SMOGCON 2016 – part 2

After High Command a small group gathered for a game of Survive: Escape from Atlantis.

This was good fun with some good opportunity to indulge in a spot of back stabbing.
Following this was Curry and bed.

The next day was High Command tournament day as already described in part 1 (you see – hazy already!) and a bit of chilling out in the room to catch up on some real world work.

Early evening I played my one and only game of Warmahordes against a very affable chap called Andrew Walters (shouts out if you ever find this Andrew). I had bought a few models off Andrew so it seemed like a good idea to have a game too. I played Gunny and Andrew played eHoarluk. I have to say I was totally taken by surprise by the speed of the eHoarluk list and the game was a bit of a walk over. Oh well…. you live and learn and it was good to play a game and see a different Troll list in action.

In the evening we played a couple more board games. Sheriff of Nottingham and Galaxy Trucker.

Both good games, but of the two Galaxy Trucker caught my imagination more. Probably the scientist in me pulled me in. I’ve since acquired the app for my Smart Phone and it’s great gaming concept in a fun and simpleish system.

SMOGCON 2016 – part 1

I’ve been suffering from a heavy bout of real-life-litis recently so no gaming to speak of right now. However, I’m making the effort to post this before I forget.
SMOGCON 2016 was sadly spoiled for me as I had a lot on my mind 😦 Nonetheless it was nice to get away for a bit and play a few games in good company as well as the destroyer of peaceful sleep seen below 😉

The action started with a few games of High Command.

I quite enjoyed this and it is a simple game if a little slow. I played Trolls, won a tournament game, tweaked my deck a bit and met a handful of pleasant chaps so it was time well spent. For the record, and it’s already a bit hazy, the deck seemed to work when using cards that stopped others rushing into territories. The two cards in question were the Troll Sorcerer and Mulg.  In addition I found Sons of Bragg and the Fellcaller to be effective in reducing resource costs to get my guys into the fray. The deck I have made hinges on these cards although the two games I lost I found it was down to VPs in the final count. My last action therefore was to top up my deck with more cards that had VPs assigned to them.

The road of SMOGCON 2016 – part 6

My painting has been nonexistant recently. Very dissappointing and looking unlikely I will have any decent entries to the P3 competition this year.
However, I did manage a 50pt game this evening with Gunny and the Mountain King. Across the table Skorne and a shed load of elite infantry.

In the first turn the forces closed on each other exchanging a few opening shops. By turn two heavier blows were begining to land. The Mountain King and Pygs got stuck into Skorne elites causing a few casaulties. Using the Mountain King’s new found Assault ability I was even able to direct a couple of sprays at the enemy Warlock.

Sadly the Mountain King was smashed by Tiberion in the 3rd turn and things were begining to look a bit desperate for the Trolls. However a the Skorne Warlock was exposed and Gunny and the plucky Trolls set about raining shots on him. The Pygs and Highway Men enjoyed the most success and the two Death Star shots from the Highway Men took him to within a box if his life.
Looking at the table and the clock we decided it has been a good game and called it an honorable draw. The Mountain King was a little more effective with Assault but as fragile as ever to the enemy big hitters. Nonetheless I enjoyed using him and I hope he will get more table time now that he is a little better.

The road to SMOGCON – part 5

I decided to play a different list this week – tier 4 50pt Doomshaper. This is a list I have always to play particularly with loads of Runeshapers as I love the models. Across the table 50pts of Cephalyx mercenaries.

I literally just chucked the models on the table with a couple of substitutes having not prepared in any way. A quick read through the cards and the strategy was fairly clear. The Trolls would need to block up to make good use of the armour buff from the Krielstone. There would be further buffing of the armour of the beasts through the Earthborn’s animus and the walls gained through Janissa and Doomshaper’s tier 4 benefit. The Runeshapers would protect the flanks and with Rockhammer they had a decent attack to clear the horde of Cephalyx infantry.

The two forces closed on each other and it became clear this was going to be a war of attrition. The Cephalyx struck first nearly killling Mulg and this put the Trolls on the back-foot. They were able to retaliate taking out the first Cephalyx heavy. The Runeshapers threw a load of Rockhammers into the advancing horde causing a good deal of mayhem.

After these initial exchanges I felt that the Trolls were marginally ahead but the beasts, especially Mulg, had taken some pubishment. The next strike would be crucial and it was some relief when Mulg wallopped the other Cephalyx heavy putting the Trolls in a good position.

At this point my opponent threw in the towel feeling that it was just a matter of time before one of the Dire Trolls laid hands on his ‘caster. It had been an entertaining game and I am pleased to have played a list I have always been interested in.
Sadly I doubt I will have time to paint the required models for SMOGCON, but I certainly want to play this list again. The Runeshapers did a great job of protecting the flanks and the buffed Troll brick in the centre was durable with decent counter-punch potential. Doomshaper didn’t feature much in the game and his spell list means he is much better suited to fighting another Hordes army. For me the find of the game was the Earthborn. I really like the animus and the way it interacts with scenery elements. I think adding one of these guys is a high priority.

The road to SMOGCON – part 4

Second game with Gunny against Legion again but this time eVayl. Same list as the last game but this time Highwaymen instead of Scattergunners and I put my tier two trenches down.

The Legion list was small and elite including an Angelius, Zuriel, Typhon, 2 x Forsaken and 2 x Deathstalker. Looking at eVayl’s spell list this was going to be a very maneuverable force with lots of stealth and possible assassination threats. I decided to go with the usual strategy of rushing the burrowers forward to tie-up the centre ground and then look to punch a hole for the heavies and Gunny to assassinate at range.
First round went as planned but the Legion redirected making it harder for the Burrowers to get a substantial number of attacks on one beast.

The Highywaymen ‘water-falled’ on the Angelius but only managed a couple of points of damage. The Burrowers also failed to make an impact on Typhon and Zuriel. To be fair my dice were poor but this meant I had lost the initiative.
The Legion beasts ripped into my Infantry causing heavy casaulties leaving me in trouble for the scenario  and opening up the table for the Legion to attack my Battlegroup.
In my next turn I took two (somewhat diminished) death star shots from my Highwaymen which in hind-sight would have been a better option in the previous turn. I also had a go using the battlegroup to drop some templates near eVayl using Dozer’s Bank Shot to gain more control over the scatter. This tactic clearly has merit and I can see it being very good in the right circumstance. I do need to plan the activation order carefully to make the most of it and remember all the buffs and synergies.
From here in the Legion played a game of hit and run and Gunny failed to get any traction in inflicting serious damage. In fact it was looking like I would fail to kill a single model so I turned Gunny on a Deathstalker to avoid this embarrassment only to allow Typhon to rear-end him into oblivion.

Another good learning experience. Although I didn’t do well I was faster and used more of the aspects of the Gunny list that should make it a good one. I need to make some trench templates – although they had little effect in this game I can see them being useful in others. I also made the mistake of putting my objective in one trench meaning there was less space for models – must remember not to do that next time.

The road to SMOGCON 2016 – part 3

Highwaymen in progress. Took a while to construct these guys. I was a little disappointed with the variation across the models. There are basically 4 sculpts: 3 x 3 and the leader. Nonetheless the sculpts are good for plastics with a good amount of well defined detail. There were a few mold lines to clear up and gaps to fill but nothing too horrendous. I’ve taken the trouble to do it properly for these guys as too often I’m a bit lazy about this.
First step is scraping or cutting the worst away with a scalpel. I’ve then taken to using a bit of wet and dry wire wool to achieve a smooth finish. After this my usual black primer with an azimuthal white. Note the darker undercuts in pics 2 and 3. This picks out any remain imperfections that need attention. In pic 4 an awful mold line was discovered and needed some quite aggressive tidying up to get to the siultuation in pic 5. Once these are gone another light dusting of white finished them off.

The road to SMOGCON 2016 – part 2

First practice game was a 35pt affair vs  eAbby. This was going to be a refamiliarisation exercise rather than a competitive game, so I took Gunny and what is pretty much my old sub-par list with Dygmies + Fellcaller, Scattergunners + UA, Bomber and Impaler. I used to take two Bombers, but as I have a semi-painted and built Dozer and Smigg they made the list instead. It was probably a tier 2 list with minor benefits I didn’t take, but I’m not too worried about that at this stage. The eventual plan is to upgrade to 50 via max Highwaymen and a Blitzer but I’m keeping it small and familiar to begin with. The Scattergunners should probably go too, possibly replaced by a War Wagon or 2nd Blitzer, I may even try the Mountain King with Gunny ….. but I digress.

eAbby was accompanied by a Carnivean, Scythean, Raek, Shredder, Swordsmen, 2 x Shepard and 2 x Deathwatcher. I’ve played these models before and always found them troublesome, especially the heavy beasts. However we rolled a scenario that favoured a backfield shooty Warlock which at least meant I didn’t need to worry about this aspect. I got first turn and deployed as seen below.

I’ve learnt that it is best to have a rough strategy rather than just ‘going for it’ and improvising. With this list there are basically three waves of attack. The Dygmies go in first with the intention of occuyping the middle ground early and posing a fairly credible threat to anything centre board turn 2. If they can hang in there for a turn or two the Scattergunners can get in and start spraying without fear of hurting the Pygs via their UA. It is likely they will get get tied up too turn 3. However, by now Gunny and the Heavies should be in a good position to start laying down the big blast templates and with the help of Gunnies feat they should enjoy protection from blast damage in turn 3 or 4. Finally, all being well, it should be possible for Gunny and his Heavies to find the gap needed in the mid to late game to knock out the opponent’s warlock.

The game itself roughly followed this plan but could have gone either way. The burrowing Pygs failed miserably to made any headway in attacking the Legion heavies but I did at least learn a new trick of giving them Snipe via Gunny to give them the range needed to attempt this. Thankfully they did do a reasonable job of jamming the centre ground allowing the Scattergunners and Fellcaller to get some reasonable sprays in.

At this stage Abby popped feat and the Legion beasts gained Flight. The Carnivean came down one flank and the Scythean straight at my Battlegroup putting Dozer and Smigg down to a single box. This was now the Trolls moment to try and punch a hole through to Abby and assassinate her. Gunny managed to knock her down with Critical Devastation, although she was carrying enough transfers to probably keep her safe. Nonetheless the remaining Scattergunners and Pygs did their best to finish her and a cheeky Arcing Fire shot from Dozer and Smigg put some hurt on her. The Bomber bravely stepped away from the Scythean, riding out the free-strike, but even his two boosted bombs were not quite enough.

Unfortunately I had left Gunny dangerously close to the Scythean and I must say I thought this meant game over. Somehow Gunny survived the onslaught giving him another bite at the cherry with the heavily wounded Abby crouched in a wood. The Trolls firstly attacked Abby’s beasts that were transfer targets successfully removing the Raek but leaving a badly injured Shredder.

Gunny just needed to escape the Scythean…..
Earlier in the game we had been disussing how the Bomber might do this and realised a friendly Push power attack would do exactly this and stop free-strikes to boot. The Impaler circled behind Gunnbjorn and did the deed freeing him up to have a go at Abby. I’m pleased to say he had a superb hit roll followed by a decent damage roll and Abby was a goner.

Dead chuffed to win, especially against arguably the best Warmahordes player presently at my club. Having said that we did do a lot of mutual coaching and the 35pt game took a good three hours to get through. Clearly there is no way the games at SMOGCON are going to be like this so regular practice including timed turns will be essential. I’m not looking to achieve a placing at SMOGCON but I would like to be a credible opponent.

So, main three learning points:

1) Dozer and Smigg are very nice. The Arcing fire is a nice addition to the Gunnbjorn assassination gunline tactic.
2) Don’t forget the option to push a model out of melee: friendly model or foe!
3) Snipe works on units as well as beasts. This is potentially good with Pygs and will be even better with Highwaymen.

Lets hope its onwards and upwards for Gunny and co. from here! 🙂

The road to SMOGCON 2016 – part 1

I checked the SMOGCON website yesterday and it told me there were 54 days to go. While I am quite excited about attending what is currently the only tournament I make the committment for, I am hopelessly underprepared. I’ve barely played Warmahordes since the last SMOGCON and my plans to up my painting have come to nothing – in fact my painting standard has dipped since last year.
Although I’ve left this late there is still time to get myself in reasonable shape. I’ve decided to set myself three targets following on from the experience last year:

1)  Enter a Warmahordes tournament which will require rehearshing three lists.

2) Learn High Command and play a couple of tournaments in this lower key system.

3) Prepare a couple of entries for the P3 competition but avoid making this the focus of the weekend.

Thinking about the fairly tight time scale and my limited preparation time, I’ve decided to go back to familiar territory and concentrate on Trolls. Reading Battle College and the PP forums the Troll meta has evolved since I last studied them. Particularly noteworthy is the improvement in choices for Gunnbjorn via Dozer and Smigg and Highwaymen, the minor buff the Mountain King recieved and finally Calandra’s Elemental list which seems to be favourite. I’m also quite interested in doing a Runeshaper list with Doomshaper but I’m far more familiar with Grim who I’ve enjoyed playing. Gunnbjorn will of course be my number one and I will consider which two of the other three I use nearer the time. I’ll paint the new models I need for these lists and if any look promising they will become my  P3 entries. Of course it goes without saying I’ll be using Trolls in High Command too, and just for a giggle I’ll use the same three Warlocks in this system too. 🙂

Without further ado I dug out Gunnbjorn for a 35 point this evening…….

Kromac vs. pMorghoul – 35pts Deathclock

Another Deathclock game this time against pMorghoul. This time we were more generous with the clock taking an hour. This made for a more relaxed game but forced an exciting ending.

In this game I kept pretty much the same list I’m practising and across the table was a Bronzeback, Titan and a few heavy infantry. Pretty much a staple Skorne list but I was pleased not to see Kharn. In the early exchanges my Woldstalkers made reasonable progress down the flanks while Ghetorix and the Stalker held the middle ground. The Skorne list was tier 4 and this allowed it to gain extra movement toward the objectives so I gave away 3 control points early. This put the pressure on and I had to contest objectives to avoid a fast whitewash. I somewhat reluctantly pushed most of the force at the objectives but managed to get Ghetorix in a decent position to have a pop at Mourghoul.

Unfortunately I was not aware of Mourghoul’s feat and this stopped Kromac from being able to force Ghetorix into making the attacks needed for the kill. To add insult to injury Mourghoul slipped away in his turn using Parry and moved into a dangerous mid-table position. However by this time the clock has nearly run down and the Skorne only had 3 seconds on the clock. Kromac has 5 minutes and this proved just enough for him to beast out and get into Morghoul for the win.

A close game that benefited in the latter stages from the Deathclock. In this game I learnt the importance of getting bodies on the objectives and I have sat the heros of the game were my Swamp Gobbers who successfully tied up the Bronzeback and stopped it wrecking Ghetorix. Their defence of 15 is a real pain to deal with!

       

Circle Deathclock Action

Played a 50pt Deathclock game against Legion this weekend. I played the Kromac list I would like to make my staple with :

Kromac 

Ghetorix

Stalker

Gorax

Stones with Keeper

Stones

2 x Woldstalkers

Lord of Feast

Across the table was Thagrosh and assorted nasty Legion filth. We played the first scenario from the Steamroller 2015 pack but the game was decided by ‘Caster kill.

In the early action the forces closed and a pair of Legion Deathstalkers showed their value picking off the best part of a unit of Woldstalkers. On the other side of the board a unit of Woldstalkers, backed up by the Lord of the Feast, returned the favour knocking out a unit of Swordsmen. In the middle of the table the heavies were squaring off for the scrap that would likely decide the game. The first couple of turns passed very quickly as we were both keen not to run down our clocks – the pace of the game was good. 

In the following couple of turns the Legion initially took the upper hand getting into the scoring zone and leaving the Circle beasts tangled up on the edge. However, a viscous counter attack lead by the Ghetorix saw a Carnivean taken down and a Seraph and Scythean beaten up. Here I made a fatal error though. Kromac moved into the back arc of the Scythean a fair distance away. It didn’t occur to me that Kromac could have used reach to put in the final few boxes of damage needed to take th Scythesn down and of course he was now in reach range for the Scythean to turn around and get some Attacks in. Sadly for Kromac this is exactly what happened and a potential winning situation turned into a bloodbath for the hapless Circle Warlock.

It was a good game played at excellent pace thanks to the clock. At the end I had about 10 minutes of my hour left and this would have been enough to secure the win if Kromac had not messed up. My opponent also forgot to use Thagrosh’s feat to bring the Carnivean back so we were both guilty of an apalling howler. All good fun though and looking forward to more timed turn practice in the future.