cristomeyers

I believe that is the ultimate goal, but I'm not sure it's actually within the scope of this kickstarter. I know they've said they wanted to bring production stateside before.

I dunno, man...that eye's kinda staring into my soul... ...or maybe I need new contacts...but I'm going with the soul-staring.

The woman didn't happen to look like this, did she?:

So wait... First, you guys lure me back in after a several year exile with shiny new Warlord minis and rules... then, both me and my wife end up building whole new armies after looking at the new lists and playing the new rules... after that, you get even more when you introduce the Bones line... and now, you're teasing me with a kickstarter showing all the awesome new minis that you want to do, but could move up the timeline with a little extra cash... *sigh* just...just...take it. Where do I send it? Glad to support you guys, let's see what else those stretch goals have for us!

I'd forgotten what it was like to train newbies. Well, he was new to Warlord, at least...veteran gamer. That much became apparent when I found myself outmanuevered, outflanked, and utterly crushed 1000 points of Elves vs Crusaders. I'm still trying to get the hang of my Elves, though I have yet to try them at 1500 points.. The Royal Guardsmen performed much better than I'd thought they would, Rangers not so much. I'll probably be picking up another 2 Guardsmen, and after seeing what Crusader Light Lancers can do I'll definitely be picking up another one or two of those. I've just about finished all my Crusader officers anyway, it's time to start picking out troops.

If you don't mind plastics or prepaints, take advantage of the Legendary Encounters and Bones lines to save yourself a bit of money on your Necropolis. Bones has Railor, zombies, and skeletal spearmen (that could easily be warriors) and Legendary Encounters has two Necropolis characters (Railor and Naomi) as well as zombies, skeletal spearmen, archers, and warriors.

Whew...been a while. Heat's been keeping us away from our weekly games (minis inside a car for 8+ hours in 100+ degree heat? bad idea). Threw a 1500 point Nefsokar list to try out some of the cavalry. I find myself very underwhelmed with Senet Net'Merew. Which is sad, she's my favorite Nef warlord. Constantly forgetting that Swift Attack is Charge, then Move didn't help. Giant Scorpion also underperformed, sadly. Khadath with a Prophet and Tomb Guard, however, rocked. Part Death's River is a brutal trick. I definitely need to refine this list some more. Way too much cavalry, not enough meat. Maybe switch out Senet for either her brother or Anwar and Khadath for Khufu. Drop the Scorpion, keep the Avatar . On a side note: my Necropolis is overflowing the cake pan I store them all in, and what do I see hitting the store? Bones...Zombies... ...I'm sure I can cram a few more models in there...maybe... Oh, and a minotaur too? ...well, I just bought the Legendary Encounters one...but I think I can make another fit...

Well that was fun. Closest game we've had in a while, at least until my luck abandoned me in the last round. How does Ymrilix the False not score more than a single hit in 2 rounds of combat? How? But I'm starting to sound like a broken record here... I had Arik, Ashkrypt, Balthon, and Ranthe all in one army. Balthon is the only one that didn't really pull his weight, but that was more a problem with my maneuvering than anything. He just ended up hanging back out of the fight until right near the end. I think I'll switch him out for Stratch next time. I've been wanting to try him out. Arik and Ashkrypt had loads of fun throwing fireballs around, killed a number of Sisters that way. Took down Kyra and Lavawrath...the first time, anyway. Then it got brought back on the last turn and things started going south real quick. Think I'll probably go Nefsokar next. They haven't been used in an over 500 point game yet.

From a purely cinematic point of view: Crusaders. Light knights versus Dark Knights. Looks good on the tabletop and at 500 points are easy armies to get the hang of, which makes them easier to demo as well. You could even build the demo Crusader army similar to the Overlords: Duke Gerard, some warriors, Ironspines, & Unforgiven, maybe Celestial Lion. Should be about equal (I have no idea off the top of my head). Really any army will do, but for sheer "this looks cool!" value, that's what I'd go with.

What he said. I've always said that you should always go for the army you like. There's too much money in this hobby to get the army that's good only to discover you don't actually enjoy playing it.

Got in two games between Thursday and now: our usual Thursday match and one over Free RPG day. Thursday left me seriously considering that one of us was unknowingly using loaded dice. After Moandain rolled a 2 out of a needed 3 to kill Kassandra with Ice Beam the game took a turn for the decidedly worse. Don't get me wrong: I've had games go south before, but this was a train-wreck. I never rolled higher than a 4 for the rest of the game (while she's rolling 7's at least) Second game went a lot better. This time I really only lost on points. Watching Dauron cleave his way through Kassandra, some Bladesisters, and an Angel before going down was the highlight of my morning...even if I still can't kill Shaedra... Is it normal for a model to make 6 out of 6 Tough checks over two games? Next up: 1500 points. Probably Overlords.

Hmm...I see... Have you been experiencing any itching, rashes, hallucinations of dark figures installing hive-mind chips into your scalp? Is the table bigger or smaller than 4x4? Bigger would definitely skew things. The longer it takes to get into bashing range is more time to get peppered with arrows...or various sundry explosives. Considering what brought this on is undoubtedly linked to her just about finishing her proxies for Kyra and Lavawrath...I'm inclined to believe that wanting to field cool toys is definitely a part of it. I remember way back our average game was 2000 points. Trying to keep track of all the wounds in an army that size would be brutal. I've never really given familiars much use under the current rules. This'll actually be the first.

I'm hoping that the skeletons will keep the enemy held up long enough for one of my heavy hitters to do their damage. Between Graverot, Gauntfield, Dauron, and a Grave Horror someone has to be able to do something. My wife wants to go up to 1500 point games after this. I remember reading that Warlord is more or less built to play at 1000, so I'm hoping the increased size doesn't bog things down. 'Course, all she really wants to do is have more points to field her Kyra/Lavawrath proxies... Heh, maybe that's why I never win. This'll be the first game where I actually field a familiar...I actually get to dig my mini-death out for the first time since taking him off of Malak's base and putting him on his own. I've almost forgotten what he looks like. The Grave Horror's worse off...he was covered in so much dust from sitting on my dresser that it almost looked like he'd been buried.

Another week, another new army. We're finally on my last one: Necropolis, and I'm up against Sisters again. I'm not at all confident with my Necropolis, never really was. I've never used Moandain before, but since I have a metric ton of potential proxies that I keep bundled with my Necros for just such an occasion I decided to try them out. Hopefully my skeleton picket line will hold long enough to do some damage with archers and spells. I've also discovered in going through my older minis that I only need Haranobu and maybe a Stone Giant and all I'll need are troops to fill out a Mercenaries army. Between actual Mercenaries models and proxies I can field just about any character model in the list.

So...I'm slowly falling for some of the models and the rules for this army, though the lack of different poses is giving me a bit of pause. I've pulled a handful of likely proxys out of the DH line, but it seems like the Darkreach models are somewhat taller than average and I don't want a bunch of models looking like dwarves next to the Darkreach line models. Am I wrong? I've thrown together a list just to see how many/what kind of models I'd being looking at, but I've no real idea of the synergies and such of this army: Troop 1 -Majestrix Latissula, High Priestess -Avrix Dirthe, Champion -Abyssal Weapon -Liela Mordollwen, Sorceress -Shadowguard x 2 -Nightshade Warrior x 2 Troop 2 -Evshyvandra Duskwidow -Erdolliel Saerwen -Shadowstep Warrior x 2 -Darkshade Raider x 2 Troop 3 -Tierdeleira, Priestess -Book of Tactics -Shiver Spike x 3 Troop 4 -Aazhaleek, Shadow Dragon Troop 5 -Phase Cat Troop 6 -Luck Stone 999/1000 pts

So...um...I believe stomped is the word. I know I was fighting an uphill battle: playing melee-centric elves without the benefit of Royal Guard, Rangers, or Weaponmasters, but I wasn't expecting this bad of a rout. The Elven Swift Attack can be brutal when you get a lucky Cleave in. I knocked out a good 3 or 4 Bladesisters doing that. But fighting a battle of attrition with dedicated line troops like the Bladesisters is a losing proposition, especially when they have Vengeful... Shadowsisters are walking killbot murder-machines. Carved through my Deathseekers with Irith like they were tissue. I did get some great opportunities: Lysette was able to teleport my tree right up next to the Bowsisters and her Angel, but the draw deck betrayed me (never trust a deck bought at Target, they'll stab you in the back every time... ) and just ended up getting swarmed. I hit Joleyn with a Mind Blast and Stunned her, but my weakened troops just couldn't finish her off. Those +2 Luck Stones coupled with Cleave is a brutal combo. It's pretty much "Oh, I haven't killed you? Here, have a Cleave. Dead yet?" Ah well, it was fun. Besides, I can't win too often. It'll break my streak. I only won enough games to count on one hand when the local GW store was still open, no reason to start now!

Psh, amateur. I've been playing since college and have yet to win more than 5 games! I need to get my Nefsokar out soon, but my Necropolis still have yet to see a game under the new rules...

DR is a beast of an ability. You almost have to either hit it with something Mighty or a crowd of what we used to call "Two-Weapon Adepts" (multiple attack soldiers: Battle Nuns, Dervishes, Rangers) since the DR will replenish at the end of the Activation. Something that can only reliably deal 1 or 2 points of damage in an Activation is only going to tick the thing off. I've had some limited success hitting them with ranged attacks with Pierce, but since models with DR usually also have either Deflect or a fairly high DR it's just not very reliable. Kinda makes me wish I'd had room for Dilean or Baelhrindir in the list.

So, after missing two weeks to vacation...and a third to the cold we both brought back from vacation...I get to put my Elves up against an army I've wanted to fight for some time: the SIsters. Should be interesting. I've never gone against any of the new factions and this time I'm not packing a Warlord. Packing a treeman, of course, because who wouldn't want their own Ent?

My old BL always used to joke that his paint n' takes were the free first hit. Guess he wasn't joking... Yeah, I really need to try this list again and see if something changes in the cards. Maybe switch out Rahl for Javolith to free up some points, possibly drop Aundine... ...and insure my bloody dice know whom it is they actually serve... The activations seemed pretty balanced, if not actually in my favor. The marilith ended up being a road block for the Doom Kitty, which actually worked pretty well. Taking the Murder Doggy down was a bonus, even if it did just get brought back. Rahl was more of a fluke. Finari got in two lucky Cleaves. If either of those hadn't of been Cleave attacks he would've still been standing. Maybe instead of splitting my two melee units I should've sent them both up one side (the table was pretty much cut in two by a really large tree), but that would've left them easy pickings for AoE attacks (my wife loves her Firestorms...) and would've left a flank open two her battle nuns. Now, maybe having both Rahl and Vysa charging up one side would've forced her to redirect the nuns, but maybe if I'd rolled higher than a 2 when Vysa set off her Hellfire Flask things would've been different also. We'll see what happens next time...

Psh, Sebastian Bach wishes he could've gotten that kind of volume...

After this game, I'm definitely considering it... Luckily for me, almost all of my Warlord minis were fully painted years ago. The Darkspawn are some of the oldest (and you can kinda tell...) I keep thinking about replacing the Isiri Warriors and Archers with the resculpts that came out, but every time I look at them I just think...nah. I did nab the Nasithe resculpt today, though. That one is just so much better than the old. She has more hair than body mass!

Another week, another loss...I swear my dice just had it in for me today. I think over half my rolls were a 3 or less... Took the Darkspawn for a spin, wanted to see what they could do. I don't have any of the demonic troops, just Isiri and Fodder, but I have a lot of them. Up against my wife's Crusaders. I think this was probably my best performing army to date. If my dice hadn't been collectively giving me the finger all game it could've turned out a lot differently. Elros and Vysa carved through some battle nuns like they were paper, and if Vysa's Hellfire Flask had just worked that entire flank would've crumpled a lot sooner. The Spawn almost got her mounted mage. Being able to pop out of Burrow and attack is a big advantage. I took Rahl as a captain and he performed...less than well. Finari got two lucky Cleaves in and that was the end of that. My marilith was taken down by a Doom Kitty/Murder Doggy combo which ended about as well as you'd expect. I'm trying to figure out what I did wrong (or if the dice just really weren't with me tonight). Rahl went up one side, Vysa went up the other covered by the Witch Queen's archers. Vysa almost broke through, Rahl didn't. Aundine and the marilith didn't do much of anything aside from hold the Kitty/Doggy at bay (and not by choice). I like the new Pain Cage rules, much better than prior editions.

So, messing around with something of a theme list. Wanted to see what I could do without using the vamps. I think it's a bit lacking in hitting power, but with three mages I figure I'll use Graverot and Railor's unit to hold the enemy up while I pound them flat with the Grave Horror and magic. Haven't decided between the Graveyard or Crypt Legion doctrines. With Crypt Legion Rhasia would give all those skeletons in her unit Tough/1, but Graveyard would give the potential of bringing in some new troops. Leaning towards Crypt Legion. I feel I'm more likely to make Tough checks than the Graveyard roll. Troop 1 Rhasia, Zombie Queen Skeletal Warrior x 4 Skeletal Archer x 3 Zombie x 6 Skeletal Spearman x 2 Troop 2 Railor of the Unbodied Deathrider x 3 Wraith Harvester x 3 Malek, the Hated Troop 3 Graverot, Ghast Ghoul x 4 Ghast x 2 Malek, the Hated Troop 4 Grave Horror Luck Stone

Quick question about Rhasia's Warlord ability. How would it affect a soldier without Tough? Would they gain Tough/0 or are they just SOL?