There goes the neighborhood...

Hey folks, Sergio in Wellington here.  I'll be sullying this fine blog with my random Skorne-flavored theorymachine and noob-like hobby articles.

To get into the mood here's an attempt at some epic tall basing.  While the Titan Sentry doesn't need much more height he tends to look hunched over.  The slab tilts him upward and really opens up his pose.

Epic Makeda looks very regal and commanding when standing on a big rock.  The other option was to put her on a surfboard with a mini wave for the base.

I have a collection of minis from various tabletop games here and there but  Warmachine/Hordes is the first one I put serious effort into playing.  Fun game, fun people to play with, and I get to indulge my scenery and painting urges.

Future goals in 2012?  Get fully painted, finish some sweet terrain, get better at playing with timed turns, win some games at ValleyCon.

Cheers
S

Cryx Noob ep16 - The Cryx of Hordes

Half-way through Dojo renovations (more on that from Chris soon I hope) I caught up with Scott for a game while he's up in the Big Smoke on family duty. Scott was kind enough (?) to produce for a game one of the Legion lists that he's taking to ValleyCon - Tier 4 Absylonia. Good stuff.

As it was a 40pt game (ValleyCon is 40pts, tiered armies) I took the opportunity to add in the Withershadow Combine (who I unfortunately used very poorly for most of the game) and also replaced the Nightwretch with two Warwitch Sirens in a little experiment to see what would happen without an arc node in the list.

First up, I've just got to say, Legion are pretty nuts. This was my first real game against the "Cryx of Hordes" and I was blown away by all the wacky stuff the faction can achieve - Pathfinder, Eyeless Sight, Advanced Deployed Light Beasts, Advance Move Heavies (tier bonus) an incredible ranged game, and the (free) upkeeps from Absylonia which did some crazy stuff too! They also enjoyed that wonderful Hordes mechanic of "buy now, pay later - or not at all!". Scott was a legend and was careful to explain things that I'd missed (Angelius/Seraph can't be Knocked Down for example). I was very impressed with the amount of Fury management incorporated into the list and felt that after Scott's first turn my best option might actually be to grind him out (!) a beast at a time while trying to eliminate the Forsaken (his only answer to Incorporeal Pistol Wraiths!).

The dice were mucking me around for quite a bit of the early game before the circle of life found it's groove. Scott struggled for a few turns to take out the Deathjack who was sitting on 4 boxes or so (including Cortex and Right Arm) and by the time he'd managed this I was able to remove the Forsaken and sufficently annoy the Shepherds. I continued to chip away at the beasts, removing the Angelius with a healthy free-strike when it wandered away from the Deathjack and (after much to-ing and fro-ing and Absylonia's Feat forcing me to start all over again!) taking out the Ravagore, Harrier and a Shredder. The Scythean was continually frustrated by Black Oil until the Seraph ripped Gorman's head off :)

Free of the Ravagore, and advancing past a Knocked Down (and Blinded) Scythean thanks to Skarre's Great Rack, the Reaper made a beeline for Absylonia who was having a terrible time trying to remove a Helldiver that had locked her down (Scott missing so many attack rolls needing 7s to hit). The two 'jacks danced the dance of swinging and missing like idiots (helped along by Abby placing Blight Field on herself so I couldn't allocate Focus to either of them!) until the wretched Legion Warlock made her final play, flying out of combat to give Skarre some grief and/or to Slipstream the Seraph into a position to Strafe her (it was engaged by a Siren and the Combine.

Having taken some damage from the Helldiver, a Purging Bile Thrall, and her own Feat already, and with not much left in the way of transfer options (the badly damaged Seraph), Absylonia was hit by the Reaper's free-strike, transferred the damage, but died on the blowback (having only two boxes left!).


It was a thoroughly epic game! I must admit after the first Legion turn I felt quite overwhelmed by the awesomeness arrayed in front of me but (after much hesitation and umming and ahhing - sorry Scott) formulated a dodgy plan and ground it out. I think we managed to squeeze 5 turns out of the game - certainly the longest game of Warmachine I've played so far!

Thrallblacks Radio - Ep6 *extra*

Episode 6 of Thrallblacks Radio

Warning *Explicit and Opinionated*

This week delayed by Chrimbo we managed to get the "Best of the Worst" into the studio to record his thoughts on having slightly more time to game than Dines and walk through building a Merc list with Scott "The Merc Master" Avery.


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Merry Bossin' Christmas Y'all

Shout out to all the badass Warmachine players (and slightly less badass but possibly more stylish Hordes players) - Merry Christmas!!! Have a great festive time with family and friends!

The people who play this game are boss.

The rules that govern this game are boss.

The toys used to play this game are boss.

This blog is BOSS.


Catch y'all in the new year - can't wait for Equinox and Call to Arms (I have it on good advice they are - or will be - boss). Loving being a part of this absolutely brilliant community (it's boss).


Dave

PS - Defiant is also boss because BOTH of my orders have been packed within 2 days of being placed (with Christmas discount!) and are enroute. Merry Christmas to me with eSkarre, eDenny, Tartarus, The Combine, a Reaper and a full unit of Raiders with accessories arriving in the mail any time now!

Pole house with bling?

As promised the completed, flocked and finished pole house - and then a photo of the swamp table as it is. Note Uncle Chubby's bones (a nice wee gator skeleton picked up from a pet store for $2)

Roots sculpted from Milliput




Cheers
Tom

Cryx player? No, no ,no...Ive got the patch....

In just a few days it will be the 1 year anniversary of me unwrapping my Cryx army book given to me (at my request) by my brother for Xmas.
1 year of glorious Warmachine cheese. 365 days of "Tactics? Ive got pDenny." 12 months of browsing Maelstrom games for the next piece of awesome that will make my opponents groan.
After 1 year and 3(ish) major tourneys, not one model in my Cryx army is completely painted and based, and varnished.
There was no time, because the next totally badass model needed assembling.

And I kept trying to pick up my other armies once in a while to play them. I played one game with my Khador this year. I sold my Retribution for more Cryx. I played two games with Hordes and missed my Pistol Wraith.



Giving up Cryx is like giving up drugs.

So Im weaning myself off the most loathed faction in warmachine by getting back into the most loathed faction in Hordes! I dusted off my old Everblight nasties after Rallypoint and got painting. After a couple of wins at the Domination release event I was reasonably happy with my new favourite faction, especially once Mr Typhon here snatched victory by introducing a circle warlock to 3 POW 14 sprays.

But the dreaded Cryx remain in the drawer, waiting for their chance to return. Hopefully my Angelius shows up soon and distracts me from that eDenny blister in my stash....

And now since Scotty Too-Hotty has laid down the gauntlet of Lets-see-whos-Beast/Caster/etc has-the-tallest & grandest base competition, here's my new Raek his totally subtle rock shelf/pile thing.


Hopefully I will have a completely painted Legion army to bring to a tourney in the future. See you there!




Happy holidays and Merry Cryxmas!!!!

The Forbidden Temple - Napier

Hey all!

I've had word from our compatriots in Napier that they're putting on a Tournament in May 2012 and are foolishly opening the doors to the unwashed masses from the rest of the NZ WarmaHordes gaming community..

What: 25 point highlander format (1 Caster/Lock, 1unit +UA, 1Jack/Beast, 1 Solo remaining points spent on Jacks/Beasts but cannot repeat types so no 2 Defender Cygnar lists!)
When: 19th & 20th May
Cost: $30 Includes Saturday night BBQ at the backpackers :)

I believe it will be a Steamroller2012 event.

Mike - could you post any details such as who to register with in the comments section
everyone else - any questions then add a comment below.

Cheers

Chris

ValleyCon 2012 update

Just a quick update to say WOW GUYS! you've really pulled the stops out, 28 players for ValleyCon, that's double the total last year :) If you've not yet registered and want to play then check out the valleyCon link on the left of the blog and email Tom, we can still pinch another table or two and 32 players is such a nice round number ;o)

Chris

Swamp Pole House

Well guys its been a while - but now I’m back on holiday I thought I would make some more terrain pieces - this time some swamp based stuff for my Gators. A pole house - so essentially this will be a shallow water feature.

First step is to gather materials. I use Cork tiles for bases - Mitre 10/Bunnings have these at reasonable prices - and look out for those bargains. Balsa, cardboard, Foamboard (Warehouse stationary has a good cheap supply of this brilliant construction material) and some permafilla.



I planned out what I wanted roughly and put the plan onto the cork base and then cut the base out and got the poles ready (cut to length and roughly cut into rounds) to attach to the base for the house.

The skeleton of the house was made from foamboard and then glued together - and just like the mountain houses previously done on this blog the foamboard is roughly covered with balsa “weather boards. Rough is good but don’t forget you door and a window if you wish.





While that is drying I plastered the base each end to represent land in the swamp area.

The base for the house was sliced and glued to look like rough boards for the house to sit on. A roof was then made and batons added to give it that rustic look. Next the dock and ladder were made again out of bits of balsa - I used a lot of off cuts in this build. and then it was all ready for painting.




Painting over a black undercoat I gave the wooden parts of the model a medium brown and then built up greys leaving some of the brown coming through. This got that nice weather worn look to the wood.The base was painted and now it is at this stage it is ready for gaming. Next I will flock the land - again roughly. Right at the end I was passing a pruning in the garden and got inspired - so as you can see i added a dead tree - using milliput to sculpt the roots.
Cheers
Tom

Cryx Noob ep15 - You Can't Lose if You've Already Won

This statement and other deeply philosophical and meaningful little gems (such as "you can't win if you've already lost" and "if you're losing the game and feeling sad, just win so you can feel happy") led to a quite monastic and spiritually enlightening night in the Dojo yesterday. Amidst all the blabber we also played some games.

In the red (and blue) corner we had Matt's tweaked Zerkova (now with more mechaniks!) taking on Grim Angus in a mosh pit-esque scenario. Down to an Earthborn, Stonebearer (literally, just the guy holding the big rock), and Grim - and facing practically an entire Khador force - Nick won the game by shooting Zerkova in the face while she was grinning like an idiot and failing to shield herself properly with Riflemen. Nick was basically screwed but he kept his head, found an opening, and took his chance. Good show Nick! Don't know what the heck else he was doing though. At one point I looked over and saw a Bomber way upfield in combat with a Spriggan and a Destroyer (?)... not sure what happened there. Matt felt decidedly ripped off I think after clinically dispatching almost the whole Troll army - hopefully a good lesson learnt there.


In the very very grey (and black) corner, paying for our sins by choice of faction, Mike and I fought a Gauntlet match - Cryx vs Cryx.

I was actually quite keen on this game - there's a PP forum thread running at the moment about Cryx on Cryx matches and who the best caster is in this situation. It was also my first game with EPIC Deneghra (intentional use of caps because she is EPIC).

Mike used pSkarre in an unusual setup that had me scratching me head trying to figure out what was missing (we figured it out afterwards - no Skarlock for Ritual Sacrifice!!!) but there were plenty of threats in-bound: full Raiders with all the Christmas trimmings, full McThralls with two of their big mates (Brutes), min Ogryn which was an interesting choice (CRA Harpoons!), and a couple of Nodes and a Slayer. There was no small amount of discussion after this game around Mike's list and possible future changes he might want to make to increase it's effectiveness. I'm pleased to say I was actually a part of this conversation! Yuss! Graduating to intermediary noob by offering some useful advice to a fellow faction player! Feel like I just leveled-up! Yeah... I'll stop the D&D analogy there before I talk about which new spells I'll be choosing...


My list was restrained by my current model collection with a few proxies (i.e. solos):

eDenny
Deathripper
Nightwretch (finished on Monday)
Nightmare (finished on Monday! Woot!)
Skarlock Thrall
Min Bane Thralls
- Bane Thrall UA
Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Machine Wraith

A couple of things were just thrown in there because I had the models or points available (Siren, Machine Wraith) but otherwise I felt that it was the basis of a credible starting list.

The game was dramatic in it's intensity and speed. Nightmare made a beeline for Skarre (Preyed). the opposing army closed quickly, Denny charged upfield and Feated, I removed the McThrall screen making a nice Nightmare shaped corridor, Mike twiddled his thumbs nervously, Nightmare hit Skarre and finished her on the 2nd bought attack. Brutal.

So that's about as well as the game can possible go I think. Good to experience the best case scenario - but why change the list?

Well Mike's Satyxis Raiders left a real impression on me! SPD7 + Reach + Desperate Pace + AD = threat range from hell. Add in immunity to blast damage, mini-feat, Pathfinder... wow... these girls are really moving! So I rejigged the list a bit (ok, quite a bit!):


eDenny
Deathripper
Nightwretch
Nightmare
Max Raiders
- Raider UA
Raider Captain
Min Banes
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith

Quite sleek now. I know some will balk at the loss of the Bane UA and Tartarus but my feeling here is a) Denny can DEF debuff if necessary, b) good chance the Banes will get the alpha strike anyway with the Feat, c) UA + Tartarus = yawn...

The Skarlock was the other surprising drop but his function is almost always to cast Ghostwalk. Now, this could still be very important, but everything except the Banes (small unit) and the Nodes (fast and probably running to arc) either have Pathfinder, in-built Ghostwalk, or the potential to be Incorporeal. So he was basically babysitting 6 Bane Thralls on the off-chance they'd need to run through a forest. Everything else he can cast from eDenny's spell list is basically a debuff which means he's toast if he advances upfield to cast it.

At the very least it gives me an excuse to pick up the Raider models and I've been sitting on a conversion idea for their whips for ages. I've also twisted Chris's arm to paint the skin/faces for me - I freakin HATE painting skin.

This gives me two potentially extremely different tournament lists too which is a happy side-effect! :)


CLASSIC NOOB ERROR - catching my own Machine Wraith with Hellmouth. Sigh... I'm still inadvertently killing my own guys.


By the way, anyone else enjoying the "pit of fire" at the moment that is the glorious holidays? Gosh I'd hate to be working 12 hour days at this time of year...


Chris' EDIT: Pics.

Dave's EDIT: Chris - "pStryker is the best caster. I would rather take him than any caster from any other faction"

Monday Update

Good morning gentlemen, welcome to yet another monday. For those of you who are still stuck at work, commiserations. For those of you who have already swanned off to holidays, die in a pit of fire.

Regardless, with the wet weather finally looking to be on the way out *jinx* we can all finally enjoy some good old fasioned holiday fun.

With Josh on holiday in the states this week we have an interview with the Geriatric General of NZ Warmachine, Mark 'Dangerous Dines'. 

We look at his views on being a gamer with time commitments and get his thoughts and advice about tournaments and casual gaming for everyone with a little more family time than gaming time,

Episode 5 of Thrallblacks Radio
Warning *Explicit and Opinionated*

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This week was really all about gaming for me again, with some great new guys coming around to the Dojo during the week to test their metal against Stentus and Nick,

Good times were had by all and Matt remains a mysterious force, silent but deadly,

With a couple of games over the weekend I managed to fend off Daryl's infantry horde (below picture is greatly mis-representative of the horde he started with) by the skin of my teeth,

And watch Mark forget Denegrha has steath, but still tag her with fire... You know how that one ends,

Unfortunately all that gaming means my painting has been limited largely to getting Beast half way done,

Until next time,

Keep it classy.

Thrallblacks Radio - Ep5 *extra*

Episode 5 of Thrallblacks Radio

Warning *Explicit and Opinionated*

This week lacking the regular co-hosting talents of Bruce Warne I turn to an interview with the Geriatric General of NZ Warmachine, Mark 'Dangerous Dines'.



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Inspiration flowing....

So Chris O posted up his Stalker conversion the other day here and by golly I thought that looks cool and I feel inspired. Added to this I had Chris B's comments on Thrallblack Radio about the need for a centre piece model in my head and I figured I had to give it a go. Now I could have gone all out and cut up a model to try and repose it but instead I thought there are other ways to improve a so call meh pose.

I took...
- Large base
- Small piece of dowel
- Stiff card
- Some green stuff

With this is glued it up like this.....

Then wrapped it in green stuff.....did not take that much as I had a solid internal structure......shaped my creation.....

Took my original model....

..and applied it to its new base.....ta da.

I was happy. Got to add some icicles and snow to the base when I paint it and it will be mint. It has changed the normal (have you seen my contacts, they fell out just around here) pose to being more open, dynamic and height makes anything look impressive....I think.

So I hope you feel inspired/ you do not have to go as far as Chris O to make something look awesome or add your own touch to a cool model.

Scotty
PG_Avo

Cryx Noob ep14 - Smash Zerkova with Ghost George? Legend.

Dojo action last night - displaced from my house due to my wife's art group and their unfathomable schedule - and a bunch of new players which was an awesome surprise. Chris was contacted out of the blue by some garage gaming enthusiasts, one of whom is only just around the corner from his place so had the pleasure of playing Matt's Khador - my first real life, on-table Khador game!

Matt was (is!) a lovely guy and I was facing a beautifully painted and based army (just need to get those Doomreavers finished eh Matty?).


Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova
- Beast-09
- Destroyer
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Harlan Versh
Koldun Lord
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich


An interesting list with some funky stuff going on. Between the Doomreavers and Banishing Ward I was thin on targets for Black Spot and Perdition (ARM20 'jacks not making great Perdition targets!). Harlan Versh - sheesh, what a dick he is! Fortunately when he chose his moment to shine he triggered Admonition on Skarre which not only allowed her to skip into cover (DEF20) but also removed Admonition completely (Versh gets boosted attack/damage rolls against models with upkeeps).

Early maneouvers saw the Doomreavers get all up in my grill, the Wraiths loaded with Souls from said Doomreavers with some stunning rolling (I predicted the dice would later come back and bite me in the ass. They did), the Reaper dragging in Beast-09, and Deathjack beating the living daylights out of Beast. I was in position to Feat nicely in turn two and tagged the two Wraiths, Skarre, Beast (pre-death, silly me - should have activated Deathjack first), and the Reaper (still two Doomreavers about and was wary of Koldun sprays targetting the Reaper but catching Skarre due to positioning). EDIT - now that I think about I guess if he really wanted to spray Skarre he could have targetted his own Doomreavers...

Matt was a bit shocked but counter-feated which basically meant I could advance next turn and do bugger all else. The Helldiver (still haven't got the hang of this guy) received a fortunate and rare Perdition to engage the Riflemen who had already done for the Bile Thralls easily (boosted attack rolls from Joe). The Doomreavers were removed, giving Deathjack some Focus for a brutal next round. The Destroyer had engaged my arc node leaving it on 3 boxes (including movement and arc node). Zerkova was upkeeping Watcher and an advancing Wraith triggered it, the Destroyer moving cleverly to engage both the Wraith and the Deathripper but unable to whack the ghost. I stuffed up royal trying to smite Zerkova with a Perdition (-3 range to spells cast against her) leaving Skarre camping 3 Focus.

This was a crucial turn for Matt but instead of charging into Skarre and beating her to a pulp he took the spell slinging option. Hitting Skarre twice with boosted Razorwinds (only the first one had boosted damage) he left her on ONE BOX and me with a minor heart attack.

The next turn saw me remove the Destroyer (with little thanks to the Deathjack who wiffle-batted it with cotton wool mittens - Deathjack fail), the last of the Koldun chaps and the most stunning roll of the game - the Pistol Wraith that triggered Watcher earlier hit Zerkova (on no Focus) for a whopping 12 damage. I scented the win but couldn't pull it off due to the Deathjack fail (missing with his charge attack on double ones was a big part of this). Pity - I had the Reaper on full Focus ready for some harpoon love. Matt was left with Zerkova, Versh, 4 Rifles and Joe engaged by the Helldiver.

With everything to play for Matt boldly advanced Zerkova. +3 to spell range from one of her gizmos gave her one attempt at hitting Skarre (again in cover but now having retreated) and finishing her off - miss. Matt was gutted but to be fair was looking for 13s on 3 dice (I was damned surprised he managed it TWICE previously). Next turn Deathjack walked in and smooshed Zerkova good and proper.


Awesome game - super good fun. We both made some pretty grievous errors and learnt a lot. As happens with an isolated group of players Matt and co were a bit awry on some of the rules (things like sprays ignoring Stealth, hills giving +2 to DEF) and it was nice to be able to check stuff with Chris while having a fair idea I actually knew the rules myself! I need to check my opponents cards. The classic was missing Zerkova with the Perdition but I also threw away a Pistol Wraith shot at Versh, auto-missing due to Stealth. Sigh. Played Skarre too forward (again) and nearly paid the price (again) but got away with it (just! One box!!!). The new lads were awesome company and I now know a fellow Cryx player! Shout out to Mark! Woot!


Oh yeah... referencing the title of the post. Watch these in this order or you won't get it (especially if you're not a Kiwi):

Warpwolf.. Stalker??

OK, PP do some sweet sweet sculpts a couple are a matter of opinion but generally they're very good. the detail is awesome, concepts are excellent, it's just sometimes, sometimes, the posing just doesn't seem to do the model justice and, in my opinion, the Warpwolf Stalker is one of them.

lets look at the rules; all of the stat card says "motion": Berserk, Prowl even Pathfinder. Not to mention it's animus: Lightning strike. Everything says this model should be dynamic - even the art in the FoH book has the Stalker lunging forward, racing through the forest with it's arm outstretched (my google-fu failed me or I would have had an image of it up here). So, how did PP decide to pose the Stalker...

Meh, suggests about as much motion as a gamer in front of the pie warmer! Where's the suggestion of Berserk or Prowl or even gentle saunter???? Well, 2012 sees me try a second dip into Hordes - less said about Legion the better - and I wanted a Stalker, just not looking like that!

I wanted something that was a lot closer to the art work, so out came the hacksaw and modelling putty...

TA DA!

 The neck has had a wedge taken out of it and the head turned to face to the model's left. A couple of metal pins bent at right angles holds it in place. Cue a bucket of filler and a little sculpting to get the fur and cloth back on the neck.

 the left arm just needed a slight twist to close the palm off

 the sword arm needed a bit of work, a cut at the elbow allowed the arm to be opened up and a twist at the shoulder to bring the sword point down to a more natural position. you can also see where the ankles have been cut to close the legs up to give them more of a running feel and to shift the weight onto the front foot.

A bit of a better view of the resculpt of the back of the neck.

Overall I'm a lot happier with the pose, it gives a lot more dynamism to the pose and suggest the speed that the fluff tries to evoke.. I hope anyway :) just have to paint it now...

Cheers

Chris

Monday Update

I'll confess, I'm in a painting rut. I haven't done any meaningful painting in a while now so in an attempt to get psyched I waded into the Dojo after a sleep deprived podcast on Sunday morning that you can check out here;

Episode 4 of Thrallblacks Radio

Warning *Explicit and Opinionated*

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As usual the Dojo provided wisdom and hilarity in equal measure.

Like stent cutting up a pistol wraith for conversion,

 Then burning his hands on the parts,

And much tactical musing on how various armies and builds lack the 'wow' factor,

Also Stentus realizing that despite the brokenness of Cryx, they can have bad matchups. Thank god for two lists,

Until Next Time,

Keep It Classy

Thrallblacks Radio - Ep4

Episode 4 of Thrallblacks Radio

Warning *Explicit and Opinionated*

Topic #1: Tournaments (7min)
Topic #2: Playstyles (56min)


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Cryx Noob ep13 - the Joys of Being New...

I am, dear reader, under absolutely no illusions as to how I will perform at Equinox next year because of one of the great charms and blessings of this wonderful game system - I just don't think you can totally know it all. Between the multitude of casters and warlocks and the funky range of solos, units, jacks and battle engines... there's almost too much to know. Which is great! In our own little way, aren't we all just a little bit noob?


Examples from recent games:


eSkarre vs Josh's thrown together "fun with electricity" Cygnar list...

First time facing Nemo (can't remember whether he was Epic or Prime - his Feat gave every jack in his battlegroup 3 Focus and he could do tricky things with that); first time playing against the Stormstrider for real (without constantly forgetting the basic rules of the game) - shot it, Josh puts a point of Focus on it, explains how it works... uh oh... including the Push effect in melee... UH OH!; first time against Thunderhead (erk... what a beast, Pulse!); second time against eEyriss but first time facing her in a list that disrupts you like a boss with Critical Electrical Doom from all angles. My jacks were so so screwed in this game.

Managed to accidentally collect a win through scenario (although Josh had to talk me through how I'd actually won the game!). He's a champion teacher.


eSkarre vs Harby and those broken Menoth bastards...

First time playing against Menoth. Hope it was the last. Exemplar Errant bs between Martyr from Harby, Tough from Rhupert, Quickwork shenanigans, self-sacrifice, magical weaponmaster horror...; The Avatar of Menoth (what it must be like to play against the Deathjack I suppose... not liking a taste of my own medicine); Gaze of Menoth (or whatever it is where you have to walk towards The Avatar); the Choir (yes, I'm feeling the HATE for this faction quite a bit right now!).

Smashed by Luke easily after I was forced to spend Focus attempting to delete some errant Errants. I'm told the lesson here is "roll better dice". Sigh. Had a plan (lock down jacks, keep Skarre safe, smash The Avatar) but failed to come through with the dice. At least I formulated a plan though! At deployment it felt like a completely uphill battle!


Good games, but basically a taste of things to come. Josh is particularly happy to talk through everything his units and jacks can do (he's an excellent opponent for a noob) and while I think it's reasonable to expect this from most players the simple fact is I'm going to see so much in the way of unfamiliar badness in a tournament environment that in a timed turn situation I'll be losing more from ignorance than anything else (sorry... ignorance AND my soul-crushing ability to make blundering errors in my own play).


So how do you get around this? Two ways:

- play a bazillion games and against a wide range of opponents, factions, and lists, AND...

- read like a madman every faction book, FAQ/errata, forum, and scrap of information.


Must be time to hit the books!

ValleyCon update

Hey all,  ValleyCon regos are up to 21 as of yesterday so with 2 months to go it's really shaping up to be an awesome tourney! I thought I'd pop a quick post to fill in on a few more details.

round timings will be:
Saturday-
8.30 - meet and greet, round 1 draw
9:00 - 10:40 - Round 1
11:00 - 12:40 - Round 2
12:40 - 1:10 - Lunch
1:10 - 2:50 - Round 3
3:10 - 4:50 - Round 4

Sunday-

9:00 - 10:40 - Round 5
11:00 - 12:40 - Round 6
12:40 - 1:10 - Lunch
1:10 - 2:50 - Round 7

Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, best painted, best Sport and of course Swamp Gobbler.

Best painted will be by vote during the lunch break on day two. Only one of your lists needs to be fully painted for the best painted vote. Leave the army on the table after Round 6 with a copy of the army list with your name on it.

Each player must bring a copy of both of their army lists complete with points values and a copy of the theme restrictions and benefits (can be a photocopy of the list from the relevant book).

I think that just about covers it off for now, though it is looking like we may be limited to 24 players due to hall space so if you want to play - get in quick!

Cheers

Chris

Where is he off to now?

Well next on the agenda I am off to Wellington, come 28-29 January 2012 I intend to play some games of Warmachine and Hordes in the mighty metropolis of Wellington.

Now the last time I ventured to Valleycon I took Magnus and his lists of goodness. PMagnus to Tier 4 and EMagnus to Tier 2 (No way was I buying two units of Idrians to get higher) but what to take to a tier tourney this time. Everyone loves to play against my Mercs, they are so under powered and limited as a Faction apparently. This time round I am going to go to the other side, Hordes. I have dipped my toes into Hordes before, just quickly, with Legion. I had the battle box and that was about it, the whole fury mechanic screwed me up and at the time I was still learning Warmachine. So I thought about time time I returned to this Hordes thing and gave it another crack.

My Mercs are great to play but they are as not in your face scary, so I thought I am going to go down that road and try and put down some lists that people go "You have what in your list!"...."...what the hell am I going to do about that!"

Hence we come to my caster....Absylonia (Abby), a scary (She's an abomination), mutating Forsaken, who can mix it up combat. Not many Merc casters are made for mixing it up, and I want to apply 'axe to face' as much as possible.

What does Abby do -

Her spells are all about her beasts, she has Carnivore (+2 to melee attacks rolls vs Living), Forced Evolution (+2 DEF and +2 STR) and Playing God (gives Reach, Terror and Open Fists) but the best bit is that all of these upkeeps cost nothing to maintain. She is resourceful, just like PMagnus. She has no offensive damage spell, this can be problematic but her claws are magical and with above average MAT she doesn't miss much. To help with this she has the ability to mutate herself, for a Fury each give herself reach, flight or +2 STR. The final nail in the 'you must take beasts' mantra is her feat. It is very similar to Darius, her beasts are resilient because she can heal her entire battle-group back to full health at the flick of a switch.

So far I have had some games with Abby and like her a lot. Her tier is perfect for my plan, she likes beasts, lots of them, in fact the only unit she can take is the spawning vessel and it makes beasts - all righty.

I am going Tier 4, its a tier tourney so might as well. The problem with some tiers is the requirement to have 2 x Units of (insert name here). So for my plan Abby's tier is great she doesn't need to take any units at all.

Tier 1 - The usual only use the models listed, beasts all kinds including Typhon, Shepards and Forsaken.

Tier 2 - Include 3 Lesser beasts, Shredders, Stingers or Harriers

Oh tenacity, it's soooooooo good..... They get advance deploy (Tier 2 Bonus)

Tier 3 - Include 2 Forsaken Solos

Yes I have three, just wait.....
For each Forsaken a Heavy get Advance Move (Tier 3 Bonus)

Tier 4 - Include 2 Heavy Beasts

As I want to get to Tier 4 I need to meet all the requirements. For 18 Points I could get 3 x shredders, 2 x forsaken and 2 x Seraphs if I wanted, that would give me 22 Points to spend wherever I like, ooohhh this is going to be fun.

Lets start with a base of 3 x Shredders and 2 x forsaken to get to tier 3 then.......whats more scary than big dragon type creatures with giant claws, jaws and no eyeballs.

Should I add in....a Carnivean, 10 points (Tier 4 bonus - heavies 1 point cheaper)

Bring me that Spiny Growth....

What would be better than one Carnivean....I know two Carniveans...... that should make people gulp.

Am I seeing double......

But to top it off lets include Typhon for giggles......

Yes that is five POW 14 Sprays.........with eyeless sight

and I still have 4 Points left for another Forsaken (see why I had three in the piccy above) and a couple of Shepards (better have some fury management)...sigh...that should be scary enough!

I am going to try this list out and see what happens, see how she rolls so to speak......

Let me know what ya thoughts?

Scotty
(PG_Avo)

Cryx Noob ep12 - Not my style...

Tuesday's regular Troll vs Cryx slow learning curve saw me try a new caster - Terminus - and despite the fact that I've only played ONE game using him, I have this odd feeling that he's not my style.


Terminus (as Chris so frequently pointed out last night) is like a "flying Butcher" - he longs to bring axe (or in his case, over-sized sword) into contact with opposing caster skull. I won the game (going into an assassination run with Terminus while he has 13 Focus made it somewhat difficult NOT to enable a very brutal victory) but I really didn't enjoy the game. And I reckon it's fair to want both enjoyment AND winning.


This got me thinking about play-style because we then played a second game and I went back to my beloved eSkarre. And lo, it was an awesomely fun experience. That game ended with Nightmare surviving against a charging Fell-Caller and blinded Earthborn, and the Deathjack about to engage a blinded Grim with 5 Focus and no transfer option (I think the two big Troll beasts were maxxed). It was sweet sweet victory for the forces of purest evil but once again I found myself chasing my own tail for a second caster. And I know it won't be Terminus.




Don't get me wrong, I can definitely see the attraction. On a decent Feat turn Terminus becomes practically untouchable and is incredibly hard to hide from. And if you can hide your warlock/warcaster from him that means you probably haven't hidden your heavies so they're going to die instead. But I just found myself almost hating every moment of the whole miserable process which is a real pity because he is by all accounts an AWESOME tournament caster.


And herein lies the question - what do I want to get out of my tournament experience in Warmachine? I'm pragmatic enough to know I won't be winning a tournament any time soon and am even unlikely to get a "Best in Faction" award. And Terminus seems like the kind of guy who really wants to take names and chew people's faces off. He's a very good answer to the stuff that a first list can't deal with. But for that first game at least I was instantly turned off by his play-style.


Hmm...




However this was actually still a really great experience. I feel that I'm a step closer to a selection for a second list now, having practically ruled out one of the big tournament warcasters that Cryx can offer.

Monday Update

Welcome to another sunny Auckland morning, wholly unlike yesterday, where it poured with rain.

Thankfully some of us lucky Nerds were inside, cloistered inside the Dojo having some laughs.

 Stentus mulls over how he might snatch victory on the sands of the arena.

 Piers wonders how it can be dark enough we need lights at midday... Auckland.

We also managed to record Episode 3 of Thrallblacks Radio for your listening pleasure. This time with new ideas, like topics.

*Explicit - Hide the kids*

Download link

And lo, we have tons of painted submissions this week. Definitely a great week to be a Warmachine player,

From Tom L of Wellywood, his very speedily painted Gator Reinforcements. Delivered Friday, done on Sunday is no mean feat,

And from Scotty in the Hamiltron basically a whole Legion army in one weekend. Cheating no doubt like Legion do,

Also from Hamiltron John M shows off some Druidic upgrades,

Of Auckland, Nick N paints a model, the model he promised would be done for Equinox. Something tells me he can do better than one model now, even if it is a very nice one,

And finally from Wellywood the stalwart who has picked up the Padawan challenge we have some of Nick G's shiny new trolls,

Fear Stentus, Fear.

And finally, a thanks to everyone who registered for Equinox. Its a tremendous vote of confidence in our stable of tournament organisers that events have continued to grow throughout the year and a great testament to the character of guys like Sean, Chris and Scott that we've managed to supply awesome weekends time in time out. Equinox will be the biggest event yet with 32 players Registered and I'll definitely make my pitch for it to be the best one yet. You'll see updates as we progress getting parts of the minutae pinned down in addition to all the other thoughts and content swirling around here.

As always, any questions about anything from Tournament Details to Podcast Feedback, point them to thrallblacks@gmail.com and remind your freinds to check back regularly.

Until next time,

Keep it Classy