Uh Oh, accidental second faction, Malifaux, and conversion

So over the past couple of weeks I have made some pseudo-accidental acquisitions.  My trading off of extra and/or unused models and units has gone pretty well.  I have nearly completed my Protectorate collection (my collection being models that I want - all that I want that I don't have is Daughters of the Flame and the Fire of Salvation).

So I picked up some Legion of Everblight and two Malifaux starters.

So far my Legion army consists of:
Saeryn, eLylyth
Carnivean, Seraph
3x Shredders
One complete Forsaken (and another missing an arm)
And a Totem Hunter

Total of a little over 25 points and two caster options.  I will be using it as a way to get a better handle on Hordes rules and it provides a second battle box (proxying pLylyth in for eLylyth) if and when I have friends who want to try out the game.  We also have a bunch of people who are starting at my LGS - so I have a force that I would be happy to play smaller games with them.

I also ended up with both the Lilith and Zoraida Malifaux starters.  I am really on the fence about these guys - I have never played a Malifaux game and don't really have the ability to commit a second night to playing a different gaming system (with the new baby time with my wife is at a premium and I am lucky to get a night off to game, much less two nights).  I am probably going to try and trade this off for more Legion (or my last bits of Menoth) models if I can.  Starting a second faction also makes me wish that the sites were still up where you could sell World of Warcraft accounts as I could probably get enough to afford a decent Legion army, oh well.

Conversion
I picked up a plastic warjack kit built as the Scourge of Heresy and also got the extra plastic bits for each of the other jacks (Templar, Vanquisher, Crusader).  My hope was that I could find a way to undue the superglue bonds and magnetize the whole thing.  Problem is that the only thing I know of that reliably eats away super glue (acetone) also eats away PPress plastic.  Looks like he will become a Scourge/Templar hybrid.

I may try to trim off the Flail and magnetize it as a Flail-Mace, and then add some flames to the mace.  This would give me a Templar/Scourge/FoS hybrid (putting the stacks on for the character jacks).  I'm not sure if this would pass for tournaments when I want to run the FoS, but for casual play I am sure it would be fine.

If I could only figure out how to get rid of the superglue without damaging the plastic...

Point Levels

As a side note, I had a discussion recently about 35 v. 50 point games. One person was saying that they preferred 50 point games because you can 'take whatever you want' while I said I much preferred 35 point games for exactly that reason - you can't take everything you want, you have to make more strategic decisions about what you want. Everything is a tradeoff, if you take the big expensive jack you might lose out on support - if you take all the support you might not get to take all 4 jacks you want, etc. To me building the list is part of the fun, and I just don't see that as 'enjoyable' in 50 points as it is in 35.

Just my thoughts. What does the blog-reading public think?  Leave a comment with your opinion on point levels and reason - I am interested to hear where people stand.

Phases of gaming

The more I play, the more I realize that there are some distinctive phases of learning to play - and I am well behind the curve.

Phase 1 - The Rules

The first phase of WM/H (and most board or wargames) is learning the rules. This takes awhile. There are the basics of turn order, terrain, and movement. Here you learn things like you can't charge past a linear obstacle, run/charge applies to your entire unit, etc. Eventually you have a grasp of the basics and start getting more nuances/specific situations like when your caster/lock can spend to shake knockdowns (during control phase FYI - made that mistake). At this point, you have a fair grasp on the game itself.

Phase 1 is probably Battlebox/15 point games/

Phase 2 - Your Models

The second phase of WM/H, and where I consider myself (although I'm trying to learn enough to shift to the third phase), seems to be when you have a fair grasp of the rules and start to become more familiar with the various models in your army and how they work together. Experimentation with synergies and spell interactions allow you to feel more comfortable, overall, with your army. You also begin to look for assassination vectors/ways to open things up while keeping yourself protected, but often lose thinking "Man, those were some shenanigans."

Phase 2 is moving into 35 point games at the start of this phase, and solidly in 35 at the end.

Phase 3 - Their Models

In this phase, you are comfortable with your army and are now learning more and more about other casters and models. People aren't surprising you with bane thralls appearing all over the place or mage hunters nuking your caster because they ignore line of site and your nice overboost. You are better at seeing assassination vectors and aren't thinking "Man, I wouldn't have done that had I known what shenanigans they were going to pull" quite as often.

35 point games, becoming more competitive as you learn what to expect.

Phase 4 - Intense Strategy

You know your models abilities, you know their models abilities - heck, you know the stats for 90% of the models in the game. The entire time you play, you are watching for strategic options to open up and are positioning for both the offensive and defensive. You are a god among mere mortals, and the rest of your local gaming folks look to you for rules questions and you are the 'man to beat' on gaming nights.

Anyway, there is obviously a lot of overlap between these phases, but I feel like these are kind of the clear 'transition points.'

Scenarios, I get it now

Played another Vassal game today - was trying out pSev with models I currently own.

I played pSev, Guardian, Reckoner, min Choir, max Knight Exemplar Errant + UA, Knight Exemplar, KE Seneschal x2, Wracks.

He had Magnus, two renegades, a mule, 2x Halberdiers, and Croe's cuttthroats.

Turn one, I ran everyone forward but the KEE (who advanced, shot, and came up short). Sevvy put up Def. Ward on the KEE, Eye on himself, and Vision on the Guardian. He bushwhacked at the KEE with Croe's (who had snipe), saw they were 14/18 and then retreated everything back.

I scratched my head and on Turn 2 just kinda moved things around to see what he was going to do. He retreated again on turn 2. I said to myself "Well this is lame and uninteresting, might as well run forward or he will just do a bunch of moving around." Honestly, I was a little ticked - it was shaping up to be boring.

So everyone ran up on my side. He had hit the back wall so pushed halberdiers out on either side with the jacks and Magnus in the middle. Cutthroats moved to some woods and took some shots at the KEE. Snipe went on the Mule (who is now shooting 18" with arcing fire). Both the renegades fired their one rocket each, mule fired his - wiped out some KEE and KE.

My jacks had been running up the sides - Guardian finally in a position to arc A2A on the cutthroats - killed a few. KEE killed a couple of infantry here and there, and everything else moved up. Mule shot again (sevvy took some damage). He fired, moved infantry around and feated.

I moved up, cleared some infantry and healed Sevvy some. And then made a critical mistake - I trampled out my Guardian (who had been behind a little bit of forest) past a cutthroat. This put me out of range to arc spells - I thought I would be able to go closer, but was farther in the forest than I expected. Should have just ran - then I could have pumped 3 incinerates into a no-focus Magnus. Bad positioning on my part. End my turn. He shot with his mule, moved the renegade up and makes my Reckoner stationary with an arced spell. One flank of halberds runs to swarm the Reckoner and threaten behind Sevvy. Other halberds charge some KE/KEE just being kinda annoying on them and killing a few.

I went, made some charges/attacks with the KE/KEE doing not much. KEE Seneschal charges the renegade, deals some nasty damage and combo-smites him. The plan was to have him fly back and hit Magnus, but he barely touched the Mule and thus fell short of Magnus. Other KEE charged the other renegade - did some nasty damage and combo-smited him away. Guardian is swarmed by a few infantry, and thus can't move to get LoS on Magnus, but kills everyone around him. Reckoner tramples through the halberds behind Sevvy killing most of them (but there are a couple still threatening Sevvy). Sevvy then cycles def. ward on himself dropping eye. His turn, Mule fully boosted lands right on Sevvy dealing exactly 10 (when he had 10 hit boxes left).

Game over. I was too spread out at that point to effectively block LoS to Sevvy.

It ended up being more interesting than I thought it was going to be, but I understand scenarios now (kill box is all I have played and when I played it I thought "We are going to end up fighting in this box anyway, this is kinda silly"). Now I get it. My opponent had a good strategy - he forced his opponent (me) to come and fight him on his terms. Of course, had I not said "This is boring" I could have sat on my side waiting turns out as well.

All in all a fun game and I learned that choir boys make great LoS blockers when arcing fire is an issue, but they also die fast.

MVP of the game - the KE Sennys. Once they got to the target, two Pow 11 +2 (fury) +1 (eye) hitting at Mat 8 +1 (eye) with combo-smite...was awesome to see. I was hoping to test and see exactly how long they would live though if there was any kind of focused fire on them, alas - will have to happen in a later game. They are a seriously potent melee threat though.

Somewhere in there I feated, but I can't exactly remember when - I think it was right before I was trying to set up the "3 Incinerates" move that failed.

My first real game with Sevvy - and I like the old man of Menoth. I wish I had been able to make more use of his spells, but Eye of Menoth with an infantry-heavy army was brutal. Since I was the only one closing distance, though, I took too much damage on the way in and got too spread out.

Shenanigans

First, I received my shipment of minis and can now put together several different 35-50 point armies on the table top. But, this likely won't be happening anytime soon since my wife and I just welcomed our first child to the world (a healthy baby girl!).

On to my gaming topic of the day - what I am terming 'shenanigans.' Having played a bunch of games now, I have a grasp of the basic rules and am beginning to pick up some "board vision" (thinking about threat ranges of models, LoS, and charge lanes), but I think seeing that kind of stuff comes with time. I feel like I am gaining a grasp of the basics, but one thing I keep missing is things that alter the board I am looking at. These are the Shenanigans. Last night's game was an example, but not the only one I have encountered.

Playing a game on Vassal (Vassal is great for those of us who may not be able to make it out to the LGS) last night was an example - Trollbloods v. my Menoth. He was playing eDoomy (first mistake - I thought it was pDoomy which effected my play somewhat due to feat differences) and I am totally unfamiliar with Trolls. Testament and my Zealots/KE/Seneschals move up and zealots do a tiny bit of damage to Mulg and the big Troll, Avatar moves up on the right and a Reckoner on the left. Testament is kinda out in the open at the end of my turn, but is a solid 14" away from anyone else with rough terrain in front of him. Refuge is up on the 2 handed troll heavy, Mulg has Wild Aggression. Doomy activates and feats, Troll heavy eats some whelps walks up, grabs Avatar and throws him about 9" out of the way then Refuge walks another 8" up to the Testament and misses/fails to do anything. Mulg then activates and eats whelps - he doesn't have LoS on the Testament, but that ends up not mattering. He tramples 4+3+3+2+2 inches forward. He then boxed a model, and goaded 2 inches to the left to be in melee with he Testament, with only 1 fury on him. Smacks Testament, game over.

Mulg's 7" threat range was extended by the 3" feat +2" from the animus of the big 2 handed troll heavy +2" from Relentless - effectively doubling his threat range, and then he sidestepped 2 more inches.

I will be the first to admit that had I been familiar with the models I would have known to play differently and things are a little harder on vassal where there are no cards I can look over before the game starts. BUT there seems to be a fair amount of these shenanigans and almost all of them can be game-winning (or in the case of the doom-n-gloom forumites, game-breaking [see the thread on Molik Karn being in your DZ before your turn]) and are thus VERY important to keep in mind.

Thats my lesson for the day for myself - "Beware the shenanigans." I have seen the extreme movement stacking mostly in Hordes (since they can have an animus and an upkeep on them) and with Cryx (because they are Cryx), but its something I really need to start worrying more about.

First Model

My first WM related shipment arrived from Wargamer's Cave (thanks Ray). Finally picking up the official rulebook (no relying on the old pdf anymore), a MKII Menoth Deck, and the Exemplar Errant UA. I have never put together a model before so I spent a bit of time googling what I need to do. Here is step one. Pewter is in soap bath, the wood is just some scrap that I am planning on 'converting' to a mobile workspace with some wooden barriers around it and thick-ish cloth (probably canvas) to limit sliding around and the like. (Ignore the pile of resumes and cover letters sitting under the book - yay unemployment.)


Washed them, here are my 13 pieces to put together. There isn't much in the way of 'flash lines' I can find (but again, I've never put one together before) but there are gaps in the shoulder. It is a tiny area, so I don't know if the moldable epoxy/green stuff is my best option. I need to look into what I might use in a smaller/harder to get to area.

So far I can see how everything fits together except the spaulders. They may just kind of rest on top though. Only big worry is how it will fit on the standard bearer - there is very little room between his head and the standard.

Speaking of the standard bearer - the banner pole is very pliable. It has me worried about long-term stability. I may need to cut the bottom of the pole off and pin it if/when I get a pin vise (not even sure if that is the best way to do it, but looks like the best option).

So far so good...of course all I did was wash.

It Begins!

So I now have models en route to my house (please USPS deliver them safely!) thanks to craigslist and some creative searching. I kept being drawn back to the Menoth even though Khador was what I got the hang of first, I ended up finding someone who was getting out of the game and picked up all of their army.

Here is what I bought:

Casters:
pFeora, pKreoss, eKreoss, pSev, Harby, Amon, High Reclaimer, Testament

Jacks:
Avatar, 2x Castigator, 2x Devout, Guardian, Reckoner, Redeemer, 2x Revenger, Vanquisher

Troops:
2x full choir, 2 Deliverer Sunburst, Min Deliverers (+2 grunts), 2 exemplar seneschal, 2x Full zealots, 2x Monolith Bearer, 2x Knight Exemplar [KE], Paladin, min Errants [KEE], min Cleanser (+2 grunts), full TFG, Wracks

Mercs:
Eiryss, Gorman, Rhupert


So I ordered the rulebook, MKII deck, and the KEE UA in addition. I have more than enough options for numerous, viable 15/25/35/50 point lists and am pretty pumped. About half the models are painted, so I will get to work on my painting skills and I need to figure out how the crap how to put together the UA.

I'm also planning on trading off some of the 'excess' models to fill the holes in my list. So here is my list for trade/receive (with help from the PP Forums):

Things I think I need:
1) Book
2) Vassal
3) Heirophant
4) 4 KEE grunts, KEE Senny
5) TFG UA

Things I want:
1) eFeora
2) Reznik
3) Reclaimer Solo (just to try out)
4) FoS
5) Crusader
6) Vilmon
7) Bastions

Things that aren't necessary and could be traded off:
1) Castigator
2) 4 of the choir grunts
3) one unit of Zealots + Mon. Bearer
4) the extra Devout


Anyway, quite pumped to be able to play with flesh and blood (instead of Vassal-only) soon. So to those in PDX, hope to see you soon.

In bigger news - T minus 13 days until my first child (daughter) will be here. Way more exciting, but wholly unrelated to WM/H.