Zaal2, Back in (Obsidian) Black...

Greetings Pop Pickers... it's Gencon, and what does that mean? Why, for the first time since Master Ascetic Naaresh there is a Skorne Warlock convention pre-release. And boy, has he generated some heat online.

So gather fellow tyrants, so that we can lament our latest triumph of Skornegy, and have the same conversation as everyone else is presently, starting with 'What the actual fuck were you thinking PP?'

First, because its how we roll over here at Imperishable Dominion, the most important thing is to discuss a little background for a second. What made our man Zaal go epic? Did he maraud across the land, murdering entire armies in the name of his ancestors? Perhaps he achieved a position of ultimate mortitheurgical and spiritual power? How about rising to command the armies of the western reaches?

Nope to all of those. Zaal became epic, because he bought the farm. Shed a tear for our most famous of Extollers. Only one though - in the Skorne Empire, as a wiser man than I once said, death isn't the handicap it used to be.

In game terms therefore, Zaal2 is an Ancestral Guardian now, with an impressive(ly bad) statline to match. At least he kept FURY7.

SPD4 - now, everyone who has ever played against Skorne will tell you that the SPD stats in the faction are really just for show. They're not really the right numbers. Except in this case, it kinda is. More on the one SPD buff he has later.

STR8, MAT6, 1x P&S14 Reach Magic Weapon - well, the POW and the Reach are to be honest fairly standard within Warlocks of the faction. What's particularly exciting is MAT6. Again, more on that later.

RAT6 - Fairly confusing why this is so high, considering he doesn't have a gun anymore.

DEF10, ARM18, 18 Boxes - hot damn, now we're talking. Two approaches to this. First one tells you he's awful. Easy to hit, and DEF+ARM 30 is not setting the world on fire for anyone. The second, and the one I subscribe to is that he's going to get hit by an opponent who wants to make sure it happens really; if Morghoul in his tee at DEF17 can be hit with worrying regularity, then Zaal certainly will. Therefore, I'll take ARM18. It's not the best, but its tanky enough.

CMD8, Construct - really interesting that he can actually use this. I'd have thought he couldn't talk, like his Obsidian buddies. Perhaps the big disk on his back is an electrostatic loudspeaker.

+6 Warbeast Points - kinda feels like he should have more, but its not bad, not good, just somewhere in the middle.

Nothing that's going to set the world on fire there then. Has he got some interesting abilities to go with them though? Sort of. Still feels a little shy of what you'd hope for.

Zaal2 kept Direct Spirits from his prime incarnation. This is actually pretty cool, and certainly plays into his other main abilities in a big way. Sucks to be you Cryx, although you probably won't like playing Testament much. Reclaim is what takes this ability and industrializes it though, offering Soul collection within his entire Control area of 14". Essentially, Zaal2 is a walking Soul battery then, whom can either farm out boosts / attacks to his Ancestral Guardian friends, or picks himself up a whole bunch of extra Fury each turn. 

Steady - always useful, especially meaning that he'll always be able to move around at the start of his turn for..

Righteous Vengeance. Now, this is a good ability on Hakaar the Destroyer, because that lad has MAT9, like an old, dead Butcher. For Zaal, MAT6 really isn't making this a reliable attack method, and its more a movement buff. And lets be realistic, if Zaal is within 5" on models that are being destroyed... well, you probably have some issues.

Finally, the imaginatively named Obsidian Staff has Silencer. Meh. You really don't want to have to be using this.

Now, let's talk the spell list, and the feat.

Annihilation - it's got to be a contender for one of the most extravagantly expensive to cast versus end result spells in the game. Have you ever seen Terminus, the original owner, use it? If this was a used car and Zaal picked it up from the Liche Lord, its a battered old Morris Minor. Remove from play is nice, and if you manage to actually kill a model with it, then the Soul you'll hopefully pick up effectively sets you up for a less expensive shot again in the next turn. I might get behind it, if it could be either cast by Marketh, or it was AOE4. Alas, its neither.

Mage Sight - situationally nice at most, this will at least help your beasts pick out that model hiding in the woods with the bears, or make up for when you left your Extoller at home. There's perhaps a little jank to this, but you really have to look to see it.

Sunder Spirit - boom, its the shitty nuke (tm). This one isn't awful, RNG10 and POW12 works, especially at cost 2. There's even a little bit of denial built in, stripping the animus of a Warbeast which it damages.

Transference - and this is going to be his big thing. With Reclaim, Zaal potentially has a whole bunch of boosts to chuck out here, especially helpful to the Immortals he'll want to run, or to allow the Ancestral Guardians with him to use their own Souls for exclusively buying attacks. How good is this? Well, it's downfall will be that to get the most out of it, he'll need to see a lot of his guys get killed, much like Zaal1's feat - thus making it a careful balancing act.

Vision - a spell which essentially lets you ignore a freestrike, as any player with any experience will easily remove from your crucial model before they go to kill it.

Now.. the feat, and I'll admit, this is a hard sell.

Strength Eternal.

All Friendly Faction Constructs gain +5 ARM, boosted attack rolls, and heal D6+3 damage.

Here's why this currently sucks. 

Immortals and Ancestral Guardians are not enough to make this work. Ancestral Guardians are not difficult to wipe out in one or two shots, or a dedicated attack. They won't get to heal, as they'll be destroyed the turn that they get attacked. Immortals won't heal - they have one box.  Ancestral Guardians at MAT8 don't need the MAT buff. Really, you're just looking at the boost for Immortals (although, they won't get the MAT buff on their vengeance move at the start of the turn..), and the ARM. ARM22 on a ARM17 model that shrugged off blast damage before and only have one box isn't the best. ARM23 on an Ancestral Guardian is nice I guess, but your opponent can ignore them for a turn, and then kill them the next.

At least Zaal himself might like it. 

So, time for the dojo.

Zaal2 is another Skorne infantry guy, like Makeda1, Makeda2, Xerxis1, Zaal1, and so on. His big problem is that for his feat, he wants that infantry to be constructs - for all of his other abilities, he wants them to be living. He's unfortunately not an Ancestral Guardian himself, so he'll want a couple of them at least along for the ride to get the best out of the immortals - the issue being that he then faces the choice of losing Souls himself to fuel Transference, or starve the other statues.

Sad times.

Beyond that, Zaal2 feels so directionless, that he could probably take anything in his battlegroup. There's an argument that an Aradius Sentinel or Cannoneer (people still take them, right?) will like Mage Sight, until you realise that giving out Eyeless Sight is not an issue. I'm also not sure how many points you'll have for the beasts. I've been playing around with lists, and by the time you've picked up two max units of Immortals, a couple of Ancestral Guardians and two or so units of Nihilators or Praetorians to make Souls.

His statline doesn't want him to be in melee at all, but Righteous Vengence does, to help him move around. If you keep Vision on him to effectively give him another transfer, then you'll be giving up on Transference which is absolutely his strongest element.

Looking forward, we'll see. He could have an extremely strong Tier. Devastation could also offer some more constructs, which could then give the feat more credence, or a UA for the Immortals. If we're making a wish list, lets have a tier that lets us make the Warbeasts count as constructs - imagine the painting you could do!

In short, at first glance, it looks like tournament play wont see this guy much, especially until Devastation comes out. After that.. well, that's going to depend on whats in the book.  I'd hoped that he'd be the control Warlock that the faction needs, which sadly he's not. In fact, he's kinda more of the same I fear, which is mildly depressing - when I saw Mage Sight, things seemed to be looking up..

But I'm still excited, and quietly confident. He can't be anywhere near as bad as he is on paper, right?

Preparing a Pairing: What's the trick!

Hey all, Aaron here! My posts have been few and far between recently, but I'm hoping with a lot of events coming up and it being the summer holidays in school (and me working in one) I'll have more time to write some thoughts on the blog.

Today's post is about list pairings, those fabled two lists (for the purpose of this post, I am referring to Masters and Steamroller events which run on a 2 list pairing system and not including Iron Gauntlet in the discussion) that will take you to ultimate victory, land you on bottom table or anything in between. The question is, how do you pick your two? I'll discuss a few methods that you can use to decide upon a two list pairing.

Method 1 : Scenario / Assassination

So one of the methods you could go down is building two lists designed to play the game depending on the scenario rolled. It may be Incursion, or Outflank where a kill box is missing and the table can be fully utilized in the spreading out of troops, using flanks and trying to pull armies apart rather than have you in the center as a brick (looking at you Runes, as discussed in the post below me). For this you may want to have a list in mind which can do the above, spread out and not require tight formations to be effective. This normally consists of more units and solos then it does warbeasts/jacks.


In this case, the second list may be more directed towards an assassination game in those scenarios in which the game is more centered, mainly the first 4 as they are kill box. In this list you would want some sort of assassination game plan, it may be a warlock/warcaster who is aimed at doing it or simply one who enables it via other means. Typically a list like this would be more focussed around a bricked force as you plan to play into those central missions in which you want to advance forward to maintain the pressure on the kill box / the kill on the opponents caster.

Looking at this sort of pairing for me, a Morv1/Braddigus pairing fits into it. Morv1 is very good at spreading as she plays to infantry's strength with Regrowth, and the feat is better with more things that can trigger it. She will typically not run beast heavy and enables the spreading out of your list with typically self sufficient units (Trackers, Druids, Skin Walkers spring to mind). On the flipside is Braddigus, who I think we all know plays an A+ assassination game, bricks in the center and does NOT like to be spread out in large area. This is for a few reasons, it means denying of LoS to the army is harder as it's less concentrated, you have few effective models to spread so contesting on things like Incursion could often be 2-3 models, as well as Braddigus's control area of 12" isn't huge in the grand scheme of things. All these reasons means he likes to play a centered game where he can always apply pressure for an assassination, which pairs with Morv1 very well.

Thinking hypercritically there are shortfalls to this pairing system in the sense your lists don't have much direction, they simple have to spread and stayed centered. This may lead to your lists suffering to extreme skews, for example in this case MMM can spread, and is an armor skew. Without direction my Morv1 list, which has a good chance of being paired into this, may suffer as my list was not prepared for the armor skew.


Method 2 : Faction Pairings

Another method which could be applied to creating a list pairing is having your lists directed towards playing specific factions as we all have a idea of the typical archetype for each faction. An example being, I would bet a pound or two that a Legion pairing may turn up with 3-4 Eyeless Sight warbeasts. I could guess that Cryx will turn up with 1-2 arcnodes, some tarpit units in the way of Satyxis and some hard hitters in the way of Banes. Using this knowledge you could gear two lists with a idea of which faction each list wants to play, trying to cover them all using the archetypes we know.

An example from myself, would be a Braddigus/Kreuger2 pairing. Braddigus, faction-wise has very few bad pairings. He doesn't want to see Vayl1 as Incited Scytheans are bad, he doesn't want to see some variations of Trolls and maybe some Cryx. With that in mind, creating a Kreuger2 list which does play into those things Braddigus does not want to see in a ideal world means you have the perfect pairing, doesn't it? Well sadly not. Why this pairing system may be the most safe way, it's not perfect, what happens when your opponent turns up with two lists that don't follow their normal faction archetype and you're caught unawares?

A long and tedious, though maybe most effective process in which you can test your pairing this way goes as follows: get your two lists ready, and then go through each faction, go through a few of their power pairings and ask yourself do you feel comfortable playing into those two?

An example being I have my Brad/Kreuger2, and I put my self against a Vayl1/Lylyth2 pairing, well Brad can handle Lylyth, and Kreuger2 Vayl1 (and who doesn't love list chicken). You can repeat these for each faction with a few pairings, if you're happy with 80-90% of the matchups you're golden!

Method 3 : Dude spam / armor 

The third and final method I will discuss in this post is designing two lists each to play a different sort of list. One to play a opponent who has lists with lots of infantry in and one designed to face armor of any sort. Personally, for me I don't like this method. I'll throw an example pairing of Kreuger1 and Kaya2. Kreuger1 designed to clear a lot of models, Kaya2 designed to crack armor.

Now, the weakness in this thought process is, my Kreuger1 will chew through a lot of single would, low armor models but what happens I play dude spam, but it's all high armor? Well you could say, ppfft easy play Kaya2 you fool! Very true, but my Kaya2 list does NOT want to spread, and sadly his dude spam drop does. This is where the weakness comes in this thought process, as playing against dude spam is great, but there is different archetypes of dude spam which you can't necessarily account for in one list as well as scenario.

So lots of way to design your own pairing, is any of it flawless? 

Well, we're in a great age of Warmachine, I myself have recently pondered my own two list pairings for my circle as I have a whole ton of events this year. I would happily take Kreuger2, Morv1, Morv2, Kromac1 ,Kromac2 ,Braddigus and Kaya2 to a event in a suitable pairing and feel confident. I have about 10 different pairing sheets which I could take to a Steamroller/Masters and still be undecided until I'm forced to choose one.

Is it because Circle have a hugely deep bench of warlocks to choose from and still compete? This does aid my quest for the Holy Grail of list pairings sadly, but that is not the reason. The reason is because you just simply CANNOT create a pairing which plays into every - single - possible - list you MAY see at a event. Each time I settle on a pair, I go "ehhhhh, but what if I bump into THIS list?" I've done this for the last 2 weeks, and it's become crystal clear that you just can't pair for everything any more.

This is fantastic for the game, it means the meta will never remain stagnant as tournament winners will always be different and different factions will rise and fall in the meta and power rankings with new release and erratas.

Ultimately, can you pair for everything? No. Take a pairing you enjoy, take a paring you're comfortable with, and take a pairing you have practice with.

Well thank you for reading, and I hope you liked the article. Please drop a comment and discuss how you designed your list pairing and maybe some new methods I haven't discussed here.

Learning Runes pt2.

Won 5 lost 3.

Learning 'Runes' has been fun so far. 

Killing Caine2 twice in a row was awesome, struggling again Morvanna2 was not. Turns out Mulg is great with Goad and Fortune. He isn't great when you advance him too far forward and allow two legion beasts to kill him turn 2 (yes I fucked up).

I have recently been pairing with EE - original I know. EE is amazingly fun and was fantastic against Dave's Cryx. More on that later this week. 

What have I learnt so far with Runes? 

Well, where to begin. I love Runeshapers and find them to be essential at getting work done. They have cleared zones and destroyed objectives in most games, but importantly, they have knocked down some important targets with Rock Hammer. The Runeshapers with Jannissa make the lair in my opinion. Having four units of steady trolls at ARM17 with 5 wounds is back breaking against some lists. The Force Lock makes it even better, stopping Morvanna2 getting to Doomshaper on the final table at a recent tournament was the best moment of playing Runes yet. 

At the moment I am considering dropping the Mauler for an extra two units of Runeshapers. I haven't had to use Rage at all yet and feel the extra two units could get more work done. However, having three heavy beasts is a massive threat so I will keep playing but the list before I make changes. 

One thing I have noticed that screws the list is anti-magic. Druids' Counter Magic previously, and this morning having Bradigus cast Mystic Ward, was back breaking. Runeshapers really struggle to do anything worthwhile in those instances. If you want to deny this list, Counter Magic or similar abilities appear to be the way to do it. 

Painting Big B

Hi All,

So following on from the review of the Illumistation painting station I received for my birthday I decided I should actually paint something so here is a little painting review/guide for the real Khador big boy, Behemoth!

Firstly came the bog standard filing of all mold lines and general first fitting. This led me to the conclusion that pinning was going to be a necessary evil. Although its an easy job (with a dremel and Privateer Press pinning kits), it is yet another job before the painting starts. As you can see below I have made the bold (not that bold) decision to swap out the original Behemoth legs for a bog standard pair of plastic jack legs.

I think the legs take away the dancing, hops, skip and jumping weird look of the original sculpt. This does however add a more of a static feel, but I feel a little compromise here will both add to the over all menace of the sculpt and draw the eye up towards all the more interesting arms and bombards on the shoulders.

A small amount of Vallejo model air black primer in the airbrush later and Big B certainly is on the way to looking like a badass.

At this point, before its onto painting proper I thought I had better sort out something a bit fun for the base before its too late. So I grabbed some plastic-card brick design template and a handful of these small bricks and got to work! After cutting out a suitable circle of the plastic-card I put the model on it to mark out where the feet are going to be.

I then cut out the feet, stuck the card to the base as below 

and then it was time to stick on the bricks to the base in a way that makes it look like the jack was so heavy the weight of a 6 ton jack would crush the bricks!

This was done by using a scalpel to slice and break up the bricks. I then glued them in and undercoated them.  But I'm getting ahead of myself!!!

So its now time for painting time of Big B, so I just simply used some model air white through the air brush to add any highlights on the red parts of the amour as below

then its time to spray on some red ink. This covers not only the white with a strong bright red, but leaves the black with a subtle dark red tint. Then I painted all the metal bits a mix of Vallejo steel and black. The black parts were painted black.

Then it was time to paint the bronze parts GW warpstone bronze. That meant that all the base colours were completed and it was time to get my highlight on!

So I kept the highlights nice and simple. Vallejo steel for the silver highlights, Vallejo bronze for the bronze parts, and a mixture of black, blue and green for the black highlights. giving a slightly cooler grey colour. 

The base was painted black and then 2 different shades of grey were applied to give a bit of texture to the base I stippled the grey on using an old medium size dry brush. Once dry, I applied a wash of Agrax Earthshade to the base to take the edge off the lighter grey. To mark the arc on the base I masked off the base with bluetac and used the same white highlight and red ink technique used on the armour. Then I just airbrushed on some matt varnish and the work was done.

I hope you enjoyed this little ramble. Please feel free to post any comments or criticisms. I'm looking to improve so any help is much appreciated. 

Stay Classy

Double Epic Tom 

Westwood Woodwork Illumistation Review

This month has seen the celebration of another year that I have managed to avoid deaths warm embrace, and as such my better half has gifted me the above mentioned painting station made by the very talented people at Westwood Wordworks.

In all honesty I think this was for her sanity a little more than for my painting, but a thoughtful gift is still a thoughtful gift no matter what the sneaky upsides are. So now all my painting equipment can be contained to one tidy, smart looking space.

When the box arrived through the post I was instantly impressed by the careful packaging (lots of bubblewrap, that kept Carla happy!). The paint station is definitely a smart option for those that are looking for an adaptable and easy to use self contained painting area. The Redwood Pine which is stained black is a very striking and handsome thing that is for sure!

As you can see from the above pictures that heavy duty handle and clasps on the top of the box give both a professional finish and a very secure feeling when moving the station. Plus the piano hinges on the front make for a smooth opening and secure front.

First among the key features to note are the adjustable shelves that are really easy to move around. There is a small two draw removable box which is the perfect size to hold all my brushes in the top one, and then all my files and pinning equipment in the lower (slightly larger) drawer.

Now I know that one of the most annoying things that comes up often when painting is the lack of a suitable light source. Luckily Westwood have provided a truly brilliant adjustable strip light that not only uses super bright LEDs, but also has 3 brightness settings. This is awesome when you're painting in a room with some natural light - as the light moves you can adjust not only angle but brightness as well.

One of the many smart design features that I found on the piece is the manner in which the power to the light connects. As you can see in the picture below the connection is pretty heavy duty and should easily protect from the odd splash of paint or spilled water/ink/other random substance. The way that the light folds down is really neat, so the front can be closed and latched securely without having to find somewhere else to store the light - this is another big plus point, especially for those whom space is a premium.

Speaking of smart design features, before I forget I should mention the magnetized painting board that holds the light, as well as a some recessed spaces that are perfect for either some models or paints. This is going to be great for when you have a whole unit that you want to work on in a production line style.

Having now painted my first model on this masterpiece of engineering. I am finding it difficult to explain how much this is going to help me in both keeping on top of an ever expanding list of projects and giving me a dedicated area (in our tiny flat) that I can have just for painting that gives me all I need in a small space. Without the need to keep taking out and putting paints/brushes/other equipment in draws, it means I can just drop the front plug in the light and I'm away. I can just close up the front and the stylish brief case style box looks cool and tidy at the end of a painting session.

Now for the bad bits... erm... there just aren't any!!! I can't recommend this product highly enough. I'm so impressed. In a few months I will give a follow up to let you know how its going and if I have had any issues, but to be honest having had a little look at the joints and method of construction this product is extremely well put together and I feel that if I look after it a bit (ie not throw it down the stairs), I will not need to buy another paint station for a long, long time. Now this may not be the best business model for Westwood,  I can imagine the only part that may fail after some time would be the light, but something tells me that this would be easily replaced.

The one thing that I have found is that being lefthanded the light could get in the way of my hand a bit, but to be honest the light is set far enough back into the board that all I really have found is that the light stand has stopped me from spilling my drink twice! I think Westwood are missing a small market in custom water cups for their paint stations... maybe these are coming soon *hint*

As far as room for paints as you can see from the picture below I have managed to fit all the paints I regularly use, plus quite a few more (there are quite a few double, I use a lot of white and earthshade!). There is also a lot of room for more paints as most all the model specific brand paints that I have could be doubled up on each shelf.

As mentioned a the beginning of the article, this is a present from my partner for my Birthday, so I had nothing to do with the ordering of this. I have been told by Carla that Andrew & Jenny at Westwood were both very helpful and friendly to deal with. They kept very close to their delivery date.

Carla is not a gamer, has never been a gamer and has no interest in gaming! Yet when she ordered me a custom carry tray for tournaments through Westwood Woodworks they were more than able to guide her through what I needed and provided great advice and customer support. So if you do have a loved one wondering what to get you for a birthday/Christmas/special occasion I would point them in the direction of Westwood. If not, then do yourself a favour and get on over and order yourself one. I seriously doubt you will regret it any time soon...well the amount of time you spend painting might increase as you will have a kick-ass paintstation to get your paint on!

For more information contact the good people at Westwood Woodwork at their Facebook page

Westwood-Woodworks

I have just finished a Khador Behemoth using this, which I will be posting up the painting piece of in the next few days as well, so keep an eye out.

Thanks for reading,

Stay Classy

Double Epic Tom

Playing at 35pts

Coming up for the next two weeks is our local clubs extremely belated Exigence release event, that our local PG has just never quite got around to fitting into his busy tournament schedule. We're mixing it up a little though, to make it more encouraging for new players, and trying to keep the format friendly to veterans. Far too often, release events have some godawful scenarios that just leave players cringing.

The result is that the format will be standard games using steamroller, and all at 35pts. A mini tourney of sorts, run over two weeks of club meetings. I'm looking forward to it immensely. For me, the most fun and the best demonstration of why Warmachine is one of the best games systems out there is playing casual games against new people and friends alike.

But it does get me thinking though. 35? Although in my part of the world when I first started playing, the game has naturally evolved now, and I've been playing at 50pts exclusively for around six months at least, with only a couple of sporadic games before that. It takes me back to that rose tinted montage of learning to play, like Rocky running through the snow. 

If I played Khador, this would probably be more apt.

 

But the more I've dwelt on building lists for the event, the more I've realised some things about the points level that time forgot. So let's talk 35pts today, because playing at that level really does force you to make some interesting choices.

Firstly, you can't waste points anywhere. In 50, where points redundancy is a little more forgiving, having that solo or at worst Light Warbeast or min Unit that don't quite do anything in most games isn't the end of the world. Hell, your opponent probably has something similar in his or her list. At 35 though, forget about it - we're trying to squeeze every single point out of this mother, and there's zero room for a model that doesn't pull its own weight. This is where some of the Tiers with points reductions come in as extremely valuable too; if I play the previously discussed Morghoul2 Theme Hit Squad with points reductions on my Heavy Warbeasts at 50, then I can manage to effectively play 59pts at a 50pt game. That's good, but the same at 35, giving me 44pts is much more valuable. My opponent is playing 35, and I'm on my way to a 50pt list, especially if I take more of the big lads. It sounds silly, but those extra points are much more precious suddenly.

Even so, 35pts forces something else that is almost entirely mitigated at 50pts... namely, weakness. At 50pts, with players using the same standard builds that sap all inventiveness and individualism out of the game, it's easily possible to build forces which tick all of the boxes, and 'answer' everyone's 'questions' - or even build your own all comers list. Your army can splash down on the table, knowing that unless you play the most skewy of all skew lists, you're probably on an even footing. So why is this bad? It's not. But 35 is interesting, because it typically denies this, due to lack of available points. You're going to have some elements where your force can't quite cover effectively, leaving you more than ever before in the hands of fate.

Instead, players are forced to build lists which play the way that they want the list to play, aggressively designed around their strengths. It's a more fragile place yes, but at the same time exhilarating. Games at 35pts have the same feel that the early battlebox games you had did - set up small forces against each other, start playing and then bam! Assassination straight out of downtown, or that vital Unit / Heavy / Solo gone to a clever trick. Wipe the table, set up against another player start again. Total game time? Probably around half of what a 50pt game has. Net result, lots of fun, quick games against different players, which no one takes too seriously.

35pts to me seems to embody the spirit of Warmachine more than any other points level. You can include whatever you want, and play using the full rules, but don't have to worry about the game being bogged down into a grinding attrition that takes an age to play out, or losing interest as your opponent moves hordes of models around. It's quick, fast and dirty, the gaming worlds premier skirmish game doing what it does best, and thriving. There is after all a reason that we all stopped off here after we learned the ropes, and before we stepped up to contemporary tournament play.

Is 35pts balanced? Yes.. sort of. There are some Warnouns that just don't work at the level, some models that are just too prohibitively priced. In comparison to 50pts? Probably not. 50pts should absolutely be the standard for tournament play. Is 35pts fun though?

Absolutely. I can't wait to play some games again!

Tuffalo Tales Tier Tournament

So recently I attended a Blood, Sweat and Tiers tournament run by our very own Pressganger Dave Downs. A great local event full of familiar faces, I took a pretty standard Tier 4 Borka1 family reunion list which I am well experienced with and a Tier 2 Borka2 Avalanche list, which I had only had a few games with. Seeing as there was no divide and conquer (or character restrictions which everyone seemed to miss) I was going to stick with Borka 2 unless things went really bad. My list included Fire eaters, max Longriders and Horthol. Stone Scribes, Pyre,Bouncer, Earthborn and Rok.

Game 1.
Played Harvey from this very blog and his Butcher 3 list. I suffered my usual tournament first game mental block, in which I forget all the strategies needed for my list to work and hope my opponent is also half asleep, sadly Harvey wasn't. I was on the back foot most game, I had a turn when Rok was with in charge distance of Butcher 3 but I couldn't clear the models in front of him. There was a strange moment when a war dog charged, got counter charged by Rok, who failed to reach melee due to a Berserker 'Jack being in the way, but before Rok could complete his assault move got counter-charged by the wardog who then returned to Butcher3, thus avoiding the spray assault! Lost this on scenario.
How did the Tuffalo do? They mostly made poor road blocks as Ruin with silence of death one shotted them with ease.

Game 2.
Played another friend and his Grissel1 dude swarm. There were 2 max units of Kreil warriors with all the trimmings, Scattergunners,Fire eaters, some support and a couple of lights. I ran my army, he ran his, I was engaged. The speed of the tier list was something but it seemed to lack hitting power and the massed attacks of Kreil warriors couldn't take out Rok or the Earthborn. My two heavies completely heal them selves on stationary Kreil troll Popsicle's. Game turned into a grind in which my opponent's death clock run out.
How did the Tuffalo do? They made much better road blocks this time, the high armour was to much for Kreil warriors to deal with and once free of Kreil spam they could go off and deal with the real threat, the Fire eaters.

Game 3.
Played a PVayl beast list with Hex Hunters. Borka's feat allowed me to get right down the throat of Vay'ls beasts and kill box prevented her from running to far. Borka himself took care of Vayl after Horthol bull rushed her. This was quick and brutal.
How did the Tuffalo do? Great, they rushed ahead of Borka's battle group and cleared out the two units of Hex Hunters, dealing with there high def. Once past the Hex Hunters they tied up the large Legion battle group during Borka's feat.

Game 4.
Played my Nemesis Paul (from this very blog). PZerkova's hunting wolves NQ tier. I have played this list a few times, whilst Paul is very competent with this I never struggled against. No different this time and with once central objective zone my Borka list rushed the Khadorians and proceeded to bully it. Only the Devastor constantly clamming up and running back into the zone prevented a scenario win. The Kayazy decided to avoid fighting anything threatening and attacked the Scribe unit, which felt very characterful. Left with only a handful of models, Zerkova run up to Borka, casted multiple razorwinds and shot him to strip him of focus an then charged the remaining two Greylord Outriders to kill Borka. The slim chance of victory through a hail mary shot is one of the things I like about Warmachine, but it still stings to be on the receiving end of it.
How did the Tuffalo do? Great again, they managed to slam Greylords into Kayazy Eliminators, removing that threat from the table, before going through the rest of the Kayazy into a Vanguard light jack before swinging back into the control zone.

So a 2-2 result and the Tuffalo performed well. I feel like they can dominate certain games but they need to keep mobile to be fully effective, impact hits and slams is where it is at. Borka's feat help them if they get tied up, so I will be trying them with other casters (Jarl next) but already I feel they have earned their reputation as great cavalry models, are they best? As with anything it's debatable, I have seen Skorne Ferox used to devastating effect, I have seen wolf riders demolish entire army flanks, I have suffered under the shots of Tempest Blazers but Tuffalo are easily up there.

..this news just in folks - Hit Squad is a thing.

..and lo, did our heroes from the Imperishable Dominion blog travel, across the highest snow wreathed mountains, overcome the sandy and barren deserts, through verdant green fields, over the endless sapphire seas, and go to a local tourney hosted by our resident Press Ganger, which included the 'Theme Forces: Tier1 Required' variant. And it was pretty cool.

So initially, I should probably explain, for those uninitiated that are unfamiliar with the variant. The Theme Forces: Tier1 requirement states that all lists for the event must be theme forces taken from either No Quarter or Forces of books, and must be at least Tier1. All non theme lists are illegal. Otherwise, the Steamroller pack is the same, although interestingly, the variant also lifts the usual FA C restriction - something which most people don't realise, myself included.

Although nervous of seeing a lists filled with hordes of Banes led by Bane Lord Tartarus, I've been looking forward to this one as a first tournament testing ground for the Morghoul2 Hit Squad list I've been working on. To pair with it, after much deliberation I chose another experimental list - a Makeda1 Army of the Western Reaches list at Tier3, filled with Scarab Beast Packs. More on the latter later.

At this stage, it would probably be best to discuss list construction and the build a little.

Hit Squad, Tier4

Lord Assassin Morghoul

-Cyclops Brute

-Titan Gladiator

-Titan Gladiator

-Titan Gladiator

Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor

Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor

Agoniser

Paingiver Task Master

Paingiver Task Master

Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and three grunts)

Gatorman Posse (Leader and four grunts)

Gatorman Posse (Leader and four grunts)

So.. I know. There's no Archidon. No Basilisk Krea either, although that's probably less mandatory than having Sprint on a stick. Finally, there are no Paingiver Bloodrunner units. Morghoul2 doesn't do anything much for the Titans either. So what does it do? 

It plays on two fronts for the most part. Early experimentation with maximising the amount of Heavy Warbeasts that I could get out of the Tier3 bonus was a lot of fun, but ultimately a real strain on a Fury 5 Warlock. Most Warbeasts would start the turn with Fury and risk frenzy, especially once the game was into turn three and beyond where careful placement of Beast Handlers or a Bronzeback couldn't keep the rest reigned in. Additionally, due to the small Control Area I could never quite get the most out of some of the higher SPD Warbeasts. An Archidon with Rush, a Shadow Whip move and either Ghost Walk or the Feat for immunity to Free Strikes has a tremendous threat of 15.5" inches which is difficult to defend from, but typically flies straight out of control and cannot then boost or buy any additional attacks. The alternative forces you to push Morghoul too far forward to a vulnerable position, and whilst on occasion it was possible to get a long shot  assassination (the Archidon at MAT6 with one attack base isn't the best for this..) more often this would be for a piece trade, and certainly not worth the risk.

The answer I found was to instead focus on the slower Warbeasts, which were easier for Morghoul to keep control of, and with less of them, to reduce the strain. I overlapped multiple Titan Gladiators to reduce my opponents chances of sniping out Rush from my force, too often the obvious tactic to experienced opponents, and to allow for the beasts to buff each other if needed - removing the need for Morghoul to cast the animus each turn. Plus, three Titan Gladiators is an imposing sight heading down the battle field, and very tanky. With Morghoul and the Paingivers either Stealthed or immune to CRA attacks, the Warbeasts needed to be able to take a hit at reasonable power and keep going.

The second learning curve of this list was that the same small Control Area meant that the list couldn't effectively play into scenarios where the focus wasn't a central zone. Whilst it was easy for Morghoul and his zoo to clear one side of the battlefield, on the other, I'd lose to scenario. Using Bog Trog Ambushers and a unit Gatormen to contest was one approach which worked in some games but often didn't maximise the potential of either, the Bog Trogs suddenly too predictable in where they would ambush and the isolated Gatormen easy to pick off before they could close. Losing the Big Trogs and using the points from the extra Warbeasts allowed to add in a second unit, and back them both up with a Paingiver Task Master to further increase their versatility and survivabilty.

Finally, although initially I didn't include the Agoniser, I felt that the new build with its heavy armour skew could benefit from the inclusion of one to maximise the strengths of the list further - additionally, with no Fury 1 spells or animus, Morghoul often could find the Fury to drop into the solo, keeping it topped up during the game.

 

All the subtlety of the average house brick? Must be one of Sherwin's lists then.

So.. how did it do? I fielded the list in Games One, Two and Four - and won all of them. 

Game One was against the Protectorate of Menoth, and Feora2. I was helped in this game by a central forest on the table, allowing me to run my Titans forward under the cover of the trees and out of line of sight but at the same time able to draw LOS to the inevitable Judicator, which my opponent was forced to either hold away from my battlegroup, or risk the Titans wrath. On the other side of the table, the two Gatorman units were more than enough to initially wipe out the Temple Flameguard and then contest the zone, whilst Morghoul cleared out the friendly zone from enemy models to start scoring. Even so, clever placement from my opponent mean that this one came down to an assassination in the end; with my time on the Deathclock running out, a Task Master was able to use her Mancatcher attack to hold Feora in place so that a Titan could beat her into red paste.

Game Two played into a Sorcha1 Khador list, and was Recon. Going second and having seen my opponents deployment, from the first turn, I gambled that Morghoul could capture the flag on the far left, whilst the rest of my army denied my opponent the same in the middle and on the far right flank. My opponent suffered from trying to advance in a more linear manner, unable to capture the other two zones, I managed to walk away with a scenario victory from this often awkward scenario.

Game Four pitted my list against Siege Brisbane in Destruction, and this was a far more conventional Morghoul2 game, pushing aggressively up the table on the first turn, and then finding a janky assassination in the second turn after extending my threat via Apparition and Shadow Whip. 

..I came second in the event, my only loss to Dan and his Trollbloods in Game Three, Dan being the guy that won the event. This was my only non-Morghoul game, and where sadly my second experimental list failed utterly, in a very rough Runes of War Matchup. I'll keep pushing with that one, especially once the Aradius Soldier arrives, which I think is exactly what it needs to give it more punch. More on that in weeks to come.

Overall, I'm delighted with the list. It plays very well into scenario play, which is both unusual for an assassination Warlock, and not necessarily something which Skorne armies are best suited to. It can both take attrition from the opponents forces, as well as deal out significant damage, but at the same time is interestingly mobile. I might keep playing around with it and fine tuning, but in truth will probably keep it this way for some time, until I come up against a wall. 

Until next time fellow Tyrants. 

Everyone has that special someone...

As the title says, every Warmachine player has that one Warcaster or Warlock that they just click with... they suit their play style to a tee, they enable you to get the most out of your army and are a really cool model to boot!


Mine is this chap:

Lord Carver Esq III, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction

 

 

Lord Carver is the warnoun I have used in more games than all the others combined, from every faction I have played by a long shot. He is the real deal Evander Holyfield style, Mohamed i'm hard Bruce Lee to the face... He takes the Thornfall Alliance by the short n curlys and drags them up to a playable state all on his own.

Carvers combination of raw stats, abilities and spells turns your sorry bunch of chumps into a mean baconating fighting machine:

• He makes your stuff more accurate with Quagmire and CRA on the Brigands
• He makes your stuff hit harder with the feat
• He makes your boys not scared of the monsters with Inspiration
• He makes your beasts faster with Mobility
• He makes your beasts tougher with Batten down the Hatches
• He hits hard enough to take out the enemy caster and heavies by himself
• He is Genghis Khan Piggy, only Rorsh is cooler!

You get the idea from this epitaph that he's pretty good, some including myself believe that if he were in a proper faction he would break the game because he is so good... Imagine what your real army beasts could do with those spells haha.



Carver I have played for years and his dominance as my favorite 'lock has never been threatened until now... 5 games with this lady has brought some contest for my heart:

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight

 

What I have found is that Vayl plays quite similar to lord Carver, just she has a much much better army available to make use of her abilities!

• She makes your stuff more accurate with Chiller, Incite and Rampager (Turn around)
• She makes your stuff hit harder with Incite
• She protects her army with the feat, distance is a form of armour too!
• She makes your beasts faster with Leash
• She is an evil ice witch with a magic ball of justice

She cant take down casters reliably, Malice and Hoarfrost are ok spells but she wont be mixing it up in melee. Legion has a far better selection of beasts and Animi to draw from and they quite frankly put the pigs in the shade; the Scythean is a new level of badass with Incite, Chiller, Leash and Slipstream, and the Seraph is possibly the finest utility beast in the game (Gorax and Bull Snapper coming close)

I have had great fun so far using her T4 Winter Storm force, I will be main listing it at the Tier Tourney tomorrow at 4TKgaming and probably for the immediate future as well, its a enabled me to compete on an even keel with some of the other great Warmachine players that contribute to this blog.

      



Ramblings of the Reformed

..so, after bursting out of the gate with a mission statement regarding our man Morghoul2 and his delightful new tier, I've been silent for a few days. More than a few indeed. "Aha," you say, "clearly the man has been playtesting!"

Well.. about that.

Not so much. Sadly, real life has conspired to steal my opponents, and left me without games, or time to play them. That, and painting. But like any decent Warmachine player, I've been making lists, and checking them at least twice. The few games I've managed with Morghoul have taught me some interesting lessons - and now, we're onto a new approach, which is to try him as the worlds most unlikely Brick Warlock. More on that once I've manged a handful of games with him. To be honest, I might not stick with it, but something calls me in a list with three Gladiators, and two max Gatormans, especially with Grevious Wounds on tap.

Which leads me, in a mildly convoluted way, to a confession and the real focus of my ramblings today.

Yes, despite my previous mission statement, I played the Fist at an event. I played the Fist, and remembered all the reasons why I liked it, and the compelling reasoning as to why I came to loathe it.

For me, the Fist was a great way to begin my faction. I've never been able to get along with Morghoul1, and the artwork for Xerxis1 is cool. So cool in fact, that I took one look at him and stopped searching for another Warlock. For about three years.

 The Chuck Norris of Warmachine

Back then, our meta was kinda small. No one had really explored the idea of spamming models via tiers into their armies. We were all so jaded from being burnt by 40K, that Warmachine was our escape back into the wilds, where we could find our love for wargaming again. Playing the Fist in this environment was crazy fun, as I'm sure you can imagine. Before long, I was the guy to beat, with the silly list, where everything had weapon master or crazy strength, pretty much everything had reach, and everything had both more armour and more boxes than god.

The trouble is, once you start being that guy, you don't stop being that guy. The pressure gets to you, and you become both a negative play experience for other people, and a douchebag that desperately needs the win to keep the reputation. You don't in reality of course - but that's exactly how it feels, no matter how small or inconsequential your meta is.

Before long, I stopped even considering taking other lists to events, or building pairs that were not around the Fist, and its few shortcomings. It's an extremely potent list, which requires careful planning on the best way to beat it, and which some armies simply don't have. Any time I considered the possibility of playing without it, I just got stuck in the mindset that to not take the Fist was the height of lunacy.

This is where, in my opinion, Warmachine players can go wrong some times, and what lists like the Fist, along with the other potent net decks represent. I'm not against powerful lists, and players choosing lists that are similar to other peoples, and nor am I scornful of people that want to do well at events. We all do, obviously. No one enjoys playing games they don't win. But often in my experience, those same lists come with expectations, and (unintentionally) bad intentions and experiences.

Now for me, the mission statement of playing games is simple. Fun. Waramchine is my social outlet, an evening hanging out with my opponent, my weekend away with the guys, or my chance to meet new, likeminded people. I've made a lot of friends that way, and kept in touch with more, and have stories to remember and tell of the events I've been to for later years. By no means am I most the best player in the world, and never will be. And I'm not about to start playing a WTC winning list just to try and reach a few steps further up the ladder.

So that means that netdecks are out. Being a negative play experience becomes something I don't want to touch at all. I played Convergence for a year exclusively, spending seven months of the year eagerly waiting for Father Lucant - only to drop him after a handful of games because I saw how much he worked up my opponents. If there is a trap in this game, it is that we find something strong that works, and then get too scared to step away from it, because we might start losing again.

That's all wrong.

And that's exactly what I felt playing the Fist at a Journeyman In a Day event I went to last weekend. I played tight, cagey games, which were mostly very one-sided. And whilst wiping 50pts of Menoth off of the table in one turn during the last game was fun of sorts, I really didn't like the unease at remembering what it was to be that guy.

And there you have it. My confession. And the reason that I rarely, if ever, play with Molik Karn in my army.