Yes, I'm guilty of being a little bitter about the new MK II model rules and have groaned and griped a little. I've also expressed my discontent for a couple models in particular but lets take a look at the big picture. I got into this game because of the cool warjacks and now they're back and I'm complaining??? Seems kind of wrong doesn't it? Long story short, I'm really starting to get into the new rules and thinking of cool strategies to use with certain models. Heck, I might even pick up another Crusader. I can only imagine 2 or 3 of them in a Amon army now.
With that said, I'm anxious to start play testing. CptCalvinus and I, are going to be playing our first game tonight and I'm looking forward to it. The one thing that I'm not looking forward to is.... my wallet burning up due to all the new jack purchases.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
MkII Initial Reaction - Cygnar
Cpt Calvinus Mk II here. :)
Wow, where to begin! There really are so many changes. It's like it is a whole new game. I'll talk about some of my favorite spells and models under MkI and how they're different.
Snipe
Before, it was 1" of Snipe for 1 Foc spent. This was great, but I only typically cast Snipe once in the game and upkept it. Nothing like a GMCA or the Black 13th with 6" inches (7" with the Squire!). Now, Snipe is strictly 4", but it only costs 2 Foc. At first, I was bummed out. Now, I really love this! Sure, I'll miss the extra 3", but now I won't feel like I'm wasting Foc to recast this midgame. Before, I'd rarely get a chance to have 6 Foc to give someone the full 6". Now, I could technically upkeep Snipe on the GMCA, take his shot. activate Stryker and cast Snipe on the Longgunners and take their shot. All this for only 3 Foc. Then, the next turn, I could reverse it! I like this change.
The GMCA
He lost two of his Effects, but they are the two effects I mentioned in the last game report that I never used. His Long Shot is only 4" (like Snipe), so with the two together, he only has a max range of 20". I don't like that, but it's fair. He is no longer a Commander, but I never used him for that anyways. Two things are disappointing. Under Flash Fire in MkI, it stated that he also ignores obstructions. It doesn't say that anymore. Also, I would have liked his Magelock Pistol to get an upgrade to POW 11. That one point would have made him a lot more effective, IMO. Here's the best part though... He is now FA 2! Sweet! He's my favorite model, both aesthetically and playwise, and now I get two. I really hope they come out with an Alt pose.
nStryker
Finally MAT 7! Also, Blur guards against Magic attacks, Arcane Shield is RNG 6 (not 8) and it looks like Earthquake has to hit everything in its AOE for it to KD. That is unfortunate. Additionally, his Feat is an Aura now, instead of a Pulse. I would've liked him to get more abilities. I don't understand why the central character of the WM story still only has Disruption and a POW 10 Pistol. But the MAT increase outweighs all the negatives.
nHaley
The first thing that stood out to me was Scramble. This spell has been entirely revamped. Under MkI, the warjack activated during the controller's next Cont Phase, ran and then ended its activation. If it came in contact with an obstruction or a Jack (of any size), it was KD. Now, it activates immediately and walks. Since it activates during my turn, it doesn't forfeit its activation. At first I thought the spell was ruined, until I further analyzed the possibilities. Before, the jack would KD any small based warrior model it moved completely through. Now, it knocks down any smaller based model it contacts. Also, instead of being KD by any warjack it runs into, it is KD by any model with an equal or larger base. The problem before (problem? what problem?) was that Darius' halfjacks could "trip" a Heavy. That was great. Now, however, it either trips or is tripped by everything on the board. This will be great against armies of medium based warrior models, such as Trolls and Khador. Sure, a medium can't knock down a heavy, but something is getting knocked down. And - drumroll please - since it occurs in my own activation now, I can KD a whole unit and shoot the crap out of them! I love the new Scramble!
One other thing of significance on Haley is that both TB and her Feat are now Auras. TB got a little nerf (less 1 Foc, doesn't halve movement, and is only -2 Def), but at least I won't feel like I'm spamming a broken spell.
Thunderhead
The biggest thing on the THead is that he lost his Chain Attack - Scramble. This was a lot of fun to do. One game against Khador, I'd Scramble one jack, it'd run, and I'd charge after it and scramble it again. Fun for me, but probably not fair. In return, the THead received a +1 Mat and a +1 P+S on his fists. His energy pulse lost 2" of effectiveness, but I only have to roll 1 attack roll. That could be good and bad. If I roll a two, it works against everything, but so would a 12. But now, I only have to boost 1 roll. Also, as someone on the forums pointed out, the wording on its Sustained attack is such that the hit caused by Energy Pulse causes the 2 subsequent hits that can be made to auto-hit as well. I wish they would've made this an attack that could be done in melee as well, but that would probably be broken. The loss of 2" on this might get me to bring him into Melee faster in MkII. Oh yeah, he's still expensive. He costs 12 points now. With 4 Heavies at 9 pts, and 1 each at 7 and 8, it's really hard to justify now.
This is probably too much for now. I did a deeper study of nHaley and eHaley and came up with a full page of differences and possibilities. General thoughts: 1) I'm not too keen on the icons yet. I thought they were supposed to make the cards easier to read, but now I have to memorize tiny icons. 2) Phill pointed out that you only have a choice of taking a minimum unit or a maximum unit. I don't like this either. I didn't do it often, but I liked the possibility of taking 7 or 8 longgunners. 3) I don't like that Epic casters aren't restricted to larger games anymore. I don't think that is right, either fluff wise or for game play. As someone said on the Forums, if there isn't a point value for casters and I can take eIrusk at a 15 point game, why would I ever play nIrusk. I think the same could be said for me with eStryker. I hope we can get them to change these last two.
Monday, April 6, 2009
MK II Initial Reaction - Menoth
Hmmmm.... Well its here and I must say that I'm a bit suprised at the point level of things but I won't go into that too much. Overall, I love the new rules for warjacks and their systems. It seems like they're going to have a much bigger presence in this ruleset. With that said, I'm going to look at some of my favorite things from Menoth.
First up the High Reclaimer
I first looked at the High Reclaimer and thought he pretty muched stayed the same. His weapon got reach and they revamped his feat and it appears the troopers can activate normally during the turn.
Things I didn't care about for the HR, Sacrifical Lamb costing two points. With the HR being a infantry heavy caster, it seemed right to keep this at 1 focus. His WJ points could've been bumped a little.
Second up, The Guardian
Wel well, this one was a tough one to take. First off, the good. He keeps critical pitch but it now deviates since its a throw and not double handed throw. His full damage grid is still in tact, which is great. Also, his open hand's pow is increased by 3.
Now the bad, he no longer rallies troops with his banners. This isn't all that bad but it was nice when my Cleansers started blowing up. Critical pitch deviates now.... I'm so sad on this one, I know I put it in the plus category but this was a favorite of mine. Being able to throw things and not have them deviate was great. The last thing he lost is Ward of Retribution. Granted, I didn't use this one much but it did come in handy. Hopefully it was just a typo and they forgot to include it. He's also 9 points in the new MK II rules and only time will tell if this is a big deal.
Third Up, The Choir
With jacks getting a boost it only made sense that they would lose some of their abilities. Unfortunately, the range of their chants is now limited to 3" but their speed got a increase. Each member can effect one warjack and it's going to change the way you played them before. Coincedentaly, you don't have to worry about losing your priest and the whole unit becoming fodder.
Fourth Up, Rhoven and his Bodyguards
Uh....I don't know what to say. The two bodyguards lost their health a little, no more huge armor buff for the whole unit being in B2B with each other but everyone gets one more point of armor. Battle Driven seems a bit strange, I think they'll die if they get damage and won't really benifit too much from this but only time will tell.
*UPDATE*
These guys are fearless and Rhoven's command got bumped up 1 and his MAT bumped up two. I'm thinking of using the two Honor Guards with other units. With the ability to be 10" away and still in formation, this allows for some interesting possibilities.
That's my initial thoughts and I'll have to take a look back after all the smoke has cleared.
First up the High Reclaimer
I first looked at the High Reclaimer and thought he pretty muched stayed the same. His weapon got reach and they revamped his feat and it appears the troopers can activate normally during the turn.
Things I didn't care about for the HR, Sacrifical Lamb costing two points. With the HR being a infantry heavy caster, it seemed right to keep this at 1 focus. His WJ points could've been bumped a little.
Second up, The Guardian
Wel well, this one was a tough one to take. First off, the good. He keeps critical pitch but it now deviates since its a throw and not double handed throw. His full damage grid is still in tact, which is great. Also, his open hand's pow is increased by 3.
Now the bad, he no longer rallies troops with his banners. This isn't all that bad but it was nice when my Cleansers started blowing up. Critical pitch deviates now.... I'm so sad on this one, I know I put it in the plus category but this was a favorite of mine. Being able to throw things and not have them deviate was great. The last thing he lost is Ward of Retribution. Granted, I didn't use this one much but it did come in handy. Hopefully it was just a typo and they forgot to include it. He's also 9 points in the new MK II rules and only time will tell if this is a big deal.
Third Up, The Choir
With jacks getting a boost it only made sense that they would lose some of their abilities. Unfortunately, the range of their chants is now limited to 3" but their speed got a increase. Each member can effect one warjack and it's going to change the way you played them before. Coincedentaly, you don't have to worry about losing your priest and the whole unit becoming fodder.
Fourth Up, Rhoven and his Bodyguards
Uh....I don't know what to say. The two bodyguards lost their health a little, no more huge armor buff for the whole unit being in B2B with each other but everyone gets one more point of armor. Battle Driven seems a bit strange, I think they'll die if they get damage and won't really benifit too much from this but only time will tell.
*UPDATE*
These guys are fearless and Rhoven's command got bumped up 1 and his MAT bumped up two. I'm thinking of using the two Honor Guards with other units. With the ability to be 10" away and still in formation, this allows for some interesting possibilities.
That's my initial thoughts and I'll have to take a look back after all the smoke has cleared.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
350 Escalation Campaign, Remix Style
Last night, CptCalvinus and I started off our Remix escalation campaign. The rules were pretty simple, caster kill and try to use models we only have or keep proxying to a minimum. The second rule will go away quickly as we move to higher point values and proxying will become a necessity for both of us.
I choose the High Reclaimer over Amon Ad-Raza simply because I have more models that play better with the High Reclaimer. With Amon, I usually run a Revenger, Devout, and possibly Castigator or Guardian. I'm not saying these are bad options but I only own one Devout and not multiples that people usually run him with. With Bastions on the way, I can focus on a troop heavy build with the HR but I'm definitely going to put some jacks in list.
With that said, here's our first game under the current rules.
bluecardinal's 350
High Reclaimer 347/350 VPs: 15
*Hierophant
Cleansers x 6
Temple Flameguard x8 with UA
Visgoth Rhoven and his Bodyguard
Gorman di Wulfe
Ruphert, Piper of Menoth
Wrack
CptCalvinus here. My list was very basic since this is an escalation campaign and I don't own many models. At 500, I'll begin to proxy. I chose Stryker for the campaign because I have had zero success with him. He's got one win on his record, but that was only because I was playing someone who was inexperienced. I've never beaten Phill's Menoth with Stryker, which is odd, since he typically has a good reputation among Cygnar. So I figure the problem is in my tactics. That, and the fact that I like Stryker's Epic form, made me choose to run a Stryker force opposed to the other three casters I run.
CptCalvinus' 350
Commander Coleman Stryker 349/350 VPs: 13
*Lancer
*Centurion
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Long Gunners x 6
CptCalvinus wins the opening roll and decides to go first. Instead of typing out where we put our units, here is a nice picture to show you. Terrain setup is a shallow pond, two walls in the middle, a house on Cygnar's side and a barn on Menoth's side. There's a funky looking orange plant in the middle as well. The GMCA is on the other side of the house.
Round One
He goes first and puts 6" snipe on the Long Gunners, moves up both jacks and runs the GMCA. My turn, TFG move up and goes into shield wall, Cleansers move up, Rhoven & Bodyguard run to keep up with the TFG. Gorman advances and pops a smoke and HR moves up and puts down some smoke as well, pretty much covering my whole front line except for some guys on my right.
Round Two
He decides not to upkeep snipe on the Long Gunners, gives one focus to the Lancer, GMCA picks off a TFG, Lancer runs towards the GMCA, and Stryker gives him 5" snipe. My turn, everyone advances, Gorman throws smoke, Ruphert sings Dirge of Mists for the Cleansers. HR drops smoke in front of the TFG but not the Cleansers.
Round Three
The GMCA moves back some and tries to pick off the Hierophant with flash fire, hits him but fails to do any damage thanks to the extra focus the HR has on him. The Lancer moves back towards the middle and Stryker casts earthquake on the Cleansers, knocking them all down along with Gorman. Long Gunners move up and take out all of the Cleansers.
HR gains six soul tokens, Ruphert sings March on the TFG giving them an extra attack, the TFG charge the Lancer and do considerable damage on him, taking out his spear and arcnode. The standard bearer uses his minifeat. Rhoven and company run up to within a couple of inches of the GMCA and the HR casts Ashes to Ashes on Guiss or Cassian with help from the Hierophant, I rolled 2 for the extra models and boosted the damage on the GMCA to take him out. HR throws smoke on his left side to protect him from the Long Gunners.
Round Four
He gives three focus to the Centurion, Centurion decides to trample through the TFG to get within melee distance of the HR. Centurion takes out 1 TFG and barely takes any damage from the free strikes. He buys another attack and boosts the attack roll, the HR is sitting on three focus and its dice +1 on damage. Odd enoughly, he rolls 3-threes on his attack roll and if he only had used Nemo, the HR would've been dust. He rolls a nine on damage and the HR takes ten damage. Stryker moves toward his Long Gunners and casts arcane shield on himself and pops his feat.
Gorman, who just avoided getting trampled, throws some black oil on the Centurion. I now decide its time to use the HR feat but before that, the HR puts a smoke cloud on the Centurion, dropping his mat to -1. I roll a 6 for bringing back troops and put 4 Cleansers in front of his Long Gunners and Stryker. HR moves out of melee with the Centurion and he rolls for his free strike, needing a twelve to hit. The first dice rolled is a 6 and I almost lost it, thankfully the second one was a 3. HR casts immolation into the back arc of one of the Cleanser and kills all but 2 Long Gunners with the explosion. They fail their command check and turn to head for the hills. At least they're not on fire. :) Stryker is set on fire and the TFG move up and hit him with a CMA, no damage but setting him on fire, again.
Round Five
At this point, I almost thought CptCalvinus would concede the match but low and behold, he almost pulled it off. Fire ends up staying on Stryker but doesn't do any damage thanks to Arcane Shield. He moves Stryker out of melee with the TFG and with all 6 focus, the TFG fail to hurt him with their free strikes. I'm not sure if I'm able to CMA with free strikes so I'll have to look that up.
With Stryker free from the TFG, he casted arcane blast on the HR and successfully hit him without boosting. At this point, I don't think the HR was camping that much focus, maybe 2 or 3 at the most. He opted not to boost damage and did about 5 damage to the HR. He then casted arcane blast again and ended up missing. In looking back, I think if he would've boosted damage on the first try, he would've won. This left Stryker without any focus and out in the middle, ready to be charged by the TFG.
My turn, the TFG get march again from Ruphert and charge Stryker with two CMAs to dish out. He ends up biting the bullet to the TFG and all around it was a good game.
bluecardinal's thoughts
I really like my list and if I'm not facing a lot of high armor, I think I can do ok. My models out numbered him by 2-1 and with the HR 's burning ash spell, my army was rather unscathed in the end. I'm going to be adding a favorite jack of mine to my 500 list and possibly another support solo. Rhoven and company did very little in the game besides being a deterrent. Gorman was pretty much a life saver in the end, and I can't underestimate black oil. The Hierophant goes very well with the HR and can keep up with him just fine. It's also nice that he can benefit from the extra focus the HR can get during a round.
CptCalvinus' thoughts
I had the advantage of knowing Phill was bringing a infantry force before I made my list, but I still brought the Centurion. If I were to proxy, I probably would have swapped in a THead or Ol' Rowdy, or perhaps a plain Ironclad. But the Centurion came in handy on the second to last turn when he trampled through the squad of TFG for a shot at the High Reclaimer. Trample is a tactic neither of us have used before, but it was pretty handy, especially since it was Stryker's Feat turn and its armor was 26. The LGs were largely ineffective due to the HRs clouds. I can see why playing against a Trencher is so frustrating. The GMCA was great, and it was the first time I've really made use of his Flash Fire tactic. I threw five inches of Snipe on him. He is typically my Warpriest killer, but since Phill didn't have a choir, I had so many targets to choose from! I should have focused on taking out Phill's solos with him instead of trying to shoot the HR. Next time, Gorman, the Piper, and the Heirophant are primary targets.
For my next build, I'm going to see about filling in my anti-infantry support. As bluecardinal said, he outnumbered me 2-1 and it showed in how mobile his army was compared to mine. I'll likely be adding a unit of melee troops and consider maxing out the LGs. Between the Lancer and Centurion, I should be able to handle any jacks Menoth might throw at me.
Overall, it was a good game. It got very intricate towards the end, requiring some tough decisions, which is always enjoyable. These kinds of games are why I enjoy this hobby.
I choose the High Reclaimer over Amon Ad-Raza simply because I have more models that play better with the High Reclaimer. With Amon, I usually run a Revenger, Devout, and possibly Castigator or Guardian. I'm not saying these are bad options but I only own one Devout and not multiples that people usually run him with. With Bastions on the way, I can focus on a troop heavy build with the HR but I'm definitely going to put some jacks in list.
With that said, here's our first game under the current rules.
bluecardinal's 350
High Reclaimer 347/350 VPs: 15
*Hierophant
Cleansers x 6
Temple Flameguard x8 with UA
Visgoth Rhoven and his Bodyguard
Gorman di Wulfe
Ruphert, Piper of Menoth
Wrack
CptCalvinus here. My list was very basic since this is an escalation campaign and I don't own many models. At 500, I'll begin to proxy. I chose Stryker for the campaign because I have had zero success with him. He's got one win on his record, but that was only because I was playing someone who was inexperienced. I've never beaten Phill's Menoth with Stryker, which is odd, since he typically has a good reputation among Cygnar. So I figure the problem is in my tactics. That, and the fact that I like Stryker's Epic form, made me choose to run a Stryker force opposed to the other three casters I run.
CptCalvinus' 350
Commander Coleman Stryker 349/350 VPs: 13
*Lancer
*Centurion
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Long Gunners x 6
CptCalvinus wins the opening roll and decides to go first. Instead of typing out where we put our units, here is a nice picture to show you. Terrain setup is a shallow pond, two walls in the middle, a house on Cygnar's side and a barn on Menoth's side. There's a funky looking orange plant in the middle as well. The GMCA is on the other side of the house.
Round One
He goes first and puts 6" snipe on the Long Gunners, moves up both jacks and runs the GMCA. My turn, TFG move up and goes into shield wall, Cleansers move up, Rhoven & Bodyguard run to keep up with the TFG. Gorman advances and pops a smoke and HR moves up and puts down some smoke as well, pretty much covering my whole front line except for some guys on my right.
Round Two
He decides not to upkeep snipe on the Long Gunners, gives one focus to the Lancer, GMCA picks off a TFG, Lancer runs towards the GMCA, and Stryker gives him 5" snipe. My turn, everyone advances, Gorman throws smoke, Ruphert sings Dirge of Mists for the Cleansers. HR drops smoke in front of the TFG but not the Cleansers.
Round Three
The GMCA moves back some and tries to pick off the Hierophant with flash fire, hits him but fails to do any damage thanks to the extra focus the HR has on him. The Lancer moves back towards the middle and Stryker casts earthquake on the Cleansers, knocking them all down along with Gorman. Long Gunners move up and take out all of the Cleansers.
HR gains six soul tokens, Ruphert sings March on the TFG giving them an extra attack, the TFG charge the Lancer and do considerable damage on him, taking out his spear and arcnode. The standard bearer uses his minifeat. Rhoven and company run up to within a couple of inches of the GMCA and the HR casts Ashes to Ashes on Guiss or Cassian with help from the Hierophant, I rolled 2 for the extra models and boosted the damage on the GMCA to take him out. HR throws smoke on his left side to protect him from the Long Gunners.
Round Four
He gives three focus to the Centurion, Centurion decides to trample through the TFG to get within melee distance of the HR. Centurion takes out 1 TFG and barely takes any damage from the free strikes. He buys another attack and boosts the attack roll, the HR is sitting on three focus and its dice +1 on damage. Odd enoughly, he rolls 3-threes on his attack roll and if he only had used Nemo, the HR would've been dust. He rolls a nine on damage and the HR takes ten damage. Stryker moves toward his Long Gunners and casts arcane shield on himself and pops his feat.
Gorman, who just avoided getting trampled, throws some black oil on the Centurion. I now decide its time to use the HR feat but before that, the HR puts a smoke cloud on the Centurion, dropping his mat to -1. I roll a 6 for bringing back troops and put 4 Cleansers in front of his Long Gunners and Stryker. HR moves out of melee with the Centurion and he rolls for his free strike, needing a twelve to hit. The first dice rolled is a 6 and I almost lost it, thankfully the second one was a 3. HR casts immolation into the back arc of one of the Cleanser and kills all but 2 Long Gunners with the explosion. They fail their command check and turn to head for the hills. At least they're not on fire. :) Stryker is set on fire and the TFG move up and hit him with a CMA, no damage but setting him on fire, again.
Round Five
At this point, I almost thought CptCalvinus would concede the match but low and behold, he almost pulled it off. Fire ends up staying on Stryker but doesn't do any damage thanks to Arcane Shield. He moves Stryker out of melee with the TFG and with all 6 focus, the TFG fail to hurt him with their free strikes. I'm not sure if I'm able to CMA with free strikes so I'll have to look that up.
With Stryker free from the TFG, he casted arcane blast on the HR and successfully hit him without boosting. At this point, I don't think the HR was camping that much focus, maybe 2 or 3 at the most. He opted not to boost damage and did about 5 damage to the HR. He then casted arcane blast again and ended up missing. In looking back, I think if he would've boosted damage on the first try, he would've won. This left Stryker without any focus and out in the middle, ready to be charged by the TFG.
My turn, the TFG get march again from Ruphert and charge Stryker with two CMAs to dish out. He ends up biting the bullet to the TFG and all around it was a good game.
bluecardinal's thoughts
I really like my list and if I'm not facing a lot of high armor, I think I can do ok. My models out numbered him by 2-1 and with the HR 's burning ash spell, my army was rather unscathed in the end. I'm going to be adding a favorite jack of mine to my 500 list and possibly another support solo. Rhoven and company did very little in the game besides being a deterrent. Gorman was pretty much a life saver in the end, and I can't underestimate black oil. The Hierophant goes very well with the HR and can keep up with him just fine. It's also nice that he can benefit from the extra focus the HR can get during a round.
CptCalvinus' thoughts
I had the advantage of knowing Phill was bringing a infantry force before I made my list, but I still brought the Centurion. If I were to proxy, I probably would have swapped in a THead or Ol' Rowdy, or perhaps a plain Ironclad. But the Centurion came in handy on the second to last turn when he trampled through the squad of TFG for a shot at the High Reclaimer. Trample is a tactic neither of us have used before, but it was pretty handy, especially since it was Stryker's Feat turn and its armor was 26. The LGs were largely ineffective due to the HRs clouds. I can see why playing against a Trencher is so frustrating. The GMCA was great, and it was the first time I've really made use of his Flash Fire tactic. I threw five inches of Snipe on him. He is typically my Warpriest killer, but since Phill didn't have a choir, I had so many targets to choose from! I should have focused on taking out Phill's solos with him instead of trying to shoot the HR. Next time, Gorman, the Piper, and the Heirophant are primary targets.
For my next build, I'm going to see about filling in my anti-infantry support. As bluecardinal said, he outnumbered me 2-1 and it showed in how mobile his army was compared to mine. I'll likely be adding a unit of melee troops and consider maxing out the LGs. Between the Lancer and Centurion, I should be able to handle any jacks Menoth might throw at me.
Overall, it was a good game. It got very intricate towards the end, requiring some tough decisions, which is always enjoyable. These kinds of games are why I enjoy this hobby.
Remix and MK II Escalation Campaign
It turns out that CptCalvinus and I, are changing up the format to our escalation campaign. We were originally going to play two games at the varying point levels, with one under the Prime:Remix rules and the other under MK II rules.
Now we're going to play our first campaign under Prime:Remix and then our second campaign under the MK II rules. Our lists will remain the same, save for any extra jack or jacks that will be available with the new free points in MK II.
Now we're going to play our first campaign under Prime:Remix and then our second campaign under the MK II rules. Our lists will remain the same, save for any extra jack or jacks that will be available with the new free points in MK II.
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