Category: Warmachine/Hordes

Axis of Evil

Flip flop, flip flop. Back to fooling with some Convergence. I managed to paint a bit more for the force, so I took a new Warcaster for a test-spin. Axis, the Harmonic Enforcer. Haven’t finished his paint job yet, so no photos of him. But here’s what I did get done:

Two of the light vectors: a Galvanizer and a Diffuser. These are fun little models, but I’m still somewhat iffy on my paint scheme with them. Dunno, just seems bland–which leads to me always drifting to other models.

I played three games trying out Axis, and found him to be a fairly enjoyable Warcaster. I like control casters a lot, and I think he has enough control between his Feat and the Razor Wall, that he can get the job done.

My first game with Axis was against Steve’s Retribution, a frequent foe of mine. He gave a good try on killing Axis with a ranged assassination, but the shield guard ability of the servitors in the theme list, along with Axis’ high armor, kept him from being killed. He returned the favor by crashing into her lines and starting the attrition struggle. It ended when she was trapped by the killbox and my models, and couldn’t escape the advance range of the Iron Aggression Inverter.

Played my second game with Axis against Ryan’s Legion of Everblight force and Vayl2. I was able to close the gap on his infantry with the Transfinite Emergence Projector, and the Feat plus some counter-charging warjacks kept his force from getting meaningfully engaged. With attrition well on my side, he had to take the shot at spell assassination on my Warcaster. It wasn’t a particularly good look to begin with given what I was camping, but it got extra awful as he rolled some misses with spells. Axis waded in and killed Vayl2 himself after weathering the storm.

My third Axis outing was against a new person in our area, Kyle. He’s getting back into the game after having played in Mark II, and he ran Cryx with Gaspy1 and all the banes. I felt bad, because that’s a dream match-up for Axis’ feat plus Razor Wall. He had to try his feat to get some breathing room, but it didn’t do enough work to buy him an opening. My warjacks cleared the path over two turns, and finally the Inverter got in on his Warcaster and finished the game. He was a fun opponent to play, and he suffered thru the rough treatment of Axis’ control game with aplomb.

All-in-all I enjoyed Axis hitting the table. Whether I’m really into Convergence for the long term remains to be seen. Something about painting them is just slow with me, and no matter how well I’m doing with games, I tend to be a complete hobbyist–and draw passion from painting models I’m going to field. We’ll see going forward!

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

210/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 52 (Win/Loss 36/16/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Trollbloods:

5 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn, Kaya2) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Convergence of Cyriss:

9 Wins (Maddox, Haley2, Rask, Helynna, Makeda1, Gorten, Kaelyssa, Vayl2, Gaspy1) / 2 Losses (Venethrax, Helynna)

Protectorate of Menoth:

1 Win (Kaelyssa) / 4 Losses (Makeda1, Deneghra1, Thyron, Kozlov)

Skorne:

8 Wins (Kaelyssa, Nemo3, Zaadesh2, Makeda1 x2, Kaya3, Grayle, MacBain) / 4 Losses (Makeda2, Venethrax, Grayle, Horgle2)

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

Harbinger of Menoth

Ah, the complicated existence of someone who cannot settle in and paint just one type of model over and over. Just as I’m getting started with Convergence of Cyriss, I start to feel like I want to paint something else. Of course, that means my plan to play only one Warmachine faction and one Hordes faction in 2017 has been long-since lost (this week’s games makes 3 different Warmachine factions and two Hordes).

I figured that if I wanted a change in painting I’d better do something worth my time. So I finally painted up a model that’s been intimidating me for a while: The Harbinger of Menoth. I assembled her last September or October, and got some initial colors on to her model before I stopped. It was time to get going and get her completed. That led to even more model completion from amid some of the Protectorate stuff I have acquired.

I’m pretty pleased with how the model turned out. I honestly like the scheme for the penitents who are towing her along maybe more than Harbinger–I definitely need to complete my Choir and add some Zealots and the Covenant to my painting queue. That said, I also like how Harbinger turned out. The red armor is something that I’m really getting comfortable with, and I think it works well on the tabletop.

I also painted up a Mercenary model: Rhupert Carvolo, the Piper of Ord. As I will never, ever play Cygnar, he really is only for my Protectorate force. So I made sure that some elements of his clothes and armor matched with the look of my Protectorate force. But I still wanted him to be a bit different, so I made the odd orange color that I use for occasional sashes on Protectorate models the dominant color on him. It also gave me a chance to explore some rudimentary plaid patterns on the bag pipes.

On the gaming side of things, well… if I’ve got new models painted I want to play them. So out came my Protectorate for a few games–all using Harbinger as my Warcaster.

First up, a match against Ryan’s classic-scheme Skorne, led by Makeda1. This game would have ended in a win for me, but it was his first time fielding Molik Karn and he messed up a bit of the order of activation in going for the long-distance kill run. I was happy to let Ryan sort it out, and Molik did indeed finish off the Harbinger. Was a fun game, and taught me that I need more bodies in the force. Even if I’m planning on only using Martyrdom on a few, I need to have that stand-off space in the army.

Second game I played against Larry’s Cryx, led by Deneghra1. The bulk of the force was two units of Satyxis Raiders and a unit of Satyxis Witches. It was a fun game, it was a curious puzzle for how engagement would go for both of us. I ended up losing thanks in large part to feedback damage from the Raiders’ whips. I definitely need to be ready for that in future games, and have more of an answer for infantry than I did. Of course, I also forgot to set my unit of Flamebringers on the table, and that really hurt my ability to be anti-infantry. Hopefully I can get a rematch in sometime against this force, as I think I’d like to see how I can go about the puzzle of stopping all those high-defense models a second time.

My third game was against Steve’s Retribution, led by Kaelyssa. This was an odd battle–his warjacks were definitely ahead in attrition, but they were all clusters on one end of the battlefield–while the critical action was taking place elsewhere. Eventually the Flamebringers closed their way in on Kaelyssa and managed to kill her in a round of swirling melee.

Followed those games with a game against Dan’s Retribution of Scyrah. Was glad to see him back into the hobby after a break, but less glad to see the one Mage Hunter Assassin that managed to slip past my back line. I presumed it would go for support staff, as I had 15 hit points and only 2 damage on Harbinger. But he went for her instead, cranked the damage roll, and killed her in a single hit. Bad risk-taking on my part to be sure. Still a very fun game, as Harbinger’s feat and Protectorate shenanigans posed a tough puzzle for his infantry-heavy force.

Next took my Protectorate against a newer player in our meta–yet another Andy. He’s working on a Cygnar force, but also had some Khador. He took Kozlov, and as Harbinger is kind of wonky for newer players to face, I took Feora2. While the first-starting Redeemer did amazing work, and she had a silly amount of focus on her feat turn, she couldn’t pull off a personal assassination. Kozlov’s defense gets powerfully high with any sort of buff to increase it, and my dice went cold in the game. Feora2 suffered a Juggernaut to the back as a result of the failed assassination run, and that was that.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

199/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 49 (Win/Loss 33/16/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Protectorate of Menoth:

1 Win (Kaelyssa) / 4 Losses (Makeda1, Deneghra1, Thyron, Kozlov)

Trollbloods:

5 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn, Kaya2) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Skorne:

8 Wins (Kaelyssa, Nemo3, Zaadesh2, Makeda1 x2, Kaya3, Grayle, MacBain) / 4 Losses (Makeda2, Venethrax, Grayle, Horgle2)

Convergence of Cyriss:

6 Wins (Maddox, Haley2, Rask, Helynna, Makeda1, Gorten) / 2 Losses (Venethrax, Helynna)

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

Little Skorne and Trolls / Lots of Lucant

This has been one of those two-week cycles where I ended up playing three different factions. I definitely need to get focused, but of course, instead I’m all over the place. I did get a bit of painting done, so that before the games:

Conservator for my Convergence of Cyriss force. Definitely a pain to paint, as the little flying hover base is bothersome at best. Still, I’m pleased with the results.

On the game front, I got in a game with my Skorne (Morghoul2), a game with my Trollbloods (Hunters Grim), and three games with my Convergence of Cyriss. I’ll describe each in turn.

First off, I faced Michael’s amazingly painted Trollbloods army. I’ve been running a fair amount of Immortals with Zaal2, and I wanted to see if other warlocks might work with them–so I experimented with Morghoul2, as his Feat plus Mortality could make make Immortals survivable against infantry and hit like a truck against anything they target.

We played the Entrenched scenario from Steamroller 2016, and things went a bit more pear-shaped than I wanted them to. I was making great progress on my opponent’s zone, but his heavy Warbeasts on my right flank were chewing their way to my Warlock faster than I wanted to see. It soon became clear that he was going to clear my zone and start scoring faster than I could his.

Recognizing I needed to do something, I set up Morghoul2 to get a chance to go in for the kill on Horgle2. When I tried it, Horgle2 only had a single transfer. Yet still I came up just short–two hit points. With Morghoul2 bloodied and out of Fury, Horgle2 returned the favor and finished off my Warlock with his flaming weapons.

Having just played against Trollbloods, I was suddenly itching to field my own. They’ve been on a bit of a vacation along with my Protectorate of Menoth recently. So I swapped Grim2 into a list that I had been working on with Jarl, and gave him a whirl.

I faced off against a different Michael, but again with a beautifully painted force–this time Circle Orboros led by Kaya2. The battle was pretty close at the end–I took a chance on assassination using Grim2’s Feat turn, and came up just short. I got lucky with Grim2’s distance keeping him safe, so while Michael did a great job caving in two heavies on my right flank, I had a few ranged models left with enough attacks on the Warlock to get her in the second time around. Mage Sight is a great tool against Circle, so I had a list advantage at the start. A great game against an always-fun opponent!

So while I’m a Hordes player at heart, I still have been fiddling with a variety of Warmachine lists. I’m liking what Lucant does with Convergence, even if the models are a bit less interesting to paint. I snuck in three games with them to get in more practice. All three times were the same Lucant list that I had some success with in the Appalachian Cup qualifier I attended.

First I faced Steve’s Retribution army, headed by Helynna. Both lists proved to be quite sturdy, but I managed to push my way to 5 to 3 victory in the Take and Hold scenario.

Second game was against Ryan’s Skorne, led by Makeda1. This battle was much more iffy, as I wasn’t exactly trading well against her forces. I saw an opening, so I used a Cipher to do a Slam power attack–that got a Cyclops to fly over Makeda1 and knock her down (with it dying in the process). I was able to fuel a Galvanizer to move in and finish her off. A close battle and lots of fun!

Final game was against Rico’s Rhulic Mercenaries force. He took his Earthbreaker and Siege Crawler, with ample gun bunnies and some Ogryn Assault Corps. It was a tough test of the Lucant-in-theme’s shooting defenses, but I managed to weather the storm and eventually trade heavies to get the Earthbreaker off the table. Lucant won by assassination the turn after.

All-in-all a good set of games. I’m blessed to have a great meta where four different shops have open Warmachine and Hordes gaming space.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

181/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 44 (Win/Loss 32/12/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Skorne:

8 Wins (Kaelyssa, Nemo3, Zaadesh2, Makeda1 x2, Kaya3, Grayle, MacBain) / 4 Losses (Makeda2, Venethrax, Grayle, Horgle2)

Convergence of Cyriss:

6 Wins (Maddox, Haley2, Rask, Helynna, Makeda1, Gorten) / 2 Losses (Venethrax, Helynna)

Trollbloods:

5 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn, Kaya2) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

Steam for the Steamroller

So I’m just starting out with some Convergence of Cyriss. What better place to practice than a Steamroller? Answer: plenty. This week I attended a qualifier for the Appalachian Cup tournament and finished Fifth overall with my Convergence. I also got in a healthy amount of painting and a quick game with my Skorne as well.

First, as always, is the painting:

Corollary. The essential piece of Convergence technology. And an amazing puzzle to be solved while playing. Getting it in the right spot to start AND end your turns for maximum focus efficiency is a definite art form. And I’m just starting out.

The Convergence theme list Destruction Initiative is all the rage, so I had to get some servitors ready to go with it. Above are my first finished ones: two groups of Reflex Servitors. Little mechanical land mines waiting to blow up enemy infantry.

For the Steamroller, I managed to get enough silver base coat onto everything to make it at least passably appealing, and broke my general rule of “play it painted”. I went down to Morgantown, WV for a qualifier for the Appalachian Cup, and had a great time. I played two new people, one person I haven’t faced since Mark II, and a player I’ve run into in fun games as well as tourney games in the past. I brought two lists, a Lucant list in theme and a Sytherion list with some infantry. If you’re the one person that actually follows my blog, you’ll know that I’ve at least played Lucant once before–but I’ve never had Syntherion hit the table. With the requirement of fielding each list at least once in the tourney, I was surprised to finish where I did. My only loss was with that Syntherion list of untested awfulness (tho I lost more to the quality play of my opponent to be sure). I’ll share my Father Lucant list below, as that was the only list that’s worth sharing:

Convergence of Cyriss – Lucant
Theme: Destruction Initiative
4 / 4 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army
Bunker – Steamroller Objective

Father Lucant, The Divinity Architect – WJ: +28
– Corollary – PC: 6 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
– Inverter – PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
– Cipher – PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 7)
– Cipher – PC: 16
– Conservator – PC: 12
– Diffuser – PC: 6
– Galvanizer – PC: 5

Transfinite Emergence Projector – PC: 19
– Permutation Servitors

Reflex Servitors – 3 Reflex Servitors: 0
Reflex Servitors – 3 Reflex Servitors: 0
Attunement Servitors – 3 Attunement Servitors: 0
Attunement Servitors – 3 Attunement Servitors: 0

Optifex Directive – Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Optifex Directive – Leader & 2 Grunts: 4

THEME: Destruction Initiative
—
GENERATED : 04/04/2017 14:15:08
BUILD ID : 2038.17-03-15

My first game, I squared off against Andrew M’s Maddox list in theme. The cool thing about these qualifiers is that lists are submitted in advance, and pairings for the first round are made public. Andrew had a Sloan list as well as Maddox, and given my Lucant list I had a pretty good idea that that’s what I had to drop no matter what–but that he would know that and likely drop Maddox. I was correct, and we faced off. Attrition was mixed for both of us, but my servitors slowed him down a bit. He had an opening to have both of his heavies beat back into Lucant, so he went for it. The first was stopped with Watcher, but the second did get there. Lucant got lucky on damage rolls and I was able to survive the attempt and go on to win. It was a great game, and Andrew was definitely the most fun opponent I’ve played in quite some time. Was a great game, and it was for sure luck that got me thru–a bit higher on his final roll and Lucant would have been dirt.

Second game I faced Rob’s Helynna list, that featured three Manticores. Syntherion was my drop as there were too many weapon masters on his side of the table for Lucant’s warjack-heavy list. I made a bunch of mistakes in the game that didn’t help me any, but Rob was also clearly in better positions and able to dictate the flow of the game. It was fun, but I definitely need to get some practice in with Syntherion before fielding him again. With a loss, but not locked in a later round, I proceeded onward.

Third game was against Josh’s Haley2 list (again, choosing his not-Sloan drop due to Lucant being a likely drop from me). It went much like my first game against Cygnar. Good opponent, fun match up, got to the point where he went for it on Lucant and came up short. At that point, with Haley’s feat gone, he was going to lose his Stormclad to Lucant and there were three Convergence heavies positioned to charge the Stormwall–not to mention Haley2 standing far too close to Warjacks for comfort. Ended with a win for me.

My fourth game I faced Larry IV’s Minions. He had Rask and Barnabas, and he saw clearly that I was likely to drop Lucant. With all those steady models, Rask seemed like the effective choice. We had a good match, maneuvering around the central zone of the Pit scenario. We traded turns of denying the other person scoring, and reached a 2-2 tie in scenario points. The firepower of the Transfinite Emergence Projector began to weigh on his gatormen, however. I managed to get to the point where I could take out the warbeasts that weren’t on full Fury, and then shoot the TEP into Rask to end the game with a pair of sprays.

Overall I was really pleased with my performance, as 5th place is about the best I’ve ever done in a Steamroller this size. Best part was all four of my opponents were great people, and that always makes gaming all the more fun.

The day after the Steamroller, I nabbed one more game with my buddy Charles, continuing our campaign story.

Morghoul1 had been dispatched by Zaal1 after discovering four ruins of power, and tasked with opening them. Grayle, who had faced Zaal1 in the past, showed up again to try and stop him. While I managed to unlock enough ruins during the game to progress the story scenario in favor of Skorne, Morghoul1 himself was felled by Grayle after my assassination attempt came up short. I managed to get behind him, but that still wasn’t enough to end his attack. I should have known that Morghoul1 was a little feeble as an assassin, and put Admonition on myself to move away when he turned to face me. But I went for it greedily with buying additional attacks. Double-strike is so tempting with him, but P+S 9 is just feeble. The only thing close were some paingivers, as my Bronzeback was still a turn away from getting into the fray. Grayle turned around and manged to eat thru my single transfer and finish Morghoul1 off with little problem.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

169/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 39 (Win/Loss 28/11/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Skorne:

8 Wins (Kaelyssa, Nemo3, Zaadesh2, Makeda1 x2, Kaya3, Grayle, MacBain) / 3 Losses (Makeda2, Venethrax, Grayle)

Convergence of Cyriss:

3 Wins (Maddox, Haley2, Rask) / 2 Losses (Venethrax, Helynna)

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

Trollbloods:

4 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Ancients and Machines

Game on, game on. This post has a whole heap of Skorne games with my growing Immortals collection, plus some silly Convergence experimentation.

On the painting side of things, I’ve just not been feeling my Retribution force. I love the color scheme when it’s done, but getting the red tones right is laborious. So I decided to just dabble a little with yet another Warmachine faction: Convergence of Cyriss. Yeah, I know. I should focus on one faction (Skorne) or just stick with Retribution.

I started with an Inverter, as it seemed like the ubiquitous choice for both the game and practicing painting. After a first attempt that I greatly misliked, I moved to this scheme which I am much more pleased with.

I also finished up Father Lucant for my Convergence of Cyriss. I’m particularly pleased with how he turned out. I’m liking the ceramic-looking select plates, and the light blue of the robes isn’t too off-putting (that’s the bit I struggled with the most). I’m working on the glow effects, and the one on the top of his staff is the one that I’m most proud of so far.

I also painted up another unit of Immortals for my Skorne army. They’re on the left, meeting the first unit I completed on the right.

I traveled during the start of March, so I was a bit slow on games at the start of this month. Managed to sneak a few in though, and then the floodgate opened as I got a bunch in all right in a row.

Started out with a Skorne vs. Skorne match-up against Kevin. He fielded Makeda1, while I tested out my first draft of a Zaal1 list. I survived a pretty good assassination attempt, and managed to get four Last Stand-buffed charging Immortals onto Makeda1 during feat turn. The boosts to hit were enough to connect, and despite transfers managed to knock her out. Her self-harm on her own feat turn helped a great deal. It was a very close match and a great learning experience about how Zaal1 runs (and how Exalted models trip all over each other if I’m not careful).

My initial attempt at Zaal1 hit the field again, against Ryan’s… Skorne… using Makeda1. A little bit of deja vu, but different options change the battle considerably. The big object in the middle of the battlefield had two arches, but charging would have to be straight thru because of size and angles. That lead to a bit of round-robin, and Ryan’s swordsmen started out of place and facing incorporeal solos which proved to be the definite edge I needed.

The game was the Crossroads of Courage Season 3 Week 3 scenario, with teleporting circles. There was a bonus for having your warcaster/warlock in them with an assassination, so I actually had to have Zaal1 go for it to seal the deal. The rest of the army killed Makeda’s transfer targets, and he teleported to the ring. Casting Last Stand on myself meant that I needed to succeed or I’d lose my caster (for those unfamiliar: any model that attacks under Last Stand is destroyed at the end of the turn). Took a few swings with my puny weapon, but managed to finish her off.

My next game was against Andy’s Mercenaries, led by Drake MacBain. I took Zaal1 again. This time I got into a bad situation on attrition, but was able to use incorporeal to my benefit even in the face of MacBain’s ugly feat. Thanks to the Feat turn, the soul-loaded Kovass got the job done with assassination.

Following that, I faced Ryan’s Venethrax list. And the exact opposite of what won me the game against Andy happened. I got into the spot where I was ahead on attrition that he took a chance on assassination and managed to kill Zaal1.

Still more Zaal1, this one against Charles’ Circle Orboros army led by Grayle. This one was right down to the wire, but I managed to pull out the assassination victory. You know it’s bad when you’re counting on the Titan Cannoneer to hold one side against melee infantry.

Onward to the weekend, where I played… Zaal1 again. Heh. This time I faced off against Larry IV’s Circle army, led by Kaya3. He wasn’t ready for how destructive my Immortals can be with Last Stand, so it went my way pretty fast. I definitely want a re-match at some point when he knows my list a little better and has more experience with Kaya3.

Following that match, I faced Larry III’s Skorne force in a grand Skorne-off. He had Makeda2 and Xerxis1 as options, and I was reasonably certain he’d be bringing Makeda2. Because neither list I brought had an answer. I decided to drop Hexy2, which wasn’t a particularly good plan. It didn’t help that I came up short on what could have been a more aggressive play. He definitely had the upper hand in the game, and finally finished off Hexy2. While I’m okay with Zaal1, I definitely need a pairing for him that isn’t Hexy2.

Final game of this cycle, I broke down and put mostly unpainted Convergence of Cyriss onto the table. I have been trying to play as fully painted as possible, but in some discussions people said that I paint fast enough that I should just play what I want–and let my play drive my painting passion. So it was time for Lucant to strike out against foes.

I faced Ryan’s Venethrax list with some heavy modifications from the last time I clashed. I got on a bad start from the beginning as I didn’t have the ability to land things close enough to deny him points on the friendly flag. I was ahead in attrition, but time and score conspired to make me have to get too aggressive with Lucant. He rumbled up and did a great job against a sea of Warjacks (notching four total if my memory count is correct–two heavies and two bonejacks), but his urge to get up left him too easy prey for Venethrax who ended things with a charge of his own. I was honestly just glad to get a little table time with my Convergence. As I’m planning on doing some silly things with them going forward, and their induction system for Focus is a little wonky.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

155/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 34 (Win/Loss 25/9/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Skorne:

8 Wins (Kaelyssa, Nemo3, Zaadesh2, Makeda1 x2, Kaya3, Grayle, MacBain) / 2 Losses (Makeda2, Venethrax)

Convergence of Cyriss:

0 Wins / 1 Loss (Venethrax)

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

Trollbloods:

4 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

The Gobber Chef Classic 2017

With the expansion of space at Drawbridge Games (three times the number of tables), I was pleased to finally be able to run a sizeable Steamroller event at that venue. In chatting with the owner, we were laughing about how the Swamp Gobber Chef is by far his best-selling model. That got us thinking: well, how about a Chef-themed event?

Thus, the Gobber Chef Classic was born. We decided to have a steamroller that included all the different bells and whistles of official trophies, plus a bonus trophy awarded for painting and conversion work: the best food-themed model.

I’m really pretty proud of how the trophy for the conversion model turned out!

In addition, Enrico managed to get Whole Foods to sponsor the event as well and provide prize support in the form of a number of gift cards.With new table space and ample prize support, the Gobber Chef classic just needed players. And players we got, with 14 showing up for games.

Results

First up, the overall winners by points:

Les (center) took first place with an undefeated run and best strength of schedule. Larry (right) got second, also undefeated. And Savage managed to finish third with only a single loss and one of the best strength of schedules for the day (5 means some harrowing opponents in all three rounds).

Overall Standings from the event shook out as follows:

Name	Caster Pairing	Win/Loss	Strength of Schedule	CPs
Les Smartnick	Maddox / Sloan	3 – 0	4	3
Larry Paladin III	Makeda1 / Makeda2	3 – 0	3	10
Andrew Savage	Amon / Vindictus	2 – 1	5	3
Ryan Nolte	Denny3 / Terminus	2 – 1	4	10
Brad Randall	Naaresh / Hexeris2	2 – 1	4	8
Stuart Surgent	Durst	2 – 1	3	5
Mike Meharey	Kraye / Caine1	1 – 2	6	10
Kyle Tanczos	Scaverous / Denny1	1 – 2	6	3
Ryan Murray	Thexus / Ossrum	1 – 2	4	0
Andy Dobies	Stryker2 / Kraye	1 – 2	3	7
Alex P.	Vyros1 / Kaelyssa	1 – 2	3	3
Kevin Finch	Tanith / Kromac2	1 – 2	3	0
Addison	Krueger2 / Kromac2	0 – 3	6	10
Larry Paladin IV	Rask / Barnabas	0 – 3	4	3

On the best Food-themed conversion side of things:

Kevin Finch won the overall prize with his epic Swamp Gobber River Waiters conversions. They’re delivering fine dining and a bit of death to battlefields across Immoren.

The other entries were great as well, from Mike’s chef-slash-sawbones, Larry’s Swamp Gobber Chef, and Addison’s Gorax-dining-on-a-Tharn conversion. Eeep!

We also gave out a best-painted award for the best of two fully painted lists.

Ryan N. won with his classic Cryx scheme. Denny3 and Terminus.

(L to R) Addison won Best Sportsman, Ryan N. got the majority vote for his classic Cryx theme for best completely painted army, and Kevin won the best Food conversion.

I also got a few action shots of games being played, though certainly not an exhaustive set.

Ryan N.’s Denny3 clashes against Addison’s Krueger2, and managed to pull out the win on scenario thanks to a Poltergeist effect pushing Krueger2 off a flag when he missed a shot. Ouch!

Larry in the final stages of his plan to have Molik Karn strigke from all the way downtown and take out Kyle’s Denny1 (she’s hiding right behind the pumpkin objective, and Karn is the yellow proxy base).

Crash of the heavies as Larry IV’s Rask-led wall of warbeasts met Brad’s Naaresh-led wall of warbeasts.

Andy’s Kraye got a little too close to Ryan M.’s Ossrum list and was shot down by all the little dwarf jacks.

Denny3 again for Ryan N., who was worn down by the sheer volume of Savage’s Vindictus list.

Mike’s Cygnar try to hold the line versus Brad’s wall of Naaresh, but the big elephants triumphed again.

Andy’s Cygnar, this time led by Stryker2, faced off again Stu’s Durst list. In a complete grind that ended with literally only the two casters left trying to kill each other, Stu managed to win thanks to a Durst retributive strike on Stryker2.

This last one came after a battle: Kevin’s Kromac2 sits down for a pleasant goblin-served dinner with Savage’s Vindictus following their epic clash.

Finally, a shot of the winners of the Whole Foods Door Prizes: various gift cards loaded with cash kindly provided by the grocery company to support our local endeavor!

The Empire Returns

Okay, so I’ve played Skorne for a long, long time. And despite always moving on, it seems that I always come back to it. This time it was two things. One, some friends getting fired up about doing a joint Skorne project together. And two, finding a painting scheme that I liked for my Immortals and Ancestral Guardians units. So it meant some change in what I’m painting (tho with Zaal1, I refined some of my purple painting and I’m relatively pleased there too). I also got a few games in with the Skorne to shake the rust off, and the new Errata has pleased me a great deal. It seems like around this time last year I was fooling around with Hexy1, so it was a nice thing to drop right back into him with added improvements. I also got Zaal1 painted up so I can start to give him a go (need one more unit of Immortals finished to run him, I’m thinking).

As always: first painting progress, then games.

I’m really liking the way these two show all the colors of my force at once. Yellow for magic/soul energy, purple armor, mixed brown-to-yellow robes with pale blue cording, and jade statues.

Hakaar the Destroyer. I like the model a ton, but I’m still somewhat meh on him without the right list (Zaal2 I’m guessing).

Three Ancestral Guardians. They’re great after the errata, as boosting Immortals’ speed is critical.

The Jade Immortals themselves. I really like the way they turned out.

On the gaming side, I managed to get in three games. All of them with Hexeris1, as I wanted to try out his changed-up abilities. I’m loving Parasite with Skorne, and the fact that he upkeeps one spell for free is a big deal in his spell-slinging ability. And as always, his feat was HUGE when it was huge, and terribad when used at the wrong time/against the wrong foe. Ah, good to see he hasn’t changed too much.

First game was versus Steve’s Retribution force. Against Dawnguard, Hexy1’s feat was great. Took out an entire unit with a single shot from a Cyclops Raider to start the chain. I’ll take it! Managed to swarm the shooting elements with Immortals, as Krea-boosted ARM 20 on the approach is tough to stop. That let Hexy1 get a Gun Bug into melee with the objective to win the match. Bonus shout-out to Steve for the great looking Chimera model.

Second game was against Michael’s lovely Cygnar force. He fielded Nemo3 in theme, while I took a bit more shooty of a package with Hexy1. Again, the Feat turn worked. Took out his whole unit of Stormblade Infantry, though it took a lot more of my models to keep the chain running. The game was still close, as his Warjacks were pressing hard on my weak side. I managed to get an opening to put Parasite on Nemo3 when he had no focus. Even though only two Bloodrunners actually got to him, their Death March MAT 9 charges with Gang were enough to finish him off. Great game, and now another player will not fall for Hexy1’s shenanigans again. That’s my main worry with him–once an opponent really knows, they can take more care with their clusters and spacing and minimize an already kinda-clunky Feat.

Third game was against Brad’s Skorne. Time for a Skorne-off! He fielded Zaadesh2. Honestly, I should have lost this game–so I’ll only credit luck on my part and food poisoning on Brad’s. He was way ahead on attrition, but Hexy1 managed to get to the objective himself and cap the game for the win solo-style. Swarm (from the Aradus Sentinel) is a great animus. The lesson of this game, tho, was that Hexy1 vs. Tough troops is bad, bad news. Not only do they tend to survive, but you cannot kill them after knocked down–as they cannot make the advance or swing if knocked down. Too many chances for an opponent to get lucky and stop the Feat train.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

111/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 26 (Win/Loss 20/6/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Skorne:

3 Wins (Kaelyssa, Nemo3, Zaadesh2) / 0 Losses

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

Trollbloods:

4 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Points for the Pointy-Eared

Another stretch of gaming, more painting and games. I’m on a roll for 2017 so far, and I hope to keep it up. Retribution has become a very entertaining faction to play and to paint so far. I’m still inclined to play some of my Skorne as well, but these ladies and gents will do for a while. As always, painting first:

Adeptis Rahn. I like how he turned out, and he has been quite the pleasure to play on the battlefield so far. I know he’s going to take a long time to master, despite the fact that I’ve been successful in most early games with him.

Sphinx heavy warjack. The Vyre chassis seems to take longer to paint than the Shyeel chassis. A lot more red surfaces in the arm joins and legs I think. Still, pleased enough with him.

Arcanist Mechanik. He was fun to paint up, and was my main test for how I’ll be handling the different cloth and leather tones on my Retribution models. So far so good I think.

On the battles side, there were no tournaments in the first half of this month so it was mostly just open games against friends. I did get a good amount of variety in my games. I’m hoping to play a Steamroller with my Retribution in mid-February, so that’s on the docket–which means I’ve got to punch my painting and practice games into overdrive.

I got a few more games in with Elara2 before swapping to Rahn. First was against Andy’s Khador. It is a warjack brick with Strakov. The speed of Elara2 caught him off guard, and I managed to get my Chimera into Strakov as he dealt with my force to finish the job.

I faced Kevin’s Circle Orboros force led by Tanith next, and lost the game to assassination. He staggered his stuff well enough that I couldn’t leverage the threat range the force can generate, which eventually led to a Warpwolf to the face for Elara2 as I had to get more desperate with my positioning.

Final game with Elara2 for now was against Charles’ Circle force, facing Grayle the Farstrider. It was a good match that turned into a grind. Ended with Grayle having to make a play for Elara2 and failing, leaving Elara to finish him off in return. I had to show the picture of Charles’ Gorax above, because he still uses the old metal model. I like the new one, but the old one has a silly charm to it.

Got started with Rahn against Brad’s Skorne force led by Zaadesh2. This was an absolute slugfest, but Rahn’s annoying telekinesis to keep his warbeasts turned around and out of the game was sufficient to get me the opening I needed on Zaadesh.

This great shot of Joe’s Dire Troll Mauler smashing my Chimera was part of a game of Rahn vs. his Borka1. Again, keep-away and isolating warbeasts with telekinesis led to an advantage. My mostly-dead Sphinx could block most of Borka’s stumbling drunk movements, and the Manticore managed to get into his back arc for a hit that finished him.

Rahn faced my good friend Kevin’s Circle Orboros Tanith list, ready for redemption. Kevin played a very tight game again, but the Chimera was just able to slip free of the Reeves that ran to engage it with its Apparition move in the control phase. A quick run and it was right up within range to ignore Tanith’s Prowl-given stealth. That let Rahn knock her into the stone, then telekinesis her to partially out of the woods. And the Sphinx shot plus Battle Mages did the rest.

Rahn again against Ryan’s Makeda1 Skorne list. I’m really liking what he can do in terms of personal impact. In this game, he got a good Forcehammer onto her that sent her into the Agonizer, then a Telekinesis to turn her around and Battle Mages to pull her out and kill her. When Rahn works, he seems very powerful to be sure.

Venethrax was a tougher challenge for Rahn than others, as Lamentation doesn’t make things easy. Mercifully I could use my arc node and get the right telekinesis into him and let the Sphinx in the back do the rest of the work. A good game against Charles’ Cryx.

Last game of this set was my first loss with Rahn, against Adam’s Cryx led by Asphyxious1. Rahn got a bit too ambitious where he stood at the end of the game having used his stack of Focus to severely hamper the enemy. Gaspy1’s feat gave him just enough oomph to seal the deal with a spell assassination. This was a great game and a long grind–Adam is a cagey opponent and definitely won due to his good positioning throughout the game.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

62/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 23 (Win/Loss 17/6/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

Trollbloods:

4 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Retributive Strikes

My Retribution of Scyrah army is growing in size and experience. I’ve added more models, and gotten a variety of games under my belt thus far. First, as always, the new additions:

The humble Aspis. It’s a cheap model with shield guard and the ability to regenerate damage. It seemed like a good choice to add, and I really like the way that reposing the leg made him a lot more dynamic than some of my other warjacks for the faction. A friend Scott suggested that I paint the orbs on his hands like basketballs and put an Air Jordan logo on his shoulderpad. Funny, but I like him as he is.

I also added a Lys Healer to support my current Warcaster, Elara2. With absolutely no defensive tech other than a mid-high defense of 16, Elara2 has felt very squishy to me. The Lys Healer goes a long way in shoring that up, for a very cheap points cost. I’m pleased with the paint job, and I love the deep hood of the model itself.

On the gaming front, I got in a variety of games at different points levels. The momentous game of the week was against my friend Charles. He’s cooked up a sort of story-driven campaign, and is inviting friends to join in with portions of it. Charles is always a great opponent who puts RPG-level elements into these types of games, so I was happy to jump in.

For instance, he made these special scenario markers for the first event. Two strange symbol tablets and a pile of energy crystals.

The story is set in the Black River region of the Iron Kingdoms, and involves different factions competing over strange Orgoth runes that are appearing from the earth.Charles even wrote up a hand-written mission for it–I had to share for the old school gaming cred and great penmanship alone.

A blast from the gaming past.

The game itself was a fun mission, where Elara2 faced off against Venethrax. I used teleport to grab one of the three objectives early (in this battle, you carry them with you). Venethrax gathered the other two, so I had to set up a chance to steal them. Again, Teleport saves the day: I rushed up, managed to hit enough to take both, then teleported away with my final two. My warjacks ran to box Venny and his army out of a path to Elara2 and I was home free with all of the objectives. A great game, and a fun narrative story.

I also got in a bunch of regular games with my Retribution over the past two weeks. I’m really liking Elara2 in terms of threat range and flexibility. I’m excited to add more into the force to support her, but I’m also inclined to get some practice with a second Warcaster as well so I can start to suss out a pairing.

Terry’s great-looking Protectorate force faced off against mine. Thanks to a few bad dice rolls on his part, my Chimera survived a failed assassination run on Malekus to get the killing blow the subsequent turn.

My game against Adam’s Cryx was a fun one marked by Elara2 demonstrating just how far her Warjacks can project threat. A running and fleet Griffon with Scything Touch from across the board combined with a Manticore to put some serious worry into Gaspy1. He survived, but was finished off by the Aspis in the subsequent round.

Joe is a new player in our meta, who has a great-looking Trollbloods force already growing. His Pyre Troll in particular looks super-dynamic. I clashed against his Ragnor force. Unfortunately, my experience with Trollbloods meant a strong advantage for me against a newer player, so I ended up with a win.

A close loss to Ryan’s Xekaar-led Skorne army. I really like a lot of the changes to Skorne with the errata, and they’re definitely on my docket for a return once I get my Retribution into shape. But Xekaar still stinks as far as I’m concerned. Ryan plays him about as well as he can be played in my opinion, so kudos to him for polishing that turd as best as can be.

Final game of the week was against Brad’s Skorne force. Skorne is getting really popular now that they’ve got some interesting warlocks. Definitely got me to make them my Hordes priority for 2017. Zaadesh2 was definitely ahead in the attrition game, but as Brad said “maybe I should have looked closer at your Feat”. A knockdown from a thrown Gladiator let Elara2 stroll directly through a huge obelisk that was blocking her way on feat turn and finish the job. Ghostly is a solid ability to be able to access.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

41/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 14 (Win/Loss 10/4/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Retribution of Scyrah:

6 Wins (Tanith, Venethrax, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2) / 3 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar)

Trollbloods:

4 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Return to the Kriels

I took my Trollbloods on the road for a Steamroller event about an hour away. I was reasonably pleased with my progress with Trolls, and the event taught me a fair bit about my thoughts going forward in 2017 in terms of factions and painting progress.

Trollkin Runebearer. Yeah, I’m really proud of this guy. He turned out great. I think I worked out a really slick scheme for my Trolls, and this model brings all the bits together well. He also filled a need in the Steamroller pairings, as I definitely needed his support to make Jarl work more effectively.

The Steamroller was a standard 3 rounds tournament, and a good 14 people were there for it. My pairing was a Jarl list that I’ve been working on using the Power of Dhunia theme list, and a Borka list that I wasn’t, and still am not, particularly happy with. I’ve included the Jarl list below:

War Room Army – Trollblood – Jarl has too many Upkeeps

Theme: The Power of Dhunia – 75 / 75 Army

Armory – Steamroller Objective

Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood – WB: +30
– Trollkin Runebearer – PC: 0
– Dire Troll Bomber – PC: 19 (Battlegroup Points Used: 19)
– Dire Troll Blitzer – PC: 16 (Battlegroup Points Used: 11)
– Dire Troll Blitzer – PC: 16
– Dire Troll Mauler – PC: 15
– Storm Troll – PC: 9
– Troll Axer – PC: 10
– Troll Bouncer – PC: 9
– Troll Impaler – PC: 11
Janissa Stonetide – PC: 0
Troll Whelps – 5 Whelps: 0
Troll Whelps – 5 Whelps: 0

Jarl’s upkeeps are his main problem, and this helps minimize that problem by letting you start with upkeeps on models–normally it takes him two turns to cast all three if you want them. I like Quicken on Jarl himself, Weald Secrets on a Blitzer to go hunting through forests, and Tactical Supremacy on a Bomber for the ranged attack then retreat trick. So far I’ve been really pleased with the list.

I took the Borka1 list because I’ve been rather unhappy with non-ranged Trollbloods lists recently. I’ve enjoyed Hunters Grim, but them AND Jarl was not a good plan as a pairing. I got in a practice game shortly before the Steamroller with my buddy Ryan to test out a Grissel1 list that I liked.

The list was pretty heavy on the infantry, and while I did well and won the test game, I could tell that playing to a clock was not going to happen with this list without a lot more practice. Way too much toggling of buffs to make it work.

That left me with a Jarl list that I really enjoy, but no melee pairing that I particularly liked. My Doomshaper2 army with five heavies is a fine list, but would have the same weaknesses as the Jarl list (all warbeasts). The Grissel1 list was too slow, Hunters Grim too much of the same offensively, and I haven’t gotten enough practice with Ragnor or Madrak2 to really feel comfortable setting them on the table. Thus, it was the old standby Borka1. He’s easy to play, so I took him for this tourney.

My first match was against Savage’s Feora3 list. It was fun playing a new warcaster, and Savage is a fun opponent. Tho I believe the last game he and I played was also with Borka1! Unable to project threat and deal with his Daughters in reasonable fashion (thanks to a whole lot of missing by the Trollkin Champions), it started to go downhill fast. He won by scenario, as Borka proved unassailable as always but just not supportive enough of his army in my opinion. Defense 16 Champions is great, to be sure, but it’s just too little and I couldn’t clear the jam effectively. I’ve heard people on podcasts thinking that Feora3’s feat turn isn’t that great, but man… Daughters with acrobatics can really get anything they want lit on fire during the feat turn.

Second match was against Larry Jr’s Minions, led by Barnabas. Frustrated by Borka, I resolved to just play Jarl in the next two matches. This one was a pretty simple win for me, as Larry is a developing player–I got ahead on clock and scenario, and there’s not much you can do against that but feed units into the fast and accurate ranged list. A good game nonetheless.

My third match is the one I’m most happy about, facing Sean’s Trollbloods and Gunnbjorn. It was a “my feat nullifies your shooting” battle of subsequent feats against two equally shooty armies. I got slightly ahead in points, so he went for the long range assassination on Jarl–and got so very, very close. Man, the War Wagon can hit shots from way downtown with Gunnbjorn! Jarl managed to live with two boxes left, then engineer his own ranged assassination of Gunnbjorn. It was a hard-fought game against a cagey opponent, so I’m pretty pleased with that result.

All-in-all for the Steamroller I went 2-1. As always, I had a good time. I got to play a brand new opponent, give my Jarl list some real stress-testing, and just get into a somewhat different meta and check out what lists people are fielding.

That said, I have the distinct feeling that my Trollbloods will retreat to their Kriels for a much-deserved rest. I’ve played a whole lot of them this past 2016, and while I like them I’m feeling a bit constrained with some of the limitations of Trolls. It’s not that I mislike the faction, or I’m worried about power level, just that the variation in Troops choices is a bit underwhelming for the faction. I’ve still got my love for Jarl, but I’m inclined to test some other waters for my Hordes faction of 2017.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

32/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 8 (Win/Loss 5/3/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Retribution of Scyrah:

1 Win (Tanith) / 2 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra)

Trollbloods:

4 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

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