The Learning Curve

If I get to keep playing Warmachine this much I figure I'll actually know how to play well by the end of the Summer. Nate brought over his Trollbloods yesterday for my second crack at Warmachine vs Hordes. I brought out my Bile Thralls for the first time, considering Nates lack of shooting they were a good choice, against the last Retribution list I played not so much.I finally have Skarre figured out...although I keep thinking shes tougher than she is, but after her feat turn she is super super fragile. still I could have pulled it of win here but bungled the chance

35 Points
My Cryx

pSkarre
Slayer
Reaper

6 Bile Thralls
6 Revenant Crew
Captain Rengrave
10 Blackbanes Ghost Raiders
Pistol Wraiths x 2

Nate's Trollbloods

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender
Dire troll Mauler
Pyre Troll
Troll Impaler

Fell Caller Hero
5 Trollkin Champs
10 Fennblades.


I keep the Pirates and Jacks close. The Bile Thrall were on the flank with facing the Troll Champs. Blackbane and company were on the other flank close between myself and the Fennblades. Pistol Wraiths were close to my jacks to support and go after the solo asap.

Game went very well, the bile thralls..absolutely put a major stink all over the Champions basically making them worthless (my Jacks came in and cleaned them out in a turn) and eventually blew the Fell Caller too. ..the Pistols wraiths ended up going after the Impaler which killed one them with a beefy spear shot. The other however, kept blasting away getting the deathchill every turn keeping the impaler in check with only one action a turn. I declared my feat early..I think a turn too early...as I wanted to gid rid of the Fennblades and Blackbane and Crew now P&S 15 (thanks to my feat)...did so easily on my turn even though the "tough" troll infantry saved three of them, but they where just killed the next turn.

Madrak is a beast..I never go into close combat with him..because he wrecked my slayer quite readily with his reach and threw a axe and popped the second pistol wraith easy. Madrak was tying up both my jacks..but Nate got the Dire Troll into Skarre...my feats huge ARM bump saved me from his attacks but I was still almost dead. I used Ritual sacrifice and ended up with 11 focus on my following turn..

Stupidly..I should have kept it all for Skarre just bought additional attacks and boosted until I killed the troll, However..I cast Dark Guidance...thinking I have 4 Pirates and Blackbane sitting right there ( Rengrave got killed in trample attack that put the troll into me in the first place)
I figured I'll gang everyone up on him and it will help put him away. Stupid...first of all, I immediately knocked the troll down with Great Rack so everyone else attacking auto hit and so I didn't need the 4 point Dark Guidance. Skarre pounds the troll, I buy extra attacks with soul drinker and heal up some wounds and put about 15 or so the troll..everyone else can not wound the damn thing..and buying 4 extra or boosted attacks for Skarre with that focus I wasted surely would have done it. as result on nates turn...my ARM back to 16...a huge damage roll of 30 on his first attacks puts me away (I only had 9 or 10 points left)...dumb. Nates caster was pretty much untouched but the all the Warbeasts were seriously hurting and if I had just put the troll away, Madrak was in trouble..as still had a couple Bile Thralls, an undamaged Reaper, most of the Ghost Raiders and Skarre and a couple Pirates left.

Anyway I got this game figured out as much as I know my own units. I am aware I'm not running close to an optimal build with pSkarre but its what I have...I have Terminus on the bench right now..and he seems alot more suited for the units I have...so I'll plan on giving him a tryout this weekend...thinking about trying to play in this event up at Games Plus end of the month its an all painted event...I am currently painting away...and everything is already primed and based- its doable...its only 30 models..and the 1/3 of them (the ghost raiders) are almost done so we'll see. Aaron and I get together Saturday for a couple of games. Then we try out "Hail Caesar", next Tuesday.

Warmachine Rolls on...

Played a couple of great games of Warmachine Wednesday with two of my favorite fellow disgruntled WFB players Steve and Brian. I've known both since the early days of 7th ed, Both plainly state they have moved to Warmachine and are not looking back. I have two reasons I am still hanging on to WFB, one is my love for my Empire Army that I have 5 years of work into, the other is to socialize with guys like Steve and Brian, with guys like this dropping from the fold, I don't think I will be far behind.

I am still hanging on by my fingernails and have what looks to be a great WFB event (Blood in the Sun) right around the corner, how that plays out with dictate my interest in the fall. That and of course how bad Matt Wards new surely horrible book, aka "Storm of Magic", further pollutes the local WFB pool.

The fact that Rick Priestly is gone from GW and writes the fantastic "Hail Caesar!" (more on that in my next post) and Matt Ward who wrote the freaking DoC Army book for WFB and War of the Ring still has a job as is writing new supplements for GW is pretty telling in my opinion on the piss poor decisions being made in Nottingham. I swear from the looks of things its not long before we see crappy pre painted plastics on the shelves of Walmart with "Games Workshop" all over them.

Anyway back onto our Warmachine recap, we could get a 4th so we really on got two games in my Cryx force versus Retribution then the Legion.

At 35 points our lists were

CRYX

pSkarre
Reaper
Slayer
Deathripper

10 Blackbanes Ghost Raider
6 Revenant Crew
3 Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Captain Rengrave
Pistol Wraith

LEGION

pThagrosh
Carnivean
Angelious
Shredder x2

Striders +UA
Blighted Ogrun (warmongers?)
Forsaken

RETRIBUTION OF SCYRAH

Ravyn
Manticore
Griffon

10 Dawnguard Invictors
w/ UA Officer and Standard
10 Mage Hunter Strike Force
w/ UA Commander
Stormfall archers
House Shyeel Magister


Game 1 was versus Brian's Retribution...where he showed me how mage hunters work by killing me in one round. rebooting for a second game after that lesson. I gave him a much better game...but being afraid of mage hunters made me overly cautious...I fed my unit to him piecemeal and by the time I killed the mage hunters (or most of them) I'd lost to much stuff the threated Ravyn, a Manticore a Griffon, and half a squad of invictors with Skarre and few Revenant Crew...I did put a few wounds on Ravyn via backlash but that was it.

I went down to Ravyn and the Griffon pretty easily being already wounded..by my own feat and a couple of shooting wounds. Ravyn has this great move combo where she can shoot, melee attack, shoot again, and melee attack again etc..until she runs out of focus...she single handedly wiped 7 of my Ghost Raiders..the turn before they went incorp again...which was a bummer.. anyway tough list.

Game 2 was versus Steve's Legion. Steve mainly plays his Cygnar he brought out his Legion so he could show me the Hordes side of things and how it played.. I immediately got tied up with both his beasts while being harrased by the Striders on one flank. I was setup to do Ok, but fail to kill Angelious (who I have to kill twice as Thagrosh's feat is too totally resurrect it) I stupidly keep forgeting about Skarre Sacrificial Strike...which could have finished the thing numerous times as i had the bodies and the focus and It was only attacking me via its reach while engaged with my mangled Reaper.But I was too worried about the Shredders..anyway..I was careless and died.

At least losing all these matches, its showing me whats up, I'm not playing enough and am doing enough other things that everytime I play I feel like I am playing catch up with rules. I realize my units arent the most ideal for my caster. From what I read it appears from the way I like to play and units I have Terminus is the caster for me. but I like Skarre and want to learn to get decent with her. Anyway Warmachine is steep learning curve but I am really loving the game. Look for some painted units coming this way soon.

Skarre vs Severius- 35pts

Felix stopped by Friday afterwork and we got in a couple 35 point games before we both went to eat dinner with our better halves. Currently while I am not griping about Games Workshop, I've either been prepping for our next Pirate Campaign Night (games 3-6, take place this Tuesday, stay tuned for my next post "Shipwrecked!") or playing Warmachine, With some creative trading, and some gift cards from the holidays, I am at about up to 40 models for my Cryx...enough for both my Skarre and Denegrah lists..and staying with the Pirate theme I'm thinkinbg my next caster is going to be Terminus. Getting way ahead of myself here, because I still need to learn how to play. I have alot better handle on Skarre now, and I think once I learn the rules and don't do stupid things that kill me ( like the one that lost me the 1st game this day) I think I can start winning a few.



My List

Pirate Queen Skarre
Reaper
Slayer
Deathripper

Captain Rengrave
Black Ogryn Boarding Party (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Blackbanes Ghost Raiders (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Revenant Crew (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Pistol Wraith x 2



Felix's Protecorate of Menoth List

Hierarch Severius
Blessing of Vengeance
Reckoner
Hierophant
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Cinerators (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Idrian Skirmishers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Idrian Skirmishers Chieftain & Guide (attachments)
The Covenant of Menoth
The Wrack (3 wracks)



We just did a standard skirmish and we used my Jungle Terrain on a 4x4 board. Game 1 was a straight forward affair..where Felix brought his Skirmishers with the Pathfinder ability all over the Pyramid. The Choir boosted their Defense considerably and used their "Prey" ability (they selected my Black Ogryn) to put pressure on me to act. I brought the Reaper up to try it out it missed and summarily got Wrecked next turn by a crap load of shooting. I fared better on the left where the Black Orgyn brought some pain to the Cinerators. On the Right Blackbanes Ghost Raiders and my Pistol Wraiths who planned on storming the right flank with their Incorporeal awesomeness but had to divert to take on the Idrians on the Pyramid. Just went it was going to get good..The screwed my charge lanes with my Slayer (due the Reaper Wreck) unnecessarily exposed Skarre, and found my Slayer totally not where I wanted it. Next turn Felix Charged Skarre with the Reckoner and pounded her to dust. Why I defensively use my feat after I screwed up I don't know..at least I would have been Armor 20. anyway lesson Learned.


These guys (Idrian Skirmishers) are a particularly tough unit


I was doing pretty well at this point, Severius feat had not happened yet and all those undead got popped.

Game 2

Same set up, more of the same except this time Blackbanes Ghost Raiders were all over the Pyramid with Ogryns right behind..I use Dark Ritual and kill 8 of the 12 Idrians.I break my feat out early, Skarre kills the Reckoner (with whom I have casted "backlash" on) Single handed in one melee..putting 5 damage on Severius. Severius' feat is nasty, nasty for undead...POOF he lays waste to most of them during his Feat turn..it goes back and forth like this for another round..I've killed off his "book" (the Covenant) which is a real pain and Felix is down to Choir and Severius, The Blessing of Vengeance about crippled by my Slayer, I dont have much either other than my Slayer (engaged) a Deathripper, and a couple Pirates trying to screen for me. I try to get Skarre and my Deathripper into Melee with Severius but the jack wrecks, and choir in the way make my charge short and Skarre's path was blocked too..If I could have gotten to him on my turn, I think I would have been alright..but on the Following turn Severius unleashed a torrent of Spells on Skarre and some big dice killed her.

I'm getting a handle on things, still haven't won a game yet, but its getting close, learning the rules and figuring out my units is taking some time..and I haven't even started figuring in power attacks yet. There is alot to learn with this game...I forgot how long it took to figure out how to play Warhammer.

A couple of WIP's of my Blackbanes Ghost Raiders..these guys were pretty awesome until Severius wiped them all out...painted stuff should start seeing the light next couple weeks.

Warmachine- Learning to walk

Don't look at my bare metal, check out Steve's Cygnar. I ran out of paint so wont be able to get my guys primed and based until tomorrow


Steve dropped by early Tuesday, it been forever since he'd be over here even thou we see each around at all the events. He picked up Warmachine in back in November when the WFB 8th edition malaise started sinking in. He's still involved in WFB tourney organization and support but has been playing alot more Warmachine than WFB the last 6 months and it shows. He Cygnar force is well on it way to be painted and he has plenty of stuff to run competitive 35-50 lists with alternate casters.

He had originally planned to come by for a couple of games before my 8pm WFB dice drop, but our 4th player WFB (Joe) this night had to do an early afternoon airport run to Ohare and you know how those go..Joe calls me at 7:30 saying he's still at the airport and wont be by until at least 9:30. with a midnight call around here we decided to reschedule Since Aaron and Chris were standing around..they decided to play each other and Steve and kept on playing Warmachine..5 games total, 4-35 point games and 1 -25 point game.

Steve Ran a couple games with Coleman Stryker and then the rest with Captain Haley
he mixed it up during the many games but his Warjacks were:
Ol'Rowdy
Stormclad
Defender
Lancer
Charger

Units in play over the course of the session:
Stormblades w/ Infantry Storm Gunner
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Longunner Unit

Solos
Squire
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist


I again was playing Cryx again with my small amount of models.
I ran Pirate Queen Skarre this time for all the games with the same list
except chopped down for the one 25 point game.

Skarre's Battlegroup was
Deathripper x 3
Defiler
Slayer

Units
Revenant Crew (6)

Solos
Pistol Wraith x 2
Captain Rengrave
Ogrun Bokur (client was Skarre)


I had a couple games were I got just one turn in and Steve showed me how easy you can get assassinated if you arent very careful. First time was Coleman Strykers
"Drop and Pop" the second time was Haley with some shooting that caught me unprepared.

The rest of games were pretty good, and went quite awhile, One of the 35 point Stryker games..I managed to surround Ol'Rowdy with backlash cast on him with Skarre and the Pirate Crew with Rengrave moving in on Stryker. I had popped my Feat a turn early when my Slayer and Skarre went in, the next turn I had the pirate crew in (and I stupidly forgot their gang rules) And I just a bad dice streak and couldnt convert..low damage rolls on rowdy and Rengrave missing saved Stryker only taking 6 or so damage and that was as close as I got. I beat up Rowdy good, but next turn the Slayer died and Skarre got exposed to the Defender cannon and got blown to hell.

Learned alot about the game and what works with Skarre and what doesnt..Bokur was a total waste I bought because he look cool and can take down a Jack in the right situation but he's too slow and Skarre feat doesnt work on him, he died everygame before I could ever get him in combat.( Im sure I wasnt taking advantage of him the best I could, since I dont know what I and doing but it seems I am WAY better off with the Black Ogrun Boarding Party if I want some biguns, comparison also for Deathtoll, Rengrave thing plus Skarre Sacrifice thing I need some more units and the Skarlock- so thats where I am headed next...plus maybe another heavy jack because the bonejacks are more Denegrahs style..I didnt really need all those arc nodes for Skarre and the bonejack just couldnt take all the Cygnar shooting.

I'll probably pick up some more stuff in the coming weeks and work on painting the battlebox and move on from there...Before that thou I have some LotR gaming coming up on the 21st and the next Legends of the High Seas Campaign night is the 24th..I need to start squeaking in some WFB real soon. I have much different Empire List than I have been running and need to practice it a bunch in the 6 weeks..the Tournament is in early July, not that far away..and there's bunch of new models I need to paint (10 greatswords, new command models for my Knights)

As for Warmachine, I like quite a bit so far...you cant really "half ass it" if you want to win, you need to know your stuff, fluky dice rolls wont win you the game alone you really need to work your brain, and that's pretty refreshing. I had alot of fun yesterday, so thanks to Steve on that!









Blurry picture, but here was my one shot at Ol'Rowdy with Backlash putting the hurt on Styker, my Slayer put 15 damage on the big guy right before this and I couldn't convert, it's going to happen.

Warmachine- First Steps

First couple games of Warmachine took place last night, Felix my long time gaming compadre and Privateer Press Ganger , which is an official volunteer organizer akin to the old GW outrider program, came over after work to show me the ropes. We played 25 point games which I think is a decent starting level. If you dont have a concept over how these things work I'd recommend 15 points as this game is pretty complicated for the novice as far as skirmish games go, even someone as immersed in miniatures games as myself, had my head swimming in rules 20 mins or so into the first game, my knowledge of the quickstart rules not withstanding.

My force of choice is The Cryx, an Undead nation run by Lichlords melding their dark magic with the stolen technology of the living advanced Human nations my force was the Cryx battlebox plus two solo units.

Warcaster
Warwitch Denegrah
+4 Warjacks:
Deathripper x 2
Defiler
Slayer
Solos
Pistol Wraith x 2



Game 1 action- "I ghostwalked that Ripper in back through the building
so I could move into contact with that totally annoying choir"



My 25pt force as is...basecoated and ready for paint...which I hope to do in the next few weeks if I can get everything ready for the next campaign night.


Felix ran the Protectorate of Menoth, a faction of Religious Fanatics that are trying to convert the masses.
Warcaster-
High Executioner Servath Reznik
+3 Warjacks
* Dervish
* Reckoner
* Hierophant

Units
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Solos
The Wrack (3 wracks)

The first thing I noticed is at 25 points I was outnumbered 3 to 1, not good odds but strangely enough it was not that huge a problem, but I need to consider running some units at 25 pts for sure.

Both games kind of played out the same way but with opposite results

I'll spare you most of my noob details as I stumbled along, but my initial observations:
Both Denegrah and the Pistol Wraiths are very good, my Defiler with its acid cannon
not so much..but I see how it can be useful it could be in the right circumstance,
The Slayer can dish out the pain but not take it.. Deathrippers are pretty good for taking down light Warjacks, but I need the arcnodes for spells...I thinking using the 4 of these i have in bigger games will come in handy.

The Menoth stuff was filled nasty tricks, spell denials, flaming attacks..a lot of stat boosting, I'd be lying If I said I can adequately recall all the stuff felix was throwing at me

As I mentioned both games were similar...the real threats were the heavy Menoth Jack and the warcaster who had killer close combat moves. The three bastions also seemed difficult and hard hitting but I didnt have two much trouble nerfing them and put alot of wounds on them in the 2nd game ..although they took out my Slayer no problem in game 2.

In Game 1, down to just his Warcaster and Heavy jack and maybe 1 other unit...Felix charged his Caster at my Warwitch and handed out just enough damage in one strike (16 pts) to slay her dead. game over.

Game 2, Felix pushed to me hard...with his Errants gone early, my Deathrippers locking down his light jack, his bastions with barely a wound each left of him..he brought his caster up and finished off my defiler, leaving me with only 1 pistol wraith, Denegrah, and 1 Deathripper that wasnt going anywhere, I left all my 7 Focus on Denegrah... moved up right next to the remaining bastions whom with her reach I could get past them to get his caster..unleashing her feat "the withering" I used all my focus to buy extra attacks and boost the dice on each, and got enough damage in my debuffs to hack him down and victory...now having said that, If I had failed, I was getting slaughtered on Felixs next turn ..but I pulled it off.

Anyway that was that, I have some more games set up Tuesday against my pal Steve, before we get into some WFB tuesday...I'll let you know how it goes.



The defiler here is my one finished test model..nothing fancy here, just as close to box shot as I can get it...it will take me sometime to get up to speed painting these warjacks. thinking about doing this battlebox event Felix is hosting in June, I think I can this all painted up by then.