Magnets are an attractive option

Progress.  Slow, but progress.

The last week or two seem like a hobby wasteland to me, though on reflection I've actually gotten a decent amount done.  None of that work was done with a brush (well, a little was), so perhaps that's what's causing the wheel-spin impression I've had.  What all have I accomplished?  Another bullet list will illustrate.

• Demo Corps base slots filled, then covered with tiny rocks and ballast.
• Honor Guard assembled, magnetized, and based.
• Ravagore arms magnetized, still no head.
• Khador jack kit assembled, torso and Marauder arms magnetized.
• pVlad got a rock added to his base to get him ready for ballasting, which I promptly forgot once I got to that stage. 

The power of attraction.

So on further reflection the list is pretty sparse, but I will point out that I put in ~45 magnets into little plastic bits.  Though the process is not difficult it is time consuming, but will hopefully yield benefits in the future.  Since I now have all the parts assembled (if not yet primed [let alone painted]) for a pButcher tier 4 list, the Marauder will be seeing some table time as I try out the beefy rush of doom list.  I've been intrigued by the Marauder for a while, especially once I started eating lots of Slams at the FLGS.  Whether it will beat out the humble Juggernaut for the 7 point jack slot remains to be seen.  Having an on-demand Slam (a POW 20 Slam at that) without the need for lining it up a turn ahead of time is very appealing.  I also want to try it out with pVlad since it's a jack that doesn't want much Focus, so I can run it at full speed while also putting up Signs & Portents or Blood of Kings.

(Almost) ready for action.

It's almost time for 40k again.  EV recently came to the cusp of finishing his Dark Eldar, then somehow pooped out a Space Wolves army seemingly overnight.  In response I put some more paint on the horde of Blood Angels dying for attention, mostly helmets and weapons to tie squads together and cut down on what model goes with who confusions.  You'll have noticed the mention of an Honor Guard above, which is a significant development.  I've grappled with the idea of an Honor Guard before (until recently I had a pair of posts-in-progress on the subject) and have never gotten any traction.  The problem has always been load out.  Choppy or shooty, plasma or melta, Storm Shields or Lightning Claws, the options are bewildering.  I could never settle on a build and because I wanted to glue everything together a misstep could be fatal.  I wanted to glue both for strength and because I intended to do up each member in a unique livery.  When I realized that this last condition didn't preclude magnetizing it was a major step forward.  With my recent success magnetizing a Legion beast kit, or at least parts of it, and having acquired a box of Death Company with my Gnarls League bounty, I decided to take the plunge and learn by doing.  My reluctance to magnetize never made a lot of sense to me before, but I was able to explain it away as a lack of magnets.  Having them on hand, combined with a lack of (plastic) plasmaguns, was enough to get me past that hurdle.  As you can see the current build is two plasmaguns and two power weapons which isn't what I'd ultimately like to run (all plasma), but it's the same points and having a little melee punch won't hurt anyone. 

I've also done a lot of list building.  A Blood Angels list has emerged from the pack, which I may well post about later, and I've also been working on ideas for the forthcoming Journeyman League.  The idea of running either Circle or Cygnar is appealing, but I actually have Trollbloods and Menoth on hand which trumps the two Cs.  If we run the Journeyman League strictly according to the rules, Trollbloods are out.  I don't want to carry two Impalers for a month and Trollbloods in general have lost a lot of their luster for me.  Menoth still looks good though, and I think I can manage with the jacks from the two player box a lot easier than the Trollblood starter box.  As such I've been noodling through lists for the different stages of the league and feel pretty good about a lot of them.  The current idea is to allow for a month of painting before the league starts in earnest, so I want to know what I'm going with and have it all ready to go for when I can start painting, but there's still lots of time before that day comes.  In the meantime I'm having a good time dreaming about setting people on fire.

Turning the Tables: pButcher vs Xerxis

Google returns this for "Turning the tables."

Last week I returned to the warm embrace of the Motherland in my first post-Gnarls game.  While thinking through a list the night before I engaged in an activity that I usually detest: I planned my list based on what I assumed EV would field.  This started mostly with planning a counter to Bile Thralls (Widowmakers), who are a rock-hard counter to the WGI I would be running (since I finished Kovnik Joe recently and wanted to field him.)  My distaste for list-tailoring sent me off on various themes, notably an all (or almost all) Stealth list, but as I was packing in the Kayazy I came back to tailoring.  While I'm against planning for a particular opponent, it makes no sense to do something like an all Stealth list that focuses on negating shooting when you know your opponent is all but guaranteed to take a melee-heavy force with little to no shooting.  Practicing in undesirable conditions is one thing, but bringing that Stealth list against a list packed with Banes, Biles, and Mech Thralls is an exercise in masochism.  After iterating for a while, I came back to my starting point of putting Joe (and Torch, also recently finished) on the table and came up with the following:



35+6 points, 33 models

The Butcher of Khardov  +6 points
* Torch  10 points

Doom Reavers  6 points
* Greylord Escort  2 points
Greylord Ternion  4 points
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich  2 points
Manhunter  2 points
Widowmakers  4 points
10 Winter Guard Infantry  6 points
* Winter Guard Officer & Standard  2 points
* 3 Winter Guard Rocketeers  3 points

The Widowmakers are the anti-Bile Thrall unit.  I planned to run them forward into position, snipe out as many Bile Thralls as possible, then appreciate their sacrifice when they inevitably got munched by the advancing waves of undead.  The rest is just a usual army that I'd throw together.  I had to remind myself to take the WGI so I could use Joe many times.  While trying to cram in all the different flavors of infantry I wanted to take the WGI always got the axe first to make room for Great Bears or Kayazy or whatever.  I didn't realize it until I saw my army on the table, but everything except the Widowmakers was painted.  It was a pleasant surprise.

More pleasant still was the surprise waiting for me when I got to EV's place.  After planning against Bile Thralls and a Cryx infantry swarm, I saw Skorne on the other side of the table.  Beast heavy(ish) Skorne at that.  EV's list:

35+5 points, 18 models

Tyrant Xerxis  +5 points
* Cyclops Brute  5 points
* 2x Cyclops Savage  5 points each
* Titan Gladiator  8 points

6 Cataphract Cetrati  11 points
6 Paingiver Beast Handlers  3 points
Totem Hunter  3 points

In an odd, unplanned reversal I was running the horde of Warmachine infantry while EV was running the Hordes beast-centric list.  For a moment I was concerned about all the beef I'd have to face, but since three of four beasts were lights the moment was brief.  I had never seen Xerxis before, but a quick look over his card told me he was a combination of Orsus and Irusk.  Capable-looking himself, Xerxis didn't seem to offer a lot of support to his beasts/units and his SPD 5 meant I should be able to dodge him as needed.  Everything else I was familiar with and the group as a whole didn't concern me too much.  DEF 17 on 15 models is one hell of a security blanket.

Going with the Gnarls league scenario table, we rolled up an entertaining one: Whirling Gauntlet.  I won the roll to go first and decided fate had decreed that I go first.  There wasn't a lot to choose from strategy-wise, so everything went in the middle.  When EV deployed heavy on the left, I countered with my AD on the right.  The resulting plan was thus: center moves up, Doomies and Manhuntress run around to flank, Widowmakers set up shop in one of the buildings and pour fire into the objective zones.  The good ol' hammer and anvil, what could be more Khadoran than that?

Deployment.

Turn 1

Running.  Lots of running.  Somewhat less pictures, meaning none.

Turn 2

My half of turn two was slightly more involved than the first turn.  Doomies and Manhuntress ran.  The Widowmakers tried to shoot something, anything, but were out of range.  The Rocketeers put out some long-range fire but did little with it.  Perhaps if I'd activated Kovnik Joe before the unit it would have helped.  The WGI did manage to block Torch up pretty good though, so there was that.

Khador turn two.

EV continued his advance and one Cyclops made contact.  A successful Tough roll or two later, it had managed to kill a Winter Guard.

Poked one Guard real good.

That was about all the action.  You can see the cloud in the center moving around through my lines.  This was a trend that would continue.  Fortunately it did me little real harm, but was an inconvenience for most of the battle.  Two things to note: the flanking Totem Hunter, and that Xerxis had cast Inhospitable Ground.

Skorne turn two.

Turn 3

Who uses Kovnik Joe to boost attack rolls?  Not me.  As such the WGI didn't do a whole lot this turn.  I pumped some CRAs into the Cetrati, which softened them up a little but didn't take any out.  The unengaged Rocketeer did better when he took out three Beast Handlers with a single rocket.

Tactical missile strike.

Having been held up the previous turn, Torch was out of charge range.  He was in flame range though, and moved up to set some Skorne on fire.  My positioning left something to be desired and I managed to get only one Cetrati under the template, but did set it on fire.

Burn it with fire!

Did you see the Doomies in the above pictures, menacing various foes with their big swords?  There was a slight problem there.  I forgot about Inhospitable Ground, then EV didn't remember until I was in the "dice in hand" phase.  With no way to figure out who was where before the charge I backed them all up half the distance they had traveled through the Inhospitable Ground.  This turned my glorious charge where most (perhaps all) of the Doomies made contact into a piss-poor charge where two made it in while the rest clustered up for a counter-charge.  With only one swing per beast, no beasts were killed.  Also of note: I moved the Greylords down to block up the Totem Hunter and hopefully land an Ice Cage or two on it so that when Orsus strolled down to corner-snipe it he'd have an easier time.  Problem?  Totem Hunter has Stealth.  As a result the Greylords just hung out and Orsus didn't do much.  I was also moving the Totem Hunter's Prey (Kovnik Joe) away from it each turn to try and deny the extra movement.

Khador turn three.

EV's turn started in an entertaining way (for me).  His Titan Frenzied and ate a Cetrati.  It wasn't all roses though because the burning Cetrati didn't perish in the flames.

Nothing sweeter than your enemy eating itself.

Despite their reputation for sturdiness and durability, I've found the Khador heavies don't really take a charge too well.  Granted this applies to all jacks (except perhaps Cryx jacks with their high DEF), most any single target when you get right down to it, but I'm still disappointed when I go from a pristine, fresh-from-the-factory jack to a pile of scrap in a single activation.  At least the Cetrati were clustered up in optimal "spray me in the face" fashion.

Enjoy your moment, Cetrati.

Adjacent to this action, the Brute skewered another Winter Guard.  At least the lofty WGI DEF required boosting, and multiple swings, to overcome.

Two down, thirteen to go.

Then came the inevitable doom.  The first Savage killed two Reavers, which were all the targets in range.

Doomies down!

Savage the second killed another two, which would have been three except the lone Reaver made his Tough roll...

More Doomies die.

...Until the Beast Handlers came in.  I have little to complain about here as I'd made far more than my fair share of Tough rolls up to this point.

Piling on is never nice.

The Totem Hunter gave me a brief thrill when it stepped up against the Butcher.  I think it did two points of damage.  Looking at the pictures now, I should have been concerned.  My flanking force had been reaped like so much wheat after my non-charge with the Doomies, Torch was down, and all I had managed to kill was two Beast Handlers (though EV had kindly taken out a Cetrati as well).  Granted the remaining Cetrati were in various states of disrepair, as were the Cyclops.  Why wasn't I worried?  Winter Guard.  Between the 17 DEF and Tough from Joe, EV didn't have a whole lot of answers for the unit.  They packed the zone on my half of the table, which EV was supposed to take, and they weren't going anywhere.  As noted above the Cetrati were packed together in the textbook placement to eat lots of sprays, which would also clip the Titan behind if I got lucky, and after clearing those out then things would look a lot better.  Between Joe's boosts and the Butcher's feat, I was confident that I could clear out the center.

Skorne turn three.

Turn 4

Because my flankers were out of range of the Butcher's feat, I started there.  The Greylord Escort got a tiny measure of revenge for his slaughtered charges by spraying a Beast Handler to death.

"They may be criminals, but they're my criminals!"

 Then the main event began.  Orsus popped feat, popped off the Totem Hunter's head, then popped an Obliteration into the center of the Cetrati, finishing off three of them.  Then, his work complete, the Butcher rested.

I should use Obliteration more.

Next up were the Greylords who took out another Cetrati and, just as vital, didn't gum up any lanes for the Winter Guard.

Greylords join the fray.

This time I made sure to activate Joe first so he could inspire the Winter Guard to greatness.  Inspired himself, he shot a Savage so hard it exploded.  (Looking through the pictures to come, the Beast Handlers just seem to disappear.  I have no reason why this happened. [On extra examinations, it was the Manhuntress.])

Joe gets in on the action.

Then the Winter Guard.  The carnage was less than expected, but not because the WGI didn't perform.  They just didn't have targets.  They cleared out the remaining Cetrati, pumped some CRAs into the Titan, failed to kill the Brute, and popped Xerxis with a rocket for good measure.

Making the most of what you have.

No real extra action to summarize here.  Every unit killed something, which is always nice. 

Khador turn four.

Since I'm writing this a week later, I forget exactly what EV did this turn.  It was something to do with Xerxis.  The crux of his plan was to Trample the Titan in against Orsus and then hope for the best.  The problem with the plan was that there was nowhere for the Titan to stop (since you need to be able to place the model before resolving Trample attacks, you can't stomp in and try to create a hole, nor do the models just dive out of the way).  I had all this in mind while EV was taking his turn and was curious what he was up to.  A Slam maybe?  Xerxis had Combo: Smite, but his activation ended without any attacks.  When EV announced he was going to Trample and I showed him how it wouldn't work, the game was over.

Endgame.

In the post-game chatter, EV dropped an unexpected nugget on me: Hordes is a weaker system than Warmachine.  This flies in the face of the accepted Internet Truth which states that Fury is the superior mechanic, a statement which I support.  EV's reasoning was that you can neuter a Warlock by killing all its beasts, which is fair enough.  The problem, of course, is that you have to kill all the beasts, which is rarely an easy undertaking.  Warcasters are more capable on their own, this is not debatable, but beasts are better than jacks and in more ways than casters are better than locks.  Warmachine infantry is generally superior to Hordes infantry, plus Warmachine has extra development time which means more pieces to choose from.  More than all that though, Fury is just better than Focus for reasons which I won't get into here.  Indeed I've spent too long on the balance of the two systems already.  My point here is that there were a number of reversals in this game: I showed up with jack-light Warmachine and faced beast-heavy Hordes, EV was the one dropping Inhospitable Ground while fielding heavy infantry, and we wrapped up the day debating if Hordes was weaker than Warmachine.  The constant through the battle was the Winter Guard, who reminded me of just how effective they are (too effective really) and why I stopped fielding them.  I'm pondering a post about the Death Star, how to run it and how to fight it, as there are a couple local players wondering how to make it work(!), though I'm reluctant to point out how to beat a pillar of the Motherland.  Perhaps such a public service is due though, considering the final reversal of this battle: I brought what I hoped was a hard counter (Widowmakers) to the hard counter of my WGI (Bile Thralls), only to find that there were no Biles, which allowed my WGI to operate with impunity.

Eagles Nest Nurse-in and a Sense of Normality

For anyone following our Facebook fan page, you know that this week has been a particularly devastating one with the passing of our dear friends little boy Rowan. In the fog of all the pain there was an available distraction of a nurse-in at a local indoor playground. I personally felt the need to have a normal morning again so I could recharge my mental batteries for the week ahead.

As I sat there meeting new wonderful breastfeeding mothers, overhearing television interviews, passing out flyers/cookies/juice - I remember thinking it was odd that I consider this kind of activity to be an every day normal occurrence for me. But then again it was just a bunch of women breastfeeding, chatting, and eating. That is pretty normal in my world, how about you?

Mama Christa nursing, walking, and talking at the Eagles Nest

The nurse-in was peaceful and wonderful. Eagles Nest has now made the effort to educate their staff and ensure that breastfeeding women are welcome there. This all came about because of an incident that happened last weekend where a mother was asked by staff to go breastfeed in a private location. Managers told Susan Berlien that they have an unwritten rule about asking nursing mothers to go into a private location in order to make everyone more comfortable. It took some hard work by the "Breastfeeding does not have to be hidden" group, but now Eagles Nest has changed their tune. They've put up laminated signage and staff has been trained on appropriate laws. Victory!

This indoor playground happens to be about two miles away from my home and during the winter months we are there on a weekly basis. I will be checking to make sure those signs stay up and I always have my "Thank you for nursing in public" cards available. We have always breastfed there without issue, but it sounds like perhaps we were just very lucky to have not been approached. Knowing that staff has been properly educated will make it a comfortable place to be yet again and we are very thankful that they have seen the error in their original thinking.

For local folks Fox9 and Kare11 came out to interview Susan and other attendees of the nurse-in. The clips will be aired tonight at 5pm for both stations and then an additional viewing at 11pm for Fox9. The links to view this online will most likely be available tomorrow and I will edit this blog post to add the information for those of you that were unable to view it live.

Progress with little to show for it

No model pictures = look at the bacon.

Let's start with the obvious: I have no pictures for you.  Photography fail aside, I've been rather productive recently.  I feel like a list, bullet-point style.

• The Demo Corps are fully assembled and on their way to being based.  I worked up a big ball of greenstuff to attach the shoulders and then fill the gaps in the bases before ballasting.  Shoulders are attached, but I forgot about the bases.  Hope to get that rectified tonight, along with the unpainted pVlad that's been hanging around for far too long.
• On the ballast front, I managed to knock over my tiny container last night, so today I got a new bag.  Considering how long the tiny bit I got 2+ years ago from EV lasted, the monstrous bag I got today should be enough to last approximately twice as long as I live.
• Since I'm almost out of black primer, I got some more while I was getting ballast.  Quite the little shopping trip today.
• Back to greenstuff, I applied it to Typhon and the Raek last night to prepare them for priming.  
• Things primed this morning: Typhon, Raek, Yuri the Axe.  The first two will require another coat to get the undersides primed.  Yuri could use the same treatment, but can survive without it.
• I decided my test Shredders are probably never going to get stripped and repainted, so I painted their bases white and laid down the first coat of gloss varnish.  The recently painted Carnivean also go the white base treatment.  On the schedule for tonight: applying snow to those three models.
• The Shepherds got a little more love as well, the re-highlighting on the robes while also roughing in the purple and filling in the oranges.  I'm not sold on the scheme so I'm giving it some time for reflection.
• I'm also chipping away at an old-fashioned battle report, complete with bears and pictures and all the usual stuff.

That's what I've been doing.  In addition to the above noted items I want to finish magnetizing the first Legion kit, build up the Khador kit that's been gathering dust for months, then carry on into the second Legion kit.

Thinking of splitting time between Legion and Khador modelling projects, I find myself stuck between the two factions.  With the frenzy of the Gnarls league behind me, I now have the opportunity to paint up all those Legion pieces I wanted to paint during the league (Seraph!) but couldn't bear to take off the table.  At the same time, I'm getting into the meaty part of painting Khador stuff where I have enough done to field fully painted lists, so I can paint up a particular unit or jack to expand what I have available for a fully painted list instead of having to paint everything except a particular beast that's already done, as is the case with Legion.  The current plan is to split time between them.  How well that works out remains to be seen...

Recent adventures in hobbying

Small bases in action.

We'll start today with the visually interesting.  Legion infantry hit the painting table this week in the form of two Shepherds and two Swordsmen.  One of those Swordsmen has been kicking around on the table for a while, waiting for me to start figuring out a scheme for the infantry.  That never happened, so instead of testing out on a model I decided to just jump straight in and figure it out as I went.  Not the wisest choice I've ever made, but sometimes you just want to slap some paint around.  With the league over I don't have any concerns about taking models that will feature in any given list, like the Shepherds, and sequestering them on the painting table for days or weeks at a time where they will be unavailable for use.  That was the logic behind using a Swordsmen as a test model in the first place as there was little chance I'd field Swordsmen, plus I had 8 of them which is is too many for the min unit and too few for the max.  They've recently been beefed up to the full unit (with UA no less), but that has little bearing here.

Shepherd WIP #1

I'm trying to apply the same logic behind the beast scheme to the infantry, namely blue/white skin, soft parts in white, hard parts in brown/orange, purple as a spot color.  This scheme is easy enough to apply to the Swordsmen, but the Shepherds are taking a bit more thought.  The problem is the legs and all the straps.  I don't know that I want to do all the straps in orange, but I also don't want to do them in brown, and certainly not all in purple.  While I try to noodle through what color to put where, I went to work on the areas I was already settled on: skin and cloth.  The skin went well, though I'm also now wondering what to do about hair.  The cloth...not so much.  I went through the same progression as the beasts underplates, but I skipped the wash, and I think that was where the trouble began.  When I got done with the final highlights, there wasn't as much definition as I thought there would be.  The answer?  Gryphonne Sepia applied liberally.  While the resulting tone was nice, the definition still isn't there.  I'm going to go back with the white again and reapply the final highlights and hope that it works out.  If not, maybe some Devlan Mud?

The solution.

On the other end of the visual scale, on Friday night I went through a frenzy of construction so I could get a Legion heavy plastic kit assembled, and more importantly magnetized, so I could field a Scythean on Saturday for the Gnarls tournament.  This was my first foray into magnetizing and it was easier than I thought.  At least until the morning.  After a brief test fitting to make sure the magnets would line up, I left the pieces apart to dry overnight.  When I went back to them in the morning, perhaps an hour before the tournament, I found that the head worked as intended but the magnets I used in the arms (the same as the head magnets) were too small.  They would keep the arms attached but the smallest provocation would cause the arms to fall right off.  I figured I was screwed and would never get the magnets back out.  While bemoaning my fate with Plarzoid, he suggested I drill some holes around the magnet, then lever it out.  The plastic is malleable and will flex he said, which made sense.  Later that night I sat down with the offending pieces and some drill bits.  After an hour or so of work I had managed to replace the magnets, swapping out 1mm for 2mm, and now the arms stick as solidly as I had hoped they would from the beginning.  Disaster averted.  Construction has started on the Ravagore bits, but I'll wait for a while on the Carnivean pieces since I already have two of them (one is even painted in my scheme).  I'm not sure how I'll paint the arms and heads just yet since I don't think they'd stick to the body enough to withstand painting.  The obvious solution is to just hold the pieces while painting them, but that can easily lead to paint rubbing off.  Perhaps I'll try painting half, varnishing, then painting the other half.  This approach lead to disaster the last time I tried it, but having learned some good lessons since then I'm confident I could make it work on the arms, though the heads remain a problem.

This "Week" in the Gnarls League, Part 5

Not this Death Race (thank Jebus).

As entertaining as the Gnarls league was, by the end of last week I was feeling a little crisp around the edges after all that gaming.  What better way to cap that off than with a tournament?  The format was simple: 25 points, single list, all rounds use the Overrun scenario.  Apparently this is a "Death Race" format.  Looking back on the tournament, the name is fitting.  With 27 minute death clocks (54 minutes total for the game at most) and a scenario that forces you to the center, things got hot and heavy with a quickness.  It was an entertaining setup.

Coming up with a 25 point list was more challenging than I expected.  After getting used to playing at 50 points, cutting my list in half required some tough compromises.  While I could manage to run a tier list at 25 points the resulting list (Typhon, Seraph, 3 Shredders, 2 Shepherds, 2 Forsaken) was too heavy on support pieces (which I count the Shredders as) and too light on heavy hitters.  (I think of Typhon as heavy support instead of a heavy hitter, so the list is all support and no hammer.)  My second try was a little better (2 Carnis, 3 Shredders, 2 Forsaken), but there were two big problems: first I had one Carnivean too many, second I had no Seraph (and therefore no Slipstream).  Slipstream is too versatile to leave behind, so I went back to the drawing board.  Leaving behind the tier list I've come to love so much, my third attempt was much better: 2 Scytheans, a Seraph, a Shredder, and a Forsaken.  With both Slipstream and Tenacity I felt better about this list, but finally decided to trade in the Shredder to upgrade a Scythean to a Carnivean.  My final list was thus:

Small but effective.

25+5 points, 5 models

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight  +5 points
* Carnivean  11 points
* Scythean  9 points
* Seraph  8 points

The Forsaken  2 points


Lean and mean with only 5 models, this list had everything I wanted (that I could reasonably fit into 25 points.)  Spiny Growth is a fantastic animus and worth trading a Shredder for, plus the Carni is no slouch in the realm of eating things.  The Scythean is a pure beatstick, and more reasonably priced than the Carnivean.  (There's a story behind getting a Scythean on the table, but it will have to wait until next time.)  The Seraph is just amazing and doesn't really need more comment, though I will add that it makes a great target for Forced Evolution (16 DEF is nice.)  Add a Forsaken for Fury management and general utility, then call it done.  The prospect of facing an infantry horde was unsettling, but I'd probably be outnumbered no matter what my build looked like, so I decided to just play my own game and force my opponent to react.  Eight combatants showed up, including myself, which was a bit of a disappointment considering we had 23 league participants and 10-15 people turning out on any given Thursday night, but scheduling rears its ugly head at times and keeps us from where we'd like to be.  Enough maudlin musings, on to the carnage.

Horrible shaky cam.

My first opponent was Ron from Miniature armies, huge time sink.  He stuck to his caster-guns, just like I did, and fielded Strakhov.  You can find his list, general tournament recap, and a nice photo gallery in this post.  This first round was the quickest and most brutal game I played.  The board had an obstruction in the center which I tried to use to block up the inevitable feat turn charge, but to no avail.  I lost the Carni and Scythean both at the top of turn two, but there was a silver lining.  Strakhov has to play up-field to make his feat effective, and the 12" range on his feat is the same as Aby's charge range when she has Reach.  Ron did a good job trying to hide Strakhov behind the central obstruction, but couldn't quite keep him away from Aby (with a little help from a Slipstreaming Seraph.)  Ron was running a little late, so we got started a couple minutes after the other games but finished well before any of the others, a testament to the effectiveness of the Death Race format.

Game number two was against Hawk, who I played with in my first league team game.  He ran Durgen Madhammer with a Driller, a Blaster, Croe's Cutthroats, Gorman, Dougal MacNaile, an Ogrun Bokur, Reinholdt, Rhupert, and Thor Steinhammer.  I have no picture for this game as I was busy trying to learn about all the things I saw across the table, having never played against Mercs before.  This was a strange game from my perspective.  Hawk played Durgen much farther up than I would have, and after I cleared out the Cutthroats he had sent in to tie up my beasts I got a Trampling Carni in on Durgen and made a wee snack out of him.  I may have unintentionally thrown Hawk a curve the first time he used Durgen's triple-template shot.  I hadn't read that part of his card, or else had forgotten the details by the time he started shooting, and didn't know how it worked (I now know he shoots and possibly deviates, then the rest of the shots deviate from wherever the first shot ended up.)  While a tournament game isn't my first choice for a learning environment, there weren't a lot of options in this case.  In my limited experience of one game playing with him and watching him play here and there between turns of my own games, Hawk plays at a rapid clip and has the encyclopedic knowledge of a Mk. 1 veteran, so it's entirely possible that having to slow down a bit and explain what was going on put a kink in his mojo.  We had a lengthy post-game breakdown where we discussed what he could have done.  My thoughts were foremost to keep Durgen back further and to use his jacks as counter-punchers (the only pieces that took part in the action were Durgen and the Cutthroats) while using the Cutthroats to focus down one beast at a time.  Hawk was of the opinion that he just didn't have the punch to take out all my beefy beasts, and it's very possible he was right.  While the Cutthroats and their Poisoned weapons seemed like a viable threat to me, I will concede that at P+S 8 they face a long, uphill slog to crack ARM 20 beasts.  Ultimately I don't know Mercs very well, certainly not enough to figure out how they could have countered my list.

The Carnivean got a little too eager.

After two rounds I found myself on the top table, a repeat of my first tournament outing.  My final opponent was Jason, who had previously beat me up pretty good with a swarm of lights and Amon.  This time he was running eFeora with a Reckoner, a Redeemer, min Choir, max Errants with UA, Rhupert, the Covenant, and Wracks.  This game swung on a pair of events.  First, I took out about half of the Errants with an epic Blight Bomb Shroud where I managed to roll far more 9s on two dice than I should have while Jason managed to fail every Tough roll.  Second was a Blight Field that shut down both of his jacks, which kept my beasts alive for another turn and allowed them to scrap both jacks and take a couple bites out of the rest of the infantry.  After I took out the jacks it was a game of maneuvering which saw Feora move in to take out my Scythean.  I thought I had the game in the bag after that when I Trampled my Carnivean through most of the remaining infantry and over Feora, only to find out that I couldn't turn around to eat her once the stomping was over.  After deflating a bit, I sent the Seraph in to Headbutt Feora and poke her a few times, then Aby flew in to finish the job.  While I feel I had this one sewn up fairly early (the Blight Field that caught both his jacks was brutal), I had lots of opportunities to make some small mistake in positioning.  Jason is a good enough player that he would have been able to capitalize on any opening I presented, and as a result this game was the most satisfying.

Go me.

Thus ended the Gnarls league.  The final results saw me win both the league and the tournament.  I ended up tied on points with Danny, but got first because I finished my games a day before he did (not because I had beaten him our head-to-head match like we both thought.)  In the post-tournament loot handout I was more than a little embarrassed by the end when I took:

• $20 in store credit for the league
• A medal for finishing first in the league
• Another $5 in store credit for winning the tournament
• A PP bandana for having the fastest caster kill

Nice as all these things are, the most valuable thing I got from the entire league was experience.  After writing a decent sized paragraph about what I learned, I realized I wrote the exact same thing in my last post, so if you're curious and didn't read that past then go check it out.  What I said there still applies.

For now I get a brief respite from the frenzy of the league, but not for too long.  The next seasonal league starts up a little over a month from now, with a Longest Night event in between.  There's also Paint the Target for this month (a model with a template or AoE, which will be Typhon and/or a Ravagore), the newly announced "Make Something Amazing Contest" also at Lost Hemisphere, plus another top-secret project or two.  Then there's the box of Death Company I got with my league winnings that's waiting to be turned into an Honor Guard, plus my intention to do some base coating on all my "in progress" Blood Angels so my army doesn't look quite so shabby when EV finishes up his Dark Eldar (if he doesn't get entirely distracted by Space Wolves in the meantime).  Throw in general life things as well and my plate is as full as ever.  No rest for the weary and all that...

This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 4

As you close readers will no doubt remember, I entered the last week of the Gnarls league tied for the lead.  Close readers that you are, you will also remember that when I'm involved in a game I often forget to take pictures.  Thus the obvious reason for the total lack of photos for this past week is that I was focused on rolling dice and pushing models around instead of taking pictures.  You'll have to use your imaginations.

My first game of the week was a mirror match against Mason.  I've played him a few times before and he's always managed to beat me, so this time around I was looking to even the ledger.  I took the same 50 point Aby list that I ran throughout the league (Aby, Typhon, Carni, Angelius, Seraph, Raek, 4 Shredders, Shepherd, 3 Forsakens).  Mason ran pVayl (his first time using her) with a Carni, full Raptors, Anyssa, Totem Hunter, the league Strider unit, a pair of Deathstalkers, and possibly Typhon and/or a Forsaken if he had room.  (I've played a lot of games since then so details are fuzzy, plus I didn't take notes or get pictures.  I'm fairly sure he had two heavies.)  We played King of the Hill, which played a role in making it a quickish game.  As usual Typhon took a number of blows to the chin and crumpled quickly.  I forgot about Rampager entirely and was reminded in a rude fashion when Mason ran my Carni into my Seraph (or perhaps Typhon), then popped feat to set up another alpha (beta?) strike in the next turn.  Fortunately for me that next strike never came.  Vayl has to play further up the field than she would otherwise to make use of her various spells and effects, which makes it very easy to hang her out to dry.  My Carnivean was close enough to get her into melee and the rest was history.  While pVayl is a wonderful toolbox, the options are a bit overwhelming and I have yet to come to grips with her, which looked to be the case with Mason as well.  The only way to learn is to get experience though.  Seeing your caster get eaten is never fun, but it's a lesson you're not likely to forget.



 Game number two was my second team game of the league.  I teamed up with Brendon (my recently-found PG) against Charlie (playing Pigs, who I played in the first week) and Chris (Retribution, who I had not yet played against).  With lots of folks trying to cram in their team games time was at a premium, so we played at 15 points.  Making a 15 point list is quite a change from a 50 pointer, but I pulled it off.  The idea was that we play Mangled Metal, so I went with Aby, an Angelius, and a Carnivean.  Brendon ran pLylyth with a Ravagore and Proteus.  Apparently the Mangled Metal message didn't make it across the table as we were facing Rahn with (I think) a Griffon, Phoenix, an Arcanist, and another jack that I don't remember, plus Carver, two War Hogs, and min Brigands.  This game had a brutal start as Lylyth was pulped via a magical slam that shot her into the back of the Ravagore and Aby was brought down to a single box.  On the top of turn two.  Somehow I survived the Pig turn and feated to bring Aby back to full life, then proceeded to send her in against Carver for revenge (not sure what sort of revenge she needed, but it was a powerful need) and, after a turn or three of maneuvering, taking out Rahn with the Carnivean.  This was easily the wackiest game I've ever played with Rahn and his arc node army running around and slamming things all over the place, having two wild warbeasts roam the board for most of the game, and even an in-game dice trade.  Very entertaining and when the game was over I had finished my league requirements, patch-wise, and all I had left was to try and get in another big game to go for the overall win.

I got what I was after for the final game of the week, a 50 pointer against Thel (who I played in the tournament in December and also in Uncharted Seas way back when).  Through the first couple weeks, three players had distanced themselves from the pack: me, Danny, and Thel.  I wanted to get in games against both of them and managed that with Danny last week, but had yet to face off against Thel.  Though he had fallen off a bit in week three (life happens and doesn't always allow for gaming), there was still a showdown sort of feel as it was the last game of the last week for both of us.  I took the usual Aby list, complete with a half-dozen bonds on various beasts after getting on quite a roll with her.  Thel brought out pBaldur with a whole mess of Wolds of all shapes and sizes, some Shifting Stones, some Sentry Stones, a Druid Wilder, and a Blackclad Wayfarer.  When I played Thel in the tournament, I told him I was underwhelmed by the trickery of Circle.  He must have taken it to heart as he reminded me of it as we were setting up, and then proceeded to demonstrate many of their tricks.  In no particular order I learned that:

• Sentry Stones will steal your carefully placed Fury
• One of the various Wolds has an animus that makes you roll one less die on ranged attacks
• Megalith can take what you think is an unassailable DEF and take it down to Khador heavy levels
• Baldur can do that same trick, plus he can teleport around to pull that trick on your caster's face

This was actually a really close game despite my particular learning style of taking blows to the face to find out how nasty they are.  I took a number of potshots at Baldur with the Angelius and Seraph and did some very respectable damage, especially considering that he had the one less ranged die animus up.  If the Angelius had managed to hit (I rolled a crit miss) and set Baldur on fire I think I would have won.  Instead Megalith took out the Seraph, then one of the Mannikins ran up next to Aby and turned itself into a forest, which let Baldur teleport to that forest and take Aby from a respectable DEF 16 to a paltry DEF 11 and then apply sword to face repeatedly.

While I lost my last game, I finished up feeling good about the league as a whole.  I went into it playing a faction that I had played maybe half a dozen games with, using a caster that I had played once or twice, faced off against many factions (not to mention casters) for the first time, and came out the other end with a 9-3 record.  I feel I now have a good grasp on what Legion does, how they do it, and an especially firm grip on how to use Absylonia (at various points levels no less).

By now I'm sure you're wondering "How did the league finish?  Who came out on top?"  For that you'll have to wait until next time (insert groans here).  As the spoonful of sugar for that bitter medicine, that next time (which may or may not be the actual next post) will be about the league finale tournament.  Normally I'd encourage you to hold your breath, but it will probably be a day or two before I get the post up and I'd hate to lose readers to asphyxiation.

Eyeless Sight, Sprays, Forests, and You

Add the POW, carry the SPD, then drop the CMD?  So confused.

Last night at the FLGS there arose a question about whether a model with Eyeless Sight (say Typhon) and a spray could use that spray to hit something more than three inches deep in a forest.  Having seen some forum post saying you can spray as far as you like into forests, thanks to how sprays interact with Eyeless Sight, I've been playing it that way since.  (To be fair I did take a look in the rules to see if things worked as claimed and it seemed that they did, but then I've been wrong before.  See: Bulldoze and Slipstream, plus others I'm forgetting.)  I'll state here that the combination doesn't make a lot of sense.  Whether or not you can see through the trees should have little effect on how far your fire/buckshot/whatever travels in said trees.  Since my opponent and I disagreed on how it worked we played around it, but with the footnote to check on the particulars later to see how things fall out.  This post is that fall out.  First some quotes from the book of rules, specifically the softcover of Prime Mk. 2.



Eyeless Sight (p. 34) - "This model ignores cloud effects and forests when determining line of sight.  This model ignores concealment and Stealth when making attacks."

Spray Attacks (p. 60) - "A model under the spray template cannot be hit by the attack if the attacker's line of sight to it is completely blocked by terrain."

Forests (p. 88) - "When drawing line of sight to or from a point within a forest, the line of sight can pass through up to 3" of forest without being blocked, but anything more blocks it.  When a model outside of a forest attempts to draw line of sight to another point outside of a forest, the forest blocks line of sight to anything beyond it.  Thus, a model can see 3" into or out of a forest but not completely through one regardless of how thick it is."

Sprays work on the attacker's line of sight (LoS).  Because forests block LoS past 3", sprays also stop working after 3" of forest (see: Bile Thralls).  This all makes sense.  When you add in Eyeless Sight, which ignores forests (and clouds) while determining LoS, then it gets a little wonky.  Sprays stop working when terrain (forests) block the attacker's LoS, so models with Eyeless Sight get the full range on their sprays even when spraying into woods because Eyeless Sight stops the woods from blocking their LoS.  (Clouds don't stop sprays from working, they just stop a model from being targeted [which Eyeless Sight also ignores.])

Digging around for a bit in the rules forums produced a couple threads on this topic, but there's an issue here as well.  While there are Infernals popping up in them, they don't specifically address the interaction of the rules under discussion here.  Other posters do though and while the Infernals don't correct them on that interaction but do correct them on other items in the threads, I'm assuming (dangerous) that the lack of correction is because the train of thought presented is correct.  It's very possible that there is a thread with an Infernal explicitly confirming that Eyeless Sight sprays go their full distance through woods and that I just haven't found that particular thread yet.  That said, I've found a number of threads that all follow the same logic, which is enough circumstantial evidence to convince me.  My evidence is as such:

• This thread, notably posts 3, 4, and 14.
• This other thread, which is short enough that it all applies but no Infernals.
• This other other thread, notably posts 17 and 18 but again without Infernals.
• This final thread (for now), posts 9, 11, 20.  It meanders a bit into whether or not it makes sense for the rules to interact as they do.  The final post, 34, has an Infernal effectively quoting the rules for Eyeless Sight and sprays and saying they ignore forests (and clouds) without explicitly saying it in so many words.

Despite having just done so for five paragraphs, my intent here isn't to rules lawyer, though that's probably the result anyway.  Warmahordes is a game full of precise terms and their resulting interactions.  For instance, a Raek can't leap while charging because the leap requires a Full Advance, which a charge is not.  For another instance, take a look for my above-referenced misreading of various rules (Slipstream, Bulldoze) and how it took someone pointing out what I was doing wrong followed by a number of re-readings before I got a good handle on how things work.  This is another case in that vein.  I'm a big believer in preparing locally to play on larger stages, whether or not you ever go on to those larger stages, by playing lists and casters you're likely to see in a tournament setting and by using all the tricks in your bag.  You do this not to win (though that is a nice side-effect), but so that your fellow locals don't get caught with their pants down when, for instance, someone charges a Carnivean up and sprays their caster that they thought was safe behind a forest (or cloud).  EV played a large part in making me the player I am today because he ran nasty lists full of nasty models (read: Bile Thralls) that made me learn how to deal with those threats effectively.  It's a boon that I want to pass along when I can, even if it does make me feel a bit pompous when I'm passing it along to people who have far more experience than I do.

Objectification

Three patches down, one to go.

Sometimes the spirit just doesn't move you, as has been the case around here of late.  Perhaps you've noticed a longer-than-usual lapse between posts, an unmistakeable sign of this kind of malaise.  Fortunately I have mustered up the motivation to get a post done today, a post about the motivation I mustered yesterday in the form of painting objective markers.  The idea behind the markers is that they're from battles past when the Motherland had to sacrifice some (jack) limbs for victory and hasn't yet had to opportunity to recollect said limbs.  Her enemies are no doubt eager to lay hands (or claws or whatever) on these bits of fine, sturdy Khadoran machinery, hence the opportunity to contest the areas where these pieces reside.  I painted the markers in a more standard Khadoran scheme for two reasons: to give myself a break from painting the 5th Border Legion scheme, and to help underline the difference between these objective markers and the wreck markers I have.  Thankfully the deluge that assaulted the DMV yesterday relented today, so I was able to get a coat of varnish on the markers to protect them during the trip to the FLGS tonight.  Some snow will appear between now and the final coats of varnish, because it just isn't Khadoran without snow.

On the horizon, a package should be arriving tomorrow.  If it does, and if I can manage to slap together a pair of Legion heavy kits (hopefully with magnets, but with blu-tac if necessary) then I might be debuting a brand new list for the Gnarls league tournament on Saturday.  There are a couple big "ifs" in there, but should I manage the feat then I'll feel a lot better (theoretically) about the 25 pointer I'll be fielding.  In other league news the scoreboard has been updated and I'm tied for the lead, which isn't a great sign for my chances of victory considering that the guy I'm tied with (Danny, who pushed Skarre up for Aby to eat) is on the warpath for big games tonight while I'm trying to line up smaller team games.  We'll see how it turns out, but I'm already prepping my "I had a good time and that's what counts" interior monologue.

This Week in the Gnarls League, Part 3

vs Danny, part one.

Last week I was in a three-way tie for first in league, and on Monday I got in the first game of this week against one of the people I was tied with: Danny and his Cryx.  My first few trips to the FLGS for Thursday night Warmahordes I played against new or inexperienced players (which seems to apply to 50-60% of the regulars), including what was one of the first handful of games Danny played.  A nice guy who's eager to learn, I've kept an eye on Danny since then to see how he develops.  This game was the first since that initial game months ago and was a good opportunity to see first-hand how Danny has progressed (after a trip to Templecon no less).  We played at 50 points and I fielded the same Aby list I played last week (Typhon, Carni, Seraph, Angelius, Raek, 4 Shredders, 2 Forsakens, and a Shepherd).  I was concerned about facing 50 points worth of Cryx infantry, but fortunately the reality was slightly different as Danny fielded eSkarre with the Deathjack, Defiler, max Bane Thralls with UA and Tartarus, max Satyxis with UA and their solo, Darragh Wrathe, two Pistol Wraiths, and Saxon Orrik.  Our scenario was Whirling Gauntlet, which proved to be interesting.

vs Danny, part two.

The game was a tight one.  Unsure of how the Satyxis would perform, but none too happy with their innate high DEF, my first priority was to cripple the unit.  I gunned down the UA with the Angelius and then took a big chunk out of the rest of the unit before turning my attention to the Banes.  I was careful to stay out of their charge range but didn't account for the extra range that Tartarus gives them and ended up taking a charge from them anyway.  With a little help from the Deathjack (who finally did something) they took out my Carnivean and Angelius (who refused to tank at DEF 17 for most of the week).  During all that destruction I noticed eSkarre had crept rather far forward.  When the Whirling Gauntlet again cut through Danny's army and knocked down his Defiler, I saw that I needed to remove a single Bane to open up a charge lane for Aby.  While I didn't manage to kill the Bane, which made its Tough roll, I did knock it down.  One flying charge later and eSkarre was on the ground with Aby standing over her.  Danny had been cutting Skarre ruthlessly for upkeeps, plus her feat, and by the time I went in for the kill she was at half life (if not lower).  I meant to ask Danny why he kept cutting as he wasn't starved for Focus but forgot over the course of the week.

vs Ron

Next up was Ron on Thursday.  Though this was my first game against him, I'm relatively familiar with his collection through his blog (Miniatures armies, huge time sink), so I had to do less guessing for this game than previous 50 pointers.  I ran the same Aby list while Ron fielded Strakhov with the War Dog, Torch, Beast 09, the Great Bears, min IFP with UA, min Kayazy with UA, Kayazy Elminators, max Shock Troopers, a Widowmaker Marksman, and Reinholdt (because he had a point left over and I had Reinholdt in my bag).  The scenario was Most Pit. Like when I played Steve last week, I knew Ron's army at least as well as he did.  Despite this I still managed to walk more or less right into Strakhov's feat, which cost me Typhon and the (still refusing to tank) Angelius.  As with Danny, this game turned when Ron left his caster too close to the action (which is all but unavoidable with Strakhov).  It took a little bit of surgery and Slipstreaming, but I was ultimately able to get the Raek and Aby in against Strakhov.  When they couldn't seal the deal, I had to bring in the Carnivean to bat clean-up.  Ron played well enough, spreading his net wide for a good feat charge, but ultimately couldn't do enough damage on the feat turn to keep my gribblies at bay. 

vs Paul

My final game was against Paul and his Troll list.  I played with Paul in my first ever team game, though he was running Cygnar at the time, and I'd seen his Trolls on the table in the past few weeks so I had an idea of what to expect.  We played Occupy at 35 points.  My Aby list was the same from last week (Typhon, Carni, Seraph, 3 Shredders, 2 Shepherds, 2 Forsaken).  Paul ran an eDoomie brick of doom list with Mulg, an Earthborn, an Axer, a Runebearer (Trollses), Janissa, max Krielstone with UA, and the league Whelps.  I'm familiar with the basic concept of the list (clump up, Janissa puts a wall in front, everything in range of the stone), if not particularly familiar with eDoomie.  My basic plan was to spread out so that the brick either had to separate or else focus on a single target at a time instead of catching multiple pieces at once.  The lack of knowledge about eDoomie, combined with my plan of spreading out, nearly cost me the game real early.  Paul had warned me that his list was built to slingshot beasts forward, but when I had Mulg on Aby in turn 2 I was still surprised.  Fortunately Aby is a tough nut to crack (DEF 19 when B2B with the bonded Seraph and with Tenacity) and Mulg couldn't finish her off.  Even more fortunately, Mulg and his five Fury ended up between a pair of Forsaken.  After a pair of glorious 7 dice Blight Bomb Shrouds, and a bit of work by Aby, Mulg was down and Paul was distraught.  From there I was in the driver's seat, but I nearly threw it all away on the urging from my PG (who was eager for a team game as he also plays Legion).  I took an ill-advised run at Doomie and came up short, but Aby again managed to not get killed long enough for the Carnivean to come in and mop up.  Of note, the Angelius finally did some good evasion tanking in this game and held up the Earthborn for the whole match.

vs Ron again, this time at 15 points.

While the above was my last game that counted, I did play another on Thursday night.  After having put on reckless speed to finish the game against Paul, I found that my PG didn't have an opponent in mind for the team game he was so eager for.  It was soon too late to have any hope of getting in a team game, so I filled the remaining time with a 15 pointer against Ron.  I pulled out pVayl for this one, with a Carni, Seraph, and Shredder.  Ron took Strakhov with Beast 09 and Torch.  This one was over when I tried making a 15 point list, and despite barely budging from my deployment zone I still got charged at the top of turn two.  My two objectives for this game were (in order) to get a game in for Ron's third and to try and figure pVayl out a little bit.  The first I managed easily, the second not quite so much.  I did get to see how Incite looks on the table (pretty nice, especially with Chiller), so it wasn't a total loss.

I held a pretty healthy lead on the league for most of the week, though as results from the rest of Thursday and the weekend are updated that lead will be much smaller and possibly non-existent.  Despite playing larger games this week, I haven't been maximizing points through scenarios (some are worth more than others at equal points), which may be my undoing.  While I maintain a healthy level of skepticism, if I can manage one more solid week I have a good shot at finishing atop the league standings.  After a 3-0 record this week (in games that counted for me), I'm at 7-2 for the league, which is a mighty fine mark.  Over those games I've gotten to know my Aby list(s) very well, to the point where I don't need to check cards for stats, which is a first for me.  I'm having a hard time putting together a 25 point list for her though, so there's a real possibility I'll be running a different caster (and list) for the league finale tournament this weekend, which would be a real shame.  In happier news, I primed my objective markers this morning (WIP shots still to come) and hope to get them painted up on Wednesday.