Mirror Matches

I'm not a fan of mirror matches -- matches in which you play against your own faction. I'm even less of a fan of matches in which you play against your own caster or even army. It's just not my thing.

I played a small faction mirror match last night, however, and I realized something that has escaped me for a long time.

I used to dislike mirror matches because I just didn't like getting outplayed with my faction. That's really just a confidence issue. But last night, I played a really fun mirror match, and I realized that now that I've really dug into Khador, mirror matches can actually BOOST my confidence instead of erode it, because I know really, really well what the other army can do, better than I can remember any other faction. I've never really had that experience before, and it really made the match a lot of fun. I hope my gracious opponent, Martin F., enjoyed it also!

His list:

Butcher3 + Arguses

War Dog

Demolisher

Madelynn Corbeau

Winterguard Infantry + UA

Kovnik Joe

Aiyanna & Holt

eEiryss

My list:

pVlad

War Dog

Conquest

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Winter Guard Mortar Crew

Kovnik Joe

Martin's strategy was the "Butcher Party Bus", as he called it, supported by WG Spray-tec(TM). Aiyanna and Holt didn't have too much of a role in this list, but everything was pretty solid.

My strategy was: long-range bombing, following by short-range pounding. My list worked together well.

A quick overview of the match:

Martin's army moved forward turn one. Eiryss threatened the middle of the board from behind cover; Martin cast Grievous Wounds on the Butcher; the party bus energized then charged to take a forward position. WG B&W forward, and Joe made them tough and fearless.

My turn, Vlad cast Signs & Portents. The WG mortar popped the War Dog and landed 5 damage on one of the Arguses; everything else was immune to blast due to B2B with the Demolisher. Then I was really mean: Conquest advanced, and shot at the Demolisher, and landed a Critical Devastation, with a boost and S&P active. Everything thrown back; Madelynn hurt but not killed; the other Argus hurt, the first wounded Argus killed, and Butcher generally pissed off. The Great Bears run, and two of them manage to engage Eiryss at the center of the board.

Martin's turn. Martin shakes Butcher and Demolisher. He actives Joe and buff the WinterGuard, and Joe takes a pot-shot at the Great Bears, hoping for box cars, but no such luck. WG Bob and Weave up, and then it's *lots* of Spray-tec(TM) against the Great Bears, who are engaging Eiryss. The WinterGuard manage to kill one of the Great Bears, and put a lot of damage into the others. Aiyanna missed her Magic attack again the Bears, and Holt misses both pot shots. Martin Energizes to move the Party Bus forward a bit, because he had blocked them with A&H by mistake.The Butcher charges one of the Great Bears; the other Argus advances but can't charge because it was knocked down. Butcher easily kills the Great Bear; he then feat, the cast Impending Doom, and then bought another attach to finish off the other Great Bear, ending the Butcher's activation with 3 focus. Eiryss, who is no longer engaged, advances and shoot Joe, but doesn't quite kill him. 

My turn. Vlad loads up Conquest with 3 points, casts S&P, and then feats (side note: The Feat only occurred in my head, because I forgot to say it outloud. Martin graciously allowed me to correct this later, because my entire turn was based on that). Joe buffs the WG, then advances and takes a retalitory shot at Eiryss, killing her. The Mortar Crew lands a shot on the Butcher, and puts 5 damage into him, even with the stacked armor. Conquest charges Butcher and starts punching, and... misses. With S&P, I need to roll 8 on 3d6-drop-lowest, so I unwisely choose not to boost so I could buy additional attacks. That was a mistake, and I missed the charge attack. Then I missed my second initial, and then I bought an attack and missed that. Then I finally hit; I was rolling 3D6-drop-lowest, plus one, and I managed to sink 13 points of damage into the Butcher, leaving him with one box.... so, now it came down to the next roll, because any damage would kill him. I needed 8, and I rolled.... 9. So GG to Martin, and a lot of fun playing the Mirror Match.

Some painting pictures

On my quest towards 50 points, here are some recent models.

pVlad, wearing the Red and Gold:

Eiryss, sporting a Khadoran-themed paint job inspired by Nick Kay's great Privateer Press Insider Article:

One of the Widowmaker Grunts who just got his paint job:

And one of the other Widowmaker Grunts:

My Buddy Vlad

I've been playing a lot of pVlad lately.

pVlad is pretty low-tech to me. He operates in two-modes: either his army is awesome, or he is awesome.

In Mode 1, Vlad's Army is Awesome, I mostly try to keep him out of the line of fire. At the beginning of the turn, I hand out focus to Warjacks (these days, usually Conquest and possibly a friend), and then Vlad activates, finds a nice spot to stand, and casts Signs&Portents. That's about it. As long as he picked a good spot to stand, he's Doing It Right, and good things happen. I have lost a few games because I left him exposed with no focus, and he is durable, but not invincible. His decent 14" control area really helps with this because he can affect a large part of the board and stay tucked away... IF I do that well. Interestingly, Vlad's feat is good, but I don't build my army or play around it. If things "roll my way", I can have a great time launching a Conquest with a 15 inch threat range, but

In Mode 2, Vlad says "Gotta do it myself!" and it's Blood of Kings and 3 remaining focus. He kills pretty much anything he touches, but I don't find myself in the mode too often.

I have been playing Vlad with Conquest and possibly a Juggernaut. Guys Who Play Better Than I Do also tell me he is awesome with Drago. I don't own Drago yet, but I could see him as a low-focus low-maintenance addition to the army.

Here's the 50-pt list I've been running:

pVlad (5 WJ points)
-- Conquest (19 points)
-- War Dog (1 point)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5 points)
Winterguard Infanty (full) (6 points)
Winterguard Officer + Standard (2 points)
Winterguard Infantry Rocketeer (1 point)
Kovnik Joe (2 points)
Winterguard Rifle Corp (full) (8 points)
Widowmakers (5 points)
Widowmaker Marksman (2 points)
Manhunter (2 points)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (3 points)


This is a lot of infantry, and tough to run timed, but all the Winterguard Infantry and Rifle Corps just love working with Signs & Portents. The Manhunter and all the Widowmakers can cause plenty of trouble for outlying support solos, and Eiryss gets her paycheck disrupting 'jacks that want to pay Vlad or Conquest a visit. Overall, I like this list, although I *really* would like to have another Warjack in it. I'm still playing it right now, and it's a lot of fun.

I'm trying to get this list fully painted -- it's getting close. Eiryss needs a bit more detail, then I just have the Rifle Corps to paint, and Conquest to finish. Maybe by Kingdom Con!

Lock and Load 2013

So, I attended Lock and Load in Seattle this weekend.

Here's a summary of the Good Stuff:

New Products!

-- Rhulic Colossal is coming
-- Battle Engine Reznik (crowd was very excited)
-- Butcher 3 as Warcaster Unit (first one in Warmachine) with 2 Arguses (!)

Next Expansion Book is titled "Vengeance", and more details are expected at GenCon.

I played a bunch of Iron Arena, winning two Iron Arena smoke templates this year.
I also played in the "Who's the Boss" tournament.

So, in order, here are the things that I played:

-- Played a big 50-point game against Scott from Chain Attack. It was a fun game, and I got schooled. I played Khador, and Scott played Cryx, running the Witch Coven of Garlghast (I'm looking at you, Doug). I have a more detailed battle report for a later post.

-- Played a 35-point game against "Les" (sorry, didn't get last name), a PG who was helping out in the Iron Arena. Les played a Tier 4 Mortenebra high-mobility list, and I quickly took some bonejacks to the face. My Khador recovered pretty well, although I made a mistake at the end of the game (pointed out by another great player, Geoff Osiri), and I lost that game. Still tons of fun.

So. Many. Slayers.

Yep, that's what it looked like downfield.

The "Who's the Boss" tournament format was invented by Andy Welton, who is a PG from Madison, and one of the guys behind Cripped System, who is just a super person all around. Big, huge props to Andy for building, setting up, and running the tournament. He did a ton of work. Also, because I'm a n00b at this, I don't have a picture of Andy. But this is the table with all of the casters on it:

All. Of. The. Casters. It's really impressive to see. We spun a big wheel (photo missing, check), which had all of the casters as spots on the wheel (130 casters, 160 spots, with 30 fun ones like "Dealer's Choice", "Free Respin", or "Bankrupt").






Spolier: I lost all four of my rounds. My caster picks were:

Maelok the Dreadbound
Grim Angus
Nemo3
Morvanna2

All interesting caster that I didn't know how to play; I commented that I barely know how to play my own faction's casters. Still, tons of fun.

I played a very claustrophobic 35-point game against a Cygnar player playing Captain Jeremiah Kraye on a Scenario table; we both played Colossals on the table, and he the Cygnar player had a bit of movement advantage because he had lots of pathfinder and I pretty much had none; despite that, I played a strong attrition game and eventually took out all of his stuff. A very fun game, and my only win of L&L.

I played my final game against Geoff Osili, with no pictures. Geoff played Ret, and I just don't quite know to deal with that. Geoff is a great player, who knows pretty much every stat line in the game. He's very impressive to play against, and a fun opponent.

A few other fun things -- a beautifully converted Mountain King:

And the upcoming Night Troll:

Lots of fun stuff -- tons of great conversation also, with some old convention friends and new convention friends, and lots of great chats with the PP folks.

Looking forward to L&L 2014!

Khador vs. Cryx

I played a 50-point game against a friend last week. Last time I wrote that I was going to start a new habit to make sure I got pictures of the battle.

That didn't happen.

Now, with the confession out of the way, here is a quick recap of the battle.

I played a 50-point Tier 4 pSorscha list. He played a Tier 4 Mortenebra list.

The game was acutally over very quickly -- my friend made a mistake and forgot what kind of terrain we had agreed on in a certain placement on the board. He accidentally placed Mortenebra in feat range of Sorscha and threat range of a pack of Widowmakers, so once she was stationary, the Widowmakers shot her up and the game was over.

All told, it wasn't a great victory for the Motherland -- just a simple error that led to a basic assassination run. But there were a couple of fun highlights:


-- Deathjack vs. Beast-09 showdown. Deathjack is really, really deadly. I'm just amazed at how much damage he can lay down in a turn
-- pSorscha's feat is just really really amazing. I think it's still my best tool in the toolkit.
-- I love Khador Mortar Teams. At range 20 with POW 16, they hit hard from far -- when they hit. If I manage to boost the roll (usually with Kovnik Grigorovich), they can really pop something. Otherwise, the 4-inch POW 8 blast is still good at clearing out infantry.
--Battle Mechaniks are actually cool and I need to get better at including them in my army.

pSorscha has a good Tier 4 list. NQ43 also published an excellent eSorscha tier list -- it requires at least one Conquest and raises the FA on the Mortar Teams. It has lots and lots of distant shelling, which pleases me.

Looking forward to the next game, and hopefully the start of the new habit...

Battle Highlights

I played a 35 point game against a friend on Tuesday.

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. Time for a new habit.


He played Legion:

pVayl
Spell Martyr
Succubus
Forsaken
Shepherd
Ravagore
Typhon
Scythean
Shredder
Strider Deathstalker


I played Trolls:

pMadrak
Fell Caller Hero
Troll Whelps x 2 (10 whelps total)
Fennblades + UA
Dire Troll Mauler
Axer
Impaler
Swamp Troll



Here's a summary of the action:

Legion went first.

Deathstalker flew towards me. Solos moved in an around the beasts, who formed a wall in front of Vayl. Because of her 8 FURY, lots of crazy spells come flying.

Troll cook ahead. Fennblades are set up spread out super-wide. Officer is in the middle with a 12" command, so they are literally spread over 20". Trolls are near Madrak; they advance and screen him. The Spell Martyr was just a bit too far forward, so the Impaler gets Rush on Madrak's activation, makes a 7" advances, casts Far Strike on himself, and manages to run a spear through the Spell Martyr before it causes trouble. Fennblades run forward to try to tarpit everything.

Legion's turn. The beasts lay down a bunch of hurt on the Fennblades. Some are tough, some are not. Death Stalker is getting closer. Vayl tries to arc through some Fennblades, but she manages to kill or knock down the Troll she's attacking.

Trolls go again. Fennblades get a charge on the front line. With reach, they are able to get into fiddly spots. All of the solos fall in this wave of attacks, but Legion is left with three heavy and one lesser warbeast, and an 8 FURY caster who is doing fine. Implaer takes a shot at Vayl, and learns about reflected damage.

Legion goes, and mops up more of the Fennblades. A good number are making tough rolls, but they are getting cleared out. Whelps are popping out of many Trolls. Shredder moves to the edge of the board to try to flank.

Finally, it's GO TIME! Trolls go. Axer, Impaler, and DTM all charge the Scythean. Something like 8 out 11 attacks miss. Very, very bad rolling. At the end of the turn, all three of the charging beasts are at maximum fury, and the Scythean is still standing, not to mention the other two heavies that were hanging back a bit. The shredder is in range of the swamp troll, and the swamp troll attacks it. Swamp Troll get a crit on it and *eats* it (with Critical Consume). Just like that. Very cool when that works.

Legion goes. Scythean strikes back and wipes out all of my beasts except the swamp troll. FCH gets knocked down. It's looking grim,  but they are having trouble hitting Madrak.

Legion tries to go balls-out to attack Madrak, but little sticks.

Trolls turn. Madrak has a charge lane to Vayl. After the charge, Typhon tries to attack Madrak because of Dark Sentinel. Typhon hits Madrak, and... Scroll of Grindar's Perseverance prevents the damage roll. Madrak makes boosted attacks against Vayl, and it's over quickly.


Some thoughts:

-- Vayl is a very, very cool caster. Lots of flexibility
-- My army probably needs another heavy warbeast
-- I don't need 2 groups of whelps.
-- Fennblades are OK tarpit, but they really are squishy. Maybe a krielstone setup in the army in the future.
-- Swamp Troll was MVP, nominated by both players, for his excellent performance at EATING ANOTHER WARBEAST. Om Nom.

Overall, a very exciting game that swung quite a lot between Trolls and Legion, and wasn't decided until the last roll.

A Few Thoughts on Trolls

I decided to play Trolls for our Journeyman League for no better reasons than:

1. Trolls look cool

2. The newer plastic Troll battlebox was on clearance at Miniature Market.

Now, I made this decision over a couple of *minor* counter-indications, notably:

1. I own over 50 points of Legion, most of it still unassembled, from the last Journeyman, and

2. I own over 150 points of Khador, about a third of it unassembled, and much of it unpainted.

So, naturally, weighing these facts, I concluded that the best course of action was to start a brand-new army. Onward and upward!

I played about a dozen games with the Trolls over the course of the Journeyman's 6 weeks, and now own 70-ish points (including a Mountain King which will remain dormant in its box  for some weeks to come). I was able to assemble about 35 points worth, and get everything primed. I managed to finish painting a couple of models, which is further than I got with my Legion. (Side note: I loved playing Legion; I just stalled out last league)

Now, with that out of the way, here's some notes on how they played!

The Troll battlebox has the following models in it:

Troll Axer (light warbeast)
Troll Impaler x 2 (light warbeasts)
Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain


So that's it. Four medium based models.
The universal consensus on the Troll battlebox is bad. Really bad. Like the dad-from-Foxtrot-who-never-wins-a-game-of-chess bad.

What makes it bad? Let's look at a couple of things.

1. No heavy warbeast! The light warbeasts are pretty good, but just don't have enough stopping power against some other faction heavies -- for instance, against the Carnivean that is present in the Legion Battlebox or against the two Khador heavies in that battlebox.

2. Madrak is a a very good infantry caster, but there is no infantry in the battlebox. Madrak's feat has no synergy with the warbeasts, and all of the beasts have a 2-fury animus, which is challenging with Madrak's 5 fury stat and no fury management available in starter games

3. The battlebox weighs in at only 10 points. This is pretty unevenly matched against other boxes.

It looks like PP is reworking the battleboxes; hopefully the Trolls get a redo in that sweep.

Now, once we moved out of battlebox, life got better. I added:

Full unit of Fennblades
Fennblade Officer and Drummer (UA)
Fell Caller Hero
Troll Whelps
Swamp Troll
Dire Troll Mauler

And played various combinations with these models at 25 and 35 points.
Here are some thoughts on them:

1. Fennblades are pretty good tarpit models. Reach is awesome, although at P+S 12 and no way to boost damage on them, they don't have the stopping power I'd like (for instance, against ARM 19 Cinerators in a recent game).  Also, they are only 1 wound, and the Tough rolls don't save as many as I'd like.

2. Vengeance on the Fennblades is really awesome. It really helps extend their range. Vengeance movement plus the No Quarter mini-feat gives them fearsome range.

3. I'm still learning to use the Fell Caller Hero well. He's a P+S 10 Weapon Master with two attacks who can hit realibly. I'm still trying to discover the sweet spot for that, although the +2 attack Fell Call worked well on the Fennblades

4. The Mauler seems very good, although he made my opponents nervous, and they worked hard to kill him quickly.

5. Everybody said the Impalers were unimpressive, but they pull their weight well and their crit attack has turned out to be great

6. Madrak is actually a really, really good caster... just not in the battlebox. I'm getting used to the low Fury (5), but with Surefoot on himself, he is a respectable DEF16/ARM18  and very dangerous in combat.

7. Placing whelps to block escape routes makes me snicker.

Coming up, I have:

Trollkin Champions
Skaldi Bonehammer
Trollkin Champion Hero

Borka Kegslayer

Mountain King

The Champion "brick" has lots of positive reviews on the web, so we'll see how that works. I'm looking forward to trying Borka also. It will be a while before the Mountain King is ready for the table, but that will be fun. In the future, I will probably add a Krielstone unit to complement the brick.

Well, that's it for now... gonna play me some more Trolls, and try to figure out how to win!