Hordes!

So with the Hordes Field Test only 3 weeks away, I lucked out on Bartertown and picked up the Battleboxes for both Circle and Legion, along with Rhyas (Legion lock) and a Seraph (Legion light warbeast), along with a huge Cygnar lot. While Phill and I rarely get enough time to play our main faction as it is, we are going to be making a conscious effort to try out the four Hordes factions during the Field test.

I already know I will be going with Legion. I picked up the Circle battlebox for my wife, who likes the furry creatures and wants to try painting them. Since she will not likely play with them, I'll have a small Circle force on the side that should end up seeing as much playtime as my Searforge army (Wait?! You collect Searforge too? See... In other words: No playtime)

I'm not sure what direction Phill is leaning in Hordes, but we'll be switching through all four factions' battleboxes, proxying Trolls and Skorne, and figuring out the Fury mechanic.

I'm looking forward to this. We're planning on a paint-and-play escalation campaign in 2010. Playing the Hordes FT in between games may give me the extra weeks I need to get my army painted. Phill (the wiser) already is nearly finished. Barrett (the buyer/postponer) is still resting on his accomplishments of 1 painted Centurion (out of 3), from a year ago. Oh yeah!

Ranking Menoth Casters in MK II and Brainstorming

Ok, so there's a thread ongoing in the Menoth section on the big boards, about who is going to be the best caster in a competitive tournament setting. Now, I don't play in a lot of tournaments and for the most part, I'm a casual player so take this into consideration when I rank them.

Tier 1

High Reclaimer
Amon
Reznik
pSeverius
eFeora
eKreoss
Feora
Testament
pKreoss
eSeverius

Tier 2

Harbinger

As you can see, I think all of the Menoth casters are more than capable of doing their job. The only reason the Harbinger is Tier 2 is because of the immensity of putting together the model. It might take someone longer to do this and cut back on playing time.

When people see caster rankings it sometimes sways an individual to not even try to play a caster. That's why I have everyone at Tier 1 save the Harbinger, which is just a joke. It's a good way to encourage people to try out all the faction casters and increase your gaming skills.

Let's not think of reasons why one caster is the top dog but try to come up with new strategies for them instead. It will help broaden your knowledge of models and help come up with the not so obvious combos. In the end, it'll be more rewarding for you as a player. That's my 2 focus for the day.

MkII Feedback, Mercs

I'm going to give a quick rundown of the few mercs I'm interested in. I won't be touching the Searforge Mercs, since I'll probably have to do that in a separate post. I'm merely interested in the mercs that would work for Cygnar.

But first, pMagnus. Holy Crap! His focus efficiency is insane, and how dare he steal Snipe from me. I don't care if he thinks he is the True Cygnaran. Snipe is mine!

Reinholdt is the same. Eiryss lost Magical on her crossbow (dang you Choir). The Bokur gained Shield Guard, taking an auto-hit from ranged instead of its client.

Aiyanna & Holt each lost 1 ARM and Holt lost Crack Shot. Alexia Ciannor looks like an entirely different unit. I'm definitely picking her up now. This tipped me over the edge. She got a MAT and RAT increase, a hand cannon, Arcane Disjunction (enemy models pay double to cast/upkeep. Take that Menoth!), she starts with 9 Risen in play (instead of 6), and her magic abilities are completely changed. Her Risen got a SPD, STR, and MAT boost. The Thrall Warrior got a SPD boost.

MkII Feedback, Cygnar

Just a few initial impressions:

Both Nemos got a 1 point strength boost, making them POW 12 in melee. Appreciated. eNemo is sicker than ever. His feat, in the FT cards, used to say warjacks cannot exceed its focus allocation limit (3) as a result of the feat. It no longer says that, which means that I will have 2 jacks with 6 focus and 1 with 4 focus on my feat turn, assuming I allocate all 7 focus. That is disgusting. I'm sure it was an error on PP's part or else eNemo is now our beat stick Jack caster. Yes please.

Darius, my newest caster purchase, gained Repair *action. Makes sense. It is also nice to see that Tremor didn't lose it's single attack roll. Simplicity. Full Throttle lost the 2" of extra movement, but gained boosted attack rolls. I'll take that almost anyday! He lost Jumpstart (the turn and look spell), which merely means I'll be casting Jack Hammer whenever I have a focus left over. No more deliberation.

Seige gained a 4" AOE on his Ground Pounder. Glad to see it. In exchange though, it looks like I have to make a separate roll against each model. 4" is still a small AOE under the formation rules (which I haven't confirmed yet), but hopefully I can catch a Vassal or choirboy hanging too close to a jack. Shockwave became Force Hammer, which means it doesn't push whatever it comes into contact with, but does do POW 12 damage. That will be a great way to hit whatever is hiding behind jacks. It did get 1 FOC more expensive though, but its range increased 2".

The Charger didn't change. The Hunter gained Parry. I'm sure that will come in handy a lot. If I get charged, but not wrecked, I just drop back and AP the jack in the face. Good call, PP. Nothing different for the Lancer, except a wording clarification. Thorn's reaction drive got limited to 3". Probably a good call... My lights stayed at about the same.

Centurion and Defender didn't change. Ol' Rowdy has Aggressive; he can now run or charge without spending focus. His affinity with Stryker wasn't included on the cards. Looks like a typo. Ironclad simply got cleared up a little. For the THead, the Energy Pulse is now an auto-hitting *attack against everything within 6". He also gained sustained attack on his fists. I wonder if the first fist that hits get sustained (and the 2nd initial attack is auto-hit) or if it is only the second hit that is sustained... Either way, THead is gonna be playing a lot more. My Heavies just got a lot better.

GMCA is 2PC, less one ARM and 2" range on his pistols. He ignores only Stealth, and only if he doesn't move. Also, his Phantom Seeker doesn't say it ignores clouds or intervening models, but it does say it ignored LOS. I wonder if that was simple reduplication, because the GMCA was a auto-include against the High Reclaimer. Doesn't look like the Jr or Stormsmiths changed. Squire got a STR and MAT boost. Why? I have no clue. A huge blow to Arlan... He is no longer immune to electricity. Bummer. So much for the Arlan-THead duo.

Sword Knights got the boost I was looking for. They trades Precision Strike (pick the column) for Penetrating Strike, now doing an auto-point of damage against Jacks and Beasts if I so choose. Unfortunately, it is before the damage roll. They a bit more viable now. What good was picking the column if you couldn't exceed the damage? And with the UA, they get Precision Strike back (Tactics). The big question: Did Rangers get any better? Unfortunately, they really didn't. The only change I can see is that they are 1 PC cheaper (5). Still not enough difference to make them worth it. If I'm missing something on them, I'd love to know what, because I really like them and wish I could take them. Stormblades are now ONLY a min unit of 6. Guess that solves the problem of Stormblade blisters. A max unit of Stormguard are 9 PC instead of 10. They now have gunfighter, without any ranged weapon listed. Why? I guess it is for the officer's Electric Discharge. Odd. The Mechanics are 1PC more expensive for both Min and Max units. The Gobbers also lost Bodge and gained Repair[6]. The benefit is that they can now assist each other, though it came at the price of the auto-point of damage removal. The Mechanic has a weird ability that says he now cannot be knocked down and is +2 DEF and ARM when in B2B with a jack. May come in handy, though now that they're 2PC for a Min, I won't likely be taking more than one unit. PK Knights now have Spell Ward, which means they cannot even be targeted by Friendly spells (Arcane Shield). Kneel and Ranked Attack have now blended. I like the new one. Black 13th are cheaper and Ryan lost her Chain Attack for a *Attack. Better off. Like the GMCA, they also lost 2" of range and 1 ARM.

In summary, my MkII jacks are even better than the field test. My Casters are about equal. My solos probably equal out too, with some getting better, one getting a lot worse (Arlan :( ) and some staying equal. Interestingly, my four melee units look to be back where they were in MkI, which I'm happy about. The Stormguard and Sword Knights got better, the Stormblades and PK Knights a little worse. I prefer the SG and SK anyways, so I'm glad I can get them now. The Mechanics, which I was really excited about in the FT, are so-so and the Rangers still look cooler than they can perform. Black 13th was improved. Overall, I'm very happy. I haven't had a chance to read the rules yet, but I like the final versions of my models. The error on Ol' Rowdy's affinity has me wondering if any other typos will be identified. I'm sure they will, which might be the reason they release these before the official cards.