Hail To The King, Baby!

So I picked up HassleFree Miniatures' Oakley model ages back. Cos I'm a big fan of... Oakley. As is usual for me he sat there unassembled for a long time, then when he was finally assembled he sat there unprimed for a long time, then when he was finally primed he sat there unpainted for a long time. Hey, I do most things except painting in batches, and I'm a slow painter, so basically everything moves slowly.

Anyway, when the new Oakley vs Evil Dead started airing (coughlastyearcough), I decided it was finally time. Then I realised I wasn't good enough at painting cloth to do him justice because I've mainly just been painting armour all this time. So I put him back on the shelf, half-painted as he was, and started painting some cloth-y models, trying different ways of painting blacks, beiges, and blues. I eventually settled on a painting method I was happy with and some colour schemes that looked about right, and finally pulled him back out and finished the job.

Then I realised that the way I had planned to do the swamp water wouldn't actually work. So back he went while I spent many weeks experimenting with different water products, paints and inks, as well as different ways of combining them.

It turns out that typical water products shrink quite a lot and have a lot of surface tension so they tend to get wicked into crevasses. Not a problem when you're using them to fill a simple, large water feature, but the results were terrible when trying to fill a small, complex space like this guy's base - at least if you were expecting to do it in just one or two passes. Also, paints don't always mix well with water products, and even if they do then they actually seem to exacerbate the shrinking problem.

But yes, finally I figured out how to apply the water (Woodland Scenics Realistic Water) in extremely thin layers, applying heavily thinned-down paint (Woodland Scenics Green Undercoat mixed around 1:2 with Lahmian Medium) on top once each layer had dried (except the last obviously). A very slow process, but eventually it was done, and he was ready to be photographed.

I tried a lot of different methods and combinations!

After the first couple of layers, the colour and depth is starting to build up.

The final result.

I think it looks pretty good overall.

The shirt was just Enchanted Blue highlighted with with Ice Blue using my "highlight plus drybrush" hack. The trousers took some experimentation but ended up being Snakebite Leather highlighted with Bleached Bone and washed with Gryphonne Sepia and Devlan Mud (possibly watered down). I believe the hair was Shadow Grey washed with Badab Black then highlighted with Shadow Grey then a bit of Blue Horror.

The leather was Doombull Brown hightlighted with Skrag Brown. It was probably washed with Devlan Mud, but I'm not sure if that was before or after highlighting. Wood was also Doombull Brown, highlighted with I believe a mix of Doombull Brown and Pallid Wych Flesh. Bones were of course Bleached Bone washed with Gryphonne Sepia. Skin was my usual Elf Flesh washed with Ogryn Flesh; in this case I actually did some spot shading and highlighting with additional coats of those two colours.

The chainsaw body was Blood Red highlighted with Wild Rider Red and washed with Baal Red (not necessarily in that order). Steel was just Boltgun Metal washed with Badab Black and highlighted with Chainmail. Brass was Gehenna's Gold highlighted with Auric Armour Gold. The rusted metal on the base was Blazing Orange drybrushed with Boltgun Metal and highlighted with Chainmail (there may have been washes involved, I don't remember). The submerged sword hilt was Tin Bitz, with Nihilakh Oxide applied for the verdigris then Gehenna's Gold used to highlight.

I actually darkened the entire eye area (I think I used a brown or dark skin colour) before adding the whites and pupils, and it looks much better this way than without that first step. The effect is probably a bit too heavy, but I dont' have good enough brush control to do much better. I might go back and paint some gloss varnish over the eyes, I haven't decided yet.

This might be the best face I've ever painted.

There's actually a bit more conversion work on this guy than you might realise at first. The original model has it's foot on a single skull, but no scenic base or anything to go with it. So I decided to complete the skeleton using GW parts I had lying around. This led to the idea of a swamp full of skeletal bits. I actually deepened the stock PP base so I could get a deeper swamp effect, and cut and filed various bits to match the skull (kinda; GW skeleton bits are slightly larger in scale, but it's not really obvious in situ) and fill the base.

Ah yes, the good old "Black Reach" skull. It seemed appropriate.

Midway through painting I realised there was a small miscast in the face, so I had to carefully try to sculpt over the damage. The result turned out OK, except that I was so focussed on the cheeks that I didn't think to sculpt the corner of his mouth to match the other side. As a result he has a bit of a "Mona Lisa smile".

I didn't realise how bad it was until I started painting the skin.

Fortunately it looked fine once I painted over the greenstuff.

Finally, the gun. The model came carrying what looks like a pump-action shotgun, but in the movies A... Oakley uses a sawn-off double-barrel. I was not OK with this inaccuracy, so I ended up fabricating a shotgun myself. I cut off most of the original and re-sculpted the stock and receiver, mating them with a pair of (slightly oversized) metal tubes. The result is MUCH more authentic.

The original model.

My version.

Sadly I don't have any WIPs; bascially very little of the original remains.

"This is my BOOM STICK!"

Overall this guy took far more time and effort than you might think (or at least than I had been expecting), but honestly I think he looks good. This is probably the happiest I've been with a model in a while, so I guess it was worth it. Now I'm kinda wishing I had a game to play him in. Maybe I'll mock up some homebrew rules for him or something, although to be honest any kind of tabletop gaming is going to get harder for me to do for the foreseeable future, for a number of "real life" reasons that all kind of happened at the same time. Ah well, I'll just have to make do; I sure as hell ain't giving up on the hobby!

Morrow Finally Has A Beatstick

I always wanted to like Gallant, though he never really seemed worth his cost in MkII except with Constance. Still, I picked up the upgrade kit to try to put him together, oh, a very very long time ago.

Then MkIII happened, and two things changed. First, I needed a second Merc jack just to use my warjack points. Second, Gallant got better. Much better. In fact I reckon he's awesome now. So I finally assembled him. This seemed like an appropriate time for MacBain!!!! to make his MkIII debut.
MacBain!!!!
- Gallant
- Mangler
- Sylyss
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Aiyana & Holt
Thor
- Blaster
Kell Bailoch
Lanyssa Ryssyl
Harlan Versh
Rutger Shaw

Not exactly an optimal list. Sadly Gallant now has animosities that prevent me from bringing him with Alexia, but at least this meant I could bring Versh. Thor and Rutger are mainly in there for the points (although boosted shooting and a bit of ARM 18 was not bad to have). Beanpole brought a similar list to last time:
Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Bronzeback
- Gladiator
- Cannoneer
- Shaman
- Agonizer
- Aptimus Marketh
Beast Handlers
Bloodrunners
Slingers
Extoller Soulward


Pre-Game:
We rolled a mission with two flags and a killbox. I won the roll and chose to go first. Beanpole picked the side that didn't have a giant forest in the middle.


Deployment:
I couldn't deploy my battlegroup as centrally as I might have due to the forest, so they went on my right, behind my flag. Versh and Lanyssa stayed nearby to support my beasts. Nyss were in the center, with the rest a little to the left.

Beanpole put his battlegroup in the center and his Slingers facing my jacks.

The Cutthroats went on my left, where they could contest. Kell stuck with the central forest, where he would get concealment. The Bloodrunners were deployed centrally.

Round 1:
I spread everything out and advanced cautiously. Fortune went on the Cutthroats and Fail Safe on the Mangler (this way I had one high-ARM jack and one high-DEF jack, plus I figured the Mangler would probably go in first).

Beanpole put Banishing Ward on the Bronzeback, meaning I couldn't use Aiyana's Kiss or Lanyssa's Hunter's Mark on it. The Bloodrunners got Cloak of Ash and ran to engage a couple of my models. The Cannoneer moved up and shot at a Cutthroat in the forest, killing him, five Nyss Hunters, and Kell Bailoch. Geez.

Round 2:
I moved up and killed a bunch of his infantry. I think Versh killed three models himself. I tried to spread out more this turn. I spotted an opportunity to kill Marketh before he could start killing my models with Ashes to Ashes, and moved three Nyss Hunters up to take a CRA off Cylena. I needed threes to hit, and this happened:

Oh Cylena. How reliably you disappoint me. Anyway, Rutger ran around to the far left to try to start shooting stuff with his hand cannon next turn. A&H hid behind the forest. MacBain!!!! moved up to base the flag this turn; I wouldn't score, but it would force Beanpole to contest.

Beanpole moved up his beasts cautiously, making sure to stay out of range of my jacks, and cast Ashes to Ashes on a a Cutthroat in the left forest, killing Aiyana and Holt. More spells and shooting took out a lot of the rest of my infantry, including Rutger (who had yet to fire a shot). Hexeris got on his flag to score a point.

Round 3:
I couldn't use Hunters Mark on the Bronzeback, but the Cannoneer was close enough that if I charged him I would be in range of the Bronzeback, and with Purgation average dice would be almost enough to kill it. I figured I could potentially put a bit of damage on it first with Versh and a boosted Take Aim!-ed spray from the bunny, so I went for it.

After landing the Hunter's Mark on the Cannoneer to make sure a single bad roll didn't ruin everything after the plan was already in motion, I started clearing out the intervening models. This meant activating the Cutthroats to get one out of the way. Who I promptly walked into a perfect position for the Bronzeback to counter-charge and move out of Gallant's threat range. Sigh.

So much for that plan. Oh well. The Blaster walked over and shot Marketh and the Cannoneer, killing Marketh but doing nothing to the Titan. It then used the Reposition to nuzzle up to the Bronzeback.

Versh cleared the path, and Gallant charged the gun-slinging elephant. I didn't benefiting from Purgation so I was swinging at P+S 16 due to the Agonizer. This meant I needed to use Jackhammer to finish the job, but luckily I still had just enough focus left afterwards to cast Fail Safe on Gallant. I hoped this would be enough to keep him safe, as I didn't think he could get the Bronzeback around the Blaster and I figured the Gladiator was unlikely to kill a DEF 13 ARM 21 warjack that didn't suffer from crippled systems.

The Cutthroats stood back with the expectation that I would be sending them in one at a time to contest after the Blaster died. I finally scored a point.

The Gladiator walked over the wall and boosted a double-handed throw, chucking Gallant at the Blaster. The Bronzeback then walked around and beat the now knocked-down symbol of Morrowan faith into scrap metal. Luckily poor rolls meant he didn't have the Fury left to attack the Blaster, so at least I was still contesting. Meanwhile the rest of Beanpole's army killed Versh, Lanyssa, Sylyss, and put some damage on MacBain!!!!.

Round 4:
I completely screwed up my plans here. I loaded up the Mangler thinking I might send it at the Gladiator (I could get to him in such a way that a Rush-less Bronzeback would not be able to reach him) or the Shaman. But then realised that if I attacked the Gladiator there would be nothing protecting MacBain!!!! from the Shaman, and if I sent it at the Shaman it would just get killed by Titans. So it basically did nothing and wasted my focus.

The Cutthroats (still under Fortune) and Nyss Hunters just managed to shoot the Agonzier to death, while MacBain!!!! missed two boosted Handcannon shots against a single Slinger, meaning I couldn't clear the flag to score or even re-cast Fail Safe. The Mangler made sure it was out of charging threat ranges, which actually meant it wasn't blocking the Shaman from reaching MacBain!!!!, so basically I did everything wrong for no reason.

The Gladiator frenzied and killed a Paingiver. The Bronzeback did not frenzy and sat there with four Fury. The Paingivers pulled a bunch of it off though, and he killed the Blaster. The Shaman knocked MacBain!!!! down to about six boxes I think. I lost more infantry, leaving me with only Croe. Beanpole moved Hexeris off the flag just to make sure the Mangler couldn't reach him, meaning at least he didn't score.

Round 5:
I figured I would move the Mangler forwards with Energizer, kill the Shaman with Jackhammer, then move to safety. The Mangler missed three out of four Jackhammer attacks. I gave up.

Post-mortem:
That Bronzeback counter-charge screws up my plans so often you'd think I would learn to remember that he has it eventually, but nope! I probably should have just sent the Mangler in the turn after that (at least after managing to kill the Agonizer) and found some other way to protect MacBain!!!! (maybe just camped Focus and hoped for the best). Alternately I could have recast Fail Safe, gone for the Shaman, relied on the Blaster to block the Bronzeback again, and hoped that the Gladiator couldn't kill an ARM 21 warjack. I guess I was a little tilted at that point because I played quite poorly that turn.

Although I wasn't playing too well anyway. Keeping the Cutthroats and Nyss Hunters back rather than running forwards and jamming him off the flags was not very smart (and more cagey than I've tended to play recently). I basically lost most of my army without doing anything, because everything was too far back to do much work, then it died.

I probably should have commit the Cutthroats to gunning down the Agonizer, even if it cost the whole unit. At the very least having them all around his flag and his Paingivers, rather than hanging out on my side not doing anything at all, would have given him a little trouble.

Beanpole really used Banishing Ward effectively, cutting down my threat range while also denying me my damage buff. Luckily this meant Gallant was still a threat. I wish I could have sent the Mangler at the Cannoneer instead, but once you've allocated focus you're locked in unfortunately (plus I activated the Mangler before the Cutthroats, so I couldn't even just rely on Jackhammer at that point). Perhaps I should consider Ragman instead of A&H, though he would have just been killed by Ashes same as everyone else.

I didn't really bring any spot removal in this list (other than normal unboosted shooting). Obviously I have options, but I'm quite tempted to bring Rocinante for some boosted shooting on a good beatstick. I'm not sure I'd bring him instead of the Mangler (the moment I don't bring that Chain Weapon I'm sure I'll find myself facing Tibbers), so I guess the question is what to swap him for. Well, Rutger obviously, but what else?

I think I'm getting slower at this game. Maybe it's because I'm getting better at seeing threats and options, so it takes me longer to work through them all in my head? I dunno. I should probably started playing with a clock; I don't like the added pressure or the idea of a game suddenly being cut-short, but maybe it would be good for learning?

Typical Tabloid Crap

Improved Old Card Creator

I've been a bit inspired lately, so I went back and re-built my old Warmachine card creator. The new one is MUCH more user friendly (no more invisible buttons! Yay!). Here's a sample card:

New Card Creator

I designed a new card creator. It was actually quite quick since most of the difficult work had been done for the old one; this one basically just required a bunch of copy-pasta. Here's a sample of the kind of card it can be used for:

Minions can crack armour now?

Strakhov again. I ran the same list as last time but swapped the Spriggan for Black Ivan (for to be shooting at evil baby elephants) and Sylyss for Valachev (for reasons that will soon become clear).
Strakhov
- Torch
- Black Ivan
- Berserker
Alexia & the Risen
- Valachev
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Widowmaker Marksman
Kell Bailoch


I played against Gru and his Minions. With the reduced model restrictions Gru was running a whole bunch of new models that he wasn't familiar with yet. For now there were some proxies being used.
Rask
- Blackhide Wrassler
- Ironback Spitter
- Bullsnapper
- Bullsnapper
- Targ
Wrongeye
- Snapjaw
Nyss Hunters
Croak Raiders
Gatorman Witch Doctor


Pre-Game:
We rolled the scenario with two flags and two objectives. Gru won the roll and chose to go second, picking the side with the forests. I chose the Effigy of Valour (that lets models stand up for free) and he chose the objective that heals beasts and lets you tank hits with your heavies.


Deployment:
I deployed Strakhov in the middle with his jacks around him. The Risen went on the left with the Nyss behind them. He deployed his battlegroups in the center, and his Nyss opposite mine.

I put the Cutthroats as close to the left flag as possible, and one sniper on each side (Kell got the side with the nearby forest). His Croak Raiders then went opposite the Cutthroats.

Round 1:
Superiority went on the Berserker. Everything ran up and spread out. I actually screwed up here and put Strakhov too far from models that he wanted to put upkeeps on; not very smart on my part.

Gru moved everything up. A few of his Croaks got close enough to shoot my front line of Cutthroats, killing a few models. He put a Veil of Mists cloud in front of my Widowmaker.

Round 2:
OK, it was time for the jank to begin! Last turn Alexia had stepped out Valachev's command range, leaving her out of formation; this meant the unit no longer had Spellward, allowing Strakhov to cast Occultation on a Risen! Alexia was then able to step back into formation, allowing me to upkeep the spell. My Stealthy Risen were now invincible!

Strakhov also put Overrun on the fully-loaded-up Berserker. The plan: to Overrun off a Croak and destroy the objective. Unfortunately, there were two problems with this plan: first, the Objective could not be attacked yet. Second, the Berserker whiffed all four of his MAT 7 attacks against the Croak. Impressive. Well, at least he passed his Instability check.

The Widowmaker stepped into the could and shot down a Nyss Hunter, likewise Kell stepped forwards and killed a Croak. The Cutthroats moved up to attack the Croaks, killing a few. The Nyss Hunters took a few shots at Warbeasts (I think).

The Spitter killed my Berserker. The Croaks killed Kell and some more Cutthroats. The Nyss Hunters charged up and killed the Marksman and the front line of Risen. The Snappers charged some Nyss Hunters and whiffed. I think Wrongeye cast Starcrossed.

Round 3:
My Nyss Hunters gunned down most of his and the Risen killed one or two more, giving me a stack of corpses. Alexia created a Thrall who charged the nearby Snapper, leaving it on one box. Strakhov swapped Superiority over to Torch, who charged the Spitter. Sadly he couldn't finish him, meaning Sprint didn't trigger. I think Black Ivan shot the objective, but rolled crap for damage.

The Spitter frenzied, smacking Torch with a respectable hit considering he had lost some aspects. Rask tried to shoot Torch but missed, pinging the Spitter but doing no damage. The Wrassler put Rage on Snapjaw, who then charged Torch and proceeded to roll an amazing number of 3s. Even with the Ancilliary Attack from Targ, Torch was left with 5 boxes. What's more, Gru had been quite unlucky with his damage rolls, leaving all of Torch's systems running.

His Nyss Hunters killed Valachev, meaning Alexia would not be able to benefit from Strak's feat. The Croaks finished off the Cutthroats and starting pinging Black Ivan. One Spitter whiffed against a Nyss Hunter again, but the second killed the Thrall.

This photo was taken at the start of Round 4, after I had converted my corpse tokens to Risen.

Round 4:
Torch finished off the Spitter and turned his attention to Snapjaw, but left him on two boxes. I succumbed to temptation and took a shot at Rask with Ivan, but missed. Risen did nothing as I needed them all on the flag, but Alexia killed a Nyss Hunter with a boosted hand-cannon shot. Nyss Hunters... didn't do very much. Something killed a Snapper. I finally scored a point on the right flag.

Snapjaw shuffled over a bit to base the flag before finishing off Torch. The rest of his models killed a few Nyss Hunters and Risen and continued pinging Ivan down, after Rask disrupted him. I scored a second point.

Round 5:
Alexia was amassing a nice big horde of Risen at this point, enough to seriously threaten the Wrassler should he get too close. She did spend one to kill another Nyss Hunter though. Strakhov gunned down the remaining Snapper while Black Ivan shot at the objective again, not doing very much without focus. I scored again, putting me at three points.

Using Boundless Charge and Veil of Mists, Gru was able to get Snapjaw into Alexia. I burned the Risen to try to keep her alive, but it was all for naught. He wasn't quite able to kill the last Risen though, so he didn't actually score this turn. I think Black Ivan lost his cortex this turn.

Round 6:
Black Ivan took another shot at the objective, putting a few more points of damage on it. Then Strakhov cast Overrun on himself and moved up to finish it off. After my first shot hit however Gru passed it on to the Wrassler. Oh yeah, I forgot the objective could do that. Strakhov used his second shot to hit Targ, but he toughed. This was a problem, as Strakhov was standing completely unprotected out in the open and needed to trigger Overrun. Luckily the Cinder Bomb scattered in the right direction and reached Targ; a boosted damage roll finished him off and let Strakhov move back behind Black Ivan.

Meanwhile the Nyss Hunters charged Snapjaw, but Wrongeye had Star Crossed up and two missed. Cylena herself was out of range and landed a hit, but it wasn't enough.

Snapjaw killed two more Nyss Hunters, Snacking giving him back a couple of damage boxes. Rask and the Croaks shot Ivan, putting some damage on him - he was getting low on boxes now. The Wrassler moved up to threaten my stuff.

Round 7:
Cylena put a couple of points of damage on Snapjaw. Black Ivan shot the Croaks in front of him, but many tough rolls were made. Strakhov then used his gun, cinder bomb, and magics, but many more Tough rolls were made and in the end one Croak was still left contesting the flag.

The Wrassler killed Black Ivan. Snapjaw killed Cylena. The Witch Doctor charged Strakhov, rolling high and putting seven damage on him despite my spending two focus to reduce the damage. Gru scored the flag on the right this turn, giving him one point.

Round 8:
Strakhov moved out of engagement with the Witch Doctor while still basing the flag - luckily the free strike missed - and gunned the Croc down along with the Croak. Ram pushed the Wrassler just far enough to clear the flag. We both scored this turn, bringing me to four and him to two.

Wrongeye moved up to base the right flag while Snapjaw charged and destroyed my objective. The Wrassler ran around the forest to bast the left flag, which Strakhov doesn't contest. This meant Gru scored three points this turn, bringing him to five and winning the game.

That Nyss Hunter at the bottom had actually been trying to destroy the objective for several turns but was not getting the damage rolls he needed.

Post-mortem:
That was a very long game, but I enjoyed it a lot. Our lists were quite well matched: we both had two beatstick heavies, a shooty heavy, and two shooty units, with some other bits and pieces on the side. His heavies hit harder, but I had better threat ranges, and also Alexia winning me the war of attrition on the infantry side (until Snapjaw happened).

I made some mistakes, but probably nothing too major; the biggest one was probably forgetting that he can pass off hits to the objective and trying to destroy it at range rather than focussing my fire on his warbeasts. Letting Alexia die was a shame; she had accumulated a lot of Risen, enough that things were looking good for me for a bit there.

Rask seems like a good Warlock: Boundless Charge and Veil of Mists are great for getting to important models, and Fury gives his army the armour cracking that Gru's lists have tended to lack. All that and also a boostable RAT 7 gun that removes upkeeps, disrupts warjacks, or steals Focus? Sounds good to me. The Wrassler getting the Rage animus feels like a really good thing for Minions too, something that they probably needed.

I love the Spitter's model, but it has some of the worst defensive stats on any heavy I've played against: DEF 10 ARM 18? Any yet Torch didn't kill him on the charge (and my dice weren't bad). That P+S 17 is kind of depressing; I'm not happy about it anyway. Torch went from a decent beatstick with a lot of situationally useful abilities, to a mediocre beatstick who is also a mediocre gun platform who has a lot of situationally useful abilities; it kinda feels like a more dedicated jack would be more valuable (especially with Strakhov wanting to alpha and all that). His bond with Strakhov is so good that I can't help but take him though.

Putting Occultation on Alexia was entertaining and might have helped force the Nyss Hunters to come to me, but after that turn it wasn't important and I dropped it for the focus. I probably should have re-cast it on Strakhov, but I figured he was immune to most of the shooting that was still on the table.

So far the Berserker has just not been working out the way that I keep feeling he should. He is a cheap way to start the piece trade however, which is not such a bad thing.

First Game of MkIII

Strakhov felt as though something was off. He didn't know when it had started, but the sensation had been growing stronger for several weeks now. It was hard to say for sure, but he was starting to suspect it was something to do with his magic. It just seemed... different somehow.

Pushing the persistent thoughts to the back of his mind, Strakhov focused himself on the task at hand. The Skorne scouting party he had been sent to intercept was coming into view, their Titans bellowing angrily at the sight of the bright red, highly visible warjacks the Khadoran master of stealth had brought with him. Well, looked like it was time to earn his paycheck.

This was my first game of MkIII. Needless to say I'm still hazy on what's different in the rules, so it's quite possible that I might have screwed stuff up. Anyway, I picked Strakhov, Torch, a Spriggan, my sniper-solos, and my usual Merc infantry. I had 12 points left after that, which I ended up spending on a Berserker and Sylyss; I debated some other combinations, but I though it might be interesting to try Berserk on a MAT 7 warjack with Overrun.
Strakhov
-Torch
-Spriggan
-Berserker
-Sylyss
Nyss Hunters
Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Kell
Widowmaker Marksman

Beanpole was playing the new Battlebox caster:
Xekaar
-Bronzeback
-Gladiator
-Cannoneer
-Shaman
-Agonizer
Slingers
Bloodrunners
Beast Handlers
Willbreaker
Master Tormentor
Orin Midwinter


Pre-Game:
We rolled up a game with two flags and a zone, that looked quite easy to score your own flag. Beanpole won the roll and chose to go first. Out of habit I picked the side with more forests (I need to remember that Hunter doesn't work the same way anymore).


Deployment:
Beanpole had his warlock and battlegroup generally tending to my right, near his flag, with the infantry to my left.

I put Strakhov behind my flag on my left with my jacks lined up across the center. The Nyss Hunters went on the right to take advantage of the forest. The Risen were in the center behind everything.

The Bloodrunners went on my left, facing my caster.

Obviously I had to deploy the Cutthroats on my left to protect Strakhov. I wasn't sure what to do with my snipers so I put them together in the center to start.


Round 1:
Beanpole advanced everything. The Bloodrunners got Tough from the Willbreaker.

I put Superiority on the Berserker, Occultation on Strakhov, and Sentry on the Marksman. The Cutthroats spread out to jam a bit; I tried to use the wall to hold off the Bloodrunners by taking up most of the space behind it, which would also protect the Cutthroats from the Slingers. I decided I wanted the Snipers on the far right, so I ran them across. The Nyss Hunters spread out and tried to use the forest protectively. Alexia ran to my left as I realised I was probably going to lose a lot of Cutthroats.

Round 2
Xekaar debuffed the Nyss (-2 DEF and ARM). His infantry killed some Cutthroats. The Cannoneer fired at something and missed, but the deviation drifted over Cylena and the Widowmaker Marksman, killing them both. I was quite sad to lose the Marksman. The Agonizer used an ability that would debuff the STR of any of my models if they got close.

I was going to have a very hard time killing his Titans if that Agonizer was allowed to keep that up, so I decided to trade the Berserker for it. The Berserker got two and I gave out some focus to the other two jacks for boosting. Strakhov moved up to the flag, cast Overrun on the Bersker, threw a cinder bomb at it to kill the nearby Bloodrunner (I may have forgotten to give it the defensive bonus for being engaged), then killed a Slinger with his gun. Everything else worked on clearing infantry, except Kell who put some damage on the Agonizer.

The Berserker then charged a Slinger in order to trigger Overrun, but instead got counter-charged by the Bronzeback (who actually missed his charge attack). After killing the Slinger, I didn't think to trigger Overrun to escape or move something else closer or anything, and instead spent my focus putting a bit of damage on the Bronzeback. Fortunately the jack did not explode. At the end of the turn I scored a point for dominating my flag.

Round 3:
Beanpole was planning to kill the Berserker with the Gladiator and charge the Bronzeback into Torch. However, abysmal rolls mean the Berserker actually survived the attack (thinking back though, I don't remember when the movement system got crippled; it's possible he shouldn't have missed one attack - or maybe he would have, I distinctly remember a double-one for one of his attack rolls). Instead the Titan finished off the Berserker by throwing it at Torch. The rest of his  forces focussed on clearing the zone so Xekaar could move in, feat, and dominate for two. I scored one, tying our scores.

I wasn't going to be able to kill his Titans with a total of -5 STR this turn, so instead I jammed the zones with my Risen and toed the Spriggan into the zone in the forest for extra insurance. Torch got Superiority. I finished off most of his combat infantry, making damn sure to kill the Master Tormentor with a double-boosted Torch spray (I did not need to loose half my Risen to a single MAT 8 Reach Thresher). I scored again, putting me at 3.

Round 4:
Xekaar debuffed the Spriggan, then the Bronzeback got Rush and simply walked through the woods to annihilate it. One Slinger ran to contest my flag. The rest of his army managed to take out all the Risen, allowing him to score two points, bringing him up to four.

Well, I pretty much had no chance of winning by scenario now, so it was time for a last-ditch assassination attempt. A Thrall I had from last turn charged the Bronzeback to stop any counter-charge nonsense. Kell and the Cutthroats shot down the Agonizer, Alexia managed to land an aimed double-boosted handcannon shot on Xekaar, doing a pretty impressive 11 damage which was obviously transferred, leaving the warlock with 2 Fury. Strakhov filled up Torch, cast Overrun on himself, walked up to catch Xekaar in his feat, and just managed to kill the contesting Slinger to walk Torch close enough to Xekaar to get the charge. The assault spray missed but the initials hit. I rolled abysmally for damage; on the five damage dice for the first two attacks I rolled four 1s and a 2. It didn't really matter though, because he only had two transfers left and I had three attacks, which was just enough to finish it.

Xekaar's magical defenses finally failed under Torch's spinning sawblade. He fell back, bleeding heavily, but before Torch could follow up for the kill he sensed his master's mind rapidly growing more distant. Abandoning the Skorne warlock, he ran to keep up with his warcaster.

Kell yelled at Strakhov as he ran past.
"Boss! Where are you going?"
"Isn't it obvious you fool? I'm running away, like we always do!"
"But boss! We won!"

Strakhov came to an abrupt halt.
"What?"
"I said we won! Look!"
Strakhov turned to see the remaining Skorne forces hastily carrying their injured warlock to safety. He scratched his head, confused by this unfamiliar feeling.
"Huh. Well, that's new."

Post-Mortem:
As nice as it is to be able to say that I won my first game of MkIII, it was a very narrow and lucky win, and if Beanpole had thought to reave the Fury from the Agonizer, I would have lost.

Which is a little bit of an annoying thought; a fully-loaded up Torch, with a buff and a free charge, and a bit of help from Alexia, would not have been able to kill the most fragile caster in all of Skorne if my opponent hadn't made a mistake. Basically, the big assassination move that Strakhov is partly built around is just not very useful against Hordes.

If course Strakhov isn't just an assassination caster, and he's probably better at general attrition than he was in MkII. Plus it's not like I didn't make plenty of mistakes myself.

Actually, I felt very rusty going in. I must have spent at least 10 minutes at the start of each turn, if not much more on some turns, just staring at the board trying to figure out what to do. I basically did nothing at all with my Nyss and very little with my snipers for most of the game.

I forgot about the Bronzeback's counter-charge again, then after he used it I just left Torch in his threat range when I could have moved him away (I think I had already activated the Spriggan, though I could have repositioned him with the Overrun move from killing the Slinger if I had thought to), leaving both my main heavies in it's threat range, but just out from contesting the zone - in fact I almost completely forgot about the zone, any models contesting it were there by chance.

I'm wondering if I could have reached Xekaar without killing the Agonizer. Of course, if Torch had Bulldoze then that wouldn't have been a problem. It honestly feels as if the kit that Strakhov wants in his main warjack is split between Torch and the Spriggan: he loves Bulldoze and 2" reach to make sure the jack can get to the target, but he wants the better MAT and Sustained Attack so he's not at the mercy of the dice against high-DEF warnouns (which is pretty much all of them). I would have loved it if they gave Torch Bulldoze; I reckon he needs it far more than Black Ivan does.


Playing Strakhov is so much less painful now that he doesn't constantly find himself lacking the focus he needs to do even simple things. The fact that he can get all his upkeeps out on turn one feels amazing (which is kinda sad; it really shouldn't be that big a deal). Being able to fully load up a warjack and cast Superiority and Overrun on it is so liberating. I love it. To be clear he doesn't feel like he has more focus than he can use or anything, but in this game at least he felt to me like he had exactly enough; every turn I seemed to have the exact amount of focus needed to do what I wanted.

While I missed Poison on the Cutthroats, I do like that they're cheaper and reposition is nice on them; it actual works as a pseudo accuracy buff, as I can afford to aim more often with it. I really wish Croe still had 2" reach on his sword though, it made him much better at jamming.

Man, P+S 18 does not feel like enough when you've got the Agonizer debuffing your STR. I really should have gone after it more aggressively with the Nyss Hunters, as I basically couldn't touch his Titans as long as it was alive. Heh, it's stuff like this that keeps pushing me to build for shooting against Skorne.