Monday 31 August 2015

Hello devout readers, just a quick update from me. Back from my honeymoon today.

Im feeling really upbeat about warmachine at the mo. Zerkova for my Khador pairings, Ace for Caine, Hurricane for Nemo and Haley, secret squirrel project for Stryker 3, Some crazy ideas on how to play Haley 3, plus two fluff legion lists for some 4tk event. Tons of lists to try, tons of enthusiasm, tons of events lined up. Good times are here. Even a new shirt to represent in.
Will keep you posted.

Paul.

Friday 21 August 2015

..unleash the Siege Animantarax!

The title says it all. After far too long in the shadow of... well, everything in the entire game, the errata of yesterday has made significant steps to salvage the noble Siege Potato. And, as one of the few, proud and the brave to have (extremely foolishly) built lists prior to this with not one, but two of the lumbering beasts, I find myself in a good place to discuss the changes, and what they might mean.

 Coming back to a Tabletop near you in Fall 2015.. The Mighty Siege Potato

Firstly, lets look at the changes. They reads simply enough - When this model is damaged by an attack, it gains one rage token ... during its activation, this model can spend rage tokens to boost attack or damage rolls.

So, the change is twofold. Firstly, friendly models can now generate rage tokens. That's a pretty big deal. One of the biggest issues facing the Animantarax prior to this was that unless you took Siege Column or Footsteps of Giants, the creature would only ever generate rage tokens the turn your opponent decided to kill it - meaning that it could never truly benefit from the ability. Even then with one of the two lists mentioned, the tokens were a one use item, with you spending them once it arrived in melee and then exhausting your boosts for the game. No one ever attacked an Animantarax for a couple of points, generated a token and then left it alone. Now that Beast Handlers can add tokens to it every turn, this is a much better and more reliable mechanic, offering three boosts a turn, and not a passive ability which requires your opponent to help out.

The second change is what makes this work though. Previously, all boosting was limited to the tail - now, with the text stipulating any attack, the Animantarax becomes a much more interesting piece. The most obvious change is to the spears, which can start at POW13 / POW12 and then both be boosted, going some way to closing the disparity between the POW of the spears and tail. But better yet, the gun goes from something which you can reliably improve your chance to hit. The piece can charge a target, attack with all three melee ( benefiting from the +3STR) on the attacks, then shoot at secondary targets, using the tokens to boost the mediocre accuracy. 

This is a big deal. Previously, the guns had been a dubious afterthought, even against Trollblood or Khador Warjack DEF.

So the next question would be who does this benefit the most I guess.

The obvious contenders remain the three best lists to run it in from before. The changes are good, but simply don't go far enough to make this a strong addition without a little extra help, and the points reductions from Siege Column, Footsteps of Giants, and Armageddon are all extremely welcome. Starting with tokens is now less useful (translating into +3 Boxes) of course, but two 9pt models for 16 points or better yet, 14pts is a definite step in the right direction, and difficult to ignore.

Of course, its a dubious question how well any of those lists support it otherwise. Makeda3 and Xerxis2 can do some good for the Animantarax via Vortex of Destruction and Ignite / Hand of the Ancients respectively, but then so they can do the same with these abilities for everyone in their army, and both crucially want an extremely Warbeast heavy build, reducing the potential points to sink into a Battle Engine, even at a discount. Siege Column fares a little better; Plague Wind offers it a little survivability (especially when combined with an Agonizer and/or Dimish), and Blood Mark and Plague Wind stacked offer a solid -4ARM to most targets which can really ramp up the effectiveness. 

Outside of those three, and at 9pts, the Animantarax becomes a model that is useful only in its newfound self sufficiency for the most part. Most Warlocks will be able to leave it alone on one flank to be able to take care of itself with a little help from the whips, and offering a flexible alternative to a Warbeast for those at Fury5 and Fury6 that might not want to run too many beasts. There are even a handful of spells that can help - Fury, Defenders Ward, Vision, Road to War et al. However, special note probably has to go to Hexeris2, whom is really the only Warlock to step up to the plate, rubbing his hands together with glee. 

Why you ask? Black Spot.

Black spot effectively enables a bonus three shots with the newly useful gun, for something which is relatively easy to pull off on the table. With boosts, you can now be sure that they'll hit too, or at least half of them will. Remember that because of weapons platform you can both types of Initial attacks, so its perfectly legal to trigger a ranged attack with a more powerful and accurate melee attack. Add in the Croak Raiders and a unit or two of Cataphract Incindiarii, and you've got yourself a real infantry spam clearance list...

So, the obvious question now is.. will I run them? The answer is yes. I used to before, and this really just makes them more useful. I think I'll focus on Makeda3 and Hexeris2 for my fix initially, but we'll have to see. Maybe one day I'll find the love for Rasheth that I've sorely missed throughout my entire Skorne career.


Some would question why I use Anchorman pictures so much. They would be missing the point.

So my hat off to you PP once again, you managed the impossible, you magnificent bastards, in a way that almost seemed elegant. Back next time fellow Tyrants, with hopes and dreams for that magical dream entry we're all hoping that will catapult Zaal2 into the 'usable' category.

Wednesday 19 August 2015

SYNERGY DANCE OFF

Its Grandad here with an Imperishable Dominion battle report. Myself and Dan from this blog decided to bring eVyros and Bradigus together to have a synergy battle. We both decided to take it to tier four for both casters.
Dans force was pretty straight forward, Imperatus, a unit of Sentinals, a Destor Thane, couple of arcanists, an Aspis and a load of Griffon's.
      
No Dan, its Incursion
My force was a straightforward tier four wold war list the only thing I tried out different was putting in the Woldwrath.

Turn one: Retribution ran everything forward, Vyros cast Synergy and then popped feat. Circle ran forward mostly, took a few pot shots with Woldwatchers and the Woldwrath which mostly missed and the Manikin line went forward and exploded into forests (yes, I know birds eye and pathfinder made this largely ineffective but it would slow the Sentinals). Bradigus cast synergy and the Woldwatchers hunkered down, the dance off was on.
The thin, green, useless, line

Turn two: Dan was expecting a bit more from the Circle shooting (which was mostly misses) so the feat was (when a friendly model dies and friendly model moves) a non-event. Vyros cast deflection, a couple of Sentinels and a couple of Griffon's ganged up to nearly kill a Woldwatcher. Tired of dancing round each other Bradigus feated and went in, also casting mystic wards. The Wolds started to build up a synergy chain, taking out a few more Sentinels and three Griffon's. Sadly for Bradigus the move back on the feat just moved him back 1/2" to far which left the stoneformed Woldwatcher who was 5" from Vyros out of control, meaning mystic wards would not work.

Turn three: Dan started sweating at the thought of not being able to upkeep synergy, but he had gotten away with it. The Retribution launched their counter strike, the Thane galloping around to try and get involved (Dan had forgotten about him and left him on the extreme flank) Vyros went to hide his giant armoured horse behind a small wall (that's right, you cant see me) and Imperatus and the Griffon's built up enough synergy to smash two Woldwatchers to pieces. In response the Woldguardians pounded the rest of the Sentinels and two more Griffon's to dust.
Your on a warhorse son, get involved

Turn four: Vyros had to move and recast synergy due to mystic wards, killing a Sentry Stone in the process, the other Sentry Stone was taken out by the Destor Thane.Imperatus bagged himself a Woldguardian and an Arcanist ran to score a control point (Dan could see his army buckling and had to try and apply some pressure).The second Woldguardian cleared the way forward, taking out the Aspis.The Woldwrath charged Imperitus, having a + 4 from synergy, I was confident that even with the stupid Phoenix protocol, my MAT 10 P+S 23 gargantuan should be able to remove the Retribution heavy from table. Stupid distances, the Woldwrath failed the charge by millimetres. Imperatus lived and Dan could stop holding his breath.
Stupid distances....

Turn five: Vyros gave out all is focus to the lone Griffon and Imperatus before claiming the far right control point. The Griffon charged Bradigus for little effect whilst Imperatus killed the second Woldguardian. A Woldwatcher takes out the Thane whilst the Woldwrath makes a meal of taking out Imperatus, running out of fury, allowing the Retribution heavy to come back to life after being pulled apart. Sensing the dance is over and being on + 2 synergy and 5 fury whilst Vyros has no focus, Bradigus gets ready to end it himself. I measured control and Vyros is just millimetres out of Bradigus 10" threat, damn distances, again! To rub salt in the wounds, the three rocks he chucks at Imperatus fails to finish the Jack of.
Imperatus is still there, why wont you die?

Turn six: Vyros fills up Imperatus, casts easy rider so Imperatus can skip over the left overs of all the light jacks and goes to dance with Bradigus himself (here I have made a cardinal sin, I left my warlock without a transfer target) and Imperatus ends the game.
Bye Brad....

Conclusions: Dan  is a pretty decent player and well experienced with his Retribution. He followed his battle plan, which was swarm the enemy with Sentinels and Griffon's, build up synergy and employ Imperatus (easily the man....jack? of the match) as his finisher. I felt that I had control of the tempo of the dance and felt comfortable going towards the endgame, just a couple of bad manoeuvring errors and then getting carried away and failing to leave a transfer target sealed my doom, against experienced players that is just a gift. Great game.