Any experience against Durgen

[Manintights]

Good afternoon guys,

Ì've got a gaming coming up somewhere this week against a Merc player who'll be fielding Durgen Madhammer for the first(ish) time.
Normally, when fighting mercs I'm pretty certain about what I want to do, but the list he proposed to me has me thinking of an adequate answer.

He'll be fielding:
Durgen
Rockram
gunner

Thor
Basher
Herne and Jonne
Alexia and the risen
Min kayazy with underboss
epic eyriss
rheinholdt
Dougan mcnaile

I usually play Grim, Borka, and Calandra, but could use some pointers on what you guys would do. I was thinking a Dire troll bomber (apart from normal awesomness) would be a good blast damage canceller.

What do you guys think would be a good strategy against armies like this?

MIT

[Ravir]

Gunnbjorn's feat is the Anti-Durgen. It's almost a Turn 1 feat if you go second, definitely Turn 2 if you go first. Max Bushwhackers to pick off key solos at long range, Bomber + Impaler to make him run at you or risk losing Kayazy en masse via blast damage, and Janissa w/ Runeshapers to throw more AoE goodness his way, with an extra Wall of Stone. Add big meat (Earthborn/Mauler) for flavor, Fennblades + UA + Fell Caller for a fast-attack frontline, just don't disable your Bomber too soon by getting everything engaged with a blocked LOS.

[Manintights]

Great advice Ravir.

I've had Gunnbjorn lying around for quite a while without ever using him. This seems like a great opportunity for my maiden voyage with him though. I actually only ever considered playing gunnbjorn in a tierlist before, but some Melee mixed in seems a better way to go.

We'll be playing a 35 points game, so I won't be able to fit all your suggestions into the list I think. I was thinking of not adding a second heavy but taking one or 2 lights with ranged weapons get as much mileage as I can out of guided fire. I'm thinking of adding at least a swamp troll. (love that beastie).
I'm not too sure about the runeshapers either, mainly for lack of points. A unit of bushwackers feels like a must. Not sure where I want to go for my melee unit though, fennblades with ua and fell caller is an awesome, fast attacking force but a huge point sink as well. I'm thinking about adding the runebearer, since 6 fury isn't much when you want to cast guided fire every turn.

What would you guys add to round out this force (I'm assuming 5 wbp as I don't have the book with me at work, but forward kommanders states 6??)

Gunnbjorn (-5)
Dire troll Bomber (10)
Troll impaler (5)
Swamp troll (4)
Max bushwackers (8)

A
Fell caller (3)
Max fennblades with UA (10)

B
Scouts (5)
Slag troll (6)
Runebearer (2)

C
Runeshapers (4)
Janissa (3)
Scouts (5)
Swamp gobbers (1)

Or something else entirely?

[Saerko]

You don't want to necessarily counter-pick the guy...after all, he was nice enough to let you know what his list was ahead of time, and if you absolutely crush him with a perfect response, he might now enjoy playing you for much longer.

I think a good question to ask here is what lists you would to say, a Steamroller event, and how you could adapt your tactics with one of those lists to facing Durgen.

[perilsensitive]

Just use the bomber's animus if you don't want to use Gunny. If you DO use Gunny, you can make it even worse on the guy by going with the tier list. Free trenches that negate blast damage. Don't trolls also have a unit immune to blast?

[callmeHK]

Looking forward to hear how gunnbjorn did against madhammer!
(a)

[Manintights]

Hey HK, looking forwarf to our match tonight.

I actually think I'm going to go a comepltely different route than depicted above. I still have a tournament to prep for and the proposed Gunny lists are not something I'd normally be playing in a tournament format.

I gues I'll just have to stick to trust Borka or Calandra (means I have to rewrite my entire intro though.)

Thanks for the advice given though guys, I just hope Borka/Calandra'll do well tonight

[Manintights]

played the match against CallmeHK last night and I ran the following:

Calandra
Bomber
Impaler
max fennblades with ua
max burrowers
fell caller
champ hero
chronicler
swamp gobbers

It was a great battle and I have to say Some of the cr*p durgen can pull off really scared me. Eventually I managed to squeeze out a win though. Bomber racked up another kill ( and one on arcadius the same night.)

[Manintights]

I wrote a battle report for the gazette about my battle against Arkadius. If anyone wants to read it please follow the link in my banner.
Also gets you a chance to see some of my painted trollbloods.