Cryx - Finding Combos

So, yes, I know that all the combos that have been found for WM are out there, around, but I like to take time to look at smaller stuff myself and see if I can figure it out for myself. So if this is redundant to you, well, sorry.

So, I love the warwitch siren, Her ability to hand off focus to a bonejack that is disrupted and un-disrupt it is very cool.

Give it to a Defiler and watch it spray to it's heart's content, or run and then arc out some fire power.

Another that I've found to be quite useful is the Night Wretch. Give it a focus and get it moving then AoE with your free focus. then arc out so it's useful again, and again, and again.


The biggest drawback of the Nightwretch is the fact that it needs Focus to have that AoE, but the Siren makes this far less of a liability as I can un-disrupt it, move, AoE, then arc out numerous venoms into a caster that can't take it. Quite fun looking to me.

Another I've found is the Nightmare, the ability to go ghostly with him lets him go hide for a turn on the oposite side of a wall from his prey, then load him up on fury, go ghostly and pounce. quite fun with his ability to hit and kill a Caster or whatever from an un-expected location. usually getting the back strike bonus as well if you do it right.

Given, I'm new and other more experienced players will likely be ready for this, but it helps to find things for yourself. Especially when learning a new game.

-Now if only I could get my gaming up to speed so I can play in a SR2010 event.

40Kon - The Ringer Army

While In a perfect world I'd have a perfect number of players show up for a tournament, I'd never need a ringer.

Alas, we don't live in a perfect world. and nobody wants to pay for an event and sit out for 2 and a half hours.

So A ringer is always a necessity.

This is the ringer army for the montana 40kon.

SM Captain
-on Bike
-Power Weapon
-Hellfire Rounds
-Artificer Armor

SM Librarian
-on Bike
-Null Zone
-Smite

Command Squad
-on Bikes
-4 Plasma Guns
-2 Lightning Claws
-2 Thunder Hammers
-2 Storm Shields

Bike Squad (4 Bikes)
 -2 Meltas
-Power Fist
-Attack Bike w. Multi-Melta

Bike Squad (4 Bikes)
-2 Meltas
-Power Fist
-Attack Bike w. Multi-Melta

Bike Squad (4 Bikes)
-2 Meltas
-Power Fist
-Attack Bike w. Multi-Melta

Devistator Squad
-4 Missile Launchers
-Lascannon/TL Plasmagun Razorback

Devistator Squad
-4 Missile Launchers
-Lascannon/TL Plasmagun Razorback

Devistator Squad
-4 Missile Launchers
-Lascannon/TL Plasmagun Razorback
 2,000 Points

Now, a Ringer is not there to beat face. It's there to fill space.
I believe that if you play against a Ringer you get a win. Period.
That's just me.

I'll likely be playing the ringer, but not necessessarily.

If you play against the ringer you get 1 thing only automgically. A Win.
Since the 40kon Will be based on Both wins and points, this just does 1 thing. gets the first round's opponent into the upper bracket. They must earn their points. If I table the army I come up against, they have a large problem because they play with the big boys with very few points. If they beat the everliving crap out of me, well, they belong with the big boys anyhow.

Every other round of the event you always place the ringer against the Lowest player in the event. it's a non-issue.

Is it fair to everyone? not always. but life is not fair, we just deal with it as best we can.

Also, First round the Ringer plays a RANDOM player. so that random player could be the person I play most often, just as likely as it could be the person from Nova Scotia that I've never met before. There is never any malice in the Ringer's Opponent.

Ever.

Composition - Or "Seriously, This has not been needed since Rogue Trader"

Composition. the worst of the worst soft score offenders. It is a hold-over form 1st edition of 40k. You know, when you could arm your space marines with Shurican Catapults. Back then you could put whatever you wanted on the table. So Comp worked then, when you could make really stupidly overpowered stuff.

Now? well now each race has it's own book. no more mixing wargear between xenos and Space Marines.

No more running Orks alongside the Eldar.

Why is this still around?

Got me.

It is by far the most restrictive and the most subjective of all the soft scores.

Because Jim the Fluff Bunny says that in White Dwarf 3 that the deathwing were only comprised of certain named characters with their individual retinues, now all deathwing players that don't adhere to that get hit with a comp facepalm.....

Just let this worthless piece of ........ die already.

It's useless and worthless.

bleh. I hate comp if you did not guess. Both as a scoreing mechanism and as anything else.

Painting Scoring - Or Why Should This Count towards a TOURNAMENT

So you may have noticed I'm doing opinion rants on Soft Scoring. I hate soft scoring. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Every time I see it I almost need to hold back the need to Vomit on the playing surface.


So.....

Painting.
I love seeing painted models. I love playing with painted armies. I love to paint. However, does that make me better at playing the game? nope.

Do I believe that painting should be scored on a percentage basis in a tournament against battle points? Never.

Why? precisely because no matter how well I paint it does not make me better at playing the game.

Should painting be judged? YES. because of the time and effort required to paint an army fully. there should be some reward. It should not be tied to the overall score though. it should be an appearace award.

Sportsmanship - Or What The Crap?!?

Sportsmanship. One of our least favorite topics to discuss. It has it's proponents (many) and it's opponents (just as many including me).

Sportsmanship is MEANT to work like this:

Good humor, quality opponents are encouraged.
Dicks and Assholes are Discouraged.

Simple right? Not quite.

It really works like this:

You Beat me? low score for you. I figure I'll get a higher score and our overall match will be less of a loss for me, or if it was close I'll even come out ahead because of this "Soft" score.

...... Not quite the intended result Riiiiight???

How I think Sportsmanship should be scored:

Each player gets 1 vote. only one for the entirety of the event.

You vote for your FAVORITE opponent. The score has NO BEARING on overall tournament placement.
You can ONLY vote for somebody you played against.

The player who gets the MOST votes (3 in a standard tourney or more in a GT) wins the "Players Choice" award.

Simple really. that is it.

Problems Solved.

Moving on....

Cryx - Warjack analysis

Now, given that I'm working from the WM MKII playtest rules as I have not yet gotten the Cryx 2010 Deck (on the to buy list for next week)

I have to come up with some warjacks to use.

I'm playing Deneghra/eDeneghra so I'll need a few Arc Nodes.

A few have appealed to me and in all honesty, I'm thinking that a Theme is in order. No, not a Tier.

So to start off with, lets look at the Lights (Bonejacks)



Deathripper:
Basic 4pt Jack.
Arc Node
1 Attack with Sustained Attack.
-Chicken Head. I like the look of all the Chicken Jacks.
-I failed to notice on first look that the Sustained attack needs focus to keep it going. PS 13 is not bad, but with MAT 6, I'll need a decent roll just to hit the first time....
= Probably won't use.

Defiler
5 pt Arc Node with a spray.
-I love sprays
-I really like sprays with POW 12.
=Will likely use this one the most.

Helldiver
-3pt = Cheap
- NO ARC NODE = Bad.
=a "Helldiver" screams flyer to me, but it's not a flyer, it's a burrower..... odd, and not what I'm looking for.

Nightwretch
-another Chicken. :D.
-RAT 5 Shooter = not so good at all.
= Defiler is still better.


Stalker
-Not a bad model,
- No Arc Node
- Not a bad choice if I take the Withershadow Combine, we shall see.

Canker Worm
-a Plethora of cool abilities
- No Arc Node
- Affinity for not my caster....
- at first glance while I like the model, I don't believe that it will fit my play style as it is focus intensive..... I think.

Ripjaw
-Newest of the Chickens.
-Armor Piercing :D
-Arc Node!
=Arc Node + Armor Piercing = Win!

So for Bonejacks I'm looking at

-Several Defilers (2-3)
-Ripjaw (1-2)

So, I now have my Arc Nodes to cause havoc.

On to the Helljacks.

Denny has a Character affinity Jack.... That I hate. wow, that sucks.

However I'm lucky in that I love the best Jack in the game. Death Jack.

So I have at least 1 Heavy Jack.

I also Like the Seether. very focus efficient for my Focus hungry caster. and a very cool model.

So most lists will see one making an appearance.

So My lists are already shaping up to have:

Denny/eDenny
-Deathjack
-3 Defilers
-1 Ripjaw

So I'm looking at 26-27 points of a list already spent.

If I'm going for a 15 Point list, it will likely be:

eDeneghra
-Death Jack
-Defiler
-Warwitch Siren
-Warwitch Siren

This gives me a Solid core of 2 Jacks, and 2 support solos, along with the DeathJack... never a bad thing.

next up is the Units (or unit :D)

Warmachine - Cryx, It's not steampunk. it's ..... Bonepunk?!?

So, as you may or may not know, I hate Steampunk. I always have and likely I always will. Probably some deep seeded hatred of Railroads or some such thing.


However with picking up the Warmachine & Hordes game, it is an ingrained feature of the game. This presents a minor inconvenience because I do infact think that the rules are extremely well written and fit quite well with my "Competitive" nature.

How to deal with this? well, Hordes was the immediate result, and trollbloods (and soon Circle) have been the result. However there is another probelem that I've seen. The fact that the two games are so completely interwoven, I have to know the rules for WarMachine or I'm going to be at an extreme disadvantage going into Steamroller tournaments and the like. How to rectify this? well, after looking at all of the fluff, models, rules and background, I've decided on Cryx to be my Faction of WM. Reasoning of this is simple. It's the least Steampunky of all of the Warmachine Factions.

See, that was easy. Now the hard part. Who to choose as a Caster.....

Options (Keep in mind that while I'm a competitive person, At this point in my hobbing career, I'm keeping with models that I will enjoy painting):

Asphixious - Gaspy (great name)
- Decent Pose
- Not a fan of the Mechanical/Organic Combination
- Not a fan of the Armor- Basically it's a big Space Marine with a Glaive.

=No Go for me.....

Skarre - Scary
-Bleh Posing
-Farie Horns - Not a good thing
-Pirate. -Good Thing.

= Possibility

Mortenebra
- Necron

=Pass for me.

Goreshade
-A Chaos Space Marine.
-Done enough of that
=Pass for me

Lich Lord Terminus
- A strange Draconic Abomination
- Good Posing
- Strong Detailing
= A Definite Possibility

Lich Lord Venithrax
- A Mechanical Skeleton
=No. Just no.

The Witch Coven of Gharlghast
-Not horrible Posing
-The sculpts turn me off for some reason. they just look..... unfinished. not sure why.
-I know I won't want to paint them so this is a no.

Deneghra
-Great Variety of Sculpts.
-Great Fluff.
-Great Posing.
=Win. She wins the show.

So now I've chosen my main caster. Deneghra (And eDeneghra)

And this is how I've come to chose to run an BonePunk army of Cryx for WarMachine

And because she needs some friends, I'll be running 2 of her kind (the Warwitch Sirens) though I'll be using her Plastic version for her and converting a Warwitch out of here altranate sculpt to make a diferent pose for the 2 Warwitch sirens. Now I just need to find a good sword to give her......