by Ken “CygnarWarlord” Sieffert
WMHC2
Scenario: Hold The Center
War Torn Fronts Map 8
The battle field was choked with ruins and overgrown brush. Khadoran scouts had encountered their troll counterparts scattered throughout the ruins. Both sides sized each other up without a shot being fired. Both retreated to their respective commanders with enemy troop numbers and movements. In both camps the armies prepared.
One of the joys of having a fantastic local playgroup is knowing that I can generally find someone I can sucker into get on board to discuss their favourite faction. To look at the Skorne in the Hordes MkII Field Test, please welcome Tom Kusch, known on the Hobby Kingdoms forums as Snake Eyes, and Privateer’s forums as TK421.
Hi! My name is Tom and I’m an alcoholic ….wait no… that’s Wednesday nights…. Er.. Start again.
Hi I’m Tom, aka Snake Eyes, and I play WarmaHordes.
Being one of the few local Skorne players we have in these parts, Gday has kindly asked me to contribute a review based on the Mkii field test cards. What follows are my initial reactions to the changes only, I have not managed any games yet. Sadly I do not own every single Skorne model like I do for my Cygnar (soon though, soon muahahaha) so a couple of items may be limited in practical experience so I’ll just mention the changes I see on the cards, everything else should have at least some real world application in it’s analysis.
First up I’ll be taking a look at our Warlocks and how they’ve faired.
by Kyle “X” Stratford
WMHC2
Scenario: Frontline Foray
War Torn Fronts Map 9
Global Effect: Sweet Retribution – Models casting a spell while within eight inches of a forest or table edge receive three damage points. Retribution models unaffected.
Continuing from last time, we have the Evolution warlocks Rhyas and Saeryn!
Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
Stat Line – Same stat line as before, she always had a good stat line for what she did so I didn’t expect any changes here.
+6 WB points – This is a very nice discount on warbeasts, she will still need infantry to mitigate her low fury and beast handling though.
Feat - This feat got toned down and it was expected. The teleporting Warchiefs were what really opened everyones eyes to this powerful MKI feat. The new version still grants you one additional melee attack, but you are limited to one teleport and it is only when you box a model. This feat will require very good timing and setup to use it at its potential.
by Chris “Gdaybloke” Miller
WMHC2
Scenario: Inner Turmoil
War Torn Fronts Map 3
Continuing with the initial thoughts on the Hordes Mk II changes to the models of the Ta-Ta Kriel, today we look at Horatio, Vivian, and the dynamic duo of Bradley and Ernie. There’s a lot to be said about the other troll warbeasts, from the change to the Mauler’s chain attack to the Pyre Troll’s fiery vengeance (how cool’s that?)
I could waffle on about Horatio’s Winter Troll Goodness and about the lack of nerfing received by Vivian (yay for lack of nerfing!), and rest assured we’ll get to them later in the article, but we all know why we’re here and who we need to look at first. Regardless of their performance in the WMHC2 battle reports, it’s all about a monolithic moron and a daring young pyg who dons the cap and scarf and rides him into battle.
Bradley & Ernie
The Dire Troll Blitzer in Mk II
This post will begin with a disclaimer…I am the closest thing the LH has to a Circle player. I consider them my secondary faction with Menoth being my first love. I am writing this series of articles on the MkII version of Circle from a Theorymachine perspective as I have yet to try my dirty hippies out in MkII battle. The intention is to look at the differences between old and new, and comment on how I believe play will be affected.
This episode will feature the Beasts. IMHO, the beasts for Circle really came out to the positive. Many new abilities with good uses. Some animi have change and been replaced with animi I can see casting more often than before. There are a few models I am a bit confused about, but we will get to that.
The Stat Line: +1 RAT, +1 DEF, -1 THR, +1 POW of the Jaw, Animus New: Tracker
I really like the changes to the Argus. The increased DEF is a welcome addition moving it above the DEF 13 break point. The increased Jaw POW gives it essentially a mouth with the bang of a hand cannon. Given its 7 speed, it is like having a RNG 10 hand cannon with a ROF of 2. Not shabby. The decrease in THR appears to be a trend in all MkII beasts, and this appears to right the disconnect between the Fury mechanic and the Focus mechanic. No longer will it be as easy to run beasts hot…long an argument by Warmachine players with their 3 focus max.
The new animus is really my favorite change. The ability to grant pathfinder and ability to ignore forests, concealment, and cover make it an almost autoinclude with goat lists. The Warpwolves will have their ghostly due to the pureblood, but the goats will love having the dog at their side.
These changes move the Argus up the charts significantly, and at 4 pts…ya have to love the cheap.
As Gday is looking at the Trolls and MenothJohn is hitting up Circle, I am attempting to look at all that Legion has to offer in MKII and see how it stacks up against MKI, if it is balanced and if the models I look at are still competitive. This is gonna be really important for me since it will help me decide which armies and which lists I will be bringing to Templecon. I am going to try to look at these as objectively as possible and I appreciate any feedback you guys reading can give me! Thanx and enjoy…
Lylyth, Herald of Everblight
Stat Line – Same as before, so I can’t complain. It is a good stat line for a ranged warlock, with a typical defense and armour for most Legion locks.
+6 WB Points – Great, this is as much as can be expected. Only Rhyas has as many beast points as she does so she will be able to take more beasts than most other Legion warlocks.
Holy cow…I finally got caught up enough on my labs, and other homework (I am back to school after 18 years) and I I have an honest to God deadline to get some painting done. The deadline? TempleCon 2010. It will be here before I know what hit me. That being said, I am not going to be fielding my normal primer and pewter color scheme that many of my friends have become familiar with. I WILL have a fully painted army for TempleCon. My Eternal War lists might not be 100% fully painted, but the even lists will.
I wil be playing Menoth…but…I have all these Elves now…and I really wanted to do a test model for my new color scheme. I usually do jacks or beasts as my test subjects because the size makes experimenting much easier. All this being said…here is my Hydra.
Why shouldn't elf jacks be forest colored? I am going for a "fall" look for the base...its a metaphor for the impending extinction of the Iosians.
As seen from Vyros' point of view...15" of POW 15 coming at you...
I managed to get 6 models painted yesterday (remainder of my TFG and my Hydra). At this rate I should have the rest of my armies done about 2013…assuming I don’t buy anything between now and then…yeah…right.
With the advent of the Hordes MkII Field Test, once everyone was done crashing the test servers, we’ve all managed to get our grubby little mitts on the prospective changes to Warmachine’s feral counterpart. While the WMHC2 is on the verge of completion and I’m about to get all giddy with Retribution models, I thought I’d take a moment to look at the changes that may be happening to my beloved Ta-Ta Kriel.
Take note:
• I’m not the world’s foremost Trollblood player, nor have I even played with all of the models available to the Trollbloods, so in this series I’ll be looking specifically at models that have featured in the Ta-Ta Kriel’s climb to 750pts.
• Retribution are becoming my focus in preparation for Templecon2010, so these articles are based on impressions and theorymachine rather than hardcore testing. I will be trying the MkII Ta-Ta’s out, but they will not be the only models I field for the next few weeks.
• These articles are not gospel. There is no substitute for actually picking up the models and trying them for yourself, seeing if you can figure them out in MkII. Try them, test them, submit feedback. If you don’t submit feedback in a polite, reasonable manner, then you have no grounds for complaint if nothing gets changed from the Field Test to the actual release.
That said, let’s start at the top, with my warlock of choice. I started playing Grim Angus for one simple reason: He doesn’t brick.
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