Borka vs. The High Reclaimer

Background
Martin, Mike and I are playing in the Subcultures tournament in Utrecht on November the 2^nd. The Tournament is 500 pts, which is a bit lower than we are used to and there is a time limit, which we are definitely not used to, so getting some games in before hand is a must. We built our armies and had a practice game last night.

The combatants were, Martin’s menoth against my Trolls:

Menoth List

The High Reclaimer
Revenger
Exemplar Seneshal
Exemplars Errant
Idrian Skirmishers
Zealots
Vengers

Trollblood List

Borka Kegslayer
Earthbore Dire Troll
Dire Troll Mauler
Trollkin Champions
Fell Caller
Totem Hunter

We played a standard 6 round game where you could win by holding the hill in the middle for two rounds. Holding the hill seemed to be only an afterthought, as we both went straight for each other in an attempt to grind ourselves into foul smelling paste.

Observations
My only mistake was misusing my Dire Troll Mauler, which got it killed. Martin’s mistake was relying on Zealots to do something useful.

I charged my Dire Troll at the Zealots and managed to contact and kill a couple of them. Unfortunately, the Idrian skirmishers poured down off the secondary (read: unimportant) hill, surrounded the poor dumb beast and over the course of a couple of rounds, killed it. Of course he did eat a couple of them, but because he was frenzying, I couldn’t control him to choose sensible targets.

Zealots can be very effective in the right circumstances. Unfortunately, even in the right circumstances they can still prove a little unreliable. Martin always chooses Zealots (I used to as well) and his fortunes with them (against me) have not been so favourable. Last night he managed to get them into range twice to throw fire bombs and the only models they managed to kill were themselves.

Conclusion
Overall, luck was with me and definitely made the difference as both Borka and the Totem Hunter survived rounds where with average rolls (Martin's damage rolls) they would have been toast. I don’t want to put my victory all down to luck though, as we both played a pretty good tactical game, which was decided on victory points because the round limit was up. I think I am going to use this army in the tournament, because it showed it could do well against a predominantly infantry army; I just need to make sure I use both my Trolls to full effect.