Tag Archive for Face_Doom’s Musings

There’s No ‘I’ In Team…

…but there are three in ‘Ontario Team Championship‘!

FACE_DOOM hits the streets to get the low down and roll some dice at the Ontario Team Championship.

To the victors go the spoils!

To the victors go the spoils!

 

So I’m sure most of you, dear readers, will have heard of the Warmachine and Hordes World Team Championship by now.  Some of you even have a set of gorgeous precision measuring devices from last years team fundraiser!  The team format in Warmachine has always been a tricky one to approach, the game always having been so catered to one on one play, but some methods have been thought up over the years.  Perhaps the most common of these is the 5 man team format, popular for a few years now in some of the stronger American Metas and recently gaining a good deal of recognition from the WTC.

There can be no doubt that the format is catching on, and provides a few unique tactical elements to change up the standard tournament style.  For these and other reasons one Mr. Scott Talarico, of Party Foul (a rapidly growing, Ontario based Warmachine website), and a few of his compatriots decided to organize a tournament in this format.  Before you could say ‘[insert complicated name of Convergence Battle Engine] it had grown into the ‘Ontario Team Championship’ – and ol’ FACE_DOOM just couldn’t resist a look.

 

Kind of a BIG deal

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So you’ve gotta respect Godzilla.

That’s just a thing.  He’s way too large, powerful and capable of apocalyptic destruction on an unheard of scale to not merit respect.  So in light of this plainly common knowledge, we at Hero’s World chose to hold a contest of sorts; a battle of giants.  Hordes players were invited to bring their favourite Kaiju monster Gargantuans and Warmachine enthusiasts were likewise invited to bring their massive-monster-murderers, the Colossals.  In addition, as a nod to the unmatched destructive power of these beasts, all huge based warbeasts and warjacks could make power attacks for free.  Players were allowed to spend two points of their caster’s warbeast/warjack points on a support solo or unit to really help crank these monsters up to eleven!

The results were spectacular!  Even though only my man Chadi and I brought Gargantuans I think something like eleven or twelve of the fourteen participants brought out their huge bases for a good old Thursday throwdown.  Much fun was had by all, and many thanks to Northblade for organizing and running the event, and even rolling a few dice himself.  I must admit I got rather ponderous while enjoying the competition, because I haven’t seen so many huge bases at an event since the few months following the original colossals release wave.  I mean, the usual suspects are pretty common in Stormwall, Galleon, Earthbreaker and even Hyperion; but I don’t see the others too often.

 

Epic Roasted Marshmallow

 

In addition, I don`t use my own Mammoth all that often anymore.  This event made me wonder why. I really like the Mammoth.  I have experimented pairing him with several warlocks and had mixed results but the most consistent factor was how much fun it is to put on the table.  I guess I must have forgotten that in the last little while because he has been finding his way into fewer and fewer lists.  Putting the Mammoth on the table that night helped me remember how awesome it feels to charge that massive beast in and wreck everything in it’s path, so I’ve been inspired to mount a defence for it; to campaign for it, if you will.  Here are FACE_DOOM_II’s reasons why YOU should love/hate/want to play/be afraid of the Mammoth.

I shall call him… Mini Me: Part Dos

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FACE_DOOM_II’s continued thoughts on some of the new Journeyman and Lesser Warlocks…

 

So you just got finished tearing through the competition at the Southern Ontario Masters and you’re bored with your easily victorious lists.  No?  Well maybe you’ve just been ROFL-stomped by some serious pros and you’re fresh from smashing some out of favour models with a six pound sledge hammer?  Either way it sounds like you need some hot, fresh new tech’ for the summer and that’s exactly what uncle Face_Doom is here to provide for you today!

Last week we took an in-depth look at both Initiate Tristan Durant, new Journeyman warcaster from the Protectorate of Menoth, and Fyanna the Lash, a very unique Legion of Everblight solo.  Both of these models bring a lot of exciting options and depth to their factions, albeit in very different ways, and I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of them in my local meta’s.  Today I’ll move on to Kovnik Andrei Malakov of Khador and Tyrant Zaadesh of my own beloved, xenophobic, death-obsessed samurai half-elves – The Skorne Empire!  If you haven’t read part one then it behooves you to do so immediately, and if you have then hopefully you have had sufficient time to recover from the resultant mind explosion so that you can follow along with:    ...Part Two:  The Samurai and the Socialite

 

"I thought I knew how to torture people..." - Morghoul

“I thought I knew how to torture people…” – Morghoul

 

 

I shall call him…Mini Me

FACE_DOOM_II’s thoughts on some of the new Lesser Warlocks/Journeyman Warcasters

 

What do you mean 'other than Arcane Shield'!?

What do you mean ‘other than Arcane Shield’!?

 

So it’s been a pretty exciting 10 or 12 months for releases and there is still a lot brewing in the near future for Warmachine and Hordes fans.  Gargantuans has nearly completed it’s release schedule and Vengeance has brought a lot of new and unique options to the table.  Every faction is being given interesting new pieces to play with and there are some very sexy interactions happening as a result. Butcher 3 and Issyria have effectively changed the game in the tournament scene and I have been seeing a lot of use for all those cool new light cavalry units (and that terrifying new Cryx cavalry unit as well!) but what I want to talk about today are the new Juniors, or at least a few of them.

Obviously I need to talk about Tyrant Zaadesh, because Skorne, but I’m also going to cover the other factions I have dabbled in over the years and still harbour some vague, traitorous interest in.  They are also the factions that I have WarRoom decks for, and can therefore research this article; because knowing is half the battle!  Fyanna the Lash, Tristan Durant, and Andrei Malakov all bring very interesting ‘tech’ to their respective factions so I am going to offer my thoughts on their potential use, impact and overall tactical value, as well as their ‘fun factor’ in this riveting two part article!