Blood and Lightning Campaign, Game 1

Hi all,

As some of you may know, there are moment as a parent when the time, worry, and frustration all seem to fade away, and you get a chance to bask in the realization of just how fantastic it is to have kids.  Such a moment came for me a few days ago, when the Cub turned to me and said "You know, Dad, we should really do an Age of Sigmar Path to Glory campaign."

Why, yes, son.  Yes we should.

Sunday afternoon saw the two of us huddled over the General's Handbook ($40 Canadian, and a sweeter deal you've not seen from Gdub in many a moon), putting together our warbands, and cackling madly.  Well, I was cackling, anyways.  After a few brief moments pondering why a stormcast herodude on a dragon horse entitled Cub to seven starting units, while my Khorne Lorde on a Juggernaught only got 4, we picked our units and set up the table for a game.  My warband, "Ze Bluthost uf Vahkos" (to be pronounced with a Craftmatic Adjustable Bed presented WWII movie German accent), consisted of the aforementioned Lord Vahkos on a Juggernaught, 5 Chaos knights (Ze Bluthoofs), 20 Bloodreavers (Ze Zanguine Horte), Kheldath Khrimzenmaw (Slaughterpriest) and Drog Korpsetakker (Bloodsecrator).  Man, that's a lot of extraneous "z"s and "k"s.  Cub's consisted of the units which come in the starter box, slightly fleshed out (Lord Celestant on Dracoth, Lord Relictor, 5 Retributors, 3 Prosecutors, 10 Liberators).  Due to injustice and GW's policy of consistent favouratism ( ;), Cub got a head start in the campaign of 2 glory points (players can take GPs - campaign "victory points", in lieu of starting units).

The scenario we picked features diagonal table zones, three objectives (controlled by mass of figures) and warbands coming on in successive waves.  I started with my Bloodreavers and Bloodsecrator, and proceeded to run like heck towards the middle of the table.  My 'reavers were the single largest unit on the table, and while they're not especially tanky, they offered my best shot at holding an objective and scoring some early points.  Cub ran up his Relictor and Retributors, but the former had a much better run roll, and was left a little out in the open.

We dragooned the Beloved into taking pictures.  This is from Cub's side of the table.  My Bloodreavers are in the background.  Being all angry, and stuff.

Turn two, I won priority and, taking advantage while I could, had the Bloodsecrator open the portal of skulls (Mortal Khorne units get +1 attack and are immune to battleshock / morale casualties), and charged Cub's Relictor with my lads.  While the boys generate a ton of attacks, my rolls were pretty crappy, and the Relictor is a hard nut to crack.  While I got in some wounds, he didn't go down.  On the plus side, I brought on my knights and Khorne Lord, which each took possession of an objective, and scored an early lead of three VPs.  On his turn, Cub fried a few 'Reavers with lightning, charged in his Retributors (who put some hurt on the Reavers), brought his Liberators on (running them through what turned out to be a Deadly wood, losing 2!), and had his Lord Celestant charge my Khorne Lord.  To my delight, the latter fight went very much my way (took his Lord down to one wound, only lost about half mine in return).  I still had control of all three objectives, but they only score on your own turn.

Turn two.  Knights and Liberators in the background, and dueling heroes in the fore.  Note the shrinking number of Bloodreavers at table center . . . 

The priority roll for turn three was key to the game, and Cub won it.  In the Hero phase, he fried a few more 'Reavers (that unit was shrinking rapidly), and used his Lord to make most of his army immune to Battleshock).  The Liberators charged my Knights (who, while badass on the charge, aren't so hot when outnumbered by durable opponents), the Relictor and Retributors continued to thin out the Bloodreavers, and his Prosecutors came on and charged my Lord.  While he lost his Lord Celestant this turn, he now had control of two objectives (outnumbering me on both flanks), and was well on his way to taking the middle one as well.  On my turn I brought in my Slaughterpriest, and charged in to support Lord Vahkos.  Things were starting to look a little iffy.  My guys are generally best when they can attack and break through opposing units (the Khorne list actually plays quite a bit like my Brets, in some ways).  Caught up in a grindy, attrition battle, I was playing to the strength's of Cub's army.  I scored no points on my turn three, being outnumbered at all three objectives, and the game proceeded.

Still shrinking.  In the background, Cub has brought on his Prosecutors.

And is about to tarpit my knights with his Liberators.

Cub won priority on turn 4 again, and pretty much clinched the game.  He finished off my Khorne Lord at the cost of a prosecutor, and continued to thin down my knights and 'reavers.  While he was losing troops as well, he managed to keep his numbers above my own, and scored all three objectives for a second turn.  On my turn 4 I cleared out the last of the Prosecutors with a well-placed Bloodboil from the Slaughter priest, but then made the mistake of moving him off the objective to support the Bloodsecrator now staring down the Relictor and the remnants of the Retributor unit.  This was a straight up goof, as the Slaughterpriest wasn't going to change the outcome of that fight, and I cost myself an objective point or two in doing it.  When Cub won priority again in turn five, I conceded - there was no way I was going to catch up to his VP count.

Just before I lost Vahkos, Lord of Khorne.  I'll gain control of the bottom objective, then lose it to abject stupidity.  Cub is ahead on points by now, and I'm not going to catch him.  Models in the foreground are casualties.

I think some aspects of the game went well for me.  In contrast to the games I played in the tournament a few weeks back, I used my Bloodsectrator fairly well, keeping him forward enough to take full advantage of his ability, but not making him a target.  On the other hand, I misplayed the scenario.  Cub, in contrast, kept his eyes on the prize.  There were a few points where he and I talked over what his best options were, but the choices were his. For example, he had a choice of whether to run and secure the objective on the right flank, or risk a charge and make contact with my knights.  I pointed out that the run move would almost certainly get him the objective, but give my knights the change to charge him, while if HE charged, there was a chance he'd roll low, and not move, but if successful, would probably lock me in place.  He weighed his options, took the gamble, and it paid off for him.

The Path to Glory campaign rules are pretty forgiving - destroyed models return in the next game, so outcomes are just different degrees of positive outcomes.  In the post-game campaign phase, Cub rolled the maximum possible glory points for his win, taking him to 5 (half way to victory!!), while I got the default one for losing a game.  Cub opted to roll for a unit reward, and ended up with his Liberators now being immune to battleshock for the rest of the campaign (just what I needed - to have his tanky unit essentially immune to morale!).  I opted to take another unit, this time of Bloodwarriors.  He seemed pretty stoked, so I imagine we'll be playing more games of this over the next few weeks.  Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I've had the rest of my mdf bases from Sarissa show up, and will now finish up rebasing the Bretonnians.  I'm quite chuffed with these - they're sturdy, consistent, and well packed.   I imaging I'll be giving them more business in the future.
FMb

Crunching the numbers . . .

Hi,

Between our various summer excursions (the last of which involved helping my in-laws move), I've been continuing to prep my Khador, along with some Bartertown shopping for Cryx, and a fair bit of number / point / list crunching, always a favourite pastime of the skirmish wargamer.

I'm now 2 figures away from completing the prep on my 35p Khador list, but tragically, have run out of super glue.  Once the remaining models are prepped, I'll break out the gesso, and have at them. As an aside, I mentioned this to my wife, who had been talking about picking up some groceries tomorrow; I asked her, if she got the chance to pick some up some Lock-tite. "You use the one with the blue cap, right?" she asked. To hell with hearts and cupids; I'm married to a woman who knows my preferences in super glue.  That, my friends, is love.

While waiting for my glue to dry, I've been shopping. Bartertown, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is an excellent source of deals on used miniatures.  I've been able to set up two buys in the last week, and as I write, the following should be winging their way to me via the US (and eventually, Canadian) postal service.

Asphyxious
Deneghra
eDeneghra
Witch Coven
Stalker x2
Defiler x3
Deathripper x2
Seether
Cankerworm
Magnetized plastic slayer kit x2
Necrotech and 7 Scrap Thralls
Warwitch Siren x2
Pistol Wraith x2
Skarlock
Full Satyxis
Withershadow combine

In other words, pretty much everything I'd need to run any of the "arc node" warcasters from Cryx.  I'd have preferred nightwretches to defilers, but at the price at which I'm getting them, I won't be too picky. As I've said before, I used to play Cryx.  In fact, I've painted a Cryx army twice.  The second time forms some of the earliest posts on this blog, but I've been going through old pictures of the various Warmachines armies I've painted, starting with my first Cryx army, from when I was just learning the game.



To be honest, I'm wondering what possessed me to sell these off at the time, or for that matter, to sell off the last Cryx army I painted either. I think I hit some sort of saturation point on game expansions.  Warmachine is a game where to play competitively, you need to stay on top of everything in the game.  List building is a factor, and I think I got to a point where staying on top of the game felt more like work than like fun.




What I forgot was that I'm not really a competitive player.  While I like to win, play to win, and expect my opponents to do the same, half the fun of this game is when someone pulls out some evil new trick, and you learn the hard way ;)



It may just be that I needed a break.  Coming back into the game, looking over the forces books that have been released since I dropped out, along with expansions like Wrath, have gotten me wildly excited to play.





I find myself wanting to simultaneously reboot every force I've ever built for the game, all at the same time.





What's so exciting about my dip back in this time, is how fresh everything seems.  The impact of things like tier lists (which exchange a more limited list build with rewards for accepting "tiers" of limitations) and the impact of the new faction models (key utility solos like Warwitch Sirens, for example), have essentially made the game new;  much of what I took for granted as the "meta", the context for play, no longer applies.



While the Privateer Press forums are as full of drama and nerdrage as ever, they're also revealing.  I was reading a post the other day talking about the utility of machine wraiths, a long-time favorite model (it remains, I think, my favourite in the warmachine range), but a long-time loser in terms of utlity.  A version change in the game, a revamp of his abilities, and a radical shift in meta, and it's now a useful, if subtle, component to lists - what it should have been from its introduction back in escalation.



I've been looking over the tier lists for both pDennie and the Coven, 'casters I've used before, but not to the extent of pGaspy and eDennie.  I think the game plan will be to use the Khador as a "get playing" force while I spend some time really doing up the painting on my Cryx.  I have some ideas for a desert colour scheme, based on some pictures I gleaned of Navaho country.

For whatever reason, Warmachine seems to be back in my life.  I hope this time it's here to stay.  In the meantime, for those of you who are historical games, and have been viewing the last few posts aghast, fear not.  I've word that my missing bases are on their way, so I should have some Spartan content up in a week or so, plus I've booked off a Wednesday two weeks from now to play the next game in our Maurice campaign.  You may have to put up with the occasional steampunk extravaganza, but there's still load of historical painting and gaming in the works.

FMB

All your base . . .

 . . . don't belong to us.  Which is to say, me.  As you may recall, a few posts back I noted that I'd finished up the first base's worth of Spartans, but was waiting for my Litko bases to arrive.  When they did, I realized that the magnetic bases Litko sells are quite flexible, and that I'd need some sort of rigid "underbase" to go with them.  Watts, of the THMG, put me on to Minibits as a good source for cheap bases, and I decided to give them a try. Order in, I found the package in my mailbox about a week later - much quicker than Litko. The bases themselves are great - proper dimensions, well packed, and with the edges stained (or maybe burned by the cutting tool?) a darker colour.

  They go perfectly well with the Litko magnetic bases, and I think will do nicely for the Russian guard for Lasalle. I'm considering putting in another order of 40 x 40 bases to rebase my 1/72s as well.

 



The one hitch in this otherwise delightful transaction was some of the bases they sent me were the wrong size; they sent 80 x 80 instead of 80 x 30. The particularly annoying part was that it was the bases for the (still) unbased Spartans :( I sent an email to the company this morning, but will likely have to wait until Monday for a reply. Mistakes happen, and I'm more concerned with how Minibits rectifies the problem than the problem itself. Prompt shipment of the correct bases will result in further orders, and a recommendation to all and sundry. Stay posted ;) Progress on the Warmachine Khador proceeds apace. I've got all but the second unit of Men of War assembled and based, awaiting a primer coat.



I got these figs on the cheap, used, and they've needed a little TLC. Their first owner apparently believed in the "gob the glue on and pray" school of assembly, so there's been a fair bit of cussing and glue chipping involved in recovering them. I have a bit more filing to do, but in the end, I think they'll turn out okay. The plan is to begin with a 35 point Old Witch list, heavy on the Men of War. Old Witch + Scrapjack Destroyer Juggernaut MoW Shocktroopers (full) x2 Greylord Ternion Works out to 35 points on the nose. According to the board, this is a completly unworkable list, as it doesn't use the current uber Khador units. While I'm not sure of how it would operate in a serious competitive environment like nationals, I'm pretty sure it'll do just fine locally, which is where it'll be played. The Old Witch is a board control and assassination caster, and I cut my teeth in this game playing Cryx. The 10 Men of War, although slow, present some serious attrition capacity. It takes a LOT of firepower to gun through that much metal. The ternions, coupled with the witch's ability to generate clouds, prowl effects, and cast Iron Flesh, allow the MoW screen to be boosted to ridiculous DEF levels against anything not immune to cloud effects (Legion might be more challenging). They also help with DEF debuffs as the lines close and the MoW get into combat.



FMB

WIP- eddy doo-dah, wippedy. Eh?

Hi,

So far, this seems to be the summer of not getting much done, but making lots of plans ;)  I've made a little headway on the Dytopian Wars project, and finished off the decking on a squadron of frigates, the remaining cruisers, and the battleship.  I've also assembled and primed the sky fortress.



I'm quite chuffed with the battleship model - I'd forgotten how much I liked it.  The detail on Spartan's stuff is terrific, and they make good use of it on the larger models.



As with the sky fortress, the battleship is magnetized.  The turrets turn, and the disruption generator at the back (the dome thing) can be swapped for twin shield generators.  I'd like to deal with the DW stuff as a coherent project, so I'll likely do the decking on the sky fortress and second frigate squadron next, and then proceed to windows, etc. for the entire fleet.  Not as focussed in terms of painting, but the goal here is to get stuff done, so the more assembly line, the better.

On a completely unrelated note, I came across a facebook post recently that put me on to this guy:

For those of you more historically oriented, it's the latest incarnation of Asphyxious (fondly referred to as "Gaspy"), from the Cryx faction of Privateer Press' Warmachine game.  Gaspy was my first warcaster way back when I started playing Warmachine, and to this day, those early games with him remain some of, if not the most, fun I've ever had playing a miniatures game.  The prospect of a new version of him had me very seriously considering starting up Cryx AGAIN (for the third time), and I went so far as to investigate the possibility of trading my Khador for some Cryx.  I held off at the last minute (as the Khador stuff I have is part of a bucket list project), but I may putter with a slow-grow 35 point list in the fall.  Gaspy revival is hard to give up.

In the process of inventorying my Khador stuff, however, I started to realize how much I missed playing the game.  I kind of burned out on Warmachine a few years back - the game had expanded beyond the point that I could effectively keep up, andgiven the nature of the game (where broken combos are part of the fun), I felt both our of the loop, and resented the "need" to keep up.

As a casual game, however, it remains both a fantastic rule set and a fun setting.  I'm regretting selling off my Cryx army.  For the last 48 hours, I've been itching to teach someone why you should never, ever, get within charge range of eDeneghra, and sorely missing the joy of a bonejack rush.  As a consequence, my geek table now looks like this.



That's the basis of a Khador Man of War list.  Basically, the antithesis of Cryx.  I've loved these models since they came out, and have started the somewhat laborious process of putting them together.

I'm finding that with both kids here, and all the stuff we're doing (lots of out and about and family visits), time for painting and playing is at a premium.  I can snatch ten or fifteen minutes here and there, but generally, that's it.  The way I paint, that's not enough, but I can do prep work under those constrains.  I get the feeling the focus this summer is going to be planning, assembling, and otherwise prepping stuff to be painted in the fall and winter.  Come the fall, I'll have a number of "black" armies I can putter with, and paint as I go.

FMB

Hussar WIP. For the Motherland.

Hi,

Just a WIP of the hussar unit I'd primed up last post. I'm going to do this first unit as the 10th Hussars, who served in the Peninsula as late as 1813. I'm reasonably pleased with how it's turning out.







One thing I've been noticing is a bit of tension as I paint, between the style I tend to use for 28mm and what I developed for 15mm. The latter is really an extention of how I learned to paint 6mm - bright colours, high contrast, exaggerated details. The former is much more subtle. These 1/72 Italeri / Revell figs have been lovely sculpts, rewarding the 28mm style, but will ultimately rely on the mass impact I associate with 15mm stuff. I'm curious to see how my style changes as I continue this project.

On other fronts, these arrived in the mail today, by way of Bartertown:



That's a Greylord Ternion and 10 (yes, 10) MoW Shocktroopers. With the 'jacks that came in last week, that works out to over 35 points of Khador silliness. Any suggestions as to a warcaster to go with these brutes?