Project Press Ganger: Battlegroups!

It's been a while now but for those who weren't aware, I want to be a Press Ganger. My regular job takes a big time commitment but my spare time is mostly spent on Warmachine/Hordes and I've had some experience running tournaments in the past. I love Warmachine/Hordes and I want to give back to the community and help new people get into the game. I'm already a teacher so it's a natural interest for me and plays to my strengths! I like to think that I'm a good player, know the rules, and am fun to play against (or at least am helpful for those who are looking for advice) so I hope that Privateer Press will agree that I'd be a good candidate to be a Press Ganger. That's all well and good, but there are, of course, some requirements for applying to be a Press Ganger and one of those requirements is making sure that you have fully painted models to demo games with, and that's admittedly been an area of weakness for me. That ends today, however! I finally got two battlegroups fully painted for Hordes!

Gencon Masters Results

Menoth isn't a good tournament army?  The Mountain King
is overpriced and terrible?

Today's post will be pretty quick.  For those unaware, something like 8 of of the 16 players in the Masters tournament were apparently Menoth players - a surprising demographic considering that about the same ratio of Cryx was present at the Templecon Masters.  Perhaps Privateer Press is better at crafting a well-balanced game than some give them credit.  What was perhaps more surprising to many, however, was that Trolls had a great showing, with Flanzer getting defeated in the last round with his Trolls.  What was most surprising, however, was that one of the lists contained the Mountain King.  That's right, a list featuring pDoomshaper also sported the Mountain King - despite all of the cries of its uselessness by Trollblood players.  Granted, the Gencon Masters tournament this year was a 75 point event, but I still derive some amusement that such a "terrible" Gargantuan was not only present at Gencon in the tournaments, not only was it in the Masters, but its general almost achieved first place!  Now there are two things that I'd like to point out as a result of these tournament results.

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.

Editorial: "In a Vacuum" Part 2

Like I mentioned last week, Warmachine/Hordes is a complex game because there are 11 factions, over 100 warcasters/warlocks, and an even wider selection of warjacks, warbeasts, units, and solos.  There are a LOT of moving parts to this game we play and while there are some consistencies like spells between multiple warcasters/warlocks, every faction (let alone warcaster/warlock) has a different playstyle and to look at any one model and say "wow, that's broken" is so silly to say that it borders on bigotry.  To look at something and make assumptions on it based on your initial impressions is a common practice in humanity but it's our responsibility to try to be open-minded and consider more than just our first impressions.  I liked the way my friend put it: "You can't consider the model in a vacuum."  So today I'm going to take a practical approach and briefly look at each Hordes faction and some common models/abilities/spells that need to be considered whenever you're looking at something new and different before you pass judgement.  While this list is no where near comprehensive, I hope it will help people keep an open mind and consider all the possibilities before they decide something is "stupid" or "broken."

In Defense of the Mountain King

I meant to originally write this article yesterday but instead decided that since my argument included elements that were common to all Gargantuans, I figured I’d address those issues first.  While the comment was made that all of the elements I listed were common to all warbeasts, I do encourage you to read through each breakdown again because they’re slightly different with Gargantuans since Gargantuans are much more difficult to kill.  They take all of the advantages of having warbeasts over warjacks to a slightly higher level.  I brought up these same issues in my article Gargantuan Possibilities before we even knew what the Gargantuan statlines would look like.  I addressed issues of focus, damage boxes, and animi, and why their careful balance was necessary.  I’m pleased with how they’ve been balanced in general (at least for the two that have been spoiled) and I think the Mountain King is much better than people think.  This is a lengthy argument that requires a holistic approach to looking at the entire Troll faction and playstyle and consequently the article is quite long.  If you're passionate about this subject, I hope you'll be willing to read all the way through to the end because you need the entire picture to see why the Mountain King isn't terrible.

List Building: eGrissel 35 points

I want to shift gears a little bit this week.  With my order of a Dire Troll plastic kit and Mulg coming in this week, I want to revisit my plans for my Trolls.  They have been an army that I've wished to assembled off and on for some time now, and they've always been fun to play against.  When I first started playing Hordes I remember playing against a Troll player far more than anyone else and I quickly learned to respect the blue-skins.  Today I want to discuss a warlock who has faced some negative press since her arrival, but I've loved her model since it was released: Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels.  In particular, today I want to do some list building with her based largely on theory.  She strikes me as quite the interesting warlock and she has such an awesome model that I want to find a way to make her work.  Let's jump right into it!

List Building: pDoomshaper 35 points

Anyone who's been following my blog for some length of time knows that I'm in the process of assembling a Trollbloods army.  What precipitated this desire was a foray into other factions about a year ago, with myself wondering what army I wanted to start for a "slow-grow" league starting up at my LGS at the time.  I eventually settled on Dr. Arkadius but one of the options I threw around was building a pDoomshaper theme list.  General wisdom states that the Trollblood theme lists are not very good, as they tend to be too limiting and leave out units that offer great synergy for a faction which is known for such things.  However, I took a long look at the pDoomshaper theme list and flipped through the faction book when a particular unit caught my eye: Runeshapers.  I've come back to this army over and over again and I've finally decided to take the plunge, but why do I like the theme list so much?  What list do I plan on running myself?

Trollblood Musings

My job as a teacher is typically able to keep me busy enough as is, but with two tech weeks for two performances?  I'm totally fried.  My brain is mush and I apologize that today is going to be a little less put-together than usual.

I have been tossing around some ideas for Troll lists because while I already know that I want to build a pDoomy theme list, I know that I will want to expand it beyond that point.  So who should I look at next?  There are lots of options available but I want to avoid some of the "typical" Troll builds.  It's not that I don't think that they're competitive or that I think that I'm better than anyone else, it's just that they don't appeal to me and I want to try a "meta-breaking" strategy with my particular Trolls.  So that basically eliminates the use of some warlocks - Madrak (either), Borka, Grissel (although I might be able to manage an alternative eGrissel list), and eDoomshaper (easy to meta-game).  So who does that leave me with, and how should I build an expansion from there?

Project Pressganger: Madrak Painted

I'm in the middle of tech week so not much of an update for today, but I do have Madrak painted from my Trollbloods warpack that I picked up at Templecon.  I've decided that I'm going for a volcanic look with my trolls and that means obsidian and orange-yellow glowing runes.  I really like how Madrak turned out and I'm satisfied with my paint scheme so that means I'm clear for continuing it with the rest of the models.  I'll probably stick with a darker skin in the future (which is okay for Madrak to be a lighter-skinned).

Holiday Homebrew: Cupyg

It's been almost 2 months since I've presented homebrew rules for Warmachine/Hordes, and it seems that Valentine's Day is as good of a holiday as any to make one!  While Valentine's Day can make it difficult to fit into the Iron Kingdoms, I realized that I could turn a pun into a really simple and fun character.  Indeed, I decided that the traditional image of Cupid wouldn't fit into many factions, but the image of a naked little pyg with wings and a bow and arrow made me snicker a little bit, and thus, Cupyg was born!

Scenario Table, Templecon video, and Trolls!

I'm still recovering a bit from Templecon so I haven't had enough material to cobble together a coherent article yet (even the one yesterday took me some time to put together), so today I will share a mish-mash of information for you all.  I'm still riding the wave of fun from the weekend and have been more highly motivated than usual to both get some teaching work done as well as continuing to get some hobby stuff done.  That said, today I will share with you what's been up lately and what to expect in the future!

New toys!

Guess what arrived today???

Faction Loyalty

After yesterday's great Domination event (which you can read about here) I realized that I really love the Hordes side of Warmachine/Hordes.  After the conclusion of the event, several of us local players sat down and talked shop, discussing options for Templecon, discussed some theories about combos, and heard some tales of the playtesting for Domination (a bunch of local players are PP playtesters).

Throughout the conversation I kept coming back to the realization that I really enjoy Hordes factions more than Warmachine factions and one of my buddies from Regular Team agreed with me.  While we maintain our first Warmachine factions and are still pretty attached to them, we find Hordes to be more fun.  Perhaps it's the fury mechanic, perhaps it's the originality of each faction, or the unique nature of warbeasts over warjacks, but I find myself having way more fun managing fury than focus.  This got me to thinking about something I've been considering for some time: trading away my privateer mercenaries.

DOMINATION! READ! NOW - ah screw it.

I hate blogger.  I spent an hour and typed out a very long review of my favorite models from Domination and then *POOF* it didn't save any of it.  Let that be a lesson to all of you: type it out elsewhere and save it, don't rely on the blasphemous magic of the internet to save for you.  Since I don't have the time nor the patience to re-type the article again, right now, I will simply give you the quick outline.  Maybe I'll come back this evening and be more detailed, but for now I'm literally shaking with rage, so all I can do is a quick review:

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 5! SMASH!

Okay so what's on for today?  Well at the end of today's article you will find some pictures from my first game with a Domina Today I will briefly talk about each of the character warbeasts that were released in Domination - all of whom seem to be some variation on the theme of smashing things to bits.    I will not be ranking these guys, even in order of my favorites, but rather just talk about the strengths of each and where I see them fitting into the current meta (at least my local one).  One interesting thing to note is that each has the rule special issue [warlock], meaning that they can be taking as a part of that warlock's themed list and are also bonded to that warlock.  Aside from that, there are no direct affinities like the other character warbeasts, so there's no real disadvantage to taking them with other warlocks.  I have to warn you that today's post is a little long, but thorough, so hopefully you'll find it useful without being too long.  Let's start in the order in which they are presented in the book:

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 4! WARBEASTS!

Okay so why do people play Hordes?  I imagine that if they really wanted to play with lots of infantry then Warmachine probably suits that better than Hordes.  No, if you want to play Hordes, you're likely interesting in the big tools of war known as warbeasts!  Domination brought us some unique and exciting warbeasts!  Unlike Warmachine, new warbeasts have to be considered not only for their battlefield performance, but for their animi, as they are effectively a new spell that our warlocks have access to.  Which warbeasts are my favorite from Domination?  Let's find out!

DOMINATION! READ! NOW! PART 3! WARLOCKS!

By now you’ve hopefully become excited enough that you ran out and purchased your own copy of Hordes: Domination and are aware of the different spells and abilities that these fancy new warlocks can use.  There are some new spells and there are some old, but one thing that Dominations has surely brought us is a bunch of new playstyles for each faction.  Today I want to focus on my three favorite (I didn’t say “best”) warlocks, and why.  I want to first say that I LOVE eBaldur, but I already spent enough time talking about him here, so today I will be focusing on three other warlocks, with the understanding that you know Baldur is my absolute favorite.  Here are my thoughts:

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: