MKII ARCANE TEMPEST GUN MAGES

Well, then. I guess I won't be frying cortexes with my Gun Mages anymore, huh?

They are FA 2 so that's cool because of course I have two units of the silly hatted fellas.

Gun Mages in MKII cost 7 points and now wield magical magelock pistols.

Their stat line stayed the same except for a drop in ARM.

Arcane Inferno is now a CRA with POW 10 instead of 14.

And they don't have Shocker anymore, but they do have a nice choice of three different Arcane Effects.

I always liked the Gun Mages. I liked the look of the model, and the fluff. I can still see me using the Gun Mages but they seem a little lackluster right now because of what the Dude could give them. Now that The Dude is different, they aren't quite as shiny and cool as I thought they were with the release of Legends. But, it's not the end of the world. They still have some cool abilities and will serve their purpose in a shooty list.

I'm still giving the Gun Mages a thumbs up.

What do YOU think?

BUSTED BY BUSTER ...

From DUBOIS WARMACHINE BLOG

So this is the final tale from the recent 1-1-1-1 tournament I played in at The Vault in Greensburg, PA.

I had won my first game by Victory Points, and lost my second game. I was out of the running, but having a lot of fun. I was matched up with my friend and fellow Pressganger, Saidin, who was running the event. I noticed that he was using Rhulic, but was surprised that he was fielding Durgen Madhammer as the Warcaster.

I admit from the beginning that I didn't know a whole lot about Madhammer. I had glanced over his profile in the Superiority book a few times. I had heard some of the local DuBois players say that they didn't really prefer him as a Warcaster. I knew about his Primed spell, and the fact that he had the wacky Carpet Bomb gun. I was about to be taken to the Madhammer School of Smackdowns.

First off, I put the Thunderhead up close enough to be able to pop off ranged attacks against his unit of Forgeguard. I had Haley in a position behind the Thunderhead where she could wander out and pop off some Chain Lightning. I put Pendrake off to the side away from the Thunderhead because during my last game I had ended up accidentally putting Pendrake in the Thunderhead's front arc and almost killed him with my own pulse attacks. (duh.) And I put the Trenchers in front of Pendrake at an angle so they could do battle with Lug, then hopefully flank out Madhammer. Not the best of ideas. I should really study up on Lug, too, come to think of it ... but that's a whole different story.

Anyway, on turn one, I basically lost the Thunderhead. Yes, on turn one. Madhammer wad just close enough to pop off Buster and use Case Cracker. (Which I didn't realize he could do ... ignorance ain't bliss...) The damage was sufficient enough to knock out movement and remove an arm. Ugh...

My Trenchers were busy making war with Lug and his pet Dwarf, and Haley managed to fry some ForgeGuard with Chain Lightening on my turn one. However, my efforts to move Haley to a defensible position using terrain would prove to be fatal.

On turn two, Madhammer dropped the Carpet Bombs on Haley, and managed to assassinate her in her tracks.

Wow, not a good showing on my part at all. But I had a good laugh and learned that Madhammer is worth a second look ... if only to know what the heck he can do on the battlefield.

In looking back, I probably should have used Nemo with the Thunderhead, but when I was making my list I got greedy and said t myself ... I can add the Thunderhead with all the points I have left over! Sure, why not. Uh, hindsight is 20/20, right?

As I write this, I am getting ready to attend Schism in York, PA. I will hopefully do a little better this time, and have some good battle reports to write about. This will be my 7th (?) official tournament setting. Wish me luck. I'm going to try to capture a bunch of flags!

TALES FROM 1-1-1-1 ... Round Two

From DUBOIS WARMACHINE BLOG

I already discussed the first round of the 1-1-1-1 event that I played in awhile back. I played a young gamer who was fielding a Protectorate of Menoth list using the Harbinger.

My next round was against a relatively experience player using Legion of Everblight, namely Rhyas. Let's just say that I was somewhat annoyed by Death Shadow and Perfect Balance. 'Nuff Said. The Legion army consisted of Rhyas, a Carnivean, a slew of Blighted Swordsmen, and a few too many Incubi for my liking.

I started the game playing a little too cautius, probably. I had a big line of Trenchers up front, followed by the Thunderhead and Haley with Pendrake in a nearby wood template. The Trenchers started out by blasting Swordsmen, bringing out the Icubi early so that they could be dealt with accordingly. This worked at first, but my lack of understanding of how the Icubi function on the table plus the fact that Temporal Barrier is a Pulse effect ... didn't work out so well.

In the end, I got cocky and attempted to bring down the Carnivean with my Thunderhead (with Pendrake in tow) in an attempt to tie up some of my opponent's Fury usage. I counted on the ability of my Trenchers to continue to successfully make their Terror checks against the last two remaining Icubi. Poor choice!

The Trenchers ended up failing their third Terror check when an Icubus popped out of a dead Swordsman, and they turned tail to run away from Haley. It was only a matter of time until Haley was surrounded by the remaining Swordsmen with Rhys waiting for a chance to duck in and assassinate the Cygnar Warcaster.

And that's what happened. Haley put up a good fight. She wasted several Swordsman, but in the end I failed to eliminate all of them. Rhys then charged right in, and slashed her way to victory.

Cygnar fell on the bloody battlefield.

My next and final game of the 1-1-1-1 event was against a fellow Pressganger using Rhulic Mercenaries. I'll tell that tale next, but don't expect much. It ended badly for me!

Until next time, keep rolling sixes and have fun!

TWO WARCASTERS MANGLED METAL 750 LIST

Faction: Cygnar
Points: 744
Model Count: 10
Victory Points: 25

Captain E. Dominic Darius
> Halfjack x3
> Centurion
> Ol' Rowdy

Captain Jeremiah Kraye
> Hunter
> Hunter
> Thunderhead
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I don't think this list needs a lot of explanation. The two feats are awesome. Darius can repair his 'Jacks using his feat. Having only two 'jacks assigned to Darius allows for better use of Focus to throw between the Centurian and Ol' Rowdy. But you have to be more careful about engaging enemies en masse because you don't have extra metal to spare. Keep Darius close and utilize the Crane. In the right conditions you can play off the abilities of Centurian and Ol' Rowdy to get some mischievous melee action going on in the battlefield. Kraye's feat allows for the entire group of Cygnar Warjacks to get off some amazing charges and movement. The Thunderhead can be used for ranged attacks but in this format I believe that he's better off being used as a two fisted brute. The Hunters are in place to do what Hunters do ... soften up the enemy and hopefully help with an assassination run. Don't get too eager to getthe Hunters deep into the battlefield early. Remember that they get to move 6", shoot 14", and move another 6". So that means they basically have a 20" range.

I'm still perfecting using this list as I tend to be too reckless with Kraye and get him assassinated easily. I'm still working out the kinks in my game play and such, but I think this is a fairly good list.

Have your say, and give me some feedback. What do YOU think? Leave a Comment.

RING AROUND THE FOREST

It wasn't long ago that I played in a 1-1-1-1 event.

The first round I played in was against the Protectorate of Menoth.

Faction: Protectorate

Points: 350

Model Count: 9

Victory Points: 12
Harbinger of Menoth

Avatar of Menoth

Exemplar Seneschal

Daughters of the Flame [6]

And I was playing Cygnar.

Faction: CygnarPoints: 349

Model Count: 11

Victory Points: 12
Captain Victoria Haley

Thunderhead

Professor Viktor Pendrake

Trenchers [8]

Deployment was simple. She deployed first. The Harbinger was placed right behind a large forest template. She put the Avatar right in front of the Harbinger. The Paladin was right beside the Avatar. The Daugters deployed off to the side from the group. I deployed The Thuderhead up front opposite the Harbinger with Haley behind. That put a big forest template between both warcasters. Pendrake (who was included because locally there's a lot of HORDES players at events...) started up on a hill behind the Trenchers who deployed opposite the Daughters and Dug In.

The way things played out was fairly funny, and a lot of fun in retrospect. (Frustrating at the time.) The Daughters died a horrible death to the hail of lead from the Trenchers on turn one. On turn two, the Trenchers murdered the Seneshal in the same manner. By turn two, the "ring around the forest" game had begun. Every time I moved the Thunderhead and Haley towards the Avatar and the Harbinger, she moved them away sticking close to the forest template. She kept dishing out Word of Law, then sitting on the rest of her Focus to boost her Power Field to increase ARM. Haley and the Thunderhead kept tossing ranged attacks at the Avatar and Harbinger. With Temporal Barrier pulsing out there, Haley was slowely gaining ground on the Harbinger. I

Long story short, the Harbinger and Avatar kept moving away and around the forest template. The Trenchers cut her off at the pass and started popping off shots at the Avatar, slowly tearing it apart. Because of the Harbinger sitting on Focus and Awe, I didn't waste time shooting at her with the Trenchers. However, this is when I got reckless and made some mistakes. I knew time was running short, and I was annoyed at the "ring around the forest" tactic. I already has Pendrake in the woods. I declared that Pendrake was moving to the edge of the woods and tossing his bolo in an effort to Knock Down the Harbinger forgetting about Divinity. (I had asked my opponent if the Harbinger had Perfect Balance, but didn't say 'can she be knocked down?') So obviously that didn't work. Then I moved the Thunderhead as far into the forest as I could, trying to put it into a position that no matter which direction the enemy models moved next turn, the Thunderhead could pop out of the woods to engage. And then Haley...

That's when time was up and the game was over. I had won by Victory Points.

JEREMIAH KRAYE

Click here to find a long write up on Jeremiah Kraye.

Kraye is a Warjack caster as most of his spells enhance his Battlegroup. Remember that Kraye gives Cav rules to his Warjacks, so you'll need to read over and understand how Heavy Cav and Light Cav function within the game.

SUPPRESSING FIRE

Q: When you use Suppressive Fire, do you place the template and determine who can participate (thus changing the size of the template), or do you declare the size of the template and then place it legally based on who is participating?

A: Declare the size of the template, then place it legally.
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Q: When a jack with a shield ends it's activation completely in a Suppressing Fire template, from where does the damage originate?

A: Damage from Suppressing Fire does not come from any arc, so effects that modify ARM against damage dealt to a particular arc do not apply.

MKI SQUIRE + BOKUR ... FTW

So a Warcaster, Warcaster attachment, and two Bokurs walk into a bar...

Yes, boys and girls, Warcaster Attachments are solos so you most certainly can put a Bokur on the Squire as a client.