Lock & Load 2011

Last weekend was Privateer Press' Lock & Load convention, and what a blast it was! There was too much cool stuff for me to describe it all here, so I'll just go over some highlights

-I played against people from Utah, Tennessee, British Columbia, and even Mexico! The player from B.C. was running a Skorne list complete with Molik Karn. This was only my second time playing against Skorne and first time against the infamous Karn. He did a lot of damage with with 14" threat range and 10" retreat, but I managed to drag him down with the power of Saeryn's feat.

-I played an awesome scenario game, this one against the player from Mexico. I had 25 points to his 50, and had to keep his army out of the back 10" of the board. To make things easier, there was a massive gate just outside my deployment zone, so his entire army was trying to get through an 8" gap! The interesting thing was he brought a Cygnar gunline as the attacker, while I had a balanced Rhyas list as the defender. It came down to the wire since though he tore my army up early, he did so while advancing slowly and realized he wouldn't make it if his Precursor Knights didn't break Shield Wall and run. In the end, he managed to knock down my Scythean so Ol' Rowdy could avoid the free strike and win.

-I got drafted into the 5 Commander tournament as part of the aptly named Ship of Fools. Each team had 5 players, and they would pair off and play. We were scrambling to get our forms done in time since the team was assembled at the last minute, but managed to get everything in thanks to a first-round bye. The two games I played were some of the best I've had: the first was against a Trollblood army, and we both spent the game dancing around each other to avoid losing our heavies to a charge from the enemy. It was definitely the most cerebral game I've had to date. The second was against another Everblight player, which was interesting since I knew his army incredibly well. He had Epic Thagrosh and lots of warbeasts, including a Carnivean and Typhon. He was no match for Saeryn's Carnivean and Scythean though, and I managed to bring him down by caster kill by hitting Thagrosh with Breath Stealer, 2 Ice Cages, and Kiss of Lyliss before trampling a Scythean over some Shredders and buying attacks to finish him. That's quickly becoming one of my favorite tricks! This also marks my first win in a tournament, so I'm pretty excited about that.

-I attended two seminars: The History of the Iron Kingdoms, and Concept to Book: A Model’s Journey Panel & Workshop. The first was Doug Seacat talking about some history of the Iron Kingdoms, which, while geeky, was a lot of fun. I've definitely spent afternoons on the forums just browsing through everything he's posted, and this was similar except in person. The second one was also amazing: after we listened to some background on the development process, we got to make our own league models. The one I really want to mention is the Strider Deathbringer, a version of the Strider Deathstalker that is a lesser warlock. I'm particularly psyched about her because it was my suggestion, and I'm really hoping she'll show up in one of the future leagues!

-I managed to snag two amazing sketch art prints, one of Garryth and one of a Satyxis Blood Witch.They don't do them justice, but here are some pictures:

-There was some amazing art of what I'm pretty certain are Epic Vayl and Hexeris. Here are some pictures of them:

Overall, the weekend was a ton of fun, and I can't wait for next year's Lock & Load!

Some assembly required

Some of you may remember that I was hoping to put up pictures of the modelling projects I was working on towards the end of last month. While I was delayed even more than expected, several of them are finally coming to fruition! First off, I'd like to present, for the second time, my Scythean!

The main problem I had with him was the arms - they were too heavy, and just wouldn't stay on, no matter what I tried. Eventually, I got help from a friend of mine at my local gaming store and pinned the arms on. I'm hoping to get him painted over the course of the next week, and I'll put up more pictures when I do.

Next is a project I've been meaning to get done for sometime. When ordering my last unit, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with Warmongers or Warspears. I really didn't like the look of the Warmonger models, so I decided to get a Warspear box and several Warmonger arms, and convert them. However, after playing for a few weeks, I discovered I preferred each type of Ogrun in different situations, so rather than just convert them, I magnetized the arms so I can swap them out. So here they are, my Warmongers/Warspears:

I greenstuffed over the magnets attached to the stumps and Warspear arms, but didn't do it for the Warmonger arms since they were too heavy for the magnets to hold with GS in the way. With any luck the paint will cover the magnets well enough that they won't be noticible.

Also coming up this week is Lock & Load, Privateer Press's first gaming convention. I'll be going, and aside from a few seminars, I plan to spend most of my time in the Iron Arena. Hope to see you guys there!

Battle Report: Epic Thagrosh vs. Rahn, 35 points

One of the major problems I've been dealing with lately has to do with Epic Thagrosh. I'm a huge fan of both the model, and he's a big part of why I got into Everblight in the first place, but when it comes to playing him, I'm running into some problems. It feels like Shredder Spam is his only good list, particularly since I like to use my feat to go after the enemy Warcaster, and Shredders are really the only beasts that can hit their high DEF due to Rabid. While this wouldn't be a huge problem on its own, Shredder Spam has some serious issues dealing with infantry, meaning more often than not I find my favorite dragon-possessed Ogrun sitting on the sidelines.

I've been thinking about new ways to use Thagrosh, and decided to seriously try using Scourge for an assassination. This can also help the problems I'm having with his feat, since even my MAT 6 heavies can hit a knocked down Warcaster with their feat attack. With that in mind, I built the following list:

Thagrosh, the Messiah
* Shredder
* Carnivean
* Scythean
Blackfrost Shard
Blighted Nyss Striders
* Officer & Musician
2 Spell Martyrs

The Striders are there to help clear problematic infantry, and the Blackfrost Shard can also help my heavies hit Warcasters without boosting thanks to Ice Cage.

I went up against one of the Retribution players at my LGS yesterday, and he brought this list:

Adeptis Rahn
* Chimera
* Phoenix
Battle Mages
Full Houseguard Halberdiers
* Officer & Standard
* Soulless Escort
Stormfall Archers
Arcanist
House Shyeel Magister
Lanyssa Ryssyll, Nyss Sorceress

Only one unit of Battle Mages, rare for Rahn, though I'm not liking Lanyssa Ryssyll. My opponent wins the roll but decides I should go first.

Terrain

Everblight Deployment
Deciding that the wall will be the best way to hide Thagrosh, I deploy most of my force on the left side, with Thagrosh on the far left, the Carnivean, Scythean, and Shredder next to him, and the Spell Martyrs behind them. I don't want the Blackfrost Shard to have to take abomination checks, so I deploy them on the right, behind the rough terrain.

Retribution Deployment
My opponent deploys his force across from Thagrosh and my beasts. The Houseguard Halberdiers form the front line, with the Stormfall Archers and Lanyssa Ryssyll next to them. Rahn, his jacks, and the Arcanist deploy in the middle, and the Battle Mages deploy on the right, across from the Blackfrost Shard.

Everblight Advance Deployment
The Striders deploy in front of the Blackfrost Shard in the terrain, hoping to contain the Battle Mages so they can't do much with Rahn's feat.

Everblight Turn 1
Everyone but Thagrosh runs forward, setting up so if my opponent moves forward, I get hit him next turn. Thagrosh moves up behind the wall and gives himself and the Carnivean Spiny Growth.

Retribution Turn 1
My opponent advances cautiously, moving his Houseguard up in shield wall and sending Lanyssa Ryssyll into the forest so she can benefit from stealth. The Chimera runs forward, and Rahn moves up behind the Halberdiers and arcs Chain Blast into my Striders, killing one. The Battle Mages move up behind the Chimera, and the Phoenix and Arcanist follow Rahn behind the Houseguard. The Archers move up and use Snipe to try to hit the Scythean, but are all out of range and the scatters fail to do any damage.

Everblight Turn 2
I don't like Lanyssa as far up as she is, so I have both my Carnivean and Thagrosh try to incinerate her with their sprays, but to no avail. I then use a Spell Martyr to arc Scourge onto her, but fail to kill her by rolling snake eyes for damage! The Striders pick off several Battle Mages, and the Blackfrost Shard moves to the center, taking a few shots at the Chimera.

Retribution Turn 2
He once again moves up slowly, bringing his Halberdiers into range of most of my force but hiding Rahn, the Phoenix, and the Stormfall Archers behind them. On the right side, the Battle Mages and Chimera take down 3 more Striders, bringing them to half their number.

Everblight Turn 3
Things aren't looking good for me, but my opponent has moved Rahn up far enough that I can take a shot at him. I run my remaining Spell Martyr onto the hill, then have Thagrosh arc Scourge onto him to knock him down. I feat, and have my Carnivean charge the Houseguard so I can catch Rahn with the assault spray. The Blackfrost Shard also steps up and take shots at the Warcaster, but he still has 5 health left. I run my Scythean over the hill to the back of his lines, and after the Striders take down most of the Battle Mages, the heavy beast uses its feat move to step up and crush Rahn under its scythes.

Aftermath
I can't believe how well the plan worked. Running + feat gave me great threat range, and using the hill I was able to hit Rahn despite behind behind his line of Halberdiers. Pretty much everything in my list helped out: the Striders cleared enemy troops, the Spell Martyrs let me arc scourge, and my heavies gave me the killing blow. While I initially thought Typhon might be a better option than the Carnivean, I remembered why I dislike him when I checked the spray range - Rahn was 9" back from the front line, out f Typhon's range but in the Carnivean's. The one thing I'm thinking of switching out is the Blackfrost Shard. While Ice Cage and Kiss of Lyliss may help my heavies on feat turn, drawing line of sight is still pretty tough. I'm thinking of replacing them with a Nephilim Soldier, since that gives me another beast that can help with the feat assassination, especially with reach and POW 14. Overall though, I'm pretty excited, since this is the first game I've played where it felt like going for the assassination was a better idea than trying to dismantle the opposing army. Though I'm still not that comfortable risking the entire game on the assassination working, hopefully as I get more experiance I'll get more comfortable and better at it!