Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls

Off a couple of wins in the first two rounds of the tournament and I get paired up against Cory who I believe is from the Phoenix area.  He's packing the Trollkin Flanzer Extravaganza™of Runes of War and Grim1.  I think that Krueger2 is probably ok against Grim1 for the most part, but Bradigus should be solid against either of them, so I go with him.  Not shocked to see my opponent choose to play Runes.

Lists

Image Courtesy of Griffon's Roost Painting

Woldwar - Tier 4
Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)
* Woldwatcher (0pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldwarden (9pts)
* Woldwarden (9pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)

Runes of War - Tier 4

Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)

* Troll Axer (6pts)

* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)

* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)

* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)

Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)

* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)

Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)

Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)

Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)

Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)

Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

Scenario

Close Quarters

Special Rules

Place two flags in accordance with the diagram below. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:

Artifice: Kill Box

Friendly Flag: Dominate = 1 CP

Enemy Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within 4 inches of the enemy flag.

Game

I lose the roll to start the game, so he goes ahead and opts to go first, which is a good idea I think.  I don't recall anything particularly interesting about the terrain on this table, but I definitely set up in such a way that I can start scoring on scenario on my friendly flag.  He also is very careful about placing the walls from the feat.

Round 1

He moves up, gets the Krielstone full, and throws out animi on the relevant warbeasts with the Janissa wall out there to keep his army safe.  Runeshapers spread out a little bit to be able to hit my flanks if they can.

Since I'm going second I go ahead and basically move up, getting Bradigus heading towards my flag.  He throws Synergy up, and I think Mystic Wards as well.  Mannikins throw forests up to cover my army essentially in its entirety.

Round 2

He tries to get as many rock hammers into me from his Runeshapers as he can, I think he picks off maybe 1 or 2 Mannikins.  Since I haven't really given him much in the way of options he basically just slowly advances his brick forward, recasting Elemental Communion where it needed to go, and throwing Janissa's wall out there.

Since I'm going 2nd my plan is to start dominating my flag since I'll be the first to score and with it being timed turns that seems to be pretty important.  I look and see that I can definitely get some Synergy going, and get a Wold Guardian on Mulg, so I go for that.  Kill off some Runeshapers with the rest of my models, teleport a Guardian into Mulg and take him out without really feeling like I gave him much else.

Round 3

Well, I'm mistaken about what I didn't give him, as Doomshaper has Rampager and I forget to cast Mystic Ward!  This is the first of a couple of turns that I forget to do this, as it also let his Runeshapers get more work done than they should have been able to.  Anyway, the Mauler kills the Warden I believe, and the Earthborn either killed or all but killed and had the Mauler help kill the Guardian I threw out there.  He manages to contest with a single Runeshaper and he's clearly me away from his flag so he scores a point.  This is also the turn that he feats.

Now, I'm looking and I'm pretty able to clear out my flag again, and I'm definitely going to be able to get into contest again.  Problem here is that he's left a landing spot for my other Guardian with a double teleport, and I have a Sentry Stone that can certainly get a fury off of Doomy.  So, I get Synergy up to +3 or so I think, send in the Guardian and a couple of punches get it done

Analysis

Again, could have played a little faster.  Also, this is definitely one where my memory is failing me because I'm pretty sure there was another round in there because I recall Mystic Wards mattering twice when I didn't cast it.  On the turn that I went in on the assassination I think I was going to go to either 2 or 3, and at that point I'm pretty sure I can just jam him out of contesting and I can easily contest his flag with some sort of stick or stone.  Looking at playing this now twice I think the ONLY chance Doomshaper has against Bradigus is if all 3 heavies are behind the wall basically the whole game until he can trade for some beef ... which is going to be hard, and I think he'll potentially suffer from scenario loss over time.