Avatars Abound!

I played 2 games last night. First game Saw Avatar Seamus vs Avatar Zorida. Second was Avatar Kirai vs Avatar Criid. Whats that you say? Battle Report? well if you insist.

GAME 1
Zorida Avatar of Fate

Lists
Zorida, Avatar, Nekima, Lilitu, 3 Tots, 2 Desperate Mercs
Seamus, Avatar, Dead Rider, Crooked Man, 2 Belles, 2 Necro Punks

My first game was against Chris Ward playing what he saw as a very versatile grow list with Zorida. I do not like the grow list personally, I find it too slow. Turn one he made a few mistakes and it cost him a lot of temp. He moved Nekima away from his tots and lost out on some blood. He forgot to have Zorida cast Hex on Lilitu and remove her take damage for not having a bro around. Zorida spent her first turn making a Wicked Doll. I had My crew move up to try and counter his Line in the sand markers. I also sent a Necro Punk to go try and deliver Zorida a message. Turns 1 and 2 saw pretty much no action. He did manage to grow a Mature Nephlim on turn 2.

I killed off a tot and turned him into a Belle. Chris lured that belle into his lines but failed to kill it. Trading a few lures I was able to weaken the Lilitu down a bit and leave her in charge range of the Dead Rider who ran in and took her out. I lost a Necro Punk in a chump battle to a Terror Tot. His Wicked Dolls then lined up against my Crooked man and last Necro Punk. Things didn't go great for me there as Wicked Dolls are nasty in pairs.

Turn 3 He moved the Mature up towards my Line and Nekima killed off the summoned Belle. I lined up my shots on both. THe Dead rider flurried Nekima killing her, and I used No Escape on the Mature with Seamus. I lured the Mature again, charging in with Seamus and killing it with Slit Juggular. Seamus was now ready to manifest.

Turn 4 was pretty much the End. Seamus and Zorida both manifested, but Zorida had no more crew to help back her up. Seamus then Went all sickhouse psycho on Zorida and her crew turning them into a fine pulpy paste. I was able to deliver the message on turn 4 or 5. either way it was too late for full points so I ended up winning 6-0.

Seamus Avatar of Dread

So this game I remembered to keep Seamus in little guy form long enough to deal with the Heavy Hitter. Had Nekima still been around I would not have been afraid to manifest. It was the combo of both her and the Mature that kept me in check. Being able to take them both out in 1 go was just a nice bonus. Only down side here was that Manifesting was piling on an already one sided game. I mentioned to Chris that I think the game could have been a lot different had he gotten his activation order down for turn 1 and been able to grow his tots faster. Also Zorida did nothing but summon wicked dolls for the first 3 turns. made it hard to deliver her a message, but also meant she was pretty well out of the early part of the game. MVP was easily the Dead Rider. He was a wrecking machine took down a Tot, Lilitu, and Nekima.

Game MVP


GAME 2

Sonnia Avatar of lighting crap on fire

Lists
Sonnia, Avatar, Executioner, Guardian, 2 Guild Hounds, Witchling Stalker, Desperate Merc
Kirai, Avatar, 5 Seishin, Lost Love, Datsue-Ba, 2 Gaki, Insideous Madness

So Bill also had a grow list of sorts (still not a fan) He took the Desperate Merc in order to turn into a cheaper witchling stalker. Problem is Criid needs a (0) action to get a free book to cast that spell, but her (0) action is also needed for a manifest requirement. It set his burninating back a bit. Turn 1 Kirai summons her self down to 1 wound. Then Datsue-Ba wacks her, turning her into a spirit off the lost love. (i need to be a spirit for 2 turns to manifest) We engaged a 2 Dogs with a Summoned Gaki and Ikiryo. Ikiryo needs to kill 2 models as my other manifest requirment so I try to kill some dogs. little bastards are tougher then I thought, plus I black Joker a damage flip and they live. I win init turn 2, and Ikiryo pops a dog, then I go for the second, do 3 damage, and then black joker AGAIN... jerk ass joker!

The Exectioner and Guardian pop into the fray and Ikiryo dies. I summon a new ikiryo, place him, Datsue-ba, and the Insideous near the executioner and whoop him up... Then he attacks back with Slow to Die and triggers Decapitate on Datsue-Ba, and I only have 1 card in hand. So instead of killing his 7point model, I lose mine, big time turn around.

Ikiryo then kills off the Guardian, completing my manifest requirements. we trade a few more blows, and by this point there are a ton of corpse counters on the board. Criid blasts into the melee, but only hits my dudes. She then turns the insideous into a Witchling.

Kirai goes, pops into the combat and manifests. She then kills the Executioner and shrugs off his std attack. I realise at this point that I am going to regret avatar Kirai. I have her, 2 Gaki and some Seishin. Not as many models as I would like to have. Criid Manifests, and kills 1 Gaki (I let it die to get another Seishin) She also Drops a Flame Pyre on Kirai and kills 2 more Seishin. I run a Gaki into his Witchling Stalker who propmtly kills it off. This triggers Kirai's Mark of Vengeance and she busts out of the Pyre and wacks the Stalker, the stalker then flees from her Terrifying, into the Prye, and dies (im in good shape I think at this point.)

A Seishin gives Kirai +2CB and she attacks Criid. I hit 3/4 attacks, and on the last 1 I flip a double Severe Damage on a negative flip to kill her. We called it there, but in hind sight It was a really close game and he still had a shot since I hadn't touched his supply Wagon yet. I think the game would have ended 8-4, but who knows.

Kirai Avatar of Vengeance / Game MVP


It was a pretty wild game with a lot of back and forth. I think Manifesting was a big mistake for Kirai here. Her normal ability to sit back, summon, heal, and swap spirits around likely would have done me more good. Either way the Lovely lady gets MVP, since once I manifested she had to do all the heavy lifting (killed Executioner, Witchling, Criid, and made 2 witchlings flee from combat.) A-Criid is a MONSTER, holy cow, She barely got to do anything and I though I had no chance against her. 3 auto damage from a Pyre moving on to you, then another 3 when you start your turn. Plus her 8' pulse that does 2 more damge, means she can really throw out some hateful damage. Plus what ever the hell else she does. She does scare me quiet a bit.

A-Seamus Tactics

I know I just posted this pic, but what can I say I really like this model


Im not an expert with the big guy yet, but I played 2 games with him over the past weekend where he died pretty quick, and I learned a few things about what not to do.

Both A&R Seamus can be killed. It may sound odd, but when you look at the Seamus' they are both VERY tough, but unlike a the Neverborn masters who don't have nearly his toughness, he has no tricks to stay alive. Once an enemy starts pounding on Seamus all his nice toughness tricks fly out the window. So step 1 is protect him. When you plan to Manifest, here are your top 3 ways to keep him alive.

#1 Keep him out of melee pre manifest. Its tough since his crappy manifest requirment needs him to get into Melee.
#2 Kill your opponents top hitter. If there is a Lelu, Joss, Peacekeeper, or something similar on the board it has to die before you Pop out the big guy. those kinds of hitters will shred A-Seamus.
#3 Once manifested keep him in melee. Drop him in the Center of your opponets crew and keep him with Armor 2. Then you can start punching or Howling depending on what your facing.

Dont underestimate his Anathema ability. Requiring every model who comes at him to take a terrify check is sweet. Its probably his best defense. I would not manifest him against certain opponents, such as Pandora since his Wp drop is massive, so against foes to target WP often keep him in the Regular Form. Otherwise feel free to use Succumb to Darkness at least 1 time. Your WP will drop to 3, so NEVER USE THIS VS DREAMER! But your Anathema jumping to a solid 15 means the average model needs to burn a double digit card just to fight you. Swarm attackers such as Marionettes and Malifaux Rats are very likely to head for the hills the second they have to test vs his 15.

A nice thing about A-Seamus is he has 2 strong focus' He can either hit you with his 3' reach fists, or start a WP frenzy. Against living crews I might Bellow every turn just to make them pitch a lot of cards. And he can always fall back on the whole Punching thing if they flip really well. Im hoping I can really take advantage of his flexability in the future to have better results.

Those are the big things I have at the moment for him. I feel like if I can get a solid handle his Manifesting and when to focus on punching or bellowing I should be able to turn A-Seamus into a serious winner.

A-Seamus Complete

So I get pretty wrapped up in my painting and often forget to stop here and there and take the WIP pics. I didn't realize I had forgotten until I was getting ready to paint his base up. My bad. He took almost 3 hours. Which is far more then I usually take to paint a single mini. I think he looks pretty sweet though. Enjoy.



I have to paint a commission gig that I need to knock out next, but after that Im thinking Alt Seamus will be up, Im going to do him in a scheme to match A-Seamus.

Avatar Seamus wip

So Im really excited for Avatar Seamus. Like wasn't able to sleep till 1am yesterday becasue I got A-Seamus around 12:15 and wasn't gonna sleep till he was assembled excited.



So im gonna try and take some wip pics of him and keep this going until he is fully painted.

Gen Con

So for the first time in 4 years I will not be making the trip out to Indianapolis for Gen Con. And I gotta say its a bit depressing to me. I've gone 5 of the last 6 years. And the one time I missed it didn't really bother me that much, I guess its becasue I was less of a gamer then, or something. But last night as I went to sleep I looked at my clock and thought, if I were going to Gen Con I would be setting you for 4:30am, and be unable to sleep like at all tonight. Then I got bitter, especially seeing all my friends Facebook updates such as; "Getting Car Packed for Gen Con" etc. Anyways I think I had a point in here and lost it.

I really love Gen Con, its my favorite trip every year. This year Im getting Married and my Vacation and money are tied up in a 2 week trip to Hawaii. Now if you ask me any other day then Today and probably tomorrow which I would rather do hawaii would win no contest hands down. The problem is Hawaii is still 2 months away, and Gen Con officially starts tomorrow. Again Im pretty sure I had a point in here. Or maybe I just wanted to bitch and ramble about how it sucks for me that I'm not going to Gen Con.

Anyways, Best of Luck to all my friends who will be going. Some of them are going for the first time and it really is an Awesome experience.

Josh, Ryan, and Ryan's Roomates will all be playing in the L5R Tourney, so good luck to them, maybe Josh will finally not choke away a tourney win.

Bill and Dixon are going to be playing in the Master of Malifaux 40 stone event. I really hope of them manages a win there, but I think there were too many question marks about their lists and faction choices that could really disrupt their chances. But Best of luck you guys as well.

As for me, I am really looking forward to going again Next year, with my lovely soon-to-be Wife, Mike, and his Wife. Should be a blast.

(That Gen Con Banner was on page 3 of a google image search for Gen Con. pages 1&2 are pretty much girls in skimpy outfits... Click here

Hell Dorado

So after our rather awesome Malifaux league I started feeling a touch burned out on the game. Jumping on the chance to pimp out another obscure mini's game Chris Slazinski pointed out that Hell Dorado would finally be getting an english rule book in the near future. For those who dont know this book was scheduled for release in january 2010. Then again at Gen Con. Then again in Jan 2011, and so on. So I gave the game a test run and thought it was pretty cool. But I wanted the Army book. Well has fate would have it, when they said July 2011 they actually meant it.

(Weird right?)



So a quick overview. Its a skirmish based game. You use 6-10 models per game. The story line goes, that during the 30 years war, gates to hell started to open all over europe. Setting aside their differences the Catholics and Protestants decided to conquer hell.

There are 6 Factions

Westerners - This is the Christians, they are a jack of all trade crew. Decent melee, shooting, and a bit of magic as needed.



Saraceans - This is the Ottoman Empire, Pursians, etc. They actually found a gate to hell about 200 years prior to the Euro's and have been exploring it since. They have a lot of cool prince of persia style guys as well as Djinn.



Demons - Hell's native residence. At first they thought the europeans were comical, but upon seeing the power of the Gun, and a Cavalry charge, they stopped lauging and started killing. Most of the Demon's leaders are Fallen Angels.


The Immortals - These are the Chinese guys. They have been in hell a long time and started becomming half demons themselves.


The Lost - These are Demons with no lord or Angel to control them. They all have various reasons why they have no lord, but all they want is to be free and have land of their own. In a hilarious way, these and the Saraceans are the only good guys.


Last is the Mercs, they work for money, or glory, such as this awesome dude, Don Quixote.



I ended up grabbing the starter box for The Lost. That Centepede dude is just too sweet. I think I rushed into getting a box though, had I really looked everything over I might have chosen Westerners instead. Either way Im happy with the Lost. I took some time over the past week and this weekend and got my lost painted up. I also have them all on Micro Arts Studios Chaos Bases.



Here are the Models I own.

My Current Officer Isha Akshay


The Fangs of the Pit


The Retarius



The Squamata Warriors





So now I'll go ahead and get in a few more games. Then I can come back to it and give a better overview of the game itself.

Armor Cast

So I've been working on getting enough Sci-Fi-ish terrain to make up a full Infinity Board, and its gone pretty well thus far. Mike Sold me all his 40k buildings for pretty cheap and I had few other odds and Ends, but I wanted some smaller pieced to fill out my board. Enter Armorcast. Their website has a ton of all Resin terrain and I gotta say the stuff looked pretty good. Each piece isn't very expensive, but thats a dangerous part. I had to cut a few things off the list to keep the price down. In the End I had 5 pieces I really Liked.

Shipping Container


Oil Tank


Propane Tank


Oil Barrels


Soda Can Tanks (Put a Soda Can in the pegs, and paint it up. Should look cool)


I was very excited about my purchase choices. I cant remember if this was April or May that I put in my order, but early spring time frame. After 2 weeks and no shipping update or merchandise I began to get a little annoyed. I sent an e-mail to their Customer Service department asking what was going on. I got a response to effect of, "This Spring we have been doing GREAT! As such we're really backed up." And that was it. Another couple weeks roll by and I send another e-mail. After a month I figured they could catch up and send my stuff. Never responded. And like clock work I sent an e-mail every two weeks, and to remain consistant Armor Cast ignored me. Finally last week I sent them a pretty angry E-mail that said, I either wany my product or my money back, and I really dont care which. They still never responded, but I recieved a notice from Pay Pal the next day that my items had shipped.

They arrived yesterday and I have to say the Quality is great. These items will be used in my infinity games regularly, and maybe in No more room in hell too. But I personally wont use Armor cast ever again after this experience.