Tournament Time

On Saturday I ran a small Steamroller at the local shop to usher in Mk3's Street Release.

Unfortunately this release has had some serious stock issues that have caused woes for a lot of shops across the world. It's a shame that people couldn’t get the toys they wanted but it means that Mk3 is pretty popular.

I had two lists for the weekend:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley

 - Avenger

 - Stormclad

 - Stormclad

 - Thorn

 - Squire

Captain Arlan Strangewayes

Storm Lances (max)

Ragman

(Caine 2) Captain Allister Caine

 - Defender

 - Hunter

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Storm Lances (max)

Stormblade Infantry

 - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

 - Captain Jonas Murdoch

 Journeyman Warcaster

 - Charger

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Before the event kicked off I got in a game on the Friday evening as I was putting up a few travelling gamers from Dublin.

 This game was against Conor playing Madrak2 and the following list:

(Madrak 2) Madrak Ironhide, World Ender 

 - Mulg the Ancient 

 - Pyre Troll 

 - Troll Axer 

 - Trollkin Runebearer 

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) 

 - Stone Scribe Elder 

Trollkin Warders (min) 

Janissa Stonetide 

Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew 

Feralgeist 

Trollkin Fennblades (max) 

 - Fennblade Officer and Drummer

Fennblade Kithkar

Fell Caller Hero 

I'm not 100% this is correct as I can’t remember exactly what support models he had and all the trolls look the same.

This list is 2 points shy so I'm probably missing something.

I opted to play Haley2 into it.

I won the roll and elected to go first.

Conor picked the side with some rolling fog to hide behind and no inconvenient forest.

I unpacked by running everything up with the triple TK and reaction drive move.

Conor Ran everything forward and sat Madrak on Janissas hill with all the warders and fenblades surrounding him.

I then setup some Charges with the Storm Lances and sent the Clads in after the Avenger got a good Knock down shot off that was shield guarded into the back of his lines.

I pushed Haley up onto the flag and feated. There were two fennblades left alive, both knocked down, and 1 warder had died.

I managed to catch most the models under the feat.

Conor then used Madrak to trigger a Warpath Mulg by throwing his Axe at a Lance to move Mulg into melee with Both Stormclads, charged in Janissa and did a bunch of damage with an armour pierce.

Then Mulg was able to kill one clad but didn’t come close to crippling anything on the other.

Warders and the remaining models moved up to gather around Madrak and Conor passed the turn, I scored 1 CP.

Madrak was now stood with 6 Grim Salvation Targets 2 of which were Warders and 2 were Gobbers, camping 3.

I set about engineering some Lance charges into the screening Models, one killed a Warder and Knocked down the Fenblade next to Madrak (tough) The other killed Janissa and the two gobbers.

They reposition so that one is engaging Madrak but not the Knocked Down Fenblade but is also within 3" of where Ragman will end up being.

2 Grim Targets left.... Thorn then runs across the board and Haley Arcs a TK through him into the warder that is over 1" away from Madrak moving him out of Grim range, 1 valid target left.

This is where I cheat and TA both the Clad and the Avenger, which is against the rules of course as TA can only be cast once, but the Avenger is able to hit the Knocked Down Fennblade on the first shot (not Snakes with a Future Sight boost if needed).

This Knocks down Madrak who is now being Dark shrouded by the Storm Lance. The Clad now walks in staying in Mulgs melee range and beats Madrak to death, with 2 focus left to spare.

Assassination Win

Thoughts:

Madrak2 is really scary, if that Pyre is a Bouncer I'm not sure how I win this game, perhaps I have to TK and Timebomb Madrak and hope the Jacks don't miss, I can probably send in the Avenger as well to apply some sword.

Thinking about the above, it’s not that bad if I can land both of those, 4 for time Bomb, 2 for TK, 2 on the Avenger none on the Clad. Have 1 spare to boost/future sight a spell and have Arlan power boost the final one on the Clad.

Storm Lances are great, they are so good at killing most everything in the game, and reposition is awesome.

Pre Measuring also allows for great little tricks like the Ragman/AoE/Engaging plan.

Playing against Madrak2 again I’d probably stick to the same strategy, kill the important screening models, feat to control and stay over 6" away from Mulg under feat.

So after that game it was bed time in preparation for the tournament Saturday.

I show up early to get things setup and do the pairings, because of drops I'm playing and get paired against one of the Dublin lads, Sean, playing Cygnar.

Now it's my fault that I persuaded him to play the below list the night previous and offered him the toys as well.

(Sloan 1) Captain Kara Sloan

 - Avenger

 - Defender

 - Dynamo

 - Hunter

 - Hunter

 - Hunter

 - Hunter

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Captain Arlan Strangewayes

I select Haley2 and lose the roll so pick a side with good access to a hill and with my flag behind a building.

Sean runs everything turn one.

I do the TK and Reaction drive trick, cast Decel and move Haley forward.

Sean assassinates me.

Assassination loss

Thoughts:

Well I was useless, I don't even know what I was doing unpacking like that, I'm going to put this one down to just having not thought about my plan, and I really should have castled up behind the Building or Rocks and waited.

It seems like an okay matchup for Haley although I reckon she probably just loses 2 Jacks a turn to the shooting and this probably isn't enough to win the game.

With that over I have plenty of time to go and heckle other players and watch other games happening, as well as get scenario elements ready and take results.

Round 2 I am paired up against Keith playing Khador, he has Butcher3 and the new caster, Kozlov. One list has a lot of Doom Reavers in that will make short work of Haleys jacks so I opt for Caine figuring I can probably just try and assassinate Butcher3 as his list only has 3 heavies.

Keith picks Kozlov:

(Kozlov 1) Lord Kozlov, Viscount of Scarsgrad

 - War Dog

 - Juggernaut

 - Juggernaut

 - Juggernaut

Doom Reaver Swordsmen

 - Greylord Escort

 Doom Reaver Swordsmen

 - Greylord Escort

 Doom Reaver Swordsmen

 - Greylord Escort

Doom Reaver Swordsmen

 - Greylord Escort

Unfortunately due to the late hour the night before when Keith was writing his list he didn't realise that Kozlovs spell that provides pathfinder and steady was battle group only.

He didn’t realise this until his turn 1.

I lost the roll and elected to have him deal with the big forest, I also wasn't aware of the spells failings at this point.

Keith goes first and runs two units up and the other two have to run around the forest as well, making two channels. His battle group and caster, run through the forest.

Caine moves up on the right and starts to trick shot Doom Reavers, he manages to kill a whole pile, the rest of the army does the same and I have removed two full units and two models from another unit.

Keith is able to get 2 charges on Storm Lances and runs the rest of his force, the two Storm Lances die.

Caine kills the remainder of the Doom Reavers whilst killing a heavy with his feat and the rest of the army takes care of another heavy and the remaining infantry, leaving Kozlov 1 Jack and the War Dog.

To try and score APs Keith goes on a Pacman with Kozlov into the Stormblades and kills all but 3, the Juggernaut gets 2 but 1 lives.

I then assassinate Kozlov with the Charger.

Assassination Win

Thoughts:

Keith’s list was unfortunately not built with the Synergy he had in mind working which meant he was in trouble from the start.

Caine2 probably wins the matchup regardless, being able to kill plenty of toys himself easily, unless there are a lot of tough rolls.

The rest of the army can stay safe enough with the predictable threat ranges and the Storm Lances chew through the Doom Reavers as well.

Another short game and I continue to wander about and watch the other games that are ongoing.

My final round I am paired against Fergus who is playing Ret, Issyria and Garryth, both lists have a decent number of infantry and I reckon Caine probably has a decent shot (geddit).

Fergus selects Garryth:

(Garryth 1) Garryth, the Blade of Retribution

 - Banshee

 - Aspis

 - Moros

 - Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Houseguard Riflemen (max)

 - Houseguard Rifleman Officer & Standard

  - Soulless Escort

Dawnguard Sentinels (max)

 - Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard

 - Soulless Escort

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Mage Hunter Assassin

Houseguard Thane

House Shyeel Magister

I think the list is right, there might be some discrepancies, I'm not all that familiar with Ret and the pictures I have don’t have enough detail.

I win the roll to go first and elect to do so.

Fergus picks the side with a small forest and obstruction.

I run everything forward, putting concealment and Arcane shield on the Lances and Bullet Dodger on Caine and sit on the hill.

Fergus advances cautiously and take a pot shot at a Lance doing 1 damage. The Sentinels get apparition

I decide that I'm going to try and take out one of his lights.

The Charger and Hunter and Defender do decent Damage to the Aspis and Caine throws out some shots as well finishing the Aspis and starting on Moros, trick shotting into threatening sentinels to avoid vengeance, he then Gatecrashes behind the objective.

One Lance gets a Charge into Moros and does a decent amount of damage. The rest of my models run up and position in the trench.

Moros is able to beat a Lance to death, another dies to a 9 man CRA. A couple of Sentinels charge and do decent Damage to the Hunter and some points on the Charger, the rest run and engage some models.

The Banshee Knocks down the Defender. Garryth moves up behind the objective and Madelyn does her Parley.

I stand the Defender up and realise the Charger is out of Jrs control. I use a number of shots to start clearing the Sentinels that are in the zone and the Lances finish off Moros as well as a number of Riflemen with Impacts and assaults.

Aiyana tries to walk in and kiss the Sentinels but misses, Holt kills two and Jonas gets one.

Caine moves up to the edge of the zone and puts 9 shots into the objective, trick shotting into Garryth each time at dice -4 and he's camping 3.

The dice aren't very good and I miss a shot and the damage doesn't really spike much so I leave him on 4 boxes.

As I've cleared the Sentinels and the Defender took care of Madelyn two Stormblades are able to charge in, the Leader and Officer, they assault and miss but then CMA at MAT 10 needing 7s, get it and squish Garryth.

Assassination Win

Thoughts:

Had I not gone for the Assassination I probably could have just taken the game via attrition, instead using Caine to kill all the remaining infantry.

If It had failed I think Caine was fairly safe where he was as well and Garryth wasn't in a position to do much as he would be on low health.

Of course I could be wrong and an assassination may have been engineered, who knows.

With time running out the tournament had to be finished at 3 rounds, as planned, and I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack.

At least I didn’t get the beautifully handcrafted wooden spoon.

Overall I'm happy with how I played 3 of the 4 games, the Sloan game was a disaster for me and I recognise that.

I'm happy with how both lists performed and I'm looking forward to testing them and more options in the future.

Get in the Blender!

Got in a game against Butcher 3 last night, I opted to play a variant on the Triple Stormclad Haley2:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley

 - Avenger

 - Stormclad

 - Stormclad

 - Thorn

 - Squire

Captain Arlan Strangewayes

Storm Lances (max)

Ragman

It swaps a Stormclad for an Avenger which gives the list a bit more utility

It has the excellent Quake cannon (now at RAT 5!) and the sword is P+S 18 (makes a Warjack Stationary on hit) at MAT 7 and it picked up 2" Reach

The Butcher list was the following:

(Butcher 3) Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed

 - War Argus

 - Behemoth

 - Kodiak

 - Kodiak

 - Marauder

 - Juggernaut

 - War Dog

Widowmaker Scouts

Widowmaker Marksman

Ogrun Bokur

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Lots of High ARM and boxes to chew through with a Shield Guard and Arcane Vortex.

I won the roll and opted to go first.

I ran everything forward with the Lances making a beeline to the Widowmakers and the Heavies getting TK'd and running with Thorn reaction drive and running.

Turn 1

 Butcher energised and advanced up with his unit then two Kodiaks trampled up and clouded, one of the clouds clipped an Argus and the Boxcars killed it outright.

Dog gone :(

The Widowmakers & Marksman kill one horse and put a point onto another and Behemoth has a poor damage roll failing to kill.

Next turn I charge two of the Storm Lances into the Widowmakers and Kills 3 of them and the Marksman. I use Thorn to TK a Kodiak which gets cancelled by Orin then I do it again which goes through so I turn it around, Thorn drives away.

The Avenger shoots and knocks down the front 3 Jacks, boosting the blast on Orin but fails to kill him.

Butcher stands up his Jacks and continues to trudge forward making the cloud wall, Behemoth throws out another couple of shots at the Lances killing one.

The Bunker of Jacks moves up and has Orin and the Bokur covering everything.

I now set up a potential assassination that involves:

-          The Lances killing the Bokur (3 Assaults and 1 Charge Attack)

-          TK'ing a Jack that isn’t within 3" of Orin

-          Hitting an Argus with the Quake Cannon hitting Butcher

-          Sending in a Stormclad onto Butcher who is camping 3.

I allocate with this in mind and start with the Lances, they leave the Bokur on 1 box so I have to change plans.

I end up using Thorn to disrupt three Jacks and then Stationary two of them, I get Ragman up to apply death field to them all via Thorn.

I Feat, TA Both Stormclads and power boost one with Arlan. I put one Stormclad into the Juggernaut leaving it on 5 Boxes so the other one goes in and finishes it off as well as killing another.

Two Jacks on the right die

Next turn the Butcher Energises and casts Silence of Death on himself and puts all 4 of my jacks in the blender via flashing blade.

After that turn I look at my options and realise I'm done and concede.

Blended!

Concession Loss

Thoughts:

The Butcher 3 brick is very hard to deal with, if I'd managed to get Orin or the Bokur I would be in a much better spot, I also probably should have made more use of the KD on the Avenger and forced Butcher to spend his camp opening him up to assassination.

I committed too hard to kill jacks that were Knocked Down, disrupted and under my feat, I could have just ignored them, a lot of this was down to some poor positioning on my part and overestimating Butchers threat against me in the open.

The Storm Lances were unable to use accumulator to help the clads due to how I had unpacked/deployed.

I possibly could have gone for control/scenario play on turn 3 but I wasn’t sure I was going to have a better chance to take out a couple of Jacks.

Thorn is still really neat and I should have probably been sneakier with him and tried to laser out the Bokur.

Overall I think with practice it will become an easier matchup to work out and so I'll have to keep practising.

There’s a tournament on Saturday, it’s only going to be three rounds but it should be a good chance to play organised games, on clock this time, which should be really beneficial.

I'm trying to decide on a second list, alongside Haley2, I'm thinking Caine2 or possibly Sloan but she does seem just that little bit broken.

More games, Draginz.

Continuing on with the Battle reports this week.

I played a couple of games against my brother and fellow Team Ceol member.

I wanted to see what all the hype was about with Caine2 so I took him out for a spin:

(Caine 2) Captain Allister Caine

 - Defender

 - Hunter

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Storm Lances (max)

Stormblade Infantry

 - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

 - Captain Jonas Murdoch

 Journeyman Warcaster

 - Charger

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

I was facing off against Lylyth3:

(Lylyth 3) Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight

 - Angelius

 - Ravagore

 - Nephilim Bolt Thrower

 - Succubus

 - Typhon

The Forsaken

The Forsaken

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Scouts

 - Strider Scout Officer & Musician

  

I won the roll to go first and elected to do so.

Caine gets heightened reflexes and hides behind a rock.

I pushed stuff up and screened the Stormblades with the Lances as best I could to avoid them just dying to Deathstalkers.

The Lances got Arcane shield and the hunter moved up behind a central wall.

The Charger and Eyriss hide behind the forest on the right, ready to move out and strike.

  

Mike took some shots, discovering the Scouts no longer have CRA, and put a little bit of damage into the hunter.

The Lances push into the Zone killing some Striders, Caine gets a couple of other models and the Defender and Hunter shoot the Ravagore.

Lylyth feats and is able to go to town on the toys, over the Turn all the lances are made stationary, the hunter dies to the Angel and the charger get shoves out of the zone by the Bolt Thrower.

Mike Scores 1 CP

I have 3 Stormblades left and a unit of frozen Lances with an Angelius stood behind a wall just in front of me.

I put a few shots and then charge it with the Stormblades who manage to finish it off, Caine is able to kill a couple more enemy infantry.

 All but 2 of the Lances die and the Stormblades get finished off.

The Charger also bites the dust.

Mike goes up to 2 CPs

I am able to remove the Ravagore and Bolt thrower with my combined shots; the remaining Storm Lances kill the last couple of Striders.

I Dominate for 2 CPs

Mike is able to shift the remaining Lances with Typhon and Lylyth tramples over to the other zone, shoots Eyriss and repositions to score 3 and win on CPs.

Scenario Loss.

Thoughts:

I probably should have kept the Storm Lance screen up longer to protect the Blades from just dying to stuff.

Caine probably should have done more, I was very cagey with him and I don't think that much actually threatened him that well, he probably could have killed the Bolt thrower a turn earlier and leveraged himself better.

The Defender seemed lacklustre but I still have to practice.

A&H spent the whole game scared of all the Eyeless sight, squishy things that rely on stealth tend to have real problems against Legion so this probably needs more testing against other factions.

Eyriss didn’t do much but she did project threat quite well and I’m happy with that.

Lylyth3's feat is incredible against infantry like Storm Lances and she’s a tough nut to crack with Caine as well, 15/16 or 15/18 is tough and factor in a hill that becomes 17/18 and will be hard to shift.

My next game was against Rhyas, I pulled out a Haley 3 list that was in my War Room, not sure where it came from and it probably needs to be scrapped!

(Haley 3) Major Prime Victoria Haley

 - Centurion

 - Gallant

 - Squire

Trencher Infantry (max)

Storm Lances (max)

Journeyman Warcaster

 - Hunter

Captain Maxwell Finn

Harlan Versh, Illuminated One

Mike was playing Rhyas and once again Typhon was there!

(Rhyas 1) Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight

 - Typhon

 - Seraph

 - Succubus

Blackfrost Shard

Blighted Ogrun Warspears (max)

 - Warspear Chieftan

The Forsaken

Blighted Nyss Swordsmen (max)

 - Blighted Nyss Swordsman Abbot & Champion

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

I won the roll again and opted to go first, setting up the cloud wall.

Mike Advances and doesn't do much.

I continue forward with the cloud wall, shooting the hunter at the Seraph.

Mike kills my Objective and goes to 1 CP

I shoot a couple of Swordsmen and cloud up.

Some Swordsmen go into the lines and are able to kill a few trenchers; I of course forget they have tough.

Mike Scores 1 more CP (2 Total)

I retaliate by clearing the Swordsmen and killing a couple of Warspears.

Eventually the wall opens up and Rhyas feats pushing Typhon deep as well as a couple of Spears, able to remove Gallant and 2 Lances as well as the few remaining Trenchers.

He Scores 1 more CP (3 Total)

Baby Haley, 2 Lances and the Centurion kill Typhon and I put a Lance into his zone along with Finn.

Rhyas is able to charge and Slizzice the Centurion (it also turns out Polarity field is an imprint not a * action) Dominating my zone and going to 5CPs.

Scenario Loss

Thoughts:

I should remember Trenchers have tough.

The list was fine but I didn’t use the Unchargeable Centurion correctly, he should have been where Gallant as and he wouldn't have died nearly as easily.

Gallant did nothing really but I can see its use.

Storm Lances have reposition, I should use that.

This list probably needs an armour fixer like Ragman but he’s frowny at Harlan and Gallant.

The Squire probably isn’t necessary with revive plays being less likely.

DEF 15 Trenchers are a great front line Jam/Screen unit.

I managed to finish painting up Stormclad #3, happy without it turned out and there’s no ambiguity about what Warjack he is. 

Getting in a game or two against Khador on Wednesday evening and then there is a tournament in the local shop that I am running on Saturday; we have 16 people playing so there should be some good games going on and hopefully some interesting lists.

Mk3 Games 1&2

I played two games on Saturday, my very first Mk3 Games.

Overall the rules are pretty similar, it plays the same but I think Premeasuring is going to solve a lot of things on the table.

Especially arguments about ranges etc, I was playing 40k when they allowed premeasuring and it did make the games much smoother.

I didn't play on the clock for either game but it’s going to be essential in any tournaments otherwise there will be mountains of proxy bases all over the battlefield as people try and engineer these elaborate plans before moving a model.

I must admit I was guilty of this in my games, checking angles and distances etc before even allocating focus, it was nice knowing what I could pull off an not having a plan hinge on a distance guesstimate.

The list I played was one I talked about before, using 4 Warjacks and 9 other models, including the caster.

Here’s the list:

Haley 2

- Thorn

- Stormclad

- Stormclad

- Stormclad

- Squire

Storm Lances (Max)

Cpt Arlan Strangeways

Ragman

Game 1 was against my fellow Irish WTC Captain Pete playing Legion on the new Line Breaker Scenario.

Lylyth2

- Ravagore

- Ravagore

- Bolt Thrower

- Naga Nightlurker

- Succubus

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

Raptors

Annyssa Ryvaal

Forsaken

Forsaken

I won the roll and opted to go first; my army is small enough to not have to worry about too much terrain.

I TK'd all three Stormclads, reaction drive'd with Thorn and then ran everything forward.

In doing this I had measured the Ravagores threat ranges and then just proceeded to place Thorn nicely within them, no idea what I was doing.

I used the Lances to make a wall behind Thorn and in front of Haley to keep her safe in case Lylyth got notions to try and shoot her.

Pete advanced up both Ravagores and Shot Thorn twice, Boosting Damage on him and the two Storm Lances behind. Killing both Lances and taking out Thorns Cortex and Node.

The Bolt thrower moved up and Knocked down one clad and pushed it back an inch.

The rest of his force did nothing much apart from position.

I moved thorn backwards and had Arlan repair him.

I then assaulted the objective with a Lance and a couple of the Stormclads making some e-leaps into Lylyth but the Objective died quickly and lylyth didn’t take much damage.

I then feated and charged Haley forward at a Ravagore, camping 9.

At this point Pete reckoned that he could possibly assassinate Haley so we proxy and diced it, Haley ends up living on about 4 Boxes thanks to two Ravagore shots missing and deviating away.

So instead he goes for the attrition, Pincushions and feats, killing one Stormclad outright and damaging the other two, due to the angle he’s able to get charges in with the Raptors who do well.

Lylyth retreats as far back as possible.

So I'm left with a Stormclad with its Sword and Cortex, another who I believe to be fully intact and Thorn who is basically back in my deployment zone.

I try to engineer a manoeuvre that will allow me to position Ragman for death field and get a fully loaded Stormclad into both Ravagores hopefully doing enough damage to turn the attrition tide in my favour.

I use the Lances to make some assaults and then the crippled Clad to hit the other Raptors jamming, use Thorn to arc the spells in and then realise that the Clad I'm trying to do all this with has crippled movement.

So he dutifully waddles over to the bolt thrower and puts him a Raptor and the Strider Deathstalker in the dirt.

Lylyth then kills Haley who is camping none.

ASSASSINATION LOSS

Games Played: 1

The mistake on the movement probably comes from using the War Room for the first time to play a game and it would have been a really neat manoeuvre if I’d pulled it off and Haley might have lived without the two Ravagores to shoot at her.

On Average Dice a 3 Focus assaulting Stormclad with Death field and Temporal Acceleration does 49 Damage to a Ravagore assuming it hits all swings/shots.

5s to hit with the Assault and 4s on the swings. There’s also a potential 5 extra damage from e-leaps at POW 12.

Ravagores have 30 boxes so killing both is very unlikely, but killing one and crippling the other is pretty good.

Game two is against the infamous Rob Read, another Team Ireland member.

He's playing Durst and his flying V of Jacks. We're using "The Pit" Scenario

Durst

- Reckoner

- Reckoner

- Templar

- Templar

- Vigilant

Choir (min)

Knights Exemplar

Knights Exemplar

Knights Exemplar

I win the roll to go first again and unpack with TKs on the Clads and push everything up to the edges of the Zone.

Rob advances, casts Bulwark and feats and sets up at the edge of the zone.

I then spend about 20 minutes placing proxies to engineer an elaborate plan to disrupt the two 

Reckoners with Thorn and then charge each of them with Stormclads and have Ragman granting Death field.

It starts off okay but Thorn misses his charge attack so I have to boost with future sight so I can only get into one Reckoner, he makes up for it by doing 6,6,5 on the damage roll.

Haley Ta's the Clad and feats, Ragman gets TK'd up and then death fields.

So a Stormclad goes in and wrecks the Reckoner, the rest of my army just durdles about.

Rob can't do much so he retreats Durst and takes one Reckoner swing at Thorn which does a little damage but doesn’t cripple anything.

He walks some Knights Exemplar in to jam up what of the Jacks he can.

I am able to manoeuvre Thorn into a position where he can See Durst, I then clear out the infantry in the way of my right most clad and setup death field with Ragman.

Haley TA's the Clad and TKs Durst around and into walk and hit range.

The Clad strolls over and applies his sword to Durst who is only camping 3 and is able to overkill him with 1 focus left.

ASSASSINATION WIN

Games Played: 2

First impressions of Mk3 are good, I love Power Up and that’s probably due to the list I was playing which is understandable.

There are some things that have been cleared up and we did try and use a decent quantity of terrain but I'm not sure if it was all that relevant at this point.

The Scenarios on the other had seem strange, Line Breaker being one that really favours any sort of Gunline, with no real penalty for giving up ground, unless you give up a huge amount of it, means that you can just shoot and walk backwards until the opponent has nothing left.

Even with the 14" threat on the Stormclads I felt that it was an uphill battle from the start as my stuff was just going to die all the way in, having no option to start scoring pressure as well meant that there was no reason for Pete to close.

The Pit seems to swing in the other direction, heavily favouring a brick style list that can get into the zone and threaten both flags very easily due to the close proximity of them to it. It worked out well for me, allowing me to get up fast and apply scoring and threat pressure early on.

I guess the way that the Meta shapes up will decide the power of the scenarios.

I'm running a tournament on the 2nd of July so I'll definitely include one if not both of these to see how they go down with the players.

On the modelling front I haven't really done anything more with my toys recently, I was more interested in playing games than painting but I hope to get Clad #3 complete this week and then start work on other toys that are outstanding.

Mk3, Swanning around.

It’s been a while.

Last time I made a post I was all aboard the Cryx train, playing games in preparation for the WTC 2016.

Then Life got in the way, my last post was November, in December I was made redundant then I had to go look for a new job.

Before that, Christmas.

Fast forward a while and Mk3 is announced, zip forward again and there are some spoilers and leaks that come out of PP and I'm drawn back into the lightning shrouded fold.

That’s right, back with the Swans again after my brief hiatus, one glance at the Caine2 card was all it took and I was sucked straight back in.

So then we end up with now.

The core rules came out on Sunday and are free for everyone:

http://files.privateerpress.com/allnewwar/Prime.pdf

And there is a useful thread on the forums for all the changes:

http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?252717-A-Guide-to-Rules-Changes-from-Mk-II-to-Mk-III

And finally there is a web based list builder that’s pretty awesome:

http://conflictchamber.com/

With the new edition comes a new War Room (War Room 2) and all the cards. It seems that the spoilers that were floating around the internet a couple of weeks prior to the official release at Lock & Load were legitimate and the War Room has verified this.

So I have downloaded the new War Room and started to build Cygnar lists again.

One of the reasons I picked Cygnar initially over the other factions was robots, now I'm going to tell you a little story about it.

I was playing a lot of 40k at the time and two of my friends just took voluntary redundancy from their jobs and they picked up the 2 player Battlebox.

So we had a Menoth and Khador, I went into the local shop and had a look what was on offer, the then girlfriend selected Cryx, so I was left with Apple Inc looking Robots or Cygnar.

So Cygnar it was (I wasn’t aware of Hordes at this time or I just looked at them and decided to blank them from my mind)I guess there was simply something about the robots that called to me.

So back onto the stompy robots, with Mk3, you are actively encouraged to take more robots, Battlegroups have got larger (due to an increase in Warjack Points).

The point values have doubled over most of the game, with a few minor changes meaning more granularity. And the ‘standard’ size is now 75pts.

One of the biggest things to encourage the use of Warjacks is the new Power Up Rule. When a Warjack is in the Casters Control Range during the Control Phase it automatically gains a focus. This means you are no longer so strapped for resources and jacks can at least contribute when you can't afford to allocate anything.

Saturday coming will be the first few games of Mk3, with the full rules, that I will be able to play and I am excited to use my Robots.

I'm very excited about a list that involves 3 Stormclads, now I already have an old metal one that I took to the WTC last year and has been a staple in some lists. I also picked up the new Reliant/Stormclad hard plastic kit when that came out and I have finished painting it.

Stormclad

Reliant

Deciding that 2 wasn't enough I set about turning another Ironclad Chassis that I had lying around into a 3rd Stormclad, most of the credit should go to Pat Dunford (Yay Pat) who donated the chassis when he left to England (Boo Pat). He'd already added a few extra bits of armour plating so I kept them. I figured that the Stormclad has 3 defining features, Banner, Buckler and Sword so I set about making these. The banner was easy, stolen from a box of Tactical Marines. The Buckler was a Lancer shield cut up and rounded off with some sandpaper. The Sword was the hardest part, I took a spare Stormblade Captain sword and added on two blades from Grey Knight Halberds and used the shaft from a Lancers spear, the pommel came from the Reliant Kit, intended for the top of the banner. I then tried a bit of Green stuff to round off the ends of the blades into the hilt and it was done!

I'm going to try and paint this one as a really old Proto-Clad that has been repaired and fixed up with different parts whilst being out fighting on the front.

Comparison

 So its off to play Mk3 on Saturday and hopefully I’ll have the reports and some pictures up for you to look at.

I'll try to keep the blog updated in the build up to the WTC as well as showing off some modelling projects etc, if I have time.

Get HYPED!

Goreshade Three, War Room

I played a couple of games with Goreshade Three this weekend.

The first game was against Skorne and Mordikaar

This was the Skorne list:
Void Seer Mordikaar
* Despoiler
* Tiberion
* Basilisk Krea
Cataphract Incindiarii Max
Cataphract Cetrati Max
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer
Paingiver Beast Handlers
Agonizer
Extoller Soulward

I played the following:
Goreshade, Lord of Ruin
* Skarlock Thrall
* Deathripper
* Deathripper
Necrosurgeon & stitch thralls
Bane Knights Max
Bane Knights Min
Darragh Wrathe
Warwitch Siren
Necrosurgeon & stitch thralls
Satyxis Raiders
* Satyxis Raider Sea Witch
Mecanithralls
Bane Lord Tartarus
Satyxis Raider Captain

I was able to get a pretty solid Alpha with the Satyxis and power swell, this meant I was able to put some early hurt on his beasts and Incindarii.

He feated and I was able to counter feat with the remaining Satyxis and a couple of McThralls and the odd sack goblin (Stitch Thralls) reducing the effectiveness of the his feat significantly and removing Tiberion as well as a lot of the other models.

The revive game continues with the Incindiarri and Cetrati but attrition has already swung in my favour and the recursion engine is doing the work. I am able to get an Arc node near enough to Mordikaar and wedge it in with a McThrall and put him down to 8 or so boxes with Siphon Bolts whilst Gore3 hides in a Trench.

The next turn I am able to finish Mordikaar off as I polish off Despoiler with Scything McThralls and then just bolt him to death, I manage to win with 45 seconds left on my clock/

POST WTC GAMES PLAYED: 22

My next game was against another Cryx player who kindly offered to lend me his Blackbanes for a test run so I took him up on the offer and put together another slightly different list:
Goreshade, Lord of Ruin
* Skarlock Thrall
* Defiler
Bane Knights
Bane Riders
Mecanithralls
* Skarlock Commander
Mecanithralls
Necrosurgeon & stitch thralls
Necrosurgeon & stitch thralls
Blackbane's Ghost Raiders
Darragh Wrathe
Machine Wraith
Warwitch Siren

He was playing Denhegra3 and she seems super fun.

Deneghra, the Soul Weaver
* Skarlock Thrall
* Deathripper
Bane Thralls
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard
Bane Riders
Soulhunters
The Withershadow Combine
Croe's Cutthroats
Warwitch Siren

Adam was going first and Unpacked everything, I did the same, trying to keep my Bane Riders safe on the right and my Knights protected by the Blackbanes from the Soluhunters but I messed this up, my own fault. The Left unit of McThralls got Occultation to hopefully keep them safe from the Croes and Darragh got in a trench.

I unpack, poorly

I got hit pretty hard by the Alpha but thanks to positioning I was able to keep a fair few Knights alive as well as the riders, I also got some Corpses and was able to keep the McThralls at strength.

I then counter feated with the Blackbanes and was able to remove all the Soulhunters and clear the Right zone as well as killing half the Croes, Goreshade camped everything, put a bunch of bodies in front of him to screen himself and toe'd the zone.
CPs: 2-0

I score 2

Adam is able to clear the Left Zone and flap Denny into it to Score whilst Killing 1 unit of Thralls but the Surgeons are still alive, Darragh gets dismounted.

CPs: 2-2

I am able to kill off all of his Riders but one and the remaining Croes with McThralls that are spawned and throw as many Bodies into the left zone. I am also able to kill the Bane Thralls, starting with the standard meaning they can't tough. Goreshade camps everything and sits in the zone.
CPs: 4-2

Adam does his best to try and clear out the left zone and get as much as he can into the right hand one.
CPs: 4-4

I am able to use Vengeance and Gore3 himself to clear the right zone and put a pile of McThralls into the left zone.
CPs: 5(6)-4

POST WTC GAMES PLAYED: 23

I really enjoyed both of the games played and Gorshade 3 has a great spell list even if he didn't need to use it that game really, positioning is coming along with him and the Cryx toys in general.
Denny3 seems incredibly fun and the model is amazing, I can't wait to get my hands on her and give her a proper go, once I've filled out the rest of my Cryx toys of course.

I've also been messing about with the War Room Beta for Android and IOS.

Android

One of the cool features is the ability to filter the cards based on what you own and whats painted etc, as well as viewing factions together and a search function.

Add caption

But the best feature is definitely the ability to choose the background.

I'm stuck working the next couple of weeks so there probably won't be many games played.

I am working on my Secret Santa toy but it needs to stay secret for obvious reasons.