An idea - Butcher2

I have not had much time lately (story of my life). I did finish painting my Iron Fang Pikemen and undercoated the Widowmakers and the Marauder. The wind was well and truly thrashed from my sails when I realised that I couldn't go to Wintercon. I've got a family commitment that weekend and have had to take time off work as well. That was annoying but I'm over it now and ready to paint/play  again (funny how sometimes when circumstances conspire to force you to stop doing something you like that as a reaction you kind of boycott doing that thing you like as a big 'Get Bent' to the universe).

Anyways, I have come up with an idea for Butcher2 that doesn't involve 800 Doom Reavers and looks real fun. I still have 16 points to play with but the core is Butcher2, Beast, second jack (Spriggan at this stage), Saxon, Madelyn, Iron Fang Pikemen and UA and Alexia1. The second jack can be anything but I'm thinking a ranged jack like Ivan could do the job. I'll probably want a Bokur, Gorman and the dog to try keep Butcher alive. Widowmakers or Rifle Corp seem like they would be a nice fit too.

The idea is that Butcher2 brings a feat that is pretty good and also two great spells (Fury and Boundless Charge) for ensuring single models get the charge and do a large amount of damage. Eliminator is basically ignored on his card. I am a firm believer that the Butcher can run Jacks very well, especially once you get into combat range but I don't know if I can fit three in. Especially if I also stick to my "take a bombard" rule.

It looks real fun. I'd like Kodiak or Marauder in there to make some nice assassinations possible with two handed throws or Slams but I suspect Spriggan or Ivan will be my choice at the end. Pikemen could get a downright silly threat between charge, mini feat and the actual feat. Looks something like 23" of non-linear threat. Lots could go wrong in that though (and MAT 6 is not really enough once you get there unless you boost win the rage tokens to fish for a crit - seems an unreliable strategy).

I'm going to think more about it but the core is solid.

Vlad3, the soapiest prince in the Iron Kingdoms

Vlad3, you look at his card and you feel underwhelmed. The feat is kind of unimpressive. The spell list is nice but Infernal Machine feels like poor mans Superiority and if you wanted Hand of Fate you would have played Vlad1 or Vlad2. Dash gets your threat range up but Vlad2, Strakhov and everyone  with Boundless Charge can do that in bigger bursts. You finally realise the interactions between all in the saddle, blood quenched and flashing blade but you think that just chewing through tightly packed infantry is not really enough because, after all, the Winter Guard can go in every list and lots of armies have undead infantry or lots of beasts and jacks. But he is on a horse, so you will buy him anyway.

I went through this exact process and now I am pretty sure I understand what Vlad3 brings to the party and its soap. He is slippery and, if used correctly, cleans out all the irritating dirt. To put it plainly, he and his army is very hard to pin down. You can see this in the way Vlad himself does business. He can make attacks before he moves, mid-move and also after he has done moving. On feat turn he then can get out. He also can get himself protected from non-magical guns. His feat is very Circle-esque with side-steps and sprints. It all comes down to Dash. This is the spell I intend to leverage and it is not the +1 speed but the immunity to free strikes that has me excited. To understand why you need to understand a little of my introduction to this game.

My first game was Irusk1 against Stryker1 in a 15 point affair. Apart from learning the rules I discovered that being tied up was lame and that casters can kill lots of infantry in a turn just by buying attacks. I also sent Beast in did damage to a Lancer and a Hunter, lost my cortex and had the hunter back out and shoot me again! The next game was 15 points against Kraye where I got jack bulleted, teaching me that a long way away is not far enough. The third was 25 points and Parry weas my bane. I tried tying down a Hunter and Kraye and it just didn't happen. Pursuit also hindered me but the final straw was Kraye waltzing away from lots of Winterguard and a Spriggan and two shooting Irusk.

So from day 1 I have had respect for Parry. If you read the PP Forums most people seem to be using Kayazy or Man-o-War (or the theme force with lots of cavalry) with Vlad. This is strange to me. The all-cavalry thing I get from an aesthetic perspective but from a gameplay and effectiveness stand point it looks weak. Kayazy are the last unit I would put with him. If you want Kayazy you would be better off with pretty much anyone else but Vlad2 or Irusk1 or either Butcher scream out for them. That is because these guys make Kayazy hit like a truck. What Vlad3 does is yet your guys into position and immunity to free strikes wants guns. Sure you can push further in with Parry but it seems mediocre. I think guns is where it is at and specifically sprays. This means Winterguard. There is some nice interaction going on here. Firstly, walking out of combat to spray bunched up infantry is glorious but backing up 7 with an 8 inch ranged gun seems pretty fun too.

The Winter Guard with Joe and Bob and Weave is just survivable enough to not disappear to a stiff breezes and, contrary to widely held belief, they offer a lot more than defence 17 with Iron Flesh. I value their offence far more because they are accurate and POW12 (or 10 spraying) and under Hand of Fate they are hit accurately enough to take out everything with pseudo-boosted boosted attacks (can CRA if needed) and pseudo-boosted POW12s go through heavy infantry quite fast too (Cetrati under Xerxis feat or Champs under the rock are no easy feat but against that sort of armour the jacks can come into their own).

I am trying to keep other models in the list with some utility in terms of staying out of the mire. All the infantry can walk out of combat but I have included Saxon as well to stop a literal mire keeping them at bay. For jacks I will take Beast and Torch. It is a tough call for Torch (see the other days post) because Spriggan has bulldoze that plays into the theme but I have decided that the combination of that spray with Virtuoso and Gunfighter gets the effect I want a bit better. Beast is there as a heavy hitter and also because hyper aggressive triggering for a 6" advance turns out to be a slippery moment all in itself. I also like both jacks rocking MAT7 which means they can get up to 9 but generally don't need HoF on them.

I hope to run the list this coming weekend but it depends on people's availability. It seems very sound from my thinking. The plan is once again to try attrition and grab points and if an assassination comes up to take it. We shall see.

Situationally Brilliant - of Torch and other niche things

I've been away this weekend and, during the drive, I thought a bit about my two lists and options I have with them. I am pretty happy with Vlad2 but Vlad3 has all kinds of options. I would like Rocketeers, I would like a Koldun Lord and I am unsure about Eiryss1. In the end the only change I am going to make is to drop the Spriggan for Torch. Yes, Torch the oh so hated of jacks. 

I kind of get why people really don't like him. He promises so much conceptually but never really delivers. Part of this is his predecessor, the Decimator, who possesses the coolest looking weapon in Khador but is a pretty junk jack. Torch is an expensive melee jack with some cute options. He looks completely badass but if you compare him side by side with other jacks in his point range, well, let us just say it becomes hard to justify him. This seems to be because his three signature abilities are a lot more corner case than others. Take Spriggan, Reach is a massive deal, Bulldoze is useful most games because it opens up options and the grenades/flares have enough utility to do good work.

Torch has Relentless Charge which feels redundant with most casters because of Boundless Charge but let me tell you that I think pathfinder on heavies is in the same ballpark as reach. Big claim, I know. Most tables I play on have several pieces of terrain and most Warmachine armies end up providing at least on irritatingly located wreck marker. I want to use Torch as a second line jack so this should be pretty useful. 

Torch has his immunities. People say these are either useless 99% of the time or game breaking against Legion, Menoth and Cryx. Both parties are wrong. Even though the immunities are a non factor against Cygnar, Khador, Retribution etc etc you have to look at them in the spectre of tournaments as whole entities rather than games and also what they get you when they work. Tis second element is why the second party is wrong. Cryx have little corrosion type attacks that they use against jacks. Menoth and Legion have fire or corrosive boostable guns. Fun times. It does not break the game but it does allow your jack to get to the fight. I am going to run Torch with Vlad3 to give multiple options for ranged defence. I already have Wind Wall and Beast has hyper aggressive so is gives me a nice little package of options. For example, an opponent with a ravagore/reckoner, do they shoot Beast because they cannot target Vlad because he Wind Walled to keep him and Fenris safe but know that if they don't wreck him he will hyper aggressive 6" forward each shot? Most likely they use the naga for magic guns (if I remember his animus correctly) but you get the point.

The third ability is his smoke bombs. I don't foresee these being super useful because speed 4 just isn't enough but I think it will be a nice surprise. I don't know why but I got a good feeling.

I guess the main point is this; if you don't take things because they won't be useful in every game then you don't get the enhanced value that they do give in other games. Besides, it is not as of he is completely useless. Sustained attack, a buffed stat line, a boostable spray that has continuous fire (albeit short ranged) and an open fist are all rules/abilities that give game influencing options when they come up. So I'm going to take him with an open mind so that even though I don't now quite what he will do in any game, I know my mind is waiting for moments of opportunity. 

I'll report back with results in due course. Hopefully, I will get to attend two events in the next month.

Keeping your trousers up

I recently starting reading a blog from one of the guys on WargamerAU called Will Warcast for Cash. It is a very entertaining read and I encourage anyone to go have a read. In it the author makes an argument for why he does not like the pirates. Put simply, the argument is that there are too many points spent on solos to get the ship going and that invites easy and effective gameplay decisions from your opponent. I connected quite strongly with this flavour of argument since I had been thinking about the issues already. Really, you only need your support to keep your trousers up around your waist not your underarms. A drawstring, a button, a belt and braces are kind of excessive; you only need one.

Getting back to Warmachine and Khador, there comes a point where you have just spent too many points on support pieces. It is a really easy trap to walk into because a lot of the support pieces do some really cool things. For example, every Irusk1 list I build starts with a jack, Sylys, Reinholdt, Joe, Saxon and then I consider other things like Greylords or a Koldun Lord. If I put all these in then I have 13 points of support. It starts to pinch real quick. In list building it will usually mean I cannot get a second heavy or a second mainline unit of infantry. In game it leads to two bad situations. If you take a lot of support and rely on it and then you lose all your support then you don’t have enough stuff to compete. Worse is if your opponent manages to even just compete in a fight and grind out your mainline stuff then you have a caster and a bunch of support and support usually sucks at killing stuff.

The final point that I have been thinking about is that if I put too much support in then it stops my Warcaster doing his or her thing. Khador Warcasters are among the best in the game for supporting their army with spells such as Iron Flesh, Hand of Fate, Fury, Battle Lust, Superiority and so on. Maybe it does not stop them per se but it obscures their impact. I also want to put into this category those luxury items. Things like Winter Guard Rocketeers or even Eiryss or Gorman. I really should note before I go on that some factions (looking at you Trollbloods and Protectorate) have been designed to take a lot more support pieces. Part of it is that their support is just so good – Choir and Vassals would probably make it into every other faction’s lists with ease.

I’ve tweaked my lists that I hope to take to Wintercon to try and limit the amount of support and stuff that does not do a whole lot of work that I am running. Vlad2 has just the Koldun Lord and arguably the Dog and Eiryss2 (full list is now Vlad, Behemoth, Dog, Full Pikemen and UA, Doom Reavers and UA, Widowmakers, Koldun Lord running a Marauder, Yuri and 2x Manhunters and Eiryss2). For Vlad3 I have dropped Rocketeers and the Koldun Lord (full list is now Vlad, Beast, Spriggan, dog, full Winter Guard with UA, Joe, Doom Reavers with UA, Fenris, Saxon, the bears and Eiryss1). In both lists I have toyed with dropping the Doom Reaver UA for Gorman and a Koldun Lord respectively but I think I’ll stick it out because tough is irritating and making 2-3 tough rolls on a Doom Reaver is pretty awesome.

Painting update: I am about half way through my Pikemen so it is looking unlikely that I will be able to paint even one entire list in time. Sad times.

Battle Report: Vlad2 vs Stryker2

So it appears I will get to write this one up now. Hopefully I can get to a point where I know a good way to write these. I really want to add pictures because otherwise battle reports can get a bit dull.

The game was Vlad2 against Stryker2 at 50 points and the scenario w as Rally Point. Our lists were as follows:

Vlad2, Behemoth, Dog, Max Iron Fang Pikemen and Unit Attachment, Doom Reavers and Unit Attachment, Widowmakers, Koldun Lord marshalling a Marauder, Eiryss2, Gorman and the Great Bears.

Stryker2, Rowdy, Stormclad, Squire, Stormblades, Gun Mages with Unit Attachment, Min Storm Lances, 3x Stormcaller, Arlan, Rhupert, Lanyssa, Eiryss2 and the Journeyman Warcaster (Jr).

I won the roll and elected to go first. My pre-game thought process was that I wanted to keep Vlad back to make it harder for Stryker to get him, I wanted to try get some control points and I wanted to push for table presence with Doom Reavers while I shoot with my snipers and the Behemoth.

Deployment
I deployed everything centrally. He deployed centrally with his Gun Mages, Rhupert and Lanyssa on my left flank behind a forest and the Storm Lances on my right side. For my Advance Deployment I out the Widowmakers on the left with Eiryss and I out the Doom Reavers just to the right of my objective. His Eiryss hung out with his Gun Mages in the forest. The Bears are on my left side before I forget.

Turn 1
I ran stuff forward. I put Hand of Fate on Behemoth, Assail on Marauder and Transference on Vlad. The Koldun Lord power boosted Behemoth to run, the Marauder used his pseudo focus to run. I ran the Widowmakers behind a linear obstacle opposite the forest but I spread two out to avoid the Gun Mage CRA special blast thing. The Doom Reavers moved about 3-4 inches too few (I was worried about losing them to charge/run and feat).

He runs stuff forward casts deflection. Rhupert makes the Gun Mages have pathfinder, they move up and between them and Eiryss they kill two Widowmakers who promptly fail they command check. He also moves the objective int his zone. Arcane Shield is out on the Storm Lances who advance a bit but hang behind the objective and a linear obstacle to stop the Doom Reavers getting on them.

Turn 2
I am pretty bummed about the Widowmakers failing command. I wanted them to aim and start thinning out the Gun Mages because I didn't want the Gun Mages killing Doom Reavers or Pikemen, I wanted them tied up. Anyways, I upkeep all my spells and put 2 on Behemoths sub-cortex. Behemoth walks up and tries to take a shot at a Gun Mage, I am out of range so it scatters but I get lucky and it hits Rhupert, I boost, he dies. I take another shot, get lucky it scatters, hits Lanyssa, I boost, she dies. I might have tagged someone else as well I'm not sure. Eiryss aims shoots the other Eiryss in a forest and misses (we both totally forgot about stealth which was funny). The Bears move up to sit behind the linear obstacle in base to base. I activate Vlad, feat for 6 Doom Reavers then dominate my objective and move it into my zone. I send the Doom Reavers in thinking I can get 3-4 onto Stormclad. I was wrong. I get two on Stormclad, three fail charges and one runs to engage the Storm Lances. The first Doom Reaver does 5-6 damage, the second dials it to 11 and does something like 15-18 leaving the Stormclad with 5 or 6 boxes and not the Cortex. He passes his abomination checks with other stuff. The Pikemen Shield Wall and get into position. I forgot to put anything in his zone which was a mistake.

He has super Doom Reavers clogging up his table space but I think he didn't realise the feat buffs their defences so much. He spend his turn killing Doom Reavers. His Plan was to repair Stormclad, swing and arc lightning onto them. This doesn't work when Arlan rolls box cars for his repair check so now he has two focus on Stormclad with crippled weapons. Sad times. After a bunch of skill checks from Stormcallers, Rowdy, Storm Lances, Stormblades he as killed all the Doom Reavers and the UA. His Gun Mages slowly walk rough the forest do the Mage inferno order on the bears kill the one that gives pathfinder, force a tough on another (which he makes) and does 4 to the last Bear. Eiryss moves up and shoots Behemoth. He scores a point.

Turn 3
I upkeep my spells. Between the Widowmakers and the Bears I kill a few Gun Mages and Eiryss. Behemoth is power boosted and shoots and kills some Stormblades I think. I Hand of Fate the Pikemen and send them in and mini feat, I kill some stuff I think, I knock out Rowdys weapons, I do 13 to the objective and I clog up the zone. Gorman runs int his zone to control it. Vlad sits on 2 focus (I either boosted something with Transference or paid to upkeep Hand of Fate even though Eiryss stripped it). My Eiryss runs into the middle of stuff and gets within 5 of his jacks. I score 3.

His turn, he kills some pikemen, he kills Gorman, he kills a bear but he has to go for it because his jacks will die next turn and I am ahead on control points and board position. Arlan rolls an 11 on his repair check so he has to run Rowdy 11" from Stryker, positive charge him, velocity top lad taking two Pikemen freestrikes (which do 5 or 6 damage but no critical knockdown), somewhere along the way he shot the dog which toughed. He gets 3 attacks on Vlad after overloading for +7 he misses, hits for lots leaving me on 5 then misses and he feats and his feat attack misses.

Then Vlad with 8 focus casts Martial Paragon and boosts hit and damage and its over. I've got a few thoughts that I will put down sometime later.

Rolled some dice

The last month has been very busy for me (hence the silence) but yesterday afternoon I got to play two games. Both were against a good friend of mine and I rocked Vlad2 in both games and I had a great time. I won the first game (50 points against Stryker2) and I won the second game as well (35 points against Feora2). The second game is kind of a fake win since we were running out of time so my opponent just went for a Judicator trample to Vlad but took two freestrikes from super solider Iron Fang Pikemen. I don't think I was a lock for the win but I was probably just ahead.

I plan on writing a bit of a more detailed battle report tomorrow. I didn't take any pictures so it will probably be a bit text heavy perhaps. All in all, I really liked the way the lists (particularly the 50 points one) played. I bunched up a bit preventing my Marauder getting to the fight and I didn't push my Doom Reavers far enough forward so they clogged up my lines (and missed some charges) because of that. Yet I still played it the way I designed it. I attritioned and looked for opportunities to score control points. That was what brought Stryker to go for it and I survived.

The one thing that I was thinking about the games (particularly the 50 point game) was that it is really hard to distinguish how much luck played a role. Finishing a game you won tends to feel as if you were not lucky and it is all skill but I am trying not to do that. I can remember several rolls that I guess could be attributed to luck that greatly influenced the game. I got two lucky scatters on turn 1 with Behemoth - sure it is lucky but I was shooting that way trying to get some thing (this is a moment of luck I engineered I think). I spiked a damage roll on a feated Doom Reaver against his Stormclad meaning that while only two guys got on him he only had 5 boxes left. He failed skill checks for Arlan to repair on consecutive turns making it much harder for him to clear out my dudes.

So I don't know. I think with luck a huge part of success is making the most of it when it comes around. You also have to be putting yourself in situations it can occur. I think it all comes to playing the game with a really aggressive mindset. Play to beat your opponent; even when you win because they went for it and failed it was probably your play that engineered the situation.

Seeing the Potential

I'm going to admit it, I've done next to nothing Warmachine/Hordes related this week - except listen to two episodes of Chain-attack. I really like this podcast because even when I am not interested in the casters being discussed I know they'll rip I to each other enough to be entertaining.

The episodes got me thinking. First, Grim2 looks exceptionally fun to play - all of which makes my next faction more likely to be Trolls than Skorne. Dygmies, in particular, look pretty brutal with him. Nothing is fun about effective RAT 8 POW 16 shots from 10 guys who are dirt cheap and difficult to stop doing their thing. Take this with a grain of salt since I have zero experience with trolls.

The second thing I thought about was Morvahna2. When I read her rules I wasn't super impressed. I thought she looked good but hardly in the top 3-4 of Circle. Well, the community tends to disagree with people calling her top 5 in the game. So, who is right?

Probably everyone else to be honest. Listening to the podcast helped me understand it a bit better. I think she will be dominating for a month or two more then people will figure out the best way to beat her. I don't think she is as good as Haley2, Denny1, Gaspy2 or Harbinger. These guys are monsters and, frankly, can do some stuff that Morvahna can't even dream of. That said, re-rolls for no fury cost are pretty awesome.

Morvahna2 is one of those casters that I just couldn't see the potential myself with. I can see it with most casters but I just couldn't put it all together without seeing it at work. I'm guessing this happens with everyone to an extent. Sometimes, you just don't see it. The mathematical analogy was that I was basically adding her parts together instead of taking the product of the. Big difference! Like Pete Sampras, she is an excellent front runner so I expect her to seal club with impunity. I also think that as people figure her out she will find it harder to actually get to the front in games. She has some real good tools to establish ascendency (re-rolls, Fog of War to limit damage on the approach and purification) but I don't really see these as necessarily enough. To me, I think if she feats to get back into the game she just stalls losing for one more round. If she feats to get the ascendency then there is a good chance it will be back to level pegging by her next turn. However, if she feats while ahead then you are in all sorts of trouble.

I guess time will tell but I think now that I understand her a bit I can also understand her limits. Or maybe I'll be wrong - plenty better players think she will be top 5 for a long time.

Wintercon Details

I’ve found (via Wargamerau) details regarding Wintercon are out. It is on the 13^th and 14^th (which we already knew) and there will be two events; a 50 point standard steamroller on the Saturday and a 25 point Mangled Metal/Tooth and Claw which only uses the close quarters scenario. Both events are optional two list events; by this I mean you can bring two lists but don’t have to and if you do bring two lists then you don’t have to use both.

I have to admit I was hoping for a 2-3 list Divide and Conquer for the 50 point event because these rarely get run here aside from Masters Events; which I am not really good enough to qualify for to be quite honest. So I was hoping to experience the pros and cons of that particular format. However, that said the format chosen makes it significantly easier for new players or people using new factions to have enough stuff to bring and also have the best chance of competing. It also would have been cool for one event to be a Hardcore format which looks really fun in SR2013; I might suggest someone run one at the LGS.

My initial plan (pending appropriate spousal approval) is to attend to Saturday standard steamroller. Partly because Saturday is a much easier deal for me but also because I find Khador a bit unfulfilling in MM/T&C events. The biggest gripe I have about Khador MM lists is that it can be really tricky to actually write a legal list. A 25 point format essentially means you pick 30 or 31 points of jacks (honourable mention to Old Which for 28). Things get tricky when you have jacks that cost 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13. Conquest exists as well at 19. This is especially pernicious if you don’t own a Bezerker. If you pick any one jack you want then all of a sudden you’ve got next to no options left. At least other factions with lights and lessers can put a filler in if necessary.

Just as example; say you want to run Harkevich (who arguably is at his best in this format). You’ll want Black Ivan; now you have 20 points. If you don’t own a Bezerker then your options are as follows; two heavies that come to a combined cost of 18-20 points. That’s literally it (again, you could just go Conquest). Many Khador players would have a Spriggan; meaning your third jack literally has to be a Destroyer, Demolisher, Devastator, Decimator, Torch or another Spriggan. Most people don’t own two Spriggans and usually the Clamjacks aren’t wanted in this format. It just feels like you have next to no options. It is not a crippling complaint but is exceptionally annoying. That said; Khador does have Behemoth who is kind of a boss in this format. I would be inclined to run Harkevich, Butcher1 or Irusk2 in this format.

It is all a bit of a tangent anyway. I am planning on running Vlad2/Vlad3 for the Steamroller. I am pretty confident I can get Vlad2’s entire list painted up in time. Getting Vlad3’s list painted would probably be pushing it but you never know. I would be half tempted to just run 1 list for simplicities sake.

I’ve been gradually writing up my thoughts on the meta lately. Originally, the plan was to have one blog post about it but it could end up spanning 2-3 instead. Apparently I have a lot of thoughts.

Easter

It is Easter so there is lots of family time, lots of chocolate and hot cross buns. On the Warmachine front things have been quiet. I still haven't fully recovered from being sick so gaming has been out since there is a backlog of stuff to do around the house. However, I did finish painting my Greylord Escort (Doom Reaver UA for those not in the know). I'm reasonably happy with how he looks but his face isn't the best. I kind of suck at painting eyes but I determined to get better which means I just have to paint more eyes!

I also undercoated and painted the arcs on my Iron Fang Pikemen. I am a bit nervous as to how long it will take me to paint all 12. That said, at the same time I really want to get a fully painted army down. Once I finish them I will just have a handful left to complete (for my Vlad2 army). I also tend to surprise myself how quickly I can paint things up and spend a lot of time not painting because I think I won't accomplish anything.

I am hoping to get a game in during the next fortnight or so. I read other blogs and kind of wish I could play once a week or something similar. Mind you much of the stuff I do when other people are gaming (e.g. Chill with my wife) is a lot more awesome. Work is less so though.

Pay 1 to Upkeep

I've accomplished nothing since I finished painting my Doom Reavers on the Warmachine front. I've been sick for a week or so but not sick enough that I couldn't have done the UA. I have this thing that means I procrastinate (heavily) before starting anything. I did some thinking about a Vlad1 list I could put with Vlad2 and Vlad3 purely so I can just play "Vlad" in a three list format. All of which got me thinking of upkeeps.

Most buffs in the games are upkeeps and they are incredibly important. Often it's upkeeps that if define a casters power level. For Khador, our buffs are almost all for our own models. Iron Flesh keeps them alive, Fury helps them put enemies in the dirt etc. For Cryx (as a counter example), a lot of their "buffs" effect the enemy (hence the term debuff). Often these debuffs are more dangerous the reason being that you can concentrate your entire force on the debuffed dudes and once they are removed swap the buff to something else. Concentrated firepower, it's a thing.

Curiously, the importance of upkeeps makes having the ability to remove your opponents buffs am even more important thing (another reason debuffs are often better because you usually get value from them on your turn so even if they can be dropped you get value). It's pretty simple to see why. If you have two unbuffed forces then its an even match and if you have two buffed forces it's an even match but if one side can hold their buffs up (even if they are weaker buffs) while removing those from their opponent it gets lopsided and fast. So stuff like Eiryss2, Harlan Versh and anything with Purification are oh so important to success. Particularly because almost all the skew that floats around involves buffing some key piece (Stormwall, Galleon, Winter guard etc) or the rubbish spam lists (which are super rubbish in almost all cases).

Thinking about Vlad1 made me realise the value of having a non-upkeep dependent casters in your lineup. Obviously, if your opponent drops Morvhanna2 (the flavour of the month) and you have no upkeeps then she loses a weapon because she isn't impacting what you "thang" is. This is way important because without being able to unbalance the game with buffed army against unbuffed army it's a lot more manageable. Having a non-upkeep dependent caster also makes your opponent think in list choice. If the very same Circle player sees Irusk1, Vlad2 and Old Witch they can safely choose the billy goat but just having Vlad1 might make them think. Then you might be able to choose Irusk1 and not be guaranteed to fight Morvhanna2 (or however you spell it).

To finish I thought I would just quickly outline the Vlad1 list I've considered. Basically, it's Vlad, Spriggan, Black Ivan, Juggernaut, Dog, Kayazy and Underboss, Yuri and 2 Manhunters, Widowmakers, Marksman and a Greylord Ternion. I thought about throwing Conquest in but decided not to because I don't own him yet. Lots of work to be done on it but I do like the jack package. Having two beat sticks is nice and the plan wold be to hold one (probably Juggernaut) back for the late game unless I need to load up two jacks, feat and hit a Stormwall. I miss having no upkeep hate but Khador always has one list without it because there is only 1 Eiryss2 and 1 Harlan Versh. Yuri and Friends is in because there is precious little pathfinder in the list otherwise I probably would have continued my Doom Reaver crush.

I think it's unlikely I'll play in a three list event anytime soon but it pays to be prepared just in case.

Vlad Squared

There has been a bit of a change of plans regarding lists for Wintercon and I now am planning on running Vlad2 and Vlad3 (if its three list I will add Vlad1 for lols). There are two reasons for this. The first is that I was pretty hesitant about Sorscha1’s ability to crack heavy armour so I switched in Sorscha2 but I just don’t think she looks fun. Vlad3 does look fun; very fun. This also means a few less things to paint or something. On that note I did finish my Doom Reavers (UA excepted) so I am feeling pretty happy about that. No painting prizes will ever come out of this unit but they look pretty good at the table top level.

Here are the two lists.

  

The Lists

Vlad2

- Behemoth

- Wardog

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer and Standard

Doom Reavers

- Greylord Escort

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Koldun Lord

- Marauder

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Vlad3

- Beast 09

- Spriggan

- Wardog

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer and Standard

- 2 Winter Guard Rocketeers

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

- Greylord Escort

Fenris
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Lady Aiyana and Master Holt

Harlan Versh, Illuminated One
Saxon Orrick

As mentioned the Vlad2 list is slanted towards attrition (via Transference) rather than Assassination. I really like the options in this list. It can crack some serious armour if needed. The Marauder module is nice. It is hard to completely justify it because the Marauder is seriously rubbish once an arm is crippled but I don’t think people will focus on that. Slams are still just as good in the post-Colossals world. Yes, you cannot slam a Stormwall (there might be a ruling that you literally cannot damage them with the Slam as well) but Assail + Slamming one of my Pikemen/Doom Reaver/Gorman or whatever in the back leads to a D6+3” slam which has niche caster kill value if I put two into Behemoth’s sub-cortex. Another cool thing is Assail onto Marauder + Hand of Fate onto Behemoth + 2 onto his sub-cortex turns out to equal exactly 7. The Koldun Lord will be feeding the Marauder to boost the to hit roll. I really like having the option to just go for an unexpected assassination. If I make any changes it will be to drop Gorman for Kell.

  

The Vlad3 list is a bit weird. I have no idea how good it will be but I do know that Winter Guard + Signs and Portents (or in this case Hand of Fate) is a definite thing. I remember shooting to death Thorn (or maybe a normal Lancer) that was engaged by my own jack with WGI+S&P. It was pretty brutal because I landed about 8 of 9 shots needing an 11 to hit! They are only DEF14 which is solid but not back breaking but in combination with tough they can be reasonably resilient. Part of the attraction of something other than Irusk1, Sorscha2, Butcher1 or Old Witch is that you absolutely cannot start to rely on DEF17.

Immunity to free strikes and SPD7 is not something to mess with because it ensures they can bring their guns to bear. Vlad3 has this feel of you take 2 reach jacks (or one reach jack and Drago) and Fenris and anything else you feel like. Lots of casters have some pretty obvious pairings but there doesn’t seem to be anything major for Vlad3. There are a few mercenaries but these are pretty much all support. I have no concerns about the lists capacity to clear infantry off the table. Heavies are also no issue. A single colossal is no issue. Two colossals or a single buffed one could be a bit of an issue.

I am hoping to line up a game in the next two weeks to give one of these (or a 35 point variant depending on time) a whirl.

Can't make up my mind!!

Typical. I am now chopping and changing my lists. Not because of any tactical genius but because I got some new casters. I got Sorscha2 and Vlad3. I am thinking that Sorscha2 might do everything her prime counterpart does and better (especially with my list). Vlad3 looks like a lot of fun but I think I would prefer to stick with Vlad2 because I really like the balance of that list. So it could be an Epic Sorscha and Epic Vlad pairing - I think I will refer to it as "Tragic Lovers: An Epic Love Story".

I pretty much cannot stick to one idea for long enough but luckily Doom Reavers are guaranteed to fit into one of my lists so I'd better go get them painted.

It's all in the mind (or psyche)

I've been away from home for most of this week with some family stuff. Not fun at all! On the car trip home (3+ hours) I got to thinking about my Khador, about the Skorne stuff I was contemplating and generally about strengths and weaknesses in my approach to gaming. Before going onto the main topic of the blog I should make a note about the Skorne. In the past months that feeling of faction ADD has sometimes crept in. Wanting to give Hordes a whirl (and get a more intuitive understanding of the limits of the fury mechanic), I have seriously considered Circle (purchased Mohsar) and; more recently, the Skorne (purchasing Morghoul2, Molik Karn, a Cyclops Brute and minimum Bast Handlers for a local journeyman league before I realised I couldn't play). Anyway, before I can actually contemplate playing a faction I have to find at least 3 casters I want to play (I also have this weird thing of not wanting a prime and epic version of any one caster in my tripartites). Skorne are one of those factions that I can actually find enough models I like. For Circle, I liked Mohsar (a lot), Cassius (a bit) aaaaand no one else (and I hated the look of their infantry). For Skorne, I like Morghoul2, Hexeris1, Mordikaar and Naaresh. So it could be a goer in the future (notice my penchant for rubbish casters).

When it comes to success in a warfare like WMH I think you really need a strong mental suite of abilities AND a strong psychological suite of abilities. Most people lack the latter. I think I have decent mental abilities but very well developed psychological ones.

By mental I mean all the mathematical abilities. Sort of base line stuff like "knowing 2d6 averages to 7". This sort of basic working knowledge is essential to even having a chance. I actually think this is wrong. Expected damage for a 2d6 roll;  at dice minus 7, is actually 1 (there is a thread on the PP forums explaining this somewhere). Then there is the element that probabilities rather than a mean give you better decision making evidence. I'm very good at this stuff. I kind of fall down in list building and judging distance. My list building isn't bad but I tend to like cute option even though I have these ethos that simple is better. There is a lot more to the mental aspects of the game; like understanding the meta (future post warning "the meta doesn't exist") and accounting for it (I am actually exceptional at building skew lists at small point levels but; hey, who isn't!), I am pretty average at choosing which list to play upon seeing my opponents list (I want to blog on this topic too) and I downright suck at properly evaluating how dangerous my opponents list is before I've been burned by it once. Case in point, the first time I play against eHaley I thought "she doesn't look too good" and I proceeded to lose without killing a model.

However, the psychological - oh the psychological - this is where I make ground up in tournaments. This stuff is crucial. If you are one to lose your composure when you lose a key model or get flustered when you snake eyes that spell or play cautiously against your opponent because you know he won the last 3 local tournaments and has placed top 3 in every major convention.... If any of these apply to you then you probably have a weaker psychological side to your gameplay. This last example is so potent because I have seen loads of people lose just after match ups are announced and just before lists are chosen because they stop believing they can win. You just can't do this in this game. It is seriously better to lose on turn 1/2 to some assassination you didn't see than to dawdle up the board and not make any plays with intent. At least getting killed early helps you learn about positioning and defending the runs (and even a 99.9% guaranteed assassination will fail sometime).

Also stop forgetting about command checks people. CMD 8 will fail like 25% of the time (will double check the figure in a tick) so stop losing the plot when your command 8 dudes fail. It is actually not that unlikely.

The other point about psychological gameplay is knowing how to push your opponent into making mistakes. Now you don't want to be a dick about it but you can do stuff to bring this part of the game to the fore. A lot of these things you'll do anyway but stuff like going after some key support model. You can use tough or abomination to make situations that can wear the psyche thin occur. If you are a renowned good player (which I am not) you can just play fast and play confidently. It makespeople nervous   and nervous people make mistakes. The other thing you can do is punish as harshly as you can minor mistakes people make. If they mess up their spacing and you get a shot onto Aiyana or onto beast handlers or something then take the shot. It often makes people make more mistakes in their next turn because they get dirty with themselves for leaving that model in the lurch.

The other side of this fence is to just not let stuff like this bother you. If you are losing then maybe don't go for the Hail Mary but put your caster in a position they are tempted to go for him. You are more likely to survive an assassination attempt than succeed one and then you can probably get their caster. This is the number one way of people snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. "Going for it" is often dumb. So if you are losing then try make them go for it. Moe often than they will think they'll get diced - e.g. An opponent went for it against Zerkova with. pSkarre (or her force rather) and got something like 4 mechanithralls and brute thralls and the kraken on full focus on her under feat, I survived after kraken roll snake eyes on damage (might be a bad example because now that I think about it I think he forgot to add feat bonus to kraken). Zerkova on 1 box is enough to kill pSkarre (also low due to some damage I put on her and cutting for feat). The absolute Worst case is you lose; which was what was going down then already.

Second and Third Lists

I did get some more painting on my Doom Reavers done over the weekend but they are not finished. I also bought some paint and am tossing up between painting the Winter Guard or the Widowmakers next. The Widowmakers will probably be used in more lists than the Winter Guard but maybe starting the big unit will pay dividends in the future (i.e. in May/June when I am not motivated it might be better to have a collection of Solos and small units to paint rather than 15 identical paint schemes).

I also picked up Ragman because he was cheap. That got my brain ticking over to the type of 2^nd and 3^rd lists I could run with pSorscha. I am not quite sure that I will ever use the third list in a tournament because I doubt I am good enough to qualify for a Masters (where three list Divide and Conquer is common). However, I’d like to have three lists in case. When I write lists I find I have 2-3 things that really drive it. If my list gets screwed by terrain or has no magical weapons then it tends to get scrapped. The other thing is that if I think my list is a skew list, I will shelve it right there and then (no eButcher Doom Reaver spam or pVlad Beserker spam for me. I think I might need to break out of this mental prison. Having Pathfinder and Magical Weapons is important but I think I am getting overly hung up on it. I plan to write on these list building themes later but not for now.

Anyway, the lists I came up with look pretty good and pretty strong. The first is eVlad slanted towards attrition (via Transference) rather than Assassination. The reason for this is that I think eVlad Assassination lists don’t quite function at 50 points and that Attrition is just a stronger play strategy. I also want to try eVlad with Iron Fang Pikemen under Hand of Fate; a scary combination. The second is a pButcher list with an impressive amount of melee damage potential. The idea here is that I would rather have stuff that hits like a brick late game relying on luck to connect than stuff that has a good chance of hitting but needs luck to seal the deal. There also seems no way to avoid casualties with Stormwalls et al. So I figure I want to have whatever does make it hit so hard that I can down the heaviest thing. Having a list that can just punch straight through enemies no matter the buff-age is nice too because there is only 1 Epic Eiryss and she tends to get shot.

The Lists

eVlad

- Behemoth

- Wardog

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer and Standard

Doom Reavers

- Greylord Escort

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Koldun Lord

- Marauder

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

eEiryss,

Gorman

pButcher

- Black Ivan

- Spriggan

- Wardog

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer and Standard

Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Underboss

Alexia Ciannor and the Risen (Alexia and 20 Grunts)

Lady Aiyana and Master Holt

- Valachev

Ragman

2 Point Solo (Koldun Lord, Widowmaker Marksman, Something)

I considered dropping Gorman for Harlan in eVlad and then putting Gorman into pButcher but I don’t really like it for a variety of reasons. The Koldun Lord could be good for the focus and debuff so I’ll probably go with him. I also considered putting Valachev onto Alexia and Risen but I don’t want to be moving Butcher to catch Risen in his feat bubble (Fury is more than enough if I want them to kill stuff) and also I want to be able to extend the threat of Aiyana. Holt under feat will kill some casters.

Should be fun.

Painting Status

So I did a quick stocktake of what I have painted for my 50 point pSorscha list ...

...

Searchy searchy searchy

...

Beast 09. Awesome.

...

Sigh

...

I have a few jacks painted actually. Behemoth, Juggernaut, Torch, Black Ivan, Demolisher, Spriggan and Beast 09. Got a few casters done too; pIrusk, Strakhov and Zerkova. Then a smattering of solos and the bears. I think I find it hard to paint units. You feel like you are getting less bang for your buck. This is kind if why I have set Wintercon as a date to get at least one; hopefully two, fully painted lists.

I've had my Doom Reavers undercoated for a while so this last week I have just painted whenever I got a spare 30 minutes. Maybe two hours total. And you know what? They are actually progressing pretty quickly. I've got their metallic, their trousers, kilt thing, flesh, hair all base coated. Just got to do those straps and I can start some highlighting and washing and all that. I did decide to do the UA separate. It's is largely because he'll use different colours in parts to fit closer to my already painted Koldun Lord. I have to go down to the LGS to get some more paints. I am out of browns and greys since I moved house recently and just chucked stuff out that was even slightly dried up. I'll need those for Winter Guard!

pSorscha - 50 Points

Preamble: Still figuring out the whole blogging thing. At the moment, I am blogging on a mobile device on the bus. It makes formatting a bit tricky. I might just type out the ideas; email them to my work address and then do the formatting quickly there (should only take 5 minutes). The plan is to add pictures and other stuff in the future but that will probably wait a week or so while I figure everything out.

*****

Even though Wintercon is a good 4-5 months away, I've been thinking of what lists to take. The reason for this is that I want to play painted and, given how slow I paint, I need to ensure that the stuff I paint is stuff I'll use. Of croutes, it hasn't even been announced the format but I am assuming a 50 point event probably with two lists. It might be 35 and, if it is, that should be no issue either.

The list I am happy with is pSorscha. I don't play her very much but every time I do I spend a third of my turn thinking "this is so cool". I guess I just like Wind Rush since it opens up so many options. pSorscha has a couple of pretty decent assassination runs by herself but she can't do much for her army. All of which leads me to design a list for attrition, play for scenario and look for assassination. This list has a good vibe (I seriously have trouble playing a list if I don’t like the vibe) but I am sure there are lots of changes to be made that could augment it.

The List

pSorscha

- Beast 09

- Sylys

Winter Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer and Standard

- 3 Rocketeers

Kovnik Joe

Widowmakers

Doom Reavers

- Greylord Escort

Rorsh

- Brine

Madelyn Corbeau

Saxon Orrick

pEiryss

Reinholdt

 The Cog

• Sorscha is obviously the start and I think she has a much underrated spell list. A lot of people summarise her as Feat + Wind Rush. This is pretty unfair. She can do a lot of things but probably only one of them per turn.
  • Part of the reason I want to play her is the joy of Wind Rushing around in BattleBox games. I also really like the idea of utilising Fog of War. The feat can be used to assassinate but I think attrition with it will be better. Stationary is such a powerful rule. There are also a couple of sucker punches that use it (Turn 1 Feat + Disruptor Bolt being the obvious one).
  • The Skornergy of Fog of War does play a bit in list creation. While getting defensive buffs onto all the infantry is nice, it does make ranged units less powerful since Fog affects friendly and enemy alike. I don’t want to overplay this because you can always just drop the spell if you need but I do feel you need to be careful putting certain types of models in. Widowmakers will often be shooting out of the bubble since they have the 14” range. The winter guard are accurate anyway (Joe) but also can spray.

The Core

• Beast 09 and R&B. These are the heavy hitters. Brine is a bit pillow fisted but there is some nice stuff you can do to use him as the assassination piece and 10" move followed by double handed throw wins games. R&B also offer a second heavy without taxing Sorscha’s focus. Beast is good with Sorscha because he can do stuff with or without focus.
• WGIDS, Doom Reavers, Widowmakers. These are the meat of the list. All have scary offensive output, all have some nice surviability (tough, camouflage etc). Doom Reavers in particular are brutal with pSorscha. You can feat to ensure they get there, you can Fog of War to keep them alive, you can let them engage, feat, snipe the dudes locking down the lanes then charge deep, deep, deep into enemy lines. Also, they are a nice tar pit and having them screen the WGI vastly improves the Deathstar's output.
• pEiryss. Most Khador players reckon eEiryss is better. First, you can only run eEiryss in one list. Secondly, I disagree anyway. The argument tends to be that eEiryss is better against Hordes. Well, there aren’t that many animi that you need shot off in your turn (though Spiny Growth is a pain). When Disruptor Bolt hits it is ball busting and the threat alone plays havoc on any Warmachine players mind. She also offers a nice answer to the book (which is handy for Sorscha).

The Support

• Saxon, Madelyn – Enabling the Army. Both ensure mobility and mobility is pretty prevalent with this list. Madelyn is as good as your imagination permits her to be. I am looking forward to the day my opponent thinks that Doom Reaver is out of charge range of Tartarus or something.
• Joe is Joe. Best two points in Khador.
• Reinholdt and Sylys – Enabling Sorscha. To me these are essential to running a more flexible, dynamic pSorscha. Without Sylys you can literally cross Freezing Grip and Tempest off her card. Reinholdt (for a measly point) opens up a much more reliable ranged assassination. Reload, Walk 6 (wind rush if applicable), feat, shoot, shoot, razor wind, razor wind, razor wind (if no wind rush required). Having Sylys makes the razor winds range 12 which is coincidentally her control and hand cannons range.

The Stuff that Didn’t Make the Cut

• Behemoth. Behemoth is awesome on pSorscha and by himself enables the pop-n-drop. Give 2 to his subcortex, 1 to his main, fake charge, wind rush, feat (27” Feat TR). Then Behemoth tramples and puts two boosted POW 14s straight onto the enemy casters head (21” TR). There are four reasons I didn’t take him.
  • Two points is a lot.
  • The Pop-n-Drop is well known and one dimensional (I dislike 1D – the band as well)
  • Behemoth always wants at least 1 focus. There will be turns I want to Tempest/Freezing Grip and Wind Rush out. With Big B, I just cannot unless I also include the Koldun Lord. I don’t think it is worth it.
  • I would prefer him with eVlad, pIrusk, pButcher, eIrusk, Old Witch, pVlad, Harkevich or Strakhov (i.e. all the casters I am actively considering for my second list).
• Aiyana and Holt. I like A+H but I have not included them (yet). Finding 4 points is a bit of an ask and; with 9 points of dedicated support in the list, I am not sure bumping this to 13 would be beneficial. A+H are badly affected by the Fog of War Skornergy. Since they sit backfield they become effective RAT 6 and Magic Ability 6 (this is the kicker). At Magic Ability 6 I am no longer confident of hitting DEF 12-14 (I can drop Fog if needed though). Since I have Doom Reavers, I do not feel I need the Magic Weapons spell.
• Nyss Hunters. The main reason I haven’t picked Nyss is that I don’t own them. Nyss are actually awesome with Sorscha because they have Hunter, pathfinder, decent ranged weapons and weapon master. I wanted Saxon anyway for the Doom Reavers so the pathfinder is less a deal. The offensive output of Nyss in combat is a big deal though. However, the reason I picked Winter Guard over them (at this stage) is that; while the difference between DEF 15/17 and 14/16 is significant, the difference between ARM 11 (no tough) and ARM 13 (tough) is quite significant. I am running a high DEF against shooting (though ironically not against Gun Mages or Nyss) list. One obvious answer to this is AOEs. POW 5 blasts shred Nyss.
  • I could see a variant of my list with Nyss instead of WGI. That would save 3 points, then cut Saxon (2 more points), then cut Widowmakers (4 points). Put in Gorman, A+H, Dougal and find a few points somewhere for Herne and Jonne (Doom Reavers for Bears or something). Sorscha doesn’t actually do anything specific for faction models.

The next post I will detail things I want in and things I couldn't fit in and the painting status.

One

This is a slightly odd feeling. Starting a blog is like directing and producing a movie then only playing it on your home television where somebody might look at it through your window. But I guess other people reading it isn't really the point.

With this blog I hope to document my thoughts about Warmachine. I consider myself a competitive player that doesn't play much. What this means is I think and theorise far more than I play (it is the opposite ideal ratio). I'm ok with this. I'm at a stage of life where I just don't have lots of time to game.  I reckon; at any given tournament (16-20 players), that if I play well then I'll place top 4 but that it is far more likely that I'll be in the bottom half of the field. All of this explains the blog title.

As I imagine it, Irusk; the foremost military mind in the Iron Kingdoms, has to have had some bad ideas in his time but he doesn't strike me as a bloke to throw anything out. So he keeps the dregs and such in the Boatshed of his family estate. No idea how close this relates to fluff, don't really care either.

Back to the real world, I play Khador. I have seriously considered playing Skorne, Circle, Menoth, Retribution, Cygnar, Trolls and more Khador. Usually dollars is the major impediment and the fact I have only 10% of my models painted. Hopefully, I have the discipline to keep posting my thoughts and experiences. My first aim is to make it to Wintercon with a fully painted army (probably pSorscha and something else) and after that, well, who knows?