Mandragoran
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Posts by Mandragoran
I Go, You Go? No Go!!!!
Mar 28th
A guest post from quozI, of infinity tournament fame (read also remorseless pestering)
We’re all familiar with the classic Wargaming mechanism of I go, you Go (IGoUGo). That’s where one player moves, shoots etc. with all their miniatures and then the other player gets to do the same with theirs. As an approach for handling player turns it definitely has its advantages – it’s familiar so it makes a new game more instantly accessible, it’s tried and tested and it’s the only approach that many members of our wargaming community have ever experienced.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40,000, Warmahordes, even down to classic board-games such as Bloodbowl. I get my turn, you wait, then you get your turn and I wait.
So what’s the problem, or is there even one?
I was a massive Warmahordes fans for years – I still think it’s a great game and it uses the IGoUGo approach. I came to Warmahordes from another IGoUGo game – 40K. All was OK with my relationship with 40K until I was badgered (thanks Paul) into trying a game of Warmachine and realised that there was a game out there that for my personal tastes far surpassed 40K. From then on 40K was dead to me.
Now this has happened to me for a second time but this time it’s IgoUGo that’s dead to me.
I discovered Infinity the skirmish game and Force on Force/Tomorrow’s War. Both games built on a reaction system where there still is an active player but where the other player gets to react to their actions.
So what’s different without IGoUGo?
You no longer have to sit and watch your opponent play the game.
I’ve had opponents turns in Warmachine take anything from 7 minutes steam-roller time up to 1 hour (timed with a clock and all!). I would guess that the average turn is about 15 to 20 minutes. That’s 15 to 20 minutes in which you’re not doing anything. You can be sitting there strategizing about what you’ll do in your own turn but I seldom bother as the opportunities that will be available to you only reveal themselves or close themselves off as your opponent plays out his turn.
So you sit. You watch and you wait. If you’re like me then you smack talk a bit but wouldn’t you rather be smack talking AND doing in-game stuff?
In Infinity if a model performs an action (walk, shoot, climb, hack, whatever) in your line of sight then you get to react to it. You may decide to shoot them, dodge out of sight, hack them to immobilise them, drop prone behind a wall and plenty of other options. So while the active player determines the match-ups and the flow of his turn through maneuver, you get to react to it all, making valuable decisions and possibly stymying his dastardly plans.
If your reaction could stop your opponents action from occurring – for example if you try and dodge his gun-fire, or shoot him first – then you both roll dice and the winner gets to perform their action. So you may successfully duck around the corner before he can hose you down with his heavy machine gun, or you may find it’s your bullet ridden corpse that lurches around that corner!
As Infinity is a skirmish game and one where terrain is important, this doesn’t slow the game down like you might expect it to. Active players will attempt to minimise the number of automatic reaction orders (ARO) – as they’re known – by avoiding LOS, moving from cover to cover, or best of all, manoeuvering to attack from behind. A good size game of Infinity can be finished in an hour against quick players and anything up to 2 1/2 hours against the analysis-paralysis types… you know who you are!
Unlike in alternating activation (AA) games – another possible system where players take turns activating usually a single model, such as Malifaux – in Infinity a player gets to activate their whole force in their turn allowing them to put a larger plan into action rather than – to me anyway – the more seat-of-the-pants tactics that alternating activations encourages. I’m not dissing AA, I just prefer the Infinity style reaction system. I am dissing IGoUGo though!
Apart from the greater fun (IMO), perhaps where the difference is most noticeable is if you’re playing a reaction based game system is in your legs! I spend the entire time standing for Infinity and Force on Force because you’re constantly involved in the action, making decisions and thus surveying the board and model positions. In 40K or Warmachine, I found myself sitting down for most of my opponent’s turn. Waiting. There’s that word again – waiting! Waiting’s dull.
Force on Force (FoF) is a critically acclaimed Modern-era (post WWII) wargame from Ambush Alley games, published by Osprey Publishing. This year they added a Sci-Fi brother, Tomorrow’s War. Both use the same core system with additional Sci-Fi esque rules added to Tomorrow’s War to allow you to represent tech disparities between forces, bipedal armoured walkers, hover tanks, aliens, all the Sci-Fi staples that you know and love. As an aside it’s also scale neutral and perfectly suited for use with all your 40K minis.
Typical game size is around a platoon, with the individual units being 3 to 5 man fire-teams or special weapons teams rather than the individuals in Infinity. Each side has anything from 2 to 10 fire-teams – or significantly more for big games if you wanted. Plus vehicles ranging from pickup trucks with flat-bed mounted machine guns to main battle tanks – or grav-tanks in Tomorrow’s War.
In Force on Force each turn game mechanics decide which player is going to be the active player and who is going to be the re-active player. Think of the active player as the side currently with the initiative in the fight – maybe the side putting more lead into the air and better suppressing their opposition, or maybe just the side that is currently better co-ordinated and is implementing their plan.
If it’s two regular trained forces fighting each other then who is active this turn will depend on the scenario, or dice rolls modified by various factors.
If it’s Regulars versus Irregulars – think militia or un-trained insurgents – then the regular player always retains initiative. That’s right, if it’s you against rag-tag mobs of human civies or animalistic alien hordes then it’s always your turn and never theirs. That sounds like it’d be boring for the irregulars, doesn’t it? Well, trust me, it isn’t. I love playing the irregulars 
The player with initiative gets to activate each of their units. Moving, running, shooting, assaulting or various combinations of these. Or the active player can sacrifice a units activation to place them into over-watch, but more about that later.
Any unit on the reactive player’s side who sees an active player’s unit do something gets to react. Just like in Infinity, and again just like in Infinity the reacting player’s action can oppose and possibly prevent the active player’s action. That is if they’re quick enough and lucky enough! Again you may duck out of sight so your opponent can’t shoot you or alternatively you may suck it up and try and shoot them first hoping to do so much damage to them render return fire ineffectual.
Regular units can react to multiple actions in a single turn, however they lose one dice of fire-power or an inch of movement for every subsequent reaction that turn. Eventually they just can’t react any more. In FoF – unlike in Infinity – units can even react to reacting units! So an active unit may advance, a reactive unit may declare a shooting reaction at them and then another active unit that has not yet activated or that is in overwatch can itself choose to react to that reactive unit. This sounds complicated but it’s quite easy to keep track of who is doing what just by placing dice beside the units that are reacting or already have done so.
This multiple reaction system also speeds up, not slows down the game. You’ll also find that few insurgents will react to an advancing unit if there’s multiple units in over-watch looking at them and few active units will blindly run out in front of multiple reactive units. This is part of the joy of this system, so well does it represent classical bounding over-watch that the Australian army use it train NCOs. Despite all that, it’s great fun and fast and vicious. Just how I like my games!
When the active player finishes their turn any units belonging to the reactive player that haven’t reacted this turn can then perform an activation of their own. Only needing to fear those over-watch units we previously mentioned.
So where does this leave me?
Addicted. I can’t go back. I can’t sit and passively watch my opponent play for 10, 15 or more minutes without getting to make any meaningful decisions myself. I also don’t want to go back to my opponent watching me play – I want them trying to shaft me in my own turn. That’s fun and now my smack talk can be laced with actions and not just toothless banter!
And you?
I heartily recommend trying out some games with activation approaches other than IGoUGo. If it’s the only thing you know – as was the case with me – then you really can’t know if it’s your preferred approach without trying the alternatives out. I wasn’t even really aware I didn’t like IGoUGo until I saw the alternatives. I thought the waiting was something you had to accept with wargames. It isn’t, and I urge you to try out some of the alternatives yourself. I want to see IGoUGo consigned to the gaming history bin.
Infinity the skirmish game:
Free rules and army lists available. Links on http://www.infinity-ireland.org
Force on Force:
Ambush Alley Games http://ambushalleygames.com/
20 euro delivered from http://www.bookdepository.co.uk
Scale and miniatures neutral. Use your 40K models or a cool 15mm army for 40 quid.
The Retribution of Neil: The Masters!!!
Mar 7th
IRISH MASTERS 2012
G’day, Warmachine (and Hordes) fans! Here I present, for your delectation, an exhaustive report of my experience at the 2nd Irish Masters, hosted by Leprecon 2012. I was more excited about this tournament than a grown man ought to be, and that was in no small part due to the imminent appearance of Jason Soles – one of the original Warmachine designers. He was bringing the trophies over from Seattle for us, and I was determined he wouldn’t take any back with him! The format for the event was three 35pt lists (with 7pts reinforcements); but every list had to be played at least once, and no list more than twice over the five games across the weekend. Here are the lists I took…
List one: (No Quarter Theme list – tier 3)
Dawnlord Vyros (+6 points)
Hydra (8* points)
Manticore (7* points)
10 Dawnguard Sentinels (9 points)
+UA (2 points)
+Marshalled Griffon (4 points)
10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7 points)
+UA (2 points)
2x Arcanists (2 points)
Reinforcements:
Manticore (7* points)
A pared-down version of the 50pt list I took to Gamers World in February, but which didn’t do so well in my 35pt play-testing. The extra 15pts gave me double Covering-Fire and a whole lotta Focus-efficiency (ie with the Tier 4 bonus), whereas I found just two Warjacks got destroyed too easily. Anyway, this was a still my attrition-based, *anti-Stealth * list.
List two: (Theme list – tier 3)
Adeptis Rahn (+6 points)
2xPhoenix (20 points)
Arcanist (0* points)
10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7 points)
+UA (2 points)
6 Battle Mages (5 points)
+ Soulless Escort (1 point)
3* Battle Magister Solos (6 points)
Reinforcements:
Arcanist (1 point)
6 Battle Mages (5 points)
+ Soulless Escort (1 point)
Except for a slight shuffle to include reinforcements (wouldn’t normally include Soulless Escorts), this has been my default Rahn-list for 35pts for a very long time. He just dominates control-based scenarios, and can stay well back with his mighty Control Range and double Arc-Node… But has the most hard-counters of my three lists: Protectorate of Menoth and Circle Orboros can completely shut down his spells (as will any Stealth-heavy army), and the conspicuous lack of Pathfinder means Rough Terrain is a big problem too. For all these reasons and more, my third list is:
List three (“Snipe, Feat, Go!”)
Ravyn, Eternal Light (+6 points)
Phoenix (10 points)
Aiyana & Holt (4 points)
10 MHSF (8 points)
+UA (2 points)
6 Dawnguard Invictors (6 points)
+UA (2 points)
4 Stormfall Archers (5 points)
Epic Eiryss (3 points)
Arcanist (1 point)
Reinforcements:
Destor Thane (4 points)
Narn (3 points)
Models with Pathfinder to deal with terrain; Aiyana & Holt to hand out Magical Weapons (handy for Incorporeal models as much as Menite Warjacks); dirty Assassination potential to *hopefully* discourage my opponents from taking the nastier Control-Warcasters (looking at you, Harbinger and Major Haley!). My rough kinda plan was to use each list once on the Saturday, and leave myself with full choice for the Sunday – but to let the Scenario and opponent of each game to take precedence in my choice. So… How’d I do?
Game one – Anthony (Cryx)“Gauntlet” (#2)
 |
Warwitch Deneghra (+5 points)
2x Deathrippers (8 points)
Skarlock (2 points)
6 Bane Thralls (5 points)
+UA (3 points)
6 Bile Thralls (5 points)
10 Satyxis Blood Witches (6 points)
+UA (2 points)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4 points)
Pistol Wraith (3 points)
Warwitch Siren (2 points)
Anto’s other lists were led by Skarre1 and Skarre2, both with juicy targets for Ravyn… but I didn’t want to risk the possibility of a Stealthy Warcaster (and $%&@ Bane Thralls) so took Adeptis Rahn. Turned out I’d made the right decision for the scenario as well – only problem was the Killbox Artifice meant he couldn’t hang back as far as I’d like; but with a wall of Halberdiers between himself and the filthy undead horde, I figured he’d be Okay.
This was an extremely bloody fight for both sides: highlights being my left-flank Phoenix getting wiped out by just two charging Bane Thralls (with a little help from Parasite), and my Battle Mages thumping the Incorporeal Blood Witches into a panic with their Magical boxing-gloves (which I never previously knew they had!). On my Feat turn I was able to clear my scoring zone and run a Battle Magister Solo in for my first Control point.
My screen of Halberdiers had almost evaporated by this point, and my remaining Phoenix couldn’t run/charge/do anything much except walk 4” and be Channelled through… Luckily though, the zone was still pretty much uninhabited (did I mention it was a bloody game?!), and after the last two Halberdiers killed the Blood Hag with a single Combined Melee Attack, Adeptis Rahn was able to use his spells to Push/Slam the last guys out of the zone for the second Control Point and the win. Good job really, or he would have died HORRIBLY the following turn!
Picture: Force Blast FTW! |
WIN – 2 Control Points to 0
Game two – Ian (Minions)“Restoration” (#15)
Picture: Ian |
Dr Arkadius (+6 points)
4x Warhogs (28 points)
4 Bone Grinders (2 points)
6 Farrow Brigands (5 points)
6 Slaughter-housers (6 points)
Ian had brought all three Farrow Warlocks to the tournament, and had painted his mass of Pig-flesh very well. I’ve used Dr. Arkadius and Lord Carver myself before, but had yet to see what Sturm and Drang were capable of. I decided to take Ravyn for the Scenario, as I figured her guys would shoot the Objective to rubble in one turn. However, when Ian selected Dr. Arkadius and elected to go first, I changed my plan…
At DEF 15 and ARM 14, Dr. Arkadius is *theoretically* an ideal target for “Snipe, Feat, Go”; so long as he ends his turn within 22” of the Mage Hunter Strike Force. He did; and I actually apologised to Ian before I even rolled any dice! Guess what though…
After my failed assassination attempt, Dr. Arkadius Feated, and all of a sudden four hopped-up Warhogs were in my face – one in fact B2B with Ravyn after having Trampled over my useless Mage Hunters (luckily by then it was out of Forcing range so was unable to buy more attacks that turn). I had another turn of un-boosted shooting to try and salvage the situation, but in the end only brought the deviant scientist down to two hit-boxes. Ravyn then got splatted.
Picture: Warhog to the face… |
I ended the game with only 1 army point, from killing half a unit of Bone Grinders! For all that my dice failed me, I didn’t deserve to do any better because I’d ignored the scenario, and gone for the Assassination without any sort of contingency plan. Well done Ian!
LOSS – 0 Control Points to 0
Game three – Adam (Skorne)“Envelopment” (#12)
Picture: Adam |
Archdomina Makeda (+5 points)
Cyclops Brute (5 points)
Molik Karn (11 points)
Titan Gladiator (8 points)
4 Beast Handlers (2 points)
10 Praetorian Swordsmen (6 points)
Agonizer (2 points)
2x Ancestral Guardians (6 points)
Reinforcements:
Rhinodon (7 points)
If I wanted to keep all my options open for the Sunday, then I had to take Vyros this round… but I took a risk and selected Rahn for the second time, figuring that whereas he doesn’t mind fighting Skorne, he HATES fighting Menoth and Circle, and I could end up fighting one or t’other the next day. Besides, this was another scenario which Rahn ought to dominate.
I’ll not dwell on this battle; suffice to say that it was my best game of the weekend. Adam, who is an incredibly nice guy (even though he kept trying to distract me with his dodgy dancing), was actually a Trollbloods player, but had to borrow his mate’s Skorne because his latest order hadn’t come in on time. He told me he hadn’t played against Warmachine armies much, and I got the impression he didn’t know the Retribution at all… One day I’d like a rematch against your Trollz Adam, so if you’re reading this, please contact me!
Picture: Rahn DOES love scenarios… |
So Saturday was done, and although I was disappointed with Game two, I was reasonably happy with my overall performance. I was out of the running for the awesome trophy (unless some very weird stuff happened on Sunday…), but figured I was still in the running for a podium-finish. BRING IT ON!
WIN – 3 Control Points to 0
Game four – Gerry (Legion of Everblight)“Diversion” (#17)
Picture: Gerry |
Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight (+5 points)
Nephilim Bolt Thrower (6 points)
2x Ravagore (20 points)
6 Blighted Nyss Striders (6 points)
+UA (0* points)
6 Blighted Nyss Striders (6 points)
Strider Deathstalker (2 points)
Gerry straight-up told me who he was taking this round before I even had a chance to look at his lists (Kallus and I believe Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight were his other options), *probably* because I’d been telling him for weeks just how much Epic Lylyth makes the Retribution cry! Certainly, had I taken Ravyn it would have been a very one-sided match, so I took Vyros and hoped he’d be able to tough it out.
I immediately screwed up my deployment by putting the Sentinels on the WRONG SIDE of a house from the Flag they needed to defend; but luckily they had enough SPD to get there by turn two, and enough ARM to survive the Striders’ bows. Vengeance helped me out a lot here, and for the first time I can remember, the Offcier survived all game! It was at about this point that we realised we hadn’t deployed properly… Whoops!
Picture: “radial deployment, you say?” |
On the other side of the table, Lylyth and her Battle-group were having uncharacteristic trouble mowing down my guys. Even the three Halberdiers that were on fire managed to beat out the flames! I managed to sneak in a Control Point by running my soon-to-be-dead Manticore up to the flag under Mobility the same turn a single, solitary Sentinel (say THAT ten times fast) put a toe into the Zone. I tried to engineer a second point, but “Dice Down” was called. I won on first tie-breaker, and now feel like I‘ve *sharked* Gerry with all my talk of how broken eLylyth is – honestly, I was expecting to get wiped out!
WIN 1 Control Point to 0
Game five – Harry (Cygnar)“Incursion” (#7)
Picture: Harry |
Commander Adept Nemo (+6 points)
Charger (4 points)
Lancer (6 points)
Stormclad (10 points)
Squire (2 points)
6 Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (6 points)
+UA (2 points)
Aiyana & Holt (4 points)
Arlan Strangewayes (2 points)
Gorman di Wulfe (2 points)
Journeyman Warcaster (3 points)
Ooh, I LIKE this scenario! Partly because I have my own cool little flags made from spare Myrmidon parts. I decided to take Ravyn because I reckoned I could out-shoot any of Harry’s own gunlines (he also had General Adept Nemo and Siege I think, though I don’t remember which list he’d already used twice). Harry chose table-side.
Picture: Gunline vs. Gunline |
…Turns out I was right! On my Feat Turn I turned the Lancer and Stormclad into wreck-markers, and the following turn I wasted the Charger, the Journeyman Warcaster, the *fake* Aiyana & Holt (because mine were the real ones…) and Gorman Di Wulfe. By the time the smoke cleared there was no way for Cygnar to contest my last Control Point in the third turn (I also got lucky with that – the one on the left disappeared which was ideal), so I won my last game of the weekend.
Thanks for the game Harry – I’m worried I didn’t shake your hand afterwards, and have been worried about it ever since! See you at Itzacon, Maybe?
WIN – 3 Control Points to 0
Results and stuff…
With nine Control Points over the weekend, I JUST edged out Jason Soles for 3rd Place, as he also had four wins over the tournament (he’d played five additional games over the weekend just for the Craic – beating me both times we faced off…). I won a nifty Steamroller certificate and commemorative coin, and a hardback Prime Rulebook signed by the development team. I also won the randomly-assigned fully-painted army prize, which was a cool poster of Kommander Strakhov that I bullied Jason into signing for me!
Picture: Me & Jason |
All in all, a fabulous weekend! Well done Stu for organising the event, and thanks to everyone who took part. I hope to see y’all around on the forums and the next few tournaments. I’m taking Garryth and Kaelyssa to Itzacon this weekend – who’s up for a beat-down?
Parenthetically yours, (Neil)
I can’t hear you over your….army transport?!!??
Feb 23rd
I’m not a big one to promote new products for the sake of it….But Team Ireland 40k sponsors and all around good guys portable warfare have come out with something so deliciously loud that I have to make mention of it. They’re sgnt army transport is now available in tactical orange and my God its magnificent!!!!!
if you’re interested head on over to http://www.portablewarfare.com/ BUT JUST LOOK AT IT….RESPLENDENT IN IT’S ORANGE GLORY!!!!
Special Delivery for Team Ireland 40k!
Feb 17th
So awhile back, I was tasked by fearless Captain Tangney to go about getting sponsorship for this years 40k team. I wasn’t given any strict guidelines as to what form this would take so I stuck my thinking cap on!
My thought process took me through all the logical things that could be done, but then Caolan Gibbons and his crew were doing an awesome job on that front already. Gaming supplies, thats the kind of stuff that every good team needs. I was always jealous of guys like the German and US teams that got their own army cases because of some sponsorship deal or other, so with an eye to dreaming big I went out to get some gear that would hopefully do all the work that Mike, Caolan, Nigel and all of the other guys were doing behind the scenes to get the team off the ground
With that in mind I pretty much went straight to the top of the tree gear wise (at least in this humble authors opinion) and mailed the good people of portable warfare http://www.portablewarfare.com/ a few years back I’d been given a present of one of their Sergeant army transports and have been extremely happy toting my dark eldar army in it ever since. I guessed the worst thing that could happen was that they’d say no…which to my eternal gratitude they did not. So I’m extremely happy to publicly announce that team Ireland 40k has taken delivery of a set of Sergeant army transports that the team will be proudly using at both the Home Nations Tournament and at the ETC itself!!! Many thanks to all involved particularly Chris Strecker at Portable for all his help, looking forward to getting up many a picture of the team toting the gear but for now I’ll leave you with a taster
Get behind your team!!!
Paul Q
The Retribution of Neil: Part 3….Warpcon!!!
Feb 16th
WARPCON!
G’day folks! I had a fantastic time in sunny Cork last weekend. The occasion was Warpcon 22, and I had been planning to go ever since I’d first heard about it in November; months before I’d even met any Dublin Gamers! It nearly all fell through though, when it transpired that the bus UCD Gamesoc had laid one was due to leave at 12 noon on the Friday… which was no good to me whatsoever (lectures are important, apparently…). After a panicked flurry of emails on the DGG mailing-list however, I secured transport and a place to stay. Thanks again to Ian for helping me out there, and in fact everyone who offered a lift/asked around on my behalf. If it wasn’t for you guys I wouldn’t have made it!
Warmachine/Hordes Tournament
The format was five games over Saturday and Sunday, with two 35pt lists and (most of) the Steamroller 2012 rules. More than anything else, I was looking forward to playing five completely new opponents, as all of my Dublin adversaries were playing one or t’other flavour of Warhammer at the Con.
This was the first tournament I’d been to where I brought two lists I was very comfortable with; normally I playtest one to death until I’m happy with it… then make up a random second list that *should* be fun to play. I’d had some success with Adeptis Rahn and Arcanist Ossyan in recent games, and had my order-of-activations pretty well down, so was fairly confident I wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of the Cork Lads! The lists were:
“Pew pew!”
- Arcanist Ossyan (+6 Warjack points)
- Discordia (10 points)
- 10 Mage Hunter Strike Force (8 points)
- Commander (2 points)
- 10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7 points)
- Officer & Standard (2 points)
- 4 Stormfall Archers (5 points)
- Epic Eiryss (3 points)
- Aiyana & Holt (4 points)
“Chuckle Brothers” (tier 3)
- Adeptis Rahn (+6 Warjack points)
- Phoenix (10 points)
- Phoenix (10 points)
- Arcanist (free – tier bonus)
- Arcanist (1 point)
- 6 Battle Mages (5 points)
- 10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7 points)
- Officer & Standard (2 points)
- Battle Magister (solo) (2 points)
- Battle Magister (solo) (2 points)
- Battle Magister (solo) (2 points)
Game One – Protectorate of Menoth
- Epic Kreoss (+6 Warjack Points)
- Crusader (6 points)
- Avatar of Menoth (11 points)
- 5 Exemplar Bastions (8 points)
- 5 Exemplar Cinerators (8 points)
- Dartan Vilmon (3 points)
- Paladin of the Wall (2 points)
- Eiryss (3 points)
My first game was against Jason, who introduced me to the Cork accent in spectacular fashion! The scenario was #16, “Command and Control”, and the battlefield was dominated by two large areas of Rough Terrain. My Adeptis Rahn list had no Pathfinder whatsoever, so Ossyan bravely stepped forward. Unfortunately for Jason, his medium infantry and heavy ‘jacks had real trouble negotiating the woods in the centre and the field in his deployment zone, and I was able to dictate the flow of the game pretty well form the start. I was also very fortunate that there was none of the usual Menoth support guff hanging around (i.e. Choir), so was able to shoot his stuff to bits over consecutive turns for very little retaliation, and take two Control Points for the win in about 45 minutes.
To my eternal shame, however, I failed to kill his Eiryss, but lost mine to a back-striking Paladin! Apparently mine was the traitor…
Game Two – Protectorate of Menoth
- Severius (+6 Warjack Points)
- Blessing of Vengeance (7 points)
- Avatar of Menoth (11 points)
- Vanquisher (8 points)
- Vanquisher (8 points)
- Repenter (4 points)
- 6 Choir of Menoth (3 points)
I came back from the break to find myself on Table 1, and up against Christopher and another Menoth army. The table was fairly open this round, and the scenario was #2 “gauntlet”; but the very presence of the Choir (never mind Mr “you can’t cast spells at me”) meant that Adeptis Rahn simply wasn’t an option.
I opened fairly conservatively, and saved my Feat for a later turn; but I hadn’t realised just how much I had underestimated Chris and his list until he set nearly half of my army on fire in his second turn! Luckily, he had forgotten to pop his Feat, so I was able to spend the Focus to set up an all-or-nothing assassination with eEiryss, Ossyan and my remaining Mage Hunter Strike Force. In the end though, because Severius had spent all his own Focus the turn before, Ossyan pulled off a spectacular one-shot for the win. WOW that was close!
Game Three – Legion of Everblight
- Thagrosh (+5 Warbeast Points)
- Harrier (2 points)
- Harrier (2 points)
- Shredder (2 points)
- Shredder (2 points)
- Angelius (9 points)
- Carnivean (11 points)
- 6 Nyss Striders (6 points)
- Officer & Standard (3 points)
- Nyss Shepherd (1 point)
- Strider Deathstalker (2 points)
Game three was #13 “demolition”, and I was up against Dave’s Legion. Dave had only brought one list, and while I’ve plenty of experience playing against eThagrosh (shudder), I’d never fought against his Primal incarnation, so was a little nervous. I took a long time deciding which list to use, but eventually opted for Adeptis Rahn, figuring I *might* be able to pull off a dirty assassination on my Feat turn with some careful positioning.
I nearly managed it! But for the two Lesser Warbeasts blocking Push-lanes and the two GIMPS that missed their boosted Magic Attacks, Thagroh would have been Knocked Down and in melee range of a fully-Focussed Phoenix. Never mind… Dave then had some very unfortunate luck with Ranged Attack rolls (in particular, the Striders missed one almighty CRA against the other Phoenix), and left his Warlock behind a couple of Ash Clouds that were once Battle Mages (I’d like to think the two that missed the previous turn!).
Adeptis Rahn is the master of shenanigans though, and I was able to Force Hammer Thagrosh to the ground (once a Magister Solo had Whip-snapped the Phoenix’s toe into the Ash Clouds for LOS), and have the Phoenix walk over and stab the blighted Ogrun to death. Thanks for the game!
Game Four – Cygnar
- Epic Stryker (+6 Warjack points)
- Ol’ Rowdy (9 points)
- Stormclad (10 points)
- Squire (2 points)
- Storm Tower (2 points)
- Stormcaller (solo) (1 point)
- Stormcaller (solo) (1 point)
- Stormcaller (solo) (1 point)
- Black 13th (4 points)
- 6 Stormblades (5 points)
- Officer & Standard (3 points)
- Journeyman Warcaster (3 points)
After a good meal and a fabulous snooze, I was ready for day two! First up was Brian with eStryker (again, another ‘caster I had never played against before). The scenario was #6 “Destruction”, so I took Ossyan with a mind to completing the victory conditions; but also taking any assassination opportunities as they arose!
I started out well, and was in a great position to hold off the inevitable storm AND to start whittling down my first objective… Instead I went for a very risky assassination, and very nearly failed. First off, Ossyan dropped Admonition to cast Quicken on himself for the extra range (dumb move), and MISSED Stryker with his Chronophage Cannon (rolled a 9 on 3D6 – needed a 10). Uh oh… Had he hit, Stryker would have been half-dead already, and far fewer of the following Mage Hunter Strike Force would have missed him. In the end, the last guy in range tagged him for his last few boxes, and my hands finally stopped shaking!
…Except that when we tried the “what if” thing, and I measured to confirm that he had been the last guy in range, I nudged him out – and I have never felt so much a dirty cheater in my life. It was too close to call, so Brian let me try one last shot with the Stormfall Archers (who hadn’t activated yet), and the one dude who got LOS to the Stormcaller BEHIND Stryker got him with the Blast Damage (I was rolling 3D6 – 8). Brian, if you’re ever up in Dublin, I would love a rematch!
Game Five – Legion of Everblight
- Thagrosh (+5 Warbeast Points)
- Angelius (9 points)
- Carnivean (11 points)
- Blackfrost Shard (5 points)
- 5 Nyss Raptors (10 points)
- Anyssaa Ryvaal (4 points)
- 1 Spell Martyr (1 point)
Last game was against Paul’s beautifully painted Legion, and the Scenario was #7 “Incursion” on the same table I played Jason in Game one. Paul had been playing Absylonia exclusively so far, but he took a similar Thagrosh list to Dave’s for his final match. After a lot of hummin’ and hawin’, I took Ossyan for the fourth time purely to deal with the forest in the centre.
The game was nearly over after ten minutes when Thagrosh Channelled a double-boosted Obliteration through the Spell Martyr at Ossyan! Luckily for me he only took 8 damage, but that would have been a very bad way to end the tournament!
The Mage Hunter Strike Force were absolute stars this game! They held off the Raptors by sheer dint of their Pathfinder and Stealth (eEiryss was not so lucky – stupid Eyeless Sight ignoring everything that keeps her alive…), and were able to “bad touch” Thagrosh from inside the forest over two turns due to Phantom Hunter. I didn’t quite manage to kill the evil Warlock during my Feat turn, but rather like Brian had in Game three, Paul kept Thagrosh front-and-centre, assuming his free Animus and multiple transfer-targets would keep him alive. They didn’t, and next turn I turned him into a blighted pin-cushion for the win. Cheers Paul!
Results
So… I won all five of my games, and was the only player to do so. It’s nearly two weeks later, and I still can’t quite believe that I won a tournament! As far as I can remember, I’ve never won five games in a row of anything before now, so I imagine I will get utterly destroyed in my next few games as the laws of physics re-adjust themselves.
The tournament itself was run very smoothly, and the slide-show at the end was a nice touch! Other Dave, if you’re reading: I know I said that adding timers would improve the event next year, but please ignore that! All they seem to do is stress folks out, and we all finished our games in good time anyway (unlike those poor Warhammer players…). I will suggest though that you include some other spot-prizes; such as “Destroyer” for most enemy army points taken, and/or “Mage Hunter” for the quickest Assassination throughout the whole tournament. A vote for best painted army wouldn’t go amiss either.
Come and get some!
I shall be playing in the 50pt tournament on Sunday 12th at Gamers World, and of course will try my hand at the Irish Masters in March, so please come along and smash my face in! I’ve had a blast in Ireland so far, and long may that continue. See you around folks!
Neil
The Retribution of Neil: Part 2
Jan 14th
Neil vs. Lorcan: 35pt battle report
Bonjour folks! As promised (threatened?) last week, I have a second blog entry for you. Sorry if last week’s battle report was too tedious to read all the way through… but there were *issues* with the photographs. This time I’m going to practice my HTML skills (hah!) and link the pictures from somewhere like Flickr or Photo-bucket. The plan is also to fiddle with them a bit first, and have annotated notes for each game-round. You never know, it might even work!
The Army:
As much as I really want to play Lord Arcanist Ossyan (only recently painted), I’m still not as comfortable with Kaelyssa as I’d like to be, and consecutive games with her seem to be the best way to learn her various tricks. Soooo, I’m gonna tweak last week’s list instead:
- Kaelyssa (+7 Warjack points)
- Phoenix (10 points)
- Manticore (8 points)
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr (2 points)
- 2*Arcanist (2 points)
- 10 Mage Hunter Strike Force (8 points)
- Mage Hunter Commander (2 points)
- Soulless Escort (1 point)
- 10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7 points)
10. Officer and Standard (2 points)
The Theory:
I was very tempted to substitute my second Warjack from last week’s list for some brutal melee solos (of which the Retribution has more than a few), but despite the general advocacy of one ‘jack per ‘caster on the Scyrah Forums, I like giant robots. Besides, the more targets for “Witch Hound” the better. In the end, I swapped the Hydra for a Manticore and a second Arcanist; Sentinels for the ever dependable MHSF (acronyms rock!); and Lanyssa Ryssyll for a partisan-mercenary who actually has a function.
Lorcan’s dudes:
I met Lorcan at Connolly Bridge Burger King, and we talked sh!t at each other through mouthfuls of hot meat(!). He told me he’d brought two Khador lists (not Circle Orboros then?); one super-competitive, the other *just for fun*… I never asked which one the Epic Butcher was when he deployed it across the table from me:
- Epic Butcher (+6 Warjack points)
- Beast 09 (11 points)
- Juggernaut (7 points)
- Yuri the Axe (3 points)
- Manhunter (2 points)
- Doom Reavers (6 points)
- Greylord Escort (2 points)
- 6 Winter Guard Infantry (4 points)
- Officer and Standard (2 points)
10. Rocketeer (1 point)
11. Winter Guard Mortar Crew (3 points)
Scenario:
We went for a rulebook scenario, and I rolled a 6: don’t remember what it’s called, but there were two 10” circles in the centre of the battlefield, and you won if by the end of your turn (starting 2nd player’s third turn) you controlled both zones. I won the roll, and decided to go first.
Round One
A fairly predictable opening salvo! Roughly what went down is this:
- The MHSF advanced on the left-hand zone
- Houseguard Halberdiers advanced in “Shieldwall”; had “Banishing Ward” cast upon them
- Kaelyssa cast “Arcane Reckoning” on herself
- Manticore gave some “Covering Fire”
- Beast-09 had “Fury” cast upon him… because he totally needed it
- The Mortar Crew went for a wild shot on Kaelyssa. Missed
Round Two
I tried to be clever (You’d think I’d know by now that that NEVER works), but poor judgement on my part meant I came out of this round worse off than Lorcan:
- Actually, the MHSF did OK and murdered two Winter Guard
- The Halberdiers charged the Doom Reavers, killed two; then got PWNED in the retaliation
- I was half an inch short of “Rift-ing” the Manhunter’s face off through the Phoenix’s Arc Node. At least the AOE drifted and disrupted the line somewhat with Rough Terrain
- Kaelyssa popped her Feat, denying the charges that would have utterly destroyed both of my Warjacks. Go me!
Round Three
This time it was bad luck that did for me, on two specific rolls (grumble grumble RAEG)…
- …except for the MHSF who did great; murdering the remaining Winter Guard apart from the Officer – who then failed his test! Woot!
- My super-duper powered-up Manticore f@cking MISSED Beast-09 with his Combo-strike… Don’t think I need to tell you what happened next (that Wreck Marker ain’t there for decoration)
- My wall of expendable dudes in front of Kaelyssa evaporated in the face of eButcher, and proved Rage Tokens for his guys to shuffle up a bit
- The Phoenix failed to Combust Yuri to death by ONE point of damage, despite boosting the roll
Round Four
Panic mode:
- The MHSF took a run/charge Order; finished off the Winter Guard with a Combined Melee Attack, and scooted over to help Kaelyssa
- The Phoenix FINALLY Combusted Yuri (and two Doom Reavers and my Halberdier Standard Bearer) to death, only to be wiped out by the remaining Doom Reavers
- Kaelyssa ran away with full FOCUS
Round Five
I think the picture says it all! I made the mistake of trying to paper-cut eButcher a little with the MHSF (obviously to no effect whatsoever) before shooting him with Kaelyssa. What I SHOULD have done, however, was shoot the already damaged Beast instead: I would a) have had a much better chance of damaging him and b) Lorcan *might* have taken the bait and moved Beast towards the MHSF with “Hyper-aggressive”, thereby opening up a charge-lane. Kaelyssa would have had a marginally better chance stabbing eButcher than shooting him, but in the end took him for about 12 points of damage between spells and bullets. He responded by casting “Boundless Charge” on himself, and splitting my Warcaster down the middle with his initial swing.
I lose!
Now, I know I said last week that I’d try to keep it down to 1000 words next time, and so far I have. So far…
Game 2: Neil vs. Mark
There was time for a second game, AND a new opponent willing to beat my face in! I decided to try out Ossyan after all, and Damien helped me build a list on the fly:
- Lord Arcanist Ossyan (+6 Warjack points)
- Phoenix (10 points)
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr (2 points)
- 10 Houseguard Halberdiers (7 points)
- Officer and Standard (2 points)
- 10 Dawnguard Invictors (10 points)
- Officer and Standard (2 points)
- 4 Stormfall Archers (5 points)
- Eiryss (3 points)
I liked it! Had good shooting, and a couple of excellent targets for “Quicken”. Fewer Warjacks than I would normally like, but that left room for more great units. Mark had Cygnar, and was proxying Greygore Boomhowler for the new Ogrun Assault Corps. I think it went something like this:
- Siege Brisbane (+5 Warjack points)
- Grenadier (5 points)
- Defender (9 points)
- Squire (2 points)
- 10 Trencher Infantry (10 points)
- Officer and Standard (3 points)
- Rifle Grenadier (1 point)
- 3 Ogrun assault Corps (6 points)
- Captain Jonas Murdoch (2 points)
Mark won the roll-off, but gave me first turn. Basically I just shoved everything as far up the board as possible; casting “Quicken” on the Halberdiers so they could advance 11” in Shieldwall, and running the Invictors so that they benefitted from “Defensive Line”. Mark responded by “Cautiously Advancing” and pinging my Phoenix for a few points of damage, and taking out one Halberdier and Invictor.
I upkept Quicken for free thanks to Sylys, and charged the Halberdiers into the Ogruns and Trenchers, using their “Follow Up” move to engage the survivors. Ossyan then cast Quicken on the Phoenix, moved forward and popped his Feat. The Invictors blew up the Grenadier; the Phoenix walked 8” and Combusted on more Trenchers! The Stormfall Archers did a whack of damage to the Defender; and Eiryss “Disrupted” Siege like this:
Mark was able to kill off most of the Halberdiers, and even do a bit of damage to the Phoenix with “Assaulting” Trenchers (although he later felt dumb for giving me more Combustion targets; he had in fact prevented me from stabbing Siege with the Phoenix’s Thermal Blade next turn by clogging me up). Quite spectacularly, Siege then blew up all the Stormfalls with a “Ground Pounder” attack, and under his Feat the Defender was then able to take Ossyan DOWN TO THREE HEALTH with a single shot. Ouch!
The Phoenix burninated four more Trenchers, and the Halberdier Officer hit-but-failed-to-damage a Trencher that was blocking LOS to Siege. Eiryss had to kill him instead, and then I went for the assassination with Ossyan and the five Invictors who could get range (I’d popped their mini-feat a turn too early). When the smoke cleared and I’d spent all my Focus, Siege had THREE HEALTH LEFT; and the battlefield looked like this:
I lose!
Oh well – two fun games and a bunch of lessons learnt! I do like the Retribution’s latest Warcaster, and that list was a blast to play! I’ll bring it along next week for my game against Nick’s Skorne. I’m going to leave Kaelyssa for the moment though, and bring a variation of my Garryth list in case of a second game. I think they’d be a good pairing for Warpcon on the 28/29th.
Until Next week!
Neil
Substitute Soldiers….
Jan 11th
Using alternative miniatures in your games!
- by James Carey
Time has passed since the early days of miniature gaming, when Games Workshop effectively stood alone in miniature gaming. Since the early days of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader and the Warhammer Fantasy Role Play Mass Combat game, many things have changed. For one, Games Workshop are now a commercial juggernaught. Still a leader in their field and turning profits in a recession, there are so many mainstream commercial enterprises which are falling on hard times (HMV) or as we all know too well are gone altogether.
While GW has undoubtedly changed in the last fifteen or so years, so have many other things in gaming. Other companies have surfaced some have come and gone while others, like Privateer Press, Corvus Belli, Mantic games, Rackham, Warlord Games, and Mongoose Publishing to name a few have surfaced. Some have had a massive impact on the hobby on a world-wide scale, bringing something new and special to the hobby, for the benefit of all! Maybe doing GW the favour of providing some healthy competition. Unfortunately, some have faded into the mists of obscurity for all time*.
So with many other companies, new and old, producing models in a varied range including historical, fantasy, science fiction, and alternative history, the modern gamer has a wide amount of choice for alternative toy soldiers to really personalise their own armies.
Personally, I have always liked to use models from the same company, regardless of game, in my armies for conversions or even simply alternative models. Over time though, this has changed slightly, but my own reason for doing so was because I felt the consistent look with the same scale and sculptors across the ranges, primarily with my GW armies seemed somehow more fitting. While I have become more lax with this on account of more products being available to me I still retain this mentality with Privateer Press games, mainly because that particular line and gaming world is so unique. In contrast, you could easily use some generic sci-fi soldiers or even WW2 models as Imperial Guard regiments for Warhammer (if the scale is right, in my humble opinion…), it is very hard to find an alternative for Cryx Bonejacks or Cyngar Stormblades.
Now, we come full circle. The tournament scene in Ireland has exploded in the last few years. People are travelling to more events, the internet has become a very useful communications tool for advertising tournaments and interaction between gamers who normally would not get the chance to talk all that much. While I miss Games Workshop running tournaments in Ireland, I think it is a very good thing that there are independently run tournaments by gamers, for gamers. A major problem I always had with the Games Workshop tournament pack was models had to be GW. This used to be the model having to be at least 50% GW. I heard recently that this percentage has increased. ‘Terrible’ is the word I would use to describe this rule.
I remember a few years back a GW tournament in Limerick where a local (at the time) from the Gathering used a Feral Ork army, using large dinosaur models as his Squiggoths and converting them. He had two in the army if I recall correctly. Long story short, he was told he couldn’t use them as they were not 50% GW, and part of them were scratch built. So, this cool, unique army was not allowed to play! I don’t know if this guy stopped playing because of this, but within a few months he had stopped visiting into the shop, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him at a con or a tournament since. I’d imagine that these two things are related. I could be wrong, in fact I hope I’m wrong but due to this silly rule, a unique army has been lost to the gaming scene, and now Ireland is down one gamer.
Anyway, let’s try and keep it positive, and less about anger at big businesses and their brain-dead policies. Mantic games have released their Space Dwarves**, and they are very, very nice. What the hell, they are awesome. Buy them, use them as Forge Fathers in Warpath, and get friends in your gaming group interested by getting the local Space Ork player to bring along his models to use as Warpath Orx***, so nobody else has to spend money if they don’t want to. Then, use your Space Dwarves as Space Marines, in independently run tournaments, where it will be allowed. So now, you have saved money with less expensive models, have an army for two games, and in one game, a very unique looking Space Marine army.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and hope it didn’t come across as a jumbled mess with no direction in its writing, or a shameless plug of my own political opinion/agenda. Vote Republican! Gingrich 2012
Remember: Violence is never the answer, unless the question is ‘What is not the answer?’
*Rest in peace, Starship Troopers. Your time with us, though short, is fondly remembered.
**Pronounced ‘Forge Fathers’
***Pronounced ‘Orcs’
The Retribution of Neil: Part 1
Jan 5th
The Retribution of Neil
Preamble
Bonjour and welcome to what I hope will become a weekly fixture. I’m 27 (nearly 28), and currently studying a Masters at UCD. I’ve been obsessed with model soldiers for AGES, but only ever played the various flavours of Warhammer until quite recently. Warmachine always looked pretty kewl; but it wasn’t until the advent of mk-II in 2010 that I finally took the plunge. Three continents later (I got the bug half-way through a Working Holiday in Australia, and my dudes have since battled in British Columbia as well as my hometown of Edinburgh), and I’ve never looked back!
As far as models go, I have *most* of the Retribution of Scyrah, a fair chunk of Protectorate of Menoth and some Thornfall Alliance. All of it is painted using the rather fabulous Army Painter products (in fact, my Protectorate and Retribution armies look practically identical; both are primed with “Skeleton Bone”), and transported in two rather nifty Battlefoam cases. Alas, I could only bring one case to Dublin on the plane, so after much hand-wringing I elected to bring just my Angry Elves. Maybe I’ll swap them out when I next go home.
For those of you that don’t already know what “Warma-hordes” is (Hordes is a separate, but wholly compatible game published by the same company), I’m afraid you’re about to be subjected to some seriously spurious analogies as I try to explain the mechanics of the game and its setting within the Iron Kingdoms. If you’re already a convert, then please skip down to this week’s battle report.
Depending upon who you ask, there are between 9 and 11 factions across the two games; but while each one has *general* defining characteristics, it is more appropriate to say there are over 100 different “Warcasters” and “Warlocks” to choose from (about 10 per faction). These guys are all unique characters with their own back-stories and spells, and are the starting point for every army-list. A game of Warmachine is probably best described as a “what if?” scenario, fought between two such mighty personalities of Western Immoren during the current climate of Serious Sh!t Going Down.
Although there are usually specific objectives to complete in each game, you can always win by “assassinating” your opponent’s Warcaster or Warlock. In this regard, he/she is a bit like a King in chess, if a little more proactive! In Warmachine, you get so many FOCUS points every turn which you can either “allocate” to your giant steam-powered robots (the Warjacks) to make them even more badass, cast your own spells, or “camp” to buff your armour for a turn. The FURY system in Hordes is similar; but rather than automatically receiving the points each turn, they have to be generated by poking the hopped-up monsters under your Warlock’s control (that’ll be the Warbeasts, then…), and then “reeving” their latent energy. In addition, all Warcasters and Warlocks have an individual “Feat” – a once-per-game ability that can turn the tide of battle if timed well.
A player-turn consists of activating each model/unit in any order that you wish, and performing a “move” and then an “action” with them. Models fight individually, and combat is worked out by adding 2D6 to the relevant statistic of the attacking model’s card (such as “MAT” for melee attacks), and comparing the result to the corresponding statistic on the recipient’s (such as “DEF” for defence). The game is all about pulling off dirty combinations, but the rules are so tightly written that you can rest assured the designers expect nothing less of their players!
But enough of my rambling – it’s time I got on with this week’s battle report. If you’d like to know more, I strongly recommend you visit the Privateer Press Website and check out the Warmachine and Hordes galleries. The nice folks also provide free basic rules for both games here and here (scroll to the bottom of each page).
Battle Report
The format for these will probably change every week until I settle on something I like. At the moment, my current feelings are that narrative battle-reports are silly, and that detailed blow-by-blow accounts are tedious (I’ve written both in my time). Edited highlights are the way to go, and illustrative photographs are Full Of Win. Feel free to send me your suggestions – just don’t be offended if I ignore them…
I decided to base my first “Irish” list off a Garryth list I’ve had reasonable tournament success with… but with a different Warcaster that a) I needed practice with, and b) ought to be a better fit for the list anyway. I also swapped some things around to fit in a second Warjack. Bizarrely, I ended up supplying my opponent’s list too, because I hadn’t actually organised a game, just turned up at Gamers World with a hopeful expression on my face. Paul took pity on me and consented to a quick game – but not until he’d rather spectacularly ripped apart Pearse’s Blood Angels with his brutal Necron army (bless ‘im).
I didn’t really have much of a plan, except to run up into Paul’s face and use my Feat to neutralize his potential retaliation, before beating the snot out of his (mine!) magicky Elfs with my superior melee units. Also, I wanted to cast “Banishing Ward” on something, and remember to take advantage of Kaelyssa’s “Witch Hound” ability
In summary:
- My Phoenix went on a misguided *flanking manoeuvre*
- My Sentinels got “Banishing Ward” woot!
- I completely forgot to move Kaelyssa after I’d cast all her spells, but Paul very graciously let me move her up after I’d activated the Arcanist…
- The Halberdiers should have just run, instead of just walking in “Shieldwall”
Paul didn’t do anything terribly exciting in his first turn, except to run all of his Warjacks forward, cast “Polarity Shield” on the Manticore, and “Force Bolt” my silly flanking Phoenix backwards out of the Ork hutz on the left. I retaliated by:
- Upkeeping Banishing Ward on the Sentinels
- Taking the hint and running my Phoenix up behind the Sentinels instead
- Popping Kaelyssa’a Feat, and walking her behind shield-walling Halberdiers
- Running the Hydra into b2b with the Manticore (can you spot the *deliberate* mistake?)
It wasn’t until Paul’s second turn that I realised I’d forgotten to use Witch Hound when he zapped my Phoenix – GAH! Next time, next time… Anyway, Paul took my implicit invitation to manhandle the Hydra, and the Manticore used a Two-Handed-Throw to Knock-down the three retards standing in front of Kaelyssa as well as the Warcaster herself.
He then had to clear the route for his Phoenix to come burninate me to death, so he popped Rahn’s feat and went about Spell-ing the roadblocks out of the way… This took a couple of takes, actually, because I forgot until halfway through that the Sentinels were untarget-able by enemy magic; but the Magister solos were able to beat them to death instead, and leave the Halberdiers to the guys behind them.
Luckily, by the time the Telekenesed Phoenix had walked forward and Combusted in my face, Kaelyssa was still out of Reach from its bag-assed sword, so Paul wailed on my knocked-down Hydra instead, wrecking it. A bunch of other folks died to the fire too – including one of the Magister solos (Paul’s first casualty, I think…). It was looking grim!
It was time for some Payback:
- My Phoenix received 3 FOCUS, Kaelyssa stood up, and the Sentinels got them some “Vengeance” on the second Magister solo
- The Sentinels continued their mini-rampage during their activation, and hacked down two Battle Mages, and scratched the paint a little on the enemy Phoenix and Chimera
- My Phoenix failed to finish off Paul’s, despite “Concentrated Power” from the Arcanist
- Frustrated by Polarity Shield, the Halberdiers charged the other unit of Battle Mages and the Phoenix… then “Reformed” to be *slightly* in the way
- Kaelyssa cast Banishing Ward on herself and walked backwards!
Hmm… So Paul then magicked the Sentinels to death, splatted/burned the remaining Halberdiers, and SHOT Kaelyssa with an aiming Manticore (after Rahn had Telekenesed it). Scyrah was smiling on me though, and he missed two of his three shots. I was still in the game! Sort of…
I finally wrecked Paul’s Phoenix, but was unable (due to the Wreck Marker from the Hydra) to engage/wallop the Manticore as well, so I wasted 3 FOCUS that would have been better spent buffing Kaelyssa’s armour. Other than that, Special K herself shot two Battle Mages, and the Arcanist interposed himself between his beloved leader and the scary Warjack on the hill. Lanyssa tried to position herself so that the Manticore couldn’t easily move away from her and still have range to shoot.
Can you guess what happened next?
Yeah… Rahn Telekenesed the Manticore past Lanyssa, and it then walked over to the Phoenix and Two-Handed-Threw it onto the Arcanist, Knocking-down Kaelyssa too. All it took were two swipes from the remaining Magister Solo to finish her off after that.
I LOSE!
Well, I was less rusty than I expected to be, but I still have a way to go before I’ll feel ready for Warpcon in three weeks. Things to remember for next time:
- Use Witch Hound!
- Co-ordinate Kaelyssa’s Feat better
- Keep Banishing Ward on the Sentinels all game
- Learn Power-Attacks
- Don’t use sloped hills EVER AGAIN – they’re a pain in the @ss
- Maybe annotate photos before adding them, and use numbered bullet points?
- Keep the whole thing under 1000 words…
- Pay for my table this time (thanks Paul!)
I hope y’all have enjoyed today’s nonsense, and will visit again next week. Thing is, I’m a work-dodging student, so having something like this will hopefully fill the void and keep me sane. Cheers!
Neil
New Year, New Direction
Jan 5th
Hey Guys
First and foremost I hope that the New Year finds you all well, that you’ve gotten lots of gaming and fun in over the festive season and that you’re all geared up for a bumper year of dice throwing!
You’ll probably have noticed a good amount of changes on the Wargaming Ireland forum recently, with new mods (like myself) new sections and generally a lot more activity. We’ve also upped our social networking game with our facebook page being lovingly nurtured by Mr. O’Mahony and our Twitter feed keeping you up to date on the spot at tournaments around the country and beyond. Basically speaking things have been ticking along nicely and now that wave of change is here to sweep through the blog.
The grand plan is to have w-ired as your one stop shop as a wargaming resource, from blog articles about grand international gaming ongoings right down to forums for your local club banter. Here’s hoping you can join us and get involved with the burgeoning community.
On that note lets kick things off with a friendly visitor to our shores Mr. Neil Kettles telling us all about his adventures in Warmachine
PQ
Part 2 Round Based Man, Square Based World
Oct 11th
Hi folks
So week 2 and another game played with my beloved Lizardmen, this time at 2,500 points which I’m reliably informed is widely championed as the new default tournament level. I played Gabhann and his Warriors of Chaos and being a 7th ed tournament veteran and all round good guy I expected a quality game. Once again a huge number of things learned…and shockingly a similarity discovered with 40k which is probably a good place to start.
People have started in Fantasy to construct what are described in 40k terms “deathstar units”. These deathstars are big units, often 50 or so strong and are designed to march up the field and act as something virtually unkillable to enemy units under regular circumstances (often deployed in horded units with spears for maximum kill potential) In my case its a unit of 50 sauras waddling up the field to beat the crap out anything they come near(which they did very well last night thank you very much) Another one I’ve heard of is the giant night goblin unit of 120 or so guys, or the big unit or lothern sea guard. That should be interesting and somewhat similar to the diversified nob squads of doom from 40k (At least in application if not composition)
Secondly shooting is all well and good, BUT (yes its a big but) its not the game winner that it tends to be in the 41st millennium. My current 2,500 list had 4 units of blowpipe toting skinks which I’ll not lie did not set the world alight with their performance. This view of course might have something to do with going up against an army of high toughness high armour save chaos warriors (not to mention the every annoying mark or nurgle) but I still think 2 units of 10 skinks with blowpipes might suit me better and allow for more bells and whistle on other units.
An exception to this thinking on shooting are my Salamanders who were an absolute revelation. I’ll be keeping my unit of 3 of them as they seem to work regardless of occasion 
I might even consider a second unit of these incredibly useful beasts
Last but by no means least of this weeks lessons is that magic is not all about blowing the crap out of stuff. Game 1 saw me go all out with a super destructive Lore of Death toting Slann trying to zap units left and right with the already infamous “Purple Sun”. This week saw me going for a little more tree hugging hemp trouser wearing Slann using the Lore of Life. It too has its uber killy spell in the form of the excellent “Dwellers Below” (str test or die) but the buff, debuff and counter nature of the rest of the lore really appeals to me (of particular note being Thrown of Vines which lets you throw around the dice “goodoh” without any major worries miscasting while improving all the buff spells in the lore). In fact I didn’t once find occasion where I didn’t have at least 2 things I wanted to cast. I may try it in my game next week too, or have a crack at the lore of light. Who wouldn’t want an Int and WS 10 stegadon eh
Anyway guys comments would be most welcome as I’m pretty much flying blind here on the list building.
Until next week
Mandragoran
