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!
1. How it came about
   People that follow me / more of the stuff I post spread out over the internet may have correctly gathered from it that I became disgruntled with me as a player. I've also been disgruntled with my performance as a painter - which doesn't seem like it's relevant, but it is: an initial painting surge had me disassemble a number of my models, which therefore are impossible to field.
   This disgruntlement (Play-wise) did not only entail me being bad at the game (which probably isn't totally true), it also entailed me being ... afraid of challenges. Kinda. I had a slight breakdown after attending our gaming nights twice and not getting a game in - mostly because (limited space being a smaller factor) I didn't pipe up when people asked who'd be up for a game, because I was genuinely more afraid of losing than happy to play against anybody. I hadn't been playing much (almost nothing) since ClogCon (in April, mind you), and at the time I would draw more satisfaction from a win then from a close loss. And I anticipated that all of my opponents would mean a resounding loss at best, and that's not what I wanted. They had been playing a lot during the year, and have become really good at the game and pretty successful in competitive events, too.
   Excursion: We do have an ELO ranking system over here in the F.R.o.G. - at the time of this writing, I'm placed 465 out of 1230. The main peeps in my meta are placed 47, 61, 102, 242 and 361 (that's Arides), and they have regular contact with #5 and #9, just to put it into the right light.

   Yes, you can only be as good as your opponents, but COME ON. The worst wasn't even the feeling that this particular ship had sailed without me (I got a fine marriage and beautiful baby girl as "payoff"), it was realising that I myself was lacking ... something. I guess I was like Cloud in FF:Advent Children, who had lost his fighting edge. Not his prowess, nor his goal... but that little something which makes it worth it. [And I'm totally not apologising for making an reference to an animated movie based on a video game.]
   Then what happened? Well, this:

Isn't she cute with that pissed off facial expression?

This was, seriously, the thing I expected the very least. And it kicked me back into motion. I suddenly had a purpose, an agenda, again, and with it, I got back the motivation and inner strength necessary to decide that in 2015, I'd field Zerkova against anything and beat my head against every wall until it falls over (metaphorically speaking). I mean... PP resculpting Zerkova of all models? IT'S A SIGN OF GOD, I SAY.

   And as I was thinking about how to best organise this... forced march up the hill (through an active warzone), the idea of the World Domination Tour was born. So let's segway.

2. Zerkova World Domination Tour

   The main concept, the baseline idea behind the Zerkova World Domination Tour (ZWDT) (or any WDT) is to play her against every 'Caster in the game, all the 145 there are at the time of this writing. This eventually led into three goals:

   I. Defeat a 'Caster/'Lock from every faction (short-term)

   II. Defeat all 'Casters/'Locks from a faction (mid-term)

   III. Defeat all 'Casters/'Locks from all factions (super long-term)

Talk about ambitious, right? Zerkova's gonna get thrown at everything until she sticks. But I don't only think it's possible, I am convinced I can prove it. In order to do so, and give the whole undertaking a little bit of scientific backing, there are a few rules for those games - they only count if played at the same points level, which I chose to be 50. I also can't change more than 10 points (the Specialist amount, basically) from the last iteration of the list with every try. Maybe, one list will eventually emerge to be the best or overall build for her, but only games will tell. To quote Rise Against: "You can't find the beat until you lose yourself in it." [That's from Satellite]

There are also three 'Caster-specific Sidegoals, which will likely vary if you do your own CWDT:
   i. Win every Steamroller 2015 scenario via scenario (obvious)
   ii. Coldswap Icy Grip (Hotswapping means upkeep spell, use the models affect, recast it, use the next models affected. Coldswapping means: Don't pay to upkeep Icy Grip, kill the models affected, recast Icy Grip, kill the models affected (if possible))

   iii. Build & paint the Trophy (an old Zerkova, holding eIrusk's flag, on a golden base. SSB style!)

So, that's the very gist of it. If you feel encouraged to follow this example, just pick a Caster, set three sidegoals, and hit it!

3. Other stuff - my initial list
   This'll be my initial list:
Alexandra Zerkova           -6
> Behemoth                  13
> Spriggan                  10
Greylord Outriders (max)     9
Ironfang Pikemen (max)       8
w/ Officer & Standard        2
Winterguard Riflecorps (max) 8
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich     2
Gorman di Wulfe              2
Sylys Wyshnallyr, the Seeker 2

We'll see how this goes. Any preliminary thoughts and progress will eventually fuel the Khador 2015 article series. But until then...

...dominate the world.