Karchev The Terrible!

League Game 1 - Result, Win by Scenario

2012-01-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

My first league game went well last night, versus Emma's Circle. Won by Scenario with 3 CP to 0, with only a couple of mistakes made during the game from my side, I felt it went really well.

I only had my cellphone camera on me, so the pics are sub par, but I will add them to the end. (Note: The crappy terrain and lack of mat was because we didnt bring any with us, and Mike wasnt there that night - who usually has the terrain :D The lego trees and Wooden castle bits were all good though)

Guidons, the scenario, basically involved moving forward, grabbing an objective, protecting it and getting it to a zone, in order to score a point. If you killed the opposing Objective, you get 2 points.

I won the roll to go first, which was crucial in this particular scenario. My army advanced forwards, out of range of most of Emma's models even if they moved forward, and immeadiately got eDenny in range of control for the objective.

On Emmas turn, she basically did the same thing, moving Woldwardens to hold chokepoints. If she could hang on to them, she could essentially attrition my army down.

My second turn, I manage to get the objective half-way to my zone, no points this round for either of us. First turn its possible to score I believe is 3-1. (Turn 3, Player 1) This is really important, since it gives Player 1 a 1 CP advantage. This turn, I warily advanced most of my troops, and ran Nightmare up right behind a large obstruction in the center of the map.

My plan, of course, was to Ghostly through and take out either Baldur or the Objective. Preferably the Objective, since I would get 3 LP for it. (League Points).

Emmas second turn, she had not yet realised the danger Baldur was in (he was also Nightmares Prey) so she advanced forwards, securing her Objective halfway as well. Woldwardens were in defensive positions, and she had moved forwards a lot of potential blockers, but luckily for me there was still room for a large base. End of second players second turn, and no-one got any points.

My turn three - and I felt I had it in the bag. I actually had already won in my first move this turn, without realising it at the time. eDenny loads Nightmare up with focus, advances, pops her feat, and drops the objective into the zone. Her feat catches all enemy models except for the Druids at the back, essentially trapping Baldur. Nightmare recieves Puppet Master, Imprints for Ghostly, and since he was within 10" of Baldur he just walks forwards 8" and the Objective was in Reach range.

5 attacks later, and I have only taken off half the Objectives life :( I seriously underestimated how tough those little buggers are. I also forgot to do Puppet Master, while this may not have won it for me then, it could have helped. Thinking about it later, I dont know if Nightmare can really kill an Objective without buffs.

POW16 fists do 3 damage on average, Tusks do no damage on average (although I did actually hit for a couple of points with it) which means on average 12 damage - not enough to kill it.

Boosted POW16s do 6.5 damage on average, but Id only get two of them - 13 damage - not enough to kill it.

I dont think you can put Prey on the Objective, but if anyone knows please let me know :D

What I really should have done, was drop "Marked for Death" on the Objective, to get me equivalent POW18s. (Total unboosted: 21 damage, Boosted: 18 damage) Which on average rolls would *just* kill the Objective.

Anyway, I digress. My heart sunk after that fail, especially since I should have moved some different vectors up (all my Arc Nodes were too far away, and I had already activated Deneghra)
What I didnt realise, was that next turn, Emma couldnt move and I would get my second CP. Then it would be my turn, and if I did nothing, I would recieve a third CP and win the game.

At that point, Emma tried desperately to kill something, but because of my feat almost all the attacks Vs Nightmare were ranged and really just did nothing.

Then, her turn ended, and I skipped my turn (since it would accomplish nothing) and won the game on Scenario.

Now, if your paying attention, youll realise that I failed to maximise my CP from this game, which could actually cost me the league in the event of a tiebreaker!! If I had activated Nightmare, and killed the Objective (easy with 3 more Focus) I would have still won the game, but received 2 CP for killing the Objective, leaving me with 4 CP.

Of course, I realised that this morning when I woke up, but at least Ive learnt my lesson - always maximise CP if you can!

Here are the pics I promised earlier:

Emmas army moves up, one Woldwarden in the close forest, the other heading to the Zone. Druids supporting at the back, and Baldur tries to claim the Objective.

The Cryx army advances, Nightmare hiding behind his terrain piece. eDenny claims her Objective, while the rest of the army warily moves forwards.

The Scenario win. eDenny has her flag (the red one) in the zone, while Baldur never made it to his control zone. Nightmare is right in melee, and at this point had only lost one column - to full attacks from Baldur, two Earth Spikes, and the Devouring. Due to my feat, the majority of her army was stationary for the turn that counted, and at the end of the day because of the feat on the turn I used it on, it guaranteed my win on Scenario - making eDenny one of the most dangerous casters I have ever used!

Toad Hall League Game 2

2012-01-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

Toshi vs Luke

Continuing on with my post about which armies im coming up against, my second game for the league is vs Luke and his Khador army.

His list is:

Supreme Kommandant Irusk
>Spriggan
Man-O-War Bombardiers
Man-O-War Demolition Squad
Winterguard Infantry + Winterguard Officer and Standard

While this is a formidable list to come up against, it is also an excellent example of how my list can defeat such difficult things as the Winterguard Deathstar, and a Superioritied Spriggan.

Also note the lack of Magic Weapons, not counting Irusk there is a total lack of them, and a lack of a way to "give" them some also. Remember that Irusk does have a lethal, accurate long range magic attack (Airburst, something that is perfect for killing Pistol Wraiths) with an average boosted damage roll of 18. However, he must target a model for this attack, unfortunately it ignores stealth and also some defence against avoiding the hits.

18, of course, kills almost every trooper in my army on average rolls. In fact, the only people who survive it, other than eDenny and Nightmare (still does 4 damage to eDenny), are Bane Lord Tartarus and Withershadows. This also means that these two should be trying to tank Irusk's Airbursts as well, saving the other troops like Sirens, and the Wraiths.

If he tries to cast Airburst in melee, he wont hurt his own Man Of Wars, but he will kill off his Winterguard. Especially since they wont have tough (except on his feat turn) from Joe, an errant Airburst will take out Winterguard easily.

My plan for those Winterguard is equally nasty. Some sacrifices must be made, of course, but thats always the case. A Machine Wraith will run 14" Incorporeally into what I hope will be the centre of the Winterguard Deathstar (they all have Iron Flesh and DEF18, I assume) and then a Deathripper will run up to 14" in order to get within 8" of the Machine Wraith, and then eDenny casts Hellmouth at the butt-end of the Machine Wraith, catching every last Winterguard into its trap. Then the Deathripper will probably die next turn, but if he charges it with, say Demo Corp I will be able to retaliate and take out even more of his army!

Something I will need to keep in mind, on any turn eDenny is not Incorporeal I have a real danger of being spiked by the Superiority-driven Spriggan. Otherwise the battle will be a war of attrition that I have a good chance of winning, with two sacrificial Arc-Nodes I can cause significant damage to his army before popping my feat, at which time I would clear the objective markers with Venom, WSC, Tartarus (if they are still alive) and any remaining Wraiths.

It is also good to note that if he sends his spriggan too far forward, I could steal it with a Machine Wraith. This is a good advantage! If I can then walk it far enough away, I could kill it with WSC and make a Harrower! Dont know if that will quite happen, but it would be very cool!

Which brings me on to my next concern, the Scenario ill be playing vs him. Incursion, #7 in SR2012.

See my next post for ideas on both Incursion, and Guidons vs Emma.

Toad Hall League Begins!

2012-01-22T21:10:00.000-08:00

The Toad Hall League started on Thursday, a 15 round SR2012 league, which should be good fun :)

We got the lists today, and while my list is no suprise, being a slight change to the previous list I had played, there are a lot of decent lists out there which will require some difficult games to beat. Especially considering the amount of new and crazy rules in SR2012 will be hard to get my mind around.

To recap, my list was:

Wraith Witch Deneghra
>Deathripper (x2)
>Nightmare
Blackbanes Ghost Raiders
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Machine Wraith (x3)
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren

Which I thought had the best parts of my test list, and added some even more powerful abilities. The old list was T4 of course, so I lose the benefit of 2" deployment and 2 SPD on the wraiths, which were not very useful - compared to the benefit of a free upkeep, upkeep hate, puppet master and dark shroud - only having to sacrifice the second pistol wraith and swap out Bane Knights (who did not work well in the previous lists, being non-stealth and corporeal.)

The draw has come up, and funnily enough I have Emma's Circle as my first opponent. Im confident that Ill win the game, since I know Emma's playstyle inside out. Her army will be:

Baldur the Stonecleaver
>Woldwatcher
>Woldwyrd
>Woldwarden
>Woldwarden
Druids of Orboros and Overseer
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer

I have played this army a few times before, so I have a good idea of how it works.

My basic plan will of course, be: Prey on Baldur, use Nightmare to sneak up and hopefully take out Baldur in case I am losing the scenario. Avoid Woldwardens, and use Arc-Nodes to take out the Druids and hopefully ill be able to slow down the Woldwardens enough that I can take the win by scenario.

Ill go further in detail in another post, which will also have my second opponents list!

Emmas Game, and thoughts on the Second Game.

2012-01-14T23:11:00.000-08:00

Emmas games vs Mike and Josh are hard for me to remember, since I was busy while they were happening, but I got the general gist.

Emma won her first game vs Josh with a barrage of Earth Spikes on his Warcaster, but lost her second game vs Mike on scenario, when she couldnt get rid of the Spriggan on one zone, and the Behemoth on the other.

Druids advance, providing support. The number of troops in the middle suggests an attrition game at this point.

Emmas Warlock Baldur just about died the turn before this picture, he ended up on half life after a transfer, as well as on fire, but he manages to escape. Dropped, but not popped.

Baldur licks his wounds, still reeling from the assassination attempt earlier. Woldwardens are sturdy as ever and take an increasingly large amount of hits.

Emmas Constructs and Geomancy turn the tide and force Menoth back, and managed to set off multiple Earth Spikes right on top of pKreoss, killing him.

My second game vs Josh took longer, as he did not commit his forces as early as Mike did. I managed to mangle the Exemplars unit (the ones that get tougher and tougher) in one Hellmouth, but by that point the Bane Knights had been wiped out from the deadly Skyhammer attacks, and a final suicidal sprint to get a kill or two.

We tended to keep our armies apart, he was picking apart my units and solos with Skyhammer rockets, doing serious damage and threatening Wraith Witch Deneghra as well.

After some attrition, I had managed to take out almost all of his Exemplars, as well as almost all of his Rhulic Forgeguard (ARM18 with defensive line guys) but in return had lost all my Bane Knights, all my Blackbanes, and most of my solos. Crucially, I still had two arc nodes left. I had managed to score a control point, because my Machine Wraith stole his Repenter. I had also popped my feat that turn, freezing most of the enemy army in place, including pKreoss (a sliver of an inch in range, hotly contested. [mike objectively judged it])

Because of this, the only thing he could get into the control zone on his next turn, and prevent loss by scenario, was a single un-defended Paladin, with Tough. With a huge effort, including the last Pistol Wraiths guns, with my Repenter that he had failed to remove the Wraith from, killed the Paladin and I won on Scenario.

New Board, 4 player mini-tournament.

2012-01-14T21:12:00.000-08:00

We had some good games today, 4 all up, they were:

Toshi - Cryx, 35pt T4 eDeneghra
Emma - Circle Orboros, 35 pt pBaldur
Josh - Menoth, 35pt pKreoss (ouch, feat)
Mike - Khador, 35pt Karchev!

We had 2 games each, Toshi vs Mike + Emma vs Josh, and then Toshi vs Josh + Emma vs Mike, using the same armies.

We had a good mix of units and warjacks, with no list being a clear counter to any other list - Movement and Denial shenanigans abound, and because we are playing scenarios the pressure is on.

The scenario we picked was "Close Quarters", #3 for Steamroller 2011. Controlling a point on the other side of the board is tricky, since that is basically where the opponent deployed. In turn one, most armies had a lot of troops already in the opposite players control zone. (Unless your Karchev, and can Tow all your warjacks into place, lol)

Deployment Pics, and also army builds: (click to enlarge)

Cryx vs Khador - Khador Army

Cryx vs Khador - Cryx Army

Circle vs Menoth - Circle Army

Circle vs Menoth - Menoth Army

Circle vs Khador

Cryx vs Menoth

As I was getting tired during the day, I forgot to take any more photos after the games of Cryx vs Menoth and Circle vs Khador, but I will sum them up quickly in a second post.

Game One: Cryx vs Khador

This one was an interesting battle, having played Karchev a lot myself, I know what he can do - and just how dangerous he is. I figured this would be difficult to win by scenario, since Karchev would position his Jacks as quickly as I could with solos, and his Jacks win easily. (Especially since Unearthly Rage grants Magic Weapons, ruining all Incorporeal's day.) Nightmare made Karchev his prey, and that did not bode well for him.

I had Bane Knights running up the left flank, and Blackbanes running up the right flank, with most of my solos helping out the Bane Knights. I used my Arcnodes a bit aggresively, and managed a fantastic Hellmouth attack - that cleared out all but one Doom Reaver. Unfortunately, my Machine Wraith served as a target and was also killed. As predicted, Karchev the Behemoth and a Spriggan were firmly entrenched in their home zone, and would prove to be difficult to remove. Kovnik Markov, who I did not consider a threat, moved up to the right flank and threatened the Deathripper.

Turns out Kovnik Markov is a badass, who not only had MAT10 on the charge but also hit eDenny with blast damage! Luckily not knocking her down. Fenris proves too much for Blackbanes raiders, who, after multiple charges still could not even take him off his horse. eDenny walks up, realising the bad situation she is in and goes Incorporeal and pops her feat, catching everyone but the Behemoth in it - including the Spriggan that the Machine Wraith is eyeing up.

On the left flank however, things were not going so well. The Behemoth had suddenly become super accurate and wrote off a Deathripper in one turn. The Pistol Wraiths are not firing yet, wary of Karchev and his strong magic. If you look closely, youll see a Machine Wraith standing right behind Karchev. I was just baiting him really, as a Machine Wraith cannot do anything to Karchev... ever. Except stand in his control zone, I guess.

Not pictured, unfortunately, is Nightmare - waiting behind the rock he had Ghostlied through it, and just inside 10" of Karchev, as it turned out.

The attack happens - Fenris is dismounted, but will slaughter the Blackbanes next turn. Deneghra walks into her most vulnerable position yet, and is not even Incorporeal. She successfully casts "Marked For Death" for a handy -2 ARM. Pistol Wraiths launch themselves forward, each one firing two shots from their Wraithlock pistols, causing minor damage to Karchevs hull and Chilling him from the grave. As it turns out, this was very handy. Nightmare gains +2 SPD from being close enough to Karchev, and then charges, straight passed the Spriggan. (Which was now my Spriggan, since a Machine Wraith had squirmed its way into its cortex)

With 3 Focus and on his prey target - (who wasnt camping any focus - he had spent it on a mighty eruption to kill the Machine Wraith in his turn just earlier) Nightmare tore Karchev to shreds with a mighty Combo-Strike - doing over 20 damage. I look at Karchev's remaining boxes and sigh. After more bought attacks, Nightmare overkills him by 1 point on his last hit.

All in all, a close game and well fought by Mike, who is going to become very good with Karchev soon... I was lucky taking out all the Doom Reavers, since they are a real threat and have a solid punch. The Behemoth never really got stuck in, since Nightmare never went near him, but his Bombards quickly annihilated the non-stealth portions of my army. Karchev himself played it safe - and it was this playing it safe that got him killed. After I managed to cripple his movement with my feat, I was then able to capatilize on it the next turn by going forward into his objective. He never really got to use his good attacks, except on 1 point ghosts.

Which Solos are the hardest to kill?

2012-01-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

This is a question that pesters me, I like squishy, powerful solos, but it is always annoying when a single AOE or a lucky charge takes them out in one hit. So lets look at Cryx's solos, and see which ones are the most powerful in surviving those hits.

For the purposes of this 'thought experiment', Ive decided to allocate various points to each model.
We are not including any buffs except ones that they give themselves.
The points are as follows:

1 point for each DEF up to 14, and 2 points for each DEF 15+. (Average MAT being 7, models will miss half the time against DEF14 - making DEF15 very valuable.)

1 point for each ARM up to 17, and 2 points for each ARM 18+. (Average POW being about 10, a model will take no damage from an average roll at ARM17, making ARM18 very valuable.)

Base Size: +1 point for Small base, 0 points for Medium base, -1 point for Large Base.

3 points for Tough, Incorporeal and Stealth, 2 points for "Unknockdownable" and Terror, 1 point for each additional Health after the first, and a judged benefit from any other defense ability. (Ghostly, Dragoon, Parry = 1 point) Fearless and Undead are a given in this army, if they do not have either of these abilities they lose one point.

Cryx Solos:

Bane Lord Tartarus:

At DEF13 and ARM17, he falls into the category of "Average rolls will hurt him". This gives him 30 Survival points so far. Sitting on 8 HP, this gives him 7 more points. He also has Stealth, +3 points, Ghostly (avoid free strikes), +1 point, and Terror. (+2 points)

This gives Tartarus a survival points score of 43.

Bloat Thrall:

At DEF10 and ARM14 with 8 health, the Bloat Thrall is easy to hit and easy to kill, giving him a subtotal of 31 points. He is unknockdownable for 2 points, but -1 for a Large base.

This gives the Bloat Thrall a survival points score of 32.

Darragh Wrathe:

Solidly built, at DEF14 and an average armor of 16, and total health boxes being 15, he gets a subtotal of 44. Dragpon can be used to save his life, thus giving a 1 point benefit. He could also use Beyond Death to effectively raise his defence, but is then not attacking anyone. This gives +1 point also. Being a large base is risky, so loses on point.

This gives Darragh Wrathe a survival points score of 45.

Gerlak Slaughterborn:

With a statline of DEF12 and ARM17 with 8 boxes, Gerlak is almost as tough as Tartarus. Still not in the optimal stat areas, this gives him a current total of 37 points. Add in Tough and Terror for 5 points, and add "Unknockdownable" for 2 points and you have a solid defensive solo.

This gives Gerlak a survival points score of 44.

Machine Wraith:

With a substandard statline of DEF14 and ARM12, with one health, it gives him a survival score of 26. Luckily Incorporeal helps out his chances. (+3 points).

This gives the Machine Wraith a survival points score of 29.

Necrotech:

Necrotechs arent designed to be front line fighters, at DEF12 and ARM13 with 5 boxes. This gives a subtotal of 29. Unknockdownable gives an additional 2 points.

This gives the Necrotech a survival points score of 31.

Pistol Wraith:

Pistol Wraiths have that same weak statline, DEF14 and ARM12 with 5 boxes, giving a total of 30 points. Their saving grace is Incorporeal, for 3 points. Small base for +1. This is really the limit of their defenses however.

This gives a Pistol Wraith a survival points score of 34.

Skarlock Thrall:

The Skarlock Thrall sits on DEF 14 and ARM 12, making him hit on average rolls and most things will kill him. This gives him 26 points so far. With 5 HP, he gets an additional 4 points. Small base for +1. This is really the limits to his defensive qualities.

This gives the Skarlock a survival points score of 31.

Warwitch Siren:

The Warwitch Siren has an excellent DEF at 15, but bad armour at 13. With 5 health, this puts her sub total on 34. Adding in Stealth and Small base bonus is another 4 points. Parry is another useful move at +1 point. Shadowbind and Seduction are both survival moves, giving her another point for both of them.

This gives a Warwitch Siren a survival points score of 40.

Conclusion:

As we can see, there are equal amounts of Squishy and Hardy solos.
The Hardy solos, (Survival points of 40+) are:

Warwitch Siren, Gerlak, Darragh Wrathe, and Bane Lord Tartarus.

This makes sense as these are the most common solos that I see as well. Since Wrathe and Tartarus are both 4 points, they really should be on this list. Gerlak is nice to see here, he is known to be hard to put away and can really work on the offensive as well. The Warwitch Siren, at 2 points, seems to be the cheapest and hardiest of all Cryx solos - given its popularity, its no wonder why. (Also, the only solo to have DEF15 base).

Solos that I didnt write up: (Dont have the model or stats)

Satyxis Raider Captain, Scrap Thrall, Iron Lich Overseer, Captain Rengrave,

Test Army - Toad Hall Leagues

2012-01-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

A testing game of my potential league army is coming up this weekend, the current thoughts for it, without giving away the tactics behind the army, is looking like this:

Wraith Witch Deneghra

>Deathripper

>Nightmare

>Skarlock Thrall

Bane Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Blackbane's Ghost Raiders (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Machine Wraith

Pistol Wraith

Warwitch Siren

Warwitch Siren

There are a few alternatives im thinking about as well, but it will depend on wether 1 arcnode is sufficient, or if I should really bring two. I could also drop the Skarlock and Warwitch Siren (one of them) for full Bane Knights, which would increase their effectiveness - but since we are playing scenarios, killing enemy heavies is not the highest priority... or is it?

Cryx vs Circle

2011-12-18T22:05:00.001-08:00

Had a practice game, only 15pts this afternoon vs Emma's Circle army. Was pretty close for a while, before a critical knockdown spelled the end for Lich Lord Venethrax.

Cryx Deployment - Venethrax, 2 Deathrippers, WSC, Bloodgorgers and Gerlak.

Circle Deployment - Baldur, Woldwarden, Woldwyrd, Argus, Blackclad and a Warwolf.

Turn 1 - Bloodgorgers go up the flank, Venethrax advances to the middle, Deathripper tries to kill the Blackclad wayfarer.

Turn 2 - The Bloodgorgers swarm from the forest in an attempt to kill the Argus, most of the attacks failing miserably. The Deathripper arcs Blood Rain, corroding the Wayfarer and delivering a solid hit on Baldur.

Turn 3 - Most of the Bloodgorgers are dead, as is a Deathripper. The Argus dies also, and all of the Circle forces are now Corroding.

The Duel - 2 shots from the Woldwyrd, a Critical Knockdown spray from the Blackclad Wayfarer, a miss from the Woldwardens Earth Spikes (rolled double ones) and then Baldur forest walks into combat with Venethrax.

Bleurgh - Baldur needs an 8 to kill Venethrax on his last roll, and rolls... an 8. Nice work Baldur!

The Blackclad Wayfarer, MVP of the match. 1 HP left, and about to die next turn, he critical knockdowns Venethrax and sets up the kill for Baldur.

Khador vs Cryx

2011-12-15T10:50:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! Had a fun, but very long game last night versus Umbrood of Hastings Cryx army - I took Old Witch, who had with her Beast 09, full Nyss Hunters, 2 min Kossites, and various merc solos - eEiryss, Gorman, WM Marksmen, and a Manhunter.

Umbrood took along pDenny, Bane Thralls + UA + Tartarus, a Stalker, Deathjack, and Cankerworm.

This game was only 35points, but due to the nature of our armies ended up taking around 3 hours to finish!

The result was - stalemate. We ended up annihilating each others forces, Umbrood ended with pDenny and 3 Bane Thralls left, I had OW + Scrappy, 3 Nyss, my Widowmaker, Gorman and eEiryss left. I couldnt really advance and attack due to stealth, he couldnt advance because I would charge and kill him, so we just called it there.

My Kossites reeeally sucked this game, one unit came in and spent 3 turns getting killed by a Stalker, the other unit came in, charged Bane Lord Tartarus, promptly failed their leadership test and then got Threshered to create 3 more Banes for the Thrall army.

Nyss did exceptionally well, Bane Thralls needing 12's to hit due to Iron Flesh was really game changing, I did end up losing most of them over the course of the game due in part to Scourge from Denny, curses from Tartarus and one lucky dice roll from a Bane Thrall, but their CRA and Weaponmaster attacks once engaged helped keep them around.

My biggest problem was too much stealth, not enough AOEs. Most of my models literally could not shoot at 80% of his army, and I had lost Beast 09 early in a failed attempt at wiping out the Deathjack. (I did take out 3/4 of his boxes, but then died the next turn to a combined attack from Cankerworm, Ripjaw and DJ himself.)

Anyway, no pics unfortunately as I forgot to bring my camera, but most of our models were unpainted anyway so there wasnt much to see :)

Mercenary Pics!

2011-12-12T21:21:00.001-08:00

Here are some pics of Mikes Mercenary and Khador models, a fellow gamer here in Hawkes Bay. My blog is kindly hosting them so that I can repost them in the local forum we have here - If there are any Hawkes Bay Warmachine players, feel free to join us on twincitygamers.co.nz/forum

Painting Weekend

2011-12-11T00:05:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, caught a cold off my wife this week, so I managed to get some painting finished while watching a "Die Hard-athon". Movies 1 through 4, classic good times.

Finished Epic Deneghra, a Machine Wraith, and painted up Baldur for Emma.

eDenny

Machine Wraith

Baldur, the Stonecleaver

Garage Sale! Plus Bloat Thrall Done

2011-12-04T23:02:00.001-08:00

Hey guys, first up - just finished a Bloat Thrall, and am working on Nightmare and a Machine Wraith, they will probably be finished in a day or two I would say.

Also, I have a sale of some random mini's from Warhammer and Warmachine, which you can see by clicking this big link here.

Disclaimer: NZ buyers only please, overseas postage is too expensive :(

Modelling and Painting Updates

2011-11-29T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hey guys - a bit of a lag between posting again, hard to get myself back into the swing of things I guess.

Anyway, thats not to say a lack of painting, modelling and gaming, although the stresses of buying a house and a new job do get in the way.

Ive managed to redo my old Karchev the Terrible, with a more suitable (i think) weathered and beaten look, and not such a weird hand pose.

Here is the original paint scheme, Im still not certain I actually improved him at all!

Another, mostly finished but still a little WIP model is pDenny:

And last but not least (for today anyway) is Nightmare, converted from an old Slayer I had lying around. Apart from a badass pose, Nightmares main ingredient is big claws... so I stole some tyranid ones to make his claws a bit bigger. No paint on him yet, though, Ill get on to that soon I hope :D

Two games in - and the enthusiasm is back!

2011-10-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

Had my second game last night, with a karchev + jack heavy list, and won on caster kill. This was a welcome relief from my first game, where I lost by scenario. The scenario in this game was to control a 12" diameter circle in the middle of the map - I was playing against an Irusk tier list which included the Behemoth.

No pics, unfortunately (forgot to take the camera) but it unfolded like this: 2 units of Man of War come in from his flank to the middle, plus the Behemoth and a Berserker. I totally mess up a Karchev power slide and end up 1-2" away from the Behemoth with 3 of my jacks. Then, my opponent messes up by forgetting to allocate focus to the behemoth - leaving the Behemoth failing to damage (significantly) any of my jacks. My turn - and Unearthly Rage wrecks both the Behemoth and the Zerker, and from that point I was just clearing troops till Irusk went down to a powerslide + Unearthly Rage attack by Drago/Spriggan/Kodiak. Good times :)

Back - After a long hiatus

2011-10-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

Hello readers! (If there are any left, that is!)

After a long break from the hobby, due to moving to a new region and a new job, I have decided to get back into the game in full swing. I have looked around and through the local hobby shop (Jambo Hobbies in Napier) I have found a club that has recently gotten together to play Warmachine.

This sounds great to me, so this Thursday I will be packing a 50 point army to meet some of the guys, and have a game. Its only been a year or so since my last game, but im sure this will go well - Ill just take the ridiculously powerful Strahkov + Beast 09 combo that I won so many games with before, and see how it goes.

So, Ill take the camera as well, and have a play. Im quite excited about getting back into it, I suppose being a social hobby it sucked not to have anyone to play against (I miss you John, if your still around!)

Luckily Forward Kommander is still around, and I made a list for tomorrow night:

Kommander Strakhov

>Beast-09

>Destroyer

>Juggernaut

>War dog

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)

>Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

>Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Harlan Versh

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Man-o-war Drakhun (without dismount)

Widowmaker Marksman

A Sad State Of Affairs

2010-07-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, been a while since I posted due to being extremely busy... Im moving, and so have been doing a lot of work on packing up the house, and sorting out stuff to leave behind / sell / give to the salvation army.

While doing all this hard work, ive been convinced I do not need as many *toys* as I have, regardless of my protests that they are "Action Figures", and thus do not constitute toys.

Since my wife is better at arguing than I am, ive relented and decided to put some of my millions of Khador and random assorted models up for sale. This includes some Cygnar, Skorne and Retribution stuff I had collected, but never really used...

Anyway, for any NZers interested in some stuff, its all in varying conditions, some straight out of the box, some constructed, based and undercoated but never got round to painting, and some painted (to a high quality, of course).

Heres a link to go have a peruse, and perhaps bid on stuff! =D *CLICK ME*

Baldur vs pButcher

2010-04-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

A quick practice game vs Emmas Baldur Construct army, this time I took pButch, Devastator + Kodiak, and a unit of Widowmakers. Emma took Baldur, a Woldwarden, two Woldwatchers and Lord of the Feast.

Deployment:

Baldur + his constructs. (The Argii are proxies for Woldwatchers, btw.)

Butcher and his Jacks. Widowmakers are deployed in the tank traps.

Advance:

Butcher and his Warjacks run into position - Emma defends behind forests. And Solid Ground. Which makes the Devastator almost useless.

Emma pops Baldurs feat, and takes pot-shots at the Jacks, most attacks bouncing off their armour. Jacks sloooowly move into position.

Combat:

Butcher gets into melee range - by running, and camps his focus for the inevitable onslaught.

Dead Baldur:

A valiant attempt - the combined attacks of Lord of the Feast, the Woldwarden, Baldur and 2 Woldwatchers bring Butcher down to 1 health box. (Iron Flesh + Camping Focus ftw) And then it is Butchers turn. Ka-Splat!

Final Thoughts:

This was a Butcher rush list - and it just about failed horribly for me! I figured Emma wouldnt commit fully to the attack to try to kill super-Butcher, but she did, and it nearly paid off (1 more damage!) However, it just made Butcher mad, and he clove Baldur in two on his next turn. Mmmm chopped up Baldur.

The Work Desk

2010-04-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Ahh... so much work, so little time.

My Cryx bases... I have to paint them all before I can put them on the bases, and then I have to undercoat the models. This takes a looong time, and is part of the reason why most of my models are still at the undercoat stage :D

Strahkov vs eButcher

2010-04-25T15:07:00.001-07:00

I had a game against Toby last thursday, to try out my Strahkov 15pt list which I think is now pretty optimal. Basically Strahkov + Beast 09 + Destroyer + War Dog.

Toby was practicing his eButch, with a unit of Doom Reavers + UA, Great Bears, War Dog and a Juggy.

Deployment:

Didnt want to get too close to them Doomies. Superiority on Beast 09, Sentry on the Destroyer.

Advancing:

4 Doom Reavers + the Escort down...

2 More Doomies and a Great Bear down...

Fail at killing anything, but I think I did a column of damage on the Juggy... who looks angry and wants to charge!

Combat:

Great Bears run to engage Beast 09, who Threshers and kills one, freezing and KD the other. The Juggy charges and attacks Strahkov - needing an 11 to hit. Rolls 3D6 and gets 10! Phew.

Beast 09 charges eButch, and *just about* kills him, but hes rather tough - especially on ARM22. I start to look worried at this point... Strahkov, Destroyer and Wardog kill the Juggy.

Endgame:

eButcher goes down - but not before he just about kills both Beast and the Destroyer!! He obliterated them. With one round of attacks, he did 25+ damage to each Warjack. Thats just crazy.

Final Thoughts:

A good game - one where Toby obliged me by walking into the double shots of the Destroyers Bombards. Managing to kill all the Doom Reavers and Great Bears before they could attack helped a lot, and in the end getting the charge off with Beast 09 was still not enough to kill eButcher - that man is one tough S.O.B.

Game 3 - Cryx vs Menoth

2010-04-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

After the quick kill in the previous game, we decided to have one more to finish off the day.

John changed his army a bit, using eSeverious this time. I decided to try eGoreshade, with a bunch of Bane Thralls.

Deployment:

Theres a pretty decent view of the deployment - max Bane Thralls on the left flank, with Bile Thralls and Blackbanes on the right flank. 2 Light Jacks on the Menoth side, the one with the long range rocket launcher, and the Blessing of Vengeance.

Battle Starts:

Lots of vicious fighting going on here - most of the Bane Thralls die to the rocket launcher jack, and in retaliation they charge the Avatar and mangle it badly, as well as trying to take out the Blessing of Vengeance. On the other flank Blackbanes are increasing their numbers by killing infantry.

The Helldivers try to get Sevvy, but it doesnt work very well. Tartarus and the Bane Thralls are wiped out, but so is the Avatar. Theres a looot of enemy models still...

We reach a stand-off - Goreshade doesnt want to get too close to Sevvy, who might easily squash him, but Sevvy cant leave the protection of the tank traps, which are saving him from being eating by the Helldivers.

The Cryx army starts to take out the remaining Menites, but Sevvy still has his feat - capable of killing up to 6 undead models instantly. (well, my weak ones anyway.) The massive amount of Blackbanes make my army huge - as they glut the bodies of the enemy troops.

My last Bile Thrall sacrifices himself - and killing the majority of the remaining troops. Severius kills most of the Blackbanes, who manage to replicate themselves a little more. Severius then charges a Helldiver, killing it with Wrath of God.

Endgame:

Unfortunately for Severius, this leaves him open to a charge from Goreshade - who seals the deal with a few swipes of a God's own sword.

Thoughts:

eGoreshade is an alright caster. He has some good support spells, but his feat is tricky to use. Blackbanes did reaaally well, and doubled and tripled their unit during this fight, and were great. Bane Thralls got annihilated, as did Tartarus. They still just about killed the Avatar though.

A good game, which I almost lost. Severious made himself vulnerable for a charge, but if he hadnt if would have been rather difficult to get to him. I think ill have to change my rules for the Tanktraps...

Game 2 - Cryx vs Menoth

2010-04-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

We started the next one straight away - I changed my Warcaster to Mortenbra and John stuck with basically the same army.

Deployment:

Menoth deployment - he has some Cleansers on the left flank, and the rest of his army is on the right flank.

My army has a min unit of Bloodgorgers, Blackbanes and some Bane Thralls over to the right flank. Mortenbra is going to advance, and try and take out Kreoss with some Jack action.

Advance:

Our advance - Blackbanes run through the tank traps - greedily looking at the Cleansers. They cant hit the Ghosts, and the Ghosts will double their unit size if they hit them.

Combat:

John foils my plans by protecting is main army - and I rush forward, massacring the Cleansers. However, my units are looking vulnerable to a counterattack. The Knights advance through the forest due to Pathfinder, but I dont want to risk my Bane Thralls by advancing and attacking.

Endgame:

So - turns out the game didnt advance very quickly after this point - John moved eKreoss out from behind his covering troops, and the Helldivers had their attack vectors. Mortenbra moved up, cast Terminal Velocity, and thats all she wrote.

Thoughts:

A good game, John was doing a great job of manouevering, but made a mistake by moving eKreoss into a vulnerable position, and the Helldivers did their work.

Helldivers = awesome. Other things that performed well were the Bloodgorgers with Gerlak, with some lucky Tough rolls they survived for quite a long time considering the attacks unleashed on them by Johns army.

Game 1 - Cryx vs Menoth

2010-04-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

The first game between John and I, the dreaded eKreoss exemplar army vs a mixed army with eDenny.

Since we had three games this day, im going to be a little quicker with the posting - as im really rather lazy and prefer to let the pictures do the talking!

Deployment:

The main Cryx elements. 2 Helldivers and 2 Stalkers, supported by Blackbanes, a unit of Bane Knights, Tartarsauce and Gerlak.

The Cryx flankers - these guys did amazingly well this game. Cephalyx Overlords, and a unit of Bile Thralls.

Menite Jacks - the Avatar, (first time I played against it, I was rather worried) a Crusader and a Castigator.

Two (2!) units of Knights Exemplar + Gravus, who buffed them quite a bit. Ouch!

Advances:

My army advances, the Incorporeal and Ghostly elements rushing up the flank. The units on the right flank ran into the forest. John moves the bulk of his army up, with some extreme defence.

Annihilation!

Combat starts! I use almost everything at my disposal and kill the Avatar. He had done his Gaze of Menoth, and screwed my armies mobility, and then had to die. It took all the Bane Knights, Tartarus, Pistol Wraith and Deneghra to kill it. Deneghra moves up and pops her feat - immobilizing the entire Menoth army! On the flank, the Cephalyx Overlords spray - ignoring LOS - and kill 5/6 of a unit of Knights. The Bile Thralls do a purge, killing most of the other unit. Gravus is still going strong though.

The Menite army is almost neutered by not being able to move, and I basically get an extra turn to deliver the pain. Which I do, almost wrecking both remaining Jacks and slaughtering the remaining Knights, bar one or two. Big mistake here - I forgot to activate any of my Bonejacks! Dammit!

Where did everyone go?

Lol - the Castigator erupts in a cacophony of flame, and kills just about everything - including most of his own troops. It wipes out a Helldiver, (which should have been burrowed /facepalm) and im left with the bare bones. Unfortunately for Kreoss, so is he - only a mangled Crusader and himself left.

Retreat!

Rather than face an honorable end at the hands of the evil Cryx - Kreoss hightails it outta there, and runs off the board. Living to fight another day.

Thoughts:

eDenny is amazing - or, should I say, her feat is amazing. Its kinda like a better version of pSorcha's feat, since you cant shake it off or anything, combined with a DEF debuff. Against primarily melee armies (I wouldnt like to play Khador vs her) its brutal. She did need an arcnode though.

Helldivers are awesome as usual, and the Cephalyx Overlords really excelled - advancing into a forest with Pathfinder then shooting 8" Sprays which ignored just about every defensive buff imaginable! Bane Knights are good, but I think I prefer Bane Thralls after playing with both.

eDenny 40pt Army

2010-04-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

To play against John today, I will be taking eDenny. Havent used her before, but have heard shes quite good. So we will see how she does with no arcnodes! Hehe.

Wraith Witch Deneghra

>Helldiver

>Stalker

>Skarlock Thrall

Bane Thralls (Min)

Bile Thralls (Min)

Blackbane's Ghost Raiders (Min)

Cephalyx Overlords

Bane Lord Tartarus

General Gerlak Slaughterborn

Pistol Wraith

Looks like fun, taking all the Bonejacks ive come to love, as well as some decent units and the super-solos of cryx. Report to come later..

35pt Game - Heroes for Sale Toby vs Toshi - Battle 2

2010-04-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

The next game we had with the same armies, basically straight afterwards. Ill get right into the nitty gritty bits:

Deployment:

Similar to before, the table didnt really have much room to deploy differently. This time I was intending on having all the cavalry flank right, while the main force advance straight ahead to distract the enemy. Toby set up in a blob opposite the Demo Corp.

Combat Begins:

The five strong squad of Cavalry boost around the right flank, in an attempt to get behind the Jacks. The Destroyer moves in to intercept, his Executioner axe will reap a heavy toll! The Demo Corp are spreading out in an attempt to avoid getting killed towards the rest of his army.

A brutal fight erupts center field, and I lose 2 Demo Troopers and 2 Uhlans - as well as some of the solos. However, on my turn, eVlad pops his feat as I spot an opening - a 14" charge from the last Uhlan! Under Hand of Fate, Transference and eVlad's feat, he kills pVlad (who didnt have BoK on him - he thought he was safe - HAH!) with his two attacks. (P+S19 on the charge!)

End Game:

The successful Uhlan - a fantastic charge. If I hadnt got this charge - and it was pretty close too - it would have been a hard slog to take out Tobys army. I had hardly damaged anything, and lost half my heavy hitters as well. A good game, ended with a nice assassination :D

Final Thoughts:

As I thought, eVlad's feat ended the game again. It is just so versatile, and makes any trooper worth about 5x as much. Even Mechaniks would be brutal with this feat! This army would probably work better at larger points limits, as it was getting a bit ridiculous when you start to lose your feat targets.

Good game though, eVlad is still just so awesome. Even the craziness of pVlad cant stand up to his awesomeness.

35pt Game - Heroes for Sale Toby vs Toshi

2010-04-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

This game was played a while back, I just never got around to writing out the reports for them! (Theres two games, but ill do them in seperate posts).

This was my awesome eVlad list, which basically had max Demo Corp, min Uhlans, Markov + Drakhun + solos sprinkled in.

I was playing against Tobys pVlad list, with 3 heavies! A Decimator, a Juggernaut and a Destroyer. Plus the Great Bears and the Whor..... Eiryss.

Basically, I was trying to pop my feat, combined with Transference, to put an early end to that imposter Vlad on the other side of the field - while not losing any of my important models.

Deployment:

We had a short table, which meant this game was going to be brutal and quick. A line of Demos, Uhlans and other various solos were on my side, vs a wall of Jacks.

Setup:

Here I was setting up for the kill - trying to decide to use my feat for the assassination, or to annihilate his army.

Combat Begins:

I didnt need the feat - and the Demos charged and demolished the enemy Jack. I think it was the Juggy. Bombards from the Destroyer take out an Uhlan, but their speed will ensure they see combat.

The enemy Vlad decides to rock on up into the melee - and fails to do anything other than kill a Demo Trooper. The Decimator and Destroyer likewise do not do any serious damage.

End Game:

The Feat Turn - and 4 Men of War Demo Corp are hitting at MAT 9 and P+S17, with 2 attacks each. Oh yes, Vlad is toast.

Final Thoughts:

eVlad is just as evil as ever. His feat is awesomely good, and makes almost any Khadoran into a force to be reckoned with. Almost every trooper in this army could have gotten the caster kill - and if I remember correctly, the first Demo Corp by himself killed Blood of Kings pVlad.

15pt Battle - Circle vs Khador

2010-04-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

A quick game Emma and I had today - 15pts of Circle vs Khador action!

After getting such a nicely painted Strahkov *cough, cough* I still hadnt tried him out! I was a little wary about using him, as it was my first try, and I wanted him to do well, but I figured he probably played like a more aggressive form of Irusk, and it worked out well.

I brought Strahkov, with a loyal retinue of Beast 09 and a Destroyer, and his War Puppy to keep him company.

Emma brought Baldur, a Woldwarden and 2 Woldwatchers - which she hadnt used before - and Lord of the Feast.

Deployment:

Strahkov and the boys.

Baldur and his beasts.

Combat Begins:

Circle advances up, taking cover in the forests. Strahkov casts Superiority on Beast and Sentry on the Destroyer - before throwing a cloud bomb to try and block some Line of Sight.

Strahkov feats, and Beast 09 charges 13"! Right into Lord of the Feast and the two Woldwatchers. He freezes one, damages the other and kills LotF. With Stoneform, even Beast 09 couldnt kill the Woldwatchers! The Destroyer takes potshots at the Woldwarden, who takes potshots with Earthspikes back at him.

Another turn of attacks, and the Woldwatchers stand strong! They even half kill Beast 09 with their attacks. The Woldwarden fires off its Earthspikes, but does no damage. The Destroyer blows another chunk in it, doing some more damage. Strahkov is firing like mad, but rolls bad for his D3 shots twice in a row - 1 shot, then 2 shots.

Baldur forestwalks into combat with Beast 09 - but with a shocking set of rolls fails to cripple any part of him! In desperation, the one remaining Woldwatcher and the Woldwarden try to damage Beast, hurting him slightly, and then he turns around - with Superiority, Murderous, and 3 Focus its all downhill for Baldur.

Combat Ends:

Not only was he frozen in place, Beast 09 does a massive 16 damage in one hit from the Ice Axe. Baldur luckily has 17 health, but the extra focus means an Icy death for old Baldur.

Final Thoughts:

Strahkov is a very cool caster - Superiority still is the best Warjack buff in the game, and that combined with the best Warjack in the game is a killer combination. Baldur could have killed Beast with the Forestwalk combo, but fluffed the dice rolls. Sentry is fun, basically double dipping with a single model, getting two shots. What I found was that Strahkov never has enough focus to do everything he wants to do! I didnt even have enough to cast all his upkeeps in the first turn! (I missed out on Occultation) Beast 09 yet again gets the caster kill, adding another notch to his well worn axe handle.

Warmachine + Warhammer Auctions on TradeMe

2010-04-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

Hey guys -

Spent half the day today looking through my giant collection of various models, and decided that there were some I just really didnt need anymore.

So ive put them on TradeMe. Just click this text and you can have a look.

Please buy them, I need the money for... errr... my sick monkey.

Cryx vs Menoth - 35pt Game vs John

2010-04-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

This game took place about a week ago, and finally getting around to doing the report today :)

It was a good game, getting John back into the swing of things, and me taking my Cryx out to play.

I took Gaspy, Harrower, Reaper, 2 Stalkers and various solo's out to take on some of the best the Testament of Menoth had to offer - Knights Exemplar, Knights Errant and Deliverers, with a good smattering of Menoth super solos - including the first time I had played against Vilmoth!

Cryx Army:

The army of undead doom!

Menoth Army:

The large infantry squads of Menoth.

The Advance:

Cryx advances cautiously, and does some serious damage to the Knights Errant and the Knights Exemplar, but leave themselves vulnerable to counter attacks.

Combat Begins:

The battle starts in earnest, with the Harrower being destroyed, and the Menite Light Jack (the one with the arcnode... something starting with R!)

End Game:

Gaspy has lost most of his army at this point, due to the Knights Exemplar or the Deliverers laying into the Cryx army. He tries to get the Testament, but this proves more difficult than he thought. He follows him all over the board, but it looks like the battle is going against him.

And the end of the Iron Lich - even though over the course of the game, Cryx must have killed the Knights Exemplar ten times over, but Testament kept bringing them back. It proved to be his downfall - and they annihilated Asphyxious.

Final Thoughts:

This was a fun game - which came right down to the wire. A couple of bad dice rolls on both sides saw the majority of their armies totalled, with a few key models here and there getting killed. I lost my Skarlock and the Bloat Thrall to the Crusader, and John got his Pallys and Vilmoth killed, all for the trade of a Stalker. My Pistol Wraith did great, getting behind the Menoth lines and killed a Pally and the majority of the enemy Deliverer squad.

A big mistake I made was forgetting which Warcaster I was playing against, I thought his feat was the one where he ressurects a bunch of his guys who can then charge, when it was actually the epic version where he makes his army incorporeal. I was worried the whole time about getting assassinated by a bunch of dead pallies, when actually I could have committed Gaspy much earlier.

40pts Tournament Prep Battle Number 2 - Cryx vs Circle!

2010-04-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

Emma and I had another practice game today, with me trying out my Cryx army again. This game was at 40pts, my new favorite points limit :)

I took pDenny, with 2 Helldivers and a Reaper, Min Blackbanes, Min Bane Knights, Min Soulhunters, a Pistol Wraith, a Bloat Thrall, and the Withershadow Combine.

Emma had almost the same list as last time, except swapping out the Woldwyrd for an Argus.

Deployment:

Baldur advances behind a screen of two Woldwardens, Megalith and an Argus.

Deneghra has her support with her - a bunch of evil creations!

Early Turns:

We advance towards each other - most of the Cryx army runs, while the Druids advance up the right flank of their army.

The Druids are not happy with the fast advance, and the Cephalyx Overlords annihilate the Druids of Orboros with their sprays!

Combat!

A massive brawl ensues, with most of the Bane Knights and Blackbanes being cut down. They do some moderate damage to the Woldwardens, but their toughness stops them from being destroyed.

One Soulhunter survives the Earth Spikes volley, and the Helldivers move ever closer to Baldur... Cryx is starting to seriously run out of manpower here!

Deneghra advances and pops her feat, just after Baldur pops his. Baldurs army is caught in the effect, and the Cryx forces make their final attack runs. One of the Helldivers charges Baldur, and lands with two Bite attacks on a -2 ARM and DEF Baldur. With slightly better rolls, it would have killed him, but as it was it brought him to 7 health left.

The End:

The next turn, although Denny was in a vulnerable position on the board, the enemy was debuffed quite badly by the Withering, and Baldur failed to kill either the Helldiver or the last remaining Blackbane's Ghost - and with 3 focus on the Helldiver the next turn it was allll over.

Final Thoughts:

Another good game, with a relatively close result. A mistake from Emma was all the Helldiver needed to sink its teeth into Baldurs juicy flesh. The Withering is evil as ever, but most of Deneghra's potential is lost without Arcnodes. I reeeeallly need to put together some more of my chicken jacks. Or at least one. >.<>

40pts Tournament Prep Battle - Cryx vs Circle!

2010-04-06T22:42:00.000-07:00

Emma and I had a quick game this afternoon, 40pts of Cryx vs Circle.

My army consisted of:

Denny + a Harrower, Cankerworm and two Stalkers, supported by a Skarlock, Bloat Thrall, Bane Lord Tartarsauce, Slaughterborn and a unit of Bloodgorgers.

Emma took:

Baldur + 2 Woldwardens, Megalith and a Woldwyrd, supported by LotF and Druids + UA.

Baldurs honor guard get ready to protect him against the Cryx enemy.

The Cryx scouting force discovers Baldur in the deep woods...

Getting Close:

The deadly dance begins - as the mortal enemies begin to engage.

Closing...

The Lord of the Feast kills 4 of the Bloodgorgers, the Pistol Wraith takes out a Druid only to be killed by Megalith in return.

Closed!

Massive casualties on the Cryx side, with all the Bloodgorgers going down. A Stalker manages to flank and get behind Baldur, and Baldur is so worried he advances into the protection of the Woldwardens - and into range of the Cryx army.

And the end:

Deneghra pops her feat, and advances to cast Crippling Grasp on Baldur as well. The Harrower with 3 Focus on it advances into range and cuts Baldur down.

Thoughts:

Well, this was a good tactical game for me, especially using the deadly but squishy Cryx army. Stalkers excelled, with extreme speed and range managing to totally outflank the Circle army. Also, the Harrower has proven a good choice yet again, an extremely useful gun, combined with decent armour and defensive abilities and practically the best melee combination possible - Reach + Thresher.

The Bloodgorgers were great, except they took the hit from the indomitable Lord of the Feast. I forget just how deadly this guy is. He took his last hit on Gerlak Slaughterborn, and did 7 damage of his 8 boxes! If he had killed him, it would have just got worse. Emma only made a mistake with running away from the Stalker, which probably wouldnt have killed Baldur, into range of Deneghra's feat + the Harrower.

Bane Lord Tartarus is amazing as always, hes practically the Cryx equivalent to Lord of the Feast. He threatened a lot of things, and ended up slaughtering some Druids.

Revanant Cannon Crews are useeeless! Looks like it wont make it on the table again anytime soon. Ill probably have to sell it I think, its just hopelessly bad for an army like Cryx.

50pt Cryx vs Johns Menoth

2010-03-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

Got a game against John next Thurs, and will play some Cryx against him. Heres an army list, haphazardly thrown together with some models I havent used yet. Should be fun :)

Lich Lord Asphyxious

Skarlock Thrall

Cankerworm

Helldiver

Stalker

Harrower

Bile Thralls (Min)

Soulhunters (Min)

The Withershadow Combine

Bane Lord Tartarus

Bloat Thrall

General Gerlak Slaughterborn

Pistol Wraith

Lets see how well these guys do... (battle report to come in a week or so :D)

Strahky Done! Pic Turns Out OKish..

2010-03-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Lol.

Here he is, done. Im working on getting a better pic, or editing this one better, but we will see how we go.

This will do for now:

Extended Playing Around With "Black Operations"

2010-03-27T01:57:00.000-07:00

From earlier, Ive got a 35pt list planned out, but have been thinking of extending it to 50pts as well. This is to complement my 'official' 50pt eVlad list, but Strahkov is just too cool not to extend him to this level as well.

To recap:

______________________________________________

Black Operations Tier 4 35pts:

Strahkov = +6

Juggernaut (7)
Kodiak (8)

Assault Kommandos (Min) 5
>WA x 3 (3)
Assault Kommandos (Min) 5
>WA x 3 (3)

Widowmakers (4)
Widowmaker Marksman (free - tier 3)
Widowmaker Marksman (2)

Kossite Woodsmen (Min) 4

Total: 35

______________________________________________

Black Operations Tier 4: 50pts

Strahkov = +6

Wardog (1)

Juggernaut (7)
Kodiak (8)
Destroyer (9)

Assault Kommandos (Max) 8
>WA x 3 (3)
Assault Kommandos (Min) 5
>WA x 3 (3)

Widowmakers (4)
Widowmaker Marksman (free - tier 3)
Widowmaker Marksman (2)

Kossite Woodsmen (Max) 6

Total: 50

What ive done here is add a Destroyer, for some bombard action combined with Sentry, should be quite useful, then upgraded one of the Assault Kommando units and the Kossite Woodsmen to maxed units, which should help them last longer, and then with the last point threw on a Wardog for kicks.

Strahky WIP - Base Colours

2010-03-26T02:06:00.000-07:00

Getting there with Strahky, im enjoying painting this model. He oozes class.

And heres one i touched up a little with some amateur photoshopping:

Strahky - WIP Pics

2010-03-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

Its... STRAHKY!

Heres my WIP pics of him, built him a base out of grey stuff, with a rocky stone ground piece over it, and some trench spikes sticking out of it.

He is quite far forward on his base, which ive balanced by adding a decapitated head and a mutilated shield behind him - the wreckage he leaves in his wake.

Very nice model, and only 2 parts! (Body + Knife)

Ive made a slight alteration of the angle of his gun arm and his knife arm, just angled them slightly more horizontally giving him (i think) more presence.

Warmachine Auctions

2010-03-21T01:07:00.000-07:00

Some of my Khador I have too much of im selling on Trademe.

You probably only want to look at it if you live in NZ, as its probably quite expensive sending this stuff overseas :D

Basically:

Mohsar
Old pSkarre
New pIrusk
Marauder (converted, missing head)
Unit of Kayazy Assassins
Unit of Widowmakers

Painting List - Part 3 - This Time Its Personal

2010-03-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

Well a lot of Jacks in this list, but luckily most of them are already done!

________________________________

Karchev The Terrible = +5 = Done!

Juggernaut (6) = Done!
Destroyer (8) = Done!
Destroyer (8) = On the Painting Table.
Kodiak (7) = Done!
Berserker (5) = Done!
Devastator (8) = Done!
Spriggan (9) = Done!
Behemoth (12) = Currently undergoing reconstruction and repainting.

Min Man Of War Demolition Corp (5) = Done!
Min Man Of War Shocktroopers (5) = On the Painting Table.
Greylord Ternion (4) = Done!
Max Mechaniks (3) = Done!

__________________________________________

Well, as you can see, I like painting Jacks and thats why most of them are all sorted. I redid the Behemoth, (... he suffered an unfortunate accident *glowers at emma*) and he is currently still in bits awaiting paint stripping.

Shockys need to be done anyway, for pButcher lists and the like, and then ive just got to finish off the 75% completed second Destroyer, this one in Camo style!

Achievement List: 75pt Theme List

2010-03-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

For the final Theme/Tier list that I am going to put together, its going to be the big man in red - Karchev!

75pts is a lot to play around with, so with the tier restrictions its going to be a little bit tricky. Luckily, 'jacks are big and cost lots of points, so ill start there!

Karchev The Terrible = +5

Juggernaut (6)
Destroyer (8)
Destroyer (8)
Kodiak (7)
Berserker (5)
Devastator (8)
Spriggan (9)
Behemoth (12)

Min Man Of War Demolition Corp (5)
Min Man Of War Shocktroopers (5)
Greylord Ternion (4)
Max Mechaniks (3)

Total: 75

The main point of this list is to abuse the -1 pts for Jacks in Karchev's Tier list. Im doing this by packing it full of the very best Khador has to offer - every single type of Jack except the pitiful Marauder. This is only because I prefer other Jacks though, and really dislike the Marauders model. In fact, its one of the 'jacks im going to sell.

Anyway, thats beside the point. By taking 8 Warjacks, im saving 8 points worth of models! Thats basically another Kodiak. (Or, a free Kodiak, however you want to look at it) On top of this, my Men of War - which I had to take - get to move before the game begins, so at least ill have a Shield Wall distraction thats up front early. Ill also get to place one free 3" cloud effect somewhere. (I dont see this being very handy)

My basic strategy here will be to run everything and cram it down my opponents throat. The Demo Corp will be advancing directly behind the Shocktroopers, who will Shield Wall up the board. They are slow, but I dont care, they are a necessary 10 point distraction. Later on, I may try swapping them out for 6 MoW Bombardiers, to run up behind the "JACK WALL OF DOOM!" (c). This is basically going to consist of the majority of the melee Warjacks (Juggernaut, Kodiak, Spriggan, Berserker, Devastator) running every turn (going to be expensive on Focus!) .. if they can, while the two Destroyers and the Behemoth will be walk behind them, lobbing Arcing Fire Bombards over their heads - and hopefully taking out infantry and other nuisances.

Karchev will be positioned safely behind them, with Sidearms up - making the initial Jack Wall unknockdownable and somewhere between DEF11 and 12 each. The Greylords will advance behind them, and pop Blizzards to help them up to DEF13 and 14 vs ranged and melee - which isnt toooo bad. Karchev spends the rest of his focus after casting and upkeeping Sidearms doling it out to the ranged jacks for some boosting or the melee jacks for some running.

It will look kinda like this:

MJ = Melee Jack
RJ = Ranged Jack
GL = Greylords
K = Karchev

----enemy-------

MJ-MJ-MJ-MJ-MJ

GL-RJ-GL-RJ-GL-RJ

--------K-------

And the MoW will be doing something... on a flank i suppose :D

As soon as the melee starts - Karchev pops his feat and casts unearthly rage as each Melee Jack charges and annihilates any enemy within range. I wouldnt do this unless I could basically cripple the entire enemy advance with this charge - probably taking out all their jacks / beasts in one fell swoop.

If people try to bait this list, Ive got sacrificial Jacks in the front row - charging out at some bait with the Zerker, with the other Jacks lying in wait, the Zerker with Unearthly Rage will *most likely* kill the bait, and wont mind dying to a countercharge, for the counter-countercharge of the rest of the boys!

Mmmmmm.

Ill do my follow up painting post after this, to see how im going and how far away this achievement really is....

EDIT: Obviously, Mechaniks will be trying to repair stuff. I didnt think I needed to say that, did I?

Painting List - Part 2

2010-03-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

The next group of models to become fully painted:

______________________________________

eVlad = +5 = Done!

Drago - (8) = Done!

5 Iron Fang Uhlans - (10) = Still need to buy 2 of these guys!
5 Iron Fang Uhlans - (10) = Still need to buy the whole unit!
10 Iron Fang Pikemen + UA - (10) = On the Painting Table.

Great Bears of Gallowswood - (5) = Done!
Kovnik Markov - (4) = Done!
Widowmakers - (4) = On the Painting Table.
Kossites - (4) = On the Painting Table

Not quite so bad, got some spending to do on 7 more Uhlans - so that may take quite a while since those dastardly horses are expensive, but most of the Painting work isnt too bad. Widowmakers are almost done already, Kossites will be easy, its just the full unit of IFP thats going to be annoying!

Achievement List: 50pt Theme List

2010-03-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

For my fully painted 50pt Theme List, im going to put together and paint this eVlad list, which will complete one of my Achievements.

eVlad = +5

Drago - (8)

5 Iron Fang Uhlans - (10)
5 Iron Fang Uhlans - (10)
10 Iron Fang Pikemen + UA - (10)

Great Bears of Gallowswood - (5)
Kovnik Markov - (4)
Widowmakers - (4)
Kossites - (4)

Total: 50

Thanks to Hoyaforlife for his input!!

The main point of this list is to take advantage of all the tier benefits, including cheaper Uhlans (saving me 2 points) , advanced deployed Great Bears (wow), free upkeep spells - which would be Transference on eVlad, Assail on Drago, and Hand of Fate on *probably* a unit of Uhlans, since they can take advantage of it the earliest. An extra 2" of deployment will obviously help here to apply axe (or lance) to face.

A standard eVlad strategy, basically setting up the feat to do one of two things - annihilate the majority of their army, allowing you to win by attrition, or assassinate the enemy leader - which one or two Uhlans will do easily, especially under Hand of Fate and eVlad's feat!!

Painting List - Oh How Depressing

2010-03-16T01:57:00.000-07:00

Ah the painting list. I need to get this fully painted, so time to figure out what I have to do:

___________________________________________________

Strahkov = +6 - Dont even own this model yet!

Juggernaut (7) - Done! (Camo Juggy)
Kodiak (8) - Done!

Assault Kommandos (Min) 5 - On the Painting Table.
>WA x 3 (3) - Dont even own this model yet!
Assault Kommandos (Min) 5 - On the Painting Table.
>WA x 3 (3) - Dont even own this model yet!

Widowmakers (4) - On the Painting Table.
Widowmaker Marksman (free - tier 3) - Done!
Widowmaker Marksman (2) - On the Painting Table.

Kossite Woodsmen (Min) 4 - On the Painting Table.

A lot of work to do.... /sigh. Luckily Ive started the Widowmakers already, so just gotta finish them off. Have to wait a while for the Assault Kommando Flamethrowers, but Strahkov will be here this month... I hope...

Achievement List: 35pt Theme List

2010-03-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

For my Achievements on the side there ----------->

Im going to get a fully painted, themed 35pt list.

With Strahkov releasing, I want it to be him for the 35pt list.

And here we go:

If you'd like to see the discussion, the thread is here.

Strahkov = +6

Juggernaut (7)
Kodiak (8)

Assault Kommandos (Min) 5
>WA x 3 (3)
Assault Kommandos (Min) 5
>WA x 3 (3)

Widowmakers (4)
Widowmaker Marksman (free - tier 3)
Widowmaker Marksman (2)

Kossite Woodsmen (Min) 4

Total: 35

So the main idea here is not to worry about Sentry too much - and concentrate on Overrun and Occultation, along with Strahkovs overall combat expertise, with the option of throwing Sentry on either Strahkov or a Marksman.

Massive amounts of AKs, one of the units having Stealth, and shield walling up the board, trying to get in close.

For anti-heavy capability, the rock hard Juggernaut and Kodiak are there, and on the feat turn the Heavies have some great threat range.

This is primarily a defensive army, with Stealth, massive immunities to fire and corrosion, and the rest of the army has high defence. Kossites come in from the back, partly to get my tier3 bonus, and partly to take care of stuff like Choir + Weapon Crews.

Any suggestions?

To clarify - this army also has 4 major advantages:

Both Assault Kommando units, with the 6 Flamethrowers get Pathfinder and Advance Deploy
I can place 2 Trench templates within 20" of my table edge
I get my free extra Widowmaker Marksman
Models and units start with Strahkov's Upkeep spells already on them, and dont have to pay to upkeep them for the first turn! That means a free Occultation (probably on the Assault Kommandos, as well as putting them in a Trench first turn), a free Overrun (probably on Strahkov), Sentry for free (on a Marksman) and a free Superiority! (On the Kodiak definitely!)

Oh yeah! Cant wait :D

Increased Field Allowances Through Tiers

2010-03-11T18:07:00.000-08:00

As an interesting exercise, I was going through my models and decided to flick some of them off on TradeMe. Havent done it yet, but have to figure out what I want or dont want...

Extra Manhunters: pButcher, Strahkov,

Extra Koldun Lords: pVlad, Zerkova, Karchev,

Extra Assault Kommandos: Strahkov,

Extra Widowmaker Marksmen: Strahkov,

Extra Kayazy Assassins: eIrusk,

Extra WG UA: eIrusk,

Extra Doom Reavers: eButcher,

Extra Doom Reaver UA: eButcher, Zerkova,

Extra Greylord Ternions: Zerkova, Karchev,

Extra Iron Fang Uhlans: eVlad,

Well....

Extra Greylords, Uhlans, Doom Reavers, Kayazy Assassins and Assault Kommandos are a bit much - I dont need that many double ups, especially for only one theme list.

However - Widowmaker Marksmen, Manhunters and Koldun Lords are in high demand!! Due to Strahkov taking two, I only need an extra Widowmaker Marksman, but extra Manhunters and Koldun Lords looks like a great option!

35pt Battle - Khador vs Menoth

2010-03-10T22:35:00.000-08:00

35pt Battle - Khador vs Menoth

2010-03-10T22:30:00.000-08:00

A very good game against John a week or so ago, pFeora vs pButcher, with a Tiered army.

Was really fun, and was relatively close.

Deployment

Butcher, 2 Maxed units of Shocktroopers, 2 Kovniks, a Devastator, Widowmakers and a Widowmaker Marksman with a couple of Manhunters.

Versus a mighty Menite army, 4 (!) Devouts, with a full unit of Temple Flameguard, and a mighty Castigator for a heavy. Plus the usual support behind them.

The Advance!

Widowmakers open fire, taking out some of the well protected Flameguard with sniper bullets.

The entire unit of Flameguard are destroyed by a combination of Widowmaker shots - and the impressive Devastator exploding a Rain of Death.

The Grand Melee

The Devastator takes some hits, and a Manhunter and most of the Widowmakers fall.

The Khadoran counter-attack hits hard, wrecking 3 of the 5 Menoth jacks. However, all the Khadoran Man of War's are stuck and are bogged down. Luckily, theres not much of a Menite army left at this point!

End Game

Feora charges in as basically the last bite from the Menites, and ends up wrecking the Devastator. It might be too little, too late though.

It was a little too late - and the Shocktroopers open fire with their short ranged, but incredibly powerful Shield Cannons. They make short work of Feora.

Conclusion:

A fun game, pButchers tier list is amazing! Shocktroopers are quite reasonable at 8 points for 5, and are a solid, solid melee unit. The Devastator works well, especially with Butchers feat! Lots of dead things!

Tier Lists for Khador

2010-03-10T20:37:00.001-08:00

Well, ive been chomping on the bit, and a bunch of people have had the book now - finally some real info is being posted!

Ill amalgamate it here:

pVlad:

non-char jacks, Drago, Mechaniks, Ternions, Iron Fangs, dog, Greylord solos

T1: zerkers -1PC, Koldun Lord FA+1 for each ternion
T2: must have 2 units IFP, all IFP get +2SPD first round.
T3: 3+ Koldun Lords, all greylords get first turn
T4: Only jacks are zerkers+Drago, all jacks get

Old Witch:

Tier 1
Mode's/ units in the army gain Stealth during the first round

Tier 2
Add Yuri the Axe to the army free of cost. req for tier 2 is two units of kossites

Tier 3
Friendly models/ units can begin the game affected by the Old Witch's upkeep spells. Old Witch doosn't have to pay focus to upkeep spells your first turn. req for tier 3 is two ternions

Tier 4
Models/units in the army gain Pathrinder during your first turn of the game. For each heavy warjack in the Old Witch's battlegroup, place one 4" AOE forest anywhere completely within 20" of the back edge of her deployment zone. req for tier 4 is two heavies

She can take:
Any non-character warjack
Battle Mechaniks, Greylord Ternions, Kossifte Woodsmen, Widowmakers
Manhunters, Widowmaker Marksmen, Yuri the Axe

Strakov:

Tier 1
Assault Kommandos go FA U and gain

Tier 2
Requires 2 Kommando units
For each kommando unit, place one trench template anywhere within 20" of your table edge.

Tier 3
Requires four or more units
Add one Manhunter or Widowmaker Marksman free of cost. It ignores FA restrictions O.o

Tier 4
He needs two 'jacks
Same as Old Witch tier 3

eRusk's:

Jacks: non-characters, Behemoth
Units: Mechaniks, Widowmakers, Winter Guard units, Kayazy units
Solos: Marksmen, Kayazy solos, WG solos

Tier 1: Kayazy Assassins become FA: U, and Mortars/Field Guns get +1 FA for each WG Infantry or Rifle Corps unit
Tier 2: 2+ WG Infantry, get a free UA for them
Tier 3: 2+ Kayazy Assassin units, Kayazy units/models get Advance Move
Tier 4: Take the Behemoth, each warjack in Irusk's battlegroup get 1 free focus at the beginning of your first turn

eButcher:

can take Doom reavers, regular jacks, Manhunters, Wardog, Fenris, Yuri, and Doom Reaver solos.

Tier 1:
Doom reavers and Doom reaver attatchments have FA U (but still only one attatchment per unit)

Tier 2:
requires at least 3 DOom reaver units
Reduce cost of Doomies by 1

Tier 3:
Include Fenris (like you didn't anyway)
Gain +1 on the starting roll

Tier 4:
Two or more 'jacks on Butcher
Butcher's base focus at the start of the game and your first turn is 7. Don't roll Arcane Dementia.

Zerkova:

can field non character 'jacks, Battle Mechaniks, Doomies, Greylords, Manhunters, Fenris, Doom reaver solos, Greylord solos

Tier 1
Greylord Ternion and Koldun Lord solos get FA U

Tier 2
Requires 2 doom reaver units
Add a unit attatchment for free, ignoring FA restrictions

Tier 3
Requires two or more Koldon Lords
Koldun Lord solos and their marshalld 'jacks gain

Tier 4
Zerkova has three 'jacks in HER battlegroup
Models gain +2 SPD during the first turn

Big Karchev:

Jacks, Mechanics, Greylords (lot of em), MoW, and associated solos

T1: Ternions are FA:U and Koldun Lords are FA +1 per ternion!
T2: 2+ MoW units, MoW gain Advance Move
T3: 1+ ternion units, for each ternion, place a 3" cloud effect in play before first turn
T4: 3+ jacks, each jacks costs 1 less

pSorscha

Uses Beast, Mechaniks, Widowmakers, Wintergarde, Marksman, and WG solos.

Tier 1
A warjack gains Advance move for each Mechanik unit

Tier 2
Requires three or more Winter Guard units
Add Kovnik Jozef Griforovich for FREE

Tier 3
You use Beast 09 (so free, amirite?)
you get +1 on
the kick off roll

Tier 4
Your army includes 3 warjacks
Your deployment zone goes an extra 2"

eSorscha

Uses Beeast, Mechaniks, Widows, MoW, Wintergarde, Manhunters, Marksman, MoW solos, WG solos.

Tier 1
Reduce Kodiaks by 1 point

Tier 2
Needs two or more WG Infantry units
Old Witch's trees grow for every two units.

Tier 3
Includes two or more MoW
MoW gain advance move

Tier 4
Include 2 Kodiaks
The whole army gains for turn 1

eVlad...

Takes Drago, Kossites, Widows, IF units, Wardog, and IF solos.

Tier 1
IF Uhlans become FA 2, and reduce the cost of each unit by 1

Tier 2
Requires the Great Bears
Great Bears gain

Tier 3
Vlad uses ONLY Drago
Old Witch's tier 3

Ther 4
Include Markov and one or more IF units
pSorscha's tier 4

pIrusk

Uses Behemoth, AKs, Mechaniks, IF, MoW, Wardog, IF solos, MoW solos

Tier 1
Reduce the points cost of Devastator and Spriggan by 1

Tier 2
Include 2 IFP
+1 to the start-of-game roll

Tier 3
2 MoW units
MoW get Advance Move

Tier 4
You use two or more 'jacks
eVlad's tier 4

Thats all of em!!

Except pButch of course, but thats readily available :)

Strahkov!! Stats + Everything

2010-03-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

This is from the info of Jack Frost from PP Forums, so is 99% legit!

Strahkov:

spd: 6
str: 8
mat: 7
rat: 6
def: 15
arm: 16
foc: 6

WEAPONS [STRAKHOV]
Cinder Bomb [1x] (None) RNG: 6 ROF: 1 AOE: 3 POW: 14
Damage Type: Fire
Cumbersome - If this model attacks with this weapon during its activation, it cannot attack with another ranged weapon that
activation. If this model attacked with another ranged weapon this activation, it cannot attack with this weapon.
Smoke - This weaponʼs AOE is a cloud effect that remains in play for one round.

Riot Gun [1x] (None) RNG: 10 ROF: 1 AOE: - POW: 12
Rapid Fire [d3] - When you decide to make initial attacks with this weapon at the beginning of this modelʼs combat action, roll a
d3. The total rolled is the number of initial attacks this model can make with this weapon during the combat action, ignoring ROF.

Trench Sword [1x] (None) POW: 6 P+S: 13
Magical Weapon
Brutal Charge - This model gains +2 to charge attack damage rolls with this weapon.

alchemical mask
immunity to fire and corrosion
elite cadre assault kommandos (pathfinder)
sprint

feat

friendly faction models that charge or slam while in strakhovs control area get +4 mov...jacks in his battlegroup can charge and slam without spending focus

spells

battering ram
cost: 2
rng: 6
aoe-
pow: 12

enemy model hit pushed 3 directly away from spells point of origin

occultation
cost:2
rng: 6
upkeep

target model/unit gains stealth

overrun
cost: 2
rng: 6

battlegroup model makes a kill another model in battlegroup makes full advance..expire.

rift
cost: 3
rng: 8
aoe:4
pow:13

AOE is rough terrain and remains in play for one round

sentry
like counter charge, but no range necessary and may shoot at enemy model.

superiority
cost:3
rng: 6

target friendly warjack gains +2 SPD, MAT, DEF and cant be knocked down

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :)

Initial thoughts:

Giving a whole unit stealth?? AWESOME! mmm IFP shieldwall with stealth... Sentry on a Destroyer? His feat looks amazing. +4" threat range on the charge!! Thats nutty.

EDIT: Added in his weapon stats from BOLS.

15pt Battle - Khador vs Menoth

2010-02-21T16:27:00.000-08:00

The third game we had that fateful day (this was actually the middle game) was a 15pt brawl between Menoth and Khador - using the pVlad list from this post here, and him taking the same list he took against Circle here except for swapping a couple of things about, biggest change being swapping the arc-node Jack for the Castigator.

Deployment:

John went first, and positioned his troops nice and neatly in a line. My Jacks protect Vlad, while the Mechaniks wait to help out any way they can - even if it costs them their lives! (Which, it turns out, is how they helped.) The Manhunters on the right flank, Advance Deployed.

Turn 1:

Menoth rushed forwards, covering about half the ground by running. I know that my Jacks have about an 11.5" Threat range with Vlad popping his feat, and 13.5" if I Boundless Charged them. I measured his control range, and both my Jacks were easily in range of the Castigator!! First turn feat, focus on each jack, BoK and BAM. Castigator and a Paladin down, and Drago was in melee range of the High Reclaimer! All of a sudden, I realised I was very vulnerable to a unit of charging Weaponmasters, so the loyal Mechaniks ran and engaged them.

Turn 2:

John was a bit stuck here, so did the only thing he really could. He wiped out the Mechaniks with the Knights, walked High Reclaimer away - losing half his health to Drago's free strike - and popped his own feat, bringing back the Paladin. The Paladin then charged, and did some damage to Drago.

I saw an awesome opportunity - and took it. The rest of my army killed off as many Knights from the back of the unit as i could, then Drago trampled over the remaining of them as well as the newly resurrected Paladin - under the effects of Signs and Portents and Vlads affinity.

Final Turn:

Thoroughly demoralised at the loss of his army, the High Reclaimer advanced and tried to kill Vlad with his spells - which didnt even touch the mighty Khadoran noble. Vlad pops Signs and Portents, and the Manhunter charges the High Reclaimer, killing him in two fell swoops.

Final Thoughts:

pVlad is still a beasty beasty caster, but cannot cast both S+P and BoK in the same turn anymore. This leads to a much more interesting game, with Vlad having to be at least a little bit more careful with what he is doing. Drago again, with Vlad is incredible. Unfortunately, hes the only caster that Drago is incredible with. Still, they make a great team. The rest of the army was filler, and im glad that the Mechaniks were there. They easily saved either Vlad's or Drago's life - and were well worth 2pts. Vlads feat is brutal, and on such a short table can mean early destruction first round.

35pt and 30pt Battle - Khador + Circle vs Menoth

2010-02-19T02:04:00.000-08:00

An awesome battle between John, Emma and I, we played a 35 pt Menoth force vs a 15 pt Khador and 15 pt Circle army. The extra 5 points for John was to make up for the fact he was fighting against a two Warcaster/Warlock team.

I brought the Old Witch army list I took in the previous game here, and Emma took her Mohsar list that she used in the previous game, here. Johns list was impressively huge, with two Heavies, a Light and a large number of Menite Infantry. You can see his list here (Game 3).

Deployment:

Circle sets up on the far left, Khador on the far right. Menoth is pretty even right in the middle.

Turn 1/2:

Menoth rushes forwards to Circles position, while trying to hold up Khador positioned on his flank. Kossites come in from the sides, one unit taking out Menoth artillery, and the other unit trying to support Circle.

Turn 3:

Khador cleans up on the right flank, while Circle holds solid with a wall of salt against the Menite heavies. Things wont look good if those Heavies get to Mohsar...

Turn 4:

Menoth heavies engage Megalith, who pounds them to bits, unfortunately failing to destroy them. The attrition is in full swing, with most of the KE dying to Crevasse and other circle attacks. The Kossites pester Feora and her support by coming around behind. John's arc-node light Jack is engaging my forces, slowing me down to help out in the middle.

Turn 5:

With a resounding bang, Megalith goes down to the fists and maces of the Menoth heavy jacks. Circle is very quickly running out of models, and Mohsar is reduced to spamming Crevasse in a hope of taking out the heavy Jacks systems. The Old Witch is hurrying to get into the battle, the resolute Menoth Light manages to survive a round of combat with the Destroyer. The Kossites shoot out the Heirophant, and further pester Feora, forcing her into the open.

Final Turns:

The next couple of turns are pretty slow, the Kossites regroup and pepper Feora with shots, and die to attacks by the Knights Exemplar. The Old Witch advances on Feora, intent on sacrificing her to Mother Khador. Mohsar avoids assassination with his hiding around, but is forced to bleed himself dry for fury. He struggles in the face of an incoming heavy. The game ends at this point, as John needs to go home...

Confrontation

Final Thoughts:

"The Old Witch looks hungrily at Feora, still blazing with righteous fury. Her steel claws click together as she anticipates the kill. Looking over to her one-time ally, Mohsar, she sees him in peril, one of the mighty Menoth Warjacks looming over him. Sighing, and letting out an inhuman cry - sounding like a flock of crows - she implodes in a cloud of black feathers, just as a jet of Menoth's Fury scorches the ground she once stood.

Feora looks around, slightly confused, as the Kossites melt into the woods around them. Deathly silence descends on the field, and Feora proudly leads the remaining haggard Knights Exemplar and the limping Castigator from the field.

Mohsar snarls angrily at the Crusader, about to slam its mighty Inferno Mace right on top of him, as a swarm of black crows envelopes the gigantic construct. It is distracted for a moment, and then continues its arc - crashing into the ground that Mohsar stood mere seconds earlier.

To live, to fight again another day..."

This was a really fun game, with the Old Witch trying to Guerilla the enemy Menites. John played very strategically, throwing away a portion of his army to the hungry Khadorans in order to concentrate his attacks on Circle. As luck would have it, a bitter melee left both armies crippled, but the game ended before the almost fresh forces of Khador could get to the enemy lines. This was a very long game, but one I think all of us thoroughly enjoyed.

15pt Battle - Circle vs Menoth

2010-02-15T23:52:00.000-08:00

This game was between Emma and John - John had his list that you can see here at his blog, and Emma took a list similar to what she had brought last game:

Mohsar the Desertwalker
^Megalith
^Woldwyrd
War Wolf
Lord of the Feast

Turn 1:

The deployment: A line of Knights, against a lone few Warbeasts...

The main advance. You can just see Lord of the Feast in the background, about to munch on some Menite artillerists.

Turn 2:

Circle is defensive, but manages to Crevasse most of the Knights Exemplar.

Turn 3:

Menoth has almost lost all of his troops, and most of them aren't coming back. The Circle forces are able to defend, and are practically untouched.

Final Turn:

On his last legs, the High Reclaimer pops his feat - and a Seneschal appears in Mohsars back arc. 2 attacks and a chain-attack Smite later, and Mohsar has been assassinated!

My Thoughts:

Even though I didn't play this game, this was a close match with some great swings of momentum. I thought Circle had it in the bag, and then Menoth came back with a brilliant use of his feat to get an awesome Assassination run. Exciting games!

Emma's Thoughts:

I could almost taste the win in this game, but that was right before the High Reclaimer popped his feat. Thankfully few of the models could return due to Mohsar removing them from play rather than destroying them with Crevasse. However, it only took one Seneschal being resurrected in Mohsars back arc to finish him off. Next time I'll be more careful about Seneschals! Very pleased with Lord of the Feast, he was awesome and loving Crevasse. Mohsar is my current favorite caster!

15pt Battle - Khador vs Circle

2010-02-15T00:38:00.000-08:00

Another quick battle at 15pts, this time the Old Witch vs Baldur the Stonecleaver.

Emma took Baldur, Megalith, a Woldwyrd, Lord of the Feast, and a Warwolf.

I took my Old Witch "Guerilla Warfare" list.

Guerilla Warfare:

Not quite painted, but getting there. I need to paint up those Kossites, but they are such bland models... this army starts off with very little board presence, but able to bring in 12 Kossites from the sides to mess with the squishy support at the back.

Old Witch and her Guerilla Army

Turn 1:

Baldur advances under cover of Forests, but luckily for me OW and the Destroyer ignore it for LOS. Destroyer takes a shot, doing practically no damage to Megalith.

Turn 2:

Old Witch hunkers down behind cover, while the Kossites move in on the left flank, trying to get behind Baldur. They take some pot-shots, doing nothing except kill the War Wolf.

Turn 3:

The Old Witch puts Murder of Crows on herself, keeping her safe. Megalith and Baldur were spamming Earth Spikes, knocking down and slightly damaging the Destroyer, but missing with most things. The Woldwyrd was causing OW's spells to cost double, which was annoying as hell. The Kossites fire some more shots, most missing horribly.

Turn 4:

Baldur pops his feat, and Megalith charges, ending .5" out of range of the Destroyer. The Destroyer laid into Megalith with his axe, failing to destroy him. Even going half speed, Scrapjack manages to charge and kill the Lord of the Feast. The Kossites aim, and need 12's to hit Baldur. 12 shots later, one hit... doing no damage.

Final Turn:

Megalith trashes the Destroyer, with POW18 fists, and Baldur fails to do any serious damage with Earth Spikes. Old Witch teleports to Scrapjack, and feeds him 4 Focus. The Kossites unleash hell, finally doing some damage to Baldur (about 1/3rd I think). Scrappy moves up, and attacks multiple times - with Baldur transferring one hit, he still goes down to the insane Warjacks multiple attacks.

Thoughts:

Old Witch with Kossites is really good, they suit her style of play (Guerilla Warfare) to a tee, and can do some decent damage - but only on squishy models. I was lucky Emma didnt aim at them for a turn, as she probably could have killed most of them. The only problem with this list is that she cant take on heavy armour, the only high POW weapon I have is the Destroyer, and if he goes down thats it. Megalith would have been practically invincible had this game continued.

Scrappy is a decent assassin, but again, has low MAT and POW. Old Witch proved yet again hard to pin down and kill, and feels like a Cryx caster more than a Khador caster. Still, a fun game, if a long one!

Emmas Thoughts:

I hate hate hate the Kossites! They are very intimidating coming in from the side and I shouldn't have ignored them like I did in this game. If I was in this position again I think I would use Lord of the Feast to take them out and failing that probably the Woldwyrd. This was my first time using Baldur and I will hopefully better understand how to use him next time :). First time using Megalith too and loved him! Especially with Stoneskin. Now I just need Toshi to buy me the model so I don't have to proxy him.......

15pt Battle - Khador vs Circle

2010-02-13T22:28:00.000-08:00

A new game against Emma, practising the 15pt battles that Ive been building lists for. In the interests of lightning quick games, we are playing width ways rather than length ways on my 4' by 2' gaming board.

While this does allow for some extreme 1st turn threat ranges (ie, in this game, first turn my Doom Reavers charged and killed a Feral Warpwolf) the game is into it much quicker, and the pace feels more fun for 15pt games.

Todays game was Zerkovas 15pt army - The Greylord Enclave. (#5 on the list).

I was playing against Emma's first try at Mohsar the Desertwalker, with a Feral Warpwolf, an Argus and a Gorax for beasts, and Lord of the Feast for her solo.

Turn 1:

Doom Reavers charge, and 3 of them kill the Feral Warpwolf. The rest of the army moves up into combat.

Between Mohsar, the Gorax, and the Argus, they wipe out the offending Doom Reavers.

Turn 2:

Beast 09 juuuuust makes his charge attack, and Threshers both the Argus and the Gorax - freezing the Gorax solid, but failing to kill either.

Greylords move up the flank to protect against Lord of the Feast, but dont kill him.

Mohsar damages Beast, causing him to advance and get him in melee. In desperation, Mohsar kills the Lord of the Feast with Sands of Fate and takes his place.

Final Turn:

Beast 09 managed to kill both Warbeasts, but on Mohsars turn (proxied by Kaya this game btw) he cuts for full fury, and proceeds to annihilate Zerkova with a boosted Sand Howler and a boosted Crevasse. Argh!

Final Thoughts:

Great fun, and a really nice, quick game. Zerkova is good in these low point battles, but I always misjudge how resilient she is. Mohsar is another brilliant Circle lock, with almost unmatched mobility. Doom Reavers were great, advanced deployment, and 11" threat are really good in this short distance game, and they definitely made their points back.

Vs John - 15pt lists

2010-02-09T21:46:00.000-08:00

John and I are going to test out our brand new MK2 models with a few 15pt games, being able to try out some models and warcasters we wouldnt normally have used.

Ill write up a bunch of 15pt lists (6 im hoping) then randomly determine which ones ill play. Each one will have a semi-theme, and all use different Warcasters.

(1) pVlad - Berzerker Fury!

Vladimir, The Dark Prince

^Berserker

^Drago

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Harlan Versh

Manhunter

(2) pSorcha - Freeze and Bomb

Kommander Sorscha

^Behemoth

^War dog

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

(3) Karchev - Can't touch this, deh deh deh deh.. etc.

Karchev the Terrible

^Beast-09

^Devastator

(4) Old Witch - Guerilla Warfare

Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador

^Destroyer

^War dog

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

(5) Zerkova - Greylord Enclave

Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova

^Beast-09

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

(6) pButcher - Insane In The Membrane!

The Butcher of Khardov

^Beast-09

^Juggernaut

^War dog

Manhunter

So this should be fun, any of these lists should be viable, and we will see how they do against the might of Johns army!

Heroes For Sale Game - 20/2/10

2010-02-05T17:51:00.000-08:00

Im going to be playing a 50pt game with Toby at Heroes for Sale in couple of weeks, not this saturday but the one after.

Should be good fun, if you live in Palmy come and have a look :)

Ill be taking my good old eSorcha Winterguard list - and just to give Toby a heads-up this is what ill be running:

Forward Kommander Sorscha

^Beast-09

^War dog

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)

3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers

Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Harlan Versh

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Manhunter

Manhunter

This is basically an expansion of my other 35pt list, with the "Winterguard Deathstar" as its now being called, backed up by some heavy support - namely Mortars and Greylords. The Greatbears and Manhunters flank, while the Widowmakers and Harlan Versh skirmish in front in order to pick off incoming forces.

Ill probably be playing vs Khador, so Beast 09 and eSorchas feat are what I will use as an answer to heavy armour. At the end of the day, my Winterguard will be hard to kill, and will advance as close to the enemy Warcaster as possible to finish the game.

2 Battles last night!

2010-01-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

Well - had Toby and Raymond around last night for some quick battles, first up we had Emmas Kaya army vs Raymonds Thagrosh army, at 15pts each.

Emma brought Kaya, with a Feral Warpwolf, an Argus, a Woldwyrd and Alten Ashley.

Raymond brought Thagrosh with a Carnivean and an Angelius.

Game 1, Turn 1:

Emma and Raymond both advance - only interesting thing happening at this point is Alten Ashley pings the Body off the Carnivean!

Turn 2:

The Carnivean eats Alten Ashley, and sprays the Warpwolf for a smattering of damage. The Angelius gears up for a killing charge!

Turn 3:

It was looking so promising, and then both armies back off to lick their wounds!

Turn 4:

After fully healing up the Warpwolf and the Carnivean, the two armies get back into the fray, well, almost.

Turn 5:

The real action begins! The Angelius charges the Warpwolf, and Raymond rolls shockingly bad, failing to kill it!! The Carnivean moves into a blocking position, as Raymond realises Kaya could be in range of Thagrosh. (note how far away Kaya is from Thaggy)

Turn 6: Final Turn

Kaya does the Spirit Door assassination run - reaches Thagrosh, but rolls below average on her 9 Fury worth of Attacks and only manages to scrape Thagrosh. The Carnivean then turns around and bites Kaya's head off. Game!

Conclusion:

My comments: Wow. With a bit of indecision on both sides, this game was quite drawn out with the to-ing and fro-ing. This is why I like the Khador Mortar. It keeps your opponent honest, and forces them to come to you. Im suprised again at the incredible range of Kaya's Spirit Door, and it was only Thagrosh's above average toughness that saved his life.

Emmas comments: (coming soon)

Raymonds comments:

"I let Emma start the battle after rolling double 6's to set it up.

Crazy anti beast person hit and serverly angered my Carny who ripped it apart the following turn.

I felt abit mean for holding Em to tournament rules when she forgot to reave fury, but did it early so it wouldnt have a negative effect on the game in general.

With a Carny beaten up and circle regrouping, I decided to get him healed up. After all even though thaggy can bring him back, id prefer some more damage first, rather than the 3 points he had taken out so far. I made sure in my regroup to give carny just enough room to charge the forest, knowing that Ang could push all the way through at the same distance.

Circle spread out, and i took a risk in charging Ang, turns out a fraction of an inch im my favour, but the dice werent. Rolling a 5 on a AP charge attack = epic fail, but still a chunk of damage. Carny moved up to hold off anything running straight to Thaggy. Had to move Thaggy forward at start of turn else Ang would have been out of Ctrl range.

So apparently Kaya can get some CRAZY distance! I am happy that i put the carny where i did, but at same time not that i left Thaggy as close as i did to it, 2" from beast + reach + base size = :(

No upkeeps on Thaggy + Spiny Growth (MVP action of the match) saved me, that and no crit knockdown + average damage rolls.

Thaggy wiped the dirt from his shoulder, Put draconic on Carny and took a couple swipes at Kaya. Carny with P+S20 and 2P+S 18's sliced and diced like a Ginsu, Final damage roll needing -3 got 6+6+4.

Closing thoughts: I missed fighting non Khador! It was a fun match, sooo need to start running timed turns so we can get more games though. Em had a solid game, nice assassin run, pity dice werent in her favour for it."

At this point, Raymond had to head home, but I thought id have just enough time to have a 15pt game with Toby - Khador vs Khador.

Toby took pSorcha, with a Juggernaut, a Marauder, the Great Bears and a Wardog.

I took the Khador "Dream Team" - Karchev, Drago, Beast 09 and Karchevs trusty Wardog.

Game 2, Turn 1:

The Karchev brick vs 2 enemy Heavies - I know that Karchev will be able to get the charge, I just need to avoid Sorchas feat if possible.

Turn 2:

I blitz around the side, and Toby readjusts - trying to figure out how to take the inevitable charge.

Turn 3:

The Karchev Power-slide + Unearthly Rage makes for two very damaged Warjacks, if they had been any Warjacks other than Khador ones they would be toast this turn. Sorcha pops her feat, catching Drago and Beast, then casts Tempest to knock them all down - killing her own Juggernaut in the process. This unlocks a charge lane for the Great Bears, who charge in - killing Drago and damaging Beast. The Marauder was frozen, with no cortex, and so forfeits his turn.

Turn 4:

Beast 09 unleashes 7 shades of hell on the enemy - Threshering and killing all the Great Bears and the Marauder. Karchev moves up, and Fissures - taking off half of Sorchas health. Sorcha retaliates by charging Beast, taking out his Cortex and freezing him solid so I cant shake it off. The Wardog tries to hold Karchev in place. (silly puppy)

Turn 6: (forgot to take a photo of Turn 5) Final Turn

Turn 5 was uneventful - except that Sorcha killed Beast 09, and Karchev missed with 4 fully boosted Sunder attacks :( The Wardogs start their epic battle, killing each other 4 times, and making Tough rolls every time! Sorcha tried to kill Karchev, failing, and then Karchev simply casts Ground Zero - and boosts to damage, finishing Sorcha off.

Conclusion:

This game was much closer than I though it would be, I am not used to fighting Khador warjacks and their sheer resilience is a force to be reckoned with. I almost feel sorry for some of my opponents now :P (almost). At the end of the day, Karchev by himself is very difficult to kill, and with shake-off effects now in place, Sorcha cant contain Karchev in one spot. I shouldnt have tried to hit her while she was DEF20, as I just kept missing, and should have cast Ground Zero in the first place. Also - Ground Zero is now AWESOME! I hadnt thought of that part of it before, that its an automatic hit. Very handy against high DEF models.

Tobys comments:

"Well, what can I say? As soon as I saw this list, I knew I had know chance of winning. 2 character 'jacks and Karchev (and the dog :P) against my 2 heavies, Sorscha, Dog and Great Bears. The sheer trauma of the list meant I tried to play defensive.

This game was very 'what if'. What if I'd remembered Precision Strike, 'what if' Toshi had remember the Counter charge are two prime examples.

Despite the loss, I was pleasantly surprised by the result. The killing of Beast 0-9 was really awesome, especially from Sorscha (with the help of the Great Bears. Precision Strike on 'jacks taking out the cortexs means that her feat becomes almost as awesome as it once was.

All in all, it was a great game, and I had a blast. But let this be known Karchev, I will get you one day!"

35pt Theme Army: Zerkova vs Epic Feora

2010-01-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

My next 35pt themed game involved my Zerkova Army List vs Johns list - which consisted of, as far as I can remember:

eFeora
>Heirophant
>Crusader
>Crusader
>Reckoner (i think - one with a mace and a cannon)
Temple Flameguard w/ Attachment
Choir
Vassal
Paladin OTOOTW
Daughters of the Flame

Deployment:

I deployed first in typical fashion for this army, AD in a skirmish line, Yuri hanging back, GB's on the flank, and a blob of heavy hitters guarding Zerkova.

The Menoth troopers deploy in a wide arc, TFG on the right flank, with three (!) heavies in the middle protecting Feora. At this point, I know if I dont get the first hit in, im not going to survive.

Turn 1:

I advance my troops - under cover of Twister and Greylord Clouds. The Widowmakers sniper off some of the TFG, inciting them to run into combat with the Widowmakers. The Reckoner shoots the leader of the Great Bears, setting him both on fire and killing him outright. Luckily, he makes his Tough roll.

Turn 2:

The Widowmakers shoot some more of the TFG, while the Great Bears charge into melee with two of the Warjacks, a Crusader and the Reckoner, doing serious damage but failing to kill either of them. The Destroyer takes some more shots, but doesnt manage to do significant damage. Zerkova walks up, Influences the Paladin, and makes him hit the Crusader in the back - doing like 10 damage! She spends some more Focus on spells, then pops her feat to ensure no reprisals. John advances forward, but is unable to make any attacks stick. The TFG run into combat with the remaining Widowmakers.

Turn 3:

Yuri the Axe charges - and Threshers fully half of the TFG. A Greylord moves forwards, and Frostbites the remaining TFG - leaving one man standing. The Juggernaut charges, and with 3 Focus lays the smackdown on two of the Menite jacks - failing to kill either of them! A Manhunter also charges in, hitting on 4's, and misses. Johns counterattack is neutered as his Jacks have crippled weapons, but still almost trashes the Juggernaut in return! The one remaining TFG kills Yuri the Axe. Feora uses her flamethrowers, but doesnt do significant damage. She tries to cast a spell on the Juggernaut - who has Banishing Ward on him.

Turn 4:

My Juggernaut has no Cortex left, and so cant be given Focus! The Widowmakers finish the TFG, while my Manhunters attempt to finish the Jacks. They kill a Crusader, but fail to kill the Reckoner. Zerkova retreats, and ineffectually casts some spells. The Mechanics repair 6 health of the Juggernaut - and then I forget to activate him!! Argh! John uses the Crusader and Paladin, and almost drop the Juggernaut again. Feora took some damage from the Greylords and the Destroyer and so runs off. The Reckoner kills both Manhunters in melee with it.

Turn 5: Final Turn

In my final turn, a combined attack from Widowmakers, Greylords, the fully healed (well, systems wise) Juggernaut and Destroyer kill all remaining enemy models except for Feora. Game to me!

Conclusion:

I really like this list with Zerkova now, everything seemed to be able to do its job, I was glad I had Yuri instead of a hopeless Mortar as he was integral to taking out the TFG. Destroyer and Juggy did well, Destroyer wasnt too important, but had a pressing task - the Watcher jack. Greylords are actually growing on me, their sprays are quite powerful.

Im happy with Zerkovas list for the moment - one thing im considering is replacing the Destroyer with a Decimator - but that can wait till next game :)

New Years Resolutions for Warmachine

2010-01-02T15:53:00.000-08:00

New Years resolutions can take place in any part of your life, and ive made a few personal ones which im sure no-one cares about :D

However, ive made a few Warmachine ones too, and these ones can keep me honest by being posted and tracked on this blog.

Resolution 1: Play 52 games over 52 weeks! - I need to use some of these models ive spent $100's on.

Resolution 2: Take my revenge against Kaya the Wildborne!

Resolution 3: Play at least 3 games with each of my 35 point Theme Lists

Resolution 4: Have at least one fully painted 35 and 50 point Theme List (only able to be properly completed after FoW: Khador is released)

Resolution 5: Apply and become a Press Ganger for Privateer Press

Resolution 6: Host at least 1 major event with a decent prize for Palmerston North players.

So hopefully ill be able to complete these, wish me luck!

35pt Theme Army: Zerkova vs Kaya the Wildborne

2010-01-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

Second game of the year - Zerkovas 35pt Themed list vs Kaya (Emmas army) with a slight change from last time.

Emmas Kaya Army:

Kaya1
>Feral Warpwolf
>Feral Warpwolf
>Argus
>Argus
>Gorax
>Woldwyrd
Tharn Wolfriders (min unit)

Deployment:

Emma deploys first, Wolfriders on the flank and a swarm of Beasties in the middle.

I have a line of Advanced Deployment troops, with the rest in a block, and the Great Bears charging up the middle.

Turn 1:

Emma advances her forces forward, using the Wolfriders to fire some Javelins which all missed. On my turn, the Widowmakers deploy behind cover, and the rest of the army advances under cover of Greylord clouds.

Turn 2:

The Wolfriders are able to take out 2 Widowmakers, and then retreat. The rest of the Beasts move forward slightly. Combined attacks from a Manhunter, Widowmakers and the Destroyer kill two of the three Wolfriders.

Turn 3:

Emmas lone Wolfrider kills a Manhunter, and the Gorax charges, kills the other Manhunter, and then is Spirit-Doored back to safety. The rest of the Beasts advance. The Greylords spray and pray, killing the last Wolfrider on the last hit. The Woldwyrd had moved into range of the Great Bears, and they (foolishly, as it turns out) charge and destroy it. The Juggernaut runs, hoping to tie up the other Warpwolf.

Turn 4:

Bad turn for me - Emma successfully kills the Great Bears and the Juggernaut - leaving me with almost no offensive models left. I flub some serious rolls, and miss with the Destroyers Bombard (roll trip ones). The Koldun Lord sprays the Beasts, causing minor damage. Zerkova casts some spells, causing minor damage again. Everything else kinda meanders around, aimlessly.

Turn 5:

Game set and match - Emma opens up a charge lane, and Kaya Spirit Doors in finishing Zerkova with a feat and a few choice swings. The Crit KD realllly didnt help Zerkova. Well executed Assassination run.

Conclusion:

Beaten again!! By pretty much the exact same thing! I admit I made a couple of mistakes though, I should have popped Zerkova's feat on Turn 4, which may have stopped the Argus getting close enough for Kaya to Spirit Door. Also, I wasted my Watcher move, which in the end probably wouldnt have been enough to save Zerkova anyway. Also, after losing Juggy and the Great Bears I should have retreated Zerkova to a safe position, instead of leaving her vulnerable.

Army List wise, the Mortar did absolutely nothing. I think my new rule for these is take 2 or take none at all. Im going to swap the Mortar out for Yuri the Axe in future.

Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova

>Destroyer

>Juggernaut

>War dog

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Yuri The Axe

Koldun Lord

Manhunter

Manhunter

Special Guest Comments: (coming soon)

35pt Theme Army: Old Witch vs Kaya the Wildborne

2009-12-31T20:39:00.000-08:00

Just had a New Years game with my wife - using my 35pt Theme lists against a list I prepared for her using the MK2 rules.

I used this Old Witch Army while Emma used this Kaya army:

Kaya1
>Feral Warpwolf
>Feral Warpwolf
>Argus
>Argus
>Gorax
>Woldwyrd
Wolves of Orboros (full unit)

Deployment:

Winning the roll I set up first - IFP in the trench, Widows out front, and the Behemoth on the flank.

Emmas Deployment - a swarm of beasts in front of Kaya and the Wolves off to the flank.

Turn 1:

Pretty standard advance - Shield Wall + Murder of Crows, everyone else just walks forward.

Emmas advance - Im worried about the Woldwyrd with Hunter at this point :S

Turn 2:

My Widowmakers take hits, while everyone else just advances forward - Bombards blazing.

My Kossites have messed with Emmas plans - doing some damage to Kaya and being a pain in the butt.

Turn 3:

I advance the IFP up further, staying out of charge range, while firing the Bombards to cover the advance. I make a mistake with Scrappy, and waste 3 Focus :(

Emma finishes off the Kossites - the leader who made a shot at 9 to hit, 7 to kill the Gorax. Her Wolves square off vs the IFP.

Turn 4:

I protect the IFP with a Murder of Crows, while the Behemoth takes fire from the Woldwyrd. I forget to deploy my max unit of Kossites. Emma advances the Wolves to protect her other models.

Turn 5: Final Turn

The IFP charge, killing a few of the Wolves, and Defensive Formation back to safety. Behemoth misses with the majority of his Bombards. Scrapjack charges and Unseen Paths back to safety. I forget about Old Witchs safety. She pops her feat, and I assume im safe. Emma advances an Argus, and successfully Paralyses Old Witch. The Woldwyrd shoots her, doing some damage. Kaya Spirit Doors in and slams Old Witch in the face, killing her.

Conclusion:

Well, not a great start for my 35 point lists, a loss with OW against the forces of the Circle of Orboros. Still, the Old Witch was a caster I have been doubting about her effectiveness. While playing I realised what it is that is unimpressive about her. She has no real talents for helping out a Khador army. She does give some extra flexibility to ranged Warjacks by shooting through Forests and Clouds, but thats about it. Everything else, is either not very relevant for Khadoran troops (like Pathfinder and Camo, this just isnt as good as, say Battle Lust) or something others have as well - Iron Flesh. Her feat wasnt very effective, I rolled multiple POW14s on Emmas beasts and they werent signifacant. Especially since she had the option of walking out of OW's control range and it doing nothing.

Also - I forgot to bring in my next unit of Kossites at the appropriate time. They may have made a difference... I think I might have to swap some things out - the full unit of Kossites is unwieldy and annoying to use. I think its actually too big. If I reduce it to another minimum unit of Kossites I would hopefully be able to get a few extra points for some other options. I think I will need to swap some stuff around.

35pt Old Witch Army Mk2:

Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador

>Behemoth

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

>Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Harlan Versh

Manhunter

Manhunter

Hopefully with this configuration, dropping to the min unit of IFP and Kossites, losing the Wardog, and adding in two Manhunters and Versh for some anti-magic. This will probably suit Old Witchs style of Guerilla warfare. The large units just did not work for her.

Special Guest Conclusion!!

So I thought during this game that I was definitely going to get my arse kicked by Toshi especially when he said it was going to be over in his next move at move 4. Thankfully my argus was just in range for an assassination run with Kaya as the old witch had been moved too far forward. So after doppler barking to reduce the old witch's defense to 7 I spirit doored in Kaya, hit the old witch and popped Kaya's feat, had hitting the old witch not sufficiently reduced her health I intended on spirit dooring in one of the warpwolves to finish the job. To conclude I totally kicked Toshi's butt in our first game of the year! :D

Most common model choices for me...

2009-12-30T19:10:00.000-08:00

So looking back on my theme lists, i can see that there are a few models that i heavily favor. Just as an intellectual exercise, im going to figure out what these are:

Wardog x 9
Beast-09 x 5

Juggernaut x 5

Behemoth x 3
Drago x 3
Destroyer x 2
Kodiak
Berzerker

Winter Guard Mortar Crew x 12
Manhunter x 8
Doom Reavers x 5

Widowmakers x 4

Ogrun Bokur x 3

Great Bears of Gallowswood x 3

Greylord Ternion x 3

Koldun Lord x 3

Iron Fang Pikemen x 2

>Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard x 2

Winter Guard Field Gun Crew x 2

Man-o-war Shocktroopers x 2

Battle Mechaniks x 2

Kossite Woodsmen x 2

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios x 2

Winter Guard Infantry

>3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer

>Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Kayazy Assassins

>Kayazy Assassin Underboss
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Iron Fang Uhlans

Man-o-war Demolition Corps

Kovnik Markov
Yuri the Axe

So - looks like im in love with Beast 09 - and at 1 point, the Wardog makes a lot of my lists. Im not really using anything other than the battlebox Jacks and the characters, except for a Zerker and a Kodiak in a list. Im also besotted with Mortars, but hey, what true son of the motherland isnt? Manhunters and Doomreavers are next, probably because everyone needs some hardhitting Weaponmasters to really bulk out a list. The Widowmakers feature regularly, as dedicated troop killers they combine with Weaponmasters for a good combined arms strategem. The Ogrun Bokur is a must for defence with certain casters, and the Great Bears are just a brutal unit that can tango with elite troops or Warjacks/Beasts with equal ease. Im not using many units, and even though Yuri is awesome I cant seem to fit him in many lists.

Now - most importantly - what models am i not using??

Ill see if i can figure them out - and why I might not be using them for my armies:

Decimator - well, the rules havent been properly released for him yet, and i dont own one. So im going to give this one a "?" until i can get a feel for it. Personally, i dont find him that appealling. Beat Back on a 10" RNG gun is lame. Maybe if the gun was 12"? Id like it more.

Devastator - this guy is an enigma. I think its a really cool concept, probably worth the points, but it just doesnt have a place in my lists. I have a feeling that i dont need an ARM25 jack. I have lots of ARM20 jacks. They are pretty damn tough anyway. Rain of Death is nice, if i didnt have Beast 09 and Thresher. And apart from ARM25 and RoD theres nothing else interesting about the Devastator. Maybe Karchev could use him, but then he'd RoD and get killed the next turn.

Marauder - comboslam is really cool, and he was made cheaper in MK2. When I compare it to the sheer ruggedness and damage potential of a Juggernaut, i cant help feeling jipped. Maybe in my Butcher lists i could swap it out with one Juggernaut, collateral damage with extra damage dice would be awesome. Assuming that works....

Spriggan - Ive always liked the look and feel of this model, but i dont like the price and relative vulnerability of the Spriggan. It has a nice Reach weapon, but Beasts is nicer. It can shoot grenades, that I will rarely do. Probably the best synergy the Spriggan has is with Irusk, but I just prefer bringing Beast 09 over the Spriggan if im only going to be using one Jack. And Irusk with 2 jacks defeats the purpose of Superiority, his bond and Fire for Effect - which would only be useful if I lost my Mortar crews. (Of course, positioned correctly, i could use Superiority on 2 Warjacks a turn, but this is going pretty overboard.)

Ill go into Solos and Infantry another time, but this has given me something to think about.

35pt Themes: Butcher1/Butcher2

2009-12-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

The Butcher is a force of nature. Practically unstoppable, and incredibly lethal to anyone within 10" of him. He can generally single-handedly take down any target in the game, bar terrible rolls. With high ARM, high P+S and weaponmaster he is basically a Jack in himself. Not quite like Karchev, but pretty close.

Epic Butcher loses what little control he had as normal Butcher, and now becomes a maelstrom of destruction. He buffs his Warjacks nicely though, giving free charges, and bonus MAT and SPD. This is pretty much his strength though, with little else in the way of unit or Warjack buffs except for Ravager. Which would be pretty good with Beast 09 (Berzerk + Beasts Imprint with Reach... oh yeah. Goodbye multi-wound infantry.)

Things to think about with Butcher:

1) Awesome feat. Makes some ordinarily not so good stuff really quite excellent. Assault Kommandos have 3 attacks each, and a unit of 10 of them all rolling Weaponmaster damage with that is pretty impressive. However, its always good to make decent things better - Doom Reavers on the charge are rolling 5d6!!

2) Mostly benefits Warjacks, with Full Throttle (his signature spell it seems). Fury would be good on a unit, or himself. Same with Iron Flesh.

3) Medium based makes him somewhat vulnerable. Could be a good idea to hide him behind something...

Things to think about with Epic Butcher:

1) Dont stand your units close to him! Or your Jacks. In fact, stay the hell away from him. As few models as possible close to him is a good idea, unless they are enemy models.

2) Conferred Rage is good for models that dont charge for free already. Juggernauts look like a great candidate!!

3) Spells are lackluster. Fury on himself gets the job done that much sweeter. However, he does need to make rage tokens for his feat. So maybe some Widowmakers would make that easier...

Butcher1 35pt Army:

The Butcher of Khardov

>Beast-09

>Juggernaut

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 5 Grunts)

>Kayazy Assassin Underboss

Ogrun Bokur

The plan here is to have the Butcher Full Throttle the three Jacks to get them absolutely pummeling faces, which is a lot of high POW attacks landing. Full Throttle + Beasts Imprint is potentially 4d6 to hit on a Thresher and 2 more POW19's after that. That equals 1 dead caster/lock. The Doomreavers are there for the feat turn charge, rolling crazy amounts of dice to kill things dead. Hopefully they survive the advance. The Assassins, while im not a big fan of them, are good targets for both Fury and Iron Flesh. Also they have Stealth, so could be a good distraction for the opponent to worry about. The Bokur simply Shield Guards Butcher so he doesnt get owned by Eiryss etc.

Butcher2 35pt Army:

Kommander Orsus Zaktavir

>Beast-09

>Juggernaut

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Manhunter

Yuri the Axe

What ive done here is get Orsus his basic strike force - the three Jacks, and then grab a bunch of elite solos/units in order to try and capitalise on the feat as much as possible. Fury is probably a good candidate for either Beast 09 or the Great Bears, Ravager on either Orsus or Yuri the Axe, and then just run and try and kill as much stuff as possible!! And hope it works!

35pt Themes: Irusk1/Irusk2

2009-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

Irusk is the military genius responsible for some of the biggest events in Warmachine so far. His stats and abilities reflect this, in both his forms. Even with MK2, hes still an effective infantrymachine caster. However, his spell, Superiority, is probably the best jack spell in the game. (Grants Steady, +2 MAT and SPD) So he definitely wants at least one Warjack to make use of this.

Epic Irusk takes this theme and pushes it further - he now makes all troops within 10" of him Tough. This is just great, especially with already difficult to kill Khador troops. Along with Iron Flesh, he can make IFP incredibly awesome. DEF16/ARM18 and Tough is going to be very difficult to take down. Winterguard are similar - you can bring Joe and as long as you have the Winterguard close enough the entire unit can remain Tough and get boosted to hit attack rolls all game long! While they are still all DEF17 from Bob and Weave to boot.

Things to think about with normal Irusk:

1) He loves one Warjack. Pick a good one to make the most of +MAT and SPD!

2) His feat is super effective when combined with a lot of Infantry models. Max them out if you can, with at least one giant unit.

3) He benefits from support, and bodyguards since his own stats arent high. Bring Mortars and Wardogs!

Things to think about with Epic Irusk:

1) Fire for Effect is awesome for Mortars. Take two!

2) He has an almost-superiority for free, and permanent! Take a big, personal jack.

3) Tough and Martial Discipline is great for meat shields with dangerous models behind them. Think MoW with Doomreavers hiding behind them. Or IFP with 2 Manhunters and Yuri the Axe waiting to charge through them...

Irusk1 35pt List:

Kommandant Irusk

>Beast-09

>War dog

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard

Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Here what ive done is given Irusk Beast 09 for Superiority, making him a ridiculous MAT9 and SPD6 - with no way of slowing him down with slams or headbutts. Beast is my main caster killer - with backups in the form of the Great Bears, Doom Reavers and maybe the pikemen if they survive. When Irusk pops his feat, it will make the Pikemen, Great Bears and Doomreavers super accurate on the charge turn, and hopefully tough enough to survive the retaliation. Unfortunately Tough no longer stacks with his feat, but the Great Bears get 4+ Tough now instead. The Mortars and field guns are there for fire support - Mortars are always good for clearing infantry and the Field gun is long range and a nice crit!

Irusk2 35pt List:

Supreme Kommandant Irusk

>Kodiak

>War dog

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Manhunter

Manhunter

The idea here was an impenetrable wall - Shocktroopers with Tough and maybe Tactical Supremacy - advancing in Shield Wall, with a scary force of Doomreavers and 2 Manhunters waiting behind them, while the 2 Mortars under Fire for effect bomb the living bejeezus out of the rest of the enemy army. The Kodiak is Irusks go-to Jack, very versatile for its point cost. Possibly I could add Beast 09 instead of the Kodiak by dropping a Mortar, or a Manhunter+Dog. But we will see. The Kodiak should be able to perform in this list, especially with extra DEF and Steady. On a turn they can charge, the big unit of Shocktroopers would get Battle Lust and hopefully hit, rolling 14+4d6 for damage. The kill condition here is going to rely on either Doom Reavers, Manhunters, or the Kodiak to connect with the enemy caster, while the elements of the Shocktroopers and Mortar crew keep them safe.

35pt Themes: Zerkova

2009-12-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

Zerkova is an interesting character - the only true magic orientated Khadoran caster, she is terrible in melee, but has to be close to the front lines for all her spells to be of the most effect. To make matters worse, she is reeeally squishy, 15/15 being rather easy to kill for most heavy jacks with boosts. Even deviated AOEs can hurt her badly.

However, her spell list combined with Arcane Artifacts are quite versatile, powerful and interesting. Highlights are, of course, Watcher, Twister, Razor Wind and Banishing Ward. Watcher wants you to take at least one, if not two powerful Warjacks to make the most of it. You would generally want one Melee bodyguard, and one Ranged or Melee killer. This way you have the most options available to you. A regular Juggernaut or Beast would be good for the bodyguard, and a Destroyer or Decimator would be good for the killer. Banishing Ward can make a unit very good vs certain army builds, like a Cryx magic assassination army. Also prevents stuff like Crippling Grasp ruining your day. I always feel the lack of Iron Flesh really doesnt help Zerkova though.

Twister is cool, Zerkova can produce 4 3" AOEs from between 11.5" - 14.5" away, which scatter if you miss the initial attacks. Although they are low power, they can interrupt enemy movement and attacks. Razor Wind is her staple, and that plus her artifacts should be her main killing attack.

Things to think about with Zerkova:

1) Need good Watcher jacks!

2) Needs a kill condition - she may not be able to perform the kill herself, so needs some backups to get the job done for her.

3) Is not very good with large units, several smaller units is probably a good idea. She requires a toolbox/versatile army.

Zerkova 35pt Army:

Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova

>Destroyer

>Juggernaut

>War dog

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Koldun Lord

Manhunter

Manhunter

Basically Ive got some general purpose Jacks to take advantage of Watcher, while bringing along some support in the way of Mortars, Greylords and Mechaniks. My alternate kill conditions (if Zerkova or her Jacks cant get to the enemy) is the Great Bears (with Banishing Ward on them for protection against magic) and the two Manhunters. The Widowmakers job is to harass enemy troops, and the Koldun Lord follows Zerkova and boosts the Jacks with focus, to lessen the load on the caster.

Zerkova advances behind the Jacks, protected by clouds, Twisters and the Wardog, while the support lobs bombs overhead while advancing, and the Great Bears + Manhunters attempt to flank and draw a bead on either enemy Warjacks/Beasts or their caster.

35pt Themes: Old Witch

2009-12-28T13:48:00.000-08:00

The Old Witch was one of the most flavourful and interesting Khadoran caster. Through MK2, her feat and her signature spell, Unseen Path, were toned down. This basically put her at the bottom of the pile of useful casters, as without these two abilities she has a very lackluster game.

Things that remain powerful in her spell/ability list are Augury, giving Khador jacks the equivalent of Hunter for ranged and melee attacks (good for long range jacks, like Behemoth, Destroyer, and possibly Decimator.) and Murder of Crows (placing that big a template is always good, especially if the enemy has no way around it!)

Things to think about with Old Witch:

1) Needs ranged jacks to properly take advantage of Augury - Behemoth is the first consideration.

2) Has Iron Flesh - possibly the best Khador defense spell. So a nice big unit of infantry is a good idea, either IFP or Assault Kommandos. Winterguard are another option.

3) The only caster with an arc node - good at playing Guerilla Warfare with high threat range spells. Other Guerilla units are a bonus.

Old Witch 35pt list:

Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador

>Scrapjack
>Behemoth

>War dog

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

What ive done here is add the Behemoth for some decent ranged threat, against both infantry and heavies, the Wardog to keep OW safe, a maxed out unit of IFP - these will be my primary force, with the UA, IF and shield wall it should keep them on high DEF and ARM and survivable.

The Widowmakers and Kossites are the Guerilla warfare part of the army, and will serve a harrassment and support killing role. The Kossites will attempt to get behind the enemy and force them to protect artillery/choir etc. The Widowmakers do what they do best, and sniper the enemy.

35pt Themes: Karchev

2009-12-26T18:45:00.000-08:00

Karchev is a powerhouse. He is the epitome of the Jack Caster - he is IN a Jack! His feat is lackluster, but one of his spells is better than most other Casters feats! Personally, I find Karchev a lot of fun. His ability to Tow and then Powerslide his Warjacks into position is unique in that you can practically cover the entire board by the time youve completed the manouver, and also almost guarantee the alpha-strike.

Sidenote: Alpha-strike. This is a military term (see Wikipedia) which means a large air attack, ie from an Aircraft carrier. I use it to mean the first decisive strike made by one side in Warmachine against the enemy player. It doesnt mean the first strike, because, well, I could pop a Bile Thrall with a lucky Bombard deviation. Thats not exactly decisive. Having 3 Warjacks Trample your entire infantry line and then buy attacks on your Warcaster however, is.

Things to remember about Karchev:

1) Hes a Jack Caster. I like to bring the biggest, baddest Jacks to make full use of this part of Karchevs Character.

2) Bring Mechaniks. They are the only way Karchev can heal. And sometimes, you reeeally need to heal. Also they can repair any broken Warjacks during the fight as well.

3) Troops that dont act on their own are not useful for Karchev. He has absolutely no way to buff Troops (except for obvious things like Knockdowns) so most units are a waste of time with Big K. Hes also very fast. So leave the slow guys behind. (Im looking at you, MoW STs!)

Karchev 35pt List:

Karchev the Terrible

>Beast-09

>Behemoth

>Drago

>War dog

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Koldun Lord

Like I mentioned earlier - the biggest and baddest. The combination of the four character jacks in Khador is brutal. (Yes, I counted Karchev as a character jack just then.) With the cost of 3 focus for Unearthly Rage, you get a hell of a lot of high MAT, high POW attacks. With the remaining 3 Focus, you can allocate to these Jacks, you can either have extra POW19 Ice Axes, POW12 Armour Piercing fists, POW19 Sunder attacks or POW16 Executioner axes. You will almost always be in range of these attacks as well, leaving Karchev the enviable position of being able to pick and choose exactly where to catapult these deadly machines during battle. The mechaniks can heal, and they normally hide at the back till they are needed. With the amount of heavy artillery you have, the enemy will very rarely devote energy to the support troops (gorman, koldun, mechaniks) until at least some of the threat has dissipated.

Karchev is like a lightsaber. Gets exactly where he wants to go with extreme precision, and then proceeds to totally obliterate whatever is there.

I almost forgot to mention - one of the main reasons to bring the Behemoth is that he keeps the aiming bonus while being Towed by Karchev. This means most turns you can allocate 3 focus to the Bombards, 1 to upkeep Tow, and then run Karchev all over the damn place while your Behemoth is moving 12" a turn, firing 14" RNG boosted RAT5 Bombards. Oh hell yeah. This is what you do while waiting for them to give you a Powerslide on their caster.

35pt Themes: Vlad1/Vlad2

2009-12-26T17:13:00.001-08:00

Vlad is one of my favourite casters, in his MK1 version he was almost considered cheap, by all those non-patriotic Khadorans anyway!

.. ok maybe he was a little too good.

Anyway, both forms of Vlad took a small beating in the "awesomeness" department, but he is still one of the best casters in Khador!

Things to think about with Normal Vlad:

1) The feat just screams "JACKS!". SPD8 Khador jacks are just crazy, with a threat range of 11.5" without reach. This is better than pretty much any other heavy in the game, and it comes with free charges!

2) Signs and portents is an amazing army wide buff. Probably up there with the most effective in the game. Giving approximately +2 to all attack and damage rolls army wide is so good, you can take normally ineffective models and excel with them. Assault Kommandos missing? No longer! Kossite Woodsmen pinging off medium armour? Not with S+P!

3) Blood of Kings. The bane of many an army, this makes Vlad practically untouchable. Camping focus, it turns him into a DEF18 ARM22 high HP monster. In fact, theres only a few things that can reliably kill him like this. This lowers the need for defensive models, like the Wardog.

Things to think about with Epic Vlad:

1) His feat is still very important - although no longer the most important thing about him. You want some reeeeally good targets for the feat, and you want them to live to be able to use it. Uhlans, Manhunters, Demo Corp are all fantastic.

2) Without Blood of Kings he is much more at risk of getting assassinated. Some defensive measures probably wouldnt go amiss.

3) Not really a focus on Jacks. Drago would be ok, and maaaybe one other, but probably not. Might as well keep the focus on the troops.

Vlad1 35pt List:

Vladimir, The Dark Prince

>Behemoth

>Berserker

>Drago

>War dog

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Vlad does bring his Wardog, giving him some very nice defensive options. I like doing this for 2 reasons - I can cast S+P instead of BoK and still be DEF17 in melee and no back arc, and with BoK hes DEF20 in melee!! Behemoth, Zerker and Drago make a good jack combo, all of them charging 11" on the feat turn, and each one of them capable (with some S+P help, and maybe a little focus) of ripping apart a heavy Warjack/Warbeast. Hell, the Behemoth can probably do two a turn! It may be worth at a later stage dropping the Wardog and the Zerker for a Juggernaut, but ill have to see how it goes. The Doomreavers can create the unstoppable wall - Vlad Windwall surrounded by Doomreavers means no magic and no ranged attacks can hit any of them. Just be careful of those deviations... The Mortars are there for "persuasion" purposes - to make the enemy come to you instead of the other way around. Also, good crowd control with S+P (about POW10 blast damage with 2 dice).

Vlad2 35pt List:

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion

>Drago

>War dog

Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Man-o-war Demolition Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Kovnik Markov

Manhunter

Manhunter

Epic Vlad likes his powerful trooper models. Ive maxed out the Uhlans and Demo Corp to give me the largest amount of feat targets as possible. 5 Uhlans, 5 Demo Corps and the 2 Manhunters are my possible options, and it is unlikely that I will lose all of them before I want to pop my feat!! If the Uhlans get into a good position, they have an insane threat range - through small based models as well - and +3 to MAT and STR gives them a powerful blow at the end of it. My end goal would be to get the Uhlans into the right position for a feat, charge and caster kill. If this fails for whatever reason, or the Uhlans dont make it, the Demo Corp get the feat and try to do the same thing. Even Demo Corp have a 12" threat range with his feat, and hit at P+S17 when they get there!!! They could even be rolling 4 dice on a hit if they use the "Weapon Master" attack. Thats an average total damage roll of 31, or 33 with Hand of Fate up. With 5 of them and Reach you could wipe out most heavies with just half the unit!

35pt Themes: Sorcha1/Sorcha2

2009-12-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

To begin this, Ill think about a 35 pt list for both Sorcha1 and Sorcha2.

Things to think about with normal Sorcha:

1) Powerful feat - models that can abuse this will be a great help, ie models that have low Accuracy/high POW weapons. Oh, and arcing fire.

2) No real troop support spells. Only self-sufficient troops will be effective.

3) Relatively squishy (when not Windrushed), needs some kind of caster defence.

Things to think about with Epic Sorcha:

1) Excellent combination with Winterguard - a definite must.

2) Good jack bond combined with the best Khador jack in the game - pure win.

3) Relatively squishy, needs some kind of caster defence.

Sorcha1 35pt List:

Kommander Sorscha

>Destroyer

>War dog

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Koldun Lord

Ogrun Bokur

Here we have a good mixture of long ranged combat, fast units and a nice kill condition. At an oppurtune moment Sorcha can Windrush forward, charge + feat to catch the enemy caster/lock to make them Stationary. The Koldun Lord gives the Destroyer a Focus point to boost damage, the two Mortars will be practically gauranteed to hit, Eiryss drops any Focus camping shenanigans, while the Greylords, Bokur and Wardog try to keep Sorcha safe before, during and after this.

Sorcha2 35pt List:

Forward Kommander Sorscha

>Beast-09

>War dog

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)

3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer

Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Ogrun Bokur

This is my favourite Epic Sorcha list, with the whole shebang of Winterguard. This gives you the incredible synergy of the Bob + Weave, Iron Fleshed, Tough, Greylord Clouded, rerolled CRA Winterguard blob. They also have access to Sprays, 3" AOEs and being able to boost to hit with their attacks instead of Tough. Sorcha makes them faster as well! The Mortars help with support, the Bokur + Wardog keep eSorcha alive, Eiryss takes care of any tricky kill conditions, and the Greylords toolbox - but will probably end up Blizzarding either eSorcha or the Winterguard.

Ideas for Themed Armies - without knowing any of the proper themes!

2009-12-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

Ive been thinking about all the different casters. Each one has strengths and weaknesses (especially Old Witch and Zerkova!) but with the right army composition can be awesome!! Ill take the time to put together a 35 pt list with each caster to see if i can figure out how to make the best use from them, and then from there play them in MK2 vs Hordes and Warmachine armies and see how well they do!

Caster list to be done:

Sorcha1/Sorcha2 - Done
Vlad1/Vlad2 - Done
Irusk1/Irusk2 - Done
Butcher1/Butcher2 - Done
Old Witch - Done
Karchev the Terrible - Done
Zerkova - Done
Strahkov

Epic 3 Way!

2009-12-12T17:23:00.000-08:00

After a few days of hard eating, drinking and sleeping over christmas, im ready to comment on these photos!!

... on second thoughts im still feeling queasy. I think ill just put captions down here.

What basically happened was a 1v1v1 Tobys Khador, Raymonds Everblight and my Khador playing "Capture the Flag". Was a lot of fun, ill probably write up our custom scenario rules later on.

Warning: Photos not in chronological order :P

Beast 09 just ripped 3 Raptors to shreds in one hit!

Raymonds Deathstalker grabbed a flag and ran all the way back to his base, being chased by Epic Butcher.

Beast 09 had just Threshered practically an entire unit of Doom Reavers. Good times!

Raymonds Everblight sneak around the place, trying to avoid the angry gaze of Epic Butcher.

A terse stand-off: Karchev + Jacks, meet Doom Reavers and Fenris.

The boys in RED!

Raymonds Strike Team - The MoW are actually Nephilim Protectors.

Karchev and the team are ready to go!

The game didnt quite end, but it was a lot of fun. Raymond almost capped his flags and called in reinforcements - Toby lost pretty much everything and Karchev was pumping his Arcane Turbine, ready to pick up his flags.