Bah Humbug

Damn these holidays.

Now just look how busy I have been with the useless practices for a latin dance presentation and bad christmas carols (which we sang for 2 homes).

It really messed up my routine. Now I can't even be bothered into painting again, my circle figures haven't even been put together.

It seems that I'm not the only one affected either as the gaming bug has died. No one's in a rush to play warmachine/hordes. And with the revival of the 40k gaming, it appears that even whfb are also now given a rejuvenation.

Now I only want to at least get the cryx painted.

Player Profile: Mangsky

General Information:
Owner of Pitshop and Fortress Toys. If the growth of the hobby can be attributed to one person, it has to be the source. He brought in the models, and we got around to playing them.
Along with all the games we had with warhammer, warhammer 40k and now with the privateer press products, he's probably the one who we could consider the head honcho for these niche games.

Factions:
Warmachine - Menoth, Cygnar, Cryx (WIP) - Kreoss, Severius, Harbringer, Testament; Stryker, Haley; Lich Lord Asphyxious (WIP)
He's probably going to try all the factions save Khador, just because he can. Currently though he favours Menoth in competitive 1000 point games. And has proven all but impossible to beat in a straight up ToM + HoM list. Damn his infantry. He actually makes me want to play Khador again.

Hordes - Legion of Everblight - Lylyth, Vayl, Thagrosh
Eyeless sight and wings pretty much spell out the reasons why he even bothered with the Legion, but the great lack of defensive capabilities and the limited choices makes this his less favoured faction to play.

Favored Strategy/Tactics:
Figure out the most broken or most abusable strategy, add in the most unbalanced or the 'sideboarded' units. He'll try to figure out what you can bring and will take a list that can handle whatever you can possibly put on the table. The more competitive you are, the better his army becomes. It then becomes necessary to use all possible tactics against him, you cannot win by brute force alone. Use every terrain piece, scenario objective, and unit against him. Do not hesitate to use game psychology and all possible bluffs and feints as he'll definitely be using something that you will always have an uphill battle against.
He loves his zealots. He takes 2 units in 750.

Strengths:
Unlimited resources and extensive knowledge of his and your army. High rolling dice and pretty much plays to the strengths of his army.

Weaknesses:
Psychology is probably the only thing he is susceptible to as you can sometimes bait him to take one precious unit in exchange of the scenario win. Rare, but not impossible to do.
Doesn't know jacks and doesn't like focus allocation. If you want to win for sure, challenge him to a mangled metal game.

Notes:
Bring your ace game, and he'll play similarly. He can also play to your level if you're starting out. Expect the Kreoss drop and pop at 500 point games. He likes larger point games, current favorite is the testament of menoth with his soul tokens and revive.

Player Profile: Daemon Russ

General Information:
This guy has been around early in the days of warhammer and warhammer 40k. He opened Gamer's Shop at about the time we were peaking with the mage knight. along with the dumdums, we made Gamer's Shop our second home. Gamer's Shop provided respite and refuge to the heretics, and misfit players who in one way or another were pushed out by gaming cliques.
With the decline of the hobby due to the tyrannical monopoly of the stockist, the shop closed and our other games died out. And with the warhammer clique ushering us out, we needed to get into another game. We found one we could nurture when Mang started to bring in some new toys.

Factions:
Mercenaries - Four Star Syndicate - Magnus
When we actually started we both had wanted to play Cryx, but the fact that all the other players were already getting Cryx. It would have been like there was no other faction to play. So we wanted to get first dibs on the second hand faction of Cygnar, as Mang wanted to sell them off for looking goofy. Unfortunately, someone had beat us to it. He was supposed to get Menoth but Mang beat him to it. I beat him to Khador so he ended up with the Magnus starter.
The faction itself had a lot of flaws. He was probably the only one who had kept on playing a majority of jacks as the meta shifted to all infantry--not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't. There simply wasn't enough models at the time.

Legion of Everblight - All
The first ever HORDES and first Legion player in this country. He has at least one of everything and multiples of a lot of the models simply because early on he needed to get 2 starters just to get to play 500 points as that was the only thing out. Who would have known everyone would want to play the faction of land sharks after that.

Favored Strategy/Tactics:
Our games usually hinge on what his carnivean can do. Perhaps the limitation of the Legion has to do somewhat with his play style but generally his favoured tactics are on the more aggressive and high risk assassination runs. He focuses on high range and singular high powered runs which mostly leave him undefended later on as his dice betray him. Recently the arrival of the angelius has changed the meta a bit and basically he still want to get up front and into the fray as soon as he can. He has the capacity to use all his units effectively and can open up and take advantage of these that another player would have otherwise missed.
Now if only he didn't get bored/tired around every third round of every game.

Strengths:
Strong in all aspects, can utilize everything from terrain to units better than most players.

Weaknesses:
Bad dice rolling and often hesitates to make his opponent feel bad. Gets bored near the end of the game.

Notes:
Every player should have at least one game against the local pressganger. Even just to get whupped. He will wipe the table with you with a smile, and you'd probably be happy for it too.

Player Profiles

Will be doing a series on the local WARMACHINE/HORDES player profiles. I hope it helps everyone discover a little more of each other and help me learn if my assumptions are indeed close to the truth.

Most will just be poking fun at our current clique of players, not that we'll ever be really truly be at a level of competitive play to challenge anyone abroad but at least we can get better.

NB: Stole picture unceremoniously from our warmachineph multiply site. sorry kim.

Find Them a New Home

300 Kommandant Irusk
700 Kommander Orsus Zoktavir
350 Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Prince of Umbrey

980 Berserker
900 Destroyer
1300 Devastator
800 Juggernaut
1100 Kodiak

600 Man-o-War Kovnik
1100 Doom Reavers

700 Winterguard Field Gun Crew
700 Winterguard Field Gun Crew

Rant: Tournaments

It seems that warmachine has suddenly gotten a big push and players are now shifting in from other games. Mostly likely this is due to the fact that it is a better game with better models, plus the fact that no one is playing warhammer or warhammer 40k with much regularity. Blame it on the support.

You know what I really would want? I would really want faction coins. I would want to have enough people into the game that we could actually hold tournaments large enough to accommodate enough players that it would be practical to give prizes to each faction. Is it possible? I really don't know. We used to have a very large player base with mage knight but that easily crumbled away. Plus the fact that the initial cash outlay for warmachine is much higher. I guess if more people get a chance to see the game, more people could get into it. We need a real venue. We need a place where people can have games. If only fortress toys could accommodate at least 2 gaming tables.

Right now we don't even have enough players to fill in a weekly tournament roster. The player roster is so small that there are very few players that dominate the game. It happens with all games anyway, but with small cliques it becomes much more apparent. We also have that anti-page 5 mindset. There are a lot of players insisting that they only want casual play and yet fear to get into any game with someone they know will most likely beat them at it. They are afraid of losing. Why even bother playing this game when you are afraid to get beaten up?

Why bother playing against someone you know will beat you?

God damn them! It is the best fun anyone could have: the chance to play against someone who could actually beat you at the game. It allows you a chance to be able to improve yourself. It makes you think. Why go against a player you know you can beat easily without thinking? If I wanted that I would have just played solitaire. Most people think that when I get quiet and get serious in a game, it means I'm a sore loser, or that it makes me feel bad. I actually enjoy the fact that I can think it over and dissect it. I am quiet and morose because I am running the game through my head. I love the chance to be able to do that.

Getting these players to play is already hard enough. Getting these players to join tournaments and bet some cash on their skills is even harder. Asking them to join tournaments with increasing the difficulty of gameplay is close to impossible.

I am happy with the chance to play the proverbial seven-minute turns. Apparently it was done at gencon with individual timers per table allowing a game to have more than the usual number of turns than in a regular game. I love it. I love the rush of it, but I think asking players who were already hesitant to play against more skilled players to play in this format may be taxing the limits of common sense.

I say that we should have the normal 1 hour games and just go to timed turns for the semi-finals and finals. This will increase the chances for more people joining into the tournaments. Seeding can also be done to avoid the cheater tactics of the more experienced players to dominate in the non-timed turn games. We have the warmachineph rankings anyway for basis.

I think having league games weekly is fine, but for us to have a tournament every week just stretches a person's resources. I would prefer to have one tournament once a month and have those league games prior to the tournament to determine seeding.

I'm actually interested into getting those factions coins.

I really wished I could just take time off and just go through the gaming stores in the states to get enough factions coins to use for focus.

Battle Report: Pit Shop 091507

Tournament was held with the following participants:

Mang - Cygnar

Dan Tesoro - Legion of Everblight

Mike Monroe - Legion of Everblight

Jun Peralta - Legion of Everblight

Clemence Cua - Trollbloods

Patrick Palma - Skorne

Doclance - Cryx

There were only 7 seven and Dan ended up getting the bye the first round.

My lists were:

Witch Coven of Garlghast
Deathripper x4
Nightwretch x2
Skarlock
Pistol Wraith x2
Bile Thralls (6)
Mechanithralls (8)

and

Pirate Queen Skarre
Helldiver
Nightwretch x2
Skarlock
Bane Lord Tartarus
Necrotech x2
Pistol Wraith x2
Bane Knights (9)
Mechanithralls (8)

game 1 pendulum mk2
Vs Monroe

Faction: Legion of Everblight
Army Points: 497/500
Victory Points: 20

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight
Carnivean
Teraph
Harrier
Shredder x2
The Forsaken
Raptors (3)
Warmongers (3)

I used my skarre list simply because it was against a legion of everblight player I was facing, I think the first game was pendulum but I don't really remember. I recall finding monroe a little bit bold as he had put his warlock more forward than I would find comfortable, especially going up against the skarre list. The raptors were amazing. They were consistently able to hit their targets and then move out. I think monroe should have opted to play them a lot more aggressively. They are super soft, as a few hits from mechanithralls take them down immediately. I think even pistol wraiths can use them as target practice.

The game ended as soon as I found the carnivean on full fury. The teraph was already killed off by an earlier hit from a hellfire and pistol wraith. The warmongers were charged by the bane knights. So having no one to transfer to, Saeryn pretty much died quickly.

I guess monroe still has a very far way to go when going up against cryx assassination. He did do well later on against hordes players, having won the rest of his games.

game 2 copse full of corpses

I was draw for a bye. I was ready for this scenario and was really planning to break it using the coven list. That would have been beautiful.

game 3 killing fields mk3
At least mang realized the futility of the scenario.
Vs Clemence

Went up against trollbloods, I'm sorry it was just the scenario.

Faction: Trollbloods
Army Points: 498/500
Victory Points: 17
Chief Madrak Ironhide
Troll Axer
Troll Impaler x2
Trollkin Champions x2

This is the Cua brother's standard list, I believe they don't have any other list. It actually is a solid list. Not that skill or lists matter in killing fields.

I played Coven and of course got first turn. Ran 3 deathrippers to each point first turn, placed an imprison template near the front to have most of the trolls move around it. Clemence was apparently unaware of the gravity of his situation and didn't find the need to run all his trolls, he preferred to shoot with the impalers. One unit of champions moved toward the center, but was forced to move around the imprison template.

Second turn has me going for the feat, imprisoning all the champions in the center. And this found my opponent without a chance to get back and he conceded immediately after his turn.

If he had a chance?

Not against the coven. Not in the way he deployed. I would have casted surefoot and the axer animus with madrak on the axer and have slammed it with the impaler moving it forward d6 towards the center. I would have sent the champions to each lateral point and simply have the warbeasts and madrak handle the center. it would have been a uphill battle but not the impossible one he had. It was possible to charge on the first turn. And if that didn't work it would have been possible to do a critical slam with the impaler. Oh well, that's the trollbloods for you.

game 4 overrun
Vs Mang

Faction: Cygnar
Army Points: 498/500
Victory Points: 17

Captain Victoria Haley
Lancer
Captain Maxwell Finn
Journeyman Warcaster
Stormsmith
Long Gunners (6)
Trenchers (9)
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter
Ogrun Bokur x2

I took skarre simply because it would have been the easiest assassination, and the fact that I had 2 necrotechs in this list to hold points. I did ask mang if he was serious with taking his haley list against skarre. I was able to get haley into the control radius and boom, skarre bomb.

Review: Hordes Cavalry

Damn, first time I saw the cavalry, all I could say was wow! The stats were amazing, the trollkin long riders had bison. They could slam, they could charge, they could do impact attacks. Given the current meta, they would be game breaking.

Then I went and flipped the page and the ferox made me want to play skorne. Damned heavy cavalry with 8 inch move, leap and an extra weapon in form of the bite. On a charge you get impact attacks, the spear and the bite. The spear also has permanent reach and the brutal charge makes them sure to kill anything.

The light cavalry breaks the game with movement 9, and they simply move twice. they move after they shoot! Hell, this game now will favour heavy armour. This will definitely push for more warjacks. I'm sure everyone will be happy about the changes.

But then...

I started to realize that these things can't be that great. I'm quite sure people will end up getting bitten in the arse for buying into these great models.

You know why?

Fearless? Only one, and that would be the trolls. Of all the game breaking cavalry abilities, only the trolls were most balanced, and they are the only ones fearless. The ferox are even worse off than uhlans as they have leadership 9, the light cavalry are leadership 8.

Now I know why they were so great on paper. They are likely to fail to kill the deathjack when it really counts. Warmongers will make them cry. Temple flame guard will see them run off.

In the end, only deneghra seems really happy about all these new fangled hordes cavalry.

Review: Faction Cards mkII

I got a copy of the faction cards mkII. Each pack contains 81 cards, most have enough for you to field a 1000 point list. Multiple cards are given for multi-wound models, warjacks and special models requiring marks (rockteer).

All cards are current up to remix, changes to the rules i.e. feat changes are already corrected, as well as wording on clarified feats i.e. old witch. All cards also now include rules that extend up to warbeasts i.e. snipe.

Card art is also from remix. Big problem here is that only the prime art gives a consistent feel to each faction. Superiority does lend a small amount of consistency to the color, but for some factions the change from the atmosphere in remix does make some of the older art stick out like sore thumbs.

All packs have 81 cards, all factions get their special force cards, mercs get all contacts.

The first thing you would notice with the new cards are that the new cards feel more open. The cards lost the borders that we present before. The lower left corner now contains the faction symbols. The colors are little more neutral in the title box. the text is a little bit easier to read as well.

Cryx
We get the Adriana Lima skarre art. So what would be so bad? The cartoon feel of the remix art actually looks great once it was translated into the card form. All the prime jacks look great and have the consistent feel. The problem is once you get to the seether and harrower, the consistency is lost. I wished they had consistent art for everything, or at least something close.

And yes, as no surprise to anyone, it includes 4 defiler cards. It includes 4 of the arc node bonejacks, 2 of the other jacks. What was surprising to me was that there were 4 black ogrun and 4 bloat thrall cards. The 4 pistol wraiths were fine by me, but I would have gladly traded 2 of the bloat thrall and black ogrun cards for more deathrippers and nightwretches.

Cygnar
Card art is pretty consistent throughout the entire box save for the GMCA. All jacks have a different backdrop which lends well to identification of jack cards.

I've no real gripes with the set, nor any real praise for it. Hell, I don't actually see a reason for most cygnar players to get the pack as there aren't any real changes to their set. Plus most cards are colored since most cygnar players we have are new, or the most effective jacks have colored cards already.

Khador
I like the new art. I like how vlad looks dirty in the remix, and how young sorscha actually looks in the art as well. I would recommend most players to get the pack simply due to the fact of sheer number of rules clarifications and updates affecting the khador units.

I personally like the distribution of card duplicates. There are 4 destroyer, berserker and kodiak cards, while there are only 3 of the rest. I guess they followed the need of the players here. I wished they had taken the same liberty with the cryx bonejacks.

Menoth
This pack suffers from the similar affliction of art inconsistency, but nonetheless menoth looks menoth. The art that really sticks out are from escalation. Other than that, there isn't really much change as most menoth players will be fielding stuff from other books. Plus the art of menoth from remix wasn't exactly what I'll call distinct. So it doesn't suffer as much as cryx or khador does.

Distribution for jacks are ho-hum as you are given 4 guardians and just 3 devouts and repenters. Most will be happy to know though that there are 4 revengers and seneschals. Damned solos pretty much fill out the deck, which will most likely see play.

Mercenaries
You get 5 mercenary contracts. A strange mosaic of art work. This is probably the worst pack of cards you could get as it feels like they just pumped as much as they can into duplicates to fill it out. I don't like the new Alexia card but I love the new risen and thrall cards. You get 4 of all jacks, 6 for the gunner and blaster. You also get a trencher and long gunner card. Basically you just get one of each as most are character units and 4 copies of everything else. Worst pack yet, as I cannot imagine anyone yielding close to 4 mules or nomads. I do find the 4 ogrun bokur cards a happy thing. But the majority of this pack lies in the multiple jack cards.

Summer Rampage is Over

The results are in:

Dominator - Doclance
Master of Machines - Dick
Master of Beasts - Chris
Relentless - Arvin
Rampage - Doclance

The league play simply isn't ideal in our setting as there are too many players who say they are not competitive and yet do not wish to play if they are likely to lose. I liked the leauge simply because it gave me an opportunity to use casters that I normally would not try out for fear of losing. The league is there for fun games. It is a chance to experiment and push the envelop. It is a chance to tweak your next tournament list. I love it and hate it at the same time. i just wished there were more active players, more people who could actually play good games.

I am happy to see Mang back in the game as he proves to be a challenging opponent. It is simply a matter of time until he gets back into the groove. It makes me ecstatic to see Dick to turn from newbie into a seasoned veteran and trounce so many during his run with the summer rampage. Of course I am more than appreciative of Dan who had the patience and time to bother playing me with my stupid 1000 point games. It simply is not a reasonable thing to do, I cannot imagine anyone hosting a 1000 point tournament.

I think we are at least ready for 750 points, but we are not ready for hardcore. not in the least bit. 750 points will find us with a renewed tournament environment, with old players finding their old reliable warcasters ahving to adapt to the new environment and it gives new players a chance to surprise veterans with epics. The field also levels out. It gives hordes a bigger advantage.

I guess we'll see more in time.

eDenny

Seeing how an epic Deneghra was able to make the finals during the first day made me think that it may actually be possible to play her and win. The list used during the gamecon was infantry heavy and had limited bonejacks.

Faction: Cryx
Army Points: 745/750
Victory Points: 23

Wraith Witch Deneghra

• Deathjack
• Deathripper
• Deathripper
• Skarlock

Bane Lord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith
Bane Knights (8)
Bane Knights (8)
Bile Thralls (6)
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Ogrun Bokur

Now on this list are things I do not use. The ogrun bokur is something I cannot really think of using effectively. And gorman is a strange option. Plus I heavily favor nightwretches over deathrippers anyday.

I'll probably try this out at some point. It fell easily to a circle list simply due to the fact of how broken druids of ourboros are.

Levi and Needles

I just love eSkarre. Her abilities are not really all that broken, nor close to being as abusable as her orginal with the skarre bomb and focus factory.

I really love the model, and it makes me glad that it actually is a playable epic. I have used her twice, one win and one loss during the summer league. I love her so much that I bought her her own leviathan. It also gives me an excuse to use my satyxis.



A lot of people will note that this is oen of the most difficult models to put together. I never had a real problem with it. I just drilled through the pelvis to insert brass rod through it. It worked well enough.



The real problem with it was the aesthetic sense of the legs. The spider legs do look great if they were spread wide apart. Problem is the base cannot accomodate the damn thing.



I'm not a big fan of making bases for my models as it often makes them taller and easier to gain LOS to during gameplay, but the fact that I would be taking the leviathan means I wasn;t playing competitively so it was fine. Surprisingly it worked well enough.



On advice of the great Paul 'pork', I had now started to figure out which needle size works best. The bane knight bendy halberd is smaller than the brass rod. the picture shows the various options I had to consider. The first would be the brass rod which was much larger than the bendy halberds. The long one is the metal needle of an IV cannula gauge 16 needle. The hypodermic needles are color coded: grey for g16 and green for g18. My problem relates to how the IV cannula needle approximates the bendy halberd almost perfectly. It would have been great if I had another way to attach it to the blades without having to drill an equally sized hole for it. The blades are as thin as the shaft.



But I think I should have enough whether I choose the hypodermic needle or the IV cannula.

Summer Rampage Bonds and Summary

Game 1 Week 1 Coven
Scenario: River Runners (everblight)
Opponent: Dan (everblight)
Boast: none
Rampage: Blood Bath
Size: 750
Result: win by scenario

Game 2 Week 1 Coven, Skarre
Scenario: Heading for the Hills (cryx)
Opponent: Dan (everblight)
Boast: none
Rampage:
Size: 1000
Result: win by vp

Game 3 Week 2 Coven
Scenario: Twister (cryx)
Opponent: Chris (circle)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage: Rag Dolls
Size: 750
Result: win by assassination

Game 4 Week 2 Skarre
Scenario: Twister (cryx)
Opponent: Dick (khador)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage: Couting Coup
Size: 750
Result: win by assassination

Game 5 Week 2 Goreshade
Scenario: Twister (cryx)
Opponent: Mang (menoth)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage: hell raiser
Size: 750
Result: win by scenario

Game 6 Week 2 eSkarre
Scenario: Twister (cryx)
Opponent: Mang (menoth)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage:
Size: 750
Result: loss by boast

Game 7 Week 3 Goreshade
Scenario: Incoming (cryx)
Opponent: Chris (circle)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage:
Size: 500
Result: win by scenario and bounty

Game 8 Week 3 Deneghra
Scenario: Incoming (cryx)
Opponent: Fluffy(menoth)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage:
Size: 500
Result: loss by boast

Game 9 Week 3 eSkarre
Scenario: Incoming (cryx)
Opponent: Mang(menoth)
Boast: none
Rampage:
Size: 750
Result: win by assassination

Game 10 Week 4 Deneghra
Scenario: Stone Circle (cryx)
Opponent: Pork(highborn covenant)
Boast: none
Rampage:
Size: 500
Result: win by assassination

Game 11 Week 4 eSkarre
Scenario: Stone Circle(cryx)
Opponent: Fred(cryx)
Boast: none
Rampage:
Size: 750
Result: win by scenario

Game 12 Week 4 eSkarre
Scenario: Stone Circle(cryx)
Opponent: Mang (menoth)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage:
Size: 750
Result: win by assassination

Game 13 Week 5 eSkarre
Scenario: River Runners(cryx)
Opponent: Dan (everblight)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage: tenderizer
Size: 1000
Result: win by scenario

Game 14 Week 5 Deneghra
Scenario: River Runners(cryx)
Opponent: Mang (menoth)
Boast: speed machine
Rampage:
Size: 750
Result: win by scenario

Skarre





Bloodthirsty


Glory Hog


Righteous Indignation






Coven

Righteous Indignation


Glory Hog

Goreshade


Blood Thirsty

Summer Rampage Week 2

This week finds me with having a weird scenario where I'm supposed to take and hold a 6x6" ruin for 3 consecutive turns with a moving 5" AOE cloud effect cyclone. It either throws you or knocks you down.

I've had 3 games so far, all at 750 each.

First game was against Chris who was playing Baldur.

Baldur
Woldwwardens x2
Warp Wolf x2
Druids
Tharn Bloodtrackers (10)
Shifting Stones x2
Swamp Gobbers

I was playing the Coven again.

Coven
Deathripper x5 righteous indignation (got righteous indignation x2, glory hog, dead)
Nightwretch x4 righteous indignation (got righteous indignation, 2 dead)
Deathjack
Skarlock
Pistol Wraith x2
Bile Thralls (6)

Goddammit! I was actually 22 points short. What a stupid thing to do!

I had the unfortunate luck to have gotten rolls which led the cyclone towards my deployment area. It had pushed me to play a bit defensive., as I was giving the cyclone a wide berth. It was a power 12 afterall. And with the combination of Chris' advance deploy and first turn advantage, he was able to get to the ruins early.

For some reason I got myself painted into a corner by having Chris convince me to take a boast. I did speed machine. It probably is one of the harder ones to play since I would automatically lose after the 4th round. Your opponent can then adjust his game to simply stop you from winning after 4 turns. I did rag dolls though and ended up trying to trample with my deathjack, who happens to end up out of my 18" control area. It made that 154 point jack totally useless. It died again. Unbound sucks, the deathjack is totally overrated. I think all the other unique jacks do better (excpet maybe the thunderhead).

I guess I got lucky seeing that Chris had a bad headache and couldn't think straight. I figured it was his first 750 game. I was all set to lose until I had lucky rolls. I ended up assassinating Baldur on turn 4. He had mistakenly place the 2 remaining druids more the 2" away from Baldur.

Better lucky than good I say.

----------

My second game was with Dick. He also agreed to play 750 points. I figured it would be really scary to face off against epic Vlad. He actually had the elements for the second turn assassination with the flying drakhun. So I thought giving him the idea of playing the epic caster would make him win.

Epic Vlad
Behemoth Alexia
Kovnik
Berserkers x2
Widowmakers
Mow Demo Corps (5)
Drakhun + dismount
Eiyrss


Now I finally got a taste of my own medicine. Seeing those merc solos with the widowmakers and the drakhun, it really scared me. I figured I had to play a little safe, seeing it had all the elements for a 2nd turn kill.

Skarre
Deathjack
Helldiver x2 bloodthirsty ( rolled gloryhog)
Nightwretch x3 (got righteous indignation, 2 alive)
Bane Lord Tartarus
Bane Knights (10)
Pistol Wraiths x2
Mcthralls (10)

Nothing new in my list except the fact that I just wanted to have fun using the helldivers. But at 750 they seem not to do much. I still have yet to knock anything down with them when they pop up. I guess their greatest strength is that most people ignore what they can do. In the 2 games I played them, no one bothered to stay away from the marker at least 8". So I love them now. They're my favorite jack, second only to the nightwretches.

I was able to knockdown Vlad by slamming a mcthrall with a nightwretch unto him. Got me my other rampage.

I just have 2 more rampages to go. It's getting really hard now, both rampages require me to go up against a large amount of squishy infantry. I'm guessing I'll need Deneghra to pull off the hell raiser and Goreshade for the tenderizer.

--------

Had my third game with Mang. He's be off the game for over a year, he actually can't remember much of his rules and had to read a lot of the new ones.

Harbringer

Castigator

Crusader

Devout

Vilmon

Seneschal

Order of the Wall

Wracks x2

Choir (6)

Zealots (8) Monolith Bearer

Daughters of the flame

Exemplar Vengers (3)

Eiyrss

I played this list:

Goreshade

Deathjack

Helldiver x2

Nightwretch x2

Tartarus

Bane Knights (10)

Pistol Wraith x2

Mcthralls (8)

Yes, it's exactly 44 points short. I forgot to put a nightwretch on the table.

I had the usual speed machine boast, as none of my games ever went over 4 rounds. Mang unfortunately toook it as his easy path to victory by hanging back until the fourth turn ends with him winning by speedmachine. I guess he needs a lot more games to get back into shape. I love my hell divers now. The make a mess of the opponent's charge lanes and end up popping up behind everyone. Now if I could only roll to knock them down.

Mang did get 5 zealots and a monolith bearer and 2 vengers on the ruins. The deathjack killed the monolith bearer and venger by a necrovent. The nightwretch made the rest of the zealots flee, hence the rampage. Godshead is really difficult to time. It's a really funky feat that needs to be popped early, and gets useless in the end.

--------

Game against Mang. Still twister and well it would be Mang's first win for the year.

Kreoss
Castigator x2
Crusader
Vilmon
Choir (6)
Zealots (10)
Monolith Bearer
Daughters of the Flame
Exemplar Vengers (3)
Wrack x2
Eiryss
Kell Bailoch

I used eSkarre and satyxis.

eSkarre
Deathjack
Helldiver x2
Nightwretch x4
Pistol Wraiths x2
Skarlock
McThralls (8)
Satyxis (10)
Sea Witch

I have love for eSkarre who happens to be the best jack caster cryx has at present. I think I would like to get her a leviathan soon. Her upkeep spell rule the day, especially seas of fate.

Game boiled down to too many crtical rolls. I needed nothing to hit and rolled snake eyes on my blood magic, I need 5 to kill off kreoss with 3 dice, I rolled 3.

Oh well, better lucky than good.

Summer Rampage

Joining the summer rampage league makes me think me an idiot. What was I thinking going into a league where most players will actually avoid having a game with me?

Currently in the lead from having two large point games.

Both games were against Dan who happens to be the only one willing to game with me. We're actually bored of each others' armies.

First game was the everblight scenario of river runners. We played a 750 game of vayl vs coven. No boasts were made and no time limit set. I won the game by eliminating all his warmongers that made it across. Fortunately enough Most of his warbeast ended up being distracted by the slayer (who unfortunately died) and the deathjack. I think the abject lesson here was to always bring along the deathjack to serve as a distraction so that all the other jacks get their chance to bond. I wasn't expecting him to bring so much infantry. I thought it was possible for me to get my bounty but seeing a full squad of striders, warmongers and acolytes made it impossible. He even had swamp gobbers.

I can't even be sure of the list I used, nor the list dan used. It was a mess of a game. All I recall was:

--------

Coven

Deathjack

Slayer (dead)

Deathripper x6 (4 survived)

Nightwretch x2 (one ended up being bonded - righteous indignation)

Skarlock

Pistol Wraith x2

--------

Vayl

Seraph x3 (1 survived)

Carnivean (survived)

Harrier (bonded - sic 'em)

Forsaken x2

Warmongers (5)

Striders

Spawning Vessel (6)

Swamp Gobbers Bellow crew

Second game was cryxian scenario of hills. Game was set at 1000 points vayl + lylyth vs coven + skarre. No boasts but we set time at 2 hours. First 2 rounds took over an hour.

I made an impromptu list again, dan pretty much took out everything he had in his bag.

--------

Coven Battle Group

Deathrippers x4 (old guys, all survived, one with righteous indignation)

Nightwretch (righteous indignation)

Skarre Battle Group

Helldiver (survived, one with bloodthirsty)

Nightwretch (survived)

Deathjack

Skarlock

Pistol Wraith x2

Tartarus

Bane Knights (7)

Bane Knights (8)

Mcthralls (8)

--------

Lylyth
Vayl
Carnivean (died)
Seraph x3 (2 survived, old one died, one got long leash-vayl)
Shredders x3 (one got long leash-vayl)
Teraph (died)
Harrier (sic 'em -vayl)

Spawning Vessel (6)

Forsaken x2

Warmongers (5)

Striders

Totem Hunter

Swamp Goblins Bellows Crew

Hordes has a big advantage when playing in a 1000 game as both of the warlocks get to roll for bonds for warbeasts, meaning they get twice the chance to get bonded. It isn't really something I would advice anyone to do unless they're me. I think I would opt to play 1000 point games against anyone willing to do it as it gets me the most points with the least number of opponents. This is because I have a very distinct lack of players willing to go up against me.

Updated

So here are the theme results:

These are WIP rippers, not really intending on making them look like they were going to the checkered flag of the finish line. They do tend to just make speed runs.

Mcthralls, actually they remind me of hamburglar.

Right now, the thing that takes most of my time would be figuring out how to put together the damned deathjack. I know a lot of Cryxian players find that it gives us what we badly needed--a really heavy jack. It still doesn't compare to a khadoran jack for survivability.

The arms are really heavy and it is suggested in the package insert that you paint it before sticking the arms to the body and to pin the arms due to the extreme weight. I figure 2 magnets should be able to carry each arm.
Putting in the magnets into the cylinder in the torso is not an easy task, and I think I missed the right attachment point and I think it's not aligned. The spikes on the skulls of hate prevent me from putting it into alignment.
You'll notice that the spikes of the skulls of hate are positioned in between the stacks against the usual anterior placement. It works for me though and seems stable enough. It also works games wise as I will be able to position the model close enough. Though seeing how wide the arms are, you think it should have reach.

Leagues

League play can be arranged by ranking in a pyramid form. You progress your rank towards the right with every win and go upwards with every game. Players are only allowed to challenge either upwards or to the right of them, meaning you can only challenge up the ladder. Refusing a game automatically drops you to the lowest rank, which is left and lowest.

Each win also reduces your total army points by 20.

This would be great I think as it gets really challenging.

Cryxian Theme

This is going really bad. I haven't been able to do much progress as the weather hasn't been cooperating with me and the theme that has gotten stuck in my head pretty much is white with golden trimmings. It's like I'm planning a wedding or baptismal. Perhaps I should just do my cryx that way.

Research has led me to find this:
which pretty much is what ended up being the theme for my mechanithralls. I'll try to upload a picture of them once I'm done with them. I'm having problems with the base coating since they were the last to be sprayed and the can ran out on them giving them a very furry feeling. Paint just doesn't want to go on evenly. I've considered stripping and repainting them but... God! No way I'm doing the base work again.

The reality is I was planning to do this theme:


But mostly what gets into my head is really this one:


I'm stuck simply because I cannot translate this to my bile thralls, and currently deneghra is on hold. I'm just waiting for the last 2 nightwretches to arrive before I start with the death chickens. I guess I could start with the 'rippers since I'm not getting any more of those, especially since I already have 6.

Cryxian Theme

I've finally gotten a hold of what possible theme to paint the cryx in. I had decided to paint my Khador in ice white or winter white. This then adds to the list of unlikely color themes for me to make. So far I've painted:

Rusting metal/ shiny roach (necrons)
Powder blue/ fluffy clouds (eldar)
Blue and blue green/ Scaled vehicles (eldar)
Dusty brown/ rising from sand (khemri)
Red and green/ basic solid colors (alchemist of dirz)

With what experience I have had with the eldar vehicle scales and runes freehand I'm pretty confident that I could actually pull off another relatively easy stunt like that, making a mediocre paint job a great one. The fact that most themes for cryx have already been done by other cryxian players (standard black, green and gold; ghostly white and blue-green; black and gunbolt; bone), it became apparent to me that I had to find inspiration somewhere.

I had gone through all the high scoring cryxian paint themes on cool mini or not, and I've found that the best came from those painted in the standard color palette. i don't want to do that.

So I ended up looking at something that had always fascinated me: masques. The entire concept of masques as used in the venetian carnival was the most coherent theme I could think of, especially since deneghra wears one. This flight of fancy too a downward spiral immediately when I realized I actually had to sculpt over 200 masques for the rest of the models I had owned.

Then it hit me, why not just make a circus act? Have someone play as clowns, mimes and others would be magicians and trapeze artists. Basically have some sort of color scheme brought together by the circus.

Sorscha Woosh, part 1

In the attempt to be able to at least control the Sorscha Woosh or at least limit it's propagation, I am going to attempt translate and put into writing something that comes to me intuitively while playing the Sorscha Woosh.

It strangely happens at anytime that I see the opportunity to do an assured caster kill with the Woosh. I wish I could do something similar with Deneghra, but it's just not yet hardwired into my brain (in fact I have yet to figure it out).

The Sorscha Woosh can be done easily by any new player to the game and it leads to an easier entry into the game, even against veteran players. Sorscha is given relatively decent stats and has become the standard stat line for warcasters. But what makes her work best is that she has a set of spells that make for great synergy. She is indeed the best warcaster made. Menoth might have the best units, but Sorscha will always be the most powerful and flexible caster.

basics

The important thing to realize with her is that she has a very extended threat range. She has a charge range of 17 inch charge range, 24 inch feat range, 24 inch shot range and basically a 22 inch ranges attack range.

This means that far extended targets at range 24 would need other ways of getting damage unto the target. But you have to realize that the effect playing field on a regular gaming table is less than 20 inches in diameter. Basically we would commonly see the first 2 shorter range assassination runs over the extended one, which can be relatively risky with the changes in prime:remix.

Each run also has a corresponding damage potential which decrease the farther you go. Given that the remaining 4 focus is used for extra melee attacks, boosting shots and razor wind.

The melee run gives us an average of three pow 12 + 11 (3d6) attacks. Computations should show that on average you would kill off all focusless prime warcasters save the butcher on the feat turn. You have to remember that you actually get an extra turn of conking the warcaster the turn after. It seems reasonable to think that any run made in that 17inch ensures an autokill.

The razor wind option gives two pow 12 + 11. This makes a lot of casters still able to survive a bit. And if they actually hold on to a little focus, they will survive. Lucky rolls however can get to a lot, which happened to my game last tourney.

The last option will only happen as a last ditch effort, or when the rest of the army is actually in a position to take out the caster, or it seems a good time to ruin the opponents changes for a scenario objective win. Damage is negligible.

Frostfang
range 17 damge 23 x 3
Razorwind + Hand Cannon
range 22 damge 23 x 2
Hand Cannon
range 24 damge 23

Totalled at Total War 4

I expected a better showing this time around as I opted to use the skarre list for the whole 4 games.

The first three games had my opponents concede their games after being swarmed by 16 bane knights. Nothing much to note except I think the bane knights are actually great with any warcaster, and if they are to be fielded, must be at least 8 in a unit, more would be better. Tartarus is optional. I feel that I only got to use Tartar sauce in my game against Chris' Baldur during the feat turn for beckon.

I did get wooshed on the second turn by Kim.

Now I know how it feels.

You actually suddenly feel all those rushing thoughts:
...if only I left one more focus
...if only I was a quarter of an inch back
...if only I had not moved that bane knight

Oh well, I gained and lost nothing from the battle, except perhaps the lesson that I should really learn to play deneghra.

RHGC Gamesday

June 11 found us with a moved holiday. Sending the RHGC sponsor and founder Oberon to give us a successful gamesday. It seems that warmachine is getting a pretty large player base and is actually getting more people into the game.

It is, after all, a game so much better than any in it's genre. So much similar to the much maligned mageknight and yet unlimited in it's complexity.

We had 12 players joining the tournament. Sadly we didn't have a showing of the top menoth player.

The game was pegged for duels (350 points) which made it really unbalanced for a majority of the players. Knowing that our scenarios won't be the usual SR tournament format, and wouldn't be having caster kill by any long shot, it was quite clear to me that we would be handling scenarios from either the hordes book or the prime: remix book.

I had a choice of fielding either a cryxian assassination with Deneghra or the usual Sorscha list.

I'm stuck with playing cryx for the current tournament league for the coin series. And had a relatively bad showing with the cryx, given my major inexperience with assassination spell runs.

The cryxian list was:

Deneghra
Deathripper
Defiler x2
Nightwretch x2
Skarlock
Necrotech
Pistol Wraith

It would have been a good list, given that there were limited threats on the table and this list could easily bypass most, if not handle all, possible lists. It would work great if we had caster kill and it wouldn't suck as much in a mangled metal scenario.

The khador list:

Sorscha
Drakhun + unmounted option
Mortar x2
Manhunter
Widowmakers
Eiryss
Alexia Ciannor

This list would be unbeatable in 350. It simply had too many threats. It would just steamroll the cryxian list. It would be sick. It would be something I wouldn't be calling a game, but a hustle.

But considerations were thrown out the window when I realized, I got my butt kicked by a scenario win the first tournament, a missed VP from a double critical miss the second tournament.

By god I think it's time to remind people why Sorscha is broken.


First Round:
Pendulum - hordes book
vs Ashlynn (Pork)
The game was held in 40k terrain, which meant it would greatly reduce the possibility of freezing the entire army. Pork did bring a decent list, with a single warjack which meant losing a caster could actually mean little. I just could not agree on the choice of bringing 2 bokurs over taking a squad of stealheads + rhupert. List was:

Ashlynn
Mule
Eiryss
Alexia
Ogrun Bokur x2

He deployed first placing eiryss far down the left side, with the bulk of all the other troops on the right. The game broke down when I was moving my entire army forward towards the right flank with Alexia heading left to support the manhunter that was watching over his eiryss. He had made the mistake of trying to gun down my eiryss running on the right flank with ashlynn herself. It left her in LOS. I figured he might opt to use risen to shield her from LOS and the woosh. Lucky me I guess. Next turn woosh. Game ended with ashlynn getting razor winded by sorscha (after charging a bokur), disrupted by eiryss, bombed by a mortar, and shot by widowmakers. Alexia went down next turn. Pretty much nothing else left.

Second Round:
Killing fields - hordes book
vs Makeda (ronald)
My condolences go out to my opponent. I got first turn in this broken scenario.

Makeda
Cannoneer
Krea
Drake
Paingivers (4)

He shot my drakhun so I ended up charging it. Went for an early woosh as the terrain was bad, and it found him with most of his models still in the deployment zone. He tend to play defensively, hence the ease with which the scenario win was pulled off. Over in the usual 3 turns.

Third Round:
Domination - warmachine remix
vs Baldur?! (chris)
For some weird reason he didn't use kreuger. Actually I think baldur was actually a better option for the 350 games, with the expectation of some people opting for the I-big-and-no-touch-me option.

Baldur
Woldwarden x2
Shifting Stones x2

Strange enough the scenario called for 8 rounds. I've never had a game last that long-EVER. so the scenario will never come into play for this scenario. For some strange reason, chris prefers to bunch up his woldwardens together with his caster near the forest edges. I assume he likes the concealment it provides while pathfinder and all terrain gives him more options than I would ever have. What he didn't know about was what sorscha was capable of doing. He was pretty much distracted by the large model drakhun. He spent much of his fury points trying to block charge lanes from it. Critical to the pre-woosh turn was he had decided to cast stone skin on a woldwarden. It left him with only 2 fury left after casting that and the I-make-forests spell. the big light bulb just went on in my head and I just had to do the run. One boosted shot, boosted razor wind, 2 mortar hits and paralytic fear later, baldur was sent to his tomb of foam. The elemental constructs had sustain enough damage from the transfer to make them pretty easy to take out with a drakhun and a crazy manhunter.

Round Four:
Domination
vs thagrosh (Dan) - of course, who else was much more of a cheater than I there?
For some unfortunate reason, he had to roll domination. Nine points on the table--he had four models. I had more risen than his entire model count, that was pretty much it.

Thagrosh
Carnivean x2
Shredder




Problem with playing sorscha is that it pretty much leaves a bitter aftertaste to anyone who faces it or uses it. I'm pretty much sick of the woosh (and the frowns it causes) and I'm so used to seeing the paths to assassination with a woosh measure that it is nearly automatic. It makes me suck when I try cryxian runs. I cannot adjust to the limited range of deneghra's feat. I simply cannot time deneghra's withering. Sorscha has made me stupid. She's a crutch, I think anyone can actually try her and win the first time around. Just that do not expect anyone else to want to play you again.

Damn shit

God damn blogger. I can't post anything right with opera!

Of Banes and Brass Rods

I want to be able to put together all my models. Only problem is, I got stumped with the bane knight being that I want to swap all their bendy spears with brass rods. I don't have time as of yet to drop by Binondo for my hobby refill. Seems I'll be needing a fresh load of brass rods all to fit my new set of drill bits.

I have finally been able to locate myself some painter's choice by rust oleum primer in WHITE!!! I can finally start priming all the figs that I have put together. Biggest problem though is to be able to keep the consistency of the colours I'm going to use. I have simply fell in love with white primer. I'll probably opt to have everything primed in white instead of black or brown or gray. The color options are simply more diverse and colors come out more vivid and honest.

I guess I can start putting together all the rest of the Khador pieces: a behemoth, devastator, and a full squad of the demo corps. Of course the full squad of winter guard just needs to be put on its base.

I just wish I could start working on them. The weekends are swamped with work--with the department planning coming this Saturday and the department outing on the next weekend, I'm not sure when I can actually get some work on my models this month.

I think I just might opt to have a breakdown and quit work for a few days just to get them done. I wish it were an option of people in my profession to do as others do.

Beyond BBL

My stuff from the states have arrived and are pretty much completing my cryxian forces.

I've also completed painting my Risen, with Alexia and Eiryss following closely.

Got an order of tons of foam, zounds of it. The quality is good enough, and will probably end up using it for everything--Khador, Cryx, Eldar, Dark Eldar and Khemri.

Just came from Hong Kong with lots of loot: Really small magnets, magnets for jack arms, a full set of bits, and pretty much the final elements of the cryxian fleet.

Also the BBL has ended, Sorscha being top dog (bitch more like it). Don't really know what I got out of it except the reputation of being a cheese head. I guess I should let myself lose more. Everyone say hello to the suckiest exhumation list.

Brass Balls League

WARMACHINE league that's supposed to pit all players against each other in merciless combat.

"If the fight is easy, you're not challenging up the ladder."

Yet despite the "Page 5" mentality attached to the game, I'm found wanting for more opponents willing to go up against a Sorscha list. Perhaps it was right to call the beatdown list a negative play experience. But then if it was truly that good, why isn't everyone using? Why do people believe in playing with a crutch and then complain about losing.

I actually wanted to use a cryxian list. The faction that no one wins with, and yeti wasn't allowed to. Oh well, there's always next time.

Primed

Recently I've got the chance to prime my figs and test out 3 primers. (The reason being I'm running out of my usual white primer and citadel is just too expensive.)


Do It Best Latex Primer Stainblock WHITE
COST: Php 258. Ok so the cost sucks. It was my first non-citadel spray paint and the only primer I could find at the time. I actually was looking for the sandable primer by rust oleum painter's choice but I wasn't able to find it.

APPLICATION: The damn thing gives great coverage for white. Can't imagine spraying anything white before, but this actually gave good results. And overspray actually isn't that much of a problem since it still dries with an even coat. I found that it does have much pooling since it runs a lot but dries fine despite.

FINISH: Matte. Nothing comes close to the matte finish brought about by this. It's perfect for what I wanted.

OTHERS: It had a mild earthy smell, slightly sweet but more of a powdery flavour. I'd keep using it if I could find more of it. I've been using the Do It Best Latex Primer stainblock for my white figs with gloriously matte results which everyone is now familiar with. I just read from the label that sanding off the paint can cause the silica embedded within the paint to slough off and can actually cause cancer when inhaled or ingested. (Watch out kiddies!!! Another reason to keep young kids away from my figs.)


Painter's Choice Sandable Primer by Rust Oleum brown

COST: Php 155. Recommended by Daemon Russ and is probably a pro modeler's choice.

APPLICATION: Hell to use. The nozzle is just hard to press down. Considering I had to paint all my mercs and cryx in one go. The coverage was decent enough, the spray can had a great amount of propellant and will continue to spray well for a long time. However you're actually afraid to spray too much with it. I couldn't get it to cover the small crevices and tight spaces. It was definitely the hardest one to use. Longest drying time (1 hour)and poorest coverage. I'm just hoping the durability makes up for what I had to go through.

FINISH: Matte. The brown was a little more red than I was led to believe. In fact I would think of it more as a red earth primer now. Makes everything look like mud or rust. Great for cryx and mercs... until I realized nyss should have been primed grey.

OTHERS: It contains toluene as one of the solvents. Makes it smell lighter and much more volatile. It makes you high faster and stays in your head a little longer. It's an enamel primer, and anyone crazy enough to try it on overcosted plastic figs should be ready for some amount of melting. hehehehe


Bosny Primer Grey

COST: Php 99. Cheap. Available anywhere. 'nuff said.

APPLICATION: Sprays on thick, droplets from the aerosol were largest of all. I like the nozzle which was wide and easy to press. The coverage was really great but has a tendency for over spraying. For small delicate details, I wouldn't recommend it. Less propellant in it and will probably run out of gas before paint.

FINISH: Makes your little metal toys look like plastic, it's more of a satin finish than matte so I'm not to keen on the finish. Chico and the people at Hobby Haven are happy with it though. Says on the label you can do the second coat after 2 minutes. I wouldn't risk it so I waited as long as I did for the brown primer.

OTHERS: Smells not too great. It just smells like your regular spray paint of pylox and may actually be just as bad as that one. I'm still praying that it would last.