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.

Process of Elimination: Baldur vs Rhyas

500 points - Circle vs Legion

I'll warn you now; there are alot of unpainted minis on the board. We've been playing but not blogging and while it may seem like all we've been doing is painting because of all the painting updates I thought it was time to try something new. So on to Baldur...

Circle:

Baldur the Stonecleaver
Woldwarden
Woldwarden
Woldwatcher
5 Tharn Ravagers + Beastlord
Shifting Stones

Legion:

Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
Carnivean
Seraph
Nephilim Soldier
Harrier
Shredder
7 Blighted Swordsmen + Vassal
Forsaken
Shepherd
Swamp Gobbers

Set Up

On the far left of the board a small hill was placed with trees at the mid point and another hill on the near side. The middle of the board had a small ruin and the right side of the board was a large hill flanked by two barricades.

Circle began placing models with Woldwarden 1 on the right, Baldur in the middle and the second Woldwarden on the hill. The Ravagers filled in the space between Baldur and the hill. When the advance deployment phase came the Woldwatcher was placed on the hill with the Woldwarden and the Shifting Stones by the barricade close to Woldwarden 2.

On the Legion side the Shepherd and the Seraph were placed on the far left with the Swordmen forming a block in front of them. The Swamp Gobbers and Rhyas were in the middle of the board with the Shredder behind them and the Nephilim and Carnivean were on the far right of the board with a Harrier and the Forsaken behind them.

Scenario

We played the Process of Elimination Scenario from the Steamroller 4.0 tournament rules. There are 4 12" wide territories running north to south on the battlefield. Control of these territories or death of the warlock are the conditions to winning the game.

Circle Turn 1

Baldur began by casting Rapid Growth on the area beside the ruin and then moved forward. Woldwarden 2 moved forward on the hill and riled for 1 Fury and Woldwarden 1 moved into the ring of Stones and riled for 1 Fury as well. The Ravagers ran forward into the new forest and the Stones teleported Woldwarden 1 onto the hill. The Woldwatcher then moved forward with Woldwarden 2.





Legion Turn 1

The Shepherd ran forward off the hill and the Seraph moved to join her. The Swordsmen ran toward the with the Swamp Gobbers close behind. They then threw smoke over the lead Swordsmen. Rhyas cast Rapport on the Carnivean and then cast Dash to move into the cloud around the Swordsmen. The Shredder used Tenacity and moved to join Rhyas. The Nepilim and Carnivean (who used Spiny Growth) both ran up the hill toward Woldwarden 1. The Forsaken moved forward to take 3 Fury off the Carnivean and the Harrier simply ran forward.


Circle Turn 2

Baldur leached all Fury and upkept the Rapid Growth forest for the Ravagers. He then moved forward and cast Earth Spikes at the Swordsmen. It missed, deviated 1" and did no damage.

Woldwarden 2 shuffled into the zone on the far left and used Undergrowth (keeping just inside Baldur's control area). On the far right Woldwarden 2 did the same thing. The Woldwatcher moved forward and used Vigilance on itself. The Ravagers consolidated within the mystical forest and the Stones shifted between the hill and the ruin.

With just the Woldwardens in the outermost control zones I collected 2 points towards a scenario win.

Legion Turn 2

Rhyas leached all the Fury and upkept Rapport.

The Seraph aimed at Woldwarden 2 and, with a boost to hit, managed to get an extra 3 shots. Luckily for me the Woldwarden is a tough nut to crack and only 4 points of damage were done to the construct. The Harrier moved beside the ruin.

Rhyas cast Slipstream and Dash then moved toward the hill. The Carnivean was the target of Slipstream and inched along the hill.

The Shredder moved in behind Rhyas and used Tenacity on her. The Nephilim moved off the hill to join them and put Massacre on the Carnivean. The Carnivean charged Woldwarden 1 and (thanks to Rapport) manages to destroy it. Baldur reaved the Fury because he was going to need it later. The Forsaken moved in behind Rhyas and removed 2 Fury from the Nephilim. The Forsaken was now holding as much Fury as it could.

The Swordsmen charged Baldur and the Ravagers (some of them simply ran to maintain unit coherancy). They missed attacking attacking Baldur but managed to do 3 points of damage to one of the Ravagers.

The Shepherd ran towards the ruin and the Swamp Gobbers moved up to place smoke in front of the Swordsmen.

Circle Turn 3

Baldur leached all the Fury he could but had to leave one on the Woldwatcher. He chose to drop the forest this turn.

The remaining Woldwarden moved out of the trees and cast Earth Spikes on the Swordsmen. It missed and deviated harmlessly away. Taking advantage of Baldur's affinity with constructs, the Woldwatcher charged the Swordsmen. It killed one of them with its second attack.

Baldur engaged 2 Swordsmen and killed them both leaving him one Fury that he chose to keep. He then used his Broken Earth feat to save himself for a turn.

The Ravagers charged the Swordsmen and killed the only one they could reach. The Stones shifted in behind the Ravagers.

Legion Turn 3

Rhyas leached all the Fury she could (using the Shepherd to collect Fury from the out of range Seraph) but had to leave some on the Carnivean. She chose to continue upkeeping Rapport. The Carnivean chose this moment to Frenzy. Luckily for Defenstrator, the configuration of the hill prevented the beast from doing more than moving toward the closest models.

The Seraph shot at the Woldwatcher and once again got 3 extra hits. Unlike the shot at the Woldwarden all 4 shots hit and do a total of 16 points of damage to the smaller construct. Not quite enough to destroy it.

The Swordmen couldn't get any closer to Baldur so backed up around the Seraph instead.

Rhyas cast Dash and Slipstream and moved behind the ruins. The Shepherd ran back toward the hill and the Forsaken moved behind the Nephilim. It used Blight Shroud to remove all the Fury it had accumulated but it did nothing as there were no enemy models in range.

The Swamp Gobbers moved towards Rhyas and continued to lay down smoke and the Harrier benefited from Slip Stream to shift around the ruins. The Shredder and Nehilim continued to move with Rhyas.

Circle Turn 4

Baldur leached all the Fury he could and cast Rapid Growth and Undergrowth as he moved into the midst of the Ravagers.

The Woldwatcher moved into the trees and shot at the Seraph doing only 2 points of damage. The Woldwarden followed and cast Earth Spikes at the Seraph for a further 5 points.

The Ravagers charged the Swordsmen and killed another 2 of them and the Stones teleported in front of Baldur trying to block any possible charge lanes.

Legion Turn 4

Rhyas leached all the Fury from the Seraph but left 1 Fury on the Carnivean. She decided to drop Rapport. The Carnivean then frenzied again. Being actually in range of something he charged and killed the Forsaken. Rhyas then charged the Ravagers and brought forth the Tide of Blood. She managed to kill 3 Ravagers immediately by decapitation and then turned invisible.

The Nephilim charged the Ravagers and killed just one. The Seraph aimed and shot at the Woldwatcher but with only 1 extra hit managed to do just 1 point of damage.

The Shepherd charged the Ravagers and managed to kill the Beast Lord and then moved on to attack the remaining Ravager.

It took a Rabid Shredder to finish off the last Ravager and then it moved onto the Woldwatcher doing another 2 points to it. Finally, a Swordsman managed to kill this construct (Baldur reaved the Fury left on it).

The Swamp Gobbers moved up behind the Nephilim and put smoke on Rhyas, the Shredder and the Shepherd while the Harrier moved through the ruins.

Circle Turn 5

Baldur leached all the Fury available to him and upkept Rapid Growth.

The Woldwarden moved up to Rhyas, used Undergrowth, and attacked. Unsurprisingly, it missed.

Baldur attacked Rhyas and did 14 points (which was enough to kill the Harrier). His next attack did 10 points directly to her, leaving her alive.

Legion Turn 5

Rhyas leached all the Fury she could but the Shredder still Frenzied, doing 4 points to one of the Shifting Stones. The Carnivean still had Fury on it but did not Frenzy this turn.

Rhyas pulled out her sword and attacked Baldur. The first attack missed but the second attack decapitated him (19 points of damage on the critical) and won the game.





Afterword

Myantek

So, apparently Baldur is a bit of a beatstick... I hadn't really realized how potent he could be in melee. I still lost but I had a plan that was sort of working, I just ran out of models. And Fury. I was really in a Fury pinch and now I know why people say an all-construct army doesn't work. It just doesn't produce enough Fury. I guess the trade-off for not Frenzying is not producing as much. I've got some ideas to play around with to tweak this army while I'm painting it but I'm thinking Evolution really opened some doors to a Baldur army.

As for the actual scenario, I don't know if this is one of the ones that were tweaked (I need to find the latest Steamroller rules) but I think it should be. Not being able to claim points from a zone more than once means that, at some point, there's a huge pile in the middle. I got two points relatively easily but for me to get any more I would have had to be killing alot of models. I think it's one of the scenarios that's won by 'lock kill more often than by winning scenario points

Defenstrator

It's been a while since I played Rhyas and I was a bit trepedatious when I found I was going to be up against Baldur. His board control abilities are tough for Rhyas to deal with. Fortunately the damage wasn't too bad on Baldur's feat turn, and Rhyas came through with the Tide of Blood to kill off the Ravagers and Wold Watcher. That was the point where the game turned firmly in my favor, although Bladur almost pulled it off in the end when Myantek rolled a 10+ to hit Rhyas twice in a row.

The game started in a promising way when the Carnivean killed off the first Wold Warden. Unfortunately I didn't get much advantage out of that as the Carnivean frenzied for the next two turns and ended up eating the Forsaken. It basically felt like we had just traded points even though I still had the Carnivean on the table. The biggest advantage killing the Wold Warden gave to me was make it impossible for Baldur to leach more than five fury. As for my own fury problems I have a hard time trying to figure out which beast I would get rid of.

Shifting Stones

As expected, painting the Shifting Stones was a breeze. In one evening I finished two units and added 42 points to my painted total. It almost feels like cheating.

Totem Hunter

So I was going for a "hunter" look with the Totem Hunter and tried to stay with the leathers. It feels like an accident that he ended up looking as good as he does as I had no clue what I was doing.

Converted Warpwolf - Now with Paint

Defenstrator converted a warpwolf for me so that I'd have some difference between the two I wanted to field. The naked conversion was posted here. And now I've painted it. It look s a bit different from my other warpwolf. One, because there was about a year difference in the painting and two, because I ran out of brown ink and Games Workshop doesn't make that colour anymore.