Journeyman League 2 - Weeks 3 & 4

Hi everyone, it's time for another look in on my JML experience so far! I didn't post anything last week on my games so I'll cover them quickly now. The reason that I didn't post anything about them was that in both games I had last week I got thoroughly schooled in really quick games. I didn't feel like they'd make for very interesting reading. Which is no offence to my opponents who played really well and were great sports, more that I was so bad it undermined that!

So last week was the advance up to 25 points. In my first game I played with a minimum unit of hex hunters and a naga added to my 15 point list. I got a game against SGS Nick's dirty Merc Cryx. He was using pDenny with a max unit of Nyss along with the Devil's Shadows Mutineers and Rockbottom added to the slayer and bonejack he'd started off with. Under Denny's feat I managed to get my Scythean removed from the table along with most of my hex hunters. I ran out of models really quickly after that and took practically nothing off the board in return thanks to the feat, until I was completely off the board and he won the game. My second game was against Dave, our PG, who was using Cephalyx with Exulon Thexus. He had a max unit of Croe's Cutthroats and two monstrosities. I decided to change up my list going with Typhon and a Foresaken with my starting battlegroup. Again I achieved nothing, killing maybe 2 Cutthroats in return for losing all my models. As I said, I did not do well. At all. 

This week, though, was the caster swap option. After some thought I decided to go with eVayl for my swap. I was considering going another way, and maybe choosing eAbby or something instead but ultimately I decided to stick with my original thought of using eVayl. The list I was using with her was:

eVayl +6

-Seraph -8

-Scythean -9

-Reak -4

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Objective - Arcane Wonder

The Legionnaires provide a good screen for the list while also feeding the pot. The Raek is always a fun option, too. I managed to get two games with the list this week:

Game One 

My first game this week was against eXerxis used by Ben, who'd also gone epic from his starting caster. He had a bonded Aradus Sentinel, a Krea, two drakes, a Savage and a max unit of Paingivers along with a Willbreaker. We were playing Recon. I got the first turn and moved up the board. eXerxis moved right up as far as he could. Seeing the opportunity I had Vayl boost two Obliterations into Xerxis but only did a handful of damage. My Scythean activated but his charge came up short on Xerxis by a fraction of an inch, leaving him exposed. After that I started losing the attrition really quickly and tossed another couple of assassination runs into Xerxis but my dice needed to be high but came up consistently low throughout. In the end Vayl was flapping in the breeze and got killed by a Cyclops. Another disappointment but at least this game I felt like I didn't get absolutely pounded into the ground! 

Game Two

In my second game I played Will, who was continuing his experimentation with Cygnar, this week he was trying to learn Hayley3 as his alternate. His list had a Grenadier and a Centurion as well as a unit of Trenchers and a unit of Commandos, each with a chain gun. He took first turn and jammed into the zone (still playing Recon). My Seraph finally did something useful and managed to gun down the Trenchers with a strafe. On Will's second turn he did a bunch of shooting and pumped out spells to buff his stuff. He did around half damage to my Scythean and Reak and all but wiped out the Legionnaires. On my turn Hayley3 was on a 0 camp with Temporal Flux up. I cleared the last of the Trenchers out of the zone with the Seraph to allow me to spawn a Harrier who flew up the board to within 8" of Hayley Prime. Vayl then shot the Harrier in the back with the oraculus, feating a boosted Icy Grip through it onto Hayley, getting the -2 defence to balance the Flux and then boosted two Obliterations into her, managing to do just enough damage to kill her, netting me an assassination win and breaking my losing streak!

Wrap-Up

I really enjoyed playing with eVayl, the utility of her feat is really fun and she has high jinks to the max. I finally felt like the Seraph did something other than just supply its awesome animus. I'm glad I went for her instead of any of the other options I was considering. Especially since next week we go up to 35 points and I can play tier 4 machinations of shadow!

So until then, 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

Mini Thoughts - Gargantuans Wave 2

So, just like they hint-dropped at Adepticon, PP's SmogCon announcement was the next evolution of Gargantuans! More good news! And unlike the recently announced Colossals, these are pretty much all brand new beasties, not just variants on the old models. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet the video on the Gargantuans is here: http://privateerpress.com/privateer-press-prime-video-channel/gargantuans-evolved. 

Anyway here's my run down of the new Gribblies:

Glacier King

First up on the docket was the latest Troll model, the Glacier King. Horluk's newest buddy is a mountain king that's been in the fridge too long, and come out all badass. As well as a typical 'big fist' (yeah literally) he has something called 'Wind Thrower'. Possibly a crit freeze spray? Maybe not, have to wait and see on that one, but the fists definitely do have some kind of freeze ability. Its animus 'frozen ground' is a knockdown effect, and it sounds like it affects models within so many inches of it. Assuming that this Gargantuan has the same medicore MAT as its predecessor I'm sure auto hitting in melee will be a nice touch. Also it'll give any troll caster access to a small range knockdown effect too, which can be all kinds of useful. Just ask anyone who's seen pKreoss. On top of that it has an ability called 'snowfall' that grants concealment around it. While this might have a cost or a trigger, anything that can help a troll brick across the board with fewer casualties will always be appreciated. 

Storm Raptor

Next up was the Storm Raptor. And bird is the word. Described as 'Krueger's best friend' this little lightning pigeon is the latest addition to Circle. This is the fastest Gargantuan so far, at SPD 7, and with Flight this beastie can whip across the board pretty fast, ignoring terrain along the way. On top of that it has some combination of animi and special abilities that allow it to give boosted electrical attack and damage rolls. Meaning that this thing synergises like crazy with a bunch of other circle guns. Also giving Krueger access to an animus that can boost electrical attacks is just... I mean... Wow. 

Blightbringer

Now here's the one I'm most interested in. Legions new beastie, the Blightbringer. To be honest it's not... Exactly what I was expecting. It looks a lot more bug-like than the majority of Everblight's roster to date. It seems that this gargantuan is more of a utility piece like the new colossals. All they said was that it was constantly spewing ash that could take on a number of abilities. These include causing magic in the area to fail (limited range no spells? Or maybe even a nice little upkeep removal. Kinda AOE Banishing Ward?). Concealment to nearby models. I'm assuming some kind of Ashen Veil? I suppose there's enough prowl in Legion that it could have an extra layer there. And finally one that reduces 'defence and health of enemies' so maybe it'll be like Belphagor's animus or Saeryn's spell of the same name? Interesting. The way they're speaking about the Blighted Breath also imply it's an inherent ability, meanning that its animus is still unknown (more on that later). Those claws look pretty handy too!

Desert Hydra 

Typhon has effectively shown the world three heads are better than one. And what's better than three heads? Five. That's right. They've been talking about it in the fluff forever but it's finally on the tabletop. Skorne's new Gargantuan is the Hydra. Desert Hydra to be precise, although I'm not up enough on my extraordinary zoology to know how many sub-species of Hydra there are. Much like its younger cousin Typhon, the Hydra has the 'multiple heads' special rule. Meaning five heads get 5 initial attacks. That's five Sprays. Or Five Bite attacks. Or any combination of the two. And Five sprays off a huge base? That covers some ground. 

Oh, that's the other thing. There's a model for it. A very nice model. I mean, sure, it looks like a real pain in the ass to assemble and paint, but look at it. Worth. It. Other than the five heads thing (as if that's not enough for you) they didn't really go into much else about it. Its animus wasn't discussed either (I'm getting to it). This looks like a nice little addition to the Skorne forces (pending actual rules obviousl)y. 

Animi

I said I'd get to it! So you might have to bear with me a little on this one. First off the animi of the Blightbringer and Desert Hydra were conspicuous in their absence. Strange not to mention them when they did for the other two. However they also spoiled this art of the Blightbringer:

Now, when Exigence hit everyone was a bit confused by the Warbeast packs. I mean they sucked. I read dozens of articles and forum chains trying to figure out how they were supposed to work. It seemed like they were set up to fail. They didn't do anything that their factions couldn't do better, elsewhere already. Surely PP in their wisdom and foresight must've had a plan? But we couldn't see it. Maybe this is why. We didn't have all the pieces. Put these things together and maybe, just maybe the Blightbringer has something to offer Blight Wasps? Maybe it can spawn them? Or convert enemies into them? The art certainly indicates a link anyway. And from there I don't think it's too much of a leap to think that maybe the Hydra can do something similar for the Scarabs? Obviously this is all just speculation but it seems to make sense to me at least. 

Other Stuff

In addition to the Gargantuans the video had another little sneak at the end. A few flashes of something just as exciting but much less clear. A Gator with candles on his face? Epic Calandra? Some kind of imp gremlins? A Grotesque? Kromac? With Rathrok?!? If that's PP's way of apologising for the recent errata to Circle affecting Kromac then... 

Looks like there's some pretty exciting stuff coming our way in the next year or so. And I for one, can not wait. 

I'll leave you with one final image:

*slow respectful applause*

Don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for regular updates!

-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