On the Warpath, Spring Scenario (Craig (Legion) vs Me (Convergence))

The great work begins. The Convergence knows that this Alignment Node, far to the north of the Iron Kingdoms along the borders of Rhul will be hotly contested by the sturdy dwarfs, but there can be no doubting the location chosen. Unfortunately for the Convergence, the forces of Everblight had arrived here first. Dark, winged shapes appear on the horizon, and Aurora and her Clockwork Angels rise to meet them... 

An On the Warpath Spring Scenario pitting my new Convergence of Cyriss against Craig’s trusty Legion.

Forces: Aurora with 5 units of Clockwork Angels vs an Angelius, Seraph, 4 Harriers, a Sorceress on Hellion and 2 Shepherds.

Setup: Deploy a huge based obstruction in the centre of the table. This is a Convergence Geomantic Alignment Node, which is immobile, ARM20 with has 50 boxes. The Legion player places wilderness scenery anywhere not within 6" of the Alignment Node. The Convergence player deploys his models within 3" of the Alignment node. The Legion player deploys their models anywhere within 12" of any table edge.

To Win: The Convergence player wins if all the Legion Warbeasts are destroyed or removed from play. The Convergence player loses if the Alignment Node is destroyed.

My setup was simple, Aurora and her Angels surrounded the Node all facing out. Craig stuck all his beasties in a bit of forest near a table edge and his intimidating Club Sandwich by his side.

Turn 1

We didn’t actually roll for first turn but just assumed that I went first. So I did. I thought I would go for the pincer attack to try and hem Craig in the corner and bombed forward with one unit (they had their eye on the mountainous Club Sandwich) while the rest spread out in a line.

Craig managed to get two of his Harriers (or rather their Shredder understudies). They managed to each kill an Angel. The Seraph joined the fun and strafed a couple himself.

Turn 2

After suffering first blood (or mekanical oil?), Aurora wanted vengeance. Unfortunately, and despite having Transference upkept and some CMA type action, the Angels to my left fluffed their damage rolls against the Harriers. Weak. The Angels on my right one-shotted a Harrier aided by CRA (I cannot remember if they boosted under Transference).

Craig had his engaged Harriers frenzy which pretty much meant a guaranteed kill each. The Seraph picked off the Angel that got a little too close to a valuable Shepherd while the Angelius popped an Angel from my right hand unit. The last Harrier then got the charge on the same right hand unit and killed another Angel.

Turn 4

After watching her Angels fail in protecting the Node, Aurora felt she had to get her hands dirty. And she did. She squished the right hand Harrier and then Refuged back under her Feat. Yay. The surviving Angels to my left were still struggling with their Harrier.

The Seraph and the Angelius managed to bag an Angel each.

Turn 5

The last remaining Angels were still finding it hard to kill a lesser beast and Aurora moved to the other side of the Node trying to entice the big beast forward.

It worked. The Seraph jostled forward first and strafed the Node dealing 11 damage (four boosted damage rolls at -8). The Angelius propelled itself forward and added another 19 points of damage. Not good. To add a little insult to injury here, the final Harrier killed another Angel.

Turn 6

So with one engaged, and pretty useless, Angel and Aurora herself I wasn’t feeling too confident. Aurora wanted to charge the Angelius but found herself stuck behind the Node. Dammit. She did put down some damage, but not enough to take out an aspect.

Craig immediately set about finishing off the Node. The Seraph managed to plink off another five points and the Angelius took a few hits to cause the last fifteen points needed to win the game.

This was a well thought out and fun challenge. I did think that I had the tools to do the job and probably should have concentrated on getting forward to the Shepherd first in order to limit the damage Craig’s beasts could do. I didn’t actually count on Craig sitting in a forest nor his Harriers all ‘roided up. Nor the wondrous Club Sandwich distracting my Clockwork Angels. I also didn’t count on the Harriers doing the damage they did really getting themselves a certain kill on a charge or frenzy. The big beasts didn’t need to come forward until my numbers (and I should have used this to my advantage) were reduced.

But both of us had a good time with the game.

2012 ends and 2013 begins.

237 Dice, and my gaming, has been put on the back burner for quite a while now. At least it seems like a long time. I completely chalked off November in order to participate in NaNoWriMo. But some really bad shit decided to happen to me in real life in the middle of October which put paid to all my gaming for the foreseeable future. So all the painting I planned to do while taking breaks from writing in November and painting in December has not happened at all (it means that my Menoth army will not be fully painted by the time January rolls around).

But now that things have settled down a little, and Cross Gaming Club not opening up again for a little while yet, I have  got back into a gaming mind-set. So to begin with, let’s end 2012. Stats please:

Warmachine/Hordes

P - 66  W – 18 D – 0 L – 48

Infinity

P – 4 W – 0 D – 0 L – 4

Malifaux

P – 5 W – 1 D – 0 L – 4

Overall

P – 75 W – 19 D – 0 L – 56

So, it’s not quite the 50% win ratio I wanted but it’s an improvement (it’s still all about the playing and not the winning) on the 2011 record. The longest win streak was two (2) and the longest losing streak was fifteen (15) – thankfully not the famous twenty game streak of 2011. I would like to say that some of the losses, especially on tourney days, did go down to tie-break situations so I was marginally short of a few more wins. However, a loss is still a loss.

I have also, finally, got round to playing Malifaux and Infinity. Both have been fun, and I have put the effort of getting my Morat force (most of them anyway) and Viktoria crew painted. I am also happy, and sad that I steered clear of Bushido recently. It looks like a really fantastic game which is being tweaked to be better. The minis look awesome and the people playing the game sound like they are really having fun.

Painting wise, I haven’t gotten any better when it comes to technique and style, but I have improved on my patience in front of a painting table. As it stands at this moment in time, I have over 66% of my main armies fully painted and based.

So for 2013:

I’m hoping to be involved with Infinity and Malifaux bit more in 2013 by taking part in the clubs Infinity campaign and attending the Malifaux tourneys being advertised on the Wyrd forums.

As for WarmaHordes, I want to concentrate on my Menoth force a bit more. This was something I had planned back in October by wanting to constantly use the casters that I haven’t used that much. I started to utilise eKreoss and eFeora a lot for the UK Masters, ETC and for a handful of one day events after that. To start off the year in I wanted to field the High Reclaimer and Vindictus a bit more, but that was before I made a few purchases. In order to cheer myself up from my personal life, I bought Intercessor Kreoss and a Judicator. Naturally, with the new Kreoss, I would want a unit of Vengers. Which is totally new for me as I have never fielded a cavalry unit before. So, horses will be my main thing for the first couple of months of the year along with squeezing m new Colossal into an eFeora list.

I will continue to attempt to churn out fully painted minis at the same rate as the third quarter of this year. I want to be able to have finished my Menoth army (only another 43 models to go) before I start up on something else.

I have started to pick up my paints again just now so hopefully I’ll have the Judicator and horsey Kreoss and his horsey friends finished before the club opens up again in January.

I cannot wait to get back to the table top.

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).

Occupied Llael - Final game (round 5)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tanelorn Wargames weekend - round-up

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

Campaign Rules.

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


Did I say I felt good?

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

I had a good feeling.

Next: Game 1

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

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

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

A small bit of good news.

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


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

Amon's debut.

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


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

Adam fielded the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next up: Tanelorn Warmachine Weekend!

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

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


Jaden took (adding additional points for territories owned):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New directions

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


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

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

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

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

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

Miniature catastrophe - Major heartbreak.

My name is Shelly and I have a problem. I am addicted to collecting models.


This isn’t such a strange statement for a gamer to come up with. We all know we buy more miniatures than we can paint. Some of us are actually good when it comes to controlling the habit. Others aren’t. You hear it all the time down your local club about the numerous painting projects this guy has or the number of models that guy bought ages ago but still hasn’t used. I use both of these frequently. Like many gamers, I have (or had – read on) several armies/forces from different systems:

Warhammer - Dwarfs
40k - Dark Angels, Imperial Guard and Necrons
Necormunda Ratskin Renegades and Van Saar
Infinity - Yu Jing and Combined Army
Monsterpocalypse - Terrasaurs and Empire of the Apes – Monsterpocalypse
Warmachine - Protectorate of Menoth
Malifaux - Outcasts
The sad thing is this hobby can make gamer do really impulsive things as there is always something new to try. Since attending the Cross Gaming Club for the last year and a bit, I have been sucked into new gaming systems. Before that I was a proud and devoted Dark Angel player with an army worth over 11000 points. I won’t detail everything here but it does have a full battle company and many, many tanks. Initially, I was aiming to collect a whole chapter which was obviously inspired by the pictures of the entire Ultramarines chapter featured in White Dwarf. Naturally this would take an enormous amount of time and is definitely more than varied enough to play a simple 2000 point, but achieving that goal would have been so great! Of course there would be a lot of time to devote to the painting of the chapter. Out of my 11000 or so points I would only guess that approximately 15% was fully painted and based, while another 70% was either base coated only or in the middle of being painted. As I’ve said before in previous posts, I don’t have a lot of patience for painting. And this isn’t helped when other ideas/projects come up. And neither does not having a competitive Codex. Under the new rules, it seems that non-regular Space Marine armies have suffered under the new 40k rules. I love my Dark Angels as they are my first army but this left me feeling slightly jaded.
Which is why I decided to wait for the next Codex to come out by starting a side project to spice things up a bit. After looking into (lusting after) both the Necron and Tau armies (this took a lot of thought), I went for the Necrons. The deciding factor was that they would suit my painting style, i.e. very little skill needed. Most of them have just been base coated in Boltgun Metal and then sprayed with Devlan mud or Badab Black. Shoulder pads and face masks have been lightly painted with either Red Gore or a very dark blue mixed with Mithril Silver, and other small details have been picked out (scarab design on the chests and wire from the weapons). By doing this, I would say that 80% of my 6800 point force is fully painted. I am very happy about this. But again I am feeling a bit jaded with them. So with the Necrons facing the same Codex issues, I was happily whisked off into another project.
I fell heavily into Warmachine during the first couple of months of playing at Cross Gaming Club. Watching everyone else play just kinda sucked me in. I took a look and fell head over heels for the Protectorate of Menoth. After a year of more or less using them every week and buying lots of minis solidly each month, I now have a stupidly large force (nearly 200 points with six casters – 7 if you count the epic version of Kreoss). I am still very focused on building on this. Painting has gone mostly ok but I still think that I’ve only painted under 50% of these guys. The good thing about this army is that I haven’t lost interest. Moving into the MKII rules hasn’t dulled what is a great game, I haven’t had a bad experience yet.
Alongside Warmachine, I have also looked at playing Infinity and Malifaux. I have a couple of starter boxes for both games but haven’t really used either, I have only had one game of Malifaux. Neither of these have seen even a sniff of paint. I like the different styles of play of these games and will hope to get some game time soon. At the moment, these starter forces are going to stay starter forces. I am not going to expand just yet.
I also decided to make a go of starting a Dwarf Warhammer army. I’ve always liked the Dwarfs and the first ever GW blister I bought (and painted!) was Dwarf Crossbowmen. I’ve always had a few minis but not enough to make a legal force. I did have at one point a legal force, but lost a full case of minis (which included all sort – Dwarfs, Guard, Dark Angels, even a Lord of Change!) while moving flats one time. So over the last fifteen years or so this small throng has just gathered dust. Plus I’ve never had an opponent to play with and when I started attending the club I had other interests. Just before Christmas last year, I was given an opportunity to get the Dwarfs operational by buying a big box of them of a fellow club goer. This no doubt would have made my throng legal. But then, GW decided to release the 8th edition rules which kinda put me off a little. So they stayed in their box, partially painted by someone else.
One other game I have glossed over is Monsterpocalypse. This appealed to me so much. Where else can you actually play a game that unfolds just like a big monster b-movie? Also, and this was the biggest draw of them all, the minis are all pre-painted plastic! After much hype, I have only played two games. Unfortunately there isn’t a great amount of interest at CGC, so my large force (which I built up alongside my Menoth force) is just sitting on the bench.
This pretty much illustrates my collection and my compulsiveness. I’m sure there are lots of fellow gamers in similar situations. But the compulsiveness came to light after an argument with the wife when she found out how much I had spent over the past year. When put together, the sums that I had spent each and every month prove to be really quite terrifying. For the same amount I could have got myself some driving lessons and a decent used car. It’s not really about the money, but it’s more that I felt I had to hide these purchases from my other half which led to the argument. Anyway as a result of my ‘strike two’, ‘I am trimming the fat’ in my collection. I had a good hard look at what I own and drawn up a list of the armies/forces I will keep (the ones I will use frequently and have a current interest in). The rest (ones that I am quite positively not going to use for some time) will go. I am slowly selling them on eBay a bit at a time. Again, it’s not about recouping some of the money I wasted, but about having only what I need as a gamer. Plus there will be a lot more space at the back of the wardrobe.
So here’s who and what made the cut:

Dwarfs – GONE - I was never going to continue with the Dwarfs anytime soon and it was just a silly pipe dream. They were the first army I really liked and maybe one day I’ll make a good go of collecting my own throng.
Dark Angels – GOING – My first full army with a lot of time invested in them. A lot of good games as well were had. Both DA and Necrons both suffered a little under the new rules, but I think the Necrons will have more chance of being sorted out first.
Imperial Guard – MOSTLY GONE – It was a nice idea, but I don’t think I would really have gone for a full Guard army. I only would have used them as allies, but that would not have been too frequently.
Necrons – STAYING PUT – See DA
Ratskin Renegades and Van Saar – BOTH STAYING PUT – just waiting for the next Necromunda campaign at the club.
Yu Jing and Combined Army – BOTH STAYING PUT – Haven’t started this game yet, but will definitely do so once the current Warmachine/Hordes campaign is over.
Terrasaurs and Empire of the Apes – ??? – totally undecided about this lot. I would love to play this game some more, but would also just fancy keeping them as they look really great. This one needs some more thought.
Protectorate of Menoth – DEFINITELY STAYING – this army, and game, has really dug it’s claws into me.
Outcasts – DEFINITELY STAYING – Only just started!

This has a been a heart-breaking but cathartic exercise, but it feels slightly odd as all I’ve ever seemed to have done was horde stuff. I hope now that I can view minis in a more serious way. It’s great to have the flexibility in my forces, but most of the time it’s just surplus to requirements. I still feel the urge to splash out on a new unit or three, but know I have to be a lot more sensible about the hobby. Also, more discipline is needed when it comes to painting/modelling, I should have listened to my wife when she said I should only get more minis when I have painted the first ones! It is only a hobby after all and I can think of other things in my life that should take precedence over this.

Occupied Llael - Round 2

Lots has happened in my little part of the gaming environment. There have been regular games down at the club, all of which require some sort of battle report. There has been a major shake up in my collecting of minis for wargaming, a potential real life crisis actually. And there have been some slightly different ideas for future projects that may never take off.


To start off, some form of battle reporting. I have had a few WM/Hordes campaign games at the club. All have been great games. I’ll start her by going over the Round 2 games. I think that the first one that I forgot to write a report for was a very fine game against Oli and his Legion. I don’t remember much about this game (except that I lost and it was an AWESOME game). I think it was the first time that I used a second unit of Zealots in my list. Using a second unit of Zealots seems to be a staple with my campaign Warcasters, Vindictus and the High Reclaimer. I think in this game I came nowhere near Oli’s ‘caster but certainly made him think about positioning. My play was maybe a touch too aggressive (in a game that applauds aggressiveness) and I ended up leaving the Reclaimer too open.

Next up was a 40 point game against Marcus and his Khador. We played the special ‘break week’ scenario which involved two ‘casters per side. This was a totally kick-ass game!. This is the first game in which I used Vindictus and the Avatar of Menoth. This was a huge game with no less than 11 ‘jacks, more than half of which were heavy! The scenario involved me putting one of my ‘casters and part of my force in the centre of the table with the rest at the back of my deployment zone. Marcus’ force would come on en masse and try and kill both of my ‘casters. There is a lot of animosity on my part for Marcus’ Old Witch and her Scrapjack. The amount of times that they have caused me and my army pain is almost innumerable (maybe three or four times – which seems like a lot). Needless to say, with Vindictus as bait, the High Reclaimer made a beeline to the Old Witch. This was successful as both the Old Witch and her annoying puppy Scrapjack succumbed to Menoth’ righteous fury. After all of this, I lost Vindictus which evened things up. There was an enormous amount of carnage after that with ‘jacks just getting wrecked and Menites and Khadorians alike spilling their blood. The Menite deaths started to fuel the High Reclaimer with souls to further boost his might. So he used this large pool of Focus to cast spell after spell which for the most part failed. What he should have done was keep all of the Focus on himself in order to overboost his powerfield (he would have had armour 35 or something) which would have stopped the Khadorian ‘jacks from stomping all over him.

This was a crazy scenario that kept the excitement levels very high throughout the game. And it was actually great using two ‘casters in one game and I hope to get the opportunity again in the near future.

Sunday gaming.

I managed to get a Bank Holiday weekend game on Sunday down at the club. Sunday sessions are much more quieter than out regular Tuesday night sessions which means there are more tables free. After a few messages, I hooked up with a new Hordes player called Usman. He and I agreed on a 35 point game with my Menoth facing his Circle. For the afternoon, Usman used the following:


Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Argus (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Gnarlhorn Satyr (8pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)

Facing that I used:
The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Redeemer (6pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
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)
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (3pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)

We chose not to play any scenario and just go for ‘caster kill (truth be told, I was not up to another scenario game after Scrap Metal – additionally, this would be my first game since the tourney). Usman set up first with the bulk of his force arranged in the centre of the table, while the Bloodtrackers set up to my left. To counter the Bloodtrackers, I put my trusty Zealots in their way. My ‘jacks, Choir, Mechanik, Senny and ‘caster all set up in the middle facing Usman’s main force. My Errants Advance Deployed to my right hoping to box them in.

A general advance was made by both sides in the first turn with the Redeemer taking first blood by aiming at the Gnarlhorn. The Avatar and Errants advanced in relative safety as they are both immune to spells. As the Druids couldn’t get at their most obvious target, they aimed for the Redeemer and started taking points from it and then went on to target the Senny and Mechanik (who both died without doing anything). The Bloodtrackers made a few hit and run attacks on the Zealots (taking a few down) before coming under heavy fire themselves. The Errants drew in on the Druids while the Avatar got smooshed by both the Gnarlhorn and Warpwolf. With not much else to go on, Usman went on an assassination run. Kaya appeared behind the High Reclaimer and proceeded to attack. Fortunately for me, she used up all of her Fury and managed to take the Reclaimer down to 3 points of damage. Before the Reclaimer hit back, the Zealots finished off the Bloodtrackers and Blackclad while the Errants finished off the Druids. The Reclaimer, with a full allocation of Focus plus a few more from Souls turned, ignoring the heavily wounded Gnarlhorn and Warpwolf, and struck out at Kaya. Two boosted hits was enough to finish her while having some Focus to spare.

Overall, my force felt good but it was a shame that I lost the Senny and Mechanik cheaply. I could have easily have used a Vassal and maybe the Covenant for the same points. The Covenant would have been really useful against the Druids. The positioning of the High Reclaimer could have been slightly better so as to prevent the assassination attempt, but his Burning Ash spell certainly came in handy. The Redeemer made an excellent debut by hitting the beasts hard. The Avatar didn’t manage to do much except draw unwanted to himself. The Errants and Zealots both did their job wonderfully, although if Usman had attacked them more with the Bloodtrackers I may have had a little more to worry about.
This was a very good game against a new player who looks to have grasped the game far quicker than I have. I’m looking forward to giving Usman a rematch sometime.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.