Many of my lifes favorite things have come through gaming. I read old D&D books in the library growing up. I played many games, and countless puzzles and brain teasers. My best friends and I role played and munchkin'd it up. I fell in love with my wife years ago over a game of Monopoly (which amazingly is still a game I hate).
So what. Games are something we do for fun and to relax. Or could they be more? I learned to calculate odds on the fly playing war games and poker. I have been a thief, a psion, and countless other people interacting with worlds with rules different than our own. I have worked on my thought processes with set, word recognition and spelling with boggle and scrabble. I have been part of a team and a betrayer.
The point of all of this is that I am a better person for having rolled dice. Games have kept me, and other people I have known out of trouble growing up, it has helped my friends autistic children to grasp concepts and connect with their peers. Games can be a connection point and a way to reach kids who otherwise couldn't be.
People always ask what would you do with your life if money wasn't a thing. For a while now I have had the idea of starting some kind of non-profit that just went in and gave kids the chance to play and learn about games. Supply models/books/games etc, teach them strategy, logic, underlying mathematical principles. Don't know if I could make a living at it though...
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Monday, August 12, 2013
Of Gilded Pork ~ Thoughts on Midas
Starting to get more games in again... and managing to stick with minions for a bit in spite of my faction ADD. Thought I would put down some of my initial thoughts on Midas.
First thought: OMG his tier is AMAZING for who he is and what he wants to do. I love having bonegrinders hand out free charges from the get go every game (sprint could be awesome as well, but seems to defeat some of my further thoughts on how he works, more on this later). You lose some AD and access to pathfinder, but Roadhogs have pathfinder built in and his tier grants advanced move to his beasts. All and all a wash.
Onto the meat and potatoes of Midas. As far as I can tell, he is meant to be played in waves. Start by sending in your beasts to die, take their bodies to fuel the spells that make your infantry better, when the infantry start running out, feat and bring back the beasts again. Target things that want to drop heavies and problem characters, and try to ride out the storm a second time.
I think that getting the most out of him will involve mastering the timing of these waves and in the knowledge of getting the most out of each group. In general I am coming round to min units of bonegrinders (more magical zots, more advanced move; drawback being if they are benefiting from Battle Lust, you get slightly less out of the spell). I don't think I would ever take brigands with him either, as they don't do all that much for him. End of day, a couple of units of Slaughterhousers and a million bonegrinders should probably meet all your infantry needs with him.
Beasts I have been running something along the line of 4 razor boars, 2 road hogs, and 2 warhogs (one living, one dead in theme force). This seems to give me a pretty good mix of things, although I may try to work in a gun boar at some point just to see what is up.
Perfect game with him I see trading razor boars for position and any solo they can get their tusks on, Roadhogs try to hit infantry as hard as they can with flaming sprays. In general, you want things to die so you can fuel your later turns. I also tend to not respect fury at all in the early stages. I run everything really hot and let things frenzy or die... is a weird place to be in for me as I am used to trying to preserve at all costs.
If the 2 games I have played so far with him are anything to judge by, I need to work on getting the most out of my slaughterhousers... I am just not there yet in the rhythm of the game yet. Also the fact that bonegrinders have the potential to be late game melee beaters is pretty hot (given they cost the same as McThralls and have an accurate ranged attack).
I will also say that by default his feat seems to feel defensive to me... at least on the turn you use it, but putting a bunch of beasts back down on the table feels really powerful. Don't know if it is true or not, but seems like a good attrition thing.
First thought: OMG his tier is AMAZING for who he is and what he wants to do. I love having bonegrinders hand out free charges from the get go every game (sprint could be awesome as well, but seems to defeat some of my further thoughts on how he works, more on this later). You lose some AD and access to pathfinder, but Roadhogs have pathfinder built in and his tier grants advanced move to his beasts. All and all a wash.
Onto the meat and potatoes of Midas. As far as I can tell, he is meant to be played in waves. Start by sending in your beasts to die, take their bodies to fuel the spells that make your infantry better, when the infantry start running out, feat and bring back the beasts again. Target things that want to drop heavies and problem characters, and try to ride out the storm a second time.
I think that getting the most out of him will involve mastering the timing of these waves and in the knowledge of getting the most out of each group. In general I am coming round to min units of bonegrinders (more magical zots, more advanced move; drawback being if they are benefiting from Battle Lust, you get slightly less out of the spell). I don't think I would ever take brigands with him either, as they don't do all that much for him. End of day, a couple of units of Slaughterhousers and a million bonegrinders should probably meet all your infantry needs with him.
Beasts I have been running something along the line of 4 razor boars, 2 road hogs, and 2 warhogs (one living, one dead in theme force). This seems to give me a pretty good mix of things, although I may try to work in a gun boar at some point just to see what is up.
Perfect game with him I see trading razor boars for position and any solo they can get their tusks on, Roadhogs try to hit infantry as hard as they can with flaming sprays. In general, you want things to die so you can fuel your later turns. I also tend to not respect fury at all in the early stages. I run everything really hot and let things frenzy or die... is a weird place to be in for me as I am used to trying to preserve at all costs.
If the 2 games I have played so far with him are anything to judge by, I need to work on getting the most out of my slaughterhousers... I am just not there yet in the rhythm of the game yet. Also the fact that bonegrinders have the potential to be late game melee beaters is pretty hot (given they cost the same as McThralls and have an accurate ranged attack).
I will also say that by default his feat seems to feel defensive to me... at least on the turn you use it, but putting a bunch of beasts back down on the table feels really powerful. Don't know if it is true or not, but seems like a good attrition thing.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Faction ADD is fun
Unless something weird happens, I am officially done with new armies in warmachine and hordes. I would like to slow down and think for a minute about the odd and winding road that got me here.
Way back when, one of my friends discovered stomps elephants in samurai armor and was sold right off the bat. He came to me (as he is oft to do) and quickly talked me into playing the game. As I dug through the books figuring out what I wanted to play a couple of things stood out.
About the only guys I liked in protectorate of menoth fluff wise were the Paladins of the Wall... Religious douche bags really didn't tickle my fancy at all. I tend to also shy away from undead, so cryx was out. Mercs still weren't really a faction yet (although they were tempting). That left Khador and Cygnar, with trenchers and winter guard being a tie in my book (for some reason I tend to love jobbers), Cygnar pulled ahead on the strength of a teleporting gunslinger.
Hordes seemed cool, and if I was going to play it was going to be trollbloods, but the swan had stolen my heart.
Then my car blew its head gasket and things went on hold for a while.
I moved up to Portland, and went from a meta that had no Cygnar to one that seemed to have it everywhere. What's a good general to do? I branched into mercs. I ran with them for a while and bounced between them and Cygnar.
Some part of me wanted to see how the other half lived, and so I decided to play minions because: 1) there weren't many models to buy 2) war hogs are fucking bad assed. This of course led to gators...
Fast forward a bit, and some locals were getting out of trolls... I got into them at rock bottom prices and wheeled and sealed a bit to help them pay for themselves. Work was also picking up at this point and I had far more money than time so things kept getting fleshed out.
Now we enter the omg twins part of the conversation... I now have 2 amazing babies but realized that would put a damper on playing some of the other systems I had gotten into over the years... Some how that process ended up with me getting a boat load of Skorne.
For those of you following along... That puts me at: Cygnar, Mercs, Minions, Trollbloods, and Skorne.
Holy crap what is going on.
This beings me to what should be the end of the road and in many way full circle. Due to other circumstances and ebay gods smiling, I am starting Khador. Trying to figure out how to get stuff painted and all of that is interesting, but 3 hordes 3 warmachine. Balance to the force. Now to focus...
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Are you Skorney baby?
So Flames of War is out, long live the Skorne. Long story short, I now have twins, and have thus limited myself to one game system (or two but who's counting). My British forces are now in the hands of a capable commander down in California, and I now must look to expand the Skorne Empire. This is my 5th faction (Hello, my name is Byron and I am an addict), but a lot of it is painted already, so that is a first (I can actually play it painted in 2013... weird).
That being said, I have spent some time in the dojo with Skorne already, but there are some lists I really want to mess around with, and some troops that may have gained some in the evolving meta.
First off, the sudden rise of AoE's everywhere means I will probably be picking up Karax once they have their own box set (or run out of things higher up the purchase list). Their ability to passively shield against blast damage may make the fact they are a shield wall unit (something I tend to avoid). At 4/6 they seem to be a highly expendable delivery platform to get other squishy things past say... galleon.
Next up are the immortals, who have always looked awesome to me, but have never been very far up the list of awesome due to their slow speed. I am going to bank a bit on the fact they have a natural armor of 17, which again gets you through most blast damage and pow 10 shooting. I may be wrong, but such is life.
I am pretty excited about the following list idea:
Lord Assassin Morghoul (*6pts)
* Cyclops Shaman (5pts)
* Cyclops Brute (5pts)
* Archidon (7pts)
* Archidon (7pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
* Aptimus Marketh (3pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Paingiver Task Master (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)
This list is pretty much all about just getting in peoples faces... At this point I really want to abuse Morghoul's ability to:
1) Give others the ability to ignore free strikes.
2) Pow 15, undead, tough gators who don't fall down and have grevious wounds seems pretty hot as well.
It is also tweaked to try and work around his horribly low focus of 5. Marketh, the Gladiator, and the Shaman all spread around spells and animi for Morgoul.
The 2 Willbreakers are there to expand Morgouls limited control bubble and let the Archidons charge 12 and still be forced.
Went with a gator man module as it really doesn't need Morgoul to function, anything he gives out is just a bonus really (ignore terrain and free strikes or grievous wounds). They also block tramples/LoS in general.
I also want to look at Zaal and Mordikar, but haven't thought through those lists as much.
That being said, I have spent some time in the dojo with Skorne already, but there are some lists I really want to mess around with, and some troops that may have gained some in the evolving meta.
First off, the sudden rise of AoE's everywhere means I will probably be picking up Karax once they have their own box set (or run out of things higher up the purchase list). Their ability to passively shield against blast damage may make the fact they are a shield wall unit (something I tend to avoid). At 4/6 they seem to be a highly expendable delivery platform to get other squishy things past say... galleon.
Next up are the immortals, who have always looked awesome to me, but have never been very far up the list of awesome due to their slow speed. I am going to bank a bit on the fact they have a natural armor of 17, which again gets you through most blast damage and pow 10 shooting. I may be wrong, but such is life.
I am pretty excited about the following list idea:
Lord Assassin Morghoul (*6pts)
* Cyclops Shaman (5pts)
* Cyclops Brute (5pts)
* Archidon (7pts)
* Archidon (7pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
* Aptimus Marketh (3pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Paingiver Task Master (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)
This list is pretty much all about just getting in peoples faces... At this point I really want to abuse Morghoul's ability to:
1) Give others the ability to ignore free strikes.
2) Pow 15, undead, tough gators who don't fall down and have grevious wounds seems pretty hot as well.
It is also tweaked to try and work around his horribly low focus of 5. Marketh, the Gladiator, and the Shaman all spread around spells and animi for Morgoul.
The 2 Willbreakers are there to expand Morgouls limited control bubble and let the Archidons charge 12 and still be forced.
Went with a gator man module as it really doesn't need Morgoul to function, anything he gives out is just a bonus really (ignore terrain and free strikes or grievous wounds). They also block tramples/LoS in general.
I also want to look at Zaal and Mordikar, but haven't thought through those lists as much.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Caine1 Vs Vlad ~ Tournament Practice
Played a game tonight with the first in my quasi experimental lists
From my end I was bringing:
Faction: Cygnar
Points: 35/35
Lieutenant Allister Caine (*6pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
Archduke Alain Runewood (3pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
From the North, the hard charging Vlad 3
Faction: Khador
Points: 35/35
Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey (*5pts)
* Behemoth (13pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Fenris (5pts)
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount) (5pts)
Manhunter (2pts)
Manhunter (2pts)
Yuri the Axe (3pts)
All and all a fun game, and unfortunately I ended up de-toothed and dying to a death bolt.
That being said, 18" threat on Stormblades with dead-eye and snipe worked out well, but is kind of a one trick pony. Need to remember to keep the Officer alive to keep up the assault order. Failure to kill Eyriss1 meant I was disrupted most of the game. All and all list did most of what it was ment to, but I never was able to create the opportunity to stack debuffs onto what needed a debuffing (AKA the behemoth).
I am seriously thinking about switching the 2 jacks for the stormwall... not sure but the longer ranged threat projection should allow me to hit further out and keep the stormblades back for a while.
From my end I was bringing:
Faction: Cygnar
Points: 35/35
Lieutenant Allister Caine (*6pts)
* Ol' Rowdy (9pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
Archduke Alain Runewood (3pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
From the North, the hard charging Vlad 3
Faction: Khador
Points: 35/35
Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey (*5pts)
* Behemoth (13pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Fenris (5pts)
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount) (5pts)
Manhunter (2pts)
Manhunter (2pts)
Yuri the Axe (3pts)
All and all a fun game, and unfortunately I ended up de-toothed and dying to a death bolt.
That being said, 18" threat on Stormblades with dead-eye and snipe worked out well, but is kind of a one trick pony. Need to remember to keep the Officer alive to keep up the assault order. Failure to kill Eyriss1 meant I was disrupted most of the game. All and all list did most of what it was ment to, but I never was able to create the opportunity to stack debuffs onto what needed a debuffing (AKA the behemoth).
I am seriously thinking about switching the 2 jacks for the stormwall... not sure but the longer ranged threat projection should allow me to hit further out and keep the stormblades back for a while.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Trying to hard?
Thinking through many of the support options in this game. For Cygnar in particular given the elite nature of our units, we tend to want to baby them into delivering their payload. I am not 100% sure that taking JR, the piper and devoting caster resources to keeping things like stormblades alive.
Thinking through things, if you are trying to survive charges, you either need good defense (generally MAT + 8 or so to start to be safe) or really high ARM (if my thinking is correct then you want about POW + 10 against your opponents pow).
In game terms this seems to imply that you want to be in the realm of def 14-15 and the realm of ARM 19-20. There are other modes of defense such as tough that give you a chance to stick around longer than you would otherwise.
My I guess my thought process goes along the lines of:
How much is it worth to try and keep things alive in a game where you can be buffed, de-buffed and generally kicked in the teeth, where is it best and is it best to focus your efforts in support.
In general, I find myself taking Rhupert more for pathfinder than for any of his defensive buffs... they are useful but pathfinder tends to be the primary reason. That being said, when playing Mercs, I often find Saxon being more useful than Rhupert as he can contribute offensively as well as providing buffs.
Not sure if I have a point, but I am willing to lean toward the idea that buffing offense is probably more powerful than tying to keep things up... also having more troops may be better than trying to get 110% out of one unit that will probably get feated off the table.
List Thoughts
So 35 point tourney coming up, and it may be my last chance to get a bunch of games in before the babies come and I go into dojo machine mode fairly indefinitely .. That being said, I am trying to put my money where my mouth is and continue to think my way through competitive Cygnar...
This list kind of builds itself with the only real though going into where to spend the 10-12 points that aren't in use anywhere else (tier IV requires 28 points to reach). Basically we are playing the I really hope lightning hits a lot of dudes game.... there are all of 12 models in this list. It also lacks some basic buffing (ie arcane sheild) that most of these kinds of list bring. Without further ado:
List 1:
Cygnar - I like Haley 2 Tier IV ~ I like Huge Base Light
40 / 40 (35 5) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 2 Battle Engines : 2 Solos : 2 Units : 2
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: 5
- Thorn - PC: 8
- Centurion - PC: 9
Storm Strider - PC: 9
Storm Strider - PC: 9
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 0
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Stormsmith Storm Tower - Leader & Grunt: 2
Field Mechaniks - Crew Chief & 3 Grunts
Lots of ranged, possibly hosed by stealth (although running storm smiths could help with that, will have to see). All and all I really just want to see what 2 giant lightning spewing walkers are capable of on the table top :).
List 2 that I am thinking of right now is:
Cygnar - Caine with blades
41 / 41 (35 6) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 2 Battle Engines : 0 Solos : 3 Units : 2
Lieutenant Allister Caine - WJ: 6
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Stormclad - PC: 10
- Ol' Rowdy - PC: 9
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios - PC: 3
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyanna & Master Holt: 4
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard Bearer 3
- 1 1 Storm Gunner's: 1
First off, this list is playing off of the fact most of the lists I have played over the years have had a hard time dealing with high armor... also two heavies with Caine1? Madness!
There are two "free" focus on the table (Ol' Rowdy being awesome in general, Stormclad stealing batteries from the blades), which should get people where they need to go until I need to give out focus to kill something big, Caine can not be a super solo for a turn I am pretty sure.
Caine1 for my first brawler list in while? Madness!
Logic is as follows:
~ Crowd control, Caine1 makes the pew-pews like few others, 4 shots a turn + a million on his feat turn (which can see squishies behind huge bases), means that he pretty much is this lists ranged game.
~ Board control, THUNDERSTRIKE at 15 inches is pretty awesome (doubly so with roll an extra die and drop the lowest, thanks for nailing my wishes). Also the possibility of punishing the "run your army forward types" is pretty hot.
~ Snipe and dead-eye means I can put shots from the stormblades on targets, and that gorman probably doesn't need to get as close to be magical.Trying to play up assault with some heavy hitters, don't know how well that will work... we will see.
~ Blur on stormblades is OK to get them across the board, don't love it, don't hate it 15/15 is pretty good in my book.
Beyond that trying to stack de-buffs a bit, trying to skew toward making people deal with heavies, and trying something different :).
One of the things I have been going back and forth on has been Runewood vs. Rhupert as the support for the Stormblades, fearless and +2 Mat on the charge, vs some extra defenses leaves me at a bit of a wash. Make take him because he is fairly useful on his own (extra pow 12 handcannon and pow 12 magical weapon master).
Pretty sure things are going to die, and not sure if the extra bit of survive that the piper brings our weighs the extra offence... will probably end up going with Runewood as I don't think I have gotten him on the table yet.
Closing thoughts:
Biggest fears I have currently are Ret, and any of stationary/fire lists as both my casters are pretty squishy. I may also turn to Darth Stryker to be my second list, but then I am playing two of the Cygnar super casters in a friendly tourney, and I also really want to see if I can make assault do something useful, but I am not 100% that the stormblades will get anywhere un-molested...
This list kind of builds itself with the only real though going into where to spend the 10-12 points that aren't in use anywhere else (tier IV requires 28 points to reach). Basically we are playing the I really hope lightning hits a lot of dudes game.... there are all of 12 models in this list. It also lacks some basic buffing (ie arcane sheild) that most of these kinds of list bring. Without further ado:
List 1:
Cygnar - I like Haley 2 Tier IV ~ I like Huge Base Light
40 / 40 (35 5) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 2 Battle Engines : 2 Solos : 2 Units : 2
Major Victoria Haley - WJ: 5
- Thorn - PC: 8
- Centurion - PC: 9
Storm Strider - PC: 9
Storm Strider - PC: 9
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 0
Stormsmith Stormcaller - PC: 1
Stormsmith Storm Tower - Leader & Grunt: 2
Field Mechaniks - Crew Chief & 3 Grunts
Lots of ranged, possibly hosed by stealth (although running storm smiths could help with that, will have to see). All and all I really just want to see what 2 giant lightning spewing walkers are capable of on the table top :).
List 2 that I am thinking of right now is:
Cygnar - Caine with blades
41 / 41 (35 6) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 2 Battle Engines : 0 Solos : 3 Units : 2
Lieutenant Allister Caine - WJ: 6
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Stormclad - PC: 10
- Ol' Rowdy - PC: 9
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios - PC: 3
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord - PC: 2
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyanna & Master Holt: 4
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard Bearer 3
- 1 1 Storm Gunner's: 1
First off, this list is playing off of the fact most of the lists I have played over the years have had a hard time dealing with high armor... also two heavies with Caine1? Madness!
There are two "free" focus on the table (Ol' Rowdy being awesome in general, Stormclad stealing batteries from the blades), which should get people where they need to go until I need to give out focus to kill something big, Caine can not be a super solo for a turn I am pretty sure.
Caine1 for my first brawler list in while? Madness!
Logic is as follows:
~ Crowd control, Caine1 makes the pew-pews like few others, 4 shots a turn + a million on his feat turn (which can see squishies behind huge bases), means that he pretty much is this lists ranged game.
~ Board control, THUNDERSTRIKE at 15 inches is pretty awesome (doubly so with roll an extra die and drop the lowest, thanks for nailing my wishes). Also the possibility of punishing the "run your army forward types" is pretty hot.
~ Snipe and dead-eye means I can put shots from the stormblades on targets, and that gorman probably doesn't need to get as close to be magical.Trying to play up assault with some heavy hitters, don't know how well that will work... we will see.
~ Blur on stormblades is OK to get them across the board, don't love it, don't hate it 15/15 is pretty good in my book.
Beyond that trying to stack de-buffs a bit, trying to skew toward making people deal with heavies, and trying something different :).
One of the things I have been going back and forth on has been Runewood vs. Rhupert as the support for the Stormblades, fearless and +2 Mat on the charge, vs some extra defenses leaves me at a bit of a wash. Make take him because he is fairly useful on his own (extra pow 12 handcannon and pow 12 magical weapon master).
Pretty sure things are going to die, and not sure if the extra bit of survive that the piper brings our weighs the extra offence... will probably end up going with Runewood as I don't think I have gotten him on the table yet.
Closing thoughts:
Biggest fears I have currently are Ret, and any of stationary/fire lists as both my casters are pretty squishy. I may also turn to Darth Stryker to be my second list, but then I am playing two of the Cygnar super casters in a friendly tourney, and I also really want to see if I can make assault do something useful, but I am not 100% that the stormblades will get anywhere un-molested...
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