Posts Tagged ‘uncle von asks’
Uncle Von Asks: Time To Say Goodbye To Cryx?
Shiny: The merits of euthanising your Cryx force? Let’s see. There are, as I assume you have already noted, the matter of freeing up space and a possible conversion into money for your use.
Then there are other considerations, for which I will need additional context. I know you are occasionally given to frustration with Warmachine. Is it that you are quitting the game, or are you abandoning the Cryx for something you find easier to use?
Von: Abandoning them and taking up the Skorne again.
Read And Respond: Warhammer 39,999 and Not Playing Games
In the comments to this I Do Not Play 40K post, Rob at Warhammer 39,999 asked me a Question.
Have you given any thought as to whether your interest is finally waning (And perhaps you’re “done” with warmachine), or maybe it’s just a slightly longer than normal cycle?
I’ve definitely been giving it thought, if only because there’s so much Warmachine stuff and it’s making packing for the house move inefficient, plus so much of it is just collecting dust. Now, the following post is me putting those thoughts down into words and thinking aloud. It may not be organised, it may not be logical, it may not even be correct. Please bear that in mind.
Uncle Von Asks: What To Do With The Werewolves of Thornwood?
It’s been so long since I did one of these that I’ve had to go archive trawling to remember how I do them…
System: Hordes
Faction: Circle Orboros
Casters: 1/1
Points: 35/35
Tiers: 0Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
This ‘ere’s my go-to Circle Orboros list, which was built out of the stuff Mr. Bandwagon swapped me for my Skorne back when. It’s very much a ‘do the best you can with what you’ve got’ list that I’ve been slowly adding more bits and bobs to in order to try and do better with (vis. Gorax and Stones). However, I have as yet only won one game with it despite having been playing it or variants on it for a while now, so I thought that breaking it down and seeing what does what and talking about it might help me think about it and work out what I’m doing wrong.
Warmahordes: It’s Been A While
What with actually running the Dark Ages Vampire game (it’s going well, thanks, although there’s no interesting meta as yet and so I’m observing the First Rule of RPG Club), painting up Lizardmen and trying out Lord of the Rings, I haven’t been talking much about Warmahordes – or playing that much either, as tight financial circumstances and am-dram commitments have kept me out of the loop for October and most of November. Doesn’t help that The Von Show takes most of a day to script, film, edit, pretend-to-transcribe, upload and format for posting either. However, I managed to sneak in a couple of games recently and, well, I’m coming to terms with the possibility that I’m a bit crap with the Circle.
While I’m not especially demoralised by having won one game with them since I started playing them, it does appear that the amount of tech available to the faction is baffling my brains a bit. I keep over- or under-buffing key pieces, or buffing the wrong stuff altogether. Target priority is a labyrinth that I’m having to negotiate all over again (and frequently find myself lost in). There often seems to be a crucial element missing from my lists, too. I’m a great believer that a list needs to deliver damage to a single point, damage across a wide frontage, chaff into the enemy’s grill, additional moves to key pieces and probability control through buffs in order to be a good one, and most of my Circle lists seem to be missing one or two of those key elements, or spoiling me for choice with pieces that perform two or three roles.
This is what I’ve been (mostly) running of late. I did try out Mr. Krueger the other day and he was a bit fun. I lost to Nik’s smelly Trolls, admittedly, but it was down to an error of judgement regarding Krueger’s feat and pretty much that alone. One brain fart isn’t quite the same as a whole series of fatal misplays, which is what the following eKaya build has been inflicting on me…
Points: 35/35
Tiers: 0
Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
There are many good components there, perhaps too many – the Stones are helping me keep Laris alive and I’m wreaking modest havoc with Primal, but honestly those things just give me more choices to make and thus more opportunities for misplays. Thoreau says ‘simplify, simplify’… so how do I simplify this? Other than by saying “sod this, let’s take Krueger instead?” – because I do like eKaya and I can see her potential and what she can do. I just seem to be giving myself too much to process in order to make it happen, and I want to take some tech OUT of the list (for the first time ever) in order to refine it and let me focus more.
Also, as I move my shelves around to make room for the new toys (Bloodgorgers, Rengrave, pSkarre and, at last, a proper Raider Captain), I’ve noticed that my Cryx are gathering dust. DUST! Shows how long it’s been since I last disturbed the dead from their slumbers. They’ll have to get an outing in the new year. I keep looking at SmogCon and thinking “if there are any tickets left after the December work lull is over, and if I actually have any money to commit to hotels and food and such, I should take some Cryx down there.” Current plan is to take a variety of pAsphyxious Tier lists and just play SmogPit games until my eyes bleed. Nik reckons I’ll get bored and he may be right, so perhaps eSkarre and her Shooty Solo Spam should do the rounds in one of the tournaments too? I haven’t really tested that list in any sort of ‘les affaires seriuse’ context yet, after all…
Uncle Von Asks: What Would You Do If You Were Me?
On the one hand, we have the Word Bearers. I believe it should be fairly clear by now that I am moderately gaga for the Word Bearers; on the other hand, most of what I want to do with them falls into a fairly traditional model of Chaos that doesn’t perhaps make the most of whatever Codex I’d end up bolting it onto. The problem with fifth-edition-ising the Word Bearers is that my concept of the Legion is closely tied into Chaos tech; I doubt I could embrace the full possibilities offered by a book full of Razorbacks and Land Speeders and such while still trying to serve the concepts inherent in a Traitor Legion. This whole business of being attracted to fourth edition books is unfortunately a recurring theme with me and 40K: being drawn away from the Imperium as an archetype unfortunately puts one in the land of few updates and intermittent design quality.
I was chatting about the whole issue of METAL BAWKSES with Hark, and she scratched her head for a bit and asked if there was some way to do Flying Chaos, as she’s never seen me produce a Chaos army. The notion that sprang to mind is that of the Raptor Host – a company of Raptors that have stayed together during the Long War instead of fracturing to form mercenary groups in other warbands. Blood Angels rules, milking the Black Rage as analogue for daemonic possession angle, but largely running off Descent of Angels and maybe some flying Daemon Engines (or ‘Stormravens’).
Then there’s the whole Ork thing. I do have certain recurring ambitions regarding Orks, and the current thinking is that I could do some amazing things with plastic kits and some elements of the Ork army. The thing that I can’t get past is that they’re the highest model count option, and probably one of the most fatiguing to paint, and also that I don’t have that many ideas for making the core troops interesting, unlike the other options. I’m not one of those people who has the will, patience or imagination to convert every member of a twenty-man squad, I’m afraid.
Lastly, there’s a rank outside choice which occasionally makes itself felt. Given my love for multicoloured forces that allow me to vary schemes while employing the same range of techniques, the Eldar are a viable prospect. I do have some Thoughts about how an Eldar army should work (Guardians for objective camping and attempts at transport popping, Aspect Warriors to do the heavy lifting of contesting and killing, Seers in the leadership and support role) and Porky’s made some… interesting suggestions about how to approach them (poll updated to reflect that).
Anyway, there’s a poll up on the right. If you were me, which way would you turn? I don’t propose to let the Internet make the decision for me, but if I have some informed opinions to agree or disagree with, I can kick-start the thought processes again.
