Part Deux

Here's part 2 of my Cryx.

First off, Prime Deneghra. Haley's twin sister, the "you have a twin sister! Obi Wan was wise to hide her from me" kind of sister. Hehe. Again, part of Joel Tiongson's Cryx army. Funny thing is I have 3 of the same model at the moment. LoLz!



Up next, Cryx' Skarlock. One of the more useful warcaster attachments (heck which of them aren't?). The Skarlock can cast some of the spells of the caster it is attached to, allowing Cryx casters to be more flexible with their focus usage.



Third is my second Bloat Thrall. Painted differently from my first, it works just as bad. AoE 5" is just nasty.



Now we go to the Light Jacks or Bonejacks as Cryx would call them. First off, the Deathripper. Probably the most useful among the Bonejacks. Sustained attack bites are just nasty and has an arcnode too which extends a Warcaster's effective spell range.



Next up, the Defiler. Next useful light since it has a spray attack ignoring quite a lot of things in the game like Stealth, Camouflage and Cover. Also an arcnode.



Lastly, the Nightwretch. Not quite as useful. While it does have a range attack, not being an AoE hurts it in the eyes of a lot of Cryx players. Sure you can give it focus and let the shot become an AoE but quie costly. Also an arcnode.

The Fallen Shall Rise Again

It's official.

I now am a follower of the Dragonfather. This morning my trade with Federico Lunaria went down. I got his Cryx in exchange for my Men O' War. Fed pitched a good offer for them, something which I simply couldn't walk away from. And while I am sad my MoW Army has passed into new ownership, I know they will be in good hands and I am excited to explore my new Army of Darkness.

Cryx is an army led by Toruk the Dragonfather. Most of the Warcasters, Solos and Units are Undead. There are still living models but they are few and far in between. The army bequeathed to me was formerly owned by Joel Tiongson and Edward "Emp" Fernando. most are painted so I don't need to paint or even repaint them since Undead don't really follow a color scheme.

I'll showcase the painted models in the next few posts. For the meantime, here are some of the models I got:

The Mechanithralls. One of the original Cryx units in Mark 1. They are still the brunt of the Cryx army in Mark 2. Cheap, numerous and hard hitting, they are a dangerous threat even with their low MAT. Only 12 are shown below but I still have one more unit and 2 models still in blister.



The Pistol Wraith. Incorporeal gunners moving around the battlefield looking for targets of opportunity, they are quite an effective distraction, able to hurt a couple of models per turn if nothing is done to address them. They were one of the most effective models in Mark 1 Cryx and they are still the same in Mark 2.



And now the piece de resistance. The Deathjack. Probably the most powerful jack in the game. Can generate its own focus. Can cull souls. Can self-repair. Can cast spells. Has high MAT for a heavy, high damage output, higher than normal Defense for a heavy and high armor. It's a one model wrecking crew. Woe to any target it sets its focus on. Even a Khadoran Behemoth can fall to its attacks. And it only costs 12 points to take in lists. It's crazy stuff. But some model's gotta be it.



The displayed models are all formerly from Joel Tiongson. Hope to take them out for a spin this week. I'll probably get my head handed to me but its going to be fun.

You fall. They rise.

New Edition

Here's some more Cryx I got recently. They are the Bloat Thrall, Slayer and Stalker. I got the Bloat Thrall from a trade last month with JM Fernandez. The Slayer and Stalker I got from Fed Lunaria.

Interesting notes:

This Bloat Thrall was originall Emp Fernando's before he sold it along with his army a couple of years back. It's very nicely painted. Pinapawisan pa. Hope to use it with justice.



This Slayer was originally Joel Tiongson's before he sold his army which was acquired by Fed. Nice color scheme.



The Stalker I do not know who it was from. When i got it from Fed, it did not come with the Necrotite Green glow. Thanks to Fred Escalona, that has been rectified.



Here's a group pic of my three new additions.



And here's a pic of Venny's gang. This is actually a 15 point army already which I can use to play. Hope I can get to play them soon but mostly the army will just be on display. I am still a Legion of Khador at heart. Heh!

Return of the King

No, no, this is not about Aragron or his BFF Legolas or his hobbits. This is about another Warmachine game I had last night. We normally have Warmachine-Hordes night at either the Bunker along E. Rodriguez or Pitshop along Araneta Ave.. Last night it was at the Bunker.

It's been a long time since I played Epic Vlad and I've only played him thrice since WMH Mk. 2 came into being. And so I decided to play the Epic Vlad, the "King". I was quite apprehensive since I was facing SJ's Trolls for my first game and Kei's Retribution for my second.

My list was:

eVlad
Drago
Fenris
Koldun Lord
War Dog
Doom Reavers with Greylord Escort
Kayazy Assassin with Underboss

In my first game, I went up against Epic Madrak, Mulg and his Troll infantry. It was quite literally a battle of attrition. I had won the roll and decided to go first. I put my Kayazy on my left flank and put the rest on my right. I ran them up my first turn. SJ moved up his army and did some of his stuff like singing a song which would knockdown my warrior models should they kill the protected unit's models and the burrowers advanced and dug in.

However, my real target during the early rounds was to take out Mulg asap. I just found enough of a chance to do so and took it. I used eVlad's feat and picked 4 Doom Reavers and Fenris as the target of his feat making them supermen for a round. I charged with them and risked the free strikes from some Fenn Blades. and dealt a serious hurting to Mulg. Then with my other Doom Reavers, I cleared away some more models blocking Fenris's way to Mulg. However I made an error in positioning the Greylord Escort and so had to do an Impact Attack to clear the way when I used Fenris to charge Mulg, losing him in the process. I did what I intended to do however and Mulg melted against the assault of Fenris. My Kayazy attacked a few other models and killed some while others made their Tough checks.

Come SJ's turn and his Fennblades did their Vengeance move. Missed my feated Doom Reavers though. Then came his real turn and he did a lot of damage, killing 2 out of 3 Great Bears, half of the Doom Reavers and dismounted and killed Fenris because they got buffed by getting +2 to their attack rolls and enough models got successful attacks in.

Next turn, surviving Doom Reavers made their attacks, the lone Great Bear killed some of the models surrounding him. Koldun Lord sprayed and killed some more Burrowers and the War Dog also managed to kill one. Kayazy's also had to clear the way of some Burrowers because I wanted Drago to charge in. Unfortunately again, one Kayazy had enough of his way to prevent the charge I wanted and Drago got left out in the open.

SJ's turn and he finished off the remaining Doom Reavers and Madrak feated, killing a few more Kayazy's and Drago. The Burrowers also killed off the last Great Bear. However to do so, Madrak moved up so that I though I had a chance to get to him.

Come my turn, I decide to go for broke. eVlad cast Martial Paragon on himself and charged Madrak. I hit with the charge attack but rolled badly getting in only 1 wound which he transferred to a nearby Troll. I then bought attacks with my extra focus and managed to get enough damage to disable him. He made his Tough check, however. I nearly though the game was over but then there was still the Koldun Lord. I moved him up, got into enough range to spray Madrak and did enough damage to make him roll for Tough again. This time, Mardak stayed down for good.

In my second game, I faced Kaelyssa along with a Phoenix Eiryss, Mage Hunter Assassins, Narn, Aiyanna and Holt, Dawn Guard Invictors, Mage Hunter Strike Force. This was Kei's first game using Retribution and was formerly a Hordes player. The latter came up as a minor issue as he forgot to allocate focus to the Phoenix for 2 turns.

He won the toss and went up first. Basically he moved his entire army up cautiously. In my turn, I ran my Doom Reavers forward and was basically using them as bait and hope enough survive long enough to do some counter assault. I ran the Kayazy to the left as a blocking force.

Next turn against my expectations, most of the Doom Reavers were wiped out barring one and the Greylord Escort. Phoenix also moved up cautiously He also moved up an MHA on the left flank as well as Narn and Aiyanna and Holt.

My turn, I had decided by now that I would mainly stick to the hill where I was at. Fenris moved to the left to cover the MHA moving up that flank. I kept the Kayazys in place. My remaining Doom Reaver went up and charged and killed Eiryss. The MHSF also failed their command check vs Abomination when a Doom Reaver got close to one of his MHSF models.

Come his third turn, Phoenix activated and killed some Kayazys, even the Underboss who only survived because of Tough. Left flank MHA and Narn moved up some more. Some more Doom Reavers were wiped out by the MHA and Invictors. The MHA on the left flanks also tried to kill Fenris but missing him on his charge. Kaelyssa also popped her feat.

My turn again and Fenris went after Narn by charging him and did an Impact Attack on the MHA which killed it and the charge attack finished off Narn. And I sent some Kayazys off to tackle Aiyanna and Holt successfully. The Escort tried to spray the MHA but missed.

Next turn, Phoenix moved up and shot the GBs, killing Kolsk in the process. Kaelyssa then activated and cast Backlash through the Phoenix on Drago. The shooters then came up and shot Drago. First it was the Mage Hunters and then the Dawnguard Invictors who also popped their mini-feat to get Snipe and though Drago was damaged along with Vlad due to backlash, Vlad was still well off. The right flank MHA tried to go after the Escort spraying him but he missed as well.

My fourth turn, I activated Vlad first and popped feat targeting 2 Kayazy and 2 Doom Reavers. I had 3 Kayazy charge the Phoenix, 2 charge Invictors and 2 more charge some MHA on the right flank. The first 3 Kayazy did some damage to the Phoenix breaking its force field. The remaining group killed their targets. The GBs finished off the Phoenix. I had Drago trample off to the left flank to avoid the shooters. I also sprayed the MHA with the Escort bringing it down to 1 hp and the Koldun Lord finished him off with another spray. Fenris then ran back to position himself for counter attack.

On Kei's 5th turn, he tried to bring the MHA to shoot at eVlad. However, with him being elevated, he missed with his first shot. Upon consulting his cards, he came to the conclusion that he would not have enough to kill eVlad and my army would be in a position to counter next turn. He conceded the game.

Two very difficult games. I think I was lucky to get away with wins. To the next match.

Here's a group pic of the players last night from left to right seated Patrick Palma, Brian Palma, me (crouched), Arvin Tan, Kei Valentin, Chico Quema and standing from left to right Harold Soon, SJ Quema, Kim Navarro:

See the Seether

Got my first Cryx jack: the Seether.



I like this jack. It's similar to the Berserker in that it as the Aggressive advantage allowing the model to run and charge for free therefore not requiring focus. Aside from that it can generate its own focus. In both cases, I just feel they are very efficient when it comes to focus.

I got my Seether in a trade with Arvin Tan and was painted by Fred Escalona, resident Warmachine Hordes account manager at Fortress. I commissioned him to paint the Seether because he is a Cryx player himself and he already knows how to color the standard Cryx colors. Here's how he painted my Seether:





Here's the Seether with my caster Venny. Seether's cost cheaper under Venethrax' Tier 1. Looks like I need to hunt for more Seethers. Problem is they're really hard to find both here and abroad. Until the next time.

My new "Babe" Scar-Jo

As I've mentioned before, I also play airsoft. Been playing for the last 12 years. My team's name is Fenris. I've gone through a lot of guns all of them Airsoft Electric Guns though now I mainly stick to my M249 who I named "Lady Gaga".

Recently I finally jumped into the realm of gas guns. Gas guns or Gas Blow Back Rifles as they are known in the airsoft world uses gas (143, green gas or red gas, even CO2) to fire the 6 mm bbs instead of using a combination motor, gears, piston and springs in a gearbox. I got my teammate's FN SCAR Light. You can check the information of the actual real steel gun here at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_SCAR.

Tried her out last Sunday (though not in an actual game) and liked her a lot. I was at a loss on what to name her when I saw a pic of Scarlett Johanssen and so gave me the idea to name her "Scar Jo". And so I present to you, "Scar Jo: Widowmaker":

More WMH Games, Feb. 18 and 19, 2011

Had two games last week, one on Friday and the other last Saturday.

The one on Friday, I played at Bunker and went up against Karl's eKaya. He played beast heavy with 3 Warpwolves and a Satyr along with a Wilder solo. I used Strakhov, Behemoth, Fenris, full Doom Reavers and Escort, full Kayazy and UA, Koldun Lord and War Dog. After the game I realized I played 2 points down because I forgot to bring out the Battle Mechaniks.

I won the roll and so deployed first. Mainly moved my forces forward with Strakhov casting Superiority on the Behemoth and Occultation on himself. Karl moved forward as well. Next turn again, I moved my forces forward using the Kayazy as bait. Karl on his turn took it and killed quite a few of them. He also popped eKaya's feat and so my forces were out of position.

Third turn, i still moved my forces a bit forward to wait for the right moment to counterattack. Karl again charged in slamming my Behemoth back to Strakhov and knocked him down. He ran Laris forward and ended up just within the Dog's countercharge range. Dog countered and though I missed the attack, the dog ran back to protect the knocked down Strakhov by blocking LoS to the only model I know that can hurt him: eKaya herself. eKaya was forced to attack the dog and kill it. The dog managed to eat up her Fury for attacks by surviving once with a Tough check.

Come my turn, shook off Knockdown on Strakhov, upkept Superiority, gave Behemoth 2 focus and had it do a Two-hand Throw Power Attack on eKaya. Boosted the attack and made the roll matching eKaya's high Def. So I throw her to Laris and while I missed Laris, the distance was so small that she was still knocked down. Koldun Lord sprayed and with her lone focus she transferred. However, with 2 Kayazy and Strakhov with 2 focus waiting nearby, it would be a foregone conclusion and Karl conceded the game.

Next day I went against Fred at Fortress this time. He used Prime Asphyxious with Deathjack, Seether, Tartarus, full bane Thralls and UA and Withershadow Combine. I went with Epic Butcher, Beast, Fenris, Dog, Great Bears, Doom Reavers with Escort and full Kayazy with UA.

I won the roll again and deployed first. In the first turn, I ran my models forward. Kayazys to my left and the rest to my right. Fred moved his forces forward. My turn, I moved all my forces to the right a bit with Doomies and GB blocking the lanes to eButch. Fenris and a couple of Doomies attacked and killed some models. Fred moved the DJ forward and pGaspy charged it and did no damage. PGaspy popped his feat and decimated the Kayazy then teleported back safely. The rest of Fred's turn, he charged some of his BTs against the nearest Doomies and Fenris, killing them.

Third turn, I knew I had to do something, preferably killing the BT UA which gives them Tough. So Doomies do some attacks and he moved his BT UA around. GBs run to where the Kayazy were positioned. eButch then pops feat, casts Ravager on himself then charges into the fray. I only managed to kill 3 models and had to move him back a bit though he was very, very exposed. Beast moves forward and Threshers killing 2 more models. eButch then hands out Rage Tokens and Beast moves forward and heavily damages the DJ. one GB adds more damage and another GB kills a BT.

During Fred's turn, he decides to focus his attention on Beast. First he moves the DJ out of the way incurring a Free Strike. Beast finishes the DJ off. Tartarus, BT and Withershadow Combine then hammer beast into scrap with Dark Industries creating a Seether. The Seether charges eButcher, risking a free strike from the GB in melee with it. It did enough damage to take out an arm. When the Seether reached eButcher, the dog countercharges and takes out his other arm. eButcher survives the Seether's attack.

My turn, the dog charges a far BT so that the Doomies can be free to cover eButcher. eButcher activates, casts Ravager on himself again and being immune to Free Strikes because of the Dog proceeds to move around the Seether and Homicidal Maniac clears the opponents near one of the GBs which included the Seether, Tartarus, the BT Officer and BT leader. The GBs then were free to charge Asphyxious and 2 icebreaker attacks later, Asphyxious falls.

I'm really learning the value of patience in WMH. Before I would be itching to get the assassination as quickly as possible. Now, I try to be more prudent with my actions and not panic when half of my army gets killed like the way the Kayazy died.

Looking forward to the next game.

Some WMH Games

Had WMH games this week.

Wed, I had two games, one vs Kim and one vs SJ.

Against Kim, I lost.

He had pIrusk, Behemoth, Kovnik Joe, Great Bears, full Iron Fangs and UA, Widowmakers and full Winterguard.

I used eThagrosh, Typhon, Scythean, Raek, 3 Shredders, 3 Spell Martyrs and 2 Forsaken.

Both Kim and I were cautiously positioning. I did see an opening so I got overeager in my strategy and tried to go for assassination. Not enough support and the second Shredder missed as well as the Raek. So I conceded the game since Thagrosh was in melee range with no Fury on him.

Against SJ it was a brutal attrition match. He used Grissel, Earthborn, the tale spinning solo, Fell Blades, Krielstone Bearers and 2 units of Trollkin Champs.

Star that game was Scythean taking out a unit of Fell Blades and a unit of Trollkin Champs almost all by himself. Though the supporting guys at the other end of the line, Typhon, 2 Shredders and a Forsaken didn't do so bad themselves. Shredder killed a Champ almost singlehandedly. A Forsaken killed off one also. In the end, with no more hard hitting units and Grissel without LoS to eThags, SJ conceded the match.

Yesterday I had a game with EJ. This time I went with Strakhov. Accompanying him was Behemoth, Fenris, Battlemechaniks, Doom Reaver+Escort and Kayazy+Underboss. I lost this one. Unfortunately, I have not had much games vs Retribution and so was unfamiliar with most of the EJ's army. Also I rolled bad on my attack rolls though the targets were higher than usual Def but if half had hit, it would have removed quite a few of his threats. Sadly, the MHA wasn't one of them. It survived 2 Doom Reavers and so got to Strakhov and killed him for the win for EJ.

Anyway, all nice games which I enjoyed playing.

That's a wrap.

My Caster Venny

Showing off my caster Venny. I commissioned someone else to paint it so don't credit me with the excellent paint job. Got Venny because I like the much scarier Skeletor look. His spells and fluff are also ok. Enjoy!

Bummer...

So, I've been a bum for the last month. I quit the family biz last December. It was a case of difference of strategy as well as being tired of the business already. Anyway, I decided to leave and so have been jobless for the month of January.

I do still have my sideline so that's helping me out a bit. It's Feb now and just celebrated the Chinese New Year. So am now looking for something more permanent career-wise.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Bummer.