Men of the East Part 2- Easterling allies, Mordor and Khand

Continuing from my previous post on the Easterlings, this post is focusing on the allies options for Easterlings, primarily the Khand army list, but also a little bit of Mordor. The Easterlings do have other allies, but these are the only Historical Allies and this is the reason I will not be mentioning any others.

Khand

Army Rules

A simple bonus, Charioteers and Horsemen don't count towards the bow limit. This means that the only thing that does is Khandish Warriors, and it also lets you take 100% bows as both your main force and in an allied group for Easterlings. Given that Khandish shooting via Horsemen is somewhat useful (on Chariots it sacrifices a lot of why you're taking them) it isn't a bad option, just better in pure Khand.
I will mention the Chariot here because it is a very important part of Khand's identity, and a really good mount option. The Chariot costs 30 points for a hero, or 30 for a Warrior version, and brings some huge hard-hitting bonuses for the models riding them. It's a special mount and thus makes them a Cavalry model, but is also a 3 wound defence 7 model so is very hardy and able to soak hits for the fragile riders, plus the rider is only hit by In The Ways on a 5+ instead of 4+, which also carries over into combat as well. Models on the Chariot can still shoot after moving their full distance which is great, but more important for the heroes who come with bows as standard (but isn't really worth it for warriors). Chariot movement is quite complicated, but the most important part is that they get Monstrous Charge (so can knock down weaker Cavalry models and Monsters) and deal 2 strength 4 hits to every model they contact during a move, which happens to both mount and rider on Cavalry models (and they can continue moving if they kill these models). This bonus is huge and in conjunction with Heroic Combat from Heroes to simply fight more can lead to reaching an opponent's break point far quicker than you thought might happen. They do function a lot better with Heroic Actions though to make sure they are moving as much as possible and especially charging, but are still very good normally. 

Models

Khandish King- The Khandish King is in my opinion one of the best generic heroes in the game, and on Chariot is a ridiculously efficient combat beatstick. Although his stats aren't fantastic compared to most combat heroes he is very cheap at 95 points (125 on Chariot). Fight 5 and 3 Attacks is amazing, and Strength 4 is fairly standard for a human hero so already is doing good amounts of damage. Add in the hand-and-a-half axe for Piercing Strike and impact hits off the Chariot and models will die very quickly from the King, and that is before factoring in his Heroic Actions. The standard are good, but he has Heroic March to make the army even faster and Heroic Resolve for potential anti-magic, but the big one is Heroic Strike to keep up with bigger heroes. In a pure Khandish army it is a godsend because it lets you compete with big heroes, but allied with Easterlings you can manage because of Amdur, Khamul and Dragon Knights. Bringing along a bow and being able to move full distance with it is pretty great too, if only to get extra shots for potential damage on the way into combat where he really shines. He also has a 6" Banner effect which massively boosts up the output of the rest of the army and on himself which is great, and on a chariot have a huge distance to cover the table.

Khandish Chieftain- A King but worse in almost every sense. Courage, Defense, Attacks and Will are all 1 lower, plus they're a lower tier of hero and lose the 6" banner effect as well as Heroic Resolve and the way more important Heroic Strike so even though they're 40 points cheaper it is still worth paying this just to get multiple kings on the table if you can fit the cost in. Chieftains aren't bad Captain equivalents, the King is just better for the price difference. If you have a King in your list already I would start looking at Chieftains as a cheaper way to get more Might on the table and especially more models. 

Khandish Warrior- The basic Warrior profile of the army, they're ok but when you look at what else Khand have they kind of mostly exist as dismounts. They fold fairly quickly at D4 but they bring Fight 4 which is great, a hand-and-a-half axe (so a 2-handed axe at will for those super hits) and a kind of mediocre Courage of 3. Strength 3 is expected given their many ways at boosting wound rolls, and they have the option of becoming archers by replacing their axe with a bow, but the main use for them in my opinion is as a hard-hitting front line for Easterling Warriors as they can double up on pike support and you can Piercing Strike 2-handed without much of a downside as you still have the 2 supporting dice without a -1. Doing this you are at good odds to win a fight and even better odds to kill the enemy, and the biggest thing is you don't need to pay for Black Dragon upgrades because the Khandish Warrior is already Fight 4. It's a different type of Easterling army, and is awkward to use in Maelstrom deployment, but it does the job in most cases.

Khandish Horseman- The Warrior profile on a horse and with a bow for 5 points more, this is a very good trade. They lose either their axe or bow when dismounted but at that point they become a basic Warrior so you can't really complain much, and for 13 points they are excellent skirmish cavalry. They can become insanely good glass cannons as well through Piercing Strike and 2 handing their axe, with the only downside being if they lose the duel roll they are almost guaranteed to die but in return if they win they get +2 to wound and possible charge bonuses so they will tear through things very easily. I'd always be taking these to get into spots Chariots can't reach, and to act as objective grabbers and flankers.

Khandish Charioteer- Still the same profile as a Warrior for 30 points, but they have a Chariot. As I've mentioned above I love the Chariots because of how hard-hitting they are in combat, and the warrior versions are great to fit more into a list. I would always take a couple to buff out ranks when you are taking Khandish models because they really are amazing value. Everything I love about Horsemen plus impact hits and extra protection, although like Warriors they have to choose between bow and axe. They're ok bow platforms because they can still fire after moving their full distance, but that's not a major thing and they're far better as heavy linebreakers leaving the Horsemen to skirmish shooting. 

Example Lists

Below are a couple of examples of Easterling lists with Khand allies, and a single example of a pure Khandish list that I would play. Both lists are 750 points to show the best examples of how I would play Khandish models in large games, and because this is the level that I play.

Easterling/Khand

Khandish King

-Chariot

Warband

2 Khandish Charioteers

5 Khandish Horsemen

8 Khandish Warriors

Amdur, Lord of Blades

-Armoured Horse

Warband

10 Easterling Warriors

-Pike

-Shield

4 Easterling Warriors

-Shield

Easterling War Priest

-Armoured Horse

Warband

6 Easterling Warriors

-Pike

-Shield

4 Easterling Warriors

-Shield

This list is based around having a hard-hitting core infantry block, which has a mix of Easterling and Khandish Warriors on the frontline so you can put either higher damage output or durability where you need to. It has one pike for each frontline warrior which lets you spread wide and support everyone or to pick the fights you want to win and double rank there (especially useful when you’re going all out on the Khandish Warriors). It has 2 great combat heroes and magic to support your lines (although it won’t affect the Khandish) and plenty of harassment from the Horsemen before lines clash. When they do you have 3 Chariots on the table to smash through enemies and open up holes in their lines to exploit, plus all the previously mentioned tricks (and 2 separate banner effects on your characters, although they only affect one part of the army) 

Pure Khandish

Khandish King

-Chariot

Warband

2 Charioteers

9 Horsemen

Khandish Chieftain

-Chariot

Warband

2 Charioteers

6 Horsemen

Khandish Chieftain

-Chariot

Warband

2 Charioteers

6 Horsemen

This list is basically Mongolian Rohan in how it plays, being a skirmish force that can then hit really hard in combat. With 9 Chariots in the army and the rest cavalry it really wants to be charging but when it does it will lead to very reliable deaths on the opponent’s side as long as you manage to win fights. You have a ton of decent shooting with the Horsemen as well, and everything having hand-and-a-half axes means you have a lot of versatility about how much damage you want to pull off at the expense of your own potential survivability. In general it seems to be a really fun army at the least because it is super-fast and hard-hitting, but it is made out of glass and can’t take a hit back.

Mordor

Army Rules

The Mordor army rules are quite good on their own, but as allies aren't as beneficial. When you have more models on the board than your opponent, all your Mordor Warriors can reroll 1s to wound and get +1 courage. If you're using Shamans for Fury the courage doesn't really matter (other than Blades of the Dead) but otherwise is pretty good with their mostly terrible courage, but the rerolls of 1s is the best part for Easterlings taking them as allies. Mordor is being allied in to get models that can more easily wound, and rerolling 1s goes a long way to fixing that problem and having reliable damage to smash through enemy lines. 

Models

The Mordor roster is incredibly large and I won't be talking about it all here, rather the warrior options that I think are somewhat useful and/or interesting when allied with Easterlings. The captain equivalents of these models are all well worth consideration to actually lead them, as are the Orc Shaman models (Shamans and Kardush) or just Khamul.

Morannon Orcs, Mordor Uruk-Hai and Black Guard of Barad-Dur- In my opinion the 3 tiers of orc for allying to Easterlings, they all bring a few things to the table. First off is high strength, with them all having minimum Strength 4 and Black Guard having the insanely good Strength 5 (although without paying extra on top of their already high cost are stuck with swords) so they have the advantage above Easterling Warriors there and really this is why you want them. Morannon Orcs are Fight 3 so still tend to want Black Dragon support, but the others are fairly self-sufficient at Fight 4 so you can cut costs on Black Dragon upgrades. Uruk-Hai are fairly low Defence but they can take shields to get to Defence 5, the others being able to get to 6 with their shields (which Black Guard have as standard). Morannon Orcs have choices of sword, mace or axe while Uruks can take bows or two-handed maces (the made being the better option, although they are 4+ shoot the shooting isn't great and I'd take Khandish for that angle) with all of them being able to take banners (although I would go for a Kataphrakt banner still for the mobility). Overall Black Guard are by far the best option here, but on a budget any of them can do great work.

Black Numenoreans- These are the best of the best when it comes to Evil Man Warriors IMO, because for their cost they bring so much to the table. They don't have the higher strength of the Orcs but they do have good Defence, higher Courage and Fight 4 so they are great in a fight (especially when backed up by pikes). They lean into the defensive nature of Easterlings as well with Terror, so you can sit comfortably once you're in position and then wait for the opponent to come to you, which will be tough for them to achieve if they're failing Terror rolls and then you roll 3 dice against them.

Morgul Knights- Basically mounted Black Numenoreans, the Morgul Knights also come with lances so are really amazing (although very expensive at 18 points a pop) shock cavalry. They don't get the army bonus, but they can still smash through enemy lines with no issues against all but the toughest targets and themselves can take a decent beating.

Mordor Troll (and Chieftain)- Evil are known for having a lot of monsters, and the Troll is one of the easier ones to put in with Easterlings and maintain theme (a Dragon being more themed, but losing your army bonus). Fight 7, great Strength and Defence plus high attacks and wounds the troll is something to fear (of course they have Terror) and a great way to have extra linebreakers in your list and things to just smash up enemies. The Chieftain adds to this by being a hero with his own Might, Will and Fate, although he replaces the option of weaponry for a sword and +1 defence. He also has Heroic Strike which makes him quite a strong opponent and a really great choice for Easterling armies as an ally even if just by himself.

Example Lists

I won't be putting lists here with every single option above, but I will put a couple of alternate options to show how I would use some specific things.

The Fallen Men

Black Numenorean Marshal
-Armoured Horse
-Lance
Warband
8 Black Numenoreans
4 Morgul Knights

Amdur, Lord of Blades
-Armoured Horse
Warband
8 Easterling Warriors
-Pike
-Shield
2 Easterling Warriors
-Shield
Easterling Kataphrakt
-Banner
Easterling Kataphrakt
-War Drum
2 Easterling Kataphrakts

Easterling War Priest
-Armoured Horse
Warband
2 Easterling Kataphrakts
6 Easterling Warriors
-Pike
-Shield
4 Easterling Warriors
-Shield

This list is very similar to the Easterling/Khand list above, but it trades Chariots for lance cavalry and the more reliable damage of Khandish Warriors for the hardiness of Black Numenoreans. Overall it's a straightforward list and a bit less outright damage but it has some tricks as well with mixing ranks and holding your battle line where you need it through Terror and the simple toughness of the troops. 

Sauron's Elite

Troll Chieftain
Warband
8 Black Guard of Barad-dur
2 Morannon Orcs
-Shield

Khamul the Easterling
-Fell Beast
Warband
Easterling Kataphrakt
-Banner
Easterling Kataphrakt
War Drum
10 Easterling Warriors
-Pike
-Shield

Easterling War Priest
-Armoured Horse
Warband
10 Easterling Warriors
-Pike
-Shield

This list is a bit different to the others in that it uses Khamul and is more focused on the magic, but it has a very tough wall at the front of it and a really great combat hero in the Troll Chieftain. The list is a little light on Might and Fate but you can make up for it with Magic and just in general reliable fights. Plus, who doesn't like the idea of a gleaming golden-armoured troll?

Malifaux- My Thoughts

Hi again all! Keeping the theme of other recent posts, I've put together my general thoughts on Malifaux, a game that I have played for the past 4 years quite heavily. You'll find below pictures of a few of my painted keywords, and for a few of them links to tacticas that I have written. 

Von Schill and the Freikorps

The game of Malifaux has a really great setting in my opinion, and it is this that drew me to the game in the first place. It is an alternate history Weird West/Gothic type game with almost any kind of character archetype you can think of in it- you have military units and mercenaries, crime syndicates, gunslingers, Lovecraftian monsters, demon-esque creatures and necromancers to name some of the most prevalent things in the game. Malifaux itself is an alternate dimension that is connected to Earth via a giant portal known as the Breach, through which colonists and criminals alike are sent to this new frontier to make a living. The totalitarian Guild enforces the law Breachside and manages travel through the Breach, while other powers act to undermine them and carve out their own little niches. The game itself focuses on specific powerful individuals in the world, known in-game as Masters, and the groups that follow them while they work to achieve their goals. For some it is complete domination of Malifaux and beyond, while others have simpler goals like maintaining a fragile peace, saving their homeland from imperialist humans or simply making as much money as possible.

Tara's Obliteration Keyword

The game itself is played on a 3x3 table and uses a fairly heavy amount of terrain (officially 30-50% of the table should be covered, the sweet spot sitting at around 35-40) but the main draw is the complete lack of dice other than maybe to track things like wounds. It instead uses cards, and is mainly a stat+flip system. This means a lot more variance than dice, and leads to 2 kinds of duels, opposed and simple, that work slightly differently but still overall the same way. Simple duels you simply need your stat+flip to equal or beat a target number to succeed, and are mostly things that either summon new models or buff your own things (although models can force enemies to take simple duels for things like Terrifying or Shockwaves). Opposed duels are just that, opposed, and involve both sides flipping cards and adding stats (both the action stat and the opponent's resist stat to use will be written on the specific action you're using) and are mostly attack or debuff based. The difference in the final duel totals determines how you then flip for damage if successful, with greater chances of higher damage coming from greater differences. Damage works off of a 3 stage track with certain levels of cards corresponding to higher damage (weak, moderate and severe) with the Jokers as extremes on each end (black joker is always 0 damage, red is severe+1, although the black must always be taken if flipped).

The Viktorias and their Mercenary cohort

The other big aspect of the card system is through cheating, and how it acts to reduce the variance of card flips. Each player has a hand of 6 cards, which is drawn at the beginning of each turn and can be modified through special rules, that they can use to either replace flipped cards ("cheating") or to resolve abilities that require cards to be discarded. A big part of the game is also in forcing the opponent to discard cards, with many control-based models tearing through opponents' hands. This, as well as other modifiers, stops an opponent from cheating (because they've got no cards) and leaves them at the whim of the deck so they are forced to use whatever they happen to flip. It's a great part of the game because hand management is so important, and even if you have a hand of all low cards you can still use it for discard effects and you still guarantee you don't flip them during the turn.

Ophelia and her Kin

The scoring system in Malifaux is also very often detached from simply killing the opponent, and has a scenario mechanic that I really love in how variable and interesting it can be. The cards flipped for attacker and defender also determine the deployment and what is known as a Strategy, with the players' cards' suits deciding these. Deployment is self-explanatory, there are 4 types of deployment that affect how crews will function, while the Strategy is a kind of scenario that both players will be working towards. Some revolve more around killing enemies while others are focused around zone control and claiming markers in specific positions, so the 4 Strategies bring a lot of difference in how you will play to achieve them (and because you build crews after Strategy and Schemes are decided, you can build towards scoring them). The second system of scoring is through Schemes, which are decided by flipping 5 cards and checking their numbers. Although 5 are given, players can only choose 2 to work towards for their points, so it is both a game of choosing the Schemes you are best suited towards doing but also because these are secret until scored you have the added mind game of trying to play around your opponent. This balance of trying to score your own while not trying to make it too obvious to counter and also trying to guess what your opponent is doing and stop them is something I really love and adds a whole extra dimension to the game. The fact that 13 Schemes and 4 Strategies exist leads to a huge amount of variance in any given game, and I love how you will almost always have to adapt lists to the specific permutation of both scenario and the opponent's leader to judge what they are trying to accomplish.

Parker Barrows and the Barrows Gang

Malifaux works on an AP system in how you use models, with every model except your leader (and every master you hire) having 2AP. Masters and Leaders get 3, and there is a generic list of fairly generic actions like walk and charge but also things that are more game-specific like interact (where you interact with something on the table to work with your scenario). Other than that each model has specific actions on their stat cards that will tell you how they work and what they can do so it's all in a fairly easy place at the side of the table to reference. The system can be controlled by certain crews (adding/reducing AP from models to change the flow of the game, locking things in combat with chaff so they waste AP) and managing your AP and model count is very important.

Jack Daw and the Tormented

A couple of the other important parts of the game are keywords and soulstones. Keywords are how you hire your crew, with the crew's keyword matching that of your leader, and in general you will have far better crew synergies in keyword than out so you will want a decent amount of keyword models for almost every master (some will want the full list, others only a couple). The keyword system also allows for hiring at the printed model cost, because all other models in-faction will come at a +1 cost for being out of keyword unless they are Versatile (think faction generic stuff). It also allows hiring out of faction, as anything that shares a keyword with your leader can be hired regardless of faction and thus opens up some more options and "gateway drugs" people into new crews and new factions through shared models (I've certainly fallen for it big time). Soulstones are only able to be used by the more powerful models in your crew rank-wise, and come from your leftover points after building a list (capped at 10). These can be used to add suits to duels, give bonuses for your duels or negatives to your opponent and to reduce incoming damage and as such are usually a really important part of your game plan. Depending on the crew you may need only 1 or 2 because you can generate more, or you take a crew that wants upwards of 6-7 stones to run at their strongest but this depends on a lot of variables.

Misaki's Last Blossom

The biggest thing you will notice about a game of Malifaux is the amount of markers. These are used to track wounds and conditions like any other game (dice are fine here) but also different kinds of markers affect the game in different ways. Some models can create special kinds of markers for their crew that act as terrain (the various pyromancers create pyre markers, Titania and her Fae create Underbrush) or have other special effects (blown apart markers destroying nearby cover), corpses and scrap appear when models die (and can be used by other models for their effects) and in general markers will be very common on the table as a game progresses. The most important though is the scheme marker, which at their simplest allow you to score points when placed in the right places and play to your schemes. They are easily the most important and most universal type of marker (everyone has to place schemes at some point) and as such every Malifaux player should use them.

 

In general, Malifaux is a game I really love to play and is super deep and engaging. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in trying it out, although keep in mind “I only need one crew to play” is almost always a lie and you will end up with way more crews than you expected to have. That tends to just be a fact of the game, and is by no means a bad thing because it means you have a far more interesting experience in the long term. 

BMG- Battle Royale! 3rd edition

As a bit of a project lately I have been working on updating some scenarios so that they are more 3rd edition appropriate. The first of these is my Battle Royale! scenario which was previously on my old blog for 2nd edition, and the 3rd edition update can be found below. The intention is for super quick character skirmishes with the big named heroes duking it out instead of regular crews being played as a sort of DCU-lite but with BMG rules and characters. 

Crews

- Players have up to 250 reputation and $1000 funding to purchase a crew
- A maximum of 3 models can be chosen
- Normal restrictions on Free Agents and Sidekicks do not apply, and a Leader or Sidekick Boss is not necessary, although what is chosen must be able to normally be taken together e.g. Hawkman and Hawkgirl are both available in Batman or Team Arrow crews so are a legal choice, while Batman and Deathstroke are not available in any way and as such are not legal

Scenario- 2 players

- Deployment is a 24”x24” square, with each player being able to deploy in base contact with a single board edge on opposite sides of the table. This may be affected by traits such as Hidden and Undercover
- Players assemble a deck of 10 cards. Character specific cards are in addition to this number
- 2 Plot cards are selected

Multiplayer Scenario- 3-4 players 

- The same rules apply as in the 2-player scenario, except for deployment- model bases must be partially within 2 inches from a single corner for each player
- The player who takes the lead each turn chooses the order in which activation will be done

DC Universe Miniatures Game- My Thoughts

As kind of a double feature with my thoughts on Batman, I decided I'd do a companion piece to write up my thoughts on the DCU game also made by Knight Models. This one will be a bit less in-depth given the simpler nature of the game, but I still hope to convey my thoughts and give an accurate idea of how the game plays.

Unlike Batman which is far more objective based and tactically deep, DCU is more of a beer and pretzels game that often becomes brawls between characters and a lot of throwing. The game is quite fun and a great way to get your favourite characters on the table, with it having a wide variety of the more powerful individuals in the DC Universe plus a bit of overlap with some of the more powerful BMG models or ones who are known to compete with bigger heroes (the entire crew of Lex Luthor in BMG is usable in DCU for example).

Combat is quite simple yet somewhat unique, as it uses a mechanic of "2 dice versus defence stat" much like Warmachine/Hordes but it uses D8s which is far less common in wargaming. It does allow for a great spread of variance though as results have more ability to swing than D6s which adds to the nature of the game. Models also have 4 different defence statistics, which might seem like bloat to an outsider but in reality dictates the terms of the game and adds a greater strategy to it as some characters will be tough to damage with physical or energy attacks but will in turn be susceptible to magic based attacks (this example describing Kryptonians). It means you will want to have things with all kinds of attacks but also a variety of higher defences in your list so you can cover your bases and try and mitigate a rock-paper-scissors scenario where the opponent's list has all the tools to completely counter you. Under the 4 attack types (mental, physical, energy and magic, of which physical and energy are the most common) you also have some sub-types, with energy attacks having the most meaningful ones in Kryptonite and fire. These and the attack types themselves are things models can have resistance to, and thus take reduced amounts of damage from, to trigger the rules for weakness which doubles damage and removes resistance entirely and as such is a great way to deal with the more damage resistant characters should they have weakness. I really love this mechanic because as I mentioned before, it adds a level of needing to cover all bases instead of just having a straight up damage-based list and you will have to work towards countering everything your opponent can put forward.

There is also a level of resource management in the power system and how you spend your power on any given turn. Everything you can do costs you power, and so you have to make sure you have enough to get where you need to go (higher distances of movement costs more power- speedsters and flyers have 3 levels instead of the usual 2 so are significantly faster) and to do what you want when you get there. Depending on how powerful your attack you will need more power to initiate it, and you can overload by spending 1 additional power to add an effect to the attack, usually an extra dice. Characters also have their own special powers with different costs, and there is the ever-present grab and throw that functions as its own special attack that anyone can do depending on their strength (if you're stronger you can throw bigger things like cars and buses instead of just other models).

As for what I don't like as much about the game, that is the scenarios. While there are some great and flavourful scenarios, there tends to not be enough emphasis on actually scoring points this way and it is often just easier to slam your enemies around the table by throws and punching them out. While this is thematic for some teams it isn't for all, and I tend to like more scenario based play instead of just straight brawls. It's something that has been addressed a bit in the physical rulebook, but still not really to an extent I would say makes the game amazing.

Batman Miniatures Game- My Thoughts

Hi everyone, continuing the posts detailing my general thoughts on various games I play I thought I'd put up something talking about the main one for me- Batman. I am a huge DC Comics fan and as such BMG grabbed me a long time ago, and I love the gameplay of it as well as it has evolved through editions.

The gameplay of Batman is something I really enjoy, because it isn't entirely based around fighting your opponent and has a lot of objective based play to it, especially in 3rd edition. Each crew assembles a deck of 20 cards, and it is only through achieving these cards in game that they score points so a player must build their deck towards what their crew is hoping to achieve. At this point there are currently a lot of crews without specific cards that are stuck with a generic deck, although each month brings new releases and more decks for crews so things are being pushed into the 3rd edition standard. This standard is also very good in that it adds a huge amount of theme and varied objectives into different crews, and each crew have very different game plans for how they want to score points which is something I like a lot. Players also assemble a deck of 4 plots which are more overarching objectives that give you things to achieve in game in order to gain a greater bonus (mainly in free actions). There are possible cases where players will have objective cards stuck behind plots they can't fully score which can be a bad time, but a skilled player will use what they can to mitigate this and to put lower-scoring cards behind the plot where possible (or just build their plots to be easily achievable as early as possible).

Batman and Crew

The second level of variance that I really like in BMG is the event and deployment decks, which are smaller but add dimensions to the game. The event deck is similar to Warcry's twist deck, adding small extra things to the scenario you have to play around (heavy rain restricting shooting or a fire burning through the streets) while the deployment deck is as simple as it sounds but with some cards adding more extra little tweaks to the game. The combination of these adds tons of variety and a lot of tactical depth to how you play around these which I find really great.

Model activations are based around 2 systems- audacity and effort. All models get a single action each turn to choose from movement, tactical action (attack or manipulating, which tends to be things that will score you points) or special action (anything that isn't one of the above). Audacity gives you all 3 at once, but you are only limited to 4 models with an audacity marker at any time so higher model count crews will have to make do with less actions on some models. There are ways to boost this up through traits giving additional actions, but audacity allocation at the start of every turn is an important part of the game because of the limited nature of what you can perform. Effort is a system based around damaging yourself to reach greater effects on certain actions, and is based around the stun damage mechanic. Effort lets you take a stun damage to do things like add extra dice to your melee attacks, take away from your opponent or even in some cases dodge ranged attacks coming at you. BMG has 2 kinds of damage, stun (which knocks you out once you fill your willpower stat) and blood/injury (which kills you once you cap out your endurance). Both affect the effort rule in different ways as blood reduces the amount you can effort as it accumulates (starts at 3 effort per activation, but it goes down for every 3 blood on you) and stun simply stops you using effort because you get closer and closer to being KO the more you do it. As such effort is a careful thing to manage, especially against crews that do primarily stun, and is something you need to work around but also keep track of.

Combat is pretty simple in how it works, and is based around both the attack and defence stats (duh). In melee the attacker rolls dice equal to their attack stat, with the defender's defence being what they need for each dice to hit (so defence 4 is a 4+ to hit). Then the defender will roll their defence stat in dice needing to beat the attacker's attack stat and each success they make will cancel a single hit of the attacker. Any remaining attacks deal damage equal to the damage of the attackers weapon or a single stun damage on regular unarmed attacks (which some traits will affect- Batman punches harder than a thug after all). You also get a strength dice which is an unblockable hit, needing your strength score to damage or on a 6 achieves a crit, which will normally knock down an opponent but can have special effects ranging from extra damage and effects to straight up instant killing the opponent.

The League of Assassins

Shooting in BMG is something that is very strong, mainly because it can never be blocked like melee can, but also greatly controlled. If you can get your full amount of shots off in a turn and land hits the target will probably die, but movement and cover will reduce your rate of fire in ways that mean you will not be shooting that much (often just 1 or 2 dice if at all). Stronger shooters like Deadshot or snipers will have ways to get around these, but with a steep cost or lower amount of shots so they are quite literally hit or miss. Guns are also restricted by having limited ammo throughout a game, so on average you will only be shooting half the time and can't keep blasting away all game.

The game demands a somewhat higher level of terrain than most, both in terms of amount and in size, but that is also something to admire because it leads to some really good looking tables. Bigger buildings add a 3d level to the game and enable rooftops and fire escapes as another dimension of movement, while various bits of scatter terrain like bins, cars and barriers are easy enough to move around while still providing cover from guns and a way to keep yourself safe on the way to where you need to go.

Overall BMG 3rd edition is a really solid game that has improved from what has come before in a big way in my opinion. The move away from static objectives and towards the deck-based game leads to a lot of variance and tactics and completely removes the "sit on my objectives and not interact with the opponent" that 2nd edition often became which is a really healthy move for the game. It is definitely my favourite game for a lot of reasons, but mainly because I find the play style fun and because it is a quick game to get set up and finished.

Warcry- My Thoughts

Starting to talk about yet another new game, I've been interested in Warcry since it launched but am only really getting into it in a big way now. I've now painted my Untamed Beasts warband and a Chimera, with a Gloomspite Gitz warband on the way as well as the starter set terrain.

Like a lot of people, I started with the starter set when the game first launched. I was really excited to look into the side of Chaos that Games Workshop had forgotten about a bit and the stuff that wasn't necessarily aligned to any specific god, and Warcry was all about that. I'm also a really big fan of tribal/caveman aesthetics, so seeing the Untamed Beasts get announced meant I was already going to be interested in the game. Once the starter came around I sold off the Iron Golems but kept the rest, built it all day 1 and then sat on it for a while, doing the same with Monsters and Mercenaries and the Chimera. Lately though I've been more keen on getting into the game and actually playing cause I have everything I need for it, so I started by painting up the Chimera purely on a whim (I wanted to paint a monster, so I did) and then this week the Untamed Beasts themselves. I can't really get a game in given the circumstances, but I'm working on setting up my terrain so I can play a few quick games of Beasts vs Chimera to get the hang of how the game works before I can put it into practice (because I am likely the one who will be teaching my group how to play, so I want to make sure I'm not doing it wrong).

The game itself is really quick and pretty intuitive IMO, with a simplified combat system (not dissimilar to Batman 3rd edition but even simpler) but not so basic as "hit stat and wound stat" like the mainline GW games (I personally prefer a bit of variance based on the opposing models' skills). The scenario generation reminds me a lot of Malifaux or Batman in that it is randomly determined based off of flipping different decks, and although some of the win conditions are really unbalanced playing with the Matched Play cards only makes for a deep experience that most players can adapt to in order to get success. I've found that the cards are of varying usefulness though as I don't use terrain cards at all (instead just agreeing on a layout with my opponent) while the victory and deployment cards are vital to the game and I love the silly variables the twist deck throws into the game and the narrative feel they add (plus they give an extra angle to play towards which rewards a cunning player).

The later release waves brought more warbands for the AoS armies (and with them some new boogeymen- looking at you Skaven) but also far more interesting is the monsters and allies that got added. I have my Chimera as a monster option to add flavour to pickup scenarios and give some variety, but I'm also seriously considering the newer kits for the ally creatures as they are beautiful sculpts. To me the worldbuilding that comes off of adding brand new warbands (like the newer Scions of the Flame, they're amazing looking) and new creature options is far better than adding in options that already exist from AoS, because it has more meaning for the setting and adds to the lower levels of the world instead of being the same big armies appearing all the time. I'm primarily a Matched Play person because I really dislike one sided games on principle, but the narrative aspect of Warcry is still the main draw to me because it really is interesting.

In general Warcry is another game I've added to my stable of quick and just all around fun games which are qualities that I find myself gravitating towards more and more (Batman and Arena Rex are the same kind of thing in that they're done in less than an hour). I love skirmish level games because it's low model count and a new purchase can be an entire faction instead of a small part of a full army, and that I can paint an entire warband or crew in a relatively short amount of time and get them done. I'm planning some more in-depth looks at Warcry warbands in the near future as well as a solo battle report or 2 (making the most of monsters for solo games!) once I get my terrain painted up.

Arena Rex- Morituri Overview

Next up on the slate for Arena Rex is my other favourite faction aesthetically and gameplay wise, the Morituri. Basically an Egyptian death cult, they have some really great unique mechanics and operate a lot around death effects more than any other faction (it is in fact their main thing)

Starting with the cohort benefits, Morituri have an absolutely phenomenal set.
Will of Antony is simple but amazing, clearing all Fatigue during clear turns. Instead of having your exhausted models go down to simply fatigued, they become fresh instead so your opponent doesn't have as much of an advantage and you have a huge amount of versatility come back. It's very forgiving when it comes to Fatigue management but also lets you play more aggressively if you know a clear turn is going to happen soon.
Cleopatra's Gift is a 2 cost tactic that plays into the death theme of Morituri, just by triggering a single model's death effect. There are some great combos to be had here (particularly Iocasta, Mago, Sereqet and Ur-Kek) and you can really mess with the opponent in ways they probably wouldn't expect which can have a great effect on the game.
Offering is a great way of generating Favour dice, just by dealing 2 damage to a friendly model to gain 2 Favour. You can even double dip it with their vitality tracks to gain 3 Favour or potentially to even trigger death effects if you're willing to kill your own models (or the dream with Ur-Kek gain 2 Favour and die, attack to kill an enemy and heal to survive)

Anum is a bit weird in terms of Morituri because he is the main piece of the special Bestiae cohort and as such has a lot of synergy with beasts more than his fellow man. He does have the highest native defence out of all Morituri gladiators at 3 which is nice, and his stats are all around good with an incredibly versatile damage tree with 2 branches on it. One is primarily damage based and does good amounts of damage, while the other is more push based with a bit of damage and a fatigue at the end of it. This second tree is what his special rule Bereft triggers as when he has had 10 boxes marked on his vitality track he cannot use his other branch and much use the push-based branch which changes how he operates a bit. He is ignored by models Going Wild and can’t be targeted by Living Hazards which lets him move around the table a bit easier when beasts appear, and his death effect allowing you to make a friendly Beast or a Living Hazard take an action is also great but of less use if playing heavily into the Morituri. In general I wouldn’t take Anum without at least 2 beasts on the table that aren’t an enemy (be that through taking your own or Living Hazards) and he is far better in the Bestiae cohort overall for the benefits that gives.

Iocasta is a really interesting model and is one of the Morituri gladiators I like more than others. She has average stats with MOV on the higher end for Morituri at 6, a lowish damage tree compared to others but some sweet abilities to compensate for it and push her into a clearly defined anti-armour role. Pierce is simple and just lets her ignore the opponent’s ARM stat on all attacks which is somewhat dependent on matchup but always useful (unless they’re ARM0 it will result in easier damage). Her death effect is a pretty simple 3” AOE dealing 1 damage. It does affect your own models though unlike the other AOE death effects in Morituri so you have to be careful when you trigger it outside of her own death (or forcing her death) because of the threat of damaging your own models and making you weaker (or potentially stronger if you can hit Favour or other beneficial death effects). Halfway through her damage tree is the unique rule Sirocco. It resolves the same as a push, but you can instead choose to then resolve the rest of her successes against another model in range to continue down her tree. It means if she can get to 2 models that are at very low health she can potentially take them both out in a single action if she gets a good amount of successes, which is really useful to have because it not only saves her fatigue, it also helps boost up action economy in a big way. Obvious interaction with Ur-Kek here for stupid amounts of healing but at that point it’s a real dream to get it all set up to go at it.

Khepros is somewhat of a support piece for Morituri, with his job being assisting friendly models and pushing enemies. He has a great statline with MOV6 and especially ARM2 but otherwise has completely regular stats for Morituri (ATK6 and DEF2). Shelter combines with this good ARM stat by adding his ARM to a model he Assists as well as his DEF so they gain a huge boost in survivability for relatively little investment (with Ur-Kek it's a huge pain for the opponent). The rest of his special rules and almost half his damage tree are push-based, including his death effect. He has 3 pushes on his tree starting from 2 successes, but it's Momentum that makes these so much better for board control because with a 2" follow-up he can change his position to make sure he can push the opponent into spots where they can be trapped by your models or just into hazards where they'll suffer more. It also gives him the ability to ignore push resistance of bigger models, so he can do this almost indiscriminately against whatever he chooses to. His death effect Scarab's Toil is a simple push resolved by any friendly model on the table against a model in its engagement range (note that this is 1" for everyone, Zahra can't get the extra range) but can also be used on himself and he will benefit from Momentum, although this is better done via Thoth, Tiet-Khebi or Cleopatra's Gift because Khepros doesn't die at the end of those.

Mago is a model that I see the value in, but I prefer to grab other models before him in almost every case. He has good stats, a decent tree and some awesome abilities but I don't see massive value in most of them over other options in the cohort for how I want to play them. Second Wind is really great but also situational, and Entangle is a bit odd in how it works. You have to have models engaged by him who want to then leave engagement for whatever reason (usually prompting  an opportunity attack anyway) and it gives them a Fatigue if they do leave engagement. The fact that there are so many huge downsides to leaving his engagement to me just reads as a way of saying "don't disengage and you ignore these" and only really comes into play when you force them into an incredibly bad situation (eg between Mago and Ur-Kek). Contempt as a death effect is amazing though and I would want to trigger it as much as I could once fighting starts, but again it's putting Mago right up into as many enemies as possible and hoping he survives long enough to trigger it on your terms through tactics and abilities (or at least dies in a good position to benefit from it) so if I was taking Mago I would always be taking Ur-Kek and Khepros with him purely to support him. Overall Mago has a place, I just personally am not a fan.

The Morituri mount, Sereqet is a really cool model that has some nasty tricks. It’s a Titan so brings all the push immunity and displacement things that come with that (which also plays with what Zahra is doing normally), has good defensive stats for Morituri but has less native attack dice (a standard for mounts given their combined attacks with riders). It has Envenom to add 3 damage to an attack result at the cost of a Fatigue which is amazingly good, especially combined with Zahra for shutting down a target, and its death effect Toxin gives all engaged enemies 1 fatigue which is great for zone control-especially on his 60mm base because that is a big area. Second Wind lets it remove a fatigue whenever it would generate a Favour from the vitality track (shared with Mago), which is less useful in Morituri than in other cohorts (mainly looking at Bestiae with Sereqet) but is still good to dictate activation order and maintain a good flow. The main thing to note with Sereqet is that although he pairs really well with his rider Zahra, she is actually faster when dismounted than when mounted so you need to consider whether the mount bonuses are worth that little drop in speed (they almost always are)

 

Thoth is a bit of a key piece to Morituri IMO because he brings along some really nice abilities that help boost up the cohort a lot. His stats are the same as usual for Morituri, not super weak but not massively hard hitting either except for his movement which at 5 is on the lower end (but not below average still). The reason he has a lower movement is because of Necrosis, because being able to walk in and fatigue every enemy within 3” (which will then stop them activating immediately, so can be used to save weakened models or stop the opponent doing the same) is very strong even though it makes Thoth exhausted so he can only do a free walk and Necrosis in his activation (but if you were to then go into a clear turn soon after it all goes away…). Libra is a great way to manage Favour as well and is more useful to pull down your opponents resources IMO (because it happens at the start of your clear turn, and you can use Offering to bring yours up) but either way it is useful should you need more or less Favour in a given situation. Scythe is his death effect and really just combos with any Morituri, because it triggers every other death effect in the cohort so you can pull off some really naughty tricks by combining them all. The only downside is it has built in that he is removed from play, so even if you heal him with Tiet-Khebi or use Scythe through Cleopatra’s Gift he will always die at the end of it so keep this in mind (and really just don’t do either of those things)

Tiet-Khebi is the blender of the Morituri with the highest ATK stat (meaning higher likelihood of lower results on the tree) and a very good damage tree. She isn't lacking in defensive stats either as she has the same stats as most in the faction, but her role is definitely as a central piece in the crew leading the offence. Triumph nets the cohort 2 Favour if she kills another model which is always good, Asari at the bottom of her tree lets a friendly model within 5" of her trigger its death ability (which like Cleopatra's Gift there are a lot of good options) at the cost of a single Favour, so it is cheaper than the tactic although it has more hoops to jump through. Her own death ability is Innervate which is removes a Fatigue and heals 2 vitality on any friendly gladiator regardless of range, just not herself. This is really great as it is a way to keep your own models functioning better even in the face of losing one (or just through using Cleopatra's Gift for a pure heal). My favourite combo with Tiet-Khebi is Ur-Kek, as he provides her with a tough bodyguard through Taunt and can also simply get free attacks off her if you manage to reach Asari on the damage tree which is huge and can determine games by itself.

Ur-Kek is a very straightforward model, and is pretty much a damage sponge that can also dish out a good amount of damage. He is slow and that needs to be considered, but he has good stats otherwise and a fairly good damage tree with a mix of direct damage and pushes so he can do a fair bit of work on the table. On top of this he heals 3 every time another model- friend or foe- is killed within 3" (in a faction with 11-12 vitality almost across the board, 14 plus healing is amazing), and his death ability lets him make an attack (which can trigger Consume Essence if he kills them and saves Ur-Kek for a really great momentum shift). Last thing to note is Taunt which is always good to force enemies into attacking him over other options, especially when Ur-Kek can heal and dishes out attacks when he dies. His Spite ability is also a really obvious and easy thing to use Cleopatra's Gift for cause it's just a free action (albeit an expensive one costing 2 Favour)

Zahra is one of my favourite tech pieces in Morituri because she is really hardcore zone control. Her statline is pretty standard overall, but her special rules are where she comes into her own when combined with her damage tree. The tree has 4 different push results on it as well as a single 3 damage and a reposition (both of which are great) and with Lash she can choose to pull enemies towards her instead of away, which as an optional effect and in combination with follow-up moves gives her insane control of where models will be going and is insanely good when she's near hazards or simply to put enemies in range of things like Ur-Kek or Mago. Reach is an excellent rule too allowing her to attack 3 inches away from her during her activation (so no using it to get opportunity attacks from 3" away) but it is useful just to keep Zahra in places she will be safer (next to Ur-Kek or Khepros, or further away from hazards she wants to be pushing people into). Deft is for when she is mounting Sereqet and just means she is a bit more efficient when she is forced off or Sereqet is killed and not forced into exhaustion, while Terror is a really great addition to her placement tricks as it is a death ability (keep this in mind for tactic purposes) that pushes all enemies within 3" 2 inches directly away from her. You choose the order they move, and you can use it to muck up things that want to be closer to each other (Helleniki and Legio XIII especially) if you play the order right.

On the Table- Isolation Blues

Like a lot of people in this tough time, I've been isolating at home for the past few weeks. While it's meant I can work on putting out blog content and hobby, it's also meant that gaming has completely ceased for the foreseeable future and a lot of things I had planned to work on (primarily battle reports) are simply not possible. I have however made the most of the enforced hobby time and at least have something to show for it, making a dent in my backlog and continuing to power forward and keep my spirits up!

First of all, I've been working through some stuff for Star Wars Legion. Since my early childhood I've loved Star Wars and especially the Rebellion, so I finally decided to jump in and get some Legion stuff to work on an army. Luke was painted a few months back, but over the last fortnight I've finished Chewbacca, Han Solo and a unit of Rebel Troopers as well to kickstart the army and get it closer to fully painted.

Next up I've been working on Warcry. I painted up my Chimera a few weeks ago and now I've been working on an actual warband, with the Untamed Beasts being the one I've chosen to play primarily as I love their models. I'm planning on writing a bit of Warcry content in the near future so stay tuned on that front!

More recently I've pulled out a few odds and ends for Malifaux to try and get through some of the half-painted keywords I have. The Desperate Mercenaries are the last of what I need painted for the Mercenary keyword and next up I have 2 Freikorps Engineers which are half of the Freikorps models I need to paint (the other 2 being Hannah and Arik, both of which are in the next planned Malifaux batch)

To finish, what I'm working on at the moment. The last few pieces of my Blood Bowl Skaven team are also being worked on, but now that the 7s league I was playing in has been indefinitely delayed its taken the wind out of my sails a bit there. I still very much want to get them done, but I'm not finding myself getting motivated to do it as much as other things and as such they're still in a state where they need a lot of work to be finished. I've got the previously mentioned Freikorps Engineers and an AT-RT for Legion on the desk as well both nearly complete, aiming to get them done over the next couple nights so I can start painting other things.

In general we are all living in some strange and difficult times, but it is the perfect time to band together and support who we can however we can. I've been having a few group calls lately while painting to keep my sanity and get things done, and it's a really great way of keeping up the sense of community while being stuck at home so I would really recommend it in any way you can. Another thing I have been looking into a lot over the past few days is the Vassal system to play games virtually, mainly Arena Rex and Malifaux so I can do some rudimentary battle reports and keep gaming, but I'm also looking at Tabletop Simulator for Batman games so that's a possibility in the future.

Best wishes and good health to everyone, we'll get back to gaming soon enough and it'll feel so much better after this break.