Battle Report: Zaal vs. eKrueger, 35pts

I managed to get a game in against Caleb this past week, and since he's started looking at Circle again, he decided to play eKrueger.

I wanted some practice with Zaal at 35pts, and I wanted to try Tiberion out with Zaal, since so many people swear by him.  My Tiberion isn't fully assembled, but he's my only heavy, so it's easy to tell which one is him.

Supreme Aptimus Zaal (+5)
*Tiberion (11)
*Basilisk Krea (4)
*Aptimus Marketh (3)
*Kovass (-)
10 Praetorian Swordsmen (6)
*Officer and Standard (2)
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers (2)
Hakaar the Destroyer (4)
Ancestral Guardian (3)
Ancestral Guardian (3)
Agonizer (2)

This is pretty straightforward for Zaal.  The only new piece is Tiberion, who I'm pretty excited to see in action.  Otherwise, we have some Swordsmen to provide bodies, souls, and a screening element (in roughly that order of importance), 3 AG's (well, 2 plus Hakaar) to take advantage of those things.  The Krea is there for defense for whoever needs it, and the Agonizer is there to either give me 1 turn of disruption against 'jacks, or help stall out 'beasts going after Tiberion.

My frequent opponent and co-blogger, Caleb, is continuing with his foray back into Circle, and plunked down epic Krueger and the following band of druidic miscreants:

Krueger the Stormlord (+5)
*Warpwolf Stalker (10)
*Razorwing Griffon (5)
*Gorax (4)
5 Warpborn Skinwalkers (8)
*Warpborn Alpha (3)
5 Woldstalkers and Stoneward (5)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2)
Druid Wilder (2)
Gallows Grove (1)

This is pretty infantry heavy for circle, but it does have decent armor cracking in the Warpwolf Stalker and Woldstalkers.  It also has access to some very powerful infantry blending.  All in all, it seems well balanced.  It's been a long time since I've played eKrueger, so we'll see how this goes.

Scenario and Deployment

We rolled up the scenario Two Fronts:  There are 2 rectangular zones and 2 objectives, one friendly and one enemy of each.  The friendly zone can be dominated for 1 point, while the enemy zone can be controlled for 1 or dominated for 2.  Destroying your opponent's objective is worth a point.  In addition, a Warcaster/Warlock cannot dominate while the enemy objective is in their CTRL, and models within 4" of a friendly objective can run or charge without being forced or spending Focus.  No kill box.

Caleb won the roll off, and with a scenario caster like eKrueger, decided to go first.

I forgot to get pictures of deployment, but Caleb deployed his Woldstalkers on my left, across from my zone, and his Skinwalkers in his center right, in front of his zone.  The Warbeasts, solos, and Krueger all went mostly in the middle.

I decided to defend my zone with Tiberion and the Agonizer in the center left, and put some pressure on eKrueger to stay out of Caleb's with my Swordsmen and AG's in the center right.  Zaal, Marketh and the Krea went more or less in the middle.

Caleb Advance Deployed his Gallows Grove on the right to kill some Swordsmen through it, and we were off.


Turn 1, Circle

Caleb runs more or less everything.  Krueger floats forward and casts Stormwall more so he can fully leach from his battlegroup than because he needs protection against shooting.  The Gallows Grove teleports into the forest on the right for Prowl.

 


Turn 1, Skorne

I mostly run.  The Swordsmen run forward as far as they can, and spread out.  The Ancestral Guardians run, and the Krea moves up behind them with Paralytic Aura up.

Zaal advances, puts Inviolable Resolve on Tiberion, 3 Fury on the Agonizer, and 1 Soul Token on all the AG's, leaving himself camping 1.  Then, he walks up behind the Krea.  Marketh advances, and uses Spell Slave to cast Last Stand on the Swordsmen.

Tiberion puts Bump on himself, and Tramples into my zone, with the Agonizer behind him wailing Gnawing Pain.  He might be in the Warpwolf's threat range, but it'll be hard to kill him off.  The Paingivers spread out behind everyone else.

I'm set up mostly out of Caleb's threat ranges.  The Woldstalkers might do some damage, but I'm ok with losing a few Swordsmen.


Turn 2, Circle

Caleb decides that the Warpwolf is probably in range to charge Tiberion, but with Bump up, will probably just bounce off.  He decides to slow me down, and go for my support.

The Woldstalkers advance and Zephyr forward, then kill 2 Swordsmen with shooting, and do a couple of points to the Agonizer (Tiberion Shield Guards one of the shots that has LoS).  The Stalker and Gorax advance behind them.

Krueger advances, and pops his Feat, which pushes most of my models (but not Tiberion! Woo!) back 3" and reduces their Speed by 2 for a round.  Then he uses Telekinesis to retreat a little.

The Gallows Grove teleports forward some more, ready to have spells chanelled through it at any time.  The Skinwalkers and Razorwing advance cautiously.  Caleb wants to stay well out of my threat range for my coming turn.

With my Speed reduced, I'll be running instead of charging next turn, so Caleb is setting up for the counterattack here.


Turn 2, Skorne

Time to get back into position.  Zaal upkeeps Inviolable Resolve, but drops Last Stand.

The Swordsmen and Ancestral Guardians run as fast as their slowed-down legs can carry them.  This gets the Swordsmen just up to Caleb's front lines to jam, and the Ancestral Guardians to a few inches behind them.

The Krea uses Paralytic Aura, and moves up again.  Tiberion uses Bump on himself again, and walks 2" forward.  The Agonizer uses Gnawing Pain again, and runs up behind Tiberion again.  They are the best of friends.

Marketh advances, and puts Last Stand on the AG next to Hakaar in case it gets to make any defensive strikes.  I'll want the Kovass' killing power next turn.

I'd spent my turn running back into the game, and bracing for Krueger's counterattack.  Zaal doesn't mind losing infantry, but I'd be letting Caleb do a number on a fairly small list.


Turn 3, Circle

Krueger Leaches back up to full, and Caleb starts off his counterattack.

The Woldstalkers forfeit their Move to aim, and the Stonewarden casts Zephyr to get the engaged ones out of combat.  The three who can see the Agonizer try to finish it off, but leave it at 2 boxes after a helpful Shield Guard from Tiberion.  What a little champ!  The other two Woldstalkers each kill a Swordsman.

The Wilder advances, and uses the Gorax's Animus, Primal, on the Razorwing Griffon.  The Griffon proceeds to Trample over 3 Swordsmen (killing 2), and both the regular AG and Hakaar.  It boosts damage on both, and kills the regular AG, just does 2 points to Hakaar.  I spawn the Kovass from the regular AG.

The Blackclad Wayfarer advances, and sprays down the line of Swordsmen jamming the Skinwalkers, killing all 3.

The Gallows Grove continues its inexorable journey forward.  The Gorax casts Primal on the Warpwolf Stalker, and charges and kills the last Swordsman blocking the Warpwolf's charge on Tiberion.

Krueger advances, and casts Telekinesis a few times: once to move a Skinwalker into a charge lane on Tiberion, and once to move the Stalker into a better charge angle on Tiberion.  Then he fries the Kovass with his Lightning Bolt, and casts Telekinesis on himself a final time to retreat a bit.

The Skinwalkers charge in next.  One and the Alpha charge Hakaar, onc charges the Krea, one charges my objective, and the one Krueger teleported charges Tiberion.  The last one is still jammed by a Swordsman, and charges it.  The Krea takes a little damage, and the objective is reduced to 1 hit box.  The two charging Hakaar finish him off, allowing me to spawn the Kovass again.  The Swordsman is splattered.  The one charging Tiberion can't break his Arm 23.

The Warpwolf Stalker advances toward Tiberion, swings, and damages him.  This triggers Bump, which pushes the Stalker back into the Woldstalkers and still within Reach range of Tiberion.  At dice -5, however, the Stalker doesn't even scratch out an aspect.

And with that, Caleb has no more activations.

Caleb's forces crash into mine...

...but...

...Krueger is awfully close...

...to the Kovass...


Turn 3, Skorne

Zaal leaches back to full.

Marketh puts Last Stand on the Kovass, which is still full on Souls from Hakaar.  Zaal Feats, and takes a few swings at the Razorwing for the heck of it.

Then the Kovass walks through the Skinwalkers and mulches both the Blackclad and Krueger.

Victory to the Skorne!


Thoughts

I played a decent game, but not amazing.  I deployed the Tiberion/Agonizer team well to hold down the left, but I should have supported them with the Krea too.  The Agonizer is Def 15/Arm 18 in the Krea bubble, which would have made it even harder to get rid of.  I didn't predict the Razorwing Trampling over my lines, and I might have held back a little bit with my AG and Hakaar if I'd thought about it.

The Swordsmen really impressed me this game.  With Cmd 10, they spread way out, and screened basically my whole line.  They definitely complicated Caleb's activation order.  They weren't very durable though - Nihilators might have made some Tough checks there and held up the Skinwalkers a little longer.  Tiberion was good.  Between Inviolable Resolve and Gnawing Pain, he was nearly impossible to remove, and was immune to Krueger's tricks thanks to Immovable Object.  He's a great anchor for the list.  I might have to try him out a little more at 50pts.

Caleb played a pretty solid game as well, although he definitely put Krueger in harm's way on his third turn.  He may have been too concerned with taking out Tiberion with his Stalker, when it might have been better used attacking my center AG's and Zaal.  Otherwise, he timed his Feat well, and pushed me into a weak position on turn 2.  He also killed a lot of my models very efficiently on turn 3.  A different activation order might have been able to get rid of the Kovass both times, but it would have been a little dicier.

Caleb's list did pretty well.  It's a solid, control-oriented list with answers to massed infantry and heavy armor.  I feel like it needs some kind of fast jamming force, like Bloodtrackers maybe, to really take advantage of Krueger's Feat.  I also think it needs some Shifting Stones, although both of those might be things to add at 50pts.

Thanks for reading!

Painting, Internet Stuff, League Schedule

A couple updates and plugs before I get around to finishing the battle report later this week.

The first is a link to my brother's company, Argopoint, a firm that does legal department benchmarking.  It's not Warmachine related, but I do have a soft spot for statistical analysis, and I got to see my brother recently, so there it is.

The other is a nifty website I found that I hope will get me to paint more, perhaps even enough that my progress over the next 10 weeks will be visible.  It's habitrpg.com, sort of a combination to-do list and browser based game.  It's been pretty helpful to me so far, and it's also pretty fun and adorable (possible pet/mount option: Skeleton Cactus. just saying).

Finally, the League schedule is up, and my first game is against Retribution!  I'll be visiting friends this weekend, but I'll probably be able to schedule the game by next Tuesday, due to being able to work these things out with my opponent like civilized folk.

I did play another battle about a week ago, but with all the traveling I've been doing I haven't had time to post the report.  So expect that in the next few days.

Battle Report: eVyros vs Iron Mother

I got in a battle report the other day against my friend Bob and his growing Convergence of Cyriss army. He only has 35 pts built at this point, so I decided to get in my first practice game with eVyros at that points level.

My list:

Incissar Vyros

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Griffon

-Sphinx

Arcanist

Arcanist

Max Dawnguard Sentinels + UA

I was originally planning on taking this list to a 35 pt Commander's Crucible tournament, but it serves as an excellent starting point for a tier 4 Guardians of the Gate list so I thought I would give it a go. I couldn't declare tier in this game due to the Sphinx and not knowing what I would drop to get it up to a Manticore, as the Arcanists are incredibly important to the Murder of Griffons game plan. Cuz after all, who says that Ret doesn't have medium based infantry?

His list (I'll include descriptions as I won't remember what they do otherwise :P):

Iron Mother Directrix and Exponent Servitors

-Cipher (mortar heavy)

-Corollary (focus battery)

-Diffuser (gives free charges and +2" of movement when charging models hit by its lucky gun)

-Mitigator (puncture AOE that does knock down on a direct hit)

-Monitor (Ellipsaw-flingin' heavy)

Optifex Directive (the repair dudes)

Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex (the living arc node)

Max Reciprocators (what Man-O-War Shocktroopers should have been)

So, a lot of robots and a unit of Man-o-War primes.

We set up the three flags scenario and got started. I won the roll off and he chose the side that did not have a forest in his deployment zone.

Deployment:

I deployed my Sentinels directly in front of a large forest as eVyros has Easy Rider on his spell card. In hindsight this was a stupid decision as Easy Rider costs 3 to cast, but whatever. It was fun. Griffons deployed along the line and the Sphinx went on my left side with the Inicissar smack dab in the middle. One Arcanist was on either side.

He deployed Iron Mother in the middle behind a wall, the Monitor and Mitigator opposite my Sentinels and the rest of the robots on my left flank. There was a forest on his side of the table at about the mid line that the Reciprocators would need to walk through.

Angry Elf Turn 1: 

Run! Everything except for the Sphinx (not enough focus) and eVyros (cast Easy Rider) runs forwards. The Sentinels almost clear the forest and my Griffons reach the 19" line.

Convergence turn 1: 

Induction shenanigans occur and everything runs off of 1 focus. The Reciprocators hide behind the forest while the Monitor takes a commanding view of the battlefield on a hill. 

We roll for which objective disappears and it's the one on the left flank. Works for me!

Retribution turn 2: 

I apparently forgot to take pics this turn. Sorry!

I only allocate 1 focus to the Griffon on my extreme right flank as I need the rest for Deflection (2) and Easy Rider (3). In hind sight Deflection was a wasted spell as he has Puncture all of the place, but whaddya gonna do? My guys advance cautiously, just getting to the midline. Most of his heavy hitters are behind the forest on my left side, so my Griffons are fairly safe. eVyros moves slightly so he can get everyone in his control area, casts Deflection and Easy Rider and feats. The Sentinels take advantage of this and run up in a proper Elven Vengeance Formation ™, clearing the forest. The Griffon on my extreme right flank runs to get in base to base with the flag.

Convergence turn 2: 

In which my opponent forgets that forests are things that exist. He starts off the turn by arcing Backlash on to one of my Griffons on the left flank. I had forgotten about that spell, but it is extremely effective against the Murder of Griffons due to there being so many warjacks around. Thankfully eVyros has 18 wounds to chew through, but still…

Anyway, he follows this up chucking a homing ripstrike from the Diffuser into the Backlashed Griffon and does a few points of damage (and 1 to eVyros). His plan was to gang up on the Griffon, get a few points in on Vyros and set up a spell assassination later on, but the Forest plays into my favor perfectly. Only one of the Reciprocators is able to get a charge in on it while the others either run into the forest or charge Sentinels (one of which ends up out of command range). The Griffon takes some damage (and 1 to eVyros) and one of the Sentinels is murdered. I shout VENGEANCE! because I'm contractually obligated to do so.

The Cipher throws some difficult terrain onto the Sentinels and the Monitor Elipsaw's a Griffon but misses. Other than that his forces shuffle forward and get ready for turn 3. I score 1 point thanks to my extreme right Griffon standing on the flag.

Retribution turn 3: Synergistic VENGEANCE.

At the start of the turn my Sentinels get their Vengeance moves… and are freakin' amazing. Three swings leads to three dead Reciprocators (rollin' twelves for damage ain't no thing), though to be fair I could have gotten two on each one if I wanted to. eVyros saves 2 focus for Synergy, 2 for camping and allocates the other two to needy Griffons.

I start with the Incissar, who casts Synergy and moves to get all of the 'jacks in his control area. I start with the left most Griffon to build up the Synergy chain, wapping at a Reciprocator but only doing 1 point of damage. The Backlashed Griffon goes next, hitting the same guy twice but still fails to kill it. An Arcanist gives the Sphinx a focus and he charges into the other Reciprocator but misses the charge attack needing 3s to hit, so he only manages to get 6 damage on the guy. The last Griffon on the left flank advances and hits the Diffuser three times taking out about half of its boxes.

The Sentinels activate next. Five of them wreck the Cipher on the charge, one of them finishes off the Diffuser and the other two smash the Mitigator to pieces. Finally my extreme right Griffon moves to just in front of the flag and scores again.

  

Convergence turn 3: End game.

Bob knew that he had to win this turn or it was game over. I was in position to dominate either the center or right flags next turn and was nearly guaranteed to score a third point on his turn. Unfortunately I had the path to Vyros fairly well blocked off and most of his arc nodes were engaged in melee. He manages to clear a path to get a shot on Vyros from Iron Mother, but that only does 4 points (hooray camping for ARM 20!). He concedes at the end of his turn.

Victory for the Retribution!

Post game thoughts:

My game plan seems to have worked out, but there are a few things that I learned from this game:

• Casting Easy Rider should only be done in extreme circumstances. It costs a bundle, but can be game changing if needed. In future games I won't deploy my Sentinels in front of forests unless I really need to, as basically everything else in the force has pathfinder naturally.
• With Synergy it's often better to just pile all of your focus on one or two jacks that are going to be at the end of the chain. The early hits are just there to build up the Synergy chain, but once it's built up each additional attack you buy gets 4-7 points more effective, meaning you get more work done with later attacks.
• The feat is pretty cool. I only got to move one warjack this time, but setting up Griffons to start off the chain without charging or shifting your force over by 6" seems like good times.
• Even though eVyros is a badass rockin'  15/18 I still need to make sure that I think about potential assassination vectors, especially since he is on a large base. After the game we decided to roll out the potential spell assassination that Bob was trying to get working and he came within 3 points of killing the Incissar. I fortunately had distance and a semicircle of melee badasses to take care of most things, but including an Aspis in any future expansions to 50 certainly sounds like an idea.

That's all for now. Until next time, shank a round ear for me!

Are You Ready for Some Football?!

Tower is doing another league, and this time, I'm joining in instead of watching from the sidelines.

Rather than being another escalation style league, this is the NFL league.  We all have a schedule of one game a week, and there's a 10-week season, followed by playoffs.  The first 4 weeks will be at 35pts, while the last 6 will be at 50, as will the playoffs.  We bring two lists to every game, following SR 2014 character restrictions, and every game will be played with a scenario.  I think the timing is standard Death Clock for the point size, but I'm not 100% sure.

Since it's our responsibility to schedule the games ourselves (as opposed to just showing up when we can and playing whoever is there), I'm actually pretty optimistic about being able to make all the games.  Furthermore, League night is officially Friday night, which is when I'm usually free to come play games.

The other major rule for the NFL league is that if a character model dies in a game (or a character unit is completely wiped out), that character is unavailable in the next game.  This includes Warcasters/Warlocks, and they are injured if you lose by scenario just as if they had been killed.

I'll be playing Skorne, since I'm currently both playing and painting them.  Hopefully, the league will inspire me to get a lot more done on the Skorne that I have, and maybe even have a couple of full 50pt lists fully painted by the end of the season.

I'll be doing reports of all my League games, so expect 1 report a week for at least the next 10 weeks.  I'll also try to do pictures for all of them, but I'll be relying on my cell phone, so if it's out of power, no pics.  :(  I'll probably also go into some lengthier post-game discussions separate from the reports, to keep with the Football motif.  Maybe I'll even record the reports podcast style.

Reports, thoughts, and cat pictures to come.

Steamrollin': Lord Arcanist Ossyan

Hi all, Maxtermynd here again to talk about the caster that I'm trying to practice at the moment, Lord Arcanist Ossyan, and how he fits into my Steamroller plans. I brought him to this year's Adepticon and Ossyan has been my favorite caster ever since. He has the tools to deal with any situation, as he can personally buff speed, defense, damage output, resistance to ranged attacks and accuracy, and from there his force can be tailored to quash anything that he's missing.

The Elf, The Myth, The Legend

Without further ado, here's...

The List:

Lord Arcanist Ossyan, First of His Name, of House Vyre

-Banshee

Arcantrik Force Generator

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Houseguard Thane

Max Houseguard Halberdiers with UA

Max Dawnguard Invictors with UA

Stormfall Archers

Stormfall Archers

The Reasons:

Ossyan is normally designed to be the armor cracking list in any Retribution pairing that he's included in, and this one is no exception. His feat (+1 die on ranged attack damage rolls against enemies in his control range and -1 die on enemy ranged attack damage rolls from enemies in his control range) just swings too easily in that direction to throw away completely. Stormfalls firing Brutal shots under feat will do 26 damage on average a piece to targets of your choosing, and all eight blazing away will reduce any target to rubble.

You got your knockdown on my Brutal shot target!

That being said, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't banking too hard on it. Historically one of Ossyan's problems has been his lack of accuracy. The Banshee and AFG's Momentum cannon shots can certainly alleviate this to a degree (and are certainly the reason that they are in the list), but high defense infantry and Angellii laugh at knockdown guns.

To counter this I've included Invictors instead of the more commonly used Mage Hunter Strike Force. The MHSF is good, but rerollable RAT 8 shots at POW 14 are very nice against the Circle and Legion heavies I was originally teching this list for and (especially when Shatter Storm has been cast on them) can also be used to clear infantry either at range or in melee. The Stormfalls and AFG can also throw out a bevy of AOE templates to drift onto high def infantry and hopefully kill a couple.

It also helps that I have an unreasonable love of the Dawnguard 'Vics and their sword guns. BFFs 4eva yo.

They slice, they dice, they fire Combined Arms CRAs at fries!

Something not to be forgotten is Ossyan's gun. At POW 13 it hits like a truck, and targeting a tough target with it will leave behind a 4" AOE that grants -2 DEF to anything inside. This can make Stormfalls much more accurate and also help start an assassination chain in a pinch.

Halberds are the new black

The Halberdiers also help plug the accuracy hole… but really, I find it very difficult to not bring Halbs + UA + Thane in every list I play nowadays. They do particularly good work in an Ossyan list as Quicken makes them ludicrously fast and hard to kill at range. Advancing 13" in Shield Wall makes them 15/18, and they have the option to threaten 15" on the charge before reforming into the enemy.

And Eiryss, of course, is in the list to snipe off any Arcane Shielding/Defenders Warding we might run into and just be a pain in general.

The plan:

General game plan is to run or Shield Wall Quickened halberdiers as appropriate to jam or set up a charge while the rest of the army runs into position. The Banshee and AFG will take up positions on opposite ends of the field looking for juicy slam targets to set up profitable SFA shots. Stormfalls and Invictors take pot shots until Ossyan gets in position to use his feat to kill one or two big targets while we play to not lose scenario.

Eventually an assassination vector will present itself, starting with either the Banshee or the AFG using their momentum cannon to knock the caster or their screen down. If both miss, aren't available or there are no good slam targets Ossyan can use his gun to start the chain in a pinch, giving the caster -2 defense and a boosted POW 13 to boot. From there it's just a matter of an overwhelming application of firepower until the game goes away.

The key thing about the feat is not to get greedy. While it's certainly possible to remove 3-4 heavies with it, you can often get enough work out of it by removing a single troublesome target (Hi Behemoth/Avatar/Tiberion/etc.!) at range before it proves to be too much of a problem. It's also always an option to feat defensively if there aren't any particularly hard targets to feat away, though in my meta this isn't much of an issue. But, like, if there's a Colossal... you should probably take that one out. Just sayin'.

The problem:

While aiming to be fairly well balanced, this list still has the until recently omnipresent Retribution problem of dealing with Stealth. Shadow pack casters can't be targeted by the lists' many guns and AOEs only help so much against waves of Stealth infantry. Because of this any list that you pair this with needs to be able to handle those threats, which is why in Steamroller play I'm leaning towards taking Issyria (the feat grants True Sight) or Ravyn (as dem Banez tend to die to Sniped Feated Houseguard Riflemen).

The bigger problem? I really want to use eVyros as my second list, as a) Murder of Griffons could be a rock band name, b) his list deals with Circle and Legion like nobody's business and c) I came to this game to play with robots, steam powered or otherwise, and having 7-8 of them on the field sounds like just what the doctor ordered.

I See You...

If I do pair with eVyros I'd probably swap out the Invictors for a unit of Houseguard Riflemen with the UA. They'll give Ossyan some additional anti-infantry thanks to 14" range guns and can remove stealth infantry (or heavies under feat) with relative ease, especially if they can get into mini feat range for the boosted attack die. This is especially relevant as eVyros does not like the Cryx match up... stupid Banez.

I might also leave eEiryss for the eVyros list and instead take Aiyanna and Holt + an Arcanist to help keep up my damage output on non-feat turn, as well as let Ossyan handle the Menoth matchup. It's also a mite fluffier for Ossyan to be leading Houseguard than Dawnguard, which pulls at my narrative heart strings.

The conclusion:

I'll test out using the Riflemen in place of my beloved 'Vics and let you all know how it's going. I think it will be worth it, and it helps me from banking all-in on the feat, which I like.

Until next time, shank a round ear for me!

And there was much rejoicing: Maxtermynd Joins 4+ Tough!

Hello! The name's Maxtermynd and I've been invited to bring a taste of the Madison meta to 4+ Tough as well as a dedicated Retribution (and, when I eventually go back to it, Khadoran) view on the game. I love my futuristic elves and their space robots, and not only because they finally let me use the color orange on an army but because they are fast, hit hard, force slap things around like Jedi knights and reward a combined arms approach to Warmachine.

Space. Robots.

Currently I'm working on mastering a couple of our 'casters for competitive play, which for me means play a list 5 times, switch around a few things, and continue the process until it becomes muscle memory and I have a list I like. To prevent my battle reports from getting too boring I'll try to switch between my current Steamroller or Master's pair every few games that I actually report, as well as the occasional speculative ramble. I'm just that kind of guy.

Also sword guns and/or gun swords.

So, what to expect from me:

• Battle reports! And if I can find my video gear maybe even video battle reports. Madison meta's pretty brutal sometimes, so I'll likely get my ass handed to me, but it should be educational at the very least.
• Tactica! I'll try to stay only to things that I actually have the experience to talk about, but I do love me some speculative conjecture as well.
• Pretty models! I've got an airbrush and I'm not afraid to use it. I'm planning on having the entirety of the Retribution painted and based by the end of the year (except maybe a Gorgon... Heavy Rifle team only becuase it's so damn pretty), and I'll be showing off my progress/getting you all to guilt me into doing it here. There are also a few ridiculous conversion projects that I have in the works (three words: Beach. Party. Blowout.), so stay tuned for those as well.

Until next time, shank a round ear for me!

State of the Retribution April 2014

Here are the Retribution lists I'll mostly be working on until the next update.  Right now, in terms of 'casters, I have Kaelyssa, Ossyan, Rahn, Garryth and Issyria, and I'll be trying them all out.  I finally have enough models to run a 50pt list with all of them, but I'll probably play pared down versions of these lists at 35pts.

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (*7pts)
*Phoenix (10pts)
*Banshee (10pts)
*Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
*Dawnguard Sentinels Officer and Standard Bearer (2pts)
Mage Hunter Strike Force (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Strike Force Commander (2pts)
Mage Hunter Infiltrators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander (3pts)
*Soulless Escort (1pt)
Arcanist (1pt)
Arcanist (1pt)

This list is pretty standard for Kaelyssa.  I haven't yet played the Infiltrators, but my experience with Kaelyssa so far has been that she's an attrition/assassination Warcaster, and the Infiltrators help with that plan.  They're solid against infantry, and threaten almost all 'casters in the game.  Eiryss will help Kaelyssa create headaches for Hordes opponents by denying Fury.  Otherwise, the Sentinels are the armor cracking, the MHSF help out against infantry and support, and the two 'jacks bring control and a solid center for the list.  I ran a similar list with 2 MHA's, and I might decide to drop the Soulless, and either take Min Strike Force or Infiltrators, or drop Eiryss 3 to fit them back in.

Issyria, Sybil of Dawn (*6pts)
*Phoenix (10pts)
*Chimera (6pts)
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
*Dawnguard Invictors Officer and Standard Bearer (2pts)
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (7pts)
*Houseguard Halberdiers Officer and Standard Bearer (2pts)
*Soulless Escort (1pt)
Mage Hunter Strike Force (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Strike Force Commander (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Houseguard Thane (2pts)
Arcanist (1pt)
Arcanist (1pt)

This is pretty much what I'll be running with Issyria until I can afford a Hyperion.  The plan is to use channeled Blinding Light for control, and a whole lot of bullets to keep the edge in attrition, and go for the kill if the opponent leaves their 'caster exposed.  The Halberdiers and MHA's have huge threat ranges too, and I can easily get the alpha strike on most opponents.  The list, like Issyria herself, is very fragile, but it can do a lot of damage, and with good positioning, all those bodies can go a long way.  I've heard some interesting things about MHI with Issyria, so I might give them a try, especially if I find myself outpacing the Invictors significantly.  That would definitely up the list's blitz factor, but MHI tend to die faster than Invictors.

Lord Arcanist Ossyan (*6pts)
*Banshee (10)
*Manticore (8)
Mage Hunter Strike Force (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Strike Force Commander (2pts)
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (7pts)
*Houseguard Halberdiers Officer and Standard Bearer (2pts)
*Soulless Escort (1pt)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt (4pts)
Houseguard Thane (2pts)
Arcanist (1pt)
Arcanist (1pt)

This is my "no proxies" Ossyan list.  I'll likely be trying him out with Hypnos instead of the Manticore in his battlegroup, which looks pretty promising.  I have also run a Daemon marshalled by Sentinels, which worked pretty well, and would replace the Halbs and Manticore.  (The problem with both options is the lack of a second Vyre chassis 'jack that I could magnetize).  I've heard good things about the AFG with Ossyan, and I'll probably proxy it once or twice to see what I think.  Otherwise, this is pretty standard Ossyan.  It's an almost pure attrition list that wants to  operate mainly at range, and trade the Halberdiers for more time to shoot.

Adeptis Rahn (*6pts)
*Phoenix (10pts)
*Chimera (6pts)
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
*Dawnguard Sentinels Officer and Standard Bearer (2pts)
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber (3pts)
*Banshee (10pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
House Shyeel Magister (2pts)
Arcanist (1pt)
Arcanist (1pt)

This list feels like it wants more infantry, but I'm really psyched for Elara, so I'm running her with a Banshee in it for the time being.  Rahn's Feat actually makes her a decent assassin, and the Banshee helps Rahn out keeping bricks under control with its slam gun.  The Stormfalls are good with Rahn, but they will likely become Battle Mages sooner or later.  The plan is basically to knock stuff down with Rahn and the Banshee, and finish it off with the hard hitters.  I have a lot of tricks in this list, but as I said, I'm low on models.  If I decide it's too much for the list to take, I'll probably swap Elara's Banshee for MHSF or Halberdiers.

Garryth, Blade of the Retribution (*5pts)


...Honestly I've got nothing for him yet.  I'm going to run him with a lot of different stuff to see what works.  Probably Elara, and maybe Battle Mages when I pick them up.  Any tips would be very helpful.

So that's the state of the Retribution so far.