This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 2

Against Jason.

Week two of the Gnarls league wraps up today, but for me it finished yesterday with my third game.  Let's start at the beginning.  The first game was Thursday against Jason, a regular Menoth player who I had not yet faced off against.  I ran a newish Absylonia list with Typhon, a Carnivean, a Seraph, four Shredders, and a pair of both Shepherds and Forsaken.  Jason used Amon with a horde of light jacks, 8 in all, with a pair of min choirs and some wracks.  The scenario was Hold the Line, one that I enjoy for its straight-forwardness.  As usual when facing a new caster/army, I read the cards and took note of abilities, then promptly forgot or underestimated them.  Synergy caught me with my pants not down, but off and in another room.  I lost Typhon and the Carni, both undamaged, on the same turn and that was about it.  I almost shot down Amon with the Seraph, then couldn't quite manage to get Aby in charge range of him.  This game was a fairly ugly case of learning by taking it in the face for me, but that knowledge would come in handy in the next game.



That next game was a team game.  My ally was Hawk, who I gather is a Mk. 1 veteran who has less time for the game of late.  Our opponents were Jason and Jeff, who I played last week, which set up a Legion/Mercs vs Menoth game.  We played at 25 per person, so I dropped the Carnivean and was able to maintain a tier 4 list.  Hawk ran pMagnus with a Mule, two pirate jacks, some Sea Dogs, Ragman, and Dougal MacNaile.  Jason went the same route I did by dropping a couple jacks from our previous game.  Jeff ran pKreoss, a Templar, a Reckoner, a Repenter, Exemplars, a choir, and perhaps Rhupert.  We played Fight Club which was all about killing jacks/beasts.  I gained a healthy appreciation for what a Mule can do in this game when one cleared out most of a choir, most of the Errants, and also put some damage on a couple heavies.  With a single shot.  This was a game that felt close at the time, but in retrospect I think we had the edge from the first volley.  The plan was to piece trade with Hawk's jacks as bait, but we didn't have to do much trading and probably engaged in far too much planning (hence the lack of pictures).  We made a final push as the store was about to close and I cleared out both casters, including a brutal dicing of pKreoss.  He deserves it though, more than any caster that doesn't serve Toruk.

Before all hell breaks loose.

My final game was Saturday morning against Steve, another returning Mk. 1 vet.  We played a couple weeks ago in his first game using Mk. 2.  I have pictures of that one but haven't done up a report for it yet.  I also posted a side-by-side of my plastic Ivan and his metal one a while back.  I fielded the same list I took against Jason plus an Angelius and a Raek to make 50 points, my first foray into a game that size.  I spent a decent chunk of Friday night and Saturday morning thinking of ways to counter a WGI Deathstar and Iron Fleshed Kayazys, which were my biggest concerns.  My preparation was in vain when Steve plunked down Harkevich, Sylyas, Black Ivan, a Decimator, Frostwind Lord (the seasonal Koldun Lord) marshaling a Devastator, min Bombardiers, min Demo Corps, min Mechanics with the new UA, Drakhun without dismount, and Alten Ashley.  The lack of high DEF troops made me happy, as did the scenario (King of the Hill), which suited me perfectly.

The end of the Iron Wolf.

This last game was a new experience for me as I knew Steve's list better than he did.  Under normal circumstances I would have taken a very casual approach, since this was his third game with the Mk. 2 rules, but time dictated otherwise.  Steve was late showing up and I was on a hard time limit, so when Harkevich wandered too far up field I applied the Angelius and Typhon for the win.  Steve had a few things working against him beyond the knowledge handicap.  The scenario required casters to be on the hill, and with my superior speed (plus going first) I was able to get to the hill first and set up a hefty beast screen in front of Aby.  Putting the MoW behind woods meant they had little impact on the game, leaving too little firepower to cut through my big slabs of beef.  The Angelius (still under construction) performed well.  It's animus let me collapse the pocket around Harkevich and open a lane for Typhon, and sitting at DEF 17 (19 on the hill vs shooting) meant it was immune to all but the most concerted attack.  The lack of initial melee attacks is unfortunate, but when the sole initial is a POW 14 (base) Armor Piercing attack the quality vs quantity tradeoff is acceptable.

Another week, another 2-1 record.  Barring any late reports for the week I'm tired for the lead, which is nice, but I don't expect it to last.  My preference for smaller, mano-a-mano games doesn't fit the league's emphasis on larger team games, so I'm bound to get caught by people with the time for, and inclination towards, the big multiplayer brawls.  That said, I have a 50 pointer lined up for tomorrow before work, which should let me get in a smaller game early Thursday and then have time for a big team match later that night.  With luck I'll have two more league patches sewn up this week as I'll be facing my fifth different faction tomorrow (Cryx...) and if I can get a team game in it'll be my second.  Then I'll just have objective/flag markers to do and I'll have checked off all the boxes.  That last one is going to be the trick as I have some grandiose (for me) plans for those markers that I'll have to squeeze in amongst assembling the Legion models I still have in boxes, painting the Legion stuff that's ready to go, playing all these league games, knocking the dust off my Blood Angels to face off against EV's new Dark Eldar, work, hockey, life in general...