Finally, My First Non-Vassal MKII Test.

MKII has been released and my initial reaction was pure DOOM. For reasons stated in previous posts I've felt somewhat cheated and frankly completely pissed at the changes which have dramatically altered my beloved faction.

Enough pouting, time for playing.

This morning's game was my chance to try out a few of the new mechanics Cryx have been give. Most interesting to me were:

• Bane Knights and Vengeance vs Shadow Shift
• The Necrosurgeon
• The Seether

Bane Knights: Shadow shift was quintessential to my game play. A huge section of my "cryx tryx" arsenal dealt with bane knights (BK) and Tartarus. Unfortunately because so many players couldn't wrap their head around shadow shift and their out of turn activation that PP found it necessary to stream line them a bit. So now instead of Shadow shift we have Vengeance.

Vengeance works as such: "During your maintenance phase, if one or more models in this unit were destroyed or removed from play by enemy attacks during your opponent's last turn, each model can advance 3" and make one normal melee attack."

So basically instead of one shift for each hit BK during your turn, I now get to "shift" my entire unit at the beginning of my turn AND then activate them normally. Seems like a good gig to me. Here's what worked and what didn't.

Pro's: Did I mention that the ENTIRE unit gets to advance and make a regular attack? Yeah, that's terrific.

Con's: My opponent still gets to attempt to eliminate the entire unit sans retaliatory shifts. No screwing with their charges etc.

Running them with epic Asphyxious worked out rather well. The BK's laid the beat-down on his exemplars but were summarily butchered on my opponents activation. That being said the two remaining BK's did a number on them thanks to vengeance. eGspy then casts excarnate, killing a choir boy and I then get to add a BK to the unit. BK's activate again and leave only two exemplars standing.

The NecroSurgeon: Arguably Cryx's worst fig ever in MKI. This unit attachment was way over priced and worst yet, when you did pop out some mechanithralls they couldn't even activate. MKII has fixed that. They are super cheap, multi wound with sacrificial pawn allowing them to stave off any potential snipers. Best yet is that the mechanithralls get to activate the turn they are brought into play. MKII tips do state that they cannot move but may attack. WOOT.

Against the Mennite they suffered what seemed a devastating blow when the Castigator vented killing five mechanithralls. No worries on my part, next turn the surgeon advances and places five new mechanithralls into melee with both the castigator and the crusader. The castigator has a pretty bad day and both jacks are tied up in melee yet again with a unit which only cost 7 points total. Fantastic!

The Seether: I honestly didn't have too much experience with the original version, thanks in part to the fact that I didn't like Terminus and that my other character jacks were so much better. Seems a lot has changed in MKII.

Seether has terrific mat and pow+str attacks. It's going to hit you and often. If both initial attacks connect you're also looking at a free power attack from a limited list. On that short list is the little used "head butt." What's terrific about this is that with a successful head-butt you may now buy extra attack which auto-hit! That's pretty awesome. The fire of salvation found out first hand how deadly a seether can be once it was properly turned to scrap.

In all it was a good game. We had to call it quits prior to completion thanks to an Easter-egg hunt and BBQ I was committed to. So for the sake of the game we called it a draw. If you're interested though all I'd lost were some bane knights and bile thralls and Tartarus. He was down a Dervish, FoS, a unit of exemplars, most his choir, Vilmon and the Castigator was nearing "scrap" status, plus Gaspy still had his feat too.

As of now MKII is looking loads better than before from a core rules standpoint. I'm still upset that the bloodgorgers, which are a fantastic unit in MKI, were relegated to the shelf thanks to MKII and an incredible nerf bat.

-Cheers-

350 Mangled Metal/Tooth & Claw

Our LGS ran a MM/TC tourney today and it was an absolute blast! I really like that point level as it poses some tactical issues.

An all Jack list limits my choices and creates synergy issues.

Cryx don't have "amazing" jacks and rely more on tricky solutions ala Warcasters.

Fewer figs make it more important to accurately anticipate your opponents next move else you may leave yourself open for a charge or flank attack.

I don't own very many jacks as I prefer infantry-machine.

Taking those issues into consideration I originally planned on running a cheesy Coven list with a bunch of nodes. My problem is that I only have a few defailers and deathrippers with no nightwretches (I know, heresy.) After throwing a list together I kept coming up significantly short. Some people are ok with that, but I just can't do it.

Here's what I ran:

• Deneghra
• Cankerworm
• Nightmare
• Deathripper
• Deathripper

I really like this list for a few reasons. First 3/5 have stealth and those that don't are def 15 which is insane good when dealing with MKI's low mat/rat jacks.

I also like having advance deploy on the worm and a jack that can move out of turn allowing it to set up an assassination run.

Lastly, all four jacks have terrific synergy and gain a ton from Deneghra's spell list and feat.

Time to play.

ROUND ONE vs Legion of Ever-broken.

Legion ran:

• Saeryn
• Serraph
• Angelius
• Shredders x 3

Sum it up real quick. I eff'n lost!

I had him on his heels scrambling for position by my second turn. Already his Angelius was pretty much paste and his serraph was knocked down. Shredders were taking damage left and right and he was down to only 5 life.

What happened next? Oh, I don't know, Saeryn's broken feat pops and I have to sit a turn scratching my but as he essentialy gets two turns in a row.

Legion guy spends fury healing a single pip in each column in each of his beasts circles. Serraph rolls a 6 on strafe then obliterates the cankerworm with die showing 5's and 6's for damage. Shredders all go rabid and chomp of both the nightmare's arms an the Angelius fame jets my deathripper and fries the node. What can I do? Nothing except try and run my other node up and lob some venom's.

Not enough damage. His turn next. There is no way he can kill Denny unless he rolls really well for strafe from the serraph. Either way all my stuff aside from Deneghra will be fried to I simply concede. Good game.

What did I learn from this experience? That legion at 350 and 500 is so broken that an inexperienced player can pwn with them. Imagine what a more competent play can accomplish. *Side Note* same guy chomped Darius for the win next round now continues onto the championship game. (Sigh)

ROUND TWO vs. Khador

• Khador ran:
• Irusk
• Beast 09
• Destroyer

Game was quick and painful. If you were the Khador guy.

My turn: Run forward, canker on the right flank hiding behind a farm house, nightmare on the left flank.

His turn: He moves forward, destroyer lobs a shot at a node, misses but the deviation catches it. boosts damage and knocks out my movement. Irusk casts Inhospitable ground and ends his activation. Nightmare responds with prey.

My turn. Ghost walk on Deneghra, move forward, feat. Use nightmare's imprint and charge Irusk from 13" for the win. Good game.

I'm still seething from my first loss to David and his stupid Legion army that I play two more pick up games and give them both a sound thrashing as well. So for the evening is was 3 for 4, too bad the game that really mattered most was a wash.

Apparently I can still vie for 3rd place. Yay more paint.

One thing these games verified was my love for the Cankerworm. It's terrific. Utterly squishy but good all the same. I've submitted a few "underpowered" feedback forms on the little guy.

Until next week.....

-Cheers-

And I'm Back!

Huzzzah!

Ah Crap

Hmm.  This says it all.  Not sure how long it will be until I can post on the main forums again.  At least I can still read the posts and add my feedback for the beta.  Until then.....

-Cheers-

Some thoughts

Howdy!

1. POINT SYSTEM: It’s pretty cool actually. Though I find myself constantly comparing old cost vs. new cost. The different encounter levels are a tad strange. 75 points is close to 1000 points and it’s classified as only a grand melee. Skirmishes are more like the classic 500 and 750 point games we’re used to. I was amazed at all the stuff I could bring. Seems like 50 points is going to be the new norm for game size imo.

2. EPICS AT ANY LEVEL: I don’t like this at all. I realize it’s an argument over semantics but epic as defined by Merriam-Webster is “extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope.” ([url]http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epic[/url], 2009) Epics are to be just that, EPIC. The revamped models are different true, but most are actually worse than their variant as they are not fun and lack any fluff or flavor.

3. MIN OR MAX UNITS ONLY: Terrible, possibly one of the worst mechanics of the game. Much less diversity because you are locked into one or the other. I realize this will help sales as those of us who’ve only felt the need to run 8 bile thralls or 8 bane thralls as that’s all we need will now have to suck it up and buy more blisters. Honestly, how many of you guys ever run one or the other? Usually it’s somewhere in between. 7 or 9 maybe. Either way, you get my drift.

4. SYMBOLS FOR ABILITIES: yeah, this is a bit cartoony for me, as a constant heckler of hero clix and other sissy gamers I feel sheepish now that my own stuff has the same symbology. Is that a word?

5. LACK OF SCENARIO SECTION: Wasn’t this explained earlier?

6. LACK OF GRAPHIC VIOLENCE: Where is the death and mayhem? I read a reference to a model being disemboweled as simply being “boxed.” LAME! We kill things, that’s what my big axe does to your sissy long gunner; it cuts your f^(%!n$ head off. Just a silly tangent, back on topic.

7. OTHER IMPRESSIONS: I was lied to. PP did the old bait and switch on me. EVERYTHING from Legends, which is still so new the spine still cracks when I open it, is now garbage. Streamlining doesn’t mean butchering. We were told that everything would be essentially the same. That each unit/fig’s role would be the same. This is why I spent hundreds of dollars buying EVERYTHING from that book. You said it’d be the same. It is not.

I’m not a fan of this being a whole new game. I gladly invested thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours and poured a ton of emotion into MKI, now you tell me that’s gone for good and I have to deal with it? You tell me to live with it and “evolve or die?” What, are you thirteen? As an adult I have to make a lot of big boy decisions dealing with investments all the time. The cost of this game does equal an investment. I know for a fact many of you have just as much money in this as I do and the thought that it’s a waste now because the fun has been sucked out, dumbed down and numbed to the point of useless is maddening.

I love that the many of the rules and confusions have been clarified. I like that for the sake of simplicity there is only one type of ghost walk. I like that model size is clarified and LOS, timing issues and the majority of rules are condensed and simplified. I don’t like that units are called grunts and that leaders are auto promoted should one take an axe to their skull.

I’ve half dozen games already under the new system and frankly I do not love it. It was all about the flavor and fun of the game for me and I truly feel that has been so sanitized now that it’s just like playing 40K. I quit 40K and didn’t pick up a fig for almost 7 years until a friend turned me on to Warmachine. It was so zesty and the casters were so over the top that I couldn’t resist. I got hooked much to the dismay of my wife and have been an avid gamer for quite some time now.

Now don’t take what I’m saying as “I’m gonna quit” yadda yadda. All I’m doing is expressing my honest opinion as to the apparent lack of fun that is WM MKII. I’m still going to play. Game night is still every Wednesday at six for all you guys in the Cache Valley Utah area. I want to play test this until my eyes bleed because I WANT this game to be FUN again. I WANT WM MKII to survive and thrive and be so awesome that all my buddies drop their fishing poles and come play war games instead. That being said, as of right now, this is not a system I’d advocate.

-Cheers-

Doom

Please tell me where has the fun gone? 

I’ve already had a chance to play test a game using the new rules and it was like chewing on cardboard. Yeah there was some excitement as I employed the new rule system and made a list using the crazy new point values. That excitement aside I felt literal grief for our faction as for the first time I played a game and had, honestly, no fun.

Here’s a rundown of what I see to be the main problem areas. 

Asphyxious is our main man! The general, the veritable poster child for Cryx. He has been caster with whom I’ve had the most fun. My question to you is this. Why does the magic using faction’s poster child only have five spells? He’s a seven focus caster and only has FIVE spells. His epic version has only six! SIX and his best spells have been reduced to uselessness. 

Gaspy has lost the ability to shunt damage by consuming a soul token. Hellbound no longer protects him from aoe damage. Don’t even get me started on excarnate. I can’t believe it’s still an upkeep spell. Some of the most fun I’ve had playing gaspy has been finding new and interesting targets for excarnate. That’s gone now. 

Honestly, I won’t play either version of Gaspy as he is not competitive. Any element he once had is gone and he won’t hit the table again. (he’s who I played tonight.)

Goreshade is also getting put back in the box. While his prime version still resembles his former self the epic incarnation (and his most competitive) is not playable. Under no circumstance would I EVER consider running epic Goreshade. I hate to sound like a broken record but once again a really fun fig is boring and vanilla. Nothing special about Goreshade, just boring. 

Moretenebra has quickly become one of my favorite casters. She’s unique and I love to run her with our character jacks. Pre MKII we were playing in an infantry machine world. I can forsee that coming to and end which will drastically reduce the fun level of Mortenebra. I can see why deathrace was nerffed to only being cast once per turn. I’m a little sketchy as to why it was renamed. Anyone else notice that there is an obvious aversion to any words that deal with death and carnage? I think I read a model being “killed” referred to as being “boxed.” Anyway, back on topic.

Mortey gets an average playability rating because I know I’ll get to play against Hordes eventually and she’ll be a boon. I’d wished to have seen her with more jack points, but I’ll wait a week before I make my final statement. 

The Coven are HORRIBLE! These ladies were so much fun to play. Getting in a perfect conjunction, imprisoning anything and everything and popping heads with stygian abyss were so much fun. Stealth offered by the Egregore was hugely helpful and I feel that by losing it has really crutched the coven to the point that they are more effective as a paper weight than a warcaster. 

Terminus was hard for me to buy into pre MKII, now that he’s been so utterly demoted to craptastic I don’t feel any urge to play him. I could see how fun he would have been in a casual game with his ability to throw whatever whenever. The fact that he could rage in combat then burn face with his dragon breath was really cool. Where did ravager go? That was his most awesome spell and made seethers insane. The few times Terminus took command of my cryx army the most fun I could have had was with that spell. 

Deneghra & Skarre are both pretty much the same though eDenny is much much worse. Why no command debuffs? eDenny c-hax lists were like a barrel of monkeys. Fun for everyone, except the guy who had to clean up the mess afterward. I’m sad to see it go. eDenny won’t see any play but pDenny will and so will pSkarre. 

Sick of sac strike yet? You ain’t seen nothing yet. With so many of my favorite casters damned to the box thanks to their epic lack of fun my meta will see so much sac strike they’ll have to ask me to please stop playing her. 

Units?

I spent almost $150 on a full unit of Bloodgorgers with Slaughterborn. I’ve run them almost exclusively for a month straight and had so much fun. Their blood marks were the reason for the season man. They were the smoke in my pipe, the Christ in my Christmas. I now have no wish to play them again. I’m physically sick to my stomach because of what MKII has done to them. They went from being a spicy helping of unique Cryx goodness, now they are just more vanilla. I almost called Privateer HQ to voice my nerd rage but I had a feeling they’d just hang up on me. (sigh)
Slaughterborn is pretty good still. I love the big lug. Where did his blood marks go? He’s still playable and a lot of fun. Too bad the gorgers couldn’t tag along on the fun-train.

Can anyone tell me what the hell happened to the Deathjack? No necrovent? That was quintessential cryxian coolness. That’s his fluff man, that’s his coup de gras. Again, our most flavor full figs getting the vanilla downgrade. Not that I’ll play him any less. The DJ is still amazing and will be the bane of all that is not Cryx.

Most everything else I’m just too tired to spew about. I’m stoked that the necrosurgeon is good now, finally. Mechanithralls are the same, the revenant crew are still terrible and black bane and his pirate crew are even worse. There was little chance I’d run them before, it’s nigh inevitable now. Necrotechs have repair woot! The Satyxix raiders with their witch attachment will finally see some play thanks to AD and stealth. They’re still bad but now that the Gorgers are back in the box I gotta look somewhere.

BK’s and Thralls are still good and will see use. Thralls still less than others simply because the Bastard is no fun to play and I only really ran them with him. 

Our jacks are nothing special still. I’m amazed that the slayer now has a combo strike at p+s 22! Crazy. Helldiver? What happened to you? Where did the aoe go and boosted attacks? It was interesting to play, no longer. That brings me to my favorite piece and one of the most tragic figures in our tale.

The Cankerworm. Why? Why of all the things that was done to diminish the fun of my faction did you have to pick on the cankerworm? No scuttle? No meat grinder? Only one attack with armor piercing? The worm doesn’t even get focus for killing a living model. As of now the only thing the worm is good for is as a scavenger. Nothing it takes though will be any good. 

The Cankerworm, or the “Cankermissle” as I like to call it was, next to eGaspy and the Bloodgorgers, my most favorite piece in the game. Soooo much fun, soooo much win. It has gone from auto include to “not on my list.” Please privateer press, give me a bone here. Give me back my Bloodgorgers, epic Asphyxious and please, I beg, give me back my cankerworm. 

-Cheers-

Ok, coffee break is over back to work.

Sure, I post an epic fail moment for PP and what do they do? Open up MKII. So. Well. Sorry.

-Cheers-

MKII Release = Epic Fail

The chubs at PP have had plenty of time to sip their Starbucks and hit the "enter" key by now to get the ball rolling. Still nothing is available. I'm sure the nerd-rage that has been created will soon cause a terrible black hole to develope destroying the universe. My thoughts? Vader says it all.

I Like To Paint...

With MKII on the verge of hitting the gaming community I find my self at a loss for words.  So in lieu of prattling off some nonsense on the state of our local meta or giving my opinion on some model whose stats will inevitably change with the morning sun I thought I'd post a few of my painted pieces.  

Please take into consideration that:

1. My camera sucks.
2. I'm not a very good painter

So without further ado (drum roll please)