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.

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

Entering the fray

You know the score, long time gamer picks up new system, dabbles and then when it inevitably feels wrong eBay is reached for.  I had thought that this would be my experience with WM/H having been a drum beating, fun loving GW fan boy since the age of 12.  I bought some Legion, basing my decision entirely on the look of the models and set about learning the game.

"Its a steep learning curve" they sagely opined.

"You'll loose a lot of game first" many a club member informed me.

"Play one list and stick with it" was a mantra I heard many times.

Pah!  I've played for Wales at the 6 Nations!  I've painted more Skaven than Matt Ward's had bad ideas I thought.  

How foolish I was, as it seems that all of the above was entirely true!  I could feel the urge to sell coming on fast, thinking of all the new Warriors or Orcs I could buy with me coin.  9th edition was fast approaching and with rumours of being allowed allies I was happier than a Welshman at 'Twickers' last week.  Then Age of Sigmar arrived.  I won't dwell on the genuine upset I felt over this, rather the opportunity GW unwittingly game me to give WM\H a chance.

So I bought a ticket to a one day event, borrowed me some Ravagores and decided that no matter what happened I was going to get stuck in.   For me, organised play is always the best and I suppose the thrust of this post is recanting my first event experience and offering my tips for the other 'noobs' out there.

So - Round 1 against Trolls.  After my oppo did all the setting up (I hadn't.....haven't got a clue) it struck me that I had no idea as to what his toys could do.  "Look at his cards" you say?  Well, on the clock and conscious of not spoiling the event for him its easier said than done, as he had a LOT of cards.  This would be my message from this round.  You are not going to know what he can do - so make sure you know what yours does!  Pick any two units from WFB and i'll tell you how each can deal with each other.  Here I was lost, playing blind.  So, deal with it on a case by case basis.  Activate - target and then ask.  It keeps the game flowing.

Round 2 taught me about 'feating'.  I was using Epic Lylyth, and looking forward to Decimation.  The game rolled on and it occurred to me that if I didn't feat soon it wouldn't happened.  You can see where this is going.  I needed to get my head out of the 6 turn, slow burn approach to gaming and play the situation.  The fact was that my list was all about the feat and I squandered the opportunity.  Be brave I say and feat when the opportunity arises - not save it for a later that may never come!

Round 3 was a little different as the chap I played made it more of a training game.  This match up tight me about, how to put it, gaming detritus?  I was spewing out lasting fireballs and had nothing to mark them with.   Fortunately my oppo did and all was well, but look at your list and think about what you need to play the game effectivly.  A good measure, enough tokens and effect rings.

Round 4 was against a PressGanger who let me win it but had the good graces to make a show of disguising it!  This gives me the opportunity to discuss my final point.  Its quite clear that WM/H is designed to be played in a competitive spirit but that doesn't mean it can't be fun, civil and sporting.  I must have played near 100 event games of WFB and can count the number of bad games on one hand.  I hope for the same with this system and would encourage any other new players to adopt this attitude.  Its toy soldiers after all, and you can't get angry with dice.

As I get more games under my belt i'll be back with more musings.  Having just secured a ticket for the Welsh Masters I have some work to do!

Everyone has that special someone...

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


Mine is this chap:

Lord Carver Esq III, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction

 

 

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

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

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

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



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

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight

 

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

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

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

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

      



First Legion List!

Now that I have all the minis for my first Legion list done I can get down to some serious practice for upcoming events:

 

 

 

So there we have pVayl Winter Storm Tier 4 which points up like this:

pVayl +6
- Ravagore 10
- Ravagore 10
- Scythean 9
- Seraph 8
- Shredder 2
- Succubus 2

Min Hex Hunters 5
Min Hex Hunters 5
-Bayal 0
Max Spawning Vessel 3

2 Shepherds 2


So far I have played one game with the list against Sherwin's experimental Morghoul2 Hit Squad list, it was a bit of a learning curve for both of us but was enjoyable in that I could get a feel for what Legion beasts could do (Scythean without incite killed a Rhinodon and a Archidon and nearly another Archidon in one activation!), and also trying out some theorymachine tricks I had thought of.

Im certainly impressed thus far with how Vayl plays, turbo charging beasties is certainly my favourite aspect of the game and Vayl could rival Lord Carver as my favourite warlock in the game in that respect... Legion beasts are certainly better than Pigs so there is no need to turd polish haha.

I am looking forward to trying it out against a force that the T4 benefit will hamper more than Hit Squad, they lacked the shooting or massed AD for me to hamper or shoot with my leased/Slipstreamed Ravagores so that is still ahead of me.

I plan to main list this force and have an eVayl Machinations of Shadow Tier 4 list as the back up to cover any weak match ups. This force is nearly finished too, just an Angelius to complete then im tourney bound!

 



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.

Croak Raiders and Me... a love story!

Welcome to my first article! This sacred text is some thoughts of mine on the latest minion unit to be released by PP, the Croak Raiders:

Now being primarily a Minion player I shall be focusing most of the article of their uses for the Blindwater Congregation but will offer some speculation at the end to using them with Legion as that is my latest project.

If you haven't seen them before, here are the cards for the Raiders as spoiled from LnL by Chain Attack (Missing is the cost at 5/8 and FA2):

Stat wise they are pretty quick and are decent shots but otherwise it's victim all the way. Gang and Vittriol are abilities taken from the Croak Hunter Solo, as is Advance Deployment and Immunity - Corrossion.

These are all nice but on one wound troops you are going to need a Witch Doctor to zombify them for tough to get use out of Vitriol... This is a sound plan but will then run counter to using them as a source of souls and corpses for your Sacral Vault or Swamp Shamblers as Undead denies these tokens. PP giveth and PP taketh haha so make your choice dependent on the lay of the land so to speak!

Advanced Deployment though is money on a ranged unit, it gives them 30 inches of threat at T1 with the Gourds and 32 with the Darts if you go second so you're threatening enemy AD troops or if you go first your crazy frogs are running over the halfway line ready for a strike next turn yeah.

Each frog gets to throw a single weapon; either a Gourd or a Dart due to the cumbersome rule. The trick is to lob those Gourds first to cover quite a few enemy with the oil then light them on fire with a couple of darts, then lob another Gourd at more of the enemy unit rinsing and repeating till they are either dead or on fire. Now the Gourds do no damage by themselves but will auto boost the damage rolls of the darts or any other fire based attacks that effect the oiled models... Nice! The real touch on this is that the oil lasts a ROUND so the roll for continuous fire is also boosted, this is big, this can end warcasters right there or murder shield wall troops hahaha.

In the Congregation each of the warlocks can get some use of the Raiders, most notably Barnabus and Calaban:

Barny offers swamp pits to make them immune to return shooting, Iron Flesh to bump their DEF up to a usable 16 and his feat knocks down enemy non-amphibious models making them far more likely to connect with the flames. Setting Barny up with a proper gunline is now a realistic proposition and not just a couple of Spitters.

Calaban is a surprise choice but I feel they buff his game so much! Calaban is best in tier which means no Vault so his only real source of guns to maximize his feat was Ironback Spitters... Now he has a cheap source of multiple ranged attacks that also AD and if he can land a parasite on their target it's POW15 flames and continuous fire ftw. Calaban also brings occultation which will grant stealth, great for a shooty skirmisher unit like the Croaks and when combined with tough from a Witch Doctor gives them a fighting chance. You can be doubly sure and have them wrap around an Ironback to grant them girded and immunity to blast damage as a fallback but it's often not going to happen.

Yes they provide similar benefits to the other 'locks but these in my eyes are the biggest and and most game changing... Barny gets a game plan to create a new cryx or doomreaver drop and Calaban gets a game fullstop!

There has been some talk of taking these in Legion with the new Saeryn/Rhyas unit to abuse marked for death which definitely has game, but most armies featuring a lot of fire based attacks such as Ravagores, Seraphs or Typhon will enjoy the extra layer of fury management provided by not having to boost on blast damage shots. 

So for a summary, in my eyes these little frogs could possibly be the best unit in Minions, a tough order given the already excellent Posse but time will tell whether this is true or not!

Thanks for reading,

Rid

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.

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.

Welcome!

Welcome to Imperishable Dominion, our new blog site for Warmachine and Hordes!

We have quite a few members on the blog so will be covering a wide range of topics and areas of the games and the wider related hobby. In will let the guys introduce themselves further down this post but first a little about me...

Im Rid, ive been in the game since 2007 but only really started properly with the advent of MK2 with Khador but quickly found my true love with the Thornfall Alliance... Yes I am the primary Minion player for the blog having sizable forces of both the lunch and luggage pacts haha. I am represented in Warmachine with the Searforge Commission, but I am known as a bit of a flitter so have had smallish forces of most of the other factions at some point with the current project being Legion.

Im not the greatest player but enjoy the game, especially the tourney days to hang out with my mates and trash talk. Expect to see mostly painting articles and subfaction highlights from me.