Ironhead Station

Played a Sunday afternoon game against Jen and her trolls, and managed to pull off a win! This was the first outing of my newly painted Stormclad, and my latest attempt to figure out how to make my Stormblades earn their points. Good news is that this time they earned their points and then some. Here is what the lists looked like:

My Cygnar Army (747 pts, 27VPs) Stryker (prime) Squire Lancer Centurion Stormclad Stormblades + UA Sword Knights (x10) + UA Black 13th Strike Team Journeyman Warcaster

Jen's Trolls (739 pts, 26 VPs) Hoarluk Doomshaper Dire Troll Mauler Dire Troll Mauler Trollkin Champions Trollkin Champions Trollkin Hero Krielston Bearer and 6 Scribes Stone Scribe Elder Stone Scribe Chronicler Fell Caller Gatormen Posse x4

This was my attempt at making a hard-hitting list that could deal with armor, while being fairly hard to kill itself. I really like running two heavies – with no weak side on your offense, your opponent is forced to either commit to one side and give you a flank or spread their resources across your entire line. For my ‘jack choices: The Centurion was easy – he is priced right, he can’t be charged, and his reach makes him a nice compliment to the Sword Knights, allowing him to easily set them up with Flank. The Stormclad was the anchor of the Stormblades. With the meat of the army in place, the Black 13th provides a mobile death squad and some assignation options, and Junior is obviously there to upkeep Arcane Shield for several turns before eventually dying spectacularly (which he did).

I deployed the Stormblades and the Stormclad on the right flank, and the Sword Knights and the Centurion on the left. The Black 13th deployed on the far left to provide ranged support on that side. Jen deployed her entire army to my extreme right, making me wonder if the Black 13th are really that scary?


I opened the game by pulling 1 focus of the Squire, and using it cast a +7 Snipe on the Stormblades. This would give all of them a 14 inch range (16 inches for the Sarge!) with a POW 14 ranged attack. They could us the Controlled fire order to turn that into a single POW 22 shot, and then add in the chain effect from the Stormclad, letting the lightning bounce around in my enemy’s backfield. Nice. The plan was to make those Maulers and her two units of Champs to come to me, and to make them pay for it.

The plan worked pretty well, the Stormblades hammering the Mauler at range and taking out his body on the first round. In the end, this was probably the turning point of the game… I think her Mauler was intended to be the spear tip of her Champion delivery system, but through a lucky shot I prevented him from charging, and he never quite recovered. The Black 13th cracked off their chain attack on the gatormen posse, taking out a pair of them, and wounding a third. The Arcane Shield protected Sword Knights rushed forward, and the Centurion ran into position to set up a charge against the other dire troll, which Stryker dropped an Earthquake template on, just to make sure.

The first round blunted the Mauler’s advance, but it did nothing to stop the Champions and the Trollkin Hero. Jen forgot about the Hero's furious charge (which saved my bacon), and ended up running him to get up the front lines. The gatormen ran to engage the Black 13th, one of them getting into melee with Watts. The rest of the trolls buffed and advanced.

The top of the 3rd round marked the charge of the Sword Knights! Four made it to the hero, and thanks to the flank provided by the Lancer they get to throw four dice on the damage roll. They kill off the hero, but not before he managed to take one of them out with his retaliatory strike. The rest run in and surround the Mauler on my left, while the Centurion takes a pot-shot at him. A focus-laden Stormclad charges one of the Champions, kills him off, and manages to take out a second Champion with a boosted damage roll. The Stormblades make another Controlled Fire attack at the second Mauler, and tear him up some more. He's in bad shape at this point. Stryker puts Arcane Shield on the Stormblades and then pops his feat, putting the Sword Knights at ARM 24 and the Stormblades at ARM 22.

So far, so good.

On Jen’s turn, the torn up Mauler gets some revenge and two-handed throws the Stormclad, hitting one of the Stormblades. Thanks to Stryker’s feat, no one is hurt, but they are both knocked down. The first unit of Champs advance and tie up the front line Sword Knights, but they have a hard time getting the job done with Invincibility up. The second unit of Champs charge the Sword Knights that have surrounded the other Mauler, killing off two of them (damn that Concert bonus). Doomshaper casts Dissolution, clearing my upkeep spells and making my units pass a command check (they do), and then he pops his feat, which makes my take a d3 every time I use focus inside in control area.

Knowing that using focus is going to hurt this turn, I put most of it on my ‘jacks, as they can soak up the d3 damage. I load up the Centurion with focus, and he joins with the remaining Sword Knights to kill one of the Maulers. The Stormblades do their CRA on the other Mauler, and kill it. The Stormclad stands up and advances into the oncoming Champions to shut down any potential charge lanes. Jr. casts Arcane Shield on the Sword Knights, and takes 5 damage from Doomshaper’s feat, killing himself. A calculated risk. Stryker, who is out of the feat range also casts Arcane Shield on the Stormblades. The Black 13th have wrapped all the way around the back side by now, and they kill off the Chronicler, although it takes a couple of tries thanks to tough rolls. The Sword Knights are plagued by bad rolls and fail to kill the front line of Champions. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted to this turn. Hoarluk started up on a hill, and I considered using Stryker to try and assassinate him, but the focus use might have killed me first thanks to his feat. The good news was I had the troll army fairly bottled up. The bad news was that there were still six Champions left on the field.

The Stormblades fire away from the safety of thier barricade.

Once Junior died and his Arcane Shield went away, the Champs proceeded to clean up the Sword Knights in short order. By the end of Jen’s turn, everyone except for the standard bearer was dead. The Fell Caller charged the Black 13th and killed Ryan, which is what she deserved for failing to kill Doomshaper when she had the chance. Even with this surge, the momentum was still in my favor – both of Jen’s warbeasts were dead, my two heavies were still alive and had the remaining champs tied up, and I had a full unit a Stormblades and two of the Black 13th, Doomshaper was on death’s door and Stryker was unscathed. It was at this point that Jen decided that if she was going to die, she would do so gloriously and take out as much as she could in the process. With a bloodthirsty roar, the remaining Stone Scribes charge down the hill, one of them managing to kill a Stormblade. Hoarluk charges the sergeant, hoping to bring an end to the Controlled Fire attacks that have plagued him all game long, and he utterly crushes him. Of course that leaves him right in the middle of the wrong side of town….

My turn. The Stormclad takes out a Stone Scribe, opening line of sight for Stryker. Stryker casts Arcane Blast and boosts the damage, hitting Hoarluk with enough to kill him, but the damnable old troll makes his tough roll. At least he's knocked down. The Stormblades advance and do their grim business. He fails the next tough roll, and that's the game.

Eat electric death, Doomshaper!

So, what did I take away from this one? First, Stormblades are not the melee hammers I so dearly want them to be – I think Sword Knights actually play that role better. They are, however, one hell of a ranged attack threat when they have snipe cast on them, and super versitile. Previously, I had tried to use them as my spear tip, but experience is showing that they make a much better second wave. While spendy, the Stormclad does wonders for them, increasing the punch of the ranged attacks and adding a “you can’t ignore me” element that makes it hard for an opponent to focus exclusively on the Stormblade unit in melee. I wish I could have found the points to fit the Piper into this list, but that would have meant dropping three Sword Knights, and that just wasn’t worth it. I didn’t get much out of the Lancer either – I included him in case I needed to get earthquake off at range, which only happened once. Still, his reach makes him another good alternative for granting Flank bonuses to Sword Knights. As a list goes, this one seems straightforward and solid, and I think I like it pretty well for dealing with hard armor. That being said, I got very lucky this game – had either of the Maulers been able to charge into my lines like Jen wanted them to, things would have gone very differently. She also made a last second substitution, trading out Madrak out for Doomshaper. I think Madrak would have been much worse.

Jen also filed a battle report, and she actually took notes and stuff, so it’s probably much more accurate than my account. She always does a nice job with those. You can check that out over at Ghettokore Studios.

Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

I've been playing primarily with Haley for the last few months, and I've been through three different tournaments with her, starting with a 350 and a 500 point tourney, and then just last weekend a 750. She's a great caster, but I need to retire her for a while and try out some other things: I want to go back to Stryker a bit, as I haven't really played him since my battle box days. I've also had a couple of games playing Nemo as the focus battery, and I'd like to try that again paired with the Thunderhead. Finally, the trenchers are the other infantry unit I really like from a fluff perspective, so I'm thinking of cooking up a Siege/trencher army to see what I can do.

The family portrait

Of course, there was a lot of talk this week about the second edition of Warmachine coming in 2010. Personally, the whole thing makes me very excited. As a late-comer, a new edition is good news, as it levels the playing field a bit and promises to make the game a lot more approachable. I love the idea of army books - after Prime Remix and 5 different expansions, it is getting hard to keep cross-referencing your army across five or six books as you try and make a list. Faction books will be a boon for folks like me who haven't been with the game since the beginning. All-in-all, I'm very excited, and I think it will be a good thing for the game and will help to bring in even more players - plus, I have very little to lose... I haven't been around long enough for a new edition to threaten my tried and true lists and tactics - I don't have any.

I've got a game set up for tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to take another run at Jen and her Trolls. She's promising two units of Champions this time around... That should be fun. Expect a battle report to follow.

Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

I played in my first 750 point tournament this weekend and I had a blast. Thanks to travel and being sick, I haven't managed to squeeze in a game for nearly a month and I almost didn't play because I felt so rusty, but at the same time I really wanted to play some Warmachine. I decided I was in at the last minute, and ended up making up my list after I got home from a Hockey game at 11pm the night before. With limited time to plan, I was going in with only one list, and it needed to be straightforward and full of things I already knew how to run. The list got tuned even further the next morning - I was afraid I was going to bog down in the 12-minute time limit, so I dropped I unit of Precursors in favor of a second Centurion. In the end, this is what I ran:

• Captain Victoria Haley
• Squire
• Thorn
• Centurion
• Centurion
• Journeyman Warcaster
• Jr's Hunter
• Sword Knights (9 pts.) x9
• Sword Knight Officer and Standard Bearer
• Rupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
• Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
• Gun Mage Captain Adept

Army Points: 749, Victory Points: 29

We had a good turnout for the tourney (17 people) and ended up going four rounds. The 1:45 turns were a big change. I liked larger games and long rounds, because it felt like you were really getting a whole game in. We went from 10 am to 7 pm - it made for a great day of gaming, but I was worn out at the end. I ended up with a 2-2 record, which I'm okay with considering the short time I've been playing, and that I've only played 2 games at 750 before this.

Here is a quick breakdown of each of my games. I can't remember each of my opponents lists completely, but I'll at least tell you about the major elements in their army:

Game 1: vs. Khador, Scenario: No Man's Land

Opponent's Army

• Sorscha
• Widowmakers
• IFP x 10
• Winterguard
• Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
• 2 Greylord Ternions
• 2 Mortars Crews

I opened the game by killing off his entire unit of widowmakers on turn one with a lucky chain lightning. Good start. Advanced through withering mortar fire with the goal of meeting and crushing the IFP in the middle (after softening them up with more chain lightning. Sorscha feats and wind rushes, but TB prevents her from getting to me, but the assassination attempt was clearly set up for next turn. On my turn, only two models can move, and they block Sorscha's charge lanes as best they can. He comes after Haley who is now camping all of her focus (making me really happy he couldn't get there the turn before). Sorscha can't quite get it done and has to retreat. She parks next to the Black 13th. I think my opponent figured Sorcha's reach would tie them up and prevent them from attacking, but forgot about gunfighter. My turn Haley feats and the Black 13th brings a blazing end to a focus-less Sorscha.

Game 2: vs. Skorne, Scenario: Destruction

Opponent's Army:

• Lord Assassin Morghoul
• Preatorians + UA
• 2 units of Paingivers
• Titan Gladiator
• Titan Cannoneer
• Cyclops Shaman
• Basilisk Krea
• Venators
• Extoller Soulward

This was a weird game. I was well suited to the objective, but my opponent was well suited for the caster kill. On turn two, I had already done serious damage to one of the two battlefield objectives, but he was coming straight at me. I let myself get baited into playing his game, and that ultimately cost me. I should have played cat-and-mouse while I trashed the objectives with the two Centurions and the Black 13th (4 blaze rounds followed by Ryan's chain attack do wonders on taking down the objectives!) As eMorghoul ran at me, I caught him in Temporal Barrier, only to learn about his stupid Shadowfall teleport movement. I still managed to mob him with Sword Knights, who were almost able to kill him. This lead up the most bittersweet moment of the tourney...

Jr. almost pulls off the most spectacular kill ever.

Jr. leaped up onto a piece of fountain terrain, boosted his handcannon shot, and rolled the improbably high attack roll needed to hit the melee-engaged, screened Morghoul. Even better, I then threw triple boxcars on the damage roll! Morghoul was dead! Shot in the face! My opponent stunned - he assassination foiled! He was dumbfounded, and stared at the board for a long time... Right as I was about to start picking up my models he says "Wait! Wasn't your journeyman just inside Morgouls feat? He's blinded! He can't make ranged attacks!" Oh shit. He's right. We rewind, and he ends up pulling off his assination and winning at the top of the next turn.

Funny thing is, I wasn't sad because I lost the game - I was sad because Jr. did something so very cool against all the odds, and it didn't count. I was ready to promote him and buy the alternate sculpt to replace him!

Game 3: vs. Circle, Scenario: Mosh Pit

Opponent's Army:

• Baldur
• 2 Woldwardens
• 1 Woldwatcher
• Blackclad Wayfarer
• 2 units of Shifting Stones
• 2 Sentry Stones
• 2 Woldwyrds
• 5 Tharn Wolf Riders
• Alten Ashley

This was a grudge match with the gal who taught me to hate circle shenanigans in the first place. She's a newer player like me, but already has a well-stocked bag of dirty tricks. I went first and rushed with all lumbering speed to the center of the map. I made it there a turn ahead of her and set up shop. She pulled off the usual circle shenanigans by having the Wayfarer teleport into my back lines to attack the Black 13th. She managed to get Lynch, and then Watts and Ryan both missed (!?!) so I was forced to paste the poor druid with a Centurion charge. Heh.

Highlight of this game came in turn three, as she pushed her big constructs into the center. I had engaged the Woldwatcher and a Woldwarden each with a Centurion, had the piper play March, and followed up with a Sword Knight charge. The Sword Knights (with the UA) benefitted from the charge, Dismember and Flank, rolling 5 damage dice on the first attack and 4 dice on the next two attacks (the third attack coming from March). The overwhelming power of that round was enough to clear out the center, leading to a scenario win.

Game 4: vs. Cygnar, Scenario: Kill The Caster

Opponent's Army:

• Epic Caine
• Squire
• Journeyman
• 2 units of Gun Mages
• Black 13th
• Sword Knights +UA
• Centurion
• Kate Laddermore
• Anastasia Di Bray

This game was for "best of Cygnar" rights, which was cool, but it was unfortunately against one of the top tier players in our local group. I let Di Bray get her secret back to the other side, and all hell broke loose. His list was an absolute horror. He came at me like a spider monkey, and he hurt me. He hurt me real bad. It was fun to see my own faction in the hands of a really good player, and I learned a lot. At the end, I asked him how he would have beat his list with mine, and he was very gracious about giving me some good pointers. Tell you one thing, if I'm going to win "best of faction" anytime soon, I'm going to have to change factions!

So, that was my Warmachine weekend, and it was a great one. A month's worth of gaming packed into a single day with the density of a neutron star. I can't wait to do it again.

Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

It's been a rough few weeks. The snuffles I caught on the plane ride back from my vacation turned into a full blown sinus infection, and knocked me flat for the better part of my second week back. Just as I was starting to bounce back, all hell broke loose at work, causing one of those pin-wheeling, ball-of-fire plane wreck weeks that kept me at the office for 19 hours straight last Thursday. It's all better now, but I missed another Warmachine night down at my FLGS, making it almost three weeks since I've gotten a game in. My hands are starting to get a slight tremble. I think it is the onset of withdrawal.

My mind is a little scattered, so lots of random updates tonight.

First off, go over and check out my friend Jen's blog at Ghettokore Studios. She just got back from TempleCon, where she was rolling like a gamer rockstar and rubbing elbows with the Warmachine Elite. She posted some great pics, and it sounds like she had a wonderful time. Hopefully I can get the full scoop from her one of these days. My jealousy is absolute.

Next, in a fit of mild fever-induced self-pity, I picked up a game called BattleLore last week. It's not exactly big news, as it has been out for a couple of years, but I've always had a strong interest in the game. It's my first "big box" board game, and I'm really impressed by the production values. There is almost an overwhelming amount of goodies in the box when you open it up - Over 200 plastic miniatures, bunches of little banners (stickers already applied!), a sturdy game board, a nicely printed players guide and adventure guide, various decks of cards needs in the games, and bunches of terrian tiles and counters.

I haven't managed to get a game in yet, but reading through the players guide the mechanics look pretty straight-forward. The commands you are able to issue each turn are dictated by your hand of 'command cards.' The battlefield is broken into three distinct sections - left, center and right, and the command cards control what you can move and where it can be moved. Combat is handled through special dice, and it's a pretty straightforward system. The minatures themselves look good. Although not wargame quality, the look nice enough massed up on the gameboard.


Back to Warmachine... I finally got back to painting, and I'm most of the way complete with a Stormclad, who I'm hoping will shore up my unit of Stormblades who just seem unwilling to earn their points. Hopefully I can get him wrapped up this week and can post some pictures in the next few days. I also picked up a couple of Horgenhold Forge Guard to try out a color scheme idea for my dwarven army. It's a dirty little secret, but I've always had me a bit of a dwarf fetish, and I'm slowly pulling together a dwarven merc army - not so much because I fancy the mechanics of them, but just because I likes 'em.

On the same trip, I picked up a wet palette on a whim, and I'm surprised how much I'm liking it. It seems to be helping a ton with my blends, as I'm able to pre-blended a spectrum on the pallette, and keep it wet long enough to get the work done.

Hopefully, my work won't go off the rails again tomorrow night and I can make it down to the FLGS and get a game in. We have a 750 point tourney coming up this weekend, but I'm not sure I want to play... I've only gotten a couple games in the last month, and nothing in the last three weeks, so I'm feeling pretty rusty.

Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

I made it back from my vacation with a pocket full of pesos, a second-degree sunburn and the flu as a souvenirs. The trip itself was phenomenal, but the week since has been hell. It hasn't been until the last few days that I've started to feel better. Also, I'm watching the Super Bowl halftime show as I write this, trying to figure out how the hell Bruce Springsteen got so famous. I just don't get it.

I'm going to be a little a heretical today, and in a couple of different ways. First, I'm going to put my fanboyism aside to talk some shit about Privateer Press, and then I'm going to show off my latest painting project - and it's Games Workshop. Before we jump to conclusions, I'm not giving up on Warmachine or anything, but every so often I need to switch things up and paint something different. When you are working on an army, you tend to paint the same kinds of things with the same colors over and over again. Eventually, my enthusiasm starts to wane and I find that I've gone several weeks without painting at all... when that happens, I usually go pick up something not Warmachine just to "cleanse the palette." Think of it as a sorbet for the painter's mind.

But before that, I just have to ask... what the hell is up with consistency of the Privateer Press range lately? I came back from my trip excited to see what was new on the PP preview pages... I found Molik Karn and the Shadowhorn Saytr. I don't know what it is, but the quality of the sculpts seems to be getting spotty lately. The Shadowhorn isn't terrible, but it's also kind of cartoony and posed horribly. And Molik Karn's face... I'm not sure what to think. The armor looks great, but that face... that mouth... it just looks ridiculous. Maybe I'm still bitter from my 2-dimensional Black 13th models, but it sure feels like they are slipping. I hope they get a handle on the sculpt quality - I got into the game because I had never seen a range of miniatures as consistently beautiful as the Warmachine/Hordes line. I'd hate to see that slide.

Now on to my weekend project. I just haven't had the will to get back to my Sword Knight UA, and so I decided I'd like to paint something other than Cygnar just to get the juices flowing again. I ended up playing quite a bit of Warhammer Online while I wasn't feeling well, and I really think the mounted dark elves in the game look cool, so I decided to try my hand on a unit of Cold One Knights.

They are really nice models with quite a bit of detail. Paining scales is always a lot of fun, and the dinos were definitely the high point. With my Warmachine painting, I don't get to do much drybrushing these days, and I kind of forget what an effective technique it can be.

For all the concern about Privateer Press going to plastic, this just cemented in my mind that not only do I not care - I welcome it. Assembly was easier, I dropped him twice while painting him and my heart didn't jump into my chest, and best of all: I got an entire unit of five cavalry models for $20. That’s not too bad when you compare that to $100 for a full unit of Storm Lances.

I'm still working on my sci-fi RPG plans. I've got some ideas, but I'm probably going to set up a separate site to put all that information on, so I don't overwhelm Gamehole with it. More on that soon.

Labels: miniatures, MMORPGs, RPGs, wargaming, Warhammer Fantasy, Warmachine