Tuesday 27 August 2013

A Game of Dice

So I missed the club again this week, I did manage to play over Vassal instead though. So, straight into it.

I took my Mohsar list and was against Kreoss3 and the scenario was number 8, Incoming. As it is tradition between my friend and I to rename the Warcasters, Kreoss got renamed Incestor Kreoss and we began. I got first turn, the Bloodtrackers were preying on the Errants. I pulled the trick off. Namely stones teleport Mohsar to stones, stones teleport Mohsar again and then Mohsar puts 3 pillars of salt right in front of the enemy before using sands of fate to get back to safety. As I had maltreated Megalith (who I used to put Mirage on the trackers first) I still had a transfer available. This kept the Errants locked down and the trackers ran forwards so they would be in range to Mirage into the 10" and get the Prey movement buff. All went well. When they came to advance in to throw spears and two get melee range. I then need a CMD check because he thought he had done the Tough call with Rhupert but had instead done Dirge of Mists. I failed that check so the Trackers killed nothing and could now not reform back into the zone and contest it. So he got some easy kills on them and scored in my zone with the solo. Highly annoying was that he managed to dominate his own zone this turn as well so took an early lead on the control points.

Seeing that things were not great, the entire tracker front had collapsed without a fight (one I was confident about victory in), yet in dominating the zone Kreoss had put himself in range of a warp speed Feral. Now he had Holy Ward on himself, was camping 2 and had a pair of warjacks in between. One of which was enlivened. So I had to get through two Warjacks to deal with a Def16 Arm19 'caster. No problems. Megalith was stone ported in, put up his animus and threw the Reckoner (the enlivened one) at something of mine to get it out of the way. He then used Geomancy to put Curse of Shadows upon the Redeemer. Job done, the jacks are now no longer a problem and Kreoss is at Def14. Next up was the Gorax who put Primal on the Feral and charged at the Errant solo. Revenge for an easy score was going to be mine. But no, he didn't die. No bother that was only petty revenge. The real show was coming up.

Showtime! Kreoss being Def14 thanks to Undergrowth and the Feral at Mat9 thanks to Primal was 5+ to hit, also thanks to Primal the need to warp speed was offset with the damage buff side putting me to P+S17. So -2 for damage rolls. With 3 initials and 3 fury to buy attacks (after the charge) I was confident in this one. Charge attack, 4. Second claw, 4. Bite hits! -3 for this one...3 damage. Buy a claw, 4. Buy a claw, HITS! This one does what it was supposed to and knocks a good chunk out of him. Enough to make it so that if this last Claw hits I can finish it off on a slightly above average damage roll...so naturally I got a 4 to hit. Do you think it is because claw and four kinda rhyme? So yeah desperation kicks in. I stare at it and think, a good Crevasse might help...Kreoss can't be hit by spells...but my Wilder can! She gets sacrificed to put another couple of damage onto Kreoss. His turn comes around and he uses the Redeemer to kill the objective, the Vessal of Judgment to push Megalith away and re-dominate his zone and then win on scenario.

I am totally blaming dice. I could have easily contested my zone during turn 2 but forgot to after the trackers failed the test so they couldn't reform back into it. I should have run the Gorax in, but didn't. My fault I know...but it was totally the dice.

I need to take that step back and start rethinking when things go badly like that, damage limitation was not on my list of cards. It needs to be.

Sunday 25 August 2013

Tharn-tastic


Not a great deal happening so here are a few photos of work I have been doing. My Tharn have been decided on being all ginger, which is going to be amusing when I get around to Ghetorix. Kromac was done a while ago but the bloodtrackers were finished this morning. The Warpwolves are another recent finish.

Next up is Kromacs beast form and the unit of Ravagers.

Other news is a bit slim. I missed last weeks gaming for a fishing trip with a workmate. I have come up with a few dirty tricks with Mohsar which I want to drop in my next game with him. I was going to get onto Vassal soon and play a 'dojo' first turn on there to see how well it actually works as the theory is sound but I wanted to be sure of ranges before I try it in a real game.

Thursday 15 August 2013

Shakey Return

So I have had a few games now with Circle and to say the least they have been shakey at best. I have been loosing a lot and to be honest, it's a good feeling. I think my main problem has been trying to go straight through the middle and fight like a Cygnarian.

First game was pKrueger vs Harkavich (sp?) and that was a close loss as I put in my last entry. The game after I used Cassius and ended up against Menoth with heavy spell denial and another 3 heavy warjacks. That was a loss as I got rolled over in no time. I tried a last ditch assassination before I was wiped out but when your Warlock needs to roll 6,6,6 to kill the enemy warcaster (Reznik btw) you know things got desperate fast.

My last game was Krueger2, I used his Wake of Destruction theme force. Now Krueger is my strongest Warlock, and I managed to get a very solid assassination against Thyra. He moved up to Feat and cast Carnage and this was my opening. Krueger moved up so she was a fraction outside his control area and feated. Moveing everything a bit closer, I then cast Telekenisis at the Guardian, Warden and the Reckoner moving them even closer. I used the Warden to throw the Reckoner at Thyra and then Geomancied Telekenisis at it to shift it out of the way (cheating I know, I should have used Gallows but the assassination being so close I forgot you can only hit a target with TK once a turn) Then I pegged her with the Devouring for the Druids and a few Force Bolts this left her at 3HP, KD'd and in charge ranged of the Woldguardian.

Next Warlock is looking to be Mohsar. I am going to cycle each in for one game before I settle on the two I want to really push for the next year.

Monday 5 August 2013

The Storms Wrath

Right so my return game to Circle was a shaky one, I need to get reacquainted with both building a list for Hordes and how to play Circle again. Which is exactly what I expected. So to start todays blog I shall go into my thought process in building my list and then have a brief run through of my first game back.

Building the list!

First thing is first, I needed to pick a 'lock. Now I usually love playing Krueger2, but thought that I would keep him back bench for a short time and get used to something a bit different. I chose Krueger1, because I love Krueger too much. Looking at his cards he does a lot of infantry killing with lightning. Fair enough, means the rest of the list doesn't need to be too heavy on that.

For the battlegroup I chose my standard 1 light and 2 heavies for 35pts. It gives enough flexibility for fury and I can keep going after loosing a beast without too much stress. My loadout was Gorax, Feral and a Stalker. The idea being that these guys will kill hard targets and Warpwolves are the things for those jobs. The Gorax provides both Primal and a 4 Fury 4pts beast so is an amazing return. He is also a surprisingly good combat light for the endgame.

Troops needed to be something cheap, 35pts doesn't give a massive amount of wiggle room for taking fancy stuff. I decided to take the Wolves of Orboros. First because they are cheap, at 6pts for a full unit they make for good fodder and secondly for the Wolf Lord. Morriag loves him some Wolves for flank and I am fully intending on taking him too. Krueger can give the Wolves a bit more protection against ranged attacks but to be fair, they will still die to any hits. Only blast damage is a bit more iffy. The next two units are the ubiquitous shifting stones, 2 units of which give me plently of options. I have decided against the UA because after the battlegroup, Wolves, Stones and Morriag I would only have 2pts left and I had a plan for those two points. Still, Stealth on the stones can sometimes hinder Krueger who can use them to get Chain Lightning into spell immune or Stealth infantry. With that, healing, fury control, teleports and getting in the way of things for my opponents Shifting Stones are a good 2pts buy.

Solos were easy, Morriag because he hits like a truck, a charge with Flank is looking at MAT12 with a P+S of 13 with 5d6 damage. He is also highly mobile at SPD8 with light cav movement and if all that isn't enough go and try putting Lightning Strike on him. The Stalkers animus makes for some ridiculious movement after a kill. Charge 11" (with reach as well) kill something and then trigger both Lightning Strike and light cav for a 13" post killing advance. The other solos were a pair of Gallows Groves. Bcause what is a spellslinging Warlock without a way to channel.

so the list at the end of this was,
Krueger the Stormwrath
Gorax
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker

Wolves of Orboros
Shifting Stones x2

Wolf Lord Morriag
Gallows Groves x2

35pts

I seemingly had most bases covered. I was a bit surprised by the game I had, which was a Haravich theme force with 3 heavies, Black Ivan, a Spriggan and the newest Clamjack, the Demolisher? A wall of steel I was never getting through in a positive piece trade. These were backed up with a min Winter Guard one of each weapon crew and Joe. Maybe a few other bits but thats what I recall.

We played Incurstion and the middle flag vanished, I put up with a ranged bombardment and got a CP off the leftmost flag. Things got close and Krueger started casting Tornado every turn and one of the 'jacks and I was sneaking ahead on the CP's. I decided to go for the Domination on the rightmost flag and cast Skyborne to fly over a tower to get there, I then cast Tornado at the Spriggan in melee with my Gorax (he had charged and killed the Stalker) judging that a good throw will free up the Gorax to run and block LOS to any shooters and the Spriggan would be KD'd facing the wrong direction and too far away to get at Krueger I opted to burn all the fury and boost. I threw the Spriggan 2" not great so a shifting stone teleported next to it to prevent anything. I was sure he was out but I like safety nets when I burn all my Fury.

I had made a mistake, a horrible one. I had judged the spriggan down and out. Not at all. He allocated 3 to it, activated Black Ivan and shot the stone away. Cast Jump Start (stand up and face any direction, uh oh) then cast Escort (+2" of move for battlegroup models in his CTRL, double uh oh) and charged Krueger, he was just in. With needing 9's on the charge he boosted and hit, the charge left me on 4hps. His last focus he bought an attack, needing an 11 now. He got it. Krueger was paste. A very unexpected charge and some very unlikely dice. But thats what happens, I got cockey and paid the price. I got up to 4 CP's and if I had survived that I would have won on scenario. Well played Sir.