Tharn-tastic

Not a great deal happening so here are a few photos of work I have been doing. My Tharn have been decided on being all ginger, which is going to be amusing when I get around to Ghetorix. Kromac was done a while ago but the bloodtrackers were finished this morning. The Warpwolves are another recent finish.

Next up is Kromacs beast form and the unit of Ravagers.

Other news is a bit slim. I missed last weeks gaming for a fishing trip with a workmate. I have come up with a few dirty tricks with Mohsar which I want to drop in my next game with him. I was going to get onto Vassal soon and play a 'dojo' first turn on there to see how well it actually works as the theory is sound but I wanted to be sure of ranges before I try it in a real game.

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.

Putting the Swan Down...

So I have been playing Cygnar now for over a year, it has been a fun and rewarding experiance sticking to the same faction for such a long period of time, I managed to play some great games and some really tedious ones but all told I learnt a good few things

1: Take what you want, I have been rocking Trencher Infantry in about 70% of my lists and they have rarely let me down. Even against Errants, Mage Hunters, Feora2 and her bonded Judicator and they have pulled weight.

2: Stormblades kick ass, high power good accuracy and with a few buffs they might actually make it there. Also shooting each other for the AOE's is a thing. I took down a massive unit of Kayazy by running 3 at them and then assault shotting them in the back to wipe out a few Assassins. My opponent was just a little surprised by that one. The kicker is you only need a 5 to hit your guys and they are immune to the attack anyway.

3: Do not play Unbound games. Just don't. Too much bookkeeping and the game went on far too long. I left 40K because bigger does not equal better.

4: Haley2 is boss, though this might seem a bit obvious I played her a lot this last year and that spell list with 8 Focus makes for options in most situations. I have even won a few games where I never even Feated. She is awesome incarnate...and she makes Trenchers kick all manner of ass.


 Well I bet your all wondering why I am summing this up, well kind of obviously I have decided to move on and put them away. I have just finished changing my main gaming bag over and putting my Circle back in.

In other news we (as a Yorkshire based club) have gotten in touch with a club over in Lancashire and have decided to hold an inter-club tournament. Hopefully this is something we can try and keep going and have the War of the Roses reborn again in Western Immoren.

Anyway, to sum it all up. After so long away it is going to be nice to be a forest man again. Now to start painting green again.

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.

I'm not dead...

Honestly have just been massivly busy. Work has people off on holiday and people off on the sick. Coupled with the fact that my good lady is expecting a wee baby girl come October, well lets just say that this hobby is a secondary concern.

Having said that, I got a lovely present in the post which is my last big buy for a while. I got my Storm Strider. Got it together last night and am manically trying to get at least a showing of paint on the thing because I won't have time for much of the rest of the week.

Come this afternoon, in about 2 hours now I'll be trying my second game of unbound. Not super enthused as I was not impressed with the last game. Am hoping to give War Room a good spin too to save space and book keeping during the match. Hopefully it'll work better on my Kindle than on my phone. It doesn't seem to crash on the Kindle really which is a massive improvement. Still taking my charger because I know what War Room is like for that.

After that I have a game planned with Ed, my Menite friend. 50pts and I am planning on using Nemo3 with both my Stormwall and Storm Strider. Hopefully I shall be getting photos and putting the game up on here.

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.