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*

-__-