Skorne Faction Review Part 1: Themes

Hello, everyone who still follows this blog.  It's been close to a year, during which a lot has happened in my life, which unfortunately did not include playing a lot of WarmaHordes.  We're now in the midst of a global pandemic, so it seems like that situation will continue for some time.

However!

I'm more or less settled from the other, non-wargame stuff I've been doing, and now have a lot of free time at home to think about games, build armies on Warroom, and aimlessly wish I could get back to playing.  But since theorymachine is the responsible thing to do right now, I'm may as well post my musings so other people can correct me if I'm too far astray.  I might try playing on Vassal soon, but Vassal games take a long time, and aren't as fun as in-person games.

Since I've been out of the game so long, I'm going to start with a review of my main faction and host of horrible torture-babies: Skorne.

JML - 30pt Battle Report

Hello dear readers.  Between three weeks ago and just now, we decided to switch from the 2016 JML rules to 2017, which has you add models in 15pt intervals.  Since people were sick or busy over the intervening weeks, we decided to add just 5pts to take us from 25 to 30.  I was running:

Bane Witch Agathia (*29pts)
*Reaper (13pts)
*Slayer (10pts)
*Canker Worm (9pts)
*Deathripper (6pts)

Pistol Wraith (5pts)
Warwitch Siren (4pts)

Carrion Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Total: 28/30pts

What I'm Excited About in Skorne MkIII: Skorne

Hi Everyone!

I've been busy the last couple of months with various things, including a move.  Since we just reconnected our internet this past weekend, I've decided to get settled in by firing up 4+ Tough again.  It's been a long time since I posted, and even longer since I've updated regularly.  However, I'm in a pretty good position to post regularly, and even more importantly, play regularly.  My planned update schedule is currently:

• Monday: Random BS
• Wednesday: Battle Report
• Friday: Tactics
• More Unscheduled Random BS as I see fit

On to the excitement!

There are certainly a lot of legitimate gripes about Skorne right now, and I'll talk about them a bit at some point in the near future.  Right now, though, I want to discuss what has me rubbing my hands together with anticipation about our humble faction.

1)  A little more control.  Skorne has never been the most control-oriented faction, but we ended up getting some fun new tools this edition.  For example, Castigate on Dominar Rasheth got a massive power boost - eliminating all channeling and casting of Animi in Rasheth's CTRL.  Naaresh's Lamentation and Despoiler's Arcane Suppression were both upgraded by the fact that Animi are now spells when a Warbeast uses them.  Some models, like pMorghoul, have much stronger control games now that the meta has more lists anchored by heavy 'jacks.  Of our two standby control pieces, Orin Midwinter is a bit more versatile than he was in MkII, although less of a blanket shutdown, and the Agonizer has 4 really interesting control-oriented abilities (although using Repulsion well is hard on the little critter and risky on a Warlock).

2)  Interesting ranged defense options.  We have two excellent Shield Guard beasts in the faction.  The Brute is an all star utility/defensive light, and the Sentry is nice and tough with the ability to punch back reasonably hard if it survives the alpha.  We have several unit options I feel bring good questions to the table for a ranged game, most importantly Karax, Ferox, and Bloodrunners, as well as the Carapace beasts, which I'm looking forward to trying out in significant numbers.  I'm even starting to come around on the Krea a little bit.  I hated her at first, especially after liking her so much in MkII, but if she keeps performing the way she has I'll have to grudgingly admit that she has a place.

3)  More shooting.  The Cannoneer, all the Venator units, the Venator solo when it comes out, and especially the Mammoth and Siege Animantrax, all have me very interested in our ranged game. Our options are strong enough that we can run a solid ranged element with any 'caster, and a very punishing one with certain 'casters.  It's something I played around with a bit in MkII, and I'm looking forward to trying to puzzle out the perfect balance of shooting, melee and control now that we have a little more shooting to work with.

The Mammoth on the painting table

4)  Murderkitties.  Look you guys.  I'm a crazy cat person.  I really am.  And the overall speed, flexibility, and control that Ferox can bring to the table with the right support has me super excited to put them on the table every time.

The savage Ferox in their natural habitat

That's enough excitement for today.  As always, comments are welcome!  And so are further suggestions for material, since I now have a schedule to be keeping up with.

Thanks for reading!

That Social Media

Alright.  Likely I won't post a full battle report this week, as I was sick yesterday (WarmaHordes night at Tower).  I will post a battle reshort from the last couple of months either tomorrow or Friday.

This post is to inform you all that I have created a Twitter!

And I have many grandiose plans to actually use it.  The real deal is that I created it months ago, and never used or checked it, but I have a new phone now (you may have noticed the lack of extreme blurring in my recent photos), so I'm willing to give it a shot.

I'm @pGrexy

Hopefully I can tweet about Adepticon while I'm there.  I'm signed up for Masters on Friday morning, and I'll be checking stuff out for most of the weekend.  If people feel like following my goings-on while they're in progress, there's a half-decent chance I will remember to keep everyone updated via Twitter.

If that works out, who knows, I may tweet about other things as well, even get in flamewars with some Twitter celebs.  The possibilities are limitless.

If it doesn't work out, I'm always good for the occasional cat pic!  (speaking of which...)

The box says it all.

Some recent shots of the cats!

By the pricking of my thumbs...

Hey everyone. I’m Michael, the third and most handsome fellow to join this blog. My primary faction is Cryx for a host of reasons but mainly because I like things that are spooky. Like Toruk, I’m too far from my blogging cohorts to strike at them directly, only instead of being in an archipelago filled with gothy witches and deathly blight I’m just in a different part of the country.

I was going to include a report of a recent battle, but I can’t figure out how to say “I Ghostwalked my bile thralls out of melee and barfsploded them all over the army of my fairly inexperienced opponent” without sounding like a sociopath, so that will have to wait.

Oh, and I also have a pair of cats, bringing the feline:person ratio of this blog to 4:3.

Cat and Other Cat. Cat isn't actually that much bigger than
Other Cat; there's just some screwy perspective going on. 

Laters.

Modeling Post: Cataphracts and Praetorian Swordsmen

 So as it turns out, I didn't do the tournament, but I did find the time to get started on my Cataphract Cetrati.  I think this guy is a promising start.  The face turned out really well for me, especially the shading.  One thing about these knobby Skorne heads - it's really clear what's protruding and what's recessed.  He has a little Crazy Eye, and a little Super Sneer, but I like him.

I still have a lot to do with the guy (mostly highlights, and the Shield, Spear, Shoulder Pads, and OMG Flags), but this is most likely what the unit will look like.

On to Praetorians.  I've always been a little weirded out by their poses.  Some of the ones in the gallery kind of look like they're flailing their swords around aimlessly.  When I posed mine, I tried to fix the arms so that the Swordsman's gaze would be in line with the sword itself.

I really like the effect I got with some of them...

The position on the raised arm is actually pretty close to what I learned to do in Kendo back in the day.  I'm looking forward to painting this one.

Some of my others, though, are less purposeful looking...

BLEEARRRGH!  I'LL GET YOU POWER RANGERS IF ITS THE LAST THING I DO!!

Don't really know what to do with the yelly ones.  I suppose they'll look pretty good all painted up.  More pics as the story unfolds.

Finally, it turns out I have approximately a bajillion cat pictures.  Here's one of them on/in their favorite piece of furniture.

I really achieved the right degree of botheredness with Pax up there.