Wednesday 28 December 2011

Sup-p-per Troup-p-per

Mondays gaming was shifted to Tuesday thanks to boxing day, which is a good enough reason I suppose. Had two games, first was eKrueger vs Seige at 35pts and ended with seige being killed by lightning bolt. nothing exciting about the game aside from it being my first game against the Cygnar battle engine. Which did very little due to a plethora of immunity on my part ( the druids elemental protection being paramount for once).

The second game was something better though, my friend Ed was back and having left his models at uni borrowed my Privateers for the game. Shae vs Grayle. There was very little by the way of battle. lots of sea dogs came in very fast, they got butchered. My guys got butchered back a bit. In the end it came down to Shae vs Grayle. Grayle tried to get the first strike with some crafty side steps and storm rager on himself only to be stopped by tough, camped a few fury to try and stave off the counter. Shea put storm rager on himself and went to town pushing Grayle towards a freebooter which tried to hit him and missed. Grayle survived on 8 hits thanks to transfers. But all his beasts were down now. So after cutting for 6 fury Grayle went to town on Shae leaving him on 3 hits. Who then started wailing back on Grayle and finished the job off. All told a lot died, and the casters had an epic battle in the middle of all of this. Which I decided that I wasn't going to interfear with anyone else and Ed seemed to have agreed was the best idea for the laugh. 

Ed is now buying my Privateers from me, I'd grown bored of the one playstyle they have and we had one of our most enjoyable games in a long time. So he wanted them.

Wednesday 21 December 2011

eBaldur's first outing

Well, Monday saw me bringing eBaldur for his first outing as well as a unit of Woldstalkers and my Woldguardian that never really get used. I went up against a Trollblood player with Borka and a focus on infantry, which is a shock as there were very few 'beasts.

Me! eBaldur, Gorax, Woldguardian, Warpwolf Stalker, Megalith, Shifting Stones w/Stoneward, Woldstalkers, Druids w/Overseer, Druid Wilder and a Blackclad Wayfarer.

Against! Borka, Troll Impaler, Troll Bouncer, Dire Troll Mauler, Fennblades (max), Champions (max) w/Skaldi, Pyg Burrowers, Janessa Stonetide and a Fell Caller. There may have been some other stuff, but druid lasers made short work of the trolls and it got a bit messy over his side quite quickly.

Set up and first turn, My battlegroup took centre with the woldstalkers on the right druids were AD in front of them shifting stones were in front of the battlegroup and the solos hanging around with the battlegroup. Trolls had fenns over in front of the druids and woldstalkers, champs over to the left of my battlegroup with the pygs, his battlegroup took centre too...behind the fenns, is amazing how much space a 10 man unit of medium bases can cover. My first turn was a whole heap of running aside from the druids who put up counter magic and made a lot of clouds to hide the woldstalkers from prying eyes. He just ran at me.

Turn 2, Circle. Druids moved over to free up the woldstalkers, cast devouring at the fenns and force bolted a load more dropped counter magic as the only spell I was worried about was stonetides shifty spell and I was planning on feating this turn. The Woldstalkers zephered and moved up to finish off the fenns, thanks to some good tough rolls it ended up with 3 surviving but on their arses. Megalith trampled up to between the shifting stones and put his animus up, shifting stones teleported him in front of the woldstalkers and staring down the mauler and a bouncer. The guardian then ran into the stones triangle the stalker went over to stare down the burrow marker and the champs behind the wilder went with him as did the gorax. the blackclad stood near the guardian with no real plan in mind. Baldur went last, put a wall in front of the stalker and feated. Dropping a few fury so I could leech in next turn.
Turn 2, Trolls. he moved his fell caller over and used stand yer arse up. the fenns tried to charge some druids. Thanks to undergrowth one didn't make it in even though they were close. I lost a pair of druids. Then Borka feated, apparently so his mauler could get to megalith (I love how much of a headache he gives people), put iron flesh on the remaining fenns so they could tie down my druids. Then the mauler went after megalith, made it in and ended up doing very little damage thanks to the feat and some low damage rolls. the bouncer tried to do some more damage but seriously if a mauler can't do it a bouncer is going to do nothing. the pygs went after the stalker and failed to connect even once. the champs moved up behind them.

Turn 3. Circle. Druids took pot shots at the fenns and managed to finish them off despite iron flesh, and opened up a landing point for the mauler. Who on full fury was promptly thrown towards Borka. the woldstalkers moved up and concerted fire to put some damage on the champs and finish off the only target closer to the mauler than Borka. The guardian charged into the bouncer and slapped it about killing it off and moving closer to the champs in the process. The stalker tried to kill off the pygs...but tough rolls prevented him killing more than 3. He then sprinted away, moving out of charge range of the champs. the Blackclad tried to finish off some pygs but only got one more thanks to 2 more tough rolls. Baulder moved up. Roots on himself and the guardian.  Shifting stone all teleported to within an inch of beasts to help with fury managment next turn.
Turn 3. Trolls. Borka used his getting drunk ability. Charged into the woldstalkers and put iron flesh on himself. He killed a few of them but hey, they're disposable right? The champs charged the woldguardian which managed to survive with one aspect left the pygs burrowed again and moved off towards Baldur. Stonetide put a wall between Borka and my forces. I chuckled a bit at that.

Turn 4. Circle. It's time to make the kill. after the stones used healing field the Woldguardian went as I wanted to see it against this unit of champs, it wiped them out. Sweet lord he's taken some names in that game. the druids ran to surround Borka and Baldur charged in. Taking a huge chuck out of Borka and finishing him off with a few more solid hits from Tritus.

 Thoughts. He was a bit reckless with Borka and that lead to an easy charge, he'd left no fury on him and that helped a lot but I don't think he was expecting me to pin him down by surrounding him. eBaldur plays a lot differently, an advance with damn near unkillable wolds while he gets stronger and then gets in and does the job. I want a few more games with him before I comment more. Maybe against someone a little less reckless. The woldguardian kicked some massive arse and the woldstalkers played a nice role too. But like I said, against someone less reckless it might have been a different story.

Sunday 18 December 2011

Interesting Times

Well, I've now gotten through reading Domination and I must say it's a beautiful book. My compliments go out to PP at this point. I found it a much more interesting read than Wrath and the new toys I've been given far outstrip the new toys my Cygnar were.

-Grayle I've been into already, he's such a fun new 'lock that since picking him up I've done nothing but sing his praises. Several times over.

-eBaldur though is still new and while I do own him I've yet to get tabletime in with him. He has a few standout abilitys that make him look like a lot of fun. Namely Devourers Debt, Roots of the Earth and Rock Wall. He's getting stronger, he's going to be hitting things hard and he's going to be making it difficult to kill whatever you need to stay alive. I like the look of him. He's going to make a slow advance towards the enemy and then crush whatever stands in his way when he gets there. His feat is a little wonky in not allowing my force to move after I pop it but with his spell list Baldur is going to be a Warlock to activate late in the round anyway. Meaning a Wilder is going to be wanted to hand out the animus I might want casting and to extend his control bubble a bit if I'm playing out on the flanks with a beast. Game time will tell but I'm prefering the look of eBaldur to pBaldur.

-Scarsfell Griffon, nothing much to say, a nice solid flanking beast with abilitys to allow it to get where it needs to and stay in control while out there. Shame it's animus is 'self' as parry would be a nice ability to hand out but I can see why...SPD/STR warped Feral Warpwolves trampling and immune to freestrikes? Yeah that'd be fun.

-Winter Argus. Yeah, seems to follw the trend of Argii being overcosted. Plus it looses the ability that made the regular Argus even remotely useful in Combo Bite. It's animus being again 'Self' only and I'm failing to see what it's use is going to be. Still I know I'll be picking one up and I'll be trying to use it.

-Ghetorix...well, this is nice. A Warpwolf who has insane damage output without the need of primal is a grand thing. I can see Ghettorix Killing and eating everything in his path. His warps are a bit naff but look to be very usefull and his already decent ARM (by the standards of Circle anyway) is further improved by unyeilding. Loves him.

-Gallows Groves. 1pt channelers. Enough said? No? How about we can have up to 4 of them? Still no? How about enemy models within 3" loose tough? Still no? How about it's a frikkin doom tree? SOLD!

-Celestial Fulcrim, a bad ass laser sphere. Has all sorts out ranged attacks and can use them all each activation. This thing is icing (and firing, and lightning...ing) on the cake. It's ranged attacks are a bit short ranged but thats fine by me as it has gunfighter so isn't too easy to stop. It generates a fury point each turn which it can use to boost or the Warlock can leech from it during the control phase. The only downside to this thing is it cannot be placed. So no teleporting the doom laser.

All told only the Winter Argus hasn't inspired me at first glace. All our other entries have had me frothing at the mouth. Plus the story arc was good for us, we got some stuff done. All it takes is Baldur coming back from the dead and then not including the rest of the order in his plans and we've done something without the endless bickering that defines the order. Good lad Baldur, take a leaf from Kruegers book. Just get stuff done and then deal with the rest of the Portents probably outraged reactions.

Wednesday 14 December 2011

An Army of Banes

Well, I missed out my update last week what with work picking up near christmas I never made it down the club, so nothing happened. Painting has hit a standstill too. Though hopefully that'll pick back up soon enough as I've now got another Warlock to work on. Yep I've now picked up eBaldur so I've got the full selection once again.

Game on monday was a shocker. I took my standard eKrueger list and sat down to play. My opponent was cryx, and took a full unit of Bane Thralls w/UA, then a second full Bane Thralls plus UA (deep terror was welling up at this point btw), then a full unit of Bane Knights...then a second full Bane Knights (seriously? Who owns that many???) then the Bane Lord himself. Well if you hadn't guessed it was eGoreshade and theme. I was not happy. Somehow actually managed a win but I'm sure it was more a case of luck than judgement. Ramming a battlegroup straight at Goreshade and just powering through while my units tried to hold the Banes at bay on the flanks. Eventually managed to get a Primal'd Shadowhorn to leap over and give him a pummeling.

So, I mentioned I picked up eBaldur. I also got a few other things, namely books though so nothing very exciting. Picked up the Skorne and Legion forces books as well as Domination. I'll likely post up my Domination musings, which everyone and anyone will have done and ten times better than I could ever manage. But for the Wurm I'm doing it anyway!

Also, My friend Ed has been reading Domination, I got a text today which read 'Christ, I'm going to hate Grayle aren't I?'

Yes Ed, yes you are.