Its hard to win when you forget 2/3's of your casters abilities...

Harbinger of Menoth vs. Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane (Cygnar)
Loss: Assassination

So after a boring Saturday I managed to get a late game in.  I've played a list not so dissimilar to this just after Christmas with my Kreoss2 Exemplar Host and sadly it didn't go so well.  Having never used Harby before I treated this game as a learning process, I used a list that a friend had suggested and substituted the Vengers & Devout I didn't have for Deliverers (because I've never used them before) and a full unit of Bastions (because they can generally take a beating). 

This time I was determined to take my time and not to rush anything or try to force a situation that wasn't coming.

Up until Siege's feat turn (after my turn 3) this was going very well, I had backed of my Reckoners to allow a solid turn of shooting (2 reckoners + 2 vassals virtually one rounded an opposition heavy) without having to sacrifice anything.  I'd also setup a good charge from the Bastions and both Reckoners that should have floored all 3 of his heavies without having to risk them significantly and would really put me in the driving seat.  I'd then feated with Harby to try and stifle his advance.

On Cygnar turn three it really fell to bits, I'd completely forgotten about how good Sieges feat is and promptly lost a Vassal, 2 Bastions (and had the remaining 3 reduced to a single wound each), a Reckoner lost its bat arm and cortex (along with most of its damage boxes) and my Errants, even though in combat, took one hell of  a pounding from sniping, aiming gun mages'.  To add insult to injury Harbys feat ended up with merely 4 points of damage on Siege, half a dozen points of damage amongst his 3 heavy jacks and that was it.  The two targets I thought would be destroyed (boomhowlers & gun mages) were in combat and sniping range so neither needed to move - DOH!!!

For some reason my mind went negative and I decided that at this point for me the game was lost.  My sole chance of victory was an assassination run on Siege, at this point reality and my brain parted company and below hopefully explains what happened:

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BRAIN: Harby floated across first to allow line of sight by destroying the heavily damaged Cygnar jack.
REALITY: The extra range from the Hierophant would have allowed my to at least have a go at damaging Siege directly and the Jack wasn't blocking line of sight anyway.

BRAIN:2 Reckoners lined up with the single surviving Vassal to have a go.
REALITY: Sat in a foxhole at Def16 (Def14 if I managed to flare him), camped on 5 focus the odds of me hitting were minimal and causing enough damage to kill was never going to happen. Alternatively the two Jacks and charging Bastions could probably have wrecked the two opposition heavies to a point where the come back would have been minimal.
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Here is a photo after my turn 4:

So as could have been guessed Siege took around 5 points of damage and then eyed Harby with 2 points of focus.  Two shots from his Cannon and the game was over - she may look awesome but she's very very vulnerable on that big base.

Lessons learnt -

• I actually really enjoyed talking with my opponent after the game, at the point I had decided the game was over it really wasn't.  I should have taken a minute to really look at the board before making rush decisions.
• I forgot to use Martyrdom and Purification the entire game - I think I need a cue card for each caster as a reminder.
• I need at least 3 heavies in each army.  Less than this and playing the heavy trade off game is just bound to fail.

Still a good day and roll on Tuesday!!!

Tournament or two, don't mind if I do!

It's not even the end of Jan and two local tournaments are on the horizon, the second of which I've paid for today - woop! Hopefully I may even win a game or two :-D

Club Night - 26.01.16

Vice Scrutator Vindictus vs. Captain Victoria Haley (Cygnar)
Win: Assassination

This week was a standard 50 point steamroller game vs Cygnar.  Having faced them a few times now I knew roughly what to expect - electricity and single wound models.  To this end I was really looking forward to using this Vindictus Tier list.  Being in an opponents face on turn 1 is really good, also my opponent let me go first so I got the pleasure of ramming everything down his throat turn 1 and seeing where it went.

The game ended with a pair of assassination runs, the first involved a Cygnar run at Vindictus that in all honesty should have killed him.  Everything went to plan including the would be assassin ducking past the guarding Reckoners free strike!!! Unfortunately the dice rolls when everything connected weren't enough and he was left with 4 points left.  After this it was simply a matter of a Reckoner stepping up and blowing a big consecrator sized hole in Haley.

Having said that I could have done a lot better, I completely forgot to min-feat the Zealots that could have made a big difference.  Equally I feat'd Vindictus a turn too late that meant I lost a lot of my screening Errants without causing him any problems.

Lessons learnt -

• Journeyman Warcasters are squishy, its much easier to kill them than the big tough jack.
• Reckoners only need two focus to boost both accuracy and damage - don't waste focus!
• I've now got a solid list for upcoming tournaments.  I just need a little more practice and a list to go with it.

My First 50pt Win and then Blatent Stupidity...

So I managed to sneak in a cheeky midweek game in addition to our usual games night.  This was at the local Wargame store and I really enjoyed it.  It was the third time out for my Kreoss2 Exemplar list (which had caused problems for the opponent in both the games I played before Kreoss was eventually assassinated), it was also my first game against Circle.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss vs. Kaya the Moonhunter (Circle)

Win - Assassination

MY FIRST 50 point win, woohoo!

So not knowing quite what to expect from Circle (aside from lots of speed and movement shenanigans) the game began.  I was facing an awful lot of Argus' (7/8?) and I spent the first few turns trying to edge up slowly and not leave anything exposed.  Whilst they may look a little soft, with 20 something damage boxes each they do take a bit to bring them down.  There were a few benefits though, namely I manager to brick up and challenge both zones fairly early on.  Then having spent a few turns weathering the storm to get into position I feat’d and remove around 80% of his models of the board.  After an attempted assassination on Kreoss all that was left was for Kreoss, Gravus and a pair of Bastions to lay the beat down on Kaya and it was game…

On a personally high note, I still had 60-70% of my list alive at the end and the Jack survived!!

Lessons learnt – stop putting Kreoss in harms way!!!  Also being patient can help, let the screens cause issues whilst everything moves up behind and then when everything is ready feat.

Then it was onto the club for Tuesdays games night:

Grand Exemplar Kreoss vs. Goreshade, Lord of Ruin (Cryx)

Loss - Assassination

Ok, so I’ve played Cryx many times and this guy has previously taken a limited list so as not to completely destroy me utterly.  However purely by chance I ended up taking what is almost a natural counter to the list he took.  By denying him continuous effects, stopping stationary with Gravus and the Book and having lots of magic weapons I should have done better.

So turn one my jamming zealots and Errants got jammed in combat by Ghosts (Errants have magic crossbows not swords – DOH!!!).  So things then went from bad to worse, “I’ll use zealots escaping from combat to turn the ghosts corporeal so my Errants to hit.”  However this then resulted in a new ghost for every errant killed…  Plan B was to get the Bastions in to kill Ghosts but they couldn’t get there as Errants and Zealots were in the way…  All in all it didn’t really go to plan.  The only good thing was smashing his character jack and cavalry on one flank.  However in a fit of rage against the ghosts I charged in Kreoss to kill a pair of them.  Next turn and in swooped Goreshade on his horse and removed Kreoss’ head from his shoulders – I was half an inch too close, ah well, maybe next time.

Lessons learnt – stop putting Kreoss in harm’s way!!!  Be more patient! (I’m sure that I’ve mentioned this before, lol).  Also, with the list I run turn one is very risky as its at this point the Zealots move past the Errants leaving them a little close together.  Knowing my opponents speeds should allow me to prepare and anticipate this a little better.

Slow Grow League - The Results!

So I've played 7 games over 7 weeks and I've won 3 of them.  Thats roughly a 40% win rate which I really can't complain at.  I'm also quite impressed with how much more I know now than I did before, a big thank you to all my fellow mammoths!


It turns out that having played the tournament on Sunday that this weeks games were kind of written off, everyone having had such a great day playing at 50 points and no one wanted to drop back down to 35 points.  But equally over the course of 8 weeks I went from starter boxed set through to a full 50 point tournament where I didn't feel completely useless!  Although admittedly didn't win any games :-D

Tournament Time!

Well yesterday was my first tournament and wow what a major eye opener that was!  I didin't come last (mainly thanks to an odd number of players and me getting an automatic win thanks to a bye).  But having never faced anything bigger than a pair of Khador heavies I ended up facing a Convergeance Colossal that kept healing itself, very bad form, lol!  Equally it could have been worse as most players had at least 1 massive based model in their lists somewhere.  There were also several double Stormwall Haley lists that I would have just cried if I'd faced.

Here's a photo from the all Legion final:

Anyway so how did it go?

Game 1 - Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Hunters Grim (Trolls)
Loss - Assassination
This was against a guy I worked with in GW many many moons ago.  So he brought Trolls and the game was really enjoyable, I was honestly surprised at how easy going the whole thing was.  He equally asked early on about my experience and then decided to play his weaker list into mine - nice guy!  After appearing to go well for the first two turns (he torched many of his own models with a scatter and didn't pass a single tough check all game) it came to turn three with pSevy hiding in a wood.  Mage sight and a Troll Bomber to the face left a small crater where Sevy had been and what turned out to be an easy win.

What I learnt - hiding in a small wood isn't neccesarily any protection at all!

Game 2 - High Exemplar Kreoss vs. Captain Damiano (Merc.)
Win - bye :-D
This game was a bit more of a glorified lesson on how to play from the local Press Ganger.  Turns out he's also a Menoth player so was giving me coaching as I went along and talking me through alternatives and what to do with each unit.  Sadly a little to much information for me to take in all at once but equally I learnt probably 4/5 things which really helped.

What I learnt - take the bye if given the option!  Were it not for this I would have got the wooden spoon.

Game 3 - High Exemplar Kreoss vs. Father Lucant (Convergeance)
Loss - Assassination
So this was the game against a colossal.  I massive eye opener and using what I learnt from the previous game about the power of Enliven actually came in handy.  However I had to much dross and not enough anti armour stuff in my selection, I made a few lucky moves but ultimately with a colossal sat in the zone there was no way i was going to win.

What I learnt - Don't take a caster who's feat is knock down against a caster who can't be knocked down.

Game 4 - Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Old Witch (Khador)
Loss - Scenario
This was the only game I played all day against another Mammoth.  Really enjoyable and was almost a win.  A bit better placement and it could have been a different story!  The ammo cache with light artillery is really good and I learnt a lot about the power of Khador infantry.

What I learnt - Her feat is awesome and stopped me for a turn, however on that turn the Gunline of Sevy left her with a single point of health.

 So all said a really good day, looking forward to doing this again at some point in the future with a bit more knowledge under my belt.

 Heres a photo from the all Legion final:

Slow Grow League

So last night was the first night of the club slow grow campaign...

Confusion reigns...

So I'd made the decision, I'm going to play warmahordes.  I've played a starter game with Khador (vs Cryx - I lost) and now I want to get an army of big Jacks to smash the living daylights out of my opponents! Roarrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So after that moment of clarity I sat down and had a flick through battle college (http://battlecollege.org - definitely worth a look for any warmachine/hordes players).  However all this left me with loads of questions:

1. But what is Warmahordes? 
2. Does it matter which I choose and will it change who I can play against?
3. 11+ Factions/Armies/Warbands whats the difference?
4. Who's the best?

So back to the wargames club for the answers...

Edit 28/01/2016 :

So now I'm 4 months down the line I've since learnt that these are not as stupid as I first thought and are pretty common for new players.  I've answered each below in as simple a way as possible:-

1)   Warmachine and Hordes are basically the same game, but with a small twist.  Think of them as being big stompy robots vs big angry monsters.  As a newbie the difference doesn't matter, just choose who you like and play!

For those of you who want to know a little more, the essence of it is Hordes Beasts generate the power (fury) and the warlock uses this to cast spells.  Warmachine warcasters generate the power (focus) and use this to power the Warjacks.  I personally believe the Fury mechanic is slightly more powerful but then this is balanced by slightly weaker beasts vs warjack equivalents.

2)   No, everyone can play everyone else.  Just choose who you like and play!

3)   They're all just different flavours, each adding a different way that they play or a different look to their models.  Just choose who you like and play (are you seeing a theme here?)!

4)   There is no real answer to this, additionally the nice thing about Privateer Press is that they tweak the rules every 6 months with "Errata Updates" to try to keep the whole game as balanced as possible.  If something appears to massively skew the game to a factions advantage it is normally adjusted back to its rightful position.

In the beginning...

So I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, nothing of decisive wit or useful information just a blog about my WarmaHordes career to date.

So as with any good story lets start at the beginning and then over the next few posts I’ll hopefully catch you up to current date.  As my teacher once said everything is about one or more of the following questions: who, what, where, why and how.  So (with a little change of the order and missing the irrelevant ones) lets go with that:

Why?
As with most things the why is quite simply a desire for a challenge and a hark back to my younger years when I was an avid gamer for over 10 years including a stint working for GW.
The actual trigger event to returning to the hobby was a message from a uni friend (its your fault Dave!) with a picture of an unknown marine figure attached (turned out to be a Grey Knight Dreadknight).  A lot of goggling and reading (about the end of the fantasy world) and I wanted to game again!

What?
Well, I never really liked 40k, I always thought it was more of a game of who could roll dice better.  Equally some of you may know that last summer GW got rid of my much loved Fantasy and brought out a brand new (and pretty much unrelated) game called Age of Sigmar.  I had a brief look through the rules and pretty quickly came of the opinion that it was a simplified version of the 40k rules in a fantasy* setting – I think I’ll pass.

So with an open mind I headed down to my local gaming club to see what was there.  It turns out there was quite a lot of WarmaHordes going on so an intro game or two later and I was hooked :-D.

Where?
I’m now a member of my local gaming club and just to prove the gaming world is a small place I’ve caught back up with a guy I first got into the hobby nearly 20 years ago!

How?
Well as with all games it involves a not insubstantial amount of cash.  However to my benefit all of the old GW models & systems I had were now “vintage” and actually worth some money.  So a lot of eBay sales and purchases later I had an army.
Either way the stage was set for my entry into the world of WarmaHordes!!

*note that I am so not a fan of the whole AoS internet uproar.  I don’t think its for me and with that I’ve moved on…