Mercenary Warcasters

Graham is going to be playing the Mercs next week if he's still alive (I do hope nothing has happened now I've made that joke) so I thought I'd give a crap on about the Merc casters I like.

Ashlynn D'Elyse
My favourite merc caster. Feat is devastating (for one round everyone rolls two extra dice and you choose which two are discarded). Means you will hit more of your opponent and your opponent will not hit much of you. To take advantage you want high def troops. She is great in melee, has high def, tricks to fight back if attacked or shot at and some great movement tricks. She wants to play much closer to your opponent than most other warcasters.

As her feat doesn't do anything to protect jacks (though it's great at helping them kill stuff) and she wants her focis to cast spells/kill things she can't give a lot away to jacks. Ideally she wants one jack: Rocinate (which I don't have). Other than that the Nyss are a great choice, gun mages, Aiyanna and Holt (really help this army which struggle against heavy jacks/beasts), Rhupert Carvolo (gives something +1 DEF), either Eiryss.

Magnus the Traitor
Magnus1, feat makes him very fast has some great jack spells and doesn't pay upkeep for spells on jacks which allows him to free up some focus. Since all of his good spells are upkeep all of that focus should be going to his jacks.

Take some renegades with him. Only he can take them and double renegades at 35 points is brutal. Add in a Mule if you want to make this an assassination list. Also the Mangler loves him, one of his jack spells gives a free boosts for all melee attacks and the Mangler has reach and thresher. As for troops you need something that doesn't need any help (or that wants snipe/blur in which case take wyshnalyrr). I like to continue the theme and go for jack marshalling a heavy. In this case Captain Sam and a freebooter. Captain Sam can give the freebooter a free move with her drive and her unit can cause knockdowns which gives the freeboter another damage dice and automatic hits before it's free power attack. Means your opponent has to deal with 3 heaves and 2 lights. A lot of lists will struggle with this. His theme force is quite good but I don't have the steelheads to run it.

Magnus the Warlord
Only with his theme force. Bad seeds is excellent as a warcaster though he's nothing spectacular.

Fiona the Black
Great warcaster when playing against lots of infantry. She wants a Mariner (I like the range on it with nonokrion brand, lets you shoot through screening models), and some pirates but needs something that can fight heavy beasts and that means taking her as fourstar or highborn. Other than that she's pretty flexible. She doesn't want a lot of jacks so she can arc affliction (when damage roll doesn't exceed ARM you do one point of damage, upkeep on a unit - she has another spell to make an arc node) but she can take two or three without a great deal of difficulty. Her feat is a good defensive feat for high arm and high def models.

Phineas Shae
My second favourite warcaster after Ashlynn. Theme force is the best in the game. Take every solo he is allowed and lots of pirate units. He doesn't do anything for jacks and like Ashlynn he likes to play forward and cast spells. His army is very weak against jacks but ludicrously fast. The pirate units are looking at around 14.5" threat range on feat turn just make sure that you have the solos positioned correctly so you can activate in the correct order. Storm rager is best cast on Shae himself, though you can cast it on first mate hawk until you are ready to throw Shae in. I like him as a second tournament army if your other army is good against jacks/beasts but by himself he can struggle a bit. You'll need Aiyanna and Holt for the damage boost against heavies and don't forget gang works on pirate pistols as well as they have point blank not gunfighter so they are making melee attacks with their pistols. If you are facing a few jacks/beasts though you'll need to just gum them up with press gangers and rely on their 4+ tough rolls to stop the jacks from really doing anything.

Gorten Grundback
My third favourite Merc warcaster. Let's start with the obvious, he only has 5 focus. He needs Wyshnalyr (one free upkeep). He wants one heavy (A driller usually) to cast strength of granite on. He can also take Grundback blasters which are spectacular. One focus and you boost all to hit and all damage rolls on its 8" spray. You can't really justify taking more than two but they will absolutely shred infantry. He also allows you to put down a wall a fantastic defensive spell which will keep your driller alive until it's ready to kill something. You can upkeep solid ground which means no knock downs and no blast damage. He's just so tight on focus that you need to be very careful what you choose to do and not to do. His feat is brilliant, slide everything up to 8" (you pick the distance) and drop its defence, RAT and speed. He just needs a well balanced mix in his army so you can use his feat how it best suits you. You might want to slide stuff out of the way and charge everything behind it, slide everything back and then shoot at it or most importantly slide everything away from an objective and make it too slow to get back. The speed debuff applies to running and stops you from charging.

Steamroller 2012

The final version has been released (finally). Here it is: http://privateerpress.com/files/SR2012Final.pdf

Changes (for those I haven't already talked about this with):

Turn and game times have gotten shorter. (The times are now the times for the next points level down in 2011).

Reinforcements: 10 points in 50 point games and 7 in 35. The come on from predetermined areas in later turns. Importantly jacks come on with three focus and warbeasts can be forced (but not leached) outside of their control area. Lesser warlocks cannot can be reinforcements as they are bonded to their warbeasts (edit: as ruled in PP rules forum, those rulings are binding).

Interactive objectives (like the ones in the scenarios I've added, there are actually a whole bunch). There on the last page and they are pretty looking so you can print them out and use them as stat cards during a game.

Killbox is gone as a scenario, becomes a condition on some other scenarios.

Player 1's deployment goes from 8 to 7"

Flank deployment: some scenarios have deployment cut off 28" (slightly more than half way) across the table.

The second player (deploys second and goes second) now chooses table edge.

The football scenarios (the ones I hated where you had to kill an objective repeatedly to move it into a control zone) are gone (woot!)

6 different types of scenarios now: Centre, distant, dual, flank, objective, radial

All in game effects now require you to put down some kind of token next to the model to indicate it.

I'm excited about this, so much so that I'm thinking about scrapping the two player scenarios we currently have and going with the 2012 ones. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

On beating my trolls

So I have an hour or two to kill right now so I thought I'd talk about how I would beat my lists. Lets start off with eDoomshaper:

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
13 models

[00] Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (0 / 6 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder

How to beat it:

Assassinations: the weakest link in this list is doomshaper, low DEF, low ARM and his spells are short ranged. I'm actually more confident about the krielstone bearer and stone scribes in a fight. If you have a list that can get something to him he's dead meat. Low model count also makes it hard to protect him.

Trading: You can pick what the dire trolls kill. For example in Grahams place I would have taken first turn, advanced forward as far as possibly first turn and then second turn put the swordsman out in front blocking off the trolls from attacking anything good and feated. Snacking only removes a model from play if the dire troll heals and you can't heal when you aren't damaged (I realise now that Graham probably didn't know that, the wording on the card isn't always clear at first glance). At the very least you force me to trample which takes away a free boost for damage and all my initial attacks. By spreading out your units judiciously you can make it very difficult for me to kill a whole unit and then they all come back. Other lists can do it well too, you just have to make sure that the things I would want to kill are well hidden behind things that you don't mind me killing. Quite a few casters are designed to play that way anyway (Kallus, Constance Blaise, Morvhana)

Low model count: There are really only three models in this list. Nothing else is really going to kill anything. If you have a warcaster who can shut down a few models then you can really cripple this list. For example pDeneghra with crippling grasp and parasite can cause a great deal of difficulty for this list especially as it has no upkeep removal. eSkarre is another one, Moshar (pillars of salt is painful in a list where I don't really have anything that I can waste a whole activation just to get rid of a pillar), anyone with stranglehold. 

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
15 models

[00] Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain (0 / 6 WB)
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[03] Fell Caller Hero
[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[10] Trollkin Champions (4 grunts)
[03]  >> Skaldi Bonehammer

The issue with this list isn't the threat it's that everything is ARM 20 or 21 and has multiple wounds. That and the champions will wreck an entire army single-handedly on feat turn (MAT 11 from carnage and war cry POW 11 weaponmasters two attacks and a free 1" move and another attack every time they kill something, get them into infantry and they won't stop killing things).

This list is actually pretty easy to beat, whenever you go to a tournament you need to make sure at least one list has the ability to take on for example Karchev or Saern or eNemo, that the list has the ability to kill multiple heavies. As the list is so slow you will almost always get the charge against it. Just charge in with weaponsmasters or heavy beasts/jacks or use something that reduces ARM. 

Tournament Wrap Up

Another tournament, another second place finish.


Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
13 models

[00] Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (0 / 6 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder

The cannon: The trolls have ridonkulous threat ranges under doomshapers feat wild aggression + goad will chew through any infantry unit like it was never there and Mulg is an unstoppable wrecking ball. Spamming Rage each dire troll can kill a heavy and a half and Mulg can kill two.

Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
15 models

[00] Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain (0 / 6 WB)
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[03] Fell Caller Hero
[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[10] Trollkin Champions (4 grunts)
[03]  >> Skaldi Bonehammer

The Brick: Slow, but everything on the front line is ARM 20 or higher and with Rage, champions and Mulg it hits unbelievably hard when it finally does hit. With Carnage + fell caller and feat the champions can chew through an entire army themselves. This army is designed to watch your opponents charge bounce off and then clean up.

Game 1
vs Scott (rematch of last tournaments final)
He brought

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
36 models

[00] Grand Scrutator Severius (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[06]  >> Crusader
[06]  >> Crusader
[06]  >> Redeemer
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[08] Deliverers (9 grunts)
[05] Daughters of the Flame
[06] Temple Flameguard (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard

Not a lot that can take high ARM multi wound models and not particularly fast. A perfect match for the brick.

Turn 1:

Trolls. Everything moves up in formation. Madrak palms off his focus to the krielstone without casting anything. 

Menoth. Move up a little but not even the full basic movement. Daughters run up a flank. Attempt to shoot but mostly out of range.

Trolls 2: Move up again. Sure foot on Mulg catches two Champs and the Mauler. 

Menoth 2: Daughters charge and do four damage to the mauler. Deliverers shoot and take a Champion down to 1 wound. Jacks move up a bit. Mauler and Mulg engaged by daughters. Flamegaurd Charge the champs, put 2 wounds on one 3 on another miss the wounded one with two combined attacks. 

Trolls 3: Madrak moves up and feats casts carnage, upkeeps surefoot. Mauler kills 4 daughters and they fail their command check, casts Rage on Mulg. Mulg charges and wrecks a Crusader. Champions carve up the flameguard like they aren't there. 

Menoth 3: 3 focus onto a Crusader and it charges Mulg and scratches him a little. Deliverers and Redeemer shoot Mulg and hit the Crusader, do more damage to the crusader than it managed to do to Mulg. Daughters rally. Severius has to move into charge range of the champions to avoid staying outside of the killbox.

Scott called it at this point. The champions were about to charge his caster with carnage and war cry (from the fell caller so equivalent MAT 11 P+S 11 and 4 dice damage vs DEF 14 ARM 14). Also in range of Madraks axe if he fancied a shot. More importantly I had not lost a single model and Scott had very little left. 

Game 2:

Some guy named Graham or something.

Skorne

Standard Army

PCs: 35 / 35

23 models

[00] Archdomina Makeda (0 / 5 WB)

[03]  >> Aptimus Marketh

[09]  >> Titan Sentry

[04]  >> Basilisk Drake

[11] Cataphract Cetrati (5 grunts)

[07] Praetorian Ferox (2 grunts)

[06] Praetorian Swordsmen (9 grunts)

(I think) Makeda has the ability to make something ludicrously lightning fast. I needed some sped or else I would be horribly outflanked, scenario is overrun so speed is very important in controlling the zone in the middle. Time for the cannon. 

Trolls 1: Run forward. Wild aggression Mulg. Drop some fury into the stones.

Skorne: Advance so that out of trolls massive threat range. Ferox way out on the flank. 

Trolls 2: Mauler runs towards Ferox. Move the two remaining heavies forward and together and drop a wall in front of them (completely covers the earthborn but not Mulg). Doomshaper drops Elemental Communication on both (+2 ARM +4 with the stones). Casts primal shock through the Mauler for no damage and agitation to add two fury to the beasts. 

Skorne 2: Basilisk fails it's threshold check and kills a swordsman. Cetrati charge Mulg and scratch him a little. Ferox charge the krielstone scribes protecting Doomshaper, kill two. Swordsman can't charge as the wall is in the way.

Trolls 3: Doomshaper drops Rage on all three heavies Mulg annihilates the Cetrati with wild aggression and Rage and a goad to move to reach the Cetrati standing further back, snacking heals all the damage done. Mauler turned around and walked up to the Ferox. With assistance from Rage and another goad it kills all three. Earthborn charges the Sentry but fails to kill it. I'm running stupidly high on fury right now but there is very little left of the skorne. Janissa puts a wall to protect Mulg. I score 1 control point.

Skorne 3: Sentry has a swing at the earthborn but it lives, swordsman charge the earthborn and scratch it a little more.

Trolls 4: Mauler frenzies and kills a runebearer. Earthborn frenzies and kills the Sentry, doomshaper upkeeps wild aggression. . Doomshaper drops rage on Mulg and then feats. Mulg charges the basilisk killing it. Janissa drags the swordsman back just to make sure they are out of the zone. 2nd control zone and a win for me. I have thus far lost 3 points worth of models in two games and I killed 2 of those points. 

3rd game other Scott

Legion of Everblight

Standard Army

PCs: 35 / 35

5 models

[00] Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight (0 / 5 WB)

[11]  >> Carnivean

[11]  >> Carnivean

[09]  >> Scythean

[09]  >> Scythean

Still not convinced I did the right thing this game. Scenario was killbox, I was worried having to face a charge, the scytheans between then can easily shread the champions even at ARM 20 only with doomshaper do I have a chance at getting the jump on the everblight. This game was a bit long and the turns are blending together so I'm not going to break it down turn by turn.

Trolls pushed forward as far as possible, using the terrain and elemental communication. Everblight got very slightly too close to me but I could only get two trolls in. I decided to feat and charge anyway, I spammed rage but I forgot to cycle wild aggression and that combined with some crappy rolls meant that each beast only killed one heavy. Now I was in trouble. I ran up the Mauler to protect Mulg. 

Thagrosh feated (bringing back a dead carnivean), killed the earthborn and almost killed the Mauler. Scythean was engaging both the Mauler and Mulg and has spiny growth on it. Had I attacked with the Mauler it would have died before it could kill it but I needed rage to guarantee a kill with Mulg so the mauler dropped Rage on Mulg and turned towards the other models. Mulg killed the Scythean and goaded into line with the mauler. Janissa dropped a wall in front of them protecting Mulg. 

A carnivean finished off the mauler and something "killed" Janissa but she passed her tough roll. Mulg killed another heavy leaving only one carnivean left. It killed Mulg. Doomshaper and Janissa tried to kill the last carnivean but it survived and killed doomshaper. 

Fantastic game. I really needed Mulg to roll less poorly for damage on the first charge he had to at least severly damage a second beast and normally he can do that. Otherwise I could have backed off again and waited for the everblight to come closer. 

Picking Tournament Lists

Been working out what I want to take on Sunday so I can try to get it slightly more painted. In the end it came down to Trolls or Mercs and I've decided to take the trolls but since I like to crap on about warmachine here is what I'm not taking and why I think it's good.

Mercenaries
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 35 / 35
31 models

[00] Ashlynn D'elyse (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[08]  >> Mangler
[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
[08]  >> Mule
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)

Mercenaries
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 35 / 35
38 models

[00] Constance Blaize, Knight of the Prophet (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[09]  >> Gallant
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[03] Ogrun Bokur
[06] Steelhead Halberdiers (9 grunts)
[08] Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)
[08] Precursor Knights (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Precursor Knight Officer & Standard

First off these are two very different lists, one high DEF and one high-ish ARM. That enables me to pick the thing my opponent will struggle with. Neither has many jacks, that's because mercenaries lack a good jack running caster.

Ashlynn: great offensive and defensive feat, everyone rolls two extra dice when rolling to hit and then discards two dice of your choice. Your opponent discards the high dice and you discard the low dice. To get the most out of it you want high DEF troops, that's the Nyss and the gun mages. Lots of shooting allows you to be flexible, if your opponent tries to force you to use your feat defensively to avoid being killed on the charge you can still shred them with feat assisted shooting and then be protected when they charge (though best results still come from feating and charging). Gun mages also allow you to push around the things you don't want to face or to open objectives when you can't kill the thing holding them. Risen give you anti-magic and generally get in the way of your opponent, with the large amount of troops you have you'll be able to raise more. The risen also give you dominate undead, great against Cryx and Cryx will already struggle as Ashlynn's feat negates their high DEF. It's important to run up first turn and get in your opponents face early with this army and it has a problem going against more than 1-2 heavies.

Constance: Most important thing for a second army is that it is strong against the weaknesses of the first army and though this army actually contains less jacks it has more jack killing power. On the charge forge guard and precursors will kill 2 jacks each on average and the Gallant can wreck two if your opponent made the mistake of leaving upkeeps on them. The Halberdiers are in the list to die, they serve no other purpose, they stand out in front of everything else blocking charge lanes on the feat and die giving up souls for Constance (her feat gives her a soul for every warrior that dies, each soul makes everything else +1 ARM and gives Constance an extra focus next turn). If your opponent has things with cull soul then they can shut this down so this list is weak against Cryx, a weakness covered by the first list. The other thing this list is good at is dealing with upkeeps, the Gallant gets additional hit and damage dice against anything with an upkeep, Constance has banishing ward so you can get rid of enemy upkeeps on your troops and she and the precursors have blessed so they ignore increases to DEF and ARM from spells.

In the end I decided to go with trolls because more of them are painted. I might even be able to finish painting them before Sunday.

Another Tournament in Wollongong!

When?

Sunday 15 January 2012

Start Time?
10am

Where?
Good Games Wollongong.

What?
35pts of either Warmachine or Hordes. No tiers this time around.
No proxy minis. All minis must be released.
Time Turns as Steamroller 2011.
Two list are allowed but BOTH must be used at least once. If two list are used, must use different named caster/ warlock.
Winner determined by knockout style (everyone will still play the full amount of rounds). Tie breakers determined by kill points.
Kill points breakdown:
Caster=10pts
Units. Half points for half of the unit destroyed.
Jacks/beasts must be fully destroyed to score their points.
Number of rounds determined by the number of players.

Cost?
$10

Prizes.
First place overall. More depending on numbers.

Attitude!
This is a fun tourny. No offensive, cheating or unsporting behaviour will be tolerated.

Attending?
Pay in store to confirm place
OR
If the distance is too far or unable to get into the store, drop me a line here on WAU or at
sdz364@uowmail.edu.au

See you all then. Cheers.

Thinking about varying it up and running my trolls. I haven't run eMadrak at all but I'm tempted to get him on the table and see if he's as good as I think he should be.

Restoration

(adapted from steamroller 2012 beta)

Place a 10" diameter circle in the centre of the table and place one objective per player 3" from the edge of the circle towards each players deployment zone. A player earns 1 control point for destroying an opponents objective and 1 control point for controlling the zone in the centre of the table. The first player to gain 3 control points and have more control points than any other player wins.



Restoration Cache
ARM: 20
Base Size: Large
Damage: 20
Manual Activation – This structure can activate when it is controlled by a warcaster or warlock.
Restoration – During this structure’s activation D6 damage can be removed from this structure, D3 damage and continuous effects can be removed from friendly models (based on its controlling warcaster/warlock) within 4” of this structure.


All objectives are structures (Warmachine Prime, p.88) with the following additional qualities:
• Block LOS as a 50mm base
• Can be charged
• Can be damaged by ranged weapons of any POW
• Cannot be targeted/damaged on turn 1
• Cannot be advanced, slammed, thrown, pushed or placed

Artillery Emplacement

(adapted from steamroller 2012 beta)

Place one objective marker for each player 9" from regular deployment (3" from advanced deployment) towards the center of the table. From the end of the last players second turn each player earn 1 control point for controlling their own objective and 1 control point for destroying an opponents objective. The first player to have 4 control points and more control points than any other opponent wins the scenario.


Artillery Emplacement
Objective Structure
ARM: 20
Base Size: Large
Damage: 20
Manual Activation – This structure can activate when it is controlled by a warcaster or warlock.
Flammable - When this structure is destroyed models within 2” suffer a POW 14 magical damage roll.
Incoming! – During this structure’s activation a point within a zone can be marked. Make a scatter roll from the marked point, originating from this structure, and place a 3” AOE. When it is placed models within the AOE suffer an unboostable POW 12 magical damage roll. This AOE is rough terrain and remains in play for one round.


All objectives are structures (Warmachine Prime, p.88) with the following additional qualities:
• Block LOS as a 50mm base
• Can be charged
• Can be damaged by ranged weapons of any POW
• Cannot be targeted/damaged on turn 1
• Cannot be advanced, slammed, thrown, pushed or placed

Round 3

Nothern Suburbs
The Dragon has at last been sighted. After the victory for the legion of Everblight in the north a large black dragon struck the region in the night causing mass devastation. The dragon was last seen flying to the south in the early morning. Though it's exact location remains unknown the timing of the attack suggests it must be in the region.

Lake Illawarra
Magical energy is spiking in the region and it is overrun with warbeasts. It is possible that the recent activity of the dragon is the result of this.
Reward: 3 points of light beasts or Thrullg

The Mountains
Thought by many to be the hiding place of the dragon though the flight path of the beast was heading to the south it may have been a ruse to avoid giving away the location of the dragon's lair. The region is currently plagued with nomadic tribes of Ogrun, they have been raiding nearby settlements.
Reward: Ogrun Bokur

The Harbour
Shipments are being brought back into the harbour again leaving this one of the few regions in the area where an army can get all the supplies it needs. Conquering this region will give crucial resupply to an army and give them a head start on their opponents.
Extend deployment (and advance deployment) by 2"

Lake South
The increase in magical energy in the region has caused noxious gases to rise from beneath the ground making this region inaccessible.