Epic Thagrosh, the Messiah, in all his gory. I mean glory

I finally got my order for Thagrosh the Messiah in and had to paint him up right away. He is easily my favorite legion model and I'm excited to use and abuse with him in the coming months

No more messing around now. The legion is out for blood

I'm repainting all my legion so the look much meaner. I'm adding gore from the games workshop technical blood paint. The stuff is nasty and really works nicely

Some legion models!

Here are some legion models I painted up as an additional commission. I really like his paint scheme and I think they turned out well

Some mercs/cygnar

Here are some mercs and cygnar models I finished up painting for a commission. Unfortunately, I don't have the final product, but these are close to done!

Andy

Legion of everblight Angelius

Here is a shot of my third angelius I finished up recently. Nothing special, but I like how they look!

50 pt Steamroller tournament Battle Report - eVayl vs. MacBain

MacBain

Galleon

eEiryss

Gorman

Orin Midwinter

Ragman

Rhupert

Alexia and Risen

Max Greygore Boomhowlers

Max Kayazy Assassins w/ UA

Kayazy Eliminators

Mission is incursion. I chose eVayl because I felt more comfortable with her facing off against a caster I have never faced. In hindsight, eAbby may have been a bit better against MacBain, but she doesn’t much care for Incursion with her limited control area and small army. Anyways, I lose the roll off and my opponent chooses the side. There were two houses to his left and right outside of his deployment zone, and a decent sized forest right in the center of his table half. He said he wanted that side so that I couldn’t hide Vayl within the forest. In reality, with occultation, I wasn’t very worried about any assassination attempts against this list. On my side I had a house dead center, with a hill on my left and a wall on my right. I did not realize houses are infinitely tall, so I can’t fly over them. This would come back to bite me in this game. He deploys his Galleon right in the middle. I deploy Vayl to the left of my center house. To her left go two Ravagores and an Angelius. The other two Angelius go to her right with one being placed on the right side of the house. The Hex Hunters and the Spawning Vessel deploy to my right side with the wall about 9 inches in front of them. From my point of view, MacBain goes to the left of the Galleon with Gorman, Orin, and Rhupert kind of crowded around the colossal. Greygore and his Boomhowlers go to the far left and Alexia and the Risen go to the left behind the house. On the right goes the Kayazy. The Eliminators were deployed somewhere by the Boomhowlers and Alexia. I place my Spell Martyr in front of my Hex Hunters and the Shepherds in front of my Ravagores. eEiryss is then deployed near his house on my right. And with that, Turn 1 Legion!

Turn 1 – Legion

Vayl starts off, putting Refuge and Admonition on two Angelius and Occultation on herself, then she charges ahead to end up to the left side of the house. All three Angels run forward, not going the full distance but getting out in front of Vayl and the far right one getting in front of the house. Both Ravagores run forward onto the hill. The Shepherds run up behind. The Hex Hunters run up and spread out. The Spawning Vessel walks forward. The Spell Martyr runs forward behind the wall.

Turn 1 – Mercenaries

1 focus goes to the Galleon. MacBain goes first, putting Failsafe on the Galleon and Countermeasures on the Eliminators (which I should have really read closer when looking at his cards). I think that was it, then he walked up behind the left house. Boomhowler cries for 4+ tough and runs forward on the left. The Eliminators run forward, getting up close to engaging some of my stuff. Alexia and her Risen run up behind the Boomhowlers. Rhupert gives the Kayazy pathfinder and they all run forward spreading out. eEiryss moves forward and kills my Spell Martyr (DAMN!). The Galleon runs forward and gets most of the way through the forest. Ragman moves up behind. Orin says no spells. Gorman moves up by MacBain behind the house. We roll for flags and the one on my left disappears… Damn….

Turn 2 – Legion

With losing the left flag, I’m in a very bad spot. I only have Hex Hunters and a Spawning Vessel trying to hold the right side flag, which really isn’t enough. In hindsight, I should have spent this turn running to crowd the right side of the field. I am faster than my opponent, and if I brought my whole battlegroup to the right side, I would have really put my opponent into a bad position for scenario. Ah well, live and learn. Instead, I try to cut the heads off of the two units to my left (Boomie and Alexia). I succeed in neither…. I start off by upkeeping spells. I move my Refuge angel forward and find a lane to take a shot at Alexia. That’s when I discover I can’t shoot when near a model with Countermeasure… Great… That is an Angelius activation wasted. Next I activate Vayl and cast Refuge on the other Angelius. She shoots the Angel that wasted its activation in the back and arcs an Icy Grip onto the Boomhowlers. Then the Angelius charges the Galleon and puts some decent damage into its right side. It then uses its refuge move to fall back onto the edge of the hill. The last Angelius also charges the Galleon and misses its armor piercing attack with a triple 1… Ugh… Both Ravagores take some shots at the front few Boomhowlers, putting scathers in front of them and preventing charges into my beasts. The Hex Hunters move forward and put a few Hex Blasts into some Kayazy. One gets into combat with eEiryss and misses. The Spawning Vessel moves forward. Shepherds wipe Fury, over to Mercs!

Turn 2 – Mercenaries

My opponent upkeeps both spells and allocates 3 to the Galleon. The Galleon goes first and spends its activation pummeling my Angelius, but with some bad dice my opponent misses all but one or two attacks and my Angelius still stands. MacBain goes and pops feat, protecting Gorman, Alexia, Boomhowler, Ragman, Orin, and a Boomhowler because Rhupert is out of his control area. He does a Jackhammer with Galleon and misses my Angelius. Gorman moves forward and tries to Black Oil my Angelius, but misses. He moved close enough that he can’t scatter off my Angelius, but he catches the Galleon as well. The Eliminators run forward, one engaging my two Ravagores and the other engaging an Angelius. The Boomhowlers shuffle around a bit but can’t do much of anything, but Boomhowler does the howl where I get -2 to attack rolls. They do manage to engage an Angelius. Alexia and her Risen run forward and she makes a Thrall Warrior, which charges and puts some decent damage on a Ravagore. Rhupert gives the Kayazy Dirge of Mists. The Kayazy get a run charge and several Hex Hunters die. Eiryss swings at my Hex Hunter engaging her and kills him (Doh!). Ragman and Orin move behind the Galleon.

Legion – Turn 3

I pay to upkeep Refuge and drop everything else. The Refuge Angel activates and kills the Eliminator engaging it. The other passes command. The Angel Refuges in front of Vayl. Vayl goes and pops feat, casts purify, puts occultation on herself, Refuge on another Angel, Admonition on one of the Ravagores, casts Icy Grip on the Boomhowlers again, and throws an Obliteration at one of the Boomhowlers, knocking it down. She then casts another Obliteration and has to pay one extra I think for it because of Alexia being nearby. She kills a Boomie. The Spawning Vessel goes and spawns a Harrier, which I fail and place out of my control area, so it can’t cast its animus… It goes and tries to hit the UA and whiffs. The Hex Hunters get a run charge and kill several Kayazy between charge attacks and Hex Blasts. Not enough to stop them from likely destroying my unit next turn. My Angelius engaging the Galleon goes and cripples the right side with its Armor Pierce. My other Angelius tries to attack Boomhowler, as he is engaging it and doesn’t do enough to knock him down. I should have just repulsed and flew over to the Galleon and put an Armor Piercing attack into it and bought a boosted attack against Gorman. Really would have made a huge difference in this game, but again, Hindsight is 20/20. My Shepherds both charge the Thrall Warrior to get him off my Ravagore, but both whiff their attacks needing a 6. The Ravagores both walk and take some free strikes, trying to disengage themselves. One Ravagore gets its spirit crippled. Both shoot some Boomhowlers and kill two.

Mercenaries – Turn 3

1 goes to Galleon. The last Eliminator goes and runs up by my Angelius engaging the Galleon and turns towards Gorman. Gorman goes and Black Oils the Eliminator, catching the Angelius. MacBain activates and Jackhammers the Angelius until it is dead. The Galleon moves up and touches the center flag and tries to shoot my Angelius near Vayl. It misses. Boomhowler and his buddy take some swings at my Angelius for some solid damage. The Kayazy clear off my Hex Hunters and Harrier and the Underboss charges my Spawning Vessel and rolls crazy high, one hitting it. That leaves that objective completely open. Eiryss moves over to control it. Ragman and Orin move further forward in the forest. Alexia can’t get to my beasts due to the scathers so she crafts another Thrall. The Thralls kill off my Shepherds. Score goes to 2-0.

Legion – Turn 4

The details of the last turn or two are a bit fuzzy here. One Ravagore aims and boosts a shot into the Boomhowler engaging the Angelius. I kill it but can’t quite knockdown Greygore. The other Ravagore one hits Alexia. The engaged Angelius can’t afford a free strike, so spends its activation killing Boomhowler. The other Angelius kills the Galleon and Refuges onto the center flag. Vayl moves up near the center flag and tries to shoot Ragman, who is contesting the flag. Unfortunately, he gets cover from the Galleon wreck and I can’t kill him. My opponent scores a point and goes to 3-0.

Mercenaries – Turn 4

My opponent moves some Risen forward. Most are out of command now. Everything else just kind of shuffles around aimlessly as most of his hard hitters are out of the game now. He scores another point and goes to 4-0

Legion – Turn 5

I have to try to stop the Kayazy and Eiryss from scoring again. Both Ravagores walk over and I hope I have range for a shot on some Kayazy, but I fall short and both shots scatter in the wrong direction and do nothing. My Angelius can’t run far enough to engage. I accept I can’t win and shake. Victory Mercenaries!

Post-Game Thoughts

Well, that was just a very poorly played game on my part. I played my Angelii terribly. The left flag disappearing really hurt me. My opponent deserved his win, he played very well. But had I played smarter, I feel like I would have won that game. As for the tournament as a whole, I certainly can’t be upset! This was my first “real” tournament, as my only other experience was in a beginners journeyman tournament. I ended up taking third due to tiebreakers from strength of schedule. Overall, I think I played well until that last game. Vayl can play through a lot, whether it be poor matchups or new casters that an inexperienced player has never faced. I hope you enjoyed my reports, and there will be more to come!

50 point Steamroller - Game 3 - eVayl vs. eMakeda

eMakeda

Molik Karn

Titan Gladiator

Titan Gladiator

Archidon

Min Incendiarii

Max Nihilators

Min Beast Handlers

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Extoller Soulward

Once again, down a point

Again, I am down a point on his list and I’m not sure where. Oh well! I won the roll off and chose first turn. My opponent chose the side with a forest in the center and a wall on my left just a little ways out of his deployment. I got the side with a hill in the middle and a house to the right side. I place two Angelius on the left side at the edge of Vayl’s control. The Ravagores and the last Angelius deploy to Vayl’s right. Vayl goes just right of center. The Hex Hunters go to the center left with their attachment, the Spawning Vessel. My opponent placed the Archidon and Molik Kharn to my left. Makeda goes in the middle with the Nihilators and the Incendiarii. The Titan Gladiators went to the right side. The support was spread around the back. On to Legion turn 1!

Turn 1 – Legion

I ran both Angelius up the left flank one behind the other, hoping to remain out of Kharn’s threat range. I activate Vayl and place Refuge on the nearby Anglius and Admonition on one of the Ravagores. She puts Occultation on herself and charges forward onto the hill. My Hex Hunters activate and run forward and spread out. The Spawning Vessel gets carried up behind them. The Refuge Angel flies up on the right. The two Ravagores run and place themselves in front of Vayl. The Shepherds run up behind. The Spell Martyr runs forward.

Turn 1 – Skorne

My opponent thinks Kharn has range on my Angelius. I’m surprised because I am quite a ways out. Makeda goes and casts Leash on Kharn and the spell for +2 movement for everything. She then walks forward into the forest. The Nihilators run straight forward and spread out. The Incendiarii run and spread out, and a key thing is that one goes in front of Makeda to block line of sight. One of the Gladiators goes and walks over to Kharn, putting Rush on him. The other Gladiator moves close to Makeda. The Beast Handlers move forward, removing some Fury and giving the +2 strength and free charge buff to Kharn. The other solo’s move up. Kharn goes and gets a charge on my front Angelius in my line. He only hits with one initial, and after 3 bought attacks puts the Angel down. He then decides to Fatewalker rather than attack the other Angelius, and uses it to walk over the nearby wall.

Turn 2 – Legion

I leach Fury and upkeep all spells. I start with the Refuge Angelius. It kills some Nihilators and Refuges into the right zone. I then activate the Hex Hunters, doing a run charge on the Nihilators, killing a large portion of the unit. The Spawning Vessel then moves up and pops out a Shredder. The Shredder walks over near the left Angelius. Vayl goes and shoots the Shredder in the back and arcs a Refuge onto the Angelius. One of the Ravagores goes left, boosting a fiery shot into Molik Kharn for some nice damage and lighting him on fire. The Angelius goes next, and after an Armor Pierce and some bought attacks, Kharn goes down. The other Ravagore walks forward and boosts a fiery shot into the Incendiarii right in front of Makeda. It kills the Incendiarii and lights a Beast Handler, Makeda, and the Archidon on fire. I boost blast damage on Makeda and do about 5 points. The Spell Martyr was actually used for an Icy Grip into the Nihilators from Vayl I think. That’s how my Hex Hunters were able to hit them relatively easily. Shepherds wipe some fury. Over to Skorne!

Turn 2 – Skorne

My opponent is on his back foot now, with Kharn being dead and my beasts in position to score some points. To make matters worse, the fire does not go out on Makeda and does another 6 points of damage. The Beast Handler burns and the fire on the Archidon goes out. His turn basically revolves around boosting the speed of the Archidon to crazy levels and getting into Vayl. He misses most all his attacks, needing hard 9’s. With that, my opponent concedes, as I score two control points in his turn and would gain another 2 and very likely 3 as Vayl could easily dominate if I can kill off the Archidon. Legion victory!

Post game thoughts

  I think my opponent made a few mistakes this game. He really should have held Molik back until the later game, as it was unlikely he would kill to Angelius in one round (but far from impossible!). It is crazy how far eMakeda can throw her beasts though! Man I was not ready for that first charge from Molik! I think I played against these crazy threat ranges well though. I made my opponent pay for throwing Molik out there, and that set the tone for the whole of the game. With that victory, I am off to final table! My next opponent: Mercenaries!

50 point steamroller - round 2 - eVayl vs. Goreshade 3

eVayl vs. Goreshade 3

Goreshade 3

Skarlock Thrall

Deathripper

Max Bane Riders

Max Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders

Max Satyxis Raiders w/ UA

Max Soulhunters

Darragh Wrathe

Pistol Wraith

Warwitch Siren

Looking at this in Warroom, I think my opponent was down a point. That, or he had something that I can’t remember. I chose eVayl as my Cryx drop, as she has amazing hit and run ability and can mulch through infantry. The scenario was 7: Incoming. I won roll-off and chose sides so I could take the wall. There was a forest right in the front middle of his deployment There is a wall on the far right in the middle of the board. There is a hill in the middle about 10 inches from my deployment, and a wall about 9 inches on the left. My opponent deployed with Goreshade dead center. The Bane Riders were on the far right (all from my point of view). The Soulhunters and Darragh went on the far left. Blackbane went just to the right of Goreshade. The Deathripper went on the left of him with the Skarlock Thrall, pistol wraith, and Warwitch Siren. I deploy Vayl behind the wall just a bit left of center. I put two Angels just to her left. The two Ravagores go to her right straight from the hill. The other Angelius goes to the right of the Ravagores. The Spawning Vessel is sandwiched in the Hex Hunter unit. He then advance deploys his Satyxis right in front of Goreshade and in front of the forest. I put both Shepherds in front and right of the Ravagores. The Spell Martyr went way to my far right.

Turn 1 – Cryx

My opponent starts off forgetting to allocate focus to the Deathripper. The Satyxis Raiders start off the action, running forward and spreading across the middle of the table. The Soulhunters move far up my left flank with Darragh following behind. Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders run up to the right of the Satyxis Raiders. The Bane Riders run up on the right behind the Satyxis and Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders. The Skarlock moved up by the Soulhunters and gave them Scything Touch. Goreshade moves straight forward behind my opponent’s objective. The Deathripper moves up next to him. The Siren runs up in the big blob of Blackbane’s and Satyxis.

Turn 1 – Legion

I start my turn activating Vayl. She casts Refuge and Admonition on the two Angelius near here. She then charges forward behind the wall. My Angel with Refuge moves up behind the wall and boosts a shot into a Satyxis Raider. She dies. The Angel with Admonition moves up to Vayls right behind the wall. It boosts a shot into another Satyxis and misses. Both Ravagores moved up and shot the front most Satyxis in front of Vayl and one in front of the Ravagores, placing the scather so that it protected my caster and beasts from a Satyxis charge. The Hex Hunters all run forward into the right zone with the Spawning Vessel following up behind. Both Shepherds move up behind the Ravagores and the Spell Martyr ends up tucked into the Hex Hunter blob. Over to Cryx!

Turn 2 – Cryx

The Satyxis all shift to my right, charging and running to engage Hex Hunters. A few Hex Hunters die in the resulting combat, filling up the vessel. Blackbane’s Raiders run to the center of the board, placing two engaging my Ravagores and the rest standing in the middle and a few in the right zone. The Soulhunters run forward, two engaging my Angels and Vayl, two standing further back in the left zone. Darragh moves up behind the rest of the Soulhunters. The Bane Riders shift up on the right. Goreshade moves up a bit further towards the center of the board. The Deathripper moves up next to Goreshade again. The Skarlock Thrall moves up into the forest and puts a spell I can’t remember out.

Turn 2 – Legion

I leach fury back to full, drop Admonition on one Angel and upkeep Refuge on the other. I start off using the Refuge Angel, moving about the wall so that he can engage two Soulhunters. It puts an armor pierce into the Soulhunter by the wall, easily blowing it up. The Angel buys an attack into the next Soulhunter and with a boost to damage, puts it down. The Angel then Refuge’s right back to where it came from. The other Angel flies forward and armor pierces another Soulhunter, killing it easily. I activate the Hex Hunters and give a run/charge order. They charge several Satyxis, killing roughly half the remaining unit and Hex Blast a few Blackbane’s and the Satyxis UA. The pot moves up and pops out a Harrier. The Harrier activates, casts its animus, and charges the Siren, killing her and sprinting to engage some nearby Satyxis. The right Angelius activates and charges a Bane Rider, easily killing it in one shot. I buy and boost damage on a second attack, killing a second one. One Ravagore activates and tries to move over the Blackbane engaging it, triggering a free strike and forcing the Ravagore to remain where it was. I have to use the Ravagores activation killing that single Blackbane. I am smarter with the second Ravagore, walking around the Blackbane, which he decides not to take a free strike with. I get a shot into Goreshade, doing about 6 damage and lighting him on fire. I also catch the Deathripper and boost blast damage, rolling box cars and knocking out his head. Not bad! Both Goreshade and the Deathripper are on fire. I activate Vayl and she casts Admonition on herself and tries to shoot a Satyxis and misses.

Turn 3 – Cryx

We roll for fires and the fire on Goreshade goes out (Doh!) but the fire on the Deathripper sticks and I roll high again, knocking out its Arcnode. Hell yeah! The Satyxis go first and move to engage my Angelius, Harrier, and a Hex Hunter. Goreshade then goes and pops feat, forcing my models to be stationary. He then walks forward a hair and Mockery of Life’s back a Bane Rider and a Soulhunter. Things get a bit messy here and I forget some of the details of his order of operations here, but basically one remaining Soulhunter charges Vayl, one moves to the far left edge of the left zone, and the newly spawned one holds tight. The Soulhunter I think hit with the charge and I transferred the damage to an Angel. The stationary Angelius gets charged by a Bane Rider or two, 3 Blackbane’s, and the Pistol Wraith and takes some heavy damage, but remains standing due to some terrible rolls for my opponent. The Harrier also lives after being charged by 2 Blackbane’s. The other Bane Rider charges into the Hex Hunters and misses his impact attack so gets stuck on a guy but still have reach on his target, killing him. Some Blackbane’s get charges on Hex Hunters, killing a few and spawning more Blackbane’s. Darragh moves up behind the Soulhunters. The Skarlock Thrall pretty much holds tight. The Deathripper attempts to move to engage the Angelius but can’t quite get there.

Turn 3 – Legion

I leach fury and drop all upkeeps. I start off with Vayl and she walks over the wall, still engaging the Soulhunter and manages to just toe into the zone. She pops feat, purifying off Scything Touch. She casts Refuge on one of the Angels, Admonition on herself, and Icy Grip on the Blackbane’s. She then casts and Obliteration into the Soulhunter she is engaging, killing him. She heals her damaged Angel and Harrier, then shoots a Blackbane boosting damage and killing. She ends her activation. Each Angelius now goes, killing the final remaining Soulhunter and Darragh. The Refuge Angel flies back in front of Vayl. The before damaged Angel activates and armor pierce kills a Bane Rider and then kills the Pistol Wraith and Deathripper with bought attacks. My Harrier goes and kills a Blackbane. My Hex Hunters kill a few more Blackbane’s between melee attacks and Hex Blasts. The Spawning Vessel moves a hair forward and pops out a Shredder. The Shredder fails to do anything to the Bane Rider. Both Ravagores move close to the hill and try to shoot Goreshade, but I didn’t realize he was within an inch of the Deathripper and so has cover. One shot hits him and the other scatters off into nowhere. I roll okay and plink off another 5 or 6 damage. I dominate to go up 2 - 0

Turn 4 – Cryx

Once again, it is a bit of a mosh pit on the right side of the board. One Bane Rider charges and one shots my Spawning Vessel, taking all the ladies with him. The other kills a few Hex Hunters with impact attacks, but whiffs on the last guy, and also whiffs the attack. The Blackbane’s get a run charge order, with the ones charging my Hex Hunters killing all but the leader, who subsequently breaks, leaving only my Shredder in the zone. The other half of the unit runs into the left zone to stop me from dominating. One engages my Angelius by eVayl. Goreshade goes, considering an assassination attempt, but decides against it. He charges my Shredder in the right zone, avoiding my Angelius threat range of 12 inches. He obliterates the Shredder (Figuratively, not with the spell) and dominates the zone. Score goes to 2-2. With that, over to Legion!

Turn 4 – Legion

I am confident I can end it here on scenario, so I Leach fury and get the show on the road! The big question is, can I hit and kill with all 3 of Vayl’s gun attack. We shall see! I start by activating Vayl and walking around the Angelius. I start off putting an Icy Grip into one of the unengaged Blackbane’s. I hit only needing a 4 or 5. I take my first shot with the gun at the hardest target, the guy engaging my Angelius. I boost to hit and get the hit! I boost damage and kill. I buy and hit only needing I think a 4. I boost damage and kill. I buy, boost to hit, boost damage, and kill the final Blackbane in the zone, leaving it open for domination. I charge my now unengaged Angelius into the objective, and one bought attack later I kill it. I move a Ravagore to toe his zone and end turn.

5-2 scenario victory to Legion!

Post game thoughts

I got lucky in that one. Not because I was in any really bad position on either scenario or attrition, but because I ended that turn with less than a minute left before dice down. Phew! I have to admit that his dice also really hated him, and that cost him some important rolls. Either way, I am very happy with the victory, and I don’t often win by scenario so I’ll take it! Next up, Skorne!

The Other Half, Reporting In

Hey Everyone!

Holy cow. Life is busy. Final year of school, working nights, a lab assistant position for a few of the intro classes...And hobby time when I can, of course!

With all the craziness happening over at GW lately, I've sort of lost motivation to work on anything 40k related. I have, however, worked slowly on some Skaven, but that's about it. I just threw together some test models of clanrats to see what I want to do for a paint scheme. Aiming for a quick and dirty, bloody, rusty, nasty pack of vermin. Here's my first ten:

As for my Retribution army, I've made some progress. I've gotten to play a few games and develop my tactics a little further. I've also picked up several new models. I recently picked up some Mage Hunters + UA, a Mage Hunter Assassin and a Banshee heavy Myrmidon kit. I magnetized the three variants of the Myrmidon, though I mainly plan on running the Banshee. Initially, I wanted to run a Dawnguard exclusive army, but lately I've had a ton of fun playing with the Mage Hunters and look forward to fielding them more often. Sentinels are still my favorite go-to beatstick unit, though.

I've only played two games in the last few weeks, once against a local Convergence player and once against Andy when he was back in town. I won the game against the Convergence player and lost against Andy. Both games, however, were very fun and I definitely learned a lot.

Going forward, I have a good idea as to what I want to pick up next. After I finish painting this most recent lot (I have imposed a strict "No New Stuff Until Everything Else Is Painted" rule), I plan on picking up a few more casters (Ravyn and Issyria) as well as a big bad Hyperion. Can't wait to get that purchase ready to rock and roll.

I also plan on taking better pictures of my whole army, but for now, here's a (potato quality) shot of my Sentinels I finished a while back:

Hopefully I can post more consistently in the future. I'm having a lot of fun with WarmaHordes and can't wait to get better at it.

Until next time!

50 point Steamroller tournament - Game 1 - Legion vs. Mercenaries

eAbsylonia vs. Damiano

So for my first game I faced Mercenaries. My opponent was running a Gorten list with the Earthbreaker and all the fixin's and a Damiano list shown below. I decided to start off with eAbby as I think she has a lot of game against many Mercenary armies. Her list has the tools to ignore tough, prevent knockdown and pushes, and always threatens some crazy assassinations.

Damiano

Rocinante

eAlexia

eEiryss

Rhupert Carvolo

Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters Max

Greygore Boomhowler and Co. Max

Kayazy Assassins Max w/ UA

Kayazy Eliminators

Press Gangers Max

I lose the roll off and choose the side with a nicely placed hill about a charge distance out of my deployment zone. There is a forest just outside his deployment on my right. There is a hill about 8 inches from my deployment zone right in the center. There is a house on the right. There is a forest just outside my deployment on the left. I deploy Abby right in front of the hill. I put the Scythean to her left, followed by a Raek, the Shredder, the Shepherd, the Succubus, and finally the Naga. To her right are the two Ravagores followed by the other Raek and the two Forsaken. My opponent deploys Damiano dead center across from Abby. Rocinante goes to his left (all from my point of view). The Kayazy deploy on the right side of the line with the eliminators on the outside of that. Rhupert deploys behind the Kayazy. Cylena and the Hunters deploy to the far left with the Boomhowlers deployed right next to Rocinante. I advance deploy my two Strider Deathstalkers in front of my right lines across from the Kayazy. My opponent advance deploys his Press Gangers just in front of the Kayazy. 

Turn 1 – Mercenaries

Basically everything runs straight forward. Damiano casts Sure Foot on Alexia and Death March goes on the Kayazy. The Kayazy are by the right zone and the Press Gangers fill up the right zone. The Nyss are pressing forward on the left with eEiryss. Damiano only walks forward. Boomhowlers are at the edge of the left zone. The Eliminators are on the far right pretty far forward. Oh and Rhupert gave the Kayazy tough and fearless. Wise.

Turn 1 - Legion

I start with Deathstalkers. They both walk forward and toe the right zone.  The first one pops the Lass and a Ganger. The other pings a Ganger but it toughs so no snap fire. Boo. I activate Abby and she puts Tenacity on both Raeks, Fortify on the Scythean, then charges Damiano. Fail the charge. So its going to be this kind of game.. ;) My two Raek’s go running up, one into the right zone, and one on the hill in front of Abby. The Scythean goes and runs in front of Abby. The Ravagores both go running up and rile for 4 fury each. The Naga goes and runs into the left forest. Both Forsaken go and take the fury from the Ravagores. Shredder walks up and puts Tenacity on the Scythean. Succubus moves up and puts Tenacity on Abby.  The Shepherd just walks forward.

Turn 2 – Mercenaries

All spells are upkept by Damiano. He forgets to allocate to Rocinante. The Press Gangers get a charge run, with a few charging the Raek and the rest running to engage the Deathstalker’s. The Kayazy get tough and run into the right zone, with many engaging Raek’s, my Scythean, and my Deathstalker’s. The Eliminator’s move up further on the right. The Boomhowlers call 4+ tough and run up in the left zone and in front of the wall in front of Damiano. Damiano charges forward to avoid Kill Boxing himself, and ends right behind the central wall. The Nyss run up further on my left, along with eEiryss.

Turn 2 – Legion

So I leach fury up to full and free upkeep Fortify with the Succubus. I think this is feat turn, as well as game. I start with each Forsaken moving up and Blight Bombing the huge clumps of Kayazy and Press Gangers surrounding all my stuff. I kill all the ones engaging Ravagores, Raeks, and Deathstalkers. I activate the Deathstalkers and pop a few inconsequential Kayazy and Press Gangers. Next I activate Abby, pop feat, cast Slaughterhouse on myself, and charge one of the three Boomhowlers between my beasts and Damiano. She has to buy one attack in the end, but kills all three. She then Teleports back onto her hill, making sure she is far enough forward that I can force beasts near Damiano. I activate my Raek on the hill. It casts its animus on itself and flies over the last Kayazy over there and a Boomhowler behind the wall. I boost a headbutt and knock Damiano down. I activate each Ravagore, boosting shots into the now knocked down caster. He is on like 4 boxes. I activate the Scythean and charge and put him in the dirt.

Victory for Legion!

Menoth redeemer painted up

Took a little break from painting commissioned models while some ink washed were drying and painted up my redeemer! I've only used it once in a 25 point game, but wow. With pKreoss that thing is just ridiculous!

Word to the wise though, don't forget to activate choir and sing battle before shooting though :-P

50 point Steamroller tournament tomorrow

Hello all!

Tomorrow I have a big 50 point steamroller tournament in preparation for Warmachine Weekend (Which I will not be able to attend). It will be timed turns, which is going to certainly be interesting. I think it is the least disadvantageous to Legion of all factions, as we tend to have fewer models than most any other opponent. It is a two list format, and I will be bringing epic Absylonia and epic Vayl. I think they make for a solid combination. Abby can skew for extreme speed versus slower lists, picking them apart before they can retaliate. Vayl pairs well as the all-comers warlock, able to overcome even poor match-ups that Abby just doesn't want any part of. Here are the two lists I plan on bringing:

eAbby - 50+5 pts
Scythean
Ravagore
Ravagore
Shredder
Raek
Raek
Naga Nightlurker
Succubus
Forsaken
Forsaken
Shepherd
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker

eVayl - 50+6 pts - Tier 4 Machinations of Shadow
Ravagore
Ravagore
Angelius
Angelius
Angelius
Max Nyss Hex Hunters
Max Spawning Vessel
Spell Martyr
Shepherd
Shepherd

The Vayl list is pretty typical tier 4 list. I like the triple Angel's with her, as it allows me to trade one and still have enough armor pierce's remaining to threaten any heavy.

As for the Abby list, I've tried the melee centric list built around a Carnivean and a few Scythean, and even with Typhon, and I just haven't been a fan. They have some tremendous killing power, but I have little in the way of ranged attacks to pressure my opponent into my claws/teeth. This list also kind of remains in one big clump, with very little board presence.

I've found I really enjoy a mixed list with Abby. The ranged firepower of the Ravagore's add a lot in the early game. They can mess up charge lanes for single wound infantry and light swathes of infantry on fire if my opponent isn't careful. Plus they are always great at sniping important solo's or higher value infantry, such as Cavalry. Then as the game progesses, I can really crank up the power of the Ravagore's on Abby's feat turn. They are in effect, able to contribute what many other heavies are able to at a higher volume of attacks and much higher threat ranges. Plus, they may not seem to get much benefit from conferred rage on non-feat turns, but that extra 2" of movement lets them threaten 22" up the board. That is really quite scary.

So hopefully my games go well! I will post up results and battle reports sometime this weekend! And Happy Halloween!

Warmachine/Hordes Battle report - eVayl vs. Vlad 2 - 50 points

This is a 50 point steamroller prep match with a local player. We played the scenario, Outflank. We have two casters each, eVayl and eAbby for Legion, and Vlad 2 and Butcher 3 for Khador. We were playing timed turns, with 10 minutes per side and a 5 minute extension. We had a bit of list chicken going here, as eVayl was not going to be Vlad 2's friend, while Butcher 3 could present eVayl with problems. eAbby doesn't want to see Vlad 2 across the table, as he is one of the rare casters that can out-threat her. She does not mind Butcher 3 nearly so much, as Fortify can nullify one of his biggest advantages. I ended up choosing eVayl and she can play into even unfavorable matchup's and come out on top, where eAbby doesn't have that flexibility. My opponent chose Vlad 2, as I had been playing eAbby quite a bit lately and he must have thought I would stick to her. Now here are the armies:

Vlad 2

Demolisher

War Dog

Max Uhlans

Max Outrider’s

Max Doom Reaver’s

Max Doom Reaver’s

Max Winterguard Infantry

UA, 2 x Rocket attachments

Kovnik Joe

eVayl

Angelius

Angelius

Angelius

Ravagore

Ravagore

Max Hex Hunters

Max Spawning Vessel

Shepherd

Shepherd

Spell Martyr

Deployment

I won the roll off. I chose sides so that I could pick the one with two walls about 6-10 inches from my deployment zone. My opponent then went first. Mission is Outflank. He deployed the Outriders to my far left. Vlad was central behind a small forest. The Uhlan’s were just right of him. The Winterguard were to my right. I deployed two Angelius’ to my left, followed by a Ravagore and Vayl. Then I placed half the unit of Hex Hunters on each side of my Spawning Vessel right in the middle of the table so they could freely move through the hole between the two walls. To the right of them was my second Ravagore followed by my final Angelius. My opponent advance deployed a Doom Reaver unit to both the middle right and middle left. I advance deploy a Shepherd and Spell Martyr to my left by my Angels and the wall. One Shepherd goes on the right near my Ravagore and Angelius on that side.

Khador – Turn 1

My opponent activates Vlad, casts Transference on himself, assail on the Demolisher, and Hand of Fate on the Uhlan’s. He then charges forward into the forest. The Doom Reaver’s activate and both units run forward and spread out throughout the zone. The Uhlan’s activate now and run forward in a big clump so they all benefit from the +2 armor. My opponent realizes he got too close to his Doom Reaver’s so takes an abomination check and just passes. Joe and the Winterguard Bob and Weave and run up behind the Doom Reaver’s and pass their abomination check. The War Dog runs up behind Vlad. The Outriders run way up on my very far left and spread out. The Demolisher charges an Angelius. And with that over to Legion!

Legion – Turn 1

I started off my first turn by activating the Hex Hunters and running them forward between the walls in roughly a three row deep formation. I was dumb and moved the leader first and furthest to the left so that limited my movement capabilities. I suck at playing infantry…. Next the spawning vessel trundled forward between the walls. I now activate my left Ravagore, which walks up next to the wall, casts its animus, and boosts a shot into the front Uhlan. I score a direct hit and vaporize that Uhlan while lighting three of the four remaining members on fire. I actually score one point of blast damage on one with a roll of box-cars. Next up is Vayl. She casts Admonition on the furthest Angelius on the right and Refuge on the nearer one. She then drops two Fury and walks forward but is not within an inch of the wall. My left Angelius with Admonition activates and flies 9 inches forward into the left zone and boosts a shot into a Doom Reaver on the hill at the edge of the zone. It hits and blows the Doom Reaver away. The Angelius with Refuge moves forward and boosts a shot into a Doom Reaver in the same unit and once again blows it up. The refuge move brings it back to standing up against the left side of the wall. My right Angelius moves up near the right wall and boosts and kills a Doom Reaver. The right Ravagore moves up to the right wall and tries to take a shot at the right Uhlan in the block and ends up a half inch short. The scatter lands on the Uhlan but blast damage fails to break ARM. The Shepherd on the left gets behind the Ravagore and wipes its Fury. The Shepherd on the right goes behind the Angelius and wipes its Fury. I forget the Spell Martyr but my opponent lets my run him over behind the left wall. He has a lot of Spell Warded and Immune to Cold models so I don’t have a lot of spells to arc this game. On to Khador!

Khador – Turn 2

My opponent starts off the turn by upkeeping all his spells and rolling fire. None of the fires go out. I cause a point on one and four points on another. This leaves one undamaged, two at four boxes, and one at one box remaining. The first to activate is Vlad. He moves to the other side of the forest and pops his feat. He rolls up 5 guys gaining super powers. He powers up three of the Uhlan’s and a Doom Reaver from each unit. The right Doom Reaver unit then activates and get a run charge order. Two get charges into my Hex Hunter and one runs up to the wall trying to engage my Ravagore and failing and the last two just hang back in the zone. The Hex Hunters pass command thanks to Vayl being nearby. The super powered Doom Reaver hits and kills three Hex Hunters with Berserk. My pot gets filled to the brim. The second Doom Reaver misses and kills nothing. Next up is the Ulhan’s. They get a run charge order. One Uhlan managed to impact kill a Hex Hunter and successfully charge Vayl. The second Uhlan tries the same and kills a Hex Hunter but can’t reach Vayl since she was about an inch and a half from the wall. The third couldn’t fit in so just ran up into base contact. The fourth charges a Hex Hunter deep in my lines, but failed to hit the impact attack on the Hex Hunter on the way in so he got stopped. He still manages to just barely reach the Hex Hunter so he took his attack and still missed. My Hex Hunters pass their break test for casualties. The Uhlan that got the charge on Vayl easily hits her with a boost and Hand of Fate. He boosts damage and does a monstrous 20 points of damage to her. I transfer the damage to my left Ravagore and it cripples his body. The left unit of Doom Reavers get a run order and spread throughout the left zone and the super powered one engages my Admonition Angelius. I don’t use Admonition and sit tight. The outriders swoop deep into my territory on the left side with a run move. The War Dog walks up by Vlad. The Demolisher charges up into the left zone. The Winterguard Bob and Weave move up into the right zone and take some pot shots at my Spawning Vessel ladies, killing a few. And with that it was over to Legion!

Legion – Turn 2

Well I have to admit, that went far better than I could have hoped! Sure, my opponent got a solid hit into Vayl, but all his highest value models are right next to me and easily within attacking range of most everything I’ve got. Plus I only lost 5 Hex Hunters and a few Spawning Vessel members. Not bad at all! Now time to do some work. I pull in Fury and realize I miscounted and have to cut for one. I drop Admonition and upkeep Refuge. I make a mistake right off the bat this turn and activate Vayl. I have her move to her right to be clear of the wall and cast and Icy Grip at the Uhlan right in her face. I forget the fact that it no longer has reach but is engaged by one of my Spawning Vessel members, so I’m looking for a 12 to hit. I boost but miss. Dang. I really should have moved my Spell Martyr around the wall and I would have had an easy target onto one of the back members who had no cover and was not engaged. Oh well. Vayl casts Admonition on herself and that finishes up her activation. Next I activate my left Ravagore, forgetting entirely that it is damaged. I move him up 6 inches over the wall and try to take a shot on Vlad. I have him by about a half an inch. I cast my animus and boost to hit, looking for a 10 and getting a solid 14. I boost damage and roll a 10, causing 6 points of damage and lighting him on fire. I then realize he is damage and think I messed that whole activation up! But it was only his body that was crippled, so he could shoot unhindered! Phew. Next I activate the left Angelius with Refuge, and it flies up as far past the Doom Reaver engaging my other Angel that it can without taking a free strike. I boost to hit my armor pierce into him and get the hit and kill him. It then overtakes forward and just engages another Doom Reaver. I buy an attack and miss. I buy another hit and kill. I overtake to the right and barely engage the second to last Doom Reaver. I buy miss. Buy, hit, kill. I then take my refuge move and fly back to just in front of the left wall. Now unengaged, my left Angelius charges forward into the Demolisher and gets a brutal armor piercing attack of something like 14 damage on dice +1, crippling its movement. No more slams for you! I don’t bother trying to do anything more against its armor 25. My right Angelius now activates and move into the middle of the clump of Doom Reavers near my Hex Hunters. I max out its Fury buying attacks and overtaking through 2 Doom Reavers. Two remain in the unit, one of which is super powered. I activate my Hex Hunters and they get a run/charge order. Two get charges on the super powered guy, one is already engaging the other, and the final two guys charge the weaker Reaver. My first charge attack on super dude hits needing a 9, but then I roll a 7 for damage, needing an 8 to kill. Doh! The second guys misses super dude. The guy already engaging the other Doom Reaver goes, hitting and killing himself. I don’t have any target for battle wizard so that finishes the Hex Hunters activation. My right Ravagore moves up and boosts a shot into the Winterguard Infantry in front, hitting and killing him and a Komrade from blast damage. The left Shepherd moves up and heals 2 points on the Ravagore, and the right Shepherd moves up and removes the fury from my Angelius. Finally, the Spawning Vessel activates and I shuffle the ladies in from of Vayl, blocking off the Uhlan’s. I pop out a Stinger behind the front Uhlan. The Stinger activates, walking up to the Uhlan and boosts to hit him, needing an 11, and I hit! Oh happy day! I boost damage, and along with poison, send that Uhlan back to wherever Khador believe their dead go. And with that, I pass turn.

Khador – Turn 3

My opponent was quite shocked at the infantry clearing I did last turn. Even if an opponent spreads out, Angels can do work on infantry units! The fire on each Uhlan stays lit and I think one died to the flames. The fire on Vlad goes out. Poo. Vlad drops Assail and Hand of Fate and upkeeps Transference. The right Doom Reaver activates and the two remaining dudes move to engage all my Hex Hunters. The first guy hits with boosts from Vlad, killing two Hex Hunters from Berserk. The second Doom Reaver misses on the first guy even after a boost… Ouch…. That leaves three Hex Hunters on the board. The last Reaver on the left charges into my Angelius engaging the Demolisher and causes something like 6 damage on a bad roll. The Demolisher activates and walks by the Angelius, pushing it out of the zone with its Bulldoze ability. The Uhlans activate and kill a few Spawning Vessel ladies. The Outriders swing forward and get some sprays on my left Angelius by the wall and a Shepherd. The Angel is untouched, but the Shepherd is not so lucky. On the right, Joe activates and shoots one of the Doom Reavers engaging my Hex Hunters. I’m not quite sure why, but he was in the way for something. The Winterguard Bob and Weave and try to shoot up my Angelius, doing relatively minor damage. Vlad activates and runs on top of the hill at the back of the left zone, dominating for two points. And with that, it was Legion turn.

Legion – Turn 3

As I begin this turn, the owner declares that the store is closing so we need to finish up our game. We decide to call it, but I figure I’ll make one move to assassinate just to see if I could. I move my Ravagore to get a clear shot, cast my animus, boost to hit, needing 13’s on the hill, hit! Boost damage, roll 6,6,4, finishing off Vlad. Victory to Legion!

Post-Game thoughts

Well, that was not how I would have expected that game to end! It was a really good game that was going back and forth, barring a few crappy rolls for my opponent. I think had the game continued, I had my opponent on the back foot as he was running out of units that could really do much of anything to deal with my beasts. His heaviest hitters died before really doing much of anything after his feat turn. He did put me in a poor position for scenario by dominating the zone early. However, Vlad had little to protect him from my two Angelius and Ravagore eventually catching him and putting him in the dirt. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this battle report!

Cygnar Squire solo

Here is a shot of the ever popular Squire I painted up for a commission. Enjoy!

Mercenary horgenhold forgeguard unit!

Here are some shots of the forgeguard I painted up that have been permanently hired by cygnar. These his sure were fun to paint up. I hope you enjoy!

Cygnar Lancer!

I just finished painting up a commissioned cygnar Lancer. I had a lot of fun painting up this model. Honestly I have really just loved painting cygnar jacks. They are just awesome looking with a lot of detail. Enjoy!

And herrrrrreeee's Abby!!

Finally got epic absylonia all painted up and had to show her off! Enjoy!

Some Cygnar!

Today I'm posting up Cygnar models I've been painting for a local gamer. So far, I've painted up Thunderhead and eStryker. I really like Thunderhead's model a lot and it was good fun to paint. I've also been painting up some legion lately I'll have to post up!

Menoth Update - 2

Hello again, Andy here with another menoth update! Today I bring you the mighty Vanquisher! 

The Vanquisher is my favorite warjack from the menoth battle box. It has solid ranged and melee capability. But it is most at home from afar. 

So far I've used it in 3 games. It hasn't died yet. And it has killed a steelsoul protector, gorax, Laris, and some shredders. A lot of those kills were two for ones where blast damage at +2 and boosted can still really hurt. And if they happen to live, there is always fire to finish the job! 

I tried a highlighting technique to make my black pop a bit more. I think it worked pretty well overall. It isn't great when up close but it definitely works for table top quality. 

Well, now that I'm moved back to Minnesota and I graduated, I hope I have some more time to work on some models! 

Enjoy!

-Andy

Warmachine and Hordes: Expectations vs Reality

Warmachine and Hordes:

Expectations Vs Reality

           

            When I first got into Warmachine and Hordes (Warmachine, specifically), the big draw for me was how awesome the ‘jacks were. The concept of leaders with magical powers that could command these huge, badass robots was the primary reason why I went with Warmachine right off the bat. Yeah, the big beasts of Hordes are cool too, but I mean, these are robots! Unfortunately, I’ve been a bit dissatisfied lately with how things have been playing out.

            To begin, I started with Retribution. I picked up the Battle Box during a local Journeyman league because 1) Warjacks seemed super cool and 2) Retribution’s aesthetics were my cup ‘o tea. I’ve since learned that Ret is not exactly a beginner faction, and even though I have pulled a win out once or twice, the majority of my games so far (biggest was 25 points) have been sloppy and disappointing, especially in the realm of my Myrmidons. The Manticore is expensive and seems to get one good hit in then gets wrecked. The Griffon, though fast and potentially deadly, is difficult to get in the right spot without the perfect combinations. Don’t even get me started about the Chimera…If it wasn’t so expensive I’d consider it. Long story short, I wanted to play an army that relied on their big bots to do the bashing, but Ret is definitely not what I was looking for. I still love how they look, but they don’t play how I wish they did, so lately I’ve been reconsidering my choice.

            I want an army that relies on its big bases to do the dirty work, not an army that relies on infantry. I switched from 40k to WM/H for a reason: I wanted to build and paint less models and use the big stuff. Warmachine was basically turning into a Kill Team sized army in 40k. After chatting with Andy for a bit about how I was standing with Warmachine and Hordes, I realized that Warmachine wasn’t going to deliver the game that I wanted. My play style was better suited for a warlock.

            Circle of Orboros is my new pet project. I’ve always loved wolves and they seem, in theory, to fit the style that I want to play. I have planned out a 25 point list with eKaya, since she’s all about the big beasts, along with some different Warpwolves and a few other fun toys. I’m still in the planning stage but I’m really excited to begin learning and playing them.

           

The main reason I wanted to write this article was to articulate that, coming from a beginner, Warmachine and Hordes is a bit misleading. When I was first learning about the game, it seemed like each Warmachine faction relied on their huge bots (I mean, they’re all over the artwork AND they’re in the name!). In reality, however, it seems that Warmachine is definitely more reliant on infantry and uses their ‘jacks as supplemental pieces to a much larger game. Hordes, on the other hand, relies on their beasts to generate power, meaning that they have to be more flexible than ‘jacks. Yes, if your beasts die, your power starts to slip. You’re only as powerful as your beasts. But that dependency on the beasts is why I’m now leaning towards Hordes. In the end, I have to play an army that I both like aesthetically and how it performs on the table to enjoy the game. I want my big models to be able to run up and obliterate whatever I hit on the first go, not scratch away at it, run out of focus then get overrun while it waits for infantry to come in to save the day. Warmachine can’t deliver both aesthetics and play style to me personally.

What I say should be taken with a grain of salt. I’m still a beginner, and I know that Warmachine factions are just as powerful as Hordes can be. It’s just that Warmachine seemed like it would be about the ‘jacks, but for the most part, it’s not. Hordes is all about the beasts, especially with eKaya (as well as many other Warlocks), and so that’s why I’m making the switch.

- Aaron