35pt. pSorsha VS. pStryker

Well my bother finally showed up and we managed to get a battle in. WHat was supposed to be a 35pt Khador vs a 36pt Cygnar battle turned into a 35 vs 40 pt battle. How you say? When I was setting everything out and making sure everything was ready I had set out all 10 of my trenchers - they were SUPPOSED to be a minimum unit. So even with a 5 point swing I still managed to loose. Completely ignoring the back of the Hammersmiths card until he had three boxes left and the end of my turn I am sure helped. Never rolling for more than 4 points of damage even with sometimes boosted damage rolls against his heavies and the bane of my existence - Thor. Worse that Armor 20...Worse than P&S 19 Ice Axe.... my bothers uncanny ability to turn after turn succeed in a repair check AND consistently repair 5-6 damage. Kid was on fire with the rolls.

So, on with the lists and the pics. I made sure and took pics turn by turn after each of our activations. We had to call it with no definitive winner, but with two heavies still in play and a mechanic that could just repair the damage I conceded the win. Plus I figured out my mistake 1/2 way through the game and felt like a heel.

Forces of Khador:

• Kommander Soarcha +5
• Juggernaut 7
• Destroyer 9
• Iron Fang Pikemen (min) 5
• Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (Min) 5 x2 = 10
• Thor Steinhammer 2
• Wodowmakers 4
• Orgun Bokur 3

 35pts.

Forces of Cygnar:

• Commander Coleman Stryker +6
• Hammersmith 8
• Defender 9
• Sword Knights (full) 6
• Trencher Infantry (supposed to min was max) 10
• Long Gunner Infantry (min) 6
• Journeyman Warcaster 3
• Charger 4

Khador won to go first.

Deployment

Khador 1

As you can see we are both running heavy at the bottom of the screen. With so many troops the dwarves not blocking his LOS really paid off.

Cygnar 1

Khador 2

Cygnar 2

Khador 3

Cygnar 3

Khador 4

Cygnar 4

Khador 5

Cygnar 5

End of Game

Well, it was a fun match. Couple things learned and a few questions raised.

Things learned:

1. Khador Armor is nearly impossible to penetrate. I am buying Hunters for my Cygnar ASAP.
2. Iron Fang's with Shield Wall order - see point #1.
3. Mechanics are awesome. Thor was an after thought trying to find him enough points for a proper match. He easily made his points back.
4. Sword Knights - good tarpit unit. No good trying to kill Tron Fangs. Needing a 9 on 2d6 to do 1 point of damage is HARD to get.
5. Read your cards. I completely forgot to read the back of the Hammersmith and didn't get any Follow Up, Beat Back, or Chain Attack lovin.
6. Charger w/ Journeyman - Good combo. 2 range 12 shots both boosted to hit and to damage. My single Charger killed all but one Widowmaker and 3 Iron Fang Pikemen. 8 point combo took out most of 9 points. Good trade.

Questions raised. If any of you more experienced folks can help please do!

1. Can units charge without a charge order? The way we have been playing is that this is a NO as I can not find the specifics in the book. We just had to move into melee and swing away unboosted.
2.  When firing into Melee do you roll to see if you hit all the models withing helee range of the target model Friend or Foe? I.E. there were two Iron Fang Pike Men in base to base hitting my Sword Knight. Did it have a chance to hit his other guy as well as mine if I missed the initial target? 

Happy new year! And what I have been painting of course.

Oh man... over a week at the in-laws and boy..am I exhausted. Its not so bad when its just a day or two but from the 23rd until today is just too much. My son is bouncing off the walls from so much sugar and my wife can't go ten minuted without an "We are NOT doing that next year". But on the good side I managed to get some painting done in between the free computer tech service to the entire extended family and the father in law's comments relating to how I went from the Army to playing with army men...

Anywho, on with the figs! First up I guess I should show the finished Hammersmith since I did some WIP pics earlier.

One thing I have noticed in painting my first metal warjack over the plastic. The plastics are nice to work with and are very detailed - but the metal ones are FAR more detailed.

Next we have my UA for the Long Gunner's. I did some super quick highlighting on the flag - but since I know it will be a focal point any ways I wanted it to look half way decent.

Next up are some Khador love. First up for them is a minimum unit of Iron Fang Pikemen. These were fun to paint and the quickest out of all of them. Vallejo Model red over a grey primer. Reaper Tarnished Brass and the pikes are Vallejo German Grey. Heavy heavy GW black wash and finally a careful highlighting with red again. As a unit I think they look pretty imposing. I think I need to get some Man O War's and paint them the same way.

Finally we have the unit of Widowmakers I mentioned earlier. I love the woman SGT model. SO much detail and attitude was captured by the sculptor.It was a joy to paint.

So there yo go. Sorry for the absence but dial-up internet was the best they could offer me at the farm - yeah, so not a joke! So Happy New Year and may all your dice come up 6's!

20pt. Cygnar vs. Khador match

Well, after playing a few battlebox matched with my brother of the Thanksgiving break he gave me a call last night. Needless to say I brought a couple 20 point armies to his place for a match. The armies were:

Cygnar:

• Cmdr. Stryker (+6)
• Lancer (6)
• Ironclad (7)
• Journeyman Warcaster (3)
• Charger (4)
• Sword Knights (Full unit 6)

 Khador:

•  Kommander Sorsha (+5)
• Juggernaut (7)
• Destroyer (9)
• Widowmakers (4)
• Iron Fang Pikemen (Min. Unit 5)

I packed up the book, templates, dice, measuring tape, mini's, and the camera...just not the memory card. Doh! I took a few pics with my cell phone - but it has a horrid camera and they were really bad. I will atleast post the final pic:

Annnnddd...I lost

As you can see by the pic - I lost. Actually, the game was really close until I decided to chance it. I thought my Ironclad was withing charge distance to his caster so I dumped 3 focus on him and charged him at the caster. Well, with having to go up a hill and loosing 1/2 my remaining movement put me .000001 mm out of charge range. It wasn't that close but I was about 1/4 of an inch out of melee range. Well, this of course put my Ironclad out of control range so I had to advance my line. I thought I was smart and swarmed his Jugg. with 6 Sword Knights and kept the other two to shield my caster. Well, he proceeded to shoot both blockers with his caster, shoot me for all but 3 damage with the Widowmakers, charge in the two remaining Pikemen, and knock me down on his first attack. Yeah, I died horribly.

Things learned:

1. Sword Knights with Blur just can not be shot. Same thing with Arcane Shield once they get in Melee.  16DEF while they try shooting at you, and 17 ARM in melee is nothing to sneeze at.
2. Warcasters are nice - but you have to protect them. I didn't have mine completely behind his Charger and he got sniped very quickly.
3. You have to be aggressive and go after his caster - but pay attention to the terrain. If I remembered that the piece of paper we were using was a hill, I doubt I would have chanced it.

So, how do you guys deal with Khador and their 20 ARM jacks?

On the work bench

Well, not much work done, but a lot of assembly managed to get done. Put together are:

• Long Gunners UA - The standard is a bit of a bear
• Journeyman Caster (Alt)
• Khador Widowmakers
• Khador Iron Fang Pikemen - The Sgt is a pain to put together. Beware.

Also, I managed to do a little bit more work on the Hammersmith.

Got the last wash on and after it dried I have started on the white. I think I am going to do that center part, both shoulder-pads, the loin cloth - plate, and the backs of the arms. I also got in a lighter blue for highlights and I think I am going to try it out on this model.

Getting my feet wet...

 Well, as time has gone by on Warmachine Mk. II I have been keeping my eye on it.  Giant robots smashing the hell out of each other really is apealing to me so I finally took the plunge. This past weekend I purchased:

• Warmachine Prime Mk. II Softcover
• The Template Set
• The Khador Battlegroup
• The Cygnar Battlegroup
• The Cryx Battlegroup

Shiny new boxes begging to be assembled!

Now that I had a few starter armies I suckered my brother, who was at the house for Thanksgiving, into giving it a try. We played five or six games and after it was all said and done I decided I liked Khador and Cygnar the best. So on Sunday I sat down and painted  up the Khador box set. Nothing too fancy, I just wanted a decent table top quality. Also, if you have ever seen my stuff on DakkaDakka you will know that I usually try for a very clean no dirt paint style. I wanted quick with a lot of what is normally painstaking work to be done by washes.

So here is the battlegroup:

Lots of block painting, simple highlighting and super quick blending. One thing I noticed that I was rather disappointed in was all the old warjacks there was a Khador symbol raised on the model where I free-handed mine. Not a deal breaker just disappointing that they would remove a nice detail like that.

Now for some close up shots:

 

Warcaster Sorscha

I did spend a tiny bit more time on her than the other two, picking out a few more details but again - super quick. Overall I am pleased, but if I had it to do over I would have block painted her face black first and raised up the detail from that instead of relying on the wash. It worked but not to the extent that I really desired.

Don't you know who I am?

 Actually the first model out of the group. Really pleased with him considering from start to finish I spent maybe 2 hours on him. Anything to redo? I would paint his lower legs red instead of leaving them gray. One thing that is kind of obvious to all on the way I paint - I do NOT like the look of metallics. But I am not good enough to do a convincing NMM so here is the result. I paint in gray tones.

Finally we have the Destroyer. Another super simple model. I made the wash do all the work. Its just Rust-oleum Auto primer grey with Vallejo Model Color Uniform Red. And GW Badab Black Wash. Also used Vallejo Scarlet to highlight the red and Light Grey on the primer.

  So, thats all she wrote for this post. Please join my blog and tell me what you think. Up next is the Cygnar battlegroup and I am trying to arrange a learning game from my local press ganger and I hope to take some pictures of it for you as well.

Until Next Time,

Burb