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.
Sunday 31 March 2013
Monday 25 March 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday 19 March 2013
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
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Lady Aiyana and Master Holt
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One
Saxon Orrick
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.
Saturday 16 March 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday 13 March 2013
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.
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.
Monday 4 March 2013
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 2nd and 3rd 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.
Friday 1 March 2013
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!
...
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!
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