Mordikaar vs. Midas

I got yet another game with the void seer, this time against one of my favorite warlocks - Midas. Adam and I played the Incursion scenario at 35 points. I played the same list as last time. I deployed as a brick in the center with karax on the left the nihilators on the right, each unit ready to grab or at least contest the objectives nearest to them.
Adam moved his slaughterhausers to engage my front ranks and tied me up for a turn or two. My void spirit moved to contest the objective on the right. Adam was up in points by 1 by turn 4 but by that time most of his army was gone. He did pop his feat and bring back his dead warbeasts. I made the mistake of forgetting that after they came back, they were undead and had the krea shoot the war hog with spiritual paralysis. (Laughter did indeed ensue.) Last turn of the game I had Mordikaar cast the gladiator's animus on the gladiator and slammed the war/road hog, knocking down the gunboar and Midas. The gladiator was unable to do a full follow up because of the gun boar was in its path but was able to kill it. At which time, having only about 3 models left on the board, Adam conceded.
I don't consider this a full on victory as this was Adam's first game with Midas and there is a bit of a learning curve with him.
As far as my army, the gladiator was the star of the show yet again. I may consider a 2nd gladiator in future lists. I am becoming accustomed to not having beast handlers, odd because they were such a staple in my other lists. I'm getting better at fury management and didn't have to take any threshold checks. In a 50 point game, I may replace the karax with cetratii and include a gatorman witch doctor.

Mordikaar Update

Archidon!!!

I went with the soulward for my last game instead of the second void spirit. I played against my usual opponent, Adam, and his Dr. Arkadius list. We played a 35 point Incursion SR2014 scenario.
He won the roll and went first. I tried something a little different, a denied flank maneuver. I set up the nihilators in the center, the void spirit on the left and everything else on the right side of my deployment zone. It worked out for the most part, I didn't end up with an infantry clump in the middle of the field. My tyrant commander got himself capped on turn 2. I should have expected no less; he's a medium based model in a sea of small based models. As per usual, I threw the niliators forward, used the karax as a bodyguard for Mordikaar and held back the warbeasts until turn 3. I actually remembered to feat this game, on turn 3. Despite my +3 DEF Adam still rolled like a champ but did miss a couple of attacks. We had ground each others armies down pretty well, I think I came out on top only because I had more models on the table from the start.
I have the unfortunate tenancy when playing Warmachine to go directly for the assassination, bypassing the scenario completely. In the past, I did the opposite and only went for the assassination only if winning by scenario was impossible. I think it makes for a more exciting game to use your army to kill stuff rather than hold objectives, however I do not wish for this game to devolve into a simple game of chess.

Late in the game, turn 4 I think, I saw no viable assassination options and was about to concede. Adam pointed out that I could dominate the right side objective and score 2 points. I did so and won due to the face that the center objective had become uncontested. I really don't count that as a win as I was going to concede and had Adam not said anything, the game would have ended.

I am very much enjoying this list, Mordikaar is a fun caster and I want to get more games under my belt before I move on to another. I am considering bringing this list from 35 to 50 points by dropping the gladiator and adding a mammoth, a min unit of beast handlers and a feralgiest.

Keeping track of my weight: as of 6/9/14: 246

Continuing with the Void Seer

"You got the touch..."

Today I will be playing Mordikaar yet again, this time with a non-tier list.

Mordikaar
Gladiator
Archidon
Krea
Full Nihilators
Full Karax
Tyrant Commander and standard
Void Spirit
Void Spirit

I am debating on whether to replace one void spirit with a soulward. I may play one game with and one game without just to see if there's a difference.

I think I need to have a whiteboard with the word "FEAT" just so I don't forget it. In all my games with Mordikaar, I think I only feated once. Why? I think maybe on some subconscious level, I believe that the feat is some game winning ability only to be used at the precise moment to turn the tide of battle, like the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Silly, I know. The best time to use the feat would probably be around turn 3 when actual battle is joined, allowing my army to stick around for another turn.

Void Seer Mordikaar - UPDATE

My first 2 games with Mordikaar didn't go so well. I played against Dr. Arkadius and pIrusk and lost or conceded both games. I was beginning to think that maybe Mordikaar wasn't my caster, but I wanted to play him again to make sure. I played against Rob's infantry heavy Grale list...and won. Had he played his usual eKaya list, I'm sure he would have defeated me and I could have put this silly notion to rest and get on with a caster that I'm good with, like Hexeris. Our game played out better than the first 2; I had a better idea what to do and what no to do and I was a bit more aggressive with my army in general. It wasn't just the win that convinced me to continue playing this list; some very interesting things happened during the game.
Despolier killed an already damaged warpwolf.
An entire unit of Wolves of Oberos failed a CMD check after I ran a void spirit at them.
The archidon charged Grale and got a CRIT, throwing him into a unit of karax that finished him off.
Mordikaar cast Revive twice to bring back dead troopers.
A single nihilator killed 3 enemy models and then proceeded to butcher 3 (or 4?) of his own unit.

There was more than meets the eye with this army, I wanted to continue playing to unlock more hidden potential. I am often criticized for my caster ADD I seem to have, it's hard for me to focus on any one caster for too long. I see potential in a caster and tend to get fixated in it but when my expectations come crashing down, I start looking elsewhere. I knew that if I wanted to continue with Mordikaar, I would have to make a few changes. First, get rid of Despoiler, for now. He's a great toolbox warbeast, but I was having difficulty figuring out where he fit into the army. His ability to upkeep a spell for free was great (when I remembered to use it) but that was his main function for my first 2 games. His ability to create void spirits out of dead enemy troopers was great, but by the time the nihilators were through, there wasn't much left.
So I dropped Despolier and added a gladiator, hands down my favorite warbeast and with the 2 points left over I decided to bring the list to Tier 4 and add 2 feralgeists.

I played the new list in 2 separate games today, first against Dr. Arkadius and the second against eIrusk. The first I lost due to scenario, the second I conceded.
Despite my losses, I am undaunted and want to continue with Mordikaar. I may have to break tier in order to fix some of the holes in the list. First off: no eyeless sight. I felt lost without the extoller soulward but I may have to add her in next game. Second: no arch node. Aptimus Marketh can cast all but one of Mordikaar's spells, some of which only have a range of 6". Marketh can put himself in harm's way without risking Mordikaar. Being incorporeal for the first turn does nothing for me, but the free void spirit is indeed a boon. AD for the incorporeal models is nice, getting into the control zone first helps but being able to stay in is the problem. I also need to look into a shooty unit, venators maybe. And replacing the raider with a shaman.
We shall see.....

Void Seer Mordikaar - 35 points, Tier 2

Having been disappointed with Midas, I dove into the Skorne pool again. This time I am looking at Void Seer Mordikaar. He possesses some interesting abilities, a nice feat and some solid spells. I wrote up the following list to capitalize on his strengths:

Legions of the Abyss: 35pts., Tier 2
Tier 1: Models in the army are Incorporeal for the first turn of the game
Tier 2: 1 free Void Spirit for every 2 units

Void Seer Mordikaar +5
Despoiler 10
Cyclops Raider 5
Archidon 7
Max Nihilators 8
Max Praetorian Karax 6
Void Spirit 2
Void Spirit 2
Void Spirit FREE

Everything is just TheoryMachine at this point. Being Incorporeal for the first turn will help getting around terrain, a problem I always seem to have. The free Void Spirit is a nice benefit, not only can I create more within 2" of Despoiler but Mordikaar boosts their MAT. Having no beathandlers will be a challenge, as they have been my crutch for most of my past armies. This will force me to really think about the amount of FURY I want to squeeze out of my warbeasts without having the beasthandlers around to make all the excess go away.

I plan on getting some games in with this army this weekend and posting the results.

Vassal Escalation Campaign

Trying out something different on Vassal; an escalation campaign with Rob. I wanted to give Skorne a break, been playing p and e Hexeris on the tabletop and Zaal on Vassal almost exclusively. I decided to play Midas, the new(er) Thornfall caster. No real reason, he just caught my eye. I've been painting Adam's Thornfall army and they grew on me after a while.
We decided to start with 15 points and move to 25, 35 and eventually 50, possibly beyond.

GAME 1:
Thornfall
Points: 15/15
Tiers: 2
Midas (*5pts)
* Road Hog (9pts)
* War Hog (8pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)


Trollbloods
Points: 15/15
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)
Trollblood Skinner (2pts)

Battle was short and to the point. Midas got capped. I blame my lack of experience with such a small list. I deployed the bone grinders too far away to really be effective. Too late I realized that only the leader can cast spells. After a short break, we decided to play another game. Rob suggested that I change my list a bit, I agreed. 


GAME 2:
Thornfall
Points: 15/15
Tiers: 3
Midas (*5pts)
* Bone Swarm (4pts)
* War Hog (8pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Farrow Slaughterhousers (Leader and 5 Grunt) (6pts)

Trollbloods
Points: 15/15
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)
Trollblood Skinner (2pts)

I deployed in a classic brick; line of slaughterhausers in the front, Midas and the bone grinders behind and the warbeasts on the flanks. Because I was at Tier 3, the War Hog got advance move and the bone swarm received 3 bone tokens. This battle was a bit more intense, as smaller games tend to be. The War Hog failed to kill the Mauler by 1 hit box. Battle Lust on the slaughterhousers is nice as is Bad Blood on the Mauler. Midas fell to the might of the Trolls once again. 
I may have to rethink my strategy a bit before the next game. Kind of odd that Midas' affinity with the bone grinders gives them a combat bonus considering that they aren't all that great in melee and are more of a support unit. Their arcane bolt would get a bonus to hit but only the leader can cast it. 

Tracking my progress: pHexeris vs. pButcher

Played a game with Adam this past Saturday. I decided to use my new pHexeris list. I wanted to try out the archidon as an arch node and get some more mileage out of the Cataract Cetratii unit I just purchased. Plus I wanted to field the rhinodon.
System: Hordes
Faction: Hexeris - Kingdom of Shadow
Casters: 1/1
Points: 50/50
Tiers: 1
Lord Tyrant Hexeris (*6pts)
* Archidon (7pts)
* Rhinodon (7pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
* Titan Sentry (9pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Praetorian Swordsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Praetorian Swordsmen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Extoler Soulward (2pts)

Adam's list:

System: Warmachine
Faction: Khador
Casters: 1/1
Points: 50/50
The Butcher of Khardov (*6pts)
* Destroyer (9pts)
* Juggernaut (7pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard (2pts)
* 3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers (3pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)

We rolled scenario #1: Destruction, I won the rolloff and chose to go second. Tier 1 allows Hexeris to begin the game with upkeeps in play. I had Soul Slave on the Archidon, Death March on the swordsmen and Psychic Vampire on Hexeris. As per usual, Adam and I will ignore the scenario and just try to beat each other's face in. I moved the Cetrati up to deal with the Shocktroopers and the swordsmen to counter the advancing Kayazy. The Kayazy and swordsmen were a good match up with both units almost wiping each other out. The Cetrati and MOW exchanged blows but were mostly deadlocked. The rhinodon used its animus, walked up and threshed 7 (?) winterguard, only killing 2 and hitting 2 Certati, killing nothing. I moved the Archidon close to the widowmakers and arched Obliteration at them. I missed and only took out 1 widowmaker. The Sentry slammed the Juggernaut doing some damage and knocking it down. In retrospect, I should have just charged it. The soulward, gorged on souls from the dead swordsmen, proved her worth and finished off 2 of the MOW plus 1 Kayazy. I made my critical mistake by moving Hexeris up too far to engage the oncoming Kayazy. He charged the underboss, killed it and proceeded to move closer to engage another Kayazy which he failed to kill. That left him wide open to get charged by the Juggernaut and killed.