Hold on to your booties and ready your eyeholes, I'm writing yet another tournament prep post.
Come next weekend will be what I believe is the 4th annual Lords of Ruin, an annual steamroller event run in our country's great capital Wellington, held in one of its more infamous suburbs; the HUTT.
As the first proper steamroller run in NZ since the release of Warmachine and Hordes aka All New War aka #Mk3years aka #design-space, I wanted to approach things anew with Merca, as mentioned in my previous post. The motivation to pick up Mercs largely stems from my chronic SUSS, combined with paying too much attention to the opinions of podcasters. Particularly the mention of running a Bullet-Dodger Gallant with Magnus2, was all I apparently needed to trade a heap of Skorne for Mercs.
So I started working on practicing some lists, finally settling on the following: Magnus2 with Sylys, Renegade, Gallant, Mangler, Nomad and Vanguard, with Anastasia, Harlen Versh, Gorman, Croe's Cutthroats and Aiyanna + Holt in tow. I've been enjoying the list, with the odd variation here and there like running double Manglers when I hadn't got to the point of having a Gallant model. I've found that the Vanguard also makes a very decent Bullet-Dodger target, and its been fun looking for opportunities to use Magnus' FOECLEAVER X whenever possible, regardless of the usually abysmal consequences. The only real things I found I may want to change in the list, would be to trade out A+H for Eyriss2 and a Gobber Tinker. While she often dies turn 2, I've actually enjoyed running Eyriss2. I can't quite pinpoint her actual function, beyond being a particular type of combat-solo, so I'm keen to play with her some more. The amount of times I've wanted to repair my jacks means the Tinker feels more of a necessity, but there's little fat to trim at the moment, even for 2pts.
Croes just continue to feel like a great unit to occupy board space, disrupt, and act independently of the main force.
Paired with this list, I've chosen Exulon Thexus, running 2x Wreckers, Warden, dos Agitators, double Mind Benders, Mind Slavers, Croes, and Aiyanna + Holt. Yay no character restrictions. This list more floods the table with troops, acting I feel as a good counter to the BG-heavy Magnus list. Having 2 strong control effects in my pairing also feels neat, and the games I've played to date have been rewarding as all heck. The Thexus list chews through my clock like it was a Sunday dinner, and Magnus still feels a tad vulnerable for a caster that plays so far up, but getting in a solid few rounds over this weekend will really put things to the test, and I'm looking forward to it.
I've had this stuck in my head for the past two days, not really sure why. I guess Eurovision is coming up again within a few months though. Can't wait.
But YES. Day two of Valleycon rolled round on yet another beautiful sunny day in Wellington. The whole week was actually stunning, I may have even gotten a bit of a tan on the walk to the dairy.
Anyways, my first game was against Jarrod Carmichael's Cygnar. As I mentioned in the last post, I ended up running the Fist of Halaak for the whole event. Largely this was due to familiarity, but at times I tried to consider what would work best against my opponent's pairing. Jarrod brought a Siege list with multiple juniors, and eNemo, making things interesting; Siege is known to crack armour, and all the Stormsmiths with eNemo means death for massed single wound infantry. I shouldn't have bothered thinking baout it too much, because Jarrod was going with whatever anyways, and decided on his Nemo list. I dropped Xerxis thinking I had enough beef that Siege would struggle to get through, but facing eNemo made me dance a little inside. I wasn't entirely sure how Nemo worked, but I assumed that he would struggle against moi.
As it was, I got greedy in this game, thinking I could finish two of Jarrod's 'jacks with Molik under feat, to get the attrition advantage. I only got one, and scraped the paint on the Centurion. The correct play here would have been to just waste one jack and fatewalk back to safety behind my Cetratii. I had to just count on the Cetratii giving Molik the ARM boost from the feat to help him enough to survive, and make it to Nemo. Jarrod was still surprised though, not expecting Molik to have the distance to either of his jacks with polarity shield on them.
I took a couple of shots of the game, so here are things part way into his following turn.
My gladiator is pretty close to the action again, and paid for it, again. The Ironclad just off shot a bit got clear of the Arcuarii I sent to jam him, and put what was essentially an 8pt animus 6ft under. Several of the shots from the Stormcallers did a real number on me actually, taking off Incindiarii and Acuarii all over the show. Conversly, Molik barely got tickled by the Centurion and one of the light jacks. He was jammed away from Nemo, but still alive and kicking.
The following turn, and Cetratii bunkered up and stuck their spears into the light jack, before Xerxis ended it with a boosted combo-smite, allowing Molik to side-step around to Nemo, and finish him in two hits.
RIP in peace Nemo. In all this fuzzy photo glory
Jarrod was a great opponent and guy, and this game definitely gave me a lesson in over-extension. It also further deepened my love for the Xerxis combo-smite and Molik combo. That shit has so much legs, either to setup Molik to begin a whack-a-mole on fools, or to clear guys off MK.
The following game was against Mitch Cowan, a guy who I've seen around at previous events, but I don't think we had ever really taken the time to get to know one another proper. He's done well at this game in the past, and I was looking forward to facing his eVyros Griffon spam, and give him a good game. Instead I clear went and derped the hardest I have done in a while. Playing Incursion, I didn't bother to contest any flags some how thinking I had turns to burn, and gave him the win essentially on my turn two.
I honestly am at a bit of a loss how this happen. At the time I was saying I forgot the scenario, and that I had thought scoring started the following turn. But thinking back I remember clearly sizing up whether to contest the flags, but then deciding against it? Fucking shoot me now. Apart from that, it was a silly idea to go second with such a slow list as mine - I was trying to avoid getting the table side that had a big obstruction bang smack in the middle of my path up the table. Instead, I got jammed and barely left my deployment zone. The main thing I can take from this though is that I sure as shit will never do that again. While I should know to go first with the type of list I had in the type of scenario played, this was purely academic knowledge, not first hand experience.
EDIT: I don't mean this to discount Mitch's ability to play well either - on my second turn I had a line to Vyros with Molik, and attempted to clear a path to him. Mitch's skill with the feat was on point and successfully closed all avenues to assassinate his caster. I've only just now thought of a way around it now, so chalk up another lesson learnt, but also bravo to Mitch for thoroughly out-playing me.
I just hope that next time I can give you a better showing Mitch. You may still get a decent fisting yet.
Sitting on a 3-2 record, meant I was going to be fishing around the midfield for my final game. My last opponent for the event was one Jamie Steer;
I tried to get him to make a war-face with Butcher, but my antiquated iphone couldn't handle it.
Jamie dropped a pButcher list with various Man-o-wars, a Juggernaut, Devastator, Berserker, and widowmakers and man hunters for flavour. Xerxis definitely liked seeing a bunch of low-DEF/high ARM targets across the table from, but we still had a game where we jockeyed back ad forth, trading pieces and chatting away. Actually, that'll be Jamie's best tactic, he's got a good grasp on the game and is keen to discuss it. Almost to the point where I ran my clock run down. If he cultivates this skill, he'll be deathclocking opponents left, right and center. I managed to combo smite Butcher out of existence however, and avoided that loss.
So all in all, a 4-2 result was not too bad at all. Being objectively critical about my performance, I don't think I've advanced all that much overall - I made really silly mistakes when it truly mattered, and did not have the oversight to forsee such eventualities. That's a skill I'm definitely going to have to develop. also in terms of list construction, I'm going to seriously rethink my inclusion of the Gladiator. That guy was essentially a whole lot of wasted points, and I barely cast Rush over the course of the event. Skorne players usually swear by the guy, but I'm now beginning to think I can leave him at home. This is particularly so because my lists are increasingly relying on my troops for the start and mid part of my games, where the beasts end up being late-game pieces. By which time, the added range of the Gladiator's animus is hardly needed.
But all-in-all a fantastic weekend. Adam Oakson from Christchurch ended up taking first place, the only other Skorne player, with a Fist and Zaal pairing. Mike Thorn was on second place, having used eDenny's Body and Soul tier all weekend. I'll be looking into getting the pieces for that list, it seems like so much fun :3... And finally, Nikola came 3rd overall, being the undisputed queen of Legion, using eVayl to jank fools. Special mention to him tanking a Rhyas assassination with Vayl, while she was sitting on no camp. Nikola likes to live dangerously.
Once again, thanks to Chris and crew, as well as Charlie and his family, for another great experience in Wellington. I'll definitely endeavour to make it down for Lords of Ruin later in the year, and there was someone mumbling about running a potential masters event; Active Duty Roster FTW. In the meantime, in Auckland there's Battlecry to prepare for, and then Ides of March.
It's been a wee while since my last blog post, and I think I'm about hitting that point where the enjoyment and novelty of writing is starting to fade, and things are starting to feel some what tedious. I want to remind myself that writing is also fun only so far as I persist and be mindful of what interests me, and the recent trend I've had of simply rehashing games is starting to wear thin. So until something truly interesting happens, (like the upcoming Valleycon tournament next week fuuuuuuuuu) I'll just gather a few thoughts here that I've been mulling over.
Mind you, there's been plenty of progress on the hobby front beyond games, I've built another cluster/flock/murder of Legion models for Nikola, and along with that is the last couple of Incindiarii I needed for my own Fist of Halaak force. I've been rushing to at least get basecoats, washes and arcs marked on all my models, and I've successfully done that to all but my Slingers, who are halfway there. I managed to get everything I needed assembled amidst gaming at Chas's pre-new years, and an over-night shift at my work provided a good chunk of time to get my Keltarii and Swordsmen up to the bare tabletop standard.
I've also been playing a lot of Dark Souls II.
<3
Yeah, the holidays have been pretty darn decent.
What isn't decent, and one of the things I've been thinking about (mean segue), is cheating. Cheating within the warmahordes game was a hot topic of discussion recently, on various podcasts and across forums, due to the perceived actions of a certain person1 during the World Team Championships in Poland last year. There were a few places where discussion focused on what the boundaries of cheating actually were, and what constituted a mistake, and much talk on whether the player in question was actually guilty of what he was being accused of. I know when I first heard about it I got excited about the prospect of a bit of drama in the upper echelons of wm/h tournament play.
So shocking! Yet so enticing
I'm now ashamed at my initial eagerness for scandal, particularly upon hearing that people started getting quite nasty over the interwebs towards the player in question. to me there's no excuse for that at all. Discussion has made convincing arguments that there are so many more factors you have to take into account when gauging a player's conduct throughout a game, that seeing naught but their arms and models does not necessarily constitute damning evidence.
But further to that I don't think the point has been made that players of a game will develop their own set of conventions between them, to dictate how they will resolve the particular grey areas that inevitably crop up in a tabletop game like Warmachine. As great a game as Privateer Press has developed, there are still areas where the players themselves have to resolve certain things; what to do with cocked dice, whether to allow take-backs, accuracy of measurement, and so on. I'd like to think I am developing my play to a point where I have as clean a game as possible. But there will be instances where my opponent just doesn't care. That is something that I will have to work so we both feel we're getting the game-state we desire.
So in considering the above, the player in question wrote an open letter addressing the accusations and arguing for his innocence. More telling I find, is that his opponent from the game in question (who has had time to review the footage and had first hand experience of the game itself) vouched for the other's innocence, and accepts that what was played was a fair game. To me there's no accusation of foul-play that has any footing , when both players whole-heartedly accept the end-game state.
It is a pity that there was as much fallout from these events as there was, and I'm now a bit worried that it's remiss of me to even drag up this discussion again. It does seem that the majority of the community globally has already moved on from this though, and I feel sounding off on these topics to make sure people communicate openly and honestly, will allow for better games in general. Something I will endeavour to remain mindful of.
something something segue etc
Something else that popped to mind recently was the issue of changing faction in warmahordes. Some of this came to mind when listening to the Ozmachine podcast (episode 21 for those interested), and how Trent Denison is having issues with his recent shift to Menoth. The discussion reminded me of some of the teething pains I had playing Skorne; while this blog has chronicled my recent exploits in that faction, I did make the shift from Cryx. 2014 was meant to be my year of Skorne, and I lasted till February. So far I think I'm doing a better job of it, but I guess Valleycon will be the first test of my resolve. I'm constantly tempted to do more faction jumping however. I keep getting ideas to invest in some Mercs, and see about conjuring up some sort of list pairing with Ashlynn, Magnus, or Shae. There's just so much room to play around with in that faction, and they are criminally under-used in the current New Zealand meta.
But for now, I think I keep getting a better handle of how I like to play and what I like within the Skorne faction. Being more reflective about my own process is helping me way better in list creation and picking up the mistakes that I make within my games. This is all helping me stick with the faction and should also improve my game with Cryx.
I'm all about them smooth transitions
There's also been more development into my tier lists for Valleycon. I've taken the pMakeda list that I wrote about in the last post out for a spin, and it did ok. I flubbed things a bit, getting too sketchy and feating far too early, thinking two Doom Reavers would wipe me out. I really should have held on to the feat, pushed for the alpha, and used the feat to recycle dudes to apply more hurt - I'll work on that some more. The list did have layers though; having Swordsmen and Keltarii as a first wave, to then have Cetratii and Molik coming up the rear is pretty damn sweet.
However a further thought has made me doubt again whether infantry spam with pMak is really the best pairing for Xerxis; I totally forgot that Inhospitable Ground can help mitigate the amount of weapon masters that can get to my lines. Doh. I suppose there are still Bane Knights I have to worry about, and there are plenty of Pathfinder fixes out there. And beyond that, if someone brings their armour cracking list, it may still be worth it to drop pMak. But this just further highlights the amount of game Xerxis actually has. I'm loving that guy more and more, I just can't wait to pull him out of tier and really put him to work.
1 I won't name him as several people seemed to shy away from even discussing the topic out of respect to the player in question who seemed to cop a fair amount of shit from random internet harassers. That, and I'm lazy enough to not bother looking up how to spell his name correctly.
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.
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.
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
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.
1To 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. 2Ok, since writing this, I've decided a Gladiator and Tyrant Commander are in. Onwards and upwards
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.
