Post by ken233 on Aug 18, 2015 12:08:16 GMT
So. I'm not technically a member of this club. Or any club for that matter (although I did get some custom dice made so I could pretend 
).
However, most of my non-tournament gaming and theory-hammering (that's right, I'm a WHFB player) is with Tom U, and he convinced me to a) start Warmahordes, and b) sign up for this as well.
So, the first thing I did was spend a lot of time (when I should have been working) trawling the internet to look into all the different factions. I was looking at both aesthetic and playstyle mainly, and fluff to a lesser extent (I can write my own fluff if I have to!). Initially I was looking more at the Warmachine factions, because I liked the idea of jacks, and had a couple of ideas of paint schemes that might work well on large armour plates. However, I quickly began to realise that most of the warmachine factions actually tend to be more infantry-heavy, with few jacks. What's the point in that!? I've also always been of the 'push it forward and see what happens' mentality (it usually doesn't work), so I found myself getting drawn towards Skorne.
The main things that attracted me to Skorne were:
Beast heavy - you can take LOADS, and still have a reasonably viable list, due to Paingivers for the fury management.
Nice models - Elephants in armour? Also a very different aesthetic to most WHFB models, which I was looking for from a painting perspective.
Flexibility - From reading around, I get the impression that Skorne, more than any other faction, can build a tournament list around almost all of the Warlocks
Simplicity - Some factions rely on loads of synergy, massive chain reactions and everything done in a particular order. Skorne seems to need less of this, there's more stuff that can just go and get the job done, which is nice for my highly tactical 'push it forwards' plan.
Beast heavy - Seriously, you gotta love the big guys.
So the first purchase was easy - the starter box. Ridiculously good value, and a great starting point. I also chucked in a unit of paingiver beast handlers (because duh), and some cataphract incindiarii, because the internet said they were good at killing infantry so my BEASTS can kill other beasts faster. Plus the models look awesome (and they're £10 cheaper than the other 2 cataphracts?
)
I played a couple of little games against Tom U at various levels, and smashed him repeatedly. Well, 2 out of 3 anyway!
Key learnings were:
I need to practice more!
This is not a 'reactionary' game. You'd better get things right in your turn, because you can do nothing to mitigate damage in your opponents turn!
Cyclops Savages have an incredible animus (boost AFTER rolling to hit/damage), but apart from that they don't seem to do enough. I like heavies better!
Admonition+Counter charge is all sorts of fun (for me). Although it doesn't seem to be quite as popular on the internet...
There is actually a rulebook afterall. I was initially unsure, because the Privateer Press website is arguably the worst in the world.
So I went away and did a load more reading online (http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com is a fantastic resource, but there are plenty of others as well. Google is your friend!), and then bought the rulebook and the Skorne book as well, to get more background and a better grasp on rules and synergies (or lack thereof!)
Anyway...
My initial plan is to build up a list around Morghoul1, from the starter set. He's a solid caster, clears infantry wonderfully, and I REALLY like admonition. I've been theoryhammering away for a couple of weeks, and came up with numerous cunning plans, only to read the rules and work out why they're impossible (cant upkeep more than 1 spell, even if someone else casts it on your behalf. Even if you're not knocked down by something that would normally knock you down, you still forfeit either movement or action next turn, etc etc). It's a nice change from GW rules that I can actually find the answers to all these questions on my own though! Eventually I'm getting down towards a list that I like, and most of the stuff in it is fairly flexible, so I'm not committing to anything crazy just yet!
The next job was to work out a colour scheme. I'm one of those people that likes to customise everything, even if it's not quite as good as the original. So although I love the red, black and gold of Skorne, I'm not going to be using it. I really want to make cream/bone one of the primary colours, and I also haven't painted a lot of yellow in the past, so that's the starting point! The plan is to use browns and pure white for cloth to suit a desert-type outfit, with coal-black skin to bring contrast. Will be interesting to see if I can paint it, and if so, whether it looks any good!
Should be enough waffle for now. I'm not waiting for the Tale to start (I'm impatient, and away for the first 2 weeks in September), so there should be some updates soon, and then I'll get into proper pledges next week
).However, most of my non-tournament gaming and theory-hammering (that's right, I'm a WHFB player) is with Tom U, and he convinced me to a) start Warmahordes, and b) sign up for this as well.
So, the first thing I did was spend a lot of time (when I should have been working) trawling the internet to look into all the different factions. I was looking at both aesthetic and playstyle mainly, and fluff to a lesser extent (I can write my own fluff if I have to!). Initially I was looking more at the Warmachine factions, because I liked the idea of jacks, and had a couple of ideas of paint schemes that might work well on large armour plates. However, I quickly began to realise that most of the warmachine factions actually tend to be more infantry-heavy, with few jacks. What's the point in that!? I've also always been of the 'push it forward and see what happens' mentality (it usually doesn't work), so I found myself getting drawn towards Skorne.
The main things that attracted me to Skorne were:
Beast heavy - you can take LOADS, and still have a reasonably viable list, due to Paingivers for the fury management.
Nice models - Elephants in armour?
Also a very different aesthetic to most WHFB models, which I was looking for from a painting perspective.Flexibility - From reading around, I get the impression that Skorne, more than any other faction, can build a tournament list around almost all of the Warlocks
Simplicity - Some factions rely on loads of synergy, massive chain reactions and everything done in a particular order. Skorne seems to need less of this, there's more stuff that can just go and get the job done, which is nice for my highly tactical 'push it forwards' plan.
Beast heavy - Seriously, you gotta love the big guys.
So the first purchase was easy - the starter box. Ridiculously good value, and a great starting point. I also chucked in a unit of paingiver beast handlers (because duh), and some cataphract incindiarii, because the internet said they were good at killing infantry so my BEASTS can kill other beasts faster. Plus the models look awesome (and they're £10 cheaper than the other 2 cataphracts?
)I played a couple of little games against Tom U at various levels, and smashed him repeatedly. Well, 2 out of 3 anyway!
Key learnings were:
I need to practice more!
This is not a 'reactionary' game. You'd better get things right in your turn, because you can do nothing to mitigate damage in your opponents turn!
Cyclops Savages have an incredible animus (boost AFTER rolling to hit/damage), but apart from that they don't seem to do enough. I like heavies better!
Admonition+Counter charge is all sorts of fun (for me). Although it doesn't seem to be quite as popular on the internet...
There is actually a rulebook afterall. I was initially unsure, because the Privateer Press website is arguably the worst in the world.
So I went away and did a load more reading online (http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com is a fantastic resource, but there are plenty of others as well. Google is your friend!), and then bought the rulebook and the Skorne book as well, to get more background and a better grasp on rules and synergies (or lack thereof!)
Anyway...
My initial plan is to build up a list around Morghoul1, from the starter set. He's a solid caster, clears infantry wonderfully, and I REALLY like admonition. I've been theoryhammering away for a couple of weeks, and came up with numerous cunning plans, only to read the rules and work out why they're impossible (cant upkeep more than 1 spell, even if someone else casts it on your behalf. Even if you're not knocked down by something that would normally knock you down, you still forfeit either movement or action next turn, etc etc). It's a nice change from GW rules that I can actually find the answers to all these questions on my own though! Eventually I'm getting down towards a list that I like, and most of the stuff in it is fairly flexible, so I'm not committing to anything crazy just yet!
The next job was to work out a colour scheme. I'm one of those people that likes to customise everything, even if it's not quite as good as the original. So although I love the red, black and gold of Skorne, I'm not going to be using it. I really want to make cream/bone one of the primary colours, and I also haven't painted a lot of yellow in the past, so that's the starting point! The plan is to use browns and pure white for cloth to suit a desert-type outfit, with coal-black skin to bring contrast. Will be interesting to see if I can paint it, and if so, whether it looks any good!
Should be enough waffle for now. I'm not waiting for the Tale to start (I'm impatient, and away for the first 2 weeks in September), so there should be some updates soon, and then I'll get into proper pledges next week
