Striders complete, next set ordered

So I've been using the Striders all week, but finally got around to finishing them today. Here they are, in all their infantry killing glory:

The one in the center is the main unit commander, and the one in the back is the musician. The one in the bottom left is technically the unit attachment officer, but I think I'm going to designate the lower right one my officer - his dynamic pose and sword make him stand out more.

In other exciting news, I ordered a full batch of Warmongers, Rhyas and a Nephilim Soldier today. They should help round out my army to 50 points for now, though I'm still waiting on the Blackfrost Shard!

Plug for a friend's blog

Another guy in my gaming group is starting up a blog, focused mainly on painting and modeling. I highly advice you check it out - he used to work for Privateer sculpting, and currently makes his own bases. The link is in the new gadget on the right: paintamini.blogspot.com.

Game 6: vs Khador

One of the awesome things about going to multiple game stores is how many games I'm getting in - I'm planning to try another one today, so maybe 3 games this week! Interestingly enough, this one was also against Khador, against another jack-heavy list:

Zerkova
Kodiak
Kodiak
Devestator
Full Man-o-War Shock Troopers
Min Winterguard w/ 2 Rocketeers

While technically he has one less jack, the Man-o-Wars have armor 21 in shield wall, making it just as tough a nut to crack. I went with my same list as before:

Epic Thagrosh
Carnivean
Seraph
3 Shredders
Striders + UA
Forsaken

I won the roll and opted to go first.

Legion Deployment
Once again, I placed all my guys in the center with Thagrosh behind them. It seems like deployment doesn't really matter that much, at least at this point level - no one gets attacked the first turn, so you'll always have a round of maneuvering before you engage.

Khador Deployment
Similarly, he places his jacks in the center, leaving the Winter Guard to the right and the Man-o-Wars in between them. Zerkova goes behind the jacks.

Legion Advanced Deployment
The Striders deploy to up on the right, hoping to take out the Winter Guard and then take back shots at the Man-o-Wars, getting around that 21 ARM.

Legion Turn 1
Everything runs forward, and I slipstream Thagrosh and the Carnivean up for extra range. Thagrosh also casts Dragon Blood on the Carnivean - I figure the extra armor will come in handy trying to plow through this many jacks. The Striders keep their run short so they still benefit from stealth, but I waste the reform move sliding them towards the center and leaving them in a close formation.

Khador Turn 1
His Kodiaks run forward, while the Devestator advances more cautiously behind along side the Man-o-Wars, who walk to preserve their shield wall. The Winter Guard move onto the hill between them and the Striders, and the two rocketeers fire. The first shot deviates really well, catching 5 Striders in the blast, but he only manages to kill 1 despite needing just a 6 or better! The second shot catches one other Strider and takes him out. Zerkova casts Typhoon at them but is well out of range, and the deviation puts the cloud on the forest. She then casts Watcher to give herself a little protection.

Legion Turn 2
This is where I threw everything away last time, so I'm gonna play it by the book and see how it turns out. I upkeep Dragon Blood and activate Thagrosh, casting Manifest Destiny and the Spiny Growth on the Carnivean before popping his feat. I then start activating my Shredders, making them Rabid and charging them into the left Kodiak and managing to do a decent amount of damage. The Seraph then moves up in front of Thagrosh, slipstreaming the Carnivean forward before unleashing a barrage of shots against the right Kodiak. Between boosting the damage rolls and Manifest Destiny, I seriously damage it, though its systems are all still intact. I Rabid the last Shredder and charge it at him before charging my Carnivean into the left Kodiak (it was in better shape than the other one), and I buy attacks until nothing is left but a smoldering wreck. The Forsaken moves up to pull the fury off the Seraph, and the Spell Martyrs run up in case they are needed. The Striders move on top of the hill and open fire on the Winter Guard, bringing them down to just 3 members. I end my main turn and move on to my feat, sending the Carnivean and one Shredder at the remaining Kodiak and taking out the legs and one arm. No more Smash & Grab! The last Shredder goes after the Devestator, hoping to slow it down. Mostly the Shredders are positioned to keep anything from getting to my Carnivean.

Khador Turn 2
Seeing his army in ruins, my opponent first moves Zerkova up and uses her feat, then casts Force Bubble to move the Shredders away from the Devestator, who moves into base-to-base with the Carnivean and two Shredders and uses Rain of Death, seriously hurting the Shredders but not even denting the Carnivean. The Man-o-Wars then move in and clean up the Shredders. They try to hurt the Carnivean, but with the Kodiak parked in the way, only one manages to hit him. The Winter Guard charge the Striders, but are unable to hit Defense 15.

Legion Turn 3
Thagrosh moves up and casts Manifest Destiny, then the Seraph casts slipstream and charges the Kodiak, pulling the Carnivean out of combat in the process. My opponent then realizes hes in walking distance of Zerkova, though for good measure I fully force the Seraph so it takes out the Kodiak first. The Carnivean then walks over to Zerkova and eats her with a few boosted attack rolls.

Aftermath
After the thrashing I received yesterday against a very similar list, winning this one felt good - it means I'm learning from my mistakes, and my list can do better if I just play better. As always, the Carnivean is an absolute beast, shredding one Kodiak and seriously injuring another. Manifest Destiny is also pretty excellent, helping even out bad die rolls and making sure random luck goes your way more often. I'm a bit sad that a monstrous warlock like Thagrosh ends up leading from the back, but I guess its comforting to know if the Carnivean ever bites the dust I have another heavy hitter who can finish the job. I'm still trying to figure the Striders out. I definitely want to keep them more spread out to keep blasts from wrecking them, and I think the easiest way to do that is using their reform movement.

Game 5: vs Khador

One cool thing I've noticed about the new store I go to is how easy it is to get games in. Maybe its just the crowd is more experienced, but while at Dragon's Lair I struggle to get one game in 3 hours, at Gamma Ray Games I've been able to get them in under an hour. One of them happened yesterday, against a Khador player who is also the guy running Blighted Shadows at the store. I finally have 35 points, so thats what we played at. Here's what he brought:

Prime Butcher of Khardov
Kodiak
Juggernaught
Devestator
Behemoth
Battle Mechaniks
Koldun Lord

Wow, thats a ton of jacks! I think my best shot here is to go for assassination, since while my Carnivean can take down maybe 2 of them, once he's gone I'm pretty much out of options. I decided to try out Thagrosh this time, so here is the list I played:

Epic Thagrosh
Carnivean
Seraph
3 Shredders
Striders + UA
Forsaken
2 Spell Martyrs

I won the roll to go first, and opted to do so.

Legion Deployment
Pretty much everything went in the middle, with the Heavy Warbeasts taking the center, Thagrosh behind them, and the smaller guys around them. The Striders advanced deployed far up the right side.

Khador Deployment
He basically built a wall with his jacks, putting his Mechaniks and Butcher behind them. Times like these I with I had a Ragavore!

Legion Turn 1
The Striders run up the right side hoping to get a shot on the Mechaniks next turn. Thagrosh casts Dragon's Blood on the Carnivean and Unnatural Aggression on one of the Shredders, then moves up. Everything else runs forward.

Khador Turn 1
Almost everything runs forward, sticking to the brick formation. The Butcher moves around to the left to avoid getting shot at by the Striders and casts Iron Flesh on himself. The Behemoth tries to take a shot at the Striders, but due to deviation only hits 1.

Legion Turn 2
Deciding to try for the assassination, I run one of the Spell Martyrs towards the Butcher and try to arc Scourge through it. Sadly I was a little overcautious in running him forward, so when it misses it deviates so he's out of range. The Seraph takes a few shots at the Juggernaught, then a Shredder charges in to deal a bit more damage, sadly failing to cripple any systems. The Carnivean then charges the Kodiak, tearing it to pieces. The Striders move up and manage to kill 2 of the Mechaniks, and the rest of my force repositions.

Khador Turn 2
My opponent activates Full Throttle and his Feat, and pretty much ends the game. The Butcher carves up the Carnivean, the Behemoth lands a blast on the Striders taking almost all of them out, the Juggernaught tramples the Shredder hes engaged with, killing it and moving on to another one, and the Devestator tears the Seraph apart. At this point with pretty much just my Warlock vs 3 heavies I surrender.

Aftermath
Ouch, by far my worst game. Looking back, I played Thagrosh incredibly poorly. I should have just activated Manifest Destiny and my feat, using the Carnivean and Shredders to try to take down 2 of the Heavies, the held up the rest with Shredders. Since Thagrosh himself has P+S 18 and reach, I'm pretty sure he could have cleared the other two using my beasts to guard him, and the Striders and Forsaken could have mopped up the Butcher. Still, not a great list to play against given my Seraph and Striders aren't very effective against heavies. Makes me wish for Warmongers, since they have the power to take on heavies, and with cleave they are still a threat to infantry.

Hot elf chick stripping

One slight downside to buying my initial models used is the previous owner had assembled and started painting them. While this wasn't a problem for most as they were just primed, Saeryn was actually fully painted, in a color scheme I wasn't particularly fond of. Here's a picture of her:

While the armor is ok, I really disliked the flesh skin tone. On the bright side, it gave me an opportunity to try something else I've never done: stripping the paint off a model. I looked online and found several suggestions, but the easiest seemed to be Pine-Sol. I first tried the recommended half Pine-Sol half water mix, but didn't find that effective enough, so I switched it up to pure Pine-Sol. I'm pretty happy with the results:

I used a soft bristle toothbrush to help scrub the paint off after the Pine-Sol soak, and managed to get nearly all of it, barring a few hard to reach crevasses. It was really interesting to watch - the primer layer seemed to just peel off, kind of an eerie effect. While there is a little bit I couldn't remove, I plan to press forward and try priming her along with Thagrosh and the Striders, once they are all assembled.

Painting Spell Martyrs and new model assembled

While waiting for a game this week, I started painting my Spell Martyrs. Unfortunately, I'm not very happy with how they came out, but here are the pics anyway:

I don't really like how the skin turned out - I'm going to try to pick up a grey and match that with white hair on my last one. On the bright side, I did learn a few cool things. Radiant Platinum came out much better than I had expected. It seems really watery when painting, but put enough layers on and it comes out really nice when it dries. It also looks great on areas that are supposed to be cloth - its a bit small in the pictures but if you look between the legs of the 2nd Martyr you can see some of it. I think I'll use that for the cloaks on my Striders. Finally, if you put a light layer of Radiant Platinum over Thamar Black, it picks up the reflective flecks, making it seem like a very dark silver. It looks really evil, and I can't wait to try it out on some weapons!

I also got the first of my new models assembled. Time to meet my newest warlock, Thagrosh the Messiah:

This guy really is a beast! Here he is next to my Carnivean so you can get a sense of just how titanic he is:

Thagrosh was a real pain to assemble - trying to get all 3 limbs to touch the ground was really tough, and several times I thought I had it, but ended up having to pull them off and start over. I'm really glad he's done though. Next up, Striders!

Another unfinished battle

Yesterday I was back at my normal store, though this time, we had several new players. One was an old hand with a circle army, and another was a Khador newbie. The guy who taught us to play wanted to try out a tournament list of his, so he played against the Circle player, while another regular joined forces with the Khador newbie to battle against myself and the Cygnar player whose normally my opponent! Sadly we weren't only about halfway in when the store closed, so once again, I'll post highlights:

-We were playing Saeryn and Haley vs. pVlad and Zerkova. We won the first turn, and promptly slid to the right, trying to bring both our armies to bear against Zerkova while avoiding Vlad. Since I started on the right side, this mean Haley and Zerkova found themselves in the middle, dishing out and taking the worst of it!
-After so many games against Cygnar, it was crazy to play on a team with them! The Charger was just a devastating as I remember, and with a Journeyman Warcaster marshalling it, it had the full 3 focus every turn. It almost managed to take out Zerkova in one activation, and would have on average rolls
-Zerkova is a casting beast, able to target any units within her control and boosting the range of spells. Haley tried to move up so Temporal Barrier would get Zerkova and the 2 Kodiaks next to her, but this put her in range of Zerkova, who nearly took her out with a barrage of spells.
-The Seraph takes MVP, since after the Charger failed to take Zerkova down, it moved up and blew her to firey little bits. I'm still trying to get used to how powerful it is - its shooting has always been top notch, and the animus is incredible, but it can also mix it up well in melee.

We called the game a draw since Haley was about to get stomped and Zerkova had just been wrecked, while my army and the new Khador player's army untouched. Still I'm confident we would've gotten another turn out of Haley, which would have probably sealed the game in our favor!

Warmachine Army Musings

One book I have been looking for lately was Hordes Primal MkII, partially so that I had a reference for all the game rules, but also so I could read some of the stories. By a stroke of luck, my regular gaming store got a copy in, so I spent some time today reading through it. The main thing that gripped my attention was the history - it was written by Magnus, and portrayed him in a very different light than I expected. He seemed more like a jaded old warrior who understood his country's survival required leaders to make difficult, damning choices rather than a mindless supporter of a tyrannical despot. He seems a lot more like a caster I would want to play, except I just discovered another player that plays him (see the battle report from yesterday). I flipped through his list and found it to be pretty shallow - I would most likely be running the same Warjacks as my friend, as well as similar solos. The infantry would be a little different, but close enough that it would feel like I was playing the same army, which is not something I want.

On the upside, reading through Mercenary lists gave me an idea for another army: a sort of travelling circus, stuffing in as many different characters as I could. The only problem with this idea is who to lead it? The options quickly whittled down to Magnus, Drake McBain, and Ashlynn, as the Dwarves seemed limited to Searforge jacks and units, and the Pirates work best with Sea Dogs and Press Gangers. I've got some Retribution lists from last time I thought about playing a WM army, so I'll try to put a circus list and see how it looks. Who knows, maybe if I start mercs a Magnus army will be an alternative option.

4th Game: vs Magnus

Hey guys,

So I went to the new gaming store today, and found pretty much everyone playing instead of painting! There was another new player who had finished his first game, so we ended up playing a match. He was running Magnus the Traitor, and I have to admit I was a bit nervous about facing a new opponent - last time I did that, I got demolished by Stryker! On the other hand my opponent knew nothing about Legion, so we were pretty even. I went with my Saeryn list:

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight
Carnivean
Seraph
3 Shredders
3 Spell Martyrs
Forsaken

His list consisted of:

Magnus the Traitor
Mangler
2 Renegades
Full unit of Long Gunner Infantry
Kell Bailoch

Seeing a unit across the table made my army seem really small by comparison - I really hope my Striders arrive soon so I can have at least a few more bodies out there! For the first time, I won the deployment roll, so I elected to go first.

Legion Deployment
My side of the board had a tiny forest about 6" outside the center of my deployment zone, a bigger one immediately in front of the left side and a broken wall at about the middle of the board on my right. I put pretty much everything together in a block, with the Carnivean and the Seraph in the middle with a Shredder between the two. The other two Shredders went on the outside of the two heavies and the Spell Martyrs next to them. The Forsaken was right behind the Seraph and Saeryn was behind the Carnivean.

Mercenary Deployment
He had a large wall right in front of his troops, and then a small patch of terrain a little bit up on the left. He put his Long Gunners in a line in the middle, with the Mangler behind them and Mangus behind them. The Renegades were on either side of the Long Gunners, and Kell Bailoch advanced deployed into the small terrain forward on the left.

Legion Turn 1
I ran my Seraph left to hopefully take out Keil and lock down one of the Renegades, and sent a Spell Martyr after her in case I needed magical support there. My Carnivean ran straight forward, with Saeryn following closely behind, casting Rebirth on the beast. One Shredder and the Forsaken accompanied them, while the other two and the remaining Spell Martyrs ran to the forward right cover.

Mercenary Turn 1
Magnus activated first, casting Snipe on the Long Gunners before moving up. The Long Gunners then stepped forward and tried to take a few shots at the Spell Martyrs, but missed due to cover. The 'jacks all walked forward, and Kell sat in his cover.

Legion Turn 2
Deciding to seize the initiative, I forced one of the Shredders in cover to go rabid, then ran him to the center of the Long Gunner line. A Spell Martyr ran close behind them, the Saeryn used it to cast Blight Bringer on the Shredder, taking out 4 Long Gunners in the middle, including the leader. This would prove important since now, no matter who my opponent promoted to leader, half the unit would be out of command range. My Seraph then moved up and tried to shoot the Renegade on his side (since I found out Kell had Stealth in cover), but Strafe only gave me one additional attack and I rolled terribly on damage, even though I boosted. The Carnivean moved up a bit, wanting to make sure he got the charge, and Saeryn moved in close behind. The other two Shredders moved towards the middle, but the Spell Martyrs stayed where they were. As I ended my turn, I realized I realized I had forgotten to rile my beasts, so I would be very low on Fury next turn.

Mercenaries Turn 2
As expected, the Long Gunners fell back, opting not to run so they weren't slaughtered by the blight bringer poison. Magnus and the 'jacks all ran up, then the Traitor used his feat. All the jacks ran into melee range with Saeryn, while Magnus opted to fall back and avoid the wrath of my Carnivean. My opponent forgot about Kell so again, he did nothing.

Legion Turn 3
I realized later my response should have been "I activate Saeryn's feat". Immunity to melee attacks would have left his jacks sitting ducks in the middle of my line, and I have no doubt once they were gone I could easily finish off Magnus. Unfortunately, I forgot about this, and decided to try to destroy the jacks before they got a chance to hit Saeryn, especially since she was only sitting on 4 Fury. First off, the Shredder who had run up to my opponents line frenzied since he was out of control range, and managed to devour another Long Gunner. The Carnivean the turned and started wailing on the Manger, but again my damage rolls were sub-par, and the jack survived. Thankfully I did take out its Wrecking ball arm, and since it was out of control range, he was unable to get focus to remedy the situation. A Shredder then went rabid and charged in, but couldn't do much damage. The Seraph then turned and charged at one Renegade, gaining a back strike bonus and managing to wreck the jack by forcing for more attacks! The last Shredder went rabid and attacked the other Renegade (he was too close to charge), but even forcing for another attack failed to do much damage. I then opted to do nothing with Saeryn, deciding to use her fury to ride out the attacks. Lastly I charged my Spell Martyrs in hoping they could at least block the Mangler from moving close enough to Saeryn to use his first.

Mercenary Turn 3
My opponent realized his back was against the wall, and that if Saeryn lived through the turn his jacks (and hopes of winning) certainly wouldn't! The Mangler tried to attack Saeryn with its chain but missed due to the Carnivean's damage. It then threw the Spell Martyr at her, killing the Martyr but failing to wound Saeryn. At this point he realized if he had thrown first his chain would have hit, and decided to try one last gambit. First he moved the remainingRenegade (staying in melee with the Shredder) so it was in Saeryn's back arc and took a swing at the Shredder, dealing 5 points to it. He then moved Magnus up and arced obliteration through the Renegade, boosting the damage, and blasting Saeryn for a whopping 16 points of damage! Thankfully I was able to transfer it to the Shredder, killing the poor little guy but allowing me to reave its fury. At this point, out of options, my opponent conceded.

Aftermath
I completely did not expect my opponent to use his feat to bring all his Warjacks into melee with Saeryn. Thankfully it seemed like more of a gimmick than anything else, as once I brought my force to bear on them they quickly crumpled, even under below-average damage rolls. Knowing my feat would have saved me also made me feel a bit better about the match. Once again, I need more units to screen my caster. Having some Ogrun or Legionnaires would have been great to keep my opponent's jacks away from Saeryn. I think in future games I'm going to replace two of the Spell Martyrs with another Shredder. While the Martyrs are really useful, I desperately need more fighting models on the board, and I haven't really found myself needing to arc that many spells. All in all, it was a lot of fun playing against a new army!

Tier list thoughts

So with Forces of Hordes: Legion of Everblight releasing tomorrow, pretty much all the new info has been spoiled, and I've started taking a closer look at the tier lists, particularly for the warlocks I have/play to get. Some just seem bad - Epic Thagrosh has to take a 4 point solo with very low utility for his army just to get higher tiers - and some like Prime Lylyth I'll never have the figures for (I have no interest in archers). Saeryn's definitely seems workable though - I've always been a fan of Nephilim Soldiers, and hers sets them up pretty well. This was the list I mocked up:

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight
Seraph
Seraph
Nephilim Soldier
Nephilim Soldier
Nephilim Soldier
Nephilim Protector
Blackfrost Shard
Nyss Sorceress

The goal is to get into range, then pop Saeryn's feat and have the Soldiers fly over any defenders and cut the caster to ribbons. P+S 14 is respectable, and Reach helps them avoid getting in each others way. The Sorceress gives them a free charge letting them save their fury for more attacks, and the Blackfrost Shard can use Ice Cage and Kiss of Lyliss to make the enemy caster easier to finish off. The Protector is free and helps keep Saeryn safe during the set-up, and the Seraphs can slipstream to give the soldiers extra range while also providing ranged support. Its very beast heavy, but when I run hot I plan to end the game. This probably won't come to fruition for a while since I don't have most of the models, but it seems like it would be fun to proxy up sometime.

The other tier list that seems interesting is Rhyas. While I don't have her yet, shes definitely on the top of my list of casters to get, and I'll probably pick her up when I buy the models to bring me up to 50 points. Her tier 4 requires a pair of angelius that I'm not a huge fan of, but up to tier 3 it definitely seems like a solid list. Here what I was thinking:

Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
Carnivean
Seraph
Min Swordsmen + UA
Min Swordsmen + UA
Blackfrost Shard

This list seems a little more likely for me to build, especially if I take the swordsmen and blackfrost shard to get to 50. Its also got a lot of hard-hitting power with the swordsmen, and on feat turn I could see them tearing through most of the opponent's army. Once again the Blackfrost Shard provides debuffing support and the Seraph adds slipstreaming shenanigans. I read a strategy with the Carnivean I want to try: on Rhyas's feat turn, if the Carnivean throws an enemy model at the caster, he will teleport next to that unit and, by extension, the caster. Though he gives up his initial attacks, with the bonus attack from the feat and most of his fury, he should be able to take the enemy warlock out. Something to try when I place another order!

New stores and new army ideas

I mentioned in my last battle report that I was planning on trying out a new gaming store, but one of the things holding me back is I don't really have all the equipment needed to play a game. To remedy this, last week I went to another store a bit closer to my house, Gamma Ray Games, in an effort to find templates and a measuring tape (been borrowing both from the more experienced players). It turned out to be a really great store, and I'm going to try to go back Tuesday to meet some of the players - apparently they get together to paint then. Sadly they play on Fridays, which is normally pretty busy for me, but I may try to get in there once a month or so, depending on how Tuesday goes.

As I'm really amped up about Warmachine/Hordes right now, I've been giving some thought to starting a Warmachine army in addition to my Legion. It would be cool to experience both focus mechanic and see what the differences are between the games, as well as have some more stuff to paint! The trouble is picking an army. I actually like pretty much all the Hordes armies - I empathize with the trolls struggles to find peace, I like the werewolves of the Circle and the elephantine Titans of the Skorne, plus humanoid war pigs and crocodiles make Minions a fun choice.Warmachine, on the other hand, doesn't attract me as much. I'm not a fan of primarily ranged armies, so Cygnar is out. I can't really see myself enjoying playing the religious fanatics of Protectorate, and Cryx seems to similar to Legion. I really like Khador, and actually planned to play them as my first army, but I found out that a lot of people at my store play them, and I can't stand copying another person (which is also why I can't see myself playing melee-centric Cygnar). That leaves Mercenaries and Retribution. I don't really like any of the mercenary casters in particular; the closest one is Ashlynn, but shes anti-Khador, which is currently my favorite of the Iron Kingdoms. I guess that leaves Retribution. Flipping through the book, Kaelessa looks pretty cool, as do the Mage Hunters, so maybe I'll mock up a list based on them. I'll post as my thoughts on it develop.

Forsaken Painted

So its been a while since I've posted about my painting, mainly because with my beasts done theres not much on my queue! I had originally wanted to go back over the details of my Forsaken, but after playing her on the table, I realized she looks fine. So without further ado, I present my Forsaken:

 

I had a hard time deciding what color I wanted the body to be, since its supposed to be a snow elf that is mutating into a beast. Eventually I went with a more beast-like color scheme, using white for the flesh and coal black for the scales. For my elves though I think I may want to go with a Drow color scheme - ash black skin with white hair. The trouble is I'm not sure if I can get a different enough black for clothes/weapons/scales on the mutants. Maybe grey skin instead? Can't wait for my striders to get here so I can try it out!

New purchases, new releases, and new ideas!

Great news - I finally found a place that has Striders in stock, so they, along with Epic Thagrosh, should arrive soon! On top of that, with the new Legion rulebook coming out in a week, most of the new models have been spoiled. There are several cool ones I'm eying: the Blackfrost Shard, a trio of character sorcerers, similar to the Black 13th I've been facing off with; Hex Hunters, swordsmen with powerful magic attacks; and Bethanye, Voice of Everblight, a new Warlock who can merge with her beast. I've always wanted my Carnivean to be my warlock, and it seems like this is a great chance to try out something similar!

With the new releases and new models on the way, I've started thinking about how I want to expand my list out to 50 points. The last few games I've played I really needed someone to help shield my caster, and I'm thinking Ogrun might be a good fit for this role. With high armor and lots of health, they can definitely take a beating. The two types are Warmongers and Warspears. The Warmongers seem a bit more offensive focused, since they have slightly higher power on their attacks, and when they kill an enemy they can strike again, great against mobs of weak units. Warspears on the other hand have +2 DEF vs. charge attacks, making them better at holding the line. The other option I've been considering is Legionnaires. Though they have similar armor and defense, they lack the many health boxes. On the other hand, for 2 points less I'm getting twice as many models, so that may help compensate a bit. Still weighing the choices there.

Now that I'm this close to 50, I really want to round out my army. I'd like to be able to play in tournaments and avoid getting squashed, so I want to know what I have a hard time handling. So far the Carnivean can handle large threats, and when the Striders get here they should help with mobs of weak units (as do Saeryn and Thagrosh when he arrives). This leaves 2 major openings I see: heavy infantry, and safe from everything except magic. I'm also not feeling great about my anti-infantry, so anything that helps with those is a plus. Based on the current options and new releases, my main choices are Swordsmen, Raptors, Hex Hunters, and the Blackfrost Shard. Here are my thoughts on each:

-Swordsmen are nice because they come in large numbers and deal an incredible amount of damage. Averaging power 25 blows on the charge will tear apart even the toughest enemies. The downside is they're very one-dimensional; they lack the speed of Raptors and the versatility of the casters.
-Raptors hit with all the power of Swordsmen but are also tied for fastest unit in the game, basically ensuring they will get the charge off. Unfortunately, they are really expensive, coming in at the same cost as a Shredder each. If I go with them I'll definitely need to take Legionnaires instead of Ogrun.
 NOTE: The next two are not released, so my thoughts are based on the information provided in the spoilers, which may not be entirely accurate.
-Hex Hunters bring great magic attacks to the table, as well as built in defense in the form of Stealth. They also match Swordsmen for numbers. I can easily see these guys carving through mobs of infantry with their attack-then-cast ability, but I would probably have to take Warmongers to take on heavy infantry.
-The Blackfrost Shard has the numbers problem of Raptors, but at least they don't cost the same arm and a leg. While they don't pack much hitting power, their utility is through the roof, providing ice bolts (which helps get around immunity to fire, something I hear complained about in tournaments), countermagic (again, useful for tournaments to get around opponents that curse you), and armor debuffs (nice for dealing with heavy infantry). The best part though might be Ice Prison - I can use it to lockdown a heavy Warjack/beast until my Carnivean can get around to dismantling it. If only they hit harder...

So while I'm not making a decision until I can see the actual rules, here are the layouts I'm thinking:
Warspears + Hex Hunters
Warmongers + Hex Hunters
Warmongers + Blackfrost Shard
Swordsmen + Legionnaires + Hex Hunters
Raptors + Legionnaires + Blackfrost Shard

Wow, thats a lot of options...Can't wait for the new models to be released!

Incomplete game

So I played a 3 person game yesterday, but sadly, we only got about 3 turns in before the store closed. One of the annoying little things about miniature games - they can take a while to play if people don't think ahead, and if people are chatting on the side, you can play for 3 hours and not even come close to finishing. Some highlights:

-I used Saeryn for the first time, and wow, 7 focus makes a difference! I was never worried about running my beasts hot, especially with the Forsaken providing additional help, and a 14" control range makes life so much easier. I didn't get to use her spells much, so I'm hoping to get another game in an try them out more.
-Also used my spell martyrs, but didn't get any use out of them. Learned a bunch though: they should always activate first (or at least before my warlock). There was one point where I ran up two shredders and wanted to blight bringer the further one, but found it just out of casting range. I was concerned with using them up too quickly, but with 3 of them on the field, they are not in short supply - games are normally decided by turn 5, I'll never need one on turn 1, and even Saeryn can only really cast one spell a turn, so I'm going to cast 4 spells, of which 3 can arc.
-Though I saw a little bit of combat, the shredders once again proved that they were basically one-shot missiles, and but they were great at that. I really should stop counting on them to stick around the turn after they go rabid.
-Which reminds me, Legion beasts are incredibly fragile. I'm definitely going to make sure when my Carnivean goes after something, he finishes it.
-Speaking of the devil, my Carnivean once again gets honorable mention for scrapping a Kodiak in 1 turn (even after missing when he only needed a  to hit!), as well as dismounting a nearby dragoon. Honestly I'm starting to believe there is nothing he can't 1 shot.
-Finally, I once again need to pick up a screening unit. This time I had to sacrifice a shredder to keep my warlock safe, which sucked. I'm thinking a unit of Ogrun - 16 armor and 8 boxes should be a bit tougher, they have bigger bases, and its not as painful if I lose 1.

I talked to some of the other players and we are probably going to move to another store in a few weeks, so hopefully there will be a wider variety of opponents available!

Blighted Shadows has begun!

Blighted Shadows, a the new Privateer Press league, starts today! Its kind of cool to see the games you play have an effect, so I'm hoping to get other players at my local store into it. I'm also one of the leaders for the Everblight coalition on the PP forums, which seems like it could be a lot of fun since I'm more invested in how we do. I'm also wondering if doing well would allow Everblight to consume his brother Blighterghast - that would be pretty epic!

New Models: Spell Martyrs

Hey guys,

So this coming week, my opponent and I plan to move up to full 25 point games. To match up, I just bought some Spell Martyrs:

These guys are nice, and the best thing is at 1 point a piece, they can really help me make sure I use every point. Sadly this means I'm probably going to be using Lylyth less since these guys really don't add much to her since she's not much of a spellcaster, but it does mean my next report should include my other warlock: Saeryn, Omen of Everblight

3rd Game: vs Cygnar

Yet another Legion vs. Cygnar battle report! Once again, my list and my opponent's are the same at 21 points as we are still getting the hang of them and assembling the rest of our forces. Her list was:

pHaley
Lancer
Charger
Ironclad
The Black 13th
Katherine Laddermore

and once again, I am running:

pLylyth
Carnivean
3 Shredders
Seraph
Forsaken

This time there was no mission, as we opted for straight caster kill. Note: all directions are from my point of view, so when I say "right" it means the right side of the board from my perspective.

Deployment
To the middle left of the board was a small hill, in the center in front of my opponent's deployment zone there was a forest and on the right side was another hill. My deployment zone had 2 patches of cover-granting difficult terrain, on in the middle and one on the right. My opponent won the die doll, and deployed all her forces on the right behind the hill except Laddermore, who was on the far left. I responded by placing my entire army on the left across from Laddermore, hoping to get the jump on her before my opponent's other forces could catch up.

Turn 1
Cygnar - Her jacks and the black 13th ran towards the middle of the field, while Haley cautiously walk up behind them. Laddermore ran forward onto the left hill.
Legion - I moved the Shredders behind the center rough terrain, and had the Seraph move forward, trying to shoot at Laddermore. Unfortunately I was out of range, but Lylyth slipstreamed the Seraph out of charge range then cast tenacity on the Seraph the Carnivean and herself. The Carnivean moved up a bit, staying outside of Laddermore's charge but sticking close to Lylyth, then riled for 3. The forsaken pretty much stood still.

Turn 2
Cygnar - Laddermore ran to the left behind my forces, right next to the edge of the board. The charger and the lancer both ran forward, putting them in between the two rough patches of terrain, while the Ironclad ran so it was a bit behind the large patch of terrain. The Black 13th moved forward to get in range, but they were still a bit shy of the Seraph, and Haley moved up a bit, still opting to stay back.
Legion - Deciding to seize the initiative, I activated Lylyth and popped her feat, moving up to take a shot at the Ironclad. It hit, and I then cast Parasite on it. Next I activated the Shredders, all 3 going and charging the Ironclad and forcing for an extra attack (thanks, Blood Lure!). I have to say, boosted attack and damage rolls, increased speed and pathfinder are a steal for 1 fury! Sadly, they didn't manage to kill it, but dropped it to only one box (movement). In hindsight this was helpful since it would protect they from shooting next turn. The Carnivean turned and charged Laddermore, easily dismounting her, but she was out of its range for more attacks (makes me wish I picked up a Scythean...). The Seraph moved up and slipstreamed Lylyth back, then opened fire on the Charger, boosting damage to cripple its gun. The forsaken was too far from the shredders to leech fury, so it moved in front of Lylyth and then took a point of fury from the Seraph.

Turn 3
Cygnar - Realizing if she didn't use her feat soon there would be nothing left, Haley activated her feat and moved forward, into the terrain on the right for some cover. The Charger boosted 2 shots at the Seraph of compensate for the damage to its gun, and managed to do a fair bit of damage. The Lancer charged and skewered the Forsaken (whew, glad that wasn't Lylyth!), then smacked the Seraph, taking out its Spirit. Laddermore ran back to the left hill, and the Black 13th opened fire on the Ironclad-Shredder melee. The first shot was a template that damaged all the Shredders and took out the ironclad, and then with the remaining shots took out two of the little beasts.
Legion - Lylyth first heals the remaining Shredder so he has his body back and the Seraph so it recovers its Spirit, then moves back from the Lancer, slipsteaming the Seraph out of combat as she does. I momentarily forgot about reach so she took a free strike, but managed to dodge it. I then realized the last Shredder was now out of my control range (doh!), so all he could do was walk over to the charger and bite it for a bit of damage (getting a backstrike at least). The Seraph moved back to screen Lylyth and took some shots at the Lancer, damaging it but failing to take out any systems. The Carnivean then turned and walked up next to the Seraph, preparing for the next turn.

Turn 4
Cygnar - My opponent realized she was running out of forces fast, and wouldn't last long once the Carnivean got back into the fray, so the Lancer charged the Seraph, hoping to get close enough to Lylyth to hurt her a bit. It succeeded in getting in range, and while its inital attack took the Seraph spirit out once again, it failed to harm Lylyth. The Charger finished off the last Shredder in melee, and Black 13th moved up and shot at the Seraph, but to no avail. Laddermore then assaulted Lylyth but missed her shot, instead injuring the Lancer! Haley for the first time moved up, just behind the B13.
Legion - The veterans who had been watching the game up till this point started encouraging me to send the Carnivean after the Charger, B13, and Haley, going for the kill, but remembering how tough it had been to kill Haley I opted for a more conservative approach (especially with the Lancer so close to Lylyth!) I moved Lylyth back and slipstreamed the Seraph out of combat, but this time was not able to dodge the damage. The lancer hit for a whopping 10 points, which I immediately transferred to the Carnivean, knocking out his Spirit (which was promptly healed along with the Seraph so they were both fully functional). Lylyth then opened fire on Laddermore, boosting to hit and damage and doubling the amount of damage needed to take the dismounted dragoon out. The Carnivean then charged the Lancer, managing to seriously cripple it but not kill it, despite running all its Fury. The seraph then moved up and blew the template-dropping black 13er off the map with some great strafe rolls.

Turn 5
Cygnar - With the Lancer out of control and her army dwindling, my opponent had all but given up, but held out hope that if she could drop the Seraph she would have a chance. Unfortunately the charger's crippled gun really held her back, and while she managed to hurt it, it still stood, leaving the Charger next to the Black 13th and Haley, a target that was looking better and better each turn. The Lancer wiffed its only attack against the Carnivean, and Haley ran back to keep from getting killed if I charged the charger and black 13th.
Legion - Lylyth healed up the Seraph to get it working again, then Slipsteamed the Carnivean out of combat, allowing the Seraph to charge in. Pushing it for more attacks, it managed to take out the Lancer under a barrage of blows. The Carnivean then assaulted the Charger, and while the spray didn't hurt the black 13th (15 def is incredibly unfair!), he did manage to wreck the Charger. At this point, my opponent surrendered, realizing there was no way to keep her forces from getting wrecked over the next few turns by my heavies.

Aftermath
Wow, what an intense match! It was really interesting to see how things played out without an early caster kill. Though I managed to cripple her pretty badly on the feat turn, playing low on models was pretty rough. I really need to invest in a unit - having to sacrifice my forsaken to screen Lylyth did not feel good. I was really pleased with how I played Lylyth; the Parasite on the Ironclad was a huge win, as without it she really had nothing to go up against my Carnivean. Though it was tricky, I also managed to keep Lylyth out of charge lanes all game, keeping my opponent from stealing the victory through assassination. The 5 fury is still pretty rough though - I spent most of the game camping at least 1 point and often 2, meaning I couldn't run the beasts too hot and if I healed on a given turn, I pretty much could not cast Parasite. It helped that my opponent was really scared to bring Haley into action. I know I also got an idea for the first time of how fragile the army is. Attrition is definitely not the way to go! I probably would have lost if I hadn't crippled the charger's gun; I can only imagine how brutal that thing is at full strength with 1 fury boosting both rolls. Slipsteam was definitely the star of the game (though that should be evident by how often I mention using it!) Being able to shift things in and out of combat on the fly is incredible, and thats only one part of the shenanigans you can pull with it.

We have a few new players joining us next week, so hopefully my next report will be against someone other than Cygnar!

Striders MIA

So last week, I decided to round out my army to 35 points by adding Epic Thagrosh, a unit of Striders, and the Strider commander and musician. I placed the order, and have been obsessively checking the tracking page ever since. As its been over a week and it still says "In Process", I sent them an email, and they were nice enough to let me know the strider unit was whats holding up the order - apparently they are out of stock everywhere. Since they didn't know when they would get more, I cancelled the order and started look around, and it seems that they were correct, and they are out of stock everywhere! I'm a bit stuck as to what to do at the moment. My local gaming store only stocks more recent models, so my choices are fairly limited - Scythean, Ragavore, Stingers, and Spell Martyrs. The Spell Martyrs seem cool, though while they would work well with Saeryn and Epic Thagrosh, they don't add much to Lylyth. I'll probably pick those up if my normal Cygnar opponent manages to bring 25 points just so I can match her. The other things I'm considering is the Scythean, who would help me make it to 35. The Carnivean has been my star performer so far, and while the Scythean is a little weaker, it is also 2 points less for a huge damage output. It also helps solve the problem of heavy infantry, which is something I've been a bit worried about. I guess it'll mainly come down to how expensive the big guy is...

Seraph Painted

So I finally finished the last of my beasts: the Seraph!

This one wasn't nearly as hard as the Carnivean, though it still took a ton of time. Not having to deal with the legs made life sooo much easier. I used the same scheme as before, doing light blue for the skin, coal black for the scales, white for the teeth and pink for the tongue and gums. To make the wings a bit different, I only drybrushed a light layer of light blue on them, so some of the black underneath is still showing, giving a nice contrast to the solid blue of the skin. I also tried something a little different and painted the legs white, though if you aren't looking for it specifically it doesn't make much of a difference.

I also took some time to paint my Forsaken, but I'm not happy with how the eyes look yet, so that'll come in a separate post once I spend some more time on it.

So with this post you are now caught up with where I am now. From here on out posts will probably come every 2-3 days, depending on how much painting and gaming I get done. Stay tuned for more exciting Hordes adventures!

2nd Game: vs Cygnar

Another report of a battle, this one from earlier this week.

So this game was a rematch against my opponent from last week, though as Haley had been eaten by a Carnivean when she left herself a little too open, my opponent decided to try out Stryker instead. Though she had an extra point from the increased warmachine allocation, she was lacking the figures to take advantage of it, so we once again played a 21 point game. My list was the same as last week:

pLylyth
Carnivean
3 Shredders
Seraph
Forsaken

Hers was also the same except for the caster change:

pStryker
Ironclad
Lancer
Charger
The Black 13th
Katherine Laddermore

She won the roll off and elected to go first. There were 3 objective markers along the middle line between us, with one in the center and the other two 8" to each side. We would score 1 point for each uncontested marker we controlled (meaning we were in base-to-base but the opponent wasn't) at the end of each turn starting at the bottom of turn 2, with victory at 7 points. On her side to the left there was a hill and on the right was a forest. There was a forest directly in front of the middle of my deployment zone and another narrow hill to my right.

Cygnar turn 1
She deployed her forces with the 3 jacks front and center, with Stryker and the Black 13th directly behind them, and Laddermore on the right flank. The jacks all ran straight forward towards the objectives, and Laddermore also ran forward along the right side. The Black 13th ran to the top of the hill, while Stryker, remembering Haley's mistake from last week, elected to walk up behind the Jacks, staying a good distance behind and well-screened.

Legion turn 1
Jealous of Laddermore's flanking capabilities, I decided to try to match her by setting up my 3 shredders to the right behind the hill. Though I didn't realize it until the next turn, this was my first mistake as I then set up the Carnivean and the Seraph front and center, with Lylyth and the forsaken behind them. This left the shredders out of control, so on their turn they simply walked up behind the hill, spreading out to avoid taking multiple hits from Laddermore if she charged at them. The seraph moved into the forest, slipstreaming to bring the Carnivean up a bit, then tried to take a shot at the Lancer but fell short. The Carnivean also moved into the forest and tried to catch the Charger in his breath but fell barely short. Lylyth cast Tenacity on the Seraph, the Carnivean, the Forsaken, and herself, then moved up into the forest behind the Carnivean and riled it so she could have her full fury next turn. The forsaken meanwhile headed right to back up the shredders, though what I assumed she could do given they couldn't generate fury was still a mystery to me.

Cygnar turn 2
Deciding to go for an early lead, the Charger moved onto the right objective while the Lancer took the middle one, and the Ironclad moved into the middle to provide backup to either one if they needed it. The charger took a shot at the carnivean but fell short on range. Stryker moved onto the hill behind the Black 13th, casting snipe on them and arcane shield on the Charger. The Black 13th took a few shots at the Seraph and the Carnivean, but all were out of range or failed to hit thanks to tenacity and the forest. Determined to make sure it was at least a little wounded, Laddermore assaulted the carnivean, falling short of melee but managing to hit it with a shot, dealing 3 damage and arcing to Lylyth, but failing to wound my caster. This left her in the middle of the board and closer to my forces than her own, and my shredders could taste her demise...

Legion turn 2
As my opponent was about to score 2 points, I decided to hit her with everything I had and see what I could wreck. Lylyth moved first, first trying the parasite the Ironclad but missing despite a boosted attack roll (arg!), then walking right so she could control 2 of the shredders before popping her feat (in hindsight should have done this before casting parasite...). She then took a shot at Laddermore, slightly wounding her horse. The 2 shredders in range both went rabid and charged at Laddermore, eyeless sight allowing them to see through the hill. The first gobbled her horse, while the second devoured the hapless rider. Looks like things are starting to shape up! The Carnivean then assaulted the Ironclad, moving so it could also attack the Charger, and by buying attacks up to its full fury tore the Ironclad apart but left the Charger with 3 hit boxes and only its movement active! At this point I realize that I did not get in contact with the objective, so the Charger still controls it! If I had activated the feat and managed to parasite the Ironclad I could've used the extra attacks to take out the Charger, and ended up giving my opponent 2 free points (one on this turn and one on her next one). I'm so caught up that I move my forsaken forward but forget that I have to leech the fury off the Carnivean now, not at the begining of my turn, so leave it full. The seraph moves up and tried to shoot the Black 13th, but find itself out of range. Annoyed that I wasted so much potential on the turn, I end and my opponent scores 2.

Cygnar turn 3
Still reeling from the last turn's mayhem, my opponent decides to go for and objective win. The Lancer charges the Seraph, putting 6 points of damage on it, while the black 13th moves onto the middle and left objectives, then take a few shots at the seraph-lancer melee, doing 7 to the seraph but 4 to her own lancer! A little low on fury because he upkept his spells, Stryker just casts blur on the black 13th, then activates his feat, then she ends and scores 3 more, bringing her up to 5 points - within 1 turn of victory.

Legion turn 3
At this point I make yet another major blunder and forget the "uncontested" part of controlling an objective, and think that unless I get all her forces off their objectives I will lose at the end of her next turn. To make matters worse, the Carnivean furies, wasting its incredible attack power to rip apart the nearly-dead charger. I activate one of my shredders, making it rabid and sending it at the b13 guy on the middle objective. Sadly thanks to Stryker's feat I fail to damage it. so I bring Lylyth to the center and take 2 shots, both failing to hit. Its then I realize I'm less than 3" from the edge of the forest, and decide I need to buff myself (of course forgetting that I can transfer...), so I burn the last 2 fury points to cast Spiny Growth on herself, and have one of the shredders come in and cast Tenacity on her. The seraph, rather than moving in and slipstreaming lylyth back and out of sight (because that would be the SMART thing to do), tries to engage the far left black 13th member to prevent her from scoring. The forsaken and the last shredder move left to join the fray, and though I score 1 point to her 0, I'm just hoping Lylyth will live just 1 turn so I can properly wipe out his army...

Its at this point that the guy who taught us walks by and notices the setup, saying that its a perfect stryker assassination run. When I point out that I have 17 def and arm, not including the forest, he points to earthquake on on stryker. I am suddenly have a horrible premonition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...

Cygnar turn 4
Assigning as much focus as he can to the charger, stryker moves up and casts earthquake, though a bad scatter means he gets knocked down as well. Theres a glimmer of hope - if I don't die, the Carnivean can easily munch him next turn. The lancer charges in, and my hopes are dashed as she uses focus for more attacks, killing Lylyth with only one bonus attack.

Afterthoughts
Wow, that was a painful loss. I think I'd like to enumerate my mistakes, just so I can see them all in one place:
1. Setting up my shredders away from my caster. Seriously, what was I thinking. As incredible as they are, they can't do shit unless they're forced. If I actually want to do this, I need to bring along a shepherd to escort them along the flank.
2. Not contacting objectives. As wonderful as it is to just rip your opponent apart, try to win the game while doing so.
3. Forsaken leech fury during their activation. Shouldn't be too hard to remember.
4. Remember the rules - forgetting that you can contest objectives really messed me up.
5. 3" inside forest for protection.
6. Fury should be saved for transfers, not wasted on buffing the defense of a fragile caster.
7. NEVER send your caster out. As powerful as they are, they are just better to keep in the back so they can support the troops. Warmachine can have their battlecasters - Hordes should stick to letting the beasts do the fighting
BONUS 8. I realized this long after the match and after I posted this on the Privateer Press Forums - the Shredders did not need to be forced to charge Laddermore, because of Lylyth's Blood Lure ability. This would have let me leech the fury off the Carnivean. Honestly, I have not been using Lylyth properly at all. I am casting Parasite without being guaranteed the hit using Witch Mark, and instead wasting fury boosting the roll, and I haven't used Blood Lure once, even though it would have helped save me Fury, something I really need since I keep running really hot. Sadly, I may swap her for Saeryn since next week my opponent may be able to field 25 points, so I may pick up some Spell Martyrs to fill out the points, and they are completely wasted on Lylyth. If that happens I definitely need to remember to pick her back up once I have more minis so I can use her properly

Musings about how to expand my army

So I've been thinking a lot lately about how to expand my army, and thought I would share my thoughts with you guys. I've spent some time reading up on the Legion and figuring out which models I think are cool, and have a list of the following

Rhyas - its hard to argue with a leather-clad sword-wielding ninja assassin. Also since I have her twin sister it would be cool to use them both in a team game (assuming I ever manage to get 100 points)
Epic Thagrosh - the model looks awesome, and hes a giant ogre/dragon hybrid

Nephilim Soldier - mutated winged sword elf? Yes please. Also fills the roll of a light warbeast, which I currently don't have

Striders - I'd like to have some ranged backup, and after reading the forums, it seems like these guys have pretty much replaced blighted archers in that department
Swordsmen - uber lethal emotionless warriors definitely seem like fun to try out. Weapon Master is also an excellent bonus
Warmongers - blighted ogres also caught my eye, and I like the idea of carving through packs of infantry more than the throw-and-assault style of warspears

Shepherd - Cheap fury management, lets me run my beasts hot and not suffer for it.
Strider Deathstalker - Similar to striders in providing ranged backup, but less points intensive; I've been reading up a bit and it seems like 2 are better value than the base stalkers, but stalkers with the UA have more to offer if you're willing to shell out the points
Warmonger Warchief - a warmonger that keeps my other warmongers from chopping each other up. Something I'm definitely going to want if I get the warmongers (warmonger warmonger warmonger)

So thats the list - pretty long to be sure, but they're just ideas. I feel like right now, the two things I want to add are a unit, to boost my woefully low numbers, and some ranged support. With that in mind, I posted the following three ideas on the Privateer Press forums. People who know the game well may notice all of these bring me up to 35 points, which seems like a standard game size

Option 1:
Swordsmen Unit + UA
2 Strider Deathstalkers

Option 2:
Warmonger Unit
Warchief
2 Strider Deathstalkers

Option 3:
Striders + UA
Warmonger Warchief

Results came back overwhelmingly in favor of option 3, though it was suggested I replace the Warchief with a Totem Hunter (a Minion solo). It seems good based on the card, but I'm not sure I like the flavor that much, and I also though about using Gudrun. While I like his flavor more, I don't think a drunken lout would fit in well with the rest of my Legion. In the end, I decided on something else - I'm going to get Epic Thagrosh, who, with his 3 fewer warbeast points, brings me up to 35. It means I won't be able to play Lylyth or Saeryn at 35, but for now I'm just psyched about getting Everblight's Messiah!

Carnivean Painted

Another painted mini to show off - this time its the star of the last game, my Carnivean!

Since this guy was bigger, I was able to just paint the skin light blue, the did the claws and scales in Coal Black. It doesn't show up well in the pictures, but I also did the gums and tongue pink, with white for the teeth. Lastly, I felt the solid black was a little too much for the face and scales, so I lightly brushed some white over it. The first attempt was too much, but I then covered it with more Coal Black, and it came out looking really nice, a kind of weathered, wintery look.

First thing to say is wow, this guy took a while to do. I spent a good hour and a half just doing the skin on the top half, then another hour doing the scales. I took a break to see Easy A with some friends (awesome movie, I highly recommend it), then came back the day after and did the lower half, which took even longer. Why did Everblight have to give them 4 legs!? On the plus side, I'm really happy with how he turned out. I'll definitely be proud to throw it down on the gaming table, especially since at my last game, there was a 7 year old was asking me when I was going to get my game winner painted!

1st Game: vs. Cygnar

So I mentioned this a little while back, but this blog is currently playing a bit of catch-up to real life since I started playing a few weeks back. Here is the report of my first game, played about a week and a half ago now:

Just played my first game of WM/H, and though it was a bit short, it got kind of nerveracking at the end! It was a 21 point game (since that was all my opponent could field), with both our armies based off the battleboxes. My list was:

pLylyth
Carnivean
3 Shredders
Seraph
Forsaken

Hers was:
pHaley
Lancer
Charger
Ironclad
The Black 13th
Major Katherine Laddermore

The field was relatively sparse; there was a short hill running parallel to my edge about 20" out, while her side had a forest on one side and a hill on the other. She won the roll off and decided to go first.

Cygnar Turn 1:
She everything but Haley forward, setting the Jacks up in the center while Laddermore swung around the side. Haley then cast Arcane Shield on herself and failed-charged Laddermore to keep up.

Legion Turn 1: Deciding not to let my opponent be the only one flanking, I sent my Shredders around the side opposite Laddermore, while the rest of my force advanced. Lylyth cast tenacity on herself, the Carnivean, the Seraph, and the Forsaken, then used slipstream to move the Carnivean up a little bit before its move as she joined the Shredders on the side. The Carnivean tried to assault Laddermore with his breath, but was way short, ending up on the hill. The Forsaken positioned itself directly behind the Carnivean, and the Seraph moved in front of Lylyth to block line of sight.

Cygnar Turn 2:
Using Laddermore's great range, she charged the Carnivean, putting herself 2" away. I didn't realize her attacks also jumped to nearby units, so while the Carnivean barely noticed, the Forsaken was dropped to one hit point! I was really glad I had cast tenacity on her. The Jacks ran to the side a bit to keep from being flanked by the Shredders, but then Haley moved into the middle, cast Deadeye on herself and tried to take a shot at the Carnivean. Though I wasn't worried about the shot, I started considering whether I would be able to charge her and possibly take her out next turn, especially since she only had one focus after upkeeping Arcane Shield... The shot missed the Carnivean, but ended up hitting Laddermore instead! The Black 13th then moved up a little bit (not blocking Haley, something I was quick to notice), and the first tried to shoot the Carnivean as well, but when it missed and almost hit Haley, my opponent decided to forgo shooting anymore.

Legion Turn 2:
Deciding to take "Play like you got a pair" to heart, I set up to hit Haley with everything I had. First, the Seraph swooped by the Carnivean, slipstreaming it up closer. Hoping to soften her up a bit, I then had it shoot at Haley, rolling a 3 for strafe and boosting for 3 more attacks. I hadn't realize how high her defense was, and all the shots missed! Looking back, I should've boosted some of the attack rolls, but at the time, I was just nervous that I was about to get destroyed. Sticking to my guns, I moved Lylyth next to the Seraph (within 4" of her Jacks, since it was the only way to get sight to Haley around the two heavy warbeasts) and tried to Parasite and shoot her, but missed both! Looks my Carnivean would have to do all the work himself. I charged it forward, and already decided I was going to boost all my attack rolls. Thankfully, my bite managed to hit, and with my S+P equal to her ARM with the focus and shield, I did 12 points of damage, leaving her with only 3 health left! I quickly came back down though as my first claw attack missed. We both knew that if I missed the next one, the Jacks would tear Lylyth apart next turn. I rolled for the second claw...and scored a hit! Even with the lower strength I managed to deal the 3 damage to take her down.

Afterthoughts
The Carnivean was incredible, and the only downside being I didn't get a chance to test out the rest of my army! Since most of our figures didn't get to do much, we decided to play a quick test match between my shredders and the black 13th to get a feel for our minis. The shredders were treated as though they were in range of the warlock, and I have to say I was impressed - one took a full round of shooting from the entire black 13th and was still ok (though he lost his spirit so couldn't be forced) but then the other 3 went rabid and tore the black 13th apart! To keep things a bit interesting and get some more testing in, Laddermore then charged onto the field. All I can say is wow, I never want to be on the opposing end of her charge - she managed to wipe out two of the shredders right off the bat! On the bright side, after the charge, she really wasn't that powerful, so in future games I hope to get the charge on her!