Tuesday 15 March 2016

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 5th 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.

Sunday 6 March 2016

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.

Friday 4 March 2016

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




 

Wednesday 2 March 2016

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!