I Hate Myself: My Month of Xekaar - Final

Well, it is finally over - my month of Xekaar has come to an end. I'm not entirely sure of the total number of games played, I lost count around 18, and I'm sad to say I didn't manage to take pictures or do write ups for most of them. Herein I'll be discussing my afterthoughts given my poor showing at the WMW qualifier in Rochester; I went 2-2, though I don't think I can pin any of that on Xekaar, and one of them I feel like Xekaar would've pulled through if I had dropped him. But first, a quick rundown of my games...


The List!


Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points
(Xekaar 1) Beast Master Xekaar [+31]
 - Agonizer [6]
 - Basilisk Krea [7]
 - Titan Sentry [15]
 - Titan Sentry [15]
 - Titan Sentry [15]
 - Aptimus Marketh [5]
 Tyrant Zaadesh [4]
  - Cyclops Shaman [8]
  - Titan Gladiator [15]
 Paingiver Beast Handlers (max) [7]
 Paingiver Bloodrunners [9]

 Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points

Scrambled - I Hate You Guys: My Month of Xekaar, Part 5

Well, I played a few more games last night - both of them into the same opponent. He was working on a Zerkova1 gunline with double winterguard infantry + UA + 3 rockets. Gotta say, I had no real way of surviving it. Round 2 jamming and feating was about all I could come up with, and his volume of attacks still let him clear most of my army out of the way and assassinate Xekaar. Shit was rough, and I'm really intrigued to see where he takes that list next (seriously, I was confused as shit by the Winterguard Infantry UA until grapeshot started spraying me down after I tried to jam).


At this point I've decided I can't rely on Xekaar's feat to do anything defensive against ranged attacks (sans hydra builds). So, since I'm expecting to still have to handle some ranged attacks with any list I drop, I'm planning on building him in a brick. Instead of my usual reliance on Brutes, I think I'm going to have to use some Sentries. Their animus isn't as good for Xekaar, personally, but they make a damned near impenetrable wall for him to hide behind. I'll also bring a krea, because why the hell not, and an agonizer to just further skew things (also, repulse has quickly become one of my favorite spells). Tack on a few support models, some infantry for scenario presence, and below is what I'm thinking:

Scrambling to Make this Work- I Hate you Guys: My Month of Xekaar, Part 4

Right now I have less than a week before the Rochester WMW qualifier. Last year, despite the state of Skorne, I pulled off 3-1. I had been hopeful that I'd make it to the second day this year, but I'm doing this Xekaar thing, so we'll see where this goes...

From time to time, the people at my FLGS run scramble tournaments, 2 or 3 round tournaments that aren't scheduled, $5 buy in, winner take all. Some weeks we'll do one Monday and another Saturday, depending on attendance and other things going on, and we go back and forth between WM/H and Guild Ball. Last Monday (the 12th), I brought some Xekaar into a 2 rounder at the LGS. Round 1 I played into an opponent who was, for the first time ever, playing Cygnar - dicking around with Kraye and Trencher theme. Round 2 I played into Gaspy3 in the Bane theme.

THE LIST:
https://conflictchamber.com/#c9201bg24v4xhG4C6N5V67eI6c6d

Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points

(Xekaar 1) Beast Master Xekaar [+31]
 - Basilisk Drake [8]
 - Basilisk Krea [7]
 - Chiron [19]
 - Cyclops Shaman [8]
 - Aptimus Marketh [5]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max) [7]
Praetorian Ferox (max) [20]
Praetorian Keltarii (max) [15]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13]

 - Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]
Note: The role of Chiron will be played by Bronzeback Titan.

Sensible Lists played Senselessly - I Hate You Guys: My Month of Xekaar, Part 3

Got another 2 games in at the FLGS last week on Monday night (the 5th). I have another 3 in the pipe to write up, but figured I'd get these done first. These are the first 2 games I ran after spamming Archidons for the sake of spamming Archidons, and while the lists are a little more sensible, I did pretty poorly if I do say so myself.


THE LIST! (for game 1)
https://conflictchamber.com/#c9201bg2eG4x4y4ygl5G6N6vfF5U

Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points

(Xekaar 1) Beast Master Xekaar [+31]
 - Aradus Sentinel [16]
 - Basilisk Krea [7]
 - Cyclops Brute [8]
 - Cyclops Brute [8]
 - Desert Hydra [38]
 - Titan Gladiator [15]
 - Aptimus Marketh [5]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]

3 Games, 4 Archidons, 0 Wins - I Hate You Guys: My Month of Xekaar, Part 2

So I recently picked up 3 archidons, bringing my total of them to 4. I had a few plans, mainly because I had only started running Naaresh near the end of Mk 2 and Archidon Spam - a mostly terrible idea that seemed to gain a lot of traction post-errata - actually seemed fun with him. P+S 20 defense 14 armor 19 beasts that threaten 13"? Yes Please!

Instead, I fielded them with Xekaar.

https://conflictchamber.com/#c9201bg26U6U6U6U4xhG4C5G6N7y5V

Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points

(Xekaar 1) Beast Master Xekaar [+31]
 - Archidon [10]
 - Archidon [10]
 - Archidon [10]
 - Archidon [10]
 - Basilisk Krea [7]
 - Chiron [19]
 - Cyclops Shaman [8]
 - Titan Gladiator [15]
 - Aptimus Marketh [5]
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor [5]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max) [7]

I Hate You Guys: My Month of Xekaar, Part 1

So, I asked the Skorne Facebook group to pick a caster for me to main this month, to help with my faction ADD. The plan is to try a variety of lists and builds and really test out their capabilities, posting battle reports as we go.

You asshats picked Beast Master Xekaar.

I played the hell out of him pre-errata, because the only real strategy I could come up with for awhile as playing for clock. Xekaar with 8 or so brutes is pretty good at a clock game... Apart from playing an aggravating brick, though, I don't really know how to make him work. I have a few lists I've been dojo'ing, and spent more time than I'd like to admit on it yesterday. Below I'll go over my initial thoughts on Xekaar, Pro and Cons, and then a few list builds and strategies I think might be viable.

Shit Sucks, Volume 2

Free charges... you guys remember them, right? No, I'm not talking about explosives left on the side of the road. Those are usually called "IED"s, and are bad.

I remember them so well that the very act of paying for a charge is still foreign to me. So strange, in fact, that the Skorne player they got for their MK3 battlebox game in No Quarter seemingly used one (or he walked and called it a charge?).  In the MK3 Skorne insider, the upside to us losing free charges was focused on (great attempt, but damned if the forums and facebook groups didn't turn to shit as soon as someone read that line).

"...Beast Handlers remain a premier warbeast support unit. Beast Manipulations are gone. Instead, each Handler has three special actions that he can use to influence the beasts in the army. These include Condition (which now adds or removes only 1 fury point), Enrage (which is now a flat +2 STR bonus without dictating the action the beast has to take during its activation)..."

But that's neither here nor there... Here, we're going to talk about JUST how much the loss of free charges changes the game for Skorne.

Shit Sucks, Volume 1

Hey everyone, I seem to have developed something of a reputation as excessively positive, and have been called out for it. I've decided that to help combat this, and any perception that I think Skorne is fine as is, I'm going to go through and detail some of the MK3 changes that I really absolutely positively CANNOT stand.

WARNING: CONTAINS SALT