Lock & Load 2015: Master's Qualifier Report

Lock and Load 2015 was this past weekend, June 5-7. Since I live in Portland, it's an easy drive and after Enfilade, it's my favorite convention. This year I signed up for the first heat of the Masters Qualifier, so James and I left Portland before 6 to get there in time...

Qualifier Tournament Report

I brought carbon copies of Martin Hornacek's Masters' lists, because I'm terrible at list building and wanted to use the ADR rules. Mordikaar, who's a favorite caster, and Naaresh, who's not. But it availed me not...

Round 1

Deployment

Up against Brandon Anderson playing Body and Soul for a bad matchup to start things off, but this was the only game I won. His list was pretty straightforward B&S, and I dropped Mordikaar.

I was able to weather his feat pretty well due to him being about 1/4" further back from my lines than he thought he'd be, thus leaving huge amounts of my models able to move. We traded pieces back and forth until I was able to go in for a sneaky Essence Blast assassination and win the game.

Post assassination

Round 2

Deployment

This round saw me playing Jamie Perkins, noted tourney player, who was running Sorscha 2 with a bonded Conquest, Nyss hunters with Valachev, and the Winterguard Death Star. I dropped Naaresh into this one just to get him out of the way. Highlights of the game were Jamie's first turn, where he tried to pull off a double-handed throw assassination by pitching Alexia 2 at Naaresh. This, he told me, was to win a bet with Trent Denison. The assassination failed, but he was able to run roughshod over me with really clean, careful, fast play. Even though I lost to an assassination on turn 3, this was probably the game I most enjoyed playing in the tourney.

Post assassination

Round 3

This game wasn't a lot of fun. Not the fault of my opponent, save that he dropped a Skarre 1 list that pretty much took my Mordikaar out behind the woodshed and beat it six ways from Sunday. (Also, my opponent, Robert, was from my local meta, which always a little bit of a disappointment when you're hoping to play new people.) For his Ritual Sacrifice over the four turns of the game, he rolled 6 6 5 5, which pretty well put me on tilt. I lost on scenario.

End of game

Round 4

After my first turn.

Played Jon with his Khador. He ran a Harkevich list with Black Dragons, MoW Shocktroopers, Demolisher, Behemoth, and Black Ivan. For the first few turns, I pretty well had this game under control, to the point where I was able to jam his Black Dragons on one side and start scoring on my flag by turn 3. However, I'd shifted Tiberion too far to the left to deal with Behemoth and the MoWs, and when he slammed the Demolisher into my lines, I wasn't able to deal with it. I was running low on time, so I went for a low-probability assassination. It failed, and he was able to use his Demolisher to squish Mordikaar.

Right before the assassination.

Final Thoughts

To be honest, I'd have had more fun if I'd dropped after round 2; my game with Robert was very much not a fun experience, and I'd have been able to rack up some skulls in the Iron Arena or attend a painting hangout. It was also rather disappointing to face only Cryx and Khador... Still, I learned something from my games (positioning and don't lose sight of objectives), and I had enough fun. I'm also glad I made sure to pack some energy bars, 'cause not having to buzz off for food or dealing with hunger pangs made for a much more pleasant experience.

Final Record: 1 win by assassination, 2 losses by assassination, 1 loss by scenario. I felt I played quite well in first game, but not very well in the others.

I'm also not sold on ADR as a major advantage. I think it's a good edge, but not compared to having really solid practice with a caster already. So I'm excited for the next season's ADR, which has two casters with which I'm pretty well practiced and one caster with which I have a passing familiarity.

Enfilade 2015 in review

Memorial Day weekend is one of the highlights of my year, because that's when the Northwest Historical Miniature Game Society throws its flagship event: Enfilade. This year, it was in the Red Lion at Olympia, Washington, which is a very convenient drive for me.

Friday

James and I arrived in time to check in and then buzz off to the Fish brewpub for a tasty lunch. We got back in time to drop stuff off at the Bring and Buy and register for events. Well, James registered - I volunteered to help judge games for the first period. The highlight of this year's event was two very large Napoleonic games being run in half the hall, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. Friday was Ligny, while Saturday was Waterloo itself.

Battle of Ligny being set up

Something in 6mm

Judging the games was pretty quick; I and the fellow judges wandered around and checked each game for looks, organization, and the fun the players were having. We reached a verdict halfway through the period. With plenty of time left, I headed upstairs for the Warmachine open play.

Rasheth gets eaten by gators

 Sadly, the open play was very poorly attended, probably because of some late publicity and, to be honest, a lot of the attendees have no interest in fantasy gaming. I did get a game in with the organizer, Earnest, in which his gators crushed Rasheth's Skorne. This was damn near the exact same match up I'd played and lost to last week... Fun anyway.

Carthage defeated

After dinner, for second period, I tried out DBA for the first time. It was a learning event, Rome vs. Carthage, using the new DBA 3.0 rules. I liked it well enough to pick up the rules and a couple armies.

Ligny in progress on the big table

Saturday 

Crusaders prepare for the Viking onslaught

We kicked off Saturday with the SAGA tournament; I brought my Crusaders, and lost two of three games. It's really not a terribly good list, but it's all the models I have at the moment. The mounted knights I have on the painting table will improve it greatly, eventually. Congrats to Gabe for taking home the trophy with his Viking hearthguard deathstar.

The Conflict in progress

 For the afternoon session I signed up for Michael Hughes' The Conflict, a homebrew and quite developed set of grand battle Napoleonic rules. I have mixed feelings about this one. The rules were quite complex, in that way that seems simple to someone who's experienced with them but are pretty opaque to a newcomer. I'm still quite intrigued by the game, but I found actually playing - and coming in halfway through the (hypothetical) Battle of Antwerp - very frustrating. It was a case of not knowing what was going on, not knowing what to do, and the noise in the hall didn't help either. It's all the more frustrating because I think I'd quite like the game if I had a chance to play it in a quieter setting with better play aids for learning the game. (The only play aid at the table was a "How to play pamphlet" which involved playing through two scenarios and had a recommended running time of one hour. Not good.)

One good thing about the game was that it sold me off 6mm as a scale for pre-modern warfare. I want a little more pageantry from the figures, so I'll be sticking with 15mm for my ancients and black powder games. At least for now.

All that said, I have to say that I'm tempted to play The Conflict again.

Danes ready for the army of Karl the Great

After dinner, I sat down to try out Field of Glory for the first time, and took command of the right flank of the Danish army opposing Charlemagne in another battle that never happened. I cut out early as this one ran quite a bit later than my bedtime, but I had more action than anyone else on the Danish side: my brave shield bearers took the charge of Charlemagne's cavalry and acquitted themselves... well enough, I suppose.

I liked the system well enough, and it was well run, but I was already a bit grouchy from the last session and a lack of sleep, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I might have.

Karl's cavalry smash into the Danish right flank

Sunday & Final Thoughts

Neither James nor I had anything we wanted to play on Sunday, so we took a leisurely morning and stuck around for the business meeting. (Note for next year: bring a wargame or something to play in the mornings, as I'm an early riser.) Then it was back home for another year.

The Bring and Buy treated me well; out of a very large lot, I only brought home two items, and cleared enough to pay for both this trip and the Lock & Load trip that's coming up on the weekend of June 5. And I brought home a bit of swag:

• 15mm Essex Attalid Pergamene Flames of Glory army
• 15mm Essex DBA 2.2 armies for Post-Mongol Japanese, Republican Romans, and Carthaginians
• DBA 3.0 rulebook (and the Game Matrix's terrain set for DBA)
• Several Field of Glory Ancient and Renaissance supplements
• A couple Disposable Heroes supplements
• Some 15mm terrain for SF gaming
• Stargrunt II

All told, a quite satisfactory convention.

Battle Report: Cherry City Iron Gauntlet Qualifier

This past Saturday, I competed in an Iron Gauntlet tournament down in Salem, a qualifier for the Cherry City Invitational. Short version: Had a great time, went 2-2.

Long version!

Here's what I brought for my three lists:

Dominar Rasheth (Chain Gang theme force, Tier 4)
* Titan Gladiator
* Titan Sentry
* Titan Sentry
* Basilisk Krea
Agonizer
Agonizer
Paingiver Task Master
Paingiver Task Master
Gatorman Posse (max)
Gatorman Posse (max)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

Supreme Ascetic Naaresh
* Molik Karn
* Bronzeback Titan
* Titan Gladiator
* Basilisk Krea
* Cyclops Brute
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Nihilators
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)


Void Seer Mordikaar
* Tiberion
* Basilisk Drake
* Basilisk Krea
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Nihilators (max)
Paingiver Bloodrunners
Cataphract Cetrati (max) + Tyrant Vorkesh
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

Round One

Faced off against Sean playing Circle Orboros. The scenario was Two Fronts, and he chose to drop a Morvahna 2 list. I dropped Rasheth - my usual Circle choice.

Turn two begins

This was a straightforward game; Sean's list wasn't one he was practiced with, while I'd played against Morvahna 2 a couple weeks ago, run by a very good Circle player, with this exact same Rasheth list. So... his dice weren't doing him any favors either. The game ended with a Titan squashing Morvahana and 6 control points for me.

Final positions

Round Two

I was up against Brett, one of the better Legion of Everblight players in the area. He dropped Abyslonia 2 against my Naaresh list in Incoming.

Turn two under way

As you can see, he's sporting an Archangel in this list. It didn't do a whole lot this game, and he found its chief disadvantage was that he kept bumping into the wings as he leaned over to move models...

Regardless of this disadvantage, he went for an early assassination after I moved in to try for some control points on Naaresh's feat turn. I screwed up a bit, lost my Fate Walker move, and was unable to move Naaresh back to a safe position; he was able to walk his Scythean up and kill Naaresh. A good, quick game, though I'm still kicking myself over the error.

Final position, Naaresh gobbled up by a Scythean

Round Three

Circle Orboros again, this time played by Jeremy. He put down Morvahna 2, and I chose Rasheth again - locking myself into Mordikaar for round four.

This was a much tighter game than the first match. He went for a top of turn 2 assassination using War Wolves returned to play by Morvahna's feat, and damn near did it; it's only the fact that War Wolves can't use Sic 'Em if they're in melee that saved Rasheth from becoming dog chow.

After that, the game settled into an attrition slog in which I had the advantage. I managed to remove his Wold Wrath from the table on turn three or thereabouts, and slowly eliminated almost all of his units. He finally went for a Hail Mary: Morvahna had Blood Mark on her, but he was able to get a single charging Skinwalker on Rasheth, who transferred to Morvahna and thus killed her. Luckily, the blowthrough damage didn't kill Rasheth...

Final position - Rasheth transfers charge damage to Morvahna, killing her.

Round Four

Last game, I was up against Adam running Minions. Usually they're not a problem, but he was locked into a really solid matchup against me, with Maelok the Dreadbound versus my Mordikaar list.

Adam's first turn under way.

At first glance I thought this would be a pretty straightforward match, but it was actually extremely difficult. I feated coming up the board, as usual. That was a bit of a time walk, but I found I simply couldn't put out enough high-value attacks to remove three units of Tough Gatorman Posse all sitting at around armor 20 or so. After his feat turn, I had lost very nearly all my models, so I conceded and we called it a night.

Final position - Mordikaar has almost nothing left to swing with.

I had an excellent time, and I'm growing very fond of the Iron Gauntlet rounds. Doesn't hurt that I won a $20 gift certificate in the post-tournament raffle...

Battle Report: Kings of War, first impressions

Battle begins

Last week, I got a chance to try out Kings of War with the half-painted beginnings of my old Warhammer Fantasy Vampire Counts army. I lost interest in GW's mainstream offerings long ago, but I do love the spectacle of 28mm figures clashing on the table, especially the monsters you can toss into a fantasy battle. So Mantic Games' Kings of War is worth a look: it promises fast, smooth play that lets you focus on positioning and tactics more than list building.

We played a 1500 point game, which seemed a shade on the small side but plenty big enough for a learning game. The terrain, as seen above, made very little difference in the battle - a few hills provided elevation and slight line of sight blocking, but had no effect on movement. My opponent, Brother Glacius, brought Elves, more or less as follows:

Spearmen Regiment
Spearmen Regiment
Bowmen Troop
Sea Guard Regiment
Palace Guard Regiment
Forest Shamblers Regiment
Stormwind Cavalry Troop
Seabreeze Cavalry Troop
Tree Herder
Bolt Thrower
Bolt Thrower

I cobbled together an Undead army:

Vampire Lord
Liche Lorde
Necromancer
Necromancer
Zombie Horde
Zombie Horde
Skeleton Horde
Ghoul Horde
Revenant Cavalry Regiment
Werewolf Horde (played by some Hordes Circle Orboros Warpborn Skinwalkers)

Deployment is in alternating steps; roll a die, winner chooses whether to deploy first or second. First player deploys a unit, then his opponent does, and so on until all units are deployed. After deployment, certain units with the Vanguard rule may take a move before play begins.

I dropped my hordes in the middle of the board, backed by my characters, with the Werewolves and Revenant Cavalry on the right and left, respectively. Brother G put his Bolt Throwers and cavalry on the wings, with the Forest Shamblers anchoring his right flank and the elves in the center and left.

Brother G went first. His Seabreeze Cavalry on my left moved up fast, threatening my Revenant Cavalry, while the rest of the army moved forward somewhat more slowly. I shambled my hordes forward, as a good necromancer should, and started picking up the basics of the game.

Over the course of the next six turns, my hordes shambled forward and got stuck in with the Spearmen, Palace Guard, and Forest Shamblers. His bolt throwers were, well, mostly useless. My Revenant Cavalry rolled over his Seabreeze Cavalry after a bit of chasing around but then got shot to death by the Bowmen. My Werewolves were quite effective, and I can see why Brother G thinks Mantic may have made a design error on Large Infantry Hordes - by themselves they dominated the right flank.

In the end I won by a small margin of destroyed troops at game's end on turn 6.

Overall, I had a pretty good impression of Kings of War. I don't think I'd get into it without already having some troops, as I've gone off 28mm for large battles for reasons of space and storage, but since I do already have some... I like the way it plays quickly. The buckets of dice mechanic is offset by the sheer speed of play; we knocked out six turns + deployment in under two hours, pretty good for a learning game. I'll be playing this again. Might even try to build a second army - maybe something from Warlord's Pike and Shotte range using the Kingdoms of Men list.

Near the end, the Tree Herder continues to chew through the skeleton horde, ghouls close in on hapless elven spearmen, and the werewolves clash with elven knights.

You can take a look at Brother G's thoughts on the game here.

Battle Report: Iron Gauntlet League finals, round 1

This past Monday, I went up against Asher (one our local Press Gangers) in the first round of the finals for this Spring's Iron Gauntlet League.

For those unfamiliar with the format, Iron Gauntlet is a Warmachine Steamroller event. Each player brings three 50-point lists. The first few rounds are normal steamroller, and each list must be played at least once. The final four (or eight in this case) players match up in single-elimination 75-point games, with the list built from the models brought for the 50-point lists.

I didn't expect to make it into the finals rounds, so my list selection wasn't optimized for the finals rounds. I'd brought Makeda 3 Brute Squad, Rasheth Chain Gang, and Martin Hornacek's Mordikaar list. Asher had run Saeryn, Abyslonia 2, and Vayl 2. Because of the league format, we'd had time to scope out each other's possibilities, so the usual list building phase was already done:

Saeryn
* Succubus
* Angelius
* Angelius
* Ravagore
* Shredder
* Typhon
* Zuriel
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
The Forsaken
The Forsaken
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr
Blighted Nyss Sorceress and Hellion
Strider Deathstalker
Blackfrost Shard
Strider Rangers

This list is four points short, as I'm hazy on what else he had. Probably a Spawning Vessel & Acolytes.

Dominar Rasheth (Chain Gang, tier 4)
* Titan Sentry
* Titan Sentry
* Titan Gladiator
* Titan Gladiator
* Bronzeback Titan
* Basilisk Krea
* Basilisk Drake
Agonizer
Agonizer
Agonizer
Paingiver Master Tormentor
Paingiver Master Tormentor
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
Gatorman Posse (max)
Gatorman Posse (max)

The scenario was two fronts. He won the roll and chose to go first; I picked the side with a couple of walls on it. The center of the board was dominated by a hill. His side had a hill and a forest.

Deployment for both of us was pretty simple. He placed his beasts in a brick with the Angelii on my left, support in the rear, Blackfrost Shard and Deathstalker on my right, and the Nyss Sorceress and Rangers on my left. I deployed in a brick with Rasheth right up in the front (slow fat man has to get up the table), and the Titans arrayed beside him, the Bronzeback slightly behind. One unit of gators was on each flank, and the Agonizers and Beast Handlers snuggled up in the back. The Basilisks were placed between the Titan herd and the left-hand gators.

First turns were pretty typical - we both ran up the field as far as we could. Well, I went slightly shorter, to deny him an easy alpha. Rasheth tossed Carnivore on the right-hand gators and popped feat. Between feat and the Agonizers, I effectively locked him out of doing any serious damage to me, so instead he maneuvered for position on his second turn and popped his own feat - definitely locking me out of doing any serious damage, as it prevents melee attacks on his beasts and I had one ranged attack.

I then jammed with the Sentries, using Locker to prevent his beasts from moving in any direction except directly toward the Sentries. I put out a very little damage with the Drake, and used the right-hand gators to cripple the Blackfrost Shard and remove the Deathstalker. Left-hand gators tried to move up and take out the Rangers; they did no damage, but the Rangers failed a fear check, so that was good enough. Finally, I used a Gladiator to take out the objective, and thus scored a point, plus another for controlling the zone.

Unfortunately, I'd moved Rasheth too far forward. He threw the right-hand Sentry at the nearby Gladiator with the Ravagore, knocking both Titans down and neatly eliminating Locker from the equation. After that, it was just a matter of tagging Rasheth with Saeryn's ranged weapon, which prevented him from transferring, and then killing him with a couple of spells.

All in all, a pretty good game and a valuable lesson: keep your caster back as far as possible...

Just A Games Con Masters Tournament, April 18

I drove all the way down to Corvallis yesterday - ninety miles of gorgeous weather through farm country. Might have been the best part of the day, which tells you something about the games. I was attending the Just A Games Con for a small Warmachine Masters Tournament. It ended up with nine players, myself being the ninth, and I got the bye in the first round. So I only got to play two games...

First game was against Chadd's Circle Orboros. He was the only player at the tournament running with the Active Duty Roster, and was playing Mohsar/Cassius. The scenario was Recon, but that proved irrelevant for our game. He dropped Mohsar versus my Zaal list, and after adjusting with his ADR specialists, produced the following matchup:

Supreme Aptimus Zaal and Kovaas
* Aptimus Marketh
* Cyclops Raider
* Cyclops Shaman
Hakaar the Destroyer
Extoller Soulward
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Saxon Orrik
Paingiver Task Master
Gatorman Bokor and Bog Trog Swamp Shamblers
Venator Slingers (max)
Nihilators (max)
Immortals (max)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Mohsar the Desert Walker
* Ghetorix
* Megalith
* Gorax
Alten Ashley
Saxon Orrik
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
Farrow Slaughterhousers
Farrow Slaughterhousers

Mohsar won the roll and elected to go second. This was probably the right choice.

This was a bad matchup for four reasons:

1. Chadd's a good player, one of the best in our meta.
2. He just got into Skorne as a side army, so he knows what my stuff does.
3. He was able to swap out a heavy and put in the two units of Slaughterhousers to negate all the Tough I had on the field, plus add in some Remove From Play to prevent my Shambler Engine from working at full capacity.
4. I'd never played this Zaal list before.

So things didn't go well for the Skorne Empire. He was able to use the Pillars of Salt and the Bloodtrackers to dictate the terms of engagement in the center of board. First round he dropped pillars to prevent me from engaging the Bloodtrackers with much of anything; second round he used the Bloodtrackers to clear a space and did it again. Third round he went for a teleport assassination with Ghetorix and won the game. (I'd almost killed one of the stones on the prior turn, but the dice failed me!)

I had issues with deployment and unpacking my army - Hakaar never got into contention simply because he was jammed up, for example. The Slingers might have been very useful against the Pillars of Salt, but because I'd deployed first and put them off on one flank, they weren't able to get into effective range before they were killed off by Bloodtrackers and Slaughterhousers. Immortals, too, were pretty well jammed out of the fight by my own models.

So, some thoughts from this game:

• Practice! Have to practice deploying and unpacking first turn.
• This list probably wants to go second, just for some extra room in the deployment zone and for the ability to react to the opponent's deployment.
• I should probably drop Saxon and the Swamp Gobbers for a Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer. The extra 2" of movement from Press Forward will extend the threat range of the Slingers and help alleviate some of the unpacking issues.
• The Slingers and Immortals might end up being replaced, probably with Swordsmen or Karax and Venator Reivers or Keltarii (or a second unit of Nihilators). That'll have to wait for a few more test games in better matchups, though.
• Might want to drop the Gatorman Witch Doctor for an Ancestral Guardian. Again, needs some more games before I decide.

The second game was against Scott's Legion of Everblight. Scenario was Close Quarters, terrain was largely irrelevant. He'd lost both games in earlier rounds, so he went with his experimental Kallus list instead of Lyllyth 2. He also won the roll and went second. The lists were thus:

Makeda and the Exalted Court
* Molik Karn
* Bronzeback Titan
* Titan Gladiator
* Cyclops Brute
* Cyclops Brute
* Cyclops Shaman
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Kallus, Wrath of Everblight
* Succubus
* Nephilim Soldier
* Zuriel
* Afflictor
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Fyanna the Lash
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
Totem Hunter
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires + Captain Farilor & Standard
Strider Blightblades
Spawning Vessel
Blackfrost Shard

This was a straight mash up that Scott lost on clock, as he'd never played this list before and it has a lot of moving pieces. If he'd not timed out, he probably would have won. At any rate, I went with the usual approach for Makeda's Brute Squad: Run up the table, then jam with the brutes and threaten with Makeda, Karn, and the Bronzeback. It would have worked, too, if not for Kallus' feat and the ambushing Blightblades. He advanced a bit more cautiously up the table, with his Legionnaires under their mini-feat and in Defensive Line, plus Unyielding from Kallus, putting them at a respectable ARM 22.

I put Makeda into position to dominate the near flag and jammed the left and right sides with a Brute each - not enough to tie up everything, but tying down about half his models and presenting him with targets that had to be dealt with. Karn killed off the Deathstalker on my left, then Fate Walked back, and here's where I made a critical mistake: I left him with 4 Fury and Makeda with 3. She wouldn't be able to leach him to empty. Everything else moved up to threaten.

His second turn he brought the Blightblades on to contest my flag, preventing me from scoring. They didn't do anything else during the game, but that was enough, since I had to deal with them. He killed of the Brutes, as expected, and it takes a considerable effort to do so, as expected. Then he popped feat, so any warriors I killed became Incubi - and, incidentally, that shuts down Makeda's feat as well, since her feat triggers on destroyed and Kallus' feat triggers on disabled. Third turn co9mes around and I rolled boxcars on Karn's frenzy check, essentially losing me the game - without his ability to kill scores of infantry, I can't chew through enough to overcome Kallus' numbers advantage. I gave it a shot anyway, and fail; at the very last, I trampled the Bronzeback through the Legionnaires to get to Kallus, but they knocked out his Spirit with free strikes so that was a bust.

He went for an assassination himself on his turn, with about six or eight minutes left on the clock, but it failed and he timed out. I might have been able to squeeze out a win, but it would have been dicy at best.

Lesson from this one:

• I probably should have been more aggressive. A few extra inches up the board on the first turn might have brought Karn and Makeda into position to feat on the Legionnaires on second turn, and thus remove them from the table, before Kallus got a chance to bring his feat into play.
• If not, perhaps I should have been a little less aggressive with the Brutes. If he'd had to charge them to eliminate the, Set Defense would have brought their DEF up to 15, which is quite a bit better...

Starscream for Warmachine

I just finished a rather neat commission. The client wanted some Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth done up in Starscream's color scheme (from Transformers) on the theme that Vindictus is the treacherous, power-grabbing Starscream of the faction. So here they are.

Vice Scrutator Vindictus

Sanctifier Warjack

Errant Exemplar unit + Officer and Standard Bearer