No Quarter Issue 23

The most recent edditon of "No Quarter" has hit LGS around the country (just not my gameshop) and in it every Warmahordes fan can catch a glimpse MKII changes to come.

Ripped right from the forums here's a glimpse of what will be.

MK2 info from the March "No Quarter" magazine.

• Out of turn movement and attacks have been limited.
• Based on size of game Warcasters and Warlocks will be included for free.
• Warcasters come with a variable number of warjack points.
• Rough terrain no longer prevents charges.
• Cards redesigned
• Warjack Shields and Open fists increased in POW
• All Factions have mechanics.
• Warjack points costs changed to be more proportionate compared with units.
• Unit members are in formation if the are within the unit leaders command range.
• Most unit leaders have the same stats as thier troopers.
• All units behave in a manner similar to Field Promotion
• Reaper gains Reach
• Necrotech gains Repair
• Bane Knights loose Shadowshift for Vengance [Which is used on some non Cryx Models] which triggers in control phase.
• Kharchev gets retooled to become more killy.
• Winterguard squads can have three Rocketeers each.
• Doom Reavers become cheaper.
• Charger gains Powerful Attack
• Defender Heavy Barrel increases POW.
• Stormblades and Stormguard are immune to Electricity due to the new damage typing system.
• Knights Exemplar become a 10 man unit, but don't jump to conclusions
• Severous has Convert as an ability rather than a spell.
• Flails gain Chain Weapon.

Release ScheduleApril Field Test is not a playtest. Its looking for Typos and rules confusion and other final polish. Jan 2010 Warmachine II and card Decks. Warmachine 2 has a new Warjack for each faction in it. Followed by 5 Faction books, The Four familiar faces plus Mercenaries, Mercs includes seperate sections for Privateers and Rhul. Each has new models/units and a new warcaster.

Faction book order determined by Summer Rampage 2009. Then Hordes II. No mention of Retribution anywhere.

-Cheers-

R.I.P. Baneknights

Bane Knights have fallen to the mighty "Nerff." We Cryxians knew it was only a matter of time until our elite unit was summarily dismissed by the terrible Cygnar elitists at Privateer Press.

We'll miss you and your shadow shift. The amazing out of turn activations which kept you feared and relevant as a fighting force.

We'll miss your crazy shenanigans and the way in which you made less intelligent people go cross eyed as they tried to understand your ghostly ways.

Rest in peace you mean bastards. MKII be damned!

-Cheers-

The Tournament That Never Ends...

Week three in a four week tournament has come and gone. The idea for a big long tournament was my idea, at least I think it was, and all I can say is that I hate it! Bah, I'm so tired of playing the same lists over and over.

What we should have done is made it a progressive tournament. Start at 350 then each consecutive game increases in point values. That would have been cool.

Either way, last nights game vs. Mercs was a rout. I was in a hurry and wanted to play a pick up game afterwards with my new Bloodgorgers so I went for a caster kill instead of a scenario win. He had no idea that I could generate so much out of turn movement with Mortenebra and the spell Deathrace that he was in a terrible position which let me charge his caster on my 3rd turn.

In my opinion the best players are the guys that know what EVERYTHING does. I can't tell you how many times I've had to scramble for the win when something hits the board that I have no idea what it does. I guess the old adage "practice makes perfect" is completely appropriate for Warmachine too. Which brings me to my second game.

John the Mennite nearly handed me my arse last night. I used a caster and a new mob which I'd never played before. The Gorgers were great, they really had some impressive damage output for only being p+s 11 & 9. Thanks to gang though they get MAT 8 and +2 damage which really helps a lot. General Slaughterborn didn't do much. Flying steel kept roll'n snake-eyes (more or less) so his one attack wasn't so great. I should have gone for the choir boys first and given him 5 blood marks making him p+s 18 arm 22 which is INSANE! Instead I went after big fellas with lots of wounds which just didn't work.

The Coven's spell Imprison was my MVP, kept charge lanes closed and helped me narrowly avoid certain death on the Testament's feat turn. It was hard fought battle and I was able to witness how squishy the Witch Coven is. Frankly I don't like'em. Maybe they just take some getting used to but I prefer support casters like Deneghra and Mortenebra. I really wanted to use epic Asphyxious but with the Testament's ability to suck away every soul I had to choose someone else.

All in all I had a good time last night. Stayed out a tad too late and the wife wasn't pleased, but, hearing about the wins made her forgive me. That's the secret boys, so long as you win you can stay out late. If you lose though, you'd better just plan on going home early.

-Cheers-

The Birthday Blessing Keep Pouring In.

This'll be a quick "...my break is almost over so I gotta spit this out super uber fast..." post. I'll expand further later.

I RECEIVED A FULL UNIT OF BLOODGORGERS FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!! Yaaahooooo!

Repentance

OK OK, he Bastions really do look awesome. I made a post that was sort of a knee jerk reaction on the main forum about the five man unit costing close to $50 which I thought was just stupid. I made the assumption that the Bastions were similar in size to a Troll champion, or a blood gorger to be exact. So in my mind I felt that a unit of six metal figs for $54 is much more understandable than a five man unit of plastic figs for $45. It averages out to about $9.00 per fig. I prefer pewter so $9 is ok while $9 for plastic is not. What I didn't realize was that the bastions are huge, more on the size of Man-O-wars and Cetrati. With that size comparison in mind I do realize now that the Bastions being plastic is a good thing and really does save the player money. Whether or not you agree with the $90 rumored price they would have been had they been metal (way over priced if you ask me.)

So, that being said, I would LOVE for a 10 man unit of Fenn Blades to be released in plastic (I don't see two man blisters being plastic so they might as well release a full unit box set.)

For some reason when figs come in bulk, material is immaterial. I remember the good ol' days when I played Orcs and could buy goblins in batches of 30 for $40. Man those were good times. It'd be nice for the same to happen for Trolls.

I don't have much hope for Cryx in plastic as our last unit was just released and the blessed BloodGorgers are wonderful, magical metal.

-Cheers-

Happy Birthday To.......ME!!!

"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear MEEEEEEeeeeeee, happy birthday to me!"


And thanks to a wonderful wife & son I now have one more bad-arse fig to add to my arsenal of doom and despair. I'd like you to meet General Gerlak Slaughterborn.

He's a tad on the small size but that's OK. What he lacks in stature he makes up for in awesomeness and attractiveness! I can't wait to break face with this piece of awesomesauce.

Thanks Babe & Mikey for the great birthday!

Bastions Set For June

Privateer Press has a new front page. Gracing the cover is a 360 degree view of the new plastic Bastions. They do look great but, and this is a huge BUT, the Mennites are getting ass raped having to pay msrp $44.99 for 5 of them. WTF?

I'm saddened that PP is going the way of Warhammer by producing cheap plastic figs at metal prices. There is no reason a box of five figs should cost more than $30.00. Even $30.00 is a bit steep but I understand that PP has to make a buck or two.

My next worry is that EVERYTHING to come will be in plastic. I hate plastic. I was assured by my LGS owner that PP would never use plastic yet here we are. I feel so frustrated by this that I'm having a hard time putting pen to paper and coming up with a clear concise argument.

Bane Knights 101

During my last game vs. Legion a rules question came into play. Not because my opponent had a question, not because I had a question. But because a spectator questioned my interpretation of the Bane Knight shadow shift ability.



Now I don't have anything against rules lawyers, heaven knows I've done my fair share of butting my big ugly mug in on more occasions than I care to remember. I simply can't stand it when people try to second guess me and my understanding of how my own army works. So in an attempt to clarify how my most feared unit functions here is a quick lesson.


Q: Can the same Bane Knight be targeted by shadowshift multiple times per turn?


A: If you wanted to every time a unit is eligible to Shadow Shift you could have the same model make the Shadow Shift move and attack, as long as you follow all the rules for Shadow Shift (namely the bits about formation)


Q: When will Shadowshifts resolve after multiple hits from chain lightnings, forked lightnings etc? (Also includes: purge, spray attacks and any aoe effect that rolls to hit every model under the template.)


A: After all simultaneous effects are resolved.


1-chain lightning hits a unit and proceeds to get 4 additional hits. All 5 models take the pow 10. Any destroyed are removed (not from play, just destroyed)


2-The unit then gets it's 5 shadow shifts used any way you want so long as you follow the rules for it (namely formation as mentioned)


This Q&A can be found at http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=146494

Another thread with similar answers is http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=157872


Hopefully this issue can be put to rest.

-Cheers-

Vassal

Sometimes, no matter how hard you fight it, the need for a game of Warmachine/Hordes can be overwhelming. Now, thanks to the hard work of a few loyal players, we can game at any hour of the day. Never mind your LGS's hours, never mind the silly need for sleep. If you have an Internet connection and the stat cards you're in business. What am I talking about? I'm talking about Vassal.

Vassal is a program which simulates the table top experience, down to dice and rulers. For the past two months Dallas and I have played a game online every so often which has allowed us to play test various figs and has really helped to determine future purchases.

The program, or "mod" as it's called by those in the know, wasn't all that special. The terrain looked like something a three year old would do on Microsoft Paint and the UI was very limited and a tad on the clunky side. That being said, just recently an updated version was released which is in a word "amazing." Vassal no has a huge variety of terrific looking terrain. The SR4 maps are available and can be used or you can make your own table top. Every assortment of templates, markers, tokens and rulers are available and the entire gaming experience is a lot of fun.

I highly recommend that each and every gamer download a copy and start playing today.

Here's the link http://vassalwmh.ipbfree.com/ It's pretty straight forward and simple to use.

Good luck and happy gaming!

-Cheers-