Winter 2012 Holiday Bundles: Hordes

Much like the Warmachine Bundles offered by Privateer Press for the holidays, today I will look at the Hordes holiday bundles and rank them on the same criteria (Power Level and Longevity).  It's taken me a while to fully evaluate these lists and there are some very interesting differences between the Hordes bundles from the Warmachine ones.  Notably, the Warmachine bundles included the plastic battlegroup box (and so you would normally get a second warcaster to play).  These bundles do not include the plastic battlegroup box (except for Skorne, for some reason) and, in the case of these bundles, that is actually more of an advantage since the rest of the bundle isn't limited by warbeast choices.  Also, the Hordes bundles include a full-sized rulebook instead of the pocket sized one - probably since there's no battlegroup warcaster and they wanted to offer a fair deal.  What's also different with these bundles is that there isn't even a Trollbloods holiday bundle, which is very curious.  Instead, there are two Minion bundles - a great boon for anyone interested in starting the Thornfall Alliance or Blackwater Congregation.  It's great the Privateer Press created separate bundles for what is, essentially, two separate factions.  Well, let's jump into it!

Thinking Cap: Feralgeist

I've been working on a secret project for the last couple of days so I've been having a tough time coming up with suitable articles.  My secret project has also distracted me from finishing the Prezi Battle Report for my recent battle using Mohsar against Zaal (it's coming!  I promise!) so what am I going to write about today?  Well I've given some thought to my recent article defending the Mountain King and I made a stunning realization the other day.  While I admit I made some errors in my initial report on the Mountain King (he's DEF 9 instead of 10), I did forget about a key solo that could make the Mountain King a bit more frightening.  I want to talk about the lowly Feralgeist.

35 point Army Deals: Minions

Once again, in the spirit of Privateer Press giving 25 point army deals, today I will present another 35 point list that is a good deal, falling within the $200-250 price range and will be fun/competitive to play with too!  Today I will take a look at the Blindwater Congregation, specifically, because as hard as I tried, it was difficult to find a really competitive list with the Thornfall Alliance that fit into the price range.  If there's enough demand I might try harder, but for now I came up with a list that is both affordable (coming in at $227.93 retail) and will be fun and characterful to play!  The only note that I need to make here is that one model (the Gatorman Witch Doctor) has not been released yet, but it can easily be replaced with a Thrullg for now - which will actually shave off an extra $2!  Without further ado, let's take a look at the list and then I'll give a brief description on how it's supposed to work:

Does the Road Hog help?

The recent release of the Minion Road Hog warbeast has been some exciting news.  For the past few months Privateer Press has been churning out their regularly scheduled flow of models and apparently has figured out their product flow problems of the past.  While the release of the Road Hog has certainly been exciting, it raises an interesting question.  As only the second heavy warbeast for the farrow minion warlocks, will it actually help the faction which is traditionally known for being underpowered (or 'needs fixing' like your own votes show)?  Let's take a look at what the Road Hog offers the farrow and how each warlock might take advantage of its abilities.

Editorial: Making Arkadius Work

I have recently signed-on to write for 3++ is the new black to contribute to the expansion of Warmachine/Hordes content.  I decided that since the main audience for the site has been relative newcomers to the game, that I would write an informative set of articles on making Dr. Arkadius work (part 1 can be found here), since he is a challenging warlock to play and a new player might get easily discouraged.  Hell, I was easily discouraged when I played him, and I'm not really a new player anymore.  This got me thinking: why is Dr. Arkadius so "bad" by Warmachine/Hordes standards?  What is needed to make him "good"?  I apologize in advance for the wall of text incoming, but feel free to scroll to the end if you want to see my list of what I think Dr. Arkadius needs.

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 7! FIGHT!

Today is the conclusion of the DOMINATION! READ! NOW! series, and I’m sure you’re all tired of seeing so many exclamation points and capital letters.  To conclude my initial analysis and impressions of Domination, I have a battle report to share with you!  Today’s battle report is pretty special not only because it’s the first I’ve posted on here, but also because it’s against a kid Drew at my LGS.  Drew is a good kid and I’ve been playing games against him for some time and recently traded my old Minions from the good Dr. Arkadius for his Cygnar.  This means that all of the painted models in the battle report today were painted by yours truly!  Let’s begin.

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 2! TEARS-er-TIERS!

I have always loved the idea of tier lists.  In fact, they were the reason why I stared playing Mk II in the first place!  I was bitter about Mk I and how some lists were so incredibly broken and I was "just a casual gamer."  The idea of playing a theme list for benefits really appealed to me!  I later discovered that I can still have fun in a casual setting trying to be competitive, but I digress.  Today I will be looking at what I believe to be the top 3 tiers.  Your meta will vary so take my rankings with a grain of salt, but I will be listing my top 3 (unfortunately, a little one-sided) rated based on achieving Tier 4.  Let's do this!

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 1! ART!

ZOMGWTFBBQ I PICKED UP MY COPY OF DOMINATION YESTERDAY!!!!

I'm sure I will not be alone in reviewing everything that's awesomesauce in Hordes: Domination.  This is our first "real" book since Mk II for Hordes, and it's time for us to join the Warmachine players with our own Battle Engines!  Here's a spoiler though: ours are better.  Instead of focusing on particular models for Part 1 (of 7) of my DOMINATION! READ! NOW! articles, I will be focusing on some of the overall "vibes" I'm getting from this particular book.  We'll look at the particular factions, what new play-styles have emerged (there are lots!), and what you will likely be seeing across the table.  Some of our old warlocks now have some new tricks up their sleeves, and it's your job as a good general to know what kinds of things they'll be up to.  Let's dive right in!

Spoilers: Lots of Domination stuff!

Alright so yesterday's post featured some detailed reviews of the actual Domination cards for some Warbeasts, but there has been a metric TON of spoilers on the Privateer Press forums!  Not terribly surprising, considering that the book will be out in two weeks.  Not only do we have rules and stats but even some tier lists!  I'm a huge fan of tier lists, and they were the reason why I even got into Mk II.

Alright so here's everything that I have synthesized while trolling through the Privateer Forums: