Spectating at Connection Games

I went down to Connection Games after work today to try and find an opponent for a league game, but I ended up the odd man out just when I arrived.  I got into spectating a game between Lawless Monk and a new player who had recently picked up some Skorne. As I got wrapped up in their game, I let a few opportunities to find an opponent slip by, so I was obviously content where I was.

The lists were a Skorne warpack (Morghoul, Titan Gladiator and twin Cyclops Savage), a Cyclops Brute and a unit of Immortals vs  Lawless Monk’s Borka, a Dire Troll Mauler, an Axer, a unit of Fennblades with attachment, Fell caller and a scribe-guy.

Lawless Monk very kindly put up with my repeated coaching of the new player (Craig…?  Crap – I got him to tell me his name twice and still forgot.  We’ll call him Mr. C), as he was having a few issues with the order of things.  Even though I wasn’t playing, it was actually pretty cool to watch someone pick up the mechanics and even some of the subtleties pretty well in just his second game.  Obviously Mr. C was no rookie gamer, but still, he was directing order of operations pretty well mid-way through the second turn.  Lawless Monk played pretty loose, such as popping Borka’s feat early when he was pretty sure things were at the limit of his range and just generally running models into the middle to make it a big hairy mess without worrying too much about getting the most out of his surprisingly nasty list.  Side note: Holy crap!  If I end up facing Fennblades, I’m going to remember they are crazy-go-nuts fast.  Particularly with Borka’s feat.

Watching (and coaching – sorry Lawless Monk!) also reminded me that while I’ve been frustrated with playing Hordes, Morghoul with a whole whack of beasts is pretty awesome. The game was a lot of back and forth, plenty of tough rolls were made – I think the trolls were running about 60% success near the end… Even with two units with vengeance on the table, there were plenty of whiffs, knockdowns etc.  A highlight was when the mauler charged from outside Morghoul’s feat area into it, hit the Gladiator with both attacks and the chain attack and successfully heaved the hephalump at Morghoul who was chilling by a rock column.  Another was when two cyclops with three fury each still made their frenzy checks despite Morghoul screaming at them to get angry.  Lots of chills, thrills and spills.

As I didn’t get a game in, I ended up leaving the store a little early and getting home in time to put a little work in on the Man-o-war shocktroopers.  I have the two grunts almost fully basecoated with just black trim on the shoulder pads and cleanup to do, then I can get to the red overcoat.  The leader needs a bit more work to get up to the same state as the others, but the unit is progressing all right.  The models will end up being pretty rough in some areas, but any colour on the models is better than none, right?  I mave a lot of bare metal to cover before I worry too much about the quality of my workmanship.  However, I have convinced myself to paint my second unit of Shocktroopers while they are still in pieces.

I’m thinking I will try and get a game in on Saturday. My itch to roll dice has not yet been scratched this week and the urge to order soldiers and warjacks to die for the motherland is rising.

Easter Weekend Gaming at Connections – part 2

This post is more than a little late, so I will keep it brief. The start of the Shattered Grounds league as well as other types of gaming (and work too) kept me from finishing this post up in a timely manner. The group of six or so that showed up on the Friday holiday was outdone by the larger group that showed up on Saturday, April 3rd.  There were gamers there that I had not seen in quite a long while, as well as some I had never met.  Connection Games 2 filled up throughout the day, which was cool to see.  I took a few notes on other games but am not sure the results of most, so I’ll stick to the games I played.
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Subhedgehog’s Salute 2010 Steamroller Report – part 2

So in the first part of my tournament battle reports I managed a couple of quick wins due to the always impertinent Titan Gladiator and some poor positioning on the part of my opponents.  This put me ahead of the curve in the swiss pairing system – my next opponent had also won his first two matches.  His two lists, he explained to me, were exactly the same with the exception of the caster.  As he spent a few moments refreshing my memory as to how bad epic Sorscha’s feat was going to hurt me, I figured (correctly, it would turn out) that this would be his caster of choice.  I considered my options.  I thought that the Cetrati brick would be quickly shattered under eSorscha’s feat, so I went with my titan herd, hoping the three heavies would weather the icy assault and that Morghoul’s higher defense would give me a chance to do some damage.
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Subhedgehog’s Salute 2010 Steamroller report – part 1

I’d like to start off this post by re-iterating what a good time I had at the Trumpeter Salute WarmaHordesMachine event.  I had such a good time that the finer details of what happened in some of my games may have escaped my recollection and subsequent documentation.  So, if any of my opponents would like to speak up and correct me I will edit this post to contain the correct information I will have been right all along. Nothing to see here.  Move along.

From the conversations I had with the various other upstanding citizens who participated in the tournament there was one idea that was unanimously expressed:  Mark II makes everything move along more smoothly.  Obviously paying attention to the online conversations surrounding the new rules for Warmachine and Hordes, recently reading Warmachine Prime and obsessively poring over the Hordes field test cards will have helped my comprehension of the rules, but still…  It seemed to me that a lot of the messiness, for lack of a better term, from the previous incarnation of the rules had been cleaned up.  I could quickly understand interactions of abilities I had not previously seen in relation to others, particularly with respect to timing.  So, thumbs up from the Vanmachine crowd.
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Subhedgehog’s Salute 2010 Steamroller report – Army Lists

Hello.  My name is Paul and I play Skorne. *whew*  Now that I’ve got that admission off my chest, I feel better already. :)  I go by the name Subhedgehog on most of the public forums I frequent, including the Privateer Press forum and Vancouver Gamers , so I’ll be posting under than moniker to keep it clear in everyone’s mind who I am.  Until they meet me in person and forget whom I am online.

I participated in the Trumpeter Salute 2010 tournament run by PG Geist.  This was my second time at this particular con, last year being my first Warmachine / Hordes tourney ever.  At twenty players, this was the largest event I have participated in and it was a blast.  I was also pleasantly surprised by my performance in the standings.  That’s me in 4th, or as I like to put it, first place in the no-trophy-competition.
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