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.

Schism Results

Played the Schism tourney @War & Pieces yesterday and had a blast!
I played three games, the first against Joey, the store owner with his Darius Cygnar list and the last two against Ian and his Testament of Menoth Protectorate list.

I want to say this now, I could have cleaned up for the survivor medal but I didn't even think about it, I went in to have fun. At the end of the 2nd game I realized I had a shot at it, but because my first game went so long and my second game I sacrificed my Earthborn I failed :(

Here's what I should have done:
1.) I should have decided on winning that medal prior to the tournament.
2.) Run all my lists beast heavy. at 750, I can run Borka with 4 heavies and 3 lights for 18 VPs. At that point it's all about sacrificing your Warlock. Run him up to your opponent's warcaster and he has two choices. A.) allow you to walk up to his caster and beat him down at full fury and get all the VPs or B.) Kill your lone warlock and you still get the VPs.
3.) In all my games, i needed to sack my warlock. just as above, run him up, screaming and yelling, and collecting VPs.

shoulda-woulda-coulda-but didn't. damn.

I ended up with 16 survivor VPs. The winner of survivor had 22. Not a big margin, had I not sacked my EBDT in game 2 I would have been 3 points closer :)
Im on the lookout for the next one of these. At 750 I should be able to scoop up 18 VPs a game. :)

Oh and for all my hard fighting, I lost all three matches.

Schism Lists

So I’m thinking of my Schism lists for this Saturday at War & Pieces ( http://www.warandpieces.net )

 

Basically three lists.  750 points each.  Characters and casters cannot be in more than one list.

 

Here we go:

 

Grissel 750 List

748/750

24 VPs

27 Models

 

Grissel Bloodsong - 70

Troll Impaler - 75

Dire Troll Mauler - 111

Fell Caller - 35

Trollkin Champions - 106

Trollkin Champions - 106

Trollkin Hero - 38

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (+2) - 50

Stone Scribe Elder - 18

Trollkin Longriders (+2) – 139

 

This is an attrition list.  84 wounds on the Champs plus the Hero.  Full Longrider unit.  KSB.  Very little in terms of beast support but I think Grissel and her fell calls will work well.

 

 

Borka 750 List

741/750

26 VPs

25 Models

 

Borka Kegslayer – 74

> Pyg Keg Carrier – 0

Troll Axer – 72

Troll Impaler – 75

Winter Troll – 75

Dire Troll Mauler – 111

Fell Caller – 35

Stone Scribe Chronicler – 19

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (+2) – 50

Stone Scribe Elder – 18

Trollkin Champions – 106

Trollkin Champions – 106

 

A beast heavy list still utilizing the 84 wounds on the champs.  This should be the Irresistable force to go up against whatever Immovable objects may be presented (If I lose the defender status).

 

Grim 750 List

746/750

22 VPs

16 Models

 

Grim Angus – 76

Troll Impaler – 75

Earthborn Dire Troll – 125

Dire Troll Blitzer – 118

Troll Axer – 72

Trollkin Longriders (+2) – 139

Fell Caller – 35

Trollkin Champions – 106

 

Very beast heavy.  This builds off of the Earthborn missle 350 T&C list.  It adds in the mobility of the Longriders with the bodyguards of the champs, with Metamorphose Grim can still be ARM 21.

 

I don’t think anyone from my play group (short of Guy) reads my blog so I’m not overly concerned with tipping my hand.

Call To Arms Final and Random Thoughts

I just realized I have never posted my standing on the Call to Arms league.  Oops.

Well, let’s just say that I got the Mediocrity Award for coming in higher than anyone who only showed up for one night.

 

Standings at the close of the league:

1. Gabriel A - 63 pts.
2. Stephan C - 48 pts.
3. Cary V - 44 pts.
4. Cesar M - 29 pts.
4. Ed S - 29 pts.
4. Arturo R - 29 pts.
5. Dios C - 23 pts.
6. Ray Guimond - 21 pts.
7. Laz Q - 10 pts.
8. Guy L - 8 pts.
9. Mario M - 5 pts.
10. Steve Q - 4 pts

 

So yea, I got that going for me…snicker.  I guess I’ll try to get in more 750 point games come May 15^th and the next league starts then cherry pick as many points as possible.

 

Kind of feeling a little burned out on my trolls and I’m really looking forward to getting started with my Menoth force.

 

Cesar contacted me (being another Hordes-only player) about a game this Thursday at Sunshine ( http://www.sunshineroleplayers.com ).  Hopefully there will be room.  I would like to get in a 750 practice game with him before Schism @ War & Pieces ( http://www.warandpieces.net ) but if he doesn’t have a 750 point force I think my three lists can be broken down to their basics at 500 points.  (posting my lists next)

Am I the first to notice?

I don’t read the big boards much anymore because I can’t access them from work, but, am I the first to notice that Ayanna and Holt have been changed?

“Master Holt & The Ugly Ampersand”

Then they list Ayanna’s stat line and weapon stuff.  Looks like an “oopsie”.

 

More MKII Hordes Musings

I think Borka's Mosh Pit is going to be changed (out of turn movement)

Also, possibly the Winter Troll's animus may be changed (out of turn activation)

I went to my FLGS last night to see what the hubbub was. Boy was that a mistake. No sooner did I walk in and I heard the owner pissing and moaning that "Bastions are $45 for 5 models, that's $9 per model for plastic, nobody's gonna pay that, woe is me, gloom and doom" (of course I'm paraphrasing)I told him to relax and continue what he's doing with WM/H anyways which is keeping a *MINIMAL* stock on hand (mostly books and a couple starter boxes) and special order all the rest and make sure it comes in in a timely manner.

Then for the next *two* hours I was given the pleasure of listening to Art rant, rave, piss, moan and whine about "how they ruined the game" and that "the flaws are inherent" at which point I was forced to say "shut the fuck up Art. if you don't like the game, sell your models and go play one that will never change, like Chess. because, seriously, I don't want to hear it, and nobody does either. have you played any games? No? then shut the fuck up."

I'm sick of people jumping to conclusions without even trying the new rules.

100th Post, Mark II Hordes Musings

So I'm pretty well sure I'm going to go with Protectorate of Menoth for Warmachine. I've contacted a local guy who's selling his Protectorate army (not because of MKII). I've also been reading the MKII rules and stat cards and I see and agree with almost al of the rules changes and those that I don't like are so few I'll learn to live with them. However, the whole thing leads me to think about what will happen to my beloved Trolls when time for MKII Hordes comes around.

I love my champions. They really do make for an awesome force. However, perhaps Concert may be a bit strong and possibly confusing. I see either Concert or Brothers in Arms being toned back a bit, not that I would like that, but perhaps PP thinks it best.
Grim Angus. I see his feat changing. As it stands right now it's quite a bit of information to digest to play it. Also, he will most likely lose some of his vision abilities for whatever reason.
Borka and Kenny, Chiller may be dropped as a spell. His bomb may not bounce anymore. Not sure.
Fell Callers, god, I hope not, but they may bring their song choices down.
Grissel, I see her as her fell calls taking an action in MKII. ANd her feat will probably be toned down.

We'll see in a year, and I hope we don't see many changes, but it's quite possible we will.

Any ideas what possible MKII Hordes changes we should expect for the trolls? Anything you think may be overpowered?

by the way, i'm going to try to start blogging int he AM before work so I can post pictures and make this blog a bit more interesting.

Cygnar 1-1

Played Andre and Art tonight. Both playing Cygnar.
Andre is a very new player (only about 4 games under his belt) and I shouldn't count his game, but this is my blog and when I played Ashe I counted that game.

I played:
Faction: Trollblood
Points: 486
Model Count: 17
Victory Points: 17

Borka Kegslayer
> Pyg Keg Carrier
Troll Impaler
Winter Troll
Fell Caller
Trollkin Champions [5]
Trollkin Champions [5]
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2]

I think Andre played:
Faction: Cygnar
Points: 500
Model Count: 25
Victory Points: 19

Commander Adept Sebastian Nemo
> Squire
> Lancer
> Centurion
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Journeyman Warcaster
Field Mechaniks [6] (2 added)
Sword Knights [10] (4 added)
> Sword Knight Officer & Standard Bearer [2]
Rupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord


I played a good game. Stationary + Free Strikes (Mosh Pit) will mow down almost anything short of a Centurion. Effing 24 armor jeebus. Anyways, We played No Man's Land. It came down to him having to run Nemo away and I would have just pursued with my unit of Champs that hadn't lost a single model. He did some good damage with Nemo's chain lightning the first shot, he should have just poked me with the jacks for their base attacks and just arc lightning all over the place. He'll get better, I see him being a good opponent in tourneys.

2nd Game was against Art. I told him we didn't have much time so he would have to shut up and play a quick 350 Mangled Metal game. (Art, 350 Mangled metal, don't fight me for 500 or 750 when it's 10PM and the store can/will and has closed before 10PM)

I played the Grim List I posted the other day. Art played the following:

Faction: Cygnar
Points: 351
Model Count: 4
Victory Points: 11

Captain Jeremiah Kraye
> Hunter
> Hunter
> Hunter

Yea, I know it's a point over. I wasn't about to whine. I wanted another game and I wanted to play Art without his stoopid Haley lists. Unfortunately Earthborn Dire Trolls, Impalers and Axers on their large bases don't do well against armor piercing. So I got shot to shit. The one round I had a clear shot at Kraye I muffed the roll and got 3 damage. beter luck next time Ray

Borka @ 500 Points

I’m thinking of running Borka tonight.  No league tonight, last week was fun games and medal ceremony for Call to Arms.  This week is just pick up games.

If you remember correctly Cary and her Sorscha list wrecked me last week.  Eek.

 

I’m thinking of running Borka, I testing some fundamentals of one of my schism lists: Mosh Pit + Freezer + 2 units of Champs

 

Right now the list for tonight is looking like this:

 

Borka Kegslayer

>Kenny, Pyg Keg Carrier

Winter Troll

Dire Troll Mauler

Trollkin Champions

Trollkin Champions

 

Why did I choose the beasts I did?  1.) Winter troll.  I am in love with freezing my opponent.  I charge my champs in and cast Freezer on them.  You now either run away and take a free strike or you stay put, get pushed from Mosh pit and get autohit on a free strike then I move in and autohit you on my next turn.  2.) Dire Troll Mauler.  I still love the look of this model.  It was the selling point of Trolls for me.  The animus is cool and he’s got a lot of damage transfer if needed.  And the option of the Borka Bomb is still there.

 

This puts me with 28 points leftover.  I’m not sure what to add.

Stone Scribe Chronicler – Protection turn 1, +2 attack and additional damage die turn 2, Parting Blow on turn 3.  The turn 2 portion is a little situational because the champs would have to be in range of something that a full blooded troll has melee range to.

Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew – Protection, not overly effective against Legion, but then again, not many Legion players in my group

 

The final option would be to swap out the Dire Troll Mauler for an Impaler or Pyre Troll.  Impaler would work well with the Chronicler as he would be able to be in melee with more than most other models due to reach and the Pyre Troll would allow me to field a unit of Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes to protect myself a bit more.