I've painted a number of Warmachine and Hordes figs the last few years, even a reasonably sized Cygnar army... but until last week I hadn't actually PLAYED the games. I finally decided to paint up an army for Warmahordes, and settled on the Protectorate of Menoth. Bought the Prime Mk II book, Wrath, and finally the Forces of Menoth book. As well as purchasing templates, tokens, and the unit card deck.
Once that was out of the way I purchased a crap ton of figs for the army... Menoth Battlegroup box (early posts discuss the issues I had with that box), 2 boxes of Daughters of Flame, Exemplar Cinerator box, Exemplar Bastions, Exemplar Errants box, Choir box, Flameguard box, 2 blisters of flameguard troops, Devout light warjack, Blood of Martyr's upgrade, Thyra, eKreoss, pFeora, Covenant of Menoth, flameguard preceptor & standard, allegiant of the order of the fist, reclaimer, and Nicea.
Looking at all I bought you're probably thinking 'geeze, goes in with both feet, and a bit disjointedly at that'. Well you'd only be part right. I tend to look at a game system and set out to get a fieldable force in one shot. If I feel a need to expand, then I do from that base. With this batch of figs I was looking at possible 35 pt lists, and tournaments (in which a number require 2 lists, and no duplication of characters) so I based my purchases on 3 casters (pKreoss is on the way so technically 4 casters), and things that work with them. Once I settled on flameguard units and exemplar units it was simple to start working outwards.
Towards this end I started with the core of 2 heavy and 2 light jacks in my slightly jacked up battleforce box, and knew I could use the Blood of Martyr's upgrade on one of the crusaders to build it. Thus I found myself picking Thyra as one of my main casters to work with. This of course lead me to flameguard units and characters, which in turn work well with pFeora. But the Cinerators unit I got at a HUGE discount made me think of secondary main caster, and I looked at pKreoss (still on the way), but also at eKreoss. Exemplars look to work well with both of them, so I purchased an Errants and a Bastion box. I thought about additional blisters and the UA for errants but decided against it at this point.
Having settled on basically three casters to work with it became easy to see what units and solos would start working well with them. Choir being a good choice and a jack buffing unit. Covenant would work well with non-theme lists for the 3 casters, and I like the fluff so had to get it. The Allegiant was a pure 'stats look fun, and the fluff is pretty nice too, plus the fig looks dynamic' purchase. While the Reclaimer was a buy aimed at usefulness, as well as cool looks.
I've finished painting 1 unit of Daughters, pFeora, Thyra, Repenter light warjack, Revenger light warjack, and the Allegiant. I'm nearly finished with the Cinerator unit as well as Blood of Martyrs. A Crusader is at the initial basecoating stages, and I'm getting ready to unbox the next daughters unit and Nicea to get them run through the paint brushes.
Overall it might seem that I've been a little odd in unit selection, but my thoughts are that while I can theme list Thyra, I'm less concerned at this point about doing so with eKreoss or pFeora. I'm still learning the game, so it's more about getting a useable army together, though in my case one that should work well.
My first game was Thyra, Crusader, Repenter, Revenger, 1 unit of Daughters (15 pts total), against a Cryx list including Scaverus, Erebus,the light jack with the arc node and jaws (can't remember its name), skarlock, a smallish unit of mechanithrals, and 2 other thralls (medium base) that I can't remember the name of, big brutes with a special attack that uses both attacks as one.
I ended up going second, but that was actually a bonus for me I found. My list wasn't even a tier 1 theme list with my slow crusader, but everything else was quick. I totally misread the Daughters card so didn't advance move like I could have... but it didn't really matter.
I set up with Repenter on the left, Crusader in the middle with Thyra on its heels, then Daughters followed by the Revenger on the far right. Scaverus was behind a lowish hill with skarlock a few inches away, the thralls on on my left, his light jack on my right, and erebus in the middle. Initial moves had his light jack advance on my light jack to the right, the thralls all piling forward on the left towards the midfield. I moved my Repenter to block the thralls, my Revenger into the bonejack, and the daughters moved forward towards Erebus, while the crusader and thyra moved forward as well. He used the skarlock to put more range into his casting, but his spells didn't really do a whole lot. I cast at his stuff with similar limited results. Around turn 3 the fights really got going, thralls on jack, the jack taking a fair amount of damage but killing one of the big guys and a little thrall. The bonejack tore into the other light jack, but didn't disable it and it replied with some damage back.
About this time Scaverus started moving forward, while the Duaghters got charged by Erebus and the thralls ended up blocking Thyra and Crusaders movement... that would end soon, thyra is a beast in melee. The Daughters died left and right, but did a little damage to Erebus. Finally the thralls all died, with a nearly boxed light jack were their corpses lay. The bonejack died around turn 4, but the light jack on that end of the battle was basically out of place and wouldn't play a part in the end of the battle.
The Crusader let Erebus have a taste of Inferno mace, doing quite a bit of damage, while recieving only 8 boxes total the entire fight... but Thyra, oh she did wonders. Killing 4 thralls (including a big one) then 2 hit killing Scaverus for a caster kill win.
At the end of the battle Thyra had taken 5 boxes of damage, Crusader 8, Repenter had 3 boxes left, and Revenger had 9 boxes left, and the poor Daughters were down to 2 remaining. But my opponent had Erebus at 4 boxes, and nothing else. For my first game it was small points, but exciting and fun. Nearly tabling an opponent that has been playing since Mk I was a bit shocking to say the least.
Until later!
P.S. I'll be posting up pics of the Menoth figs I've completed by Tuesday, fixing some issues with my camera before I can get more pics done... fiddly settings are a pain.
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