Occupied Llael - The End.

What a great campaign! I honestly thought it would have gone a bit pear-shaped with people dropping out at the beginning, but it turned out to be a success. In the end, I finished in fourth (or joint third would sound better) out of a field of ten. I’m not going to pick on what I did wrong or what I should have done as it was a smoothly run thing. The rounds were quick enough to keep interest while some special scenarios were made up to keep things spicy. The committee Members (Tom and Marcus) really made it an awesome couple of months.
Thanks guys! Can’t wait for the next one!

Occupied Llael - Final game (round 5)

Today would be my last game of the year. It would also be my last game with Menoth for a while. Tonight would also be the last time that the Old Witch would get the better of me (hopefully). Tonight...

On with the game, and I bring out Vindy as I have a feeling about him tonight.

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Marcus opted for the first turn and shuffled forward while putting up his nasty upkeeps (Iron Flesh on his Demo Corps, Avatar of Slaughter on the Old Witch and Weald Secrets on his Juggy).

For me, I pushed my jacks forward trying to channel the Demo Corps into my Crusaders. To do this I cast Sacrificial Lamb for the extra focus point for each jack while casting Defenders Ward on one of the Crusaders.

Next turn, Marcus moved Fenris down his extreme flank, followed this by moving his Winter Guard into some cover and the Demo Corps closer to my font line.

As my Vanq had not been too effective with its shooting in the previous turn (it was so bad I didn’t even mention it), It was time to charge the Demo Corps. Two fell under a Thresher attack (which should easily be a reach weapon). Vindy moved with his bodyguard of Zealots and Bastions slowly picking off another Zealot for more Focus.

Marcus made his move and boldly set everything forward. Fenris took a big chunk out of one of my Crusaders while the Great Bears and Juggy went for the second one. Thankfully, it only took one hit due to Enliven cast by the Vassal and just walked out of combat. The remaining Demo Corps went to work on the Vanquisher hurting it a little.

The Vanq retaliated and took down two more of the Demo Corps with the aid of the Vassal and Choir boy behind it. The now unengaged and fully loaded Crusader charged the Great Bears and finished them off leaving itself open to a looming Juggy. The other Crusader lashed out with its mace (it lost its open fist) and put some damage on Fenris forcing him to dismount. I followed this up with my Bastions who finished the job.

The Grey Lords at the back of the field helped out the lone Demo Corps member and got rid of the Vanqs support. Meanwhile Juggy went to avenge Fenris and occupied a Crusader. The other was frozen to the spot unable to lash out at the incoming Scrapjack. Scrappy moved up to the Bastions providing cover for Vindy and allowing the Old Witch to cast Unseen Path. This placed her right in Vindy’s face. So much for cover! Sitting on five focus, she began to attack second highest authority in the church. Here, is where I really felt for Marcus. He had missed his initial attacks thanks to Vindy’s high DEF and bought more attacks. After causing only minimal damage, Marcus ran out of focus.

It was really up to Vindy now, needing eight to hit I boosted the rolls and hit with both weapons. I also boosted both damage rolls. Sadly I just came up short. So with two focus left, I bought a third attack and boosted the to hit roll. With this I managed to finish her off.

Finally, I had gotten rid of the Old Witch. After putting a dent in Marcus’ force, I thought that I would be able to push Vindy’s brick towards my nemesis and try to kill her on my terms. I felt that Vindy was secure enough with his bodyguard (after my experiences at Tanelorn recently, I really didn’t like the idea of anything just appearing in my face), so I tried to cancel out as much space as possible. If nothing could physically appear next to my caster, then he wouldn’t get smooshed! The Zealots would have only been temporary as they would have vanished to give my jacks some more focus each turn, while the Bastions would have took some grinding down before a gap opened up next to Vindy. As a matter of fact, you’ll notices from the pics that I removed the wrong Zealot giving just enough space for the Old Witch to appear in. At that point, I thought it was over. Vindy didn’t have enough time to cast Defenders Ward on himself (make him DEF 17 and ARM 18 – meaning the Old Witch needed 11’s to hit) but did have a few focus on himself which helped. Fortunately for me, the dice conspired against Marcus. It happens to us all occasionally, but I certainly didn’t enjoy watching all of those failed rolls (well, maybe a little). Thankfully, Vindy is somewhat handy in melee so he can look after himself. And if he didn’t finish the enemy off, I had some Bastions and a Devout nearby.

I was pleased with the list. The Zealots were restrained and helped Vindy give out 12 focus during the game which I think is a decent return for four points. The Crusaders stood up well with the usual support and the Vanquisher held up play on my left flank. The Bastions provided protection while threatening anything that came nearby While the Devout didn’t do a thing except for taking a the hit from a spell one time (I think this happened, I’m not entirely sure). The Vassals were awesome (especially when saving a Crusader from a potential mauling with Enliven) and the Choir went about thier business in the usual manner.

I could (should) have lost the game to careless positioning of my Zealots, but I have the feeling that might not have mattered with Scrappy nearby. But still, Vindy won the battle and even turned the Old Witch into a Zealot with Death Toll. Praise Menoth!

Tanelorn Wargames weekend - round-up

What a great weekend! Despite not actually winning a solitary game, I had immense fun. Tanelorn do know how to throw an event and the atmosphere was really relaxed. I didn't see anyone who was ultra competitive (even though some lists were really cheesy, the players (the ones I saw anyway) were all good sports - Nigel my game 4 opponent apologised profusely). The organisation was good as well as the venue itself (a cosy room in an ex-serviceman’s club). But the best for me was the idea of the campaign was brilliant, all of the factions vying for vital info on some valuable resources over different battlefields. None of the team captains were actually told what each victory or defence would mean, but it all added up.
Some factions started off really well but then trailed off and vice-versa. So the best Warmachine faction according to Tanelorn? Well, unfortunately it wasn’t Menoth. We came second. The best faction was Retribution who beat us by a solitary point. You can only imagine my shame for not actually winning any of my games which certainly would have put us top of the pile. If I had just won one game (maybe defended the Menoth table against Retribution), we might have come away top dogs. Maybe I was secretly hoping that the angry elves would win as that’s the direction I’m going in the new year.
I’ll repeat, this was a very enjoyable weekend and I would be happy to do this again. They are a great bunch of people and a few actually attend Cross Gaming Club as well. I would also like to attend Tanelorn’s club night so that I can get to know the wider Warmachine community in London, but they roll on a Sunday night which is a bit sacred to me and the wife.

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 5

Ok! Last game of the weekend. A win is not too much to ask for is it? I’d basically like anything other than a loss. At this stage during the Scrap Metal II tourney a few months ago I had broke my losing streak with a draw against a Sorscha led Khador. The chances of me getting a win were reduced by the fact that my last game would be a three-way and not a two vs one like my first two games. I was up against a guy called Nick (Retribution) and Nigel (Cryx – the guy who beat me an hour or so before). Nigel took roughly the same as he did previous game while Nick fielded Garryth with two units of Stormfall Archers, some Mage Hunters and other bits and pieces. We all had one objective which was to claim the ‘ploughed field’ in the centre of the table.

To face the double threat a familiar face took to the battlefield:

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Redeemer (6pts)
* Castigator (8pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

I thought that I should take the Bastions again and surround my caster so that other warjacks cannot just ‘appear’ next to him.

First turn and Nigel sent a large part of his force to meet me (and my warjacks) head on (and tie me up again, especially with my slow speed).

I was aware of the silly Scrap Thrall threat and shot half of them down with my Redeemer/Vanquisher combo. The smaller Zealots ran towards the objective and everything else just shuffled along.

Nick advanced and both units of Archers let loose on the Cryx jacks on his side of the table. His Mage Hunters took several successful pot-shots at my Zealots and made the turn on their heels after taking out half of their number.

Turn two saw some more sneaky Cryx tricks and a Helljack just appeared in my Vanq’s face. The Menoth jack weathered the attacks. The Scrap Thralls joined in and engaged my Castigator. Nigel used another of his jacks to engage both units of Archers.

The Cassy got rid of the Scrap Thralls while the Vanq laid down some pain on his opponent. The Redeemer laid down some more covering fire and partially damaged another Helljack.

Nick’s Mage Hunters moved forward towards the objective while having his Mage Hunter Assassin keep an eye on the Cryx Warcaster. Those Archers that were not in Melee, targeted another Helljack and promptly destroyed it.

Turn three saw Nigel send yet another Helljack my way taking out two Zealots. He sent another to the objective while doing his best to occupy the angry elves.

The Vanq and Cassy deftly destroyed what was in front of them. I was no where near contesting the objective yet, so I got the High Reclaimer to feat and resurrected 6 Zealots who promptly made their way to the centre of the table while taking down a couple of Mage Hunters and the Assassin (this upset Nick as the assassin had been in threat range of Mortenebra and most likely would have killed him).

Nick made up for this by using the remaining Mage hunters to clear the objective of all things Menite and Cryxian, thus gaining enough control points to win the game.

Loss? Second place? It certainly wasn’t a win, but it was a very exciting game and a good way to finish the weekend. The three-way was a lot of fun and challenging, especially when you had to consider an additional opponent. I will hope to play more three-ways in the future.

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 4

Sunday morning. Good breakfast, good journey (no delayed/cancelled trains) etc, etc. Today I was going to show Tanelorn Wargames Club my Menoth ninja skills. I had left my case at the venue so my models spent the night soaking up the battle atmosphere.
Game 4 saw me pitted against the nasty, sneaky Cryx being handled by a guy called Nigel. I played Nigel in a one day tourney also held by Tanelorn about this time last year. I remember losing that time, so I wanted to even up the score.
Although the High Reclaimer didn’t die, I opted to take:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)

* Crusader (6pts)

* Vanquisher (8pts)

* Vanquisher (8pts)

Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)

Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)

Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)

Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

The heavy jacks were vital as Nigel would be taking Mortenebra. My team captain saw that on Saturday his list was filled with heavy jacks. To add some more punch, I took a full unit of Bastions for a change. We both had to capture the central objective as well as a nearby flag.

Once again I lost the roll-off and Nigel seized the day in turn one and went hell for leather towards the objective. Everything moved so fast due to Morty’s spells which was truly frightening.

I wanted to make sure that my flag was secured first so my Zealots turned on the speed. The Bastions made their way slowly towards the main objective.

In turn two, Nigel’s Scrap Thralls saw the Bastions and went to tie them up for a bit. They were spaced out which would make taking them out a drawn out affair. Three of the Cryx jacks made towards my flag with one of the them looking to pick on my faithful and trusty Zealots. Fortunately, this one came up short of melee range.

This was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. After the Zealots used their bombs to soften up the enemy, my jack went all out to hurt their Cryx counterparts. Both Vanquishers led the attack with one boxing the Cryx jack closest to my flag and the other putting down some heavy damage on the one with the harpoon thingy (you know I’m not good at names). The Crusader simply waited in line for the next wave of enemy. The Bastions took down the few Scrap Thralls that they were engaged with but couldn’t do more. My Paladin sat on one edge of the objective while waiting for his moment to attack.

Turn three saw some ouch! come my way. With the Bastions tied up, my Paladin hiding, my jacks engaged and out of the way, Nigel came up with an assortment of spells and feat (pictures do aid the remembrance of games, but they do not make note of the specific spells and stuff) to place a Warjack in Vindy’s face. Game Over.

Once again, I was undone by some foolish positioning. This was certainly a very quick game. I thought things were looking fairly good. The Bastions eventually would have gotten through the Scrap Thralls so they could contest the objective. My jacks were coping with the Cryx jacks with a little support from the Zealots. I did feel confident. But I didn’t expect such an end. I should probably start reading my opponents cards when I start games so I’m not caught out.

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 3

Saturday’s final game saw my team captain put his faith in me and place me in defence of the Menoth table. Keep this, and us Menoth players keep a kind of special ability (can’t remember the exact wording but, each enemy unit must take a command check before activating – failing would mean no activation). Didn’t really work out on the whole. My opponent for what was to be the most fun game I’ve ever had was John who represented the Retribution. I would be looking very closely at how the angry elves work as I’m planning on having a battle ready force in the new year.

With my favourite caster back in action, I took the following:

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)

They faced Vyros, some Sentinels, Halberdiers, Mage Hunters, a Gorgon and a Hydra (there were some UA’s and most likely some other bits and pieces – told you I was looking closely).
I lost the roll-off and was given the first turn. I had hoped to set up very solidly on one side protecting my caster and hope to give John something to think about with some flanking Knights Exemplar. John set up in a similar fashion with his Mage Hunters in flanking position.

Off we go for turn one, And everyone moved forward with the Zealots on the arriving just short of the objective (a Menoth temple of all things). I kind off found my self bottle-necked with my Vanq who had to sit behind the Flameguard.

John made a general advance, also arriving just short of the temple. The Hydra laid down some covering fire in front of the Flameguard.

Turn 2 saw my Vanq getting fed up of sitting behind the immobile Flameguard so he just moved out towards the left hoping to catch some Mage Hunters soon. The Avatar bore down on the Gorgon and Sentinels, while the Zealots started to occupy the temple.

John promptly got rid of those Zealots and got his myrmidons to sit in the temple (they suffered fire due to the special table rule – non-Menoth models immediately suffer continuous fire once they enter the temple, this does not go out) but not enough to actually hurt them much.

In turn three, the Avatar and Knights engaged the Sentinels and gave them some hurt. The Vanquisher was also successful at hurting the Mage Hunters. And the Flameguard did their bit as well by reducing the number of Halberdiers. The remaining Zealots entered the temple along with half of the Crusader (who looks invisible in the pics, but he just fell off of his base and I couldn’t be arsed to put him back).

John wasn’t put off at all by the Avatar and promptly turned it into trash and took out one of my Knights. The Flameguard were engaged by the remaining Halberdiers. The Hydra also put paid to the remaining Zealots.

Turn four saw the Knights take on the Sentinels which was mildly successful. The Flameguard finished off the unit of Halberdiers and the Crusader stepped up to face the Hydra.

Then John ended the game by engaging the Flameguard with the Halberdiers UA meaning they wouldn’t be able to flood the temple. The Sentinels UA also came good by using it’s Vengeance mini feat making a mockery of my flanking Knights. And finally the Hydra, now loaded up with Focus thanks to Vyros’ feat. Meaning I could not control the temple and it was lost.

I think my plan was kinda of solid, but I do think it started to go a bit wrong with the Avatar going down to some really good dice and the Vanq not being totally useful. John was a really fun opponent and gave a really good non-serious competitive game. I hope to cross paths with him again in the future.
All that was left for me to do was tell my teammates that I lost one of our character jacks meaning that none of us could use it for the remainder of the weekend, and then go home and sleep.

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 2

The second game saw me double teamed again, but this time by Cryx and two of their handlers (also attendees of Cross Gaming Club) Jon and Rob. As I had lost the High Reclaimer in the last game, he would be lying down in a tent somewhere having his wounds tended to. So Vindictus had decided to help me out this time:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)

* Crusader (6pts)

* Vanquisher (8pts)

Avatar of Menoth (11pts)

Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)

* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)

Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Jon was using the Coven while Rob took Skarre and they opted to go first.

They moved like lightning (compared to Menoth anyway) and their claim on both objectives.

I made my move a made my claim on one of the objectives with my Vanquisher, the Zealots would move up behind.

Turn 2 saw the Bane Knights move closer to my line along with a big scary Helljack (it’s been said before, I’m not good with names). Rob’s Nightmare harpooned my Vanq and pulled it closer in order to smack the crap out of it. Then Skarre feated, meaning that my Avatar and Crusader couldn’t attack while a few of their jacks couldn’t receive damage. Not cool.

Leaving a stalemate in front of me, I decide to get the Zealots to do what they do best and launch some bombs at the Nightmare and Bane Knights who happened to be nearby. My Knights Exemplar took down a couple of Bane Knights also.

 Turn 3 was absolutely gobsmacking! The Cryx player got Skarre to cast Ghost Walk and well… the pic shows what happened, I don’t need to say anything.

Again, I am undone by the positioning of my caster. My whole positioning during set up was kind lame as well. I think I really need to read up on the many enemies at some point. Again I was probably too conservative with some units. The Knights probably could have done more as could the Crusader and AoM.

But hey, there was still some more time to show what Menoth can do…

Tanelorn Campaign Weekend - game 1

Due to some factions being a man down, game 1 saw me up against a Cygnar double team. This was a 50 pointer and Barry (Cygnar team captain) and John shared the points in order to be fair. Now I’m not very familiar with Cygnar as I haven’t played against them before and I have a bad habit of not reading up on the enemy. As I was taking the High Reclaimer, I put together an infantry heavy list:

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Deliverers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)
Reclaimer (2pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

The idea would be to let the TFG protect the caster while moving up the table collecting the inevitable souls from the marauding Zealots. The Deliverers would try, albeit inadequately, fight fire with fire at range.
I forget the exact layout of the Cygnar force and what their jacks are called so won’t include Barry and John’s list.

In turn 1, I started off with a general advance towards the closest of the control zones. Nothing exciting really.

Barry moved his troops towards the other control zone and sat his Field Gun in the one closest to him. John moved his Stormblades towards my control zone.

In turn 2, I moved all Zealots and who got to the control zone. My deliverers moved awkwardly into position so that they could hopefully rain down some inaccurate fire on the Stormblades that were looking to contest for another VP.

The Stormblades did indeed make a move for Cygnar’s next control point, while the Gun Mages picked off my Zealots in my closest zone. The Field Gun made sure that the Gun Mages were fairly safe by laying down some suppression fire.

Turn 3 and the Deliverers took out a few Stormblades with two Rocket Volleys, while the Zealots picked off some more leaving them with a unit of two. Everything else moved up behind with the Avatar moving to my right looking to see where the enemy casters were hiding.

John announced that his caster was going to feat from behind the hut she was hiding behind and cast another spell that affected her warjack. The aforementioned jack saw silent Bob’s cloak and drew a bead on him. It wasn’t nice and the Devout was helpless. And so ended the game.

I had left the High Reclaimer open to such a silly attack which is quite upsetting. A lot of my force didn’t really see any action and maybe I should have been a bit more aggressive with them (running the Deliverers in the first turns to establish a kill box for example). The Avatar should have blocked the corridor from which the assassination happened and should have moved towards the enemy far quicker than it did.

Still, it was early in the weekend. There was plenty of time to show Menoth’s might.

Campaign Rules.

I woke up on the right side of bed. The cat wasn’t screaming at me to get fed and neither was the wife. I had a good breakfast myself – one toast with peanut butter, one with Marmite, a bowl of Alpen, two teas (milk, no sugar) and some apple juice. After a good, fuelling and a kiss from the wife and the cat, I felt really good about the day’s wargaming. My train arrived as I got onto the platform, and my next two changes happened fairly quickly making the journey to Leytonstone very smooth. I really was having a good morning. Arriving at Leytonstone tube, I didn’t need to consult the map I copied quite badly from the interwebs or even ask directions. I found the Ex-Serviceman’s club without trouble. Everything was easy. Everything got even better when I saw there was pretty much unlimited (almost) tea to be had all day long.


Did I say I felt good?

As this was a team event, we all grouped with our faction buddies and were told the layout of the campaign by John Snape (the tourney organiser).The aim was to gain clues about a source of magic/treasure/useful stuff by taking certain areas (all the table’s had been laid out to represent faction bases, farms, woods, etc). Gaining these clues would give you access to the special tables which would lead to good things for your faction.. Also as each round of games was a continuation of the previous games, our resources wopuld be limited. So we had obviously one each of the Character jacks and a limited number of regular jacks between five players (one of our number pulled out). This was unless we controlled the ‘Factory’ table. We also had a limited number UA (e.g. 3 Monolith Bearers). If these were lost in a game, then we would need to control the ‘spawning pool’ table. Another rule was that if a caster had died in a game, he/she would sit out the next game. This was be ok for everyone except if everyone lost thier games. The only faction who would have trouble with this would be Retribution who only have five casters, but they had special dispensation.
So with all this laid out, the faction captains bartered and bargained for the table they wanted. Then they cam back to give the orders and we were on our way.

I had a good feeling.

Next: Game 1

Tanelorn Warmachine Campaign Weekend (13-14th November 2010)

What a weekend! Because I am still fairly wiped out from it, I haven’t begun to write up anything. Even on my lunch break while looking at all the photos I shot, I just couldn’t put it into words. I might start after dinner tonight.

I’ve taken several pics (my new camera works a treat and the quality is decent) for player deployment and after every turn so now things may make a bit more sense when I write it down. There were 5 games in all and were all thoroughly enjoyable, and the format of the event was organised very well. Thanks go to the grown-ups at Tanelorn, my faction team-mates and my many opponents for super weekend.

A small bit of good news.

Good news. The next battle report should have pics to illustrate my tabletop frustration. I bought myself (ourselves – the wife likes it too) a new camera. This is slightly better than the one we bought for our honeymoon but is just “really cute” (her words not mine – I would have said purely functional). It’s compact and light and would easily fit in my case alongside my light warjacks. I will be testing this out at Tanelorn Wargames Club this weekend as the y have a team event over two days.


As there haven’t been too many details, I will share what I know. There will be six teams of six representing all of the Warmachine factions. Each player will have three casters and each game will be 50 points each. As far as we know, we won’t have to submit a set list(s) for the weekend so we have to be flexible (this’ll mean bring my whole congregation). All in all, I’m just about set for six games taking the few positives from my Wooden Spoon at Maelstrom Games’ Scrap Metal II tourney. I think what will make this weekend slightly better would be the flexibility for each game. I like the sound of this approach as you can’t tell who you would be facing so you don’t know what to field. But then, there are still lots of casters, jacks and infantry I haven’t come up against yet so will probably end up taking a familiar list each time. Who knows…

Amon's debut.

Last night didn’t get off to a good start.


I left work and walked, as usual, to Charing Cross to get a train to London Bridge. On the way, the handle of my carry case broke off. The case itself dropped to the floor. Thankfully, it is a KR case and everything survived relatively intact (not that you could tell as mostly everything is lacking a bit of glue). No matter, I carry on with my short journey to Cross Gaming Club. Having arrived without any more mishaps, I found my opponent, Adam, and his Skorne force. We set up our table and began to introduce our respective armies.

Adam fielded the following:

Dominar Rasheth (*5pts)
* Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Paingiver Task Master (2pts)

You can imagine the initial shock when I saw THREE Titans. I immediately thought that I didn’t have enough:

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza (*6pts)
* Dervish (4pts)
* Dervish (4pts)
* Dervish (4pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Repenter (4pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

I was given the first turn by Adam who won the roll-off and I started with a general advance using Amon’s Mobility which gave everything Pathfinder and +2 SPD. I pushed out my Dervishes to the edge of my control area while moving everything else in a big block. Adam then made an advance behind his Gatormen and also sent one of his Titan to try and intercept my Dervishes.

Next turn saw a bit more of an advance using Mobility and setting up in some ruins in the centre of the table. The Vanq, powered by the Choir, didn’t do much at all. It took a second shot from a Vassal’s Ancillary Attack to even put a scratch on the Gatormen. The Gatormen then ran towards my jacks and put some minor damage on them. Everything else in Adam’s force pushed up even more and looked a little more threatening. One of the Gladiators slammed a Dervish turning it into scrap.

Combat in the next turn was fairly exciting due to Synergy, with my last jack getting a +5 boost to Melee Attack and Melee Damage. The Gatormen were the main target of combat, but they had a knack of making their Tough rolls. After seeing their buddy die horribly, the remaining Dervishes walked and engaged the Gladiator in it’s back arc (they were not given any Focus to charge as they were out of Amon’s control area. They did put a lot of hurt on the big guy but not enough to kill. The Gatormen hit back causing a little damage, while all three Titans saw major action. The Gladiator that smooshed the Dervish walked out of combat suffering no damage due to bad dice and charged Amon. At armour 14, Amon had a big chance of actually dying, but thankfully survived with 2 damaged boxes left. The Vanq got slammed by the other Gladiator and lost a it’s Blazing Star and Movement. The Bronzeback slammed into my Crusader and ended up throwing it in Amon’s direction. By the grace of Menoth, Amon didn’t suffer any damage from this but his opponent did. This still wasn’t enough to kill it. It doesn’t need to be pointed out that the Crusader did not live to see another battle.

Things were looking a little desperate for me now so I feated and tried to cause as much damage as I could. After using his Focus went to attack the Bronzeback and a couple of Gatormen. This didn’t go so well as the Gatormen made their tough rolls and the Bronzeback laugh off the crappy attack. The Bronzeback didn’t’ laugh for long as the Dervishes now loaded up with Focus (by necessity as one of the Agonizers used it’s Spiritual Affliction which affected the Devout and Repenter, meaning they couldn’t receive Focus) attacked it and the Gladiator that initially attacked Amon. Both succumbed to their whirling blades thanks to Synergy and boosted damage. Adam saw that I was in a poor position and decided to end the game. He got one of his unengaged Gatormen and walked over to Amon and promptly took away the other two points of damage.

A nice game with both of us using new casters for the first time. Also, Adam is fairly new to the game so he was still working things out. But he got it together enough to capitalise on my mistakes. My problem was, once again, being a little conservative with my force. When I saw those Titans, I totally got worried. So much so that I should have actually looked towards the Gatormen Posse who provided a great barricade for Adam. I was particularly impressed with the Bronzeback and his Grab and Smash combo attack (I’ll look forward to eventually getting round to using my Hydra Myrmidon!!!). I should have positioned the Repenter, Crusader and Vanquisher in front with the Dervishes behind them as a secondary force and then follow up with Amon and his Devout. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the list and am already think on how to use it more effectively.

Next up: Tanelorn Warmachine Weekend!

My fire wasn't quite hot enough - Occupied Llael round 5.

Last night saw my Silent Bob take on Sorscha in a club campaign game last night. This was a tough game against a fairly new member of the club, Jaden. We agreed on a 35 point game but still ended up running out of time in our session, meaning we only played 3 turns each.


Jaden took (adding additional points for territories owned):

Kommander Sorscha (*5pts)
* Beast-09 (11pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 6 Grunts) (4pts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard (2pts)
* 3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers (3pts)
Fenris (5pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)
Kovnik Markov (4pts)
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount) (5pts)

To which I answered with (again with additional points for territories):

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Flameguard Cleansers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Having barely won the roll for deployment, I let Jaden set up and go first. He set up his Fenris and Beast to my left and his Drakhun and Markov to my left in menacing flanking manoeuvres. The Winter Guard were set in front of the Great Bears while Sorscha and her War Dog sat behind slightly.
For me, I set up a brick of Zealots (the larger unit) with UA and Vanquisher to keep an eye on the Fenris and warjack. Near my centre I placed my Cleansers just ahead of my smaller unit of Zealots. Then I put the Errants and UA to cover the other flank, utilising the woods on that side. Silent Bob and his bonded Crusader sat behind the brick to my left.

First turn saw a general advance on Jaden’s part with the Rocketeers taking first blood, but wasn’t able to do much else. I mirrored the general advance with the Errants taking position in the woods ahead of them and keeping an eye on Markov and the Drakhun.

Next turn saw Markov come down the extreme flank looking to pull away my Errants. The Rocketeers took a few more casualties while everything else shuffled forward slightly. My turn came around and I had to get the Errants to charge Markov, which they did with ease. The Vanq pressed forward and took aim at the War Dog hoping to catch Sorscha behind it. I scored a hit and put it and Sorscha on fire but didn’t do damage to either. The Vassal gave the Vanq another go and this time went for Beast who also caught fire but with minimal damage. The Zealots moved forward to plug the gap between the ruins to their left and the Vanquisher and popped their mini-feat. This was to prevent the nasty Fenris from charging my caster. The Cleansers started to spray the Winter Guard with Menoth’s Fury and were largely unsuccessful, though they managed to set a few on fire.

The third turn saw the continuous effects cause very little damage. Sorscha suffered only one point, the War Dog suffered three while the Beast started the turn unscathed. The Winter Guard also suffered a few casualties in the same way, but they also made a couple of Tough rolls. Sorscha kicked things off by pooping her feat making a lot of my force stationary (over half of the larger unit of Zealots, the Vanquisher and Vassal, and half of the Cleanser and smaller Zealot units), before using Windrush to jump back to safety. The Winter Guard advanced to within shooting range of the Cleansers and managed to gun them all down and also take aim at the Vassal who, unfortunately, was not in B2B contact with the Vanq in order to get a DEF/ARM buff. It was time for Beast to come out and play and it promptly smashed the Vanq to pieces. Fenris just sat behind Beast as he had nothing he could go for. Drakhun took advantage of the open area that now appeared and moved close to Silent Bob and just look threateningly at him. This was looking a bit bad for me as I had lost a lot of troopers. Bob started the turn, now with a total of 18 focus, and feated bringing back 5 Zealots back from the dead. He then proceeded to cast Ashes to Ashes and put heavy damage on Drakhun and some Winter Guard. The Drakhun’s mount then perished to a well aimed swipe from the Crusader, but the Drakhun himself survived. The Zealots who came back to life went to work on the remainder of the Winter Guard and killed a few more. The Errants came towards the centre of the field and got rid of a couple more Winter Guard.

This is where we ran out of time and called it a draw.

The look of the game might have changed in the next turn with a lot of Continuous Fire on several models, most notably Sorscha and her Dog. The Dog would have died while the caster would have suffered 2d6-2 damage which would have left her very vulnerable. Drakhun would have kept the Crusader engaged while Beast could have gone after the Zealots next to him. This could have left Fenris with a good opportunity to come and engage Bob (the way Bob was positioned, he couldn’t have been charged anyway). What was left of the Winter Guard would probably aimed at the smaller Zealot unit and softened them up for the Great Bears, who smartly stayed clear of the action. But then my Errants could have covered the Zealots and give the Bears a fight.
Once again, I was very pleased with my force composition, so I will now briefly rate my force:
High Reclaimer - did well with his spells and moved away from trouble.
Crusader - didn't see much action apart from squishing Drakhun's mount.
Vanquisher - set things on fire and provided a nice distraction (there was nothing he could have done about Beast '09).
Zealots (max) + UA - blocked vital charge lane and made Jaden think about waht he wanted to do with Beast and Fenris.
Zealots (min) - took out some Winter Guard only after they had come back from the dead. I had hoped to keep them behind the Cleansers and launch bombs over them towards the enemy (it helps that the Cleansers are immune to Fire).
Cleansers - put some Winter Guard on fire but didn't have the chance to shine before they were wiped out.
Errants + UA - were pulled out of position by Markov (who paid for this dearly) and then came towards the fray and took down a few Winter Guard.
Vassal - did what he had to twice by urging the Vanq to take extra shots.

I do wish we had not taken so long in each turn, so we could have found a winner. So neither of us gained territory or lost it either. This is a shame as I had my eye on a particular piece of Jaden’s land.

Next game: more Khador under the command of my nemesis, Marcus.

New directions

I am completely silly, as I have started thinking about a couple of distractions in my exploration through the entire Menoth army and their Tier lists. I have the beginnings of a Retribution force and a Skorne force. I definitely wanted to start the Skorne force as I wanted a Hordes army. But the Retribution force should have been a pipe dream. But it isn’t.


So now I have:
Army: New Direction!
Type: Skirmish (1 caster, 35pts)
Points: 15
Master Tormentor Morghoul (*7pts)
* Cyclopse Savage (5pts)
* Cyclopse Savage (5pts)
* Razorworm (4pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)

Army: Other Direction!
Type: Skirmish (1 caster, 35pts)
Points: 21
Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)
* Hydra (9pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Ghost Sniper (2pts)

I know what I want to add to the Retribution (well, what is the most common sense for the ‘caster) to make a 35 point list, but I’m not completely sure about the same for Skorne. I really like the look and sound of Immortals, but the unit I really want is a unit of Ferox. I played against them last November at Tanelorn and was just amazed that they were so nifty. I was left chasing shadows all game. My Errants looked so foolish and there wasn’t much they could do about it. But I should probably play it safe and get some Praetorian Swordsmen and some Paingivers for the ‘beasts. And see where I go from there.

As for the Retribution, I know what I want to add. I want to add a unit of Mage Hunters accompanied by Magister to benefit from Rahn’s feat. To help with survivability, I think I should add a unit of Halberdiers and UA. I would drop the Ghost Hunter at this stage to make room for the UA. I think from what I’ve checked on various forums that this would be a decent 35 point list.

This may take some time to do as I promised the wife I’ll be a LOT more sensible when it comes to buying minis. But this is quite ok as it will give me more time to fully explore my Menoth future.

Some you win, some you sell.

Having gotten rid of most of my Dwarf army and half of my Imperial Guard, I am now in the process of putting up my Dark Angels for sale. Doing this is making me feel a little sad as I’m infinitely more attached to most of my Space Marines. I have already listed 34 lots so far and there is already a bit of interest, so there’s no turning back on those. But I’m having some trouble with some of the characters, especially a Terminator Chaplain. It’s one of two models (the other being The Deceiver) that I have sat properly sat down in front of and painted to a satisfactory level for me (I still have the painting age of a five year old though). I just put that model to one side and will probably list it last. Will I have the same trouble with the likes of Azrael or Asmodai? To be fair, I haven’t painted them in the same manner, they are not even finished, so will likely have no problem getting rid of these.

My Malifaux beginning...

I haven’t yet mentioned anything about my first foray into the world of Malifaux. I had a little taster in the break week previous to round 4 of our Warmachine/Hordes campaign. Having already taken a shining to the Viktorias, it seemed that I would get hooked on the rest of the Outcasts. So with my Viktorias and Som’er Teeth Jones starters boxes, I waded in.

As usual I went in a tad unprepared having not read the rulebook, only printed off the necessary pages from a pdf version I randomly found on the internet. Admittedly, it actually isn’t that difficult to start Malifaux as quite a lot of the rules make sense and I had a patient teacher. Ish, as he’s known on our club forum, started off by showing me the basic game mechanics with a one model per side skirmish. My first impression of a game that is not ruled by dice, was surprisingly good. Flipping cards in order to perform actions sometimes feels a lot better.

With the basics covered, we went into a proper game. I think we had a 15ss game which enabled me to take the following:
The Viktorias (two hot chicks)
Johan
Taelor

Ish took:
Seamus
2 x Rotten Belles
Madam Sybelle

After breezing through the set up of the game, we began. We both managed to pick the same objective, with was a counter in the centre of the table. The game had it’s up and downs for both of us, (including me flipping a 12, 12 and 13 at one point and an ace, ace, 3 at another), but I claimed the victory in the end. I lost one of the Viktorias early on and it started to look worse when Ish resurrected on of his Belles. Taelor looks to like she can dish out a lot of damage and Johan can prove to be a nuisance. I just have to learn how they all combine together before looking into other models. I’m sure Ish was just going easy, but it was nice to win the first game. The bad thing now is I wont have another game for a few more weeks. This game was played three weeks ago at time of writing, I’m doing something with the wife this week and then there are two more weeks of the Warmachine/Hordes campaign. The campaign is also supposed to end in a big finale to. I do hope to get another game in before the year is out as I really enjoyed this one. I was particularly impressed with the alternate model activations.
For now, my new lovely ladies will just have to wait.

The start of Round 4 of our campaign would see me get a large, and I mean mega, dose of Circle Orboros.

So for the first week of round 4, I was challenged by Martin and a Kromac led list featuring mostly pretty much all beasts. There were some hairy moments especially when a Pureblood took out a total of 12 Zealots and a Monolith Bearer. But the Menites prevailed dealing heavy damage on the three large wolves. With things looking iffy for Martin, he decided to wait until the High Reclaimer wasn’t buffed with over a dozen souls before making an assassination run. The Lord of the Feast caused little damage due to bad dice while Kromac weighed and took Silent Bob down to three boxes left. It was now up to The servant of Menoth, now boosted by a few more souls, to lash out at the Circle ‘caster. The first attack failed, but the second and third attacks didn’t giving me the win by ‘caster kill.


The second week saw me challenge Nick and his Moshar led force. I took pretty much my standard Bob plus two full units of Zealots, Crusader and Avatar of Menoth. I changed a couple of bits from last week taking out the Knights Exemplar and something else I’ve forgotten and replacing them with a minimum unit of Errants plus UA. We both tried to dictate the way each other played by trying some flanking moves. My Errants speeding down my right and the AoM traipsing up the left. The Errants had better luck but did nothing all game going down Nicks extreme flank, while the AoM Was hindered by not only a unit of Bloodtrackers, but by Moshar’s Pillars of Salt. In the end it was put out of it’s misery by a giant wolf of some description (my mind just cannot retain names). This left my core quite vulnerable to Nick other beast’s whom suffered a lot of damage between them, but not enough to put sown one or more of them. I did however manage to keep them on fire at one point or another in the game which was enjoyable if not effective enough. Nick was shrewd enough no to kill too many of my Zealots enabling the High Reclaimer to collect souls and give himself a nice pile of Focus for more spells/overboosting powerfield. This enabled him to give me more than enough threats to put me in check, and go on a successful assassination run.
The only saving grace from this game is that the Crusader survived, thus keeping up his bond with Silent Bob. But the worst thing was actually not killing any of Nick’s force.

Bob has really grown on me during this campaign and is now one of my favourite Menoth ‘casters. I have found him fairly easy to use and love taking the mandatory 20 Zealots and Monolith Bearer. I am now not sure whether Vindictus will make an appearance in the last round of the campaign having only featured once, so I’ll be wanting a strong finish from the High Reclaimer.