Having something awesome prepared, ready to be dished out to the family of readers...
But missing that one ingredient, the one thing that makes it a meal for the eyes. Something that leaves people walking away, satisfied and rubbing their bellies.
Right now, I have a fantastic post to make a whole heap of people giggle their little heads off! But it needs the photographic evidence that was generated. And you know what? The slack arses that took the photos aren't cooperating.
Bastards.
Edit: And headaches. I haven't given any reason for one, yet here it is!
Double Dutch Bastard.
21 January 2010
19 January 2010
Multiculturalism, united under one Agenda
One thing that I haven't covered here at I Hate Mogroth is cross faction forces, where your army has other figures from other factions, friendly or enemy alike.
Many players find plenty of reasons to 'splash' units within their forces. Tyrannix players usually find a place for a Repair Vehicle to heal the vehicular morphers of a gigantic herbivore. Meatshield usually has a very good assortment, including G-Tanks, Mobile Ops and Spintop (His favourite mis-matched Rocket Chopper) from his GUARD force, and then Fire Kami's, Earth Avatars and the occasional Water Avatar to cover the remainder of the numbers.
Biggins usually has a very sporadic army composition for his Empire of the Apes force, taking a few Terrasaur figures such as Raptix and Spikodons, and taking a good selection of Bomber Apes, Howitzer Apes, Stealth Apes and a Command Ape.
I personally have a particular way of organising my troop choices which offers an even spread of good units available, occasionally specialising certain cases.
These are good force compositions for themed forces. An even spread of options and support their monsters respectively.
So what do we do for mixing and matching these factions units? Well lets see what we have. The Subterrans have a very large theme of Brawling, while the Lords of Cthul have a bigger proficiency with synergy support. Lets focus on a Brawling force.
Some figures have their similarities. Snatchers and Mollok Brutes and Berserkers both have jump and SPD 5, for example. Their difference lies with their other abilities and stats. The Snatcher has the Manufacture Advantage, while the Mollok Brutes have a slightly better Brawl and much better DEF stat. The Mollok Brute comes out with the Rage Advantage, Red Berserk ability and Riled, a better Brawl stat than the two of them, while averaging out the DEF at a humble 3 and costing 2 A-die to spawn instead of the standard Grunt cost of 1.
So there are good points to splash Mollok Berserkers: They are able to substitute as good Squad leaders. A Snatcher Grunt and a Mollok berserker run forward against another unit, making sure to stand adjacent to each other, and make a brawl attack of up to 4*3. A destroyed unit, coupled with the Rage Advantage gains you 2 P-die and the Manufacture Advantage spawns a Snatcher Elite who, if placed adjacent to the Mollok Berserker, can make a Brawl attack of up to 2*2.
So a Mollok Berserker makes for a great pseudo-leader. Even for Taskmasters, the under appreciated Brawler. They actually make for a good team up, the Taskmaster and Berserker. The Taskmaster has the Fling Brawl trigger and with the Berserkers additions (Rage, Berserk) you gain a lot of profit.
With a brawl attack of up to 5*4, you attack a unit and destroy it, profiting with 2 P-die, then target another figure within 5 spaces with the same die used as before and destroy another unit, gaining 2 more P-die from the destruction and Rage Advantage, or dealing a point of damage to a monster, still gaining a P-die from the Rage Advantage. The downside to the pairing is overall cost, as they both cost 2 a-die each.
Corrupters stand as a disruptive unit with a rather vanilla stat line and can play a similar role to the Berserker but without as much success. Flank is one of the Corrupters two abilities and the ability is red allowing it to spread to adjacent Agenda Figures. This is good, as a lone Corrupter with a Brawl of 2*0 will have a tough time against most units of a reasonable DEF. However, when placed adjacent to a friendly figure the optimism increases. A good figure to combine an attack with him is the Cthulubite. Weakness plus Flank makes for a very vulnerable figure.
But how do I mix them with the Subterrans? They have the Groundbreaker who already has Flank, along with better speed and manoeuvrability with Burrow, and the same brawl stat and the Pathfinder Action, which has a 50/50 chance of killing a unit regardless of DEF and then moving up to another 2 spaces.
So the Corrupter isn't the most tangible figure to be added to your forces. The Elite Corrupter sporting the Red Overload Brawl trigger makes for a substantial situation for your monster, but not particularly for your units. So I'm going to kick out the Corrupter.
The Tanglix. Now, this is a tricky one. The Tanglix is well known for having a strange and rare dental problem, and also having a rather Counter effective brawl trigger: Radial Attack. This causes the figures to spread out a little because if you don't then your attack squad pretty much disappears unless you roll underneath their DEF of 3.
So how can one take advantage of Radial Attack? With the Tanglix's Brawl attack of 3*0, it makes for an expensive brawler without any B-die kickback. And if the attack is successful, all adjacent figures to the leading attacker are destroyed, meaning you have to spread your figures out from your leading attacker.
How do you mix this figure with the Subterrans? The thing about combining an attack with a figure is that the lead figure is the most important since you're using their attack Trigger. The other figures can be the biggest mismatch of troops you can generate, so with the lack of Boost Die that the Tanglix offer is picked up by the others of the combination.
This is where the Mollok Brutes come in. The Mollok Brutes stand in a similar place to the Spitters by having a large amount of boost die available and no Triggers, making them fantastic support figures. The best part is their Elite has the Champion ability, which gives even more boost die from the Elite himself. On top of the Brawling potential, the Mollok Brutes have Jump and a decent SPD, allowing them to position themselves where they won't be affected by the Radial Attack. The combined attacks amount up to 5*5 which hits a G-tank 90% of the time.
The downside? The Tanglix is slow, with no manoeuvrability either. Mind you, climb would make a little sense. He'd be like “I'm Spiderman! Yeah!”
Also, always note that if you're surrounded by flying figures and you target a non-flying unit with the attack, the adjacent flying figures are hit by the Trigger!
This is where I'm going to leave it at for the moment. The next post, when I get around to it, will be focused on the Fiends Choice of Blastards.
Many players find plenty of reasons to 'splash' units within their forces. Tyrannix players usually find a place for a Repair Vehicle to heal the vehicular morphers of a gigantic herbivore. Meatshield usually has a very good assortment, including G-Tanks, Mobile Ops and Spintop (His favourite mis-matched Rocket Chopper) from his GUARD force, and then Fire Kami's, Earth Avatars and the occasional Water Avatar to cover the remainder of the numbers.
Biggins usually has a very sporadic army composition for his Empire of the Apes force, taking a few Terrasaur figures such as Raptix and Spikodons, and taking a good selection of Bomber Apes, Howitzer Apes, Stealth Apes and a Command Ape.
I personally have a particular way of organising my troop choices which offers an even spread of good units available, occasionally specialising certain cases.
Lords of Cthul
4x Spitter Grunts
2x Spitter Elites
2x Snatcher Grunts
2x Shadow Snatcher Grunts
1x Snatcher Elite
2x Meat Slave
2x Cthulubite
Subterran Uprising
3x Mollok Brute Grunts
2x Mollok Brute Elites
2x Mollok Berserkers
2x Mollok Mortar Grunts
1x Glass Mollok Mortar Grunt
2x Mollok Mortar Elites
3x Groundbreakers
These are good force compositions for themed forces. An even spread of options and support their monsters respectively.
So what do we do for mixing and matching these factions units? Well lets see what we have. The Subterrans have a very large theme of Brawling, while the Lords of Cthul have a bigger proficiency with synergy support. Lets focus on a Brawling force.
The list of Brawling figures are as follows
Taskmasters
Snatchers
Corruptors
Tanglix
Mollok Brutes
Mollok Berserkers
and to lesser extents
Cthulubites
Squix
Mollok Mortars
Groundbreakers
Some figures have their similarities. Snatchers and Mollok Brutes and Berserkers both have jump and SPD 5, for example. Their difference lies with their other abilities and stats. The Snatcher has the Manufacture Advantage, while the Mollok Brutes have a slightly better Brawl and much better DEF stat. The Mollok Brute comes out with the Rage Advantage, Red Berserk ability and Riled, a better Brawl stat than the two of them, while averaging out the DEF at a humble 3 and costing 2 A-die to spawn instead of the standard Grunt cost of 1.
So there are good points to splash Mollok Berserkers: They are able to substitute as good Squad leaders. A Snatcher Grunt and a Mollok berserker run forward against another unit, making sure to stand adjacent to each other, and make a brawl attack of up to 4*3. A destroyed unit, coupled with the Rage Advantage gains you 2 P-die and the Manufacture Advantage spawns a Snatcher Elite who, if placed adjacent to the Mollok Berserker, can make a Brawl attack of up to 2*2.
So a Mollok Berserker makes for a great pseudo-leader. Even for Taskmasters, the under appreciated Brawler. They actually make for a good team up, the Taskmaster and Berserker. The Taskmaster has the Fling Brawl trigger and with the Berserkers additions (Rage, Berserk) you gain a lot of profit.
With a brawl attack of up to 5*4, you attack a unit and destroy it, profiting with 2 P-die, then target another figure within 5 spaces with the same die used as before and destroy another unit, gaining 2 more P-die from the destruction and Rage Advantage, or dealing a point of damage to a monster, still gaining a P-die from the Rage Advantage. The downside to the pairing is overall cost, as they both cost 2 a-die each.
Corrupters stand as a disruptive unit with a rather vanilla stat line and can play a similar role to the Berserker but without as much success. Flank is one of the Corrupters two abilities and the ability is red allowing it to spread to adjacent Agenda Figures. This is good, as a lone Corrupter with a Brawl of 2*0 will have a tough time against most units of a reasonable DEF. However, when placed adjacent to a friendly figure the optimism increases. A good figure to combine an attack with him is the Cthulubite. Weakness plus Flank makes for a very vulnerable figure.
But how do I mix them with the Subterrans? They have the Groundbreaker who already has Flank, along with better speed and manoeuvrability with Burrow, and the same brawl stat and the Pathfinder Action, which has a 50/50 chance of killing a unit regardless of DEF and then moving up to another 2 spaces.
So the Corrupter isn't the most tangible figure to be added to your forces. The Elite Corrupter sporting the Red Overload Brawl trigger makes for a substantial situation for your monster, but not particularly for your units. So I'm going to kick out the Corrupter.
The Tanglix. Now, this is a tricky one. The Tanglix is well known for having a strange and rare dental problem, and also having a rather Counter effective brawl trigger: Radial Attack. This causes the figures to spread out a little because if you don't then your attack squad pretty much disappears unless you roll underneath their DEF of 3.
So how can one take advantage of Radial Attack? With the Tanglix's Brawl attack of 3*0, it makes for an expensive brawler without any B-die kickback. And if the attack is successful, all adjacent figures to the leading attacker are destroyed, meaning you have to spread your figures out from your leading attacker.
How do you mix this figure with the Subterrans? The thing about combining an attack with a figure is that the lead figure is the most important since you're using their attack Trigger. The other figures can be the biggest mismatch of troops you can generate, so with the lack of Boost Die that the Tanglix offer is picked up by the others of the combination.
This is where the Mollok Brutes come in. The Mollok Brutes stand in a similar place to the Spitters by having a large amount of boost die available and no Triggers, making them fantastic support figures. The best part is their Elite has the Champion ability, which gives even more boost die from the Elite himself. On top of the Brawling potential, the Mollok Brutes have Jump and a decent SPD, allowing them to position themselves where they won't be affected by the Radial Attack. The combined attacks amount up to 5*5 which hits a G-tank 90% of the time.
The downside? The Tanglix is slow, with no manoeuvrability either. Mind you, climb would make a little sense. He'd be like “I'm Spiderman! Yeah!”
Also, always note that if you're surrounded by flying figures and you target a non-flying unit with the attack, the adjacent flying figures are hit by the Trigger!
This is where I'm going to leave it at for the moment. The next post, when I get around to it, will be focused on the Fiends Choice of Blastards.
18 January 2010
Memorable Moments in Monsterpocalypse
Every so often, a player will have an experience during a game that was just so phenomenally hilarious or game changing that it clings to their memories like a barnacle on a Triton figure. Between players, it's always different, whether something was so ridiculously successful, or there was just one roll that turned a game about.
I've had quite a few different ones. One that really stood out was against planet eaters. Planet eaters are tough bastards, retaining a very high health count across the majority of their monsters. They have a Monster Pairing that has the highest total health count: Gorghadra and Mega Gorghadra at 16 health!
Then we look at the rest of the Planet Eater range, where figures usually have a decent amount of health. Rogzor at the bottom with 10, Vorgax at 11, Zorog and Xaxor at 12.
Xaxor is the accomplice, however. With his abilities, particularly the blue Jump ability, nothing can escape Gorghadra's ability to “Eat Face”.
And that was the plan. Xaxor and Gorghadra running through a field, claw in claw, laughing under the sunshine as they terrorise the 'burbs of whatever-opolis, bounding over skyscrapers with the ease of superman. With Xaxor's super-damage capabilities and Gorghadra's phenominal endurance, it would naturally be assumed that a very uphill battle would be ahead of me.
Not quite.
To battle these monstrosities, you have to pull out the big guns. Lords of Cthul have plenty of big guns too, and some unique niches for their monsters. Yasheth stands as an extremely enduring figure, with his Leech ability and Vampirism, coupled with Meat Slaves, he can regenerate anywhere up to four health. With his Mega, he becomes stealthed to ranged attacks and his assault trades healing for super damage.
Cthugrosh is a great figure for his variety of options. He summons, he sacrifices, he moves things with his minds; with every brawl attack, he gains an additional power die; with something that he's a little too disgusted with, he gets as far away as possible and Flings them another five spaces away. Mega Cthugrosh
My pairing of choice, however, were the Pustule hammer and Geriatric sickle of the Lords of Cthul: Ulgoth and Ancient Osheroth. Both Annihilate anything they touch. Both flail about with their Radial Attack. Both have great health (11 each).
Their Downsides? Only Ancient Osheroths Morphers have maneuverability, using the ability Burrow. That's okay. I knew this player, I knew how he played. I didn't need to chase them down. He would perform ballet over the buildings to reach me and Eat face.
Other Downsides? Relatively low healing capabilities. Ulgoth relies on Meat Slaves, while Ultra Ancient Osheroth has Sacrifice and his morphers have Vampirism on one of the Tentacles.
So with these weapons at hand, and a standard force layout of units, the Block War was on.
Now, if you could, imagine two people. Female warriors in schoolgirl outfits. One with blind courage, prepared to run into the midst of anything and everything to take on whatever sod wanted to challenge them; The other with a little more patience and pondering as it whacks a building with the back of its hand and catching a better view of her partners suicide run.
Now think of those bad anime shows that involve schoolgirls and tentacles. That pretty much describes what happened to Gorghadra, all 16 of his health disappeared after about 3 or four turns.
And Xaxor watched on, trying to help where he could. But it just wasn't enough. Then, with Gorghadra torn apart and laying down on the floor, his biometal clothes tattered and strewn across the town... they turned to Xaxor.
What are your Memorable Moments in Monsterpocalypse?
I've had quite a few different ones. One that really stood out was against planet eaters. Planet eaters are tough bastards, retaining a very high health count across the majority of their monsters. They have a Monster Pairing that has the highest total health count: Gorghadra and Mega Gorghadra at 16 health!
Then we look at the rest of the Planet Eater range, where figures usually have a decent amount of health. Rogzor at the bottom with 10, Vorgax at 11, Zorog and Xaxor at 12.
Xaxor is the accomplice, however. With his abilities, particularly the blue Jump ability, nothing can escape Gorghadra's ability to “Eat Face”.
And that was the plan. Xaxor and Gorghadra running through a field, claw in claw, laughing under the sunshine as they terrorise the 'burbs of whatever-opolis, bounding over skyscrapers with the ease of superman. With Xaxor's super-damage capabilities and Gorghadra's phenominal endurance, it would naturally be assumed that a very uphill battle would be ahead of me.
Not quite.
To battle these monstrosities, you have to pull out the big guns. Lords of Cthul have plenty of big guns too, and some unique niches for their monsters. Yasheth stands as an extremely enduring figure, with his Leech ability and Vampirism, coupled with Meat Slaves, he can regenerate anywhere up to four health. With his Mega, he becomes stealthed to ranged attacks and his assault trades healing for super damage.
Cthugrosh is a great figure for his variety of options. He summons, he sacrifices, he moves things with his minds; with every brawl attack, he gains an additional power die; with something that he's a little too disgusted with, he gets as far away as possible and Flings them another five spaces away. Mega Cthugrosh
My pairing of choice, however, were the Pustule hammer and Geriatric sickle of the Lords of Cthul: Ulgoth and Ancient Osheroth. Both Annihilate anything they touch. Both flail about with their Radial Attack. Both have great health (11 each).
Their Downsides? Only Ancient Osheroths Morphers have maneuverability, using the ability Burrow. That's okay. I knew this player, I knew how he played. I didn't need to chase them down. He would perform ballet over the buildings to reach me and Eat face.
Other Downsides? Relatively low healing capabilities. Ulgoth relies on Meat Slaves, while Ultra Ancient Osheroth has Sacrifice and his morphers have Vampirism on one of the Tentacles.
So with these weapons at hand, and a standard force layout of units, the Block War was on.
Now, if you could, imagine two people. Female warriors in schoolgirl outfits. One with blind courage, prepared to run into the midst of anything and everything to take on whatever sod wanted to challenge them; The other with a little more patience and pondering as it whacks a building with the back of its hand and catching a better view of her partners suicide run.
Now think of those bad anime shows that involve schoolgirls and tentacles. That pretty much describes what happened to Gorghadra, all 16 of his health disappeared after about 3 or four turns.
And Xaxor watched on, trying to help where he could. But it just wasn't enough. Then, with Gorghadra torn apart and laying down on the floor, his biometal clothes tattered and strewn across the town... they turned to Xaxor.
What are your Memorable Moments in Monsterpocalypse?
13 January 2010
Battle Dot Net
Blizzard Entertainment are well known in the gaming world as an extremely successful gaming company. They have 3 series of games that are still selling well even after an entire decade. World of Warcraft is one of their most played games these days, being a very vast MMO with some wonderful aspects and a continually expanding world.
I have made mention in the past about wanting to play Starcraft II, one of their planned releases within the next 6 months (Which may ruin any New Years Resolutions I may secretly have this year). I've been keeping track of their efforts and one thing that stuck with me is the login system.
One thing that each of the games have in common is their networking server: Battle.Net. A server system that allows players to connect to other players easily and also update their game if need be. Blizzard have taken the system to another level now and have made plans for Battle.net to become a Social Network, allowing someone playing a Starcraft II campaign to talk to someone playing a World of Warcraft PVP match, who is also talking to a Diablo III player who is taking on a boss with a few friends.
You can also just take it to the web and create and upload Starcraft II maps for everyone to rate and enjoy. Screenshots from your favourite moments in World of Warcraft or Diablo III can be tossed up and attributed to your account, which will say what game you're playing at the time so they could join you then and there.
World of Warcraft has already begun the implementation by connecting your WoW account to a Battle.net account, now allowing "Cross-realm, cross-faction and cross-game chat". Starcraft II benefits alot from it because not only can you easily set up multiplayer matches, you can also organise multiplayer campaigns!
So Gaming as a Social Network? Players can log into Battle.net and check out peoples profiles and say to themselves “Wow, look at the scores on that player” or “Love the kit on that warrior”. The only recurring pattern between accounts is that every third or fourth player will have a naked Night Elf or Blood Elf that they use to /dance on the fountain outside the Stormwind Bank.
Always with the fucking Elves. Is nothing sacred these days?
It isn't exactly a novel idea, what with Steam being around for enough years, but it's still a nifty little aspect for the millions of Blizzard gamers, as I'll call them now, to keep in contact with others. When there's need for a dungeon to be raided in World of Warcraft while someone else is playing Starcraft, you can ask them to join up without having to go through various different other sources, like Facebook or even picking up the telephone, or even just hoping that they might get a telepathic message saying “I should play Wow and join such-and-such on a dungeon raid of Dead Mines...”
So recently I have been tempted to get back into World of Warcraft. While it may be a rather repetitive game, it is still entertaining. Dungeon diving is really entertaining, especially if you're a Warrior. The role of a Warrior is generally to keep the attention of the opponents. If it's one opponent it's very easy, generally. Not always, considering that single target would probably be a boss who has a large variety of special abilities that will constantly change the course of the fight.
But up until that point, you have to deal with massive hordes of minions that will overwhelm you unless your party works properly to keep you alive while you keep everyone's attention, keep up threat as it's termed, and other classes deal the majority of damage to the minions. Always note: Keep threat off of your healer.
It's fun. A close combat class designed for DPS (Damage per second, for those playing at home), like a Retribution Paladin or a Rogue in general or a Fury Warrior or a Feral Druid, receive a lot of fun since they're a primary source of damage, while keeping themselves alive through the hope of “I'm being ignored, but I'm still shoving this pointy/hammery bit up your bum.”
Returning to World of Warcraft is tempting though since Jubs is playing at the moment and he wants someone competent enough to understand and do their job correctly, and a warrior is something that he won't knock back. All I'll have to do is change my race and faction (Going from Orc to... Draenai I reckon) and start playing with him.
The downside is that with World of Warcraft, I tend to get really into it for a little while and then drop it and don't pick it back up for a very long while. Last time I played was the middle of last year, and then the Xmas before that for a solid week (I was on holidays too).
The other problem that presents itself is my social plan. Tuesday nights I go to Fastbreak to play games; Thursday nights I go to Humphs to play games with Kel and Co.; Friday nights I go to Dungeons and Dragons with my mates; Sundays I'm usually busy with going to Monsterpocalypse tournaments or going to the movies with Mum; Otherwise there's talking with Jen about our writing, throwing back and forth ideas and thoughts. Then there's always the Online Blokenstein Bloodbowl League that Kel and Co. are tempting to start again which I've been invited to join. Then there's my New Years Resolution of doing my 75pt Man of War Army.
With so much to do, the majority of which is difficult to mix with World of Warcraft, I think I might stay out of it for now. I'll probably give it a good crack when Cataclysm comes out, which is thankfully a long way off from being released. Shit, Starcraft II is going to take up what spare time I have when it gets released!
The next 8 months are going to be entertaining. Sorry to Jubs who won't receive my competency.
08 January 2010
The Warning, Warmachine
Ladies and some gentlemen who aren't interested in my nerdistry, heed my call. In past times, I have made blogs about Games and Gaming Stuff. From now on in, I'm making posts and giving you your warnings.
Todays blog is about Warmachine MKII (Pron: Mark Two). The release was of a few days ago and the book is a good thick read, featuring many of the basic figures across the range to begin someone's endeavour into this tabletop gaming range.
The art is amazing, the stories are entertaining, and generally it's a very clean. My only problem is with the front cover, which has Victoria Haley standing very much so in the foreground and somewhat ruining the presence. I was commented on about it with a "You wouldn't say the same if it was Irusk, would you?" to which I retorted with "If it was just as bad, actually I would". It's mostly that it distracts away from the scene at hand, which is two giant flippin' robots attacking each other in the midst of an all out war!
Oh, and Mikael Kreoss in the middle of the fight rather than being a glamour whore (Now THAT is my bias shining through).
I've been saying to Privateer Press to do a scene like that on their covers for a few years now, and this is very VERY close to what I have really wanted to see. WM: Escalation, WM: Apotheosis and Hordes: Primal are perfect examples of what I want to see more of. Alas, that may not be the way, but I don't mind. The game itself is good fun.
Speaking of the game itself, it has changed. A lot of little things have disappeared, like the Juggernaut and Marauder losing their headspikes, which is a darned shame while also making sense (Anyone who has played long enough will remember how many times they've never used it), which also caused the Berserker to lose it's headspike, which was used to great effect at the end of every chain attack it made (“I hit you wit' axe, den I hit you wit' udder axe, and den I give you a Khardic Kiss wit' my pointy forehead.”). The streamlining of the rules and general balance caused it to be eliminated from the warjacks repetoire.
But with the changes in repetoire came a reincarnation of certain warjacks. A particular favourite of mine is the Sentinel who now has a bigger role than “Spray and Pray”. Now he takes on a defensive position with figures and jumps in the road of those ranged attacks that would otherwise worry your warcaster.
Within Khador, the Kodiak has decided to give a better bear hug than his previous incarnation. To start, his weapons have improved in power. This is a great little bonus. His previous incarnation had trouble dealing substantial damage to other warjacks, which contradicts an aspect of the faction it's in that has a very large theme of excessive damage output. The system layout of the figure pretty much broke down to utility and disruption without death.
But the other thing is that his chain attack has changed. Instead of knocking them down and dealing a set amount of damage (six is the highest I can think of to particular warjacks), he can knock them down by headbutting them, or it could throw them at someone, or play tug-o-war with one of their weapons. All those were choices that were available, but much more expensive choice than a player would frankly prefer.
To celebrate the new edition of the game, Privateer have decided to contribute to everyone's options as well by providing a new warjack. The Cygnaran Cyclone, the Protectorate Templar, the Khadoran Decimator and the Cryxian Corruptor.
Each warjack gives a very entertaining bonus in their own ways. The Templar stands as a High Armoured warjack swinging around a ball on the end of a chain that beats figures all about the place. The Decimator throws people about as well but he uses his gun instead. And when he's close enough, he starts up his buzz saw and tries some carpentry with someones body.
The two most entertaining are the Cyclone and the Corruptor.
The Cyclone is funny by running around with two chain guns attached to the underside of it's forearms. It's quote is the most entertaining part: “The Metal Storm can rotate through its barrels nearly once per second, giving it a maximum firing rate in excess of two hundred rounds per minute. The Cyclone has two of them”. With this, the cyclone has two choices: Spray and Pray, firing off 2d3 shots a turn if it isn't engaged; or Covering fire, placing two AOE's within 10” of the figure, preventing most, if not all, single wound infantry from approaching safely.
The Corruptor has weapons which inject an alchemical component into the carcass of the poor sod who it kills, whether it's simply causing the body to violently erupt, restoring health to the Warcaster (It's an oddity that one) or using it as a conduit for spells to be cast. It has fantastic applications, especially with their spell-slinging Warcasters.
The last thing I want to cover in Prime is the story. Doug Seacat writes fantastically and his character descripts are fantastic. The book has a small story within it, to give the reader something to salivate over rather than a bunch of back history on the Iron Kingdoms. A fantasticly entertaining story I must say. Doug does his job well again.
That's all I really wanted to cover about Warmachine. Anything else, I'll put up in another Game Warning. Overall, this is great and the surprise about the Berserker has me giddy now.
Todays blog is about Warmachine MKII (Pron: Mark Two). The release was of a few days ago and the book is a good thick read, featuring many of the basic figures across the range to begin someone's endeavour into this tabletop gaming range.
The art is amazing, the stories are entertaining, and generally it's a very clean. My only problem is with the front cover, which has Victoria Haley standing very much so in the foreground and somewhat ruining the presence. I was commented on about it with a "You wouldn't say the same if it was Irusk, would you?" to which I retorted with "If it was just as bad, actually I would". It's mostly that it distracts away from the scene at hand, which is two giant flippin' robots attacking each other in the midst of an all out war!
Oh, and Mikael Kreoss in the middle of the fight rather than being a glamour whore (Now THAT is my bias shining through).
I've been saying to Privateer Press to do a scene like that on their covers for a few years now, and this is very VERY close to what I have really wanted to see. WM: Escalation, WM: Apotheosis and Hordes: Primal are perfect examples of what I want to see more of. Alas, that may not be the way, but I don't mind. The game itself is good fun.
Speaking of the game itself, it has changed. A lot of little things have disappeared, like the Juggernaut and Marauder losing their headspikes, which is a darned shame while also making sense (Anyone who has played long enough will remember how many times they've never used it), which also caused the Berserker to lose it's headspike, which was used to great effect at the end of every chain attack it made (“I hit you wit' axe, den I hit you wit' udder axe, and den I give you a Khardic Kiss wit' my pointy forehead.”). The streamlining of the rules and general balance caused it to be eliminated from the warjacks repetoire.
But with the changes in repetoire came a reincarnation of certain warjacks. A particular favourite of mine is the Sentinel who now has a bigger role than “Spray and Pray”. Now he takes on a defensive position with figures and jumps in the road of those ranged attacks that would otherwise worry your warcaster.
Within Khador, the Kodiak has decided to give a better bear hug than his previous incarnation. To start, his weapons have improved in power. This is a great little bonus. His previous incarnation had trouble dealing substantial damage to other warjacks, which contradicts an aspect of the faction it's in that has a very large theme of excessive damage output. The system layout of the figure pretty much broke down to utility and disruption without death.
But the other thing is that his chain attack has changed. Instead of knocking them down and dealing a set amount of damage (six is the highest I can think of to particular warjacks), he can knock them down by headbutting them, or it could throw them at someone, or play tug-o-war with one of their weapons. All those were choices that were available, but much more expensive choice than a player would frankly prefer.
To celebrate the new edition of the game, Privateer have decided to contribute to everyone's options as well by providing a new warjack. The Cygnaran Cyclone, the Protectorate Templar, the Khadoran Decimator and the Cryxian Corruptor.
Each warjack gives a very entertaining bonus in their own ways. The Templar stands as a High Armoured warjack swinging around a ball on the end of a chain that beats figures all about the place. The Decimator throws people about as well but he uses his gun instead. And when he's close enough, he starts up his buzz saw and tries some carpentry with someones body.
The two most entertaining are the Cyclone and the Corruptor.The Cyclone is funny by running around with two chain guns attached to the underside of it's forearms. It's quote is the most entertaining part: “The Metal Storm can rotate through its barrels nearly once per second, giving it a maximum firing rate in excess of two hundred rounds per minute. The Cyclone has two of them”. With this, the cyclone has two choices: Spray and Pray, firing off 2d3 shots a turn if it isn't engaged; or Covering fire, placing two AOE's within 10” of the figure, preventing most, if not all, single wound infantry from approaching safely.
The Corruptor has weapons which inject an alchemical component into the carcass of the poor sod who it kills, whether it's simply causing the body to violently erupt, restoring health to the Warcaster (It's an oddity that one) or using it as a conduit for spells to be cast. It has fantastic applications, especially with their spell-slinging Warcasters.Side note: Holy crap shooting monkeys. The Berserker has base Def 11. Irusk Superiority + Berserker = Pseudo Cryx Jack. (Spd 6, Mat 7, Def 13 with bonus anti-Knockdown).Now everything that is in the Warmachine model range is not entirely available in this book. It covers some of the basic different units that the armies make available. Within the coming months, "Forces of Warmachine" books will be released and will not only cover the figures missing in the range, but will also be providing us with more units and another Warcaster. The next couple of months are going to drain me of a few hundred dollars, I know, but it'll be good.
The last thing I want to cover in Prime is the story. Doug Seacat writes fantastically and his character descripts are fantastic. The book has a small story within it, to give the reader something to salivate over rather than a bunch of back history on the Iron Kingdoms. A fantasticly entertaining story I must say. Doug does his job well again.
That's all I really wanted to cover about Warmachine. Anything else, I'll put up in another Game Warning. Overall, this is great and the surprise about the Berserker has me giddy now.
05 January 2010
This would be the Best Thing Ever
Doc and I have been thinking on a wonderful little expedition for some random event.
To start, we have paintball. Everyone likes Paintball. You shoot people and show battle scars afterwards. To make it intense, an abandoned warehouse has been fitted as a scenario map. Mirrored, of course.
To increase the intensity, we air drop into the Scenario! Each member participating are paired with a Trained Paratrooper/Skydiver/Someone trained in this shit for safety measures. Team members are also equipped with a long range Paintball gun, allowing them to shoot the other team on the way down. (Yes we realise the danger in this, but it would be fucking cool)
That is the First Round. The Second round is night time, and the entire warehouse is lit up with UV lights. Guns are loaded with paint that shines under said UV lights and everyone is wearing a change of clothes. No Airdrops, just enter and shoot away.
So why not put everyone on Segways?
This has been inspired by the following photos:
To start, we have paintball. Everyone likes Paintball. You shoot people and show battle scars afterwards. To make it intense, an abandoned warehouse has been fitted as a scenario map. Mirrored, of course.
To increase the intensity, we air drop into the Scenario! Each member participating are paired with a Trained Paratrooper/Skydiver/Someone trained in this shit for safety measures. Team members are also equipped with a long range Paintball gun, allowing them to shoot the other team on the way down. (Yes we realise the danger in this, but it would be fucking cool)
That is the First Round. The Second round is night time, and the entire warehouse is lit up with UV lights. Guns are loaded with paint that shines under said UV lights and everyone is wearing a change of clothes. No Airdrops, just enter and shoot away.
Sidenote: Is it weird that my shoulder is gurgling? I'd say I was hungry, but I didn't know I moved my stomach like that.But there's something missing. Sure, this is cool, but the thing is that it doesn't have a funny twist.
So why not put everyone on Segways?
This has been inspired by the following photos:
01 January 2010
Happy New Year
Happy New Year Ladies and Gentlemen. This is a new year and soon a new series for Monpoc.
Over the past few months, I have played with the Subterran Uprising quite regularly. And frankly, I've been having quite a few bad matchups.
The Subterrans are a very Melee Based army. The units are very tough and match up well against many figures, with their high defence and good attack stats. The runt of the litter (in my opinion) is the Mollok Mortars, but that comes from a history of using Spitters who have long range and haven't required the necessity of maneuverability.
The Mollok Brutes and Berserkers however are extremely intimidating. Many people have stared at my hand of 3 A-die and 8 B-die in shock and said
But I look at the monsters and find myself stuck against my match ups because they are mostly ranged. Incinerous, Mucustos, Gakura are the top three combatants. Incinerous is hard to touch with the ways he is played and the fact that he's fireproof, Mucustos is just about as bad but with more hit points and a constant flow of super damage instead of immunity, and Gakura spends his time healing with Blitz, or preventing your turn from happening with his lightning attack.
Slugbutt and Drillnose are having trouble catching up to them, however. I can easily attribute this to a change of gameplay that I'm not used to. I'm used to being able to heal EVERY turn and be nigh on invincible because everyone had trouble dealing enough damage to defeat me.
So until series 5 comes out, I'm going back to a classic Over Powered figure: Ulgoth. It'll be fun. I get to fight with one of my favourite monsters (not because he's OP, but because he's funny looking) and everyone can finally have a decent match up.
Over the past few months, I have played with the Subterran Uprising quite regularly. And frankly, I've been having quite a few bad matchups.
The Subterrans are a very Melee Based army. The units are very tough and match up well against many figures, with their high defence and good attack stats. The runt of the litter (in my opinion) is the Mollok Mortars, but that comes from a history of using Spitters who have long range and haven't required the necessity of maneuverability.
The Mollok Brutes and Berserkers however are extremely intimidating. Many people have stared at my hand of 3 A-die and 8 B-die in shock and said
"How does that work again?"So there's no disputing how awesome these brawling units are. The Groundbreaker is the runnerup, but that's because I mostly use him for ground control, using his action to eliminate some poor sap from a power zone and then claiming it for myself.
"One for each Mollok Brute Grunt, Two from the Elite, one each for the elite bonuses, two from the Champion Skill."
Or
"One each for the Brute Grunt and the Berserker, two from the Brute Elite, one for the Elite bonus, one each for Berserk Skill."
But I look at the monsters and find myself stuck against my match ups because they are mostly ranged. Incinerous, Mucustos, Gakura are the top three combatants. Incinerous is hard to touch with the ways he is played and the fact that he's fireproof, Mucustos is just about as bad but with more hit points and a constant flow of super damage instead of immunity, and Gakura spends his time healing with Blitz, or preventing your turn from happening with his lightning attack.
Slugbutt and Drillnose are having trouble catching up to them, however. I can easily attribute this to a change of gameplay that I'm not used to. I'm used to being able to heal EVERY turn and be nigh on invincible because everyone had trouble dealing enough damage to defeat me.
So until series 5 comes out, I'm going back to a classic Over Powered figure: Ulgoth. It'll be fun. I get to fight with one of my favourite monsters (not because he's OP, but because he's funny looking) and everyone can finally have a decent match up.
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