Friday 27 August 2010

Whoops

I totally forgot about Monday's post as I was babysitting - where I discovered there is indeed a limit to the amount of piggyback rides Uncle Andy can give.  Oddly I thought I'd saved the majority of this post on Wednesday night, but apparently it was not so.  Here's a rehash of what I'd written:

I had an educational game against Martin on Tuesday where I used pMadrak against his Zerg Swarm (Mercs in this case).  It's the first time I've been able to get any sort of use with Crusher - I think I killed about 40 models during the feat turn.  Unfortunately Alexia then spawned a bajillion Risen and fried them all to kill Madrak.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Jim and I were having a conversation on the way to a job about list building and he made a comment about someone else's list having nothing unpredictable or surprising about it.  It's certainly a thought to consider seriously when list building.  There was a long-winded and detailed explanation of examples, but the basics of it came down to my Mercenary has surprises in abundance, my Trollbloods list doesn't.  More on this later!

A reminder that Intrepidations is holding a tournament this weekend on the 29th (Sunday).

Friday 20 August 2010

The Swarm

The Glasgow Summer League is progressing nicely.  Side coaching has gone out the window now - we have adopted the "2 Foot Rule" (aka: "stay the hell away from my table") to help with this.  Since I'm not part of the league (and have no desire to play against Menoth at the moment) I've not been getting games in at the club, which in turn makes me a sad panda - and a worse player, without constant practice you start to lose that edge that made you sharp.  Unsurprisingly Jim is at the top of the league (since I'm not in it really), Murray may or may not have lost to Barry at some point - this is unclear to me as there may have been side coaching involved (and I'm not the guilty party either!).  I'll have to corner one of them about this next week.

I've been twiddling my thumbs over Warmachine and Hordes and come to realise a strange thing: Warmachine's response to Hordes is Infantrymachine.  At high level of play, Hordes clearly has an edge over Warmachine - this is due to the way Fury works.  Yes, we could hear arguments about Focus camping until the sun stops shining, but Fury lets you improvise your turn as it were - you can do more with it (or have more of it on the table - I frequently run out of counters to use as Fury while running either Doomshaper, I wish I had that problem with my Mercenaries).

Why Infantrymachine though?  Focus camping to boost your armour up is a tried and tested technique for keeping your warcaster alive.  The less warjacks you have to dish out focus to, the more focus you can camp.  This is probably best seen with warcasters like Terminus (henceforth 'Big T') who are nigh-untouchable monsters while they camp the majority of their focus.  Less warjacks means more other stuff, typically infantry - and weapon masters at that.

edit: or you know... people could just like their infantry...

Monday 16 August 2010

Sleep Deprivation

This weekend's amazing discovery: a total lack of sleep does effect game play.  Very poor game against Jim on my part.  I did discover I like having a ranged warbeast though, it does expand my options (I set eIrusk on fire! Woooo).  The Fennblades continue to make me want to /headdesk, so I think I'll experiment in the use of the Long Riders for a bit.

Besides that I'm afraid the weekend was mostly uneventful as I've been immersing myself in Fallout 3.  Once I've cleared the Wasteland of all its mutated scum I'll get some painting done - the aforementioned Long Riders (and Horthol) as well as Jim's Druid Overseer.  The Overseer taunts me from across the desk, as he is not mine but is perhaps my best painting work I've done so far.  Speaking of painting, my old friend Gus has painted Cygnar stuff on his blog, go check it out (and the foamcore buildings).

Friday 13 August 2010

World Hunger

The first of the Trollbloods tiered lists has been unveiled at Bell of Lost Souls.  We discover that Grim Angus likes Skinners and Alten Ashley.  Can't say I'm a huge fan, but then again I don't play Grim Angus (yet.)  Hopefully we can see one or two of the other tiered lists in the next few weeks before the Trollbloods book is released. Doomshaper, Doomshaper, Doomshaper, Doomshaper, Doomshaper.
I think I've given up all hope for the Fennblades, they fail command checks as if doing so would end world hunger.  Out go the Fennblades, in come the Champions or Long Riders in my latest list.  Both of those are Fearless (woot!), though I only have a minimum unit of Long Riders this is countered by my early purchase of Horthol.  If only all these models were painted...

The cover of the Circle Orboros has crept up on the Privateer Press website, it's pretty.  The Warpwolf Stalker in the background has something weird going on with its hand however.  Looks uncomfortable.

edit: Cassius the Oath Keeper has appeared on the Privateer Press website.  He comes with a tree!

Monday 9 August 2010

It's Character Building

The Big News from GenCon (as if people reading this haven't already found the spoilers) is that all the Warmachine factions (except Mercenaries (WHY OH WHY?!)) are getting new character warjacks.  These come in the form of small blister packs you buy to add the parts onto an existing plastic kit.  Personally I think it's quite ingenious - the blisters take up less room on a rack and more heavy warjack kits get sold.

Triumph - Defender chasis - affinity with Siege
Scourge of Heresy - Vanquisher chasis - affinity with Reznik
Torch - Decimator chasis - affinity with Strakhov
Malice - Reaper chasis - unknown affinity
Discordia - Manticore chasis - affinity with Rahn

Other news is the big list of Skorne goodies that are arriving with their Forces book.  Also on the list are the Druid Wilder, Stone Keeper for Circle (or they would be if Circle players weren't total douches about consolidating their spoilers), and Captain Gunnbjorn for the Trollbloods.  I almost forgot about the Legion spoilers too.

As a Trollblood player I can see why some people would like Gunnbjorn, but he doesn't really wow me.  It's interesting that he brings Critical Devastation (a pretty damn amazing ability in its own right,) Snipe and Rock Wall but I'm more of a punch-in-the-face kinda guy.  Which is of course why I play the Old Man of the Trollbloods...  I'd be much more interested to see what the Trollkin Scouts bring to the table and what they can do for my army.

For those of you who share in my video game obsession, the Warmachine video game by White Moon Dreams finally has a website of its own.  Screenshots from the demo can be found on their forums.

Mentioned Spoilers from GenCon:
Cygnar - Captain Jonas Murdoch
Cygnar - Archduke Alain Runewood
Khador - Koldun Kapitan Valachev
Cryx - Revenant Crew Rifleman
Protectorate of Menoth - Flameguard Cleanser Officer
Cygnar - Storm Strider
Khador - Gun Carriage
Cryx - Wraith Engine

There's also this very helpful interview.

Monday 2 August 2010

Autonomous Play

Games were played at Sean Murchie's house on Saturday and I did not emerge victorious with my eMagnus Four Star Syndicate list (of doom).  The list does run like a well oiled machine however, each part does its assigned purpose and on the whole, the job gets done.  I was ultimately undone by my lack of magical attacks - stupid kovaas!

Four Star Syndicate - 50 Points
Magnus the Warlord
*Mangler
*Mangler
*Nomad
*Renegade (bonded)
Cylena Raefyll and Nyss Hunter (max)
Kayazy Assassins (min)
+Underboss
Madelyn Corbeau
Gorman di Wulfe
Rhupert Carvolo
Eiryss, Angel of the Retribution
Dirty Meg

The list is *fast*.  Individual models and entire units can easily redeploy across the table as needed and very aggressive play suits the list - just don't be suicidally aggressive and leave eMagnus out in the open for Mortenebra's Reaper to drag him in.  Key moving parts of the list is the combination of Corbeau and Gorman, who deal with any big threats the opposing list may bring - particularly the likes of Mulg, the Deathjack, or Molik Karn.

The infantry have horrendously high DEF, and seem to survive a great deal of punishment where my previous use of Tough units would have perished.  I suppose if I fought against more AOE heavy armies the situation might be reversed, or if I faced the Winter Guard Death Star style list with all their boosted spray attacks.

Overall I'm quite happy with the list's performance, it does need a little more play time to fine tune the tactics, but it's certainly a list that I'd be tempted to bring along to a big tournament.