Preface:

Warcasters & Warlocks, welcome! Dark arts creep around me as dusk begins to fall. Typing this up on the day of ghouls and ghastly happenings. Yes, Halloween. What a GRYM day to begin this post. Going to have a short week, as im attending BlizzCon this weekend for any who are acquainted with the event. If not, fear not…I still have another report to share!

Journal Entry #2:

This week marks the second round of my FLGS’s “Weekly Steamroller.” I come into this round with a record of 0-1 (you can read that report here: Grym Journey: Journal Entry 1.)

As the forces of Grym beings I command move forth in search of another encounter, we spot the great Red Army, Khador.

My opponent for the second week is Josh, and his mighty Khador Army. Josh is a well known and consistent player in our Meta who brings with him mighty Warcasters capable of devastation and butchery. Yup, I am going to either face-off against Butcher3 or Irusk1. Both of which im concerned about. Irusk1 I am unfamiliar with, but I know Josh wouldnt have tossed him in as an option without reason. The second, Butcher3…well its Butcher3. His name says enough. His reputation of incredible assassinations and/or clearing 1/3 of the table regardless of what stands there is not foreign to me.

List Selection:

With Wanderer and Dreamer in my ranks, I weigh out the options. While Wanderer might be able to avoid an assassination from Butcher or amuse the ranks of Man-o-War’s that Irusk would introduce to my face, im not confident that my army can hold back his from overrunning my lines. Dreamer in DM brings two min units of Dread Rots & Twilight Sisters to help jar up a zone or two. Additionally the Goblin Swarms may be more difficult than anticipated to remove allowing me to contest easier…as magical weapons are not a plenty in Khador.

Scenario: Breakdown

My Wanderer list might be able to tar pit zones and bully unsuspecting Solo’s/Units but I am nearly confident they can easily be negated by Butcher3 if he drops him, leaving me with little left to retaliate in that situation.

With two Cage Ragers and Skin & Moans, I decide that the Dreamer is the better choice. She will have Manifest Destiny to help with damage/clearing and my Beasts should be able to take a few hits under the Death Knell. My Dread Rots should buy enough time to clog charge lanes and do some damage themselves (hopefully.)

My opponent chooses Butcher3 as his Warcaster, hoping he will lead the Mighty Khadoran army right over the Grym army that amasses.

Lists & Arcana:

Arcana Chosen: Ruin & Sacrifice. Trump: All Fall Down

Sacrifice seems like the proper choice. Having played Warmachine before jumping to Hordes, at times I know it can be more difficult for them to do the damage they anticipate. Hoping to use it in a situation where he might damage some beasts (in a situation where he failed to destroy,) and kill something insignificant..I could capitalize next turn. As for Ruin, Butcher3 has a crazy Assassination reach. 15″ if I remember correctly. His assassination includes several spells and one upkeep. With the Arcane Vortex from Corpse Fueled Cage Ragers and this Arcana, id hope to minimize the damage and remove his upkeep..blunting this unstoppable attack if he made his move. As for Dreamers Trump, All Fall Down serves as a backup if a high priority target engages and is in my grasp to counter next turn.

We shake hands, and I wish him good luck. Josh is a very strong opponent and last we met he played against my Cryx Army. He overextended and I capitalized with a Skarre1 Feated Jack-Spam (Before it was cool/before Black Industries.) I know he will not make the mistake a second time. He wins on the roll and chooses sides, opting for unboxing/deployment friendlier side.

Deployment:

With losing the roll, I dont get the additional information of where his ranged threats will begin (Behemoth comes to mind.) I evenly space out my Gremlins hoping they will be in the right spot(s), at the right time(s). Dreamer is front and center ready to take place on the hill that lies to my left. Having two clouds near the center of the map, I feel this might help be advance one of my units of Dread Rots, so I place one there. I toss a Rager on each flank of Dreamer, just in case I need to Arc a spell or two! Sisters deploy to the right, with the other unit of Rots, to assist in jamming that side as most my ‘beef’ is to my left/center.

My opponent deploys with Behemoth to my right, and Butcher across from Dreamer. Joy. (Note – One Eliminator will be marked using the blue proxy base for this game.)

Turn One:

Grymkin – Apparition happens on my Swarms and the Twilight Sisters run towards the ‘blue’ house. My Heavies run forward, aggressively. Units advance and Gremlins charge forward into the fray! Well….all but one. Cant even think of a legitimate excuse for this mistake. Dreamer lays down her Artifice of Deviation (AoD) near his objective and drops a fury to boot. Pass turn.

Khador – Eliminators on my left dont care about Rough Terrian, nope. No Cares given. The battlegroup is granted Energizer and does its thing, yet forgetting to move his War Argi (this would keep Butcher boxed up a little longer.) Next everything runs up and I take note that he will have his goodies inside the zones before I do. Turn passes.

Turn Two:

Grymkin – I position one Skin & Moans behind the left shack, in position to bait the Alpha and otherwise contest those two zones for the upcoming turns. My painted S&M to the left walks up cautiously. I toss my Cage Rager on the Hill, as Id like to have him there if I see an opportunity arise to arc Enfeeble or a Abyssal Gate at something. Dread Rots jam the center, blocking charge lanes. The rest of my forces to the right have similar ideas. Rots run, Sisters position and I remember to run the forgotten Swarm up! I also toss a Swarm at his Devastator hoping it might be more of an issue that he might give it credit for. Dreamer walks atop her little hill and shifts the AoD towards the center, as I want to clog up that area. Pass Turn.

Two things are going through my head at this moment. A.) Im happy with my positioning, mindful of threats and layering my Beasts. (At least coming from a newbies perspective.) B.) Ive taken more time to execute this turn than im comfortable with. Go Figure.

Khador – He really wants that S&M as I had predicted. His widowmaker clears out a Rot for the landing zone. Seems Ruin wants to play. Butcher activates and Does Energizer again. Cool fact (at least how we played, if im wrong please correct me) Energizer can and will allow for jacks to move out of B2B from swarms, negative their mischief! The Devastator gets away! On the right, the Kayazy Eliminators and Behemoth clear most of the Rots out that are standing in the zone. Ruin charges my S&M and surprisingly leaves it alive with a few (less than three,) hit points. The eliminators nearby walk over and Combo-Strike it off the board.

Wanted to use the Dreamers Trump, All Fall Down on Ruin, yet couldnt.

My opponent skims his backfield shifting Mechaniks around, and passes turn. CP: 0-1, Khador.

Right around this point of the game, I shockingly have more time on the clock than my opponent does. Seems he took longer than anticipated, yet both our turns are slow and in general up to this point thought out.

Turn Three:

Grymkin – Knowing im ahead on time I carefully measure out my options this turn. First things first. I want some more fodder on my right. Sisters bring back two Rots and they approach the Eliminators/zone. Ruin is staring down Dreamer. Not a great spot to be in, yet not out of my purview to handle. So I have two choices, and withing those two choices, are additional choices. Cage Rager on my Left can run up and act as an arc to pull the Juggernaut near the shack (outside 1″) close enough to my painted S&M, so he can munch on. I like the involved steps in that decision but setting up a 14 point arc node, to send in a 15 point heavy on a 12 point heavy doesnt sound like good math. Next option is sending my Cage Rager in to at the very least tie up Ruin. Karianna enrages the left Rager, Dreamer pops Manifest Destiny, and he tramples over the Eliminators to knock on ruins hull. He leaves it on around 13 boxes.

Something happened about this point in the game, and I began to lose my composure. Cant explain it, but I began to get nervous and stressed. Maybe it was knowing this was a tournament game and I didnt want to lose for a second week in a row? No clue. I came in wanting to have fun and play well, but it began to crumble around this point in the match.

I dont want Ruin there anymore. I make the poor decision to send in the right Cage Rager in to finish the job. He does so. I say poor, and it really was. Looking back at this game, i’ve basically bunched up two of my heavies for Butcher3 to delete if he wants. Next, the eliminators are too close to Rose/Dreamer for comfort. I send in S&M, careful to toe the zone and send four attacks into them, missing all four (talking to a friend afterwards, I should have boosted my first two initials against the extremely high defense the Eliminators bring, removing them and giving me corpses.) Im running fury heavy, and decide to stop, noticing im in trouble next turn. Why? Fury management was poor this turn, and AGAIN I bunched another Heavy up for Butcher to visit. Pass Turn. CP 0-1, Khador.

I actually see what ive done at this point, serving up my remaining Heavies for a possible Butcher3 Feat turn. I really let theses mistakes get the best of my as the game continues, even developing a headache that would last until the next day.

Khador – So I anticipate the hurt coming this turn. My opponent spends a surprisingly large amount of time considering his options. During allocation, the left Juggernaut receives two focus, and more plans are made. He decides against sending Butcher3 in, activating him and tossing Silence of Death on the Focus filled Juggernaut. Next he energizes all his battle group, except the fueled/buffed Juggernaut to my left…moving on to other activation’s.

My opponent had carefully planned to move said jack, measuring his would be positioning before he began any of his activation’s. Unfortunately he didnt move it during Energize, going to other movements and activation’s afterwards instead. Once he caught his mistake, he admitted that might have costed him the game. I personally didnt see how it meant game over, but being leagues ahead of me in experience…I didnt argue.

This meant the Juggernaut did not have a charge lane at my painted S&M. He side steps him away from the shack instead, during its activation. The Marksmen removes a Rot that stands in the right Juggy’s path, as does a Greylord Forge Seer. The right Juggernaut charges in, trying to muster up another plan on the fly…yet doesnt do much damage to the Cage Rager under the blanket of the Death Knell. Eliminators on the right chew through some Rots, ignoring their tough rule (an annoying little thing I found out in this game!) Eliminators on my left charge Karianna and kill her, giving my army Sorrowful Rampage for one turn (+1 to attack and damage rolls.) Devastator easily takes out my objective. Pass Turn. CP: 0-2, Khador.

Turn Four:

Grymkin – I try and deal with the mis-managed fury as best as I can. I reason out that if the two Ragers go bonkers and frenzy, they act as a wall still. I pull the Fury from my S&M as I know he can kill off the Juggernaut that moved out and exposed himself last turn. Both my Heavies in the center Frenzy, smacking each other. Slightly amusing. I send my S&M to the Juggernaut and take it off the board, with the help of last turns Sorrowful Rampage Trigger.

Newbie Alert. I think at about this time I realize I havnt used any arcana, nor thought of using one since not getting to use it on Ruin. In addition I forgot to create Phantasm on Ruin, but luckily remember to on the Juggernaut!

The large Phantasm plants himself near Butcher. I run my Swarm that was way over in the backfield, near the Ragers for effect. Rots on my right Jam up the Devastator after a few were brought back by the Sisters.

If ive done anything right this game, it was using these girls to jam up that side of the board, very well.

Dreamer goes incorporeal, and puts a AoD up in the middle to help screen my Ragers. Pass Turn. CP: 0-2, Khador.

“The late, late, late game…..”

So still, ive managed to be about three minutes ahead of my opponent. He doesnt have much time left. At this part of the game, he manages to score on the right zone. Its well coordinated with a few good calls. Devastator AoE’s the nearby Rots, Forgeseer’s get within range to plink off one Swarm, as Behemoth does the same with the remaining. CP raises to 0-3, in Khadors favor. I trigger Sacrifice during this time-frame, and heal my Rager back to full.

Heh, at least I can say I used one this game, right?

I contest with the center swarm, run the Sisters into the zone for insurance and click over. My opponent notions to the mere seconds remaining on the clock, and Grymkin is awarded with a victory by Deathclock! We have hands and have a sit-down.

Post-Game Thoughts:

I should have lost this game. Had Butcher3 committed to the heavies, I had nothing to retaliate with, even if I had used my….ARCANA. Seriously need to look for more triggers throughout games.

We both were agitated by mis-plays and poor decision/time management issues. We talked a few things out and how things could have went. Again, all in his favor as he was clearly in charge this game.

The reason he didnt commit butcher in was due to fear’s of Ruin (Arcana) plus Arcane Vortex’s on the Ragers. Flashing Blade/Energizes are spells. He noted while it wouldnt entirely stop him, but it would have ate through a decent amount of focus & stripped his upkeep during that assassination/attack run. So while the Arcana didnt get used, I guess it did its job and kept my opponent mindful of its uses (admittedly I would have forgot about the Arcane Vortex usage during such an interaction as Flashing Blade, had that happened. Luckily ive noted this for the future.)

Final Thoughts for this entry…

I remember driving home feeling mentally drained. Upset with many decisions I made, and even more upset by not having any sense of a plan mid-way through the match. Early on I felt like I was making good solid calls. During turn three(?) I fell apart and let it dictate the way I thought and felt inside for the remaining part of the game.

Im happy with how I played the Twilight Sisters, and used Manifest Destiny. Also satisfied that I saw the Abyssal Gate play, even if I did choose against using it. I would have liked to have pushed up the board more, but Butcher kept me at bay. His ability to run up the board and have is way is extremely intimidating. Not a great win, or even a fun win, but I learned a few lessons and identified more issues to work on for the next round and the future.

Thanks again everyone. Id truly love to hear your thoughts, constructive criticism, or opinions on this or anything else on my page. Take care and until next time!

-Nick