4+ Tough Get Together Battle Report: Incissar Vyros Goes to Shyrr

Scene: Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard and scion of House Nyarr hobbles to the table and sits down. He is on crutches and has one of his arms in a sling. Before him are a group of reporters from the various noble Iosan houses.

Steam(T)roller List Building, Part 1: Jarl Skuld

With the release of Highwaymen, a few of my favorite Trollblood support Warlocks have gotten more interesting - specifically, Calandra, Gunnbjorn, and Jarl. Gunny has already gotten a trial run, and while Calandra is in the running for my 2nd Steamroller Tournament Warlock, I like the possibilities that Highwaymen bring to a Jarl list.

 The List:
Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 3 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Trollkin Highwaymen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)

Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Gudrun the Wanderer (3pts)
Lanyssa Ryssyll, Nyss Sorceress (2pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
Troll Whelps (2pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Sorcerer (1pts)


The Breakdown:

I'm approaching making this list in a different way than I normally do - typically, I pick a warlock, add in a unit or two that work well with him/her, and just add in support and solos I think would work well until I run out of points, without a lot of regard for balance of list structure. Does it make for fun games? Most of the time, yup. Is it easy? Oh hell yes Does that normally work and win me games?

Kinda.

This time, I'm trying it the pGrexy way, or at least my slapdash version of it.

Battle Report: Makeda 3 vs. Absylonia 2, at 50pts

I went to Tower again last week, and got a game in, so here's the report.  No pictures this time, since my phone was running low on power.  I decided to play one of the modifications on my Makeda 3 list I talked about in this post.

Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer (3pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)

I've been interested in trying this out ever since DrillbossD mentioned that it was his standard list.  I replaced the Cyclops Savage that I normally run with Orin Midwinter and a Tyrant Commander.  And since I'm trying out variations on my usual Makeda 3 list, I thought I'd start with this one.  The Savage is a jack of all trades utility piece, and it always has something to do.  The Tyrant Commander and Orin are more specialized support pieces, but they give Makeda a little more offensive and defensive flexiblity, and Orin also helps tremendously against Butcher 3, who is usually very strong against Skorne, and Makeda 3 in particular.


My opponent, Sam, played a flexible list under Absylonia 2.

Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight (*5pts)
*Carnivean (11pts)
*Ravagore (10pts)
*Angelius (9pts)
*Seraph (8pts)
*Nephilim Protector (5pts)
*Shredder (2pts)
Succubus (2pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)
Strider Deathstalker (2pts)
Strider Deathstalker (2pts)

I've never played against Absylonia 2 before, but the lists I've seen online are usually heavy melee specialists, while this is a more flexible combined-arms list.  The shooting here is nothing to sneeze at.  There isn't the Lylyth 2 level of firepower to take out a heavy in one round, but this list can definitely thin out its opposition at range.  The melee power is mostly provided by Absylonia through her Feat and Conferred Rage, which makes the combined arms beasts impressive in melee.  She also helps fix Legion's glass cannon problem a little with Fortify.  Overall, the list seems strong and cagey, and the ranged presence gives it some depth in assassination and scenario that pure melee lists wouldn't have.

4+ Tough Get Together Battle Report: Makeda 3 vs. Vyros 2, 50pts

About 2 weeks ago, Maxtermynd made the long, arduous trip from Madison to the Twin Cities, and we played a game.  This is my first game of Warmachine against Max.  We'd played a couple of games of 40k a couple of years ago, but then I switched over to almost exclusively WarmaHordes, and Max moved out of town.   Since I'd been posting so much about my Brute Squad list, I knew I'd want to play it here.

Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Cyclops Savage (5pts)
*Cylcops Brute (5pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)

I've had a lot of fun with this list so far, and a lot of success as well.  I have a bunch of battles under my belt with it already, most of which are documented here.  It's mainly an attrition list that relies on the heavy armor and high damage output of a few models to grind the opponent out.  It also has strong scenario game, especially in split scenarios, where Makeda can clear zones and dominate in relative safety.

Max was bringing Retribution, as usual, and decided to (rudely) interrupt Makeda's conquest of Ios with eVyros at the head of a Tier 4 Guardians of the Gate list:

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard (*5pts) - Guardians of the Gate Tier 4
*Imperatus (12pts)
*Griffon (4pts)
*Griffon (4pts)
*Griffon (4pts)
*Griffon (4pts)
*Griffon (4pts)
*Aspis (4pts)
*Aspis (4pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Dawnguard Destor Thane (4pts)
Arcanist (1pt)
Arcanist (1pt)

The theme benefits for Guardians of the Gate are reduced point cost and FA:U on Dawnguard Destor units (Tier 1), Dawnguard Sentinels gain AD if you include at least one unit (Tier 2), Destor units and solos gain +2Spd on the first turn if you include at least one Destor Thane (Tier 3), and Warjacks in the list are all allocated a Focus on turn 1 if you include at least one heavy warjack in the list.

This will actually be my first time playing against eVyros Griffon spam, despite the fact that we have a few Ret players at Tower.  It's also an attrition list that works by building up Synergy until the last battlegroup model to activate can wreck a Colossal without breaking a sweat.  Because it has so many tough and independent models, its scenario game is good as well, and Vyros' Feat gives it interesting maneuvering options.

Here's how the game went down...

Steamrolling with Makeda 3 and the Brute Squad, Part 2: Partners

Searching for the perfect match (image from the PP Galery)

Last week, I talked a bit about different modules I'm thinking of taking in my Makeda 3 list HERE.  A big part of working with those modules, though, is making sure my other list can make up for any blind spots I've left.  This time around, I'll talk about a few 'casters and lists I'm thinking of pairing with Makeda 3 at tournaments to cover her weaker points.

To start with, here are the matchups I'm most worried about with Makeda 3:

Tournament Report: Steamroller with Extra Bonds

I can seeeee yooooouuuu..

A couple of weekends ago Crippled System hosted a 50 pt Steamroller tournament in beautiful Madison, WI, with a bit of a twist. Every faction was allowed to have an extra bonded warjack or warbeast in each of their lists, selecting a bond from the back pages of Prime/Primal. If you already have a bond, you get two of them. If you didn't have any, you get one!

Battle Report: Captain Gunnbjorn vs Major 'Siege' Brisbane, 50pts

I'm Baaaaaack...

Wow, I haven't posted anything for a while, much less a battle report - but, since one of my arbitrary New Year's Resolutions is start pulling my weight (not an easy proposition, considering I'm going to try to keep up with pGrexy and Maxtermynd), here we go.

I got in a game with Mike D. down at Tower on Saturday, who pulled out all the stops and brought the Siege tournament list he's building. Since we deliberately didn't tell each other what we were playing before deployment started, I decided to give Dozer and Smigg a shot with Gunny, throwing in Highwaymen as well just for the heck of it.

Steamrolling with Makeda 3 and the Brute Squad, Part 1: Options

As people who read my posts regularly know by now, I've been playing Makeda 3 a lot, and lately, I've been playing her in the same Brute Squad list a lot.  I've talked a little about branching out and trying more options with this list, and here are a few modules I'm thinking about trying out.  They're all variations on the Brute Squad, and I'm really only switching out a couple of models.  There's also been a lot of good discussion about the various modules in various places, and I'd like to use this post as a setting to talk about the ones I've heard or thought of, and some other ones people have seen and used.

I've posted about my current list a lot, but here it is again:

Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Cyclops Savage (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)

Battle Report Double Header: Makeda 3 vs. Sorscha 1 (Ocean's 18), and Hexeris 1 vs. Ossrum, 50pts

I played another couple of games this past Tuesday.  Here's how they went down.

Game 1

I had a game scheduled with Caleb when he showed up, but I got to the store early, so I played a game against Tom, who's running a recent version Muse on Minis' Nigel's Ocean's 18 list.