God, this year passed so quickly I only realised it was about to end a few days ago. It honestly came as a shock; where the hell did the time go?
Old Resolutions
Bleh.
1. Remember to break problems down
Sure, when I have a problem that's bothering me I've generally gotten used to taking it one small step at a time, which has helped. I mean, I don't always remember to do so, but I think I've gotten better at it. So I guess I can mark this one as a success overall.
2. Center myself regularly
Umm... I haven't been doing this as "regularly" as I should have. I do remember to try at times, but it needs more work.
3. Exercise more
I've been trying. And failing.
4. Eat Better
Pretty sure I've regressed on this front. I've just... not been able to find the time or focus to care about my diet as much as I want to, not even as much I have been in the previous few years.
New Resolutions
So lately I've been feeling even less organised than before. I think one issue is my energy and motivation levels are low. I'm also finding it really hard to start tasks, and I think one reason is that I always feel stressed so I never feel like I have time for anything so I never feel like I can afford to start anything, and instead I just... sit around wasting time on youtube. It's stupid and just makes things worse.
But I'm thinking one thing that I need to do that could really help if I get used to it is setting actual plans, with specific timeslots and that sort of thing. I'm thinking the to-do lists I've been trying to use aren't enough; I tend to approach things too "softly": like, I say "I'll do X after I finish Y, then I'll do Z", but I go so slowly doing Y that it's so late that I don't have much time for X and I realise I have no chance of doing Z. Then I feel stressed and depressed about not finishing.
So maybe if I start writing up my daily to-do lists as actual timetables, eventually I might get used to allocating my time effectively and using it efficiently. So I think that will be my resolution for 2020:
1. Plan my time more accurately and rigidly
I want to do this on the small scale, writing up timetables each day for that day, and being more strict on myself in following them.
I don't want to backslide on my previous resolutions, but I think I need to prioritise this so I'm going to leave it as my only new years resolution this year. Obviously that doesn't mean I wont try to make progress in other areas, but this one needs to stay at the forefront.
God I feel old.
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Friday, December 20, 2019
White And Gold
Two games in one day? Must be because it's... Friday the 13th! Dun dun duuuun!
Game 1
Another intro game against one of our 40K regulars. I shall refer to him as Saint. I pulled out the same lists as the last demo game:
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Kodiak
- Sylyss
Winter Guard Infantry
Butcher 1
- Juggernaut
- Demolisher
- Wardog
Assault Kommandos
Pre-Game:
No scenario. Saint won the roll and chose to go first.
Deployment:
Our infantry faced off on my left, our battlegroups on my right.
Round 1:
I explained the basics of movement, running, and casting spells.
Round 2:
I explained ranged attacks, including aiming. Saint's Assault Kommando shooting took down a lot of my Winter Guard. He ran his Juggernaut right up to my Kodiak.
I demonstrated spending focus to boost attack rolls, and gave a taste of power attacks by throwing his Juggernaut into his Demolisher. My Juggernaut then charged in and finished off his. The Winter Guard charged his AKs, to little effect.
Round 3:
Butcher moved up, feated, and wailed on my Kodiak. The Demolisher did the same to my Juggernaut. One of my jacks survived with a few boxes left (I don't actually remember which one it was right now), but some hot damage rolls on AK shooting under Butcher's feet finished it off, leaving me with no battle group left - and no Winter Guard either!
Sylyss charged the Wardog and actually managed to take it out. Strakhov went in on Butcher, but cold dice meant I only did a little bit of damage
Round 4:
The Demolisher and Butcher took down the Hoff.
Game 2
Speedy's Menoth had just arrived and he was eager to get them on the table, so we played at 50 points. I didn't want to start swapping models around yet so I just added some stuff to my previous list.
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Destroyer
- Berserker
Nyss Hunters
Kell Bailoch
Alexia & the Risen
Widowmaker Marksman
Koldun Lord
Speedy decided to stick with Kreoss 1 for another game, but swapped out the Vanquisher. It seems he quite liked how the Repenter worked last game, so he doubled-down on them this time.
Kreoss 1
- Crusader
- Reckoner
- Repenter x3 (one proxied by MOW)
Cinerators
Choir (min)
Errants (min)
Pre-Game:
We rolled the main rulebook scenario with the single simple circular zone in the center (I think it's the first scenario). I chose the side with the forests and he chose to go second.
Deployment:
Not having any pathfinder on my jacks, I lined up my battlegroup with the gap in between the forests. My Nyss were positioned to my right, with the Risen behind them.
Speedy concentrated the bulk of his forces to my left.
I placed Kell towards my left, but then realised the Marksman would need to be closer to Strakhov to get Sentry.
The Errants deployed behind the forest on their side of the table.
Round 1:
Strakhov put Sentry on the Marksman, Superiority on the Berserker, and Occultation on himself. I then decided I didn't need to charge forwards and just walked, which of course meant that the Marksman didn't need to be that close to Strakhov. I walked the Marksman to the left, but messed up my positioning and ended up out of range of the errants. Nyss Hunters spread out through the forest and trench. The Risen just shuffled forwards, with Alexia creating one Thrall who ran over to my left, hiding behind a swell in the forest. The Berserker ran towards the zone, while the other two jacks ran to keep up.
Defender's Ward went on the Cinerators and Lamentation on Kreoss. The Cinerators advanced, with the jacks behind them with Passage. The Errants consolidated behind the forest defensively.
Round 2:
This round I focussed on taking down the Cinerators. My snipers took out one each, and the Destroyer took down another. I think the Nyss took down a fourth with a 5-man CRA. Alexia created another thrall (proxied by the Wardog) who set up on the hill on my right. His older brother just ran to the center of the zone to be a nuisance.
Kreoss switched Defender's Ward over to the Errants. A Repenter went after my snipers but only killed one, so another Repenter had to move in to take out the other. The Reckoner put damage on my Berserker, lighting him up with Flare. Repenter and Errant shooting killed some Nyss and the Thralldog. I'm not sure what killed the other thrall.
Round 3:
I spent a while planning this round, trying to get into the old Strakhov swing of things. I put Overrun on the Berserker, who walked into the last Cinerator's back arc. Because I was careless he took a free strike from the Cinerator and lost his cortex. Still, he killed the Cinerator and triggered Overrun to walk into the Reckoner. He then Berserked and used his second initial, but I don't remember which jack I put his attacks into.
Strakhov and the Destroyer chipped away at the Crusader with some boosted shooting, then the Juggernaut charged in and finished it off. My Nyss Hunters took a pair of 4-man CRAs into the Errants and whiffed both. A newborn Risen walked in to distract them, while a new Thrall charged into a Reckoner to keep it busy.
Speedy popped Kreoss' feat and did what he could to counter-punch, but somehow my knockdown-immune DEF 13 Berserker survived (with only it's movement intact).
Round 4:
I made a couple of mistakes this round. I dropped Superiority from the Berkserker because I wanted to switch it to the Juggernaut, but there was no reason not to leave it until after the Berserker's activation since it's free for Strakhov to upkeep. I also spent focus on the Juggernaut to shake, even though he didn't move during his activation and I believe casting Superiority on him would have stood him back up anyway.
Regardless, the Berserker flailed ineffectually at the Reckoner with his crippled arms. The Juggernaut got Overrun and Superiority, killed a Revengers and I think an Errant then walked back to safety. The Destroyer stood up and took a shot at the Errants, hitting and killing one thanks to a boosted attack roll.
Alexia popped up some Risen in Errant back arcs, but even a 3-man CRA into the back arc missed. She then converted one into a Thrall, who I believe succeeded in finally taking down the Errant. The Koldun Lord finally got into things by taking out an Errant himself with Brittle Frost.
Last turn I completely forgot to keep something suriveable in the zone, so Speedy set about clearing it. The Reckoner finished of the Berserker, and Errants and Revengers easily the killed the small handful of undead that still contested, earning Speedy a victory point.
Round 5:
With the board now clear enough for me to move around, I loaded up my jacks, popped feat, and put Overrun on the Destroyer. He started off by taking out one of the remaining Repenters (and he actually benefitted from a crit this time, doing an additional 4 damage on one attack - I believe it's the first time this has actually happened to me!) and Overruning into the other, clearing the lane for the Juggernaut.
The Koldun Lord cast Brittle Frost on the Reckoner, then Juggernaut charged in for the kill. A 4-man Risen back-strike CRA once again failed to do anything, and my Nyss Hunters embarrassed themselves as well.
Speedy tried to free up the Errants with Kreoss so they could try to get to Strakhov, but he didn't have enough models left.
Round 6:
My Destroyer took a free strike walking away from the Repenter in order to take a boosted shot and clear off a Choirboy. This opened the path for the Juggernaut to get to Kreoss; with the accuracy buff from Superiority he was able to finish off the old priest.
Post-Mortem:
Saint picked up the rules quite quickly, and appeared to be enjoying himself. He seemed to like the fact that Butcher was a proper beatstick, and played him more aggressively than expected. He commented to the effect that he liked the system well enough, but was not too fond of the model aesthetics. I can see that, a lot of the models have a style that won't work for everyone.
I wonder if I'm playing Strakhov wrong, because I always feel disadvantaged at the start of a game and only start to feel comfortable later when things have cleared out a bit, because that's when I start to feel like I can leverage Strakhov's mobility buffs to take out the models that scare me.
Which is why I feel like Speedy would have been better off throwing his army into me as quickly as possible, rather than keeping his distance and allowing me take his heavies without retaliation. Of course part of that was down to my Berserker doing an unusually good job as a roadblock - Speedy's dice were a little bit cold this game, whereas mine gave me the numbers I needed when I needed them (with the exception of the Nyss activations of course).
This was my first time running the Koldun Lord since the Wolves of Winter CID (actually probably since MkII). Early on I felt he was very vulnerable so I tried to keep him back, by late game I felt comfortable bringing him forwards. In this game I don't think he made much difference and a Warcaster attachment might have made my life easier instead, but landing Brittle Frost on the Reckoner meant my Juggernaut's chances of taking him out went from "pretty good" to "practically guaranteed", so maybe I'll keep him. He'll certainly come in handy if I start facing ARM-buffed heavies again.
Speedy was right to take out my snipers as quickly as possible, because those two would do a lot of work over the course of a game if they were allowed to run free - taking out a Defender's Warded Cinerator each is nothing to sneer at. I screwed up with the Marksman as usual, putting him too close to Kell and letting him die too easily.
His lights didn't do as much work this game - they were on the wrong side of the table to try to kill my infantry, and they don't really hit hard enough to be a problem for my jacks. I think that if he'd focussed them on my infantry (possibly with a much more agressive feat from Kreoss) that might have freed up his Errants to do some work on my jacks - charging weaponmasters are not to be taken lightly. Alternately if he had been more agressive with his heavies he could have used his lights to protect them from my heavies' alpha, trading the lights to get his heavies into mine.
Well, it was a fun game, but a bit of a long one. Speedy was talking about playing at 75 points, but I think after this he might reconsider and stick to 50 just for the convenience.
Game 1
Another intro game against one of our 40K regulars. I shall refer to him as Saint. I pulled out the same lists as the last demo game:
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Kodiak
- Sylyss
Winter Guard Infantry
Butcher 1
- Juggernaut
- Demolisher
- Wardog
Assault Kommandos
Pre-Game:
No scenario. Saint won the roll and chose to go first.
Deployment:
Our infantry faced off on my left, our battlegroups on my right.
Round 1:
I explained the basics of movement, running, and casting spells.
Round 2:
I explained ranged attacks, including aiming. Saint's Assault Kommando shooting took down a lot of my Winter Guard. He ran his Juggernaut right up to my Kodiak.
I demonstrated spending focus to boost attack rolls, and gave a taste of power attacks by throwing his Juggernaut into his Demolisher. My Juggernaut then charged in and finished off his. The Winter Guard charged his AKs, to little effect.
Round 3:
Butcher moved up, feated, and wailed on my Kodiak. The Demolisher did the same to my Juggernaut. One of my jacks survived with a few boxes left (I don't actually remember which one it was right now), but some hot damage rolls on AK shooting under Butcher's feet finished it off, leaving me with no battle group left - and no Winter Guard either!
Sylyss charged the Wardog and actually managed to take it out. Strakhov went in on Butcher, but cold dice meant I only did a little bit of damage
Round 4:
The Demolisher and Butcher took down the Hoff.
Game 2
Speedy's Menoth had just arrived and he was eager to get them on the table, so we played at 50 points. I didn't want to start swapping models around yet so I just added some stuff to my previous list.
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Destroyer
- Berserker
Nyss Hunters
Kell Bailoch
Alexia & the Risen
Widowmaker Marksman
Koldun Lord
Speedy decided to stick with Kreoss 1 for another game, but swapped out the Vanquisher. It seems he quite liked how the Repenter worked last game, so he doubled-down on them this time.
Kreoss 1
- Crusader
- Reckoner
- Repenter x3 (one proxied by MOW)
Cinerators
Choir (min)
Errants (min)
Pre-Game:
We rolled the main rulebook scenario with the single simple circular zone in the center (I think it's the first scenario). I chose the side with the forests and he chose to go second.
Deployment:
Not having any pathfinder on my jacks, I lined up my battlegroup with the gap in between the forests. My Nyss were positioned to my right, with the Risen behind them.
Speedy concentrated the bulk of his forces to my left.
I placed Kell towards my left, but then realised the Marksman would need to be closer to Strakhov to get Sentry.
The Errants deployed behind the forest on their side of the table.
Round 1:
Strakhov put Sentry on the Marksman, Superiority on the Berserker, and Occultation on himself. I then decided I didn't need to charge forwards and just walked, which of course meant that the Marksman didn't need to be that close to Strakhov. I walked the Marksman to the left, but messed up my positioning and ended up out of range of the errants. Nyss Hunters spread out through the forest and trench. The Risen just shuffled forwards, with Alexia creating one Thrall who ran over to my left, hiding behind a swell in the forest. The Berserker ran towards the zone, while the other two jacks ran to keep up.
Defender's Ward went on the Cinerators and Lamentation on Kreoss. The Cinerators advanced, with the jacks behind them with Passage. The Errants consolidated behind the forest defensively.
Round 2:
This round I focussed on taking down the Cinerators. My snipers took out one each, and the Destroyer took down another. I think the Nyss took down a fourth with a 5-man CRA. Alexia created another thrall (proxied by the Wardog) who set up on the hill on my right. His older brother just ran to the center of the zone to be a nuisance.
Kreoss switched Defender's Ward over to the Errants. A Repenter went after my snipers but only killed one, so another Repenter had to move in to take out the other. The Reckoner put damage on my Berserker, lighting him up with Flare. Repenter and Errant shooting killed some Nyss and the Thralldog. I'm not sure what killed the other thrall.
Round 3:
I spent a while planning this round, trying to get into the old Strakhov swing of things. I put Overrun on the Berserker, who walked into the last Cinerator's back arc. Because I was careless he took a free strike from the Cinerator and lost his cortex. Still, he killed the Cinerator and triggered Overrun to walk into the Reckoner. He then Berserked and used his second initial, but I don't remember which jack I put his attacks into.
Strakhov and the Destroyer chipped away at the Crusader with some boosted shooting, then the Juggernaut charged in and finished it off. My Nyss Hunters took a pair of 4-man CRAs into the Errants and whiffed both. A newborn Risen walked in to distract them, while a new Thrall charged into a Reckoner to keep it busy.
Speedy popped Kreoss' feat and did what he could to counter-punch, but somehow my knockdown-immune DEF 13 Berserker survived (with only it's movement intact).
Round 4:
I made a couple of mistakes this round. I dropped Superiority from the Berkserker because I wanted to switch it to the Juggernaut, but there was no reason not to leave it until after the Berserker's activation since it's free for Strakhov to upkeep. I also spent focus on the Juggernaut to shake, even though he didn't move during his activation and I believe casting Superiority on him would have stood him back up anyway.
Regardless, the Berserker flailed ineffectually at the Reckoner with his crippled arms. The Juggernaut got Overrun and Superiority, killed a Revengers and I think an Errant then walked back to safety. The Destroyer stood up and took a shot at the Errants, hitting and killing one thanks to a boosted attack roll.
Alexia popped up some Risen in Errant back arcs, but even a 3-man CRA into the back arc missed. She then converted one into a Thrall, who I believe succeeded in finally taking down the Errant. The Koldun Lord finally got into things by taking out an Errant himself with Brittle Frost.
Last turn I completely forgot to keep something suriveable in the zone, so Speedy set about clearing it. The Reckoner finished of the Berserker, and Errants and Revengers easily the killed the small handful of undead that still contested, earning Speedy a victory point.
Round 5:
With the board now clear enough for me to move around, I loaded up my jacks, popped feat, and put Overrun on the Destroyer. He started off by taking out one of the remaining Repenters (and he actually benefitted from a crit this time, doing an additional 4 damage on one attack - I believe it's the first time this has actually happened to me!) and Overruning into the other, clearing the lane for the Juggernaut.
The Koldun Lord cast Brittle Frost on the Reckoner, then Juggernaut charged in for the kill. A 4-man Risen back-strike CRA once again failed to do anything, and my Nyss Hunters embarrassed themselves as well.
Speedy tried to free up the Errants with Kreoss so they could try to get to Strakhov, but he didn't have enough models left.
Round 6:
My Destroyer took a free strike walking away from the Repenter in order to take a boosted shot and clear off a Choirboy. This opened the path for the Juggernaut to get to Kreoss; with the accuracy buff from Superiority he was able to finish off the old priest.
Post-Mortem:
Saint picked up the rules quite quickly, and appeared to be enjoying himself. He seemed to like the fact that Butcher was a proper beatstick, and played him more aggressively than expected. He commented to the effect that he liked the system well enough, but was not too fond of the model aesthetics. I can see that, a lot of the models have a style that won't work for everyone.
I wonder if I'm playing Strakhov wrong, because I always feel disadvantaged at the start of a game and only start to feel comfortable later when things have cleared out a bit, because that's when I start to feel like I can leverage Strakhov's mobility buffs to take out the models that scare me.
Which is why I feel like Speedy would have been better off throwing his army into me as quickly as possible, rather than keeping his distance and allowing me take his heavies without retaliation. Of course part of that was down to my Berserker doing an unusually good job as a roadblock - Speedy's dice were a little bit cold this game, whereas mine gave me the numbers I needed when I needed them (with the exception of the Nyss activations of course).
This was my first time running the Koldun Lord since the Wolves of Winter CID (actually probably since MkII). Early on I felt he was very vulnerable so I tried to keep him back, by late game I felt comfortable bringing him forwards. In this game I don't think he made much difference and a Warcaster attachment might have made my life easier instead, but landing Brittle Frost on the Reckoner meant my Juggernaut's chances of taking him out went from "pretty good" to "practically guaranteed", so maybe I'll keep him. He'll certainly come in handy if I start facing ARM-buffed heavies again.
Speedy was right to take out my snipers as quickly as possible, because those two would do a lot of work over the course of a game if they were allowed to run free - taking out a Defender's Warded Cinerator each is nothing to sneer at. I screwed up with the Marksman as usual, putting him too close to Kell and letting him die too easily.
His lights didn't do as much work this game - they were on the wrong side of the table to try to kill my infantry, and they don't really hit hard enough to be a problem for my jacks. I think that if he'd focussed them on my infantry (possibly with a much more agressive feat from Kreoss) that might have freed up his Errants to do some work on my jacks - charging weaponmasters are not to be taken lightly. Alternately if he had been more agressive with his heavies he could have used his lights to protect them from my heavies' alpha, trading the lights to get his heavies into mine.
Well, it was a fun game, but a bit of a long one. Speedy was talking about playing at 75 points, but I think after this he might reconsider and stick to 50 just for the convenience.
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Menoth's In The Mail
Got another game in with Speedy. This time we played at 25 points. I ran some of my usual models:
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Destroyer
Nyss Hunters
Kell Bailoch
Speedy is still in the process of acquiring models so we proxied a bunch of my spares:
Kreoss 1 (proxied by Paladin of the Wall)
- Vanquisher (proxied by Demolisher)
- Crusader (proxied by Berserker)
- Repenter (proxied by Sentinel)
Choir of Menoth (proxied by Battle Mechanics)
Cinerators (proxied by MOW, Butcher, and Blasters)
Pre-Game:
We decided not to introduce scenarios yet, and played a basic caster-kill game. I won the roll and chose the side with more forests. Speedy chose to go second.
Deployment:
I deployed my Nyss Hunters to my left, behind a forest. My battlegroup was in the center.
Speedy layered his models, with the Cinerators in front, followed by the jacks, then the Choir, then Kreoss.
Finally I placed Kell forwards, beside the forest on my left.
Round 1:
I put out Superiority on the Juggernaut, Sentry on the Destroyer, and Occultation on Strakhov, who then fail-charged forwards. Everyone else ran forwards. Kell got himself into the forest for Prowl.
Speedy put Defender's Ward on the Cinerators, and Lamentation on Kreoss. Everything advanced. The jacks were given Passage.
Round 2:
The Nyss Hunters spread out. I ran my jacks into the trench. Strakhov tossed a cinder bomb in order to create a cloud; this scattered directly backwards and promptly killed a Nyss Hunter...
Kell advanced slightly and pinged the Vanquisher for 3 damage. I believe the Nyss Hunters and Destroyer both shot at the Cinerators and both failed to do damage, which of course meant they didn't get Vengeance.
The Choir walked forwards and sung Passage. The Cinerators advanced. The Crusader ran into the forest, while the other jacks advanced more cautiously on my right.
Round 3:
I loaded up the Juggernaut and the Destroyer. I believe the Destroyer put two damage on a Cinerator with his Sentry shot. Kell finished off that Cinerator and put three more damage on the Vanquisher. Between a boosted Destroyer shot and some charging Nyss Hunters I believed I killed another two Cinerators.
Then my Juggernaut charged the already-damaged Vanquisher. Needing three's to hit (even without the MAT buff from Superiority), he instantly rolled snake eyes on his charge attack. The fist landed, but the second axe attack ALSO came up double 1s! Finally a crit on the last axe attack left the Vanquisher stationary, but in pretty good health overall.
The Choir handed out Battle. The Vanquisher crippled the Juggernaut's cortex. The Repenter walked forwards and gunned down Kell. The Crusader trampled over some Nyss and bought an attack against another, killing three in total. Between Vengeance and their activation the Cinerators killed a couple more.
Round 4:
I loaded up the Destroyer; his Sentry shot killed three Choirboys, then he charged into the Crusader, crippling his mace. No crits were had unfortunately - my record of NEVER ONCE benefiting from the Destroyer's crit is still intact! Nyss Hunters did... nothing really. The crippled Juggernaut didn't get much done either. Strakhov walked out of the Repenter's charge range and spent four focus to land a couple of double-boosted shots into the Repenter, doing good damage but not crippling anything. I also tossed out a cinder bomb to block the Revenger's LOS to Strakhov, even though I knew there was absolutely no reason to do so.
Kreoss feated, knocking down most everything short of Strakhov himself. The Choir sung Battle. Between a charging Cinerator with a good damage roll, a boosted shot from the Vanquisher, and the Crusader flailing around with his crippled mace, my Destroyer was scrapped. The Juggernaut shared the same fate. Two more Nyss Hunters fell to a Cinerator.
Round 5:
Hail Mary time! Strakhov Feated and cast Overrun from outside of Kreoss' Lamentation range, then charged into a Choirboy, bouncing off and into Kreos himself. After four attacks Kreoss was still alive, so Strakhov Sprinted around to be out of the Vanquisher's threat range, taking seven damage from a freestrike.
Kreoss dropped Defender's Ward. A Vengence attack killed a Nyss Hunter. The Cinerator and the Crusader all whiffed their attacks against Cylena, but the Repenter's aimed boosted shot took her down, finishing off the unit. The Vanquisher turned around and walked towards Strakhov. The Kreoss turned around and started swinging, managing to finish off Strakhov with his last attack.
Post-Mortem:
It was a lot of fun to have a proper Warmachine game again after so long. I was rustier than I expected; I really didn't use Strakhov very well. He often ended up sitting on focus that he could have been using to do something useful, like put out some boosted shooting, simply because I was being too cagey with him, keeping him far back and behind clouds when he would have been completely safe a little bit closer to the action.
Still, I do think I would have won if the Juggernaut hadn't whiffed so epically. I mean, going in against a DEF 10 ARM 19 heavy who had already lost 9 boxes, and he didn't even cripple anything useful? You just can't plan for that. Had he wrecked the Vanquisher I would have had a Juggernaut dangerously close to Kreoss. Plus of course I would have had a huge attrition lead.
The fact that Strakhov still managed to pull off a respectable assassination attempt at the end is pretty cool. In retrospect I'm wondering if I could have avoided taking that freestrike and still stayed out of everything else's threat range? It might have been possible; if so Strakhov might even have managed to survive Kreoss' retaliation (by the thinnest of margins if that), and the finished the job next turn. Not saying it was likely, only I could have improved my chances if I had thought it through better.
Strakhov was actually pretty good against Kreoss I think; fire immunity means he's not too scared of the pop'n'drop and he can bring his own cloud and knockdown-immune jack for added protection, plus Lamentation doesn't affect him nearly as much as it does other casters who depend heavily on spells (whether they be upkeeps or direct casts).
Having said all that, I'm once again feeling Strakhov's lack of any kind of offensive buff. Sure, I can do speed, but my infantry miss more often than I'd like, and my heavies can't reliably take another heavy off the table.
Man, Protectorate heavies are serious business in melee. I mean, a 10 point heavy who's P+S 20? A ranged jack with a P+S 18 chain weapon? That are harder to chip down at range before committing to melee? Yeah, I know, Choir tax. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade our jacks for theirs (what proud Khadoran would?), but you sure as hell can't take them lightly! I mean, even buying attacks with a crippled mace, the Crusader did a big chunk of damage to my (knocked down) ARM 20 Destroyer.
Cinerators don't sound like a big deal on paper, but Vengeance is a bigger deal than I initially thought it was. I reckon I can deal with it of course, I just need to get used to it.
Anyway, getting a couple of games in has made me excited about Warmachine in a way that I haven't been in a while. I'm enjoying it right now, just have to make sure I don't get carried away and buy a bunch of models that I'll never actually get to use...
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Destroyer
Nyss Hunters
Kell Bailoch
Speedy is still in the process of acquiring models so we proxied a bunch of my spares:
Kreoss 1 (proxied by Paladin of the Wall)
- Vanquisher (proxied by Demolisher)
- Crusader (proxied by Berserker)
- Repenter (proxied by Sentinel)
Choir of Menoth (proxied by Battle Mechanics)
Cinerators (proxied by MOW, Butcher, and Blasters)
Pre-Game:
We decided not to introduce scenarios yet, and played a basic caster-kill game. I won the roll and chose the side with more forests. Speedy chose to go second.
Deployment:
I deployed my Nyss Hunters to my left, behind a forest. My battlegroup was in the center.
Speedy layered his models, with the Cinerators in front, followed by the jacks, then the Choir, then Kreoss.
Finally I placed Kell forwards, beside the forest on my left.
Round 1:
I put out Superiority on the Juggernaut, Sentry on the Destroyer, and Occultation on Strakhov, who then fail-charged forwards. Everyone else ran forwards. Kell got himself into the forest for Prowl.
Speedy put Defender's Ward on the Cinerators, and Lamentation on Kreoss. Everything advanced. The jacks were given Passage.
Round 2:
The Nyss Hunters spread out. I ran my jacks into the trench. Strakhov tossed a cinder bomb in order to create a cloud; this scattered directly backwards and promptly killed a Nyss Hunter...
Kell advanced slightly and pinged the Vanquisher for 3 damage. I believe the Nyss Hunters and Destroyer both shot at the Cinerators and both failed to do damage, which of course meant they didn't get Vengeance.
The Choir walked forwards and sung Passage. The Cinerators advanced. The Crusader ran into the forest, while the other jacks advanced more cautiously on my right.
Round 3:
I loaded up the Juggernaut and the Destroyer. I believe the Destroyer put two damage on a Cinerator with his Sentry shot. Kell finished off that Cinerator and put three more damage on the Vanquisher. Between a boosted Destroyer shot and some charging Nyss Hunters I believed I killed another two Cinerators.
Then my Juggernaut charged the already-damaged Vanquisher. Needing three's to hit (even without the MAT buff from Superiority), he instantly rolled snake eyes on his charge attack. The fist landed, but the second axe attack ALSO came up double 1s! Finally a crit on the last axe attack left the Vanquisher stationary, but in pretty good health overall.
The Choir handed out Battle. The Vanquisher crippled the Juggernaut's cortex. The Repenter walked forwards and gunned down Kell. The Crusader trampled over some Nyss and bought an attack against another, killing three in total. Between Vengeance and their activation the Cinerators killed a couple more.
Round 4:
I loaded up the Destroyer; his Sentry shot killed three Choirboys, then he charged into the Crusader, crippling his mace. No crits were had unfortunately - my record of NEVER ONCE benefiting from the Destroyer's crit is still intact! Nyss Hunters did... nothing really. The crippled Juggernaut didn't get much done either. Strakhov walked out of the Repenter's charge range and spent four focus to land a couple of double-boosted shots into the Repenter, doing good damage but not crippling anything. I also tossed out a cinder bomb to block the Revenger's LOS to Strakhov, even though I knew there was absolutely no reason to do so.
Kreoss feated, knocking down most everything short of Strakhov himself. The Choir sung Battle. Between a charging Cinerator with a good damage roll, a boosted shot from the Vanquisher, and the Crusader flailing around with his crippled mace, my Destroyer was scrapped. The Juggernaut shared the same fate. Two more Nyss Hunters fell to a Cinerator.
Round 5:
Hail Mary time! Strakhov Feated and cast Overrun from outside of Kreoss' Lamentation range, then charged into a Choirboy, bouncing off and into Kreos himself. After four attacks Kreoss was still alive, so Strakhov Sprinted around to be out of the Vanquisher's threat range, taking seven damage from a freestrike.
Kreoss dropped Defender's Ward. A Vengence attack killed a Nyss Hunter. The Cinerator and the Crusader all whiffed their attacks against Cylena, but the Repenter's aimed boosted shot took her down, finishing off the unit. The Vanquisher turned around and walked towards Strakhov. The Kreoss turned around and started swinging, managing to finish off Strakhov with his last attack.
Post-Mortem:
It was a lot of fun to have a proper Warmachine game again after so long. I was rustier than I expected; I really didn't use Strakhov very well. He often ended up sitting on focus that he could have been using to do something useful, like put out some boosted shooting, simply because I was being too cagey with him, keeping him far back and behind clouds when he would have been completely safe a little bit closer to the action.
Still, I do think I would have won if the Juggernaut hadn't whiffed so epically. I mean, going in against a DEF 10 ARM 19 heavy who had already lost 9 boxes, and he didn't even cripple anything useful? You just can't plan for that. Had he wrecked the Vanquisher I would have had a Juggernaut dangerously close to Kreoss. Plus of course I would have had a huge attrition lead.
The fact that Strakhov still managed to pull off a respectable assassination attempt at the end is pretty cool. In retrospect I'm wondering if I could have avoided taking that freestrike and still stayed out of everything else's threat range? It might have been possible; if so Strakhov might even have managed to survive Kreoss' retaliation (by the thinnest of margins if that), and the finished the job next turn. Not saying it was likely, only I could have improved my chances if I had thought it through better.
Strakhov was actually pretty good against Kreoss I think; fire immunity means he's not too scared of the pop'n'drop and he can bring his own cloud and knockdown-immune jack for added protection, plus Lamentation doesn't affect him nearly as much as it does other casters who depend heavily on spells (whether they be upkeeps or direct casts).
Having said all that, I'm once again feeling Strakhov's lack of any kind of offensive buff. Sure, I can do speed, but my infantry miss more often than I'd like, and my heavies can't reliably take another heavy off the table.
Man, Protectorate heavies are serious business in melee. I mean, a 10 point heavy who's P+S 20? A ranged jack with a P+S 18 chain weapon? That are harder to chip down at range before committing to melee? Yeah, I know, Choir tax. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade our jacks for theirs (what proud Khadoran would?), but you sure as hell can't take them lightly! I mean, even buying attacks with a crippled mace, the Crusader did a big chunk of damage to my (knocked down) ARM 20 Destroyer.
Cinerators don't sound like a big deal on paper, but Vengeance is a bigger deal than I initially thought it was. I reckon I can deal with it of course, I just need to get used to it.
Anyway, getting a couple of games in has made me excited about Warmachine in a way that I haven't been in a while. I'm enjoying it right now, just have to make sure I don't get carried away and buy a bunch of models that I'll never actually get to use...
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Proxying Khador Infantry
Warmachine has been pretty much dead around these parts - my last game was over a year ago. Although to be fair it was never particularly lively to begin with. We have started to build up a 40K community, but as many of the players are new to wargaming they are not so heavily invested in 40K as to be unwilling to try other games.
One such newcomer, who I shall call "Speedy" (because he builds up his armies much more quickly than I do), shared my interest in Infinity. After a few games from the Operation Icestorm set, we weren't sold on the game. I do think the miniatures are amazing, but there's something about the game that I'm struggling with a little. I feel it's more grounded that Warmachine, but I don't feel as if there's as much interaction between the models in your army.
Regardless, at some point while talking games Speedy agreed to try a game of Warmachine. After some deliberation I put together a simple list for him that would introduce the basics and demonstrate how a Warcaster enables his army:
Butcher 1
- Juggernaut
- Demolisher
- Wardog
Assault Kommandos (max)(proxied by Cutthroats)
While I ran a trickier list to try to show a bit more of the depth of the game:
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Kodiak
- Sylyss
Winter Guard Infantry (max)(proxied by Nyss Hunters)
Pre-Game:
Speedy won the roll and chose to go first. I picked the side with more forests. It was a simple caster-kill game.
Deployment:
To speed things up we set the deployment line at 12". We pretty much faced off our infantry and warjacks across from each other.
Round 1:
Speedy ran his jacks and started moving his infantry into the trench for protection. Fury went on the Demolisher and Iron Flesh on the infantry.
I gave the Kodiak got superiority but didn't run it too far so it wouldn't outpace the rest of my list. I put Occultation on Sylyss.
Round 2:
Speedy pushed forwards with his jacks while his AKs started thinning out the Winterguard.
I charged the Kodiak into the Juggernaut and chucked it into the Demolisher, knocking down both jacks. The Winter Guard charged the AKs.
Round 3:
The jacks shook knockdown. Butcher popped feat and took a Blunderbuss shot at my Kodiak, doing very respectable damage. His Juggernaut then finished the job. The Demolisher charged my Juggernaut and crippled his axe arm, but couldn't finish the job after having to spend focus to shake. With aimed shots the AKs took out most of the Winterguard.
Strakhov walked up to get range on Butcher; the Wardog countercharged but whiffed his attack and withdrew, denying me an Overrun target. So all I could do was try to kill Butcher with a couple of gunshots and a Ram. It wasn't enough. My Juggernaut did some damage to the Demolisher and a Winterguard trooper died to a freestrike.
Round 4:
The Demolisher finished off my Juggernaut, then Speedy's Juggernaut killed Strakhov with a pair of boosted attacks.
Post-Mortem:
Obviously I should have been more aggressive with my jacks, but I was more concerned with demonstrating power attacks. I didn't exactly do a great job of describing the game rules, but still Speedy got the hang of it quickly enough. Although I did have to be a bit pushy in some instances in order to demonstrate specific things that I wanted him to understand, Speedy still seemed to enjoy the game; enough to want to play it again anyway. As for myself, I really enjoyed pulling out my Khador and putting the Hoff in action.
It would be nice if Warmachine would pick up around here again, but if not we can always go back to Infinity.
One such newcomer, who I shall call "Speedy" (because he builds up his armies much more quickly than I do), shared my interest in Infinity. After a few games from the Operation Icestorm set, we weren't sold on the game. I do think the miniatures are amazing, but there's something about the game that I'm struggling with a little. I feel it's more grounded that Warmachine, but I don't feel as if there's as much interaction between the models in your army.
Regardless, at some point while talking games Speedy agreed to try a game of Warmachine. After some deliberation I put together a simple list for him that would introduce the basics and demonstrate how a Warcaster enables his army:
Butcher 1
- Juggernaut
- Demolisher
- Wardog
Assault Kommandos (max)(proxied by Cutthroats)
While I ran a trickier list to try to show a bit more of the depth of the game:
Strakhov 1
- Juggernaut
- Kodiak
- Sylyss
Winter Guard Infantry (max)(proxied by Nyss Hunters)
Pre-Game:
Speedy won the roll and chose to go first. I picked the side with more forests. It was a simple caster-kill game.
Deployment:
To speed things up we set the deployment line at 12". We pretty much faced off our infantry and warjacks across from each other.
Round 1:
Speedy ran his jacks and started moving his infantry into the trench for protection. Fury went on the Demolisher and Iron Flesh on the infantry.
I gave the Kodiak got superiority but didn't run it too far so it wouldn't outpace the rest of my list. I put Occultation on Sylyss.
Round 2:
Speedy pushed forwards with his jacks while his AKs started thinning out the Winterguard.
I charged the Kodiak into the Juggernaut and chucked it into the Demolisher, knocking down both jacks. The Winter Guard charged the AKs.
Round 3:
The jacks shook knockdown. Butcher popped feat and took a Blunderbuss shot at my Kodiak, doing very respectable damage. His Juggernaut then finished the job. The Demolisher charged my Juggernaut and crippled his axe arm, but couldn't finish the job after having to spend focus to shake. With aimed shots the AKs took out most of the Winterguard.
Strakhov walked up to get range on Butcher; the Wardog countercharged but whiffed his attack and withdrew, denying me an Overrun target. So all I could do was try to kill Butcher with a couple of gunshots and a Ram. It wasn't enough. My Juggernaut did some damage to the Demolisher and a Winterguard trooper died to a freestrike.
Round 4:
The Demolisher finished off my Juggernaut, then Speedy's Juggernaut killed Strakhov with a pair of boosted attacks.
Post-Mortem:
Obviously I should have been more aggressive with my jacks, but I was more concerned with demonstrating power attacks. I didn't exactly do a great job of describing the game rules, but still Speedy got the hang of it quickly enough. Although I did have to be a bit pushy in some instances in order to demonstrate specific things that I wanted him to understand, Speedy still seemed to enjoy the game; enough to want to play it again anyway. As for myself, I really enjoyed pulling out my Khador and putting the Hoff in action.
It would be nice if Warmachine would pick up around here again, but if not we can always go back to Infinity.
Monday, December 2, 2019
Entering The Undercity... Again...
We roped in another friend to join us in the Undercity, so we decided to start over. This time we played one character each; I stuck with Pog & Doorstop, my friend from the previous game stuck with Canice, and our new challenger picked Gardek.
The game did feel more challenging with three heroes than four; we did not come out the end as unscathed as we did last time. However we also walked away with more experience each; enough to actually buy some upgrades this time.
 |
| We soon realised that holding the spawn doors meant the enemies didn't get to boost. |
 |
| The boss went straight for Canice, but she replied by taking two of his wounds, after which Gardek finished him off. |
The game did feel more challenging with three heroes than four; we did not come out the end as unscathed as we did last time. However we also walked away with more experience each; enough to actually buy some upgrades this time.
Sunday, December 1, 2019
Entering The Undercity
I've been curious about the Iron Kingdoms boardgames, wondering how close it played to Warmachine. I picked up The Undercity, figuring that if nothing else I was getting two Freebooters out of it - after all, I do love Freebooters.
Well, I finally had my first game. The rules were actually a lot simpler to understand than some boardgames I've played; I'm not sure how much of that is simply due to my familiarity with it's Warmachine DNA, how much is thanks to well written rules, and how much is down to it really not being all that complicated.
Anyway, there were two of us so I picked Milo, Pog and Doorstop, while my friend played Canice and Gardek.
Personally I thought the game was a bit simplistic; there was very little movement and the players don't seem to need to make that many decisions. However that might just be because it's only the first chapter; perhaps later chapters will require more involved decision making.
Nevertheless it was fun. The enemy spawning system is interesting because it means you never really run out of enemies, but the enemy activation system means even being outnumbered - while disadvantageous - is not overwhelming. The hero abilities and Feat cards system means the heroes feel powerful and there's always things you can do, options you can take, but the balanced stats mean that you don't feel too powerful - at least not from the start - because you do miss attacks and you do get hit and take damage. I also expect the game to get more exciting as the difficulty ramps up.
I'm a little concerned that there's only 7 chapters (iirc); it feels a bit of a waste to play though the campaign once then put the game away, and I don't feel that I would be tempted to replay the same campaign. I'm hoping I would be able to find some homebrew missions if I looked around online though, so the game might have more legs than it initially appears to.
Well, I finally had my first game. The rules were actually a lot simpler to understand than some boardgames I've played; I'm not sure how much of that is simply due to my familiarity with it's Warmachine DNA, how much is thanks to well written rules, and how much is down to it really not being all that complicated.
Anyway, there were two of us so I picked Milo, Pog and Doorstop, while my friend played Canice and Gardek.
 |
| Ch. 1 initial setup. |
 |
| Doorstop went in aggressively right out of the gate, taking damage to confirm kills. |
 |
| Gardek was not far behind though. |
 |
| Building up some early momentum. |
 |
| Canice quickly knocked the boss for two damage, and Doorstop finished the job. |
 |
| All characters ended the chapter in the peak of health. |
 |
| But with only five experience each we decided to hold off buying any upgrades. |
Personally I thought the game was a bit simplistic; there was very little movement and the players don't seem to need to make that many decisions. However that might just be because it's only the first chapter; perhaps later chapters will require more involved decision making.
Nevertheless it was fun. The enemy spawning system is interesting because it means you never really run out of enemies, but the enemy activation system means even being outnumbered - while disadvantageous - is not overwhelming. The hero abilities and Feat cards system means the heroes feel powerful and there's always things you can do, options you can take, but the balanced stats mean that you don't feel too powerful - at least not from the start - because you do miss attacks and you do get hit and take damage. I also expect the game to get more exciting as the difficulty ramps up.
I'm a little concerned that there's only 7 chapters (iirc); it feels a bit of a waste to play though the campaign once then put the game away, and I don't feel that I would be tempted to replay the same campaign. I'm hoping I would be able to find some homebrew missions if I looked around online though, so the game might have more legs than it initially appears to.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Defender Z... I mean X
Holy crap, this guy was far more trouble than he should have been. Mostly my fault, you understand: the model itself is pretty nice and the cast was pretty good. But I do have a tendency to make things harder for myself than they need to be, for that and other reasons I ran into a LOT of trouble with this one.
First of all I decided that I really like the "rocket fist" from the official PP artwork:
So I took some photos of the arms from various angles (once PP sent them to me... they were not included in the box originally... like I said, lots of issues with this one) and spent a good chunk of time trying to duplicate them in Blender. Now I'm not much of a 3D artist, but I'm not a complete newbie either, so eventually I ended up with something passable that looked good enough when printed out:
 |
| My printed arm above, original below. |
The actual flames were another issue. After some fiddling around with meshes I eventually ended up with something that I was reasonably happy with:
The next issue was the colour scheme. I definitely wanted to base the colours on one of the robot anime from my youth. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but the major parts of Defender X map surprisingly closely to one of the incarnations of Mazinger Z; based on the name I suspect perhaps not. Even small details on the head map quite well: just look at Mazinger's red pilot module in between the silver protective wings and compare it to the structure of Defender's head.
Initially I used a black gloss primer to help hide the print lines. I decided this was a good opportunity to try to zenithal highlighting for the first time with my new airbrush, so I layered on some lighter greys from progressively higher angles. Which amounted to nothing really as my basecoats were far too thick and solid for those gradients to have any effect.
I started painting the model using normal paints, but after applying several of the basecoats I decided to switch to the new coloured metallic paints I had recently received from Green Stuff World. These paints were lighter and had less saturated colour than I would have liked however, so I ran some tests on some test models and decided that I could add saturation using my Badger Minitaire Ghost Paints.
Unfortunately things didn't work as smoothly as I had hoped: the Badger Minitaire tints did not sit evenly across the surfaces and created some very ugly effects. Eventually I resigned myself to reapplying the metal basecoats, and living with the fact that the colours weren't quite what I wanted.
The next issue was the flames. After a test run on a spare printed arm, I settled on my colours. I was trying to get a smooth blend, and ended up using a LOT of shades: I think I spent around seven or eight hours painting the flames and glowing areas of the model. Even with all that, the flames aren't as good as I had hoped. I think this is because I didn't have the courage to try to paint cast glows onto the surrounding metals, and also because the model as a whole is quite bright (unavoidably so as mentioned above).
Once that was done it was time for shading and highlighting. Which took absolutely AGES. Seriously, look at those legs: look how many recesses and edges there are. I'm pretty sure I spent at least four hours highlighting just the blue parts of the legs.
Seriously, this model was EXHAUSTING. Thankfully it looks pretty decent now that it's done. Still, seeing as my plan is to get two minimum armies painted before I actually start playing the game, I really need to try to work faster.
Colours:
Primer: Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black
Blue:
Basecoat: Green Stuff World 1872 Metal Color Neptunus Blue
Shade: Citadel Glaze Guilliman Blue
Highlight: Neptunus Blue + Scalecolor SC-66 Speedd Metal
Red:
Basecoat: Green Stuff World 1874 Metal Color Caesar Red
Shade: The Army Painter Quickshade Washes Strong Tone
Highlight: Caesar Red + Scalecolor SC-66 Speedd Metal
Brass:
Basecoat: Citadel Layer Doombull Brown
Shade: The Army Painter Quickshade Washes Strong Tone
Highlight: Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold
Steel:
Basecoat: The Army Painter Warpaints Gun Metal
Shade: The Army Painter Quickshade Washes Dark Tone
Highlight: Vallejo 72.052 Game Color Silver
Black:
Basecoat: Vallejo 71.073 Model Air Metallic Black
Shade: Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black
Highlight: The Army Painter Warpaints Gun Metal
Flames & glows:
Vallejo 70.960 Model Color Violet
1:1 Model Color Violet : Game Air Gory Red
Vallejo 72.711 Game Air Gory Red
Vallejo 72.710 Game Air Bloody Red
Vallejo 72.709 Game Air Hot Orange
Vallejo 72.708 Game Air Orange Fire
Vallejo 72.706 Game Air Sun Yellow
Vallejo 72.707 Game Air Gold Yellow
Vallejo 72.705 Game Air Moon Yellow
Formula P3 Morrow White glazed with Badger Minitaire D6-170 Ghost Tint Yellow
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