The Matrix

Sunday was the 25pt Tournament at The Hobby Matrix. I took Kara Sloan and Major Haley, and came third from the bottom in a 15player slugfest.




First game was against Jason Ly and his Cryx. We were both a bit nervous despite the simple scenario of Close Quarters and casual time limits - Jason having gone 0-3 last time he competed, and me on my first competitive outing with Haley2. I chose the list based on the scenario and the fact my opponent would have 'jacks to screw with via the delicious spells.

Army Name: 25 Haley2: The Sequelinator
Cygnar
25+5 points, 17 models

Major Victoria Haley +5 points
* Ironclad 7 points
* Thorn 8 points
* Squire 2 points

Archduke Alain Runewood 3 points
10 Precursor Knights 8 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard 2 points

The Ironclad was Haleys bond, while she was Nightmares prey, but it ended up being Deneghra1 that got me. I forgot the bond I had on my Ironclad gave me +2" movement, and further left Haley too close. I'd brought her forward to TK the Ironclad closer to Denny, who herself had been TK'd through Thorn to present her backside to the charging Ironclad. I failed the Charge at 9" on an 8.5" threat range, remembering later thanks to the bond it should have been 10.5" and a success with 3 focus to mash tge evil tein with - c'est la vie!




Round two started after lunch, during which hungover Scottsman Kris fought valiantly with not one, not two, but three wasps before failing his command and retreating. This time I matched up against Kristian Zi... Ze.. Kristian Z. I won't past me list again as I did last post, but I ended losing on scenario after fluffing the assassination roll on feat turn with two 1's and a 2, and forgetting that I could have prolonged the game by blowing up his objective and stopping him scoring in Scenario #5: Supply & Demand.

I'd also spent the game thinking Lylyth1 had Stealth. Forcing me to keep Kara back to aim and ignore it and failing to fet CP's. Uhhh, what's that I always say about reading your opponents cards again?




Round 3 was my only win of the day against circle player Mark, who thankfully didn't flip the table when my Charger came on as reinforcements and toasted him. Sure, the StormSmith had rolled a POW18 hit on Kaya after Haley2 TK'd the warlock to present her butt to my army, and a Time Bomb had dropped her def by a further 2 to ensure the 4 point reinforcer of choice flanked his way on, but it still felt very rough to catch her on but two fury and get the dual-cannon's shots on her after they'd been used to transfer. Twas a dirty, dirty kill, and not one I'm particularly proud of.



Last round was against Tim's Retribution and Garryth. He split his forces in the Bunkers scenario early, which I'd again chosen Haley2 for. I kept mine center and right, my Ironclad, Thorn, and the reinforcement Charger decimating a squad of Halberdiers while Haley Time Bomb'd the daylights out of Invictors and Ghost Snipers, but my Precursors just couldn't clear the Chimera after the fire they'd taken, and my opponents reinforcements took two CP to win the match without him even realising.

I'd have had two CP myself If the Ironclad hadn't fluffed two hit rolls on the Phoenix in the zone I was attacking, or if I'd thought to throw it out rather than just attack it - again a heavy screnario learning experience for me.




Making up for missing Masters due to running it in January, February is continuing to prove it's not actually out to get me with not only an awesome league but ANOTHER TOURNAMENT! In two weeks time, after a bit of regrouping, pep talk, and some fresh coal & whiskey, Kara and Victoria will hit the ground again with 35pt armies in Do You Know What Nemesis Means?, the next tournament at Infinity Games. My latest young apprentice, The Boldcock, is running this one on the 26th of February giving me a second shot at spectacular failure.

Will upgrading to a Stormclad and adding some Stormblades and Arlan help Haley? Can Kara run a third heavy with just 10 more points, or should I go for a bigger Trencher screen? Is Nics mum really going to show up with a special yet dubious 'award' for the man who Warmachines the hardest?

Only time will tell!

Location:Frome Rd,Adelaide,Australia

Gnarly, league!

Tuesday night this week kicked off our first night of War Torn Alliances: Gnarls at Infinity Games. Near a dozen players were in by the tome I left at 7:30 last night, with several Cygnarans, a Trollkin, at least two Khadorans, a Menite, Cryxian, and some others I can't recall. I got four games in, only winning one, but as always had a rockin' time.




First up was Kris, fielding Gunnbjorn, and a scenario I mcan't recall the name of. Two 12" zones were on the table with a Fuel Cache Objective marker in each, control your own objective while contesting the enemy zone to score a point. Naturally, after ranting over and over to play the scenario to people lately I didn't, and Haley2's forces forgot to contest a zone, letting Gunny claim a map point in the Kriels.

On the same team as the Trollkin, Khador stepped up next and I got to face The Boldock with his Irusk2 list in a scenario with a drifting cloud that kept throwing things (including the Behemoth!). I must say it's nice to see him expand from Iron Fleshed Kayazy and the Winterguard Deathstar - he's now taking Aiyanna and Holt with themto cap Trenchers left right and centre, and Saxon Orrick to let those Kayazy charge over that pesky wall and one shot people like Kara Sloan with rolls of 6,6,6,5. Another point for the Kriels!




Third game was against the mostly Malifaux playing Rhys, and his Mortenebra Theme. Rhys still has a way to go in his collection, so we only played 25pts and played a simpler scenario with a large rectangle actoss the middle - perfect practice for Kara's planned outing this weekend at The Hobby Matrix's Feb 25pt Steamroller 2012. here's the list I've agonised over.

Army Name: 25 Kara Double The Fist!
Cygnar
25+6 points, 16 models

Captain Kara Sloan +6 points
* 2x Cyclone 9 points each

Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1 point
6 Trencher Commandos 6 points
6 Trenchers 6 points

Rhys had a good play, circling around my smoke wall with his Overrun movement proc'd by a Trencher slaying Leviathan on a Reaper, but unfortunately he misjudged the angle and the harpooned Cyclone got stuck on a Commando before it could make the Reapers melee range. The rest of Morty's feat turn was a bit wasted thanks to my forces spreading out, although I lost most of the Trencher Infantry. In my turn a Trencher Commando sliced the skull off the Deathripper that Kara had wounded in my earlier turn, leaving my latest girl to have three shots on Mortenebra between Reinholdt's reload and her feats' proc from a Cyclone, dropping Morty from a safe distance. Chalk up a map point for Point Bourne!




Game four sticki g to the same scrnario was against Mitch's Retribution, and Ravyn. I managed to get myself assassinated on turn one by Ravyn in a recent game against Bendigi PG Kerensky, so I played a very cautious match - possibly too much so. With the threat range on the Mage Hunters and only one Shield Guard model I hung back pretty far, a curse both for the scenario and the matchup. Mitch slowly whittle me down to the point I gave a ling shot a go, and when it failed Ravyn personally finished Kara off in melee.

I don't know what territory Mitch was after, but everyone went on for more games after I dashed off, including Feora2 chewing dirt in front of Ossyan, while a better swan than I scored another map point for Point Bourne. I've challenged the Cygnar league players at Hobby Matrix to fight for Kara's last known posting too, but we'll see how the dust settles on the interactive map.

I love these leagues, and was really disappointed when I had to call them off last year due to numbers. I'm hoping the guys are enjoying it as much as I am, and I'm fairly confident after the faces I was seeing last night. Switching to Journeyman style patches was a great idea, I can't wait to earn my full set and get them in my mitts!

Maybe I'll have to get a Trencher outfit to go with them...

Masters Day 2

Wow what a weekend! With over $1200 in prizes given away, 39 unique players at the two events, and near 40degree celsius temperature it was a big one! Above you can see the standings of the main Masters event, in order of placing with wins, SoS, CP, AP, caster kill time and faction. It was a heavy lean on Legion, Cryx, Circle and Khador this year as predicted, but every faction was represented.




Round five went off with a bang as several players misread or ignored key parts of the first scenario, Incoming! I got to play this one later in the day against the bye in round 4 of the Escalation side event, and boy it's a doozy. I don't have a photo on my phone of that round, but Michael Blyth and Ben French won their games and went ahead to the pictured final round six.




Adrian Stakula and Daniel Schmidt duked it out for third and fourth in a hectic game. Every time I looked at the table the shoe had switched feet, but in the end Menoth willed it harder than Everblight to get Staks third place, and Schmidt fourth. Each of the finalists got best in faction, so going the whole hog meant they walked away with a great prize.




The final round of the day was Diversion, with control zones and flags on opposite sides to normal thanks to an impatient Blythy, who was bouncing off the walls and ready to go 45 minutes before the round started. Unlike Round 5, Frenchy wasn't going to catch this opponent unaware of the perils of Dygmies, and it was a hard fought match. Again a scenario misread cost dearly though, French thinking the far zone had to be controlled rather than contested, and with a throw from Nightmare and careful attack vectors from other models Blythy was able to steal the second control point needed to win.




The Dygmies in this photo were the only thing not caught in Epic Deneghra's feat, but they were easy to deal with. Now champion of Arcanacon and Australian Master Michael Blyth, who it should be mentioned personally donated around $500 in prize support, awaits delivery of a well earnt Jackhammer. This is the second Championship title I've had the pleasure of handing to the man, so consider this a chllenge Mister Moorhouse - come to Adelaide in September and give him a run for his money!







Back to the star of this show, myself, I managed to get a pair of games with Kara Sloan friday during setup, and one more testerday afternoon against Justin Taylor - a blighted Journeyman of considerable painting talent. Honourable mentions go to Justins dad, who's name escapes me, for dashing home during Masters round 1 to grab a third warlock for his lad who'd come assuming a two list standard.

As you can see here, Justins army is simply amazing. We were given an extra set of painting trophies and it speaks highly of the youth in our scene when the day two best painted award went to someone too young to vote or drink (I believe he's 17?), but moreover he'd built a solid list, made some beautiful effort on character, and gave me a run for my money that had me gunning on the back foot with a low percentage shot at scenario victory that failed. Kara Sloan's remains were left in a puddle of Typhons unpleasant stonach acids, just in time for the award ceremony.




I'm having great deals of fun with my Cygnar, and managed to pick up a Triumph kit and the Cygnar army book to make my collection complete. The Trenchers are going strong, although I'm finding Commandos work better in a small flanking squad while I want a maxed outsquad of Trencher Infantry in my centre, and the Grenadier is proving a little expensive in a meta that's showing less and less infantry. The Cyclone was great fun, as was the Defender, but I'm also going off the Trencher Chaingun - not being able to do covering fire after moving is making them very hard to use.

Right, that's my weekend done, time to go watch Kate Beckinsale do her thing for Vampire and Corset justice everywhere!

Masters Day 1

Yesterday was the Australian Masters, 4 rounds of 50pt action at Arcanacon in Melbourne. 38 brave men and women (soul tokens) stood proud in a fairly warm school deep in Collingwood to make the top four for the finals that will be held today. Here we see Melbourne Pressganger Morsla, aka Ben Leong finally getting to play after 8 years of running the show.




Some gorgeous models hit the tables in the hotly contested best painted contest, while others (includingly seemingly ALL the Ravagores in Australia) may have sported a tad more grey metal look just duking it out Page 5 style.




A slew of prizes will be given out in this afternoons prize ceremony, thanks to fantastic sponsors like Defiant Gaming, Michael Blyth, Realm of Legends, the Antipodean Thralls, and as always Privateer Press.

Michael Blyth with his Cryx, Adrian Stakula with Menoth, Ben French with Trollbloods, and scene newcomer Daniel Schmidt with Legion are already paired off respectively for Round 5 of Masters, and are ready to rock out.




The 100+ photos I took yesterday will have to wait until tomorrow or the day after as they're on a camera that's not attached to my phone, but lastly I can't help but mention our youngest player Jake, who fielded his Throne of Everblight in every match yesterday. At 1/5th his size, it's damn impressive, and fantastic to see.

Mastering Masters

Yesterday was Australia Day (or Invasion day as the indiginous population calls it), meaning that this weekend is Arcanacon in Melbourne, and CanCon in Canberra. Controversy, angst, and an unfair share of drama has flown in the leadup to what is often forgotten to be the big weekend of Australian Warmachine and Hordes.




Contrary to my earlier tweet, this is NOT a kangaroo skeleton, but a random sculpture photographed this morning at 0530 in Adelaide Airport before I flew over to Melbourne to run Aus Masters. I'm sitting in Morsla's loungeroom spread on the couch while Samuel L Jackson says blatant copisms in SWAT, but naturally I can't shake the worry waiting for tomorrow and the last minute running of the buggest event I've touched.

It's not that it's last minute, but more there's always been drama in our scene, all the way back to our first nationals many years ago. Then there was the GenCon Nationals fiasco, and the eventual crumbling of that awesome event causing a last minute venue change amidst attempts to hijack the event itself. Fast forward to around three weeks ago and yet more shit hits the fan with a TO drop out and the AU PG (aka Antipodean Thralls flying into an organisational frenzy.




This is Morsla's year off, but here his arm holds aloft part of that last minute effort. Player packs won't be quite the 2009 Nationals level (although I plan to wear my '09 shirt sunday), with some of the PP loot held back by yet more incredible snowstorms in Seattle this year, but it's all coming together. Badvolks got the terrain sorted, and I'm reasonably sure I didn't forget anything bar the phone charger - so why the nerves?




Who knows, so let's talk about what we DO know, sorta.

I'm workin on Cygnar lately, having assumed I'd take my Conny T4 list to GenCon Indy in August. I decided to give Kara Sloan a try with my trenchers, after a few flops with Haley2, and here's where I'm at.

Army Name: 50 Kara
Cygnar
50+6 points, 24 models

Captain Kara Sloan +6 points
* Cyclone 9 points
* Defender 9 points
* Grenadier 5 points
* Sentinel 4 points
* Squire 2 points

Ogrun Bokur 3 points
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1 point
10 Trenchers 10 points
* Trencher Officer & Sharpshooter 3 points
* 3 Trencher Rifle Grenadiers 3 points
** Ironclad 7 points

Holy crap, it's not a theme list! I know, right, totally out of character, but what can I say - I DON'T really like long gunners, and this girl just screams for Reinholdt. I'm converting him to a trencher, that much is decided and inevitable, but what else to take with her?

The Ironclad is there to take objectives (Morsla's first question), while Kara's battlegroup is there to do what she does best - Blam-tha-fuk-ko. The trenchers are a love of mine, having as heavy an influence on my paint schemes now as my Morrowans have, but are there to use and abuse Deadeye, Kara's feat, and keep those lovely smoke templates up after my shooting.





This yet to be named beauty is my new favourite girl, with 12" range POW12 covering fire templates proving incredibly fun already. That's the logo of my grandfathers Commando unit on her shoulder, the 2/3rd Commando Squadron, and she's taking a prideful place by Stargazer in the list.

The Cyclone's a lot more fun AND punch than the chaingun crews I have, and I'm already thinking of retiring them in favour of more room in the list - sure, they're cheaper and do a ton when they do something, but thats so rare compared to their death to snipers or pocket rocket solos that I've just come to feel of them as dead weight. Cyclone it is in this list, but notice the magnets - she's my Omnijack girl, and a custom Stormclad dress is on the cards.

The Grenadier is in asalways, although it's in new girl's battlegroup rather than 'marshaled as usual, and the Sentinel has followed her in to give some Shield Guard, along with a Bokur for now. He might not stay, but gives me another objective/flag hunter if need be.

So. That's a Warmachine distraction for a Warmachine stress problem.

Hmm, didn't work a bit.

End of the Iron Kingdoms

This weekend saw two huge days of Warmachine & Hordes action for Infinity Games in their new location, with 16 players for our 2v2 Team Mangled Metal tournament saturday, and 13 players for the campaign even I put about 30 hours work into. For 2012, the year of apocalypse and ruin, what better theme than the End of the Iron Kindgoms?




Here you can see me fending off the evil Mitchell Chapman, blighted leader of the Doomsayer team, against Kristian Rusu, Supreme Kommandant of the Survivalist team.

It got hairy, with Kristian a bit hung over and skipping his lunch break to manically study the Captain's briefing for his round 2 face off with 'Bitchell', but it was a great day. Special characters of my own devising joined most armies, special tables with one off scrnarios and reinforcements were enjoyed if a little over complicated, and in the end a ton of prizes were given out to the highest scorer of the day and no less than three random participants.







Round one saw Legion assaulting a Morrowan village that had it's defence bolstered by Trollkin (Arcane Shield champions, anyone?), while nearby a force of Khadorans defended refugees from an assaulting Menoth force trying to release souls into Menoths embrace.

The objective marker, a holy Morrowan statue, prevented the use of souls or corpses while it was standing, so legion soon felled it but the trollkin proved too resilient. On the next table over Kreoss' force tore the Old Witchs defense to shreds, the exemplar fierce in unwavering dedication to their cause.







Here we see the campaign map and an inage from the start of round two. Captains took turn placing men and women to the front for battles, while they themselves were to duke it out in the streets of Corvis where a Blighted Katchev (gifted to Everblight by Cryxian allies) joined Absylonia for a subterranian assault that only Kapitan Natalya Steppenov and Forward Kommander Sorscha had a chance of repelling.

This time legion proved superior, the toll of the morning (and night before) taken on the Survivalist captain. With a simple mistake the scenario ended, the Forward Kommander not forward enough (see Killbox). Other games boded ill for the Survivalists, and indeed Corvis seemed to be well under their control - in round one of games Vinter had personally executed his brother on the field of battle in these very streets!







Round three saw us well behind schedule - if I run a campaign event again, we will definitely be using timers. With a snap decision and both captains in agreement, players took once more to the field to play Killbox and give us a fast and final third round, where I'd planned for five. Many scenarios, characters, and campaign rules will sit in the cupboard until next time, but highlights included:

Vinter executing Leto in the streets of Corvis, earning the Doomsayers a Sword relic that ended up in the hands of an exemplar seneschal for the day.

Skulltaker, the infamous Seether, tearing Grom Angus' head from his shoulders in one hit.

Stargazer, the Defender from Clad in Iron, sending bonejacks flying with her Imprint: Slam.

Blighted Rorsch & Blighted Brine tearing men apart thanks to the freshly learned Parasite spell.

Ashlyn earning the power over flame for her team, after sending the Supreme Kommandant himself flying through a Wall of Fire with a mule.





Victory went to the Doomsayers in the end, with the forces of darkness triumphant over the goody little teo shoes Survivalists. Corvis was reclaimed by trollkin against an exemplar defence by the mystery man Menoth Shark picture above, while said trolls went undefeated all day, but the totals added up to a heavy swing for Doom, and the city was soo burned to ashes anyway (or packed up and taken home by yours truly)

Super Dungeon Explore

So yeah, wow. At $100 (AUD), I picked this beauty up from the LGS yesterday and boy was it worth it.

I'd read the demo rules way back when they were released and been eagerly awaiting this game for something in the realms of 12 to 18 months, and it certainly didn't disappoint.




Movement? Dead easy. Attacks/defence? Fairly basic. Cuteness? Not quite as over the top as I expected, but once the models are painted I can definitely see it overflowing. Replayability? Fairly high with eight different heroes, and the obvious room for expansion. It looks from the rulebook like it's been built strongly around having expansions, and they can't come soon enough for me.

Daniela (Nailyon) and I had our first go of it last night, and bar some accidents, a few misreads, a bottle of wine and a pair of bad headaches we had a good amount of fun with it. I had to laugh at how long we took, I think our first "30 minute" game was closer to the two hour mark, but I lay the blame for that mostly on my own lack of pre reading. What, I had models to put together I didn't have to pin, ok?




Speaking of, I quite like them. Like any of the model based boardgames we see these days they've got a fairly decent yet minimalistic amount of detail, which with painting will look great. I needed to glue them together, as most didn't have much purchase on the dry fit, and about my only complaint was there not being a big warning saying "dude, bring glue!".




So whats next? Well, Daniela has a handful of heroes and the cute dragon stuff to cleanup, fill cracks on, and paint, while I've got the majority to browbeat the guys into learning to play with. I'm strongly considering getting a second set for dice/heroes/tiles, and I'm thinking it's worth taking a look at my Terraclips for alternate boards.

I'm thinking of converting the second box a tad if I get one. The fire mage could use a dragon head on her staff, that paladin is just asking for a Menite or Morrowan shield and goggles, and a couple of the others could use some steampunking or general conversion work. Paint wise I'd like to get names on the bases too, it's easy to remember which kobold is which with cards in front of me but opponents could use a hand.

Oh, and I'm thinking Cryx might make good Kobolds. You know, if I run out or something. Mechanithralls, Skarlocks, Slayers, and the Deathjack come to mind...