Friday, December 11, 2009

More Hordes Stuff

Well, the league in Warmachine/Hordes is going pretty well so far, I've gotten a grand total of 3 games in with my Circle of Orboros, with 2 wins total. That's not bad, and a much better record than I've ever gotten before in Hordes.


The first few games in the week apparently don't matter if you win or lose, except for pairings at the end of each 'level'. Each battle (up to 10 maximum) is worth a single point (win or lose) and then you get paired at the end of the level with someone with a similar win/lose ratio. You get 2 games of this, each worth 5 points for the win. So... 20 battle points.

Painting starts with how much you HAVEN'T done, and I ended up getting a few points for my army being 3/4 unpainted. Good reward for being lazy, eh? You get 10 total points if you fully painted your army for that 'level' as well as some other random points including basing (which I'm planning on) and converting (which I'm not). Painting is a total of 25 points per level, making the grand total 45 per level. Right now I think I'm at around 8 or 9 total, for the painting and 3 battle points.

All that being said, I'm having a lot of fun so far. Zac's Retribution seems pretty cool (with the new plastic models too :-o) and though he's entirely new to the game, I bet he'll get pretty good soon, judging from his 40k prowess.

Our game went sort of my way most of the way, with me killing one of his big jacks with the feral warpwolf (who then frenzied and took a bite out of Kaya, who in turn took a bite out of the Gorax). I ended with a caster kill, using my Pureblood Warpwolf to walk away from combat with his other big jack using Ghostly (no free strikes!) and mauling his caster. Kaya was there to spirit door to finish it if she could.

The rematch against Jason was another story. I made a lot of mistakes, and his list is pretty good to begin with. With all of his guys stealthed but still having ridiculous range, it was an uphill battle, and my Bloodtrackers were unable to hit 5/7 shots on a 7+ when it counted, so I felt like I was doomed. Highlights include me forgetting I could only spirit door 1 thing a turn and leaving my gorax in the middle of nowhere to die in obscurity, my feral warpwolf dying ignomously to a couple of his little ankle-biter warbeasts, and Kaya somehow managing to finish off his Carnivean in the turn before I got raped by his chain-lightningish spell.

In the end, both were great games, and what's better- I'm getting a chance to see my units' strengths and weaknesses. Need a big creature/warjack to die? Feral Warpwolf will gladly (and somewhat easily) do it for you. Need infantry to die? Hopefully the Tharn Bloodtrackers can pull their heads out of the arses and actually do something useful for once. So far the infantry they've fought have messed them up, despite great threat radius and stealth, AND the Prey special rule. The gorax is a good dude to allocate damage to with Kaya, and his animus is great if you NEED to kill a heavy warbeast.

In the end, I'm glad I joined the league, and despite the fact that there are over 18 people playing in it (and I therefore have very little chance of winning a prize), it's a great chance to get painted and learn how to actually play the game WELL. Next 'level' will be awesome, as I'll be adding 3 solos and probably another big warbeast to the mix :)

In 40k news, I've been touching up (drastically) my Salamanders, but have yet to get a game in with the new list. The league will hopefully not fail, but if it does, I'll be alright. No games of 40k of late. I think I'm getting rusty.

Alright, thats about it. Have a good one, everyone!

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