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