A new member to the family!

Haven't had a reason for Khador to march for bloody ages, but now Warmachine is picking up steam at the FLGS, at long, long last, the Spriggan has been painted...

All it needs now are a couple of decals, some tundra grass, a little snow, and that's that...

Recent battles for the glory of Khador

Been having some fun with my lovely new pVlad. It's great, he's a wonderfully straightforward caster to use, and you can pretty much chuck anything you want into his army and it'll work! Lately, though, I've been lazy to field the Winter Guard, so here's the list I've been using:

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince
War Dog
Kodiak
Berserker
Juggernaut
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Man-O-War Kovnik
Destroyer

Of course, the Destroyer is under the Kovnik's control. Nothing complicated here. I use Signs & Portents to pummel the foe with deadly accurate artillery as the armies close. Those mortars are excellent for softening things that could threaten the Jacks. Pretty much anything that could slug it out one-on-one with a Khadoran jack is going to have a pretty low DEF - low enough that mortars under Signs & Portents stand a good chance of scoring direct hits with a nasty POW 16. Vladimir's feat also puts the 3 big beastly jacks under him in the uncommon (for Khador) position of being able to get the first charge in, with a charge range of 11". 13" with Boundless charge. 15" if I had a Spriggan. Which I now do (more on that later).

Now, I don't really consider this list very competitive, but it's not a complete pushover, either. How did it perform? Read on for abbreviated accounts of 2 recent scraps...

Hobby: Cheapass forests

I like nice scenery and everything, but when we're talking tabletop wargaming terrain, there's always the trade-off between aesthetics and practicality to consider. One thing I've always found lacking in the FLGS's that I frequent is the lack of forest terrain that shows a nice, clearly defined patch of forest that doesn't really interfere with the model's movement in any way. Here's a cheap (MYR 13.50, to be precise) way to get some foliage that your precious models can stand on and, even if your big, metal Dreadnought falls all over it, won't chip your beautiful paint job.

Step one, get a green rubber doormat:

Step two, draw out some suitably shaped patches on the back with a handy dandy Sharpie:

Step three, cut them shapes out and battle! Note how even my most top-heavy models, the Sanguinary Guard, can easily stand on this stuff... 

Anyways, hope this helps. Happy wargaming,y'all...

Other hobby updates

My Blood Angels have been seeing quite a bit of action lately as I experiment with getting the right balance of killy and fun. Hobby-wise, however, they are at a near-total standstill, other than the occasional dab of paint every now and then. Anyway, never mind them, here's what's been going on on other fronts...

My 2 Khador Armies: pButcher and pSorscha, 35 pts

This is just a quick post detailing the 2 army lists which I've been using with reasonable success. Now, I'm no tournament champion and I'm not in any way claiming these armies will maul everything they come up against. What I will say, however, is that these armies have evolved over several games at the FLGS where I get my weekly Warmahordes fix and, to date, they've performed well enough to have a good fighting chance against pretty much any army I've encountered. These armies are pretty straightforward in their strategies, with relatively little in the way of diabolical shenanigans and as such, lend themselves very well to introducing the art of Warmachine to newbies.

Basic Butchery

 This is the first list I can say I got proficient with, and the one that has won me the most victories. Quite conveniently, I've a batrep showing this list in action.

The general strategy is pretty much the same in all engagements. Close in carefully, with the Winter Guard taking the fore and Drakhun, Manhunter and Widowmakers on the flanks. The jacks form the 2nd wave, advancing close by the Butcher and his dog. Then push forward using the feat and a flurry of CRAs from the Winter Guard as the main punch. If possible, use the Drakhun or Manhunter to get a good charge in, because rolling 5 dice to damage is just awesome. I find that, under the influence of the feat, the Winter Guard are best used firing their CRAs in pairs; 5 or 6 shots of POW 14 + 3d6 damage is often quite enough to deal crippling damage to a heavy warjack or warbeast. And if the opponent decided to lead with his light, high-DEF infantry, just switch to grapeshot, let Kovnik Joe boost the attack rolls and watch as everything within 8" of the mighty Winter Guard just disintegrates in killer shrapnel.

An alternative strategy to use against a more aggressive opponent would be to use the Winter Guard as a cushion to catch the opponent's charge, then countercharge with the feat, Full Throttle and 2 very angry jacks. Taking the enemy's charge on the Winter Guard isn't as painful as it sounds. Put Iron Flesh and Bob n' Weave on the Guard, you've got 15 DEF 17 infantry as your screen. With Kovnik Joe, they're Tough, too! As for the countercharge, with the Butcher's feat and Full Throttle, that's boosted attack and damage rolls and charges for the meagre price of 3 Focus, with not a single one placed on the jacks themselves.

Whichever of the two strategies are used, both converge towards the same endgame. The Butcher has no interesting spells to execute flashy maneuvres or assassination runs from hitherto unforeseen angles. After popping the feat, the objective is simply to kill everything within reach. Against most competent players, this will result in the two armies being depleted to just a few models, and this is pretty much where the Butcher shines. With his excellent armour (and DEF, with Iron Flesh) and tremendous melee power, there are very few single models in Warmahordes that can stand up to a one-on-one fight with the Butcher. 

 Red Gunishment

This is a list geared towards ranged assassination. If, like me, you're wont to checking points totals, you will find this list comes to 37 pts. Note, however, that this is pSorscha's Tier 1 list, which allows me to pick up Kovnik Joe for free.

As usual, the Winter Guard form the screen. The Widowmakers will loiter around a flank, picking off targets of opportunity and generally being a nuisance. Following closely behind the Winter Guard are the Destroyers and Sorscha. At the rear, the Mortar Crews. The initial stages, while closing with the enemy, are spent pounding anything that gets within range with the many guns at my disposal. Of course, these guns aren't anywhere as precise as those of say, Cygnar or Scyrah. So, the trick is to keep Sorscha close to the front lines, moving forward, firing her Tempest and hopefully knocking something down for the Destroyers and mortars to brutalize, then darting back with Wind Rush. Alternatively, feed the Destroyers some Focus to deal some heavy hits. All this is simply a build-up to the good-bit: Sorscha darts forward, pops her feat, freezes the enemy caster, then the Destroyers and Mortar Crew go to work. If the enemy caster has some models crowded round to block line of sight, just feat anyway and whack something nearby with Tempest.

Thanks to Wind Rush and Boundless Charge, it can be surprisingly difficult for an opposing caster to escape Sorscha's feat. And of course, anyone wielding this list would do well to remember that Sorscha herself has a pretty decent weapon with Reach. If guns are not an option, Sorscha can zip up to 19" away to deal a killing blow to the more fragile breed of caster.

And that's the way my two Khadoran armies roll. I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out. A strong core of Winter Guard and Widowmakers, and I've 2 armies with dramatically different strategies from one another, which is rather awesome, because I do get bored pretty quickly. My only regret with these 2 lists is that only after I'd acquired them, Privateer Press released this. I have to say, they look excellent, and now I find myself tempted to try putting together Supreme Kommandant Irusk's list with 2 Winter Guard Deathstars....

Warmachine batrep: Khador vs Skorne, 35 pts

It's been a while since I'd done one of these. It's not that I'd stopped Warmachine, it's just that my last couple of games were:

1) Using Irusk. Badly. Long, stupidly draggy game, too boring to record in a battle report. Completely my fault for mistiming my feat and reducing the game to a long ugly slugfest of attrition.

2) A doubles game, totalling 70 pts a side. Even longer and draggy-er and boring.This is where I found that Warmachine's system of model-by-model combat, while more detailed, more intuitive and generally fairer than 40k, is just slow as hell in larger games.

They weren't a complete waste of time, though. In those games I'd learnt that 35 pts is the absolute limit of my interest in Warmachine. At any higher points value, the game system is simply too slow to keep my attention. Also, I've established that I have no interest whatsoever in the use of Colossals. At 35 pts they unbalance the game, so I hear. Any higher number of points in a game is too slow, as I'd mentioned. And, at the end of the day, if I deign to purchase, assemble, paint and put a model on the table purely for its awesomeness... It's going to be in 40k.Colossals look nice and all, but seriously, at that price for something that size, just gimme a Heldrake or Land Raider Crusader or something. At least I'd get more mileage out of them.

Don't get me wrong here. I appreciate Warmachine as a quicker, smarter and deeper game at smaller scale engagements. But in terms of the fun of the fluff, the depth of the mythos and the raw awesome of the models... Warmachine cannot hold a candle to 40k. A Cygnar Cyclone, though it fulfills the same battlefield role, is a tinkertoy compared to a Forgefiend. A Winter Guard Deathstar is a small scruffy mob compared to a Valhallan Infantry Platoon. Lich Lord Terminus is a mewling child compared to Anggarath the Unbound.

What I'm saying is, I like Warmachine for a very different reason from why I like 40k. I like Warmachine because it's a very good, deep and engaging game at 35 pts. I like 40k because I like watching pure, unreasoning, epic sci-fi violence unfold.

Anyway, I got in a game of Warmachine against Lexiss' Skorne. I'd gotten murdered using Irusk against that list, and was most eager to try out my Butcher against it, mostly to assure myself that I hadn't suddenly gotten really crap at this game...

My army:
Orsus Zoktavir, the Butcher of Khardov
Kodiak
Berserker
Wardog
10-man Winter Guard Infantry, with 3 Rocketeers and Unit Attachment
Kovnik Joe
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Man-O-War Drakhun
Manhunter

Ah, my good old Butcher list. Nice and straightforward, with a good, righteous kick to it on feat turn. Against high DEF infantry, there's nothing quite like the Butcher's feat and Kovnik Joe's speeches with the Winter Guard's grapeshot. Against high ARM targets with lotsa hitboxes, just switch to solid slug CRAs, for boosted POW 14 goodness. A good opening salvo from the Guard generally softens up an opposing army enough that the ensuing close quarter violence ends with the Butcher on top. 

Lexiss' army:
Master Tormentor Morghoul
Bronzeback Titan
Titan Gladiator
Molik Karn
4-strong Paingiver Beast Handlers
Paingiver Task Master
5-strong Gatorman Posse

I had encountered this list once before, and that was the game in which I used pIrusk, which I mentioned earlier. I had gotten so used to the Butcher's way of sudden, vicious carnage and pSorscha's  assassination methods that Irusk was something of an engima to me. As such, I hesitated somewhat and found to my dismay that outside of feat turn, it was really hard to squeeze out the hitting power to kill Lexiss' list before it killed me.

We played a simple caster killing game. I forgot to take a pic of our deployment, so just read on for Turn One...

Batrep: Khador vs Skorne, 35 pts

Just got in a game against Skorne.  This is the first time I'm writing a battle report for Warmachine, and the more I think about it, the more complicated it seems... Anyways, this was part of the League going on at Warpspace Games. Basically, it's kind of a worldwide campaign thing that Privateer Press is holding.  I'm not too clear on the details myself, being as I am more or less an apprentice in the art of Warmachine.  Anyway, to business!  Here's my army:

My Khador:
pButcher
War Dog
Kodiak
Berserker
Man-O-War Drakhun
Kovnik Joe
10-man Winter Guard Infantry with Unit Attachment and 2 Rocketeers
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman

This is a variant of a list I'd used before.  Instead of Shocktroopers, I've opted for some more ranged fire support in the form of the Widowmakers (because I'm really rather pleased with how they turned out) and the Mortar Crew, because POW 16 and AOE 4 from 20" away is just fun.

And Johnny's Skorne:
Xerxis
Bronzeback Titan
Titan Gladiator
4 Cataphract Cetrati with Tyrant Vorkesh
4 Cataphract Cetrati
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers

1 point short, by my reckoning...3 points short, had he used Xerxis' Tier 2 theme.

Here's a funny thing about the League games - we play for points, and the person with fewer points gets to pick a region in which to battle.  Since I had fewer points (and a fairly shooty list) I picked a region with no terrain.  As for the scenario, we were both too lazy to roll for whatever funky scenarios you get in the League, so we just went for a straightforward scrap - kill the caster.  Here's how it went...

Widowmakers and Drakhun

... because what Khador player can do without them, eh?

Both are excellent additions to any army list, and they're pretty nice models as well, so here's what I've done with mine...

Fun list: The Butcher and his Brutes

Having played quite a few games of Warmachine using the most solid (read: boring) lists I could build (mostly centred around the dreaded Winter Guard Deathstar), I decided it was time for some fun. It was during a game against Ian's Scyrah that I witnessed the sheer brutality of a Berserker with 3 focus under the influence of the Butcher's feat and Full Throttle. Despite having lost an arm, said Berserker hurtled forward to charge a nearby Phoenix, pound it into scrap, then explode, killing a nearby Stormfall Archer.

I decided then that I really like Full Throttle and since I don't have a Karchev to hand, here's a list I threw together and had some good fun with.

It's simple enough, yes? The Destroyer hangs with the Kovnik and slowly advances, dumping double boosted (by which I mean attack and damage rolls are both boosted) Bombard shots into the foe, while the Butcher advances behind a wall of Khador's most vicious melee jacks. Full Throttle makes sure they hit stuff, and Fury will let one jack hit absurdly hard. The wee doggy is there... well, just because.

I had a game using this list against a beast-heavy Circle Orboros list, with eKaya using her feat to hit my lines really hard, then bugger off out of my reach. A fairly close-ish game, I thought, but when my Kovnik failed to Drive 2 turns in a row, well, that when I knew the dice gods had turned their back on me. But hey, I'm not letting a little bad luck stop me. I'm gonna have a couple more games with this list and see how it rolls.  Read on for a dissection of each element of the list...

WIP: Moar Warmachine!

Been a while since my last post. Here's what's been going on...

Khador players rejoice!

I knew it! I knew it! I looked at the Demolisher, Spriggan and Devastator and verily, I said to myself, THAT is a plastic kit waiting to happen, and lookie what just turned up on the Privateer Press website:

Hell, I'm grabbing at LEAST 2 of those, thank you very much! On a side note, I didn't realize it before, but with the shield arms locked in front like that, does the Devastator not look like a humongous helmet on legs?

My first games at 35 pts

I've been getting a couple of games in at 25 and notably 35 points over at Warpspace games lately and it has been most enlightening. I've been led to understand that 35 pts in Warmahordes (Hormachine?) is more or less the equivalent of a 1750 pt game of 40k. I was a little skeptical at first. After getting murdered a few times at 35 pts, this is the best I can muster with the models I have:

The Butcher
Juggernaut
Berserker
5 Man-O-War Shocktroopers
3 Man-O-War Bombardiers
10 Winter Guard Infantry + 2 Rocketeer + Unit attachment
Kovnik Josef Grigorovich

In retrospect, this isn't quite the best use of my points. Here's a dissection of the army.

Reinforcements have arrived!

Hurrah! I can now field a 10-man squad of Winter Guard! 11, if you count the beardy dude with the rocket launcher:

These guys just arrived from my regular source on eBay. I've also added a Berserker and a Man-O-War Kovnik to the force. Under the Butcher, the Berserker should do pretty well, as long as I keep Full Throttle up when it counts. But later, say, when I field Sorscha or perhaps at 35pts, I figure I'd better take a little of the focus burden off the casters and let the MoW Kovnik help out. Between his Jack Marshall and Drive, that's boosted attack and damage without spending any Focus - that's pretty big medicine with a Berserker. Not to mention the Kovnik is quite a brute up close himself...

Anyway, here are my current plans for the growth of my Butcher's army:

1) Man-O-War units: Right now, I'm loving the idea of having a wall of Shocktroopers with Bombardiers behind them, a slowly advancing, unstoppable wall of steel and shrapnel. So far, I've been using Assaut Terminators as Shocktroopers, but from what I'm hearing about 6th ed close combat weapons, I may well end up using Shocktroopers as Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields. The models just look awesome!

Forward, for the Motherland! Do well, and you may be allowed to proxy as Imperial Guard Valhallan Veterans with shotguns...

2) Winter Guard: Looking around on the intertoobs, it seems the Winter Guard Deathstar is one of those units that does well under anyone, notably my Khador casters of choice, Sorscha and the Butcher. So, that's a must. However, I'm also interested in trying out assassination by Icy Gaze and Mortars. Maybe later on...

3) Iron Fangs: To hell with them, at least until plastic models come out. I've nothing against the Iron Fangs, but models with big long pikes in metal? Yuck. IF plastic models turn up, then hell, yes. Otherwise, they're off limits.

Not done yet, but man, he looks mean...

4) Warjacks: Well, I'm still waiting to get my hands on a Battle Box, so there'll be a Destroyer and  Juggernaut there. All I'll ever need, really, of that type of Jack. The thing is, what about the Devastator, Spriggan or Demolisher? Those 3, I've opted not to touch them. Yet. Looking at the similarity in the chassis, I get the feeling that those 3 jacks are destined for a future in plastic. I can wait. That leaves 3 more jacks to consider: Behemoth, Kodiak, and Berserker. Behemoth, I won't touch because, frankly, I don't like the model. A metal model that big has no business prancing about on one leg. Kodiak, maybe. Berserker, maybe. I'll need a few more scraps to decide.

I know there's loads more to Khador I haven't looked at too closely yet, but for now I'd like to focus on building a solid 35 pt list and making it look pretty. After that, Menoth, then... well, who knows what 6th ed 40k will bring, eh? Til next time...

Thoughts on Warmachine vs 40k so far...

Four games in and I see no reason at all to think Warmachine is in any way a bad investment. In fact, I'm more driven than ever to build a couple of solid 35 pt lists, now that the GW price hikes are driving more players in the direction of alternative game systems (read: Warmachine).

As the proud owner of (almost) fully painted armies of Grey Knights, Chaos Space Marines, Necrons and a shit-tonne of Blood Angels, I'm not terribly keen on abandoning 40k entirely. I practically grew up with 40k, drawn to it since the 1st edition of Space Hulk and White Dwarf issue 144, and in my eyes, no game out there can ever have a universe to match that of Warhammer 40k. That having been said, I've kind of reached the point where I've got an army for every occasion and, apart from some new Canoptek Wraiths and some paints, I see no reason to spend a penny more in GW's direction.

So how's it looking now? Let's see...

More 15 pt adventures...

... in Warmachine, of course. 15 pts won't get you very far in 40k... As yet, nothing spectacular, just Jin and I having a couple of small Kill-the-Caster games to get a better feel for the game and the factions. Here's how it went...

USD8 for a Wreck Marker?! I think not!

... so I dug around the beautiful intertoobs for a bit and found this. A quick printing and a little literal cut and paste later....

Ta-dah!

Here's a closer look:

Apologies to Privateer Press, I love Warmachine and everything, but no way am I shelling out that kind of money to mark dead jacks. Here's hoping these markers don't see too much use, eh?

Weekend Roundup

Quite a bit of gaming done this weekend on two fronts: 40k and Warmachine!

Read on...

Current projects update...

Just an update of my current projects. You see, this past couple of weeks, I've been stumbling into a lot of good cheap GW and Warmachine stuff. As such, my gaming budget has been hopelessly blown for this month and probably the next 2 months, as well.

How cheap, exactly? Well you have to understand, I'm in Malaysia. Tabletop wargaming goodies aren't easy to come by around here. For example, at the FLGS I wage war at, a squad of Tactical Marines is MYR143. At current exchange rates, that's about GBP29, which is GBP6 over the UK retail price. So, I was fairly chuffed to find...