Gem City Reps

Off to another masters event with Khador. This one is the Gem City Cup. I ended up taking the same three lists as before.

Karchev THE TERRIBLE
~Behemoth
~War Dog
Kovnik ******
~Beast 09
Winterguard Infantry
+UA, +Wax3, +Joe
Widowmakers
Ogrun Bokur
pAlexia
Mechanics

Butcher3
~Demolisher
~Devastator
~War Dog
Iron Fang Pikemen
+Black Dragon UA
Iron Fang Kovnik
Widowmakers
Ogrun Bokur
MoW Drakhun no dismount
Kayazy Eliminators
Ragman
eEyriss

Vlad3
~Drago
~War Dog
IF Ulhans
Kovnik Markov
IF Pikemen
+Black Dragon UA
Iron Fang Kovnik
Widowmakers
Outriders
Lady Ayanna + Holt
Gorman

This is the inaugural Gem City Cup in Dayton, OH and 48 players came from Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. The prize support was fantastic, I would estimate that they gave away around 20 door prizes and store credit for the top 8. They had someone weld together a giant steel trophy for the winner, it had to be three feet tall and weigh about 50lbs. But enough about that:

Round 1: (Scenario with two circles in the middle)
Borka
~Mulg
~Axer
Wardersx2
Fenblades w/UA
Stones

I drop Vlad. My opponent wins first turn and takes it. He moves up aggressively and then puts IF on the Fenns. I unpack my army conservatively thanks to the 15” threat on the Fenns. I go ahead and kill one with my Widowmakers to try to draw the unit in. I put Infernal Machine on Drago, and HoF on Vlad. The plan is for him to jam hard with the Fenns so that Vlad can eat them all.

Turn 2
He does not bite. He just pushes forward a little and keeps his important models out of serious threat. I decide to get aggressive and activate Vlad. The plan is to kill about 3 Fenns and 2 Warders and lay into Mulg the whole time I am doing it. I charge in kill all but one of the Fenns, who makes 4 tough checks in a row. The whole time he is trying to box me in with his whelps, but I am intentionally saving my 2nd initial to sidestep and then flashing blade the blockers. Unfortunately I get overzealous and use my last focus before my 2nd initial…I still manage to get away, but only end up about 11” from Mulg instead of the intended 13” plus difficult terrain. I do what I can to put things between me and the monster, but it is not enough and Mulg kills me with one Fury to spare.

Again, I scrub out in round one of a Masters event. At least this time it was my own fault and not the dice gods. Oh well, on to round 2.

Round 2: (Incursion)
Borka FAMILY REUNION
~Swamp Troll
~Blitzer
Champions x3
Champion Hero x3
Stones
Chronicler

I drop B3. I think that my opponent had just come off of a rough game because he won the roll, elected to go second, and chose the side with horrible terrain. Turn one I run everything up and put SoD on the Pikemen. Butcher stays central and I put a clamjack near the outer flags. My opponent runs his army up as well, slightly abandoning the right flag. He lucks out and the right flag disappears.

Turn 2
I shoot a couple of stones with the Widowmakers and manage to get 3 charges off with Pikemen. Two stones die and I spread out about 10 damage on two Champs. Everything else runs full tilt to the left. Butcher ends up about 8” away from he left flag with clamjacks toeing into contesting range of each. The Champions wade in and kill all but 6 pikemen and all of the Widowmakers. The Blitzer comes up and Repulses my jack away from the center flag, but he misses two attacks against the final contesting Pikeman.
I respond by clearing the left flag with Butcher and the Devastator(killing 5 Champs and a Hero, Ragman is so good) and taking out about 4 Champions and 1 Hero from the scrum in the center. The Demolisher gets back into contesting range and I score two points. This is where the terrain really screws over my opponent. There is a giant forest between the rest of his army and the left flag and there is nothing he can get over to it. He does what he can to clear the center flag but in the end I score two more point and then end the game on my next turn.


Round 3 (Destruction)
eKrueger (NQ Tier)
~Woldwatcher
~Woldguardian
~Woldstalker
Druids x2
Blackclads x2
Stones x2 w/UA
pEyriss
Lord of the Feast

I take Karchev, glaring at pEyriss the whole time. My opponent wins the roll and gives me first turn again…don’t ever do that against Karchev. Karchev casts tow, takes the movement, and tramples up 9”. Behemoth walks up and shoots at pEyriss but both shots deviate off of her, killing two druids. The rest of my army runs up, Bokur is in B2B with Karchev. He advances at Karchev with pEyriss and takes the shot; I point out the Bokur and let him redirect it at Behemoth. Everything else runs, the extra 2” deployment lets him get pretty far forward.

Turn 2
I upkeep Tow and Redline and clear a path for Beast go get to his Woldwatcher. It dies horrible and pEyriss dies two 4/5 Winterguard sprays. Everything pushes into the zone. Krueger Feats most of my army backwards, with Beast left in the zone. He Druid pushes Beast out and then charges it with the Guardian…who leaves beast on 1 health (this is important). My opponent fails to destroy the objective and passes turn.

Turn 3
Karchev upkeeps Tow and runs into the zone, dragging Behemoth. Behemoth wrecks the Guardian and the Winderguard kill most of the Druids. Beast 09 waddles over and does 7 damage to Lord of the Feast. He is out of options so he charges Karchev with Krueger. He does about 5 damage and leaves Krueger naked in front of Karchev. My plan is: repair Beast, use beast to headbutt Krueger, kill at will. I move over to repair Beast and a passing observer comments “man, one box left…I guess Redline could not finish the job.” $#%&, I forgot redline damage. Beast should have been dead two turns ago. I consider it for a moment and conceed the game. I don’t think that Beast living had a major impact on the game, but there were a few “what if” that I did not want bugging me for the rest of the day.

Round 4 (Incoming, maybe)
Calandra
~Impaler
~Bomber
~Slag Troll
Nyss Hunters
Boomhowlers (min)
Sons of Bragg
Burrowers
Sorcerer
Fell Caller

I choose Vlad and my opponent takes first turn and runs everything up. He does not burrow the pygs. I put HoF on Vlad and WW/Dash. The Widowmakers kill two or three Burrowers and the rest of my army moves forward.

Turn 2
My opponent jams him Boomhowlers into me with the Nyss right behind them. The beasts are trying to navigate a forest in the way while the burrowers go under. Starcrossed goes up and everything else positions for a counterattack. Vlad upkeeps HoF and Drago clears two Boomhowlers. Vlad then feats and kills 7 Nyss, Boomhowler, and the Slag…going to ARM 26. The rest of my army kills the other Boomhowlers and the IFP surround the burrower hole to keep them contained. I score a point.

Turn 3
My oppoenent gets ahead of himself and does not feat right away, so the damage is not as bad as it could have been. The Sons of Bragg, and burrowers kill 5 pikemen and 3 Ulhans…scratching Drago. The Bomber tries his luck at Vlad but only manages 3 damage. I retaliate by killing all but two of the Burrowers, the Impaler and one of the Sons of Bragg. The bomber gets black oiled along with the two Outriders jamming him.
He gets in another turn of removing a few models but over the next two turns I remove any other threats to Vlad and start dominating the zone. Gorman keeps landing oil on the Bomber are eventually it is Calandra vs. half of my army. I don’t remember what eventually kills her. This was the first game that the Outriders got real work out of their stationary ability…freezing the Impaler, a Son, and Calandra at one point.

Round 5 (Close Quarters)
eMorvona
Stalker
Stalker
Skinwalkers +UA
Tharn Ravagers +UA
Witch Doctor
Bloodtracker
Groves x2
I think I manage to win the roll this time and go first with Karchev. Karchev tows my jacks forward and I hazard another shot with Behemoth at his AD line…killing 4 bloodtrackers…woot. He runs up in typical fashion, purifying away Tow and Redline. I will definitely keep that in mind for the next matchup, he only caught me by ½ an inch.

Turn 2
I recast both spells and feed Beast two focus. Winterguard kill off all but two Bloodtrackers and I slingshot Beast into a Stalker. Charge attack, miss. Fist hits for 10. Axe, miss. Axe, miss. #$%@ing dice! At this point I stare at the board for a minute or two, or five. Behemoth blocks some lanes to Karchev and I kill a couple Ravagers with Undead/Widowmakers. He charges Behemoth with a Ton of stuff and leaves the guy on about ½ health. Karchev manages to dodge the one that got to him, and Beast dies to Morvona + Stalker + Bloodtrackers. Morvona does have to keep cutting herself for damage rolls.

Turn 3
I rule out an assassination run. Behemoths cortex is out, so Karchev keeps it all. He walks up and boost a spray at the freaking Stalker and missed a boosted nine. At this point I say $#@% it, and cast an Eruption into his lines, killing one Ravager and spreading good damage. He camps one. Behemoth misses both attacks and kills the last two Bloodtrackers with the AOEs. WG do well with sprays and solid shots, killing more dudes. And I make my 3rd thrall with Alexia, killing another Ravager.
Morvona comes up and knocks Behemoth down, taking 10 damage from the Eruption AOE…woops, transferred to a Stalker. One Stalker charges Karchev and leaves him at 4 health…Yay no Gorax!. The other Stalker and infantry bounce off of Behemoth…his health is too low to reroll a lot and the Stalker cannot max out fury so that she can transfer.

Turn 4
I cannot really believe that I am still alive. Mechanics repair 7 damage on Karchev and one on Behemoth. Karchev kills one stalker and Behemoth kills two infantry, missing both bombards. Winterguard kill a couple more models and manage to hit Morvona twice, forcing about 11 damage onto the other Stalker. I make my 4th Thrall warrior and it charges in, and pass the turn.
Morvona has to get out of Dodge and retreats from the Winterguard. The Stalker finishes Behemoth and sprints to screen her. The rest of his infantry tries to tie up Karchev and my Winderguard.

Turn 5
I have about 8 minutes on my clock to kill Morvona. The Winterguard go first and kill the models clogging Karchev. Karchev takes the movement and pathfinder to advance through Behemoths wreck and within 10” of Morvona. I spray the Stalker and boost to hit them both…and hit both…thank you. I boost damage on Morvona and leave her at one…damnit. I check and the Stalker is within 8 and almost in B2B with Morvona. Eruption at the Stalker, anything buts to hit…and I hit. Tagging and killing Morvona. ERUPTION FOR THE WIN!

Great way to end the day.

Holy Trolls (& Hordes) batman!

How did you like Karchev as one of the three?

How did you like Karchev as one of the three?

I think your answer lies in the capitalized portion of Karchev's name at the beginning of his post.

Karchev is a planned Cirle drop anyway, so that worked out. Trolls is the one faction that I considered the least when putting these list together, and Vlad was supposed to be the primary drop...I just felt outmatched by that first Borka list though. I would like to add more shooting, possibly Nyss + Valachev instead of the Pikemen...but then I don't have a tarpit.

The only games that I have lost with Karchev have been the games where I rolled double ones to hit Shade3, and missed a nine on four dice to hit Denegrah.

He is really a solid choice now, almost undroppable vs. Trolls though, IMO.