Saturday 27 December 2014

Got Game? Pt.4 - dance partners

Sweet jangoes, but do I love the formats for Warmachine/Hordes events. The simple matter of having at least two lists that you can use over the course of your games simply blew my mind when I first made the transition from 40K - it was such a simply allowance, that enabled players so much freedom in list creation, as well as adding an additional layer to the game in the form of list-chicken with your opponents. Varying points levels, formats, and all the varied types of events that you can play (Who's the Boss, Foodmachine, Beermachine, Spell Draft, and I'm sure the list goes on), the game is constantly encouraging players to switch things up. And not just necessarily with how they build their lists, but also how they play.

Or at least, that's what it feels like here in New Zealand. I rarely see the players here necessarily relying on net-lists exclusively. There's the odd person (myself included) who may copy the typical eGaspy or Kromac or eGrissel Meat Mountain list as seen internationally, but that tends to be the exception, not the norm.

ugh trolls so meaty, so miserable

That aside, a big part of this game for me extends beyond the development of a single list and game plan, but to how I will pair my lists to elicit favourable matchups at events. Obviously, this is more important for competitive events. WM/H is still played as a more casual, bung everything together affair with friends on a lazy afternoon. But for myself, playing competitively is a very important part of this game. Even the casual games I play I have a default attitude that this is practice for a more competitive setting. 

So, list pairings. To date, the WM/H events I've attended in New Zealand have been two-list affairs. The points levels may vary, but two lists makes things easy for most contenders to travel with, and prepare for most match ups. I had some difficulty deciding my list-pairings. Initially, this was due to lack of models, but I don't have that excuse now - I've just been playing and buying models without fully considering how particular pieces will sit in concordance to two-list events. There were vague ideas that I could build one army that could deal with a high armour skew. Or for masses of infantry. What if someone skews for stealth? Or incorporeal? Gunline? Control casters? Or build something to deal with Cryx. But I was playing Cryx, so what should I do then? Guh.

To give an example of how I used to approach list pairings, I'll use my Terminus and pDeneghra pairing. The Terminus list I explained at length in a previous post here, and was designed to be my main list. I wanted to use that list, with the plan as explained by Lamaron, but I didn't know what to pair Terminus with. I decided on Deneghra for no other reason than people complaining about how nuts she was. I did not know what would be a bad match up for Terminus, or in what situation I'd prefer to use pDenny over Big T. And part of the problem I had going into this was thinking I had to develop both lists to be of equivalent strength. There was no real plan beyond that as to how the lists would even compliment each other; just build them to stand on their own and have at it. At this point I had tried to figure this stuff out predominantly by myself, looking at the odd forum post, but not really consulting the local players here.

Since then I've realised designing a list pairing also requires a type of focus. Where building a single list means assembling units to compliment and synergise with one another to achieve particular in-game goals, design of a list pairing has to step back and consider a series of games and potential match-ups. If you have only one list you try to account for that as best as possible. this was the attitude I had coming from 40K. Listening to an interview with Will Pagani describe his list design where he built an 'off' list to directly address the weaknesses of his main list. And it is this concept of having a 'main' list that I had been missing; make one list that you will generally use against the majority of games, where the 'off' list would be designed to counter those bad match ups.

With my main Terminus list in mind, how would I do things differently now? Speed seems to be a problem. Terminus has a decent threat range, facilitated by the presence of Darragh and Madelyn. Canny opponents have targeted them early in the game due to how they add to Big T's game. The other units in the list also have quite predictable threat ranges. From my perspective, Terminus will have some trouble dealing with control-casters, the likes of the Haleys, eDenny, and Harbinger to an extent. Also MMM Troll styled lists will give Terminus issues with the difficulty getting souls off multi-wound models and the lack of decent landing zones to place Big T. Its not that he doesn't have game in these matchups, but I feel this is where considering building a second list specifically to cater to these issues takes advantage of two-list formats.

Instead of pDenny, I reckon eDenny would be better suited in this pairing. Really, I'm of the opinion that on the surface level they're both damn good to counter issues of speed and control. But eDenny has a better feat for pinning models in place. Around her I'd want to develop a list that uses the fastest units in Cryx; Soulhunters, Bane Riders, Satyxis Raiders and Witches. For 'jacks I'm thinking Nightmare (he'd actually be the slowest thing in the list, outside of Prey buffs), or Deathjack for giggles, maybe a couple of arc nodes, points allowing. A further bonus to this pairing is the lack of character cross-over between the lists. Darragh Wrathe aside, eDenny doesn't want any of the characters Terminus demands. I could even switch things up, consider the eDenny list as my primary list, and consider how Terminus will serve as an off-list; eDenny doesn't like getting caught out by sneaky spell assassinations or getting shot to shit, things Terminus typically looks at and laughs.

shooting?

With Valleycon fast approaching I'm going to have to figure out what my second list is going to be. Writing this post is partly me figuring out my process of choosing who will compliment my main list. It should be obvious by now that I'm going with a version of pXerxis and the Fist of  Halaak. The list is solid, has multiple tools to deal with multiple match ups (particularly tier match ups), and should be forgiving enough for those opponents I'm unfamiliar with. What are the FoH's weaknesses then? Well, maybe speed and control again? Getting jammed or locked in place, not having the threat ranges to take out pieces that can yo-yo into my lines. But this is tricky, because Skorne doesn't really have any solutions for this. Or at least any solutions that are necessarily better than what the FoH has; absorb the hits, then hit back harder...

Obviously the solution to my problems is blind optimism, 
while everyone else looks on in horror. Thanks Coach.

I've tried out Zaal, eXerxis and Rasheth tier lists, and to date nothing is sitting well with me. I've chronicled my games with the former two, and recently I played a game into Matt Bissel's eBorka with a Rasheth Chain Gang list, and was left wanting. It's not that the list was necessarily terrible, it just didn't feel exciting to play. Overall, the lists I've tried haven't performed all that well, and there were no situations where I thought I would prefer to use those lists over FoH. This tier restriction is really doing my head in.

For now I'm going to and idea that Mr Bissel pitched to me a while back, but I've been hesitant to follow up on: a pMorghul Big Game Hunters tier list. On paper there's a bunch of stuff there to make a fun beast heavy Skorne list; extended deployment range, free pathfinder, points reduction on titans.. My main reservation was needing two units of Arcuarii to get to the later tier levels. I wasn't ever planning on having two units of those guys for anything else, but running Fist of Halaak means I'll be using two min units now. So that argument kind of goes out the window now.

From here I'll be playing around with the list and giving it a go. Going back to my other posts on list construction posts, I think I'll have something developed that has a very straight forward game plan in mind - speed up the table, form a bunker around Morghul and feat. Stop any sort of reprisal with the feat and have a bunch of melee beasts ready to wreck face. This sort of dictates the type of match-ups I'll drop this list into; Beast and warjack heavy lists. I'll give it a go, I do like playing with pMorgs.

Moving on through the calender year, we're blessed here in NZ to have a bunch more events; February has a one-dayer run by Big Daryl Painter at the weekend nerd-fest Battlecry, with a simple 4 round, 2 list format. This is where I'll have the chance to fall back in to the warm and comfortable embrace of Mordikaar.

always Mordikaar, always <3

My list choice here feels so damn easy; Mordikaar happily goes into being my Cryx drop and facing down a bunch of other lists too. The only real issue would be heavy armour skews, or MMM style lists. Enter pXerxis, who will happily cover those match ups all day, every day.

From there, the Ides of March is next. At this stage I'm sure it will look like I'll run the same pairing. There will obviously be the need to see how it performs and if there are any glaring holes in my plans that need attention. But come April is the Auckland Open, and the first 3-list event I'll have attended. This is where I can see the ranged Skorne gunline lists coming in to play. so far, I've played it with Rasheth, and had good fun. I reckon the ranged game Skorne can bring presents an interesting question to opponents, even with out the Aradus Sentinel being available. I know they will swiftly be incorporated in a bunch of my lists once they come out. I will also have to consider how this type of list sits with the other two. And which warlock will even drive the list best. Currently Rasheth, eHexeris and eXerxis all look to be likely candidates.

Another part of the whole list selection and pairing game that I haven't discussed is the whole Divide and Conquer element that is often present at these events. I've already rambled long enough about this topic, but this element will probably feature in several of these events. In which case, I need to manage my match ups and try to build the lists to stand on their own as best as possible. I think I can do that, but this 3 list thingy happening April will be the real challenge.

Tuesday 23 December 2014

Aesthetics

Taking a wee break from my usual posts, I've been thinking about how I had difficulty getting into Warmachine and Hordes to begin with. Coming from a position where I was in pretty deep with 40K, I transitioned from that game to WM/H over a period of about a year or so. 

There were various reasons why I stopped playing 40K and have been selling off the Space Marines and Tyranids that I had lavishly collected and painted, but I don't want this to be another post comparing the two games and companies. Instead I'd rather discuss one of the stumbling blocks I had entering the game of WM/H. And that was aesthetics.

Privateer Press make some gorgeous models. Since I drank the PP Coolaid they've just been going from strength to strength. But even then there was an overall problem I had with the look of the game. And that was the whole steampunk setting of Warmachine.
 
wooo Steampunk

I loved the background setting of 40K, and I'm a bit of a sucker for a rich and detailed background setting for my games and stories and what not. To me, steampunk is just weak window dressing for oft flaccid stories. It establishes a setting on the basis of looks, rather than having a foundation in developed concepts. There are some attempts to try and reason out why steam power becomes a pioneering power source in these alternate worlds, but things devolve to 'magic' or some other deus ex machina explanation that does nothing to actually address why people bother with steam powered crap if they could focus their efforts on the 'magic' instead (or is it magick? ugh).

I'm going to check myself, because I know I'm talking about how I'm getting all uppity about a make-believe world. But for these worlds to work in narrative there's the need for internal consistency. Neil deGrasse Tyson said he could enjoy movies like Star Wars because while they were works of fantasy, they had a set of fundamental rules that they adhered to. Steampunk settings and stories continually fail to do this, and instead presents a style-over-substance situation. All this leads to me having certain prejudices towards thing labeled 'steampunk' or that use the steampunk pseudo-victorian styling to define the look and feel of a fantasy setting.

steampunk inevitably leads to all sorts of weird

While my opinions on steampunk are thoughts that I used to entertain in relation to the Warmachine setting, I'm glad this is no longer the case. The writers at PP have obviously done a great job in expanding the world of Immoren to include a whole variety of fantasy concepts and cultural constructions. Many of them are pretty heavy handed in their approach *cough* Khador *cough* but for the most part, something that I used to see as a defining feature of the WM/H world actually only plays a small part of the whole background story (and the game actually, considering how few 'jacks are in your typical WM army).

Beyond THAT however, the aesthetics of the models in the game have fallen to the wayside far more than I had anticipated. I want to say this is testament to the strength of the game, where a particular unit brings an obvious gameplay advantage, so the way a particular model looked became insignificant to the influence they could bring to the tabletop. The Satyxis Raiders are a prime example of this for me. Used to hate the look of those ladies. I guess I still do. But they're worth to me is no longer related to how they look, but how they perform. I'll never judge another mini based on looks again.

I was wondering when I would make a segue into gender politics....

Anyways, I had similar issues with starting Skorne; I just didn't like the look of them at all. Stupid looking elephants, goofy looking armour, weird elven vampire looking dudes. That didn't last long. I've now got a pretty extensive backlog of Skorne models to paint, owning a good chunk of their available units and models. From there, PP continue to release fantastic models and expand the lore, and along with it my investment into the model range also grows. The look of so many things that I previously had problems with (pirates is another, fuck pirates), give way to me dreaming up lists. Its a struggle having to suppress my faction-ADD and not jump into something else before I've finished with what I've got. (Though the Shae tier is looking pretty damn tempting...fucking pirates....)



There's still some models that test the limits of what I consider to be worth getting. Like Ferox. So ew.

Monday 22 December 2014

Looking in all the wrong places

So after all my failed efforts to try and make Xerxis2 work with a stable of heavy warbeasts, I feel I should discuss the game I had the very next day with Xerxis 1. Last Wednesday I visited Greg out in the scenic Waitakere ranges, and dropped a pXerxis troop heavy list against a combined arms eThagrosh list.

Along with the need to practice X in tier, I've been playing around with a bunch of different lists to get the feel of the guy. I had largely avoided playing him, the reasons of which I'll get into soon, but for this game I decided to try a list I had been sitting on for a wee while:

Tyrant Xerxis 
- Aptimus Marketh
- Basilisk Krea
- Basilisk Drake 
Paingiver Task Master 
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor
Hakaar the Destroyer
Max Immortals 
Max Gatorman Posse
Max Cataphract Cetrati 
Max Nihilators

The idea is to get as much work out of Xerxis' feat and Fury as I could, while still holding onto a fair amount of beef. The beast package is just for a bit of versatility, and potentially chase the dream of one-rounding a gargossal with a 4pt light beast, but otherwise they largely operate as X's fury battery.

Greg's eThags list included 2 Scytheans, Shredder, Seraph, Raek, Succubus, Spawning Vessel, Max Legionnaires and UA, other misc support. I had heard of how versions of eThags had been tearing up around the place, with a powerful beast package and a core of Legionnaires to act as a stumbling block.

The game was an interesting one with the both of us feeling our respective casters out. My Nihilators acted as a jam, that Greg very deftly unstuck himself from. He was also looking for opportunities for Scourges, where he managed to arc one over a group of 6 Immortals, thus effectively neutering any vengeance tricks. I attempted to catch Greg unawares by pushing Orin up to use Null Magic and prevent Manifest Destiny being used. I didn't push him forward enough  unfortunately.

After eating Greg's alpha however, came the Xerxis counter punch. Holy crap, it was nuts. First Orin made up for dawdling by zapping a Spell Martyr and electro-leaping on to both Greg's Swamp Gobbers and tickling his Shredder. then X feated and combo-smited a Scythean into its sister.

yep.

Two gators with Fury happily chowed on one Scythean, and the Cetrati finished off the other. Hakaar schmacked the Raek to pieces, and even Marketh had the chance to be a melee beast, essentially being a MAT 6, P+S 11 weapon master with 4 souls. What a boss.

There wasn't too much Greg could do from there, he had a go dropping another Scourge on my Cetrati to knock them down and clear room to try and get the drop on Xerxis after getting slip-streamed forward. Unfortunately he didn't have distance and we called it after he failed his charge.

Post-game discussion included talk of how Greg felt it wasn't a great match up due to having all my infantry to deal with. Just like my game against his eMorvhanna list, he wasn't able to clear enough infantry to get enough of an advantage especially after I can hit him back as hard as I did. Beyond that I want to make the point of how good it feels to use Xerxis after the last two games I have played with him (ell, truthfully it'd be the last three games, the first being against 3Goreshade + Kraken, where Molik Karn was free to run rampant all over the show).

Here I have a case of a Warlock that I feel is easy to build lists for, and play in games. Yet I was reluctant to use him initially. A big part of this was when I listened to the opinion of a friend who said that he wouldn't want to play Xerxis because of his bricky style, and subsequent predictability. But I've found Xerxis to be way more dynamic than I first gave him credit for; Martial Discipline is MASSIVE for him, giving him a flexibility I've never experienced in the game before. I have another situation where my play has been influenced by the opinions of others to the point where I was essentially fighting myself. Again, I am not saying their opinions are not valid, just that I took them too literally for myself. I sure as shit am going to play a whole heap more with pXerxis.

In the search of the lists and Warlocks that I work with the best, I may have been looking in all the wrong places.

I'm also in the process of scrapping a bunch of lists and rebuilding them from scratch, with some discussions that I've had with others in mind. I wanted to have secured my second list for Valleycon sooner than this, but there's a couple more lists I want to test before I make that call. Hopefully I'm not changing my mind right up till the week of the event. I got a heap of shit to get painted :/
my dry brushing needs work

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Xerxis, Fury of AHURR-DURR

Even though I've broken down and analysed my play with Xerxis 2 in several lengthy diatribes, I still can suck eggs.

Last night I gave X2 another go with an out of tier list to try on how he would handle things. Bring Big Molik to the table, hoist my Willbreakers, and try out the Arcuarii as the interwebs had nice things to say about them with X2.

For all the good it did me.

How-to-play, a Befuddled guide to Warmahordes.

For the sake of thoroughness, here's the list I brought to the table:

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak 
- Basilisk Krea 
- Molik Karn
- Despoiler
- Archidon
- Gladiator
Mortitheurge Willbreaker 
Mortitheurge Willbreaker 
Min Paingiver Beast Handlers
Max Acuarii

Nikola, cobbled together a pThagrosh list with a Carnivean and Scythean, two Shepards, Warspears, Gatorman Posse, Swordsmen with UA, and Spawning Pot. Maybe there's some other stuff, but I basically looked at this army rush me and my brain just farted. H'ed moved up his infantry to jam the middle of the board, and I just did not know what to do. Mistakes were made, I was unable to properly commit to anything, and the only really cool thing that happened was sending my Despoiler trampling over some Swordsmen and then sprinting off them to plant itself next to the Spawning Pot. Otherwise it wasn't much of a game. On turn 2 I thought I could hurtle Molik into Thagrosh, but the chances of killing him on 3 transfers wasn't great. I was also of the frame of mind that it would not have made for that great a game, gunning for assassination that early.

But gunning for that would have made for a more interesting game; Committing to that would have put pressure on Nikola to respond, to put his beasts into Molik, which reliably would have been just the Scythean. Moving my force over to that side would have also mitigated the advantage he had in numbers. I even had a Void Spirit squatting in the zone I could forget about, meaning he was unable to score. So why didn't I just do this?

Well part of it was the afore-mentioned brain fart. Another thing I've identified is how I approach this game psychosocially.

How-to-social, another Befuddled guide.


This is something that I've been mulling over for a while. A big component of playing this game is the interaction you have with the opponent across the table from you. Generally they will be friends or associates, particularly considering how small the New Zealand gaming population is, and even if they aren't there are personal and social reasons for both people to have a good time. However, when I consider the other person's enjoyment of the game I tend to make dumb decisions. In the past Nikola had discussed how he hated going for assassinations, or being cornered into attempting one, because he felt it short-changed his opponent of the gaming experience. That idea was running through my head as I decided not to pinball Molik Karn towards Thagrosh. I thought attempting this would cheat us of a 'proper' game. Instead it was a non game anyways.

Not wanting to short change people has also manifested itself in my list building; I've used casters I'm not comfortable with, and built lists that were 'interesting' not because I necessarily saw some strength in their use or had a particular match up in mind that needed to be answered to, but because of some sort of stupid desire to be a snowflake with different lists. I wanted to be seen as not just relying on the tried-and-true power options. To date I think I've played two games with Gaspy2, not really liking the experience, but also wanting to avoid being just another fucking Cryx player. There's also the trap I fell into of following so-called internet wisdom on how to use and build WM/H armies, and example which can be seen in my inclusion of the Arcuarii in this list. One guy in one forum thread some where said they were awesome, and I used them expecting too much from them. Not saying they don't have game, I just would have preferred other options I have initially considered for the list. I also don't want to imply that following the example of other players around the world is a bad idea either, but that I have been to caught up in other's opinions, often for the sake of my own.


Monday 15 December 2014

An old ex and other things

Last Thursday I followed up on the promise in my last post to give Scaverous a spin. Like hooking up with an old ex it seemed like a good idea at the time, the familiarity of rolling about in the sheets having a certain nostalgic appeal. But getting all pelvic with an ex usually means you're either left with the regret of being reminded of why you left the relationship, or you're pining for the one that got away and this quick fling has only reminded you of what you can't have. My game was a little bit of the latter.

Such a caring and gentle lover

Scaverous was the first Warcaster I bought and the one that made me pick up Cryx. Coming from 40K, I was making my WM/H decisions based upon aesthetics, not gameplay. I inadvertently chose one of the deepest models in the game to learn up on, which was a bit derpy on my part. My first few games saw me constantly getting my arse handed to me, but were fantastic learning experiences where I was able to manufacture all varieties of in-game maneuvers and get to grips with how the game mechanics allowed for various synergies to be formed.

For shits and giggles I ran Scav in tier:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous 
- Skarlock Thrall
- Deathjack 
- Ripjaw 
Warwitch Siren 
Warwitch Siren
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith 
Necrotech 
Necrotech 
Iron Lich Overseer 
- Harrower 
The Withershadow Combine 
Mechanithralls 
- Skarlock Commander 
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls 

This list runs solo heavy to take advantage of the tier2 benefit as much as possible. My thinking was that the ILO starting with a soul on it, along with the Harrower, made for a tight little package that would be able to put out a fair amount of damage. There's also plenty of boostable magic shots on the board.

And then I ended up facing Matt Bissel's Calandra tier :| playing the Destruction scenario no less.

yuck

Can't remember the exact numbers, but there was a slew of Storm Trolls backed up by two Slags, two Pyres, and a Winter Troll with misc supporting elements. I was envisaging just rolling under the bus and getting roflstomped.

Most of my army bought the farm pretty promptly. I decided to just camp with Scaverous and throw him into the thick of it. With Deathjack on the flank as well, I have two models over ARM20, and I figured getting stuck in was better than trying to hold Scavs back. There was no real plan here, I just thought it's probably better being up in the guts staying alive, instead of holding back (which I sort of did turn 1).Everything else pretty much rushed in over two turns, putting some damage out here and there, but otherwise doing jack-shit.

Under Calandra's feat my McThralls weren't long for this earth, and the Harrower and ILO went down not too longer after that. Those things dying aside, instead of going under the bus the game had turned into more of a tickle fight:

Between the Deathjack getting stalled and Scaverous unwilling to spend any of his stack, I was unable to really put out much damage on Matt's beasts, and in turn the trolls were barely able to scratch the paint on my key pieces. This was all a sideshow however; Matt had the numbers to go up 3 control points, poised for a scenario win. The rest of my army tried to contest but Matt had me pretty stitched up, with only 7 small based models needed to be ground into dust to scoop the win. Except Admonia managed to survive on 2 boxes allowing her to continue to contest.

Nikola had been complaining a couple of days prior about how bullshit it was that the Withershadow were ARM161. It certainly came into play here. I feel Matt did most things right to clear the zone. The only mistake I thought was that he opted to shoot at the Pyre Troll engaged with Admonia, figuring he would be easier to hit and bounce electro leaps off. I would have just shot at Admonia anyway, and if he missed he'd have the chance to connect with the Pyre anyway. In any case, he managed to hit his Pyre both times, but wasn't able to get the damage he needed nor the number of leaps to make it to Admonia.

Matt was expecting to clear the zone, and he really should have. Calandra was now camping nothing, having opted to spend her fury for rerolls, with no Star-Crossed either. The Scaverous Rube-Goldberg started cranked into action, parting the Red Sea of Matt's trolls - feating and TK'ing a path to Calandra for Deathjack to charge her in the back. Rolling a casual 17 at dice +2 for the charge attack and Calandra was laid low in one hit.

Now there was a lot about this game where I look back and see how lucky I was - Matt definitely had the more powerful list.something that I think would make a fantastic Cryx drop in general. It was interesting thinking that my best option was to massage one flank with my two hardest models and hope for the best. But I've been thinking with my foray into Skorne that this is an option I can't afford with Skorne Warlocks. They lack the ability to get to that high an armour level, or camp enough transfers to really make it worthwhile. I'll be looking for these sort of options however, as these were the ideas I had for running Xerxis 2. Beyond that, having the chance to manufacture an assassination with multiple TKs was a lot of fun again. I'm still determined to continue running with Skorne next year, but it was nice to have this brief flirt with the cold, soulless embrace of Scaverous.

In other news, I've unpacked and assembled a slew of Legion models and misc Mercs for Nikola. Being on holiday from my studies have meant I got the time to write this blog, paint models, fart around on the Xbox, etc etc. It's been fun putting together models from an entirely different faction, and I can empathise with the sort of reluctance Nikola may have had to assemble a mass of models, many of which were for the second time. I missed my opportunity to sabotage these fellows, as I'm sure several people are not looking forward to being on the receiving end of multiple Ravagores, Saeryn, pVayl and the like, but c'est la vie.

1 There were further complaints at the Warwitches being ARM13, when a troll threw Scaverous into one and she survived. lulz

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Got Game? Part 3

It's been a couple of days since my last two posts discussing the lists that I feel comfortable playing, and deconstructing the components of those experiences. Since then I've had a couple of games where I've tried to implement the points I've made of considering how an army list should inform how you deploy your force, which then dictates a certain sequence of events on the first turn(s).

No more just wandering aimlessly into the middle of the board any more.


The first game was against Nikola. He'd been bugging the night before to suck it up and run a Fist of Halaak list, so I cobbled together the models that I had to build this:

Tyrant Xerxis 
- Molik Karn
- Tiberion
Max Cataphract Cetrati 
Max Cataphract Incindiarii 
Min Cataphract Arcuarii
Min Cataphract Arcuarii
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - Tyrant and Standard: 3
Min Paingiver Beast Handlers - Leader & 3 Grunts: 2

Nikola dropped Kreoss 3, with a Devout, Max Venga boys1, Max Zealots with UA, Max Errants with UA, Max Temple Guard with UA, Nicia, Aiyana and Holt, action Saxon and eEiryss.

To describe the deployment of my list is probably stating the obvious. But I want to detail it some what here to be able to break things down and see what worked; Xerxis centrally with his beasts and the Cetratii, Incindiarii on his left (deployed some what centrally), and the Acuarii units plonked on either flank. I had to work with what I got, so this is a some what suboptimal FoH list. Skorne's two heavy hitters are in there because YOLO. The first turn plan? Well I went second, so move Xerxis up in a shield-walled Cetratii brick that has Defenders Ward on them, beasts hang back in counter-charging positions, and the other units saunter up the sides, take pop shots, and start toe-ing the zones (we were playing Outflank).

So all this is very straight forward - in the last posts I talked about how forgiving my Terminus and Mordikaar lists are, and so was this. Having all that beef on the table allowed me to soak charges, and then grind down all the dudes sent to engage me. Nikola was able to gain 3 control points on one turn, clearing out the few Acuarii I sent in to contest, but the required him to commit Kreoss who then got whack-a-moled by Tiberion. I guess I can say the plan worked, and played to the strengths of the list, and that this match up was a favourable one due to a lack of heavy hitters in Nikola's list. If he did play Kreoss 3 in tier and had more Vengas I think we'd be singing a pretty different tune.

Just fucking do it Nikola

But for myself and this list? Looks like I'm going to run Fist of Halaak at Valleycon. With that in mind, would I change anything? Heck yeah, first of all I'll be getting more Incindiarii, to at least get another min unit in there. There's a reason why there's doubles of them in people's lists and that they deploy on the flanks - having those AOEs bullying people's troops and having them cover the board is pretty damn special. I also don't think I need beasts as ruthless as Molik Karn AND Tiberion, so I'm playing around with using maybe a Gladiator + Archidon or Gladiator + Molik package instead. The battle plan will change too; I wasn't playing to the scenario very well, and I'm thinking that committing to one zone may have made for a different game, instead of what I did which was to move up the middle and try and contest both. Starting second would give me the freedom to decide which one of Nikola's flanks needed to go first, and I should remember that these are options I need to consider.

In order to further analyse my play I also had a game yesterday morning against Greg Fitchew, an old gaming opponent, and one of the guys responsible for dragging my sorry ass to WM/H from the doldrums of GW games. I thought I'd take the Xerxis 2 list that I wrote about here and utilise the game plan of working a flank to setup favourable trades for X2 and his beasts.

Well Greg put down a list that does a good job of shutting down mine; eMorvhanna with double Stalkers, and a bunch of dudes. THANKS FITCHEW -_-
Don't even trust them for a second

Nah, I enjoyed myself and the game gave me a chance to see if I really could break things down the game into a smaller engagement on my terms. I started to do this in the game but really should have committed to a more drastic flanking maneuver. Instead I gave up Tiberion when I forget about the Hunter's Mark from the Blackclad, and things kind of spiraled down from there when I changed tack and moved back into the middle of the board with a series of failed charges and what not. It was still a fun game where I learnt a bit more about threat ranges, and had the time to work through the variety of stunts you can pull with a Warlock like Xerxis2. I now know that his tier 2 benefit actually DOES allow battle engines to redeploy, so moving big X from the middle to a flank is just magic. I'll making sure I use this next time, I really think this is a powerful tool, especially due to trickiness I've had lately moving around Xerxis' base.

It's also Thursday night, so that means gaming night in our little neck of the woods. I'm considering giving the Skorne a wee rest and maybe bringing a Scaverous tier list out for a spin. Or maybe that Rasheth Chain-gang list I really should get around to practicing. Bah


1 I mean Vengers, if anyone doesn't get it.

Sunday 7 December 2014

Got Game? Part 2

I think I got a little carried away with the last post, reminiscing about using Terminus, so to summarise I wanted demonstrate an instance where I felt I had begun to figure out how to play Warmachine at a higher competitive level. The Terminus list gave me valuable lessons in list-building, deployment, and a plan for the first two turns. It may be redundant to say so, but I want to reiterate that securing these elements set you up to have a stronger approach to the game and have knock on effects in later turns that are greater than the sum of their parts. Missing out just one component can have you struggling off the back foot, as exemplified in my previous posts about Zaal and Xerxis 2.

Beyond this, there was a certain ambiguous charm about Terminus, that he seemed to just work for me generally, and I couldn't really say why. Deconstructing my process uncovers some of this, but I reckon there's something to be said for finding that 'caster or 'lock that seems to just gel with you.

Translating the Terminus lesson to Skorne has been tricky for me. Part of that, as explained in the last post, has been the result of how forgiving Terminus is and that the loss of the other elements of your army is irrelevant, or even something you bank on, when using the good ol' limp-wristed beatstick. Skorne tend to like having their titans and troops on the table, as a general rule.

So that's where I found myself when I discovered the Skorne warlock that allowed me to slightly fudge those lessons mentioned in my opening paragraph above; Mordikaar.

I had previously found it weird how Terminus and Mordikaar were both the warnouns that I seemed to 'gel' with the most. On paper they couldn't be any more different. It's only now that I've clicked on how they play a similar game overall. The combination of Hollow and Revive allows me to fling troops into my opponent with almost wanton abandon, to have them pop back up in back arcs and other inconvenient places. Like Terminus, I expect my stuff to die1. Also like Terminus, I present a situation where trying to get the drop on Mordikaar is generally too hard to try and orchestrate.

After a few games, this is the list I'm jamming2:

Void Seer Mordikaar 
- Despoiler 
- Tiberion 
Void Spirit 
Max Cataphract Cetrati with Tyrant Vorkesh 
Max Nihilators 
Max Praetorian Keltarii
Min Paingiver Beast Handlers 

The list is by no means final. I still have to see if the Keltarii are really wanted here. Otherwise I've run with double Nihilators, and loved what berserking into people's back lines is like. The Keltarii do seem viable with parry and reform to further muck with people's days, and I find I don't cast Previous iterations of this list have included the Incindiarii, really emphasizing the troop clearing capabilities of this list. I've seen other lists on line that vouch for them, and I won't deny the power that reviving flaming AOEs in odd positions or having a decent CRA can bring. But that seemed largely irrelevant to how I play the list; run up the small-based units to start jamming the opponent out of zones etc, and to get the Hollow-train started. The beasts and Cetratii bunker up around Mordikaar, and serve as mid-to-late game pieces. As the opponent gets ground down by troops that keep coming back, they then have to face weapon-master infantry that can also come back and are immune to spells, and two intimidating heavy warbeasts.

Having Tibbers in the list is also something I'm on the fence about; its nice having the beat-stick, but I don't know if it's really worth the points investment. I'll play around a bit more, but I might go back to the Gladiator that I had in the list, and instead free up the points for a Tyrant Commander and Standard to increase the threat ranges for a whole bunch of things. The Despoiler really surprised me in the damage-dealing department, I initially moaned about him being pillow-fisted . I had to eat shit pretty quick on that one, the first attack I ever made with the guy saw me slap 20 boxes of damage on a Ravagore. Since then he's reliably gone toe-to-toe with other un-buffed heavies. He won't be one-rounding colossals, but don't underestimate old jazz-hands. Especially when a void spirit gets spawned in Mordi's control area, hooo boy. Me and my opponents keep getting surprised as rule interaction after rule interaction has to be read out, and guys die, explode, disappear, fail command checks, etc etc etc. there's no way he's leaving the list.
<3

The list practically plays itself, and has enough of a buffer to allow me some mistakes, where the various elements support one another very well at this stage. Deploying is a little tricky at times, and preparing for the first turn of movement inevitably requires some order-of-activation awareness. However, once that is sussed the list has an early game plan that I find easy to implement. Beyond that, there's a lot of movement to explore within the list; To date I have not cast one Essence Blast with Mordikaar, and I read the stoies of people who've managed to pull janky kills with that spell. Further to that, I rarely cast Ghost Walk; It has also seemed worth more to bring back a Nihilator, than anything else. Still, its good to have in the bag. 

So far, I have these two lists as examples of what 'works' for me in play in games of Warmachine. The way I have deduced it, is that these lists give me a platform to setup my games to work in my favour, and also allow me to feel like I'm actually in control of the course of events that unfold. From here I want to be able to extrapolate this, and adapt how I approach my games with different warnouns. I need to be able to shift my thinking and plans for the initial turns to allow me to actually deploy and use the lists I make to better effect. This is the challenge I present myself, and have begun to consider with my Xerxis 2 lists; a very different machine that can't operate in the way that Terminus and Mordikaar does. 


1 To a lesser degree, Zaal wants this too. And he was also another Warlock I initially had good games with and was also curious as to why that was, due to his differences compared with Terminus. Obviously, letting your troops die is the common factor here, something I am great at. The only problem with this is that Zaal reaches a critical threshold with his stuff dying, and that's where I found I would get out-attritioned in games. Zaal's feat would no longer be very relevant and there were no Last-Stand targets left, if all your shit is dead.

2 Ok, since writing this, I've decided a Gladiator and Tyrant Commander are in. Onwards and upwards

Saturday 6 December 2014

Got Game? Part 1 of a few

I'm currently entertaining several thoughts on how the game of Warmachine and Hordes can be approached after those last two posts on my games. It has been helpful to reflect on my process through recalling how the games went down and already I feel I can approach things differently, not just feeling frustrated that I'm going through the motions without having much influence on outcome.

But in order to further contemplate this I want to actually dig a bit deeper and examine the process I undergo before the game and in the beginning stages. I can't help but feel I am missing something here, where the opening moments of my games follow a fairly typical process of running units up and occupying real estate, with little plan in mind as to how I will proceed from there. I play chess in a fairly similar way, where I move pieces and up with little plan, but actually RELY on my opponent to make the first commitment (barring any sort of naive moves where lack of experience may have left pieces exposed) before I can start to pull together a plan of action. Thinking on the fly like this can be a good skill to foster, but the problem is I have to work from a position where I am behind. And I play in a gaming group that is experienced enough to not allow that to happen often.

So in order to put this under the microscope further, I want to do a couple of posts on army lists that I feel have "worked" for me in the past, and really see what it is about the list and the faction and my own process that both lent to me feeling comfortable while playing, and actually led me to win several of my games.

First up, I want to talk Terminus
rawr

In 2013, I faced a dilemma in that I felt I should know the game well enough to start winning more games. I was playing a faction (Cryx) that everyone was moaning to me that was over-powered, yet I kept throwing myself under the bus in my games with little to show for it. Then I came across a very handy article on a certain Danish blog and everything seemed to fall into place. Here was a Warcaster I loved the model of and had been told was hard as nails (a claim called into question when I got him killed way too many times), and now I have a breakdown of what enables him, and how his game should look like on the table.

Using Lamoron's guide, I made the following list:

Lich Lord Terminus 
- Skarlock Thrall
- Erebus 
Bane Lord Tartarus 
Darragh Wrathe 
Warwitch Siren 
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist 
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan 
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
Max Bane Thralls with UA
Min Bile Thralls 
The Withershadow Combine 

Everything in the list is there to keep Big T safe, contribute to his feat turn, and/or to hasten his delivery. I was still playing in a pre-Butcher 3 world, so there were few Warnouns that could match his threat range, hitting power, and durability. The first and last turns of the game should be the only turns Terminus ever has to spend focus, leaving him to camp his stack, march up to the middle of the board, let the feat turn T up to 11
Something something it's over something

A plan so simple it was idiot proof - I remember one game where Terminus was on fire, corroded, and left on 2 boxes after a chips-in assassination attempt. After the fire went out, he healed back up, feated, gorged himself on souls and had a leisurely stroll around the board chasing the opposing warcaster. I also recall Garryth killboxing himself to stay away from the big man. Terminus just asked such a big question, was very forgiving when I left him slightly exposed, and gave me all sorts of Machiavellian joy when I plonked him on the table and basically dared opponents to try and box him.

But further to all this, this experience with Terminus was my first time working with a list that had elements that had very deliberate reasons for being there, and with that also came a very clear plan of play, particularly for the opening moments of the game. Deployment would consist of Terminus placing centrally, biles often beside him to try and get to clumps of infantry, and banes opposite the big targets that would pose an actual threat to Terminus. The first turns of the game would follow from there, with the units moving to counter their chosen targets, and Terminus gaining board space to get his threat range working. EVERYTHING in the list was expendable, barring Big T himself. And perhaps this is where i may have learnt some bad habits.

Going back to the beginning of this post, learning to play with a caster that was so forgiving, meant I wasn't able to properly gauge how to trade units and models in the game appropriately. While Terminus did not give too shits if Erebus died, Tartarus was gone, and the biles all sniped off the table, other casters would need these elements to gain attrition advantages, or to keep a threat present to be able to control parts of the board. Throwing my units haphazardly at my opponent's army only worked so far, as it help distract from Terminus' assassination run. This is a luxury rarely afforded.

There were still some valuable lessons to be learnt from using Terminus last year though; my list composition vastly improved, I was able to eke out a few more synergies that I had previously over-looked. The importance of a plan to the initial deployment and turns of the game also became apparent to me, thought this is the main lesson I want to work on and develop from here.

Last musings; Since last year, I promised myself that I would remove the training-wheels that was Terminus and take what I learnt to other lists and casters/locks. This was partly because my practice games with friends were met with some resistance, but also because there were other toys I wanted to play with. And also I thought I was a big boy now. This resulted in a bit of mixed bag - I was regularly placing around the mid-teens to 10th at events, not breaking onto the podium. A sign that I had moved on from wallowing in the bottom half of the results table, but not quite reaching the lofty positions of wargaming glory.
Not quite 9000

Recently I've adapted my Terminus list some what, too mix things up a bit and utilise new toys:

Lich Lord Terminus 
- Kraken
Darragh Wrathe 
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan 
Bane Lord Tartarus 
Warwitch Siren 
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist 
Min Bile Thralls
The Withershadow Combine 
Min Satyxis Blood Witches with UA
Min Bane Thralls 

The idea is to use the Kraken as another massive and hard to kill threat. Also as something that can actually stand in Terminus' way to block LOS etc. In that way it serves a similar roll that the Bane Thralls used to, with some added pros and cons. Its also fun to use colossals. Everything else is just Terminus' delivery system, as per usual. I've only managed to bring it out for a spin once, and my opponent was not too pleased about it - Gaddamn, I love that big limp-wristed twerp.

Thursday 4 December 2014

The Xerxis 2 hype train, aka other tier-list musings

squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Part of choosing to run with Skorne next year is due to the excitement generated about Epic Xerxis getting released. The Skorne boards and miscellaneous podcasters, noted community celebs and whatnot, all added to my eagerness to run with what some were claiming as PP's first "legitimate battle-engine" caster/lock. Once my pre-order arrived I was all shits and giggles, a veritable kid in the candy shop, posting all sorts of garbled bullshit on facebook.


Did Xerxis2 deliver? 

Not really. It seems I get to caught up in the hype train, or (more likely) I've focused only on the obvious play X2 brings, which has eclipsed all other potential tricks he may have.

So what lists have I used him and how have my four games with him panned out so far? Well, keeping in with my dedication to the Valleycon tier-list demands, I tried out X2's tier list. Initial thoughts were that I'd want to run the guy beast heavy, due to my lack of and utter disdain for Ferox. While the tier restricts me from using some of the big names of Skorne, ala Molik Karn, Tibbers is still in with a grin for that tier 3 benefit, and the rest of the beast stable is there for use.

To get things to tier 3 my first list looked like this:

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak 
- Tiberion
- Archidon (bonded)
- Basilisk Drake 
- Bronzeback Titan 
Tyrant Rhadeim 
Tyrant Zaadesh
- Titan Gladiator 
- Basilisk Krea 
Max Paingiver Beast Handlers 

Not too much of a plan for the army, just use threat ranges to try get the alpha and remove threats to X and his contingent. Zaadesh will act as a Rush and Paralytic Aura battery, and Rhadeim flanks hard. Further thoughts include me seeing that there's tricks to be made with Zaadesh under Xerxis' feat; with the pseudo signs-and-portents Zaadesh should more reliably get off a perdition creating interesting threat vectors for the Gladiator or the Krea (hopefully flanking with the drake), particularly if I've put rush out before hand.

First outing saw me pitch this against Matt Bissel the Grissel Nissel's Bearka tier force. I have to scrape the memory banks a little, but I recall facing 2 Earthborns, a Mauler, typical kriel stone bullshit, Fellcaller and max Kriels with cabers and a sorcerer attached.

Long story short, I was way too cagey with my beasts. The screen of fast moving Kriels meant I was hesitant to get my titans into the mix (essentially trading a titan for 2 or 3 kriels? Ugh.....). Bearka's feat further exacerbated this stopping me from getting the drop on any of Matt's heavies, or his kriels. A few other things happened but it was rather inconsequential once Bearka got into X2 at something like P+S 19 and schwacked the crap out of him.

Post game thoughts; I was pretty sour that a screening unit so effectively stopped me from setting up a favourable beast-trade. The Drake was a great piece here, and I'm now nurturing the option of buying two more. However I felt I needed more infantry clearing, otherwise I wouldn't be able to take advantage of the great threat ranges and hitting power of Skorne beasts. Also the one max unit of paingivers were stretched pretty far. I'd much prefer two min units to flank on either side of X's dumb huge base. Rhadeim was awesome though, put a scary hit into Matt's war wagon and after getting dismounted by the Mauler, did a lazy charge into Bearka's back for a few token boxes of damage.

After lifting the hood on this and tinkering around, I came to this list:

Xerxis, Fury of Halaak 
- Tiberion 
- Mammoth 
- Archidon (bonded)
Tyrant Rhadeim 
Tyrant Zaadesh 
- Titan Gladiator 
Min Paingiver Beast Handlers

Got the mammoth to throw out scattering blasts to soften up infantry on the advance. I got three games in with this list over a session of Beermachine in my garage, site of The Shed, my own hub of WarmaHordes gaming in the vapid suburban wastelands of Auckland.
The site of wargaming greatness

First game was against Chas' pHaley list. There was infantry aplenty, and the Mammoth did a good showing of killing a couple of gun-mages and Holt before getting gatt'ed by Tempest Blazers under feat (what th-@!%#!#$%#). But then Tiberion just sauntered over after being buffed with Rush and Mobility and whacka-moled Haley. Sweet. 

Second game was hardly anything to write home about after Peter the MILF Hunter's pSkarre sling-shotted a couple of Soulhunters and a Satyxis Raider in X2. RIP in peace the Fury of Halaak. Extra twist to the knife Pete shanked me with; the Skarre he used was gifted to him by me, and he was borrowing my Soulhunter models. Et tu Pirate Queen?

This was a tricky game for me to figure out, I knew he would get the alpha and it was going to hurt most definitely. Even if X2 didn't go down, the Mammoth wasn't long for this world. Though I guess so long as X and Tiberion stayed alive the loss of the Mammoth for the feat wouldn't be too much of a problem. I may have to play that match up again, particularly because I also play Cryx and should be more aware of what pSkarre can do. "Should" being the operant word here as I've had some games with pSkarre, but she's just never clicked with me. Peter's built a great package for her with the Kraken, full Satyxis boat and Soulhunters, and the whole thing makes sense to me. 

Third game saw me draw against Nikola Jizzmaster Jaksic with an Ocean's list with pReznik. The whole thing was a rambling mess of names, Nicia, Vilmon, Gorman, Action Saxon, Kell Bailoch, Gastonne, the list just goes on. He seemed to be the only person who took my initial ideas for this Beermachine of bringing along an 'interesting' list. In any case, I just jammed my beasts into his army, and Reznik eventually ate a 14" Archidon charge under feat, and was finished from Rhadeim hopping about the place to pig-stick him. There wasn't a heck of a lot Nikola could really do in this match up though, particularly with being able to buy rerolls with drinks.

After this I don't know if I like the second iteration of list. I definitely am missing the presence of the support package you typically see the Mammoth, particularly the Willbreakers, to get those valuable rerolls for those few crucial rolls, that Xerxis seems to want.So how do I feel about Xerxis, the Fury of Halaak after all this? Refer to the above 'meh'. The games I won resulted in me just jamming as much muscle as close as I could, whether the storm and take whatever survived to deliver an assassination under feat. The games I lost were cases of me moving shit up, slapping a couple of things, and shrugging as everything of mine just caved.

However, the process of writing this post has allowed me to consider things a bit more; with a small powerful force, I should never let myself be exposed to the full force of my opponent's army. I'm reminded of when playing Space Marines suddenly clicked for me when playing 2nd edition 40K: use your small numbers to work one half of your opponent's army, while the other half is trying to slog its way over to you. Once I figured that out (after reading a note written by Andy Chambers in a White Dwarf no less), everything fell into place.

X2 has the speed and tricks to be able to make this work on the board and during deployment. Getting the +1 bonus to the starting roll will help with my set up, particularly where having the second turn will allow me to counter deploy where necessary. I've been automatically going for the first turn way too often, without thinking about it, where going second may actually be of better benefit. The redeployment benefit will also allow for more shenanigans, feinting with Rhadeim and maybe the Bronzeback to then shift them back with the rest of the army. With this in mind, I feel it apt to go back to my first list and have another go at making it work. 

There's an added benefit to this list: less models to paint for Valleycon. My laziness contributes to my determination.
Phil Anselmo levels of determined ಠ_ಠ



OOPS

'oops' seems to punctuate too many of my games of late, a series of commas and a full-stop delineating the end of a verbose and grammatically fucked sequence of herpa-derp moves.

At least I can have fun while doing it ^_^

Instead of rolling out the Rasheth bus, I ended up using the revised Zaal list mentioned in the previous post. My opponent was Chas Roberts, a man of epic proportions and immense good vibes. He's pretty much the personification of this:
God gave a thumbs up and he named it Chas

He also runs Cygnar, and I didn't fancy my luck chucking a chain-gang list at either pHaley or Sturgis. In reflection, Rasheth would have been fine against the Sturgis list he faced me with, but I still think Zaal was the better choice for either match up. I could be horribly wrong? Maybe beasts and heavy infantry really is the way to go? Bugger.

In any case, he brought a Stormwall, two full units of Forgeguard, pAlexia, Lanyssa Rassum-rassul-something, the Black 13, squire, Rupert, Ragman, and a journeyman.

And we set up on a table with a goddamned water feature in the middle of everything.

First Oops.

Turn one we run shit up, I kind of traffic jam myself a little and pull stupid charging stunts to get an Extoller up far enough to dump souls into Hakaar who I decided would be fine to run up from the AD line before anything else. Oops 2.0. Also charged up Zaal to get Inviolable Resolve out on him, so now my spearheading Character Ancestral Guardian is sitting at Armour 23. other stuff dances around the way, and then the responding Cygnar run up and get Arcane Shield bullshit out etc etc so on and so forth.

Turn two consists of me setting up by trying to swing to my left away from the enemy zone a bit: I figured my deployment was a bit shit, but I had accidentally manufactured a move where I could contest his zone easily, but otherwise forget about the Forgeguard and Black 13 who had set up over there, while I concentrated on my zone and the forces Chas had there which included Sturgis as well. Aha! A feint! Good thing there isn't a large terrain feature that'll slow or complicate my advance! Oh wait.
Lake Sturgeonis 

Turn two for Cygnar rolls around and the pain was brought - it was kind of hilarious that the Journeyman had to cap a dwarf to open a gap for Lanyssa to poke her head through to slap Hakaar with a hunter's mark. He goes down to two dwarf swings and out pops Kovass with three souls ready to go. The other dwarves whack-a-mole a few Immortals, and that's pretty much them done. The Stormwall pumps a shot into one of my Ancestral Guardians and rolls frikkin box cars for damage leaving it on one box. I began removing the model before doing the math, but fucking hell... 

From there, covering fire templates were placed, and then it was time for Sturgis to go; charging a storm pod I didn't even notice was there (so ninja), Sturgis feated and started pulling my models around. 5 Swordsmen died to being dragged through the covering fire templates, and other stuff was jostled around. Sturgis then whacked the storm pod and put Kovass into the dirt. After teleporting back behind a wall the Black 13th drifted that 4" plate of doom onto a couple more Swordsmen, and the turn was passed over.

My turn three things weren't looking great; both my units were sitting at 50% or below, and I otherwise had my light beasts and solos to try and manufacture something. But things were too spread out and there was still that piece of shit lake in the middle of everything to contend with. OOPS OOPS OOPS. There was the chance to get a Savage into Sturgis though, with only a few dwarves, Ragman and a Squire in my way. Vengeance moves from the Immortals actually dusted more dwarves then they had any right doing, and I then began the process of clearing the lane to deliver my Savage; and Extoller and Zaal tried to shoot him down, but little did I know that Ragman can sac-pawn shots into Warcasters (Sturgis on ARM 21 doesn't mind getting tickled by Extoller zappy rays). Popping feat, one Savage made his way over to bop a few dwarves on the head and clear a lane for the immortals to finish what Zaal and the Extoller started. After committing three immortals to Ragman and another two to the squire, I thought I had enough of a lane to Sturgis. 

Here's the big OOPS; there's still a dwarf there with reach that I thought wasn't a problem. It wasn't until halfway through all this that I realised he had to go, after I decided it wasn't necessary to boost a damage roll from the one immortal next to him. I had also blocked myself out of getting to the offending Forgeguard with any of my other units. The Savage was going to have to eat a weapon-master free-strike. Good thing for Chas his dice were on fire tonight and rolled a 20 on four dice, one shotting my Last-Standed Savage under feat. I called it there because it would be a simple matter for his force to mop up what was left, and I would have squat to retaliate with.

For fun I rolled out the attacks from the Savage, and if he had got there Sturgis would be cyclops fodder. Chas also discussed how there was no reason for him to be where he was either, where he could have just teleported back out of the Savage's 11" threat range, and indeed the situation would be the same for me - I guess my beasts could have gone to town on his units and secured me that zone, and in tournament play that's what I probably would do if the assassination opportunity wasn't there.

Still, I walked away from that game feeling happier about the beast load out and the ratio of that against how many units I had. I left that game feeling more confident about how the list plays despite the loss and the confounding terrain. It feels like this list will grind and practically kamikaze itself against the opponent, in order to deliver a fully boosted Savage, Ancestral Guardian, or Kovass into the caster. if that's the case, my beasts and solos need to work in a tighter group, so deployment is going to be the next thing I work on.

And I'll get around to using that Rasheth list some day. oops.

PS: I really want that second unit of Immortals. Stupid POW12 shit killing my stuff grumble grumble