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.

SYNERGY DANCE OFF

Its Grandad here with an Imperishable Dominion battle report. Myself and Dan from this blog decided to bring eVyros and Bradigus together to have a synergy battle. We both decided to take it to tier four for both casters.
Dans force was pretty straight forward, Imperatus, a unit of Sentinals, a Destor Thane, couple of arcanists, an Aspis and a load of Griffon's.
      

No Dan, its Incursion

My force was a straightforward tier four wold war list the only thing I tried out different was putting in the Woldwrath.

Turn one: Retribution ran everything forward, Vyros cast Synergy and then popped feat. Circle ran forward mostly, took a few pot shots with Woldwatchers and the Woldwrath which mostly missed and the Manikin line went forward and exploded into forests (yes, I know birds eye and pathfinder made this largely ineffective but it would slow the Sentinals). Bradigus cast synergy and the Woldwatchers hunkered down, the dance off was on.

The thin, green, useless, line

Turn two: Dan was expecting a bit more from the Circle shooting (which was mostly misses) so the feat was (when a friendly model dies and friendly model moves) a non-event. Vyros cast deflection, a couple of Sentinels and a couple of Griffon's ganged up to nearly kill a Woldwatcher. Tired of dancing round each other Bradigus feated and went in, also casting mystic wards. The Wolds started to build up a synergy chain, taking out a few more Sentinels and three Griffon's. Sadly for Bradigus the move back on the feat just moved him back 1/2" to far which left the stoneformed Woldwatcher who was 5" from Vyros out of control, meaning mystic wards would not work.

Turn three: Dan started sweating at the thought of not being able to upkeep synergy, but he had gotten away with it. The Retribution launched their counter strike, the Thane galloping around to try and get involved (Dan had forgotten about him and left him on the extreme flank) Vyros went to hide his giant armoured horse behind a small wall (that's right, you cant see me) and Imperatus and the Griffon's built up enough synergy to smash two Woldwatchers to pieces. In response the Woldguardians pounded the rest of the Sentinels and two more Griffon's to dust.

Your on a warhorse son, get involved

Turn four: Vyros had to move and recast synergy due to mystic wards, killing a Sentry Stone in the process, the other Sentry Stone was taken out by the Destor Thane.Imperatus bagged himself a Woldguardian and an Arcanist ran to score a control point (Dan could see his army buckling and had to try and apply some pressure).The second Woldguardian cleared the way forward, taking out the Aspis.The Woldwrath charged Imperitus, having a + 4 from synergy, I was confident that even with the stupid Phoenix protocol, my MAT 10 P+S 23 gargantuan should be able to remove the Retribution heavy from table. Stupid distances, the Woldwrath failed the charge by millimetres. Imperatus lived and Dan could stop holding his breath.

Stupid distances....

Turn five: Vyros gave out all is focus to the lone Griffon and Imperatus before claiming the far right control point. The Griffon charged Bradigus for little effect whilst Imperatus killed the second Woldguardian. A Woldwatcher takes out the Thane whilst the Woldwrath makes a meal of taking out Imperatus, running out of fury, allowing the Retribution heavy to come back to life after being pulled apart. Sensing the dance is over and being on + 2 synergy and 5 fury whilst Vyros has no focus, Bradigus gets ready to end it himself. I measured control and Vyros is just millimetres out of Bradigus 10" threat, damn distances, again! To rub salt in the wounds, the three rocks he chucks at Imperatus fails to finish the Jack of.

Imperatus is still there, why wont you die?

Turn six: Vyros fills up Imperatus, casts easy rider so Imperatus can skip over the left overs of all the light jacks and goes to dance with Bradigus himself (here I have made a cardinal sin, I left my warlock without a transfer target) and Imperatus ends the game.

Bye Brad....

Conclusions: Dan  is a pretty decent player and well experienced with his Retribution. He followed his battle plan, which was swarm the enemy with Sentinels and Griffon's, build up synergy and employ Imperatus (easily the man....jack? of the match) as his finisher. I felt that I had control of the tempo of the dance and felt comfortable going towards the endgame, just a couple of bad manoeuvring errors and then getting carried away and failing to leave a transfer target sealed my doom, against experienced players that is just a gift. Great game.

Learning Runes pt1

I want to learn how to play 'Runes'.

"Fuck that guy!"

That's what I would say if I saw a Runes of War player while using Ret. I feel The Retribution of Scyrah lacks the punch to kill big scary trolls. I believe this is because they are not trying to kill our Gods, invade our lands or sleep with our maidens.

Since seeing them everywhere at Smog Con (2015), I have been playing trolls again and have had some success with Madrak2. However, I thought it was time to try the big boy (old man) of the faction; Hoarluk Doomshaper's Runes of War theme force will be my focus for the next few months as I try to master one of the most common taunament lists in the game.

I am hoping that playing 'Runes' will provide me with a denial option that Madrak2 cannot offer. While I am in love with what him and Rathrok can do (especially on feat turn) I have found I struggle against gun lines and have been repeatedly smashed by Kruger2. Hopefully 'Runes' is the answer.

So, a few weeks ago, I ordered the two Runeshaper units and Doomy1 to complete the list. Yesterday I painted them. On here I will record the lessons I learn and the mistakes I make. The list may be the same as every other 'Runes' list but I hope that tracking my journey will provide some extra tips you cant find on Battle College.

I mean, how powerful are a few walls and some big green trolls?

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.