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!

Lamentations...

Yesterday I played two games against a friend of mine who paints really good-looking Khador 'jacks. He has built a very nice Extremoth, so I was eager to play a few games and take some pictures to show you. Accidentally, I left the camera at work, which means... no pictures. Anyway, I hope to get together with him later this week and go paparazzi on his 'jacks. I assure you - they kick @$$!

So, how did the games go. Well, I wanted to play a list that was very different from what i usually play. I ended up with a list without Druids of Orboros (!?!) led by pKaya (who I rarely play, even though I actually like her.)

In both games I tried to soften up The Butcher before Kaya attempted to whack him. The Butcher survived, wiped the blood from his chin and gave her the axe.

I'll have to do better than that. Well, great games anyway. :) I'll do my best to take pictures and write proper battle reports from now on.

Music for painting

Three things are mandatory for me while painting. I must have a big cup of black coffee on the table, I must accidentally dip the brush in the coffee instead of the water every now and then and I must have some good music on.

I listen to lots of different music but while I sit down to put paint on my minis I just love to listen to Damien Jurado. I love listening to his music at all times, but when I'm sitting there trying to focus on the painting, it's really relaxing. His music, for those who're not familiar with Damien Jurado, is incredibly sad, soothing and beautiful. It might not be everyones cup of tea, but give it a try. You might be missing out on one of the greatest singer/songwriter artists around.

Here are some links to prove my point:

Damien Jurado - Kansas City


Damien Jurado - Rachel and Cali


Please leave a comment if you want the world to know what you stomp your feet to while painting. :)

Pimp my flag

I thought it would be cool to have my own medium bases for scenario play. My first idea was to make some sort of a pillar of rocks, coming up from the ground. I added some green rune-ish patterns as well. This was done in a haste, but I'll make some more and try to copy the actual Orboros runes from the army book.

Today was a good day...

I was goinging to drop by the game store to have a few rounds of 'jack-bashing fun, but I ended up staying at home painting instead. I finished Kaya th Wildborne and Morvahna. I also got some more paint on my repositioned Woldwarden and Megalith. I'll get some pictures up soon.

Tomorrow I'm likely to go toe to toe with Khador again. I'm leaning towards Kromac. I'll get back tomorrow with a Battle Report and some complaints about The Butcher. :)

Pureblood Warpwolf

I consider the Pureblood to be among the best looking sculpts that Privateer Press has released. It doesn't get to see as much play time on the table as my Feral, but this beast I could easily buy just because of how cool it looks. It was a joy to paint even though I know I can't really do it justice.

If Circle ever get a Warpwolf character beast I hope it will be as cool as the Pureblood.

Druids of Orboros

Never leave home without them. I'm serious. This isn't one of the best Circle units. This is one of the best units in the game. Period. :)

This was the first unit I bought and painted and as soon as I started playing I realised they're literally insanely good. So far I don't have doubles of any units, but as soon as I've finished my collection of Tharn ladies, I'll get another unit of Druids.

The Overseer is really a great unit attachment for the Druids. I've met Menoth lists who couldn't touch them because of the Elemental Immunity spell and they can be about as annoying for Legion. The Devouring is a great spell with decent POW and the Overseer will increase the Counter Magic radius. However, if you can't find room for him in a list, the Druids will do fine anyway.

At last...

...I have time to write something about last week's games. As I said, we were supposed to bring two lists at 35 pts. I went for Baldur, who is my favourite warlock and Mohsar, who I haven't really played until very recently. Baldur is very strong and can hold it down against pretty much any faction, even though he has some problems with Legion. I'd say he is a solid choice for tournament play. Mohsar I chose simply for the fact that I need to play him more and he's very fun to play. Anyway, these were my lists:

Baldur
Druid Wilder
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker
Gnarlhorn Stalker
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper

Mohsar's list was the same as Baldur's except for a Pureblood Warpwolf instead of the Stalker.


Game 1
Baldur vs Strakhov (Khador)

From what I remember, this was the Kador list:

Strakhov
War Dog
Torch
Assault Kommandos
-Assault Kommando Flame Thrower
Kayazy Assassins
-Kayazy Assassin Underboss
Kovnik Markov
Iron Fang Uhlan
Kovnik Varchev (not sure)
Aiyanna & Holdt

We rolled for setup and I went second. He used his first turn to run things forward. The cavalry positioned themselves right by the obstacle in the middle of the board and Torch and the Assault Kommando was heading for the other side of it. Strakhov and his dog followed Torch and the mercs disappeared into the woods on my left flank. The Kayazy Assassins ran up right next to the Iron Fang unit.

Baldur sent his beasts forward, cast Solid Ground and Rapid Growth in front of the Uhlan. The Druids cast Counter Magic and Summon Vortex. I tried to place my models in a way that would make it easy to put the hurt on anything that came closer the next round.

 -"But what the heck is Kromac doing on the battlefield?", you might ask. Well, we played Destruction and I needed a medium base. Kromac was more than willing to lend a hand.

The Khador army came closer, except for the Uhlan and Kovnik Markov, who backed down to get a charge angle towards both sides of the obstruction.

The Druids advanced, started harassing the Assassins and the cavalry with Force Bolts and actually did some damage. A few Assassins fell dead to the ground and the cavalry was pushed and pulled apart to break their Shield Wall. The Warpwolf Stalker got Bounding from the Wilder and could easily cut down an Iron Fang Uhlan and a couple of Assassins. Baldur placed a new forest between the Stalker and the remaining Uhlan and Assassins.

The next turn the Assault Kommando came close enough to start shooting at my Feral and the Druids. Summon Vortex made it hard to hit anything. The Flame Thrower, however, had no problem hitting with its spray attack. Two Druids was killed and Baldur was slightly injured. Baldur was now on fire.
The Uhlan and Assassins tried to reach my right flank but there was too much forest in the way.

                                      

Baldur and the Druids now focused on killing as many Assault Kommando warriors as possible. I wanted to get rid of the Flame Thrower, but I didn't know that another member of the unit could pick up the weapon. Baldur now placed his forest in front of Torch, Strakhov and the remaining Assault Kommandos. To make it even harder for the Khador force, he used his feat.
The Stalker and the Stone Keeper took care of the remaining Assassins and the Uhlan unit. Kovnik Markov, now placed close to Strakhov on the other flank, was too far away though. The Feral and the Satyr stayed close to Baldur for yet another round, waiting for Torch to come closer.

Torch was sent forward in a rush, heading for my left objective. If he got there, he would surely cut it down in a turn.The Assault Kommandos, Strakhov and Aiyanna & Holdt pushed forward but luckily none of them came close enough to do any damage to Baldur.

Torch was pretty deep into a forest, far away from both my Feral and the Satyr and none of them has pathfinder. The Druid Wilder advanced towards the Feral and cast Bounding on it. It warped for SPD and rushed into the woods and had no problem reaching the warjack. Biting and bashing, it seriously damaged the 'jack but failed to total it. The Gnarlhorn charged as well and damaged the 'jack enough to wreck it. Baldur, who had stopped burning by now, kept his forest and saved some Fury for transfers.

Markov went for the Satyr's throat but failed to do any significant damage. Holdt and Strakhov made an attempt to kill Baldur but he soaked up the damage and sent some of it to his beasts.

In the last turn the Gnarlhorn grabbed Markov and threw him at Strakhov, who was knocked down. With Baldur within charge range my opponent forfeited the game.

All in all it was an exciting game. It might not come through in this battle report, but my opponent is actually a very good Khador player. In this game, the terrain and table set up was working against him and I had no problem crippling his game further with Rapid Growth and Baldur's feat. If it wasn't for the obstruction in the centre of the board I'd had a hard time keeping him away. At least it wasn't me who set the table. :)

My intention was to take more pictures and do a detailed write down on each round, but we ended up playing timed rounds, so that was really not an option. Maybe this weekend...

Baldur the Stonecleaver

I'm honestly too tired to write anything about today's games, so I'll have to get back to you on that. I thought I'd just post a picture of one of the warlocks I used in today's lists - Baldur the Stonecleaver.

Baldur is one of my favourite warlocks and a solid choice for tournament play. The only thing that really troubles him is Legion. This miniature was painted quite long ago, and it was the first warlock I finished. I have nothing against the model, but I'd love to see a resculpt with drawn sword and a "come-get-some"-pose!

Ok, see you all tomorrow. Time to get some "spatchka"...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Concordance:A_Clockwork_Orange

More stuff that begins with "Wold..."

These two were the first Circle miniatures I bought and painted. I wasn't at all happy with the wardens pose, but since it was my first miniature in many years I thought I'd skip the conversion/repositioning part and just paint it. Instead I chose to add something extra to the base. Later on I added an additional Woldwarden to my collection, and this time I chose to give it another pose. It's not fully painted yet, but when it's done it will end up here.

-"It's clobbering time!"

 

The Woldwatcher is a really neat model, though mine haven't seen the gaming table for some time now. I'll have to squeeze it into a list and give it a try some time soon.

Preparations for tomorrow

Right now I´m going put together two 35 points lists for tomorrow's clash at our local game store here in Stockholm. I'll get back to you on those, with some thoughts about my choices, and it would be great to hear what you Circle players (and other players for that matter) has to say! I'll bring a camera as well, so I hope to be able to bring you a battle report or two. Until then - may the dice be with you!

(Speaking of dice - this is an old picture from a tournament where Baldur really needed to get rid of a nasty Raek. He charged, hit and managed to damage it badly. The beast now had Weight of Stone on it (meaning -3 DEF) and one more hit would probably do the job. Now, in important situations like that, it's good not to roll double 1's, so I chose to boost to hit. And I rolled triple 1's instead. I just had to get a picture taken!)

Stoneward with Woldstalkers

These guys are just great. I don't play them that much, because I usually run quite heavy on beasts and I still prefer Bloodtrackers over this unit. That said, the Woldstalkers has enough RNG, POW and RAT to be a threat. Especially with Mohsar and his Curse of Shadows, these guys can actually take out a heavy 'jack on average rolls. A neat trick is to slam something into a nimble target and zap away.

Anyway, these wolds look cool and they are quite fun to paint. I really like the druid models that Circle has, and the Stoneward is no exception.

Shifting Stones with Stone Keeper

This is a unit no Circle player should ignore. It's an incredibly cheap and efficient tool for healing, teleportation and blocking charge lanes among other things. They have the ARM of a Cygnar heavy jack and five damage boxes, so they can take a few hits. With the unit attachment - the Stone Keeper - they gain stealth and an increased command range. Even with the UA, it's a cheap unit that can be fit into most lists.



I finally finished my Gnarlhorn Satyr

It's been sitting on my painting table for far too long, a bit more than half-painted, but now it's finally done. The Gnarlhorn is one of the Circle miniatures that I find really awesome. At first I didn't believe I'd use it too much in my army lists - it lacks the DEF of the warpwolves and won't hit nearly as hard. However, it has a respectable threat range, provides you with some extra board control and it has a very useful animus. The Gnarlhorn finds it's way into a majority of my army lists and he usually does his job  very well. On top of that he looks really cool.

-"Headbutt, anyone?"

Spell templates for Rift and Pillars of Salt

When I started playing Circle I was sticking to Baldur and Krueger. I realised I was going to need a few templates for spells and feats. I photocopied and cut out the templates in mkI Primal and used them for some time before getting really tired of them. They were practical and cheap, but they didn't look very good. I decided to make my own. I started out by making a couple of 4" Rift templates for our old friend Kromac.

Then I went on to make some Pillars of Salt for Mohsar the Desertwalker. It's a very cool spell and I find it useful to spam it from time to time, so I made four of those. I know they don't look like salt (or anything related to a deserts for that matter), but I wanted them to fit with the murky forest feeling of my miniatures' bases.

I'll keep doing more templates. Baldur's Rapid Growth and Morvahna's Eruption of Life are obvious choices, but I haven't decided how to pull those off yet. Epic Krueger's Lightning Storm is even more of a challenge. Rift and Pillars of Salt were both easy and fun to make, so I'm confident I'll give the other ones a shot as well.

My Krueger the Stormwrath conversion

Krueger was the first warlock I fielded back when I got into WarmaHordes. He was a strong warlock back then and I think he can really hold it down in mkII as well. He has a really good spell list and his feat can be devastating against lists that rely on stealth, high DEF (which usually means low ARM) and large units of infantry.

His lightning and storm theme is really cool and I always wanted to do a conversion that made the lightning bit come to life a bit more. Coincidentally, I stumbled upon an old Confrontation miniature that I thought would make a great Krueger. I used Kruegers original spear and some pieces of wire to create lightning. I kind of regret that I finished this in a haste, since I wanted him to be ready in time for a weekend of gaming. Anyway, it looks kind of cool on the gaming table, and that's enough for me!

First post

I'm just going to use this first post to say hi and welcome to my blog. I'll use this blog to write about stuff related to Privateer Press' excellent game(s) Warmachine/Hordes. My main faction is Circle Orboros. I started out buying the constructs that were around back then (this was back in the mkI days) simply because they looked cool. I never really expected to get around to actually playing the game, but after a while I thought I'd give it a try.

I found the game very easy to get into and even those first fumbling games were great fun. I soon started collecting more miniatures and tried different warlocks. I was seriously hooked.

Circle Orboros is right down my alley. I think the miniatures look really cool and I just love the way they play. Circle excels at denial, fast movement, hard hitting beasts and can make use of/mess up the terrain. That makes Circle the guerilla tactics faction our enemies just loves to hate.

Anyway, I hope you'll find this blog enjoyable in some way. I'll post battle reports, pictures of miniatures and terrain, army lists, comments on miniatures and what not. I don't claim to be an expert painter or player. I'm doing this just because I love the game. So, see you around and may the dice be with you!