Monday, April 5, 2010

Warmachine/Hordes, how well can a 'fun' army play it?

Good day to all of you at the beginning of another week. So this weekend was very busy for me as I moved into a new apartment with my wife. We'll now be in Frederick, Md, so a little further in the commute but a lot cheaper on rent and a great town to live in. I need to find a good gaming group there now and when I've got a bit more money, the harcore Frederick Fight club Mixed Martial Arts gymn is calling me.

Thanks go to Old Shatter Hands for pitching in and not only helping us load up the van with furniture, but then driving up in his car with more furniture, helping us unload (including a sofa bed that weighed as much as a real space marine!) and then getting back in time to have a birthday celebration with his wife. You sir are the man and I owe you big time.

In addition, he was good enough to give me a Trollbloods Warpack he had lying around and didn't want.
Trollblood's warpack. Privateer Press' picture

So my future plan is to get into HORDES (and WARMACHINE) and see what I can do to build up a small army. Now I don't have the latest rules yet and I've never played so I am mostly free from the lure of the most powerful or popular units. I've also read than in the transition to Mk2, Privateer Press made sure to tone down the more powerful units from the 1st edition and to add utility to the weaker ones so that no model will ever be completely useless on the table (GW could try doing this with the Tau's own Aun'Va...). So my plan is to just collect the models I think are coolest looking or most fun and see if I can make a good army out of them. Some people say that WarmaHordes is all about power playing so we'll see if I can work around that just with fun and good tactical choices.

So my army starts with the warpack above. That gives me the tragic hero Madrak Ironhide, an albino warlock who took up a cursed axe in order to save his people, a troll axer who gets to smash faces and cut down infantry and two troll impalers who throw ten-foot long spears at anyone who gets in their way. What's next?


Borka Kegslayer is a priest of Dhunia (the troll earth goddess) who likes drinking, fighting and sex. He carries a big club called Trauma that causes brain damage, his special feat is a barroom blitz, he's followed by a pygmy troll with a keg and has a spell called Mosh Pit. If that isn't just too cool for school, I don't know what is :-)


The Dire Troll Blitzer is a massive beast with a WW1-pilot-goggle-wearing pig on its back that is manning a machine gun. Nuff said.


The earthborn dire troll is so adaptive that his fists can take on the power of the enemy's weapons. Flying fist to the face with the strength of your super axe Mr. Butcher of Khadov...yes please!


These Runeshapers are so cool that they can make rocks come swirling up out of the ground. Loving the models and loving the vibe.


Now these Kriel Warriors are pretty neat, not the coolest troll models I've ever seen but they are solid. More importantly they let me take....


A CABER THROWER WHO CHUCKS A CABER MADE OUT OF GRANITE!!! Can't really say more than that. It's just a shame he can only do it once per game.


Speaking of big stones, why not carry a rune-carved magic one into battle that will make your buddies a lot tougher? Works for me :-)


Last of all, let's bring out some tough, hard-fighting champions led by a meanie with a pirate eye-patch.


So that rounds me up to:

- Madrak Ironhide/Borka Kegslayer (not sure on the rules for multiple warlocks)
- 2 Troll Impalers
- Troll Axer
- Dire Troll Blitzer
- Earthborn Dire Troll
- Runeshapers
- Kriel Warriors with a caber tosser.
- Krielstone bearers
- Trollkin champions

I have no idea if this a legal army or whether it is balanced/good/effective but who cares? I will slowly move towards this in my collection of Trollbloods and put up posts as and when I get time to collect, paint and play.

All the best,

Pete

6 comments:

  1. Inlcuding Mulg (from the next post), that's going to be like a 60-ish point army. It's perfectly legal of course, the restrictions for what you put in your army are pretty easy-going. You'll need to play a 100 point game to use two warlocks though (or just a friendly opponent!).

    I think tournament armies are anywhere from 25-50 points, for reference.

    And I have no idea how effective it would be, but with that much beatdown on the table, what does it matter?? Plus it'll be a blast to paint in addition to the fun of playing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bloody hell, how did I miss this? Sorry for not commenting earlier mate. :(

    Stop tempting me with this Privateer Press stuff... ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Asmo. Thanks for the heads up. I figured this was a big, but legal army, I'm just not sure on the exact rules for composition in HORDES Mk2. I haven't quite decided how I would like to play but I think that having so much beatdown (great phrasing, thanks) will be a lot of fun and I will have a good time smashing stuff even if I lose the game. First of all though I need to paint up that warpack. Perhaps we can set up a game sometime and you can show me how warmahordes works.

    @Andy. Speak for yourself. I'm so tempted to get more terminators now that I've seen your Lysander and other model. Really great work and very inspiring. Maybe you can find a PP player in your local area who could give you a game or two to see if it's your thing. I'm also planning to use these models in other games (with opponent's consent) so that will be fun to make up some new rules.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd love to, I am a little more free these days, so just let me know when you are free :). The army comp rules are really easy, I can go over them when I'm showing the game.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Haha, I think we've both fulfilled one of the best functions of blogs, inspiring each other. :)

    I wish I could find someone in the sprawling multicultural utopia that is Swindon (sarcasm detectors across the world are overloading as I write this) who plays Privateer games - even finding a stockist anywhere near here is proving tricky.

    I live in hope though!

    ReplyDelete
  6. That sounds great Asmo. Old Shatter Hands has me down for a game next saturday (or sunday) at Dream Wizards in Rockville. He wants to test out his new Blood Angels and I'm happy to bring the Tau up against them. Should be a good matchup. If you're free and interested to come down, it would be good to meet you in person. If not, we'll set up some other time. We're still unpacking stuff in the new apartment so we might need a bit more time :-)

    Andy, you're absolutely right. I definitely get a kick out of seeing the cool stuff other people have done and it's really inspiring to get that. It's nice too when someone enjoys your blog; that makes me want to work harder to keep doing what I'm doing.
    Good luck on finding a gaming buddy for Warmachine. There are a number of online stockists for PP in the UK (Maelstrom and Wayland games are two I know of) but your best bet would probably be to look up if there is a Privateer Press Press Ganger your way. There is one in the local store here and I think they get bonuses for introducing new people to the hobby so you could probably get a learner game or two in without even buying anything that way. Not sure how to find them though, maybe shoot PP an email.

    Pete

    ReplyDelete