Plans for 6th Edition

It's taken some time but I've finally settled down as a gamer. I love playing, I love painting, it's just who I am. Playing with a cruddy looking army makes me feel like I'm not making the most out of my hobby. So while I floated around for a while, as evident on this very blog, I eventually settled down. I know who I am. I play Grey Knights and Dark Eldar and want another....I play Circle Orboros and Menoth and want another....I play Games Workshop and Privateer Press games...and want many more. My armies are getting played and painted. I am satisfied and content.

I'm a gaming hobbyist. There, I said it. I'm that mythical creature who loves to play well and paint well. I think tactically and I think artistically. Crazy, I know.

That said, 6th edition 40k is right around the corner, if rumors are true and the hobbyist in me is thinking about an army for 6th. My Grey Knights are done (I know, I know, I haven't shown any army wide shots, but I'm working on something for that^^) and my Dark Eldar are coming along. I am not sure I want a 6th edition army, but simply an army to call my own for 6th edition.

Now, really, this article isn't about me, it's about you, the reader! What are you planning for 6th edition 40k? Me? Well, I think I will finish my Space Wolves now that the Thunderwolf Cavalry is coming. I want to paint Thunderwolves. That's about it. I know it's a three year old book, now and that Dark Angels are close, but I've put those Space Wolves off for too long. They were my first army ever in 40k and it's time I do them justice. I used to feel bad for loving and wanting many armies. I'm over it. I'm a collector, a player, a baller, a lover...um...wait..what was I saying? Oh yea, Space Wolves for 6th edition.

And you, my dear readers? What are your plans for 6th? Sticking to the guns and hoping those Tau get better? Maybe expanding what you own? Waiting for the Dark Angels or Chaos Legions? Or are you, like me, simply dying to collect a new theme, a new fellowship of plastic warriors? Share in the comments below, if you dare, and get excited for the madness of a new rules set!

Thanks for reading!

Circular Logic: Kromac

The Tharn King

Kromac the Ravenous

He's the Warlock I've run more than any other and the guy I've cut my teeth on. While he seems like a beat stick (and he is capable of dishing it out), he is also a very capable warlock. He's got a good spell list, such as Inviolable Resolve, which will boost a model/unit with Fearless and +2 ARM. That's a wonderful spell to throw on a tarpit or on himself. For example, a full Skinwalker unit in melee is tougher than a heavy warjack: 40 health boxes at ARM 20! Not an easy unit to shift and wonderful for keeping something tied down long enough for your Warpwolf Stalker to arrive.

Another spell that is quite useful with Kromac is Bestial. While within his 14" CTRL area, enemies can not cast spells. Wonderful, wonderful denial. This allows Kromac to skip on something like the Druids (though taking them is not bad, Druids are never bad!) and play a very aggressive, beast-heavy list.

Wild Aggression is what helps you push the limits of your control over these raging beasts. It allows the target Warbeast to Run, Charge, make Slam or Trample attacks without being Forced. It also boosts your melee attack rolls! Keep it up on your favorite beast or bounce between two beasts that are about to destroy something.

Warpath allows a beast to move 3" when something is killed by a Friendly Faction model in your control area. You can only move a beast once because of this, but it's a wonderful way of moving your beasts forward very quickly and getting them stuck in combat where they will excel.

That spell can move beasts out of your control area pretty quickly, so a Wilder is very helpful with Kromac, but otherwise be careful with managing your beasts as they can get way beyond your control very, very quickly.

Now, he only gives you 4 Warbeast points, so his lists are usually smaller and can't really handle attrition. I find I run a small, elite list with him. A Stalker, Gorax, Pureblood and then a couple of solos or a unit of Skinwalkers. Here's a list I played while learning:

Kromac the Ravenous

Druid Wilder

Warpwolf Stalker

Feral Warpwolf

Gorax

Full Skinwalkers

Lord of the Feast

Shifting Stones

This list is pretty straight forward, get into your opponent's face as soon as possible, then eat him alive. The trick is making it happen, which is always easier said than done. Use forests and buildings to cover your advance. Get those stones well placed to take advantage of some healing and/or teleporting. It's not a tricky, sneaky list. It just beats face. The tricky stuff I'm just starting to learn. I'll post about that in later Circular Logic blogs.

The plan here, though, is to move your Skinwalkers forward with Resolve on them, tarpit what you want to kill and then have the Stalker and the Feral clean up.

The Gorax is an animus battery and speed bump. If things get too close to Kromac, sick the Gorax at them to buy a round or two. Have the Gorax use Primal on whatever Heavy is about to charge, just to give it that extra punch.

Now, there is a lot on that list can be changed and rearranged. Pull out the Lord and Stones to add Morraig and a Gallows for instance. Or swap out Gorax and Feral for Ghetorix (when he's available) for a nasty, nasty, nasty (!) Stalker + Ghetorix combo.

Well, that's it, I hope you find this helpful. It's very basic, more of an introduction, but I hope to build on this on the next Circular Logic where I talk about the experiments I've been going with. I'm also, not the greatest player with Circle. I am simply giving you what I've been seeing and learning. Some of these lessons will change as I learn and grow, so take all this with a little salt! Ok, well, that's it, thanks for reading!

Brisbane's Hobby Progress

Circle: Just polishing and tightening up details. Going from 40k to Hordes is such a refreshing change and a challenge. It's just such a different style of painting. There's no question that if we want to be great painters, we should paint many types of models.

Dark Eldar: I think I'm finally happy with their color scheme. It's both dark and eldar at the same time. The funny thing is how it's really just the old 3rd edition color scheme, black and purple. It just works for them, I guess.

Necron Lord: Painted this for my buddy Jaime as a Christmas gift. I was worried about how to proceed and then just decided that simple was best. He loves orange and really wanted his Necrons to showcase that. All airbrush on that one.

That's it for now, thanks for reading!

Tony Tips : Preperation for War

Cygnar withstanding a Khadoran onslaught

Hey guys, Tony here again! Lets start off the series with what I always do before any engagement is preparing myself. I also would like to note that these tips are generally intended towards competitive playing but doesn't exclude casual playing at all. So please don't take it to offense and enjoy!

So you got your army and tools ready and your opponent is gearing up.  Whats next? Well lets see!

List Build/ Faction Knowledge

One of the most important thing to check before everything else is what army are you facing? Afterward ask yourself these questions. Do I have a list that can do well against his faction? Do I have a plan against him/her? How well do I understand his faction? In reality you may not always have an answer to all of these questions but its always good to have a general plan to win or a plan to not lose.

Choices

Whats the difference between playing to win and playing to not lose? Normally you can win the game by warcaster/warlock assassination or scenario. Those are the most simple methods of victory but there are a few others. Playing not to lose is trying to out-attrition your opponent. Attrition according to Webster is wearing down or weakening of resistance, especially as a result of continuous pressure or harassment. Whats that mean for Warmahordes? It's basically saying who's army can outlast the other army. So in a general sense you are trying to wear down your enemies while maintaining yourself in a good position. For example, lets say I charged with a 6 man weapon-master unit that cost 5 points against a heavy jack that cost 8 points. The result is the heavy jack is scrapped and hes down 8 points while I only spent 5 points to take it down. The results mean I still have 3 points more than he does on the table. This, in retrospect, leaves me in a very good position.

Know Your Enemy

Understanding your opponent's faction is very crucial as it can lead you to the best option to retaliate. A great example would be Circle of Oboros vs Legion of Everblight. Circle as a faction generally loves utilizing the forest terrain however Legion loves it just as much or should I say even more. Let's say I have no idea how Legion works and I do my usual tactics of moving my army into the forest to gain concealment and block LOS. Next thing I know my opponent gives me a smirk and gloats about how his warbeast ignores concealment, clouds, stealth and forest when determining LOS. That leaves me flabbergasted and a deranged wth look on my face crying out "Legion is broken!". But mostly it was my poor lack of knowledge. Not knowing what your opponent is capable of can lead to horrible games and a bad aftertaste. In this case the legion player has a strong advantage against my army because of their innate ability to ignore many strengths that I rely on.

So whats a good solution? I know we all hate school but studying is the best solution to match up problems. You do not have to read every damn detail of their faction but at least get an idea of how they work and what you can do about it. If you find that you can't find a solution to a problem ask a friend or another player about it and see what they can come up with. The forums are also a great source to find information.

OK, Tony, I read all the books studied my eyes out am I ready now? Not quite yet! Even though studying is great, play-test unfortunately is required too. From experience I've read all the books,  I've come up with solutions against certain factions on paper and theory but when I hit the board it didn't work quite as well. Its not a simple process or else the game wouldn't be fun would it? My point is if you want to be good at this game you gotta study, play-test, and have fun. Having fun is important because without that there is no point to the other steps. So grab those books and your buddies and play!

To Be Continued...

Preparation for War part :2 Coming Soon!

Circular Logic: An Introduction

As most of you can tell, I've been doing a lot of painting lately. While I've never really written any sort of real tactics articles, the Sons of Thunder gaming group has been playing a TON of Warmachine lately and we are all just drowning in rules and theory. After some chatting, we figured it would be a great time to start actually talking Warmachine on the blog. Hopefully some of the other guys will put together some great pieces and in the meantime, I figured I'd talk about Circle Orboros as I learn to play them.

As with any game, I am open to ideas and suggestions. I'm not a master player by any stretch, just someone who's really enjoying the Circle Orboros and its Druids, Warpwolves and Constructs.

Intro
Before we talk about what I have been learning, let's take a moment to discuss Circle's biggest strength: "speed". Circle aren't the heaviest hitters or the fiercest casters, but the ability to bounce around the table via teleports, stones, shifting and just plain running is incredible. While there are a few other factions that can run as fast, the ability to move huge chunks of your army with such ease is quite unique to Circle and is something that I have had to learn to manipulate. Shifting Stones are my friends!

Consider Baldur. His speed is pretty low for a Circle Warlock at 5. Take a look at his abilities and spells, however, and you'll see that his SPD doesn't slow him at all. Forest Walk allows him to show up in any forest within his Control Area and Rapid Growth allows him to create forests anywhere within his Control Area. So he's moving a potential 12" a turn! Though he gives up his normal movement to do that, he can still cast spells. That's powerfully "fast".

Another quick example is the Blackclad Wayfarer. He can choose to sacrifice his action in order to show up within 2" of any Shifting Stone ON THE TABLE. Wow! With some good planning, Circle can run rings around even the fastest factions. Not that any of this is easy, but it is fun and when you can pull it off, it's wonderful. The planning for Circle is like walking a tightrope, constantly manipulating the battlefield in order to set up the perfect strike. It's fun!

OK, so next time, I'd like to talk about the Warlocks I've been using lately and how they play for me. Every Warlock (or WM Warcaster) is very characterful with a lot of background and personality. They are men and women who cast long shadows and really influence the nature and character of the army that surrounds them.

Thanks for reading!

Greetings!

Hello! Tony here and I will be bringing you the glorious rulings and tactics of Warmahordes. As you know playing Warmahordes, rulings can be very specific and yet confusing like determining whether you have LOS (line of sight) to a target that is behind a model/terrain or understanding how a spell can be given to a battlegroup or a warrior-model only.


Point is ruling sometimes aren't that clear and is frustrating because we all want to enjoy the game and have a good time. Misunderstanding some rulings can also lead to a lot of fits and debates and can potentially ruin games.


So whats the purpose of this series? To help you understand and become a better player! I will be bringing you lessons and tips as well so please stick around and comment. In a game like this I believe anyone can become good as long as you dedicate yourself to some studying, understand your weaknesses and strengths and always practice practice practice!!

My Gaming History: Currently 22, been gaming since I was 7. My game background consists of fighting games and trading card games, with more focus on fighting games, and my first tabletop game Warmachine! I've come from a very competitive gaming background and won tourneys playing such games as Soul Calibur 3, Yugioh, and Super Street Fighter 4. Warmachine has been going well for me for the past 8-9 months. I enjoy the fluff and models but mostly the game itself as I feel as a competitive player.

Many may disagree with me but I find the most joy in playing competitively as it test my limits as a player, which then nourishes me into a better player. I cannot find anything more satisfying than playing against other players at their best and coming out victorious. It really feels like all the hard work and effort I've put into thinking, theorizing and testing has paid off.

This train of thought may not be for everyone but I do highly encourage everyone to play their best whether you win or lose. Your opponent and your peers will know for a fact that you did your best and tried your hardest. So hold the salt and hit the training room because there's always a next time!

P.S. I play Teh Protectorate of Menothz.
credit goes to lanceradvanced for the picture of Epic Feony

Colossals!