Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Gamer's Journal 15 pt game vs Khador

So, I got both my 15 and 25 pt games in tonight, but I'll save the other for just a little bit.

To recap, my 15 pt list is:
Kromac the Winter Hunter (*4)
-Gorax (4)
-Feral Warpwolf (9)
Wolf Riders x3 (6)

In the tundra, we found...
Forward Kommander Sorcha (*6)
-Destroyer (9)
-Juggernaut (7)
-War Dog (1)
Widowmakers (4)

I won the roll and had him deploy first. He deployed with the two jacks in front of Sorcha and her puppy. I put my Wolf Riders on the far left flank (which had a hill on it on his side of the table, expecting his Widowmakers to move into position there) while Kromac set up a bit back from a forest outside of my deployment zone with his beasts. The Widowmakers AD'd on the opposite side from the speedy wolves, scared of the puppies after their previous experiences.

He advanced to no real avail, trying to shoot at my Feral but finding his snipers to be out of range. Kromac went first and tossed up Warpath on himself, Inviolable Resolve on the Wolf Riders and finally Wild Aggression on the Warpwolf, finally advancing into the edge of the forest. I ran and light cav moved up the left flank with the Wolf Riders, turning to look at Sorcha. The beasts advanced and riled for not much else.

Sorcha got ballsy and actually charged the Wolf Riders. He's seen what they can do before if allowed to Assault and was try to cut them off. As I recall, one bit the Frostfang in the face but the other two survived. The Widowmakers tapped some damage onto the Warpwolf and not much else happened. On my turn, the Gorax failed a charge at the Widowmakers (SPD5 in Circle suuuuuuucks) while the Warpwolf warped for armour and moved to protect Kromac who had moved further up in the forest and tossed up Bestial, catching Sorcha. The Wolf Riders whiffed terribly and I passed the turn back to him.

The Juggernaut went after the Feral, failing to really hit at all. Sorcha saw an opening and went after Kromac herself (stupid War Dog). Sadly for him, he forgot to pop her feat and he wailed into Kromac, connecting and dealing 12 pts of damage. I spent my last fury to transfer it to the Gorax and then took a second swing for three points of damage, where I decided to Beast Out. Kromac took the turn back in beast form, letting his upkeeps expire. Before he got to do his thing though, I activated the Wolf Riders who came Assaulting in. The killing blow was a wolf, just like the last time the Wolf Riders managed to kill his caster.

Wolves biting Sorcha's ass are awesome!

So, the list worked basically as I had hoped, with the Wolf Riders going after the squishiest target within reach, namely the caster in this case. While the beasts and Kromac advanced more or less up the center. If Sorcha got within range of Kromac's advance + jump with jacks in the way, I was planning on going for the feat assassination.

Kromac felt a growl growing in his throat moments before he heard a rifle report from up ahead, from within the cover of the falling snow. At the same moment, despite the cold all around him, he felt an unnatural cold through the snowy veil. He knew this feeling. It belonged to one of the Northern witches and her pet constructs. Kromac fell into a hunting stance as he moved into the trees, his warbeasts ranging out to one side while he knew the sisters covered his left flank. But as soon as he heard the shrill warcry of the Khadoran warwitch Sorcha, he wondered what ill befell the sisters.

Sorcha came in screaming and swinging her polearm. Catching him off guard, the blow connected with his side. Kromac rolled with the blow even as he expended the last of his magic to force the Gorax to accept the wound in his stead. In the back of his mind, he felt the pain through his connection to the enraged beast as it laid about itself, tossing and clawing at the Khadorans before him. Kromac rose and let Dusk and Dawn drop down in his grip until he held them by the end of their hafts.

"You're going to have to do better than that, girl. That hammer seems a little big for you..." he snarled as he came rushing back in at her. The icy witch was twirling that blasted hammer around her fending off his half hearted axe swings while he listened and felt for any sign of his forces. The Warpwolf had been found by one of those infernal iron constructs, though it was struggling to catch the exceedingly nimble wolf. While his mind searched for the sisters he missed a parry and felt her hammer glance off his thigh, bringing his attention back to the fight. Drawing on the throbbing pain in his leg, Kromac let forth his bestial nature, spasming uncontrollably before being becoming the hulking, muzzled monstrosity he was.

As he drew in his breath to roar at the stunned officer, he heard the yelping hunting cries of the sisters, who appeared miraculously from the whiteout, a javelin landing in the Khadoran's back while a wolf savaged her leg before throwing her away from Kromac. No sooner did her battered form land than her warjack scooped her up in its open hand and a deep tha-whump sound was heard, before a portion of the ground exploded. Another beat later and another shell fell. The wolf had wounded her badly so Kromac withdrew. He would track the witch down and kill her another day when that blasted cannon could be dealt with.

Before long, Kromac was tracking the Khadorans while one sister lay slung over her mount, wounded but still alive, for now. An ambush would hopefully let him finish the ice witch before she could recover to put up a fight. And if he could slay her quickly, her machines would be lost without direction. He had killed her kind before. And tomorrow he would add another mark to his axe...

Double post incoming!

Going to double post this so I can copy paste in what I had on the Privateer forum for the starting fluff I'm writing. Then I have my 15 pt game fluff to include!



Kromac strode through the knee high snow, never noticing the chill on his bare skin. He paused to breathe in deep, letting the freezing air fill his lungs, somehow smelling of the cold. He felt an unbidden growl deep within his chest, though he was making no sound. His warpwolf had found the beast they had come for. He let his consciousness slip into the feral's and immediately was able to pick up a snarling at the edge of his hearing. Kromac returned to himself and nodded to the slender Tharn woman at his side. She immediately swung up onto the back of her wolf and let forth a primal howl, answered by her sisters, before loping off into the trees, vanishing from view into the gently falling snow. He tightened his grip on Dusk and Dawn before following her into the snowy veil.

Before long, Kromac was joined by the warpwolf, it's fur plastered against its body as the snow melted against it. They slowed as the snarls grew louder, until they entered a clearing and found what they sought. The beast was chained to a stone held in place by druidic magic, but still it strained against its bonds. He saw motion behind the raging Gorax to see the wolf riders circling the clearing. Expecting them to take it down if the creature made a break for it, he set himself before it and nodded to his wolf, who quickly severed the bonds of the distracted Gorax and stepped back as it leapt at Kromac's throat.

Kromac felt a growl stirring within him again, but this wasn't conveyed from the beast who now watched the scene. This was his own bestial nature struggling to come forth. He normally would restrain himself, but he needed that side of himself for this and he let loose the beast within. His heart stopped for a moment as his body suddenly convulsed, the muscles stretching, the bones growing at unnatural speeds, his face elongating into a savage muzzle. Within the span of a few heartbeats, before the enraged Gorax had even crossed the clearing, an equally ferocious creature stood where Kromac had moments before. He tossed aside his axes disdainfully and answered the Gorax's charge with a challenging roar of his own. The only sound that filled the dead and still forest was the two animals. But Kromac would not let the Gorax swing its claws at him. He leapt at it midcharge and stole its momentum with his own. The Gorax went down in a heap as it found an equally fanged maw at its own throat. In that moment, Kromac reached into the savage mind of the Gorax and pulled it from its frenzy. The beast calmed as Kromac stepped away, pleased that his journey had gone so well and ended so bloodlessly. But now he craved blood and flesh. And so the band set out in search of prey.


So, I've recently decided to go with a winter themed Circle army. Of course, given the typical Circle armour, working in blue is easy as the enamel. The Tharn represent another challenge. And speaking of challenges, I am challenging my terribly weak paint skills to do this. I recently had asked about painting tattoos, because this is the way I wish to bring the blue into the Tharn elements. And part of my inspiration is this fellow:



He has some enourmous and recognizable tattoos while still being fairly simple. Perfect! I can totally paint simple! This is really my first shot at free hand, so here's to hoping it comes out well. Since Kromac is kind of the crown jewel of Tharn models, he is actually going to be reserved for the end of the painting league, the capstone of the project as well as the culmination of what I have learned and practiced on other Tharn in the weeks before.

Oh, and other inspiration comes from another video game character:
http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-01/art/ff7-redxiii.jpg

Yeah, even my wolves are getting tattoos if this works out...

But I'd like to hear suggestions too. The models are going to be EXTREMELY cool. Like, wow, that's cold. But the Tharn are savage and cannibals, as we know. Hell, we have BLOODtrackers and BLOODweavers (one of which will be showing up later in this project!). Should I consider blood splatters on the Tharn? I'm leaning towards it for the Bloodweavers at least (oh damn, I gave away that surprise I guess...)? Tell me your thoughts!

I guess you wanna' see the first list, huh? Well, if you bothered reading the narrative, you will already know it.

Kromac the Winter Hunter (*4)
-Gorax (4)
-Feral Warpwolf (9)
Tharn Wolf Riders x3 (6)

15/15

Yup. Lots of fur here.

Pictures are gonna' be pretty poor for a bit here as I am relegated to just my poor phone camera for now. Next week, I'll be back home with the family and I can try to search out the charger for my actual digital camera. I'm being overly ambitious for my painting skill and pace, so I'll be working myself hard to try to keep up with everyone here.

The winter snow betrays you

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Gamer's Journal Update

Quick update as to where I am:

My phone pisses me off. Really, it does. It is so proprietary and counter-intuitive I cannot get pictures off of it for some reason. Piece of crap. Ugh.

The relevance to this is that if I don't figure this out, I don't put up my terrible little camera phone pics of the models at the start. Big deal. I'm really not terribly concerned with my WIP shots. I should have access to my real camera (provided I can find the charger for it, and if I can't I'm ordering a new one) on Monday to post some actual results. And if I can't find mine, I'm going to snag my sister's camera to get some Monday shots while I wait for my new charger to arrive.

However, due to the fact I am moving (and homeless for a day!) this week, my first week is likely to be...uneventful. I green stuff'd my Wolf Riders and Kromac today to fill in some gaps (and cover the "collar" effect of the Wolf Riders), so I got a little bit done. Next week though, I have no work. No school. Nothing but time and family distractions, so I'm gonna' force myself to get a LOT more work done. This is likely to include playing a little catchup due to the whole move and busy work schedule this weekend.

So expect some actual shots next week. To recap, these are my current expected lists for the 15 and 25 pt levels, the first two here.

Kromac the Winter Hunter (*4)
-Gorax (4)
-Feral Warpwolf (9)
Wolf Riders x3 (6)
15/15

Kromac the Winter Hunter (*4)
-Gorax (4)
-Feral Warpwolf (9)
Wolf Riders x3 (6)
Bloodweavers (6)
Lord of the Feast (4)
25/25

Yeah, the 25 pt list changed a little. This was actually my initial list when brainstorming, but I had gone to the Gnarlhorn/Gobber Crew addition instead for model count. I changed this for a few reasons. First, I want to try to add a unit each week. I am terrible about getting around to painting units because there always seem to be so damn many of them! Second, I can't get my hands on some Swamp Gobbers at the moment and without them the list only comes to 23/25, which is below the Within-One-Point requirement for tournament play (which I do play by). So the Gnarlhorn got pushed back to week 3 along with a set of Shifting Stones I can toss in then (see? week 3 has a unit!).

So, I'm hoping to get to play these lists a bit tomorrow. I'll be away from my playgroup for a week so I want to try to get a 25 pt game in this week. If we end up with an uneven number of players (3 people is not uncommon for us), I might end up throwing down with a pair of 35 pt Circle lists against two others for an unlikely allies type game tomorrow night. If I do, my plan is to take my 35 pt Kromac list and add a 35 pt Morvahna infantry list to it (Morvahna and Kromac were fluffy as I recall and I wanna' get my Reeves on the table for some reason).

Expect battle reports tomorrow night. Until then, I leave you with the current Week 1 thread on the Privateer Forums for the Gamer's Journal Online Edition.

The winter snow betrays you...