Closure

I've finally got up the courage to catalogue my Warhammer High Elves (and soon to be dwarves) for sale. I was particularly pleased with the price offered for my elves, and I'm going to use the money to fund models to take Xerxis to 50 points.

I've had a hectic Easter filled with bank holidays and time away, so I've nothing really to show as progress until after the weekend maybe. I'm still part way through assembling bog trogs at the moment (fiddly little beggars) but I hope to have my posse ready to basecoat at the weekend, as well as some WIP pics of Barny and my Wrastler, so stay tuned!

Going to be testing my 35 points of gators on Monday, and then I'll be up at 50points for the foreseeable future as both of my regular opponents are testing tourney lists for the summer. One of whom is looking to grab some farrow and has a posse for sale, which means I'd have very little left to buy to take Barny to 50.
I'm pretty sure though that Ret will be waiting until Wrath for some love, except for when I finally finish discordia and Garryth.

Lots of wedding Stuff going recently too (funnily enough), so painting progress may be slow.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty


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Clubbin'

Last night's game was a bit of a farce. Not only did my I forget to deploy my battlemages (my opponent kindly let me place them on my deployment line turn2) but I got munched by shooting through indecisive deployment/first turn manoeuvring and I'm still leaving Garryth backfield doing not a great deal.
I'm still not really convinced he wants a jack at all. Or at least I need to work out how a light can be useful to him as I can't get the chimera working.
Practice practice practice. I really like Garryth and I'd love to learn him enough to use him well at least. I get pretty frustrated that I spend so much time and money on figures and then make such stupid mistakes lol.
In other news, I've ordered a case of foam for my gators, and bog trogs plus croak for my 35pt barny list.
I've also planned out this list to 50, 35 and 50 with calaban and Xerxis to 50. My good friend 'griffin' is entering a 50pt tourney later this year, and I've agreed to get as many different 50point lists (with proxies) as I can for him to refine his circle tourney lists. Works out well for both of us as it will help me think about synergies for lists, and also get me used to tourney play (assassinate/defend) and scenarios.
A friend of mine who hasnt games in a while has also shown a lot of interest in the gaming table planning, and whilst he is insisting we get some games of WHF, I'm sure I can get some Warmahordes demoes in as well.

Life's good :)
Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

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Structure

Since we moved house, I've found it very difficult to concentrate on one faction, to either paint or be enthusiastic about. I've just got Garryth and Ravyn for my Retribution, and excluding maybe some riflemen for Ravyn I'm more than happy running lists with them both from my current collection.
My Gators on the other hand are only just 25 points.
So what's my point you may wonder? Well I'm glad you asked. Basically once Garryth, Ravyn and Discordia are painted, my Ret will be fully painted.
This means I can buy for my gators up to 35 points. Barnabus first, an then once his force is painted, I can grab some pieces for a Callaban theme force which would pretty much just be him and some farrow. This will give me a bit of structure, and more importantly goals to keep working towards. It also means that if I go with the painting then buying idea, Xerxis' 50 point list is only a handful if gators away :p

How do you guys plan your purchases? How close are you to fully painted?
Let me know I'm not the only one whose OCD invades their hobby?!

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty


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It's a Trap!!

We can't repel firepower of that magnitude!
Ahem. You may gave guessed that i lost to a WG deathstar this evening, even if the reference is a bad one.

How is it possible to shift WG with def 17 and a 4+ tough roll? I hates them. Nothing much else to report about the battle to be quite honest, I got bogged down. My Gladiator would have nearly got to irusk if it hadn't been for his no knockdown on feat turn, he was standing silly close to torch. Alas, it wasn't to be. Was a fun game though, so not a total loss.

On a personal note, work is pretty rough at the moment, but that just me more glad to get home and paint, as well as being great motivation for job hunting :)

Hope to update with pictures this weekend, Nihilators and potentially Cetrati will be done by then :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty


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The (crit) fires of industry

I've had a string of net related issues recently, but I finally managed to track down and order the MHSF, UA and Ravyn along with some 0.5mm drill hits and brass rod, I'm not taking any chances with those crossbows!

I'm still without net access at home however, but that's only detriment to my post count :p in all seriousness, I've been painting a lot more without the distraction.

Last night I finally put the finishing touches to Xerxis who has been close to completion for months. I also buckled down and re based my stormfall archers (better cork than a wine bottle cork) and painted all 4 backpacks bar metallics which I'm chuffed with as the amount of separate detail on them was daunting.
I'm going to be playing Vyros/Xerxis for my next few games, hopefully pulling off a win with V. If not it's all practice, and I enjoy playing both casters so there's no real loss.

All the while I will be painting Ravyn and re-visiting my magno-jack for her second manticore.
Goodtimes.

Not much else going on really 'cept Halloween shenanigans. Still very determined to get Vyros working, reading everything I can pertaining to his use. I'll get there one day :)

Thanks for dropping by
Lofty

Technological interference

It's been a long week. Not only did my iPhone give up the ghost and need to be returned to the shop for repair, but my broadband provider decided to switch my service off early before the next IP could connect me...

Many angry phone calls later, and the internet seems to be back up, but my beloved iPhone is still a week away apparently.

Anyhow, in the meantime, my lost package finally arrived, and I have converted up and painted the Avatars of War War-Priest miniature to represent my DND Cleric. Very pleased with the final results, which I will hopefully be able to take pictures of this weekend.

I also had a game with Vyros at the club this week (yes that's right, Vyros) and it was a very closely fought game. eNemo's feat is horrendous when he runs many 'jacks (who wouldn't run many 'jacks with him?) but Defensive line and Inviolable resolve on Sentinels is one tough nut to crack. Vyros held his own with a flanking Griffon, but I had left him far back behind his own lines, as I insist on playing every 'caster as support until I get it through my thick skull to do otherwise.

I actually almost won the game thanks to an Arcanist un-disrupting my Phoenix and allowing him to get to Nemo (gotta love mobility on a heavy) but of course I missed with his thermal blade (snake eyes) hit with the fist, then snake eyes on the bought sword attack. Gutted doesn't even cover it to be honest.
This is all after two sentinels fluffed attack rolls the turn before, so overall I was quite pleased with my first WM game in months.

Hordes has taught me a lot about the game system(s) but deployment is still a weakness, as is order of activation. For some reason, I always seem to allocate focus to the Phoenix, despite it still being there at the end of the turn...

I'm really in two minds whether or not to run Vyros at the tourney this Sunday, or to stick with Xerxis, who I am a bit more comfortable with. If I can get a couple of Vassal games in before the weekend then I may well take Vyros. We shall see what time permits.

Payday is a-comin' and for the first time in a long while, I have no list of miniatures ready to snap up from the LGS. I'm toying with the idea of Discordia for Vyros at 50 pts (even though I bought the minion elf 'lock for just such a purpose grumblegrumble) as a spray attack on his feat turn would be ridiculous. In anticipation of the Retribution Destors who are rumoured for this year, I'm tempted to pick up the second unit of sentinels for Vyros' tier, reinforced by the amateur mistakes I made with the first unit I built (let's just say I wash all my minis before assembly, and pin pretty much all joins nowadays). Or perhaps battle mages for Rahn's tier, Mage hunters and Ravyn, the list goes on...
Then there is Hordes to consider, Marketh is out this month sure, and I want Orin and an agonizer for Xerxis' brick, but what else should I get? Beastmasters, Arcuarii?

Much pondering is needed before I get my grubby mitts on a month's worth of money...
Any input is greatly appreciated!

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

List advice

Posted this on the forums and there has been no response after 70 views, hoping I get a better response here :)

I need some advice/opinions on the below Xerxis I've been running. Before anyone tears it apart, It's a slow build list, using the models I have in my collection without going crazy buying a lot more stuff.

On Friday I ran (succesful caster kill v pHaley);
Xerxis
Krea
Bronzeback
Gladiator
Min Cetrati
Min Nihilators
Tyrant and standard
Swamp Gobbers
Feralgeist

The plan is to brick down the centre of course and martial discipline the Nihilators through the shield wall last minute, which worked pretty well. The Tyrant was there to pick up any tough Nihilators, but of course that would require me to make a tough roll once in a while ;p

I'm pretty sure that I will be dropping the tyrant and going to full on the cetrati. Do you guys have any more ideas for a list like this? I have the below to add should i need to;

Brute
Savage
Molik
Full praets + Standard
Extoller
Ancestral Guardian

Im open to suggestions, and do plan on expanding up to 50 point games once I'm a bit more used to the caster and the list, I was thinking maybe an agonizer and/or Orin Midwinter to enhance the brick?

Feedback/ CONSTRUCTIVE criticism really appreciated

Thanks in advance

Lofty

An an eXerxise in pain

Why do I insist on trying to be witty with blog titles?

Friday night gaming in Leeds last night, and it was a blast. I lost my first game to a chap who had never played WM/Hordes before. Stop laughing, he was being helped by the PG and three other guys :P

I wasn't taking it too seriously, and took the opportunity to hyper aggression my Bronzeback half-way down the field from his Widowmaker/Winterguard shots. Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should :)

The second game was against someone who has been playing a little longer, and who I had previously faced in a very close game with my eMakeda v his Baldur in the Genesis event, which was a very close game indeed. He played pHaley this time with stormy guys (halberds and swords). I was really very please with how my list performed, Bricking down the centre, using Martial discipline to devastating effect with the Nihilators moving (polarity shield or some such spell denying charge) through the shield wall with Press Forward from Xerxis. Berzerk is a very useful ability, especially with reach, and with good positioning, it can be ended quite effectively when they have to attack a shieldwalled, defenders warded Cetrati. The kill came from the tyrant of tyrants himself, who Overtook his way through some grunts straight into Haley's grill on feat. I stupidly then decided to cast fury instead of buying attacks, and of course missed. I awaited my demise.

Of course Haley 'ain't no thang' in combat, so Xerxis survived, cut for 5 and ended Haley.

Thoroughly enjoyable, even when awaiting my demise at the hands of my opponent. I still seem to be too careful with my heavies, and certainly need to get my caster stuck in more, and I'm constantly searching for stats on my cards :P

One thing about the list that I will be dropping is the Tyrant commander and standard. The plan was that the Nihilators would either berserk themselves, or get killed and make tough rolls, and the Tyrant can then stand them up next turn. This strategy of course depends on me actually making a tough roll, which I am only able to do when it means Haley can move away once the guy is knocked down... Coupled with the fact that Xerxis has both of the other orders that the Tyrant commander has, his points would be better used elsewhere.

On the whole I'm happy with the list and the way it performs. When I eventually get order of activation down pat, I'm sure I will make better use of it :)

Thanks for dropping by

Lofty

Total Nihilation

I was really hoping for good light to take photos today, but it seems that when I have time like today its grim and lowsy outside, but at the weekend when we're busy with wedding stuff, its great weather.

Anyhow, I've finished the bases for my Nihilators, the skin of my Bronzeback, and bases for Tyrant, and Brute. Dentist appointment days off work ain't so bad after all!

Lack of a battle report this week, as I'm going to be going down every other Monday so that I can go to the gym too. I am far from vain, but I'm getting married next year and it's a great excuse to get rid of the beer gut I've been honing since uni.

Digression into IRL isn't why you people come here so back to the musings! I've been doing a lot of Vassal spectation recently, and watching Ret' games by happen-stance. I have been quite tempted to break them out of temporary retirement and try my luck with Warmachine again, but after a lot of deliberation, I settled on waiting until Wrath is out to start my Retribution again. By that time hopefully the Destors will be around, and Vyros will have gone Epic (pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease)

In the meantime, I will be playing a helluvalot of Hordes!

My intentions are to bulk out my existing forces to what I think I “need" to work with my current casters (mentioned in a previous post I think – Arcuari, shaman, agonizer, mr midwinter), and play them both to death :P There are two steamroller events coming up in October one of which requires two lists, which will be great for this. Other than that, I will be picking up Mordikaar and Karax, and eMakeda, maybe even the Ferox and dragoon if I can overcome the cheesy grins on the cats (I dislike them intensely)

And lastly, minion taskmaster and gators with Wrongeye and Snapjaw, which will lead me nicely into a start of a Blackwater pact. I was giving some very serious consideration to Trollbloods, as it was always between them and Skorne if I ever started Hordes. However, they really just don't grab me as much as some of the new Minion stuff. I like melee casters, and if I played Madrak with trolls, then I would feel daft for not just playing Xerxis, if that makes sense... I may well pick up the battlebox at some point, and if I ever grab a third Hordes faction, then they are top of the list.

By this time Wrath should be very imminent if not upon us, and I'll be able to expand my Ret. First thoughts are Ravyn with a couple of house guard units, which would also work with Rahn after an extra box of mages and a couple more magisters. This is all of course if Vyros doesn't get any love, and lets face it, he gets very little at the moment. I'm also holing out for multi-wound infantry, who knows what the new caster will bring to the faction :) I'm also still pretty tempted by a Rhulic force, and if they get some shiney new stuff, I'm almost guaranteed to have some kind of Rhulic/steelhead force by the end of next year

Can you tell I get a little bored at work sometimes? All this musing and pondering makes me realise what a great hobby this is!..

/soapbox

Thanks for stopping by :)

Lofty

White noise

First game with Xerxis this week which was unfortunately a loss. Mohsar managed to lock down my cetrati with well placed pillars of salt every turn. Frustrating, but it certainly did the trick!

I love the way the tyrant and standard work with the Cetrati though (Xerxis ain't too shoddy with battle plans either mind) and having troops move through each other with the brick type if set up is a dream.
I think I'll be shunting the totem hunter for a tyrant in my usual 35pt pMakeda list for sure.

Highlight of the game was a furious Xerxis charging though the brick, and combo smiting a Gnarlhorn, ignoring the swordsmen engaging it and almost destroying it with his feat up. It was a last ditch effort on my part as I had almost no other options. Fun though ^_^

Good game, might save Xerxis till he and the Cetrati are painted so I can have a bit more of a think on how best to use him.
Tips are always welcome :p

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

W(H)IP

Work in progress as promised, and seemingly the puns are back (Skorne - Whips, WIP, geddit?)

Not much time today as I'm on the way out, but here is Mr Xerxis with base coat, and fancy shamncy desert base. I liked the way it turned out, so I'm going to redo some of my existing sand using the method below. Will try and get more painting and pics done this next week, but a pretty hectic list of evenings so no promises I'm afraid.

Thanks for dropping 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

Warmahordes

Ok so I've been thinking about Hordes this weekend. I want a faction to play, even if it's only 15pts (it will be more, I don't have the willpower :P). 

 I was pondering between Circle and Skorne, after putting Trolls off as a bad idea - "Lots of big metal models will be expensive to collect wah wah wah" but then I was thinking, "Massive trolls beating on stuff... no brainer". Plus, it was the Trolls that tempted me to the Privateer Press website all those months ago and got me hooked on the Retribution models, I was actually looking at which Troll models I could use in my "Nordic" Warhammer fantasy army (barbarians, snow and ice, and bears ;p)

So I guess I'm asking for help. I know absolutely nothing about Hordes, and I know that it is being tested at the moment so it's all changing, but I wondered if you guys had any opinions on the three factions I was thinking about. Tyrant Xerxis is what tempted me to Skorne, and Werewolves is what tempted me to Circle, but tbh I'm leaning alot more to the primal sort of look/feel of the Trolls. There is all this, coupled with the fact that I;

a) want to get pretty much every model I have seen thus far for the Ret, plus a few mercs/solos, and

b) Searforge called the other day and politely asked me to buy a butt-load of their dudes to paint O_0

Also - c)

I'm vagely tempted to pick up some of the new Warhammer fantasy releases, so the sooner I have a Hordes/new faction to satiate the urge, the less likely it is that I will go back to the dark side ;)

Halp ^_^