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

Related posts:

1. Learning to play Hordes: Part 4 (Mini Battle Report)
2. Learning to play Hordes: Part 1
3. Learning to play Hordes: Part 3 (Battle Report)

OVERVIEW
Okay, I’m a little behind the curve on this, but I had my first online game of Warmachine using Vassal. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s a program that let’s you play a large variety of board game and tabletop wargames over the Internet. There is an excellent Warmachine and Hordes module available for it that offers loads of maps, terrain and sprites that represent every miniature released up to Metamorphosis. Installing it and getting it up and running is pretty straightforward and I’m not going to talk about it here as they have a getting started guide.

FEATURES
Vassal is not a computer game, though. It purely gives you all of the pieces and controls to simulate what happens on the tabletop. You still need to know the rules and have the cards for your individual miniatures. It has some pretty nice features including auras, ways of marking continuous effects, highlighting ‘caster control areas, showing melee range (including reach), showing deployment zones and mosh pits, beautifully rendered boards and loads of terrain. Oh, luckily you can roll dice and measure distances too! Here’s a screen shot from half way through my game against Phil, who is based in Hamburg, last night -

We played a 350pt MkI game to celebrate the release of MkII! Off the table you can see used focus counters and some AOE templates. On the table you can see the two armies bearing down on each other. I’ll go through the controls in the next section. Another lovely feature is the ability to track Damage Grids through Vassal. There are grids for all ‘jacks and ‘casters and default grids for multi-wound infantry and solos. As you can see it’s also easy to change the label for any miniature or grid.

CONTROLS
Each miniature is an individual playing piece and can be moved separately. As mentioned above, things can be overlayed on the miniatures and playing surface. For example, you can see several auras on certain miniatures to represent upkeep spells above. Each miniature also has a ‘white shadow’ at the rear of their base to indicate that all miniatures have moved. This can be cleared at the top of each turn with the click of a single button.

You can ‘cycle’ through the artwork for each miniature. For example, a ‘jack has it’s basic art, a blank base that shows LoS and facing and a wreck marker. This is useful when attempting precise movement past terrain or near other miniatures. Here’s a quick run through of the keyboard controls that I found useful (though there is a right-click menu on every miniature that allows you to access every control) -

Movement

These controls allow you to precisely move a miniature a certain number of inches and turn while doing so. you can select several miniatures at once and move them together. An alternative to moving like this is to lay down a tape measure and dray the miniatures into position using the mouse. The nudge movement is particularly useful when moving miniatures into B2B.

Combat Ranges, Control Area and Miscellaneous

The melee and control area overlays are very useful as they save a lot of potential fiddling with the tape measure.

CONCLUSION
Vassal works well and is fast to use. Arrange a game with a friend, fire it up and setup a voice chat (e.g. using Skype) and you have a good substitute for playing a ‘real’ game. In my case playing a game I love against my good friend over 1000km away was possible when otherwise it wouldn’t have been. It won’t replace the face-to-face battle over beautifully modelled terrain with nicely painted miniatures. After all, it’s important to be able to look your opponent in the eye when you crush them. Maybe we’ll use a video chat next time!

Owen

Related posts:

1. Epic Warmachine and Hordes
2. Learning to play Hordes: Part 4 (Mini Battle Report)
3. An Introduction to Warmachine