Elder Sign: Omens for iPhone

I have to admit, the setup for this game is significantly less time-consuming than that of its forebear. As an iPhone game, I can use this app to get my Lovecraftian horror on from just about anywhere. The game features many of the same characters and much of the artwork from Arkham Horror.

Gameplay-wise, the player controls a group of investigators maneuvering through a museum which has many breaches into various other terrible dimensions. There is an ancient one (always Azathoth for simplicity) who awakes and destroys the world if the doom track fills. The investigators must acquire 14 elder signs before Azathoth awakens.



As the game begins, there are 6 randomly chosen adventures scattered through the museum. The investigator who is active chooses one to do, or spends their turn doing some bureaucracy at the museum entrance (buying or selling items, etc.). After choosing an adventure, the investigator enters the adventure screen.



On the adventure screen, the investigator conjures various random runes necessary for completing adventures. With luck, special abilities to manipulate runes, or items to change them around, the investigator can complete the adventure and gain the rewards, which can be items, spells, or even elder signs if the adventure is challenging enough.



Failing to complete the adventure will have consequences that range from stamina or sanity loss to spawning monsters and adding to the doom track. Most adventures are set up with risks and rewards that are reflective of the adventure's difficulty. Tough adventures yield elder signs and lots of items, whereas simpler adventures will give an item or a clue.



Each investigator has a sanity and stamina level that will deteriorate as they complete and fail tasks. If either trait goes to zero the investigator is deceased of insane and no longer helps the team against the mythos.

Adding to the "race against the clock" feel of the game, there is a literal clock on the screen which advances with each investigator's turn. It periodically strikes midnight, and a random bad thing happens then, usually more doom and monsters.



It's a fun little game. I lost my first few games while learning how to play, but since then I rarely lose. Managing the investigators' sanity, stamina, items, and skills and matching those to appropriately difficult adventures is easy enough. As long as the team is completing adventures I seem to do well.

I think it's pretty good, though it suffers from a grind-y vibe as there is always more adventures spawning to complete. I quite like the art style and general mood of the game, but I'm not sure how often I'll come back to it. Few iPhone games have captured my long-term attention span. We'll see if this one holds up. Overall a 3.0.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Board Games on the Road: Arkham Horror

I actually got this last Christmas, and I hadn't played it until recently. It's a big time-sink, and a massive game. Luckily, it can be played single player, and since I apparently like single player games from Fantasy Flight Games, I decided it was time.

I'm traveling a bit for work here and there, and since I'm spending some time alone in hotel rooms I thought I should direct that time toward the blog and gaming. To this end I'm going to try and play some single player board games here and there during my travels.

Arkham Horror is an investigation and horror game based on the writing of H. P. Lovecraft. I'm a fan of his work, and the RPG community that's grown around his mythos is impressive. In the game, the players take the role of distinct investigators who must stop the otherworldly entities from devouring humankind.




The set up for the game took a long time. There are over a dozen different decks of cards, another dozen types of chit or counter, and some large cardstock pieces that represent the investigators and the Ancient One, one of eight mythos entities that represent the games antagonist element.

I played two games during an overnight stay. It took about 45 minutes to set up the game for the first time, but I imagine that it will be significantly easier and could be streamlined further by packing the game away in an organized fashion.

Game one featured the investigator Michael McGlen, the Gangster, pitted against the Ancient One Shub-Niggurath. McGlen has a high stamina, starts with a Tommy Gun (one of the more powerful mundane weapons), and takes less damage during combat. Shub-Niggurath makes her creatures more difficult to kill as well. So it was a toughness battle.




Each turn the game has several phases. Each investigator gets to move, do some encounters, collect clues, and so forth. They may even step through gates to Other Worlds. The last phase of each turn is the Mythos phase. During this phase gates open, monsters spawn and move, and additional clues and effects happen.

Each turn a gate will open at one of the dangerous locations on the map unless an elder sign token is on the location drawn, or a gate already exists there. If there's already a gate there, monsters pour out of the gates already on the board.

Here's a list of bad things that will awaken the Ancient One and force a difficult final battle:

Too many gates open on the board (8 for single player).
The Terror Track is filled (starts at 0 and advances every time there is an overflow of monsters).
The Ancient One's Doom track is filled (each time a gate opens a doom token is added)
There's more but I'm forgetting some. . .

To seal a gate requires 5 clue tokens, a successful check against the gate, and requires that the investigator has explored the other world to which the gate leads. It takes at least 3, sometimes 4-5 turns to seal one. A single-player experience seems to require the player to aggressively seal 2-3 gates ASAP to keep the ancient one from awakening due to the amount of gates on the board.

Mike did okay sealing his first two, but by then a Rumor Mythos card had popped up. Rumors are bad effects which linger until a specific condition is met. In this case the Rumor had a 33% chance to increase the Terror level. Mike had to get two gate trophies (seal gates for trophies) to stop the rumor. He did manage it, but by then the Terror track was almost full, and he'd been Cursed as well. Being Cursed is all kinds of bad.



So Shub-Niggurath woke up and ate Mike.

The Rumor card really did him in. It was fun, but difficult.




I played another game as Bob Jenkins, the salesman. Bob's special ability gives him extra items. He also starts with a number of items. I happened to draw two Elder Sign unique items (two of the same unique item?) which I thought was pretty awesome. Bob managed to seal two gates right quick and had saved up enough clues to do a third. He'd also managed to get a Tommy Gun during character creation, so he was tough.

However, a number of difficult monsters have Physical Resistance or Immunity, which makes fighting them without spells terribly rough. A Rumor popped up that put a pile of monsters into Miskatonic University, and if the pile ever grew to 8 (it gains one per turn) the terror track would max out and the final battle would begin.

Thing was, the Ancient One against Bob was Azathoth, and there is no final battle with Azathoth. He (it?) just destroys the world.

Bob spent several turns trying to prune the monsters at Miskatonic U while creatures and gates continued to spawn (because the game doesn't stop while you're dealing with a Rumor). Eventually the list of monsters at the University was just filled with ghosts and spectral beasts who didn't give a shit about Bob's machine gun. The number grew to 8 after a fire vampire knocked out Bob's last stamina and he wound up in the hospital. Azathoth destroyed the world.

So that was cool.

Overall, it's a fun game, but it has some trouble at the single player level. Perhaps since it's co-op, I will try it again and control 2 or more investigators at a time. I'm sure this will change the game in a number of ways, but hopefully it's a bit less challenging.

Perhaps it's meant to be super-challenging? The Lovecraftian mythos doesn't have a lot of rays of hope going for it. Maybe the difficult choices in the game are meant to represent the inevitable decline of humankind as Elder Gods and Things From Beyond encroach on our world.

Flavor-wise, it certainly gets an A. Gameplay-wise, it felt a bit like a gate-sealing grind, with so many additional complications that it felt impossible to win. I know that solitaire games tend to be brutally difficult, but Arkham Horror is the toughest I've played.I'd give it an overall grade-point (on the community-college 4.0-0.0 scale) of 3.0.

There's a stripped-down version of the game available, called Elder Sign. There's also an iPhone game just released called Elder Sign:Omens. I picked it up, and I'll talk about that soon.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Building Lists v. Building Factions

Many excellent warmachine and hordes players recognize that playing factions is alright, but playing one caster or warlock and building a single solid list is cheaper and tends to be a better play experience. I'm not necessarily a good WarmaHordes player, but I can see the advantages.

I chose to play Cygnar, and I've collect a good portion of the faction, which gives me lots of options when playing Cygnar. However, I've only been playing the Warcaster Constance Blaize in the last two months, and so much of my Cygnar stuff is dusty.

Also, getting skills requires some dedication to a strategy. Having a single 'caster to work with makes it easier to become jouzu at the game. Having a huge faction worth of possibilities leads to a shallow understanding of a broad range of things instead of a deep understanding of a few.

Further, my Trollbloods exploration has made me rethink buying into a whole 'nother faction. I'd rather build a couple solid lists and work from there.

Don't get me wrong: tournament play generally requires several lists from the same faction, but in general it's cheaper to work in lists rather than factions.



To this end, I decided to build a Trollbloods Grim Angus list. One reason is cost: Grim supports mercenaries as well as his own troops, unlike most Troll warlocks, so my Nyss Hunters are ready to work for him. Another reason is that Grim looks like a lot of fun, with a series of debuffs to help his army land hits and buffs to help his stuff move and target. He's really all about buffing accuracy. On top of the rest, he's got a gun, so I can shoot with him. That's something I like about Cygnar warcasters, so it fits into my comfort zone despite being in a different faction.

Looking through the Trollbloods faction book, I decided I would buy a heavy warbeast (because the goddamn warpack didn't come with one) and a full unit of trolls. Then I would cherry pick support solos and the like to support those troop choices, and add in the Nyss Hunters to fill out the list.

I read Sevwall's strategy article about the Pygmy Burrowers unit ("Dygmies") on the Privateer Press forums, and it paints a convincing picture of the Dygmies as a versatile, difficult-to-deal-with unit. They are dirt cheap in army-points cost, but they're also terribly, awfully inaccurate. Trolls have access to a lot of solos who buff units, however, and many warlocks also help. I decided to buy me some Dygmies.

For a heavy, I took a look at the several options available and decided that the Earthborn Dire Troll was the most versatile. It's got a lot of terrain-variable buffs, it can often hit as hard as whatever it's hitting, and it's animus can give buffs to other friendliest based on nearby terrain. It's good. It also has pathfinder, just like Grim, and just like the burrowers, and just like the Nyss Hunters.

So my Grim list is very much shaping up to be a list built around taking advantage of available terrain.

At 15 points it looks like:

Army Name: Grim Beginnings
Trollbloods
15+6 points, 13 models

Grim Angus +6 points
* Earthborn Dire Troll 10 points
* Troll Impaler 5 points

10 Pyg Burrowers 6 points

It has quite a few weaknesses at this level. With only one heavy hitter it will have trouble killing the tougher enemy warcasters and warlocks. I won't be able to afford trading the Earthborn Dire Troll (EBDT) for an enemy heavy unless I feel the burrowers and Impaler can finish the caster. The Dygmies really require some support solos to shine. They have a miserable melee attack stat and a similarly poor command check. To buff those they need a Fell Caller Hero and Trollkin Champion Hero nearby. Grim buffs their accuracy somewhat, but the additional buff from the Fell Caller takes them from good with Grim's feat to hitting just about everything on average rolls. Their poor command leaves them vulnerable to Terrifying entities (lich lords and such) or Abominations (bigger lich lords and such), but the Champ Hero is a battlefield commander with a respectable Command stat.

So to pump the list up to 25 I would take those two solos, each of which cost 3 points (they also kick butt themselves, so the cost isn't too painful). With the remaining 4 points I had a lot of choices, but I would settle on either Janissa Stonetide, another 3 pt solo, and the Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew, or a 3 troll, 4 pt unit of Runeshapers. Probably the former.

These support pieces add a lot to the burrowers and Grim's survivability without reducing their overall punch. However, at 25 the lack of a second heavy might hurt the list's performance somewhat. High-armor opponents might give it trouble, but hopefully if I can kill a heavy with the burrowers, or with the Earthborn during Grim's feat turn, I can win the attrition war. If I can get an Earthborn charge on an enemy 'caster they will probably also die, so that's a secondary option. The EDT can get a 12" charge if circumstances permit, so that can surprise some players.

At 35 points, I still don't add a second heavy, mostly because I don't own one. Instead I add the Troll Axer for his animus and his infantry-clearing thresher attack, and with the last 4 PTs put the Runeshapers in. I could add the Krielstone bearers with UA instead of the Runeshapers (dropping the Gobbers for a full unit) instead, but I don't have the stone yet, and I'm not sure Grim really needs it.

The Runeshapers give the list 3 magical aoe attacks, and if they crit they cause knockdown. At this point the list is very much about clearing a charge lane for the EDT to get an assassination. The aoes, the thresher attacks, and the burrowers cause a lot of problems for enemy infantry, and they can open some serious holes for the Dire Troll to fly across the board.

Grim's Cross Country spell can even allow the EDT to target enemies through forests which normally would block LOS, and the Axer animus can give the Earthborn yet another 2". If it gets all the buffs in a single turn (Axer animus, starts w/i 2" of rough terrain for +2 spd, and Grim shoots the target with his rifle to add 2" with Bait the Line) it can charge 14" away, and with its melee range of a half inch it can get to a lot of enemies. The thing to remember is to move Grim far enough forward that the EDT is still in his control to be forced.

That can be dangerous of course, but on the feat turn the speed debuff can keep Grim safe from much reprisal.

At 50 I add in my aforementioned Nyss Hunters, and. . .another Impaler at the moment. It's not optimal, but with the models I currently own that's where I'm at. I'll eventually get a Slag Troll and fit that in at 50 instead. That thing can wreck it some constructs.

Overall the list will struggle with high armor, but with any luck I can control the board enough to outflank or out last my opponent.

-Merlin out

Trollbloods Warpack

For hordes and Trollbloods, I did the same thing I did for WarMachine and Cygnar. I picked up the Battlebox, though the Hordes 'boxes are called "warpacks".

The Trollbloods warpack is odd in that it doesn't have a heavy warbeast at all, with three lights and a beefy warlock.




Primal Madrak, Thornwood Chieftain is the warlock in the 'pack. He's a brute with a big magic axe and not a lot of play options. He tends to keep his troops nearby to benefit from his Surefoot spell (models affected by Surefoot or within 3" of the model with Surefoot gain a defense bonus and can't be knocked down). Madrak usually casts Surefoot turn one and upkeeps it on himself all game. He only has two other spells: Carnage, which gives a melee attack bonus to faction models within his tiny control area (he's a low fury warlock), and Stranglehold, which is a cool attack spell that sucks for Madrak because of the low fury.

He's got a sweet axe that hits like a train, and he can throw it and it returns mjolnir-style, which is bitchin'. If he ever crits with his axe the enemy model loses healing, Tough, and can't transfer wounds. That's nasty. He can also ignore a damage roll once per game, warbeasts can't target him with charges or slams, and he is Tough.

His feat, Crusher, gives faction models in his tiny control area the ability to move 1" and make another attack if they kill an enemy model. That's alright. It's even better for beasts who can buy even more attacks. It's great for clearing infantry.

Most of the time, Maddy puts up Surefoot, maybe throws his axe once on the approach, and then casts Carnage the turn his feat goes off. Then his troops and beasts go maul everything they can. He's not versatile but he works.

The beasts in the warpack are two full-blooded Troll Impalers and a Troll Axer.

I'm totally not about to put my Impaler in the washing machine; I just hobby in the basement.

The Impaler light warbeast is a big troll with a spear. It can toss that spear, though it's going to want to boost the attack roll because it's not super accurate. Also, if it crits on the attack roll it slams the struck model back, knocking it down and maybe even crushing models in the slam path. The spear does respectable damage and has reach, so the Impaler can do well in melee under Maddy's feat in a pinch. The Impaler also has an animus called farstrike, which adds 4" to the range of a single model for a turn.

Animi are another difference between Hordes and Warmachine. Warlocks tend to have fewer spells than warcasters, but each beast in their battlegroup adds an animus which either the beast or the warlock can cast (or both).

The Troll Axer Light warbeast is practically a heavy beast. It doesn't hit hard enough for a heavy, but it's one of the strongest lights in the game. It has a big axe (you may have guessed that) with Reach. It also has Thresher, which allows it to use it's combat action to swing that axe at every model within melee range. The Axer animus is called Rush, and it grants an additional 2" of movement and pathfinder to a warbeast it affects.

All full-blood Trolls (so just warbeasts) have a regeneration ability as well. They can be forced (gain a fury) to regenerate d3 wounds. This is a big deal.

One of the main differences between warmachine and hordes is that most warcasters can't repair 'jacks (usually one per faction knows what up), but their are special mechanic units and solos that can do so. However, any warlock can spend a fury to heal a damage on one of their beasts, which means that even a beast that has taken a beating can get back up and fight well.

Warjacks tend to get crippled easier, while beasts are more resilient.

Trolls' regeneration allows them options in the healing order. Other Hordes factions would have to activate the warlock early in the turn and spend valuable fury healing beasts instead of casting spells and animi. Troll warlocks can do the same, or they can activate the beasts first and add a fury or two to a hurt beast to bump it back up.

That's cool.

Without heavies, Madrak has trouble with high armor, and his battlegroup is a actually a point or two short of many other battleboxes out there. He has to rely on the Impalers to slam a key enemy model back to control the board while he and the Axer wail on another target. With some luck he might win the attrition war, or if his Impalers get lucky and slam a model over the enemy warcaster/warlock, Madrak or the Axer can probably swoop in to finish them off. Relying on the probability of critting on three dice is not great strategy, but since Madrak's feat is all about clearing infantry, and Carnage supports a mass of troops, in Battlebox games Maddy doesn't have much else.

I decided to pick up Grim Angus instead of sticking to Madrak, since Grim is a bounty hunter with a real gun and not a magic throwing axe.

I've built a few Grim lists with my meagre supply of Troll models. I'll talk about that later.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Hordes: Gay WarMachine

So I wanted to play a Hordes army to complement my WarMachine forces, as much to learn the Hordes game mechanics as feed my consumerist addiction for buying shit I don't need.

Hordes is a "sister" game to WarMachine, with most of the same statistics in place, and many shared rules. However, there are some significant differences, most of which relate to the Battlegroup rules.

Instead of a warcaster who gains X focus per turn and then allocates to their warjacks, a Hordes chess-king is called a warlock (apologies to Charlie Sheen) and their battlegroup consists of monstrous warbeasts instead of mechanical warjacks. Warlocks have fury instead of focus, which can be spent in mostly the same ways as focus for warcasters. However, fury works differently in its replenishment mechanics. Warlocks don't automatically regain their fury each turn. Instead they leech fury from their warbeasts. If there isn't enough to fill their fury to capacity, they can regain fury by wounding themselves on a point-for-point basis, but otherwise they're boned. Warlocks begin the game with max fury.

Also, warbeasts aren't allocated fury each turn. Instead, they start with zero fury on the first turn and they can be "forced" to do extra awesomeness by their warlock, gaining fury. They gain fury at roughly the same rate warjacks would spend focus. So while a warjack needs to be allocated 3 focus to work at maximum efficiency, draining the warcaster's resources, a warbeast can spend to capacity. Capacity is dependent on the beast in question. Most heavy warbeasts have a 4 fury, and most lights 3. There are exceptions, but that's the baseline.

The catch is this: if a warlock doesn't leech all the fury off their warbeast(s) each turn, the warbeast may fenzy and maul whatever is next to them instead of doing something more directed. More importantly, warbeasts can't be forced when outside their warlock's control area, so warlocks need to be played closer to the front than warcasters.

In a game which often ends in assassination of the king-piece, being forced to play further forward can be a serious disadvantage. Further, unlike the focus from warcasters, leaving a few fury on the warlock does not provide extra armor. Instead, warlocks can spend fury to transfer damage to one of their warbeasts, which also adds a fury to that warbeast.

Anyway, I don't want to invest in a huge army for my hordes force. I had to choose wisely, and decided that since I already have a mercenary unit that will work for two hordes factions I would look hard at those. The mercenary unit is the awesome Nyss Hunters.

The hordes factions are:

Skorne: a militaristic, ancestor-worshipping, sadomasochistic, aggressive society which is somehow aligned with the deposed monarch of Cygnar, Vinter. Their themes are powerful beasts and hurting their own forces to gain some buff. The Nyss won't work for them.

Circle Oroboros: Druids. Who have aligned with the "devourer worm" (werewolf: the apocalypse anyone?) and a group of atavistic cannibals. Their themes are Werewolves, beastmen, Druidic animism, and lightning attacks. Lots of pathfinder units and forest-using shenanigans. Nyss will work for Circle.

Legion of Everblight: a group of blighted elves who have been corrupted by a dragon named Everblight. Their themes are powerful souless beasts with wings, fire attacks, and speedy assaults. The Nyss won't work for them, but as a faction Legion is quite strong.

Trollbloods: a group of racially-linked humanoids with a tribal structure and an underdog, everyone's-out-to-take-our-land feel. Their themes are literally Tough troops, hungry beasts, and lots of synergistic buffs to help melee troops out. Nyss work for Trollbloods.

Minions: Minions are the Hordes equivalent of "mercenaries" from warmachine. They break down into two subfactions: pigs and gators. Nyss might work for minions, but not for pigs or gators (I think?).

I don't want to play minions, despite the fact that they are inherently a smaller faction with less for me to collect. I wanted a faction that will work with Nyss, so that puts Skorne and Legion out. I leafed through the Circle and Trolls warlock sections, to see which ones might actually support Nyss (many hordes buffs only help faction units). The Trolls had a few 'locks who help Nyss. In particular Grim Angus looks like fun.

I swear his name is "Clint".

So I picked up some Trolls. Unfortunately my Grim Angus list doesn't use the Nyss until 50 points. At 35 it's much more streamlined.

-Merlin


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

WarmaHordes Game Sizes

There are quite a few levels at which the game can be played. The logical starting point is Battlebox games, which are (depending on the faction and contents of the box) 10-15 points. They're good for getting a grasp of the core battlegroup rules: how to buff your warjacks or warbeasts, allocating focus to power 'jacks, managing fury on beasts, keeping things in the 'casterlocks control area, popping the feat, and so on.





15 points: This is still a small game, and often features a prominent battlegroup element, but there is usually a solo and/or unit in the mix. For warmachine armies, often a jack or two from the battlebox will get dropped for more troops. Warcasters rely less on warjacks than warlocks do beasts, and powering jacks costs focus; one is often enough. Warlocks regain fury each turn from warbeasts, so they need them as fury batteries.




In this pic the sword knights represent steelhead halberdiers.

Games at 15 points tend to be quick, tense, and interesting. The Poor Bodgers series at my FLGS is always a single list, 15-point tournament. When I go I get to play 3 games in 3 hours. Since I play warmachine I can mix and match my troops, warjack of choice and so forth, depending on the 'caster I want to try. It's more difficult to do that with Hordes, but hordes runs multiple heavies better at low points, so there's some give and take.

The short, small games at this point level make the lose-your-king, chess, assassination aspect of the game less frustrating. It's super easy to lose at WarmaHordes. If the warcaster or warlock is left vulnerable (even only slightly so) it can mean the end of the game. At 15 points it still feels alright when I lose to a silver bullet assassination run.

25 points: this is kind of a no-man's land for WarmaHordes games. Most games are played at 35 or 50, and the quick, new player friendly tournaments and games are closer to 15. 25 is stuck between those game sizes.




I quite like this level as well, since it builds on the 15 point paradigm, but doesn't add too much more. An extra 10 points is another infantry unit and support, or an extra heavy warjack. Things are escalated, but not to a great degree. Early 'casterkill still doesn't feel too much like a nutpunch.

It's much easier at 25 to create a balanced list, with both ranged and melee forces, jacks and infantry, and a couple solos that support the force.

35 points: this is one of the standard tournament list sizes. At this level there are a lot of models on the board. If a cheap infantry unit like Sword Knights costs 6 points for 10 guys, fitting 25+ models onto the board can be easy.

It is at this level that deploying things correctly becomes a huge part of the game, IMO. Don't get me wrong, mistakes can be made at any level, but "deploy centrally" as a strategy works well up to 25. At 35 there simply isn't enough room. For warmachine armies that feature only one or two heavy jacks, the remainder of points will be spent on troops, meaning several units on the board. Hordes can run beast-heavy better, so some hordes lists will have 4 heavies in a list at 35.




Getting casterkilled early at 35 feels more like a nutpunch than at smaller levels. It takes 10 minutes to set up 30 odd models and get moving around. If the game is over before the armies clash because one player saw an opening and exploited it, that's good on them but disheartening for the assassinated.

I tend to build most of my lists at this level. It's fairly easy to cover most of the bases and plan out the first few turns still. Many times I use self-supporting modules to keep things moving nicely, since it's much harder for a caster to support a larger army with buffs than it is a smaller force. It's also at this point that warmachine and hordes can get seriously asymmetric. Hordes can have multiple heavies kicking around, buying attacks and wrecking havoc, dealing with the consequences next turn. Warmachine tends to get troop heavy because even though there are lots more opportunities for warjacks, the caster has the same amount of jack-powering focus that they did at 15 points. There are exceptions, of course, but in general this is true.

Nemo jack-heavy 35 PTA:



50 points: this is the standard game size for Hardcore events, where the whole army must be painted and turns are timed aggressively. Many tournaments also use this size for games. It's a big force. There are often upwards of 30 or 40 models on the board, and even lists with multiple heavies will have plenty of troop support.




Constance's infantry swarm.

Several of my friends prefer this game size to all others. It allows them to play huge modules and run piles of troops downfield, causing a ruckus. I tend to think that the board gets cluttered at this level, and since I'm still relatively new I sometimes make mistakes in deployment that ruin my game 45 minutes or more later.

Game length is another factor. With 35 models on the board even the first turn advance can take time, and losing to an easy assassination really sucks after setting up a huge array of warriors. There are also an incredible amount of things to take into account at this level. A misstep can have serious consequences, and with 3 units of differing speed and combat abilities, and several large jacks or beasts, there is a lot going on all at once.



Perhaps I'll enjoy larger games more as I get more experience. I'm of the opinion that 35 points is a real sweet spot for WarmaHordes games. It's not enough to cover everything, and the troops don't clutter up the board, but there is enough stuff to have a huge tactical game.

75 and 100 points: these games are off the chain. Sometimes they're played with multiple casters. In the team tourney it was 100 points with two casters. Talk about attack vectors. These games can drag on a bit as well. Privateer Press has recently released a new set of rules for extra large games that make them look more fun, but we'll see about that. Games at this level would take several hours to complete.

I quite like the fact that WarmaHordes scales around at several levels. I'm fond of 15-35 points myself, but 50 is still alright.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

The Latest Poor Bodgers Event

Last Monday there was another 15 point tournament. I decided to play that Constance Blaize again. I quite like the way she plays. I wanted to try a Stormclad with her instead of Gallant, for more heavy-hitting crunch. This meant Stormblades instead of other infantry. I think the list is better against heavies, decent against other infantry (high-defense troops might be an issue), but will suffer against ranged lists.

I played:

Still with the facestabbing.

Constance
Stormclad
Stormblades with Unit Attachment Officer and Standard and a Storm Gunner Weapon Attachment
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One (flanker for Constance)

Game 1 vs. Mortenebra Cryx

My opponent was playing a Morty tiered list, so his 3 heavies all cost a point less. His list was

Morty
Character Skarlock dude
3 Slayers
2 Warwitch Sirens

The warwitches are bananas. They ignore free strikes, they can freeze a model in place with their reach melee attack, and they have several good magical attacks. Oh, and they can give a 'jack a focus if they don't do any of the other stuff. Just ridiculously strong. 

I saw their magic attacks and put Banishing Ward on my Stormblades. Harlan has Sacred Ward, so that meant my opponent could only target my warcaster and warjack with his magic attacks. This proved to be an issue for him.

The scenario was Overrun, which features a large scoring area in the middle of the board that's difficult to control.

He set up and went first after winning the roll. He put Spectral Steel on a Slayer to give it ghostly (walk through stuff, ignore free strikes), and everything advanced. I counteradvanced but left my stuff a little bit out of his charge range with Morty and her hookups.

He tried to cast some spells with the sirens, but that wasn't going to work. Instead he advanced his 3 heavies up toward my lines and hid everything else behind the building in the center of the table.

So his stuff is all up in my grill, but I haven't lost a model, so I struck hard. The Stormclad wrecked a Slayer easy. I Think my opponent knew that would happen; it was a sacrifice. However, he wasn't planning on Harlan Versh firing four essentially fully-boosted shots into the Slayer with Spectral Steel and rolling well to do nearly 20 boxes of damage to a second heavy. And he certainly wasn't planning on my Stormblades Assaulting and finishing off said second heavy, _and_ killing his third heavy as well. Stormblades hit really hard; their issue is not being able to get to the fight alive. Having a full unit of dudes to hit those heavies was huge. I moved my 'caster back behind the building and her troops and she popped her feat.

I moved the Storm Gunner into the control zone to contest, but that was the only model I put in.

Morty's force was decimated. My opponent used her feat and spell list to charge a Stormblade, kill it, and then Overrun over to my caster and attempt a long-shot assassination. It was his only chance. He had rerolled attacks with his feat, but he chose not to boost his first two, and he needed 9s to hit. That cost him a lot. He did 6 damage to Constance, but he then conceded the game, as he was out of options.

Game MVP: Stormblades _wreck_ shit.

Game 2 vs Ashlynn Highborn Mercenaries

My opponent played

Ashlynn
Mangler
Gun Mages
Blythe and Bull
First Mate Hawk
Reinholdt

I was worried about Ashlynn and her feat, which is awesome for my opponent and terrible for me. I think the scenario was Close Quarters, which has two control zones close to each other near the center of the table, but offset slightly. To score one must control the zone on the opponent's side of the table. I won the roll to set up and go first, and I wanted to go first.

I figured Ashlynn would feat turn 2, and I wanted to try and offset her feat with my own. I moved my stuff up and cast Transference, thinking that maybe with boosts I could still get hits on her feat turn. He cast Admonition on the Mangler and Quicken on Ashlynn (which I see a lot; not a fan of Quicken on her, as I think Admonition needs to be on the 'caster), and moved up aggressively.

I saw a chance to try and wrong-foot him by charging my Stormclad diagonally at the Gun Mages, which would put a big patch of rough terrain between our heavies. I activated Blaize first and cast Crusader's Call to lengthen everything's threat and popped her feat. The 'clad killed two gun mages with his charge attack. I then had the Stormblades Assault, and they hurt Blythe and Bull a little, but didn't hit a lot. They aren't terribly accurate with their lightning-sword blasts.

I moved Harlan up a bit to take four potshots at the Mangler with his Purgation quadiron, Malleus. He managed to roll well once, and did 8 or 9 damage with his four shots. Not bad.

Then my opponent surprised me. He dropped Admonition, gave the Mangler 3 focus, and then activated Blythe and Bull first to shoot at the Stormclad (their prey). They did 10-ish damage to it, wrecking the cortex. Then he activated the gun mages and did a CRA into a Stormblade, killing it. Then the Mangler charged in and threshered two Stormblades (3 tasty souls). What I was confused about was why my foe didn't use Ashlynn first and pop her feat? She makes her whole force super accurate, gets more crits with the gun mages. . .it's all good. Anyway, she got an extra shot from Reinholdt and Ashlynn moved up toward my warcaster. He planned on shooting Harlan, but forgot that the cheeky bugger has stealth. So auto-miss. Instead he took two shots at Constance, and did a few damage. Then Hawk charged the Stormclad and did some wounds.

So my turn starts and Ashlynn doesn't have Admonition on her to save her from my charge, hasn't popped her ridiculous feat which would protect her from my charges, and is 8 inches away from Harlan and Constance. I had Harlan charge in to give Constance her Morrowan flank bonus to melee attacks, and he managed to hit (needed a 12 on 3 dice) and do a crapload of damage. Constance charged in and finished Ashlynn off easily (with 8 focus to spare).

Game MVP: Harlan Versh. Dude brought the pain.

Game 3 (finals) vs. Harbinger Menoth

Sadly, my opponent was playing an illegal list in the finals and I noticed right away. We asked the judge about it and he was disqualified. We still played the game, and I played sloppy as hell because I already technically won, but I learned alot from my mistakes. I decided to split the first-place prize with my opponent because he won, despite the fact that I get the win on paper. He played a good game.

Warcaster Focus: The Knight of Facestabbing

The latest Cygnar ally warcaster is Constance Blaize, the Knight of the Prophet. She's different from most Cygnar warcasters in a number of ways, but the most significant difference is her ally status. This allows her to be played as a mercenary or a Cygnar 'caster, and while her choice of forces is significantly limited as a mercenary 'caster, her faction-specific feat and spells make it a viable, and perhaps even a better option.

I stab faces for my righteous deity.

Stats: Blaize has generally unremarkable stats. She's average speed, decent melee attack, meh ranged attack, alright defense and armor for a warcaster (though for the ginormous shield the model has, you'd think it would be even better, armor-wise), and a good command. She's got 6 focus. Not great but not terrible.

She does have the flank ability, which improves her ability to stab fools if there is another friendly Morrowan model within melee range of her target. She also inspires Morrowan friendlies nearby to be fearless. That's about it. Nothing to write home about.

Spells: Blaize's spell list is totally different from other Cygnar 'casters'. She supports melee troops well, with Crusader's Call, a 3-cost spell that gives all friendly models +2 inches on charge attacks. That's awesome, but expensive. She also has Transference, an upkeepable spell that allows her faction warrior pals (this is why whether she's counted as merc or Cygnar is significant) to spend her focus to boost attack or damage rolls. So all of her troops are potentially dangerous, even to enemy warcasters, who normally have such high defense and armor they can ignore average mooks.

Her other spells include Banishing Ward, an upkeep that keeps a unit safe from spell attacks (and removes any on the unit when cast, incidentally), Flashing Blade, which allows her to stab every enemy in melee range for the dirt-cheap price of one focus, and Sunburst, which is her attack spell. Sunburst is a 3" AOE spell, but it's cool in that the blast damage doesn't harm friendly models, so it's intended to help clear her troops out of melee. However, with the -4 penalty for casting spells into melee and her mediocre focus, she's gonna have to boost to try and stick it, and even then she'll need to roll better than average to hit the average defense of 13 while engaged. Meh. This spell does not generally impress me. I'm actually always disappointed when a 'caster's only attack spell costs 3 focus. That's expensive, and even moreso on 6 focus 'casters. It also removes models when boxed, circumventing some of the after-death shenanigans that can happen in-game, but these situations are cornercase.

Weapons: Constance has a single weapon, the Sun Spear. It's not a great name for a weapon. However, it's good at stabbing things. In fact, Constance ends a lot of my games with the Sun Spear. The Spear is Blessed, so it ignores defensive buffs from enemy spells, and with Constance's flank ability and Flashing Blade, I've actually wrecked enemy heavies with it before. That's substantial. It is, of course, a magical weapon, and it also has reach, so she, herself, under Crusader's Call, can charge 11" and engage 2" more with reach. That's pretty good.

Feat: Constance is very much a feat-intensive 'caster, and hers is a little wonky. For each faction warrior model that dies during her feat round in her control range(her turn and the enemy's next), she gains a soul token. For each token on her, all faction warrior models in her control range gain +1 armor. During her next turn, Constance gains extra focus equal to the number of soul tokens on her.

So she wants lots of troops. Warrior models are expensive in Cygnar, so playing her in mercs is a better option at low-points levels, and even at higher levels mercs choices can be better than Cygnar. Which is odd, because she can only take merc units and models that would work for Cygnar anyway, but with the feat and Transference working only for faction models, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I've gotten up to a 13-focus turn once with her feat. That's 7 souls. I've only played her in small points games with a few exceptions, but at 15 points, losing 7 models is crushing. She's a better large-game 'caster because of this. Playing her at 15 points is just painful, and her feat does absolutely nothing in a Mangled Metal ('jacks only) game.

That being said, while her feat isn't totally awesome (and a plethora of game mechanics ruin it, such as remove-from-play effects, or closer soul-taking models, who get the delicious souls before Constance can) she generally gets two turns of hyper armor from the feat and camping focus. I play her midfield because of the feat. My opponent will have to kill a bunch of dudes to get at her, and then she's sitting at 20+ armor (much more if you can squeeze a Journeyman Warcaster into your list; he's a must at 35 in my opinion) due to feat, and then has 10+ focus to work with the next turn. That enables her to retaliate and still camp 5+ focus, making her tough to deal with. So at least she can be survivable.

I generally wait until my troops are up in my opponent's grill before I pop the feat. Savvy opponents will ignore the army entirely if they can on feat turn, and deny Constance her one trick. So make sure to Crusader's Call and charge a bunch of long-threat fodder into the enemy force on the feat turn. I like Nyss Hunters in both mercs and Cygnar, though in Cygnar they require the Jonas Murdoch unit attachment to make them faction. Keep him safe. Other long-threat units are Precursor Knights, Stormguard, and Sword Knights.

Overall: Constance is a lot of fun to play, but she plays in a different style than most Cygnar 'casters. I love the Nyss Hunters with her, if only because they have a ranged attack and a nice melee assault (literally they have the Assault order with Murdoch) as well. I've found that if she only takes melee troops they can get chopped up easily.

I tend to play Constance in the midfield, camping a bit of focus and/or souls, and using Sugar Ray's Arcane Shield to shore up her defenses. And when my opponent is within 12" of her (something I can check with my control range), I try to get Constance and another Morrowan over there to seal the deal. It works well, since I've won several games with her, and she tends to be the one ending them.

Melee Power: B, she's not able to take down heavies easily like the Butcher or eStryker, but with a flanker and a few focus she makes a good go of it. That's pretty awesome. As this is her strength, she needs to be played more forward, which can be dangerous. Bring lots of troops and watch out for Soul Takers.

Ranged Power:  F, She has no gun (which is weird in Cygnar) at all. Nothing to see here.

Magic Power: D, Sunburst is underwhelming. I have managed to use it to clear a charge lane so she could skate across a board and stab someone, but it's not even terribly efficient for that (cost 3 focus plus 1 to boost the attack).

Melee Support: B again, maybe B+. Transference and the feat help offense and defense, respectively. However, the feat only does this by letting some troops die. Constance very much needs a 6-point, 10-man unit of mooks to shove out into the enemy and die. It sucks to spend 6 points on troops whose role is simply to feed her feat. Still, with Crusader's Call helping get the threat out, she's good.

Ranged Support: D. Largely none. It should be noted that any models with assault can increase the threat of their ranged attacks by charging an additional two inches. So Stormblades, normally charging 8 inches and can Assault to shoot during the charge another 6", gain another 2" with CC. So there's some support there. . .but it's not optimal use of either CC or Assault. The Nyss threat is outlandish with Assault, as they have Hunter to ignore forests and can move 12" under CC, and they have 12" range bows. The shot is only power 10, so I guess that mitigates the 24" threat they have . . .

Magic Support: B-. Blaize herself doesn't Synergize with magic-users, but Banishing Ward is huge against magic-loving foes, and can rip enemy debuff spells off of crippled units. Also, several of her best Morrowan pals have spell ward or sacred ward inherently, and so some of her preferred troops are already protected.

Tricksiness: B-. Blaize, for the most part, does what she says on the tin. However, opponents who don't give her Blessed flanking spear enough respect will probably end up dead. Also, while she doesn't buff ranged troops at all she has answers to spell- and magic-heavy lists with Banishing Ward, Harlan, and Precusor Knights.

Overall Rating: 2.5 She's not awesome, but she isn't terrible either.

List Elements: Constance wants some hard-hitting melee troops to benefit from Transference. Reach is a plus. I don't own Horgehold Forgeguard (Or "Hyurgendurg Fyurgnerg" since all things about warmachine dwarves sound like the Swedish chef is speaking, imo), but as a mercenary they rock it out for her. For Cygnar Stormguard are the only reach troops, and while they are good they are a bit expensive. I like Precursor Knights with her, since they require little support to be delivered, and with their UA they get a one-turn wrecking ball feat. I also like Stormblades with her, since they hit like trains, but Stormblades die like gnats to gunlines, so be advised.

Constance also likes Morrowans around to enable flank, so take either her warjack Gallant, Harlan Versh, the merc solo, or her Precusor Knights. Any of the three will do, though Harlan is the least survivable, and he only benefits from her goodness if she's mercenary instead of Cygnar.

I like a ranged element with Constance, despite the fact that her feat and spells say "melee troop jam lolz!". The Stormblades bring a devastating if inaccurate ranged attack and the Black 13th are always good for Cygnar. However, my favorite troops with her thus far are Cylena Ryfell and the Nyss Hunters. They work for mercs or for Cygnar, but can only benefit from Constance's feat and Transference if she's a merc or if they also have the Cygnar mercenary attachment to make the faction. That's Murdoch. If you take Murdoch you have to protect the hell out of him or the Nyss suddenly are mercs again and not benefiting from Blaize's faction-only buffs. Nyss are great because with Banishing Ward they are tough to get rid of, and they also have a nice bow for a combined arms approach. And pathfinder. And hunter. And 7 speed. Nyss are awesome.

She also likes a heavy for countering enemy heavies. The PKs and SBs can pull some of this duty, but having a nice heavy to pound shit into the dirt is welcome. I may purchase Rorsche and Brine to run them with her in mercenaries, but that's down the road.

Most times I want a target for Banishing Ward. The Nyss Hunters and Stormblades are my favs, but it depends on what the other warcaster's spells are and what support they have available to them.

Lists I've either played or seen played that I like:

At 15 points,

Constance Cygnar, with Gallant (9), Min PKS and UA (7), Black 13th (4), Stormcaller (1)

Constance Cygnar, with Stormclad (10), Stormblades with UA and 1 WA (9), and Harlan Versh (2)

Constance Highborn, with Gallant(9), Nyss Hunters(10), and Harlan Versh (or Gorman di Wulfe) (2)

At 25 points,

Constance Cygnar, with Gallant (9), Min PKs and UA (7), Nyss Hunters w Murdoch (12), Journeyman Warcaster (3)

Constance Highborn, with Gallant (9), Nyss Hunters (10), Harlan Versh (2), Max PKs + UA (10) [or Aiyanna and Holt (4) + Ogrun Bokur (3) + Epic Eiryss (3)]

At 35:

Constance Cygnar, with Gallant (9), Max PKs + UA (10), Archduke Runewood (3), max Stormguard (9), Black 13th (4), Journeyman Warcaster (3) , Squire (2), Stormcaller (1)

Constance Highborn, with Gallant (9), Max PKs + UA (10), Piper (2), Nyss Hunters (10), Aiyana and Holt (4), Epic Eiryss (3), Harlan or Gorman (2), Reinholdt (1)

At 50 I'd add in some combination of melee infantry and 'jacks, like max Sword Knights marshalling a Centurion or a min of Stormblades with a Stormclad nearby. For mercs at 50 I'd probably try to shoehorn in a bunch of steelheads. Max halbardiers and min Cav could go a long way.

I've been told by the wise PP forums that Constance needs a kajillion cheap reach infantry for her feat, but I think she actually needs good infantry (which tends to be more expensive), with some cheap infantry in front for the feat turn, or just be prepared to lose a bunch of guys. When it's my Stormblades or PKS the 3 or 4 that live counterstrike like wrecking balls. So it's all good. Steelhead halbardiers don't look terribly accurate to me, and I don't actually like spending all her focus so that her infantry can counterattack after feat turn and just level the playing field. I prefer to charge her into the enemy with some flanking going on and take out a 'caster or at least a heavy.

I haven't gotten the chance to play her with with kitted out Trenchers or Trencher Commandoes. Hell, even Rangers look interesting with her, as they make Stormblades into a serious ranged threat with Crusader's Call and Assault. I'm of the opinion that she actually helps a lot of Cygnar out, but she does it in such a way that she's difficult to use.

-Merlin out