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.

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......

The greatness of Pistol Cases - Round 2

So, I picked up the next bigger size.

Brand "Plano"

so, I quite like it. bottom shelf for Beasts/ vehicles top shelf for lots of minis.

Good Stuff. Total price, $21.95  with no tax because of this state I live in.

MTM Gun Cases - Or The Cheapest Alternative I've Found...

To Actual miniature transport cases.

MTM Gun Cases

I bought a 2 Handgun case the other day. Price: $15

So I bought this thing. In in I placed:

Calandra
Troll Axer
Troll Impaler
Swamp Troll
Full Unit of Pyg Burrowers
Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Rune Bearer
Fell Caller Hero (Converted, pinned and un-puttied)
Swamp Gobber & Bellows Crew


All of this took up precisely... half of the case. In the other half I plan on putting in a full unit of Fennblades, a Dire Troll Bomber, my cards, and a Trollking Champion Hero.

Will likely leave me enough room to one day house eMadrak, another axer, and a unit of 5 champions and Gunbjorn. giving me 3 50 point lists to choose from. All in a single 13" x 5" x 10" case.

Great stuff.

Cheap.

also, since the models are assembled but un-painted I was rather "Rough" in the opening and closing of the case.... several times. even the fidliest bit I thnk in all of that. the Swamp Troll's tongue. which is long and thin attached by the smallest ammount of Super gule and no pin because I could not figure out how to pin it without breaking the damn thing (yet) came out un-bent, un broken and completely and securely attached to the mouth.

again, I can't recommend it enough.

Stephen

AND NOW UPDATED WITH PICTURES!

Hordes - I think I'm ready....

Ok, so I've read through the RB, Read all my cards, explored the forums, listened to podcasts. and bent my experience of 40k to wraping my head around all the nuances that I can find. Some observations:

This game is not an army game. it's not a game that scales up properly. To me, anything above say...75 points that the game would become too long and unweildy.

So.... I'm sticking to the 50point mark and below. I can see the appeal of playing a 4 player game of 150 points with 3 warlocks/warcasters each over the course of a weekend, but in the end, I don't have the time or space to dedicate that much effort to this.

50 points however has a good time length, a lot of options, and a clear general to your warband.

So, as it's been recommended to me several times not to start with circle, and the fact that I've loved orks forever, I went with trollbloods to start. Bought a lot of models, did a bit of converting because that is what I do and have the following lists almost ready to play, and almost ready to paint.

Calandra, (soon to have) Gunbjorn

Dire Troll Bomber
Troll Impaler x2
Troll Axer
Swamp Troll

Fennblades (Full)
Pyg Burrowers (Full)
Fell Caller
Trollkin Champion Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler
Trollkin Runebearer

Swamp Gobbers & Bellows Crew

Which will allow me to play in SR2010 with the following lists:
Calandra or Gunbjorn:

15 Points
Troll Impaler -5
Swamp Troll -4
Pyg Burrowers (L&9) -6
Fell Caller Hero -3
Trollblood Runebearer -2

25 Points
Troll Impaler -5
Dire Troll Bomber -10
Pyg Burrowers (L&9) -6
Fell Caller Hero -3
Trollblood Runebearer -2
Stone Scribe Chronicler -2
Troll Whelps -2

35 Points
Troll Impaler -5
Dire Troll Bomber -10
Fell Caller Hero -3
Trollblood Runebearer -2
Pyg Burrowers (L&9) -6
Trollblood Fennblades (L&9) -8
Trollkin Champion Hero -3
Stone Scribe Chronicler -2
Swamp Gobbers -1

50 Points
I'm still working on this list, but will get there eventually.

Metagaming..... Why playing the Meta is a bad Idea.

So, Having had an interesting yet frustrating conversation with somebody (yes you) about what a Meta Game is this weekend, I decided to do up a blog post about metagaming, power gaming and why neither will let you win a tournament.

First Off, what is a Metagame?

Well, a Metagame is a game within a game. How does this apply to us as gamers? well, the whole Idea of Metagaming is something along the lines of the following, no matter what game you play.

Player A, whom we'll call Jimmy, In your gaming group, is widely accepted to be the "Player to beat" each group has one, or maybe even 2 that are up there. Does not matter who they are, just that they exist. Now say in our given game Jimmy routinely plays Army/Faction/Deck X, and wins tournaments with it. So the meta is "Beat Jimmy because he's the best" so what do we build our Army/Faction/Deck to do? Well, we build to kill Jimmy of course! because if we can be the best in our area, we are the new best right? WRONG. To be the best, you need to not only be able to beat Jimmy but also you need to reliably beat Paul, the guy from 75 miles away that really only shows up for tournaments and does well with a different army every time.  Metagaming is good for a single aspect of all of our hobbies. These are Leagues. Leagues are defined by their Metagame. Simply put.

If however you are not in a League, bring a Balanced List that to the best of your ability you can play to defeat ANY ARMY TYPE that arrives and does not depend on any "Gimmick" or "One Trick Pony" because in a tournament, Murphy's Law states that you will not play against Jimmy, but you will play Paul. Even Odds.


Now.... everyones favorite. Power Gamers.

What is a Power Gamer?
A Power Gamer is "That Guy" the guy that finds the broken build of any given gaming system and abuses it to beat any and all opponents and take excessive ammounts of glee in the fact that he pissed everyone at the tournament off. He is also known for using the Rulebook as a hammer to pound the heads in of New players to a ragged pulp and also likes to complain and misdirect opponents when they find that one piece of rule that breaks their trick pony into tiny shards of what it once was. How does this translate into not winning? First and foremost, you're not the best player in the world. nobody is. Your One Trick will beat the face of almost everything.... but not everything. there is always that counter. and there are always people like me who bring counters. you may not play them (see "Jimmy's Law" above) but eventually you will. Don't take that path. Bring the balanced approach and get better and win because you are a winner, not because you can exploit some archaic form of old english to intentionally Mis-Interpret the rules to your advantage. Play the rules. Play a balanced army and you should do ok. As you progress in tactical skill, you'll get better at the game.

Oh, and People will still want to play you another game. Always an important thing.

The Fluff of Immoren

So, as with Warhammer 40k (Not warhammer because the fluff for that game is so damn regurgitated that I could replace all the world specific stuff with any world wether it be D&D, or what have you and it would fit that world) I'm really starting to like the Fluff of Privateer Press.

The Fact that I hate steampunk is really doing little to deter me from getting more and more into the fluff of the world. When I started, the world of the Iron Kingdoms seemed like a contrived stereotypical mess, half baked and worthless.

But the more I read the fluff in the Hordes! book, the more I'm loving it. The Trolls and the Circle are still my prefered armies, but the fluff of the Legion of Everblight is great. Probably the fact that I love their take on dragons and the ability to blight entire races. Maybe this is just a random ramble, but It's my view.

The one problem that I have found is the fact that while every other race is fleshed out rather realistically, the Trollbloods come off a bit thin. Maybe a bit cartoony in the fluff.

Hopefully PP is working on that.

Anyhow, anyone know if PP has put out any novels about the Iron Kingdoms?

Hordes - Random Musings on Trollbloods

So, I got my 2010 Faction deck this weekend, as well as Calandra's model. Seems that they're now shipping models with both MKI and MKII cards. Interesting. now I'm uncertain that I needed to buy the faction deck. well, chock that up to $15 wasted.

Anyhow. The reason I got Calandra is because of a ridiculously overpowered looking list, which from everything I've ever read about Warmachine and Hordes is the way to build your army lists. So, without further adieu,

The Burrownomicon

This is an incredibly well written series of posts (specifically the first few, before the comments start rolling in.)

So, this is going to be the first list I build.

Army:
Type: Duel (1 caster, 35pts)
Points: 35
Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood (*5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Stone Scibe Chronicler (2pts)
Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

Then it's on to the 50 point mark, which is the "Hardcore" level. which is what I really want to play at. First I have to learn the army the best I possibly can, then learn how to make all of my activations fit into 7 minutes. which I believe will be quite difficult.

I'm thinking that another Impaler and DTBomber would be the way to go to get this to 50 with the best efficiency.

Thanks to SevWall for his insight.

Trollbloods - Synergy may be hard to find sometimes

IABNSo, having aquired a fair bit of Trollblood models and having had people recommend NOT starting with circle since their play style is counter-intuitive to the rules of HORDES!, I'm starting with the not so lowly trolls.

Some things I've discovered in my reading and thinking:

pMadrak:
While he may seem quite dandy to start with Rathrok and relatively high mat (7) he is a bit on the weak side with ARM 16 and his movement rate of 6. While I see him as being a beatstick with a brick around him, this is definitely NOT my play style.

eDoomshaper
This guy has caught my attention because of a couple of things:
-Feat: Add 3" to SPD and making warbeasts not be forced to charge slam or trample makes getting into the thick of it a lot easier. makes my trolls run a lot faster and while I see this being used on the first turn to get closer to the enemy a lot more useful than not forcing to charge and slam or trample.... less of an attractive thing.
- Goad: While his feat would likely be used to run first turn, if you decide not to use this I can see this ability being used on such beasts as the Dire Troll Mauler or Mulg, simply for the added beatstick ability. moving 2" with a warbeast then forcing more attacks seems quite useful. especially for Mulg as you get to attack again with his STR 13 = dead stuff. no matter what it is. especially if you boost him.
Aggitation: Putting fury on your opponent's warbeast during your turn seems fun, though I see them frenzying and attacking Doomy for the effort. Seems useful at first, but in the end is a double edged sword.
Wild Aggression: Seems quite useful.

Calandra or "I make stuff do what you want"
I like Calandra the best of all of the Troll Warlocks. However some things need to be said first:
She will be easy to hit and easy to damage. this is bad.
She is low MAT and RAT so she can not hit anything except peons.
She has only 16 boxes of damage so can die quickly to beast/jacks with a decent str.
That being said, if you take her she gives you a LOT of benefits:
-Feat: AMAZING. I get lots of re-roll for anything in my 14" Control Area
-Fate Blessed: AMAZING. I can spend fury to give stuff in my Control Area Re-Rolls.
-Befuddle. Great for moving intervening models away from a caster for assassinations. or even puting others in the trample path of a Beatstick.
-Dodge Bullets: an amazing spell that can really help out a unit that needs to both survive and move quickly.
-Star Crossed:Great for close in stuff, but if they get too close you die. a double edged sword, but if you're this close, you have a plan already (Read Fell Caller/Dire Troll Bomber)

Synergies of Calandra:
The Dire Troll Bomber is your best friend with Calandra. As are Impalers. Adding 4" to the DTB's ROF 2 Bombs is..... well, rather stupid for your opponent. Have a RNG 12 POW16 AOE 4 blast is rather devistating. especially to single wound models that just sit there to tarpit stuff. Rather funny really when an entire unit or two disappear. Or if you really want to be an ass, you can boost his attack rolls with it and hitting a caster with 2 of those will cause a lot of damage. direct hits with re-rolls seems kinda broken, but meh. you pay for it in points.

Pyg Burrowers are also great on feat turn as you get to re-roll your 1 and 2. since they can attack with their POW 14 guns in combat, and you take 10 of them, you buff their MAT to 6 with the Fell Caller then charge in and unload a mass of firepower onto pretty much anything. lots of re-rolls + POW 14 = dead stuff. pure and simple. 10 shots with re-rolls is POWER Playing.

Fell Caller
This is your built in Auto-Take. He buffs, he's a weapon master with 2 attacks, has a nice spray, and has 8 boxes. all for 3 points. Duh.

Stone Scribe Chronicler:
Another Buffer, 5 Boxes and the ability to knock down powerful opposing models. fun to put on a tarpit unit engaged with a heavy and keep it locked down for a turn.

Troll Whelp:
Often underestimated IMO these guys help you in several different ways. 1 you get 5 for 2 points. 2, they are a fury management tool, you want to force the crap out of a warbeast? do it and comfort food them to a manageable level. 3, healing for warbeasts. D3 without forcing and 2d3 with forcing on a troll warbeast = no more crippled aspects. 4 hinderance. a little debuff to attack rolls while close to opponents. They have a lot of abilities that can come in very handy. just don't expect them to survive, ever.

So in the end I believe I will be playing with Calandra.

This is my "Idea" list at 25 points:

Calandra +5
Dire Troll Bomber -10
Impaler -5
Fell Caller -3
Fell Caller -3
Pyg Burrowers (full) -6
Troll Whelps -2
Feralgeist -1
Total: 25+5*

Why a Feralgeist? Well, mainly because i just like the idea of putting a model of the opponent's into play against them. even if it only has 3 boxes left before it dies again. I can do it a few times if I'm lucky. or I can bind to my bomber if i really want to throw a few more bombs after it has died. sure, it does not always work very well, but it can really piss someone off if they spent a lot of time killing one of my guys and i just bring him back as a minion. lols all around.

Do I expect to win the world with this army? hah. I expect the impaler to die first to deny the snipe, then the bomber. then calandra. HOWEVER, i do expect that this army MAY be able to win some stuff.

If I had to remove some stuff I'd probably drop the Feral, 1 Caller and drop the Burrowers down to Min size to gain another Impaler. I may just do that in the end, but who knows.

Privateer Press Design - A Target GW Should Emulate

So, played my first game of Hordes this weekend. got a bit confused, con-fuddled, and had my caster assassinated. No bother, cant expect to win every game from scratch. anyhow, after looking back, i've come to a couple of conclusions that have rather firmly solidified my thinking on a few topics of comparasin.

First: Privateer Press goes out of their way to write COMPLETE rules sets.

GW Could only wish they had a design team that did this. It was rather simple to read through a confusing interaction to get the CORRECT RAW answer to my questions. Has this ever been the case with GW?... Thought not.

Secondly: Scaling. Privateer Press built into their game a scaling mechanism that is IMPORTANT to the game play itself. Fury Management (and I assume Focus management in WM) The ability to scale a game proportionally is something that has always frustrated me about GW. In 40k the game plays completely differently at different levels. At 2500 points, you are playing a completely different game than you are at 1500 points.
At 2500 Points you are building for 2 things: Killyness and Survivability. you have to survive your opponents uber crap while killing theirs with yours. At 1500 points the game is a lot more confined without the masses of supper doom units running amok on everything and you get the more objective oriented games. Tactics become a real part of the game.

In Hordes (and WM) you are not limited by the number of fast attack slots you need to field or how many troops are required. you are bound by the fury management abilities of your warlock/warcaster and the number of points on the field. If you get high enough in points, they've built in a mechanic to manage more fury by including another warcaster/warlock. Kudos to PP for doing this in a way that both makes sense and is functional.

And thirdly: COMPETITIVENESS
The way that Hordes/Warmacine is designed encourages competition. not ties, or half measures. their slogan says it all. Play like you've got a pair. Do you hear the WM/Hordes crowd yelling and screaming about how the eButcher has killed the game? NO. you see them building lists that hand that list it's teeth back to it though. no complaints, no crying, just playing.

And Finally: ERATTA and FAQ.
I add FAQ there because PP has their own forums set up so that people can ask questions. they don't release FAQs though. They do however release Erattas in short order. They make sure that their game is both consistant and fair to all of the different factions of their games. not just making sure that space marines or the newest prettiest thing wins everything.

There is definitely a reason that PP is taking more market share from GW year by year. their sculpts are routinely amazing, their rules are well written, balanced, fun an most of all fair. they are scalable, they support their product.

So, you have my initial thoughts, Any of your own?