New Blog: Pillers of Halaak

[DFGStar]

excellent infantry article, an invaluable tactica for any melee army really, skorne aside. lol i almost want you to do an anti cryx article for every caster. "this is how you beat cryx with _____" for example. your blog is super fun to read, keep 'er up

[Kurgash]

=/ have to play with him another 2 weeks before able to swap casters and even then need to keep the battle box. Thankfully next week is the 25pt block so I can finally add my Bronzeback to the mix and that makes it so much easier.

[Pwnstar53]

I really like the articles a lot Mahu, I always like hearing someone else's opinions on my favorite faction and these are all pretty good reads too. Keep up the good work.

[Shai-Hulud]

Your blog is excellent and so far every article has been a great read, in particular your tactics articles. So please keep it up.

One quick correction regarding your last article though. Morghoul actually has a maximum of 14 attacks, not 12. You mentioned Maltreatment, but I think you forgot to factor in the additional 2 attacks that using it can give you.

[Bully Bully Mahu]

Oh look an update!:

Battle Report 3: Lord Tyrant Hexeris Versus Lich Lord Asphyxious

I did fix the header of the blog finally, and I fixed the error in the pMorghoul review.

I am trying for this to not be all battle reports all the time. I should have the final series in my anti-cryx articles soon.

[patisarat]

Nice in-depth report, showing what you were thinking at each stage. pHexeris is my favourite warlock ever, and I think you've got a good handle on using him.

[Leeb]

Are you sure that you can use abuse to kill a warbeast on the brink and reeve the fury? I don't have my book, but I'm pretty sure it has to be an enemy effect that must kill the warbeast in order for the warlock to reeve it. If you would reeve from destroying your own beasts Zaal would be wicked good for fury managment and last stand.

[patisarat]

Are you sure that you can use abuse to kill a warbeast on the brink and reeve the fury? I don't have my book, but I'm pretty sure it has to be an enemy effect that must kill the warbeast in order for the warlock to reeve it. If you would reeve from destroying your own beasts Zaal would be wicked good for fury managment and last stand.

Not exactly so. Rules state you can't reave from a beast that was destroyed by 1) a friendly attack or 2) as a result of a damage transfer. But otherwise it's legal.

So if you destroy a beast with non-attack damage, such as Naaresh's feat, Zaal's Last Stand, Morghoul's Maltreatment or Abuse, you can reave the Fury. Even something like Orin Midwinter's secondary arcs qualify, since these are phrased as the model "suffers a POW 10 electrical damage roll" - it's not an attack.

It's corner-case, but possible.

[Leeb]

So that means that this would also work with Last Stand from Zaal since it is the result of a spell, but is not a friendly attack or the result of a damage transfer. That certainly changes the game with that particular warlock since you can run very low on fury and run beasts hot. The last stand on the cheap beast makes it a monster and then you reave what you need to protect from any assassination run the next turn.

Thanks for the clarification on that rule. Very useful.

[Bully Bully Mahu]

Correct, it is something we can use to our advantage. Last Stand does have the negative side of losing said beast.

New post: Back to Basics: Keeping your Warlock safe from ranged threats

Enjoy.

[Mr.chair]

I've started following your blog. I haven't read every article yet, but I plan to. The Cryx battle reports are especially nice because I don't have a Cryx player at my LGS, so I don't know much about how Skorne matches up against them. Anyways, really enjoying the reads.

[Bully Bully Mahu]

New Post:

Know Your Enemy: Cygnar

Enjoy!

[djinniman]

As a newbie, I particularly enjoyed the melee basics and pMorghul articles. Learned several things that should be invaluable to me in the future.

[Bully Bully Mahu]

Hey look, another post:

Caster Reviews 2: Dominar Rasheth

Enjoy!

[gaminguy]

Nice article, but I have to point out that Dark Ritual is once per turn, not once per game.

Rasheth is one of my favorites. I do think Influence is underrated since it messes with opposing field positions, but I think that's because I play against Trolls a lot and they tend to bunch up for fun and profit. (Then again, I hate Trolls with a passion. I like anything that kills them good.)

[Lord Tyrant peers]

I concur with troll hatred. I think tomorrow i'll get some paint on my rasheth and start using him a bit more. though in his tier you can still get access to craft talisman by taking farrow bone grinders. I will try shouting i apologise for nothing next time i carpet bomb breath of corruption.

great blog by the way

[Vapour]

In your Cygnar article you mention dealing with cygnar Infantry.

But how do you deal with Kara sloan/Siege on Feat turn? With a Defender or a Hunter shooting your Heavies into obliteration? Lets say Sloan + 2 defenders and a Hunter. (18 points of models including warjack points)

Thats at least (on Feat turn): Kara Sloan
2 Pow 15 (boostable) + 2 pow 15 (unboostable) + 1Armour piercing pow6 (boostable) + 1 Armour piercing pow6 (unboostable) + 2 Sloans shots (pow 12 boostable weapon master)

So assuming an armour value of 19. + 2 for the krea. = 21 (best case lets assume he doesnt kill the krea)

Average damageasssuming 3.5 on each dice roll)

For a total of 24 Boxes of damage. On Armour 21.
On armour 19 it equals a whopping: 41 boxes of damage.
This is excluding infantry or other models. Basically in a 35 point list There is still 19 points unaccounted for. And other 'orrible things still to include in the list.

Granted that is if everything hits. But that isnt that difficult to do with def 12 as a target. So thats prolly 3 dead titans over 2 turns. Granted im ignoring cover. But unless you behind something huge or in the middle of a forest they are going to shoot at you. But the +4 should really help i guess. Terrain will prolly play a huge role, more so than normal.

So besides Good/Bad luck on either side. What skorne tactics besides high armour, terrain hugging ( which tactically is problematic) and the Krea/Agoniser do we have? I assume with his ranged killing the aggy and the Krea is a breeze. With infantry easily hitting at range 14.

[AngraX]

The thing with Sloan is that during her feat turn, everything will hit. How about Sentry/Tiberion, Krean and Def's ward in any combination you want. Sentry will be arm 23 to 25. This is specially better against armor piercing as it will not halve the +6 arm bonus (shield, krea and def ward).

A cetrati block should do ok. 6 models at arm 22 would take around 3.5 damage only per boosted pow 15, and being weapon master, any of them living on Xerxis feat turn will wreck things good. She can't possibly kill all your cet wall plus all your beasts at once.

[Talamare]

honestly 4 Pow 15 attacks doesnt sound very scary

Suddenly, Flayer Cannons are top pick

[Vapour]

It's more than 4 pow 15's but ok.
@ Angrax: That seems like a tailored list. And i tend not to specifically tailor lists against specific casters. Unless its a tourney.


Hmm, I guess that make Pmakeda a prime pick. (savagery, carnage and Defenders ward + Her feat brings back the shooting casualties to your infantry.)
Naaresh is an option too.

[Triumph Of Man]

A cetrati block should do ok. 6 models at arm 22 would take around 3.5 damage only per boosted pow 15, and being weapon master, any of them living on Xerxis feat turn will wreck things good. She can't possibly kill all your cet wall plus all your beasts at once.

When I run my Xerxis list against Sloan I'm never worried about her shooting. It just bounces off the Cetrati all day. Xerxis uses Krea animus behind the Cetrati, Krea advances safely behind the Titans, Nihilators run screaming at her and jam up what they can.

Siege Brisbane's shooting on the other hand makes Xerxis **** the bed.

[Bully Bully Mahu]

Yeah, it is Siege and eStyker which I find the rougher match-ups. Most Cygnar heavy hitting shooting, even in lists that let them shoot multiple times, will still get damaged, but probably won't go down, then you heal them a little and wreck the Cygnar army.

Cygnar, as a rule, struggle with Heavy ARM when it comes to shooting, and we have the best ARM options on beasts that I am aware of.

I never sweet Hunters, they are only POW 6 and really can't take damage. Modifiers always happen after the fact, so a hunter shooting at a buffed Titan will look at minimum -4. On Naaresh's feat turn -7, with Defenders Ward -6, with a Krea -6, with Defenders Ward and a Krea -8. On Average, not a lot of damage. POW 15's on ARM 19 causes 3 damage on average, boosted 7. Suddenly add all our ARM buffs, and it gets ridiculous.

Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog, I am currently writing something on Steamroller, I should have it up by tomorrow. I am going to set the goal of a minimum one post a week.

[AngraX]

It's more than 4 pow 15's but ok.
@ Angrax: That seems like a tailored list. And i tend not to specifically tailor lists against specific casters. Unless its a tourney.


Hmm, I guess that make Pmakeda a prime pick. (savagery, carnage and Defenders ward + Her feat brings back the shooting casualties to your infantry.)
Naaresh is an option too.

Well, Xerxis brick list is tailored against 80% of all other lists :P, that's the beauty of him. You don't need the Krea (I never used it). A Sentry/Tiberion + the Cetrati block will do just fine .

[Bully Bully Mahu]

New post:

Steamroller 2012 and Tournaments Win Conditions

Adepticon prep is diverting my time, but I will try and keep this as updated as possible.

[Kurgash]

So wait...you mean I've been having armor pierce done to me wrong all this time? Where an arm 22 cetrati would instead of arm 11 be arm 14? Wow I'm an idiot! I fear it alot less now.

[Talamare]

So wait...you mean I've been having armor pierce done to me wrong all this time? Where an arm 22 cetrati would instead of arm 11 be arm 14? Wow I'm an idiot! I fear it alot less now.

No worries, I messed up myself teh 1st time I fought against AP, tho the guy shooting me didnt know it worked like that either...

Personally on Cygnar I like using the Charger more than the Hunter
Charger - 4 points with 1 fury gives you pow 12 boosted attack and damage (avg: 16a/22d)
Hunter - 6 points with gives you pow 6 AP, AP generally means +7-9 damage, so pow13-15 (avg: 13a/20-22d), but of course you can pay 1~2 to boost

I guess Hunter is more Focus efficient since he can run really well with 0 focus, and he never needs 3 focus. While with Charger its the option of 1 focus or 3 focus

[Triumph Of Man]

So wait...you mean I've been having armor pierce done to me wrong all this time? Where an arm 22 cetrati would instead of arm 11 be arm 14? Wow I'm an idiot! I fear it alot less now.

If you checkthe wording it says halves base armour. Modifiers are not base armour, so you don't halve them.

My two wins however where fairly glorious, I won both of them on scenario. The first one was against an eLich player, and was a hard fought game, I killed almost his entire army and survived the feat turn, but barely had anything left to actually win the game. Dice down was called, and my one tough Agonizer held the zone. My second win was against a pKreoss player who really knew his stuff. I was able to stuff the feat turn from killing my caster, out attrition him, and contested the zone as much as possible for a dice down win.

I don't know about you Billy, but I find dice down the worst possible way to win. It's not satisfying, and it's not fun. Especially when one player gets shortchanged on game turns that's just downright unfair, and who wants to win or lose an unfair game?

The game gets cut short and its true conclusion is never met either through scenario victory or assassination or time outs from death clock.

Personally I would've been pissed off if I went to a tournament and had most of my games go to dice down.

[Kurgash]

I checked up on stat modifiers and yeah, what happens in order is doubled, halved, added to, minus'd. So armor pierce would halve my armor then i add the bonuses!

[dommer01]

Last post was April 3....you're slacking! Lol, keep up the good work bud. Definitely checking back to see next post!

[Vapour]

At higher armour values (meaning the target) the hunter does as well as the more expensive Charger. I think at around 20-21 armour is the swing point. And he only costs 2 thirds. So he def has his uses.

[Bully Bully Mahu]

Personally I would've been pissed off if I went to a tournament and had most of my games go to dice down.

Well, I was getting frustrated because I just couldn't get to the caster, and my opponents where smart enough to jam the control points. So when they are playing for dice down, I felt I had a little justification to play for it myself.

The only thing I dislike about this game these days, is when players play for dice down or try to death clock you. I feel it takes away from the whole reason we play scenarios, which is to force engagements.

I would have been more pissed if the opponents caster kept camping armor and running away from me, and somehow still win on CP or something at dice down.

Since dice down is a win condition, it is important to know about it and play for it.

Last post was April 3....you're slacking! Lol, keep up the good work bud. Definitely checking back to see next post!

Like I said, Hardcore prep is diverting my time. I am still going to try and keep to a post a week schedule. I am also still looking for contributors as well.

[Vapour]

Played Sloan twice today. You where right. A krea + 19 armour titans where dinged up, slammed a model over sloan, and curb stomped her. Twice.

[Scull]

And how was Adepticon and when can we have some new posts on blog?!?! :P

[Triumph Of Man]

The only thing I dislike about this game these days, is when players play for dice down or try to death clock you. I feel it takes away from the whole reason we play scenarios, which is to force engagements.

In Deathclock time is a resource, and managing it/pressuring your opponent into mistakes is a skill. So being killed by the clock in DC means you allowed your opponent to outmanouvre you.

Dice down on the other hand you can lose via a random time limit, going so far as to get 1 fewer turn than your opponent (or winning via such a move). It's random, arbitrary and there's no skill or management involved. Which makes it an incredibly lame way to end the game for both parties.

[LeiferAxe]

Fantastic work on the Blog Mahu.

Really appreciate having some much Skorne knowledge consolidated into one place.

[jettzypher]

It's random, arbitrary and there's no skill or management involved

i wouldnt go that far. each round has an allotted amount of time. if youre not keeping an eye on it, thats your fault. you shouldnt have to rely on a clock thats sitting on the table telling you how long you have left until the match is over.

death clock just adds in another wincon that could make the match half the length of a normal timed round or take just as long.

[Triumph Of Man]

i wouldnt go that far. each round has an allotted amount of time. if youre not keeping an eye on it, thats your fault.

Steam Roller has variable round lengths to prevent you from doing just that and trying to run the clock to get an extra turn over your opponent. Of course, this means you sometimes just wind up getting an extra turn due to pure luck. In a 50pts reinforcements match you'll wind up with either 10 more or 10 fewer minutes added to the clock, nor will you know about them. The TO isn't supposed to reveal how the variable round worked out so from your point of view it is literally random (it's decided by a single roll of a d6, tell me how that isn't random?)

death clock just adds in another wincon that could make the match half the length of a normal timed round or take just as long.

Clocking out in deathclock is just like timing out in chess, or running out of cards in Magic. You were given an allotted amount of resources, you spent them worse than your opponent, which means you deserve the loss. If you spent 25 minutes on one turn and didn't literally spend it decimating the enemy army then your tactics are bad and you've spent alot of your resource of time faffing about. The loss is upon your own head when you clock out.

[jettzypher]

i dont do tournament play so i personally wouldnt know, but from the outside looking in this is how i view it. the two or three i have run have had the same either a set time limit for the round or maximum time allotted for each turn.

[Bully Bully Mahu]

I just wanted to say I had a good time with this blog, but unfortunately, I decided to move on to a generic warmachine blog. The new one can be found here:

http://theironkingdomsorlando.blogspot.com/

This means Pillers will no longer be updated, but I will be posting my Skorne thoughts still in this new format. Because I play several factions, it has been hard thinking of new things to post for Skorne, while thinking of what I am going to try out with my other two factions, so I figured a more generic blog will serve my purposes more in the long run.

However, I will post here, and only here, my Hardcore experience.

I went ultimately with pMorghoul, and because of last minute preparations falling through, I had to swap the second Bronzeback for a Sentry (was going to borrow a friends who insisted that it would be painted in time, yet it wasn't).

So my final list was this:

Master Tormentor Morghoul +7 points
* Archidon 7 points
* Bronzeback Titan 10 points
* Cyclops Brute 5 points
* Cyclops Shaman 5 points
* Titan Gladiator 8 points
* Titan Sentry 9 points
* Aptimus Marketh 3 points

Agonizer 2 points
Extoller Soulward 2 points
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor 2 points
6 Paingiver Beast Handlers 3 points
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew 1 point

Game 1: I played against a "I just want to have fun" Carver player, who had 3 full units of Brigands. He made the mistake of letting his brigands block charge lanes on his beasts, and I was able to bait a Warhog out with a sacrificial Sentry, I then counter feated and wrecked most of his army. He started to run out of time, so went all out with Carver to kill a Gladiator, and the Bronzeback killed Carver on his last attack (he failed his tough roll).

Game 2: I played Walter's tiered eBalder list and afterwards I felt rather dumb. I knew I was going into a good match-up, but miscalculated on a few items. I was pretty far forward and able to start putting the hurting on his feated army, however, his counter attack saw the Circle Battle Engine roll triple 4's to crit freeze Morghoul (fun fact, the Circle Battle engine can still spend fury under Morghoul's feat), and Balder himself was shifted twice onto Morghoul who only had 2 transfers. So assasination loss. I was also dumb because if the Brute was just slightly closer, I could have shield guarded it. I forgot Sheild Guard and remeasured and had the sigh of relief that I wasn't completely dumb. I didn't see that coming at all, and congrats for Walter for seeing that play and taking it.

Game 3: Was against a beast heavy pDoomshaper list. I hadn't played pDoomshaper before, and that feat was just devastating for my army. However, I had a chance when my opponent forgot to feat, and I charged two abused/enraged beasts into Mulg and an Earthborn, The earthborn died, but bad dice rolls allowed Mulg to live, much to my misfortune. Ultimately, he locked me down with his feat, and was able to kill my beasts, and I tried to run to win on clock, unfortunately Goad was able to compensate for Admonition, and Morghoul was put into the ground.

Game 4: Was against an obviously new Jarl player. Needless to say, the game was quick. I was able to kill her army and eventually catch up with Jarl.

Game 5: I was exhausted at this point and just ready to leave. I knew my opponent deserved a solid game, but the army he brought was hard to deal with. It was Durgen Madhammer list with Nyss Hunters and Primed Kayazy Assassins. Usually, when it comes to high defense, I use Orin and Morghoul's fists, but Primed was probably the worst situation, that many POW 14s on my beasts or even Morghoul would really suck. So I put forth my best effort, killed a bunch of things, then Madhammer shot my fury off me, and Kayazy Assassins charged and killed Morghoul (he was very smart to charge behinf Morghoul with his first charge to make totally avoiding the Kayazy Assassins impossible. Gang plus Prime got around my high defense and killed me.


Overall, I went 2 - 3. It was a fun day however. I learned a lot and really appreciated stepping out of my local player pool. I already plan to attend next year, and hopefully I will have a better story.

For now though, I am concentrating on learning and playing my new faction Khador. Never fear, Skorne content will still show up on the new site.

Thank you, everybody that read Pillers over the few months I was posting to it.