League Wrap

So just quickly, thoughts in Mercs in general and on the lists that I played.

Bart Galleon: The Galleon with spiny growth and Batten down the hatches is near invincible but you need to be scared of being jammed out of the scenario. Other than that the list is incredibly strong. The only question is what to do at 50 points. Currently the list has Nyss Hunters which are excellent but I'm going to try out Croes Cutthroats to see if I can use advance deployment to push the battle line forwards and ensure the Galleon does not get jammed.

Shae: Shae is amazing in SR 2013. The pirate jam is the extremely strong this year and Shae's list is just so fast and he does so much for it. I need to get a second unit of Press Gang to bring this to a tournament but I think it is worth it.

Damiano Pirates: I love this list. It does everything. I need a bit more practice with it if I am going to use it as a tournament list because you need to use the feat offensively and the ability of you army to soak up damage and still be able to dish it out allows you to delay the feat. I have found so far that you do a lot better if you hold the feat for a turn or two, wait until you can get the right models onto your opponents higher ARM models.

Pirates in General: If you get the first turn you get your pirates across the half way point of the table before your opponent has moved. You set the battle line so far forwards that you are always in a very strong position on scenario and the super tough units make it extremely difficult for your opponent to clear their zone. Kara Sloan + Pirates is a legitimate list in Cygnar too, deadeye is awesome on gun mages and sea dogs in Damiano so you'll get as much out of it in Cygnar. In addition you get Kara's gun and you can go double hunter so you have a lot more ARM cracking every turn in that list.

Ossrum: A unit of sniped long gunners combined with Marshall Discipline from Ossrum destroyed 12 models in a single activation in today's game (7 Nihilators, 3 slingers and 2 beast handlers) and killed a caster later in the game. Alexia1 continues to be amazing in every list I put her in, I do not know why more people do not play her. Other than that though I'm not sold on the list, particularly on his jack load out. He really doesn't have a lot of focus to feed his jacks.

I Win!

(I won the league and am gracious in victory)

Mammoth Conversion

Mammoth Conversion there is a small story about it at the link.

Caine2 Tactica

Of all the Cygnar casters the one I love the most and the one that I think is the most competitive (better than Haley2 in my opinion) is Caine2. I love him to pieces and I have the most play experience with him out of the Cygnar casters.

Spells and Abilities

Caine has some excellent army support spells in his bag in Blur and Heightened Reflexes but by far the best thing he does to support his army is shoot a unit dead every turn. His feat is a useful assassination threat but it should never be the be all and end all of his game. It is more useful as a threat than as a mainstay of your game plan. Focus on killing troops and projecting threat, if your opponent leaves him self open for the feat by all means take it but it is generally more useful in forcing your opponent to camp focus, find cover or other defensive bonuses or just stay further back where his ability to influence the game is lessened.

Army Composition

Squire, Reinholdt and Rangers. These are auto includes in any Caine build. Rangers are just awesome all round but the extra +2 on Caine's feat turn will often buy you 2 more shots (when he's taking 10), since the POW goes up with every hit these will be the high POW shots, the POW 20+s. Reinholdt is the best one point imaginable for Caine and the Squire is how you get up to 10 shots on feat turn.

Since Caine is going to be shooting all the infantry dead you don't need any infantry clearing in his army, what you need is a jack that uses an absolute minimum of focus (0 preferably) and pieces that can crack ARM without warcaster support. Highly recommended are Forge Guard and the 4 arm fixers Cygnar has access to (Aiyana and Holt, Ragman, Eiryss to shoot off upkeeps like arcane shield and defenders ward and Gorman for Rust). Alexia and the Risen are also a great asset for him. Alexia with 20 risen will kill most heavies dead. You charge then buy 10 boosted attacks.

Other than that if you are looking for synergy Boomholwers are dumb with heightened reflexes. 4+ tough and they are not knocked down makes the unit a massive pain to chew through. Don't take them if you feel you are compromising your ability to crack ARM. Ol'Rowdy is a particularly good choice for a jack, he has high power attacks, runs for free and charges for free. Counter charge is a particularly good ability.

The other thing you can do when you have a troop swarm like Caine favours is to go though tough and recursion route. When you have a lot of tough models you can force your opponent to spend a lot of resources killing them, particularly when units like Boomhowlers are 4+ tough. If you combine this with Alexia you also get the dead models coming back as risen. The combination of the two makes it even harder than normal to fight through a troop swarm. One of the ways to get tough is through the piper (Rhupert Carvolo) and he also grants fearless which I would say is essential for a troop swarm. We have all been in games where a failed command check takes important models out of the game, particularly if they are the only models contesting the scenario.

Things to Avoid

I'm going to talk about the things I occassionally see with Caine that I don't think suit his play style. I'm going to skip over things you never see that are also bad choices like trenchers or Hammerfall High Shields.

Gun Mages. Gun mages are very good at shooting infantry models, particularly incorporeal and stealth models. Caine shoots exactly the same targets but better. When you add in the shots from the rangers you have plenty of infantry clearing at range. Save the gun mages for a deadeye caster and take some ARM cracking instead. Boomholwers and Forge guard and Alexia also have no problem killing infantry models either if you need it. EDIT: I should add that I don't mind gun mages if you are going double hunter. The gun mages are awesome jack marshals for the hunters and the hunters give you some long range punching power against high ARM.

Storm nouns. Caine is the best grind caster in the game because no matter how much damage your opponent does to your army Caine will still be there shooting the crap out of stuff. He can feat to remove a heavy and even without the feat will still kill most casters. 5 Boosted POW 12 shots are a problem for most casters, especially when they are coming in at RAT 11. Storm nouns die too easy, yes you can put arcane shield on them but you can also arcane shield forge guard. Go for the more survivable models to give Caine the time he needs to grind out your opponent.

Stormwall. That thing is a focus hog and Caine wants that focus. He does nothing to support it so you need to bring that in and he doesn't give the forwards momentum that Caine wants. Caine wants he army to press into his opponent so he can sit just behind it murdering infantry and forcing the opposing caster to worry about the feat assassination. Stormwall wants to sit back and shoot and force models to come to him. He's not a match for Caine2 put him in your other list.

Tips for Playing Him

Go first if you can. Get into the scenario zones as deep as you can and keep pressing forwards. AVOID LOW PERCENTAGE ASSASSINATIONS! That has to be the biggest mistake I see with Caine, players get fixated on getting the feat off and often use it when the enemy caster is in cover or camping a lot or both. Work out the maths in your head. If you need 5s to hit you are going to miss two shots, if you need 6s to hit you are going to miss 3 shots. If the POW of your final shot is two below the ARM of the opposing caster then you aren't going to make it. If you need to boost to hit remember that you only get 5 shots, if you need to boost both only 3 shots. As soon as the assassination looks unlikely pull out. If your assassination is close to the border line and you miss the first shot pull out immediately, figure out where the feat shots will do the most damage, shoot there and save 3 to gatecrasher to safety.

Other Playstyles

I know some people are talking about Tempest Blazers with him and I don't dislike it. Put blur on the unit, send it out on a flank and get behind your opponents models. Having Caine in front of your army and tempest blazers behind is a nightmare. They don't fit into the list I have built for him but if anyone ever runs a tournament with reinforcements then they are straight in the list.

I'll mention here also although I dislike the list, the avenger assassination tactic. If you take an Avenger and marshal to gun mages and take a Trencher Master Gunner you can push models around with the gun mages to get the opposing warcaster in AOE range of the Avenger and if there is nothing in between you can snipe the Avenger and just shoot straight at the caster. You can also use the avenger to just shoot screening models to ensure Caine has LOS to the caster. Caine's feat works a lot better against a knocked down caster. I don't like the tactic because it places too much focus on assassination and you are picking options that make your list worse at attrition to make it better at assassination. Caine doesn't need to be any better at assassination but he does need to have a good attrition game in order to ensure that assassination is on the table.

My List


Cygnar
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
47 models

[00] Captain Allister Caine (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Squire
[09]  >> Ol' Rowdy
[03] Journeyman Warcaster
[05] Rangers
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Ragman
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[09] Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (9 grunts)
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[08] Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

This list is shamelessly stolen from Keith Christiansen who is my Mercs/Cygnar guru. I used to have a thing against playing lists other people had come up with but I've changed my opinion. I want to play fun lists and I want to talk about my lists with other players. I'm not going to avoid playing a fun list just because someone else has come up with it and boy is this list fun. Having your warcaster just obliterate stuff is just amazing. I had a game against Cryx where Caine killed two pistol wriaths, the entire withershadow combine, more than half a unit of mechanithrals, a Krakken and Asphyxious3. That was my first game with this list. My other games have had similar results. I will warn you though that around turn 3-4 of Caine just destroying everything it starts becoming impossible to hold in the pew pew noises. 

In this list the Boomholwers are 4+ tough no knock down, the forge guard are ARM 21 and tough, anything that dies comes back as a zombie and you have all 4 ARM debuffs. Apply all of them to a colossal (say a Krakken) and Caine will kill it without feating. Boomholwers with shoot a colossal to death. Even just one or two and the Forge Guard and charging Boomhowlers will get the job done. That redundancy is what makes the list so good at cracking ARM, you can probably kill one or two ARM fixers but you aren't going to kill all 4, not until they've done what they are in the list to do. 

Match ups and Pairings

The list has very few bad match ups. It really wants to avoid anything that can remove tough and RFP and casters Caine can't assassinate (there are a few). The only character that really bugs me when it comes to pairing is Reinholdt. Too many casters want that guy, all the rest of the characters here I can live without in any other list. If you are willing to run Caine against Ravyn and other assassiny (definitely a word) casters and just keep him in his deployment zone until the assassination is gone then you can go with Haley2 or Nemo1 or Nemo2. They all run jack heavy very well. Kraye too can run double Stormwall quite well.

Meta Benders - Morvahna the Dawnshadow (Lady Goat)

What's the Problem

• Her feat brings her entire army back to life except for beasts and shifting stones. She can place gallows groves in the middle of your tough units or behind your screening models to arc spells onto your warcaster. She can place War Wolves behind your caster, CRA them with Reeves and then have those War Wolves charge your caster with Gang and back strikes and boosted attack rolls (and the boost for charging). She can bring back a bunch of her own models around your caster then death knell them for ludicrous damage. Just having to kill her whole army twice though can be so much effort. 
• Whenever any model in her army misses or rolls bad damage she can hurt herself and reroll. She never has to live with bad dice and then the unit she has Carnivore on can attack and heal back all that damage she just suffered. She also heals whenever you kill any of her models. 
• Purification.
• She has Ram and Life trader on her weapons. So she can charge a model use her goat (for +2 to hit but mount attacks cannot be boosted so you lose the extra damage dice), reroll if she misses, knock the opposing caster down then buy weaponmaster attacks if she suffers another damage. She can also push other models out of the way to get to the caster by using ram as she can buy mount attacks. 
• Fog Of War. Stalkers already circle's best beasts now have stealth. Gallows Groves - stealth. Reeves go to DEF 17. 

She is an attrition monster, she will use scales of fate to make sure her models do more damage than they should then when you work through them she will feat to bring them back. Stalkers were bad enough with just sprint, with sprint and stealth and never failing to kill models because you get rid of tough and reroll misses or bad damage. And to top that all off if you need upkeeps you better be ready to cast them every turn and forget defensive upkeeps. 

How to Deal

Non living models are ideal. All the hordes armies can bring the Gatorman Witch Doctor (except funnily enough the Farrow minion ones) and you should, actually you probably should in general. He ensures that you don't have to worry about command checks which can be randomly awful. That shuts down Carnivore and the bulk of her healing which hurts scales of fate as well. If you are a warmachine faction you can go jack heavy and if you are Cryx you don't have to worry. In general in addition to undead/warjacks/constructs you want a few boostable guns. If she hurts herself too much just start shooting at  her. 

From there the next issue is her feat, for that you want to be able to remove models from play. There are a lot of game effects that can do this and they double up, helping you with Goatvanna and with recursion mechanics, things like the Spawning Vessel, Mechanithralls and Necrosurgeions, Shamblers and Alexia. 

Be aware of the scenario. She is hard to jam out of a zone because she can bring models back into the zone but those models are often easier to remove. Also keep an eye on the assassination, force her to be careful how much of her life she is willing to spend. 

Caster Recommendations

Cygnar: Haley2 with double Stormwall is a nightmare for her. Nemo2 doesn't look so great either, she will also struggle against Kraye and Darius (See Darius isn't a total loss against top tier casters!) (don't play Darius at a tournament).

Protectorate of Menoth: Go for the jack wall. In particular a jack wall with a bunch of guns. Feora2 is probably your best, Reznik and Feora1 can do it too, Harbinger can have a game. 

Mercenaries. Bart + Galleon. The ARM (even 22 with purification) is a nightmare and the boosted gun port shots have no trouble with her infantry. Either Magnus, 

Trollbloods: Doomshaper2 with a lot of beasts is ideal. Get their ARM up to 22, can purify away the krielstone bonus, snacking RFPs and you have no infantry to kill with Carnivore. That said any caster with Witch Doc Crocs for their infantry and a couple of dire trolls to RFP will do just fine. Even doomshaper1 does OK, runshapers are multi wound and fairly tough under the krielstone. 

Legion: Not Kallus. Fog of war does nothing, shredders and scytheans and afflictors RFP and Legion loves going beast heavy. Even Lylyth with no RFP can do enough damage at range that it's probably still uphill for lady goat. 

Minions: Poor minions. Pigs have slaughterhousers to remove those skinwalkers from play and the gators have the witch doc croc to make their troops non-living. You are going to have to deal with a fair amount of her crap. On the other hand though the only minion caster who really struggles is Midas as she will RFP his beasts and take away his feat. Carver beast heavy isn't bad, Rask with witch doc crocs can do the job, Maelok loves the undead spam, Barnabas can at least knock down her units which will buy you a turn.

Rejigging Cygnar

I'm rejigging some of my Cygnar lists because of SR2013. In 2012 the gunline reigned supreme and Cygnar played it really well however in 2013 you need to have more presence moving forwards or you just lose on scenario so I'm rewriting my most static gunline lists. I've been playing mainly Mercs, Legion and for some reason pigs so far but Cygnar is one of my main competitive factions so I need to do this at some point.

Lists:

Epic Asphixious Conversion

Lady Goat v Damiano

A note for local people, there is a serious illness in my family and due to that I can't guarantee my presence at things for the near future.

On Sunday I played against Uli and brutally crushed him in possibly the most one sided match in the history of warmachine, however Uli had made a few mistakes in list selection and a few more mistakes in game play so yesterday we replayed the game with Uli taking a better list and remembering that the words printed on his cards were abilities that he could use to do things, the lists:


Mercenaries (Me)
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 50 / 50
50 models

[00] Captain Damiano (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[09]  >> Rocinante
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Bosun Grogspar
[02] First Mate Hawk
[02] Doc Killingsworth
[02] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster
[03]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (3 Riflemen)
[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

Circle Orboros (Uli)

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

33 models

[00] Morvahna the Dawnshadow (0 / 5 WB)

[02]  >> Druid Wilder

[09]  >> Pureblood Warpwolf

[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker

[04]  >> Gorax

[01] Gallows Grove

[01] Gallows Grove

[03] Tharn Ravager White Mane

[06] Wolves of Orboros (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Wolves of Orboros Chieftain & Standard

[02] Shifting Stones

[01]  >> Stone Keeper

[06] Tharn Ravagers (3 grunts)

[02]  >> Tharn Ravager Chieftain

[02] Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

[03] Totem Hunter

[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

I won the starting roll and elected to go first (always go first with pirates). Being able to advance deploy the bulk of my army I was able to choose the match ups that I wanted. The sea dogs would face off against the Ravagers and the Press Gang against the wolves. The pirates ran screaming forwards with the solos almost exclusively on the left with the sea dogs (though rockbottom stayed in the middle so he could pay off both units). The gun mages ran up behind the Press Gang and Damiano threw out Sure Foot on one of the Press Gang and Death March on the Sea Dogs. Alexia also went on the left. Gorman threw some smoke in front of Damiano. 

The wolves rushed the zone on the right but the Tharn (which had not been advanced deployed, Uli already failing his pledge to use the abilities on his cards) ran to the edge of the zone on the left but not all the way into the zone. The Totem Hunter (which had selected Hawk as its prey) went on a flanking manuevre and Uli put Carnivore up on the wolves of orboros and cast fog of war giving everything concealment. Both warpwolves moved into the teleportation triangle and Uli was careful to keep at least one member of each unit back so that in the case of pirate wipe out there would still be at least one member left allowing him to resurrect the unit. Lastly the swamp gobbers put up a cloud in front of Lady Goat. 

Pirates always have a great scenario game so it was time to put that to use and get some field position. Also everything I killed would not be able to fight next turn so that would count for something. I upkept both spells and allocated two to Tipsy McStagger (also known as Rocinante) and Damiano kept two. Rockbottom spent two coins and gave both units Payday. Damiano gave deadeye to the gun mages and they moved up behind the press gang to try and clear them a path so they could get deeper into the Wolf unit. The Gun Mages killed 6 wolves and Eiryss chipped in for a 7th taking Carnivore off that unit. The press gang then charged killing another two wolves, a stone, and put a little bit of damage on the Stalker and failed to kill the Gallows Grove. The Sea Dogs then charged and killed all but two Ravagers including the White Mane. Rocinante moved up and had a shot at the Gallows Grove which had stealth (thanks to Fog Of War) and scattered onto the Grove a shifting stone and one of the living Ravagers. Despite boosting the damage rolls on the tree and the Ravager neither was fatally wounded. Piper gave the Sea Dogs tough the solos moved up, Alexia got into prime corpse collection range (she managed to get one of the Ravager corpes as well). In a shocking turn of events Gorman chose to drop smoke in front of Damiano. 

Feat turn. Uli and I spent a bit of time working out order of activations here and the best target for Carnivore. The totem hunter advanced and jumped getting a risen in its melee, after killing it it used the sprint move to move to the far corner of the yellow zone. Lady goat activated, purified off death march and sure foot and then dropped carnivore on the Wolves, everything came back but the shifting stone (non-living). The two Gallows Groves teleported right into the middle of my tough units. With their aura stopping tough the Ravagers charged and got as many of the no longer tough sea dogs in melee as possible they wiped out over half the unit but the unit was fearless so did not need to make a command check. The Gorax also charged in and killed two sea dogs. There is a bit of noise about ravagers being not an optimal choice with Goatvanna because carnivore stops heart eater from working. However being able to place a Gallows grove when she feats and being able to re-roll any misses means that they will kill every living model in melee range, brutal charge lets them take down heavies if needed (and they can reroll damage rolls too which helps a lot against heavies), advance deployment is one of the best abilities a melee unit can have (RTFC - read the fucking card) along with reach and they have both. That and she brings them back with 8 boxes. In the green zone the wolves charged and healed Goatvanna back 8. The Stalker also moved towards the zone and killed a few press gang. The white mane moved to engage some gun mages and the pureblood sprayed and killed 3 gun mages. Lanyssa had a shot at Rockbottom but he toughed and was in range of Bosun Grogspar so he was not knocked down. 

Uli was pretty confident after his turn but while I felt that he was pulling ahead in attrition, he had neglected the scenario. The plan was to wipe out everything on the left side of the table. Tipsy McStagger got 3 focus, Damiano got 3 (stupid purification). Tipsy walked over to the totem hunter, smacked it with its battle blade then quick shot a Ravager dead. Damiano moved up into the yellow zone and feated and cast Death March on the sea dogs. Rockbottom shuffled through the shallow water in the centre and gave payday to the sea dogs, he also put some damage on the Gorax and a Ravager with his spray. Grogspar moved up and used his hook to pitch a Ravager into Lanyssa killing both her and the Ravager (he also put a little bit of damage onto the pureblood who the Ravager also landed on). The sea dogs charged and wiped out the rest of the Ravagers and the nearby shifting stone. Grogspar killed the Gallows grove, Alexia and Hawk killed the Gorax. The risen penned in the warpwolved and filled in the gaps so they could not even trample towards the yellow zone. There were now no circle models on the entire left hand side of the table. On the other side of the table the gun mages aimed and the unengaged gun mages shot at the white main pushing it out of combat and killing it with some spectacular rolls from two gun mages. The other two killed wolves in the zone. The press gang moved around and killed some more of the wolves in the green zone and killed the last Gallows Grove. Unfortunately one wolf remained alive in the zone stopping me from claiming 3 points. The piper gave tough to the risen this turn and Gorman again chose to go out on a limb and throw some smoke in front of Damiano. 

I am a derp and have no picture of the battlefield. I do however have one of the casualties from that turn only:

At that point time was upon us (we spent way to long fart arsing around and picking up people from uni and getting lunch) so we called it a win to Damiano (based on tie breakers). Uli checked and nothing could get into the zone giving me another 3 points minimum. Technically he might have been able to get something into the zone in two turns but it was unlikely to be enough with Alexia, Hawk, Rocinante and Damiano all still alive and swinging and there was always a chance that I could clear the green zone as well. 

Thoughts on the match - Damiano is a fantastic caster but Lady Goat has answers to him. It's the jam in addition to the hitting power that keeps him in the game. Uli did not watch the scenario closely enough but played the attrition game very well. Sans scenario Uli was probably slightly ahead on attrition (stupid lady goat feat). Fog of War is ridiculous is circle, way too much stealth out on the table. Makes the Reeves worth taking as well (especially since you can feat and use sick 'em with the war wolves). Morvhana heals a lot of damage. Pirates are awesome in SR2013. 

Asphixious Conversion

It's a link: http://museonminis.com/forums/index.php?topic=866.msg18330#msg18330 because I can't be bothered rehosting all the pictures. Keith has not posted the fully painted version yet but I am hanging out for it.

Tournament Pairings

Updating this. I missed leviathan but I will be pairing Saeryn with Lylyth2 for my next two tournaments before I switch to something else. Maybe minions, I have been feeling the call of Mercenaries lately and Trolls and Cygnar are all definite possibilities.

Cygnar

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

47 models

[00] Captain Allister Caine (0 / 5 WJ remaining)

[02]  >> Squire

[09]  >> Ol' Rowdy

[03] Journeyman Warcaster

[05] Rangers

[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

[02] Ragman

[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

[09] Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (9 grunts)

[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)

[08] Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)

[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Cygnar
The Weathermen (General Adept Nemo)
(Tier 1)
PCs: 50 / 50
13 models

[00] General Adept Nemo (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Squire
[19]  >> Stormwall
[09]  >> Centurion
[10]  >> Stormclad
[04]  >> Sentinel
[04]  >> Sentinel
[03] Journeyman Warcaster
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller

I don't really want to play Haley and two Stormwalls (partly because I don't want to buy a second Stormwall), when I'm playing double Stormwall casually I can get away with my second stormwall looking a lot like a Galleon (not that I ever play Haley2 double Stormwall but I have played Kraye and Darius with two Stormwalls). Nemo gives me an all jack list that only has one Stormwall in it.

Trollbloods

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

52 models

[00] Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (0 / 5 WB)

[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer

[05]  >> Pyre Troll

[05]  >> Troll Impaler

[03] Fell Caller Hero

[03] Fell Caller Hero

[02] Stone Scribe Chronicler

[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)

[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder

[06] Kriel Warriors (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Kriel Warrior Standard & Piper

[03]  >> Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3 Caber Throwers)

[06] Pyg Burrowers (9 grunts)

[08] Trollkin Fennblades (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer

[03] Thrullg

Trollbloods
Rune's of War (Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls)
(Tier 4)
PCs: 50 / 50
25 models

[00] Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls (0 / 7 WB)
[12]  >> Mulg the Ancient
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[06]  >> Troll Axer
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers
[03] Trollkin Runeshapers

I still may switch Madrak2 for Grissel1 or Borka Family reunion but for now I'm pretty happy with this pairing. Doomshaper1 is one of the few troll lists that answers problems instead of just creating them for you opponent. It does that too but Purification is amazing. 

Mercenaries

Four Star Syndicate

PCs: 50 / 50

21 models

[00] Captain Bartolo Montador (0 / 5 WJ remaining)

[18]  >> Galleon

[05]  >> Vanguard

[02] Ragman

[02] Thor Steinhammer

[02] Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile

[09] Wrong Eye

[00]  >> Snapjaw (Companion)

[03]  >> Bull Snapper

[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)

[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Mercenaries

Highborn Covenant

PCs: 50 / 50

50 models

[00] Captain Damiano (0 / 6 WJ remaining)

[09]  >> Rocinante

[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

[02] Bosun Grogspar

[02] First Mate Hawk

[02] Doc Killingsworth

[02] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier

[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)

[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster

[03]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (3 Riflemen)

[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

I love both these lists. Barts Galleon is the only colossal that I feel plays like a colossal, stomping all over the table obliterating anything it dislikes. The Sea Dogs in that Damiano list just crush everything. MAT 9 boosted attack rolls with 28 attacks are good and deadeye with gun mages and sea dogs. Then the feat is there when you need to kill heavies as is Alexia. You'll notice a theme with a heavy ARM list (the heavy ARM list in my opinion) and another troop swarm. Again both lists are very versitile. This time one list does have a significant weakness something I have avoided thus far and it is scenario. If the Galleon is jammed out of your zone you lose. Which is why if I see a strong jam list I can drop Damiano who advance deploys everything and gets forwards fast. 

Minions

Minions

Blindwater Congregation

PCs: 50 / 50

35 models

[00] Rask (0 / 6 WB)

[09]  >> Blackhide Wrastler

[09]  >> Blackhide Wrastler

[03]  >> Bull Snapper

[03] Gatorman Witch Doctor

[08] Bog Trog Ambushers (9 grunts)

[06] Gatorman Bokor & Bog Trog Swamp Shamblers

[09] Gatorman Posse (4 grunts)

[09] Gatorman Posse (4 grunts)

Minions
The Golden Horde (Lord Carver, BBMD, Esq. III)
(Tier 4)
PCs: 50 / 50
27 models

[00] Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq. III (0 / 6 WB)
[09]  >> Road Hog
[08]  >> War Hog
[08]  >> War Hog
[08]  >> War Hog
[09] Rorsh
[00]  >> Brine (Companion)
[07] Farrow Brigands (9 grunts)
[07] Farrow Brigands (9 grunts)

Decided to pair a caster I know with Rask. Carver is fast, seriously fast in theme force. You get advance move and then you run another 12" with your warhogs. If you go first you are up an inch from halfway at then end of your first turn. Then you have Batten Down the Hatches to make it very difficult to remove your beasts.

Protectorate of Menoth

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

28 models

[00] The Harbinger of Menoth (0 / 5 WJ remaining)

[02]  >> Hierophant

[08]  >> Reckoner

[08]  >> Reckoner

[05]  >> Devout

[02] The Covenant of Menoth

[02] Exemplar Errant Seneschal

[01] Vassal Mechanik

[02] Vassal of Menoth

[02] Vassal of Menoth

[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)

[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard

[09] Vessel of Judgement

[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
48 models

[00] The High Reclaimer (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Hierophant
[08]  >> Reckoner
[06]  >> Redeemer
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[03] Choir of Menoth (5 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Bastions (4 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Bastions (4 grunts)
[06] Temple Flameguard (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard
[06] Holy Zealots (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Monolith Bearer

You don't see the High Reclaimer around a lot but I like him. In particular I like him as an answer to colossals. You can't shoot me at all because of my cloud wall and when 10 Bastions get to their target they will kill it dead, colossal or not. The Harbinger struggles against a lot of shooting and the High Reclaimer does quite well against that. The only thing I'm not sure about is Lylyth2 but then again I'm just not sure about her in general for Menoth. It would be Harbinger for that match up and a lot of hope. Try and jam her out of scenario, keep the harbinger spell warded and shield guarded. 

Servitors

If you have been following the Convergence spoilers on the PP website you will know that base convergence solos are going to be cheap floating balls (every CoC needs balls, yes mentally at least I am 12) called servitors. Here are some of the models:

I like that they are doing flying bases (I will be putting a flying base on my mutalisk when I get around to assembling it). 

Also there was an announcement (kind of) in the forums that Convergence won't be getting regular releases like the main factions. Sadness. Probably still in. 

50 Point Tournament at Good Games Hurstville

Tournament up at Hurstville - http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=151699&st=0&#entry2304519

Hey Everyone,
Good Games Hurstville will be hosting a 50 Point Steamroller on the 11th of May, a week before the Super Series qualifier. Start time is at 10am and we'll be using the Specialist Variant rules.
Given the timing, this can be seen as some practice before the Single Most Important Event Ever. But, by all means, everyone is welcome to attend and make a day out of it. 
So come along, have a good time, get some games in, learn a thing or two and share stories about how you got killed by a Pyg wearing a Bowler Hat.

Where: Good Games Hurstville, Unit 213, 7-11 The Avenue, Hurstville, NSW 2220
Organiser: Not-at-all-Loud Chris (so, me)
When: Saturday the 11th of May, with a 9:30am pre-reg and a 10am start. Btw, that's a week before the Super Series Qualifier.
Size and Composition of forces: 50 point Steamroller with the Specialist variant. 1 to 2 lists. Both the 2nd list and the inclusion of Specialists are optional at a player's digression. Full details can be found in the SR2013 document. 
Entry Fee: $15
Other Details: 
Again, we're using Specialists for this tournament. Anyone looking to make use of them should re-check the rules to make sure they have valid choices.
No Quarter Theme Forces are valid provided you have a copy of the tier list with you. Mostly for fact checking and so I don't have to guess what the bonuses are (-2 point cost on Lesser Warbeasts? Sounds legit).
This will be a three game tournament in all likelyhood and winner might be decided on SoS.

Specialists means you have an extra 10 points on your lists that you can swap out for models in your lists. Your swaps have to be whole cards so you can't take a unit from MAX down to MIN in order to bring in a solo you have to completely remove the unit. You can remove a UA for another model because they have their own card. If you have three winterguard rocketeers you can exchange all your winterguard rocketeers (for example) for Eiryss but you can't exchange just two rocketeers and keep one.

I'll add that this is the week before the super series and less serious than that tournament so I'm going to take my super series lists whatever they will end up being for some practice.

FCU Update

The army builder I use for warmachine is MKII FCU at the moment you have to build the theme forces in XML because PP have an issue with giving away the theme force details for free (it annoys me slightly but only because War Room is such a bad army builder, great rules resource but no better than a pen and paper for building armies). Anyway this is just an update that I've done some work on the theme forces and the XML files on my Google Docs drive are 100% up to date. 

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzsN5VV3K7CuM0FNdEY2NVVCRlU&usp=sharing

Legion and Minions are finished too but there are some problems with them that should be fixed with the next release. 

Iron Gauntlet

Rules are up - http://privateerpress.com/files/Iron%20Gauntlet%202013_0.pdf

They are going to have a qualifier at Cancon. I have little to no inclination to travel to the US for the finals but 2 lists from any faction seems fun as do specialists so I may sign up. It's been interesting to see the community reaction to iron gauntlet. The initial reaction was

but everyone seems to have calmed down by now. That said there seems to be very little enthusiasm behind iron gauntlet and I think that's due to poor scheduling. The major US cons have a problem with too many players wanting to play masters so that scheduling the Iron Gauntlet qualifier at the same time as the masters qualifier seems to have been a good idea, you get two large tournaments rather than one 200+ player tournament and no one is turned away, however for the UK qualifier they are still scheduling Iron Gauntlet at the same time as other events and it doesn't seem to be working. So far it looks like players are sticking with masters events and that Iron Gauntlet is losing out. Hopefully this is all sorted out soon. PP seems to have put a fair amount of effort into it and I'd hate to see it fail (even if I'm not 100% sold on the format). Could also be that people are waiting to see what happens at lock and load before they sign up.

Edit: another thought on this topic, Arcanon in Victoria which was previously much bigger than CANCON and on the same weekend is the tournament that had all the rankings drama last time around. With Iron Gauntlet in Canberra that's going to take even more players away from Arcanon. Will be interesting to see how the numbers fall but I'm not worried about the Australian qualifier, all events at CANCON sold out well in advance last time, I expect similar results next year. Arcanon I am not so confident about, still should be everyone who can't be bothered travelling so it should still get some basic numbers.

Meta Benders - Bart Galleon

What's the Problem?

• The Galleon is ARM 24 all the time with a ludicrous amount of damage boxes. It can be repaired. All it's ranged damage rolls are boosted often giving it the equivalent of 5+ extra focus (often closer to 7 extra focus). Boosted blast damage kills infantry, boosted direct hits can kill heavies (especially with the damage buffs available in the list). It rerolls deviation and direction on scatters, it drags in a heavy from 10" (12" once per game) and can easily kill whatever is screening it. All those attacks can be magical if needed. It's RAT 7 with the AOEs and has two damage buffs, it only needs one to one round most colossals. 
• Batten down the hatches is not an upkeep so there is no way to remove it
• Wrong Eye and snapjaw submerge so cannot be shot and the shield guarding Vanguard is also ARM 24. 
• The feat buys you an extra turn of shooting and protects the Nyss hunters when they get forward into scoring positions. 

How to Deal

Don't kill the Galleon. Colossals are hard to kill and this one is the hardest to kill of the colossals. If Homer Simpson has taught us anything it's that if something is hard to do it isn't worth doing. There are two ways to win this game, assassination and scenario and neither of those requires you to kill the Galleon. Whenever I am playing this list I want my opponent fixated on how they are going to destroy the Galleon, the game this list is designed to play is the can you kill or can I kill everything that threatens the Galleon. My suggestion is to jam past the scenario zones. If you absolutely positively must kill the Galleon then you need to layer buffs, and preferably be immune to knockdown. Make sure you protect all the pieces you need to take out the Galleon because the Galleon player will be targeting them. You may see suggestions to go after the support, don't. Support becomes less and less important to the Galleon player as the game goes on, the only really important support models are Wrong Eye and Bart. Taking out support models will generally require you losing more points than you remove from the Galleon player. If you can take out support models consequence free then do it otherwise play for scenario or assassination whichever your list is stronger towards. 

Caster Recommendations

Mercs - MacBain. Swamp the Galleon in countermeasured Kayazy or Boomhowlers and then ignore it. 

Legion - Lylyth2. Spam out wraithbane, pin cushion the Galleon then feat to remove it turn 2. Other caster with Wraithbane and legion threat ranges are not particularly scared. 

Cygnar - Constance Blaize in theme force is particularly good. Kara Sloan pirates works. Caine2 with his infantry swarm and all the ARM fixers also works. 

Trollbloods - Grissel1 in theme force (or even out of theme force), jam past the scoring zones. Jarl, jam past. Be interesting to see how well a Madrak2 list with Warders does against it, I think it will do pretty well. Grissel and Madrak2 (and the Grim2) and probably kill the Galleon too if you are into that. 

Menoth - Kreoss2 in theme force (jam past), High Reclaimer is a good match here as the Galleon sure can't shoot through clouds and Bastions will kill it dead. Venger Cav under Kreoss3 with Ignite will also do the job. Reznik is not a terrible match up either. 

Minions - Rask. Midas will kill that Galleon dead. Rask. Carver can jam past in theme force. Rask. Also Rask will stop that thing from shooting for a turn, take off Spiny Growth, Put a Wrastler that doesn't care about knockdown into it at POW 20 with 2" extra inches movement and a free charge (and a throw if needed) then do it again next turn or put in a unit of Gator posse. The list also doesn't like ambushing Bog Trogs. 

Other factions - Satyxis are immune to blast damage, knockdown and have backlash, DEF 16 against shooting, have power swell and half the cryx casters can induce a 5 point ARM swing, they are also SPD 9 and have 2 attacks each. Take one of those casters and win. Or take Litch2 and run screaming at it with banes, parasite and kill with feat if it manages to wipe out your banes on the first run at it. Satyxis are also really good at jamming. Circle has purebloods and Baldurs feat also stops the Galleon from having pathfinder. Ossyan and mage hunter strike force is a really bad match up for Bart. 

The Crack Deepens

I am going to make all the league models used so far available for the last week of the league. I think it's pretty safe to say that Graham and Daryl are in the final. For everyone else it's up for grabs. After next fortnight there will be a final and a victorious team.