Danish masters 2013 first list - 50 point Skarre2 Vs. Legion

I am preparing to go to the Danish masters, and it is a three list required event with character restrictions and painting requirements. Last tournament of some size that I attended I fought legion and lost a game, so this time I will bring a list especially for taking care of legion players. I talked to a friend of mine who plays legion and he told me that three casters I would properly face would be Lylith2 Vayl2 and Saeryn with Saeryns list being the most common anti cryx list chosen due to cryx nature of relying on melee and hopefully alpha charges. Something this caster can steal by using her feat and loads of beasts. With this in mind, as well as eyeless sight and loads of awesome beasts I picked Skarre2 and made this list.

Skarre2 (+6)

Nightmare (10)

Looks great! But it works a lot better for Skarre2 than Deneghra.

Stalker (4)

Such a hard model to take pictures off… and put together… and look at… it does however make up for it with awesome rules.

Defiler (5)

Blackspot and this thing are great friends.

Skarlock (2)

I find that since I dumped the death jack, skarre needed help to cast all the spells she likes. This guy makes up for it.

Satyxis Raider Captain (2)

Necrosurgeon & stitch thralls (2)

Minimum Mechanithralls (3)

How did I paint these you ask, well I spend several hours playing skyrim and then painted trolls, that’s how. Now I need to rush the paintjob before the tournament.

Full Satyxis blood witches with UA (8)

For some reason one of these ladies has lost one of her horns. I am considering replacing it with something cool, just do not know what yet.

Full Satyxis raiders with UA (10)

Full Bane Knights (10)

I am currently painting this unit, and making a how to paint guide with these.

Total 50 points

As skarre2 lacks ghost walk I have long thought about using Nightmare as a jack bullet rather than death jack. Sure it has lower survivability, lower damage output, higher focus requirements, BUT the additional potential threat of 5,5 regardless of difficult terrain or walls just seemed nice. I have tried a version of this list 4 times and in the first 3 nightmare killed the warlock/caster in rounds 3/2/2 and this was against Saeryn/lylith2/asphyxious2. Fourth game it two rounded a galleon. Only problem, need to rush the painting of the model. The stalker is incredibly good against any hordes faction and can be protected by Skarre2s feat and so far it has killed a few soloes, some boom howlers and stopped Saeryn from transferring damage. I picked the knights over thralls, because stealth matters little against Legion, I like reach and with deathward they are arm 18. I usually bring the surgeon with Skarre2 just to pay for the hit point she loose on upkeeps, so this time I tried to bring 3 points of mechanithralls, so far they have done Little but fits the point cost. Generally, I am happy with the list even if it relies mostly on using skarre2s feat to make heavy beasts do little for a round and put some pressure on the enemy warlock with nightmare. By the way, it has a potential threat of 21 inch so in kill box scenarios warlocks will get a jack to face unless they screen with a huge base.

The other faction I lost to in the last tournament was Cryx and Asphyxious2. I fought him twice with the coven won the first and lost the second. After talking to my opponent, he pointed out that bringing a kraken against Asphyxious2 feat is like starting with minus 19 points, so I do not think I will be doing that this time. However, my counter list against him will be the content of another post.

By the way, if anyone reading this has input on how to counter Asphyxious2, any good ideas on what my next two lists should be or input on this list please leave a comment.

Warmachine Tactics To Pledge or not to pledge!

There is a bunch of new stuff available to those who pledge to the upcoming game Warmachine Tactics and 2 are gifts for Cryx.

We are getting a character journeyman warcaster Aiakos and Sturgis2 an epic warcaster.

Aiakos comes 4 focus, Escort (2 focus) and death bringers (2 focus). I think he could be great with a seether in this battle group. He can give it 2 focus, it generates its own 3rd. With escort it treats a solid 11,5 inch. I am going to try this.

He is also a solo with a high level of survivability, not only due to his 14 Def 14 Arm, 5 wounds, but also due to stealth. Sure legion laughs at him and kills him, and gun mages will need 2 hits to take him out, but against those unable to ignore stealth he will be a solid objective grabber.

I like that he brings a harpoon but love that it is magical. He will be great at taking out a solo when he keeps most of his focus for himself. Hitting will be his biggest problem having only a rat of 5, but with a boost we can hit Def 14 most of the time, and hitting Def 16 is 50/50. What is crazy about this is that he brings jump so the threat is 17 inch. Against those damn stealth soloes, I can tell you the treat is still 16. This is a big F to the U to Gorman and Eiryss. Damn I just convinced myself to pledge to get him.

Second thing we are getting is Sturgis2 The Corrupted. Comes with 6 focus, and bloodrain (3), convection (2), occultation (2), parasite (3) and teleport (2). I imagine needing parasite trough an archnode once or twice per game. Occultation is just plain great, and I will probably use it on something like blood witches, bane knights or bile thralls. Teleport gives him an option to bail when the going gets though, and makes using his feet safer. Convections special ability is good enough that I would build lists around it, but as a blast spell range 10 pow 12 is not bad for just 2 focus and could clean up some charge lanes. Two well placed bloodrains can do wonders against single wound shield walls/defensive lines. He might actually use the spell more than most casters with bloodrain outside of having an arch node due to teleport.

To use his feet to optimal potential he needs to be played offensively and most of his abilities enforce this play style. He has relentless charge, so a failed charge might be used often to get him into position. Snap strike, reach, two attacks, one with death strike and one with soul eater makes him great at taking out entire units of living models on his own. His feat is probably the most interesting part of his playstyle as he clear objectives with his pushes, and pow 12 auto hits. Even though his feat gives him some fuel for some jacks, I would be surprised to see him with too many jacks. A deathjack or a seether as his heavy and 2 archnodes would proberbly be his first battle group for me. I might even try aiakos with a seether and then just give Sturgis 2 archnodes and 2 stalkers. That would leave me with 28 points for perhaps satyxis raiders with UA and Solo, bane knights with tarterous and a war witch. Could be fun to try out and on feat turn those stalkers could go to town. Needs more thinking… Needs playtests…. Hate proxies…. Must pledge…. Guess I have my answer right there. I will be pledging to warmachine tactics to what about you?

Back from tournament – Fun was had

1st Game

 

 

His list was something like this.

2 Archnodes, Bane thralls with UA, Bane Knights, Min Bile thralls, Blood witches with UA, Saxon Orric, 2 Pistol wraiths, Bane Lord.

I had only played against this matchup once and knew that it had a huge advantage against my lists. My choice went to the coven as needed bile thralls to clear up some of that infantry to score some points or get a clear shot to the caster. I aggressively ran my kraken its 14 inch in my first turn and tried to esablish the line of skirmish far ahead, forcing my opponent to keep his caster way back. In the grind I managed to get my blood witches to take out his biles, a pistol wraith and some of his bane knights on one flank. On the other flank one of my archnodes and a scrap thrall managed to deal with his blood witches and a pistol wraith. This left his middle at a point disadvantage winning me the grind and finishing the game 5-0.

2nd Game

List was something like this.

2 angelius, 2 scythean, Aflector, 2 shredder, 2 death striders, 2 spell martyr, 2 forsaken and swamp gobbers.

I picked my skarre2 list in the hope that I could target his heavies with my feet. I managed to get deathjack in melee with the warlock on turn 2, sadly I forgot puppet master on him and rolled quite low so she managed to pull out with only 7 damage. I took out quite a lot, but I have never played against angelius so I underestimated their ability to clear a zone and lost. (15 models and an archnode is not enough, I know that now) Lost the game 5-3

 3rd Game

 

His list was something like this

Storm troll, pyre troll, Impaler, Full kriel with cabers and UA, Min Krielstone, Full Longriders, Fell caller, Horthol, Janissa, Runebearer, stone scriber

I played the coven since I imagined him playing a brig so my feet would effect all his models. Since one of the most common troll problems seems to be hitting minus 2 mat and rat should be great.

I was extremely interested in how this list was playing seeing as I have just bought some trolls. It started out well, but my opponent was new to his trolls as well. He played a slow game, and made loads of errors. As I saw the time was running out for him, I did not even bother to correct him in the spirit of fair play, but this player was so stressed by the clock that he kept activating stuff in the wrong order, targeted models with spell without having line of sight, activated and finished one long rider and then the other. It was a mess and I hope that if I were in his situation I would play more structured or just give up. Nice person however and he went and did well in the tournament later. Won the game by timeout.

 

4th Game

 

His list mercenary heavy and looked something like this.

Ol’ Rowdy, Boomhowlers, Nyss hunters, forge guard, Alexia, lady and holt, Journeyman, Reinholt, mayhaps Sylys.

I picked Skarre since Cane can takeout the coven in a single round of shooting. The table had too much terrain and that worked to my advantage. I was second player and in turn two I was able to clear and scored at my opponents objective. Same turn I ran a skarre feat stalker in melee with Cain. Next turn Cain had little chance for a comeback, and due to difficult terrain, he was unable to put much into his zone. I cleared it, ran a witch and won the game. Won 5-0

5th and final Game

 

Same list as first game with the exception that he removed a pistol wraith and gained Darrah Wrathe. Good trade.

Since the coven did so well I tried to do the same thing. This player however knew how to use his list, and knowing what I know now, I should never bring a colossal against Aspyxious. His feet can almost always take it out, so the more expensive model you bring the more point he gain. I actually had a chance to make a shot on the caster with the kraken, but learned that kill shoot only activates when you kill “a living model” good to know, cost me a boosted hit and damage against a 15 – 16 caster. In the end I managed to get an achnode to cast 2 boosted stygian abyss on him, dealing some 7-9 damage just before being cleared off the table. Not having fired at him with the Kraken earlier when I had the chance was my biggest regret in that game. Loss - removed from the table

I ended up 5 place out of 20 since due to the tiebreaker strength of schedule. I forgot to take some pictures but I did win best painted jack and best painted army. To be fair I think that some armies where better painted, but those armies had a few unpainted models and thus could not win the price. In jack I won over one of my friends awesome Ol’ Rowdy. He was not the only participant, but without a doubt the best. I wanted to put my deathjack, but one of my friends said, “NO biggest model – Best model”. I won even though the skill put into Ol’ Rowdy was much higher, so who said size did not matter? Fools with tiny models, that is who!

Won me these:

 

Other than that we had a load of beer, barbeque, air hockey, and 2 horrible night of sleep. What the hell is up with my fellow geeks snoring like shit. Nice people, but damn I had to sleep with earphones playing music all night.

Most memorable in game moment Stalker hitting Cain with a free strike for 11 damage, most memorable moment outside of the game is a tie between loosing in air hockey 7 times in a row while drinking beer or some person sleeping, suddenly wake, yell and sprint out of the room. Wait, no, that wins, damn that was strange.

Best tournament yet, and it has inspired me do better at the Danish Masters in a few months. 3 list format with character restrictions. Might even turn to the dark side of cryx to improve my chances. Some would argue that cryx is the darkside of warmachine, but I might turn to the blackest black that exist in this game, Asphyxious2 the black hole from witch no light can escape. You can bring revenant crew of atramentus the bastion of all that is fair in cryx, and people will still call you beardy, even with his new errata. He is that black. Nuff said rant over, painting trolls, new technique I am working on, show you later. Relates to this:

 

 

The Witch Coven of Garlghast 50 point army list

Due to my local games stores inability to deliver Gorshade the Cursed, I will turn to the witch coven as my second army list. I want to bring a fully painted army so a few of my latest purchases will have to wait for the next tournament (I am looking at you Darragh Wrathe). The list I will bring looks like this:

The Witch coven (+5)

 

Comes with ghost walk to give me pathfinder, 9 focus and a discount on a great spell list. If you have yet to take them for a spin you should do that. They are not the biggest fan of legion tho.

Kraken (19)

 

With Infernal Machine this model becomes all that I wanted it to be. Threat 14 MAT 8.

Death Ripper (4)

 

The coven has the potential to casterkill with range 28 by putting infernal machine on this model, running it 18 inch and using the archnode to cast stygian abyss 4 times or 2 times boosted hit and damage.

Death Ripper (4)

 

I also need archnodes to get curse of shadows on the right target.

Bane Lord Tarterus (4)

 

Goes great with banes.

Necrotech with Scrap Thrall (1)

 

This one can ensure that my Kraken is functional when it comes to melee.

Necrotech with Scrap Thrall (1)

 

I heard someone say if one is good 2 is better. Also I have had the worst luck with succeeding my repair skill check, so need two for the effect of one ;)

Min unit Bile Thralls (5)

 

These like the spell occultation. My local meta is still stuck on infantry machine so these are the best five point to deal with that.

Full unit Bane thralls with UA (11)

Takes care of high arm.

Min unit Satyxis Blood witches with UA (6)

 

Gives me dispel and removes tough. You have to love that UA.

The list has a load of stealth and brings something to deal with high arm, loads of infantry regardless of DEF and has a horrible dispel option. I have played the list with success with the exception of a fight against Aspyxious2 who I carelessly sacrificed my kraken to get an assassination attempt. It comes short against loads of gunmages and legion but other than that does great.

I think it will prove to be a solid list. It is not fancy in anyway but I only need to paint two models to have it done and that is a big selling point. I do not know what to expect of the tournament so I go with an open mind. I will take some pictures and report how I fared, who and what I played, and hopefully show some awesome pictures of beautiful armies.

 

I do not know what to expect of the tournament so I go with an open mind. I will take some pictures and report how I fared, who and what I played, and hopefully show some awesome pictures of beautiful armies.

I finally finished two hyperions for a friend who will bring them for the tournament and I must admit painting these have been no joy. Having just gotten some trolls and new cryx models my morale for painting these has been low, and taken some of the joy out of painting. Not doing additional colossal anytime soon. I hope he will enjoy them however.

 

 



Still needs some paint on the bases but then his Downlord Vyros Double Hyperion list will be finished.

 

I played 100 games of Cryx!

It finally happened, I managed to go 100 hundred games before buying a new army. This is a grand occasion and as I look back on the 100 games I have many fond memories.

It has been 13 month since my first game. I participated in 3 tournaments, a 35 point, a 35 points with 20 point jacks and a double tournament. Won the first came second in the second and my team scraped the bottom with 2 timeouts and a loss in the last. I have painted 89 Cryx models. I also made some Charts to show fun statistics about my first 100 games of warmachine and Cryx.

Far to much warmachine over Hordes

Time made me enjoy the 50 point game more than other point sizes

I think that is damn good for the first 100 games

Most important statistic of all is, that over time I had 92% of FUN during the time spend playing and painting warmachine this past year.

I have long contemplated what my next faction should be, and due to the low representation of hordes factions, I decided to go for Trollbloods. I painted a test model, I am still unsure about what to do for the bases, but I am open to suggestions.

I am happy about most of this model, with the exception of the hat. When I looked at the models stats I knew he would be one of those models rarely used so ideal test model.

 

Finally, to all the opponent I have played, thank you. I have enjoyed this game a lot and so far I am not looking back at any other system. Hope you will join me for the next 100 games of warmachine!

50 point skarre queen of the broken coast tournament army list

I think I have found one of the army lists I will be using for the before mentioned tournament. I will go through the list and shortly justify why these where my choices.

Skarre queen of the broken coast (+6)

With black spot she can take high defense down to a more manageable level.

Death Jack (12)

Is great combined with Perdition Fate weaver and deathward. Also great without ;)

 Deathripper (4)

Is a much needed archnode to get of perdition, backlash, black spot and occasionally bloodrain.

Stalker (4)

I want to try putting some pressure on the enemy caster and with fate weaver the stalker can do just that.

Saxon Orrik (2)

Fixes the pathfinder problem.

 

 Bane Lord Tartarous (4)

 Increases the potentilal of the Bane thrall unit, and is a good target for fate weaver. Thresher!

 

Satyxis Raider captain (2)

 Increases the threat of the raiders, and is a great objective grabber. Also since the list lacks shooting she can clear out some charge lanes.

 Full unit of Bane Thralls with UA (11)

Takes care of heavy ARM such as colossals, and with tartarous and black spot they are effectively MAT 10 against that hard to hit unit.

Full unit of Satyxis Raiders with UA (10)

Punish any warcaster with a jack. With a backlash caster they become the best counter to aggressive colossals. 14 inch charge ;)

The Withershadow Combine (5)

Gives me the dispel option. They also have a few other trick going for them (understatement)

 Necrosurgeon (2)

This unit is in here to block charge lanes against skarre and to compensate for blood trade and the cost of fate weaver.

 

This list has a strong assassination game with the death-jack-bullet, a stalker and backlash. It can also do good in an attrition game but has the downside that I have nothing ranged apart from the random solo UA and spells. This might become the failing point of the list keeping me from getting the upper hand. I will try the list this Tuesday against Cygnar. It will also be my game Nr. 100 with Cryx since I started player about a year ago, but that will be the subject for another post. Still working on list Nr. 2 but I am unsure what to settle on yet.

As you can see I still need to do some painting for this one, but I think I will be okay. Just 5 models, I fear my other list will require a bit more painting.

Making lists for tournaments



 

During the past few months, I have taken part of a yearly Danish league called “The Imperator League” and it has been a joy. They have some simple rules such as, do not play against the same opponent twice, which has made me widen my circle of regular opponents a little. and i enjoyd that a lot. I also qualified for a tournament by ranking highest in points and 3ed highest in number of games.

You can find the score here: http://www.asgaard-games.eu/imperator-5/roster.htm

 The tournament one of the bigger in Denmark and since I did so well in the campaign I wanted to participate, which got me thinking on; what makes a good tournament army list? I found 4 important points. More are out there, but over the coming weeks I will try to find out which 2 lists I will bring using these 4 points as a part of reference as well as any other information I will obtain to give me an edge.

1)      A way to deal with terrain. Pathfinder units can do this for you but often a model that can give pathfinder (or better) to units that need it are a much better investment. Outside factions there are two models that come to mind who can do just that, the piper of Ord and Saxon Orrik. In Cryx we do not have access to the piper, but luckily we have some quite good casters with Ghost walk.

2)      A way to deal with big models. With Colossals being quite common in my local meta, I find that I need some way to deal with these big boys. This can be done by applying weapon masters, but I would always recommend bringing Gorman in at least one of your lists. As a Cryx player another way to deal with colossals are Satyxis Raiders with a Backlash caster. If I get the charge then they have the “theoretical” potential to deal 33 points of damage to the controlling enemy warcaster regardless of defensive stats.

3)      Bring dispel options. The some of the best combinations in the game rely on upkeeps, so removing those makes taking out that awful combination much easier. Some has it easy by being able to bring Eiryss but in cryx we do not have it as easy (with this part not in general). Withershadow combine can use unbinding, the blood witch UA has dispel on their weapons, and we have some casters with Hexblast.

4)      A way to deal with high DEF. Bile thralls are the best cryx option for this, but Dark guidance on Skarre1 can do it, and getting some AOE’s rolling can also be a solution. The nasty high DEF relies on buffs like iron flesh, and that can be resolved by bringing your dispel options, so if you have a DEF debuff, buff to MAT or just plain old gang going you have a fair chance of getting a hit as long as you got the dispel option handy.