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Italy has no shortage of Churches, Wine and Italian Food.

All the travel has shifted my gaming to more mobile pastimes. I've spent some time working on my 4E Eberron campaign, and I'm really excited to get back to playing. I was one of the great holdouts on moving to fourth edition, but now that I've made the switch, I'm absolutely hooked. They have put so much thought into making the game easy to run while making it your own. In 3.5, it was almost impossible to come up with custom creatures or items without worrying that you were going to break the balance of the game. 4E has made all of that so much easier that it's actually a lot of fun to come up with your own custom stuff (not to mention that digital tools like the Adventure Tools help a ton).

Speaking of digital tools - if you run a D&D game, you have to check out Masterplan. It is an amazing free application that lets you map out your entire campaign. You can build it out in flowchart mode, map out all of your encounters and experience (so you can see at any point how much XP your party will have earned, making planning level progression a breeze), and keep track of all those little details with the encyclopedia function. It also integrates with WotC's D&D Compendium, so you have all of that information at your fingertips from within the application, making encounter building fast. You can even export handouts or even entire modules at the click of a button. It is by far the best roleplaying tool I have found.

Other than that, I've been playing a ton of Tomb Raider: Anniversary on the PSP. I picked it up to play on the long plane rides, and I've found it completely addicting. Normally, I have a hard time getting into portable games, but I can't seem to put this one down. In fact I've spent the last few nights at home playing that instead of Mass Effect 2. Weird, I know.

Instead of playing Mass Effect 2 on a 42' HD LCD, I'm playing this.

I think I'm back in town for a while now, so I hoping to get back to at least a little more of a routine. I dug out my Warmachine stuff last night and started working on a Khador Decimator. I know this isn't a secret to anyone, but red is really hard to paint well. It just looks so obnoxiously bright while you are working on it, and those Khador 'jacks have such big flat spaces. If I get him done tonight, I'll post some pics. My FLGS is having a 15 point highlander (1-1-1-1) format event in a few weeks, and I'm thinking about playing the Reds in that... I like the occasional small point event - it makes trying out new factions very feasible. I'll keep you posted.

Labels: Dungeons and Dragons, Eberron, miniatures, roleplaying, RPGs, video games, Warmachine

Facing off against a pile of angry elves. Feeling the disparity caused by spending 21 points on 2 jacks. The blue tape marks the corners of the three control zones.

The good news is that my modified list worked out pretty well. Even against overwhelming numbers of ranged infantry I could push through. With this list, Haley's feat turn is an absolute bitch for your opponent. For those not familiar with Haley, her feat allows each model in her control area to have an addition attack at the end of it's activation, regardless of rate of fire. So, turn 3 tends to looks something like: Move Haley up, cast Temporal Barrier (to give all enemies in your control -2 DEF), and put Dead Eye on the Gun Mages. Then, you charge the Stormguard. Each Stormguard is POW 12 and causes a POW 10 electroleap, so they can spawn up to 40 damage rolls (two primary attacks each, two electroleaps). In my games so far I have been able to decimate the front lines, and if the army is packed tight enough, well into the back line.

The gun mages then advance and clean up. They typically use critical brutal shot, and thanks to the extra die from Dead Eye, they roll a fair number of criticals. They get 14 shots this way, with half of the attacks getting the extra attack die. Combine this with True Sight from the UA, and not much can hide. Finally, the marshaled Cyclone gets to go, generating 2d3+1 attack rolls, and thanks to Rune Shot from the Dude, he can use arcane effects as well.

You are starting to get the picture - in one turn 27 models generate up to 76 attacks/damage rolls without spending focus to purchase more. The biggest challenge is getting it all done in a 12-minute timed turn! (You have to resovle an attack every 9 seconds!)

It's great to see 'jacks on the table again, and the Cyclone is already turning into a favorite. Marshaled by The Dude, he's an absolute horror.

At this point I'm pretty happy with the list and how it's playing. It remains untested against a pile of heavy armored jacks, and that's the one thing I fear. I've proved it to be reliable against ARM18 infantry, but I'm worried about a heavy jack swarm. The hunter should help, but I might have to shift tactics and use the Gun Mages to slam things around rather than trying to kill them. A lot of AOEs that can deviate onto my fragile Gun Mages could spell doom as well, but I should be able out-range almost everything but mortars... Yes, I'm afraid of Khador. Hopefully it will hold up!

Labels: miniatures, MKII, wargaming, Warmachine

Epic Angry Old Man about to deliver lightning to your face-hole.

This is what Nemo would look like running away. You will never see this.

As I was playing a game the other day I was looking at my Journeyman Warcaster - he's really well painted (at least by my own personal standards), and I realize the difference is that back then painting was my primary hobby, and I played only the occasional game with a friend. Now that I am more of a player, I think I must be starting to cut corners to get models on the tabletop faster... My models these days don't seem to hold up under the scrutiny of a digital camera, but at least (I hope) they look great on the tabletop.

Labels: miniatures, MKII, wargaming, Warmachine

Labels: miniatures, MKII, wargaming, Warmachine

After playing 750 point games, the smaller size was really challenging to build a list for. The game itself was a rough one... We played a "Mosh Pit" type scenario using this roundish piece of hill terrain to define the mosh pit. I pushed ahead fast, but forgot that you can't run and shield wall on the same turn (I told you I was rusty). When the Houseguard Riflemen started shooting up my Precursors the next turn, I was starting to fear that I had seriously overextended myself.

Round 2 I moved up a little further, and this time I shield walled. Temporal Barrier would assure I didn't eat a charge this turn, and would force the 'Ferret to advance cautiously. I did manage to shoot some lightning around and take out a few enemies, which made me feel better.

Moments before the last of my infantry get wiped out by Rayvn's Thresher attack...

Round 3 was the money round: Haley pops her feat and throws Deadeye on the Stormblades. We wade in and manage to kill off most of the infantry. Suddenly things are looking up. I've got most of Ravyn's infantry dead, and a huge pile of troopers standing in front of her to gank her next round. Unfortunately, I don't know Ravyn very well... She casts Vortex of Destruction and then dives in and threshers my pile of infantry, killing most of them. My Defender (which has had it's heavy barrel destroyed by the Hydra in prior rounds) gets picked up an chucked at Haley, and they both get knocked down.

The assassination attempts drag on for a couple more rounds, both of us unable to get the job done. I finally get off a lucky damage roll to take Rayvn down, but by this time I'm down to Haley, the Defender, the Journeyman, 2 Stormblades and the Lancer. Bobaferret is down to Rayvn, the Hydra, 2 Halberdiers, 2 Riflemen and a Ghost Sniper. A brutal but good game. We were both fighting tooth and nail to stay alive, and it showed.

In other news, I picked up Darksiders on the XBOX 360 yesterday. I've seen this game at PAX for the last couple of years, and both times I knew there was something special about it. The visual style and polish is so far very impressive, and the game is a blast to play. Has a very visceral, Devil May Cry sensibility to it, and the controls are smooth like butter.

Also, went and saw Sherlock Holmes last night, and liked it much more than I expected to. It had a nice blend of steampunk and occult horror, and if you are a fan of either one, there is likely something here to enjoy... I was entertained the whole time (a rare thing these days, especially for movies over a couple hours long.) I approve.

Labels: miniatures, MKII, video games, wargaming, Warmachine, XBOX

I finally got my Precursor Knights completely painted and sealed today. They have been sitting on my painting table and taunting me for over a month now, and it's good to have them finally finished. They are a unit I really enjoy playing, and I think I'm going to be using them even more frequently now in MKII with the reduced power of the Sword Knight.

The gang's all here. Zombies everywhere be a'feared.

For my color scheme, I went with a GW shadow grey and P3 Menoth White Highlight. I wanted them to fit well with my Cygnar army, and yet still stand apart as something different, and I think I've accomplished that. I made liberal use of a Menoth White Base-colored wash to give the whites a very antique ivory look. The white stripe across the bottom of the robes was an afterthought, but I thought it tied the whole scheme together nicely.

The unit leader and the UA. Nice models.

And that pretty much wraps up Christmas vacation for me. I'm planning on setting a new painting and playing goal this year, and hopefully I will do better than last. After taking on a whole unit, I want to take a break and paint some single models - I'm behind on epic warcasters and I need to get my Thunderhead (and soon a Cyclone) painted. Once I've recovered I'll probably tackle the Long Gunners or the Gun Mages. I'd like to get caught up on what I already have before the new wave of trencher stuff hits.

Of course, to acomplish any of this will mean that I have to shake the horrible Dragon Age addiction that current has a hold of me. I loved Mass Effect, and I had high hopes for Dragon Age as well - and I'm happy to say that so far it is living up to those expectations. I'm about 30 hours in and well on my way to saving Ferelden from the Darkspawn hordes. Of course, Mass Effect 2 drops at the end of January, so I'd like to have saved the world by then. At least January won't be boring!

Labels: miniatures, roleplaying, RPGs, video games, wargaming, Warmachine, XBOX

Happy new year to my friends in the blogosphere! Here's hoping that 2009 treated you well, and that 2010 treats you even better! All told, it was a good year for me - I find myself more than a little disappointed that we are almost a decade into the twenty-first century and I still don't have a flying car or a robot sex slave, but what can a guy do? A new year always makes me feel both nostalgic and hopeful, and this morning I'm sitting at a coffee shop this morning looking back on the year gone by, and thinking a lot about the year to come, and I thought maybe I should put some of those thoughts to digital ink. So here goes...

Last year was my first full year playing Warmachine, and it was a great year. I've made some great new friends down at my FLGS, and I've learned a lot about how important a good community is to the health of a game. When I first started getting interested in Warmachine I was really intimidated. The game had been out for years, and was on it's fifth expansion. I hadn't really played tabletop games before, and I thought there was no way I would be able to get involved in any competitive way - but thanks to a great local community and an outstanding press ganger, I've been able to jump in with both feet. I've won more than I've lost, I've been in the hunt at several tournaments, and even placed third in out Breast Cancer Brawl!

Of course this year looks to be one of the best ever for Warmachine players. Mark II promises to clean up much of the sediment that has built up in the system over the years, and new models and books will revive interest after what felt like a long draught in 2009. We should see even more new players as the new rules level the playing field - at least for a short time. I know that I personally can't wait to get my hands on a Cyclone and a Firefly and put them to work!

I picked up a couple of started fleets for Firestorm Armada, and I'm hoping that game catches on (and that Spartan Games doesn't errata the rules to death like they did with Uncharted Seas). I'm a huge fan of Sci-Fi fleet combat stories like Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series or David Weber's In Death Ground and Shiva Option, and I love the idea of playing out my own fleet-scale broadside battles in deep space. I have no idea if the game will even catch on locally, but I'm hoping I can find at least a few other folks with an interest.

I also finally got my D&D game back on track last fall. I DM a long-running Eberron game that went on hiatus late in 2008 when 4E hit the scene. Between D&D and Warmachine, it has become abundantly clear that a change in core rules (even for the better) is a disruptive thing, and the shift to fourth edition had quite an impact on our game. It was only after playing in a couple of RPGA events at PAX that everything clicked for us, and everyone finally decided that 4E was going to be a good thing. When we got back, we rebooted the game, and we've been having a blast ever since.

So, what's in store for 2010? We'll, I still have the goal of paining my entire Cygnar army (as well as their supporting mercs). I didn't make as much progress on that as I wanted to last year, so I'll have to keep working on that. I like to get a regular schedule and play Warmachine at least one time a week, and I need to do a better job of planning for (and defending) that time. I'd like to get my Khador army on the table and get some play time in there.

On the roleplaying side, I'd like to see my D&D game push well into the paragon tier and finish the current story arc of their campaign. I'd like to host of couple of "NanoCons" and run one-shot games of couple of other systems that I have a lot of interest in - most notably Spirit of the Century and CthulhuTech. I'd love to go to GenCon (I've never been!) but I need to figure out how to do that while still being able to attend PAX (GenCon is a convention, PAX is more like a family reunion.)

Ah, so much opportunity. There is nothing like the first day of a new year. Hope springs eternal, and none of my best-laid plans have had a chance to go completely to hell yet. Here's to a great year!

Labels: Dungeons and Dragons, Eberron, Firestorm Armada, miniatures, MKII, PAX, wargaming, Warmachine

Over the last few weeks I’ve managed to get back to the painting table, and I’m making good progress on my Precursor Knights. The basecoat is done, and I started shading this morning (my favorite part!) They are coming along nicely, although I had forgotten how monotonous painting an entire unit + UA at once can be.

I’ve start to pick up the beginnings of a Khador army, so I’ve been doing quite a bit of pinning and gluing as a result. Cygnar will always be my main faction, and it remains my ultimate goal to have the entire Cygnar range fully painted and at my disposal. So, I’m going to pick up a second army (which I plan to play in naked pewter) to field while I leave my Cygnar on the painting table and not worry about packing/unpacking them every week. Once the Cygnar is done, I can turn my attention to the Reds.

So why Khador? To be honest, I’m a total fluff gamer. When I look at a new faction, I don’t look at the rules as much as I look for an army that has an aesthetic that appeals to me, looks fun to paint, and has characters and back-story that I enjoy - and Khador fits that bill. In fact, my initial army is going to be a berserker army lead by the Epic Butcher and full of things like Doom Reavers, Fenris, berserkers and extreme sculpt warjacks. This is going to be and army that looks imposing, and is as likely to kill itself as it is to kill my opponent.

When I need a break from unit painting, I’ve also been working on painting up my Space Hulk models. I’ve always been a fan of Space Marines and the 40K fiction, but never really could get into the tabletop game. Space Hulk seemed like a nice way to scratch that itch with a very small commitment. If you haven’t seen the game, the components that come with it are beautiful, from the models to the corridor tiles. The space marine models in particular are stunning, and almost demand to be painted. Instead of painting them all at once like I would a unit, I’m going to tackle each one individually, as they deserve that kind of attention. As far as the Genestealers (the alien models), I really don’t know what to do there – I don’t have a lot of interest in painting them myself… They might get sent out for commission work.

(It's too cold to seal him, so he's still a little shiny.)

Foodmachine is tomorrow at my FLGS. At this point I’m planning on playing, but I also feel like I’m getting sick. We’ll see how it goes. Oh yeah, and there are only thirteen days left until Christmas. If you haven’t started yet, it’s time to go buy some crap for the people you love. So get on it.

Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine

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, despite my best hopes for getting back into a more regular gaming routine, it seems that fate has been conspiring against me. Between a massive new project at work and week of business travel, I haven't had a game since my FLGS ran its Call to Arms kick-off event back in the end of September. (An event I did fairly poorly in, BTW).

Labels: 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

My Cygnar Army (745 pts, 27 VPs) Epic Nemo Ol' Rowdy (bonded) Centurion Lancer Squire Journeyman Warcaster Gun Mage Captain Adept Gun Mages + Officer Sword Knights (8) + UA Rupert Carvolo Stormsmiths (x3)

Retribution Army (746pts, 24 VPs) Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper Hydra Gorgon Gorgon Epic Eiryss Narn Dawnguard Sentinels (10) Dawnguard Invictors (8) Dahlia Hallye & Skarath Aiyana & Holt

Deployment

Turn 1: I run, pushing my army upfield as quickly as possible. Thanks to eNemo's Energize spell, my 'jacks are finally able to keep up with the infantry (Even the Centurion!) The GMCA rolls snake eyes when he tries to take out Eiryss, and suddenly feels very exposed. Jr. throws an Arcane Shield on him while Nemo puts Polarity Shield on the Sword Knights. Rupert also pipes Heroic Call, making them tough.

Bobaferret opens her turn by rolling snake eyes with Eiryss, making us wonder if it is going to be one of those games. This ends up hurting her worse then I would have guessed - she was hoping to take Polarity Sheild off the the sword knights so Narn could charge his way all the way to Nemo. With that still up, he can't quite make it. The rest of her army just advances, and Boy Toy starts to shoot up Ol' Rowdy. Kaelyssa pops her feat giving everything in her control area stealth and denying me the charge next turn.

The end of Turn 1

Turn 2: Rowdy advances (again, with the help of Energize) into the Invictors and uses his quake hammer to knock all but one of them down. He proceeds to kill a pair of them. On the opposite flank, the Centurion kills off a pair of Sentinels. The Piper plays March to give the Sword Knights the extra movement they need to walk up the front lines, and I manage to kill off five more Sentinels and another Invictor, thanks to the Lancer providing Flank. The GMCA shoots Eiryss right in the face-hole, but doesn't quite kill her, so a Stormsmith has to help him finish the job. The other two Stormsmiths fail to kill Narn, so I have to commit an entire unit of Gun Mages to do the job (which ends up being okay - everything else has Stealth this turn anyway...)

Bobaferret retaliates by killing half of the sword knights and the UA leader with Sentinels and a nasty spray attack from Skarath. Aiyana casts Harm on Ol' Rowdy, and then everyone picks on him: He takes shots from Holt, a CRA from the Invictors, and a shot from Kaelyssa, piling on the damage. Thanks to dynamic capacitor, I am able to choose which column that takes the damage, and I manage to keep him alive (just barely!) with only one open box on each system.

End of turn 2. Only four invictors stand between Ol' Rowdy and Kaelyssa.

Turn 3: I really consider just trampling my way to her warcaster, but as I look at it, I don't think Rowdy could survive it. Still, I load him up with five focus (thanks to his bond), figuring I can always pull it back with Focus Matrix if I need to. If I don't do something with him this turn, he's dead for sure.

First, I kill off the Gorgon engaging the Lancer - If my Ol' Rowdy plan doesn't work, I'm going to use him to spell her to death after I pop Nemo's feat and reload him with focus... Hopefully it won't get that far. The Gun Mages advance, and use Ricochet shots to clean out the Invictors that lie in between Ol' Rowdy and the enemy warcaster. With the Invictors out of the way, Rowdy charges. At a DEF 16 Kaelyssa might be hard to hit, but with five focus I should be able to get it done. Thanks to Gung Ho, I charge for free, boosting the first attack roll. I hit with a critical, dealing 13 wounds and knocking her down. The second buckler attack now auto hits, and with a boosted damage roll it is enough to kill her. Ol' Rowdy FTW!

With only one box left in each system, Ol' Rowdy arrives with five focus to crush Kaelyssa!

Final thoughts: The extra mobility that eNemo and the Piper brought to my army was critical to engaging and killing off a good chunk of infantry in the second turn. The Gun Mage's ricochet shots were also huge in allowing me to open up the game-winning charge lane for the kill. Nemo's polarity shield kept me from eating an early charge, and more importantly, it denied Narn that little bit of extra movement he would have needed to get all the way to Nemo in turn 2.

As far as the Retribution: they are going to be amazing. It feels like they have managed to take the best part of each faction - they have the sword knight's "battle buddy" and Flank, great ranged attacks combined with good melee on the same model, they have weapon masters, and warjacks with strong melee and ranged options. They have stealth, and units with the Circle-like mobility to move through your army. The only downside I saw is that the Myrmidons seem soft - if you can deal a concentrated burst of damage (like a unit of sword knights with a UA can) they go down fast. I also found myself liking the models much more in person that I did from the previews - that is a good looking army. In all, I'm impressed, and I would almost consider picking them up if I wasn't pretty sure that everyone else and their dog will be playing them as well.

Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

I managed to sneak into the FLGS for a quick game after work. This one was a "training exercise" with Cygnar vs. Cygnar - my eStryker vs. Bobaferret's Siege. Me and the 'ferret have a long standing tradition of the winner writing the battle report (history is written by the victor, right?). I've been writting quite a few battle reports lately, but I won't be writing one tonight... I got a taste of my own medicine, losing the game with a pair of rockets to the face. So, keep an eye on the ghettokore studios blog for the full battle report.

Tonight my focus was learning eStryker. I played him for the first time in the tournament (yeah, dumb, I know), and realized I needed to spend some time with him. He is my first foray into epic warcasters, and I made the mistake of thinking that epic warcasters are just a jacked up version of the original version. In play, they are nothing alike - prime Stryker is a versatile and ultimately defensive caster, where eStryker is a cruise missile in warcaster armor designed to stick it in and break it off. It was going to take a completely different approach.

Here is what our lists looked like:

My Epic Stryker Army (749 pts.) Epic Stryker Squire Ol'Rowdy Journeyman Stormclad Rupert Carvolo 9 Precursor Knights + UA 8 Trenchers + UA Black 13th Stormsmith

Jen's Siege Army (750 pts.) Siege Squire Ol'Rowdy Journeyman Defender Reinholdt Rupert Carvolo 8 Precursor Knights + UA 7 Sword Knights + UA Epic Eiryss Gun Mage Captain Adept Lady Aiyana & Master Holt 2 Stormsmiths

In the tournament I lead with the Stormblades, only to realize that they are just too few and a little too fragile to use as a speartip. They need a delivery service. I had originally planned to take Sword Knights (yeah, I love them just a little too much), but at the last minute I decided to swap them out for the Precursor Knights. The Precursors don't have quite the same damage output, but they make a great delivery service - they can't be targeted by spells, they block line of sight to whatever is behind them, and thanks to kneel they allow the Stormblades to shoot electric death from the back row. I liked this arrangement much better, and if not for some shortcomings (more on that in a minute), I think it would have been a great strategy.

I still struggle a little with the stormblades in this list. They do well, but there are so many synergies to remember (elite cadre bonus, UA bonuses, Stormclad bonues) that I will have to play them for a while to remember to use them all. In fact, between all of those synergy rules, all of Ol' Rowdy's rules and all of the Black 13th's rules, preparing to run this list is an awful lot like studying for an exam.

One last note: It's been a while since I've taken a Stormsmith, and I had forgotten how useful that little guy can be. Mine killed both a GMCA and Aiyanna off, more than earning his 12 points. One of bobaferret's picked off Ryan from out of the middle of the 13th, taking the teeth out of that unit. I love the angry old men - Soft targets beware!

So, why the provocative title you ask? Tonight was a night of misjudging distances at key points in the game. First, my March-empowered Precursors fell a half an inch short when charging the enemy's line, leaving them an inch away and out of shield wall. But that wasn't the worst of it: At the top of turn three I had Epic Stryker perfectly set up for his assassination run, only to find out I did not leave a large enough gap between my Stormclad and a stormblade trooper (by a millimeter!) for him to fit through. The charge failed and I took the rocket to the face for the loss on the next turn. When Siege gets to you there isn't much you can do about it - if I have learned one thing from playing him for the last month is that the best strategy against him is just to kill him fast.

Labels: miniatures, 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