Messiah's First Outting

Wednesday night I got to roll out eThagrosh for the first time and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I've got a goal to have him and Typhon ready for the tournament on Aug 8th and I figured I'd better get at least 1 practice game in with him before that tournament. Note that I'm working on refining my individual battle report format so I'd love feedback on how this works out. Sorry, no pictures though.

The Lists:
Me: eThagrosh, Typhon, Carnivean, 2 Shredders, Striders+UA, Incubi, Shepherd, Forsaken, War Chief, Deathstalker, Totem Hunter, Gobbers
Henry: eDoomshaper, Earthborn, Mauler, Axer, Bouncer, 3 Longriders, Champs, 4 Krielstones + Elder, Fell Caller, Gobbers

The Mission:
Ridge Runners - We decided to play this mission since it is already a known mission for the next tournament and is the least practiced for both of us.

The Throwdown:
There was a lot of marching to the middle and then punching in the face. The Earthborn, Mauler and Axer were all on one flank and eDoomy and his Bouncer on the other flank with the Champs following the Longriders up the middle. The Striders tried their best to clear a hole and kill the Fell Caller, but those darn trolls just wouldn't give him up. The Musician at least was able to stall the Longriders with his mini-feat which bought me the time needed to bog them down. In the end though, the Striders were mainly delivery mechanisms for Incubi. In the middle, the Champs charged forward to kill a couple of Striders and the War Chief, but then Thagrosh and Typhon took the opportunity to charge back, and boy did they charge back. Thagrosh easily dispatched 2 of them, and Typhon threw the other 3 back, killing 2 of them. On the flank, the Deathstalker started picking off Krielstone bearers and the Totem hunter charged in on the Bouncer. Thagrosh also feated and used the opportunity to position the Carnivean safely back to remain as a damage sink.

The Endgame:
Doomshaper boldly went for the kill. First the Bouncer charged in on Thagrosh, but unfortunately missed. Then Doomshaper charged in and got a couple good hits in on Thagrosh, allowing him to spawn out an additional Shredder which was positioned to block a future charge lane. Then after clearing out the Longrider/Strider/Incubi quagmire, the Mauler threw the Earthborn over the mess in the middle. Then the Fell Caller walked forward and gave the stand up call. At this point the Earthborn walked in, snacked the Shredder, goaded closer to Thagrosh, and started wailing. Unfortunately with the combination of Spiny Growth and a gobber cloud, it made things rough for the Earthborn and he failed to finish Thagrosh off by 2 points! Henry gracefully conceded at this point.

The Highlights:
* Thagrosh is a beast. His spell is has a nice combination of buffs and offense. Dragon's Blood combined with Tenacity from a Shredder can put Typhon at Def 14, Arm 20 which is pretty butch. And Glory of Everblight is ridiculously useful.
* Typhon is like a big warm bundle of cheating. His throws are ridiculous. I didn't even get a chance to try his sprays and I'm completely impressed.
* Shredders were great this game, actually getting into the fray!
* The Earthborn, Bouncer, Doomshaper, Krielstone combo is crazy, just like I thought it would be. Without the Deathstalker to start picking off Krielstones it would have been really challenging.
* The War Chief, as usual, basically just blocked charge lanes and absorbed some impact.

The Reflection:
In hindsight, I think dropping the Shepherd from this list makes sense. Thagrosh's control area is plenty big enough. I continue to imagine that Bone Grinders would make an excellent addition to my Legion army. Swapping out the War Chief is still a consideration, but my only option there would be for a Shredder or Gudrun. Overall though this force provided a nice balance between flank control and face punching. I'm very much looking forward to playing something close to this in the tournament.