Playing the Faux - Introduction to the game

Welcome to a new segment of the Hideout, Playing the Faux, dedicated to the joys of Malifaux. While this section will never be as prevelant as the Warmachine ones, it will still see some regular use over the next month at least.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have decided to play in the Malifaux one day event at NiCon this year. This decision has shown up two glaringly obvious problems: I have no idea how to play the game and my crew isn't painted. The paint problem has been rectified, as shown in my last post, however, I still need some game time. Luckily for me, the local Henchman (Malifauxs version of a Pressganger) lives around the corner from me and is helping me with that problem.
 Yesterday saw me around at Peters, playing my first full game of Malifaux (I had a Crew box intro game about 6 months ago), complete with schemes and strategies. Peter also had the great idea of playing the same crew as me, so I got to see what my guys did from both sides of the table. This was an excellent idea and really helped me get a handle on the myriad of abilities and interactions available to my dudes.

Mr Graves, just as beat sticky as he looks. And Mr Tannen - super annoying.

The game itself is a lot of fun. The Strategies and Schemes ensure no two games are ever the same, while also adding a cinematic quality to your games. The option to either keep your scheme hidden, to make it easier to complete or reveal it to your opponent before you start to make it more difficult, but worth more VPs, adds yet another layer and denying your opponents schemes can play a big part in winning.
    The card drawing mechanic is truely different and will take some getting used to. It gives some true randomness to the winds of fate, although it will still occasionally throw up what would be commonly refered to as "dice spikes". At one point yesterday, I had a double negative flip for damage (flip 3 cards, choose the lowest) and managed to flip three 13s in a row to smash my target into the dirt at a crucial time.
  The crews lend themselves to building combos, an aspect of Warmachine and X-wing I have always enjoyed and playing a named master/caster/lock with thier own, unique set of rules is always going to be better than having an army led by "generic space marine captain". In yesterdays game, my crew was very much all the dudes I could fit into 50SS, but I think I will probably drop one of the Illuminated to make room for a few choice upgrades. The ability to bring back my Hungering Darkness is sure to be a game changer at some point.

Till next time....

From the Workbench

So I haven't been overly productive paintwise in the last month or two. The horrorshow that was the Auckland Open really sapped my Warmachine drive for a week or two. I may end up blogging about my time at the event, but suffice to say, it was miserable at my end. Anyhoo, onto painted toys.

First up, finished in time for the Ides of March event:

Seraph/Neraph kit.

Incubii

All I got done before the Auckland Open was a unit of Blighted Ogrun Warspears

And I also finished off my Dire Troll Bomber, which had sat around half finished for some time.

For a chance of pace, i've decided to play some Malifaux at Nicon in a couple of weeks, of course this required me to finally paint my crew.

Jacob Lynch and the Hungering Darkness

Beckoners

Illuminated

Mr Graves and Mr Tannen

Until next time, get off my lawn....

Legion of the Noob - Ides of March part 3

(**Going to change up the reports and only cover the highlights/general thoughts on each game. Things have been getting really long and rambly**)

Game 5: Peter Hunter - Gaspy2

Having played Peters Gaspy list a couple of weeks before in the Dojo and been smashed, I decided to try something different and dropped Absolonia instead of Lylyth. Unfortunately, the result was much the same. Although I managed to shoot Gaspy in the face with a Ravagore on turn two, he failed to do the decent and just thing and burn to death, although he did stay on fire all game. While I managed to kill a bunch of banes, my Ravagore missed a final boosted shot at Gaspy. His feat wiped out all my beasts and by the time Peter had won on control points, Absolonia was the only model I had left on the table.

Game 6: Tony Vodonovich - Lylyth2

I dropped Absolonia again as I feel she has good game in the Legion mirror (Saeryn not withstanding). She generally out threats other Legion casters and her beasts tend to hit harder on the turn that matters.
We traded Deathstalker shots early on and he got to feat first, which killed the Scythean and the Seraph and set the Carnivean and Ravagore on fire. On Absolonias feat turn, she proc'd Conferred Rage by killing Zuriel and damaged the Angel. Although the Shredder and Naga left the Angel on one box, the Carnivean did what the Carnivean does and bit Lylyths head off.

Game 7: David Cameron - Doomshaper1

Dropped Absolonia again as I knew there was no way I was going to shoot Trolls off the table. I tried to assasinate Doomy, despite his feat being up. The Carnivean failed to kill Mulg, while the Naga and Seraph cleared a landing space for the Scythean, who ended up falling an inch short of Doomshaper.
That was pretty much all she wrote at that point. David ended up winning on CPs, but not before I managed to Blightbomb Mulg to death, which amused me greatly.
It wasn't until the day after that I realised that I had forgotten to Slipstream the Scythean. DOH!

So 3-4 for the weekend, but I felt that I had put myself in a position to win the four games I lost and came away feeling quite good about where I was at with Legion.

I did decide to make a couple of changes to the lists for the Auckland open, mainly in the hope of shoreing up my Cryx drop, as I don't feel like Lylyth2 is there yet, although I know she could be. We will see how things go.

Legion of the Noob: Ides of March part 2

Game 3: Dave Dawn - Xerxis2.
Game 3 saw me sit down across the table from the most evilest of Daves. Dave was running Xerxis in his Rhino shaped wheelchair, along with a Archidon, Molik and a bunch of assorted Cyclops. I drppped Absolonia again.

Dave went first, cast Mobility and ran everything foward. In return I moved up aggressively and the Seraph on the left of the table dismounted Tyrant Radeem.
 Daves second turn saw my Shredder and Naga die to Molik Khan before he sprinted back. Radeem moved ran behind my lines hoping to tempt Abby away from her beast brick. The Shaman and something else (I can't read my own writing) shot down both my Deathstalkers. All the Cyclops bricked up around Molik. The large clump of Cyclops was all the invitation I needed to do what Abby does best. She pooped her feat, flew over to Radeem and punched his face in to trigger Conferred Rage before teleporting back into range of her beasts. What followed was an epic savaging that netted me both Raiders, the Savage, the Shaman and Molik Khan. I also managed to get a couple of shots in on Xerxis with the Scythean, which he transferred to the Archidon.
 Not having many options left, Dave saw an opportunity for the assassination. Xerxis feated, then used his Rhino to pitch the Scythean out of the way. He then charged Absolonia with the Archidon and my bottom clenched just a little although I was sitting on 3 transfers. After the dust had cleared, Abby was on around half health and the Seraph was dead to transfers. Absolonia retaliated by killing the Archidon. The Scythean stood up and walked into Xerxis to try and tie him down and the Ravagore did its best to finish him off, but fell just short.
 Xerxis went into survival mode (aka run away mode), using a rideby attack to pitch the Ravagore away and kill the Scythean before backing off as far as possible. This time, I was able to force the Ravagore to shake the knockdown. Absolonia killed some paingivers to trigger Conferred Rage and cast Psycho-surgery before the charging Ravagore finally managed to finish the job.

Game 4: Dave Wilson - Morvahna2.
So, I sit down at the table and hand Dave my lists. He then tells me he has no idea what either of my casters do. So, like a complete asshole, I drop eLylyth. I went first and we both moved foward at speed. Notably, an order of activation mistake prevented Morvahna from getting close enough to the wall to be in cover, leaving her in the open and in range with only two transfers.
I popped Lylyths feat on the top of two. The Naga and the first of the Ravagores managed to strip both her transfers and leave her on four boxes. Sweet I thought, this is in the bag. Second Ravagore aims and misses with his first shot. No problem, still have one more. Nope. Second shot misses as well. Bugger. This is not good. And I didn't even light her on fire.
 Dave then set about punishing me for my failure. The Warpwolf killed Zuriel and the Naga. The Skinwalkers killed the Blightblades tying them down while the two unengaged ones tried to kill Lylyth but failed. Morvahna moved behind the wall after her massive scare the turn before. Needing to strip three transfers and hope Morvahna burnt to death, Lylyth managed to strip one transfer with her bow, but despite thier best efforts the Ravagores could not get the hits required and a Warpwolf ate Lylyth in the following turn.

So the end of day one and I was 2-2, which was honestly better than I expected at the start of the day. I went home to sleep and dream dreams of a 4-3 or better finish.

Legion of the Noob: Ides of March - Part 1

So. Ides of March. Premier tournament on the Auckland calender. A collision of the best Warmachine players in the country. And I decide, 10 weeks out, to play a brand new faction. Ace. Nothing like making things hard for myself.  Not only did I need to learn a new Faction, I needed to learn how Fury works and all the nuances that go with it. And I needed to paint 2 lists from scratch. So how did it go? Read on, gentle viewer and revel in the horror.

Game 1: Greg Fitchew - Bradigus

New Zealand is a special snowflake of a meta, as shown by the fact there were only 2 Bradigus players at a 50 man event. Murphys Law dictates I draw one of them in the first round. The mission was Close Quarters and I chose to drop Absolonia2.

Greg went first and walked everything foward, making 2 pods, consisting  of Standing Stones, Sentry Stone, 3 lights and a heavy.

 I had 12% of a plan, which mainly involved using my smaller models to deny him the ability to slide into my heavies. To this end I ran everything foward, forming a foward line with my 2 Deathstalkers, Shredder, Naga and a Tenacitied Seraph running a block while my Ravagore, Scythean and Carnivean formed up begind the wall along with Abby and the support.

Gregs second turn saw him move up cautiously again, with his Watchers doing thier +4 armour shenanagins. They also managed to shoot the Naga to death with some help from the Mannikins. Mannikins also managed to spray one Deathstalker to death and left the second on 1 box. Bradigus put Flesh of Clay on himself and also cast Mystic Wards, leaving himself with zero transfers, believing himself safe behind his wall of Wolds.

 Two nicely clumped groups of models and the chance to get the alpha was too good an opportunity to pass up. Absonloia went first, popped her Feat and charged a Mannikin to proc Conferred Rage. Unfortunately, I charged the wrong Mannikin and found myself trapped within range of Mystic Wards and unable to Teleport back to safety. Uh-oh. The Scythean flew into the middle of the pod on my right and proceeded to kill 2 Watchers, a couple of Mannikins and put damage on a heavy. The Carnivean finished off a third Watcher, but couldn't quite get reach range on one of the Shifting Stones. One the other side, the Ravagore and Seraph killed two Watchers and a Shifting Stone. This cleared a charge lane to Bradigus that a Rabid, Feated, Conferred Raged Shredder took full advantage of. Coming from waaaay downtown, the Shredder tore into Bradigus leaving him on one box. Bugger.

Gregs third and final turn went much as expected. His remaining Watchers Pushed my heavies around to build Synergy, before the Woldwarden teleported into Absolonia and punched her to death.

So a loss first up, but a close game. My 12% of a plan did what I hoped and stopped the early slide into my heavies, allowing me to get the alpha. Getting trapped by Mystic Wards really cost me but I feel I would have been ok if I could have broken the second set of stones and neutered his ability to teleport the Woldwarden. Or if I could have rolled the boosted 10 to kill Bradigus with the Shredder, that would have helped too.

Game 2: Paul Monk - Farrow

Round 2 was Recon and I drew Wooden Spoon hopeful, Paul Monk. Paul was single listing a Carver list like the true hard man he is and I decided to drop Absolonia again.

I won first turn and ran everything foward as fast as possible, only slowing to fuel the Forsaken with 4 fury. Abby put Fortify on the Carnivean and Spiny Growth on both the Carnivean and the Scythean. The Succubus also put Spiny Growth on the Ravagore. 

 In return, a wave of bacon surged foward towards me as fact as thier stubby pig legs would carry them.

Turn 2 saw the Ravagore move foward and set 4 of the brigands in the center on fire, while the Seraph and Naga killed 3 more. The Deathstalkers killed 3 Slaughterhousers on the right flank and the Forsaken moved towards the Slaughterhousers on the left. 

 Pauls Brigands shot at the Shredder on the hill but they all missed. The Gun Boar shot missed the Naga, Carver shot it with both barrels and did decent damage, before smashing it with a Warhog.

Turn 3 saw Absolonia pop her feat, charge a Brigand to proc Conferred Rage and destroy the objective before teleporting back behind the beasts. The Deathstalkers both survived free strikes from the Slaughterhousers they were engaged with, in order to back up and shoot dead two more each. The Ravagore charged Brine, also getting Rorsch into melee, then proceeded to miss both initial attacks (needing 5s). He still managed to kill Brine but left Rorsch untouched.

 The Forsaken walked into the middle of the Slaughterhousers on the left and triggered a Blight Bomb, killing 3 Slaughterhousers, knocking down 2 more but failing to scratch Carver. The Scythean flew into position to engage both Warhogs and Carver. Some less than stellar dice saw the Scythean only kill one Warhog, damage the second and force a transfer from Carver to the Gunboar. The charging Rabid, Feated, Conferred Raged Shredder finished off the Gunboar (seriously, Abbys Shredders are just stupidly good), the Seraph finished off the damaged Warhog, before the Carnivean flew over and bit Carvers head off.

Having finished my game fairly early, I wandered off to grab lunch from the sausage sizzle and cake stall that had been set up for a different event being held at the same time....

Legion of the Noob, part 6: Battlecry

A couple of weeks ago, I ran the 1 day Warmachine event at Battlecry. As usual, a great bunch of guys showed up and a good time was had by all. Unfortunately, we ended up with uneven numbers, so I ended up ghosting in the bye slot, to both ensure people got the 4 games they paid for and to give myself some extra practice.

Game 1 was against the most excellent Big Show aka Chris T. He was rocking a single Kara Sloane list with Stormwall, 2 Minutemen Thunderhead, a Defender plus some support. Despite how much I really wanted to smash the Stormwall with Abby2,  I didn't want to get shot off the table going in, so I went with Lylyth instead. I lost the roll for first turn and having learnt my lesson previously, I gave Big Show the side of the table with only a forest for cover.

Chris deployed most of his force to the left hand side of the forest, except for Thunderhead and the Defender which went right. Everything moved forward at speed. I put up Shadowpack and decided not to pop my feat this turn. The two Ravagores blasted one of the Minutemen down to 3 boxes, before one of the Deathstalkers finished it off.

Turn 2, the Stormwall rolles boxcars to gun down a Deathstalker in a trench. Thunderhead shot the Spell Martyr and the Defender gunned down a Shepherd. Before I started my turn, I considered my options, before deciding to pull the trigger and go for the assassination. The Blightblades came on and shanked the Journeyman. Lylyth moved into the open and feated. I landed a boosted Pin Cushion on Kara and put a couple of points of damage on her with Lylyths bow. The Naga put two shots into Kara (including one crit poison), before the 1st Ravagore finished her off.

-----------------------------------

My second game was against Dan Lister. Dan had a dwarf list with an Earthbreaker and a Fiona list with Galleon,  full pirate boat Alexia and Nyss. Faced with two very shooty Colossals I once again chose Lylyth and ended up going second again. Dan chose Fiona, wanting to test the strength of her feat. To this end, he ran his entire army at me two turns in a row, jamming them down my throat before popping his feat. I should have feated bottom of one, but ended up having to counterfeat while trapped in Fionas bubble of "screw you". I managed to back the Ravagores and Naga out of the Feat and put a bunch of hurt on the Galleon and gun down some of the infantry with the Deathstalkers and Lylyth. Zuriel was trapped in combat with the Galleon and stuck in Fionas feat so couldn't manage to finish it off (left it on 8 boxes).

In return, Dan tried to kill Lylyth, running dudes into combat with her, then shooting them in the back with Galleon to try and kill her with blast damage (a viable option when your opponent is dresed in newspaper) but failed to get the dice required.One shot from a Ravagore finished the Galleon off, before a fiesty Shepherd knocked down First Mate Hawk who was engaging Zuriel. Free of Hawks attentions, Zuriel flew over the wreck of the Galleon and lopped off Fionas head.

-----------------------------------

My final game of the day saw me across the table from Graeme and his Butcher3 list. I dropped Abby2 into this as she seems to have all the tech needed to make his life difficult. I managed to thin down his infantry during the first couple of turns, with the Deathstalkers killing most of the IFP, the Seraph gunning down Eiryss in the wood and the Ravagore and Naga managing to shoot down most of the Doomreavers.

With Fortify up and my beasts positioned in such a way to ensure Butcher couldn't get any mileage out of his drag shenanagins, I was feeling pretty safe. Until Butcher energizrd foward then charged. Luckily he could only get within reach range of the Scythean, which he mangled in short order. Butcher then popped his feat, in order to refill his focus and try to camp out the oncoming beatdown.

What follows, is known as "Living the Dream". Abby popped her feat, flew into a position between Butcher and one of his Argus'. She killed the Argus to proc conferred rage, then went to town on Butcher, using her Energy Siphon repeatedly to drain all of his focus, before teleporting away and letting the Carnivean bite off his head.

-----------------------------------

So another three games under my belt. I'd be lying if I said I was feeling confident about either the lists themselves, or the decision to take Legion to Ides next weekend. If I had a choice, I'd probably take Cryx, but having to submit lists two weeks out from the event I don't have that luxury. So we will just have to see how things play out.

From the Workbench...

Well, another month has gone by and I decided to make life really hard for myself by trying to get 2 of my lists ready by Ides of March, which at the time of this posting, is just over a week away. So what did I get done last month and what do I have left to do?

February was actually really productive. First up we have Blightblades. Yep, thats right. Legion infantry. It does exist.

Spell Martyr and Succubus

2nd Shepherd and 2nd Deathstalker

Naga Nightlurker

and finally, Daniel-San, the Karate Kid himself: Zuriel the Awesome-sauce of Awesomeness.

So whats left to paint before Ides? I need to finish of my Seraph/Neraph kit and paint 5 Incubi. Should be do-able.  Wish me luck kids...

Legion of the Noob Part 5: The Problem with Lylyth......

Is that I am struggling to get enough work done on Feat turn.

Sooo sexy, yet soooo frustrating

After a couple of games with eAbsolonia, I am feeling pretty comfortable with her. As I have said before, she plays a lot like Mortenebra and I like Mortenebra. (The first tournament I ever played with Morty, I went 3-1 and played a grand total of about 40 minutes of Warmachine for the day).

Now I need to get comfortable with Lylyth. This is a whole different ball of wax. Coming from Cryx, I know nothing about running a gunline and will probably take some time to get the hang of target priority and when to pop her feat.

This has been evident in the 3 games I have had with Lylyth in the Dojo so far, all of which have felt terrible.

My list is:
eLylyth
  Ravagore
  Ravagore
  Zuriel
  Naga Nightlurker
2 x Shepherds
2 x Deathstalkers
Forsaken
Spell Martyr
Strider Blightblades
Incubus pack
Objective: Bunker

The first was against Dave, sporting Lich3 with 30 Bane Knights and Blackbanes Ghost Raiders. Going second, I feated on the bottom of turn 1, killing 12 Bane Knights and blocking thier lanes with scather templates. I moved Zuriel too far foward and he got smashed by the Bane Knights on the following turn. I ended up getting swamped by Bane Knights and with Gaspy camping at ARM 27 after his feat, there was no way to pull any sort of last ditch shenanagins and ended up losing on scenario, although he could have assassinated me just as easily.

My second game with Lylyth saw me paired against Nick and his Miserable Meat Mountain. Lylyth is NOT my troll drop, but as I am just trying to get a handle on what she does I played into what can be generously termed a pretty bad matchup. With a wall of meat running straight at me and a feat that meant that meat moved closer to me when I damaged it (Hyper-Aggressive), I decided I may as well try the long range Lylyth assassination. Nick had Grissel behind a Bomber and a Kriel Stone Scribe that were standing B2B sitting on two transfers, instead of behind the wall 2 inches to his left (I think he believed it was out of the killbox). One of the Deathstalkers sniped out the Kriel Stone Scribe to clear line of sight and Lylyth managed to arc Pin Cushion onto Grissel before punching some damage through with her bow. Then the Ravagores opened up, taking both her transfers and leaving her on a couple of boxes (1 ravagore managed to miss his second shot). Zuriel could not get close enough so it was up to the Naga to finish the job. Despite Grissel making her Tough roll after the first shot, the Nagas feat shot finished her off. And thats how Lylyth works.

My third game with Lylyth was against Peter and a standard eLich list. It was not pretty and I made a number of mistakes, the worst of which was letting the watch-machine players in the cheap seats goad me into taking an assassination run that was never on. Needless to say, I lost, badly. But this game in particular taught me a number of valuable lessons.

1. If you get to choose tablesides, make sure you take a good look at the terrain. In this game, I just went with the side I was sitting on at the time (as many of us lazy ass gamers do), gifting my opponent a convenient linear obstacle to hide his caster behind. As opposed to the side I decided to stay on, which had no cover for a caster to hide behind.
2. Remember your ambushers. This has been a major problem so far. I only deployed them this game because one of the spectators reminded me, then I forgot to move them. 
3. If you have a plan, stick to it. Don't let other people talk you into doing something you feel is less optimal. While this is not a problem I will have during a tournament game, it is one I need to remember anyway. 
4. Don't hold the feat looking for the "perfect" shot. Too ften I found myself waiting till I can get three sprays off with Zuriel under the feat. This is pointless. While the extra spray is, in theory, nice, it is a waste of the board control/delay the long range scather barrage can bring. Using the feat bottom of one/top of two gives me more time to thin out the infantry before Zuriel mops up.
5. If you have a clear shot at the caster, take it. It's what Lylyth does best. 

So, some lessons learned, we will see if we can put them to use next time. Having decided to take Legion to the upcoming Ides of March, my practice time has been drastically shortened, so my next few games will require me to make some major advances or I may end up one listing Abby all weekend instead.

Legion Record: 3-2

Legion of the Noob Part 4: Bradpocalypse Now....

Auckland Anniversary Weekend saw the most excellent Mr Stent open his house up to all and sundry for three days of Warmachine goodness. Unfortunately, work and family commitments meant I could only make one of the three days but I still managed to get a couple of games in.

My first game of the afternoon was against a fairly standard Bradigus list. I pre-organised this game, becuase I wanted to A) see what all the fuss was about and B) see if eAbsolonia had game against it.

I got first turn and we both ran at each other turn 1. On my second turn my Ravagore and Seraph managed to each break a set of Shifting Stones, while Fortify and Spiny Growth went on the Carnivean and Spiny Growth also went on the Ravagore and Scythean. The deathstalkers shot down some twigmen. On his turn, Brad feated and slid everything foward 5 inches and engaged a number of my beasts killing both the ARM22 carnivean and the Ravagore. However, the extra armour on the Carnivean meant that it took a lot more than he expected to kill it and recieved a lot of Spiny Growth damage in return. A watcher also engaged my Naga, but failed to kill it while yet another Wold destroyed my Objective.
In response, Absolonia feated and charged a stone, destroying it and triggering Conferred Rage, before teleporting back out of the way. The Scythean then flew into the gap left by the dead Carnivean and proceeded to destroy the two lights and the heavy grouped there with a fury to spare. This cleared the lane for a Rabid, Feated, Conferred Raged Shredder and the Seraph to charge Bradigus (on 4 transfers) and drop him to 1 health. Brdigus replied by killing off both the Shredder and the Seraph and a Watcher shot my Forsaken creating a forest which handily blocked LOS, stopping his Warden from using Battering Ram to push my Scythean away.  This left the Scythean just within charge range of Bradigus and after triggering conferred rage off of another stone, the Scythean finished Brad off.

So what did we learn about the Bradpocalypse?

1. Killing stones is important. Even after the recent errata nerf shut down the ridiculous triple-port assassination option, the stones are still super important to this list. With a single 'port, Brad still has a 17 inch threat BEFORE he starts to beatback. This list also runs a lot of fury on the table, which makes the stones extra important as fury management. Because Wolds don't frenzy, they keep all fury on them until it is removed by an outside source. Getting rid of the fury management drastically hinders the lists output. They are also the only way outside Brad himself to heal Wolds, which is also big.
2. While the list has a decent threat range on the alpha, the little wolds are kind of pillow fisted until the synergy chain gets going. They are also MAT 5, so if you can boost your defense in anyway, it can make it hard for them to get the Synergy chain started without boosting. If they have to charge as well, it means no Stone Form, which increases your ability to retaliate.
3. Any sort of "nickel and dime" damage you can do to the Wolds is worthwhile. Losing an aspect is huge to Wolds, as they cannot be forced to heal. Any sort of chip damage will add up and may take an aspect if you're lucky.
4. The forest wall is a problem for most factions. As a Legion player however, I give exactly zero fucks about it. Sucks to be the rest of you.

This list is hard, no doubt about it. I do feel however, that it has a steep learning curve. (Although that has been lessened with the loss of the triple-port). Things need to activate in a certain order and a certain degree of spatial awareness is required to see all the angles Brad can manage, even with only a single port available. Therefore the danger is mitigated by player skill level. In the hands of a good player however, this list will be horrendously hard to face.  I am certainly glad I am currently playing Legion, as I feel they have the most game against this list.

.

Legion Record: 2-0

From the Workbench - January

Greetings all,

January has proven to be quite a productive month in terms of painting. Having a target to work towards seems to have helped a lot, as does some vague kind of plan.

Without further ado, here is this months progress:

Lylyth 2

Absolonia 2

Forsaken

2 fully magnetized Heavy Dragonspawn kits.

And as promised last time, pics of the Shepherd and Strider Deathstalker I painted in December.

A good start to the year and I feel like I am on target so far. I still need to buy the remaining bits for my third list, but I am feeling quietly confident I will get everything done in time.

Februarys plan is: Blightblades, Incubi (x5), Zuriel, Naga, Spell Martyrs, a second Deathstalker and a second Shepherd although some of this will probably bleed over into March.

Till next time....

Legion of the Noob - Part 3: The third list conundrum.

So Auckland Open is 3 lists. This means I need to figure out a third list. Given my limited experience with the faction, this is bad.
Auckland Open is also D&C 1, which means I actually have to play the third list at some point, rather than just writing down some evil looking thing that will scare my opponents into favourable drops while never actually seeing the table. Given my even more limited budget and timeframe, this is even worse.

As discussed earlier, picking my first two casters was easy. A third list requires a little more thought. Luckily, as a truck driver, I have plenty of time to think about Warmachine and run lists in my head. A number of casters have presented themselves as options, many of them the result of conventional, internet thinking.

Saeryn: Has the obvious benifit of not needing to buy a lot more models, maybe a pair of Angelius and the caster herself. The downside is she seems at first glance kinda boring.
Vayl: Either version is super tempting, but in reality probably require more time than I currently have to even get remotely comfortable with due to thier depth.
Kallus: The "Miserable Ginger Mountain" appeals to me but probably has too much infantry to paint for the time I have available.

Having gotten exactly nowhere thinking in terms of casters, I then switched to thinking about matchups and whether my two list pairing had any obvious holes. The immediate problem list that has sprung to mind is Meat Mountain/Fist of Halaak style lists. While Absolonia has some game against MMM, it seems, in theory at least, to be restricted to using her feat to clear a lane to the caster before something vaguely dragonshaped eats said casters face. A fun and simple plan to be sure but it doesn't seem very reliable.  And poor Lylyth2 has exactly zero game against MMM. What I need is a list that can spread a decent number of high power attacks around, with a better than average chance of killing any Warder/Cetratii it makes contact with.

Enter the Blighted Ogrun Warspears. Thanks to the UA, they go to Mat 9, RAT 7, P+S15 vs thier Prey target, with effectively two attacks thanks to assault. This seems like a good place to start. Black Frost Shard adds another 2 points of damage to that equation. I still need a caster, but it seems pLylyth (Parasite) or pThagrosh (Draconic Blessing) will both turn these guys up to 11. Lylyth does have the added bonus of already being painted and I figure that the Prime and Epic versions of Lylyth play very similarly so I can play both lists and effectively double down on the learning.

To this end, I have come up with the following list:

pLylyth
  Succubus
  2 x Ravagore (because...Ravagore)
  Shredder
2 x Spell Martyrs ( to get Parasite where I need it)
Forsaken
Strider Deathstalker
Shepherd
Blackfrost Shard
Blighted Ogrun Warspear w/UA
Blighted Ogrun Warspear w/UA

Some testing is obviously in order, but luckily, the Dojo is swimming in Troll players, so finding a Mountain o' Meat to proxy this list against shouldn't be too difficult.

Now, get off my lawn.

Legion of the Noob - Part 2: This Legion Shit is Easy

Two posts in a month, truely inspiring.........

Tuesday saw me in the Dojo to play my first ever game with Legion. While Chris and Nick played a game of "who can Deathclock first" (Axis tier vs MMM), I found myself against Matt and the pThagrosh list he has been testing for Ides.

Matts list was:
pThagrosh
2 x Scythean
2 x Throne
Carnivean
Black Frost Shard
Succubus
2 x Shepherds

I decided my first game should be with Absolonia (because I had to proxy less stuff for her list). My list was:

eAbsolonia
Succubus
Shredder
Naga
Seraph
Carnivean
Scythean
Ravagore
2 x Shepherds
2 x Strider Deathstalkers
Forsaken

I won the roll to go first and everything moved up at a good clip, with the exception of Abby, who cowered behind a convenient wall. The 3 Dragonspawn finished up in B2B for some fortify goodness and they all got Spiny Growth. The Deathstalkers moved around the flanks, hoping to pop his support. Matt moved everything up aggressively, with his Carnivean stopping to spray one of my Deathstalkers.

Turn two saw me make the noobiest of noob mistakes and completely forget about the scenario and hang back out of the zone in some sort of attempt to avoid the alpha strike. The Seraph, Naga and Ravagore all put shots into one of the Scytheans doing a chunk of damage and the remaining Deathstalker failed to hit the Shepherd behind a wall. In response Matt charged my Carnivean with both Thrones, but failed to kill it (ARM 22 is a thing). The undamaged Scythean killed my objective and the damaged one ran up to engage my Scythean and generally be a pain in the ass. Thagrosh moved up into the butt crack of the two base to base Thrones to dominate the zone and go up 3-0 on CPs.

With things not looking particularly good on the CP front, I decided that the best course of action was to kill Thagrosh. To do that, I had to get rid of the damaged Scythean and at least one if not both of the thrones in order to avoid giving away freestrikes on the way to Thags. The Forsaken activated first and did a little more damage to the Scythean. Abby then popped her Feat, charged the Scythean and killed it, triggering Conferred Rage, before teleporting to the corner of the zone. Free of  Matts Scythean, my Scythean then charged the Thrones destroying both of them with a Fury to spare. From there it was pretty much academic. The Ravagore charged Thagrosh and left him on 3 boxes and one transfer before the Carnivean finished him off.

In the post game analysis Matt pointed out I probably didn't need to kill the Thrones as they have Reach and 360 LoS, meaning they wouldn't be getting free strikes as my beasts flew over them. But lets face it, killing them both was always the more enjoyable option.

In my own post game ruminations, I have quickly realised that Absolonia probably works best moving foward aggressively and presenting a strong posture. The threat of her feat is significant and anyone who knows what it does will be rightfully wary of it, which in turn will let me exert scenario pressure and force my opponent to move into my threat range. I probably don't need to keep my beasts B2B for the fortify benefits unless my opponent has things like Drag and the like.

Only having 13 models in the entire army also scares the bejeezus out of me. Coming from the dude-spam of Cryx, having such a compact force is almost a complete 180 from what I am used to and will take some adjustments in thinking to get the most work out of each model.

So one game down and lessons learnt. I am looking foward to getting a lot more games in over Auckland Anniversary weekend at the Dojo, in what Dave is calling "Not-Valleycon". Reports will be forthcoming (in theory).

Now get off my lawn......


Legion Record 1-0

Legion of the Noob - Part 1

So, New Year, same old resolution to blog more consistently. Same limited chance of success, but we will see how it goes.

My last few games of Warmachine before Christmas have seen me trying out new things, mainly with the Witch Coven in preperation for Ides of March. Unfortunately, nothing seems to have really geled for me and I find myself drifting back to my old crutches - pSkarre, eGoreshade, Mortenebra et al.. So, feeling jaded and slightly bored with Cryx I have decided to mix things up a bit by playing something completely different.

Enter the Legion of Everblight, winning friends since forever. While I was originally going to slow build a couple of Troll lists to play with this year (and in fact already own a complete 50 point eMadrak list) I quickly realised I would never get that much medium base infantry painted in time to use this year so switched to Legion instead due to their low model count armies and large amounts of model-crossover between lists. While I don't think I can get the models I need brought, assembled and fully painted in time for Ides, I feel like I probably have a shot at getting them done in time for the Auckland Open in April so that is my current goal.

Choosing my first two casters has been relatively easy: Epic Absolonia is one hella sexy biatch, turns her beasts up to 11 and seems to play a lot like Mortenebra, which I like. Epic Lylyth I like for the simple fact she makes people cry, and I am a terrible human being. And while I like the idea of Abby for her similarities to one of my favorite Cryx casters, I also like Lylyth because the whole uber-gunline thing is completely different from anything I have played in Cryx. I have no idea on a third caster yet but I have time to figure that out. First priority is to get some games in to figure out how this whole Fury thing works so I will be a regular at the Dojo in the weeks to come, as well as any other games I can squeeze in.

 Fun times ahead to be sure.