It’s been some time

It’s been a while since I last posted as a lot of stuff is going in my life. My wife and I were blessed to purchase a new home and needless to say, it’s taken up quite a bit of my time. I’m trying to get back into playing Warmachine and Hordes as the LGS near my home is doing quite well and it looks like it’s going to be in business for some good time. It has a much better location than it did before and it’s now only a 25 minute drive from my house as opposed to an hour.

With the hopes of playing more games, comes to the responsibility to paint some more. I really don’t like to play with unfinished models but let’s face it, almost everyone has unfinished models here and there. I still have a Paladin of the Wall that I bought some three years ago that’s only primed. I’m such a slacker I know.

Coming up this October is a chance for the SoMD Baythralls to participate in the Mid-Atlantic Team Tournament. So far, three of us have committed to it and there’s a chance to win a fully painted Retribution army. One of the requirements to be in the running for the Ret Army is to have yours fully painted, both lists. My main lack of painted models is my infantry and solos.

Thankfully, this past No Quarter has a good article on how to build and paint a 100 point army. It’s really good for Steamroller tournaments as it suggests using two warcasters and to start at 25 points w/ each one, incorporating models that both casters would use. I won’t be building a 100 point army as I’m aiming for the 50 point size but the principle still applies. Instead of working my way up from 25 to 50, I’m just going to post the first of my two 50 point lists. I’m definitely using Severius as my primary caster but I’m unsure who I’m going to use as my alternative. This list is definitely tentative as some models my change. Suggestions welcome.

Severius
*Reckoner
*Revenger
*Crusader
*Hierophant
Min Choir
Sunburst
Deliverers min unit
Cinerators max unit
Rhoven and Honor Guard
Vilmon
Reclaimer Solo
Vassal
Vassal Mechanik
Allegiant
Rhupert

I have no advanced deployment and that sort of worries me. The thing is, I doubt I’ll have the time to paint either Errants or Idrians but the Daughters come to mind. I would drop the unit of Deliverers and go w/ Daughters if my painting goes well. Speaking of painting…off I go.

Tie goes to the Testament

The votes have come in and it’s a tie between the Testament of Menoth and Feora – Protector of the Flame. Seeing how I spent the majority of last night putting together Cinerators, the tie goes to the Testament. I want to thank all the folks that voted.

I modified the list a little and took out the TFG w/ UA and replaced them with a minimal unit of Deliverers and a Sunburst Crew. It really came down to playability. The last time I played a troop heavy army, I felt I had too many melee guys and didn’t get back what I invested in them. This time around, I feel I have a good mix of melee and ranged attacks.

It also turns out that my original Testament list was way over 50 pts. Whoops. Here’s the final one and its 50 points.

The Testament of Menoth

*Guardian
*Reckoner
Hierophant|
Vassal
Vilmon
Rhupert
Rhoven
Choir – min
Sunburst
Deliverers
Bastions – max
Cinerators – max

A battle report is to come this weekend.

Pick a List

This Tuesday is a rare opportunity for me to play a game at the LGS. I’m going to be playing against Ron (xcom on the boards) and its a 50 pt match. He’s prepping for a 50 pt Steamroller tourney this Saturday in Virginia and wanted a prep run.

Its been a while since my last match, and I thought it would be a good idea to play a caster I rarely or if ever use. Four of them come to mind, Grand Scrutator Severius, The Testament of Menoth, Grand Exemplar Kreoss, and Feora – Protector of the Flame.

Out of all of the casters listed above, I’ve played Severius the most, which isn’t saying a whole lot considering its roughly 4-5 games. Feora2 I’ve played once against my friend Barrett and both the Testament of Menoth and Grand Exemplar Kreoss, I’ve never used.

I’m posting four 50 pt lists in hopes of people voting on which one I should take. Keep in mind my model count is average and I don’t have Knights Exemplar, Zealots, or any Protectorate AD unit. Shame on me I know, no Zealots or KE, what kind of Menite am I.

Feora, Protector of the Flame
*Repenter
*Crusader
*Guardian
*Vanquisher
Hierophant
Choir – max
Deliverer Sunburst Crew
TFG – max with UA
Cleansers – max
Reclaimer
Vassal
Vassal Mechanik

Grand Exemplar Kreoss
*Repenter
*Guardian
*Reckoner
Hierophant
Choir – min
Deliverer Sunburst Crew
Bastions – max
TFG – max with UA
Rhoven & Honour Guard
Vilmon
Paladin
Gorman
Rhupert
Vassal
Kell Bailoch

Testament of Menoth
*Guardian
*Reckoner
Hierophant
Choir – max
Bastions – max
Cinerators – max
TFG – max w/ UA
Rhoven & Honour Guard
Vilmon
Paladin
Rhuphert
Vassal

Grand Scrutator Severius
*Revenger
*Reckoner
*Vanquisher
Hierophant
Choir – max
Deliverer Sunburst Crew
Deliverers – min
Cinerators – max
Rhoven & Honour Guard
Reclaimer
Rhupert
Vilmon
Vassal

There you have it, all four lists filled with pure win 🙂 The one catch is the Cinerators, I’m not sure if they’ll arrive by Tuesday. If they don’t, I’ll swap them out in the Testament list and just proxy them with Bastions in the Severius list.

Comments welcome.

Mangled Metal – Severius vs Seige

Yesterday, Barrett and I played a couple of mangled metal games. Our first one was a 25 point game that saw Reznik vs Nemo. I don’t remember too much of that game, other than Reznik getting squished by a Thunderhead. Our second game was an enjoyable, 15 pt match between Severius and Seige.

Severius
*Guardian
*Vanquisher
*Repenter

Seige
*Defender
*Ironclad
*Charger

Here are some of the highlights of the match.

Round One

I won the starting roll and elected to go first. All the Protectorate jacks ran, Severius casts Eye of Menoth and Defender’s Ward on the Guardian.

Ironclad runs up, Charger runs to a hill, and the Defender runs up. Seige walks up and casts some AOE spell that made rough terrain in front of the Iron Clad.

Round Two

Severius upkeeps Eye of Menoth, Defender’s Ward. Allocates two focus to the Repenter, and Vanquisher, and the Guardian runs for 1. The Vanquisher moves up and shoots the Ironclad, Repenter moves up and shoots the Charger, taking out his right arm. Severius runs for cover, next to a nice cozy house.

Seige gives 1 focus to the Defender, 3 to the Ironclad, and two to the Charger. He moves up and feats, hoping to catch Severius in his control area. He comes up a couple inches short! The Ironclad charges the Vanquisher and is dice plus eight on the damage roll. Ouch!!! He hits, takes out the cortex, and right arm. The Defender moves up to block a charge lane to Seige and takes a shot at the Guardian. He needed a 5 to hit with Defenders Ward, and duffed the attack roll, getting a three on two dice. The Charger did some bad damage to the Repenter, taking out his left arm.

Round Three

Severius upkeeps Eye of Menoth and drops Defender’s Ward, a mistake that will come back to haunt me. The Guardian and Repenter both get three focus and the Vanquisher wiffs his attack on the Ironclad. The Repenter charges Seige, boosts his attack, hits and does seven damage. I buy another attack, needing seven to hit and miss. The Guardian charges the Defender and does some pretty hefty damage, taking out his left arm and cortex. Severius sits still and feats, camping one focus.

Seige has no focus and hits the Repenter for some pretty good damage. The Charger shoots into melee and with his aiming bonus, he offsets the penalty by two and succeeds with the attack. He almost takes out the Repenter, leaving two boxes empty, one right arm and one cortex. Lucky me 🙂 The Ironclad then destroys the Vanquisher with his two attacks.

Round Four

Upkeep Eye of Menoth, give three focus to the Repenter and three to the Guardian. I decided to boost my hit on Seige, hit, and boost the damage roll. The damage was pretty significant and Seige was left with three life. The Guardian layed into the Defender and with his last roll, critically pitched him towards Seige. The deviation went right towards the warcaster but I only rolled a 1 for distance, coming up short an inch. Subsequently, the Defender was destroyed with the attack. Doh. Barrett and I wonder how the rules played on thi and decided he would get thrown, land, and then destroyed.

Seige gave three focus to the Ironclad and kept the rest for himself. He finished off the Repenter with one hit and the Ironclad came close to finishing off the Guardian. Leaving him with one movement box and two cortex boxes. Both arms critically disabled.

My Repenter’s damage grid right before the fourth round.

Round Five

I upkeep Eye of Menoth and gave three focus to the Guardian. The Guardian boost the hit on the Ironclad, hit, boosted the damage and did minimal damage. I bought a second attack and it missed with only one die. Severius walks up to cast immolation at Seige and comes up short. I desperately missed my Heirophant as I would’ve had an extra two inches on my spells. I decided to try and do some more damage on the Ironclad but it was a wasted effort. By this time the game was over.

Seige gave three focus to the Charger, Charger stands still and blasts the old man with his two shots, doing 14 damage to him. Seige then shoots the old man dead. Game over.

After thoughts

It was a fun game and reminded of my early days of just starting out, playing a lot of mangled metal. My placement on the Guardian was rather lackluster and it should’ve been in the middle of the field. It would’ve survived a lot better if I kept Defender’s Ward on it.

In related news, our MK II cards came in and we can say good bye to the PDFs. The cards are fine by my standards and I don’t see any need for complaining. I finished up my full unit of TFG and UA and hope to post them soon, along with my Vassal.

In a Rut

Since the MK II final stat cards have been released, I’ve been creating lists for most of the casters I have. When doing so, I try to think about the models I have and then some models I don’t have. This way, I can proxy the ones I don’t have in a game and see if I should buy them.

The recent problem I’ve come up with is, I’m including the same models over and over again. For instance, the only Exemplar unit I have is Rhoven and I’m not sure he counts because his bodyguards are Exemplar. I rarely ever think about putting Exemplars in a list, save for Bastions. When I do put them in, its normally with Kreoss, Severius, or the High Reclaimer.

My normal list goes sort of like this, Caster, 1 Vanquisher (shocker I know), another heavy, possible Devout, and then choir, vassal, TFG w/ UA, and an assortment of solos. That’s pretty much it. The caster I choose normally dictates the jacks I take with them, that’s probably true for most players but its nice to mix it up some.

In writing this, I think I found out my problem. I need more units, specifically all the Exemplar ones, Idrians, Daughters, and possibly Croe’s Cutthroats. This should give me more variety and a different play style than the one I’m use. Which is a slow methodical, Menoth brick, walking up the field waiting the lay the hurt.

The night before I know I’m going to play, I sit down and make 2 lists. This helps me and my opponent because normally I would do it right before the game. Sometimes it added another 15-20 minutes, just ask Barrett. This way, I know what models I need and it speeds up set up time considerably. There’s a chance of me getting in a game this Saturday and if I do, I plan to try out this 50 pt Amon list. Its definitely a change of pace and hopefully it’ll be a lot of fun to play.

Amon 50 pts
*Devout
*Castigator
*Crusader
*Crusader
Hierophant
Vassal
Choir – full unit
Idrians – full unit w/ UA
Croe’s Cutthroats – min unit
Kell Bailoch
Gorman

Heavy Dosage of Fire

Moving forward in our MK II campaign, CptCalvinus and I are going to be playing a series of 35 PC games with each of our remaining casters. This is going to give us a chance to try out some oldies but goodies and some new ones as well. Don’t tell the Cpt. but I plan on picking up one epic Feora in the next week or two. And with her comes a heavy dosage of hunka hunka burning love. It will also roast me some swans. I love it already…

I’ve constructed a nice list that incorporates models I have and for the most part painted, save for eFeora.

Epic Feora 35 PC
*Guardian – bonded
*Vanquisher
*Repenter
Choir – maxed
TFG – maxed with UA
Cleansers – min
Vassal
Reclaimer

I might swap out the Cleansers for a couple more support pieces but I’m trying to stick to the whole fire theme. The basic strategy for this list to set things on fire. In all seriousness, I think I would have to play a rather aggressive style and try to get Feora in the mix. The Guardian would most likely get either Ignite or Escort. Both are great spells and I would have to decide when I see my opponents layout.

I’m torn on who I would give Escort to, all three are viable candidates for it but I’m leaning towards the Vanquisher. This way it would have a 14′ threat range and possibly longer with the Vassal. Just a FYI, I don’t have a Reedemer and don’t plan on picking one up soon.

I’m looking forward to trying out eFeora as one of my new warcasters because she brings a different playstyle than the other ones I’ve been using. Plus, her model is pretty awesome as well. I just have to buy her now.

High Reclaimer

It turns out that I never thought once about using the High Reclaimer as a Menoth player. After a year and a half of playing and with Bastions on the way, I thought to myself “man, what a great time to pick up the High Reclaimer”. Then I thought, I have a lot of canon fodder troops that would go well with him, Cleansers, Deliverers, and to a lesser extent, TFG.

This is the one of the cool play styles of Menoth, throw sub-par troops to their death and revive later on or just blow them up and then revive them. Either way works for me.

With the upcoming field test of MKII, CptCalvinus and I are going to run a escalation style campaign of Menoth vs Cynar. The format is similar to the Paint and Play campaign in No Quarter and Lost Hemisphere’s Warmahordes challenge, but it differs in one way. We’re going to play two games at every point level, using the old rules in the first game and the new rules in the second. I’m pretty certain a lot of other people are going to be doing this and I find its a great way to see some of the differences in the game.

With that being said, I finished painting my High Reclaimer and will be using him during the escalation campaign. I’ll dive into why I’m using him and not my favorite monk later on…

I’m going to go back and add some badab black wash on his left forearm and touch up a few spots on the robe. In looking back, I should’ve used green stuff on a couple of places but I’m content with the results.

Here’s the 350 list that he’s leading in the MK II Escalation Campaign. First game will hopefully start this Tuesday using the current ruleset.

High Reclaimer 347/350 VPs: 15
*Hierophant
Cleansers x 6
Temple Flameguard x8 with UA
Visgoth Rhoven and his Bodyguard
Gorman di Wulfe
Ruphert, Piper of Menoth
Wrack

The basic strategy is to throw as much smoke as possible and hope I can get into melee pretty quick. I’m anxious to see if the new MK II rules will allow enough free points for a Devout or Revenger. Only time will tell.