WhoredMachine

A bunch of mates playing Warmachine/Hordes....poorly.

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Fallout Brown by Cynthia Sousa Rodgers

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Awesome.

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I'm not dead!

Not that it would have caused a huge concern (I post rarely and only have 20 odd followers) but for those that do care, I haven't given up yet. A few huge things have happened in the last month that have pkept me occupied me from posting: First of all, I injured my wrist playing Rugby League. I have a scaphoid fracture in my dominant-right hand, which makes model assembly and painting a real bitch. I wanted to have posted by now a picture of my converted Croes Cutthroats and a bit of a write-up on the filthy thieves, but unfortunately I can't finish painting the 6 remaining models.

Last weekend I also proposed to my girlfriend of 5 years over champagne, strawberries and the sunrise view from the top of a local mountain range. The strawberries were a bit shit, there was too much fog to enjoy the view and worst of all the champagne was non-alcoholic...but she said yes!

BAD JOKE WARNING:

I guess you could say that we are in each others melee range....because we're engaged.

Back to Warmachine though, I recently picked up Terminus. Mr. T has been great and I am currently undefeated with him in my local gaming group. I've ran 25p and 35p lists influenced by the great Lamoron (http://theoverseer.dk/2012/07/30/spotlight-terminus/) and am trying to make my own 50p version without copying him entirely (but damn that list is hard to change).

I am also still playing with Scaverous from time-to-time and am planning on taking both the big Liches to an upcoming local 50p tournament. Scaverous could use a lot of the characters that Terminus loves (Daragh, Withershadow etc) but I am planning on running Scaverous as an Anti-Hordes/Heavy list and Terminus for Warmachine/Infantry.

Steve-O

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Battle Report - Cryx Vs Skorne

I got to try out my 35p experimental Scaverous list against a Skorne list the other week. It was my first time playing against a Skorne list (besides the battlebox) and was an eye-opening experience. The lists were as follows:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous (*5pts) * Ripjaw (5pts) * Ripjaw (5pts) * Erebus (8pts) * Skarlock Thrall (2pts) Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts) (10pts) Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts) Warwitch Siren (2pts)

And the Skorne (As best as I can remember):

Supreme Aptimus Zaal & Kovaas (*5pts) * Cyclops Brute (5pts) * Molik Karn (11pts) * Titan Gladiator (8pts) Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts) Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts) Agonizer (2pts) Hakaar the Destroyer (4pts)

The board was relatively clean, with an open field in the middle, a pond of shallow water to the right and some forests to the left. My opponent won the roll and chose to deploy first, staying in the middle of the board with his infantry leading the way with Molik Karn to the right. I deployed with pistol wraiths and Croes on my left to take advantage of the forests whilst the rest of my force were grouped more to the right. Putting the pistol wraiths so far away was my first mistake as they were too far away to do much. At the end of his first turn he had ran everything up the middle of the field.

End of Skornes first turn. (Just like he performed in game, Erebus was 'armless)

I assigned a focus to a Rip-Jaw and ran him up to start arcing some spells. It would end up a suicide-run, but if I could cripple his infantry and  kill Molik Karn it would be well worth it. Scaverous activated and cast Telekinesis to make Molik assume the position. It hit, and the cyclops was turned around to present his finer side to the Cutthroats. Scaverous then cast Icy grip on the Nihilators to prevent them from charging. I only needed a 6 to hit but had excess focus and was a pretty critical spell so I decided to boost. I rolled a 5, giving me less 'six' than a slow Kiwi and fast sheep.

I ignored the looming nihilator threat and moved 4 of Croes men out of the forest to get within range of Molik. With backstab and poison they would roll 4 dice each and only needed 6's to hit. Again I rolled 5's. Two of the cuthroats hit andall but killed Molik. If just one more had hit, he would have been history. The warwitch siren moved up and attempted to finish Molik off with venom and failed and Gorman tried and failed to deviate an acid bomb on him. The rest of the force moved up, the skarlock put death ward on Erebus and I waited to see how much I would lose.

End of Cryx first turn.

Skorne put out a lot of damage this turn, which cooincided with me learning that Nihilators have berserk, and that Zaal's spell Last Stand gives them an additional dice for attack and damage rolls. I've read a lot about other factions and always thought I had a decent grasp on what each was capable of - not in this case. I did learn an important lesson (after the game) though - If you don't know your opponent well, READ THE DAMN CARDS. Molik turned around and started whacking at the Ripjaw closest to it. He chunked it pretty well despite having a crippled body leaving it with two boxes. The Nihilators would charge next, with one finishing the job on the Ripjaw. One went for the croes that had taken shots at Molik and another managed to get within range of the siren and Gorman with reach. With Last Stand active they didn't have a chance. Finally the Agoniser ran up and used the effect which prevented casting and arcing inside it's aura. I was in trouble.

End of Skorne turn 2. Ouch.

Reeling from the losses I needed to kill something to regain some moral. To this end my remaining Ripjaw charged Molik but missed. Erebus walked up and beat the Agoniser down putting an end to the no-spells business. Without an arc-node, Scaerous advanced and popped his feat and shot at Molik with excarnate, hitting and finally killing the beast. With the arc-node now free I again cast Excarnate at a Nihilator, but he made a tough roll (They have tough? READ THE DAMN CARDS). My final focus went to casting icy grip on the Nihilators again, and against all odds I managed to hit the 6 on 3 dice. The pistol wraiths advanced and figured they could take some souls. They killed 3 Nihilators between them (a fourth made tough), but couldn't claim any souls due to Zaals ability to determine where they go (They went to Hakaar). READ THE DAMN CARDS. I attempted to regroup Croes by moving them behind Scaverous.

At this point my opponent felt sorry for me and pointed out that Hakaar the Destoyer had Righteous Vengence and could advance because I killed the Nihiliators. I panicked, and successfully blocked him from charging the Wraiths by moving the Skarlock up and Telekinesing a Nihilator in front of him. All I succedeed in doing though was opening up a charge lane for Hakaar to an un-camped Scaverous.

End of Cryx turn 2 and the beginning of the end

Hakaar took his vengeance move and lined himself up to charge Scaverous. Zaal advanced and popped his feat, which let him use an ancestral spirit token (he got one for each warrior model that died) to boost and models attack or damage. Hakaar then charged, using the combination of his three soul tokens and the numerous ancestral spirits to put out 5 fully boosted attacks on Scaverous. As tanky as the Scav-Man is there was no way short of extremely poor dice he was going to make it out of that one.

Victory Skorne.

It was an enjoyable game as always, and in case I didn't mention it before, I learned a valuable lesson: READ THE DAMN CARDS. I need to experiment more with the Scaverous list but I have a core:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous (*5pts) * Arc-nodes (8-10pts) * Skarlock Thrall (2pts) Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts) (10pts) Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts)

This gives me 10-12 points to play with with some options I have been considering:

Helldiver (3pts) Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)

Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts) * Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts) Warwitch Siren (2pts)

I do like the Erebus and death ward combo giving Cryx Khador level armor and it (along with a siren) can mow through infantry. Wrong Eye gives me a heavy that won't drain Scaverous for focus and adds an extra assasination threat with the helldiver (burrow behind the enemy caster to set up a slam and knockdown). Bane thralls help me deal with armor and with Death Ward up gives me ARM 17 stealthy models with tough and Scaverous can put out 3 excarnates on feat turn to bring them back. Guess I just need to play around a bit more and see which suits me.

READ THE DAMN CARDS!

Steve-O

[wargamergal-deactivated20180709]

Go team!!

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25p Scaverous Initial Thoughts + Battle Report

I got my first game with Scaverous in on the weekend. It was only a single 25 point game, so I can't write too much about him - but I really like his kit. I ran:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous (*5pts) * Ripjaw (5pts) Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts) (10pts) Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts) Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts) Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts) Pistol Wraith (3pts)

It wasn't really optimised but gave me an insight to how Scaverous works and how powerful Telekinesis is. I was playing against an experimental Legion team led by eThagrosh. By memory he had something like this:

Thagrosh, the Messiah (*3pts) * Shredder (2pts) * Shredder (2pts) * Teraph (5pts) Throne of Everblight (9pts) Blighted Nyss Archers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts) * Blighted Nyss Archers Officer & Standard (2pts)

First turn he moved everything up with his Teraph further up-field due to advance move. It was also in cover from digging in. I assigned one focus to the Ripjaw and he ran within range of the Teraph. Scaverous then cast TK at the Teraph arcing through the Ripjaw. It took two boosted casts to hit, but I did, pulling it out of cover and turning it around to assume the position.

The rest of my force ran up and it was his turn. I thought that after how Croes had their way with the rear of his Teraph he would pack it in. I was wrong. His archers, with their UA were able to fire twice each at the Mechanithralls. With the aiming bonus, they were rolling 4's to hit and anything bar snake-eyes to kill. He got half-way through them and was only up to his 4th archer, so rather than roll each time, we just agreed that the thralls would make like the Teraph and go seek some counselling. The shredders and throne advanced and eThagrosh hung back.

My turn, and the first pistol wraith moved up and targeted the Throne. He hit all his shots, including the death chill and the throne had to sacrifice his movement or action. Gorman followed, lobbing a black oil which easily hit taking out the other side of the Throne's action. The Throne would do nothing on the next turn. The other pistol wraith took a shot at a shredder and did some damage, but missed his chill attack. The Ripjaw advanced towards the archers.

Scaverous stepped up and had to do something about the archers. So he popped his feat and went to town slinging spells. Icy Grip was cast first for 1 focus (cheaper because of his feat) to lower their defence. It hit, and he was free to cast two feast-of-worms. The archers were clustered so they could take the maximum amount of shots at the thralls and the 4 inch AOE's wiped out 3 quarters of the force. Croes moved up and took out the shredders. It was looking grim for eThagrosh.

The rest of the match was pretty uneventful. eThagrosh accepted defeat and humbly moved himself forward to assume the position. Scaverous TK'd and cast feast of worms to lower his armor. The remaining Croes who missed out on the Teraph charged and rolled 5 dice for damage. Ouch.

TK is possibly the best spell in the Warmachine game that I've encountered so far. Not only does it add to threat ranges, but can be treated as a -2 DEF debuff as well. Extra utility comes from denying the enemy - facing the wrong way not only prevents charges but forces ranged enemy's to give up their aiming bonus. The synergy with Croes is great too - It basically gives you RAT 7 Weapon Masters. One thing that was lacking was infantry clear - I managed it with Scaverous, but I really needed one or two Warwitch Sirens to spray boosted venom on his feat turn.

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Brute Thralls: Free Prostate Checks for Everyone!

It's been so long since I even looked at my Warmachine stuff, but my local group is finally recovering from it's Christmas hiatus and we are playing this Wednesday and Sunday (I finally get to try out Scaverous). I also picked up some purple wash, which prompted me to attempt to paint some decaying flesh. Apart from resembling me after a heavy night of drinking, I think this Brute Thrall is the best figure I've painted so far:

I'm DEAD sexy...

I originally wanted to write about the Mechanithralls first but seeing as I'm on the topic of their big brothers let's talk about these one-point wonders.

If the muscular frame and massive steam-fists didn't give it away - these brutes pack one helluva' punch (or two decent punches if you don't want to combo). The look on my mate's face was priceless when I told him that one point of Brute Thrall could hit harder than even his 9 point Carnivean's bite - And that's exactly where these monstrosities belong: getting down and dirty in the thick of things giving anyone they can the old stink steamfist.

As well as sharing the rugged good looks of their smaller brethren, the Brutes also share two of their biggest weaknesses. Surviving into melee and actually hitting once they get there. They are on a medium base and will find no cover hiding in the middle of the Mechanithrall swarm they are attached to (however this means that they can block tramples from mowing through your whole unit). Their defence is the same and their armor is only marginally better than the little guys and they will often get shot up before they can close despite having 8 hit-points.

Although a point higher than a Mechthrall, their MAT still leaves a lot to be desired and they won't be having their way with any high DEF casters any-time soon. Unless they are debuffed, and what would you know - Cryx has access to most of the best debuffs in the game.

Mr Brute shows off his best ass-ets (I know - I'm terrible)

Their weaknesses and strengths lead me to believe that the Brutes fill two roles - bullet sponge and armor buster. Any decent player who knows what these guys are capable of will target them when they can. This takes focus of your other important pieces (Jacks, solos) allowing them to do their job in peace or get into an assassination position. This effect works best if you run them in pairs. If the brute survives it can hand out free prostate checks to those pesky high armor tanks. A P+S 19 combo-strike on the charge will hurt even Khador level armor.

At only a point each (and up to three attachable per Mechanithrall unit) it's very easy to fit these guys into an army. There may be contention for those spare points with Machine Wraiths but if you need some extra hitting power the Brutes are a great addition to any army.

[delhien]

Decembers painting challenge completed! My Phoenix takes its place in Rahns battle group, ready for some Christmas gaming during the holidays. I like how the clear resin base turned out. Hopefully it looks more like blue fire than ice. I was aiming to make it look like the Phoenix was using its combustion attack. Did I succeed?

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Makes my painting look like ass. Actually my painting looked like ass to begin with - this is still awesome though.

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A mechanithrall. I only have 5 colors (White, Black, Gold, Grey and Green) so the variety of color in my models is lacking. I think it looks O.K but I want to get a purple wash and some red/blue paint to add some color into the flesh. I've only painted two so far and the list of models to paint keeps growing.

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Scaverous - A Nasty Piece of Work

So it's been a while since I posted anything. I finally managed to upload photos of the tournament I went to a month ago. It's been so long since the tournament though that I don't really remember the games that well. I must have got caught up playing to remember to take photos too, so they are pretty sporadic and incomplete. I will do a small write-up to accompany the pics eventually, but for now I have managed to get my hands on a Warmachine: Wrath book and have been checking out the most recent caster addition to Toruk's army:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous

Scaverous is an interesting caster - He has access to some great debuffs, but is no Denegrah. He has a high armor (for Cryx) and a decently-powered Thresher attack, but is no Terminus. To me he seems to be a jack-of-all-trades utility caster with a very interesting kit of spells (and a feat to make great use of them). The ultimate spell at his disposal is Telekinesis (TK) and I have been thinking about models for a potential list specifically catered to locking down the enemy and denying their actions and movement.

The Ripjaw

Warwitch Sirens

Pistol Wraiths

Gorman Di Wulf

Machine Wraith

Ripjaws fill the arc-node role, but also have a special attack called vice lock. An enemy model hit by vice-lock is unable to advance for one round. This ability shines when used in conjunction with TK. TK can spin the enemy model around to face its own team. The Ripjaw then can advance/charge and perform Vice Lock with a +2 to hit. The killer is that model can't even turn around as facing is done as part of an advance. A 5 point Ripjaw can potentially lock down a 9-13 point heavy (as long as they don't have 360 vision) just by biting them in the ass. The Ripjaw can continue to arc as well as it is engaging the locked model, but the locked model is not engaging the Ripjaw. Nasty.

The Warwitch Sirens inflict Shadowbind on an enemy that they hit. This means that the model can't advance except to change facing. A little less useful than vice lock with TK, but it can still render an enemy reach-less model useless. A shadowbound enemy can't even make ranged attacks, as it will be in melee with the siren. Their Magic Ability: Venom also synergises well with Scaverous's feat which gives all friendly faction spells boosted attack rolls. Damn gurls' you nasty.

Pistol Wraiths bring Chain Attack: Chill to the table. If they manage to hit with both of their attacks, they can make another attack which forces the enemy model hit to sacrifice either their movement or their action next turn. A TK'd model facing his own army will either have to sit and do nothing, or sacrifice his action just so he can turn the right way. Also nasty.

I've written about Gorman before, and all we are interested in here is his Black Oil. Similar to the Pistol Wraiths, anything hit by it must sacrifice its movement or action. The kicker is that it stacks with Chain Attack: Chill. Nasty with a capital 'N'.

Finally the Machine Wraith can inflict some real headaches on a Warmachine army. If it manages to meld, it interupts both the Warcasters focus resources and their activation (the Warcaster must activate in order to attempt to boot the wraith out). This can give a vice-locking Ripjaw some breathing space. Alternatively, against Hordes armies it can still block charge lanes or go hunting important solos. You guessed it - nasty.

I am going to order him soon and will write further about his performance once I give him a go. I will also try running him with Croe's for the bonus back-strike die with TK (if I have any friends left from the nastiness).

[cousinborris-deactivated2021070]

So I will be running a wargaming give away after all.

So there will be couple options for the victor:

1. A starter for Infinity, Firestorm Armada, Malifaux, Warmahordes or Dystopian wars.

2. A HQ unit converted to your specifications for Warhammer/40k

Please keep your ask...

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Tournament Results

After missing out on the last tournament due to being incredibly hungover, I somehow managed to stay sober and made it to both days. It was well worth competing in, as I saw many new models I have never seen before and faced some different factions. The venue was great (fully air-conditioned hall was essential in tropical north-eastern Australia) as were the participants. The format was three tables, with 1v1v1 free-for-alls being played on each. The main table had a ruin which when held by a warlock/caster, gave them 6 extra fury/focus. The winner of the outer tables progressed to the main table to challenge the holding winner. While the format was fun, it led to relying on luck a bit as whoever rolled the lowest dice had to start in the middle, greatly lowering their chances of victory. Whoever the player in the middle chose to attack then also suffered, with the remaining player standing a solid chance of victory by coming in and sweeping up the remains.

The format changed on the second day, with an additional outer table added. The outer tables became 1v1 standard matches with the main table becoming a 4-way free-for-all and race for the center hill. I took some photos which I will upload with some battle reports....once I manage to get them of the camera (my usb cable has gone missing).

A brief summary of my matches went as follows:

Started on an outer table free-for-all against two Menoth players. Can't remember the other Menoth caster but in the middle was the Harbinger. The middle player got attacked from both sides and in a last stand effort charged the Harbinger into my Cutthroats and cast Cataclysm, killing all but 3. After taking the Harbinger out, I advanced to the center of the table and was being shredded, but managed to get a scenario win by having Denegrah in the middle of the table when time ran out (I had also feated preventing his caster from running in). Seemed like a dodgy way to win but I took what I could get ;)

Second game was on the main table against a Circle player on one side and Butcher-led Khador army holding the table and thus holding the center. He split his forces to attack both my Cryx and the circle, and was essentially destroyed by us both. I was sitting pretty well, with my full army intact, when the Butcher, who was the only one left feated. It was my first time seeing the Butcher and it wasn't pretty - the trail of Mechanithralls and Croes made for an easy path back to Denegrah. Full of rage tokens from his passage through he did some nasty things to her. Denegrah will be calling the Butcher in 9 months for some child support.

Third game was another 3-way battle, but this time with me in the middle. After seeing how poorly other people who started in the middle went, I dropped the "Play like you have a pair" motto and ran. A lot. A construct-based Baldur army were on one side and the Harbinger led Menoth from the first game. I did some decent damage to the constructs on my feat turn with Mechanithralls, than ran away again and killed the Harbinger, who had come too close to Wrong Eye and Snapjaw. Harbinger had popped her feat, but the high armor of the crocs let them endure the damage for the kill. Baldur came after me, and I almost had him (3 hp left). I made a mistake in the rules though and incorrectly thought I could stack Dennegrahs debuffs. I was wrong. This meant I wasted crippling grasp that was already on his Megalith by casting it on Baldur, then lost it again when I cast parasite the warcaster in an attempt to stack the debuffs. I failed to hit the 3 damage needed and the un-crippled Megalith charged Denegrah on the next turn, applying liberal stonefist-to-face.

The next day saw me up against a Retribution army with a lot of infantry and a single Jack - the Phoenix. I had seen the Phoenix in action before and promptly shut it down with a combination of crippling grasp and Snapjaw. I mowed down a large portion of his infantry on feat turn with numerous venoms, killing a large number outright and even more with corrosion. I played very cautiously, extending the number of turns the game took by about three - but I wasn't taking any chances after the Butchering I received on the first day. I eventually overcame his caster, but to his credit, he took out a large number of my infantry with AOE blast spells.

The previous win allowed me back onto the winners table, with the new format of a four-way free-for-all. The two Menoth players from my very first game had made it as well as another Cryx player who was fielding the Kraken - My very first battle against a Colossal. No-one risked drawing the attention of the other three players and the bonus focus in the middle of the field was left untouched. It was essentially two seperate games of Cryx vs Menoth, with me up against my old foe the Harbinger. I cripple his two heavies, and forced the Harbinger to take a large amount of damage to save his infantry that I destroyed with a combination of venom and Wrong-Eye's influence (it was fun seeing his solos beat each other up). He made it close to the center of the map, and popped his feat, essentially locking my armor 12-or-less army in place. Unfortunately for him, the other Menoth player had been defeated, and the Kraken was out for his next target. The Kraken hit the Harbinger with its cannon, but couldn't finish the job due to a large amount of Harbinger-camped focus. It was enough to help me, and one of Croes cutthroats managed to hit with his crossbow and roll 3 dice for poisoned damage. His warcaster, eSkarre, made it to the center of the field, bunching up in the ruins with the remainder of his Bane Thralls and Knights, with the Kraken lurking to the side. In a last-ditch effort, I popped my feat and sprayed venom over a large number of his infantry and Skarre. This took out enough banes to allow my remaining cutthroats to move into position to take shots at Skarre. It was close, but she survived with 4 hp left and corrosion ticking. Four Mechanithralls charged the Kraken and did some nice damage with their combo strike. His next turn he locked up my arc-node with Banes and failed to hit much of my army. Surprised to still be alive, I went all out again - clearing the Banes with Skarlock spell-slaving venom to allow the deathripper to arc. I cast venom again, but the combined camping of Skarre's own focus and her bonus focus for holding the center were too much to overcome. In my haste I forgot to move Denegrah. I also forgot that the Kraken could trample over the Mechanithralls and Denegrah was in range. I desperately tried to run Croes to place them in such a way that the Kraken could not find a place to fit his model to disrupt the trample, but there was too much room to move and his claws had a 4 inch reach on his attack. It was a close nerve-wracking game, and a great way to finish.

Somehow, even though I only won two games I was awarded second. The places were determined by who won at the final table, not the results leading up to it. It was a great event and I'm really happy with the way that my list went. Even though I was reliant on magic, and struggled against Menoth's magic immunity (damn those choirs!) the Mechanithralls did a lot of damage on the charge with their combo strike. The necrosurgeon performed remarkably - I lost count of the number of thralls she revived. My big plan of ghost-walking Croes into the back-arc of a living warcaster (for +2 attack and 4 dice for backstab + poison) didn't come to fruition. The other players were great with a relatively new player like me and showed me the rule in the book and explained other strategies for me.

Looking back at this post, I got a bit carried away explaining the battles. I'll still try to upload the photos though. It really was a great tournament and I look forward to playing against all the awesome people I met again.

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35 Point Tournament

I signed up for a 35 point tournament hosted by my local games shop this weekend. I didn't attend the last one due to being incredibly hungover, but have put my money down and am determined to go and get my ass handed to me this weekend. The list I've put together so far:

Points: 35/35 Warwitch Deneghra (*5pts) * Deathripper (4pts) * Deathripper (4pts) * Skarlock Thrall (2pts) Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts) (10pts) Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts) Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts) Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts) Warwitch Siren (2pts) Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)

Deathrippers for arcing. I do have a pair of unpainted Nightwretches I could possible swap in, but I think I will have enough range in Venom + Croes. Plus if things go pearshaped, a fully loaded chicken can dish out some great damage. Croes are great against hordes based armies, but hopefully Warmachine players will bring infantry which they will be good against as well (poisoned weapons). With the correct positioning, I could also use Croes aggressively and reap body tokens from them to add to the Mechanithralls. I don't want to throw Croes away for nothing, but I can possible suck in a juicy target to charge me, and counter charge with a unit + 3 newly created Mechanithralls. Speaking of which, Mechanithralls are in - They've performed well for me so far and their sheer number of attacks really make the most out of Denegrahs debuffs. The Necrosurgeon is there to keep their squishyness in check. Gorman takes up two points, because he is Gorman. Warwitch sirens are handy for the extra focus, venom and potential to lock a reach-less enemy in place. Finally are Wrong Eye & Snapjaw. I haven't talked much about them on this blog yet, but they have performed well for me in the past. Snapjaw hits harder than a Slayer, is immune to being targeted by ranged/magic attacks and has reach/critical knockdown. He also comes with his own resources - Making up to 6 attacks without draining a single ounce of Denegrah's focus. Wrongeye is no slouch either, and though I try to protect him as much as possible he can dish out some hefty damage if there is little chance of retaliation (if he dies, so does Snapjaw).

Things I need to watch out for:

AOE, Sprays, electroleaps - Anything that can dish out a lot of low-pow hits. This is the bane to the zombie swarm, and I need to keep the Mechanithralls away from these, or rush them up close. The Necrosurgeon can't revive a fully destroyed unit.

Anti-magic - I talked about the Druids of Oroboros briefly recently and how much of a pain in the ass they are to me and Denegrah. The leader creates an 8" AOE around him within which I cannot target any models with magic. I got around this in our last game by running two nodes on opposite sides of his druids and casting venom through them. The trick was that I targeted the opposite node but still caught his druids in the spray.

Objectives - I've only really played regular kill-the-caster games and haven't any experience with objectives. I will still go for caster kills, but need to be wary that I don't lose on scenario.

Losing Wrong-Eye as discussed above.

The list is mostly attrition, with the only potential assasination coming from either a pop+drop with Croes wailing on a knocked down caster or multiple venom arcing. I do have a Scavenger model that I was sorely tempted to bring, but I'm so reliant on the arc-nodes that losing it if I only had the one would cripple me.

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Let's Get Dangerous...

Gorman Di Wulfe is a two point mercenary solo that has made the majority of my lists lately and if you look at his abilities, it's not hard to see why.

Gorman is a debuffing powerhouse.

If Denegrah is the Queen of debuffs, then Gorman is the Prince. Despite looking like Darkwing Duck (Let's get Daaaangerous) he has a myriad of powerful abilities that any team can use:

Black Oil - This is in my opinion, Gorman's most powerful ability. It is an AOE 3 (as are all of Gorman's abilities) that inflicts Blind on all models hit. Blind gives a -4 to both DEF and MAT and forces a model hit to either give up their movement or action next turn. Insane stuff.

Acid Bomb - POW12 on hit. That means there is no blast damage - everything under the AOE takes a POW12. The icing on the cake - A corrosion effect as well. This saved my hide against Iron Fang Pikemen in shield wall order (ARM 18) under Iron Flesh (DEF 16).

Rust Bomb - Gives the Rust Continuous effect which gives affected Warjacks -2 to ARM. Great against Khador where you don't really need help to hit. 

Smoke Bomb - Create a 3 inch cloud within 1 inch of Gorman. Gorman will still be targetable as he has to be within the cloud, but he has stealth.

Some good combos I've thought about with my list:

Black Oil + Skarlock. The DEF debuff ensures a good chance of landing Parasite and leaving the target in bad shape after a charge, if not killing it. This also leaves Denegrahs activation, to apply her full set of debuffs to an alternate target.

Mechanithralls and Rust Bomb - If the Mechanithralls are in close to an enemy jack, target them with rust bomb in their back arc to get an easy rust affect on the jack. It can be thrown around without fear as rust only affect warjacks.

Protecting arc-nodes with smoke bombs. Arc-nodes are usually targeted first. Protecting them with a cloud means that only sprays or Eyeless sight can get to them.

Remember though that Gorman is squishy. The short range on his bombs mean he has to get up close and personal, which normally means he is will get counter-charged the next turn resulting in his death. If you manage to debuff and take out a heavy though - losing 2 points to take out 10 is well worth it.

[whoredmachine-blog]

Down with the Sickness

Played some 35 point matches on the weekend, but am feeling too ill to write full battle reports. Feels like I've had crippling grasp cast on myself. Lame jokes aside, I played against a scary unit field by a circle player - Druids of Orboros. These guys can pretty much negate most of Denegrahs power. I can't debuff his units. I can't spray them with venom. I won two games against them, but only because he left his leader within range of Nightmare, and the other through pure attrition (Mechanithralls being revived constantly). As a player he is just starting to find his stride though, and I was pretty worried when he decided to use his spells via his Woldwarden's Geomancy. With the Woldwarden surround by Mechanithralls, he geomanced eBaldur's Ground Zero - A decent pow, large AOE automatic hit wiping out a large portion of them.

He has the ability to wipe out large numbers of thralls at a time, and can make his models untargetable by the debuffs I need to make them hit reliably - I'm going to have to put some more thought into my standard zombie swarm strategy.

[mochakimono]

Day 18!

Old Deneghra fanart, from War Machine. She’s a necromancer. Pretty rad lady.

[whoredmachine-blog]

Awesome fan-art of my primary caster.

[whoredmachine-blog]

Cryx Battle-box Rant

I had a miniature games meet yesterday afternoon with most of the usual group (sans one who is currently on holidays in the Philippines) but with the addition of my sister's boyfriend. I didn't even know he played, but stumbled across him in the facebook page of the districts (semi?)official facebook page. He bought a Cygnar battle-box purely because he liked the look of the steam-punk models. This meant he was new to actually playing the game, so I gathered up Denegrah and her cronies for a battle-box game to teach him the rules...

DENEGRAH DOES NOT HELP ANYONE LEARN THE GAME

Don't get me wrong - I love playing with her, but how the hell did she make it to the battle-box? BB games should give players an introduction to rules - Where Denny excels at stopping opponents from doing anything.

Ok, so I have line-of-sight to your Deathripper yeah? So I can charge which lets me move speed+3?

Nope. Sorry. Denny cast crippling grasp on your unit which prevents him from charging. Also it lowers your speed by 2, so you can't reach me by standard movement either.

Ok, so you're Deathripper is hitting me with Power+Strength 13, I have 18 armor so that's dice minus 5?

Nope. Sorry again. I had popped my feat (-2), upkept crippling grasp (-2) and cast parasite (-3). That brings your armor to...

At this point, my opponent went insane, smashing aside the models, stripping off and running around smearing feces on the walls. Not really, but this is what Denegrah does - debuffs and frustrates the enemy into painting with poo.

My poorly-painted Denegrah points and laughs as yet another opponent opts for a turd-based color scheme for the living room.

She also seems vastly overpowered in the small battle-box games. Against most teams is just a case of cast crippling grasp on the opposing heavy and gang-up on the remaining light models. I think Khador players would suffer the most, as with one spell I can neutralize half of his entire army (they only have two heavies in the battle-box).

I still enjoy playing battle-box games with Denegrah and the (mostly) easy wins she seems to bring, but I think she should be replaced with Asphyxious or even Skarre so that other new battle-box players aren't forced to give up the game through sheer frustration.

Steve-O

[wonko87-blog]

M.O.D Squad

Merchants of Death

[whoredmachine-blog]

Our local league's 'Son of Everblight', Riely has finished up his heavies. 41 points of nastiness right there.