Wargames @ farfaraway.org » Tactics

Phinneus Shae is a hard man to kill!

owen — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:00:34 +0000

I’m trying to get some experience using my Privateers and I thought I’d start out with some small games using Shae. I was playing a 15pt game against Khador on Tuesday and I thought it’d be a good opportunity to try out the following list -

Captain Phinneus Shae
- Freebooter
Press Gangers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Sea Dog Crew (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Mr. Walls Sea Dog Crew Quartermaster
Bosun Grogspar
Doc Killingsworth
First Mate Hawk
Lord Rockbottom

This is a Tier 2 list and boy do you get a lot of miniatures for 15pts. I made my first mistake at the list construction phase. The Freebooter’s attacks are only POW 14 and the next most powerful attacks come from Shae with Blow the Man Down (POW 15) and Storm Rager cast on himself for a POW 15 melee attack. It was going to be difficult to dent Khadoran armour with that. My opponent had the Khador battle box and a unit of Widowmakers. Sorscha could immobilise much of my army as only Shae and the Freebooter would be able to shake effect.

My second mistake was made on my first turn. The Press Gangers and the Sea Dogs (because of Mr. Walls) were advance deployed with the solos as close as they could be. The mistake I made was moving the whole army forward and leaving Shae until last. He has two upkeep spells that I wanted to get out – Phantasm on the Sea Dogs and Storm Rager on Hawk. Unfortunately, my preferred targets were out of range. I moved him up and just cast Phantasm as Hawk was still out of range, but this left him behind the army when I’d prefer him to be in the middle of everything.

Anyway, the game went okay with Shae dealing most of the damage to the Khadoran ‘jacks and the infantry slowing the ‘jacks and dealing with the Widowmakers. Both armies were whittled down to pretty much the ‘caster and this is where Shae shown. He cast Storm Rager on himself and began camping focus. On a turn he upkeeps it he is DEF 17 with ARM 21. Even if you manage to knock him down he’s still DEF 17. MAT 9 and POW+S 15 is just gravy.

The game ended with Shae running into melee with Sorscha. She managed to critically freeze him, but couldn’t get through the armour. On his turn he shook the stationary and finished it.

Phinneus Shae is indeed a hard man to kill!

Owen

Privateer Tier Previews

owen — Fri, 28 May 2010 21:34:54 +0000

We’ve been treated to some Privateer treats with the previewing of the Shae and Fiona Tiers. Bell of Lost Souls have also previewed the Fiona the Black Tiers here. I haven’t painted Fiona yet, but I’ll have a look at this Tier too. I have a good few more Pirates to paint and painting them as Thamarite cultists would be a nice change of pace.

The Shae Tiers are in No Quarter #30 and have already been implemented on the Forward Kommander Army Builder. Here’s a quick 35pt list I put together -

Captain Phinneus Shae
- Mariner
- Commodore Cannon & Crew (Commodore and 3 Crewmen)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Press Gangers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Sea Dog Crew (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Mr. Walls Sea Dog Crew Quartermaster
3 Sea Dog Crew Riflemen
Bosun Grogspar
Dirty Meg
- Buccaneer
Doc Killingsworth
First Mate Hawk
Lord Rockbottom

This is a Tier 3 list. I get all of the solos I want at a bargain basement points cost. My army will be lightning fast in the first turn game and I get a better chance of winning the starting roll. Sweet!

It’s good to be a pirate!

Owen

Why Warjacks Rock in MkII…

owen — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 20:43:39 +0000

Here’s a photo from the middle of a great game I played this week -

My Marauder had used Combo Smite to slam Deathjack towards Tartarus and the Bane Thralls. Unfortunately I only rolled 1″ on the slam, but that’s another story. Anthony, my savvy opponent, saw the opportunity to cause a little mayhem. He loaded Deathjack with focus and used Shake Effect to overcome the knockdown. On his activation Deathjack trampled across the pikeman and wardog (who made his tough check) to make contact with the Juggernaut. He then proceeded to almost wreck it with additional attacks (bought with focus). Beautiful.

I remember when ‘jacks used to get bogged down completely by infantry. Thankfully that’s a lot harder to do now.

Owen

Learning to play Hordes: Part 2

owen — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:00:40 +0000

From the last post we learned two things – I can’t play Hordes (certainly not using the delicate warlocks) and I can write a lot of Hordes Theory. Now it’s time to go from talking to doing. I have a game later this evening and I’m making up the army list. Saeryn will be my warlock, but what else should be in the army?

BEASTS
I think she can support beasts quite well and I’m considering bringing two heavies. I own a Carnivean and an Angelius so I’ll include them. The Carnivean is a beat stick that would be a great target for Respawn. The Angelius really benefits from Saeryn’s feat as it can fly over intervening models, ignoring free strikes, to get at a targe behind. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Nephilim Soldier (I think it’s a fantastic sculpt). It is quite a mundane beast now, but Reach on it’s weapon and Flight make it useful in a similar manner to the Angelius. For the beasts I’ll round things out with the Shredder. Saeryn has +2 DEF on ranged attacks. Throw in Tenacity (the Shredder’s animus) and she’s effectively DEF 19.

SOLOS
Now I’d like a bit of support for my beasts. The Shepherd is an obvious choice as she effectively allows a longer strike range for the beasts. I can run the Shepherd up just before the Angelius dives in for an assassination. This allows me to ensure it can be forced even outside of Saeryn’s control area.

The Feralgeist is another nice option. Between it and Respawn my opponents will be sick of killing (and re-killing) my heavy beasts!

UNITS
Saeryn doesn’t directly buff her units, so the first unit I selected was one that buffs her – the Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew. The concealing cloud can either completely hide Saeryn or at least give her an additional +2 DEF. With the buffs discussed above that leaves a fantastic DEF 21!

For Leigon units I went with the Striders, as they can be quite disruptive, and the Legionnaires. Defensive line makes the Legionnaires slightly more survivable and I plan to use them as a cheap tarpit. Warmongers may be a better option, but I’d need to find an extra point somewhere.

THE LIST
Anyway, enough talk. Here is the list -

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight
- Nephilim Soldier
- Shredder
- Angelius
- Carnivean
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Blighted Nyss Striders (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Feralgeist

I’m limiting myself to using models I have painted. Dropping either the Feralgeist or Gobbers and the unit of Legionnaires would allow me to add a minimum unit of Warmongers. Maybe I’ll try that next time.

PLAYING THIS LIST
The VASSAL screen shot above gives an idea of the setup. The Stirders will try to cause a nuisance on whatever flank has terrain for them to hide in. The Legionnaires are tasked with keeping up with the army and providing some kind of speed bump. Saeryn will cast Banishing Ward on herself and Respawn on the Carnivean. She is going to have to keep pace with the army so that her support spells can be effective. The Carnivean and Angelius will run up with the Feralgeist in relatively close pursuit Remember it can take over a dead beast within 8″, so it doesn’t need to be too close. The Shepherd wil be screened by the Nephilim soldier and the soldier will primarily be a speed bump on the right flank. The Angelius is set up for the assassination run, which the Shepherd may need to support. Massacre is a useful animus for it to have cast on it.

Anyway, I’m playing later, but you know what they say about best laid plans!

Owen

Learning to play Hordes: Part 1

owen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:10:07 +0000

So, what better time to learn to play Hordes than when Warmachine MkII is released!? I’ve had my Legion army since Hordes was initially released, but it’s been more of a painting project than an army. I don’t need to learn the rules, I know them and am an accomplished Warmachine player, but I do need to learn how to effectively play my Legion army. I need to hone technique, master the Fury mechanic and learn how to use animi appropriately. Maybe a better title for this article would be “Learning to play the Legion of Everblight”.

I’ve had good success with Thagrosh on the battlefield, but 7 Fury (one of which is free) and the chance to resurrect a beast are powerful fail safe mechanisms. When I start to loose beasts Thagrosh can still get some Fury without cutting himself. If I make a mistake with the Carnivean (or another crucial beast), I can bring it back to life. I basically play Thagrosh like a Butcher with more precision instruments of destruction. It’s the more delicate warlocks that I want to master. People rate Saeryn as one of the best warlocks, not only in Legion, but a across all factions. I’ll start with her.

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight

I’m not expecting to win straight out of the box, but I do want to have a chance to win. That means constructing an army that has a chance of getting at the enemy ‘caster or warlock and dealing some pain. I want to use (painted) models currently in my collection, but I’m willing to add more as necessary.

Okay, I’ve played a few games with Saeryn, but I need to do a bit of Theory Hordes before I get stuck into army composition. What can Saeryn do? What type of units can she support? What animi would benefit her? How do I deal with different types of enemy unit? In order to use any army effectively you need to know your warlock. The following discussion is based on the Hordes Field Test Model Update document released on the 29th January 2010.

SPELL LIST AND FEAT
Saeryn has a pretty good spell list, but they are somewhat beast centric. She also has a Fury stat of 7, so she should be able to fire out a few spells every turn. Respawn is like a mini version of Thagrosh’s feat. It allows you to get more mileage from your beasts by bringing one back to life. A Shepherd or two in the mix and you have the chance to heal that beast . That said you’d most commonly treat the respawn as a free round of combat with the ability to charge whatever just killed your beast!

Breath Stealer is another stand out spell. It’s 10″ range is decent, but it’s debuffing ability is superb. It makes enemy models/units easier to hit and it prevents them from charging. At a cost of 2 Fury she could have potentially cast it three times per turn, but in the last update to the rules it is now once a turn only. Another excellent spell is Blight Bringer. It’s costly at 4 Fury, but it has an offensive and defensive quality. It is a troop killer and it prevents enemy movement. Be careful what miniature you cast it on as the easiest way to remove it would be to kill the miniature with Blight Bringer. If Equilibrium and Respawn are beast focused, Breath Stealer and Blight Bringer have a stronger enemy unit focus.

Banishing Ward replaces the somewhat lackluster Mirror Magic from earlier in the Field Test. Mirror Magic’s value was very situational. Banishing Ward is excellent. It immediately removes enemy upkeep spells from the target model/unit. That’s pretty nice, but the next bit is awesome – the affected models cannot be targeted by spells or animi. It’s an upkeep spell to sweeten the deal. Casting this on herself is very powerful.

Her final spell is Sunder Spirit. It’s a range 10″ POW 12 spell that strips the animus (for one round) and allows Saeryn to cast the animus if she wishes. It has it’s uses, but the main benefit is giving Saeryn a better ranged threat.

It’s worth noting that none of these spells directly buff your own units. Saeryn is a beast centric warlock. Her feat is also focused on her beasts. It only effects beasts in her battlegroup, but boy is it still a great feat. Here’s the wording -

Foreboding: While within her control area, models in Saeryn!s battlegroup cannot be targeted by non-magical melee attacks for one round.

It gives your beasts immunity to melee attacks. This feat has been progressively nerfed from MkI and through the Field Test. There are a lot of magical attacks out there, so before popping her feat you’ll be asking your opponent who has magical weapons! This is primarily defensive, but it has the possibility to open up an aggressive play style. You can get up in you opponents face and prevent his (melee) retaliation.

BEASTS AND ANIMI
It’s pretty clear from her spell list and feat that Saeryn is a beast-centric warlock who specialises in messing up your opponents plans. Heavy beasts will get the best value Respawn. They will also make good targets for the Fury you remove from enemy beasts using Equilibrium. Given the range of these spells and the range of Breath Stealer and Blight Bringer Saeryn will need to be up close to her beasts. The thrown Deathspur can also prevent damage transfer, but it only has a 7″ range, again tending towards close up support. Tenacity seems to be a useful animus for Saeryn. Force Barrier already gives her +2 DEF and Tenacity would add another +1 (and +1 to ARM), leaving her DEF 19 and ARM 15. With these boosted stats, and the fact that she is immune to blast damage, she is very hard to kill at range. So, including a Shredder is pretty useful.

So, what about those heavy beasts? Depending on the size of game she could feasibly run 2-3 heavies. The Angelius seems like a good choice. Under Saeryn’s feat it can ignore free strikes and charge over intervening models. The animus is okay, but it’s very defensive. Being a big expensive beast the Angelius is a good target for Respawn. The other good target is a Carnivean. Again it’s animus isn’t specifically useful, as Saeryn will probably have Tenacity cast on her. Casting Blight Bringer on the Carnivean and trampling it into the centre of a bunch of infantry could be fun! I’m not considering the Seraph at the moment as I don’t own one.

I think the Harrier could be useful in there too. Like the Angelius it can ignore the free strikes on Saeryn’s feat turn. It’s pretty punny, but has an excellent animus. The possibility to guarantee a hit is great for enhancing the assassination threat of the Angelius.

I had discounted the Nephilim Soldier until the current model rules update. He now has Flight, so in a similar manner to the Harrier and Angelius can really excel on Saeryn’s feat turn.

UNITS AND SOLOS
At first glance Saeryn doesn’t directly buff her troops. She can effectively buff them by hitting an enemy with Breath Stealer to debuff their DEF. This benefits both ranged and melee troops. Given that she can cast it more than once per turn she has the chance to benefit several friendly units. Because it also drops their SPD it protects her troops by preventing a potential charge. Banishing Ward gives a chance to strip an enemy upkeep from a unit. Other than that Saeryn doesn’t really help out her troops. Either melee or ranged units should work reasonably well for her.

The solo that could work best is the Shepherd to assist in stretching the threat range of an Angelius, particularly during an assassination run. A MkI Feralgeist could have been very frustrating too, but since MkII it can only take over enemy beasts and has lost a lot of utility. That’s what I wrote before the latest update, but the Feralgeist is back in the game. He can take over your own slain beasts. I can just hear my opponents now, “Sh*t, how many times do I have to kill that beast!”. I think the Swamp Gobbers could be pretty handy to help further (on top of Tenacity and Force Barrier) protect Saeryn. Other than that nothing stands out.

CONCLUSION
Saeryn is a powerful warlock with a very good feat. Her spell list is excellent and she loves her beasts. She can increase their survivability massively. She can debuff the enemy with Breath Stealer and kill troops with Blight Bringer. More than any of that she can frustrate your opponent by messing with his Fury and scuppering his plans. Again, this is what I said before the loss of Equilibrium. It will be missed, but I still think she is a strong warlock. The addition of Banishing Ward and Sunder Spirit to her spell list is great. She can not protect herself very well from all ranged threats and still dish out a bit of ranged hurt.

Ok – I’m off to write an army list for a game on Tuesday. Saeryn and lots of beasts sound like the recipe. Swamp Gobbers and a Shepherd will be in there too, but I need to think about the troops a bit more. I think a Feralgeist might find its way into the mix too!

Owen

750pts Khador Army (Epic Irusk)

owen — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:59:47 +0000

I had a great 750 point game against Phil’s Protectorate of Menoth force recently which I’ll post photos from in the next few days. I wanted a chance to field Epic Irusk as I’ve only had a couple of opportunities to use him before. He is still an excellent troop ‘caster and his abilities are geared to buffing his own army and controlling the battle field. In his non-Epic form I’m a big fan of Inhospitable Ground and I was initially disappointed that he didn’t retain it as a spell. That was until I read Artifice of Deviation! At a focus cost of 3 I can cast it up to twice per turn and not only hinder my opponents movement, but also open up difficult terrain for my own troops to move across. Battle Lust is another great troop spell, as is Tactical Supremacy. His feat is quite good in many situations, but I think his most powerful ability is Martial Discipline. He has to be close (within his CMD range of 10″) to his troops for them to benefit from it, but it stops units of troops from getting blocked by each other. This is essential if you are fielding a large troop army and want to funnel your opponent towards it. Here’s the 750 point list I went for -

747/750 points, 29 VP, 34 models
Warcaster

Supreme Kommandant Irusk

Battlegroup

Troops

Solos

I only went with one ‘jack and I think Fire For Effect is a great spell to put on the Destroyer, with his first (and only) ranged attack auto-boosted and the blast damage boosted. This is a devastating combo for even well armoured enemy troops. The War Dog is something I quite new to and it’s role is primarily to screen the warcaster and help hinder anything nasty that gets close to him.

For me the IFP and UA are an auto include. The are fast, can charge across (even if slowed) rough terrain and have 2″ reach. Couple that with Battle Lust and Artifice of Deviation to open up charge lanes and they are a powerhouse. The Great Bears are again new to me and I wanted to see what they could do. On paper they are excellent troop and light ‘jack killers who work very well with an IFP unit escorting them. I have mixed results with the Shocktroopers and it is their lack of speed that tends to frustrate me. Tactical Supremacy (a free 3″ move after all activations) should enable them to get moving. They are a great tar pit unit and can really hold up an enemy on the flank. The Grey Lords are almost an auto include for me too. They are delicate, but the ability to buff the defence and provide concealment is great (for a faction that tends to have poor DEF). Their Frost Bite Pow 12 spray attack is great for clearing out infantry. I’m usually careless with my Widowmakers as they tend to die early. That said they’ll shoot a good few enemy troops before they die and their high DEF means they are not easy to kill, so they can act as a road block. I had points left over, so the Mechaniks were included. In MkII I think I’ll try to include them in any army that has two or more ‘jacks. In this army the role of the Destroyer is to pound the enemy at range until the endgame, so I hope the mechs won’t be needed. They can act as a cheap speed bump to delay inbound enemy troops or ‘jacks.

For my solos I included a Kovnik, but opted not to have him control the ‘jack. He was going to act as further protection for Irusk. The Drakhun has many functions and a great threat range. His role is to take out light ‘jacks and be a fast moving headache for my opponent. Speaking of headaches both the Manhunter and Eiryss are in the army to harry my opponent by skulking forward and getting near the ‘caster, or in Eiryss’ case taking out unit leaders or disrupting ‘jacks.

Owen