An update on The Northern Crusade...

So Warmachine had become our go to game at the moment and I've been playing quite a bit of it. As ever I've got some thoughts on how is going and where I want to take it in future...

For Menoth!

As I mentioned in a previous post I started out playing Severius and own both versions of him. I've had more fun playing the prime version of him (Grand Scrutator Severius) than his epic form (Hierarch Severius). pSevvy has a nice collection of buffs, a focus stat of 8 meaning he can boost his jacks and some nice offensive spells. He has a really nice looking feat too that messes around with enemy focus allocation but I always realise I should have used it the tturn after it would make or break a game!

Old men with sticks. Fear them.

In general I've found Severius's playstyle a little too 'hide and buff' for my liking. I know Menoth is the faction of synergy rather than raw, naked power but I think it'd like to try a caster who will do a bit more of the lifting. I'm considering Ferrari, Priestess of the Flame, Thyra, Flame of Sorrow or Grand Exemplar Kreoss as the next one to try. I welcome thoughts or direction - I'm still at the stage where I trust Battle College.

This man just read a page on Mow Bombardiers

As for the other models I've bought, I'm really impressed with the following:

1) The Choir of Menoth

Yep,  the Choir is as good as they say. Hymn of Passage to start with then Hymn of Face Smashing in later turns. I've got enough models to do a second when we start playing bigger games too!

2) Reckoner

I love my Reckoner! It's 8 points but between the gun and the mace it makes a hell of a mess of things. It seems to take damage pretty well too which is a bonus. Especially as I don't have anything that repairs yet.

3) Redeemer

Its focus hungry but it clears out infantry really well. Especially with a Choir encouraging it.

My Temple Flameguard have only been out once and then they got destroyed by Orin Midwinter (blasted mercs hunting buffed units!). My Exemplar Errants haven't been out yet but I'm keen to try them. I could do with a box of Zealots or Daughters of the Flame but I'm making myself paint some of these first...

Not mine but I love these.

Things I've learnt so far

1) Watch your charge lanes!

I lost to Raye and her Cygnar on turn two after I stupidly let Major Katherine Laddermore get the drop on Severius.  A couple of hits with her weapon and he was dead (though technically he was killed by the Wrack that he was standing next to after it did to a Lightning Arc from the we a pin and exploded). I gave that game away during the deployment phase...

2) Keep the Pressure up

Warmachine doesn't seem to reward the cautious.  While I hate their tagline I do understand the philosophy - you need to play aggressively and get in your opponents face. This doesn't really come naturally to me so is taking some doing.

3) Focus is Important

Managing focus is hard and due to my love of jacks its always tight. Especially with an upkeep factory like Severius. Especially, especially if you want to overcharge your powerfield. I've still not got the hang of it yet. I have a nagging feeling that the solution is one jack and more troops... especially when we get to larger games.

Aspirational artwork

The musings about focus got me interested in fury and how it worked in Hordes. So for science I've bought Dr Arkadius, Targ,  Maximus, a gun boar, two road hogs and some bone grinders. Yep, I've gone pig for my second faction (it came fairly naturally as a gremlin player!). I was sorely tempted by voodoo crocodiles (and will likely end up with some in future) but the dieselpunk pigs won me over...

How could you not love this?

So there are. Comments and tips are very welcome. Especially on the viability of Farrow or combat Menoth casters!

Why I love Malifaux rather than Wyrd

I played some Malifaux with Ben this evening (I lost 10 - 7, Chompy Dreamer got beaten by Kaeris) and as we did we were talking a little bit about the recently released playtest models and campaign rules.

Better at summoning that eating stuff

For those of you who are unaware of Wyrd games they are a US company who make the Malifaux game as well as the 'Through the Breach' RPG and a few other smaller games they publish on behalf of their authors - Jetpack Unicorn and Evil Baby Orphanage being the only ones I can remember with our looking them up. When they went to the second edition of Malifaux in 2012 they decide to take a leaf out of Privateer Presses book and do a public playtest of the new rules and new models.  Cue several months of weekly updates to the stuff and (generally well managed) interaction with the playerbase.  I didn't really participate beyond reading the cards and frothing with my mates about them but I eagerly followed those that did on Twitter and on the forums.

NEW MODELS ARE OUT!!!

So far so good. A model example of player engagement compared to GW!
Then slowly it started to break down. A second wave of models were released for testing then a third containing the much maligned avatars.  Wave 2 made it to the end of the line and were published in the Crossroads book late last year but the third wave was abandoned before it was finished. Now avatars have returned as part of the campaign rules in a fourth wave of public testing, along with an admission that they weren't balanced for regular play and that their inclusion was a mistake. Oh and we aren't making anymore of the models.

"We have extracted enough urine for this test"

The production and release schedules don't win them any friends either. Rather than the GW model of released models for a faction at a time the new releases are roughly spread across all seven factions. Oh, they are also resculpting all their models in plastic from the original metal.

In gaming nothing is cheaper

So Wyrd are trying to do an awful lot at once and it was inevitable that there were going to be problems.  Ophelia is one of the gremlin masters who attracted a lot of criticism for the way her upgrades allowed her to target herself with the (0) actions allowing her to do an awful lot as well as missing the 'discard this upgrade after using' from Big Threatening Gun.  This was corrected in the next wave of card decks but also attracted the remark that the community needs to share in the responsibility for these mistakes by not spotting them in testing...

Fah. Playtesters.

I'm not sure I buy that.  I'm not sure that it's reasonable to declare that players are to blame for mistakes like that,  however slightly. I mean,  I'm not a games designer,  nobody I play with its a game designer,  the only people involved in Malifaux (to the best of my knowledge anyway) who are games designers work for Wyrd.  And are paid to design and test games. Now I get the advantage of community testing (a Legion of free testers for one...) and I get that some feedback gets overruled for whatever reason (ya know,  by professionals), but I honestly don't know how the community can be blamed...

I don't know if this baby is designing a game.

Other things that spoil my love of Wyrd are their distribution issues.  Its been nearly two years and no Brewmaster.  But it's okay -  we got a new sculpt of some guild minions that already exist. I know there will always be an element of "my faction is more important" but there aren't many book 1 models not released,  why start on the book 2 stuff without finishing the set first?

Probably not real...

So, the conclusion of my nerd rage is that I still love Malifaux, i'll still play it but I'll "right size" my collection down a bit. Probably to Neverborn and Gremlins. And then I'm done.  Stick with what I have and spend my cash on other things...

I played a game!

So last night Mark and I played some Warmachine...

This is exactly what it looked like

It was the first outing for Hierarch Severius (e-Sevvy or Sevvy2 for those who speak the lingo) of the Protectorate of Menoth against Orsus Zoktavir,  the Butcher of Khardov (Butcher1 - a Khador caster). It was only a 15 point game so didn't involve very many models on each side.

My list contained:

* e-Sevvy
* 4 man Choir of Menoth
* A Vassal of Menoth
* A Reckoner heavy warjack
* A Redeemer light warjack
* Tristan Durant (looking after the Redeemer)

Mark had:
* Butcher
* A war dog
* 4 Widowmakers
* A Destroyer heavy warjack
* A Juggernaut heavy warjack

So this happens when you google "Angry Butcher"...

It was my first game and Mark's first for a long time so we made a few rules mistakes. Mostly involving AoE damage and how exactly you cast spells (for future reference,  I think it's using your focus stat not your current focus...). The game itself was a lot of fun and nowhere near as complex as the rulebook suggested it might be. I'm going to claim noob privilege to justify my defeat though I will note that I'm pretty sure my Reckoner would have smashed Butcher into the ground next turn!

Not as complex as first imagined

The aim of the game is relatively simple - kill the enemy caster (most of the time). Warmachine had been sold to me as a game about problem solving and resource management which seems pretty accurate. There were several points where I found myself having to think about which order to best activate my units in to get the best result, which I enjoyed immensely.  I was worried it was going to be a bit more point and click,  more like 40K, but it doesn't seem to be. I've said before that I like my games tactical and objective based, despite being a very different take on the idea it was well worth a look!

"Click!"

The list I took seemed effective and I can see why all the models in it were suggested as good buys - It had a nice mix buffs for a melee jack and a shooting jack.  The one thing I'm not certain of is whether I like the caster or not.  e-Sevvy seemed a little... anaemic? He had no attacks to speak of,  his defensive buff is nice and he has a lot of focus but he didn't seem to do much.  Maybe it's because it was a low point game - his feat and influence spell were both sorely lacking in targets - but I think I'm going to pick up another one to some variety.  Maybe the none-epic version of Severius? He is a bit more blasty I think. Or one of the more combat focused casters?  I'm not sure - it's really hard to tell from one game. I'm going to try to get a game against Raye's Cygnar next week - I don't know what they do but I gather is very different to Khador...

Google had some suggestions...

Anyway.  I also did some painting.  Have a look!

 

I love the model for Hierarch Severius - it is stunning. Of course the staff falls off all the damn time but that is more than made up for by the beauty of the sculpt. This model is pretty much why I picked the Protectorate - this may have been a poor way to choose a faction.

This the Vassal of Menoth. He looks like he is riding an invisible horse. I have no idea why.

These guys are the Choir of Menoth. Beautiful models, useful on the table, whats not to love?

I'm working on some jacks at the moment but they only have undercoat on them so aren't worth sharing. Maybe next time?

In other news the next wave of Malifaux playtest stuff has been released. I think my next article will be about why I'm not very excited about it or the whole Wyrd playtest concept at the minute.