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.

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 :).

Can I just say...

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

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!

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!).