Thursday, July 8, 2010

Skorne Deck + No Quarter 31

I picked up both of these yesterday (along with the new Forces of Warmachine: Mercenaries book, but that's a topic for next post).

It's a very exciting time to play, that's for sure.

The Skorne deck is the easiest to start with: The cards are gorgeous, the warbeast circles are a bit bigger and easier to use, and the deck includes all of the minions that can work for Skorne (as I understand it, this is how all the decks are, so Trollbloods get a LOT of cards).

As I've said, I've never actually used my Skorne army, despite buying every model from the first book as they were coming out. No time like the present! If only I had the Hordes rules available so that I could see how (or if) they've changed the Fury/Frenzy/whatever rules. I can't wait to give these guys a try.

I will be posting my thoughts and my experiences with them as I get some play in. First up will be the starter box of Morghoul, 2 Cyclops Savage, and a Titan Gladiator. The hope is to play some small games during lunch with Ben as a starting point. After that, I'll be growing the point size as well as the variety of models I run.

No Quarter 31 is full of great information as well. Privateer Press has done a fantastic job with this magazine, and every issue from the first on has been worth picking up if you're into any of their games.

A few inclusions from NQ #31:
  • Rules for the Swamp Troll, Trollkin Skinner (for Trolls), Warpborn Skinwalkers, Wold Guardian (for Circle), Stinger (for Legion), Paingiver Task Master (for Skorne), Lord Carver, Gun Boar, War Hog, and Thrullg (for minions). I don't have the experience to comment on how good any of these are, but they are certainly all cool. The Gun Boar also has a rule called 'Bacon' that heals warbeasts when it dies. I'm not making that up. Thrullg is an interesting solo for my Skorne guys (he works for all the current Hordes factions), he's very anti-magic, but I don't know if I have many opponents who that's going to be useful against. Maybe Rob's Koldun Lord...
  • A long article on how to build a 'Jack Scrap Yard as a terrain piece. If only I had time to work on terrain, then I might be able to take a crack at some of these. They throw some very nice terrain articles in these No Quarters.
  • 7 pages of tactical advice for Circle armies. No idea if the tips are any good, but they are probably a great start for people who need a tactical primer.
  • Rules for the first Minion Pact (similar to a Mercenary Contract)! The Thornfall Alliance is a collection of various Farrow models, with the ability to Advance Deploy. If nothing else, it gives a way to use Lord Carver plus his toys.
  • Theme force articles for the Witch Coven of Garghast (which I think is a pretty basic article), as well as one for Void Seer Mordikaar.
  • A sneak peek at the Warmachine video game, tips for creating swamp bases, painting the Rhinodon and using it in game, and how to collect and build a Cygnar army from 25 to 100 points by buying as 'precise and cost-friendly' as possible.
Overall, there's a LOT of great articles in this issue, and if you don't have it, you should definitely pick it up.

One edit: there's not much point in doing a Forces of Warmachine: Mercenaries post. It's covered fantastically here. Since I don't own a Mercenary army, I doubt I have much to add :).

5 comments:

  1. Ah, the basics for the rules can be found here, for those that want them:

    http://privateerpress.com/files/Hordes%20MkII%20DemoRules-WEB.pdf

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  2. I might have to get the Skorne deck at some point. I got a warpack in a trade and I could see me making a 15-25 pt beast list with minimal models (save $). For 25pts I was thinking Morghoul, 2 Cyclops savages, titan gladiator, bronzeback, max beast handlers and some swamp gobbers to fill in the gap.

    I'm not totally sold on the Skorne but it would be fun to have at least a viable list to play with them. I can't believe you got all of the models, that will give you lots of choices to play with.

    It seems like No Quarter is a bit like what White Dwarf used to be. I might pick up a copy or two if I get a chance.

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  3. That might be a great start. As I constantly admit, I have no idea :(.

    I don't know how good Skorne will be either, but I'm pretty excited to give them a shot. There's some serious potential, I just can't tell how well it'll actually work.

    That's a great comparison- White Dwarf used to be very similar to NQ 'quality of content'-wise. It's a great value.

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  4. I have no idea how good my force would be and I don't much care. I just like the idea of heavy warbeasts hitting things. Much like my desired Khador force which has Karchev the Terrible leading 4 of the biggest jacks they have. It may not win big but charging 5 huge models across the table sounds like a lot of fun.

    I think the Skorne will be perfectly good to play with. That's the nice thing about WM/H in that you never worry that one faction is underpowered or outdated. Looking forward to Hordes Primal coming out.

    I will have to get me some NQ then I guess. I'm also drifting towards P3 paints as well. PP have certainly pushed enough compelling things out that I'm moving towards them.

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  5. Definitely understand that! I wrote up a Karchev list just imagining dropping all those haevy jacks, for the exact same reason :).

    I've not tried the P3 paints. I've never heard anyone complain about them though. Maybe I'll give them a shot as well. Definitely wouldn't hurt :)

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