On Even Footing

Hey! Remember me? I post nothing of real value sometimes, in exchange for meaningless validation in the form of page views!

I haven't done that in awhile, though, for a few reasons. I took a step back from participation on forums, Facebook, and posting here when themes finally came out. I was pretty overwhelmed with new options and things I wanted to play, and have been jumping from list to list over and over.  I really didn't want to post a bunch of hot takes on our themes, so I took a few months to play around with them and figure out what I thought. Months later and I'm still not sure where everything stands, overall. The breadth of competitive options is pretty astounding, with really only Mordikaar and Xekaar standing out as duds in our current stable.

Thoughts on Disciples of Agony from one who has played too much Xekaar

Thoughts on Disciples of Agony

Perspectives from one who has played far too much Xekaar....

Initial views:

If you're reading this, I'm sure you've taken a look at the recent theme for Skorne entering CID, Disciples of Agony. This theme focuses on the extreme ends of the spectrum of pain as expressed by mortitheurgy, both internalized and externalized. The Disciples of Agony, if you will. What does that mean, though?

First off, the internalization: Naaresh and the Nihilators. Ascetics who subject themselves to the most extreme self-mutilation they can survive in order to enhance themselves. As much as I love this concept in the Skorne lore, we're incredibly limited in what we actually have from it. Really, just the one unit and caster. I had been really holding out hope that this theme would crop up as a sub-faction release, most likely alongside an expansion of mortitheurgy in general - think willbreaker units alongside nihilator solos and UA's (also, Genzoul plz).

Externalization, however, comes from the Paingivers - Morghoul, Xekaar, and the various units and solos. I had expected us to get a Paingiver/Minion/Beast theme, a la Hit Squad or Chain Gang. Unfortunately for those who loved Chain Gang, this theme does not allow Rasheth (I'll touch on this more in the next section). It does, however, permit access to Minion beasts - Yep, Rage and Primal in Skorne (as well as 5 point Spiny Growth, Elasticity, and a few other things of note). This seemed pretty absurdly good, at first glance, and really had potential to crack things wide open for some of our list options.

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.

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.

Caster ADD, Broken Cameras, Tournament series. The last few months

So I haven't posted in awhile... this is in part to having some issues with my phone camera - hence the garbage quality of my pictures from CaptainCon. I just kinda stopped trying to make it work, so stopped getting material for battle reports. Without battle reports I'd just wind up being someone yelling at a wall. Not that I don't spend a good 15-20 minutes every morning yelling at a wall, what red blooded american doesn't do that? Just, it feels kinda pointless with how much terrain and positioning matters in this game to post about it without pictures.

So, what have I been doing? Fucking too much. I haven't been able to stick to a single caster, after putting Rasheth on the sidelines. That list became a bit too mechanical to run, and was frustrating for opponents in some matchups, so I tabled him. No reason to bring something dull to game night. Apart from that, though...

On Breaks, Anticipation, and Pairings

I've been pretty quiet recently, probably mostly because my cell phone camera is almost completely useless so I haven't been taking any pictures. Part of it, though, stems from not playing as much as I had been. Felt burned out at the end of February, and despite being really excited by the new things in Skorne and having a dozen lists I wanted to try out I haven't really had an avenue to do so. I'm also currently not committed to any event until the SOO, and despite feeling pretty good about my chances there this year I haven't been doing as much prep as I'd like to.

Breaks

Or how to burn out without fading away

I played a lot of this game in February and January. Probably more games than I'd normally get in during a 3-4 month period. I then switched over to practice for a guild ball tournament, which I took first in. Overall I probably played around 50 games of the miniature variety from the dropping of the Skorne Errata to the end of February, where in a non-tournament week 4 games would be a lot for me. 

This was especially problematic, as near the end of 2016 I had all but stopped playing - I dropped in for a few tournaments just because I like the community, and kept showing up for game nights, but had kind of lost the desire to play knowing that the faction was going to be upended. Felt like going from 0 to 60 overnight when the errata dropped, painting up tons of swordsmen, getting a hydra ready, figuring out lists, and playing every chance I could. I started to feel like a bit of a local meta-boogeyman, and wound up pushing things a bit too far towards competition for competitions sake than I'm honestly comfortable with.

Repainted to reflect newfound awesomeness

So... I took a step back. My last few games have been a bit more toned down - no clock, keeping the Rasheth to a minimum, trying new things. I know Rasheth is going to be one of my warlocks for the foreseeable future, but I have no idea who the other 2 are going to be. I'm thinking of going back to using ADR, maybe playing around with those four until I land on a three list pairing and a champions pair that I really like.

State of the Meta: A brief look at Skorne and our place in the world

State of the Meta

There have been several conventions this month (CC, LVO, SmogCon), and some pretty impactful yet small changes in the Una2 nerf. I've played... something like 8 WM/H tournaments since the errata, ranging from small 2 rounders to 4 round tournaments or more (I have a problem, please help), and thought I'd share some of my views on how things are shaping up for us at the moment.

A World Without Infantry

The title to this section is blatantly false. There is a lot of infantry out there, between people taking a unit or two just for list diversity or spamming to try and throw off the meta. I'm not sure what things look like in your area, but I keep seeing blast immunity as a big selling point to the infantry people are taking - either via dig in, Iron Flesh, or whatever that thing Satyxis have is called. Cavalry is the exception to this, but that mostly seems to be coming from Cygnar at this point (I think I played into Menoth cavalry once, though I do still play Ferox from time to time myself), where they seem to be skewing armor via AS.

What does this mean for Skorne? Well, personally, this keeps pushing me to crutch on Rasheth. BoC isn't blast damage, and it alone is great for denying infantry thanks to the 1 damage on entry. On the same vein I find Sentinels great - Very solid into Cavalry, and the scathers can really shut down single wound infantry. Either throw them out and hope it lands where you want it, or position your own models to shoot in the back. I had a game where I had sentinels pop two of my slingers, then hit 2 friendly heavies with BoC to form a wall of death for infantry.

But I don't want to play Rasheth! You cry, hypothetical person. Well, you're in luck! Infantry spam a la MK2 isn't going to come back - there just don't seem to be enough points for it thanks to the battlegroup size increase. In that same vein, Hexeris 2 has an absurd amount of personal infantry clearing that, likewise, ignores blast immunity, in Ashes 2 Ashes. Tack on blackspot and some ranged infantry of his own and you can wipe whole units easily - A flayer cannon can nearly wipe a unit of Storm Lances with BS on them, 2 of them should easily handle them. I also recommend Marketh for extra casting of A2A. 

The hydra is also really great into these infantry swarms, ignoring a lot of the tech people are using to deliver via sprays or just powering through them with volume of attacks, and the RFP really helps against recursion lists like High Reclaimer. I feel that drakes are missing a certain something, but I'm really hoping Chiron brings that to us this spring.

Reivers are really the champions for me right now, though. Rerolling missed CRA's really makes them shine, as you can more confidently do 2 man pods into high def infantry and get work done. Their range + reposition makes it trivial to get multiple rounds of shooting off, and CRA + Burst Fire makes them flexible enough to work against multiple model types, again also excellent against cavalry. Every infantry list includes a few heavies, and some might be nearly all large-based if they're using Cavalry, and reivers can contribute volume of attacks as well as quality attacks, as needed.

I'm going to throw a special shout out for Zaal2 + all the constructs. Shoving 30+ armor 22 infantry models down the field is a pretty fucking solid strategy. The only real thing that can handle it is area denial a la scatherspam or auto-point attacks like Tanith etc. P+S 13's with reach and magic weapons that are really hard to kill on approach give some really great quality attacks that can handle a variety of targets, and Zaal can run enough of them well enough that they really crank up that volume of attacks that handles most infantry you'll encounter today, as well. Even without the feat turn these guys can be arm lulno against shooting with a Krea, and when it takes jacks to shoot your infantry down you're in a pretty good spot. Doubly so when you have vengeance and a bunch of soultaking models on top of it.

Skornifest Destiny: Skorned Earth

Errata, Tournaments, Cons, Conclusions

So, I managed to get a few games in before my first post-errata tournament rather quickly. My first go-to was trying Makeda2 with double swordsmen and anti-ranged delivery equipment (krea, shaman). I played a few games with it, enjoyed the crap out of it, then dropped it. Played a few games with Hexy2, enjoyed gutting my opponents' support and backlines with Ashes, then dropped him.

Then it was time for the first tournament I'd be attending...

Skorne Festivus

Errata Analysis!

Preamble

So, you may have noticed I stopped posting around the time PP announced a faction rewrite in progress. I know I posted a lot of trashy feedback, which was pretty shitty of me, but I'm glad those of you who stayed constructive actually got things looked at! Good jerb.

I figured today I'd take a look at what's changed, what I'm excited about, and what I'm looking at playing in the near future. I don't have much time to prep for CaptainCon, but I'm not really anticipating doing well there anyway. I'll be helping run the Midnight Madness events, though, which is always a blast. If you're around, drunk, and uninterested in sleep, come on by. 

For those who've missed things, I'd suggest starting here:
http://privateerpress.com/january-skorne-errata-developers-notes

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

Beast Master Xekaar: Brute Force

I've been experimenting with Xekaar and Cyclops spam since early August. The first iteration was fairly balanced, using a Zaadesh + Gladiator package to rush an army of Savages and Brutes down the field (at one point a Sentry was involved somehow, but I can't rightly recall why). The brutes were really aggravating for my opponents (16/21 against melee on feat turn, with set defense, and 22 boxes), and were only marginally worse in melee than savages who boasted an extra mat and p+s, as well as future sight.  My last 3 games have been with a more refined brute-spam list, and I figured I'd do a breakdown of the strengths/weaknesses and playstyle of this list.

The List:

War Room Army

Skorne - the worst 

Theme: No Theme Selected

75 / 75 Army

Beast Master Xekaar - WB: +31

- Aptimus Marketh - PC: 6

- Cyclops Brute - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)

- Cyclops Brute - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)

- Cyclops Brute - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)

- Cyclops Brute - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 7)

- Cyclops Brute - PC: 8

- Titan Gladiator - PC: 14

Tyrant Zaadesh - PC: 4

- Cyclops Shaman - PC: 8

- Cyclops Brute - PC: 8

- Cyclops Brute - PC: 8

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 5

Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter - PC: 6

Paingiver Beast Handlers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 7

---

GENERATED : 09/19/2016 23:54:34

BUILD ID : 2024.16-08-27

Archdomina Makeda: Why do I like her?

I've been playing Makeda 1 a lot lately, after bringing her out to practice for champions, and realized I really enjoy playing her. At GenCon I went 3-0 with her in Champions, and went 1-1 in Masters qualifiers. At TempleCon I went 2-1 in Champions, giving me a 6-2 record, granted 5 of those wins are in a very limited format. At any rate, this success with a caster that, on paper, confused me and I figured I'd do a break down of her to help myself and anyone else that might be interested in trying to unlock this strange, strange lady.

Looking Back on GenCon

Well, I went to GenCon. I played a total of 13 games at various events there, and wound up with the not-so-stellar record of 6-7 overall, with three of those wins coming from Saturday's Champions event. 3-6 in the IG and Master's heats, which was educational, at the very least. I will say this, though, that with the exception of Hexeris 1 who I only played once and with a subpar list, I never felt that any of our warlocks were bad, nor did I dislike the performance of any of our models. None of my losses came down to dice, but rather simply to being outplayed.

I am a rather new player who, through a tendency towards obsessiveness and proclivity towards quick learning got pretty decent, fast. I still make plenty of mistakes when it comes to threat recognition and target selection, and on scenario play. At GenCon, a small number of mistakes was enough to put me in the lower tier, easily, and playing against and watching high-level players was an unusual experience, like finding out that I've been playing this game in the dark the entire time and discovering there is a light switch on the wall. Maybe next year I'll bring a headlamp, and in a few years I'll figure out where the g'd light switch is, but at least now I'm aware that there is one.

Below I'm going to run through some of the models I ran and my experiences with them. Most of these did not see a ton of games, but I brought most of them because I had a positive experience with them previously and thought they were worth the trip.

Trial by Fire and Making the Cut For GenCon

GenCon:
I'm heading out to GenCon tomorrow, and have been trying to lock in a few caster pairings for it. Right now I'm most comfortable and experienced with pXerxis and Mordikaar, but I wanted more variety in case my pairing flops. I've gotten a few more games in with Mordikaar, and he's definitely going to be my drop into Ret, maybe Cygnar, as very few points worth of his army can wipe out significant chunks of theirs, and my lists with him should be stealth and def 17 on the approach. He might also have to go into Khador if I see Irusk on the other side, but I don't really see him as a Skorne drop, both of my lists should have enough beef that I don't have to be afraid of his infantry. pXerxis seems to be able to handle heavy beast and jack lists, with quite a bit of survivability.

Things I'm worried about:

High value shooting - Beasts and jacks capable of lobbing multiple boosted ranged attacks. Xerxis wants to deliver his Ferox for a crippling alpha, and while my threat ranges are insane I'm worried about dropping into Legion where I might lose 2-3 Ferox on the approach. Really takes the wind out of my alpha strike. Some Cygnar lists can also do this, though they don't scare me quite as much after facing down an eCaine jack heavy list at the WMW qualifier.

Undead Infantry (or Construct infantry) - Really makes Voids and Blood Runners lose a lot of value. Essence blast is still good at clearing them, but I'm not sure I want to drop Mordikaar into Cryx if I see a bunch of banes in one list.

Solutions - Nihilators still hit hard enough and accurate enough to mulch banes. Tibbers can rip through huge swathes of them as well, but my pXerxis list lacks a gladiator. A few cannoneers can shore this up, and still threaten heavies and assassination, making it harder for my opponent to shoot me up. 

I've been toying with eXerxis, as I switched to him for my JML at week 4, and decided to see how much shooting he can handle. So far I've dropped him into Cryx, Trolls (twice), Circle, and last night I asked a friend of mine to drop his best Ossyan list ideas into me. I will say that he is in no way a drop into a shooting army, but for combined arms or melee I think he is ideal. The idea is long threatening reach heavies that, on feat, can either crack arm or take out large swaths of infantry and help me get board control.

WMW Qualifier Decompression

I'd like to start with a shout out for those who are keeping things positive in the Skorne boards and forums, and elsewhere. There is a lot of doom and gloom, but several people are doing well with the faction (e.g. Paul Leatherby looks like he's going places with Skorne in MK3, and is shaping how I think about my anti-ranged game). There are also the big names in Skorne (Trevor, Watt, and Hornacek) who seem to be finding plenty of positives in the faction.

Now onto the actual post:

Last weekend I went to a WMW qualifier in Rochester, NY, and have been going over it in my head ever since. I wanted to do a post on it, but have been up in the air with my thoughts since then on list tweaking and am finally starting to settle down on my second list. I'll be doing a quick overview of my games, and then discussing my list pairing process afterwards.

The lists I brought:

What is Skornifest Destiny?

Hey everyone, welcome to the inaugural post of this blogging attempt! I've been posting mini battle reports, my painting, and list building thoughts around various places for awhile, and I figured it was time to condense things into a blog. So first, a little background:

I've only been playing WM/H for about a year and a half, Skorne exclusively, and it has turned into somewhat of an obsession for me. This summer I'm going to be turning things up a notch, hitting GenCon and TempleCon, and trying to be competitive at a wider-scale, after becoming one of the top players in my local meta and doing well with traveling a few hours outside of my small bubble. This blog will include some of my painting work and tips, battle reports, tournament reports, and a bit of theory/philosophy.


And Philosophy is where I'd like to start, with Skornifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the idea that the USA should stretch from coast-to-coast, spanning from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Skornifest Destiny, then, is based on building lists that bully the board, taking the mindset during list building that I should be in control, from board edge to board edge. This winds up giving us a very strong scenario game, in my experience, that works incredibly well with our attrition edge (Beast handlers for healing, native ease of healing beasts, a tendency to bring enough meat and armor to be fairly safe when the charging is all done). There are a few parts to this that I'll discuss below: Speed, Threat, Delivery, Durability, and Follow Up.