Cygnar or Retribution

Long time no see guys, I haven't posted on this blog in quite a while as I haven't been playing much Warmachine, but last week a new store opened here and is going to be running tournaments and gaming nights and just everything I'd like to do with the hobby.

So the first tournament is coming up in January and I'm trying to decide what I want to play. I still have my Retribution but I painted up a Cygnar army to practice painting green (pictures will come later). For this first tournament I can't decide if I want to play Retribution (A Kaelyssa list and a Vyros list) or play Cygnar (E Nemo and possibly E Haley/Prime Haley/Prime Stryker).

I feel like playing something a little more "broken" than Retribution can currently muster, but I would have little to no experience with the army, so it's power VS experience.

What do you guys think? Fully painted Cygnar VS half painted Retribution

Long time no see

Hey folks, been quite a while since I posted. I'm still not really back into Warmachine but I felt like painting something so I've been painting up my metal Cygnar battlegroup in an olive green to try and improve my green and black painting skills. The Lancer is now finished and the Charger is half done, so I thought I'd post up some pics.





I shall post more when I've finished the Charger. I can't decide if I want to use the Ironclad or not. I know I'm replacing Stryker with Hailey as I think she looks more gritty in her original sculpt than Stryker does and I want the dirty infield look.

Like Rocky but with less punching.

For the next 2 months this blog will be a personal ramble on finding tournament skills. After becoming the Event planner at my local Wargaming club I've been busy setting up events and getting people to run them, well now it's set and on September 25th we will be holding our first national sized tournament. And since I'm not running it (I just pulled the strings to get it done), I get to play in it! If you're in the UK, it would be awesome to see other IABN guys there, so keep the Saturday free and when the tickets go on sale (only £10 including lunch) grab yourself one and come throw some yellow dice with me.

So I decided I need to tighten up and start to play a couple of games of WM a week, maybe even go as far as one a day. After my break from WM I returned and found I had lost what skills I had got (I took about a year break in total, so obviously I lost a lot), which means I now need to get back into estimating stealth ranges and such..

I also filled out my Retribution army (at the cost of selling my never used Legion stuff), so I now own every Warcaster and every released unit except the houseguard. I'm a few solos off but I have enough left over from the legion stuff to grab them and a unit or two.

So I sat down and made 2 lists I wanted to use at a tournament level of play.

List 1,

Rahn
Phoenix
Chimera
Full sentinals + UA + Soulless Escort
A pack of Mittens
2 MHA
E Eiryss
Arcanist

List 2,
Kaelyssa
Hydra
Full Sentinels + UA
Full MHSF+UA
A pack of Mittens
2 MHA
Narn

So I'm already some what used to Kaelyssa (although no where near enough, I will dedicate at least 2 weeks to playing her into the ground. But I've been playing Rahn a lot lately and I'm getting a good feel for him.

Here is what I've learnt over those games.

-Stealth rapes Retribution, we just have no answer to stealthed Heavies except Sents, who are priority one.
-I need to learn to guess Stealth range much better.
-I need to use a 'caster not just 1 of their abilities.
-Rahn's feat is rarely powerful, but it's useful for a double force hammer turn or wiping infantry off the board with 12" of AOEs
-Mittens are great for my style of play, they increase ranges
-I need to protect my solos better, I offer them up too easy and always call people's bluff on the MHAs, which they either run from or take out turn 1. I need to try holding them back or at least 1 of them.
-Forcehammer is very good but risky and expensive, the D6 slam can be a bad thing more than it's good.
-Don't get frustrated when the game looks over and you're going to lose. I did this in a game I had tonight and pointed out to my opponent how he could kill me, I should of shut up and let him miss it, he didn't take it any way and I later got a 11.7" line on Lylyth including 2 free strikes on Rahn, took it and if the dice hadn't failed me I would of beaten her down. As long as you have a high focus model on the table you can do something.
-I need to protect my Sentinel officer better.
-I don't value my models enough, I always play high risk high reward and it makes me give up points I shouldn't be. I need to stop throwing away stuff and making bad trades, I have to look at this more like Magic where you only trade if you get a perk from it or you have no choice but to.

That's it for my ranting now. If any one wants to give me any suggestions and feedback or set up a game of Vassal below I'd be up for that. I need to play games and I've met some great guys on IABN I'd like to play with.

Why I play the lists I play #1

A few minutes ago I just finished a game on Vassal VS Harbinger, it ended in the way I like all my games to end with an Elf putting a crossbow bolt in an opposing 'casters face. Which made me think why I like the lists I like and play the way I play. At a club night a week previous someone asked me why I liked Elves (while unpacking my Wood Elves after rocking him with my Retribution), my answer was thus "I don't like Elves, they like me". Elf factions tend to be fast and nimble with a preference for long ranged combat, that is the way I like to fight in games, that's how I like to be on the tabletop.

I know there are a lot of people who like Khador being tanks and just shrugging off blows but I've never felt happy with that. If I'm playing something I want skill to be the defining factor not luck and having high armour stats just doesn't give me that feeling, so I've always been drawn to relying on my reflexs in games and positioning in Wargaming. Due to this the first faction I picked up was Cryx (Cryx Trixs used to be a common phrase), then I picked up Cygnar and found they lacked the mobility I wanted even though I liked the 'jacks and Warcasters. After much time with Skorne I read the Retribution army book (as I was intending to buy all the books at that stage but got burnt out on the game before I did so) and found -my- faction. They have the mobile ranged theme while not sacrificing melee, they have a Warcaster (Kaelyssa) who allowed me to turn my biggest fear of assassination into a strength (camped fury/focus) yet still the faction has a nice melee unit to hold scenario against those players who just want to zerg rush you with arm 20+ models.

Next post will break down the exact list I play and why I use each model. I recently got a new diagnosis for my illness and if it turns out to be correct I maybe able to attend larger tournaments in my area and if I did the list would be my A-list for 35 point games.

POWER MUHAHAHA

The last week or so has been an exciting time and by exciting I mean I did stuff. I'm now one of the 3 guys in charge of the local wargaming club, which has got a name change, has an upcoming Campaign and Warmachine Tournament!

I've been playing a lot of Warhammer fantasy the last few weeks, really enjoying it. It's a nice balance between Warmachine and Warhammer 40k. It's not as deep as Warmachine but not as bland and lifeless as 40k, I could happily play it.

Any way at the club I'm arranging a 15 point Mangled mental tournament, I will be using Retribution of course. Probably Kaelyssa with 2 heavies and a light if I can fit one. More than likely the Heavies will be Hydras due to keeping high focus camping ability. But a phoniex would be nice for the arc node. I'm playing Kaelyssa for sure, she punishes people too well for mistakes not to take it.

I also have to write a story line for the 40k campaign, it's going to be Order VS Disorder. Chaos and Orks will have invaded a world and the Order forces will have to capture it back for the Imperium. Each month one side will gain a bonus for winning/losing. Since the campaign is an escelation there will also be rewards for painting as the event goes on and such, not sure what yet but there we go. Hopefully it'll end in 1 big ass apocalypse game, where everyone just mauls each other.

I shall be fielding a Chaos Red Corsairs army, lead by Huron Blackheart. No idea exactly what but I shall none the less do it.

If you're in the Midlands area and wanting to play some Tabletop games check us out at http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=390808245455 . We're friendly and only slightest demented.

Miss me?

Did any one miss me? Didn't think so.

The last few days I haven't been feeling too bad so I've been about to get out to my local gaming club and after playing one game of 40k I was about ready to kill myself. So this week I played a game of Warmachine, and it was fun, which it's meant to be, so I shall be playing more and I'll resume blogging about it.

I had the following.

Ravyn
-Hydra
Mage hunter Strike force + UA
Invcitors + Ua
Stormfall archers
Narn
MHA

My opponent was playing Trolls and had roughly this

Borka
Mauler
Bltizer
Fenn blades
Pygmies
Kriel stone unit
Fellcaller

He decides to take first turn and runs everything at my lines, I pop my feat turn 1 and wipe out half the fennblades and knock the rest down. Narn and the MHA run to the opposite side of the board to the troll brick holding the scenario.

Turn two the fenn blades and Pygmies mince half the mage hunters and in return I kill all but 1 Pygmy and finish off all but 2 fennblades, then the archers step up and start lighting crap on fire. Most the stone dudes burn up and all is well and good.

Turn three Borka pops feat, a Mauler grabs the fellcaller and tosses him at Ravyn through a line of dudes, rolls the dice and my opponent goes "15 damage" and I'm like "ouch, but she lives" then he goes "no wait 16" and I'm like "She's dead.." and extend my hand as we both laugh.

At that point in the game I had taken enough out that I could attrition him out and playing hide and seek until I could set up flank on the invictors to take out the dires and then Ravyn would take out Borka or win via scenario at that point. But as I haven't played in so long I was rusty and left Ravyn open in a position she really didn't need to be.

Still was a fun game and it was nice to see MKII trolls and get a grasp of their power level.

Being disheartened by WM

I'm not going to write a huge long blog post how PP is evil and I think they are turning into GW because it's not worth the time or effort, but I am being more and more disheartened in the PP community and company.

I look at the way PP is acting and it feels more corporate and less fair than it did before. People say "PP have great customer service" and act like this is a defense, but GW have flawless customer service to the point where you can steal from them if you really wanted to, I don't see how this is a magic bullet that solves all.

The community seems to have shifted since MKII hit as well. We're starting to see less of a "everyones a bro" and more of "OMG BNF! OMG LISTEN!" with several people in the community. BNF (big name fans) belong in the livejournal communities not in the Wargaming one, we're more mature than that (or I'd hope we were). But instead I've seen several names start to pop up and favouriteism and and all the bullshit I can't stand. I could go "Bobaferret did X" and "Gdaybloke did that" but lets be blunt. I don't do BNF type bullshit and I feel the Warmachine community is now doing just that. Either I changed or it did and either way, it's making me feel like I would rather not be part of it.

To go along with the above point, the community quality has dropped below an acceptable standard. We have Podcasts like Focus and Fury, Guts and Gears and to some level Iron agenda that is just releasing terrible quality podcasts that aren't enjoyable to listen to. Then PP goes and gives the worst of these favourtism out the ass, when EVERYONE hates their damn podcast. The only podcast I feel is worth listening to any more is Boosted damage and at times they skirt the quality line as well.

Maybe I've outgrown warmachine and it's time I found a new game or maybe the community has grown, either way I've lost interest in Warmachine. MKII has killed most my interest and PP has finished off the rest of them.