Merry Christmas all.

Hopefully yours was better than mine and you got all the toy soldiers you wanted.

Bye bye game store?

So I was in my LFGS last night and the manager (who is a great guy and a community member as much as anything else) came up to us and said goodbye, so I was rather confused and said bye figuring he was just going home, only to find out 5 minutes later he had been laid off. I then found out a whole bunch of stock is being sent back and basically everyone knew the store was being run by an idiot from day 1 and would ultimately die. So phone numbers got exchanged and such, and we're going to look at hosting a night once a week at a local community centre. But this brings up an interesting question, What do you do when your local gaming hub vanishes?

There is a wargaming society locally and I plan to go there every other week, but can a hobby really survive on once every other week basis? Is there really any insentive to buying new models other than wanting to paint them if you play rarely? I think I might pick up the new Skarre and a Cryx heavy or 2 to paint, but whats the point in buying stuff I'll rarely use now?

At the moment if the group doesn't get set up then my only outlet for Wargaming is the local games workshop. A few of the shop members already go there/work there but I don't know if I would be happy supporting a company that thinks balance isn't important in a game and has GW policies..

I think I'm going to continue to blog on this and see how the community goes.

I suck with Ravyn

So tonight I got a game with Ravyn in against Epic Kaya. Know what happens when you haven't read Epic Kaya's rules? Turn 2 assassination on your ass happens. I think Arcane Killer is a bit abusive with Dog pile and left feedback as such, but it's made me sit down and read through all the stat cards for Circle and I'll do the same for Trolls, Legion and then Warmachine factions this week, just need more printer ink to get them all printed out since monitor reading is bad for your eyes.

I think I'm going to start playing on Vassal more, I have it installed but only used it once. If I'm looking to goto major tournaments in the future I want to get in as much practice as I can and online will do that for me.

Thursday I'm heading over a friend's house to get in some MKII games, I'm tempted to take Skorne to help with the MKII fieldtest, but part of me also feels Warmachine armies need to be facing Hordes factions too, since everyone wants to use the new shiny Hordes rules, which limits testing against Warmachine and balancing the two. I'm curious what you guys think about this, will there be enough WM VS Hordes testing or will you all be playing your Warbeasty factions?

I did (not) goto a tournament.

I haven't updated in a while and was planning to do a nice big review of the 350 point mangled metal tournament my local store ran yesterday. The problem was I didn't get to take part beyond the first game due to time mismanagement. Some of the players are new or a bit suspect on the rules and play slow as hell, there was meant to be a turn time limit and... it was never enforced.

So I got in 1 tournament game then played a 35 point game of MKII against one of the best local players.

This is the tournament game, in perfect detail. My opponent was a new player who I kind of mentor since I am the local Skorne player as the other moved away (and had a huge fetish for Makeda and couldn't see how Molik made a Gladiator look like a joke). So I didn't want to smash him and such but er.. yea, read on.

my opponent goes first by my choice.
He runs his beasts forward, does something with Morghoul and moves him up to.
I move up my group having my army looking like it will engage his Bronzeback, Savage and Gladiator among a forest, with Kaelyssa and a Griffon hiding behind it and phantom hunter on Kaelyssa.
He moves his army round the forest ready to engage, casts unrelenting on his bronzeback, I measure control area and watch.
I upkeep Phantom hunter, put a focus on the Griffon to be safe (figure I can steal 2 giving me 8 focus and I need 2 to shoot and 6 to boost) and move Kaelyssa up. I put a shot in Morghoul, he transfers it to the savage, I put a shot in Morghoul, take his fury and hit him for about 10 damage, I needed 8 to kill on the next shot and I got it. Extend hand, feel like a jerk.

So I wait like 45 minutes for the new guys to finish playing and honestly I was quite frustrated. Pairings for round 2 were announced and I got the bye.. Which annoyed me quite a lot. I was the top of the tournament with 1 turn 2 kill and I get the bye because no one else could compare to that, so I get to sit out round 2, when I had gone to the tournament to win it. My mind was set on winning, I walked in that door and went "I am the best player, I have Kaelyssa and I can and will win this tourney without a doubt" and then I just get kicked in the nuts for doing exactly that. Round 3 didn't work because it was closing time when round 2 ended. So instead of a tournament I got to smash a guy's face and then play a 35 point of MKII.

I was against a Butcher list full of heavy armour and my list just doesn't deal with that, I couldn't really kill Butcher and I got drawn into attrition and just plain lost. I couldn't get to butcher and that sucked. I'm thinkng of getting the Sentinels and replacing the Invictors, they can break heavy armour. The Mage hunters are a very nice unit though, they are quite nasty.

On Sunday I have a rematch against Dave's Khador. Hopefully my health will recover since I'm still recovering from my hospital visit where I spent 6 hours being sedated and messed with. Next week I'm going to get in some extra games with other locals, Another Khador played I rarely gets to play wants to get some MKII so we're going to meet at the store and give it a couple of games. Then me and the local Press ganger are going to get some Hordes MKII games in. I want to test Krueger as I'm really unsure on his feat and I intend to playtest it a few times before I write feedback going "dude, WTF?"

Painting day.

Had a busy week and didn't get much done but my Mage hunters and UA arrived. So I've decided, I can't even open the boxes until my invictors and Vryos done. I need to paint 4 heads, mark 6 bases and just clean up the guns a bit here and there. Then varnish time and er.. yea. I will finish them today and post some bad pictures.

A while ago I suggested mini tournaments at the local game store on game night and they announced one next month away and it's a 350 mangled metal. I'm looking at Running Kaelyssa, but I'm not positive yet. I'm wondering if I can fit Kae, a phoniex, a hydra and a griffon. I am tempted to run Vryos just so I can walk my jacks up backwards and go "I punch you in the face, from my ass!"

On D&D news, I have totally found a group, I maybe posting a pic of my dwarf mini I will probably be using. I'm also working on some 40k minis to fit with the new playgroup and I may pick up a small amount of Flames of War, the only problem is I would want to play Japanese factions and I don't think they are out yet. I just want to correct people saying Kamikaze, cause I'm annoying like that.

I was listening to a podcast recently and there was something I noticed. Some of the "sportsmanship" discussions really stood out to me. I tend to "play the rules", never cheat but I'll stick to the rules and use minor loop holes to do things. Like firing at something out of range with a unit to "premeasure" for another unit and some people consider this to be abusive and not sportsman like. I may try to stop doing this and be more "sportsman like". I tend to take the opinion of "I play by the rules, what's wrong with that?" and I'm starting to ponder if I should be playing differently to this. I would be interested in your guy's opinions and feedback on this matter.

Chris Walton answers questions!

Okay, so I completely forgot to post this up thanks to getting Borderlands and Tekken 6, but I e-mailed Chris Walton some questions and he answered them. He's an awesome guy and my favourite privateer staff member, so I really enjoyed reading the answers and communicating with him. Without further a do here are the questions and answers.

#1 We know that the Retribution Warjack designs evolved to their current state, but where was the starting point? If you had to break them down into 3 stages, how would you describe each?

Three stages…hmmm…denial, bargaining and acceptance are stages, right? Just kidding. Its hard to break down the design process in general, and the Myrmidon process is even more difficult to do that with. In the early stages; we had settled on a general shape – Matt wanted to see these big looming shoulders and he liked an idea I’d been playing with where we moved the head to the front of a prow-shaped torso – so many of the basic shapes flowed from there. I explored a lot of motifs for the Iosan ‘jacks; some drawings had them looking very knightly (almost Protectorate in appearance), some were based on organic designs where I was looking at whales and dolphins for inspiration, some were just these weird glass energy projector constructs - there were just a lot of paths that were walked down. A lot of the final designs have their roots in those exploratory drawings, though; so it was a real evolutionary process.

#2 Have you ever had a design you were unhappy with that turned into a model you loved or vice versa?

I think Wolf Lord Morraig falls into that category. After I’d drawn him, Matt was happy with the design but I just wasn’t sure I was sold. Honestly, I thought I’d slaughtered the drawing and that whatever poor bastard had to sculpt him would curse my name forever. Thankfully Steve Saunders dug deep and pulled out an amazing figure. I was blown away by that fig. I really thought it was all going to end in a train wreck and that I was driving the locomotive. Its always good to be proven wrong in those situations.

#3 What faction is your favourite and least favourite to design for?

I get asked this every so often, and I always have the same answer – I can’t really say. Each faction is a ton of fun to draw, and having a good variety of stuff to do ensures that I don’t end up bored.

#4 Have you ever designed a character or unit you were really fond of that got canned and if so could you tell us about it/them?

Not so much. With the amount of drawing that needs to get done, I try to keep myself focused on what needs to be produced for a book so there’s a little less blue-sky type drawing than you’d think. Now, there are directions that I go that we may not end up using, and anything that doesn’t make the cut for one project may be held onto and used at a latter time. Because of that, I really don’t share what’s been canned simply because it may be exactly what we need at a later date and its no good showing my poker hand.

#5 If you could design a faction just for your own enjoyment, what would the faction be and how would they play?

Wow, this is a seriously loaded question – any answer I give could be interpreted as that I’m working on a new faction. But, if I had my way…

Giants. They would play by kicking serious amounts of ass; all the time, every time. Just three or four giants and me on the other side of the table with a big grin would comprise an army. Unfortunately, with the sizes I’d want they would be unconscionably expensive to produce. I’m betting I’ll be waiting a long, long time for giants.

#6 Outside of Privateer games what other tabletop games and related things do you enjoy?

I’ve been a tabletop wargamer for a long time… I think 23-24 years now, and that’s not counting when I played Dungeons & Dragons in grammar school. I still game and paint when I can, but sadly I don’t have the time to devote to the hobby that I used to. Sigh. It sucks getting old.

#7 Most artists and companies tend to regard their art as "intellectual property" rather than some cool pictures people might enjoy viewing. You tend to post your art on Deviant Art and interact with the community going in the complete opposite direction, why did you decide to do this?

Well, Privateer Press certainly views all of its badass dudes, hot ladies, monstrous beasts and unstoppable robots as its intellectual property – I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. But the nice part about working at a company founded by an artist is that Matt encourages people to be proud of their work and share it with the public. Letting the community see my concept art or talking about what we do helps fire people’s imaginations and love of our games. That can never be a bad thing.

#8 Is it true Doug Seacat eats puppies to fuel his writing powers?

Yes. I can smell him grilling one down the hall and chuckling about it as we speak. It smells better than you’d think.

#9 How do you tend to react to the community feedback on models you've designed? As a designer it seems difficult to take feedback from such a large group of people and not feel personally attacked in some cases.

Anytime you put your work out there for the world to see, you have to be prepared for the fact that its just not going to speak to some people. Some individuals will love what you’ve done, while others will loath it. It’s the nature of the beast. Mostly, I just try to design in a way that makes me think “yeah, I want to paint that” or “man, this model will be cool”; if I can do that there should be people willing to jump aboard.

Negative feedback isn’t too hard to take when its provided in a useful and respectful tone. Someone who says that they “don’t like the wide areas and lack of surface detail” is much easier to listen to and take seriously than the guy who says “OMG TEH AR SUXXORZ!” Unfortunately the second category tends to be more prolific with their critique at times.

#10 Many people are hoping for a 5th Hordes faction and after hearing the Retribution were always planned for Warmachine, it seems likely Privateer have something already planned out, but I'm sure you can't tell us about that. So instead could you tell us about any new Gobber art you have worked on and give us any hints as to what us Gobber fans can look forward to in the future?

The last gobber I drew was for our Bodgers! games, so right now there isn’t much gobber art to give that isn’t out there. Watch, Matt will now wander over to my desk and tell me about the hundreds of gobbers that I’ll be drawing. That’s just how these things seem to run.

And that concludes the questions. Chris is an awesome guy and I'm really thankful for him for answering the questions. I'm going to try and get some more questions answered by various staff members and poke them a bit since I've read/heard a lot of interviews and never felt like questions I wanted answered ever got asked, so look forward to more in the future or me utterly failing!

Goddamn it

No one else turned up to the tournament, so I went for a wander and found a whole new playgroup and a new press ganger. Some old friends were there and hopefully some new ones.

I found me a D&D group. So I'm working on a little Dwarf adventurer and I'm going to track down my old halfling pirate model.

As for WM/H I taught a kid to play Warmachine today, I played Retribution and tried to do cool things like throwing a ferox at some venators and just doing the cool demo game. I refused to assassinate Mordikar (pot shotted him just to act like I failed) and then killed Molik with Kaelyssa's fury stealing melee. Wasn't too bad.

I ordered the Malifaux rule book and I expect to pick up a few new games and see what pans out. Fantasy is back on the books, so I need to get my new carry case and things.

Audience involvement!

There is a Warmachine tournament in 6 hours, I don't have enough Retribution to take part (it's 750) but I have enough Skorne. Do I play Skorne and goto the tournament or do I get some sleep?

You decide! Post a comment on if I should go or not, when I wake up the decision will be made and if I go, I will battle report it!

Mordikar/Hexeris
Krea
Shaman
Molik
Savage
Agonizer
Extoller
6 Bog trogs
8 Venators
3 Ferox
4 Paingivers
Swamp gobbers

That is the army list since E Morghoul is in bits and so are my swordsmen. Stuffs already packed to go, make a post and let me know!

Also, I may have found a second playgroup in my area (well 3rd, but shh). Waiting for an e-mail back and then I may have a new metagame (and a place to play fantasy).

Also Malifaux looks awesome, I've ordered the rulebook and a full+UA Mage hunter unit.

But yes comment if I should go, this post is only good for a few hours.

This blog shows what I have typed

I haven't been able to play any WM this week, but I do have something awesome lined up for early next week. I sent some e-mails and stuff and cool stuff will be posted on Monday or Tuesday!

I have been using a new type of super glue lately, or testing rather. The glue is called "Liquid Weld" and it's pretty damn expensive and I don't think it's in stores yet. I found the glue to be insane on GW plastics. I took a Dryad (very fragile) glued it together with this stuff and gave it ten minutes then threw it at a wall (I was bored and it seemed a good test). The glue held perfectly, the Dryad took a beating and the glue didn't even come close to breaking, I even tried to pull it apart and I couldn't without having to break the plastic.

I then tried to glue together some metal models (a Chimera) and found it just plain didn't like metals, even when fully dried it just didn't hold the pieces well, you could pull them apart with less effort than being around in a carry case will make. So as a metal glue it sucks and I'm going to stick with my Loctite glue instead, but if you're looking for a solid glue for plastics then it's worth checking out if you can.

There is a WM Tournament on Sunday, I may attend but it's 750 and I'm a few models short, so I may just skip it and resume pick up games on Tuesday. Hopefully with my invictors fully painted.

I ganked Lylyth!

Tonight I played 1 game and, pretty much played a second game by proxy. There was a new guy playing Skorne and since I know Skorne, I had to mentor him and be rules lawyer all at once. My community recently changed and some how I've become one of the veteran players.. but hey that's cool. So I mentored a guy on how to abuse Skorne then I played a battle box game against Legion.

The game went like this.

I move stuff, take a potshot at Lylyth with my Manticore. He slams the Manticore on his turn and I then move Kaelyssa up and tag Lylyth twice boosted. Extend hand.

Seriously, if you leave a 'caster open within 18 inches of Kaelyssa I am going to start taking pot shots. I don't need LoS to hit you, so I'm going to do so and do so a lot. If you don't run the hell away I'm going to keep doing it over and over. Isn't that fun folks!? I'm really starting to get Kaelyssa and she plays like Caine or E Morghoul, her army isn't as important as just getting that all mighty assassination attempt. I may even risk another Heavy kit to get her a hydra to do her shootie doom with. Either way digging the Ret.

I have some more stuff painted and I need to take pictures, but I picked up a lot of new stuff. Invictor UA, Ghost Sniper, Soulless Escort and a Chimera. I'm slowly working my way to 750 points. Which will be nice. I have a game against Circle/Khador on Tuesday, just hoping it's not Kruger, cause I'm still not sure how I deal with him, advices please?

I may also have found a D&D group..

Doug Seacat eats puppies to fuel his writing powers.

So tonight I got a game VS Trolls, first time I've played them outside of mangled metal and well, it went extremely poorly. My opponent also had a really bad grasp of his rules and I didn't feel like checking his cards over and over. So he was probably cheating out of his ass and the few times I knew something was suspicious I did call him on it, but any way.

I'm not going to write a battle report because it just involves "Trolls move into middle, Borka stands at the back and I can't get to him". So I got tar pitted down in the a huge unit of Kriel warriors and just couldn't do anything but fight it out with them through the game. Champions kept making tough rolls and just yea.. Wasn't a fun battle, everything just got smushed into the middle and I was out numbered as he only had 1 dire troll for his warbeasts. The game came down to a final turn where I got Kaelyssa into a position to snipe out a furyless Borka, I moved up Aiyanna to throw harm on him and missed it. If I had got it up I would of killed him. But I started the turn with 6 models on the table and about 10 trolls staring them down, so I took the long shot.

So yea I lost, but I'm really suspicious of how my opponent played, he didn't understand Pulse and Aura, so he was like "oh I cast this and then" and I go "It's an aura, you can't do that..) and just lots of little things like this. So yea.. I'd go and read through all the MKI rules and leearn the things I don't remember but seriously.. MKII is a few months away, I can put up with it for now. The only problem is some of the newer players are.. dumbasses. They just aren't very bright, they're the scene kid type of people and just.. ugh.. I'm sorry but when you all ask 1 guy all your rules questions and he doesn't know half of them you may have issues as a playgroup. I sat there and answered every question they had, because I care about WM/H and plan to get into the tournament scene and go annoy the Boosted damage folks.

Playing Retribution makes you the centre focus in the entire store though. Everyone wants to see your models and touch them. I went to the bathroom and came back to find my Heavy being passed around the table.. Then people wanted to pick up Kaelyssa and just yea.. The world revolves around you apparently.. And everyone calls them Space Elves because the 'jacks have force fields, but last time I chcked, so did every freaking Warcaster.. But yea, Space Elves..

I picked up Dawnlord Vyros but couldn't get my Arcanist, the store didn't have him in stock and I was trying to support my LGS, so I guess I'm going to be ordering from Maelstrom games again.

I missed the tournament this Sunday, but in 2 weeks time we have a 750 I might try and make. I'd need a unit of Mage hunters and such.. but yea. I did also come to understand the value of mittens tonight, they push trolls away to avoid a huge ugly mosspit mess. Flank was pretty spiffy though and with 2 reach jacks I got to pull it off 5 or 6 times and felt it made the invictors insane.. I think keeping the Griffon with them is a very good idea.

So now I'm going to make a casual magic deck and get some more painting done. I liked the way the silver looked under lights and just.. felt happy with the army, so paint scheme is a go!

Lets be social!!

I quit on the pink, I started to paint a 'jack and just said no. It's just unreasonable and in a week I got 2 models done. I switched to my original idea of silver models and battle damage them up from there.

The picture is very bad and due to using flash you can't see any real shading so it looks terrible. But I painted him in a day and I just need to add some stains and grubbiness. I have the Griffon half done and 8 of the Invictor bodies done.. I should finish my army in a week or two at this rate.

If I feel up to it I'm going to a tournament tomorrow, may report it..

I decided I wanted to try and meet more Warmachine players and get to know the wider community and to discuss things with people outside the PP forums. So I'm going to post my AIM name and see what happens. Say Hi, troll me, whatever, I just think it's a cool idea to get to know folks.

So my AIM name is AstrayPenguin . I'm usually around, so drop me a line.

Need feedback (pics)

Okie dokie. I need some help on something. I can't decide if I want to do all the armour pink or if I want to do it half and half.


So pick 1 or 2. The complete dude (left) or the half and half (and unfinished) dude on the right.

Wip Shots

Some quick off the hip pics







All WiP, but startinng to get there. I'm not sure if I just want to ink the cloaks and make them a dark blue or what.

Retribution debut

So I promised a report of my gaming yesterday and here it is.

I played 2 games, one was a battlebox game and one was a 500 point game. The guy I was playing (can't remember his name, I haven't been in for a while and the community has been very active and loads of new guys) was a new player, but he was an experienced wargamer, so he wasn't making too many mistakes.

Rubytibution 500 points.

Kaelyssa
-Phoenix
-Griffon
10 Invictors
Narn
Eiryss
Aiyanna & Holy

Solid little list, solo assassination with some heavy hitters to back it up should I need to beat through Stryker's jacks.

Cygnar 500 points

Stryker
-Ironclad
-Hunter

Junior
-Hunter

10 Long gunners + UA

Pretty solid jack heavy list. Not perfect but still worth doing.

He won the dice off and decided I should set up first. So I set up my Invictors and Griffon infront of Kaelyssa at the centre of the board, with A&H on my left with the Phoenix and the other solos Advance deployed ahead of A&H. My opponent put Stryker on the left side with his jacks, long gunners off to the right and Jr on the right flank with his Hunter.

Terrain wasn't too bad, there was a coule of buildings on my side of the board, with difficult terrain hill right in the middle of the board.

I go first and move up Team solo (Narn and friends) disrupt the hunter with the Elven hooker and charge it with Narn to keep him safe from the Ironclad and Styker getting off easy magic on him. I ding the hunter a bit but nothing remotely note worthy. A&H run up field as I see a turn 2 assassination chance. Invictors run up towards Stryker, Kaelyssa does.. stuff but didn't do anything to effect the game until the final turns, so lets just ignore her for now. Griffon moved up to block LoS to Kaelyssa in case of snipe type things happening.

So my Turn 1 means I already have Styrker under pressure, a Hunter locked in combat and there isn't much that can be done to hurt my army at this point, seems a good first turn.

He starts his turn by moving up the field with his flanking forces, long gunners run, Junior puts Arcane shield on the hunter and he runs too. Stryker cast arcane shield on the hunter and didn't do much else, Ironclad moved up and that was pretty much the turn since the Hunter couldn't hit Narn.

Turn 2 I move Eiryss up and take a shot at Stryker but misses (def 16 is a bitch). Narn backflips over the Hunter and charges Stryker, and can't hit him to save his life.. There goes my turn 2 assassination.. So, I move up the invictors, Kaelyssa and her pet jack. Pheonix goes "Rawr, I smash face now!" and charges at the hunter. This leaves him tying up the Hunter and Ironclad. So he starts to wail on the hunter, all but shuts him down and sets him on fire. I realise now I should of hit the Ironclad once as well, so that both would be on fire. Hunter is almost dead after a good smack any way. A&H move up, cast no feats and start beating on the hunter.

Stryker nailed Narn and the Ironclad wailed on the Pheonix, my opponent rolled very badly and it hit, took down the Arc node and generator in it's activation. Hunter took a swing and did nothing, so popped it's reserve tank and tried to cover Stryker from the Invictors next turn. Long gunners ran in to try and get a line on Kaelyssa next turn. Jr and the other hunter followed the Long gunners.

Turn 3 hits and I start wailing on 'jacks with the Phoenix, Set the Ironclad on fire but just can't break armour 21 on the 'clad. Invictors move up a bit and decide the Long gunners look a bit menacing, so they start to pop them off, taking out the UA and a few extra Long gunners to lighten the damage they could do. I messed up here and spread them out, where as I should of based to based them ready for return fire. Kaelyssa threw an AoE at a Long gunner, it missed and scattered just infront of them, which stopped them advancing and such. Griffon block LoS to Kae from the Long gunners and then the Elven hooker goes "Hey Stryker.. no focus buddy!". A&H finish off the Hunter and prepare for Stryker next turn.

This turn is rather uneventful and The ironclad can't finish off the heavy with no focus. Styker is in combat with Eiryss (she assaulted him) and wasn't willing to take a 4 dice free strike, so stayed put, swinging at her and missing. Long gunners killed 4 Invictors after double tapping and couldn't get to Kaelyssa..

Stryker has no focus, couldn't pop feat and has A&H and Eiryss staring at him.. Since this was a pick up game I had no reason to do anything but take the assassination, had it been a tournament game I would of tried to finish off the 'clad and Long gunners. I think the Invictors, Kaelyssa and the Griffon could of dealt with the Long gunners easily and the 'clad should of gone down with 3 focus on the Pheonix. So any way. Aiyanna harms, Holt smashs face, Styker dies.

We discussed the game afterwards and I thought he should of sniped the Long gunners and put them in the center of the board and just trashed my army and forced me to deal with them rather than shutting them out of the game as I did and have to only deal with Styker and 2 'jacks, so in effect gaining 250 points advantage. It didn't help that I figured the Retribution's playing style was applying uber pressure and just forcing the enemy 'caster down. Getting Team solo on Stryker on turn 2 and then locking his 'jacks down was brutal. So yea, I was happy with the way the game went, I ewnjoyed the Retribution playing style and other than being pestered by a group of annoying kids wanting to know everything about my Retribution stuff and just generally annoying me I had a good night.

The 2nd game wasn't very exciting at all, it was a battlebox game and I got a chance to try the focus stealing with on Kaelyssa, it fell through and got her killed, but I wanted to try to see how it worked.

I'll post some pictures of the army later. Kaelyssa is maybe half way done and the first Invictor just needs the black highlighting and metals redoing.

Game on!

Today I had my first games with Retribution. My theory on being a high pressure army that goes for the throat was correct and I felt in control of the game the entire time. The solos are the key assassination pieces, but the Invictors and 'jacks were capable just as well.

I'll write up a full report tomorrow and give a run down of each model I used and how I felt they performed.

Retribution review part 1

Today I worked some more on the Ret. Started to paint Aiyanna, Kaelyssa (Boob armour!) and the Invictor is almost done. I absolutely HATE the Heavy jack and I will make a full post on it, because that kit is absolutely vile and deserves to be absolutely demolished.

But onto the main show!

I'm going to review every model in the Ret book, but using only 1 sentence for each.

The Retribution seems to have a solid theme going with adaptable troops able to hold scenarios with the solos and 'casters suited to assassination. So in SR4 Ret will either go for "you can't win" and assassination or full on Scenario abuse. Another overriding theme is pressure, Ret excel on applying pressure, especially to 'casters.

Garryth.

Melee Assassin. He's exactly like Abyslonia in Legion, except has Arc nodes. I really liked her in that, but in Ret he just doesn't feel as strong. Does make me think E Morghoul's fan will be passive in MKII though. But yea, he'll pull 'casters around and then stab them. Nothing else to say.

Kaelyssa.

She is a disruption and mind games 'caster. Her abilities tend to disrupt your opponents troops with rough terrain and cripple their warjacks/make them shake. The fury/focus leeching leads to mind games with Hordes and she is deadly against casters, but lacks the ability to set them up. She should be a strong 'caster but will take a lot of skill to really abuse. She will also be one of the first Ret epics, her fluff is all "Will be awesome"

Rahn

Rahn I really don't like, he's a scenario 'caster and that's about it. He just pushes things around and disrupts, but it's just not enough for me. Why is my 'caster pushing dudes instead of killing them on mass? Has a terrible feat and just feels unplayable to me. I love his model and will pick it up to complete the set.

Ravyn.

Emo chick! She's a really strong 'caster who applies pressure best of all the Ret. She can extend ranges, move things faster. She can easily kill a 'caster in close combat and has the ability to move things around to open lines. Her feat is just insane with the right army, it screws the def stat and lets you move forward, take some shots and then move 2 inches back to deny the charge and stabby death.. I think she is a very strong 'caster, with the Ret units and her spell list she can force people to play on the back foot and then corner them ready for the kill.

Vyros.

Ret's jack 'caster with some troop support thrown in for good measure. He's a jack of all trades and will be solid for being so, but he could do with some more ways to boost 'jacks or generate additional focus.

Chimera

It's an arc node that you can't engage. It's just a solid little Lancer style dude, what more do you want?

Gorgon

Another disruption piece for the Ret, they have a lot of pinning models in place abilities and the Gorgon excels at this. My only complaint is that I'm not sure if the Gorgon is worth the points (I'm unsure on how to value a point in MKII yet), it's going to pin something down, but anything worth pinning (Character 'jacks/beasts etc.) are going to beat it senseless. Time will tell ifi t's worth it in the meta game.

Griffon

It's a beat stick and it's cheap as hell. You could take 10 of these in 500 points. How the hell do you deal with that many beat sticks at once? With Vyros these are nuts.. speed 8 pathfinding jacks you could just swarm with. Yes, freaking, please.

I'll continue this tomorrow with the Heavy jacks and the units!

Invictor WiP

I spent all day working on models, building, painting, hating the goddamn annoying heavy kit (modding it just so I never have to buy another). I'm now going to try and avoid plastic kits if I can, I just plain don't like PP plastic.



I'm running out of Thaco podcast and starting to regret the pink. It takes 4 coats to get a solid colour..

Models here!

Okay so my models arrived, I'm now working on building A&H, Kaelyssa and the Invictors.

Since I'm busy trying to get all this built for Tuesday (my gaming night), I'm just going to post 1 interesting pic.

This is how many parts the Griffon comes in. And that polearm needs a brass rod.

I am the dice man!

So my book arrived today (HAPPY FACE!) and I sat down to read the fluff and then got 2 pages into the fluff and went "MODEL RULES!" and proceeded to spend about 8 hours looking over it.

So for a quick run down.

I like the female 'casters and I like Rahn's model, but really don't liks his rules. I'll be picking up Ravyn ASAP and her and Kaelyssa will be my main 'casters. I got a thing for emo chicks I guess. Ravyn is awesome, I love her spell list and her weapon, I can't wait to pick her up and put her on a custom base, Position her foot so she's standing on a slant and like she's going to look down and stab someone.

So units wise I love the Dawnguard and Mage hunters, both of which I will pick up a unit of when they come ot (aka when I have more moneys, I plan to spend about £50-60 a month on models to quickly build up the Ret force. I really don't like the mittens or houseguard though. The houseguard are just shitty Gun mages and quite frankly the models are terrible. They look like Big O and Piccard had a love child and then cloned him a few times. Houseguard just don't work for me, they seem like dawnguard if you are missing a point or two, unless the models are amazing, I doubt I'll pick them up, maybe the long gunners, but probably not.

Stormfall archers need their own sentence. FUCK YEAH! These guys have an awesome concept and awesome art to go with it. Hoping the model lives up to it.

Onto the solos. There are some stunning and awesome (Narn) some are terrible like Nayl. Going to pick up most of them though.

I'm wanting to know what PP will do with the cav. Will they release a full box or do the current cav thing? Either way lots of cav, I'll probably pick them up.

So yea, I likes it. My stuff should be posted today or tomorrow, so hopefully I can get to work on them. There is a tournament here in a couple of weeks on the 11th, it's the Retribution steam roller event, so I figure I should be rocking my pink Elves. I need to check what the format is, but I'm hoping it's not mangled metal or I'll need to buy another jack or two. I am quite tempted to go for Griffon spam. They're insanely cheap and it would be fun to just beat people down with a bunch of them, while stealing Fury/Focus with Kaelyssa to power her spells.

I suppose the advantage of playing a new army is surprise, even though I'm not experienced with them. But hey should be fun either way, just got to hope my health is okay. I have to go into hospital for an entire day next week, which will cut into my painting time, plus they want to knock me out so it'll take a while to recover even when I do come out.

But yea, Ret good, very good. I'm really digging the Ret vibe, they seem to fit my style really well. My next purchases will probably be Ravyn, E Eiryss, Invictor UA and a unit of Mage Hunters. That will give me a 35 point list in MKII and I'll be closing on the 750 mark in MKI as well and throwing in a couple of solos and another jack and I'll be good to go.

Retribution colour scheme (feedback wanted)

Okay folks, so my Retribution are in the mail and will be here in a few days, and as such I started to ponder my colour scheme and wanted to do a quick test. Now I'll be running a couple of jacks and need objective markers, so I looked at what I had laying around and figured I'd never touch my Cryx, so I stole the Cankerworm base and painted it up as such.



That's WiP but the pink is finished and I really like it. It draws the eye perfectly and covers well, is easy to highlight and shade. So my Ret is totally going to be that colour when they arrive. Plus the bonus is they count for the Breast cancer brawl as a pink army.

The downside is basing with the pink is very difficult. I can't use static grass because the moment I do it's going to clash with the pink and look terrible. So it's down to a plain brown, a sandy flag stone or a neutral grey rubble. I can't decide on which but I'm leaning towards the rubble as the cloaks are going to be grey/blueish and the neautral grey will blend will the cloaks and make the armour all the more striking.

Well screw that

I ordered my Retribution army (from the guys who sponsor Boosted Damage), woo hoo! But I'll get to that after I've had a bit of a rant on my experiences at GW yesterday.

Okay, so I've decided to give up on Warhammer completely. I'm not trying to start 40k VS Warmachine crap like /tg/ always has but in my experience I just can't take the Warhammer community at the GW store and at my LGS no one plays fantasy.

I've tried to write this post twice before and I can't do it without going into some batshit insane rant on how much I hate the Warhammer community, so I'm going to make a list and just move on. The Games Workshop is right next to my LGS, you can see one from the other, but the client base is so freaking different.

Social skills
Mine suck, but they sure as hell don't scream "DON'T TALK TO ME!", almost everyone in GW seemed to have a screw loose or was so obviously a fanboy. Community quality is just bad. I'm going to throw hygiene in here too.. yes, it was THAT bad.

Attitude towards the game
The store had the new Space Wolves codex in and my friend was playing it. Now as he ranted about it all I could think was "This has no freaking balance" and everyone there seemed to find this a positive thing. I can't possibly relate to that and find it freaking stupid. I play Skorne and a benefit from my stuff being killed, but at no point does the game outright design it's self so that you can win by getting your models killed, Space Wolves codex has a model that does exactly that. I'm sorry but that's just bad game design and people eating it up doesn't please me at all. WM/H has some balance issues but at no point do I ever feel something is so good that I can't find a way to handle it, how do I handle giving my opponent free victory points or being killed?

Miniature care
On the same merit, also the way people treated their miniatures needs to be addressed. If my models die I set them aside, base flat on the table, some where safe. I do not in any way shape or form put them all in a pile. If I knock a model over I cringe. The players just had no respect for their figures and that bothers me to no end. I play between £1 to £25 per model for my toy soldiers, if you don't have respect for that kind of investment then I don't want to play with you.

Army use
Over the past week or so I have gorged myself on Warhammer podcasts (and The Batman cartoon series..) to get myself caught up with the meta. What's good, what's bad and what to look out for. So I heard Daemons were broken, Dark Elves were good, as were High elves and Lizardmen. So I went into GW expecting a nice range of armies being played but saw nothing but those I just mentioned and I'm sorry but NO, BAD COMMUNITY. That is so bland and pointless, I just refuse to be part of it when you're all playing Net decked armies. I know GW has bad balance issues (When tournaments start to punish you for taking your best options there are balance issues). but why the hell do I want to take part in a dead metagame? There is no life in an eco system that has 4 creatures stuck in an eternal loop until a 5th creature devours one and resumes the system.

So this is the 3rd time I have tried to get into GW games and been put off, so I'm sorry Wood elves but you're going back in your box under the table and staying there. I've come to see why people say the WM community is so good, even our worst members would be top quality members in any other community.

Now onto a happier note. I ordered the following

Kaelyssa
Eiryss
Aiyanna & Holt
Narn
10 Invictors
Heavy Jack
Griffon

It comes to about 500 points in MKI and I'm quite happy with it as an assassination list. I think it suits my style and also gives me some more Cygnarian models.

I've been thinking of a colour scheme for the army and originally I wanted to go with a silver theme to make them look like giant suits of armour, but now I'm not too sure unless I make everything metalic on them to add more colours. When I look at the Myrmidons I see Neo Zeon and Gundam X style design and it makes me tempted to paint them that way. I've always loved the Bertigo from Gundam X (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/x/rmsn-008.jpg) and now I'm tempted to do a metalic version of that colour scheme. I think the large plates would suit metals well and using metallics dyed with inks would make for an interesting army. My only full decisions so far as they will be silver and purple/deep pink. I really like the colour scheme, the only problem is it also temples me to do one like Kamen Rider Decade (The pink and white guy here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz-uBxgPHeA). Maybe I'll do a second heavy like Decade but with metallic colours. I really like the idea of a metallic scheme as it will give a more.. vivid look to the pieces where the colours shift and sparkle a little as you move around the model, implying the energy field a bit more.

I'm currently working on a wreck marker (also known as the Canker worm's base) since I will be looking to represent Retribution at next years UK Nationals and want to have -everything- I need.

Fate is weird..

So today I woke up to find my Retribution issue of NQ wrecked.. I had left a bottle of blackcurrant squash on the window ledge.. and blackcurrant is the only liquid known to stain worse than red wine.. it fell off the window ledge and burst... damn stuff got every where and covered the NQ.. So now I need to buy a new copy.. Either fate is telling me something or it's giving me a chance to cut my magazine up and lamenate it..

Either way I bought the Retribution book today since I've decided I'm going to buy all of them since I am an information whore and I want to have access to all the Warmachine content.. So 11 books.. at £22.50 each... yea, there goes a lot of cash.. But maybe I'll skip Menoth, Circle, Cryx, Legion and Trolls, since we all know those factions have terrible fluff, bad models and are really just there to be completely broken or completely useless ;)

Unfortunately my health has gone to hell again so I'm spending a week or two high on pain killers and doing nothing constructive.. Oh well yesterday was at least amusing when a doctor said I had a positive attitude and my response was "Well I either kill myself or get on with life, I don't have any real options do I?"

For something useful and constructive I thought I'd post the MKI Ret list I was pondering.

Kaelyssa
Chimera
Griffon
Unit of 10 invictors
Eiryss
Narn

Then whatever else fits.

General idea would be to just clear a lane to the caster and assassinate, abusing Kaelyssa's "10 focus" ability by stealing focus and fury off things to get extra shots on her gun while the Chimera will allow her to disrupt enemy armies from a distance and stop them effectively defending their caster. The list is about 100 points short of the 500 mark (common play level in my store) but I need to get the new NQ and see the release scehdule before I commit. I can throw in A&H and then another small unit give or take an invictor or two. I think I want to run 9 of them instead of 10 because I can get the defender's ward bonus better that way, The great bears triangle seems the best way to run them, that way they have to kill 2 to drop the bonus but you can still spread out a little. I'm not sure on the griffon but it's dirt cheap and It's going to stand by Kae to cover her and threaten anything that tries to get at her. I expect her to be skirting the mid range mark most the game and just blocking charge lanes to her will be worth the points.

If any one has any suggestions for improving the list it wouldn't go a miss. I'm looking at the army entries I have access to right now and building a list similar to my Skorne set ups but with a more Stryker style caster. A solid shootie unit always forms the core of my armies, I like a beat stick and I've been craving a good arc node for freaking ever and her AoE spell absolutely begs for one.

I'm also hoping this list will be more interactive. I find that Mordikar and E Morghoul don't interact with opposing armies beyond "I pop feat" or "He died". They have nothing really offensive or disruptive in nature. They just play their own game and either you move into position and win or you don't. Playing with your opponent's fury/focus, removing 'jacks defense and making terrain makes for a much better game style imo. I can win with E Morghoul and I do, but am I really playing a game or am I goldfishing? It's like playing combo in Magic. I really enjoy combo, but what is the point in playing a game if you're not exchanging models and abilities with each other? Is Denny arc node assassination really playing a game or are you just zerg rushing bone chickens until you get to roll some dice? I think people should consider interaction more and see how they can improve on that, it is one of the few issues I have with WM/H, it is very easy to make an army where you don't care what your opponent does because you will always play the same way and either it works or doesn't. Maybe the IABN could take the time to consider how interactive each of their 'casters are and give them a rating of 1-5 (5 being the most interactive) to see what factions interact well and which don't. I would be willing to do this with Skorne but it's kind of pointless if every faction isn't done.

Also Mercs aren't a real faction.

Help!!

I think I'm going to start a retribution army tonight.. I've read through the MKI stats from the last NQ and I'm really starting to dig them and think their style maybe fun for me and I could play them well (I like combined arms forces). Someone please for the love of all that is holy stop me doing this. I'm going to proxy an army up tonight and buy Eiryss (yes, I don't own her) and A&H (or them, cause I never play my Cygnar..).

I'm thinking of just a solid silver colour scheme for the armour with Shadow Greycloaks and robes. It's a simple colour scheme but the armour will make them look like giant suits of armour 'jack wise..

so please someone stop me, I'm already buying WET and Halo ODST this week and my wallet is looking at my groin and going "left foot or right foot... screw it, I'll take turns with both of them".

Painting frogs and one eyed monsters!

I haven't updated for almost 2 weeks now, so I thought I should get down to it and well... update.

I've mostly been building and painting my Wood elves but I have been trying to push forward on my Warbeast painting too. I finish the two Basilisks and I've got the Shaman maybe 80% done. They're just tabletop but it's at least a step forward and I hope to get my full 750 point list fully painted. I did have E morghoul almost done but I decided to strip him and repaint him up because his pose is just so.. difficult to really get at, so I'm going to put pins in him and then paint him in sections. I'm tempted to buy a Primal Morghoul and put E Morghoul's torso and arms on him rather than have his weird "I'm falling off my epic base" pose he has now, but I don't want to wreck my Primal Morghoul in case I want to use him for tournies in the future.

Oh and this guy is getting painted up as best I can, I think he deserves it for running through half a Menoth army in his first game.



I need to find a new gold recipe for him though, my current gold just isn't suitable to larea areas and his shoulder plates are HUGE. Which is also why I'm going to be free handing a Skorne symbol on his shoulder and left the spike off to do so. He is a character Warbeast and will be up in my opponent's face every single game so he needs to look pretty.

On the Fantasy front, I hope to get my first game in on Thursday or Tuesday, but Tuesday will probably be me taking my Skorne to the local store instead. Either Hexeris or Mordikar will be played, probably with a list very much like the one I played last time. I like that style of army, although I may (GASP!) drop my 3rd beast and risk running 2. Maybe Molik and a Shaman or a Krea. We'll have to see how it goes.

Moliktastic

Today I finally got to play with Molik. Yes, F'king please! Molik is absolutely insane and more than made his points back. The guy was a new guy and had never played Skorne before, so I didn't want to pull too many weird and dodgy models out and start bouncing around and ignoring everything. So I went with a list as follows (roughly)

Mordikar
Krea
Molik
Shaman
3 Ferox
6 Venators
Swamp Gobbers

500 points.

I played against a jack heavy Menoth list using Kreoss and the choir. First time I'd faced a lot of these models. A Crusader, Guardian, Dervish and the Bastions were all pretty new to me, but I still did pretty well until the last turn.

Molik cut a wave of destruction through the enemy army. On like turn 2 he wrecked the Crusader then proceeded to eat the Choir pretty soon after and was ready to threaten Kreoss the following turn. His animus is just sweet sweet awesome, he makes the Shaman into one hell of a trickster. you use the animus then charge and get some insane distances off most of your army. It's even useful on Warlocks to cast stuff then retreat.

The game ended with Mordikar getting hit in the face by a Paladin when he had no fury on him. Two reasons for this, we were being rushed for time (someone else had booked a table before I got there and the 40k players had stolen it, so we tried to get the game wrapped up asap for them). And I didn't measure my control range. I wanted to cast Void walker on the shaman and move him up to Kreoss to threaten him and force him to pop his feat, so I could send in Molik and smash him into a pulp. The problem was my opponent was holding his feat back and I didn't want to commit to any sort of attack that involved everything falling over in front of a Paladin. So I goto cast void walker (didn't pre-measure) and I'm out of range, so I move Mordikar in removing the 2 fury he should of had to transfer. Plus the Paladin pretty much rolled 4 6s on his dice and just 1 hit killed him.

I really enjoyed the game but I learnt a lot about my playing style. I look at the board and tend to want to keep things alive when I'm playing Mordikar or Hexeris, I put high value on every unit and don't want to sacrifice any of them, where as when I play E Morghoul I consider every model except Morghoul to be disposable. And that second attitude is so much more natural to me. I like playing high risk and putting off fancy tricks to win games. Dancing around the table with Morghoul makes me much happier than sitting back with Mordikar using Manifest void (which is insanely over rated IMO, it rarely does -anything-). So I think from now on when the chance for 750 comes up I'm going to be fielding E Morghoul, he fits me so much better than anyone else. A good example of this is earlier I had the perfect Morghoul charge lane set up from where Mordikar was. I charged in, stabbed the paladin, teleported to Kreoss, used the feat and fan to disable his focus and then I just plain killed him with the 3 following attacks. It felt so freaking natural to look at the board and see assassination runs, it's just how I see the battle. I've pretty much always thought this way in and out of tabletop though. I'm rarely the guy running in head first, I'm always the guy looking for a flank or a weak spot to exploit to rip the enemy apart from an angle it couldn't cover. So I think I'm going to play Mordi at 500 but Morghoul at anything higher. So sorry Mordikar fans but Morghoul is just my dude.

Before the game I also had an interesting conversation with the other Skorne player in store. He likes Makeda (cough Makeda fanboy cough) about Molik and Gladiators and comparing the two. I've never found a gladiator to work well for me, but Molik just feels so damn right. I would take Molik is he just had his animus and his weapons. That animus is freaking sweet, I can be half the board away one turn and right up in your face the next. The double move lets you resposition and bring him back into the battle where I've often found once a unit or beast is out of position there is no way I'm getting them back into the fight. As I said earlier Shaman and Molik make a nice little team, you can get them way up the field early on or move them where you need them to. While road to war makes Gladiators better, Molik's utility is just so freaking high that the extra power and such just doesn't do much for me. I'm thinking I may replace the Cannooneer in my 500 points list with Molik. I love my ranged element (always have venators and an extoller, they come with the Warcaster ;) ), but god damn is Molik sweet.

I'm thinking of doing some painting tutorials, but I'm not quite sure yet. I don't think I have enough readers to bother with something like that and I'd feel bad about posting the blog on the PP painting forum with just a link here. On the other hand I maybe posting some pictures of a WIP Lancer. I decided I wanted to do some Cygnar (my 2nd faction, although so are Legion technically, but I don't enjoy playing Legion and my Cygnar haven't been out in a while even though I like Stryker a lot) in a pink sheme for the Paint pink thingy ma jiggy. The problem was I suck at painting pink, it just shows brush strokes so bad that I thought I'd do something different. Battle damaged pink Cygnar! This lets me use a darker purpleish colour scheme and only using pink in limited ways, while still having it a pink army.

As the Lancer stands it has a broken shoulder that's been messed up to look like it got hit with a mace, I'll probably paint it to look like it was hit by a flaming mace when I get that far but it is quite a way off currently. I'm tempted to cut the hand off the shield arm and model it as if the shield is strapped to the arm and wirings and cogs are all that's left of the hand now. Make it look like a really roughed up Lancer. I think the key is going to be making it look worn not wrecked and this will apply to the entire army.

But that's enough of this for now. If I play some more this weekend (my Stores 2 year anniversary), then i will blog about it but if not hopefully I will on Tuesday or at least get my Drake painted up to table top.

Yellow Dice : IABN

I haven't been able to play any Warmachine lately due to health issues but I did pick up Molik and started to paint the Canonneer and the frogs. Krea is done, which gives me a couple of beasts painted a unit (Gobbers count!) and Hexeris.

Hopefully soon the game store I play at will be running a hardcore 350 Mangled metal tournament on a games night. If they do I'll be taking part with a list like.

Mordikar
Molik
Shaman
Krea

I think that gives me enough utility to deal with just about anything and if worst comes to worst I can pull off some stupid tricks with the Krea animus (if they brick then I can use it twice on two targets next to each other) and then have Molik beat the crap out of some stuff. I'm also hoping to abuse the Molik animus on 3 models at once to dance around the field and get off some really weird set ups. I mean who wouldn't want to move 3 of their models 15" a turn? It tempts me to get another shaman to have my entire army stupidly mobile and to set up mobile lanes for the following turn. The only problem with this would be leaving Mordikar a bit low on fury and exposed but against some casters and careful placement I wouldn't mind this so much. I mean using his feat, using fate ward and running molik right next to an enemy caster has got to be one of the most vicious things you can do in any skorne list.

In other news I just sent in the required stuff for the Iron agenda blogging network, so hopefully the blog will be up soon. Welcome to all those who followed the link over here.

VS Khador 01

Blog time!

I got in a game today with Rory ad his Khador. Neither of us played serious lists and I was just wanting to try Mordikar out and see how he did with Beasts. I learnt quite a bit about Skorne by using the list I had and I doubt I will ever make another Skorne list without an Extoller.

Lists were as follows.

Rory
Old Witch + Scrap jack
2 Juggernaughts
Iron fang Pikemen
Doom Reavers
Alton Ashley

Me
Mordikar
Gladiator
Cannoneer
Savage
Shaman
5 Paingivers
Swamp Gobbers

Deployment.



Deployment was simple, Rory won the dice roll and decided to go 2nd. Skorne brick time! Since I was running so many beasts I couldn't do much else.

Round 1


I move forward edging away from his Doom Reavers flanking me and put up Gobber smoke to stop Alton pulling any of his anti beast crap. I load up the Agonizer and rile everything up for Mordikar to refuel for next turn.



Rory proceeded to move pretty much everything towards me, which is hardly shocking considering the armies. Casts Iron flesh on the Iron fangs and the world's most exciting turn ever ends!

Round 2


My pictures get a bit muddled here and I think this is Round 2. I moved a bit away from the Doom Reavers ready to use Gobber smoke to stop them getting first hit the next turn and just try to close space.



Rory moves his stuff more forward! Man this is such a crazy tactic, it's like he wants to kill my stuff or something! He puts the Iron fangs as a central wall and casts Massacre of crows.

Round 3

At this point I can't stop the Doom Reavers engaging my stuff, so I try to block them with the Gobber smoke and offer a few sacrifical Paingivers to take the shot for me and then I can Spirit in Amber them back and get some stabbing going. I did mess up this turn when I tried to use Mordikar's sacrifice to spray spell and couldn't target the doom reavers so ended up wasting a model to spray at a juggernaught and do diddly squat. Agonizer runs forward and starts to cry, Khador jacks aren't getting any focus and Scrap jack isn't arc noding either. I expect it to die this turn but it me control the damage the jacks are going to do when they hit my lines.

Cyclops gets poked by the paingivers and pulls off a Cyclops missle. Wailing on a Juggernaught it drops 1/3rd of it's boxes and is expecting to die next turn while sitting on 3 fury. I had meant to pop feat this turn but forgot to do so before I had finished with Mordikar.

Rory's Doom Reavers then proceed to eat some paingivers and the Swamp gobbers, which then flee and die the next turn to free strikes. But still they did an awesome job of just being in the way and stopping Alton molesting any of my stuff before I could get it into position.

Agonizer proves he's tough as hell and takes a beating from all sides but only goes down when the Old Witch finally spends some focus to take away his last wound. He ended up crippling a couple of jacks for a turn then wasted a turn of firepower to get rid of him. 30 points well spent.

Round 4

(The template isn't Gobber smoke, it was just difficult to remove it with 2 dudes on top of it)

This turn I moved up the hill and popped Mordikars feat, brought back a couple of Paingivers and started to pick apart the Doom Reavers. Rory had been trying to take out my Shaman for most of the game but due to Elevation and some bad dice on Rory's part (or so he says.. everyone else could roll his dice fine ;) ) it had been surviving quite nicely and would end up being a key piece in the game. So the Savage continues to beat on the Juggernaught, rips it's arm off and just generally acts like a badass that he is.

Rory's turn comes and he decides to start swinging and he ends up playing pinball with his models. Everything is going in every direction imaginable and he once again claims his dice hate him (Rolling 1 dice is rarely a positive thing either way..). He tries to pull the Shaman out with the Scrap jack and misses, Shaman makes a dash towards The Old Witch. I didn't have any plans for it at this point but my beasts were clustered together and it wasn't a good situation to be in. Old Witch pops feat and my next turn seems suddenly a lot less exciting.. Rory takes another shot at the Shaman and he casually wanders up to the Old Witch. I thought he was just out of range but he was in and the plan fell nicely into place, Shaman takes a nasty hit from the feat but

Round 5


My turn comes and any one who knows me knows I play assassination games. I have a bucket load of fury on the board and totally forgot to manage it less turn, so I start throwing some dice and everything passes. Gladiator is still full of fury and the Cannoneer has 1 on it, but both remain in control (I had wanted the Gladiator to go nuts as it was engaging a lot of stuff and a throw would of been sweet to knock down the Old witch). So any way Mordikar activates first. I move him so he has line of sight to Old Witch, She's Defense 19 so I have to boost and slap Deathmark on her. I didn't think the Shaman could kill her with 3 fury. I had to transfer off a free strike from a very angry Doom reaver as mordikar went to get LoS, but the Cannoneer took it and didn't lose anything for it. So Mordikar has 2 Fury left on him and is standing pretty damn close to some very angry Doom Reavers, I either get the assassination or he better have a get out of the abyss free card again. So I heal the Shaman's Mind and end Mordikars activation. Shaman starts swinging with 3 attack dice, hitting 3 of his 4 attacks, Dice -2 was damage, but apparently all I can roll is 4s. Old Witch lives with like 6 boxes left and I figure I'm screwed until I see the Cannoneer sitting on the hill with 3 fury open and a nice long ranged attack. So it wanders up, Defense 19 old witch, needing 15 on 4 dice. And it misses.. Roll the scatter dice and it still clips her, so I boost the damage and hope for the best. I roll exact and down she goes. Caster kill and I win while Rory tries to figure out how a cannonball fits through a gap in the bases far smaller than the cannon nozzle.

Things I learnt.
-I want an Extoller in every list I make. They bring so much utility and solve so many problems. I don't care what I have to sacrifice, Extollers are so freaking sweet!
-I want a Cannoneer next to the Extoller. I had considered dropping her but she is a really nice finisher and fury battery.
-Agonizers are worth the 30 points but they only work for 1 turn because they have a huge target painted on their heads.
-Mordikar is a very good troops caster and Paingivers and Bloodrunners will be insane with him. 1 Fury to kill a model with no way for an opponent to punish you for it is nuts. Scenario play is his sweet spot because 'void isn't so hot when both casters are half the table away behind a wall of big nasty things
-Shaman is a nice utility beast and worth running 1 of if only for the ability to bounce around.
-Cyclops missles are fun and including a Savage in lists just to wail on things is not a bad idea. I just need to remember to keep it in my caster's control area.
-Rolling 2 yellow dice is a bad idea, rolling 1 yellow and 1 pink dice gives much better results.
-Make sure you remember feats are in play when Rory goes "move stuff! Go on you pansy!" and figure you'll shut him up by sticking a knife in two Doom reavers..
-I like playing assassination lists. I struggle to care about units and fall into the school of "They take too much effort to kill, screw it". I had been considering switching to Mordikar and Hexeris for a few months but I think E Morghoul needs to return. He fits me so damn well and I enjoy using him a lot more then a board control caster. I can fit everything I want in a Morghoul list and I win games, so I think I should just suck it up paint his annoying figure and play him some more.
-Take notes when blogging about an event.

New blog

So I finally started a blog about my Wargaming habbits.

I mainly play Warmachine but I'm getting into Warhammer fantasy and will blog about both and some general modeling advice. I'm going to try and update the blog every week at least but hopefully a couple of times a week. I have a two local gaming stores, one being a Games Workshop and the other a FLG, which run game nights on Thursdays and Tuesdays respectively.

My main faction in Warmachine is Skorne and I've been playng them for about a year now. I'm currently working on getting a 500 point list painted and then will jump up to 750 and 1,000 from there and probably play that list(s) until the next book release. I think it will help my player skill to stick with 1 list and learn to use it well.

Warhammer wise I'm trying to find a way to paint Wood Elves quickly and effectively. I'm currently trying to use an airbrush to add shading and highlights and then inks to add colour. I will post results when I finish the first model.

Once in a while I may ramble on about my other interests. I'm a huge fan of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Gundam and play far too many Video games, so I would expect those to appear when I do ramble, as well as some Magic : The Gathering rants here and there.

So Welcome to the blog, hopefully I can get some content up soon.