The Terminus Challenge: pIrusk

Monday night I faced pIrusk. He was controlled by Bitmactic from the Privateer Press forums, who also happens to be a team-mate for ETC trying his own ETC list. It needs some tweaking, but it's not a bad list at all.

Kommandant Irusk

- Behemoth

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Kayazy Assassin Underboss

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

- 2 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Kell Bailoch

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Reinholdt
Sylys Wyshnalyrr

At first I thought it was missing some heavy hitters, but then I thought about Kayazy Assassins with Battle Lust + Gang + Kiss + Feat = MAT 11 & 4d6+ 14. I think pEiryss is there because of character restrictions, and the rest is pretty standard stuff.
 

Widowmakers AD on my left flank.

I got to start, since he wanted to deploy everything where I had nothing that could handle it. I got to do what we always do in round one (we should really just stop mentioning it). The terrain might need some explaining, but it was like that when I arrived and we sort of just rolled with it (we could encounter anything in the tournament).

Roooound one!

I had the Machine Wraiths on the right flank gunning for Eiryss, the Cankerworm out front making sure the Behemoth wouldn't come up front, and Brine hiding behind the house. Bile Thralls were stuck behind everything again, but some day I'll remember to make lanes for them.
 

Well, the Behemoth came within charge range: bonus!

He spread out, and I realized I was going to take it up my undead behind even with the first round advantage: #&%¤. Since I have no ranged capacity worth a damn I decided against going for the scenario (again something that supports my theory that a solid ranged game is needed to win on scenario).

Cankerworms time to shine!

I knew I wouldn't get a better shot, so Cankerworm got a shiny Focus. Darragh Wrathe charged up and killed the Kayazy, then popped Beyond Death and used his light cavalry move to engage a pile of assassins. I threw in both Machine Wraiths as well, forcing him to feat with the boss the next round or be seriously stuck (that plan sort of backfired, but more on that later).

A Machine Wraith made it to Eiryss!

Cankerworms time to shine with a charge! He put fifteen damage on the Behemoth, munching one of his arms, and there was much rejoicing! Then I noticed one of the Widowmakers had wandered within 9" of Tartarus, and with the added distance from his curse it was harvest time on the Widowmakers!

The resulting complete #@§$€?£ failure on my part made me forget to snap a photo, but Tartarus threshered all four of the little bastards, and then I picked up the tape measure to place my four shiny new Bane Thralls. 1"-2"-3"-4"-5"-6"-7"-8"-9"-10"-11"-12"- #@§$ OUT OF RANGE!

Four less Bane Thralls, but swamping the zone anyway.

With nothing better to do I swamped the zone in Bane Thralls and lined up for a counter punch. I knew I was going up against a kazillion tough models with very little left of my list, but I thought I had kept my important models safe.

Behemoth pounds the Cankerworm into dust.

Alright the Winter Guard hurts when you can't just stop their sprays.

I'm learning all sorts of new things here. Irusk popped his feat, Aiyana & Holt magicked up the Kayazy which then wiped the Machine Wraiths (MAT 11 with Gang & Feat), unhorsed Darragh, took down Maevolus (thanks tough), and killed a couple of Bile Thralls. That tough check on Maevolus was the only one I made that turn, so casualties were... pretty high...

I R TERMINUS, SEE ME FAIL!

Terminus pops feat and I charge the great bears. Screw that defense fifteen  (hitting them across a linear obstacle) crap, I can take them!

• Charge, Hit, Kill, Tough.
• Focus, Hit, Kill, Tough.
• Focus, Hit, Kill, Tough (seriously?)
• Focus, Hit, Kill, Tough (ah come on!)
• Focus, Hit, Kill, Tough (this is getting ridiculous!)
• Focus, Miss
• Focus, Hit, Kill, OMG I GOT ONE!
• Ravager, Hit, Kill, Tough

Alright, slightly problematic to have one soul and be parked in front on two great bears and a full unit of Kayazy with access to Battle Lust, but no problem because the Bane Thralls will save me! Tartarus manages to take down the two WG that found themselves with just 5+ tough, and this time I get my Bane Thralls.

Bane Thralls receive Pathfinder from Saxon, and with some fancy angles and the Bane Thralls I go crazy on the WG and Great Bears. Seven damage rolls later Terminus is sitting on two souls, and I'm pissing my pants and seriously considering the pro's and con's of boiling his dice (though at one point I just had to laugh). At this point a spectator walked in, and I proudly declared that he was just in time to watch me blow up my own army. I had no other choice, since Terminus was on two souls and I was going to lose badly if I didn't get at least four more.

KABLUI!

Tremulus died but Maevolus didn't so he ate the two souls I was planning to feed Terminus (sigh). Four Bane Thralls died and one great bear failed it's tough roll. Rorsh walked up and threw his Dynomite, rolled triple ones and killed nothing. Then he missed twice with his Pig Iron just to slight me. In the end I had Brine Trample up while boosting to hit, just to grab a few more souls. It all came down to corrosion then.

MELT YOU BASTARDS! MEEEEEELT!

Four more souls! Now it's beginning to look a little like winning again. Armor 26 means being immune to most things in his army, and one angry Great Bear wouldn't be enough. At this point my opponent gave up mentally (you can see it when the fight goes out of them), though we did finish the game. He killed Rorsh & Brine, my last Bile Thrall, the WSC melted to corrosion the following turn, and all but one Bane Thrall died. I got two more souls to friendly fire, netting me a grand total of 10 souls.

Spiked sword of forced intrusion!

Having learned from my mistakes, I decided to actually do something beyond charging with a 16 Focus Terminus (well 15 since I had to upkeep Malediction). Tartarus made six new Bane Thralls from the WG, taking him to a total of twelve kills and eight reanimations (twice as many as I've ever managed before), and they all happily ganged up on Irusk, turning him into a red sticky puddle, despite his Iron Flesh and Focus camping.

/Lamoron

Scenario: Restoration

I tried another of the new scenarios last night: Restoration (Page 25 of SR2012). The restoration caches can remove 1d3 damage and all continuous effects from any friendly models within 4" with an activation, and all models are friendly to it by default.

The objective is to smash the enemy cache (remember it's friendly, so many feats and abilities won't work on it) and control the zone, which earns the player a point. It's a Deneghra dream scenario, since you earn a point in each players turn and you only need two points to win. Objectives are invulnerable in the first round, but we all know it's round two that counts anyway.

You should also note that the cache removes damage, which means they can theoretically reactivate broken warjack systems. That's a nifty little trick, and can allow a warjack with nothing but a single cortex box, to become fully functional, if you roll well enough to remove three damage

Tactics

Just make sure your objective doesn't die. If you can ensure that your objective survives you won't lose on scenario. If you have access to LoS blocking models with multiple wounds then you might be able to camp it (I imagine a unit of Menoth Bastions would be bloody hard to shift), but most Cryx lists will have to: swamp the zone. Armor 20 and 20 life on the objectives means that most armies will have to melee the cache to death, and that's hard with an army parked in front of it.

If you have a fast list and the first turn you can really put the pressure on your opponent, forcing him to line up in front of the objective to be slaughtered. If you field Wraith Witch Deneghra, this scenario should make you all giddy inside, since having the first turn means an easy win. Heavy melee armies will probably have to muscle into the zone and force a caster kill instead, which should be easy unless you're up against casters with movement related feats.

Machine wraiths WIP

The Machine Wraiths have their base coat, but the color scheme I had in my head did not work out well when faced with reality. Scorpion green worked well on the cloth, but when I tried applying more to the miniatures they began looking like pieces of sour candy.

Initial plans to paint them scorpion green incorporeal... not a success.

The ladies at my club are great painters though, so tomorrow I'll pick their brains for tasty Grey matter and ideas. The Cankerworm and Skarlock are giving me fits as well... I hate painting.

Cankerworm WIP

I've never really liked his head, so the mandibles have been moved just below his head (which should keep him legal, since the weapon is still located where it should be). I've added a tongue since he is a snake, and some armor plating on his head.

Hiding!

The base is built so the Cankerworm is coiled around it. He's not currently attached to it, but when painted and attached he should be camouflaged neatly on the base, with both weapons clearly visible. Now I just need to figure out how to get more than a really great speed bump out of it.

Deus ex machina: Machine Wraith WIP

I've done a bit more work on my Machine Wraith conversion. The others are standard issue Machine Wraiths, but this one had no arms (since I used them on another project a while back), and since I had the conversion kit out already I kept going.

Just keep looking the other way, there's nothing behind you.

Deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. I think that fits these Machine Wraiths perfectly.

This one has begun rebuilding itself to serve the new task assigned to it by Lich Lord Terminus: Assassination. My Machine Wraiths always end up in melee, and surprisingly they're turning out to be pretty darn good at it. I tried building him to look like he's emerging from behind a victim, and I don't think I failed completely.

Overpowered: The definitive answer

Every week someone comes complaining about Cryx on the forums, and every week the arguments end the same way. Now we all know that it'll never end, so this post is just supposed to be an answer we can link every time this topic comes up.

Rankings HQ has a lot of statistics, and below you'll find a compilation made by Maou_Mint here, detailing the Faction tournament wins for 2011, as registered on Ranking HQ.

• Legion: 16
• Khador: 9
• Trollbloods: 9
• Skorne: 7
• Circle: 6
• Cygnar: 6
• Cryx: 6
• Retribution: 6
• Menoth: 4
• Mercenaries: 4
• Minions: 3

Mercenaries and Minions are not powerful choices (no surprise there). Menoth falls into the same category, which I think has a lot to do with the predictability of the faction in general. Everyone knows how to dismantle a Menoth list, even if it's pretty hard to do at times.

Skorne, Circle, Cygnar, Cryx, and Retribution are all pretty much equal. Khador and Trollbloods are durable and forgiving factions, which is a combination that always does well in tournaments, so it's not unexpected to see them slightly ahead.

Legion on the other hand, is supposed to be a tricky finesse list, which should not do so well in tournament settings, and having almost double the wins of any other faction should be an indication that something needs tweaking but: that something is not Cryx.

Conclusion

If you're having trouble with Cryx it's your own problem. Cryx does not dominate everything, and is in fact placed squarely in the middle when it comes to tournament wins. The reason you're having trouble is because you can't beat Cryx without understanding Cryx. Become a better player, and Cryx will stop being a problem.

The Terminus Challenge: pIrusk

Monday I'll be going up against Khador, probably pIrusk. I'm fairly certain his list will look something like the one below. I know because I've been spying on him! Now the rubber band is on the other claw!

Kommandant Irusk

- Behemoth

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Underboss

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer & Standard

- 2 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Kell Bailoch

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Reinholdt
Sylys Wyshnalyrr

This is could be interesting. His main objective will be to take out my Bile Thralls because leaving them alive will mean losing badly after my feat round. His feat will not save him from mass corrosion, and his high defense will mean nothing.

If he manages to take them out, I'm looking at matching low MAT against very high defenses, which will probably not end well. He does have a lack of kill pieces, and taking out the Behemoth, Eiryss, and the Great Bears will leave him looking at an armor 24 problem he can't solve.

Behemoth

Superiority means not letting Terminus get within 9.5" of this thing. Behemoth will most likely destroy Terminus, even at full camp, and relying on tough to save me is foolish. Getting him wrecked is priority number one, but the question is how. If I can get Terminus on him, and a Bane Thrall or Tartarus in there, then Brine can wreck him with PS 19/18 and a reroll.

Assuming he doesn't volunteer to get killed, the Cankerworm has to go do something about it, or pray I've got enough Bane Thralls left. Terminus can also do it himself, if I'm sure I can grab enough souls to survive the retaliation. Machine Wraiths won't do anything since he's a character jack.

Great Bears

Usually free lunch, but with this list there's a kazillion models to work through before I can get to them. With Battle Lust these guys can take down Terminus, and seriously hurt him even with Beyond Death up.

Assassins

I really don't want to lose Tartarus and my Bile Thralls. Even defense 16 is in "fhugedabutit!" country if that happens, but Rorsh has hit dynomite and for once I might end up using it. They don't have Pathfinder though, so Rorsh could theoretically make life hard for them with Pig Pen.

Kossites

Well... damn! They threaten 18-20" from either flank with their bows, which leaves my Bile Thralls 8" in the center to work with. Even RAT 4 hits Bile Thralls, and this completely circumvents my standard defense against ranged. I guess I'll have to accept losing two Bile Thralls in return for some tasty souls then.

Widowmakers

Will cost me another couple of Bile Thralls. I'm usually not scared of them, but if his only win condition is "kill all biles" they're a problem.

Winter Guard

Admonia makes this problem go away most of the time. I've been ignoring them with every other caster, but Terminus has no real answer expect himself. pDenny & Scaverous just stops them from spraying, and Mortenebra ignores them.

pEiryss

Remember meat shields, because this game is lost if I take that hit. I've been hit with eGaspy and Scaverous and still won, but not this Terminus and not this game.

Kell Bailoch

Sad Machine Wraiths are sad...

I think it comes down to how many tough rolls I can make on those Bile Thralls. It will be interesting though, and I'm looking forward to it.

Circle: Megalith

I've been reading, and asking questions, and it seems my Circle list will do fine except for one thing: Megalith. That thing is everywhere, and while it pains me to pay 11 points for anything in this game, it does seem like a good idea.

+1 MAT, +1 PS, +1 ARM, +1 FURY, Self Healing, and Steady. A better animus and an interesting on hit effect, but I must admit that fielding an eleven point heavy that can barely scratch a real heavy is daunting. I did get two Woldwardens in the deal though, and it shouldn't be too hard to convert one to Megalith, since that's just adding a bit of shield plating here and there.

It will give me an excuse to practice my grey stuff abilities anyway. Anyway, real life is kicking my a teeth in this week, so don't expect much until Monday.

Coming full Circle

A while back I talked about creating armies without spending hundreds of dollars, and last night I purchased enough for my first real Hordes list: Circle. Back then I tried to predict what I would need to spend in order to buy a list that would be tournament worthy (though probably not top-tier).

pKrueger. I would think it would be about 80-100 dollars to purchase sufficient beasts and support though.

That turned out to be an accurate prediction, though I would have preferred something else instead of the second Woldwarden, but beggars can't be choosers. I bought pKrueger, eKrueger, Woldwarden, Woldwarden, Woldwatcher, Gorax, Druid Wilder, and Druids of Orboros + Overseer (all second hand of course): 82 dollars.

Boo!

This should allow me to field nearly the same list with pKrueger and eKrueger, though I'm still considering the use of two Woldwardens, and will be on the lookout for something to replace one. I did consider Rorsh & Brine (and still do actually, as +2 MAT, +2 STR, and Reach makes him damn scary), but that would leave me a bit low on Fury generating beasts (still something to be tested).

Krueger the Stormwrath

- Gorax

- Woldwatcher

- Woldwarden

- Woldwarden/Rorsh & Brine/Shadowhorn & Lanyssa

Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts)

Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts)

- Druid of Orboros Overseer

Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

pKrueger with Skyborne (2 Fury, non upkeep), Deflection (2 Fury, non-upkeep), Earth's Blessing (1 Fury, non-upkeep), and a cloud/forest will be sitting on defense 19, armor 14/16, with immunity to Knockdown, Pushes, and Stationary. He'll be camping 1-2 Fury and having the Woldwatcher nearby to soak something that does manage to hit.

• Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Wrong Eye and Snapjaw are there to take on enemy heavies and heavy infantry, and with Lightning Tendrils and Primal Snapjaw will eat just about anything. Against living enemies he'll be coming from 12" away with MAT 8 and PS 19, and a critical knockdown tail at PS 16. Against warjacks he's a lot slower, but then again Warjacks tend to be slower as well.

• Nyss Hunters

The Nyss Hunters with Lightning tendrils seem batshit crazy, threatening 12" with a charge and electro leap. That should wipe just about any surviving infantry of the table, but they're also capable of hurting most heavies pretty badly if needed.

• Druids

Druids are druids, and will be tasked with bringing in targets for the heavies, and will be defense 18 armor 13/15 with clouds and Deflection up. They'll also be tasked with keeping a member near Krueger to provide a cloud when needed.

• Shadowhorn + Lanyssa/Wayfarer

I'm considering a Shadowhorn + Lanyssa instead of the second Woldwarden. The Shadowhorn with tendrils and Primal can surprise and destroy a lot of casters with leap, reach, four PS 16 attacks, two PS 15 attacks, and with good MAT to boot. Lanyssa will add another potential 2" to my beasts when they charge, and with tendrils the range becomes a bit silly, as even the Woldwarden comes rushing from 12" away. Edit: The Blackclad Wayfarer might a better choice. Thinking cap on!

This is all theory of course, but I'm looking forward to getting it on the table and trying it out. The main issue will be the amount of things in the list that relies on a spell that can't be everywhere at once, though I can upkeep it on one, cast it on another instead of deflection, and Woldwarden it on a third.

The Terminus Challenge: Durgen revisited

I met up with Hjelmen and he pulled out his Searforge. He's been considering Farrow for the ETC, but since the Road Hog isn't in the pipes and thus won't be out for ETC he's defaulting to Searforge for now. We talked a bit about different factions, and the man has some seriously weird lists cooking in the basement, but on to the game!

I'm rusty, you're an idiot, and you can quote me on that :D
- Hjelmen

I don't think I've ever had a game like that before. We tried one of the new scenarios named "Incoming", where two objectives could fire at either zone with an AoE 3 POW 12 Magic attack. I'll get back to that tomorrow, but for now the only thing you need to know is that it's just as silly as it sounds.

Before deployment

I actually got to go first, and with cunning brilliance and never before seen tactics I bunched up in the middle with my fast elements and solos on the flanks. Then he lined up half way up the table with his 14" deployment zone, and it was game on.

Durgen Madhammer

- Grundback Blaster

- Grundback Blaster

- Grundback Gunner

- Grundback Gunner

- Wroughthammer Rockram

Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Ogrun Assault Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Gudrun the Wanderer

Lord Rockbottom

Ogrun Bokur

Thor Steinhammer
- Ghordson Avalancher

Ogrun Assault Corpse is a new addition to his list.

Run run run the list, gently across the field!

I grabbed the zone with the Machine Wraiths as usual, and sent the third one across the table towards his zone. Bane Thralls ran up, while Rorsh & Brine took the flank across from Gudrun.

The stupidity begins!

This picture requires a bit of explaining (please play this tune while reading it). I thought Gudrun had speed five, and thus I was caught with my pants down when he ran in to engage Saxon. In order to save him I charge in a Bane Thrall and was a millimeter short. Then I decided to purge him and finish the job with Saxon, which I then did by advancing into melee range and preventing my own purge, and then walking out again (and going down to a free strike) to allow Madelyn to pass by.

Madelyn couldn't make it because of the woods, so Saxon had to hand her Pathfinder first. Madelyn then kissed Gudrun and sent him back towards his lines, completely unharmed (but engaged by another Bane Thrall). Bane Thrall, Bile Thrall, Saxon Orrik, and Madelyn... That was one of the funniest rounds I've had all year.

Hey look, I can park Brine behind that cover!

His gun bunnies took down two Machine Wraiths, but otherwise I was in great shape. Tartarus took the liberty of making me two new Bane Thralls, the Machine Wraith moved up with Intrigue and grabbed a gun bunny, and the combine grabbed some souls. Everyone else spread out and prepared for his feat round.

Mighty Tartarus!

I have to work on those distances, because Tartarus got close to the hockey team. He made two tough checks (thanks to Terminus being within 10") and was lit on fire, but still going strong.

That didn't hurt! Next please!

I suffered so few casualties it was almost embarrassing. The dice just didn't want it enough, and I was down 5-6 models total when the round ended. It might be because I'm usually down to half my list by now, but the stupidity just wouldn't end.

Outta tha way, outta tha way!

Rorsh charged Gudrun and failed to kill him, then got in the way of the Bane Thralls that had to go the other way, and forgetting that I needed him to get Brine out from behind the obstacle. Brine had to throw Ogruns at each other and failed, while Orin tried for a melee take down of Gudrun and left him on two boxes. Retard move number two was popping feat and charging the objective with Terminus.

ARM 20 and 20 Boxes, no problem! Well it's ******* friendly so Malediction does dick, and I was rolling dice -4. I cut my losses and camped at ARM 25, hoping to survive the onslaught. Long story short, the Rockram couldn't handle ARM 25 and Durgen was a dead dwarf. It was a fine game, and the quote from Hjelmen was with a smile on his face, but that makes it no less true.

Taking on the champ!

Just a little update to let you know that tonights report will probably be tomorrows report instead. I'm taking on Hjelmen tonight, which means a late game since he's doing a radio broadcast until eight. Hjelmen took the Danish Masters home with Searforge, and I'm looking forward to the game since he's one of the players I can really learn from, because the man forgets nothing.

We all play by the rules of course, but Hjelmen knows them all and wins by doing so. He's the guy that notices when you place a unit leader so he can make half your unit useless with one shot, and knows the correct sequence of the least disturbance rules so he can move models where he likes. It's going to be fun!

Terminus Challenge: Status and Painting

Time for an update. The casters are listed with their faction, the result of the game, and what I felt decided the game (List, Skill, or Dice). There's also a link to the army list and report from the game.

• Cryx:
• Cygnar: eCaine (Win: Skill)
• Khador: pIrusk (Win: List/Skill)
• Menoth: pSeverius (Win: List)
• Mercenaries (Four Star):
• Mercenaries (Highborne): Durgen (Win: Dice)
• Mercenaries (Searforge): Durgen (Win: List/Dice)
• Retribution:
• Circle:
• Legion: Saeryn (Loss, Dice) og eThagrosh (Win, List/Skill/Dice)
• Skorne:
• Trollbloods:
• Minions (Blindwater):
• Minions (Thornfall):

The painting and modeling is going well, and here's the current status of the models. I'm about two thirds done, and several of the models are easy to fix, so that's comforting. I should probably paint up some more Bane Thralls, but I've never had the pleasure of going above the initial unit size with this build, and I have two rust colored crappy old Bane Thralls I can bring in case miracles do happen.

• Lich Lord Terminus: Outdated color scheme.
• Cankerworm: Final details.
• Skarlock Thrall: Final details.
• Machine Wraiths: Final details.
• Necrotech & Scrapp Thrall: Not purchased.
• The Withershadow Combine: Needs a touch up.
• Darragh Wrathe: Final details needed.
• Bane Thralls + UA + Tartarus: Done.
• Bile Thralls: Done.
• Madelyn Corbeau: Done.
• Orin Midwinter: Done.
• Rorsh & Brine: Done.
• Wrong Eye & Snapjaw: Done 
• Saxon Orrik: Done. 

I was asked if I didn't fear meeting opponents that knew all about my list and tactics at the ETC. There are 240 players there, and I'm meeting 2% of them. There's not much risk of facing up against someone that actually reads this blog, but worst case scenario:

He decided to bring a counter to my list, he somehow made it through his games with such an impressive handicap, and he read everything I've written and remembers even the smallest detail. The end result: I lose a game. My team mates can pull through, and if they can't it's one round lost and a round on me at the pub.

Skarlock: Cocytus WIP

Introducing Cocytus, the personal Skarlock to Lich Lord Terminus. Cocytus keeps the thralls in order when Terminus takes the field, and administers the strange concoction that completely unhinges the otherwise brilliant tactician, and launches Terminus towards his enemies in an all consuming rage.

Cocytus is based on the Skarlock body in an attempt to make him tournament legal. I think he's easily recognizable as a Skarlock, but it will be written on the front of his base anyway. His base will be a standard raised stone plateau, since the model has a lot of detail already.

I'm considering adding some additional instruments and soul cages on the top armor, but I'm not sure how it will look. At the moment he looks great, but more like a field surgeon than a Spell Slave, so that's something to consider.

I bought the Malifaux models

I bought a Executioner class Steamborg, as it turned out I had a lot of cash from a Buy Back system at my local store. I took another look at it, and it was a bit spindly, but I stumbled upon a backup model, and since the money was enough for both of them I grabbed both.

It's been a while since I've had the urge to model and paint, so here's to hoping I still have it a month from now when these things arrive ;)

Struggling with Necrotechs

I've been working on Terminus' person Skarlock a bit and it's going well, but the Necrotech is not coming along. Assuming nothing goes wrong I should have some WIP pictures of the Skarlock tomorrow, but I'm hitting a wall with Necrotech, and the Internet isn't helping much.

Bloat Thrall legs is doable, but still ugly.

Upright Vice Claw: better but still ugly.

Longer legs, upright Vice Claw, great color, still ugly.

It's a tough model to work with, and Privateer Press has some big old road blocks in the conversion guidelines. I might order some Malifaux models and see if I can get away with it...

With a bit of work that might pass as a Necrotech.

Reinforcements: Wrong Eye and Snapjaw

With the changes to SR 2012, I can now bring WE&SJ as my reinforcements. I know there are better choices, but I've been working overtime finding some way to include both our Lesser Warlocks, and now I have it. I've also secured permission from my ETC team to claim both of them, so now I'm left with a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach, a lot of thinking to do... and one point left over.

What am I going to do with one point, when I've got all three Machine Wraiths in the list already. Necrotechs became utterly useless when they decided to bring along Scrapp Thralls (that make them non-scoring), and Scrapp Thralls themselves are no better. I got to thinking that if I can't do something good, I can do something fun instead.

About five years ago I was into Blood Bowl, and I had an all Skink team. They all had personalities and their behavior on the field was dictated by it. The crowd pleaser was a crazed killer named "Deathmaster Skink", and his modus operandi was to blitz the biggest thing on the board, no matter how dangerous it was. He died every two or three games, but occasionally he managed something spectacular, and his most successful incarnation had two kills and several severe injuries under his belt before he died.

My all zombie team won about half their games, because every time an enemy player hit the ground they all swarmed in and mass fouled, while everyone except the poor victim cried out for brains! This meant that every player I was up against missed a shitload of opportunities, because they would rather lose than have their star player eaten and animated. Another of the zombies always threw long bombs to the runner zombie (which had a leg injury that caused him to be amongst the slowest models in the game), and the list goes on.

I should build myself a Necrotech, find a personal goal for him, and see what he can do. I could build him as a bipedal and send him on a quest for more legs. I could build him like a discount version of the old witch, and call them Zhagga & Scrappy, or maybe Victor and Malfunctioning Eddie from Futurama.

Viking invasion, ETC 2012

Alright so the Danish Vikings were mostly tradesmen, and they didn't wear horned helmets either, but we did raid england a couple of times, and we're coming back! It turns out there are no less than four danish teams signed on to ETC now, since our rookie brigade were just informed they were in.

Now we have to finish 57th to achieve our goal, and the Rookie brigade might not be rookies by summer (they're improving at an alarming rate).

SR2012: Changes

This little article from Lost Hemisphere gives a fairly good idea about the changes in SR2012. It does not cover the actual scenarios, but the author is hinting that future articles might.

SR2012: I need a look at those scenarios

I must admit to being more than a little confused about all the new scenarios with artifices (formerly called complications), and reinforcements. There are a lot of things that make very little sense when reading them, and I'm having a hard time putting the picture together.

Some of the new scenarios require cards with a pile of rules on them (last page of the SR2012 rules), so you can bounce objectives around the board, and most of them either explode, make nearby models fearless, allow free charges for beast/jacks, gain or lose armor, blow up nearby things, light things on fire, shoot, or heal and remove continuous effects (this is going to end in tears).

Stop hugz me! I R storng Durid!

I think this requires some actual games to sort out, so I'll go through the scenarios that aren't making sense (while doing the Terminus challenge), and report back what they feel like. I've been pleasantly surprised by how the reinforcements actually worked, but I'm still skeptical about all the random rules and abilities.

A little busy

Work is keeping me busy these days. I was asked to help apply for some grants in a joint venture between several libraries, and being a grumpy old man I agreed on one condition: go large or go home.

Careful what you wish for and all that... I missed the part where I would actually have to do anything if we got the funds. It remains to be seen how much work is actually in it, but I guess I'll have to learn to do updates on my phone while traveling or pretending to take notes during meetings.

Reinforcements: Hacksawed!

I can't believe it! Lesser Warlocks are now allowed as reinforcements. That's all I wanted for Christmas, since I can now fit Wrong Eye into my Terminus list. I really thought they had us on the whole "bonded" issue, but... GLEE! Now I just have to cage fight the other guys on my ETC team, since I'll be claiming both Lesser Warlocks.

In the memory you'll find me

I just received an order from my local shop, but I made that order eight months ago. Now I'm the proud owner of four additional Nyss Hunters, Dougal MacNaile and an ugly version of pDenny. I don't really need any of it any more, so I guess they'll spend some time in the pile of "where did that come from?" models.

The Terminus Challenge: eCaine

I faced up against eCaine tonight, but it wasn't really a game. I was facing an army with more than enough magic weapons to wipe my Machine Wraiths of the table, and most of it ignored stealth as well.

Captain Allister Caine

- Stormclad

- Squire

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)

- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

-- Hunter

Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Trencher Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe

Journeyman Warcaster

Reinholdt

Stormsmith Stormcaller

I took a lot of pictures, but it's a bit boring actually. He ran, I ran, then he shot up a lot of my army and hid eCaine safe behind a line of trenchers with smoke.

Overlapping smoke means there's no LoS through it.

He forgot to bring his dice, and being the devious bastard I am, I offered him my purple dice of defeat. These dice are infamous for being the worst dice in existence, unless you happen to be rolling 5+ invulnerable saves in Warhammer 40.000. 

They didn't let me down this time either, and I lost almost nothing to his shooting. In the end it didn't matter much, because I had a Machine Wraith safely in cover, and he failed the basic 12" test: don't get your caster within twelve inches of Terminus.

Choooo Choooo!

Ravager from the Skarlock (I love him), Puppet Master from Tremulus, Death Ride from Darragh Wrathe, a Machine Wraith running in to act as charge beacon within the clouds, and Terminus launched. Hitting the Machine Wraith in the back and getting a swing on eCaine from Berserk worked like a charm, and rolling 6-6-5 on boosted damage meant Terminus got his first caster one-shot.

I didn't learn much from the game, except that again Machine Wraiths were game winners. The Skarlock is staying in, and Orin Midwinter never got to do anything.

Painting

I painted something last night. I haven't painted anything the last six months, so it came as something of a surprise to suddenly feel the urge. I'm a terrible painter, so I never get to take any pride in my work, but last night I began the process of finishing what I'm sure I'll include in my Terminus list, and I must admit that it was worth taking the time to change a few colors.

The list is slowly turning dark and gritty, though I think I overdid it a bit on Orin Midwinter, who became about as dull as they get. I'll see if I can manage some pictures tonight, depending on how much I have to write after my game against Cygnar (don't know if it will be against pStryker or eCaine, but I'm hoping for eCaine).

iBodger: See all army lists

I was just made aware of this excellent tool. "This is a list of the most and least popular models by faction, based on the lists collected here. This is not necessarily representative of the larger population of games played, and is mostly for fun. Please do not take these lists too seriously. Models from recently released books are not eligible for ranking, since there will not be enough history yet"

Screw the statistics, the see all army lists is the real gold nugget! This tool allows you to find all the lists posted on Privateer Press forums, without having to search and sort through everything. I'm not sure how long it's been running, and if the data becomes outdated, but let's say you're building a Iron Lich Asphyxious list.

We simply go to the see all army lists section -> Cryx -> Iron Lich Asphyxious,  and we get about 60 lists, ranked by points, and there's even a section about his theme lists. This is also doable with each model/unit, so if we want to see what kind of lists the Cankerworm is in you can, and it's even listed by casters.

If I feel like knowing a bit more about eStryker, I can just go browse the lists instead of doing long and annoying searches. The tools isn't perfect, and most lists are posted by rookies, but it's still a wonderful tool.

The Terminus Challenge: Civil War

There are a lot of bad match-ups in my own faction, and what's worse is that they're nearly all amongst the regular tournament casters. pAsphyxious almost made the list, but I've decided I can handle his onslaught and stay of his melee assassination range.

Scaverous also nearly made it, with his unbeatable ARM and movement shenanigans, but if I meet a player that can juggle Scaverous with SR 2012 time limits I'll lose anyway, and if he can't Scaverous is easy to beat. I did think about including pDeneghra as well, but most people bring melee lists with her, and I can handle that.

• eAsphyxious

I can't take him down with attrition, I can't declare a charge on him, and if the player is smart enough to avoid placing anything near him I'm in trouble. I can use my Machine Wraith to run up and act as a charge beacon, but I fully expect him to be dead at that point.

Terminus doesn't handle the Spectral army very well either, and although a spectral army assassination isn't guaranteed to work on Terminus, it can wipe my list of the table, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it. His Bile Thrall shenanigans are better than mine (though I can keep my living models the hell back), and his clouds are murder on my advance.

• eDeneghra

If I lose Admonia I can't ever rely on getting a charge with Terminus on eDenny due to pursuit. I've faced her once before with Terminus, where I was saved by the clock, random dice and so forth, but Madelyn Corbeau + Darragh Wrathe + Admonia will need to prepare the way for me. 

I've also considered using Brine to throw something at her, since knockdown is a good way to bring her down, but Incorporeal will save her from that. I do have quite a lot of magic attacks at range, so a surprise attack with some good dice could ruin her day: Orin Midwinter, WSC, Darragh Wrathe, Skarlock (Hellfire), and Terminus himself (Hellfire).

• Terminus
  

There's no doubt in my mind that it will end with dice down, because the first Terminus to launch against the other will lose unless miracles happen. Dice -6 and few souls on the other side of the table means inflicting twelve damage to the other Terminus, and then going down hard.

Assuming I'm up against a standard Terminus list full of Mechanithralls, I'd bet on my list as more likely to take down his Terminus, and his list more likely to win an attrition war. My guess is we would end up with one Terminus looking hard at the other Terminus, across an endless sea of destroyed Thralls, and going "You're a sexy bastard, yes you are" in unison, when the TO declares dice down.

• Summary

So there we have it: The three worst match-ups feature the two most most common Cryx casters. I'll have to pray my opponent makes a mistake because he doesn't know what my list can do, and pray I can take advantage of it when he does.

/Lamoron

The Terminus Challenge: Dougal MacNaile

Talking about Dougal made me think about including him in my list, as a second ranged element and bodyguard for Madelyn Corbeau. I've been continually annoyed that I have to keep Madelyn close to Darragh Wrathe, because Darragh likes to be near Terminus, and he's an abomination, which makes it hard to place Madelyn somewhere safe without rolling morale.

I also think there's enough shit being thrown at Darragh Wrathe already, so the ability to keep Madelyn somewhere else would save me a lot of nail-biting when the AoE attacks start drifting. In addition Dougal MacNaile is immune to AoE attacks, which makes him the perfect companion, and he can bring a little extra something to a couple of other pieces in the list.

Dug in like an Alabama tick!

• Saxon Orrik often ends up shooting enemy solos, and a round with increased range might do him some good. It will allow me to keep him a bit farther back, which should increase his survivability a great deal.
• Rorsh really enjoys a round with increased range, and with artillerist his Dynomite becomes rather scary. Suddenly he's accurate, with increased range, and the ability to re-roll the deviation and/or range, which keeps his Fury available for boosted damage. His Pig Iron also benefits from the increased range, and suddenly he's a fairly effective ranged threat, though I rarely ever get to shoot with him these days.

In any case, he can pump out 1-4 shots each round himself, and rolling well turns him into an unholy terror of machine-gun fire on the battlefield. That makes the current list look like this, since I had to remove the Gun Boar to get in the lovely solos.

Lich Lord Terminus

- Cankerworm

Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Bane Thrall Officer & Standard

Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)

The Withershadow Combine

Bane Lord Tartarus

Darragh Wrathe

Machine Wraith

Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Rorsh

- Brine

Saxon Orrik
 Skarlock Thrall