Another stretch of gaming, more painting and games. I’m on a roll for 2017 so far, and I hope to keep it up. Retribution has become a very entertaining faction to play and to paint so far. I’m still inclined to play some of my Skorne as well, but these ladies and gents will do for a while. As always, painting first:

Adeptis Rahn. I like how he turned out, and he has been quite the pleasure to play on the battlefield so far. I know he’s going to take a long time to master, despite the fact that I’ve been successful in most early games with him. 

Sphinx heavy warjack. The Vyre chassis seems to take longer to paint than the Shyeel chassis. A lot more red surfaces in the arm joins and legs I think. Still, pleased enough with him. 

Arcanist Mechanik. He was fun to paint up, and was my main test for how I’ll be handling the different cloth and leather tones on my Retribution models. So far so good I think. 

On the battles side, there were no tournaments in the first half of this month so it was mostly just open games against friends. I did get a good amount of variety in my games. I’m hoping to play a Steamroller with my Retribution in mid-February, so that’s on the docket–which means I’ve got to punch my painting and practice games into overdrive.

I got a few more games in with Elara2 before swapping to Rahn. First was against Andy’s Khador. It is a warjack brick with Strakov. The speed of Elara2 caught him off guard, and I managed to get my Chimera into Strakov as he dealt with my force to finish the job. 

I faced Kevin’s Circle Orboros force led by Tanith next, and lost the game to assassination. He staggered his stuff well enough that I couldn’t leverage the threat range the force can generate, which eventually led to a Warpwolf to the face for Elara2 as I had to get more desperate with my positioning. 

Final game with Elara2 for now was against Charles’ Circle force, facing Grayle the Farstrider. It was a good match that turned into a grind. Ended with Grayle having to make a play for Elara2 and failing, leaving Elara to finish him off in return. I had to show the picture of Charles’ Gorax above, because he still uses the old metal model. I like the new one, but the old one has a silly charm to it. 

Got started with Rahn against Brad’s Skorne force led by Zaadesh2. This was an absolute slugfest, but Rahn’s annoying telekinesis to keep his warbeasts turned around and out of the game was sufficient to get me the opening I needed on Zaadesh. 

This great shot of Joe’s Dire Troll Mauler smashing my Chimera was part of a game of Rahn vs. his Borka1. Again, keep-away and isolating warbeasts with telekinesis led to an advantage. My mostly-dead Sphinx could block most of Borka’s stumbling drunk movements, and the Manticore managed to get into his back arc for a hit that finished him. 

Rahn faced my good friend Kevin’s Circle Orboros Tanith list, ready for redemption. Kevin played a very tight game again, but the Chimera was just able to slip free of the Reeves that ran to engage it with its Apparition move in the control phase. A quick run and it was right up within range to ignore Tanith’s Prowl-given stealth. That let Rahn knock her into the stone, then telekinesis her to partially out of the woods. And the Sphinx shot plus Battle Mages did the rest. 

Rahn again against Ryan’s Makeda1 Skorne list. I’m really liking what he can do in terms of personal impact. In this game, he got a good Forcehammer onto her that sent her into the Agonizer, then a Telekinesis to turn her around and Battle Mages to pull her out and kill her. When Rahn works, he seems very powerful to be sure. 

Venethrax was a tougher challenge for Rahn than others, as Lamentation doesn’t make things easy. Mercifully I could use my arc node and get the right telekinesis into him and let the Sphinx in the back do the rest of the work. A good game against Charles’ Cryx.

Last game of this set was my first loss with Rahn, against Adam’s Cryx led by Asphyxious1. Rahn got a bit too ambitious where he stood at the end of the game having used his stack of Focus to severely hamper the enemy. Gaspy1’s feat gave him just enough oomph to seal the deal with a spell assassination. This was a great game and a long grind–Adam is a cagey opponent and definitely won due to his good positioning throughout the game. 

 

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

62/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 23 (Win/Loss 17/6/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Retribution of Scyrah:

13 Wins (Tanith x2, Venethrax x2, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2 x2, Grayle, Borka1, Makeda1, Strakov) / 5 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar, Tanith, Gaspy1)

Trollbloods:

4 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

My Retribution of Scyrah army is growing in size and experience. I’ve added more models, and gotten a variety of games under my belt thus far. First, as always, the new additions:

 

The humble Aspis. It’s a cheap model with shield guard and the ability to regenerate damage. It seemed like a good choice to add, and I really like the way that reposing the leg made him a lot more dynamic than some of my other warjacks for the faction. A friend Scott suggested that I paint the orbs on his hands like basketballs and put an Air Jordan logo on his shoulderpad. Funny, but I like him as he is. 

I also added a Lys Healer to support my current Warcaster, Elara2. With absolutely no defensive tech other than a mid-high defense of 16, Elara2 has felt very squishy to me. The Lys Healer goes a long way in shoring that up, for a very cheap points cost. I’m pleased with the paint job, and I love the deep hood of the model itself. 

On the gaming front, I got in a variety of games at different points levels. The momentous game of the week was against my friend Charles. He’s cooked up a sort of story-driven campaign, and is inviting friends to join in with portions of it. Charles is always a great opponent who puts RPG-level elements into these types of games, so I was happy to jump in.

For instance, he made these special scenario markers for the first event. Two strange symbol tablets and a pile of energy crystals. 

The story is set in the Black River region of the Iron Kingdoms, and involves different factions competing over strange Orgoth runes that are appearing from the earth.Charles even wrote up a hand-written mission for it–I had to share for the old school gaming cred and great penmanship alone.

A blast from the gaming past.  

The game itself was a fun mission, where Elara2 faced off against Venethrax. I used teleport to grab one of the three objectives early (in this battle, you carry them with you). Venethrax gathered the other two, so I had to set up a chance to steal them. Again, Teleport saves the day: I rushed up, managed to hit enough to take both, then teleported away with my final two. My warjacks ran to box Venny and his army out of a path to Elara2 and I was home free with all of the objectives. A great game, and a fun narrative story. 

I also got in a bunch of regular games with my Retribution over the past two weeks. I’m really liking Elara2 in terms of threat range and flexibility. I’m excited to add more into the force to support her, but I’m also inclined to get some practice with a second Warcaster as well so I can start to suss out a pairing.

Terry’s great-looking Protectorate force faced off against mine. Thanks to a few bad dice rolls on his part, my Chimera survived a failed assassination run on Malekus to get the killing blow the subsequent turn. 

My game against Adam’s Cryx was a fun one marked by Elara2 demonstrating just how far her Warjacks can project threat. A running and fleet Griffon with Scything Touch from across the board combined with a Manticore to put some serious worry into Gaspy1. He survived, but was finished off by the Aspis in the subsequent round. 

Joe is a new player in our meta, who has a great-looking Trollbloods force already growing. His Pyre Troll in particular looks super-dynamic. I clashed against his Ragnor force. Unfortunately, my experience with Trollbloods meant a strong advantage for me against a newer player, so I ended up with a win. 

A close loss to Ryan’s Xekaar-led Skorne army. I really like a lot of the changes to Skorne with the errata, and they’re definitely on my docket for a return once I get my Retribution into shape. But Xekaar still stinks as far as I’m concerned. Ryan plays him about as well as he can be played in my opinion, so kudos to him for polishing that turd as best as can be. 

Final game of the week was against Brad’s Skorne force. Skorne is getting really popular now that they’ve got some interesting warlocks. Definitely got me to make them my Hordes priority for 2017. Zaadesh2 was definitely ahead in the attrition game, but as Brad said “maybe I should have looked closer at your Feat”. A knockdown from a thrown Gladiator let Elara2 stroll directly through a huge obelisk that was blocking her way on feat turn and finish the job. Ghostly is a solid ability to be able to access. 

 

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

41/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 14 (Win/Loss 10/4/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Retribution of Scyrah:

6 Wins (Tanith, Venethrax, Malekus, Gaspy1, Ragnor, Zaadesh2) / 3 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra, Xekaar)

Trollbloods:

4 Wins (Gaspy1, Terminus, Barnabas, Gunnbjorn) / 1 Loss (Feora3)

Well, it’s 2017 and time for a brand new year of Warmachine and Hordes battles. As I mentioned in my past post, I have four goals for 2017:

• Settle on a caster pairing and play a majority of games with them
• Focus on a single Hordes and a single Warmachine force for the year
• Play in more “away” tournaments
• Paint at least 365 points this year
• Play 150 games or more this year

Points two and four I’m doing the best on, as I’m really making myself limit to Trollbloods and Retribution of Scyrah for 2017 as best I can. I really like the paint scheme I’ve worked out for both, and painting them is smooth and quick for me, and that’s a big part of what I need to stay focused on factions. On the painting side, working through the models I’m using to jumpstart Retribution is a good start to the year. Here are my completed models for 2017 so far (I painted the Griffon in 2016):

I wanted to try something different, so Elara2, Death’s Shadow, seemed like a fun option. Her running pose made her miserable to take a good close-up photo. I’m looking forward to learning her play style, and I really encouraged by how far she can project melee threat with her force. 

Retribution of Scyrah Chimera warjack.

And of course, the Manticore to go with it. 

This is the combined photo for what I’ve finished in the faction thus far. I’m really liking their look on the table, and I think it will be all the better when I get infantry and more Warjacks mixed in. 

For points one and three, things are a bit less clear. I need to get some tourneys on my schedule–I wasn’t able to go to the Las Vegas Open, though I truly wanted to. I’m eyeing GenCon, and I’m inclined toward Lock and Load and NOVA if I can swing them. I’ll also keep my eyes peeled for more single-day-away tourneys during the year. And on the caster side, I’ve got my Warlocks pretty well refined: Borka1 and Hunters Grim seem like my go-to pair for a while, though I may paint up Calandra to give her some reps and I’m tinkering with a Jarl list that might be fun. Warcasters is where I’m a bit behind: I’m going to give Elara2 a try for a while, and maybe spread into another from their current ADR list or out into the faction.

As for new year games, I’ve gotten a couple in. Of course, my Retribution games are going to be small–but I hope to remedy that soon (even if I have to play unpainted a few times… I’ll just limit photos to the good-looking portions).

The first real game of 2017: My Jarl Skuld test using the Power of Dhunia theme list. This game was a friendly practice game, where I asked my opponent to bring an infantry-heavy list, as that’s what I’m worried about with my Jarl force. I ended up clearing some infantry, but Gaspy1 was left a bit open so I engineered an assassination. It nearly went awry, but thank goodness for the Bulldoze ability through the Blitzer’s animus! He managed to get into range and land the last shot to win the game. 

Thyra bunkers up behind a wall to receive the charge of the myrmidons! A quick clash against Tom’s Protectorate ended with Thyra taking out my Warcaster after I completely flubbed my own melee charge attacks. 

The Manticore lays down covering fire into the forest, sensing that the beasts of Circle Orboros lurk behind. Kevin’s beautifully-painted desert theme Circle were a pleasure to play. I managed to pull out a win. 

I also played Brad’s Skorne led by Zaadesh2, which was a fun upgraded journeyman casters/warlocks clash. However I failed to get a photo. Zaadesh was able to man-handle my forces effectively–by the time I got to a point to handle the clouds on a dense terrain table, I was too behind in attrition to be effective.

All in all an average start to 2017. I’m looking forward to many more games!

365 Points Challenge Progress (2017):

28/365

Battles (Privateer Press):

Overall Totals 2017: 4 (Win/Loss 2/2/0); 2016: 123 (Win/Loss: 74/49/0); 2015: 43 (Win/Loss: 29/14/0)

Trollbloods:

1 Win (Gaspy1) / 0 Losses

Retribution of Scyrah:

1 Win (Tanith) / 2 Losses (Zaadesh2, Thyra)