At last...!

I have been incredibly lazy and neglected this blog. Time to give some news, so here goes:


• I played my first few games of Hordes this year starting with a couple of demo games using my Trolls against Bill (with the Great Oli overseeing the whole thing) and a cracking game with my Skorne against Jaden and his Legion. These game were a lot of fun (which game isn’t?), especially getting used to Fury rather than Focus. The game against Jaden taught me a bit more about my Trolls than my Trolls did. For this I took maximum units of Cetrati and Arcuraii which was a lot of medium bases tripping over each other. I saw the kind of headache that I could experience with fielding a similar or larger number of medium based Trolls.
• I bought my ticket for the European Team Championships at Maelstrom Games in early July. I am so excited about this event. Hearing about last years tourney made sure that I bought my ticket very early. My team mates have appointed me as team captain of CGC’s second team. Now with my win ratio, I can’t promise that I’ll lead from the front or even inspire, but I hope that we can all go up to Mansfield and have a great weekend.
• For the first time ever, I bought a mini (two actually) because my wife liked the look of them. Some wives turn their noses up at tabletop gaming and just ignore it. But after giving her a demo game (which incidentally took a long, long time – she should stick to art history), she started to look at the type of minis I have from various factions. Nothing really appealed to her so I showed her some Maelstroms’ website and let her browse. While I was doing to washing up I hear a squeal of delight. “Oh look! A polar bear! I want it!” (this is true word for word). Of course the bear in question is Lug and his friend, the Lesser Warlock Brun Cragback. After looking at Battle College, I thought that this would be a nice addition to my Troll force as they could do with a heavy beast (I could have done with an Earthborn or a Blitzer personally). Brun is a mean little bugger and his bear is pretty good himself.
• CGC had a little one mini tourney – Iron Cross. 12 players, 4 games, 9 minute turns but only 1 wooden spoon (erm…). This was an immensely fun day and hope to take part in something similar later in the year.
• I took some advice concerning dice.

There was some news highlights which will hopefully see me kicking my own arse and putting up some more entries. The next (while it’s still fresh in my mind) is me vs Lewis from 22/03/11.

A small bit of good news.

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


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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An edge of your seat battle (no word of a lie guv)!

Once again, I am writing things a bit later than usual as Real Life has reared its ugly head and seconded me into doing actual responsible stuff. With danger averted, I hope to inform you of the great and wonderful game I played on Tuesday 13th against a guy called Ravage (Mark) and his Khador force. Even though this was such a monumental game, I will, in all likelihood, forget some of the details.

We agreed on playing a 35 point game in which I would be using new models.
I had dusted off pKreoss (whom I am hoping to spearhead my Scrap Metal II force (more on the subject in another post)) and decided to field a carefully proxyed Fire of Salvation (I used a Crusader) and a unit of Exemplar Bastions (I used a unit of Deathwing terminators). The full list is as follows:
High Exemplar Kreoss (*5pts)
* Revenger (6pts)
* Fire of Salvation (9pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (3pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

While Mark took:
The Butcher of Khardov (*6pts)
* Berserker (6pts)
* Kodiak (8pts)
Assault Kommandos (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Greylord Escort (2pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
Fenris (5pts)

I think I lost the roll to set up so I started with placing my Bastions as far forward as they could go (they would need a bit of a head start with their low movement) on my left. On their right stood both ‘jacks backed up by the Choir with Kreoss behind them. The Senny sat back behind the Bastions waiting for his moment.
Mark put his ‘jacks directly facing my Bastions with the Butcher and Shocktroopers behind them. The Assault Kommandos set up in the centre of battle line, while Fenris started off right at the back of the field.
Next up was the Advance Deployments. I placed my Errants and UA behind some woods in left-field with Mark placing his Reavers and Greylord more or less opposite them.

First turn saw a general advance with not much happening for either side. Kreoss cast both of his upkeep spells, Lamentation and Defenders Ward on the Bastions (taking them up to DEF 13 and ARM 18). Mark did the same and cast his upkeeps.
Turn two saw a bit of contact between the two sides. My Errants popped out of their cover and charged the Reavers killing four of them. Kreoss cast Cleansing Fire via the Revengers’ Arc Node causing a few points of damage on one of the Shocktroopers and setting him on fire. Mark opened fire in retaliation with his Kommandos. They put a few points of damage on the Fire of Salvation. The Greylord inflicted a whole world of pain on the Errants taking advantage of their crowding and cast Frostbite. This killed a grand total of 8 Errants leaving the Officer and Standard Bearer along with the leader and one grunt. The Berserker charged into the Bastions causing a bit of damage which was spread around as a result of their Sanguine Bond. The Kodiak skirted around the woods to my extreme left.
Turn three saw Kreoss edge forward thus putting the Butcher within his control range, subjecting him to Lamentation (Butcher would have to pay double for spells and upkeeps – which came in quite useful). The Bastions didn’t quite get the hang of hitting the enemy ‘jack with only two out of five causing damage. The FoS broke cover and ran towards the Shocktroopers using it’s Holy Fervor (American spelling) Imprint (spend Focus point to gain boosted melee attack rolls). Didn’t cause as much damage as I’d hope but he tied up the Butcher’s bodyguard. The remaining Errants finished off the Doom Reavers leaving only the Greylord. Mark’s turn saw the Kodiak charge the Bastions causing a little damage. The Berserker didn’t do much better either. Mark’s Kommandos laid down more fire, this time aiming at the Revenger. Luck wasn’t really showing her face this turn as the Greylord tried to duke it out with an Errant and failing. Last of all Fenris activated and raced toward the back of my line causing some concern for Kreoss.
Turn four saw the end of the Greylord leaving the Errants free to venture towards the Kommandos. The FoS went to work on putting the Shocktroopers down for good as he was loaded up with Focus. The Senny finally came out of hiding and launched himself at the Kodiak. His pulled of all three attacks (two initial plus a Smite chain attack). This took the Kodiak to within an inch of its life and knocked it down. This in turn reminded me about Kreoss’s feat. I popped the feat which made the Berserker go down quicker. I maybe should have popped the feat at the start of the turn but I’ll beat myself up over that later. Things looked fairly decent for me.
Mark kept at though as the Kodiak stood up and smooshed the Senny, who never recovered because no friendly model died near him in order to trigger off Restoration. Mark had popped his feat at the start of the turn but still couldn’t cast multiple spells as I was upkeeping Lamentation. The Kommandos started shooting at the oncoming Errants but sadly did not do anything fatal. The Fenris drew ever closer to the back of my line while drawing a bead on Kreoss.
Turn five saw me pull back Kreoss and the Revenger just enough to still let the Butcher feel the effects of Lamentation. The Errants went to engage the Kommandos killing just one as all bar one was in charge range. The FoS finished off the last remaining Shocktrooper, while the Bastions saw off the threat of the Kodiak. Mark positioned the Fenris for an assassination run.
Turn six saw the Bastions run toward the Butcher and fall short. The FoS engaged the Kommandos along with the remaining Errants. Kreoss ordered the Revenger to stand between him and Fenris. In Mark’s turn, he charged Fenris into Kreoss. But he had to go through the Revenger who got a free strike which didn’t quite do enough damage. Fenris used both of his attacks well and scored more than enough damage points to put Kreoss down.
Mark won by ‘caster kill in only his third game.

We both agreed that this was an extremely awesome game which did go right to the end. And, as usual, we both had a long list of things we forgot/did wrong. Mark wishes he used his Doom Reavers differently and maybe advanced his Kommandos more. As for me, where do I start?
The obvious one was right the end. I should have loaded the Revenger up with Focus and charged Fenris. That would have left Kreoss and the Bastions to take care of Butcher. Kreoss should not have pooped his feat mid-turn, the Senny might still have been alive to aim himself at the enemy ‘caster. The Errants did not use their Quick Work Tactic granted by the UA. After they killed some Doom Reavers in melee, they had a free shot with thier crossbows. This may have finished off the unit and/or the Greylord. The FoS could have ignored the Kommandos and went for Butcher. If I had done one or more of these things, the game might have ended differently.
But overall, I’m happy with how everything performed. Kreoss’s upkeeps kept the Butcher fairly quiet. The FoS showed, if used correctly, that it can be a melee beast. The Bastions were just as tough as I hoped, while the Senny and Revenger did their bit for Menoth. Special mention goes to the Exemplar Errants. With their new UA, they have now become my auto-include unit. It used to be that I would never enter a battlefield without some Zealots and Monolith Bearer (although I can see me taking them later with the likes of Vindictus running the show). The UA granting Pathfinder and giving the Quick Work tactic makes them a lot more fun to use. Also add the Errant Senny, who grants them Hunter, and you have a very nearly perfect unit.
This list was a smaller version of what I aim to take to Maelstrom Games’ Scrap Metal II event in August, so I was very encouraged with what I saw tonight. At first glance, I may change the Revenger (I didn’t put the Arc Node to full use) for a Devout (who’s abilities I got confused and thought belonged to the Revenger). I may also take eKreoss instead of pKreoss. These two changes frees up two points which can get me a very useful Vassal. I will see in my next game against Marcus and his Khador (!).

Phase in / painted up.

I just received my OOP Necrons today. Thank you Maelstrom Games! 20 Warriors, 3 Destroyers, 5 Immortals, 7 Scarabs and a Lord (this put a serious dent in this month’s finances – I had already spent my £50-60 that I allow myself). I will try and post some pics along side my the newer models. These models more or less came out when me and my friend ‘took a breather’ from the hobby and did a little growing up (and at that time I was strictly a Dark Angels man), which is why I don’t have any in my collection (not even the one GW attached to the front of White Dwarf). When I saw them on evilBay I knew I must have them, but really didn’t think it through. I don’t think that they’ll give me the impetus to play 40k a bit more as I’m thoroughly into Warmachine right now and would like to get the odd game of Infinity and/or Malifaux.

These Necrons actually came to me painted which is nice because, as I’ve said before, I hate painting (I really do). This little lot pushed my army up to 6792 points all in. I’m probably not going to play an Apocalypse game anytime soon, but it’s nice to have a large collection.

I did manage to sit down and paint for a few hours either side of the Grand Prix yesterday which I was quite surprised at. I put the finishing touches to my Menoth Choir and Vanquisher. They look like they’ve been painted by an elephant (I don’t care – they will certainly be eligible for tourneys that require painted minis), but at least they are out of the way. All of my ‘jacks are done (except for my Blessing of Vengeance) as well as my Zealots, Severius and Kreoss. I still have to finish my Monolith Bearer, Errants, Deliverers, Flameguard and Seneschal, while I need to make a start on various solos and ‘casters. Once that’s done, I’ll think about painting my Infinity and Malifaux stuff.