Angelius

My first Angelius is now complete. The next will be a while since it's still unfiled in the box, but with Typhon coming I have a reason to get on wtih him.This one I deliberately placed on an extra high base. My experience with playing Seraphs had taught me that trying to get base to base with things with wings was an exercise in frustration, so by building the base up the Angelius's wings would be over top of the typical model out there. I wasn't worried about people drawing LOS since the regular model is pretty impossible to hide anyway.

To help with balance issues the core of the cork base is hollow and a large lead fishweight is glued inside it to the base. This works fairly well, but the model can still be a bit tippy when not on the flat.The area around the wings is also a bit rough. The Angelius learned that even Dire Trolls do not compare to the power of a curious three year old who manged to rip off five of its six limbs before daddy caught him.

Seraph #2

This is my second Seraph painted. The paintjob on this one is a bt rougher than the other due to the wings being broken off during the painting process. Always keep a firm hold of your models. All the paints are from Games Worshop. The green is Catachan green blended up to Camo green while the brown is a base of Scorched Brown blended up to Vermin Fur with a final highlight of Vermin Fur plus Blazing Orange.

Lylyth and her boxset

So way back when Hordes first came out I picked up the Legion battlebox. Played it a bunch. Painted it all up. Except for Lylyth. She was mostly painted, and between one thing and another remained that way for over a year. But she's done now so up she goes.

All the paints used were GW. The cloak is painted the same as the beasts in my army, Catachan Green blended up to Camo Green. Her spines are like the beasts scales, Scorched Brown blended to Vermin Fur with a touch of Vermin Fur + Blazing Orange for the final highlight. Her flesh was Rotting Flesh that was then washed with Thrakka Green wash, then more Rotting Flesh with white added to make the later stages of highlights. I attempted to paint a dragon on her cloak, but my free hand skills being what they are I think we'll call it an abstract piece rather an actual copy of the Everblight symbol.

Baldur vs Lylyth - Ridge Raiders

Ridge Raiders - 500 points Baldur vs Lylyth

We pulled out the Steamtroller 4 scenarios and rolled to choose which one we going to play. Neither of us were particularily excited about Ridge Raiders but decided to give it a shot.

Circle:

Baldur, the Stonecleaver
Warpwolf
Woldwarden
Woldwatcher
Beastmaster + 5 Tharn Ravagers
Sentry Stones

496 points.

Legion:

Lylyth, Messenger of Everblight
Teraph
Seraph
Seraph
The Forsaken
The Forsaken
Raptors
Shepherd
Strider Deathstalker
Swamp Gobbers
Feralgeist

496 points.

Set Up

Defenstrator had picked up a new river template and was looking for a chance to use it so the lower left hand corner of the board was a river bend. On either side of the river was a stand of trees with a third stand in the middle. The right hand side of the board was a small hill and a small ruin. I won the dice off for deployment and chose to take the first turn.

The Warpwolf and the Ravagers were placed as close to the centre forest as I could manage with Baldur just a little bit in front of the Tharn. The Woldwarden was placed near the trees by the river.

On the Legion side, Defenstrator set up the Teraph in the ruins with a Forsaken on either side with the Shepherd on the left of the group. The Feralgeist, Seraph , Lylyth and Seraph 2 were near the centre of the deployment zone with the Swamp Gobbers slightly behind them and the Raptors on the far side of the river by the trees.

When the advance deploy phase came I placed the Sentry Stone mid table by the bend in the river and the Woldwatcher by the Woldwarden. Defenstrator placed the Strider Deathstalker at the top point of the ruins.


Circle Turn 1

The Sentry Stone produced a Mannikin behind it near the river and Baldur cast Earth's Blessing on the Warpwolf before walking into the trees. The Warpwolf gave himself +2 ARM and promptly ignored the fact that he could now walk through the trees by walking up the clear ground between the trees and the hill.

On the other side of the board the Woldwarden moved up beside the trees and was followed by the Woldwatcher who put Vigilance on the big guy to save him from a Raptor charge.

The Ravagers ran into the trees and took up position around Baldur while the Mannikin moved up the river to a place that it could have been created but I wasn't thinking about where I actually wanted it to be.

Legion Turn 1

The Raptors walked through the forest to the river and shot the Mannikin to kill it. As fast cavalry they used their free move to then push up the board, with only one of them making it to the other side of the river.

The Deathstalker aimed and shot at the Ravagers doing 2 points to one of them while Seraph 1 cast Slipstream and moved sideways to place the Teraph forward. The Teraph then moved into the ruins and shot shot at the Sentry Stone. (What's the point of Invisibilty when your main opponent has so many things that have Eyeless Sight?). The Teraph was out of range and the shot deviated away to do nothing. The beast then riled for 3 Fury. Forsaken 1 moved up to claim this Fury.

Seraph 2 cast Slipstream and moved forward, pulling Lylyth with it. Lylyth then moved forward herself and shot at the Ravagers. With boosting to hit and damage she managed to kill 2 of them. Moving up behind Seraph 2 the Swamp Gobbers laid a smoke template in front of Lylyth.

The Shepherd, Forsaken 2 and Feralgeist all moved into the ruins.

Circle Turn 2

Baldur leached to full Fury and upkept Earth's Blessing and the Sentry Stone created a Mannikin towards the ruins.

The Woldwarden moved forward and cast Earth Spikes at the Raptors managing to kill one of them. The Woldwatcher followed it and, once again, cast Vigilance on the big guy. The Mannikin moved over to hug the ruin.

Baldur moved forward to the edge of the trees and cast Rapid Growth between the ruin and the hill. I couldn't get the template exactly where I wanted to because there wasn't quite enough room for the whole forest but it was close enough. He then burnt a Fury and then feated.

The Ravagers charged the Deathstalker and killed her and the Warpwolg took advance of Earth's Blessing and moved in behind Baldur.

Legion Turn 2

Defenstrator had planned poorly for this turn and could only leach 2 Fury to Lylyth so she decided to cut herself up to full. Following Baldur's lead Lylyth also feated and shot at the Woldwatcher for 8 points.

Seraph 2 moved forward and shot at the Woldwarden with 1 extra shot doing a total of 11 points. The Shepherd simply moved in front of the Teraph.

Seraph 1 shot the Ravagers with 4 extra shots and killed 2 of them plus the Beastmaster. The Teraph moved in front of Seraph 1. It attacked, and killed, another Ravager. Being Fearless has its advantages and so the remaining Ravager did not turn tail and flee.

The Swamp Gobbers moved behind Seraph 2 and laid a gas cloud in front of the beast and Lylyth. Forsaken 1 ran to the ruins while Forsaken 2 moved around the ruins to get the 3 Fury off Seraph 1. The Raptors Double Shot the Woldwatcher for 3 points and spread out over the ridge.

Circle Turn 3

Baldur leached to full Fury and dropped Earth's Blessing and Rapid Growth. The Sentry Stone produced a new Mannikin as close to Lylyth as it could manage.

The last Ravager charged the Teraph and missed. Twice. Defenstrator had managed to kill all the Ravagers except the one carrying the Heart Token and the boy can't produce. Sigh.

The Sentry Stone stole Fury from Lylyth and from Seraph 2. The Mannikin by the ruins stepped forward and destroyed itself to spray Lylyth. It used Fury from the Sentry Stone to boost but still managed to miss. Time to throw something else at Lylyth to try and soften her up a little more.

The Woldwarden cast Earth Spikes at her and not only hit, but managed a critical hit knocking the Legion warlock down. She transferred the 7 points of damage to Seraph 2. The Woldwatcher moved forward into the river and took it's chance to actually hit something. The 14 points it inflicted were also transferred to Seraph 2 and the beast was killed.

The newly created Mannikin walked forward to Lylyth and turned into a forest. Baldur then used that forest to Forest Walk to engage Lylyth and begin pounding on her with his big, stone sword. The first 12 points he did were transferred to the Teraph but that was the last of Lylyth's Fury and the next attack killed her.

Myantek

Woo! It worked!

When I feated at the end of my second turn I was a little concerned that it was too soon and I might have benefited from waiting a bit and trying for a scenario win. I didn't think that I could win on the scenario because Defenstrator's army was just that much bigger than mine and I didn't think I'd be able to get rid of enough models before he got rid of enough of mine. So when he moved to a position that I liked I took the chance of feating. Something I've noticed with Baldur is that people get so caught up in where they can't move they sort of overlook where they can move. Worst case scenario he would've remembered to Bushwhack Lylyth and she'd be farther away. I would've had to switch targets but I would have cleared out the beasts a bit. I have to admit that the critical knockdown on the Earth Spikes was a nice piece of luck.

I've tweeked my Baldur army and I'm a lot happier with it now. The Warpwolf will probably be replaced by a Satyr (whenever it manages to get built) but the Earth's Blessing spell that Baldur has lets everything move through difficult terrain which is handy. I had no worries for Fury (even though the Warpwolf didn't do anything) it was nice to have it hanging around with my warlock.

Defenstrator

The moral of this story is to pay attention and don't rush. My first elementry mistake was when the Forsaken claimed the fury on the Teraph. I had already earmarked that in my head for Lylyth, but when I came to the Forsaken's actiavation I grabbed the fury, because that's what he always does.

My much bigger mistake was failing to Bushwhack with Lylyth. I was so caught up with hosing the Woldwarden down with the Seraph that I literaly forgot to make Lylyth's second attack and to back up. After the Seraph was done, I realised how badly I just screwed myself. Sure enough, Myantek did not let this mistake go to waste. She made aboslutely sure that Lylyth was going to be dead. So much so that there wasn't much left for Baldur to do once he finally teleported into the forest beside her.

I don't really have a set list, I tend to just stuff stuff together. If I had a do over I would certainly drop a Forsaken. With just three lights and no lessers I had no problem getting by with just one, and with my 4 spare points I could have taken another Deathstalker instead.

Three Lancers

So here are all my Lancers completed. You may notice that one of these things is not like the other. That's because when I picked up my second Cygnar battlebox I didn't pay attention and ended up switching the Lancer and Charger bodies. Another change is that I converted the Lancer on the far left by switching its weapon arm with my other Charger. I cut and repinned the weapons on both so I could have the Lancer in a more aggressive over hand grip.

Wreck Markers

I painted up my wreck markers for both Cygnar and my Mercs. The irony is that I haven't yet completed any of my Cygnar heavies but the wreck marker is all done. I should probably pick up a light jack marker for my Mercs, but with just the Vanguard I don't feel much urgency.

Charger #2

This is my other Charger. I figured if I didn't paint it right away it was never going to be painted at all. Even so I suffered a little mocking from my friends, who wanted to know why I was spendning time painting a Charger when I had all these figures I actually regularly played with to do.

All paints were GW aside from the brass. The model was basecoated Boltgun Metal over black primer. The whole thing was washed with Badab Black. The brass was then applied with a basecoat of Privateer Moten Bronze followed by Privateer Brass Balls. They were then washed with GW Ogryn Flesh. The steel was then highlighted with Boltgun Metal, Chainmail and Mithril Silver. The entire model was again washed with Badab Black, which ties the colours together and takes the shinyness off. The blue was GW Foundation Necron Abyss shaded up to Foundation Mordian Blue with some Enchanted Blue mixed in for the final highlight. The yellow was based with Foundation Macharius Solar Orange, then covered with Blazing Orange, and fianlly highlighted with Golden Yellow and Sunburst Yellow.

Sentry Stones and Mannikins

Rocks and trees and trees and rocks... The painting of my Baldur army continues (although this finishes off my Kaya army) with the Sentry Stones and Mannikins. I have two units but one of the Mannikins lost an arm and I'm waiting on a bits order to finish him off.

I wanted a subtle red on the rocks because I didn't want them to really stand out.

Battlebox Battle: Lylyth vs Kaya

278 points Legion vs 275 points Circle Battlebox fight.

So, it's been a while since the blog was updated. Games were played, painting was done, blog was neglected. So it's back to the grind and finishing things. One of the things done was that I finaly finished Lylyth. She's been in an almost done state for over a year, and now that she is finaly done we thought it might be nice to have a quick fully painted core game.

Legion:

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

Carnivean

Shredder

Shredder

Shredder

Shredder

Circle:

Kaya the Wildborne

Warpwolf

Argus

Argus

Set Up

On the right side of the board were two hills, with a forest between them. The centre was clear, while the left side had a forest at each end with the Cryx Necro-mine thing from Gale Force 9 between them.

I (Defenstrator) won the toss to go first. I set up on the centre right of the board and, going from right to left, set up Shredder 1, Shredder 2, Shredder 3, Carnivean, with Lylyth beside but slightly behind the Carniven and Shredder 4 beside her. Myantek set up opposite with Argus 1, Kaya, Warpwolf, Argus 2.

Scenario

We played a straight assassination battle.

Turn 1

Legion

Everybody except Lylyth ran. The Carnivean and Shredder 4 moved into the trees while the other three Shredders moved up the centre. Lylyth walked up behind the trees and puts Tenacity on eveyone except Shredder 1.

Circle

Argus 2 walked on to the hill and riled. Warpwolf takes +2 ARM and moved onto the hill. Argus 1 moved onto the hill beside and ahead of the Warpwolf. Kaya then moved behind the Warpwolf and put Rager on the Warpwolf and Cloak of Mists on Argus 1.

Turn 2

Legion

Funnily enough for an army made out of eyeless sight models that Cloak of Mists now put me in a bad position. I had hoped to snipe at range to force them towards me, but Lylyth has no eyeless sight so my closest target was the Warpwolf. If I moved close enough to shoot it then Argus 1 would surely just run up for a Kaya assassination run. So manuevering was going to be a bit tricky.

My turn started and I realised that I had moved Lylyth so that her control zone no longer included Shredder 1. Whoops. So Lylyth leached only 4 and Shredder 1 checked for frenzy, which he fortunately passed.

Shredder 4 moved forward, close to the edge of the trees. Shredder 2 went Rabid, walked up beside Shredder 4, and cast Tenacity on itself. The Carnivean moved up beside them. Shredder 3 moved partially into the trees and cast Teancity on the Carinvean, while Shredder 1 moved over to get near Lylyth. Lylyth then walked up behind her wall of beasts and used her Arcing Fire to shoot over them into the Warpwolf, who took a measly 2 points of damage. That was followed by casting Bad Blood on the Warpwolf.

Circle

Kaya leeched all the fury and took 2 points of damage from Bad Blood, and upkept both Rager and Cloak of Mists. Myantek decided that attacking into the woods was a losing propostion and so decided to manuever some more.

Argus 1 ran to the table centre followed by Argus 2. The Warpwolf took +2 ARM, walked up by Argus 2 and Regenerated the 2 points of damage it had taken. Kaya moved behind the Warpwolf.

Turn 3

Legion

Lylyth leeched all the fury. Seeing Kaya circling around she cast Tenacity on everyone and moved back. Shredder 1 walked back towards the table centre. Shredders 2, 3, and 4 went Rabid and did the same. The Carnivean ran to join them.

Circle

Kaya leeched and continued to upkeep Rager and Cloak of Mists. Argus 1 and 2, and the Warpwolf, all ran back to the hill. The Warpwolf riled for two more fury. Kaya then cast Spirit Door to move over beside Argus 2.

Turn 4

Legion

Lylyth leeched all. Shredder 4 went Rabid and put Tenacity on himself, then walked into the trees. Shredder 3 did the same. Lylyth moved up behind this little fleshwall and used Arcing Fire to shoot the Warpwolf, this time destroying its Spirit with a boosted dmaage roll. Lylyth then cast Bad Blood again and camped on 1 fury point. Shredder 2 went Rabid and ran up beside Lylyth, The Carnivean and Shredder 1 walked over to end up near them.

Circle

Kaya leeched everything and took 3 more points of damage from Bad Blood, putting the total at 5 wounds. Kaya upkept nothing. Argus 1 walked up to Shredder 3, but bounced off the surprisingly tough Shredder. Kaya then made her move and cast Spirit Door, ending up within reach of Lylyth. Kaya attacked and Lylyth transfered 11 points of damage to Shredder 1. Kaya then feated and took six more fury. She continued to attack Lylyth, and missed, then hit for 8 points of damage, and then missed again. At the end of this turn Myantek conceeded, since a wounded Kaya had no fury and was standing next to Lylyth, 3 Shredders, and a Carnivean, with Lylyth still having her feat to use.

Afterword:

Defenstrator

A tight little game. One thing I found interesting was that I didn't feel over pressured by the amount of fury I had to deal with. When I play larger forces fury is always strictly accounted for. As soon as I get more than 3 fury over what the warlock can take in goes a Forsaken. In this game I had 12 fury on a 5 fury warlock, but the only time I got into trouble was when I wandered a Shredder out of my own control area. Of course I never had a crazy attacking turn where I would have been stuck with the aftermath either. Still, it was fun to go back to basics.

Probably the toughest part of this game was that neither of us was willing to engage except on our own terms. We had tiny armies that circled each other for awhile before the end suddenly came. I couldn't afford to send the Carnivean in against anything but the Warpwolf. Pouncing on an Argus would just get it killed by a counter attacking Warpwolf. I also couldn't afford to get too close to Myantek's army unless I wanted beasts to charge out, hurt me, and be Spirit Doored back to safety.

At the same time Myantek didn't dare get too close either. An isolated Argus could have easily been torn apart by Shredders, and Lylyth herself could just keep plinking and moving away with her bow. I ended up making a wall for Lylyth to hide behind and shoot at what I could, hoping to bait Myantek too close. As it was I screwed up. Kaya was able to make the assassination run and if Myantek had rolled the Crit Knockdown Kaya would have beaten Lylyth's head in. As it was I got lucky and Kaya wasn't able to finish the job.

Myantek

All I needed was doubles. The thing about Kaya is that she's all about moving the battle to where she wants it to be. Legion sort of nullifies that strategy by being able to ignore half the things Kaya can use to her advantage. It becomes a game of small maneuvers until one person makes a mistake or takes the chance. As it was I probably shouldn't have taken the chance.

I wanted the Argus close enough to let Kaya jump on Lylyth but I didn't want it doing any damage to the Shredder to let Lylyth transfer damage and then get more Fury to do more transfers. He was just going to be a Kaya delivery device. I was hoping to get to position where either Kaya or the Warpwolf could charge but the wall of Shredders was preventing that. Even so, I thought I had a fairly good shot at pulling down Lylyth because she's really not that tough. Unfortunately the dice were not quite with me. Kaya was left exposed, vulnerable and (even though Defenstrator wanted to roll out the end "just to be sure") dead.

Playing with two Arguses (Argui? Argi? whatever) was interesting as there's just better things in the Circle tool box to play with. It was nice to see fully painted armies on the table too. Even if it was just the battle box.