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?

Tuffalo Tales Tier Tournament

So recently I attended a Blood, Sweat and Tiers tournament run by our very own Pressganger Dave Downs. A great local event full of familiar faces, I took a pretty standard Tier 4 Borka1 family reunion list which I am well experienced with and a Tier 2 Borka2 Avalanche list, which I had only had a few games with. Seeing as there was no divide and conquer (or character restrictions which everyone seemed to miss) I was going to stick with Borka 2 unless things went really bad. My list included Fire eaters, max Longriders and Horthol. Stone Scribes, Pyre,Bouncer, Earthborn and Rok.

Game 1.
Played Harvey from this very blog and his Butcher 3 list. I suffered my usual tournament first game mental block, in which I forget all the strategies needed for my list to work and hope my opponent is also half asleep, sadly Harvey wasn't. I was on the back foot most game, I had a turn when Rok was with in charge distance of Butcher 3 but I couldn't clear the models in front of him. There was a strange moment when a war dog charged, got counter charged by Rok, who failed to reach melee due to a Berserker 'Jack being in the way, but before Rok could complete his assault move got counter-charged by the wardog who then returned to Butcher3, thus avoiding the spray assault! Lost this on scenario.
How did the Tuffalo do? They mostly made poor road blocks as Ruin with silence of death one shotted them with ease.

Game 2.
Played another friend and his Grissel1 dude swarm. There were 2 max units of Kreil warriors with all the trimmings, Scattergunners,Fire eaters, some support and a couple of lights. I ran my army, he ran his, I was engaged. The speed of the tier list was something but it seemed to lack hitting power and the massed attacks of Kreil warriors couldn't take out Rok or the Earthborn. My two heavies completely heal them selves on stationary Kreil troll Popsicle's. Game turned into a grind in which my opponent's death clock run out.
How did the Tuffalo do? They made much better road blocks this time, the high armour was to much for Kreil warriors to deal with and once free of Kreil spam they could go off and deal with the real threat, the Fire eaters.

Game 3.
Played a PVayl beast list with Hex Hunters. Borka's feat allowed me to get right down the throat of Vay'ls beasts and kill box prevented her from running to far. Borka himself took care of Vayl after Horthol bull rushed her. This was quick and brutal.
How did the Tuffalo do? Great, they rushed ahead of Borka's battle group and cleared out the two units of Hex Hunters, dealing with there high def. Once past the Hex Hunters they tied up the large Legion battle group during Borka's feat.

Game 4.
Played my Nemesis Paul (from this very blog). PZerkova's hunting wolves NQ tier. I have played this list a few times, whilst Paul is very competent with this I never struggled against. No different this time and with once central objective zone my Borka list rushed the Khadorians and proceeded to bully it. Only the Devastor constantly clamming up and running back into the zone prevented a scenario win. The Kayazy decided to avoid fighting anything threatening and attacked the Scribe unit, which felt very characterful. Left with only a handful of models, Zerkova run up to Borka, casted multiple razorwinds and shot him to strip him of focus an then charged the remaining two Greylord Outriders to kill Borka. The slim chance of victory through a hail mary shot is one of the things I like about Warmachine, but it still stings to be on the receiving end of it.
How did the Tuffalo do? Great again, they managed to slam Greylords into Kayazy Eliminators, removing that threat from the table, before going through the rest of the Kayazy into a Vanguard light jack before swinging back into the control zone.

So a 2-2 result and the Tuffalo performed well. I feel like they can dominate certain games but they need to keep mobile to be fully effective, impact hits and slams is where it is at. Borka's feat help them if they get tied up, so I will be trying them with other casters (Jarl next) but already I feel they have earned their reputation as great cavalry models, are they best? As with anything it's debatable, I have seen Skorne Ferox used to devastating effect, I have seen wolf riders demolish entire army flanks, I have suffered under the shots of Tempest Blazers but Tuffalo are easily up there.

..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. 

Tuffalo Tales

So continuing my discussion with my newest Troll additions, I recently played my first game with these guys.
Playing Captain Winter (from this very blog) I had taken a 50 pt Tier 3 EBorka list, with full Tuffalo and Horthol vs a tier 4  PSorscha Khador list (we were both practising for an upcoming tier tournament, full report will follow).
The game started with typical running, Khador mortars running to the light artillery boosting objective, full Winterguard and Joe running down one flank shadowed by Widowmakers and Beast 09. Two more kahdor heavies and a load of mechanics ran down the other flank heading straight for my objective. Borka feated and waited, not wanting to make the entire Khador army stationary Sorscha had her army take potshots at the approaching Trolls, mostly lobbing mortars at the Kreilstone unit behind the wall of beasts. Next Troll turn there was a couple of slams and a Winter Troll's spray (yay it did something!)which cleared the way to Sorscha. Borka was just within 12" and that was that (I think the fact Borka2 had pathfinder caught out Captain Winter as Sorcha was hiding behind rough terrain trying to avoid kill box), but how did the Tuffalo do?
They had snow shroud upkept then formed a wedge around Horthol, stopping them outdistancing the kreil aura was annoying but they need that ARM 19. Line breaker and bull rush was awesome, boosted impact hits and slams on annoying Winterguard was great, I didn't really have anything else to deal with that amount of high def (maybe a primaled axer). Did they earn their points back? nearly.
Horthol slamming Beast 09 helped set up the assassination but he didn't do anything else (other than bring line breaker for the Tuffalo). So they had an important impact on the game. Potential pitfalls? Lack of pathfinder but that's why we have the Fell Caller Hero.

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?