Escalation Week One Standings

Week one has come and gone.  We've determined that 15-point Mangled Metal is not the favorite format of anyone and we'll change it up for the next Escalation League.  Many games were played though and that was the true goal of the introductory week.

League Points

Player - Points
AJ - 6
Jason - 6
Hickman - 6
Scott - 6
Andrew - 5
Harry - 5
O'Leary - 5
Chris - 4
James - 4
Nick - 4

Wins are worth two points.  Losses are worth 1 point.  Up to three games per week can be counted.

Raffle Points

There are no raffle points at this time as no one has officially turned in any models (because I didn't ask them to).

Raffle points are awarded for:
Warcaster (Small or Medium base), Solo (Small or Medium base), Lesser 'jack or 'beast - 1
Warcaster (Large Base), Solo (Large Base), Light Warjack or Warbeast - 2
Heavy Warjack or Unit (2-4 members) - 3
Unit (5-9 members) - 4
Colossal/Gargantuan or other Huge Base, Unit (10+ members) - 5

These should be models that will appear in your escalation list at some point during the league.

Fall 2013 Warmachine Journeyman League

Every Wednesday this fall (starting September 18th) we'll be running a Journeyman League at Art of War in Cincinnati. For those unfamiliar with Journeyman (sometimes called an Escalation) League, it's pretty simple.  You start with a 15-point Mangled Metal/Tooth and Claw list.  MM/T&C lists are composed of a caster and warjacks/warbeasts.  You don't take any other unit types, solos, etc.

In the second week of the league, your roster expands to 25 points and you can add in whatever you want, building a standard list but keeping the pieces that made up your 15-point MM/T&C list.  When you get to 35-points, you're allowed to drop your initial caster and replace him, but you keep the rest of your 25-point list and fill it out to reach 35.  This continues through 42- and 50-point roster sizes.

Once during the league season, you are allowed to drop a Unit (with UA if it has one), a solo, or a 'jack/'beast.  This allows you to replace a unit that isn't doing well or that you don't enjoy playing and bring in something else to take it's spot.  This also allows people to fit in huge point pieces like Colossals or Gargantuans if they're careful in how they plan things out.

Points are awarded for wins and losses and the winner at the end of the league gets two-thirds of the entry fees in prize support.

In addition, by painting your models during the league, you can earn raffle tickets.  These tickets will be used in a drawing at the end of the league.  Potential prizes include:

• One-third of the entry fees
• A set of four out-of-print Privateer "Pirate" Dice
• One non-huge based model of your choice painted
• A 30-minute strategy session to talk about whatever you want with Thunderdome Champion Garret Allegree.

This type of league is great for people who just are getting into Warmachine/Hordes, for people who are trying out a new faction, or people who love the game but want to try a non-tournament style format of play.

There's no need to sign up.  Just show up at the store at the appropriate time with your army.

You can find out more details and ask questions by joining the "Cincinnati Warmachine" group on Facebook.

Battle Report: Vlad3 and All the Horses versus Zaal and the Immortal Host

Another battle report!  This time we again completely ignore the overly competitive side of Warmachine and go with a fun list: Vlad3 and ALL THE HORSES.  Vlad, two 'jacks (which, by nature, can't ride horses unfortunately), the new Greylord Outriders, 3 Uhlans, Fenris, Kovnik Markov, and a Drakhun (with dismount, although he and Fenris both lose style points if they get knocked off their horses).

Facing the newest iteration of Vlad is a Zaal list that I took from Chain Attack.  If you like zappy attacks that ignore line of sight, having your own people benefit you more in death than they did in life, and a magical ghost that can threaten your opponent in completely oblique ways, this is a list for you.  If you want to hear how the Chain Attack guys did with it, you should check out their Episode 104, where Zaal takes on pSkarre.

Can all the horses handle all that ranged firepower?  Read on and find out.

Battle Report: eThagrosh Shredder Spam versus Rask

It's time again for another Battle Report.  This is going to be an interesting one as we're pitting Thagrosh the Messiah (eThagrosh) and a whole mess of Shredders up against a more standard Rask list, since he seems to be the new hotness.

What's a "whole mess of Shredders"?  Try 10 of them on for size.  In total, eThagrosh is going to be running 12 beasts (adding in a Harrier and Typhon's BFF Typhon).  In the List Analysis portion of this article, we'll try to explain just how the big man can run so many beasts.  Then in the fight itself, we'll try to see if it really works that way in reality.

Rask is going to be his opponent.  He's got a great set of tools at his disposal and has single-handedly made Gators much more competitive.  Minions probably isn't winning any big tournaments any time soon, but Rask is certainly showing that faction potential to do so if they get another good piece of two.

We'll be using VASSAL to display this battle.  Feel free to click on any picture to make it larger.

Gators versus Dragonswawn.  Let's get it on!

Command and Conquer: A Warmachine/Hordes Campaign

Hey there.  Just a really quick post.  I've thrown up a PDF of the campaign rules I've written for our local game store.  You can go take a peek if you want.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-qSkVJqDrmcRldJa0tzbWpLYkU/edit?usp=sharing

The league map can be downloaded by clicking on this fancy picture:

Battle Report: pVyros (Tier) versus Midas (Tier)

Welcome, fight fans, to another episode of Battle Report.  For this match, we're pitting two Tier Four lists against each other to see which one can come out on top.

In one corner, we have Dawnlord Vyros and his Tier Four "Dawn's Talon" list from No Quarter 35.  Lined up against him we have Midas (who has no fancy titles whatsoever because Lord Carver had dibs on them all).  I've covered Midas before here in an Analysis post.

We'll be using VASSAL to display this battle.  Feel free to click on any picture to make it larger (including this one, although I'm not sure what the point would be).

Round One!  Fight!

Warmachine Hexcalation: Siege's Starter Deck

Back in late March, I talked about Warmachine Hexcalation, the "collectible" card game that I have been writing.  I gave a sneak peak of some of the cards and talked in general terms about the system.

Well, for today, I have a surprise for anyone that cares about Hexcalation: the complete spoiler for Siege's Starter Deck.

You'll notice that most cards don't have art.  That's intentional.  I'd rather get cards ready for playtesting instead of worrying about the art at this point.  Plus I already feel like I'm crossing a line using Privateer Press' copyrighted materials, but then I remind myself this is all free, all for fun, and is made to help improve interest in Warmachine/Hordes and not take anything away from Privateer Press.

So without further ado, here's the Siege Starter deck: