Renegade Open Reports Incoming!

This past weekend, I went to the Renegade Open, a wargames convention right here in the Twin Cities.  I played in both the team tournament and the individual tournament with Skorne, and I'll have the reports up before (American) Thanksgiving.

I had an absolute blast, and I'll definitely be back next year.

That's all for now.  Stay tuned for updates.

Battle Report: Makeda 1 vs. Kaelyssa (75pts)

Hey everyone!

I've played a bunch of Cryx lately, but I haven't neglected Skorne.  I'm super excited about all our new themes, and I thought I'd give one of them a try last weekend.  Here's what I took:

Archdomina Makeda (*29pts) - Masters of War
*Molik Karn (19pts)
*Titan Gladiator (15pts)
*Scarab Pack (10pts)

Tyrant Rhadiem (9pts)

Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (18pts)
*Command Attachment (Tyrant Vorkesh) (0pts - Theme Benefit)
Praetorian Ferox (Leader and 4 Grunts) (20pts)
Legends of Halaak (8pts)
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer (0pts - Theme Benefit)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)

Theme Benefits
*+1 to the starting roll
*Free Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer or Command Attachment for every 20pts of Praetorian or Cataphract models/units.
*Melee attacks by warrior models ignore Tough, and a model boxed by those attacks is removed from play.

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

More JML - 25pt Battle Report

This past Friday we moved up to 25pts, meaning that if I want to stay ahead on painting, I need to get my act together this week.

I played a fun game, even though it was small, so I'll do a report.  At 25pts, I had:

JML Progress!

I finished my Pistol Wraith, so here are some pics of that.

And the whole 25pt force I'm ready to field:

We met last Friday and I played 2 games at 10pts (battlegroup + Canker Worm for me), and lost them both!  The Skorne box still makes a lot more sense to me, although I'm no fan of Xekaar.  Clearly I need to learn to Cryx a bit better.  A couple shots from my games:

I'm currently 1-4 for the league, but at least I'm ahead on painting.


Until next time!

Skorne vs. Ghost Fleet: Initial Thoughts

Ghost Fleet is a Cryx theme list that debuted last year, was unlocked sometime over the winter, and has been tearing up the meta at a very high level this spring and summer.  It's strong into a lot of matchups, and plays a pretty different game from many lists, which means you have to have a specific plan for dealing with it.  That means both having a list that can handle Ghost Fleet, and a strategy for winning against Ghost Fleet with that list.

I realise that this post is a little behind the times, since Ghost Fleet has been a powerhouse for a while, but these kinds of thought experiments are fun for me, and maybe Skorne doesn't have a lot of information out there yet (I don't follow the FB group or LormaHordes very much).  Anyway, here's my take:

I Hope You Enjoyed Your "Labor Day," Mortals

For there is no such day in the Nightmare Empire!  The baleful light of the forges of Skell never dims, and their clangor never quiets!

Ahem...

As I said last week, I'm starting up Cryx in a very casual JML with a few good friends.  I don't know Cryx as well as I know Skorne, or even Retribution, but they're cool, and I felt like trying something new.

Why Cryx?

Mostly, I really like their look.  They have some of my favorite models in WarmaHordes, and I have been having a lot of fun painting them so far.  In particular, I like the necromechanika look.  Zombies with machine parts, robots with bone parts, ghosts with pistols, it's all great.  I also like some of the core mechanics in Cryx.  Debuffing enemies is fun, and using the souls of slain enemies as robot and spell fuel is awesome.  Cryx should also play quite differently from both Skorne and Ret, which will be great when I want some variety.

My list so far:

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.

Primus Jalaam: Thoughts

Primus Jalaam is the new Warlock for Skorne coming out as part of PP's 12 factions of Christmas promotion.  He's still in development, but what I've seen looks pretty interesting, so I'm going to sketch out my thoughts, and try to make a list or two.  This is a CID model, so probable spoilers for Jalaam after the cut.  I'm talking about the 08/31 Update version (things may change).

Imperial Warhost

This is old news at this point, but the Skorne command book was pre-released at GenCon, and a new theme was revealed (and added to Warroom): the Imperial Warhost.  So today, I'm going to talk about that, and make a list I think will be a lot of fun.

For this theme, you can take any Warlock and the following:

Arise, Blog!

Hey everyone!

It's been a couple months since my last post, and I've been very busy this past spring and summer.  To be clear, I'll probably be very busy this fall as well, but I'm full of energy and could really use some distractions right now, so let's see how this goes.

I've made a few lists for both Retribution and Skorne, but I haven't actually played either faction all summer, so I'll have to see how they do.  I am very excited for the Imperial Warhost theme and spoiled Immortal Host theme, and I'll talk about those a bit in a later post.  My Ret collection is a lot more diverse, and I'm looking forward to putting them on the table as well.

But what I'm doing right now is starting Cryx.

See, over the summer we decided to have an ultra-casual JML among friends, and I decided to try to play Cryx for the occasion.  I've always thought the Cryx models looked very cool, I liked the fluff pretty well, and finally, I enjoy the eeeeevil debuff-oriented playstyle.  So I got myself the battlegroup, and I've almost got the first 25pts of models painted (I'll post pics soon, but not today).  That means I'm ahead of the curve, because what I mean by ultra-casual is that we're about 5 weeks into week 1 of this JML, and really digging the relaxed pace and chance to hang out.

So in addition to my Skorne and Ret thoughts, I'll have a couple of updates (maybe even battle reports once we reach the 50pt level or so) on this JML with Cryx and where I want to go with the faction when we're done.

Finally, I'll *try* to get back to the Twitter account I created to live tweet Adepticon a year and a half ago.  I'm @pgrexy.

That's it for now.  I have terrific intentions and a fool's hope that I will be able to keep up with the blog this time.  Talk to you (hopefully) later.

And Dominar Morghoul Too I Suppose

Eh, he's fine.

Retribution New Toys

All the new Retribution of Scyrah stuff from the command book came out on Warroom earlier this week, and I wanted to put in my share of baseless speculation before I put anything on the table.  I also have a Goreshade 4 list that I'm interested in trying.

Starting at the top after the jump!

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!

Pod Tournament Report Game 3: Master Ascetic Naaresh vs. Grissel Bloodsong, Marshall of the Kriels (75pts)

Hey everyone!  This is the third and final game in the weekly portion of the pod tournament.  I still had my Mordikaar combined arms, Naaresh beast brick, and Xekaar ranged brick for lists.  My opponent this week was Josh, who had brought Trollbloods.  He was bringing Ragnor with a beast brick, Horgle 2 with a Mountain King, and Grissel 2 with a Mountain King and 2 bombers.  My strongest drop into all of them was Naaresh, who had good armor cracking and an Arm buff.  Josh was on the fence between Grissel and Horgle, but went with Grissel.

Pod Tournament Report Game 2: Master Ascetic Naaresh vs Fyanna, Torment of Everblight (75pts)

I played my second game of the pod tournament this past Saturday, and here's how it went down.

Phase 1 - List Chicken

My opponent, Dave, was playing Legion, and had brought Lylyth 3, Thagrosh 1, and Fyanna 2.  I was packing Naaresh 1, Mordikaar 1, and Xekaar 1, and I went into the game at a loss as to which list I should choose.  Naaresh had the best game into Lylyth, being hard to kill, having the option to keep Safeguard up all the time without sacrificing much defensively, and having a lot of Shield Guard in the list.  He also had decent game into Thagrosh - I'd have to play better than my opponent, but it would be a fair fight.  I was really worried about running his brick into Fyanna, who had all the tools necessary to stop him.

Mordikaar was my best into Fyanna.  She didn't have a lot of magic weapons in the list, and Revive and Essence Blast would give me a huge leg up on attrition against her infantry.  I was also pretty confident that if I played well, I could run Mordikaar into Thagrosh and come out on top.  Lylyth was a huge problem though.  Apart from the assassination on Mordi himself, all my infantry would be shot off the table before the game had a chance to go anywhere.

Xekaar was strong into Thags, and playable into Fyanna, but was also weak against Lylyth (standing behind Aradi can only do so much).

In the end, I dropped Naaresh and hoped for the best.  Dave dropped Fyanna.  This was gonna be rough.

Pod Tournament Report Game 1: Beast Master Xekaar vs. Tyrant Xerxis (75pts)

This past Thursday, I played the first game of the multi-week pod tournament that spans the Twin Cities meta.  Since I put myself down as being able to play at any store, I was used to make up the numbers at Fantasy Flight Game Center.  It's not my closest FLGS, but it's a great place, and the local meta includes a bunch of people I've seen around in various places.

I was running Beast Master Xekaar, Master Ascetic Naaresh, and Void Seer Mordikaar.  My opponent, Jeff, was also running Skorne, with Tyrant Xerxis, Supreme Archdomina Makeda, and one other (I forget who).  I picked Xekaar because the Xerxis list looked melee focused enough that I'd be able to grind it down with shooting, and out-attrition it, and I wanted Mortality in the game to stop Stay Death shenanigans from Mak2.  Jeff went with Xerxis because that list had the armor cracking to deal with my bricks, and plenty of its own armor to shrug off Mordikaar.

Skorne Skorne Skorne :D (part 1)

This is going to be long and a little rambly.  My goal is to put up some lists I'm eager to try, and go through my thinking with everything that's changed for the models I'm using.  I also have a tournament coming up.  The games will be spread out over a couple of weeks, which is nice because I'm busy most Saturdays.  So in addition to talking about out most improved stuff I'd like to try, I'll go into my lists for the tournament, and how I'm planning to run them.  If you're in the Twin Cities meta, and you're playing in this tournament, you probably don't need to read about my lists, right?  I mean, who worries about Skorne?

Lists and such after the break!

Skorne Errata - pGrexy's Hot Take

Alrighty fellow Tyrants!

Privateer Press dropped our update errata today, and a heck of a lot has changed.

Overall, I'm very pleased.  The bottom end and support pieces of the Skorne war machine have improved dramatically in ways that give everything a role we actually want to fill.  I have a lot of thoughts on lists right now, and I'll post them all at some point (probably on Friday).  Right now, I'll stick to broad strokes, so as not to get bogged down in the details.  All the updates can be found in the latest PP Insider.  Warroom has also been updated for those who have it.

1). Remakes of our bottom tier Warlocks.  Hexeris 1 got a huge boost with Parasite, and Makeda 1 and Morghoul 2 both got major rebuilds.  Xerxis 2 picked up a speed boost with a Field Marshall, and and also got Rapport, which is great for him.  Overall, the changes mean that there's no more problem where each of these Warlocks is totally outclassed in their preferred playstyle by a different one who straight up does it better.  Great for Skorne, and great for the game.

2). Key support pieces get cheaper and/or more effective.  The Agonizer and Marketh went down in cost, and the Krea's Aura now adds to Arm.  This also affects the way the rest of the support feels.  Agonizers protected by the new and improved Force Aura certainly feel much less like I'm hanging my attrition game on a pricy and very flimsy model.

3).  Problem models have been brought up to par, and even made interesting.  The Rhinodon and Archidon both have roles.  Swordsmen have a place outside of Makeda 2 thanks to higher Mat and the Power Swell mini-Feat.  Keltarii are now Spd 7, which gives them more of a role as fast, shooting-resistant troops.

4).  Already decent stuff was made better or more flexible, which helps it keep a defined role.  Rasheth, Makeda 2, and Naaresh were already played, and minor upgrades to all of them (including a fix on Mak2's inexplicable low Warbeast points) will ensure that they still bring something unique to the table.

Coherent thoughts and lists to follow.  I'm doing another Kaelyssa battle report this Wednesday, but it will be back to Skorne for a good while after that!

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!