Cryx vs Trollbloods, 50pts, 2/28/2012

Quick battle report from last night.

Minute and I played a 50 point game at Games & Stuff, where we generally try to play a game once a week.

I decided to run the Witch Coven.  I'm working on assembling some new Skorne models to more effectively run some of my warlocks, and I don't seem to get the Cryx on the table often enough.  Plus, Minute has been on a bit of a winning streak, and that just isn't allowed.

My list:
The Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Nightwretch
- Nightwretch
- Deathjack
Bane Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)
The Withershadow Combine
Bane Lord Tartarus
Bloat Thrall
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall
Warwitch Siren

I don't think there's anything really strange about this list, although I did take a Necrotech, mainly because I had a single point left over with nothing better to use it on.

We ended up rolling a scenario requiring reinforcements, so my reinforcements were Darragh Wraith and a minimum unit of Soulhunters.

Minute took:
Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels
- Troll Impaler
- Dire Troll Bomber
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer
Fell Caller Hero
Horthol, Long Rider Hero
Stone Scribe Chronicler

For reinforcements, Minute chose the Earthborn Dire Troll.

Our scenario was envelopment- there are two controls zone off center, one closer to each of us, and we have to control the far one to get control points.  It's actually one of the scenarios I most enjoy because it both has reinforcements and does a good job getting the two armies to fight one another.

I didn't take pictures, so I won't bore everyone with a play-by-play.  Basically, first turn Minute moved everything up, and I did the same, and threw a Veil of Mists in front of the Deathjack which was in the control zone closest to me (which Minute needed to control for control points).  Second turn, he started shooting at me, knocking the Deathjack down with one of Grissel's shots, and then dropping two Bomber shots on me, which unfortunately didn't do a whole lot for damage due to rather poor rolling.  Minute also sent Horthol way off to my left for a strong flanking maneuver, unfortunately for him.  The Fennblades began charging in, doing very minor damage to the Deathjack, and killing two Bane Knights.

I began by having my reinforcements come in, who immediately charged and killed Horthol and his dismounted form.  The Bile Thralls sacrificed two of themselves to drop a few Fennblades, and the Bane Knights killed a few themselves, healing up the Deathjack with the newly released souls.  My Mechanithralls charged into the oncoming Long Riders on my left (who were hit with Curse of Shadows so I could get through them), killing two.  I also feated. 

This put Minute in a tough spot.  I had pretty much wiped most of his Fennblade unit, and I had a few Bane Knights over on his side of the board, making it difficult to get his beasts into the action.  The feat stymied any hope of him charging and doing serious damage, and it really hosed his Scattergunners, who were too far away to go after the main things he wanted to target.  The Long Riders were engaged, but hardly out, but there was a full unit of Mechanithralls in between him and my vulnerable casters. 

After some thought, he had the Bomber clear a Bane Knight who was near Grissel, and started moving most of his army to his right (my left) to camp in the zone I needed to get to.  The large unit of Scattergunners moved up, and targeted either the Deathjack, or themselves (they auto-miss themselves, but it was handy for getting shots at things they couldn't see).  The end result of all this shooting was a dead Bloat Thrall and Bane Lord Tartarus, a few boxes chipped off the Deathjack, and a Nightwretch with no Arc Node.  He also managed to roll a 12 to hit my Warwitch Siren, but rolled really poor for damage (his rolls all night were pretty poor).

The Long Riders began riding through the Mechanithralls, killing 8 of them, I believe, and Minute declared his turn over.  He had thrown a large unit right down the center of his target deployment zone, in between me and his warlock.  Of course, with the Witch Coven, that's not a problem.

My turn was longer than it had to be, but I'll mention the main points.  The Scattergunners were blocking LOS to Grissel from the Deathjack, who I was fairly certain was in charge range (with Infernal Machine on him).  The Warwitch Siren went up and sprayed, killing one of the two blocking models.  The Withershadow Combine took care of the last one.  One Ghost Walk later, the Deathjack was in combat with Grissel (camping two fury), with 5 focus to use.  My charge attack missed, sadly, but thankfully I hit her with enough attacks to end her.

I forgot how much I missed playing the Witch Coven.  Their movement tricks make it very easy for me to do what I want during the game, and they have the ability to put out enough offense if they need to (which I didn't use at all this game).  Unfortunately for my opponent, this seemed like a super-favorable match-up for me.  Inhospitable Ground did not mean anything to my army, and her feat, control range, and abilities didn't have the ability to do much to my army, it felt like.  Of course, this was my first time facing her (and his first time using her), so more games may be more telling.

I have another game on Thursday, so I'm sure you'll hear from me soon after!

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight (conversion)

I've really been in a kick to work on converting some miniatures, but I haven't been able to find the perfect one for me to work on.  Skorne, Dark Elves, Empire... these really don't fit the bill for convertible opportunities.  Cryx do a little, but I have most of my more interesting Cryx minis already assembled, so that doesn't work as well for now.

It turns out I have a small amount of Legion miniatures, from when my brother was interested in playing, until he decided he wasn't interested at all.  Going through them, I found Absylonia, and realized she'd be perfect for my needs.

So, to start, I looked at what her miniature looked like (image from the Privateer Press website):

Now, the model is fine, as is.  Certainly not too flat, plenty of detail.  But I didn't like it for two main reasons.  First, Absylonia can give herself reach, and I didn't feel like this model gave me that feeling.  Second, she can give herself flight, and although her wing-hands kind of give the impression that she can, I didn't much like it.

So basically, I wanted to give her flight and reach, somehow.  I decided, of course, to give her small wings, and tentacles instead of that one leg coming out of her dress-thing.  Also, why not put her on a more interesting base, while I'm at it?

So, the results follow:

I personally like the way it turned out.  The tentacles were fun to do, and even though it's not exactly exceptional modeling (wire and green stuff wrapped around it), it made me FEEL like I was doing real modeling, haha.  Trying to bend the cloak so that it hugged the rock on the back was a bit more difficult, but the result was decent enough for me. 

So yeah, that's done, and now it's on to painting.  I'm going to try to push my painting a little, and I'm going to try for only gray-scale.  I'm not sure how it will look (I'll test blending and the color scheme on one of my random shredders first), but I think I can get it looking good enough for my tastes.

Various games played lately

Well, I haven't been posting much (okay, okay, not at all), but I have actually been playing games, so I figured I'd post an update of what I've been up to, by army.

Dark Elves:
What?  A fantasy game?  That's right- I played a 3000 point Fantasy game against Frans' Skaven last month.  Our scenario was Battle for the Pass.  It wasn't super close, but it did teach me a bit more about how fantasy works (at least from the Dark Elves' perspective).  I have a bit of learning to do, no doubt.

Cryx:
I've played a few games with Cryx.  Last month I played Iron Lich Asphyxious against Rob running Vlad, and got a win.  My highlight of that game was using my newly assembled Darragh Wraithe.  I didn't get much mileage out of him, admittedly, but the threat of Incorporeal Soulhunters did help dictate the game some.

I've been busy fixing a lot of my old Cryx models (mainly jacks).  My hope is to assemble Mortenebra soon and get them (and her) on the table.

Skorne:
I've been playing a lot more frequently with my Skorne, including breaking out some new warlocks.

First, I gave Naaresh a try, in two games- one against Jerry playing as Siege, and one against Rob running Harkevich.  Although I won in both games (although the one against Jerry was partially because I did a poor job explaining the scenario), I feel like Naaresh was just there to pop his feat and let his beasts do the work.  I've been running him fairly beast heavy (Titan Gladiator + 2 Cyclops + Razorworm + Basilisk Krea), because his feat is very good, I just haven't gotten a feel for what I should be doing otherwise with him.  Cyclone is a nice spell, but he's not going to be able to assassinate casters, and really its just there to get him out of unfavorable combats.  Still undecided about him.

I've been loving Dominar Rasheth however.  In three game (loss vs Ben playing Grissel, and wins vs BK playing the Harbinger and Rob playing Vayl) I've already decided I love the way he plays.  Running the Cannoneer + an Agonizer does a good job keeping him alive, and running Gatormen Posse and a few beasts seem to provide him with enough punch.  I'll be working to tweak what I run with him (I need to buy Nihilators!) and posting some battle reports of those games.

Finally, I ran Mordikaar once, against Rob's Bethayne army.  It turned out to be a pretty favorable matchup, but man Mordikaar seems like a boring 'lock.  I Revived what I could every turn, popped my feat on the second turn, and had Marketh cast Ghost Walk once.  Other than that, my warlock was basically a spectator.  Not too impressive... but I'll try some more times.

Legion:
I finally played a game with my Legion!  Unfortunately, it was a game using regular Lylyth with a bunch of melee elements.  Needless to say, I'm not very good with Legion, and I got destroyed by Ben's new Retribution army.  We'll see if I can get something working with these guys (maybe with Thagrosh).  I did, however, finish a fun conversion for Legion this weekend, which I'll post pictures of on Monday morning, most likely.  Let me know what you think when it's up!

Anyway- I'm still here, just not frequently.  I'm excited that I'm playing more games of late, so hopefully I can use that to drive my painting as well (since strangers now see my miniatures semi-regularly!).