Hello everyone!
After the first game with Tomek we decided to play another one, against The Child this time. We have both agreed that in order to test the list in similar circumstances we should play the same scenario and on the same terrain. I was well aware that the Child’s list strikes stronger and charges farther than the previous one. Additionally, perfectly timed Arcanas can seriously influence my plan.
Tomek’s The Child list:
Grymkin
[Theme] Dark Menagerie
[Child 1] The Child [+29]
– Cage Rager [14]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Crabbits (2) [0(7)]
– Gorehound [6]
– Skin & Moans [15]
– Baron Tonguelick, Lord of Warts [4]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Death Knell [13]
Tomek picked Sacrifice and Ruin.
My Haley2 list:
Cygnar
[Theme] Heavy Metal
[Haley 2] Major Victoria Haley [+25]
– Centurion [17]
– Centurion [17]
– Thorn [13]
– Squire [0(5)]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0(4)]
Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine [0(5)]
– Thunderhead [20]
Journeyman Warcaster [4]
– Firefly [8]
Field Mechaniks (min) [3]
Storm Strider [18]
We played Invasion again.
Deployment
I won the roll and decided to go first and Tomek chose the other side. I placed Strider on the left, Centurions on both flanks, Thorn, Firefly and Thead in the middle.
Tomek deployed 2 Gremlin Swarms and 2 Clockatrices on each flank, Gorehound on the far right and his battle engine, Baron Tonguelick, S&M, Cage Rager and The Child in the middle.
Round 1 Turn 1
I used TK 4 times and moved Haley2 forward. Junior put Arcane Shield on the right Centurion, Caine put Fire for Effect on Thead and everything ran forward.
Round 1 Turn 2
Tomek heavily shifted toward the right side, leaving only one Gremlin Swarm behind the leftmost building. His battle group was dangerously close to my models. The Child cast Tantrum.
Round 2 Turn 1
Having Ruin in mind, I decided to leave enough focus on Caine and Journeyman Warcaster to recast my upkeep spells. As soon as I cast the first TK, Tomek used said Arcana. I had to use TK 3 times to teleport the Cage Rager and I still had enough focus to cast Temporal Acceleration on the Storm Strider. I also use my feat and chose all enemy warbeasts. Thorn withdrew with Reaction Drive. I begin with Firefly and Thead shooting the Cage Rager, then Centurion with Arcane Shield charged in and failed to finish it. Fortunately, Storm Strider was able to walk in and deal remaining damage.
Round 2 Turn 2
Thanks to Tantrum Tomek is able to deliver one of the warbeasts to my Centurion, but with ARM 24 and Wraith Bane gone with Cage Rager, he decided to throw Centurion against Thead and don’t waste too much time. The Child walks in to the right circular zone to score a point. Another Clockatrice used its animus to slow my models down. S&M stays behind and waits. The other two Clockatrices move to the left used the animus and engage my models. The fourth Clockatrice move toward the right side and stops dangerously close to my Haley! One point for Grymkin, 0:1.
Round 3 Turn 1
I had a tough nut to crack since I had 2 Gremlin Swarms sitting next to 2 of my heavy jacks. I also wanted to kill as many Clocks as possible, but because of Sacrifice I had to focus them one by one. Sadly, my Strider and leftmost Centurion left the Clockatrice on 1hp! I lost way too much time trying to find the best solution, that turned out to be ridiculously simple at the end. With magical attacks from Arlan, I wanted to pulse the Clockatrice on 1hp, 2 Gremlin Swarms and another Clockatrice, but no matter what I would do, he still would be able to sacrifice and heal the damage from the other Clock. There was no reason for me to waste so much time. Haley moved away and TK’ed Thead. I killed the leftmost Clockatrice, Tomek used Sacrifice, but with my additional attacks I still managed to get rid of one of the swarms. Squire ran to contest the circular zone. Tomek allowed me to reposition Caine into 8” from Thead, but I already forgot that I moved him there intentionally to avoid risky sprays from the rightmost Clockatrice.
Round 3 Turn 2
Tomek couldn’t resist such great opportunity and managed to get Caine with the spray killing it on spot. Loosing Thead at this stage of the game almost certainly foreshadowed my defeat. That nasty Clock killed the objective. Gorehound pulled the Squire out of the zone. Skin&Moans altogether with another Clockatrice tried to kill Arcane Shielded Centurion, but failed miserably. Another Gremlin approached my Strider, Tomek scored two more points, 0:3.
Round 4 Turn 1
Without Thunderhead I wasn’t able to keep up attrition-wise. However, Tomek also spent a lot of time figuring out how to get Centurion, so that was something I was aiming for. Thorn and Firefly softened the Clockatrice and Centurion managed to finish it. I also managed to kill the objective with my Strider. I couldn’t get rid of the Gremlin Swarm in my circular zone, but since I wasn’t able to deliver Haley or Mechanics to the zone, it wasn’t such a big deal. I preferred to protect Haley from a charging bird ; ) Junior put AS on Haley and Squire contested the zone again, 1:3.
Round 4 Turn 2
Tomek had only around 4mins left. S&M frienzied into the battle engine. Two Gremlin Swarms and Baron Tonguelick took comfortable positions to contest the zone better. The Child removed Squire and the murderous Clockatrice assaulted Haley dealing some damage, 1:4 in Grymkin’s favour.
Round 5 Turn 1
With 4mins on the clock I didn’t want to waste time on killing S&M. Thorn ran away to arc some spells, Centurion simply withdrew behind the cloud. Storm Strider moved to protect Haley (in a hindsight, blocking LOS this way doesn’t work, since models with Flight ignore intervening models when drawing LOS to its charge target) and killed Baron, Haley killed remaining Gremlin Swarms with Arcane Bolts. Firefly moved in to contest the circular zone, I scored 1 point, 2:4.
Round 5 Turn 2
Clockatrice threw Firefly away, S&M moved to engage Centurion. Death Knell charged Firefly, Gremlin ran to B2B contact. Last remaining Clockatrice moved into my zone to contest it, Tomek scored a point in his zone with 27sec left, 2:5.
Round 6 Turn 1
Thorn after arcing a spell ran to the far end of the rectangular zone. Storm Strider with Temporal Acceleration managed to finish the last Clockatrice, we both scored a point, since I wasn’t able to contest the other circular zone, 3:6 (the Crabbit on the photo jumped into the zone in the following turn).
Round 6 Turn 2
Tomek managed to contest my zone and score a point in his (we missed that one point there), 3:7. Tomek had only 2 sec on his clock.
Round 7 Turn 1
Storm Strider killed the contesting Crabbit and I scored a point there, Thorn contested the other zone, 4:7. Mechanics couldn’t get through Gorehound, I didn’t have enough time to TK him away.
Round 7 Turn 2
Tomek couldn’t do anything but to flip the clock immediately, I scored one more point, 5:7.
Only after the game we realised that his Clockatrices weren’t healing automatically at the beginning of Tomek’s last two turns, so he would most probably run out of time. It was an amazing game nevertheless!
Afterthoughts
This list really difficult to play against, especially after losing Caine that recklessly. Next time I will keep my juniors safe no matter what. It’s better to have Thead alive, but without focus, than inert, no doubt there.
It is important to get rid of Cage Rager as soon as possible, since his Wraith Bane can get around my Arcane Shield. Additionally, Rager is extremely strong, especially with damage buffs that The Child can offer.
I believe the Arcana Tomek selected were the best choice. If I wouldn’t remember to keep focus on my junior warcasters, I would end up losing FFE and AS, what would most probably result in my models not dealing enough damage and then dying to enemy attacks easier.
All in all, The Child was the most difficult matchup so far, and I need more practice against it. However, for the first time I felt like I stood a chance against Grymkin. This Haley2 list is amazing, surprisingly effective against such bricks of heavy hitting models. I will explore it further for sure!
Cheers,
Piotr