BWOG, WISE FWOM YOUW GWAVE

God I'm the worst.

Anyways, today's post is about why government is different from business.

Every election cycle you get a few businesspeople running for office. Invariably, their business expertise/experience as CEOs is held up as a qualification for a position in government. "They know how to make money!" is the argument, and even sometimes "They will run government like a business!" Deficits and taxes and debt are often mentioned in this context.

The trouble is, government is not a business. Government is, in fact, pretty close to the opposite of a business. Business experience is a negative, not a positive, and rationally it should make you LESS likely to vote for someone, not more. Here's why.

The job of a business is to make money. This isn't just greed; any publicly traded company is responsible to its shareholders. As long as doing so violates no legal or ethical codes, the pursuit of profit should be the highest motive. To do less is to deceive one's shareholders. Business(wo)men should make money; that's their job. When you get hired as a CEO, your job is to increase the profitability of your firm, just like how my job as a comedian is to make people laugh, or your job as a cesspool cleaner is to scoop human filth out of a shallow ditch. NO OFFENSE BRO.

A politician's job is totally different because GOVERNMENT IS NOT A BUSINESS. Let me say that again. GOVERNMENT IS NOT A BUSINESS. GOVERNMENTS SHOULD NOT TURN A PROFIT. This is not hard to understand.

A government's job is to serve its people by providing them those services that cannot be efficiently provided individually or by the market. For example, it makes no sense for the government to inform you when you should eat or go to the bathroom. Those are things you can efficiently do yourself. A national Pooping Clock would not be an efficient use of the government's time. To use a more concrete and less silly example, the government should not be selling you groceries. This is a service that can be provided efficiently by regular businesses, at a profit. This is not to say that the government shouldn't, say, have some program that distributes food to the needy-- but the profitable business of selling food to ordinary people is not the government's job.

The government's job is to do those things that cannot or will not be provided efficiently by the private sector. In a free market utopia, only the rich will afford insurance. We see that today. That is an efficient solution in terms of profit, but it is not socially efficient. It leaves people to die, which has no monetary downside but has a significant moral and social downside. The government, then, should step in and provide healthcare (via a strong public option) since otherwise this service will not be provided by the market. Ditto with the post office; FedEx and UPS will ship packages, but the USPS will mail a letter to anywhere in the country for the same price. Whether this is still necessary in the age of email is debatable, but that's not the point; the point is, the service of carrying letters is socially efficient and thus the USPS serves an important purpose even though it does not make a profit. The government is not about profit. In fact, in order to turn a profit, it would have to tax people more heavily and provide fewer and less robust services. It would have to take more than it gives, which is almost the definition of oppression.

The government is not a business. It should choose its spending and income decisions based on the good of society as a whole, not based on the desire to make a profit. Politicians should not run the government like a business. In fact, the government should be run like a bad business: an inefficient, debt-saddled one. That is because by definition the things that are good for government to do are not economically efficient. If they were, they would be done by the public sector. Health care, protecting the environment, police and fire protection: these are things that, if provided privately, would extend only to an inefficiently small fraction of the population. The government serves everyone, not just the very rich. This is an important fact to keep in sight as it seems that a vast swathe of the right wing in this country has forgotten it (and some of the left wing too).

NEW STUFF

Guess what guys, I started playing Malifaux! Hooray! I'm also working 40 hours a week so I have even less time than normal. So basically I'll be updating at maximum once a week but I'll try to ensure that it IS once a week. Also I might write about Malifaux sometimes. I'm bashing my head against this Nemo update so once it's done it'll show up. I know what I want to write but I open the file and I'm like URRRRGGGGHHHH and nothing gets written.

NO! THAT IS VERY WRONG!

YOU CLING TO YOUR PATHETIC FABLE OF FLUID EXCHANGE!

seriously, this will never ever not crack me up

Ugh

Oh god I am really bad lately :(. When I started writing in this thing again I promised myself I'd be more regular. Today I want to talk about something that's not wargaming, though I know I should stick to what I'm good at. I promise I have another caster coming up-- actually, it's Commander Adept Nemo, unexpectedly enough.

Anyways, I'm really excited about Elizabeth Warren. I think one thing she does very well, and something that basically every Democratic politician should be taking lessons about, is articulate the ethos of the liberal position. Not the Democratic position, the liberal position. The media has done a good job in turning "liberal" into a dirty word in recent years, which is a bit of a shame. We shouldn't run away from our liberalism. We should embrace it. Saying "I'm a liberal" is saying "I believe in the mission of government." Liberalism is the belief in the social contract, and the idea that government's purpose is to improve the lives of its citizenry. People come together to form governments because they think they're stronger together than they are apart. Hell, that's on our money: E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many, One.

The market is all about efficiently allocating resources, but the government says that sometimes the market's idea of efficiency is wrong. Sometimes something is socially inefficient. Letting people's houses burn down if they can't afford to pay for fire protection is economically efficient, but socially inefficient. Liberals believe that sometimes we must accept a certain level of economic inefficiency to provide against things like poverty, starvation, illness, disasters (including fire) and etc.

I am a liberal, and proud of it. I believe that government can be a force for good. I believe that taxation is not slavery-- it is the price we pay for civilization, for roads and bridges and power and water and protection. If you are rich in America, you didn't get rich all on your own. You worked hard (maybe, inheritance is something else entirely) but you also ate food and drank water that was safe because the FDA made sure of it; you drove your car and shipped your products on roads that were built by the government; you communicated with your clients, family, friends, and coworkers through the government postal service or the government-developed and funded Internet. The government set up the environment in which you were able to make your money. The most brilliant investor in the world can't turn much profit if he has to hire mercenaries to protect his money, build and pave his own roads, grow his own food etc.-- and if he's relying on other people to do it for him, he has no reason to trust that they will do a good job unless he can oversee them or pay someone else to do so. And if he does that then we're starting to get government again! See how that works? The absence of government is an undesirable situation. Anyone who says otherwise has not really thought it through.

Conservatives forget this. They take government for granted. They assume that because things are ok now with the level of government we have, we can slash spending. In effect, they believe that the rich are rich in spite of the government, not because of it, and this is a dangerously stupid and myopic view. The conditions for wealth only exist in the presence of civilized society, and such a society requires a strong and well-funded central government.

There's a lot more I want to say on the morality of wealth distribution, but that can wait for another time. Basically, government is an invisible benefit to everyone, and in recent years some people have taken to denying the existence of that benefit because they've forgotten about it. They've grown accustomed to it. Elizabeth Warren articulates the liberal point of view-- that because government helped us get where we are, we have a responsibility to see that it carries on to help the next generation-- and I am glad of her for it.

Failure

Short entry today, about how not to lose. This won't win you games, but it will keep you from losing them. This is a topic near to my heart because it's my biggest weakness in the game and a problem I've struggled to overcome.

This is a game about assassination. We're trying to kill the opponent's caster. People erect defenses to protect their caster, and a good assassination is not just about preparing a model to kill the opponent but smashing aside those defenses to let him (or her) do his (or her) job.

Sometimes, you can't do enough. Sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes it fails. Recognizing this and responding to it appropriately is key. When you've started setting up an assassination and something goes wrong, you're at a serious risk of failure if you continue. You need to evaluate. "If I abandon this plan now and pull back, will I lose too much? Am I too committed?"

The concept of "sunk costs" in economics applies here. If you already activated a model, its activation is done. You can't undo it. You may be tempted to forge ahead so that that activation wasn't "wasted" but if your chances of success are slim, you are just wasting more activations. Instead, see what else you can do. Did you hand out buffs? Why not strike against a portion of the enemy's army, dealing some damage? Why not pull back and turtle up, limiting the damage he can do and biding your time until another chance comes along? Think about your options. Don't be afraid to play aggressively and go for an assassination, but if the dice betray you, be pragmatic. Re-evaluate constantly. Recognize failure as soon as it occurs and don't throw good money after bad, but move on to Plan B rather than struggle fruitlessly to complete Plan A.

Karchev the Terrible

Ugh, I've been so bad lately. I do really apologize, to both of my readers. I have been busy, busy, but it's time for a new caster series. I guess that since I'm apparently only doing these lately, their length will have to make up for their infrequency. This week we're talking about Karchev the Terrible.

Karchev is one of the few 5-Focus warcasters, though like most of the others he has access to more. His statline is impressive: it's more reminiscent of a Khadoran warjack than a warcaster. His speed is the lowest of any warcaster, and his defense is near the lowest. His armor is quite high, though, and with a decent focus camp his armor gets to pretty significant levels. He is also well-provisioned in the attack area, having a very powerful 10-inch spray that automatically knocks down everyone it touches and two very powerful melee attacks, one of which has Reach and one of which can perform power attacks, like throws. Finally, his damage grid is enormous, making him very survivable. Like a warjack, if he loses systems his attacks become less powerful, and he has only limited ability to heal himself via Focus; still, the sheer damage he can take outstrips any other caster, even the 20-health behemoths like the Butcher and Rasheth.

Karchev's special rules are a major part of him. First of all is Arcantrik Turbine, which can solve one of his two biggest problems (but not both at the same time): lack of focus or low speed. It either grants him a focus point or gives him +2” of movement and Pathfinder. Note that this triggers at the start of Karchev's activation, so the focus cannot be allocated; still, you'll often be spending focus during your activation, so this isn't so bad. It also means you can look at the lay of the land before you decide which benefit to take, as your plan may change over the course of your turn.

Man in the Machine is his second special rule, and it's a really huge one. What it boils down to this this: Karchev is alive, but he's not a warrior nor a warjack. For most purposes, you can treat him as a warjack-- but non-damaging effects that specifically target warjacks, such as eNemo's Tractor Field, have no effect on him. On the other hand, effects that damage warjacks in a specific way, like Iron Rot, will affect him. Karchev can be repaired, and normal heals can only heal the three boxes of his “Body” system, which replaces the cortex and allows him to allocate focus. Karchev can trample, which means he can compensate for his low speed by moving at +3” without having to immediately end his activation for failing a charge.

On to Karchev's spells. First up is Eruption, one of his two extremely expensive attacking spells-- although this one is really worth it. It's like a fire-based Breath of Corruption, but more powerful: a POW 14 hit to the direct target AND everyone under the template. This isn't blast damage, either, so Battle Mages and Satyxis both take their lumps like everyone else. The cloud stays there, too, doing a POW 14 to everyone who touches it. Karchev will need to boost to reliably hit anyone with this, and if he does so that'll cost 80% of his Focus. Still, sometimes you don't have better options. Fortunately, even if you scatter you're still doing POW 14s, so boosting is not always necessary-- and if you absolutely have to hit someone, running a Khadoran 'jack into base to base contact with them and zapping him from behind works. They're DEF 10, going to 14 in melee, and 12 if Karchev starts his activation in their rear arc-- so you'll hit on a 7, average on 2d6, and toast everyone touching them with a POW 14.

Ground Zero is a sort of “get away from me!” spell. Karchev has a large base and is easy to engage, but sometimes you need to clear a path to get out of there. Ground Zero blasts everyone within roughly an inch and a half of Karchev's base away from him, hitting them for a POW 13 and pushing them d6” straight away. Note that if you are careful and have Sylys Wyshnalyrr, you can upkeep Tow, cast Ground Zero, then trample away, towing your 'jacks and cast Unearthly Rage. However, this will require careful placement, as you don't want to push your own 'jacks out of towing range. Remember that you push in an order you choose, so if you carefully place cheap models like mechanics touching your 'jacks, they won't be able to be pushed away. A pushed model stops if it contacts another model, regardless of base size.

Sidearms is a nice upkeep that helps keep your 'jacks safe. While they're B2B with other models in your battlegroup, your jacks gain +1 DEF for each other 'jack they're touching and can't be knocked down. Now, normally the DEF bonus won't be much, as your 'jacks start at DEF 10. If you're Towing three models, though-- and this will be tricky, since you'll have to cast or upkeep Tow, then advance, then cast Sidearms, since both this and Tow are upkeeps on the self-- then you'll be getting a +3 on Karchev and the 'jack directly behind him and a +2 on each of the others. This will put Karchev up to DEF 15, which is respectable, and if you're in a forest or on a hill the cumulative bonuses can put your DEF 14 'jacks up to something significant. More importantly, the Tow formation is vulnerable to slams, which can knock down all four 'jacks when aimed properly. If this is a possibility, it's wise to case Sidearms to prevent knockdown. You'll still take damage, but at least you won't have to spend lots of focus standing up.

Tow is the first of Karchev's signature spells, and it's a real killer. It's a bit tricky to work out, but basically it functions like this: when you cast or upkeep it, Karchev has Tow active. While it's active, if he moves, any friendly 'jack that passes within 2” of him can be “hooked.” You can “hook” up to three 'jacks, and if you do, at the end of your movement they are all placed in his rear arc facing any direction you wish. This spell is one-half of the dreaded Karchev Powerslide, the maneuver that gives your SPD 4 Khadoran 'jacks among the highest threat range in the game. Karchev can start 2” in front of a 'jack, upkeep Tow, trigger his Turbine, then Trample obliquely towards the enemy (though you can't change facing after a trample, so be careful; you can Run if you don't want to cast Unearthly Rage, but if you do make sure you allocate out all your Focus at the start of the turn). This is a 9” movement, and then the friendly 'jack can be placed in your back arc, where it can charge a further 7”. Counting the place effects and the potential of Reach, this can be a 20” or higher threat range. Combined with Unearthly Rage, Karchev's feat for free charges, and a focus to buy another attack, this is an astonishingly large number of very high-POW boosted damage rolls. Remember that 'jacks must be placed in Karchev's rear arc, so frequently he won't be able to attack himself unless you get lucky with positioning-- and enemies will be getting the back strike bonus against him, if he places his butt facing them. Frequently, of course, this won't matter, as the game will either have ended or your opponent will have bigger problems to deal with.

Unearthly Rage is Karchev's best spell, and indeed one of the best spells in the game. It's woefully simple: Karchev and his warjacks gain boosted attack and damage rolls and magical weapons. That's it. It's brutal. This is a pure focus multiplier, and on a good day with some 'jacks it's the equivalent of 4-6 focus per 'jack. It only lasts for your turn, and thus won't benefit free strikes, but also won't benefit attacks made via Domination or the like from your opponent. If your 'jacks are going into melee, you should always cast this unless you're running. Even a 'jack with two base attacks will benefit from four focus worth of boosts, making this worth it. It only affects melee attacks, though there are some very good Karchev builds using ranged 'jacks.

Karchev's feat is a bit simple and underwhelming-- it's more of a “free focus” battery like Unearthly Rage. His 'jacks can turn to face any direction at the start of their activation, can charge for free and gain Pathfinder. This is quite useful since if you're upkeeping Tow and casting Unearthly Rage, you often don't have enough left to let all of your 'jacks charge. If they charge for free, they can get into melee and benefit from Rage. Total War is for the turn where the metal hits the flesh and you get stuck in, so maximizing benefit is mostly a timing issue, but it's often easy to tell when you're going to make it in. So pop it then.

Karchev's tier list is interesting. It allows all non-character 'jacks plus Behemoth, Battle Mechaniks, Greylords, and Man-o-Wars. Tier 1 lets you take as many Ternions as you wish, and increases your Koldun Lord FA based on how many Ternions you take. Tier 2 requires two units of Man-o-Wars and lets them Advance Move, somewhat compensating for their low speed. Tier 3 requires at least one Ternion and gives you some free cloud effects on Turn 1, helping to shield you from the enemy's first turn offense (if they have one). Tier 4 requires three warjacks and makes all of his 'jacks cheaper.

The Tier 4 bonus is very nice, given how many warjacks you'll want to bring (and how expensive Karchev's favorite 'jacks are) but requiring two units of Man-o-Wars is pretty onerous. Man-o-Wars do well with casters who can support them by increasing their speed or survivability, but Karchev does nothing for them. And the points you spend on Man-o-Wars will likely outweigh the points you'll save on 'jacks. Also, the tier leaves out some key models you'll want, like Beast-09, Widowmakers, and mercs.

Let's talk about some key model synergies. Jack synergies are important, since a Karchev list is so 'jack focused. He likes the Destroyer, Spriggan, Behemoth, Beast-09, and possibly the Kodiak.

The Destroyer works well with Karchev for a specific strategy: towing it around the edge of the battlefield, dropping tons of POW 14 templates all over the enemy. If you're going for a melee-based army, which plays into Karchev's powerslide, you'll want someone else, but with the Behemoth and two Destroyers you can drop four templates per turn all over the enemy while staying out of engagement range, and still aiming. You can see over Karchev with Arcing Fire, making positioning less important.

The Spriggan is probably the best non-character 'jack for the Powerslide, largely due to Reach extending its threat range. It has a very potent POW 18 main attack, as well as some utility-- the ability to launch grenades or flares while being towed around, at least until it's time to engage, can be very helpful. Bulldoze is also a great utility ability for an army that relies on mobility and speed, as pushing enemies out of charge lanes can help three very tightly bunched 'jacks all reach their targets. Still, if you're taking a Spriggan, you're mostly taking it for that badass lance, and the ability to powerslide someone's face right off.

The Behemoth is a classic Karchev 'jack. It's tough as nails, it hits harder than almost any other warjack in the game (against ARM 18-19, it's effectively POW 21; against ARM 17, it's effectively POW 20; against ARM 20, it's effectively POW 22), and it can launch tons of bombard shots while you advance. You can rain steel on the enemy while you maneuver into position, getting the aiming bonus all the while, and then charge in and shred their heavies when you need to. A top choice.

Beast-09 is the centerpiece of any good powerslide. It's an absolute monster, hitting at MAT 7 with a reach POW 19, and with Thresher to boot. With Unearthly Rage, a single Thresher can do serious damage to multiple enemy 'jacks, if they're dumb enough to stick together, and the combination of Unearthly Rage and its Imprint mean that a thresher can reliably hit even super high-DEF enemies like Kayazy (although often you won't need both and you'll be casting Unearthly Rage anyways). Still, free runs to advance in the early game, Reach, and an absolutely punishing damage output means that it's the best Powerslide 'jack in the game, even better than the Spriggan (for just one more point) and with Thresher to boot. It can kill warjacks and infantry, it can do anything it needs you do.

The Kodiak is a possibility, if you need a midrange 'jack and if you're already running 3 others. Its cloud is a nice defensive ability, its chain attack benefits strongly from Unearthly Rage, and Heavy Boiler means it can keep up even if three other 'jacks are being Towed. It's not as powerful in melee as the others, but it's very effective against enemy 'jacks, with the ability to throw out two boosted POW 16s and then throw the target away. Note that it does not have Reach, like the Behemoth, so it's a bit trickier to get it into melee than the Spriggan or Beast.

Units and solos that work with Karchev are more valuable for what they can do for him, rather than what he can do for them-- which in most cases is nothing. Battle Mechaniks are a must, for their ability to keep Karchev and his 'jacks in fighting shape, and Greylord Ternions provide some much needed versatility. Doom Reavers work well unsupported, though they don't really provide anything that Karchev is missing except infantry removal. Widowmakers are great for their ability to surgically remove key enemy models. Nyss Hunters are excellent infantry removal, something Karchev loves. For solos, Koldun Lords provide some great support, a Widowmaker Marksman can support your Widowmaker unit, and Sylys Wyshnalyrr is an amazing support piece to help Karchev manage everything he has to manage. It's tough to argue with Sylys, but a War Dog can be helpful if you are considering committing Karchev to fight personally. Finally, an Ogrun Bokur can prevent some real problems.

Battle Mechaniks serve a simple role: they keep Karchev and his 'jacks repaired. Losing an arm or movement system can cripple you, but Mechaniks can get a 'jack right back in the fight, and they are also the only way to restore MOST of Karchev's health (except for his Body system). I'd go with two minimum units over one maximum, which gives you some strategic flexibility. It's also not hard to keep them base to base with 'jacks for Iron Sentinel, but be careful of slams!

Greylord Ternions are an interesting choice, and one that doesn't show up too often. Ice Cage is a very impressive ability for its ability to make enemies stationary, but Unearthly Rage often means accuracy is not a problem. The ability to generate cloud effects is very potent, and combined with Sidearms can often push your warjacks' defense up to the point where it actually becomes an issue for the opponent-- very rare for Khador. They can also fight decently in combat if you have a Koldun Lord, though you'll want to pick fairly weak enemies as their MAT is not great. Finally, if you have nothing better to do, a few Sprays is also nice-- note that they're far more accurate with Sprays than with melee attacks, so unless you have Battle Wizard and are fairly sure you'll be hitting and killing the enemy, you should stick with spraying. They're pretty pricey for some 13/13 one-wound infantry models, so use your jacks to keep them protected while you advance.

Doom Reavers are an interesting choice. Karchev has no problem destroying enemy 'jacks with his own, but infantry clouds can pose a threat, since only Beast can thresh and 3” AOEs can be unreliable. Doom Reavers are great at clearing infantry with a Reach, Weapon Mastering Berserk attack, but they might then gum up the charge lanes you want open unless you plan carefully so they remove each other after they're done removing the enemy. You usually don't want berserkers killing each other, but if it clears an opening to deliver Beast to the enemy caster, it can be a good thing. Just make sure you need it before you do it. They have Spell Ward anyways, making them unbuffable by many casters, but even Karchev's feat can't support them like Butcher's or Irusk's. Take them if you think you will need to, but I think Karchev has better infantry removal options.

Widowmakers and Nyss Hunters serve similar roles: both shoot out enemy infantry. Nyss Hunters can shoot right through forests, which is nice and helps keep them safe, and can fight passably well in melee. Karchev can't buff them, but they do reasonably well on their own. They both take out infantry screens without gumming up the works with their bodies. Widowmakers are slightly more accurate and have a longer range, but lack Hunter; they also have a lower defense, but Pathfinder and Camouflage more than compensate for that. They also advance deploy and have Sniper, allowing them to get into position quicker and take out even shieldwalled infantry (or do some damage to heavy 'jacks if necessary). In contrast, you get many more Nyss Hunters, the ability to CRA lets them take out high-DEF high-priority targets, and with Weapon Master they can actually fight in melee. They also have a higher base DEF, making them safer out in the open. It's up to you which you take (or take both!) but either present a compelling infantry removal option.

Koldun Lords do everything basic Ternions do (almost; they lack Blizzard) but have a very useful ability in Power Booster. Since Karchev often won't be allocating Focus, you'll have plenty of chances to Power Booster someone, which will usually go to buying another attack (since Karchev will feat the turn he engages). Koldun Lords are slightly better fighters than regular Ternions, though it's still not their preferred place to be. They can marshal, though doing so would be a mistake as you'd lose the benefit of Unearthly Rage. Power Booster is why you buy them, since one extra focus on a warjack is really three if it's used to buy an attack under Unearthly Rage, but whether this is a worthwhile expenditure of two points is up to you.

If you're taking Widowmakers and have two points free, a Marksman can help keep them safe by allowing them to Swift Hunter deeper into terrain after shooting, but he's competing with Kell Bailoch for that two-point sniper slot and Bailoch can shoot twice (and magically). How much infantry removal shooting do you need? It obviously depends on your opponent's list, which you won't know in advance, so you have to sort of dial it in based on how comfortable you are. Two points won't buy you another Khadoran 'jack, but a cloud of support models might, and that's a tough tradeoff to make.

Sylys Wyshnalyrr is a dream come true for Karchev. He allows him to upkeep Tow for free, giving him another Focus (and every one is precious) and giving him more tactical options-- like the aforesaid Tow/Ground Zero/Unearthly Rage combination. Wyshnalyrr makes offensive spell-slinging with Eruption a bit more viable with his other abilities, making it less essential to boost, though it's still almost always a better use of focus to sling Beast-09 into an infantry formation and let him Thresh them away. Still, that extra focus is not to be sneezed at, especially since it allows you to upkeep Tow even if Karchev is in the area of Lamentation, shot by a Disruptor Bolt or something like that.

The War Dog competes with Sylys and thus won't show up often, but he deserves a mention for being a combat support model for a caster who most definitely can fight. He's also very cheap, thus making him good filler. Being able to run out of combat without free strikes and Tow your jacks with you is a very valuable ability, and the +2 DEF against melee attacks may just push Karchev into “hard to hit” territory for many enemies. Finally, since you'll be spending a lot of time with your butt towards the enemy for powerslides, negating back strikes might help. It's something to think about, though I'd reach for Sylys first in many cases.

Finally, the Ogrun Bokur is there for one reason only: taking shots for Karchev. A large base with DEF 12 and the requirement to be right up in the thick of things is hard to protect, and a single Disruptor Bolt can really ruin your day. The Bokur can take that bullet, as well as any Momentum or Tractor Field shots, and keep your army moving. And he can fight, too!

Here's a sample 35 point list:
Karchev -5
Behemoth +13
Beast-09 +11
Kodiak +8
Sylys Wyshnalyrr +2
Ogrun Bokur +3
Max Mechaniks +3

A nice, simple but effective list, containing two ARM 20 and one ARM 21 'jack at 35 points. Remember that the Bokur doesn't actually have to be in the path of the shot to absorb it, just within 2” of Karchev, so keep him a bit safe. In fact, if your Kodiak is running to keep up instead of being Towed, there's a spot behind Karchev and between his friends that's nice and safe. The Mechaniks keep everything running and Sylys stretches out the Focus. Sylys does have to be within 3” of Karchev to use his little spell assist Arcane Secrets, but only within 8” to upkeep a spell for free, so keep him safe. This list lacks the delicious infantry removal options discussed above, but hits like a train. If you want, you can drop the Mechaniks to a minimum unit and switch Sylys for the dog to free up two points, which can bump the Kodiak to a Spriggan or buy you Kell Bailoch. At 50 points, you can add maxed out Nyss Hunters to this, split the one max Mechanik unit into two minimum ones, switch the Kodiak for a Spriggan and add the two-point solo of your choice: a Koldun Lord, Bailoch, Gorman di Wulfe, or Widowmaker Marksman, perhaps.

Garryth, Blade of Retribution

Just like last week, I'm covering a caster in depth. This week it will be Garryth, Blade of Retribution.

Again, we'll start with the statline and special rules. Garryth has one of the more exceptional statlines for casters. He is at the high end for SPD and MAT, and he has standard "dodgy, nimble" caster defensive stats at 16/14. This matches up with Amon, Haley, Deneghra, Rhyas and Saeryn, etc. He has four initial attacks: two blades and two pistol shots. Though his POW is low, he has Weapon Master to make up for it. He's a mediocre shot and can't buy more than his initial two pistol attacks, but he's a deadly close combat fighter. As for special rules, he has Pathfinder-- allowing him to keep up with his target-- Stealth, which helps keep him safe until he can make it into melee, and Parry, allowing him to escape unfavorable encounters. His last two rules are the big ones.

First, he has Arcane Assassin. This means he ignores almost all spell effects on his targets. Note that this is with ALL of his attacks-- blades, pistols, and even magic attacks. He also ignores focus points boosting a power field. As a result, his seemingly low POW, with Weapon Master and Arcane Assassin, is more than enough to shred almost any enemy caster in melee. Note that he will not ignore indirect bonuses from spells-- for example, if an enemy has cast Fog of War or Veil of Mists, granting themselves concealment, he will not ignore that, as it is not a direct bonus to DEF. Finally, his blades have Grievous Wounds. Not only does this prevent Tough and healing, but it prevents warlocks from transferring. Whether the opponent is camping Focus or Fury, Garryth doesn't care.

Overall, he is a brutal combatant. Garryth getting into melee with the enemy with more than a couple of focus left on him is a death sentence to most casters and locks. His feat can help in this respect, as he can set it up so that even if he fails to assassinate his prey, he is safe from retaliation. Note that his ARM is quite low, and camping a couple of FOC can be difficult due to his desire to upkeep, cast and boost. Garryth's army often serves as a Garryth Delivery System, and you should keep that fact in mind.

Onto his spells.

Death Sentence is his first spell, and it's not a bad one-- it marks an enemy, allowing you to reroll failed to hit rolls against them. Garryth's low FOC means you will basically have to boost-- anything he can reliably hit unboosted doesn't need this cast on them. This means it will cost half of his FOC to put up. It's an upkeep, but generally whatever you cast it on should be mostly dead after a turn. This is one of those spells you will want to arc. It goes well with inaccurate but high-volume fire-- a unit of Mage Hunter Strike Force attacking Death Sentenced infantry can reliably put huge holes in their formation. On turns when Garryth is hanging back waiting for his moment, activating him early to throw this out is not a bad idea, but since it costs such a chunk of your FOC to do so, make sure that it's worth it.

Gallows is Garryth's offensive spell, and again, it's very expensive. It will cost 4 FOC to reliably hit something, and with the pull being only d6" it's not very reliable. Garryth's guns are magical, so you can use those instead of this to pick off Pistol Wraiths and the like, though arcing Gallows gets you a reliable threat range. It may be tempting to use it to pull an enemy closer so Garryth can charge it, but if he starts 10" away from an enemy he can charge them anyways and when you arc this spell it pulls the enemy towards the node, not Garryth. Not to mention it takes most of Garryth's remaining FOC to cast, leaving him little for the assassination. Remember that you have this spell, but generally Battle Mages are more effective for push/pull shenanigans. You could Death Sentence the target you want pulled for cheaper, and though that takes up Garryth's activation, you will be able to yank the enemy into position and kill it with a Phoenix or something.

Mirage is a great spell, always useful. It extends the threat of a unit by 2", but it does so much more than that. You can readjust models to ensure that they have line of sight for a charge-- they end their movement facing in any direction you wish. You can pull them out of terrain (or deeper in, if they have to charge through it). You can disengage them from combat. Obviously, you get the most mileage by putting this on a unit, but lategame casting it on Garryth himself is not bad. It extends his threat, which is never a bad thing.

Psychic Vampire is an interesting spell. Against some enemies, such as Hex Hunters, Druids of Orboros and Battle Mages, it's brutal-- it shuts them down from casting in Garryth's control area unless they want to die. Against others, they simply don't care. It's expensive and Garryth's FOC is tight, so don't cast it unless you have to. Remember that his CTRL is smallish, but Garryth likes it up towards the front so that's not too bad.

Next, we've got Garryth's feat. It's a bit hit-or-miss, but powerful. Vortex Lock prevents the casting or channeling of spells, movement by place, and most importantly, spending FOC. This last one is the big one. Enemy Warmachine players cannot boost while in Garryth's control area. If you fail an assassination run, this is what keeps you alive. It's kind of a defensive feat, which is odd for such an assassin-y caster, but it has a lot of uses. The place effects thing is unusual, but it does close off some threat vectors to Garryth, making him harder to assassinate. No casting or channeling is a big deal-- enemies will have to either face you without magic or back off. Note that it does not prevent upkeeping spells and Garryth lacks dispel effects, so eEiryss might be useful. Preventing enemies from spending FOC is especially nice for blunting 'jack based retaliation. If they can't buy attacks against you or boost their damage rolls, they're not able to do serious damage. Beware of casters with Full Throttle or Unearthly Rage, as they can boost their 'jacks' rolls while sitting comfortably outside of your control area-- and beware of Hordes lists, which shrug off what is arguably the most potent part of the feat. An excellent way to use it is to force Garryth forward and pop it, preventing your opponent from taking advantage of Garryth's exposure. You want him forward, but you want him safe.

Like many of the Retribution tiers, Garryth's is quite restrictive. He can take all non-character 'jacks, but his only units allowed are MHSF, and he can only take Mage Hunter Assassins and Nayl. If he takes three Mage Hunter Assassins, he gets +1 on his starting roll; three units of MHSF with Soulless UAs give him Nayl for free; and leaving out heavy warjacks gives him and his 'jacks Advance Deployment. This is quite a potent ability, as his MHAs will already by ADing, along with one unit of MHSF. However, this army does not allow multiple MHSF UAs, as Ravyn's does, meaning that two of the units will not be able to AD nor ignore cover and intervening models. Furthermore, Garryth has no way to boost their accuracy outside of Death Sentence-- though he can cycle it between two enemy units per turn, it won't help them hit very high-DEF enemies enjoying cover or concealment. Finally, especially if one goes to Tier 4, the list lacks a way to handle heavy armor. Garryth himself can do it by spending lots of FOC, and Mage Hunter CMAs with 'Jack Hunter can put a bit of a dent in, and even MHAs can get lucky and roll high, but against Skorne titan walls, Khador 'jack walls, Troll bricks etc. this army may struggle. Advance deployment and +1 to go first can help Garryth get out towards the enemy quickly, and with the Soulless Escorts they're quite safe from magic-- and it's nice to have an almost all-Stealthed army-- but many of the missing units and solos are quite valuable. I would argue against taking this tier in most circumstances. Against shooty jack-heavy Cygnar lists, if you can take out the Black 13th you are in good shape, but otherwise you will struggle against armor; and Menoth 'jackwalls with "no shooting" can make you tear your hair out.


So let's look at some key model synergies.

Warjacks:
Garryth can't feed too many 'jacks, but he does like arc nodes. The Chimera's a nice one, as is the Phoenix; the latter is more expensive, but can also help deal with armor. The much-maligned Gorgon has a place, as does the Hydra, who can survive with less FOC. For Vyre 'jacks, many of them replicate effects Garryth already has, like Grievous Wounds, or the Banshee's wail and his feat. Generally more than two 'jacks is very tough for Garryth to run.

The Chimera's ability to disappear from combat and escape makes it very valuable to Garryth as a Gallows or Death Sentence arc-- its maneuverability can help you set up good Gallows angles. Sadly you can't stack Mirage with Apparition, as the effects have the same name, but it's nice to double up on that ability. In a pinch, the Chimera can combo strike something big, but if you're sending it into combat you're in trouble.

The Phoenix is a bit trickier than the Chimera, since you kind of want it in melee-- but of course it can't arc. It helps deal with the armor problem that the rest of the army has, and the Phoenix Field can help keep it alive. Mirage can make a Phoenix into a giant Chimera, able to strike where you want and then pop out of combat to channel. Overall it's a great 'jack, but pricey.

The Gorgon has one job in a Garryth army: lock something down so Garryth or his minions can kill it. It's cheap-ish, and it likely won't survive going in to lock something down. If you have persistent problems with people running away, it might be worth using, but otherwise leave it at home. Force Lock is why you take this thing.

The Aspis is worth a mention. Garryth is, as mentioned, quite frail, and keeping him alive long enough to get the kill can be a trial. An Aspis can take a bullet for him and keep him standing. Garryth's desire to mix it up personally is often the death of him, but a hefty Shield Guard light can reduce that risk.

Finally, the Hydra's somewhat-independence means that Garryth can load it up early and just let it have a ball, but his inability to do anything to keep it safe or accelerate or make it hit harder is worrying. Unlike other assassin-y casters like Thyra, Garryth does not make it easier for his army to assassinate you. He makes it easier for HIM to assassinate you.


Units:
Battle Mages, Mage Hunter Strike Force, and Dawnguard Sentinels are the units Garryth likes to see. Somewhat unusually, this is less about what he can do for them and more about what they can do for him.

Battle Mages are just all kinds of great, but they really shine when their push me/pull you shenanigans are actually towards some end other than "pissing off the opponent." When positioned right, a unit can drag an enemy, d3" at a time, towards Garryth's threat range. This may be an enemy caster; more often it'll just be a 'jack or beast. If he tags it with Death Sentence the turn before and upkeeps it, they'll be quite accurate, and Garryth can dash up and finish off whatever it is without running into danger. They can also push enemies away and out of their support formations, leaving the target isolated. Garryth likes having targets all alone like that.

Mage Hunter Strike Force do much the same job in a Garryth list as in any other: remove infantry, take potshots at support models and vulnerable casters. Garryth doesn't like lots of infantry blocking his path, and doesn't want to give 'jacks FOC to trample it away. MHSF can solve that problem, and Mirage not only extends their threat range, but allows them to reposition and still get the aiming bonus-- a must with their mediocre RAT. I wouldn't bother taking more than one unit, as you lose a lot without the UA.

Dawnguard Sentinels also love a UA with Garryth. Mirage + Vengeance is a lot of out of activation movement, and makes these little SPD 5 soldiers a lot faster than they seem. Death Sentence also ensures that none of their attacks are wasted. Once your opponent has triggered Vengeance, get as many of them in as you can, since they likely won't stick around too much longer-- you don't want to drip-feed them in a bit at a time. Otherwise you're just wasting troops. They go well with MHSF, as the Hunters kill low-ARM infantry and the Sentinels go after tougher stuff.


Solos of interest include epic Eiryss, Sylys Wyshnalyrr, Arcanists, MHAs, Magisters and perhaps Snipers.

eEiryss is always nice. Garryth and his MHSF ignore camped focus and upkeep spells, but the rest of his army doesn't. Furthermore, with judicious timing, you can shoot off an enemy upkeep and pop your feat, preventing it from being recast. It's better to go after offensive upkeeps like Fury rather than defensive ones like Defender's Ward, as you ignore those anyways, but of course it's not a hard and fast rule. Also remember that her shots prevent channeling through arc nodes and can keep Garryth safe.

Wyshnalyrr is a Focus battery for a caster who really needs it. I've mentioned several times how tight Garryth is on Focus. Wyshnalyrr not only lets him upkeep Mirage for free, but makes his spells more accurate, perhaps allowing you to toss out more Death Sentences and Gallows. Gallows may actually be worth it if you can use it to pull someone into charging range, as long as you are sure you can kill them once you get in there.

The job of an Arcanist in a Garryth list is simple. Sometimes there's not enough FOC to go around, and the Arcanist makes that better. Garryth's well-stated liking for arc nodes, as well, means nothing if they get taken out. The Arcanist can bring those back online with ease. Nice and simple. He's tough to keep safe, so hang him back until you need him.

Mage Hunter Assassins are like mini-Garryths. They pose a serious psychological threat, as nobody wants to expose their caster to an Arcane Assassin Decapitation. They also have a 14" threat range, 16" under Mirage. Expect them to die, even with Stealth and Pathfinder, but to do their job in dying. They can be used to herd enemies in towards the middle of the board, where Garryth can get at them. One of the best things Garryth can do is just use his threat range as a tool: nobody wants to get within 12.5" of him and die, so you can pressure them into a tight box where your army can finish them off.

The Magister (and to a lesser extent, Madelyn Corbeau) is great for his ability to accelerate Garryth. Whip Snap is an extra 3" of movement on one of the game's few "I get into melee with you, you lose" models. Keep him close to Garryth and keep him safe. Your opponent only needs to be on the receiving end of a 15.5" Garryth attack once before they never make that mistake again. Remember that it stacks with Corbeau's Intrigue.

Finally, Snipers might see some use in clearing targets from your path. Garryth ignores free strikes but he can't move OVER models like Rhyas or Thyra. He also lacks Reach, so you have to get up close and personal. Having a couple of enemy grunts blocking the path can ruin your day if Mage Hunters can't get in there, but the Sniper's 20" threat is hard to hide from.

Garryth does more than just seal the deal himself, but it's what he's best at. Here's a 35 point list that plays to his strengths:

Garryth, Blade of Retribution +5

Phoenix -10
Aspis -4

House Shyeel Battle Mages -5
Min Mage Hunter Strike Force + UA -7
Min Dawnguard Sentinels + UA -8
House Shyeel Magister -2
Sylys Wyshnalyrr -2
Madelyn Corbeau -2


Total 35 +5

Garryth comes with a little entourage here-- two solos to speed him up, one to help him cast, and a 'jack to keep them all safe. He has a bit of everything in terms of infantry; some anti-armor, some anti-infantry, some movement guys. This army's job is to deliver Garryth, and it does it well. If you want to drop Sylys for an Arcanist you can probably drop one of the movement solos (I'd get rid of Madelyn first) and bump one of the min units up to max, but that's your choice.

Next week, we look at Karchev or pAsphyxious.

Argh!

Don't worry, I have not fallen back on old habits. Tomorrow, I will post the second in my casters series: Garryth, Blade of Retribution.

Reach

Short post today.
What's the most powerful ability in Warmachine? Is it Weaponmaster? No! Sacred Ward? No! Pathfinder, Stealth, Berserk, Tough? No, no, no, no!

It's Reach. Reach is a model-defining ability in many ways. It extends your threat range by an inch and a half, but there's so much more to it.
A Reach model can tie up many more enemies in close combat. Since that shuts down ranged infantry and forces anyone trying to leave to take freestrikes, Reach models are many times as effective as non-reach models at tarpitting, especially since a Reach model can tie up the back row of a unit without leaving the front row's melee range (and risking free strikes).

Units with Reach can double (or more) the number of attacks they can throw against a single target, either by attacking over each other or by clever placement that leaves gaps between models.

Models with Reach have greatly expanded charge angles. I will demonstrate with a diagram. Note: not to scale.


The small base is the charger. The large base is the target. The cone indicates legal charges: the charging model can end up anywhere between those two lines. Those are all the possible successful charges if the attacker does not have reach. Now let's look at what happens if he does.



See? Much wider. Many more options. You can avoid terrain or intervening models, position yourself to be within (or out of) a cloud or other effect, or even barely succeed on a charge you would have otherwise failed. You have options, and you can't put a price on having more options than the other guy.

Reach models can engage enemies without being engaged by them-- if you can then knock them down and they have no way to get back up out of activation, you bought yourself a reprieve.

Reach models can attack over intervening models in some cases (cavalry, target has a larger base etc.) to hit the stuff that your opponent is trying to screen.

Overall, Reach is an ability that grants unparalleled tactical flexibility. For that reason it is the most powerful ability in Warmachine.

High Exemplar Kreoss

Today, I'm going to start my new series: Caster Profiles. I'm hoping to do this weekly. I'll go over casters in depth, reviewing their spell lists, their feats, their tier lists, good model synergies, and an example army list. Today I'm going to start with a caster very near and dear to my heart, the Menoth Battlebox caster, High Exemplar Kreoss.

Let's start with the statline and special rules. Kreoss is pretty standard here. His 14/15 defensive stats are a bit below average, though his Reach MAT 7 POW 14 weapon is very respectable-- moreso because it has Dispel, an excellent effect. This leads to my first observation: Kreoss is NOT a frontline caster, except under certain circumstances which I will discuss later. He is simply too fragile.

Kreoss's spell list is where things start to get interesting. Let's go over them one by one.

Cleansing Fire is a somewhat pricey (3 FOC) AOE attack. It has a decent POW on its direct hit, but the low POW of the blasts means that it's only likely to kill very lightly armored targets (Gun Mages, Nyss Hunters etc.) Furthermore, it's a small AOE, unlikely to catch more than one or two enemies. Critical Fire is a nice effect but not reliable, and we have much much better fire AOEs. This is not a great spell.

Defender's Ward is one of the best upkeeps in the game-- only Eye of Menoth is more powerful. +2 DEF and +2 ARM can make an already high-DEF unit a nightmare to hit, or an already rock-hard unit almost impregnable. On a unit with mixed defensive stats it can push both up to sky-high levels. If you do not upkeep Defender's Ward during any turn in the game it should only be because you plan to cast it that turn. Ending any turn with Defender's Ward inactive is foolish. I'll go over how to target it later in the analysis, with one exception: note that if you cast it on Kreoss himself, he goes up to 16/17 base defensive stats, which is much more powerful. The combination of that and camping focus puts him at 16/23, which is nigh-impossible for most enemies to crack, barring Blessed or Arcane Assassin. Under those circumstances, Kreoss can become a bit of a beatstick, as he can spend two or three focus a turn boosting his attacks and buying more and still keep his ARM above 20. This is purely a lategame strategy, but you should not be afraid to cast Defender's Ward on yourself and run around wrecking face. Note that slams will knock Kreoss on his butt and heavy warjacks or weapon masters will kill him-- so you should think carefully before you throw the High Exemplar into melee. Also note that dispel effects will remove his DEF bonus, rendering him much easier to hit. You should look very carefully at what is still in the game on your opponent's side before you use this strategy.

Immolation is Kreoss's go-to attacking spell. RNG 8, COST 2 and POW 12 are all very standard for an offensive spell, and Critical Fire, while nice, is nothing to rely on. Generally you will get more mileage out of Kreoss's support spells or focus allocation, although this is useful to snipe out Incorporeal targets. Also you should realize that both of Kreoss's offensive spells are fire-typed, meaning some things (Assault Kommandos and Strakhov, Druids of Orboros, Feora, Cleansers) are immune to them.

Lamentation is very good upkeep spell with a few caveats. It doubles the cost to cast or upkeep spells if the enemy is in your control area. A few things to note about this spell:
First, all you have to do is end your turn with the enemy in your control area to force them to pay extra to upkeep. After all, they'll have to start their turn in your control area. Against some enemies, such as Damiano, this is often enough, as he'll have to spend all six of his Focus just to keep his three upkeeps going. Against others, such as pMagnus, Absylonia, the Old Witch, and Doomshaper, this is less useful, since they don't have to pay to upkeep one or all of their spells.
Second, remember that you can't have this and Defender's Ward active on Kreoss at the same time. So if you're going for the endgame strategy described above, you'll have to do it without Lamentation.
Third, remember that the enemy can just back out of your control area to cast at normal cost. This will often mean that they're out of range with their offensive spells, but if they have arc nodes this won't be a problem. If Lamentation is part of your game plan, you should have a way to lock down arc nodes. The easiest way to do this is to engage them, as with one exception engaged models can't channel. The best models to use with this strategy are in the synergies section.
Fourth, 14" seems like a long distance but isn't really, especially if the enemy caster is behind their own front line. You'll have to make sure that Kreoss isn't putting himself in harm's way in order to get use out of this spell.

Purification is Kreoss's last spell, and it's a real doozy. This spell removes ALL continuous effects, upkeep spells and animi in his control area. This includes your own, so if you're planning to cast Purification, drop Lamentation and Defender's Ward and recast them after you've pulsed. Generally in using Purification, you should ask yourself two questions: first, what will I do with one turn of freedom from enemy upkeeps; and second, am I costing myself more than I am costing the enemy? Fortunately the second question is easy: Kreoss has only defensive upkeeps, so as long as they're up at the end of the turn, you're getting the full benefit of them; so it's a simple matter to drop and recast them. If you had Lamentation and Defender's Ward active, you're costing yourself 5 Focus in recasts. You are also costing your opponent in recasts, so that's a simple measurement to make. However, it's not as easy as comparing costs. If your opponent has Admonition on, say, the Deathjack, that's only 2 Focus in recasts, but by dispelling it you are giving yourself the chance to destroy or cripple the Deathjack without it being able to escape. That might be worth it, even if you have to pay more for recasts. The first question-- what will I do-- is key. What upkeeps does your opponent have? If he's got Crippling Grasp on a unit of yours, blasting it off renders that unit able to function for the turn-- that's definitely valuable. If he's got Defender's Ward on a unit of his, getting rid of it can help you wipe that unit out. In the end Purification is a spell that you can't just fire and forget. You have to have a plan for what you're going to do with it. In the end, though, it's an invaluable tool, destroying magical protections and forcing the enemy to spend critical Focus recasting upkeeps. With a Hierophant and Wracks Kreoss has an effective 9 Focus to play with, so he often comes off well just by force the opponent to spend their more limited supply.

Next, we've got Kreoss's feat. This is a real doozy, as powerful as it is simple: enemies within 14" of Kreoss are knocked down. That's it. This is an incredible assassination feat, as a knocked-down foe can't move (via Admonition, Enliven, etc.), can't block line of sight to a caster, and has his DEF reduced to 5. Many games end with "Ok, Kreoss drops his upkeeps, allocates 2 FOC to each of his Redeemers and his Reckoner, pops his feat and shoots you to pieces." Furthermore, units can't Shake Effects or make free strikes, so if you knock over a melee unit and walk out of melee range with it that unit won't be attacking anyone for a turn. There's two ways to use this feat, as I see it: a knockout punch or a body blow. A knockout punch would be killing the warcaster with it: simple, direct, and game-ending. If you don't quite think you can pull that off, you can do so much damage to his army that he can't keep slugging it out with you-- that's a body blow.
Now obviously, the biggest problems with this feat are models that can't be knocked over (models with Steady, models in base contact with Pirate warjacks), models that don't care about being knocked over (Magnus, Shae, Amon ad-Raza) or models that can get back up after being knocked over easily (Bane Thralls with UA, Tyrant Commander). If a model protects other nearby models from knockdown-- Satyxis Raider Captains, Bosun Grogspar, warjacks with Lash, Paingiver Task Masters, the Covenant-- it should be a priority target and should go down before you feat. If a model doesn't care about knockdown, you should plan your feat turn around that. For example, you can't really go for a knockdown assassination against Phinneus Shae, but if you can knock over his troops you can cripple his army. Finally, if you are going for a body blow you should be sure to take out models that can stand up other models, like Gatormen Wrastlers, Fell Callers, Tyrant Commanders and Bane Thrall UAs.

Now, the tier list. This is an interesting one, as it has most of what you want, but tilts a bit differently than you'd expect. There are a key models and units missing, but you can make an interesting tier.

You can have all warjacks except for the Avatar, Blessing of Vengeance, Scourge of Heresy and Blood of Martyrs. The only one there you're likely to miss is the Avatar, but you can make do without it. You can take Choirs, any exemplar units or solos, and Vassal Mechaniks. The tier 1 bonus cheapens Exemplar Venger units-- putting them at an even two points per model-- and allows you to take two units. Kreoss lists usually tilt towards range, but Vengers make an interesting choice. Note that on the feat turn you can take maximal advantage of the Cavalry rules. Your Vengers have a 13" threat range and can charge right through enemy models, hitting them automatically with impact attacks as they are knocked down. The only things to worry about here are Tough enemies or enemies with high armor, as the impact hits are only POW 10 and any failure to kill arrests your charge. Nothing is forcing you to take Vengers, though, so you can decide whether they're worth the points investment.

Tier II requires Gravus, and gives him and any Vengers Advance Deployment. This sweetens the pot a little, though with their high speed they're likely to outpace Kreoss. That's not good, since the whole point of the combo is for his feat to knock down enemies so they can ride right over them. If the Vengers have to wait up for Kreoss's feat bubble to get in range their Advance Deployment doesn't make too much sense. Still, if you're going for this combo you might as well take Gravus, as he's a POW 11 Weaponmaster that protects your own Exemplars from being knocked over. Since you can't take the Covenant in the tier, he's a decent buy.

Tier III requires two or more units of Exemplars Errant. Since I'd recommend taking these guys in every Kreoss list anyways this is an almost no-brainer tier, though I would recommend one max and one min unit over two maxes. This tier gives your army Pathfinder in the first turn, which is a nice bonus-- especially for the ADing Errants and horses (though your UA unit of errants will already have Pathfinder).

Tier 4 requires two arc nodes and allows Kreoss to start the game with his upkeeps active. This seems like a decent bonus, but it costs Kreoss 5 FOC to set up his upkeeps on turn 1, allowing him 2 to let 'jacks run-- 3 or 4 if he has a hierophant, wracks, or both. And two arc nodes seems like a lot, since Kreoss only has two middling offensive spells.

Overall, I would only bother with the tier if you're going for the Venger strategy. Otherwise, you are restricting yourself from some key solos and support models for little gain.


So let's look at some key model synergies.

Warjacks:
Kreoss loves ranged warjacks. I'd say the ideals are Redeemers and a Reckoner, with the Vanquiser and Repenter occupying the tier directly below them.

Redeemers have a frankly absurd 21" threat range on their missiles, with POW 14 with the Choir buff. They can also shoot up to three times each. Even unboosted, six POW 14s will put paid to a lot of casters, and you can get two boosted damage shots per 'jack-- four boosted POW 14s is likely to kill most non-camping casters in the game. Their only downside is their inaccuracy, being only RAT 3 even with the Choir buff, but that's enough to hit a knocked down model on any roll but double ones. Against DEF 5, RAT 3 is the same as RAT 20.

The Reckoner has only one shot with less range and no AOE, but it makes up for it with melee potency and the ability to protect Kreoss with Ashen Veil. With Defender's Ward it goes up to a respectable DEF 14 against most ranged attacks and ARM 21, which should keep it going for a while. Furthermore, the Flare effect of its gun puts aiming Redeemers up to an effective RAT 7 with the Choir bonus, meaning that even outside of the feat turn they have a chance at hitting the broad side of a barn. The Assault ability means that the Reckoner can do some serious damage in close combat, at an effective MAT 10 if the initial ranged attack hits and doling out some POW 19 loving'. It's an all-around great jack that gets better with Kreoss.

The Vanquisher is another heavy that can perform a hybrid role. Its 4" AOE autofire gun will blow huge holes in Shield Walls and can catch support solos hiding behind warjacks or warbeasts. Its range is a bit shorter, but it focuses more on an anti-infantry role than that previous two 'jacks. With a POW 16 gun and a POW 18 melee weapon, though, it's more than capable of putting some serious hurt on anything. The primary purpose, though, is to punish enemies for grouping up. Even if they ignore blast damage, setting a big chunk of their army on Fire will dissuade them from sticking together.

The Repenter is the only 'jack on this list that natively ignores Stealth. With clever placement, you'll be setting lots of enemies on fire, and you can cleverly target models you can't see using rangefinders (friendly or enemy models you can target that place the spray template over the enemy). This is mostly an infantry clearer, but it's so good at that that it makes the list on that strength alone. It's also super cheap!

Units:
Exemplars Errant are Kreoss's best friend. Yes, they're the best unit in Menoth, but they're even better with Kreoss, who synergizes well with them. Choirs are essential, as Kreoss relies heavily on his battlegroup. Deliverers are sometimes popular, but I personally don't like 'em-- I'll go over them though. Vengers have been covered above. Kreoss also likes Juviah Rhoven and his honor guard, and I have a soft spot for Zealots.

Go ahead, make a Kreoss list. If you did not start off with a Redeemer, Choir, and full Errants + UA I question your dedication. Let's go over some of the ways that Errants rock.
1) They are the perfect targets for Defender's Ward. Their DEF and ARM are both JUST high enough that they can benefit from it. The difference between DEF 12 and DEF 14 is huge-- MAT 6, the average in the game, goes from needing 6s to hit (below average) to needing 8s (above average). Warjacks and warbeasts will need to boost to reliably hit them, massively cutting into the number of attacks they can make. Many infantry units will just bounce off of them. Standard POW 10-12 shooting goes from killing Errants on 7s or 5s to killing them on 9s or 7s-- a pretty huge drop.
2) Quick Work loves knocked down models. One of the biggest flaws with Quick Work is that you can't make a ranged attack while you're engaging or engaged. If the enemy is knocked down, they can't engage or be engaged, and you'll hit with all of your melee attacks, so you'll be making lots and lots of shots. You haven't lived until you've seen the look on the enemy's face when six Exemplars Errant kill a full unit of Rangers and a full unit of Gun Mages.
3) Errants crossbows are Blessed. You don't have to bother Purifying the Arcane Shield off of your opponent's Sword Knights if your shots ignore it.
4) Errants are excellent for locking down arc nodes, as you can keep Self Sacrificing to keep the lockdown model in melee.
Errants are just great in all kinds of ways. Pathfinder and Advance Deployment mean they can lurk in terrain and can shoot up the board quickly, somewhat mitigating their slow SPD. They tarpit like crazy, protective the fragile Kreoss from assassins. They can shoot, they can fight, they're even immune to enemy magic that could drag them out of position or mess with them. You should always, always take a UA-- min unit + UA is better than a max unit. I would recommend just one unit, since more than that is often overkill and without Defender's Ward, Rhupert buffs and a UA they're much less useful.

You should always take a Choir with Kreoss. I'm not going to explain why. Just do it. If you don't know why, you don't play Menoth. He relies so heavily on his 'jacks to get the assassination that +2/+2 is a no brainer.

Deliverers are interesting. At first blush, they're great: a unit of Redeemer missiles! Then reality starts to set in. They're a unit of Redeemer missiles that can't benefit from the Choir and are thus stuck at POW 6 blast damage and POW 12 direct damage. They're a unit of Redeemer missiles that can't boost attack or damage rolls, meaning that they'll bounce in many cases. They're a unit of Redeemer missiles that can't fight in melee like a real Redeemer can, can't get extra shots from the Vassal, and are vulnerable to a whole separate set of stuff. They do have that Rocket Volley, which is neat, but it means you're paying 5-8 points for one shot per turn. Admittedly it can get decently accurate but Kreoss's feat does that anyways. I personally don't like them. They can make it rain templates on Stealthy infantry, but a Redeemer or Vanquisher seems more useful for that, being more powerful and with larger templates.

Juviah Rhoven is key. In addition to providing some melee punch, Rhoven has a suite of useful abilities. Cleanse and Negation are cornercase at best, with Cleanse able to somewhat replicate the effects of Purification without getting rid of upkeeps. Menoth's Sight is the money ability. A large suite of casters such as eLylyth, Deneghra, and Garryth may think themselves safe behind their Stealth, relying on it over their low ARM to keep them protected. A dose of Menoth's Sight on a Redeemer or Reckoner will let it reach out and touch them from a distance. Since these casters typically have low ARM stats, one 'jack can be enough to put them down, especially if they neglected to camp ARM. Make sure to keep Rhoven safe-- Gius and Cassian are expendable, Rhoven's not. Defender's Ward works well on these guys if the Errants are gone.

Zealots are an interesting unit. They're cheap as hell, and like Redeemers they pack extremely high POW and extreme inaccuracy. The knockdown effect of Kreoss's feat can help them hit with those bombs, but unlike Redeemers they're POW 14 blast 8, meaning they can damage a wider variety of targets. They also have crate fire, but that's nothing to rely on. Zealots are mostly useful because of the Monolith Bearer, however, who can render them immune to almost everything for a turn. Combined with their leader's prayer granting them spell immunity, and they can only be damaged by pAsphyxious, Harbinger, Cassius, Old Witch, and Morvahna's feats or by spells targeted at a nearby model. Combine them with Errants for a block of spell immunity. Zealots are mostly useful for jamming up enemies and providing cheap souls to your Reclaimers, but their ability to drop a bunch of POW 14 bombs on your feat turn should not be discounted.

Solos of interest include epic Eiryss, Vassals of Menoth, Exemplar Errant Seneschals, the Covenant, Rhupert Carvolo, Reclaimers, Vassal Mechaniks, Wracks and Hierophants.

eEiryss is key for assassination runs. Kreoss assassination lists often rely on four to six Redeemer shots at POW 14, which will have trouble cracking ARM 20 or higher. eEiryss will strip the Focus right off that enemy, as well as any protective spells he's got, rendering him a sitting duck for your missiles. She won't have any trouble hitting a knocked-down model either. Other than that, she's useful at Disrupting enemy arc nodes, forcing the enemy to come in close and put themselves in Lamentation range. Just make sure to keep her away from your warjacks so as to not trigger her Technological Intolerance.

The Vassal is probably the most important in-faction solo for many Kreoss builds, and I can't recommend it highly enough. In fact, bring two. Enliven will keep your jacks safe until you need them, but Ancillary Attack is where it's at. Six POW 14 missiles? Why not 8? Why not drop two Vanquisher pie plates and set two chunks of the enemy on fire? Why not get two Reckoner shots, Flaring two different targets? For a list whose basic plan is "knock the enemy on their butt and then shoot them to pieces while they're vulnerable" having as much lead in the air as possible is essential and these guys are basically ammo belts.

Exemplar Errant Seneschals are sweet, but they're really only there if you have Errants. Granting Errants Hunter not only gives them an absolutely absurd number of rules, but means they ignore almost every protection in the game: no forests, no camouflage, no concealment, no cover, no spells. Nothing stops their crossbows. With Hunter and Pathfinder they can also ignore forests entirely, charging right across them if you want. They make the central unit in the list better. Why not take them?

The Covenant is a defensive solo, and it's not a bad one. Preventing knockdown makes Tough a better ability (and Rhupert will be handing it out) and it also ensures Enliven will trigger, even after headbutts and slams. Flames of Wrath is also useful for a ranged-heavy list, since even if an enemy survives your shots they will be on fire. Works well on Errants with Quick Work since both their melee attacks and crossbow shots will cause fire.

Rhupert has basically one job in this list: giving your Errants tough. And sometimes +1 DEF, putting them at 15, but mostly Tough. Tough Errants are a nightmare to remove, since even if you crack their 14/18 defensive stats they're still getting a Tough rolls; if they pass it they stay standing (due to the book), if they fail you can then choose another one to die in their stead. If you fail a Tough check, after all, you are still Disabled before you go on to being boxed, so you get to trigger Self-Sacrifice. And since Tough only knocks you down if you pass, if you're outside of the Covenant's range, if you fail a check but Self-Sacrifice onto someone else, you are not knocked down. This is a brutal tar pit.

Reclaimers have a fairly simple job. Kreoss's assassination turn involves handing out a lot of FOC. If you don't want to or can't, you can have a Reclaimer juice up one of your 'jacks. It's worth looking into running this guy with Zealots or Temple Flameguard-- if your only troops are Errants their Self-Sacrifices won't give up souls (since they are technically destroyed by Self-Sacrifice, not an enemy attack-- the same reason it doesn't trigger Berserk, Carnivore, or any other on-kill abilities like Soul Harvester). Include one or not depending on your list.

Vassal Mechaniks are in charge of keeping your guns firing. They also only cost one point, so they're a good list fill. If a Redeemer or Reckoner loses its gun to a lucky shot, you're out of luck unless you have a Menofixer on hand to tune it up. They also put cortices back in action, in case a 'jack loses that.

Finally, Hierophants and Wracks are the generic "focus-extenders." Kreoss's ability to play Focus games with Purification against upkeep-heavy casters (see above) can make these choices valuable. He also wants to hand out as much as possible on his feat turn. Other than that, they're not essential.


Kreoss is more than just a feat on legs, but that feat should be central in your planning. It'll either net you the kill or a turn of brutal damage to your opponent's army. Here's a sample pKreoss 35 point list:

High Exemplar Kreoss: +5
Redeemer -6
Redeemer -6
Reckoner -8
Minimum Choir -2
Full Exemplars Errant + UA -10
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3
Vassal of Menoth -2
Vassal of Menoth -2
Vassal Mechanik -1

Total 35 +5

This is a pretty straightforward list. The 'jacks advance with the Vassals behind them and the Choir behind them. Eiryss lurks until she's needed to strip Focus or blast an arc node. The Errants soak up most of the fire. You can drop one Vassal for Rhupert if you find yourself wanting a more stable frontline, but it's not necessary. This list lacks Juviah Rhoven and has trouble with stealth-heavy enemies, but you can make it rain templates to clear their infantry, and the Reckoner is a top-tier melee beatstick. Expanding to 50 points, you can pick up Rhoven and a second melee unit-- min Zealots + UA or full Temple Flameguard. That leaves space for a Covenant, a Reclaimer, and Wracks.

I hope this was informative! Next week I hope to look at either Garryth, pAsphyxious, or Karchev the Terrible.

How to be safe!

In Warmachine, there are three fundamental ways to keep a model (usually your caster) safe. I will go over them today. Briefly, I call them You Can't Hurt Me, You Can't Hit Me and You Can't Touch Me.

You Can't Hurt Me is simple. It means setting yourself up so that you will take little to no damage from attacks. The canonical example of this is high ARM stacking. Models that rely on this method include Terminus, Venethrax, the Devastator, and in fact much of Khador. This is, in my opinion, the weakest of the three defenses, as there are numerous ways around it-- everything from autoplinking via Sniper or Anatomical Precision to rolling four 6s on a Bane Thrall's charge. However, the tradeoff is that this is often the easiest defense to set up. You just stack armor buffs or start with an extremely armored model (Devastator, Demolisher) etc. Furthermore, every Warmachine caster has access to focus camping as a strategy, which will (in almost all cases) push one's ARM up to 20 or even past it.
Of course, it's not just ARM stacking. Effects like the Agonizer's Gnawing Pain, feats like Rasheth's, Ossyan's and Fiona's, and other effects that reduce STR play into this strategy. There's also an offensive side: Disrupting enemy warjacks or taking out the Body system on warbeasts can reduce the number of damage dice they throw at you.

The second defense, You Can't Hit Me, is equally simple. It means setting yourself up so that attacks directed at you are likely to miss. The canonical example of this is DEF stacking, such as Quicken on Ashlynn d'Elyse or the rock wall of Janissa Stonetide. Other examples include Iron Flesh'd Kayazy, both Morghouls (and eMorg's feat), Dug In models, etc. This is in many ways a stronger defense, because a model that is not hit suffers no ill effects at all. However, the downside is the existence of knockdown/stationary effects in the game, which completely obviate any precautions you have taken, and the fact that if an attack connects you are often quite frail. This defense is also not particularly hard to set up, but thinking outside the box can help: terrain is your friend here, including hills and forests.
There's an offensive side here, as well-- Disruption will prevent boosting to hit, and taking out the Mind makes beasts less accurate. Models with Powerful Charge or Cavalry get bonuses to hit when charging, so denying them the charge can help preserve your DEF-based protection. Finally, some models CMA or CRA to improve their accuracy, so the ability Perfect Balance falls into this category.

The third defense, You Can't Touch Me, is often the hardest to set up but the best of all. If no attacks can be directed your way, the chance of being hurt is reduced drastically. Your opponent's accuracy and hitting power, as well as your DEF and ARM, become irrelevant if they're not attacking you. There are lots of ways to pull this off. Many of them are feats: Saeryn, eSkarre, eHaley, and Zerkova all have feats that deny your opponent the ability to attack you. Other ways are more subtle: Rasheth and pSeverius survive by simply staying a huge distance from the frontline. Staying out of LOS or having Stealth can help, although there are models that ignore these restrictions: it's important to note who will and won't be able to attack you through your protection. For example, if I am running Rasheth in a Krea bubble behind a forest, the only models in my opponent's Retribution of Scyrah list that will be able to hit me are his Mage Hunter Strike Force, who cannot hurt Rasheth at all (since they only roll 1d6 for damage against him due to Impervious Flesh and his ARM is 16 due to the Krea, whose benefit is not ignore by Arcane Assassin as it is not a spell if she cast it herself). Thus, I am safe. If, on the other hand, my opponent is Dawnlord Vyros with Hydras, I am in danger as the models he has that can ignore my You Can't Touch Me protection are also capable of hurting me.

The above example was a bit convoluted, but I hope it demonstrated how stacking different types of defenses can help keep you safe, and the importance of noting which models are capable of striking through your defenses. You Can't Touch Me can happen in many different ways: tying up ranged attacks in melee denies them the ability to shoot, blocking charge lanes denies enemies the ability to charge, and using elemental immunities (especially Fire against Protectorate and Legion, Corrosion against Cryx and Legion, and Lightning against Cygnar) can render certain models useless. Spells like Crippling Grasp and Rebuke form the offensive side of this, preventing enemies from engaging at all.

The safest caster is the one who is not being attacked at all, but if you must be attacked, you should ensure that the attacks will either miss or do no damage. Warmachine is a game of assassination: once you have identified the threats (as I went over in a previous post), you should figure out how you are going to defend yourself from those threats. Which philosophy of defense will you follow? How will it be enacted? What are its weaknesses? Plan, and you will stay safe.

Worldviews

Real quick one this time. I know when I say that they turn out long, but:
I watched Jesus Camp the other day. It really got me thinking about worldviews. This is going to be expanded on in a later post, probably, but the religious (especially fundamentalist) worldview really does not understand the scientific one. This is why you get people trying to "refute" evolution by claiming (erroneously, by the way) that Darwin renounced his ideas on his deathbed. Religion is informed by revelation, which is its own evidence; the only quality revelation needs to have to be authentic is to come from a legitimate revelator. The actual content is irrelevant. They believe that the non-religious view the world through the same lens, so to undermine a view they don't like they attack the "source," the person who propagated it. They think this renders it illegitimate.

What they do not understand is that in the secular, scientific world, data is divorced from the discoverer. Darwin was wrong about lots of things. He may (or may not) have held various morally or scientifically questionable beliefs. This does nothing, nothing to undermine the fundamental truth of evolution through natural selection. We don't believe in revelation. A statement is true or false on its own merits and an idea succeeds of fails on its content, not based on the presenter.

There's a lot more I want to say: Religion accepts the unknowable, supports magical thinking, and denies the possibility of understanding fundamental truths. If science had not won out over religion in the field of medicine, we would have no interest in discovering the root causes of ailments. Science believes that the universe is a fundamentally understandable place where effects mostly follow causes (let's avoid quantum for now, folks) and the mechanism by which this occurs, even if it is not currently known, can be studied and understood. It is knowable. This is what sets it apart from the magico-religious view and why science is ultimately triumphant: because it says "Yes, we can understand this."

Assassination

Another game lesson. This one will be shorter. The lesson here is on assassination.

Sometimes plans fail. In Warmachine, a failed assassination run can be the end of the game. Not only is your assassination piece heavily exposed, but you usually spent all of your resources that turn preparing for the kill, so you're out of position and you didn't apply force to the most immediate threats. Furthermore, you often were able to skimp on defensive measures that you'd normally take, figuring the game would end this turn.

So what do you do? First of all, some degree of exposure is inevitable. How much is necessary? I think that depends greatly on the kill possibility. If your assassination is a Hail Mary that might or might not work, it's probably best to assume the game will continue. If it's charging a non-camping, weak caster with a buffed heavy, you can take more risks.

Second of all, how do you prepare for an assassination? You need to identify the steps you will need to complete in order to perform the assassination. "In order" is key here-- what happens first, second, third, etc? You should also identify the obstacles to each step, and how you will overcome them. Then you should remove the obstacles in order from first to last. The reasoning for this is simple: if you exert great effort clearing obstacles from your path but fail to clear the very first one, all your effort will be wasted and you will likely be in a rough position, having used valuable resources on a failed plan. If, on the other hand, you go from the beginning to the end, then if at any point your preparations fail you can either abort the plan or adjust it to handle this new situation. Thus you can realign your resources where they will do the most good.

Let's go with an example: I have Molik Karn and I want to bullet him in. What are my obstacles? Well, there are models in the way. Karn is in rough terrain which will hinder his movement. The enemy caster has a high ARM stat. There's an anti-magic solo like Orin Midwinter blocking my casts. The enemy has a counter charger near their caster who could do serious damage. There are transfers open that could lead to a failed assassination.

Let's handle these one at a time. How will the assassination ideally go? First I'll cast spells on Karn to increase his movement and get him out of the rough terrain. Then I'll charge him forward, sidestepping towards the enemy caster. Then I'll hit the enemy caster a bunch of times and kill him.

First obstacle is the spell-blocker. If he lives then none of this can happen. So the first thing I do is go after Orin Midwinter. If he lives and I don't think I can remove him without endangering the rest of the plan, I abort and try something else.
Next obstacle are the intervening models. If they live then no amount of spellcasting can get Karn to his target. So then I activate some infantry to clear the way. If they fail, at least they did some killing, and I haven't risked Karn or spent fury on needless spells yet.
Next problem is the caster's defenses. Can I kill any of his beasts? Can I add Fury to them with Paingivers? Can I throw them out of the control area? If I can, I will. This will not only damage his army but also prevent him from surviving through transfers. Can I get a Thrullg or a Hex Blast onto the enemy to remove his magical defenses? If I can, I will. Can I engage his Counter Charger to prevent Molik from being taken out? If I fail at any of those things, I have introduced some uncertainty into the assassination. I have made it more survivable. I have to decide then whether to abort or press forward.

Having done all of that, I can activate my caster, cast the spells, Enrage Karn and charge him in. If I have cleared all of the obstacles, it can work. Had I failed at any stage, I would have to re-evaluate and decide if it was possible to make it. If not, I'd abort for this turn-- just because you start the turn thinking "I could go for the caster kill this turn" does not mean you are bound to do so.

I hope this helps. Assassination is the #1 way new players lose games. It's also a fun way to win! Try it out!

Warmachine, Brokenness and Counters

I was recently at a Warmachine tournament. I finished with an undefeated 3-0 record, splitting the first place prize with the other undefeated guy. I had fun, but I noted that some attendees-- most particularly, three other members of my local gaming scene-- did not seem to. And that made me mad, because we play this game for fun, and especially if you're paying for entrance you want to have some fun that makes it worth it. I'm not even going to go into the story of the guy who was turned away, because that's a separate set of issues.

The thing is, tournaments always bring out powergaming. And powergaming in Warmachine is very much focused on a set of counters. That's why we bring multiple lists. "How to be a good player" is a topic I could write about for days and never finish, but I sincerely want to help my friends (and even though our relationship is sometimes a little difficult I consider all of the local game store guys my friends) to be better players.

In Warmachine, to win, you must 1) identify the threats your opponent's army is capable of projecting 2) identify the threats your army is capable of projecting 3) identify the weaknesses in your opponent's list 4) identify the weaknesses in your list. It is most important to do that in that order. I am going to use two games I played to illustrate that. No names will be named.

The first game was against a Cryxian force led by Asphyxious. I identified each threat in this list: first, the arc nodes that allow Asphyxious to cast his powerful spells; second, the bile thralls that could effectively clear infantry; third, the bane thralls that could kill my heavy beasts; fourth, the pistol wraith that could shut down a heavy beast for a turn; and fifth, the Slayer that could hit like a train with three Focus on it. Finally, the caster himself poses a significant melee threat.

Having finished Step 1, I went on to Step 2. My army is EXTREMELY fast, with Nihilators being capable of running up to 14" and having a 2" melee threat. They can't attack after that, but the ability to engage the enemy from 16" away is a BIG deal, since engaging on your own terms is an invaluable tool. More on this later. My second threat is Molik Karn, but he actually doesn't hit any harder or more accurately than a Slayer-- the Slayer's two POW 16 arms are about equivalent to Karn's POW 13 Weapon Master attacks, though Enrage changes that calculus somewhat. Karn does outdamage a Slayer due to his capacity to buy more attacks and the efficiency of being able to boost after rolling, but he also costs almost twice the Slayer's price point and is equivalently fragile (one more armor, several less hitboxes). Karn's threat is mostly due to his extreme movement distance. Attacking first is the most powerful threat of all, and he's great at that. So my army's threat is the extreme speed of movement.

Step 3 came next. Each aspect of my opponent's army had a different weakness: Bane Thralls, while excellent at dispatching beasts, struggle to deal with infantry, because of their low MAT, low threat range and one attack each. Bile Thralls can do nothing once engaged in melee. Arc Nodes have the same weakness as Biles, being unable to channel or shoot once engaged.
My own weaknesses include my reliance on beasts, of which I have only two, and my lack of ranged ability.

Having completed all four steps (last one was up there, checking own weaknesses) I settled on a plan of action. By accelerating my Nihilators via Road to War and running, I was able to engage the arc nodes and bile thralls, locking them down. By engaging the Bane Thralls on my own terms, I was able to deny them access to the kind of targets they want to hit. In order to prevent them from being killed by Hellfire, Banes and the Slayer or locked down by the Pistol Wraith, I held my beasts back. This plan was phenomenally successful. How could it have been countered?

Let's switch sides. How would I have dealt with that? The Skorne army I was running really only had two types of threats: tons and tons of Nihilators, who are Tough and Fearless but have low armor and average defense; and two beasts. I would feel confident that the Pistol Wraith could keep the Titan mostly locked down, so I would focus my efforts on Karn. I have a Slayer and Banes; either one of which can deal Karn a crippling blow. I could use one to bait him and the other to kill him when he took the bait. So that's the beasts planned for. Once I started the game, I would see that my opponent was going to head in with the infantry first. That changed the game a little. I would know that the Biles would be essential, so I would hold them back. Having brought four arc nodes, I would know that I could afford to sacrifice two of them to lure out the Nihilators.

In fact, that's very similar to what my opponent did. He simply moved his biles up a bit too far. Unfamiliarity with the extreme threat range of my army was a factor, certainly. But Warmachine is a game of trades, and making the trades go in your favor. By tossing out two Breath of Corruption clouds, he could put huge holes in my formation and block off charge lanes (indeed, only three Nihilators were able to charge on one flank because of the cloud). I could not afford to let this remain, so I had to send in the Nihilators to shut down the arc nodes. If the Biles were far back enough, my opponent could have waddled them forward and Purged my Nihilators. That would take care of one flank. The other would require a different approach. The Bane Thralls were ill-suited to that job, but he had two undamaged bonejacks. Unfortunately, they were both Ripjaws. If he had sent the Ripjaws up forward and held the Defiler back, then he'd have Bile Thralls on one flank and a boostable spray on the other-- easily enough to chew through a formation of Nihilators.

I have sort of rambled, but I hope I have made my point: what won me the game was identification of the threats my opponent could project, as well as the best way to shut them down. I was able to take the one resource in which I had a clear advantage-- speed-- and leverage it to victory. In an upcoming post (possibly tomorrow) I'll talk about another game, and how contingency planning can rescue a game that seems lost.

Back

Ok, so I've resolved to keep this thing updated. I have free time now, having graduated, so I can do that. I'll start by posting a little parable I wrote.

Lots of injokes in here. Names have not been changed because nobody is innocent.

Say we all live in a village called PVCCopolis. There are 100 people living in this village.
Say we each have $100, exactly the same amount of money. Say that we could buy generators-- one generator provides enough electricity for one person and costs $90, because you have to construct an electrical line to your house and set it all up and buy the generator and fuel and whatnot. We each only have $10 left. Let's assume that a generator is an indispensable utility, so everyone wants one-- and in any case, everyone has to pay, because anyone can get benefit from the generator by running a line to their house.

Now say we could buy a big generator for $8000 that provides enough electricity for everyone. This cost would cover the generator, fuel, hooking up everyone's house etc.
The liberal solution is to tax everyone for $80 and buy the big one, giving everyone electricity and $20 left each.
The conservative solution is to let the market figure it out. Now, in this village, naturally the market would decide to buy the big generator, netting the same result.

Now imagine PVCCopolis has lots of different kinds of people. There's the town doctor, Shogs, whose medical practice and musical career have made him wealthy. There's Prince Ali, the son of the king, who lives in luxury from his inheritance. On the other end of the scale there's Georgeson who is poor and stupid and spends his welfare checks on Old Crow. Say Shogs and Ali have $200 and Georgeson only has $40. In all other respects the situation is the same as before.

Why don't we buy the big generator? Well, no one person can afford it. Furthermore, Georgeson can't afford to pay the $80 required. He can only pay $40. "But wait!" cry Shogs and Prince Ali. "Why should we have to pay the full $80 when Georgeson is only paying $40? Also, will we have to pay more to make up the shortfall? Screw that, we're buying our own generators!"

As a result, some people go without electricity and some people buy more expensive, less efficient generators.

The liberal solution is progressive taxation. Sygerrik, the town's long-suffering accountant, puts it this way: "Well, Prince Ali, you use a lot more electricity than Georgeson. He just runs his lights and electric stove and maybe a TV. You have all that plus your blender, your stereo, and the electric nipple clamps for your erotic homosex torture dungeon. Maybe you should pay more since you get more benefit out of it." Some people are so poor that they just get given electricity for free, so nobody has to freeze or starve. We get a big, efficient generator.

The conservative solution is "let the poor die in the streets if they can't afford to live." Or alternatively, Georgeson spends $40 on a terrible generator that shorts out constantly and he's still cold and hungry, and now too poor to afford enough alcohol to let him forget that.

We could expand this parable further-- discussing what happens when we can prevent poor people from using the generator if they haven't paid in-- but that involves making the situation much more complex and adding in variables like Prince Ali's Egg Farm, which employs Georgeson (he is a trustworthy worker, since he won't eat any eggs), and thus how Prince Ali and society as a whole are negatively impacted by inefficiencies such as expensive, crappy generators.