Oulu vs Seinäjoki 2012

Our gaming group has now reached an important milestone. We have organized our first tournament! First off I would like thank Seraphi for the idea and organizing things in Seinäjoki. Tanan for printing out rules and excellent tokens, also all the players that made this a fun tournament!

We played 5 games with 25 point lists. First day determined which city was better and so it happened that Seinäjoki won with one point, you dirty weasels! ;) Below you will rest of the statistics, couple of pictures and my thoughts in the end.

Gold: Seraphi (Retribution of Scyrah)
Silver: Mikko Uotila (Cygnar)
Bronze: Tanan (Mercenaries: Searforge)

Best painted army from Seinäjoki: Santso (Mercenaries: pMagnus)
Best painted army from Oulu: Walz (Protectorate of Menoth)

Blurry picture of the champions, Seraphi on the right and Mikko in the left!

Tanan who walked out with Bronze. He ran Thor as his warcaster and included Durgen in the solos.

Angry elves, ready to win this damn thing!

Double manglers + your face = happy Magnus!

This Ravagore is the scariest thing that lives in a tree. Well, except for sloths, obviously.

Thor and his cute little bunnies. Damn those things are adorable. Until they start shooting.

  

 

Cygnaran 'Jacks ready for action.

Final match starts to get exciting!

My Menoth in a sweet little brick.

More pictures in a LINK!

In the end, it was a lot of mayhem and fun. I was a backup player and as such, played only in the first day when there were uneven number of players. Won one game and lost two. Thought I was safe against Cryx charges, turned out he was just barely in range = dead Feora. In the other loss went straight after Stryker, but when that failed he won with scenario objectives. I was planning to land Vanquisher and Reckoner shots to that damn redhead, but lost way too much time beating his jacks. Two turns beating Ol' Rowdy with a fully charged reckoner and that thing was still standing! Strykers feat, Arcane shield and Ol' Rowdys own defensive stats are crazy when combined.

I did strip that arcane shield off him and got that Reckoner with 3 focus to beat Rowdy on a non-feat turn too, but def 12 is surprisingly easy to miss with mat 8. :D Lesson learned again, just don't count on your dice to roll average. It was my mistake, should have walked out from the melee and shot stryker.

Against Circle I managed to kill his heavy warbeasts quite early and that was the point of no return for him.

All in all, learned a lot about organizing a tournament. Next one will probably use the Steamroller 2012 rules straight from the pdf. Making your own point scoring system was fun, but using Steamroller package seems easier and more balanced.

I have nothing more to say, just beware for more tournaments in the future! :)

List building for Feora

I'm in quite good shape with my prime Severius side of Menoth. I can field good variation of lists for him with painted models. So now I'm planning a list for prime Feora. My goal is to get 35 point list painted for her that is fun and decently effective.

Everything starts with a battlegroup. Unlike with Severius, there is not that much focus to run with. So I'm reaching for something simple and what i've found to be effective with Feora.

Feora (-6)

 Crusader +6

 Reckoner +8

Crusader will be hanging closer to Feora, fitting to a role of backup heavy and bodyguard. Reckoner will be right in my opponents face, shooting with it's long range cannon. Reckoner brings some much needed long range firepower to my list and also has one nice synergy with Feora. Biggest weakness of her flamers is the pitiful rat, but with debuff from the reckoner they suddenly become boostable rat 7. One fully boosted Reckoner shot and two fully boosted flamers kill many casters quite easily and are surprisingly easy to land in my experience. Spd 6 + 8 inch spray with such front line caster is hard to hide from and Reckoners threat range is really good.

So lets go to the full list, shall we?

Feora (-6)

  Crusader +6

  Reckoner +8

min Choir of Menoth +2

max Cinerators +8

min Errants and UA +7

Knights Exemplar +5

High Exemplar Gravus +5

Total = 35

So to the battlegroup we add choir and huge load of Exemplars. :D With this we reach quite good balance of anti-infantry and anti-armor, I think. Gravus is kind of a gamble, but with such a high amount of Exemplars I think he is nice. He also brings something fast to this army, which is priceless against fast or shooty opponents.

I had couple of ideas that I was juggling with. One was to take out Cinerators and upgrade Crusader to a Fire of Salvation and add a second unit of Knights Exemplars. But I ended up taking the Cinerators so I could play a nice scenario game with them and Errants. Without Defenders Ward for errants I really lacked a good unit to hold objectives.

I'm also thinking about just dropping Errants. They are nice, but I think defenders ward is the thing that pushes them to the next level.

From this particular list, I'll still have to finish Knights Exemplars unit, Gravus and the Cinerators. If you have some suggestions or thoughts about the list, post a comment! After I'm finished with Feoras list, I'll venture to paint the Legion of Everblight battlebox. Watch out for some Legion related rambling next year. ;)

Pimp my Crusader!

This conversion started with a plastic crusader I had laying around. I split the two-player set with a friend and was saving that Crusader so I could build a Blood of Martyrs from it eventually. Then the realization came that I don't even like Thyra that much, so that Crusader was combined with some bits and this came out:

Basically I "skullified" the head, added some spikes, blade attached to the bottom of the arms, end of the smokestack replaced and made the mace a little beefier and spikier. :) There is still little cleaning up to do, but he is pretty much done.

I plan to use him both as Crusader and Fire of Salvation in friendly games. Running multiple Crusaders is fun. :)

During the holidays I plan to get Knights Exemplars and Gravus painted so I won't feel quilty when playing them. I'll probably post some thoughts about them in January, but now it's time for some rest.

Happy holidays!

eFeora faces Searforge and manly Khador

I finally got to try out the new models that I ordered loooong time ago. I played against Searforge list that ran Gorten and a big bunch of Jacks + herne/jonne and a unit of forge guard. One 'jack was run by the forge guard, Gorten had two gun bunnies, Basher and Driller. This was my list:

Feora, Protector of the Flame (*6pts)

* Redeemer (6pts)

* Guardian (9pts)

* Reckoner (8pts)

* Vanquisher (8pts)

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)

Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

We rolled killbox for a scenario. He won the roll of, but decided to go second. I saw the scenario and a convenient rock wall on the other side of the board. After that, the game plan was clear. Park things in cover and shoot the heck out of him.

It turned to attrition game from the start. We both shot each other, used cover and tried to pick out the other guys mistakes. He didn't leave any openings for me to utilise the feat and I actually did not use it in the whole game! I was waiting for that one huge turn, but like I said, he wouldn't let me do that. I should have just used for couple of focus to sling one AOE spell or something, but I reserved it too much.

In the end I won when the board had only Gorten and one heavy rhul jack (the guy with the shield and cannon). I had Feora, Redeemer, reckoner, vassal and one choir boy. I backed up and shot him and even Gorten can't survive everything. My opponent (Tanan) said after the game that he might have played too cautiously and I kind of agree. But that scenario and board were rough for him and I think that was the most important factor in this game. I made some silly fumbles, mostly with Guardian, but mainly I just kept it simple and safe, picking the threatening parts of his army one-by-one. Left the shield jack alone for the whole game by choice. Shooting through armor 21 just did not seem like a good investment, so I just ate those cannon shots and bashed everything else. It was an entertaining game.

From the start I felt like I was running one jack too many. I'm going to drop it to three jacks in the future and see where that gets me. Escort is an amazing spell. Even in a game like this, where I did not charge much, it was amazing. eFeora seems like a really solid caster and I'm looking forward to fine tuning a list for her. I'm going to try running a more melee focused battlegroup for her and see where that gets me. Idea of this list was to force my opponent to close in to the charge range of my 'Jacks with the long range shooting.

I used Guardian poorly. Used him too much like a I would use a Revenger. His dual role is quite confusing and I have always had trouble with models like that. I focus too much on the one ability or the other, but I'm going to play him more. I want to learn. :P

Currently we are rolling scenarios from a table that has 8 scenarios. I'm probably going to compile a new table for local guys to use and we discussed about dropping killbox from it. It's a boring scenario and while today the game was fun, in the end it dulled down a bit to a me backing up and shooting a slower opponent. Despite it's name, it really does not force to be aggressive. Area in the middle is so big that it barely affects at all!

Also played a game against some extremely manly Khador list, which had Strakhov with Destroyer, full unit of Man'o'War shock troopers and Kovnik. I had pFeora, Crusader, Repenter, Knights Exemplar, minChoir and a paladin. Might have had a reclaimer? I'm too tired to go over the whole game now, but strakhov pulled off some quite impressive movement shenanigans. Crusader then bashed him with the mace after some bad rolling from his part. This time we rolled a scenario called Close Quarters and I felt that I got to take a lot of advantage from the scenario and board. Also I think he played Strakhov for the first time, maybe even Khador for the first time and I'm quite experienced with all of the models I fielded. But I think Strakhov has a lot of potential and I think the list was very cool, so I hope Niko keeps playing them, gets some more experience with them and comes back to beat my face. :)

Headswap for cinerators

I had a huge inspiration (lost one of the heads) and decided to swap heads for my cinerators! Here is a picture:

http://s1123.photobucket.com/albums/l559/WalzMaster/Figuja/?action=view&current=P1060810.jpg

I couldn't post the picture straight at the blog, because the size of the picture would screw everything up. :P

So I got the two-player box. It's very nice, but these models seem to have quite a lot of mold lines to remove. It's not the worst I've seen in models, but definitely in the worse part.

However, the models themselves are great! Cinerators are damn cool.

Currently I'm completely swamped under school, painting, assembling and other stuff... So much to do, so little time! I'm quite satisfied of the headswaps, hopefully I'll get to painting these guys soon!

It's time for some random thoughts!

These days I get to play Warmachine regularly, which is awesome. So, after bunch of games, It's time to write random thoughts and experiences!

On Cryx: This is the faction that gives me the most struggle. I play Menoth myself and seems that my lists and style just don't keep up with the movement shenanigans, tricks and alpha strike that Cryx brings. I need a LOT more practise against Cryx to keep up with their trickery. :P I've only played against eGhaspy and pDeneghra, as these are the casters that two local Cryx players use. It's a welcome challenge however. I'm going to try out Redeemer and Sunburst to bring me more ranged threat, so they won't be able to just dance around the board so freely!

And I learned the hard way that you should NOT forget slams, those chickens can do it from miles away! :D

On hordes: I'm hoping to get more experience of hordes. I've read the rulebook couple of times, but haven't managed to play against hordes more than a couple times. There are only two guys who play hordes locally and I have matched against just one of them! I feel that Menoth has great tools against hordes, but we'll see in the future. ;)

On Menoth: There are FOUR Menoth players, including me. That's quite ridiculous when you consider that there are just barely over ten players here! :D Swore in the beginning that I would not succumb to faction add, but seems that I'll have to. U know, to reduce mirror matches. ;)

On pFeora: This girl has seen a lot of play time recently. She is a good caster, but I'm going to move away for a while. She gives barely anything to either 'Jacks or infantry, she is a focus hog and has only one buff! One powerful babe, but I always feel that she leaves rest of my army hanging. I've had about an equal amount of flame thrower and melee assassinations with her, which was a little surprising. Two fully boosted flamers on a spd 8 (eod cast) caster is a powerful thing. One thing I don't like is the unpredictability of her feat. It can be devastating against infantry heavy lists, but you just can't depend on it to damage anything you want. I like the pKreoss and pSeverius feats more, they are so easily controlled.

I have eFeora coming in the mail and I'm quite excited to try her out. She seems like a proper 'Jack caster and those extra inches on Menoth heavies seem quite ridiculous! :)

On pKreoss: I have the old metal model and I'm waiting for the new plastic one, before this old fella gets some more board time. Dw, Lamentation and the feat are just awesome.

On Reckoner: Awesome 'Jack. It's gun is quite nasty with choir. Boostable pow 15 is nothing to sneeze at. I've pulled off some funny things with assault and even without it rng 12 is great! Add in p+s 17 reach weapon, spd 5 and a good special ability, you end up with a good and versatile 'Jack! For me it has been pretty much the only model with a high range shooting attack. I'm looking forward to trying out Redeemer and Sunburst with pKreoss/pSeverius/eFeora and show those damn heretics that we can shoot back! :)

I have been pushing back buying a Vanquisher, when I heard that it's included in the two-player box. I'll get my box next week and then it's time to burn some shit! :D

On Crusader: One of my "default" 'jacks. He has been in almost every one of my lists. Slow as hell, but hits VERY hard. Couple of times I have loaded him full of focus and charged an enemy heavy, just to see it wreck the enemy before using more than one focus! P+S 20 (with choir) is just ridiculous! I usually hang him close to my caster, to protect him. Then in the late game he charges in and destroys anything he wants. He might be good with eFeora, for that extra speed.

That's all I have to say tonight, I might continue this tomorrow. Now it's time to sleep.

Update: Added a couple lines of text after a good night of sleep.

Terrain, terrain, terrain, all over my apartment

I've been working at some terrain lately. I host some games at the cellar of my building, so I was suddenly hit with a need for four tables. I'm almost finished with three forests and here is picture of them!

I will add some more flock to the trees, but otherwise these are ready. I'm not 100 % satisfied of how they look, but considering how quick they were to make, I'm happy! When I get rest of the terrain and boards ready, this blog will see some better pictures of them, so prepare for that! ;)

Also got a package from mail. It contained a lot of terrain from Games Workshop.

Now I have the Chapel, Temple of Skulls, Walls and Fences and Garden of Morr boxes. I finished putting them together and now they are waiting for a black primer. It's really nice terrain, but the garden and chapel have just ridiculous amount of skulls in them. I know it's a cemetery, but come on! :)

Overall, I'm really pleased with the Citadel terrain. I definitely will buy some more when a suitable sale becomes available. :)

The minor negative side is that there is some fiddling to get those buildings together without gaps. I'll might have to get my green stuff out, but I have a feeling that laziness will win. :P

Oh yeah, it's only a week before next round of the league! We will have timed turns next time and I'll have to finish the scenario list next week. I'm really excited to try out my pFeora list!