Painting progress part 2!

My painting for the big Swedish warmachine tournament Iron Moot is coming along well. Today, I finished the kithkar (well, the base is still left, but anyways)! Only thing left now are the whelps, so that my Mountain king can spawn them!

Mr Pink and Ms Derp

Painting progress

So what is this now? Circle. I bought some second hand a time ago. Now Im trying out some inking on them. I think the skin turned out good. The warders are also coming along. Two are finished, and the other three are half done.

Munich gaming!

My brother and Nighy with me on a beer break

A weekend or two ago, I was in Munich to watch my uncle run the marathon and to do some tourism. I took the opportunity to check out if there was any chance of testing the local warmachine/hordes meta. And there was. I got good response on page5.de and therefore packed a 50pts calandra army:

Calandra
Bomber, mauler, pyre troll, slag troll, runebearer
Full champs, min kriel stone+ua, max burrowers
Fell caller

We headed over to FUNtainment for Thursday night gaming and were greeted by Nighty and the other guys there. The atmosphere and gaming room was really nice in such a central part of the town. We also had time to take some beer breaks. 

 

Keeping it together in the centre is key. Everything
under stars crossed. 

All in all i managed to almost squeeze in three games on that Thursday afternoon. First one quick warm up vs my brother and eMakeda. I lost, as calandra dies when you look at her. And also molik karn.

The second game was also against a skorne player. He fielded Mordikar, along with a Mammoth, Nihilators, Ferox, Cetrati and a Snipe-bot. The game looked to go in my favour, although my Burrowers fled to aoes from the mammoth. As we played incursion, I managed to head forward with my champs screening calandra. The game was looking to go in my direction when he got of a good assassination attempt from the cetrati as I couldn't get rid of the last one. Calandra died clinging to the central tree/flag. 

The protectorate set up.
The judicator tried its flame thrower a bit

Mosh pit madness. Grinding is everything

The third game of the thursday night was against a Protectorate player with a really striking army. He played a fun list for the evening, fielding eSeverius with a Judicator, Reckoner, some support, Aiana and Holt, daughters of the flame and a Revenger. It turned ot to be a lot of grinding. Not having an impaler in my army really hurt, as my 8" bombardment meant eSeverious could feat to remove my blocking Burrowers and let the Judicator end my Bomber and severly hurt my Mauler. But I bit back and killed the judicator. We didn't actually play the game through, but it felt like I had the upper hand in the end, with his only threat, the reckoner, standing in the wreckage of the judicator and not being able to reach anything, while my pyre, slag and three champs were still alive. A really nice opponent and a very fun game!

Grinding, again

But the gaming in Munich did not end there. We were invited to Nighty for a Saturday evening brawl and gladly accepted. I got to see how a real German lives, drank home brewed Mead and a good time was had by all. I also got another game against a skorne player. This time, it was against Voldo. Or I mean, pMorghul. The grinding began. I really used stars crossed and befuddle to my advantage and was looking to come out on top when he got of a run with the bronze back towards calandra. Due to stars crossed, she lived his attacks. But the willbreaker ended it all, by puppet mastering a kriel stone scribe who ended Calandra. 

It was really nice to get to meet some new players and trying out my style of play versus other metas. It felt okay, especially since I played a list I'm not really comfortable with. I still find Calandra very tricky but really like her abilities and the challenge to be as far up the field as possible, while still staying alive. I feel I managed ok, and will continue to build on her list for coming tournaments. Thanks again to all the nice people we met down there, and especially to Nighy for the warm welcome and hospitality! 

Battle of Westidge 2013

This years BOW was hosted in the heart of Västerås, Swedens fifth city. 30 people met up to push miniatures and roll dice on tables.

The steamroller torunament was 6 rounds, 50 pts and deathclock was used. I chose to go with Jarl and eMadrak.

Jarl Skuld
Mulg, Bomber, Impaler, Runebearer
Fell Caller
Max kriels+ua+2 cabers, max fenns+ua
Min kriel stone+ua

eMadrak
Slag troll, pyre troll, impaler, runebearer
Fell caller, stone scribe chronicler
Max champs, max kriels+ua+3cabers
Max pyg burrowers, max krielstone+ua

Game 1
The first game paired me with a menoth player, fielding Fiora and a Judicator along with some shield and spear guys.
I went with Jarl. The game was over quite fast. Thinking i was safe, i did not use the kriel stone my round one. So his turn two was a fantastic show in judicator efficiency. The stone in the kriel stone unit was the only part of that unit left on my turn two.

I went for broke and tried for an assassination. Needing a crit 14 on three dice with the impaler. Didnt get it. That was that.

Game 2
Irusk faced me with a death star, black dragon ifp, great bears, uhlans and a spriggan. Jarl met the challange. We played the into the breach scenario, and i deployed my kriels to my right, against the circle, and my fenns to my left, to face the uhlans. The rest went in the middle.

We ran everything up and he got my fenns to flee hid round two, six died and i got no toughs. I found out after the game that i can no quarter while fleeing and activate them normaly, good to know.

He had positioned things i wanted dead (joe) out of reach from jarl, so i cleared out the circle to start scoring points. Tje uhlans had charged my fenns through fog and did not hit them on def 14 with -2 to hit. I killed most of his ifp with the bomber, jarl and kriels. Mulg smashed uhlans.

His turn, and he has his deathstar, spriggan and greatbears left. The spriggan goes for mulg. Misses the charge attack, but probably wouldnt have killed him anyway. I realize that if I kill the spriggan, I win. My turn, Mulg kills spriggan. He has nothing left to kill Mulg, and tries to dominate the flag within charge range of mulg. Irusk ate rune club.

Game 3
Vs eGrim, slag, ww, blitzer, warders, burrowers. He starts and moves up to toe in both chemical reaction zones. I move up and feat to negate his burrowers. He does almost nu damage his round 2 due to clouds. I unjam my fenns with jarl move up to jam him and get a tough roll on one of the warders. I feel good and tactical supremacy with jarl into the forrest by my objective.

Egrim shows what he can do. The war wagon knocks me down by shooting the objective. EGrim mage sights and mortalities jarl. He died to the shooting.

Game 4
Fiora again. This time with a judicator, double reckoner, double templar and some support. I chose jarl. Because this time, Jarl was out for revenge. I moved up the field and activatef the krielstone. He did not kill tomuch of my things and i jammed him and started scoring points on the scenario by killing his objective and dominating the circle. He cleared the judicator and toes in the zone. I almost kill the judicator but a double one from the caber leaves him at two boxes.

He runs in to jam my bomber and hit him with a templar. The bomber lives and takes help from a caber to destroy the knocked down templar. Jarl gets to plink in the last damages to the judicator, and i win on scenario.

Game 5
I face of jarl against eHexeris with a bronzeback, gladiator, shaman, double drakes and slingers. Plus support of course. We play outflank, i get second and after we both move up and jarl misses the gladiator i feat to get me a round of stillness. He gets of black spot on my fenns, and kill three with double spray. One kriel falls.

My turn, i clear the left circle and walk in to dominate. I clear the left c... No. Hyper agressive. Damn. I have left a packman trail of kriel warriors, but got rid of borh drakes. And not enough blocking the BB way to Mulg. He clears out much of my things. And kills Mulg.

What to do? I try to clear my left circle but just dont have the punch. I realize i am losing. Fortunately for me he times out when i have an impaler and jarl left.

Game 6
pCaine fields a stormwall and a lot of gynmages, on foot and on horse. I let eMadrak see the field once, and with minimum arm 17 under the stone, not counting the burrowers, his shooting was not very painfull. I get charges of with the blood furied pygs round 2, the put down some damage on the storm wall. I shoot with what i have and feat with madrak to try and finish the storm wall of. He lives with only a few boxes. Madrak and the slag troll really does damage. I dominate my flag.

He then moves up and feats, getting avout two thrids of my army. Caine kills only a few things, I realize he cannot win on attrition, and i start grinding.

He gets a decent go at madrak, but misses the last shot at dice minus seven, needing four damage an no tough. Eventually, i win when he times out.

Summary
Going 4-2 was ok, but i really could have made it more interesting by using the kriel stone round one. Lesson learned. I also learned that the war wafon likes casters next to objectives. Those two mistakes cost me the games i lost. Of course I could have lost them anyway, but given it a fair chance.

It was a really nice tournament with beautiful terrain. I really liked that many of the boards were themed. Also, the last game was the second game ever I played eMadrak. He was fun!

Stars crossed!

I commute. I have time to do this stuff.
Under the stars crossed, the percentages are presented and plotted in the photo.

So what do you need to hit?

Needed to hit value along with the percent to hit under stars crossed and not:

4: SC: 80.1% 2D6: 91.7%

5: SC: 64.4% 2D6: 83.3%

6: SC: 47.7% 2D6: 72.2%

7: SC: 31.9% 2D6: 58.3%

8: SC: 19.4% 2D6: 41.7%

So, Mat 6 against 12 drops from 72-48% pretty sweet.

The Mountain King Chronicles! Part 3: pMorghoul

This third chapter is long overdue, but now it is time to tell the tale about the mountain defeating the mammoth, and how arm 23 is high. Because it is. Anyways, I had made lists with my casters to field the king at 50pts and my opponent got to roll to see what caster would be taking the field. EOscar rolled a three, and I fielded:

pMadrak

Skorne round 1, everything moves forward

EBDT, Mauler, Mountain king, rune bearer
Janissa
Min krielstone+elder, Max Kriel Warriors+2 Cabers

The skorne opposition (i think):

pMorghoul

Gladiator, Mammoth, Shaman, Brute, Krea/Drake,

Agonizer, Marketh, Swamp gobbers, Willbreaker, Extoller
Max Beast handlers, Min Beast handlers

We rolled the fire support scenario, two flags and two objectives. The scenario would not really come into

After my first turn

play this game. Don't remember who went first, but I think it was old Morgs. He advanced forward, and I did the same, dumping everything on the stone and using the rune bearer to put sure foot on my Maddy.

Not having any rush, and due to pMorgs feat, I knew he would have the first strike. I tried to position my kriels so that something would have to remove one or two of them before my beasts could be reached. Having them behind a wall and sure foot up. They were sitting at a comfortable def 16 arm 22, for the MK, Arm 23.

After my turn under Morgs feat, notice the similarity to the
photo above.

His next turn was moving forward, I think the Mammoth moved in front of my kriels, or killed some. As they were only a road block, their deaths were not noted. pMorgs went out in front and feated. My next turn I only moved forward, not using fury would make it to hard accomplishing anything. Better to only take his charge.

The skorne round after, the Mammoth went ahead and killed off kriels. But the rest of the army only positioned themselves. On my turn, I offed the mammoth with the remaining kriels, the mauler and the EBDT. I left the MK back under the sure foot and with arm 23.

His counter charge from the beasts nearly killed the MK. But he survived, so did my other beasts. Things were looking really good for me. On my turn, the mauler frenzied on the ebdt or the other way around. One fury too much hurts. However, Madraks feat together with the stonestrenght and carnage makes MK happy. He killed the raider and gladiator. I realised that if I made no major mistakes, this would be a game in the win basket.

After some rounds more, pMorghouls skull was bashed in by the Mountain King. It felt like a safe win in the end, but a few things could have really altered the game. If the mammoth would get a critpitch on the EBDT, he would live, if the MK would not have survived the attack, it would have been harder. But this time the dice gods favoured me. I also think that the Mammoth was rather wasted on my kriels and that my opponent played a bit to defensively. But at the same time, you don't want to attack def16 arm22 troll heavies and leave them living. Bricky brick brick.

Voldo, ehh, I mean Morghoul is in a tricky position

Björnmaskinen, or what I learned in Västerås

Last weekend, a car full of the finest Uppsala gamers went to bring the pain to our old western neighbours in Västerås. Västerås, known for almost ABBA, is home to some friendly people who like to host tournaments. This time, four games at 35 pts with a 42min death clock was the format. I was thinking of only bringing one list, but on the car ride there, in my mind two lists would somehow be favourable. The two lists I brought were

Jarl

Jarl has fielded to rid the world of Harby!

Mauler, Impaler, Pyre troll, Runebearer
Max Fennblades+Ua
Min Champs
Fell caller

Calandra
Mauler, Storm troll
Max Champs
Janissa
Max Burrowers
Fell caller
Min Krielstone + Ua

As soon as I started playing with Jarl, I realised that choosing to play with two lists was a mistake. Jarl is super fun. Magic bullet is awesome. Unfortunately, I had not packed the kriel warriors that I wanted to run with Jarl, so the fenns were chosen instead.. The tournament went rather bad for me, I went 1-3 in the games, but I really felt like I should have won two more of the games. What is important to take with me is what I learned from the losses and the win.

Game 1
Harbringer was the opposition. Two big canons, the avatar, a monk, another stealth solo, support. My Mauler got shot of the table in the first turn. I managed to bring Harby down to a low level, but the chance wise I was never really close. My fenns had a hard time hitting the high def solos, and even though I magic bulleted them some times, Harby just brought them back. Kriels would have been nice, as the combined melee attacks would have had a better chance at hitting the solos. The most important thing I learned is that the big canons are fire type damage. Pyre animus is apparently more awesome than I thought.

Game 2

Harby had a smaller force with her, enough to subdue Jarl.

eHexaris together with Tiberion, a Bronzeback, a Gladiator and support fielded themselves in front of Jarl.
eOscar who commanded the forces, almost handed me the game by charging tiberion out of Hexaris control and let me dominate his zone on his turn 2. Jarl had rolled very, high damage on Tiberion, so he was not hard to kill. It was close in the end, as my Mauler had much trouble hitting a Ashen veiled Gladiator. Hexaris got to bite the bullet and died. What I can pick up from this game is to never get locked in to a strategy, my Mauler was probably in charge range of the the enemy objective and killing it would have won me the game immediately.

Game 3
After lunch, bacon was served. Midas got to face Calandra. The game went really well for me. Star crossed saved my mauler, who proceeded to one round two road hogs (feat and rage). But I had left Calandra too exposed without bulled dodger on her. Mistake. She died to the undead pigs Midas summoned. Bullet dodger would possibly have saved her. Also, she really need a runebearer.

Game 4
The grudge match of death. My brother fielded his eMakeda and loaded the Molik missile. Jarl loaded his two guns and sighed. I got first turn and ran up. Makeda ran up as well, exposing herself a bit too much. I cleared the way from nihilators with two magic bullets on the same targets, due to tough. Then the fennblades charged. Four of them got in on her, and three hit. It wasn't enough to kill her, and I moved the rest of my stuff up the field and had Jarl behind a line of champs that stood behind six fennblades in turn.

Boom, Head shoot! Molik Missile straight to Jarl

Turns out, eMakedas feat and nihilators clear up fenns easily. The Molik Missile fired onto one of the champs, killing him and sidestepping to reach Jarl. GG. Two things I could have done better. Feat protectively, denying charge lanes, and not move up so far with Jarl. It was also really close that a nihilator berserked Makeda to death, but needing 10s to kill was not something that the dice gods allowed today.

Even though it could have gone better for me, it was a really nice tournament and I hopefully will go there again soon!