Monday, March 26, 2012

Sent to me by Minute- Asphyxious the Hellbringer!

Asphyxious the Hellbringer!

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-3-26-2012

Well, the art has me super excited.  Man I can't wait to see this guy's rules and model!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Games Workshop '145' video- what the...?

Here's the link to the video.

I mean, rumors on the internet are that Games Workshop is re-doing their line of paints, and presumably 145 is the number of paints.  But... seriously?  The video tells us nothing (it's just the number 145).  A video on a line of paints is certainly better than nothing (and better than GW has done in the past), but given the efforts their competitors have put up as video teasers (say, the Privateer Press Colossal video?), this felt really weak.

Ah well, just noticed it, and it surprised me enough that I had to mention it.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Three Games with Mortenebra, 3/13/12 - 3/14/12

Well, got three games with Mortenebra in this week, despite her being only half completed.  Basically, it's my first time using Mortenebra, and really the first experience I've had using more than one or two Cryx heavies at once.

Also, I promise to keep these pretty short.  No pictures, and I didn't take notes, but I do want to show that I've at least been playing :).

My first opponent was BK, playing Menoth.  We ran a 35 point game, and our scenario was A Flag Too Far.  Basically, there were 4 flags, two down the middle, another one close to me on my left, and another close to him on the far right.  There were also reinforcement that came on.  Basically the flags to our right (the one in the middle and on the opposite side) were our objectives. 

BK's list:
Feora, Protector of the Flame
- Redeemer
- Reckoner
Avatar of Menoth
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Vassal of Menoth

His reinforcements:
Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Errant Seneschal

My list:
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Cankerworm
- Deathjack
- Reaper
- Slayer
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Machine Wraith
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall

Warwitch Siren

Reinforcements:
Bane Lord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith 

Admittedly, I didn't own enough jacks to use her as well as I'd like, but I'm working to rectify that in the future.  Anyway, on to the game.

I lined up Mortenebra and the jacks in the middle, with the Bane Thralls to my right (hoping to have Bane Lord Tartarus join up with them, and end up handling the control point duties.  However, BK's Redeemer made quick work of them with some very favorable scatters.

My Cankerworm sat in a forest in the middle of the table, and waited for a good opportunity.  When BK's Daughters came onto the board (on my left), I sent my closest jack, the Deathjack, to deal with them (I learned a lesson here- use another jack on my flanks).  An Overrunning Deathjack sent the Cankerworm moving forward, and I had it charge Feora, ending up dealing a total of 9 damage (Feora was camping focus, and I really had no shot of doing decent damage to her).  My Reaper and Slayer went up and started fighting through the block of Exemplar Errants that were marching somewhat off to my left.  Bane Lord Tartarus and the Pistol Wraith came on the board, and I tried to move them to give me a control point, but failed.

BK responded by dealing a decent amount of damage to the engaged Reaper and Slayer, but not killing either do to some really poor rolls (the Avatar moved up and actually missed once, and rolled really badly for damage a second time).

At this point, things were pretty bleak, so I had to try to kill Feora.  Deryliss dropped Overrun onto the Deathjack.  Mortenebra cast Spectral Steel on the Slayer (letting him ignore free strikes), repaired the Slayer 1 point of damage (so he at least had a functioning arm).   The Deathjack killed a Daughter, getting the Slayer free, who charged Feora.. and after rolling a little bad (not terrible, mind you), I failed to kill her.  In return, the Avatar killed Mortenebra, and gave BK the win.

I learned a few things in this game.  First, I need another jack.  Second, I need a better melee jack with reach.  Ugh.  The Reaper is a good jack, but I don't have enough attacks to make him scary.  I'll need to try a Harrower, with her.  Second, I need to have the Deathjack more central.  I don't know how I screwed that up.  Third, the Cankerworm was useless.  I am tempted to say light jacks aren't going to get much use from her, but the light jacks I think would be best with her, the Stalker and the Helldiver, aren't assembled yet, so I don't know for sure.

Next game was immediately after, against Minute.  We played the same scenario.

His list:
Lord Arcanist Ossyan
- Discordia
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Mage Hunter Commander
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Arcanist
Mage Hunter Assassin

His Reinforcements:
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Mage Hunter Assassin


I changed my list slightly, mostly by proxying in a Slayer.  New list:
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Deathjack
- Reaper
- Slayer
- Slayer
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall
Warwitch Siren

And my reinforcements:
Pistol Wraith
Bane Lord Tartarus

This time, I parked the Deathjack in the forest right in the center of the table early, and Ben realized after some shooting that he didn't have much of a way to hurt it.  He put Admonition on his caster, but for the moment was stumped on how to handle the ARM 21 Deathjack (due to Spectral Steel).

I tried to put some pressure on him by using Overrun on a Slayer to move the Deathjack up, and ended up killing some Invictors... but sadly, Ossyan Admonitioned TOWARDS me.  Unsure of how to kill my jacks, he decided to bypass all of that, and make a run for Mortenebra.  A few die rolls later, she was dead, and I learned another valuable lesson- don't play her too far forward.

My third game this week was the next day, against Rob.  We upped the game size to 50 points.

His list:
Vayl, Disciple of Everblight
- Stinger
- Teraph
- Angelius
- Ravagore
Blighted Nyss Raptors (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Blighted Nyss Striders (Leader and 5 Grunts)
- Blighted Nyss Striders Officer & Musician
Annyssa Ryvaal, Talon of Everblight
Blighted Nyss Sorceress and Hellion
Strider Deathstalker

This is only 49 points though.  I'm pretty sure this is accurate, but if not, let me know, Rob :).

Since I still didn't have more jacks assembled, I had to flesh out my army a little differently:
Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Deathjack
- Harrower
- Reaper
- Slayer
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren

The Withershadow Combine is a nice addition, because Spectral Steel is a very handy spell.

Our scenario was Sacrifice.  Here, there is a control zone to my left, and a flag to my right.  To score a point, I must control the zone AND have a model B2B with the flag.  After a score, the model B2B with the flag takes a POW 20 damage roll, and is then pushed away and knocked down.  Not fun.

I deployed second, and put all of my jacks towards my left, to go after the control zone, and left the taking of the flag to my Bane Thralls, Tartarus, and Pistol Wraith.  I put the Deathjack towards the middle, to support where I needed him the most.

Rob sent his Striders off to fight against the Bane Thralls, and everything else to face the jacks.  I managed to get some damage done early on by having the Deathjack kill his Teraph near the center of the table.  Rob tried to take out the Bane Thralls, before going after Tartarus, but didn't roll so well, and ended up killing 4 out of the unit with Tartarus locked in combat, and available to start refilling it.

The battle on the left went a little better for him.  My Slayer managed to kill two Raptors, but was cut down by the rest, although it took quite a bit of time.  Unfortunately, an Overrun on a charging Harrower coupled with my feat and Terminal Velocity sent the Deathjack into his Angelius and Ravagore, killing them both, and Rob conceded after seeing he had no way to contest the zone any longer. 

This game, I at least kept Mortenebra back and safe, and kept my jacks together and focused.  So the good news is that I'm learning.  I still need to work on getting the right tools, however.  I will soon, hopefully, be adding another Cryx heavy and a Warwitch Siren.  With some practice, I think I could be pretty effective with her.  We'll see :).

Monday, March 12, 2012

Can I just say...

Master Necrotech Mortenebra has to be the SINGLE most infuriating model in the world to assemble.  Just saying.  Ugh.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Cryx vs Legion, 50 pts, 3/1/12

Another quick battle report.

Played a 50 point game against Rob, who decided to run Legion of Everblight.  I took the Witch Coven list I had run two days prior against Minute.

Rob's list:

Vayl, Consul of Everblight
- Nephilim Protector
- Shredder
- Angelius
- Ravagore
- Typhon
Blackfrost Shard
Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Bayal, Hound of Everblight
The Forsaken

I had never seen Epic Vayl in use before, and this was his first time trying her.  Although we knew her abilities, it's hard to say how they would work out in-game.

The scenario we rolled up was 'Incursion'.  In this one, there are three flags along the mid-line of the board, and one randomly disappears.

For set up, Rob basically had his army slightly off center, but mostly focused slight to my left.  I, in my normal Cryx manner, spread out to put things all across my deployment zone.  Mechanithralls + Necrotech + Nightwretch to my far left.  Deathjack + Witch Coven + Withershadow Combine + Bloat Thrall in the center, and the Banes, Bile Thralls, a Nightwretch, and the Warwitch Siren off to my right.  This gave me the ability to apply some pressure to all three flags at once.

Rob went first, and basically sent everything straight forward, and put Admonition on the Ravagore.

I ran as much forward as I dared to.  The Bile Thralls hid in a forest off to my right, about 6-7" away from the flag there, and the Deathjack approached the center flag.  At the end of my turn, we rolled to remove a flag- this ended up removing the center flag.

This put Rob in a rough spot- he had most of his forces slightly to the right of center, approaching the central flag, but still in range of the rightmost one.  The only thing he had close to the left flag was a Ravagore.  Still- with three control points required for victory, it wasn't a big issue for the moment.

Rob started his turn by shooting the Deathjack with the Ravagore, and dropping 8 damage on it.  His Hex Hunters moved up and started to magic away at my various troops, accounting for 2 Bile Thralls, 2 Bane Knights, and a Bane Thrall I believe.  His Nephilim Protector moved up to contest the right-hand flag, in case I got through the Hex Hunters, and the Blackfrost Shard parked a little behind to support him,  Typhon moved up as well, towards the center of the board.

I try to guestimate the distance to Typhon, and am fairly sure I'm in range.  I allocate three focus to the Deathjack, and have the Witch Coven advance and spread some Ghost Walk to my troops in the forests, as well as Infernal Machine on the Deathjack.  I then pop my feat.  The Bile Thralls, Bane Thralls, Bane Knights, and Tartarus make short work of the Hex Hunters, leaving them with a single model.  The Mech Thralls run to the far side of the left-hand flag, and I park my arc node right next to it, giving me control of it.  The Deathjack then charges in.  Despite having Excessive Healing on it to help preserve its life, the Typhon quickly dies to the Deathjack due to incredible damage rolls (I think I dealt 14 on my charge attack, and followed it with another 10?).  My turn ends, and I gain a control point.

Rob is faced with a lot of tough decisions here.  He has the Deathjack front and center, who is going to create a tremendous amount of problems for his army if he doesn't deal with it.  He has only one beast available to try to wrest control of the left-hand control point from me.  On the right, he has the Nephilim Protector contesting the control point, but I had run a Bane Thrall into it to try to lock it into place.  On top of all of that, the Witch Coven's feat was up, making LOS and hitting my models a tremendous pain. 

Rob spends some time going over a few options, and decides that his primary goal needs to be contesting the left-hand control point, and killing the Deathjack.  He has the Ravagore trample towards the flag, getting in range to contest it, and attempts to take a swing at the Nightwretch, but misses.  At least for now he is contesting it.

He contemplates how to tackle the Deathjack with the available resources, and sadly makes some order of activation errors. First, he has the Blackfrost Shard move up- they kill the Bane Thrall engaged to the Nephilim Protector, and kill two Bile Thralls, hoping to make a game of contesting the flag over there. 

The Angelius charges in against the Deatjack, manages to hit, and then rolls poorly for damage on the Armor Piercing attack.  A few more attacks put a few points on the Deathjack, before the Angelius decides to Repulsion it away.   The Nephilim Soldier then charges the Deathjack, and despite the -2 to hit, manages to put a few damage onto it as well.  The Forsaken moves up, and I think drops one more point on it. 

So, at this point the Deathjack had taken about 20 damage, and had only lost an arm.  Not nearly enough to help Rob, so he has Vayl move back (out of my feat), shoot the Angelius to create an Arc Node, and pops her feat.  The first Obliteration unfortunately misses (here's the order of activation problem- he definitely didn't want the Deathjack engaged for this, although his roll was poor enough it wouldn't have mattered), but succeeds in killing his own Forsaken.  Thrilled, he puts Admonition on Vayl, Frostbite on the Mechanithralls (to stop them from Combo Striking), and then spends Fury for another Obliteration shot that DOES hit.  A boost to the damage doesn't deal enough to the Deathjack, however.

At this point, Rob conceded, more because we were running low on time than because of his chances.  I personally think I could've gotten a control point on the right this turn, using the remaining Bile Thralls to clear the Blackfrost Shard, and then moving the Nightwretch onto it.  The left one would've been more difficult, because the Ravagore was too close to most of my Mechanithralls, meaning they couldn't have charged, limiting my damage.  I probably could've gotten a Curse of Shadows onto the Ravagore which would've helped, but even so, Rob would've had a difficult time fighting for the right flag at this point, which would've given me the win.

We aren't really sure what to do with Epic Vayl- she has a decent number of tools, but finding the right models to run with her will be a challenge.  Hopefully Rob takes her again, and we can get a better idea of just what she can do!

Anyway, thanks for reading everyone!  I will start working to put pictures back in the battle reports soon!