Turn One

Now that you're deployed, now what?

This is the point where rubber meets pavement. All you careful list building, stategerizing, meticulous deployment and overall cranial exertions begin to revel themselves. It's turn one and you have to do more than theorize.

In previous posts I've mentioned playing for position several times. I've talked about the importance of taking and holding the center of the board, especially in regards to scenario play.

To capitalize on this strategy you have to be very careful about your first turn because this brings to bear the needed elements to capture the center, establish a solid line from which to launch your turn two attack and put together a defensible position.

Now how the heck are you going to do that in just one turn? Hopefully you've prepared a list that has the various components to allow you such a turn. Too gimmicky or two narrow in scope and you'll find yourself quickly in a bad position.

In this weekends' post I'll cover a solid first turn and some mini objective you'll want to achieve to capitalize on your position. Bear in mind this doesn't cover all situations and all lists or all opponents, but it provides a solid base to build on.

... More to come ...

Photo Break!!!

I interrupt the tactics write up for a this brief photo break. I recently painted pGoreshade to see if I could paint white. As it turns out I can't. Still, I personally like him, I just wish I was a better painter and that I had a better camera.


Without further adu...

Game Play: The Opening - Deployment

Deployment

Now that it's been decided which turn you will take, it is now time to deploy. Much like the opening move in a chess game there should be strategy behind how your deploy your models.

Most games that I see deploy much like the following picture.


Both armies are laterally spread out with the warcaster/warlock centrally positioned. What usually results is a paper rock scissors duel. There will be quite a bit of repositioning as flanks fail or as holes develop. In all it's the standard but, in my opinion, is far from the best method for deployment in many circumstances.

I feel that this sort of central deployment allows a faster army to exploit your flanks. It also forces you to "Have" to change direction to confront said flanking attempts. I often prefer an off center deployment to deny one of the flanks. I'll most typically chose this option if going second.

Another boon of the denied flank tactic is that it forces elements of your opponents army to spend precious turns attempting to reposition. I remember one game where I took the win by simply out playing my opponent positionally. Admittedly I was out matched. My small Mortenebra force comprised of a few jacks, the Deathjack, Nightmare, Malice and Cankerworm. I had a few sirens and a necrotech too.

He brought the eMadrak pain with a full unit of burrowers, fennblades, and Kriel warriors with the UA and a two or three WA's. Had an axer, swamp troll and I believe an Earthborn Dire Troll. Add in a fell caller and I was outnumbered by some 30 models.

He deployed centrally, Madrak in the middle with his troops spread out in a long line of death. The fenns were to my left and the Kriels on the right. With beasts hanging close to Madrak.

I deployed first centrally as well. After seeing the final set up I knew that I couldn't possibly take on that many kriels all in one go because the counter charge would be devastating. In a bold move I AD'd the DJ on my right flank, just in Morty's control range; then on my turn I ran him forward tempting the kriels to take him on.

I then ran the remaining jacks to my right flank and set up a defensive posture near a hill. What this did was two fold. Firstly it moved me out of range of the hated burrowers and effectively took the fennblades out of the game for a few rounds.

Some of the louder trolls on the main forum would consider a complete re posturing due to the burrowers as a "win," however in this case not only did it deny the burrower's pop up turn, it also kep a huge chunk of his army out of the game. This was actually the move which saved me the game as I was then able to break his army down a piece at a time.

Positionally, if I had remained in the center I would have been destroyed. Sure, I would have taken a large amount of kriels with me, but not enough to sway the game into my favor.

In chess there is a defined center and through piece development you make concerted efforts to take and hold the center in order to achieve a better position. Unlike chess, warmachine has a fluid center which can be redefined depending on the type of game played. Caster kill granting the most fluidity.

Keep this in mind as you establish your position and make play for your "tactical center."

***More to come***

Game Play

I've been playing miniature war games for what seems like an eternity.

I've been playing chess for even longer than that.

There is a similarity that is unmistakable. Both games have phases, strategy, tactics and combinations.

Much like Chess the game of Warmachine (this includes Hordes too) is also comprised of phases.

1. The Opening

2. Middle Game

3. End Game

The opening while often glazed over by the majority of players is, in my opinion, one of the single most important phases of the game. I claim that the opening section of the game consists of

a. turn selection

b. deployment

c. first turn.

When I say turn selection I'm simply referring to the opportunity to play as player one or two. About 1/2 the time you don't get to choose, but when the moment presents itself it's incredibly important to know which choice is best.

As a Cryx player I will chose to always go first as a non shooty faction I see no reason to sit back and see what the other player is going to do before I commit. I'd much rather set the pace. With loads of infantry, generous amounts of stealth and units which regenerate I have ample reason to make the first move.

A Cygnar army with excess amounts of sissy might feel better able to dish out the pain by allowing their opponent to move first and force them to move into firing range.

Also, the first player, again in my opinion, will be playing defense for the middle game as they have more than likely reached the objective and struggle to maintain their grip on it. A glass cannon army like legion might not want to take the hit first and opt to alpha strike the position instead.

So basically I've spent several paragraphs attempting to explain the importance of turn choice and really the only definite answer is "it depends." It depends on your army structure, scenario and list build.

It is, however, important to realize that turn selection does play an important role in the game. While many a person can quote "page 5," and say that the choice to go first is always the best choice. I contend that in some situations playing second is beneficial, and vice versa.

Either way you're bound to play first or last, best to be aware of the difference in tempo and plan ahead for it.

More to come.....

Cryx Win It!

The last LGS event prior to Summer Rampage is officially over.

It was a long three week campaign which resulted in a Cryxian conquest. That's right folks. I took it, the whole shebang.

Game 1 vs Trollbloods. We roll and get 750. Mortenebra vs Calandra. I won initiative, ran everything forward, move up Mortey, put a few upkeep's on the DJ & NM both.

Trolls. He runs up. Tries to get as close to me as possible. Puts gobber smoke in front of Calandra and feats. The nightmare advances.

Turn 2 Cryx. Mortenebra casts Deathrace on the DJ, terminal velocity, and feat. DJ charges the champs and reigns death upon the extremely tough Champs (tough on 3+.) The nightmare advances due to death race avoiding free strikes thanks to the upkeep spell. The NM is inside the gobber smoke and has a charge lane to Calandra. The NM activates, charges the big fat gypsy lady, she dies.

Game 2 vs John the Mennite (JTM). We roll and get 500 points. Skarre vs the Harbinger. I win initiative. Run everything forward but the skarlock. Use the focus factory.

Menoth: he runs the avatar forward, uses the gaze of Menoth. Choir puts no shooty on the avatar. His bastions advance. Harby casts martyrdom.

Cryx turn 2: Tartarus curses the avatar, charges and deals a lot of damage. Bane knights charge and wipe the avatar out. A pistol wraith kills the choir leader but harby take a few licks to keep him around. Skarlock generates more focus and everyone else moves forward. The dj is poorly positioned in the trees, my bad.

Menoth: He charges Tartarus with the bastions and the sauce survives. A bane knight is hit but doesn't die, another shifts dealing a ton of damage causing the Harby to take some more damage. Harby feats, casts martyrdom again.

Turn 3 Cryx. Skarre goes first. Moves forward so as not to have the Harby in los. Feats and sac strikes the bastion leader boosting damage. Harby martyers. Tartarus curses, threshers and doesn't take any damage from the witches feat. Bane knight charge, 2 die to the feat, the rest decimate the bastions. Harby takes some more damage from martyrdom but has to let a few bastions die. Everyone else then moves forward and positions so as not to have los to the witch. Dj is still in terrible position but casts Blood rain, corrodes a bastion. The pistol wraith continues on the right flank.

Turn 3 Menoth: a bastion dies to corrosion. JTM can't martyr because he hasn't cast it yet. It's not looking so hot for John. A devout charges the DJ and does no damage. Bastions kill Tartarus and a bane knight or two allowing a few shadow shifts. Harby moves forward behind the bastions and casts cataclysm and kills a bane knight. I shadow shift into Harby with P+S 16 weapon master and kill her dead. Martyrdom did most the work for me.

Game 3 vs Cygnar. We roll and get 750. My Mortenebra list vs epic Stryker. I win initiative. Run everything up except Morty. She moves, puts sacral ward on the dj and the ghostly armor spell on the nightmare.

Cygnar turn 1. I wasn't very smart and put the Cankerworm too close to the sword knights. The piper gave them an insane charge range and they chopped the little guy into pieces. Ayana and Holt almost knocked out a node and the Black 13 killed 1/3 of my bile thralls and a Necrotech. Stryker advances, casts a spell at a pistol wraith behind cover and misses. The Nightmare advances through a forest towards Stryker.

Turn 2 Cryx. Upkeep spells with skarlock and combine. Morty moves up, feats, casts deathrace on the DJ and terminal velocity. The Deathjack charges the b13. They die, deathrace triggers, nightmare advances trying to get a bead on Stryker. Rowdy counter charges but only deals 5 pips to column 4. (Whew.) Nightmare activates and moves into melee range with Stryker. Stryker dies.

The tournament is over and I win!

It was a fantastic series of games. The first place prize is a free paint job by the LGS owener's wife. She's pretty good so I'm way excited. I'm going to have her paint Molik Karn.

-Cheers-

MKII Model Review

Jacks rule so they go first.

Deathjack: An amazing brute with a deep grid, terrific stats and a plethora of unique abilities which make this jack the finest in all the IK. With two P+S 18 attacks, arm 19, two free focus every turn and the ability to cast spells and consume. souls the DJ has no equal on the battle field

The DJ suffered a few substantial nerfs in MKII but none are overly worrisome. Firstly the DJ can no longer necrovent but as a trade you no longer have to feed it a FOC to keep it from going crazy. True that loss of fluff tames the dj down a bit but ultimately it's for the greater good, er, bad.

The Nightmare is my favorite jack in the game. This speedy son of a bitch has earned more kills than I care to count. As far as I can tell the Nightmare is essential in almost every cryx list and especially with Mortenebra.

While spd 6 is great for a jack, with Morty the nightmare can potentially move 23" in a single turn. With 2". Reach the nightmare has an effective threat range of 25". Game Over.

The nightmare kept its bond with Deneghra so that while in her battle group it gains stealth. The imprint "ghostly" is fantastic in that it let's you ignore free strikes and terrain. If only it ignored intervening models.

On the down side the nightmare's grid is shallow for a heavy requiring you to play with a tad more finesse than with other heavies. All in all the nightmare is A+

The Seether: was pretty cool in MKI but was rife with issues, namely I played infantry machine and never ran much more than a few nodes and the Cankerworm. That being said, MKII has provided some serious incentive to fielding jacks so now the seether shall see the light of day.

With MAT 8 and one free FOC per turn the seether is nigh but guaranteed to box whatever it charges. MKII granted the seether a chain attack which allows it to make a power attack for free. (With some exceptions). Frankly this jack, while more expensive, has taken the Cankerworm's place on all my lists. So again, great MAT, better DEF than most heavies (irc), decent pow+str, two open fists, a deep grid and decent movement makes the Seether another A+ jack.

The Slayer is still the red-headed stepchild of all Cryx players. Its utility was increased in that it is now cheap as dirt for a heavy and boasts a killer pow 22 combo strike. This little guy on a charge is going to cause some serious grief. Lamentably with low armor and a shallow grid the Slayer isn't going to last long after its initial assault so pick your targets well. Overall rating is a solid "B-"

The Leviathan is a confusing jack. I don't own one, and with its current stats I'm pretty sure that will go on unchanged. There is really nothing special about this maritime heavy. It looks cool. Has a ranged attack with ROF 3 and a cool looking claw. But, well, that's really it; and it's as expensive as the nightmare or seether, both of which I'd take over the levi' any day. Overall grade "D+."

The Harrower is still cool. Pricey and "OK." As of yet I don't know why I'd take it over the nightmare.

The Stalker is perhaps the one jack which benefited from MKII more so than any other jack in the faction. Let's be honest now, the stalker was a sissy, waste of time, no good wreck marker waiting to happen. Now, while still a wreck marker waiting to happen, the stalker comes with a few added tryx and the potential to be an assassin. Honestly though the damage grid on this glorified bone jack is so pathetic that even taking into consideration its high def and cool abilities the jack is still scrap. "C"

The Cankerworm is no more. I'd prefer to not talk about it. You bastards! You know who you are! "F"

Nodes: single in purpose and mind though different in cost. Much energy was spent on an in faction argument concerning the nodes and their steep point cost. Mostly it was one dink saying "they are fine" vs the Cryx community. Ultimately the community prevailed as PP recently updated the stats for the nightwretch and defailer. Same points as before but the defiler finally has the spray attack it should have always had and the wretch has "powerful shot." Awesome. For still being too expensive and because I say so, the nodes get a "B."

To Be Continued...

Skarre

I've been giving it a lot of thought. While eGaspy would be a hoot'n a half to play I just don't think Gaspy would be able to convey my message to John the Mennite.

What message doth thou ask?

That Cryx rule!


Skarre has so much to offer. She can buff her own troops, blow stuff up with a good selection of anti infantry spells and best of all can sac her own troopers to generate even more focus. On average Skarre should be roll'n with 9-10 focus each turn. This will really let me be able to effectively run the Deathjack, keep my guys hitting the mennites and allow some focus camping for added armor. In addition she's fast, amazing in combat and will be safely hidden behind a swath of medium sized bases. Bloodgorgers rock!

That being said it's time to delve into the list. Mind you this is a work in progress. I'm having a hard time deciding on bane knights or bloodgorgers. Either way the lists will be effectively the same. The only reason I really want to run the gorgers is the extra attack (and they're new so I want to break them in!)

Da List

• pSkarre: Sac Strike, Focus Factory, Dark Guidance, Fly's Kiss
• Cankerworm: My guided missile. If I want it dead I'll send the worm.
• Deathjack: With all the focus Skarre will generate with the factory I'll run him hot and deadly. He can cast fly's kiss or hellfire, cause multiple command checks and rip face. I love him.
• Deathripper: An arc node, what more can I say. Plus sustained p+s attacks is wicked good.
• The General: This will be his second game (with the actual model) and I have big hopes for the guy. He's deceptively fast and should be able to rake in the blood marks. More command checks.
• Gorman: LOS? What LOS?
• Pistol Wraith: My ace in the hole. Plan on him hiding in the trees until the time is right.
• Skarlock: Focus factory.
• Bile Thralls: A Cryx staple since Prime and the bane of all infantry. I plan on Harby taking a lot of damage from martyrdom thanks to these guys.
• Blood Gorgers: Can you say furious charge with effective rat 10, p+s 16 & 14 attacks. You can't save'em all Harby.
• Mechanithralls: Fodder, good for sac'n, snack'n and feed'n the factory.
• Withershadow Combine: Another ace in the hole. No worries about Vilmon, let's Skarre re-roll lowest damage dice on sac-strike, eliminate up keeps, stealth and terror.

-Cheers-

The Next Tournament Has Been Declared!

After a successful month long 750 point tournament the LGS owner has already unveiled his plans for our next tournament. This time we're talking 350 points in one night of furious miniature combat!

What to bring, what to bring? So many choices. The question is, will this be a mangled metal/tooth and claw event or is it open to whatever?

Mangled metal provides some challenges that I'd have to really take a serious look into solving. First off Cryx isn't know as the jack casting faction.

Only recently in Legends did our faction receive it's first true jack caster, Mortenebra. Don't get me wrong, she is full of win, but her most effective spells are triggered vs. living models; jacks are not living models so what point do they serve?

Cankerworm: This jack is a missile of uber destruction which can chew through the hardiest warjacks in the game. It's fast, stealthy and has one of the most effective/efficient damage grids I've ever seen. The systems are so spread out that it can take a tremendous amount of damage and still not lose a single one. The main problem I foresee is that with certain casters and the lack of bile thralls I'd find myself without any corrosion sources for the cankerworm. That's a big deal and limits my caster choices if I choose to run the worm.

Nightmare: While only being in my possession a short while it has already amassed a fine collection of warcaster shulls to line its trophey shelf. The prey ability is amazing, the out of turn movement really helps line uf the charge or seek better positioning to ensure the win. While the jack has decent pow+str attacks and reach, arm 18 isn't all that hard to break and its damage grid only has two more boxes than the cankerworm! Needless to say it's pretty damn squishy. That being said, when taken with Deneghra it gains stealth and becomes a lot more menacing, especially vs. shooty jacks. The nightmare also has an imprint ability which makes it ghostly allowing it to move through obstacles, ignore terrain and free strikes. Very handy.

Deathjack: I'm not sure I even need to write an opinion. General consensus is that this beast of a jack is the best jack in the game. Terrific stats, tons of damage boxes, two open fists with p+s 18 and a head attack that's pow 15! The deathjack can Necrovent which places a 5" AOE centered on him dealing pow 12 boostable hit on everything in the cloud, g-night Vilmon! But wait, there's more. The Deathjack comes equipped with two skulls of hate, these bad boys are the driving force behind this maniacal monster of mayhem. The skulls of hate provide the Deathjack with two focus during my control phase, allow the deathjack a 360 degree front arc so it can charge and slam in any direction and make it so the deathjack can cast any spell on my warcasters' list! Essentially everything amazing about Cryx is rolled up into this one big nasty jack. What else can I say? I love him! Well, now for the negatives. He's so damn expensive, at 154 points that's 44% of my army and paints him as a pretty big target. Kill him and it's game over basically. He also suffers from being unbound, which means that if for any reason I cannot allocate him three focus he then goes nutty and charges my caster. That's bad, especially since most anti jack casters my nemesis runs have all sorts of ways to wipe a cortex out. Did I mention he was expensive? I did? Well I'm going to say it again, negative #1 is his point cost, that alone will keep him in the bag.

Slayer: BARF! He's terrible, great to have as a fig thanks to the Withershadow Combine and their dark industry's ability, but that's it. The slayer is way too expensive for the paltry stats it has. Abysmal pow+str, the worst MAT of any heavy in the game and a damage grid a Bone jack would laugh at. Not much point talking about this guy, he's never going to see the table top unless I really want to have a casual game. NEXT!

Arc Nodes: Deathrippers vs. Defilers. Until Legends Defilers were considered the worst of the arc nodes. Overly expensive for a single shot, non aoe corrosion blast with only pow 12. However, once the Cankerworm hit play the evil Cryxian warcasters found utility in the deFAILers as another corrosion source. In Mangled Metal this is a big deal. I'd have to run at least two, maybe even three. Should I opt for a cast which has access to corrosion causing spells the likelihood that the defiler will see play diminishes. The deathripper is an efficient arc node which is cheaper than most solo's. It has a sustained attack and can headbutt or slam other jacks around keeping them knocked down and opening charge lanes for the big boys. I really should invest in Nightwretches, maybe I'll buy a blister. Moving right along.

Stalkers: The following is a write up done by the Battle College. I own a Stalker but have used it all of one time. "The Stalker is not a normal bonejack. It has no arc node, and its statistics are bit different. It moves fast, has stealth, jumps and moves over all terrain. It's a solo killer with some good abilities for suppressing warcasters, but you will almost NEVER get to attack a warcaster with it. For its points cost it's a difficult unit to get the best performance out of, and in many respects it has been eclipsed by the Helldiver. The Stalker is just as good in melee as the Helljacks, and is more difficult to hit than any other warjack in the game. It's difficult to hit without some sort of bonus or boosted attack rolls or additional attack dice. The Stalker can even tangle up models that have a MAT:8 like Exemplar Seneschals. The Stalker is as fast as the other bonejacks but has less armor and fewer damage boxes. Any hit doing twenty damage or more is enough to badly damage this warjack. A series of blasts with a few high damage rolls from things like Winterguard Mortars or boosted AOE blasts from warjacks are enough to cripple the Stalker in one or two shots. The Evisceratiors do a decent amount of damage, but are not at the top of the spectrum, so don't obsess over their ability to mess up warcasters. What the Stalker most needs is for any potential victim to be "debuffed" by spells like Parasite, or to get bonuses to its damage rolls with spells like Scything Touch or Pirate Queen Skarre's Blood Magic feat.Without allocated focus or other assistance the Stalker is a threat to most warrior solos and units, but not able to directly threaten warjacks or warcasters. Most warcasters can laugh off an unassisted attack from a Stalker, and trash it on their next turn. All Terrain: Being able to charge or slam through rough terrain and move through it unimpeded is game winning. This is only one of a few all terrain warjacks that Cryx has, and the only one that can move so swiftly. The second best use I've gotten out of it is being able to move 10" over all terrain when performing a slam attack.Leap: This ability is not often as valuable, since you cannot perform the all important charge or slam, though it will let the Stalker move further to engage the enemy. The Stalker can use leaps to flee combats without taking free strikes, or advance in the face of Centurions standing in front of Darius and jump over them to attack him directly. Anything that stops a Stalker from charging (reductions to SPD for example) will stop it from leaping. Stealth: There are many ways of subverting stealth. Don't have it prance around in front of the enemy out of cover unless you want some Gun Mage Captain Adept wrecking it for you in the first or second turn of the game. You should still take advantage of concealment whenever you can, because rough terrain like woods won't slow it down anyway." -Battle College-

So that's it. Those are my choices for Mangled Metal 350. I have a lot of play testing to do. My concern is ensuring that I can deliver my assassination jack to the opposing caster intact allowing the win. Cryx Jacks are much more fragile than any other faction's, it puts us at a disadvantage tactically. That being said, we Cryx are full of tryx and can easily debuff them down to our level, making it all but a rout in favor of the dragon lord.

That's enough for now, time to play!

-Cheers-

It's Finally Over HOORAY!

The tournament that never ends has finally ended.

eVlad and his Khador Krew laughed in the face of cheese by expressly defeating Haley and her bubble of death in a "King of the hill" match.

What does this victory mean to the world of Logan Warmachine? Not much, just proves that the only way to beat Haley is by scenario. In Brian's defense eVlad is almost every bit as cheesy and borken as pHaley. There is a reason eVlad has consistently won nationals and other "cons" across the nation.

Good games guys. Back to casual play, this way I can fine tune my blighted troll list! Ha HA!

-Cheers-

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!

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-

Conquest Continued (Turn Two)

So it's Dalla's turn again. He activates his KW's and runs them forward into combat with the bile thralls. He didn't charge though so no bile thralls died this turn. He then moved his rune shapers forward and "rune-cast" (I made that word up) a Cephalyx to death. The rune shapers get +1 to their attack rolls for each other rune shaper within 1" which makes them essentially RAT 8! Sick. Fenn Blades are suffering still from Harrowing being cast on them last turn. As such they are forced to bunch together essentially ending their activation this turn. Champs move forward, Calandra the KSB and some whelp advance as well. Calandra casts Befuddle on the bile thralls, hitting their paltry DEF 11 easy as pie. They get moved forward 3" facing backwards. Impaler activates, casts Farstrike and nails denny for 8 points of damage, OUCH! She's almost 1/2 dead on T2. Time for some payback.

My turn. I can't upkeep Harrowing as it's out of my control area (at least we think that's how it works.) Move some bile thralls, and POP'em! More dead stuff Hooray! The overlords charge the Rune Shapers killing 2 of them. The Withershadow Combine attack the KW's and only manage to kill one of them thanks to the dice gods being on vacation. Gorman attaccks too and manages to hit a KW, his stupid p+s stiletto can't get past their armor. Advance Tartarus, curse the Fenn Blades, as if they aren't having a hard enough time as it is, then beckon the unit of bane knights close buy. I put the bulk of them close enough to the fenn blades that I'm able to kill the major portion. The flanking pistol wraith kills a few fenn blades as well. Advance the nightmare and kill a KW, Cankerworm doesn't do much of anything. My skarlock casts tenebreus exile on the KW's making the incorporeal for a round effectively removing them from action for a while. Denny advances, cast Hellmouth on Calandra, hits and does some damage to her. The spell also damages a champion, kills a stone scribe, removes the KSB from play hurts the pyre troll and the Impaler causing some whelps to plop out. Denny feats making it so that nothing in her control area (enemy models) may move except to change facing and suffer -3 DEF. I end my turn.

Turn 3: Now we're at the end of our story. Simply Dallas cannot move, Calandra is withing charging distance of the bane knights, Tartarus and eDeneghra her self. In a last ditch effort Calandra casts her offensive spell (which I didn't know she had) and knocks denny down a few notches. Casts it again, (Denny is almost dead now! WTF?), Calandra hits but rolls snake eyes for damage, Deneghra lives woot! Impaler tries to throw at her but misses because she's incorporeal.

My Turn: Charge in Denny, force to hit, force damage, Fat Gypsy Troll is worm food. Good game.

In all the game was very educational. Not having use Deneghra's epic incarnation I wasn't sure how well she would do. Regular Denny is the uber bane to Trolls thanks in part to her amazing list of spells that debuff like no other. eDenny doesn't have that option. As it turns out though, spells like Harrowing and hellmouth really help with board control. Making him move guys out of formation or not at all is terrific. eDenny is squishy though, being incorporeal is a cool ability but there is a lot out there that counts as a magic attack. Lucky for me I had removed the KSB from play so that the aura was no longer a factor. I'm going to have to ensure that I have screening models with eDenny more so than I did this game.

-Cheers-

Conquest Of The Kriels

It was a hard fought battle today vs. the Fat Gypsy lady and her HUGE mob of Kriel's. I decided it was time to start spring break a bit early and theummhummguy and I grabbed a quick 750 point battle and duked it out.

I brought:

Epic Deneghra
Nightmare
Defiler
Defiler
Defiler
Cankerworm
Skarlock
Pistol Wraith
Tartarus
Bane Knights (8)
Bile Thralls (9)
Cephalyx Overlords
Gorman Di Wulfe
Necrotech
Scrap Thrall

Dallas Brought:

Fat Gypsy
Pyre Troll
Impaler
Champions
Fell Caller
KSB + ESS
Fenn Blades
Kriel Warriors + UA & WA
Rune Shapers
Farrow Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers
Whelps

The initiative went to Dallas. He set his Trolls pretty spread out across the board (he had some 50+ models) and took up a ton of space. Gypsy was in the middle with the KSB and Champs for protection.

He pretty much ran everyone forward then popped her feat. Gutsy move if you ask me. Gutsy and smart. He also activated the KSB using the ESS which negated continuous effects, namely corrosion, so trying to get a ton of corrosion on him via bile thralls wouldn't do me any good.

My turn. Knowing that each and every troll had a 66% chance of staying alive I had to think long and hard about how I wanted to open my game. I ran the pistol wraith up the right flank and the cephalyx overlords the left. I only moved an arc node a few inches putting his units in harms way via eDeneghra's spell list. I moved some of the bile thralls forward putting them in range of a purge or two which caused some decent damage to the champions but didn't really do much else. Corrosino was a moot point because of the Elder Stone Scribe and the "no continuous effects" aura. Tartarus and the BK's advanced towards the fenn blades. My nightmare didn't do a whole lot, it advanced towards a KW and killed it. My cankerworm trotted out, killed a whelp and scuttled away, the sly bastard. I advanced my scrap thrall and necrotech then finished with eDenny herself. She arced hellmouth onto a fenn blade causing his ranks to scramble as they were forced to move D3 inches towards the affected model. Once they were all in position they each took an individually boostable pow 12 hit, if they died they were removed from play instead of dying gracefully. A lot of them died. I admit though I did play that a tad on the wrong side. You see epic Asphyxious has a spell called Excarnate which when it deals sufficient damaged to destroy said model it is removed from play. This is how I played hellbound. Which is wrong. Dallas should have had the opportunity to roll tough first. At least that's how I've come to understand the rule on tough. Either way. I then cast harrowing on a fenn blade which is just such a funny spell. Harrowing makes every other model in the unit move directly towards the affected model during its activation. If they kill their own cursed fig then the unit flees. It worked great and basically removed the fenn blades from the game. I then ended my turn.

Turn 2 Dallas

More to come........ I got a date with a pretty lady!!!

It Begins

John does it, now I want to do it too. Blog that is. I don't have huge hopes for this blog other than a means to vent some frustration, share some joy and keep track of my games, especially tournament play.

I've been playing war games since the age of 13. For those of you bad at math that's 18 years. I don't want to even begin to think on how much money I've blown on tiny metal men and their accompanying implements of destruction. All I know is that I'm hooked. I love the mental exercise and competitiveness that gaming provides. It's a great way to get together with friends and blow off some steam from a long work week.

My wife, bless her heart, is still trying to accept the fact that her husband is a nerd. I'm OK with that. She has her passions, I have mine. What I love is that she cheers me on and supports my habit. I love that woman!

Here's to a long future of gaming. Please feel free to comment, and provide constructive input. Unconstructive input is fine too, that's pretty much all I am capable of.

-Cheers-