Tourney Report

Tournaments are fun. I managed to come in 3rd at a tourney in Saginaw not too long ago. It was a 35 pt set up.

PNemo
Stormwall
Sylas
Defender
Aiyana and holt
Mechaniks
Journeyman
Gorman

And
Haley2
Stormwall
Squire
Trenchers min and UA
Stormsmith
Black 13th
Journeyman

In game 1 I played the radial Scenario Diversion against Kromac
Ghetorix
Pure blood
Gorax
And two units of Tharn Ravagers,
One had the UA
And a whitemane

That's a lot of beef.

I managed a win in this game but the terrain was awful. There was a huge river in the middle of the board an all the bridges were considered elevation. I basically won on scenario with about 2 minutes left in the round. My opponent ignored stormwall until I killed a heavy. That was game.

I lost in round two.

My Nemo against hayley2 in the flank scenario bunkers.

My reinforcements were epic eiryss and a charger.

Hayley2
Squire
Centurion bonded
Thorn
ATGM and UA
Marshalling a hunter
Arlan
Journeyman
Gun Mage captain

Reinforcements were a hunter and a stormsmith.

Terrain was again awful. My opponents scoring zone was in a forest about 12 x 12", with some cutouts so that it was blob-shaped. I felt I had to park stormwall there to not lose by scenario. So I did.

My opponent's hunters (one in reinforcements) kept rolling 15s and 17s on their armor piercing shots. So stormwall took some damage. I managed to mail them both to oblivion and won that flank but the round was a grind. In the end I killed a centurion when I should have killed Haley. Haley managed an assassination to win.

I then won the next two rounds with Haley going first, advancing aggressively, then feating over my opponents army to either win by scenario in round 3 or force the scenario on my opponent and thereby assassinate (round 4).

So hayley is nuts. I might play her in January at a tier tourney, but I will probably take a step back from her. She's a little too good.

-Merlin out



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Travelin' games

I've played a few 35 pt games in preparation for a 35 point steamroller in Saginaw this weekend. I played 3 against tmage in chitown. Tmage is rusty but he's still a legit opponent.

Game1 was Nemo1 v Ossyan

Nemo
Thorn
Stormwall
Wishanalalala
Journeyman
Aiyana and holt
Stormcaller
Arlan Strangewayes
Gorman di wulfe



V ossyan in Overun
Ossyan
Discordia
Wishnalalalalala
All the halbardiers
All the Mage hunters
Mage assassin
Eiryss angel



I punched tmage in the nuts on the bottom of 1 with a massive lightning storm. I killed 5 Mage hunters and 7 halbardiers with lightning. Tmage was not happy.

He managed to kill most of the stormwall and I realized that I had no other real punchy options. I managed to kill most of the remaining Mage hunters, eiryss, the assassin, and a couple halbardiers, but the game broke down to:

Ossyan, wishnalalalala, and a cortex less disco
V
Nemo, arlan, Aiyana and holt, spearless thorn, and jr.

And tmage won that particular slap fight. Nemo isn't good at stabbing fools, even with 10 focus.


A couple weeks later we played two more games.

Haley1
Stormwall
Squire
Journeyman
Min trenchers with UA and grenade porter
Black 13th

Tmage dropped Absylonia
Ravagore
Angelius
Scythean
Naga
Shredder
Two strider deathstalkers
Shepherd
Forsaken

We played overrun again b/c we didn't want to play reinforcements or radials.

He won the roll for first. The angel flew into a hill with all the Absylonia buffs. I still managed to hit it with my trenchers with a decent CRA for 8.
The black 13th killed both his deaths talkers.

He was now under temporal barrier and just killed a few trenchers. The rest of his stuff just repositioned. He feated to heal the angel.

I counter feated and . . .nearly nothing happened. Almost all my models missed or failed to damage with all their attacks. The stormwall killed the angel.

The Scythean managed to mostly wreck stormwall with the retaliation. I was again left with no heavy hitters. I went for an assassination with deadeyed infantry shooting Abby under TB but everything missed again.

The Scythean ate Haley.

So that was sad. Haley1 tends to play that way for me tho.

We played again. I played the same list, but with haley2 helming it.

He played the same list, but with no Scythean, subbing in a second Ravagore and adding a second shepherd. He switched warlock to Lylyth 2.

He moved up, I did some shenanigans to murder his strider again. He decided to go for the big feat blasts and just couldn't catch a break on Haley under deceleration. Lylyth missed first shot, hit second but couldn't boost (was out of fury). Blessed Ravagore missed two shots needing 11s. Non blessed one missed twice needing 13s. One deviated on Haley but no blast through her armor. She was on fire.

Angel missed twice.

Haley put the fire out. Moved behind stormwall. Cast TA on it (it was allocated 4), cast decel. Feated. I took a couple pot shots at Lylyth but didn't really hit her.

Stormwall walked into her. He boosted all three attacks w 3 focus and missed the 10s to smash her. Then he dropped a pod behind her and boosted damage for quite a bit. The trenchers assaulted her (two got range). One hit with his gun needing an 11 and managed to do a few points, leaving Lylyth on 2.

I forced her to activate first and she tried to walk away and the trencher stabbed her to death.

In hindsight tmage should have transferred that free strike. None of his stuff had Los to Haley at this point however, and he was going to lose a lot of action due to Haley's feat. He conceded. (Stormwall drops a pod on Lylyth for massive damage next turn regardless, and he can probably kill a heavy with ease afterward; the black 13th was alive and within deadeye range as well).

So that was a fast one. I kinda liked it.

More from cincinatti trip later that week:

I played the masterrabbi in two games with my prospective lists for a tourney this weekend.

Haley2
Stormwall
Squire
Min trenchers with UA and a grenade porter
Black 13th
Arlan Strangewayes
Journeymans

He played
Mohsar
Megalith
Warpwolf stalker
Gorax
Druids
Min blood trackers with nuala
Gallows grove

The scenario was supply and demand.

The first couple turns we just advanced up. The blood trackers got mirage and the trenchers managed to deadeye two Druids off the table. The black 13th killed 3 blood trackers.

The blood trackers flanked hard around one side (Haley was prey). My opponent nearly scored a point on his turn 2 but didn't contest the objective. I feated and stormwall ate megalith and I scored a point.

His retaliation wound up being an assassination run that didn't pan out. Mohsar got punched by stormwall.

We played another game. This time the scenario was guantlet.

I played nemo1
Sylas
Stormwall
Stormclad
Gorman
Journeyman
Aiyana and holt
Mechanics

He played kaya1
Pureblood
Stalker
Gorax
Wold scrimps
Druids and overseer
Gallows grove

This game was a weird slap fight. My opponent made two mistakes that I capitalized on. First he used zephyr on the wold scrimps to move up and concentrated power shots on my stormclad. Then he remembered concentrated power and zephyr are mutually exclusive.

So I killed all them easy. We wheeled around the center and he ignored my stormwall. Eventually he killed some of my power solos while feating, but Gorman lived (he always does) and the stalker wasn't in a cloud.

So I killed the stalker. The game was mine to lose at that point. My opponent tried to kill Nemo while I scored two control points but failed.

Lots of good prep. Tournament report to follow.

-Merlin out


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The Big Show

I've played in a tournament since my last series of battle reports. It was a pretty hardcore one. 3 lists, 50 pts divide and conquer. It was called the Big Show in Fenton MI.

I brought three lists with what are widely considered mediocre warcasters.

They were my Constance Blaize tier 4 with stormwall list, aNemo1 list with stormwall, thorn, and Boomhowler to tarpit, and a Kara Sloan list with tons o guns.

Round one was overrun. I played against a khador opponent who took butcher1 in tier with 2 full units of man o war, 3 heavy jacks, all the manhunters, and a unit of widowmakers.

I went first and advanced cautiously. Most of my stuff ran behind walls and on hills. His stuff counter-ran.

I feated and killed two widowmakers and four man o war. I delayed his heavies with knockdown from Pendrake and the avenger and black oil from Gorman. I killed yuri and all the manhunters with black 13th. The drakhun lost his horse. He went into butcher camp mode and killed a bunch of my commandoes.

He failed to score a point by one commando.

I still had a lot of beef to chew through. I killed two more man o war and another widowmaker, and Gorman black oiled the butcher this time. I spent a bunch of my turn killing the dog, and my avenger never got to activate as I ran out of time. It was supposed to spank the Kodak. Had 3 focus. Sad.

Butcher didn't do much. His jacks were beat up but managed to get to the fight finally. He left my strider on 2 hp.

I sent in Sloan to contest the zone and managed to almost maul on juggernaut. My damage rolls went south though. The Drakhun killed Ryan. Lunch and watts killed him in return. Some more mow died. The avenger lived through a Kodiak assault and counter stabbed it. Hard. It got wrecked.

Butcher was blinded again. He walked into Gorman. Sloan shot him but did little damage. She then shot the juggernaut but it refused to die. The defender got its cortex. The strider died.

The avenger got to butcher and stabbed him hard but the damage was meh. The juggernaut killed the avenger. Butcher engaged some other stuff and cast iron flesh. Now was my chance! His camp was lower than usual but his defense was up. Sloan dropped upkeeps, aimed needing a 7 on three dice. . .and missed. Hit the second shot and did a few damage to drop butcher to 2 hp.

But then she died.

Ah well.

Loss rd 1. Game MVP probably butcher. Guy does some work.




Rd 2 I played in a flank scenario, envelopment, vs the retribution. The caster was vyros, and he had a Hyperion.

That was the big deal there. I took nemo1 and my stormwall. My opponent won the roll and advanced pretty far. I trampled stormwall up a bit to get across some walls and dropped a storm pod. Chain lightning didn't kill many sentinels (needed 8s on damage, got 1 for 6 rolls :p).

He flanked on two griffins (which are sweet with 3 focus!) and a scyir. They killed a Boomhowler. The Hyperion charged a Boomhowler. . .? And killed it. For sure. Sentinels engaged my eiryss.

I gave stormwall 5 focus with supercharge, had Aiyana harm the Hyperion, and stormwall pretty handily annihilated the other colossal. Had a focus to spare. Boomhowler took up space. Thorn was engaged but murdered a sentinel. My flank killed a bunch of sentinels.

My opponent sent his hydra into the stormwall. But it had arcane shield. And not much happened. Stormwall crushed it and killed 3 sentinels with electro leaps. Mechaniks repaired the minimal damage.

The game was in hand at this point. My opponent moved vyros up to work on his zone and kill my flank minuteman. I counter moved stormwall into my zone and scored a point while killing a bunch of invictors. Boomhowler continued to stall the griffins. Thorn killed an invictor.

Vyros charged stormwall to contest my scoring zone. He did half of the walls damage. My remaining mechaniks healed up thorn. Thorn got evasive to move around the field, got within 5" of stormwall. I had of course allocated 5 to stormwall. Nemo went and arced disruption field onto stormwall. Stormwall boosted to hit and did a boosted pow 22 to vyros. He bought another attack with his good arm and boosted to hit and connected. Game.

Game MVP: 5 focus stormwall killed like 40 pts of stuff.

Rd 3 was against a newer circle player and this was her first tournament. I played my well practiced Constance list against her unplayed grayle list.

It went well for me. Scenario was guidons. Which is a bad scenario.

She moved too aggressively, gave me lots of opportunities to trade up on pieces, and I won handily.

I came in 5th overall of like 11 players. That's meh. Somehow, I won the best painted army award, which it turns out had a substantial prize. I'm super pleased with all that. I'm especially thankful that no serious painters showed up, because I'm not the best myself.

I'll update this post with some pics the tournament organizer took of my army when I get them.

-Merlin out


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Tourney Recap and bonus game

I'm writing an article on Constance Blaize for another WHM blog. So I wanted some high level practice with her. She's good, but I feel she has some pretty terrible matchups.

I played in a 50 pt sr2012 divide and conquer event down in Livonia. My lists were:

Constance (tier)
Gallant
Stormwall
Min PKs + UA x 2
Max SKs
Min mechaniks
Runewood
journeyman
Harlan Versh

Reinforcements (not used) minuteman and a charger

Nemo3 and new stepmom
Thorn
Stormclad
Defender
Storm strider
Stormblades with a Gunner
Stormcaller
Aiyana and Holt
Gorman di Wulfe
Reinholdt
Journeyman

Reinforcements black 13th, minuteman, Stormcaller.

In round one I played against phaley in a reinforcement scenario. Bunkers.

My opponent had
Phaley
Squire
Stormwall
Cyclone
Cyclone
ATGM w UA
ATGM
Arlan
Reinforcements was a Stormclad

I won the roll. I went first. Jr put arcane shield on the spider. Advanced, put Failsafe on my 'clad. He counter advanced and put up TB and arc shield. Lots of covering fire.

I deployed reinforcements. Black 13th killed 4 gun mages. Defender rocked the stormwall with a bullet. Everything else moved around. I positioned to score a point if he didn't clear up my flanking force.

He shuffled a bit too. Put up more covering fire. Deployed his stormclad and killed holt. Cast TB of course. ATGM and cyclone killed b13, but cyclone missed minuteman.

I had Aiyana harm the clad. Then a fully loaded defender with lightning shroud scrapped it. Thorn ran (I was careful to keep him out of Haley's control during reaction drive move) to score a point and the minuteman killed the remaining ATGM. Nemo kills 4 atgm in other unit. Everything else moves back.

He has to scramble and move his stormwall so that I don't win on CPs. But he's already lost at this point. He only has the wall and two cyclones and they can't score on me (I'm camping his zone). He has to camp wall on his point or I will win easily.

If dice down is called I will win on CPs.

All that doesn't matter. He scraps my minuteman and engages Thorn with stormwall. He also leaves Haley close to the back of Stormwall. I pop feat and send lightning all over the place. His up Cyclone gets rocked hard. An eleap gets to Haley and Nemo boosts to put her at 3 wounds. I wreck the cyclone with the lightning spider and an eleap kills Haley.



Game 2 I played Constance against phaley. Again. Different player and list. Scenario was overrun.

Phaley
Squire
Centurion
Avenger
Lancer
ATGM w UA
ATGM
Min Sk with UA (?)
Prime eiryss
Runewood
Journeyman

I won roll and ran like a looney at him. He popped feat, cast TB and advances up. His gun mages kill all the sword knights and 2 PKs. Eiryss disrupts Gallant.

I see an opportunity. Stormwall advances and drops a pod to kill eiryss (boosted the damage). Now he has Los to Haley (and I'd turned to face her directly). Boosted big gun hits for 12. She's at 3. Second shot misses (trying to roll a hard 10 on 2 dice at that point). Covering fire goes in front of sword knights. I feed him gallant. Constance feats and PKs move up in shield wall.

He eats gallant with the centurion. Makes a gun Mage bunker for Haley to hide in. Avenger and gun mages kill a few knights. I get some souls.

Remaining PKs kill 3 ATGM. Stormwall power strikes centy but I roll minimum distance and don't kick the jack all the way into Haley (probably needed a 6 for that). Still kills a lot of SKs and ATGM. Constance flanks hard and kills his JR with a Sunburst.

Centy and SKs do like 32 boxes to my arcane shielded stormwall. He kills a few more PKs. He's back pedaling a bit. He casts TB every round anyway though.

Stormwall double hand throws Centy back into gun mages after getting repaired. Dropped a pod on Runewood as well. Centy is like 9" away after throw. PKs minifeat and hit it pretty good. Kill two more gun mages as well. Harlan finishes Runewood. Constance moves up and flashing blade kills the rest of the SKs.

He considers going for some kind of arcane bolt/deadeyed gun Mage assassination. Decides against it. Moves Haley away in a flanking maneuver. Centy tries to tie up Runewood.

I see another chance to end Haley. Repair stormwall (for 8!) and move up. Drop pod to kill two gunmages blocking LOS to Haley. Boosted big gun shot can't fail to kill her.

Round 3 i have my choice of lists against legion and evayl in sacrifice.

I decided Nemo. Maybe a mistake. I also predeploy very badly. The storm strider blocked up my deployment, and for my opening gambit I needed a Stormcaller in a better spot.

My opponent is playing evayl tiered. Her two Angelius are about 12" out of my deployment after turn one. Bottom of one I run thorn up to hit him with lightning, then pop feat and arc enough lightning leaps to kill an Angelius and mug the other a bit.

My opponent wasn't impressed. He bullied my heavies with the remaining Angelius and pushed them with repulsion, keeping me back. The rest of his stuff threatens the zone.

I do a lot of damage to a lot of stuff but fail to kill the remaining Angelius.

My opponent scores easily by killing thorn the next turn. His Angelius kills Gorman. Nemo is lit on fire.

I do a ton more damage but my stuff is too far away to become relevant in the zone, and my opponent scores again to win on scenario.

I played too conservative and lost pretty easy. Though if I'd killed the second angel on nemo's feat (which was dicey) it would have been my game. I gambled early and lost. Might have been the wrong choice.

Lots of fun. Turned out the game was the "finals" as my opponent was the only undefeated player after that round.

So I came in second. Which is sweet.

I also played a game with Brice, Jarl v Constance. I was trying Madelyn Corbeau with Runewood, and that's pretty sweet.

Constance
Squire
Stormclad
Gallant
Corbeau
Runewood
Stormblades
Max PKs w UA
Max SKs
Black 13th
Gorman
Journeyman

Jarl
Bomber
Impaler
Earthborn
Max fennblades w UA
Scouts
Max burrowers
Fell caller
Janissa
Runebearer

Or something like that.

The game went on a bit. We jammed each other. We were playing incursion and Brice scored a point on the bottom of two. I recontested that flag but thought he'd score again. But he'd left his bomber up in an attempt to kill the b13 and Gorman. He got Ryan.

I freed up Gorman and black oiled the earthborn near the bomber. I hit the bomber with some attacks and sent in Constance, who killed the bomber. The earthborn was kind an out of melee range. Brice went for an assassination against Constance but his dice left him a bit short.

So I eeked that one out.

-Merlin out.


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Van Haley

On Tuesday I played a game with epic Haley for the first time. She's pretty crazy as far as warcasters go.

I played a radial scenario called Sacrifice against Ray. I won the roll to go first.

My list was
Major Haley
Squire
Bonded Stormwall
Stormblades with UA and 2 Gunners
Full Stormguard
Rupert
Black 13th Gun Mage Awesome
Aiyana and Holt
Anastasia di Bray, spy Chica

Ray played
Servath Reznik
Hierophant
Guardian
Scourge of Heresy
Templar
Two Paladins
Vilmon
Min Choir
Two Vassals
Covenant
Madelyn Corbeau
Wracks
Saxon Orrik

I went first and advanced aggressively. Ray moved his stuff like 4" out of deployment in a defensive brick. Saxon was the only thing that could get to the zone to contest.

I looked at him and said "how do I not win by scenario?" He said Saxon was going to contest. I tried to kill Saxon by several means (stormwall's storm pod, which would have killed him if I rolled a 9 instead of a 7 on 3 dice, and Lynch managed a shot with true sight but rolled a 3 on damage). So I shifted around a bit and tried to shoot some paladins, but I forgot to give the stormwall magic weapons first.

Turns out Haley is forgiving. Ray advanced cautiously again, because if he doesn't his list becomes vulnerable to my attacks.

I killed Saxon and owned the zone. The stormwall got magic weapons and killed Vilmon and a paladin. I moved a stormblade to base with the flag. Everything else shuffled a bit. The b13 killed 2 choir. Haley feated.

Ray moved up Reznik with Corbeau's intrigue. But his jacks were in the way and I made him move the boxed-in Templar first. He got it a bit out of Reznik's way. I had caught all the jacks in feat, so they just moved. Ray did an ancillary to try and kill a black 13th but missed. Reznik was out of the feat. He tried to charge Reznik 14" into Stormwall but that's not how engine of destruction works.



Instead he advanced under mad camp and feated himself.

I looked at the table and his guardian was like 3" from the flag and he had nothing in the zone. There was no way for me to lose the game. He asked me to play it out. I wrecked the guardian with stormblades assaulting it and then getting a second attack from Anastasia.



Scourge got beat up a bit and so did the devout. The stormwall moved away from the action and danger. The Stormguard scratched Reznik with a charge and then a big CMA from di bray.

I moved watts b2b with the flag to finish the game. Haley is nuts.

I leave you with a pic of the trolls v Menoth game later that night.


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Ride the Lightning

I played a game with triple Nemo v the legion of doom this week. I worry about Nemo whenever my enemy has a decent gun (read: boostable).

However, things went pretty well for much of the game.

I played Nemo and new Stepmom
Stormclad
Storm Strider
Full Ponies
Full Stormguard
Epic Elf
Gorman di Wulfe, Kung Lao impersonator
Black 13th
Jr
Goblin

Brandon played
Rhyas
Angel
Scythean
Seraph
Bolt Thrower
Nephilim Soldier
Forsaken
Shepherd
Full Heck hunters with Bayal
Black frost shard

We played the scenario Guidons, which seems winnable but which Brandon and I always ignore.



I lost the roll and he went first. He ran stuff forward. I ran my ponies up and arced lightning off of the front one into his Heck Hunters, getting good bounces and killing 10.

He retaliated by sending in the Scythean to kill 3 ponies and jamming everything else forward. He didn't get much from Rhyas' feat.



I counter feat with Nemo and obliterated most of his force, leaving like 8 models on the table and leaving Rhyas at 2 health with no transfers (my Stormcaller missed his storm call to seal the deal and Nemo missed a boosted gun shot at the angel to fish for bounces at Rhyas as well).

Then Rhyas manages to kill everything between Nemo and the Scythean with Bayal alone. The bolt thrower crit-kds the old man and the Scythean gets it done.

I probably shouldn't have gone for assassination, or perhaps should have done it differently. Ah well. Good game by Brandon and well done closing it out.

-Merlin out


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Look I Know The Supernatural is Something That Isn't Supposed to Happen

I managed two games of Warmahordes this last Monday. I was playing around with Cygnar models and wanted to give a couple warcasters another try. Game 1 was V Brice and his Trolls in the scenario Overrun.

I played
Commander Douche McWeen
Sylas Wishnalalalalala
Ol' Rowdy
Full Sword Knights w UA marshalling a Centurion
Arlan Strangewayes
Gun Mages w UA marshalling two Hunters
Journeywoman Warcaster
Archduck Runewood

Bruce took
Borka Kegslayer and Keg Carrier
Mauler
Earthborn
Axer
Whelps
Full Champions
Min Long Riders with Horthol
Fell Caller
Champ Hero

I won the die roll and advanced menacingly. Rowdy and the Centy got arc shields and the gun mages got Snipe. Brice counter advanced and put Iron Flesh on the Champs.




I alpha-struck by killing two Long Riders and knocking down a bunch of stuff with earthquake. I also pushed a lot of the right flank around with rune shots from the gun mages. The Centy put up Polarity Shield and the Sword Knights hid behind it. Stryker feated for immense armor on my heavies.

Brice wasn't sure he could crack much so he just repositioned and waited out my feat.

I knocked down a bunch of stuff with Earthquake so my Hunters could assassinate the Fell Caller. Rowdy killed two Champs. Centy repositioned with Shield up. Sword Knights charged it and killed more Champs. Gun mages pushed Horthol way back and knocked him down.

Brice got some serious revenge, mauling my unit of Sword Knights and having the Mauler try to manhandle the Centurion (ARM 24 won out mostly over his pow 19s tho). He didn't dent Rowdy much. The Hero engaged a bunch of stuff. Whelps screened the Mauler.




The Hunters killed a Long Rider engaging my gun mages, which allowed them to push the Champ Hero away from their friends, which allowed them to kill the screening Whelps. Then Runewood stood up the Centy with Revielle and shot poorly. Stryker knocked down the Mauler with EQ. Arlan powerboosted the Centy. Centy moved up and autohit the downed Mauler. JR put a nice bullet in it, and my last remaining SK rolled 11 on his flank damage roll to remove it from the table.

Brice saw an assassination run and went for it, but Ol Rowdy left a trusty wreck marker, and Borka doesn't have pathfinder. He was left drunk and flapping in the breeze. I surrounded him with gun mages so he couldn't stumble away and hit him with attacks until he stopped moving. Stryker himself delivered the killing stroke.




Wreck Marker FTW.

Game MVP: probably the twin Hunters. They killed two long riders and the fell caller before hitting Borka for 7 to start my assassination run.

Game LVP: Almost everyone did some work. Maybe Arlan wasn't great until the last couple turns

Game 2 was v Brandon's Legion
I played
Kara Sloan
Squire
Two Hunters
Thunderhead
Storm Spider
Full Stormguard
Rupert the Bard
Journeywoman
Gorman di Wulfe, Kung Lao Impersonator
Black 13th Strike Team

I won the roll and went first. Playing a gun line it's important to take as much table as possible. I put Refuge on Kara, ran all my jacks, and positioned for a bullet-storm second turn feat.

The scenario was Restoration, and to score you must destroy the objective on your opponents side of he board and control a zone in the center.

Brandon played
Aabsylonia, Freak of Nature
Angelius
Scythean
Ravagore
Carnivean
2 Forsaken
2 Shredders
Min Hex Hunters
Shepherd
Strider Deathstalker

He moved up and managed to do some ranged damage to a hunter but failed to cripple any systems. The Angelius got Forced Evolution.

I feated second turn and attempted to remove two of her heavies from the board but I didn't roll very well. I wound up leaving the Scythean with 6 hp and killing the Carni. I hid Sloan behind the Objective and Strider. My black 13th and Strider killed a LOT of hex hunters and I ran the Stormguard to engage the rest of that flank.

I was hoping the Scythean would be dead, so. . .Thunderhead was kinda flapping in the breeze. The Scythean hurt him and the Angel finished him. The
Deathstalker and hex hunters killed 6 stormguard with their remaining 3 models. (every attack hits and kills). The Ravagore drops a bomb on my lead hunter and wrecks its gun.

Brandon did NOT feat. I see that I can remove the Scythean from the table and hurt the angel, and blind the Angel with Gorman. My remaining two Stormguard kill the final Hex Hunters and Deathstalker and finish a Shredder. The Stormspider lobs two shots and the Ravagore, hurting it and bouncing to other support models. The Scythean is killed by a double boosted hunter shot. The angel is blind. Kara slides back to hide after putting two meek bullets into the Angel.




Abby feats, but she's left with two heavies and a shepherd. She kills the last black 13th and a stormguard. The angel engages Gorman. The Ravagore misses a Hunter and drifts away. . .

The Stormspider drops more bombs on the Ravagore and leaps to Abby and the shepherd, killing the latter and doing damage to the former. The Angel misses the free strike on Gorman and he blinds again. Kara puts two more bullets in the angel. The final stormguard charges in and hurts the Scythean more. The eleap hurts Abby again.




Abby kills Rupert who ran to engage. The Angel engages Gorman again. The Ravagore kills the Stormguard.

The Storm Spider finishes the Ravagore and the leaps hurt Abby a bit. Kara scoots out and puts a weapon master bullet into Abby and while she transfers the blowback is just enough to kill her.

Game MVP: Storm Strider

Game LVP: Rupert. Tough did nothing. Ah well.

-Merlin out

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TrollSkorne

Brice and I got a 50 point game of Hordes in on Monday. We played some Skorne v Trolls, in the radial scenario Command and Control. There is a zone in the middle of the board and four equidistant flags on the center lines of the four sides of the board. To score the warlock must be contesting a flag (be within 4") and you must control the zone.

I won the roll and went first. Brice brought some of Charlie's Skorne for me to play. Which was sweet. My list was:

Naaresh
Marketh of the Pillow Pants
Titan Gladiator
Tiberion
Archidon
Cyclops Brute
Immodium Pu-36 Explosive Space Nihilators (full)
2 min Paingiver Beast Whippers
Swamp Goblins
Agonizer
Saxon Orrik
Skorine Midwinter
Tyrant Commander and Standard

I deployed in a hot mess at the center of my deployment zone. The plan was to push the Nihilators out to feed the trolls. Then my caster can kill some infantry and hide behind a wall of beef.


Brice played:
Grim Angus, who Shot First
Dire Troll Mauler
Axer
Impaler
Full Champs
Full Burrowers
Full Kriel Warriors w UA and a Caber Tosser
Min Krielstone with Elder
Fell Caller
Champ Hero
Swamp Goblins

Brice deployed in a wider arc. The extra 3" is a big deal in radial scenarios.



Turn 1 I ran most everything and put Iron Flesh on the Nihilators. My stuff was still packed up pretty serious.



Brice Burrowed his burrowers. Then everything else advanced. The Champs hid behind a building.



I had a decision to make: throw the Nihilators into the meat grinder past the burrowing marker, or keep them in front of the marker and only offer a few to Brice. The first option played more to scenario. The second was riskier as Brice would have an opportunity to score if he killed the few I offered him, and he had a pile of possible attacks.



I decided to go with option 2. Iron Flesh Nihilators have a chance to live, and I'd placed them in such a way that one was screened by two others with their reach blades, so Brice would have to use Grim and/or the Impaler to finish him.

Brice isn't happy with his choices. He unburrowed his Pygs and then ran them out of the way, laterally 12". So then they were flanking my force. His Fell Caller moved up to spray a Nihilator (needing a 10 to hit; this move cost him big) but misses. Then Grim put a bullet in my hard-to-reach Nihilator but I made the tough check. The impaler finished him off unfortunately.

The Kriels smash into the Nihilators and kill 3 more, but the Caber misses his 7 crucially and one survives the attack in the zone, meaning my gambit has worked. I don't lose a point and Brice shuffles the Krielstone and Champs for the next round.

I drop Iron Flesh so my Nihilators can charge. They Manage to kill a couple Kriel Warriors but they miss the burrowers. I punch Brice hard this turn. My warlock gets 2" of movement from the Tyrant Commander and whipped by his beast handlers for +4 strength. The Archidon casts Lightning Strike on Naaresh as well. Then the Archidon kills two burrowers.

Naaresh is as buffed as he's going to get. I have him advance to two Kriel Warriors and he killed them but one made a tough check. I killed it again with a Fury. Then I cast Cyclone and moved to some other screening troops and kill them. I then cast Bleed and managed to hurt the Fell Caller but don't kill it. Naaresh then Sprinted away. I looked at the table and I realized that now Tiberion may be able to walk up to the Fell Caller and squish him with the war club. But it needed rush from the Gladiator. I have the Gladiator cast rush and the Brute put Safeguard on Naaresh to give him knockdown immunity. Then the beast handlers whip off most of my excess fury but can't get to the Archidon.



Tiberion walked 6" and had about a quarter of a inch distance for his reach club. He mushed the Fell Caller into paste. This was a bad spot for Brice. Then Tiberion tried to crit slam a Kriel Warrior but didn't get the crit. With his last fury he murdered a burrower and they'd lost enough dudes for a command check, which they failed.

I had also killed 5 Kriel Warriors, so killing 2 more would force a command check from them and Brice was having some epic dice fail so I thought i should go for that. Marketh had 4 souls from deceased Nihilators and charged a Kriel Warrior, missing it. Then he bought an attack and killed it. Then he bought another attack and killed another. They failed their command check.

Which was super bad for Brice.

He killed another couple Nihilators and my support solos with Champs. I had left Tiberion hanging a bit and he got the Mauler to him, but first he had to run the Krielstone up to tarpit and the Kriel warriors away to make room. The Mauler rolled poorly and did not kill Tiberion. Marketh died as well this turn.



Again Brice doesn't score because I have a tough Nihilator who stayed in the zone.

I decided that it's my feat turn and played accordingly. I spent a bunch of my turn killing the Krielstone to remove the armor buff. It took a LOT but I get it done. The Archidon becomes enraged by beast handlers and I kill the Mauler with a Fury to spare (rolled crazy talk). Then Tiberion is free to charge the Axerq who is screening Grim. However, in my zeal to kill the mauler and Krielstone I forgot to heal Tiberion at all and his aspects are mugged. He only has spirit. So he charged but did minimal damage.



I had the Gladiator with a big Strength buff Slam the hell out of a Champ and kill it. The collateral didn't kill the other though. The Brute kills another Champ.

On Brice's turn Grim feated and his stuff killed Tiberion, wounded the Gladiator, hit the Archidon a bit and killed another Nihilator. The Agonizer got killed by Grim.



I don't have a lot of movement options on Grim's feat so the Archidon runs away. The Brute and Gladiator kill the remaining champs. The game has gotten ugly. It's down to Grim and his battlegroup with a Champ Hero vs Naaresh with a heavily damaged battlegroup and a bunch of paingivers.



He kills the Gladiator but the Brute takes a lot of abuse without dropping. The Achidon kills the Axer and the Brute hurts the impaler. I put Naaresh in harm's way and he goes for a long shot assassination but falls way short and concedes.
It turned into a serious grind at the end but it was fun playing 50 pts of Skorne.



Brice said that my army was odd because of my weird Synergies whipping my own caster and beasts for fun and profit. But hey, it worked out for me in the end.

-Merlin out.


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Challenge Match: Cancelled!

I got the new War Room list building and battling app for my mobile device, and it's all right. I know that much of the WHM community reviles it because the older, free product iBodger was forced out of the market. And ibodger was better at list building.

It's true.

But hey, it's here and I wanted to test the battle functionality. Ibodger never tracked damage and helped me play my games. I challenged Brice to get the app and we'd play a battlebox game.

But it's not working for his iPhone. So we decided to throw down on a 35 pt game. Brice tried Jarl for the first time, and I played Nemo3.

The scenario was a flank scenario called entrapment. This scenario features reinforcements that come on to defend a zone instead of attack.

I won the roll but asked Brice to go first, because I wanted to choose the side. There was a bunch of terrain and I wanted the hill.

Brice played Jarl
Earthborn
Impaler
Axer
Fennblades full
Burrowers full
Troll Moses
Fell Caller
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew



Reinforcements:
Runeshapers
Janissa Stonetide

I played Midlife Crisis Nemo with New Stepmom
Stormclad
Defender
Storm Strider
Stormblades with a Gunner
Journeyman Warcastress

Reinforcements:
Min Stormguard
Stormsmith Stormcaller



Jarl put Quicken on the fennblades and advanced super fast. The burrowers ran through the woods with pathfinder from the Fell Caller.

I was terrified. He was too far away to hit with my guns but he'd get to me next turn if I moved out too far. So I stayed pretty far back.

Brice burrowed with the burrowers. Which was terrifying. The Fennblades ran at my stuff and engaged a LOT of my stormblades. However he left most of his other stuff way back and feated with Jarl to get cloud cover. the Runeshapers ran onto the board.



I killed all the Fennblades but one with lightning and all my infantry. I used a couple stormblades to screen Nemo from the burrowers and moved my heavies to block some ground to burrowers.

The burrowers showed up but failed to really hurt my heavies. Brice moved his beasts closer. The Fell Caller killed a bunch of stuff with his spray.



I cleared off the burrowers from my stormclad and had it fully loaded walk to the axer and kill it. He had some left over to mug the impaler.

Brice killed the stormclad (barely; the Impaler turned it UP with two 15s on damage rolls) and sent the earthborn at the strider. But he got terrible damage rolls and left it with 5 wounds. Things were looking bad.


I popped Nemo's feat. The lightning was devastating and killed everything but the swamp goblins. Jarl toughed it out. He made a last ditch attempt at the old man but couldn't get it done.



-Merlin

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Challenge Match: Colossal

Charlie had to own a colossal, so he picked up a Conquest and painted it up sweet. He challenged my Stormwall to a Cygnar/Khador giant-robot grudge match. It was on like the Donkey Kong.

I decided to play Nemo3, because Charlie loves him some winterguard and assassins, and Nemo3 can kill both those units himself with a little support.

The scenario was Overrun. Get a model into the big rectangle and keep it there. And kill all the enemy stuff in the rectangle.

I played
Midlife Crisis Nemo and New Stepmom
Stormwall
Thorn
Min Boomhowler with Murdoch
Rangers
Reinholdt the Reloader
Broke 13th
Epic Elf
Kung Lao, Rogue Alchemist

Charlie played
Vlad1
Conquest
Spriggan
Assassins max w UA
Winterguard max w UA and Greg
Manhunter
Piper of Ord

Charlie won the roll, wanted to go first, and I took the side with the hill to stand on. We ran at each other turn one, though I did kill a few WG with lightning gun shots. I put Failsafe on Stormwall.



Charlie moved up and killed 3 rangers but I'd left everything else out of engagement range. The assassins ran at my trolls but did not engage any of them.



I retaliated with lots of lightning. Thorn killed two assassins. Gorman killed two with an acid bomb. With chain lightning and two shots from nemo's gun at Thorn and a lightning pod I killed 6 assassins and 5 winterguard. Charlie didn't make a lot of tough rolls. The b13 killed the remaining assassins aside from the underboss, who made her tough check.



Stormwall didn't do much, but put a few points into the Spriggan. My coup de grace was running epic elf 14" to just stand near the Spriggan and Conquest. So no focus for them.



Charlie had lost most of his infantry at this point.
His jacks were denied focus. Vlad moved up, cast signs and portents, and feated. The Spriggan mauled Thorn, but left cortex and spear. The conquest moved toward Boomhowler and fired a buch of aoes, but he realized after moving that he needed to kill Gorman super bad. So he fired all guns at Kung Lao, needing a 16 to hit him on the hill. He of course missed a bunch but got good deviations and with s&p the blast damage finally killed that annoying bugger.

Spriggan and Thorn had an epic joust this game.



The mechanics charged Eiryss and failed.

I was way up on attrition and with Eiryss still around to keep Conquest non-awesome I killed the Spriggan with Thorn and Stormwall (with ease; Thorn's two boosted damage rolls were both 16s). Boomhowler howled rage at Conquest to make it innaccurate to boot. The b13 killed all the mechanics and lightning killed the underboss again, who was again tough.

Vlad charged the Stormwall with Blood of Kings but barely scratched the paint. He camped a bunch.



I went for an assassination run using a boosted storm pod (0 damage), a double boosted stormwall fist (9 damage, leaving Vlad on 6), and lots of 4d6 electroleaps. However, I didn't get the kill. Vlad lived to try a razor wind hail Mary on Nemo but failed. Stormwall finished him with a boosted lightning pod.



It was a pretty epic match. I feel like I metagamed Charlie a bit with Boomhowler, though Gorman and Eiryss are in a lot of my lists anyways. I also knew that Nemo eats high-def Khador infantry like a champ so bringing the old man was a good idea.



Stormwall is pretty sweet.

-Merlin out



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Location:Mi hizzle

Monday Night Skorne

So I picked up another hordes battlebox (or warpack as they are called) because I wanted to have two for demonstration purposes. I decided on Skorne because. . .they looked fun. The models are pretty gorgeous as well. I was planning on painting up a small Skorne force here and there, not playing a ton of the faction but just getting my toes wet.

However.

I also choose a new paint scheme, a tutorial from the pages of Privateer Press' No Quarter magazine. The tutorial is essentially a primer on how to paint troops with Black armor, which is a challenging thing to do with shades and highlights. PP's poster models are the Black Dragon Iron Fang pikemen from Khador. I used that tutorial and painted up the warlock in the Skorne warpack, Master Tormentor Morghoul.



And it's my best painting to date. Which is a little irritating. I didn't want to love the hell outta my Skorne. But I think I do. Holy crap am I happy with this stuff.

I just had to play morghoul after getting him painted. I borrowed some Skorne models from Charlie and played a 35 pt game with Brandon. My list is pretty bad. It's just the models I have available. There's not a lot of synergies here aside from obvious ones, and some of the models aren't pulling their weight.

I played:
Morghoul
Aptimus Marketh
Titan Gladiator (painting this week; another lovely model)
Tiberion, character clubber
2 x Cyclops Savage light warbeasts
Minimum pain giver beast handlers
Orin Midwinter
Swamp Gobbers
Agonizer
Extoller Soulward

Brandon played
Lylyth, Shadow (?) of Everblight (prime)
Carnivean
Scythean
2 x shredder
Striders w UA and Deathstalker
Blackfrost Shard

The scenario was Diversion, a winnable radial scenario. I won the roll and went first.

I had to decide whether to attack my flag or defend against him scoring. Morghoul has a tiny control area. I decided that the fight would happen on his flag, keeping him from scoring. I moved everything toward it.

He advanced and put some combined ranged attacks into my front beasts, rolling boxcars on two of his three damage rolls (ouch). Other than that not much happened.

I moved up my savages to jam him, forgetting to heal the mind of the one who'd taken the most hits. Tiberion killed three Striders.

Morghoul popped his feat to prevent enemy models being forced in his tiny control bubble. It should have kept my beasts safe from harm. The Agonizer used Gnawing Pain to keep the Carnivean and Scythean from advancing too far forward. I felt that I'd made a decent little defensive bubble, with the gobbers putting a cloud up on Morghoul as well.



But Lylyth can mark a target with her bow so that her beasts can charge without forcing. Luckily the Striders and shard didn't mug my jamming cyclops too much, though Lylyth herself cast Parasite on Tiberion and did some damage, and popped her feat. The shard did cast kiss of lyliss on Tiberion, debuffing his armor to 16. The Carnivean failed to kill the Cyclops. The Scythean failed to kill Tiberion by missing a 5 on 3 dice.

So things went better than expected. Morghoul abused Tiberion and healed him as well. He charged a shredder, killed it and then sprinted back to cast rush on the gladiator.



My savage jamming near the flag frenzied and did nothing important. He had a handful of hit boxes left. The gladiator charged the Scythean and killed it easy with enrage. I lost my right-hand savage to a free strike from the Carnivean. Then Tiberion murdered the Carnivean and had the fury left to buy and boost an attack to squash a blackfrost shard.

Losing two heavies and a shredder kicked Brandon in the pants pretty hard. He managed to get Tiberion, but the next turn the gladiator got rid of the shard and his last shredder, Morghoul killed all the Striders remaining with Anatomical Precision and Overtake, and my remaining savage got healed and managed to hit Lylyth for some damage. I also scored a scenario point.

I'd run out of time on my deathclock, but overall it was a strong performance. We decided we both won. Him on time and me by attrition.

Skorne is kinda fun. The gladiator is proving difficult to paint though. I hope I can keep the quality up.

-Merlin out
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Week in HordesMachine

I played some games this week! It was good times. I played pretty badly in the first game and lost terribly.

I played pHaley with Stormwall and Storm Strider. My opponent played eVayl for the first time and top of 2 he feated and managed to triple Obliterate Haley for the win. It was actually pretty terrible play on my part.

In hindsight I think legion's shooting is just too good to play pHaley and keep her safe. Maybe with a sentinel. Anyway. Bad play by me. Good by Brandon and a good win.

I also took some pics of Brandon losing badly to Harbinger who then managing to get assassinated by incubi in a last ditch effort by Kallus. It was sweet as well.














I then played two games in Chicago at Unique Games and Gifts. My opponent was relatively new to the game. I spent a lot of time explaining things, and since I always play scenario that was another thing to try and explain. I think I did alright but I felt that it wasn't sticking. It takes some repetition.



He was a retribution player. In game one he played Kaelyssa, Shady Lady
Hydra
Daemon
Full Sentinels and UA
Full Strike Force and UA
Arcanist
Mage hunter assassin

I decided to play Nemo3, mainly because my other 'caster was Caine2, and I felt that the latter isn't very newbie friendly. I just painted up Caine2 and i was anxious to put him on the table. However, I also wanted to get some shots in with Nemo3.

Specifically I wanted to play Rowdy with him, because Rowdy is good. Rowdy with Failsafe is real good. Rowdy with Lightning Shroud kills things. Rowdy with a free focus from Finch is dope.

Rowdy is a baws.

My list was
Mid life crisis Nemo with new Stepmom
Rowdy
Thunderhead
Black 13th gun Mage toolbox
Gorman di Wulfe, Froke as Buck
Arlan Strangewayese
Rangers
Journeyman
Reinholdt



My opponent and I played Process of Elimination. We largely ignored the scenario. It's a tough one to win by a scenario. He won the roll to go first and went first.

He advanced a bit but was cautious. I almost bit. I decided to delay engagement as well. I shifted stuff around and put Failsafe on Rowdy and Lightning Shroud on Thunderhead. Arcane Shield went on Nemo.

He moved up again and missed a bunch of shots and whiffed damage rolls. He feated.

Gorman put the oil to the daemon. Rangers killed a bunch of strike force. Black 13th killed more. Thunderhead pulsed and killed nothing, but then crit disrupted the hydra and broke its shield.

I feated with Nemo and used lightning to kill like 5 sentinels. It was weak. Not a great feat. I didn't play it well.

My opponent crushed the thunderhead. He killed a few rangers. Kaelyssa killed Gorman. A player on another table convinced him to go to for my journeyman, but I felt that wasn't a good idea. The newer player listened and his Mage hunters did not kill Jr needing 8s to hit and dice -4 to damage.

It was a non-shocking non-turn of events.

I was losing a flank to the sentinels but my opponent couldn't kill Ryan. Ryan killed a ton of sentinels with a gunfighter mage storm.

Nemo killed all but one sentinel. Rowdy wrecked the Daemon in precisely the same way a Baws might. The rangers killed some more Mage hunters and they failed their command check.



I was winning on attrition but I'd left Nemo a bit vulnerable. My opponent was too green to see it, but the hydra and Kaelyssa could have shot at 14/16/14 Nemo and probably ended the game.

They didn't. Rowdy wrecked the hydra as well. I wound up winning on scenario because he had no non-fleeing models in the second zone. Reinholdt ftw!

There wasn't anyone else to play so we played again. I pulled out my first Caine2 list.

Caine 2, who has all the shots
Ol rowdy
Squire
Reinholdt
Rangers
Boomhowler and Co
Journeywomans
Black 13th
Gorman di Wulfe, Kung Lao Impersonator
Epic Elf



My opponent played

Vyros of the Bird
Hyperion (ruh roh raggy!)
Full sentinels and UA
Two Mage hunter assassins
And some other stuff? It seems light. I must be missing something.

I ran up. He advanced and killed 3 rangers with aoes and strafe. His mage hunters and sentinels moved too far forward.

Ryan dropped a Mage storm on the Mage hunters.
The rangers mugged his sentinels and then Caine himself moved up and killed 4 before casting Blur on himself and gatecrashing back (read gatecrash for the first time tonight OMG teleport good!).

Boomhowler called out super tough and then they ran up around the Hyperion, not engaging it but taking up real estate. The sentinels killed two trolls and Hyperion killed 5 more. No tough rolls for me.

However the sentinels were bunched up for defensive line and rangers and Ryan finished them. I repositioned and had Boomie rage howl. Eiryss tried to shoot vyros and died for it next turn. Caine and his retinue repositioned.

God rage howl is good against colossals. -2 to hit hurts so much!

Hyperion killed Gorman and Ryan with a well-placed sunburst cannon. Vyros killed elf.

I went for an assassination run, charged squire in the back and killed it, then bought shots on Hyperion to ramp up damage and never stopped. I almost went for some shots on Vyros, but I wound up doing over 30 damage to Hyperion and breaking both it's arms instead.

Boomie howled again.

Hyperion needed to hit a 14 on his sunburst cannon shot for the win, and didn't. Vyros charged rowdy and scratched the paint. Rowdy finished the game.


We played Close Quarters, but we didn't really go for scenario. It was a decent game, but sometimes newer players get too much advice in a single game. I'd never played Caine, and my boy Tmage showed up to kibitz during my feat. He walked away from the table while I was considering shooting vyros instead of Hyperion and only offered some advice after the game: "always buy, never boost".

Which was good advice. Rowdy did some serious work this evening. My first game with thunderhead and Nemo3 has convinced me that it's not so good a combo. Energizer and Locomotion are way good for that 'jack.

Good games at least. Nice opponents all.

-Merlin out
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