Lock & Load 2019

Lock & Load 2019

Lock & Load was the end of June this year, and I headed up looking to play some Warmachine and Monsterpocalypse. Mission accomplished! Also, I managed to walk away without buying a new faction. So that's good news for my wallet.

Pictures!

The Heretic takes on the Convergence of Cyriss on an extremely annoying board. The giant hut and tree in the middle messed us both up.

Versus some nicely painted and murderously effective Legion of Everblight birds - Absylonia 2 turning them on for a serious assassination list. Unfortunately, every bird was rather top-heavy, so that board was a bit of a hassle.

Watching an airbrush seminar. Pretty helpful.

The Child vs. the Retribution of Scyrah, aka the Dawnmower faction. This wasn't the best field to be facing off against a ranged-heavy list, but the scenario was quite fun - we had to trade feats, so he got to find out how Garryth 2 uses Arcana and I got, well, a kind of mediocre feat for my list.

Second game of MonPoc. I'm totally sold on this game now. Very fun.

Last game of the convention, and the only one I actually won. Also, we were both really tired, so it was one of those games that takes twice as long as it should with plenty of unforced errors...

Warmachine Tournament Report, March 31

Final game, early days

After a bit of a dry spell, I got three games in Sunday at Rune & Board in a local steamroller tournament. I went 0-3, but it's just as well; I was testing out a bunch of new tech cold, so it was definitely an opportunity to learn instead of strive for victory.

I brought two lists, as per usual, but only played one:

Bump in the Night theme force
King of Nothing
2x Crabbits
2x Clockatrices
Gorehound
2x Hollowmen (max) + Lantern Man
2x Mad Caps
2x Neigh Slayers (max)
Eilish Garrity
Glimmer Imp
Lord Longfellow

Bump In the Night hasn't been a very popular theme force for good reason, because the Grymkin infantry are fairly lackluster and the theme doesn't do much to improve them. Still, the Clockatrice makes a difference, and some new models coming out this month ought to make them tick a little better. So I thought I'd try it.

For the first round, I faced off against Danny, one of the best players in the area, playing Retribution of Scyrah. He dropped a Garryth 2 list with a bunch of mage hunters. I forget the scenario, but it was one where he was able to push in and win on scenario while I scrambled to figure out what all my stuff did... Highlights of this match up were finding out that the King's cloud wall is, in fact, remarkably effective if used carefully, even against lists that pack LOS-ignoring tech. Also, Mad Caps are fun but seem tricky to use well.

Second round was against Kyle, to whom I had just sold a Slayer warjack. He promptly used against me in a classic Asphyxious 3 'jack spam list. Curses! I'd never faced this list archetype before and it was interesting. Cloud wall again really slowed down his alpha, and a plethora of low-value targets gave his high-value attacks less, um, value. However, I wasn't able to take down as many 'jacks as I needed on my first turn of attacking - missed a few attack rolls - and since I'd put King way out there, he was able to snag an easy assassination.

Third round was against Berks' accursed Kaelyssa Forges of War list, with that stupidly powerful Dawnguard Trident and the Dawnguard Destors. (It's the matchup in the picture.) I actually did somewhat better than I expected in this one, but clocked out nonetheless. The key mistake I made here were that I counter deployed my Neigh Slayers to take on his Trident, and they can't really handle it it. The key point is that it both outthreats them (17" without a charge compared to 9.5") and has enough firepower to fairly reliably kill 4-5 of them a turn. In the end, I ran out of time trying to clear a zone to just score points. It's possible that I might have been able to grind it out scenario, but I think the Trident would have swung it in Berks' favor on attrition or even assassination - especially after he eliminated one of my Clockatrices. I think I'm going to have to start bringing Old Witch 3 just to counter the Ret ranged game that I keep seeing at these things...

Over all, good games and a good event. Props to James for running it.

The PDX Open: A Warmachine tournament report

Saturday, March 2 saw the first PDX Open: A large Warmachine tournament with the top 8 players getting wildcard points toward the Warfaire Weekend invitational. I... did not get in the top 8. But I did have fun.

I brought Grymkin, which I've been playing for a while. While I did bring King of Nothing as an off list, I really only played Pat Dunford's classic Dreamer list:

The Dreamer
* Gorehound x3
* Cage Rager x3
* Skin and Moans x2
* Crabbit x2
Death Knell
Gremlin Swarm x4

 Round 1: Vs. Jeremiah's Skorne

Set up versus Jeremiah's Skorne

 First game was against a local, Jeremiah, one of the hosts of the Spellstorm Miniatures podcast. He's been learning Skorne lately and decided to one-list it with Xekaar and a bunch of beasts. We had a pretty good game, but I was able to push back on scenario until he ran out of time.

End of game - Xekaar has rushed into the middle to kill a few Gremlin Swarms and get some points before time.

 Round 2: Vs. Adrianne's Circle Orboros

Vs. Adrianne's Tharn. (The six models on the far left are not actually in play yet). I do so hate the Tharn Wolf Riders.

Second round I played against Adrianne from... points north? Not sure. She dropped the dreaded Iona/Tharn list into me - my plan for it had been to dodge all event. However, she's newish to the game, and had never played against Grymkin, so I figured I had an even chance.

As it happened, though she pushed me pretty hard on scenario and attrition, she also clocked out, and thus I eked out my second win of the day. (I'm not terribly happy about winning that way, but I'll take it...)

End of game vs. Adrianne, just after the clock chimed.

 Round 3: Vs. Jaden's Circle Orboros

Jaden's Tharn advance on the poor, pitiful Grymkin.

But my next match was against Jaden, one of the hosts of the Line of Sight podcast and a much, much better player than me. He, too, was playing Iona Tharn, and boy was that rough - at the end of the fifth round, all I had left on the table was the Dreamer. It was a good game nonetheless, though - a rather poor dice roll on turn two meant that I got to pop the Lord of the Feast before he got to do anything, so that's a moral victory.

Round 4: Vs. Berks' Retribution of Scyrah

Setting up against Berks' terrifying Ret list.

This was my second game against Berks' list (Kaelyssa, Dawnmower, some knights), and... this was also rough. Given the scenario (The Pit II) and my list, I wasn't able to contest well or engage in attrition, and he just shut me out of scenario by the bottom of turn three. Not the best game for me, but Berks is always a pleasure to play against

I dropped after round four and headed home. I believe Jaden took home first place after another three rounds...

Gaming (no painting) late February: Warmachine

Haven't had much chance for gaming, and even less for proper painting, over the past couple weeks. About all I was able to squeeze in was a three-round Warmachine tournament at Portland Game Store.

Vs. Kraken's Trollkin list. So much beef to chew through, I'm lucky they clocked out before they could murder all my heavies.

It's a Grymkin Mirror Match! Briggs got to break out his brand new Clockatrice out. It's a nice piece.

Vs. Berks' Retribution of Scyrah. He's still in love with the shiny Dawnguard Trident, and for good reason.

He was able to shut me out on scenario. Good game, but... kinda getting tired of Grymkin.

Games and Painting, early February

We got some snow this week, which unfortunately saw the postponement of Ambuscade!, which I was quite looking forward to playing in. Nonetheless, I was able to get in a couple Warmachine games.

Grymkin Mirror Match

I played vs. Remy at Guardian on a gorgeous and cold day. He dropped Heretic into my Wanderer list (couldn't be bothered to haul the enormous Old Witch model around). We both played fairly well, but he ran out of time on the clock due to unfamiliarity with his list. Heretic being able to cast Star Crossed off of Wanderer's card was a bit of an unpleasant surprise for me...

Remy's first turn, moving up.

End of game.

I'm not really sure I like the Wanderer. He's got a couple really good tricks (Star Crossed, road markers, Veil of Mists) but aside from those he does very little either himself or for his army. He has no offensive output, and Grymkin doesn't really have enough of a Defense skew to make stacking it via Star Crossed a significant challenge for opponents. Combined, these mean he's not as engaging to play as I'd like. I'm afraid that after this master's league, he probably gets dropped in favor of Dreamer... just like everyone else plays. (Probably paired with King of Nothing or Child because I don't like lugging around Old Witch, even if I love the model.)

Or Skorne. That's hot right now, and I have a large collection I haven't played since Mark 3 came out...

Vs. Trollbloods

Had to drive across town for this one and it was uncomfortably tight; both Dan and I are parents of small children and had to squeeze the game in before school got out. Who knew kids would cramp your gaming lifestyle so much?

He put a Madrak1 Band of Heroes list down against my Wanderer list (see above re: Old Witch model). Scenario was the Pit II, aka "championship belt." Dan took it on scenario; I just didn't have enough offense to get the attrition edge AND contest the left-hand zone.

Early days.

End of game - he's totally dominated the left flank.

Painting

I broke out the airbrush after a long hiatus and tried my first experiment at proper zenithal priming:

And then I finished a couple models for my Dungeons & Dragons game:

Purple Worm!

Shambling Mound!

Pretty happy with how these turned out. Quick, easy, and definitely good enough.

Weekend Report

This past weekend saw a nice bit of gaming: the monthly Saga get together, a game at Andrew's, and a trek through a very foggy Portland to play some Warmachine at Rune & Board.

Saga: Normans v. Normans!

I figured I'd play my Crusaders as Normans this weekend, as everyone else is playing Age of Vikings and the figures are close enough. Dropped into Bob's (better-painted, better organized) Normans and pulled out a very bloody draw.

Deployment. My knights on each flank, crossbows, longbows, and spearmen in the center. Bob has two full levy longbow and three fat units of mounted warriors waiting for me.

Some initial shuffling on both sides; I backed out of longbow range, which was probably a mistake. Should have pushed more aggressively.

A scrum on the right results in horrible casualties; I lose four knights to seven of his serjeants. While I can't afford to lose a lot of men, at least I take away a Saga die from him.

Finally, I start pushing up. My archers kill a bunch of his central levy unit, while my sole remaining knight on the right bravely rides away. Over on the left, my knights are suffering bowshot.

Longbows reduce his center levy to under Saga die level, while my spearmen rush the other archers...

And a bit later, at end of game, we see that my spearmen were run down by the rightmost mounted serjeant unit. What unit, you ask? Why, the one I dedicated all my shooting to and then used my Warlord to finish off. Had this game gone another turn, I think Bob would have carried it with those undamaged warriors on the left, though....

Russian Civil War: What's Red and White all over?

Nothin' civil 'bout a civil war... This was a test game Harry's running for Enfilade, so I'll try not to spoil any surprises, but it was pretty fun. We've got the Reds straddling a railroad trying to capture a VIP on the armored train. Lots of cavalry, some armored cars and tachankas, and a rather quick-moving system (1914, by Great Escape Games). I ended up as high command on the Red side, which, as any student of the Soviet Union can tell you, is a rather dangerous spot to be in. (Nonetheless, we won...)

Table layout prior to deployment.

Brave Revolutionary naval artillerymen.

My cavalry pushing up the field....

The train approaches!

Though the front (artillery) car is disabled, the train chugs on... oblivious to the cavalry scrum on the line.

Game end, more or less.... my center and left are just about broken, but the train has been stopped...

 The system wasn't bad at all. I'm not sure it's suited to a convention, but it moved quickly and we started getting into combat right away, and the results didn't tweak my suspension of disbelief. I'd play it again.

The mat and tracks, btw, are apparently from Cigar Box.

Masters' League Game: Grymkin vs. Skorne

After much scheduling hassle, I was able to get the first game in our local Masters' League (think tournament, but stretched out over a month) in at Rune & Board with Jeremiah. He brought a Xekaar beast brick, a classic titan herd; I brought the Wanderer with my own beast brick. He won the roll and opted to go first.

As this was Jeremiah's second or maybe third game with this list, he managed to clock himself top of three, giving a result of (if I recall correctly), 2 control points and 17 army points for me, 3 control points and 9 army points for me. (I failed to write it down quickly, so that may well be off.) We then played out the rest of the game off the clock, and I won with an assassination. As usual with Wanderer, it's all Star-Crossed for the money and not much else. So, pictures!

Xekaar's second turn just beginning.

Beginning of Xekaar's third turn.

End of game by clock; Xekaar on the left hiding behind a building. I've used the Shadow Arcana over on the right with the red Cage Rager. One thing that isn't obvious is that Xekaar has cunningly applied Dead Weight to the center Skin and Moans.

End of game by assassination. The center S&M was able to kill off the blocking Titan Gladiator, and then the left-hand S&M walked around the building and just chopped up Xekaar. Over on the right we see the effects of the Shadow arcana - very cold dice meant that Cage Rager accomplished nothing.

Warmachine Tournament 2019-01-13

Portland Game Store has the happy habit of running a monthly Steamroller on a Sunday, which means a lot of people who can't make Saturdays due to work or whatever can still get a game in. This past Sunday saw six players competing for top place - a small turnout, but a good three games for me. (Well, sort of. I did lose every game.)

I brought Grymkin for my list pair:

Grymkin Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie

[Wanderer 1] The Wanderer [+28]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbits (2) [7]
 - Gorehound [6]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Death Knell [13]

Grymkin Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie

[Old Witch 3] Zevanna Agha, the Fate Keeper [+27]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Frightmare [9]
 - Frightmare [9]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (max) [12]
Death Knell [13]

(For the non-Warmachine players reading this blog: The Grymkin are a literal army of nightmares from hell invading a steampunk fantasy world. Hence the goofy aesthetic to their models and names.)

Round 1: Old Witch 3 vs. Issyria

First I faced Michael and his brand new Dawnmowers Dawnguard Tridents.

Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points

[Theme] Forges of War

[Issyria 1] Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn [+29]

 - Discordia [18]

 - Hemera [16]

 - Hyperion [32]

Arcanist Mechanik [2]

Arcanist Mechanik [2]

Arcanist Mechanik [2]

House Shyeel Arcanists [0(7)]

House Shyeel Arcanists [0(7)]

Dawnguard Trident [16]

Dawnguard Trident [16]

Into this I dropped Old Witch 3. Scenario was Invasion. I won the roll and opted to go first, with Michael picking sides.

This was my first game with this list; also my first game with Old Witch, Frightmares, and Lady Rose... It went about as well as I expected. Windwall was money versus all that Retribution shooting, but even so Michael was able to do a lot of work. My Dread Rots were all but useless; I should have kept one back out of range so that I could Old Witch's recursion ability instead of just losing the whole unit to a well-placed consume shot from Hyperion. The Frightmares were likewise useless, but that's definitely a matchup problem. They had no decent targets here.

Fun game, though.

End of round 1

Grymkin spread out to get around the forest...

But the Dawnguard Tridents get some serious work done. All Dread Rots and one of the Frightmares gone, and all the Gremlin Swarms as well.

I'm able to take out the left Trident and Discordia, but... instead of hitting Hemera (center) with Scourge to stop Admonition, I should have put up Windwall again.

End of game - I'm out of time. Tried to kill the Hyperion just for the points, but couldn't close it out. Did kill Hemera, at least. Victory to Michael!

Round 2: Wanderer vs. High Reclaimer

Protectorate Army - 75 / 75 points

[Theme] Exemplar Interdiction

[High Reclaimer 1] The High Reclaimer [+32]

 - Judicator [34]

 - Hierophant [0(3)]

Exemplar Errant Seneschal [3]

Scrutator Potentate Severius [0(6)]

 - Dervish [7]

Wrack [1]

Choir of Menoth (min) [4]

Exemplar Errants (max) [16]

 - Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard [0(4)]

Exemplar Vengers (max) [20]

Knights Exemplar [9]

 - Knights Exemplar Officer [4]

Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard [9]

I picked Wanderer for some variety, won the roll and went first; scenario was Standoff. 

Dennis is quite a good player, and this list has lots of Hand of Fate going on, so I wasn't expecting a victory or even an easy fight. But it turns out Star Crossed goes a long way... if not long enough.

I had a couple bad turns of luck, and made a crucial mistake that cost me the game, or at least more control points/army points. First, my flanking Gorehound failed to kill a Venger and then sprint into his backfield to disrupt things. Second, he got some crazy hot dice and wiped a Skin and Moans off the table with much less effort than expected (even under Star Crossed). Finally, I got so fixated on killing the Judicator that I forgot to cast Star Crossed on the final turn of the game, and left my beasts so full on fury that all the remaining heavies frenzied.

After my first turn, Dennis just getting going.

Second round begins. Sad Gorehound on the left didn't manage to kill a Venger and then sprint into Dennis' backfield.

Third round... Dennis scored three points to my one here.

Fourth round. At least I blew up that Judicator. As can be seen by all the fury tokens on the table, this is where I made my crucial mistake: I forgot to cast Star Crossed, and I left too much fury on the table to leach it off my heavies...

And here's the consequence. The blue Cage Rager on the left frenzied and destroyed the nearest target (an Examplar of some sort) instead of going for an assassination on the High Reclaimer. Also, of course, no Star Crossed.

Dennis lining up to clear some zones.

End of game, with three out of four zones controlled by Dennis. He won, 7 CP to 2.

Round 3: Old Witch 3 vs. Child

Grymkin Army - 73 / 75 points

[Theme] Dark Menagerie

[Child 1] The Child [+29]

 - Cage Rager [14]

 - Cage Rager [14]

 - Crabbit [0(-)]

 - Crabbit [0(-)]

 - Crabbit [0(-)]

 - Gorehound [6]

 - Rattler [8]

 - Skin & Moans [15]

 - Skin & Moans [15]

Glimmer Imp [4]

Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]

Gremlin Swarm [3]

Gremlin Swarm [3]

Gremlin Swarm [3]

Lady Karianna Rose [4]

Death Knell [13]

Remy's a newer Grymkin player who's making do with a limited model selection. But he's certainly getting the hang of using Child to good effect...

I dropped Old Witch again, just to get more playtime with her. Scenario was the Pit II ("Championship Belt"). Remy won the roll and chose to go first; I picked sides (and in retrospect, picked the wrong side...)

My crucial mistakes here were being way too cautious around his Arcana (also, should have dropped Wanderer again) and then going on tilt after he jammed me up with a Gorehound under Discord and a Gremlin Swarm base-to-base with Old Witch. It took me a good thirty minutes to clear them off, and in so doing I left a clear charge lane to my caster. He took advantage of it and neatly closed out the game with a proper assassination.

I should have played more aggressively, worried a bit less about Arcana, and not left my caster so terrible vulnerable. But it was a good game regardless, and I learned a new trick (Gremlin Swarms are very unkind to battle engine casters).

Deployed and ready to go.

Second round begins.

Third round begins. Note the jamming Gorehound and the Gremlin Swarm directly in front of the Old Witch.

End of my last turn - I have finally cleared out the Discord Gorehound and the Gremlin Swarm, but it took far too long. Notice how little has changed between this picture and the last one...

End of game. Lower right corner shows Remy's Cage Rager right up in Old Witch's face, having easily dispatched her.