Pigs... Life, Love and Errata

Well its been an interesting 12 months in my world of Warmachine and Hordes, 2014 ended with me quite dispondant with pigs, nothing was working or going my way... I started a Troll force in early 2015 but didnt really get on with them and my love for the game was at an all time low!

A few months later i convinced myself a new force was the way forward, enter Legion as was seen earlier in the blog... i really liked painting them (Very important to me) and enjoyed the play style of Vayl1 greatly. I played a number of games with them, including at a few tournies and started to win again and rekindle my love affair with the game.

Flash forwards to late 2015 and the release of Devastation; The Warlord, Splatter Boar, Battle Boar and Lynus & Edora are coming, the Meat Thresher and Effarit scouts are released and the low burning embers of pigdom begin to be stoked again...

The Warlord

 I love this guy! I really do, i have two of them in my current double Max Brigands Carver list and its doing very well at the moment. he is very much a model that needs playing rather than just looking at his card. If you can keep him safe long enough to get work out of gang then combined with the quagmire spell you create a credible answer to high def in pigs with mat10/11 brigands with PS12.

The Effarit Scouts

Unlike the Warlord, the value of these guys is immediately obvious by looking at the cards; High speed, high RAT and a great gun combined with light cavalry to run away gives them a myriad of uses... setting up finisher for rampaging Slaughterhousers for one, thinning out a flank of medium base guys like trolls and putting a dent into heavies is always handy.

The Meat Thresher

The Meat Thresher is a firm favourite of mine (I have and have used three haha), its not as good as the Sacral Vault thats a given but for pigs it provides another reasonable answer to high def infantry with its auto boosted attack rolls and knockdown. The gun can then get to work on what ever survives that! Admittedly it has to get there but brings a great target for Helga's Defenders Ward spell!

The praises of the Battle Boar and Splatter Boar have been sung enough on the various forums and by the fantastic Matter of Pact podcast team so i wont go into them... i do have a standing pre-order with the local shop for 8 Battle Boars and 4 Splatter Boars hehe.

A final note on the errata and the Splatter Boar; Now tagging a beast with the gas forces a threshold test which if they fail the beast will frenzy in the controllers next turn! This is a great turn out as it lets you ignore aspects of your opponents army knowing full well that they will be doing nothing for them haha

   

Glacier Queens

A few weeks ago, I received two Glacier Kings. This is my story.

The Kings were a blast to paint but not the best to put together - who knew? After playing about 10 games with them I now feel it's time to discuss them properly. 

I have been running them with Doomy3. Mainly for the point reduction and feat. 16 points of ice seems legit. My first three games with them came at a local event. The 16 point steamroller went reasonably well. Paired with Runes, I came third and only lost on scenario after getting my opponents caster down to 1 wound.

The Kings were glorious in the first game against pigs. Running 16 inches first turn due to the tier benefit and Rush was bonkers. The feat made them unkillable the next turn and I removed any threats. 5-0 to me.

Then came cryx. I knew going into the event that this would be a problem. Cryx like to munch on armour. Armour was all I was bringing. The game started well for me, I got up the table and began scoring/ piece trading. I didn't go for the assassination until turn 4 - a costly mistake. However, the biggest mistake was stupidly activating one King and advancing out of Doomy's control. If I had been able to boost I think I would have killed the caster. Instead, I left him on one and he won 5-3 on incursion. 

Then came the glorious moment where I assassinated a caster top of two with trolls. With ret, this was a common plan, but in trolls I have looked for the long game. To put it simply, my opponent didn't realise the Kings had rate of fire three. Abby died after one King had activated.

So that was my first event with them. They did well, were fun and great to see on the table. I have since played a few more games and used them in a mangled metal event yesterday. Yesterday didn't go too well but I had fun and learnt a lot.

So, here is the thing about the Kings and Doomy3. You will catch people out win ROF 3. You will feel great feat turn. You will kill jacks and beasts with ease once you get to them. But, and it's a big but, their relatively low wound count and def 9 mean they can be easily killed after feat. Not only that, but having two means you don't have much of a screen or other pieces to continue the fight once one is removed. Doomy3 also seems to struggle late game if your opponent has been wise and not fed you his army. In short, with the way the meta currently looks to deal with armour (thanks MMM) I  think they will need some rethinking. Maybe they need Gunnbjorn.

 I loved painting them. I'm happy to see them on the table. They are so, so much better than the Mountain King. For now at least I will give them Christmas off. Doomy3 will also have an Xmas break to rest his weary head. 

Next, I feel Calandra, croaks and the knot need to be tested. Puppet stringed Croak raiders under her feat sound OK don't they?