Battle Cry 2010 Players Pack

Battle Cry 2010
February 20th and 21st
Players Pack
=====================================================================================

A KiwiThrall Event
kiwithralls@gmail.com

=====================================================================================

What is happening at Battle Cry 2010?

Battle Cry will see a Steam Roller 2010, 50pt, Mk2, mixed Warmachine and Hordes event spanning both days of the weekend covering the 20th and 21st of February.
NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT THE NZ MASTERS FOR 2010, THEY WILL BE HELD LATER IN THE YEAR.

The event will be held at the ASB stadium in Selwyn College on Kohimarama road, Kohimarama, Auckland.

The tournament organizers will do their best to ensure that the tournament runs smoothly and that everything is provided to enable the players to get as much enjoyment as possible from the event, and likewise the players should do their utmost to hold up their end of the bargain in making this the best event we possibly can; and remember the most important rule of all: enjoy yourself!

Cost
$35 pre-registered. Cost will be $40 on the day. (These are non-negotiable and are dictated by Battle Cry and not by the KiwiThralls)
DUE TO THE 2 DAY NATURE OF THE EVENT, PRE-REGESTRATION BEFORE THE DAY IS ESSENTIAL TO ATTAIN AN IDEA OF NUMBERS.

The Players
All players that attend are expected to conduct themselves appropriately throughout the tournament. This includes playing the game in the right spirit, making sure they have everything they need (dice, tokens, measuring tape, legible army lists and their armies!) and in general contributing to a friendly environment where everyone can enjoy both their games and the time spent in between rounds with their peers.

What is Steam Roller 2010?
Steam roller 2010 will be Privateer Press’ Mk2 tournament packet for 2010. At time of writing the rules are not released, but they will be played if available. If not, Steam Roller 4 will be used but this is unlikely.
More details will be available as they come to hand, but it might pay to practice timed turns and using multiple lists/casters.

The Armies
Each player will bring two different legal 50pt lists. The list played in each game will be selected at the beginning of each tournament round - after seeing your opponent’s lists but before rolling to determine first player, you may choose which list you will play. The process of selecting lists is thus:
1. Both players view each others lists
2. Both players place their chosen list face down
3. Simultaneously reveal the list to be played

Playing in the tournament
The first round will be random, and for subsequent rounds Swiss chess pairings will be used to pair winners against winners and losers against losers.
Same faction match ups will be avoided wherever possible.

A player will not be able to play the same opponent twice under any circumstances. Should there be an uneven number of players a player will be randomly selected to take a bye, which will count as a win.



What do I need to bring?• Two legible (preferably printed) 50pt army lists
• Models for the two armies
• A tape measure
• Templates and (effect) tokens
• Appropriate stat cards and some means of marking damage
• Printed Mk2 cards for those unavailable with current errata’s for Hordes in particular
• Copies of the rules will be present, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring your own
• Some counters to represent focus/fury
• A stopwatch

What prizes will be available?
1st
2nd
3rd
Best Sportsman
Best Painted
Executioner (Most army points gained over the entire event – warcasters count for [10pts-their war jack point value] for example High Exemplar Kreoss would be worth 10-5=5pts)
Best of each faction
Wooden Spoon

Players will be eligible for one prize and the best of faction awards. No other two prizes may be won in conjunction and the prize will be passed to the next player in contention for that prize.

Timetable
Day 1
9.00 – Arrive
9.30 – Round one commences
12.00 – Round one ends, lunch break start
1.00– Lunch break end, round two begins
3.00– Round two ends
3.15 – Round 3 begins
5.15 – Round 3 ends

Day 2
9.00 – Arrive
9.30 – Round four commences
12.00 – Round four ends, lunch break start
1.00– Lunch break ends, round five begins
3.00– Round five ends
3.30 – Prize giving
3.45 – Pick up games
6.00 – Pack up and home time




Questions and comments can be emailed to kiwithralls@gmail.com,
Alternatively see James at City Guard.

Sweet Retribution

Its been a while since my last blog post and I've got no excuse, life got in the way.

On the bright side after mini-core on sunday I'm feeling the buzz and I took some pics for you all. Doppelganger Chris' Dwarves making a spectaculat turnout has inspired me to give painting the first squad of Horgenhold a go. Well that and the awesomeness that is the Basher :D.


Not the greatest picture but theres not all that much to see there yet, just base coats.

I'm still struggling to get my mind around how Ravyn really works but definitely getting better at not loosing with the retribution... well a little better.

I ran:

Ravyn
^Manticore
Invictors (6)
+UA
Mage Hunter Assassin
Mage Hunter Assassin
Arcanist

Missing only 4 models from fully painted thanks to an exploding car the week before wiping out a fainr whack of my painting time and got endless sh*t for taking two MHA, in 4 games they snapped half a Rockram (both contacting) and whiffed or died horribly for no gain in the other three... I'm not seeing the broken other people who haven't played them are.

Got some great games in and really enjoyed playing the opponents and their lists but I can't help the feeling that I should have taken eEiryss or Narn instead.

In more detail I thought Ravyn deserved to get up on the blog after a great performance over the weekend:


Great model and a real pleasure to paint. The glaive really wants to be pinned but I didn't because I'm lazy and thats the only fault I can find with the model.

I don't have detail pics on all the Retribution painted so far but I did snap a quick group shot just for progress sake. Forgive the Gloss Varnish still on some of them, haven't had the time to dullcote when its been sunny lately.


I'll have a go at getting photos of some of the better jobs up here in the near future so they're not just blurs on a screen but for the next week or so its Dwarf-Hammertime on the painting table. I'd forgotten that even with P3 cheatery yellow is still not an easy colour, I'm relearning that.

Until next time,

Play Like You Have a Pair.

KT Event: MINI-CORE. pics and results

Well MINICORE ran today.
Player pack can be found here.

Turned out to be quite a fun event; with 14 people (excluding me) turning up – 3 GF9ers, 3 Hamiltroners, and assorted locals.

What’s better, the locals were given quite a run for their money!
And the GF9ers had some very nicely painted armies... they put the rest of us to shame.

In fact, my favourite picture of the event, Chris weeping in the corner as he tries to avoid loosing to Marks’ Coven. Something he was successful in – playing on to a draw.



Props to so many people for turning up, we took over Cityguard today, and got in quickly to grab good tables before the GWers stole them all. WIN.


Anyways, final rankings:

1. James - Deneghra
2. Shaun - pButcher
3. JS - Reznik
4. Scott - Ashlynn
5. Damon - Kraye
6. Victor - Kreoss
7. Jon - pVlad
8. Chris (K/thrall) - Ravyn
9. Chris - Gorten
10. JJ - eStryker
11. Mark – The Coven
12. Glenn - Gorten
13. Josh - Stryker
14. Paul - eCaine

First three places taking hom ethe usual SR coins, and Woodenspoon being a $20 Vags voucher.

And some pictures...

Thanks guys, it was fun.

past present and future tense

Well, enough of these KT notices, event declarations and tutorials; it’s time for some nonsense.

Now the debris has settled - (Warmachine) MkII is here, and the field test is gone along with MkI, where are my armies at? And where am I with respect to Warmachine, Hordes and the like?


Well, firstly I haven’t read through all the rules yet – I’ve been a mix of lazy, preoccupied and apathetic towards them. What I have read though... most of the changes seem meaningless or superficial; the end result is quite nice, if lacking in character; but the big thing I like is the tier lists.

Despite my better judgment, I suffer from gamer OCD, and am bit of a collector. That’s how I end up with things like the whole Khador Faction... so these tier lists are something I am instantly in love with.
- I require a theme heavy nature to my lists, and they offer that; I require forces that I cannot really add to, and they offer that; I require awesome, and while (naturally) quite specific, the offer that too.

So, I’ve made a decision which I’ve been debating about for over a year... and sold up. Gone is the faction of Khador – sorry to anyone who was reading my Zerkova theme list series, that’s gone now too.

Replacing my whole Faction army is/will be several Tier lists – I’m aiming for three main tier armies:

• Adeptis Rahn Shyeel – Charge of the Battlemages;
• Forward Kommander Sorscha – presumably Winterguard;
• ?? Most likely a Hordes army, but I’ll decide once I see the fieldtest/MkII etc.

And a couple of Warmachine starter armies (15pt forces based around some Bboxes).

I’ve started playing 15pt armies with eSorschas' Winterguard, and started a thread at PP called Cold By Winter to deposit all my experience, discoveries and whatever else into. Similarly, while I haven’t had a chance to play Rahn yet, I’ve set up a thread called Mittens For Kittens.

The Cold By Winter army is fully built, and awaiting the arrival of some riflemen, plastic jacks, and knowledge of the actual tiers.


Until I know the tiers I only really intend on playing small games with this force, where I should be able to easily avoid breaking a hypothetical tier one restraint. I may also expand this (Khador) army to incorporate a second tier army (hopefully Irusk), to enable me to play in two caster games, but we’ll see.

I will very likely be playing this army in Minicore tomorrow, more specifically:
Forward Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff, Beast-09, War Dog, Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich, 2 x Winterguard Field Gun Crew, Winterguard Mortar Crew.
After a bit of playtesting I think it is one of the stronger 15pt lists fitting this tier (despite JS protesting that I should be playing pSorscha)

Models for Mittens for Kittens have also being built (sans the unreleased Houseguard)... but have yet to be played.


Rahn was one of my two caster choices for RoS tiers, the other being Garryth, and I’m still not entirely convinced I made the right choice. But it makes a themey and highly restricted force that should require some skill to work well (all round); so, hopefully some play time with it will remove these doubts. If I buy a second tier for larger games it’ll probably be Garryth.

So these main armies I now have to paint, but I’m really not sure of what scheme to use. Should I go traditional theme, or should I do something more original?


I’ve also got my first two starter armies built, Khador and Cygnar. The intent with these armies is for them to be played against themselves and others like them; I’ve also strived to stick with Prime only models (for “simplicity”).
So I’ve come up with:

• Khador: Sorscha, Destroyer, Juggernaut, Widowmakers.
  - Incorporating the basic Khador strategy, heavy things move up to kill, while support units pick off important things and add a distraction to the main offensive.
  
  
  
• Cygnar: Stryker, Ironclad, Lancer, Reinholdt, JMWC, Charger
  - Which should hopefully encapsulate some of Cygnars' base nature – running jacks better and a caster driven nature of denying the enemy the offensive.
  
  
  

The Khador is going to be painted in a fully 5th border legion scheme (the jacks are from the remains of my old painted army); and the Cygnar, I’m not entirely sure, but I’m leaning towards a Fort Falks scheme.

So that’s the main news on the western front. Hopefully I’ll have some painted pictures to chuck up over the next few weeks; but I’m making no promises. I do however intend on getting at least one 15pt battle report up shortly.



Though, coming up on the local front we have:

• This weekend will see the mini-core tournament, which should be a ton of fun... expect an event report at the end of the week;
• we’ve also got a player pack for Battlecry 2010 almost ready to go to print; and
• Equinox 2010 has been well planned – a player pack will be up soon, it’ll be big and will have very limited spaces.

And as a little teaser –
Plans are in motion so that next year you will see (and be able to participate) in the first

New Zealand National Warmahordes League

Swan for the swan god

So... this is what I have been up to painting wise over the past little while - all painted up for JJ. I'll hand them over to him at minicore this weekend.

Speaking of other factions, I have picked up some Cryx as my second ever Warmachine faction. I considered it a wee while ago and with Mk2 it seems the perfect time to get into a new faction.

I'm considering changing it up and playing Cryx for mini-core.

Stuff

1 Skarre
1 eSkarre
1 Goreshade
1 Asphyxious
1 Deneghra
1 Terminus
1 Coven
14 Bile Thralls
8 Mechanithralls
8 Revenant Crew
1 Brute Thrall
12 Bane Thralls
10 Bane Knights
1 Tartarus
5 Soul Hunters
1 Reaper
1 Deathjack
1 Harrower
1 Seether
1 Stalker
4 Deathrippers
2 Nightwretches
1 Defiler
Skarlock
2 Pistol Wraiths
12 Satyxis
1 Sea Witch

It all needs to be painted so I would expect some more modelling posts from me over the next little while.

Not to mention all the Protectorate still to paint- sigh.

Play like you have a pair.

15pt list building and Mini-core

Hi all, James here again after a lengthy exam/life hiatus from the blog and warmachine in general I'm back.

As you may or may not know (you should if you are in the Auckland area this Nov. 22nd) Mini-core is a 15pt Mk2 event being run by Haydn that uses 5min timed turns. It's designed to be fast and furious 'caster kill/army decimation action.

Having played a few games now with 15pt lists, theory-machined it and not having had much to say on the log over the past few months I figured this would be a good time to discuss 15pt list builds for Protectorate but I suppose it could apply to any faction in its simplest form.

At this points level the 'caster is the key element, their power becomes even more pronounced as one particularly good spell or feat can spell doom for your opponent.

So choosing a 'caster is going to be probably easier than in larger games as you probably don't have the points to make some of the less desirable 'casters work - you very much have to have a stream lined system.

So for the most part it is very easy to rule out 'casters that require a lot of support to make work - for example the High Reclaimer might not perform as well as say Caine who operates well on his own.

'Jacks work well if they can fulfill multiple roles such as Guardians or Phoenixes who act as heavies and arc nodes at the same time. 'Jacks like Vanquishers who operates as anti-infantry and still threatens enemy 'jacks for a cheap point cost is also going to be a good choice.

You probably don't need to worry as much about focus efficiency as much as you might in larger games as you'll probably only want one or two 'jacks and shouldn't be focus starved.

Infantry should best be kept cheap and cheerful for screening purposes as a stray AOE could devastate a large portion of you list. 'Casters with spells like Chain Lightening and Ashes to Ashes will get good return on those spells if you rely on infantry to be the core of your list.

There seems to be two ways to go with general list building philosophy. One is that you build a very specialised list that will capitalise on one particular strength - for example Testament with Vengers that drives straight for the 'caster or focuses on getting as much armour on the table as possible in hopes your opponent can't deal with it. The other is building a general list that has more chance against all comers that can adapt but is less geared towards killing the 'caster or destroying the enemy army and can handle a mix of infantry or 'jacks and suffers against a lot of either.

I'm going to be going with something like this

eSeverius

^Reckoner

^Redeemer

Hierophant

4xChoir

Vassal

Wracks

This is an example of a general list - note that there is no infantry and no arc node. It plays eSeverius a bit furthur forward to capitalise on his feat which is devestating at this low points level (though possibly useless) and Rebuke with a 12" range to shut down enemy infantry.

The Reckoner and Redeemer provide solid ranged assassination threat with Awareness and one thing I have found particularly useful is the potential for eSeverius to act as a melee stop gap. If a heavy gets too close to your lines he can punish it with Creators Wrath and the game isn't lost if he loses his Reckoner early.

It's very focus efficient, as he can have 10 focus worth on any particular turn.

It will however struggle against particularly high ARM or particularly large infantry swarms and lists with poor feat targets.

The second list I will address fits more into the first philosophy of lists - much more assassination orientated but is more vulnerable to direct beat face match ups.

pKreoss

^Vanquisher

^Reckoner

Rhoven and Honour Guards

4xChoir

The obvious pop and drop with the potential to deal with stealth and cloud effects using Rhoven, who also packs a fair punch in melee if push comes to shove.

It can crack high ARM with a couple of melee heavies and weapon masters. The denial of Kreoss' knock down, Lamentation and Purification cannot be discounted either.

At the end of the day it can be very match up dependent on whether someone brings the rock to your scissors at such small points levels but I think this has been lessened in Mk2.

So that's my thoughts on 15pts, should be interesting to see how it plays out. Regardless it will be a good day and there will be a report no doubt with pictures even. Looks like it's going to be a great turn out!

Plastic Fantastic

--Magnets for Great justice—
Building the Retribution of Scyrah heavy Myrmidons

PP are now releasing plastic products, you should know this already, unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock these last half dozen months or so; this article focuses on the construction of the new (retribution) jacks and using magnets to give them modular options.

So, here we will look at the Retribution of Scyrah heavy Myrmidon (warjack) kit; and we’ll assemble this in three ‘common’ ways.

The Kit:

The Retribution of Scyrah Heavy Myrmidon box set is a plastic kitset that can be used to build any of the RoS Hydra, Manticore or Phoenix Heavy Myrmidons.


It’s one of those new age plastic kits:

• Normal plastic glues will not necessarily work on this kit
  -use the super glues you usually would for metal models
• If you get any bent pieces you can heat them up and bend them back in place, then cool them to reset.
  (use a hair dryer or some hot water for bending and some cold water to re-set).

This is different to what you find in GW kits; but similar to what is found in kits by newer gaming companies - like those producing Alkemy, etc.

PPs plastics also slot together quite well – in this case the whole leg+hips section sits together with no use of glue at all, and the main exhausts slot nicely into the main torso... you will still want to glue these together though.


For more information on PP plastics check your NQ24 (pg51), or steal someone else’s.

The kit contains all the pieces required to construct either a Hydra, Manitcore, or Phoenix Heavy Myrmidon.
These use mostly the same pieces in their construction aside from a few differences:

• The Phoenix uses different “exhaust vents”(?);
• The Phoenix uses a different Right hand;
• The Hydra uses a different pair of fore arms;
• The Manticore has blades attached to its’ forearms; and


• Each option uses a different head.

Naturally this encourages hope for an ability to swap out the different parts of the jacks (between games); however, the kit is designed around being used to assemble one model only – there are no doubles of anything in the kit.


I want to keep this focused on the construction of these models, and not a review of the plastic kits themselves; but I have to say I am rather disappointed with the molds. Perhaps I’m just out of the habit of dealing with Plastic, but while the flash and mold lines were smaller, there felt like there was more of it... especially with the many small pieces.

Also, while we’re talking about the kit it is worth noting:
There are a lot of ball and socket joints on this kit, but don’t forget it’s a (heavy) jack - while there is huge possibility, only a small range of poses actually look sensible.

Assembling the kit:

There are three distinct (common) ways or ideas in assembling the kit

• the single-jack option
• the “two for one”-jack (Hydra/Manticore)
• the omni-jack

Below I’ll assemble this jack once in each method.

Which ever way you choose to assemble you kit, make sure you think things through first, and have fun.

Magnets

In building this (in the second and third way), I’ll be using Magnets. I have some that are 2.3mm in diameter (3mm tall) and some in 3mm in diameter (1.5mm tall).
I will say here that I have used the 3mm magnets everywhere aside from in the hands, exhaust vents, and forearms (in omni-jack). Those are the only pieces I found to small to easily fit a 3mm magnet in (I could just do it in the hands, but felt it was too messy)

I cannot profess to be an expert on magnets – what I know is from vague memories of high school physics. But all you really need to know is that they stick when lined up north pole to south pole, and repel each other when aligned north to north and/or south to south. If you want to know more, then look them up on Wikipedia.


As they will only stick together in the correct orientation, I highly recommend marking the poles – just use a thin paint brush (and some paint) to mark the same side of all the magnets.
I don’t expect the paint to stay that well, but as long as it’s there long enough to stop me form making mistakes, I’m happy.

There’s nothing terribly difficult in using Magnets. In the simplest situation you can just drill an appropriate sized hole, check it’s the right depth and glue the magnet straight in. I’m not sure it’s necessary, but I like to scrape the gluing surfaces with my craft knife first.


If you are drilling onto a ball joint, you may find it easier to cut a flat surface first (for the drill to better grip into). If you are drilling into a socket you can just drill away. Just be careful about narrow pieces of the model.


Additionally, it is probably a good idea to repaint the magnets once they are glued in. Keeping with my markings from before: if the coloured end is sticking out, then I paint the magnet; otherwise I make a paint mark on the model near the magnet. You may find it worthwhile to have a “master plan” wrt the magnets. In my models I will be keeping the coloured end pointing down (as you move down through the neck, elbow, wrist), with the exception being the left arm where the direction will be inverted - so right limbs cannot be attached to the left side, etc.

Now in general, I don’t know where it’s best to get magnets from, I picked mine up from here. What I can say, is that in my experience they are quite expensive, so take care and don’t waste them.
Though, after buying them I was reminded that there’s a guy in Hamilton who has access to ‘cheap’ magnets... I don’t know how cheap they are, but fair bet I probably paid much more than I needed to.

Single option – The Phoenix

In this option I’ll quickly demonstrate assembly of the kit with no swap out options.
I’m picking the Phoenix as:

• it is the more difficult of the bunch WRT incorporating modular options;
• I think most people will assemble a Phoenix and a “two for one”; and
• I want one for my Rahn army.

Assembly is pretty straight forward and barely requires comment. There are a lot of ball and socket joints on this model, if your making a single jack from the kit, you might as well try make some use of them (I’m sure you can do better than I have).


And thus we have the finished jack.


For painting purposes I’ve currently left the should pads off (they make Vlad jealous) along with the forearms. In the above picture the jack is just held together with blu-tack - hooray for light (plastic) pieces!

Naturally, there are some left over pieces, make sure you keep them. You can use them in wreck markers, model bases, scenario objective markers, or in later kits.

Two for one - Hydra/Manticore

Hydra/Manticore? Why chose that option?
The only things differing between these two jacks are the heads and the forearms, thus we can alternate between the two if we can replace these options. This is nice and straight forward, and using magnets only requires magnet joins at the hands, elbows and neck. Trying to alternate between any other two of the jack options is a lot more tricky... and if you’re going to be doing that, then you might as well be building an omni-jack.

As in the single option, we can construct the main body – legs, torso (with neck magnet), upper arms (once we’ve put magnets in), shoulders, exhaust vents.


We then need to insert magnets appropriately into the other pieces/joins.

This is easily done in the same manner as you might usually pin a model

• Drill out holes for the magnets (make sure they are big enough.
• Ensure the holes line up (if you feel you need to)
• Insert and glue the magnets in place
  take care to put the magnet in facing the correct way.

But be very careful with smaller parts (like the wrists pictured below), you don’t want to drill to deep... you may prefer to drill a succession of gradually larger guide holes.


And thus we have a jack with swap out options.

Omni-jack – Hydra/Manticore/Phoenix

The Omni-jack is perhaps considered the most foolish and difficult of the three options.

This extra modularity requires the ability to:

• swap exhaust vents (not too difficult);
• exchange an extra head (simple);
• replace a sword for a hand (with decent magnets this should be simple); and
• Make the Manticores arm blades removable (this is considered the problem).

Anyways, easy stuff first


Now, there are two main things to consider in this construction.

1. The Exhaust Vents.
We need to be able to switch between the two types vents, on the most basic level this should be any problem, the pieces slot quite comfortably into the torso... however, we’re using magnets which will hold them in place much better, so what shall we do?

The thin recess nature makes straight inserting a magnet (as I’ve done with the ball and socket joins) difficult. So, instead I’ve cut away the top half of the inserting tab, and I’ve placed a magnet in the main piece where the tab was. Now I can fill in the top half of the recess and fit a magnet on the surface. WIN.



2. The Arm Blades.
If you don’t mind having a phoenix with arm blades, then this isn’t an issue at all... if, however, you are like me and balk at the idea of the phoenix not being quite right... well, get some steel rod (like you’d use for pinning).

Now, the issue of the arm blades...
The blades lie flat on the arm, and the contact point is quite narrow (2mm) so a magnet join seems like a foolish idea; but it should still be quite easy to do. Here we use the idea that magnets attract other metals (particularly steel IIRC). While I cannot fit a Magnet into the blade, I can fit some steel rod in there, and can easily fit a magnet in the forearm itself.
This should give quite a reasonable bond, but I can go slightly further and by making a small hole near the wrist, I can create a circuit between this forearm magnet and the wrist magnet (will need to be careful about putting magnets the correct way around) using the steel rod. This should increase the magnetic bond to the steel, and in having a hole the rod inserts into, help the join overall.


So, we just drill a couple of small holes (they're a bit of a blemish on the model, but better than a whole arm blade), and some bent steel rod, you can get a very solid bond across the two pieces.

And thus we have a jack with swap out options.

END

I hope this helps anyone who was having issues with the assembly of warjack plastic kits, and figuring out how to use magnets for modular options. As mine are still unpainted, I can't give you painted photos... but I'm sure you can find some on the PP forums.


...Now, I’ve got some Battle Mages to get to work on...