WooHoo... Mk2 updates

Darius—Modify the Fortify spell to prevent Push and Slam effects.
High Reclaimer, Testament of Menoth, and Reclaimer Solo – Change ability wording to allow gathering of souls from models destroyed by continuous effects.
Idrians—Reduce unit point cost to 6 minimum/10 maximum.
Assault Kommandos – Modify the Cumbersome rule to allow Assault & Battery to also function much like the old Fumigate order.
Kovnik Markov—Add an ability to reroll failed command checks for his elite cadre.
Vlad—Alter Wind Wall to affect non-magical ranged attacks instead of all ranged attacks.
Terminus—Add the Pitch rule to the Scything Claw and change the target restriction of Ravager from a friendly warjack to a model in Terminus’ battlegroup.
Defiler—Change RNG 10 to RNG SP.
Nightwretch—Add Powerful Attack to the Doomspitter.
Hammerfall High Shields—Add the Combined Ranged Attack icon to their stat line.
Press Gangers—Add the Tough icon to their stat line.

While I don't play with Terminus, that looks like quite the entertaining change. The arc node change is what has me excited though. Seeing as how the Defailer and Nightwench were both 5 points to put into a list, but didn't bring much besides their node to the table, I just couldn't see myself fielding either of them over the cheaper deathripper. Now though... I definitely see some advantages that make them worth that extra point. The problem is, now I have to wait until my next game with Micah until I can try them out. Anticipation builds up the moment... or something like that.

eGaspy Vs Reznik MkII 25 points

The Terrain

The lists

Cryx - Jonconcarne

eGaspy

Skarlock

Stalker

Seether (proxy with Slayer)

Deathripper

Mechanithralls (10/10)

Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls

Bane Thralls (6/10) (proxy with Bane Knights)

Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall

Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Jonconcarne: My goal with this list is to advance using Caustic Mist as cover to help ensure the charge. Since I knew in general what I would be facing, my goal was to having my McThralls be a tarpit for his KE’s (or any other infantry that he brought). The Bane Thralls would help work with the Seether to take out any big single threats, and the arc node will…well, arc. eGaspy should be throwing around clouds at the beginning of the game to block LOS, but later game should start collecting soul tokens from infantry, as well as trying to build up the Bane Thrall unit using excarnate. The Stalker is more of an opportunity grabber. The hope is that he will be able to find a charge lane in to Reznik, but if not… ::shrug:: no biggie.

Protectorate Of Menoth - Blaurock

Reznik

Hierophant

Devout

Revenger

Reckoner

Choir (min)

Knights Exemplar (min)

Wrack

Vassal of Menoth

Blaurock: This list has a lot of heavy hitters, and support, but only one real way of dealing with massed infantry-Ashes to Ashes. I guess against eGaspy I’m hoping to be able to circumvent his infantry (maybe open up a hole with Ashes to Ashes) and have enough firepower to get a caster kill. I have enough spell warding options that I think I should be able to at least deter a lot of the nastier spells, but I know I’m going to hate those Caustic Mist aoes.

Cryx won the deployment roll and chose to go first

Round 1

Cryx Turn1

eGaspy allocates 1 focus to the stalker, everyone runs or advances up. eGaspy and the skarlock throw down 4 caustic mists blocking LOS through the middle lane.

Jonconcarne: Thankfully, I was able to fill up the whole lane with Caustic Mists, and hide behind my whole army behind that for the turn. I clumped up a lot of my units, but I really only had to worry about the Revenger running up to arc a spell on everybody, but there was lots of room to spare on this turn. The Stalker just chilled in the forest waiting for a prime moment to pop out and surprise somebody. Other than that, now it’s time to slowly advance until I can get the charge off.

PoM Turn1

Reznik allocates 1 focus to the Devout 1 to the Revenger

The choir casts hymn of shielding on the jacks, vassal casts enliven on the Reckoner, devout activates spell shield, Reznik casts iron aggression on the Reckoner. Everyone advances/runs up

Blaurock: Not much to say here. I knew I was going to be stuck without LOS for most of the game. I was just hoping to find/make a gap and pick off some key solos with my Reckoner. I knew that those McThralls would crush me and my only real aoe option was arcing ashes to ashes. So I lead my Revenger off towards the safety of the forest to wait for a chance to whittle down those McThralls.

Round 2

Cryx Turn 2

eGaspy keeps all his focus

Gorman advances, throws black oil at the Reckoner. It misses, deviates and hits the vassal, causing blindness

Everyone else moves up field, skarlock casts hellbound on eGaspy and eGaspy throws down 3 Caustic Mists.

Jonconcarne: Well, Gorman failed at making his Reckoner useless for a turn, but it happens. At least the Vassal isn’t gonna be helping out the Reckoner this turn. Due to Gorman being aggressive, I left a slight hole in the left edge of my clouds, but that’s the far corner of my army, which is only reachable by the Reckoner, which the Bane Thralls and Seether should easily be able to take care of anyways.

PoM Turn2

Reznik allocates 2 focus to the Reckoner, 1 to the devout, upkeeps iron aggression

The choir sings battle hymn on all the jacks

Reckoner itching for a fight, charges Bane Thralls, kills 2 thralls and Gorman

Blaurock: In hindsight this was a stupid move. I was hoping to take out Gorman so there would be fewer clouds, and more opportunities to actually attack. Mostly I was just getting antsy and wanted to at least damage something before I was overrun by a tide of Cryxy nastiness.

Hierophant casts harmonious exaltation on Reznik

Devout spell shields Reznik

Reznik pulls 3 focus off the wracks, 1 blows up.

Casts ashes to ashes on the McThralls, rolls a 2 and 3 McThralls are taken out, and the Necrosurgeon gets 3 corpse tokens.

Knights Exemplar and Vassal advance

Well I suppose that’s a start, but those corpse tokens made me feel like my turn was pretty pointless. I needed to snipe out that Necrosurgeon quick before I had an even larger unit of McThralls headed my way.

Round 3

Cryx Turn 3

eGaspy allocates 1 to Deathripper

Skarlock advances, casts parasite on Reckoner

Seether charges the Reckoner, hits with both initial attacks, causes a crapton of damage and goes for the knockdown on the chain attack

Bane thralls advance on the knocked down Reckoner and box it. Reckoner is now more of a wreckoner

Deathripper advances

eGaspy soul reaper on the Knights Exemplar, catching 4 in the AOE. Casts parasite on the KE, excarnate on one Knight killing it and birthing a bane thrall

McThralls charge the KE, totally frag them all and earn themselves 3 soul tokens and 5 corpse tokens

Scrap Thrall runs up the flank

Jonconcarne: Whew, KE’s taken care of. Now no worries of them destroying my Seether like last game. Perhaps I should have not charged the KE’s, but just advanced and attacked, but that wouldn’t have killed the whole unit since some of them didn’t look to be in advancing range (which they weren’t). Regardless, definitely happy that the KE’s won’t be destroying anything of mine this game. Since this is also my first time fielding Bane Thralls, I am quite happy with how they work. Having used Dark Shroud with Bane Lord Tartarus before, a whole unit with this ability is very nice…especially vs. Jacks. Also, I think the knockdown attack on the Seether is more worthwhile than a throw versus other heavy jacks, although I probably could have won since my rolls weren’t so horrid this game (they were actually rather spectacular at times).

We forgot to take a picture at the end of this turn

PoM Turn 3

Blaurock: Well that was stupid. I just threw away my Reckoner for a 3 models, 1 of which just got excarnated back into play. To add insult to injury my KE just got totally annihilated without even raising their swords. I can’t help but think that I should have brought zealots to the table. At this point in the game I looked at the pathetic remains of my army and figured that there was no way I was pulling a win out of this game.

Reznik gives 1 focus to the devout

Heirophant makes spells 1 cheaper

Reznik pulls focus off the 2 remaining wracks, 1 explodes, 1 survives

Arcs 2 ashes to ashes through the Revenger onto the McThralls and after some nice rolls all that remains of the McThralls is one lonely stich thrall.

Blaurock: At this point I perked up considerably. The sheer weight of numbers lined up against me was thinned down substantially and I didn’t have to worry about all those corpse tokens that had been piling up. Maybe I could pull this off after all. I planned on pulling back and trying to weather eGaspy’s feat and then who knows, maybe I could get brand of Heresy on eGaspy and finish this thing off?

Revenger advances to Reznik

Choir advances behind Reznik sing hymn of shielding

Devout casts spell shield on reznik

Vassal advances, casts arcane bolt on scrap thrall and blows him to smithereens

Blaurock: Ok this was just cool. It had no real effect on the game, besides taking a little pressure off my flank. But there’s nothing more fun than a dinky 2 point support solo earning his keep offensively.

At this point I’m pretty tightly bunched up, immune to spells and thinking that I have a decent chance at surviving the next round. Unfortunately I made two major errors here 1) I didn’t read eGaspy’s spell list before the game 2) I didn’t play like I had a pair

Round 4

Cryx Turn4

eGaspy camps all his focus

Deathripper advances

Skarlock casts Hellbound on Gaspy

Gaspy

Casts Death Knell on a lone choir boy, catching 6 models in the aoe

Pow 16 aoe kills 2 choir boys, the vassal and the hierophant, puts 5 damage on the Revenger and with a boosted damage roll does 13 damage to Reznik.

Casts Death Knell on the other choir boy and finishes him off.

Pops feat, brings back 2 Bane Thralls, 8 McThralls

Bane Thralls

Charge devout 2 within range, 1 killed by defensive strikes, other 1 does 9 damage

Feated Thralls

1^st Thrall charges, misses Reznik

2^nd Thrall charges, kills Reznik

Game Over

Concluding Thoughts

Cryx

Well, this list was much better tailored to eGaspy than the last one I used. Overall, I think it’s a solid list. The stalker could have seen better use since most turns I just looked at him and went, meh, he’s not gonna hit anything anyways, no need to get him sniped just yet… Oh well, he’s still cool in my book, even without doing anything this game. Other than that, I’m really loving eGaspy’s spell list and feat. Bane Thralls and McThralls are both very very good. Even though I didn’t use the necrosurgeon’s special ability, I can understand how ridiculous it could be. Too bad, maybe next game I’ll get to have a unit of 18 McThralls. Oh yah, the Seether is definitely on my list of favorite jacks.

PoM

Aside from a few mistakes here and there I think I did the best I could as far as basic strategy. eGaspy is a nasty caster and I don’t think this was the best list to face him with. Ashes to ashes did its job in taking out the McThralls, thanks to the sacrifice of the KE (though zealots or TFG would have been a much better meatshield). With a little more patience I think I could have fared better, but Jon played a pretty flawless game and there’s not much else to say about it. I think Reznik’s Ashes to Ashes was my most effective weapon, but that vassal popping a scrap thrall was just too much fun.

Mkii Analysis

Cryx

Mark 2 as a general ruleset is greeeeaaat. I’m liking it lots. Now I haven’t used any of the models that got nerfed in the face (cankerworm, I’m looking at you), but I can understand why people bitch and moan about the units. I have no desire to field the cankerworm for a gimmick that, while cool, is essentially useless. The units that I did use this game were definitely not boring or useless… well, the stalker may have proven useless, but that’s cause I was lazy and having so much fun with the Seether, Banes, and McThralls. Anyways, twas fun. No complaints for Mk2, simply enjoyment and praise.

PoM

I had a lot of fun with this list and I am totally sold on MkII. I had a very similar reaction to many people upon the release of the field test materials. Great rules, but why are my units so boring? I had fun every second of this game and not a single unit seemed boring or flavorless. I was pretty distraught about Reznik losing firestarter in exchange for Ashes to Ashes, but after using it to great effect I can see that it causes the same amount of mayhem (probably more) as firestarter, but much more quickly and decisively so we could keep the game moving. I felt like my army was pretty well balanced, everyone pulled their weight and I never felt cheesy.

As for Cryx units, I felt pretty similarly. I was happy to see new units on the other side of the table and I didn’t ever feel like anything was unfair or unbeatable. (Long gone are the days of my invincible zealots vs his unstoppable bane knights) I could see McThralls/Necrosurgeon being a bit worrisome, but if a total noob like me can take them out with 3 spells then I think they’re ok as they are.

Reznik

Well here's my first completed PoM Caster High Executioner Servath Reznik. I love this guy's playstyle, fluff and model so I'm pretty excited that he's finally done. I think I did an ok job with him, not my best but since he needs to be ready by Saturday, it'll do. The armor isn't quite so putrid green in person.

My First Terrain Piece

So I started on my first terrain piece. My thought was to make a burned out shell of a cabin. So far, I haven't used too many materials. Just popsicle sticks, elmer's white glue, an exacto knife, wirecutters, and my dremel with a sanding attachment.
After cutting the sticks in half and trimming the round endcaps off with my wirecutters, I used the dremel to sand down the hard corners and make each piece look like a rough-hewn log. Shorter strokes are better in this case. You can use a regular hand file, but it takes a lot longer and looks a lot smoother. I'd recommend saving that much effort for something a little nicer looking than a beatup old cabin. To make a wall, just glue the "logs" onto some kind of support. I used a full popsicle stick with the ends trimmed. It's ok if the logs don't match up perfectly because the gaps can be filled in later with plaster or green stuff or whatever you choose to use to make the base of this mobile terrain out of. Here's a pic of the first wall with reference to two small based infantry and a large based warjack (slayer).
Close-up of the same.
More pics to come later...whenever I get around to the next stage.