Gheistly Reflections - 12 Months On

I'd like to talk today a little bit about the Feralgheist. In the few games that he has ended up being in my Xerxis list due to lack of better 1pt options (of course I already took Gobbers), he has stopped reaving on an enemy beast, and kept my Bronzeback truckin' for a turn longer than he should've.

The Bronzeback needs a separate post all to himself to be honest. Even if only because I'm still making some very basic mistakes with order of activations, and being able to leave fury on the Gladiator after one such mistakes (two turns in a row.... Inorite?) because of his Titan leadership is a real boon.

Great use of 1pt if you ask me. In fact if it weren't for my shoddy dice rolling at crucial moments, the Gheistback would've trashed pStryker. As it was, a Gladiator had to finish him off.

Xerxis and his boys have shunted themselves up to the top of the painting table after their recent performance (I've only lost once out of 4 games).

I seem to have lost impetus with this post... I did originally type this out on a blog app on my phone, and later discover that it was neither submitted to the blog or saved which is infuriating as it was a pretty long post. Anyway, whilst searching my blog for the missing post, I realised that this blog was 12 months old in September, and I clear forgot about it.

Needless to say things have changed a lot since September '09.

Looking at my opening post....

- I'm still painting the odd GW miniature, and even played a game or two of WHF 7ed with a friend who hasn't gamed in years, which ain't too bad at all

- I've been around the block once or twice, but I'm back with the Retribution as my primary faction, and I've even started pulling off wins with them!

- I've dabbled back into WoW for a couple of months here and there, but I've been clean for a month recently, so I guess I'm full circle there :p

Most importantly for me I think is that I've moved out of my comfort zone. I've been put into situations with new people which i never deal well with, or enjoy, and I've made some friends out of it too (well, two), which doubled my previous count (I don't do well with social stuff). All in all, I'm really enjoying the hobby again. Better game(s), nicer models, better community, and well... colour me happy

Vows for the next 12months?

-Don't buy so many models all at once (hey look Skorne!)

-Try and keep up to fully painted with Retribution (oh so close before my MSHF finally arrived)

-Play more paint less. Let's face it, fully painted armies on the tabletop are ace, but it doesn't have to be every time :)

Just want to say thanks really to all the encouragement, patience, tips and advice that I've had along the way, and here is to another 12 months in the Iron Kingdoms

Lofty

Titantastic

Great game at the club today against a beast heavy grim list.

Star of the show have to be the praetorians who combostriked a mauler to death, and minifeated a unit of kriel warriors pretty much in half.

I don't remember why grim couldn't transfer(I think I had just killed has last non maxed beast) but a Titan gladiator to the face really didn't really help him.

Despite getting the caster kill, the assassination run was clumsy. I had my totem hunter in the way of a slam, and only in reach range, so it could all have gone a lot better.
Really pleased though, as I'm enjoying Hordes a ton more than Warmachine, and finding it a lot easier to boot.

I had planned to play Xerxis today but I didn't manage to get the tyrant and standard bearer pinned in time for tonight. I like the way Makeda works though, savagery on Cetrati is a ridiculous first turn, coupled with a switch to def ward next turn Being a real headache. She even made it into combat this game, albeit I did test her out on burrowers, just to make sure before I take on bigger game :p

Praetorians certainly went up in my opinion today, even more so as they are souls after all their effectiveness as well. One flank with swordsman, AG and Extoller is really self sufficient, especially with ranked attacks from the UA to help out the guardian. It also means the other flank is beasts and Cetrati which isn't too shabby at all ;p

Won't be too much time to paint this week unfortunately but hopefully I'll get a fair amount done over the weekend.
Until then,

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Grand Slam

You'll have to forgive the brevity of my last post, I was crammed onto a train home from Leeds after the tourney, and only just had room to get to my phone (Sunday+Bank Holiday engineering works make for busy trains).

I've been away from the blog for a while due to lots going on at work, and at home weekends away, my 25th birthday, social life (yes it's true) and I've found little time for gaming unfortunately recently.

I promised myself that I wouldn't miss the Genesis event however, and I ordered a new aluminium double case for my Skorne out of my recent bonus from work. I also spent most of the evenings in the week running up to the tourney preparing my Skorne for the day. The last work I did to them was to paint the desert bases that I had made based on this thread on the PP forums (thanks again), but since then I haven't had chance to paint the miniatures. So with heavy heart, I began to get ready to spray the Praetorians and Cetrati and pin undercoated black miniatures to painted desert bases. Yes I know it's silly, and yes I know it's going to be a nightmare maintaining the base while I paint the mini's.... But at least I don't have anymore Cetrati flags to replace (love the unit, don't talk to me about those flags). Speaking of flags, the Skorne I got from my friend were mostly flagless, so at a later date I'll be posting mini's and asking for opinions on custom made flags or staying flagless...

I digress, month's without the blog have led me to ramble. On to the point -

A write up of my first win in a PP game, here it comes.

It was versus a Strakhov list including a Beast'09 and a Spriggan, and some assassins (I can't think of the name) and the seemingly obligatory man hunters

Game started pretty uneventfully with me shuffling my Forge of Souls (spot the reference, win some kind of baked goods) down the left (I of course mean my praetorians with Ancestral Guardian and Extoller), and the Cetrati under Savagery and Shield wall down the centre. Next turn the man hunters and beast have made it up into my grill and Beast is trying to pull apart the shield wall, but defender's ward is laughing at him. My titan comes out from the cover of the shield wall, and is promptly engaged by a man hunter, who funnily enough is dispatched quite quickly in subsequent turns.

The assassins make some mad movement buff's (mini feat?) and miss my stupidly exposed Makeda by a ridiculously small margin, and content themselves with back-strikes on the Cetrati. Meanwhile Strakhov is hiding behind his Spriggan and I'm desperately trying to find my friend from my local gaming club to ask if slams can go over walls, to which he of course replies that they can't. I sit down dejectedly just as he says “unless they have pathfinder”. So my turn comes round, I start the timer, make my upkeep's, cast carnage and move Makeda into cover behind a building, also casting rush on the Gladiator, who proceeds to slam the Spriggan into Strakhov, and follows up with 4 fury to spend.

And that, as they say, is it. Needless to say I was stoked about the win, I apologized I don't know how many times to my opponent for the high fives with my friend, and excessive jubilance, and I explained that it was my first ever win.

The next and final game was pretty good too, a Baldur list with lots of girls with javelins (again I'm sorry I can't recall their name) long story short, I made it into a position where the Titan was whaling on Baldur (after a failed grand slam on his swamp gobber buddies, literally by a quarter inch ;_;) but I hadn't twigged that he was sitting on full focus for a reason, and he transferred it all to the new shield guard wold guy. Forest creation/teleportation shenanigans later see Baldur back-striking Makeda for the win.

I feel like after just two games with the Skorne (my first two Hordes games) on Vassal the night before the tourney, I have a lot better grasp of the mechanics than I do with Warmachine. For example, I load up my Phoenix with 3focus regularly only for it to be sitting on one or two focus at the end of the turn because I haven't thought it through.

There are of course things that I need to get used to, like watching casters fury before I attack, and of course not only do I need to leave fury on my caster for transfers, I also need the 'beast to have fury spare to receive the damage.

Practice right?

I think that's all I have to say right now. Feels good to be back on the blog, and back in the gaming world again,. Built Xerxis today and a Drake, which I may just try out next week at the club, but I'm sure I'll be blogging again before then, so until then -

Cheers for dropping by

Lofty