Wine & Warmachine

So, I'm having a night right now, and I feel the need to post a blog article. This leads me to the following:

My Current Cryx Force

At present I have found a Warmachine force that suits my play style. That is to say sneaky and synergetic. Note however that this force is subject to change once my Mercenary Faction Deck arrives (a purchase I've put off far too long considering I have a case labeled "Mercenaries"). I've already won all of one game with this force, which ranks it up there with my list I won a game with because Demitra messed up the distance between his Warcaster and the objective.

My "winning" list:

Lich Lord Asphyxious (+6 Warjack Pts.)
-Cankerworm (5 pts.)
-Nightwretch (4 pts.)
-Nightwretch (4 pts.)
-Skarlock Thrall (2 pts.)

6x Bile Thralls (5 pts.)

10x Mechanithralls (5 pts.)
-Brute Thrall (1 pt.)

10x Bane Thralls (8 pts.)

The Withershadow Combine (5 pts.)

Bloat Thrall (2 pts.)

The reason I say my force is subject to change is that Gorman DiWulfe is sitting in my figure case itching to loan his alchemical skills to my force. Depending on who adds less to my force, either the Skarlock or the Bloat Thrall will be dropped in favor of him. Who exactly that will be is up in the air, but let me assure both models that whoever fails to perform tomorrow will definitely be up on the chopping block.

Any way, I'd post my army tactics here, but I have a certain reader, who happens to be my regular gaming opponent, who would just love to know what's going through my mind as I use this force.

Here's hoping tomorrow has at least a respectable turnout for the forces of the Dragonfather.

The New Face of My Ogres

Well, with the release of a new book comes the rebuilding of an army. My Ogre Kingdoms army had a pretty good run under the old book, but now it's time to build a new list. The first thing you may notice is that the point bracket has increased on the army. This is for two reasons- one, because most players around here are playing their games at 2,500 points anyhow, and two because of the point cost increase on my Lord choices. On the bright side this adds six new models to my paint cue, once I can afford them, of course.

Without further rambling, the army list!

Lords
Tyrant w/ great weapon, Gut Maw, The Other Trickster's Shard, Giantbreaker Big Name (307 pts.)

Slaughtermaster (lvl. 4) w/ Dispell Scroll, Ironcurse Icon, additional hand weapon (317 pts.)

Heroes
Bruiser (battle standard bearer) w/ heavy armor, Talisman of Preservation, Enchanted Shield (184 pts.)

Core
7x Ogres w/ bellower, standard bearer, ironfist (244 pts.)

8x Ogres w/ bellower, standard bearer, ironfist (276 pts.)

10x Ironguts w/ bellower, standard, Banner of Eternal Flame (460 pts.)

Special
4x Leadbelchers w/ bellower, thunderfist (192 pts.)

6x Mournfang Cavalry w/ full command, heavy armor, great weapon, Dragonhide Banner (518 pts.)

Total:
2,498 points

The Tyrant does what I believe Tyrants should do- he beats anything that dares to stand in front of him to a pulp. Between his already above par strength, his great weapon, and his Giantbreaker Big Name, he clocks in at a whopping strength of 8! With his -5 armor save modifier he's sure to punch through even the thickest armor. His Other Trickster's Shard makes enemies ward saves much less of a factor, and the pseudo-regenerative abilities of the Gut Maw means that as long as he gets or makes challenges he's nigh immortal.

The Slaughtermaster is my magical support. Drawing from the lore of the great maw, he's there to buff my own troops while he prevents the big spells from going through. The Dispell Scroll is there to ensure that that one spell I just don't think I have the dice to stop gets squashed.

My battle standard bearer is, as usual, kitted out for survival. he's a vital part of my average leadership army, and the last thing I need is it running away.

The Ogre units are normal Ogres. Designed to grind the enemy, they want to win combats consistently and by a big margin through pure volume of attacks (~24 per round).

The Ironguts are just as they were before. High volume of high strength attacks with the Flaming ability is sure to put down big monsters and elite units alike. Bring on those Hell Pit Abominations and Grave Guard Deathstars, I'm ready for 'em.

My Leadbelchers are now going to be deployed in a 2x2 square rather than simply in pairs. One, because it ups their survivability, and two because their minimum unit size went up.

Finally come the new all-stars of the army, the block of Mournfang Cavalry. Cavalry that do a salvo of impact hits before unleashing a torrent of strength 5 & 6 attacks, re-rolling all 1s rolled to wound? Hell yes. This is the army's new wrecking ball unit, and it should do a marvelous job. It had better for its point cost.

That's it for my new, hopefully improved Ogre Kingdoms army. Here's hoping I can get it together and play a game with it some time soon.

Knight on the Town

Well, the ol' "new army bug" has bitten me, and so I just had to write up an army list to get that "what if" feeling out of my head. Today's exercise in wishlisting: Grey Knights.

Yeah, I know, it's "that army", but hey- if you're going to go for a new army, why not go whole hog?

This is not to say I'm getting a new army any time soon, but who knows about the future?

The army is pretty much straight forward psy-ammo spam, designed to cut up the opposing army at arm's length before finishing them up close. It's a take on a Crowe Purifier spam list, but with a little more grinding power in the form of the two strike squads. Crowe is there to eat up 150 points, provide an easy Kill Point, and make Purifiers Troops choices.

Now, without further ado, the list!

HQ
Castellan Crowe - 150 pts.

Troops
Grey Knight Strike Squad - 275 pts.
- Justicar w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Grey Knights w/ Psycannon
- Grey Knight w/ Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 6x Grey Knights w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Rhino w/ Searchlight- 41 pts.

Grey Knight Strike Squad - 275 pts.
- Justicar w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Grey Knights w/ Psycannon
- Grey Knight w/ Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 6x Grey Knights w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Rhino w/ Searchlight - 41 pts.

Purifier Squad - 154 Pts.
- Knight of the Flame w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Purifiers w/ Psycannon
- 2x Purifiers w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters, Psybolts - 50 pts.

Purifier Squad - 154 Pts.
- Knight of the Flame w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Purifiers w/ Psycannon
- 2x Purifiers w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters, Psybolts - 50 pts.

Purifier Squad - 154 Pts.
- Knight of the Flame w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Purifiers w/ Psycannon
- 2x Purifiers w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters, Psybolts - 50 pts.

Purifier Squad - 149 Pts.
- Knight of the Flame w/ Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Purifiers w/ Psycannon
- 2x Purifiers w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters, Psybolts - 50 pts.

Heavy Support
Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolts - 135 pts.

Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolts - 135 pts.

Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolts - 135 pts.

Total:
1,998 points

There's plenty of high strength firepower pouring out of each unit, as I have eight Psycannons, four strength 6 twin-linked Heavy Bolters, and six strength 8 twin-linked Autocannons. Troop Transports should be feeling the pain early on in the game any vehicle not shredded by my fusilade will (hopefully) be stunned or stuck behind a stunned / wrecked vehicle. Infantry will simply be wetting themselves at the sheer volume of fire this army can pump out. I may have some trouble with heavy armor (Land Raiders and their ilk), so that's why every squad is toting a Nemesis Daemon Hammer. With Hammerhand going these beauties go up to strength 10 (as the +1 happens before the x2 strenght with this combination) which will have even Monoliths sweating if a squad gets too close.

Of course melee is not neglected. A bevy of Nemesis Force Halberds keep my knights striking first up close. Initiative 6 is a sweet, sweet thing. The master crafting on the Daemon Hammers makes sure the Justicars / Knights of the Flame's attacks aren't wasted. All too often my Plague Champions miss with all of their Power Fist attacks, and that re-roll can be a lifesaver.

There are no Psybolts in any of my squads, as honestly I'd rather have the re-rolls against Dreadnoughts and vehicles I require a roll to hit.

Eight potential scoring units help ensure that I claim objectives, and of course this army suffers the drawback of the "Multiple Small Unit" (MSU) army- a ton of Kill Points (16!). Oh, well. That just means I have to table my opponent.

Any way, that's how I'd do Grey Knights were I to do 'em, but that'd require funding- something I'm a bit short on right now.

Oh, well. I can dream...

A Gasp of Air



The Man, the Legend

 Today I played a game with the "upgraded" version of my favorite Warcaster. Lich Lord Asphxious is quite possibly everything the interwebs say he is.

Now, let it be stated thet my view is biased since I just won a game with him. He will require more intense study to be sure. From what I was able to gather today however, he's just one big bag o' beatstickery.

Having said that, he's not a frontline 'caster. His MAT just isn't high enough to reliably nail enemy models, and having lost Sustained Attack in his transition to epic-dom, he now needs to roll out every single attack. This will mean boosted attack rolls on each attack, and despite P+S 15 on Daemortis, he's just not going to off a non knocked down Warcaster in melee. Don't get me wrong, though, he is a capable combatant against many (lower DEF) things. He took a pretty good chunk out of a Khadoran Heave that he got a free strike in on, although to be fair I did roll pretty well.

eGaspy is also not a backfield 'caster. His spells and his feat want him up near his thralls, where the action is. The ability to add a thrall to a depleted unit (as a result of an offensive spell!) draws him close to the action, and Hellbound assists in keeping him safe from retaliation. Teleport only adds to the fun, allowing him to get out of sticky situations he (hopefully intentionally) has gotten himself into. That spell sure saved my bacon today.

Asphyxious wants to be right in the middle of the action. Not overextended, but not hanging back like a coward. His forte' is area control and denial. Caustic Mist allows you to block up charge lanes by denying line of sight, or outright deny areas of the board to single wound infantry. Daemortis helps insure the area becomes a no-go, as anything that dies there coughs up a soul. I also found the mist was great for objective denial, as if it gets cast on top of a key point on the field only Warjacks (or Man o' war and their ilk) can get to it.

I didn't get to try out the big guy's feat, as all that died on my end of the batlefield were Mechanithralls and Bile Thralls (not really worth bring back). I didn't want to over extend my Bane Thralls, as I've lost them before to stupid errors after commiting them too early. Banes seem to be the way to use the feat, but I really don't want them to be destroyed if I can help it.

Any way, that's my mini review of Lich Lord Asphxious. Let's see if he continues to hold up.

ESWAT

Appleseed inspired.

Well, my ALEPH stuff arrived, as you can probably see. Reading up on what ALEPH fluff I could scrounge, it seems that the AI's forces are peace-keeping affairs, so I immediately thought of ESWAT from Appleseed. Thus, my color scheme was decided for me. I looked around the interwebs amd found various SWAT uniforms, finally deciding on the above blue and grey.

I started with my usual Rust-Oleum primer, and then basecoated them Imperial Blue. Next came a heavy wetbrush of Ultramarine, and once that was dry I hit the models with a wash of ultra-thinned Imperial Blue. Once this layer dried (and it took quite a while), I layered on a wash of Levithan Purple. This left me with a dark, but in my opinion not too dark, blue uniform. Next were the grey areas. These were basecoated with German Grey, and then highlighted with a special blend of Bonewhite and Chaos Black.

The various markings in white are done with Vallejo Model Color, as are the gunmetal basecoats of the guns. The weapons are then covered with my favorith little painting secret (thanks Mike McVey!), Tamiya Smoke.

The cyborgs' skin is painted with Deneb Stone, washed with the old Citadel Chesnut Ink, and the re-highlighted with Deneb Stone. This left me with a kind of wierd "Data from Star Trek" artificial skin. Eyes and lenses were then hit with Scorpion Green dots.

Leather areas were first painted with Vallejo Earth, then washed with Devlan Mud.

I really wanted the "hair" on the minis to offset their uniforms, so I painted it a vibrant red color, achieved by first basecoating them Flat Red, highlighting them with Bloody Red, and finishing with Blazing Orange.

The bases were of course painted with a heavy wetbrush of Earth, and then a drybrush of Khaki, before hitting up the rims with Chaos Black. A couple of white lines on each mini to delineate their arcs of vision, and voila! Some fully painted ALEPH troopers.

My final list needs another Asura (with a Spitfire), as well as a Myrmidon Officer, and the Deva Functionary will be dropped from the final roster. All told my force (short the Deva) comes to 299 points, and with only 8 orders will be a touch... interesting to field. Hopefully the hyper-elite status of most of my troops will make up for the lacking order pool, but first I'll have to get a game in to find out.

That's about all from the ol' EV camp for now, but I expect to get the new Ogre Kingdoms book around the 20th, so I'll definitely be posting a revised army list not too long after then. Here's hoping for more than editorials until then, right?