Sword<Pen<Brush - Fishermen Guild Ball Custom Goal

So I've decided to add Guild Ball to my list of current games, mainly to give me a break from all the Warmachine and Hordes I've been playing recently. I decided to take up the Fishermen since their ascetic appalled to me the most. I decided to start my Guild Ball journey with a custom built goal. 

Since my job is so dull I spent a few days sketching out ideas for it. I was originally planning a kind of 'desert island' with a palm tree and maybe a bucket for the ball to go into. I had some ideas about it but it didn't feel right. It felt more 'pirate-y' than 'fishery'. So I scrapped it and started again with a new idea. The new plan was to make a kind of 'crows' nest. I made some plans I was happy with and found the right parts for the job in my bitz box. 

Next I threw them together. The stick formed the mast, with the wheel as the base. The standard bearer shafts were cropped down to make the supports for the chaos space marine shoulder spikes that formed a banister for the crows nest. The fourth shaft then added to an old banner to make a nice flag which I topped with a spare bird. I then used the heads of a couple of nails and some old chain to add a square of plastic to form the target for the goal. This ended up looking like this: 

I then got my hands on one of Solid Ground Studios' decking bases and some little extras to finish it off. Then I painted it all up in my Fishermen colours:

I'm actually pretty pleased with how it came out. It looks kinda like what I wanted but nothing's ever perfect. Just got to get the rest of the team sorted now!

I did get the ball done though!

Keep an eye out on the Facebook page for the latest photos as they come if you're interest!

-M

Tourney Tales - 2015 JML mini tournament

Welcome back everyone. This week my local Press Ganger, Dave, decided to run a mini-tournament to cap off the Journeyman League that had been running recently (check the archive for more of my experiences in that). The format was 2 35 point lists, one with one of your journeyman casters and one with your starter battlegroup, not necessarily in the same list. We also had some pretty fancy seasonal boards to play on too. The tournament was broken down into two 'pods' of 4 players. Basically the winners of the two games from the pod would face each other and so would the losers, deciding the rankings that way. My JML score got me into the top pod of players! So the two lists I decided to run were:

List One

eVayl +6

Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

-Seraph -7

-Scythean -8

-Angelius -8

-Angelius -8

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Objective - Arcane Wonder

List Two

Saeryn +5

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Angelius -9

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Spell Martyr -1

Spell Martyr -1

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Objective - Fuel Cashe

Game One

My first game was against Alan, one of the other Legion players in the JML. His two lists were a pThagrosh and an eAbby list. I decided to go ahead with the Saeryn list since there was a lot of Melee in his two lists. He'd seen my Saeryn list and realised his Melee heavy Abby list would be pretty badly hamstrung by the feat and so decided to throw down pThagrosh. The list included a Scythean, Seraph, Shredder and a Raek along with two shepherds, two Deathstalkers and a max unit of Warspears with UA. This list had plenty of shooting to overcome my feat but not enough to be too overwhelming. The first round scenario was Outflank. I got the first turn and started by running everything up the board, swapping my Scytheans around to deny prey from the ogrun. Saeryn put out Banishing ward on herself and Respawn on a Scythean.

Alan then followed suit by having his army run up, mainly heading towards the zone on my right to fill that up. Thagrosh threw out Draconic on the ogrun to boost up their hitting power. Thagrosh hid behind an obstruction for some added cover. 

On my turn I had my Scytheans advance into each zone and then had my Angelius charge the Seraph but it was half an inch out. Then I had Saeryn advance up and feat, catching all of my beasts to give them a little safety and then burned out a martyr to put Breath Stealer onto the opposing Scythean. 

With my Angelius exposed Alan had almost all of his army shoot to try and take it down. Most of the force aimed and took pot shots, doing a ton of damage but, even with the entire force, he didn't quite manage to clear it, leaving it on 3 boxes with nothing left that could shoot, much to Alan's frustration. The Raek on the other flank shuffled to actually get toe in on the zone to contest. 

On my turn I had the Scythean on my left charge the Raek and slaughter it, gaining control of the zone. Saeryn healed up the aspects on the Angel who then charged and polished off the two Ogrun in the zone with an armour pierce and an extra attack, securing that control too. The Deathstalkers took some shots on the Warspears but had trouble with their high ARM. The Foresaken each gobbled up a helping of Fury. Then I ended the turn up to two control points. 

Alan took the exposed Scythean as an invitation and charged it with his own. After some pretty decent rolls he managed to destroy it but it respawned to get out of the way. The Warspears charged to get into the zone more and managed to roll high on an assault into one of the Deathstalkers, splattering it. The Seraph rolled low again on its strafe and didn't get much in. Thagrosh feated back the Raek who advanced into the pot and then put tenacity onto the Scythean in the zone. 

On my turn I had my freshly respawned Scythean advance into Alans but apparently his was better trained than mine and rolled super low on damage and couldn't really get the job done. The other Scythean made up for it, though and killed a couple of Warspears, the Foresaken using its fury to tear apart another one. The last one (the UA) was frustratingly hard to clear and the spawned animused charging harrier didn't polish it off and neither did the blightbringer that clipped it. My damage rolls really letting me down his turn. In a last ditch Saeryn moved up stupidly and used some of her last fury to flick a knife at him, cranking the to hit in Melee and finally killed him, leaving me with 4 control points and no transfer targets. 

Alan started his turn by having his Deathstalkers advance up and take shots. They both hit her high DEF and put a few points on her. The Seraph reared up, getting ready to polish her off just as dice down was called. I was literally seconds away from a loss but I was saved by the bell and won the game with 5 control points!

Game One: First Tiebreaker Win

Game Two

With my win in game one I was paired with the winner of the other round one game which was, of course, Nick whose beautiful terrain we were battling over, who'd managed to win his game against Ben's Skorne two tables down. As it was D&C1 we were both locked into our other lists. This left me with Machinations of Shadow. Nick had played his Goreshade list on the other table and so that left me to deal with his evil, evil pDenny list. It included a Skarlock, a Slayer and a Deathripper in the battlegroup along with a Machine Wraith, a max unit of Nyss Hunters, the Devils Shadow, Rockbottom, Dougal and Wrong Eye and Snapjaw. I played against this list several times in the league and it destroyed me very well whenever I played into it so this was the list I'd been dreading. 

The scenario for round two was Destruction and, despite my +1 I lost the roll to go first. Nick chose sides, picking the more defensive terrain, giving me first turn. I started the game by running everyone up the board to claim some real estate, putting Admonition and Refuge on the two angels respectively as well as Occultation on the Legionnaires. The Seraph and Scythean advanced up to near the zone in the nearby forest. The Legionnaires and Spawning Vessel plodded up the centre of the board. 

Nick followed suit by having his Nyss run out, spreading themselves across the front line followed up by everything else. Denny herself advanced up with the Devil's Shadow to hide behind the nearby wall. Wrong Eye and his pet advanced up to the nearby hill and Submerged themselves to avoid any shooting malarkey. 

On my turn the Seraph advanced up and killed the front two Devil's Shadow with its gun and the Scythean shuffled further into the forest. The Legionnaires ran to gum up the zone a little followed by the pot. The Angels just shuffled around on my flank pulling in a little while Vayl snuck up behind the obstruction to get cover. 

On Nick's turn he had Denny move out of her wall and into the open so he could feat, managing to catch the majority of my models (only Vayl and the Vessel avoided it) he then proceeded to have his shooting take out a couple of my legionnaires (bringing back the two dead Devils Shadow) and spot remove one of my Angels, putting some serious hurt on the other one what he was at it. The Machine wraith ran into the zone to be incorporeal and contest like a pain. 

Under Denny's feat my army was pretty bad but I saw an opportunity on Denny since she was actually exposed. I had my Legionnaires and pot shuffle around to expose a lane and then spawned a harrier to be Vayl's channeler. Vayl moved up to exactly 10" away and pinged it in the back. Then she feated and threw a free obliteration at Dougal, hoping to clip Denny in the Blast. The AOE is smaller than I thought and so missed her, simply splattering Dougal. I bought another one on a Nyss and hit, killing two Nyss and getting boosted blast damage on Denny. Unfortunately my dice weren't amazing and I only did a little damage. The Seraph advanced up Strafed into her with two shots, actually managing to hit with one despite the reduced RAT, but the damage roll wasn't great and she was left with 12 boxes. My surviving Angel pulled back and the Scythean shuffled deeper into the forest to end my turn. 

My assassination run hadn't been very successful but luckily I hadn't exposed myself too much and I'd used my other feat spells to put Occultation on the Pot, Admonition on Vayl to give her a smidge  more protection and Refuge on the Scythean. So on Nick's turn he took the safe route and moved a bunch of stuff into the zone, including both of his jacks, locking out the scenario until he could wipe out the rest of my army. He also managed to slaughter a bunch of legionnaires along the way too. Denny hopped back behind the wall. 

On my turn I had the remaining legionnaires clear out a path for the Harrier I spawned to move up and be another node for Vayl at the end of the turn. The Scythean charged up and destroyed the objective and killing a devils shadow before refuging back. That scored the first control point of the game. The Angel then flew over to the other flank settling near Vayl. The Consul herself through out her oraculus and got channeler to boost an Oblit into Denny. I boosted the hit and managed to get exactly enough to hit her even behind the wall. My clock ended but I was able to take the damage roll. I couldn't boost since I was sat on nothing now and my clock was over. The dice came out too low to polish her off. 

With Vayl camping nothing Nick started his final plan. Snapjaw charged up and killed a legionnaire to free up the arc to allow Denny to double boost a Scourge into her. The damage roll came up big and left me on 3 boxes and knocked down. The Nyss were next to move up and put Vayl down with a big CMA. Again, though, Dave called dice down seconds before my loss and, since I'd taken out the Objective last turn I was up by one control point and won the game. 

Game Two: First Tiebreaker Win

Post-Games 

These were two really close games that I managed to get a win despite being on the very precipice of stupid losses. I felt like I played fairly solid games up until the ends of both games but luckily I managed to luck my way into wins. Regardless this made me the overall winner of the tournament, deserving or not! I was completely wiped out by this point but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was pretty pleased, not just with the result, especially since I didn't feel I particularly deserved the wins, but with how great a time I had. I'd had a long day and was a bit under the weather so I was expecting to not have the best time but I really enjoyed the games and it was enthusing to play. 

I'm planning to take a bit of a palette cleansing break from Warmachine for a while. In fact I just picked up Fishermen for Guildball! I'm actually really excited to play a new game so expect some posts about Guildball coming soon!

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Minis - Saeryn and Rhyas, Talons of Everblight vs Ravyn, the Eternal Light

Welcome back for my latest battle report! This week I'm continuing with my test games with Saeryn and Rhyas. These guys are pretty fun to play but they are a bit of a headache on the table and it is a lot of maths. I haven't changed the list up as I want to hone my gameplay with them first. If you missed it that list is:

eTwins +2

-Zuriel -10

-Nephilim Protector -5

-Seraph -8

-Naga -5

-Shredder -2

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Raptors -10

Max Croak Raiders -8

Objective - Bunker

This list, as I've said, is the one used by Trevor in the latest chain attack and I haven't changed it up at all from there. I'm not convinced it's a great list and it still feels like it lacks punch but I'm still playing on. 

Pre-Game

My opponent for this week was Rik, who I've played several of my battle reports against in the past, using his Retribution. His list consisted of Rayvn with a Banshee along with Elara with a Hyperion, a max unit of Riflemen with UA and a housegaurd thane, a unit of Stormfall archers, two assassins, Narn and Nayl, an arcanist, and two Magisters. I wasn't very happy seeing a colossal across the table since I already felt I lacked punch in the list but I'd have to make do. The scenario I rolled up was Fire Support and I got the initiative, taking the first turn. Just a warning in advance I totally spaced out during this game and only remembered to take photos at the end of my own turns! So sorry about that. Hopefully I can describe it well enough to make up for it!

Deployment 

I deployed first with my Spawning Vessel centrally flanked by the twins. The protector, Naga and Seraph deployed to my right with Rhyas while the shredder, Zuriel and the raptors deployed on my left along with Saeryn. Rik placed his Hyperion in the middle of the board screening Elara, the arcanist and Ravyn. The banshee just off to the side of it. The Riflemen deployed to my right while the Stormfall archers went on my left. I then advance deployed my croaks on my right flank and Rik put his assassins out on the diagonally opposite edge. 

Legion Turn One 

On my first turn I had pretty much everything run forward to take board presence, putting out Occultation on the Croaks and Banishing ward on the twins, spamming out some Tenacities on the croaks and Raptors. The Naga got into the forest to trigger his prowl and the croaks and raptors spread out.

Legion: 0 Ret: 0

Retribution Turn One

The retribution turn was very similar with everything running up the board. The riflemen spread themselves out to get positioned for next turn. The assassins ran behind the obstruction to get some cover and the jacks ran themselves up the board. Ravyn, meanwhile, put snipe on the Archers. 

Legion: 0 Retribution: 0

Legion Turn Two

With my turn I was able to start killing some angry elves. The frogs hopped up (get it?) and threw some darts at the riflemen, but their to hit rolls were decidedly mediocre and missed most of the shots, thoroughly murdering the ones they did manage to tag, though. On the other flank the raptors moved up and killed Nayl and a Stormfall archer as well as missing a bunch of shots on the assorted assassins before light cav-ing back again. The Naga and Seraph shifted around in the forest, staying out of the way. The pot continued up the board to be a collection tool. The twins threw out tenacities on the croaks and Rhyas advanced up to the nearby wall. The protector dropped safeguard on Rhyas to round out my turn. 

Legion: 0 Ret: 0

Retribution Turn Two

The retaliation came pretty hard as Ravyn sniped the Hyperion and feated. The riflemen, who got firing solution from the Thane, then fired a bunch of shots into the croaks, killing the 4 they hit. The Magisters managed to take out one more, forcing a command check which they promptly failed. The Hyperion then fired on one of the pot attendants that I'd left clumped together and next to Saeryn. The blast killed 5 pot attendants and (with a boost) did 5 damage to Saeryn which I transferred to Zuriel. He then took his other shots against Zuriel and the protector, but missed stealthy Zuriel and only did a few points to the other Nephelim. On my left flank between the Stormfall archers and the assassins charging in 4 of my raptors died, the Banshee taking out the last one to remove the unit from the table. 

Legion: 0 Ret: 0

Legion Turn Three

That hurt! The croaks pulled back a little and then passed their second command check, getting back into the game a little late. The Naga aimed at of the Magisters but got snake eyes to hit. The Seraph pulled back, getting away from the approaching riflemen. Zuriel charged the nearby banshee but only got middling dice and so did a poor job of removing its high ARM value. The pot spawned a harrier and it animused and charged, killing an assassin. Rhyas pulled back slightly to get a marginally better position behind the wall. The rest of my models in the centre tried to spread out a little. The protector put safeguard up again on Rhyas. 

Legion: 0 Ret: 0

Retribution Turn Three

On the retribution turn the attrition game was clearly going in the angry elves' favour. The riflemen moved up again and, with the Thane, killed another pair of croaks. Hyperion took its big cannon shot on Rhyas and missed, the boosted blast rolling low again but I still decided to transfer anyway, putting it into the Seraph. His other shots didn't do a whole lot of damage anywhere. The Banshee took its return attacks on Zuriel, cranking the initial damage roll to halve his health but came up short with the other attacks. Then the combined assassins came in to take him out but couldn't quite close the deal, leaving him at the end of the turn with only a couple of boxes but alive. The stormfalls continued up the board but essentially didn't have any targets this turn. Elara, Ravyn and the arcanist moved up behind the Hyperion. 

Legion: 0 Ret: 0

I actually got a photo this turn!

 

Legion Turn Four

At this point things were looking bleak but I still had a chance since Ravyn had moved up. I did some control area maths and I felt it looked a little short. Then I had an idea. I started the turn by having the protector move up and make a push, winning (barely) to get her an extra inch forward. The seraph then moved up, using slipstream to place her another 2", butting me about 11.5" away. Perfect. The twins activated and Rhyas charged Ravyn, Saeryn moved up near the Hyperion, keeping her in formation. I boosted the initial, doing a bunch on damage on the charge. I bought and boosted a second, only doing a bit more damage, leaving her with 5 boxes. I bought the last attack and boosted again, getting the critical decaptitation which pushed my ok damage roll into being more than enough to finish her off and win me the game!

Legion Assassination Win

Post-Game

This was a fun game, even when getting my whole army murdered by shooty elves. I'm still enjoying the twins but I think if I keep playing them I'm going to change up the list. It feels really pillow-fisted as is. I might consider dropping the Naga for the Blackfrost Shard and maybe swap out the Raptors for something more powerful or maybe harder to shift. I still wouldn't want to play these guys on a clock though, there's way too much maths and too many options of what to do with them! They are still pretty fun and definitely a very different gameplay style. I wouldn't recommend them for a serious competitive event but for funsies these two are a good pick. 

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Saeryn and Rhyas, Talons of Everblight vs Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls

Welcome back to the latest Mitsuharu bat rep! This week I'm continuing my test games with the twins, Saeryn and Rhyas. I'm still using the same list with them and trying to put them though their paces. The list is the one recently used on Chain Attack with no changes as a starting point for them:

eTwins +2

-Zuriel -10

-Nephilim Protector -5

-Seraph -8

-Naga -5

-Shredder -2

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Raptors -10

Max Croak Raiders -8

Objective - Bunker

It's a solid list and there might be some changes worth making but I want to keep trying this version out for a bit before fiddling with it too much! However I do now have my Croak Raiders fully painted! (Check out the Mitsuharu on Minis Facebook for photos)

Pre-Game

This week I managed to get a game in with our local Press Ganger Dave. He's a damn good player and almost exclusively plays dirty dirty lists. Case in point this week he decided to play Runes of War. No big surprises in the list construction (the tier doesn't really allow it) with Doomy taking Mulg, an Earthborn, a Mauler and an Axer in his battlegroup, along with four units of Runeshapers and a max unit of Krielstone bearers with their awesome UA. We rolled out the scenario and got Recon but since this is all I ever seem to play lately we rerolled and got Incoming, which I haven't played much of, this being my third game with that scenario. I won the roll for initiative and took the first turn. 

Deployment

I set up with my battlegroup central, around the Pot and my Raptors off on my left flank. Dave then set up with his battlegroup central and his Runeshapers in pairs on either flank. The Croaks then advance deployed in the middle of my side of the table. Dave then put out a pair of walls, one central and one on my extreme left flank. 

Legion Turn One

I started the game by having the Raptors run up the flank. The twins gave Occultation to the croaks and advanced up the board before spamming tenacity onto the front rank of Croaks. The Seraph and the Naga ran to get into the nearby forest. The pot slogged its way up the board to spread its influence in the middle of the board. The Croaks all ran up into my friendly zone. Zuriel flew up and riled to get some Fury on the board. Finally the Protector stuck his Animus on Rhyas, ending my turn. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn One 

Dave started his turn by having the rune bearers run up the board, some of them chucking stones but getting nothing done. Janissa moved up to the tier wall and used her dirt magic to make another wall in front of it, making a Mulg sandwich when he moved up into it. The other Dire Trolls chugged up the field up near the objective. Doomshaper hiked his skirts up and jogged over to the wall with Jannisa. He then put transmute on Mulg and dumped fury into the stone. The stone then moved up and pumped out their aura, adding combat warding to the mix. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Two

On my turn I started to shoot some Runeshapers. On my left flank the Raptors shot and killed all three of the closest Runeshapers, all failing their tough checks. They then light cav moved into the zone. The Croaks then advanced further into my zone and lit up another three Runeshapers, all of them failing their tough checks too and oiling another two of them. The Seraph then shot another oiled Runeshaper, easily killing it and he again failed his tough check. The pot continued up the board with the twins who were hanging back a little. Zuriel hid behind the Croaks and the protector dropped its animus on Rhyas again. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Two

On the Trolls turn the Runeshapers on my left flank advanced up and chucked rocks at the Raptors, managing to kill two of them, clearing out the zone. The Axer on that flank put up his Animus and ran out into that zone too. On the other flank the two remaining Runeshapers charged the Croaks and dropped two tremors. Which both hilariously missed. Mulg charged up for free from Fuel Cashe and killed two Croaks and wrecked my Objective, scoring the first control point. Doomy activated and gave fortune to the Earthborn and then moved up behind a wall Jannisa stuck up, getting his toe in his own zone to secure the second control point with the domination before feating. The Earthborn then charged in and killed a handful of Croaks, despite missing multiple times even with the rerolls. The stones continued to make their way up the board, maintaining their bubble. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 2

Legion Turn Three 

In my turn I had the raptors polish off all put one of the remaining Runeshapers before taking their extra move into the zone to contest. The remaining Croaks oiled and chucked sticks at Mulg but failed to harm his ridiculous ARM. I was fairly hamstrung by the feat but contemplated the assassination run on Doomy. It wasn't looking very good, though. Zuriel advanced into the Earthborn but ended up doing more damage to himself from the feat than he did to the Troll. The Pot bearers moved up to get in Mulg's face. The Seraph backed away, hiding behind the forest for keep its animus in play. Rhyas and Saeryn kept out of the way of the Dire Trolls as much as possible and Saeryn put the protector's animus on her sister. The Shredder advanced into the Earthborn to prevent a charge into Saeryn. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 2

Trolls Turn Three

On the Trolls turn Mulg destroyed a ton of the pot attendants with his smashy stick. The Axer killed a Raptor but the Runeshaper on that flank couldn't get the job done. The Runeshapers on the other flank essentially just made a nuisance of themselves while the Earthborn, with the help of the Mauler, trashed everything in his zone including Zuriel, securing the third control point for the trolls. Doomy pulled back behind the wall in his backfield while the Krielstone Bearers ran to encircle him along with Janissa. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 3

Legion Turn Four

This turn I decided I needed to try for the assassination because I thought I might just have the range to get Rhyas in. I started by having the Raptors continue up the extreme flank and one managed to get a shot off on Doomy but couldn't quite clear the range of the wall and so ending up missing. The pot hopped up and spat out a stinger who moved up and sprayed the Krielstone unit, hitting three, but failing to kill any since they finally managed to pass a tough check, meaning I couldn't clear out my landing zone. I charged the Seraph anyway to slipstream Rhyas and couldn't even get the range to manage that. Instead Rhyas charged the Krielstone guys and Jannissa, flashing blade to kill them all out of spite more than anything. Essentially everything else did very little. Including actually contesting, meaning that the Trolls went up to 4 points at the end of my turn and 5 at the end of Dave's automatically winning him the game. 

Trolls Scenario Win

Post-Game

I don't feel that I played this game particularly well, especially towards the end (that last turn was just stupid, not that I had many good options at that point). Especially since Runes is such a shitty match up. I did learn some things from this game about the list, though. First off the list has very little staying power and quite easy to remove from the board. Conversely it doesn't handle high ARM very well. Overall that kind of makes Runes a nightmare match up. Yay. Still I'm still having a fun time learning to get to grips with the enigma of the twins. If you're practicing please regard this report as a helpful 'what not to do'. If you like please imagine me skipping merrily through a minefield setting off the terrible explosions so you don't have to. You are welcome. We'll have to see how I get on next time. It does feel like this list style is basically totally assassination geared, though it can totally handle infantry at any rate! Stay tuned to find out!

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M