One More America Hill

One More America Hill
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

With our league starting up next week, this was most likely to be the last America Hill game we’d be playing for awhile. In addition it may be my last battle report for a while. While I’m playing a league game I’m not going to be able take the time to take pictures of everything between turns. So don’t be expecting a new post every week. 🙂

This time around we went with some changes to the hill rules. To emphasize getting to to the hill even more, we required

At the end of each turn, the player with the most models on the hill gains 1 VP.
- A unit counts as 1 model, regardless of the number of members on the hill
- In the case of a tie, VPs are awarded to all players tied for most models on the hill
At the end of a turn where a player has his warcaster/warlock on the hill, the controlling player rolls 1d6 and gains the following bonus:

Immediately activate the Yellow Woldwomper
Immediately activate the Blue Woldwomper
Immediately activate the Red Woldwomper
Place any one model currently on the hill or within 3” of the hill within 6” of its current location. Model may not be placed more than 4” above the table surface. There must be room for the model’s base at the destination.
Place 1d4 3” cloud effects in play anywhere completely within the warlock/warcaster’s control radius. These clouds remain in play for one round.
Place 1 3” fire storm template anywhere within completely within the warlock/warcaster’s control radius. The warcaster/warlock must make a magic attack roll against each model in the AOE ignoring LOS, cover, concealment, elevation, Stealth, Invisibility, or intervening models. Each model hit suffers an unboostable POW 12 damage roll and the Fire continuous effect.

We also decided to fight it out on a large molded plastic terrain board and had to use a smaller hill for the center of the table. Most of the rocks and rubble provided cover, and we let people move out of their deployment areas without movement penalties on the first turn because it would have been too unfair to a couple players.

James, the Cryxian player, opted to go last so I wound up going first. We deployed and set up in the following order:

Protectorate (Myself)

Kreoss
Crusader
Crusader
Vilmon
Paladin
Paladin
Choir

Cygnar (Patman)

Siege
Centurion
Lancer
Junior
GMAC
Reinholdt

Trollbloods (Prorpger)

Grissel
Dire Troll Mauler
Pyre Troll
Scattergunners

Prprpger was trying out some Trollblood models he didn’t own, so Madrack was standing in for Grissel and he had a couple bonejacks for use as Scattergunners.

Cryx (James)

Skarre
Helldiver
Helldiver
Bane Thralls
Mechanithralls
Skarlock
Necrotech

Turn 1

Protectorate
When setting up, I noticed that Skarre had no arc nodes so I decided to throw Vilmon over in that direction to force James to have to deal with him with Skarre. I started the turn by running both Crusaders forward, then Kreoss put Protection of Menoth on Vilmon and moved forward. Vilmon activated Impervious Wall and ran to the hill, claiming it in Menoth’s name. The Paladins moved up to flank Vilmon and the Choir advanced in the rear and put Ward on the Crusaders.

+1 VP Menoth for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Cygnar’s gunmen moved forward but were just short of range to the choir near Kreoss. The Centurion moved towards the hill and the Lancer ran, getting on the hill. Siege lobbed a Shockwave through it at Vilmon and hit, doing 2 points of damage and pushing him 6″ back off the hill. Junior cast Arcane Shield on Siege.+1 VP Cygnar for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
The Mauler raced to the hill, getting his base up on it. The Pyre Troll then advanced and boosted an attack and damage roll against the lancer, dishing out about 5 points of damage. Then the rest of the troll troops walked forward, with Grissel dumping off some fury so she could leech next turn.

+1 VP Cygnar, Trollbloods for models on the hill.

Cryx
Seeing Vilmon knocked back off the hill and closer to her, Skarre decided to take care of the Paladin. After giving a focus to each Helldiver so they could run onto the hill she cast a fully boosted Hellfire at him, then walked up towards the hill.

After Skarre finished, the thralls spread out massing forward. The Mechanithralls spread out on my flank and the Banes positioned themselves to face Prprpger. The Skarlock Sac Lambed a Mechthrall, rolling a 4 for focus.

+1 VP Cryx for models on the hill.

Score

Protectorate: 1 (+1 Hill)
Cygnar: 2 (+2 Hill)
Trollbloods: 1 (+1 Hill)
Cryx: 1 (+1 Hill)

Turn 2

Protectorate
I felt dirty, but, well, it was either this or eat a Skarre Bomb next turn. Kreoss put three focus on his left crusader then walked up and feated, catching the Centurion, Lancer, Mauler, and all of the Cryxian forces except four Bane Thralls in the very back. He then walked forward. The focused Crusader then charged the knocked down Skarre (who had spent all her focus killing Vilmon), Inferno Mace insuring she was done for the day.

The other Crusader moved forward to catch the edge of the hill and the Choir moved up to block access to Kreoss before singing Ward on the Crusader on the hill. My left Paladin charged the Mechanithrall leader, killing him and the right Paladin stepped out towards the Cygnar line to serve as a distraction.

+1 Protectorate, Cygnar, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Siege moved a bit towards Kreoss, putting Explosive on himself and Jr. He used Ground Pounder to take out the Choir around Kreoss, killing the only one not in the template by using the Exoplosivo attack on the one next to him. GMAC shot and killed the Paladin. The Centurion continued its advance towards the hill. Jr moves towards the trolls to put some threat on that side of the table. He shoots a Scattergunner (with Explosivo), killing one.+1 Protectorate, Cygnar, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
The Scattergunners move up and start spraying banes, killing two, missing a few because of stealth, and actually rolling low enough to fail to kill a couple. The Mauler stands up and Walks to the middle of the hill, and the Pyre Troll walks onto the hill and boosts a shot at the Lancer, missing but doing minimal damage on the scatter. Then Grissel goes, walking towards the hill and putting Hoof It on the Scattergunners, who shuffle up so a couple of their members are on the hill as well.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
With most of his forces knocked down, his Banes surround my Crusader and his Mechanithralls surround the Paladin. The one Bane able to attack takes five points out of the Crusader.+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Score

Protectorate: 10 (+2 Hill, +5 Skarre, +2 Helldiver x2, )
Cygnar: 5 (+2 Hill, +1 Paladin)
Trollbloods: 3 (+2 Hill)
Cryx: 1

Turn 3

Protectorate
With Siege and his gunmen so close, I needed to keep focus on Kreoss to try to live out the turn, but need to clear the hill a bit. So Kreoss placed two focus on the Crusader on the hill and kept the rest. Said Crusader slammed the Mauler, but only knocked it back one inch, killing a single Scattergunner. I needed him to go further back but it didn’t work out for me. The Paladin actually missed a Mechanithrall with his MAT 8 but the Crusader hit with both attacks, rolling too poorly on his open fist but killing one with his mace. Kreoss activated, telling the last choir boy to run before walking to the edge of the hill and casting Protection of Menoth on himself. Then the choir boy ran to the hill to give me three models on it.

Finally, someone got a caster to the hill. I rolled on the chart and got a 4. With Cygnar going next, I decided to move the Centurion 6″ away from Siege so it couldn’t get focus and couldn’t attack Kreoss. That Piston Spear would have been painful.

+1 VP Protectorate, Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
The Centurion wound up just out of Siege’s control area, so it wasn’t able to get any focus this turn. Siege started by feating then channeled shockwave through the lancer at a nearby Scattergunner, sending them bouncing off each other and killing three in the process. Then dropped a ground pounder on Kreoss and the last Choir member, killing the choir boy but missing Kreoss. He then tried shooting Kreoss but missed when we realized Kreoss was within 2″ of the Woldwomper, thus engaged by it and in melee. GMAC and Jr. tried to shoot him as well but both missed. The Centurion walked up onto the hill, bashing the Pyre Troll with his shield but missing with the spear.

With the loss of the choir, the trolls owned the hill with 3 models.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
Prprpger had a good turn, despite the Pyre Troll frenzing on the Centurion and doing no damage. He started out by having Mauler stand up and walk to the top of the hill. The Scattergunners walked around the Mauler, shooting a Bane Thrall and otherwise getting between the Crusader and Mauler. Then Grissel walked to the Centurion, put Calamity on it, and whacked it with her maul, deafening it. After that she used Hoof It on herself and walked away and up onto the hill, ignoring free strikes.

With Grissel finally on the hill, he rolled on the chart and got to activate the Woldwomper next to the Centurion. With the jack still deafened and unable to take free strikes, Prprpger walked the Woldwomper back behind it and between bypassing its shield and Calamity still being up, the Woldwomper wrecked the Centurion.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
The Mechanithralls on the Paladin finally killed him. The Necrotech walked up and immobilized the Crusader and the two surviving banes did a few more points of damage to it (one actually missed its melee attack).

Score

Protectorate: 11 (+1 Hill)
Cygnar: 6 (+2 Choir)
Trollbloods: 9 (+3 Hill, +3 Centurion)
Cryx: 2 (+1 Paladin)

Turn 4

Protectorate
Kreoss dropped his upkeep spells and charged Siege, making sure to engage the GMAC as well with his reach. Thanks to Spellbreaker’s Dispel ability, the first hit nullified Arcane Shield and Kreoss was able to kill Siege (though it cost all his focus to do so). The crusaders flailed at the various infantry around them without killing any and I ended my turn.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cygnar
Rineholt fled with his caster dead, dying to Kreoss’s free strike. Jr charged Kreoss and hit him (boosting), doing 8 points of damage. His second attack hit but didn’t get through armor. The GMAC sidestepped around JR to get out of melee without taking a free strike (using Jr. to block melee access to him), but couldn’t hit Kreoss with the defensive bonus for being in melee.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Trollbloods
Grissel leeched the only two fury she had on the table from the Pyre Troll and Feated, then put the Mauler’s animus on himself. The Mauler then charged Kreoss (taking a free strike from a Woldwomper but not loosing an aspect) and ate him.

+1 VP Trollblood for models on the hill.

Cryx
We had to pick up and turn in at this point, so the Cryx player didn’t bother with his last turn.

Final Score

Protectorate: 19 (+5 Siege, +2 Lancer, +1 Rineholdt)
Cygnar: 6
Trollbloods: 23 (+3 Hill, +5 Kreoss, +6 Crusader x2)
Cryx: 2

Hungry Hungry Trollblood

My Thoughts

Protectorate
Vilmon was a huge distraction, and I think he knocked the Cryxian player off his game enough to leave Skarre out infront of the Crusader. I’m going to enjoy using him in the league. I got lucky when I accidently engaged the Woldwomper with Kreoss’s reach – that extra defense saved his butt when Siege feated.

Cygnar
I don’t think Patman realized how powerful having a caster on the hill was. When I was able to move the Centruion out of his control area, that really hurt his plans for the following round and really blunted its use. He spent most of the game trying to eliminate my ranks and he did a good job with most of it, but in the end Kreoss’s melee ability proved why it’s so underrated. MAT 7 POW 14 Reach that dispels upkeeps? Yes, please.

Trollbloods
Talk about getting the roll when he needed it, by activating the Woldwomper on turn 3 Prprpger was able to kill the Centurion instead of just deafening it, taking VPs I would have otherwise earned when I killed Siege. That 3 point swing would have made the difference in the end.

Those damn trolls are resilient. Prprpger’s growing fond of them as well, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him fielding a Trollblood army before too long.

Cryx
James had a bad day. He was getting himself ready for a big turn 2, unfortunately looked too far past turn 1 and made a mistake. I felt a little dirty killing him after he only got one turn, but I think he’ll be more concious of his placement when he plays in the league after having suffered that, so I hope it was more of a good lesson than a jerk Protectorate player.

America Hill
The terrain on this table sucked. We really should have put down more terrain between the armies to force most of the fighting to take place on or around the hill. The rules however worked pretty well. Accumulating hill VPs on a tie meant people who dedicated forces to it would pull ahead of those who didn’t, even if they were fighting each other for most models. And the randomness of the Hill benefits meant that no one would get two extra Woldwompers fighting them but at the same time the benefits that were given proved very effective. There’s defintely an incentive to get to the hill quickly. And with the game going past caster kill, you could risk him/her to do so if you wanted.