The Devils Luck

Everyone has had a hint of devils luck when playing dice games, those games where every time the dice leave your hand fives and sixes face up. No matter how good a strategy or how great an army list you have created in the end all dice games will still be decided by a single roll of a die.  Granted you can always blame the dice for bad tactics but it does not substitute for a poor played game but it will sure make you feel better when you get stomped.

That is the great thing about board games or table top games is that ounce of randomization that dice bring to a game, whether your game is Risk, Warhammer or Warmachine the thrill of the game comes from the rattle of dice in your hand and the unpredictability of the dice rolling across the table. this has been a past time of civilization for centuries, the first dice were dated before recorded history and the oldest dice in history are 5000 years old. Used by all classes of civilization, from knights and ladies to chronic gamblers and criminals. It doesn’t mater what social class you come from dicing has always been a source of entertainment.

So just remember when things look good and everything is going your way sixes and fives can become ones and two’s in a roll of a dice, some time you just aren’t meant to win but you can always blame it on the dice.

Trollbloods vs Cygnar & Khador Part 1 of 2

Hello everyone,

I had the pleasure of playing Spence and Evan on Thursday  December 29th in a game of warmachine, while I was writing the blog in my head they were filming for a video battle report. As soon as they post it on YouTube, I will link it to this post.  I would like to apologize for the lack of content as of late but with Christmas coming and going there was not much time left to write a blog, and I wasn’t getting any games in during that week either.

Now let’s get down to business, the three of us did a 2 vs 1 No Man’s land show down, I had 50 points of Trollbloods, while Spence fielded 25 points of Cygnar and Evan had 25 points of Khador. 2 Casters with only one feat. It was not going to be an easy day in the forest for the Trollbloods with Cygnar & Khador teaming up in a rare alliance in order to rid the Trollbloods of a forest that both sides want.

The lists

My Trollbloods were led by Grim Angus, during this day of glory or sorrow he would bring the following beasts with him, 1 Impaler, 1 Axer, 1 Swamp Troll, 1 Dire Mauler & 1 Earth Born, knowing that every battle needs infantry to support the hard hitters, he rounded up a unit of Scouts, along with Trollkin Champions and Skaldi Bonehammer, to add a dash of surprise during the fight he enlisted 10 Pyg Burrowers. The Beasts needed some comfort food so 2 groups of whelps were herded into the battle. Every general needs an advisor so Grim asked Janissa Stonetide to join him. 

Spencer & Evan fielded eHaley from the Cygnar casters & Harkevich to lead the Khador troops. Haley enlisted a single Defender, a Hunter and a Grenadier, Haley’s Defender has survived a few battles and shares a bond with Haley. Harkevich brought his trusty jack Black Ivon to shatter the woods with his gun and claw. Both Warcasters brought some infantry Cygnar spared a small squad of 6 Trenchers, and the elite fighters of the Black 13. Harkevich was able to secure and bring 3 Man-O-War Bombadiers and 3 Man-O-War Shocktroopers. Harkevich had the only solo ‘s in the list using a Manhunter to harass the trolls and Rienholt was able to make a few coins by joining Harkevich and the Man-O-War Drakhun was along for the ride to add a little punch.

Turn 1

Spencer & Evan

Evan chose to go first during the allocation of his focus he gave 1 focus advanced the Shocktroopers 4″ under the shield wall order (+4Arm) he ran the Bombadiers 8″, Black Ivon ran up beside a set of woods, followed by Harkevich who casted Fortune on the Bombadiers and escort. Reinholt ran to keep up with Harkevich, and the Man Hunter set pace out of the woods and Ran towards my scouts Drakhun moved up along side both units of Man-O-Wars.  The Trenchers moved 6 and dug in, the Grenadier moved into base-to-base contact with the Trenchers, while the hunter ran to support the Manhunter of Khador. The Defender ran to keep pace with the rest of the army while Haley cast Deceleration to buff a good chuck of the battle field’s defence and their armour.

My Turn 1

I started my Turn off by walking the Pyg Burrowers 5 inches. My champions with Skaldi ran to support the Burrowers, The Mauler ran along side the Earthborn, while the axer moved 5″. I moved the impaler up and cast his animus on himself, he was out of range from Drakhun. The scouts made their way to the edge of the forest, without venturing out. I moved my Swamp Troll into the woods to get the concealment, bonus. 5 welps started in play and moved up behind the beasts, Grim Angus moved into position to shoot at Drakhun next turn.

Khador & Cygnar Turn 2

This was the turn of first contract, Evan was upkeeping fortune and Escort. He then started by moving  his Bombadiers up and fired a hail of granades onto the poor Pyg Burrowers killing 3 and no tough rolls made. Drakhun moved up and fired a shot from his shield cannon at the Pyg  Burrowers and failed to hit or kill anything. The Shocktroopers advanced under the shieldwall order and the Man hunter moved up his regular movement. Harkevich activated moved up and cast Broadside and ended his activation, Reinholt moved up and supported Harkevich. Black Ivon took some  shots at the Earthborn and hit with the first shot as it was boosted doing some minor damage, the second shot missed and scattered away from my forces.  The Manhunter stayed where he was. The trenchers then moved into a firing position and started to shoot at the Scouts, killing one but I passed my tough roll, the grenadier moved into base-to-base with the trenchers to get his two extra shots off, his first shot was at the scouts in and hit killing two but only one was removed, it dawned on me that the scouts in the woods had stealth. The second and third shots were at the Swamp Troll and both shots missed. Haley activated and moved up to cast  Temporal acceleration on the Defender. The defender blasted away the Trollkin Scouts leaving one left on his own. The hunter hid in the woods thus ending their turn two.

My Turn 2

I started by moving Grim Angus up and using his feat Spread the Net, I caught all of the Khador forces and a few Cygnar troops. He then fired off one shot at Drakhun, hitting but I failed to do any damnage, afterwards I casted Rush on both the Mauler and the Earthborn. leaving me with 2 furry for transfers. The lone scout used assault order needing an 11 to hit and sure enough he planted a throwing axe dead in the chest of a trencher killing him but failing to hit on his attack. The Mauler charged into Drakhun, casting his animus of Rage I hit with both my initial attacks killing the mounted version and triggering smash and grab, I chose to do a two-handed throw at Black Ivon, he hit with attack and won the battle of strength with ease. I followed that success up with a hit on black Ivon and Harkevich was close enough to catch as well knocking all three down. but I failed to kill Drakhun on foot. The burrowers called in a tunneling order and started digging. The Earthborn made short work of the Man Hunter Janissa moved up behind everyone and casted rock wall behind the Earthborn. I moved the Implaer up and casted Snipe on the Swamp Troll. The Swamp troll  then moved in behind the wall to gain concealment, using his extra long tongue he latched on to a shock trooper doing minor damage and dragged him into malee range where he used 3 focus to kill him. The Axer just moved up to support Grim Angus. I left a lot of my models with in a close range of the Khador models knowing that none of them could charge on his next turn because of Spread the net giving them a -3 spd.

I will write back soon with Turn 3 till the end of the game. Thanks for reading and remember keeping rolling those dice.

Heros vs VIllains Battle Report Part 1

Unlike most people on last Saturday evening, I was not out cruising the town, or at a night club, what I was doing was playing Pulp City for the first time. After painting for most of the day, I had 2 miniatures painted and was itching to try this game out so I sent a text to my buddy Mike, who was all for a game. The game is played by Levels so we decided to play a level 5 game. There is a chart in the rule book that shows you the level break down for a game of this size, we need two level two characters and one level one.

Mike won the choice of setting up first or second, as this has no real effect on the first turn, He chose to set up first, He deployed solar and Hoodoo on my right side behind the building and Ace of Wrath on my left also behind a building. I chose to set up Twilight on the Left, Guerilla down the middle and Nuke on the right side.

This scene took place on a lonely military base, the villains (played by myself) were attempting to get away with some highly regarded military documents. Nuke lvl 2, Twillight lvl 1 and Guerilla lvl 2 (pictures below) attempted to make it out of the military complex and take down as many civilian’s as possible, Solar lvl 2, Ace of Wrath lvl 2 & Red Riding Hoodoo lvl 1 and her wolf (played by Mike) showed up to foil their plans.

The game is played primarily with 1d6, a measuring tape and The game is played primarily with 1d6, a measuring tape and the cards. The starting roll is a dice roll between both sides using the highest mental stat, Red Riding Hoodoo has a mental stat of 5 and Solar is a Leader giving the roll a +1. Making it nearly impossible for me to win the roll, I had all 3 models with 3.  Hoodoo won the starting roll with a 2 vs my 5, as her total was 8 as was my total score, the tie breaker was the origins we were both Mystery so it came down to higher stat giving Hoodoo the win. The civilians were with in command range of the Hero’s so mike chose to move them 4 inches towards his table edge. Solar made the first action using 1 AP (action points are needed to do anything in the game and each character has a maximum AP they can use) to activate up, up and Away* and then move 4 inches forward to a building top. I chose to active Twilight’s Lurk (Lurk allows me to make an opposed using their energy ability vs my Agility ability to see if they can see her to shoot her) ability for 1 Ap and that was my activation. Mike ran Ace up to a wall to get a clear shot at any of my models and to protect the civilians.  I used 2 Ap to make a double move and end up behind a truck. Hoodoo activated and made one of her two move actions to move up 4 inches along her left flank. I used 2 Ap and double moved with Guerilla. Solar the flew down behind a trunk for cover. I activated Twilight and Ran her up my left flank.  He then activated Hoodoo and commanded the wolf to run 8 inches to support solar. I spent 2 AP to try to shoot Solar with Guerilla’s Daka Boom ability ( any model suffering 1 wound would then suffer and additional 2) I was  just shy of the 8 inches need to hit him. Ace activated and tried to shoot me but was out of range of his 8 inches, and thus ending turn 1.

*The Images in this post are property of PulpCity.

Pulp City Review

What’s that in the sky? It’s a bird, it’s a plan, it isn’t superman it is the Heros and Villains of Pulp City. I recently picked up a copy of the Pulp City Guide book and the Villains starter set from Black Knight Games in Hamilton Ontario. The owner of Black Knight Games was telling me about this game when he got back from GenCon 2011 Indiana, at first I was thinking great another miniatures game, until he got to the part where he was a Giant ape who picked up a light post and was able to throw it at his opponent, I am sorry but that is awesome. So I watched a few demo’s on YouTube and was completely sold.

Pulp City is a game that allows everyone to play out their fantasy of being a super hero or a villain, in order to play the game you need at least two miniatures, a tape measure four dice, away of keep track of your action pool and interactive terrain. It is best played in a city setting because let’s be honest  super hero’s don’t protect open fields with cows in them. The rule book in a hard cover book that was mostly printed in full color it has a great comic book look and when you’re reading over the rule book you feel like your reading a comic to  a degree. They have special notes for triggers or important information that has comic book fonts With  11 Chapters to read through it is fairly quick to finish as there is only 140 pages. Unlike some games this book was easy to read, and remember. The coolest thing I found for anyone who likes to covert models, there is a section on creating your own minions, this will allow you to have a Villain and his gang of thugs to suport him. The book retails $34.99 cdn, and is a good starting point if you plan on playing the game.

So we have a our rule book and now we need some miniatures to play with, I am a big fan of the bad guys, so I picked up the villains box set. The art work on the box is pretty cool and keeps up with the comic book feel, once I opened the box it nice to see that it was split into two smaller boxes. The boxes had the miniatures in one, and Bases, cards and bits to glue on in the other, the only down side is they models are small and some of the bits are going to require some green stuff to ensure they stick to the model. However I love the actual models in this box set, the villains that come in the start box are as follows, Nuke, Twilight, The Gentleman, Guerillia and Hellsmith, each model has a card that has his stats, health and special actions. The box also give’s resource cards that your villains are able to use. 

I can’t wait to get the models assembled, and painted, once I have my first game I will write a blog about how it went and give more details as to how to play, unless you would like a little more information prior. Leave me some feed back if you would like a follow-up blog on how the game plays and basic rule mechanics.

Skorne vs Circle Battle Report, Part 2

Last post I had left off at the end of my Turn 2, so let me pick up where I left off.

Turn 3

On his turn three there was a lot of carnage on the table, Wurmwood had three soul tokens from the dead nyss hunters and because I used eHexeris’ feat he had to take 6 damage in order to get his furry back. His Tharn Wolf Rider charged three swordsman, killing one on the assault order, and finishing the other two off with his melee attacks he then took his fast Calvary move to threaten Hexeris and the Paingivers. He continued to move Gallows Groves forward 5 inches and with in 3″ of the Brozeback, so now I can’t heal him if I wanted to, due to Entropic Force. Cassius casts Hellsmouth on the gallows grove and gained an extra 2″ because of the Bone Grinders, this pulls the Bronzeback base to base with Gallows Grove, his caster follows up by casting Curse of Shadows threw a Second Gallows Grove and reduces the Bronzebacks armour from 19 down to 17. At this point  Megolith has the Titan Bronzeback in his sights and charges in, 5 Furry later he has killed the poor bronzeback and the Agonzier in one go, the Gorax ran forward to support Megolith if needed, to finish the turn he moved the Druid Wilder 5″ behind the Gorax, The Bone Grinders used arcane bolt to kill Rhadiem, the nyss hunter charged the Savage and did a few points of damage nothing to write home about, Ending his turn.

On my half of the turn I need to make up some of the losses I had taken. I charged forward with 1 Swordsman and did 2 damage to the wolf rider, the Banner man Ran to make sure I contested the control zone, the lone swordsman with a weapon charged the Druid wilder and used Combo strike (increasing the damage from 9 to 12) and killed her. I moved 4 pain giver beast handlers to attack the wolf rider, the leader stayed with in 8″ of the last paingiver so he could give Enrage to the Gladiator, all 3 models missed their attacks and the sole model who landed his attack only did 1 damage due to Anatomical precision. The Cyclops savage finished of the Nyss hunter. The Gladiator was so enraged he charged into Megolith and killed him with 3 furry. At this point I am starting to look like I have a chance, with Megolith dead I still  have the savage and Gladiator left with 1 swords man and a banner and the paingivers. So it was time for a ballzy move, I Charged into the Gorax and did 22 points of damage with two attacks killing him. I used the remainder of the focus to try to spook the Bone Grinders but failed to hit with the spell.

Turn 4

On his turn 4 he beat up on the Titan leaving him with 3 health left, using spells from his caster, his wolf rider killed 1 paingiver and the Bone Grinders casted Arcane bolt and killed the last swordsman. His Gallows Grove moved 5 more inches make sure the titan could not be healed. And that concludes his Turn.

On my turn I miss gudged where I was on the board and by the time I ended my turn I had killed another Gallows Grove, did another 1 wound to the wolf rider but in foolishness of trying to save my Gladiator I didn’t move my caster and lost the game on control points.

The lead was back and forth in this game, I can tell you how much I enjoy playing eHexeris, his spells are great, his ability to keep his beasts alive are amazing and his feat can shut down a warlock for a turn, all in all he is worth purchasing and playing games with.

I have fought against most of the models my opponent had fielded, I didn’t get a chance to see the Gorax could actually do, but I have read up on him and I am glad it died when it did. The Gallows Grove was fantastic they are field allowance 4 and cost 1 point, and are worth every point. They are able to move on their turn can not be slammed or thrown or even placed so you are forced to kill it in traditional ways, but they do fold easy. It was nice for his warlock to hide in a forest and sling spells at me through the Groves.

This was one of my best games in a long time, I should have moved my caster forward but I made a choice on the field and paid the price for it.  Until next time take it easy and keep rolling.

Skorne vs Circle Battle Report,

I was able to get a game in this week, and I thought I would share the game and results with you all of you. The battle was set a 35 points the scenario was Overrun. In this scenario both players are trying to capture control points, you need 2 points to win and gain a point if you are in a 8″ wide 36″ long box and your opponent is not. Here were the lists

For my Skorne list I was playing the following

eHexris -6

Titan Gladiator (8)

Titan Bronzeback  (10)

Cyclops Savage (5)

10 swordsman +Ua (8)

6 Paingiver Beast Handlers (3)

Agonizer (2)

Tyrant Radiem (5)

My Oppenent was playing circle and he fielded the following list.

Cassius The oathkeeper & wumpwood

Megalith

Gorax

10 man Niss Hunters

3 Tharn Wolf Riders

4 Gallows Grove ( these were proxied as they have not been released yet)

6 bone grinders

Druid wilder

Set up

I won the roll but was still unpacking so I let him go first, He set his Niss Hunters up on my left flank, his Tharn Riders on the Right flank, the table was split with a nice river a hill on opposite corners and forests across from each hill. His caster was set up in the back of his zone with Wurmwood just inside the forest, his beasts were on the max line with the Wilder behind him, for his advance deployment models were the 4 gallows grove spread out across the board. The bone grinders stayed close to the caster

For my set up I had set the Brozeback and Gladiator across from his beasts, my swordsman were on my right flank and were the prey of the Riders, My caster was right behind the beasts with his Cyclops and Rhadiem just off to the left, I set the agonizer 4″ back of my caster and 1″ behind the Paingivers. eHexeris is able to bond with one of his beasts this allows him to channel spells through that beast, so I chose the Brozeback.

Turn 1

He ran both beasts, the niss hunters and the riders, I forgot how fast the riders were, so when they zipped up the right flank to look down the swordsman it was a bit intimidating. He teleported Gallows Grove 5 inches forward,  the wilder moved up, while Cassius cast Unseen Path and moved into the forest to gain Def 16, Wurmwood cast Unseen Path and then teleported next to Cassius, this wrapped up his turn,

On my turn I shifted the swordsmen to the middle of the board and spread out, this was a mistake that I will never make again. Rhadiem and the Cyclops both walked there max movement, I ran both Titians up forward behind about 4″ behind the swordsman, Hexeris moved up and cast Ashen Vail on the swordsman this gave them concealment and – 2 to hit when with in 2″  of the unit. He then dumped 5 furry onto the agonizer.

Turn 2

He moved gallows groves 5″, then declared an assault on the swordsman, with concealment and he was with in 2″ they didn’t kill a single model with the shooting but made up for this with his assault attacks killing 3 swordsman. Next Megalith and the gorax both moved straight forward, megolith used geomancy and casted Hell Mouth on one of the swordsman once they moved to a nice compact circle around the original target he blew a hugh chunk of them away, leaving only 5 swordsman left. The nyss hunters declared combined ranged attack on Rhadiem and unmounted him, two more took pot shots at the savage doing no damage. His caster moved up and cast unseen path and moved wurmwood next to him. Moved up and cast arcane bolt killing 1 more swordsman.

In my turn, I was running short on the right flank, and the time to get to the middle was coming upon me, the swordsman charged the Riders and killed 1, I moved both Titans at 4″ up the middle into possition for charges and riled 2 furry on each beast, I moved the Paingivers up and gave the cyclops +2 strength and may charge for free, both Rhadiem and the Cyclops charged into the nyss hunters, the cyclops killed 4 and rhadiem killed 1. the agonizer ran forward to keep up to the beasts. eHexeris moved with in 8″ of the Brozeback and started throwing around spells, he started with Hellfire on the Riders, killing 1 and causing a command check and they passed. Next he failed to hit the nyss hunters with ashes to ashes, so I used his feat and reaved all of the furry from his beasts and 1 from my own.  I then cast ashes to ashes on a nyss hunter who was surrounded by the bone grinders killing him and two bone grinders, hellfire was put on the nyss hunters killing 1 and leaving 1 alive he passed his command check. He scored 1 control point at the end of my turn because I had no models in the center of the box.

This is a lot of writing for anyone to digest so I will continue this tomorrow with another post, I apologize for the lack of pictures but I forgot my camera at home. Until tomorrow keep on rolling.

All I want for Christmas…..Part 2

As promised I am about to give you the second half of the coolest new releases in December as well as some great gift ideas’ for your stocking. If you play miniature war games then you probably play warhammer 40k or Fantasy. Games workshop has a couple of new releases for December and a few while supplies last. So lets not keep you waiting.

I have a beastman army and let me tell you when the new army book came out I was ecstatic about the new large models and disappointed that they were not available. Well as of December 7th Games Workshop has finished these awesome models for the battle field. There are only two models released at this time the first is a double kit that allows you to make either the Might Ghorgon or the Cygor and the other big release is the Jabberslythe.

The Ghorgon/Cygor kit looks amazing, the kit looks like it will give a lot of awesome bits, to assemble either model. I am not a fan of the paint job that GW has applied to the model and it takes a bit away from the model, but with the different paint scheme these models will have your opponent wishing they were home safe in their bunks. The kit costs $64.50 and is worth every penny.

When I saw the Jabberslythe, it rekindled my need to break out the beastman again, this beast is on a 50x100mm base and is a massive model, if you had a picture in mind of what this model should look like then prepared to be amazed, it has a pair of massive wings, horns spiked tail and a wicked looking tongue. It is on the higher end of the scale for cost at $77.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440005a&prodId=prod1390122a

With the Necron’s being released last month, there was a huge up rise of mechanical hordes. Now if you’re not a Necron player and are looking to add to your army or start a fresh new army then Games Workshop has the christmas gift for you, the two Mega forces are only ever released around this time of year. GW has released a Spacemarine Mega force and Dark Eldar Mega force.

At $260 this box comes with 35 plastic miniatures in the spacemarine box and 47 in the Dark eldar, you’re getting fewer models in the spacemarine box, only because there is a Drop Pod and a Landraider in the box. This is a great start for any new player or existing player, I know you can get this from and Games Workshop out let store, online or check with  your local game stores.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat440161a&rootCatGameStyle=

If you’re looking for some fun games to play with friends here are a couple of my favorite. Munchkin is by far one of the best games for the DnD fan and even those who aren’t. The game stars you and your friends as dungeon crawlers, you start off as level 1 human’s and can work together or against each other to fight monsters and collect magic items, these are not your normal magic items, all of the items have a touch of humor to them. The objective of the game is to be the first person to level 10, sounds easy it would be if the 5 other people were not boosting your monsters, stealing your items or just being a plain pain in the butt. Munchkin retails for about $30.

Another great game for 3-6 people is Wizard. The game plays a lot like euchre, where there is trump and you’re trying to take tricks. You start the game off with 1 card, everyone will have to bid on tricks based off the cards in their hands so turn one there is one trick up for grabs, sounds easy right, well there are a few cards that can really screw you over, although there is usually a trump the deck comes with 4 wizard cards that can take any card, with one exception, a wizard can not trump another wizard. The other key rule to remember is that no mater how many tricks are available the deal can not make it even, so on turn one if everyone says zero tricks the dealer has to say 1, (yay it sucks to be the dealer). The object of the game is to take tricks to get the highest score. Scoring each hand is simple, lets say you want 4 tricks out 6 cards, if you get your 4 tricks you would score 20-point for hitting your bid and 10 points for each trick, so in this example you would get 60 points. Lets say you only got three tricks out of four, well you would lose 10 points for each trick you didn’t get or for each trick you take above your bid. All and all this game can get really nasty if you start stealing tricks your friends need, the game retails for about $10.

Well that is it, for now thanks for reading and lets hope you get everything you want for Christmas. Don’t forget to follow me for more reviews. Thanks Tim