Cogs in the TheoryMachine - Starting Legion

Hi guys, I'm back from an awesome second honeymoon and I'm ready to get back into some wargaming and more specifically getting my Legion on the table. Unfortunately it'll be a few more days before I can get a game with them as my club is shut on my regular gaming day this week. Instead I wanted to share some of the list ideas I've been batting about for a little while for where I want my first few lists to go. So this week instead of a Learning Legion Bat Rep I'm bringing you a bumper edition of CitTM to cover a number of different lists and ideas I've been exploring. 

One of the most important questions I asked myself getting into Legion was one that I'm sure loads of people ask themselves too. Where do I start? Now, when I was getting ready to start with Legion one of my first steps was to buy the majority of the warlocks. At this point I have all of them except Bethayne, Kallus and Lylyth3. So. I have choices. My intention is to ease myself into the faction and playing Hordes in general. So I didn't really want to play either Vayl. I know they're both really good (eVayl being one of the most popular overall, competitively) but they both require finesse and I didn't want to jump in the deep end too much. Rhyas is out. She could be good but since she's not the best caster I think she requires more faction knowledge before playing so probably not the best place to start. Also.... Rhyas... Urgh...

This leaves the Abbys, the Thagroshes, the first two Lylyths and Saeryn. I love eLylyth. I think she's awesome and the first few lists I wrote up for Legion were all eLylyth. But. As much as I want to play her and am excited to put her on the board I decided not to start with her. The reason being kinda the opposite of Vayl. While Vayl requires too much finesse Lylyth's game is too narrow and wouldn't give me a decent exposure to the faction as a whole. Plus going from playing Harbinger and pSevvy to fury 5... *shudder*. Epic Thagrosh and Epic Absylonia have the same issue, they like to play one way without much range anywhere else. Saeryn is a really good, solid choice. She's got a strong feat, good spell list, high fury stats. But I decided not to go with her either. To a much lesser extent I think she also requires a bit more faction experience to master. However I do feel that she'll be one of the first 'locks I move to once I feel I've got a decent handle on my play. 

So this cull left me with what I consider the two warlocks best suited to learning the faction: pThagrosh and pAbsylonia. So given that most tournaments use a two list format I think I have my two casters to begin with. So between the two of them I decided to start with pThagrosh. This won't be a surprise for most people since he's considered one of the best learner casters for the faction and the starting point for most new players. Abby is great but I feel she supports beasts almost exclusively, which is awesome and 90% of Legion's game on the table. But I felt to try the faction I wanted a more rounded caster, ending me with pThags. 

So my starting list that I intend to have my first few games with is not very good. It's designed not to be especially competitive but instead to include a variety of Legion models:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Ravagore - 10

-Angelius -9

-Scythean -9

-Seraph -8

Nyss Shepherd -1

Nyss Shepherd -1

Forsaken -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Max Legionnaires -6

Spawning Vessel -3

Objective - Fuel Cashe

This list includes a kind of greatest hits of Legion's models, the beasts are the most used monsters by Legion so this will give me the best chance to test them out. The Legionnaires and Spawning Vessel are another Legion staple I want to experiment with. They'll likely commit some ritual suicide to spawn a shredder early game in order to get tenacity on the board. The Deathstalkers are also a personal favorite of mine having been on the receiving end of their spikey murder bows in a few games. I wasn't set on any of the objectives but with 4 heavy beasts having free run/charge could come in handy. 

So that's the list that I'm planning to use to get a solid grip on the common faction models. But this was hardly the only list I've written for Legion. For starters I made up an Absylonia list to accompany Thagrosh in events. I decided (shockingly) to take her tier list:

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight +5

Tier 4 - Winds of Change 

Naga Nightlurker -5

Typhon -11

Scythean -8

Angelius -8

Angelius -8

Shredder -2

Shredder -2

Harrier -2

Raek -4

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Shepherd -1

Objective - Fuel Cashe

I think this is a pretty standard Absylonia tier 4. There's plenty of heavy hitters in the list who can take real advantage of her fantastic upkeep spells. A pair of Angelii are there to cause problems with Armour Pierce and Repulse. The Naga can help with its animus and cool abilities. This is a list that I'm not 100% on but seems pretty sturdy, of course it's subject to change after I've practiced with some more of the models and synergies. Again Fuel Cashe's free charges are a nice bonus to a mostly beast list. 

I've also written up a prospective list for Thagrosh when I want to be a bit more competitive that may well change when I get more experience:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Carnivean -11

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

-Shredder -2

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Max Warspears -8

-Warspear Chieftan -2

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew -1

Objective - Fuel Cashe

This list leverages Attuned Spirit and Spirit Tap along with the powerful animi of the Shredder and Carnivean to make the army very tough to shift off the board. The Ogrun with Draconic Blessing are a nightmare and can be MAT 9/RAT 7 POW 17 monsters with Prey and Assault, which can put a dent into most things they contact. The Naga is also in the list to help with problem causers, while the Gobbers, if I'm honest, are filling points, but can be really helpful to provide some cloud cover, especially to help the Naga use Prowl but stay in a useful position. 

So those are (at the moment) my lists to get me started in Legion. In addition to these, though, I also wrote up a couple of lists to move on from these which are even more subject to change than the others. The first I wrote up is for eLylyth:

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Nephilim Bolt Thrower -6

-Ravagore -10

-Ravagore -10

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Seraph -8

-Shredder -2

-Stinger -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Objective - Bunker 

This is a very shooty, if not very surprising, list that I'm really keen to play. The double Ravagore is powerful as it is but under Lylyth's feat they can be ridiculous. The Naga and Seraph both offer a combination of good animi and ranged attacks that the list can take advantage of. The Deathstalkers are in the list to be extra little mini-Lylyths. I put 4 of the support solos and the Succubus into the list to compensate for Lylyth's low Fury stat. One of the weird aspects that might surprise some people is the Stinger. He has a decent ranged attack if it comes to it but more importantly he's in there to allow Lylyth to take advantage of his animus to gain Bushwack for mega shenanigans. I chose the Bunker objective to avoid my side of the table being blasted away. 

Finally I've knocked together a tentative Saeryn list that's quite speculative at this point but from a relatively ignorant stand point seems pretty good to me. It includes:

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight +5

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Raek -4

-Shredder -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Spell Martyr -1

Spell Martyr -1

This is my doubles list, the pairs of heavy beasts are good beatsticks and benefit from the feat well. The support staff take some of the pressure off Saeryn and have some built in redundancy if a couple of them die. The Naga is a useful tool for any list in my opinion since it offers some helpful tricks that can make up some of Legion's deficits. The Raek (and in a pinch the Shredder with rabid) is a great delivery method for Blight Bringer thanks to leap. 

It should be pretty clear from all my theory crafting how excited I am for a shift into Legion and it's long overdue. I've already got my first game lined up and hopefully that'll just add to the momentum going forwards. 

Don't forget, for regular updates, photos and more like 'Mitsuharu on Minis' on Facebook at https://m.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - High Executioner Reznik vs.

Hi guys, welcome to Mitsuharu on Bat Reps and my last Menoth Bat rep for a while as I retire my Scrutator mask and take up the Blight with Legion. Since this was my farewell game with the faction (for now) I wanted to play something a bit more fun. I was debating playing a Thyra list I knocked together with Flamebringers to try but in the end I decided to use my favourite Menoth caster, Reznik. The list I decided on was:

pReznik +6

-Heirophant -2

-Templar -8

-Vanquisher -8

Avatar of Menoth -11

Min choir -2

Vassal of Menoth -2

Vassal Mechanic -1

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

Wracks -1

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

eEiryss -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Madelyn Corbeau -2

Objective: Effigy of Valour

The game I originally had prepared fell through and so Nick of Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk) being the consumate gentlemen he always is stepped in to play me again. I always enjoy my games with Nick and playing him has really forced me to up my game. I couldn't ask for a better opponent to see out my Menoth for Legion. Especially since Nick plays Legion and moved to them from Menoth himself! Nick has been really focusing his attention on his ETC lists (eThagrosh and eLylyth) and so he's been playing them almost exclusively for several months now. He decided to take a break for a little bit, to make sure he didn't feel stale with them. He decided to try a new caster and so went for eVayl in Tier 4. His list comprised of Vayl, two Angelii, two Ravagore, a Scythean, a Seraph, and a shredder as the battlegroup, along with two sheppards and a max unit of Spawning Vessel. This is a fairly standard tier 4 eVayl list and Nick was interested in trying it out. 

We set up the board and rolled for scenario, getting Two Fronts. Nick was happy as this gave him opportunity to use his new zone markers! Despite the tier benefit from Vayl I won the roll to go first and picked first turn. Nick chose the side of the board with the more defensive terrain, sacrificing the hill on my side. I deployed with Reznik central, the Avatar and Templar on the right side of him and the Reckoner on the left. The TFG set down with Orrik on my extreme left flank, the Zealots on the other flank. Nick then put his Pot opposite the Zealots and the mass of heavies central. 

My first turn was pretty straight-forward and generally involved a lot of running forwards. The TFG ran into the zone on their board edge. The zealots ran up the opposite flank too. Reznik gave Ignite to the TFG and Iron Zeal to Avatar and advanced up the board. 

Nick used his turn to start killing things. The Angels both got Tenacity and one each got Refuge and Occultation then advanced further up the board. The Seraph used Slipstream and moved up, taking a Ravagore with it. The Ravagore moved up and blasted 4 of the TFG off the board. The second Ravagore also took a shot, it missed due to the distance and deviated forwards still killing two of the Flameguard. 

On my turn I allowed Ignite to drop from the Flameguard since they'd been halved since last turn. I debated taking a run on the Angel closest to Reznik, concerned about the threat its Armour Pierce posed. In the end, though, I decided the distances would likely be out. The zealots started the turn running towards the other angel and the zone, using Greater Destiny to prevent them from being removed. The TFG shuffled around the scather templates and turtled up with Shield wall and Iron Zeal. The Templar and Reckoner both shuffled up the board but the Avatar advanced up and into the zone and used Gaze of Menoth. The Vassal advanced and put Enliven on the Avatar. Reznik and Madelyn advanced further up the board to get out of kill box. 

  

On Nick's turn the Seraph used its Strafe attack on the objective, boosting until it was dead. The Ravagores took shots at the TFG but these only managed to kill a couple of the Flameguard, setting another two and Saxon Orrik on fire. The Refuged Angelius charged the Avatar but only managed to do a couple of boxes despite being dice +2 on the charge before he enliven'd away. The copy-cat Angelius then also moved back behind the forest thanks to Refuge. Vayl then used her feat before putting out a couple of tenacities. He then Purified, not realising this would remove his own Animi and put out the fire on the two Flameguard. She then fired an Oraculus into the Angelius in front of her and then arced her free Obliteration into a zealot, but was just short. It deviated but still hit and killed one of them. Vayl then put Occultation on herself and Admonition on the Scythean, ending her activation by putting out Refuge on the arc noded Angelius. This Angelius then charged the TFG in the zone, boosting the hit roll, but thanks to set defence he failed to hit. Nick then used the Animus, hoping to push them through the scather templates. This worked on one of them, but the others were bulked together, with the farthest ones out of animus range, meaning they were just pushed into each other and couldn't move. Nick prepared to refuge away until I pointed out that he hadn't actually hit anything this turn, meaning it was stuck there. The spawning vessel moved further into the zone. 

Since the Angelius hadn't been able to move it was still in Corbeau's command range and so she let Reznik move 3" right towards Vayl. I checked my Control area but was still just short of her. I decided I still wanted to try and so had the intervening models shift out of the way and allowed the Avatar to push Reznik another inch diagonally, but he was still out. I knew this was my best chance to take an assassination run and decided to just go for the spell assassination run. I was debating this for a while until Nick pointed out that he had Occultation on Vayl. Instead (thanks to some help from Nick) I decided to run a zealot in front of Vayl and charge it in the back with Reznik. So that's what I did. I charged up and instantly killed the zealot. Before I could cast, though, the Scythean used its Admonition move to shift directly in front of Vayl. I sighed and recalculated again. Now it was tight and I was dead if I failed. So I used hex blast on the Scythean, directly hitting to strip it and Vayl of their tenacities and upkeeps. I boosted the damage on Vayl but only did a few points. I then shot a Perdition into the Scythean, using the granted action to move the Reckoner up and take a shot down a tiny line between the Scythean and an obstruction. I rolled a double 5, setting her on fire and rolled at dice plus one. But I'd forgotten to feat and so he just transferred it off. Just what this turn needed. I then declared my feat. The Reckoner then activated and took another shot at Vayl, managing to hit thanks to the flare. I rolled an 11 on the damage leaving Vayl on two boxes. It was likely that fire would finish her off next turn but if not I would lose. Then I remembered I had one last chance. The Templar moved up and out of Eiryss' way allowing her to advance up and take a shot on Vayl rolling exactly enough to finish her off and win me the game. 

Nick said that he deserved to be assassinated because he felt that he had completely misplayed his previous turn and not taken full advantage of the feat. In a more serious game I probably would have played this out a little longer to try and get a more likely chance to deliver Reznik to Vayl. Since this was a fun farewell game, though, I went for something more fun and luckily it paid off. 

This was a really fun if slightly crazy game and demonstrated exactly why I like Reznik, almost all of my games with him come down to a 'ah, fuck it' moment where I decide to go for a weird assassination run. This was exactly the sort of game I was hoping for and as always Nick delivered a fun and exciting game. 

So for now I'm shelving the Menoth, though they'll definitely be back, and moving my attention finally to Legion. 

I'm going on Holiday now for a week and a half so it'll be a little bit of radio silence for a while but don't worry I'll be back with a vengence. Keep an eye out for a bumper edition of Cogs in the Theory Machine about my planned Legion lists when I get back!

As always like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for more updates and photos. While you're at it check out the range of Warmachine specific terrain and bases at Solid Ground Studios!

-M

Mini Thoughts - Faction Apathy

Hi guys, no bat rep this week. Instead I want to talk about my factions. I got into warmachine towards the end of 2013 after becoming increasingly disenfranchised with Warhammer and 40k, which had, until that point, been my biggest wargaming outlet. My main gaming parter at the time, Jayke (who is behind the Hall of Legends Blog) and I decided it was time for a change of pace. He'd been recommended to Warmachine multiple times and previously we'd stuck to what we knew but decided this might be the time to shift to Warmachine and get away from GW for a while (haven't looked back since). Moving into anything like this I am always a big sucker for a good story. I care about narrative most of all in most things, wargaming included. So when we were deciding what to play it was the ascetics and fanaticism of Menoth that caught my attention. I considered Cygnar but felt their look was cool but they seemed bland. Khador was too blunt and Jayke was leaning towards Cryx. The model that cemented the decision for me, though, was the fairly newly released Bastion Seneschal. Without doubt that model is one of my favourites in the Protectorate range. As with most things once I get involved in it I tend to over-commit and so I let Warmachine consume me. I kept finding things I loved about it and it's continued to hold my interest for longer than almost anything (my obsession with Assassin's Creed notwithstanding). 

I bought the battlebox, a choir and a Vassal and painted them in a frenzy and didn't much slow down. I didn't play many games at first but once I got into it I loved the mechanics of the game. I loved my faction and some of the cool things they could do. I liked the stories about the Menites in the fiction, Kreoss especially. But the more I played the less I felt like I enjoyed the play style. It's been almost a year and a half now that I've been playing Menoth despite deciding a while ago that I wanted to switch factions; I've persevered. I got better and better with Menoth and I have no doubt that they are my favourite Warmachine faction. Recently, though, I've been feeling really burnt out with the faction. This is by far the longest I've ever consistently played a single faction and I'm getting sick of playing them. I really don't want that to happen. I love Menoth and I want to keep loving them. For now the best way to do that is to walk away. 

Obviously I have no intention of stopping playing altogether and I'm definitely not going back to Warhammer (the grass is sooo much greener over here that I'm pretty sure they've paved over the grass back there). So the best thing to do is switch faction so I can keep playing without completely destroying my will to continue with the game. 

Luckily there's more to this game than Warmachine. For anyone who's been keeping up to date on the Facebook page or has read my Sword<Pen<Brush articles it's clear where I'm heading next: Legion. I've wanted to go to Hordes after Menoth since day one. The first decision, again, was which faction. Looking over the Big Boy Factions, I don't like the ideology or appearance of Circle, and Skorne's background entices me but the models don't inspire me (though I could see myself ending up there). Trolls and Legion were the only real choices in my eyes. Trolls look awesome and the background is solid but they only feel like a '7' to me and I was looking for something to really dig my teeth into. Legion on the other hand? Dragon-powered super-soldiers with an engrossing backstory and cool development? Sold. The ascetics of Legion appealed to me, a kind of combination of grace and savagery that I enjoyed. The stories though? Oh! By far Legion has the coolest fluff! I bought and read through Evolution and Mutagenesis (I highly recommend it - they're available on the PPDigital app for a pittance) and fell in love with the characters. Lylyth particularly seemed like a cool, fierce, independent character. Thagrosh is a badass, a despotic leader and obedient servant all at once. Saeryn is a mystery and her twin is a Ninja. Absylonia is an amnesiac horror but is actually motivated by a profound sense of family. All of which are bound together by the will of a pretty awesome draconic character in Everblight himself. 

I'm gushing a little. 

Ahem. 

On top of that I felt that their play-style felt more comfortable for the way I like to play and so they were ticking all my boxes. I planned to shift my focus away from Menoth to Legion months ago. In fact I even wrote a post in September last year saying I was finished with Menoth. But then I got a few more models and so on. I wanted to start playing Legion at the start of this year and I failed spectacularly. 

I bought and painted up the battlebox and had a go with it, but by that point my meta was coming to the end of a journeyman league and it wasn't easy to get a 15 point game. So I got a hodge-podge of other models and was able to cobble together a 35 point list. But this was thrown together and I decided I didn't want to play until I could come up with a proper 50 point list. This meant I wanted a decent array of different models to give me a bit of variety on the board before I started playing. Obviously this set me back quite a bit. I bought a trio of heavy beast kits and magnetised them then wrote up a couple of lists with them in it. But these still felt like I was missing key components. 

Now, though, my latest order had a Raek, Naga, two Angelii and a pair of Seraph/Neraphs along with Typhon. Now all I'm missing is infantry and a few of the less common solos and light beasts. I've got a couple of lists I'm happy to play with written and ready to go. I'm honestly excited to play them. It's got me enthusiastic to play again after losing substantial momentum and getting tired of Menoth. I still like Menoth and I am coming back to them. In fact I'm going to have one more Menoth game before I start playing Legion in June (honestly this time I swear). 

I've been putting this off for quite a while, wanting more and more stuff before I felt comfortable playing but I'm finally there and I can put the Menoth to one side for a while. I'll be back, and I feel like I've found my comfort zone with Menoth and I'm eager to try something new!

I'll have my final Menoth bat rep (for a while) up next week, and following that I'll be on a well deserved holiday with my wife for a while so I won't be posting anything. Following that I'll put up a CitTM about the lists I've written and then I'll start out with my learning Legion bat reps!

For updates and a history of my Legion painting as well as other photos and updates check out the Mitsuharu on Minis Facebook page!

-M