Saturday, November 27, 2010

Battle Report: vs Khador

Another harrowing battle report, this time against an infantry heavy Khador army! I'm still feeling out Lylyth, but this time I brought along the Forsaken instead of a Shredder for better Fury management:

pLylyth
Carnivean
Seraph
Shredder
Max Warspears
Striders + UA
Forsaken
Spell Martyr

My opponent was playing the infamous Winter Guard Death Star:

eScorsha
Beast-09
War Dog
Full Winter Guard + UA + 3 Rocketeers
Widowmakers
Greylord Ternion
Aiyanna & Holt
Kovnik Joe
2 Manhunters

Once again, I'm impressively outnumbered, but it wouldn't be Legion if I wasn't! He won the roll off and opted to go first.

Khador Deployment
There is a small hill centered directly in front of his deployment zone, a large forest to the right a little bit up, and a small obsticle on the left. He puts Beast-09 in the middle, and Scorsha and her puppy behind him. The winterguard go to the left in tight formation (I'm hoping they stay that way so my Carnivean can spray them to death!) along with the Kovnik. The Greylords are scattered behind the front line.

Legion Deployment
I have a large hill to my right, and a small forest a few inches in front of my deployment. The Carnivean and Seraph go directly between the two, with Lylyth and the Forsaken behind them. The Shredder goes to their left and the Warspears and Spell Martyr to their right.

Khador Advance Deployment
One manhunter deploys as far as possible on each side of the armies.

Legion Advance Deployment
The Striders set up just on the edge of the hill to my left.

Khador Turn 1
Pretty much everyone runs forward. The winterguard spread out a bit, and the Greylords scatter, one team going left and one going right. Beast-09 moves straight forward. The Manhunters run forward, the left one getting cover from the obsticle and the right hiding behind the forest close to me. Scorsha gives the winterguard desperate pace and iron flesh, and they bob and weave forward for an impressive defense of 17!

Legion Turn 1
The Striders move atop the hill and using hunter take out the left Manhunter, while the Seraph slipstreams the Carnivean forward while moving right and taking out the right one. First blood to Legion! The Warspears run up and form a line between the hill and the forest, and the rest of my army advances up behind it. Lylyth puts Spiny Growth on herself and the Seraph, and the Carnivean puts it on himself.

Khador Turn 2
Theres a distinct no-man's-land between the two armies, but my opponent feels confident in his Winterguard and has them once again bob and weave forward into it. They take a few shots, but can't get through the Strider's stealth or the Warmonger's armor. Beast-09 walks forward into their midst, providing a decent deterrent for anyone engaging them. Everyone else moves up a bit, staying behind the winterguard line, with Kovnik Joe giving them tough.

Legion Turn 2
With most of his army in range, its time for some mayhem! The Spell Martyr activates first,  running through the forest to get sight on the Winterguard. Lylyth then activates, using her feat and arcing Eruption of Spines onto the winterguard (boosting to hit of course). She manages to hit and get 5 extra targets, 4 more winterguard and Beast. 4 of the 5 total winterguard fail their tough checks and bite the dust, while beast in unharmed. The Seraph moves to the side and strafes at Beast, but only gets 2 shots. One goes to the knocked down winterguard, who bites the dust, and I boost the damage roll on the other to put a few points on the 'jack. The Warspears then activate, assaulting Beast. Though only 3 can fit in melee range, they do some serious damage, but sadly only manage to out his left arm (the open fist, not the axe). The Striders move up and CRA into the Winterguard, but only take 2 more down thanks to some good tough checks and poor rolling on my part. The Carnivean moves up in front of Lylyth and uses Spiny Growth, while the Shredder moves forward and the Forsaken hangs behind the Seraph.

Khador Turn 3
I've managed to pull the teeth out of the winterguard, but its time for retaliation. Beast uses his link with Scorsha to freeze the Warspears engaged with him, but it doesn't end up mattering as he moves up and Threshers, taking out 4 of them and leaving one with only 1 box! The winterguard moves up and bring some revenge to the Striders, taking down 4 of them with some help from a Greylord, though they pass their command check. The Widowmakers move up the kill the poor Shredder, along with some help from Holt.

Legion Turn 3
I've lost my units so I'm even more outnumbered now, but I've managed to seriously injure the main hitters in his army. The Seraph moves first and reduces Beast-09 to scrap with shooting, and the Striders move up and kill they Greylord as well as another 2 Winterguard. Lylyth moves partially behind the Seraph and takes out a pair of Widowmakers. The Forsaken behind the Seraph and pulls the fury off the beast, and the Carnivean assaults Kovnik Joe, falling short but spraying the Kovnik, Scorsha, and her dog! Unforuntately he gets counter-charged by the dog, which costs him his breath attack. He drops Spiny Growth on himself and hopes to weather the the counter-attack, but I'm feeling confident since my opponents main hitters are down.

Khador Turn 4
Deciding its now or never, my opponent sets up and assassination run for Scorsha. The winterguard first clear out the remaining striders, then the Greylords Ice Cage the Carnivean, making him stationary (there was an error here - my opponent mistook Joe for another greylord, and would not have been able to make the Carnivean stationary). Aiyanna and Holt move up, and though she needs an 8 to harm Lylyth, she manages to get it. Scorsha then uses Cyclone to jump next to the Carnivean, and charges Lylyth, just getting into reach range. Pops feat, then boosts attacks and though the first hit misses, the second critical hits, making me stationary! Thankfully the damage is low enough for Lylyth to survive, but I'm forced to transfer off the next hit. I'm out of fury now though, and one of the widowmakers just makes line of sight to Lylyth and finishes her.

Aftermath
What a crazy game! I almost got around to tearing into Scorsha, but then my opponent remembered the extra damage from Harm on the Widowmaker's shot, which was enough to finish me. Normally I complain about Lylyth, but this time I was definitely the one at fault. She was the best caster for the fight, helping get around the DEF 17 Winterguard. I really should've moved the Forsaken in front of Lylyth instead of behind the Seraph - blocking LOS to your caster is always a good idea. Even had my opponent not gone for the assassination I was in great shape, with both my heavies against a field of infantry not really equipped to deal with them. I also didn't know my opponent's army that well, which led to a few errors. The most obvious was not knowing Scorsha's assassination range, but I also didn't realize Beast-09 had reach and thresher. Had I, I probably would've just used the Warspears to make ranged attacks and had the Shredder run up to tie up the jack for another turn. Still, it took some model confusion as well as 2 40% rolls (Aiyanna hitting with harm, Scorsha critical freezing) for me to lose, so I'm feeling better about my play!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Striders complete!

At long last, my Striders are complete!
Whew, getting through those guys was pretty tough! I'm really happy my next unit is Ogrun - they're bigger, so hopefully a bit easier to do, and there are only 5 of them as opposed to 8.

I've also picked up a few new models - first off, Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight:

I'm a big fan of Rhyas, as she brings a strong "ninja" vibe to the table. Sadly, she's also apparently the weakest of Everblight's warlocks and one of the weakest in the game, and to make matters worse, she is best at supporting infantry (which I only have a few of) in particular Swordsmen (which I don't have any of). It still seems like she could be an interesting by trying an assassination using her feat though - rabid Shredders will fully boost the extra attack, Seraph helps move things into range, and the Carnivean has a nice little trick where he can two-handed throw a model at the enemy caster, teleport into base-to-base with it (and the caster hopefully), then start wailing on the knocked down caster. Rhyas herself is no slouch, with Critical Decapitation and Acrobatics to help move straight through enemy models to take the kill. While not the traditional Rhyas army, I look foward to trying her out in a few games.

The other models I picked up aren't actually Warmachine/Hordes; they come from Soda Pop Miniatures, and their new game, Relic Knights. Here's Suicide Queen and her familiar, Rollo:
I bought them because in the fluff, Rollo brings luck. I'm hoping that placing him on the table when I make critical die rolls will help them come out in my favor! While I didn't plan on using Suicide Queen, she seems like she'll be a helpful stand-in for Strider Deathstalkers, or possible the Blackfrost Shard. I've been itching to try the latter out, but the only models I can use for them are Lylyth, Rhyas, and Saeryn, meaning I'd have to use them with Thagrosh. Suicide Queen can now sub in for whichever caster I'm using!
Soda Pop seems like an interesting new group - apparently, they've got some really talented people and have even gotten attention from Penny Arcade. You should check them out.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Battle Report: vs Cygnar

I've been doing a bunch of painting lately, but I finally got a game in this Wednesday, against my Cygnarian opponent no less. Since I have the Warspears together, I decided to take them, and also thought it would be a good chance to bring out Lylyth, considering she hasn't seen much play lately. This was my list:

pLylyth
-Carnivean
-Seraph
-2 Shredders
Max Warspears
Striders + UA
1 Spell Martyr

This was my opponent's first 35 point game, so she was bringing everything she had to the table, which looked like this:

pStryker
-Lancer
-Ironclad
Min Long Gunners
Min Stormguard
The Black 13th
Katherine Laddermore
Journeyman Warcaster
-Charger

Ugh, Stryker. Last time I played him I was also using Lylyth, and it ended pretty poorly. This time I decided to play it a bit safer, and especially watch for the assassination attempts. I won the die roll and opted to go first.

Legion Deployment
There was a narrow forest right in front of my deployment area, a really big forest to the left in the center of the board, a large hill to my right in the middle, and another medium hill a little outside my opponent's deployment area in the middle. I placed my heavies in the center, with the Shredders on the left side and the Warspears and Spell Martyr on the right. Lylyth hung behind the Carnivean.

Cygnar Deployment
My opponent pretty much matched my deployment, putting her Ironclad and Lancer across from the Carnivean and Seraph, with Stryker behind them. The Long Gunners went to their left, then the Jouneyman Warcaster and Charger, with the Stormguard on the far left.

Legion Advance Deployment
The Striders go behind the hill on my right, spread out.

Legion Turn 1
Pretty boring - my beasts and Warspears all run forward, the Spell Martyr runs into the large forest on the right for some cover, and Lylyth walks up and puts Spiny Growth on the Carnivean and the Seraph. The Striders run on top of the hill.

Cygnar Turn 1
My opponent moves similar to me, running everyone forward. Stryker gives the Black 13th and Long Gunners Blur, and the Journeyman puts Arcane Shield on himself.

Legion Turn 2
With so many things in range, its time for the mayhem to begin! The Spell Martyr activates first, leaving the forest to get line of sight to the Stormguard who have so thoughtfully come forward. Lylyth actives, using her feat and arcing Eruption of Spines through the Martyr and onto the Stormguard. It gets 4 extra targets, and I manage to kill all 5 of them, leaving just the leader, who fails his morale. 3 Warspears then assault the Charger, and while only 2 get into melee range, they reduce it to 2 boxes of movement. The other 2 Warspears run over the screen Lylyth. The Seraph slipstreams the Carnivean up, then takes a few shots at the Ironclad, doing a bit of damage. The Carnivean then charges, the Ironclad and Lancer, his assault hitting 4 Long Gunners. Unfortunately, he's now out of control range, so he doesn't get the boosted rolls. He still manages to take out one Long Gunner and damage the Ironclad a bit, but then misses his bite and one claw. On the upside, the other claw takes out the Ironclad's hammer, saving him from retaliation. The Striders move up and CRA Laddermore, but roll low for damage and she remains mounted. The Shredders run rabid and charge the Ironclad and Lancer respectively, mostly just to tie them up but also doing a few points of damage.

Cygnar Turn 2
Though I've bloodied her nose, my opponent is still in pretty good position. Upkeeping only Blur on the Black 13th and Arcane Shield on the Jounreyman, she starts by having the Long Gunners stand and shoot, giving them 2 5 man CRA's on the Seraph. Thankfully, they roll low on the first one, dealing only 3 points of damage, and manage to miss the second shot entirely! The Charger moves up and feebly misses one of the Warspears, while the Journeyman moves up since he realizes his jack is out of control radius. The remaining Stormguard stands still and passes his command check. Laddermore charges into the Striders, taking out 4 of them and forcing a command check, which they fail. The leader, musician, and one other retreat back, but another is trapped in melee with her and opts to hold. Stryker then walks up, activates his feat, and Earthquakes the Carnivean, knocking over it, the Ironclad, the Lancer, and both Shredders. My opponent realizes she should have activated her jacks first, but is consoled a bit when the Black 13th take advantage of the situation by killing a Shredder and doing a few points to the Carnivean.

Legion Turn 3
I'm doing ok, but I've got to rely on a bit of luck - my Shredder and Carnivean are both out of control, so I can't reave their fury, and while I'd like the Shredder to frenzy, it'd be a lot easier if my Carnivean doesn't. Sadly the both go crazy, and manage to do a decent amount to the Ironclad. The Seraph then moves up and opens fire on Laddermore, dismounting her but failing to kill the dismounted form, who is still in reach of one strider. One Warspear takes out the last Stormguard, while another goes after the Charger but misses his attack. The pair screening Lylyth move up and continue to do so, while the last chargers the Journeyman, failing to hurt him but tying him and 4 Long Gunners up. Lylyth falls back behind the forest, dropping Spiny Growth on herself.

Cygnar Turn 3
The Ironclad and Lancer stand up, continuing their melee and hurting the Carnivean a bit. The Black 13th moves up and shoots the Seraph, seriously injuring it. One of the unengaged Long Gunners shoots at the Warspear who just killed the Stormguard, but can't do anything. The other one, however, rolls really well and finishes off the Seraph. Laddermore finishes the Strider shes engaging, and Styker just moves up a bit blasts the remaining Shredder, leaving it without Spirit or Mind.

Legion Turn 4
Finally with my Carnivean at full efficiency, I move Lylyth up, refresh Spiny Growth, and heal the Shredder to fully effectiveness. The little beast deals a few points to the Ironclad, but then the Carnivean opens up a can of whoopass on it, tearing it to pieces with a few more attacks left over to wound the Lancer! The Warspear fighting the Charger finally manages to kill it, while the other ones not guarding Lylyth move up to engage the Long Gunners. They kill 1, and the Warspear fighting the Journeyman brings him down to 1 life - cursed Arcane Shield! The Striders shoot at Laddermore, but she somehow manages to survive.

Cygnar Turn 4
Sensing she needs to do something to turn the tide of the battle, my opponent takes her swings in melee, then runs Stryker up to the center! Sadly he's low on focus, but still manages to take out the Shredder. The Black 13th fire a few shots into the Carnivean-Lancer melee, doing a bit of damage to both the beast and the jack, while everyone else just takes ineffective swings in melee.

Legion Turn 5
With the caster in the open, I decide to take my shot. Lylyth boosts a shot against Stryker, but misses, and is unable to drop Parasite on him. The unengaged Warspears assault him, but all of them miss! At this point, the store is closing, so I charge my Carnivean at Stryker. Sadly, he is killed by the Lancer, and the game ends in a draw due to the store closing.

Aftermath
I'm really sad we didn't get to finish, since with more time, I'm pretty sure I would've won. The Carnivean could've finished off the Lancer, and then my entire army would be bearing down on Stryker. Still, it was a lot of fun! The Warspears were interesting to try out - they were really effective, pretty much holding the left flank completely on their own. Reach and their toughness were really the game winners, though assault was kind of nice since it helped wreck the Charger. I think it'll be more interesting to use Warmongers, who would've probably been more effective against the Long Gunners with Berserk. Lylyth once again proved to be disappointing. After a great initial Eruption of Spines, she basically did nothing. Her small control mean not only did I have trouble taking advantage of her feat, I also couldn't keep my Carnivean from Frenzying, seriously slowing me down. She would have been more effective if I had been closer up, but I was really concerned about another assassination from Stryker. I guess next time I'll have to pull the Ogrun back a bit so they can keep her safe while she's still out front.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Warmonger Conversion

I've been working on finishing up the Striders lately, but got a bit tired an decided to spend some time on my other unit: the Warmongers. These guys have been a long time in coming, so I'm really excited to get started on them so I can see how they do on the table. Since I'm not a huge fan of the Warmonger sculpts, I ordered the Warspear box and Warmonger weapon arms, and decided to convert them. However, I was in for a surprise when I opened the Warspear box - they're snap together! Each model comes in a few parts, and they can be snapped on/off. Here's one of them, laid out with the different pieces:
The arms each slide on, like so:
The best part about this is its really easy for me to make these guys modular - by switching arms, they can be Warmongers or Warspears, depending on what I feel like playing. All it'll take is drilling a hole in the center of the Warmonger arms, and they'll slide on:
  
For now, I'm going to leave the spear quivers unattached - I'm not sure how to make them removable at the moment, and Warspears are still pretty recognizable without them. I got so excited I decided to finish putting them together, so I'll leave you with my Blighted Ogrun unit, currently using their Warspear arms. Hopefully they'll show up in a report later this week!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Yet another shameless plug

So we've got yet another new player in our group, this one an old veteran from the Mk I days who is getting back into the hobby. Though he initially started off with Cryx, he quickly switched to Menoth, trading his battlebox to my normal Cygnarian opponent (who looks like she's going for a twins theme with Haley and Deneghra!). He's also blogging about his experiences, and you can get to his site through the link on the right.

Battle Report: vs. Gators

Hey guys,

Played another game yesterday, this time against the Blindwater Congregation, the newest Minion Pact. We played at 35 points, so I decided once again to bring out Epic Thagrosh. Here was my list:

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

He was playing a fairly standard Barnabas list:

Bloody Barnabas
2 Blackhide Wrastlers
Full Gatormen Posse
2 Croak Hunters
Wrong-Eye and Snapjaw

Interestingly enough, this was the same opponent whose Skorne I played against 2 weeks back, making him the only player I've faced using Hordes! He won the starting roll and opted to go first.

Blindwater Deployment
He put pretty much everything in the middle, with the Gatormen to the left, the Wrastlers in the center, and Wrong-Eye and Snapjaw to the right.

Legion Deployment
I did a similar placement, putting the Carnivean and Seraph in the middle, Thagrosh behind them, the Shredders to their left and the Spell Martyrs and Forsaken to their right.

Advance Deployment
One Croak deployed on each side, and the Striders placed themselves on the right, partially on a hill.

Blindwater Turn 1
Wrong-Eye and Snapjaw each cast Submerge and charged forward, then Barnabas dropped 3 swamp pits and everthing ran into them.

Legion Turn 1
Sensing my Striders weren't going to be that useful, I ran them up and into the center, forming a line. Though the Wrastlers could get through it, at least the Gatormen would be stopped. Thagrosh cast Dragon's Blood on the Carnivean, and everthing moved up, just behind the Strider line. The Seraph riled for 4 and the Forsaken took all the fury.

Blindwater Turn 2
Outside of Swamp Pit (which he showed off last turn), he proceeded to demonstrate all the shenanigans of the Crocs this turn. First the Feralgeist ran forward, allowing Snapjaw to toss a Wrastler at it. Then the other Wrastler moved up and threw the first one at Thagrosh, though bad deviation meant he was stuck behind the Strider line. Barnabas then activated, charging the Feralgeist, killling it and activating his feat before Rising the thrown Wrastler and casting Warpath. The Gatormen charged the now-helpless Striders, killing 3 and allowing the Wrastler to reposition. He then trampled the Striders and a Shredder to get into melee with Thagrosh, who took a few blows but transferred to the injured Shredder to keep the damage from getting too severe. Finally, Wrong-Eye moved up and cast vodoo doll on the Carnivean, taking out his Spirit.

Legion Turn 2
Ouch, I'm seriously hamstringed, but I feel like I can still pull this off. In my control I stand up Thagrosh all the beasts (except the Seraph who can't be knocked down). The Striders activate first, standing up and moving out of the way. Thagrosh then activates, casting Manifest Destiny and smacking the Wrastler next to him pretty hard, taking out both Mind and Spirit before activating his feat. The Forsaken then stands up and uses Blightstorm, rolling POW 8 + 6d6 on the Wrastler fighting Thagrosh....and rolling 3 1's for a total of 22. This would be the first in my storm of bad luck, and I noticed average rolls would have killed the beast. Not feeling down, I had my crippled Carnivean move up and spray the other Wrastler and Barnabas behind him, but failing to hit either. The Seraph then charged up and with poison, kills the beast. The Shredders Rabid and one goes after Barnabas, rolling terribly on the 3 dice and not doing any damage. The other Shredder goes after the Wrastler fighting Thagrosh, and deals 1 point. I move the Spell Martyrs and then end, moving to my feat. All or nothing time! The Seraph moves up and hits Barnabas, through a slew of 1's mean I only deal 3 points of damage. The Carnivean then tries his luck, but rolls a 3 to hit. Finally a Shredder heads over in a last ditch attempt, but still only manages to put 2 points on the Gatorlock. At this point, I conceded, as the Wraster in combat with Thagrosh was about to finish him.

Aftermath
So I've heard a lot of things about how powerful Gators are, but nothing alone struck me as terribly powerful alone. It really was the combination of Barnabas's feat, Vodoo Doll, Swamp Pit, and the Wrastler throws that put me in a really weak position, and without any one of those, I would have been fine against the other 3. Even then my die rolls were abysmal, and average rolls would've let me take Barnabas out. Once again, I wish I had Ogrun, as they could not be trampled, which would have kept Thagrosh safe for another turn (also putting Dragon's Blood on them would've made them really tough to crack!). In hindsight, I probably should have run the Striders to the side, keeping them out of Barnabas's feat range so they could swoop in for the flank. They didn't provide much help as a defensive line and they really lose a lot from being knocked down. In my defense I forgot about his feat, and figured DEF 15 would have allowed them to do something. Of all my losses though, this one has left the most bitter taste taste in my mouth, as I went up against a pretty crazy army, felt like I did pretty much everything right, and then got completely shafted by the dice. Such is Warmachine though.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

First half of striders painted

My Tuesday and Wednesday groups were both painting this week, so I took the opportunity to get going on my Striders. Here are the first 4 that I've finished:




Also some closeups of the actual unit leader, who I'm particularly proud of since half painted yesterday I was certain he was going to come out terribly:


In particular you can see the radiant platinum on his cape with the back view.

Though they aren't the best minis in the world, I'm pretty pleased with how the color scheme turned out. I initially tried dark grey for the skin, but there wasn't enough contrast so I changed it to the same ice blue as my beasts. I then used the grey for the feather cloaks, which worked much better than dark black since it let some of the detail show. As I mentioned earlier, the capes were done in radiant platinum, which I think came out really nicely. One reason I'm glad I switched from 40k is I can actually take the time to paint each individual model in great detail - these guys took me around an hour each, which is feasible when the army is ~25 models, but not when it's 75+!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Pirates, yar!

So I put together some Talion Charter lists, and I have to say, I really like how they're coming together. Shae's tier list seems really effective, and I'm thinking of doing 35 points tier 4 like this:

Shae +6
-Buccaneer 3
-Freebooter 6
-Mule 8
-Commodore Cannon 4
Max Press Gangers 6
Max Sea Dogs 8
-Mr. Walls 2
Grogspar 1
Doc Killingsworth 1
Hawk 1
Rockbottom 1

There are two main parts I like about this list. First, with all the infantry, it should play very differently from my Legion army, which relies mostly on beasts. Second, I can replace Shae with another Warcaster and battlegroup to create a different but still effective army. Broadsides Bart is the most obvious option, and taking him with a Mariner and Master Gunner MacNaile instead of the Freebooter and Buccaneer gives me a very shooty force. Drake McBain and a pair of Nomads are another alternative, and since they'll have to be Four Star Syndicate or Highborn Covenant instead of Talion, I can also start looking into cool solos like Gorman Di Wulfe.

So then, looks like I've got my next army chosen. I probably won't get a chance to start them until January at the earliest, as I'd like to get my Legion together first, though I may proxy them for a game or two sooner!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Another order placed, another set of ruminations

With most of my current models primed I decided it was a good time to order the next batch (mainly because last time I ended up waiting quite a while for the next batch). I decided to pick up the following:

Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
Nephilim Soldier
Warmongers (Full Unit)

With these guys I should be able to round my army out to 50 points, and also have several options for 35 points. I'm not a huge fan of the Warmonger models, so I opted to buy Warspears instead, and also ordered the Warmonger weapons from Privateer. I'm going to try my hand at converting (and hey, if I'm feeling ambitious, maybe I'll magnetize them so I can choose between the two), and I'll be sure to post how that goes. The only other guys I really want at the moment are the Blackfrost Shard, but as they aren't released yet, this will probably cap my Legion purchases for the time being - I feel like I have plenty options to build, paint, and play with for the time being. Of course, this leads me to thinking about the Warmachine army I've been wanting to start up! Though I started off looking at Retribution and Magnus, Talion Charter has started to pull my attention (Pirates!). I'll post when I hammer out more details.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Battle Summaries

I'm traveling for work this week, so no time to game. However, I did get several more games in last week that I'll summarize. All 3 were against people who had played a while, so it was nice to test my skills against people who weren't making as many mistakes.

vs. Skorne
My first game against a Hordes army. He was playing a tier 4 Epic Morghul list, with 2 units of blood runners and a bunch of warbeasts. Overall, I was severely outnumbered, and using advance deployment a lot of his stuff moved up the field really quickly. He managed to get the charge on my guys and pretty much took me apart on turn 2. My Carnivean died to Morghul, and with his feat Thagrosh was unable to take him down. As an army thats used to getting the charge, it was pretty rough to be charged, and I definitely understand why people call Legion a glass cannon - if you don't get the first hit, you're in a lot of trouble.

vs. Retribution
This game was part of the Blighted Shadows wrap-up, and turned into a pretty brutal match. Though Blight Bringer helped me clear out several solos an cripple his units, I was once again badly outnumbered. This time I put all my guys on the far right to defend a flank, and manage to fair pretty well. Respawn kept my Carnivean in the game till the end, and he managed to kill Garreth at the last moment, when only Saeryn, the Carnivean, Garreth and Eurydae were left.

vs. Cygnar
This Cyngarian opponent was much better than my normal one - he was running Kara Sloan, and ended up taking my army apart piece by piece. Looking back, I should have rushed everyone forward, since my sending them in one at a time, I let my opponent focus all his fire on each one. Sadly this was also part of the Blighted Shadows finale, so I had to take Saeryn again. I would have preferred using Thagrosh, as Rabid Shredders could run forward, then activate again for a total of 24" range, enough to catch Sloan.

The main thing that came up in all the games was how small my army is in comparison. Fixing that will be difficult - I may invest in some Legionnaires or the new Grotesques, since they are about 1/2 a point per model if you buy the maximum. At this point, playing refused flank (putting all my forces together to face one part of the enemy army) seems viable, especially if I get some Ogrun, as once my beasts take a unit or two apart, they can move in to take hits. Also, getting to know enemy armies should help me better prepare for them.