Terrore Primi

Buongiorno !

I have to admit, the Theme Force sounds way better in Italian than English.

Just did a small tournament today, the first in a long time (which is easy enough to tell since I actually only did half a journeyman since my last blog post) and I wanted to try new stuff. Ya know, try to renew meself a bit after all those sweet Lylyth 3 assassinations. I brought an infantry swarm with Rhyas 1 in Children of the Dragon, but that list didn't do very well. My other list was Thagrosh 1 in Terrore Primi (yep, gonna keep that name) and I did quite alright with it. I did ended up 1-2, but the last one my opponent admitted I had it if we both didn't play so relaxed (read: we were both slow).

My list was simple, just like my Classic Ogruns List, but in theme.

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
- Typhon
- Carnivean
- Nephilim Protector
Max Warspears
- Warspears Chieftain
Max Warspears
- Warspears Chieftain
Max Warmongers
Warmonger Warchief

So pretty straightforward. My first game was against Harkevich and 7 'jacks (2 juggies, 2 destroyers, Black Ivan, 1 Marauder & a Clam) with a couple of solo in The Pit II, where I went second. I successfully killed the Marauder during his feat and he did put enough pressure on the right flank. This gave me an early scenario advantage and half my army just jammed him up while I kept scoring on the right for 5-0.

The second game I lost on the clock by like 2-3 minutes. It was against Vindictus with a Battle Engine, 2 Exemplar Errants and 2 Exemplar Knights units. I went first and the game went to turn 7 and was a slow grind fest. I manage to kill an Errants unit top of 2 because my opponent didn't feat, thus giving me an advantage that I slowly pressed. When the clock ran out, I still had a unit of 3 Warspears with Chieftain, Typhon and a feated Carnivean (both about half-life, but functional) against a Mechanik and the Battle Engine at also half-life. We were 8 to 6 for him on the scenario but was starting to come around and he didn't have anything left to stop my beast. So even if I lost, I knew what the list could do.

Now to the interesting part: is Terrore Primi worth it right now, and how should it scale in the future (aka CID).

First, the +2" of deployment is great. Both games I had a good board and scenario presence (although going second really help for that). I was afraid that wouldn't be enough but nope, quite good. I do expect this to become even more powerful with the Cavalry unit incoming, as with might be able to lock the opponent out the scenario.

Second, the Free Stuff. In my list, I have 11 free points. Realistically, you could go to 3 free cards by cutting back the beast (but I love this trio for Thagrosh). The craziness of 5 free cards with Wasps is just that to me: craziness. Sure you have 29 free points, but you lost all you're beast points on useless stuff, so... not worth it in my opinion, in this list (Wasps can be worth it somewhere else, I guess). I will also say that even if I could have had a free Hellmouth, people are used to them now (still good, just not that gotcha-esque) and they are pretty static, so I strongly believe a Chieftain to be more useful. Now we will have to see how much Amök is going to cost and if the Warmongers get a UA, but so far what we already have is pretty good for free.

Third, the Warmongers buff. ... ... In my opinion, it does not cut it sadly. In both games, they didn't come close to make their point, because they just don't have enough power to threaten. I would totally consider putting them out to replace with a 3rd unit of Warspears instead if I had the models. The truth is, they are going to get 1 Vengeance move, some of them will be in charge range of a couple of models, they will charge and probably kill their charge target (infantry of course), but then after that MAT 6 is just not enough to Berserk well enough. That also but them only at 13" threat-range, while the Warspears do 16" (and against the Prey, hit easier and harder then Warmongers even with their buff). After that one turn of fun, they die, simple as that. Also, when the Ogruns Cavalry hits the shelves, I expect there won't even be a reason to talk about Warmongers anymore.

---

Now, now, hush kids. Everything is not doom and gloom for Warmongers. There is a solution ! The CID process is coming, and there is still hope for them. First off, bring back MAT 7, and if need be get rid of that Powerful charge rule. With Berserk, they need to hit steadily, not being some weird ogrun-of-all-trade that want to go straight into pile of dudes but also have a bonus against high DEF target that they can't hit after the first swing. (You might argue that Anamag's Carnage should fix that issue, but I would point out that this will still benefit the Warspears better.) Now about Vengeance in itself: their MAT 6 is still too low to make it reliable and don't improve their big problem, survivability. (Plus outside of Theme, they are very sub-part to anything else.) I believe a rule such has Battle-Driven could be great on the Warmongers. This fit well into their backstory of being crazy lunatic bloodthirsty warriors, as hurting them would only enrage them more. It would also get their survivability up a notch since ARM 18 is not negligible. Maybe then Vengeance would be too powerful has a Theme bonus, but that would make them a true consideration when list building and give a hard choice to the opponent: do I want them to come at me full but sweet, or only half of them but completely enraged. And this is just one option ! Bloodthirsty (+2" when charging living), Take Down (no tough and RFP [which Legion doesn't have a lot]), *Thresher instead of Berserk, Rust, Mischief, AP ! (Ok, the last few might be out of place.)

Overall, you get my vibe. The Warmongers need something else (as in different / in addition to) then Vengeance to make them good, and if a full Theme Force benefit is dedicated to them, it would be sad to leave them at home because they are outperformed by everything else in their own Theme.

Steamroller with Lylyth3 and Bethayne

Hi everyone ! Yesterday I travelled far up North in the mystical land of Saguenay, to the peaceful town of Chicoutimi for a Steamroller. It was about a 2h-2h30 ride, but I was carpooling with someone else and also it was the only tournament I could attend during my 10 days vacation.

There was a list a really wanted to try out with Bethayne. I know she's mainly regarded as a low-tier caster in Legion, but she can pool out some great synergy.

Bethayne, Voice of Everblight
- Belphagor (obviously)
- Angelius
- Nephilim Soldier
- Harrier
- Harrier
Max. Grotesque Raiders
Max. Grotesque Raiders
Scout Striders
- Officer and Musician
Blackfrost Shard
Blighted Nyss Warlord
Grotesque Assassin
Grotesque Assassin
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr
Obj: Effigy of Valour

The idea was to combine the Feat, with either Disintegration and/or Kiss of Lyliss with a lot of Grotesques to take down the heavy targets. The Scout Striders were there for jamming and deal with High-ARM single wound models. I hesitated quite a lot about going in theme or not, but losing the Blackfrost Shard, the Warlord (two very powerful tools) and the Shepherds was too much for me.

My other list was my "Classic Lylyth3".

Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight
- Archangel
- Typhon
- Nephilim Soldier
- Naga Nightlurker
Min. Blighted Nyss Raptors
Annyssa Ryvaal
The Forsaken
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Obj: Armoury

First round was Extraction against Cygnar. I played Lylyth because of my opponent Nemo3 list with a lot of electro-leap would probably have killed my infantry too easily if I had taken Bethayne.

Theme: Heavy Metal
Nemo3
- Finch
- Squire
- Dynamo
- Reliant
- Reliant
- Firefly
Storm Strider
Capt. Arlan Strangeways
Journeyman Warcaster
- Firefly
Lt. Allison Jakes
- Thunderhead
Obj: Bunker

My opponent won the roll-off and choose the table side with a trench since he was worry about an early assassination from Lylyth. There was also a large obstruction (a house) in the middle of the table, and she will play an important role. I deployed Lylyth and the Archangel centrally, with the lights and solos between them. Typhon was next to Lylyth, with Annyssa on the right flank and the Raptors on the left flank. He deployed his Battle Engine in the middle, with Nemo and Solos close to the trench. A Reliant and Dynamo were also close to the trench, with the other Reliant and Nemo's Firefly on the other side of the Storm Strider. The Journeyman (which was Annyssa's prey) with the Firefly faced Annyssa while Jakes and Thunderhead faced the Raptors. In the early turn, my priority was to kill the Storm Strider to get a view on Nemo. Durgin my opponent Feat turn, he rolled badly to hit, and left Typhon with a couple of boxes and didn't do much against my Archangel either. Thunderhead killed all the Raptors with his pulse, but he was far from the "action" and facing the wrong direction, so I was ok with it. Lylyth also killed Strangeways early, activating Blood Boon (so Wind Wall, basically) and take out his only way to get magic weapon. The turn I finally killed the Strom Strider (just after his feat actually), my Archangel was toeing the left flag but was contested by a Firefly, Typhon frenzied into the other Firefly, and Annyssa killed Finch. On his next turn, my opponent moved back the contesting Firefly and moved closer with Thunderhead, but I still scored once during his turn. On my turn, combined shots from the Bolt Thrower and the Archangel killed his Bunker, and the Nephilim was on the right flag, which put me at 4. Lylyth also killed the last Firefly while hiding being the house and Annyssa takes care of the Squire. My opponent was left with no choice but to come out after me to stop me from scoring. Thunderhead charged my Archangel but didn't close anything. Dynamo and a Reliant didn't successfully kill my Bolt Thrower because of poor rolls, but still both flags were contested by at two 'jacks each (the second Reliant was close to the left one, but not in melee range of the Archangel). That left Nemo open in the trench, all alone with no big 'jacks blocking my line of sight, camping 4 Focus. Lylyth went back right and used her Feat, boosting to hit, needing a 10. I got it, freezing Nemo into place. Annyssa went from behind and shoot 2 arrows. Nemo was on 4 boxes, still camping 1. My Archangel flew over the house, taking a free strike from Thunderhead that closed is Mind. Nonetheless, Nemo being at DEF 5, even in a trench, I only needed a 3+ on one dice to hit. I did it with the first shot and with boosted damage, killed Nemo.

1-0

My second game was against Retribution of Scyrah and the scenario was Recon. Both my opponent list had 3 Manticores, and I believe they were both in theme, so I didn't want to play Lylyth into that. I went with Bethayne.

Magister Helynna
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr
- Discordia
- Manticore
- Manticore
- Manticore
- Chimera
Max. Dawnguard Sentinels
- Officer & Banner
Lanyssa Ryssyl
Arcanist
Arcanist
Arcanist
Lys Healer
Obj: Bunker

My opponent won the roll-off and choose the table side. I deployed from left to right: Grotesque & Assassin, Spell Martyr & Shepherd, a Harrier, Angelius, Belphagor, Bethayne, Nephilim Soldier, Nyss Warlord, a Harrier, Spell Martyr & Shepherd and Grotesque with Assassin. Bethayne was in the middle of the board with the Blackfrost Shard behind her. My opponent deployed from left to right a Manticore, Sentinels in the middle with Discordia in the middle of them and Helynna behind them, the Chimera with the Arcanist behind, and the two last Manticore. I split my Scouts 4 on each side of my objective. My first turn I ran everything forward without going into the Sentinels charge range. Bethayne cast Blood Thorn on the Scouts. My opponent moved forward but did not engage me. He placed his covering fire template so that I couldn't charge anywhere (not sure I had the distance). On my turn, my Scouts put Corrosion on 7 Sentinels (they were ARM 24+) and engaged them with reposition. Bethayne cast Cloak of Ash on them so they were at DEF 17 against the Sentinels. My Grotesques ran and I sent one on each Manticore to stop him from putting down covering fire. On his second turn, 4 Sentinels died from the Corrosion. He only killed 1 of my Scouts and could put down any covering fire, but Discordia killed 2 Grotesque with a spray, and with Rythm of War, his 'jacks came closer, stopping some of my Grotesques from charging. Now on my third turn, I wanted to Feat, because on one side there was a Manticore and Discordia, but only 6 Grotesques, while on the other side, there was 2 Manticore and the Chimera, with about 8 Grotesques. I had to choose a side, and instead, I choose to stay behind my objective, waiting to see which side would need me to most. The out-most right Manticore died to my charging Grotesque (like 5 of them plus the Solo), and the Chimera died to 2 Grotesques and my Warlord. My Angelius charged Discordia, doing some damage. I also sent an Assassin and like 2 Grotesques, but she was left alive on 1 boxes... Still, she was Grievous Wounded so she won't heal back 10 boxes. The left Manticore take some damages from 4 Grotesque, but nothing much. The big surprise came from the Scouts in melee. Bethayne cast Blood Thorn back on them, and besides putting Corrosion on Discordia (which went away, snif...), they hit fairly well and killed four of them in melee (most of them were at ARM 15, but I got some I high roll), leaving only 2 of them with the Officer and the Banner. On my opponent turn, he did use his Feat, and Discordia killed the Assassin and a Scouts, while the right Manticore killed 2-3 Grotesques and the left one only one (some really bad dice roll here). Lanyssa killed my Warlord with an Ice Bolt too, and the Sentinels killed two more Scouts. Back to my turn, I felt like the left side was a good place to punch through, as 3 Grotesques wouldn't take down a Manticore by themselves. I sent a Harrier to tag her then I used my Feat (plus cast a Disintegration on the right Manticore through a Spell Martyr) and make a place for the Blackfrost Shard to charge the left Manticore, killing it on the spot. Despite the Feat, my two Grotesques failed to kill Discordia and I needed my Angelius to do the job. My Soldier charged the Sentinel Officer but failed to kill him... Lanyssa got killed by two Grotesques while the rest of the unit and the assassin went to the last Manticore, but she was under Helynna's Feat so I didn't do much. On my opponent turn, the Sentinels killed all but my Scout Officer, and only 3 Grotesques were left alive on the right flank. Helynna started moving backwards too. On my turn, the TO announced 1 minutes left on global and moved next to our table (we both had about 2 minutes left on each clock). I still want with the plan I had in mind, and ran Bethayne to the left flag since there was no enemy model in a large radius and it would be easy to defend. I also tried to kill the objective with the Angelius but failed, and it was dice down. I went 1-0 on CP, giving me the win.

If the game hadn't ended on the dice down, I was still in a pretty good position. I still had all my beasts at full health, Bethayne sitting on a flag and I would have killed the objective with a couple of Grotesques in that turn, which would have put me at 2 (maybe 3 if I cleared the 3 Sentinels in the zone), with no way for him to contest Bethayne.

2-0

For my third game, the Scenario was Take and Hold. I also played Bethayne. I won't go into any more details about the game as my opponent and I had a disagreement during the game and he conceded.

3-0

Overall, the day went pretty well. It was a big event with a total of 21 players (and a playable bye), and after the third game, we were 3 players at 3-0. I finished 3rd of the tournament from the SOS, which was great ! I would also take the time to thanks the organisation. The emplacement was great and easy to find for someone who never went to the town before, plus the local had plenty of space and each table had about 2 extra feet on the side for model trays and gaming material, which was really nice.

Now onto a more important debriefing: Bethayne, Voice of Everblight. I have heard from a lot of people that she's not very good and all, but I still wanted to give her a try. Of course, I built a list to maximise her Feat and the way to apply the bonus. I find out that Harriers are great for that ! They run very far and people don't really mind them as they are not a big threat. I also loved to Angelius, because he can charge the Debuffed target with his Armour Piercing attack and there is still place for Grotesques between the two bases, and if Grotesques are toe-to-toe with the enemy, they can't hit back the beast unless they have a 2" melee range. The list is also very good at jamming, of course, and you can screen Bethayne relatively well if you want to go after the scenario, which I recommend. Indeed, I realise that in late game, when the number of Grotesques starts running low and the Feat is done, she might lack some big game finisher. Like I'm not sure Grotesques alone, even with Gang, could take down a solid Warcaster/Warlock. Plus, they list would probably struggle against dual Colossal/Gargantuan. So you want to go after the Scenario as soon as you can, but being only 16/13, even with Dodge, you don't really want to commit her until the spot is safe.

Considering it was my first time playing her and playing Grotesques, I would give her a good 7 out of 10. She's no Lylyth 3 nor Absy 2 or Thag 1, but she can definitely do some work.

Hope you enjoy and feel free to leave some comments !

PS: Just a reminder, I leave for a month at sea in a few days, so don't expect too much from me, sorry...

There's something lurking in the corner...

Guess who's back, back again

Durgil's back, tell a friend

Guess who's back,

guess who's back,

guess who's back,

guess who's back,

guess who's back.

guess who's back...

So let me explain something very important. I'm a sailor, and as such, I have a hard time to produce blog posts while I'm at sea. And since I graduate from Maritime School last Spring, I'm still trying to get a regular job on a schedule, which is kind of hard. Therefore, I apologise to everyone who follows my blog for the letdown. I will try to warn in advance when the blog will be down, and maybe I will be able to produce articles in advance at some point (for my sea period), but for now, this is it.

So, I will be at sea from March 22th to April 19th, so don't expect much from me between those two dates.

Now more on the subject, Grymkin are around the corner and since I like the faction feels, I've given a shot at that CID thing.

Here a battle report of the game I played this morning !

Theme: Bump In The Night

The Heretic +29
- Cage Rager 14
- Skin & Moans 15
- Skin & Moans 15
- 2x Crabbits 7
Max. Hollowmen 14
- Lantern Man 0
Min. Dread Rots 7
Min. Dread Rots 7
Murder Crows 9
Murder Crows 9
Lord Longfellow 0
Trapperkin 3
Trapperkin 3
Cask Imp 1

Theme: Forges of War
Adeptis Rahn +26
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker 0
- Discordia 18
- Hydra 15
- Manticore 14
- Manticore 14
- Griffon 8
- Chimera 8
House Shyeel Battle Mages 10
House Shyeel Battle Mages 10
House Shyeel Artificer 0
Arcanist Mechanik 0
Arcanist Mechanik 2
Arcanist Mechanik 2

Scenario: Incursion
My opponent won the first roll and decide to go first, so I choose the side with a hill. I also choose the Arcana Ruins and The Shadow, plus Reckoning since it is the Trump Arcana.

This is after the deployment. As you can see, I use my Legion models for the Grymkin. Scythean/Ravagore are Skin & Moans, Zuriel is the Cage Rager, Swordmen are Dread Rots, empty bases lead by a Pot Grunt are Murder Crows, Shredders are Crabbits, Lylyth2 is Longfellow, Thagrosh1 is The Heretic, The Forsaken are Trapperkin, the Gobber is the Cask Imp and the mix of shooters are the Hollowmen, lead by a Spell Martyr as Lantern Man. Of course, one unit of Murder Crows is in Ambush and the other Prey on Discordia.

The general strategy of the list is to have a unit of Dread Rots to fuel each Skin & Moans, and use the Murder Crows as heavy hitters with the Skin & Moans. My opponent sadly doesn't have much living, but we will try our best.

At the end of both first turn, the Grymkin army is doing great, withstanding 0 casualty so far. The Griffon has the "No Charge" spell and the Murder Crows have Fury. The Cask Imp rolled 1 so he didn't go very far.

After my opponent second turn, the evil Shyeel Mages have killed 4 Dread Rots and Discordia killed 1 Hollowman, and I triggered Reckoning on Discordia at that moment. Sadly she also hit The Heretic, so he won't be able to cast next turn. The Griffon take a defensive stance between the obstruction to block the way for my second unit of Murder Crows, while a Manticore face my Murder Crows and place a covering fire between her and the obstruction, so I don't run in her backfield. A crabbit jump in to protect Longfellow from the Hydra shot. The Cask Imp die to a Mage spell.

Vendetta, vendetta !! I kept the second Murder Crows in reserve. I used the Hollowmen in CRA against Discordia, but I forgot the +2 to hit and miss 3 of my 4 CRA, doing only 3 damages. On the plus side, Longfellow showed them how to do it by doing a lot of damages. A Skin and Moans went next an killed Discordia with his two initial (including a charge attack). The Murder Crows prey went on the Manticore in front of them (niark niark niark, my cunning plan is coming into place) and the general army Reckoning went to the Chimera. My second Skin & Moans charged the Chimera, killed it, and the Reckoning went on the Manticore. Now the trap is all set, and 4 Murder Crows charge the Manticore with MAT 12 P+S 18. She died. She died reaaaall good. The Reckoning went on the black Shyeel Mages and the Murder Crows prey on the white Shyeel Mages. The last 2 Dread Rots on the left issued a Run/Charge Order, and with killed 1 Mages, giving the corpse to the Skin & Moans. I also get 1 Scenario point for the right flag.

On my opponent third turn, he killed the left Dread Rots first, then used his Feat. He cast Chain Blast into the bundle of Hollowmen, but I used Ruin to counter it. He then cast it again and killed Longfellow with 4 Hollowmen, but failed to use Telekinesis on the right Skin & Moans. Rahn was left with 0 Focus. The Hydra attacked the right Skin & Moans and closed his Spirit, while the Manticore attacked the left Skin & Moans. Both 'jacks had some buff on them, like +2 damage and some extra Focus from the Arcanist. The right Dread Rots are reduced to the leader only, but the Murder Crows hold on, losing no one.

Since Rahn is empty and very close to a Skin & Moans, an assassination opportunity arise. Since he used Telekinesis, The Heretic can also do it ! The Dread Rots leader charge the Shyeel Arcanist and killed it, giving a Corpse to the Skin & Moans and opening a nice way for the TK. The Heretic healed the Skin & Moans for 1 in the Spirit, did a boosted TK into Rahn, which hit, and a second on the Skin & Moans. Now I tried to maximise damage on Rahn by killing my own Dread Rots with the Hollowmen and did a CRA on Rahn, for a whopping total of 1 damage. My Skin & Moans then charged Rahn, who was presenting is back. He died to the initial, but I still boosted the charge attack to be sure.

** RED **

Nothing

** ORANGE **

Reckoning: While playing this power, it clearly felt to my as having a Feat Power Level, which is a bit too much, since I also had two other arcanas. On the other side, since it's a Trump Arcana, he is limited to The Heretic, but still feel very strong, as he allowed my to mulch through my opponent 'jack without any dice spike.

** YELLOW **

Murder Crows: In this game, they killed a Manticore with a kind of "gotcha" move and probably that this won't happen every game, but their potential with The Heretic seems maybe a bit too much for 9 pts. Maybe if Reckoning was straight Prey effect instead of just the wording, so it won't stack with the Murder Crows, that could be an interesting option.

The Heretic: I discussed the warlock with my opponent after the game, and while he didn't seem overpowered, both Reckoning and the Godlike ability were pivotal to the Grymkin Victory. His general power level feels strong, but maybe cutting back on Warbeast Point could be an option, or changing Fury for a +2 Str effect instead. Also, if the Reckoning is toned down, he would feel more reasonable.

Cask Imp: He's a nice little solo, and I would need to give him more table time, but I feel like he is too easy to kill.

** GREEN **

Dread Rots: They felt just right for the point cost. They die easily, but are cheap.

Lord Longfellow: Expensive solo that delivers, and that's how we like them.

Skin & Moans: Powerful, but they have a low ARM and SPD. Plus Corpse are not that easy to get so they felt just right.

Crabbit: They are basically Shield Guard and nothing else, but they protect key pieces.

FIIIIIRRREEEEE !!! or March release, whatever float your boat

Good day kidz !

"CASHMEONTHEFLIPSIDHOBODAT!!"

Eh... Ok then.

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How's everything going people around the world ! (Maybe I should get a standardised introduction, would be easier than something different each week.) Sadly this week, I didn't have any tournament to report for Warmachine, but I did a small tournament of Blood Bowl, 'cause Super Bowl. Still, that's ok because my great friends at Privateer Press just released Kallus and Azrael on War Room ! It was all planned, really. (I have contacts in very high place.)

Let's all dig into that shall ya: I'll assume that all me reader having seen what Kallus abilities are and will go straight into what I think.

He's awesome. He has SPD buff, damages buff and with the Free Fury for the charge either help out do more damage or hit better. Just fantastic ! He just happen to resolve my problem to never now what to play in pair with Lylyth 3. (I had a nice Bethayne list in mind that I will still try to build anyway, but OH ME GAWD KALLUS DEUS.) I think the best way to illustrate what he can do his with a could list:

Kallus, Devastation of Everblight
- Succubus
- Carnivean
- Proteus
- Seraph
- Harrier
- Harrier
Blighted Nyss Swordmen
- Abbot & Champion
Blackfrost Shard
Min. Croak Raiders
Blighted Nyss Shepherd

I wouldn't believe I would say that, but here the Swordmen can easily be replaced by Legionnaire & Farilor. Either you have 12 models 5 damage dice with 13" threat range with Overtake/Cleave or 12 models 4 damage dice with 16" threat range with Vengeance (could give you 2 attacks in a turn). Sure, Swordmen seem like hurting more and the Legionnaires need Vengeance to be triggered, but they survive a lot better to AOE. I just don't own them, but if I did, I would try them out. The Seraph here could also be traded for just about anything. I don't feel like Slipstream is such a big deal here, and since I really want the Kiss of Lyliss, an Ice Cage is just as good as Flare.

What I really like is the potential of the list. The Carnivean with free charge can really crush another heavy to piece, and Proteus just need one enemy model on fire to charge 17" away, (putting him at 13" from his start, so he could still be him Kallus range, and once over there, you can totally by a tentacles attack, drag in a second model, and just let the Swordmen follow up (who can now charge both enemies with +3 SPD since Proteus hit both). The Harrier are there to set-up the Feat, charging way outside off Kallus Control Range to put stuff on fire. Just watch out to not block Proteus drag with them. The Min Croak is there to help too. The Succubus is there for upkeeping Blazing Path (why not) and put Kallus at DEF 15, since he is on the low side (can go at ARM 20 if needed with the Carni animus).

Maybe not the greatest list, but a very fun list to try. Also as a gift, here are 5 songs that I personally selected which are perfect to play when you use Kallus Feat:
Ring of Fire [a classic, really]
House of Fire [a bit more hardcore; probably need 4-5 heavies in your list to use that one]
I See Fire [just make sure your opponent don't start crying with that one]
Just Like Fire [for all the special snowflake out there]
Fire [I mean, if you're into THAT, go nutz]

Now, let's move on to Azrael. And I promise I won't make any Smurf jokes.
As any heavy in Legion, he's not cheap, with a whopping 21 pts. Still, fully worth his price on paper. He's RAT 6 is great to hit without the need to boost, so he can do all his shoot with boosted damage and have Fury to spare. He also has one big thing going for him: his spear doesn't have a damage type. Even if she has Continuous Fire, she's not Damage Type Fire, so he goes in the lovely basket with the Naga and the Bolt Thrower of untyped damage on ranged beast. As for his defensive ability, DEF 12 is ok for a heavy warbeast (against MAT 6, expect one attacks to miss from your opponent), but he has 32 boxes (only Typhon has so much) and ARM 18. Plus "Its burn!" can act as a good deterrent against infantry: Azrael won't die in one hit, so troopers will catch on fire !

I'm already planning a change to my usual Lylyth 3 list with him.

Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight
- Archangel
- Azrael
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower
- Naga Nightlurker
Min. Raptors
Annyssa
The Forsaken
Shepherd

That leave me with 3 pts, so maybe I'll take out the Shepherd for a Succubus. That mean I also switch out Typhon, but that way I gain 2" on threat range, untyped damage, and while I lose an attack, 2x17 or 3x14 do about the same, and that allow me to drop that list against "anti-fire" army like Menoth or Troll because I still can assassinate without fire with Azrael, unlike with Typhon.

---

About that Blood Bowl event, I finished second, losing in the final. I played my brand new team of Norse (whom, with Pro Elf, are my favourite team), and you be sure to see some painted photo of them in the next few weeks ! For the record, I went 3-1 against Goblins, 1-0 against Underworld and lost 2-1 against Chaos Dwarf. Had great fun,anyone !
though, and I would recommend Blood Bowl to

Steamrolling with the Twins

Hi folks,

For those of you that read last week article, I've finished my formation of Marine Medical Care and yes, I now know how to stop a nose bleed with a urinary catheter (I don't understand how I could have lived so long without that precious information).

Meanwhile, I still have that problem to choose which casters to bring, since I sometimes feel that most of them are underperforming. But, since this Steamroller was a small one, I felt more inclined to bring a new caster, so I left the caster choice for my second list up to the good will of the Legion facebook page, and the winner of a poll was the Twins. Now, I don't know if the Twins are supposed to be a bad warlock or not, since I didn't own before today 1 pm (Friday[sometimes I write my article in advance, much to my own surprise]), but when I looked at their cards, I patted my beard quite a bit. I wasn't impressed by their spell book, nor their abilities, to say the least. Nonetheless, I had to build a list with them. Having that in mind, the first beast I choose was Zuriel, because he greatly benefits from both of them, and when you have sub-par stuff, it's better if you can use some list-combo to make them better. Then, I needed a list strategy around them. Having two warlock models has the advantage that they can both use animus, so I wanted to add a couple of great beasts in there, also because they need 12 Fury to fully regenerate... Since they don't really play the attrition game, don't bring any damage buff, nor speed buff, and only a very circumstantial hitting debuff, the scenario seemed like the way to go. As such, there is the list I ended up with:

Saeryn & Rhyas, Talons of Everblight
- Zuriel
- Angelius
- Angelius
- Seraph
- Nephilim Soldier
Blackfrost Shard
Sorceress & Hellion
The Forsaken
Gremlin Swarm
Feralgheist

The list is not the greatest thing out there, and if you want to play scenario, you might be better off with Ravens of War theme force (for the no AD), but since I don't own Grotesques, I went with Incorporeal models instead. The idea is quite simple but sadly requires you to actually play alone. Like, whatever your opponent brings, whatever he does, just ignore him, push him out the zone with 4+ Repulse a turn, cut key models, jam him out with the Incorporeals, contest him with the Incorporeals, and win on scenario. On paper, it works great. There is also an assassination threat with Flare, Kiss, Ice Cage, 3 Windy Blast from Saeryn and a charging Rhyas, so keep that in mind.

My other list is:

Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight
- Archangel
- Typhon
- Nephilim Protector
- Naga Nightlurker
Min. Raptors
Annyssa Ryvaal
The Forsaken
Shepherd

--- Tournament Underway ---

Hey, now my tourney is over ! And because I like to keep the suspense, you will need to wait until the end to now how it went down.

First game, Entrenched, against Circle of Orboros. Since he didn't has Una2, I didn't see the need to drop Lylyth3 and so I went straight for the Twins [go big or go home].

Baldur the Stonecleaver
- Megalith
- Ghetorix
- Feral Warpwolf
Max. Skinwalkers
- Alpha
Max. Bloodtrackers
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer

The game began strongly with me forgetting to deploy the Nephilim Soldier ! I would realise it around turn 3, where I started to wonder why I felt that I had so little hitting power. My opponent chose his table edge and so I went first. The first few turn went according to plan, as I started to score on turn two and sent in his zone my Incorporeal one at a time to stop him from scoring in his own turn. I successfully killed Ghetorix on turn 3, with a combined charge from an Angelius and Zuriel. The other Angelius die holding the Skinwalkers at bay, and Rhyas would dispatch in a couple of Flashing Blade. Still, his Feral under Primal and Stone Skin managed to kill both Zuriel and the Angelius, with some good dice. But, I had managed to get the upper hand on Scenario by scoring once during his turn while he didn't during mine. So we were 4-4, on my turn, with Rhyas, Saeryn and a Seraph against Baldur, Megalith, the full Sentry Stone and the last Shifting Stone was contesting my zone. My Seraph did a big run in a loop around his force to toe his zone and Rhyas killed the Stone, taking me to 5-4.

1-0

Second game, Linebreaker, against Cryx. My opponent being a very good player, I didn't want to drop the Twins here, and besides he had Goreshade 3 and Lylyth couldn't be put Stationary.

Goreshade, Lord of Ruin
- Inflictor
- Slayer
- Stalker
- Arc-Node Chicken (don't know which one)
Max. Bane Warrior
- Officer & Standard
Max. Satyxis Raiders (am I the only one that can't pronounce their name and call them Statistic instead ?)
- Sea Witch
Darragh Wrathe
Bane Lord Tartarus
2x Machine Wraith

The won the roll off and choose the table edge with a wall in front of my objective. I was afraid of the number of infantry he had, and rightly so as he jammed me so hard that even if I managed to kill almost all of them (2-3 models left in both units), plus the Slayer and Stalker, I didn't have enough resources to protect Lylyth, and while I was mulching throw wave off infantry, trying to get in range off his caster, the Inflictor managed to reach her and take off about half her life away. That put me in a really awkward position, with Lylyth having to take a free strike to leave, and also upkeep Battle Host for the armour bonus. The next turn, he killed her with two syphons, because the spell steals Fury from the model hit. I did have one opening during the game to try the assassination on turn two, with Lylyth, the Archangel and maybe the Bolt Thrower, but he was camping 5 Focus and with his ARM 17 I decided to wait and it did pay off.

1-1

Third and last game for the tournament. Take and Hold against Cygnar. While I could have play the Twins, Lylyth is my Cygnar drop since I designed her list, so I still went with Lylyth (but stay tuned for a fourth game, with the Twins).

Striker 1
- Reinholdt
- Centurion
- Centurion
2x Arcane Tempest Rifleman
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
- Hunter
Lieutenant Allison Jakes
- Galant
Alten Ashley
Gobber Tinker

I won the roll and choose my table edge. I choose it so that my opponent had nothing to hide his caster behind early, especially if he wanted to go for the scenario. Turn one, he cast Blur on Striker and ran almost everything forward. My first turn, Lylyth went forward and killed both Alten and the Gobber Tinker, thus casting Wind Wall. The rest of my army ran forward, in position. Hi second turn, he moved forward again, upkeep Blur and placed his army in a loose formation near his flag (Striker wasn't on it), with no direct line of sight to Striker. Even if Striker was camping three, with only armour 15, I went for the kill, with an option for scenario. First, the Naga cast Wraithbane on Lylyth. She moved forward, killed Reinholdt thus opening the line of sight between the two Centurions to Stryker. With that kill, she cast Battlehost then used her Feat. I missed the first attack on Striker with even with Wraithbane and boosting, but hit with the second and did a great damage roll. Then she repositioned herself on my flag. My Archangel went next, moved up, and I rolled 4 shots. Needing anything but double one to hit, and boosting all damage rolls, I killed him with the third shot.

2-1

That also put me ex aequo (is that a word in English ? Google tell me yes, but I don't trust him) with the other Legion player in second place. We probably had the same SoS and CP, but I'm sure one of us had more Army point destroyed then the other. Anyway, worst case I was third.

My third game being very quick, we decided to play a fourth game, both using our other list. So the Twins faced Haley2.

Haley 2
- Squire
- Thorn
- Ironclad
- Ironclad
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
- Officer
-- Hunter
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Captain Maxwell Finn
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
- Hunter

This game was a lot more intense than the first one. Without going too depth into the detail, my Warbeast were on very low health almost the entire game because of his Hunters (my Seraph did two turns on 3 health, one in each aspect). The Ironclad killed Zuriel, but in revenge, Rhyas, helped by the Gremlin Swarm, used Flashing blade to kill a Hunter and an Ironclad, while severely damaging the second. Once an almost dead Angelius killed the last Ironclad and the Soldier (this time I put him on the table) engaged the last Hunters, he only had left his Gun Mages (but the Officer was dead), Haley and the Squire. He want for the Assassination and killed Rhyas, which was camping nothing, used Telekinesis on the Soldier to disengage the Hunters and tried to kill Saeryn with them and the Gun Mages, but too few shots connected (only like 2 or 3) and she survived with 1 health and a transfer, who probably could have been lethal anyway since my beasts were pretty damaged. Still, she survived and Haley was not camping anything. With his Apparition move, the Seraph, on 3 health for the last two turn, but himself in Aim range. I don't remember if I did some Ice Cages and Kiss first or not, but the Seraph got two shots, hit with both, and with some good dice on the damage roll, killed Haley without my even needing to activate Saeryn. I was also at 3 on Scenario, and could have won by just placing my Soldier on his flag, but still.

So overall, the Twins weren't as bad as I expected, but they really need a list tailored for them, which mine was probably not. They do lack damage output, and while Rhyas can do some heavy lifting, you either need a Blightbringer or the cheaper Blackfrost Shard to try to level the field, because she doesn't go through heavy like butter as it was advertised. Their other thing is their Fury. Having 12 Fury is funny, but you need a bucketload of beasts to carry that, which leave little place for infantry to protect them from jam (I felt like my lines were too thin with them). On the plus side, the Incorporeals did a great job at flanking and contesting. I would probably play them again, but probably with a different beasts load-out (something like BB with Zuriel and an Angelius for Repulse)...

So, I hope you're all happy, I did try the Twins, and overall I would give them a 6,7/10. They are nice to play, but both games felt a bit too much like the battle of Helms Deep to my taste, were you just try to hold until something magical happen and you win.

Steamroller with pThag & eeLylyth

Ah sorry for posting late this week, but after the tournament I was drained, and I started a Marine Medical Care course on Sunday which gives me little time to write...

Nonetheless, I manage to write it to the best of my memory.

My lists were:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
- Typhon
- Carnivean
- Nephilim Protector
- Nephilim Soldier
Max. Blighted Swordmen
- Champion & Abbot
Blackfrost Shard
Hellmouth
Obj: Effigy of Valour

Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight
- Archangel
- Typhon
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower
- Naga Nightlurker
Min. Blighted Raptors
Annyssa Ryvaal
The Forsaken
Shepherd
Obj: Armory

My first game was against... drum role... Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight ! Actually, there was 4 Legion players at the SR, and we were all paired against each others during the first round. The Scenario was Extraction.

RaVeNs Of WaR
Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight
- Angelius
- Angelius
- Neraph
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower
Max. Blighted Raptors
Scout Striders
- UA
Max. Blighted Grotesque
2x Deathstalker
Grotesque Assassin

My opponent chose his table edge, and so I went first. Of course, when doing a Lylyth3 vs Lylyth3, some might expect the game to finish by an assassination. First turn, I cast Battle Host, trampled forward and cast Snipe to kill the Strider Officer and a regular Strider, triggering Blood Boon for a Wind Wall, and moved back a little. I ran all my beasts forward too. On his turn, my opponent also moved forward, cast Battle Host and shoot twice into my Bolt Thrower, which did some damages and closed the Body, but was left camping one fury... Since both Lylyth and my Archangel where in range of his Lylyth, and she was not camping much, I went for the assassination. The Naga put Wraithbane on Lylyth, but my Archangel only had 2 shots (you know, it's always when you need them...), so Lylyth was left on 3 boxes and no Fury. My Lylyth was empty, since she wants before the Archangel, but he didn't have Wraithbane in his list, so all of his attacks were at -6 damages and my Lylyth only took 5-6 damages (admittedly, his Lylyth hit mine only once). Back to my turn, he was only camping one still, and he was in range off all my beasts... I won on assassination.

1-0

My second game was against Cryx and the Scenario was Entrenched.

Asphyxious the Hellbringer & Vociferon
- Barathrum
- Deathjack
Max. Satyxis Raiders
- Sea Witch
Darragh Wrathe
Machine Wraith
2x Pistol Wraith
Satyxis Raider Captain
Wrong Eye and Snapjaw

Since his other list had two units of Satyxis, I choose to drop Thagrosh since I felt like Lylyth could handle that much infantry.

It was a slow grind, like really slow. Some Swordmen charged his objective but left it on 1 box. He charged Deathjack into my Carnivean, but with Thagrosh aura and Spiny Growth, my Carni survived with a third of his life and all aspect, and the Carni closed both arms and Deathjack with Spiny Growth. Next turn, the Carni killed Deathjack both took all of his Fury. We were trading piece slowly... We also were going up on Scenario 1 by 1 each. Snapjaw tried to kill Typhon and failed, so Typhon killed him. At some point, he was 4-3 on Scenario, it was my turn, and we had both about 3 minutes left on clock... My Soldier had die some time ago, flying ever his zone to contest. My Carnivean had just come back the turn before but was knockdown. Typhon frenzied, but the Blackfrost shard killed Wrong Eye and Thagrosh killed both versions of Darragh to clear my zone and... the TO called dice down. So I didn't add the time to run over my opponent zone or breath into his objective (to give an extra point), and lost 5-4 in scenario on dice down. At the end, there was just about every other players in the tournament looking at our game, and it was pretty thigh.

For the record, he had left Barathrum, Asphyxious, both Pistol Wraith and 2-3 Satyxis. I had left Thagrosh, the Protector, Typhon, a feated Carnivean, the Hellmouth and the Blackfrost Shard.

1-1

My third game was against Trollblood. Once again, looking at my opponent list, one of them had a Mountain King, and the other had a Mountain King AND a Glacier King, and Lylyth just can deal with that, so I dropped Thagrosh, which was fine by me since I like Thagrosh into The Pit.

Dhunia Theme
Ragnor the Skysplitter
- Runebearer
- Mountain King
- Glacier King
Max. Krielstone
2x Runeshapers
Janissa Stonetide
Troll Whelps

I won the roll, and I choose the table edge, which was a huge deal since on one side the flag was in front of a house, and I didn't want to go around the house with my caster. Even if my opponent went first, I reached the zone on my first turn by running both Typhon and the Swordmen. On his second turn, the Mountain King was going around the famous house and a couple of Stone guy put a toe into the zone. Also, he feated ! On my turn, I know that I didn't have enough Swordmen to hurt the Mountain King, so I just flooded the zone with them and also charged the Krielstone to kill one of them. Thagrosh installed himself on the flag. 1-0 On his turn, the Mountain King was jam and bulldozed two inch into the zone, and his caster ran to his flag, while the Glacier King was a bit jammed behind the Krielstone. The Runeshapers were killing tentacles but the BFS was coming for them... 2-1 His feat is pass and I put some hurt into the Mountain King, killed a lot of the Krielstone and a couple of Runeshapers hit the dust. 3-2 My opponent did his best, but he didn't have nothing but a lonely Runeshaper to run and contest my flag, but for that he would need to survive about 2-3 free strike from Swordmen and BFS. So I went 4-3... The game was won for me, but for tie-breaker purpose, I mulched his army down to Ragnor, the Glacier King and the Mountain King, all the rest dead. I finish it there, 5-4.

2-1

My last game was against Mr Poupart from Hard7, a french-canadian podcast for Warmachine & Hordes, and hisTrollblood. He had Horgle in his pairing, so Lylyth was out of the picture. Also, Take and Hold.

Horgle
- Runebearer
- Mountain King
- Bomber
- Blitzer
- Earthborn
- Pyre Troll
- Pyre Troll
Min. Krielstone
Troll Whelps

So, I not really use to play more than 3 games in a tournament, and even if I cheated by eating a yummy snack bar to chocolate and almonds to regain energy, my head was no longer into it. I still tried my best, but my opponent is a very good player and every turn it felt like I was starting again and needed to create a new strategy, but overall I had kind of none. I wanted to dominate my flag with Thagrosh, and I placed my Hellmouth in range of his flag, to drag his caster and always be able to create a tentacle to contest his. But he ran an ARM 24 Earthborn at 4 inches of my flag, and my Carni even under Draconic Blessing didn't kill it so I could start scoring, and after that he went downhill, as my Swordmen were blasted away by the Pyre Trolls and the Bomber, and my Carni was snacked by the Mountain King. I tried a crazy janky assassination, which needed Typhon to hit hard several time and throw on the last attack the Earthborn at 2 inches of his caster so that Thagrosh could mutagenate the Earthborn and try to kill Horgle. It went well, but Typhon only rolled 2 for the throw and my assassination failed there... I did kill two heavies overall, but Thagrosh die snacked by the Mountain King, after I lost everything except the Blackfrost Shard and the Hellmouth.

2-2

Afterthought, I really enjoyed my tournament. I finished 11 out of 30 persons (of which 4 dropped, but still). I really liked my Lylyth list and I will definitively play it again.

Next Saturday there is another smaller Steamroller at another store in town, and I might go to it, but I'm not sure. (They announce a great snow storm this week, so maybe I'll go skiing instead because I have many great hobbies.)

Theme Force and Guildball ??

Oh God, is it Sunday already ?

Time fly so fast these days...

Well, as we all know, earlier this week, the Theme Force hit the shelves (the virtual shelves). I would like to do a quick overview of them and also a not-so-new-but-new-for-me-anyway-that-weird-intro-is-fecking-too-long-just-shut-it-already game called Guildball.

Let start by the most important theme for me, the Legion one.

Ravens of War... More like Ravens of Underwhelming Guerrilla Style. Straight off, I will tell you that I don't like our Theme Force, for many reasons. First, there is a definitive lack of punch into it. There is no heavy hitters and the only buff we can get are from the Warlock. For those you that raise your hand and want to say that a Neraph with Fury is good, remember that you could be the same buff spell on Typhon or just a Carnivean, and wreck about any Heavy in the game, so no, a Neraph with buff spell and free charge and all you want won't change him suddenly in a Heavy hitter. Sure, you have access to Raptors, which are a very good unit, but when do you really take several units in Legion? Besides, while they have Weaponmaster, you need about 4 of them to kill a Heavy that cost less than them. Our Theme does have some fun ability, as cutting off opponent AD, but the second problem is relative power between the Themes...

Our Theme is very flavourful, but not that powerful. On the other side, you have Themes like the Khador Winter Guard's Theme, where they can just take Karchev or Harkevich or just about any Warcaster since Khadoran players already only play Winterguard, and suddenly all their slow jacks gain advance move and their casters are basically immune to all ranged attack, with just about no downside. It seems to me that there is a big difference in power between some of the Them Force, and Legion didn't end on the strong side of the stick (yes, sticks have a strong and a weak side, just ask any forest biologist).

Some others Themes are worth of mention, as the Cryx revenant one, which has so many limitations and that apparently no Cryx players want to play. Cygnar Theme, that finally confirms that double Stormlances is the legit and best way to play, although there is some limitation to it,  so maybe people will still play out of theme. Also, Skorne Theme gives them a Wall, pretty neat ability right here, but without the Errata, we don't really know if it is good or not.

On the positive side, we might still have 2 Theme Force in the Legion Command Book, since some of them were not from the Command Book. But, if we consider that this Theme Force was for Fyanna, which is in the Command Book, we can expect a very hard hitting Theme Force for Kallus, Devastation of Everblight. Something like Ambushing shredders sounds very powerful...

Now about that Guildball's game. I split with a local player the Kick-Off box, with the Mason and the Brewer, and I kept the Mason. Today I played my first game, against my opponent who went a bit easy on me and bring the Brewer instead of his regular Mortician. (For those of you that don't now them, the guy chose not to bring Haley 2 in a demo game, wise choice.) Overall, the game is pretty fun and intuitive. The alternate play can really mess up with a plan, though. I would say it is like a mix of Warmachine and Bloodbowl. You can only play named character, but they all have very special ability and there is also a ball to carry around. While I do feel like a more extensive selection of players per team would help the game, it was a good experience.

I know this week post was short, but I didn't have much to talk about. Next week I have a big Steamroller, with 30+ people. I will bring my regular Thagrosh 1 and Lylyth 3 list.

Battle Report (with turn by turn photos !! )

Yeepee !! Youpoohpooh !!! After many much demands for photos in my battle report, here I take some, one each turn. Also, how super excited for the Theme Force coming out this Tuesday or Thursday! (I couldn't get those PPS to talk...) I'm hoping for a general Nyss Theme Force or a Beast Heavy Them Force. In both cases, the list I played today is the one I might change to accommodate the Theme Force.

Featuring Richard Gagné, from my local area, my opponent list:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris

- Mammoth

- Titan Gladiator

- Titan Cannoneeress [she's a lady, oh, whoa whoa, she's a lady, talkin' about that little lady..]

- Cyclops Brute

- Cyclops Shaman

- Razor Worm

Max Paingiver Beast Handlers

Extoller Soulward

Stockpile

Now featuring me, obviously, my list:
Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
- Typhon
- Carnivean
- Nephilim Protector
- Nephilim Soldier (yes, I had a proxy model, big deal... I've taking picture and he's painted)
Max Blighted Nyss Swordmen
- Abbot & Champion
Blackfrost Shard
Hellmouth
Blighted Nyss Warlord
Effigy of Valour

I won the roll off and I choose the side with a lot of forests, not because I wanted them, but because I didn't want my opponent to have them to hide behind. Then my opponent proceeded to deploy his army as such, from left to right: shaman, oliphaunt, Paingivers, Hexeris, Gladiator, Brute, Cannoneeress and Razor Worm in AD.

From my side, I strategically place the un-pathfinder models between the forests: Soldier, Protector, Thagrosh, Thagrosh, BFS, Typhon, half Swordmen & UA, Carnivean, Warlord (under Carni paw), half Swordmen and Hellmouth very forward.

For my opponent first turn most of his stock ran forward under Rush, except the Cannoneeress who shoot a tentacle. Oh well, see ya next turn I guess. He cast Banishing Ward on the Tusked-Giant, so no Kiss of Lyliss forme... :'( My opponent also placed his Razor Worm just outside of a 10" bubble from the Mouth but...

... he forgot the calculate the tentacles base size. So first thing, I create a new tentacle and charged the Razor with two, with scientific positioning so that the Worm could pass between them to reach the Maw whoever hits him. As you can see, the first tentacle hits the Worm and he got drag to the Maw The turn ran straight in front of the Mûmak, just to bug him. Typhon cast his animus and charged forward. From the picture, I think I made him do a "Run Move" from the distance, but that won't change the rest of the game, so I guess it's an acceptable mistake? Soldier and Protector ran, Thagrosh cast Spiny Growth on himself, Draconic Blessing on the Swordmen and Fog of War. I also dropped one Fury. BFS ran behind to keep up. The Swordmen issued a Press Forward order and one of them charged the Razor Worm to kill him and succeeded. The Carnivean cast Spiny Growth on himself and walked into the forest.

Pro-Tips: just because you think you're safe, don't leave your caster at 1 Fury for no reason. That Carni really didn't need SG and Thagrosh could have used 3 Fury...

On my opponent second turn, the tentacle does her job and the gargantuan is replaced by a proxy base. Good job tentacle! The Cannoneeress activated and killed two Swordmen with her blast. My opponent also went for the early assassination, with a Ghost Shot from the Shaman, that I take for 5 damages. The Huge Base also rolls 4 attacks, of which 3 hit Thagrosh, of which 1 is Shieldguarded for 8 damages, of which 1 is transferred to Typhon for 12 damages, so only 1 actually does damages. Hexeris also channel through the Shaman a Hellfire and leave Thagrosh on 3 boxes, but he doesn't have anything left to shoot with. Paingivers do their thing while the Gladiator and the Brute positioned themselves for future turns.

OUCH !! Here is why one shall not leave his caster on 1 Fury... At least, I'm still alive.

For my second turn, scenario is pretty much out of the window since Thagrosh needs to regenerate fast! I create a new tentacle, that will do nothing this turn. Thagrosh also lets go all his upkeep spells for healing, since only one Swordmen is in charge range of something. On the left flank, I want to get rid of the Shaman, so I first cast Ice Cage and Kiss of Lyliss with the BFS and I charge with the Soldier, who kill the Shaman with 3 attacks on average dice. Happily surprised here. The Hellmouth activates but has nothing to drag this turn... So I jam with one, lost one from a Free Strike and a turn just hang around. The Swordmen ran again, and one of them charged the Mammoth, for a solid hit to the Mind. The Carnivean touch my objective and cast Spiny Growth. Thagrosh activates and hid behind the objective and the Carnivean. He heals Typhon for 1 in the Spirit and himself for 4, plus he cast Spiny Growth.Typhon will have the opportunity to close the Mind of the Mammoth with a boosted spray, while he regenerates and with the Bond it's automatic 3 boxes for him and Thagrosh! He also cast Excessive Healing.

Pro-Tip: If you're about to hide your caster like that, you might want to keep some spell active instead of 1 more box. Just saying...

Still, impressive (not excessive) healing from Thagrosh here. Back to 10!

On his turn, the objective heals the Mammoth for 1, so he gets the Mind back. Since the Mammoth is engaged, he can't go kill Typhon nor moves without taking a free strike with Precision Strike. The Brute moves and tries to engage between the objective and another Swordman, but the Swordman his just a like bit too far. Out of rage, my opponent went wild, feated and cast like three Ashes-to-Ashes which killed a hell lot of Swordmen, including the Champion and the engaging one. The Cannoneeress killed a tentacle and some Swordmen, as also did the Gladiator. The Paingivers healed the Mammoth for a several damages, and he also got healed by each Swordmen killed because of the Vampiric ability on Hexeris. He's not back at full health, but he's "back online" and killed Typhon with only 2 Fury needed (for his defence, Typhon had already 10 damages on him).

Even if my opponent feated, Thagrosh being really awesome, replenished his Fury without losing a life! For this turn, I have two objectives: kills the Mammoth and neutralises the Gladiator. First off, since I can't cast Kiss of Lyliss because of Banishing Ward, my Warlord charges first and do 8 damages into the Mind. Now that the way his clear, the tentacle I made successfully hit the Gladiator and drag him all the way into the Maw very far away from anything important, and since he's looking the wrong direction, he will need to lose a turn to turn around. My last two Swordmen and the Abbot charge the Mammoth, and OH ME GAWD those guys knew what they were doing back there. Two of them scored 7 damages at dice minus 9, which isn't that impressive when thinking about it, but still! The beast lost her Mind and a good chunk of her Spirit. The Soldier charges next but I get double 1 to hit with his first attack... Well, he still but some damages with the second. Thagrosh activated, cast Draconic Blessing on the Carnivean, Spiny Growth on himself and bring back Thagrosh because playing with 125% army points his cool, k. Typhon activated, regenerated and cast Excessive Healing. The Carnivean walked up to the Mammoth and happily wreck the big thing with Fury to spare. Also, the BFS killed the Extoller with a well placed Ice Bolt.

On my opponent turn, the loss of the Mammoth he's a big deal since the other heavy hitter is in trouble with the Maw. Sadly for the Gladiator, because of Thagrosh aura and the Maw flesh, she's left on one box... The Brute kills the Swordman engaging him. The Paingivers got into the Zone but didn't do anything. The Cannoneeress did 7 damages on my objective though. Things start to look grim for the Skorne.

On my, what now, fourth turn? The Soldier succeeded his Frenzy test, but did nothing because he was full. Because things are going pretty well, the Warlord charges the objective. I did 30 damages on it. Yep, at dice minus 8, I still scored 23 on four dice. Bye objective, and also bye to the Paingiver next to it because Overtake-Cleave. The Swordmen also killed a couple of other Paingivers. The Carnivean walked to the Brute, but even with all his Fury he failed to kill him. Hard seven are a thing here. Thagrosh activated, cycled Draconic Blessing on Typhon, forgot to cast anything on himself, and walked around the safe side of the objective. The BFS entered into the Zone. Typhon charged the Gladiator and killed him, but the position is quickly filled by the Cannoneeress, which his also dragged by the Hellmouth.
1-0 for the Scenario

On his fifth turn, my opponent killed the Hellmouth and the Warlord. That's about it. Oh, Hexeris ran way after healing each aspect of the Brute, though.
1-0

My fifth and final turn! The Soldier frenzied and killed Sevryn... My Swordmen killed the last Paingivers. The Carnivean finally killed the Brute but still needed 3 Fury! Can't roll those 7... Typhon succeeded his Threshold check and missed two initials with 1-1, but score a double 5 on the fourth attack, and I choose to swing the Cannoneeress into the air... and she did 1 inch. Still, Knockdown is nice.
3-0 for dominating the Zone.

On his sixth turn, my opponent told me that he can't shake and run because if he forces the Shake he can't run afterwards and let my go to 5 for the win. I checked the rule at home and I don't see why he couldn't have shake and run, but I mean the came was sealed already with or without this run.
5-0 on scenario, and Thagrosh was also back to full boxes.

A nice victory, but some mistake were made, and I'm happy to have tried my Thagrosh list before the big Day because damn boy I am rusty with him. Discovery of the day: the Nephilim Soldier is legit. Moral of the day: painted models always win hehehe.

Hope you enjoyed the report! Don't forget to leave comment if there his stuff you would like to see on the blog or subject you would like my opinion about!

Durgil goes down on Archangel and fills his holes

Hey everyone!

I would have love to post last weekend, but two things quite out of my control happened. First, it was that crazy holiday and I was with my family, and second, but drill broke... So I had to get a new one and as a general safety rule, I never go out shopping on the "after-Christmas" sale days, because I don't have enough patience to deal with so many plebeians at the same time.

Instead, I tried some pretty sick move with my airbrush, and once again my mind just blew away! Usually, I used GW paint and thin it down with thinner (not very original, I know...), and just spray it. But this time, I decided to use Vallejo AirModel paint, mainly because my colours scheme requires to mix several times the same two colours together, in different ratio (1-2, 1-1, 2-1), and I didn't want to juggle between my pots and try to mix it right with the thinner and all... Well, short story, it seemed overwhelming, so instead I used try Vallejo colours to achieve all my mixes since I only needed to add yellow. OH ME GAWD. I will never use that old crappy technic to mix GW paint with thinner, except maybe for metallic, because Vallejo doesn't have a great variety of metallic. It was just so much easier, and totally worth the newborn I had to give up just to buy 6 paint pots.

Back to our main topic, I did fill up holes on the Archangel, just not as much as I would have like, since I planned to recreate some of the neck's spikes that broke out by drilling them, pin a rod and place some Green Stuff around it, but my drill bits broke up on my when I was pinning Lylyth 3 body for easy painting.

First, let's start with the big nice gap between the chariot and the coupling:

Once we have acknowledged the gap, try to estimate how much Green Stuff you will need, so that you don't lose it (you can always do a Snowman Objective if you have overestimate like crazy).
Cut the blue and yellow (or whatever the colour yours are) equally, and if they were touching in the middle, remove the joint part. If you don't, you may end up with some stiff parts, just like if some bits of your Green Stuff was already dry, which is basically the case since they were already touching. Mix the parts well until you have a uniform colouration. Take the amount you need from your pellet and make a roll with it. Put it over the gap and check if it's going to be enough or not. Add some or remove some, as needed, but keep it in a roll form.

Now, with the dentist tools, you have the "Stabber", useful to protect your mini from the cat or, like me, unplug my glue pot. There is also the "Double-Pointy One". He's ok I guess. And lastly, you have the "Useful One", with both a point and the tiny shovel.

Of course, using the "Useful One", just push in the Green Stuff in the hole and spread it (just like mildly-cold butter) over the whole gap. Wet the tool before, so that the GS doesn't stick to it. Don't push too hard either, or you might break apart the two pieces. Once the gap is almost close, stop pushing in, end start smoothing the outside so that your GS look like a part of the model. I do it with the back of the shovel, using the same butter-spread motion. Don't be afraid to use water to help the tool, put be warned, if the tool has literally water drop on it, they will go on the GS and the edge will lift from the piece.

As you can see here, there is a part that is flat and follows the coupling curve, and the rest is on the chariot. The shiny effect is due to the water on the GS. You might need to try it out a couple of time before doing smooth result (even me, my result are not 100% smooth). Once it's dry enough, I like to pass over with the Liquid Green Stuff to smooth even more. Just take a very tiny pellet of it with the shovel part, quickly put it in and out of the water, then place on over the not-so-smooth part, on smooth it out with the butter manoeuver. There will be too much water, so use a tissue or a Q-tip to remove it, but keep enough so that you can still work the LGS.

Once everything is dry, prime and paints it like you wish.

This was done with my airbrush with a regular brush to finish on the highlights. As you can see, if you don't focus exactly on that part, it's pretty hard to see that there was a gap there.

Now you only have to repeat the proceed all over the place, on the Archangel preferably...

There you had the tail junction. It's very important to not use too much GS, because it will look like a hump if you do.

For the left knee, it's a multiple gap problem. You need to fill between the knee, along the leg a bit to make it look like he's flexing (Archangel are actually big show off), and for mine I also wanted to fill a bit under the chitin. Also, on the other side of the leg, there is a hole where the arm was supposed to rest (LOL, nice joke Everblight... you really mess up on that one). On the third image down, you can see that I also fill it up. Don't worry too much about that one, under the arm he will be pretty hard to spot, so just make it look smooth.

You see, pretty big roll, but I spread it all the way into the knee, under the metal part also, all from that roll.

Here you can actually see the LGS I put after the regular GS was dry.

Just another gap I filled. If you look closely, you will also see that between both photos, the metal piece on the tail seems to fit way better with the resin on the second photo. That's because Green Stuff is magical, and in no way related to the fact that the piece broke off during the filling and full of rage I take up my hobby knife to cut chunks of metal from the piece until she fits.


BONUS

I played a game this week  Well ok, it's not that exciting, but I got the chance to try out my Lylyth3 list against Haley3.

Lylyth, Reckoning of Everblight
- Archangel
- Typhon
- Nephilim Bolt Thrower
- Naga Nightlurker
Min. Blighted Nyss Raptors
Annyssa Ryvaal
The Forsaken
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Objective: Stockpile

Major Prime Victoria Haley
- Haley Past
- Haley Future
- Centurion
- Ironclad
Max. Storm Lances
Lieutenant Allison Jakes
- Gallant
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
- Hunter
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One
Objective: Bunker

Scenario was Recon.

[Green is forest; red is a house; brown is rough terrain; yellow is a hill; grey is a trench and wall.]

I won the dice off and choose the table edge. I wanted to deny him to side with the trench, the forest and the hill, so that's the one I have chosen for myself. He deploys his cavalry behind the forest, in the centre, he places Haley and her battlegroup, with the Journeyman, Harlan and Jakes, while Gallant is more behind the rough ground. I deployed mainly my cavalry behind the trench with Annyssa (she choose his Storm Lances as Prey), the Archangel next to them to the right, with Lylyth behind my objective. My light warbeasts and the solos went between the two huge bases. His two Hunter advance deployed between the white zone and the rough terrain.

First turn:
Since I put Prey his cavalry, he decided to switch them to the other flank. First, he ran forward the three heavy jacks, but not too far out because he wanted all his army into the Temporal Distortion bubble. Haley moved up and summoned both Haley Past and Haley Future, plus cast the bubble. The cavalry ran between the jacks and the Haleys. His solos followed, and Arcane Shield is cast on the Centurion. The two Hunter moved up toward his flag, but not too far either.
On my turn, everything he has is out of range, except Haley Past that Lylyth kind of could try to kill with a super boosted Far Strike shot... But that would leave her too far ahead, alone and exposed, which is too risky. Instead, I moved toward the white zone, cast Wind Wall and reposition toward the left, just in front of the trench, since there is nothing moving toward that flag. The Archangel moved behind the forest, out of range of the Hunters. The Raptors and Annyssa moved between the table edge and the flank, looking toward the zone. Typhon ran into Lylyth Wind Wall bubble, overlooking the white zone, while my Bolt Thrower also ran into Lylyth bubble. The solos ran behind Lylyth into the trench and the Naga stay between Lylyth and the Archangel, because I don't know where I will need him.

Second turn:
My opponent decided to threaten the white zone. He ran the Ironclad between the Forest and his objective, but he doesn't touch the zone with him. The Centurion does his Imprint and ran between the wall and his objective. His Storm Lances for a line between the zone and the right flag. The Hunters shuffled next to the house, but they have no target. Jakes cast Side Kick on Gallant, who move left of the rough terrain. Harlan also put a toe into the zone. The Haleys ran behind the rough terrain, so they did nothing.
Since Major Prime Victoria wants to stay out of Lylyth reach and there a flag pretty close and open for business, I went for the scenario play. Lylyth moved forward, killed a Storm Lance with a boosted damage roll and also killed poor little Harlan. Then I triggered Blood Boon and cast Battle Host for free, and repositioned to touch the flag. The Raptors completed their pincer manoeuvre and walked to Ironclad (I could charge because of the forest) and hurt him a bit, and one of them cleverly repositioned next to the Centurion. Typhon gloriously charged across the field into the Ironclad, and killed it. In the need to protect Typhon from Gallant, the Bolt Thrower successfully pushed him back into the rough terrain. Now, to also stop the Storm Lances, the Archangel charged into them, killing the two he could engage, and repositioned to block any possibility to get to Typhon for the remaining two Storm Lances. The Naga did nothing apart from toeing the zone. The Shepherd take one of the Bolt Thrower and the Forsaken empties the Archangel, but I'm still two Fury in over.
1-0 for me on Scenario

Third turn:
The two last Storm Lances and a fully loaded Gallant charges the Archangel, but don't kill him. A Hunter shots the Archangel, but still don't kill him, although he's left with 5 health point. The Haleys moved toward the other flag, cast Ghostwalk on the Centurion and killed the Archangel with a boosted shot from Future Haley. Mean Haley, very mean bad Haley... The Centurion walk over his objective to get in melee with Typhon, but don't do much damage even with 3 focus. The last Hunter shoots into my Bolt Thrower, but don't close anything.
2-0
My opponent having only his objective and the Centurion in the zone, I have an opportunity to win on scenario right now, and it doesn't seem too hard. First, I leech from Typhon and succeeded the Threshold roll for my Bolt Thrower! I went first with Lylyth, who used her Feat and froze the Centurion, plus she casts Wraithbane on Typhon. The Shepherd take off one Fury from the Bolt Thrower, as did the Forsaken, having room for just one more. The Nage also casts Wraithbane on the Bolt Thrower. The Nephilim then moved sideways, and shoots into the jack, pushing him 3 inches, when I only needed 2. He's then out of the zone. Two of my raptors charged his objective, and funny enough, both mounts did 5 damage each! The riders quickly finish it off. I end my turn right here, scoring 1 for the objective destruction, 1 for controlling the zone and 1 last for Lylyth on the flag.
5-0
Scenario Win

(I promised people over the Facebook page that there would be fireworks...)

Happy new year !!