I’ve mentioned my love of skirmish games in the past – games usually involving only a handful of models, where each is significant, where each matters. Prime examples would be GW’s Necromunda and Mordheim games, both of which were pretty bloody awesome, even if they’re currently not in general production and you have to get your bits and bobs from their online store.

Well, until Privateer makes me squeal with glee by releasing an Iron Kingdoms squad-based skirmish game, preferably with a character development system of some sort, I have to look at other options.

Enter Malifaux.

A game still very much in its early days, it’s a squad-based skirmish level game set in a gothic/horror/steampunk/wild west kinda setting. Okay, I’m not into horror stuff as a general rule, but I do dig steampunk (I blame Privateer entirely for that), and I can get into a Western setting, so my curiosity was piqued enough to do some further research.

After staring at the models for a while, I chose a crew and ordered the rulebook. Yes, this contravenes the directive to actually know what models do before choosing a faction and investing, but I’m nothing if not a creature of whimsy, and dammit, I liked what I saw. Rules be damned, I have difficulty enjoying a faction if I don’t like the way it looks, so choosing based purely on the model aesthetic wasn’t *too* far off my normal procedures anyway.

I read the book, I played a test game against uberpainter Hank Raab and skinny Khadoran Rich “Orcasaurus” Godwaldt (Moonova had to skedaddle, unfortunately). I fully assembled my models, cleaned ‘em up and hit ‘em with some Privateer white primer. Let’s take a look at some initial impressions.

The System

Here’s some significant in miniatures gaming: No dice. Everything’s based on a deck of cards… and yes, you can use a regular household deck of cards if you don’t want to fork out for an official Malifaux deck. 52 cards in four suits + 2 jokers and you’re good to go.

This takes some real mental adjustment, and I’m thinking will be one of the hardest initial hurdles to getting people interested in the game, but even after a single game of say, at least half a dozen turns so you have time to try things out, players will be comfortable enough with the card mechanic.

It works thus:

Everything you want to do – cast a spell, shoot an opponent, poke ‘em with a stick, whatever – has a target number, and in some cases a target suit. You check the appropriate stat on your model, then flip the top card of your deck. Add your stat to the number, compare to the target, and right there you know whether you succeeded or not. For the record, many interactions are duels – My stat+card against a target number of Your stat+card.

Now that’s pretty similar to a dice-based mechanic – my stat+roll vs your stat+roll… but here’s where it gets funky.

You can cheat fate, or spend soulstones.

Cheating Fate: As well as having your deck, every turn you have a hand of cards. Once in each interaction, you can replace the card you flipped with a card from your hand. You might want to do this to increase your total, or to change the card to a suit you need , since some spells and abilities require both a target number and a specific suit.

Soulstones: In Warmachine terms, these are your Mk II Warjack points, and whatever points you had left over in your list. Say you were building a 25 pt Malifaux Crew, but only bought 22pts worth of models. You’d get 3 soulstones right there, plus whatever was listed as your Master’s cache value. So if that cache was 4, you’d get 7 soulstones to use during the game. The way these affect the game is, you can expend one (as long as the character you’re activating has the ability to use soulstones) to flip a second card from the top of your deck, and add it to the existing card, giving you a higher total and potentially two different suits if your action required them.

Example: My dude, Bob, wants to shoot your dude, Jim.

• My combat stat is 3, I flip a 9 of Masks, for a total of 12. Your defense stat is 4, you flip an 11 of Crows, for a total of 15.

• Right now it looks like I’m going to miss, so I Cheat Fate with a 12 of Tomes I had in my hand, bringing my total to 15, equaling your defense total – I’m hitting.

• You don’t have any cards higher than an 11 in your hand, so you can’t Cheat Fate to make your total higher, but Jim is your Master, so you spend a soulstone and get to flip another card – a 7 of Rams – and add it to your total, so now you have a combined total of 22, and both the Rams and Crows suits.

• I’m gonna miss, but Bob doesn’t have the soulstone ability, so I can’t raise my total any further. I miss.

• If it turns out your Jim had a passive ability that triggered whenever he defended with a Rams card, you could fire it off now too.

It all sounds a bit complicated, and there’s always abilities which will affect the values further, but one or two tries and you’ll have it down pat.

The neat trick here is that by cheating fate, you’ve got the option to (in Warmachine terms) boost the attack roll after seeing whether or not you miss – you can counteract a low number – but your resources are limited. Much like your Warcaster with his focus, you’ve only got so many cards and so many soulstones to ‘boost’ with. Do you use them now, on this attack, or do you camp them to boost your armour?

Additionally, you can keep whatever cards you want in your hand each turn, while the rest cycle back into the deck. Do you keep high number cards in your hand for next turn, knowing that that leaves a higher proportion of low number cards in the deck, or do you keep the lower number cards in your hand, increasing the chances of your flipping a higher value card initially or when you use a soulstone?

Then, there’s the additional scope for buff and debuff effects. Not only might you be able to increase or decrease a stat value, you can pull a Vlad/Calandra. In terms of a buff this means flip an extra card and use the highest value. In terms of a debuff, flip an extra card and use the lowest. There are abilities that can put out a two cards buff or debuff, meaning you’re flipping a total of three cards and using the highest or lowest accordingly.

And of course, the red joker is essentially a critical hit, and the black joker is a critical miss.

Another variation from what we WarmaHordesers are used to is the activation order. Each turn, initiative is determined by a card flip (which you can cheat fate or use a soulstone on if you want), and then the winner gets to activate a single model. Not his entire crew, a single model.

Players then alternate activating models until everyone’s activated.

This can be freakin’ critical, because by and large most effects don’t carry over from activation to activation – they end at the end of the turn.

Case in point, in our test game Rich was able to activate his master, Pandora, first. He then slapped a handful of debuff effects on my master, Rasputina, before I could set up a single defensive measure. Nothing.

I then had to pass a willpower test to do an action at all, a second one to attack Pandora, and then – only after I passed both – was I able to flip for an attack. These willpower tests were debuffed so I was flipping two cards and taking the lowest, and if I didn’t cheat fate or use a soulstone to make sure I passed the test, I took damage. It was freakin’ brutal.

In activating that one model to try to get the last minute win with her three actions, I used something like 6 soulstones, every card in my hand, and approximately half of my deck with flips and cheats and soulstone use et al. I don’t care that it didn’t work in the end, we were playing to learn the game and it was freakin’ epic as Rasputina tried to fight through everything Pandora had thrown at her. Much fun.

Now, if I’d been able to activate Rasputina first, I could have summoned ice collumns, a defensive windwall/snowstorm, whatever. Or, I could have activated one of my other models, and simply walked it over to block line of sight. There were options, but since Rich had initiative, he got to get his assault in first while my defenses were down.

So yeah, the card system looks awkward and confusing at first, but lo and behold, it’s actually viable, and potentially gives you a lot more control over the game then dice do. It’s worth at least sitting in on a demo to get a feel for it before you balk and thumb your nose at it.

To be continued…

by Scott “Killraven” Macneil

Pain. Terror. Surrender.

It is a delicious thing to see in the eyes of a target, the slow eddy of their soul freed from a hapless body. Morghoul had witnessed countless other souls freed by his hand, hundreds of round eyes wide open in sheer terror at the unknown destination in front of their very face. Far too often, and to his complete delight, the Lord Assassin was the very last face those eyes ever saw before they passed wherever laid before them.

The Morrowans cried pitifully at the touch of a single blade, of the dozen of swan heralds he had slain in the past month not one had enough fortitude avoid a plea of mercy in less than a minute. Their devotion to technology, their deafeningly useless guns, their lumbering ineffective warjacks, and their foolish pride was a small shield against such an artist as himself. He could strip flesh away in such thin layers that he believed he could fill a library, tomes, each masterfully scribed page taken from the hide of this fat sack of meat on the ground before him.

Amused at that very thought, Morghoul wistfully crafted a quick personal memoir in his mind, imagining his scribbled words on the very first page. He would tell an amusing tale of how he shred the mighty armour plates away from the smoke belching technology a season ago. A Morrowan sorcerer riding a filthy beast nearly beat the Master Tormentor himself, a quick dash around Morghoul’s triumphant army of the Ancestors to knock him down. Even the smallest mouse will become quite fierce when cornered, and the Master Tormentor had made an error in cornering that particular mouse too much. Frightened, the mouse-sorcerer charged ahead and managed a lucky strike against him before he fled alone, his army lie dead on the field, wrecked technology rusting in the open; the mouse-sorcerer fleeing without so much as a morsel of cheese.

Morghoul dismissed that idea as he glanced over the hill, savoured the moment and composed another brief tale in wandering thoughts. The Trollkin he slew a fortnight ago over a pittance of dirt in an utterly insignificant event in this campaign of war. All of the mighty instruments of battle the Trollkin could muster, all lie dead in the dirt as they somehow claimed victory over a patch of rock.over the Master Tormentor himself. A dancing fool of a whelp screaming banshee-like as she watched her mighty “army” fall one heartbeat at a time to the…

“Boss, we got company over the hill.”

Morghoul’s reverie was disrupted as the Gobber crew dared to bounce toward his presence. The impudent little vermin had served a purpose, to provide a degree of stealth to Morghoul’s own division as they pondered on toward preordained victory. The runt had evidently mistaken his prior usefulness as an indication of survival, but Morghul had already decided that the Ancestors had provided enough Skorne arms for this advance, the Gobber’s usefulness was at an end. This final interruption was all the justification he ever required to exorcise the vermin for good without prejudice. After all it was unnecessary to accuse a dog of vandalism when it urinates on a tree, the dog is simply being a dog.

“Primus says we got some dread pirates, guess we gonna make ‘em dead pirates in a few.”

The crewman giggled at his own joke, the lead gobber standing to one side fiddling with a sack of foul swap juice as Morghoul casually opened a crimson fan at his side. Without hesitation, Morghul appeared to fade away, a wisp of vapour darting behind the comedian, appearing to materialize from nowhere. A sudden flash of his blade and another headless body crumpled to the ground at Morghoul’s feet.

Hesitation.
Realization.
Terror.
Anticipation.

Delicious.

Morghoul’s Malevolence goes epic for this 750 portion of the Warmahordes Challenge II, quelle surprise to all of the Lost Hemisphere’s fans I’m sure.
The only method to my madness at fielding the weakest warlock in the game so far is so I can also pop one of the wickedest feats of all time. Making everything blind for 10 hexes? What’s not to love about that??!?

Purely an assassination caster, smart money is on my running an elite cadre of Paingivers, Bloodrunners, mobile troops, fast warbeasts, and a couple of Extoller Soulwards for cheese factor.

And then I calculated the model count and multiplied the result by the staggering three days it took me to paint a single solo in a 20-colour paint scheme. Ugh.

Instead I’ve decided to run a bizarre beast-and-solo heavy list with a single purpose; To whittle my opponent’s army down to nothingness and actually let Morghoul do the dirty deed of caster kill all by his lonesome. In the past two matches, Skorne faired quite well at bringing the scarier portions of the other army down, but failed to meet the final end. Against Kraye, the Confederates had all been exterminated save the Wiley rider managed to trot around a sizable force to bring Morghoul down at the end. Against the Trollbloods, Morghoul had Calandra all but beat save for scenario victory.

I’m putting my wits against a three-peat. Run beast heavy and run them hot and let ‘em frenzy all over the dedicated target. Lather. Rise. Repeat. It will be another long battle, but I’m positive the much superior epic version of Morghoul will win the day with all of his great tricks. While his still suffers from a pittance of five fury, and loses the oft-utilized Unrelenting, Morghoul’s fan will place him exactly where I need him to be each round to retain control. At any point, my opponent will face that blind effect on whatever I fancy being near, allowing an assassination run, or allow the list to engage hard targets without much repercussions for a full round. The anticipation of that feat is nearly as good as the feat itself.

For heavy Warbeast power, the Titan Gladiator, Molik Karn and the Cannoneer make yet another appearance all together. Molik, just because he is pure awesome, the Cannoneer for long range striking power, and the Gladiator for that really tough to bring down target of opportunity. I expect quite a few squishy troopers for this round, the Cannoneer will redeem her points nicely in some template drops in the opening turns. Molik Karn is a stupidly tough nut to crack, although without Unrelenting it will be a bit trickier to keep him around if I get too careless.

Cetrati and Ferox provide souls for the Ancestral Guardian. The Ferox in particular have a lot of speed and hitting power, depending on the scenario conditions I might need something mobile to hold any pesky control points or skirmish lines, yet be a fearsome enough threat if left alone. A Shield wall Cetrati are a great speed bump for any heavy warjacks/ warbeasts, and even in death they will serve a purpose in fuelling a Guardian for late game retribution.

Of course, what good is a line-of-sight feat unless you can grant ghost sight to your caster and ignore all that intervening stuff? An Extoller Soulward joins the party to save up on soul tokens, grant ghost sight to all shadowwalking models, or even allow an early game plastering of a hidden model with a choice cannonball.

Finally, I’ve added an Agonizer to this mix in case I’m against another Hordes army, or I need to shut down an arc node. I don’t expect to use any agonies all that much, so I’ll likely load up the tortured Titan baby with fury to bank on if I face an attrition game. Fluff-wise, Morghoul killed off the Swamp Gobbers to field an all-Skorne slammin’ squad at last.

Morghoul’s Malevolence 750

Lord Assassin Morghoul
Molik Karn
Titan Cannoneer
Titan Gladiator
Cyclops Savage
Agonizer
Ancestral Guardian
Extoller Soulward
Void Spirit
Cataphract Centrati
Praetorian Ferox

Thirteen questions with PPS_DC

1 Where are you now?
The destination.

2 If we distract PPS_Simon with a length bamboo, a box of matches and a bucket of custard, what are the chances of your pinching HIS army and mailing it out to a lucky individual?
Which army do you want?
I already have Trollbloods, Menites and Iosans… any Circle laying about? Hee hee - Gday

3 Being the master of all that is infernal, does the D in DC *really* stand for Dante?
It *really* stands for David, but only my mom and telemarketers call me that.

4 Which character needs to be made into a Bobblehead?
I don’t like bobbleheads, but the Agonizer needs to be made into one of those stuffed animals that makes noise when you kick it.

5 Are there any plans to equip your team of Infernals with Iosan Battle Mage gauntlets to make their pimp hands even stronger?
No, but their Horgenhold Mechanikal Hammers should be arriving any day via UPS.

6 Aside from being the only combined arms light warjack available to the Iosans, what’s your favourite application of the Gorgon?
Locking down the specific model my opponent wanted to use most.

7 Lost Hemisphere: Cool Ranch Blog, All Dressed Blog, or Blog Most Likely To Cause a Coronary?
Definitely Cool Ranch.

8 How much would you pay for a pink Slag Troll?
How well is it painted?

9 How many painkillers did you take on a daily basis during the Warmachine Field Test? Do you predict the average to be higher or lower with the Hordes Field Test?
No painkillers, but plenty of deep, steadying breaths.
I hope Hordes will be a fair bit better. I’m planning more harshly worded instructions than last time, Sevwall’s field test booklet intro might help a bit, and I’m now in the mindset to delete accounts that are more annoying than useful.

10 Which was your favourite Spice Girl?
Never really paid attention to the Spice Girls, but cinnamon is my favorite spice, so that will have to do.

11 Describe your most intense experience of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
It’s hard to narrow it down. My preferred play style is to annihilate the opposing army and pick off the ‘caster when I get around to it. So that puts my opponent in a desperate place. Then they go all-out to kill my ‘caster, and it works pretty often. That’s really the key to beating me – throw away your entire army in just the right way to draw out my ‘caster for the kill.

12 Is there any such thing as a skinny Tharn dude, or a Tharn woman of… um… generous proportions?
Tharn dudes who have not eaten enough hearts are very skinny and not popular with the ladies. Tharn women of generous proportions are favored for making Tharn babies, so most of them stay home.

13 Are you more often mistaken for a comic company, or a seat of power?
I haven’t heard either of those, but a number of folks have thought we were a book company. A funnier one, though, is that game store I used to frequent (Miniature Market) was once mistaken for a grocery store for midgets.

On November 11, 1999 Terry Kelly was in a drug store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. At 10:55 AM an announcement came over the stores PA asking customers who would still be on the premises at 11:00 AM to give two minutes of silence in respect to the veterans who have sacrificed so much for us.

Terry was impressed with the stores leadership role in adopting the Legions two minutes of silence initiative. He felt that the stores contribution of educating the public to the importance of remembering was commendable.

When eleven oclock arrived on that day, an announcement was again made asking for the two minutes of silence to commence. All customers, with the exception of a man who was accompanied by his young child, showed their respect.

Terrys anger towards the father for trying to engage the stores clerk in conversation and for setting a bad example for his child was channeled into a beautiful piece of work called, A Pittance of Time. Terry later recorded A Pittance of Time and included it on his full-length music CD, The Power of the Dream.

Thank You to the Royal Canadian Legion Todmorden Branch #10 and Woodbine Height Branch #2 for their participation in the Video.

- excerpt taken from the video description at Youtube.

We gamer geeks spend our days playing at war, pushing little toy soldiers around on tabletops, screaming at our console games, and tossing dice in rpgs. It’s important to remember those who fought and died to give us the freedom to do so.

I know I’ll post something along these lines on Anzac Day, but it can’t hurt to post on Canada’s day of remembrance as well.

Lest we forget.

by Derrick “Moonova” Gibson

Brun waved off Calandra “I be leaving you here. I have to take care of Lug and those Skorne ain’t be finished chasing you me thinks.”

“Be good dwarf and we will see you again.” replied Calandra, “I must move this warpack off, that Bison only stunned five fingers. He will be up and about shortly I am sure and his beasts will be chasing us down quick enough.”

“Nobby (Bouncer) grab Sunshine (Winter), you there,” Calandra yelled at the Longrider already walking away from Brun gathering her warpack. “Tie Horthol down on yer bison he can complain about it when I fix him up. We are not taking the easy way the size of them Skonre beast means the thick will slow them down more than us. Leave the Dwarf and bear they be going there own way”

With that the trolls warpack shuffled out, battered and bruised, they looked about wary that the Skorne might reorganize faster than they would like. It wasn’t long, almost uncomfortably so, that Calandra stoped her troop. “Something is wrong,” she mumbled “there is something ahead and it is not responding to me. Spread out and get ready, I think our respite is over.”

The forest floor started shaking before the trees started moving. Calandra was quietly cursing herself taking her warpack through the thick forest minimized the usefulness of the Longriders.

“Steady ahead,” yelled a voice from the quaking trees “Is that you I feel Calandra?”
Calandra sighed and thought “what is worse meeting the enemy is this forest with the wounded or dealing with that cantankerous Hoarluk.”

“Aye, you cantankerous old fool. We be evading Five Fingers we put out but not for long.” Calandra stopped yelling at the sight of Hoarluk riding on the largest Troll she had ever laid eyes on, stepping through the trees and into their suddenly all too small clearing.

So there you have it the changing of the guard. I have painted another caster and moved on to Epic Hoarluk. I have been dying to play him but we always seem to play 500 pt games at the local FLGS. At 750 I can fit him and Mulg in easy. I think Mulg might be too much with everything else but ITS MULG.

“I was talking to Grim a short while ago and he mentioned the Khadorians be near as well. Our way is clear for several miles you should be safe for a while.” He stated eyeing up the bedraggled band, tired and wounded. Thumping the large trolls shoulder he said, “Mulg let me down.” As the great troll place hoarluck on the ground he continued, “Why don’t you head back to the villages I will see if I can find this trouble”

Calandra watch the rest of Doomshapers warpack mill around the edge of the clearing. She could sense the other beasts though the Earthborn seemed almost as distant as Mulg, but the Axer was clearly not anything different. Not like Mulg, Calandra was at a loss for words while looking at the giant troll.

Yeah Mulg, an Earthborn bonded to Doomie for power attack goodness. I was thinking of a cheaper Dire troll but the animus Transmute is needed to help protect Hoarluck. I have several options for armour ratings in the list (to be seen). I also like how he can gain movement from Rough terrain that I hope to capitalize on, the arm and will be gravy if I can arrange it. The Axer is needed to help out with Rough terrain charges, spd +5 can be given from Hoarluk but the Axer gives you pathfinder (much needed).

Calandra found her voice as she got over the beasts; Hoarluk definitely lacked finesse but made up for it in power unadultered power. Typical ham-handed male, well not typical he was a little more extreme than most but not by much, as Madrak and Borka sprung to mind. “Aye we will leave you to it.” Turning to her warpack she ordered, “let’s move our relief is here.” She refused to think of him as a saviour, and almost felt pity for five fingers if they met up.

Mulg swept up hoarluck and his troop filed by Calandra on the way through the clearing. After the beasts came a troop of champs followed by Runeshapers?!?! And two gobbers having no trouble keeping up or out from under foot of the larger troll troopers. A Kreilstone bearer came next interestingly enough there was an elder with them.

Yeah Champs, I wanted Kriel warriors to keep with a theme but I had already had the Champs half painted. I was going for many newly painted models as I could get painted force. I managed about 500+ points a fair bit of painting. I wanted to try out the Krielstone as I have not fielded one and reading how transmute works with my new earthborn I thought this would give some interesting effects. And well if you have the UA (elder) you might as well paint it up as well. Now Mulg being affected by the arm aura makes him Arm 21 with the Earthborn in BtB will be Arm 23. If I find it a little to daring to have them both BtB I can have both at arm 19 and no moving them (Elder). Another option is to have the Runeshapers stonewall behind the Earthborn at arm 20 giving the Earthborn 22. I am thinking the Earthborn will be a monster.

Calandra happily moved out of the clearing and under the forest canopy, as her eyes adjusted to the light the last of Hoarluck’s Warpack filed by. The quiet Lanyssa glided by eyes searching warely eyeing up the laughing group of … creatures fumbling around, whelps the annoying ‘offspring’ of the troll beasts. Whisping through the trees a feralgeist was flanked by several Gatormen the Bokor leading them silently chanting

That is it. I stopped using the Feralgiest with the toning down of its rules a while back, truth be told it was just disgusting to play with. I painted it using a new product I found that was supposed to give it a bit of a sheen. Therefore it is included to see if anyone notices. Lanyssa is around for another way to give out a charge spd+5 if needed and possibly save me 3 focus on Mayhem, I wouldn’t mind getting her close to the Earthborn to increase his PoW but that will be the Gatormens job. The Gatorman are for second wave if needed as well as making sure the Earthborn has shallow water touching his base at all times. Shallow water is qualifies as rough terrain giving the Earthborn both extra movement and +2 defense. Whelps are there for Snacking, frenzy control, annoyance and of course intervening models if possible.

So here it is:

Hoarluck Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
Axer
Earthborn Dire Troll (Bonded)
Mulg, the Ancient
Whelps
Kreilstone Bearers (4)
Stone Scribe Elder
Trollkin Runeshapers
Trollkin Champions
Feralgeist
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress
Gatormen Posse (3)
Swap Gobbers below Crew

Nothing like a bit of rampant speculation.

Thanks to the good folks at TGN and some deductive work by fellow PP forumites, we’ve got the February release schedule – and boy howdy, is it making us think. New Cygnaran Warcaster, Winter Guard Rifle Corps, Warwitch Siren, Widowmaker Marskman and…

*PIP 32059 Exemplar Cinerators(5) $44.99 (est.)

Bwah???

New Exemplar unit makes me make happy noises (despite trepidation at having to paint more armour trim), but what the heck are they?

We’ve had about a week now to consider them, so…

At that price for five models, it’s a fair assumption that we’re talking medium bases – possibly a variant on the Bastions. If so, what will they do?

Rampant speculation here  has suggested everything from an Exemplar/Cleanser hybrid (unlikely, I think, due to risk of making the Cleansers redundant) to flying monkeys. Seriously, check it out – flying monkeys.

I’m thinking a melee unit, though how they earn their name is up in the air.

One theory is that they have weapons that work like the Avatar’s sword – they’re immune to fire themselves, and when they kill a target it explodes in a 3″ AoE.

Another is that they pack a mini version of Ashes to Ashes, possibly plausible since the High Reclaimer has A2A (Darn, but I love that spell) and the standard Reclaimer weapon is, in fact, called a cinerator. Spurious linkage FTW! Maybe they have Reclaimer-style cinerator – so Reach – and then it turns victims into ash clouds, meaning the unit can screen themselves.

Then there’s these guys…

(props to SnakeEyes @ PP’s forums for posting the pic)

 They’re knights of some variant, with what look like that could be a flamepike variant of some sort. The guard is particularly interesting… though do these guys really look big enough to be on medium bases, if that’s small-based Voyle right there? Admittedly, we never saw Voyle on a base, but all the same…

So yeah… Exemplar Cinerators, making Protectorate players mess their shorts since 11/04/09.

What do you think they’ll do?

by Chris “Gdaybloke” Miller

A couple of Winter Guard snack packs and Horatio was as good as new. This heartened Ernie somewhat, as the Winter Troll and Bradley had become something approximating friends – Bradley had, of course, carried Horatio during the thaw, and Horatio had been able to numb Bradley’s jaw long enough for Ernie to pry out a Winter Guard combat knife that had gotten lodged between molars.

Moon over Broadway?

Ernie’s brothers were missing.

The pygs of the Knockr tribe were few in number, but a very close-knit bunch; Ernie was in fact the only one of their membership who hadn’t taken up a rifle and joined  the Tommyknockrs, the tribe’s “elite” squad the Trollbloods referred to as Bushwhackers. This would normally have resulted in shame for Ernie’s immediate family, but considering Ernie had returned with Bradley, the Knockrs were quite well respected by the other pyg tribes working with the local kriels.

The Tommyknockrs had been scouting ahead of the Tubthumpers, but hadn’t been heard from since they had reported the Khadoran caravan where Grim’s group had liberated Horatio.

Now they were in Cygnaran lands, and Ernie was getting worried.

**********

Elsewhere…

Through his telescope, Tommy scowled at the sight of the great creature in the pit. So much for “civilised” humans. They destroyed everything they touched, hated anything they didn’t understand, and made a tortured mockery of Dhunia’s finest at every opportunity.

The Tommyknockrs: Don't like 'umans much.

Right now, down in the camp, a massive pit ringed with spikes held the groggy form of a great bear.

Trappers had caught the beast with tainted meat, thinking to sell it either for fur and meat and trinkets, or to be imprisoned and tamed and taught to “dance” for the entertainment of the rabble.

They had no idea just what they had caught, or what vengeance was about to be unleashed upon them.

Tommy felt a little uncomfortable being out of contact with Tub and the Thumpers, but the Knockrs had long-standing relations with the Rhulfolk, and this Brun Cragback was of a very similar frame of mind to Tommy when it came to the humans. The bear, Lug, belonged to Cragback, and the Tommyknockrs were only too willing to aid the warlock on retrieving his pet.

None of this sat well with Horthol, sitting astride his steed.

This was not their fight, he had argued. Grim would be waiting, he had argued. Tommy had remained adamant that the Knockrs would help Cragback, and with everyone on the forums talking about how crap Bushwhackers are, how Chris should have spent his points on Burrowers if he really wanted pygs, Horthol wasn’t confident that the little riflemen would survive the encounter without help, despite there only being half a dozen trappers.

“If they didn’t have a threat range longer than your charge, Brun, you could do this all on your lonesome. If nothing else,” muttered the Long Rider Champion, “This is certainly very Page 5.”

Brun: Doesn't have a particularly long charge range

Tommy and Cragback looked back at Horthol with confused expressions, before shaking their heads.

“We go!”

Tommy barked the order and the Knockrs rolled out of the darkness like a well-oiled machine. Paired up, they concentrated on pre-designated targets and let loose with withering volleys upon the hapless trappers.

Horthol thundered down the left flank while Cragback ran down the right, blunderbuss discharging its deadly payload into the surprised face of a bearded hunter.

Shots pinged off of Horthol’s armour as he closed in on the last standing trapper; with a great sweeping arc he brought his long hammer around, driving it hard into the human’s shoulder and sending him staggering.

“Whoo! Critical Hit!”

Horthol, Breaker of the Fourth Wall.

Everyone stopped and stared; even the wounded trappers stopped still, hands still reaching for their weapons, and stared, bewildered, at the Long Rider.

“What? Look, he staggered. I rolled doubles, okay?”

The fight resumed as if it had never stopped and it was only a matter of moments before the last shot rang out and the hunters were no more.

Lug: Spent the entire fiction drugged. Don't eat tainted meat.

 As they hauled the still-woozy Lug out of the put, Tommy finally cornered Horthol away from the rest.

“Look, yer’n big and yer’n strong and yer’n famous, orright? So’s we’s glad to have ye along… but ye’s be yellin’ the wierdest t’ings.”

Horthol just shrugged.

“I don’t expect you to understand, Tommy. There are things I’ve seen, understandings I’ve reached, that would blow your mind. There are bigger things in play here than you, I, or even Madrak and the other warlocks realise. We’re being guided by hands unseen… but don’t worry, as long as I have a few health boxes left, I’ll do whatever I can to keep your brothers safe. In the end, my diminutive little friend, it’s all just a game.” 

Tommy just stared and shook his head.

“You’s an odd one, tell that for free. We be gettin’ to Grim now. Mush.” 

This brings me to a fully painted 750pt list (though, yes, the pics were taken before I based and sealed the Bushwhackers). Not in the picture, and bringing my total painted Trollbloods and Troll-allied models to just shy of 1000pts, are Neil the Axer, Grissel Bloodsong, Gudrun the Wanderer and Saxon Orrick (painted as part of WMHC1).  

Grim Tidings 750pts
21 models, 25VPs

Grim Angus
- Dire Troll Blitzer (Bradley and Ernie)
- Winter Troll (Horatio)
- Troll Impaler (Vivian)
Horthol (um… Horthol)
Fell Caller (Hugh)
Trollkin Champions (5) (Tubthumpers)
Pyg Bushwhackers (6) (Ernie’s tribe)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Winkin & Nod)
Brun & Lug (themselves)

Click to see it all big and stuff

Thirteen Questions with PPS_Dougseacat

1) Where are you now?
Where am I? I am in my little dimly lit writer’s cave, which is both squalid and comforting at the same time. I despise overhead fluorescent lights but I’m not quite sure if my solution of using a crappy floor lamp pointed at the wall to avoid screen glare is an effective alternative.

2) Was a career in writing a preconceived dream of your youth, or were you unexpectedly discovered like a Hollywood Starlet in a diner serving lukewarm ragout?
I have wanted to make a career out of writing since I was in the 2nd grade, more or less. Since I’m slow, I didn’t figure out how to actually make that work until my early 30’s, which means my life has been forestalled by a decade or longer. I’m not sure if the Grim Reaper will take this into consideration when my expiration date comes up. I have an excellent idea in mind regarding writing a “Starving Writer’s Cookbook” which I think would be fairly amusing, if of limited culinary usefulness.

I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. I think having an obsession with writing regardless of your successes or failures is necessary to actually be one. I was fortunate enough to have friends who enjoyed my work and were willing to put my name in front of the right people when opportunities came around. That was how I lucked into working freelance for Privateer Press back in the early days of the Witchfire Trilogy, when we still had no idea if anyone would even buy the material. After the company started to take off thanks to WARMACHINE, I had written a metric ton of setting material for the RPG line and this put me in a nice position to accept the position of full time staff writer when it was offered by Matt Wilson. That was right when they had decided to launch HORDES and when NQM had started. The first work I got to do as a full time writer was writing Primal while simultaneously cranking out a ridiculous amount of material for the magazine, which was like boot camp for writing.

3) Which of the Coven is Egregore’s favourite?
I honestly don’t think the Egregore sees people in such a way as to feel any preferences. Then again, it did select three rather attractive and scantily clad young women as its companions, so I might be mistaken. Perhaps there is the soul of some lonely and frustrated former Orgoth governor inside the sphere. If so, I’d imagine its preference would shift depending on who was taking the time to lovingly wipe the blood off its surfaces and sharpen his spiky bits. Selene has always struck me as the most nurturing of the three, but certainly Morgaen is a witty conversationalist. Nor can one underestimate the reassuring qualities of Helleana, whom I’ve heard is a great listener when she is not plunging her ritual blade into the bowels of her adversaries.

4) Gorten’s awesomeness is without question (Just ask the Deathjack). Where will he crop up next?
I’m not entirely sure, although I’m thinking there is a lot of work going on in the Thornwood region, enough to keep any mercenary happy. You might recall we saw him near the end of Legends being hired by an Ordic general to fight through the Khadorans around Fellig. I’m sure he’s having some excellent battles in the vicinity, earning coin from whoever needs him to apply Forgefather and his dual hand cannon to obliterate their enemies.

Maybe I’ll have a chance to provide Gorten a small place in the fiction for the mercenary force book, although some of the details of those matters are still being gnawed upon. There is a lot of ground to cover in the various force books and not much space so I’m going to have to focus on just a few casters at a time. Regardless, the Rhulfolk are favorites of mine, and Gorten foremost among them. He was the first warcaster I played in the game, and the first model I painted.

5) Seacat is a name applied to some water craft. Are you, in fact, an aquatic vessel?
Sadly, no, I bear little resemblance to an aquatic craft. There is considerable debate among my relatives as to the origin of the surname, although there are more of us than you might expect, scattered across the US. The most likely theory I’ve heard is that the name was probably originally spelled slightly differently when our German ancestors arrived on American shores somewhere in the early 1800’s. My preferred story was the one my grandfather used to tell which had to do with a shipwreck discovered by another passing vessel after a storm. The crew of the vessel heard a strange caterwauling amid the flotsam and sent a boat to investigate. They thought they had found a half-drowned cat, but it was instead a baby, wrapped up and unhappy. This lone survivor they called a “seacat” after the manner of their discovering him, which then became his surname. So far as I know, this story is utterly without factual merit and was likely invented by my grandfather or someone else in the family, but facts are stupid.

6) Morvahnna’s clearly jealous of Kaya’s youth and beauty. How long before she sends her off in the woods with a kindly Tharn Ravager, only to have Kaya flee and end up living with Rhulic immigrants?
Morvahna may be quite a bit older, but she has kept herself up quite well. She’s quite sexy in her own right, if certainly with a bit of a prickly personality. Morvahna is probably a little too self-centered to spend much time plotting Kaya’s demise, since she only pays attention to those who are of a rank to threaten her own standing. But I will admit the notion of Kaya shacking up with six or seven Rhulfolk and the hilarious hijacks that would ensue has its appeal. I also don’t know if any of the Rhulfolk could endure sharing space with argus, warpwolves, gorax, and satyrs.

7) Lost Hemisphere: Marshy Blog, Boggy Blog, or Blog Most Likely To Spawn Swamp Gobbers?
Boggy blog has a nice sound to it. Makes me think of Ord.

The Butcher was depicted as being captured by Sword Knights. Did this actually occur in playtesting, or were you making it all up?
I am fairly certain there has never been an occasion in playtest where the Butcher has been seriously threatened by sword knights, although I think with the right circumstances and a flanking ’jack it could happen. Nonetheless you throw enough guys at someone and eventually there will be a lucky swipe or two. I should note, as a minor correction, that the Butcher was definitely not “captured.” He was injured, presumably badly so, and surrounded by several sword knights who seemed very reluctant to try to close in on him. You will get to enjoy a little tale picking up on this topic where Legends left off in an upcoming issue of NQM.

9) Is there any one character you enjoy writing most, or will you wuss out like Walton did when I asked him which faction appealed most to his personal aesthetics?
I know we always like to say all the characters are our favorites, and to some degree some of that is even true. I like writing for a lot of our characters. But I do have a special fondness for Madrak Ironhide, the poor bastard. I feel a strong connection to him since I have had the chance to play a more significant role in the unfolding of that particular story arc. Some of the others, particularly those from WARMACHINE, I inherited. While they are still fun to write, I got to have a little more leeway with some of the HORDES characters. The good Professor Pendrake is another character that is always a joy to return to. I was glad to get the chance to give him some prominent screen time in Metamorphosis and hopefully there will be other excuses in the future. Other than that, I really hope I get the chance to get back to the pirates at some point. Writing the pirate fiction in both NQM#12 and their book was a blast, particularly Broadsides Bart (if you’ll forgive the pun).

10) Just how big of a bribe would it take to get Ernie, legend among Pyg Aces and underappreciated hero of WMHC2, into Trollblood canon?
You’ll have to make your appropriate bribery offers to Jason Soles and/or Matt Wilson. While I’ve been lucky enough to have a few of my characters eventually wind up in the game, that’s not generally how it works. Sometimes I’ll create a neat side character that captures imaginations and we find a place for it in the game, but more often Matt or Chris draw something awesome and then we figure out who they are.

I agree the poor pygs haven’t gotten much screen time and we have yet to get into their heads or provide them with some proper characters. Then again, with so many warlocks and warcasters it’s hard for the little guy to get his proper dues. Particularly those plucky pygs, who are now operating wartime hardware atop dire trolls when not so long ago they were lounging in the forest without so much as a stitch of clothes or any tools or weapons to speak of. They are an inspiration to the lazy pyg in all of us.

11) Faithfight! Morrow vs Menoth vs Thamar vs Dhunia in a barfight. Go!
The cool thing is three of them are involved in a perpetual “bar fight” in Urcaen, called the War of Souls. The results are as yet undetermined. Dhunia has stayed out of that fight by avoiding walking into Urcaen. I guess maybe someday she can serve as a designated driver for Toruk if he decides to see what the “real” gods are doing. The weirdest thing in such a fight is we really don’t know what kind of “body” Dhunia has. She never bothers to walk around or take on the guise of a person, so she’d certainly be the wild card in this kind of fight. I have to say the battle doesn’t feel quite right without the Devourer Wurm in there to balance things out. But I guess if he gets drunk Menoth will convince himself that Dhunia is his ancient enemy and that will liven things up.

Dhunia has the edge here since, as the embodiment of an entire world. Then again, attitude is a lot in a good bar brawl, and Dhunia isn’t particularly aggressive. She’s fierce on the defense, but might not have the killer instinct to finish things. I think in the end of the day I’d have to put my money on Thamar, despite being an underdog. She’s just smarter and more cunning than the rest, and no one is better at exploiting weaknesses. She’s the ultimate dirty fighter.

12 What *really* happened to Pendrake’s trusty sidekicks?
Depends on which ones you mean. Some of them have of course gone on to the hereafter, after being devoured by various horrible critters. The Department of Extraordinary Zoology is a dangerous field. But both Lynus and Edrea have survived and prospered. I expect we’ll hear more from them in due time.

13 Chris Walton named you to be the next victim. How will you wreak your revenge?
You should probably pester Jason Soles next. He always has some interesting things to say. Also he has a cat skeleton in his office, which is nice.

Round two and the 500pt matches are done. Ken and Derrick have stepped in for Greg and Eric, and have thus assumed their score tallies.

Grim made a desperate shot that paid off, Durgen got all pushy, and Calandra totally jinxed her opponent’s dice, making the player standings as follows:

Of course, all you heathens are really interested in, yet again,  is knowing the standings for your picks…

The real question is, how the smeg did DocBungle correctly guess the winning VP’s of the Calandra/Morghoul game??? That’s just freaky!

UltimateLegion pulls ahead with a healthy lead, but with 5 pts per win awarded next round, plus bonuses, it’s still up in the air! Whee!

Tune in, fellow Lost, for Monday we start the 750pt lists…

So I knew it was coming… I’d been told to expect it… but I was still on tenderhooks waiting for a very special parcel to arrive at the front door of the Gdaycave.

This afternoonI walked through the door to find it waiting on my desk.

Okay, so why was I so excited? Let’s take a wander through the issue and enjoy the niftiness. The answer to my excitement is, of course, revealed the moment we get past the table of contents… and it even came with a bonus.

That’s my Castigator! Wheee! Sculpted by CaptainSpud as a birthday gift, I painted up that hunk of metal and putty for the first WarmaHordes Challenge. Confident in its stability, I took it with me on vacation to Quebec in the hope of finding a cool Jack About Town opportunity.

As a bonus, online pal Darren MacGregor got his ink on the same page! We’re, like, blood brothers or something now! Yay for his remarkable dedication to his PressGangery! Gratz on making print, Dazza!

November and December releases look very exciting for me, and painful to my wallet, with a whole bunch of Retribution stuff coming out in both months, stacked on top of both the Fennblades and Runeshapers this month. Darn, but my finances curse the name of Privateer, while at the same time my wallet seems just so eager to throw money at my FLGS…

Next we get a remarkable gallery of models from the 2009 Formula P3 Grandmaster Painting Competition.

I don’t know if it’s a taboo subject, I’ve never seen it discussed, but I have to say  that I am amazed – AMAZED at the degree of painting skill shown by the participants, and I’m thrilled to see so many women participating in what’s stereotypically such a male-dominated hobby. I know we have remarkable women playing the games (*waves hi to Jen and Michelle*), but to see them performing so well in things like this just makes me feel proud that there’s no evidence of an “old boy’s network” or the like in the judging.

 Major props to the Judges, Kudos to all the winners –  notably to Jen Haley for her… um… Haley,  Susan Wachowski for her frankly astounding Circle warpack, and Marike Reimer for my favourite piece, if only because of my bias towards Menite models -

I just love this thing, the Redeemer wading through the swamp to smack the heck out of Asphycious, with thralls  – and one of the Combine – emerging from the brackish depths to defend their commander. The tableau just makes me happy… and the freehand on the carapace is enough to make me cry.

Special mention to Jason Lilje’s Drakhun as well… buy the mag, look it up on page 19 and enjoy the awesomeness. Oh, and Rich Curtiss needs a slap for hoarding all those trophies. Awesome work, everyone – trophies well deserved!

Next up is some Mk II awesomeness, with writeups for Caine, High Reclaimer, Butcher and Skarre. I’m posting Silent Bob’s pic here because, well, I love me some Menoth and it looks freakin’ awesome, but I have to say – I’ve flicked back to Skarre’s page about half a dozen times now to enjoy the art. It’s freakin’ awesome, I love the way the sigils are circling and arcing on her dagger. Again, buy the magazine. She’s on p47.

After some sneaky Cygnaran concept art on p48 which I won’t go into because I love to tease the Cygnarans, we get to a water featuer terrain building article, and then onto one of the recurring features I enjoy most in this magazine – the Gavyn Kaye files. Considering it’s a two-character article I thought it might have been a bit longer, but it still has a passage from Bolden Rebald, so it gets my approval.  Of interest: Deneghra has some unique Slayers? Future character jack maybe?

Next are the lists from the 2009 masters and the Hardcore Championship. Once more, major props to all the winners, even if none of them were playing Protectorate, Trollbloods or Retribution. Fie on all you Cygnar and Cryx players and all your winningness… I’m namedropping Jason Watts and Malone Screen, since they both walked awaywith medals and neither played Cryx or Cygnar. I don’t care how darn pretty Jess Hodges’ Stormblades are, or that Justin Herring won Masters without using the Deathjack, I refuse to name any of the Cygnar or Cryx players, I…. Dammit!

Pendrake encounters the Totem Hunter, before Guts & Gears looks at one of my favourite warbeasts in terms of concept, the Satyr. Behold on p71 a very very awesome piece of art, a Gnarlhorn shattering some Kriel shields. Of course, we all know Bradley and Ernie are just out of shot and about to teach that goat a lesson, but that doesn’t take anything away from how cool the art is. Seriously – buy the mag, look at it. It’s cool, and Todd Arrington’s Iceblade River Sect painting article is pretty darn spiffy too. I really like the light blue/silver armour he’s painted.

Also in Guts & Gears is a piece of warjack porn by Eric Deschamps that I never thought I’d even want to see; an exploded Wroughthammer Rockram diagram. There’s something about the inner workings of a warjack that’s not as atypical as the crabjacks (or the new Basher), but still isn’t quite the normal bideal steamjack we see from the main factions…

Rounding out the issue is the Order of the Golden Crucible, some Hardcore Searforge, the winners of the Shades of Gray challenge (Grats Melissa Mayhew, even if your entry was an unholy Cryxian abomination that should be purged in purifying flame in the name of Menoth!), Tracy Constantine’s latest Drawn & Quartered, and the usual teaser for the next issue. Order of the Fist, the Templar and what happened to the Butcher? Protectorate and Khador force book previews? Sign me up! GenCon costume pics are a bonus. Of interest: Order of Keeping? Possible hint of something to come?

Much love to the NQ team, and now that I’ve finished writing this post up so it can go up in short order, I look forward to actually being able to take the time to pore over the articles in minute detail.

Go! Buy Magazine! Salivate!

by Scott “Killraven” MacNeil

WMHC2
Scenario: Command Positions
War Torn Fronts Map 6

Scott MacNeil – Skorne deploy first
Derrick Gibson – Trollbloods deploy second

This match was arranged quite hastily thanks the unforeseen changing of the players involved, Derrick and I planned to meet over the weekend for an extended match but real life prevailed for a quick-and-dirty slugger of denial, utter dice failure, and dirty scenario skulduggery.

Turn One
Skorne
Cetrati advance in shield wall towards the shallow water. Morgh0ul casts “Unrelenting” on Molik Karn. Ancestral Guardian, Molik Karn, Titan Gladiator, and the Cyclops Savage advance with the shield wall unit. Gobbers drop a fog cloud to cover half of the unit and Morgh0ul while the Void Spirit runs ahead to approach the control point.

Trollbloods
Brun and Lug advance through the forest. Bouncer advances with the Winter Troll forced for “Rime” and presses forward. Calandra casts “Star Crossed” and follows behind the Winter Troll. Horthol advances ahead, and his cadre of Longriders run ahead of the army to the center.

No surprises here, Skorne advances ahead of the shield wall protection, trying to avoid the pitfalls of terrain while Trollbloods chew up the map and give Skorne plenty to worry about thanks to mobility.

Turn Two
Skorne
Morghoul upkeeps Unrelenting on Molik Karn. Cetrati advance in shield wall, inching towards the shallow water. Molik Karn advances around the unit and riles to replenish Morghoul’s fury. Ancestral Guardian, Gladiator, Morghoul and the Cyclops advance to the right of the unit. Gobbers drop another fog cloud to cover the titan and Cyclops from a charge from the Long Riders. Void Spirit runs ahead to penetrate deep in enemy territory.

Trollbloods
Brun and Lug retreat a bit in a small advance behind the shallow water. Horthol run ahead of the Longriders who fan out to cheat the gobber cloud on he next turn. Calandra advances and casts “Misfortune” at the Void Spirit with a miss, casts “Star Crossed” again. Nobby the Bouncer advances and uses animus to “Bump” one of the Longriders. Winter Troll advances with Nobby to put “Freezer” on another close Longrider.

The Swamp Gobbers really earn their measly 15 points through frustratingly blocked charge lanes. Calandra’s dancing denial coupled with payback spells from both the Winter Troll and Bouncer prevent any real alpha striking.

Turn Three
Skorne
Morghoul upkeeps “Unrelenting”.
Centrati advance in shield wall into the shallow water, falling just short of capturing the control point as a unit. Cyclops advances to the right of the Ancestral Guardian who stands pat. Gobbers advance to place another fog cloud to cover the Cyclops from an impending charge from Horthol. Titan Gladiator uses animus and charges the closest Longrider falling well short, but close enough to catch the unit within range of “Subdue”. Molik Karn advances around the Cetrati and forces for a fate ward and uses his animus to gain an additional move to contest the control point. Morghoul advances and uses Molik’s animus to gain an additional move to keep his beats within his control area. Void Spirit runs to base-to-base contact with a Longrider.

Trollbloods
Horthol slams the Titan for 3 damage knocking him back a couple of inches and knocking him down, unfortunately not far enough to clear the Longriders from “Subdue” effect. Horthol follows up against the Titan and rolls the hit to score a critical stagger and inflict another 7 damage points. Nobby charges the downed titan to score another 11 damage from his thick armoured hide. Winter Troll advances and attempts to throw the downed Titan, but fails the strength check.

Calandra advances and pops her feat, casts “Star-crossed” and drops “Freezer” on Nobby and the Winter Troll. Longriders advance taking a free strike from the Void Spirit who fails to score any damage on the attack. Another Longrider attacks the now corporeal Spirit but fails to destroy the sol despite two solid hits. Lug charges Molik Karn scoring 3 damage points, Molik unrelents away from a follow-up attack. Brun advances and casts “Stonehold” on himself and Lug to contest the control point.

More Swamp Gobber love, and the first epic dice fail of the game. The Void Spirit should have crucified the Longrider with a four die free strike, but a horrific damage of 7 failed to score a single wound on the Buffalo. Calandra wastes her feat rightfully thinking that the Longriders would have been mincemeat to the attack-that-never-came.

Turn Four
Skorne
Upkeeps “Unrelenting”.
Cyclops Savage charges Horthol and scores two direct hits to knock the Troll off of his Buffalo. Molik Karn charges Lug to score some very impressive damage and drops fate ward on himself to prevent a counter charge. Titan stands and is immediately frozen in place thanks to the stagger and freezer animus effect. Ancestral Guardian inches forward to get Horthol within melee range, but without a soul to power an attack. Gobbers advance and drop another fog cloud within the shallow water to cover the Cetrati and Morghoul. Morghoul advance ahead and pops his feat, catching all Troll beasts within his control area. Void Spirit advances ahead to catch another Longrider in base-to base contact, surrendering the control point. Centrati advance within the water to score a single combined melee attack against Brun from a couple of points of damage.

Trollbloods
Lug slugs Molik Karn for minimal damage who unrelents away from the solo to put a Longrider within melee range and Calandra within charge range. Two Longriders fail their tough rolls due to free strikes from Molik Karn and the Void Spirit to consolidate their position within the control area. The now corporeal Void Spirit falls to a single melee attack from one of the buffalo cavalry, while another slams the Savage 1″ towards Morghoul. Calandra casts “Befuddle” on Molik Karn to force the Cyclops to enter a forest to foil a charge from the character beast, casts “Star-crossed” and lurks behind Nobby. Winter Troll desperately wants to throw the Titan once again, but is caught within Morghoul’s feat and whales harmlessly against the Gladiator. He scores a chain attack to place a spray template catching, but missing, two Cetrati and the Ancestral Guardian. Nobby pounds more damage points on the Gladiator. Brun slays a single Cetrati trooper not within shield wall and Horthol scores a few wounds against the Savage.Trollbloods score their first control point of the game.

Trollbloods go for scenario points by consolidating their army around the rough terrain since they are stuck too close to Skorne’s melee heavy hitters. In a stroke of self-preservation Calandra pulls off the befuddle defensive tactic against Molik Karn having to worry about the too-close Void Spirit. Trolls have a tough time cracking the Skorne armour.

Turn Five
Skorne
Morghoul drops “Unrelenting”.
Cyclops Savage frenzies scoring damage points on Horthol.
Molik Karn turns in the forest to confront Lug and slays the big bear in two hits; Makes another attack to score serious damage on Brun and fate wards. Cetrati advance in shield wall and combine melee to hit Brun, but fail to score damage thanks to “Stonehold”. Ancestral Guardian spends his single soul token to slay the dismounted Horthol. Morghoul advances and heals two aspects on the Gladiator and camps remaining fury. Titan Gladiator pounds the Winter Troll into a messy pulp.

Trollbloods
Things are looking grim for Calandra, she casts “Befuddle” on the fury laden Savage driving it towards Morghoul. She cast “Star Crossed” and advances behind a hedge row for protection from Molik Karn. Longriders consolidate their position over the hill securing their game winning control point. Bouncer retreats to cover Calandra from any charge attempts. Brun casts “Stonehold” on himself and swings at a Centrati but fails to crack the shield wall. Trollbloods score their second control point.

At this point it is looking really poor for the trolls to pull off a warlock or army kill, they have simply lost too much hitting power and repeated failed tough rolls. Derrick pulls away to deny Skorne any victory by setting up a sixth turn scenario win.

Turn Six
Skorne
Morghoul pulls all fury from the Savage to keep the beast in check and a possible frenzy.
Molik Karn frenzies and slaughters Brun where he stands in the shallow water.
Cyclops Savage runs towards the hill, falling well short of the Longriders. Morghul uses Molik Karn’s animus to gain an additional movement and charges his own Cyclops falling short of melee range. Cetrati advance in shield wall to the clear the shallow water towards Calandra but retain the control point. Titan Gladiator advances towards Nobby, but is too full of fury to pull off a successful attack. Gobbers advance and drop concealment on Morghoul. Morghoul uses his extra movement to advance to the edge of the hill and contest the final control point in base-to-base contact with a longrider, he camps two fury and the Cyclops is within his control area. Skorne collects one control point for the game.

While I was writing up the battle report, it became clear that I messed up on the frenzy rules and actually performed an illegal move in using a frenzied beast’s animus. I’ll completely ignore that error in rules for this match, as the end result was actually really cool to watch and the end result would have been the same in any case.

Trollbloods
Nobby charges the Gladiator and scores three solid hits on the Titan to drop it down at last. One Longrider manages to pull off a miracle roll for a slam against Morghul, dropping him from the hill, Morgul transfers the hit damage to the Savage, and eats a couple of points of falling damage. Morghoul is outside of the control point, granting the Trollbloods victory through scenario.

Winner: Trollbloods 4 VP to Skorne’s 9 VP

This was a quick two-hour game that was very enjoyable for both parties, Derrick’s sheer jubilation at rolling a “10″ to hit Morghul for the slam was priceless.

Thirteen Questions with PPS_Walton

1. Where are you now?
Quietly munching on French fries and listening to a crappy documentary on the History Channel. That’s how I roll on a Thursday night.

2. Harby flashes her teenage legs, but Feora’s fully encased. Are Feora’s legs wrinkly and covered with varicose veins and cellulite, or did she just forget to shave?
I seriously doubt any woman who walks in those heels all day has an ounce of cellulite on her legs. I also imagine that if anyone in the Iron Kingdoms has invented the “hot” wax treatment, it’d be Feora. I think the real question here is if the juice in her caboose is real or an armor plate.

3. Are you satisfied that Amon in Mk II is as awesome as he appears in “Crack the Whip”?
Anyone who’s so diesel that he can walk around a battle field bare-chested is awesome in any version of the game.

4. It’s said that you’re the Hugh Heffner of Warjack Porn, stripping off their armour and exposing all their bits for all the world to see. Do you actually own a quilted smoking jacket?
Sorry, no. I hope that doesn’t make me the Larry Flint of Warjack Porn. I am saving up for a fez, though.

5. Which faction’s aesthetic appeals most to you personally?
I tend to view Warmachine factions like I do the ladies – I love ‘em in all shapes and sizes. Why narrow it down? Seriously, there’s a lot in every faction that I dig – its impossible to pick a favorite.

6. You seem to have some significant sway on the posing of the sculpts; Have you ever tried to get them to sculpt a character picking their nose or something similarly unhygenic? Gobbers don’t count .
Well, I got Matt to break his “No Dancing Poses” rule with Calandra. I guess that’s something.

7. Lost Hemisphere: Pastel Blog, Watercolour Blog, or Blog Most Likely To Draw On The Walls With Crayon?
Smeering the walls with fec- oh, never mind.

8. Mahna Mahna?
Do-do-do-do-od–do?

9. Have you ever drawn Beta Ray Bill? Cos he’s totally awesome, ya know.
Holy Cow! Yes Beta Ray Bill is indeed awesome. Who else is cool enough to lift Mjolnir besides the Mighty Thor? Beta Fricken’ Ray Bill, that’s who. Walt Simonson was the best run on Thor EVER. I even have a big Beta Ray Bill action figure on my shelf at home. I’ll bet you’re staggered that I even know who Beta Ray Bill is, aren’t you? Mess with the bull, and you’ll get the horns.

10. The Myrmidon codpieces were inspired by Blackadder’s “Black Russian”, weren’t they. It’s okay, you can admit it.
You know what was even cooler about Beta Ray Bill? Odin gave him his own copy of Mjolnir. How’s that for awesome? Beta Ray Bill essentially beats the hell out of his son, and Odin is all, like, “Hey you deserve a reward!” Beta Ray Bill is pretty damn cool. And Bartolo Montador was patterned off of actor Brian Blessed, who played Richard IV in The Blackadder. And Myrmidon’s need big codpieces to hide their many-struted junk. There needs to be more Beta Ray Bill in this question.

11. Bodgerfight! The bodgers fight for the right to ask Keelie to the prom. Who wins?
Izzy, the electro-gobber. It makes sense in a nerdy-guy-gets-the-girl-80s-teen-movie-kind of way.

12. Many roleplayers subconsciously invest a portion of themselves into their characters, to the point where you can learn much about a person by their character’s reaction. What does the Epic Hoarluk’s concept art really say about you?
That I’m gnarled, old and have a bad attitude about everything. If only I was role-playing.

13. Any suggestions for further Thirteen Question victims?
Oh, Seacat is the easy answer. That way he’s a victim for having to respond and you’re a victim for having to read the mini-novella that you get in response.

by Jason “Gorilla” Bick

WMHC2
Scenario: Fine Line
War Torn Fronts Map 1 

 
“They’re down there, boss. They saw us at the same time we saw them. Madhammer requested an audience with you to figure out how to settle this like gentlemen.”

“I guess I’ll have to go talk to him then.” Kraye responds “Go tell everyone to be ready just in case my rusty negotiation skills turn his mood sour.”

Kraye hops up onto his horse and rides down to the buildings near the old battlefield. Trenches were dug into the soil near the houses, one of which had walls crumbling in decay after what looked to be a bomb blast. Old craters, now filled with small pools of water were scattered around the trenches.

His recon group had heard that Durgen Madhammer, the Dwarf they were told to find and send back to Rhul, was around these parts and sure enough they found him. Waiting for them. The fact that he was waiting for them made Kraye very nervous, someone must’ve told him they were coming. Even though his Journeyman was new to command he had been a ranger before he was an officer and wasn’t new to hiding his tracks while scouting, there’s no way they should’ve known he was nearby. Someone must’ve tipped him off, but why.

Riding into the clearing near the houses with his rifle at the ready, Kraye spotted Durgen right away. Hard not too when the squatty Rhulic is surrounded by a rag tag bunch of sailors of questionable reputation, two other dwarfs and a large trollkin.

“You wanted to talk?” Kraye asks, raising his rifle to a little more threatening position. At this range he could shoot the mole of the cheek off of the dirty cheeked blonde lass swinging the large wrench behind the not so nice looking light jack with the net and gaffer pole standing before her.

“Well, if you wanna get right to business, yes I did. I heard you’re out looking for me and since I don’t want to ruin my chances of more jobs for the Cygnaran military, I’d arrange a meeting between us before we stumble upon each other and cause more damage that a simple contest would easily avoid.”

“A contest?” Kraye’s eye’s narrowed as he moved his head forward, cocking his head slightly to the side. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’ll get my men to draw a line in the sand which we fight over.”
Kraye laughs “What are the rules, this sounds like it could be fun?”
The Dwarf smiles ” Simple, control the line as long as you can, if either of us gets knocked out or can’t hold the line with one of our heavy jacks, or you on your beasty, the other wins.”

“What’s in it for the winner?”

“Some coin and the right to tell their bosses they succeeded in their mission and eliminated a small threat to some old farmhouse.” Durgen says with a smile and a flourish to the decrepit ruin slowly becoming part of the landscape off to his right side.”

“Agreed, with the obvious inclusion that no one is allowed to seriously harm a member of the opposite party.”

“Done” agrees Durgen.

Durgen’s Dastards Vs. The Confederated States of Cygnar
Kyle Stratford vs Jason Bick

• Map 1
• Scenario Fine Line – Line East to West. Must have a large base within 2″ to contest, must not have an enemy model within 2″ to win after third turn, or knock out enemy caster.

Jason wins pick of Sides and loses choice to go second and sets up on North side near the trenches and blast craters.
Kyle sets up on the south near the house.
Jason Advance Deploys Hunter and Eiryss.

Turn 1 – Confederates
Lt Dan Hollister starts by protecting Kraye with an Arcane Shield. Kraye moves into and hides in a Trench, helps his Jacks to hit with Guided fire. Hunter tries to shoot Grogspar but falls short. Eiryss moves to building and fires through it at Dirty Meg but doesn’t hurt her. everyone else runs up into position.

Turn 1 – Dastards
Durgen Advances and attempts to Carpet Bomb the Dukes, with a favourable deviation he manages to take out Daisy. Encouraged everyone runs around and up to the house into position.

Turn 2 – Confederates
Bo and Luke take revenge on Pirates by taking two out. Eiryss books it over to Bo and Luke. Hunter and Defender concentrate fire on the Buccaneer turning it into wreckage under the watchful eye of Kraye. Sentinel and Lt Dan move up near Kraye.

Turn 2 – Dastards
Joln tells the Pirates to walk it off and earn their money. They advance and get a couple shots off at Bo, knock him out and Luke decides to take off. Everyone else advances again with Bradigan running at Defender hoping to tie up the Defender and Hunter.

Turn 3 – Confederates
Luke runs then decides to stick around. Eiryss takes out another Pirate while the Defender puts Bradigan to sleep. Hunter tries to take out Hawk but has no luck, Kraye decides to show him how its done, shot goes wide into a Sea Dog who toughs it out. Sentinel decides to do the same, hits the same Sea Dog three times and finally takes him out on the third shot. Lt Dan tries the same trick on Hawk and misses.

Turn 3 – Dastards
Meg advances, shoots Defender, locks up his gun arm. Thor Tunes up the Rockram to help his attacks but it does no good as it misses the Sentinel. Durgen advances and Primes Hawk, Feats, launches a Concussion Bomb at Kraye (no activiation or allocation) hits causes a headache. Joln again tells the SeaDogs to walk it off and earn their money. They advance and try to shoot Kraye with the riflemen finally hitting adding to Kraye’s headache. Hawk charges at Kraye and with three hits causes the headache to grow.

Turn 4 – Confederates
Kraye sits the round out nursing his headache. Luke advances and longshots the riflemen (Jason unwisely reminds Kyle to have another Sea Dog pick up the rifle). Hunter takes out Grogspar then moves into a crater for protection. Defender moves between Durgen and Kraye to protect his boss. Eiryss charges Hawk but the ensuing catfight leaves both standing. Lt Dan goes to join in the fun with the same lack of a result.

Turn 4 – Dastards
Meg shoots at the Sentinel and locks his movement. Durgen walks away from the Defender, who misses the squat, and shoots the Sentinel with a case cracker and only manages to scratch the paint. Thor tries again to improve the Rockram and succeeds as it charges the locked Sentinel and proceeds to smash it to bits and then tries to start the same Joyous wreckage with the Defender. The Sea Dogs encouraged for the last time by Joln charge the Defender and Eiryss, wreck the Defender and knocks down the troublesome Elf, who, deciding this contest is beneath her, finally leaves the field. Hawk proceeds to thrash Lt. Dan for his brash arrogance for even looking at her let alone attacking her and then tries to discipline Kraye to no effect.

Turn 5 – Confederates
Kraye pops an aspirin and runs away from the fight to recover from the throbbing pulse of his sore head (Heals five) but stays aware enough to still contest the Line in the ruins of an old house. Luke moves up and tries to Smoke Hawk but misses. Hunter backs away from the Rockram and shoots him peeling away a few layers of the stubborn Dwarven armour.

Turn 5 – Dastards
Hawk charges Luke, knocking the final Duke out of the Match.Durgen and the rest of his troops regroup, while the Rockram moves to Thor and gets a quick patch job.

Turn 6 – Confederates
With just the Hunter Left Kraye starts to further weed out the Sea Dogs while his Hunter misses the refreshed Rockram.

Turn 6 – Dastards
Meg tries to disable the Hunter with no luck as the trees get into the way, The rest of the Sea Dogs with Hawk and Joln run to get back into the action. Thor continues to patch up the Rockram which runs away from the potential harm of the Hunter. Durgen calmly advances to await his forces catching up to aid him with this insolent rebel Kraye.

Turn 7 – Confederates
Kraye moves back and guides his Hunter while leveling his carbine and takes out another Pirate. The Hunter pops out from behinda a few trees, shoots and misses, and pops back into the depth of the forest.

Turn7 – Dastards
Thor continues to patch up the Rockram at a safe distance while the Sea Dogs continue to run towards Kraye. Meg advances and takes a wild shot at Kraye and brings back a little bit of his headache. Everyone else continues to take up positions near the Line.

Turn 8 – Confederates
Kraye pretty much repeats the last turn with the exception of taking out two Sea Dogs this time, leaving the Rifleman by himself, who, in a tremendous hope of showing off to Hawk and maybe getting lucky, decides to stick around. The Hunter also repeats the last turn by shooting Hawk but she deftly moves the shot aside with one of her blades.

Turn 8 – Dastards
Meg, Hawk and the Riflemen decide to flush the Hunter out of his hiding spot by going into the forest after him. Everyone else continues to shore up their defences and move into better positions.

Turn 9 – Confederates
Kraye moves forward back into cover and takes out the brave yet foolish Riflemen and then proceeds to take out Joln. Hunter moves out of the forest leaving the Girls to struggle with the thick undergrowth and shoots the Rockram taking off a fresh patch job from Thor.

Turn 9 – Dastards
Rockram moves to the line to contest it. Thor attempts to move up to the again damaged jack and curses as his short legs can’t quite get him there. Meg stumbles out of the forest, a little dirtier then before, tries to shoot but misses wide. Hawk Runs out of the forest steaming mad. Durgen just continues his leisurely walk forward.

Turn 10 – Confederates
Kraye focuses on the Hunter and then feats. He attempts to charge at Durgen who is now in his range but has to ride through Hawk and Meg, Lays Hawk out but Meg sticks it out, keeping Kraye from getting at Durgen. The Hunter then tries to do the same to Durgen in a desparate attempt to get the squat off the line, but only manages to scrape some paint off of Durgen’s hood.

Turn 10 – Dastards
Thor finally reaches the Rockram and tunes him up, again. Meg feebly tries to attack Kraye. Durgen walks away from the Hunter who takes a swipe at him but glances off the hood again. He walks up to Kraye and takes a swing with his hammer to no effect. Angry he now drops a bomb at his feet, which proceeds to knock out Meg, cause mild damage to the Hunter and increases Krayes headache again.

Turn 11 – Confederates
Pissed off because of the pounding in his head Kraye attacks Durgen with a flurry of blows but leaves the resilient little Dwarf standing. I guess it’s hard to hurt a guy when you have to lean far over in your saddle just to reach him on the ground.

Turn 11 – Dastards
Durgen shrugs at Krayes feeble attempts to penetrate his masterful Dwarf armour, walks around him to get a better position nearer the line, drops another bomb at his feet and pushes Kraye out of the ruins of the house and farther than two inches from the Line! Durgen wins the contest and smugly collects his prize from a very unhappy Kraye.

Durgen – 11VP
Kraye – 9VP

Result: a six hour slogfest contest over a line in the middle of nowhere.

Excuse the terrible photos, I apparently managed to overblow the details. Bah.

Horthol adds some mobility to my 750pt Ta-Ta Kriel list, being able to operate independently on a flank as a solo hunter or general harrier.

I was quite pleased with the washes on the metal, making it look like subtly distinct surfaces rather than just a solid series of metallic silver plating.

by Chris “Gdaybloke” Miller

WMHC2: 500pts
Scenario: Gauntlet
War Torn Fronts Map 2

“Go! Go!”

Ernie kicked Bradley’s shoulder as the dire troll barrelled through the underbrush, the rest of the warband running in his wake. They were leaving a trail a blind Cygnaran could follow, but as their band grew in size, it became harder to mask their presence and speed had become more important than stealth as they rushed to get out of Khadoran territory.

They had barely cracked the ice off the Winter Troll when a trio of Kossite outrider scouts had come across the wreckage of their encounter with the Greylords, and Bradley hadn’t yet managed to dispose of all the bodies. One of them instantly wheeled and galloped back where they had came from, while the other two ran interference. By the time those two had been dealt with, the first was out of range of Grim’s hunting rifle, and well on his way to notifying the leaders of the encamped Khadorans.

Hugh and the Tubthumpers watch my stuff while getting ready

Within moments, Grim had everyone mobilised and running as fast as they could manage. Bradly cradled the still thawing Winter Troll, while Winkin and Nod gripped straps and held on for dear life trying not to fall off of Vivian’s shoulders. Tub and the Thumpers brought up the rear, shepherding Hugh and Grim before them as they charged through the woods.

“We canna keep this pace up long, Grim! Bradley’s gone all numb wi’ ‘is arms, this feller’s too chill!”

Grim nodded his acknowledgement.

“Just keep him moving, Ace. If we can get across the river we’ll be out of their territory; If they chase us beyon’, they’ll risk running into Cygnarans and they’ll have to break off.”

Bradley growled his displeasure but pushed on, shouldering trees out of the way and leaving a clear path behind him for the others.

Without warning, they burst through the treeline into a large, open area lit by the first rays of dawn.

It wasn’t the sight of dew glistening on blades of grass, nor the low, gentle mist that sat wafting through the lower points of the meadow, that took their breath away.

No, that would be the sight of ranked Winterguard, cloaked Greylords and a hulking Juggernaut-class warjack turning to take note of the ragtag bunch of trollkin that just appeared on their flank.

Khador goes to war

Ernie summed it up quite succinctly, with a single “Crap!!!”

“Hugh! Tub! Go!”, yelled Grim as he unslung Headhunter. The Fell Caller and Champions responded immediately, moving out and away from Grim and the warbeasts to counter the ranks of Winterguard before them.

Dropping the now largely thawed Winter Troll to his feet, Bradley bellowed a mighty roar as Grim shepherded the warbeasts into the immediate cover of a wooded outcropping.

“Winkin, Nod, we need cover!”

The two gobbers immediately lept into action; fog juice poured and bellows heaved as a massive cloud roiled out before them to shield them from the eyes of the Khadorans.

Vivian unlimbered a spear and moved forward to peer through the trees when a resounding “Thoomph!” was heard from the Khadoran line, followed by an eerie whistling.

“I don’ like that, boss!”, chirped Ernie from his perch.

Grim paused for a second as the whistling grew louder…

Right before the mortar hit...

“Mortar! Down!”

Vivian dropped, Ernie hunkered down behind his slugger, even the Winter Troll dropped and covered his head. Bradley stopped, inserted a finger in his nose and wiggled it for a minute. All of this did nothing to help Winkin and Nod, who suddenly found themselves flung into the air in a mad spray of mud, fire and fragments of iron as the mortar shell slammed into the ground beside them and exploded, taking them out of the fight.

GRIM TURN ONE

Grim Angus, Bradley (Blitzer) and Vivian (Impaler) advance into the forest with Winkin and Nod (Swamp Gobbers), while Hugh (Fell Caller) and the Tubthumpers (Champions) move up to the wall facing the Winterguard.

As a precaution, Grim casts Return Fire on himself while the Gobbers lay a smokescreen.

ZERKOVA TURN ONE

Everyone advances, the Winterguard using Bob & Weave while Kovnik Joe makes them Tough.

The Mortar lobs a shell at Vivian; it misses, but a lucky scatter catches Grim, Vivian and both Gobbers in the blast. Winkin and Nod are both taken out. Typical. Grim and Vivian are made of sterner stuff and could care less.

“Double Crap!” yelled Ernie as the Gobbers fell back into the scrub. If the Khadorans could send shells into the trees like that, then clearly they weren’t a safe place to hide.

Jamming a heel against Bradley’s shoulder, Ernie commanded the hulking dire troll forward. Bradley was only too eager to oblige, and burst through the thicket  with an ungodly roar.

Grim stepped forward himself as the Blitzer stormed forward and immediately found his attention on the giant warjack moving to intercept.

“Viv!” he yelled, hefting his tether gun and targetting a spot between the juggernaut’s legs.

Vivian nodded and in one fluid motion sent the spear in an underhanded arc directly at the warjack’s midsection. A last second shift and its hand moved into the spear’s flight path. The shaft struck true, staggering the warjack as it suddenly found its forearm slammed back against its chest, but the construct was otherwise undamaged.

It turned to look in the direction of this new threat, but suddenly found its feat entangled.

Grim dropped the smoking tether gun, and squinted as his reached out for the ley lines crossing the meadow. Drawing them taut against the juggernaut’s lower legs, he smiled as it crashed to the ground.

The Khadorans were not standing by idly; the witch barking orders at  the Greylords casually waved a hand and suddenly a chill wind, laden with the promise of hypothermia, struck Vivian while she uttered words of power over the warjack as it struggled to find its feet.

Ernie screamed in a mixture of jubilation and terror as he gripped the triggers of his slugger. Bradley’s loping gait almost flung him from his perch, but he kept the triggers down felt furious joy as the gun bucked, bullets spraying into the two guardsmen manning the mortar.

“Howja like ‘at, sumbitches!!”

Suddenly Bradley shuddered and slowed; the slugger felt icy cold through Ernie’s gloves.

“Whassat, Bradley? Gerroff!”

Then Ernie saw the three Khadoran battle wizards and realised what was happening as his breath fogged in front of his face.

You don't have to work at Dairy Queen to make a blizzard...

“Bradley! Move, ye great lummox!”

No response. Bradley stood still, shuddering as icicles formed on his skin and incomprehension clouded what little reasoning the dire troll was capable of.

GRIM TURN TWO

Bradley runs out and Ernie opens fire, killing the Mortar Crew.

Vivian send a spear at Beast-09, but fails to crit and does no damage. Grim immediately tethers Beast-09 before knocking him down with Mantrap for 5 damage.

Hugh, the Tubthumpers and Horatio (Winter Troll) advance. 

ZERKOVA TURN TWO

The Kolduns freeze Bradley, much to my annoyance, while the Winter Guard continue to bob & weave. The Koldun Lord tosses out some Freezing Mists.

Zerkova casts Watcher on Beast, and scatters a Winter Storm on Vivian for no damage before popping her feat.

Grim scowled as he saw Bradley shudder to a halt. He could see Hugh and the Tubhumpers closing in on the infantry, shuttling between pieces of cover as they advanced, but these greylords needed to be neutralised now.

Almost absentmindedly he fired off another tether at the juggernaut before once again tripping the construct by tugging on ley lines.

Suddenly, the Winter Troll howled and sprinted forward, pounding on the carapace of the downed warjack, before sucking in a deep breath and then releasing the arctic chill that dwelt within.

Shards of ice instantly coalesced in its breath, flew through the air and sunk into the flesh of on of the Khadorans… though the warcaster simply shrugged it off with a frown.

With a loose motion she commanded Beast-09 to its feet; it rose like a marionette, shook ice from its carapace, and then unleashed a brutal swing of its ice axe directly into the Winter Troll’s abdomen.

Horatio’s scream tore across the battlefield before suddenly being cut off as the juggernaut slammed its fist into his throat, and then brought the axe around to careen off his skull.

Horatio in trouble

Horatio dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Momentarilly shocked at the sheer brutality of what he’d just witnessed, Ernie shook his own head clear. Grabbing onto a guidrope he swung over Bradley’s shoulder and put his head directly next to Bradley’s ear.

“MOVE IT!”

Bradley flexed and ice cracked and chipped all over his form. A deep growl began to emanate deep in his chest.

“Tha’s it, boy! Le’s get some o’ them!” Ernie declared, pointing at the startled greylords.

The first uttered words of power but stumbled over them as ice flew from Bradley’s right hand when he shook it clear.

The second just stood there, jaw dropping, while cradling the frozen form of  the third.

“Amateurs!” roared the Koldun Lord, as he commanded the second trio of greylords to focus their powers on the dire troll.

Ernie tried to swivel the gun to face the newcomers, but the Koldun Lord marshalled his subordinates and once more the pyg ace felt frost settling in.

Finally in range, the Winter Guard open fire on the Champions. Muzzles flare, rockets scream into the ruins, and an immense cloud of smoke rises before the northmen…

"Rabbit season!" "Duck Season!"

… and when it settles, one of the Champions wipes some blood from his arm. The rest just smile grimly.

GRIM TURN THREE

Warning: The below is an example of not playing with your head in the game, and a cautionary tale about having side conversations with enthusiastic new players while you’re playing a game you know you’ll be writing up for the blog later.

Grim once again tethers Beast-09 before mantrap does 2 more damage and knockdown, then forgets to feat.

Horatio the Winter Troll charges Beast-09, knowing that he won’t do notable damage, but shooting for the chain attack spray through Beast-09 to catch two Greylords and Zerkova.  Zerkova is missed. A Greylord dies but that’s small consolation for knowing that Beast-09 is about to stand up in base contact with a Winter Troll that forgot to use Rime.

In disgust at the errors made, the rest of the army simply maneuvres into position.

ZERKOVA TURN THREE

Zerkova gives 3 focus to Beast-09, who predicably spiflicates Horatio, rolling three 6’s on the hit with the axe for critical freeze and 15 damage. 6 more from the fist and headbutt, then one more axe attack to remove Horatio from the board.

The two remaining Greylords  from the first unit both miss Bradley (needing 5’s to hit). Astounded, the second unit moves up but only two are in range. The Koldun Lord steps up to provide the third freeze to make Bradley stationary again.

Zerkova backs up after casting Icy Grip on the Champions. The Winter Guard get all excited and, while bobbing & weaving, open fire with an array of sprays and a couple of rockets while Joe sings “For the Motherland!”.

When the dust settles, the unit has managed to do a total of 4 damage to one of the Champs.

Still frozen in place, Ernie watched the grim tableau before him. Hugh and the Tubthumpers closed in on the Winter Guard, one of the Khadorans dropping to the ground, blood leaking from his exposed ears.

The juggernaut turned to once more cast its mechanical gaze on Ernie and Bradley. 

“Stercus, Stercus, Stercus, Moriturus Sum” muttered Ernie.

Suddenly Vivian grunted and a spear flew directly into the Khadoran warcaster, cracking her armour and driving her to her knees. 

Without a word, Grim brought Headhunter around, levelled the barrel and squeezed off a single shot.

GRIM TURN FOUR

Hugh excitedly yells a Winter Guardsman to death. The Champs advance through the ruins, cursing Hugh’s forgetting to give them Pathfinder. Seriously, I have no idea where my head was this game.

Spotting a gap, Vivian uses Far Strike on himself before hefting a spear into Zerkova for a healthy 9 damage.

Thinking that looks like a bloody good idea, Grim moves into sight and shoots Zerkova for 7 more damage, dropping her for victory by caster kill.

... and that's why you don't leave a gap for Grim to shoot through.

Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova dropped to the ground.

As she fell, so did the juggernaut, no longer guided by the impulses of its mistress.

Grim nodded.

“Alright now, let’s be done with this lot.”

The Trolls of the Ta-Ta Kriel roared their approval and promptly set about seeing the Khadorans from the field.

Grim Tidings wins with 11 VPS

Khadoran Casualties:
Zerkova, (Beast-09), Mortar Crew

Trollblood Casualties:
Swamp Gobbers