Warmachine/Hordes Campaign: Building the Iron Kingdoms

I know that it has been exactly 2 months since my last post but I promise today will make it worth it. I have been working on a campaign inspired by one which I witnessed almost 4 years ago. A Press Ganger and friend ran a kingdom building campaign using the Mighty Empires tiles for some locals at The Whiz back when Mk. II was in its infancy. It was through watching these guys play games and build their own mini kingdoms that got be interested in playing Warmachine/Hordes, and I hope that the campaign I have been working on will inspire someone else to join the game. The version I have worked on has many of the same features as the one I witnessed, with some minor tweaks and some additional features (like faction specific advantages) which I hope will fully revive the campaign while keeping in the same spirit. I have also clarified some of the terminology and even color-coded terms to make it easier to read and understand.

I will be running this campaign starting in the middle of July for 6 weeks (actual start date has not yet been determined) at The Battle Standard in Manchester, CT. There will be a low entry fee to play in the campaign which will go towards prizes (likely trophies). I will announce the finalized details soon.

Without further ado I present to you:

Building the Iron Kingdoms Campaign

Lists Galore!

2013: The Year of Mercenaries continues! This weekend is going to be my first 35 point tournament with my Mercenaries and I'm really nervous. I already have my Connie list playtested and ready to go but I'm nervous about my options for my second list. There are a couple of models that I still need to find (look for an asterisk * for models I don't own yet) but I'm confident that I can get what I want for Connie, not so much for my other options for lists. Today I'll share the Connie list that I want to run with a brief justification about some of the changes I've made recently, and then I'll share a couple optional lists in order of likelihood of running. To keep things fairly brief I will include a quick pros and cons of matchups for each list so you can understand my misgivings and why I'm not exactly excited about any particular list. Let's start with Connie:

List Building: Ashlynn D'Elyse

As I have said before, I'm trying to make 2013 the year of Mercenaries for me and so the faction is receiving all of my attention. While I've loved playing with Fiona in the past, I'm afraid that with the meta changing she's not quite able to keep up with the tools at her disposal right now, and so I've been looking for a new tournament caster to replace her. I've had lots of success with Connie so she'll be my first list tournament caster, but I'm in the market for a second. Consequently, I've started looking at Ashlynn D'Elyse again because her feat is kinda similar in effect to Fiona's but with an offensive component to it too, so I feel like her playstyle might be a little similar but a little more aggressive like Connie since Ashlynn is both difficult to assassinate and offensively scary for an opponent to deal with. Ashlynn will also compliment my Connie list well, where Connie will be great at dealing with a lot of Hordes lists with her volume of attacks, I'm going to build Ashlynn to deal with lots of high-ARM as I believe her feat and her spells allow her to deal with these types fairly well. Let's start by looking at her feat: Roulette.

2013 - Year of Mercenaries

I decided that 2013 would be the year I would focus on my Mercenary collection. I've had my Mercenaries for a long time now and it started back when Mk. II was still really fresh and I loved the idea of the Broadsides Bart theme force - a bunch of Mariners with their ship guns blazing away was just too awesome to pass up! I shelved them for a while and later picked up Fiona because I thought she was cool and I thought that she'd be quite powerful if I focused my efforts on her. Last year I came up with a list I was pretty proud of and playtested her a little, but she never got the focus she deserved. I decided at the end of last year that I would focus on my Mercs for 2013 and that I would further keep a log of my games so I could accurately reflect back on my gaming experience for the year. Well, it's been 3 months so far and I figured it was time to analyze my results so far.

New England Team Tournament 2013

I just realized today that the New England Team Tournament (NETT) is less than 4 months away. It's currently scheduled for July 13th and this year I have to make some difficult decisions. The first decision, of course, is whether I should even attend.

Showcase: Gorten and Connie

So I've been busy painting up some of my models in between moving-in my fiancee and getting ready for some visitors this weekend. While I certainly have a lot to paint (forge guard are next on the painting table) I have been able to finish painting two warcasters: Gorten Grundback and Constance Blaze! Connie has been a pleasure to play with and I'm looking forward to playing with her more but I need a couple of models before I feel comfortable fielding Gorten (I only have a Basher for a warjack). Even still I managed to paint both models and I figured I'd show them off!

List Building: Constance Blaze

I've been buying and collecting some models for the past 6 months but I have not done a lick of painting. Between school and planning for the wedding and new computer/video games, I've been so distracted from Warmachine/Hordes. I have been playing games, though, and even gotten some prize support at tournaments so I've been collecting models nonetheless. Yesterday I spent a good couple of hours putting some of these models together, followed by some list building. In the next couple of weeks I plan on sharing some of these list ideas as this year I want to focus on playing with Mercenaries! Today I want to share a list I created for using Constance Blaze as a mercenary warcaster and I have to say, I'm pretty amused by it. I will also share why I like taking the idea of taking Connie as a Mercenary warcaster instead of a Cygnarian one.

Challenge Accepted: Nemo

Nemo is one of the few warcasters out there who has been lucky enough to have 3 different versions of himself.  He's always been one of my favorite warcasters conceptually and his models (at least the newest versions) all look pretty great - dynamic while maintaining his character and personality.  While I began playing Cygnar with his epic form, I've recently been revisiting the idea of playing with the prime form: Commander Adept Nemo - one who is mostly considered one of the worst incarnations of Nemo, let alone the worst Cygnarian warcaster.  Naturally my response has been, "Challenge Accepted!" and so I've decided that I want to make him work.  It also helps that I already have a solid tournament warcaster for Cygnar in Kara Sloan and so I've been looking for a good, complimentary warcaster to run in a 2-list tournament with her, so maybe with some time and practice Nemo can make the cut!  Let me share my list with you and some of the justifications, as well as some other ideas I've tossed around and potential tweaks I might make if playtesting doesn't go so well.

Convergence of Cyriss thoughts

I, like many of you, was extremely excited to hear the announcement by Privateer Press that they were releasing a new faction for Warmachine.  Of course there were some grumpy people complaining about Retribution and Minions needing more love, but generally I think everyone was pretty excited about the new faction.  There's simultaneously not much and a lot to talk about the new faction and without knowing much about them, I figured it would still be good to review some of what we know about the faction.  There are some things we can expect and assume from the announcement video but there are also some things we can't assume yet and those issues need to be mentioned too.

If you haven't already seen the announcement video (or you need a refresher), take a look at it here:

Miss Warmachine/Hordes

It's 2013 everyone and it's time to crown your choice for who you believe to be Miss Warmachine/Hordes herself!  You cast your votes for the sexiest female warcasters... you cast your votes for the sexiest female warlocks... and then you had to cast your votes for who you thought deserved the title of Miss Warmachine/Hordes.  Sexiness isn't everything, of course, and your votes considered who deserved the title for her popularity, iconic stature, and her performance on the tabletop.  I do love myself a strong female character and your votes certainly chose a strong one.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present your choice of Miss Warmachine/Hordes:

Editorial: the Karma Deck

A couple of weeks back I was having a conversation with a long-time friend about 40k.  We often will discuss Warhammer 40k and, despite me rarely playing the game anymore, he appreciates my insight on various topics.  For now, I still keep up-to-date on the goings-on of 40k.  I think of 40k like an ex-girlfriend: we broke up a while ago and while I will never return to her, I do admit that I like to know what she's doing and how her life has changed.

During the course of my discussion with my friend about 40k, I had an idea come upon me.  We were discussing how dice can throw everything and it can be really frustrating when the dice are supposed to come back to help you, but sometimes never do.  It's a poor consolation that the dice should have rolled average over the course of a game but don't.  I came up with an idea that might maintain a level of randomness that is necessary for a game but with a greater degree of predictability and with proper probabilities that dice don't really offer.

Mercenaries? In a Tournament? With Character Restriction!?

My post earlier this week on Gorten got me to realize that I've always wondered how my Fiona list would do in a tournament setting.  She's a fun warcaster and she brings some interesting tricks to the table that most people wouldn't be used to seeing all in one package.  I like the list I have for her but there are a lot of specific synergies and I worry that any other 'competitive' Mercenary build would miss out on some of the elements I include in her list - most notably characters that I'd like to take with Broadsides Bart.  Bart was never really a strong list for me anyway, and seeing as they're really the only two mercenary warcasters I owned, I didn't give tournament dreams much of a thought (Fiona is too time-consuming for Hardcore).  Now, with Gorten, I can build two lists that I like but without the usual concerns about character restriction which will undoubtedly be in SR2013.  So let's say I'm going to attend a SR2013 tournament, at 35 points.  What lists would I actually bring?

New Project: Gorten Grundback

I have a problem.  Whenever I start a new faction I tell myself that I'll "only" play a particular warcaster/warlock... then maybe just a couple... then I end up owning most of the faction.  This happened with Cygnar, this happened with Circle, and now it's happening with Mercenaries.  Please, can someone take my Legion off of my hands so I don't get tempted to do it again?  I originally just got my Mercenaries to play with the pirates, in particular: Broadsides Bart.  It's a fun list but I just never really got it to a point where I was really happy with it, you know?  Then I expanded a bit and decided to try Fiona the Black.  She's an underdog and faces a lot of criticism, so I decided to try her out to prove people wrong.  After a lot of tweaking and playtesting, I've found a good list for her that I like.  Now, after some list building with a fan of the blog, I broke down and decided to try out Gorten Grundback.  Before you get all excited about Rhulic dwarves, I'm sadly not going to be playing with the Searforge Commission (yet), but rather sticking with the Highborn Covenant.  It makes sense, after all, since I play Fiona with the same contract and I already own lots of Cygnar models, so I might as well, right?  Well here's the list that I've put together:

Highborn Covenant 35 points
Gorten Grundback (+7)
- Basher (7)
Alexia and Risen (5)
Forge Guard (full, 8)
Gun Mages (6)
- Officer (2)
  - Mule (8)
Rhupert (2)
Ragman (2)
Gorman (2)

Not a lot of moving parts in this list but I like it.  I'll need to play around with it to decide what I want to tweak, but so far I really like it.  This list brings a bunch of bodies onto the field and some cleverly disguised hard-hitting.  My favorite part, though, is the shooting potential of the list.  While the meta is changing, shooting is still very effective if you have the right tools.  While Gorten doesn't inherently offer much synergy to shooting armies, I think this list will take advantage of what Gorten does have to offer rather well.

The first thing to note is the number of bodies hitting the field.  Forge Guard are some great high-ARM troops which pack a serious punch but can die easily to weapon masters or charging infantry.  Having a nice and squishy screen of risen in front of them, however, will mean that my opponent will have a hard time getting to the forge guard, allowing me to deliver their counter-punch most effectively.  Even if my opponent does kill some forge guard, they'll just add to Alexia's number of risen, so it's a great cycle of annoyance.  Rhupert, of course, is there to give out Pathfinder as needed, but also to make the risen Tough, which can take a normally annoying unit to hilarious levels of being annoying.  Even if my opponent wants to remove Alexia directly, the Tough rolls on the risen can be used on her "transfers" so she'll be even more difficult to remove.

Behind the forge guard and taking advantage of their Ranked Attacks, the Gun Mages and their Mule will be about to reach out and shoot the crap out of enemy models as they get close.  Sure, the risen can still get in the way, but if I'm really worried about it, I'll gladly trade a risen to a free strike if it means killing enemy infantry.  The Mule will be able to do some serious damage while he's marshalled by the Gun Mages and it helps take the focus load off of Gorten who has only 5 at the best of times to use.  The Mule can do all kinds of fun shenanigans and, again, I'm not afraid to shoot my own risen in the back (they'll be DEF 12 even if engaged! hahaha!) if it means clearing out a charge lane.

Toss in Ragman and Gorman for some improved damage, and we have ourselves a party!  Gorman will be sitting fairly safe behind all of the risen and can naturally Black Oil those pesky Colossals/Gargantuans or Rust Bomb a warjack if I'm worried about it.  Ragman, of course, will turn those risen into a slightly greater threat (especially if I'm shooting them while they're engaged) and he turns the forge guard into serious damage potential.  If I can tag a warjack with a Rust Bomb and get Ragman in range with his Death Field, even a Khador heavy at ARM 20 will crumble to merely 4 charging forge guard! 

KAPOW!

So what does Gorten bring to this party, anyway?  I think I can sum it up with two things: his feat and Solid Ground.  Gorten has an amazing feat that is well known for it's tournament winning potential.  While he has a small control area, the rest of this list and his naturally high armor mean that he'll be quite comfortable sitting pretty close to the front lines anyway.  His feat not only pushes models back up to 8", but it also offers a very useful SPD, DEF, and RAT debuff (although the RAT debuff is rarely important).  This means that even if my opponent decides to just run in and engage my models, I can simply pop feat and push them all back while my ranged attacks shoot them down.  The DEF debuff means they'll be much easier to hit and even if they try to come at me again, the SPD debuff will make it difficult for them to even run to get close again.  In essence, Gorten does support a ranged force by allowing them the opportunity to get basically 2 extra shooting 'phases'.

The second (arguably most important) piece of support Gorten offers is his spell Solid Ground.  Don't get me wrong, Rock Wall is pretty awesome too, but for such a low-FOC 'caster, Solid Ground will provide more benefits for upkeeping it (I'd even be willing to pay the double focus to upkeep it if someone makes me do that).  The spell offers two important benefits for this list: no blast damage and friendly models can't be knocked down.  Those are huge benefits!  Sure, small control area again, but keeping everyone standing is great for Tough, thanks to Rhupert as well as keeping Gorten alive longer since DEF 13 is hardly unimpressive as it is.  I think the immunity to blast damage is probably the most important, however.  With the exception of the forge guard, the rest of the warrior models in this list are fairly low in ARM values and are very susceptible to blast damage.  Gun Mages are only ARM 11 so even some of the weakest blast weapons are able to clear them out with ease.  Suddenly with Solid Ground, not only does the opponent have to get through a wall of forge guard, but they can't even hope that blast damage will remove some of those gun mages.

Just thinking about all of this makes me giddy and eager to try this list out!  I've also noted that there are no FA:C models in this list that I'd want to use with my Fiona list.  Could this mean that I have some tournament potential here???  We shall see!

Steamroller Prep: Escalation Tournament

So there's an Escalation Tournament on December 9th at The Battle Standard in Manchester, CT that sounds really interesting.  Unfortunately, I'm on duty that weekend so I will be unable to attend *shakes fist* but in case I can get someone to switch duty weekends with me, I still would like to prepare for it.  What will be interesting about the tournament is that there will be 4 rounds and the points values for each round increase, so you'll play at 15 points the first round, then 25, then 35, and lastly you'll play at 50 points.  Where it gets most challenging, however, is that you must keep building on your previous list.  In other words, the models in the 15 point list must be present in your 25 point list and so on.  The other major challenge is that your 15 point list is warjack/warbeast only (although you can be 3 points down).  That's where things get tricky because it means infantry warcasters will have a tougher time first round, and so the event as a whole will likely favor warjack/warbeast-heavy lists.  So what would I be bringing?  Well I first had to start with looking at viable 15 point lists, since those elements will carry forth into the later rounds.  Here's what I considered:

List Building Advice: Fiona

I recently received another request for some list building advice on the facebook page, this time regarding Fiona the Black.  I love Fiona and if she didn't require such specific synergies and characters, I would bring her to more tournaments.  I always have fun with her when I play her but she's missing something to make her more of a tournament-viable warcaster.  That said, I was eager to provide some advice on building a list with her since I've spent many hours playing her and building lists for her.  While I'm satisfied with the list that I play with her, it's nice to design a list for someone else.  In addition, this particular person wanted me to work within the models in their collection, which I'm always happy to do.  Here was the message:

List Building Advice: Gorten 50 points

Continuing from Friday's post, a fan had messaged me through the Steam-Powered Gamer facebook page asking for some advice with building lists in preparation for Templecon.  My disclaimer is that I admit I'm not some mastermind player but I do enjoy the theory and building lists with particular goals and restrictions in mind.  If anyone wishes for advice on building a list, I'm glad to offer some feedback and I will rarely suggest an alternative warcaster (unless that's a flexible criteria).  I understand that not everyone has lots of money to drop on a brand new list (I'm no exception) and so we enjoy working with the collections we already have.  Fortunately, this particular individual has been investigating lists via Vassal and hasn't purchased anything yet, so there's a lot of flexibility in the list design.  I have to admit, I'm probably the most proud of this particular list, even if he ultimately decided to go the full Khador route (although not with the Harkevich list presented on Friday).

Here's the list that he was looking at for Gorten Grundback:

Searforge Commission, 50 points
Gorten: +7

- Driller: 6

- Rockram: 8

- Rockram: 8

- Avalancher: 9

10 forgeguard: 8

6 forgeguard: 5

10 high shields + UA: 11

Thor: 2

My feedback:

As far as the Gorten list goes, I do have to ask if it has to be Searforge? Unfortunately, Searforge is a very limiting contract and I think I could come up with an interesting list if you took a Highborn Covenant list instead. Mercenaries can have VERY different looking lists and the Rhulic 'casters are no exception. Here's the list I've come up with using the Highborn Covenant:

 

Gorten (+7)
- Basher (7)
Gun Mages (6)
- Officer (2)
- Mule (8)
Hammerfall High Shields (full,
- Officer and Standard (3)
Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile (2)
Thor (2)

- Rockram (8)

Rhupert (2)
Rorsh and Brine (9)

The problem with Gorten is that he has so little focus so you basically just have to rely on getting him far upfield to make the most of his feat - and that means making sure he camps as much focus as possible so you can keep him alive. Rock Wall and Solid Ground help keep him alive and are really fantastic for units like Gun Mages since they're so vulnerable to blast damage. I like the Highborn list the best because it's such an awesome shooting list (I'm biased about shooting, despite what the meta says).  The High Shields can trod upfield while in shield wall shooting stuff while the gun mages sit behind them taking advantage of Ranked Attacks, safe from reprisal!  The Gun Mages will have a marshalled Mule to stick with the ranged theme without putting more of a focus drain on Gorten. Even if your opponent gets close enough to disrupt your shooting abilities, you pop feat, push everything back and slap them with a DEF penalty so you can shoot them even more reliably and the SPD penalty will prevent them from simply charging at you next turn.  You effectively can have multiple rounds of shooting and mitigate one of the biggest weaknesses to shooting in Warmachine/Hordes. 

The Mule can also push stuff around if it scores a Crit but also sports a wonderful POW 15 and an AOE 4 and the Basher will have fun slamming things around and exploding all over their face while the rest of your troops laugh at blast damage (thanks to Solid Ground). Brine is also around for some heavy hitting without an increased focus load on Gorten and he's a slamming machine. Him and Rorsh offer great support on a flank since they're so fast and Rorsch can feel comfortable chucking dynamite or using diversionary tactics near the rest of your troops since, again, Solid Ground will protect them from blast damage.  In essence, you can take full advantage of fantastic blast weaponry to deal with targets both near and far without fear - and that's huge for a shooting list.

Rhupert is around for giving Tough to the high shields - making them even more annoying to deal with (especially with Solid Ground keeping them standing) and as if you need more shooting support, Dougal can pop his mini feat early to give +2 RNG to all ranged attacks and he will consistently throw Artillerist on the Mule to make it hit even more reliably (at least until he wants to shoot stuff with his quad iron or chuck some grenades).  Lastly, we have to include Thor because he's an awesome 'jack marshall and since he can marshall Rhulic 'jacks, we should give him the Rockram to take the most advantage of his and its capabilities.  The Rockram is solid and will be capable of providing solid shooting support with the rest of the army, but can also hit hard in melee if it needs to - again, without requiring any focus from Gorten.  And even if you're worried about a 'jack marshall dying, the High Shields officer is around to pick up the slack if needed.

What you get is a list that literally pushes around your opponent all across the board and is incredibly resilient. It's a solid tournament list, in my opinion, but it would need some practice.  Fortunately, however, there aren't a lot of complex synergies that require specific activation orders, so that should make using the list fairly straight forward to use.  You just have to make sure to upkeep Solid Ground and maybe throw out Rock Wall where/when you need it, but otherwise you should have a fairly easy time using the list.  Rorsh and Brine take some getting used to, but they provide a fast moving element to the list that can protect a flank from getting overrun and keeping your backfield safe.

In fact, if I didn't have to spend so much money buying so much of the list, I'd probably try playing it myself!  Maybe if they release a plastic Rhulic 'jack kit...

List Building Advice: Harkevich 50 points

I understand that I'm not the best player out there for Warmachine/Hordes but I do love building lists and working on theory.  Recently a follower of the blog asked me for some feedback on a couple of lists and I was more than happy to oblige!  Today I'll look at the first of the lists presented and give some feedback.  I'll share the other list next week.

If anyone wants some feedback on lists just feel free to head over to the Steam-Powered Gamer facebook page and send me a message and I'll be glad to take a look at it.  Since most of us have our own limitations on building lists, I do take into consideration issues like the size of a collection or the amount of money you can spend on tweaking a list, so don't be afraid to ask for advice.  Also, I have one hard and fast rule and that is that I will not tell you which warcaster/warlock to play (unless that's the feedback you want).  I think it's rude when someone says "well your first mistake is that you're not playing X warcaster/warlock."  We all have our reasons for choosing particular models to play and I like giving feedback that meets your own criteria.  If you want to make a particular model work, I'm glad to toss around ideas with you to see what we can do!

Without further ado, I'll share the original list that requested feedback and then I'll share my feedback for Harkevich.

Recent Games and Reflections

September is the craziest time of year for me.  Coming out of the hibernation period that is the summer and being dropped right into a full boarding school teachers schedule is a bit intense.  Now I remember why I didn't start The Steam-Powered Gamer until October (OMG ALMOST A YEAR OLD!) - I was far too busy in September to do it.  Things are starting to calm down here a bit now 0 well, actually, I think I'm just getting into my groove.  Anyway, I have still been trying to be productive when it comes to Warmahordes stuff and I've managed to get a couple of games in at the local club.  Now that school is back in session some of the regulars have been coming back to the game club so I can at least get a game of Warmahordes in on Friday nights (typically).  That said, 2 games in the month of September is still not that great, but let me outline quickly how those games went.

Women in Miniatures Games

It's been almost a month since I last posted an article but I've been spurned into action by a recent article on Bell of Lost Souls about women in wargaming.  More specifically, I've been inspired to write this article because of the comments section for that article.  I've simultaneously been encouraged and saddened by the responses to the article, which only asserted that Warmachine/Hordes has a greater percentage of their demographic as women than other miniatures games.  Actually, I tend to find that Malifaux has more women, but the point that most people at the site took away from the brief question was that Games Workshop games tend to have very few female players.  Larry Vela (the author) asked why that might be, and the responses have been a mix of supportive and highly offensive (not sure if trolling or not).  Interestingly, there was an article written the other day about the same topic in video games only a couple of days ago (link) and the timing cannot be more perfect.  The difference, of course, is that the article I just linked came from a woman's perspective and she answers some common questions posed to women, which I think apply to wargames just as well as they do to video games:

So what should a proper female lead look like? Where do you draw the line between “attractive” and “cheap pandering cheesecake”? Which female leads resonate with women? Which ones repel them? Is it better to have a variable gender protagonist like in Fable II where you can choose a gender that basically doesn’t matter, or is it better to have a protagonist with a specifically crafted character? What genres of action-type badassery are most attractive to females, and would make a good starting point for a developer looking to court a female audience?

These are all great questions and I'd like to discuss a brief look into two games and address the question of why we don't see as many women playing miniatures games, and those that do seem to play particular game systems over others.

New Poll: Sexiest [female] Warlock

So I'm still alive!  I've been distracted by a combination of work and Borderlands 2, but I'm still alive.  I've been taking a hiatus of sorts from Warmachine/Hordes for a little while and part of that is because I don't have as many opportunities to play games anymore because summer vacation is over and I'm wayyyy over on mileage for my lease.  My hope is that my fiancee's new car will help take the pressure off of my mileage so I can still play some games, but finances are quite tight with the wedding coming up one year from yesterday (OMGOMGOMG!)

Anyway, today I'll ease back into things by analyzing the last poll which asked which was the sexiest [female] warcaster!  This next month the poll will be the sexiest [female] warlock, so make sure you place your vote up there!  Stay tuned for a special article tomorrow on women in gaming - a topic which has come to the forefront in gaming in the past week or so.  My goal is to return to a full daily schedule of articles but after being away from it for so long, I'm not sure I'll be able to do so.  There's no shortage of topics for me to discuss, but time is the biggest issue.  I digress.  Let's talk about some sexy warcasters!