Magnetizing Circle Goat, Convergence Cipher kit.

  I bought a Convergence Battlebox to continue my collection of BB kits.  I'm three away from having every faction.  Convergence has such a different mechanic that I wanted to pick it up before the other three.  I've been asked several times how induction works and what's it's like to play and I legitimately have no idea.  So I grabbed the box and built it yesterday.

  So, starting off, there's a lot of things that a lot of people recommend for magnetizing.  My original in-depth article is my dire troll article.  This article is really just covering what parts get glued, and what my magnet points are.  My tool list has also changed.  I just use a 1/8'' bit in the dremel for everything.  If I'm putting a bigger magnet than that in there, I widen it out with a stirring motion and cut the flashing it creates with a knife.  We'll show that a little bit.

  The magnets I use are below.  They're just rare earth magnets I pick up at the FLGS,  The ones I used for most of this is the left one, the 1/8th.  I've got one just a hair smaller for like, Ret jacks, but this one is my workhorse in most cases.  The one over is close to 3/16ths, and is my second most used.  The one on the right is a full 1/4'' and is for the big things like the turret on my War Wagon.

  This is the waist point for the convergence jack.  I did it just because I don't have all the parts for the convergence jack, so I don't know if the legs will be in the way for some of the weapons so I have it where I can rotate it a bit.  Here, again, I just drilled, then spiraled the bit around to widen it.  It creates this flashing here, but just run your hobby knife around that edge and it cleans up nicely.

  Usually I just drill the hole straight, maybe worm it a hair to make sure the magnet will stick.  Most of the technique is just getting the magnet in there to stick without gluing multiple magnets to your fingers.  In this picture, I'm tapping a shoulder for the convergence kit.  I've drilled it deep enough for one magnet, dripped a bit of glue in and slid in one magnet, using the whole stick of them.  Then I'll slide it off once it's flush with the plastic, sliding in a fingernail in behind it to make sure it doesn't pull itself up out of the hole.

  So, connection points on this guy.  The waist is extra.  The main points is the head on the main body, the shoulder points and the arm points.  The left shoulder could be glued directly to the body, and just the elbow point could be magnetized for future kits, but the left shoulder actually needs to come off for one of the other jacks.

  My wife's goat kit is even easier.  The body is mostly the same with the exception of a waist extension piece that you can add in if you want.  I think it's for the shadowhorn, but she put it in and glued it.  Each head comes with it's own set of arms though, so it's not like trying to mag the wrist points on the Warpwolf or anything.  Just the neck and shoulder joints.  I used 1/8'' magnets for all of it, but the neck and head joint, I wish I'd gone a size up.  

  And that's it.  Just a quick reference for magnetizing these two heavies.  In the pipeline, I've got a lot.  I got Doomshaper3, Glacier King, double Efaarit, and a bunch of other stuff.  The D3 and GK unboxing/assembly is coming soon.  I have to figure out what all I want to do with my GK.  Once that's done, it'll be on here.  Still working on the painting articles, doing a bunch of commissions still, and of course trying to keep up with real life and incoming holidays.  Speaking of which, enjoy your thanksgiving and will see you guys later!

50pts Kaya2 vs. Doomy3 Tier 3.

  One of our local circle players got convinced to stay and play a game into D3.  The guy driving the car basically sacrificed him to the game.  He added a few points to his Kaya2 list and away we went.

Kaya2

*Laris

*Druid Wilder

*Gnarlhorn

*Ghetorix

*Stalker

*Gorax

Max Bloodtrackers w/UA

Stones w/UA

Reeve Hunter
Tharn White Mane Ravager

My list is the same Doomy3 list I've been playing

Doomshaper3

*Mulg

*Mountain King

*Axer

Max KSB w/UA

Max Burrowers

2x Whelps

  I won the rolloff and deployed.  He counter deployed.  With this much battlegroup, everything is pretty central.

  My Burrowers run and go left.  He has little to no shooting, so I chance it.  The Axer runs to the hill on the right, Mulg runs to the hill on the left.  D3 puts Rush on the King, casts Implacability and dumps the rest to the stone.  Mt. King runs 16'' into the right zone.  He's ARM23 under Tier benefits and Stone for round 1.

  Bloodtrackers prey my Axer.  Everything else runs for the most part.  He's on his back foot with the King that far up the table.  Kaya hangs in the back, gets Forced Evo on Ghetorix, and everything just moves up. The bloodtrackers move to the right zone, and don't damage anything significantly, but they reform back and tuck a tracker on either side of the King and one in front.  I can trample to Ghetorix with the Mt. King, but I don't want to lose both initials either.

  Doomshaper3 moves up onto the hill.  The Bloodtrackers are something I can't deal with much atm, and I know a few are in range of him next turn but since he's feating, I decide to weather it.  Doomshaper feats, and the scroll does Signs and Portents in case I need the Burrowers to kill trackers.  I also want to try to kill the Tracker on the hill, but it's engaged with Mulg, so I end up filling the stone instead, casting Implacability and admonition on Mulg.  KSB pops aura, moves up and pops it and does +1 STR.

  The Axer charges into the Bloodtrackers near the King, and misses both, needing boosted 8s. I buy, boost on the one that definitely.  Four dice to hit, finally clear that one.  The Mt. King charges into Ghetorix, and hits the initial, does 11 or 12 damage.  The assault misses everything behind except the Gorax, which he does a four or five damage to.  The second initial goes into the bloodtracker blocking Mulg.  Boost, kill, and the Killshot misses everything again, except the Gorax, where I do another four or five damage.  Then I buy another shot on Ghet and do another six or seven damage.

  Mulg now goes, and charges Ghet.  I take a counter slam from the Gnarlhorn, but it does little to no damage, and Mulg can't be slammed.  Mulg finishes Ghetorix with the first swing, puts the second initial into the Gnarlhorn and over the next couple of attacks, finishes it as well.  I ended his activation at 4 fury, and the Doomshaper affinity extra hit finished the Gnarlhorn.  The Burrowers burrow, I run a few whelps into the left zone, and that's turn.

  Kaya2 isn't super excited about the King in her face.  She moves into the zone, puts Forced Evo on the Stalker and casts Muzzle at Mulg.  She does land it, and boosts damage.  So now Mulg can not advance towards Kaya2.  She then feats.  The Reeve hunter shoots down a bunch of whelps, including the one behind Mulg, and the ones contesting the zone.  

  The Stalker charged into the Mountain King, and Mulg moves back a bit, then Admonition expires.  The Stalker ends up doing about a third of damage to the King, two and three boxes at a time after a dice less damage and the regen.  Then he ports back.  Bloodtrackers move further into the right zone and do no damage to the Axer, even though most of them hit.

  Everything else runs into the left zone.  He dominates for 2CP.

  The split scenario isn't working in my favor at the moment, but he's nearly out of things that can kill the King or Mulg, so if I remove the Stalker, it's probably game even though it will take four turns to remove Bloodtrackers.  So, two whelps go away to deal with the Axer's fury and some of the King's while D3 takes the rest.  Burrowers pop up all over the left zone, mostly in back arcs. 

  Doomshaper moves up.  Scrolls do the psuedo lamentation, and D3 does Implacability and puts Amuck on the King.  I would have liked to have repudiated the Forced Evo, but I felt I was safer to just try and have the King go for it.  Mulg backs up.  The Mountain king walks forward, buys a headbutt.  I need an 11, which on my dice that day, had yet to happen.  I had missed 2d6 6s, three in a row, and boosted sevens, eights and nines all day.  I handed my dice to a proxy roller, he called a 14, rolled, and got a 14.

  Magic.

  With the Stalker knocked down, the King puts him in the dirt easily.  Killshots the Gorax again and buys an attack on the Whiteman Ravager, and kills him.  Axer moves to the right and swings on some Bloodtrackers, only kills 1.  Burrowers put some decent damage on Laris, kill the Reeve solo

 My opponent goes after the axer with the Bloodtrackers, but it doesn't hardly do anything.  With that, he decides to step back and call it.  His hope was to score that zone, but with the Axer tanking it, there's not any reason to keep going.

  Thoughts on the game:

1.  I think super High-Def is a shut out for me.  I got really lucky with the KD on the Stalker, and I was really struggling against Ghetorix.  Mulg only needed boosted 9s, but it was close on some cases.  DEF16 beasts are an issue, and I think a Kromac2 Druid list will pretty nearly end me with -4 MAT if he positions correctly.  This would be one reason to try going outside of the tier.  The issue is that I still really like the Mt. King, and what I'd be giving up in tier is trying to get Victor in with Lynus/Edrea for some accurate KD.  That's dropping the burrowers, and most of my tarpit.  Idk how I feel about that.  Otherwise, I'm dropping the King for... I don't know what all.  Maybe Rok?  The SP10 is pretty crucial to removing support I don't have access to otherwise.

2.  Ghetorix was too close.  The Mt. King was well within charge range, without even needing Rush.  If Ghetorix goes down, my game gets much easier.  Much much easier.  He could have filled it with bloodtrackers, and I would have had to goad into him.

3.  The Gnarlhorn wasn't in melee range with me at the beginning, but after the counterslam, he was, and then he died.

Pretty onesided game.  I like getting that far up the table turn 1.  On a central zone, it's pretty solid.  On a split zone like this, I like it less, but it's still good.  I get to dictate a lot of terms with it.  The issue is still the Mt. King, if he can hit.  Mat5 is brutal.  He's great against lots of infantry until they're like, Iron Fleshed kayazy or something.  Then we have issues.  We'll see.  I'm still working it out right now.

Hope you enjoyed this batrep.  I have a small tournament next week that will take me out of D3 for a bit since I don't have his actual model, but after that, we're going.  Enjoy your week!

50pts Morvahna2 (Circle) vs. Grissel1 (Trollbloods)

The Wife is playing more. A bunch of used models showed up at a FLGS, and she picked up several of them, including the LoTF. She hasn't played him yet, but the day she does...

Anyways. Morvahna2 is a purchase my brother got her for Christmas awhile back and we've been held up on playing her for a long time because we simply didn't have anything close to what she needed for a list for her. Now, we're up to 3 warpwolves (one magnetized), 3 units plus Nyss, solos and some lights. She's got most of the basics. I wanted her to try some of the more competitive options for Circle, and looking at Morv's card, my wife wasn't super impressed. In fact, to her, Kaya1 looks like more fun because she can protect her animals as long as possible. Morv2 wants stuff to die. But we tried it.

Morvahna2
*Gorax
*Ghetorix
*Stalker
Max Bloodtrackers w/ UA
Max Skinwalkers w/UA
Stones w/ UA (proxied by Druid)
Gallows Grove x2 (Proxied by a Thrullg and the stone formation)
Blackclad
Maximus

Jess wants Gallows Groves, but she wants Baobab trees that I'm probably going to sculpt, but I'm backed up on commissions atm, so we'll see when those happen. Also, all of Omaha is out of stock on Stone UAs. I'm going to have to actually order one.

For my list, I'm bringing out a caster I don't play very often. In fact, very rarely. I think I've played Grissel1 twice. She looks super good on the card, but I honestly don't know how to run her. I like reasons to bring Long Riders though.

Grissel1
*Runebearer
*Mauler
Max Fenns w/UA
Max Long Riders
Horthol
Max Burrowers
Min KSB w/UA
Fell Caller
Janissa
Min Bone Grinders

I won the rolloff, Jess stuck to her side and I deployed. Nothing crazy. Fenns on the right to get Pathfinder in the woods, Long Riders on the left so they don't have to deal with rough terrain and forests. Jess deployed her Bloodtrackers opposite my Long Riders and preyed them, and the Skinwalkers took to the right to deal with Fenns.



All the things run. KSB gets loaded by Grissel, and she puts Hallowed Avenger on the Mauler. Pretty simple stuff. Grissel1 gets Hoof It onto the Long Riders, and they run far away from the Bloodtrackers.

Bloodtrackers run forward, Trees teleport around. Beasts inch up a bit, keeping to cover. Morvahna gets Fog of War out there and puts Carnivore on the Trackers. Maximus runs wide, forcing me to deal with him.



Grissel1 upkeeps Hallowed Avenger. Burrowers come up and move up. They aim as much as they can and shoot down a few Bloodtrackers, and they kill a Stone. Haha. Grissel1 loads the stone, puts Rage from the Mauler onto Horthol, and gets... Hoof It on the long riders I think. She also feats so the Fenns/Burrowers can get multiple attacks and I can hopefull get some damage down with the Long Riders as well.. Horthol Bullrushes the nearest Skinwalker and drives him back into the unit, then gets snakeyes on the Skinwalker UA, and does very little with his second attack. Stupid. Dice even on the UA would have been good. Get him down early and force Morvahna to think seriously about feating. Fenns Mini feat and charge into stuff, but the Skinwalkers weather most of it and pass CMD. Long Riders bull rush, but I only get a few into melee, mainly trying to get the tree on the right but I butcher the damage and everything lives. They run back with Hoof It. Janissa drops the wall in front of Grissel1.



Ghetorix opens the ball and moves up and kills Horthol easily and the fenn nearby. He thens adds his Animus for ornery. Morvahna purifies Hallowed Avenger off the Mauler. The Skinwalkers charge in and kill a few more Fenns, all of this needing rerolls. Suddenly Jess finds out why this caster is so good. Stalker walks in, beserks on a ton of dudes and walks away. The Bloodtrackers go nuts and kill most of the fenns and Burrowers. Between Quickwork, rerolls and healing Morvahna2, she goes to full health and they kill pretty nearly everything. To make matters worse, the Blackclad moves into the flag, sprays the Bone Grinders and kills 3 of the 4, and they fail CMD. Blackclad controls the flag for 1CP.






Grissel pushes to the flag and sprays bloodtrackers. Heroic Ballad goes on the Long Riders for that second attack again. Janissa moves up and puts the wall down, KSB engage some trackers and pops aura. Fell Caller war cries the Long Riders who bull rush into the Skinwalkers. I don't think I can win this game at this point, but I'd like to at least wipe the Skinwalkers out so Morv can't bring them back. However, the one I have issues getting to is the one behind the gallows grove. I do get two attacks on him, but both miss horribly, leaving him alive. I killed all the others, but lost a Long Rider to the retaliatory strike from Ghetorix and Ornery. Mauler charges the blackclad and kills him and a bloodtracker, but has no way to remove the last Tracker within 4.



Ghetorix gets Primal from the Gorax. Maximus berserks into the Riders, damaging two. Ghetorix walks in and kills every single Long Rider with some help from Morvahna2. Jess is looking for a scenario win, but decides she's actually got a decent chance at assassination. The tree teleports forward on the right. The last Skinwalker charges into the Fell Caller but fails to kill him. Morvahna feats back all skinwalkers, the blackclad and 3 Bloodtrackers, leaving her at 1 health after rerolling for Ghetorix. She then arcs Death Knell from the tree on the right into Grissel, and gets a POW15 out of it, killing the stones nearby and such, then puts Primal on the Stalker. Bloodtrackers walk in as much as possible, focusing on killing fennblades and geting Quickwork. There's not a lot left, but they manage to get a few kills, pulling in six health for Morv to help with the Stalker.

Stalker charges in at Morv. He's MAT9 under Primal, PS21 I think. Charge, hits (with reroll maybe) and does damage. I've only got maybe one transfer on Grissel, and she transfers pretty quickly. The next attack puts her into the dirt.



Thoughts on the game:

1. I feated too early. Waaaay too early. I did not get a good return for the feat, at all. Killed maybe two or three extra models and really just botched it. I should have held it a turn.

2. Morv's solid. Super good. I would rather have a list that is able to put damage on her every turn. Something like Grim1/2 that can just make sure he puts a shot into her. Every turn. Keeps the rerolls down, keeps the feat to a minimum. I don't have a way to do that with this list.

3. Single Mauler wasn't bad. Generally had enough fury, I just don't think I used him very well. He didn't get much done, but was outthreatened every game by both heavies. It was difficult to get him involved.

4. Really, the feat I think is what got me. Morv didn't even really need to feat back to win, it was contingency in case the assassination failed. My own feat got me. I really needed it to leg up on the attrition and it just did not, and it was my fault in positioning. I also don't know that Burrowers are that great with Griss. I'd rather have another unit. Maaaaaaaaaayyyybbeee even Kriels, but probably Sons of Bragg.

5. I never got Calamity off. I tried to on Ghet and it missed. RNG8 sucks, and it's just as pivotal a moment as Grim2's mortality.

Great game though, really enjoyed it. Any game with my wife is fun. She actually turned around and played this list last game day, playing warmachine in public for the first time. She played Legion's Vayl1.... She can beat the daylights out of Khador and Trolls because she knows those factions, but she'd never played Legion and that was a rough game for her I think. Probably ended her game career right there lol. I hope not. Anyways, enjoy your mothers day! Hope you enjoyed the batrep. Comments and Critique welcome.

Warpborn Alpha - Secret Santa

  We're moved into the house.  I've unpacked my Cygnar, Circle, Khador and what little I have of Menoth from the 2 Player box on a shelf in my very uncompleted den.  It's not much progress, but the more important aspects of the house are coming along nicely.

  In the midst of that move though, the Secret Santa we had in our local group started getting near it's deadline (Being Christmas, but most of us aren't going to see anyone after this last Saturday until new years).  The online random generator landed me a guy that just joined the group, bringing Circle and he wanted either a Warpborn Alpha, or something else.  A Wilder I think.  I chose the Warpborn for purely painting reasons, and picked it up a couple of weeks ago.

  Then I lost it.

  So now I've bought two.  When I find the first one, that's great because my Wife will play it.  The model is kind of a pain to assemble, but it's pretty cool when it's done, and I don't mind how it turned out.  Pardon the photo setup.  Again, I haven't had a chance to really do much in my "studio", so this is straight up, unedited pictures shot from my phone outside.

  Soon enough I'll be back into it full swing and we'll see some more updates.  For now, enjoy your holidays!  Merry Christmas.

50pts Bradigus (Circle) vs. Madrak2 (Trollbloods) Circle's new theme sucks. Bonus Calandra vs. Bradigus game also.

Sucks for everyone else, I mean. Except maybe Legion. Legion's beasts won't care much, but that's about it. There's been a bunch of discussion on Bradigus's new tier. It's janky, but it presents some pretty difficult issues. For starters, he only brings Wolds, with or without theme. Oddly enough, his theme does not allow Megalith. What his theme does allow is 3 units of stones, 3 units of Sentry Mannikins, can redeploy a model or unit, and the Sentry Stones starts with 3 fury. This allows Bradigus to push hard turn one, and with the Mannikins, create 9 forests across the board in a solid line. This creates some obvious LOS issues, which makes getting the charge off against hi-armor Wolds pretty difficult.

The Trollbloods forum/facebook group has been struggling with the Bradigus theme since Exigence dropped, trying to figure out how to deal with it, and my argument was for Madrak2. Both Grims have answers for the LOS, but neither really has the damage output to deal with four to six Wold Watchers at ARM21. Assassinating Bradigus at range is pretty impossible as well because of the Flesh of Clay animus that the Wold Guardian brings (one less dice damage for ranged attacks against target)

On top of that, Bradigus can assassinate pretty well. This Theme brings 3 units of stones, which can launch a Wold a long ways. There's a specific assassination tactic that involves a specific stone formation for the three units. I think Party Foul has it up on Youtube. The stones go up, one unit to launch a stone, the second unit to launch the guardian into formation with the stone that just got launched, and the third unit that the previous stone belonged to launches a Wold into your AD lines. It's brutal.

My argument for that has been Madrak2. With his feat, my dudes can just flat out run through the woods with pathfinder, feat, and swing at everything with blood fury as if they got the charge. Seems legit. So the guy that has been killing me with Cryx, and just recently switched back to Circle, brought Bradigus, and we set up.

Bradigus Tier III
*Wold Guardian
*Wold Guardian
*Wold Watcher
*Wold Watcher
*Wold Watcher
*Wold Watcher
Blackclad Wayfarer
Sentry Stone w/ Mannikins
Sentry Stone w/ Mannikins
Sentry Stone w/ Mannikins
Shifting Stones w/UA
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones

My Madrak2 list is not specifically tailored for this matchup, and is my normal anti-ARM list.

Madrak2
*Bomber
*Impaler
*Runebearer
Max Fenns w/UA
Max Warders
Max Burrowers
Min KSB w/UA
Fell Caller
Kithkar
Chronicler
Janissa

I won the rolloff and elected to go first, trying to get farther up the board. I deployed, opting for splitting the Fenns up to either side of the BG and dropping the Warders to the right. My opponent's deployement is pretty straightforward. Fairly symmetrical.



A bonus shot, showing off my banners. I actually forgot to add the Warder's banner to the lineup in this shot, but it doesn't have the white decor yet.



Stuff runs. Chronicler gets Tale of Mists on the Fenns for some extra DEF but that's about it. Most of the ranged attacks are going to be sprays later on, so it's not a big deal. Chronicler's really just an extra model this game.



So, Sentry Stones started with 3 fury, right? They run up, all of them, and drop forests. This is pretty annoying. Everything else moves up behind the woods, and he tries to position his stones so I can't catch them in my pseudo alpha. Bradigus gets Synergy out there. All of the Wold Watchers animus for free (Basically Roots of the Earth, no pushing, pulling, knocking down and can't be made stationary), and do Stone Form for a fury each. This gets them to ARM21 at the price of DEF5. Their base DEF is 10, so fairly easily hit anyways by most things, so it's not a big deal. My burrowers are happy though. My fell caller wonders what his purpose in life is.



So, options here. Burrowers are not going to be able to pop up on his side of the forest. That hurts a little. He kept back that far at least. He told me after the game that he'd of been more concerned if I had run them. Popping them up top of 3 behind his woods would have been bad, so he feels that he would have needed to engage them turn 1, which means he wouldn't have gotten as many forests down. I didn't do that though, so my burrowers pop up outside of his forests. I decide to push them into the woods as much as I can without pathfinder, and elect to leave them outside of melee range. Point Blank (the thing that makes Burrowers super cool with Madrak2, moreso than most casters) doesn't actually get a chance to happen during his feat because Point Blank is something that can only happen during their activation. Madrak's feat is during his activation, so that can't happen. I decide to just shoot with them, for two reasons. 1) The Burrowers are RAT4, and are relishing the chance to shoot something without needing help (DEF5 Wold Watchers), and 2) Madrak2's feat also grants an extra shot for ranged attacks. This means that I can get another round of POW14s out there from the Burrowers if I don't engage with them.

So they fire away, and do some damage. Nothing super crazy, but we're just getting started. The highlight, however, was the one dude that I engaged his Blackclad with. That guy pulled his weight, rolled a 10 on the gun, and one-shotted the Blackclad. I don't even think the Druid saw him. I just imagine this guy walking through the woods, steps on something that suddenly squirms, and lo! a firearm! Blam. Just blows this druid away. Anyways. Runebearer minifeats and gets Blood Fury on the Fenns, who proceed to minifeat as well, somewhat pointlessly. They cause Terror, and gain 2'' of movement on a the charge. They can't charge though, and there's now only 2 models that can possibly be affected by terror. So basically, I'm expecting to get these Fenns murdered on the counterpunch, and I'd like them to not fail their CMD. They run in there and engage a bunch of stuff.

The Bomber runs. No pitching bombs. Too many burrowers out there. Impaler runs. KSB runs. Madrak charges.... something. Possibly my impaler. Something. I needed the extra 3'' really bad. I think I kill a burrower actually, that I left behind on purpose. I wipe him out, and Madrak feats.

So all of the Burrower and Fenns that I just finished activating go again. This is not a timed-turn list. When the dust settles though, even with above average damage rolls, all four Wold Watchers stand. I took out spirit and mind on two of them, that that's it. I leave Madrak on 3 fury and move on.

Madrak is way up forward, so I push Janissa up, but she's nowhere close enough to put a wall in front of him. I debate about putting the wall just behind Madrak so nothing can push him backwards, but the way is pretty clogged up in front of him, and I don't think he can get anything behind Madrak, so Janissa just drops the wall in front of herself. Warders run, trying to be relevant. Kithkar runs, having the same struggle. And that's turn.





My opponent pulls in all his fury, and debates about how to get his synergy chain rolling. He wants all 6 wolds to hit, but 2 of them are in pretty dire shape. The two important guys though, the Guardians, are undamaged, which is good. So, the Mannikins activate first. They spray some stuff, and my Fenns start toughing. Couple of them tough pretty reliably. Part of this is cool because he's trying to clear lanes, but part of it is bad because now he's building Synergy really easy. So the Mannikins spray stuff, and the two beat up Watchers both hit things. One moves across and kills a Warder, believe it or not. Synergy, yo. Overall though, they pretty much wipe out all but 5 Fenns, 3 burrowers, and 4 Warders, which is pretty solid. However, the main problem suddenly becomes clear when the stones activate, and double teleport a Guardian into Madrak's back arc.

Yeah. I keep misjudging this freaking stones and their threat ranges.

I think the teleport happened pretty early, actually, and Bradigus got up there and started the synergy chain, feating most of his stuff forward. The other Guardian teleports across, hoping that the first Guardian can push Madrak into range of him. The back Guardian activates, and sure enough, starts wailing away. I've got 3 transfers and 2 Grim Salvation targets, and the Guardian goes through all 5. When the second Guardian gets to him, he hits once and I fail the tough.

Note that Madrak2 is off to the side by the Warders, but where he belongs is actually in between the two Guardians.



Thoughts on the game:

1. This tier sucks to play against. I see a lot of people racking their brains on how to deal with it, and there's just really not many good options. I think Trolls have some of the best chances against it, honestly, and even then it's limited. Grim1 or 2 comes to mind with their ability to ignore forests, but most people don't bring Armor cracking lists with those guys. No LOS, High ARM, almost impossible ranged assassination, and serious assassination threat ranges of its own are 4 huge challenges you don't normally see all in the same list. Grim2 might be ok with Magesight and Mortality. He can soften stuff up with Mortality, but he's still going to have a very difficult time, and there's going to be a turn where you just send everything in and take the counter-attack on the chin just to open up the forests. My normal circle drop is Jarl, and he's just toast against this list.

2. I do think Madrak2 has game against the list. For sure. Not as much as I had hoped, but it can be done. For starters, I definitely should have pushed in the Burrowers with a run. Secondly, I so badly screwed up not putting the wall behind Madrak. I would have won if I had. Bradigus was in the open, the feat was spent, and the Warders would have started one-rounding what was left of the Wolds.

3. What Bradigus looks like he's going to struggle against are:

-1) Dudespam. He doesn't have a lot of fury. The Watchers are going to use their initials, and that's it. The Guardians are where it's at. If you can fill up his lines with dudes, he's going to have a very long and hard game trying to clear things out. A couple of Troll tiers, most Cryx lists, stuff like that will be ok I think. They'll take the forest on the chin, but once you get past that, you're golden.

-2) Removing stones. Sure, that's always key against Circle, but it's a pretty huge part of Bradigus's plan. Dropping a stone early on is a huge thing if you can do it.

-3) Killing Mannikins. The Mannikins are the problem early on, dropping forests everywhere. If you can get to them somehow, and drop them the turn before you alpha, you're really hurting him. Grim2 would help with this again with a Bomber/Dozer and Magesight.

-4) Guardians/Wardens. Some lists have just 1 Guardian to benefit from the end of the Synergy chain. Others have two. Either way, especially if there's just one, focus on it. A Wold Watcher with +7 MAT and STR is pretty neat, but he still doesn't do what a Guardian can do.

-5) Wide lists/ flank attacks. Centralized scenarios and brick lists are stuff that Bradigus excels in because he can block LOS super easy. Once you start spreading out and get stuff coming in from crazy angles, he has a hard time stopping you.



3. Stuff that Bradigus can do to you.

-1) Assassinate you. He can put a Guardian in your AD zone bottom of 1, top of 2 if you don't watch what you're doing.

-2) Mystic Ward. Didn't bother Madrak, but it'll bother a lot of stuff you have.

-3) We've beat the LOS problem to death.

-4) You can't assassinate him by ranged very well. Flesh of Clay is an animus he will definitely have up any time there's a threat of it. If you've got Eiryss, sweet. If not, think of something else. Oh, and heads up, all of the Wold Watchers have Shieldguard, so the one shot from Eiryss that you REALLY need to hit with? It's going to hit a Wold Watcher instead.

-5) Armor skew similar to what Baldur2 can put out. Cygnar is going to hate this list so much. Stryker3 got all excited. "Armor skew?! I got this! Wait, I can't see anything? Dangit. I'm going back to my better incarnation. Somebody take this stupid horse away."




GAME 2. Oh yeah. Bonus game. Full batrep? No. Basically, we had time left, and I had my new caster that I have vassaled, but never played, Calandra. I won her as my 3rd place prize in an SR event, so I was kinda excited to play her, even on her unfinished base.



The other option was her upside down, breakdancing, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

My Calandra list was pretty simple. I don't ever get to play Mulg, so I brought him, and I like the new Highwaymen, a lot, so I brought them. Calandra can do the Befuddle thing, so I wanted to see what Highwaymen and Opportunist (granted by the HWM Solo) could do to backwards wolds. It wasn't a good matchup for Calandra at all, her only damage buff being her reroll ability, but sometimes that's not bad.

I learned a few things from my first game. I spread out considerably wider, for starters.



Forcing him to back up, instead of pushing up. Because he's not a nice person.



I engaged him with everything again, and most stuff did pretty well. I focused a bit more on a few Watchers, instead of all four, and I think I killed one. I even got lucky and shot out a stone with a burrower, and a Highwaymen one-rounded the Blackclad, again. However, I befuddled a Guardian, and got Opportunist, but because he had Flesh of Clay, I wasn't going to get 3 dice damage with the Highwaymen, and because I'm an idiot, and I didn't leave Calandra enough Fury to use Runebreaker from Mulg, and I didn't leave a charge lane for Mulg himself to get in there and do the work. In fact, I shot a Highwayman in the back 4 times trying to clear a lane, and he toughed, four times. Was very frustrating. The game ended much the same as the first one, except that Bradigus did the assassination himself, and when I was trying to fill up spaces around Calandra so nothing could teleport to be next to her, I blocked Mulg from being able to reach Bradigus. I don't feel like this game was unwinnable either, though certainly more difficult. Most of my issues were unfamiliarity with Mulg and Calandra though. Believe it or not, Mulg isn't a staple in my lists yet. Yet.

So yeah. That was that. Hopefully this has been some insight to the Bradigus Tier III, and what it can bring. I've got another 2 batreps like this that I'll blend into one, Grim2 vs. Ossrum. My first time dealing with the Dwarf colossal, the Earthbreaker. It's also one of the games I get to break out the Highwaymen again, and don't screw it all up with them like I did with Calandra.

Warmachine to Hordes, and building lists for Circle

  By building lists for Circle, I mean doing math, because there's really only 2 factors I have for building circle lists.  A)  I own this.  B)  It adds up to this.  

  My wife transitioned from Khador to Circle this week, and our first game was 50pts of Baldur1 vs. Madrak2.  Looking back, 50pts is probably not where anyone wants to start with their first game of the most complicated faction.  Baldur1, Bloodtrackers w/ Nuala, Druids w/ UA, Megalith, Warden, 2 units of Stones w/ UA and a Blackclad, and Nyss.  Trying to figure out the synergies between a new caster, faction, 2 new infantry units, 2 beasts, and stones which are a mystery all their own, on top of trying out the fury mechanic...  However, she didn't do bad, and had easily removed the Fenns, pretty nearly had the Champions gone, and SHOULD have killed my Impaler.  I managed to get Madrak2 going on his Tide of Death, and tangled with Baldur, sitting on 3 fury.  Luckily, my Bomber had been putting shots into Megalith, and cranking the damage rolls, so the second transfer killed Balder with the damage left over.

  However, she liked the faction.  She started painting the Bloodtrackers yesterday, rocking a red scheme.  She won't paint Khador red, but Circle, sure.  It looks pretty good though.  

  Essentially, she got tired of Khador and the focus stat.  When I can run my beasts conservatively, hang back, then go all out on the turn I need to, whereas she's limited to a set number of focus, it gets frustrating.  And against high P+S like Trolls can bring, she'd rather have Transfers than extra ARM.  She rather enjoyed being able to wing it with the fury mechanic, and get more out of her beasts.  As far as the fury mechanic goes, it clicked pretty well and she used it quite well.

  Focus and Fury has always been something of a debate.  It definitely leads to more infantry in Warmachine games.  For a game that stars robots and beasts fighting eachother, there aren't many robots running around.  It simply isn't efficient enough.  Every turn of allocating focus is a bet against what you think you can accomplish.  And after playing with Mulg, the Earthborn and a few others with 5 Fury, I don't know how I'll go back to a Stormclad with 3.  When my Mauler at Fury 5 can charge for 1, use both initials and buy 4 more attacks vs. a Stormclad that charges for 1, uses 2 initials and buys 2 more attacks, it doesn't trade very well. 

  This limits Warjacks to being used only on casters that can help their focus efficiency or casters that don't require their jack to do more than one or two things.  Casters that have a bond (4 focus), or casters that can give free charges, or boosted attacks (Kraye's pretty efficient with jacks) can get melee use out of their jacks.  Otherwise, the jacks are for shooting, which they can do for one or two focus.  Casters like Haley1, Haley2, Bart, so on, so forth.  One of the few exceptions is a list in our meta under Khador's Harkevich.  This guy runs 4 clamjacks and Black Ivan, and doesn't give them hardly any focus, all game.  He casts Broadsides every turn, drops a ton of AOEs everywhere, and sits on scenario at ARM25.  It's pretty hard to dislodge.  These examples, of course, ignore Menoth, because Menoth can run four jacks with the Choir and be completely fine.  

  So in most cases, you have 1, maybe two jacks in a list, and all infantry otherwise in Warmachine, because it's really not efficient any other way.  A spell like Blood Lust will do a lot more damage with a unit of Iron Fangs vs. 3 attacks from a Juggernaut.  

  Hordes doesn't have this issue as much.  So how does this level out?  At first glance, it doesn't, yet Warmachine factions continue to do well.  For starters, they're a bit beefier and can take a bit more punishment.  In some cases, they're cheaper.  Trollblood's best beasts start at 9.  Khador and Cygnar both have solid 7, 8pt options.  Hordes casters also don't generally have as much fury.  5 is far more common in Hordes than it is in Warmachine.  Secondly, a beast can frenzy.  See, the betting is still there.  Fury doesn't get out of the gambling game, it simply makes it more potent.  Instead of having a focus or two left on a jack that didn't use it all, sure, your Mauler killed something, but it's probably out of the game next turn.   It'll get one strong attack off at the closest enemy model, and it's done.  The main advantage is being able to stop allocating Fury when you want to, and not overdoing it.  You're able to push on the turn you need to as well, but you run the risk of not having any beasts next turn.  

  It does balance out, believe it or not, but if you're getting into the game to play large-based monsters of steel and flesh, you're not going to find it in most of Warmachine.  You'll find that the infantry does much better, generally is cheaper and has more utility.  However, it's easier with Hordes to make it up as you go.  As you reach a point where you can plan a whole turn or two ahead, Warmachine starts to come back into it's own, but quite frankly, my wife and I are both enjoying the Hordes side of things.  Jess loved the Fury, and played it like a boss.

  Circle, on the other hand, was more difficult.  First off, the Bloodtrackers preyed the Fenns.  After the game, she realized she'd done that backwards.  The Nyss were more than capable of handling the Fenns, whereas between Stone Skin (+2str, and the Tracker's ranged attack is a throw), and Prey, they could be POW13 boosted Damage (ranged attacks are weaponmaster) against Champions, and reform back.  At RNG7 with the ranged attack, and reform from Nuala, they could be 10'' away from a unit with an 8.5'' threat range (except Skaldi).  That's a good inch and a half of error for harassing my hard hitting unit every game.  Next game, I expect to struggle keeping my melee alive long enough to get into contact.

  She also feated turn 1, which worked out well for her as well, since between AD and the run, her Bloodtrackers were well within mini-feat range of the fenns.  With Baldur's feat though, the Fenns were stuck.  

  Baldur1's Solid Ground spell is also hard to deal with.  One of the best ways I have to deal with Hi-DEF infantry is blast damage, and Solid Ground cuts that out completely, for everyone.

  She also wasn't sure what to do with the Druids.  Next game, I imagine they'll be up front, putting out clouds all over the place, and I won't get any more Bomber shots into the Wolds.  This game, they held back till late game.  They managed to clear some champions, but really, didn't use much of their toolbox.  

  Then there was the stones.  She used them to block charge lanes in the end game, which was difficult to deal with as well, and they healed the Wolds a bit, but the only teleportation they did was the Warden, who got diced.  Out of 6 attacks, he missed 1 one against the Impaler, and at -3 dice, did 4 damage.  She actually had charge range on him, and should have done that instead, but it still wouldn't have been enough.  She got diced bad there.

  Otherwise, she attritioned me much better than she has before, and only got caught by Tide of Death from Madrak2.  

  I'm considering a few units for her.  I'd like to grab Morvahna1, and magnetize a Warpwolf for her (including Ghetorix).  I'm also curious about Slaughterhousers to run on Baldur1, and I imagine she'll want a Gallows Grove as well.  

  Overall though, she's liking Circle, enjoying the Fury mechanic, and I expect, will be thrashing my trolls here shortly.  I'm dreading the day when she picks up Morvahna2...

eKrueger vs. eStryker. Can we trade Stormwalls?

  I got down to the shoppe today in hopes of playing another buddy who plays Menoth.  I seem to be only able to make friends with mean people.  He was however engaged in a fight against an eButcher wielding maniac that's probably in the top three of our meta.  Undoubtedly in the top three, it's just a matter of which one.  Anyways, so I grabbed a blister of Nyss and Jonas Murdoch and then another guy walked in with a Woldwrath and was looking for a game.

  I'd already decided against pCaine, because my Lances are on the painting table, and I'm loving them so much, that I couldn't bring myself to play Caine without them.  I thought about Kraye, but decided to run with eStryker and the Boomies and see if I like them more than Nyss.

  Our lists:

  As I was gathering the army, I realized I'd walked out the door without my second bag of units, so I was missing not only my eStryker model, but my pStryker model I use to proxy pretty much anything.  So bear with me.
eStryker  (Proxied by pCaine.  He'll make the gameboard one way or the other, it seems)
*Centurion
*Lancer (Proxied by the minuteman)
*Squire
Stormblades w/UA and 2 gunners
Boomhowlers (max)
*Jonas Murdoch (Proxied by Stormblade Captain)
Rhupert
Runewood
Journeyman Warcaster (proxied by pHaley)

...Yeah, yeah, I know.

  My opponent brought... eKrueger, and no Woldwrath.  I didn't know if that was good or not.  But I had not played eKrueger yet.  Generally, I chalk my first game up against a new caster as a loss unless I've seen a lot of battlereports against the guy, or gal.  I had seen very few with eKrueger.  I just know that he has a two feats, one with a 3fury Upkeep called Stormwall.  The menoth player I'd been meaning to play had been caught flat-footed with it a few weeks ago during the Tournament, and it was terrifying.  Go me.  Also, there's a lot of Tharns.

Tharn eKrueger
*Tharn Ghetorix
*Tharn Warpwolf Stalker
Tharn Bloodtrackers w/ Nuala
Tharn Ravagers
Ravager Shaman (Also a Tharn, but I wanted to change it up)
Tharn Blood Pack
Tharn White Mane solo
Tharn Stones w/ UA

... I think that's everything.  *Builds list in Warroom*  Yeah, I think that's everything.  He rolled a 3, I rolled a 1, and he elected to go second and choose his boardside, which in this situation was probably wise.

  I built the map not to be symmetrical.  There's more cover on one side, and more forests on the other.  He chose the forested side, and I realized I was in trouble.  Happily one unit has pathfinder (Blazers) and I have Runewood and Rhupert to give pathfinder to the other two units.  So, ok.  Not a gamechanger.  Everything on his side of the board having AD sucks, but meh.

  I rememembered my Stormblades advance move, so they moved up.  The Journeywoman (pHaley's early days) drops Arcane Shield on the Boomies, and they run.  Jonas gives them Go to Ground, and they hang out.  Lancer runs up, the Blades filter in behind the Boomies.  The Blazers run up onto the hill, because the Bloodtrackers preyed them (Of course), and the Centurion runs forward too.  Support and Stryker filter in behind the Centurion, and Stryker drops Deceleration, leaving the Boomies at DEF16, ARM18

    The bloodtrackers push through the woods, the real Tharns get into the other woods, and hide behind the pylon things.  The beasts run forward, toeing into cover where they can.  Krueger moves in, and casts Stormwall, and drifts a POW10 Electrical AOE out in front of my Stormblades, which is funny.

  Stormwall. Wait, Circle has a Stormwall you say?  Well, it's not a giant 19pt Jack.  No.  My wife showed up next turn and watched me, so she knows where this game is headed.  She's sitting here next to me while I write my report, debating if she wants Apple Cider, or Ice Cream.  I'm trying to explain why I lose most of my army shortly.  "Stormwall is where everything I have in his control range, a whopping 28'', loses 5'' of range, and my AOEs deviate in the direction he chooses."

  "That's mean." She says.  "But it's only one turn."

  "No, honey, that's a spell.  He uses it every turn."

  "Oh.  Oh, that's wrong.  That's messed up.  What's his feat?!"  

  His feat, ladies and gentlemen, is that everything gets pushed 3'' away, and gets -2 SPD.  So no charging, assaulting, nada.  And you're really far away.  Welcome to eKrueger.  Awesome caster.  I need him for my own Circle.

  My wife is sitting here still.  "I think that caster's like cheating."  Which is hilarious, because she's an eHaley fan.

  So yeah.  There's all that.  The warpwolf warps for prowl.  And it's back to me.

ACTION SHOT!!!  WOOO.  IT'S A THARN!!!!

  Back to me.  I seriously consider feating, but I don't think I can get up far enough.  So the Lancer gets a focus, and Stryker keeps the rest.  Runewood gets pathfinder to the Boomhowlers, who run/assault the Tharn.  Three actually get a charge, the others tie up the other Tharn, and one gets in Ghetorix's face.   The other tries, but gets caught by a free strike.  The three guys that assault kill their two guys and Boomhowler does Fell Call.

  The Blazers move in, and don't manage to kill anything, because it's all in the woods, well placed beyond 3'' and DEF17.  So they lightcav back to the hill, except for one who moves into melee with them to tie them up.  My wife looks at me at this point, because this beautiful young lady had brough me Korean for lunch.  In between bites of eggroll, she acts like I've just betrayed one of my men to the enemy.

  It's safe to say I'll not be seeing that tactic from her.  Yet.

  The blades move up, with effectively RNG1, and hang out.  Rhupert gives them tough, and the Journeyman gives them Arcane shield.  The Lancer runs forward, within 10'' of the two Tharn Ravagers shielding Krueger.  Stryker drops deceleration again, and casts Refute at the Tharn unengaged with the Boomie I ran, and hit.  This prevents them from issuing orders, so no running or charging from them.  The Cent edges forward.  No feat today.

  Here we go.  Krueger pulls in his fury.  The Warpwolf gives Sprint to Ghetorix, then moves over and slays the Blazer stopping the Bloodtrackers, who charge forward.  Three manage to kill one Blazer and then they reform, staying back and three engaging the Blazers.  The Ravagers move in, and slay my Boomhowlers who proceed to fail 80% of their checks.  Needing 4-6, I consistently rolled 1s and 3s.  Good job guys.  And, on top of that, the Ravagers gain soul tokens with which they proceed to buy more attacks.  They pretty much ate through the boomies.  Normally, the tough would be a good counter for them, but not today.  Rhupert, Boomhowler himself and one other boomie survive both the Ravagers, and the Blood Pack both.  They also pass CMD.

  Ghetorix walks up, and smacks my Lancer with ease, completely smashing him.   Then he hits the Boomie too and kills him before sprinting away.  Krueger activates, moves up tantalizingly close to eStryker's threat range and feats.

  So much for that.  Everything gets pushed except the blazers, and my Journeyman, waaaaay in the back.

  So, I'm in trouble.  I'm managing to contest Zones, but I'm running out of models really quick.  The Stormblades group together a bit more, and run forward 6''... Which, now that I think about it, can a unit run when their speed is lessened?  Idk.  It wasn't a game changer.  Rhupert gets them Tough, and the Journeyman gave them Arcane Shield and that was it.

  The Blazers attempt to kill the three Tharn engaging them, but only kill 1, so they hang out.  I cast Deceleration again, and move up as much as I can, and that's turn for me.  I forgot to take a picture at this point because I was kissing my wife goodbye before she left for JCPennies.  

  So, Krueger takes up the momentum.  He then realizes that he put too much fury out there, and Ghetorix frenzies on an 11.  He charges in and kills that lone stormblade on the left, and hangs out.  The Tharns then bellow and charge in.  The Ravagers open the ball and finish off the Boomies.  The one on the left (center board) charges in and kills three Blades by himself.  The others attack the other three,  and they actually start making their tough checks, hanging in there on fives and sixes.  Go them!  When the Boomies couldn't do it with 4, 5 and 6.  So the Blood Pack choke on the Blades.  A couple tried to shoot the Stormblades, but they only manage to hit their own guy in the back and kill him. The Bloodtrackers though, are far more successful.  They charge the Blazers, and four of them kill off the remaining three between the charge and quickwork.  That was brutal.  Three move over to screen Ghetorix from my Centurion.

  The Warpwolf prowls and hangs out in the woods, and casts Sprint on something and something else.  I don't remember what all, but he had four fury on him.  Krueger hops over next to him, TKs Ghetorix back a bit so my Centurion doesn't smash him, in spite of the Bloodtrackers.  He TKs him to the left a bit, and drops Stormwall again.  The stones teleport, and that's turn.  2CPs to Circle.

  

    As if the turn before wasn't bad enough.  Now he's pretty nearly got both zones, definitely dominating one.  The Tharns, at 8 boxes each, are not going to die easily.  The Blades might could kill five or six of them with feat, but it's risky.  The Centurion is completely healthy, but that's pretty much it.  

  So I do what I normally do and put my dice on the table, and take a focus from the squire.  The Cent moves into the Bloodtrackers, and with the bond from eStryker, hits, and smushes the gal.  He misses with the shield, but meh.  Junior gives Arcane Shield to Stryker, and Runewood gives +2 to the charge attack to Stryker.

  Stryker velocities forward 6'', just past the pylon to the left.  I wanted to only go 4'' and save a focus, but it just wasn't going to happen.  He then proceeds to charge Krueger.

 Krueger has 2 fury on him, and the Warpwolf is full.  That leaves Ghetorix.  Stryker overcharges for a whopping +15STR and takes 9 damage.  Heck, yes.  With the +2 from Runewood, he's MAT9 and I decide not to boost, needing a six.  This isn't vassal.  I roll decent and hit.  The boosted attack is +15 damage to krueger, and I roll something terrible, like a four or five on three dice.  But, that's 19 damage with Overcharge.  He transfers to Ghetorix.  

  I buy, and boost to hit. The attack does 24 damage.  He transfers to Ghetorix and that kills him, and the remaining damage leaves 1 box on Krueger.  I buy and boost to hit with my last two focus, and hit, killing Krueger.  This last picture is terrible, so bear with me.

  

  Thoughts:

  1.  Krueger is murderous for Cygnar.  -5RNG every turn is brutal.  The feat isn't any fun either, but the Stormwall spell alone is horrendous.  His other stuff is ok, and I could definitely see Telekinesis being useful, but Stormwall alone makes this caster crazy. 

  2.  I don't know what I'd take against him.  At the end of the day, it'd probably be pStryker.  +5 ARM on feat turn and Snipe to kind of counter the Stormwall spell.  But even that would be really difficult.  I'd have to brick up with Silverline in the front and push my way up the board to deny his spell.  It'd be a tough haul.

  3.  Blazers didn't do much all game, but they tied up the Bloodtrackers.  I'll take it.  The left side of the board really just neutralized itself with the Bloodtrackers winning in the end.  Even if feat turn had done well, and I killed most of the Tharns in the right zone, I'd of had Bloodtrackers in my face next turn and it'd of been bad.

  4.  Stormblades didn't even swing once.  The boomies failed most of their checks, but killed a few Tharn.  They did tarpit decently, I suppose, lasting into turn...3? I think?  Yeah, turn three.  The two tough checks they did make managed to keep the Tharns occupied to the right.  The more I play eStryker, the more I feel like it's 35-50pts of stuff to occupy the badguys while eStryker waits for a mistake.

 5.  I don't know if I wish I'd brought Nyss or not.  Probably not.  Stormwall would have been brutal to them, and POW9, with probably no charges, would not have been great against Tharn.  Though, DEF15 might have been nice.  It's a tough call.

  Overall though, very good game.  I got lucky at the end.  If the stones had been placed differently, or if they had teleported Krueger into the woods, on the otherside of the Stalker, or if he'd of TK'd Ghetorix in my way, it may have been different.  And him killing his own Tharn helped a lot too.  That guy was right in the way of my charge.

  Good game, props to my opponent, and I'll see y'all around.

  

Batrep, 35pts Grayle (Circle) bs. eStryker (Cygnar)

  Believe it or not, I hopefully will have non-Vassal batreps here shortly.  I usually endeavor to get those posted up ASAP, and Vassal reps fall by the wayside, even when sometimes they're the best games.  Hopefully though, I'll be playing something other than Legion tomorrow, and I'm kind of excited about that.

  This game, however, is against Circle.  The guy I played here watched me play the eStryker vs. eMagnus game I have posted earlier.  As soon as it was concluded, he challenged me, eStryker vs. the Circle Assassination expert, which is Grayle, apparently.  We set up and got after it.

  I obviously brought eStryker back because that's what he requested.  I did, however, change up my tarpit unit for the Boomhowlers instead of my normal Nyss shenanigans.  I then traded out the Stormblade Captain for my Journeyman Warcaster with the extra point.  Two reasons.  1.  I actually own a full unit of Boomies, and not a full unit of Nyss (Yet), so I wanted to try the game with stuff I own.  2.  I'm finding that the Journeyman does more for me than the Captain.  I love the captain, but when I only have 1 unit of Stormknights, and 2 methods of getting pathfinder, (Rhupert and Runewood), he's pretty redundant.

  eStryker
*Centurion
*Squire
Stormblades
*UA
*1 Stormgunner
Boomhowlers
*Jonas Murdoch
Runewood
Rhupert
Madelyn Corbeau

 My opponent's list.

Grayle
*Warpwolf
*WoldWarden
Skinwalkers
*UA
Stones
Stones
*UA
Swamp Gobbers
Gallows Grove
Lord of the Feast

  I've never fought Grayle, or the LotF.  The only thing I know about this list is that it's a lot of ARM to handle, double stones mean long threat ranges where Tarpits may or may not work, and that the LotF makes my friends cry.

  I rolled off and got first, and the scenario was Outflank.  We deployed, and began.

   I actually remembered my Advanced Move from eStryker on the blades, so I did that.  The Centurion got one focus and eStryker kept the rest.  The Boomhowlers ran forward with Fell Call, and Jonas sent them to ground, the goal here being to make anything to high of a DEF for the LotF to hit, and if he did, a 50% chance of toughing is cool too.  They also got Dirge of Mists from Rhupert, bringing them to DEF17.  The Stormblades ran in behind the Boomies.  The Centurion went wide, Maddie snuck in with the blades, the Journeyman gave them Arcane shield, and Stryker camped his focus.  

  So, Grayle activates.  He puts Storm Rager and Sprint (From the Stalker's animus) on the LotF.  The Gallows port, forward, and then the Non-UA stones teleport the LotF.

  I know this guy is crazy for a 4pt solo, and I know that I want one.  I've never fought one though.  I've read the card a half dozen times, and I've seen batreps on the forums where people playing against him sob, but I've never fought him.

  I hate that guy.

  He ports forward 8'', towards the Boomies.  Everything else moves up.  UA stones port forward, Skinwalkers run.  Woldwarden tramples forward and animus's his little forest, the Stalker runs, Gobbers run, and the LotF shoots the Stormblade to the right of Jonas.  At first, I think the Boomies block LoS, except that they're dug in.

  That dude lands in there, threshers and kills Maddie, Jonas, my Stormblade UA, and three more Stormblades including my Standard Bearer and Stormgunner.  That's like, 9 points.  9 important points.  I just lost Assault on both infantry units, the Boomies no longer benefit from feat, Stryker loses 3'' to his 20'' threat range... Yeah.

  Then, with his soul tokens, he goes after Boomhowler himself.... and... dies to a freestrike from the Stormblade behind him.  Which made me very happy, because now I was very frustrated.  I dislike being that frustrated, and it doesn't reflect well on my sportsmanship.

  Quick Side note.  One thing I've recognized is my difference in play on Vassal and on the tabletop.  I can have the same thing happen at the tabletop, and I'll be frustrated, but not horrible.  In the privacy of my own home, it's a whole different story.  I'm not a happy camper when a 4pt solo wipes out three of the most important things in my list when I tried so hard to protect them.  Is this something you notice in your own vassal games?  It's something I'm noticing with me, and I don't know if my opponent can tell if it's there or not.  My opponent here knew I was frustrated, but we played it through, because it only got worse.  But yeah, if you feel like you're a completely different man sportsmanship wise on Vassal, please post your thoughts, because I think it's an interesting situation and it's something I want to rectify in my own personality.

  Back on subject.  The LotF is dead, which is good, becuase he probably would have killed Boomhowler and some of his dudes.  As it was, I was already in trouble.  And it was my turn now.

  I also forgot to take a picture, in my confusion with what to do next.  There wasn't much to do though, really.  The Cent gets a focus though, and everything moves up.  The Stormblades have Tough now, since pretty much everything he has is Fearless, and he's pretty much out of shooting.  The boomies shoot at one of the stones a bit, but fail to completely kill it.  I move them up as much as I can to block them from getting into my zone at all, and toe Stryker into the trench (That hole.)  Journeyman upkeeps Arcane Shield on the blades.  The Cent moves up with his useless one focus, since I'm not running him, and casts polarity shield, and that's pretty much turn for me.

  

  I'm trying to do this from my memory now, and it's pretty complicated.  But Grayle teleports up.  He kills a Boomie or two, steps over to a blade, and hits him, but he toughs, then he gets ready to teleport away to safety, except that he realizes he's in the melee range of the Centurion.  He seriously thought about casting Gallows (I think) and pulling the Cent in so he could be charged, but he didn't do it first, and took the chance.  The Centurion hits him, and takes him down to like, six or seven health.  Pretty nearly kills him, but not quite.  He runs off to his zone to dominate it.

  The tree toes into my zone, because it's a dirtbag.  The Gobbers move up and drop smoke.  Which I hate.  Those Gobbers are like, the most annoying 2 points ever in Hordes.  Especially with Cygnar who likes shooting casters?  It's frustrating.  But ok.  Good play.  The Wold gets teleported forward, and he beats on my Centurion a bit, but to no avail.  I think he has all systems intact.  The Wolves walk in though, and try to hurt him a bit more.  If I remember correctly, the Wolf got in there too, hit him for some damage, then sprinted away.  Then the Skinwalkers walked in there and finished his Cortex and nearly got the right arm.  

  I'm in a bad spot, but I see a glimmer of hope.  I camp focus on eStryker.  The boomies move up, and kill the tree, opening a spot for my Caster.  He velocities all the way forward, then walks through the hole the Boomies made and boosts to hit as he shoots at Grayle, at which point, my opponent points out that his caster has stealth.

  This has been a bad game so far.  My opponent, the champ that he is, tells me to take it back though.  Just go back and do something else with eStryker, or if I'd like, call the game, because he knows I'm frustrated.  The dice haven't been good at all, the LotF trashed me, Grayle's stealthed, it's just been horrible.  I have no UAs for my units, only three or four dudes will benefit from feat.  It's just been nasty.  However, he's also playing a really solid game with the exception of getting caught by the Centurion's free strike.  I hate when I'm playing a solid game, and somebody just calls it.  So I stick it out, but pull stryker back.

  I would have used the Boomies differently, but it's too late for that.  The Stormblades charge the Wold, and kill him.  Pretty easily.  The Centurion kills a few Skinwalkers, so that's not too bad.  The feat lets me kill another one, and toe a Blade into his zone to contest it.  

  

      So, that turn hurt him, but I'm still not in great shape.  Grayle reeves in his fury.  The stones teleport the objective into the zone to dominate it, which I'd completely forgotten about.  However, I'm up to three points I think, and it won't take much to get up to five.  His skinwalkers move in, kill the Stormblade contesting the zone, and then surround the Centurion, who I believe has Arcane Shield at this point, because he's just tanking it.  They do kill off the Stormblades though, with the help of the Warpwolf, who did his stuff, then sprinted away, full on fury.  So, Stormblades are gone, Centurion is surrounded.

  Grayle charges in to finish the Boomies... and fails his charge.  He guestimated on the charge lane, and got caught on a Skinwalker.  I offered to let him take it back, but he wanted to learn from it, so he left Grayle there.  And that was turn.

  For all of my frustration, and irritation with myself, and as well as my opponent had played, and obviously had this game in the bag, it got ended when eStryker velocitied over, and with the +2 to charge attacks from runewood, got in there and killed Grayle in one blow.  The boomies moved out of the way, obviously, and the Cent beat on a few skinwalkers, but it was game over when the turn began and my opponent knew it.

  

  Thoughts on this game.

  1.  I felt horrible winning this one.  For keeping a cool head in a game, I got overly frustrated with this one.  Watching one solo just waltz through my army is horrifying.  And it's just a game.  This game is not my best representation of sportsmanship, but I wanted to batrep it anyways because:
   A)  My opponent, Seraphim_Guard, was a champ.  He's going to be playing in an online Vassal tournament against me shortly, and I'm looking forward to it.  If you see this guy on Vassal, he's a fantastic opponent, is great to play against, and I can't recommend him enough.  He was completely cool with me calling the game, and understood my frustration.  When I failed as a sportsman, he excelled graciously, and I wanted to showcase that with this batrep.
  B)  I wanted to pull out something I think I see in Vassal.  I've noticed a tendency with myself especially, to have a much worse attitude about the game than I think I would in person, and I wanted to bring that up as a topic.
  C)  Seraphim_Guard really did play a fantastic game, and had it very much in the bag except for that one mistake, and I felt like it was a good game to show.  He built a very, very strong list using animuses and solos and whatever else.  It's a tough list, and I want to open up the bragging rights for him on that one.

2.  Back to thoughts on the game.  I like the Boomhowlers.  They're not DEF19 like the Nyss are with Jonas, but they don't need Rhupert feeding them tough all the time.  And while the Nyss are Weaponmasters, the Boomhowlers are POW...12?  Or 13?  It makes up for it.  The RAT also isn't what the Nyss's is, but the power from the gun is great.  I think on the assault, these guy might be better against Jacks and such.  Against infantry, the Nyss will win.

3.  Jr. vs. the Stormblade Captain.  Doh.  Should have done that a long time ago.

  Overall, very good game, and I owe Seraphim_Guard one for putting up with my sorry carcass.  Shoutout to a great guy on Vassal.