35 Grissel Steamroller - any advice?

[aryus]

I will be playing in a 35 point steamroller tournament in a few weeks and am trying to put together a solid list so I might actually be able to place for once. Unfortunately I do not have some of the stronger models from the Kriels, namely eMad, Borka, Champs, or Cav. So here is what I am thinking of running:

Grissel
Axer
Axer
Mulg
Full Kriel Warriors w/ Caber, Piper, & Standard
Full KSB w/SSE
Whelps

I do have a pair of Impalers and thought about swapping out one of them for an Axer.

Opponents are pretty varied as nearly everyone at my local store plays a different faction. One Cryx/Retribution player always seems to win these tournaments though so at the very least I'd like to beat him.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[alistairenix]

Swapping one Axer for an Impaler would be a good idea as it would give you a little more board control with the ranged slam potential and another animus to throw around, albeit, only back on the Impaler. If you can get your hands on a Slag or Pyre troll, those would buff your army and be more all around helpful than the Impaler, for about the same cost.

Personally, with Grissel, I'd run a Mauler or EBDT over Mulg as well. Use the extra points to throw in either the Stone Scribe Chronicler or a Fell Caller, depending. Either of those supporting your Kriels will make them a gigantic pain in the butt to dig out. That said, if all you have is Mulg, work with what you've got.

Good luck!

[aryus]

Thanks alistairenix. I do have a Slag Troll, EBDT, and Fell Caller, but no Chronicler. Is the Fell Caller worth it with Grissel since a unit can only be affected by a single call per turn?

[MrChomperz]

I dont think so. I am a big fan of Grissel in tournaments and I rarely take another fel caller with her. It seems to just get in the way. I have to second the beast choices changes. I like to run an Earthborn and a Pyre with another light to flavor, usually the bouncer. Otherwise our 35 points lists are very similar.

Grissel
Earthborn
Pyre
Bouncer
Full kriels with 3 cabers, piper, and standard
Full Krielstone with elder
Chronicler
Min bone grinders

I have fun with that.

[bakaryu]

I find that Mulg is amazing with Grissel, Hallowed Avenger and Hoof It give him so much maneouvrability and her ability to give him an extra attack for free is golden. When I run Grissel she never leaves home without the Mulginator.

Besides that, I would say that yes the Fell Caller is still worth taking in a Grissel list, her feat is only for one turn, and pathfinder or +2 MAT or insta stand up all have a place that Grissel's fell calls can't reach.

[aryus]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I am going with this:

Grissel
EBDT
Axer
Slag
Full Warriors w/Caber, Std, & Piper
Full KSB w/Elder
Chronicler
Whelps

Wish I had a few more of the other models you guys mentioned, but hopefully this will be competitive enough.

Thanks.

[aryus]

Thanks for the help everyone. Ended up placing third (my best tournament result so far). My list was:

Grissell
EBDT
Axer
Slag
Full Warriors + UA + 1 Caber
Full Krielstone + Elder
SSC
Whelps

Round 1 (Cryx) - Win
My first match was against the best player in our store. He usually wins our leagues and tournaments. His list had eAspy, a couple bonejacks, 3 soul riders, some dragoon character, the traitor troll character for cryx, the merc harlot, 3 mech thralls, and a full unit of bane thralls with UA. I may have forgotten something in there. Scenario was Overrun. Basically we both ran for the control zone although he held Aspy back with the harlot. After killing off his soul riders, the dragoon, and a bunch of bane thralls he went for the assassination on grissell (who was sitting on 2 fury). He moved up and popped his feat bringing back all three riders and 4 bane thralls. He teleported back through some clouds he had dropped and then charged with each of the re-summoned guys. I got very lucky with him missing quite a bit with the soul riders and two of the bane thralls. The damage from the other two thralls was transferred to the EBDT. Grissel was left with 5 health. Shortly after that time ran out. neither of us held the zone so no control points. Tiebreaker was army points in the control zone. All but Grissell and the EBDT were in the zone for me and much of his army was as well. But he made one mistake. He teleported Aspy 1" too far so he was outside the zone so he lost on the tiebreaker. I think he was not used to games going to the time limit so he was thrown off his game a bit.

Round 2 (Cygnar) - Loss
My second match came against the guy who eventually went undefeated and won the tournament. He was playing Nemo with a centurion, lancer, and stormclad. Some infantry and three stormsmiths. Scenario was Process of Elimination and he definitely did that to me. Basically the match went opposite from my last with him eliminating all my beasts after a few turns (5 focus on a heavy is no joke). His jacks were almost dead, but I wasn't left with much to hurt them at that point. Match ended as the previous one with the tiebreaker going to him since he had his two heavies still in the zones. I did have the Elder and one warrior in base with Nemo after using my feat when time ran out so perhaps I could have won if we had a little more time, but oh well.

Round 3 (Searforge) - Win
Scenario was Close Quarters. My opponent for this match is also one of the store's stronger players, but he deployed poorly. There was a large building between him and the control zone closest to me so he had to go around it. He basically bottle necked himself coming around that building. He was playing Gorten with a driller and basher, min high shields, min forge guard, 2 bokur, rockbottom, thor, and brun & lug. Gorten and his gang tried to come around the building, but he didn't leave enough room for the basher to get a clear slam attack. I threw the driller into gorten knocking him and bokur down (no solid ground up) and when the driller tried to move back into melee with the EBDT there wasn't enough space for him between the last forge guard and a whelp I dropped. He tried to shoot a lone grissel with gorten but was unsuccessful in hurting her. Unfortunately, we ended up misreading the victory conditions and played with both zones scoreable for either player, but I doubt the end result would have changed since I had a clear charge on gorten with no focus with grissell and 6 fury.

Anyway, thanks again for the advice. It paid off.