Painted Khador Army for sale - The Butcher of Khardov

Fullt painted and based Khador army:

Butcher of Khardov
Kodiak
Beserker
Beserker
Uhlans x 3
Greylord Ternion
Iron Fang Pikemen x 10
Iron Fang Pikemen Unit Attachment
Man of War Shocktroopers x 5
Eiryss, Mage Hunter

Here is the Butcher in all his glory:


Here is the full army side on (crappy photo):


Here is the Butcher showing his jacks off:


Here are the Uhlans:



Hre is the Greylord Ternion:


Here are the Iron Fang Pikemen:



So, 47 points, fully painted:

Price at the Warstore for the lot: US$293.00.

The painting of much of this army is excellent (i.e. the Butcher, Kodiak, 3 MOW ST, 6 IFP + UA, Greylord Ternion, Uhlans) painted by Verdigris Zombie on the PP forums. I painted the rest in imitation of the VZ's work, and my stuff only misses his by maybe 5%.

I'll take US$320.00 plus shipping at cost for the lot.

Keir



I'll take

Back from the Desert: Khador action on the road again

I've been completely preoccupied with work for the last month and a half. It's one of those once in a career things, where everything else has to take seat on the side, if not the back. Wargaming ended up in the back. That said, I have wargamed on a couple of occasions in October. The first time I played a Haley army against a Morghoul led Skorne force run by Ken B. (commonly referred to as Kenoth of Menoth or, when playing Puerto Rico, Cornholio). There were no pictures taken but it was one of those games you always remember, filled with courage and event.

The second night of wargaming hapened a weekend later. I played two games, one against the Skorne of Kenoth again (this time with my Vlad list) and then a game between my Butcher list and Jordin's Vayl warband.

In the game against the Skorne I forgot everything I had learned in Haley's triumph of the week before. As well, I am growing increasingly disenchanted with Vlad the Dark Prince in this edition of the game. I actually can't figure out why, but I really like both the Butcher and Sorscha, and I want to return to the Old Witch. Anyways, here is most of my army in deployment (the Widowmakers are on the right flank - a misdeployment as it turned out).


This shows the Skorne force (except for only one merc solo) heading to my left flank, and it wasn't to get away from my snipers).


This is close to the endgame. Basically I ended up feeding my army into a choke point and, quite frankly, that's not my kind of game and it's not my kind of army. If I had IFP or MOW Shocktroopers on the table this kind of attrition battle in a bottleneck would be feasible, I suppose, but I was off my game, I had a thrown together force, and I played like el stupido. I conceded the game to stop the misery for both of us.


My second game was against Vayl. I'd never played against her before (or with her, for that matter). Jordin is a very capable opponent and has played a lot of games with Vayl, but as it turned out he just wasn't aware of the sheer brutality possible with a Butcher led, jack heavy, full throttled, blood frenzied Khador army. Basically I just moved towards him, waiting for him to come into range, and suffered away along the wait. On his first turn he had his Raptors engaging most of my Widowmakers (they were thus done for) and on his second he killed my Manhunter with the Angelius' shooting attack. But in the end, I still had the core of my force, and on the Butcher's feat turn on the first hit with Lola on the Typhon I did 40 points of damage (i.e. 23) and it died as I had damaged it previously with the Wardog. Vayl was dispatched by the Great Bears soon after that. Even then I missed with either 3 or 4 of the Great Bears' six attacks. My rolling had been subpar for the entire night, but you can't blame the dice. Here are the pictures (he had Vayl, Typhon, an Angelius, a Seraph, two Shredders, 3 Raptors and a Foresaken, I had what you see plus the Manhunter (the Widowmaker Marksman is with his cadre and died with them quite nicely). I have to say I learned how to play the Raptors from Jordin, and thanks for that, man.

Painting for Khador - Harlan Versh and his Trusty Rocketeer

Here is the Illuminated One and his trusty sidekick. I just finished these tonight. Harlan Versh is going to be my go-to merc solo for a good while, and I'm going to play a Winterguard army for the next year or so.

Front view:

Rear View:

Painting Khador - Kovnik Joe

I just finished this fellow. My inspiration to add him to my army was Mr. Flanzer's win at GenCon. Paints are GW Foundations, old Citadel metals, Reaper Clear Red, and a few other odds and socks. I have a full painted and based Winterguard unit + UA + 2 Rocketeers. I have one more Rocketeer to finish. I'll spray the entire unit with Testor's Dullcote then, and post a picture of them with the mortars and field gun.

Well, you know Dad, plans can't fight.

So earlier this evening I'm playing a game of Warmachine against Patrick, who will be five next month, and he's just feated with Vlad to move his jacks (Behemoth, Destroyer and Juggernaut) into my grill on his first turn, and I realize that with Engine of Destruction I can charge with Feora, and I decide not to, instead muttering something about my plan for eventual world domination, and Patrick, hearing this, says to me: "Well, you know Dad, plans can't fight." And I stand, amazed, at hearing von Moltke issuing from the tabula rasa of the mind of my 4 year old boy.


By the way, I have to play Feora now as my Kreoss suffered from the fury of Patrick, or to put it as von Moltke would have, "No miniature with rules that upset a young Khardic lad will long survive the first encounter with the boy's main strength."

Practice Games - Practice List

Ah well, so much to do, so little time. Into St. John's for some pre-GenCon gaming with my list of many things, and I discovered I'll need medication (or perhaps electroshock) to play it in 7 minute turns. So it's back to the drawing board.

This is my initial deployment in my first game against an eDeneghra list played by Mark.

Things heated up on my right flank:


Then, things heated up on my left flank:


Then I lost. Mark is an excellent player, so losing to him is no great shock. But it has to be said that I was stupid and then I died.

Next game was against Mark again, this time (at my request) playing nSkarre. I decided to change my deployment strategy.


Mark changed his strategy as well...here are his full Satyxis Raiders with Witch attachment charging my jacks...oh, what fun. Is there a caster with overwatch neutron bomb strike available?


After the game I told Mark that playing his Skarre list felt like reading a Russian novel...I knew something bad was going to happen, especially if I got off the couch to do anything. Unfortunately, I got up off the couch. His first charge attack from a Satyxis Raider did 12 points of damage on my Spriggan! 12 points! + feedback. He hit both my jacks with another 5 charge attacks. And let me say that free strikes from Satyxis Raiders are not gentle taps either.

Initial conclusion - I must find my brain. Final conclusion - I need less models.

Here are Ken's heavy warbeasts...he is taking them to GenCon:

Another view of Ken's Circle army:


And here is Jason's gun line, ready to receive the attentions of their woodland foe.

Gen Con painting project

I painted the Widowmaker Marksman, an Ogrun Bokur and Reinholdt during a couple of sessions last week while I was vacationing down the coast. I haven't completely finished them...I'm going to put another flesh wash on the Ogrun, I've got to flock the bases and paint their edges black, and I will spray varnish them with Testors Dullcote on a dry day.

As far as problems go, the right ankle of the Widowmaker Marksman broke off when I was pushing it into the slotta base so I had to pin it back on. This is a design issue but no big deal as far as the modelling goes. The Ogrun Bokur is a fantastic model, one of the best in the entire Privateer Press range as far as I am concerned.

Here is the next iteration of my Gen Con Hardcore list. I am going to playtest it next week when I go into town for a week's vacation.

The Butcher of Khardov
Behemoth
Spriggan
War dog
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Kell Bailoch
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount)
Ogrun Bokur
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Widowmaker Marksman

Gaming weekend photographs

So here are a few more photographs, rescued from the waters of forgetfulness by Stu.

In the first two shots I am playing against Mark's Coven. Both pictures are taken at the high point of my game, say after my turn two. I have destroyed one of Mark's boneturkies with my Great Bears (isn't his Deathjack delovely?) and I have used the Spriggan's flares, followed by 3 Bombard shots and my Widowmakers doing their worst to kill over half of Mark's Satyxis Raiders, causing them to fail a morale check. It all went downhill from here for me, but I was happy for a moment, and what is life, after all, but the possibility of being happy for a moment or two?



Now this shot is the only one surviving from my Sorscha v. Kreugar game. First, let me say that I initially played Ken's Kreugar list using nVlad and that he assassinated me on turn two using a combination of a slam by a WarpWolf into one of my jacks, knocking Vlad down, followed by spell and shooting attacks to turn him into a crispy prince. It was a thing of beauty.

In the game against Sorscha Ken got a turn two attack in on me using his Lord of the Feast, which he warped into base contact with Sorscha using the Stones on the hill to the left. However, he then whiffed his rolls with the Lord of the Feast, so I breathed a sigh of relief, and then I in turn spent all of Sorscha's activation/focus the next turn whiffing my rolls before I finally killed the shagging thing. Finally, Ken tried another assassination run, which failed, leaving Kreugar open to Sorscha's Icy Gaze and a number of bombard shots, not to mention a charge from a Spriggan.


The next game was my nButcher versus Ken's nKreugar again. In the first photograph, we are reaching the point in time where someone must do something. I had already learned by this time that two handed throws, while not particularly damaging, were most inconvenient, and that Warpwolves could hardly fail with them, even against Strength 12 Khador Jacks. And yet, they do find it hard to get up close and personal.


This picture shows me trying to figure out what the hell to do next. I may even be going through the alphabet in my mind. Otherwise, black is very slimming, and I will wear it as often as possible if there is even the slightest chance that someone will attempt to photograph me.


I like this photograph (thanks Stu) as it shows me getting my Behemoth into combat. I did thereafter kill the Alpha with a couple of Armored Piercing attacks, but it has to be said that the best thing I could have done, which I did not, would have been to pick up the shagging Alpha wolf and throw it at Kreugar. Ah well, I am reminded of what Scottie MaCarthy used to say, that "If ifs and buts were candies and nuts, it would be Christmas all year round."

GenCon bound

As I've said above (and below) I'm off to GenCon this year. I travelled into St. John's a couple of weekends ago to play some games and finetune my Hardcore list (and my lists for the two other tournaments I am signed up for).

So my main and Hardcore caster is nButcher. My alternate is nSorscha. I played 5 games during the weekend, all at 50 points, starting with two with nButcher against, respectively, nNemo (win) and the Coven (loss). I then played three games against nKreugar, first with nVlad (loss), then nSorchsa (win), then nButcher (win). These last three games gave Ken (who is also going to GenCon) a chance to take a serious look at Kreugar.

I registered a total fail on the camera front, forgetting to bring my card for my Olympus C2100, then borrowing my mother's camera which resulted in a series of 29 photographs that looked like they were taken on the dark side of the moon. I have had to improvise. The pictures of the game versus Nemo are courtesy of Jason and many thanks for them, buddy.

In my initial two games against Nemo and the Coven I experimented with the Kossites. That experiment is now over. I think they would be alright fine with nVlad or the Old Witch and, of course, Yuri. With the Butcher they were probably more of a distraction for me than they were for my opponents. They can't hit the broad side of a barn door. They are good against low defence solos which, I suppose, will mean that opponents will place those kinds of models in the center of their deployment zones, which could be a good thing.

Here is my glorious advance against the old man, erm, Nemo.


Here are the Kossites after moving on my second turn. They killed the Cygnar chief mechaic bloke but not the GMCA. In a moment of hilarity that followed, Jason finished off the lass with a Chain Lightning directed at the Kossites. He won't do that again. I'm not sure if I was in command of all of these looking at the photograph now. I thought I measured it on the day, but 7" is no great thing.


My advance up the center continues. The Greatbears were much reduced at this point, despite Iron Flesh and the hill. They did destroy the Lancer however, a serious setback for Nemo. Jason's newly painted Ruins of Osgiliath, seen in the center of the table here, were very fine.



Here is the endgame. Nemo had crept up to within an inch of the Ruins. I advanced the Butcher and actually used blast damage from Obliteration plus blast damage from a Bombard shot to finish him off.


Here is my Hardcore army.

nButcher
Wardog
Behemoth
Spriggan
Destroyer
Destroyer
Great Bears
Widowmakers
Drakhun with Dismount

For other 50 point tournaments that require a second caster I will drop the Drakhun's dismount and use Sorscha and the Manhunter you see here.


Finally, I have three shots of of my Citadel modular gaming hill for Jason. As can be seen the hill did warp/came warped in one configuration (the Madonna bosomic variation). However, there are no such problems with the Battle of Hastings version.

I am not completely happy with the flocking. I think more of a mixture of the different flocks should have been attempted in places. As well, I think I may have overbrushed the outcrops a little too hard. That said I can probably rediscover definition there with a wash or two.

Has Prime Mark II enthralled a new recruit for Warmachine?

It's every geek's fondest dream, and far, far too early to tell, but I was amazed to find my oldest son, Porrick, at all of 4 years of age, poring over Prime Mark II in the family room this morning.



When I tried to speak to Porrick, he displayed that 1,000 yard stare that I have come to know so well since Toruk first ensnared me in the hobby. He has since decided that he will play Kay-dor and, not only that, but he will play the prince of Kay-dor (i.e. Vlad). Now he loves red above all colours, so this is a matter of little surprise to me, but the "upside down triangle", as he called it, was very much to his taste as well.

I had to defer an immediate game, but I expect baby steps will follow soon. I know that 4 is the age that many athletes and musicians start their endeavours...why not Warmachine as well?

Wargaming with Thagrosh and Vlad

So, another 700 km road trip - each way - for some Hordes and Warmachine gaming. I haven't played a lot of Hordes, and what I have played was mostly Primal Skorne armies back in the spring and summer of 2007. The last time I played Thaggie was during the May 24th weekend in 2008.

I brought Legion and Khador with me across the island and for the first game I flipped a coin to decide which to play against Mark's eDeneghra list. I forgot my camera, and so was reliant on the use of Jason's.

This is a nice shot of the table in the earliest part of the battle. My Legion paintjob is set off well by the Pegasus ruins Ken picked up from Neal at the Warstore.


The view from Mark's side of the table.


I was hoping for an epochal struggle between Carnivean and Death Jack.


Alas, it was a Death Jack that thought discretion the better part of valor.


I conceded the game after eDennie survived a second round of burning (she was on fire from the Carnivean's Blight Breath, and I had whiffed the first damage roll, which easily could have done the job on its own). As of the moment in time that I conceded Thagrosh had been beaten up on during Dennie's feat turn...I could have Slipstreamed him away as I was next to the Seraph in any event but I didn't bother...I Obliterated a Nightwretch instead but Mark had another Bonejack or three in the wings.

Lessons:

Generally, advancing towards a Cryx assassination army is counter-productive as well as being counterintuitive.

Don't ever use Thagroshes' spell Obliterate again! I missed it once, I think with a boosted attack roll. That's 5 fury gone. To get a reasonable result you need to boost damage too. To put it more reasonably, I can just imagine situations where it's useful, but you'd have to knock the target down first.

Don't feed living models to a Death Jack if you can avoid it. I took his arm off and then gave him some bacongator to put it back on again.

Okay, game two. I didn't want to play inter-faction and so I went with Everblight again against a Karchev list. This first picture shows the situation at the end of round two. I'm positioning the Gatorman Posse for a potential charge on Karchev.

Karchev has moved up closer again. I've decided now that I'm going to charge him with the Carnivean after Slipstreaming it over from its' current position.


Okay, I've charged, first, the Forsaken. A couple of points...she's lost 1 point of P+S on her claw in MKII but more to the point it was a dumb idea any way you look at it. Then the Carnivean charged with three Fury left to be used. I missed everything! with the Breath Attack and then did very poorly with two bites and two claw attacks against Karchev. The Wardog is fantastic with Karchev, raising his melee defence to 14. Wildness. Then, I decided I'd experiment and see what would happen if I charged the Spriggan with Thaggie. I used all of my Fury but one and didn't get the Spriggan's lance, or very much else for that matter. The lesson learned from this experiment is that Thagrosh does warjack damage (i.e. the same as a Beserker's axe) but that doesn't mean he can take out a Warjack.

Here's a side view of the final confrontation.


Next up were a couple of games that night against Jason's Cygnar and Trollbloods. In this first shot I've just taken 9 points off of Krae by a combination of sniper shots and a blown up Beserker - not shown. ;-)


This is another picture of the same scene from just behind Krae. The rest of the game involved a series of futile attempts by each of us to assassinate the other's caster. Jason whiffed an attack from a Lancer that would have finished Vlad, and Eiryss basically killed Krae with a couple of deathbolts over the course of three rounds.


I learned a lot during this game about playing Beserkers. As well, Eiryss is a must have for my GenCon list. The main thing I learned, however, is to never give up. That's ultimately what that whole play like you've got a pair thing means for me...just never give up because in Warmachine you truly have a chance to win every game you play if you are just a little patient in the face of adversity.

The final game of the day was my Legion against Jason's Madrak list. This was a rather disjointed affair during which, amongst other things, my Carnivean was killed twice! We had to call the game due to exhaustion, but Jason was in pretty good shape by then. I did learn a few things, however. My Seraph actually finished off a Dire Troll Mauler (it needed a Critical Hit with two fives on two dice to do it) which was a pleasant surprise. Thagrosh killed the Fell Caller and two Champions in the same turn of combat as well, with Fury to spare. I didn't play as agressively as I should have and made the cardinal error of splitting up my forces from the second round on. I also dropped Fog of War when I didn't need too, and held off on casting Spiny Growth when I should have put it on the Carnivean (I was thinking I'd transfer onto it later and the animus would have put it up to max Fury, but I had the Seraph at full health in any event and the Carnivean would have lived a little longer). Oh, and I forgot one of the key rules of meodern life...Don't feed the Troll! However, the game also reinforced for me the importance of taking out the foe's warbeasts. That lesson is what playing against Warmachine armies will not get you.


All in a great day. I am decided upon Vlad and Khador again for GenCon. It's just ultimately the familiarity factor...I owe it to the other players. Here is the core of my 35 point Hardcore list:

Vlad
Wardog
Drago
2 x Beserkers
Widowmakers
Great Bears
Eiryss

I just need to decide how I'm going to spend my final 7 points. I'm pretty sure I'll take the Drakhun with dismount, which leaves 2 points. I have to decide whether I'll take Kell, a Field Gun or a Manhunter.