Epic Irusk

 At first, I had no interest in Epic Irusk. The model looked ok and I hadn't taken the time to study his rules. I received the model for him in a miniatures trade, courtesy of bartertown.com. He was part of a Khador lot and the seller was unwilling to break it up. I stripped off the previous owner's paint job, cleaned him up and sat him on my painting table in pieces for about a few months. I caught my younger daughter playing with him one day when she felt brave enough to enter my room without my permission. I would occasionally pick it up, look it over, inspect the detail and then set it back down again. One day, I felt inspired. I assembled him, which took lots of pinning and glue, and built a custom base out of cork, because I didn't like the base he came with. I primed him with grey automotive primer and started to paint him. I immediately tossed him into the Pine-Sol because the grey primer made the reds look too flat. There he sat for a couple of weeks. Once again I felt inspired. I fished him and all of his pieces out of the Pine-Sol, cleaned him up, assembled him, primed him black this time, and painted him. It took me about a week and a half to finish him, including the two times he took a dive off my painting table and had to be reassembled and re-touched. Thank God for the magnifier on my lamp because he's got tons of minute detail. The Khadorian flag he carries makes him a bit unbalanced so he falls over easily. I want to put him on an actual table top someday at the head of a great Khadorian army. But for now I have to settle for his digital counterpart on Vassal. 
After playing him for a few games, I have to say I like him. I like what he brings to the game, he is an infantry support caster, not so much a 'jack caster. He has some interesting spells and abilities that can really buff his army. He's more of a back-end caster, needed to be screened from incoming fire and melee. He does however need to keep up with the bulk of his army since his buffs are either short range or only work in his CMD range.
My current 50 point list:
eIrusk
Behemoth
Max MOW Demo Corps
Max MOW Demo Corps
Min Battle Mechaniks
Max Kayazy Assassins + Underboss
Max Winterguard Rifle Corps
Kovnik Joe
Widowmaker Marksman

Typically I sit Irusk behind Behemoth and toss out a few Airbursts when targets are in range. Behemoth is nice for tossing out 2 3" AOE blasts even while in melee and benefits from Fire For Affect but not the warjack bond. The Demo Corps are easily my favorite units, able to take out a Warpwolf with a few ice maul swings, even better with Battle Lust. The Kayazy are a nasty unit. The Rifle Corps bring some nice ranged shooting and work very well with Kovnik Joe. The Marksman hasn't seen much action the last few games, I don't know if it's due to bad positioning or lack of targets or what?
In my games against Rob's Circle army, I have been trying to win via the scenario objectives rather than the caster kill unless the objective is too far out of my reach or an opportunity presents itself.
Next game I'm going to swap out a unit of Demo Corp for a Iron Fang Pikeman unit and trade the rifle corps for the dreaded Winterguard Death Star. Stay tuned....

eIrusk vs. eKaya, 50 points

Full battle reports coming soon!!
Stay tuned bitches...

Khador pButcher Tier 4 35 pts - thoughts...

After a few games, I changed up my pButcher list:
Butcher (-6)
War Dog (1)
Berzerker (6)
Berzerker (6)
Juggernaught (7)
Min MOW Shocktroopers (5*)
Max MOW Demo Corp (9)
Manhunter (2)
Manhunter (2)
Yuri the Axe (3)

This list satisfies all of Butcher's 4 tiers:
*Point cost of MOW Shocktroopers reduced by 1
MOW units gain +2 SPD during first turn
Solos redeploy
Warjacks get Advanced Deployment

I divide the army into 3 waves. First is the 2 manhunters and Yuri. The manhunters are designed to act independently but I like to use these 3 ninjas in a loosely knit group supporting each other. With stealth, advanced deployment, pathfinder and treewalker, this is an excellent alpha strike team. I gotta be wary of catching the manhunters in Yuri's thresher though. They will kill stuff outright or soften up targets for the next wave: MOW Demo corps followed close behind by 2 berzerkers. The Demo corps get +2 SPD for the first turn and the jacks get Advanced Deployment - Huge bonus for a slow moving army. I'm careful not to extend the jacks beyond Butcher's control range. Berzerkers are fun. I have yet to have one explode in a game. I like the focus efficiency of them - charging or running without spending focus. I just started using the Demo corps - I'm smitten!! Last but certainly not least - The Man and his dog screened by the shocktroopers. They form a "Oh no you don't" zone around Butcher making him difficult to target being the same size base and utilizing their Shield Wall order. Always at Butcher's side is his trusty dog. Can't say enough good things about him: Gives Butcher +2 DEF against melee attacks, makes him immune to back strikes and free strikes. Gets a full advance on an advancing enemy and returns when attacks are resolved. All this for 1 point. Dog is an auto include.
The Juggernaught stays close to Butcher in reserve in case my plans fail or something gets past my first and second waves.
The Butcher fits my play style and this is a fun and simple army to play and manage. I want to challenge myself and build and play lists that are harder to win with like Zerkova or The Old Witch.

35pt. Skorne/Minions

This is my next project: 35 points of Skorne/Minions.
pMorghoul
Cyclops Savage
Cyclops Savage
Titan Gladiator
Titan Gladiator
Max Gators with Paingiver Taskmaster
Min Paingiver Beasthandlers
Agonizer
Feralgeist

I've read that this is a solid list, but I want to get in a few games on Vassal with it before purchasing actual models. This army should be fairly easy to purchase considering I already own the Gators. (That's 1/3 of the list right off the bat.) I plan on picking up a Titan Gladiator/Sentry/Cannoneer kit and magnetizing it to get a bit of variety. The Feralgeist should be fun, the idea of dead warbeasts coming back to unlife really appeals to me.

Tau are moving on...

 After much thought, I think that it's time for the Tau to move on. I have enjoyed this army but with the current state of the game I don't think I could bring myself to play anymore. Warmachine/Hordes is calling and I want to purchase a new army and expand on existing ones.

These were taken during a battle with Chris and his Blood Angels.

I have:

4 Crisis Suits (All have been reposed to look as if they are in motion and have been magnetized for weapon variety.)
6 Stealth Suits (5 with burst cannons, 1 with fusion blaster)
40 Firewarriors (all with pulse rifles)
20 Kroot
4 Devilfish Transports
3 Hammerhead Gunships (Turret weapons have been magnetized.)
8 gun drones

$300* takes it. 


*I will add the Chessex figure cases that I keep them in for a little extra.

Decisions...Decisions...

I'm at a bit of a crossroads.
Games Workshop has turned down a very dark corner in my opinion. Their continued price increases, revamping the game every 4-5 years and their discontinue of casting in metal has encouraged me to seek other avenues to get my table top wargaming fix. Enter Warmachine.
I discovered Warmachine in late 2010 and started playing regularly with my friend Rob in early 2011. Warmachine is on a smaller scale than 40K, by that I mean you play with fewer models. I like that aspect of the game very much, it allows me to focus on a few small units rather than a grand army. Painting WM models are a joy too. They have amazing detail and I can take my time with them as I usually only have 5-10 models in a whole unit. (I currently have 100+ Orks in pieces that probably will never see the light of day.)
I am considering what to do with my 40K Tau army: Should I keep it or sell it?
I bought this army brand new, piece by piece shortly after my divorce. It gave me something to focus on, something to keep me occupied as my soul mended. I really haven't played that many games with it. All told, probably a total of a dozen. It's a fun army to play and I have enjoyed battling Scott's Space Marines. The army is nearly fully painted, there are 12 Kroot that need to be finished up but everything else is done. I imagine it would fetch a nice price on Ebay or the local game store, thereby giving my some extra cash to spend on a new Warmachine/Hordes army. I'm considering Skorne.
Now here is the dilemma: Should I sell the army or keep it?
I could keep it:
I don't REALLY need to sell it. It's packed away all nice and out of the way. I am not in such a financial crunch that I need to start selling my possessions. I always felt that that was a band-aid solution anyway. If ever I get nostalgic, I could pull out the models and ooh and ahh over the nice paint jobs and fly the Hammerheads around and make "zoom zoom" noises.
I could sell it:
As of this moment, I have no desire to play 40K. 6th edition rules have just been released and I hear that it's a totally different game from 5th. I don't like when GW does that. 5th edition was fine with me, I was good at it despite the fact that throughout all of 5th edition I was playing with a 4th edition codex. (Another thing I don't like about GW, but that's another topic.) On top of that, as with all new editions, I will most likely have to purchase more models to stay competitive or because my current models just won't fit in the game any more. Such was the case with my Tyranid army. 2 years into the 5th edition rules, I was still playing with a 4th edition codex. I built my army around the 4th edition codex. Suddenly the 5th edition codex comes out and almost half my army is no longer viable. I REFUSE to spend another dime on GW products. I have always had the philosophy that if something sucks, don't buy it.
I would still have my Nid and Ork armies to play if the day ever came. I could use the proceeds from the sale to purchase a Skorne army for Hordes. This would be my first Hordes army, I want to give it a go and take a break from warcasters, warjacks and focus.

UPDATE:
Tau army has been sold.
I'm holding off on the Skorne army. I thought it would be fun to try out the Skorne to avoid Khador burnout. But I want to continue to explore Khador and all it has to offer. I feel as if I have only scratched the surface.

Goreshade the Cursed

Here's another warcaster I've grown quite fond of: Goreshade the Cursed.
Goreshade (-5)
Defiler Bonejack 5
Deathripper Bonejack 4
Deathripper Bonejack 4
Max Bane Thralls + UA 11
Max Bane Thralls + UA 8*
Banelord Tartarus 4
The Withershadow Combine 5
Goreshade's tier list allows me to take an additional UA of the Banes free of cost and ignores FA rules. Goreshade has some interesting abilities; Arcane Consumption discourages enemy spellcasting within his control range. His elite cadre is amazing! Combined with Tartarus, I can create Banes all night! His weapon of choice - Voass the God Blade - causes models to become stationary on a crit. I once took out Thagarosh with this weapon.
The bonejacks are there to provide a bodyguard for Goreshade. Nothing in the army blocks line of sight to him, being on a medium base. The jacks are good to keep in the back.
Fun to play. I've had about the same number of wins as losses. Sometimes I'll take a min unit of Bane Knights instead of the jacks.

UPDATE: 8/27/12
I recently played 2 consecutive games with a modified version of the above list. I swapped out the 2 Deathrippers in favor of a Reaper helljack.  My opponent was Dan and his eDoomshaper list:
eDoomshaper
Dire Troll
Pyre Troll
Impaler
full Fenblades + UA
Welps
First game was short: I placed Gorshade behind a thin line of Thralls and got whacked with his Dire troll.
Second game was a little more interesting. I turned most of his Fenblades into thralls and finally had the last living member of the Withershadow Combine kill Doomshaper.

35pts pButcher

Finally got my rear in gear and put together my 35 point pButcher army:
The Butcher of Khardov
Juggernaught
Destroyer
Decimator
War Dog
MOW Shocktroopers (3)
MOW Bombardiers (3)

The army is slow, easy to hit but hits back like a ton of bricks. I love hearing, "Your armor value is WHAT??!!"
I have played 3 games so far with this list, I have 2 wins, 1 loss. This army is fun for me because it's simple, it's brutal and I only have to focus on 11 models.