Figures actually DO paint themselves

Remember all of those who told "motivational" half-jokes about how your minis ain't gonna paint themselves no matter how long they sit on the paint station.

WELL THEY LIED!

I got undeniable footage over how Bog Trog Trawlers gather paint on them despite no effort whatsoever on my part.

Neither -2 arm nor +3 def does the trick

Maybe, then, I am trying the wrong trick?

Alrighty, I'll edit a new game right into this one. The games here have about a week in-between them, but since opponent had exactly same list and I had the same faction, I thought I wouldn't need a new post.

Two 75 point games of Warmachine with Skorne and Protectorate.

Game 1:

My list was:

Dominar Rasheth
- Agonizer
- 2x Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- Tiberion
- Titan Sentry [
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)
Venator Reivers (max) + Venator Reiver Officer & Standard

Ancestral Guardian
Aptimus Marketh

Opponent had:

The Harbinger of Menoth
- Devout
- Redeemer
- Vigilant
Choir of Menoth (min)
Flame Bringers (max)
2x Knights Exemplar
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard
2x Allegiant of the Order of the Fist
Anastasia di Bray
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Hierophant
The Covenant of Menoth
Wrack

Scenario was Outlast and Protectorate started game.

Menite forces parked themselves, contesting both zones and well within Martyrdom range, waiting for me to commit.

And sure I did commit!

I rushed forward with Tiberion and Titan Sentry, and actually with pretty much everything I got. I placed Agonizer so that both heavies would benefit from Gnawing Pain, even if they would be attacked from maximum reach. Rasheth used his feat defensively, so that anything that would try to attack focal point would get -4 for damage rolls. Lucky deviations from Breath of Corruptions screened Skorne forces nicely, too.

Now, it looked and felt quite sweet to be impervious there, with two big guys closing in with opponent unable to do anything to them.

However, it wasn't that sweet when the 22 and 15 point warbeasts were tied up by two Allegiants of the Order of the Fist, with me being unable to do anything to them thanks to way too high defense.

If it wasn't for them, my bold plan of grinding control points from flag might have been a little more feasible. Now I just put Rasheth in the way of continuous assassination attempts, or at least possibilities.

Slowly and steadily Exemplars were clearing zone on the right, so my scenario victory didn't look like it would happen any time soon.

Frustrated, Tiberion trampled forward, hoping to survive long enough to somehow get to Harbinger.

Well, Tiberion was killed. Game had dragged on for quite a while by now, and there didn't seem to be any chance for a win to me, only to prolong the inevitable. I did something most unheard of: I conceded.



Game 2:

Void Seer Mordikaar
- Agonizer
- Aradus Soldier
- Archidon
- Cyclops Savage
- Titan Gladiator

Cataphract Cetrati (max)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) + Officer & Standard
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Void Spirit

Scenario was The Pit II, and Protectorate started again.

I figured I had very little options, as Harbinger would have absolutely no trouble at all at removing Hollow from Swordsmen. I did get a couple of souls from the spell when Harbinger chose not to cast Purification, but all in all I think I lost more Fury in upkeeping and re-casting the spell than what I gained from souls.

So I decided to rush in with all I got and hope +3 defense would give a chance to do something, somewhere, preferably via charging, ghostly Archidon at Harbinger.

It kind of worked, except for the charge part. I did manage to navigate in the thick of Protectorate forces for quite a while, and Harbinger went dangerously low on her health thanks to Martyrdom a few times during game. Mordikaar was able to annoy her a bit with Manifest Void, too.

Now, for some reason it didn't even cross my mind during game that I might have tried to assassinate her during those turns of low hit points with Essence Blast targeted somewhere else so that Devout wouldn't be able to protect her. Instead I tried to win Harbinger with attrition and scenario. A choice well made!

But somehow, at the height of my power, I was at 3-0 control points. Then the downfall began and I started to run out of, well, everything, and so I did not contest nor did I score points any longer.

It's nice to know I did have the chance here, even if feeble mind didn't realize it.

Nemesii

Since I finished The Hand a couple of days ago, I thought I might take a picture from all the Nemesis encounters of Kingdom Death. Well, all but the final. But even reaching that far in the campaign seems like a distant dream.

In a Night at the Court

A recent two player game of Love Letter, which was categorized by me either having the Princess in my palm every round, or Princess not being there at all. I suppose it wasn't that big of a surprise then, that in the end, it was my letters that reached the royal heart.

Battlefield Comes to Life

... and it isn't pretty.

I've been practicing stop motion animations lately, and I had this thought how it would look like if I animated a Warmachine match.

It came out rather crude, but it was quite fun to make it. The 140+ frames spread out to a minute and a half didn't turn out so well and it's a bit too hectic to make much sense. For a slightly more enjoyable experience I suppose one would need to take a different take each time a model changes facing, as well as maybe try to make some sort of damage overlay for each hit.

While we are at it, leaching and allocating focus would give a greater pause between turns if each leached or allocated point was it's own frame.

But yeah. Considering my experience (or the very lack of it) result isn't that bad. Let's see if Blogger know's how to Avi, or do I need to youtube this thing posthumously.



Yup, new to these things. But there's the video now.

Oh, and the actual battle report. It was a fast game with Hexeris using feat to clear Mechanithralls off the board, and then warbeasts and warjacks failing to do anything useful.

I decided Hexeris needed to attack Asphyxious when he had only one focus point left for damage mitigation. Two attacks hit Asphyxious, but then I didn't score 8+ with three dice with two attempts. Maybe that's fair, because Asphyxious forgot to take souls from Archidon and Titan Sentry.

Asphyxious hit with his first attack, which spelled doom for Hexeris even if Asphyxious tried really hard not to kill the skorne warlock. Twice there were double 1's for damage, and twice damage roll was something like 1,3.

But once more Hexeris went splat.

Different Kind of Skorne

Alright, let's write these two 50 point games of Warmachine up before my Next Big Project.

My lists were:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Aradus Sentinel
- Bronzeback Titan
- Cyclops Shaman

Praetorian Swordsmen (max) + Command Attachment

Venator Flayer Cannon
Aptimus Marketh
Ancestral Guardian
Void Spirit

List 2:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Aradus Sentinel
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Krea
- Titan Sentry

Venator Reivers (min) + Command Attachment
Ancestral Guardian
Bog Trog Trawler

Notice anything two missing from both lists? Yeah. And did I regret the lack of Agonizer and Beast Handlers. But I wanted to use some models I haven't used yet during Mk3... namely Ancestral Guardian and Aptimus Marketh.

Opponent had:

Father Lucant, Divinity Architect

- Corollary
- Diffuser
- Galvanizer
- Prime Axiom

Perforators (min)
Eradicators (min)

Opponent used same list twice, and scenario was Breakdown in both games.

In first game Aradus Sentinel, Cyclops Shaman and a Sunder Spirit was enough to take down Galvanizer. But this meant Axiom could easily drag Aradus to it's demise. On the other hand I managed to devastate zone on the left. However, I had placed Bronzeback those critical 3 millimeters too far and Axiom could charge it.

There was not much left for me, then. I decided I might stand chance if I would kill the Prime Axiom, and I did quite respectable damage in to it. It did have Parasite cast on it, though.

Now, Ancestral Guardian had zero souls on it and was perhaps about the same distance off from Axiom as Bronzeback had been too close.

A single P+S 13 could have completely wrecked the colossal with a good roll, or destroy some critical systems with a mediocre roll. Or completely fail with a poor roll, of course. But it was not to be. Lord Tyrant Hexeris went splat next turn.


Game 2:

Second game Hexeris had learned from his mistakes and went epic.

I tried to protect the battlegroup a little better against drags this time, and succeeded. This time opponent devastated zone on the left. I did get to score points from the zone on the right first, but damn those servitors from Axiom kept contesting my zone. I was fairly sure I wouldn't be able to grind scenario because of that.

Titan Sentry charges Diffuser during Lucant's feat turn to keep Convergence busy next turn. Of course I would have wanted to deal some damage in, too, but I wasn't blessed with that many hits.

I secure my zone anyway and watch Titan Sentry die. Remainder of Venator Reivers contest enemy zone far longer than I expected. But not long enough.

Then I do some beat back shenanigans with Bronzeback Titan to get to Prime Axiom, but missing two attacks on Galvanizer made the attempt rather pitiful.

Then I watched Bronzeback die.

Krea charges Corollary, but misses. Eventually finishing moves were pretty much the same as in last game: Hexeris tries to charge Prime Axiom in the vain attempt to dismantle it enough for him not to die next. But nothing like that ever happened, at least not in this game.

Hexeris went splat again, and since there isn't Hexeris3 yet we couldn't continue games.

Yeah, that's the reason.

I will never play Skorne again without Agonizer or Beast Handlers.