High Command

Played some games and I'm hooked. Great game.

Disjointed thoughts in no particular order:

It feels thematic. There are differences between factions and they had at least the rough feeling of how they do in the game. Cryx for example are higher POW and lower health in general and were good at rushing, Khador were able to spam infantry very affectively but had high health warjacks which were not very good at rushing.

Warcasters are awesome. They give you the feeling of a super mega ultra turn. The ability to just wipe out everything at a location. They really feel like feats in the regular game. The way the game plays though you don't generally use them to take a location as much as to stop your opponent from taking one. Both games I had a warcaster left over and I got the most out of the first warcaster I used so I don't think you need to be too afraid of dropping a warcaster early.

It's hard to take locations, there are a lot of screw you cards (curse you pistol wraith!) that you can use to screw over an opponent. I think this will change as I get to know the game better, I'm pretty sure we were under-committing to locations which would have taken a lot of the pace out of those screw you cards. Still not going to be easy but I expect to start taking more locations than were taken in these early games (the most taken by a player was 2).

Looking forwards to deck customisation as well. The decks seem fine but I like the idea of being able to fine tune a deck.

Hopefully I'll get a hold of a copy soon.

Wargamer Girl Kickstarter

Hello objective models

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1672216902/clockwork-tower-and-obelisks

Butcher3

Thinking about stuff with Butcher3

Things he wants:

Threat range extensions
Things that add to his survivability
Models that do not require support

Important Models

Corbeau - 3 inches extra for the Butcher is a big deal. It happens before allocation too so he can stay further back from his jacks if necessary.

War Dog - the arguses are part of Butcher's unit not attached so he can take an attachment, I'd take a wardog to help keep Butcher alive

Behemoth - Energizer and focus on behemoth is a scary proposition. The other option is to take Beast09 for reach + Energizer.

Black Dragon Iron Fangs + Great Bears + Widowmakers and Kell Bailoch - Jamie Perkins made a list I really liked where he used a lot of models that were able to pick column/spirals for warbeasts and warjacks so that you could stop them from shaking Sorscha1's feat. Butcher can with Grievous Wounds do a similar thing to warbeasts where you can remove their spirit spirals and prevent them from healing. (It's only melee attacks but you can use widowmakers to take out the spiral or finish off the spiral and have another model hit the warbeast with grievous wounds). These models also require no support.

Iron Fang Kovnik - to help the black dragons.

Greylord Ternion - Not sure they are needed but stationarying something then taking out its spirit is pretty neat.

Saxon Orik - Pathfinder for Black Dragons and Butcher if the dogs die.

Ogrun Bokur - Butcher is a great client as he needs to get forwards to do work so the Bokur isn't hanging back and gets to make attacks. You can take two, and I think that might be prudent.

Tactical Arcanist Corps - A little bit of extra survivability. They may struggle to keep up with the Butcher though so it's another thing that might not be needed. The Greylords might actually be better for this because they can just blizzard Butcher and give him concealment. If it's impractical to get a cloud in front of him you can at least give him concealment.

You can also add in something to force command checks in case he pops his feat after engaging some models in a unit (which is likely as he'll want to attack and then replenish focus). Alexia2 is a good option, Doom Reavers work too.

Other stuff - Khador have a lot of good infantry options, there are a lot of other things you can throw into the list that do well without caster support. Kayazy, Nyss, Wintergaurd and Joe, Doom Reaver, Uhlans, Shocktroopers and the Iron Fang Kovnik, Boomhowlers...

I'm coming back to this draft after listening to Muse on Minis talk about him, it seems my ideas aren't particularly out of the ballpark but that's probably a good thing.

New thought about Greylords - Butcher is a really excellent Harbinger match up because silence of death stops both Martyrdom and Self Sac on the errants. Greylords have sprays that are spells so if they target a Khador model (or at least a non-zealot) they can spray dead zealots under minifeat. This applies to both the cav and the Ternion. I think the Cav's stationary ability might be good on Butcher as well.

Edit2:

Alexia2 - Feeling even stronger about her after a bit of a think. I wish she had reach, with reach and silence of death she would be able to munch infantry. Even without she adds some spell defence to the Butcher, that also keeps her near him to force a command check on the feat and near two Bokurs so if your opponent does not have a lot of ranged attacks you can shield guard them regardless of whether they are targetted at the Butcher or Alexia. Impending Doom is going to help her collect some souls. This does preclude Alexia1. Alexia1 has some interesting synergies too. Risen are cheap and you can use them to gum up charge lanes. She hits harder than Alexia2 and there will be a lot of infantry models for her to get corpses from.

I was looking through the Mercs entry to try and find some models that could collect corpse/soul tokens and buy attacks or who had Beserk to really abuse silence of death. I did find a solo with Berserk and reach: Gudrun. Ahh Gudrun, you useless sack of crap, have I found a place where you can flourish like a golden turd?

There is a stupid section in the back of my brain that is leaning towards Rorsh and Brine and a Road Hog. Rorsh and Brine because big threat ranges + Silence of death will kill a lot of hordes casters and you can bring sprint into the equation with energizer and two heavy hitters (Butcher and in this list Beast09). You can also ping Brine for a point with one of your snipers and from then on he will charge for free. Greylords can provide a hit buff (maybe) as well.

Edit3:

Press Gang and Sea Dogs - Ok this one might be stupid but hear me out. You have ARM cracking in Butcher, two dogs, two Bokurs, Behemoth of Beast09 so from there you take the full pirate suite, Press Gang, Sea Dogs and all the solos (Including Alexia1 but not including Rhupert, stupid Khador, why did you have to murder his family?). Then you put silence of death on the Press Gang to build an uber unit of Sea Dogs and recycle them into zombies. Being 4+ tough while your opponent cannot have tough seems good.

Special Unique Snowflakes

This was prompted by me reading the 10th Anniversary special No Quarter that I was able to pick up on the PP digital ap. I am so glad I finally have that thing.

There is an unbound battle report in there that I won't spoil expect for a little bit of one players list builds. This player said: "there are players that believe models like the squire or Black 13th belong in every army list but I don't fall into that "must have" mentality." I agree. A lot of my lists have Sylys instead, some have no warcaster attachment. Everyone likes an extra focus and an extended control area and a few warcasters also like the reroll on missed spells but you don't have unlimited points in your lists and often there are things you want more. However there are also lists where that two points is enormously powerful and not taking it because you don't want to subscribe to the standard mentality is dumb. There is a difference between genuine list innovation and deliberately handicapping yourself in order to take some imagined high road and think you're better than everyone else. Real list innovation isn't about being unique for the sake of being unique, it's about trying different stuff and seeing what works. It still has to work though and it still has to have an advantage over the other options available. You have to be able to explain to me why the three Trencher grenadiers got the shot ahead of the squires, why there are the points available to max the mechanics (that is for two more goblin bodgers) but none of the casters have the points for a squire, why those options are better. I very highly doubt that the player in question could do this particularly for the casters chosen.

I do take and champion a lot of models that other people do not like but I don't do it to be special. I think the Seraph is really good if you can get work out of it (Vayl1, Lylyth1), I think precursor knights and sword knights are decent infantry that can take advantage of in faction buffs (Stryker1, Stryker2). Idrian Skirmishers and Blood Pack can abuse the hell out of Assault and Battery with a caster who can turn them on. Bog Trogs are a great option if they do something for your list. I recently helped write a Cassius list with Advance deploy skew including Druids, Gallows Groves and Double shifting stones with Bog Trogs and Cassius has Hellmouth. The list has so many angles it can come at you with the Bog Trogs amplify that.

There are good models in this game, there are combinations and ideas that aren't widely known or that fill specific roles that not everyone has a use for. They aren't necessarily better than the obvious options and you aren't smarter than everyone else for using them. I suppose that's what annoys me the most, this idea that if you play something different you are better than people who play something good that is widely known to be good. It doesn't work like that. You are as good a player as you are a good player, it doesn't matter whether you wrote the list yourself using only models you had never seen at a tournament or you wholesale copied a tournament winning list. You should be trying to make and play the best lists that you can and I mean that in every sense, if you aren't trying to write a competitive list, if you want a fluffy list to match a story from skull islands go for it, if you want to play the models you like the look of go for that, make the best list you can using whatever criteria you have for best and if that means playing Jake Van Meters list exactly then do that. If you can't see a way to make it better for you then don't. That will happen, I spend a lot of time writing and testing my own lists but there are a few that I have that are exact copies of other peoples lists. They may change with new releases, they may not, I will keep reviewing them but for now they are the best lists I can make. The important thing is that when I put down a list I think it's the best list I can put down and I play it to the best of my ability and I try to be the best opponent I can be. That's what I want from an opponent as well.

Addendum - Since we are talking about a PP staff member I believe they picked lesser seen but iconic Cygnar units on purpose. I don't think they were trying to be a special unique snowflake as much as showcase models which while not terrible are not particularly great and rarely used.

PP Digital

It has finally arrived.

http://privateerpress.com/download-ppdigital-now-for-warmachine-rulebooks-and-more

A Couple Things

1. Digital reader app should finally be available tomorrow or the day after. Finally. I've been missing no Quarter since I let my subscription lapse but if I'm honest I would only have received the May one recently and the app will get me the July one quicker than my subscription would have.

2. Disappointing turn out for Iron Gauntlet again. I'm not sure how much of the problem is that Iron Gauntlet has been consistently placed to coincide with Masters and how much is that the format itself is lacking. I feel if players did not have to choose between IG and Masters that many more would have at least given IG a try. I think it is clear now that IG will require massive changes for next year, it has had every advantage that could possibly have been given to it, both by PP and by the vagaries of life in that some of the loudest voices in the community have featured very prominently and has still not attracted players. Some obvious changes would be to use Masters events as qualifiers or to create a new format for IG, if you aren't going to get rid of the multiple factions the tournament could be 4 rounds 4 casters, play each once or something else of that style. I don't know. The current format is too similar to regularly steamroller so the fact that it is strictly worse becomes more clearly highlighted.

3. Feeling the pull of the Kriels. Shamblers still aren't up on the PP schedule so while I do intend to bring minions to a tournament once they are out I can either stick with circle for a while or go to another faction. My trolls are woefully underpainted but I do have both Runes of War and Family Reunion. At the moment I'm thinking Runes and Grissel1.

4. New Gencon models - Raluk is making me think about Mariners. In trolls and Minions. Trolls have far strike which can go on a Mariner and Minions would just really like some good guns. The Mariner is amphibious so not knocked down by Barnabus' feat (though Raluk is, he'll have to drive it first) but I'm not sure it's worth losing the theme force bonuses. Rask also can affect the model with all of his spells. With Raluk the Mariner can shoot, boost damage then charge and thresher or just walk backwards. The thoughts are not fully fleshed out yet, however Raluk is amazing for 2 points so he will appear in some lists.

Lady Goat List Analysis

I have now played 10 games with this list:

Circle Orboros
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
32 models

[00] Morvahna the Dawnshadow (0 / 5 WB)
[02]  >> Druid Wilder
[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker
[04]  >> Gorax
[01] Gallows Grove
[01] Gallows Grove
[02] Shifting Stones
[01]  >> Stone Keeper
[02] Shifting Stones
[10] Tharn Blood Pack (5 grunts)
[09] Tharn Ravagers (5 grunts)
[02]  >> Tharn Ravager Chieftain
[08] Warpborn Skinwalkers (4 grunts)
[03]  >> Warpborn Alpha

so I'm going to give a detailed analysis of how the list works, its strengths and weaknesses and ideas for where I might go to next.

Win Condition

This is primarily a scenario list. I have won 4/10 games by scenario. Morvahna's feat makes me unafraid of sacrificing Ravagers for scenario position. Even if I go second the projected threat of the Ravagers buys scenario position. They can charge a model an inch past the half way point and with MAT 9 POW 15 on the charge, they will kill stuff. It often means my opponent is hanging back a bit first turn, not pushing right up to the half way point. On my first turn the Ravagers are happy to run and jam so I still get good scenario position. The list also has very strong assassination threats. Morvahna is a threat, the Stalker with primal and Carnivore is a massive threat and with Carnivore and rerolls the Tharn are almost more dangerous than those two. Purification helps massively in the assassination as do the rerolls. Combine with the movement shenanigans of double stones the abillity to remove tough with the trees and the ability to put Blood Pack in the back arc of a caster and still shoot and the list has a lot of assassination angles which really requires careful play out of an opponent. Lastly is the ability of the list to attrition down, to kill all your opponents stuff and win that way. This is what I thought would be her strength and it is, kind of. So far it has only happened in the bad match ups. To be honest I often win without feating or feat right before winning and it's not from bad play from my opponent. The list is strong enough to force the issue with scenario, force your opponent into bad trades in order to stop me just winning and often to force their caster forwards to try to turn the tides both of which slant the match in my favour without feating. I'm often clearing the zone, dominating and feating models back in front of the zone or just clearing a path to my opponents caster and killing them.

Model Ratings

Wilder - It's useful to be able to put sprint on the Stalker or Primal when assassinating or killing a colossal but it's not necessary. Morvahna usually has the fury I just like to save it for transfers. Still safe play is important but this is two points that can easily go from the list.

Stalker/Gorax - putting these two together because they are a package. The Gorax is a great transfer target and combined with the Stalker gives me real armour cracking when I need it. I can purify the ARM buff of a colossal and with rerolls and stone ports (to save the fury on charging) kill a lot of them (particularly when you add in a Ravager charge or two). Stealthing the Stalker is fantastic. I find he also makes a great Carnivore target, you can sprint him with the Wilder, put Carnivore on him and warp Prowl and he has enough fury to just buy attack and kill all the infantry in his melee range before sprinting to safety and having some 8 wound infantry get in the road. With Stealth he is pretty much invincible. He's also not necessary for what the list does so you can happily trade him for a colossal. She heals enough that she doesn't need a full complement of fury. 

Gallows Groves - Used more to remove tough than for arcing spells. That said Death Knell can be an important part of an assassination run and I have killed Eiryss by porting a tree an inch away and boosting blast damage on her. It's worth it. I would not get rid of them, tough is the only thing that slows down the Ravagers which have been absolute stars since I put them in this list. Great utility for a point.

Shifting stones - in the original incarnation of this list (not included in my 10 games) I had only a single unit of shifting stones. I was wrong, this list needs two. They force your opponent into bad trades, they add so much to assassination and the extra healing for Morvahna allows you to continue to reroll when you aren't getting anything out of Carnivore. 

Blood Pack - I love them in this list. They form a second wave behind the Ravagers and are fantastic at it. Assault and Battery is a ridiculous rule. They give you more attacks on a caster when they come forwards (Don't discount RAT 8 with a reroll), they shoot things in the way of the Ravagers to allow them to push further forwards and they kill a lot of stuff. There is some anti-synergy with the blood pack and fog of war but they are far forwards and Morvahna generally doesn't want to be. Most turns you start by moving Morvahna up to get the end positions of both units of Tharn in her control area, she doesn't need to be further forwards. You need to remember it but it's usually not an issue. Once they get Assault and Battery off and start getting corpse tokens they become ridiculously scary as they can use those tokens to boost ranged attacks. 

Ravagers - The stars of this list. For a unit I almost did not include boy do they do a lot of work. They crack ARM when needed, give me huge scenario presence and just mow through infantry. Even just two or three left alive after jamming your opponent will generally remove a unit of infantry and then they come back. It's the reroll, MAT 7, reach, Gallows Groves to remove tough, POW 13 to kill every time and the ability to buy another attack when you kill a model. If they can get into a forest at the edge of a zone they go to DEF 15 too and 17 from ranged attacks making them extremely survivable. 

Skinwalkers - They have been underwhelming. Possibly because my hopes were too high when I first put them in the list. They generally take the friendly dominate zone because of their lesser speed and when they get there they tear through infantry. They are great at healing Morvahna and add to the grind of the list. Perhaps it's the fact that I have not really had to grind because of the strong scenario and assassination potential in this list. At the least though your opponent inevitably shoots at them making them SPD 7 which allows them to get into some infantry and heal Morvahna up so she can reroll whatever the hell she wants. 

Strengths

No game against an infantry heavy list has been anything less than a landslide. When she can reroll 7-8 things, heal fully and then reroll some more you just find the list doing way too much work. This list likes the split scenarios because she can split up with Tharn in one zone and the Skinwalkers in the other one with the Stalker in shifting stones threatening both, most opposing lists cannot spilt up as effectively allowing her to score one of the zones. She also likes the more winnable scenarios. Incursion is a great one but even Destruction is winnable for her, there are a some hard hitting models who want to sit in the back of her list and be safe rather than attack enemy models in the early parts of the game and they are fine with killing objectives. Killing an objective also triggers sprint which is pretty neat. Killbox is not an issue for her because she generally camps a lot of fury and her army presses forwards enough that the engagement line is well away from the killbox line. 

Weaknesses

I thought ARM cracking would be a weakness for her but it generally isn't. She can purify off upkeep spells which deals with a lot of the ARM cracking out there and she's happy to trade a Stalker. I've played her a couple of times now against ARM stacking jack walls and they can't trample over the medium bases into the scenario zones, they don't have enough attacks to get through all my models and she can kill high ARM targets if she needs to. You really only need a few rerolls a turn if you are being conservative and with the double shifting stones and imperishable conviction she has plenty of healing for those crucial rolls. It's not ideal for her but she is still in the game. She doesn't care about being jammed either. Going second I will start with the Stalker and Morvahna in the non-stealth stone unit so I can sprint and double port the Stalker (I have not found much of a use yet for double porting Morvahna + sprint and light caving early game but I still like the option). That + Death Knell + the movement shenanigans of the blood pack clears a jam pretty effectively. I have not played her against Cryx yet and in theory that is a bad match up, I will have to play it and see but my suspicion is that while it's less than optimal she still has a game. Lists with a lot of boostable guns are in theory scary too, I'm probably scared of dropping her against triple Ravagores but at least in the case of Menoth and Retribution guns I've found that she just swarms and overruns them. She's too good at getting to the guns and taking them off the table. You need to camp, play a little conservatively (stay as far as possible from the Banshee) but again she is in the game. RFP hurts but having multiple units I can feat on really reduces the effectiveness of removing things from play. Also the feat has not been a major deciding factor in most games. Combining all those things is probably the only thing that would really hurt her, put her in a match up where she is actually on the back foot and not just less on the front foot.

Possible Changes

The obvious one is Blood Pack for another Stalker. It hurts her scenario game but it makes the list a lot more balanced and really takes any weakness to ARM right off the table. That's the list I would play in a hardcore/single list environment. It's also my specialist for the list. 

Woldwrath - It's one I have thought about. I'm currently assembling my Woldwrath and looking for a good miniature skateboard for him. With him and a Woldwatcher you can make Morvahna a lot safer against shooting and he can stay back and shoot during the early game whereas the Stalker is relying on being a lot closer (with sprint) or often not contributing at all. That is however a 25 point battlegroup which take 9 points out of my list. At which point I probably consider dropping the Tharn and my scenario ambitions and bringing in the Reeves.

Reeves - Reeves sacrifice a whole lot of scenario play. With Reeves this stops being a scenario list and starts being a grindy attrition list. The feat becomes more important and so do the Skinwalkers. You bring in some more assassination options at better range so you are actually able to properly assassinate rather than forcing your opponent to walk into one in an attempt to turn the game around. 

Playing Against Her

I said above that you need to combine her weaknesses and having played her a fair bit now (13 games if you include the three I played with Wolves of Orboros instead of Ravagers) I am fairly convinced of that. Forcing her to purify is good, it reduces her camp, having a strong ranged threat with boostable guns is good, it forces her to be conservative, having mostly non-living models is good, it reduces her healing and therefore her rerolls, having a strong scenario presence is very, very important as it allows you to play your game rather than make bad moves to avoid scenario loss and being able to kill and preferable RFP multi wound infantry helps grind her out. 

Conclusion

I'm actually pretty happy with this list. I will play the Woldwrath version but right now I'm really enjoying this list. For me, for my style of play I think it's her best list. Perhaps more attrition minded players will prefer the other versions but I'm happy with this one. I may update the weakness catagory when I actually lose a game or two and I'm sure it will happen. At the moment I have been concentrating on bad match ups that can happen against factions she wants to play against and she's doing pretty well. 

Free Skull Islands Book

Almost missed this:

http://privateerpress.com/free-download-from-skull-island-expeditions

If you are interested in checking out the novellas then there is a free one available only for the next few days (expires on the 21st)

High Command Tutorial

because I've been talking about it so much:

Gencon Spoilers

Butcher3
Spd 5, Str 8, Mat 9, Rat 5, Def 14, Arm 18, Cmd 7
Damage 20
Focus 6
WJ +4
FA: C
Medium Base

Terror
Officer
Granted: Vengeance

>Blunderbuss
Rng 8, Rof 1, Pow 12
>Lola
Pow 8, PS 16, Weapon Master, Reach, Magical Weapon

>Spells
Flashing Blade
Obliteration
Energizer
Silence of Death
>New Spell
Impendinging Doom
Cost 2, Not Upkeep, Not Offensive
Enemy models within 5" of this model are pushed 5" towards this model in the order you choose

>Feat: Red Haze
Zoktavir gains up to 6 focus points. He cannot have more focus points than his current FOCUS as a result of Red Haze. Enemy models within his melee range automatically fail command checks. Red Haze lasts one round.

>Orsus' Argii
Spd 6, Str 7, Mat 5, Rat 4, Def 14, Arm 14, Cmd 6
Damage 8
Medium Base

Terror
Gang
Circular Vision
Granted: Relentless Charge
Sprint

>Bite
Pow 4, PS 11, Combo-Strike

Eiryss3
Spd 7, Str 4, Mat 7, Rat 9, Def 16, Arm 12, Cmd 9
5 Boxes
PC 3
FA: C

Officer
Stealth
Pathfinder
Attachment [Mage Hunter]
Arcane Assassin
Granted: Fearless
Granted: Reform
Tactics: Advance Deployment
Quick Work
>Arcane Hemorrhage
When this model hits another model with an attack, the model hit loses focus and fury points on it, and upkeep spells cast on it immediately expire

>Crossbow
Rng 12, Rof 1, Pow 10, Weapon Master
>Saber
Pow 3, PS 7, Weapon Master
>Crossbow Blade
Pow 3, PS 7, Weapon Master

Moorclaw
Spd 5, Str 7, Mat 6, Rat 6, Def 13, Arm 15, Cmd 9
8 boxes
PC: 2
FA: C

Tough
Jack Marshal
Assault
Repair 8
>Mercenary
Works for Cryx, Cygnar, Khador
>Minion
Works for Trollbloods, Blindwater, Thornfall
>Mechanically Adept
Can attempt to repair non-Faction friendly warjacks and battle engines
>Drive: Hog Wild
This model can attempt to Drive each warjack under its control within its command range. To drive a warjack this model must make a command check at any time during its activation. If it passes, the warjack may make one ranged attack this activation before its normal movement. After its normal movement, the warjack can only make melee attacks that activation. If it fails, the warjack does not benefit from 'Jack Marshal this turn.

>Slug Gun
Rng 4, Rof 1, Pow 14
>Battle Axe
Pow 6, PS 13

Silverline Stormguard
Cygnaran Stormknight Unit
Spd 5, Str 6, Mat 7, Rat 5, Def 12, Arm 15, Cmd 9
FA: 2
PC 6 (Leader and 5 Grunts)/9 (Leader and 9 Grunts)

CMA
Gunfighter
Immunity: Electricity
Ranked Attacks
>Electromagnetic Discharge
After all models in this unit have completed their actions, its leader can make one ranged attack. The attack has base Rng 6, Aoe 5, and Pow -. It gains +1 Rng for each model in its unit that hit an enemy model with a melee attack this activation. Models hit suffer +2 damage from Electrical damage rolls for one round.
>Polarity Wall
While this model is in B2B contact with one or more models in its unit, it cannot be charged by a model beginning the charge in this model's front arc.

>Thunder Halberd
Pow 6, PS12, Reach, Critical Knockdown

Thoughts
Butcher - Energizer works well with the two Khador jacks that see play, Beast 09 and Behemoth and he has enough focus to cast that spell and feed the jack which is probably all he'll be doing early game. Silence of Death is a good spell for Khador to get, useful but situational. It's the mid to late game though when butcher gets interesting. With a spell that drags everything towards him and flashing blade he will munch infantry, he also has redicilous hitting power especially with the dogs. If they combo strike with gang you are looking at two more POW 17s boosted at a hard target it the butchers melee range. It'll be a game of eliminating the threats to the butcher and letting him go nuts. His feat is awesome. It will let him kill two jacks in the zone and then force all the infantry to flee.

Eirys - Solid. Fearless, reform and advance deployment are all useful for the infiltrators. You might actually see her with strike force as well. They like reform but mostly they like stripping all the fury from hordes casters.

Moorclaw - He's a good beater for 2 points and a good jack marshal and he repairs. Poor Meg, at least she' still in Shae's theme force.

Silverline - Well something had to suck. They'll make some lists because they have some half decent synergies but knockdown is only on a crit so you can't reliably do it, they are still 12/15 so any ranged attack will kill them. Polarity Shield is decent but since you don't need charges to kill them and it only works when they are B2B and they are vulnerable to blast damage it's not quite as good as it first sounds. EM discharge is the most useful thing about them. The Storm Strider goes to POW 17, you can put it on that unit with decent ARM and take your Stormcallers to POW 12 (14 if it's a Nemo2 list).

How do you Grayle?

Been trying to build a Grayle list since I have him and also I like to make a list for every caster in factions I run. Here is where I am:

Feat - kind of garbage. A much crappier version of warpath (though it does work on non-battlegroup so solos can take advantage) and stealth. Circle is a melee faction, it doesn't have a lot of guns so you can't really use the feat to move up shoot and move back as would be ideal. In particular it doesn't have a lot of battlegroup guns, the bloodtrackers can shoot and reform and then feat move but to do the whole unit you need to kill 10 models and that's asking for a bit much.

Spells - Again Awareness would be a great spell for a ranged battlegroup. Circle doesn't have that. The Woldwyrd is RNG 10 POW 10 (with purgitation making it decent against upkeeps that do not add to ARM) and the Woldwatcher is RNG 10 POW 12. There is one good gun in the faction and it's on a 20 point gargantuan that completely ignores Grayle's crappy feat.

After that we have Gallows which is a great offensive spell that lets you pull a model closer and Storm Rager which turns on a solo or Grayle himself.

Abilities - He has good MAT (7), two initials, P+W 10 weaponmaster attacks with side step and sprint (though unfortunately not reach). He also has stealth and pathfinder.

Ideas on list builds:

Woldwrath - Grayle has a great end game and the Woldwrath too is able to contribute without being in the front lines and then be there at the end of the game. If you build a list to get forwards and take out your opponents heavy hitters when it comes to the late game Grayle and the Woldwrath are both massive threats.

Druids - With a Geomancer and a Gallows Grove or two. Take Gallows to the next level by adding some more push pulls. Get Grayle into the game safely by pulling things into his charge range and then sprinting + side stepping back. Grayle with Storm Rager can do a lot of damage to a heavy, have something else back there with him to help soften the heavy up and you can get some good work out of Grayle. I don't think this works with the WoldWrath since if you want the WW to be a late game piece the rest of the list has to be able to do the fighting early game. You can't afford another 20 points of not fighting.

Standard - Double Stalker, Double Stones, Gorax. Blood trackers and Nuala or Double Woldstalkers. Some Solos. Take the circle all stars because they carry their weight without caster support. Make Grayle pull his own weight by hitting things. (Also you can put something like a White Mane or Lord of The Feast so Grayle can Storm Rager them and maybe just Gallows or something until your opponent is whittled down a bit and it's safer for him to start doing things).

I'll be honest. None of these ideas particularly appeal to me. The one I most like is the most nebulous of the ideas I had, the Woldwrath list. It'g going to take me some time to un-nebularise it but lets start with -

Circle Orboros
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
26 models

[00] Grayle the Farstrider (0 / 6 WB)
[20]  >> Wold Wrath
[05]  >> Woldwatcher
[04] Lord of the Feast
[03] Tharn Ravager White Mane
[02] Shifting Stones
[01]  >> Stone Keeper
[06] Farrow Slaughterhousers
[06] Farrow Slaughterhousers
[09] Gatorman Posse (4 grunts)

Meh. 

Butcher3

Looks amazing. Will be available in the PP store after GENCON. I expect it to sell out.

Cygnarian Khador

Just wanted to recommend this old but still ongoing (I hope) thread:
http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?98-Stormhammer-the-Assault-on-Sul

It's freakin amazing. Hard to pick a favourite but I'm going to go with Nemo the Terrible (not the name the guy who did this gave, he rights fluff to explain all his models):

Edit: Also this one: http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?56130-Genteel-Collective-of-Gatorfolk-Project-Log

Meg Maples at Hall of Heroes

https://www.facebook.com/events/603912442981932/

It's $205 which may sound like a lot but it's a 16 hour 2 day painting class so that's probably a bit cheaper than I would expect. I'm going to have to check if I'm around that time next year (1&2nd of February) which will have to wait until I'm feeling less shit. (Meg Maples was a studio painter at PP until yesterday, sounds like she's going on a world painting tour at them moment).

Kill Me, Also Continuing the Flu Streak

Still sick so I'm going to try to continue my crazy list streak. Today it's Amon Ad Raza. I still don't know if I'm going to look back on this and wonder if I had gone nuts.

Thoughts - Mobility in Menoth has to be good. He man only have 6 focus but I can bring reclaimers and some dudes and focus efficient jacks. Also Wracks and a Heirophant and he casts Mobility for free.

Dervishes - SPD 5 and no reach. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the people spamming dervishes are wrong.

Theme force - two unit of Idrians, 3 monks and no heavies. Also wrong (I assume these two incorrect points form one list of wrongness)

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

[00] High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Hierophant
[09]  >> Scourge of Heresy
[08]  >> Reckoner
[08]  >> Reckoner
[04]  >> Repenter
[04]  >> Repenter
[02] Reclaimer
[02] Reclaimer
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[06] Temple Flameguard (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard

Here is my thinking. Two choir let me battle some jacks (say the two spray bots) and still passage the other jacks to keep them safe from shooting. Also I had two points left over. Recalimers sit behind the Flamegaurd collecting souls. Two so one will be alive on the important turn (when I need my heavies to wreck face in melee). I can build up a small synergy chain but I'm not relying on it, all the jacks can do work without Synergy. Scourge is the one I'm not sure about. Mostly because he doesn't have reach. SPD 4 and no reach is an issue. With mobility and charging his threat is decent but I'm still not 100% sold. He is however a spectacular beater, gives me some defence and some offence against spells

Circle Update

Kromac is pretty awesome.

More Flu Dojo

I have more flu affected dojo. It's a Haley1 list:

Cygnar
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
19 models

[00] Captain Victoria Haley (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Squire
[04]  >> Sentinel
[04]  >> Sentinel
[03] Lieutenant Allison Jakes
[09]  >> Gallant
[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[03] Gastone Crosse
[09]  >> Rocinante
[04]  >> Vanguard
[04]  >> Vanguard
[02] Harlan Versh, Illuminated One

The basic idea was to put Gaston in a Haley list because gun and run is pretty good when your opponent can't run or charge as is -2 DEF on all his stuff so you don't have to boost to hit. I put in the two Vanguards because 4 point Vanguards and I think Rocinante (aka Tipsy McStagger) has the best gun of the Merc jacks. Two sentinals allow Haley to not have to feed her jacks and gives me more infantry removal. From there I wanted something that could take some heavy hitters so I decided to bring in Jakes with another heavy. I originally had Stormclad but I decided that Gallant with Sidekick holding a zone with Temporal Barrier up just seems like a huge kick in the nuts. This one I'm not as confident about as my stupid Zerkova list. I'm actually going to have to put this one on the table before I decide whether or not it is garbage.

Good things - Haley can camp focus to cancel spells and the list has 5 shield guards. I'm not sure my opponent can kill anything in this list. Ever. Especially when you add in that Rocinante has Arcane Shield and Gallant has Side Kick. 

Bad Things - I'm not sure how much I can kill.

I also have a list where I went ever more extreme, figured I'd take advantage of the fact that half my list is immortal and add some utility solos in place of the gun mages. Haley largely loses her feat but that's almost a good thing. I can hold it until I really need it. For example if I see an assassination opportunity or Gallant is charging in on a heavy and I'm not sure he can get it done. 

Cygnar

Standard Army

PCs: 52 / 50

17 models

[00] Captain Victoria Haley (0 / 5 WJ remaining)

[02]  >> Squire

[04]  >> Sentinel

[04]  >> Sentinel

[03] Lieutenant Allison Jakes

[09]  >> Gallant

[04] Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team

[02] Taryn Di La Rovissi, Llaelese Gun Mage

[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

[03] Gastone Crosse

[09]  >> Rocinante

[05]  >> Vanguard

[05]  >> Vanguard

[02] Harlan Versh, Illuminated One

Flu + Thinking About Warmachine = Zerkova?

A lot of people say that Zerkova is the worst caster in the game (me, I say that) but today whilst lying in bed and praying for the sweet release of death and I decided to prove those jerks wrong. (Still not particularly interested in playing Khador but I do like to make stupid lists).

Idea - Zerkova has to have a scenario game. Force blast is repulsion on crack and she has bulldozing jacks.

So I wanted a list with - 2 bulldozing jacks, infantry clearing, jamming and the ability to force command checks. Here is what I ended up with:

Khador
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
28 models

[00] Koldun Kommander Alekandra Zerkova (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[10]  >> Black Ivan
[10]  >> Spriggan
[05] Fenris
[02] Widowmaker Marksman
[06] Doom Reavers
[06] Doom Reavers
[04] Widowmakers
[04] Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire
[02] Saxon Orrik
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[04] Tactical Arcanist Corps

I can force 4 command checks just from terror/abomination and a 5th if I hit with Hellfire and a 6th if I get the unit to half strength. There is 6-12" of pushing I can do for anything I want moved out of the zone and if you are trying to sure up a models position with single wound models I can pick them off fairly easily with widowmakers. Sylys and Reinholdt make her very accurate in throwing out Icy Grips and if she gets to a position where she can icy grip a caster you have a bunch of boostable guns in the list and the marksmen. The TAC keep her alive. Doom Reavers are also advance deploy so they get up the table pretty quickly which you can use to buy yourself more board position. She is pretty happy dominating the friendly zone behind a cloud wall. 

I don't think this is terrible. I'm not sure it's good but I think you can play this list.

Night Troll and now Zerkova... maybe I shouldn't warmachine when I'm sick...

Night Troll Dojo

This guy looks so sweet that there has to be a way to get some actual use out of him.

Lets start with his abilities:

Stealth - Pretty good on a warbeast, even a light as you aren't going to kill him with blast damage at ARM 15 (17 in most lists). Makes him survivable if he doesn't get thrown into combat however he does not have a ranged attack so if you are keeping him back he's not doing anything. You could sprint him but if you are paying 18 points for Rorsh, Brine and a Road Hog you probably have higher priority targets for the animus.

Man Eater - Free charge against living models. However without reach he is going to struggle to tear up units. MAT 5 hurts a bit too.

Beguile - his animus is a great late game piece (living non-caster models within 5" must advance towards the nearest model with this animus, costs 1). Once you have attritioned your opponent down and they don't have a lot left you can control the movement of some key infantry models or beasts. The short range on it and the lack of survivability of the beast when it gets stuck in means that you probably don't want to be using him early game. It may be cute to put a Janissa wall between him and some non-reach infantry but you really don't want to be wasting the wall on a 4 point light.

Paralysis - both his claws have paralysis, and it's straight paralysis, not crit paralysis either. Takes living models hit down to DEF 7 and stops them from running or charging.

Adds up to - If he's going to have a place it's going to be against in the hordes match up, Circle and Legion in particular (hordes is varied enough that you can't just take an anti-hordes caster). Paralysing an Angelius or a warpwolf will mean that troll beasts have no problem taking them down. And late game you have the ability to exercise some control over that one beast/unit that you are worried about. The stealth will let him survive to the late game but doing that means you are playing 4 points down for most of the game.

Lets go through lists:

Borka (Family Reunion) - His claws are not open fists so he's out.

Calandra - I think I found a home for him here. I love Burrowers with Calandra and she plays them very differently than other casters, she likes to keep them closer to the rest of her army rather than using them as an early rush. What that does is it opens up the possibility of troll gang (charge of the trolls) and having a cheap beast with paralysis to charge whatever the burrowers are after, kept alive with stealth... I think it works.

Captain Gunnbjorn - No idea. Never played this guy, don't intend to.

Grim Angus - No. Grim if I take him is my Cryx match up. Grim is pretty good against circle too (I did have that one epic game where I completely tabled a circle army in one turn) but he's usually bombing beasts to death and you don't want a crappy light engaging them when you do that.

Grissel1 - Another Cryx match up. Grissel wants troops so her warbeast points are very tight. However the extra melee troops does mean that a cheap charge of the trolls target would be nice, however unlike Calandra she needs infantry clearing which means that the thresher on the Axer or the aoe on the Pyre are also needed to contribute. Probably not in this list.

Grissel2 - Grissel2 is an underrated monster in the protectorate match up and provides a real problem for a lot of builds (inhospitable ground, lots of high ARM multi wound troops and great shooting). The night troll does absolutely nothing for her.

Doomshaper1 - Loves the hordes match up and you can fit a night troll in his theme force if you drop a Mauler down to a Pyre troll. I would not do this. He has plenty of AOEs and the Mauler fits better with the ARM skew and helps out against colossals.

Doomshaper2 - Again he can technically fit but you want to take a unit and all the dire trolls you can. The stuff he does is not needed in this list.

Hunters Grim - Maybe. Probably not. I have no where near enough experience with the caster to tell. He does seem like a good hordes match up because of Mortality but I'm not really seeing him wanting beguile or paralysis.

Jarl - I tend to run a lot of minions with Jarl which means he's battle group needs to be able to kill heavies and I want an Impaler for Jarl himself. Again it's a maybe, I need more games with Jarl too.

Madrak1 - He has no place in a stereotypical troll brick.

Madrak2 - Madrak2 lacks a hit buff and he has a lot of infantry. A bit of control would not go astray here. I'm sot quite sure how to fit him into the list but he is an option here. Beguile on Madrak himself seems like a strong move too given how damn near invincible that guy is.

High Command

Rule book is up
http://files.privateerpress.com/highcommand/Warmachine-HighCommand-Rulebook.pdf

35 Point Circle Armies

Pfffffffffffffffft.

Circle kind of sucks at 35 points. Here is what I have:

Circle Orboros

Standard Army

PCs: 35 / 35

19 models

[00] Kaya the Wildborne (0 / 6 WB)

[02]  >> Druid Wilder

[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker

[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker

[04]  >> Gorax

[02] Shifting Stones

[02] Shifting Stones

[01]  >> Stone Keeper

[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

[09] Gatorman Posse (4 grunts)

I think she is one of the few casters in circle who is happy to see the 35 point limit. I figure I give her a go and then use one of the 50 point casters I intend to take to CoO to get some practice with them. So:

Circle Orboros
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
21 models

[00] Kromac the Ravenous (0 / 4 WB)
[02]  >> Druid Wilder
[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker
[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker
[04]  >> Gorax
[02] Blackclad Wayfarer
[05] Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
[02] Shifting Stones
[01]  >> Stone Keeper
[02] Shifting Stones
[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

That's a terrible list. Although when it comes to CoO I am feeling the Cassius love atm. He was pretty sweet at the last tournament. I'm also looking at Morvahna1, I think she does well against Cryx and can grind against heavies fairly well. 

Stupid Conversion Post

Plan: Put a skateboard under the right foot. Greenstuff up a sideways hat on his head and airbrush some graffiti on the side and back. Psyched about this conversion, I cleaned the model last night (that's a record for me). Got to find a little skateboard that is the right size.

Plan: Move the sword so it is pointing up. I want her to look more like she's ordering a charge. Possibly change the blade, I'm not sure I like the sword. 

I have a list that uses both of them too:

Circle Orboros

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

27 models

[00] Morvahna the Autumnblade (0 / 6 WB)

[20]  >> Wold Wrath

[05]  >> Woldwatcher

[02] Blackclad Wayfarer

[02] Shifting Stones

[01]  >> Stone Keeper

[08] Tharn Bloodtrackers (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Nuala the Huntress

[08] Warpborn Skinwalkers (4 grunts)

[03]  >> Warpborn Alpha

[02] Viktor Pendrake

[03] Gatorman Witch Doctor

Circle is a Super Difficult Finesse Faction That Requires Years To Master

I took Circle Oboros to a tournament today. My lists:

Circle Orboros
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
40 models

[00] Cassius the Oathkeeper (0 / 6 WB)
[00]  >> Wurmwood, Tree of Fate (Companion)
[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker
[04]  >> Gorax
[05]  >> Woldwatcher
[04] Lord of the Feast
[01] Gallows Grove
[02] Shifting Stones
[01]  >> Stone Keeper
[02] Shifting Stones
[09] Tharn Ravagers (5 grunts)
[02]  >> Tharn Ravager Chieftain
[02] Viktor Pendrake
[03] Farrow Bone Grinders (5 grunts)
[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)
[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Circle Orboros

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

32 models

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

[02]  >> Druid Wilder

[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker

[04]  >> Gorax

[01] Gallows Grove

[01] Gallows Grove

[02] Shifting Stones

[01]  >> Stone Keeper

[02] Shifting Stones

[10] Tharn Blood Pack (5 grunts)

[09] Tharn Ravagers (5 grunts)

[02]  >> Tharn Ravager Chieftain

[08] Warpborn Skinwalkers (4 grunts)

[03]  >> Warpborn Alpha

First Game Cassius vs Goreshade1

I go first (I lost every roll for scenario in this tournament). I have never played Cassius before and I wrote this list the night before the tournament. I have played 5 games in total with circle as a faction before this tournament. 

Turn 1:

Run forwards

Turn 2: Feat, hellmouth an objective, kill some banes and a brute thrall. I spend so much time reading the rules of rules on my cards that I need to take an extension even though I only make around 8 attacks. 

Lose most of my ravagers to bane stuffs. 

Turn 3: Decide I'm going to time out if I try to play so I'm going to just win. Arc a hellmouth through my gallows grove to kill the banes in front of Goreshade. Primal a stalker, double port it into melee with Goreshade and kill him. 

Game 2 Morvahna2 vs Gorten

Turn 1: Run forwards. Gorten runs into double port range but carefully places the wall so I can't port into melee.

Turn 2: Purify the wall away. Carnivore and Primal the Stalker. Double Port and kill Gorten.

Game 3: Cassius vs Terminus

Turn 1: Run Forwards.

Turn 2: move up the tree, Arc Curse of Shadows onto Terminus. Primal the Stalker and double port him into melee range and kill Terminus. 

So despite the lack of experience I had with circle my skill, and tactical nous and ability to learn on my feet saw me through the day. I came second on SOS because we only have time for 3 rounds when we do these things. I picked up the Woldwrath with my prize monies. I am going to greenstuff on a sideways hat and put him on a skateboard, then airbrush some graffiti on the side.