Losing My SmogCon Cherry : Part 2

The next game was against El Presidente Sherwin with his army of pigs, again a loss but with a few enemy models being taken off and the game lasting a bit longer. This was then the theme of the day, more models being taken from the opponent and games lasting longer, a sign I took as progress.

By 12:30am Saturday I had played my 5^th game. Off I went to hand the scores in and then toddle off to bed, actually very eager for more games of Warmachine in the morning. Whilst in the Smogpit there was Rid, just finished a game and tidying up his pigs and Carver. After a bit of a chat, he challenged me to a game, after a short pause, I thought where else can you have a wargame at 12:30 in the morning in such a grand setting, so we sat down and started deploying.

As we faced off across the board I saw a very nice hill to sit my errants on, and ran them there with defenders ward on, I was planning to make the pigs pay for every inch (or half inch normal melee) that they took. After lots of blood shed and an epic failure in tough rolls for Rid he finally went in for the kill, but this didn’t happen and somehow it was my turn and a victory in sight. I’ll be honest I can’t remember if it was the Crusader or Kreoss that finally beat Carver down, but one of them did, and that was it, I had a win in a 50 point game. To be fair Rid had helped with tactics and advice throughout the game, and his glazed look was one of someone who had a cold and no sleep due to children all week. It did give me a boost though, and as we saw it was 2:30 in the morning decided to head off to bed. I did enjoy Rids shock, having lost all track of time he thought it should be around 12:00 and we had started at 10 ish.

Crawling into bed, I set my alarm for 9, allowing me quite some sleep otherwise I would be grumpy the next day, but also up in time for breakfast … otherwise I’d be grumpy the next day.

Breakfast or Carver ... I forget ;)

The next day I played four more games, including one against someone I didn’t know, not from our meta. I had a much firmer grasp of the rules and my models stats, but in the spirit of Smogcon, my opponent was more than happy whilst I added focus I’d obviously forgot to do in the maintenance phase, re-route models I’d ran straight through opponents melee I didn’t know had reach etc… and provided some advice of how Cygnar play and what to watch out for.

As an extended Essex scene we went for a curry in the evening, and there I found myself joining in about how my boosted jacks cleared charge lanes for my weapon master Paladins … I had assimilated, I had a new, extremely tactical and well imagined game system in my repertoire. I had grasped the basics and a little more of. This was almost the end of Saturday all that was left was for me to half drunkenly try to explain the rules of Kabaddi to Paul but that’s a different story, probably for the Kabaddi-con event.

Holding Hands = b2b

Then it was Sunday, two days had somehow passed by. I had a much more relaxed day, only playing two games but chatting to all and enjoying myself.

My first game of the day was against Grandads Circle and eKromac. Kromac ended up creating a very fine red mist with my models, but I managed to headbutt some big goats out the way and get a beating on him, my daughters of flame leaping in for a few cuts from their knives, I ending my turn with Kromac on 1 box but on fire.

The deciding turn began, roll for the fire, still on, I believe he was amour 19 or 20, so an 8 or 9 would do it for me, holding the dice in my hands, I gave them a quick shake and released them to fate. The end result was a double 1, if you’re going to fail, fail big! Kromac then ate all my daughters of the flame, getting lots of health back and went on to beat Kreoss to a pulp.

My final game was against Harvey, who had Khador and a colossus, wow they’re big and look impressive. After some initial shooting and moving, and lots of dead errants from a conquest sweep attack it was my turn and I could see Harkevich.

I feated with  Kreoss, knocked the Iron Wolf down, and although he had +3 ARM due to his feat; a Reckoner shot and a few errants had taken his health low. Then in came the Paladin and left him with one box, I nearly cried, but then I spied the extremely battered Repentor, with no M left he staggered across the wasteland ordered on by the Bastion Seneschal controlling him. Limping just within range and running on fumes he managed to belch out one last jet of flame, the heat was too much for Harkevich and I had my second win of the weekend in my last game. It was the little cherry on the very big cake.

Then all too soon,  it was over and a new found love for Warmachine gained. I had one list that I knew what it did and how it did it, units had been added and lost along to way to allow me to use most of my models, and I finally got what the game was about. I’ll repeat it again though, the advice given to me to use the same list over and over again made this for me. I started to think less about what the units can do and more about how they interact with each other and how the individual components complement the whole. I felt Menoth around me, I had been accepted to his embrace and it was time for me to wreak righteous vengeance on the non-believers of my club.

Then, that was it. Smogcon carefully rolled me off its arm, gently kissed my forehead and whispered ‘See you next year’ and left me in a half dream like sleep, a large smile on my face, the anticipation and nerves I had felt was just warm pleasure with no regret.

Casual sunday gaming and random musings on, Why do you play?

Hey guys it's Aaron Wilson here, @PG_SadPander on twitter, so drop me a follow!

First of all, Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there, thanks for being rad and putting up with our nerdy shit why we lived at your house. You're a bro!

Today my mum went to Great Yarmouth to see her mum and my Fiance spent the day with her mum, leaving me a free day which meant only 1 thing. Physical warmachine games! I have been smashing vassal recently so it was really nice to play some games over the table top. A friend came over and we played in my garage, I'm still waiting for my PG order to come which contains pretty much all of my Morghoul1/Mordikaar list inside. It means I got to go back to my original Skorne lists, Fist/Makeda2. My opponent had Issyria/Ravyn in tier.

The first game we played was Issyria, into Fist. We played the two fronts scenario. 








I ended up with a scenario win of 5-0 here, once the left flank was cleaned up Xerxis1 dominated his own zone to victory. Next up we played Makeda2 into Force wall as Adam wanted to try it out.





Wreck Markers and proxy bases galore, we played the same scenario as we swapped lists. I got a 5-0 scenario win here as well, also yay for my painted models! Adam then wanted a re wrack and we played the same match up on the scenario Out flank. Below are shots from the game!














Here is how the game ended, but maybe not in the way you think. This was bottom of turn 2, Kaelyssa had feated and I saw a gap for Molik. I upkept Leash and then ran a Incindarii for Makeda2 to charge. I then put enrage and puppet strongs on Molik. Makeda2 then cast rush on Molik, Road to war on her self, called her feat and charged the Incindarii. Molik then leashed his 3" and trampled his 13" into said gap. The dice were well on, needing 10s to hit Kaelyssa behind the wall with boosted to hit rolls from my feat, as well as puppet strings. When I hit I was dice -1, with 3d6 damage. I missed 3/5 out of the 5 attacks, and the 2 I hit left her on 1 box.

At this point, I didn't rage, I didn't get mad and I shook adams hand and laughed it off. Dice, are dice and they happen. It's all swings and roundabouts, it's peaks and trofts and it all comes round in the end. If I ever get seriously upset about warmachine I think I would stop playing. Now, I'm not writing this to pretend I'm the coolest guy in the world, but more to the view I think sometimes we can lose sight why we play the game.

We play toy soldiers boys (and girls), with that said we are all seriously passionate about the game we love and dedicate a lot of  time and money to. I'm pushing my self to make the WTC qualifying day year, hammering games in and I take each game as serious as I can. I try and give each game a lot of thought and I try to play the best of my ability. Just try not to lose sight of why we spend that money and dedicate that time. It's for fun, for me? It's MUCH more of a social thing then it is anything else. I have the best group of friends and to further extend that I consider anyone in the WMH community a friend of mine. The laughs, the experiences and the times I have attending cons, local events or just hanging out are what make the game for me. It wasn't for the group of people who play this game, I would dedicate my time and money elsewhere.

For some people It's hobby, for some people is it to win every game flawlessly and be at the pinnacle of competition. At the end of the day, we all play a game which involves dice. For me the worst negative play experience isn't Lylyth2, or Haley1 it's people who sap the fun of a game. Have a laugh, have a joke and share good times with good friends. Win some games along the way? Well that's a bonus.

Losing My SmogCon Cherry - Part One

After watching warcasters and warlocks battle it out for three years at our club and listening to the passionate conversations which flew over my head about how a feat with eZargood here could allow an assassination on pPants, I decided it was overdue I bought into it all.

Looking at the various factions it didn’t take me long to settle on the religious fire spouting nutters that were Menoth. The faction basis felt fun, the models look great, especially when uniformly painted but most of all I’d like to think if I was in the Iron Kingdom fighting for honor and power, I’d be a nutty zealot running head first into a Carnivean because a man with a cross laden stick told me to.

After picking up around 70 points of toys and two warcasters (pKreoss and Grand Scrutator Severius) I added a few more units and solos and starting playing a few games. My lists were always varied, wanting to try out all my new toys and not having a clue how to use any of them. This was a big mistake, after a few games I began to wonder what all the Warmahorde fuss was about, I’d had some good games, but in the end it seemed that I just ran forward to be shot to bits and then chopped up before I even had a chance to hurt anyone.

Around this point Smogcon fever had hit the club harder than Kreoss walking into a room full of Errants. I decided I wanted to go, hopefully by then I’d have a love for the game, if not there’d be a few other things I could waste my time on, but it would give me a chance for a geekend with mates.

I didn’t get as many learning games in as I wanted to, and when the Friday morning rolled around I was beginning to think this would be an enjoyable weekend with a system I wasn’t buying into.

I packed my models, half painted after a bit of a burst, packed my dice, cards, templates and books, then as an after thought, clothes and I was ready to go. Picking Rodders up we headed off to Heathrow, and the fabled Iron Arena. When we arrived we went to find out where the action was. The first stop was the Smogpit an ornate, impressively decorated room where row upon row of gaming mats had models vying for flags and objectives with an eye out for a sneaky assassination. At this point I was excited whilst also filled with trepidation. I’d been thrown into the lions den whilst only half knowing which end of the gladius to hold.

Due to the room being full, we moved to a spacious overflow room, which became the Bunkers home for the next 3 days, it was perfect, much more relaxed, a lot of space for games against those I knew would allow me to question rules etc… and also to hang out with when I was giving the dice a break.

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Dressed down and relaxing

The first game was then afoot, playing Rodders he asked which Legion caster I would like to face, only knowing one I uttered the now cursed word, Lileth. Quickly sorting out some 50 point lists we started, and quickly ended, a scenario win to the Legion, no models being killed by Menoth. I could tell Ol’ Fiery wouldn’t be happy if this carried on. Oh well things can surely only get better.

This first list was what I would use for the day. As Roscoe says in a post below, the sage advice I had been given from the veterans was, pick a list stick with it for a good few games no matter if you keep losing. It was :

pKreoss

Crusader

Reckoner

Repenter (being looked after by the Bastion Seneschal)

Vigilant

Max Choir

Max Exemplar Errants with UA

Max Knights Exemplar

Max Exemplar Bastions

Bastion Seneschal

Vassal of Menoth

Paladin of the Order of the Wall

 

From Druid to Tyrant, 4 months in.

Hey guys It's Aaron / @PG_SadPander on Twitter and I'm back with a post about my journey from Druid to Tyrant. After playing pretty much only Circle Orobos from 2011 to 2015, late 2015 I decided I wanted to shake it up. I'd played Kreuger2, Braddigus, Morv2, Morv1, Kromac2, Kaya2 etc etc a lot and I just wanted to keep the game fresh. No Warmachine factions really appeal to me, I mainly go for a faction because I think "This looks rad" and that's what I did. I picked Skorne for 2 reasons really. 1 - The faction is just stunning, i love the overall feel and the look of the faction. It's brutal from top to toe and that's what really sold me on the faction, but secondly because I was always told about how bad the faction is. It's not represented at this event because they're awful, etc.

Now don't get me wrong, despite my constant trash talking and delusional speeches about how I'm going to take the Welsh masters crown, I'm under no illusion of Skorne's power level. They have some inherent downfalls which despite however good a player you are, you can't overcome. Cryx recently getting Mobius really destroys Mordikaar as a Cryx drop and the faction really doesn't have a good answer to Cryx. There strongest lists (Mordikaar, though maybe not anymore and fist) have been the same lists for a long while. People know what they do and how to play them, as well as croaks hurting Skorne seconds go to list - Fist.

With all that said, I'm currently 54 games in with skorne with a 80% win rate. I haven't attended a Steamroller/Masters event yet (Though in the next 3-4 months, I now have 11 events lined up, which range from local steamrollers to UK Masters/ETC/Welsh masters) but I'm pretty happy with how they perform on the table. I've just recently switched from Makeda2/Fist to Morghoul1/Mordikaar and I am having a blast playing it. It's really helped re fuel the fire of the game for me in more ways then one.

In circle, I own the whole range with enough models to do any tier list. It's all painted..... but not by me. I bought around 3/4 of the collection when our PG passed away, his fiance at the time offered the models for sale to the local community so they would still see table time and could live on in the community. The rest I bought my self, and had it commissioned painted. Painting I really struggle with, I know I'm a weak painter and my attention span is low to go with it. But the Skorne have performed a small miracle and well..





 





 





I've painted stuff! I've got nearly my whole Makeda2 list all painted with just my min Incindarii and max Swordsmen left to do! I'm really chuffed with it, my love for the game is at new highs and it's really helped me push through and actually paint things. It may not be amazing, but hell on the table it looks okay and that's all I need.

I'm very excited to start attending events, I have a local steamroller on the 19th and the 25th March in which I'll be taking Morghoul1/Mordikaar and I'm hoping to win both.

Thanks for tuning in guys, I'm going to write a breakdown of my second Welsh Masters list soon so tune in for that! Follow me on twitter @PGSad_Pander for updates on my painting, practice games and event scores!

Runshapers. Who wouldn't love them?

Runshapers are pretty sweet. The truth is, I have always had a thing for them. In Runes of War in particular, they are my go to guys to get work done. Now, with Trembler, let's talk about their role in the post Wardergate meta.

First, lets talk points. Four points for three dudes. Three dudes with tough, base arm 15 (so 17 under stone), pathfinder, steady, a magical weapon and five boxes. Effectively, they become an arm 17 mini unit with rules I would love many other trolls to have. I could take six of them (two units) to replace Warders. Yes they would have less Arm, but I have found they can still take a bit from most infantry. Steady is where they shine. Passing tough rolls and still being on their feet makes them even harder to remove. But wait, havn't I forgot something?

Magic mother fucker. Magic. Glorious fucking magic. 

Rock Hammer is great for getting cheeky knock downs on heavies, destroying objectives and clearing infantry which hasn't been positioned sensibly. I have set up assassination runs with the KD, scenario wins with removing the objective and got up on scenario by clearing single wound infantry (yes you Infiltrators). However, the reason I'm writing this post is because of the rescent errata.

A few months ago, Trollpocolypse happened. But here is the thing, it didn't really happen. Runeshapers got a Trembler. You can't do it on a charge. You only have just over a 5inch threat range with it. You don't even cause damage. 

The weekend after this, I played my first game of Runes for a while. Three points for Runeshapers is great. Force lock is great. Trembler is... you guest it. 

With Trembler, I got so much work done by freeing up units, ensuring beasts were knocked down to kill and causing troops to just stand up and do fuck all. Not only that, but I was able to ensure my Earthborn could snack on a shredder, my Runshapers held a flank against Hex hunters and a Forsaken was ineffective late game. Moving so I was just outside of mele meant that my Runshapers could KD without the threat of being hit back the following turn.

Overall, I feel that Runeshapers are now even more potent. They helped set up so many piece trades at smog con.  I am planning on using them in many other lists, including an adaption of my grissle1 dude spam.

..overcoming Faction Purity in the cold light of day.

I'd start with an apology of sorts, for my absolute lack of updates on Imperishable Dominion for the past few months, but for the simple fact that I doubt any of our readership missed me. I'm nowhere near pretentious enough to consider otherwise. Nonetheless, there it is. For those of you new to the blog, an introduction. My name is Sherwin, and I play Skorne; nope, that's Convergence; wait, that should be Minions. Or Convergence.

Maybe both.

 Time now for a boring personal history lesson, and then a guy taking himself waaay too seriously

I've played Skorne since the inception of Mk.II, back just after the field tests, and they were the first Hordes faction to receive a 'Forces of..' release. Back then, our local area didn't have a Warmachine scene at all, beyond a couple of older gamers whom had tried starting up at some point and given up due to lack of both store and gamer support.

My first Warlock was Tyrant Xerxis, for whom I dutifully made the obligatory Tier 2 Fist list after a handful of psuedo-battlebox games (to this day I've only ever used the actual Skorne battlebox for a game around three times); after that as our scene began to flourish, I continued to play with the Skorne. I am without doubt in the camp of those fiercely dedicated players that champions a single faction above all others, and comes to identify with them in the local meta. 

I enjoyed moderate success at a local level with the Skorne, and even some success at a national one (although of course, no titles), placing fairly respectably with them. But I found that whenever I would try my hand at an alternative faction, I'd reach about four games in at most before simply shaking my head, putting the models back in the case, and reaching for the Master Race once again. Any other faction just couldn't sway me from my first Warmachine love. 

 This guy changed it all

But then finally I became mechanized. Around six months after their release, a friend was selling off his Convergence of Cyriss models, which I duly came into possession of. I thought that they'd be an interesting painting project and then I'd sell them on eBay. What actually happened was that I fell in love with the first model I painted, a Cipher. Something about the aesthetic just appealed I guess. That afternoon, I vowed that I would use the models I had for games, and that I wouldn't touch the Skorne for a whole year, thus avoiding the typical circumstance of returning back to my beloved Titans after a handful of games. 

Playing Convergence was a massive eye opener, and something which I can absolutely attest to being the moment that my game stepped up to the next level, whether it be list construction, strategy, understanding of the core mechanics, or of tournament play. I couldn't say whether that was down to the faction or not - certainly there was initially a frontier feel to them back then, with only three Warcasters, no Corollary, Enigma Foundry, second heavy jack chassis, or battle engine. Perhaps that restriction focused me, perhaps not.

I returned to Skorne after Smogcon 2015, as promised. And, as you'd expect had a great time during the honeymoon period. I came to dominate the local meta with Xerxis2 paired with Zaal1. But for all that I was enjoying my games, I found the same unease that had begun to creep in during the latter part of my first run with the Skorne. Everything was the same. Very little had changed. Granted, the Aradus provided something a little different, but not a dynamic alteration. The faction felt stale. 

Enter the Minions. I'd owned a growing horde of both pacts for years, as allies for the Skorne, and then as painting projects, and always sworn that I would try them for a decent run. They became my new Convergence, starting so far with Thornfall.

And, for those of you still reading, here's the point of the article, the discussion.

Having a new faction to test expands your gaming horizons, and keeps the game fresh. Learning the synergy of a new faction or how the interactions between new models and abilities work is the best way to force you out of old habits, and keep you evolving. Playing Convergence certainly taught me that very quickly, as have the Farrow. But the flipside is that initially at least, you have to reset the learning curve. And for some, that's the killer.

I love the Thornfall Alliance models. Each of them has so much character, and is so thoroughly engaging to paint, even down to the lowliest grunt. They are, without doubt one of the best examples of how Privateer Press have taken a fantasy trope, mixed it around a little and made it their own. But every game is a struggle; they're deliberately balanced as being difficult. Players using Minions don't expect or even hope to win events. That some do is tribute to their ability of course, and once the new Light Warbeasts arrive, things will change. But by taking a Minion army, you are significantly putting yourself at disadvantage to the other players.

For the moment therefore, I've been forced to ask myself the question of how much I want to win. That sounds absurd to write, but I believe that its a question at the heart of all of us, the elephant in the room that few of us like to address directly. In a meta which looks down on 'powergaming' or those too invested in their games are decried as tryhards, at what point do you look at yourself and admit that you are using the best options available to you, because crucial to your enjoyment is victory?

For me at least, its a tough one to realise. I've always championed love for the game itself, and the models over the rules; I've never once fielded a list based upon what I read online or saw that did well somewhere else. I even stopped using the Fist after I came to the conclusion that it was fast becoming so commonplace once the Incindiarii were released. But losing with Minions has taught me that luxury is simply not one that I have with my new faction. 

Our in house artists impression of how the war for my faction purity was lost

And that's why I have at last overcome my faction purity, and broken free of what feels like the last hurdle in that step up which began with playing Convergence. I am a Convergence player, and a Minion player. Because, for better or worse, I am too emotionally invested in my games to not be it seems, to have one faction for events and when I want to win, and one for when I just want to play random games - or, until they get a release that brings them up to a standard which makes me feel more confident of success.

I'll just have to live with that I guess.

Battle Report: Morghoul1 v Kromac1

Hey guys and I'm back with a battle report and this time it was played over Vassal, I'm around there a lot with my tag being Aaron.W(UK50PTS)-Skorne- if you see me around drop me a message and say hi, or challenge me to a game and I'll battle report it!

This game featured Morghoul1 facing Kromac1 in the Outflank scenario. It was a interesting list decision from my opponent, he had Kreuger2 double croaks and Kromac1 /w una boat and stalker / gheto. I elected to play Morghoul1, I felt Kromac1 would go through my Mordikaar infantry under Wild aggression and would do the whole sprint warpath thing Kromac1 does to infantry masses. Outflank also allows to him to skirt the edges off the table with no real need to force the issue. I'm always innately scared of seeing Kreuger2 across the table having played about 150 games with him my self, I know what guy can do so I was relieved to see Kromac1.

You guys know my Morghoul1 list, here is the opponents Kromac1 list - (Credit to Sentinel for the list)

Kromac1
Druid Wilder
Ghetorix
Warpwolf Stalker
Gorax
Blackclad Wayfarer
Blackclad Wayfarer
Una the Falconer
Rotterhorn Griffin
Rotterhorn Griffin
Druid Stoneward + Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward + Woldstakers
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Shifting Stones
Stone Keeper

Who would take it? The master tormenter or the to be champion of the wurm!

I won the roll for first and I elected to go second which I like doing a LOT with Morghoul1. I also knew that if his stones moved forward I could shoot them with a Sentinel and at dice off 5 I should remove one, he only had the one unit with UA so if I could snipe my turn 1 I would be in a strong position. If they shifted backwards they wouldn't be hugely relevant to me turn 2. Another reason I enjoy going turn 2 is I get a free round of shooting, far striked sentinels can remove key solo pieces or drop early damage into units / beasts at the bottom of 1. Contesting turn 2 is never normally much of a issue, I can either feat to ensure safe contesting with tiberion / croaks, or the feat is often not needed in the match ups he plays into. Often the shooting just can't shift the bugs, or admo can keep me safe etc. Or maybe just running the agonizer and calling for no allocation is enough to ensure my contest is safe. 

I took the bottom side of the table, there was a hill which was going to be great for my croak raiders, as well as the forests on the top of the table I could negate with a soulward when necessary but I couldn't counteract the hill if needed. The wall on the top of the table was also considered concealment, if it was cover I may have taken top.





Turn 1 for Circle was pretty simple, Warpath on Kromac, Inviolable Resolve on Ghetorix, Wild Agression on Stalker and a small advance for Kromac1, he couldn't advance more then 6 or he could be in range of an abused, far striked sentinel. The rest of the turn the models ran to get into position for the next turn.

Skorne turn 1 was pretty simple, the sentinels got far striked and managed to kill 1 blackclad and I think 1 prawn of doom from each wold unit, this includes there auxilarry attacks also. One of my sentinels got admo from Morghoul1 who popped out one of the far strikes, the raider did the other. The croaks got tempered flesh and they all hugged the hill to hopefully help there defense against the little world shrimps. My krea popped his aura and the beast handlers removed some fury. I was tempted to feat turn 1, I know between a warpath and a charge ghetorix could probably get to my left sentinel (right one has admonition) but I felt like if he made that play he would lose ghetorix for sure and I'm happy to trade a sentinel for ghetorix. Tiberion is a key piece in the match up and with Ghetorix gone he can really force the issue.

Here's what the table looked like at the bottom of turn 1.





Turn 2 and Circle came in hot, all 3 spells were upkept. The prawns were advanced and shot at the croaks (needing 9s) he managed to make me a tough roll which I passed, but then hit another one and I failed the tough. Warpath triggered and ghetorix moved 3" in a diagonal way towards to the left sentinel. The left griffon then accelerated the blackclad who walked up, hunters marked my left sent and phase shifted back. The wilder then sprinted ghetorix and he came in and killed the left sentinel and sprinted back to be in the forest. The rest of the turn consisted of the army advancing in a position to threaten me next turn, with the stones moving up and the stalker being ran into the triangle.

My turn 2 and removing ghetorix was the key to the turn, I was also hoping to clear the majority of the prawns out but well, we rolled poorly. The start of my turn saw me upkeep admo and my 1 of my willbreakers hand out puppet strings to the Krea, he then walked 6" through the gap where my left sentinel was just once, into the left zone and boosted a shot into Ghetorix needing a 10 (eyeless sight negating the +2 defence) and landed it. I didn't aura for my Krea which was a mistake, as I should because the beast handlers would of been fine to remove all the fury. With ghetorix now being DEF 7, croaks (All 9) walked up, one oiled and the rest threw darts. I think between them they only did like.. 15 maybe 16 damage. I then had my raider stand still and did something like 2 more. My soulward advanced, took a shot and boosted at dice off 2 and did something like 6. Morghoul1 advanced and with a puppet strings threw a torment into him, finally killing him. I was a bit sad as I had to waaay over commit to killing Ghetorix, meaning there were a lot of prawns alive. Morghoul1 called his feat here and stole 1 fury back to via maltreatment to sit on 2. I was also very aware to stay more then 13" away from Kromac1 as that was an easy win condition for Sentinel. The right sentinel killed the right Stonewald and advanced into the right zone. Tiberion took a run, croaks were toughed and that was turn.

Here's the photo bottom of turn 2, I was feeling pretty comfortable at where the game was right now.


 


Turn 3 and I think sentinel could see the board and the game wasn't going to go his way if we kept playing the long game. He upkept both warpath and Wild agression, he called concentrated fire with the left prawn unit did a massive amount of damage to my Krea and sentinel even rolled poorly here (as said earlier, should of popped paralytic aura here for sure). The right unit killed some croaks and stayed contesting the right zone. Now the Krea was banged up he had his left griffon accelerate the left blackclad who advanced, landed a hunters mark on my krea and then hopped off again. The right griffon then flew into the right zone to contest. The wilder then sprinted Kromac1, Who sprinted the left stalker and then charged the central croak raider, he dropped a rift on tiberion for 3 leaving him on 0 fury. He then called his feat for 5, killed the 2 croaks he was engaged with and sprinted back into the left zone. The stalker then charged the krea (charges for free on under hunters mark as well as wild aggression) who cleared up the krea and the croak on the left of it. He the sprinted the stalker in front Kromac1. Una advanced and shot 1 croak who died, the gorax advanced to stay in Kromac1 control and riled outside of my feat. The gobbers put a cloud on una and the stones shifted up. That was turn for Circle and they got 2 CPS for dominating the left side.

Skorne turn 3 and I saw this is a pretty straight forward kill, Morghol1 could quite easily advance and get LoS to throw a fully boosted torment into Kromac1 (who had already taken 5 damage from the feat). Following that up I had my soulward, my raider, and my sentinel to plow shots into him with no transfers. Morghoul1 received puppet strings, advanced and landed the torment needing 10s to hit, and at dice off 5 did 9 damage (puppet strings used on the damage roll). My soulward stood still, shot Kromac1 and rolled a 15 for damage at dice off 2 and Kromac1 was very dead at this point.

Here's a photo of the board state when I landed the kill. Both the raider and sentinel had yet still to move and shoot.


 


I was pretty happy with how I played the game, I don't feel I made any huge Mistakes outside of not popping the paraltyic aura. Why it wasn't a game changer the Krea took way more damage then it needed to from shooting and was a mistake. Sentinel was a great opponent as always and the match just reinforced my confidence oh Morghoul1 into the hordes matchup.

While we don't have a direct control warlock, i'm finding Morghoul1 is very close to it. If you decide to force the issue under feat either on a colossal or a heavy warbeast army you have a lot of say in what the opponent does, or well can't do. This paired with the agonizer saying you can't allocate the turn after, or having the insurance of -2 STR on warbeasts is solid. You're often ahead on / after the feat turn and that can be the insurance you need to stop dice spikes or just seal the deal.

As always, follow me on twitter @PG_SadPander. Thanks a ton for reading and tune in next time for more Skorne action from me Aaron Wilson.

Welsh Masters list Breakdown: Part 1 of 3

Hello guys, I'm back and this is a part 1 of 3 installments to breakdown my Welsh Masters lists. The event is held at Firestorm Games which in my eyes is the UK's premium venue. It is being held on the 14-15th May, I'm super excited for the event. For many reasons, but for the most part for the great time I will have the ID gang as well as fellow players. Why 3 parts? Not because I'm a genius and have lots of wisdom to part with. It's because the Welsh Masters is being ran as 3 list event for this year. It is of course is a masters event therefore using the masters packet, meaning ADR is active.

For my 3 list I've decided on Morghoul1,Zaal2 and Mordikaar. The reasons for choosing these 3 is after some discussion and list theory crafting I feel I have covered pretty most match ups as well as I can. Why have I chose my lists so early with the event still being essentially 2 and a half months away? I want to know these lists in and out. I want to know what they can play, what they can't play and all the tricks they can pull. I find If i really know what's going on in a list I play faster, I play with more confidence and less mistakes happen.

The first list I'm going to breakdown is Morghoul1. 

 

Here's what I'm taking with the Master of Torment:

Morghoul1 - + 7
Tiberion - 11
Aradus Sentinel - 8
Aradus Sentinel - 8
Cyclops Raider - 5
Krea - 4
Agonizer - 2
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 2
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 2
Extoller Soulward - 2
Paingiver Task Master - 2
Croaks Raiders - 8
Paingiver Beast Handlers - 3

Right off the bat a question I see sometimes I see is, why Morghoul1 with the bugs? (For the rest of the post, sentinels will be refereed to as bugs). Well hopefully without me explaining directly the below posts sum it up. But very simply, both the bugs and Morghoul1 want to be played pre-dominantly into hordes match up and there is a lot internal synergies between the two. 

What do I want to play this into? Well the more I play it the more I want it to play it into things. This is quite obviously NOT a cryx drop and I don't think I'll ever drop it into cryx. On the flipside list is quite obviously horribly hard to break with ANY sort of shooting. The sentinels/tiberion are 23/21 from shooting respectively, backed by the Krea aura they're now 25/23. In most games you can literally ignore 80% of the shooting, and the other 20% is probably dice off so much that's it's not a serious issue  The feat and the poison on the sentinels push it towards a solid hordes match up in most cases and I've had some success into retribution with it as well.


The Sentinels offer up a real solid range platform paired with the raider for farstrike and additonal shooting. The sentinels can remove Circle and Legion warbeasts prettty trivially especially when backed up by a Raiders shot to finish the warbeast off. They're also great at scattering into living infantry, that poison means even blast damage can reliably kill off pesky single would models. Arcing fire on top of all of this means if someone leaves a warcaster to close, camping too little and nothing blocking the shot it can be a easy assassination with little effort. It almost means those scattering AoEs can be placed in a lot of places.

Morghoul1's spell list is great for the bugs and each spell really offers the bugs something which it can use rather well. When a bug shoots his 14" he can often find him right on the edge of threat ranges (A place followed by a warpath, ect). Admonition allows you to shoot freely and in most cases be free from retaliation, this is really helps the slow bugs speed. Abuse paired with enrage really helps the P+S 14 on the claw and again helps the poor SPD 3. Torment is not quite so much a direct synergy but again plays into the match ups the list wants to see and builds the internal synergy of the list. It wants to see Legion, circle, minoins and some troll bloods lists. Catching a warlock out with a torment is great for the sentinels who can now target a no transfer warlock.





This is all backed up by Morghoul1's innate strength into the hordes match up and this again is for a few reasons. The obvious one - that damn feat, against a heavy warbeast army it is essentially a free turn! It can be very effective into trollbloods as well, but they will typically either drop a Madrak2/Grissel1 body heavy list if they see Morghoul1 across the table. The feat means no forcing, or spending of focus which can be leveraged against a warmachine army that is looking for it's colossal to be it's main hitting power. It'll often deny the charge from the colossal as well stop the buying of any additional attacks.

The feat has another use which isn't hugely obvious, besides your free turn in the right match up it also stops transferring of damage to models inside the feat. This can often catch people off guard really easily, a charge with Morghoul1 followed by a sprint and  feat can lead you to catching the entire of the opponents battle group inside said feat. A raider and 2 sentinels later often means a dead warlock. If you can't catch the whole battle group, a Morghoul1 with eyeless sight and puppet strings throwing a fully boosted torment into a warlock followed by sentinel / raider shooting will again lead to a dead warlock. On top of all this, a far striked, puppet stringed krea can walk a potential 8" under abuse, shoot 12" and paralyze any living model. Following by again, your shooting team will drop an suspecting warlock. The best thing about all of this, it doesn't have to assassinate, it can fall back on being solid ranged platform which can then turn the assassination on when required.

The croak raiders are well.. croak raiders, backed up with paingiver task master these guys a great module and have a ridiculous list of rules for 10 points. Making them fearless, tough and no KD make them hugely efficient and what they do. If you can have a Krea paralyze a warbeast, the warbeast is then dead to said croak raiders. Paralyze a warlock? Dead warlock, etc etc. With AD, RNG 10 and POW 12 they can clear out non stealth ed infantry to a good degree of success as well.

I'm super happy with this list and my confidence with playing it is continually building. I have a small local steamroller on the 19th March in which I will play this and Mordikaar.  Ill be tweeting about my progress with all my lists so please follow me at: https://twitter.com/PG_SadPander

Thanks for the read, drop me a comment and tune in next time for part 2 where we breakdown Zaal2's Tier, Exalted Legions. 

Roscoe arrives

Howdy from Roscoe

I’m the new guy  to join this blog and looking to start playing for 2016. I tested the water with this last year playing a few Battlegroup in a box games but due to being a bit bewildered by this massive new gaming system I took a step back. I have dyslexia and Irlen syndrome so I struggle to take in visual information easily which does not help. So I was kind of put off to prevent myself from looking stupid. 

However over the months I have been looking over at the steam machines and gribbleys battling it out and feeling I miss the game. So I have decided to reboot myself and give it a fresh go for 2016 and this will be my documented journey.

The two factions I currently have are Menoth and Everblight. But I have chosen to put the Everblight to the side this year and focus on Menoth as I feel trying to learn two ways of playing is not the best way forward.

So I return to the game still a bit nervous as the learning curve is very steep but willing to give it another try.  

To start out I have compiled a Thyra 35pt list that I will be using for 10 games win or lose to hopefully give me some good experience at getting back in the game.

Thyra

Blood of Martyrs

Avatar

Exemplar Errants

Exemplar Errants officer & standard

Choir of Menoth min –

Hierophant

Nicia, Tear of vengeance

Exemplar errant seneschal

Madelyn Corbeau

Now to get them painted 

The last Hurrah

My first post for some time and I thought I'd sum up my Smogcon experience.

For the past few months I have felt a bit bored by my beloved Legion. It's not that I don't love them anymore I really do but bearing in mind I have played them since they came into existence and now our local meta has seen an influx of Legionnaires of late I thought its time for a break.

I decided Smogcon was going to be my last hurrah with them for a year and stopped buying anything new (including the awesome Blight Bringer) at the end of 2015. I didn't enter any events at Smogcon as free time is limited at the moment and I have very little time for practice games so decided to just rock out the Iron arena all weekend . I packed almost all the Legion I own with the exception of the huge based stuff and some bits that were unbuilt/ partially built into my trusty Kaiser 3 bag and off I went.

Arriving later than planned Friday thanks to the British public forgetting how to use roundabouts my lift share buddy Phil and I decided to play each other 1st game. Phil is a fairly new player and he was using PKreos, I asked him who would he like to face and his Reply was Lylyth2 my list was.

Lylyth Shadow of everblight
succubus
Ravagore
Ravagore
Ravagore
Naga
Shredder
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Rangers +UA
Shepherd
Forsaken.

Now I have not played Lylyth 2 for 2 or 3 years and the game went how you would expect and I shot him off the board by the end of turn 2. The game reminded me why I don't play her too much any more it was very linear but it was an experience for phil.

The rest of the Friday I decided to play 2 lists Abby2 and Vayl2.
The Abby2 list was:
Absylonia Daughter of Everblight
Nephilim Bloodseer
Scythean
Scythean
Raek
Raek
Seraph
Zuriel
Shredder
Forsaken
Forsaken

I really like The Bloodseer in this list it allows me to really abuse slipstream whilst Zuriel is there for some serious infantry clearing .

The Vayl2 list was a fairly Vanilla Tier 4 Machinations of Shadow
Vayl Consul of Everblight
Angelius
Angelius
Angelius
Ravagore
Ravagore
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires
Spawning vessel
Shephers
Shepherd
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr

I played these 2 lists into a variey of opponents including Kruger2 twice,  H-Bombs Sorcha 2 tier list, Madrak 2 and Ravyn (these are the memorable games) I didn't lose a game all day. I battered my good friend Dave Munro (who had travelled from Sweden where he is based now for the event) who had underestimated the threat range of Abby 2 and felt safe with Madrak in a trench on 3 transfers not expecting a slipstreamed flying leaping Raek to get in it with him and headbutting him before having 2 flying Scytheans applied to his face.

Saturday Bought 2 new lists Vayl1 and Kallus. Kallus is one of my favourite warlocks to play and my twist on him is to take a fair bit of high def infantry mixed with Legos with Farilor to jam zones (defensive line + iron zeal + unconquerable is a thing) whilst any casualties feed the pot just behind before feating.
My lists were:
Kallus Wrath of Everblight
Nephilim Protector
Nephilim Bolt thrower
Max Hex hunters
Max Legionnaires +  Farilor and standard
Max Gatorman posse
Max spawning vessel
Strider Rangers + UA
Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr

Vayl list was
Vayl Disciple of Everblight
Scythean
Scythean
Typhon
Ravagore
Raek
Raek
Forsaken
Forsaken
Shepherd
Sherpherd
Spawning vessel.

I only lost 2 games with these 2 lists both with Pvayl one in a mirror match and 1 into Runes of war. I had the most fun playing Kallus one game of note was vs fellow blogger Matt Best who was using EMorvanna. It was a game of real attrition where I felt I only won due to Matts inexperience with EMorv.


Sunday soon came round and I was feeling the burn by now I decided to play eThags and the twins then call it a day mid afternoon.

I've not played either of these 2 a great deal but felt most at home playing eThagrosh so played most of my games with him. I got lucky into beating a Cygnar player with Kraye (I cast manifest destiny and forgot to use it twice), Smashing poor Daves Trolls again this time with pGrimm. Only playing the twins once into a Fellew bunker member Luke's Bloody Barnabus list.

 My 2 lists were:
Thagrosh the Messsiah
Typhon
Scythean
Scythean
Seraph
Legionnaires + Farilor and standard
Spawning vessel
Forsaken
Shapherd

Saeryn and Rhyas Talons of Everblight
Zuriel
Scythean
Seraph
max Hex Hunters
max Raptors
Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Min Spawning vessel.



All in all it was a great weekend but that's it. The Legion are packed away in my man cave not to be opened until March 2017.

 For the next year I am going to be on a Khador adventure starting with playing Harkevich in the Bunkers escalation league.

Smogcon from a Minions Perspective

The dust has settled, sleep has been caught up with and the Rot has dissipated... its time to talk Minions, and how they survived Smogcon!

With selling my Legion it left me with Pigs and Gators, both in hefty bags so i only wanted to take one force which had to be Pigs hehe.

I hadn't signed up to any tourneys and just wanted to play in the Iron Arena all wkend, lots of games and very little sleep meant i had ton plan on playing our Lord Carver most games irrespective of the opposition as he is the most straight forward and forgiving of the line up:

Carver is the boss, pretty hard, survivable and brings a stack of buffs to polish the turd that is the farrow army. My list for the wkend was as follows:

Lord Carver +6

- War Hog 8

- Road Hog 9

- Gun Boar 5

Max Brigands w/Warlord 11

Max Brigands w/Warlord 11

Slaughterhousers 6

Effarit Scouts 3

Effarit Scouts 3

I came away with 2 wins and a loss with this list and its probably my preferred way to play Carver until May. In my last game of the wkend i swapped out a Brigands w/Warlord for a Meat Thresher and Maximus to face eGrimm. I had great success with that version which is now 5-0 in all events haha.

I wanted to get some games in with Dr Arkadius and his Nature of the Beast list which is on paper, the strongest list in the Alliance (Till May!) and i managed a win against Lylyth2 and a loss vs Rask. I also played the old Mad science Tier against Ossyan borrowing a few of Sherwins War Hogs to live the dream of 7 big Hogs at tier 4 mwhahahahahahahahahahahaha 

All in all it was a great wkend and its made me even more dedicated to my true love of the Farrow and im looking forward to the challanges ahead and how the Battle Boar and Splatter Boar will be mixing up my lists in the coming year.