Slow Grow round 3

Week 3 of our Slow Grow League was Fluff Week. Games were arranged so that we could replay as many of the stories from all of the PP books. I haven’t seen any of the other games, but the one I played against Marcus was the Minion fluff from the Domination release; Calaban (me) vs Maelok (Marcus).
Although the option to change warlock/warcaster doesn’t happen until Round 4, it decided that I should swap Bloody Barnabas for Calaban for the sake of Fluff week. This was good for me as I had wanted to try Calaban for some time, plus I already had him fully painted and ready to go. I was also happy as it meant I could see him in action before Round 4. So far I’ve played two games with him and think that there is a lot of potential there.
One other thing that I was looking forward to in this game was seeing Maelok in the flesh (or lack thereof), and I can say that I was impressed. He did the simple things which made Marcus’ force work really well. So without further ado, I took:

Calaban, the Gravewalker
* Bull Snapper
* Blackhide Wrastler
* Ironback Spitter
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Croak Hunter
Feralgeist

to go against:

Maelok, the Dreadbound
* Bull Snapper
* Blackhide Wrastler
* Blackhide Wrastler
Bog Trog Ambushers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Croak Hunter
Croak Hunter
Croak Hunter

For the game we used the Command and Control radial scenario from SR2012 and both set up at the front of our respective zones. I lost the roll-off and Marcus opted to go second.

Turn 1:

I chose to run the Spitter and Calaban towards the nearest flag leaving the rest of the force to attempt to hold the control zone in the centre of the board. Calaban had cast Carnivore on the first GMP and threw down a couple of Spiny Growths on the Wrastler and one gator.

Marcus ran his force forwards as well and reached the edge of the control zone in a very neat wall of gatory and frog-like meanness. Maelok had cast Death Pact on his GMP and Malediction.

Turn 2:

I knew I wouldn’t be able to engage the enemy so I ran most of my Gators into the control zone. Not a very good move as I found out later. The Croak hung back a little and moved behind the Gators looking for an opportunity in the next turn to take advantage of his Gang ability. The Wrastler moved up in support while Calaban claimed his flag with the Spitter a short distance away from him.

Maelok upkept his spells and shifted forward. Marcus got his GMP to charge mine and took out my front three and his supporting knot of frogs (I looked up the collective noun (or  ‘term of venery’ (from medieval times) if you want to be fancy) and while not a good noun it’s far better than having a knob of toads) pitched in and killed another. Marcus’ Wrastlers stood by and watched. It was no surprise that the Bog Trogs made an appearance to my left just inches away from my table edge. They ran towards Calaban and his flag and looked to be a thorn in my side which I quite expected.

Turn 3:

Surrounded, it was time for a big action turn. First of all, The Spitter walked back slightly to cover Calaban and spat at a clump of Bog Trogs killing two and sticking corrosion on another. That was fine. But then I activated Calaban and popped my feat. He moved and unsuccessfully cast Bone Shaker a couple of times. Then the remaining Gators from both Posses charged their opposite numbers. Due to Marcus’ GMP having a stupidly high armour value, only a handful of wounds were dished out. In turned out that my Croak Hunter was the only thing to actually kill something, and boy did he do it well. Using Gang to get the hit, I rolled for damage and from 4d6 (charge and poison weapon) I got three 6’s and a 4. The Wrastler couldn’t do anything to his opposing Wrastler as one of Marcus’ Gators was blocking its charge lane. This was really bad as my Wrastler didn’t have enough movement to engage.

It was Marcus’ turn to feat which is quite horrible (I now want to have a Maelok of my own, him and the Testament of Menoth). Needless to say that his army went through mine with some ease leaving me with only one Gatorman and totalling my Wrastler. There wasn’t much else for Marcus to do so he ran his Bog Trogs (who were down to three as one had succumbed to Corrosion) even closer to Calaban.

I must have deleted the pic for Marcus’s Turn 3 so I’ll include a fun conga-type-thing pic.

Turn 4:

With not a lot to do with not a lot of my army left, I took out what I could. The lone Gatorman finished off the remaining Croaks as he was never going to scratch Marcus’s Gators. The Feralgeist controlled Wrastler picked himself up and round on his killer causing a massive… 1 wound from his attacks. Calaban’s mastery of magic failed him repeatedly. The Snapper went to occupy the other Wrastler but causing no damage of two attacks. This only served to block charge lanes to Calaban. All that was left to do was finish the turn with some fun and threw one Bog Trog into another killing them both.

Marcus ended the game in style by Reviving three Gators, which then charged Calaban. One of them got had to go past the Snapper and take a free strike and subsequently got eaten. Marcus was thankful that he had chosen the Cold Blood prayer for them as he had missed with all four of his initial attacks. But unfortunately, he got all of the re-rolls and cut my warlock down in four hits.

A disappointing game for me made better by the Fluff aspect of it. Not having the first turn is one thing, but to play into Marcus’s hands in the second turn was quite silly. I think I should have noticed that when Marcus hadn’t made out to capture a flag, I should have just concentrated on the bloodbath in the middle. As it was I placed a bit too much confidence in two GMP’s, a very effective Croak Hunter and a Wrastler. The idea had been to let them handle things while Calaban, protected a little by his Spitter, made sure that I had the flag so I could start scoring points. Marcus played very well making sure I stayed stretched with the Bog Trogs creeping up behind me and the Knot of Croak Hunters causing a distraction. Three of them together can really make you think about what you need to prioritise. Having said this, Marcus could have easily gone for the scenario if he wanted. I think Marcus really controlled the game to the extent that his second Wrastler really didn’t need to do anything at all as I focused a little too much on the super-hard GMP and Croaks.

The game showed me that I am finding it hard to find the place in-between conservative play and ‘no fear, no doubt, all-in, balls out’ play. In this game I really wanted to take the game to Marcus but found I was in no position to from turn two onwards. It was at that point that I should have been a bit more conservative. But hey, I learnt what my warlock cannot do and I now know a little more about what Maelok can do so it’s all good. Hopefully in the next round of our Slow Grow league will go my way.