Since...FOREVER!

So the back end of last year and the start of the new one have been busy for me. I have had a daughter, so hobby time has started to shrink. I still get games in but now am splitting time between Warmachine and my other gaming love that is Infinity.

I did manage a few games last monday. But I also managed to go to the pub beforehand so I got fed up taking picture to do a battlereport and thought I wouldnt remember much anyway. I played my pMorvhana list, I have probably put it up already so won't bother today. My first game was against Reznik from the Protectorate of Menoth, we played Incursion. As we were both pretty drunk it became a case of who remembered (anything) the most. I ended up jamming with Bloodtrackers and regrowing them like crazy while Morvhana dominated the central objective and Ghetorix killed anygthing that might threaten her. The right objective got overrun with Bastions and I just teleported Stones in to contest and get further ahead on CP's. It worked and thankfully Reznik couldn't land a Hex Blast to save his life so I lost no upkeeps.

The next game was against Convergance. Captian Hammer Hands (Axis?) this game was called due to time constraints while I was 1-0 up on CP's (Incursion again) and honestly I was relieved. Go and look at her cards if you can. Look at all those lovely spells that do things to Living or Undead. Then go and look at 99% of Convergance. All Constructs, so Neither. I had no Feat and my only spells gave me 2 ARM. I still had Regrowth but you can't play a game on that one spell.

Anyway, hopefully I can post a bit more. Life is kinda hectic at the moment mind.

Krueger2 vs Sorcha2

Finally got out of the house! Got a game against our local Khadorian, I took

Krueger2, Gorax, Feral and Stalker. Druids w/UA, Woldstalkers, 2x Shifting Stones w/1 UA, a Wayfarer and 2 Gallows Groves. Alongside all this I also put my Celestial Fulcrum on the field.

Vs

Sorcha2, Beast09 and Conquest. Assault Kommandos (min) w/2xWA, Mortar Crew, Mechaniks (max), Aiyana and Holt, a Koldun Lord and a Manhunter.

(Now I am writing this I noticed his list is a whopping 5pts shy, after sending him a message he informs me his Kommandos were supposed to be a max unit and he was supposed to also have a Field Gun in there. In case you cared)

Anyway, the game

The scenario was Chemical reaction. Standard set ups, I had placed the Fulcrum on the right to contest his zone with some stones but his Conquest got set opposite. So plans ended up changing.

We both ran up, the Druids did all their tricks Stalker and Feral warped Prowl and +2 ARM respectively. Krueger put up Stormwall.

The other side also ran, Sorcha put Iron Flesh on the Kommandos.

I decided to pull Beast09 in, so the druids went and got him nice and close. The Fulcrum moved over to soften him up a bit. (and not run away from conquest...honest) It managed to knock off 10 damage meaning the Feral could finish him off nice and easy. The stones toe'd in the far zone and mocked the Conquest as he was the only piece in range to do anything. Yet would have been a massive waste if he did.

Khador's response was brutal, the Kommandos rolled like champs and started clearing druids. 9's to hit I thought they might not be too much of a threat. They killed a few Druids anyway. The Manhunter came charging out and killed the stone UA on the left. The Conquest shot a few more Druids to bits...bit harsh.

Krueger moved up to force the Khadorians out of the left zone and dominate it for a control point. I was looking to force myself at Sorcha as control points were not gonna win this for me. The Conquest was never going to set himself up to be taken out and the mechaniks would prevent a piecemeal approach. Krueger feated to try and lock them down a bit for my big rush and the blackclad got shot over and tied everyone up to cause some more headaches.

Sorcha Feated, her quad iron blew my feral off the table. Conquest was now truely part of this game and blew some holes in my troops again. I was looking slim.

Yet had everything I needed, the Woldstalkers used Zepher and shot the Kommando in the way. The Gallows Grove shifted into range, Krueger cast telekensis on the Stalker and then arc'd telekensis at Sorscha, boosted and missed. I then tried again but couldn't afford the boost. I was too fury starved. thankfully this connected and sorcha suddenly found herself facing her deployment zone. I then shot a Kommando with his gun. Just because. So, Stalker has range, a target facing away and is now all primaled up. 


End result was a win. I was pretty happy about it till I started typing this and realised he was 5pts down. When deploying I made a comment on how his list looked a bit small, he then put Beast09 on the table...oh well. I have told him and arranged a rematch. 

A Game of Dice

So I missed the club again this week, I did manage to play over Vassal instead though. So, straight into it.

I took my Mohsar list and was against Kreoss3 and the scenario was number 8, Incoming. As it is tradition between my friend and I to rename the Warcasters, Kreoss got renamed Incestor Kreoss and we began. I got first turn, the Bloodtrackers were preying on the Errants. I pulled the trick off. Namely stones teleport Mohsar to stones, stones teleport Mohsar again and then Mohsar puts 3 pillars of salt right in front of the enemy before using sands of fate to get back to safety. As I had maltreated Megalith (who I used to put Mirage on the trackers first) I still had a transfer available. This kept the Errants locked down and the trackers ran forwards so they would be in range to Mirage into the 10" and get the Prey movement buff. All went well. When they came to advance in to throw spears and two get melee range. I then need a CMD check because he thought he had done the Tough call with Rhupert but had instead done Dirge of Mists. I failed that check so the Trackers killed nothing and could now not reform back into the zone and contest it. So he got some easy kills on them and scored in my zone with the solo. Highly annoying was that he managed to dominate his own zone this turn as well so took an early lead on the control points.

Seeing that things were not great, the entire tracker front had collapsed without a fight (one I was confident about victory in), yet in dominating the zone Kreoss had put himself in range of a warp speed Feral. Now he had Holy Ward on himself, was camping 2 and had a pair of warjacks in between. One of which was enlivened. So I had to get through two Warjacks to deal with a Def16 Arm19 'caster. No problems. Megalith was stone ported in, put up his animus and threw the Reckoner (the enlivened one) at something of mine to get it out of the way. He then used Geomancy to put Curse of Shadows upon the Redeemer. Job done, the jacks are now no longer a problem and Kreoss is at Def14. Next up was the Gorax who put Primal on the Feral and charged at the Errant solo. Revenge for an easy score was going to be mine. But no, he didn't die. No bother that was only petty revenge. The real show was coming up.

Showtime! Kreoss being Def14 thanks to Undergrowth and the Feral at Mat9 thanks to Primal was 5+ to hit, also thanks to Primal the need to warp speed was offset with the damage buff side putting me to P+S17. So -2 for damage rolls. With 3 initials and 3 fury to buy attacks (after the charge) I was confident in this one. Charge attack, 4. Second claw, 4. Bite hits! -3 for this one...3 damage. Buy a claw, 4. Buy a claw, HITS! This one does what it was supposed to and knocks a good chunk out of him. Enough to make it so that if this last Claw hits I can finish it off on a slightly above average damage roll...so naturally I got a 4 to hit. Do you think it is because claw and four kinda rhyme? So yeah desperation kicks in. I stare at it and think, a good Crevasse might help...Kreoss can't be hit by spells...but my Wilder can! She gets sacrificed to put another couple of damage onto Kreoss. His turn comes around and he uses the Redeemer to kill the objective, the Vessal of Judgment to push Megalith away and re-dominate his zone and then win on scenario.

I am totally blaming dice. I could have easily contested my zone during turn 2 but forgot to after the trackers failed the test so they couldn't reform back into it. I should have run the Gorax in, but didn't. My fault I know...but it was totally the dice.

I need to take that step back and start rethinking when things go badly like that, damage limitation was not on my list of cards. It needs to be.

Shakey Return

So I have had a few games now with Circle and to say the least they have been shakey at best. I have been loosing a lot and to be honest, it's a good feeling. I think my main problem has been trying to go straight through the middle and fight like a Cygnarian.

First game was pKrueger vs Harkavich (sp?) and that was a close loss as I put in my last entry. The game after I used Cassius and ended up against Menoth with heavy spell denial and another 3 heavy warjacks. That was a loss as I got rolled over in no time. I tried a last ditch assassination before I was wiped out but when your Warlock needs to roll 6,6,6 to kill the enemy warcaster (Reznik btw) you know things got desperate fast.

My last game was Krueger2, I used his Wake of Destruction theme force. Now Krueger is my strongest Warlock, and I managed to get a very solid assassination against Thyra. He moved up to Feat and cast Carnage and this was my opening. Krueger moved up so she was a fraction outside his control area and feated. Moveing everything a bit closer, I then cast Telekenisis at the Guardian, Warden and the Reckoner moving them even closer. I used the Warden to throw the Reckoner at Thyra and then Geomancied Telekenisis at it to shift it out of the way (cheating I know, I should have used Gallows but the assassination being so close I forgot you can only hit a target with TK once a turn) Then I pegged her with the Devouring for the Druids and a few Force Bolts this left her at 3HP, KD'd and in charge ranged of the Woldguardian.

Next Warlock is looking to be Mohsar. I am going to cycle each in for one game before I settle on the two I want to really push for the next year.

The Storms Wrath

Right so my return game to Circle was a shaky one, I need to get reacquainted with both building a list for Hordes and how to play Circle again. Which is exactly what I expected. So to start todays blog I shall go into my thought process in building my list and then have a brief run through of my first game back.

Building the list!

First thing is first, I needed to pick a 'lock. Now I usually love playing Krueger2, but thought that I would keep him back bench for a short time and get used to something a bit different. I chose Krueger1, because I love Krueger too much. Looking at his cards he does a lot of infantry killing with lightning. Fair enough, means the rest of the list doesn't need to be too heavy on that.

For the battlegroup I chose my standard 1 light and 2 heavies for 35pts. It gives enough flexibility for fury and I can keep going after loosing a beast without too much stress. My loadout was Gorax, Feral and a Stalker. The idea being that these guys will kill hard targets and Warpwolves are the things for those jobs. The Gorax provides both Primal and a 4 Fury 4pts beast so is an amazing return. He is also a surprisingly good combat light for the endgame.

Troops needed to be something cheap, 35pts doesn't give a massive amount of wiggle room for taking fancy stuff. I decided to take the Wolves of Orboros. First because they are cheap, at 6pts for a full unit they make for good fodder and secondly for the Wolf Lord. Morriag loves him some Wolves for flank and I am fully intending on taking him too. Krueger can give the Wolves a bit more protection against ranged attacks but to be fair, they will still die to any hits. Only blast damage is a bit more iffy. The next two units are the ubiquitous shifting stones, 2 units of which give me plently of options. I have decided against the UA because after the battlegroup, Wolves, Stones and Morriag I would only have 2pts left and I had a plan for those two points. Still, Stealth on the stones can sometimes hinder Krueger who can use them to get Chain Lightning into spell immune or Stealth infantry. With that, healing, fury control, teleports and getting in the way of things for my opponents Shifting Stones are a good 2pts buy.

Solos were easy, Morriag because he hits like a truck, a charge with Flank is looking at MAT12 with a P+S of 13 with 5d6 damage. He is also highly mobile at SPD8 with light cav movement and if all that isn't enough go and try putting Lightning Strike on him. The Stalkers animus makes for some ridiculious movement after a kill. Charge 11" (with reach as well) kill something and then trigger both Lightning Strike and light cav for a 13" post killing advance. The other solos were a pair of Gallows Groves. Bcause what is a spellslinging Warlock without a way to channel.

so the list at the end of this was,
Krueger the Stormwrath
Gorax
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker

Wolves of Orboros
Shifting Stones x2

Wolf Lord Morriag
Gallows Groves x2

35pts

I seemingly had most bases covered. I was a bit surprised by the game I had, which was a Haravich theme force with 3 heavies, Black Ivan, a Spriggan and the newest Clamjack, the Demolisher? A wall of steel I was never getting through in a positive piece trade. These were backed up with a min Winter Guard one of each weapon crew and Joe. Maybe a few other bits but thats what I recall.

We played Incurstion and the middle flag vanished, I put up with a ranged bombardment and got a CP off the leftmost flag. Things got close and Krueger started casting Tornado every turn and one of the 'jacks and I was sneaking ahead on the CP's. I decided to go for the Domination on the rightmost flag and cast Skyborne to fly over a tower to get there, I then cast Tornado at the Spriggan in melee with my Gorax (he had charged and killed the Stalker) judging that a good throw will free up the Gorax to run and block LOS to any shooters and the Spriggan would be KD'd facing the wrong direction and too far away to get at Krueger I opted to burn all the fury and boost. I threw the Spriggan 2" not great so a shifting stone teleported next to it to prevent anything. I was sure he was out but I like safety nets when I burn all my Fury.

I had made a mistake, a horrible one. I had judged the spriggan down and out. Not at all. He allocated 3 to it, activated Black Ivan and shot the stone away. Cast Jump Start (stand up and face any direction, uh oh) then cast Escort (+2" of move for battlegroup models in his CTRL, double uh oh) and charged Krueger, he was just in. With needing 9's on the charge he boosted and hit, the charge left me on 4hps. His last focus he bought an attack, needing an 11 now. He got it. Krueger was paste. A very unexpected charge and some very unlikely dice. But thats what happens, I got cockey and paid the price. I got up to 4 CP's and if I had survived that I would have won on scenario. Well played Sir.

Unbound

So this was my second game of unbound, I was a tad dissapointed after the first game as it required a lot of shuffling through cards and took quite a while to get done. This time I had War Room, it helped, quite a lot actually. Yet even though I was impressed with this update for the program (no crashes and no problems) the game was still an epic grind. I had Siege, Haley2 and Nemo3. Against Karchev, Irusk1 and Vlad1. The game took about 6 hours to play and I got burnt out by the end of it.

First death was siege, on a full camp he got shot by an eyriss I didn't see and then shot to death. Next down was Karchev, Nemo feated and the Thunderhead hit him 3 times as well as a Stormstrider twice, he survived that to charge the Thunderhead and scrap it and the Stormstrider finished him for his troubles. Irusk's Conquest was obliterated and then all his troops were slaughtered so he was left on his own and boxed in as the battle line shifted horizontally leaving him behind my lines with nobody for company. I thought this amusing and left him be. Only a token unit of Trenchers who dug in at the edge of a forest kept him from getting anywhere. Vlad then got black oil in the face and stamped on by the Stormwall. While Nemo started wiping out all his troops.

We called the game then, it had taken a very long time and both players had gotten a bit tired. I never played my regular game afterwards. I was Warmachined out. I don't think unbound is for me.

Getting back to it

'Allo again, I have finally got some time to sit down and blog. Been massivly busy of late, First thing first the few games I have had in this time. Quick recap on the first two and a report for the third.

Haley2 (gravediggers theme force) vs Feora2 (with bonded Judicator)
...
Do I need to say more? Actually I probably should, I won this game though it got a bit hairy once the Judicator got more involved. He also took a Vanquisher, and I used a lot of Domination to keep standing him in the Judicators way and shoot his AOE cont. fire at the Temple Flameguard unit (I wiped them all out eventually with his own 'jack trololololol!) The Trenchers took a pounding once the AOE's started drifting favourably and he finally got close enough to start using the flamers. Unfortunatly for him the turn after this I loaded up 3 focus on both my 'ranged' Warjacks (the Defender and Avenger) and thankfully because of a random couple of shots I threw it's way earlier, brought the mighty machine low. It survived with 2-3 boxes and the retaliation didn't break either of my 'jacks who were free to finish it off and then hunt down Feora herself.


Second game was against the same guy, I took my B list and he just tinkered a bit (dropping the Vanquisher, trololololol!).

So, Nemo3 vs Feora2. Lightning vs Fire.
This game was odd, Stormwall should have died 3 times over but ended up held together with duct tape and wishes by the end. Anyway, I ran a lancer up to his Zealots who has prayed to blow up stuff more (out of terror of a lightning pod, go figure) and cast chain lightning twice at them. I rolled a 5 and a 6 for extra leaps so took down the full unit and then half the choir whom quite understandably fled. The Stormguard somehow won out against the Exemplar Errants, and Thunderhead followed in to help that out. The big thing was Stormwall, I placed a pod badly (forgetting Escort is a movement buff and Judicator can charge past the damn thing with that extra speed) and Stormwall took the charge. Surviving quite handily thanks to Failsafe and a few bad damage rolls, The Field Mecaniks fixed him up a bit and I swapped Lightning Shroud onto him, put a few shots in from Thunderhead to soften things up and went to town. Judicator went down. Hard. But I was in a bad place for a countercharge from the Avatar so I put a pod in the way and ran a Stormsmith to also stand in the way. Meaning to force the Trample. Feora moved up and flamed both away (B*&^%) and the Avatar activated, thankfully rolled a 1 for focus so it only had the one to charge and the second for an additional. Stormwall survived again! So, the Mechaniks got to work patching up the crippled systems and Stormwall went to work on the Avatar, destroying him. In his turn realising now that Feroa is far too close to the stormwall tries to get a bead on Nemo and burn him down. Thankfully this fails, the Mechaniks
activate and bodge a few boxes back onto Stormwall but one of the gobbers goes to stand next to Feora. Nemo Force Hammers the poor little Gobber into Feora and manages to plink a point of damage through her camp. Anyway long story short, big camp helps not at all when knocked down near a Lightning Shrouded Stormwall. 3-0 to the big guy. Luck helped a lot in this game, from high damage rolls and high leap numbers to the opponent rolling badly allowed Stormwall to face tank his way right through the Menite lines. It was glorious though.


Third Game, Haley2 vs Strakhov.

We got photos, so here we go!

Set ups, I won roll and elected second. Trying to get the feel for if I were to loose first turn roll off, which is a roll I haven't lost yet. Commandos went opposite widowmakers, (who kicked ass and also got Eyriss1 with a Grenade). Infantry took front and center, opposite Beast09 and Greatbears, with Assault Kommando support (and died horribly). Haley perched upon a hill (and chilled there). there were also Doom Reavers and the Manhunter trio who shot up the right flank.

He shot up the right flank and put Superiority onto Beast and Occulation onto the Greatbear, which I promptly forgot about and moved some Trenchers up to shoot one down.The Grenadier got Temporal acceleration and lobbed 4 grenades at the manhunter and doomreavers but hell, Manhunters have thick armour and i only managed to put a couple of damage boxes on her. Really ARM14...what?

So, he got the doomreavers ready to wipe down Haley next turn, the Manhunter wrecked the Grenadier (WHAT?!?! those things are bonkers is what) Kommando flamers put few Trenchers down and the Trencher return fire didnt get through their shields...damn Kommandos, But they did drop a Greatbear. The Defender slapped both Yuri and the other Manhunter down. Thorn Moved up and killed a Second Bear. It was looking Grim at this point so Haley Feated.

His turn wasn't very productive, he did however show utter ruthlessness and moved his Kommando flamers up and then shelled the area with his Mortar. I lost 5 Trenchers to this underhanded tactic. One of them was directly hit by the Mortar so at least was saved the horror of burning to death. Anyway after his turn (and him a little foolishly moving Strakhov up) my chance came to bring the 'jacks through for the win.

Thorn Arc'd a telekinisis to slip away from the Greatbear and headbutted Strakov with a boost to hit, Kd'ing him and then a 4 focus (bonded 'jack) Avenger charged in to steal the show.

And this is just how close those Doom Reavers came, thankfully I ended things soon enough and the decision to ignore them and let them run around paid off. They didn't really contribute much but were very threatening by turn 3.

I am loving the Gravediggers, yes it is a hard list to use fully but it has options. Options help keep things fluid which is I believe is the Major strength of Haley....(get it? I made a funny). I am tempted to loose Tier4 swap the 2 heavies for stormwall and drop the Grenadier to max the Commandos and put the extra point towards Stormwall. But that makes the Master Gunner a bit redundant so would want to swap him for a Chaingun crew or something.

Anyway, hopefully I can update a bit more. Though gaming time is now split between Warmachine and a Bloodbowl League.

A bit of a let down

Well I took a bunch of photos to do a turn by turn battle report for my games with eMagnus. Unfortunatly my phone has had to go back to Samsung for repairs so that went out the window.

All told the games did not go well, luck just decided to abandon me completely and the game ended with pFeora sitting on 2hps left. In my second turn a Defender missed a 7+ to hit on 3d6 which would have been more than enough. Magnus also had to roll the same on his last damage roll (he charged at Feora in the end) and rolled 3-1-1.

I will though highlight how effective Kell is with Rangers. Iron Zeal, Sheild Walled and Engaged Temple Flameguard. Kell was hitting on a 5+ and doing the autopoint of damage. It was beautiful, over the game he shot into combat about 6 times and killed his targets. It was something I hadn't actually thought about but RAT12 is just nasty. 

Baldur2 vs Asphyxious3 (good few pics)

I was under the impression I would be against a colossal this week, I had asked one of the guys at the club for a game knowing full well he had been bought one for his birthday so would likely be out and about with it. He did not dissapoint, the Kraken was unleashed.

I'm just gonna jump straight into it. I took photos at the end of each turn as well as a couple just because they made me chuckle.

Standard first turn,. Druids cloud covered and everyone got into position, we were playing (Incursion?) the Scenario with 3 flags and a random one goes 'pop'

His first turn was to jam the central and left flags with ashen vailed mcthralls and send the Kraken over to the right hand flag, the Kraken also fired that massive cannon of his at the druids bagging two. First blood to Cryx. The left hand objective vanished handing me an advantage (I had put nowhere near enough over there to contend with a tide of thralls instead putting full force into dropping the Kraken).

Apparently the last Circle guy he went against had a lot of trouble clearing mcthralls, after a barrage of druidic magic only a steaming pile of body parts and a single mcthrall were left alive. Even the stitch thrall bit the dust under the concentrated attack so no rebuilding for you Mr Cryx. Baldur feated this turn and put a wall down to protect the Stalker and Guardian from the deadly embrace of a pistol wraith which is just out of shot on the right there.

And there he is! Though he turned his attention on the Druids instead claiming the lives of two of them. The Kraken had a few more and the crazy harpoon helljack had another few. Leaving one druid alive...the Pistol wraith claimed a CP for Cryx. Asphyxious also feated this round...

Baldur went and avenged the fallen Druids by charging and destroying the helljack, Then hopping back over the wall thanks to Lightning Strike from the Wilder. The stalker moved in front as a bit more protection the Gorax tried to claim the Pistol Wraith but failed the charge so the Guardian had a go. Claiming the Objective for Circle.

When your opponent feats it is usually a good idea to pay attention, this was his focus pool after allocation. Apparently he would have been healing too but I hadn't managed to get a bead on his so that part made no odds. Still...thats a lot of focus. Shame he got Diced really, he threw 2 Hex blasts at megalith and both missed and both scattered badly. The third hit and removed his animus so he could apply a few thralls and the withershadow to his stoney face.

 The Kraken took down the Guardian and Megalith got swarmed, thankfully Roots of the Earth kept him kicking.

It hardly seems fair does it? Heres a hit boys and girls, dont turn your back on the giant tentacle monster.

The kraken had been lured in. Time to bag the prey, the stalker went first. Due to a frenzy on the Gorax he didn't get primal but still took down most of the right had side. Baldur got teleported over and went ape on the thing, destroying the Kraken and claiming another CP for me. Hurray!

Now I had a picture of the last turn, but I accidentally deleted it. Basically he needed to kill Baldur as anything he sent over would be killed and I'd claim another point...he decided to use Asphyxious. He measured and might be able to make it. Not entirely clear as he had to take an odd angle due to avoiding the Stalkers base. He cast mobility, camped 5 and charged. Out by a 1/4". The stalker headbutted him so he was prone atop his beloved (and utterly destroyed Kraken) and Baldur liberally applied Tritus to his face untill he stopped moving. P+S19 makes a mockery of overboosted powerfields.


To conclude the list worked quite nicely, the flag vanished in my favour even if it did bring all the action over towards the colossal. Oh, and don't f*** with Baldur.

Back to my Roots

While work is progressing on the Stormwall and Finn I have decided that today is going to be a true Forest Mans day. I'm going to be taking my circle again with me today, more specifically Baldur the Stonesoul. I'm going to use a list I wrote just before I went all Cygnar mad, it looks a little something like this;

Baldur the Stonesoul
-Druid Wilder
-Gorax
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Woldguardian
-Megalith

Shifting Stones x2
-Stonekeeper
Druids of Orboros
-Overseer
Stoneward & Woldstalkers

50pts

The list was written with the advent of Colossals, needing a couple of good sources of raw damage output to drop one in a coordinated effort of the stalker and Baldur. Plus having Sprint available means that Baldur can contribute more with his increasing strength. That and being able to put a wall down where ever I need one is a blooming good defence against huge bases seeing as they can't end on one.

Anyway I can't just have a list that is entirely for taking down the big guys. The Druids are always a good choice for control and magic denial, the Overseer makes for an additional layer of defence for them or can be put on the offence. The Woldstalkers I have always found to be a very powerful unit, concentrated fire means they can be punching about their wight class and Zephyr they can get the jump on further targets.

Anyway heres to hoping, I havent really tested the list beyond theory. But I do believe I have most bases covered. I have no idea what I'm against later today but I do believe I am prepared for it.

Presenting, the Avenger!

Seriously, I know even I was doubting I'd get the guy done what with my track record at being massivly distracted by everything else that passes me by. But here we are, the Avenger!

I really should learn to doctor my photos or at least get a decent lamp. There we go though. He's ready to hit the table, though he does need his base cleaning off. I have also made a start on the Defender and Thorn (GASP!) but a game over vassal against Loftybloke put an end to that and I tidied it all up.

Yes obviously I took the gravediggers though it was only a quick 35pts game so wasn't the full list. I took:

Major Haley, Thorn, Avenger (bonded), Commandos (min), Infantry (max), Chain Gun, Master Gunner and Finn.

Against:

Bloody Barnabas, Snapper, Spitter, Wrastler, 2x Posse (max) and Thrullg.

I took first and moved everyone up. Haley dived into her trench to hide from the Spitter, his turn was similar but with barnabas putting down swamp pits and Gators cramming into them.  His spitter did manage a cheaky shot that melted a commando on the deviation. He survived the boosted blast but died to the corrosion.

Second turn Haley kept all her focus. Thorn advanced on the posse's who were side by side in swamp pits. Haley channeled timb bomb twice through him and due to a lucky deviation and some crafty targetting managed to catch all the posse with the spell, meaning they were all -2spd next turn. She then popped her feat. the commandos moved off to the left to hunt themselves a flanking thrullg and bagged it with a couple of grenades. The infantry moved up and waited for the Gators to be forced out of their swamps by popping smoke. With the Avenger right behind them.

His turn was both posse's crawling forward, the spitter hitting Thorn for a few damage but nothing serious and melting a pair of Trenchers who were covering him with smoke. the Wrastler advancing and waiting, the Snapper spiney growthing the Wrastlerand barney putting Iron Flesh on the unit of gators most central and then hiding behind them.

Third turn they were out of the swamps, time to pounce! Shame that 10 heavy infantry just don't fall down to gunfire quite as easily as you'd need them to. The avenger got 2 focus. Temporal acceleration and the Master gunner used artillerist on him to get to RAT8 with the aim. He then pumped two boosted to hit rounds into the iron fleshed posse and knocked them all down. Between that, Finn gunning them (rolled and got 3 shots!) Haleys hand cannon and 8 trencher infantry shooting them (all this with zero misses) I managed to kill 3 of them...whooo! The commandos failed to kill any of the other posse over the left but got on down to 1hp with a grenade. Not looking good.

Barnabas retaliated by charging a Trencher, Feating catching my whole army, killing the trencher and getting a free spell into Haley (who's trench is no good when your KD, Def20 would have been handy) boosting damage for 6 to her. Burned fury to cast it again and again did 6 damage. Hurting Haley thinks she is safe, oh no. The Wrastler advanced up and used it's animus Rise to get one of the Posse I failed to kill on it's feet. He had an easy line though to Haley (whom hadn't fallen back thinking the KD gators would have been shot to ribbons and thusly have been no threat, plus I'd forgotton about Rise) she got attacked by an angry Gator.

This is why Gators are my biggest fear...right above brain aneurysms.

 Anyway, bloody fun game, Barnabas is a pain in the backside 'lock for Cygnar. Not impossible but denying our shooting means we're in a lot of trouble. That and Gators being tough as old nails makes for a hard day.  Lofty did offer to switch 'locks out. But that would hardly have been fair.

Onto the good news, I've been passing ideas back and forth with Loftybloke and he is going to be making me a pair of nice looking trench templates so that he can attack Haley in them in style in future games. He should be documenting his process over at his Blog.

I can recommend...

This weeks gaming threw up a strange situatuion and I ended up playing a 3 way game of warmachine, figuring why the hell not? I can seriously recommend never, ever doing it. It's just painful. From now on I'll just be sticking to the regular games. Waiting for the turns to come around was quite dull. nevermind, I tried it. It might have been quite entertaining.

Celestial Fulcrum, Blog 4.

Well, I got it on the table today. I was quite pleased with it, but first off...

I got hold of some gloss varnish and got busy. The only job left to get the thing done and dusted would be the runes, but that is one ballache (hehe, I made a funny) of a job.

Ok, today I was running:

eKrueger, Woldguardian, Woldwarden, Megalith, Druids w/Overseer, Shifting Stones w/Stonekeeper, Woldstalkers and the Celestial Fulcrum.

First off was against eNemo and a very lightning immune list. All told not very dramatic game, I trashed thunderhead in my first turn by fishing it forwards and wailing on it with a woldguardian. Seriously this guy has been working wonders as my beatstick. The fulcrum took to a hill (before I realised battle engines don't get elevation defence against ranged attacks and that it didn't matter as all his ranged attacks were electrical anyway) and blasted some stormguard to bits. Nemo ended up get Gallows'd out and beaten to death by megalith. Not very exciting game but a nice intro for the fulcrum.

The second game was against Khador, eSorcha to be more accurate. With a list that to me reads like a greatest hits. 2 Spriggans, full winterguard w/2 rockets, full nyss hunters w/valachev, great bears, eEyriss, kovnik joe and finally aiyana and holt.

We played a scenario that involved holding an area in the opponents half while our caster was in one of the zones, apparently we needed 3 points to win so I took that to mean no scenario was being used. I got second turn, which apparently means that these days I get a 3" deployment advantage as he was deployed at 7".

So, I predeployed my Fulcrum to shuffle up and blast any fools coming for my zone, I wasn't gonna give the game away. The his nyss took my left, winterguard right, with great bears following up the nyss and joe following the winterguard. Spriggans were very central with sorcha and aiyana and holt keeping her company. Eyriss went out on my far left. I stuck my battlegroup all together over near the nyss and just to the left of my fulcrum, woldstalkers took the right hand side of it and the druids AD'd in front with the shifters in front of the battlegroup.

Standard first turns, fair bit of running involved. Ironflesh went on the Winterguard who also got tough and fearless, sorcha went and stood behind a wall where she cowered all game. I did the same, lot of running, the druids made some clouds and such and the fulcrum used flame blast to help them out in that job dropping a cloud into no mans land. Krueger put up Stormwall and did a bit of micromanaging with telekenisis. Getting all 3 heavies into my shifting triangle.
Turn 2 saw the first casualties. I lost most of my woldstalkers to crazy all boosty sprays along with a few druids, I always underestimate that range, oh well. spriggans moved up and were afraid to shoot any grenades off thanks to stormwall threatening to both make them range 5 and deviate onto his troops. The nyss did a few CRA's but did nothing overly offensive, again, thanks to stormwall. Iron flesh then went over onto the nyss...def18 is just wrong. Oh well we can work around that. My go, druids are up, they pull one of the spriggans into contact with 2 winterguard and try and kill a few other winterguard with forcebolts, I forget if they did well or not, Fulcrum next who popped a flameblast into said spriggan, doing a bit of damage and burning the 2 winterguard, the a compleatly innefectual spray followed by lightning killing a few more winterguard. The surviving stoneward charged another winterguard and cracked his head open. Megalith put up undergrowth and trampled through a few nyss, killing none as was expected but he was in place, he then tried a gallows at one of the greatbears did 4 damage and pulled him closer...uh oh, thats not where you want a great bear. The stones ported the guardian over to valachev who got smushed and the beatback put me in range of another nyss who shockingly also got smushed. the Warden wandered over and geomancied a lightning storm into two nyss faces at point blank. Krueger wandered up, Stormwall went up again and a lightning storm into Megaliths back ended 2 more nyss. It was also Feat time, Giving the opponent a headache.
Turn 3, I lost the fulcrum to some winterguard. It was a sad time. The rest was a few moves, the greatbears took a chunk out of the guardian, but it was the first time I've ever seen them not kill something, so I was impressed. the Nyss took a small CRA at Krueger who laughed it off. Cyleena, was out of range thanks to stormwall. The spriggans moved up to threaten next turn. All told not very productive, I think this was going to be his big charge turn but my feat put an end to that one. Still, I was in a bad spot, I'd killed a lot of troops but I had started to overextend. That and Sorcha sitting on a feat and 2 Spriggans tends to hurt, so when my turn came round I decided...Balls to the Wall. Megalith trampled up, geomancy to get Sorcha out from behind her damn wall. Missed, oh no, second shot was the Warden, who got ported over by the shifters and gallows'd her out, the guardian went after a few great bears to have his vengance and even missing his spirit managed to bag two of them. Krueger went in, Lightning Bolt hit with a boost, sustained attack for 3 boosted pow12's. Game over. Balls to the Wall is how Krueger rolls.

eKaya, a win and a loss.

Got to the club last night, which was nice as work seem to be dragging me in mondays at the moment. Managed to get two games going, one against Blindwater @50pts and one against Shae running A Pirates Life @35. In both I ran eKaya.

The Gator game was amusing, I fished one of his Wrastlers forwards with some Druids getting it in charge range of the Warpwolf Stalker which promptly got Forced Evolution and went hell for leather. Killing the heavy for the low low cost of one fury. Which meant it got sprint and pulled back. Next turn Laris snuck through and got a charge at a backfield Wrongeye failed to kill so kaya Spirit Shifted in and finished the job, removing Snapjaw without a single attack directed at him. This was also feat turn so a couple of warpwolves came with her. Unfortunatly the Stalker didn't live up to the turn before and failed to kill the second Wrastler by missing all but one of his attacks, out of 6 attacks needing 6's to hit you'd expect more really wouldn't you? Aye well, is probably what I get for removing snapjaw with such ease. Seeing there was no running Barnabas went at this unexpected threat like you'd expect and took down the Stalker. Unfortunatly the Feral was still standing as well as Kaya herself and Laris just for good measure. Made a good photo though, so took a quick snap on the phone.   

Obviously Barnabas went down. The good news is the Gatormen Posse's at the other side of the board were steamrolling over my small Farrow contingent, which I had taken for that exact purpose. I love it when a plan comes together.

The game against Shae was my good friend Ed, who was going back to uni so would be our last game for a while, I ran theme force up to tier4 with eKaya. everyone was engaged from turn two as both of our lists were fast striking. it got a bit hectic, I tired a trample through to Hawk and Killingsworth but then realised I'd forgotten to activate Kaya first and he was out of control. Handed him a feral for the cost of 3 Pressgangers. Foolish. It went downhill from there and ended up with Kaya literally surrounded by pirates all beating the hell out of her. I took another photo of that but my phone decided it didn't like that idea and never saved it. I hate blackberrys by the way, can not wait for this contract to run out. Either way the game against Ed was a blast, neither of us taking things too seriously. All told a good game for him to get back to uni on.

Kaya's theme force has a good few perks though, this was the first time I've run it. As I usually don't bother with theme as theres always something nice I want thats not included. Has made me think about the theme forces a lot in general...hmmm, maybe another post idea right there. Might also try and get a halfway decent picture of Rorch up as I managed to drag myself away from Skyrim long enough to at least paint something.

Sup-p-per Troup-p-per

Mondays gaming was shifted to Tuesday thanks to boxing day, which is a good enough reason I suppose. Had two games, first was eKrueger vs Seige at 35pts and ended with seige being killed by lightning bolt. nothing exciting about the game aside from it being my first game against the Cygnar battle engine. Which did very little due to a plethora of immunity on my part ( the druids elemental protection being paramount for once).

The second game was something better though, my friend Ed was back and having left his models at uni borrowed my Privateers for the game. Shae vs Grayle. There was very little by the way of battle. lots of sea dogs came in very fast, they got butchered. My guys got butchered back a bit. In the end it came down to Shae vs Grayle. Grayle tried to get the first strike with some crafty side steps and storm rager on himself only to be stopped by tough, camped a few fury to try and stave off the counter. Shea put storm rager on himself and went to town pushing Grayle towards a freebooter which tried to hit him and missed. Grayle survived on 8 hits thanks to transfers. But all his beasts were down now. So after cutting for 6 fury Grayle went to town on Shae leaving him on 3 hits. Who then started wailing back on Grayle and finished the job off. All told a lot died, and the casters had an epic battle in the middle of all of this. Which I decided that I wasn't going to interfear with anyone else and Ed seemed to have agreed was the best idea for the laugh. 

Ed is now buying my Privateers from me, I'd grown bored of the one playstyle they have and we had one of our most enjoyable games in a long time. So he wanted them.

eBaldur's first outing

Well, Monday saw me bringing eBaldur for his first outing as well as a unit of Woldstalkers and my Woldguardian that never really get used. I went up against a Trollblood player with Borka and a focus on infantry, which is a shock as there were very few 'beasts.

Me! eBaldur, Gorax, Woldguardian, Warpwolf Stalker, Megalith, Shifting Stones w/Stoneward, Woldstalkers, Druids w/Overseer, Druid Wilder and a Blackclad Wayfarer.

Against! Borka, Troll Impaler, Troll Bouncer, Dire Troll Mauler, Fennblades (max), Champions (max) w/Skaldi, Pyg Burrowers, Janessa Stonetide and a Fell Caller. There may have been some other stuff, but druid lasers made short work of the trolls and it got a bit messy over his side quite quickly.

Set up and first turn, My battlegroup took centre with the woldstalkers on the right druids were AD in front of them shifting stones were in front of the battlegroup and the solos hanging around with the battlegroup. Trolls had fenns over in front of the druids and woldstalkers, champs over to the left of my battlegroup with the pygs, his battlegroup took centre too...behind the fenns, is amazing how much space a 10 man unit of medium bases can cover. My first turn was a whole heap of running aside from the druids who put up counter magic and made a lot of clouds to hide the woldstalkers from prying eyes. He just ran at me.

Turn 2, Circle. Druids moved over to free up the woldstalkers, cast devouring at the fenns and force bolted a load more dropped counter magic as the only spell I was worried about was stonetides shifty spell and I was planning on feating this turn. The Woldstalkers zephered and moved up to finish off the fenns, thanks to some good tough rolls it ended up with 3 surviving but on their arses. Megalith trampled up to between the shifting stones and put his animus up, shifting stones teleported him in front of the woldstalkers and staring down the mauler and a bouncer. The guardian then ran into the stones triangle the stalker went over to stare down the burrow marker and the champs behind the wilder went with him as did the gorax. the blackclad stood near the guardian with no real plan in mind. Baldur went last, put a wall in front of the stalker and feated. Dropping a few fury so I could leech in next turn.
Turn 2, Trolls. he moved his fell caller over and used stand yer arse up. the fenns tried to charge some druids. Thanks to undergrowth one didn't make it in even though they were close. I lost a pair of druids. Then Borka feated, apparently so his mauler could get to megalith (I love how much of a headache he gives people), put iron flesh on the remaining fenns so they could tie down my druids. Then the mauler went after megalith, made it in and ended up doing very little damage thanks to the feat and some low damage rolls. the bouncer tried to do some more damage but seriously if a mauler can't do it a bouncer is going to do nothing. the pygs went after the stalker and failed to connect even once. the champs moved up behind them.

Turn 3. Circle. Druids took pot shots at the fenns and managed to finish them off despite iron flesh, and opened up a landing point for the mauler. Who on full fury was promptly thrown towards Borka. the woldstalkers moved up and concerted fire to put some damage on the champs and finish off the only target closer to the mauler than Borka. The guardian charged into the bouncer and slapped it about killing it off and moving closer to the champs in the process. The stalker tried to kill off the pygs...but tough rolls prevented him killing more than 3. He then sprinted away, moving out of charge range of the champs. the Blackclad tried to finish off some pygs but only got one more thanks to 2 more tough rolls. Baulder moved up. Roots on himself and the guardian.  Shifting stone all teleported to within an inch of beasts to help with fury managment next turn.
Turn 3. Trolls. Borka used his getting drunk ability. Charged into the woldstalkers and put iron flesh on himself. He killed a few of them but hey, they're disposable right? The champs charged the woldguardian which managed to survive with one aspect left the pygs burrowed again and moved off towards Baldur. Stonetide put a wall between Borka and my forces. I chuckled a bit at that.

Turn 4. Circle. It's time to make the kill. after the stones used healing field the Woldguardian went as I wanted to see it against this unit of champs, it wiped them out. Sweet lord he's taken some names in that game. the druids ran to surround Borka and Baldur charged in. Taking a huge chuck out of Borka and finishing him off with a few more solid hits from Tritus.

 Thoughts. He was a bit reckless with Borka and that lead to an easy charge, he'd left no fury on him and that helped a lot but I don't think he was expecting me to pin him down by surrounding him. eBaldur plays a lot differently, an advance with damn near unkillable wolds while he gets stronger and then gets in and does the job. I want a few more games with him before I comment more. Maybe against someone a little less reckless. The woldguardian kicked some massive arse and the woldstalkers played a nice role too. But like I said, against someone less reckless it might have been a different story.

An Army of Banes

Well, I missed out my update last week what with work picking up near christmas I never made it down the club, so nothing happened. Painting has hit a standstill too. Though hopefully that'll pick back up soon enough as I've now got another Warlock to work on. Yep I've now picked up eBaldur so I've got the full selection once again.

Game on monday was a shocker. I took my standard eKrueger list and sat down to play. My opponent was cryx, and took a full unit of Bane Thralls w/UA, then a second full Bane Thralls plus UA (deep terror was welling up at this point btw), then a full unit of Bane Knights...then a second full Bane Knights (seriously? Who owns that many???) then the Bane Lord himself. Well if you hadn't guessed it was eGoreshade and theme. I was not happy. Somehow actually managed a win but I'm sure it was more a case of luck than judgement. Ramming a battlegroup straight at Goreshade and just powering through while my units tried to hold the Banes at bay on the flanks. Eventually managed to get a Primal'd Shadowhorn to leap over and give him a pummeling.

So, I mentioned I picked up eBaldur. I also got a few other things, namely books though so nothing very exciting. Picked up the Skorne and Legion forces books as well as Domination. I'll likely post up my Domination musings, which everyone and anyone will have done and ten times better than I could ever manage. But for the Wurm I'm doing it anyway!

Also, My friend Ed has been reading Domination, I got a text today which read 'Christ, I'm going to hate Grayle aren't I?'

Yes Ed, yes you are.

Grayle takes on Legion!

So, my 35pts Grayle list got a tweak from last game. Dropping the Wolves UA in favour of upgrading the Woldwarden to Megalith and I must say I'm not gonna look back. So far the list is looking like...

Grayle the Farstrider, Gorax, Feral Warpwolf, Megalith, Wolves of Orboros (max), Shifting Stones, Lord of the Feast and Wolf Lord Morraig.

A nice round 35pts thats gives me enough of everything plus two powerful solos to stick Storm Rager on. More of that later though, highlights from my game vs pLylith!

Above list vs pLylith, Angelius, Seraph, Reak, 2x Shredders, Striders w/UA, 2x Deathstalkers, Forsaken, 2x Shepard.

Turn 1, Circle. I got first. Most things ran forwards, Morraig, LotF and megalith all go and stand between the stones with the Feral slightly off to the left. The Wolves run into the only forest on my side which was far left and opposite some Striders. Storm Rager went on the Wolf Lord and Grayle dropped one fury. Fairly uneventful.
Turn 1, Legion. pLylith moves up after a slipstream and shoots one of my Shifting Stones. Casts parasite at it and then plinks it to death with shooting from the Striders who also manage to fell a few Wolves. Two of the Striders move in front of her.

Turn 2, Circle. LotF charges a Strider behind a wall, misses. I look forwad to a turn of failures. (how wrong I was!) Grayle goes next advances, casts gallows through the stealthed Striders at Lylith, hitting (I needed 11, so happy with my new dice) and doing 9 damage, which was transfered (1 of 2) and feats thankfully me forgetting to do this before LotF was negated by him missing. The wolves charge/run in killing two Striders one of them blocking off Lylith and getting Lylith in melee range, I triggered the moves on Morriag and Megalith putting Lylith in charge range for Morriag. I put up Megaliths Animus first (because MAT14 sometimes just isn't enough...) and charged a random strider who was out but got Lylith in Undergrowth. Morriag went in...Honestly Storm Rager on him is sick, the charge did a total of 20 damage (transfer 2 of 2) his mount bit the other strider that was blocking her to trigger a cleave into her again, and LotF moving 3" forwards to get her in melee with him too. I left her on 3 health. Curses! Feral and Megalith stodd very firmly in front of Grayle, knowing Legions disregard for stealth I was taking no chances.
Turn 2, Legion. A couple of transfers had damaged his beasties. He was forced onto the backfoot by two heavy hitting solos knocking on his door. Using the Reaks animus he moved back, feated and moved the Angelius up to munch on Morraig. He did, but only after a few dice failures and a Shredder coming in to finish the job. The Reak moved in and failed to kill LotF, Striders tried to shoot a few Wolves, Stealth saved two of them. All told a bad turn as he focused on the solos to the exclusion of all else. Might not have helped me constantly telling him "Morriags coming to get you". He killed 3 of the wolves with the Forsakens 'I'm a bomb' attack.

Turn 3, Circle. This is where Storm Rager went on Grayle and he got stuck in, charging the Shredder that killed Morriag, killing it and sidestepping into the Reak, killing it and then sprinting away. He really is fun. The Feral finished off the Forsaken and LotF (who miraculiously survived) finished off the Angelius who was heavily wounded from the 20 damage transfer. Some Wolves killed a couple more Striders. Honestly by this point it was game over, I'd overrun the centre and was sitting at full health with all my beasts.

Grayle! Oh what fun. He easily joins eKrueger and eKaya in my top 3 enjoyable Warlocks. Though I've still to find a good use for Awareness. I haven't even seen a time where this spell would be worth casting. Maybe if I mix it up with a few Woldwyrds...

Oh! I forgot to add, this is also my first post upon joining the IABN!

2 Games with Grayle...

So, after picking up Grayle Farstrider in Manchester I got his assembled and ready to go for mondays games at the club. New 'lock, syndrome should have dictated these games were catastrophic losses. It was not the case! New 'lock, new dice, new luck.

Game 1 saw me faced up against eDenny, Storm Ragered Lord of the Feast made short work of an entire unit of Croes Cutthroats before promptly missing the Gorax I'd teleported in on her feat turn with his raven thus failing to shift in. Crazily enough that same Gorax frenzied turn after and tore eDenny in half. Mighty amusing.

Game 2 was Strakhov, after an early feat (his first turn :/) I had a unit of Doom Reavers all up in my grill, thus keeping me from getting to the scoring zones. Grayle got stuck in to good effect and a game of dancing about ensued. I used my feat to position a unit of Wolves for the charge on Strakhov unfortunatly they didn't do quite enough damage and got trampled in turn. The Spriggan that did that ended in combat with my Woldwarden and stabbed it a couple of time. Strakhov goes and stands behind said Spriggan. Ok, big mistake right there. But he surrounded strakhov with Nyss. After getting the chain attack off on the Spriggan and slamming it over Strakhov a Feral came in to slam the Woldwarden out of the way for Grayle to charge a Nyss, sidestep off into Valachev (sp?, Khadors ranking officer) to stab him and sidestep into a KD strakhov to finish him off. I missed the first Nyss, What with backstrike and Strom Rager I only needed 5's. Curses. second attack finished the nyss so I sidestepped backwards and hit Strakhov with a Gallows. Intending to do some damage before the sprint away to safety. The damage was enough to kill him, oh yeah. The wolves got him earlier! Victory!

Two games, both good fun, but an epic struggle against Strakhov that I enjoyed immensly, as you can tell what with my epic rant there. I'm enjoying Grayle, hopefully by my next update I'll have a picture of him painted for y'all.