Awesome Tharnness: Ghetorix

From the Privateer Press website:

Once a proud Tharn king, Ghetorix was bested in combat and captured by Kromac for defying Morvahna the Autumnblade. As penance for his defiance, Morvahna forced the warpwolf elixir upon the defeated king, transforming him into one of the fiercest warpwolves the Circle has ever known.

Ghetorix’s thirst for blood and hunger for violence is legendary. His howled battle cry sets his foes’ hair on end, breaking spirits even before his axe and teeth bite into flesh. Ghetorix’s bloodlust is slaked only when he stands knee-deep in the entrails of the fallen, his jaws dripping with gore.

The Ghetorix character warpwolf upgrade kit comes in a blister (PIP 72062). The Ghetorix character warpwolf upgrade kit is NOT a complete model. Players will need a Circle Orboros Feral/Pureblood/Stalker Warpwolf Kit (PIP 72057) in addition to this kit. A player may field one Ghetorix in a Circle Orboros army.

Again, Privateer Press knows awesome.

RIGHTEOUS WRATH?

So my first outing with Protectorate of Menoth was not the best. But it was a learning experience.

Last week at club night I faced off against a friend of mine and his epic Kaya list. I was amused that I got to play against Circle Orboros for my first PoM game. It was fitting.

Sadly, I wasn’t much of a challenge that night. When I first concocted the notion to actually put together an army using the Protectorate Battle Box, I decided that I’d lean heavily on Kreoss’s Feat ability and use the new Attendant Priests to field my beloved Mercenaries.

The idea was to capitalize on the Feat turn. The Freebooters and Devil Dogs would be trashing the dudes while they were on their backs, and then I could try to get some of those mini-feat 10″ POW 10 sprays up close enough to threaten the Warlock or Warcaster. The Repenter would be there to back up the waves of models, and the Revengers would serve as protection for Kreoss. Sounded good in my head.

The first list I came up with was the following:

High Exemplar Kreoss
Revenger
Revenger
Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs (Sam and 9 Grunts)
Freebooter
Mangler
Attendant Priest x2
Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bloody Bradigan
Exemplar Errant Seneschal x2
First Mate Hawk
Kell Bailoch
Rhupert Carvolo 
Piper of Ord
Saxon Orrik

But I changed my mind later on in the week. I decided to use this list:

High Exemplar Kreoss
Repenter
Revenger
Revenger
Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs (Sam and 9 Grunts)
Freebooter x2
Attendant Priest
Flameguard Cleansers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Flameguard Cleanser Officer
Knight Exemplar Seneschal x2
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Now I know this is not a “solid” list. But it’s what I ran with for the evening.

The basic idea was to utilize Kreoss’s Feat for a hard hitting round where I could carry out or set up an assassination. I decided that using my units in waves, and then sending in the Warjacks to clean up the mess would work out well. And it might have, had I followed through with my plan.

My first failing was deployment. I had planned on the waves of models, right? Spread them out to avoid sprays and minimize effects of charges. For some reason I decided not to do this. I deployed my units on either side of a building that was in the middle of my side of the table, and planned on converging on the other side of it to pull off the wave of models thing.

However, when you’re facing down four advanced deployed Warpwolves, two Stalkers and two Purebloods, that changes your mind. I started driving the Freebooters forward but failed to keep the Devildogs in step with them.

I also failed to realize how slow my Menoth ‘jacks move. SPD 5 is slow, man. Real slow. Not giving them Focus to run up the board left them way behind. They never even got into the game. The should have been up front, but they lagged behind and I never put them to any good use.

I got antsy on turn two and decided to move Kreoss up and use his Feat. I managed to knock down everything in the Circle army except for eKaya, Laris, and the Wilder. That put four Warpwolves, a Gorax, a unit of druids, and a unit of Skinwalkers on their butts in the dirt. Problem was that at that exact moment I realized that in focusing on maximizing the Feat that I failed to make sure I had enough models in position to capitalize on it. Rookie, move, for sure.

Problem #1: My Devildogs were too far away to get off any charges. They advanced and fired off a few shots with their puny ranged slug guns. Next time, the Devildogs have to be in a decent location for charges on the Feat turn. I mean, that’s why they are there after all …

Problem #2: My Revengers and Repenter were hanging out in the backfield playing patty cake while Kreoss ran off and said, “Hey guys, look at me standing out in the middle of the board with nothing to defend me!” Kreoss was wedged between the building and the Cleansers but there was nothing in front of him of substance to deter a charge from those hungry hungry hippos … I mean Warpwolves.

Problem #3: The Cleansers were in an okay spot, and had the Piper singing them a song of Toughness, but their 10″ sprays were no where near eKaya. They burned a couple of druids to death with their flamethrowers, and singed the fur on a Warpwolf or two, but that was about it. I was pulling off about 3 damage per shot on the Warpwolf when I shot him, but with POW 10 against ARM 18, you’re looking at doing a max of 4 if you’re really lucky. So … duh.

Anyway, in the end the Pureblood Warpwolf sprayd to clean out a clear charge lane for the Warpwolf Stalker who them charged in under eKaya’s feat. Warped for STR and bosted with the Gorax’s animus, the Warpwolf swung its blade and squished Kreoss in one hit.

I had a lot of fun playing my first game with Kreoss. I think I will go into my next game a little less memorized by “oh, cool new models to play with” and more “let’s get a win.”  So for now, my record with Protectorate of Menoth is 0-1.

I declare a rematch!

Menoth wills it.

KAYA CONVERSION

This is a conversion of the “regular” Kaya.

A friend of mine handed me a plastic bag one day and said, “If you can do anything with these, go ahead.” I looked into the bag and saw a jumbled mass of Circle Orboros miniatures in various states of disrepair and abuse.

Using these miniatures, I constructed the model below. I used an arm from the Lord of the Feast, an arm from Kreuger, the body from Kaya, a piece of brass rod, and a ram skull from the GW Zombie sprue.

It’s a work in process, of course. I like how it’s coming along.

The Skeletor staff amuses me.

Kaya Conversion

ROLLING DICE WITH G.O.D.

I’m a Press Ganger in DuBois, PA and my club is G.O.D. – not to be confused with the S.O.B.’s or BAMF. We recently started a new League at the local gaming store. It’s kind of a new start (again) because the store has moved (again) from the DuBois Mall to a nearby location that used to be the home of a pet salon called Doggie Styles.

During League, I have focused directly on eKaya and Warpwolves. My curent list at 35 is:

eKaya + Laris, Feral Warpwolf, Pureblood Warpwolf, Warpwolf Stalker, Druid Wilder, and a max unit of Bloodtrackers.

And when I kick it up to 50, I have been using:

Kaya, Feral Warpwolf, Pureblood Warpwolf, Warpwolf Stalker, Druids of Orboros and Overseer, max Bloodtrackers, Lord of the Feast, a unit of Shifting Stones with Stone Keeper, and 2 Blackclad Wayfarers.

On Tuesday, I played Khador247 in a 35 pointer and am happy to report that I finally won a game against him … and in the oddest way. I managed to use Muzzle to assassinate Sorscha as a last ditch effort. The dice rolled in my favor, and my shot in the dark was successful.

On Thursday, I played LordMaggot at 50 points. He was using Trollbloods, namely Madrak. Dealing with all those Medium based infantry was challenging. The game ended when Mulg executed a one-handed throw on my Pureblood. The Pureblood deviated to land directly on top of Kaya doing enough damage to knock her down to 1 Life. Although she was sitting on plenty Fury to transfer, we had to call the game due to time. I told LordMaggot that such an awesome move demanded that I concede the win to him!

And now, I’m looking forward to (hopefully) heading out to Erie, PA this weekend to attend the Erie Days of Games. One of the guys from Gateway Games is hosting a Steamroller event for the convention and a few of the crew from G.O.D. are going to be heading out to roll some dice.

I’ll be using eKaya and Kaya for Steamroller. I’m still working out the kinks in my lists, but will be ready to go by Saturday. Wish me luck, and I’ll report back here on what goes down at the Erie Day of Games.

On The Table

And now on the painting table Autopsy Table … Stoneward and Woldstalkers!  You can see the “test subject” on the right hand side.

KAYA ASSASSINATES IRUSK

I stopped into WHATEVER!! in the DuBois Mall after work the other night and managed to get in a game of WARMACHINE against one of our newest players. He is excited about playing in Summer Rampage and wanted to get in a practice game against me. I was honestly a little grumpy and tired at the time, but I agreed to play the young man because he was just so excited about playing. That kind of energy is what I love to see. As he started getting out his Khador models, he was chattering on and before long I wasn’t tired or grumpy any more … I was re-energized and ready to roll some dice.

That’s what I like about being a Press Ganger for Privateer Press: meeting all the folks who are passionate about the game. I feel that I am a better person for having become a member of the Press Gang. Beyond the banter that goes on in the fourms and on Facebook, I’ve met some really great people that I would never have met without becoming involved in the Gang.

Recently at work a fellow counselor made the comment that I was not a “real man.” Her reasoning mainly stemmed from my involvment in the Press Gang and miniatures. She noted that I was a “grown man” playing with toys. And she went on to verbalize a laundry list of reasons why I missed the mark: I’m fat. I don’t have tattoos. I don’t spend all my time at the bar with the rest of the guys from work. I’m faithful to my wife. And really … the list was amusingly shallow.

I allowed her tirade to sink in, raised an eyebrow, and responded:  Ok, so I guess I’m not a real man in your eyes.  But I have to wonder … what makes you think I CARE what you think?

She was a little stunned, and went for another of her constant smoke breaks. (She has work breaks between her smoking hours.)

But I digress … yeah?

Anyway, I went out to my car and came back with my Army Transport. I unloaded 500 points Circle Orboros models while my opponent set up the table and terrain. We rolled off, and I won. I chose for him to be First Player. A few moments later we were rolling dice and marking cards. He was amping me up with his enthusiasm about the game.  I hadn’t felt like this since I was at TempleCon 2009 playing as a ringer in Eternal War.

Sure, we had some issues to work out: he wasn’t allotting focus correctly, he had been told he could choose to target pieces of terrain rather than models when shooting, and he didn’t understand the difference between advancing and running; but those were easy fixes. We played three turns. He talked smack. I gave it right back. In the end, he got too cocky and let Irusk hang out in the wind a little too close to my pair of Argus. Within a few moments, the Argus were too close for comfort and Kaya was beating him down with Splinter. The assassination run was brutal. I actually thought twice about doing it because he was a newer player. But I did it anyway. I wondered what his reaction would be … and was impressed and surprised.

As he marked the last box off of Irusk’s damage grid, he paused. I expected him to start complaining or argue some minor point in game rules. He looked up, gave me the biggest smile I have seen in a long time, and exclaimed “That was awesome!”

Before long, he was packed up and running off for home with his Grandmother, chattering all the way about how much fun he had with the store’s Press Gang guy.

I had won. But I’m not talking about the game. I won because I remembered why I’m in the Press Gang …

Cuz it’s a hell of a lot of fun!

Win, lose, or draw … it really doesn’t matter. It’s all about having fun, in the end.

I will echo what a fellow Press Ganger, Bobaferret, had to say on her recent blog post here:

And it’s not about being afraid to lose with them because Morrow knows I lose way more games than I win. I’m fine with this as long as you don’t rub my face in it. I’ve never claimed to be a tournament player, I’m not the best player at my LGS. Warmachine and Hordes have always been about fun to me. I’m a Press Ganger because I’m organized, enthusiastic about the game and understand what it takes to build a community.

So get out there peeps! Have some frickin’ fun already.

See you next time. For those of you going to GenCon … travel safely … and have BIG fun!

Keep rollin’ sixes!