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

 

..overcoming Faction Purity in the cold light of day.

I'd start with an apology of sorts, for my absolute lack of updates on Imperishable Dominion for the past few months, but for the simple fact that I doubt any of our readership missed me. I'm nowhere near pretentious enough to consider otherwise. Nonetheless, there it is. For those of you new to the blog, an introduction. My name is Sherwin, and I play Skorne; nope, that's Convergence; wait, that should be Minions. Or Convergence.

Maybe both.

 Time now for a boring personal history lesson, and then a guy taking himself waaay too seriously

I've played Skorne since the inception of Mk.II, back just after the field tests, and they were the first Hordes faction to receive a 'Forces of..' release. Back then, our local area didn't have a Warmachine scene at all, beyond a couple of older gamers whom had tried starting up at some point and given up due to lack of both store and gamer support.

My first Warlock was Tyrant Xerxis, for whom I dutifully made the obligatory Tier 2 Fist list after a handful of psuedo-battlebox games (to this day I've only ever used the actual Skorne battlebox for a game around three times); after that as our scene began to flourish, I continued to play with the Skorne. I am without doubt in the camp of those fiercely dedicated players that champions a single faction above all others, and comes to identify with them in the local meta. 

I enjoyed moderate success at a local level with the Skorne, and even some success at a national one (although of course, no titles), placing fairly respectably with them. But I found that whenever I would try my hand at an alternative faction, I'd reach about four games in at most before simply shaking my head, putting the models back in the case, and reaching for the Master Race once again. Any other faction just couldn't sway me from my first Warmachine love. 

 This guy changed it all

But then finally I became mechanized. Around six months after their release, a friend was selling off his Convergence of Cyriss models, which I duly came into possession of. I thought that they'd be an interesting painting project and then I'd sell them on eBay. What actually happened was that I fell in love with the first model I painted, a Cipher. Something about the aesthetic just appealed I guess. That afternoon, I vowed that I would use the models I had for games, and that I wouldn't touch the Skorne for a whole year, thus avoiding the typical circumstance of returning back to my beloved Titans after a handful of games. 

Playing Convergence was a massive eye opener, and something which I can absolutely attest to being the moment that my game stepped up to the next level, whether it be list construction, strategy, understanding of the core mechanics, or of tournament play. I couldn't say whether that was down to the faction or not - certainly there was initially a frontier feel to them back then, with only three Warcasters, no Corollary, Enigma Foundry, second heavy jack chassis, or battle engine. Perhaps that restriction focused me, perhaps not.

I returned to Skorne after Smogcon 2015, as promised. And, as you'd expect had a great time during the honeymoon period. I came to dominate the local meta with Xerxis2 paired with Zaal1. But for all that I was enjoying my games, I found the same unease that had begun to creep in during the latter part of my first run with the Skorne. Everything was the same. Very little had changed. Granted, the Aradus provided something a little different, but not a dynamic alteration. The faction felt stale. 

Enter the Minions. I'd owned a growing horde of both pacts for years, as allies for the Skorne, and then as painting projects, and always sworn that I would try them for a decent run. They became my new Convergence, starting so far with Thornfall.

And, for those of you still reading, here's the point of the article, the discussion.

Having a new faction to test expands your gaming horizons, and keeps the game fresh. Learning the synergy of a new faction or how the interactions between new models and abilities work is the best way to force you out of old habits, and keep you evolving. Playing Convergence certainly taught me that very quickly, as have the Farrow. But the flipside is that initially at least, you have to reset the learning curve. And for some, that's the killer.

I love the Thornfall Alliance models. Each of them has so much character, and is so thoroughly engaging to paint, even down to the lowliest grunt. They are, without doubt one of the best examples of how Privateer Press have taken a fantasy trope, mixed it around a little and made it their own. But every game is a struggle; they're deliberately balanced as being difficult. Players using Minions don't expect or even hope to win events. That some do is tribute to their ability of course, and once the new Light Warbeasts arrive, things will change. But by taking a Minion army, you are significantly putting yourself at disadvantage to the other players.

For the moment therefore, I've been forced to ask myself the question of how much I want to win. That sounds absurd to write, but I believe that its a question at the heart of all of us, the elephant in the room that few of us like to address directly. In a meta which looks down on 'powergaming' or those too invested in their games are decried as tryhards, at what point do you look at yourself and admit that you are using the best options available to you, because crucial to your enjoyment is victory?

For me at least, its a tough one to realise. I've always championed love for the game itself, and the models over the rules; I've never once fielded a list based upon what I read online or saw that did well somewhere else. I even stopped using the Fist after I came to the conclusion that it was fast becoming so commonplace once the Incindiarii were released. But losing with Minions has taught me that luxury is simply not one that I have with my new faction. 

Our in house artists impression of how the war for my faction purity was lost

And that's why I have at last overcome my faction purity, and broken free of what feels like the last hurdle in that step up which began with playing Convergence. I am a Convergence player, and a Minion player. Because, for better or worse, I am too emotionally invested in my games to not be it seems, to have one faction for events and when I want to win, and one for when I just want to play random games - or, until they get a release that brings them up to a standard which makes me feel more confident of success.

I'll just have to live with that I guess.

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.

Smogcon from a Minions Perspective

The dust has settled, sleep has been caught up with and the Rot has dissipated... its time to talk Minions, and how they survived Smogcon!

With selling my Legion it left me with Pigs and Gators, both in hefty bags so i only wanted to take one force which had to be Pigs hehe.

I hadn't signed up to any tourneys and just wanted to play in the Iron Arena all wkend, lots of games and very little sleep meant i had ton plan on playing our Lord Carver most games irrespective of the opposition as he is the most straight forward and forgiving of the line up:

Carver is the boss, pretty hard, survivable and brings a stack of buffs to polish the turd that is the farrow army. My list for the wkend was as follows:

Lord Carver +6

- War Hog 8

- Road Hog 9

- Gun Boar 5

Max Brigands w/Warlord 11

Max Brigands w/Warlord 11

Slaughterhousers 6

Effarit Scouts 3

Effarit Scouts 3

I came away with 2 wins and a loss with this list and its probably my preferred way to play Carver until May. In my last game of the wkend i swapped out a Brigands w/Warlord for a Meat Thresher and Maximus to face eGrimm. I had great success with that version which is now 5-0 in all events haha.

I wanted to get some games in with Dr Arkadius and his Nature of the Beast list which is on paper, the strongest list in the Alliance (Till May!) and i managed a win against Lylyth2 and a loss vs Rask. I also played the old Mad science Tier against Ossyan borrowing a few of Sherwins War Hogs to live the dream of 7 big Hogs at tier 4 mwhahahahahahahahahahahaha 

All in all it was a great wkend and its made me even more dedicated to my true love of the Farrow and im looking forward to the challanges ahead and how the Battle Boar and Splatter Boar will be mixing up my lists in the coming year.

SmogCon 5 and damn was it good.

Hey all. Aaron Wilson here (PG_SadPander) and I'm back from SmogCon and yes it has broken me. I'm meant to be in work today but I've got a saw throat, no voice, A headache and have no more life then a Mechanithrall. Would I do it again? I'd book my hotel room now If I could.

Before we breakdown my amazing time at SmogCon, a quick shameless plug. I've joined twitter, so please follow me. I'll be tweeting about everything warmahordes so come follow me at: https://twitter.com/PG_SadPander

Right let's get to the Con and first off - Thank you Mr Webb. I ran tournaments all weekend (Steamroller Friday, Masters B Saturday, IG Finals Sunday) and played some very late games with some people I really wanted to throw down with at stupid hours. It was an amazing Con and all the credit in the world goes to Jon who has put on the best show yet. He should be stupidly proud of his achievement and I know SmogCon is only going on to bigger and better things.

Thursday 

So us PGs had our own PG party Thursday, from 10AM barring setting up a few tables we were able to get some casual games  in with each other. Jason Soles and Micheal Plummer were around and Jason soles asked anyone for a game. I jumped as soon as I heard this and we played, I have to admit I was fangirling pretty hard at this point, Jason had a tier 4 Kreoss3 list and I planned on playing Xerxis2 for the day. Jason was great, really upbeat laid back guy with a stunning army. Game was super swingy, and Soles caught me out with a Righteous Vengeance, warpath trigger and a charge into Xerxis2 from Fire of Salvation. I was camping 2 and by all rights should of died, but he missed one attack leaving me 6 boxes and on fire. The fire didn't kill me and Molik returned the favor to Kreoss, under his array of buffs he dropped Kreoss3. Great game, great guy!

Here's the kill, Molik had 4 buffs on him in the end! It took a charge and a sidestep to get to Kreoss3.


 


After the game I had a good chat with Soles and I can say is I'm confident in the future of Warmachine + Hordes for a long long time. After a chat I checked in, put my stuff in my room and came back down. Micheal Plummer was now looking for a game and I again jumped at the chance, yet again Plummer was a super guy. We played and he really wanted to drop his Issyria list as he played his Thyron list the game before. I just dropped down my same Xerxis2 list, in a super swingy game I manged to take a win. This game was again, SUPER fun. Plummer was the nicest guy I've met in a long time. The rest of the day was spent setting up for the con, rolling mats out, putting scenery on tables and making sure resources were where they needed to be.

Friday 

 


Friday I ran the Steamroller, it was planned to be 128 player but we ended on something like 60 and by final round we had 58. It was a solid day of gaming with only a few minor rules queries and nothing major. The players seemed to really enjoy the event and we got our first top 8 heading into the steamroller finals.

Later Friday evening I got some really great games in, I had list of people I talk to all your year via Facebook or someway but never see so I was driven to get games in with said people. First up was Adam bell, we chat a lot during the year but we've never got a game until now. I put my serious face on and brought my most practiced pairing of Makeda2/Fist, Mr Bell had Feora2/Sevvie1. I was almost certain I would see Foera2 because Sevvie1 has no game into fist while Foera2 has game into both lists. Knowing this I dropped Makeda2, I didn't want to fist to be set alight by the Judicator but speaking to Adam he said the match up isn't as bad as I seemed to think so it's something I will try at some point.

The scenario we rolled was 2 fronts, Adam won the roll and elected to take table side and handed me first turn. Looking at this match up I knew I had no long game. With me running the infantry turn 1 was going to be hemorrhaging my single wound infantry to blast damage and / or fire. Adam cast escort and advanced Feora behind a wall. Judicator killed a few models and set some on fire and his zealots ran and did there whole you can't kill me for a turn thang.

Knowing I had no longevity in this game and Feora being in range of Molik (All be it after trampling) I took my chances. I had my Feat for Makeda2 to grant the boosted attack rolls, Molik needing 10s and Feora was behind the wall. I had puppet strings available, I knew it was like a 40% chance but I felt it wasn't going the chance wasn't going to present it's self again and the turn after this one I would be way behind due to another round of Judicator bombings, as well as reckoner and zealots.





Molik did it, I had a spike of one damage roll due to pupper strings and we got her on my last attack. This game was quick, but it was real good to finally sit down with Adam and meet properly. He was a great guy who clearly knows a lot about the game, thanks again Mr bell.

I got one more game on friday night against Delano Hing who is another pressganger, we speak a lot but as we're not super local to each other we again hadn't played. This game saw Makeda2 take a win over Carver1. It was close all the way and Delano had some poor dice rolls. At this point it was like 2AM, Masters B started at 8am and I was part of the team running it, sleep time!

Saturday 

Saturday saw me run Masters B with a great PG team and lead jugde Jason Enos, the event was superb. We had 118 players for the event and the caliber of play was the top level, I had no pictures of this as I was busy running around answering rules questions or watching the high level of play.

In the evening I had 2 more games lined up against people who follow the same trend of being close, but never close enough. The first game was lined up against Norbert, I'm sure you know him as he's the closest we have to a rockstar in the world of warmahordes. We played Makeda2 into Butcher1 and the game was a ball and swingy on both sides. Norbert took away a scenario win and I can only thank him for a great game against a gentleman of an opponent.

Here's the doctor himself in the thought tank!


 


My second game was against the one and only Lee Mcalpin, not only is this guy a complete bro but he runs the Bleeped up youtube channel, podcast etc etc and if you haven't checked it out? Where have you been! We played a 35 point game which we filmed as a battle report, I through an impromt-to list together and we had a blast. I'll be waiting for the battle report to come be produced and will share it with all you guys on here!  The time was about 1:30am and with the IG finals which I was running with Chris Cawthorne starting at 9AM, it was time to sleep again.

Sunday

The final day is here but I was feeling it, I was tired and my voice was going. Luckily IG finals was only 2 rounds and 4 player, the only part that required any thinking was checking that people had made the 75 points list in the correct way, which Chris was on top of. The tables for the IG finals looked really nice as I sorted them out


 


All the tables paired with the matching scenery looked baller, so huge shout out to Jon again for that. Things got underway and I went and checked out. I came back and Chris being the machine he is and had things under control (sitting between the only 2 tables playing helped) so I went and played some pick up games. I played 2 more games dropping fist both times, but at this I was mentally frazzled and by the last game I was glad that it was the last and looking forward to heading home to my own bed, a bath and some peace and quiet. Here's a photo of my very last game, Fist into Zerkova1.





That was it, the rest of the time was spent helping Jon pack away mats, scenery and clocks. The PP staff announced the winners of masters, IF and steamroller finals and then it was my time go . What an amazing weekend, I wouldn't change it for the world and I'm already fired up to attend next years SmogCon.  The PP staff, the PGs that helped and the amazing community we have as a game came together for the most enjoyable 4 days of the year so far. Thanks again to Jon for putting together for such a show and bring on next year. PG_SadPander over and out.

Dirt mystics, werewolves and movement shenanigans!

Hey all! My name is Aaron, and I have played warmachine for about four years now and have been a pressganger for about three. I started with Cryx, then rotated to trolls and have settled on circle orobos. I have played only circle Orobos for about 3 years and have literally just purchased (this month) a Haley1/2, Brisbaine and Caine2 list for my self. Just to see if guns are any good or not eh? My Circle Orobos range is fully painted with the help of Fanplastic Little Men, a fantastic painting service! My cygnar will be painted by myself and I'll keep you all updated with how that goes!

In regards to the game of warmachine the reason I play more so then anything else is the amazing friends I have gained (and writing this blog with) throughout playing it. We have the best banter, trash talk and very late nights in the bar at all events we go to and without them I wouldn't bother traveling for over night events. That being said as I do go far and wide for events, I am there to play tight competitive games. This year I have been practicing a lot, I have won some local events and most recently went 4-1 on the first steamroller at the UK Games expo and qualified for the masters. Next year I plan to attend smogcon (I will be running events here) UK, Irish and Welsh nationals as well lots of local events and hope to get podium spots!

I'll be speaking about the events we attend, Circle Orobos as a faction, Hobby and the current tournament meta: how and when it changes!

Cheese for reading my little part, hope to see you all back soon.

..Tyrant of the Army of the Western Reaches

My name is Sherwin, and I've been playing WMH now for around six years (I think, alas my aged memory is failing me), ever since the Mk.II release of the Forces of Skorne release. During that time, I've dipped my toes into the Minions, and Searforge Commission waters - but my true calling is for the Skorne.

I am a relatively active player in our local tournament scene, and also on occasion in the greater national scene; this year so far, I've attended Smogcon, the Welsh Masters, and the UK Games Expo Masters, with plans to play in the South East Masters and UK Masters later this year, with several local events inbetween.

From me I hope to provide some entertainment on my general musings on list building and tournament games, as well as the occasional article on painting - just don't expect the Fist or Molik Karn; I'm afraid that I'm a poor player of the latter, and like most Skorne players used the former to death in my formative years playing my faction (the first thing every Skorne player does is build a Xerxis1 Tier list, right?).