CID Battle Report: Primus Jalaam vs. Ashlynn D'Elise (75pts)

Hey everyone!

Welcome to my first battle report since I crawled back into the blogosphere.  This is a CID battle report, so probable spoilers for the upcoming Skorne Warlock, Primus Jalaam, and for proposed changes to Ashlynn 1 after the break.

Monday Mercenary Mutterings: Mercs State of the Lists 2017

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I figured it was about due. There have been a lot of changes in the faction since Mk III came out, mainly from themes and couple new models, but also some errata changes.

The biggest change is that you can no longer power attack friendly models - meaning it is now much more difficult to knock down enemy models by using your own models to line up the slam. This is a huge benefit for high-DEF warcasters such as Ashlynn and Constance Blaize, and should (theoretically) let them take better advantage of their rather absurdly potent melee abilities without the constant knock-down assassination run fear.

The next biggest change for my lists is the Rhulic Hammer Strike Theme - it's awesome! An additional +2" deployment zone, free Artillery Corps or Bokurs, and 3" reposition on all Heavy 'Jacks and Artillery Corps. Artillery Corps and Heavies form the core of my Ossrum lists already, so the benefits line up really well.

But enough talk - on to the lists!

Monday Mercenary Mutterings: Battle Report! Ossrum1 vs Naaresh1

I meant to get this out yesterday, but I was lazy. pGrexy and I got one last game in on Friday before the end of 2016, with our age-old rivalry, Skorne vs Trollbloods Mercs.

He's been helping me with my Ossrum lists as I continue in my epic quest to find a list setup that works for me, and this is the result so far. I'm pretty pleased with it, and I've started taking his good advice to heart (for instance, "why are you trying to get the alpha strike in when you're list is better suited to sitting back, threatening a lot of good shooting, taking the hit on the bunnies, and counter-punching like a champ?"... I maaay be paraphrasing on most of that, but you get the idea).

But anyway, Battle Report!

Wednesday Battle Report: Zaadesh 2 vs. Ossrum - 75pts

Hey everyone!  I'm back, and I'll be going back to mostly-regular weekly battle reports after a somewhat hectic November.  This week, I decided to try Skorne's new toy: the all-grown-up-now Lord Tyrant Zaadesh.

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh (*28pt) - Proxied by Zaadesh 1
*Tiberion (22pts)
*Despoiler (18pts)
*Titan Sentry (15pts) - Proxied by a Bronzeback
*Titan Sentry (15pts)
*Agonizer (7pts)

Immortals (Leader and 9 Grunts) (15pts)
*Command Attachment (Extoller Advocate) (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (2pts)

Monday Mercenary Mutterings: General "Awesome" Ossrum

I've liked Ossrum pretty much since I started playing Mercs, mainly because he reminded me strongly of a more condensed version of Khador's Irusk (1 and 2). He gives a lot of support to the army, whether it's in his spells, his feat, or just outright buffs like tactician.

Mk III didn't change him much, and the ways it did I actually really like. His feat is virtually the same, but now allows him to benefit from the speed portion of it, Martial Discipline is now just plain old Tactician (Rhulic) which isn't very different, and his spell Energizer changed from a variable cost battlegroup movement to a solid cost 2, move 2. Mostly, these changes are just tweaks to make him run more consistently, and he still does what he used to do - but is now LOADS better at it, considering he can take all the Warjacks he always wanted to take.

That seems like a bit of a theme in Mk III, doesn't it? Lets dive in.

Monday Mercenary Mutterings: All This and Magnus2

So in the great headlong stampede of undomesticated equines that is Mark III, it looks like Magnus2 (or Magnus the Warlord, technically) is coming out at the head of the pack for Mercenaries. As is turning out to be the norm with this edition, that's putting a lot of preconceptions from the previous edition a bit on their heads.

Magnus2 hasn't changed a lot from his mkII incarnation, yet the changes he does have are significant - he dropped his warjack bond in favor of Field Marshal: Unyielding (as well as gaining Unyielding himself), and swapped Mobility for Escort, which doesn't grant pathfinder, but DOES give him additional ARM and is an upkeep rather than an expensive drain on focus each turn.

His feat is unchanged and still arguably one of the most powerful in the game, and can flat out deny an entire half or more of the board to an enemy, which I think lets you be more cavalier with choosing models you like and that work with your play style over the generic "best in show".

The important result of the changes, taken with rules like Power Up, is that Magnus 2 can now do what it seemed he always really wanted to do - run a block of warjacks very, very well.

Monday Mercenary Mutterings: Gorten Grundback and the Gunbunny Swarm

At the expense of today's post sounding a lot like a knockoff Harry Potter title, I'm going to take a quick look at Gorten Grundback, arguably mkII's least used Rhulic Warcaster. Also, it's a day late, but that was due to me having second thoughts on the first list I built (see below).

With mkIII, a lot of things changed - Gorten... pretty much didn't. At all. I'm not even joking here, he is almost identical, right down to his feat, spell list, and stats. The only changes to his card (beyond the spiffy new background) is that they threw in a bunch more Warjack Points, Solid Ground is now Friendly Faction, and he gained Tough - 5 minutes with a sharpie and you can keep your mkII card, it's downright unnerving.

However, while he didn't change, it's a lot like the game changed around him, and he is immensely better for it.

Lets take a look.

Monday Mercenary Mutterings: WTC Solo Masters and Constance Blaize

So it looks like Mercs did very well at the World Team Championships, getting 1st, 4th, and 9th in the WTC Solo Masters Report!

That's pretty impressive, but what's almost as impressive was the range of Warcasters used - Bart, Damiano, Constance Blaize, Ossrum, and a pair of Magnus2 lists for the Solo Masters, with a smattering of Cephalix, Drake, Gorton, and more Magnus2 added in for the Teams. That's an impressively broad range of warcasters (yea, yea, except for a small preference for Magnus2), especially considering that Damiano, Ossrum (before Earthbreaker), and Constance Blaize saw very little competitive play in Mk2, with the latter being widely considered the worst warcaster in the faction/game, depending on who you were talking to.

The Blaize list was actually pretty similar to the one I've been toying around with for a while, so that got my interest peaked. After a rather disheartening loss with Borka2 the other day, I think my Trollbloods are going to take a time out for a while, so it's back to Mercs for the foreseeable future, and Constance Blaize is at the top of my list(s). 

More after the break...

Wednesday Battle Report: Makeda 2 vs. Magnus 2 - 75pts

I didn't get the chance to play any games yesterday, so here's one of my battles from earlier this summer.  This past Friday's tactics post was about Ferox, so here's the game that literally sold me on them (right after this game I picked up Tower's min box of Ferox that had been hanging around since MkI, and ordered two blisters).  I was very interested to try them out with Makeda 2, and here's the list I played.  Be warned, the Ferox are proxied by whatever spare large based models I could find: Molik Karn, my Archidon, my Aradus Sentinels, and my Tiberion.  In fact, since this was in late June, we were both playing a bunch of new things we didn't own.  I'll try to keep all the proxies straight.

Wednesday Battle Report: Makeda 3 vs. Constance 1 - 75pts

My first battle report of the all new war.  I've played a bunch of games before this one, and I will very likely post the reports.  If I don't post them as full blow-by-blow battle reports, I'll give the short version when I discuss the 'caster or list archetype I used in a tactics post.  Now, on to the report!

Lists and Thoughts

My absolute favorite Warlock in MkII was Makeda and the Exalted Court, a.k.a. Makeda 3 or Mak3da.  She was incredibly fun to play, and performed well against a lot of the lists I went up against regularly.  In MkIII, she's changed a bit, and I'm still playing around trying to find something that really clicks with her.  People online have been talking up Makeda 3 with the Mammoth, so I decided to try out: