Circling Harder...!!

Haven't had a game for a bit... well, not one to write home about at least... though playing a couple 25pt games over at Lano's on Good Friday was a fair learning experience... including just how nasty heavy warbeasts can be in a single turn.

eKaya and a pack slapped eVlad about, while pKaya and two Warpwolves yoyo'd their way to Anthony's frustration, poor guy (after he smacked out the Rotterhorn & Gorax, the Feral one-rounded the Dire Troll Mauler and I spent the rest of the game shuffling around, charging and Spirit Door-ing... -_- ).

Anyway, on to today's event... as usual shaggy had his Khador to run through their paces and he opted to try out Kommandant Irusk for the first time, an infantry caster that he plumped for despite me saying I'd field Krueger, the Stormwrath... also for the first time:

So this guy:

vs.

With lots of bodies on the ground, lots of casualties were guaranteed:

Krueger, the Stormwrath (+5)
Druid Wilder (2)
Feral Warpwolf (9)
Warpwolf Stalker (10)
Woldwarden (9)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2)
Gallows Grove (1)
Shifting Stones (2)
Tharn Bloodweavers (5)

The pieces should be fairly straightforward... the Wolves were ARM crackers with the Stalker helping out with crowd control, the Warden could Geomancy Chain Lightning with the Wilder there for Fury maintenance and chucking Sprint about if she needed to. The Stones were always the Stones, and the Bloodweavers would be a prime target for Lightning Tendrils, cue creepy cackle!

And shaggy had:

Kommandant Irusk (+6)
War Dog (1)
Spriggan (10)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2)
Reinholt, Gobber Speculator (1)
Iron Fang Pikemen, max + UA (10)
Widowmakers (4)
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (2)
Winter Guard Infantry, max + UA & 3 Rocketeers (8 + 3)

I rolled Destruction on the SR2015 scenarios and chose Fuel Cache as my objective, while Jack chose Stockpile. As it turns out, neither of us could really take advantage of our objective bonuses, but no matter. I got first turn, and we deployed as below... *le sigh* more painting needs to be done... by both of us, but more me, I guess... *ahem*

And off we went. Everything Circle zoomed forwards... or in the Grove's case, de-rooted itself and popped up forwards, while Krueger cast Deflection for early game protection, Lightning Tendrils for later mischief on the Bloodweavers and ambled forwards. Jack did likewise, racing his Pikemen forward (charging through the forest, thanks to Relentless Charge) and popping Defensive Formation (Advance & Shield Wall... because he really needed his little bit of cheese, too! The rest was all mine!!) which meant he was already bossing the control zone by the end of the first round. The Snipers forgot the Bloodweavers had Stealth and couldn't do much but shrug, while everything raced forwards as best they could (Joe giving the Winter Guard Tough and Irusk giving them some extra DEF from Iron Flesh).

Second turn saw the Bloodweavers charge the Widowmakers and Winter Guard, killing a handful of them, mostly from Electro Leap. The real infantry munching was kicked off by the Blackclad, who sidled around the Circle objective and sprayed the Pikemen, killing a couple. The Stones phased away to hold up the Winter Guard and because of their high defense, Krueger shot the Stones with Chain Lightning to electrocute a few more of them. Then, Lightning Tendrils was cycled to the Feral Warpwolf who killed continued the Pikemen killing. A Geomancied Chain Lightning didn't have much of an impression on same Pikemen, so up came the Stalker who Berserk'd his way through a few of them as well. Though they took some casualties, they held. Back to Jack and his Winter Guard responded, killing half the Bloodweavers (who failed their command check), chopping the Grove down and scratching the Stones while also dealing some damage to the objective. Jack wasn't too pleased though and he would lose more to the dice than anything else. Even so, he feated for 4+ Tough across the board, and charged the Spriggan up which speared the Feral and slapped aside one of the Stones, preventing any further Teleportation tricks.

On the third turn, the Bloodweavers recovered, but could do little else, before the Feral and Stalker ganged up and made a wreck of the Spriggan while the Woldwarden made a hash of knocking out the Khador objective meaning he couldn't take a swipe at the Pikeman UA who was one of the few Khador models left in the zone. A few zaps of Lightning later and another spray from the Blackclad, Krueger feated, splatting three electrical storms right on top of the largely knocked down Winter Guard. While he made most of his Tough rolls, the amount of infantry hate poured on the footsloggers saw them whittled down quite severely. Here's where I buggered up, though... Krueger was out in the open and he almost paid for it. With only one transfer, the Warden absorbed one hit, but two boosted misses needing 9's to hit from Irusk (one from Reinholt's Reload) meant Krueger survived... with one... ONE... ONE!! hitbox. -_-

The counter-assassination run from the Feral settled the game, though I could have dominated for the win.

I snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, simply. As with all things in this game, mistakes can be capitalised upon mercilessly. As can bad luck. The attrition game was all mine and both of us knew it. All three heavy warbeasts were doing well and dishing out the damage while shaggy's force was reduced from 39 to only 10 at the end (while Krueger's army started with a modest 16 models... but suffered only 5 casualties). There was absolutely no need for Krueger to go into a dangerous place as he was, when he could just hide behind the objective and still feat from there. And since all the Winter Guard would be knocked down from the electrical damage, they would have to leave the feat AOE's to not die, but be unable to shoot. Therefore, lesson of the day... is the same as the first lesson: protect the caster/lock. Uh-duh! *ick*

For Jack, this was an unfortunate match-up since pKrueger is known for being thoroughly anti-infantry and more specifically, anti-single-wound infantry. Bad luck on the assassination attempt aside, pIrusk is not the best caster to drop against pKrueger and he acknowledged it in out customary post-game discussion. Maybe Butcher1 could have done better to deal with the Wolves... we might see this Thursday. -.-

Anyway, I seem to be Circling away and Circling pretty hard, so let's see where this all goes... like... shall I get myself a full unit of Tharn Wolf Riders for cheap?! Phil should've never offered, damn him and his ability to take my money off me!

Still, I'll probably put my thoughts down about the Kayas, since I've played with her(plural) a little and finally understand her various tricks, for both incarnations, even though it doesn't lessen the list-building headache much.

Bye for now.

B.

First Medium Based Infantry Unit... w~hoo! ¬_¬

Oh, look, I have a blog! ¬_¬

Anyway, first time in a while I've done a battle report, and this time, as I promised shaggy during week, I threw him a curve ball. His other half had bought him some Iron Fang Pikemen and was giving them a run-out with pButcher. As for me, I had taken delivery of some new stuff on Friday and feverishly set about assembling them and half-painting them yesterday. -_-

What, you may ask? Well, shaggy estimated that my curve ball was going to be my colossal (Hyperion) and that I'd bring it in a tier list with Adeptis Rahn (Fires From on High) and the thought had crossed my mind, but the general consensus is that FFoH doesn't work so well at points limits below 50, so I gave him a rather obtuse answer and left him to think.

So, what then? Well, Lano had played against them... a little, in the past and this was the first time I'd taken them down at Tanelorn, which, it has to be said, was rather disappointing for its turn-out today, unfortunately. Four guys turned up and only one game took place, which was a pity. But never mind, I got my learning experience in, as did Jack with his new acquisitions.

And... am I going to answer the question? Well, eventually!

Ta-da~:

Still need to paint their muzzles and the rest of the fur on their cloaks... and their Poleaxes etc. etc. etc. but for a couple hours' work while playing Rome: Total War... not bad by my standards... *ahem*

Yes, so Circle Orboros, and PaulO screamed 'CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!' at me, but hey, at least I'm not chucking Bradigus/Wold War or eKrueger or Goatvahna... or Kromac HnR at shaggy. I was being nice... nice as in eKaya. -_-

Me being the silly phool that I am, forgot to take pics of the deployment. *sigh*

Anyway, a first for both of us:

Kaya, the Moonhunter (with her pet wolfie, Laris)

Kaya, the Moonhunter
Laris
Druid Wilder
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker
Rotterhorn Griffon
Shifting Stones
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max + Warpborn Alpha)

vs. Orsus Zoktavir, the Butcher-blahdi-blahdi-blah! =P

The Butcher
War Dog
Spriggan
Gorman, Rogue Alchemist
Kovnik Joe
Iron Fang Pikemen (max + UA)
Winter Guard Infantry (max, max Rocketeers + UA)
Widowmakers

We hearkened to olden times and played a mission out of SR-2013 because neither of us could be bothered to look up the 2015 edition and there was a hard copy of SR-2013 lying about... -_- (Incoming, with two zones and two objectives). Getting first turn but needing to set up with rough terrain on the left (Pathfinder galore, woohoo, Feral Warpwolf without, not so much, but he'd wade through it quickly enough) I set up my caster smack in the middle of the deployment zone, put Laris, then the Skinwalkers in a line on her left and the Druid Wilder on her left with the Rotterhorn further on. The rest of my force would AD (yeah, Call of the Wild tier 1 benefit, heavies get AD... wut?!), so over to shaggy. His pikemen went on his extreme right (on the other side of a forest), with the Spriggan on the near side in front of the Butcher, Gorman and the puppy. The WGDS rounded out the line. Back to me and the Stones set up in front of Kaya while the Wolves looked across from the Spriggan, while shaggy's marksmen set up shop on the hill in front of his control zone. Oh, and before we started, the Skinwalkers advance moved (tier 2 benefit) towards the Winter Guard.

And off we go. Kaya cast Shadow Pack & Forced Evolution on the Feral Warpwolf and everything ran, the Stones shifting forward and towards the right. Most of shaggy's force ran in response, but he took some speculative shots at the Skinwalkers (damn near everything else I had was Stealth'd). He outright killed one of them before he ended his turn with Gorman dropping a smoke screen around the Butcher.

Yay, Relentless Advance meant the Skinwalkers could charge and wreak havoc on the Winter Guard... with their DEF 12... with Bob 'n Weave... and Iron Flesh! DEF 17 made it annoying to do anything about, but amazingly, got two hits and cleaved a couple of the bearded buggers in twain. However... they forgot to take a drink afterwards (yeah, didn't kick Blood Drinker in). Then Kaya activated, cast Acceleration on the Druid Wilder, moved around the building and feated. Most of the beasts were now outside of CTRL range, but no matter. Feat negated it. The Stalker charged the pikemen with Berserk up and cleaned out five of them before zooming back to Kaya's side. The Feral went next and had to boost its speed to get close enough to the Spriggan to give it a clobber or six. Did respectable damage, but all of it was right down the middle of the 'jack's grid (more than half-damage dealt but no systems disabled). Laris chomped a pikeman as well while the Rotterhorn, stuck behind the building, could only run up. The Wilder then Conditioned the Feral and used Spirit Shift to have Kaya in shaggy's control zone to hopefully dominate next turn.

shaggy responded by running the pikemen into Kaya's zone to claim. The Spriggan waded in and poked two of the Skinwalkers to death, while the Winter Guard ambled around (one of them died to a free strike, at DEF 17 considering the model's points value... worth it!) and shot the Alpha, killing it with a couple CRA's.

Back to me and I actually made rather heavy work of winning it given that shaggy could have contested his zone to deny me the dominate (my bad, the Skinwalkers had no arc markings, but should have been alright in any event due to base size and proximity of the edge of the zone). The Skinwalkers took a few swipes at his objective, taking it down to 3. The heavies ran off to do stuff which was mostly unnecessary (the Feral managed a Sprint (from the Wilder) to contest Kaya's zone)... including (damn you, Lano for telling me about failed charges wrong! You're wrong for once!! Failed charge = Activation over, no side-swiping!) the Stalker getting nowhere near the WG UA. The Rotterhorn's shriek got rid of the nearest Khadorans from his zone while Laris finished his objective off. Kaya was still in the zone for the dominate, so 5-1 at the end of my third turn.

Thusly (a bad pic, but a pic nonetheless... -_- ):

An educational first go with eKaya... need to brush up on FURY arithmetic and permutations for the future, definitely. A couple games with and without the Gorax will see whether I need the cantankerous bastard or not!

B.

The Heroes' Path

Well, with the release of the Death Jester and Shadowseer today, it was rather obvious that I was going to acquire some... or a whole load... *ahem*

I took a bit of a risk when assembling the Death Jester (which was mildly annoying because of the way the top of his coat fits in place) because it'll be quite difficult to properly paint his trousers when fully assembled, but eh... I'm a poor painter at the best of times so it'll hardly matter. Either way, stonking model!

Herewith his fellow characters within the Masque:

For these three, I'll paint them all side by side and, hopefully, have them as a work in progress here (so long as I remain motivated to do so... chances are, I'll get suckered back by a new release for WarMachine... like yay! Moros is coming soon...! *ugh*). Moving on, both the Shadowseer and the Death Jester are pretty good sculpts, and personally, I consider them better than the Solitaire. The Death Jester is better than its metal/Finecast predecessor in particular, perched on a stone ruin, looking down at its next victim, his shrieker cannon held rather casually. The Shadowseer is also a great model as well, but isn't so different from its older version aside from the weapon option and the scenery. With pinky stuck out on her right hand, though, she's gloriously English!

Still, I like the lot, heroes old & new!

Now to let them make someone weep! -_-

For the hobby...(!)

Oh, the things we do for our hobbies...

And...

*ugh* Why do I do this?!

Anyway, X-Wing Miniatures' Scum & Villainy was released, Friday so I picked up the Most Wanted pack (because three ships, 2 Z-95 Headhunters and a Y-Wing, plus cards for six all for the price of two is a pretty good deal) and the StarViper (because it looks bizarrely cool). All told, the two expansions are pretty good. The colour scheme for the new faction-old ships is certainly more interesting than for the Rebels, while the StarViper brings in a new manoeuvre (3-slight-turn with a facing-flip, rather curious).

As for my Imperials, an interesting one is the Autothrusters Modification (long range/outside of firing arc evade buff) that'll mean that the Rebel large ships (Millennium Falcon and motley co...) will have a much harder time of it when being zapped by loads of Interceptors. Need to get a few games in again, though to check it out. As usual, though, the pilot abilities are a mixed bag, and there's a new add-on that looks to be intriguing.

And... back to the Harlequins...

Trickster Dice for the Trickster God...

Oh, the joys of retrieving stuff from one's attic & other cupboards and storage facilities... ¬_¬

Anyway, after a Sunday morning (... yes I'm so on the ball, aren't I?) of rummaging around, I found these!

From the back: 'Quins the New; 'Quins the Old; and 'Quins the Even Older. -_-

Pity I don't have 'Quins the Ancient to round out my (still) unpainted collection. And *sigh* yes... I did buy two Solitaires for teh lulz... -__- Hell, I've ordered a(nother) Dark Elf Shadowblade to do a converted Great Harlequin... its absence from the codex: 'Quins being a source of mild disappointment for me... have I mentioned that already? Eh... never mind.

More importantly, however, is that I've acquired... moar daiss!!

Ten limited edition, Eldar Harlequin themed dice in an appropriately chequered tin...

Right... so far so relatively mundane as far as dice go, but there's a faint colour tint to them... blue for three on the left, green for three on the right and grey-ish for the lower four. Turn them around and it becomes more obvious:

Ooooo, shiny! -__-

Yes, I am one of they who are easily awed by six-sided objects that hold infinite promises of victory, ever to be disappointed, but who cares, 'cos they look pretty!

Uh... yeah... I think I'll be using them tomorrow for Mordheim of all things... which will be a relief for shaggy... according to him, these dice are cursed! Ironically, they were first used for WarMachine. Uh... *ahem*

Bye for now... *I know... must paint more* *ugh*

B.

Quin Fix

Right... uh...

Yeah...

Uh-huh...

Ehm... yes, well... I went and got the Codex: Harlequins... Troupe Master Edition 169/900... Dunno what on earth possessed me to get it, but I got it nonetheless, and that money is now lost to me. However, judging by today's events, I'm not too hard-up about it, considering delivery companies in the UK are getting increasingly questionable (Dark Sphere don't have their pre-orders even though today is the release date and GW had the SE stuff yesterday afternoon).

Still... even though 'Eavy Metal's quality doesn't look as good as it used to be (colours aren't as smooth as I remember them... in bygone years... *ahem*) there was quite a lot of good stuff in the TME codex: the codex in hardback with an different cover (Codex: Harlequins); the painting guide (also with a different cover) (The Warriors of the Laughing God); and all gameplay related tokens and cards (thirty-six tactical objective cards including the six Harlequin specific ones and twenty-one psychic power cards including the Harlequin specific Phantasmancy Discipline, the others being Telepathy & Daemonology (Sanctic), the latter of which I have little familiarity with) (The Gifts of Cegorach). The tactical objectives and psychic powers are all backed in plain black, but have a subtle shimmering of the characteristic Harlequin check. The objective markers are smoky grey/black plastic diamonds numbered one to six and with the Harlequin faction symbol on them. And to top it off... all the pages of the codex & painting guide are gilt edged... fancy! -_-

I spent a bit of today looking over the codex, and now that I know the army list in its entirety, the Harlequins can be summed up with a familiar phrase: glass sword. I'd say "glass cannon", but all their shooting is pretty short range. Veil of Tears would make long ranged shooting both troll-worthy (for the 'Quin player) and, perhaps appropriately, tear-inducing in the enemy player. 24" seems to be the magic distance in the army. I need to brush up on a lot of special rules and mechanisms, but from what I can tell, there are some downright dirty synergies to be had here. Such as the Mask of Secrets on a character (I'm thinking the Solitaire so it can bounce around like a drunk hippy) surrounded by a large bubble of Fear causing models. Yeah... CHARGE, hitting first on 3's... and in all likelihood going to be hit back on 5's. Rising Crescendo alone will be enough to have Tau, Marine and other shooty factions' players crying cheese... I wryly wonder to myself... they're Eldar... where's Battle Focus?! *ahem*

Anyway, the 'Quins will certainly hit fast (yeah, very fast) and pretty damned hard, too... Furious Charge combined with the sheer number of attacks a single Troupe would bring (on the charge, a minimum unit has no fewer than twenty-one attacks) will clear out most infantry. Points vs. points, I don't think there's any non-vehicle non-monstrous creature unit in the game that would be able to go toe to toe against the Harlequins when they've been charged by them, especially when the special weapons come in. Outside of close combat, though, the 'Quins are appropriately quite vulnerable with the thin protection of the Starweaver or the Shadowseer's powers (most notable the Veil and Dance of Shadows) to help keep them relatively unscathed until they get to bury various weapons in their hecklers' innards (hey, a thespian is permitted a reaction!).

The question is therefore, now, how to go about building a list to reduce the Troupe's general flaw in that a 5+ Inv save is usually not enough to see them through an encounter? At first blush, there's either the mechanised route (Starweavers galore); or the Shadowseer route (attach a Shadowseer to each max Troupe and cast the Veil every turn). That said, the Shadowseer is pretty spunky herself, striking at I7 S6 on the charge, wounding on 2's, with 5 attacks. And if she has Fog of Dreams up, whoever she's fighting against will be flailing impotently, so she likely won't need that 5+ Inv of hers.

The other major weakness I observe is that the Quins have no real way of dealing with Flyers or heavy armour. No Skyfire and an insufficient shot count means flyers are able to dart in and hit them, while there's only a smattering of Fusion Pistols and Haywire Cannons to deal with vehicles. We'll see where this leads.

Here for your entertainment... -__-

B.

First Night at the Creative Biscuit

Riot of riotville let the gang know about a quaint little crafts-cafe in South Woodford where the proprietor is a WarMachine player with a hankering to get back into the game. Tim, genial chap though he is, clearly didn't realise what he was getting himself into, letting the rambunctious (as the evening proved) Nomads crash by.

It was a pretty good turn-out: Jeez-George; Macca; riot; shaggy; mr2key; jiri; DAMON; Neil; Russ; and of course our generous host, Tim. Lano, though, couldn't make it, which was a pity as he was the only gaming regular not present.

Ah well... on to dice-rolling. jiri & DAMON set up a small game of Warhammer Fantasy on one table, Macca and riot had a loud and jolly(!) time playing another Mordheim campaign game, Jeez-George and Russ floated from table to table while Tim, mr2key, shaggy and myself had a couple small games of WarMachine.

So, representing the Motherland!

Tim with Strakhov:

And shaggy with pVlad:

Representing the drunk Trolls, mr2key with... actually, I can't remember which caster he's got... I just get flashbacks of pFeora surrounded by flames... *ahem*:

And of course... my lot:

mr2key and shaggy had a quick 15pt game, while Tim and I went for 25pts (as he already had a list sorted). It being a very long time since he had had a game, we took it easy and introduced him to the various tricks and shenanigans (shaggy's favourite word... for pretty much everything I play!) that Retribution has (considering he had never faced them before). He was naturally a tad rusty, but knew his way around the elements of his force. I was, unfortunately for him, though, a tad slam-happy! Force Hammer and the Banshee's Momentum knocked things about and in turn 3, I noticed an opportunity and we went through my assassination run. We chatted for a few minutes while mr2key (who forgot about his Trollkin Champs having 8 hitboxes each!) was gradually cleaned up by shaggy who is now thoroughly addicted to Signs & Portents and the WGDS's mass of sprays! Strakhov is a new caster as far as my experience against goes, and though I know his feat (probably better to play Rahn rather than Kaelyssa given that her feat makes it impossible for him to do likewise) and immunities, I knew little else. A few neat spells makes him a curious Khador caster, the notoriously ponderous faction... and in Tim's case, a nicely painted army, too!

There was then (just) enough time for me and mr2key to play 15pts (almost all of which was painted! w00t!):

pFeora
Vanquisher
max. Exemplar Cinerators
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
and a Vassal of Menoth (wrong model, though, I think he used a Choir leader... well, some dude with a cross on a stick... either way, AKA 'the boobs', as one model he's used on previous occasions is basically a nekkid woman in the wrong scale made by Reaper! Heh!)

vs.

Kaelyssa (PLEASE let that be pKaelyssa with the coming of Reckoning... even though rumours are it'll be eRahn we'll get... *sigh*)
Banshee
Fane Knight Skeryth
Narn
Arcanist
House Shyeel Artificer

Well, the gist of it was that we ran at each other, the Vassal kept doing Ancillary Attack on the Vanquisher and the Banshee was set on fire, but it went out pretty quick. And depleting focus (two boosted attempts of Arc' Bolts against Nicia... both missed)... the Banshee, though, moved to within Stealth range and flying off she went. -_-

The next time he tried it, though, he set his own Cinerators on fire! Turn 2, I feated, and he ran to engage.

The Banshee proceeded to fluff his lines and hit twice out of five attacks with fives to hit! Uh-doi!! *ugh* Thankfully, their return hits (they oddly don't have Reach... even though I compared their swords to the Sentinels' Great Swords... which proved to be much shorter... yet gave my chaps Reach... uh-wha?!) didn't do much either. In the meantime, Feora was off blasting Narn in the face, which seemed rather petty tit-for-tat... my acrobat for yours!

Feora turned away from that and feated herself just as the Banshee and the Pain Knight continued clobbering the Cinerators. Enliven put on the Vanquisher turned out to be pointless as Kae Arc'Bolted it letting the Pain Knight poke it a couple times for good measure. However, she was starting to get a bit crispy...!

Yeah, the fire went out on the Banshee... even though it needed the help least! *sigh* Anyway, after Kae was primely placed needing to help the Knight out, Feora legged it in to pour some more fiery hate on her. Her first flamethrower hit took Kae down to 6... the second... down to 5! But that's the end of the good news for me, she remained on fire and I rolled an 11 for damage... more lemons!!

LAWL!!

And that was literally the last roll of the dice for the evening! Thankee Tim, hope to see you again soon, thankee riot for setting the whole thing up, thankee mr2key for the ride home, thankee shaggy... actually, I'm not thanking you! =P

B.

A Butcher's Mortality...

Sunday just gone, after fawning over my new acquisitions... and wasting more money on some more of the space-clowns *ahem*... off to Tanelorn I went.

First game was Godslayer... and even though it was supposed to be battlebox with 160pts... Nigel wiped the floor with my Halodynes (using wave 2 Troglodytes, who are among the beardiest bunch of bastards going as far as I can tell... ¬_¬ ). Still, it was more to learn the rules than anything else, and three idiots (myself, Nigel and nepalese_ninja) were all sitting there like lemons at several points looking up rules about charges etc. all with our own copies of the rulebook. -_- As I say... learning the rules... sort of.

Anyway, main event of my afternoon was playing WarMachine against major_winters (Nick), who I'd never played before, and is the club's Menoth player, who would play Thyra more if she weren't so shit (his words not mine! Even if I agree...!). Oddly, though, he had these guys...

... instead. *shrug* OK, shaggy plays these hard bastards, so what's the worst that could happen... well... they were led by none other than...

... this ridiculous asshole wearing a cauldron on his belly. Yeah, Butcher3... toting 2 Kodiaks, Beast09 (another first for me... and major_winters as well, as it happened), Doom Reavers, Iron Fang Pikemen, Greylord Ternion a few other bits and pieces... and a puppy. Yeah, Butcher3, who already has two two-headed canines... decides to bring a puppy as well... 'cos why not and 1pt to burn... *sigh*

Anyway, I brought my usual tech with Kae. We had Close Quarters (I think) as the scenario, and I won the roll off, opting to go first. Up everything ran, though Eiryss2 had a pot shot (out of range) at the AD'ed Doom Reavers, while spellcasting of note was Phantom Hunter on the Banshee. Fine fine, the Khadorans ran back at me, the Doom Reavers tying up Eiryss in combat and seeing her run away. My turn 2 and Kae feated, Backlashed one of the Kodiaks, which promptly got pummelled by the Invictors, scratching the Butcher a bit. Eiryss rallied, but still had half a dozen Reavers leering at her. Nick's turn saw the 'Lashed Kodiak run away, the Pikemen shamble forward more while the Butcher himself ran helter skelter down the middle, popped Impending Doom and only managed to drag the unlucky Phoenix in and promptly saw it smacked to pieces. Granted, it needed Red Haze to accomplish it, but Nick's rolling was unfortunately... unfortunate (double one's to hit... next attack, triple ones to damage...) Left on one FOC, the ternion came up and dropped a few clouds to cover. No use... Banshee's boosted shot slammed the Butcher back into one of his Arguses killing it. Kae cycled Phantom Hunter to herself and nicked her opposite number's focus with a Runebolt shot, killed the second Argus with a double boosted Arcantrik Bolt (we rather belatedly realised it was engaged by the Halberdiers... and I forgot that Arcane Secrets expires on the first spell cast, doesn't matter what it is). The Invictors had been tied up by the fresh Kodiak, but enough were available for a grand CRA, and dealt the Butcher a fair shot to the face. Aiyana cast the Kiss and Holt finished the downed Khadoran with a buffed damage roll of nine.

So ends my first experience against Butcher3... and major_winters knowingly advised me that the next time we meet, he'll play something he knows... like eFeora!

...

Oh yeah, hey, mr2key, you like eFeora, too, dontcha?! =P

Anyway, here was the final position:

So... lesson of the day: sure I planned the assassination before Nick even cast Impending Doom, but damn, I royally buggered up the order of activation:

What I did: Banshee; Sylys; Kae; Invictors; Aiyana & Holt; (game over).

For maximum effect, I should've opened with the Banshee, as I actually did do, then have Aiyana cast the Kiss of Lyliss so that all subsequent damage is more effective (Holt's shots would never have that much impact by themselves, not against a caster with ARM like the Butcher's). Off of Arcane Secrets, the first spell cast had to be offensive... so the first target had to be the Argus (being a medium base with just small bases in the way, LOS not a problem), then cycle Phantom Hunter and plink off the Butcher's focus. Thankfully, back-up in the form of a pair (maybe 3 including the UA) of Halberdiers could've finished the Butcher off in a pinch (pop mini-feat, auto-hit with pretty high PS, it was kinda hard not to slice/dice him).

As for Nick... bring a Bokur... -_-

Until next time... and after more 'Quin painting...

B.

The Library's doors open again... pity your face gets shredded the next turn...!

Right... well... today's the day... or rather yesterday was, but this release is certainly less than 24hrs old, and I present:

Yah... the brand spanking new Eldar Harlequin's Solitaire with his (should be her!! SHOULD BE HER!!) cornucopia of special (silly) rules...

I got this sucker at about 3:30pm yesterday... started constructing at 5:30pm... and had seven layers of paint down by 6:30pm... yeah, I did something really strange... primed in metal, 'cos I was feeling... well, weird, though I guess that's nothing new. And here's another pic with an eighth layer of paint and better light...

Anyway, the model is great, easy to put together and mould lines were few and straightforward to get rid of. Only the sprue clumps for the Harlequin's Kiss were annoying, but eh... I'm crap at this sort of thing so I wasn't too fussed. For the model itself, top notch, dynamic pose (well duh) and a fluffy complement of kit/gear.

However, while I'm (by and large) psyked for the 'Quins release in general, my criticisms for the Solitaire in particular would be that I'm disappointed it's not a female, as most of the fluff I'm familiar with (thanks Gav Thorpe... ¬_¬ ) paints the Solitaire as a female. But eh... I'll live... hopefully not much else will, especially those bearing the Mark of Slaanesh (that includes you, too, shaggy, if you're reading this!), but the horns?! o.O Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight... Also, that weird shimmery diamond thingy that sticks onto the back of his coat, I kinda get what they were trying to do there, but it would've worked better if it extended to the entire hem. *shrug*

So, all in all... great model... but not a great Solitaire model.

More progress to follow... in less than a week, hopefully... -.-

B

How to do half the job...

LittleLano invited me over to his place for a game on Friday, and since I wouldn't have a chance to play this weekend, I thought... yeah, why not.

I had Kae, as usual, but thought that the usual list I fielded for her was getting rather worn. In my case, though was Issyria, a caster I had very little experience with, other than a ridiculous assassination of pDeneghra (six MHSF clustered about her in turn 6 needing 9's to hit because I neglected to cast Blinding Light with a Chimera lately with a Machine Wraith in it... silly story), and being the caster I played my first timed game with. I had the models for her tier list (aside from a Banshee proxying as a Phoenix) and went with double Phoenix, Silly Willy, 2 Arcanists, Houseguard Thane and max Invictors/Sentinels/Halberdiers all with UA's.

Lano's love affair with Kallus continued and he fielded a Carnivean, Spawning Vessel, Succubus, Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew, 2 max Ogrun Warspears with UA's, max Legionnaires with Capt Farilor and a Gatorman Posse.

For my part, this was best described as a missed opportunity, while Lano cursed his dice on numerous occasions but managed to outlast me, anyway. I conceded that I had deployed incorrectly (wide-frontage... made mention of it ages ago, but since this was a casual game, I couldn't be bothered to change things). Anyway, we tried out SR2015, rolled Destruction and I took first turn. So... RUN!

And his first turn mirrored mine, the Gatormen praying Dirge of Mists. Second turn... Issyria popped feat and Crusader's Call. Lano underestimated the Halberdiers' threat range with Thane in tow with Crusader's Call, and was promptly wrecked, even though the Legionnaires had popped mini-feat (ARM buff).

Regarde!

Yeah, his dead pile is up in the corner, and an irksome number of medium bases was among it. All his units were down by half at least. However, it only went downhill from there for me as I hadn't really planned much at all except a grind fest, despite knowing Issyria doesn't play attrition well. Yah, clever me... *ugh* Anyway, he counter-feated, knowing it was a bit late, tied up the Invictors in combat with the remaining Ogruns on the right and slowly ground down the rest of the elven army. His Carnivean managed to wreck Phoenix number one, but was counterattacked by Phoenix number two. Given his better combat units and more intelligent of distributing resources, the Invictors were useless, the Sentinels were overwhelmed and the Halberdiers lost their hitting power considering the proximity of much of his army around the control zone. The one bright point being destroying his objective:

The game was decided when a spawned Stinger sprayed the remaining Arcanist, leaving the Phoenix to be Combo-Struck by one of the feat-Incubi, leaving Issyria with little to be able to deal any sort of killing blow against Kallus.

Ah well... understandably, I was a tad disappointed, since Issyria's feat turn did a number on Kallus' force, but a post-mortem drew a few lessons/conclusions. One, the Invictors were in too easy a position to be occupied and should have been closer to the Phoenixes to take potential advantage of Flank (the original idea that I couldn't be bothered to revert to was to line the Halberdiers up in front of the Invictors to screen them without hindering their effectiveness, thanks to Ranked Attacks). Two, that wall was a trap, as I had intended to have Issyria hide behind it for as long as possible, but it meant that at least two elements of my army would always be out of position. Three, one of the Phoenixes should've been held back a little as a reserve heavy hitter. Four, don't be afraid of Free Strikes if it means the loss of only a small part of a unit (only three of the ten remaining Invictors after the Ogruns' initial charge were engaged, and had I been willing to lose them, the remaining seven would be able to CRA the three Ogruns and hopefully kill two of them, the subsequent combat would be more than enough to wipe out the unit, leaving six Invictors to support the dwindling centre). Five... fear the Spawning Vessel! Seriously, that thing did more than 10pts worth of work this battle!

-_-

Of Meatgrinding & Body Counts...

Today's gaming was of two halves, both fun in their own way... pity no Godslayer, but Nigel misunderstood something... or didn't get to read my post... or something... So just a couple games of WarMachine, no great loss.

Anyway, first up was Jack (shaggy) with this ugly bastard(!):

I was continuing my practise with Kae, while Jack was just returning to the game, so second game in, we'll take it relatively easy with 35pts a side and having a go with SR2015 rules (albeit casually, didn't bother with the auto-chosen objectives' buffs) etc. So, I rolled Two Fronts, Jack won the roll off and I chose a side with two staggered walls on the left, forest on the right. He had a hill and some rough terrain while a small building was smack in the middle of the board.

So, accompanying Kae was Sylys, a Banshee and a Chimera, also bringing along max DG Sentinels with UA, Lady Aiyanna & Master Holt, an Arcanist, Narn (Mage Hunter of Ios) & the Pain Knight. Jack deployed, from his left to right, Advance Deployed Kell Bailoch, a full WGDS (Winter Guard Death Star, comprising Winter Guard infantry, three Rocketeers, UA and Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich, affectionately known as Kovnik Joe), Juggernaut, Man-O-War Kovnik, max Man-O-War Shocktroopers and Advance deployed Widowmakers and a (Lady) Manhunter. The Butcher and his Puppy were behind the main line. Jack was oddly surprised by my somewhat lower model count (also from left to right, Narn, Pain Knight, the Sentinels, Banshee, Kae and Chimera on the far right with A&H/Sylys/Arcanist just tucked in behind the Banshee and Sentinels)... he'd be even more surprised when he viewed deployment for the next game.

Anyway, Jack opened proceedings by legging everything forwards (surprise surprise) while Joe made a grand speech about having the Courage of the Forefathers (Fearless/Tough blech-ness). Lesson number one, though... super-solos like the Manhunter (Lady vesion) are no good pushed upfield so quickly, and she was promptly charged by Narn, who Sprinted in and amongst the Widowmakers. The Sentinels tramped up, as did the Banshee and A&H, while Kae popped feat and threw a Rift at the WGDS and knocked out a couple. Turn two saw the WGDS scratch the Chimera, while the Men-O-War (Kovnik aside) and Juggernaut moved up to contest and boss the middle of the board (that annoying building... not for me, though, 'cos Phantom Hunter! Heheh! ... notwithstanding). A couple more Rifts saw the WGDS whittled down a little, while a yoyo-ing Narn darted back and forth, swiping at the Shocktroopers and the Sentinels started to pull their weight, Vengeance attacks and charges doing a number on the 'harmed' Juggernaut (thanks to Aiyana's Kiss of Lyliss) and cutting down a few of the Shocktroopers, also thanks to the Pain Knight. The WGDS then spied an opportunity, but order of activation issues aside, it was well conceived, though risky given Kae's position, largely covered by the Banshee in front of her. A speculative assassination attempt thus passed and the Butcher shrugged his shoulders and barrelled in, cleaving Skeryth into four and slicing apart a few Sentinels, accompanied by the Wardog. Vengeance downed the puppy and wrecked the Juggernaut, but the canine Tough'd it. My final turn saw the Sentinels 'charge' (no charge bonuses anywhere, though, pretty much) and finally kill the dog so that smacking the Butcher might be viable now and he was taken to eight hitboxes by four attacking Dawnguard. That was... OK, I guess, considering he was sitting on ARM22... -_- But Narn to the rescue, as he charged Butcher in the back, negated the FOC overboosting (yay for Arcane Assassin!) and dealt 10 damage, securing the assassination.

And thus the battlefield ended:

An educational game, more for Jack than me, as our post-mortem chat said, but at least now I know what the WGDS is like... seems AOE/Corrision to death is the best option there. Still, having played a few games with them, I'm really starting to appreciate Aiyana & Holt, as the numerous spells at the elf's disposal made Khador's high ARM and their own survivability manageable. And, as though it didn't need stressing enough... Kae needs to have something... anything (but preferably large and belligerent) between her and the gun-muzzles/pointy end of stabbing implements. Hopefully, Jack will be a regular fixture at Tanelorn again and we can have some 50pt games soon. :)

With that and a genial chat done, during which... yes, Iberia will be worked on at long last... *ahem*... -.- Ed S (or EpicEd as PaulO refers to him as... I'm PrimeEd... which I'll take as a compliment) had some random Cryx spam in his case, so we left the terrain/board as it was and patched together 50pt lists. He had this bitch... -_-

So, game two was pSkarre with Bane spam galore (2 x max Knights, 1 x max Thralls + UA), along with two Bonejacks, the Ghost Raiders, Orin Midwinter, Scrap Thralls and Skarlock. I had no real 50pt list on me, so just threw out Mittens with Rahn (first time since the Shield Tournie a couple months ago), Banshee/Phoenix, the Sentinels, A&H, eEiryss and Narn. I was easily outnumbered at least 5:3, and the game started with me running up, him running in return, then a grind-fest for the rest of the battle.

In turn two, I remained cautious and made sure the Sentinels couldn't be charged (Polarity Field) while Mittens ambled along behind them. The Phoenix facilitated knocking out some of the Knights/Ghost Raiders thanks to its gun and Rahn arc-ing. Vengeance made little difference for the Knights as MAT 6 on Narn did little. Skarre then feated and got in the face of my line. It didn't seem to make much of an impact as while EdS got rid of my Phoenix and some Mittens on the right, the Sentinels were largely untouched. Even so, Vengeance and another round of Great Sword smashing cleared out a few more Knights & Thralls. Rahn feated back, helping out while Eiryss and Narn slowly picked off Knights on the left with some help from the Mittens in the vicinity. He pegged me back a little next turn with Dark Guidance helping out with the average MAT, but there were insufficient attacks to dent my advance on the left and my rather thin right flank remained obstinate at the base of his control zone. Over to me and his right was completely cleaned out and with my control zone clear, I should've kept Rahn there to tick off some CP (EdS was winning 1-0 thanks to smacking my objective), especially considering his quickly dwindling model count. A few magic attacks and charges by Narn and he was suddenly down to less than ten models and the remaining Sentinels (6 of them) sweeping towards his centre. Skarre, on the corner of Ed's control zone went for it and thanks to sacrificing a Scrap Thrall to get 6 Focus for this turn, spelled Rahn to death, getting 12 to-hit and 8 and 13 on the damage rolls.

Here, knowing Skarre was on the backfoot, I should've remained cautious and had Rahn kept behind the building and in my control zone as Ed's army was down to Skarre, three Scrap Thralls, the Skarlock, one Bane Thrall and its Standard Bearer, a Bonejack and that was literally it! Aside from my Phoenix, I hadn't lost anything in its entirety, one unit of Mittens was still alive and kicking, and the Banshee had just been repaired to full (pretty much). Trying to clear out Ed's control zone was too ambitious, perhaps, and trying too hard was the mistake. This was a good example of when I should have just kept to the basics, keep Rahn safe, use this late game period to occupy what remained of Ed's offensive pieces, and keep the attrition battle going, I was blatantly winning it and should have won were it not for naive and rather wilful ambition.

Still, even so, a most productive afternoon. Don't think I've been so heartened by defeat!

Bubi

Some undead... some more undead... and a couple of chaps with hats!

As a bit of a foil to riot's post (found here, curse me for not taking pictures... though given how I didn't have any painted minis... perhaps a good idea), here is the (Mis)-Adventures of the Blademasters... traitors to Naggaroth, outcasts from Ulthuan and Athel Loren, and drunken sots all!

So I'm playing Mordheim... yet another system... though I've got the minis, thanks to never properly starting Warhammer Fantasy Battle. For the first game, however, I was a lazy bastard and proxied a whole load of WarMachine minis in... yay me... -.-

Anyway, here we go with a brief tale of a chance encounter between elves, some ghouls, some zombies and Davy Crockett! Given a combination of silly camping, all round ribbing and bad luck, the elves didn't do much that was productive, hence the light tone. First attempt at tongue in cheek prose in a while... ah well...

Because I could...! So I did...!

In about three weeks, I watched all of Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Avatar: the Legend of Korra... and read three of the interquel graphic novels (The Promise, The Search & The Rift).

And strangely, given my hobbies and general maturity, despite being a Briton, the constant use of the word "bender" didn't have me tittering every other microsecond.

In general, AtLA was a superior all rounded package, but I felt that LoK had much more potential... crocked by Nick's corporate meddling that didn't allow some characters to develop properly, the really inappropriate themes (for a kid's show... I mean seriously, whose bright (and it really was, given how well it was portrayed) idea was it to put a horridly well-thought terrorist attack on screen... and are kids supposed to grasp luck egalitarianism(?!), never mind PTSD) that didn't manage to bring their full impact or for certain subplots to reach a sufficient or fitting conclusion. But eh... I enjoyed them both... a lot...

That is all... -__-

B.

Reanimation

OK, so... had a game the other week against PaulO of Tanelorn who brought out Lich Lord Asphyxious (Gaspy2) and a modicum of Bane spam against Kae and an adjustment to last week's list (as mentioned, I ditched the Stormfall Archers & House Shyeel Artificer (wut?!) for Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen and Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios). Balance of Power, if I remember right, but I don't think either of us really bothered with it. I could've been leading 1-0 before getting assassinated, but brain fart prevented even that consolation.

Gaspy2
Nightwretch
Defiler

Bane Lord Tartarus
Darragh Wrathe
Saxon Orrik
Pistol Wraith

(max) Bane Thralls + UA
(max) Bane Knights
(max) Satyxis Bloodwitches + UA
(min) Bile Thralls

And I think that was it... (real mini-battle report because I can't remember everything... ahem):

Paul had first turn, and surprise, surprise, ran with everything. I counter ran and popped feat, plinking off a Bane Knight with Eiryss2, triggering Vengeance. The Defiler proceeded to walk up and vomit over Eiryss leaving me a tad peeved... I still need to learn how to use that 3pts of pure awesome (a recurring theme it seems, though Narn could AD, he sat next to Kae at first). But dear lord, sitting the Banshee in the middle of a crowd of Invictors was dumb (bright idea, but the spacing was all wrong as they were all crowded together, crippling the Vyre myrmidon's mobility). The respective jammers of each list then got in each other's faces, though clever placement of the Halberdiers (woohoo! did something right... -_- ) meant their mini-feat (Incorporeal for a round) was a little ineffectual. Paul's mistake here was Tartarus' placement, as he was charged by the Halberdiers and promptly sliced in two thanks to the Houseguardsmen's own mini-feat. The Invictors shot off a few Banes, Narn zipped back and forth, Skeryth poked a couple more and the myrmidons clobbered a few more. On the whole, it was a good post-feat turn for me, rolled hot to help.

Having killed off a fair proportion of his Banes, Paul popped Gaspy's feat, but somewhat wasted it as only about two thirds were in charge range. A couple tripped over themselves, but he did enough damage with these annoying weapon-masters to total the Banshee and bring the Phoenix to its knees (the Pistol Wraith helped out in Chill'ing it...). His Bile Thralls purged (each other in one case) and wiped the Halberdiers out and turn 4 started with very little on the board. The Phoenix's combustion finished off the Satyxis bitches, except the UA, and I went for a speculative assassination run but forgot about Hellbound on Gaspy that meant an unhorsed Skeryth couldn't charge. Saxon's Reconnaissance on the Cryxian, two hits later and game over.

The major mistake committed was moving Skeryth on a dumb ride-by attack towards his Defiler when he should've covered Kae while she secured CP. And it failed at that, idiotically. The last moves of the game were more out of desperation than any remote sort of game plan, so eh...

Thus, lessons learned: the Halberdiers are great on the charge with their mini-feat and when they get the alpha, but Reform only protects them so much, so they really need a support piece to prevent them from getting wiped off the board the next turn. Twice I've taken them, and twice, they've only made one or two attacks per model at most. Hell, moving them backwards is probably the best idea given their silly threat ranges when the Thane's mooching around behind them.

Now, this was the combat oriented approach to Kae's list that I have. There is still those 8pts left behind (perhaps I may make it 11pts since Eiryss2 and I don't have much of a working relationship, but I'll persist, and next time play her closer to the main battle-line). The other option is more shooty... maybe Lady Aiyana & Master Holt with the Destor Thane.

However, with the spoiler'd arrival of this:

things may change yet again. However, I think I'll wait until I get Moros' model before doing anything silly. But his Paralysis gun (woops... spoiler... yeah, I think most Ret players already know, so moving on) will make taking a pair of Mage Hunter Assassins quite worth it. With Kae's Arcantrik Bolt, it can take a couple heavies out of the picture for a bit, potentially.

With all this and my last entry in mind... why the hell did I start Mordheim?!

*sigh*

-__-

Arachnophobia...

So, mini report incoming. Kae vs. Master Necrotech Mortenebra

Mortenebra & Deryliss (Infernal Machines Tier 4)
Slayer x 4
Reaper x 2
Corrupter
Seether

Warwitch Siren x 2
Scrap Thrall x 9

Scenario was Outflank and Nigel (my Cryxian opponent of the day at Tanelorn WGC) won the roll off and chose to go first, from deployment:

Deployment was OK for me, had a building to anchor one flank and I started off on the right thought, keeping everyone nicely compact as the Cryx force brought few AOE's.

Unsurprisingly, Nigel raced everything he had forwards. With an extended deployment zone and AD'ing Scrap Thralls they were already more than half way across the board as the elves advanced. The Invictors picked off six Thralls and the myrmidons smacked another two and little could be done against the helljacks owing to having Stealth during the first round. Big mistake number one: Eiryss activated after the Halberdiers after a great deal of um-ing and ah-ing over whether or not to plink Spectral Steel off one of the Reapers (pro-tip... should've!). Kae feated forcing the Cryxians to back off a little, and they did so, while still maintaining a presence in both control zones, while one raced forward to tie up the Phoenix.

Managed to Backlash the running Slayer mid-combat and was left with four damage after the Phoenix, Artificer and a few of the Halberdiers smacked it, while the rest of the Halberdiers charged another Slayer and the second Reaper. Their reform move, though, was big mistake number two. They're not Sentinels (clearly!) and gain little from being base to base. Punishment duly followed when they were trampled next turn leaving only a small handful left alive, no thanks to Terminal Velocity. Mortenebra's battlegroup continued a leisurely advance, tying up the Invictors who, even with their Flank bonus barely managed to wreck the already damaged Corrupter. The less said about the Stormfall Archers' performance the better... :|

A sorry state indeed:

And that was basically it... Nigel won comfortably on scenario, but gaining only 19VP (all the Halberdiers, even if the Standard Bearer was still alive(!), the Artificer, half the Archers, Eiryss and the Thane) while I won 28 (I think... from two Slayers, one Corrupter and all the Thralls). My battlegroup was untouched though the Invictors were about to get swiped if the game continued further into Nigel's fourth turn, even if another trio of his helljacks were scraped and moderately beaten.

In fairness to myself, had I won the first turn, the integrity of my battleline would not have been so easily disrupted and with his Scrap Thralls a minimum of 3" away, and in prime position to be picked off by the Invictors, Myrmidons and even the Archers, setting up feat turn nicely. But, dreaming isn't always a good idea.

Anyway, once again, AD'ing seems to cause me more headaches than it should as Eiryss did little and achieved less. In general, attrition seems to be what I'm alright with, but boosting key-rolls passes me by (the Banshee missed both its shots on 6's to hit, rather infuriatingly). As for those that can't be boosted, well, here we go:

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper... and Stormfall Archers:

While most factions have a dedicated light artillery weapon team unit (or something equivalent), Retribution's Heavy Rifle Team is on the bad side of "meh" in terms of quality, and the prevailing consensus is that they have a home in a total of zero caster's lists (with the improbable exception of Ossyan, and even he includes them with great reluctance), thus, Retribution's real go-to artillery piece is the Stormfall Archer unit. Toting compound bows with superb range, they bring ranged flexibility to the table. If you know anything about Ravyn, then you don't need me to tell you this... so why did I take Stormfalls with Kae yesterday?

I did so before, in a rather strange 40pt game against, Iain, another journeyman level player at Tanelorn, and they performed admirably... taking down one Bonejack and knocking out a few Thralls here and there. But during the game against Mortenebra, with Kae... getting the Stormfalls to hit isn't that much of a problem, there are four of them and with a threat range of 21", at least a couple will hit what you point them at, but hitting reliably and when you really want/need them to is a problem. Kae does little, if anything for the Stormfall Archers, and my original idea of having them soften targets up for the other units to charge into became flawed as Nigel's game developed (hardly mine, for all I was involved in it). Or rather, it was flawed from the start. Granted, taking it against a helljack heavy list isn't the brightest idea, but carpet-bombing an area of low-ARM units makes them a great unit. Still, with a decidedly mediocre RAT, and no way of boosting it, their inclusion in a Kae list was problematic from the start as reliably hitting is necessary.

With Ravyn, they have feat to be completely and utterly devastating as Firestorm mitigates their inability to hit particularly well and four Brutal shots at most things has them bleeding from the ears. Rahn can use Force Hammer or Telekinesis to make life a little easier for them. Ossyan's Gravity Well makes their damage output close to obscene (even AOE damage under this feat can make heavy infantry worried) while Quicken lets them race into a prime firing position early on and aim the entire time. Issyria buffs them with feat as well, letting them Starstrike Stealth'd high-DEF units and smell the barbecue later, and even away from feat turn, Blinding Light makes things easier too. Even Garryth, who has little affinity for the Archers, could give them Apparition to increase their threat range and aiming potential. Both incarnations of Vyros are too much of a pair of elitists (Dawnguard or get lost!) to favour the Stormfalls. And that leaves Kae. Her spells can protect them from... well, other spells, and feat still leaves them vulnerable to straying blast damage, owing to their mediocre ARM. So in general, there's little there to help, except one combination: Arcantrik Bolt & Brutal'ing the stationary 'jack. But this is very situational. Strangely, I didn't use Arcantrik Bolt at all against Nigel, given how many juicy targets there were, but he successfully presented me with too many threats to deal with at the same time, I ended up following a familiar path (piecemeal commitment), and besides... Jump Start. Alternatively, in that game: Banshee's Momentum & more Brutal'ing. But the need to effectively deal with multiple threats is too great to have fifteen points (with another three in the Artificer, for support) absorbed in dealing with six or seven points.

Thus, I return to a basic 42(+7)pts (basically my list minus the Stormfall Archers and the House Shyeel Artificer). The balance of ranged & melee combat is fine, I think, as the units now have the right role and the battlegroup is dominated by two utility pieces.

For the remaining 8pts, the ideal would be elements that have high hitting power without the need for support. Though Kae is a support caster, making things easy (whether through spells or otherwise) is quite situational, so at the moment, I'm looking at high MAT/RAT stuff... Within the 42pts are elements that can either boost their own hitting reliability/damage output or it's already relatively good anyway. Everything is 6+ on the stat that counts and those with less than 8 can Combine, boost or get another bonus (i.e. Flank). As much as I'd like to bring the Mage Hunter Strike Force back, they can take advantage of Backlash but little else (yes, I know I'm wrong, and why I'm wrong is the reason I'm still a comparative noob at the game). So 8pts... the Destor Thane is tempting, but its utility might be a bit of a trap given its average stat weapon. My initial thoughts were Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen & Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios as hard-hitters for the alpha strike, but another gun wouldn't go amiss...

But for all this... I learn. Lesson to be taught: how to sell an element dearly in battle. That and learning how to use Eiryss, Angel of Retribution properly.

Or, alternatively... I could pack in this whole game and continue learning Godslayer! -__-

Woohoo! -.-

Bubi

Our girl Kae...

Random thoughts commencing...

So, I've been playing WarMachine for about six months with varying levels of success with my primary faction being the emo-racist-terrorist elves of Ios, militaristically given form within the Iron Kingdoms universe in the Retribution of Scyrah.

A relatively small faction, they have seven casters, one with an epic form, four light jacks (called myrmidons, a strange term given that it means 'ant-person', but it adds a certain alien character, and I find it delightfully quaint), six heavy jacks, three character heavy jacks, one colossal jack, one battle engine, ten units, one weapon attachment, five dedicated unit attachments, one character unit attachment, eight solos, four faction only character solos and two faction friendly mercenary solos (one of them also possessing both an epic and legendary version). And not forgetting the smallest roster of possible Mercenaries & Minions outside of the Convergence of Cyriss. Yeah, so... not much! *ahem*

Anyway, as with many Retribution, I started with Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper as my first caster... she was in the battlebox after all. Swept away by the fluff (my first purchase was the Forces of WarMachine book, oddly... or perhaps not) and her theme list, I had a difficult time adjusting to how Kae played. Yes, she is considered very fondly among the Retribution players' community, with many gamers ribbing each other declaring that "No! She is my girl, Kae!!" and indeed, I say the same.

She is, perhaps, the most subtly versatile caster among the WarMachine factions with very few devastating tricks, but a great deal of tricks nonetheless. To Retribution players, she is everyone's friend (so long as you've got pointy ears), with very few genuinely bad match-ups, particularly against WarMachine, and against Hordes, even though a couple of her spells (Arcantrik Bolt & Backlash) lose their value, she still brings a bit of irritation.

And with No Quarter 54's release of the Force Wall tiered list, the potential grew even further bringing in a very restrictive list (at least at first sight) but one that played like no other in the game.

This tier, as earlier, I used for the Journeyman League. Seasoned WarMachine players will probably scream "WHY?!" because it is neither suited to beginners (though in my defence, I had a pretty good handle on the rules by then) nor is it a friendly list to play against, due to its roadblock nature. Tier 3 is quite a kick to the knee for many factions.

Moving on... my experience with Kae has been mixed, as with my whole WarMachine/Retribution experience, but I'll persevere as I was well aware of how steep a learning curve the game has, especially if one decides to dive in straight at 50pts (I didn't, thankfully, but my first few games at 50pts were eye-opening encounters). Having a regular sparring partner with Legion as his main faction hasn't helped, but having my arse handed to me on a plate more often than not has put certain aspects of the game into perspective.

Back on cases. Kae is a little tricky to use at first, not least because her feat is somewhat bewildering for new players, well, it was for me, since I learned in an environment of constant ASSASSINATION!! which Kae's feat is a little pointless for. Scenario play is where her feat shines as it facilitates the alpha strike or compels your opponent to run to engage. Trampling is possible but, with proper pre-feat placement, potentially a waste of initial attacks and severely limiting particularly for often FOC strapped WarMachine factions. Hordes, less so, though I can't say much more, since I haven't been on the receiving end of a trampling beast through my lines.

But given Kae's rather modest combat prowess (she needs regular boosts to hit pretty much every other caster in melee unlike both versions of Vyros and Garryth, and even Ravyn), she's a support caster in the main, but not a backline caster (such as Issyria) as her weapons bring some FOC/FURY manipulation shenanigans that can bring her close to the thick of battle. Nor is she mid-line like Rahn because she can get stuck in with a bit of support. Now... about those rather modest combat abilities, it explains why one of her best friends is the Banshee. Knockdown/slam? Thankee kindly. Send a medium-based model flying into the enemy caster, profit abound.

Obvious methods aside, I've found that Kae can work with almost (note: ALMOST) anything you field with her. Invictors with a Reach-weapon'd myrmidon is a great start. Anyone with a RNG 12"+ gun would be a good target for Phantom Hunter... or herself, for that matter, as it lets her ignore everything under the sun when choosing a target except elevation. And her feat allows her to deliver melee units, of which the Retribution's Houseguard Halberdiers and Dawnguard Sentinels are brilliant examples of, into combat brilliantly. The Thane's Desperate Pace and Vengeance mean that some bunch of unlucky bastards will get a lot of angry elven steel to the face pretty soon unless they think of something quick. A gunline isn't bad either, but better served by someone like Ossyan (his feat certainly promotes it) and Issyria (though she's good with melee oriented lists as well).

So, I've played Kae at the back, creeping forward as the games progress, feating in the second or third turn and letting her wade in shooting in support of her battlegroup and those units still alive from then. Combined arms seems to be her watch-phrase, a little more so than the other Retribution casters. There is a lot of anti-magic in her abilities and spell list, so a little shooty, a little fighty, some support and plenty of decisiveness is the way to go. She has plenty of synergies with much of what the faction has to offer, though unfortunately, she does little to outright strengthen anything. Her feat increases survivability (except against Legion, for the most part) and combinations with various elements make for very subtle tricks. A Gorgon, the Sentinels' Officer and her feat can spell the death of two heavies at the cost of the Gorgon, but at a potential benefit of four points to one, a good trade. A trio of Manticores and their Covering fire (an idea, if Elara decides to tag along, or just by Kae herself under Force Wall, given how Rahn is a massive FOC hog) with an Artificer or Battle Mages is pure battlefield control on a stick. Kae and Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander (or 3iryss to many) bring enough FOC/FURY games between them to see a lot of cutting or frenzying happen.

Learning as I've gone, a potential list I'm taking against Mortenebra (oh, she of crazy-spider-ladiness) is the following:

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (+7)
Warcaster Attachment - Sylys Wyshnalyrr (2)
Heavy Myrmidon - Banshee (10)
Heavy Myrmidon - Phoenix (10)

Character Solo - Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3)
Solo - Arcanist (1)
Solo - House Shyeel Artificer (3)
Solo - Houseguard Thane (2)

Unit Attachment - Invictor Officer & Standard (2)
Unit - Dawnguard Invictors (10)
Unit Attachment - Halberdier Officer & Standard (2)
Unit - Houseguard Halberdiers (7)
Unit - Stormfall Archers (5)

Still in progress and I'm sure it's sillier than I give it credence for, but because of their low ARM, the Stormfall Archers will have the Artificer keep the company during feat turn so that they'll be protected from deviating AOEs while everything else in the list that'll be close enough to the front lines will be tough enough to weather it. The Halberdiers and Invictors form the front line, Eiryss and the Thane provide support where needed (though it'll be pretty obvious where) while the battlegroup and archers back everything up and act as reserve.

This is, perhaps, the greatest mistake I've made while playing WarMachine. On too many occasions, I've deployed in too wide a line and spread out even further in the first turn and inevitably missed vital models out from exploiting or gaining the protection of my feat. Even cavalry/dragoon solos have seen reduced efficiency because I have a habit of just "moving shit" in my first turn. And unlike Warhammer 40K, WarMachine does not really promote linear tactics since ranges and prevalence of melee (if someone isn't swinging an axe/sword/claw at someone by turn 3, someone must demand where balls have gone!) means getting in more than one round of concentrated fire is difficult at the best of times and ranged based feats need to be very destructive to work. That and the fact that WarMachine is played on a 4x4 table which narrows the field even further. Of course, a list without a ranged game runs a great deal of risks as some of the best weapons in the game are ranged ones, and often stuck on big ponderous buggers that are hard to kill. Thus, to Vegetius we return, and decide that strong reserves are more important than frontage. In the instance of the above list, the frontage, I advise myself, should consist of the two twelve man units and the two heavy myrmidons of the battlegroup, with a couple gaps to let my solos flit about. On one flank, the Halberdiers will hold the enemy up and hopefully take a few things down with them, while on the other, the Invictors will point and fire at what's before them. The battlegroup will take down targets of opportunity to make things easier for the front line units. The Archers, I believe, will be the unknown quantities, since they'll be playing just off the Halberdiers, given that they're less killy than the Dawnguard Sentinels.

*shrug* Ah well, we'll see where this goes.

Bubi