Sword<Pen<Brush - Converting Mercenaries

One of my greatest loves in life is Narrative. I love a good story, if it's novels, TV, movies, comic books or even miniature gaming I'm addicted. Every time I pick up a model and grab my paints and brushes I'm thinking of the story of each of the little people I'm trying to bring to life. This seems like a bit of a tangent to the main body of the article but I'm getting there, bear with me. Anyway story is always what draws me to a character, world, unit or model. When I got started in Warmachine I was drawn to the knights and fanaticism of the Protectorate of Menoth. All well and good but the one thing I couldn't gel was mercenaries. I love the characterfulness of the mercenaries but I couldn't marry the mercenary mind set with the inflexible faith of the Menites. I gave up on including them, I'd make do I thought. 

I was persuaded, though, that it was necessary to include a couple in my armies but how to overcome the narrative issue? Conversion. By which I mean altering the models cosmetically and not trying to change the religious convictions of a sculpted piece of metal. Just slapping on different few parts and doing my own paints wasn't enough though. There needed to be story and character for each of the three I'd chosen. So here are the stories and model details for my three Menoth-ised Mercs:  

First Merc

The first merc I chose was Eiryss, Angel of Retribution or eEiryss. The official version looks like this:

I decided to turn her into a more Daughter of the Flame style character, swapping the sword for a double edged blade and giving her a Errant's crossbow instead of her own. Finally I slapped on an armour plate with a Menofix on the shoulder: 

Then I painted her in Menoth-y colours to compete the look:

And then I wrote up her story:

Selene 

Born in a North-western Llaelese Menite farming community, Selene lived a tranquil, pastoral life. Her father was the leader of the community and a fierce patriot, who imparted his love of the country into his children. 'Llael is the Garden of Menoth' was his favoured saying and in the beautiful and plentiful pastures it was hard to deny. Until the invasion. For the first few months Selene and her community were on the shifting frontline of the incoming red forces. The lines shifted back and forth as the Khadorans claimed the land and the Cygnarans pushed them back. Both forces consumed the land in their toils and left the land bleak and desolate. Most of the people of the township quickly learned to defend themselves but Selene's family never got the chance as they died in the early fighting leaving the young girl to fend for herself. 

The warjacks, cavalry and soldiers turned Menoth's Garden into a charnel house of churned ash and bloody soil. The people of the community were bitter and saw both sides as foreign invaders, despoiling their land, Llael was being torn irrevocably in two and there seemed to be no hope. Some in the community found solace in the Resistance but to Selene the message of the invasion was clear. Llael had lost the protection of Menoth and the impiety of the ruling elite had lead directly to the downfall of the nation. When the Protectorate forces moved into the country she took this as a sign of the only path to restore her country and, slitting the throat of each Khadoran living in her family home, she fled South. 

Selene joined the Daughters of the Flame and proved a capable assassin for the northern crusades in the early stages of the Protectorate's advance. Selene despises the ambition of Feora and sees in her the hubris of the Llaelese nobility. Preferring to fight alone she strikes where her god commands her and has shown an almost uncanny aptitude for disabling warcasters and warjacks who she sees as the epitome of heathen industrial evil. 

Merc Two 

Next up was the rogue alchemist Gorman DiWolf:

All I did for him was a simple head swap from a zealot which really contributed to making him match the rest of the army:

Then added a lick of paint:

And his narrative:

Tahïr the Red

The Idrian who would become known as Tahïr the Red was raised in one of the nomadic tribes that refused to convert to Menoth. Like many of the tribesmen living on the outskirts of the protectorate skirmishes with the faithful were common. It was during one of these conflicts that Tahïr narrowly avoided a direct hit from a zealot's bomb. While the the throw itself missed the explosion caught the nomad, engulfing him in flame. Instead of pain as the fire washed over him Tahïr saw only the perfection of flame and realised the glory of Menoth was contained in that fire. Diving out of the inferno horribly scarred, Tahïr leapt on the zealot who had opened his eyes and bludgeoned him to death with his own weapon. Taking up the zealot's bag of explosives he set about killing every member of his former family, gleefully screaming prayers to Menoth. 

He returned with the Protectorate soldiers in chains but soon convinced them of his conversion and was put to work with the Vassals. His grasp of mechanika was limited and his contributions rudimentary. But the Scrutators observing him soon realised he was a virtuoso with Menoth's Fury and any and all applications of the combustible. To Tahïr flame, especially used to slay the unfaithful, was the ultimate dedication to the Creator and his almost instinctive ingenuity with explosives lead to many subtle refinements of numerous weapons. 

Eventually Tahïr was given greater freedom to test his ideas and new creations and realised it was his destiny to create the ultimate explosive to be used against the enemies of the creator, and that this would be the ultimate dedication to Menoth. Impressed by his abilities and curious as to what he could potentially achieve Ark Razek sent Tahïr to join the Northern Crusade. In mere months he had earned a bloody reputation as the spectre Tahïr the Red and he continues his quest to find the perfect supplication to Menoth, a flame to match the one that brought him to the faith that will burn not just the flesh of the faithless but also consume their doubts and send their spirits to Urcean cleansed. 

The Third Sell-Sword

Finally the Mentite must Rhupert Carvolo:

 

This was a slightly different one. I added an exemplar shoulder pad and shield to meet his Menofix quota. Then I made a shoddy attempt at a Vassal like mask for him:

And painted (apologies for the picture quality):

And his tale:

Jean Llewelyn 

Born into a rich Llaelese merchant family Jean never really committed to anything in life. As a teenager he used his family's wealth and connections to come and go as he pleased, drinking with Kossites in Khador one month, and playing with a band in an Ordic bar the next. A callous drifter, Jean was quick to look after himself. As he matured he still maintained his reluctance towards responsibility and in an act of defiance against his Conservative father married a low born Cygnaran and started a family in Caspia. Playing music had always appealed to the youth more than the laborious work of maintaining the increasingly tense trade relations his father handled. Instead Jean played in taverns and faires around the city to keep his wife and daughters happy and fed. 

Jean might have continued his life as a carefree vagabond indefinitely had it not been for the outbreak of war in the Iron Kingdoms. Always a proud and moral man Anton Llewelyn, Jean's father had taken a vocal stand against the invading Khadorans and had been publicly executed as an example to dissenters. This stuck Jean profoundly and drove home his irresponsibly. He decided this was a second chance. Briefly. Within a few months he was back playing songs and drinking and revelling more than ever before, berely leaving enough coins to feed his family after he payed gambling debts and bar tabs. 

It was then the second great tragedy of Jean's life struck as war between Sul and Caspia broke out in full. Living within sight of Sul, Jean watched in horror as the Cygnarans began their assault and brought war to his doorstep. It seemed justified when the Sulese retaliated and he said so in his cups one night, leading to a brutal bar fight that left him unconscious in an alleyway. When he awoke the city was in flames around him. He rushed to return to his home, but when he arrived his home and his family had been burned to ash. 

It was at that moment that a trio of the men from the bar the night before stumbled across the broken man. Enraged by the destruction around them and desperate to lash out they identified in Jean a Sulese sympathiser and attacked. Jean did not resist the attack and would surely have died of not for the intervention of a Paladin of the Order of the Wall. The armoured protector cut down the men in a moment and stood in judgement of the Llaelese musician. 'This is what your faithlessness and lack of duty or honor have wrought.' He said as he left and the words were truer than he could know and cut Jean deeply. 

That was the moment of Jean's epiphany. He knew now that all the woes of his life were due to his own lack of direction and heart. Duty and Faith were more important that satisfying ones own base urges. Suffering had shown him the true path and Jean found, in the smouldering wreckage of his old home he found the metal front piece to his stove. In mimicry of the faithful Menites, held the metal in the flames of his former life until it was red hot and pressed it to his own face, fusing it to his flesh.

Since then Jean has returned to the one thing he knows, his music. But instead if playing for coin and drink he now plays arias and dirges of loss, patriotism and duty that stir the hearts of the soldiers of he faith, driving them to improve themselves. Jean cares less than nothing for his own well being and marches into the most hopeless situations without a moments hesitation, knowing duty is everything and seeking only to impart that to the men and women he serves with, that they can live the lesson he learnt from so much suffering. 

Conclusion

I've really enjoyed altering these models and coming up with a story that matches them. I also think the models worked out ok and now I have three unique models that have a small element of a life created purely by me. And that is the beauty of the hobby.

-M

Journeyman League - Week 3

The league continues! This week I managed to squeeze in a final battle box game with my best friend and long time gaming partner who'd decided on pirate mercs after a toss up between them and Cyriss. 

His force contained Bart, a Mariner, a Freebooter and a Buccaneer. The list has a serious flaw at battlebox level since the Mariner needs to be B2B with a friendly warrior model to fire its big gun and that left it stuck to the caster all game and limited its shooting capability. He managed first blood by knocking down my Repenter and getting the charge with his Buccaneer but this left the two of them focus-less-ly waving their weapons at each other for the rest of the game. The Freebooter got the charge in on the Dervish but didn't do much damage but did manage to leave the light exposed to a charge from Feora with EoD the next turn that trashed the jack. This left my back arc exposed to the Mariner who moved up close and took a shot (forcing Bart to move right up too) but failed to kill Feora who walked into combat with Bart and knocked him down to one box but failed to kill him. Luckily I feated to set him on fire and this polished him off in his own turn after he failed the Tough. 

This was between regular League sessions and on the regular night everyone was bumped up to 15 points which allowed me to shift to:

Feora, Priestess of the Flame +6

Vanquisher - 8

Dervish - 4

Repenter - 4

Minimum Choir - 2

Vassal of Menoth - 2

Wracks - 1

This gave me much more support for the army and let me boost my jacks up nicely. Unfortunately due to some personal stuff I was taking care of I was late to the night and everyone was pretty much paired off. I only managed to get 2 games in instead of the three I was hoping for and both games were quite short thanks to the skill level of the guys I got games with. 

My first game was a very shooty Legion army with pLylyth, a Ravagore, a Nephalim Bolt Thrower, Shredder and he'd added a Totem Hunter for the 15 points. We decided to continue playing without a direct scenario and the board we were using had a large hill in the centre. I started very poorly and very much gave up the initiative and the hill which allowed Feora to get shot up, resulting in a critical knockdown/push from the bolt thrower which opened up the charge for the Totem Hunter who'd put pray on her to secure the assassination very early on. 

Following this I played one of the most experienced players in the league (who I'd played in the preleague). His list comprised of pThags, 3 Warspears, two shredders, and a Carnivean. The Warspears ate away my choir in the first turn (they'd Passag'd the jacks) and the Carni breathed fire to bring my Vassal to 1 box. I retaliated with a charge on his heavy with both the Dervish and EoD Feora but he had Spiny Growth on and my damage rolls were too scattered to even take down an aspect never mind kill the thing and so I was horribly exposed. The Carni head butted her for the knock down and opened up the tiniest crack of a charge lane to allow Thags to polish her off leaving me on 2 losses for the night. 

The games I had were instructively painful and the guys I played were both sporting and their armies were impressivly destructive. I'm looking forward to having games against some slightly less out-of-my-league players next week and seeing where I land on the scores after being bumped down to second!

-M

Journeyman League - Week 2

So after finding out that my hobby points had got me to first place in the league for week 1:

I was pretty pleased with myself and decided to kick off a couple more games at last night's meeting. As a slight change to the normal rules several of the weeks including week one of the league were spread over two weeks, so it was still Mangled Metal & battle boxes. 

My first game was against a beautifully painted circle army with pKaya, a pair of Argus (one winter, one regular) and a Feral Warpwolf. After the initial moving up my opponent managed to get the charge in with the winter and cripple one of the arms of my Dervish before using a tidy little hit and run tactic with the caster to magic his beasts backwards. Since the spell left everything clumped together (you were placed within 3") I managed to get a solid shot off with the Vanquisher that missed but deviated onto the caster and both Arguses, setting them all on fire before boosted blast damage knocked Kaya to around 5 boxes. He moved forward again and spelled back his Winter and Feral leaving Feora to charge and kill the other Argus with EoD. Everything was clumped again so the Vanquisher got another shot into the crowd and the continuous fire finished Kaya the following turn, netting me the win. 

After that I had a game against one of the (many) Legion players in the League, who was taking pLylyth, an Angelius and a Scythean. After initial movement my Dervish was pretty exposed and so got charged (for free thanks to Lylyth's bow) by the Scythean and killed in one turn. This left the Scythean in the charge of Feora who went EoD and killed the heavy on the charge. The Angel flew across with a free charge on Feora for the assassination but didn't do nearly enough damage, leaving her to polish off another heavy under EoD, netting me another win under Mangled Metal. 

For my third game I decided to play the EO, a much more experienced veteran tournament player who was switching factions for the league to Skorne. The battlebox he was using was pMorghoul, a Titan Gladiator, a Cyclops Brute and a Basalisk Krea. He got in my face very quickly and again the Dervish took the brunt of the early offensive, getting scrapped by the Titan, putting his heavy in direct line for Feora, while he advanced the Brute with reach to lock in both of my jacks. This pretty much forced me to charge the Titan or get charged next turn. I chose to attack and went in for the charge, killing the Titan with EoD in one round, only missing once with a double 1 which wasted one of my valuable focus. The Vanquisher also got a solid melee hit on the Cyclops but it had admonition so dodged the attack from the Repenter. His Krea used it's animus to drop my DEF and took a shot at Feora, but she was hiding in the wreckage of the Dervish and he missed. Morghoul was in range though and got the charge on Feora, and kept buying pairs of anatomical precision attacks on her until she was dead. 

I finished the night on two wins and a loss again, which is another 8 League points and I had fun with all my games, the people I played were all sporting and had cool lists so I was happy to play them. I'm looking forward to next week when we can bump it up to 15 points and get in some support stuff!

Plus I got my latest (and last for a while) shipment of Menoth models in so I'm looking forward to painting them and securing my place at the top!

-M

Mini Thoughts - eAbsylonia

The other day PP released the cards for the new Exigence warlocks on their WarRoom app (if you haven't already go get it right now) and completed the set of models for them too by adding a rhino?!? No seriously the Skorne guy is riding a huge (literally) Rhino of Doom. I digress. In a month or so I'll be hanging up my Menofix and getting Blighted as I dive brush first into Legion so the model and rules that I was most interested to see were the rules for Legion's new lady. 

I don't know if you've seen the model yet so:

Nice, right? In terms of the model I'm liking the pose but I'm really hoping that it's way more balanced than it looks. And I mean structurally. Cos it looks like it's going to be pretty top heavy and every hobbyist knows that means she gonna fall over. Lots. And chip that paint job you poured blood, sweat and tears into. Maybe it's deceptive, though, and carefully set up so it all works out nicely. Maybe that's one of the reasons she's on a Medium base now. 

Anyhow model aside the card came out with the new rules which is the main thing, right? Stat wise the Daughter of Everblight gets an extra pip of STR to bring her two claws up to P&S 14 which is always appreciated. The rest of the stats are the same until you get to her defences. One less DEF in exchange for two more ARM and boxes. Interesting but DEF 15 is still pretty solid to be honest and ARM 16 is joint second highest in the whole faction (eThags takes the top spot with 17 but he is a half-dragon monster). Speaking of monsters she still has abomination on there so be careful of where your Shepards go for the game.  Best of all though she gets an extra melee attack at P&S 12. That's 3 initials, baby! That means an extra dose of hurt to whoever she goes for. Still sitting at a reasonable 6 focus which is ok but you'll be wanting some help along. 

As well as the stat changes the special rules have also kicked her up a notch. Resourceful is gone and instead we get Conferred Rage which lets the battlegroup charge and power attack for free. Game changer. I'll let that sink in. Sunk in? Good cos there's more. In addition to that awesomeness if eAbs destroys any enemy models her whole battle group gets +2 SPD and MAT when they activate. This lady is leading a hell of a charge. Mutations are gone and flight is now standard. Duh: look at the wings. Grevious Wounds and Spirit Eater are gone but remember that extra P&S 12 stinger from before that's got a nifty little rule that lets her steal a focus or fury each time it hits. Perfect for assassination runs when your hits strip off their defences before you even roll damage. Lovely. 

Spells? Oh there's spells. First up you get Fortify which we've seen on a few models recently but it's pretty cool so no complaints. +2ARM and un-knockdown-able for it and models B2B for 2 Fury and upkeep. Fair. Next we have the prime model's feat as a spell (thank you) 2 Fury every battlegroup model in CTRL gets d3+1 healing once a turn. (Insert evil laugh). Next up we have a little one Fury throw away called Return Fire. When one friendly model (not battle group and not unit) is targeted by a ranged attack it gets to make one attack (not necessarily at the shooter). Most likely this means one model doesn't get shot for a turn or you make them pay for it if they do. Win-win. Finally nice little ace up the sleeve for 2 Fury there's teleport. Because what a flying SPD 7 dragonspawn loves is that extra 8" of threat (or hiding if you need to). Plus this lets you charge the warnoun get a stinger in to strip them down a bit and trigger Conferred Rage then use the power you stole to teleport out of the LOS of your battlegroup so they can get tidy charges and finish the job. 

Finally we come to the feat. It's... A weird one (to me at least). Her battlegroup gains +2 STR, flight and reach for a round. Opens up a lot of charge lanes and adds a bit of threat range too. But combine that with Conferred Rage and you have a battlegroup of 'roided up monsters that fly, charge for free and potential have +2 to SPD and MAT to boot. That's a pretty scary alpha strike if everything clicks into place (it won't but even 70% is going to mess people up). This does mean that you'll want a healthy sized battlegroup to take advantage but odds are if you're a Legion player you want that anyway!

No news on the App about the theme force yet but I'm hazarding a guess it'll be gribbly focused. 

Overall a pretty nice new addition. A beast heavy caster for a beast heavy faction. Not looking very subtle but who needs subtlety when everyone else's dead? I'm pretty impressed and I'm looking forward to seeing some lists with her in soon. 

-M

Journeyman League - Week 1

Last night was the first night of the journeyman league and had a pretty great turn out with around 19 people coming to game, which was good to see a healthy warmachine community in the area. I'd managed to get around 13 preleague hobby points by getting a few units painted up in the weeks before gaming started. I was one of the first to arrive and so I managed to get three full games in before having to leave for the night. 

Contrary to my previous post I made a last minute switch on my battle group: as I decided I wanted to try something new I bought and painted pFeora a few days before the league started fully. My revised battle box is a variation on the alternative offered in the Privateer Press league document (the EO allowed players to customise within his guidelines):

pFeora +6

Vanquisher -6

Dervish -4

Repenter -4

This was a bit of a weird choice as technically I had another 2 points to spend if I wanted them and could have upped the Dervish to a Crusader, but I decided I'd prefer those 2 points for support solos once we up to 15 points.

My first game of the night was against a small Mercenaries group led by pMagnus with a Mangler and a Mule. My opponent opened the game by scrapping the Repenter. I did middling damage to the Mangler with a Vanquisher shot before taking the brunt of a revenge charge from the jack with my heavy. After some poor dice rolls on my opponents side I managed to come out of it with 4 boxes left which included my last cortex box and my melee weapon arm leaving me in a reasonable position to retaliate. Between an ignited Dervish charge and Feora advancing into combat with EoD I took down the Mangler in one turn. Destroying the jack left my caster in a direct line to his Mule so he threw Iron Agression on the jack and charged with full focus and boosted melee attacks. All but one attack missed and that did negligible damage leaving his only jack in melee with Feora, the Vanquisher and the Dervish, and was quickly scrapped. As we were playing Mangled Metal this netted me my first win. 

My second game was against a really friendly player who had brought Legion, with pThags leading a Shredder, Raek and a Ravagore. From the opening of the game my opponent played conservatively, keeping his stuff safe in a forest outside his deployment (he was a bit bummed my caster was immune to fire and therefore all his ranged). I managed to clip the Raek with an AOE to set it on fire but not much else for the first couple of turns. After that the Shredder and Raek charged my exposed Repenter and dealt a heap of damage but didn't destroy the light and left the Raek exposed to a charge in the side by my Dervish, who failed to kill but critically wounded it, leaving the Repenter to finish the job. I finished my turn managing to scatter an AOE onto my own Dervish, setting it on fire. On his turn the shredder was full on fury but managed to pass its threshold check (to his dismay as he wanted the boosts), which turned out to be unnecessary as he scrapped the Repenter regardless. Later in his turn he feated to bring the Raek back but positioned it poorly and so couldn't get his turn off properly, instead repositioning to get a better advantage for next turn. My turn I smacked the Raek about with the Dervish but didn't do anything significant. Following the devastating damage pFeora did last game I was a bit cocky and charged her up to finish off the Shredder instead of using the more sensible flamethrower option, ending on a feat to set pThags on fire (everything else already was). The Raek moved up and leaped over the Dervish into combat with Feora only doing slight damage but opening the charge lane for Thags who annihilated her with boosted attacks netting him the win. 

My final game was against Trolls, who are probably one of the factions I know the least. The list he played was pMadrak, an Impaler, a Pyre troll and an Axer. Much to everyone's amusement the Pyre troll's animus meant that he could get all of his army immunity: fire effectively nullifying most of my army. Despite being effectively immune to most of my attacks he played a really defensive game from the outset, deploying his whole army in one corner and hugging it all game. I moved up cautiously to avoid counter charges that never really came. I wasn't very confident about the outcome thanks to the animus so I just kept moving up the board. I had Hex Hammer up all game which meant I was chipping away at the caster every time he cast anything;  leaving him overly concerned about casting. A few turns in my Repenter was lined up with Feora and he moved his Impaler up trying to crit and knock the light into my caster but didn't get it. This left him exposed and out of animus range so I took full advantage and poured 3 flamethrowers on it to get the kill. This seemed to spur him on and the rest of his army charged my Vanquisher and scrapped it. This wasn't too devastating as immune to fire had left it doing nothing all game anyway. I threw on EoD and advanced into combat with Madrak who he'd exposed to finish off the Vanquisher. I only did an average amount of damage and was pretty exposed for the following turn. He dropped all his defensive buffs and went for the caster kill, advancing into combat with the Axer but falling just short with the pyre troll after realising it didn't have reach. He poured all his fury into attacks and boosts and when the smoke cleared Feora had three boxes left and Madrak was sat on no fury for transfers so I had no trouble finishing him off for my second win. 

Overall I finished on two wins and a loss which I'm pretty pleased with since I wasn't especially confident heading into the night. Plus it netted me an extra 8 league points. It was great to meet some of the guys and get to play against a variety of lists. It was a fun time, so I'm looking forward to giving it another go next week, and I'll keep everyone posted how it goes!

-M

Mini thoughts - Vengeance

I know that I'm a few months late to the party but I wanted to discuss a couple of the models that have become available to Menite players like myself in the most recent Warmachine Expansion, Vengeance. The two models I want to discuss are eReznik and Tristan Durant. Again I know the rules for these guys are old news now and all but with the models themselves only recently released (and my eagerness to buy them next week driving my planning) I wanted to give my opinion. 

Reznik, Rock of Ages

Yes, I know it's Wrath not Rock but how can I pass that up? And speaking of things too good to pass up:

Oh my word that's a nice merciless fanatical warlord. I'm a big fan of the prime version of Reznik, he's a no nonsense face smashing force of destruction that makes your enemies into Wracks. The new version is the first Warmachine battle engine caster (second overall with Lylyth3 as the first with her elk sled). I don't think anyone could dispute that this is a lovely model adding a totally new dimension to a caster while retaining his intimidating style. What is in question to some extent is the playstyle for the newest addition to the Protectorate. 

The first thing to consider, and it's hard to ignore is that Resnik is Huge. Like literally. That's a Huge base meaning 1) he can get a lot of models in his arc (especially since that badass spear has reach) 2) his control and command are augmented by his huge-osity 3) he is a great target for our enemies and he's impossible to screen with anything short of a collosal or battle engine. 4) charge lanes become a bit tricky on a crowded board especially since, unlike Lylyth's sled, we don't get trample. This is big, tactically and will certainly have a big effect on positioning though a healthy SPD 7 isn't bad for getting about on the board. At least his special rule Lamentations of Suffering means so long as he's camping one focus non magical ranged attacks automiss as well as the customary ARM boost, which hopefully will help him stay alive. 

The original Reznik was a melee caster of the first rate, more than capable of winning pretty much any scrap he got himself into. Epic Reznik is clearly meant to be played aggressively too. His Take Down and Flame Burst special rules are there for smashing people up and with only one offensive spell it's all about breaking faces in close combat. 

Speaking of spells the big guy on the chariot has a very different approach to his younger self. Engine of Destruction is gone replaced by Creators Wrath, which costs 2 but boosts all melee attack and damage rolls and gives him effective Blessed to crack magically defended foes. EoD is a devastating spell and CW seems to lack the same level of offensive punch but I think that this spell can also be potent if applied correctly. On the charge both Reznik and his mount will get boosted attacks and if you then buy one or more you've easily got your money back on the spell, plus with the chariot's speed you have an innate EoD style speed boost from the original and while you're not getting +4 to MAT and STR you are getting +d6 meaning you could potentially have an extra 6 on each. Add in the fact you ignore spells adding to the DEF or ARM of your enemy and it's a potentially destructive combo! 

In addition to this eRez has 3 other upkeepable buffs. Lamentation (forcing your opponents spells to cost twice their focus or fury) is very useful on a caster who's more likely to be up the field and in people's faces. Iron Aggression makes a lovely return as one of the best Jack buffs in the game (in my humble opinion) to allow your jack boosted attacks and free charges, slams and tramples so long as you upkeep for 1 focus. Interestingly unlike his former version this Reznik has a very nice unit buff in Death March, granting a unit +2 MAT (nice) and Vengence, making one unit hard hitting and responsive, and meaning that this version wants at least one unit in there to enjoy the benefits. In addition to these buff spells however Reznik is also packing a single offensive spell called The Flesh is Weak, which is a 4" AOE at POW 12 and RNG 8 that causes the models (not unit) hit to be unable to run or charge (living and undead only, so no constructs) putting a crimp in your opponent's counter offensive but at a pricy 3 focus (the cost of all of the spells except CW) it seems like a last resort but a good ace up your sleeve. 

All of this is all well and good but what gets me salivating is the feat. And oh boy it's a good one. First off all enemy models in his control range get -2 DEF. On it's own that's very nice against some armies like Cryx where our weapon masters only want to connect to do some serious damage. We're not stopping there though, oh no. On top of that every enemy model also becomes a powderkeg waiting to take down their colleagues in a blaze of glory to the Creator. Yes, that's right every boxed enemy (by a melee or ranged attack) in control explodes in a 4" AOE that causes a POW 12 fire damage roll (not blast damage for those immune but it is fire meaning some models will shrug it off entirely) and then the model is RFP meaning no corpses or souls and any disabled or destroyed effects won't activate! Hilarious and great for clearing out swathes of infantry this feat will make and alpha strike that could leave your opponent crippled. 

I for one am seriously looking forward to putting this big guy on the table one I get him built and painted and figure out what to bring along with him!

Initiate Tristan Durant

If you're a warmachine fan and you haven't already I strongly recommend getting a copy of the Rites of Passage anthology from Skull Island Expeditions as it gives a great insight into each of the new novice casters. Lucky me the narrative for Durant paired him with the High Executioner, one of my favourite casters. I love the idea of the novice casters and this is another model I'm keen to try out. Plus it doesn't hurt the model is so nice:

Tristan comes with 4 focus, a very squishy stat line, a couple of spells and a very interesting special rule. First things first 4 extra focus for 3 points is nothing to sniff at especially in an army already teeming with jack support all of which will buff Tristan's jacks as readily as anyone else's. 

The spells are pretty solid. One is a 2 point upkeepable ARM boost that also stops the jack and models B2B immune to knock down, push and slam effects. The other is an old favourite Immolation but the 4 FOC means the accuracy of the attack is unreliable at best. 

As far as I'm concerned one of the more interesting things about the Protectorate's future caster is True Sight. It's pretty wasted on Tristan since his only ranged attack is Immolation (which as I stated above is low accuracy and only actually gains 3" of threat vs stealth but will take any advantage over DEF buffs it can). I've read a few people bemoaning this addition to the journeyman and I understand but why I'm pleased with it is because he's a journeyman. That means there's a good chance that we'll soon have a fully fledged warcaster with a full repertoire of spells and abilities and then True Sight can come into it's own. It's not a special rule that's especially great now but it is a promise of a very interesting development that's coming. 

As far as battlegrouping goes I've heard some people talking about a Tristan/Judy combo, especially with the harbinger to keep him alive - that seems to be quite a popular idea. I can't deny the appeal and that it had definitely occurred to me too. However I think I'll mostly use Tristan to bring the Redeemer to the table more often. It's an expensive jack to run and most casters don't want to be pouring that much energy into a light. But a free 4 focus to keep it fully stocked and bombarding the enemy every turn without having any impact on the caster's valuable reserves? Yes, please. I have a nice idea for a pKreoss list with this combo for a nice pop 'n' drop salvo that still leaves all of the High Exemplar's focus intact. Delicious. 

All in all these are two models I'm itching to try out and I can't wait to slap them on the board and tell you all about it. 

-M

Journeyman League - preleague

Last night the league had it's first official meeting. Technically it doesn't start until next Monday but the guys running it wanted to do a meet and greet and run over what sort of play they were expecting to see from people and the levels of sportsmanship they wanted. It was a great chance to meet the other guys taking part and see what was on the table. 

Best of all it gave some of us a chance to sneak in a match before the league kicks off. I was paired with one of the more experienced league players and since we didn't have loads of time we agreed a 25 point game. All of my lists were 35 or 50 points and I knew I was going to be locked into one or two casters for the duration of the league so I decided to throw a list together on the fly with a caster I've never used before - Amon Ad-Raza. I'd not actually expected to play and so my list was very thrown together and as it turned out not at all well. I'd gone for:-

Ad-Raza +6

Dervish -4

Crusader -6

Reckoner -8

Castigator -8

Max Choir -3

Vassal of Menoth -2

This was way too many jacks and I didn't really have a strategy in mind for how to play. Typically when I know I have a game I'll obsess over lists and how to play and what'll work where but I threw myself into the deep end with this list and just went with the flow. The scenario we decided on was Outflank from the 2014 Steamroller. This features two large zones on either side of the centre line. My opponent was starting a new faction for the league and wanted to try out his force which was a very well constructed Legion list with 2 Shredders; a Carnivean; a Shephard; a max unit of Warspears with UA and two Deathstalkers all led by pThags (his caster for the start of the league). 

He took first turn and concentrated his forces in one zone but moving the Deathstalkers (and edging the Carnivean) into the other forcing me to split my forces to keep him from scenario victory. I moved up taking an assault shot at the Carnivean but failing to do any damage. The most productive thing in my whole turn was protecting my jacks from non magical ranged with the choir. In the second turn the Deathstalkers casually strolled across the board and chewed through all but two of my choir with no effort at all (despite walls and positioning) to both of our surprise. One Deathstalkers was now behind my lines and following that display I had little interest in a repeat with my caster so I had to divert my crusader to squish one and my reckoner to get the other. The crusader just managed to hit and instantly killed but my reckoner completely wiffed the attack roll and did nothing. On my other flank the castigator and dervish charges the Warspears in the zone and took one out, leaving me spread very thinly indeed. 

In the next turn the Warspears (who had prey on the castigator) got buffed by Thags and charged, and between them trashed the jack in one turn. Following that the Carni got a charge on my reckoner and that was also destroyed (finished off by a rabid shredder after being reduced to two boxes). It was around this point that I realised I had lost but decided to go hell for leather and feated. Ad-Raza's Feat makes his jacks immune to free strikes, rear strikes and combined melee and ranged attacks and he gets to allocate one focus each time he spends one. I cast two spells and allocated four and charged him into the Deathstalker I'd sworn vengeance on. (who had skipped away from my crippled Reckoner mid last turn to open the lane for the fatal shredder charge and then promptly finished off another chorister and dropped the vassal to one box) I boosted the attack roll to set up my synergy chain. And missed. So I bought an attack. And missed. But I spent two so got my dervish and crusader up to a full 3 each. The crusader then went to charge the Carni and was probably just a smidge out but my opponent graciously allowed the charge (a small mercy) and I finally got decent rolls and beat it to death. My Dervish then activated and took 4 attacks against one of the Warspears. 4. I missed two and messed the damage roll on the other leaving my feat turn horribly disappointing. The following turn boiled down to the Carnivean being brought back by the feat and the Warspears devouring my Dervish. In the final turn I advanced Ad-Raza into melee with Thags (who had 4 Fury and 2 undamaged beasts for transfers) in a meaningless gesture of defiance I managed to get a solid hit and as a mark of respect he took the damage before starting his turn and getting the assassination comfortably. 

Overall I played very poorly and my opponent was much better than I was. I had the dice work against me all game but that only compounded my bad decision making right the way from list building; but more importantly it was one of the most fun games I've played in a long while. My opponent was sporting and helpful throughout and made losing enjoyable. I'm looking forward to playing some of the other guys whose games I caught snippets of over the evening and I'll be keeping you posted on what happens!

-M

Journeyman League - Post 1

So my local gaming group is hosting a Warmachine Journeyman League. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, which I must admit included me, each player starts with a very limited list (based on their battlebox with a couple alternatives) and slowly builds their way up each week, getting points for games and for painting up minis. 

I've thrown my hat in even though the majority of my warmachine is already painted using my Menoth. This was the perfect chance to kick start my Legion but sadly didn't line up with my purchasing so I have to stick to what I've got; luckily Legion are turning out to be far and away the most played in the league so at least I'm being slightly different. My regular gaming buddy is also playing but with a whole new faction and this'll give me a chance to get a variety of games in, against some new play styles. The list I'm starting off with is:

pKreoss +5

-Crusader -6

-Vanquisher -8

-Repenter -4

And I have to keep those models in every list I build for the whole league (you can swap the caster at 35 points but the battlegroup stays the same). I'm feeling pretty good about it but it doesn't leave me many points when we start expanding since the next step up is 15 points which only gives me 2 points to play with. Plus I feel a little naked without a choir or vassal but it's mangled metal for the first two weeks so I'll have to make do!

I'm pretty excited to wade into it next week when the first games kick off and try my hand against some new people. I'll start putting up my battle reps and list evolutions as I go along but for now I'm just looking forward to getting models on the table!

-M