Retribution of Scyrah/Final Fantasy XIII

This is not totally related to Circle Orboros, but I thought I'd share it anyway. For some time now I've been eager to convert and paint a Myrmidon. There's something about the Retribution that I really like and I've been having crazy thoughts about turning a myrmidon jack into a Final Fantasy XIII-esque monster/robot. (If you want to get a picture of what I'm going for just visit the Final Fantasy wiki and search for monsters like Sacrifice and Taxim.)
I started out by buying the heavy warjack kit (duh!?!) and assembling the main parts of the body. I wanted it to look kind of weird and twisted (like the Taxim monster) so I added pieces of bark on the arms and the left shoulder pad.

 I also added a couple of small details on the armor plate between his legs. Hrm.

 Very rocky and strange looking fists.

 The blades are magnetized so that I (if I ever play Retribution) can use it as either one of the three warjacks.

Ready for painting! 

I'm thinking about adding some other stuff to it as well to make it look like something from the Final Fantasy series even more. I think I'll have a go with the arc nodes, but we'll see...

On to that awesome Thermal Blade! :)

The official Baldur T4 Kill count

I'm going to count all the games I play with Baldur's Tier 4 list. I'll update this post after every game and keep the score at the top of the post. I'll also list all the warcasters/warlocks I play against and note whether it was a win, draw or loss. I'm not an expert player and I'm not convinced I've built the ultimate Baldur T4 list. I just want to see how it works for me. I realise I'm sticking my neck out with this entry. Some of the people I play with are going to read this and make an effort beating this list to raise the lost score. That's exactly what I want. The funniest games are the really tough ones and I want to see how the list holds in a competitive environment. So... expect the 'Lost' score to hit the ceiling. :)

Won 6

Lost 0

Draws 0

Trollbloods - Chief Madrak Ironhide (Win)
Trollbloods - Grim Angus (Win)
Protectorate of Menoth - High Exemplar Kreoss (Win)
Minions - Calaban the Gravewalker (Win)
Retribution of Scyrah - Lord Vyros (Win)
Chief Madrak Ironhide (Win)

Music for painting pt II

I still remember the first time I heard Mogwai. It was at a home party where people would bring their own records and take turns DJ'ing. I brought Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. Suddenly this guy appears with two ep's and the moment he starts playing I'm speechless. It was obvious that - whatever it was - was going to be among my favourite bands. This was back in '98 and the 'no education=no future" ep had just been released.

I'm not going to waste your time (or mine) by trying to describe or categorize their music. I wouldn't be able to anyway. I'll just say they're amazing. Give them a shot, if you haven't heard them before.

Mogwai - Travel is Dangerous


Mogwai - Stanley Kubrick

Guilt trip!

It's been ages since my last blog entry and I've not painted nearly as much as I'd hope during the past weeks. I have been able to squeeze a few games in between all the stuff that goes on in life. I've tried Baldur's Tier 4 on 35 pts and I have to say I'm quite impressed. So far I've not lost a single game and, to be honest, none of them gave me much trouble. The only things I keep missing at 35 pts are the Druids of Orboros and a Druid Wilder. Counter magic can be essential against spell weaving casters and a Wilder is great for balancing Fury. With clever positioning and planning it's possible to use the Shifting Stones for removing Fury. (They don't have to activate to do it either!)

Ok, time for some serious guilt tripping here. I have loads of miniatures that need color. I have been thinking about prohibiting myself from buying any more miniatures until I'm fully painted. Good idea? Well, if I did, I wouldn't be playing Baldur's Tier 4 now. ;)

This is awful. Kromac has been jumping between the gaming table and the painting table for some time now. And he's still wearing nothing much but his undercoat. At least Cassius has been assembled and undercoated since this pic was taken. 

Green skin? Yes. Wicked women with pointy ears and spears simply has to be available in green. Especially if they come bursting out of a forest on white wolves. 

Well, even if they don't come bursting out of the forest on wolves... 

A full unit of Bloodtrackers - led by the awsome Nuala. Don't worry. She'll be green as well, in a not too distant future. 

 A Blackclad hanging out with a fellow Druid - who is a proud leader of a unit of the infamous Woldshrimps. This unit is actually my second unit of shrimps and it's done now. My Baldur T4 list is fully painted! :)

 The Reeves has got a unit attachment, a Reeve Hunter buddy and some undercoat since this was taken.

 

My second unit of Druids.

It's obvious I've got some serious work to do. Well, I've made some coffee and I'm ready to get right at it. I'm going to put a finishing touch on my Wold Guardian and then it's Kromac's turn.

WarmaHordes Tournament in Oslo in June - prelude pt III

Some might believe this will be the first time I bring the Circle to Oslo to play. It isn't.

WarmaHordes Tournament in Oslo - prelude pt II

An additional message to the players in Oslo:

I'm coming to get you! :D

WarmaHordes Tournament in Oslo in June - prelude

There are two tournaments in Norway in June, and I thought I'd go there to check out the norweigan WarmaHordes community. And wreck some havoc with my beloved Circle army. :D Needless to say, it's about time to start the psychological warfare to soften up the norweigans...

The text reads: "Let's see if Norway can do do something well besides skiing."


One of the tournaments is 35 pts and the other one is 15. Both is SR2011, so I'm expecting some great scenario play. I'm pretty sure about what warlocks to play but I haven't finished any lists yet. I'll get back to you on that one.

Circle Orboros on CNN

I don't know what to say here really. Some people have complaints about eKayas tiers, especially in larger games. I can see why. As all of you know, she's great with her beasts. She can advance deploy them and give them Stealth. Fine. To whine about it on PP's forum is one thing, but to alert CNN is overreacting. Check for yourselves.

Wurmwood

I've been hesitant about painting the latest Circle warlock ever since I saw the first picture of it. I'd say it's probably the nicest miniature in the game, and I wouldn't want to ruin it with my "whatever-looks-good-on-the-tabletop-is-ok"-mentality.

I happen to have a long time best friend who is a professional painter. I could probably have talked him into painting it for me, but then I would have gone from 'fear of painting' to 'fear of playing'. I'd never dream of carrying around a professionally painted miniature like that in my army bag. I wouldn't expose it to the calamities of the gaming table either.

So... I went on and started painting. I was very eager to paint Wurmwood, so I started with it last weekend. It was a pleasure to paint and even though I know my friend would have done it so much better, it feels good to be finished with it. I hope to assemble and basecoat Cassius tonight. Then I'll start building up my courage.

To be continued...

A clash with Khador

Gaming table set. Miniatures deployed. Dice ready. Big mug of coffee already in hand. Let's fight!

Kaya the Wildborne peered across the grassy field, enjoying the early morning breeze. The sun was coming up but the air seemed to be getting colder. The clouds in the horizon had been getting thicker and darker for a couple of hours. Strangely enough, it looked like it was about to snow.
She closed her eyes and felt comforted and strengthed by the presence of her beasts. Then she realised there was something else disturbing her senses. An unpleasant presence, steadily growing stronger. "It's her", she thought. She opened her eyes just in time to see her adversary come out of the forest, right across the field. It was Sorsha, accompanied by two large warjacks and a number of troopers - all of the wrapped in a cloud of snow.

eSorsha
Juggernaut
Destroyer
Widowmakers
Grey Lord Ternion
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Winter Guard
- Winter Guard Officer & Standard Bearer
Kovnik Grigorovich
Yuri the Axe
Manhunter

The first turn we simply advanced towards each other. Widowmakers stayed in the forest, getting ready to fire at anything brave enough to get within 14"

 "For the Motherland!"

"For the.. trees, stones and runes and stuff...oh, and for the wurm. Yeah, for the wurm!"  

The Khador force seemed very eager to get it on. Even the Widowmakers came strolling forward. The Mortar kept firing its rounds and a deviating blast killed two druids.

I Kaya kept her beasts in a tight leash, waiting for the right moment to unleash them. The druids did a great job keeping the rest of the army concealed. The Stalker warped Prowl and Kaya put Occultation on the Feral.

The khadorians made a last attempt to shot away as much Circle models as possible, but only managed to kill a couple of druids.

The Feral Warpwolf warped STR and charged the Destroyer. A few crappy damage rolls made the Destroyer survive the attack. The Satyr killed a couple of Widowmakers and the Stalker charged into the line of Winter Guard, killing quite a few of them, even though they made some tough rolls.

Kaya backed a couple of inches and used Spirit Door to put the Satyr and the Stalker in safe place. Unfortunately she had to leave the Feral in its awkward position.

The Wayfarer used his spray to wipe out the remaining Winter Guard before The Destroyer started swinging at the Warpwolf, who actually survived. After some additional attacks from a couple of Grey Lords, the wolf was still hanging in there to my big surprise, but Sorsha managed to kill it at last. The last druids was killed along with two Shifting Stones and their Keeper.

Kaya sent her two remaining beast forward again to have them continue the killing of the invading Khador force. She used Spirit Door to pu them back in safety and made the enemy come closer.

This is what was left on my left flank. The warjack was severely damaged.

On my right flank the Juggernaut could do nothing but walk up to the last Shifting Stone. The next turn Kaya would unleash her beasts again and kill the remaining khadorians. Sorsha wouldn't have that. She walked up to the Juggernaut and cast Freezing Grip at Kaya. She boosted to hit but missed anyway. In a last desperate attempt she fired her Quad Iron, using her last Focus to boost the attack roll. Kaya had three Fury left and even though she had been experiencing some very lucky shooting from the Widowmakers I felt very comfortable. Sorsha managed to to hit and the damage roll was insane. A lot of damage to transfer, and then I realise the Stalker is loaded with Fury and the Satyr couldn't take enough damage due to previous shooting. Kaya was lost.

A very exciting game and I hope to get a rematch soon. I really need to get more practice with Kaya. (I keep forgetting to cast Soothing Song for an instance.)

Circle Orboros - the friendliest faction you'll ever meet

Some people loves whining about Circle Orboros. I get to hear a lot of that. The Circle is impossible to play against, the Circle is overpowered, playing the Circle is almost cheating and so on and so on. I can't really see where all of that comes from. We are a nice faction. A friendly faction. We don't want to hurt anyone.

And that's a fact!

A clash with Khador (prelude)

I'm going to meet a Khador player after work today to straighten things out. I'll be playing Kaya the Wildborne, who I think is a good warlock for casual play. She's great fun to play and she'll make her heavy beasts MAT 8-9, so you'll rarely have to boost to hit. This is what I'll be playing:

pKaya
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker
Gnarlhorn Satyr
Druids of Orboros
Shifting Stones
Stone Keeper
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer


I'll report back later with some pictures of the mayhem.

Steamroller Tournament 260311

Any day when you get to fill your bag with pewter and Hordes pariphernalia is a good day. If it's for a tournament it's even better. A couple of weeks ago I arranged a small tournament and no matter how fun it is to arrange and watch the players have a good time (killing each other), I couldn't help feeling a bit jealous at them for getting to play. Yesterday it was my turn again though. These were the conditions:

- One list, 25 pts
- 4 Rounds
- Kill Box each round (which I totally overlooked when I was assembling my list)

This was the list I decided to play:

pKrueger
Megalith
Feral Warpwolf
Druids of Orboros
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper

I'm not too sure about playing Megalith at 25 pts, but its self healing ability is crucial when playing other warlocks than Baldur and Undergrowth is an awesome animus. Combined with the Druid's clouds you'll be hard to both charge and shoot at. Krueger himself is great against high DEF and Stealth models, the Feral and Megalith can beat almost anything to pulp, so I felt like the list could deal with both ends of that spectrum.


Round I: vs Trollbloods

pMadrak
Earthborn Dire Troll
Axer
Fennblade unit
Krielstone Bearer & Scribes
Fell Caller

I lost the starting roll and got to go second. He deployed his army in a long line with the beasts positioned on the flanks. I kept my army in the middle of the board, with the druids spread out among Krueger and his beasts. I expected my opponent to make a slow approach in the safety of the protective aura from the Krielstone. Instead he kept running everything foward, which made it possible for Krueger to wipe out an important part of the Fennblades with his feat. The Stone Keeper managed to kill two Fennblades as well and the unit fled.

When he finally got the protective aura up, he claimed that it affected everything within 9" and gave +2 ARM and +1 ARM per fury left on the stone. That's some aura! I asked him if he was sure, he said yes and I let it pass. There were only minutes left of the game, I hadn't lost a single model, his army was crippled and there wasn't any chance on earth he would be able to get to Krueger so I patiently awaited the dice down call and won on attrition. I wasn't that thrilled by the victory since he was pretty new to the game.


Round II: vs Cryx

Mortnebra
Deryliss
Death Jack
Slayer
Reaper
Warwitch Siren
Warwitch Siren
Necrotech
Necrotech
Some Scrap Thralls

The second turn would prove to be far more tricky than the first. I'm not joining the "Cryx is OP" chant, but this time I faced Karim, who is not only a friend of mine, but a very good player. He rarely makes mistakes and is very meticulous both when building a list and while playing it. Each time I get paired with him I almost expect to lose, which makes it way too easy to brainfart and give the game away before it even has gotten interesting. This time I managed to place Krueger deep inside a forest with Skyborn on him, thinking Karim would have a hard time triggering Overrun. I really should know better than that. One of my druids was charged and killed by a Slayer, the Death Jack made a clever move sideways and *tadaa* - a charge lane. Loaded with Focus and still inside Mortenebras feat, he could easily end the game. There was nothing to do but to shake hands and look forward to the next game.

-"Ehr...whoooops!"

Round III: vs The Protectorate of Menoth

I really like playing against the Protectorate, because against a competent player you'll have to think really hard about how to crack them open. Besides that, Krueger is actually a menite by birth, which makes it even more interesting.

This time I felt less confident than usual because of my heavy reliance on spellcasting. It's pretty easy for the Protectorate to shut down a spellcasting list with all the denial available. I was quite surprised and relieved to see that his list really didn't depend that much on denial. (Heck, he even left the choir at home!) Reznik definitly has some denial going on, but with this list I don't rely on upkeeps and I could easily place myself outside his average-size-control area before throwing any spells.

This was his list:

Reznik
Vanquisher
Revenger
Repenter
Flameguard Cleansers
Exemplar Cinerators

I think I lost the starting roll and for the first turn I ran pretty much everything behind a forest. I didn't want him to get LOS to my Druids, since they are so vulnerable to sprays. He cautiously advanced, making sure he would stay out of the forest. I advanced with Krueger and used his feat to erase a large part of the Cleansers and deal some serious damage to some of the Cinerators. I placed my beast slightly to the right of the forest to have them ready when the menites approached. Reznik feated and forced me to stay away with my Druids and Krueger who wanted to throw Force Bolts and Chain Lightning. The Warpwolf charged and demolished the Repenter and Megalith walked up next to it to protect them both from charges with Undergrowth. Krueger took out a Cinerator and kept a distance to Reznik and his jacks. The Druids pushed away the rest of the Cinerators a couple of inches to lessen their threat range.

The Cinerators tried to charge my beasts but (thanks to Undergrowth) only two of them got close enough and they failed to do any serious damage. Now the Cinerators were blocking the path to my army and Reznik had little to do but hang back. Krueger could easily remove the Cinerators blocking the charge lane and put Lightning tendrils on Megalith. The Warpwolf made a double handed throw with one of the remaining Cinerators and managed to hit Reznik, who was now knocked down. Megalith charged Reznik and with his big granite fists he crushed him.


Round IV: vs Mercenaries

Ashlynn
Freebooter
Mule
Nomad
Master Gunner Dougal McNaile
Lanyssa Ryssyll
eEiryss
Rutger Shaw
Harlan Phineas Versh

When I saw my opponents list I felt pretty confident. Ashlynn (and some of the solos) can be a nightmare to try to hit and during Ashlynns feat it's often close to impossible. Krueger, however, couldn't care less. His feat hits automaticly and Chain Lightning can easily be arced from a Shifting Stone.

I lost the starting roll again and had to go second, which was fine by me. Eiryss, Rutger and the rest of the solos rushed forward and took advantage of linear obstacles and forests to get some extra DEF. Ashlynn and the jacks followed close behind. Krueger cast Skyborne on himself and advanced alongside his beasts and the Druids created a wall of smoke in front of them. The Stone Keeper and Shifting Stones shifted forward and the Keeper tried to cast Rock Hammer at the Mule. Harlan quickly drew his gun and fired at the Keeper who happened to be exactly 5" away. Harlan hit but failed to kill the Keeper, who managed to get a critical hit on the Mule.

The next turn Eiryss got close enough to shot at Krueger, but with Skyborne and elevation he was too hard to hit. The Mule fired at something (I think it was the Druids) but missed and the shot deviated close enough to not damage anything. One more turn and Ashlynn and her battlegroup would be in my face. Krueger feated away Eiryss, Rutger and Harlan before going Skyborne again. A Shifting Stone popped up slightly less than 4" from Dougal McNaile and Megalith geomancied Chain Lightning. It bounced six times (!) and I was able to deal some damage to Ashlynn herself. The Druids pushed back his jacks and then there was little left to do but to see how close he would like to come.

Ashlynn charged and killed a Druid, used her feat and failed to shot another Druid. Lanyssa cast Hunter's Mark on Megalith and the Freebooter surprised me with a 13" charge (if I remember correctly). He hit Megalith twice, but failed to do any significant damage. Then he threw Megalith at Krueger, knocking him down. None of his remaining models could reach him however, so his turn ended quickly.

On my last turn the Shifting Stones shifted into B2B with Ashlynn and Megalith cast Chain Lightning at one of them. With a boosted to-hit roll he only needed to avoid rolling three 1s. Lightning struck the stone and it arced to Ashlynn who only had a few damage boxes left after the previous lightning. I boosted the damage and needed to roll eight or more, which I did. The last game was over and I was happy about going 3-1.

Then it was brought to my notice that no other player had four wins. There were four participants who'd won three games, so it would have to go down on tie breakers. The first tie breaker was strength of schedule, and I knew that two of the opponents I defeated had gone 2-2. Would I get a trophy?

Sadly enough, I took the fourth place and missed out on the beautiful trophies. Still, I was more than happy to have been in the top run. Karim, who defeated me in Round II, turned out to be the winner (congratulations!) and if he went 3-1 I'm not going to whine about losing a game either.

The TO (who did a great job arranging the tournament) announced that there was a Best Painted Army price as well. I liked the idea, because it encourages players to play fully painted armies, which adds so much to the game. To my big surprise I was announced as the winner. I can honestly say there were several other worthy winners, but I was thrilled. I guess having a flying, converted warlock in loincloth and boots is a winning concept! :)

For the price money I picked up another Woldstalker unit, which was great. (Now I'll finally be able to try Baldur's T4 list.)

Nordic Open 2011

Finland is not only the land of high quality liquorice and the only country where they drink more coffee than in Sweden. It's also a country of keen WarmaHordes players and extremely good painters. This became a proven fact very recently when our beloved neighbours in east hosted the Nordic Open. For those of you not too familiar with the Nordic countries I can point out that Sweden and Finland really loves to beat each other in sports - particularly in ice hockey. This friendly rivalry most definitly reflected iteslf in the Nordic Open, where players from four countries got together to beat the crap out of each other.

I really regret not attending this event, but I'm not very keen about playing in tournaments that require that I spend the night away from my lovely wife and baby son. However, Rickard - who is a friendly soul from my local meta - decided to go there. He writes these great battle reports and, since this was an international event, he wrote it in english. He kindly allowed me to link to it, which I'm very happy to do. So pour yourself a big cup of coffee, check out the great pictures and enjoy the report. If you like seeing nicely painted armies, you're really up for a treat. There's an eKaya list in there, for an instance, that really made me drop my jaw.

Nordic Open 2011

Midnight Druids

Ok, this is sort of an in joke since it's in swedish. I'm sorry about that but I just had to post it...

Megalith

I hate to have to say this again, but sorry for not posting anything in a while. I'll try to shape up. :)
A while a go I mentioned finishing Megalith, and I thought I'd put up a picture to prove I'm not just making it up.
Megalith is actually a corner stone (pun intended) in my collection of Circle miniatures. It's one of our best looking models, a great heavy beast option and the masterpiece construct of Baldur (who I've already mentioned as my favourite warlock). It's too bad he doesn't make it into that many lists at 25 and 35 pts because of the cost, but when he does hit the table you know where those points went.
It was a joy to paint and I'd be thrilled to see more heavy construct beasts in the future.

It really is clobbering time. I repositioned the arms slightly to make it look less like a goal keeper.

Now it's time to pack the bag for tomorrow's tournament. :)

Team 08 Fight Club - Tournament 120311

Sorry about not posting in such a long time, but I've been busy studying the last week. I did finish painting Megalith though - there will be a picture up soon.

Last saturday I arranged a small tournament at Dragon's Lair, which is a local game store. This was the deal:

- SR2011
- 25 pts
- 3 lists, each list had to be played at least once
- Scenarios: Revelation, Overrun and The Gauntlet

Half of the participants played Khador, which was kind of weird but it was Cygnar and Cryx who made it to the final game. A very unorthodox eHaley list clashed with Terminus and...you guessed it - hordes of undead.
Cygnar seemed to be able to pick Cryx apart completely with ride by attacks, bouncing lightning, Time Bomb and what not. Terminus, however, is a tough ARM nut to crack and at the end of the day Cryx was victorious. An exciting final game and I must compliment all players for their enthusiasm and contribution to a friendly atmosphere. We also saw a couple of new players who actually played their first tournament after just a few games of practice! They did well and had a surprisingly good knowledge about the game for being so new to it.

Here are some pictures:

Strakhov is ready to get even: -"Did you say something about my mother...land?"

Epic Stryker talks about whatever motherland he wants to. And he's got the sword to prove it!

A new player enters his first tournament. Fully painted. Well painted. Impressing!

Goreshade is as death metal as ever.

A heavy Khador jack plays peek-a-boo in the greenery. A Kodiak moment.

The Jugguernaut fails to wreck a Stormclad and Stryker is getting ready...

...and here he comes. P+S 31 and a triple 6 charge damage roll proves to be just a little too much to cope with for poor Strakhov. The Swan scores.

Everyone wants to dance with a warjack. -"Easy guys - one at the time!"

Epic Butcher ready for some head choppin'.

Epic/Easy button Denny actually had to face Epic/Easy button Denny. As alway, the easy button wins.

Epic Haley and her horse heavy list in the final game.

Lightning strikes and bounces. Cygnar mows down Terminus' minions while staying out of reach for a payback.

Haley uses Telekinesis and Time Bomb to make things difficult but with a little help from his remaining army he finally gets to make that sword-to-head thing he does so well. A very interesting game to watch. Haley fought kind of like pKrueger and eKrueger at the same time!

I had a great time watching all the games! Now there's an upcoming tournament in two weeks, that I need to make a solid list for...  :)

Woldwarden no. 2 - repositioned

I wasn't really pleased with the pose of the original Woldwarden and since I wanted to add another one to my collection (this was before Megalith came out) I decided to try to give it another look. I wanted to make him look like he was surveying the battlefield, ready to bash away at the incoming enemy. It didn't take a lot of time to paint, but - hey - whatever looks OK on the battlefield is good enough for me.

Someone on the PP forum suggested that I'd put together an all-construct Baldur list and make a battle report, which seemed like a good idea. That means this guy will see some action soon...

Feral Warpwolf

I'm not keen on painting my wolves brown as I've seen a lot of people do. I go for that shiny white look. It makes me think about how these beasts would look, raging through a dark forest, in pale moonlight.
I'm really eager to get a second Warpwolf and convert it, but I'll be patient and keep wishing for a resculpt.



If you really need to get a 'jack open, the Feral Warpwolf is the best option. Three initials, a MAT above average and 4 Fury makes this one of the most fearsome beasts in our faction. Sure, it wouldn't have hurt if he had a point or two more in P+S, but when you can have him warp STR he is a monster. With spells like Stone Skin, Wild Aggression, Lightning Tendrils or Forced Evolution, the Feral really shines. On top of that - the possibility to give him Bounding and other tricks that improve his threat range. Just think about it - with warped SPD, Bounding, Hunter's mark on the target and Lightning Tendrils, the Feral will have a 17" threat range. Eat that you hide-in-the-deployment-zone warcaster!

Krueger the Stormwrath vs High Exemplar Kreoss

pKrueger vs pKreoss - 35 pts Outflank, Outfight, Outlast

Today's first game turned out to be against Menoth. I had decided on playing pKrueger and, just to be somewhat silly, I abandoned my favourite unit - the Druids of Orboros - and went with a small unit of Wold Riders instead. I do like them, but I haven't played them more than a couple of times and right now I like trying out my rarely played models. This is what my list looked like:

pKrueger
Druid Wilder
Feral Warpwolf
Woldwarden
Gnarlhorn Satyr
Wolf Riders
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Krueger might not be the strongest option against the Protectorate, but this time I was quite pleased to see my opponent line up his troop heavy list. Of course, with Defender's Ward, Shield Wall, the Flameguards mini-feat and the Zealots' Monolith Bearer, all those POW 10's might not be enough to clear the board from enemy troops. My opponent's list looked like this:

pKreoss
Reckoner
Repenter
Revenger
Choir of Menoth
Holy Zealots (full unit)
- Monolith Bearer
Temple Flameguards
- Temple Flameguard Officer and Standard Bearer
Covenant of Menoth

We decided to play a scenario and my opponent suggested Outflank, Outfight, Outlast (even though we couldn't remember what it was called). We rolled for set up and I won, so I decided to go first.

A wall of Menites ready to rumble.  I really like this guy's black and white colour scheme.

On my first turn I just moved everything forward. The Wolf Riders got Lightning Tendrils and  moved up far on the flank. The idea was to be able to charge their prey - the Revenger - and have lightning arc to the Choir behind him.

The rest of my army rushed forward to be able to get to the control zones. They were hardly going to be close enough to get shot at, but I tried to gain as much concealment as posssible.

The Flameguard decided to make life miserable for the Wolf Riders. They didn't make it all the way, but with Reach on their spears they were able to mess with the Riders' charge lanes. On the other flank, his Zealots rushed forward to be able to get the second control zone.

In my second turn Krueger forced the Woldwarden, who got Bounding from the Wilder, to trample into the second control zone and cast Chain Lightning into the crowd of Zealots. I boosted to hit and when I rolled for additional hits I got a 6. Six Zealots were deep fried, but the Monolith Bearer survived with 2 boxes left.

Two of the Wolf Riders charged into the Flameguards but the dice fail me and in spite of multiple attacks and Lightning Tendrils I only killed a few of them. The third Rider charged the Repenter and killed a choir member with bouncing lightning. Then I activated Krueger who advanced, zapped a couple of Flameguards with his feat and cast Deflection.

Krueger's feat templates were used to block LOS and discourage his 'jacks from advancing in Krueger's direction. This is where I made my first mistake. I let one of the templates touch a small part of the Reckoner's base just to try to damage it a little. I boosted the damage roll and got 1 or to 2 points of damage through. In doing so I gave the Reckoner LOS through the cloud, which of course was a huge mistake.

My Gnarlhorn ran all the way up to the forest in front of Krueger. With it's Counter Slam and solid threat range I hoped to keep the Reckoner in a distance. That would have been an OK plan if it wasn't for the fact that the Reckoner could actually charge the Satyr. The Gobbers made a cloud of smoke in front of Krueger to prevent shooting.

The Feral and the Druid Wilder advanced cautiously behind the Woldwarden to stay out of range of the grenade throwing fanatics. The Shifting Stones and the Stone Keeper shifted into place behind some cover and took out another Zealot.

The Zealots moved up and threw their fire crackers at the Woldwarden, almost taking out his Spirit branch.

The Reckoner charged the Satyr and managed to get into melee range. He was less than half an inch from failing his charge, but was able to kill the Satyr with a few decent damage rolls. The Reckoner took the first scenario point of the game. A very frustrating mistake, since I not only lost a heavy beast, but a very useful animus.

The Flameguards combined their melee attaks and killed two of the Wolf Riders. Kreoss charged and killed the third one. That meant losing 14 pts worth of models in one round. Would this be too much for Krueger and his remaining army?

The Woldwarden took out the remaing Zealots, earning my first scenario point. The Swamp Gobbers had to move up into the control zone to contest the zone and prevent the Reckoner to get LOS to anything valuable. The Feral ran up towards my left flank to be able to get a charge lane to the Reckoner. Krueger cast Deflection again and saved some Fury.

The Revenger charged the Woldwarden but failed to do much damage, but prevented the Woldwarden from scoring another point at the end of his turn.

Kreoss, the Hierophant and the Repenter moved up behind the forest, not far behind the Flameguards. My opponent probably decided on putting some pressure on Krueger, but this actually gave me some time before Kreoss would get close enough to use his Feat.

The Reckoner moved a short distance into the woods and managed to shoot Krueger, who transfered the damage to the Woldwarden.

Payback time. The Feral warped for strength, charged the Reckoner and had no problem wrecking it. That meant I was going to score another point at the end of my turn. All I had to do now was to bash the Revenger to bits and nothing would be able to prevent me from scoring a third point with the Woldwarden.

Time for mistake number two. I activated the Woldwarden and got ready for . The first fist missed, but the second hit, doing some damage. Then my opponent was happy to inform me that the Woldwarden would be pushed back 1" by the Revenger's shield. It was not the first time I forgot that annoying ability, but I do hope it was the last. The Woldwarden cast Lightning Tendrils on itself and continued the hitting, but failed to destroy it.

Krueger cast Skyborne and Deflection, moved away from the Flameguard unit and saved three Fury for transfers. The Swamp Gobbers moved up between Krueger and the Flameguard unit to prevent LOS with another cloud. I was pretty confident the Flameguards wouldn't be able to get to him and Kreoss was behind a forest. The Revenger was far away from Krueger and tied up in melee with the Woldwarden. It seemed like I'd score my third point in the end of my opponents turn.

The Revenger tried to walk away from the Woldwarden and survived the freestrike with the arc node intact. Kreoss advanced into the forest between him and Krueger, activated his feat and started arcing bolts of magical fire through the Revengers arc node.

If Krueger survived I would win on scenario points. I let Krueger take some damage and transfered the biggest hit. I had one Fury left in case one of the Flameguards would actually get close enough to hit Krueger. The advanced into the smokescreen, killed the poor Gobbers and tried to get to Krueger. We measured the melee distance and I realised one of them could actually hit Krueger. The damage roll was pretty low so I let Krueger take the damage himself. With one Fury left on Krueger, my opponent realised he had ran out of ways to kill him and I won the game after getting scenario points from both the Feral Warpwolf and the Woldwarden.

A very close and exciting game!