Thursday, 26 August 2010
Fighting those tendencies.
I cancelled the order form last month as Wayland Games were still awaiting stock (either the book or the template set I ordered), which means I am no longer going to get the Retribution book. Yet. I still have my eye on them.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
General impression and self (loathing) assessment.
The whole event was very good, very friendly and very relaxed. This was made even more so as there were only twelve players. I thought it was nice with all the banter and just hanging around other game tables while you were waiting for your opponent to come back from the loo or grabbing a cuppa. The venue itself is a great space and I can only imagine it when there are lots more games going on (especially from what I heard about the European Team Championships a couple of months back).
The journey up to Mansfield wasn’t that bad and got to my hotel ok. The hotel itself was tidy, if a little noisy and was within walking distance to The Eye of the Storm (it took just about twelve minutes and not the five minutes that Maelstrom stated in their tournament pack). The main thing was that they made good on their promise of “as much tea and coffee as you can drink”.
All in all it was a good time and I will go to another weekender.
Now for the self assessment.
My record stood at P6 W0 D2 L4. This placed me at the foot of the table and secured me the Wooden Spoon, although I missed out on 11th place by a mere 800 or so points. I cannot whinge about anything that happened to me over the weekend (apart from record numbers of Tough rolls being made) as I was my own worst enemy most of the time. Each overall performance might not have been anything to write home about, but there were few individual efforts that were praiseworthy. I’ll just review each model/unit briefly:
Errant Seneschal – Granted Hunter which came in useful occasionally but I didn’t really make the best of his abilities.
Vassal Mechanik – Was called into action three times (I think) to heal my ‘jacks before he was taken down nearly every game. Out of those three times, he past his skill check just once healing a solitary point. This happened to give the FoS back it’s movement.
Vassal – Did his job frequently mostly with Ancillary Attack, although the extra effort was frequently wasted.
Choir – Did what they do best and give their buffs, although in the later (especially the last game) I inexplicably started to activate them after the ‘jacks.
Errants with UA – Mostly performed well but fell victim to my deployment. I kept putting them straight in to the frontline, and therefore, into danger. I probably could have eased them into the fray on the extreme flank and kept them safer. I know I didn’t always have to put them Advance Deploy them so far forward.
Bastions – Took a lot of damage and kept standing a lot of the time, which is what they were designed to do. I failed to utilise them in capturing Control Points/Objectives and also forgot that their weapons are Blessed (this fact would have helped clear one side of the table in my game against Tom and his Khador). I mostly had them trailing behind the intrepid Zealots.
Zealots – had a lot of fun with these guys as always, whether they were dealing death to the enemy or themselves. Their highlight was dealing a lot of damage to eMadrak. Used these as a frontline unit to hopefully soften up the enemy for the Bastions.
Monolith Bearer – Was good for giving +4 ARM with Holy Monolith, but usually used Greater Destiny a turn too late.
Devout – Stayed very close to Kreoss and was never destroyed. Didn’t really stop Kreoss from being smooshed (there is only so much damage a Devout is allowed to take) as my positioning was not all that.
Vanquisher – Rained down fiery death which is good. I didn’t take advantage of the Thresher attack from it’s Blazing Star in combat. I mostly preferred to shoot rather that fight which is sad as the Vanq can be really durable.
Fire of Salvation – Kreoss’ eager puppy fully loaded with Focus can be a scary thing, ask Beast 09. Using a point of Focus to activate the Imprint giving boosted attack rolls and use to rest to boost damage rolls is utterly devastating. Alas, I was not aggressive enough with him. With Defenders Ward (making him DEF 12 ARM 21) and a choir singing the hymn of Shielding, he should have been the first (and last) thing that the enemy saw. I also forgot that the FoS’ weapons have Dispel, which could have been useful a few times.
Kreoss - was handy for Defenders Ward and Lamentation. Used Purification only once, but probably could have used it more. His positioning could and should have been a lot better, (the first couple of games he was too far away to allocate focus on the FoS).
Painting – I’m not really a painter which showed, but did enough to heave everything looking cohesive if not fully based and painted.
I really started to get fatigued and it showed in the last game. I forgot my synergies a lot of the time and could have helped myself a lot more. I still need to sit down and read everything properly and work things out.
The journey up to Mansfield wasn’t that bad and got to my hotel ok. The hotel itself was tidy, if a little noisy and was within walking distance to The Eye of the Storm (it took just about twelve minutes and not the five minutes that Maelstrom stated in their tournament pack). The main thing was that they made good on their promise of “as much tea and coffee as you can drink”.
All in all it was a good time and I will go to another weekender.
Now for the self assessment.
My record stood at P6 W0 D2 L4. This placed me at the foot of the table and secured me the Wooden Spoon, although I missed out on 11th place by a mere 800 or so points. I cannot whinge about anything that happened to me over the weekend (apart from record numbers of Tough rolls being made) as I was my own worst enemy most of the time. Each overall performance might not have been anything to write home about, but there were few individual efforts that were praiseworthy. I’ll just review each model/unit briefly:
Errant Seneschal – Granted Hunter which came in useful occasionally but I didn’t really make the best of his abilities.
Vassal Mechanik – Was called into action three times (I think) to heal my ‘jacks before he was taken down nearly every game. Out of those three times, he past his skill check just once healing a solitary point. This happened to give the FoS back it’s movement.
Vassal – Did his job frequently mostly with Ancillary Attack, although the extra effort was frequently wasted.
Choir – Did what they do best and give their buffs, although in the later (especially the last game) I inexplicably started to activate them after the ‘jacks.
Errants with UA – Mostly performed well but fell victim to my deployment. I kept putting them straight in to the frontline, and therefore, into danger. I probably could have eased them into the fray on the extreme flank and kept them safer. I know I didn’t always have to put them Advance Deploy them so far forward.
Bastions – Took a lot of damage and kept standing a lot of the time, which is what they were designed to do. I failed to utilise them in capturing Control Points/Objectives and also forgot that their weapons are Blessed (this fact would have helped clear one side of the table in my game against Tom and his Khador). I mostly had them trailing behind the intrepid Zealots.
Zealots – had a lot of fun with these guys as always, whether they were dealing death to the enemy or themselves. Their highlight was dealing a lot of damage to eMadrak. Used these as a frontline unit to hopefully soften up the enemy for the Bastions.
Monolith Bearer – Was good for giving +4 ARM with Holy Monolith, but usually used Greater Destiny a turn too late.
Devout – Stayed very close to Kreoss and was never destroyed. Didn’t really stop Kreoss from being smooshed (there is only so much damage a Devout is allowed to take) as my positioning was not all that.
Vanquisher – Rained down fiery death which is good. I didn’t take advantage of the Thresher attack from it’s Blazing Star in combat. I mostly preferred to shoot rather that fight which is sad as the Vanq can be really durable.
Fire of Salvation – Kreoss’ eager puppy fully loaded with Focus can be a scary thing, ask Beast 09. Using a point of Focus to activate the Imprint giving boosted attack rolls and use to rest to boost damage rolls is utterly devastating. Alas, I was not aggressive enough with him. With Defenders Ward (making him DEF 12 ARM 21) and a choir singing the hymn of Shielding, he should have been the first (and last) thing that the enemy saw. I also forgot that the FoS’ weapons have Dispel, which could have been useful a few times.
Kreoss - was handy for Defenders Ward and Lamentation. Used Purification only once, but probably could have used it more. His positioning could and should have been a lot better, (the first couple of games he was too far away to allocate focus on the FoS).
Painting – I’m not really a painter which showed, but did enough to heave everything looking cohesive if not fully based and painted.
I really started to get fatigued and it showed in the last game. I forgot my synergies a lot of the time and could have helped myself a lot more. I still need to sit down and read everything properly and work things out.
Monday, 23 August 2010
Scrap Metal game results.
The first game of the weekend was against Rob and his Seaforge Commission. I enjoyed seeing an all Dwarf army, even though it broke all my preconceptions concerning their slowness. The scenario for this game was Revelation, which involved capturing control banners on the halfway line on the field. I lost the dice off (the first of five failed rolls in all six games), I think Rob went for the Defenders role (his Seaforge could in fact extend their Deployment Zone, which put them closer to the Control banners). Rob took a fairly ‘jack heavy army with three Blasters (total nuisances) with a good choice in troops. All this led by Gorten Grundback. The game itself saw my Zealots rushing straight to the Dwarven front line only to wonderfully implode by having a few bombs scatter into their own ranks (they wouldn’t be fun to use if they didn’t do stupid things like this). The Errants ended up being shot to pieces right at the start, while the Bastions fared far better with their durability. Everything else got caught up in a wall of ‘jacks being very ably assisted by Lord Rockbottom and Thor Steinhammer trying to get at an extremely evasive Gorten. Rob looked to win by scenario (he cleared me away from both control banners), but went for caster kill to rack up a very high score.
Next up was Andy and his Circle. Here, again was a nicely painted set of warbeasts led by pKreuger. This time the scenario was Close Quarters which involved taking to Control Zones. My Errants had a good time taking on the Bloodtrackers before taking a Warp Wolf and a Pureblood close to their deaths. Kreuger stayed too far away to even think about damaging and his feat really hurt my hopes of moving forward to capture either of the control zones. The Bastions did their best to try and control one of the zones but Andy had scored the more control points than I did by that time.
In the last game on Saturday, I faced Dill and his Trollbloods led by eMadrak. A lot of the killing was being done by three Impalers and a unit of Troll champions which tore through my line with alarming speed. This scenario, Kill Box, turned out to be just a standard (but bloody – Menoth blood sadly) ‘caster kill. Zealots almost took the glory and went for ‘caster kill and dealt some damage, but Madrak was left standing with 8 points left. Kreoss was killed by Impalers.
Sunday’s first game I was pitted in a game of Capture the Flag. My opponent Tom took Khador led by eSorscha and a wonderfully posed Beast. Things were going well to start with, the Fire of Salvation (loaded up with four Focus) made straight for Beast in the third turn and turned it to junk. As the game wore on I found my situation getting a little more desperate. Fortunately for me, we ran out of time to play another turn and ended with a draw. If we had I surely would have lost the game by scenario.
Game 5 was against Craig and yet more Trollbloods led this time by pMadrak. Craig could have won in the first turn as I didn’t follow the scenario (Process of Elimination) properly. I hadn’t placed my Zealots in one of the Control Zones properly and were subsequently cleared from the Zone. As that would have meant that the game was over right there and then, Craig let the game go on. I wish he hadn’t as everything went wrong (including Craig making 7 consecutive tough rolls). My ‘jacks were taken down by a couple of Impalers and some Troll champions. The Errants ran away from Pygmies and during Madrak’s feat turn the Earthborn went to town on my entire force. Kreoss fell yet again to Impalers. I had scored my lowest total of battle points so far.
The final game of the weekend was against Dan and some more Mercenaries, this time from the Highborn Covenant. Without me paying attention to Dan pointing out what everything in hiss force was and what they do, I soon lost the plot. My Errants got tied up by chaff consisting of a unit of Press Gangers (who also happened to be very successful with their Tough rolls) and Zombies. The rest of the force were engaged by more Press Gangers and Pistol Mages. I started to get things totally wrong, and Dan very helpfully (and extremely kindly) stepped in and made some suggestions. Without these hints, I would have lost any ability to destroy Dan’s Objective Markers instead of drawing.
Self assessment will follow as soon as I have got over how lame I was.
Next up was Andy and his Circle. Here, again was a nicely painted set of warbeasts led by pKreuger. This time the scenario was Close Quarters which involved taking to Control Zones. My Errants had a good time taking on the Bloodtrackers before taking a Warp Wolf and a Pureblood close to their deaths. Kreuger stayed too far away to even think about damaging and his feat really hurt my hopes of moving forward to capture either of the control zones. The Bastions did their best to try and control one of the zones but Andy had scored the more control points than I did by that time.
In the last game on Saturday, I faced Dill and his Trollbloods led by eMadrak. A lot of the killing was being done by three Impalers and a unit of Troll champions which tore through my line with alarming speed. This scenario, Kill Box, turned out to be just a standard (but bloody – Menoth blood sadly) ‘caster kill. Zealots almost took the glory and went for ‘caster kill and dealt some damage, but Madrak was left standing with 8 points left. Kreoss was killed by Impalers.
Sunday’s first game I was pitted in a game of Capture the Flag. My opponent Tom took Khador led by eSorscha and a wonderfully posed Beast. Things were going well to start with, the Fire of Salvation (loaded up with four Focus) made straight for Beast in the third turn and turned it to junk. As the game wore on I found my situation getting a little more desperate. Fortunately for me, we ran out of time to play another turn and ended with a draw. If we had I surely would have lost the game by scenario.
Game 5 was against Craig and yet more Trollbloods led this time by pMadrak. Craig could have won in the first turn as I didn’t follow the scenario (Process of Elimination) properly. I hadn’t placed my Zealots in one of the Control Zones properly and were subsequently cleared from the Zone. As that would have meant that the game was over right there and then, Craig let the game go on. I wish he hadn’t as everything went wrong (including Craig making 7 consecutive tough rolls). My ‘jacks were taken down by a couple of Impalers and some Troll champions. The Errants ran away from Pygmies and during Madrak’s feat turn the Earthborn went to town on my entire force. Kreoss fell yet again to Impalers. I had scored my lowest total of battle points so far.
The final game of the weekend was against Dan and some more Mercenaries, this time from the Highborn Covenant. Without me paying attention to Dan pointing out what everything in hiss force was and what they do, I soon lost the plot. My Errants got tied up by chaff consisting of a unit of Press Gangers (who also happened to be very successful with their Tough rolls) and Zombies. The rest of the force were engaged by more Press Gangers and Pistol Mages. I started to get things totally wrong, and Dan very helpfully (and extremely kindly) stepped in and made some suggestions. Without these hints, I would have lost any ability to destroy Dan’s Objective Markers instead of drawing.
Self assessment will follow as soon as I have got over how lame I was.
Saturday, 21 August 2010
Maelstrom oppoonents.
I checked the Maelstrom forum earlier today and found the details for my first game. I will be playing against a Mercenary force from the Seaforge Comission. Also had a brief look at the other 10 (yes only 10 others) players and what they are taking. There will be two other two other Menoth players (taking pSeverius and e Severius) amongst others. I hope I don’t have to come up against them.
Occupied Llael - round 1
Before I forget, I had a game on Tuesday which thankfully broke up the monotony of painting. This was one of our campaign games at the club and I played Jon and his Cryx force. I’ve played against Jon twice before but sadly never beat him. I think in the first game, I stood up pretty well, whilst in the second my behind was handed to me on a plate. This time we would see how things went. I was using a lot of new stuff including warcaster. I took the following list:
High Reclaimer (new)
Devout
Castigator (new)
Zealots - full strength
Zealots – full strength
Monolith Bearer
Deliverers – minimum strength
Flameguard Cleansers – minimum strength (new)
Reclaimer
Covenant (new)
We picked out a scenario where (and here I forget the name) a player had to take one (or both) control points for two whole rounds. After setting up, Jon got the first tun, during which he piled forward and took control of one of the points with on of his (I seriously cannot remember the name of it ) light ‘jacks. The rest of his force made a general advance. Jon’s heavy ’jack took a shot some of my Zealots at killed a few (which generated some souls for the Reclaimer to pick up).
My turn saw my Cleansers try a flanking manoeuver on the same control point. They let loose with their flamers but couldn’t get around the ‘jacks high DEF of 15. I did realise after their activation that I should have mad a Combined Ranged Attack as the leader was in range (with four out of five grunts in range, they could have got +4 to their roll to hit). Everything else moved on including a Focus heavy Castigator which went straight for the heavy Cryx warjack. It laid down some damage but left itself open for some smackdown undead style. Both units of Zealots went forward to lay down some firery hell on the undead but didn’t cause much in the way of damage (again I didn’t think about the most efficient way of dealing damage as I forgot to get the Zealots the sing the Prayer of Fervor). They did howeve manage to contest Jon’s control point.
Jon needed to get rid of the Zealots that were bearing down on him. He arced a nasty spell (...) through his light ‘jack and took out the four Zealots that were contesting the control point. Game over. But first, he got his Mechanithralls to take down my Castigator with such ease that the Heavy ‘jack didn’t even get a chance to flex it’s mechanical muscles.
This game was over too quickly. I would have felt good in the next turn if the game went on. My Cleansers might have made a nuisance of themselves. I’m really glad that I was was in charge of two units of Zealots and not facing them. They also might have been a very useful Soul bank, either through dying in the name of Menoth or having the High Reclaimer popping one off here and there for Sacrificial Lamb. The Covenant would have proved useful with it’s high CMD and useful buffs, I will be looking forward to using it again in the future. The Deliverers were never in range to do anything useful, but it would have been a matter of time before they rained hell from the skies.
Overall, I was pleased with the list I picked, but do wish I let some Zealots move out in front of the Castigator. Having chacked the club forum, my next game in the campaign is against Marcus and his Khador. A win would be good in order to claim some new territory and not be left behind. Marcus is curruntly occupying a territory I had my eye on. I’ll have to see about taking it from him.
High Reclaimer (new)
Devout
Castigator (new)
Zealots - full strength
Zealots – full strength
Monolith Bearer
Deliverers – minimum strength
Flameguard Cleansers – minimum strength (new)
Reclaimer
Covenant (new)
We picked out a scenario where (and here I forget the name) a player had to take one (or both) control points for two whole rounds. After setting up, Jon got the first tun, during which he piled forward and took control of one of the points with on of his (I seriously cannot remember the name of it ) light ‘jacks. The rest of his force made a general advance. Jon’s heavy ’jack took a shot some of my Zealots at killed a few (which generated some souls for the Reclaimer to pick up).
My turn saw my Cleansers try a flanking manoeuver on the same control point. They let loose with their flamers but couldn’t get around the ‘jacks high DEF of 15. I did realise after their activation that I should have mad a Combined Ranged Attack as the leader was in range (with four out of five grunts in range, they could have got +4 to their roll to hit). Everything else moved on including a Focus heavy Castigator which went straight for the heavy Cryx warjack. It laid down some damage but left itself open for some smackdown undead style. Both units of Zealots went forward to lay down some firery hell on the undead but didn’t cause much in the way of damage (again I didn’t think about the most efficient way of dealing damage as I forgot to get the Zealots the sing the Prayer of Fervor). They did howeve manage to contest Jon’s control point.
Jon needed to get rid of the Zealots that were bearing down on him. He arced a nasty spell (...) through his light ‘jack and took out the four Zealots that were contesting the control point. Game over. But first, he got his Mechanithralls to take down my Castigator with such ease that the Heavy ‘jack didn’t even get a chance to flex it’s mechanical muscles.
This game was over too quickly. I would have felt good in the next turn if the game went on. My Cleansers might have made a nuisance of themselves. I’m really glad that I was was in charge of two units of Zealots and not facing them. They also might have been a very useful Soul bank, either through dying in the name of Menoth or having the High Reclaimer popping one off here and there for Sacrificial Lamb. The Covenant would have proved useful with it’s high CMD and useful buffs, I will be looking forward to using it again in the future. The Deliverers were never in range to do anything useful, but it would have been a matter of time before they rained hell from the skies.
Overall, I was pleased with the list I picked, but do wish I let some Zealots move out in front of the Castigator. Having chacked the club forum, my next game in the campaign is against Marcus and his Khador. A win would be good in order to claim some new territory and not be left behind. Marcus is curruntly occupying a territory I had my eye on. I’ll have to see about taking it from him.
Friday, 20 August 2010
This week has seen a (at least I think so) massive effort made, by me, to paint the rest of my force. I have gotten most of it done, but can see myself doing some major painting in my hotel room tonight. Most of the army has been done.
Kreoss – painted and based
Vanquisher – painted and based
Fire of Salvation – currently only two colours
Devout – painted and based
Choir – painted and based
Errants, UA and Seneschal – painted
Zealots – painted and based
Monolith Bearer – mostly painted
Bastions – under coated
Whilst writing this list out, I have been hit by the realisation that I didn’t bring my static grass with me. I am so annoyed at my self. Anywho, as you can see I still have a bit of work tonight. Plus I have to make my control banners and to paint the arc markers on the bases. I’m just going to attempt tp just paint Menofixes on the bases (which I have liberated from models I haven’t een put together yet). I was originally going to paint Menofixes for the markers, but I can tell now that I will not have the patience. I will have to just shut my mind off and watch some WWE that I was saving for the train journey.
Kreoss – painted and based
Vanquisher – painted and based
Fire of Salvation – currently only two colours
Devout – painted and based
Choir – painted and based
Errants, UA and Seneschal – painted
Zealots – painted and based
Monolith Bearer – mostly painted
Bastions – under coated
Whilst writing this list out, I have been hit by the realisation that I didn’t bring my static grass with me. I am so annoyed at my self. Anywho, as you can see I still have a bit of work tonight. Plus I have to make my control banners and to paint the arc markers on the bases. I’m just going to attempt tp just paint Menofixes on the bases (which I have liberated from models I haven’t een put together yet). I was originally going to paint Menofixes for the markers, but I can tell now that I will not have the patience. I will have to just shut my mind off and watch some WWE that I was saving for the train journey.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Final decision / Early setback.
I’ve made a final decision on the list (because I had to – I’ll explain) at last. Here it is:
Army: Kreoss' Scrap Metal.
Type: Skirmish (1 caster, 50pts)
Points: 50
High Exemplar Kreoss (*5pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Fire of Salvation (9pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Exemplar Errant Seneschal (2pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
I’ve dumped the Knights Exemplar as they were the only unknowns in my force. I don’t think I could have taken them without having used them properly. So the Zealots have taken up the call and will provide some wonderful unpredictability. I think the list is fairly solid and can dish out a fair bit of hurt. This morning as I stepped out of the shower I had another thought about the list. There has been much thought given to whether I should take an Arc Node or not. I thought that I could drop the Devout and let the Bastion escort Kreoss, they have medium bases so they could block LOS and they have 40 damage boxes between the and would be hard to shift (especially with Defenders Ward upkept on them, giving them DEF 13 and Arm 18). But then it might slow things down when I want to lay the smack down.
Anyhow, it’s too late to change. Only this morning, while mindlessly stuffing envelopes, I re-read (re-skimmed) the tourney pack and I saw something that I missed. There was a paragraph that asked for all lists to be submitted before 13th August. Today being the 17th, I realised that I am late. Players submitting their lists late, as stated in the pack, will be hit by a penalty. Before turning up I am at a -5000 point disadvantage, which with Maelstrom Games’ Five Thousand Point system will hurt very much.
Also reading the pack I saw that, if my last few nights of painting go well, I could score well in the painting section. I won’t get the maximum I hope to get points for them being Painted and Based (3000 pts), Fully painted (600 pts) and for Cohesiveness (400 pts). I’ll never score extra points for them being Detailed (+ 400 pts) or even them being classed as Wow! (+600 pts).
I will hoping to take my camera with me to take pics, and should have time on the train back to London to write things up.
Army: Kreoss' Scrap Metal.
Type: Skirmish (1 caster, 50pts)
Points: 50
High Exemplar Kreoss (*5pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Fire of Salvation (9pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Exemplar Errant Seneschal (2pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
I’ve dumped the Knights Exemplar as they were the only unknowns in my force. I don’t think I could have taken them without having used them properly. So the Zealots have taken up the call and will provide some wonderful unpredictability. I think the list is fairly solid and can dish out a fair bit of hurt. This morning as I stepped out of the shower I had another thought about the list. There has been much thought given to whether I should take an Arc Node or not. I thought that I could drop the Devout and let the Bastion escort Kreoss, they have medium bases so they could block LOS and they have 40 damage boxes between the and would be hard to shift (especially with Defenders Ward upkept on them, giving them DEF 13 and Arm 18). But then it might slow things down when I want to lay the smack down.
Anyhow, it’s too late to change. Only this morning, while mindlessly stuffing envelopes, I re-read (re-skimmed) the tourney pack and I saw something that I missed. There was a paragraph that asked for all lists to be submitted before 13th August. Today being the 17th, I realised that I am late. Players submitting their lists late, as stated in the pack, will be hit by a penalty. Before turning up I am at a -5000 point disadvantage, which with Maelstrom Games’ Five Thousand Point system will hurt very much.
Also reading the pack I saw that, if my last few nights of painting go well, I could score well in the painting section. I won’t get the maximum I hope to get points for them being Painted and Based (3000 pts), Fully painted (600 pts) and for Cohesiveness (400 pts). I’ll never score extra points for them being Detailed (+ 400 pts) or even them being classed as Wow! (+600 pts).
I will hoping to take my camera with me to take pics, and should have time on the train back to London to write things up.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Stupid compulsive tendencies!
I have done something a bit wrong. It’s going to hurt me very a lot. As I was purchasing some Flameguard Cleansers, a Reclaimer, an Allegiant and a couple of Redeemers (for the small campaign that's just starting at the club), I had a quick peek to see if the Skorne book was out yet. It wasn’t ( I looked on the 10th but the book was due for release on the 11th) and I had a quick look over at the Retribution stuff. I’ve been intrigued since they first came into the Warmachine world. Maelstrom Games only had the hard back book, and as I’m not a fan of hard backs I looked away. It wasn’t until I realised that I keep meaning to get some templates when I buy things, that I went back to Maelstrom and looked. They were out of stock, so I looked at Wayland Games, who did have some. As I placed my order, but before I paid, I had a look at the Retribution stuff. And they had copies of the soft back version. So I ordered one. I said I wasn’t going to start my second force until the Skorne book was released as I wanted a Hordes army. I’m still going to get a Skorne force (Mildred the Razorworm will need some company at some point), but that plan has been pushed back a little as I’m really discovering all that the Tiered Menoth lists have to offer. Then maybe after I was happy with my Skorne force I would go back to Warmachine for a third army, which in all likelihood would have been Retribution. But now I’ve shaken my own plans. I don’t know what I’m doing now. I should probably shake some sense into myself and simply just read the book when it arrives and stick to the original plan.
Battle report catch up.
I have been a bit lazy recently. I owe you two battle reports.
The first against Marcus and his Khador was an interesting run-out for my 50 point Scrap-Metal II list. It has only had a very minor tweak dropping the Revenger for a Devout and reducing the size of the Choir.
The game itself was a huge challenge as at the start I left my prized Errants fairly vulnerable during set-up. They promptly got smooshed by Scrapjack (who I have a deep hatred for, I still have nightmares from the first time I faced it) who just gained attack after attack after attack. The rest of the force did ok. Maybe I could/should have used my Vanquisher more aggressively. More pot-shots into enemy lines is always good plus it could have controlled one side of the table a lot better. Marcus’ Kayazy Assassins with Underboss proved to be a difficult obstacle and made a bee-line straight to Kreoss. Kreoss was then forced (no pun intended) to choose between overboosting his own power field or buying and boosting extra attacks to get himself out of the predicament he found himself in. In the end, buying extra attacks worked in getting rid of the Assassins, but then the door was left open for … (I’ve totally forgotten who or what) to put Kreoss down. Discussing the game afterwards with Marcus, I could have used my set-up a whole lot better to force Marcus into changing his battle plan. As it was, he was able to get his force to concentrate on destroying parts of my army before moving in for the kill.
The week after was a game against Rob and his Cryx (Rob was playing only his third game with his Cryx force). I used the same 50 point Kreoss list. After Advance Deploying my Errants, I let them bomb forward straight towards the enemy. They succeeded in pulling one of Rob’s units to one side and occupy them. They pretty much wiped each other out while the Errant Officer remained standing. While remaining where he was in a forest, he also pulled out another unit. The Vanquisher did most of the work for the force. It successfully shot with it’s Flame Belcher every turn suitably aided by a Vassal (Ancillary Attack) and a Choir (Prayer of Battle). This left the rest of the army to trundle forward. The FoS pushed forward but then got sidetracked by a light Cryx warjack, while my Bastions provided an immobile shield for Kreoss (they were unable to advance too far as they kept getting knocked down). The Knights, Knights Senny and the Bastions didn’t cause a single point of damage between them which was really disappointing (but totally my fault as I was so undecided as to how use them effectively). In the end it was the Vanquisher/Vassal/Choir team that got me the win. After putting a large hole in one unit then boxing one of Rob’s heavy ‘jacks, the team turned their attention to the enemy caster pDenny. Now she was hiding behind the second heavy ‘jack, plus I couldn’t target her as she had Stealth. So I just shot at the ‘jack. The vanquisher loaded up with Focus hit the ‘jack and because of it’s 4” AOE hit Denny. I boosted her damage roll to add to the Choirs’ Prayer of Battle and got a nice healthy 15. As she was still not dead, the Vassal used Ancillary Attack on the Vanq. The Vanq, once again, boosted the damage on Denny this time causing 13 points of damage. If the game had gone on a couple more turns, we both would have used our feats which would have been interesting. It would have been a case of who popped theirs first. I might have dreaded Rob getting his in first as mine would have been ruined, or at least less effective. But still the feat wasn’t needed, and I gained a slightly better idea about my Scrap Metal force.
The first against Marcus and his Khador was an interesting run-out for my 50 point Scrap-Metal II list. It has only had a very minor tweak dropping the Revenger for a Devout and reducing the size of the Choir.
The game itself was a huge challenge as at the start I left my prized Errants fairly vulnerable during set-up. They promptly got smooshed by Scrapjack (who I have a deep hatred for, I still have nightmares from the first time I faced it) who just gained attack after attack after attack. The rest of the force did ok. Maybe I could/should have used my Vanquisher more aggressively. More pot-shots into enemy lines is always good plus it could have controlled one side of the table a lot better. Marcus’ Kayazy Assassins with Underboss proved to be a difficult obstacle and made a bee-line straight to Kreoss. Kreoss was then forced (no pun intended) to choose between overboosting his own power field or buying and boosting extra attacks to get himself out of the predicament he found himself in. In the end, buying extra attacks worked in getting rid of the Assassins, but then the door was left open for … (I’ve totally forgotten who or what) to put Kreoss down. Discussing the game afterwards with Marcus, I could have used my set-up a whole lot better to force Marcus into changing his battle plan. As it was, he was able to get his force to concentrate on destroying parts of my army before moving in for the kill.
The week after was a game against Rob and his Cryx (Rob was playing only his third game with his Cryx force). I used the same 50 point Kreoss list. After Advance Deploying my Errants, I let them bomb forward straight towards the enemy. They succeeded in pulling one of Rob’s units to one side and occupy them. They pretty much wiped each other out while the Errant Officer remained standing. While remaining where he was in a forest, he also pulled out another unit. The Vanquisher did most of the work for the force. It successfully shot with it’s Flame Belcher every turn suitably aided by a Vassal (Ancillary Attack) and a Choir (Prayer of Battle). This left the rest of the army to trundle forward. The FoS pushed forward but then got sidetracked by a light Cryx warjack, while my Bastions provided an immobile shield for Kreoss (they were unable to advance too far as they kept getting knocked down). The Knights, Knights Senny and the Bastions didn’t cause a single point of damage between them which was really disappointing (but totally my fault as I was so undecided as to how use them effectively). In the end it was the Vanquisher/Vassal/Choir team that got me the win. After putting a large hole in one unit then boxing one of Rob’s heavy ‘jacks, the team turned their attention to the enemy caster pDenny. Now she was hiding behind the second heavy ‘jack, plus I couldn’t target her as she had Stealth. So I just shot at the ‘jack. The vanquisher loaded up with Focus hit the ‘jack and because of it’s 4” AOE hit Denny. I boosted her damage roll to add to the Choirs’ Prayer of Battle and got a nice healthy 15. As she was still not dead, the Vassal used Ancillary Attack on the Vanq. The Vanq, once again, boosted the damage on Denny this time causing 13 points of damage. If the game had gone on a couple more turns, we both would have used our feats which would have been interesting. It would have been a case of who popped theirs first. I might have dreaded Rob getting his in first as mine would have been ruined, or at least less effective. But still the feat wasn’t needed, and I gained a slightly better idea about my Scrap Metal force.
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