Warmachine/Hordes

Bloodstone Marches Campaign Wrap-Up

ByDankelzahn January 22, 2008February 19, 2022

On January 10th we finished up our Bloodstone Marches Theatre of War campaign. Although the other factions fought hard the Legion of Everblight managed to win their third strategic objective, allowing Thagrosh to escape to recover from absorbing Pyromalific’s athanc in safety.

Everyone seemed to have had a good time during the league and the rule changes we made seemed to go over well. A few more were proposed for the next time – things like doing away with detachments completely. I can see where detachments were initially intended to make sure participants didn’t change lists mid-round but we play all our games in one day. On top of that the campaign is meant to be very casual for us, so it seemed like a fair suggestion to just let folks bring their lists to play on campaign night. It’s less record keeping for the campaign organizer and less work for the teams to get all the lists together early, so it’s win-win for everyone.

There were also a few inconsistencies between scenarios and some of the rules that seemed a bit confusing at time – things like columns that need destroying varying in rules between scenarios. I’m not sure how much can be done there without adjusting balance. There were also some complaints (from both sides) that a few scenarios seemed unbalanced. We’ll definitely have to look at the scenarios a little more closely if we run the Bloodstone Marches again.

But all in all the campaign seemed to be a success and I look forward to giving another Theater of War a shot in the future.

Warmachine/Hordes | Miniature Painting

Miniature Throughput for the Holidays

ByDankelzahn January 1, 2008April 4, 2024

Part of what I’ve been working on the past couple months have been miniatures for other people, so I couldn’t post progress at the end of November without giving away what I was working on. But now that the holidays are past I can actually talk about what I’ve been painting again.

November was about as bad as expected for miniature throughput. I picked up a full unit of Idrian Skirmishers and am glad I made that decision. I’ve played the a couple of times with Kreoss and once with the Testament of Menoth now and have been happy with them together – Protection of Menoth makes them very survivable and Pathfinder, Coordination, and Intercept give them a nice tactical flexibility. I want to paint these guys but have a lot on my plate at the moment. And since their UA has just been announced I’ll likely postpone the models until I can do the UA along with them.

I also went to an event at Fantasy Books and Games over in Illinois in November and won some store credit. Unfortunately they didn’t have a lot of stock in and I don’t go out there often enough to warrant saving it so I wound up buying Bosun Grogspar. I’m not sure how often I’ll use him but at least he should be fun to paint up.

On the upside I was finally able to get a handful of miniatures done for the month. I finished up my Nephilim Soldier and Kell Bailoch for myself as well as a Totem Hunter and a Reinholdt model I’ll be handing off to their respective owners. But that still left me 7 models in the hole for the month – and an even dozen in the hole cumulatively – but what are you going to do?

When December rolled around, things looked promising for my throughput. The only model that came out that I wanted to pick up was a Raek, which meant I had a chance to get ahead. I started the month finishing a couple more gift miniatures – Morvahna and a Fell Caller – then decided to try and paint my Reindeer. It took right up through the 31st but I was finally able to complete all 5 of my Raptors, putting me up 6 models for the month and cutting my running deficit in half.

Looking forward I’m going to try to do my Blighted Legionnaires in January, as well as one or two more individual models if I get time. I really need to get the unit done – I’m already looking at picking up Lady Aiyana & Master Holt and a box of Incubi later in the month. I have some assembly that I want to get done as well. My Raek is still in its blister and I need to get the Neren the Scary I mentioned being asked to do a couple months ago based and primed so I can start on that as well.

WIP shots have been hard to come by lately – this update just has some finished shots. I haven’t had time to stop and take pictures as I paint and all of my current WIPs have either not had any progress made on them since last posting (Alahel) or are completed and will be up on my web site soon. I did get a mini tripod for my camera for Christmas so I’ll try and make more of an effort to take WIP pictures in January.

Warmachine/Hordes

Ternon Crag Dispatch, Issue 1

ByDankelzahn December 20, 2007February 19, 2022

Death Soars over the Marches!

Until recently the rumors of miners spotting reptilian creatures flying overhead have been dismissed as conjecture, but now we know them to be fact. These creatures have been seen en masse north of the Crag, around the Scarleforth Lake and along the Hawksmire River.

We at the Dispatch doubt the rumors that these creatures are in fact dragons. Everyone knows that dragons are massive creatures with wingspans that would block out the sun. However even though the creatures seen have appeared much smaller in size, what they lack in size they make up for in quantity and destruction.

Warmachine/Hordes

Return to the Bloodstone Marches

ByDankelzahn December 17, 2007February 19, 2022

Starting December 19th a dozen of the local Hordes players, myself included, will be starting up another Call to Arms campaign set in the Bloodstone Marches at one of the local gaming stores. Saultydog and Prorpger will also be joining in on this one, and that combined with Manaburst may wind up meaning we don’t get back to our initial campaign. We’ll have to wait and see if we get a chance to finish it up some time in the future.

As for the new campaign, we learned some lessons based on how the first attempt went and have made a couple minor rule tweaks to try and help even things out a bit. These changes should help us finish the campaign before the first tour of the 2008 Call to Arms league starts while while also combating the “snowball effect” that can help one person run away with the lead. So with the following changes, the Legion of Everblight prepares to conquerer the Bloodstone Marches. 🙂

Warmachine/Hordes

Foodmachine St. Louis, 2007

ByDankelzahn December 3, 2007April 4, 2024

Last year one our local Privateer Press Pressgangers and his friend in Indianapolis got together and devised a competition between our two cities to collect canned goods for our local food pantries, with the city donating the most cans per player to take ownership of the Harvestthrall Trophy.

This event, dubbed “Foodmachine,” featured interesting twists on the typical Warmachine rules to help encouraging food donation – in addition to having the entry fee replaced with a required can donation by donating additional cans during a match a player could have a number of effects on the game such as generating extra Focus points and re-rolling his or his opponent’s dice.

After the success of the event Privateer Press provided coverage of that event in No Quarter Magazine and promote the second year of the event nationally. In 2007 the Foodmachine event, organized on the Harvestthrall web site, featured nearly fifty competing local communities across the globe.

Read More “Foodmachine St. Louis, 2007”

Warmachine/Hordes

Bloodstone Marches – Destroy Supply Fortress

ByDankelzahn November 7, 2007February 19, 2022

Destroy Supply Fortress
Sunday, October 28th, 2007

With a number of Trollkin rescued from the Skorne at Ternon Crag, the Trollbloods were in desperate need of supplies to feed the newly freed hungry mouths. To assist their kin fighting in the area, Madrak had decided to lead an attack on an recently constructed supply fortress south of the town. Unfortunately unbeknownst to Madrak Everblight had claimed the supply depot as his own only shortly before. At the Trolls push for the fortress the blighted Nyss stationed there rally to defend their newly claimed prize.

Prorpger declared his first attack on one of his Strategic Objective deep in my territory for round 2. The fortress itself was a 6″ x 10″ structure located in the middle of the defender’s deployment zone with a lone door facing the defender’s table edge. The Trollbloods had two opportunities to win: destroy the structure (ARM 18, can take 10 damage per 1″) or hold the structure for one round.

Warmachine/Hordes

Bloodstone Marches – The Escape

ByDankelzahn November 1, 2007February 19, 2022

The Escape (Castle of the Keys)
Sunday, October 28th, 2007

After their victory over the dragon Pyromalfic, Everblight’s escape required his scattered forces to escape the ruins and regroup. Thagrosh had located a promising escape route through an unstable tunnel below the ruins and lead what forces were nearby away from the castle. Before the blighted forces could completely withdraw they were sensed by Balder, who quickly gathered what constructs were nearby in an attempt to cut off the dragonspawn’s escape.

The Escape is the Legion’s second Strategic Objective of the Bloodstone Marches theater of war, and the first fight of our second round. Although the victory conditions were the same as a standard assassination game, the fight was contemplated by the unstable cavern it took place in. To represent this the table was divided into 8 12″ x 18″ segments as shown here. During the Legion player’s Maintenance Phase he would check for a cave-in by rolling a d6 for each section, starting with section 1. If the roll was a 6, that section would suffer a cave-in at the start of the Legion player’s next Maintenance Phase and stop checking sections for that turn. When a section suffers a cave-in every model in that area suffers a POW 15 damage roll and is knocked down. All terrain is removed from the section and the entire section becomes rough terrain.

As with the rest of the campaign proxies were allowed, and Saultydog took the opportunity to let a Warpwolf stand in for the second Woldwarden which is currently in pieces on his painting desk. I was hoping he wouldn’t pick up a second one but it’s not like it’s unexpected. I hate those stoopit things.

Warmachine/Hordes

10/20/2007: Hordes Stampede! Event

ByDankelzahn October 26, 2007February 19, 2022

On October 20th we had a Hordes Stampede hosted by Miniature Market locally here in St. Louis. We had a large turnout for this event – large enough that we had to run out for an extra table so that we would have enough. In addition to a fair number of regulars we had a couple younger guys who were back in town for the weekend from college and a few other locals who aren’t regulars but came by anyway. Between the sixteen participants, two employees, and the pressganger the store was packed.

Unlike the Swiss tournament format that is typically used for Privateer Press game events the goal of the Stampede was to claim a table by defeating its current defender then defending the table against new attackers for as long as possible. In addition the defender would suffer attrition, forcing him to hold on for as long he good with his dwindling forces. To help offset his mounting losses the defender’s side of each table had a few extra pieces of defensible terrain – a couple trenches and a couple linear obstacles to seek cover behind.

My other tournament reports so far have centered more around the games I played and their results. This time I want to take a break and instead talk about observations regarding the Stampede format itself, including some of the things that worked and some that didn’t.

Warmachine/Hordes

Bloodstone Marches – Prevent Blight Outbreak

ByDankelzahn October 19, 2007February 19, 2022

Prevent Blight Outbreak: Castle of the Keys
Sunday, October 14th, 2007

The second and final fight for a strategic objective of the first round in our Bloodstone Marches Theater of War campaign was Saultydog’s Circle trying to contain the outbreak of Dragonblight at the castle of the keys. Unfortunately for the druids they ran afoul of a group of Prorpger’s trolls who, still bitter over the Circle’s betrayal of Madrak Ironhide and unaware of the Circle’s goal decided to take the opportunity to strike at the Blackclads.

This game was fought on a table bisected from left to right by a 4″ stream of Blighted Shallow water. The blighted energies in this region had two effects: first living non-Legion models in the blighted water suffer -2 MAT, RAT, and STR. However we made a mistake and only played this as a -1 penalty. Second, all Tough rolls in this scenario only succeed on a roll of 6. The Circle’s goal was to damn this river by collapsing six of the eight columns surrounding the river and using the rubble to stop it. The columns were positioned with four on each side of the river, each 1″ from the river and 8″ from the columns to its right and left or 10″ from a table edge if there was no column to that side of it. The columns were ARM 18 structures that could take 20 damage points before being destroyed. This scenario used the Siege Attrition rules for the campaign, meaning if any columns were destroyed but Circle lost, the next time they attempted the scenario whatever columns had been destroyed in previous attempts would remain begin the game already destroyed.

Other than the river and columns, each player placed four terrain pieces but could only select obstructions, obstacles, and structures. We also allowed open pits to be used, feeling it felt in theme with the ruined castle. These terrain features had to be at least 6″ away from the channel and 3″ from each other. Both players primarily selected linear obstacles for their terrain pieces, resulting in a relatively open table with regards to LOS. Saultydog did place a couple pits on the Trollblood side to try to slow them down while Prorpger put a couple of structures over on the Circle side for the same reason. In addition we wound up using P3 paints for columns again. We really need to add some more variety of terrain pieces but time to make terrain always seems hard to find.

As I mentioned in the previous post about our campaign we were allowing proxies so both players took the opportunity to break out some new models and try them out. They fielded the following:

Warmachine/Hordes

Warmachine Battle Reports

ByDankelzahn October 15, 2007February 19, 2022

Some of you may have noticed a sudden jump in post counts over in the category listings but no new articles on the front page. This isn’t a mistake – I’ve recently ported roughly a dozen battle reports that I had written up on other forums here. There were a number of reason contributing to the decision, one of which was to actually have content to post over here going forward. 🙂

I decided to backdate the entries to the dates that I initially posted the reports in their original locations. I felt that that having the commentaries in that order would help make them easier to understand as some of them reference and build off of earlier reports. To help people find this new content I’ve included an index of the new battle reports below, though they’re still accessible through the usual archive-browsing methods.

12/28/2006 – Fear the Boot and the Fight for America Hill (350 pt. Multiplayer)

1/3/2007 – Fear the Boot and the Fight for America Hill, Round 2 (350 pt. Multiplayer)

1/17/2007 – Fanatic Alliance vs. Cygnar (350 pt./each Teams Game)

1/24/2007 – America Hill, the Final Solution (350 pt. Multiplayer)

2/7/2007 – Mirror Match: The Battle of Dead Man Flats (500 pts.)

1/31/2007 – Yet Another America Hill (350 pt. Multiplayer)

2/14/2007 – One More America Hill (350 pt. Multiplayer)

6/27/2007 – Trollbloods vs. Legion of Everblight – Not America Hill (500 pts.)

7/18/2007 – Circle Orboros vs. Legion of Everblight – Cat Fight! (750 pts.)

7/25/2007 – Legion of Everblight vs. Protectorate of Menoth – Battle of the Frail (500 pts.)

8/15/2007 – Spontaneous America Hill (350 pt. Multiplayer)

8/22/2007 – Trollbloods/Circle Orboros vs. Legion of Everblight – A Family Affair (1000 pts.)