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.