Hardcore is, uh Hard.

my Lich Lord Terminus

On the topic of Warmachine, I spent most of July painting my 1st 35 points. I've had maybe a dozen games this month only half of those with my my new caster of choice the Lich Lord Terminus. At 35 models, it's a high model count for 35 points but I like the undead pirate theme and its mobile tarpit playstyle that's just a delivery system for the big guy into combat.


Reaper and Machine Wraith

Along comes a 35 point "Hardcore" Steamroller in my area with a couple players I know turning me on to the event. The event is tomorrow and looking to get out there a give it try I oblige and signed up. feeling up to the challenge as I finally started winning some games with my current list going 2-2 my first four matches the losses being in one case barely a loss, the other stupidity I should have seen coming. However once my old WFB compadre turned Warmahordes guru Felix came over to demo some hardcore games last night the proverbial rubber hit the road and my head was swimming.


Captain Rengrave and Revenant Crew
(numerous conversions abound in alot of the revenant crew..those free mantic promo sprues come in handy and scale perfectly)

Hardcore events, for those that dont know feature a time limit -per turn, in case 5 minute turns.I I experimented with time limits early in my learning of the game (with tiny army) just to see what it was like and didnt really have issue at the time, so it didn't really register. Last night however, oh boy. It registered. I've havent experienced 5 minutes feel like 10 secs in recent memory. Trying to activivate 35 models is 5 mins especially in a Killbox scenario with fiddly units like my bile thralls.(who blow themselves up in 180 degree arc out to 6 inches killing friend of foe) who need to placed exactly..was simply not possible in the rookie state of warmachine that my brain is currently wired. I had several turns where units were missing activations or just activating to pass..to get to terminus who I didnt have enought time to sort what he was going to do..it was trainwreck and in short despite doing some seriously killing of felix's rank and file stuff...he just ran his big nasty jacks in on his feat turn and crushed me twice, the second time just for good measure clearly illustrating I am not ready for a 5 min hardcore steamroller in anyway but the paint department.


Blackbanes Ghost Raiders

Given the paint requirements, retooling my list isnt possible by tomorrow morning but its pretty clear to me for an event like this you want to go lean and mean with the least amount of activations possible to do the job...having 3 X 10 man units with special actions...ranged attacks, dual attacks and the tough rule...was just assine, basically counterproductive given the time constraints. What I am quickly finding out about Privateer Press in contrast to Games Workshop is, where Games Workshop writes its core rules to sell you the most models they possibly can, PP writes its events to sell you the most models it can, from multiple lists being required, to totally different formats at different point levels you need a wide variety of stuff just be able to "show up and play" and be competitive. It all good though and with 3 different casters and around 50 models and good selection of warjacks..I have enough stuff..I just need to compartmentalize so I can list build to the event in question and get my head wrapped around all the complexities of this game. SO, with whole life of miniatures gaming under my belt, I must admit that with only 3 months and a couple dozen games under my belt, when it comes to Warmachine, I am not Hardcore.


Bile Thralls

I am going to do my best to get some gaming in August and see where I am in in September and maybe shoot for a 7 min timed event first...baby steps right?



On the subject of paint, these are finished and semi finished shots, still have work to do on the big guy like the wings and some touch ups, the rest of the units and solo models (missing from the photos and in my list is a Pistol Wraith) are WIP in the base coated/ wash phase,
I stuck with nautical theme so the colors sea foam green and copper with heavy oxidation are everywhere, plus a little seaweed where needed. I am going to continue along and finish these guys up in the next few weeks and I'll get them up in Warmachine gallery on the sidebar.

Skarre vs Severius- 35pts

Felix stopped by Friday afterwork and we got in a couple 35 point games before we both went to eat dinner with our better halves. Currently while I am not griping about Games Workshop, I've either been prepping for our next Pirate Campaign Night (games 3-6, take place this Tuesday, stay tuned for my next post "Shipwrecked!") or playing Warmachine, With some creative trading, and some gift cards from the holidays, I am at about up to 40 models for my Cryx...enough for both my Skarre and Denegrah lists..and staying with the Pirate theme I'm thinkinbg my next caster is going to be Terminus. Getting way ahead of myself here, because I still need to learn how to play. I have alot better handle on Skarre now, and I think once I learn the rules and don't do stupid things that kill me ( like the one that lost me the 1st game this day) I think I can start winning a few.



My List

Pirate Queen Skarre
Reaper
Slayer
Deathripper

Captain Rengrave
Black Ogryn Boarding Party (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Blackbanes Ghost Raiders (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Revenant Crew (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Pistol Wraith x 2



Felix's Protecorate of Menoth List

Hierarch Severius
Blessing of Vengeance
Reckoner
Hierophant
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Cinerators (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Idrian Skirmishers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Idrian Skirmishers Chieftain & Guide (attachments)
The Covenant of Menoth
The Wrack (3 wracks)



We just did a standard skirmish and we used my Jungle Terrain on a 4x4 board. Game 1 was a straight forward affair..where Felix brought his Skirmishers with the Pathfinder ability all over the Pyramid. The Choir boosted their Defense considerably and used their "Prey" ability (they selected my Black Ogryn) to put pressure on me to act. I brought the Reaper up to try it out it missed and summarily got Wrecked next turn by a crap load of shooting. I fared better on the left where the Black Orgyn brought some pain to the Cinerators. On the Right Blackbanes Ghost Raiders and my Pistol Wraiths who planned on storming the right flank with their Incorporeal awesomeness but had to divert to take on the Idrians on the Pyramid. Just went it was going to get good..The screwed my charge lanes with my Slayer (due the Reaper Wreck) unnecessarily exposed Skarre, and found my Slayer totally not where I wanted it. Next turn Felix Charged Skarre with the Reckoner and pounded her to dust. Why I defensively use my feat after I screwed up I don't know..at least I would have been Armor 20. anyway lesson Learned.


These guys (Idrian Skirmishers) are a particularly tough unit


I was doing pretty well at this point, Severius feat had not happened yet and all those undead got popped.

Game 2

Same set up, more of the same except this time Blackbanes Ghost Raiders were all over the Pyramid with Ogryns right behind..I use Dark Ritual and kill 8 of the 12 Idrians.I break my feat out early, Skarre kills the Reckoner (with whom I have casted "backlash" on) Single handed in one melee..putting 5 damage on Severius. Severius' feat is nasty, nasty for undead...POOF he lays waste to most of them during his Feat turn..it goes back and forth like this for another round..I've killed off his "book" (the Covenant) which is a real pain and Felix is down to Choir and Severius, The Blessing of Vengeance about crippled by my Slayer, I dont have much either other than my Slayer (engaged) a Deathripper, and a couple Pirates trying to screen for me. I try to get Skarre and my Deathripper into Melee with Severius but the jack wrecks, and choir in the way make my charge short and Skarre's path was blocked too..If I could have gotten to him on my turn, I think I would have been alright..but on the Following turn Severius unleashed a torrent of Spells on Skarre and some big dice killed her.

I'm getting a handle on things, still haven't won a game yet, but its getting close, learning the rules and figuring out my units is taking some time..and I haven't even started figuring in power attacks yet. There is alot to learn with this game...I forgot how long it took to figure out how to play Warhammer.

A couple of WIP's of my Blackbanes Ghost Raiders..these guys were pretty awesome until Severius wiped them all out...painted stuff should start seeing the light next couple weeks.

Warmachine- Learning to walk

Don't look at my bare metal, check out Steve's Cygnar. I ran out of paint so wont be able to get my guys primed and based until tomorrow


Steve dropped by early Tuesday, it been forever since he'd be over here even thou we see each around at all the events. He picked up Warmachine in back in November when the WFB 8th edition malaise started sinking in. He's still involved in WFB tourney organization and support but has been playing alot more Warmachine than WFB the last 6 months and it shows. He Cygnar force is well on it way to be painted and he has plenty of stuff to run competitive 35-50 lists with alternate casters.

He had originally planned to come by for a couple of games before my 8pm WFB dice drop, but our 4th player WFB (Joe) this night had to do an early afternoon airport run to Ohare and you know how those go..Joe calls me at 7:30 saying he's still at the airport and wont be by until at least 9:30. with a midnight call around here we decided to reschedule Since Aaron and Chris were standing around..they decided to play each other and Steve and kept on playing Warmachine..5 games total, 4-35 point games and 1 -25 point game.

Steve Ran a couple games with Coleman Stryker and then the rest with Captain Haley
he mixed it up during the many games but his Warjacks were:
Ol'Rowdy
Stormclad
Defender
Lancer
Charger

Units in play over the course of the session:
Stormblades w/ Infantry Storm Gunner
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Longunner Unit

Solos
Squire
Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist


I again was playing Cryx again with my small amount of models.
I ran Pirate Queen Skarre this time for all the games with the same list
except chopped down for the one 25 point game.

Skarre's Battlegroup was
Deathripper x 3
Defiler
Slayer

Units
Revenant Crew (6)

Solos
Pistol Wraith x 2
Captain Rengrave
Ogrun Bokur (client was Skarre)


I had a couple games were I got just one turn in and Steve showed me how easy you can get assassinated if you arent very careful. First time was Coleman Strykers
"Drop and Pop" the second time was Haley with some shooting that caught me unprepared.

The rest of games were pretty good, and went quite awhile, One of the 35 point Stryker games..I managed to surround Ol'Rowdy with backlash cast on him with Skarre and the Pirate Crew with Rengrave moving in on Stryker. I had popped my Feat a turn early when my Slayer and Skarre went in, the next turn I had the pirate crew in (and I stupidly forgot their gang rules) And I just a bad dice streak and couldnt convert..low damage rolls on rowdy and Rengrave missing saved Stryker only taking 6 or so damage and that was as close as I got. I beat up Rowdy good, but next turn the Slayer died and Skarre got exposed to the Defender cannon and got blown to hell.

Learned alot about the game and what works with Skarre and what doesnt..Bokur was a total waste I bought because he look cool and can take down a Jack in the right situation but he's too slow and Skarre feat doesnt work on him, he died everygame before I could ever get him in combat.( Im sure I wasnt taking advantage of him the best I could, since I dont know what I and doing but it seems I am WAY better off with the Black Ogrun Boarding Party if I want some biguns, comparison also for Deathtoll, Rengrave thing plus Skarre Sacrifice thing I need some more units and the Skarlock- so thats where I am headed next...plus maybe another heavy jack because the bonejacks are more Denegrahs style..I didnt really need all those arc nodes for Skarre and the bonejack just couldnt take all the Cygnar shooting.

I'll probably pick up some more stuff in the coming weeks and work on painting the battlebox and move on from there...Before that thou I have some LotR gaming coming up on the 21st and the next Legends of the High Seas Campaign night is the 24th..I need to start squeaking in some WFB real soon. I have much different Empire List than I have been running and need to practice it a bunch in the 6 weeks..the Tournament is in early July, not that far away..and there's bunch of new models I need to paint (10 greatswords, new command models for my Knights)

As for Warmachine, I like quite a bit so far...you cant really "half ass it" if you want to win, you need to know your stuff, fluky dice rolls wont win you the game alone you really need to work your brain, and that's pretty refreshing. I had alot of fun yesterday, so thanks to Steve on that!









Blurry picture, but here was my one shot at Ol'Rowdy with Backlash putting the hurt on Styker, my Slayer put 15 damage on the big guy right before this and I couldn't convert, it's going to happen.

Warmachine- First Steps

First couple games of Warmachine took place last night, Felix my long time gaming compadre and Privateer Press Ganger , which is an official volunteer organizer akin to the old GW outrider program, came over after work to show me the ropes. We played 25 point games which I think is a decent starting level. If you dont have a concept over how these things work I'd recommend 15 points as this game is pretty complicated for the novice as far as skirmish games go, even someone as immersed in miniatures games as myself, had my head swimming in rules 20 mins or so into the first game, my knowledge of the quickstart rules not withstanding.

My force of choice is The Cryx, an Undead nation run by Lichlords melding their dark magic with the stolen technology of the living advanced Human nations my force was the Cryx battlebox plus two solo units.

Warcaster
Warwitch Denegrah
+4 Warjacks:
Deathripper x 2
Defiler
Slayer
Solos
Pistol Wraith x 2



Game 1 action- "I ghostwalked that Ripper in back through the building
so I could move into contact with that totally annoying choir"



My 25pt force as is...basecoated and ready for paint...which I hope to do in the next few weeks if I can get everything ready for the next campaign night.


Felix ran the Protectorate of Menoth, a faction of Religious Fanatics that are trying to convert the masses.
Warcaster-
High Executioner Servath Reznik
+3 Warjacks
* Dervish
* Reckoner
* Hierophant

Units
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Solos
The Wrack (3 wracks)

The first thing I noticed is at 25 points I was outnumbered 3 to 1, not good odds but strangely enough it was not that huge a problem, but I need to consider running some units at 25 pts for sure.

Both games kind of played out the same way but with opposite results

I'll spare you most of my noob details as I stumbled along, but my initial observations:
Both Denegrah and the Pistol Wraiths are very good, my Defiler with its acid cannon
not so much..but I see how it can be useful it could be in the right circumstance,
The Slayer can dish out the pain but not take it.. Deathrippers are pretty good for taking down light Warjacks, but I need the arcnodes for spells...I thinking using the 4 of these i have in bigger games will come in handy.

The Menoth stuff was filled nasty tricks, spell denials, flaming attacks..a lot of stat boosting, I'd be lying If I said I can adequately recall all the stuff felix was throwing at me

As I mentioned both games were similar...the real threats were the heavy Menoth Jack and the warcaster who had killer close combat moves. The three bastions also seemed difficult and hard hitting but I didnt have two much trouble nerfing them and put alot of wounds on them in the 2nd game ..although they took out my Slayer no problem in game 2.

In Game 1, down to just his Warcaster and Heavy jack and maybe 1 other unit...Felix charged his Caster at my Warwitch and handed out just enough damage in one strike (16 pts) to slay her dead. game over.

Game 2, Felix pushed to me hard...with his Errants gone early, my Deathrippers locking down his light jack, his bastions with barely a wound each left of him..he brought his caster up and finished off my defiler, leaving me with only 1 pistol wraith, Denegrah, and 1 Deathripper that wasnt going anywhere, I left all my 7 Focus on Denegrah... moved up right next to the remaining bastions whom with her reach I could get past them to get his caster..unleashing her feat "the withering" I used all my focus to buy extra attacks and boost the dice on each, and got enough damage in my debuffs to hack him down and victory...now having said that, If I had failed, I was getting slaughtered on Felixs next turn ..but I pulled it off.

Anyway that was that, I have some more games set up Tuesday against my pal Steve, before we get into some WFB tuesday...I'll let you know how it goes.



The defiler here is my one finished test model..nothing fancy here, just as close to box shot as I can get it...it will take me sometime to get up to speed painting these warjacks. thinking about doing this battlebox event Felix is hosting in June, I think I can this all painted up by then.