Field Test: Snacking

Having just read the Fury Manipulation update - particularly about Reaving - it turns out Sean would not have been able to Reave from any of his warbeasts at all since Snacking removes the model from play at the boxed stage. Cunning, will have to remember this. Dire Trolls just got even better.

Hordes FT Notes: Game One

Just got back from play Sean Murchie in a 25 point game. I was using Trollbloods and he was using Skorne. I annihilated his army but left eDoomy a little exposed (I did think he could take a little more punishment) so Sean nailed me with a 13 damage Torment from pMorghoul and then hunted me down while I couldn't heal. The rest of Sean's army was not so lucky however and were eaten by Dire Trolls. At the end of the game he only had 4 Paingiver Beast Handlers and pMorghoul left. I had everything except my throw-away Kriel Warriors and the Whelps (and I guess eDoomy).

eDoomy: The Xjel approves. Feat needs some work. I'd like it to give +X SPD instead of an extra 3" movement on charges/slams/tramples. I didn't get to use it the entire game. I need to get more games in so that I can get used to his spell list however, I kept forgetting important things.

Earthborn Dire Troll: Wow. I'm impressed, I've never had a warjack hitting as hard and as often as this guy. Perhaps that's because I don't play Khador...

Dire Troll Mauler: Wild Aggression + Chain Attack: Grab and Smash = Fun times! Also, see above.

Troll Axer: Solid workhorse warbeast. Does the job. Didn't use Rush once the entire game - Sean had a definite alpha strike over me with pMorghoul and Paingivers.

Kriel Warriors: Expendable. Wasn't expecting anything from them, use and discard as needed. Was tempted to use them for Snacking at one point.

Whelps: The saviours of my list. Perhaps slightly over-costed, I'd like their points to change from 2 points for 5 whelps to 1 point for 3 whelps. Though they DID allow my trolls to eat Sean's alpha strikes and then function fully the next turn... More games needed to analyse their impact.

Sean's Savages hurt each time they charged in and damn near killed both my dire trolls when he sent them in. Unfortunately he didn't kill either dire troll and so they ended up with large amounts of health back very quickly. The Earthborn ended the game at full health, the Mauler went from 2 boxes of damage left to about 65%. I have Regenerate and the Whelps to thank for that.

Since Sean didn't kill my Dire Trolls, they ate all his Cyclops (3), the Krea (I hate paralytic field so much), numerous praetorians and I spent some time trying to herd pMorghoul into expiring Admonition. The Dire Trolls play like Khadoran heavies: if you don't kill them outright then they drown you in a world of hurt. There was a point where I killed the a Cyclops Brute and Savage (all part of a healthy and balanced diet) and still had some fury left over. I was a bit stunned.

Lessons:
The paralysis continuous effect is evil.
eDoomshaper's feat is useless if you can't charge/slam/trample (see paralysis).
Treat eDoomshaper like a very fragile warcaster, do not expect him to absorb damage like Magnus can. He has a big control area, use it. Do not expose him. Ever. Even when your opponent has less models on the table than you have fingers on one hand.
Wild Aggression, oh how I love thee and thine sister Iron Aggression. I would prefer Full Throttle however (*cough*).
I didn't have any problems with fury management. Just play like you're a fury-1 warcaster with some extra bells and whistles. Didn't have to make a single frenzy check the entire game. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

Things to Note: Part 1

Things to Note in MKii and the Hordes Field Test:
A model that has been field promoted cannot make an attack in the turn it was promoted. (Hordes FT p.58/Prime MKii p.79)

Shake Effects is done after leeching but BEFORE a warbeast makes a frenzy check. (Hordes FT p.40-42)

A frenzying warbeast only makes a single attack with the highest POW weapon it possesses. Attack and damage rolls for this attack are boosted. (Hordes FT p.41)

A model that cannot be knocked down must forfeit either its movement or action only if it is thrown or slammed during your turn. Other knock down effects do not trigger this condition. (Hordes FT p.24-25 (Being Slammed/Being Thrown)/Prime MKii p.53-54 (Being Slammed/Being Thrown))

Throwing a model with a Double-Hand Throw and aiming at a target is a melee attack roll. Being on the receiving end of a thrown model is not counted as an attack against that model. (Hordes FT p.26/Prime MKii p.55)

Weapon locks are awesome.

Playing the Field

It has begun. I was typing out my preliminary notes, particularly concerning the Trollbloods, but it's too early and the notes would be too lengthy to write out as I had planned. It would be a mighty Wall of Text, suitable for use in the construction industry.

Let us have a moment of silence for the end of an era. Mantarp has vanished. No longer will Johanna be horrified as Dermot and I discuss the virtues of Mantarp on Grim Angus (though Stony will be delighted). It has passed beyond the veil.

I am appalled at the lack of change I see in certain places. pKrueger's wold lightning spam is still alive and kicking, though the effects do begin to decline the more the pKrueger player spams Chain Lightning 4 times a turn. The Trollkin brick is still completely functional - indeed, it remains completely in place for the low Fury warlocks.

There are strange variations in certain warbeasts' MAT and RAT scores. For instance, why does the Feral Warpwolf possess a higher MAT than the Pureblood? I'm sure I could come up with a rational story-related and logical reason for this, but at first glance it makes no sense. Also, why does the Earthborn Dire Troll retain Elemental Communion instead of gaining the Controlled Warping of the Feral Warpwolf? It would make life simpler, though then we'd have to see the Earthborn's animus change again. An animus with a simple armour boost would be nice.

Many out of turn effects also remain in play (the Murchinator will be Pleased).

Now that I have spouted DOOM, I shall get some games in to spout the wonders of such things as the Runeshapers (5 damage boxes each, woot!).

Increased Iron Content

Why is it so hard to get a group of decent role-players together at the same time? It's a bewildering Gordian Knot of scheduling conflicts and general unreliability. Is this because we all have Real Lives now? What happened to all that precious Free Time we used to possess? It's probably a sign that it's time to give up the ghost and move on to other things; or lower my standards...

Taking a break from the earthborn for now; my swamp gobbers and the trollkin hero have diverted my attention temporarily. Searching through my bits box I found an old Madrak Ironhide head, so I put that on my hero instead of the normal head with the horsehair helm - there's just something more menacing about Madrak's face. I've since put the hero on hold until I figure out how to spruce up the hero's armour - at the moment it's just silver, very boring. I was thinking of some interesting freehand, but lack the artistic creativity to visualise what I'm after. Internet images ho! Thundercats reference for you philistines who don't get it.

Speaking of gobbers, why are there no miniatures of bogrin?

Privateer Press Newsletter

The first Privateer Press e-mail newsletter was sent out today, supposedly containing a preview of the cards for the Ghordson Basher as well as Dannon Blythe & Bull. I can tell you now the links for the Ghordson Basher do not work despite a Privateer Press update on twitter 8 hours ago. It's actually kind of annoying that the link is made of failcake (like sponge cake, only with more fail); I really want to know what the Basher does. The links for Blythe & Bull work fine however. New links are up and working now. Thank you to TTGN.

Ghordson Basher Front
Ghordson Basher Back

Dannon Blythe & Bull do seem rather feeble at first glance, but once you start factoring in their Huntman bonuses they definitely get more impressive. They're a small unit that's designed to go hunt down other small units or solos. People will have to remember Huntsman is on Blythe, so if she dies Bull can't change his Prey even after it's been killed. Take Down looks interesting but I don't see it coming up very often unless they're being used against Trollbloods or an army with large amounts of Tough inducing support. The two of them have a very odd symbiosis: Blythe selects the target, Bull brings the pain to that target. If it's not their Prey then they're not too impressive. Target selection will be rather important with these two.

Dannon Blythe & Bull Front
Dannon Blythe & Bull Back

Unbending, Unbreaking

Khador heavy warjacks. Why won't these things die? Even in a game where I average a 14 on my boosted damage dice these things just keep on coming. Granted there were 5 of them and by the end of the game 4 of them had hardly any damage boxes left and I'd blown Drago to bits, but still, in the war of attrition there just wasn't any competing. At least Jim now knows what it's like to face the Jim Dice, except I didn't have the Jim Dice to pull off something dumb at the last moment of the game.

I tried using an Ogrun Bokur instead of a full unit of Boomhowler & Co, and I have to say, the extra 4 Trollkin Mercs would have been a LOT handier than the Bokur. Ah well, it was worth testing out, Boomhowler & Co did their job as usual before being killed horribly by Jim's horde of warjacks.

Press Ganger Tom also brought in his Retribution stuff - he's the first person in the area to have an actual Retribution army, which is a bit strange, we thought there'd be more interest in them. I like the Retribution models, but the infantry is a bit smaller than I was expecting - though elves are smaller than humans in the D20 setting. They're not Black 13th midget small, but they're very impressive in person. I may have to pick up some stuff to paint once I've waded through the mass of yellow Trollkin muscle work I still have to do.


Speaking of yellow Trollkin muscles, the Earthborn Dire Troll is coming along very nicely. I'm painting him a lot faster than expected, but it's not exactly speedy to say the least. I guess faster is a bit misleading, I should say 'less slow'. After some hick-ups with the base I really just need to do his limbs and then glue him to the base. I'm not sure if I should attempt something ambitious (as if massive quantities of yellow skin wasn't already) like blending in a colour change on the hand touching the rock he's based on. It's very tempting, but it could also be a total disaster... I'll save that limb until last and see how I feel at the time.

Rising Conflict Concludes

The overall winner of Rising Conflict is... Jim! Suppress your shock and surprise here everyone. That concludes Johanna's series of Rising Conflict tournaments, but worry not, for with MKii comes a new series of Rising Conflict tournaments. Hopefully these will run a lot smoother than my previous tournament, but I can't see how it could be worse (well I can, but at least we'll get into the venue at the right time).

Witness the Glory

Isn't it beautiful? I have to say the photo seems to make my Pyre Troll look a lot better than I think it looks in person. Usually it's the other way around. Next up are Whelps! Maybe I should get the Pyre Troll I did for Iain and do a comparison...

Rising Conflicts: 8th November

Just a reminder, the 750 point part of Rising Conflicts is this Sunday. Please sign up and turn up on time.

In Absentia

Hmm, I was supposed to play Chris tonight but he didn't show up, which was nice of him. We were due to play a 35 point game of Warmachine MKii - pFeora vs pMagnus (and the Wall of Tough™). Oh well.

I've finally sat down and finished my Pyre Troll. Pictures should be up tomorrow. I'm not 100% happy with how the fists turned out and I may go back to redo the chains as a metal colour. I'm sure I'll spot other mistakes I want to change when I inspect the photos. Painting the Pyre Troll actually took a lot less time than I was expecting, I thought I'd do a quarter of his torso a day but I managed to do pretty much the whole thing in a day.

With the Pyre Troll out of the way, I just need to paint up the small army of Whelps that are besieging my painting table. Though doing up the minimum unit of Boomhowler & Co is extremely tempting... so is the Troll Axer... and the Earthborn... So much choice. I guess I'll alternate between Whelps and Trollkin Mercs just to keep some variety in my painting diet. The Wall of Tough™ feature prominently in my MKii Mercenary lists and I'd like to have them done so I can use them in both my armies.

There are yet more goodies that are appearing on the Privateer Press website; such wonders as the pNemo resculpt and the Cygnar Forces book. Go check them out and drool at the shining glory of new art.

Also if Martin or Gary (or anyone in their RPG group) read this, get in contact with me please.