Haley Casts TB. You lose!

Know Your Enemy: eStryker

2011-12-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a little write-up I did for the boys over at trollbloodscrum.com. I figured I've ignored my blog for so many days that I might as well double post for, hopefully, your enjoyment! :)

Good evening folks Phreaker187 here once again talking about a subject that I'm much more familiar with than stinky trolls, that would be killing trolls. As primarily a Cygnar player and to a lesser extent a Minions player I like to think I have the inside edge on all things swan related, and Troll players should too.

How many times have you lost a game because you weren't familiar with your opponents army? I know I've lost many a game after asking the same question, "You can charge how far?" I'm going to write a few short articles on on the ins and outs of playing against Cygnar and hopefully make you more aware of how to beat me... wait a minute... maybe not.

First things first let's start with a typical tournament 35 point list.
eStryker +6
Ol' Rowdy -9
Thorn -8
Squire -2
Journeyman Warcaster -3
Archduke Alain Runewood -3
Black 13 -4
Max Sword Knights -6
Eyriss, Angel of Retribution -3
Reinholdt, Gobber Dude -1
Rhupert Carvolo -2

For a grand total of 35 points of sword to face goodness. Let's start from the top of the list.

Lord Commander Coleman Stryker: Okay so if the name alone doesn't strike fear into you the rest of him certainly should. For a warcaster he has slightly better than average stats, with a DEF stat that will leave troll casters drooling. Average Cygnar focus stat of 6 with an obvious 12" control area.

Spell List:
Deflection - The standard Cygnar ARM buffer, faction warrior models get +2 ARM against ranged and Magic. It's important to note that mercs and jacks do not get the ARM buffs here only warrior models. Cygnar usually brings its fair share of mercs to the table so it's worth remembering they don't get any benefit.

Lightning Storm - Garbage spell, makes 3" AOE's that stay in play for a turn. Also his most expensive spell. I think PP needed to give him an offensive spell for some reason so he got this. Good for blocking charge lanes in a pinch I guess. I've cast this spell about twice in my life.

Positive Charge - The meat and potatoes of Strykers spell list. +2 hit and damage buff on a warjack, faction friendlies within 3" also get the buff (there's that faction only bit again). Think about the first time you saw Ol' Rowdy charge something. Now imagine he's MAT 10 P+S 20 with 4 focus on him. Ouch!

Rebuke - Why oh why did they give him this spell? To anger troll players I think. Model/Unit can't do orders or special actions for a turn. Those 13 Kriels don't look that scary anymore now that they can't do anything, but get shot. He can also cast it 3 times a turn.

Velocity - Pay some focus move 2" for each focus you spend. Famous last words, "Stryker can charge how far this turn?"

He has a few abilities of note:
Elite Cadre (Stormblades): I never take SB at 35 points, they're too expensive and you only get 6.
Overload: Remember this ability well, in increments of d6 Stryker gets up to 3d6 STR and takes up to 3d6 damage. However many focus Stryker has on him is how many times you'll need to push or roll tough to avoid dying.
Warjack Bond: First attack is auto-boosted. Yup, "Ol' Rowdy smash!" is right.

Weapons do disruption which hordes players in general could care less about.

Rolling Thunder: A nasty little feat. After everything has activated models in his control get to activate, move a bit, and attack again. This usually means the end of most armies. With some tough rolls 33% of Trolls will survive the first wave only to die after the second.

Next up:
Ol' Rowdy: Needless to say, whenever he charges something is going to die. Best all around jack that Cygnar has period. Stats are off the chart, high P+S, high ARM, and special abilities out the whazoo. Combined with Positive Charge as mentioned above he will easily pancake even the mightiest of troll warbeasts. Steer clear of him as long as possible.

Thorn: Arcnode, stats better than your average Lancer, he can move after arcing a spell, and hits surprisingly hard in a pinch. Thorn is casting Rebuke or Positive Charge every turn. Don't think just because it's a light arcnode it can't kill your warlock either, watch where they are positioning Thorn. Thorn can charge 9+3 for reaction drive + Reach for some sick MAT 9 Slaps to your locks face.

Journeyman Warcaster: Basically a walking Arcane Shield battery. Toss AS on Rowdy for ARM 23, Styrker for ARM 19, SK for ARM 19. I don't see how people live without this little guy. His hand cannon has killed many a lock/caster in it's day too.

Runewood: One of Cygnar's newest toys, no melee based army is complete without this guy. He's well... a fellcaller plain and simple. Gives pathfinder, stands stuff up, weapon master, and a bonus to hit for a round. His ARM is a little on the light side though, but he has sac pawn: warjack to make up for it. He grants Sword Knights Reform too which stacked with eStrykers feat is some nasty movement shenanigans.

Sword Knights + Piper: Sword Knights, despite being of noble birth, are the meat shield in a lot of Cygnar armies and this isn't the exception. With buffs stacked on thise guys you're looking at ARM 21 and Flank: Warjack. If Positive Charge is on the warjack they're flanking with these little guys can really be brutal. Piper makes them tough or makes them cause terror. SK are a tough call to deal with; on one hand you ignore them, but on the other they can do a lot of damage. hmm...

Black 13/Gobber: Everyone knows about the Black or "broken" 13, they kill stuff from really far away and they do it very well, I don't think we need an in depth discussion on that. Reinholt is a 1 point filler that lets you use *Lucky Charm every turn to make sure Rebuke hits. 3 dice, discard, the lowest, reroll with squire, no problems hitting DEF Troll.

Moral of the story is this, don't give Stryker, Thorn, or Rowdy a charge lane to your warlock, they will die. Stryker while overboosted will hit a Troll lock for an average of dice +10 and that's without calculating for Positive Charge which he'll surely have near him. Thorn is fast and mean. I will usually arc Positive Charge though him, move his 3", run to tie stuff up, then stampede with the rest of my army for the nice hit and damage buffs. Sword Knights are annoying. High DEF/ARM makes them a great meat shield, with some movement tricks they can charge 9" kill something then reform and Strykers feat to move 6" more and attack again.

I hoped this helped you all learn what to watch for when playing against eStryker at your next tournament. Truth be told Trolls are a horrible match-up for Cygnar so you should, especially now, coast to victory!

Good luck and have fun!

Paint It Up!!

2010-02-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

So I had a goal once upon a time to have 50 points of my army painted... Well a wife and 2 kids later I am slowly getting within striking distance and I'm pretty excited about it.

My latest quest has brought me to Kraye. I like this fig a lot and I am really trying to do him justice, but he is soooo detailed it's ridiculous. I present to you Jerry Kraye day 729 (give or take 700 or so days.)

He's coming right along and I am mostly happy with him. My gold is starting to dry out and it's clumping a little, but other than that I am all smiles. The rock he is on really looks like stone when you look close.

Previously I painted Gorman and the Cyclone and they turned out nice. The Cyclone was a bit different because it was made of plastic instead of metal like I am used to so the surface was a bit different. Gorman was a piece of cake since he's all black. I added the base of Alexia to him because it looks awesome. IMO All models should have her base.

I love to paint when time permits. I am by no means a great painter, but I try hard and have a good time.

I am a firm believer that even a horribly painted model looks better on the table than a metal/plastic one.

Keep on playing a have a great time!

Local League

2010-01-29T19:08:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we started a league at the LGS, nothing serious just something to spice up our regular game night. While I was obliterated in round 1 by Legion, I have recovered and rattled off four straight wins in a row.

Last night was a teams game. Teams of 2 "randomly" determined 25 points each, no restrictions on army construction (other than the normal ones of course). I put randomly in quotes because while the teams were random each veteran player was paired with someone that was fairly new to the game. Fortunately I was left out of the draft by accident and was paired with the PG of our area.

He plays trolls and I play Cygnar, I was planning on running in more of a support role and let him do all the dirty work.

I ran:
Siege
Cyclone
Long Gunners (full)
LG UA
Black 13
JWC

He ran:
Madrack
Mulg
Champs (min)
Chronicaller
Hero

Anyway the plan was, I feat with Breach, he feats with Crusher, Mulg wanders over the board under Crusher, good game, we drive home. All the while LG's and the Cyclone block counter charge lanes with suppressing fire.

Our opponents were bringing Cryx and Mercs, both players were quite skilled at their armies and they had a great plan.

Cryx brought:
eDenny
Nightmare
2x Chicken Jacks
Biles
Satyx Raiders
w/ Sea Witch

Mercs had:
Fiona the Black
ATGM +UA
Mariner
Mariner
Doogle
pEyriss
Deck Gun

There might have been some solo's mixed in there I'm not entirely sure. Their plan was to sit back and shell us with range 19-21 shots from the Mariners, then once we were softened up charge in for the win.

The turns were pretty basic, we opted to go first, I moved up tossed out some templates to block Eyriss, all the trolls ran out into the middle. I foxholed all my Long Gunners and sat on my focus.

Their team moved the mariners up onto a hill, fired and missed due to range, ran the raiders and biles out to greet us, moved up 1 node and missed with his spell.

At this point I was a bit worried, but the board was favorable to us with a large trench in the middle to help us ignore the AOE spam from the Mariners. Foxhole was an MVP in the game to because it let us extend the trench an extra 5". I thing they realized this and that's why they were so aggressive with the Cryx portion of the army, we were going to ignore any ranged attack they threw at us.

Anyway Mulg is staring at a thick line of raiders and biles, the B13 are looking at the same bile and they wet their pants a little. I really had to take a wizz so I said "brb, don't lose the game for us." with a little laugh. I come back and he had used Crusher and tried to trample mulg over the raiders. One raider lives, rolls a crit on the free strike and knocks mulg on his butt. lol So there's Mulg sitting there with a stick in his hand laying on his face staring at the nightmare that's in charge range. I was "well that was fun, pack it up." I tossed Arcane Shield on Mulg and hoped for the best. I used a combination of B13 and Ground Pounder to kill off all of the Biles. Suppressing fire templates next to Mulg, hoping for good damage on the Nightmare when he charged in.

Nightmare charged in, didn't take any damage (crap). Pounded Mulg a bunch of times, but didn't kill him, thanks to arcane shield making him ARM 22. That's pretty much when the wheels fell off of the wagon for our opponents. Mulg got up, killed the nightmare, I launched a bunch of CRA's into the ATGM's, killed Eyriss with a Ground Pounder.

The next turn Mulg ate Denny and that was pretty much it. I finished off the ATGM's, the next turn I used my feat, "Rocket Cannon to the face!" on a Mariner blowing out every system, but the cortex, moved up the LG's and POW 21'd the other Mariner blowing his arms off. Then it was just mop up time.

The real difference between winning and losing the game was really the board set-up, the trench was brutal on them, giving us +4 DEF and ignoring blast damage. I am sure, without a doubt, if that trench wasn't there the 2 mariners would of blown our doors off and their plan would of worked to a tee.

Good games all around! Everyone keep playing and having fun!

Nuclear Launch Detected...

2009-10-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

Starcraft... What a great game.

So I went up to SLC this weekend to play some WM with one of my best friends, Darknesse. We planned on playing MK2 rules at 50 pts. The rules are still a bit new to everyone so the game went quite long, looking up rules/stats and such.

I played:
eHaley
Thunderhead
Stormclad
Thorn
Squire
Stormguard x10
Stormsmith x1
JWC
Black 13
Strangeways
Sword Knights x6

He played:
eGaspy
Arc nodes x3
Cankerworm
Bane Thralls -- Full Unit
Bile Thralls -- Full Unit
Bloodgorgers -- Full Unit
Slaughterborn
Combine
Tartarus
That seems like all, but there might have been more.

I remember looking across the table and saying, "Holy $@!7 that's a lot of stuff. Are you sure that's 50 pts?" We checked and it was.

I won the roll and chose to go first. I placed the SG, Thorn and the TH on the left flank, Haley and the SC in the middle, and B13 and SK's on the right side. The right side of the map was basically a giant forrest so it wasn't really an issue.

I ran SG up the gut to stare down his Gorgers and Bile Thralls, ran thorn along their flank, Threw up Deflection (in hind sight a mistake since he doesn't have any range), and advanced Haley. I ran the TH up behind the SG, ran the SK right into the face of the Bane Thralls knowing full well they would die in a few turns. Moved b13 up to cover the doomed SK's. I also moved the SC right up the middle so Haley could hide.

He basically ran everything he had for his first turn to move into a good countercharge position. Turned 4 of my SK into a smoking pile of goo, epic fail on placement for me. Luckily they pass their command check and are okay. Gaspy throws out some smoke clouds to mess with my charge lanes, man those are annoying.

I went. Put 3 Foc on TH, charged with my SG where there wasn't smoke and ran the rest. Turned a node into scrap with 2 of them, managed to kill a gorger or 2. I ran the SK's into the Bane Thralls to they would have something to eat, and blasted a few BT's with the b13. Activated Haley, feat, TA on the TH, move away. Put Evasive action on the TH with strangeways (immune to free strikes), wandered the now SPD 7 TH into the middle of his infantry and pulsed. The pulse plus the 3 additional ranged attacks basically wiped out his entire flank. I was quite surprised how brutal that jack can be now.

The rest of the match is pretty scrambled, I remember Slaughterborn living through the purge and killing almost all of my SG, the biles poped and killed the rest of them, the Stormclad went on a killing spree only to be crushed by the new cankerworm. I moved the TH over to gaspy and lit him up with electic coil shots, but couldn't finish him, he feated and killed Strangeways, a b13 member and blew the arms off of the TH. When the TH lived, he had basically given up hope. My turn started, I had moved thorn to the center of the field earlier. I moved up the JWC, rolled a 13 on 3d6 to hit gaspy, then rolled enough to do 9 damage to the wounded old lich. Killing him.

If the JWC hero shot would have failed the had 8 foc and Thorn in range to throw a few arcane bolts into gaspy.

Overview. Cryx is still amazing, anyone that said they were nerfed is full of crap. They have a different play style, but so does everyone else. eHaley's feat is probably the best feat in MK2, basically giving you a free turn to move around and shoot.

MVP's
eHaley for casting TA every single turn and feating.
Thunderhead for pulsing the shoes off of everything.

Surprise MVP's
Black 13 for being good again and droping POW 12 clouds on peoples heads.

New Toys. The Official MKII Cygnar Rules.

2009-09-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

Unless you have been living under a rock today (9/21/09) you will have noticed PP released the "Official MKII Figure Rules."

Much talk of "doom and gloom" is around on the Cygnar forums, but I'm not convinced that we should scrape off the blue paint and dress up like elves yet.

One fig that stood out is the new "revamped" Thunderhead. MKII Beta basically made the TH a mobile turd. Wandering around the battlefield taking up 12 precious points that could be spent on something usefull, like the Stormclad. The new rules however, I think, make it worth bringing with a few casters.

SPD 5
STR 11
MAT 7
RAT 6
DEF 12
ARM 19

These stats are really mediocre at best, but with sustained attacks still on the lightning coil, a huge rat buff seemed unlikely.

Lightning Coil: ROF 3, Sustained Attack.
Pulse: (*Action) -- Ranged attack. (electric damage). All models within 6" of the TH are hit and take a POW 12 damage roll. ZOMG! Storm theme army incoming!
Range 10, POW 14's on the normal shots.

Open Fists x2: P+S 16's (not too shabby) and dun, dun, dun... Sustained attack. Finally with 3 FOC on it, the TH can ruin something in Melee.

All systems have Critical Disruption also, which seems moot since we have sustained attacks on everything and won't be rolling to hit very often.

Example 1: eHaley. Allocate 3 FOC to Thead, cast Temoral Acceleration, Telekinesis TH 2 inches, move 7 inches to nearest caster, pulse with a POW12, auto hit, then auto hit 3 more times with POW 14's, one boosted. Add Strangeways to make TH immune to free strikes.

Example 2: eStryker. Slap a Positive Charge on 'Ol Thead, charge nearest beat stick that is threatening you. PC makes TH a MAT 9, P+S 18 with Sustained attacks. That's 5 POW 18 shots, more than enough to make most threats inert. For added humor you could, charge in, 2h throw a jack infront of Rowdy and watch him feast.

Hopefully this is a ray of light that can shine amidst the darkness that has taken over the Cygnar forums.

Let's get out there and play, then if everything is still horrible we can complain.

Breaking News: New Forum Mods Possible NAZI's

2009-09-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

So I made a joke on the forums about the elf faction being ghey. The new mod, PPS_Noob, deletes my post (not surprised), and puts me on elevated warning level. Seriously? One more warning and I'm banned for life? What's up with these new moderators?

We want PPS_Kevin back!

Rampage Begins

2009-08-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

Summer Rampage... The time when boys become men and the trolls remain women.

With 2 games under my belt I am sad to say that I'm 1-1. As Trollbloodscrum reported, I feated with Siege catching his already beaten up caster, Grissel, cast Higher Ground, and rolled an impressive 3 on 3d6. Yeah, I clutched defeat from the hands of victory.

Second game was v. Circle, I had decided before I came to the shop that I was going to run a pNemo list, and wouldn't you know it I get to play a hordes player, playing Kruger no less. We get the "no need for words" scenario where you need to control half of the board with a jack or beast. I tossed around Chain Lightning a few times and thinned out his troops, killed a beast with with the b13, loaded up a Centurion with Focus and obliterated his heavy beast, leaving him with one. It was impossible for him to win without a caster kill which he nearly did with a well placed tornado knocking Nemo down to 4 boxes.

So far so good, Cygnar has managed to jump up to 3rd after the first four days (after starting dead last, thanks PP). We almost control 3 territories and are in good shape to get our book first. Keep on fighting Swans!

Sword Knight FTW!?

2009-08-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

Round 2 of the LGS tourney in the books, the match-up was Khador vs. Cygnar. eButcher and eStryker went to an all out melee bloodbath.

I managed to somehow steal victory from the clutches of defeat.

eStryker was surrounded by Fenris, Yuri, Dragoon, 1 Cavalry and was down to six wounds. Special thanks to DEF 16 letting 6 flying steel attacks miss, Fenris managed to hit him for 12 and I got a little worried. The butcher advanced closer to finish what his minions couldn't do.

Stryker was a dead man, I esentially needed a miracle. Rowdy was beaten up a bit by the Kodiak and was still duking it out with him. SK's were stuck in some rough terrain for a few turns after taking out the Widowmakers, but were out now.

I gave Rowdy 3 FOC, hoping for a miracle, activated Stryker chopped up, but failed to kill much that was on him. Plan A fail. On to the last resort. Sword Knights charged the Kodiak killing it outright thanks to the UA + Flank bonus (5d6+10 charge damage). Aiyanna attempts to cast harm on the Butcher and nails him. Rowdy, no longer bogged down by the Kodiak, uses hyper reflexes and rotates to face the rear arc of the now Harmed Butcher, charges, Butcher explodes.

After about 1/2 way through the game I punched myself in the nuts after scanning over Strykers spell card. Storm Wracked! How did I forget about that? I was too busy casting Electrical Storm to even think about it.

An epic battle that I didn't deserve to win, luck happened to shine on me that day and I am greatful. Special thanks to Adam for losing like a man and not crying about it.

Activate Haley, spend 4, GG.

2009-07-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

As several of you may or may not know the LGS's latest tourney is a random 350, 500, or 750, each army must have a different named caster. Once you receive your pairing one player rolls a d3 and that tells you what size game you will be playing, the size differs from table to table making life a little interesting.

My lists are as follows:
350 MM
Darius
Centurion
Rowdy
327pts

500
pHaley
Squire
Thorn
JWC
Black 13
LG's x8 with UA
Sword Knights x9 with UA
494 pts.

750
eStryker
Squire
Thorn
Rowdy
JWC
Black 13
Stormguard x10
Sword Knights x10
Rupert the Piper
Aiyana and Holt
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
746 pts.

First round pairing -- I get to play against Legion yay! A rematch against Jefferson from Awesome Sauce, who monkey stomped my brain in the last tourney. We get our table, roll the dice, and setup for a 500pt. game.

He is running Veil, Carnivian, Angelius, Shepard, and some sword guys that looked scary, oh and a Shredder. One thing I noticed was his lack of ranged weapons, pHaley shoud, in theory, eat any army like that for breakfast.

I rolled to go first, I placed Haley and the LG's in the middle, b13 on the left flank, SK's next to them and Thorn on the right flank. He counters my setup by placing his single wound infantry on the b13 to avoid Thorn and Chain Lightning spam. Carnivian in the middle with Veil, and his Angelius across from Thorn.

Turn 1: I move b13 into the nearby forrest giving them stealth, run my SK's full steam ahead to meet up with his melee infantry, advance the LG's up the gut to create the "no-go" zone I always talk about, use supressing fire to block his advance.
I moved thorn up to mock the Angelius, knowing full well that it can one shot me into next week.

His go -- He moves his Blighted Swordsmen up to threaten my SK's and B13, advances Carnivian up, Angelius and Shepard move up on Thorn and glare at him. Basically he threatens everything I have, putting me instantly in defensive mode.

Turn 2: I spring my trap, run my SK's to the other side of the board, advance Thorn on the Carnivian, move up Haley, spend 4 FOC, cast This game just got Booring (TB), arc CL through Thorn, hit Veil for 2 damage, move Thorn away. B13 begin to pick apart the Blighted SM, I lob a few CRA's into the Carnivian, don't do much damage.

At this point he's pretty boned, limited ranged against my army of ranged and he can only move 3 inches every turn. Typical pHaley snore strategy. He get's a Turkey up to me eventually and casts some horrible thing that hits everyone within 3 inches of it, that worried me quite a bit. I feat, blast his Carnivian 3 times with the LG's, somehow it's still alive, forget that I feated and only shoot 5 times with the B13, thinning out his BSM some more. He goes, advances some more, (I continue to run away every turn, which I'm sure frustrated him), he feats. I move my SK's not really knowing too much about his feat, next thing I know I have a Carnivian b2b with Haley, I was sure I was done for. I wander Thorn over and stab it a few times and it dies, yay for me.

The game was long and drawn out thanks to Temporal Snore, b13 finished off his BSM, Thorn (fully loaded with FOC), advances on Angelius and wiffs 4 times on his attacks. Bye bye Thorn. Luckily I have SK's right there within charge range of the Angel, they charge with Flank, Dismember, and 2 attacks making them MAT 8-9, POW 10, and 5d6 damage, Angel evaporates leaving only Veil on the table.

Well played game on his part. I hate playing against Legion because at any given moment you can lose the game.

Tourney Aggro -- Escalation

2009-06-13T08:53:00.001-07:00

So in a week or 2 the LGS is having its first escalation style tournament with a few rule tweeks. The most significant rule change, and probably the only one, is a forced epic in the 750 round (aka you must play the epic version of the caster if it has one), the other is, if a round 4 is needed the point level of the round is determined randomly table by table.

The field will look something like this"
Cryx
Legion
Trolls
Druids
Prot or Khador
Khador
Cygnar -- Me

My biggest struggle will be at the 350 level. 350 is the MM/t&c round of the tourney. Which caster do I bring that can deal with jacks at the 350 level and has a good enough epic version to carry me through the finals? I know, you're thinking Darius, but I used him in the last tournament.

My top three choices are: pCaine, pStryker, and Nemo.

pCaine brings snipe to the table, toss that on a hunter or defender you're looking at 20/22" ranges respectively. Toss Thorn in the mix to let Caine ignore stealth and you have a match made in heaven. Caine also adds Thunderstrike to the game, 4 Foc, POW 14, Slams model d6 inches backward. Letting you pick off jacks forever. His epic version brings one of the best assassination tools in the game to the table.

pStryker also has the snipe spell as well as Arcane Shield. Strykers bread and butter spell is of course Earthquake, which can cause some serious headaches in MM/t&n. Thorn for arcing spells and ignoring stealth seem like a must, Rowdy is probably a good choice too since he gives Stryker and 18 DEF in melee and a 20 DEF against ranged. All of Stykers weapons cause disruption too in case a jack decides to get close to him.

Nemo would be the board control caster that I am thinking really hard about bringing. Voltaic Snare ruins Jacks in a MM format, saying "your jacks can't move" always seems funny to me. Of course you could face Hordes in round 1 one and be screwed. Using your feat and telling Cryx to pack their stuff up is another good reason to bring him. The deeper you get in the rounds the meaner and meaner Nemo gets, 10 Focus every turn seems good to me. I would most likely run Thorn and some other heavy that I have yet to determine, most likely a Defender.

Anywho, once I get out of round 1 I can run all of these casters quite well, in order: Nemo, Stryker, Caine. I would run Caine strictly for the 750 round, but I don't want to bank on the finals being 750 too. The finals will be determined randomly. This tourney I plan on just having fun and not stressing too much about winning the thing; if we aren't having fun what's the point of playing?

Surrender

2009-05-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

After witnessing the PKA (Protectorate, Khador Alliance) attacking the Troll homeland and massing armies on two borders of Cygnar King Leto was forced to take action. Leto sent Lord Commander Styker into the lions den to speak to Madrak Ironhide personally about a possible treaty and alliance between Cygnar and The Trollbloods. Upon Strykers return he is beckoned by King Leto to make a report of the situation.

Stryker enters the throne room, still fully dressed in his regalia, small arcs of electricity dancing around his generators. To show Stryker means to harm he unsheaths his massive sword, Quicksilver, kneels before the king, and lays his sword down at the kings feet. King Leto smiles, "Stand and be recognized Commander. What news do you bring from the Trolls? I pray it is good." Stryker stands before Leto, leaving Quicksilver glistening at his feet. "Your majesty, your accusations against the PKA were all too true. I spoke to Madrak himself and confirmed it." Leto let out a long drawn out sigh; "How dare those heretics! They think they can manuver armies along our borders and we would not take notice? What would warp the minds of men that way, it disgusts me." Styker looked up and Leto, admiration in his eyes. "Not all of the news is bad your Majesty." King Leto nodded, "Go on Commander."

"The trolls have accepted your treaty, they will fight along with us against the PKA. They were not willing at first, they still have not forgiven us of our wrong doings, but it's hard for a troll to say no to bloodshed."

"I knew this day would come, my past treatment of the Trollbloods has come back to haunt me. Countless nights I have lay in bed thinking about my childhood friend, and how I sent them to slaughter over and over to best suit our needs. I will never forgive myself of that. Promise me Stryker, if you ever take my place at this throne make things right that I have done wrong."

"My fate lies on battlefield Your Majesty, but I promise."

"Very well Commander, get a good night rest, you will lead alongside our new friends in battle. The PKA wouldn't dare stand against our reunited forces. Bring honor to Cygnar Stryker, fight until the ground is soaked with the blood of the Protectorate and Khador heratics!"

"Yes your majesty."

Stryker kneels down to honor the king before leaving, he picks up Quicksilver, salutes king Leto, and leaves for the barracks.

Cygnar dropships scream across the countryside, moving north to join up with the new Trollblood alliance. Stykers headset crackles in his ear, "Sir, imaging is showing a giant army two clicks directly north, please advise."

"Roger that Captain, that would be our new friends, take us down nice and slow, these arent' the type of people you want to surprise. Standby to release payload."

"Acknowledged, ETA 1.5 minutes."

Styker could almost feel the seconds tick by, for the first time he felt fear. Stryker thought to himself, "Please don't let this be a trick by the trolls, this would be the perfect opportunity for them to ambush us. Packback for decades of horrible treatment."

"Captain this is Stryker come in."

"Go ahead commander."

"Slow to cruising speed, release payload, and land."

"Acknowledged Sir, in the pipe five by five."

Styker heard the familiar clicks and thumps and the jacks were released from the ships and hit the ground. He reached out with his mind and found 'Ol Rowdy had already landed. Rowdy seemed nervous, smashing his massive hammer into the ground, literally making the earth tremble around him. "Easy boy, this is not the enemy. The time will come soon enough." Stryker felt Rowdy relax as the dropship touched down. Stryker unbuckled his harness as the exit ramp lowered, he looked outside and to his surprise saw Madrak waiting for him.

Madrak hissed, obviously upset. "Stryker, our scouts report that all PKA units have fled the area." Stryker frowns, obviously caught offguard by the statement, "Even in a barren wasteland such as Khador word travels fast Madrak. The PKA are not as ignorant as they may seem. They were crushed by Grissel and your people not one week ago, we have reports that Haley has moved into Menoth and crushed their southern army, now that we fight alonside once again we shall never know defeat from monsters like them."

"I pray they return Commander, my axe is thirsty for the blood of the enemy."

"I am sure they will Chief, we must only bide our time, my blade too wishes to carve all those that stand against our nations."

Stryker picked up his comlink. "Attention all aircraft, after disembarking payload begin a grid search of the area, 5 mile spread. If the PKA won't come to us, perhaps we can go to them." Madrak put his massive hand on Strykers shoulder and growled, "You know, for a human you aren't so bad. I think we will get along just fine."

Fire belched from beneath the dropships as one by one they began to lift off. A great roar rolled across the ranks of the Trollblood army, for they knew bloodshed was coming.

Cygnar and the Storm: Breakdown -- Units and Solos

2009-05-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

The core of any storm type army is going to be the troops and solos. This will be your major way to deal damage as well as tie up other units and jacks. What to bring though? I will attempt to break down the pro's and con's of each type of storm unit, and some solos.

The meat and potatoes of every army, the infantry. Cygnar brings some bad mamma-jammas to the field in a storm based army, and the best of the best would be the Stormblades, and Stormguard.

To qualify for the storm army you must have some type of electric attack, electric immunity, or a disruption effect.

Stormblades: These little engines of ruin are the hardest hitting infantry in MK2. Kind of the rule breaker infantry, the leader has a different weapon that the grunts and grants them abilites. I don't know why they did this, since the leader never dies, but who am I to complain? Face value they don't look like anything special, POW 13/15 (leader), POW 12/14 (leader) ranged attack, MAT 7, DEF 12, ARM 15. Nothing spectacular there. Somehow the leader gives each unit +2 damage on ranged and melee damage rolls if they are within 5" making them able to take out some jacks on the charge. The real dirt comes with the addition of the UA. The officer gives them the assault order (shoot, then charge) and the standard bearer makes all of their ranged attacks 3" AOE. All electric damage so they can't kill themselves. Imagine getting charged and eating a POW 14/16 ranged shot, followed up by a POW 15/17 charge. Yes stuff will die. The Blades are best run with eStryker, who has the elite cadre for them allowing them to advance before the game begins.

Stormguard: Number 2 on the infantry list is the Stormguard. These guys didn't get any love in MK2, they actually got worse. They gain electric immunity like all other storm models, but lost a point of DEF. To make matters worse the SG electro leaps now go to the nearest non-attacking model, which is usually your own. I wouldn't care so much if they changed the point cost and made them filler troops, but they are 10 points now, that is just ridiculous. On the plus side they still have reach, and CMA so they can hit a single target really hard on the charge.

Storm Lances: A tad expensive, but any melee force will be crushed under the feet of this unit. Typical cavalry stats, SPD 8, ARM 17, DEF 13. Like the Stormblades they have assault, they also have brutal charge, giving them +2 damage on the charge. Both of their weapons have electro-leap so if you space them right each model can easily take out up to 5 enemy infantry. Impact attack, assault, electro-leap, charge attack, electro-leap. Devastating against an army like cryx, that still runs a lot of infantry. This unit has reach and electric immunity also.

Solos:
Storm solos like stated before must have electric immunity, a disrupt mechanic, or electric damage.

Stormsmiths: At one point a piece these little monsters are a must have solo in a storm army. They have a skill check of 7 that will call down a lightning bolt on any model within 10" causing a POW 10 (whoopie), and causing disruption (sweet). Stormsmiths are very, very fragile. They have 1 wound, DEF 12, and ARM 11. Luckily you can hide them out of LOS from enemies because their skill ignores everything.

Strangeways: He fits in this army perfectly. While lacking the name of "storm" he has electric immune, causes disruption, and does electric damage. More important he has Repair [10] to fix all of your jacks for d6 damage. He can also remove a disruption effect from a jack as well as allocate an extra focus to a jack. He is also a jack marshall. I have found success by attaching a ranged jack to him (you get to boost for free with jack marshal and he can give a jack an additional focus). He's pretty amazing.

Eyriss the Angel or Mage Hunter: A questionable addition at best, she doesn't have electric damage, or immunity, but she does have disruption. Cygnar players will take her in every single army list, period. I used to take the GMCA in every list, but now for 3 points I choose you Eyriss. Both versions now have stealth. I prefer Angel of Retribution because of unravel, that can be very good in some games.

Depending on who your caster is there are very nasty combos you can do with these units/solos.
eStryker: Positive Charge on the Stormclad (talk about him in the next segment), +2 attack and damage rolls and everyone within 3" gains it too. Stormblades are suddenly hitting for a whole crapload of damage.
eNemo: Polarity Shield makes a model/unit unchargeable. Every single model in the game can benefit from this. Can't charge my lancers? Too bad, die!
Nemo doesn't really bring much to the table in unit buffs, but he really makes up for it in jack buffs and offensive spells. Always remember to feed Nemo some spells and build up his power tokens, an 11 FOC turn can really turn the game around.

The thing I have really noticed about a storm theme army is the serious lack of ranged threats, we are Cygnar, we need to shoot stuff. A final list should be as close to the theme as possible, but I would imagine units such as the Black 13 will be sneaking their way into the final lists.

Next segment: Jacks and army construction.

Cygnar and the Storm: Breakdown -- Warcasters

2009-05-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

The MKII Cygnar storm army. I know I have posted about a list like this in the past, and I have played a few games with them with mixed results.

I want to go over a few 'jacks and units that should be in the "storm army" and the pluses and minuses of running each type of unit. I am pretty lazy right now so I will just breakdown the warcasters with another segment on jacks and units.

Warcasters:
The warcasters included in a storm army should obviously have the Electric Immunity ability, I would hate to see what would happen to your caster when the storm went off and your caster wasn't immune to the damage. Following are the Cygnar casters immune to electricity.

eStryker: He is a beast in melee. If you get close to an enemy caster they will die, period. MAT 7, P+S 15, Overload (3d6 added to your STR for a turn), and all of his weapons cause disruption.

The spells that I cast the most with this guy are:
Lightning Storm: 3" AOE, POW 10 to everything, boostable as normal. It counts as electric damage so you can shoot at your own troops to free them up if you need to.
Positive Charge: Target 'jack get's +2 melee and damage rolls, all models withing 3" of effected jack get this bonus too. Brutal spell.
Stormwracked: Model/unit suffers -2 command and can't give or recieve orders.
Velocity: Spend up to 3 focus, moving 2" for each focus spent. Charging 17" is amazing.

Nemo: The offensive and control hybrid, he's an old man so don't get him close to anything or he will be a tombstone.

Spells of Note:
Chain Lighting: 1+d6 nearest models within 4" take a POW 10. This is electric damage so don't worry about doing something like hitting your guys in the back, it doesn't matter.
Distruption Field: Target jack get's +2 STR and it's melee weapons cause disruption. Most things getting charged by this jack will die anyway, but this is a little insult to injury.
Electrify: Target model gains electrify. When this model is struck in combat the attacking model takes a POW 14 and is moved d3" directly back. Useful to keep stuff off of the Thunderhead.
Voltaic Snare: I always forget to use this, but I should remember. It effectivly eliminates a jack, or group of jacks from the game. Target jack gets -4 DEF and can't advance. Any jack within 3" can only move directly toward it. It's brutal, even if an enemy jack tried to charge past the effected jack and gets within 3" it still has to move directly toward the snared jack, thus failing the charge.

eNemo: The walking focus factory/disruption bolt. I like eNemo in MKII, but I can't for the life of me use him correctly.

Spells that are handy.
Electrical Blast: Nemo's bread and butter against WM players. 3" AOE, big POW, and jack damaged is disrupted.
Energizer: Spend up to 3 FOC, his entire battlegroup move 1" for every focus spent.
Lightning Shroud: Target jack get's +2 STR and gains electro-leap, like noted before not much will live after getting hit by a +2 STR storm jack, kind of overkill, but still really really good.
Polarity Shield: model/unit can't be charged. Yup you read it correctly. Amazing spell on a jack or a unit.

Regular Nemo fits my playstyle the best out of the three, though I think all of the casters will do just fine in a storm based army. eStryker shines in the new MKII format, being able to find open casters is much easier with all of the jacks on the board.

eHaley v. eSevi -- UPDATE

2009-05-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

As promised my army list and strats for beating the "high on life" hippie Protectorate. I played CerealJohn on Wednesday and had a good time, I always like it when he texts me and asks if I want to play him next week, it makes me feel loved.

I as mentioned above was playing eHaley and he decided to bring out eSevi. The game was 50 points and we were playing by MKII rules.

My army included:
eHaley
Squrie
Thorn
Defender
Precursor Knights, full unit
PK UA
Long gunners, full unit
LG UA
Black 13
Ayanna and Holt
Eyriss, Angel of Brothels

He ran:
eSevi
Blessing of Vengence
Revenger
Avatard
Knights Errant, full unit
Knights Exemplar, full unit
Seneshals x2
Gravus
Choir boys, playthings for after the battle.

The game started off pretty close and stayed close, right up to the part where I disrupted his Revenger with Eyriss, charged it with 3 Precursor Knights, used the mini feat, and took out the arcnode. The rest of the PK's were sent off to die by charging the Knights Errant with Knights Exemplar backup. Basically I wanted to take out one node as quickly as possible so Eyriss could concentrate on chasing the other one around all game. It worked like a charm, Eyriss, the Easy Button of Ios, danced around behind the low wall all game taking pot shots at BOV.

I moved the B13 out to threaten the choir that was on the Avatar, and to try and lure the Avatar closer to my long gunners. It worked pretty well, I lost Lynch and Watts to the carebear stare of menoth. Ryan was left alive and later on continued to pick off choir. The Avatar moving in closer allowed me to feat with Haley and really screw it over the next turn. Long story short, he put safe passage on it, I had to pull A&H off of Eyriss protection detail, make my longunners gain magic weapon, cast Temporal Acceleration on the LG's, and then I blasted the Avatar with 3 pow 21's ending it's day. It went down at the perfect time because my LG's were stuck in the Gaze of Menoth.

I asked if he wanted to throw in the towell at that point and maybe get another game in, but cerealjohn is a trooper and he decided to grind it out. I shot a cannon ball at Gravus, causing him to dismount. Gravus then charged into the remainder of my PK's and finished them off. The PK's managed to finish off the revenger, thanks to god-like damage rolls before they died. Everything on that side of the board died (including my stuff) thanks to a combo of PK charge and Time Bomb spam.

As a last ditch effort to kill Eyriss he ran the last 3 Knights to base her up, I gave Thorn 3 Focus, charged and killed them all. Eyriss lives to see another day! The Long Gunners had ran back to the center of the table after dealing with the Avatar, and triple tapped Sevi in the noodle (really they only needed one, but I had to be sure he died). When the smoke cleared he had 2 figs left, which I tried to have kill each other with influence, but they were out of melee range.

Things I did wrong.

The spell ward that eSevi can put on a unit was giving me headaches by the end of the game. I was so worried about chasing his BOV around with Eyriss I didn't even thing to shoot the unit and "unravell" the spell ward on them.
The B13 should of stayed with the PK's. After the PK charged into the middle of battle I can now use Black Penny ammunition to kill off anything that survives the charge. PK's don't ever block LOS anymore and Black Penny lets you shoot into melee without penalty.

I noticed that he ran the 2 Seneshals over to support the Avaterd, maybe an oversight on his part, but I would personally keep them in the heat of battle so they can use their "never die" ability more effectively.

MVP:

I'll go co-mvp award to Eyriss and Ayanna and Holt. Eyriss for keeping his jacks busy all game and A & H for providing clutch magic weapons when I needed them.

All in all a good game played by all, as in most games a simple mistake can either cause you to win or lose. I look forward to playing against the PKA in a future game. I don't have much experience against Khador, so it should be fun.

Until next time.

eSevi v. eHaley: The Breakdown

2009-05-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

Big Wednesday coming up; The glamorous eHaley v. the tree hugging, take a shower you stinky bum, eSevi.

What I expect him to bring:
eSevi
Avatar
Some shooty jack
Zealots
He loves that Dervish

I don't know what you run with eSevi, I have never played against him. Anyway, less him more me!

Models I should or shouldn't bring.

eHaley: Haley is often called the best caster in MKII on the forums. I don't know if I totally agree with that statement, but I have only used her once. Her spells are nasty, TA probably being the best. Lets look at a few and how they match-up against protectorate.

Arcane Bolt: Basically the all around crap spell, but I have found uses for it. With a massive range of 12 inches, throw in an arc node and their advance deploy all die turn 1.

Dead Eye: The super shooty spell, first ranged attack is boosted. Useful to put on things like ranged infantry. Due to its cost of 2 FOC, it's not good to put on jacks. I rarely cast this spell in MKII. In MKI it was more useful to take out the +4/+4 zealots.

Deceleration: Shooty army huh? Your funeral. Everything in her control gets +2 DEF and ARM against ranged attacks. Nothing funnier than ARM 23 infantry moving up the flank.

Domination: Everyone fears this spell, I think its funny when it happens. It only gains power with more jacks on the board. I take control of a jack move it and attack something with it. Now... if that Avatar didn't have spell ward. The dream would be to get a Khador jack with crit amputation, and just lob something off.

Telekinesis: I get to move any model on the board 2" and choose the facing. A brutal spell against things that have a shield. Free back arc strikes is basically what this is for.

Temporal Acceleration: One of the most hated spells in the game right now. Basically Model/Unit gets to attack again and gains +2 SPD. Great for taking out masses of infantry or one really big target. Stormblades charging in with POW 17, plus 3 dice is no joke, especially when they get to attack again.

Time Bomb: The infantry/jack/everything else killer. Big 4" AOE, pow 14, everything hit -2 spd and DEF. Can't charge/trample/ect. I expect to cast this a few times. Most useful to clear out zealots or keep jacks at bay for a few turns.

Feat: Temporal Shift: It's too long and confusing to explain. If you get caught in it, don't plan on doing much the next turn.

Jack Bond +2 SPD: Thorn moves how far now? Storm clad can charge 14"? One of the better bonds Cygnar has.

Echo: Her "epic" not as good as her prime staff. The weapon copies any offensive spell that your opponent casts and lets me cast it next turn. I figure Hex Blast probably won't see much use, but Influence might. You bet I will spend 1 foc to have one of your guys kill another one. I might spend 9 to kill all of your horses! lol

Units:
I need to bring a melee unit to at least keep something busy for a turn or 2.

Stormblades +UA: Possibly one of the most b0rken units to come out of MKII. Electro Leap, good for infantry swarms, assault, nice for infantry, 3" AOE on their ranged weapons. UA gives them all +2 POW on their attacks as long as they are within 5 inches. The Stormclad also receives free focus from this unit. Hands down, the hardest hitting unit Cygnar has right now.

Stormguard: These guys got screwed in MKII. They have electro-leap, reach, and CMA. All great, but for 10 points without UA? Pass.

Precursor Knights: I <3 PK's they are slow, but high armor, and can't be targeted by enemy spells. Weapons master for a turn.

Ranged options: Long Gunners: I really haven't used LG's in MKII. They haven't lost anything, but at 12 points for the unit I find it really hard to justify the spending.

Gun Mages: Got better in MKII with the addition of "the dude" or officer for you non-Cygnar types. The dudes jack can use any of the gun mage ammo, especially dirty with a hunter or defender. +4 range is nice. Critical Brutal shot on a hunter can blow a light to pieces in one turn (armor piercing +4 damage dice). Magic weapons on the mages don't hurt either.

Black 13: *cry* Damn you PP! Damn you to hell! Bring back my black 13! As of now they have magic weapons and they can take out infantry and light jacks without any problems. I just miss nuking a caster from 18" away.

Jacks:

You have to have some jacks in MKII or a way to kill enemy jacks. Option 1 is the easier way to do it.

Huntard: Range 14, armor piercing, RAT 7, 2 shots with TA up. Need I say more?

Defender: The all around good jack. Range 16, POW 15, no special abilites on the gun, critical cortex damage on the melee weapon. Not great, but good, like I said.

Terdhead: One more Cygnar jack that really took it up the steam vent hole in MKII. Not that it's a bad jack, but for 12 points everyone expected a little more. Range 10, ROF 3, still has that energy pulse everyone hates, but it kills your stuff now. Crit disruption, yay. 2 open fists to throw stuff around.

Charger: The surprisingly good light jack to come out of MKII. Range 12, ROF 2, and Brutal shot (boost to hit, boost damage for free). If it aims you hit an average DEF of 18 for a POW 22, not once, but twice. At four points I should be able to blow eSevi in 1/2 in one turn. The charger seems to be the best thing we have in assassination technology right now.

Solos and Mercs:

This is where I run into trouble in MKII. I really don't know what's good yet, so I get to experimental trying new stuff and usually end up paying for it.

Stormsmith: These 1 point wonders are great. Skill check of 7, if you pass anyone within 10" takes a POW 10 and is disrupted. Great filler for an army.

Journeyman Warcaster: Duh

Strangeways: Repair, fixes disruption, causes disruption, can give out a free focus. He's best run with the stormblades and stormclad when the clad is marshalled. 3 free focus a turn lets Haley keep all 8 of hers.

Evil Elf Eyriss: She's good, but I don't like putting her in a lot of armies. Tournament armies yes, fun/test armies no. What's to test? She kicks more butt than a room full of ninjas. Everyone knows that already.

Ayanna and Holt: Once the auto-include in every army that could run them, now 4 points of dead weight.

Piper: See above. He sucks now.

So what do I run here? I have a few ideas floating around, but nothing concrete. After the game on Wednesday I will post my army and give the highs and lows.

Forever

2009-05-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

In recent news eCaine and Grissel went to war for an astonishing 3.5 hours. I finally stopped using Gate Crasher and let her catch up to me. I subsequently died. Good job Dallas!

Foothold -- Part 2 of Fiction Based on Reality

2009-05-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

Foothold

Nemo had been on Garlast Island for a little over a week, trudging through miles and miles of marshland had begun to take its toll on his weakened body. The scent of death rose from every corner of this forsaken place. Everywhere he looked there were rotting corpses waiting to be reanimated by the Cryx gods. Resistance was minimal on Garlast, it seemed to Nemo that even the undead had no use for this desecrated place.

Nemo was by far the oldest warcaster in service to the king, as brilliant in the laboratory as he is on the battlefield, the king owed much to the grizzled veteran. A few meters ahead of Nemo was his masterpiece, the Thunderhead. Every gear and gyro hand crafted by Nemo himself, twice as tall as any man and a thousand times more deadly, the Thunderhead is the pinnacle of Cygnar technology. Few enemies witnessed the Thunderhead on the battlefield, none were left behind to tell stories of it. Trailing behind Nemo was another example of his genius, the Squire. At just over three feet tall the squire, robotic in nature, was able to grant the warcaster unparalleled magic abilities. The battle hardened Stormblades were also assigned to Nemo, lightning crackled from their massive two-handed swords and the bravest carried the banner of Cygnar into battle. Three members of the highly trained Stormsmiths filled out the patrol, able to control the forces of lightning with just a thought.

Nemo reached for his radio as it buzzed to life. "Nemo this is Stryker do you copy?"

“Nemo here, go ahead Commander.”

“I just had a group of rangers call in some strange activities before they were abruptly cut off. They were just a few click to your north, I need your squad to go up there and check it out, expect mild to medium resistance, I have reinforcements in route to assist.”

“Roger that sir, on our way. Nemo out.”

“Be careful friend, I expect to see you back at base for dinner.”

Nemo released a deep sigh and gathered his troops together to tell them the news. “Attention sons of Cygnar. Our king is sending us into battle against an unknown foe. We have lost all contact with scouts in the area so prepare yourself for combat. Remember your training and have faith that our cause is just and you will return to your families.” Nemo then mumbled to himself, “sending my brothers home in the cargo hold is not an option that I leave open.”

Crawling to the top of the grassy hill reminded him briefly of being home, the soft grass between his fingers was a welcome change when compared to the rotten seas of Garlast. Nemo peered over the top of the ridge and his heart almost stopped beating. The sea looked as if it were boiling as legion after legion of Cryx infantry came from out of the water and formed ranks on the beach. Nemo quickly slid down the hill.

Nemo reached for his radio. “Stryker this is Nemo do you read?”

“Stryker here. What's your status?”

“We're outnumber ten to one, the Cryx are massing to retake the island.”

“Drop ships are five minutes out, and I am sending an additional regiment as we speak. I just need you to keep them busy until the first squads arrive so we can catch them off guard. Don't do anything stupid old man, keep your head on, and remember why we are here.” Nemo could hear the distress in Stryker voice. “Acknowledged Commander. Nemo out.”

Nemo solemnly turned to face his force once again. “Beyond this ridge lay a Cryxian armada. Only a base of infantry has arrived so far, but we are severely outnumbered. Everyone stick to the top of the hill as long as possible, we will use the higher ground to our advantage and rain down death on the enemy. Sons of Cygnar, on my mark. Attack!”

With and enormous battle shout Nemo and his force moved to the crest of the hill. Lightning surrounded every soldier, a tribute to Nemo's research. The Cryx force saw the movement on the hill and like a swirling ocean began to send wave after wave of troops to sacrifice Cygnar lives in the name of their gods.

Nemo commanded, “Target the bile thralls first! If those wretched spawn get too close we are all finished!” Nemo began to glow blue, the hum of electricity surrounding him almost became deafening. Suddenly he unleashed a series of lighting bolts through the enemy ranks, leaving nothing but the charred remains of the creatures. Electric bolts came from the stormblades and stormsmiths alike, but it was no use, the endless amount of troops could not be held back any longer. The Stormblade officer shouted, “Sir, our ranged attacks can't hold them off any longer. What are your orders?” Nemo meditated briefly, “Stormblades, full assault! Go!” The stormblades charged into battle, firing their weapons as they ran. The clash of steel on armor sounded like a thunderstorm rolling over the beach head. Nemo unleashed another lightning storm into the heart of troops, the smell of burning flesh overpowering the rotten stench of the undead. The stormsmiths released bolt after bolt of lighting into the mass, but there were too many, the horde kept advancing. One stormsmith yelled, “General, what of the Thunderhead?” Nemo responded, more to himself than anything, “Just like a game of chess my boy, you don't endanger the queen until absolutely necessary.” Nemo looked around anxiously, the stormblades were losing ground, the heart of the mob was quickly advancing. “Where are those reinforcements!? We won't survive much longer!” Time seemed to slow down as Nemo sent the Thunderhead into the heat of battle.

The ground shook as the beast began to charge down the hill, the massive lighting coils on its back began charging. Bolts of energy shot out of the Thunderhead leaving nothing but blood and bones where they struck. Then picking up a Cryx warrior in each hand, he crushed their bodies, and threw what remained back into the sea. Any mortal man would of run in terror as the blood soaked beast plowed its way through their ranks. The lighting coils were glowing brighter than ever. The more carnage the monster brought the brighter they became. Nemo looked down at his arms and saw the hair standing on end, he knew it was time to end this game; Either we would win or they would, the reinforcements were too late. Nemo commanded the Thunderhead to unleash its mass of energy. The Thunderhead let out a great roar and unleashed its power. The light was so bright that even the undead were forced to turn away. Nemo lowered his goggles and smiled. Now all were witness to his brilliance, his heart and soul went into creating this engine of destruction and if need be it would destroy every soul here. Looking once again to the 'jack Nemo saw nothing surrounding it, but a great pile of blackened bodies. Nemo was disheartened when he saw more and more Cryx moving in to take their place. All seemed to be lost, Nemo turned his mind to his long lost loved ones. Nemo shouted, “Full retreat, get to the top of the hill and we will hold them until the last man is standing!” The stormblades were the first to arrive, blood and flesh covering their armor. The officer, now humbled said, “It has been an honor serving under you General. I would not choose another way for me and the men to pass to the other side.”

“The feeling is mutual, officer. I fear this time the mighty Cygnar will no longer be able to hold Garlast Island.” Nemo, ready to die, began charging his energy for one last stand.

A great scream of a jet turbine almost burst the eardrums of all around. Nemo looked to the sky as the dropship released its payload, two heavy 'jacks know as Defenders and two light anti-personnel 'jacks, called Sentinels. Nemo immediately reached out with his mind to try and gain control of them, but the 'jacks came to life on their own. “What is this madness?” Nemo asked. “A warjack cannot be animated unless a warcaster takes control of it.” The heavy barrel cannons of the defenders tore through the left flank of the unprepared Cryx. The heavy machine guns of the sentinels, able to fire thousands of rounds per minute, cut right to the heart of the horde. The undead army turned to face the new threat, and unleashed a gutteral roar. As the army turned Nemo rallied his troops and began a counter offensive. On the right flank of the Cryx appeared a great pillar of blue light, countless shots of magic and lead poured out of it. Nemo knew there was only one warcaster that demanded an entrance like this, Allister Caine.

Caine jumped out of the portal, guns blazing as his signature duster whipped around him from the ocean breeze. Behind him came his prodigy Tempest Gun Mages, laying waste to all that dare stand in front of their arcane pistols.

The sea stopped churning and all the remaining undead turned and fled back into the watery depths. Nemo was grateful that Caine had finally made it, “Caine! Wonderful to see you here, I'm sorry the circumstances weren't more appealing.”

“Yeah, I really bailed you out of this one old timer.”

“Captain, you will refer to me as sir or general, is that understood?”

“Yes... Sir.”

“Nevertheless, I am pleased that you have decided to help us in our war against the Cryx.”

“Let's get two things straight... General... I was ordered here by the king himself; I did not come of my own free will and you owe me a bottle of whiskey, I seem to have lost mine during the battle.” Nemo grinned, “Let's make it two bottles friend, one for each of us, the Gods know I could use one right about now.” Caine smiled, “Deal old man, er... I mean sir.”

Nemo reached for his radio once again. “Stryker this is Nemo, over.”

“Stryker here, what's your status Nemo?”

“Things looked very grim indeed friend, until Caine showed up and the Cryx retreated.”

“You know as well as I do Cryx don't retreat Nemo.”

“I know and that troubles me too Commander.”

“Report back to base double time, the both of you.”

“Yes sir, Nemo out.”

Nemo looked at Caine, “Stryker orders us back to base double time Captain. We must try to figure out why the Cryx decided to retreat.” Caine put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with the red hot tip of his pistol. Suddenly another great pillar of light appeared behind Caine. “After you General.” Nemo groaned, dreading this journey. “As you wish Captain.”

Fiction based on reality.

2009-05-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

I stole a page from my friend CerealJohns play book and decided to do a little fiction based on actual games. I am by no means a good writer, but I tried to have fun and make it interesting.

Invasion

From the sun bleached stone tower of Henge Hold Lord Commander Stryker and General Nemo stared across the sea at Garlast Island. The earth seemed to be on fire as the setting sun reflected countless hues of orange off of the incoming tide.

“Morning can never come soon enough the night before a battle my friend” remarked Stryker. Nemo let out a long sigh, “Don't be too hasty to invade the Cryxian homeland Stryker, even I admit you are one of the greatest leaders the king has ever seen, but one does not get as old as I am by being careless.” Nemo held up his hand and pointed toward the south. “Do you see those ruins there? They too were once a proud stronghold like this, but underestimating the pirates and their false Gods saw to it's destruction. One day I fear even Henge Hold will be witness to the falling of our nation.”

Just then Strykers radio let out a scream of static. “Sir this is Lynch, do you copy”

“This is Stryker go ahead.”

“The beach to Garlast is clear, our landing party will meet no resistance.”

“That's no surprise, the undead horde will never expect an unprovoked attack.”

“What are your orders?”

“Sit tight in the trees, keep a close lookout, and inform me if anything changes. Tomorrow we will meet you on the beach.”

“Roger that sir. Lynch out.”

Stryker placed his hand on Nemo's shoulder, “Tomorrow General, we change the world.”

“Be careful Commander and heed my word.”

Stryker ran down the long spiral staircase of the tower and bellowed, “Journeyman, prepare the ships for full attack! We begin at dawn!”

“Right away sir!”

“Stormguard! Stormsmiths! I want full squads! I want the Cryx to feel the kings boot before it crushes their skulls! Get them aboard the ships and well rested, tomorrow we go to war!”

“Yes sir!”

Stryker then spoke so that only he could hear, “I have a close friend I need to visit.”

Standing before Stryker was the war jack known by all as 'Ol Rowdy. Standing at 12' tall and weighing in at seven tons Rowdy had seen more battles than even the Lord Commander. Painted Cygnar blue with golden highlights the robotic beast would strike fear into even the hearts of the mindless undead.

“Good Evening Commander”, came a voice from the darkness. Stryker knew exactly who it was before the sentence left his mouth. “A good evening indeed Strangeways. How's Rowdy doing tonight? Is he ready for tomorrow?”

“There is never a day he is not ready for battle sir. I have replaced all of his damaged armor, recharged his quake hammer, and prepped the boiler.

“Would you please light him up so I can run some tests myself?”

“Of course sir.”

Bolts of electricity slowly began to arc from Strangeway's hands until the blue light was so bright Stryker was unable to look directly at it. With a loud pop the light went out, and the beast came to life.

In an instant the mind of Stryker and Rowdy were connected. Jacks were supposed to be mindless and under the strict control of the warcaster, but the countless battles that Rowdy had experienced had given him a certain “personality” that Stryker loved.

A few quick practice swings with the quake hammer were all that Stryker needed to know that Rowdy was ready for battle once again. “An amazing job as usual Captain.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Make sure you get him on the flagship with me.”

“Of course Commander.”

“And if Nemo has a finished one I would like to try out a squire as well.”

“Anything else sir?”

Styker grinned as he looked down the walls of the citadel at the countless 'jacks to choose from. “Load Thorn onto my ship too.”

“All do respect sir, Haley would not approve.”

“Haley is in Fort Whiterock on political matters, she won't need it.”

Strangeways fought back a laugh, “Yes sir, Thorn will be on the flagship as well.” Stryker returned to his quarters to get ready for the battle himself.

Stryker stood on the bow of his flagship as the sun started to creep up over the horizon. His troops looked tired from the night before, he knew all too well that it was impossible to sleep when you knew that this night might be your last night in service of the king. The Lord Commander knew that when the battle came his highly trained warriors would be ready for anything.

Stykers radio popped to life again. “Sir, this is Lynch do you read?”

“Styker, go ahead.”

“Sir, we have seen movement on the tree line. Nobody could make out what it was, Watts thinks it was an animal, but I'm not convinced.”

“We are five minutes out, stand firm and stay hidden. Radio silence from this point on. Stryker out.”

Stryker knew better than anyone that animals could not exist in a place like The Scharde Islands. He thought to himself, it might be a scout team, but how would they know we are coming? More likely it was a group of undead that had detached from the hive mind, doomed to wander the earth for eternity. Stryker didn't get in his position by taking chances though. Stryker motioned to the Journeyman Warcaster for attention on deck. The Journeyman screamed, “Attention on deck! Lord Commander Stryker would like to address you!” The army quickly turned to face Stryker at attention, even Rowdy seemed to stand up a little straighter. Stryker could hear the electrical hum of his armor over the crashing waves. “Gentleman in one minute we land on Garlghast Island and we finish our mission to rid the world of evil. Garlghast will be the foothold for our continued attacks, our base of operations will be on this island, so I don't have to remind you how important this attack is. Our reports say that resistance will be minimal, but be ready for anything, the Cryxian worms are very cunning. Know that if you do not return home, your families and king will honor your deaths. FOR CYGNAR!” The crowd gave a great battle shout as the landing platform finally dropped.

Stryker spread out his army is a standard Cygnar battle formation. He ordered the Stormguard and Stormsmith to take up the left flank, Rowdy and himself would hold the middle, Thorn and the members of the Black 13 would hold up the right side. Ahead of them lay the ruins of Drer Drakerung, a decimated city, and the site of countless failed invasions, Stryker hoped that the sight of this wouldn't lower the morale of his men.

On the right flank Stryker saw movement, the B13 saw it too, but held their fire. Styker then knew the moving shapes were not animals or mindless zombies it was a Cryx recon group known as the Satyxis Raiders, and their seeming invisibility could only mean they had a Sea Witch commanding them. Stryker exclaimed, “Open fire! Leave no survivors!” That was all that it took for the Black 13 to light the area up with a hail storm of lead and magic. The shapes quickly began to advance on the 13. Now Stryker was sure it was the raiders, every time a bullet came close to one he could see the barbed whips they were known to carry. Stryker thought to himself, "Why are they advancing? Shouldn't a recon group run as soon as they are spotted?" Stryker knew the undead didn't know fear, but this was insane even for them; Who would charge a full Cygnar army with so few troops? Stryker sent Thorn forward to meet them, this display would surely change their plans. Lightning began to crackle around Stryker and he unleashed a massive Electrical Storm at the raiders, blocking the route they had planned on charging through. The B13 looked relieved, they were the best shots in the Cygnar army, but none of their bullets were hitting their mark. Stryker yelled at the Stormguard, “Get cover in those ruins in case this goes bad!” No sooner than the words left his mouth Stryker spotted a Defiler running right at them, the enemy 'jack could only mean one thing, they were facing a Cryx warcaster. Green bolts of energy shot out of the mouth of the defiler, Stryker put up a protective barrier around his troops, but it was too late. The entire unit of Stormguard fell to their knees, boils appeared on their skin, and their armor began to rust in front of his eyes. “What vile spawn of the underworld would do something like this?” He mumbled to himself. Out of the ruins emerged the dreaded 'jack, Nightmare, racing down his left flank. “Get out of there!” Styker yelled to the stormguard, but it was too late, Nightmare was on them. A bolt of lightning seemed to come from nowhere and engulfed Nightmare in an electric prison. “Maybe not all is lost,” thought Stryker, the stormsmiths can keep him busy while we regroup. A Leviathan emerged from behind a fallen wall and unleashed a series of deafening shots into the stormguard, cutting them down as they tried to regroup. Blood splattered Stykers face and armor as one of his mens heads erupted like a fountain.

The Journeyman squealed, “The left flank is collaspsing sir!”

“Don't you think I can see that son? I am covered in the blood of my men! Keep looking for the warcaster, if you spot him let me know immediately!”

“Yes sir!”

Stryker quickly scanned the battlefield, a large explosion erupted from the ground next to him, but his search never strayed. He looked and grinned as the B13 bullets were finally hitting their marks, the raiders were being cut down where they stood. The Sea Witch let out a great howl as even she fell victim to their onslaught. Stryker thought to himself, “the nightmare would mean Haley's fallen sister Denny should be here somewhere, but this type of carnage is not her style.” No sooner had the thought left his mind he saw her, not Denny as he had initially thought, but the dreaded Pirate Queen, Skarre.

Skarre laughed time and time again as Cygnar and Cryx troops were torn to pieces, her sharpened teeth glimmering in the morning sun. Skarre smiled when she locked eyes with Stryker. “It appears even the greatest of the Cygnar commanders will be feasted upon by the dragon god today Stryker!” Styker wiped the blood from his eyes, Skarre's overconfidence had left her vulnerable, he had to stike now or he may never have the chance. Lightning surrounded Stryker and he lurched forward with unnatural speed, catching Skarre off guard. Skarre looked down and saw Stykers blade Quicksilver sticking out of her chest. Styker stared into her eyes and said, “Know this witch, your reign of terror ends here forever, your god will not see fit to raise you again. Die knowing that all of your people will be destroyed by my hand.” Skarre once again smiled as blood poured out of her mouth. Styker yelled, “Now die beast!” Stryker quickly pulled Quicksilver out of her chest and spun around cutting off the pirate queens head. The Cryx 'jacks went limp, without a mind to control them, they were just pieces of scrap metal.

Victory had been awarded today, but at what cost? The stormguard were all dead, they were husbands and fathers, they will be remembered as heroes. Stryker tried to stand up straight and proud. “Today we are victorious! We have cleansed this world of a great evil known as Skarre, this will deal a great blow to the Cryx horde.”

In the distance Stryker could see Nemo's ships reaching the island. Stryker couldn't help but laugh to himself, "That old man is really going to rip me a new one when he gets here."

Stryker turned to his remaining troops and grinned, “Now dig in, I have the feeling this is going to be a long day.”

Weekend Update -- Cygnar v. Cryx 0-2.

2009-04-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I decide to go test some MKII with the heavy hitters in SLC. Not to take anything away from the gang at the LGS, but I wanted to really see MKII in action with nasty strats and combos.

One of my best friends, Lenny aka Darknesse, invited me over to play a few games with him, so I figure what the heck, Cryx got "uber nerfed" maybe I can hang with him for a little while. *note that I was the only one at a recent local tourney that made it past turn 2-3 with him. I have known Darknesse for years, know most of his strats, and can usually grind out some nasty games. Out of his 4 lifetime losses in WM I account for 2 of them, a statistic I am fairly proud of. lol.

After some dumbass 40k player sits there and talks junk to Darknesse, and almost dies for his big mouth, we get down to business. They were basically nose to nose when I started over so I could pull Darknesse off of the guys corpse and the guy got smart and backed down.

I bring 3 lists and he brought 2, we had planned ahead to make a full day out of kicking the crap out of each other.

My lists included eHaley, eNemo, and eStryker; he was bringing Mortenebra and eGaspy to the table.

Game 1 we roll for a random army I get eNemo he gets Morty.

My list includes
eNemo
squire
Thorn
Lancer
Hunter
Rowdy
stormsmith x3
strangeways
jwc
black 13
precursor knights +UA

His army was
Morty
her skarlock
2x seether
death jack
stalker
nightmare
2 arcnodes
2-3 scrap thralls
2-3 nechrotechs

Something like that anyway.

I was packing more disruption that Carter had pills so I thought this would go my way at least for a while.

I moved up and he ran everything, I blast a few things with with Electrical Blast, disrupting the Seether, blast something with my Hunter, B13 kill a scrap thrall. The DJ was killing everything in my army, by far the most over powered piece that Cryx has right now. At one point I thought I had him on the ropes when I smacked the DJ 3 times with my shock field and destroyed his cortex, jokes on me though, DJ walks over, eats a PK and is at full health again.

By the end I realized how hard it is to finish off a jack based army, the things just don't die! By the old rules my plan was sound, MK I rules would have had most of his jacks disabled. Nearly all of my stuff was dead, I could of messed with him a few rounds with Galvanic Bolt, but decided it was best to concede the game and move onto game 2.

Game 2 was eGaspy v. eStryker

My army
eStryker
squire
Thorn
Rowdy
Thunder Head
stormguard (min)
JWC
Precursors (max) +UA
B13
stormsmith

Him
eGaspy
2-3 nodes
DJ
Death Knights
Bile Thralls
Tarter sauce
Slaughterborn
Some other crap I don't remember

Turn 1 I am 1/2 asleep and forget to move thorn and the thunderhead out of my DZ. Turn 2 I quickly find out that without some sort of fix the new Excarnate will ruin almost every army turn 2.
I have my storm guard about 5 inches out of my DZ, he runs a node and excarnates Ryan of B13 on turn 2, this creates a bile thrall anywhere in his control area, but it must be in formation with his current unit. Oh BTW according to the new formation rules he can be 7" away from his leader which is right in front of my DZ. Biles move up and purge most of my Stormguard away.
Slaughterborn goes berzerk and kills almost all of my PK's. Tarter sauce moves in and gives the rest of my SG a taste of axe2face.
It wasn't really that one sided, I was throwing spells left and right killing a lot of figs. A critical mistake came when I forgot to move thorn after casting a spell, which led to his death. After a turn of nearly all of my stuff getting "boxed" (slaughterborn, tartersauce, DJ) I have this moment of insight that chess players must get when they realize they are going to win the match.
Between Stryker and eGaspy, lies Slaughterborn, a mountain of death knights, my Rowdy wreck marker, and a couple biles. I move up the TH an electro pulse everything that is moving, I roll a 17 to hit which hits everything in between eGaspy and eStryker. Everything dies, I laugh. I activate Stryker, cast Velocity for 3 moving him 6" at Gaspy, declare my charge. He claims he had Hell Bound upkept, I don't remember him saying that, but it's not like him to forget something like that. I have to settle for a supercharged hit on Slaughterborn to remind him who his dad is, he eats a boosted POW 25 and implodes. I concede because I am looking at a Gaspy feat with no intervening models, and a dead slaughterborn.

All in all I thought I played pretty well, it's not in Darknesses' character to admit if I played him well or not.

Of course we argued about if his nodes were the correct point value or not and other such nonsense.

I was excited about how well some things went for me, I actually got a "Surge" off with my Stormsmiths giving them a nasty 20" range for the first time in history. Let's play some more MKII! I just have one more 50pt list to test out, if were reading close you already know who that is. ;P

Nemo v. Bart for all the Marbles

2009-04-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Well my good pal Thegreatblah decided we would bust out a quick 25 point MKII battle last night. He normally plays Trolls, but has a few merc units so he is able to playtest MKII with everyone.

Mercs, in my opinion, was the weakest faction and didn't seemingly gain much from MKII. Blah played his Bart AoE spam list which looked something like this.

Bart
Mule
Mariner x2
Dirty Meg
Reinholt the Gobber
Herrne and Johnne

Cygnar, while obviously not a powerhouse army in MKI, gained a few tricks in the new version to try and smooth out the rough edges. I ran my mini-storm army v.1.

pNemo
Squire
Thunderhead
Thorn
JWC
Stormguard (min)

I rolled the option to go first. 1 FOC on Thorn, run him. Cast AS on the stormguard via JWC (ARM 18 now, bring the AOE!). Run the storm guard. Nemo casts Locomotion x5 to move the TH up 5 inches. TH activates moves another 5.

His go. Moves up Herrne and Johnne blasts a SG, dies, gets nothing out of the other 2 aoe's. All of his jacks fire at the TH moving up to gut them, most miss, TH no-sells the drift damage. Bart goes, everyone fires again. Same outcome.

My turn. Move thorn up, charge HnJ with the SG, their blood sprays everywhere. JWC caster casts AS on Nemo (strictly for power tokens), Nemo arcs CL into this turtle shell, gets Meg down to 1 wound, kills the gobber and Bart gets boosted damage and takes a few. Cast it again, Meg dies Bart takes a few more, jacks take a few also.
Move up the TH close enough to engage next turn, but not close enough to eat a charge.

His turn. He decided to try and nuke the TH with 6 shots to the grill to avenge Meg. Does a good job, TH ends up taking 10 or so damage. Other stuff happened, nothing of consequence died.

My go. TH loads up on 3 FOC, moves up and does new and improved purge on his turtle shell, I boost, but no crit :(. Crits with the new purge cause disruption which would have finished his army off (I hit all of his jacks). All of his jacks eat a POW 14, Bart takes a boosted POW 14, I roll crap and he takes minimal. I fire my last shot into his jack for dice -3. SG advance on his army, nemo moves up and does nothing.

His go. Everyone charges the poor TH and total it. Sad days. This move leaves Bart open. So he runs away to the back table edge.

I don't remember exactly what happened to finish this out, but it consisted of Nemo feating and disrupting all of his jacks, hitting everything with CL a bunch of times, some of them hit my stuff too. Bart gets down to 2 wounds, and I charge my SG in and attack his low DEF Mule and arc lighting bolts onto Bart and he croaks.

I could only count a million or so mistakes made by everyone that game, but it was fun and we both learned what not to do when playing MKII.

Until next time, keep on complaining about Darius sucking on the MKII site!

MK II -- Simple Enough

2009-04-07T17:07:00.001-07:00

Ah the day after the nuke of MKII, some people were obliterated by the blast wave while others of us have to deal with radiation poisoning.

Cygnar as a faction I think did fairly well, some units were nerfed, while others were buffed. I believe losthemisphere stated it best as, "balance." If you dorks remember yoda promised Anakin would bring "balance" to the force, he left out the part about Luke and Darth being the only jedi alive to balance it. I'm not totally sure what the standard tournament game point will be, but I think it's best to assume it will be somewhere in the realm of 35-50.

After looking at the new cards and looking at the new rules it's probably safe to assume Jacks are back! Most of the rules stayed the same, but one notable one for jacks is the Shake Off ability.

Shake Off basically states that a jack can spend 1 FOC to remove a knock down or stationary effect. Wow, so much for KD spam lists RIP pStryker. Luckily they have to wait until the jacks activation to use it so pStryker "pop 'n drop" lists will still be viable.

The MKII rules army of the week in my opinion will be lightning spam. Cygnar got lots and lots of electricity spells and lots of immunity to the damage. Hit yourself with an AOE? meh Immune.

Let's check this out. I will break down the model selection after the list.

eStryker 101 -- AOE the face.

eStryker +6 WJ
Squire -- 2
Thunder Head -- 12
Thorn -- 8
JWC -- 3
B13 -- 5
Strangeways -- 2
Storm Blades (min. unit) + UA -- 8

34/35 points thanks to the free caster and 6 Jack points on credit. In case you missed it, there are no "epic" casters now. All casters are included in your army for free and have a set amount of points you may spend on jacks for free.

Bear with me, this is a rough draft and I haven't played with the new rules, just toyed around with them.

eStryker: Or should I say just Stryker now? Stryker in the lightning spam army? You bet! He is immune to electric damage now along with both versions of Nemo, time will tell which is the best caster to run here (all will keep you at 35 or less). He still has the spell Electric Storm which causes, you guessed it, electric damage. His jack bond gives you an additional dice on your first melee attack of the turn, it's still unknown if the TH is still a unique jack and devoid of bonding, but as far an I can tell he is no longer "unique."

Squire: Still unchanged, Yay!

Thunder Head: Here's where things get a little strange. TH basically lost all of it's abilities and gained a few new ones. The biggest change is the new Energy Pulse. Good Bye to the 8" pulse we all know and love, hello to the 6" 360 degree Energy Pulse. Yup all models withing 6" get nuked, including yours (thanks electricity immunity!) This is still a ranged attack and can't be used in melee so you have to be careful about models with reach. The new trick is, it's one roll against all models caught in the blast, if it matches or beats any models DEF they are hit. The kicker is 1 boost to hit dice boosts it against everyone, so you're looking at 16's to hit on average. P.S. RAT is 6 now. Still ROF 3, still sustained attacks, still not attached to a weapon, so you can fire until the last damage box is gone.

Thorn: Basically the old Thorn we love, but he loses his imprint and gets his "move 2" when your opponent misses you cheese" as his new imprint. Thorn will run around and mess your opponent up with Storm Wracked and hit himself and TH with Positive Charge.

JWC: Loses Disrupt, keeps Arc Shield to keep enemies crying. Unchanged other than that. Has a magic sword now.

B13: Uber nerfed, but I still think useful. They lose almost every ability, but gain Black Penny. BP ignores Concealment, screening, and you can shoot into melee with no penalty. BP is handy for knocking off the pesky guys bogging down your TH in melee. They are not immune to electricity. They all have Mage Lock pistols which are considered magic weapons now.

Strangeways: Oh how I loved thee and will miss you making my attacks magical. Yup that spell is gone. He can still make your jacks immune to free strikes, or he can give a jack 1 FOC every turn. I would imagine you would use the focus in a pinch to stand up or something, or just get 4 FOC on a turn and unleash hell with your TH. He can still repair, which is turning into a very important mechanic now. Also immune to electricity.

Storm Blades /w UA: Yup I wrote it, don't read it again, STORM EFFING BLADES! (and UA) :) These guys went from not so good to WOW! P+S 13/15's nothing new there, CMA, yup same. Leader gives everyone within' 5" +2 range, woopie that's 6"...
Everyone with 5" also get's +2 to melee and ranged damage. What!? Effective POW 15/17's? POW 12/14's on the cannons? Maybe not so cool to you, but I liked it. I think where they shine is with the UA. They gain assault and all of the ranged attacks become 3" AOE's, electric damage again. So run in, blast the guy you charged with electric damage, it doesn't deviate because you are in B2B. POW 9's on the blast (assuming the +2 damage still applies after it's halved), Whatever is left is eating a POW 15 + 3d6. Add in the fact that they have CMA and you can kiss a heavy good bye. Thats a POW 23+3d6 on the charge. Once again, immune to electricity.

Will this army work? Your guess is as good as mine. It looks solid on paper, but playtesting is a whole 'nother monster.

I imagine a game with TH in the middle, SB leading the way, Thorn running up the flank, SW and Squire tossing around an extra FOC. Army blows a giant hole in the middle of everything, Stryker charges in his 15" gains +3d6 STR and leaves a smoking hole where their caster used to be, then feats and do your whole turn over again.

350 Ho-down -- UPDATE

2009-04-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

So in preparation for the 350 MM tourney coming up next week I had a practice game with the local Circle player, Mike.

I ran
Jerry
Hunter x2
Lancer

He ran
Kaya
Satyr
Warpwolf
That guy chained to a rock

Thanks to +1 rolls I get to go first, I place 2 forests for my 2 terrain pieces, he places a forest and a hill. I think to myself, "Wow that was dumb of me to place 2 forests against Circle."

I choose to go first, put Jerry and the Lancer on the table. He sets up, I advance deploy both my hunters behind the forest.

My turn 1 focus to each jack, guided fire, run lancer to forest to join his buddies. Move hunter 1 take a shot at the Satyr deal a measly 4 or so damage. Hunter 2 moves up wiffs a boosted shot needing a 6 to hit. Both hunters run away during their respective activations.

He moves up during his turn to try and get into the forest to get my hunters and regens the Satyr.

My turn basically the same as turn 1, give a focus to each hunter, move my lancer up, guided fire, arced Hot Persuit on the big bad Wolf, move the hunters up, AGAIN :( one hits for piddly squat damage, other wiffs on that damn 6 to hit. Both Hunters run again.

At this point I'm getting a little worried, I had hoped to take out or cripple one heavy by the end of the second turn. I still have all of my jacks undamaged and am quite far away from him, but am quickly losing my forest for cover.

He moves up on his turn and his wolf and kaya have the bonus of hiding behind the forest now. The unkillable Satyr is still in the open. When he moves his Wolf I choose to move my lancer to some cover.

My turn. Finally the hunters do their job, both hit and destroy the Satyr yay! Now he has Wolf, Kaya, and the chain guy left. I move Jerry back to avoid being charged by the wolf.

His turn. He runs the Wolf right up into Jerry's face, confused I comment "I have parry and am immune to free strikes." I figured he ran the wolf into melee to keep me from running away next turn. Alakazam Alakazille, Kaya teleports from the forrest right into melee with my caster. Well I'm doomed for not reading her card. She still has a bunch of Fury, I figure I'm done for the day. Turns out she can't hit the broad side of a troll either, couple wiffs, couple matched armor, then she feats and fills up her fury again. After the smoke cleared somehow Jerry was still alive with 5 HP to spare. He's done.

Me! Give 1 focus to a hunter that has a charge lane to Kaya. Jerry burns all of his focus boosting to hit and dealing good damage. Hind sight, she has a big DEF rating and every hit I should of boosted damage instead of going for more hits. I managed to get her to 2-3 HP after the horrible play by me. I feat with Jerry, the hunter comes out and finishes her off with boosted damage rolls.

A fun game had by both parties an it ended up being a lot closer than I thought it would be.

Moral of the story:
Don't bank on needing 6's to hit, even on boosted dice they don't always come when you need them.
When facing a high DEF low ARM caster when you hit make them pay by boosting the damage, odds are you will miss quite a few of your attacks.

Jerry in MM was a good time, but not a tourney worthy caster by any stretch of the imagination. If you want to compete in MM I would reccomend bringing Haley (if you expect to see a lot of WM only players), or Darius (if you want to win).

Going 350 Mangled Metal for a Second

2009-03-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

So what to run in MM for Cygnar? I know the obvious choice would be Darius, but we are here to have some fun, not run around destroying everyone in our path. Besides you will just embarass yourselves.

All joking aside for 350 points of Jack on Jack action I have decided to give good 'ol Jerry Kraye a shot.

Now Jerry gives all of your jacks light and heavy cavalry rules, depending on the jack of course which means a few things that will work quite well with him.

So here's the list that I think I will be testing out in the next few weeks.

Jerry Kraye
Huntard
Huntard
Lancer

I wish to the heavens that I could fit Thorn into this list, but you can't always get everything you want.

Bonuses: Light Jacks will be super mobile in this army thanks to the special rules; move 6", shoot 14", move 6" anyone? In case you didn't catch that it means the hunters can stay 20" away from your jacks and still rain down lots of armor piercing rounds. Oh and if you get close, surprise! Reserve Tank lets me move them again.

Drawbacks: They are all light Jacks. Hunters are among the most over-priced jacks Cygnar has, coming in just a shade under 90 each. And can they take a hit? Absolutely not, a stiff breeze will easily knock a system out.

The lancer is in there to throw around Jerry's favorite spells
Full Tilt: Double jacks SPD, but they can't shoot.
Hot Persuit: When a model effected by this spell moves you get to move any model in your battle group.

The Lancer can also be a cannon ball on JK's feat turn.

Feat:
Horsepower: I know it's a dumb name, but he rides a horse.
All Jacks in your control area, stand up, gain +5 SPD, can charge for free, and get an additional dice to hit in melee.
Seems good for melee jacks, now where were they in this list again? Look at this though, 3 Foc on Lancer, full tilt, feat. *brain makes some noises* So that's a 25" threat for a charge. ZOMG!
SPD 6+5 = 11 Full Tilt x2= 22 + charge bonus = 25. And all the hits are "auto-boosted."

Assuming we get 2 lists for some reason at the MM tourney, don't know why we would though, I will definitely test this one out and let everyone know how it works. There is a high possibility that a hunter will vanish and leave a Centurion in its place.

Untill next time! Keep on Gaming!

'Ol Reliable, pHaley

2009-03-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the new guy that just barely got his army up to 500 pts. comes strolling into your LGS talking junk; How exactly do you welcome him to the world of Warmachine?

Let me introduce the mother of all 500 pt. QQ casters, pHaley.

I can tell you from personal experience that when any player sees Haley sitting on the other side of the board they know they are going to be in for an uphill battle from the get go. She is one of the best and most versatile casters in the Cygnar army.

Yeah, yeah, the sculpt is pretty much crap, that's why they released an alternate pose, but see whose laughing when your opponents army is vaporized while under the effects of Temporal Barrier. Speaking of TB, here comes the next section.

Spells of note:
Temporal Barrier -- You will cast this probably every turn with the exception of maybe the first round or two. In a nutshell everyone in her control area moves at 1/2 speed, -3 DEF, as well as a few other notable things.
Chain Lightning -- Troop swarm got you down? Thin them out by killing d6+1 targets. This is Haley's other amazing spell.
Dead Eye -- Most stuff Cygnar has is a good shot, but this is for that absolutely have to hit something turn. Add an additional d6 to your first ranged attack rolls (model/unit). I honestly don't use this spell that often, but it shows the real versatility in spells that she has.
Scramble -- Enemy jack runs in a random direction and ends its activation. One of my favorites.
Arcane Shield -- Yup, another Cygnar caster with this spell.

As you can see Haley has an amazing selection of spells. The main problem when running her is TB will be cast every turn and it takes over 1/2 of her FOC to cast it, leaving room for little else.

Weapons -- Hand Cannon, Vortex Spear.
Hand cannon is basically your all around pistol that adds to Cygnars already overloaded range. I have fired this a few times as a last resort, usually if you're shooting someone with it you're going to lose soon.
Vortex Spear is an assassin casters worst nightmare. For a mere 1 focus Haley can counter a spell that targets a model within 3" of her, including herself.

500 pts. of Haley
pHaley
Squire
Thorn
GMCA
JWC
PK's x 8
PK UA
LG's x10
LG UA
Rupert the Piper

This army is fairly well known to most Haley players, it's fast, hits like a truck, or it can sit back and turtle all day long if it has to.

Some Strats : Like I mentioned before this army is well rounded and comes with a variety of different strats, all of which you will figure out by playing better than I can explain. The first turn, especially if you go second don't be afraid to run Thorn out there into the fray of battle, remember he gets to move after you cast a spell through him so he can run back to cover. I will set my LG's up in the center with PK's and Thorn on the flanks. Placing the LG's in the middle creates a huge "no go" area for your opponents, thanks to their massive ranged weapons. Throw an AS from JWC onto LG's, give AS to Thorn from Haley (you can arc it through him if you need to) this gives them both the survivability they need.

If you end up setting up second put the PK's across from the meanest looking thing you can see on the board, big jacks, big beasts, whatever. For the first turn or 2 move them up the normal movement and postion them to unleash hell's fury. With the pipers song they have an alarming 12" charge and if they hit, and they usually will, we're looking at 12+4d6 damage if you use their mini-feat. You can also use the piper to charge 9" and have 2 attacks o.O!

Place the GMCA in the middle of the board to create a large "no go" area for your opponents solo's (like the LG's). I stress placing him in the middle if possible, there's nothing worse that having him in a flanking position and having the enemy stealth models on the other side of the board. I <3's>Feat Turn: I go a lot of games without using her feat, not that's it's bad, it's amazing, but it's usually overkill. Everyone in her controll area, get's to make another attack reguardless of rate of fire and other normal restrictions. This attack requires no focus. Usually this feat is good for making dead things more than dead. Oh there's your caster, how about 3 POW 21's to the chin from my LG's?

Note about Piper and unit interactions: Remember he can't play the same song twice in a row, use them wisely. LG's threatened by AOE's? Play tough, did they leave their caster in the open or on a hill? Give them some more movement. Tough Shield Walled PK's are really tough to take down, and as I mentioned before marching them with piper is lights out for most stuff.

That pretty much sums it up for all of the Prime casters. If you have any questions for would like me to elaborate on a specific thing with Stryker, Caine, or Haley please feel free to comment and I can do an in-depth write up on a strat or a rule you are confused about.

Next up, the grand daddy of all jack casters....Darius! Or maybe Siege. No! DARIUS!

Month Long Tourney Final Synopsis.

2009-03-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well the mighty have fallen this round of the tourney, me being the mighty in case there were any questions. After basically a total domination of three rounds, round four went to eVlad.

So we start the game me with my pHaley list him with eVlad, somehow I get king of the hill AGAIN (that's the third time in four games). He rolls to go first, then things went down hill quickly.

Turn 1 he advance deploys his widowmakers, moves them up, they are all out of range of my front line with the exception of one. I knew what was on the way so I set up about an inch behind my 10" deployment line. Anyway, one PK falls to the lone widowmaker, he runs everything close enough to get onto the hill next turn. Score 1 point for Khador.

My turn 1: I figure I'm only down 1 and I can work with that. Steal focus from the squire, Move up THead, Thorn, PK's into a position so they can charge next turn, move up Haley, TB, Chain Lightning through Thorn at the widowmakers, hit (woo!), roll a 5 (yay I'm still in this), Kill all of his Widowmakers and do some ting damage to his Great Bears. Urie, or however you spell it, gets stuck in TB as he races down my right flank, GMCA looks over, blasts him in the face, Urie runs off scared and is out of the rest of the game. LG's move up and finish off the damaged Great Bear. I had myself set-up to take the hill and keep it next turn, assuming nothing catastrophic happened.

Turn 2: I really don't remember too much of this turn other than Beast 09, and his remaining great bears kept the hill, everything melee that could threaten me was stuck in TB, at some point a lucky mortar drift hit my LG's and killed a few (that lucky drift ended up being a huge factor in the game), I know A&H managed to kill Watts, ie the sucky member of the B13. 2-0 points for Khador.

My Turn 2: Another focus is tranferred from the squire to Haley, 3 go on the THead. I look at how the game is shaping up and figure this is where I will win or go home in 4th (WTF championship round, loser gets 4th place!?). TB with Haley, feat, keep 1 focus to counterspell something. I get my ranged stuff out of the way, Pulse with TH hits his 2 great bears, Beast 09, Dragoon, maybe some other stuff I honestly don't remember. I do some damage to both Great Bears, finish them off with auto-hitting POW 14's, put my extra shot into Beast 09. GMCA moves up and Blazes B09 twice doing some mediocre damage. Long Gunners move up, B09 eats massive damage, then I crit miss!, Then I hit him again for hardly anything. That crit miss ends up being the deciding factor in the game, I needed to hit Beast all three times to total him so my PK's could go wipe Drago off the face of the earth. Anywho 09 lives, PK's charge and feat, 09 now looks less like a steam jack and more like a charcoal grill hit by a steam roller. My hill now beotch! Khador still leads 2-1.

The end came down to who could stack the most models on the hill to squeeze out the most scenario points, unfortunatly Drago didn't get to die to my PK's so he had the better models to hold it. I had to stuff things like B13, and GMCA onto the hill which Drago made short work of. To end it we were both getting points at the end of our respective turns, I was fighting a war of attrition that Cygnar just can win. Eventually he goes two turns in a row getting scenario points and I lose 5-3.

Final thoughts. People sit there and cry about how broken TB is, well I have news for you; against anything with heavy range, or lots of mobility it's really not that good. I was astonished at how powerful every single spell that eVlad cast was. I imagine the nerf stick will come to both pHaley and eVlad, but in my opinion eVlad needs it much worse that Haley ever did; just look at all of the national tournament standings if you don't belive me. How many Haley players even make it to the top 10? How many eVlad players win?

All in all it was a good battle for the title of "Greatest Pheonix Games Warmachine Player of the Month" Adam played really well and had some hot dice, it's hard to stop that combo. The big disaster in the game was rolling the snake eyes to hit B09, that would have made all of the difference. GG's all, hopefully we can get some of the bugs worked out for the next tourney. You know I'll be there with an even cheesier army than last time! LOL ;)

Voting Results

2009-03-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well looks like the majority of you hate to play against pHaley more than any other Cynar caster. She brought in more that 1/2 of the votes all by herself. Honorable mention to Darius and Siege as well.

The most hated Cynar unit? The Black 13 of course, bringing in all of the votes accept 1 which went to the long gunners. Prowl, 18" range, +1 POW every time they hit something, retaliation, and everyone's favorite, mage storm. Really, what's not to love?

Good to know what all of you hate so I can add it to every army list I run now. ;)

Prime Caster #2 Caine.

2009-03-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Wyoming for 5 days and I'm about to fall asleep so I'll do a quick write-up on one of the most worthless casters to ever wear Cygnar blue, Caine.

Personally I hate Caine, his spell selection is very limited, he can't be run with jacks, and if someone breaths on him he's a dead man. Hopefully with the addition of MKII Caine will get a few buffs that will make him playable.

Most people will tell you running Caine as your caster is more like running a super bad ass solo than having a caster on the board. Caine can give jacks focus, but he prefers to keep all of it for himself. Unfortunatly the lack of a big focus hungry jack also means you will lack the hitting power to stop other large jacks/beasts your opponent could be running. This can be solved by tossing in a JWC with a Hunter attached to it or adding the B13. These seem to be the way most people try to get around this problem. A hunters armor piercing ammo and huge range will cut down even the most heavily armored jacks.

Spells of note:
Snipe -- Exactly like Stryker, plus 1" range for every focus spent. (model/unit upkeep)
Blur -- +3 DEF against ranged attacks. (unit/model upkeep)
Flash -- Probably the most used spell he has and why he's a focus hog. Moves Caine anywhere in his controll area, but ends his movement.

Feat:
Maelstrom -- All enemy models in Caines controll area, range, and LOS are targeted by Caine and shot. Super handy for clearing out massive amounts of single wound models. Caine can then spend focus to shoot his guns again, then flash away.

Overall strat for 500pts.

List:
Caine
Squire
Trenchers
Grenade porter maybe
B13
JWC
Hunter
GMCA (Able) Caine and Able get it? I didn't come up with this crap.
Your favorite type of melee unit. Storm Guard come to mind with the new Bane Knight nerf.

No idea how many points that is, but it sounds right.

Something like that is a playable army, and I have had mixed success with it.

General strat is your basic Cygnar stand, shoot, and run strat. Give the Trenchers 7" of snipe giving them something like 17" range, make sure they are dug in, making 17 DEF and ARM. Upkeep snipe, leaving just enough for Caine to move up, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, flash. That leaves 1 FOC to boost damage or to hit. Trenchers can also throw smoke to block all LOS to your army giving Caine a lot of protection (not that he needs anymore). JWC has just enough FOC to cast the infamous Arcane Shield turn 1, then upkeep and give the Hunter 2 every turn after.

Few final thoughs, Caine is not really a warcaster, which fits his personality of being the "bad boy" of the Cygnar leaders. Fluff wise he has a bad attitude and is a do-it-yourself type of guy. This fits his play style perfectly. Remember to cast Flash every turn to keep Caine out of harms way. Think about running the Black 13, snipe on those guys is OP!

Next time pHaley to finish out the Prime casters!

That's 3 Thus Far Shooter.

2009-03-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

So we've got this month long tourney going on at the LGS; it's a lot of fun, but I would really like play some different lists.

Basically as the format goes you get 2 lists, like steam roller, both you and your opponent pick your list to play, then you roll scenario, THEN you have 1 week to play (unlike steam roller).

Tonight was the battle of the undefeated -- The regal Cygnar vs. the necrophiliac Cryx horde. I chose pHaley, he chose pDenny the scenario ends up being King of the Hill. I start sweating bullets when I hear king of the hill, this is the match I almost lost to cerealjohn. **flashback of Avatar and Cavalry on the hill and me with my dick in my hand**

Right away I realize that I need to be much more aggresive than I was against John, I also noted that Shaun lacked the sheer hitting power of something like the Avatar.

My pHaley list, since everyone knows it by now is:
Haley
Squire
Thorn
Thunderhead
B13
Precursor Knights x6
PK UA
Long Gunners x9
LG UA
GMCA
JWC
Strangeways

Basically my strat for this match is: Be aggressive with Haley, cast Chain Lighting the first few turns to thin him out, start TB spam, get a unit or 2 on the hill, and pray nothing bad happens.

I remember what Shaun was playing, but to be fair I won't post his list.

Basically the game went like this:
I lost the roll, he sets up, I set up. I realize that I put the B13 on the wrong side of the board, I wanted them placed so I could deal with his pistol wraiths. He moves everything up and I sit there and think, "dammit I'm stupid."

My turn, focus to Thorn, he runs, I move everything up, cast CL at his node, needing an 8 to hit, miss, squire reroll hits, I roll a 3, node somehow takes nothing, both pistol wraiths live. Well I figure I have 3 more focus and I've been eating my vitamis so I should roll 8's easily. I CL again, hit, roll a mighty 1, 2-3 damage to the node, kill 1 pistol wraith. At this point I figure I try something new, instead of running Thorn away I move up and engage his node, it was an educated gamble; if there is such a thing (Thorn can cast while engauged, other nodes can't), maybe not the best play, but it did neutralize the node for 2-3 turns.

To make a long story short, eEryiss one shots a cavalry, B13 Ryan dies to the dragoon, his jacks took some ting damage. He had the hill and was winning. I mini-feated with the PK's, charge, and finish off his jacks holding the hill. At some point I gave TH 2 focus, purged and then shot Denny in the face taking her to 1 hp, LG's moved up and CRA'd her for dice +1. I ended up losing Ryan and 1/2 of my LG's (fearless thanks to standard), Thorn got beaten up.

All in all a well played game by both parties, I had the hot dice which I would like to thank. The game could have easily swung either direction at any point, but we both stuck it out and fought to the bitter end. GG Shaun, I look forward to playing you in the future.

On a side note, I have declared that I will put pHaley back in the case untill MKII comes out. Unless someone talks some junk and I have to un-retire her.

Untill next weeks update... Let's go 4-0 woo!

pStryker Strategy

2009-03-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hello all and welcome to the first posting of Cygnarrules!

Well I figured I'd start with an easy topic: pStryker strat. Stryker is the core of the Cygnar army, and an essential part of all the fluff in the books. He's the caster you get right out of the battle box, and while not seen an effective jack caster, a lancer and EQ will shut down just about any other battle box out there.

Stykers spells of note:
Snipe -- gives you 1" of range for every focus spent (upkeep)
Arcane Shield -- +3 Armor to target model/unit (upkeep)
Earthquake -- Big AoE, everthing under is knocked down.

Like all Prime casters Stryker is really a one trick pony, meaning after turn 1 all you will do is upkeep snipe and cast EQ every turn.

My pStryker 500 point list looks something like this:
Stryker
Squire
Rowdy
B13
Lancer or Thorn
GMCA
JWC
Storm Guard

The strat is simple enough. First, if you can make sure terrain is set up in your favor, hills and forrest near your DZ is amazing.
Turn 1 - Take a focus from the Squire, cast Snipe for 7" on the B13, Arcane Shield from JWC on Rowdy, move everyone up, done.
Turn 2 - Pay upkeeps, move up Thorn, Activate Stryker, cast EQ somewhere near caster, try not to laugh if it hits said caster, move thorn again, move Stryker up, feat, charge and miss something with Rowdy, activate B13 make caster dead.
Turn 3 -- Put models back in box.

The general consensus about Stryker is that picking the turn to use his feat is the most important thing about him, too early, it doesn't do anything, too late you lose lots of figs. I prefer to use his feat earlier rather than later, when you move up Rowdy, ARM 28 is a big reason for your opponent to run the other direction.

A few final thoughts. B13 and Stryker are pretty much made to be in the same list. Nuking things from 19" out is really brutal and makes caster killing a sinch. Remember you have 2 arcane shields (Stryker and JWC) use them to protect your figs. Earthquake will be cast probably every turn and you get to reroll if you miss thanks to the Squire. Invincibility does just what it sounds like, it gives even your infantry jack like armor, and makes your jacks walking engines of death.

Any questions or comments? Other strats you love with Stryker?