Khador 2015, Part 19 - ClogCon Roundup

Most important things first: Harkevich and Krüger1 fall to Lady pZ. That's two things crossed of the World Domination List, boo-ya! *cough*

Yeah, so ClogCon happened from the 11th to the 13th, and which lists I brought, you're probably already aware if you read any of the lasts posts on this blog. ;)

Follow on to read about my games, thoughts and observations on these, as well as an evaluation of the list pair, mixed with potential changes.

Mind the gap.

Khador 2015 - Part 18: Conquest v. Behemoth Juxtaposition

In the last article, I did a little preparation for ClogCon by running my two lists through a theoretical gauntlet. I might do that again.

However, in this article I want to compare the Conquest to the Behemoth with regards to my lists - because I've heard a bunch of good arguments  for swapping them around.  And afterwards, I might just do another round of Irish Roulette.

Khador 2015 - Part 17 - WTC Roulette No.1

So, there's a thing you can do with all the WTC lists - Steamroller Roulette. It works this way:
 * Work out a two-list pairing you're going to bring.
 * Pick a team from the WTC lineup (most recent event, generally).
 * Evaluate your match-ups Round by Round as if you were paired against each player during the tournament. Assume D&C as you want, I'll go with 0.

   There are a number of advantages to this theorymachining - the lists were created for a hypothetical meta, which is highly comparable with going to a meta where you've never been before, for example.

   I went with a random number, and got 42 (D'uh!). I choose the leaderboard order of teams, and draw...

Let's play Hardball

"So I have more of a modern football crowd, where you have more of a modern wrestling crowd." "Pretty much."

   SPIEL 2015 is currently happening at Messe Essen. My small family attended yesterday and we got a whole day's worth of enjoyment out of it, between buying a few games and bits, trolling BattleFoam, and a demo-game of Guildball (GB from here-on out).

   A little bit of history here: I was a (not-so-uberly-active) Member of the Steamforged Community before GB came around, so I can safely say I've been aware of GB the whole time. I didn't back the Kickstarter because I didn't have the money to do so, but I've kept on monitoring the game. The game concept is really interesting (and refreshing to a Warmachine Player like me), the sports aspect is great, and I would've certainly bought into a faction already if a) there was one Guild that really really interested me and b) distribution in Germany was better... Especially the latter part made me giddy about Steamforged Games coming to the SPIEL, and getting a demo in.

   So read on about my experiences and thoughts and plans that came from my visit to the Steamforged booth.

Khador 2015, Part 16: eZ, pZ, lemon sqZ

   You probably wouldn't have guessed, but what if I told you that I'm seriously considering (as in: there's no if, and certainly no other option) to pair Lady pZ and Lady eZ together for SR tournaments? If you're regular reader of this blog, listened to me on Murder of Crows, or even watched my videos on Youtube, you're probably not exactly surprised.

   I think that it's very well possible, especially since her two incarnations are so different. Follow me beyond the gap (and down the rabbit hole) to figure out list theory for this specific pair. And also, for lists of Warcasters they can one-shot in a pinch.

Khador 2015, Part 15 - Observations on the Competitor Countries

Last time, we defined who qualifies as a Core Country for WTC (any country with a team in the top ten ('14) AND the top 6 ('13)), and looked at their team compositions faction wise.

This time, we'll look at the Competitor Countries - made up out of all those that had a team in EITHER the top 10 ('14) or the top 6 ('13). The Competitors are:

Australia*, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Scotland, Slovakia

Expected are greater swings in Faction choices, just to regurgitate that info.

*I am very well aware that the Australians did not, in fact, attend '13 WTC. So did about ten other countries. Neither Austria nor Slovakia DO attend in 2015. It may seem slightly injust, however we have to draw the line somewhere. This year's data will be vital to determine something more akin to a proper standing for those teams.

Follow me beyond the break for diachronic and synchronic analyses of these team's faction choices.

Khador 2015, Part 14 - Observations on the Core Countries

   So, after we established last time that Khador is not the most rail-roaded faction with regards to listbuilding (that's Trollbloods), we'll do sth more sophisticated this time around. We'll arbitrarily group the participating countries into three categories, to make it a) easier to choose whom to bet money on, and b) observe the choices made by the more successful teams regarding list pairings, team composition and other drivel.

   Follow me beyond the gap to the shenanigans, and hopefully, interesting graphics.

Khador 2015, Part 13 - WTC Khador lists

... a semi-outsiders totally unbiased and omniscient observations. As if.

You know, there's something good to be said about me having done this last year - I have something to compare to. It's like getting the second result of an experiment under lab conditions! So, to reiterate:

Keeping that in mind - I think there are too many people playing Khador for that to be a valid statement (thirty, to be precise). I'll judge the list by the following colour chart - and a number of KMIs (key model indicators) that'll reveal itself throughout the essay), and give my reasoning later.

Really Boring
Very Boring
Boring
Kinda Interesting
Interesting
Very Interesting

   That's professional, objective research right there! But since I'm the scientist, I set the parameters by which the data is analysed - so let's bring it on!

For safety reasons: I'm not judging the lists to be "done well" or "done badly", I'm merely going by how much reading the lists makes me want to see it played.

In addition, we'll compare observations made between last year and this year (and if I can manage, 2013), as to make some purely theorymachinical (that's a word if there ever was one) predictions.

Khador 2015, Part 12 - Lady eZ and Vengeance

I'm not bored. I just can't summon the energy to do a showdown between Conquest and Victor like I did between Rager and Vanguard. So I'll go down the "easy" road, and talk about Lady Z some more - especially, her in the context of the Vengeance releases.

The theory behind this is that she originally has been developed together with those releases, and later switched places with Butcher3, so there may some surprising synergy there.

Follow this link if you want to read OrsusSmash's view on Butcher3&Reckoning: SticksandDice
Follow me beyond the break to analyse Lady eZ and Grolar/Outriders/IFK/Malakov/TAC!

Pressure Cooker #2 - Redux

Played a fully painted game on the weekend! If you came here from Youtube - you're gadget-savvy, and know that Harkevich won against Gorten by assassination, top of five.

VIP: Definitely the Spriggan. His Reach, combined with the MOV bonus from Escort, really allowed him to contribute his power to two locations instead of one.
VUP: If I have to choose somebody - and I have to - I'll choose the Kodiak. The Marauder bullied his flag (and did three Combo-Smites), and the Kodiak heavily contributed with two Chain Attacks, he didn't kill anything (which the Devastator did do), and one of those 2h-Throws almost cost me the game.
Biggest Blunder: Staying put with Harkevich, when protective terrain was easily within reach was certainly unnecessarily risky, but 2h-throwing the Driller towards Gorten gave Fiona an opportunity which she wouldn't have had if I only threw him straight towards her table edge.
Army Changes: Take out a Jack - probably the Kodiak, since his abilities are pretty redundant in this type of list, and put in any kind infantry, most likely Winterguard, though. Anything that can screen Harkevich.

Above all, playing fully painted is awesome. And getting in a batrep where we were able to reset the models so accurately that we could play out a different ending? Big fat bonus.

So, until next time, farewell!

Khador 2015, Part 11 - Shieldguard Showdown!

With Reckoning came the Rager, an in-faction heavy with Shieldguard. He strode into the army - his army, his own god-given faction - and found his place contested.

By a miserable french llaelese light to boot!

Of course, this could not stand. Follow me beyond the break, where I compare the Rager to the Vanguard in context of the Khadoran army and Hunting Wolves in particular.

FIGHT!

Khador 2015, Part 10 - Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

Third day of Lock & Load, third article in the series "Stuff Khadorans get for Christmas". As before, I'll only cover a single type of item per article to keep it clean, and this has thusly resulted in these three:

• Victor revisited
• Berserkers in Arms
• Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

So join me as we look at the spoiled Zerkova2, do a little silly comparison to her first self, evaluate that, think about shit she can get done, her theme force as well as other lists and "drop targets" for her.

Khador 2015, Part 09 - Berserkers in Arms

Lock and Load (as well as L&L Outposts) are still going, so I keep going with looking at and overthinking what was spoiled - for my faction. This will eventually end in three articles:

- Victor revisited
- Berserkers in Arms
- Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

If you join me beyond the break, we'll talk about disappointments, surprises, and potential of both the Rager and the Mad Dog.

Khador 2015, Part 08 - Victor revisited

Courtesy of L&L, everyone on the social media now has access to all the content of Reckoning (you can read that as kind of a criticism, I guess. 'Tis okay).

Since I'm not insane (quite yet. *cackle*), I will not deal with all of it in one go. Instead, we'll kinda split this up into three parts:

• Viktor Revisited
• Berserkers in Arms
• Lady e-to-the-m*****f****ing-Z

So, join me beyond the break for a comparison of my Viktor predictions with the actual crunch!

Khador 2015 Part 07 - Zerkova World Domination Tour, Initial Circle thoughts

Last thursday I got two games in (the first in roughly a year), and one of those actually was a ZWDT game - the other was only 35pts, so didn't count. The big game was against Morvahna1 with a Sacral Vault (with Robin M, Champion of SmogCon, at the helm), the small one was against Krüger2 (pardon the German spelling, can't help it).

Follow me beyond the break for lists, thoughts, and further considerations regarding Circle.

Khador 2015, Part 06 - Steam & Steel

Subtitle: Charge of the Lulzlords.

So, digital subscribers to NQ got to spoil a new theme force for Vladimir, the Dark Champion. It's called Steam & Steel, and it's about Man-o-War. If that means you can't hold your excitement any longer, follow me beyond the break. I'll go into the meat of the theme force, it's benefits, general list ideas, and it's problems.

Khador 2015, Part 05 - Strakhov in ADR

So, on the last Murder of Crows (found here), Lee and Niek talked about the second half of the Khadoran ADR roster. Having spoken about Butcher and Zerkova before, this time it was Harkevich's and Strakhov's turn, so, basically, the bottom of the ADR, and the two 'Casters that will most likely remain in the roster for a time.

Ignoring the f***ing disgrace that Harkevich is to the Motherland [that's how I feel, at the time of this writing], and because I also spoke about Harkevich's ADR options before, I have to say that I quite liked their Strakhov list. Follow me beyond the breach if you want to hear my thoughts on the matter.

Khador 2015, Part 04 - Whispering Occult Secrets

So, on Murder of Crows Ep 9 we got all giddy about Zerkova2 (man, that still feels strange to type) possibly having Spell Piercer... ...and a day later, there's a spoiler from the Riven Bonds league, showing us this:

It's nowhere near the greatness that would've been Spell Piercer (which still is up in the air), but it IS good. Follow me beyond the break to preliminary list considerations based on this spell alone.

State of Blues 01 - After the Stormwall...

...comes the Hurricane?

Like Marth, I was kinda underwhelmed by the revelation (ba-dum-dish) of the second wave of colossals hitting us before the next Prime. Sure, the first wave had already subsided and left a sour taste in some faction's mouth's, but there should have been at least another year before bringing them up.

Khador 2015, Part 03 - To the Victor, the spoils...

...and to the rest, death!

Before you read this article, I highly suggest you go and watch this:
TempleCon Keynote Excerpt

Otherwise, you may consider me nuts when going on beyond the break. Short spoilers: We now can light the Sea Witch on Fire, and that'll be glorious whenever it happens.

Khador 2015, Part 2: Steamroller '15 and Masters '15 thoughts

So, Steamroller '15 is out long enough that everybody saw it, and all the notable people (PwMJ, RFP, MoC) talked about it, so what is there that I can add?

Well, a bit. Maybe less so on Steamroller, but there are some thoughts I have for Masters.

After the break I'll tell you which objectives I'd consider with the 'Casters I think about the most, what to put in with 20 pts of specialists, and which scenario will no longer be there come 2016!

Zerkova World Domination Tour / Khador 2015

First off: IABN, which is the shorthand for "Iron Agenda Blogging Network", will most likely be read "I am Battlenet" in my head till Kingdom Come.

My wamachine hiatus is not over yet, but January 2015 can be considered a warm-up month. Steamroller 2015 hasn't arrived yet, and the alt Zerkova sculpt isn't being sold until some time in February, so actual games are still off the map.

Sounds like a perfect excuse to blog and ramble on about the Zerkova World Domination Tour! I guess I'll speak about how it came about, what it entails, and other stuff. If it encourages you to start on your own Caster World Domination Tour - let me know!

Happy New Year!

Better late than never. Here's to 2015, which I pray will be a year of positive change.
That emcompasses everything - wargaming, family, career/work, you name it.

As a very brief review within the scope of this blog: 2014, dubbed to be the "Year of the Beard", went... a lot different than anticipated. But with me scoring my first (and currently only) success with Harkevich, I can still declare it a success. So here's a farewell to the beard!

*Ba-dum-tsh*

And for this year, if you're on Facebook, you might want to look out for this hashtag:
#ZerkovaWorldDominationTour

More news on that later!