Starting with Trolls

Been away for a while, but still playing regularly with my Skorne lists.
Still mustering the troops for my Troll army. I'm super stoked about the new pGrissel sculpt coming out at the end of April. She's my favorite warlock so far,

Points: 50/50
Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Troll Bouncer (5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 3 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero (5pts)
Totem Hunter (3pts)
Trollkin Sorcerer (1pts)

I'm really going to try to focus on scenario play. I have a tendency to scrap scoring points and go right for the assassination.

Breakin' it down....
Grissel is an infantry-centric, support caster. To that end, I have given her only 2 beasts but lots of infantry. I hope to be able to spread out this army over multiple zones.

The Hammer.
The Long Riders with Horthol will be my zone clearing unit, basically killing or slamming anything it charges.

The Anvil.
Kriel Warriors, while sporting average stats, a fully buffed unit can be hard to deal with.
Fervor makes them effective MAT 7 and PS 12 while Swift Foot grants them +2 movement. Add the Caber Throwers for reach, slam and knock down, the Standard for Steady and the Piper for In Step and this unit becomes a beast. The Sorcerer adds anti-magic tech and the Fell Caller is there with his list of goodness.

Overall, I'm excited about this list and can't wait to play it.

Keeping track of my weight: As of 2/26/16: 201

Shooty eHexeris list

I have been attempting to develop a shooty, all comers list for Skorne. To that end, I have gone back to Epic Hexeris and played this list last Tuesday against Adam and his Khador.
Points: 50/50
Lord Arbiter Hexeris (*6pts)
* Basilisk Drake (4pts)
* Cyclops Shaman (5pts)
* Mammoth (20pts)
Cataphract Incindiarii (Leader and 5 Grunts) (9pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Extoler Soulward (2pts)
Hakaar the Destroyer (4pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)

I must say it did very well despite the fact that I lost due to assassination.
Some high points of the game:
The drake took out almost the entire unit of Black Spotted iron fang pikemen.
The mammoth destroyed Behemoth with fury to spare after Behemoth failed a charge against it.
The incindiarii killed off almost half of the kayazy assassins in one salvo and tied the rest up in combat the whole game.

Low points:
I forgot about Soul Reaver and could have healed up Hexeris.
Adam moved the last remaining widowmaker base to base with the mammoth so I couldn't sling spells through it. It took 3 different attempts to kill her before I remembered bulldoze.
I concentrated all my efforts on killing the pikemen while ignoring the nyss hunters coming round my left flank. The Nyss are what eventually killed Hexeris.

Goth girls are hot.

Did this today.

Epic Makeda - update

I played my eMakeda list against Adam and his eSorscha list last Tuesday. I did very well actually, I got a off a successful assassination on the top of turn 3. Adam saw it coming and tried desperately to kill my Archidon. he removed all but 1 health box. (whew)

Adam had moved Sorscha up against a wall but there was JUST enough space to fit a large base in front of her.
I activated Tiberion, moved him forward, killed a Great Bear.
I then activated Makeda, she popped her feat, healed the Archidon for 2 points, moved forward to make sure that the Archidon would end up in her control area and cast Road to War.
I then activated the Gladiator, he put its Rush animus on the Archidon.
The paingiver beast handlers activated, enraging the Archidon.
So for those of you keeping track, the Archidon is now P+S 17 (that worked out to be dice +1 due to Sorscha's ARM 15 plus 1 camp), charges for free, immune to free strikes, all to hit rolls are boosted and has a 14" charge range. I gave him the extra range because - well, why wouldn't you?
The Archidon activated, charged Sorscha. Needing 10s to hit, the first strike missed. Bought a second: hit. Bought a third: missed. Bought a third: hit and dead.

I almost feel that the game was too short and that the rest of the army was just window dressing for the assassination, but a win is a win. Adam had alot of high DEF infantry on the table, I don't know how I would have dealt with that with the list I picked. I am going to attempt to create a couple other lists specifically for dealing with high armor and high DEF infantry. The latter may include eHexeris with an Aradus and some Incindiarii.

Curse you, caster ADD!!!!!

Quick post: The more I think about eMakeda, the more I want to play her. I think she may be better with the Immortals and the UA than even Epic Zaal. She can give them more SPD, no KD and immunity to free strikes as well as boosted attack rolls. Her Stay Death can even save the UA from an untimely demise. I'm planning on this list tomorrow:
Points: 50/50
Supreme Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Archidon (7pts)
* Tiberion (11pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
* Tyrant Vorkesh (3pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer (3pts)
Agonizer (2pts)

Stay tuned....

Reconsidering Runes of War

So it has come to this: after much consideration I have decided that it would be best for me not to purchase the models for Runes of War. I did not reach this decision lightly, I gave it lots of thought.

1. The list is very ridged, I would not be able to swap out elements like I can with other lists. I'm afraid that I'll play the list a couple of times, discover that it's not for me or it's not my play style and shelve it.
I like having a completely modular army list, having the freedom to swap out warbeasts, units, solos and even warcasters if I deem it fit. That's what I find fun about Warmachine: keeping things interesting by changing around your list now and again.

2. I'm really only interested in the models anyway. The thought of collecting the models, putting them together, mounting them on nice cork bases and painting them to the best of my ability is really what I'm after. It'll seem like a waste if all I end up doing is putting them on my shelf. I even had 2 nice foam trays all set aside for them. I planned out exactly how they would fit and how much space each model would take up.

Runes of War would be good to have if already played Trolls, a list that I could just slide into like it was for Fist of Halaak - I already owned most of the models.

I'm not saying that it's never going to happen, but I think that I'm planning this out for the wrong reasons. I may still collect elements of the list just to have and paint.

Epic Zaal List, Update

I did play my Epic Zaal list last weekend, with some unfavorable results. Lets just say that I'm no longer in a hurry to run out and buy 2 Aradus models.

I played against Adam and his pButcher list which included 3 heavy warjacks including Ruin, wardog, 2 units of MOW shocktroopers, Yuri the axe, manhunter and widowmakers.  Adam is no fool, he saw right through my plan. He moved Ruin forward and soon took out the extoller UA for the immortals. He moved Ruin a little bit further to threaten my caster. I made a feeble attempt to stop him with some nihilators and immortals, but the game was already over.

Some things I want to point out:
I have to do a better job of protecting the extoller, maybe not having him so far forward, maybe just keeping him in formation.

My theory on the Aradus' shooting was spot on, however I didn't factor in the lousy dice rolls. I landed an AOE on both of the MOW units but was only able to kill one model outright despite being poisonous and boosting damage. I'm sure the kill count would have been higher against light infantry.
I'm still not sure if I want to go with the dual Aradus battlegroup. I may stick with one and add a shaman for all its toolbox goodness. Adding range to Zaal's spells can't be a bad thing. I could have used a heavy to deal with Ruin, that would have at least bought me another turn or 2.

I think that this was just a bad match up. Having alot of those lately.....