May 2018 – The Dark Muse

Apparently that cover photo is a Hellmouth joke? Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer-related? (My nerd credentials are limited, having never seen that series).

In any case, this week I painted up a Hellmouth for my Legion army.

“Om nom nom”

I also started to work on my actual bases for the Legion force, as my order of them finally arrived. The Hellmouth was a good point to start on them, as that unit is bursting out of the ground–so those had to be scratch based. Meant that I needed to experiment with the colors and form of basing with that unit. I’m relatively pleased with how it came out, and I’m definitely liking the skulls. The Aztec-themed bases will be more slate, but most have sections of dirt as well (and I’m adding skulls to them).

For comparison to the Hellmouth, I also finished a Scythean. You can see the Aztec base that came from the amazing guy at Dragonforge Design. I have a whole set of them, cannot wait!

Front and back to show the way the bases look. They’re understated, which I like a lot. I thought about adding color or gold to them in spots. Still might go back and do that. Will have to see.

Completing these two models also puts me over the official halfway point for yearly painting goals. Pretty good for early-to-mid May!

Gaming-wise, I brought my Legion lists to a local Steamroller at SCG Hobbies in Latrobe, ready to compete. I took my Fyanna2 Children of the Dragon list mainly because I’m comfortable with it, and my Kallus1 Primal Terrors list because I want to work on how competitive it is. My plan was to all-things-being-equal drop the Kallus1 list every round just to learn how matchups fare with Primal Terrors. Only if my opponent had a strong ranged assassination game that would be likely, or seemed particularly weak to Fyanna2’s shenanigans (lots of low MAT infantry or small number of beasts/jacks) was she going to be my choice.

Picture could have been clearer, but these are my two lists. I’m still definitely tinkering with both, but spoiler alert: I went undefeated with them.

First round I played my Kallus1 list vs Larry’s Heretic Bump in the Night Grymkin list. The exploding barrel guys are definitely a nasty part of the list, and got a lot of work done. I only narrowly won with a clock and scenario lead. I’ve got to work on better play, as I think I got a bit chippy in this game when it was clear clock was my only win strategy. Just focus in on better play overall, and if my opponent clocks that’s fine. A lucky win against a great player is the story of this one.

Second round was again Kallus1, this time against John P. and his Cryx force led by Deneghra1. I’ve seen John at a lot of events, but we’ve never matched up. I got two very lucky breaks, a clutch spell by Kallus1 through a Spell Martyr and the blight burst from a Forsaken managed to clear out almost all of the Satyxis on my right side. Which let me pivot in for a scenario win. I chased Denny around for a while in the middle, and she was definitely in jeopardy–but getting Dodge from one of the new Cryx support models was huge for her survival. I ended up just forcing the scenario win.

Third round was against Craig’s Khador, led by Strakov1. It was a number of Doomreavers, so I knew that my Kallus1 list simply wouldn’t fly against them. Thus, Fyanna2 took the stage. She proved to be effective enough to avoid the swarm (he just backed off on feat turn), which led to pretty heavy losses on later turns. But it was enough for me to punch a path to Strakov1, and Fyanna ended up with the killing blow.

The tourney was capped at three rounds, and I won on tiebreaks against the other person who was also undefeated. I could have played better, but a win is a win. Was good to face some people I don’t often face, and good to see that I’m really liking my Kallus1 list.

Also had one practice game before the tourney, with my good friend Michael, fielding Borka2.

This one was a serious grind, just one of those games where both sides kept mauling each other turn after turn. Finally it got to the point where there wasn’t enough screen left and I could get Blightbringer onto Borka2. That finished him off, but it took my full stack of fury to get there. Was a fun back-and-forth game.

Finally I got a pair of games in after the tourney, tho sadly I lost the photos when I had to replace my phone. They were a win against Kevin’s Minions Maelok list, and a loss against Patrick’s Barnabas list. It’s Minions-fever here in Pittsburgh apparently.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2018):

205/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2018: 63 (Win/Loss 40/23); 2017: 120 (Win/Loss 86/34): 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14)

Legion of Everblight:

31 Wins (Denny1 x2, Scaverous x2, Issyria, Wanderer, Skarre1, Sloan, Naaresh, Gaspy2, Madrak1 x2, Strakov2, Kaya3 x2, Helynna x2, Sorscha2, Kaelyssa, Dreamer, Jaga-Jaga, Denny3, Elara2 x2, Thexus, Sorscha1, Maelok x2, Heretic, Strakov1, Borka2) / 15 Losses (Denny1, Krueger2, Dreamer, Sorscha1, Jaga-Jaga, Old Witch3, Caine1, Issyria, Child, Helynna, Gaspy3 x2, Karchev, Vlad1, Barnabas)

Protectorate of Menoth:

8 Wins (Gaspy2, Helynna, Vlad2, Sorscha1, Vlad1, Kraye, Garryth, Naaresh) / 1 Loss (Madrak1)

Convergence of Cyriss:

1 Win (Haley3) / 7 Losses (Heretic, Rask, Kaelyssa, Xerxis, Siege2, Testament, Bradigus)

We all knew it was a matter of time. I caved. My plan to play nothing but Legion of Everblight until the America’s Team Championship in 2019 has failed. I did get 40 total games in of Legion, which is virtually a new record for me in terms of keeping with one faction. But I went back to Protectorate, at least for a couple of games. As the image above shows: I’ve got the streak of flame and faith to me.

I’m going to keep working on my Legion project and keep practicing with those models, but I just needed a bit of a break. A little vacation into the faithful was fun, and a good way to shake up some of the games for our Permanent Death League that is going on. After this post, it’ll be back to Legion games for a while yet. They’re still the thing I think I feel most comfortable with, and have the strongest drive to paint and play overall.

2 Protectorate of Menoth Severius2 vs Trollbloods Madrak1

3 Protectorate of Menoth Feora3 vs Cygnar Kraye

1 Protectorate of MenothTestament vs Khador Vlad1

I messed around with a few casters at first (clockwise from left). Tried a Severius2 list into Larry’s Madrak1 infantry list. Didn’t go so well, as Madrak1 has some pretty solid answers to everything I was trying to leverage. Lost on scenario pretty handily. Second game was Feora3 vs Rob’s Kraye, which I won just by an oversight in positioning. He even checked the distances, but then left a chargeable-model too close to a zero-camp Kraye (behind a forest even). Feat, charge, flame step, and finished. Lucky too, as the hurt that Kraye list can put out is serious to be sure. Finally, I played a game with Testament versus Andy’s Vlad1. Went the way of many Testament games. Exemplars took out some heavies, his remaining stuff killed a whole bunch of them, Testament sets up the assassination with ample damage on Vlad1 to burn focus and it finished with a charging errant who kills him.

I kept riding (pun intended?) Feora3 for a couple more games after that first set. I’ve really liked her fire mechanism and ability for Daughters to be effective contesting pieces (I need to sort out better contesting pieces with my Legion forces). On the left, was Feora3 vs Steve’s Garryth list. She managed to kill a lot with fire, survive the assassination attempt from Garryth, and then finished him off herself. Steve had a line on a better kill of her with a throw, but he moved in a different direction so I got lucky–Garryth missed 2 of his attacks that would have hit if she were knocked down, which still were unlikely to have killed her but would have made it much closer. Finally, a game against Chris’ Naaresh Skorne beast brick with the Hydra. Was a fast game, as he rushed up the board and threw all his beasts directly into my face. Feora3 and a charging Flame Bringer both managed to have an angle on him, and he was running on empty to accept all the beasts’ Fury, which ended him quicker than he expected.

Well, a little palette cleanser into Protectorate never hurt anyone too much. Now to get back into the swing of Legion things. Next on my painting table is a Hellmouth, and then more pieces of my Kallus1 Primal Terrors list that I’m enjoying.

365 Points Challenge Progress (2018):

183/365