237 dice is 100!

Where does one begin? This is my one hundredth (1ooth) blog post, a landmark. I thought about a fair bit and the first thing that came into my head was some kind of highlight show… not really enough of those over the past 100 entries. Listing achievements might make for a very short blog. I could also bore you with an overview of my gaming habits, but you don’t want to read my tear-stained words when I write about the moment Necrons got all this shiny new stuff just months after I sold mine.
But then it hit me. A 42 point Warmachine/Hordes event was held recently and I put my name down for it. The problem was, I didn’t know what to use for it. I did say I was going to give Retribution a rest while I got used to Skorne. My Gatormen force was mostly unassembled and my Trolls are require a couple of heavy warbeasts and a couple of units at least. So that was when the light bulb appeared above my head. I will start at the beginning!

In the beginning there was the word (maybe a few of them actually), and that word(s) was (were)… BURN YOU MOTHER%UCKING UNBELIEVERS, BURN!!!

It was time to go back to the very beginning of my WarmaHordes obsession and bring out High Exemplar Kreoss and the religious might of the Protectorate of Menoth. They were my first love when I was tempted away from GW games. Not being religious myself, it was great to immerse myself in their zeal and conviction. The idea of setting stuff on fire it didn’t believe in Menoth tickled me immensely. What I like most about them is that they get stronger when they suffer.

It was really quite refreshing, to field a full army of Exemplars at the recent event that was organised by our beloved Vish. It was held at Dark sphere which was also refreshing, and yet cosy at the same time. The really great thing about it was meeting and playing against a totally new crowd. We were supposed to play a total of five games but it didn’t quite work out that way so we only managed four.

I had been on a break from gaming during November due to me spending my time taking up the NaNoWriMo challenge which has now completed, but took time out on Sunday 20^th to get my game face on. As I have mentioned, it was a different venue with a different crowd which made it a really exciting even. I know that some of us Cross Gaming Club guys were mostly facing other CGC guys, but I seemed to be drawn against non-CGC guys in all four rounds. This made games a little more challenging as I didn’t know any of my opponent’s tricks. It was also nice coming up against a couple of new casters.

So to kick off the sort of write up, I’ll begin with Round 1 in the next post. And as this is the 100^th post, I’ll end it with a bang. ***SPOLIER ALERT*** I won the first game, thus ending a twenty game losing streak. ***SPOILER ENDS***

No game, some gain.

So, my second game of Malifaux this Tuesday night didn’t happen. But I did watch a game in action between Neverborn (Zoraida) and Outcasts (Viktorias). I watched as the Outcast crew that Luke played was pretty much what I was hoping to use. With a extremely unlucky control hand in his last turn, things got quite ugly for Luke. Still it was interesting to see the mechanics of the game again and watch how crazy the Neverborn Stitched Togethers are with Collodi and Zoraida.

Once I got home, I put my Malifaux crew to one side and pulled out my Combined army. I had actually forgotten why I picked up this starter set in the first place. But as soon as I started to glue them together, I realised that they just looked like bad-assed mofos. The Morat Vanguard and Datuzari models just look completely solid. I think this is what all front line troops should look like. The question is: am I going to make them look good. Probably not. The Charotnid looks super cool and sleek and the Malingos suitably creepy, while my Speculo Killer looks sexy. Possibly a bit more than the Viktoria model with the dual swords. I should have a bit of time on Sunday to work on these so they can be presentable on the tabletop.

I have also just realised that this is my ninety-ninth blog post which means that the next one will have to be special. It should include something like a highlight reel or best bits, but it will most likely be full of bloopers.

Excitment. Annoyance. Mehness.

I’m going gaming tonight without my carry case. Brilliant. I’ve been playing a lot with infantry heavy armies for Hordes/Warmachine over recent months so taking a carry case has been pretty normal. But tonight however I have packed my six (6) minis into a much smaller case which happens to fit in my bag/satchel.

Six models. Tonight I will be paying Malifaux. This will be an intro even though this will be my second game (the first was played quite a while ago). I have forgotten everything and have been grabbing little peeks at my pdf version of the rulebook here and there but will still feel like a complete noob. The models I packed are both Viktorias, Tealor, Bishop, Johan and Hamelin. I have endeavoured over the last couple of weeks to paint these, but my efforts (as always) have mostly been met with failure. Still, I just about finished (lost patience) both of my Viktorias and have started to move onto Taelor. I will try and finish the crew before I play the next game of Malifaux, which I have to say won’t be any time soon. To explain, next week I want to get my first game of Infinity with my Combined Army and then November I will be in self-imposed exile. I’m going to be taking part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so all of my time will be taken by trying to churn out 50,000 words in thirty days. So December will be the next time that I will be rolling any dice (or flipping cards) in anger.

I would also like to share my annoyance with my limited readership. I sold the last of my Necrons a few couple of months ago now. I was bored of them and as an army just weren’t going to cut it against the other power armies out there. Plus the wife wanted the space.
So what happens next? GW are revamping the Necron army. I had been waiting a long time (since I got back into regular gaming a couple of years back) for something to happen. A new troop choice maybe, a new vehicle, heavy weapon options for regular troops, even a new character or C’Tan would have done. But looking at the imminent releases, I am now absolutely gutted that I trimmed the fat in my model collections. I will still buy the new Codex when it is released, but I will remain absolutely gutted.
Also, I’m a little disappointed with ‘The First Heretic’. It showed Lorgar of the Word Bearers having such a clear vision, but then the book just sort of went crappy at the end and changed my view of the golden one. I did like seeing the whole Isstvan V scenario from a different angle and enjoyed the portrayal of Argel Tal. But I cannot help feeling that some of the focus was lost towards the end.

A touch of freshening up.

During the last week at the club, I took the time to watch one game of Malifaux and one game of Infinity being played out. I have been meaning to get into these games for quite a while (I bought my Combined Army starter for Infinity more than a year and a half ago), but just never had the inclination to do so. So I have dug out my Malifaux and Infinity models and will now definitely get to using them.


Please note that this has nothing to do with a 20 game losing streak for Hordes/Warmachine (maybe only slightly, VERY slightly).I have been playing the game week in week out for a long time, ever since I gave up 40k and would just like to mix it up a bit. Other players do it, so why can’t I. Anyway, it would be good to get to know the other club members who don’t play PP games.

First off, (hopefully) next Tuesday I’ll be exercising my Viktoria crew. This crew consists of the boxset (both Viktorias, Johan Taelor and Bishop) plus Hamelin (not the Master version). At the same time I did purchase the Somer Teeth Jones box, Leveticus and the Desolation Engine. I glued these all together on Sunday and will hope to splash a bit of paint on them this week so they at least look a bit presentable. It was refreshing to see a game that doesn’t need annoying dice.
Once that’s done, I’ll begin work on my Combined Army starter and other bits so that I can get a game in the following Tuesday. Maybe some time after this I'll get to work on my Yu Jing starter. I really liked the way actions met counter-actions.

I think I will be looking to spend a bit of time with each game over the next few months, but Hordes/Warmachine will still be my primary choice (I haven’t spent all that effort painting most of my Skorne army for nothing).

Scaverous - part 2: Detention!

I stood in front of Scaverous again last night and the game had quite a different flavour. My opponent Adam, who doesn’t often come to the Cross Gaming Club, used a Tier 2 list:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous

* Deathripper

* Deathripper

* Deathjack
* Erebus

* Skarlock Thrall

Cephalyx Overlords

Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls

The Withershadow Combine

Darragh Wrathe

Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall

Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall

Pistol Wraith

Pistol Wraith

Warwitch Siren

My list was the same as Tuesday night’s game except for the fact that I changed the Krea for a Drake. I won the roll-off again and decided to go first. 

So, first I Mordi advanced and laid down his upkeep spells on the Nihilators and Swords (both of whom ran forwards). The rest of the fury was dumped into the Agonizer. Everything else advanced behind the front line. Adam ran the Pistol Wraiths through the forest in front of my Nihilators and a Deathripper towards my swords. Everything else just shuffled forward.

Next turn I feated and had my Void Spirit charge the Pistol Wraiths and the Nihilators charge DJ. Nothing really happened as the Void Spirits’ damage roll was non-existent while the Nihilators only managed a couple of points on the Death Warded DJ. Adam had a great turn starting with the Withershadow Combine getting rid of Hollow on the Nihilators. Then the Cephalyx used their sprays to clear away the Nihilators engaging DJ who was then free to Telekinesis the Bronzeback so he could charge him in the back. The Bronzeback could not withstand the following onslaught, Erebus moved menacingly close to the Swords. As most of the damage was done, everything else just shuffled forward again.

The first thing that presented itself to me was the fact that my Gladiator was easily within charge range of DJ. So the Elephant poker enraged him and he charged. He was already sitting on two fury (I must’ve have miscounted previous turn) but he managed to get his Grab and Smash to work. DJ was thrown into a Deathchicken causing a little more damage, but not too much. Mordi revived a few Nihilators and placed them in charge range of the Combine, Necrotech and Darragh Wrathe. So they charged and somehow all charge targets were still sanding. The drake made good use of his spray and picked off one Cephalyx and the remaining Pistol Wraith. The last thing I did (and I still don’t know why) was charge the Swords into Erebus. They used Penetrating strike and did a little damage. Adam took his vengeance and TK’ed the Gladiator and charged him in the back as well with DJ. I lost a few more Nihilators to various parts of the Cryx force while Erebus took out a few Swords.

The Drake got in another effective spray finishing off the Cephalyx and Necrotech. The swords move away from Erebus and into DJ again not causing much damage. The Arcuarii charged into Erebus and DJ but, again, didn’t cause much damage. Mordi moved out of the safety of his forest so that he could at least Revive one Nihilator into charge range of Scavvy. They charged and very typically did practically bugger all. It was pretty much all I deserved when Adam put Ghost walk on DJ who trampled towards Mordi (who was already halfway dead from having his upkeeps wiped out in previous turns) and smacked him hard.

Not a classic with regards to my rolling and also being the victim of some good rolling (this last pic shows the damage roll for DJ charging my Glad in turn three – the red die was for location and DJ was hitting at +1).

But, without wishing to sound like Arséne Wenger, there were some positives I could take from the game. If the Nihilators had their killing heads on they certainly could have raised some hell. The Drake was awesome with it’s magic spray. Plus it has a good animus if needed. Orin certainly did his part further up the table. The rest however was poor movement on my part. The Arcuarii didn’t have the chance to do anything while the Agonizer didn’t have the opportunity to shut down either of the Arc Nodes. It also didn’t help me bottlenecking myself through some terrain.

But there is one more positive, I shouldn’t be facing Scavvy for a good long time.

Scaverous - part one: The Lesson

As the wife is away on a business trip, I have booked myself two games this week. The second game I will be pitching Mordikaar against Scaverous which is a replay of Tuesday nights game against Oli where he used his Cryx:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous
* Deathripper
* Deathjack
* Malice
* Skarlock Thrall
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

The list is missing a couple of points as I cannot remember what else was taken and my Cryx recognition skills are lacking.

My Mordi list was comprised of:

Void Seer Mordikaar

* Basilisk Krea

* Bronzeback Titan

* Titan Gladiator

Cataphract Arcuarii (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Praetorian Swordsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

* Praetorian Swordsmen Officer & Standard

Agonizer

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Void Spirit

I won the roll-off and elected to go first. I bricked everything except for the Nihilators who I wanted to give me a bit of width. Oli deployed in a highly compacted Cryx Brick while DeathJack was set at the edge of the AD line.

First turn for me and I laid down my upkeeps (Hollow on the Swords and Banishing Ward on the Nihilators). The rest of the fury I dumped into the Agonizer. All units ran forward while the beasts and solos walked up behind them. Oli advanced everything towards me while putting Death Ward on the Bane Knights and then arcing Icy Grip through the deathchicken onto my Swords. Feast of Worms was also arced through DJ and killed four of my Swordsmen. This was the first (and only instance that I forgot that Hollow had given them Tough. Doesn’t sound like a good start.

Next turn I revived three of my Swordsmen to put them easily within charge range of the Bane Knights. The charge didn’t work so well as I only killed two. Everything else advanced to end a fairly tame turn. The Bane Knights got their own back and started off with Vengeance and then their regular activation (aided by Ghost Walk) to completely obliterate my Swords and four Arcuarii. Everything else just sort of shuffled forward.

Already things were looking bad for me (you know this is a regular occurrence in my games) at the start of my feat turn. The void Spirit and Nihilators charged BLT who had actually stayed around and must’ve started laughing at me. The Krea moved around and used her spray to soften up the Bane knights for the Gladiator, Bronzeback. The Arcuarii (who had three members revived finished off the Bane Knights and dragged the Deathchicken. The Bane Knights were finished and the Deathchicken also laughed in my face. Oli stepped up a gear by having a Bile Thrall Purge the laughable Arcuarii. The Nihilators were decimated by a mixture of a further Purge, BLT and the Withershadow Combine. Malice limbered up and dragged the Gladiator and started the damage. Scaverous arced Telekinesis through DJ to bring the Bronzeback towards him. DJ started to pound my large Titan but ended up missing a couple of times and was pushed back with Poltergeist.

Next turn I let the Titans unleash some pain. The Gladiator couldn’t quite finish off Malice as he missed once or twice. The Bronzeback put some big pain down on DJ, but this also wasn’t enough. The Arcuarii joined the Bronzeback but couldn’t do any better. The remaining Nihilators charged BLT and finished him off. Oli turn saw DJ kill the last Arcuarii (using their souls to heal a lot) and the Bronzeback. The Withershadow Combine joined the fight against the Gladiator, but combined with Malice, didn’t complete the job. The Nihilators were killed by another Bile Thrall.

Desperation saw my Gladiator tear into his assailants. But already sitting on two fury, he couldn’t do much. He did, however, succeed in getting rid of Malice and one of the Combine. The next step was to try out Essence Blast using the Gladiator as the point of attack. This was aimed at Scavvy (naturally). I boosted the Magic attack roll and hit and then boosted the damage. As it was even damage (Titans strength +5 equalled Scavvy’s armour) I needed 18 to win the game. I rolled 13 and the Gladiator died. Orin moved up hoping to use his Arc Lightning to win the day but couldn’t hit anything. Scavvy then moved forward and used Telekinesis to move DJ in charge range of Mordi. DJ then laying the smack down. When he was done, Mordi was left with 1 point of damage after transferring some to the Krea (killing her).

The game was ended here as I only had two fury and could not hope to finish off DJ and then withstand an attack from Scavvy. If I had three fury, however, I could have cast Ghost Walk and tried to attack Scavvy. But I didn’t and I couldn’t.

I was mostly pleased with how things worked under Mordi. The things I should have done better were numerous:

• Better deployment of Mordi would have enabled me to feat on the second turn (which was in the back of my mind before the game). This might have saved some swordsmen and held the Bane Knights up a bit.

• Orin and the Agonizer would have been of more use further up the field.
• The Krea could also have been used more effectively.
• My deployment of the Nihilators was just plain bad to start with.

But now I know that Revived models could be better placed (preferably before the unit activates) The Void Spirit had an off day and some of my damage rolls against Malice and DJ were just bad.
Overall I am more confident that I can be a bit less conservative in my play style with Mordi, and I cannot wait for Scaverous: part 2 tonight.

No guts, no glory.

After trying out my new bits for my Retribution, I was feeling good about a day of fun at Tanelorn Wargames Club. Jon Webb was running a one day event for Wrath. It promised to be good. 30-odd guys squeezing as many games as they could into the day with a few prizes and some charitable donations can only be a good thing. Especially as it was an opportunity to get some interaction between members of both Cross Gaming Club and Tanelorn, which unfortunately doesn’t happen enough. Which is a shame as there are some really nice players there. I remember having a really good time at their two-day campaign driven Warmachine event to decide on the best faction. Although I didn’t win a single of my five games (quelle surprise) it was great to see and meet players in the wider community. The only times this year I have seen, let alone spoken to, was at the UK Masters and the European Team Championships.


After packing my case on the Friday (really early with the event happening on Sunday – a habit I’ve picked up from the wife who will pack our bags no less than a week before we go on holiday) I started to make up some lists, as players would get points for using multiple casters. I rehashed previous lists to accommodate my new bits and try things I don’t usually try (even the Dawnguard Scyir was included). So all prepared, it was time to sleep and dream about getting at least one win.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a very explosive feeling, and it certainly wasn’t confidence. My bowels had decided to rebel against me. I couldn’t get back to sleep. As a result, I did not make it to Tanelorn. I didn’t feel that, even in a fairly large gaming room, 30 or so other guys didn’t want to have someone whose guts were on fire. I really wanted to go but at least I made some contribution in the shape of a charitable donation as part of the entry fee.

Bacon or Facon?

Last time at the club I had a really good game against Bill. He left the trolls at home and decided to bring his pigs. He bought along a tier 4 Dr Arkadius list:


Dr. Arkadius
* Gun Boar (5pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
* War Hog (7pts)
* Targ (2pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Farrow Brigands (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Farrow Brigands (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Farrow Slaughterhousers (Leader and 5 Grunt) (6pts)
Rorsh & Brine (9pts)

With an upcoming Warmachine Wrath event coming up at Tanelorn, I wanted to try out some new bits:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (*6pts) - NEW
* Chimera (6pts)
* Hydra (9pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts) – NEW
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard (2pts)
Houseguard Riflemen (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Houseguard Riflemen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts) - NEW
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Now the wife, as she does occasionally, took my camera with her on a trip across the Channel. This left me with our bigger camera which is a bit unweildly and I would undoubtedly forget to buy new batteries (I had forgot to charge the rechargeables). I will have forgotten stuff but I’ll give this report a good go anyhow.
I one the roll-off and decided to go first. I ran the Vics around the right side of the large piece of forest in the centre of the table. The MHSF went into the forest and the RifleElves move around to the left of the forest. I ran my Archers up behind the rifles and the myrmidons, A+H, Sylys and Ossy moved up behind everything and gave Shatter Storm to the Rifles, Admonition to the MHSF and cast Chronomancer. Bill had moved the Gun Boar and Targ towards my right nearly facing the Vic’s. Some Brigands moved to face my rifles and dug-in. Bill’s battlegroup moved up behind the forest with the Slaughterhousers, Grinders and other unit of Brigands. Rorsh and Brine made their way towards my Rifles.
Next, The Rifles opened up on the dug-in Brigands but only managed to kill one, plus Shatter Storm didn’t do anything as they were immune to blasts. The MHSF started shooting at Brine but only made him angry allowing him to move closer, but he suffered a bit of damage. The Vics moved forward and mini-feated for a bit of extra range and started to CRA the Gun Boar adding a bit more hurt. The Hydra powered up and unleashed a POW 15 shot at Brine, but this wasn’t enough to kill. The Archers only added a couple of points of damage to Brine. On Bill’s turn, things started to get messy. Rorsh used distraction allowing Brine to slam my back line. The slam target was my Hydra which went all the way back and killed Holt, Sylys and even put a little damage on Ossy. The previously dug-in Brigands moved slowly to my Rifles and opened fire taking out a couple. The Gun Boar had missed a shot after he moved out of Arkadius’ range. The central most War Hog charged into my MHSF, fortunately to little effect as they had Admonition on them allowing them to move out a little (and towards Arkadius). Everything else shimmied towards me.
This was my feat turn and I had to make it count. Now that I had a Brine right under my nose I had to take him down and the Hydra duly obliged in dispatching Brine and subsequently Rorsh. The Vics stood and shot at another War Hog that had strayed into range causing minimal damage. The MHSF did a little better and managed to crack a few shots at the Farrow Warlock and the War Hog that was looming over them. My RifleElves had a good turn by finishing off the Brigands with their rifles and Shatter Storm. My Archers, who have had a very quiet (useless) game, failed to hit the third War Hog with anything which meant quite a bit of deviation. Fortunately for Bill, the result was that I blew up a few Rifles. There wasn’t much else to do so handed over to Bill who started off his feat turn by getting rid of most of my MHSF with a War Hog and Slaughterhousers (I think they all ended up dead). Another War Hog charged into my Vics killing a couple.
With three large piggys in my face, it was time to be bold. The Hydra, now fully loaded with focus, started to wrestle with a War Hog. I think that the result was a draw as not enough damage was caused. The remaining couple of Mage Hunters had another pop at Arkadius with little effect. Now it was down to my Vics to eliminate the War Hog they were mostly surrounding. Firstly, Aiyana used her Kiss to soften the big fella up. Then, upon thinking about the best way to do some big damage, I went for a few three-Elf CRA’s. After the first CRA caused some damage, the War Hog had decided to react by moving past the Vics. This ended my turn as there was now nothing else to do. Bill was full of smiles at this point as he now had a Hog in charge range of Ossy. But smiles turned to indecision as he agonised on whether to boost the hit or save to buy another attack. He settled for boosting the first attack with his tusks hoping that he would get a Critical Knockdown which he got. It then took this and another attack to win the game.
So, definately not Facon. I will admit that coming up against three heavy beasts (who were relatively (stupidly) cheap in a tier list was quite intimidating, but Bill ran a very good list with a great warlock who can look after his beasts. I also realised that Targ is a great support solo. The way he can extend a control area is just amazing.
I was very pleased with my new bits and pieces. Ossy’s spell list is quite handy with Shatter Storm and Chronomancer (Future Sight for Myrmidons? Yes please!). Sylys is amazing (and would have been for the rest of the game if he hadn’t died early on) and cannot wait to use him further. A+H have a lot of potential. Aiyana could be brilliant and so could Holt but I didn’t get to see him in action. One thing I forgot though, not that it would have made much difference, was my Arcanist.

But still, another great game taking my streak now to 18!

Can I come back from the dead?

I have arranged for two games this week (tonight and Thursday) in order to try out my new warlock, Void Seer Mordikaar. I was planning on beginning to use pHexeris as my second warlock but I just came across the wonder full “The Mordikaar Chronicles” thread on the PP forums. Needless to say but I fell in love with this death-defying spell slinger.


My recent track record with Xerxis has been quite poor so I’ve been meaning to shake it up and try something new. Now after reading the chronicles I feel that Mordi can be the one to get me back on a winning track (I know I have previously thought this of the High Reclaimer, Vindictus and Vyros). So in preparation I have bought some new bits. In addition to last months mega purchases (see last post) I have just bought a unit of Nihilators to use. I’m fairly excited about using these and cannot wait to paint them which is strange. Last night, I even finished off my Bronzeback and two Gladiators.

Like last weeks game against Bill and his pigs, (battle report is currently stuck on a USB stick which has been left in my pc at home), it will be interesting to learn how these entirely new bits and pieces work. This time I’ve read and re-read stats so I might actually remember things.

Some decent progress and a bit of a crappy set-back.

It’s quite incredible really. For most of this weekend I have sat down and painted and for the most part enjoyed it. I have finished off my Immortals and have now started on my Bronzeback and two Gladiators. I’m very pleased with how the Immortals turned out. They are nothing at all special, just Astronomican Grey, a bit of a wash and some wishy-washy gold. Good enough for me as I can’t really be arsed with highlighting (which might not help my cause at tourneys where there are marks for painting). The only thing I want to do to them at the moment is base them which I’m currently leaving to my wife. She wants a bit of a distraction from her museum work so I’m letting her base my Immortals, Ancestral Guardian and Swordsmen with UA. I’ll post some pics when she’s done this.

This has left me free to start work on my elephants. I’ve started thier skin with Graveyard Earth as opposed to some kind of grey. As usual you won’t see any sort of really fancy work on thier skin but I’ll try and make a bit more of an effort than usual. After these guys are done I want to work on Lord Arcanist Ossyan, Sylys Wyshnalyrr (if I can pick him up somewhere) and Aiyana and Holt. I want to have this lot done before the one day event over at Tanelorn next Sunday. I’m quite excited about using Ossyan as I really like his Chronomancer spell which will make his jacks a little more efficient. This might be the guy to freshen up my Retribution. Of all the models so far released from the Wrath book, I am only missing the Arkantric Force Generator. I think I will get one one day but will probably just wait for the new jacks to become available. Besides I’m having fun with Skorne right now.

Whilst buying Ossy and A+H, I accidently bought some other bits and pieces (going stupidly over budget). I bought me an Agonizer, a Void Spirit, One Basilisk Drake and one Basilisk Krea, Swamp Gobbos and maxed out both of my Gatormen units. Also I bought a new Warlock that I’m getting excited about (I won’t mention who he is yet). Not cheap and more than I might be willing to paint right now. Still that’s what this hobby does to you, doesn’t it? I'll go back and hit the paints.

Xerxis vs Thyra 06 Sep

How did it go last night? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s been a while since I’ve played Nat (the Iron Cross one day event the club held). Back then, I had forgotten much of my Menoth knowledge which meant that a lot of elves died that day. Last night I was pretty certain that I could handle what Nat put on the table, the only unknowns being Thyra (who looks like she has a very decent set of spells) and Nicia (a Daughter with Reach?). I think that the new Menoth bits from Wrath might just tempt me back before the year is out. A couple of the jacks look totally sweet. I’ll have to get myself a copy and have a read.

So, Nat fielded:

Thyra, Flame of Sorrow

* Templar

* Vanquisher

* Hierophant

Daughters of the Flame

Daughters of the Flame – this unit was proxyed by Choir models.

Exemplar Errants (max)

* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer

Knights Exemplar

Exemplar Errant Seneschal

Knight Exemplar Seneschal

Nicia, Tear of Vengeance – This model was proxyed by pFeora

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Vassal Mechanik

Vassal of Menoth

Against:

Tyrant Xerxis

* Bronzeback Titan

* Titan Gladiator

* Aptimus Marketh

Cataphract Arcuarii (max)

Cataphract Cetrati (max)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

Praetorian Swordsmen (max)

* Praetorian Swordsmen Officer & Standard

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew – this unit was proxyed by Malifaux Gremlins.

Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer – this unit was proxyed by Wrongeye and Alten Ashley.

I won the roll off and let Nat go first. Nat set up quite wide with Daughters on both flanks and the Errant, Knights, jacks and others in the middle. I didn’t quite brick up but I did keep my swordsmen at the back of my line.

Turn 1 - I’ll start off by saying that Daughters running in the first turn damages any hope anyone may have. I also forgot they can move so quickly. It was safe to say that these ladies were going to outflank. The rest of Nat’s force advanced slowly with the Vanquisher cracking off a shot hoping for some good deviation. I put both Battle Plans available to me to good use to get my heavy troops to get further up the field ahead of my Swordsmen and beasts.

Turn 2 - This turn saw the Daughters slow down a bit keeping me on my toes. The rest of the Menites saw no hurry in getting to my lines with the Errants getting some crossbow action (which failed) and the Vanquisher getting his lucky deviation this turn (there was no damage, but five of my Cetratii were set on fire). This fire claimed first blood in my maintenance phase as it just wouldn’t go out. The Cetratii got in a charge on the Errants and dispatched a few. The Arcuarii turned their attention to the Knights and Knights Senny in front of them. Three of the Knights fell but the Senny was made of sterner stuff and stayed behind his wall. I thought it would be a good idea for the Tyrant Commander to charge Nicia with his high MAT, but sadly he must have fumbled at the last second.

Turn 3 - The remaining Errants piled in and added minimal damage to Cetratii while the Templar finished half of the same unit. The Knights looked for revenge and claimed a couple of Skorne lives with their buffed P+S. The Daughters on both sides came a little closer. The TyCo and his Standard were bought down by the Daughters that surrounded them. The Vanquisher launched another shot this time into the remaining Arcuarii and set them both on fire. My Cetratii suffered as a result of the fire still burning them with a few points here and there. The Bronzeback charged the Knights and was more that a match for their buffed armour taking out three. A few more Errants died in the existing combat with my Cetratii. The Swordsmen (with Fury on them) decided it was action time. One of the charged the Daughters (one can only hope of hitting them) a couple got a charge on some errant Errants (hehe) and the Knight Seneschal. Failed to hit the Daughter, killed the Senny and then an Errant. This was all well and good going around and killing stuff, but I forgot that the Senny has a handy ability called Restoration. He jumps back up with one point if you kill any Menites in his command area, which is what I did with the Errant. I should have remembered this and did it the other way around. No doubt this would bite me on the bum next turn. Meanwhile my Gladiator charged the Daughters that had now made their way behind my line but only had the reach to kill one.

Turn 4 – A suitably beefed up Knight (now P+S 16!) put 11 points of damage on the Bronzeback which was fair enough as he probably wasn’t going to live much longer. The Knight Senny proceeded to kill another Swordsman while his fellow Senny failed to even damage another. The Vanquisher took another shot which killed Marketh and set fire to a Swordsman this time. The Daughters and Nicia to my left sailed through the two Skorne in front of them while the Daughters to my right danced past the Gladiator. Thankfully Xerxis had cast Inhospitable Ground the previous turn, meaning they couldn’t reach my warlock. The Bronzeback took down the final Knight while the Cetratii finished off the Errants while putting some damage on the Templar. The Swordsmen had a mixed turn with one failing to hit the Errant Senny and another putting a whopping TWO points of damage on the Vanquisher. The imminent threat of the Daughters behind my line took the attention of the Beast handlers (who had no chance of hitting anyway), the Gladiator (who was out of Xerxis’ control at the beginning of the turn so couldn’t be forced) and Xerxis himself who clubbed two of them to death.

Turn 5 – The Templar hit back and killed a Cetratii and the Vanquisher killed his attacker. The Errant Senny also killed his opponent. The left-most unit of Daughters decided to put the beat down on the Swamp Gobbers but failed to kill them both. The other unit of Daughters ganged up on Xerxis and took nearly half of his health. My turn was already looking desperate so the Beast handlers enraged both beasts who killed three Daughters and the Vanquisher between them. The Cetratii finished off the Errant Senny and put a few scratches on the Templar. Lastly Xerxis clubbed a couple more Daughters to death.

Turn 6 – With nothing else to do really except conclude the game, Nat ran everything he could at Xerxis (which was the remaining Daughters, Nicia and Thyra herself) and won the game.

Well that was fun. The streak goes on, 17 loses on the bounce.

What did I learn though? My current force has trouble with high DEF units/solo/casters. Even with about nearly half of the army with MAT 7 and above, taking on 12 Daughters, Nicia and Thyra with DEF 15+ is a very tricky prospect. Add the fact that I had no way to buff anything thing apart from Fury (which wouldn’t have mattered against the Menoth ladies).

What did I already know? I should have seen the fact that I would have forgotten something simple like the Knight Senny having Restoration. I didn’t use my beast effectively again.

Any saving graces? Inhospitable Ground and Nat forgetting that Daughters with Nicia have Vengeance. Without either/both of these the Daughters would have been on me far, far quicker. If we played to a time limit, I think I may have done enough to earn a draw. There was an almost equal amount of loses on each side. But as no-one was kicking us off the table we played until the end.

I don’t need to say it but this was another great and exciting game.

WIP - Praetorian Swordsmen

Another painting post?


Well, I’ve finished my Cetrati by pinning their weapon hands to their bodies (at least I hope I did – we will know when I pull them out of the case and throw them onto the tabletop tonight). I also pinned Xerxis various appendages while I was at it (again we’ll know if I got it right tonight). Next on the agenda – a maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen with UA. I’ve already seen from forums and other blogs that these guys have quite a bit of detail on them. They weren’t wrong.

 

These guys are testing my patience. When I started this unit, I had quite a bit of impetus after finishing Xerxis and 12 heavy troops. As I always say, I have very little patience for painting but I ploughed ahead as I set myself an extremely unrealistic goal of finishing them by the time I play my next game (I started at some point on Sunday afternoon and have a game against Nat and his Menoth tonight). All the same, I’m somewhat happy with the progress I’m making and will hope to have them tabletop ready by next Tuesday.

I will be keeping with the theme of green and gold with some red bits here and there (not red, gold and gree-ee-een), and dark blue/purple skin.

This is a scheme that I want to carry over to the next unit (maximum Immortals and Ancestral Guardian) but am not quite sure how to do so yet. I have base coated an Immortal (sorry, I forgot to take a pic) in Astronomican Grey. I am quite taken by this and prefer it to the PP studio’s black scheme. I had this colour in mind for a while and only confirmed my choice after searching the web for alternate schemes. I saw Immortals in jade, terracotta and a kind of sandstone which all looked really great. The big choice for me is whether I add green armour plates and gold trimming to these models. But that should really be a decision for when I finish my pesky Swordsmen.

Some stats (insert quote about stats being totally meaningless here)

I have (rather sadly) spent a large portion of my lunch break figuring out my success rate this year. If the idea of tabletop games being games and not life and death was not at the forefront of my mind, then I would be sickened by what I’ve just put myself through. As it is, these numbers would prompt a lot of people to use the phrase ‘Don’t give up your day job’. So here goes:

Since start of 2011:

P – 45 W – 4 D – 1 L – 40

Amazing, huh?

The next few facts are in no way self-criticism, but...

1) The draw (against Jaden) was looking like a defeat for me before we ran out of time.

2) One of the wins (against Bill) was a battle-box game where I wanted to get the hang of the Hordes mechanic.

3) Another of the wins (against Mark) might have been another loss if Mark had remembered to put all of his models on the table.

It looks like a really bad record, but my tournament only record is even worse. Attending both the UK Masters and ETC this year gave me a 0-12 score sheet. Yes, I need to try harder I suppose but it’s only a game. Anyway as our resident Warmahordes madman Vish put it, “0-12 is a record that people need to understand. It means you are literally Fearless, inured to injury pain and suffering. To be honest, that's pretty fucking hardcore if you ask me.”

I only went on this little fact finding mission to find out how long my current losing streak is. Here is the answer: 16 games. However if you apply fact number 3 the streak would stretch to 26 games. And if you wanted to go further, then apply fact number 1 to make it 27 games since I beat Marcus (legitimately).

Beat that!

Right...

Right. I’ve just eBayed the last (pretty much, there is just a few models left) of my Dark Angels, Imperial Guard, Necrons and Dwarfs (sorry GW). And now I’ve come to a couple of realisations.


First and foremost, I’ve pretty much recouped all that I furiously splurged on minis since I was made redundant from my last job four years ago. The money I received back then made me quite silly and made me quite addicted to eBay. This means that I have finally paid of the loan I took out to cover my credit card which makes the wife pleased. Have I learnt my lesson? Mostly yes. I still buy bits every month, but no more than my agreed budget. For September, I’m not going to buy anything except for a few pots of paint as I want to concentrate on my Xerxis force which has a few options that I can use. I hope I will only buy when I have tested these options.

Secondly, and this is really strange, I miss my Necrons (and to a certain extent, my Dark Angels). Just like the rest of the armies and forces I’ve ever collected, the Necron success rate was poor. But I liked their simplicity. Only the Necron Lord had any real weapon options. I even enjoyed the simple paint job I gave the majority of them – this was the main reason for buying them, I didn’t have to go over the top with them. When I bought my paints at lunchtime today, I was speaking with the chap at GW and he seems to think that Necrons will finally get some form of update later this year. If this is true, then I may regret getting rid of them.

Hopefully I will now remain a responsible gamer/collector (just a couple of months ago I did have a relapse and picked up a fantastic bargain of a Gator force for Hordes). I have learned that I can say no to new minis and games systems, but that’s not to say that I will not add to my Malifaux and Infinity armies (they are simply on the back burner).

August (for want of a better title).

August. Not a particularly good month gaming wise. Not for me anyway. I have played three games down at the club this month and it’s needless to say that they were all very good. So off the top of my head:

Game 1: Steve and his Legion

Possibly eThagrosh with a beast heavy list. Steve had some forest near his deployment zone and camped in there for the game inviting me to go to him. I didn’t really want to as my army would be picked off bit by bit, and being fairly slow I couldn’t make get to him quick enough. Once I did get close enough, a couple of heavy beasts (?) chewed through some Cetratii and smacked Xerxis hard in the face a few times.

Game 2: Steve (not the same one) and someone else’s Cryx.

Not the Skorne vs Skorne game we planned, but still a good one. Satyxis Raiders proved to be my downfall and dispatched my Arcuarii on one flank and a big scary jack did it’s business to my Cetratii on the other flank. I can’t quite remember how Xerxis fell (or I choose not to remember) but he did. Again. Still, I hope Steve steers clear of Cryx (although he did field a very good list).

Game 3: Jaden and his Skorne (last night).

Mirror match – Zaal vs my Xerxis. My conservative play saw my force get bogged down again. When I did try to outflank Jaden’s swordsmen with my Swordsmen he responded by casting Last Stand and leaving me with only four left in my unit I would have hoped to give a good response but couldn’t really as my UA had been chopped down, I therefore lost Side Step and any chance of doubling my opponents loses. In the same turn, Jaden used Marketh to cast Last Stand again (which was quite a good move) on his Nihilators. These started to break through my Arcuarii. I did make some positive moves with my first my Bronzeback and then my Gladiator when, in successive turns they slammed whichever model was standing in front of Zaal. The collateral damage from the Bronzeback’s slam caused eight points of damage while the same from the Gladiator only caused one point. Sadly for me neither of these beasts had the means to cause any more damage (Bronzeback had no follow up, even with the Train Wreck animus, he didn’t have the range to hit anything else and the Gladiator was already running hot with fury). My last hope was for Xerxis to Combo Smite Zaal’s next meatshield (Jaden’s own Tyrant Commander) and hope that this would inflict the last six points of damage. For this to happen I needed two things.

Firstly, for my last two Cetratii to clear a path to the TyCo by killing a Swordsman and the TyCo’s Standard.
Secondly, I really needed Jaden to forget that Zaal had one point of fury to transfer the damage.
Sadly, due to the law of the sod, the first point was only half met and the second would never had happened.

All in all, three great games with a lot to learn. I am really happy with Marketh’s usefulness, although Jaden used his Marketh to greater effect. I should use also put Xerxis’ and TyCo’s Battle Plans to better use and get both units of Cataphracts up the table quicker. I should also keep the Swordsmen back as they can be quite vulnerable.
The month has been good for painting however (see last post). At the weekend I managed to finish off my Cetratii, although I am going to try to figure out how to effectively pin their weapon arms.

.. and we're back.

So after a long and eventful while, I am back to post again. I think it would be too much work now for me to post up various battle reports, despite keeping a photographic trail of my gaming misery. I may post a selection of pics of certain points in games where things actually went my way. I might actually make a new post titled ‘How to have a caster/lock killed’.

Today’s post, however, will about me and my least favourite aspect of the hobby: painting. I have recently caught the painting bug and have put my head down and got on with it. I think it’s to with buying a new paintbrush. There has been a bit of discussion about various brushes on the Cross Gaming Club forums and I thought I would investigate. As soon as I started to use my new Windsor and Newton Series 7, I found out that I’m just as bad as ever. This is not to say that the new brush doesn’t work in my hand, no sir. What I’m experiencing might be the painting equivalent of the placebo effect. I have now tricked my brain into thinking I’m either slightly better or slightly more patience (I’m leaning towards the latter).

So, what have I done? This:

I have finished up a unit of Cataphract Arcuarii for my Skorne force. They took up a fair amount of time (which has been made even longer due to doing a lot of proof reading for an article my wife is writing. But I’m happy they are done. I had actually started off with Lord Tyrant Xerxis, the head of my army (and number one bad man).

I have followed this scheme with my Cetrati

You can see that there will be a lot of Dark Angel Green at the centre of my army. This is because a) for PP games I don’t like sticking with the studio colour schemes and more importantly b) I have no more Dark Angels to paint. Because I have become disillusioned with the direction GW appear to be going, I have sold pretty much all of my 40k and fantasy minis. I have the last of my minis on sale now on eBay and hope to be shot of them next week. It hasn’t been easy getting to grips with the idea of selling over 13,000 of Dark Angels, nearly 7000 points of Necrons about (I never got around to actually adding it up after the new book release) 4000 points of Dwarfs and quite a lot of Daemons and Warriors of Chaos. No, it’s been heart-wrenching at times. I have kept a few minis that I really like (both C’tan gods, a Terminator Chaplain for examples). But I can tell you that I have a lot more space now, which the wife appreciates.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

 No! No!

Please, have mercy!!!

Don't do it please!! Don't hurt me!

So that's what my spleen looks l...

Recap of recent weeks (spending and preparation).

I fear that I may have overspent this month (three times what I allow myself each month) in preparation for upcoming tourneys that I’ll be going to. Originally, I got myself a unit of Houseguard Halberdiers and UA. But then, after a game with Marcin in which I used Rahn, I decided I really wanted a second unit of Battle Mages and a second Magister. I failed with the Battle Mages but managed to buy a Heavy Myrmidon (which will now be my Discordia), an Artificier, a Heavy Rifle team and Dahlia Hallyr and Skarrath. The next day I bought myself a second unit of Stormfall Archers. Whoops.

Despite the hole in my pocket and a little bit of guilt, I’m quite pleased with my purchases.

First off, I would like to praise my Halberdiers. In my last two games (a loss against Marcin and a win against Marcus), they have done their job very well. Against Marcin they held the front line for a couple of turns which would be long enough to get everything else into play. The fact that they can push themselves 9” forward every turn with Reform is very useful. But the thing I like best about them (and RifleElves – they are not men after all) is that they do not block LOS to friendly models. Against Marcus, I had a minimum unit + UA sat in front of my Invictors. The Invictors could just sit back and shoot from a distance (I had Ravyn cast snipe on them plus they had their little Extended Fire mini feat).
Discordia is a very useful heavy. With a high powered spray and an imprint that shares it’s Force Field with nearby models, it has certainly made itself useful in both support and offensive roles.
Artificier looks to be a very nice solo, but I have yet to use him in an offensive manner. Like the Discordia, he can also share a Force Field with nearby models, which would come in handy. In my game against Marcus, he sat behind the Halberdiers and Invictors buffing their Shield Wall and Defensive Line respectively. I can now have some very hard wearing troops.
I didn’t really get to use my Heavy Rifle team against Marcus through a combination of moving for a couple of turns and Zerkova’s nasty feat. So I’ll have to wait a bit longer to really see what they can do.
I know what Archers can do and now that I can provide them with some extra durability with an Artificier, I will definitely be thinking about making use of both units (most likely under Ravyn obviously).
Dahlia and Skarrath. I have longed to get these models. A chick with a huge snake that can deny enemy orders can only be a good thing. If I don’t get to use these with Retribution, I can add them to my Trollblood force.
Add to this, Fane Knight Skerryth, who looks to be a hard hitting solo. He personally dispatched a handful of Marcus’ Khadorans (Righteous Fury rocks!).
I feel my force is now quite flexible, although I feel a unit of Destors and a couple of Destor Thanes would complete the family. The one thing I’m still undecided about is the battle engine, and how they would fit in down at the club.

As I’ve mentioned in this post, I’ve had a couple of good warm up games for the UK Masters and ETC. The first was a loss against Marcin’s Circle. My Phoenix and Discordia had good games. The Phoenix made good use of it’s Halo Cannon annoying the heck out of a unit of Ravagers by setting them on fire (there were some good dice (including a couple of double sixes) when facing them). Rahn helped out when Phoenix got engaged by pushing the out of the way using Force Hammer. The RifleElves shot lots of things from behind the Halberdiers. The Halberdiers in turn provided some good cover for the rest of the force with the help of Rahn’s Polarity Shield. I can’t quite remember how Rahn got his face smashed, the pics must still be on my camera.
That was followed by a win over Marcus and Zerkova. My Mage Hunter Strike Force led the flanking manoeuvre but became a bit cagey when engaged by some Doom Reavers. My Fane Knight Skerryth saved the skin of pEiryss a couple of times as she followed the MHSF. A full unit of Invictors and UA sat behind a minimum unit of Halberdiers and UA with Snipe cast on them. Discordia caused some trouble early, by standing behind a hedge (which would save him from getting smashed by some Khadorian jacks. His Sonic Pulse Cannon (an incredible high powered 10”spray) took out most of a heavy weapons team, War Dog and took Zerkova down to half her damage. Ravyn feated in the second turn affecting nearly all of my force (only missed six of my MHSF!!! – which I needed), and they grabbed the chance with both hands. Most of the Doom Reavers fell to Phantom Seeking crossbow fire. The Invictors came up trumps with a couple of CRA’s targeting some Shocktroopers/MOW’s (I can’t remember). Everything was looking ok even though Zerkova feated. Not being able to charge or give orders, wasn’t that good. But that didn’t stop Skerryth and a few Halberdiers dishing out some damage (it was here that Drakhun fell under the Fane Knights challenge).
There was a scare when Marcus’ Kayazys walked through my line with the Underboss’ mini-feat. The Underboss himself couldn’t get through to Ravyn, but two of his men did. Fortunately, they didn’t have enough in the locker to finish her off. We called the game in my fourth turn as Zerkova had Discordia, some Invictors, Eiryss and a full strength MHSF +UA looking at her.

A couple of good games against good players, both of whom I hope will be raising hell at ETC when we all go in July.