Trollbloods vs Crucible Guard
The Lists
Crucible Guard – Prima Materia
- Aurum Lucanum Athanor Locke +29
- Vulcan – 35
- Liberator – 10
- Toro – 13
- Toro – 13
- Vanguard – 10
- Hutchuck, Ogrun Bounty Hunter – 6 (free)
- Prospero – 5 (free)
- Suppressor – 13
- Retaliator – 9
- Combat Alchemists – 7 (free)
Trollbloods – Band of Heroes
- Madrak Ironhide, World Ender +28
- Troll Basher – 7
- Troll Basher – 7
- Troll Basher – 7
- Pyre Troll – 8
- Horthol, Long Rider Hero – 8
- Fell Caller Hero – 5 (free)
- Fell Caller Hero – 5 (free)
- Fennblade Kithkar – 4
- Fennblade Kithkar – 4
- Stone Scribe Chronicler – 4
- Stone Scribe Chronicler – 4
- Trollkin Fennblades (max) – 15
- Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer – 5 (free)
- Trollkin Long Riders (min) – 12
- Trollkin Long Riders (min) – 12
- Kriel Warriors (max) – 11
The Game
Roll-off and Deployment
Crucible Guard won the roll, and chose to go first.
Trollbloods chose sides, and picked the side with the walls, as opposed to the central forest. They want to take the haystack flag, and think they can get Horthol on the barrel flag later on.
Crucible Guard gets to start with upkeep spells in play. Redline goes on a Toro (left), Sentry on the Vulcan, and Road to War on Locke.
Turn 1
The Vulcan gets a Sentry shot, but can’t see anything, nor will the scatter reach any trolls, so it skips the opening shot. It runs, activating its vents, declaring Miasma of Death. The left-most Toro runs, with +2 SPD and suffers one damage to the 6 column. Fennblades only threaten 13 inches, so the Toro is safe, and threatens to destroy some Fennblades on its first real turn. Liberator runs next to the Toro to guard the flag. Locke runs up, followed by the Vanguard and Toro. Everyone else runs up on the right flank.
Trollbloods need special care when unpacking. Madrak’s anemic control range means the Troll Bashers can spread out 10 inches initially, but need to activate before Madrak, so he doesn’t run himself out of control of the two flanking light warbeasts.
The three bashers run, taking care to realize where Madrak will be, and remaining in his future control range. Madrak casts his two upkeeps, Warpath on himself, Blood Fury on the Fennblades, and walks to the wall. Longriders on the both sides run, making ready for an ambush. They stay out of charge range, but within a walk/throw range. The chroniclers and fell callers also run, but stay out of the walk/throw ambush range. Chroniclers put Tale of Mist on each of the Longrider units. Fell Caller on the right hands pathfinder to the Longriders on white buffalo. Fennblades, solos and Kriel Warriors run, getting as far up the board as possible. Kriel Warriors built a fort around Madrak, ready to die for their leader.
Turn 2
Locke brings Hutchuck in to lay claim to the barrel flag on her left.
The Vulcan gets a shot, and takes it on a Fennblade, clustered near the Basher. Prospero leads, granting +1 to the Vulcan’s attack, so the colossal needs a 3 to hit the DEF 10 (blood fury) Fennblade. It hits four blades and the Basher. They lose tough, and cannot have damage removed. I did not realize this effect wasn’t just Grievous Wounds. It’s better. My troll kings would not be immune. Three of the Fennblades die, and the basher takes 3 damage to the 3. The attack triggers Vengeance for the next Trollblood turn.
I thought the forest would hamper the Toro from getting in, but if it charges on a line, just scraping by the edge, it can get both front long riders into combat. So Locke upkeeps Redline (for free), and also Sentry and Road to War. She puts two focus on the Toro, and two on the Vulcan.
Hutchuck walks in and throws a bomb at the closest troll. He throws a Quake grenade, needing an 8, rolling a 6, and deviating to hit the front two riders. Only POW 6, the riders are dice off 12, so no damage.
Toro to the left charges the lead rider, for free due to Redline, and needs sixes to hit. Boosted attack rolls make it succeed with a 14, then the POW 20 hit absolutely obliterates the poor troll. The next initial attack hits the nearby rider, who takes 4 from the shield, and another 7 from the sword. The first troll to succeed at a tough check dies to the Toro’s third swing of the blade.
The Vulcan activates next. It walks, sprays the a Fennblade on its right, catching the Kithkar and another Fennblade, needing a 5 on the kithkar due to remaining in Prospero’s command range. It rolls a 3 for the kithkar, a 6 and 7 for the fennblades, triggering Tough, which fails, and Righteous Vengeance on the kithkar. The second spray hits a Fennblade and the basher, killing the Fennblade and doing a boosted damage roll on the Basher for 5 points on the 4. The rockets happen next, striking deep, and hitting the officer. The officer takes a straight die roll, killing him, another blade, and a Kriel Warrior. The vulcan reloads its rocket, this time shooting at the Fell Caller Hero near the flag. It needs a 5 to hit, rolls a 9, rolls dice – 1 for 6 damage. The chronicler takes a boosted damage roll, 12 – 6 and kills the poor dude. Four attacks killed eleven trollkin, causing both Toros, the Liberator and Vanguard to move up.
The three alchemists walked in, keeping tight and dropping clouds. The Suppressor and Retaliator run in. Prospero moves up, keeping the Vulcan and his jacks in range of command and control (both 8 inches).
Locke advances a little bit, putting her walk-away warjacks back in her control range, and casts Bombshell at the long riders, through the Liberator, using all her focus. She is in no danger, being so far back. The riders are DEF 14 due to concealment, and she rolls a 7 as easily as a frog eats a fly. No critical hit, but still a POW 13, but does no damage. She refrains from activating her feat, since the trolls are so far away. Toro to her right runs up
In retrospect, Hutchuck should have waited for all the action, then ran to the flag. But who knew the Toro was going to get in so far?
Trollbloods – bottom of turn 2
Fennblade Kithkars cannot use their vengeance attack. walking would trigger countercharge from the Toros, and swinging on the Toro at POW 13 is useless. The three remaining fennblades walk just a smidge, staying out of countercharge range, and don’t get to swing. Blood Fury on a Vengeance didn’t happen.
Madrak drops Road to War. The riders to the left can’t get into the warjacks. Madrak can’t help them because that side is so far out. If his feat was more like Striker 2, where it said “models/units currently in,” it would be more useful. Also, this Crucible Guard army is shy of dudes, giving Madrak’s army less to swing at. This turn will hopefully see some Toros drop, even at the expense of Madrak’s army.
The unpainted Basher starts off by healing one point on the body, then charging the Toro in the circle. It boosts the hit and crits, doing 3 to the 4. The Toro is staggered, so if it survives, then it will have to buy all its attacks. Not a real problem with Jackhammer on Locke.
With the warbeast out of the way, a path opens up for the fennblades to get some work done. Some measuring shows trolls can get 3 dudes into the Vulcan. Sure, why not? Weapon master POW 12 on a charge seems good. They throw their backs into it, needing anything but snake eyes to hit. The first guy rolls a 7, with 4 dice. Dice off 7 means no damage. The next guy does 14 damage to the 4, and the last guy does no damage. That’s dice, I guess.
The kithkar from the right charges Toro on the left, doing 5 to the 4. It other swing does 4 to the 2. The next kithkar gets in, doing 1 to the 5 on the charge, then 2 to the 5 on the back swing. The warjack’s cortex is out! It literally cannot buy attacks or make initials.
Madrak has to move in order to get the Basher to do work on the far right. He advances, and throws his axe at the Toro on the right, burning a fury to boost, and hitting. He boosts damage, and dice off 5 does 8 to the 3.
Basher on the hay flag walks closer to Madrak, as he is outside Madrak’s control range. The last basher starts working on the right Toro, pushng it out of the zone but doing no damage. The chronicler hands out Charge of the Trolls to the last longrider on the right, then runs left to catch up with the left side longriders. The right rider charges the toro, contacting, for the impact, doing 5 to the toro’s 3, then 5 to the 3 again. The rider repositions, staying within 2″ of the Toro. The fell caller gives itself pathfinder, and walks through the woods, then screams at Hutchuck. Caller hits, and does no damage.
Horthol charges the Toro, critting for 4 to the 6, and slamming the Toro into the Liberator. Pyre troll walks in, and does nothing on his boosted attack to the Toro. A single long rider decimates the alchemists, but can’t do any more, so they hang about the flag, and the Fell Caller take possession.
Trolls score the flag and rectangle. Crucible scores rectangle.
Turn 3, Trolls 2/CG 1
The Toro hit by the pyre troll rolls to see if the fire goes out, and it does not, so it takes 2 to the 3. The Vulcan takes its Sentry shot, opting for a spray. Rat 7 thanks to Prospero says it needs a 5 to hit most things, and it misses a Fennblade and Madrak. A fenblade and four of Madrak’s honor guard die. Three trolls toughed, and the kithkar only took 4 damage. The spray does continuous acid, which I think was forgotten last round.
Locke probably should have feated last turn. It would have helped the Toros. She casts engine of destruction on herself for the +2SPD, and advances to the broken Toro. Her efficiency with her tools reclaims four hit boxes. Although it has no focus, it is a fully functioning warjack. She uses Jackhammer on the Vulcan, and it hits the Fennblade directly in front of it, but the little guy toughs it out. She feats, and camps two focus.
Liberator walks closer to the Vulcan and swings on the closest troll. It dies. Prospero walks into the circle and shoots the knocked down troll, who also dies. He casts Instability Equation on the Toro. It gains 3 focus. The Toro attacks the closest kithkar with its shield. It needs a 5, being MAT 7, and rolls a 3. With the sword, it swings at the other kithkar, hitting, and killing him. Toro returns to the first kithkar, buying an attack and splattering the kithkar. It spent a focus, so it rolls for unstable. It rolls a 2, so it doesn’t explode.
The Vulcan could get into melee with Madrak, but Madrak is camping 3 fury, and has 4 dudes nearby. So it shoots at the knocked down guy in the zone with his spray, clearing the zone. The second spray clears of more of Madrak’s bodyguards. Vulcan launches two rockets at a basher, nearly killing it. It won’t be able to heal or really do anything. The chronicler dies in the blast. Hutchuck walks to the flag and throws a knockdown bomb at Horthol. It deviates to nowhere. The broken Toro stands up. Vanguard runs to catch up to the army.
On the other side of the building, the Retaliator sprays the closest rider with Black Humor, boosting to hit. Dice off 6 does no damage, but that’s okay. Suppressor steps forward, right up to the rider. He pounds it, but only does 3 damage. It drops a spray on the fell caller, boosting to hit with an incendiary attack. It does no damage. Second one hits naturally, and does massive damage, and the caller tries to tough it out, but fails. Crucible will end, scoring 2, and trolls score 1.
Trollbloods bottom of 3
The score is Trolls 3, Crucible 3. Madrak pulls fury from the pyre and basher, and checks frenzy on the basher near Horthol. It is fine. The other one is also fine. Strange, but acceptable. The basher walks to Hutchuck, and takes an unboosted swing, almost killing the ogrun. Horthol charges the Toro, killing it, and the longrider takes out Hutchuck. The rider repositions for the fell caller, who runs to the flag.
The basher in the circle walks around the toro a touch, and hits it, breaking the cortex again. The other basher walks into combat with the Toro. It swings, boosts the damage, and Locke picks up a token from her feat. The basher buys an attack, boosts again and the Toro dies. The buy and boost both go to Locke, as she senses an attack from the mighty Madrak. She has 3 tokens, 2 focus… will he attack?
Under her feat, the defense and armor buff make her pretty much invincible. So Madrak runs right and camps fury. The long riders charge the two jacks, killing the Retaliator and knocking down the Suppressor with a slam. Trolls score 3, Crucible Guard nothing.
Turn 4
CG is behind, 6 to 3. Sentry gets a spray on the painted basher. It does 1 point to the 2. She activates, and sprays the blue basher. She hits, and boosts damage, doing 9, does it again, and boosts damage for another 6, then casts Bombshell. She scores a hit, and the POW 13 is enough to kill off the basher. She puts Redline on the Vulcan. Prospero walks up and makes the Liberator unstable. Prospero also makes the Vulcan unstable. Why not? The Liberator charges the basher, and kills it. It does not blow up.
Vanguard charges the fell caller, kills it, and the Vulcan walks around the building. It bulldozes the warrior out of the zone, and kills it in melee without spending focus. The suppressor tries to spray the longrider, but doesn’t get far.
CG gains 1, Trolls gain 1. Trolls lead, 7 to 4.
Madrak puts blood fury on the longriders, and takes the flag. The longriders take out the Suppressor. The last Kriel Warrior contests the zone. Trolls go up 2, and win.
Finishing Thoughts
The battle was one sided, with Crucible Guard making a critical mistake leading to a scenario win for trolls. If a warjack had made it to the rectangle with the pyre troll, or Prospero stayed in range of his own jacks, the game should have gone to the Crucible.
When faced with sprays and troop killing AOEs, the Fennblades don’t do well. The Crucible Guard warjacks under Locke simply out-threat the fennblades, which is weird. I think it’s a combination of Road to War and Redline.
Maybe Madrak 2 still isn’t a good fit for me. I have trouble keeping anything within 10 inches of him, and blood fury just didn’t pack the punch I wanted, since the Fennblades didn’t actually make it to their target.