Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey

Vlad3 becomes the true Horse Lord and Khador gets a cavalry caster.

"Reclaiming his long-denied birthright, Great Prince Vladimir Tzepesci rides his warhorse Vsada into battle to defend the lands of Umbrey restored to his family. He wields weapons of the ancient Tzepesci horselords, carrying a spear in one hand and the mace Huntsman in the other. Should strength of arms alone prove insufficient, Vladimir lashes out with dark sorceries, the blood of kings that runs in his veins lending him the strength to secure victory."

Vlad keeps most of his stats the same as with most of the third tier reincarnations with a little more ARM and a lot more SPD (He's on a horse)  Vlad gave up his sword for a spear with brutal charge gains an additional die on damage on a charge, and it's really long so he has Reach. Vlad also carries the huntsman, his mace which has a higher P+S and it's a chain weapon so it ignores shield wall, shields and bucklers. Don't forget the War Pony he packs quite the punch with a standard P+S and Crit Knockdown.

Special abilities the great prince and his pony have Combat Rider allowing his horse to boot you in the face even if he didn't charge. He gets Relentless Charge meaning that on his charge he gains pathfinder meaning that he can get to you Even Faster!  Last but not least Vlad gets Blood-Quenched, whenever he kills an enemy this round he gains+1 STR +1 ARM meaning on a charge if he angles it right kills the things in front then when he get to his charge target he's going to have more STR and more ARM that on top of Brutal Charge equals ouch!

On the spell front Vlad is no slouch as with previous incarnations he brings not just melee brute force but a collection of spells that puts many casters to shame.  Top of the list is Dash giving all warrior models in his CNTRL area +1 SPD and immune to free strikes meaning that now Uhlan's can impact charge away with extra SPD and not worry about pesky free strikes. Plus this also gives Vlad more brute force on his own Brutal charge.

Next they gave Vlad Flashing Blade so at the end of his charge before the combat he can cast flashing blade on his lance lets say hit everyone within 2" gaining more Blood-Quenched goodness before he finishes his attack.

Not to be out shown is Hand of Fate a disgusting cheep upkeep-able spell that gives a unit an additional die to hit and damage with dropping the lowest of those dice.  Meaning reliable hitting and reliable... well... Squish.

Infernal Machine is all kinds of sick nasty giving a warjack in your battle-group +2 SPD and MAT along with the oh so useless terror! Yes one in twenty will scare the pajesus out of a unit but just a nice added bonus for the MAT and SPD bonus especially Khador's swift footed Warjacks am I right?

How can you go wrong with Razor Wind a Khador classic a cheap ranged spell of decent power giving Vlad a nice way to rid himself of extra foes at range.

His last spell another Vlad classic Wind Wall he can't make ranged attacks and non-magical ranged attacks automatically miss models within 3" of this model cannot make ranged attacks and non magical ranged attacks targeting them automatically miss.

Last but most certainly not the least is Vlad3's Feat: Charge of the Horse Lords - Friendly faction Warjacks and Cavalry models in Vlad's CNTRL area gain Side Step ( A model with side step can move 2" without free strikes every time they hit with an initial weapon. No bought attacks) and Sprint ( A model with sprint can move it's SPD at the end of it's activation if it destroyed at least one model during it's activation)  

This feat can be uneventful if not planed out well or absolutely devastating. Vlad3 with a unit of Uhlans with Hand of Fate and Drago with Infernal Machine up, can by turn two can be impact charging with three dice to hit three dice damage dropping the lowest Vlad Blood-Quenched and sidestepping can lead a brutal charge followed by a swift retreat leaving you room to for you to run extra units up from the back to block charges after your smash then regroup for another attack.  I think that this feat will catch a lot of people off guard making it a problem that opponents of Vlad3 will have to deal with.

My thoughts on Vlad, Great Prince of Umbrey is that he give you a reason to field cavalry and has ways to make them even better.  As far as the Cav casters go Vlad3 gives his cav the biggest boost that being Hand of Fate and well his Feat.  With a unit of light cav on the horizon makes me think that Khador will remain the mounted kings of combat in the Iron Kingdoms.  The added boost of a cav caster just helps them be even more effective.  That being said there still is numerous weaknesses of cav and not sure if this will balance the gap or just make it a little more interesting when you see a field of horses bearing down on you.

Asphyxious the Hellbringer

Of all the new casters coming out Asphyxious3 is looking pretty awesome to me. So I figure over the next few days I'll go over the new third tier casters and the uses they might have.

"More than one thousand years of preparation has brought Asphyxious closer than ever to his goal of rising above the other lich lords to stand as Toruk’s most invaluable general. He alone holds the key to unleashing the terrible might of the Nightmare Empire. To aid him in his great work, Asphyxious has applied his impressive mastery of thrall runes to craft Vociferon, a skarlock perfectly equipped to serve as a conduit for souls. Vociferon’s battle standard of death and discord resonates with unholy intent, for it was made to collect the essences of all who perish within its reach and fuel Asphyxious’ fell sorceries."

Stat wise his looks the same as his other forms 15 DEF/17 ARM/F 7/ P+S16/ . Daimonon has a new ability Blood Boon, for those of you who haven't played Vlad recently this gives Asphyxious the ability after killing living enemy to cast a spell of three or less for free. So kill a dude spell, kill a dude spell so forth and so on. A nice touch.

Speical abilities are pretty much standard fare.  Cull soul, living models killed he gains a soul token, Terror, he's scary (sort of) and da...da...da..dah! Undead yeah I know you never expected that one.

Spells are where Asphyxious3 is going to shine. Lets start with the Menoth favorite Ashen Veil that's right people Cryx is getting a higher defense! hahahahaha...  Ashen Veil gives a friendly model concealment, and living enemy models suffer -2 to hit while within 2" of affected model.

Bone Shaker a nice spell 2 F offensive ranged when boxes a living enemy you get to advance with model ignoring free strikes make a melee attack then the model is removed from the game.

Good Ole Carnage 3 F making it even easier to hit living enemy models +2 to hit while while within this model's CNTRL.  Hey why not make it easier for Bane Lord Tartarus shall make many a bane with his MAT 11 Curse + Carnage +4 to attack.  Banes then become MAT 10. Hell even Satyxis raiders on power swell no need to CMA that's a lot of feedback.

Hex Blast is a nice spell to debuff a caster sitting on Iron Flesh or Arcane Shield or drop it on a trooper and eliminate a nasty spell on your troopers. Hex Blast model hit looses spell effects.

Mobility is a cheap method to give his battlegroup, including himself +2 SPD and pathfinder.  So now Asphyxious has a huge threat range even longer if you take Darragh in your list.  Plus pathfinder on your jacks won't hurt too bad.

Scything Touch an Asphyxious spell makes Satyxis raiders and blood witches something to fear.  Scything Touch gives a friendly faction model +2 to damage rolls and crit corrosion. That gives blood witches a P+S 12 and a P+S 10 with gang so those become 14 and 12 respectively not too shabby on a SPD 7 unit. I've wreaked jacks with the unit on a charge. Give it to the raiders and power swell 

His Feat isn't anything to scoff at either.  Whenever a model is forced, a spell is cast, focus, or fury is spent in his CNTRL area Asphyxious heals d3 and gains a soul token.  This looks disgusting on paper but I am looking forward to trying it out in play.

Vociferon, Asphyxious' attachment 13 DEF/ 17 ARM.  He's an Arc node, he even gets the commander ability, nice twist allows Asphyxious to allocate focus to a warjack in Vociferon's CMD range so you can extend you CNTRL zone by a good amount.  He picks up soul tokens for living enemy models killed within his CMD range these add to his ARM +1 for each and Death Harvest allows him to transfer them to Asphyxious during his maintenance phase. A nice addition in replace of our beloved skarlock.

On paper he looks like one hell of a caster I can not wait to get some play testing underway.  Unfortunately I have to wait until the beginning of August to get my hands on him. shucky darn.  His tier list is ok:

• Warjacks: Non-character warjacks, Cankerworm, Malice
• Units: Bile Thralls, Mech Thralls, Necrosurgeons, Soulhunters, Withershadow Combine
• Solos: Warwitch Sirens, non-character undead Cryx solos
• Battle Engines: Wrath Engines

Tier 1: Army gains one free Necrotech for each Helljack in your army

Tier 2: (Includes Pistol Wraith) Pistol Wraith's gain AD

Tier 3: (3 or more units) Models that can gain a corpse or soul token begin the game with one.

Tier 4: (Includes the Kraken) Deployment Zone Extended 2"

Asphyxious the Hellbringer looks to become a staple Cryx caster in heavy rotation of my Cryx army pAsphyxious and eAsphyxious are casters that I love to run and their big brother looks to continue the tradition.

Colossals, Gargantuans and WarRoom

I'd like to hit on a few topics that are coming up quick.  Colossals and the War Room App.

Colossals bring a lot to the table and now after reading some battle-reports and now that the Stormwall is out and Conquest will be out later this month.  I have to disagree with some of my fellow players I think this is an amazing move by Privateer press.  I think that Colossals aren't invincible that can easily be taken down by a good stratagy or if the player doesn't know the full potential of his colossal.  This element gives large scale games an interesting start since before with PP large scale games took tons and tons of models now with adding a colossal (..or two) you reduce the number of models you need to field and you get an interesting large scale game.

I have yet to get a game in against one as no one up here in the great north has purchased one.  I am debating on getting a conquest for my Kahdor but not sure if my small force needs that sort of help yet I am leaning toward it.  And the Kraken doesn't come out for a few more months.

Gargantuans I personally think take the cake if the three I've seen so far hold true.  The Mountain King for trolls looks like Mulg on roids, then there's Circle's Woldwrath the Gorilla Wold, the Archangel Legion's SUPER Angelious, and no name of the Skorne Gigantic Titan with multi-cannon strapped to his back.

Lastly I'd like to hit on the War Room App coming soon to a device near you.  Having only seen the demo video at Temple-con and watching it online it looks pretty amazing like I may have to say goodbye to my good and faithful iBodger.  They just announced that it was off to be approved by Apple, Google, and ...AMAZON! Wha..wha..WHAT!? say that again Amazon for the Kindle Fire... my kindle fire... I don't have to squint to see it on my iPhone?! I think I might faint...  Wait let me back up a few steps take some deep breathing exercises and then lets try that one more time.  

Yes the new War Room app will be available on Kindle fire so in order to get the most out of the app you don't need to own a 650$ iPad just my lil Kindle Fire.  So now comes the hard part it's done with yet I have to wait! That's just rude.  The ability to mark off damage and build lists will probably put the last nail in the coffin of iBodger which has been a good and faithful friend low these many years. You will... probably not be missed.

Can't keep my word

So I got a new position at work and I've been busy I know excuses excuses.  But I haven't been painting much as of late.. for shame.  so here we are 2012 the end of the world months away and I have tons of models unpainted.  

So lets see what's happened since I last wrote... I started Trollbloods again. :-) this time with a focus on their ranged threat.  That right watch out for my bushwhackers and burrowers, my Impalers, and Grimm. It's coming together.  I got the new Warpack with the plastic models I really do like the new sculpts for the Axers, and Impalers, They look like jacked up trolls now they used to be too tall and lanky in my humble opinion.

The last league we had my Legion of Everblight won.  I do like the synergy you get with casters, beasts, solos, and troops they flow for the most part.  Bethayne and Belphegor is the one caster that stands out to me I don;t know if any of you have tried her but she seems very specialized I have won with her but not typically because of her.  And eVayl is a powerhouse I've had a lot of luck with her she brings quite a bit to the table. Although her cloak kept breaking off luckily Karl from my game-store had some idy bidy pins and he helped drill it out and pin it and she hasn't broke since.

My goal is to stay on top of this hopefully I'll get some stuff painted and I'll show you some of the progress I've been making.  

Trollbloods hello again

So 2012 will begin with me starting up trolls again goal being to have a 50 pt army by winter

Here's a picture of my first new troll "Grimm Angus"

2011's khador is just about finished being painted entering into my first tournament with eIrusk I'll take some pictures and let you know how it turns out.

TempleCon 2012

Well I couldn't quite figure out the app plus my spare time was spent sleeping. So we arrived just in time to miss the Colassal's release video.

I can't speak for my fellow Con goers but I think the Idea is amazing! I love huge point games and I think this will become a great addition.  Plus the models look great. Can't wait to see the full scale model of the Cryx Kraken!  A little more info was released about the Iron Kingdoms and character creation and use of minis in the tabletop rendition.  Also it was announced that along with the third tier Casters "Legends" there will be a new rhulic caster.  

The convention moved into a new room. Quite a bit larger this year. While waiting for the room I played a few games, first one with a Rhode Island native that I played the last two years on the cave table. Then after driving from Maine played Rob! haha we always manage to squeeze a game in.  Rob one after I failed to assassinate Captain Amador Dmiano and Scaverous got taken out.  Lovely looking terrain but pain in the rear to move around on.

After a good four hour nap I got my list got "Flanks for the Memories" the first Midnight madness.  Got a couple of practice games in for Iron Arena.  When it came time to write our lists and get our game on, I found out it was two lists Required which I was unprepared for.  It would help if I had read a little closer into the description of the tournament.  So I quickly ran upstairs and grabbed Venethrax and some banes. Then proceeded to get beat down went 1-3 in the first tournament.  After the midnight madness I played a number of Iron arena games to build my confidence.  After a disappointing beginning to my gaming convention I proceeded to win the next 5 out of 6 games.  By then it was almost eleven and Jeff was beginning Hardcore and I was off to bed.

After I woke up and got some more Wendy's in me refilled my liquid supply I got out my Venethrax Death Race Midnight Madness.  After a few trials all wins I felt up to the challenge set ahead.  First round was hand picked for me unfortunately for my first opponent a nice girl "Aislynn" fielded a list set up for Venethrax. Absylonia and thirty some points of beasts.  She then proceeded to feed Venthrax beast after beast. Until Abby was on her own against a big bad Venethrax.  Second round I met up with a Cygnarian fielding pNemo and an Ironclad the black thirteen and then the Seether and banes swept round destroyed the Ironclad then Venethrax sat on full focus and Dragon Slayer giving Ven Twenty Six armor ran up the battlefield at nemo basically invincible then squished nemo.

Round three was on and I had Maelok the Dreadbound and his army of gators.  I had my work cut out for me.  This being only the second time I'd faced him I was unaware of some of the combos he's capable of.  I just couldn't finish his gators off so he kept bringing them back and charging even sitting on high armor chipped away and with a roll of trip fives dice minus twelve took him down. My first loss.  Round four was a Khador player featuring Vlad and only Beast09 some Iron Fang and Ulang Horsemen.  Vlad threw all he had at Venethrax and could only bring Venethrax to half but some bad rolls and then Venethrax beat Vlad's Face in.

Round five was against another Legion player from which Venethrax munched.  And in the last round It was Gorten but I was tired and out of the running for first second or third So I played like a goof and had fun doing it had two assassination attempts at gorten but couldn't roll to save my life.  

After all was said and done Jeff went off to catch some sleep while I played a few more games and waited for my fellows to awaken and get my bags.  After I was packed up I used the last of my time to snap some more photos of the con and the game-room.  Along with a few fellow GameGeekers.

Rob

Rob Gaming

Rob's Game Mercs v. Pirates

Nice Legion Army

Cool Scenario table destroy or protect the graveyard

Another nice scenario table didn't get to try this one sorry it's blurry

Will Shick's Circle Orboros Army Notice the Nice new Ferral

Assault the docks!

GDayBloke taking on an eglishmen Nemo meet castigator boom stick

Master Yann Aka DevilSquid

Nick being a good sport

40k had a nice showing

40k players

Interesting Skare Combo

Absence and a Renewed Vigor

Sorry I have been away.  I made my transition to third shift without too much hassle but getting used to how things work and the numerous amounts of overtime I haven't had a lot of free time.  I've been playing pretty steady Warmachine/Hordes (WarmaHordes) Finally assembled all my second had Legion of Everblight with a few exceptions.  My wife is painting them in her own time so I have a few painted and will start to share with everyone.

I have been plugging away at my Khador slowly but surely.  I have them all assembled, primed and begun.  A few were finished back in October but I try to paint a little here and a little there.

TempleCon 2012 is now less then a week away and I've decided that Cryx will be joining the fray.  I was going to bring a tournament Legion list but decided not to make my wife rush.  (As I hate playing with unpainted models)  Lich Lord Venethrax, and Lord Exhumator will be my center points.  Skarre and Terminus will be in attendance as well.  This is the first year I'm not bringing every playable model since I plan on playing in three tournaments so caster choice is limited and the Iron arena will have a few other contenders so I think I'll be well suited.  I am very excited to try out the new casters on those who dare.  Depending on how my mobile blogger works I will post updates from the con.

And in DnD news I've started my second campaign as the other fizzled out due to schedule conflictions. Hoping that this one might be better than the last.  Still keep running into brick walls while attemping to force the party into roll playing.  There is a lot of meta-gaming and this leads to their characters making decisions that in no way shape or form they would make if they were the character which ends up either forcing there way through a puzzle or complication to say well my guy can just get there from here with no problem.  Or proceding down a hall by sliding the character.  If anyone has suggestions I'm open to it.  My goal is to have a fun campaign that is enjoyable to everyone.

So hopefully you'll be hearing a lot more, Fingers crossed.