Like I said last time, I wanted to do some Barnabas1 testing. I think he and Rask are the two potential choices to pair with my Maelok list. I really like the way his Feat helps handle a variety of infantry forces, and his Swamp Pit spell remains pretty nasty against gunline armies. While Rask protects on the advance as well, after Rask’s Feat turn and alpha there isn’t as much play left in him. It’s one of those “you better have such a clear winning situation on turn 3” kind of lists. I think Barnabas1 sacrifices some of the force protection Rask gives, and instead permits longer term force protection for some of his pieces. And then there’s always the dark horse of Jaga-Jaga, which means that Maelok would need to be the one to power thru gunlines–but she could give some destructive power on both cracking armor and killing swaths of infantry that both Maelok and Barnabas1 lack.
My team for the America’s Team Championship in January has arranged a practice event this month against five other Teams from Pennsylvania and Maryland. Like I will for the ATC, I prepared a match-up sheet for this one. Good lord so many Circle players (8 of the 30 are Circle), but was pleased to see that Minions ties for second-most-represented with Cryx. I’m feeling a little iffy on my match-ups, so you’ll see a lot of yellow squares. But this is what the breakdown looks like with Maelok and Barnabas1 as my committed choices.
Out of the 25 potential opponents, I’m seeing only two that don’t have a clear choice for me to make (I think). That helps a lot with my decision-making. And I only have two where I’m feeling like it’s really list chicken. It’s also about 65% Maelok as a choice, so that helps too: the list I’m feeling is my main list is the one I’ll be playing more.
Proviso: I might be totally wrong on these match ups, and my team helped me on some of them (especially the Circle ones). But it’s a good experiment to go thru and think about how I’d do these with my given lists. That in itself gives feedback on Barnabas1 and my current build of him.
In advance of the practice event, I got in some more painting and practice games of my own to be ready (practicing for practice, hah). First up painting:
Finished a Blind Walker. I really like this warmest for Maelok, both aesthetically and in the game. Being able to arc Mortality is a huge boon for him. I think he turned out great.
Maelok’s list also has a Thrullg, which was a good way to paint something slightly different. I’m planning on doing my Bog Trogs in this red, to compliment the way that the Gators are brown and the frogs will be brown and orange. The Thrullg has that sorta trog “feel” to it, minus scales, so I gave it a whirl. Really liked how it turned out. Will bring out the reds that are more rare on the rest of my stuff really well.
Like I said above, I got in a few practice games in the week before the practice event:
(Clockwise left to right) First up, a Barnabas1 loss to Larry’s Iona. That caster is a meta-bender to be sure, and I still haven’t solved it–though I got closer this time than I have in the past. Next up I got a pop-and-drop assassination win against Chad’s Feora3. Being able to walk out of jam after the Feat enabled me to get pieces to clear a path and then a wrastler onto a knocked-down Feora. Finally, I snuck in a game with Barnabas2 against Mike’s Cygnar with Maddox. It was a sort of a palate-cleanser game, as I just wanted to try something different quick–and had just assembled Barnabas2 (who is such a cool model). I won the game, tho I expect the next time I use him against Mike he’ll do much better. I fear Barnabas2 may be a one trick pony.
The practice event itself was a lot of fun. It was organized by the Mollywhoppers, and we ended up facing both of their teams (Baltimore area) as well as another group from New Jersey (Team Meat).
(Clockwise left to right) First I faced Chris, from Mollywhoppers Lincoln. He dropped High Reclaimer with double Judicators, and I dropped Barnabas1. It was a tough game, and I managed to take out one of the two Judicators, but it still wasn’t enough and he killed Barnabas. Our team went 2-3 this round, but we also didn’t get the exact match-ups pairings that we were looking for. Second round I played Maelok into Anthony’s Vlad2 Armored Corps. I had Barnabas1 as my drop for this one, but I re-thought it because it was a relatively small AC list (few units). I managed to win on scenario by killing enough to score and denying him scores on his turns thanks to effectively sturdy gators. Our team went 5-0 this round, as we got the match-ups we were generally looking for (mine was probably the roughest). Final round was against the Mollywhoppers Booth, and I took Barnabas1 into Brad Park’s Terminus Ghost Fleet. I definitely adjusted my sense of the match-up on the advice of my team captain, Rob, but I still felt it wasn’t as bad as he suggested it was. I managed to get an assassination run that left Terminus with only three boxes, after it was clear I was on the losing end of the attrition game. So a loss, but not as problematic as it could have been. Definitely felt the limitations of Barnabas1 across this one and the HR match up in round one.
Overall, I fear that my Barnabas1 list is more reactive: that it’s me responding to others’ threats and hoping to answer them. I asked Brad after our game what he’d fear to see from a Minions list, and he said that Jaga-Jaga is a straight up red match for many Cryx lists, and we talked through reasons why that might be good. Left me feeling better about my performance and the weekend. I’m thinking that maybe with Jaga-Jaga I can move to where I’ve got more green match ups, and it’ll just mean that a few match ups are clearly red (otherwise known as “play Maelok and count on the armor plus scenario”).
| Primary Warlocks | Games | Secondary Warlocks | Games |
| Maelok | 6 | Barnabas1 | 6 |
| Jaga-Jaga | 2 | Dr. Arkadius | 3 |
| Rask | 7 | Midas | 2 |
| Barnabas2 | 1 |
365 Points Challenge Progress (2018):
391/365
Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Totals 2018: 120 (Win/Loss 72/48); 2017: 120 (Win/Loss 86/34): 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14)
Minions:
14 Wins (Vlad1, Issyria, Kromac2, Maddox x2, Magnus2, Kryssa, Helynna, Irusk2, Amon, Feora3 x2, Siege2, Vlad2) / 13 Losses (Venethrax, Ossrum, Syvestro, Madrak3, Krueger2 x2, Iona x4, Rahn, High Reclaimer, Terminus)
Convergence of Cyriss:
3 Wins (Haley3, Vlad1, Caine2) / 11 Losses (Heretic, Rask, Kaelyssa, Xerxis, Siege2, Testament, Bradigus, Vyros2, Ossrum, Stryker2, Vlad2)
Legion of Everblight:
38 Wins (Denny1 x2, Scaverous x2, Issyria, Wanderer, Skarre1, Sloan, Naaresh, Gaspy2, Madrak1 x2, Strakov2, Kaya3 x2, Helynna x3, Sorscha2, Kaelyssa, Dreamer, Jaga-Jaga, Denny3, Elara2 x2, Thexus, Sorscha1, Maelok x3, Heretic, Strakov1, Borka2, Caine2, Karchev, Baldur2, Gaspy3, Gaspy1) / 18 Losses (Denny1, Krueger2, Dreamer, Sorscha1, Jaga-Jaga, Old Witch3, Caine1, Issyria, Child, Helynna, Gaspy3 x2, Karchev, Vlad1, Barnabas, Heretic x2, Madrak1)
Skorne:
10 Wins (Anamag, Sorscha3, Kolgrima, Gaspy2, Feora1, High Reclaimer, Vlad1 x2, Haley2, Skarre3) / 5 Losses (Rahn, Magnus1, Denny1, Haley2, Syvestro)
Protectorate of Menoth:
8 Wins (Gaspy2, Helynna, Vlad2, Sorscha1, Vlad1, Kraye, Garryth, Naaresh) / 1 Loss (Madrak1)
The Dark Muse 