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.