Kingdom Con Part: 1 Team Tournament

I just got back from Kingdom con and I figured I should write some of this down. I really enjoyed Kingdom con this year. I got a hotel this time around and wanted to make it more then a one day event and really had a lot more fun with it then last year.    This post is going to be about the team tournament I participated in with Greg.

The Format

• The tournament is 50 points for both players, so that gives us 25 points a piece.
• 10 minute rounds
• Steam roller 2012 scenarios

The Lists

I brought the Mercenaries. The main goal of this list is heavy support/shooting which is polar opposite of Greg's. Also the feat is heavy damage denial which doubles up on Thagrosh1's damage denial.

Fiona the Black (*6pts)

* Mariner (8pts)

* Mariner (8pts)

Long Gunner Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)

Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile (2pts)

Greg brought Thagrosh1 with heavy beasts. Legion has very heavy hitting beasts and with Thagrosh1 they get very hard to kill very quickly.

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight (*5pts)

* Angelius (9pts)

* Carnivean (11pts)

* Scythean (9pts)

Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)

The combination of -2 strength, +2 armor animus, a feat of complete denial (-1 dice on everything!), and if they actually kill a beast he just brings it back.

Overall one of our strongest benefits was our opponents have no clue how our army synergies.

Rounds

I'm way too tired to go into heavy details. So every round is just going to have it's major bullet points.

Round 1 vs. Denny2/Saeryn

• Long Gunners with Nonokrion Brand blasted Denny2 off the table on turn 2.
• Saeryn uses his feat + all the bane thralls/knights make the game go a lot longer then we expected.
• Scythean all stars all of the bane thralls tough
• Skarlock kills the shepherd! (didn't really matter but was amusing)
• Finally we assassinate Saeryn with Legion beasts.

Round 2 vs. Barnabas/Ossyan

• Long gunners blast 2 gators off the table with Iron flesh
• Scythean honey badgers into the retribution army tearing down Banshee on turn 2.
• Angelius flails against Phoenix failing miserably
• Barnabus feats + Ossyan feats and they almost kill Thagrosh putting him around 4 points. Only survives because Fiona had feated turn before.
• Greg forgets to heal his Scythean right next too Ossyan - fail turn, enough said.
• Fiona dies after 2 turtle shots + a spell from Barnabus. Luckily it puts Barnabus in charge range of the carnivean.
• Greg redeems himself. Angelius repulses stuff off the carnivean. Carnivean charges and destroys Barnabus.
• Thagrosh1 charges and eats Ossyan

Round 3 vs. Denny1/Sorscha2

• This was absolutely brutal.
• We hid in the corner forcing them to us while long gunners destroyed Nyss Hunters and Great Bears.
• War witch siren locks down Carnivean for 6 rounds with shadow bound. The game went 9 rounds.
• eEyriss shoots the angelius to strip off Denny's crippling grasp. Letting Angelius to charge and destroy nightmare.
• Beast 09 and widowmakers destroy the mariners/long gunners
• Fiona survives 2 turns of windowmakers/kayazy's then finally dies to Sorscha 2 melee assassination.
• Carnivean then eats Sorscha 2 (yes Fiona was bait.... again)
• Finally Thagrosh fights off Kayazy while Scythean and Carnivean chase around Denegra finally killing her.

Greg and I walk away victorious! We had 180 battle points with the next closest team around 120 battle points so they gave us the victory. Was a lot of very hard fought battles with nasty double feats. Great fun!

Later that night...

• We decided to play another game vs. the other team who was undefeated. 
• Mortenebra and Karchev. The tow of Deathjack and Beast 09 was brutal. They kill an angelius. 
• We then feat bring back the angelius and counter punch their face off. 
• Long gunners took care of winter guard.
• They surrender early.

Fiona The Black vs. Absylonia

I hadn't got to play since the blizzard Warmachine/wrath event and everything went as I expected. Terribly. Whenever I take long breaks between playing my skill level drastically drops. Something I think lots of people suffer from. The more experience you have usually the quick you can recover.

I play Fiona The Black as I'm deciding to take a break from my Circle and go back to my Mercs for awhile. I do really love them and have had the most success with them as well! I am a big fan of how bizarre of a list I can make while how effective it can be as well. Mercenaries are the ultimate rogue faction in my opinion. More often the not my opponents will always ask for a few of my cards which includes my caster. This always makes me laugh as that typically gives me a good advantage.

My opponent who is a good friend of mine Greg pulled out his Legion. His typical casters are Thagrosh1 and Absylonia. He is very good at running beast heavy and manipulating them to high effectiveness.

My list was very odd but so is Fiona.

Fiona the Black (*6pts)

* Mariner (8pts)

* Mule (8pts)

* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)

Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs (Sam and 9 Grunts) (7pts)

* Buccaneer (3pts)

Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

* Ghordson Driller (6pts)

* Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps Officer & Standard (3pts)

Long Gunner Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Anastasia di Bray (2pts)

Dirty Meg (2pts)

Greg's list was

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight (*5pts)

* Shredder (2pts)

* Angelius (9pts)

* Carnivean (11pts)

* Scythean (9pts)

* Seraph (8pts)

Blighted Nyss Striders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)

* Blighted Nyss Striders Officer & Musician (3pts)

Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)

Strider Deathstalker (2pts)

Strider Deathstalker (2pts)

The Forsaken (2pts)

My battle plan

The main goal of the army was to shoot my opponent to death. Use roth's mercy on Sam so she'll be the last to die. The brand on long gunners so nobody is save within 14 inches of them. Throw arc node onto Anastasia di Bray because of stealth and parry. Use the driller and Hammerfall High Shields too to take the brunt of my enemies attacks. Pretty basic.

The Scenario

Close quarters

Round 1

I had the first turn and move forward. I didn't move very far forward  as the Striders were going to be in range next turn so my dwarves shield walled.

My opponent seeing that my long gunners were safe behind the dwarven shield wall decided to run around to position himself and threaten Anastasia. The deathstalkers took some shots into the Devil Dogs which I quickly learned why i'm going to love Roth's Mercy. It denies their 2nd shot.

Death Total: Nothing

Round 2

Anastasia repositions herself to arc node into the Striders leader to remove reform from the unit. Fiona then arcs through her blowing up the UA.

The Mariner takes a shot and scatters to take down another Strider. The mule positions himself on the hill near the Devil Dogs. The devil dogs pronto the bucaneer who then charges and takes down a death stalker. The driller then charges and destroys a Strider.

Greg then uses his Scythean to kill the Buccaneer. The striders take a few cra's into the dwarves. The Angelius then gets slip streamed and slams into the mule perfectly boxing it.

Death Total: Death Stalker, 3 Striders, Buccaneer, 2 Hammerfall, Mule

Round 3

The dwarves and long gunners do some CRA's into the Angelius destroying it. The mule missess the shepherd but the scatter connects and kills him. Sam takes a shot killing another Deathstalker. I also pop my feat this turn.

Greg then decides to aim with the Carnivean and spray into the dwarves which all missed since he was in Fiona's feat range. Then the Scythean engaged the Devil dogs and missed because of Fiona's feat. The Striders and Seraph took a few shots killing a few more dwarves.

Death Total: More dead striders and hammer fall. Angelius, and Deathstalker.

Round 4

I open up 2 CRA's into the Carnivean from the Long gunners while the dwarves who barely have anything left move up and shoot at the Striders more with the driller engaging a few. The Devil Dogs knock down the Scythean but fail to roll any substantial damage. Sam then takes an aimed hand cannon killing the forsaken.

The scythean frenzies killing a devil dog. Greg then feats healing up all his beasts. The Carnivean charges into the Mariner doing some damage but over all the dice rolls failed him.  The seraph moves up and kills 2 long gunners.

Death Total: Devil dogs, Striders, hammer fall, long gunners, forsaken.

Round 5

With Greg in my face I give 3 focus to the Mariner and starts to beat on the Carnivean. The Long Gunners with a nuke from Fiora blast the Seraph off the table. The Devil dogs keep beating on the Scythean knocking him down again.

Greg eats a free strike on  his Carnivean and engages Fiora. With abysmal rolls only does 6 damage to her. This required his warlock to be moved up. Giving me a serious assassination attempt. More other non important stuff dies. Scythean tramples over to try and protect Absylonia.

Death Total: Devil dogs, Hammer fall including leader (only standard left), Seraph, Strider (gogo uncontrolled Shredder)

Round 6

I do 2 8 man CRAs into Absylonia then move up a 3 focused Mariner killing her.

Conclusion

Overall I really like Fiora but the list wasn't what I expected. The dwarves are way too slow and with how her feat works I really think some more jam units would be better. I like how Sam's unit performed, very versatile. Here is the next list I'm going to try. Adding the Mule to the Devil dogs for Pronto.

Fiona the Black (*6pts)

* Mariner (8pts)

Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs (Sam and 9 Grunts) (7pts)

* Buccaneer (3pts)

* Mule (8pts)

Long Gunner Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)

Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)

Anastasia di Bray (2pts)

Dirty Meg (2pts)

Ragman (2pts)

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)

Reserves:

Min Steelhead Cavalry

Stannis

Wrath/Domination Event!

Going to do this post a little differently then my past one's. I'm going to mainly leave the space for pictures and leave writing to a minimum. Though I'll help the story arc with captions. Though overall I played 6 games in 6 hours and had a blast. Found both the scenarios really should've been tested further and were very open to exploitation. Since it is a one off event that isn't competitive it didn't ruin my fun at all. The players were a real joy and no weird rules disputes or unclean play to be seen from my opponents. Overall I had a blast! Now to the pictures.

Khador and Cryx set up for battle in there first game!

Two entertaining lists battle out in the Domination scenario.

Trollbloods go up against one of our 3 Legion players, the most played faction that day.

pStryker vs. Kaleyssa - wow Jay had spent some serious time on figuring out how to 2 turn win this one. :P

Barnabus charges across the no mans land into incoming Legion forces!

This is me pondering if I could kill Mortenebra with only electro leaps. Go double strider lists!

Rhyas is moments from decapitating poor Sorscha with a 26 damage after armor roll!

Mike's awesome painted Legion.

Constance slams into the Trollbloods!

Look at the Thunder pig on the left and ignore Stryker being eaten on the right!

This is me finally being fed up with losing with pStryker and cheesing the scenario for a win on turn 3.

Merc's being lead by our Press Ganger Doug.

Few dice down games at the end of the day.

Awesome paint job by Steve. Such an amazing tongue! Keep staring until you get it.

Baldur2 vs. Harbinger

I played a fun game this weekend vs. my buddy Greg. He brought Harbinger and I brought Baldur2. I am a pretty big fan of this style of match up for Circle since I run mainly construct style units with Baldur so I get to ignore awe and reckoner cloud making those amazing jacks Defense 14 vs. living targets.  Here is the list break downs of our 50 point battle.

The Lists

Baldur the Stonesoul (*5pts)
* Ghetorix (11pts)
* Megalith (11pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
Celestal Fulcrum (9pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Stoneward and 5 Woldstalkers (5pts)
Stoneward and 5 Woldstalkers (5pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)

Harbinger of Menoth (*5pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon (3pts)
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)
Reclaimer (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

This is his classic Harbinger list which is a little abnormal to the elists without the book and a few other normal choices. I am still trying to figure out Baldur2 and haven't really locked in a list that fits my play style yet. 

This one was an attempt to break out of my first list I had made with him which was a tier list. Going to spend a bit of time breaking down some of the elements of the list and why I thought they were a good idea. If you just want the battle report skip to the "Battle Report"section.

Megalith is an auto include for Baldur in my opinion. With his self damaging +strength ability the counter healing Megalith brings is amazing. On top of this Megalith is easily the best warbeast in the faction and I would include him in almost every list without character restrictions.

Ghetorix is very efficent killing machine. With mat 7 pow 19 reach attacks he can easily remove models from the table. That coupled with unyielding bringing him to armor 19 then adding roots of earth throwing him up to armor 22 in combat makes for a very hard to deal with warbeast. The biggest issue with having him in the list is that I'm committing both named warbeasts in the faction to 1 warlock.

Woldguardians are amazing scenario pieces with the ram rule. Letting me move things out of zones.

Celestial Fulcrum offers some amazing infantry clearing capabilities and with Baldur can get to armor 21 which allows it to live longer.

Gallows groves really help Baldur spread out the +3 armor buff he has and crevasse is a pretty effective infantry kill spell as well.

Battle Report

We randomed a scenario and got Supply and Demand. If you don't know the scenario here is where you can find it http://privateerpress.com/organized-play/steamroller-tournaments. I won the dice roll and decided to go first.

Baldur2 Turn 1

Ran the battle engine forward along with my beasts. Megalith and Woldguardian ran into my circle while Ghetorix and a unit of woldstalkers moved forward to threaten my opponents circle and objective. Gallow groves took flanking positions on both right and left side to help set up +armor buffs later in the game.

My first mistake was putting +3 armor on the battle engine instead of the Woldguardian who was up front. As the battle engine is immune to fire and wasn't going to take reckoner damage anyway.

Harbinger Turn 1

The paladins ran into his circle. Avatar run up the middle of the battlefield. Both reckoners ran forward and shot the woldguardian for about 8 damage. The errants ran toward my circle and threatened to contest it on turn 2 for a capture point. Harbinger moved forward and popped her feat.

Baldur2 Turn 2

The celestial fulcrum started this turn off with a bang killing 8 errants with his spray, 4 inch pow 15 aoe and the leap from the lightning bolt. The lightning bolt did some damage to the reckoner and disrupted it. A nice side bonus from a crit. The woldstalkers (lovingly nicknamed shrimps) on the right side took a few shots and killed another errant. Ghetorix scared of Harbinger's feat and avatar counter charge decided to run back behind the battle engine getting ready to counter punch anything that attacks it. Looking at you Mr. Avatar. Baldur moves up and feats giving everything +3 armor.

Harbinger Turn 2

Avatar rolls a 2 and generates 3 focus. Avatar then charges the battle engine killing it with the final blow, the avatar is enlivened at this point. One of the reckoners charges into the Wold Guardian failing to kill it at armor 23. The paladins move forward to the front the circle threatening to counter anything contesting the objective.  Reckoner is contesting the zone so control point for Menoth.

Baldur2 Turn 3

I need the Avatar dead and with enliven I need it to not run away after the first hit. I decide to teleport Megalith next to the Avatar and 2 hand throw him back toward my army where Ghetorix is waiting to crush him. The throw succeeds and Ghetorix then moves up to the knocked down avatar and proceeds to maul it. I move my left flank of shrimp into the control zone and contest his objective while taking shots at some of the vassals who are martyred. The right unit of shrimp put some damage on a reckoner. The rest of the errants are punched to death by the Wold Guardian. This was a mistake that I was forced too by recasting Roots of Earth on him without realizing he wasn't in melee range of the Reckoner who was in reach range.

Harbinger Turn 3

The paladins charge into Megalith who is currently armor 22 and rolls incredibly high putting him at 10 hit points. The reckoner who isn't engaged (doh!) charges Ghetorix but fails to do anything noticeable. The Harbinger then charges a shrimp and cataclysms to others clearing the objective. Menoth is now at 2 control points.

Baldur2 Turn 4

With pending objective win for Menoth I knew I had to get a little risky. I teleported gallows groves next to the paladins. I then attacked the reckoner with Ghetorix who fails to roll anything noticeable with lots of 3's and 4's for damage. This now threw me into a little bit of a pickle. Baldur then charges Vilmon crushing him with strength 18 due to wurm tokens. Harbinger can't martyr him due to Gallows Groves heal prevention. The last remaining shrimp on the left takes a shot at Harbinger and does 9 damage to her. Doh! Should have taken this shot before I activated Baldur, because now a spell assassination was viable. Megalith was still engaged with 2 paladins, so he tramples over both next tot he objective to prevent an easy Menoth victory. In the process he kills one.

Harbinger Turn 4

As this turn starts I notice the biggest mistake so far. I filled up Ghetorix and with Megalith at 13 due to some healing my 4 transfers that were meant to protect Baldur from dying as he's in the middle of the table is bad news. Harbinger activates and drops a boosted pow 18 cataclysm on Megalith killing him. Then a full focused choired Reckoner walks up and brains Baldur.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this game. Overall I think Baldur2 isn't a bad match up vs. Harbinger but that scenario is tricky. I made some mistakes that hopefully I can learn from. Ghetorix is hard as nails with Baldur2 but I'm not sure if I'm willing to commit both character beasts 2 one list. Gallows groves worked perfectly and the battle engine did what I brought it for. Greg is getting pretty proficient with his Harbinger lists and can really capitalize on situations making him a great practice opponent. Thanks for the game! The shrimps bring some solid shooting, but I'm still not in love with them. I'm tempted to try Bloodtrackers, because even though on feat turn they'll still die to any normal hit they will be relatively safe from blast damage. I'll have to mess around with some more lists to figure it out.

Carver vs Moshar Battle Report

A quick nod goes out to Greg.  Good job Greg on getting his shifting stones all painted up!  They look fantastic and great conversions.  Go desert circle!

Carver vs. Moshar

We are on week 4 of our Journeyman league.  As such games slow down, painting speeds up, some people drop out, some people really kick it up.  I was luckily able to grab a game in on Saturday, and it was a very enjoyable one.

Turn 1 - Carver cast mobility and batten down the hatches then moved forward 8 inches.  The brigands moved forward and dug in.  Slaughterhousers ran too the hill followed by 2 gun boars directly behind them.  Targ moves up to support them and gets ready for herding if necessary.  War Hog (first game with Thunder Hog!) runs forward as Carver's body guard.  Also a quick note, the Druids won't be able to push him back as Carver is directly behind him.

Picture for some reason was really fuzzy.  Still gives off a sense of the current battlefield.

The mannikin's move up with a teleporting sentry stone.  Druids advance forward and spam some clouds.  As well as some reshifting.

Turn 2 - The Slaughterhousers run forward, followed by a barrage of attacks from the Gun Boars killing 2 Druids.  Brigands move up and land a shot dealing 7 damage to Moshar.

Circle retaliates by attacking with an Argus.  After some amazing tough rolls (3 passes) he kills nothing.  The Druids then fail to kill the knocked down model with a few attacks and kill off a Slaughterhouser.  The feral warpwolf manuvers over to the flank.  Looking to line up some sort of assassination run in the future.  Also drop down a pillar locking Caver in.

Turn 3 - Carver opens it up by casting Batten Down the Hatches and Mobility maneuvers around the pillar, pops his feat and crushes the pillar.  The Brigands do hog wild and fire then engage the druids killing off a few.  This is where the druids fail their leadership.  War Hog maneuvers over near the Gun Boars and casts Massacre onto the Gun Boar.  Who then charges the Warpwolf boosts to hit and does a 4 damage dice attack dealing nothing to the Warpwolf.  His next attack deals 7 damage to the Warpwolf.  I then charge with my Slaughterhousers only doing 1 full 3 inch charge onto the Warpwolf.  He lands the attack and rolls 5 damage dice!  Dealing 15 damage to the Warpwolf followed by the other Slaughterhouser finishing off the Warpwolf.

Argus on the flank maneuvers around to line up an attack on something in my rear battlefield, maybe Carver. Moshar then is teleported by the shifting stones and takes a spray attack and a spell attacking doing only a few damage.

Turn 4 - Slaughterhouser charges Moshar putting a few damage on him and killing an Argus from the transfer.  Followed up by a hit by a brigand for only a few more damage.  Then the Gun Boar charges into Moshar taking every fury to land the killing blow!

Conclusion
Mental note, circles movement shenanigans are really fun to do and really bizarre to face.  I think the biggest issues there were too many support tools in the Circle force and Carver turns everything into a killing force during the feat turn. I think as points grow larger Greg's Moshar force will grow more deadly.

Week 3 Battle Reports and Recap of Current Totals

We had four battle fought tonight with plenty more to happen throughout the week.  Our current totals stand at...


Recap of the Journeyman League Totals

Cryx                                                 11pts

Cryx

Legion                                              5pts

Merc - Pirates - Nicole                   37pts

Minions - Thornfall - John              27pts

Minions - Blindwater - Lucas          9pts

Khador                                             21pts

Cygnar                                              2pts

Cygnar

Menoth                                             3pts

Circle                                                6pts

Circle

Skorne                                              11pts

Retribution                                       6pts

We definitely have a few front runners with Pirates getting a lot of games in and the most painted models.  Great job Nicole!  I'm currently in second with Steve nipping at my heals at 3rd.  The only different between Steve and I is the 6 points I've received from painting so far.

I also love how some of our new players are showing great improvement, great job Lucas and Matt!

Now to the battle reports (most of these will be short as I didn't fully watch any of the games)

Khador vs. Pirates

Sorscha                        Bartolo Montador
Destroyer                     Mariner
Juggernaught                 Freebooter
Bombadiers (min)         Buccaneer
Manhunter                    Aiyana and Holt
                                    Bloody Bradigan
                                    Dougal MacNaile

This battle started out with some barrages from both sides and quickly escalated into an all out throw down.  Bart popped his feat first and applying pressure to Khadors forces killing off the Bombadiers and Manhunter quickly.  Then Khador retaliated by pressuring the high armor warjacks.  The battle quickly boiled down to Bart surviving Sorscha's assassination attempt who then wind rushed away as it obviously wasn't working out.

Bart retaliated by eating a free strike and charging Sorscha.  She survived his barrage of attacks and brought the full force of her army onto him.  Missed both of the Juggernaught attacks needing 7's, landed the Destroyers attack putting Bart to 3.  Sorscha missed all of her attacks but one and failed to crack the Pirate Captains armor!

With the fresh reprieve Bart finished off Sorscha who was no longer defense 18.

Minions (Barnabas) vs. Skorne

Barnabas                               Morghoul
Spitter                                   2xSavages
Wrastler                                Gladiator
Croak Hunter                        Bloodrunners (min)
Thrullg                                   Void Spirit
Feralgeist                               Beast Handlers
Totem Hunter

As I watched the previous battle more I didn't catch much of this game's details.  Skorne claimed victory though, undefeated at this point!

Skorne vs. Pirates

Bartolo Montador                 Morghoul
Mariner                                 2x Savages
Freebooter                            Gladiator
Buccaneer                             Accuraii
Bloody Bradigan                   Beast Handlers
Dougal MacNaile
Aiyana and Holt

Pirates used their advantage very heavily with their shooting to force Skorne to close the gap and come to them.  Unfrotunately for Adam and his Skorne, Nicole's shooting really hammered his army.  That combined with Bart's feat really left him without many good options.  Skorne was out done by the Pirates shooting as Bart claimed a second victory and ending Adams win streak!


Khador  vs. Minions (Barnabas)


Sorscha                     Barnabas
Destroyer                  Spitter
Juggernaught             Wrastler
Bombadiers               Croak Hunter
Manhunter                 Thrullg
                                 Totem Hunter

Sorscha used her Khador forces very effectively to close the gap on the gators and line up Sorscha on a solid assassination run.  This was very effective as early on the charge lane opened up and Steve took it.  Slamming into Barnabas and using her feat to make every blow hit.  Barnabas went down with Sorscha's last attack, but the victory was short lived as Barnabas survived by a tough check.

Next turn after shrugging off stationary Barnabas clobbered Sorscha to death with a whirlwind of attacks.

A Saturday of gaming and painting

Bart's loyal Mariner

Gaming this Saturday was very low key. It was only my friends Greg, Steve and myself interested in playing. Nicole and I painted earlier in the morning, while she continued to paint throughout the rest of the day. She cranked out two beautiful Pirate Jacks AAARGH!  I finally finished up my warlock, Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq. III.  You can discuss a lot about his spells and stats, but nobody can argue he has easily the best name in HORDES.

Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq. III

The first battle today was a quick Kaya vs. Sorscha where Steve taught Greg the 19 inch threat trick.

Freebooter, Master of Hog Throwing

After that battle Greg challenged me and we had a Carver vs. Kaya battle. Just one game for the league, and then we decided to do a 50 point battle for fun.  I learned a lot of tricks this battle, one them being spirit door is a very hard, specially when Greg filled out the rest of his force with two units of shifting stones to add on to the movement shenanigans of his force.  He picked me apart with Spirit door slowly removing my Gun Boars then doing a drive by on the War Hog and poor carver trapped in the middle of shifting stones.  A very dirty trick I had taught Greg years ago!  As Carver was smashing through the stones Kaya lined up her Feral Warpwolf and proceeded to go piggy bowling! All in all a very amusing game.

The second game was a Harbinger vs. Maelok. Greg has a very effective Harbinger list he's been practicing and I think Maelok is one of the better options for Minions when facing the all powerful 12 year old blind girl.  The game started out very much in my favor with a good Bog Trogg ambush onto his knights errant.  Destroying everyone in the unit except the standard bearer that turn. Totem hunter and Gator Posse finished off the Seneshal.  Greg retaliated with a very powerful ranged turn from a Reckoner doing devastating blows to Maelok.  I didn't protect him nearly enough, and with purification removing spiny growth he was down to his 17 armor. Harbinger also popped her feat.

Maelok retaliated by popping his feat, effectively negating Harbinger's feat, though the Bog Trogs and Wrong Eye were too far away to be affected by Maelok's counter feat. I slammed into the paladins with the Gatormen Posse and Bull Snapper forcing Harbinger to martyr roughly 8 times, this was only doable because Greg kept rolling 1 point of damage!

The next turn Greg opened a charge lane with some paladin killing blows, including Vilmon slaying 1 of his own paladins of the wall! (Moral victory right there in my opinion.) Then sent the Avatar right at Maelok who was sitting on 3 transfers but only 2 hit points left.  The Avatar with guided hand rolls 3 1's missing Maleok with the charge attack. After the laughter subsided he took two more attacks forcing me to pass off 2 transfers.  Then the Reckoner took a ranged shot at Maelok needing an 11 to hit and connected, also setting him on fire.  This was transfered off as well.  Now for all the marbles.  The vassal moved up to the Reckoner and did an ancillary attack needing a 9 to hit on two dice.  Rolled an 11 and finishing off Maelok.

All an all a I like Maelok.  I think I would drop a turtle for another Gatormen Posse and tweak the list a little further.  I also want to experiment with Calaban vs. Harbinger.  I think I might be able to angle some good tricks vs. her.  Maelok is a little heavily reliant on some key up keeps, that are hard to manage with purification on a 10 focus caster.

Next up on the painting block is Thunder Pig!  Though I have no idea how long he will take to crank out. Until next time!

Battle Reports

I've tried writing battle reports in multiple different ways so far. I have found a few different things about them so far. The rigid turn by turn can be fun and seems fitting for tournament level games.   The short synposis work fine when doing a quick recap of battle box games.  Casual games seem to have an effective hybrid, using turn by turn but also just covering the highlights instead of heavy detail.

Another detail about battle reports that I enjoy is remembering the games. Thinking about the key moments, the ups and the downs and recapping the major high lights of the battle.

When I get lucky enough to write up a report with the person I played against the back and forth is also a very enjoyable experience.  The banter, the smack talking and the laughing about a bad dice roll.

Overall its a quick recap about why I love miniatures, this game and hanging out with friends.  And on that note a short battle report of the game I got in today.

Bart vs. Carver

This battle was another bloody holds no bar slug fest.  As we both get more comfortable with our new found Warlock/Warcasters we start to develop synergies with the spells and warbeasts.  This truly showed itself today.

Bart went first casting hot shot on the mariner and advancing the army forward.  Carver followed suit with mobility and batten down the hatches and moved forward.

Bart fired off the first barrage with the mariner hitting a gun boar but failing to break the palpable 20 armor of the gun boar under the affects of batten down the hatches. This turn Bart put up batten down the hatches as well.

The gun boars fired back doing only a few damage points to Barts army and this transpired back and forth a few turns while the war hog moved up.

The freebooter charged the war hog did minimal damage and failed to 2handed throw.  The war hog retaliated by brutalizing the freebooter, but with batten down the hatches he survived with every system intact except it's cortex.  Without its cortex the freebooter landed both inital attacks doing paltry damage to the war hog.  Then it's time to shine came with a grab and smash 2 handed throw launching the war hog a mighty 8 1/2 inches due to a good scatter away from Carver taking him out of batten down the hatches range.

Bart capitalized on this by spraying twice and mariner firing twice due to broadsides taking the war hog off the table.

Carver retaliated by popping his feat and charging hte freebooter destroying it.  The gun boars charged into the mariner hoping for some solid hits and falling short on scarpping it but putting it in a very damaged state.

Few more turns of dancing between the gun boars and the mariner was ended by carver charging into the mariner after one of the gun boars was bludgeoned to death by its mighty anchor.

Bart not in position to charge carver, without reach and a way to gain pathfinder, angled himself a few sprays before Carver could get a charge off.  Failing to land the critical charge attack Carver bought another attack landed it and boosted putting Bart at 4!

Bart deciding it was time to end the battle clobbered Carver with his initial attack for 11 points of damage!  Nicole has quickly learned the capabilities of her new warcaster and knows how to capitalize on its strengths.

Lather, Rinse and Repeat - Day 2 of Journeyman League

Saturday a group of people for the Journeyman League got together to play some more games.  Two of our players who haven't got games in yet showed up.  Here are a few brief battle reports plus a more detailed one of one of the more epic battles.

Bart vs. Denny

I didn't watch this game in heavy detail except for the ending.  At the end it only only Bart and a mariner vs. Denny.  Denny kept shadow binding the mariner.  Bart finally landed the killing blow after a couple back and forth rounds.  Denny's low mat made it hard for her to win out in a fight vs. Bart who has great melee stats at 15 def 16 armor.

Sorscha vs. Denny

I wasn't there at all for this game.  I was on a pizza run.  Sorscha won with a feat turn assassination run onto Denny with wind rush.

Carver vs. Sorscha

This game was actually really slow and boring so I'll keep it brief.  It was a shoot off, gun boars vs. destroyer. Once the gun boars showed they were going to win Sorscha started doing hit and runs with wind rush.  War hog got a charge off on the juggernaut removing it from the table and with some exceptional shooting I forced Sorscha to come to me.  She failed to kill the war hog by one and died to him on the following turn.

Bart vs. Sorscha

Turn 1 - Mercs

The jack's walked forward with Bart casting Batten Down the Hatches (BDH) and throwing Hot Shot onto the mariner. (Boosted damage rolls)

Turn 1 - Sorscha

Sorscha's battle group advanced under the protection of fog of war.

Turn 2 - Mercs

Bart upkept Hot Shot.  The buccaneer moved forward and attempted to net the destroyer, but fail short.  The freebooter walked up to be able to counter charge anyone who attacked the buccaneer.  Mariner stayed where it was taking an aiming bonus against the destroyer.  The shot hit but did no damage.  Bart broadsided to get another shot out of the mariner and popped his feat(she realizes this was a mistake in hindsight).

Turn 2 - Khador

Sorscha upkept fog of war. The destroyer opened the turn by firing and removing the net arm off of the buccaneer. The juggernaut moved forward in front of Sorscha who then cast wind rush to go up to defense 18.

Turn 3 - Mercs

Bart upkept hot shot.  The buccaneer ran in between the juggernaut and the destroyer locking both into combat and taking a wild pow 10 attack at the destroyer.  The freebooter moved to block a charge lane to Bart.  The mariner fired at the juggernaut doing minimal damage.  Bart then cast BDH.

Turn 3 - Khador

Fog of war finally dropped.  Sorscha casted boundless charge onto the juggernaut, wind rush onto sorscha and then feated and caught all of Bart's battle group in the feat. The destroyer shot the mariner and splashed damage onto Bart, though only doing minimal damage to both. Juggernaut charged the freebooter and was just barely out of charge range.

Turn 4 - Mercs

Bart spent 3 focus to shrug off stationary on everyone except the buccaneer.  Spent another focus to upkeep hot shot. Bart moved up, then the mariner moved up into base to base with Bart  and fired off a shot into the juggernaut missing.  The freebooter stepped up to the juggernaut hit twice doing minimal damage then landed a 2handed throw, but lost in the strength test vs. the juggernaut.

Turn 4 - Khador

Sorscha kept all of her focus.  Sorscha cast wind rush then proceeded to charge Bart. Sorscha did 6 points of damage to Bart and sat on 1 focus.  Never count out Sorscha though, defense 18 is hard to crack. The destroyer fired at the mariner doing 2 more points of damage to Bart and some damage to the mariner but no systems were crippled for Barts battle group yet. The juggernaut moved up and smashed into the freebooter, but spread out the damage so no systems were crippled.

Turn 5 - Mercs

This turn the game got really  quirky.  3 focus went to the freebooter and Bart sat on 3.  The mariner swung at Sorscha missing. Bart moved up boosted to hit and missed and then decided to camp the last two focus. The freebooter successfully hit both initials on the juggernaut doing only minimal damage, and with the grab and smash rule took a 2handed throw attempt again. This time succeeding and targeting Sorscha with her own juggernaut. The attack missed scattering directly into the middle of Sorscha, Bart, and the mariner.  Moving the smaller casters.  Bart didn't get knocked down due to being moved into base to base with the mariner who has the lash rule.  This knocked down Sorscha and the juggernaut, the juggernaut didn't have any crippled systems. The buccaneer moved up and engaged the destroyer.

Turn 5 - Khador

Sorscha paid to stand herself up leaving her with 5 focus.  Sorscha with reach bought and boosted two unsuccessful attacks.  The third attack connected putting Bart down to four health! The juggernaut stood up forfeiting his movement.  Took a swing with his axe missing and then took a swing with the fist connecting!  Though the damage roll didn't go in Khador's favor only doing 2 damage to Bart leaving him at 2 hit points! The destroyer took a freestrike from the buccaneer doing nothing and fired at the mariner hoping to splash damage onto Bart.  The attack missed and scattered onto Sorscha, mariner, and juggernaut doing 1 point to Sorscha leaving her at 4 hit points!

Turn 6 - Mercs

Bart allocated 3 focus to the freebooter, 1 to the mariner and left 2 on Bart.  The freebooter moved up with a backstrike swung on Sorscha with a boost needed an 8 and missed.  The second attack found its mark and with a boosted damage roll of 1 .... 1 ... then a 5.  Doing enough damage and ending the game!  The craziest game I've seen yet in our Journeyman League.

Journeyman League Starts!

Our journeyman league started today!  I love teaching new players how to play.  We got a few new players to try out armies and have some fun first time experiences.

Our Journeyman League consists of almost every faction which makes me very excited!

The list of factions and points currently earned...

Cryx

Cryx

Legion                                  2pts

Merc - Pirates                      5pts

Minions - Thornfall               6pts

Minions - Blindwater            4pts

Khador

Cygnar

Cygnar

Menoth

Circle                                    6pts

Skorne                                  3pts

Retribution

My first two games, which are mangled metal battle box games for people who don't know, were Blindwater and Mercs.

Bloody Barnabas vs. Lord Carver

Right before Carver charged Barnabas to seal the deal.

First round was me reshifting my army across the battlefield as the gators deployed on the opposite side near the lake.  While the gator player advanced (his second game of Warmachine!), we went over a lot of the basics while I tried to remember all the important details and rules Lucas needed to know.

Second round was a barrage of gun boars vs. the spitter ranged attacks.  I missed both my shots on the Iron Flesh wrastler and he landed a hit with the spitter on the boar tagging both with the corrosion.

Third round I fired both gun boars into Barnabas getting him to use his two transfers.  I then went with Lord Carver popped my feat (making him a weapon master), cast mobility (taking care of the swamp pit) and charged Barnabas.  The first hit landed a devastating blow of 34 damage putting Barnabas at 1 hit point.  I then bought another attack and finished the job, even though the attack only did a few damage.

Funny part is, things would've got really tricky if he had passed his tough roll.

Bartolo Montador vs. Lord Carver

This game was very amusing.  Though Montador and Carver's feats are very different the armies player very similar.  Both having batten down the hatches(BDH), with hindsight I think the edge went in my favor with BDH countering the knock down portion of his feat.

First few rounds were Gun Boars firing into the mariner while the Mariner fired back into a gun boar.  I landed a devastating blow early on with a 15 damage roll on dice.  Though the gun was the one system that stayed in tact.

The buccaneer moved up and tied up the gun boars.  Another shot from the mariner into my warhog, who then got charged by the freebooter.  The freebooter was played very well and did some damage to my warhog then tossed the war hog out of my warlocks control range.  Effectively allowing it to be knocked down even though BDH was up and did some serious damage as it got thrown into a wall.

The next turn I had to use Carver to destroy the buccaneer, and fired off another shot at the Mariner.  Since the war hog was out of my control area I couldn't stand him up in the maintenance phase so I just stood up and moved back into the control area.

Montador repeated the tactic and moved up pounded on the war hog with a few hits and tried to throw the hog again.  Luckily for me I was able to win the strength  test 1 dice vs. 2.  This was game altering, allowing me to destroy the healthy freebooter with my war hog as it only had 5 damage boxes left.  This was then followed up with some gun boars firing into the mariner making it a wreck marker.

Montador now standing alone takes advantage of the wreck markers around him for cover and sprays into my gun boar, but his 20 armor (thank you BDH) blocked the majority of the attack.  I moved up with Carver popped my feat and cast mobility.  Both gun boars knowing they won't hit Bart with +4 def charge.  The first attack lands, I pick up my four dice to roll damage very excited!  Bart sitting on 4 focus points gets ready to take a brutal attack.  The dice roll ... 1 ... 1 ... 3 ... 3.  I looked at the dice amazed, I've done no damage.  The next attack swings, connects, and does 3 points of damage to Bart.  The next boar goes, misses his charge attack, lands his second attack and does 1 or 2 more points of damage to Bart.  I definitely thought I had the game in the bag on that turn.

Bart activates, slaugthers the damaged gun boar collecting a blood quencher token (+1 str + 1 armor) and takes overtake to move an inch farther from Carver.  

Carver casts mobility and charges Bart. I land the charge attack and put Bart to 5 hit points.  Carver then missed his next attack.  At this point I start to sweat, I know if I missed the next attack or even connect but Bart makes his tough check I'll be in a world of pain.  I land the blow and finish off his hit points.  My opponent (who happens to be my wife) picks up the dice knowing if she could roll a 5 or 6 the game was in the bag.  Stares me in the eye and rolls the die.  It comes up a 4.

I must give the MVP too Batten Down the Hatches.  That spell is amazing, even more so vs. the match ups I had today.  Barnabas and Bart both have knockdown feats and the buccaneer couldn't throw his net on me all game.

Very close game and very enjoyable.

Tuesday night gaming vs. Khador with a splash of Skorne

Had two fun games tonight.

Carver vs. pMorghoul.

First game was a quick battle box game.   Carver drew the first blood removing a Savage.  This quickly turned bad as he countered heavily by killing off my War Hog.  My back plan was to  pop my feat with weapon master gun boars and kill his Gladiator.  This never came to be as he popped his feat and stopped me from being able to force my beasts.

As I realized I was in serious trouble I knew I had to get aggressive. I popped my feat charged Morghoul and missed the charge attack needing a 10 with a boosted attack. Followed up with a hit doing 14 damage to his Gladiator from the transfer, then landed 11 damage onto Morghoul.  That was my turn.

Carver's battle box

I was in a weird spot, his beats were tied in with the Gun Boars and Morghoul had pow 9 attacks vs. Carver's 17 armor.  Adam (the skorne player) proceeded to roll exceptionally well with 2 16's and a 14 for damage. Doing a ton of damage to carver but not sealing the deal.  The gladiator walks away from both gun boars eating two free strikes.  Which did a whooping 2 damage to him.  Then boosted an attack with his mind blown giving him 2 dice to hit needing 9's.  He lands his first attack killing carver!  Adam walked away with his first hordes game triumphantly!

Now for the main event.

Dr. Arkadias vs. Karchev

I love Arkadias vs. Khador players.  I find it a great match up if you can position your feat well. I won the first turn due to my +1 from Arkadias's tier bonus.  I decided to go first and rushed forward to take advantage of the terrain and force him to come to my chokes.

Karchev pushed his threat range advantage a little too far and failed a Drago charge onto my War Hog.  He removed my gun boar from play and threatened me with  a Berserker on the other flank.  My War Hogs including the feat turn removed 2 Berserkers, the Slaugtherhousers removed the other one on the flank.  Finally my last War Hog killed a few Iron Fang Pikemen.

Battlefield after the hog''s ate Karchev's berserkers

Karchev now without warjacks had little options left.  Tried to get some bombard's plus sprays on Arkadius to no avail.  Next turn two aggression dialed War Hogs did the final points to Karchev for victory.

Overall a fun night of gaming.

Day of the Pig!

With the new Journeyman League rules I have decided to start a new faction, Minions.  Even more specifically I will be targeting the Farrow pigs.  Truth be told my wife already owns a nice collection of gators I can use if I find necessary.

I picked up a nice assortment of piggies to try out.  I even took a list to a local steam roller rocking Dr. Arkadius and Barnabas (much simpler caster).  I did fairly well considering I had only played one of the lists once before the event and placed second over all.  Here is a quick write up of the event.  Normally battle reports will have pictures and more details.  Though this will be covering 4 games and is a few weeks old in my memory.

The lists were...

Dr. Arkadius
  -Gun Boar
  -War Hog
  -War Hog
  -War Hog
  -Targ
4 Farrow Bone Grinders
6 Farrow Brigands
6 Farrow Slaughterhousers

Bloody Barnabas
  -Blackhide Wrastler
  -Bull Snapper
  -Ironback Spitter
  -Ironback Spitter
Feralgeist
5 Gatorman Posse
Thrullg

First Game
Arkadius vs. an eIrusk and claimed the game with a tiebreaker when dice down was called.

Second Game
Bloody Barnabas vs. Vyros.  This game I won through scenario claiming 3 control points.  Barnabas's feat really helped this game letting me destroy 9 Invictors, a Phoenix, Hydra and 3 Sentinels in one turn.

Third Game
Bloody Barnabas vs. Siege.  This game was almost decided by the fact he had two shooty lists and no experience vs swamp pit.  This match up would be a game for me to lose, and I almost did!  I misread swamp pit and on the second turn misused it.  Allowing him a solid siege feat turn into my army.  Luckily for me I had sat on 2 transfers and had already killed the black thirteenth + some trenchers.  I was able to weather through that turn of shooting and assassinate Siege.

Fourth Game
Bloody Barnabas vs. Rhyas.  This game was really odd from the get go.  We fought for position a bit then the gatormen posse charged into warmongers.  Surprisingly only killing one warmonger.  The battle ebbed back and forth trading models.  It came down to the Ironback Spitter trying to two handed throw the Carnivean out of the circle to claim the last control point and win.  I rolled two 2's, and Legion player rolled a 4.  As a last desperate act Barnabas charged Rhyas needing 9's to hit and rolled 3 sets of 8's.  At this point I knew the game was lost and said I was done.  Legion player aptly removed the final models from the control point and ended the game 2 control points to 1.

Was a very fun event to be apart of and had some great games.