fully completed, and once that's done, I'll work to getting a new army up and running- so look out for that in the near-ish future.