Battle Report: Hordes 1/2/2016 Circle Orboros vs Minions (15 Points)

Last night my son and I played our first Warmachine/Hordes game for 2016. So I guess that's a pretty good start to getting in 26 games for the year. Seeing how I was able to finish my Battlegroup for my Gatorman Army, we elected to give them a try and play some Hordes.

 

Seeing how we were just playing 'Tooth & Claw', the scenario we played was from the Primal Rulebook 'Claw & Fang'.

 

My son who was playing Circle Orboros was Player 1, and I elected to be Player 2.

 

15 Points "Claw & Fang"

 

Player 1: Dragi

Faction: Circle Orboros

Kromac, Champion of the Wurm

- Ghetorix

- Argus

- Gorax

 

Player 2: Dean

Faction: Minions (Blindwater Congregation)

Rask

- Blackhide Wrastler

- Bull Snapper

- Ironback Spitter

 

Seeing how I have not played a game of Hordes in such a loooooooong time, this game was more of just a learning experience and getting familiar with the mechanics of the game. The scenario calls for Assination or destroy or your opponent's Warbeasts.

 

Before we started play, I did a quick glance again of the card for Rask, I saw an Assination plan that I was going to shoot for (pun intended).

 

For the first few turns both of our Warbeasts were approaching each other. I was using some spells that was slowing his movement which helped. Bull Snapper went after Argus and finished him off in 2 turns. Ironback Spitter took a shot at Ghetorix and did some damage, but a few turns later Ghetorix might axe brought down my Ironback Spitter.

 

I then saw an opening on Kromac. I moved Rask a few inches closer towards Kromac and shot him with 'Paralysis' with a hit. That brought down the Defense on Kromac to 7. I then cast 'Boundless Charge' on Blackhide Wrastler and charge him towards Kromac. That was it.... Kromac went down for the count.

 

15 points of Minions fully painted.

Kromac goes down.

 

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Happy New Year! What's in store for 2016

Happy New Year 2016! Everyone.

 

2015 started off really good for me in hobbying/gaming, had a dry spell half way through, and then really picked back up late in the year with my resurgence into Warmachine/Hordes.

 

The other day I wrote my 2015 Year in Review and I was quite amazed with the games I did and did not play. The 2 games that I thought would see little time, saw the most, and the 2 that I thought would see a lot, saw very little.

 

So today we work on our goals/objectives for 2016.

 

First off I would like to say, that I am going to try and be very reasonable with this list. Cycling in 2016 is still going to take away a lot time for me to get in gaming/hobbying. I am on a local race team for the year and I will have a lot of weekends where I will have to attend an event. So we try and squeeze in our gaming/hobbying in between.

 

Second, years ago a friend wrote a blog post asking what kind of gamer are you in order. Gamer, Modeler or Collector. I have always thought of myself as a Collector/Modeler/Gamer. I enjoy the collecting of the different armies, followed by the painting of them and finally getting to actually pay games with them. I still see myself as this way.

 

Let's start:

 

Bolt Action

 

As I mentioned the other day and last year. Between my son and I we have 3 fully painted armies. Getting in at least 1 game in 2016 would be 1 more than 2015.

 

Painting Goal: None at the moment.

Gaming Goal: Play at least 1 game.

 

Dungeons & Dragons (Rolepaying)

 

Roleplaying games take a lot of commitment on a weekly basis. I honestly do not see myself getting involved with another group unless it is planned to be a short session.

 

Warhammer 40K

 

No plans at all for completing any more armies, the prices from GW are too ridiculous for me.

 

Painting Goal: None at the moment.

Gaming Goal: I can see myself possibly getting in a few games.

 

Warmachine/Hordes

 

Now this is the one that I see will take up most of my time in 2016. If the year continues as it ended in 2015, it should be a good year. The big question is hopefully my son will not get burnt out on Warmachine/Hordes. As long as he stays interested, I see myself staying interested. As I mentioned the other day, I love the sculpts from Privateer Press. So even if the gaming is down for the year, the plan will still to be to collect and paint.

 

Painting Goal: Tough to say. I use a Painting Points system each year to track my painting progress. Not sure if I will put a number for a goal, but maybe a collection of armies. I am in the middle of painting my Gatorman Army, after the Gatorman are completed to at least 50 points, I will probably move onto my Trollbloods or continue on my Khador. My Khador Army for Warmachine is "my" army. That is the army that will be played most and I would like to try and collect all the models for Khador. So that will be my goal, to at least own every Khador model. Getting them painted will be a different story. Any 'new' armies for Warmachine/Hordes, unsure at the moment.

Gaming Goal: I would love to say 52 games (average 1/week, which may be doable) but let's be realistic. Let's shoot for half that. 26 Warmachine/Hordes games played for 2016.

 

X-Wing

 

I really want to get back involved with this game, realistically if I concentrate as much time as I have planned for WM/H, it may be unlikely, especially since we are ow behind on quite a few of the Wave releases. Plus the game has always been a 'meta' game with the latest releases.

 

Painting Goal: Not applicable.

Gaming Goal: I am going to shoot for at least 5 games played of X-Wing.

 

Events/Conventions

 

This is a new topic for 2016. I always enjoy attending conventions, more for the comraderie with other players than 'winning' a tournament. When I lived in Chicago, it was always AdeptiCon each year. Living in Arizona, attending AdeptiCon gets a little costly. We already have 2 events planned for 2016. Las Vegas Open in February, PP Lock & Load in June, and I am going to look for one possibly in the Fall (maybe Warmachine Weekend).

 

So to keep it simple, it looks like 2016 will mostly be Warmachine/Hordes and attending some Events/Conventions.

 

Time for some modeling!!!

 

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Hordes: Minions Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (Solo)

My last post for 2015. I thought I squeeze in a few more Painting Points before the year is up

 

My 50 point Gatorman Army is getting closer and closer to completion, all that is left is 3 Units of Gatorman Posse (I'll probably start assembling them tomorrow afternoon and over the next two weeks they will probably be painted).

 

I'm also still trying to find time to squeeze in practice games. LVO is fast approaching and I still have a lot to learn with my Khador Army. Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll be able to get in a 50 point game with them.

 

Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Wrong Eye & Snapjaw

Painting Points: 6

 

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2015 Year in Review

Well once again it is that time of year where us gamers do a recap of our accomplishments (or non accomplishments) from the year.

 

I had pretty high ambitions for 2015 when it started out, but then the weather warmed up and my Cycling started to take over my life (and health...losing 90lbs from cycling). Cycling 3 times a day made it hard to get any other hobbies in for the day, then on the weekends it was usually going out riding with a group for longer rides which took up most of the day and throwing in some out of town weekend Tours.

 

2015 started out with my post "What's in store for 2015", so I will be using that original post and we will review how the year has went.

 

Bolt Action

 

This was a game I had thought was really going to see the gaming table a lot in 2015 (with having 3 fully painted armies and models to add). I had ranked this game as a Top 2 for me to play in the year. As you can see in my Sidebar, I played 0 games of Bolt Action. BUST

 

X-Wing

 

X-Wing was predicted to be my Top game for the year, with pre-painted models and games only lasting about 75 minutes, I thought for sure this would be played a lot. I started the year with a pretty decent start, playing 7 games.....then nothing. Not even the new movie got me re-excited for the game. I also personally feel that Fantasy Flight Games started releasing their Waves a bit too fast for me. I enjoyed it when the Waves were not one right after another and gave you sometime to collect the models. BUST

 

Dungeons & Dragons

 

With the release of D&D5E in late 2014, I got really excited for this game and jumped back into role playing. My oldest and youngest son both joined me and we found a weekly gaming group. We did finish the first 2 official modules for D&D5E. Then the group wanted to play an alternate universe that did not interest me so the roleplaying stopped.

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

 

Like with X-Wing, this game started hot for my oldest son and I, then died on me. We managed to play 8 games for the year.

 

Warhammer 40K

 

I had rated this game farely low (3 on a scale 1-10) for being played in 2015. The first 4 months of the year that changed. I managed to get in 8 games, paint a few models and we started a map based campaign. Then as I mentioned above, the weather got nice and I stopped all gaming from April-September.

 

I really do like W40K 7th Edition, but GW's prices are extremely high, and I feel there are too many codexes out now for all the different variations you can have in the armies.

 

Warhammer Fantasy Battles / Kings of War

 

As I predicted with a score of 1, Fantasy did not see any gaming time for me, nor any interest.

 

Warmachine/Hordes

 

This one I had scored it a 3 and that depended if the bug bite to play again. Well in September for some reason that bug must have bite me pretty hard. Warmachine got me back into gaming for 2015. Since September I managed to get in 7 games and this month I was able to paint up 32 models.

 

My son and I are also registered to attend the Las Vegas Open for Warmachine in February, and we are also signed up for Privateer Press's 'Lock & Load' in Seattle in June of 2016.

 

With Warmachine/Hordes, I enjoy the farely low model count in the army (takes less time to setup a game). PP does a nice job with their Steamroller Rules each year with different scenarios, and with 'deathclock' the games are played pretty fast. For some reason, I really really enjoy the sculpts of the models, especially Hordes and I enjoy my time painting them.

 

Thinking this game may be a bust, it turned out to be a late hit for me.

 

Flames of War

 

Just like Bolt Action, another BUST for me with 0 games played.

 

Legends of the Old West

 

I still had no inclination to play an Old West game in 2015. I scored it a 2 and it received a 1.

 

Beyond the Gates of Antares

 

I gave this game a score of 7. I was pretty excited to see a sci-if version of Bolt Action and I really thought I may get into this game. The official rules were released late in 2015, and I did NOT purchase them. A lot of locals did purchase the rulebooks and starter sets. For now I am holding back, maybe I did not jump into it because I actually played some W40K this year (and still have plenty of armies for W40K).

 

That's about it for 2015. The year started off really strong and is finishing really strong (with a hiatus in between).

 

Stay tuned on Friday January 1st when we find out What's in store for 2016!

 

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Hordes: Minions Bull Snapper (Warbeast)

My Minions Gatorman Battlegroup is now completed. For my Battlegroup, I have my Warlock Rask, and for my Warbeasts; Blackhide Wrastler, Ironback Spitter and Bull Snapper. I am now ready for some 'Tooth & Claw' games.

 

The Gatorman really fit my painting style with dark colors, so I can quickly get them painted and onto the battlefield.

 

Up next will be my Solo, Wrongeye & Snapjaw. Not sure if they will be done before New Years, if not they will be one of the first posts for 2016. After they are completed, then it's 3 Units of Gatorman Posse and I will then have 50 points completed.

 

Bull Snapper

 

Bull Snapper

Painting Points: 2

 

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Hordes: Minions Ironback Spitter (Warbeast)

Earlier today I had said it was good weekend for me and painting my Hordes Gatorman. Two posts in one day. After I finished my Warlock Rask yesterday morning, I had then decided to start on my next Warbeasts Ironback Spitter.

 

Just like with Rask, I opted to stray away from the Privateer Press colors for this models. I did not care for the 'orange' look that Privateer Press used, and elected to go with my shades of green to be consistent with the rest of my Gatorman Army.

 

I had also started painting my Bull Snapper at the same time (at least what I thought was Bull Snapper and it turned out I had started on Snapjaw instead. So Snapjaw will be moved over and Bull Snapper will take it's place in queue).

 

Ironback Spitter

Ironback Spitter

Ironback Spitter

That's 3 Hordes models completed this weekend..... I wonder how my son is doing painting his models...

 

Painting Points: 5

 

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Hordes: Minions Rask (Warlock)

It was a good weekend for painting some Hordes Gatorman for me. I actually got quite a bit accomplished and a few models prepped and waiting in queue.

 

Up next we have the Minion Warlock Rask. For now he will be leading my Gatorman Army (may eventually be alternating with Barnabas).

 

Usually when I paint my Privateer Press miniatures, I try and stay with the color scheme that the Studio has done. In this case, the Studio version of Rask was a bit too 'yellow' for me and I wanted mine to be a little on the darker side (to be more uniform with the rest of my Gatorman).

 

Rask

Rask

Painting Points: 1

 

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Hordes: Minions Blackhide Wrastler (Warbeast)

Well I officially started on a Hordes army for myself. A few years ago I started collecting a Trollbloods army (still have them) but did not start painting them. I did finally get enough models for the Trollbloods to fill them to 50 points and eventually they will see the painitng table. Any ways a few weeks ago I decided that I wanted to do a Gatorman Army for my first painted Hordes Army. So I found a nice 50 point list that is more melee based compared to my Trollbloods and purchased the models.

 

Since my Khador are done for now (a very short 'now') it was time to change it up a bit and paint some Gators this weekend. My plan is to get my Warbeasts and Warlock done first before my Units so that my son and I can practice with some 'Tooth & Claw' games.

 

So up first for the Gatorman was 'Blackhide Wrastler'.

 

Blackhide Wrastler

Blackhide Wrastler

Painting Points: 5

 

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WM: Mercenaries Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (Solo)

First off, if I have any Canadian or English readers out there, Happy Boxing Day!

 

With yesterday being Christmas, it usually means we are all home not doing much until Christmas dinner is ready. So after opening presents and getting my daily bicycle ride in, I decided to do some more painting.

 

In the morning my son said I should I paint Eiryss, Angel of Retribution next, so yesterday I was able to complete her from start to finish.

 

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

 

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Painting Points: 1

 

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WM: Mercenaries Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Unit)

First off I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas 2015! I know it is a bit late in the day already, but I finally was able to get some time to write this post.

 

Well the last 10 models for my 'original planned' list for the Las Vegas Open in February is now completed. Having Christmas Eve off from work, I was able to sit down at the painting table and knock this Unit out. My goal with them was just a 'table top' quality paint job, and I am actually quite happy how they turned out.

 

Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters

Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters

Up next will probably be Eiryss, Angel of Retribution a Mecanary Solo, then after that I am undecided. I can add more to my Khador Army, or start on some Hordes. I am leaning towards starting my Gators for Hordes.

 

I also may make a slight change in my list for the LVO (swapping out Sorscha 2 for Butcher) but all the models needed are done. Butcher is more of my play style (having him go in for the Assination), but I still need to playtest Sorscha with the full 50 points.

 

Painting Points: 10

 

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