Relic Knights [Comments Added]

Black Diamond Relic Knight

Greetings everyone!  It's been a while but it's Whitestar333 here to talk to you about an interesting new miniatures game coming down the pipes called Relic Knights.  Normally I'm all about talking about Warmachine/Hordes but this game has caught my eye in a big way and I figured I'd share it with you in case it strikes your interest too.  Spattered throughout this article I'll be including pictures of the Relic Knights for each of the 6 factions (except for the Noh Empire, since their Relic Knight is currently unavailable except at conventions).

Making Cassius Work

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen of 3++!  I know you are all so fascinated by 6th edition right now (and I was too, initially) but the Steam-Powered Gamer is here to distract you with a belated Warmachine/Hordes article.  Today's topic?  Cassius the Oathkeeper.  This guy is probably one of the most maligned of Circle's warlocks and with the recent releases that came from Hordes: Domination, Cassius actually had a little bit of a boost to his effectiveness.  Before we begin, I do have to say that Cassius is not a very popular warlock because he has some glaring weaknesses and is the "rock" in a meta full of "paper", and that doesn't help his popularity much.  The fact that he also has a bit of "Skornergy" (see my Warmachine/Hordes Glossary for the definition) with one of his spells and one of his most popular abilities doesn't help either.  That said, let's try and find a way to make this guy work by first taking a look at his special rules, since they'll inform the rest of your list and decisions.

Privateer Press Summer Deals (Hordes)

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, Whitestar333 here with the other half of my evaluation on the Privateer Press Summer Deals.  Just like with Warmachine, Privateer Press is offering deals on 25 point lists for the Hordes factions.  Much like I did for my review on the Warmachine deals I'll be rating these on a 1-5 scale on Longevity (how often you'll use the models in the deal), in a similar style to when I rated the Battlegroup boxes on my own blog, but I'll also rate these based on the Power of the 25 point list in the deal.  Just to clarify, I do mean the 25 point list created from the models you get in the deal itself compared to any other 25 point list you might come across.  This means that I'm not so much ranking them relative to each other, but more sharing my opinion on whether it'll be a solid list playing against anyone at 25 points.  At the end of my review I'll include my [brutally honest] concluding thoughts about the deals themselves!

Privateer Press Summer Deals (Warmachine)

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, Whitestar333 here with a different sort of article for you today.  For those unaware, while Games Workshop is raising prices on 200+ items, Privateer Press is offering special 25 point deals on products through their online store.  Unlike the GW online store, you usually cannot purchase models through the Privateer Press store and so when these items do come up, they are often at a pretty nice discount.  Kirby asked me to do a quick review of them for all of you who've been interested so that's what I'll do.  I'll be rating these on a 1-5 scale on Longevity (how often you'll use the models in the deal), in a similar style to when I rated the Battlegroup boxes on my own blog, but I'll also rate these based on the Power of the 25 point list in the deal.  Since each of these deals has a savings of about 25%, you at least know that you're getting a pretty good deal here.  There are packages for Warmachine and Hordes factions but instead of having you wait for both at once, I decided to write them separately.  Naturally, let's start with Warmachine first!

Making the Witch Coven Work (part 2)

Alright 3++, let's finish our list building exercise on the Witch Coven of Garlghast today with part 2!  These ladies offer a lot of flexibility on the tabletop and are very different from any other warcaster in the entire game.  Consequently, they are often ignored as a choice because they are a bit intimidating when you're looking at building a list.  Added into that, Cryx is normally a pretty straight-forward faction, relying mostly upon their numbers and melee abilities that the Coven seem a little lackluster without crazy damage buffs.  In reality, these buffs come in disguise and the Coven has a great feat which can mitigate the fragility of most Cryx models.

Today I will look at a few models for consideration when taking the Witch Coven.  Lastly, I'll share a diagram to hopefully illustrate the power and effectiveness of the Coven on the tabletop.  Obviously, there are many situations you could find yourself in, but the example I will share will hopefully help you understand the true potential of the Coven.

Making the Witch Coven Work (part 1)

Greetings ladies and gentlemen of 3++!  I'm finally back after a long hiatus and today I will be bringing you all the eagerly-anticipated list building article on the Witch Coven of Garlghast.  I wrote this article already over at my blog but I know that there have been some requests here on 3++ for an article on the ladies of the Coven and so I figured I'd share it here.  There ended up being a lot to discuss, so I'll have to share it in two parts, with the second part coming shortly thereafter.  In part two, I'll examine some models worth consideration when building a list with the Coven and a tactical example of how the Coven can achieve victory with all of the tools at their disposal, as well as a list that I think would be fun to try out.

Making eGrissel Work

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen!  It's Whitestar333, the Steam-Powered Gamer here with another article designed to help you think about how to build Warmachine/Hordes lists to play to the strength of your chosen warcaster/warlock!  With my order of a Dire Troll plastic kit and Mulg coming in this week, I want to revisit my plans for my Trolls.  They have been an army that I've wished to assembled off and on for some time now, and they've always been fun to play against.  When I first started playing Hordes I remember playing against a Troll player far more than anyone else and I quickly learned to respect the blue-skins.  Today I want to discuss a warlock who has faced some negative press since her arrival, but I've loved her model since it was released: Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels.  In particular, today I want to do some list building with her based largely on theory.  She strikes me as quite the interesting warlock and she has such an awesome model that I want to find a way to make her work.  Let's jump right into it!

40k Diorama Showcase

Hey everyone, it's the Steam-Powered Gamer here to bring you... wait... Warhammer 40k pictures?!  That's right.  I know that I've been writing some Warmachine/Hordes articles for all of you here at 3++, but I'm no stranger to 40k either, I just much prefer playing Warmahordes these days.  One of my best friends who lives in Savannah Georgia really loves 40k (and in fact got me into the game) and this spring had to create a senior art project to conclude his college degree.  With some gentle encouragement from yours-truly, I convinced him that he should use this project as an excuse to showcase his painting and modeling skills.  At first he wasn't convinced that it could be a "legitimate" project, but eventually decided to go for it and his classmates and professor ended up being thrilled and curious about the project!

Making Zaal Work [differently]

Greetings again everyone from the Steam-Powered Gamer!  It's that time again to look at a Warmachine/Hordes warcaster/warlock and figure out what makes them tick and build a list with that in mind.  Much like last time, I don't wish to imply that today's warlock is bad or anything, but merely just want to share some musings I've had with this particular warlock lately to make him work differently than you might see him played typically.  I've largely not been terribly interested in the Skorne, admittedly; they're too heavy-handed of a faction for my tastes.  The only warlocks who really catch my interest are Zaal and Mordikaar, and I've always had a love of animated constructs, so Zaal is a really interesting warlock to me.  So without further ado, let's take a look at Supreme Aptimus Zaal and see how I can twist around the usual take on him - starting with his spell list this time.

Making pKrueger Work

Hey everyone, it's time for another list building article from the Steam-Powered Gamer!  Today I want to share one of my favorite Circle Orboros warlocks: Krueger the Stormwrath (pKrueger).  Unfortunately, Krueger gets ignored fairly often in a tournament environment in favor of his epic version, Krueger the Stormlord.  While I will not argue the awesome power that is the Stormlord, I want to highlight the Stormwrath because I tend to have a lot of success with him, and decided that it was time to share my perspectives on what makes him such a great warlock and how I make him work.  This article will be especially sweet because I have recently had a game with pKrueger and wrote a battle report for it on my blog.  So, once you've read up on pKrueger here, feel free to trundle over and see how I played him (although admittedly, I made a lot of mistakes!).  As you know, I always like to start with looking at either the feat or the spells of the warlock that I investigate, and with pKrueger, let's start by looking at his spell list.

Making Amon Ad-Raza work

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, today I have another wonderful treat for you from the Steam-Powered Gamer, but first, some personal news.  Last week I proposed to my amazing girlfriend in front of the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter World, at Universal Studios in Orlando FL.  We are now happily engaged (her response was: "Challenge accepted!") and she has created a blog to share the story of our planning of an amazing steampunk wedding!

Battle Report: Fiona the Black

Greetings ladies and gentlefolk of 3++ from Whitestar333, the Steam-Powered Gamer.  Today I have something different for you than my usual fare: a Battle Report!  While I certainly love discussing underdog warcasters/warlocks and figuring out how they work, I was really fascinated with my post on Fiona a while back.  At Templecon this year I won a prize from the Iron Arena which included tokens specifically made for Fiona, and I figured it was Thamar herself blessing me to go forth with Fiona, and so I did.  I've had the model for over a year but I've finally had the opportunity to play a game with her, after all of the list-building I've been doing.  It was against a friend of mine and he has been playing around with the list he brought but he admittedly jumps around between armies fairly often (it's a local joke that everyone buys his used stuff on clearance).  This was the first time that I have played with Fiona and I had a really bad match-up against me, but my army performed quite admirably.

Making Fiona Work

Greetings ladies and gentleman, it's Whitestar333 again fr- okay you get the idea.  In continuing with my trend of taking the less popular warcasters and warlocks and making them competitive, today I bring you a mercenary privateer warcaster that you probably rarely see on the table (competitively or otherwise): Fiona the Black.  I really like Fiona's artwork, fluff, and design as a pirate.  She blurs the line a bit between the mercenary privateers and the undead Cryxian pirates as she worships Thamar - the goddess of ambition.  She has a lot of tools at her disposal but it's challenging to figure out what her "win condition" is, and her theme list is honestly pretty bad, so it's difficult to find an appropriate niche for this fine lady.  So, I figure that she's a great warcaster to look at in-depth to see if we can figure her out and make her work.  Let's take a look at what Fiona the Black has at her disposal for spells and then we'll take a look at her feat and abilities.

Warmachine/Hordes Glossary

Greetings again ladies and gentlemen, it's Whitestar333 from Steam-Powered Gamer here to bring you another fine article, although this time I'm switching gears from our usual list building article and instead I'll share some of the terminology and acronyms used in Warmachine/Hordes.  Some of you might be new to the game and seeking the advice of your peers and mentors but face some confusion when exploring on the world wide web for Warmachine or Hordes advice.  I decided to compile a list for you all with a list of some of the terminology and acronyms that you might encounter in your learning about the game.  I will be honest, I try to update this list constantly on my blog but I figured that since it seems a lot of visitors to 3++ are developing an interest in Warmachine/Hordes, this would be helpful for you all to see.

List Building: pSkarre Theme List

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, it is Whitestar333 from Steam-Powered Gamer (it's been awhile, I know!) to bring you another list building session.  Today I wish to discuss an interesting warcaster who is often known for her Great Rack (it's the name of one of her weapons!).  That's right, today I wish to discuss Pirate Queen Skarre.  I know, I know, Cryx is dirty and they're no-good jerks.  In the Master's tournament at Templecon 5 of the 16 players brought Cryx armies to the tables.  Have no fear, however, as those dirty Cryx players didn't win this time, so I have no qualms introducing one of my favorite Cryxian theme lists today from the pages of No Quarter 37: Ships in the Night.

Making pNemo Work

Greetings ladies and gentlmen, it's Whitestar333 again with some more list-building ideas on how to make the more-maligned warcasters/warlocks work for you.  While I already posted an article on pNemo on my own blog, I will be adding a little bit more exposition here as well as an alternative list to consider.  I'm certainly in the camp that believes that pNemo is one of the worst warcasters that Cygnar has (although that's more of a testament to how great most of them are), but I believe that like with any warcaster, once you figure out how to maximize on the strengths and minimize the weaknesses, any warcaster can be good, and at the very least, fun!  I came up with some thoughts on pNemo a few months ago and so I reflected back on those ideas and tweaked them a bit to come up with a couple new lists for pNemo.  Part of the trouble with this guy is that there are so many routes to go, but I figured that here I would provide a starting point for those who might be thinking of playing him, and you can go from there.

List Building: General Nemo Part 2

Greetings again ladies and gentlemen of the intertubes, Whitestar333 from SPG again here for the thrilling conclusion to my article on General Nemo.  Today I will start by sharing a 35 point list which I believe plays to eNemo's strengths (covered in the first article here).  I will justify each decision made in the 35 point list and then I will craft a 50 point list for you to peruse to detect any trends, differences, similarities, strengths, and weaknesses on your own!  Part of the fun of Warmachine is that making lists can only take you so far and that it really depends on whether the list matches the player's style.  These lists work for me and I have fun with them, but you might find that swapping a few things will work better for you.

Now that we've analyzed his abilities, I'll present you with a 35 point list followed by my justifications:

List Building: General Nemo Part 1

Greetings ladies and gentlemen of the intertubes, Whitestar333 from SPG again here to share some more list building tips for you.  Today I want to talk about my favorite weatherman: General Adept Nemo.  Cygnar is a faction that is known for being the most technologically advanced of the Warmachine factions, having mastered the blend of arcane energies and the power of lightning.  General Nemo (also known as Epic Nemo, or eNemo) maximizes these powers and so if you love the idea of calling lightning down on your foes with a wall of warjacks, he's the man for you!  Since this could easily turn into a very long article, I will be again breaking him down into two parts like I did for Dr. Arkadius.  Let's start by looking at eNemo's spells and abilities to see how we can make the most of him and then in Part 2 I will share a 35 point list which I believe plays to his strengths.

Making Dr. Arkadius Work - Part 2

Greetings ladies and gentlemen.  It is Whitestar333 again from Steam-Powered Gamer here to bring you the thrilling conclusion to Making Dr. Arkadius Work!  First, I would like to put in a shameless plug for my own blog article where I continued the discussion of Dr. Arkadius with a list of things that will make Dr. Arkadius more of a contender (here).

Let's quickly review where we left off with our analysis of Dr. Arkadius does:
- "Protects" beasts from enemy shooting
- Efficient beast healer
- Fury manager with feat and maltreatment
- Cannot deal damage by himself

Making Dr. Arkadius work - Part 1

Hello good ladies and gentlemen, this is Whitestar333 from Steam-Powered Gamer again, this time telling a tale of a doctor who no one believes in, who lives in the shadow of a great pig leader.  That's right, I'm talking about Dr. Arkadius, one of the most maligned warlocks in the game of Warmachine/Hordes.  In fact, there is a large majority of players out on the internet who believe that Dr. Arkadius is the worst warcaster/warlock in the entirety of the game - and they might be right.  I, myself had believed in the good doctor, and I started playing him some time ago because I wanted a challenge - and a challenge I received!  I'm not here to tell you not to play him, but to warn you that he is not for the feint of heart and he requires some skill to make as competitive as some of his peers  I am here to share my insights with him on how to make him most successful and in a later post I will share a 50-point list that I think will play to his strengths, as well as the tactics to consider when playing him.