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.

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.

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?