Whew!

Ok, Life 1, Ray 0.

I've been super busy in the real world with work, business trips, my wife, dogs, friends, etc. I haven't been able to play or model in just as long and I'm missing it dearly.

One item of note, I work in a small office within my company with six women. While this can be trying at the best of times, the past month has been much more fun. The ladies decided they would start playing "Biggest Loser" and roped me into it. I figured I could drop some weight as I moved down here to Miami at 145-150lbs and am now in the (according to the weigh-in scale) 202 area. So I've been working out. A lot. I've been attending karate classes with my wife 3-4 times a week for 2 hours at a time. I've been running a mile in the morning (5AM running is nice, probably the best weather Miami has to offer). My karate sensei has decided to teach a small group of us judo and I'm really enjoying it, so much so I am thinking of leaving the dojo for a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school and keeping my sensei as a personal trainer.

Anyways in WM/H news I purchased TOM and Harby. But due to the business and sickness (my wife's grandmother gave me the bubonic plague, i swear) I haven't even taken them out of their blisters.

Gonna have to work up a new nerd-friendly schedule to include my jiu-jitsu, mountain biking, running, work, wife, dogs, modeling, painting, and playing.

The Masses Have Spoken

Hey guys, well, the masses, erm, uh, the 9 of you have spoken (thanks mom). My blog specifically for my Menoth Army will be called Trial By Fire.

I'm working up a simple banner like the one above and I've cross posted the three posts here onto there so I don't lose track of them.

During the MKII Field Test (this last week) I will be updating the blog then as I play the army and build upon it I will be posting then too.

I'm thinking, perhaps, (and time will tell on this) if I should just amend the name of this blog to cover both and work up a simple banner for both...

anyhoo, for the time being at least there is a new blog up (nothing overly exciting I'm afraid) over at Trial By Fire

Priming

So I'm waaaay behind on my painting. So sue me.

Anyways. I played a lot of Orks in 40k and WHFB back in the days and so I was used to a lot of black primer. I'm very comfortable with black, it hides my mistakes well.

But I'm curious now. I see a lot of gray primered models and white primered models. Anyone out there (hopefully troll players) prime in anything other than black? Can you drop me a link to your work so I can see how it comes out on other people's models.

Thanks guys!

Menoth vs. Cygnar

Menoth vs. Cygnar

I played Andre twice last night. Both times he played Nemo.

I played CerealJohn's (Getting Small)
(http://newtowarmachine.blogspot.com) Amon list in both games (sorry
John, it looked like too much fun)

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
Vanquisher
Vanquisher
Dervish
Idrian Skirmishers
>Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide (2)
Choir of Menoth (6)
Vassal of Menoth
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist
Deliverer Sunbust Crew

I think he played the following:
Nemo
>Squire
Stormclad
Charger
Charger
Thorn(?)
Storm Guard (full)
Stormsmith (3)
Journeyman Warcaster

Game 1
I had first turn, I followed John's advice to run the Sunburst onto a
hill and camp it out. Worked marginally well. As I am still new to WM
I failed to allocate focus to jacks for two turns (luckily though my
opponent was very understanding). Skirmishers preyed on the Storm
Guards this game. I forgot to go to ground after running them into the
forest at the center of the table. They got beat, bad. Chain Lightning
fried most of them through auto hits arcing from his Stormclad. The
remaining 2 Skirmishers charged a Stormsmith and killed him before being
obliterated next turn.
Bottom of the second turn Nemo feated while within range of all my
jacks. He hit two of the three disrupting them. Damn. But the
vanquisher with LOS to him was unharmed (woot!) Top of turn four
allocate three focust to the sole Vanquisher who can take focus and
upkept synergy, Amon activates and casts Mobility and moves outta the
way. Activate what's left of my choir and sing Battle Hymn to the
Vanquisher. Vanquisher activates and charges Nemo (unprotected in a
forest), Vanquisher squishes Nemo good.

Game 2.
Again I had first turn, I allowed Andre to tune his list a bit, he and I
felt he needed more arc nodes in the list (he was only running one in
the first game). I set up behind a building with most of the army save
the Sunburst. Similar to last game I ran the Sunburst first turn and
all the rest. Also similar to the first game the Idrians got squished
VERY early, never even getting off one CRA. Flying monks went up the
flanks hoping to catch Nemo from behind. Unfortunately Catherine
Laddermore met one and he was forced to fillet her horse. Laddermore
tried to exact vengeance for her steed unsuccessfully and of course the
monk whalloped her for that lack of respect.
Elsewhere on the battlefield one Vanquisher tried a shot at the unit of
storm guard and missed horribly only to scatter onto all but one member
of the unit, setting them all ablaze. Rolling the blast damage took out
one or two then during the next turn one Storm Guard was able to
extinguish himself while all but one other died in a fire.
During all this a Charger popped the flying monk who killed Laddermore.
Thorn and the Stormclad were threatening Amon's position along with a
Charger coming through the woods. Chain lightning happens. Amon got
zapped twice and died.

Menoth 1, Cygnar 1

Thoughts: I think Vanquishers with their auto fire will be staples in my
eFeora lists in MKII along with a Vassal. I either was playing the
Idrians way wrong or they are VERY weak in the current format. I've
never played them in MKI so I cannot compare to their previous
iteration. The Sunburst was decent, hit its mark once and squished a
Journeyman Warcaster and most of a Charger, but no other amazing feats.
The flying monks feel like solo and caster hunters and seem to do their
job well with high mobility and solid hitting power on the charge. The
Dervish seems like it could have more mobility using the spell of the
same name and its Sidestep ability, but I was unable to put all my ducks
in a row to get it all set up for a slice 'n' dice run. Maybe next
game...

Overall record:
Cygnar - 2/1/0
Protectorate of Menoth - 0/0/0
Khador - 0/0/0
Cryx - 0/0/0
Mercs - 0/0/0
Trollbloods - 0/0/0
Circle of Orboros - 0/0/0
Skorne - 0/0/0
Legion of Everblight - 0/0/0

Overall Win Pct: .666

Menoth is my Copilot

Skip ahead again, I played my first WM game last Thursday with my Thursday play group. We played MKII rules (woot!).

My list:
Protectorate of Menoth
24/25

Feora, Protector of the Flame (umm, epic caster at low point values? yes please!) (-6)
Revenger (6)
Redeemer (6)(bonded) (umm, insta-fire? woot!)
Temple Flameguard (6) (full)
>Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard Bearer (2)
Holy Zealots (6) (full)
>Monolith Bearer (2)
Covenant of Menoth (2)

I goofed and could have added in a full unit of wracks for the last point but forgot. Next time.

I ended up playing one game, against Art and his Cygnar bastages.

About 3rd turn I had set fire to a good amount of things and feated. Unfortunately I fouled up order of operations and could only apply focus to my Redeemer and then I read the card wrong and thought I could add a lot more focus than I thought. bah! anyhoo, he threatened Feora who moved back around a building and out of sight only to pop up on the other side of the battlefield where her Revenger was threatening Kraye.
Kraye took a deal of damage from the Revenger (not sure if it was a free strike or the charge I made against him prior to the free strike) in charging Feora. Feora was a tough cookie though, one more point of damage and this would have gone the other way. He failed to kill Feora with one point left. He even moved his Charger (?) out of melee (taking free strikes from my TFG) to take a shot at Feora in melee with Kraye. Missing horribly.
Feora's turn came around, she got her focus back and without missing a beat, full focus took one swing at Kraye and cleft him in twain.

Menoth 1, Cygnar 0

Feora will be mending her wounds this week. Perhaps Silent Bob will be commanding Menoth's troops.

Muddying the waters

I've tried my hardest to keep this blog strictly about my Troll experiences but I'm completely enamored with the new MKII rules and my new Menoth army.

So here's the scoop. For the next three days (until the poll is closed) I think I'll post up my thoughts and experiences with my MKII Menoth army (and probably just copy the posts over to my Menoth blog when it's up and running).

*    *    *

So I got hooked on Menoth. What did it? Well just like the Trolls it was the models that sucked me in. First and foremost, this guy:

The Guardian. Followed closely by the Dervish, Devout, Revenger, Avatar of Menoth ad nauseaum.

Then I started reading the fluff. Wow. Some really cool stuff going on there. The first model to catch my eye was the High Reclaimer, or as I have come to know him, Silent Bob

In choosing a Warmachine army I really liked the recycling of Cryx and Menoth, but the Menoth jacks did it for me and Bob made the choice complete. Then I discovered the dirty little girls of Menoth. Harbinger and Feora and they totally sealed the deal.
*    *    *
Skip ahead a bit, I purchased a Menoth army from a local player looking to get out of WM and get season tix to the Dolphins (I think we all know who won out in that exchange!).

Question for PPS_Kevin

Our friendly neighborhood Press Ganger gave me a tactic to use with my Longriders the next time I run them.

If you’re in melee you can still charge the same model if you can move 3” against the same model without leaving combat (thus no free strikes) gaining your impact attacks and charge bonus.

I don’t see where this is wrong, but I don’t see where this is right either (spirit of the game).

 

I would love it if Kevin or someone could guide me on this.