Sunday, May 22, 2011

Friday, April 8, 2011

First Hardcore... went surprisingly well.

For those who don't follow me on twitter, last night I participated in my first ever Hardcore tournament. I ended up at 3rd place out of the 10 or so people we had for it, which I am more than happy with. For reference, my list:

pLylith
Carnivean
Seraph
Boltthrower
Shredder
Shredder
Forsaken

My game plan was to play Lylith somewhat forward (with a Shredder animus for defense buff) so I could shoot opposing casters with her, then assault with the C-Rex, strafe with the Seraph, and finish them off with the Boltthrower if needed. Strangely enough that is what I did 4 out of 5 games with some minor stipulations to individual games based on my opponents.

Round 1 versus:
Andrew with Mortenebra and Deathjack and other good Cryx stuff. He engages me at the top of turn two... and when I say me I mean Lylith. Luckily he leaves her with one health. Lylith walks away, risking the free strike which he missed, shot Mortenebra leaving the Carni to finish her off.

The Carnivean kills a caster.

Round 2 versus:
Jason with Kromac, a Gnarlhorn, 2 Feral Warpwolves, and a Totem Hunter. He threw a feral at me didn't do a terrible amount of damage, unfortunately it took all my guys to kill it. He advanced up closer with no attack on his next turn. I walk Lylith up to shoot Kromac... Gnarhorn counterslams her 6 inches! Luckily that left my good ol' Carnivean a lane to assault Kromac with a hair of his base in Lyliths control area.

The Carnivean claims its second caster of the night.

Round 3 versus:
Brian with Kraye, Stormclad(?), Centurion/Ol' Rowdy(?), Hunter, Hunter. I cant remember exactly. All I know is over two turns he threw both heavies at me, I didn't die, then on my turn I killed his heavies and a hunter. At this point he only has Kraye and a badly damaged hunter, I screwed up and ditched all of Lyliths fury because my beasts were all pretty full. The hunter advances shoots Lylith needing I think a twelve to hit and hits, 6 boxes left, 6 damage. GG

Round 4 versus:
Mike with pNemo, a hunter, arcnode thing (Lancer?), Gunmages, and more. He walked Nemo behind a wall and I walked Lylith behind a wall. he tries to arc an earthquake at her needing 15 to hit, misses. Lylith feats, I assault Nemo with Carni boosting to hit, hit, boost damage dice minus 1... triple 6's! One shot pNemo!

Carni gets his third caster of the night!

Round 5 versus:
Geoff with Mortenebra, Deathjack, more Cryx junk.

(Aside:
At this point we have a clear cut winner as Geoff is the only undefeated, but the T.O. decided it was going to be 5 rounds from the beginning so we played 5
/Aside)

Almost goes the exact as game one. Deathjack gets to Lylith on turn two doesn't kill her. Walk away, his free strike hits killing a Shredder on the transfer, shoot Morty for some damage. Carnivean assaults a solo catching Morty with the spray, unfortunately my turn ends before I can roll on Morty. I needed a 12 to hit on 4 dice so chances are I would have hit and on an average roll there would have been more than enough damage.

But that's not how it played out and Geoff claimed total victory, congratulations to you Geoff and good games.

Hardcore is a completely different animal than Steamroller, which are pretty much the only tournaments I have played in. All things considering I had a pretty good time, though for the first two rounds I was stressing out way bad and had adrenaline shakes (or as my friend calls it, Fight Mode). After that I kind of stopped caring so much, relaxed and just played for fun. To anybody who hasn't played in a Hardcore event before I would recommend you try it at least once, it is fun. Though I won't be playing in one anytime soon. :)

Monday, February 7, 2011

The Fourth Wilder

The Fourth Wilder has been updated, READ IT!

Will post later today with a Slow Grow battle report.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Update Time

As of right now my 15 pt Slow Grow list is as follows:

pMadrak - painted
Dire Troll Mauler - painted
Troll Impaler - painted
3 Champions - needsalotofwork

The league starts next week and I am getting pretty excited to play lots of games!

In other news Brandubh has posted more Fourth Wilder so go read it! That's definitely the next thing I'm going to do.

Also I can neither confirm or deny that I may be starting up a teeny tiny Legion force. Don't judge me, their beasts are awesome!

Friday, January 21, 2011

6 Player Free for All!

Last night I participated in a 20 pt 6 player free for all. It was nuts! I played:

Gunbjorn
Impaler
Impaler
Slag Troll
Full Bushwhackers
Skinner

Noting all the other army lists would take way to long and I don't remember or know all of them anyway, but the casters, starting clockwise from me, were:

eMorghul
eVlad
Grim Angus
Terminus
Hexeris

We had a five minute turn limit which helped speed this game along quite a bit. Our turn order was determined by dice roll, it went:

Gunbjorn (me)
Terminus
eMorghul
Grim
eVlad
Hexeris

As you can tell the turn order doesn't match up to the player placement. Trying to make sure that whoever got to go first didn't just crush their neighbor, we had a three turn limit before you could attack your neighbor on either side.

The most I can tell you about the game itself is that I deployed the Bushwhackers as far as I could and they spent the game CRA-ing anything they possibly could, and making 8 out of 14 tough rolls. The rest was absolute chaos. The caster kills if I remember correctly are (in order) as follows:

Kayazy killed Grim
Terminus killed Hexeris
Impaler killed eMorghul
Terminus killed eVlad
Cryx player killed everything but Gunbjorn ending the game.

Thoughts on my list. Gunbjorn is fantastic! Guided fire is very very good, it led to no less than 3 Critical Devastation's and 2 Critical Slams, what's not to love? Snipe on bushwhackers is a dead horse I'm not going to beat, it's good. Explosivo is good against wind wall :) The Skinner did 12 damage to a Titan, anything that can do that in one attack is, as far as I'm concerned, fabulous!

This game was crazy fun and I had a good time playing in it. I am not to good with the timed turns thing, I like to think about what I'm going to do for a minute, not shoot from the hip. That being said, I would have no problem playing this kind of game again, even with time limits.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Slow Grow Test

Last night I got in a test game for Slow Grow at 15 pts. I was playing:

pMadrak
3 Champs
Krielstone + UA
Slag Troll
Troll Impaler

My opponent was playing:

Lord Carver
Warhog
Warhog
Gunbore

My first turn; Champs run up. Madrak casts sure foot, dumps two on the stone, and charges up behind the Champs. Krielstone runs up and protective auras. Slag and Impaler both move to the left flank.

His first turn; Everything runs forward with the 'Hogs b2b in front of Carver.

My second turn; The champs fail a charge by a hair at the 'Hogs. Madrak advances up and throws an axe damaging one Warhog a little bit Then the Impaler chuck a spear crit slamming one Hog over Lord Carver doing three points to carver. Slag sets up to block the lane to Madrak. Krielstone moves up and protective auras.

His second turn; He sends literally his whole army at the Champs who roll tough... well, like Champs... going five for five until One Hog and the Gunbore finally kill all 3. This was the turning point as I probably should have died, thank God for tough rolls!

My third turn; I need to kill Carver this turn or I lose. Slag charges One 'Hog not doing enough. Impaler tries to crit slam the other one out of the way, no beans. Madrak walks a fine line between all 3 of his beasts only suffering one free strike, which I scroll just for fun (as my beasts were full anyway so there weren't going to be any transfers). I get to Carver, put axe to face, and that's the game!

I really should have died on his second turn but my tough rolls were ridiculous, Dhunia was with me I guess.

This game just made it more apparent that I really need a heavy in my list. Right now I'm thinking drop the Slag and Krielstone for a Mauler at 15 pts and add in the Stone at 25. So now the list looks like this.

[00] Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain (0 / 6 WB)
[09] >> Dire Troll Mauler
[05] >> Troll Impaler
[06] Trollkin Champions (Leader & 2 grunts)
[04] Trollkin Champions (2 grunts)
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)
[01] >> Stone Scribe Elder
[02] >> Trollkin Runebearer
[08] Trollkin Fennblades (9 grunts)

Friday, January 7, 2011

Highlander Tournament Results

So the list I settled on was:

eMadrak
Dire Troll Mauler
Trollkin Champions (full)
Janissa Stonetide

I figured 5 damage dice from Bloddfury on the champs on a charge would be able to wreck anything they touched, and I was right... mostly. The problem with that is I gotta be the one that gets the charge off. Which with some of my opponents proved impossible. On to the rounds!

Round 1 vs. Circle - Draw
His list:
eKaya
Laris
Feral Warpwold
Argus
Druids of Orboros

My opponent is still pretty new and was playing his Circle which I've only see him play twice before (he usually plays Skorne). I bricked up behind the champs with a stonewall from Janissa in front of them and proceeded forward. He got the charge off with the Argus and Laris both meeting the wall, but his Warpwolf made it 11 inches and pasted the mauler in three ridiculous damage rolls (Charge=17, second=11, third=11 more) Then on my turn Janissa Tectonic Shifts everything away so I can charge back. The Champs get some ridiculous rolls of there own and kill the Warpwolf with three initial attacks, another Champ slaughters Laris no problem, then between two Champs I only hit the Argus once and don' quite kill it. I give the turn to my opponent who tries to see if ha can salvage anything but dice down is called. Draw.
The only thing I could have done better in this game was mind the 11 inch charge range from the Warpwolf. My opponent is still working on his grasp of the rules and asked a lot of questions, which took up some of our valuable time. It happens, and I still have to ask a lot of questions too.

Round 2 vs. Mercs - Loss
His list:
Magnus
Mangler
Renegade
Steelhead Riflemen

Our board is one massive hill, that's it. Turn one my opponent runs everything as far forward as he can. My turn I advance wary of the rifleman, put up Janissa's wall for the defense, pass the turn. His turn, allocate to the Renegade, renegade shoots Madrak and knocks him down. Put snipe on the Riflemen, the Riflemen then CRA draw a bead on Madrak and pull the trigger. Game over, loss.
I still have no idea how I could have prevented this with the list I was running.

Round 3 vs. Retribution - Win
His list:
Gareth
Discordia
Magehunter Strike Force + UA
Magehunter Assassin

This board had a decent sized piece of blocking terrain in the middle with some rough terrain on the sides. I go first, advance up, put a wall down, Madrak casts Warpath and Bloodfury, pass. He runs up, splitting his forces around the building (Discordia on my left Gareth on my right), pass. I upkeep both spells, bring the Champs and Janissa over to the left to deal with Discordia, while the Mauler planted himself behind the building. His turn the Assassin failed a charge, he shot up my dudes (killing nothing) and passed. My turn, upkeep both spells, champs charge dealing roughly 18 to Discordia and killing a couple Magehunters triggering Warpath, this puts the Mauler in a prime point to trample Gareth. So I trample on over, killing 0/4 Magehunters, swing at Gareth, need a 10 to hit, hit for 13 damage, swing miss, buy swing miss, buy swing miss, buy swing miss, buy swing miss. Gareth is sitting at 3 health and all I have left is Madrak who activates and feats for a last try at Gareth, Mauler swings roll...10! Dead Gareth. Win
This game I felt pretty good about the whole time, the only thing I would have changed is some minor placement issues that I had with Janissa, but it worked out.

Round 4 vs. Gators - Loss
His list:
Bloody Barnabus
Blackhide Wrastler

Gatormen Posse

The board couldn't have been any worse for me, with nothing but a giant pool of water taking up the middle of the board. Combining that with Barnabus's swamp spell means I eat the charge as I can't get through all the water. He kills 3 Champs and my Mauler on this charge, I retaliate a little by taking out the Wrastler and a couple Gatormen. On his next turn he finishes off the Champs and kill Janissa, and since I have only my Warlock left the game is over. Loss.
This game I probably could have done better but I was to focused on the Water and how it was slowing me down while helping my opponent, I'll try to learn from this.

All in all it was a good time and I would happily take another crack at this format. All night I found myself wishing I had pMadrak so I would probably go for him, Surefoot is just to good of a spell.

Next week is Slow Grow and I have some serious painting to do, catch you on the flipside.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

It's a New Year!

Hello folks,

A few days ago we ushered in a new year. With this new year I have resolved to paint more figs, hopefully I can get my mitts on a camera to post pics (I say that a lot, I am trying).

My first game of the new year was tonight as I was in Texas all last week visiting family. We tested for our Highlander tournament which is tomorrow. Now unfortunately we did not get to finish this game, the FLGS owner had to close promptly and go home so we packed up and left rather abruptly. In spite of this I learned something, running Burrowers has a steep curve.

The list I ran:

eMadrak
Full Burrowers
Mauler
Fell Caller

My opponents list:
pSorscha
Beast-09
Dragoon Solo
Min Cavalry

(I cant for the life of me remember what the last two are called... it's been one of those nights.)

The game ended on the second turn with him killing all but two of the burrowers and me killing his cavalry unit. I easily could have got to Sorscha but didn't cause I figured I wouldn't be able to hit her.

Because of this steep curve I plan on not using the Burrowers in our Highlander tournament tomorrow. I have yet to come up with a list, but I'm thinking something along the lines of:

eMadrak
Champions full
Janissa
Mauler

I will try to write a tournament report about tomorrow night and have it up by Friday at the latest. Here's to a Trollish victory!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Break!

Finals are over! Know what that means? Painting and gaming, ah yeah! Now that I don't have to worry about school, I have much more time for more important things. Hordes!

Got in a 35 point, four player, free for all game tonight with theummhmmguy over at troolbloodscrum playing Trolls (surprise), and two other friends playing Legion and Skorne. My list:

pKaya +6(yes you read that right Primal Kaya)
Warpwolf Stalker -10
Gnarlhorn -8
Gorax -4
Min Wolves of Orboros -4
Min Bloodtrackers + Nuala -7
Min Wolfriders -6
Druid Wilder -2

So I played pKaya because she was my favorite caster in Mk1 and I thought I would giver her another shot. Spirit door is still fantastic, just no longer broken. Soothing song lets you run your beasts really hot which can be good. Spirit fang is decent at a rng 10 pow 12, and giving something stealth with occultation is just fun. All in all I was not disappointed and plan on playing her more.

The Gnarlhorn was the MVP of this game. He killed pDoomy and Xerxis by slamming an Earthborn Dire Troll and a Titan Cannoneer over there respective Warlocks, following up and pounding them into pulp. It was pretty fantastic. Though I will say that getting Doomy was lucky because there were three Kriel Warriors in the way. But the Legion player saw fit to go after them with his Hex Hunters and ended up clearing the lane I needed.

I haven't played the Wolves of Orboros for months and I'm not sure why. They are so great! They hit pretty hard with a CMA charge, as Rhyas found out when she died.

Going to have to be more wary of the Hex Hunters though. Three of them took out the Stalker (at full health) and Nuala in one activation ( I forgot to reform).

That's all I got for now, maybe I'll write a battle report for this game but don't get your hopes up, cause I'm not promising anything. :)

Monday, December 13, 2010

More "The Fourth Wilder"

If you haven't read the most recent update, go read it NOW! Holy freaking crap it's amazing. Let me know if anybody also thinks that Salestria is similar to Kaya, I'm not the only one thinking that right?

Sunday, December 12, 2010

8 hours at a part time job = BORED

The title says it all. I was sitting at my part time job today bored out of my mind, so I started to list a few things I would purchase if I had the cash. I think you'll notice a pattern here...

Fennblades, Burrowers Blisters x2, Bushwhackers, FoH Trollbloods, Earthborne Dire Troll, Bomber, Grim Angus, Swamp Troll, Gunbjorn, Wolf Lord Morraig, Wolves of Orboros Blisters x2, Bloodtracker Blisters x2, Reeves of Orboros, Epic Kaya, War Wolves x2, Skinwalkers (max), Tharn Wolfriders x2, Bloodweavers (max), Morvhana the Autumnblade.

That would cost a good chunk of change, according to The War Store it would total at 416.76! Scrolling through the Circle and Troll models only made me realize how much I missed to, so in reality that total is easily over 500 bucks... probably closer to 600 or 700. Lets just round up, who wants to give me a grand to spend on Hordes and various other things. Like paint and foam for all of those models :)

Yeah, this post is pretty un-fulfilling and doesn't have much depth. Just something to pass the time is all. What with the semester about to end, you can more than likely look forward to more of this. I don't envy any of you!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Since the last post...

Baldur beheaded Bethane in a tier 4 fight.
The Champions killed Xerxis in a team game.
Tough roll percentage plummeted. Dang.

The Baldur list I ran included tow units of Stoneward Woldstalkers which I had never used before and didn't get to use much in this game, as they died very early. I must point out that Baldurs tier 4 benefits are ridiculous. Oh all my beasts now have advance deploy, yes please thank you very much. Oh my shifting and sentry stones now can deploy 20 inches, fantastic! The Woldsatlkers even get advance move. As I said deployment is a sight for this list: the bottom line of dice is regular deployment, the red beads mark advance deploy, the green comet tokens are the 20 inch line for the stones. It's pretty awesome!

The Champions only finished off Xerxis. My teammate pg_theummhummguy dragged Xerxis in with a swamp troll (which he received beautifully painted in the fig exchange) and couldn't quite kill him so I finished the last 7 points of damage which means I'm claiming the kill :)

Gave Mike his fig for the exchange, a Helldiver Bone Jack. Should probably have taken a picture, I'll see if I can get one. I received Nuala the Huntress as my fig with a beautiful paint job. Which I cant put a picture up because my phone is terrible at taking good detailed pictures, I'll see if I can find something.

That's about all for now. I just need to figure out what to do for the Slow Grow that's coming up, and now I paint.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Been out of action for a bit

Sorry for the lapse in posting, but that kinda happens when you let your roommate borrow your computer, and you coincidentally end up with 25 virus’s on your computer, but he has no idea where they came from. I won’t go into too much detail cause quite a bit happened so I’ll just highlight some of the things that happened in my posting absence.

1. I picked up eMadrak and the Dygmies from the FLGS.
2. Attended JohnCon hosted by MenothJohn.
Played: Kthulu Dice which is quite a fun party game, a game called Chaos (I think) where my deity was the Prince of Pleasure, Gran Turismo 5, Cryx, and got multiple achievements including on for getting John a beer. Good times!
Things I learned: Argus combo strike is awesome! The Tharn Wolfriders are way more awesome than I remember, and Warmachine is a whole different animal.
3. Painted an Argus and the Gorax, basecoated a Woldwarden and a Woldgaurdian.
4. FoH: Circle of Orboros came out!
Need to get: Morraig, Bloodweavers, Skinwalkers, and Woldstalkers for theme forces.
Double up on: Druids (triple?), Wolves of Orboros, Tharn Bloodtrackers for tiers also.
I have never before been interested in Morvhana but reading her fluff lately and seeing her theme force has me intrigued.
Not sure what to think of Cassius, haven’t even picked him up yet.
5. I got Towers of Midnight!
Brandon Sanderson is an amazing writer and I am happy to say I have met him.
Rand isn’t all angsty and a whiny bitch anymore.

And that about sums up what has happened. Some things that are coming up

1. Slow growth league starts in January, its paint as you go and we are officially allowed to start painting so as soon as it’s a warm enough day to prime I will start on my trolls.
2. Finals week, can’t wait for this semester to end!
3. Christmas. Hope this doesn’t sneak up on anybody.

Final notes

1. Anybody not listening to Lost Hemisphere Radio should start immediately!
2. Check on the Fourth Wilder I haven’t been able to look yet but I am willing to bet the next part is up. If not, pester Brandubh till he writes more :) Link is in the side bar, go now!

If the formatting ends up being terrible I apologize, I tried typing this in Microsoft Word and copying it over which doesn't work out so well.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

And Stuff...

So as recently stated, I have started Trollbloods. Played my first games with them tonight and loved them both, even though I lost both. But that comes with the new army. The first game was against Cygnar, which I lost because I was full on my beasts and couldn't transfer. My opponent even gave me the "moral victory" cause he knew he was sunk.
The second game was a three way batllebox game against the same Cygnar player and a Skorne player. Madrak decapitated Morghul then died to an arc node, Cygnar wins again.
Lovin the Trolls so far. Tough is awesome and I went 4 for 7 on the checks tonight, will try to keep an ongoing tally of those. We are doing a slow-growth league starting in January, but get to start painting for it in a week or two, will see if I can get a camera for pictures.

Cheers!
-Stuff