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It's hard to believe it has been a month since the last time I posted, but sure enough, November has come and gone, Christmas is on the horizon, and it is far past time for me to check in! November was a quiet month for Warmachine – there were no local tournaments, and in-between work and the holiday break I only managed to get a couple of games in. One of those was last Thursday, as did my part to help out with the Hordes MK II Field Test. This time around it was a battle of the Epic Old Men, with my eNemo facing off against Jen’s (Bobaferret) eDoomshaper. It’s been a while since I’ve played MK II, so it was a kind of clunky-but-fun game. Here are the lists we took:

My Cygnar Army (56 pts) Epic Nemo (+6) Squire Ol' Rowdy Thunderhead Lancer Journeyman Warcaster Ogrun Bokur Arlan Strangewayes Gun Mage Captain Adept Sword Knights (x10) Sword Knight UA Rupert Carvolo Stormsmiths (x3) Black 13th Strike Team

Jen's Pink Trolls (56 pts) Epic Doomshaper (+6 pts) Earthborn Dire Troll Dire Troll Mauler Mulg the Ancient Troll Axer Troll Bouncer Farrow Bonegrinders (x4) Feralgeist Gatorman Posse (x5) Troll Whelps

I’m not going to do a full battle report, but here were the highlights: We decided to play a “King of the Hill” scenario, with a 12-inch hill we had laying around. I went first and was able to push my Sword Knights into the middle early. I learned a lot about MKII Sword Knights this game – they are no longer the offensive powerhouse they once were, but when paired with the Piper (who can pipe “tough” every turn in MK II) they become one hell of a tar pit unit. With Flank and a change they can still do some damage (POW 10 + 4d6) but otherwise they are now much more useful for their staying power than their killing power. That being said, I had a hell of a time killing warbeasts, and knew I was going to have to go for the scenario win.



The rush for the hill. Some gatormen are going to die. Rowdy eyes Mulg.
At the bottom of turn three I was pretty sure I have victory locked up when I had a close call. Jen trampled her Earthborn through my line of Sword Knights and into position to deliver two Primal Shocks! (If you haven’t read MK II trample rules yet, do so now… It is far easier and more effective to trample these days!) Luckily eNemo had two focus on him, as the assassination attempt would have been successful otherwise. As it was, he survived with two wounds, and the game ended by scenario.



End Game: Nemo withstands two Primal Shocks FTW.
MK II still feels strong to me, and I’m excited to get on with it come January. In general, I still think it plays smoother and faster than the current version, and I like having less rules per model. Sure, models like Rowdy and Thorn were awesome, but the amount of rules you had to remember was just absurd. I like this way better now. Still getting used to some of the role changes in my army (like Sword Knights changing from offensive powerhouse to defensive tar pit) but I don’t mind them. I was starting to feel like some of the Cygnar units had gotten so strong that there wasn’t much motivation to try other things. MK II feels like it is pushing the game back to more of a combined arms affair, which I really like.

On a side note: I talk about Warmachine quite a bit on this blog because, well, I like it quite a bit. But the truth is, I’m a huge gaming geek and I like a lot of different stuff, and I’m probably going to start talking about more of that other stuff here. I’m a huge fan of roleplaying games, and at one point I had even talked about starting a separate blog for that. As it turns out, keeping up with just one blog is hard enough, so I’ll probably just be posting all of that stuff here. I’ll be using tags, so If you are only interested in following my Warmachine stuff, that’s easy enough, but hopefully you’ll find some other interesting stuff in here from time to time as well.

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, MKII, wargaming, Warmachine

I kicked off my weekend with a friendly 750 game. This time around my Cygnar faced Jen's (Bobaferret) Retribution. This is my third game against the Retribution, and I have to admit, I'm really liking that faction. As a Cygnar player, there is an awful lot to find attractive about them, probably because they do most of what my army does, and often more efficiently. Here is what this weeks match-up looked like:

My Cygnar Army (744 pts, 27 VPs) Epic Haley Thorn (bonded) Thunderhead Squire Journeyman Warcaster Gun Mage Captain Adept Sword Knights (9) Sword Knight UA Rupert Carvolo Stormlances (x3) Stormsmiths (x3) Black 13th Strike Team

Retribution Army (750 pts, 17 VPs) Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper Hydra Hydra Phoenix Narn Dawnguard Invictors (10) Dawnguard Invictor UA Souless Escort (x3) Mage Hunter Strike Force Mage Hunter UA House Shyeel Magister

This army is a variant of the army I used in the Breast Cancer Brawl last weekend. By the end of that event I had started to get a pretty good handle on eHaley, and I wanted to keep playing with her to see if I could really wrap my brain around her. For this game, I traded out the unit of Precursor Knights for a minimum unit of Stormlances. The precursors make a great screen for the ranged elements of the army, but I they tended to get in the way of the Sword Knights. Plus, I thought it would be fun to put a fast striking threat into the list to try and cause issues in my opponents backfield.

Deployment. Notice the cav fear.

Deployment was by the book. Jen won the roll, and made me go first, allowing her to set up army heavily on my right flank, avoiding my cav, and getting her the Thunderhead vs. mage hunter (with their extra damage die vs. jacks) match-up she was looking for. This ended up meaning that my first round was all about re-positioning. I may have given the mage hunters too much respect, but their Phantom Seeker rounds and their advantage in that forest really freaked me out. So, the Black 13th headed to the left while the Stormlances went to the right, and Haley cast Deceleration to help mitigate any early game ranged attacks.

Turn 2: Chinese Fire Drill!

Turn 2 gets ignorant fast. My GMCA hit the Phoenix with a critical thunderbolt round, knocking it three inches back (into Kaelyssa) and onto its ass. I ran Thorn forward and hit Kaelyssa with Timebomb, boosting the damage but rolling weak. At least I had her debuffed for what comes next: I used Domination to grab the Hydra standing next to her, walk it around behind her, and punch her. Thorn yo-yos back and the Sword Knights move up around him. At this point I've got her about half way down, but there is no way to finish it this round. I reposition my ponies, setting up for a next-turn charge through the forest (using the piper's March). Every single one of my Stormsmiths roll 10+, failing their stormcall skill checks. This is the turn I should feat and take away her retaliation options, but I forget.

A little pissed off about the whole getting punched by her own 'jack thing, Kaelyssa moves up and hits Thorn with backlash and then feats, giving her entire army stealth and denying me the charge next turn. Her army proceeds to scrap Thorn with a combination of Hydra ranged attacks, Invictors shots and Mage Hunters, doing 5 damage to Haley in the process. It could have been worst, but they actually killed him too quickly. The remainder of the Mage Hunters move up and put some hits on the T-Head, filling out a few more boxes. The Phoenix gets up and advances, sheltering Narn, Kaelyssa and the Magister, while the pair of Hydras bring up the rear.


Turn 3: I absolutely need to take some pressure off of that right flank. I move Haley up and cast Telekinesis to move the Thunderhead most of the way across that little pond. Unfortunately, I forgot to cast Deadeye first, at at the end of the movement he is now out of range. Note to self: If you intended to use pulse with eHaley, ALWAYS make sure you cast Deadeye first to get that extra die on every single attack roll. Still, I roll crazy high, and manage to kill off seven of the Invictors, but I can't hit the Mage Hunter with their high defense (I bet I would have with Deadeye!) The piper plays march for the ponies, and I charge them through the forest to tie up the Mage Hunters and hopefully protect the T-Head. Sword Knights charge the Phoenix and get through his forcefield, but fail to bring him down. The Stormsmiths fail two out of three stormcalls, which is starting to piss me off.

On Jen's turn, Narn murders my GMCA, and then moves up next to Haley. Kaelyssa moves into the ruined building and uses Phantom Seeker to shoot at Haley. The game might have been over here if she hadn't activated Narn first, but by putting him next to Haley, she now has the "in melee" bonus, and Kaelyssa can't hit her. The embattled Phoenix combusts, but fails to kill off any of the Sword Knights that surround it. Not to waste the oppotunity a giant, flaming jack presents, one of the Hydras grabs it from behind and throws it at my back row of Sword Knights (where the unit leaders are), and manages to kill the unit leader and one of the troopers. The remaining Invictors CRA on the T-Head, while the Mage Hunters battle the cav, doing some damage, but not taking any out.

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

We had our Breast Cancer Brawl up here in Boise yesterday, and it was an amazing success by almost any standard. We had somewhere between 30-35 players, and were able to raise thousands of dollars for our local hospital's mobile mammogram service, which is just awesome. The spirit of giving at the event was just amazing, and it was fun to watch a bunch of gamers come together and do something so cool.

The event itself was a blast: 750 points, two lists, and kill the caster was the only scenario. On top of that, you could use tickets (at our store they were a dollar each or 12 for $10) to re-roll or kick in other special abilities from a special rule sheet. For example, at the start of the game, you could pay 8 tickets for the "Women are Strong" ability, which makes all of the female models in your army tough. You can also play an equal amount of tickets to cancel anything your opponent does, although they can immediately re-spend and try again. Basically, the more money you donate, the more you can "cheat." I was a big dirty cheater. :-)

Bobaferret, our press ganger, did an amazing job putting this even together and getting some really cool prize support. We had steamroller trophies for the tournament winners, and for the biggest donors she was able to get prints of Deneghra and Ashlynn signed by Matt Wilson, and three original pieces of concept art from Chris Walton (the main artist responsible for the retribution), right out of his sketchbook. We had three pink painted armies up for silent auction, each of which sold for between $250-600. To top it off, everyone who played in the tourney got a really nice BCB: Boise t-shirt featuring more Chris Walton art (the picture at the top of this post.)

Personally, I had a pretty good showing. I ended up taking third place, and taking home one of the Chris Walton originals (sweet!). My pink Epic Haley took second place in the painting contest, and I won an auction for a really beautifully painted, pink-highlighted Eiryss.

I brought two lists, but I only ended up playing one all day. I once again broke my cardinal rule of playing in tournaments with warcasters I don't know very well, but in this case the need for a pretty pink model overruled all else. Here is what I took:

Breast Cancer Brawler 748 pts/26 VP Pink Epic Haley Squire Thunderhead Thorn Journeyman Warcaster Gun Mage Captain Adept Stormsmiths (x2) The Piper of Ord Precursor Knights (x8) + UA Sword Knights (x8) + UA

The idea was to have a fairly balanced list full of stuff I know well. Between Thorn, the GMCA, the Black 13th and the Stormsmiths you have a lot of options for dealing with stealth, invisibility, etc. The precursors provide a great screen for the ranged elements, they don't give up souls, and they are hell on the undead. Sword Knights are... well, Sword Knights. As for 'jacks, the Thunderhead is hard to ignore, and Thorn makes Haley super-scary. In practice, the list worked pretty well. My games looked like this:

Game 1, Cryx (Win): This was a really tough game vs. Epic Asphyxious, with bane knights and bile thralls and everything else you would expect. I probably would have lost this game, but in the end I used one of the "tournament specials" to allow my T-Head to ignore intervening models when making ranged attacks. My opponent didn't have the tickets to counter me, so he took three lightning coil shots to the face-hole.

Game 2, Retribution (Win): In this game, both my opponent and I had big rolls of tickets, which meant that almost none were spent (we just countered anything the other person tried.) This was a fun game, and I'm still impressed my the flexibility of the retribution. My opponent got a little mis-positioned, and my T-Head was able to tie up the Mage Hunters while the Sword Knights and Precursors rampaged through the lines. Time Bomb and Arcane Bolts took down Kaelyssa in the top of turn three.

Game 3, Trolls (Win): A brutal game against the store owner and his beautiful troll army. Like all games with trolls, it really feels like you are losing up until the point where you start winning. This game went all the way to time, and I won on VPs (by this point the Sword Knights had killed off a Mauler, and by forcing him to transfer damage off Callandra, I killed a Blitzer and an Axer). I will say that Starcrossed may just be the single most frustrating spell in the game for me right now.

Game 4, Cygnar (Loss): It was Cygnar vs. Cygnar this time, with my opponent running a Darius list with 4 (FOUR!) centurions in a block. He played the list very well, and I played mine very poorly. I got some advice from one of our local Cygnar gurus afterward - I should have used to Telekinesis at the top of turn two to turn the centurions backs toward my Sword Knights, and pulled them into charge range. Then I could have hit them with a march-fueled, three attack, five-damage-dice Sword Knight charge. I probably could have scrapped two or three of them right there. I didn't, and he ended up winning by a single VP when time was called (to his credit, he was just starting a trample that would lead him directly to my warcaster - five more minutes and he would have had the kill.)

Game 5, Legion (Win): I have only played vs. Legion one other time, and that was a long time ago, so I had no idea what most of my opponent's army did - which is a bad thing against a dirty tricks army. He was playing an Epic Lylyth list with a ton of archers. On turn 1, he moves Lylyth up, pops feat, and starts shooting an insane amount of arrows. Luckily, Haley had cast Deceleration at the end of turn one, so my Sword Knights are effectively DEF 15, ARM 21 vs. ranged attacks. That forces him to CRA instead of taking individual shots, and he only takes five Sword Knights off the board in what could have been an otherwise devastating turn. At the top of turn two, I run Thorn up close, use Telekinesis to turn Lylyth's back to my army, hit her with Time Bomb to get that defense down, and then hit her with an Arcane bolt. She's about half way there. GMCA moves up, and hits her with a long shot (once I measure, I find out I'm at about 11 inches - wishing I had declared a Blaze round). Finally, from 17 1/2 inches away, Ryan of the Black 13th hits her twice and takes her down.

So, it was a great day. I really started to get my head around Epic Haley, thanks mostly to some great advice I was given along the way. I'm reminded what a fun hobby this is, and what great people enjoy it alongside me. Oh, and if you haven't hugged your press ganger lately, you need to. Yesterday really made me realize how much work they put into making sure we have a good time.

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

Our local Breast Cancer Brawl event is this weekend, so I thought I would be in the spirit and have at least one model painted pink. Given that Cygnar doesn't have just a whole lot of ladies in lineup, it didn't take me long to settle on Epic Haley. I hadn't got around to playing with her yet, and she is absolutely one of my favorite models in the range, so I figured it was about time to give her a try.

To get warmed up, I played my first game with her over the weekend, and it went pretty well. I was able to use Time Bomb at the top of turn 2 to prevent a Mulg charge, and then I opened turn 3 by using Telekenisis to pick up Epic Hoarluk and turn his back to my long gunners so they could shoot him with three POW 19 CRAs (thanks Temporal Acceleration!) So, I guess I kind of get her schtick.

I'm not sure who I'm going to take for a second list caster... With only two days to go, I need to make up my mind pretty soon. Probably worth taking something I'm really comfortable with... Maybe Striker or Siege - Although I'm starting to feel kind of guilty about my slowly worsening Siege addiction. If it works out like normal, I'll be building my list an hour beforehand over a cup of coffee...

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

Well, it's been a week since PAX. I had high hopes of really covering the convention - on location blogging from my iPhone that spared no detail. Unfortunately, the wi-fi at the convention was less then co-operative. I think I summed it up well in this almost hiaku-like tweet:

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, PAX, PAX09, wargaming, Warmachine

I hates me some Khador.

I took my eStryker list, and it just got chewed up. I used the advance move on my Stormblades, and I’m not sure why. I know better than to use them as a speartip, and as they advanced Eyriss and the mortars chewed them up completely. Widowmakers tore up my advancing sword knights and the Drakun charged Rowdy. Long story short: on round three eVlad feats, widowmakers sneak through a gap and shoot eStryker to death. I think I managed to kill one IFP. Blegh.

Game 2: vs. Scott’s Menoth (Scenario: No Man's Land)

I decided that the eStryker list was going back into the case until I had some time playtest it. I would be finishing the rest of the tourney with my Siege list. For this game I would be playing Scott and his Protectorate list, which included (from what I remember) eSeverius and the Hierophant, a Revenger, a full unit of Exemplar Vengers, a unit of Idrians + UA, a unit of zealots with the Monolith Bearer, Vilmon, Gorman, the Piper and DeBray.

Of course, DeBray deployed in the middle of the table, denying me the ability to deploy my trenchers there. I ended up having to deploy them on my far right flank, directly across from his vengers. That was okay with me – my worst nightmare with this list is having calvary wrap around into my backfield. I was hoping the trenchers would be good enough to serve as a tarpit and at least slow down his cav (which, they managed to do for the entire game). I pretty confident that my Sword Knights could take the middle, but I underestimated the speed and toughness of the Idrians, who had outrageous defense through some combination of spells and buffs.

On turn three I went in for the assassination, using Illumination to get LOS through Gorman’s smoke cloud, feating, and letting the rockets fly. The first one took eSevy to within 4 boxes, but I missed with the second (Reinholdt provided) shot! In response, I got black oil in the face from Gorman, assuring that more rockets wouldn’t be coming next round. Suddenly glad I took the Defender, I loaded the jack with focus, stuck him in a gap and shot the old man in the face for the win.

Game 3: Tony’s Cryx (Scenario: Mosh Pit)

The third game was definitely the most enjoyable of the day. The armies were well matched, my opponent was a really nice guy, and we duked it out something fierce. He brought a eGoreshade list with Bane Thralls, Tartarus, bile thralls, Slaughterborn and a unit of Bloodgorgers, two or three bone jacks, the Nightmare, the Withershadow, a Scarlock, and probably some other crap that I’m forgetting.

This time my trenchers managed to advance-deploy the way I wanted them to, and ended up popping smoke most of the game to fend off the Sudden Death-fueled counter charges of the Bane Thralls. I was lucky enough to experience, for the first time, the joy of the bile thrall purge, with two well-placed purges killing off most of my trenchers and a fair number of sword knights. Tony had amazing luck with his tough rolls on the Bloodgorgers, and I ended up having to kill most of them three or four times, allowing them to swamp my Sword Knights for most of the game. The Nightmare managed to sneak into my back lines through some crazy, cryxian bullshit (Phantom Hunter + Spectral Curse), and made me very happy that I had taken the bokur, who made short work of it (it had already been worked over by the sword knights pretty well, which explains why Siege survived in the first place).

The end of the last game. Mosh Pit in red.

This game finally ended when time ran out. We both had about half of our armies sitting off the side of the table, as the killing had been fierce. I ended up winning because I had more VPs in the Mosh Pit (9 vs. his 7), but I think I got pretty damn lucky, because things were falling apart fast for me. Had he been aware of the time, he could have probably killed me outright. Still, a win is a win, and I’ll take what I can get.

Wrap-Up

So, that’s another tournament under my belt! I didn’t place, but I did finish with a 2-1 winning record, which makes me happy. I took Best of Cygnar, but as the only Cygnar player there, I pretty much had that locked up when I walked in the door. I definitely need to get back to playing more regularly to keep the rust off. I used to play on Sundays, but with summer camping trips I need to work out something else. I still think my eStryker list has some potential, but I need to play it in some friendly games before I attempt it again in such a competitive setting.

Also, you can check out Ghettokore Studios for a less one sided version of the tourney...

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

Yay, tartan! I'm trying to imagine how
many of these I will need to paint.

I also started assembly on my Skorne Titan Gladiator. Wow, what a pain in the butt that is. I'm guessing that will generally be true of Hordes compared to Warmachine, thanks to the more organic nature of the models. Still, I used a half a ribbon of Green Stuff getting his torso caulked together. Okay, I stuffed a bunch down inside him as well, but the joint a the waist makes me nervous - there just is not enough metal there.

Surprsing how much green stuff can fit in there...

I'm not sure what I'm going to take on next. The Gladiator is really appealing to me (I jut love how that model looks), but I would also like to crank out a few more Trolls while I'm feeling the muse. I may keep working on Skorne assembly while I paint up the warbeasts from the Trollblood battle box. At some point I also need to do some work before next week's 750 mangled metal tournament (like assemble Darius and the Thunderhead), but I'm kind of in a groove right now, and I don't really want to stop... Anyway, I'll keep you posted as I make up my mind. I'm not really in a hurry - my focus for play is still Cygnar. My Hordes army is going to be more of a "masterwork" army that I can really take my time painting and lavish attention on. That ends up being hard to do with my primary army, as I feel so much pressure to get things painted up and on the table (as Brother Scott always says - "Painted models play better.")

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

I'm back from my fishing trip, and barring a little excitement that involved the near-sinking of a boat, I had a good time. I took an extra day to hang around the house and help my wife get caught up with yard work, and then it was back to the grind. Ah, how the shackles of adulthood do chafe...

Anyway, over the long weekend I started thinking about what I wanted to do next. I’ve been paining Warmachine models for the last couple of years, and playing actively since last September, and I think I’m ready to shake things up a little bit. Like a lot of other people right now, I’m feeling the urge to pick up another faction and try something different. I’ve been holding out on getting into Hordes for a long time, mostly because I haven’t been able to decide what faction I wanted to play, but I'm thinking now may be the time. Plus, I need a break from painting Ultramarines blue for a while.

So, what is it going to be? Let’s get the easy decision out of the way first – it won’t be the Legion of Everblight. I already own a bunch of Crxy stuff, and I’ll dig stuff out if I feel the urge to play a dragon-blighted-dirty-tricks-fast-assassination army. While the Legion warbeasts look properly cool, I don’t really feel inspired to paint them, and I strongly dislike the look of most of the nyss models that make up the bulk of the infantry. If I don't feel inspired to paint just by looking at a model, it's probably a bad sign...

Next up, Circle Orboros: I like this faction a lot from a painter’s viewpoint. The models are cool, and there is a huge variety in the range (from Tharn vs. Druids, Constructs vs. beasts, etc.). I like the mobility of the army, and I think they would be my definite choice for a second Hordes army, but right now I’m in the mood to play something really beefy and destructive, which really leaves two options… Trollbloods or Skorne.


The Skorne: From the first time I picked up Primal I liked the look and feel of the Skorne. The titans had me right away – they just didn't look like any of the usual fantasy stuff I had seen before. I dig the samurai-flavored armor and the clean rank-and-file nature of the troops. The Skorne are easily the most “army-like” faction in Hordes, and I like the idea of well-ordered phalanxes of disciplined troops. Their different units all look very similar, and I have to imagine that when they are fully painted and all blocked-up together on the table they would look stunning. In general, they have great armor making them strong defensively, but they also feed off of their own souls, encouraging very aggressive play, which is appealing to me. I’ve been playing a fairly smash-mouth style with my Cygnar lately, and with good success – I’m guessing it would work even better with an army built for it. The downsides: Painting lots of repetitive armor, which is of course loaded with detail. It seems like very technical painting, but not very artistic. I’m also not fond of the heaping amounts of cheese the Skorne received from Metamorphosis. Sure, it made them way more dangerous, but it also pushed them across the line where they are just not fun for opponents to play against. I don't like the cheesy game, and I don't want to play it.

The Trolls: I love me some trolls. I like the look of them, and I like the fluff, and they seem like they would be a lot of fun to paint. The models have a load of personality and a little bit of humor, which I can appreciate. Mechanically, they are tough as nails, which is also pretty appealing, and they have the type of interdependent combined-arms mechanic that I find appealing. They also have some of the largest and most impressive models in the game, which calls out to the painter side of me. While maybe not as disciplined as the Skorne, the Trolls still solve problems the old fashioned way – by caving you skull in – which I can appreciate. Downsides: Unless I do something very different in the color scheme, I’m back to painting blue. On top of that, troll models generally have a relatively low point cost, which means a lot of models, and in turn a lot of painting would be required. Mechanically, they do have a number of abilities that are based on critical hits – combine that with tough rolls, and there is a lot of randomness involved in Troll success. Me, I don’t so much like leaving things to chance.

Not really sure how to decide. I think I could enjoy playing either one, so it comes down to the enjoyment I would get from painting them. For the next few months I expect to get in a lot more painting than playing… I already own a Skorne battle box, which I picked up as one of our local stores liquidated their stuff at ½ off… Maybe I'll just pick up a Trollblood box, paint them both up, and decide which one I enjoy painting more before I sink more money into extra units, etc… I'll keep you posted - feel free to throw in support one way or another.

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine