Tag Archive for Warmachine

So, uhhhh, Happy 2016 I guess?

So pretty, likely has no reason to be on this site..

 

Wow, it’s been a long time since we posted a blog article, and for no good damn reason I assure you aside from laziness.  Hoping to address that and make amends by producing more content on a semi-regular schedule, but no promises since that has happened before.

 

So saying “Happy New Year” to everyone is our first order of business.  We at HH wish you all much health, happiness, wealth, success and hysteria in the New Year.  2015 was a good year for me personally, with the health of my family being great and no small amount of financial success as well.  Holiday debt is a thing for sure, but Ladyblade has assured me a new budget is coming for 2016 in order to get us on track and making strides in paying off our household debt and saving for a bright future for our beloved little Dragonspawn.  Home improvements, savings, a vacation in the UK to coincide with Star Wars Celebration 2016 and more family travel are all good reasons to plan for a future and take steps to stick to said plan in order to reap the rewards.  However I doubt you are here to read about my plans to save money in 2016, I assume you are here for the Hysteria of my Hobbies and interests, which I am only too happy to provide.

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

 

 

So………. yeah.

banner_ToThePoint

 

We’re recovering here at Hysterical HQ.  The Southern Ontario Open was this weekend, an 89-player Masters event hosted in Hamilton, Ontario by some of the best people around.  Aside from confirming that I am the WORST player of Warmachine/Hordes in Southern Ontario at a competitive level, it was an amazing event that tired all of the Hysterical crew out to the point of exhaustion and the need for comatose-levels of sleep.

Discussion and some recap will be had, but for now let’s just assume we’re all too damn tired to talk about anything.  We’re going over our wins, losses, and analyzing our gameplay to try and understand everything better.

For my part, I got 31 models painted in 9 days to prep for the event and STILL didn’t get a single 50pt list to fully painted.  I took my Convergence of Cyriss to the event and really enjoyed playing and learning them this past weekend.  But I KNOW I need to evaluate my lists and figure out some stronger options as well as really get down to which caster is suited for which role, and then build better lists to support their respective roles.  I have a lot of work to do before I attempt another showing at a local, or international, Masters event.  😉

All kinds of article ideas spring up as I reflect on the weekend, however like I said, we’re all exhausted so all you’re going to get today is the promise of more articles (I see Face_DOOM is editing his next article as I type) and this GIF of a bidepal Horse running full out.

 

Guess which end of the Horse I feel like?

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!

Tournament Inventory

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So many of us have been there before.  It’s the biggest local tournament of the year and you’ve been preparing for it for weeks if not months.  The first round pairings are announced and you confidently walk over to the table and begin unpacking your figures.  You then get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as you frantically search all your foam trays in futility.  You forgot to pack that Warlock you just finished basing last night.

 

Goatvahna. Never leave home without her.

 

So just in time for the Southern Ontario Open, here’s a handy checklist for your Warmachine and Hordes inventory!

Lowering Your Standards

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Once upon a time I worked for a miniature company you may have heard of called Games Workshop. Games Workshop would hold two annual tournaments. One was for staff and the other for the public. Both tournaments required all models be completely painted in order to be played. I would typically spend several months ahead of time planning and meticulously painting each model to the best of my ability in order to win the “Best Painted Army” award, which I was fortunate to achieve a couple of times.

Fast forward to today. I no longer seem to have the patience to paint models to showcase or competition level. Now, I find it quite frustrating if a single model takes me longer than two painting sessions to complete or a unit to take more than four painting sessions to complete. I can still achieve pretty decent results but the quality suffers a bit. If you’re not painting for competition and just want to get your models on the table then you may consider lowering your standards. This article may help you out as it’s all about painting to tabletop quality.

 

This lovely female painter is lowering her standards a bit.

This lovely female painter is lowering her standards a bit.

Architect of the Divine

Stolen shamelessly, but somewhat appropriate...

Stolen shamelessly, but somewhat appropriate…

 

Okay it’s been too long and I never got off my butt and finished showing the stuff I picked up from Templecon, but we’re going to struggle and work through that as soon as i can get this stuff done.  And I’m working on it, so apologies to all for the lengthy absence again.

I recently had the privilege of receiving the Lost Hemisphere Blog’s review copy of Father Lucant, the Divinity Architect to assemble and paint, and let me tell you what a joy it was.

 

JOYBURST!!

Creative list building vs. “the meta”

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Meta (from the Greek preposition and prefix meta- (μετά-) meaning “after” or “beyond”) is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter. 

If you’re anything like me, the first time you heard the word ‘meta’ it was probably attached to the word gaming, you usually heard it playing RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, and it wasn’t something you wanted to be accused of.  Meta gaming meant using your out-of-character knowledge to make in-character decisions and was typically most loathed when it was done for personal gain.  But I digress, many of you dear readers may not be as nerdy as I am and perhaps the first time you heard it was in the Warmachine and Hordes community where it gets thrown around so often.   If you listen to any of the multitude of podcasts on the subject (including the brilliant and amazing Lost Hemisphere Radio Podcast) you’ll hear the term thrown around a lot, but what does it mean to you?

The way people in this community use the term it basically means ‘the style or styles of play that are most advantageous and/or successful within the current rules, accepting the current range of models available for play’.  In other words; whatever is working right now.  That is the basic concept of Warmachine meta.  It is different from place to place and highly affected by the size of group playing the game at or in any given event or community, but it’s a fascinating concept and it’s a neat experience to travel to Cons, tournaments and even just stores outside of your local in order to see other metas.  Something that I have been noticing more and more recently is the trickle down from the national meta to the store level meta, probably because of the massive increase in the popularity of Warmachine podcasts these last few years.  People hear casters or other models reviewed poorly or read that they are bad on the forums and simply dismiss them without a further look, instead favouring options more popular on the forums or among the top national players.  On the one hand I think this is great because it gives payers everywhere a chance to try out a list or some tech that one of the best in the world put together, but on the other hand I worry that newer players may get sucked into the whirlpool of competitive play before they have a chance to bask in the glory that is the storyline, themes and narrative of the Iron Kingdoms – and of course the basics of the game itself.  It’s important to get a firm grasp of the basics before diving into last year’s Warmachine Weekend winner’s Masters list.  You want to remember that the game is fun too, and keep it that way for yourself and others as often as possible.  That’s most of what I want to address today but before I get too carried away: