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Showing posts with label Scavenger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scavenger. Show all posts

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Tournament: Einherjerne - Day 1

I arrived a full hour earlier than I needed to, since a couple of people got themselves lost. I was facing one of the slackers, and he turned out to be a very nice guy, but going for the title of most hungover player I've ever seen.

It was a day of mixed emotions. 

My opponent was a veteran of two entire games, so I settled down for a game of try not to end it to fast. I had an enjoyable game, with Scaverous against eMakeda, but the outcome was never in question. While I didn't come to the tournament to fight rookies, they're the future of the hobby, so I decided to enjoy myself, and I did. In the end I killed him with an unbinding from Admonia, which was a first for me, and it was on to round two.

This is when it hit the fan. Due to the character restriction I couldn't bring a good Terminus list and play around with Scaverous at the same time, so when I was faced up against Retribution I knew I was doomed. Mortenebra would be destroyed, so I settled for learning some more about Scaverous while I took my beating. It was a Ravyn list so I threw everything I had forward and hoped for the best.

Scaverous vs. Ravyn

It took him three MHSF shots to neuter my Arc Nodes, and both Sirens were lost to sacrifices I need to make. The entire WSC and Rorsh couldn't shoot the Destor Thane, so Brine had to step in as well, and I wasted fourteen points worth of army to destroy a single cavalry solo. Then I missed the range on a charge with Tartarus and I knew I was done for.

Amazingly his dice decided we should go another round, and my casualties were fairly limited. I actually had a shot at doing this, so I took it. TK a few models, TK Ravyn, Icy Grip Ravyn, Feast or Worms Ravyn, and forget to TK my Bane Thrall Officer into range (sigh). I did get one Bane Thrall on her, after I shot her with three Dark Fires, and the Feast of Worms plinked a few boxes of her as well, so if I rolled well on the single Bane Thrall I could still do it.

Guess what, I didn't. While I came closer than I would have thought possible, I lost as I should, and went on to round three. I can't say I enjoyed the game all that much, since I knew I was doomed, but at least my opponent was a nice guy, and I sort of owed him for our last game, in which he accidentally shot and killed his own caster.

Mortenebra Vs. The Harbinger

While both my opponents were great people, I was having a bad day in general. My first game was a slightly advanced practice game, and my second game was lost before the first dice hit the table. I know I intentionally brought a weak build to produce better games, but being two thirds through the day without a good fight, left me slightly bitter. I also came to the conclusion that character restriction is an impressively bad idea, that works just as piss poorly in Warmachine as it does in Warhammer.

With that in mind, I faced my third opponent who turned out to be a rookie Menoth player. I know he's been an impressively successful Warhammer player, but he has less than ten games under his belt, so while he had some impressive skill for such a new player, it just wasn't enough. The Harbinger list was actually quite well suited to handling my Mortenebra list, so I put that on the table to make things a little interesting.

He managed to surprise me, and he actually scored a control point, but The Harbinger got within 19.5" of a Scavenger, and he didn't feat. If he had popped his feat I would have been in trouble, since no Scavenger survives Overrun + Charge against POW 14 hits (it actually dies on average dice), but being new he had so many things to keep track of, that he forgot about Overrun (I made sure he knew, and gave him a walkthrough of my army and tricks, but being new is hard).


My Scavenger beaked The Harbinger with Focus left to spare, and the day was over. I did some peeking at the other tables, and one of the complete rookies from my last tournament was winning his third game, so I latched on to that (and the opportunity to add one to my beaker-score), and called the day acceptable.

Summary

I did learn a few things today, and I've got Rorsh & Brine figured out (all I had to do was write REMEMBER TRANSFERS on the back of each base), but I don't like thirty five point games, and I loathe those character restrictions.

I've got in my ten games (in total) with Scaverous, but I just can't get him to work the way I would like. There's no doubt in my mind that he's a fantastic caster, but I find his style produces the same kind of annoying games that pDenny does, and he requires the perfect setup to run smoothly, which tends to lead to boring lists.

I still can't get around the sad fact that I need Terminus as a backup caster. Terminus covers just about every bad match-up we have, and he produces exactly the kind of games I prefer. My opponent gets to kill, main, and burn my army to cinders, and I end up winning. My opponent has fun smacking me around, and I win the game, which means he has as good a game as I can deliver without loosing, and that means a lot to me.

Tomorrow is another day, and maybe it will bring some close and interesting games, so I can either lose some close games, or get a few more notches on the beaker-score. Edit: After giving it some thought, I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed the day completely, IF I could have brought Terminus to the table, so I could have played a serious game in between noob-stomps. I guess that's what I'll do next time.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Epic Madrak

Today I faced a Gunnbjorn list, and he was beaked to a bloody pulp during round two. This was less than satisfying for my opponent, who also happened to get himself beaked last Monday with Dr. Arkadius. To make up for it, I agreed to let him test out an Epic Madrak list, with a full compliment of take-backs, and a rules advisor on the side.

The sad fact is, that Epic Madrak seems to be immune to Scavengers. The Scavenger can put four incredibly potent attacks on a caster, but it takes closer to fifteen of those attacks to clear out the screens and take down Epic Madrak. It didn't help much that I brought a list of things I needed to test, since even though the Pistol Wraiths did surprisingly well, I was fighting an up-hill battle. (Edit: Turns out my opponent was playing it wrong, so it should have been just 4-5 extra hits, instead of 15... might have made a difference)

Finally the game helped me realize, that I need some way to remove Tough from the equation. It's a poor players last refuge to blame the dice, but it's annoying to account for it when planning a round (not to mention that it can really screw you over on assassination runs). So while I was cursing the avalanche of successful tough-rolls today (since they weren't mine), my mind wandered to my shelves at home.

Next time I'm facing a tough infantry horde I will be prepared. General Slaughterborn with Recalibrate & Puppet master, will be my backup plan when the Blood Hag removes their tough, and Admonia takes care of defensive upkeeps. I had to remove a Warwitch Siren to fit them in, but the free upkeep from Admonia should balance the focus issues quite nicely.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra
- Helldiver
- Helldiver
- Scavenger
- Scavenger
- Stalker
- Harrower
- Harrower
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and five Grunts)
- Satyxis Blood Hag
The Withershadow Combine
General Gerlak Slaughterborn
Warwitch Siren

At least it's different from all the other Mortenebra armies out there...

Monday, June 20, 2011

The Wildlife Preserve

It has been brought to my attention, that Scavengers are going extinct across the Iron Kingdoms. In spite of my public relations work on the Privateer Press forums, the Scavenger remains a sadly misunderstood release, so in a last ditch attempt at redemption, I'm founding a preserve.
The Scavenger:  Current score
Scavengers lost: 3
Casters beaked: Grim Angus, Dr. Arkadius, Grim Angus, Gunnbjorn, Gunnbjorn, The Harbinger.
The Scavenger:  A summary
The Scavenger is rated well below average, and this is almost understandable when you look at it. The problem is, that these ratings never seem to take into account, that some pieces are either designed with a specific caster in mind, or to simply exploit a feature or spell available only to a select few casters. There are several pieces in Warmachine, which the general population accept as great additions to certain lists, while considering them poor choices with most other casters. I aim to achieve the critical mass needed, for the Scavenger to take it's rightful place amongst these pieces.

The final obstacle I need to overcome, is the deeply rooted idea, that everything in Warmachine is about raw power and survivability. Whenever the Scavenger is mentioned, the arguments invariably veer toward the point-cost issues, and then without question, the five point Slayer is brought up. Mortenebra is the only caster able to push a Scavenger to it's true potential, and as such it makes perfect sense to include the tier discount when discussing cost efficiency. The main issue with this comparison is, that they're comparing apples and oranges, and they never seem to notice. Thus begins the long and arduous task, of redeeming the Scavenger:

Articles regarding the Scavenger:
Battlefield performance:
Things that concerns the Scavenger:

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Facing Legion...

Tonight I had my first game against Legion. When I read his cards I got more than a little nervous, and as it turns out I was right to be. I brought my Satyxis Raiders Mortenebra list, and had to acknowledge that I had zero chance at going attrition.

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight
- Harrier
- Nephilim Bolt Trower
- Shredder
- Shredder
- Carnivean
- Scythean
- Seraph
- Typhon
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
The Forsaken
The Forsaken
The Forsaken

Woo boy this was a close game. I messed up badly on my assassination run, and triggered Overrun by killing a Shredder, which of course gave Absylonia two more Fury to transfer (DOH!). Stupid stupid stupid, and she survived my feat + Scavenger missile. I piled as many models as I could in to defend Mortenebra, and then he messed up as well, and activated in the wrong sequence, so his Scythean came at Mortenebra damaged.

It had to take a free strike from a Scavenger, and a free strike with finisher saw to it, that a very impotent Scythean arrived at Mortenebra. After swinging a couple of times to no avail, the Scythean also kindly agreed to plug up the one way he could get at Mortenebra with any other model.

My turn came around, and some heavy thinking had to be done. He had made sure neither the Harrowers, my Stalker, or my Scavenger could be assigned Focus, but Terminal Velocity and a couple of power boosts from the two Sirens allowed me some breathing room.

Mortenebra activates, casts Terminal Velocity and Overrun on a Harrower. Deryliss activates and puts Spectral Steel on the Stalker. Then my remaining Scavenger flies over a couple of models and slams the Carnivean out of the way, allowing the Harrower to charge and trigger Overrun on a forsaken. The slam also opened up a lane for my Stalker, and Overrun got him in a position to charge. One of the Sirens comes up and power boosts the Stalker, and Absylonia is taken down.

Had he not made an activation sequence error, I would have lost. Had the Scavenger only slammed the Carnivean a single inch I would have lost. Had the Stalker not survived a few swings from the Carnivean the previous round I would have lost, but a win is a win, and now I'm not totally lost if I face Legion in a tournament.

I'm having my doubts about the Satyxis Raiders, but they cause so much ruckus that I'll be keeping them in the list for now. This time they swamped his objective in one of the radial deployment scenarios, and kept quite a bit of his army busy for a couple of rounds.
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Epiphany!

An epiphany is the sudden realization of the essence or meaning of something. The term is used in either a philosophical or literal sense to signify that the claimant has "found the last piece of the puzzle and now sees the whole picture," or has new information or experience. Usually an epiphany is followed by the equally sudden realization of ones own stupidity, when one realizes how long it took to spot such an obvious solution to a problem.


I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what I could add to my Mortenebra list, to help me clear a drop zone for the Scavengers. So far my opponents have all opened up their caster at some point, but relying on the opposition making mistakes is a sure way to loose the important games, so I've been building lists, crunching numbers on mercenaries, and until now the solution eluded me.

The wall of Warjacks/Warbeasts isn't really a problem, as so many points tied up in one place means I can pick the rest of the army apart, or simply slam them out of the way if I need a drop zone. The issue I've been having is clearing out massed infantry, shielded by a wall of heavies, in a castle formation. I've thought about Bloat Thralls with Arcing fire, Mercenaries, Warwitch Sirens, Cephalyx Overlords, and pretty much every unit/model I could imagine, and of course I've had the answer in my list the whole time: The frigging Mortifier.

It's on the Harrower, and I've got two of them in every Mortenebra list. I've been so focused on the Harrowers as melee monsters, that I've totally ignored the ability to clear out a drop zone for the Scavengers. Mortenebras Recalibration feat is not restricted to melee attacks, so landing at least one of the blasts should be quite easy against most targets, and I've got the points available to add a couple of Warwitch Sirens to ensure available Focus for a boost.

So now I'm left with solving the issue with true brick casters, surrounded by highly armored multiple-wound models, but I guess the answer will come to me at some point. Either way, another piece of the puzzle is in place, and Mortenebra is one step closer to world domination.
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Monday, June 6, 2011

Pirate Queen Mortenebra; Part 2

I got my game in, against a Farrow army led by Arkadius. I know I read the card, and I even noticed the Crippling Grasp, but somehow that information leaked out of my brain, before I ran in the Satyxis Raiders to tie down a pile of ranged units. The result was the near annihilation of my squad, and one lesson learned. I can't really draw any sort of conclusions from this game, so I guess I'll have to try again next Monday.

In the end it didn't matter much, as he left an opening for a Scavenger, and Arkadius without Fury. I know he read the card, but he missed what flight actually does, and so Arkadius got beaked to death around thirty seconds after my turn two began. I know this game is supposed to be about knowing more than your opponent, and blocking his every angle of attack, but it still feels cheap, and I've been hit by Molik Karn enough times to know how wasted a game feels when you get taken down like that.

To make matters worse the Scavenger is even harder to stop, and most opponents have never even seen the model before, much less discovered the potential of the thing. Unfortunately I have to practice, so I can't just avoid playing with them. I promised my opponent that I'd go up against a Gunnbjorn list on Monday if possible, so he could rip me a new one. More diversity in matches means more experience, so I'll receive my lead enema and like it, if it means learning more about the game.

As always the Stalkers just never pull their weight, so I'll try cutting back to one of them. That means I free up some more points, and now I'll have to find out what I can bring. Maybe some Mercenaries could be fun, to add even more weirdness to the list.
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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Spotlight: The Scavenger.

The Scavenger received a lot of hate when it arrived. It's expensive, fragile, and requires a lot of resources to be effective, but a few casters can really make it shine.


The Scavenger is based on the Stalker chassis, so it's almost impossible to hit, but that also means we're dealing with another jack that dies to blast damage.
The Scavenger: Abilities
As always the Battlecollege will take you through the abilities. Wait, no it won't, because no one loves the Scavenger enough to actually write anything about him, so I guess I'm doing this myself.
  • Flight: The Scavenger ignores terrain, though not when it comes to Line of Sight issues. It also ignores intervening models when declaring a charge, but not when declaring a slam. I'll dedicate an entire section to the things you can do with flight later, but for now this will do.
  • Finisher: An additional die of damage against wounded models. This is what makes the Scavenger an effective assassin, and with a bit of support it will take down most casters you manage to catch.
  • Sprint: It rarely comes into play, but the ability to leave your nest (I'll explain that one later) to take down a solo, and then return to safety can be pretty neat.
That's it, it has no more abilities. It has a single attack that barely clears double digit PS, is about as survivable as a tough solo, and will set you back four points. It's not exactly appealing, so why do I love them so much?
The Scavenger: Assassinations
The Scavenger needs two things in order to work: Immunity to free strikes, and more speed. These abilities are found on several of our casters, but two of them stand out.
  • The Witch Coven of Garlghast: Ghost Walk will clear up the free strikes, and Infernal Machine will handle the speed issues (and remove the need to boost attack rolls). 
This allows you to send in a Scavenger from more than twelve inches away, and several casters will go down to three attacks with Finisher. If you upkeep Infernal Machine on a Scavenger with Admonia, and apply Ghost Walk with your Skarlock, you can actually send in two fully loaded Scavengers, and just about anything will die.
Casting Infernal Machine on a Scavenger, this time not for the +2 MAT, but for the +2 SPD and Terror. Running the Scavenger 18" causing Terror checks to EVERYTHING that got within 1/2 inch of the Scavenger (found here).
-Corpazious
I've never thought about this way of using them, but with sufficient non-fearless models on the other side of the table, this could win you a game. Eighteen inches is a LOT of movement, and many units have average command scores, and a single unit failing could win you the game.
  • Master Necrotech Mortenebra: Spectral Steel will handle the free strikes, and Terminal Velocity will turn the Scavenger into a GOD KILLING MACHINE OF UNHOLY TERROR. 
With three Focus, Recalibration, and Terminal Velocity, the Scavenger will put four attacks on that enemy caster (with re-rolls on everything), and with Overrun it will do it from more than nineteen inches away.
The Scavenger: Free kills for everyone 
Usually when an assassination attempt fails, you'll be in a horrible position, and probably lose an important model (or simply lose outright), but with the Scavenger missile you only really lose that one model. This is like getting a free assassination attempt, and even if his caster survives, he or she will be low on health, and in horrible danger.
The Scavenger: Nesting
When I field Scavengers, I like to find them a nest. Their nest should be located centrally on the table, and grant them cover, since defense twenty Scavengers are almost impossible to hit. With sprint you can leave the nest to feed, and then return to safety, and await the opening you need to take down your opponent.
The Scavenger: Slams
The Scavenger can perform some interesting slams.  I don't think there are any other flying slammers in Warmachine, and there aren't exactly a lot of them in Hordes either. While the Scavenger will need Line of Sight to slam, it has impressive range, and enough MAT to do it reliably. It can slam across enemy models, as long as it can ignore/survive the free strikes (and draw Line of Sight), and with Mortenebra it can do it for free (with additional range and boosted attack rolls against living models).
The Scavenger: Alternate casters
While the Scavenger really appreciates the previously mentioned casters, there are others that could have some fun with the Scavengers:
  • Warwitch Deneghra: Though limited in range, the debuff queen can send in a Scavenger with The Withering and Crippling Grasp up. This allows the Scavenger three attacks with MAT 11 and PS 15, which should kill several casters.
  • Goreshade the Bastard: Shadowmancer allows Goreshade to apply stealth and Dark Shroud to his Battlegroup, which turns Scavengers into light jack versions of Bane Thralls. While he lacks the ability to grant them immunity to free strikes, he has the ability to run them as attrition models.
  • Pirate Queen Skarre: Defense sixteen and armor eighteen can survive a free strike or two, and a PS 16 Scavenger with Dark Guidance up, can take down squishy casters. I would probably leave them at home with her, but several others have claimed success with this setup.
  • Lord Exhumator Scaverous: Telekinesis allows for fourteen inch threat, and Ghost Walk solves the free strike issues. I've placed Scaverous in alternate casters, because he doesn't have the available Focus to turn the Scavenger into an effective assassination piece.
As you can see the Scavenger is far from the useless piece of junk it's made out to be, but I wouldn't recommend it with anyone but Mortenebra or The Coven.
The Scavenger: Summary
The Scavengers are loathed in my meta, and I'm currently taking down two casters for every Scavenger I lose. They strike from miles away, and leave nothing but broken corpses in their wake, while remaining universally underestimated and ignored.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

A lot of excuses...

Well it wasn't that bad. I was having a lot of issues assembling the Leviathans, so it was around two in the morning before I finally fell asleep. About fifteen minutes later a drunken idiot on scooter just managed to avoid killing himself, when he played chicken with a parked car and lost... badly. After the whole mess with the emergency service, the guy seemed to be doing alright, but I was to wound up to sleep. In the end, I think I managed about four hours, and I arrived in Silkeborg with a minor headache. As it turns out, the shop has no coffee machine, and no painkillers, so I prepare for a long day (next time I'll bring my pharmacy and some instant coffee).

Round 1: Terminus Vs. pSkarre; Overrun.
Silkeborg seems to mean Cryx mirror matches, and of course the two Cryx players got to face each other in the first round. To my surprise he was fielding a very nice army of Satyxis (almost exactly like one I'd contemplated running myself, so I had done the math on this build), backed up by two Reapers and two units of Black Ogrun. I had to play very carefully with my Leviathans, to avoid having them pulled in and charged by hordes of Raiders (which would mean a dead Terminus). I was outgunned, outmaneuvered, and in pretty bad shape until he missed the Bile Thrall hiding behind Terminus (teeheee, wings are awesome for more than one reason) and lost half his squad of Raiders on that flank without pulling Terminus away as I think was his plan.

In the end, he had no way of getting to Terminus, no Arc Nodes (he had one, I had one Bane Thrall in range), and no real chance of winning, so he gave me a charge on Skarre. He could probably have played me to a tiebreaker, but he had so many models within range of my purge capability, that it would have been a waste of time. He did exactly what I would have done, and gave me a shot at Skarre, which was very likely to work, but might fail. I've won several games on "sure things" failing, but this one didn't.


Round 2: Terminus Vs. Vindictus; Outflank, Outfight, Outlast.
My headache was getting worse, and since I had to pee three or four times within ten minutes, I began thinking that maybe I should have stayed at home. I was getting a bit feverish as well, and the shop still had no painkillers, but that being said; I just wasn't thinking. I messed up an activation sequence badly, forgot to move a unit to contest a zone, cast the wrong spell with Darragh, and then I forgot about Madelyn Corbeau in the maintenance phase so Terminus was out of range for a gamble (which I do think he could have managed, as I got him to armor 30-something in a last ditch attempt to recover the game).

I was manhandled a bit by the dice as well, but mainly I just played a bad game and lost. I always tell people that blaming the dice is a poor excuse, and I'll stick to that and claim, that had I thought this game through and played my best, I could have won the game with the rolls I received. My opponent was really pleasant though, so I had no issues at all with congratulating her on being the first ever to best my Terminus list (never send a man to do a womans job and all that...).

Edit: I finally found a way I "could" have won this game. I had a Leviathan with a Focus in his back arc, that could have thrown Terminus in the Zone (only used them a couple of times, and never noticed the open fist on the claw today). It was by no means guaranteed to work, but at least I would have had a chance, and nothing could have killed Terminus that round, even prone.


Round 3: Mortenebra Vs. Grim Angus; Overrun.
I'd decided to bring Mortenebra as my secondary list, and as I was out of the race for medals (the good ones anyway) I decided to at least try to learn something, and salvage a bit of the day. I was still feeling poorly, but I just had lunch and a break, so it wasn't to bad. I was feeling pretty cheerful about the game though, because it was the same list I faced last time Mortenebra was up against Grim Angus, and it was the same player, so I knew what I had to look out for this time around.

Exactly as the last time we fought, he mashed most of my army to a pulp, and then took Helldivers & Scavengers to the face. I lost my Stalker to another lapse in concentration, as I forgot to slam Mulg with my Reaper before activating the Stalker, and Stalkers don't survive free strikes from Mulg. In the end a Terminal Velocity Scavenger made four hits of 8-11 damage, and Grim ran out of transfers. I must admit that I'm taking a liking to Mortenebra with the Errata to the Stalkers (though that made no difference here), but now I'm a sad puppy whenever I think about the four Stalkers I've given or traded away. Mortenebra is still to frail for my taste, but I kind of like having her as a secondary list, when Terminus fails me (well... I fail him actually... you know what I mean).


Round 4: Mortenebra Vs. Gorton; Revelation.
My headache was returning with interest, and I was sweating like racehorse. I was matched up against a guy with three losses, while I had a 2-1 score, which made no sense at all, but hey... GRUDGE MATCH! This was my friend I hadn't seen in years, so I decided to let weird matchups slide, and go kick Gorton in the face. In retrospect I should have drawn the game out a bit and given him a chance, because the poor guy just returned from a year long break from Warmachine. He sort of deserved a game where he could relearn some things, but my head was killing me and promptly vetoed that idea.

I'd never faced Gorton before, but heard all kinds of nasty things about him. I won the roll to go first, and crammed my army as far up the field as possible, while castling up to protect Mortenebra from shooting. I'd found in the game before, that having the Scavengers block LoS to Mortenebra worked well, when they were protected by four stealth heavies to stop any rushers, but the shooting here was out of range or failed to hit the high Def. He had to do something, because I would own the flags in round two if he didn't, but Gorton was still way behind, and he moved a couple of jacks just an inch to close. The Reaper pulled in his Wroughthammer Rockram, and dis-armed it. The Slayer was just in range of a Gun bunny, so after he had Spectral Steel applied by Deryliss, he rumbled up there and wrecked it, while getting in line for the punishment to come.

I'll admit that my friend could have used a new set of dice, or maybe a hammer, but due to deployment issues and failing a few critical rolls, he just never stood a chance. I had two Helldivers and a Scavenger ready to finish the job when the Slayer was destroyed, but when the smoke clears from my opponents turn, it's still fully functional. Overrun (Deryliss) on a Scavenger moves the Slayer forward, and Terminal Velocity, Feat, and three Focus on the Slayer means Gorton receives a steel enema.


Final score: 3-1; and I took 6th place (16 players) due to my really poor strength of schedule, but I got to play my friend so it's all good. I think I might have appreciated it more if I had been able to lay my hands on some painkillers to knock the fever down (I'm typing this a couple of hours after returning home, the fever is gone, and I'm feeling fine), but I'm happy I went anyway. I'll try for some analysis tomorrow if I can find the time, but in any case it was great to roll some dice again.
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Monday, April 11, 2011

The Scavenger is... amazing?

Tonight I faced Trolls in my first 50 points game ever, and what a game. I faced Mulg for the first time, and though it was really painful, it was rather funny seeing him wreck two Helljacks in a round. I made some stupid mistakes in deployment, and I payed for it when Grim popped his feat and basically shut down my army for a round.

I tried to minimize the damage, and sacrificed a Harrower to keep my army in fighting shape, but it was a mess when my turn finally came. I lost all three Slayers and my Harrower, taking out 4/5 Helljacks as well as one of the Sirens. I had to finish it right there and then, since I wouldn't last another round.

Accurate portrayal of Grims last moments!
Two Helldivers pop up with lanes to Grim Angus, Mortenebra walks up and feats before casting Terminal Velocity and Spectral steel one Helldiver. The Helldiver charges Grim and rolls triple six on damage... sadly he had a Fury to transfer, but doing 31 damage on a charge with a 3 point model was fun though ultimately pointless.

Second Helldiver gets a Focus from a Siren and charges for 25 damage against ARM17, but misses his second attack. Then Deryliss moves up and moves Spectral Steel to a Scavenger that's just within range of Grim, so with Flight, Terminal Velocity, Finisher, and it's one focus, it charges up and beaks Grim in the face for 29 damage... he makes his Tough check. I buy another attack for my Focus and of course he makes another Tough check...

With only one chance left the last Harrower moves up, Ghost shot to the face, and Grim finally fails his tough check. One more tough check and I would have lost, but for once I had a deserved win, even if it was way to close for my taste. So while the Scavenger didn't actually kill Grim Angus, he should have...

I have to admit that the Scavenger is worth every point in a Mortenebra army. It's a nigh unstoppable homing missile taking out any caster that isn't ARM20+, as long as it has a damage point on it. With two Focus it can do two fully boosted weaponmaster attacks with re-rolls to hit and damage.
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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Scavengers are ugly!

I've put mine together and added some wings from Micro Art Studio (my charger for my digital camera remains missing so no pictures so far), but the legs...



The legs are making me cry. Privateer Press' attempt at sculpting the thing walking on claws failed miserably, and if you turn the legs around they look slightly better but now it looks like it has tiny elf boots on it's feet. The solution so far is to mount them on flying stands, which seems to work fairly well, but every time I look at those feet I cringe. These are the wings I've used for the two Scavengers:


The first set is used for a Scavenger gliding in for a landing, and the second is on a Scavenger diving in for a kill. I'm very pleased with the two models, except of course for the feet. I've searched every available bits box, and I can't find anything that even remotely looks like clawed feet in the appropriate size.
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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Scavengers...

Just ordered two Scavengers. I know they get a lot of heat on the various forums, and to be honest i think they're really expensive for what I get, except with Mortenebra. I probably can't get them in time for a play test, so I'll have to bring them to the qualifiers without any experience running them *gulp*.

The plan is to run them on the flanks, depending on where my opponent deploys his flanking solos, and then hopefully go to town on them. With Terminal Velocity they can assault 12.5" and if they kill their target they can retreat 7" afterward. This will either allow me to take out most solos and retreat to safety, or require my opposition to bunch up in the hopes of getting at my Scavengers with either free strikes or just making sure they're still in range after the Sprint move. This can be exploited by working the Scavengers as a team, or by keeping my Warwitches close by to spray the bunched up models.

The thing is, that even against an undamaged target the Scavenger under Terminal Velocity is rolling 3d6+7 to hit and 3d6+11 damage on a charge, which should take out most normal 5 health solos, and it's doing it without spending any Focus (will probably give it a Focus to make sure I can kill something and get away though, but that's what Warwitch Sirens are for, and they're running on the flanks anyway). If it's something a bit more resilient, I could always shoot it with my Harrower and if it's damaged the Scavenger is rolling 4d6+11 and will take out Dragoons if I give it a Focus to buy another attack.

I had planned for those 8 points to be used for a Leviathan, but after doing a lot of encounters in my head, I ended up with the annoying result, that the things I need to kill either have Stealth or really High DEF, which means that I'd have to dedicate 3+ Focus to a Leviathan in order to get that kill I need (assuming they don't have Stealth and just ignore me). With the Scavengers I can get that kill for no Focus at all, as long as I can get TV up, and I'm probably doing that every round anyway.
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