Just adding some Demotivator love...

Some Crazy Sick Circle Painting

Wow... this guy is awesome!!

http://www.paintoholic.nl/

Check this out!

Christmas Week

Well, its been a long week what with work heating up and lots of stuff to do over christmas family wise, but there has been some great parts as well.

Went in to Heroes for Sale, with a $100 note from work to pick up Beast 09, and try and convince the owner to give him to me for $100 instead of $134. Walk in -> Big sign says "50% off all Warmachine!" WOOHOOOO!!

So, i came out 10 minutes later with no $100 note, but i did have Beast 09 and a unit of Circle Druids. So I was happy about that for sure!

For Christmas I got my friend Raymond a Legion boxset to start himself off - Damn Legion players :P Its all the scantily clad ninjas and dragons that attract people. So I told him about the sale as well, and he picked up 2 Shredders, a Strider Deathstalker and a box of Swordsmen. Boosting him to around 500 points.

Had two games over this week as well, one against Raymonds Legion playing as Emma's Circle army, it was supposed to be boxset vs boxset, but i swapped out the Warpy for a Woldwarden. We didnt quite get to finish it, but it was interesting being my first game playing a Hordes army!

Emma had a game against Raymond before this, and she won through a clever Spirit Door that raymond hadnt been told about before hand, but hey, better he learns about this now than later!!

On Sunday Emma and I played a 500 point game between us, she took Warbeast heavy with 2 Argii, Warpy, Woldwarden, Woldwyrd and a Gorax with Kaya. I decided to demonstrate Infantrymachine and took a unit of 8 Winterguard with UA and Kovnik Joe, as well as 2 Units of Greylords, a full unit of mechaniks and a Mortar (which deviated badly during the game and killed all my mechaniks.... lol.) Also had a Spriggan for heavy support, and took Kommandant Irusk for a spin as well.

I did win the game, but almost my entire army had been destroyed. Spriggan + Superiority was great, i only used Inhospitable Ground once, and basically killed everything with a combination Spray attacks from the Greylords and the Spriggan. I only had one unit of Greylords left, Irusk, the mortar and one other Greylord left over.

Irusk is good, but lacks offensive capability. Iron Flesh is awesome, so is Superiority, i forgot to use my feat the whole game as well :S Winterguard again underperformed, but are good as throwaway troops. Having a large unit of Tough yet weak troopers is handy to suck up damage that would otherwise be aimed at my important models such as the Greylords. Greylords are just awesome, i forget how strong POW12 sprays are, very effective and a high RAT to boot! Mortar was full of hilarity, doing about 2 damage to Emma's beasts and wiping out a unit of Mechaniks on my own side.

New models that have arrived in:

Just had my order from Vagabond, Josh (Of WargamerAU fame) and Maelstrom all arrive in a couple of days of each other.

Got myself:

Unit box of Kayazy
eEiryss
pEiryss
Gorman di Wulfe
Doc Killingsworth
Drakhun
Drago

Oh yeah!

Now it will just take a while to get this stuff all painted up :P

2v2 - 1000pts total

Had a great game against John's Menoth and Henk's Everblight on sunday, Stephen and his Skorne was my partner for this epic battle.

Saeryn + Kreoss versus Vladimir + Makeda.

Was an interesting battle, came very close for awhile with Legion and Skorne having a massive scrap in the middle of the field. Saeryn died from Drago chopping her to pieces after putting herself into a vulnerable position. Kreoss was the last to go, with Drago again shredding him like confetti.

Makeda very nearly died about 3 or 4 times, only luckily being able to transfer enough to survive, and some dodgy dice rolling by Henk. (His seraph missed her twice, once rolling 8 needing 9, and once rolling a double one when she was knocked down!) Then John's Devout almost killed her, hitting her multiple times with its Halberd and failing to kill her when she had 2 or 3 health left.

Vlad did well, was practically unstoppable in combat with barely anything even bothering to penetrate his 18 defence. Vlad personally killed a Nephilim Soldier and a Devout, while keeping Signs and Portents up nearly the entire time as well.

The Behemoth was a force to be reckoned with, Bombarding everything in sight and generally scaring everything away. He hardly got shot at, and took no damage the whole game.

Behemoth and Vladimir hanging out, killing stuff.

The Mortar I took along spent a lot of time firing away with Signs and Portents - and not hitting the side of a barn. Still, its always fun to shoot a 20" AOE 4 bomb every round. Plus, they make it look good!

The relatively hopeless, but fun and cool-looking Mortar.

Aiyanna and Holt, my favourite Mercenary team, did not do much in this battle, but looked cool doing it. First, they were able to make the Mortar move and fire, giving it 24" range for that turn, then they tried to take out Eiryss, the elven sniper-assassin. Eiryss had already killed two of my Widowmakers, and was going to try and kill the rest and get a shot on Vlad or the Mortar. A+H were a great option to kill her. Holt managed to shoot a couple of Blighted Archers, dropping some of the team that was encroaching on my left flank (those buggers killed a Greylord, screwing with my Ice Cage tactic) and then Holt advanced while Invisible and shot at Eiryss, doing no damage. After another cowardly sniper shot killing another Widowmaker, A+H charged into combat with Eiryss and Holt killed her with one shot. Excellent work!

Aiyanna and Holt looking pimping next to Eiryss's corpse. (not pictured)

Painting Done

Done a bit more painting, finished off a few models that were ALMOST done this weekend, both my Manhunters (one of them being the Manhuntress) Holt was finished off today as well, as well as basing on a few Winterguard, Kovnik Joe, Gudrun and the Ogrun Bokur (not excellently done though, i will need to redo them a bit.)

Also finished eVlad, which I am very happy with, I will put pic's of him up later on to show off :)

In other news, had a game vs. Henk the other day, pSorcha vs. Rhyas. Spent the first 2 turns dancing around, then popped my feat and froze Rhyas solid and proceeded to wail upon her. 3 Fury on her meant a lot of transferring, so every hit had to count. Had 2 Destroyers bombard her, 4 Widowmakers sniper her (rolling for damage) and then 2 Mortars fire on her, both missing (GRARRR) until finally Holt walked up and shot her with his pistols, killing her.

Sorcha WOOSH tactic successful!! I will bring this list to the games we will be playing this arvo, Henk, John, Stephen and I. Also bringing eVlad, in case I get a 750 point battle.

Just ordered from Vagabond

Just getting in from Vagabond, the Unit box of Assassins and eEiryss. Also managed to pick up the Underboss from Heroes today. So thats good, gets me everything except Alten Ashley and a further 4 more Assassins. Hopefully Vag's is good for deliveries, and I get it early next week!!

NZ Masters:

February 21-22nd is the NZ Masters, 5 rounds of 750 point mayhem! Because i REEEALLY want to win, I have created an evil evil list of eVladdy doom. With the minimum of expenditure required.

So, here it is:

Faction: Khador
Points: 750
Model Count: 33
Victory Points: 28

Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Champion
> Drago
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Koldun Lord
Man-O-War Drakhun
> Man-O-War Drakhun (Dismounted)
Manhunter
Manhunter
Yuri the Axe
Greylord Ternion [3]
Greylord Ternion [3]
Kayazy Assassins [10] (4 added)
> Kayazy Assassins Underboss [1]
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt [2]
Widowmakers [4]


Things I dont have and will need to buy:

10 x Kayazy Assassins
1 x Kayazy Assassin Underboss
1 x Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter
1 x Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Oooer. Oh well, that only comes to like $200 :(

Conclusion to MDC Games:

1000 point games are too big. Hopefully I have learnt this lesson now :)

Was not an incredibly satisfying game, felt rather rushed, and made a few mistakes, ended up being no caster kills at all, with 12 VP's of kills to me and 7 VP's of kills to John.

My biggest mistake: Thinking Drago could Run Riot, move + attack for free. Turns out he can only move for free. /facepalm.

Apart from that, eVlad is not the ninja pVlad is. He just cant slaughterise a dozen people a round like he used to be able to. Oh well, new strategies must be formed! I also found it hard to keep Manhunters alive long enough to feat them, have to be careful where I place them. Other things to note - Deliverers are a pain in the ass. Deviating all over my Widowmakers grrrr.

One other thing -> pSorcha isnt that impressive in combat. However, I dont think she ended up efficiently using her abilities.

So, 750 games max from now on, until after Masters. I have to practise my 750 eVlad list, so I have a chance of winning some tourny games!

Upcoming Game at the MDC:

John and I are playing a 1000 point game tonight, 2 Casters (1 Epic), which will be the first time I unleash the fury of Epic Vlad! Should be fun, just have to see how it goes.

I need a lot of practice with him before the NZ Masters in February, so I can hopefully put in a good showing for Palmy there.

Army I am taking is:

Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff
> Beast-09

Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Champion
> War Dog
> Drago

Gudrun the Wanderer
Koldun Lord
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Manhunter
Manhunter
Ogrun Bokur
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor
Yuri the Axe
Greylord Ternion [3]
Greylord Ternion [3]
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt [2]
Widowmakers [4]
Widowmakers [4]
Winterguard [8]
> Winterguard Officer and Standard Bearer [2]
> Winterguard Rocketeer [1]
Winterguard Mortar Crew [2]

Should be interesting, lots of things Freezing stuff, and pummeling it from afar, with a few guided missiles to boot :)

Will be the second time I use the Winterguard, hopefully they dont let me down this time!

Anyway, probably no pictures, but I will post a report on this tomorrow!

For the Motherland!

Battle Report for last night:

Last night Henk, Richard and I had 2 games total, with one of us spectating each game. First game was Me versus Richard at 350 points, which Richard won, and the second game was Henk versus Richard at 500 points, which Richard also won!

I blame my terrible loss on trying out an entirely new and experimental army, the 701st Iron Rain! Led by Kommandant Irusk, (who I had never used before) and consisting of his personal Kodiak, a unit of Wintergaurd with UA and WA, supported by Kovnik Joe and a Mortar I was playing against Baldur, 2 Woldwyrds, the Druids, Lord of the Feast and Saxon Orrik.

Started off well, with my guys running and bobbing and weaving into positions, mortar fire doing absolutely nothing, and Irusk confusedly trying to get into a good position. Unfortunately for my Kodiak, I had placed him in a forest and Baldur forest-walked into melee range and with his entire army pummeled the Kodiak into mangled metal. (Was close though, only the very last attack killed it!)

Missing again, the mortar did no damage, and the Winterguard moved around and took some potshots at Baldur (who had no fury on him, ripe for the plucking) and failed miserably with a shocking display of dice. Irusk charged him, and was 1/2 an inch out of range!!! His 2 shots with his rifle did manage to take off half Baldurs health, but now I was in range of his whole army. Popped his feat (4+ save everytime I die, including my warcaster) but it wasnt enough and Irusk got the snot beaten out of him.

Lessons learnt: Irusk =/= Vlad. Not good at close combat! Winterguard are not elite troops. Miss often. Kodiaks are cool, but die just as quick as every other Jack. After the Kodiak went down, and 1/3rd of my army with it, I was up the proverbial creek, and as soon as Irusk missed his charge I was definitely screwed. Must remember to position things better!

The second game of the night was Henk vs Richard, geez those two spend a long time thinking about what they are going to do. After a few hours of playing, Baldur charged Saeryn and smacked her in the face. Some cool things happened, like the Lord of the Feast getting 3 Carrion tokens and having 1 life left, Baldur almost dieing the turn before he won, surviving with 2 health left, and the Carnivean frenzying at exactly the wrong time for Henk!

Mental note: Always be careful around forests with Baldur around.

Good times, beers were drunk, small arguments about measurements and wording of spells were had, so all in all a productive night! Next time: Sorcha WOOOSH rush!!

Potential 2k Army List

Using all my current models and a bare minimum of proxying (2 x Argus's for 2 x War Dogs, and 2 x Chaos Spawn for 2 x Ogrun Bokurs) got to a perfect 2k army list!! So here it is in all its glory:

Faction: Khador
Points: 2000
Model Count: 58
Victory Points: 77

Karchev the Terrible Points: 100 VP: 5
^Behemoth Points: 172 VP: 5
^Spriggan Points: 132 VP: 3

Kommandant Irusk Points: 78 VP: 5
^Kodiak Points: 117 VP: 4

Forward Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff Points: 83 VP: 5
^War Dog Points: 18 VP: 1
^Beast-09 Points: 126 VP: 5

Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Champion Points: 84 VP: 5
^War Dog Points: 18 VP: 1
^Drago Points: 105 VP: 4

Gudrun the Wanderer Points: 37 VP: 1
Koldun Lord Points: 30 VP: 1
^Destroyer Points: 126 VP: 4
^Destroyer Points: 126 VP: 4
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich Points: 28 VP: 1
Manhunter Points: 22 VP: 1
Manhunter Points: 22 VP: 1
Ogrun Bokur Points: 39 VP: 1
Ogrun Bokur Points: 39 VP: 1
Ogrun Bokur Points: 39 VP: 1
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor Points: 24 VP: 1
Yuri the Axe Points: 32 VP: 1
Battle Mechaniks [6] (2 added) Points: 23 VP: 2
Greylord Ternion [3] Points: 43 VP: 2
Greylord Ternion [3] Points: 43 VP: 2
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt [2] Points: 43 VP: 2
Widowmakers [4] Points: 53 VP: 2
Widowmakers [4] Points: 53 VP: 2
Winterguard [8] (2 added) Points: 76 VP: 2
Winterguard Officer and Standard Bearer [2] Points: 29 VP: 1
Winterguard Rocketeer [1] Points: 15 VP: 0
Winterguard Mortar Crew [2] Points: 25 VP: 1

(Feel free to comment on any changes I could make!!)

5 Man Tournament

Today we played a 5 man tourny, involving my Khador, Henk's Legion, Johns Protectorate, Stephens Skorne and Richards Circle.

We each managed to get at least 2 games, and a few of us got 3. (Me and John i think)

Was a great bunch of games, took about 3 hours total to finish up, due to it being 350 points only. Which is a relatively quick game. They took 45mins on average, with the exception of the final between me and Henk which took about an hour and a half. (That game definitely dragged out :P)

First place went to the best player, *achem*, myself of course :D. Second place was taken by Henk, and third place was John. I was able to win 3 games in a row, against Richard, Stephen and then Henk.

The army I had with me was Vlad + Drago + War Dog, then an Ogrun Bokur teamed up with Gudrun the Wanderer. For support, I brought Aiyanna and Holt, and the Greylord Ternion. I had really wanted to bring in the Koldun Lord, but couldnt spend the points.


The first game I played was versus Richards Circle, led by Baldur. He had with him the Lord of the Feast, a Woldwyrd, the new Minion Warlock with the Tzatzlwyrm or whatever its called, a sentry stone and an Argus.

It was going relatively well for Richard, killing the Ogrun Bokur and planting annoying forests in the way of the rest of my army, and using his feat with Baldur. However, Baldur had forest walked into close combat with Aiyanna and Holt,
who were at that point invisible. Needing 12's to hit, he attempted 3 times to smack Aiyanna in the head. Missing each time, and having no fury to transfer, an enraged Holt shot Baldur (who had harm on him) in the face, and killed him, giving me the game.


Second game I played was against Stephen and his Skorne, led by Makeda. Not having played against Skorne before I saw a couple of new things, like Savagery -> running and being able to do attacks after having run!! He had a Titan Gladiator, a unit of Paingivers, a unit of Praetorians, a Cyclops, and an Ancestral Gaurdian. We had a mexican stand off for awhile, with me taking a few potshots and killing unit leaders and the like, until Stephen advanced into range. Taking my oppurtunity, I had Vlad boost around the flank to kill some of his Praetorians, just as the Greylords were able to Ice Cage the Titan, stopping him in his tracks for one turn. Gudrun bravely charged the Guardian, needing to do 2 damage to kill it and prevent it retaliatory striking. He did 1 damage, and got smacked upside the head for his trouble. After taking some damage in the next turn, nothing critical except for the Greylords lost one member, meaning no more Ice Cage shenanigans.

Next turn, i saw an opening as Drago was in the perfect position for a slam attack on the Titan, which i knew I would have to get rid of anyway, and slammed him right over top of Makeda, knocking her down. Now, Ninja-Vlad (what I name his Defence 20, Armour 19 form) charged 12" to get into contact with Makeda, and proceeded to push 4 focus into extra attacks, and she was not able to transfer enough to survive. Ninja Vlad claims another victim!


This put me into the finals for 1st place against Henk, with the evil witch known as Saeryn. Last time I faced her, things didnt go well for Vlad as high defence is no match for Blight Bringer! (Which reminds me -> I have two further games vs Henk that I should write up)

So, knowing the high threat from Blight Bringer meant I needed to protect vulnerable solos like Aiyanna and Holt and the Greylords, I kept a defensive line in front consisting of the high armor models I had, knowing that Blight Bringer wouldnt be able to kill them. Henks army had his unit of Swordsmen, a Seraph, 2 or 3 Shredders, and the extremely annoying Nephilim Soldier.

Advancing with Wind Wall meant that the Seraph was not able to hit anything, while being in a perfect place for an early charge with the two Ogruns and they finished it easily. I had taken down a Shredder as well with Vlad, meaning he had 2 Warbeasts down. Drago ran up in his grill, threatening Saeryn early on. With the Swordsmen, he ran them and ended up pulling off Blight Bringer, killing A+H and damaging Vlad. He then popped his feat, possibly the most annoying feat ever, making all his models immune to Melee attacks. He had killed Aiyanna, which was my backup against this feat, as she can give a friendly unit/model Magic attacks, thereby getting around that rule.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. I had failed an attempted Assasination run, and was facing a tricky decision. Keep Vlad in, use him to try and kill Saeryn and possibly get killed next turn, or lick my wounds and hope my army doesnt die in the next round. I chose the second option, and was able to retreat. In the next round, Gudrun and a Greylord were killed, which wasnt too bad, thanks to some wiffed rolls by Henk. Drago had taken some serious damage however, but still had all systems intact.

Next round, and with that annoying feat gone Vlad was back in business. Saeryn ran past the Bokur to try and kill Vlad, taking the free strike. This was a bad idea, with a lucky hit the Bokur inflicted some major damage on Saeryn. After dancing around with the damn respawning Niphilim Soldier, Vlad was safe with Blood of Kings and the Wardog keeping him up. Drago was enraged at Saeryns antics, and risking a free strike from the last remaining Shredder (which very nearly took off an arm) charged over to Saeryn and in her back arc sliced her to ribbons. (Needed a 9 to hit on 3d6 dropping one, then minced her on damage.)

So - was some good games, only person I didnt play was Johns Menoth, but I am sure I will see how his games went on Johns Blog.

Hopefully we will hold this once a month, maybe next time Henk will beat me right at the end :P

Tactics of Warmachine : Part 1

In order to concrete ideas in my head, I have started a new thread of posts on the tactics of Warmachine. To start off, I will begin where it all begins - List building.

Most games of Warmachine are at 4 point limits; 350, 500, 750 and 1000. Important things to note here are 750 allows you to bring an Epic Warcaster, and 1000 allows you to bring 2 Warcasters, one of which can be Epic. The other point limits only allow one Warcaster.

When choosing a point limit, it is important that when building an army, you can go under the point limit as much as you want but you cannot go over it. Due to the rather inflexible point denominations of Warmachine units / characters, it is often tricky to hit the point limit exactly. So dont stress too much, anywhere up to 5 points under is relatively common.

With Warmachine specifically, there are two major types of armies that you can build, Warjack heavy and Infantry heavy (also known as Infantrymachine). There has been a recent trend with expansions favouring Infantry over Warjacks, but with the release of Legends Warjacks are now back up to par, with some excellent choices available, specifically for Khador Drago and the fearsome Beast 09.

Warjack heavy has its advantages - depending on which types of 'Jacks you go for, you can have a solid mix of anti-infantry, anti-jack and anti-caster options. Your overall theme for the army should be a solid wall of metal backed up by support casters and supporting ranged or melee troopers. When focusing on Warjacks, your army is slower, stronger and tougher than if you went Infantry heavy. Most Warjacks are ideal for killing enemy Warjacks, and are so tough that Infantry have a difficult time killing them. Example: Khador Juggernaut, PS=19 Ice Axe minces Jacks, and ARM 20 means only a few infantry (exceptions being Weaponmasters and specialist anti-Jack infantry) can even put one point of damage on it.

Infantry heavy also has its advantages, with many more options available you can create a much more diverse force. You will almost always have numerical superiority, and can have a lot of varied units to perform different tasks. Unlike Warjacks who can have multiple roles, infantry tend to do one specific task much better than any other, like anti-infantry infantry, who cannot kill a Jack even if they tried. When focusing on Infantry, you generally have a quick, mobile and flexible army. Infantry can kill any enemy, as long as the specific unit is tailored for that role. Example: Widowmakers, excellent at killing single-wound models, but have a tough time killing anything else without buffs or feats.

I will go into more detail into synergy between your units, and the unholy mix of Jacks + Infantry in the next exciting episode!!

2 Wins against Menoth Last Night

Well, had 2 quick games against John last night. 500 points first, which took about 2 hours, then a 350 point battle which took 30 mins.

It was good fun, ended up taking Vladimir for 500 and Karchev for 350, Vlad took along the Behemoth and Drago, a unit of Widowmakers, Greylords and 2 Mortars to round out the list.

The first couple of turns being uneventful, John cleverly positioned his army away from my Mortars, making them end up doing practically no damage to anything except for a few points of damage on Kreoss in endgame.

Behemoth used his running + Bombard fire to great effect, with a couple of really nice deviations he took out 7 or 8 Temple Flameguard in his second turn. Signs and Portents on Bombards is damn impressive. Mortars trundled forwards, I ended up losing 3/4 of the crew to Kreoss at the end of the game, obviously in retaliation to the 3 or 4 damage they did with blast damage to him.

Drago using his affinity, some focus and a lethal number of attacks ripped apart an entire Reckoner and half a Devout in one turn. After getting knocked down with Kreoss's feat, he took a bunch of damage but stayed up. He then ripped the Devout a new one on his next turn. Kreoss stepped in and smacked him to pieces however.

The Greylords did an excellent job, Ice Caging the second Devout 3 turns in a row. No damage, but that was worth it as they practically took it out of the game.

Widowmakers did well, they pinged the first Devout for a few damage, and did 6 or so damage to Kreoss as well, until an Angry Kreoss charged in and ripped them to bits.

Behemoth and Vlad were the men of the hour however, the Behemoth doing incredible damage to the Menoth army. First, killing 8 or so TFG with the bombards, he then Bombarded the Vassal, which deviated into the Choir killing 4/6 of them. The second Bombard landed on the warpriest, wiping him out. He then charged the stationary Devout in the back arc, and although he missed his initial attack, he crushed it into pieces with his AP fists. After popping his feat, Vlad got him to run 16" right next to Kreoss and point blank Bombarded him, doing a few points of damage. Kreoss backed away into a forest, and the Behemoth was not able to hurt him for the rest of the game.

Vlad however, taking advantage of the lack of Lamentation being cast, S+P and Blood of Kings'ed himself and ran over to Kreoss. Mat 10 + Pow 16 with S+P and charge damage stabbed him right in the head to finish the game.

All the Menites were dead, leaving me with half a Mortar, my Greylords, Vlad and the undamaged Behemoth.

Was a great game!

The second game was a bit more just for fun, I abused the limit by hitting 352 with Karchev and 3 Berzerkers, but it was a great oppurtunity. Fighting against 2 Devouts and the Reckoner, I hit close combat first with a casting of Iron Curtain, Tow, my Feat, Arcantrik Turbine and a hit from Sunder. With this great combo, the Zerkers knocked down all 3 'jacks and smacked the hell out of them. However, I was not able to inflict critical damage and recieved Kreoss's feat for all MY warjacks knocked down this time. I took some heavy hits, losing an arm or two on my warjacks, but they came through ok for my next turn, where I cast Unearthly Rage and chucked 2 Focus on a Zerker.

UR + focus + Berzerkers is so good. Ended up with +5 to hit, +5 to damage by then end, and one very crushed Devout. This finished off both Devouts and did heavy damage to the Reckoner. The next turn, Kreoss cleverly cast Lamentation, meaning no more Unearthly Rage for me :(.

In a crazy move, the Choir charged a Berzerker and along with Kreoss killed it!! However, lacking any other stopping power, and with Karchev and about 1.25 functional Berzerkers left it was all over. A Berzerker loaded up on Focus trampled on the whole Choir and Kreoss, and in an impressive display of cumulative attacks ended up with a huggge Axe hit which decapitated Kreoss.

Good times!! Although I think the Karchev + 3 Zerker list, while over the points limit, is actually not the most effective. Probably Karchev, 2 Zerkers, and a bit of support would be better. Maybe a Greylord Ternion, or a Mortar would be a better use of the points.

To the Army Builder Lab!!!

Circle of Orboros - Models by my wife

Here are a few pictures of my wife's budding Circle army:

Behemoth Completed!

Finally, the Khador military unveil their latest crazy invention, the Behemoth!!

WIP Behemoth

Here we go - a sneak preview at my latest project, the Khador Behemoth. Ive been working on it the last week or so, its probably about halfway done i guess. Without further ado:

Pic of the new Koldun Lord -- looks kewl!

A new Koldun Lord model picture has been found, awesome looking fulla! Ill have to grab one when i can.

Pinning Models - A How To Guide

Disclaimer: This guide was not done by me :) Rather, Doctor Fausts Painting Clinic.

http://www.paintingclinic.com/MainClinic.dwt.htm

This is an EXCELLENT site on techniques for modelling, painting and pinning miniatures. Ive been looking for reference material for my next project, the Khador Behemoth, and this site is awesome! I recommend anyone interested in the modelling aspect of the game to check it out!

The Behemoth is planned to be heavily converted (pose only) and pinned together, so this guide will help me get there!

Massive Battle at MDC

1500 points a side, 6 players total, Khador + Skorne + Protectorate of Menoth vs Circle Orboros + Trollbloods + Legion of Everblight.

It was a lot of fun!

Ill start with a quick rundown of the army i took, and the results, and put up more details tomorrow morning.

500 point Khador list:

Vlad the Dark Prince
-> Behemoth
-> Beast 09
-> Destroyer

Haha, yes, thats right, 4 models total. Was hilarious. Everyone else had 10 - 15... but hey, was good times for me, i didnt lose a single model during the entire game!

We played for 4 turns (I think) and the end result was a draw. Out of the 6 Warcasters who started the game, 2 of them had died, one on each side.

Khadors Vladimir - Survived, but hurt
Skornes Tyrant Hexeris - Died to Woldwardens and Woldwyrds
Protectorates Reznik - Survived

Circles Baldur - Survived, almost hit him with a bombard shot in the last turn :P
Legions Lylyth - Survived
Trollbloods Grim Angus - Died, to the Behemoths AP fists

We didnt bother working out VPs, so called it a draw as there was no obvious victor.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

SPOTLIGHT:Yuri The Axe

Ok, so it was a little weird having this pic up with no words, but it was a rush to get it on before going to work. This particular article is the second in my "Spotlight" series, focusing on the models I have completed.

Yuri the Axe is a looow cost character solo, and is depicted as an elite Manhunter, sometimes employed by a Khador army. He is fast, strong and difficult to hit, like the Manhunters, however has relatively low armour, so one big hit will kill him pretty easily. With flying steel he can get up to 3 attacks, which i have found is more than enough to wreck most 'Jacks and Beasts, but could also take a decent chunk out of smaller units. With Reach as well, very rarely are those attacks wasted.

His most interesting abilities lie in his synergy with Manhunters. Normally, only 1 Manhunter per army is allowed. Fielding Yuri increases this by 1, so you could take 2 Manhunters + Yuri. He gives these Manhunters "Tree Walker" as well, so they can hide within a forest further than 3" and still draw LOS through them.

In the games ive played with him, he has been very hit and miss. Although you can Advance Deploy him, this is not always a good idea, as he could get killed too early. He generally lurks in a forest, until such time as a juicy target walks past that he can charge. This has led to some games, him not doing anything at all, just scarily waiting in a forest. Other times though, he has single handedly killed a Carnivean.

Ill have to use him a bit more and see if my tactics with him improve!

New Additions to the Army

So - I went a little crazy with buying stuff off TradeMe and Ebay, and I now have either on the way or in my possession, a Behemoth, a Unit of Greylords, Gudrun the Wanderer and Epic Vlad.

My wife, Emma, who has a Battle Box of Circle Orboros, now has on the way a Gorax, Woldwarden, and a Unit box + 1 Blister of Wolves of Orboros.

Hopefully going to arrive this week, or next.

Recap on models / units used in the last battle, and how to make them better!

So, as I have posted before, the last 2 battles i had last night were a little disappointing. The army i took was a ranged attack force, with a solid melee ability once it got to that stage of the game. The main block was pVladimir with 2 Destroyers backing him up.

Normally, I would assign a couple of focus to each Destroyer and cast Signs and Portents, giving them RAT 3 + 4d6 and dropping lowest to hit (which works out to average around RAT 15-ish) allowing me to plant a heavy AOE in the middle of a unit due to Arcing Fire. In the first game I dont think i chose my targets very well, with some wasted shots hitting a Sentry Stone and a couple of heavy Warjacks before the melee started and no more shots were able to be taken. (Although, i must note that the last Bombard i fired landed on the knocked down Lord of the Feast killing him)

The second game we had I was able to use them a lot better, with a massive hit landing in the middle of the Temple Flameguard killing 8 out of 12 of them, and my other Destroyer able to kill off 4 out of 6 Wolves of Orboros. This game was not concluded, but from there they would have been able to wreak much more havoc in the enemy lines, and possibly kill one of the enemy Warcasters.

So - overall performance, Destroyers got a 8 / 10.

Vladimir, with his copious use of Signs and Portents really supported my army, with a total of 7 focus he was also able to give my Destroyers the power they needed to slam and boost when they needed to, while still having enough to keep Signs and Portents going. He never made it into combat, but I really wish he had while BoKing as I havent done it before, and wanted to see what kind of mayhem he would unleash.

Due to his support of my army in both games, he gets a 7 / 10.

My 4 strong unit of Widowmakers get mixed reviews for this game, the first game they stealthily attempted to outflank the Menoth units coming close to them - but due to a bunch of reaaaaly crap rolls and my lack of foresight in the next turn ended up getting turned into crispy corpses at the hands of the Temple Cleansers. Also, i thought that Cleansers always exploded, but turns out they dont. :S

Second game, they provided an essential speedbump, although they only killed one of the Flamegaurd they were run into by them the next turn, engaging them in combat. They were able to run away luckily without any of them getting killed, but because of that the Destroyers had a field day and landed their AOE's in the middle of the enemy. They then got slaughtered by the Druids of Orboros the next turn, but hey, you cant always get what you want.

Died too quickly and did little damage -> but good for tactical manouevering so 5 / 10.

Yuri the Axe and the Manhunter hid around in forests the entirety of the 1st and 2nd game, they didnt end up getting into combat because of their lurky ways, but thats ok as they were able to corner the enemy forces in such a way that when they WOULD have charged out i would done enough damage to alter the game.

Because they hid the entire game and didnt kill anything -> 3 / 10.

Next up is Orin Midwinter, the Rogue Inquisitor. Looked like his second most important ability, the Null Magic move, did absolutely nothing. However, he was able to do some damage with his Lightning bolt, killing a couple of weak models here and there. So not completely terrible, just kind of terrible. Will have to practice more with him, but on the bright side, at least he didnt get killed at all.

Zapped a few people and didnt die -> 6 / 10.

Last but not least, Lady Aiyana and Master Holt. In the first game, Holt had killed a few guys with his guns, but didnt really make too much of an impact. Then, A+H were knocked down by Kreoss's cowardly feat (man thats a pain in the ass) and Aiyana took a spear to the head and died :(. After that lackluster attempt, in the second game they were able to do a little more damage and wiped out a few troopers. Nothing really spectacular, but i feel they were not able to reach their full potential here. Maybe next game...

Shot a few people, but died once -> 5 / 10.

So, in conclusion, Destroyers and Vlad worked great, most of my other units either lurked around looking silly or were killed unluckily. Well, better luck next time!

2v2 Battle!

So, our massive battle went down tonight, we ended up playing 2 games back to back - As the first game ended much too quickly due to Henk's over excited tactics of moving his warlock too close to the enemy. It did not go well for the Khador + Everblight team, although we were winning to begin with we ended up being on the wrong end of Kreoss's feat and the majority of our army was on its butt. Luckily Vlad was out of range, but Lylyth got smacked down and then pounded on by a Temple Flamegaurd, a Woldwarden, and a Woldwyrd - losing Henk's caster. This left just my army against two entire armies of theirs, so we called it at that.

Quickly respawning our units, we tried to have another hurried game. Wether or not it was due to mine and Henks great tactical planning or just lucky dice, we quickly turned the tide towards us in order to decimate the enemy forces. With all of their big units dead, and us quickly running out of time to finish the game, we called it then -- with some debate over who won, it looked like Khador and Everblight had gained more VP's.

Unfortunately, we hadnt been able to kill any of their warcasters, so i dont like to proclaim victory, just a draw in our favour --- with a burning rage deep in their proud hearts, my Khadorans went home, without feeding more blood and dead weaklings to their axes.

Over the two games, one of the best moments for me was a Bombard shot landing directly in the middle of the unit of Temple Flamegaurd, killing 8 out of 12 of them. Orin Midwinter had his first outing as well, and although not toooo impressive, was still able to kill a few models off. His antimagic ability is a bit lackluster however, so i would not be taking him again with that specific tactic in mind.

Vlad did well again, hes not SUPER good, but a nice average performance in every game. Signs and Portents is invaluable, allowing me to roll even the craziest numbers to hit / kill stuff. As well as that, 7 focus is a lot of fun to play with!

So basically - 1 loss, and 1 maybe win. Not happy with this result, we resolved to organise an EVEN bigger game next week!! This time the mighty Reds had better win! >.<

Epic 2v2 1000points a side battle

Tonight we will be having a 500 points per player 2v2 match, Khador And Everblight versus Circle And Protectorate of Menoth.

I know what my army is going to be, but not too sure about the others just yet. Ill put it up here, on the off chance that John reads this before tonight he will get an inkling as to what he will be facing. Not that i have that many models to mix it up anyway!

Vladimir
- Destroyer
- Destroyer
Yuri the Axe
Manhunter
Widowmakers
Orin Midwinter
Aiyana And Holt

Basically, i have a good unit of Advance Deployers, allowing me to strategically take a tasty piece of terrain and turn it into a killing ground -> the combination of Widowmakers and the Manhunter team being able to kill anything, be it troopers or 'jacks/'beasts.

Then i have Vlad with his two destroyers, giving him superior range and damage capability (AOE 3" + Arcing fire + Boosts + Signs and Portents) means i can shoot anything in range and land a big fat AOE with Signs and Portents and extra focus to boost damage, should be able to hit even difficult things with it. Or at the very least, catch something in the blasts!

Then i have a third squad, A+H and Midwinter, who will act as an annoying thorn in the side of the two we are facing, easily able to assasinate a Warcaster that gets sloppy and on top of that, they are almost impossible to kill!

So yeah. Will report on this battle after i have slaughtered the opposition. =D

1v1v1 Game - Everblight vs Khador vs Menoth

Played a 3 way game of Warmachine last night, 3 armies at 400 points each. I took a new Warcaster (ZOMG!), Vladimir, instead of Karchev. Blasphemy, i know.

However, given my shocking defeat against Everblight last week, i decided i needed to try a different tack against their redicoulous "ignore terrain" and "ignore LOS" rules.

My army was:

Vlad
Destroyer x 2
Aiyana and Holt
Widowmakers x 4

Played against Henk with his standard Beast fare - Carnivean, Seraph, 3 x Shredders a unit of Archers and Lylyth. Richard was borrowing a Protectorate of Menoth Army, and had a choir, a large ranged Jack, two little Jacks, one with a shield and one with a flamethrower. As well as that, he had some artillery that did nothing the entire game, and a Vassal to go with Amon Ad Raza.

Started off deploying as a triangle on an oblong shaped board, i had bottom left corner, richard had bottom right, and henk was top. Unfortunately for Henk, we gravitated towards him, and caught him as he split his forces. Most of them were sent against me, with the Archers fighting off the Menoth forces as they approached.

A dangerous move, the Seraph advanced on Aiyana and Holt and unleashed its strafe attack (the barstard ignores invisibility) and throughly slaughtered them - and then i remembered Holts special Quick Draw rule, and saved their butts. Aiyana and Holt then rushed the Seraph, who was destroyed and turned into Dragon burger by Holt going nutty and unleashing his fury on him. (4 attacks, 2 at PS12 + 5d6, dropping the lowest)

The Carnivean advanced, ending up just out of charge range of the Destroyers. Vlad popped his feat, and the Destroyers ran up and hacked it to tiny pieces. Lylyth, at this point, ran away to fight another day, as my army was still at full strength. Uneventfully, the Archer unit was fighting Richards Menoth army - where it did no damage, except to blow the flamethrower off a light jack, and Menoth's couple of jacks killed the majority of the archers.

Best part of the battle was my destroyer punting a shell at Lylyth - rolled a 1 for deviation direction, then a 5 for distance, blasting both the Seraph and Lylyth with a tasty chunk of damage. (Ended up firing 19" and catching the both of them in the blast)

So - in conclusion, Vlad is an awesome support caster, who works really well with both ranged and melee attacks. Two destroyers are great, 2 bombards a turn gives a high chance of landing at least one of them!!

2 Games vs Protectorate of Menoth

Last week at the club, played John twice, at 500 and 350. 500 points, i was fielding my Juggernaut, Destroyer, 4 Widowmakers, 2 Manhunters and Yuri The Axe, and Karchev! Played against about 5 Light Warjacks, and 1 Heavy Warjacks plus Kreoss.

500 point battle went well for me, killed most of his army and forced Kreoss to give up at the loss of only one Manhunter.

350 point battle was much closer, Karchev took about 75% damage before a combination of Sniper attacks from the Widowmakers and a brave Manhunter finished Kreoss off. Funniest thing was performing a Throw power attack to a heavy warjack to try and land it on Kreoss, to instead have it deviate and squash Yuri the Axe into pulp!

Good games though, got some more to do next week!! =D

SPOTLIGHT: Karchev The Terrible!

This is the first post in my new series of Spotlight articles for Warmachine, each time I do it I will focus on one of my characters, units or Warjacks and give a quick overview of who they are, what they do, and any reallly cool thing they may have done in the past. (Which wont be much as I have only played 3 games)

Karchev The Terrible:

Well, to begin with, hes my Warcaster Jack. Basically a man encased in a shell of steel (kinda like Robocop) he is a massive presence on the field. One of the only Warcasters who can do power attacks, he can slam, trample, armlock and throw his enemies around the field, well, whenever hes not trashing people with Sunder, his P+S 19 Axe! Not much can withstand a few hits from Karchev, but he can be dealt with at the same time.

His damageboxes come in the form of a Warjack, and its is possible for him to lose his arms and movement, severely decreasing his effectiveness.

His spells are great, and they all are most beneficial for Warjacks. Possibly his best spell, Unearthly Rage, makes all his Warjacks extremely powerful, recieving free boosted attacks and damage rolls! Especially good with Berserkers, who can explode if they recieve focus like normal. They definitely wont with UR on them!

His feat is alright, very much aimed at increasing his Warjacks potential even further. All his Warjacks may make a free charge or power attack this turn, and can charge over rough terrain! While situational, it ensures that his 'Jacks get to where they do best - melee.

All in all, a very cool caster, synergy with Warjacks (my favourite models), and a monster in melee himself.

Cool things hes done so far --- chopped some shredders to little pieces. Mutilated a Seraph. Killed Lylyth twice, and Kreoss twice.

Karchev Makes His Appearance

I have finally completed my Karchev the Terrible, fully painted, based and glued together (through much blood, sweat and tears) and i am happy with the result.


Now my rage-filled warlord requires some meaty Warjacks to accompany him, but i still have Yuri the Axe and his two crazed henchman to do first.

At the time of posting, Karchev has killed Lylyth twice and himself been slightly wounded (ok, he may have been killed) once by the treacherous archer.

Trollbloods Warlocks!

This is the 4th and final part of this series of Hordes Warlocks:

Trollbloods are the "good" guys in Hordes, trying to form a home of their own. Trolls are massive creatures that can regenerate wounds done to them. Has a good mix of shooting, big monsters and magic.

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Madrak Ironhide:

• Tough, and hits hard from both melee and ranged.
• Not as much synergy as other casters, but can buff melee monsters up something crazy.
  

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Grissel Bloodsong:

• Greatly exaggerates synergies already present in Trollblood armies.
• Doesnt need warbeasts like other casters do.
• However, limited number of spells on her means she benefits from the animi of other warbeasts that you take.
  

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Grim Angus:

• Good overall 'caster that can negate trickery by other armies.
• Can methodically remove single models from the enemy army, resulting in loss of strategic elements.
  

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Hoarluk Doomshaper:

• Very weak, but powerful magic means he can control his warbeasts very well.
• Low command so good with fearless units.
• Practically requires a Dire Troll.
  

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Borka Kegslayer:

• A one man bar brawler, buffs his units up with beer themed moves!
• Can cause some massive carnage, but cant take many warbeasts due to a low fury stat.
• Good for melee armies.
  

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Skorne Warlocks!

This is the third part of the series featuring the Hordes Warlocks:

Circle Of Oboros Warlocks!

This is the second part of this series of Hordes Warlocks:

Legion of Everblight Warlocks!

This is the first post in a new series featuring the Warlocks of Hordes:

The Legion of Everblight is a dragonlike army based on creatures without eyes, but have supernatural senses. Undead for the most part combined with dragonspawn, they are fast and agile but somewhat fragile.

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Vayl, Disciple of the Everblight:

• Completely dependent on Warbeasts, very fragile warcaster.
• There are benefits to her getting into the fight, as she becomes monstrous when combined with her warbeasts.
• Relies on transferring damage onto her Warbeasts to make up for her lack of defence.
  

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Thargrosh, Prophet of the Everblight:

• Focuses on melee-orientated Warbeast heavy forces, works well with at least one Carnivean.
• His feat allows him to ressurect any Warbeast he has. (Hence works well with a Carnivean).
• Close Support Caster.
  

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Saeryn, Omen of Everblight:

• Very quick with good ranged abilities.
• Good at manipulating the game halfway through.

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Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight:

• A melee monster, basically very powerful but dies easily to concentrated attacks, or attacks that hit easily.
• Powerful feat that should be used to deal heavy damage to an opposing warcaster/army.
  

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Lylyth, Herald of the Everblight:

• Some of the best ranged attacks in the game.
• Leads from behind, has great synergy with some of the Legion's warbeasts.
• Good feat that allows some of the Legions monsters to become extremely powerful for one turn.

Personal Kills: 2

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Protectorate of Menoth Warcasters!

Kreoss Kills: 2




This is the 4th and final part of my Warmachine Warcasters: