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.

Battle Report: Xerxis2 v Vladimir2.

We're back with a battle report so let's get straight into it. This match up features Vlad2 Tier list Steam and Steel against my Skorne, I was rocking Xerxis2.

Below is the table, the two flat pieces with no graphic on are hills, the green pieces with tree art on are forest, the blue piece is shallow water and the small brown walls are linear obstacles.





Vlad got to go first, he was rocking his tier list into tier 2 I think. He had 2 units of shieldwall fellas, 1 unit of Hammers, 1 unit of bombardiers and a conquest. As well as a Man of war solo on his right flank. I was rocking Xerxis2, Molik, BB Titan, Gladiator, Archidon, Max nilators, Min incindarii, Max beast handlers ans a will breaker. For this game I chose my Gladiator to be my bonded warbeast this game. Our objectives we had taken were Arcane Wonder for the Khador, Bunker for my Skorne.

Here is the deployment, Vlad went for a central conquest with a unit of shield wall fellas each side, bombardiers got given AD from the tier and the hammers went behind the left unit of shields.

Starting from my left I have my Gladiator, Incindarii next, BB, Xerxis2, then Molik, max Nilators, and Archidon looking to use that forest. My Willbreaker and max beast handlers sat behind it all.





First turn for Khador saw running across the board, Assail on the conquest and Transference placed on Vlad.


 


So turn 1 for me, and here is where I've made my first mistake. It's my first time using Xerxis2 and man is moving a battle engine size base a pain. I went Xerxis2 first, I placed Ignite on my Nilators and Mobility on my self and walked up. The rest of the turn saw running of everything, but sadly I activated my gladiator and he was out of my small control area and not within 8" of my will breaker so he only advanced his 4" and then riled.





Khador Turn 2, both spells were upkept. The conquest took a shot into the BB hoping for a crit but sadly no crit. The other small guns killed a Incindarii and a Nilator. The bombardiers advanced and forced a transfer from Xerxis2, and cleared out a good chunk of Nilators. Vlad2 held his feat and the Man o War on the right flank ran to threaten my objective,


 


So my Turn 2. It went well, but again I could of played it better. What I should of done was gone with Molik prior to the beast handlers, killed the Man o War in the way, fate walkered and then conditioned him, or even if not conditioned him have him retreat to a safe distance behind the wall as the Man o War lack pathfinder, but I didn't. Anyway what I did do is... Xerxis2 called his feat,  did a ribe by and advanced 3.5". He then threw his free rush onto the BB Titan, Ignited him and mobility on him self (I didn't upkeep ignite on the Nilators so I was camping 1). My beast handlers then enraged both Molik and my BB. Molik under the feat cleaned up the three Man o War in the way of my BB between a charge and 2 sidesteps. The BB destroyed the conquest with 2 fury to spare, my Incindarii set a few Man o War alight (Soul tokens for continuous fire for now as you get none in the darn PP skorne packet!). Nilators charged and killed 2 bombardiers under feat and the Archidon placed Lightning Strike on him self, killed one fella and flew away. My gladiator on the left just advanced to soak the charge or threaten the incoming Man o Wars.


 

Well, Khador turn 3 was... brutal. Transference was upkept, Vlad2 feated and rolled 3, so 5 models. he hand of fated the right shield fellas, feated 3 of them and feated 2 hammer dudes. Then, he killed a whole ton of stuff. The BB was removed by the feated hammer fellas, Molik was killed by the feated shield fellas on the right. The solo on the far right charged into my Titan Gladiator and did a good chunk bot no aspects lost. The guys on the left cleared out more nilators and got into shield wall, did I say, ouch?


 


Skorne turn 3.. well jeez. I did what I could. I set some more models on fire, Nilators did some inaffective charges. The Titan Gladiator on the left cleared out the solo, the Archidon the right tried to his sprint trickery but failed to kill the model he charged. Xerxis2 did a ride by, killed a feated man o war and waddled back.


 


Khador turn 4, more clear up duty. Archidon dies to a whole lot of hammer (with hand of fate) / shield attacks and all but 1 Incindarii get cleared up, as well as Nilators. Transference was doing huge work this game, with Vlad safely being able to camp 0 as I lacked any range threat and I just couldn't get to him.





With the game all but lost, I went deep. Xerxis2 put Ignite on him self, charged and cleared a whole load of Man o war, but I was sadly now camping nothing. I tried a shot onto Vlad but no surprise that missed. I should of not moved my Nilator so far and should of kept him in between the shield guys on the right. Maybe that would of saved me, right?




And this how it all ended. The man on the Rhino got hammered by all the attacks and Vlad didn't even need to make a move!

What a great game, I've only played Makeda2/Fist so far and it was a real laugh to break into a new warlock. My list wasn't optimal, neither did I play it well but damn  this guy is fun. When he went in under ignite he really smashed things up, I'm thinking he could do a lot of work played aggressively. Taking my free animus as Lightning Strike could let him really around, more testing to come!

Thanks to my opponent Robbie for such a great game, and thanks for reading.

How I lost the faith and found that ‘blight makes right.

So after a brief hiatus from war-gaming, due to work commitments, I am back baby!

This has meant three things for me. Firstly, I’ve decided to make the switch to Legion of Everblight, secondly I’ve decided to put some real effort into playing painted models only and most importantly I have a chance to spend more time with all the great guys in my local gaming groups.

The second of these tasks has really only meant an increase in time at my paint station (which has been awesome).

The first however has been a complete revelation.

Now, Legion of Everblight have been considered top tier as far as factions go for quite some time. So I knew there would be a lot of people moaning about ‘power gaming’, but I had no idea just how much fun it was shooting the living smile off your opponents face while they bemoan all the rules you ‘ignore’.

Having started out playing Khador a few years back before finding the faith and taking a big jump into the Menoth Faction, I’ve always loved the ‘axe to face’ style of play. Ramming a few units of insane weapon master Doom Reavers or a brick of Bastions down your opponents gullet is all sorts of fun, there is no denying it.

I feel that while my skill level was the main factor truly holding me back from being more successful with Menoth, I have always had a niggling feeling that I just couldn’t compete with the top players in my local meta. I always found the high armour skew lists a problem, as well as a few specific lists.

Now I realise that toys don’t substitute skills, but I felt a fresh start and new approach may give me the push to play more and increase that dwindling skill level.

Having had a look about at the factions, and deciding that in order to start a new faction I wanted to minimise my outlay, and hopefully the amount of models I would be having to put together and paint (I am hoping to only be playing painted from now on). Legion looked on paper like the obvious choice. To be honest, the idea of being able to fit two 50 point lists into one KR case is always going to appeal to me.

The real fun began when I first put the two lists I had chosen on the table. I had opted for both prime and epic Vayl. It didn’t take long for the mechanics of playing Hordes rather than Warmachine to prove to be a big stumbling block. It hasn’t taken many games to get my head around it, and I would advise anyone who has only played a Warmachine faction to give a Hordes faction a try and vice versa.

Overwhelmingly the best thing about coming back to Warmachine/Hordes is the community. It has been amazing to spend more time playing games with friends old and new.

I’m already working on another blog about ‘My Two Vayls’ so watch this space for some more Legion fun and games. Feel free to make requests about subjects you would want us to cover. I will be posting pictures of my lists and talking about why I chose certain models.

As a final thought, the first time you pull off the double obliteration assassination or dark sentinel kicks in and you one shot the spirit of the beast charging you, you know that it’s true what they say…

…’Blight Makes Right’

Have you had a moment with your faction like this? If so, jump on the comments below and let us know.

Tom

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 

..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. 

New Khadoran Technology

Khador players received four new warjacks in Reckoning. Let's have a look-see...

Mad Dog

The first of the new jacks based on the Berserker chassis, the Mad Dog has exactly the same stats as it's predecessor whilst costing one point less. It has two hammer spikes rather than war axes, losing two power and the chain attack benefit.

It retains the Berserker's characteristics of Aggressive and Unstable, meaning it can run or charge for free, but if it spends focus, it has a chance of blowing up.

It also has two additional rules on the card. Jury-Rigged allows it to spend one focus to gain +2 SPD, but take a point of damage to its movement system at the end of activation. Crusher gives free trample attacks and an additional die to trample attack rolls.

Khador warjacks are renowned for being slow, but Mad Dog joins the growing list of jacks like Grolar and Ruin who have inbuilt speed buffs. Coupled with one of the many Khadoran Warcasters who have mechanisms to speed up our jacks, Mad Dog can be a fast and focus-efficient addition to the forces of the Motherland.

A Mad Dog run by Andrei Malakov can be a very effective flanker. Cast Redline and then upkeep in subsequent turns for +2 SPD and STR and run it down one of the two sidelines. It can quite happily operate independently for the rest of the game, running, charging, and trampling for free. Trample whenever possible, ideally through backline support; with an additional die on trample attack rolls it should hit most small based models.

If you need extra speed for an especially long trample or charge, couple with a caster with Boundless Charge and give it a focus for Jury Rigged. It can now charge thirteen inches, or run sixteen. Of course there is a one is six chance that it will blow up, but that's Khadoran engineering for you.

At five points, the Mad Dog is very good value, and will start to be seen in quite a few different lists, particularly if it comes in a multijack kit that can be magnetized with...

Rager

Another new warjack based on the Berserker chassis, Rager is the first Khadoran jack with Shield Guard. Again boasting the Berserker stat line and the prerequisite abilities of Aggressive and Unstable, Rager is an in-faction alternative to other mercenary shield guard solutions previously used by Warcasters requiring a bullet magnet to stand next to them.

Rager is equiped with a Gladius, giving it a P&S half way between a Berserker and Mad Dog, a Shield (of course) and a Shield Cannon. Although it's priority is unlikely to be offence, it can certainly come into play late-game, and is as focus efficient as it's two brethren.

The only reason you'll be taking this jack is to provide your caster with a shield guard, a job it fulfills admirably with 31 damage boxes and the addition of a shield taking it up to armour 20. Compare this to a Vanguard who loses a point of armour and five damage boxes or a Bokur with three less armour and only has eight health, though obviously at half the cost. The big selling point is that the meagre 6 points you have to spend can come out of your warcaster's jack allowance, and being a non-character faction warjack it is allowed in most tier lists.

Ruin

With increased point cost comes increased killybility, as Uncle Pete used to say. Now that the bargain basement jacks are done, we move on to the big boys. Ruin is the character warjack of Orsus Zoktavir in all his incarnations. If you're running any flavour of The Butcher, chances are you'll be taking Ruin with him.

Based on the Kodiak chassis, Ruin has much the same statline but with greatly increased MAT and slightly lower RAT. In terms of armament, he still has one open fist, but clenched in the other is a Black Iron Mace featuring +2 POW, reach, magical weapon, and dispel! That's quite a package right there. Gone is the heavy boiler and steam attack, but Ruin has plenty of other rules to make up for that. If in Butcher's control area he gets Boundless Charge for free. He carries an Orgoth Seal which decreases the range of magic attacks against him and inflicts damage to the caster on successful attacks. Note this is not the same as Doom Reaver's Spell Ward, meaning Ruin can be targeted by friendly spells.

The final ability is without doubt the best. Soul Taker means that Ruin gains souls, up to a maximum of three, from enemy models destroyed within two inches of him. These can be spent that turn (or saved for later turns) to buy or boost attacks. They are in addition to focus, so Ruin can have three focus and three souls at the same time. These souls can come from Ruin's own attacks, or those of friendly models, as long at the enemy model that was destroyed was within two inches. This provides some great synergy with Butcher 3, who can use Impending Doom to drag enemy models within range and preload Ruin with souls before his is activated.

Ruin is an incredible warjack for the same points cost as a Spriggan, with the ability to put out serious damage on both multiple infantry and heavies or collossals. The combination of dispel and souls means that whatever ends up within 2 inches of Ruin is unlikely to survive.

Victor

And so we finally come to the really big boy, our new collossal, Victor. I'll be honest right from the start here, I'm conflicted over Victor for two reasons. Firstly I really dislike the notion of casterkills by lucky deviation, especially if they take three turns of continuous fire to achieve. To me, that isn't the Khadoran way. Secondly I've spent so long getting Conquest into a viable list, it just doesn't seem fair that the new kid on the block so quickly resigns him to the dusty top shelf of the game room.

Victor is very similar to his other brother Conquest, with identical stats and costing one point less. Melee weapons are the same, whilst the ranged weapons have changed dramatically. Instead of the Main Guns and their critical knockdown Victor is primarily armed with a Siege Mortar. On the plus side, five inches more range, arcing fire, an inch larger AOE, and three special effects to choose from is very nice. Unfortunately a minimum range and innacurate means it won't be hitting much, especially if it's standing on the doorstep. The special abilities are varied. The most obviously useful is continuous fire. Flare gives models hit -2 DEF, and crater creates an area of rough terrain, both of which could be useful situationally, but not that often. Secondary autocannons lose two inches of range, the AOE, and the barrage ability, but gain D3 shots and Flak Fire, which gives an additional die when trying to hit flying targets.

So Khador now have the ability to set things on fire. I'm sure Victor will see some play, as it loses nothing really when compared to Conquest and is a point cheaper. He certainly allows Harkevich to run a three collossal list which will look incredible on the table, and should be lots of fun to play!

Realistic aims in Warmachine/Hordes: Faction collecting.

Evening all,

Here is my first article and some musings I have for the benifit of newer players to the game. Realistic aims in this case faction collecting going to main and minor factions.

Steamroller 2015 has put down that all events (Aside from Iron Guanlet, played in it, recommend it) state now that they are at most 2 list events. So the critical cynic would say that collecting anything beyond 2 lists is a waste of money as its not necessary. Well no decent kleptomaniac hobbist is going to stop at 2 lists but I would say that before you spend all of your dollar you consider what you are aiming to do. I will use myself as the example.

My main faction is Cygnar. In our group no one was playing them originally and there are the good guys. Since I invented the colour blue it was a natural choice for me. It also plays to my mentality. Melee combat is messy, unsophisticated why would I want to do that and risk my precious neck when I could shot the enemy from afar and not get by lovely boots dirty? Of course I would not I hear you say. So I have the whole range of Cygnar. Everything by that merc in disguise Constance Blaize. Bonus lesson. Never play her in Cygnar. Its with my main faction I can do such things as ADR (Which is a great format and a future article). But you can't play the game seriously and never try using the other stuff, if for nothing better then to learn how to shoot it more efficiently. Most events I play in will be Cygnar either in cool Tiers or more recently non tier.

So to the other stuff what am I aiming for with it? Do I want to use the same boring power stuff other people use? No I don't. Perhaps a controversial statement but I am not a fan of people playing a new faction and doing the same warcasters/warlocks that are always used because they are considered the best. Epic Haley being the main culprit of this. I have never read the 'forums' it doesn't feature in my mind to use someone else's list. I want to use my own. Make my own mistakes and play what I think is good. Equally how far am I taking playing out of my main faction? I can't go to far without it becoming my new main faction, and I like my current one.

So recently I have gotten some Khador and very recently some Legion. I am a big fan of being that special snowflake, no one wants to play the same thing 3 times in and event. I will use Khador for my example. I did a poll to my friends of the warcasters that are never seen on the table, chose 4 of them, which I have tried and sold off down to 2, got good 50 points forces for them and stopped. That's it, its my minor faction. I won't buy more. The 2 I have is Zerkova and Prime Sorcha to play Crix. If I want something more I will seriously consider selling one of these. Epic Zerkova looks great, I will look at this new release and consider selling Prime Sorcha to buy her. Unless Epic Zerkova has no game against the Crix dude spam when I guess I am forced to have 3 lists. The Khador were gotten in 2014, when you could use 3 lists, the legion I have gotten has gone firm at 2 lists.

My next event will be Dave's Tier event at 4TK July 11th, early on I identified the aim to play Khador for it, and am painting up my forces for it.

Anyway I encourage new players to recognize the concept of 'main' and 'minor' collections idea, to take identity from it and save money. Or is you got too much sell it on! I have sold everything I have wanted to so far.

A little long in the Carnivean tooth

Greetings one and all,
                              I'm Rodders and have been playing Warmachine/Hordes for nigh on 10 years now. I started waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay in mk1 back not long after Hordes was first released. I never liked the look of Warjacks at first and played the game with 2 other friends at a local gaming club who sold it to me as "like wrestling with giant steam robots".  After a game of battlebox mangled metal I was initially put off the game and thought it lacked strategy (oh how wrong was I?). I paid a visit to another reasonably local club with my best mate Dave (we all have a mate called Dave right?) and saw Hordes being rolled out for the first time and Warmachine played with units and thought to myself "Now I see this game has legs". I bought the Legion Battle Box and a Nephlim Soldier The next day and was hooked from then on playing solely Legion thoughout the entirety of mk1.

Most of my play up until the release of mk2 was friendly play with stuff we liked the look of rather than things that have good synergies. However Since mk2  I have played in a more competitive manner along with dabbling in a bit of Retribution of Scyah, Cryx and Khador for a time but am now faction monogamous with my first love Legion (for now).

Expect to see some painting articles from me as I'm currently repainting all the Legion I own which is a lot. There will also be musings on tournaments and list building.

For The Motherland

Hi, I'm Harvey.

I've been a Khador player for going on three years now, with brief intermissions to dabble in Legion of Everblight and Talion Charter. I'm not the most hardcore Warmachine player. I enjoy casual play as well as local steamrollers, team events and of course SmogCon!

I'm nowhere near as proficient a player as the other contributors here but I will write about those things that will be of interest to the humble Khadoran recruit; how to overcome the technological might of Cygnar or avoid the debilitating machinations of the nightmare Cryx. I hope to represent the average player's point of view on the blog and provide helpful insight on the most effective way of putting axe to face.

Painting, modelling and converting are my passion, so these subjects will enjoy the main focus of my articles, as well as covering events and any developments that will be of interest to loyal servants of The Empress, but if there's anything else you'd like to hear about, just ask.

Paul the Cygnar Player

Hello all,

Just a quick introduction to start with. I am Paul Winter and have been playing Warmachine and Cygnar solidly for about 4 years roughly. I am renowned for losing my first 100 games with the boys in blue and having tried every Tier list they have. Currently I win quite a bit now. Cygnar are my main faction, I have the whole range, my minor factions are Khador and Legion which I am keeping to two lists each. I have played Ret Trollbloods and Gators in the past but sold them off.