Jaga Jaga spoilers

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I had almost forgotten what playing Warmachine feels like, and then I see this. Thoughts to follow soon....

Later, in a secret location...

Highly uninformed analysis time:

Stats:

The same base stats as Calaban, except +1 CMD, +1 Health and inverted MAT/RAT - which makes sense since she doesn't have a gun. The important thing about this comparison is that she is SPD 6. SPD 6! In my opinion, SPD 6 is Calaban's best feature.

Fury 7 is Calaban's second best feature, and she has that too.

She is also roughly comparable to Calaban in melee - they both have a POW 11 reach weapon with pseudo Weapon Master (Poison on Jaga-Jaga, Life Trade on Calaban). Jaga's Death Snake has Chain Weapon to ignore Shield bonuses (not super relevant on a POW 11 weapon) while Calaban has a Sustained Attack bite, and his weapon his magical while the voodoo undead reanimated snake isn't (which doesn't really make much sense, but see her spell list for details).

+5 WB points. That's a first.

Abilities:
Amphibious + Gatorman Warlock. Standard fare. Nothing special.

Spells:

She is a spell caster through and through. Thankfully, unlike Calaban, she only has one offensive spell:

Deadweight - last seen on Broadsides Bart, this decent nuke is essentially a different take on Stranglehold. Instead of having to damage the target to have it sacrifice movement or action, you instead have to kill an enemy model within 2". Kill a McThrall next to Terminus, and he sacs movement or action next turn. Seems legit.

A very Gatormany spell that will likely be used to neutralize heavy targets for a turn or two. I like it but expect it to be situationally useful rather than common occurence.

Escort - the new Rift, Escort is the village bicycle on which everyone gets a ride. +2 SPD for your battlegroup and +2 ARM for your caster if she is near a warbeast (say.... a Boneswarm or Bull Snapper)?

Neato spell. I like heavies going fast, which is why I like Rask. I also like casters living, which is why I like Gatormans.

Ghost Walk - the old Cryx classic.
Half of Maelok's feat every turn where you need it? Yes please. Even casting it on one unit of Gatormans is pretty awesome.

Grave Wind - single target upkeep that gives +2 DEF and Poltergeist (push back attacker if missed by an attack).

A weaker version of Mordikaar's feat, but still pretty decent, especially if combined with the Swarm animus. Given the generally low DEF on Gatorman models, this will most likely be useful on Jaga-Jaga herself (competing with Escort) or on a DEF 13 Boneswarm (DEF 17 with animus in melee with a living unit). You could put it on a Wrastler or Snapjaw to make them DEF 14, which is also nice in the right situation (forcing other heavies to boost or risk pushback).

Spellpiercer - all friendly models get Blessed and Magical Weapons (assuming it's melee weapons only, the image cuts off)

PP HQ, 2011:
PP Employee A: Hey B, it seems that Gatorman players are having issues with all incorporeal stuff, like it is literally impossible to beat incorporeal spam lists on scenario when you only have 2 models with magic weapons and 2 magic spells per list at best.
PP Employee B: Indeed A, that does not appear to be a lot of fun. We better get on that right away.

3 years later, we have this spell on a Gatorman caster. Holy crap, what a spell. Gatormans now shred through Iron Flesh Kayazy, Defender Warded Errants, Blackbanes, any most other tarpit BS that isn't Tough spam or Warders with Krielstone. This fixes a lot of stuff, and is thankfully NOT an upkeep so you can still have a survivability buff on Jaga to keep her from death (which is good because the spell is an aura so she'll have to be a somewhat far up).

I still think they should have given her snake Magical Weapon baseline. I swear there is going to be that one game I am going to lose because I had to spend 2 fury to get Magical Weapon on my caster and not have enough fury to live through next turn.

Note: lasts 1 round. FU Incorporeal models running through my dudes.

Feat: LEGION OF DEATH

When an enemy dude is boxed while within Jaga's control area, that model becomes a Dark Shroud zombie bot for you, the Gatorman player. It cannot activate other than make an advance directly after becoming a zombie. The model is RFP at end of turn.

Mmmm... I don't know about this. Essentially it is a janky way to get -2 ARM somewhere. Like, really, really janky. I think it will require a lot of play to see how it works but my initial impressions are not great. It does RFP, which is nice, but doesn't get around Tough.

Is there any advantage gained to keeping enemy models on the table apart from the Dark Shroud? I am guessing the use of it is to charge in with Gators and kill their front line, and then use the models you just killed to act as a defensive wall in front of you (since it lasts a round), or to hold scenario zones and such. A good way to prevent weapon master countercharges.

EDIT: The zombies can also make free strikes, something I had not considered. That is quite potent.

• Is it shut down by anti-healing auras (ie. Blood Hag)? I would guess so.
• Do you get the RFP effect if you chose NOT to zombie the model? The text isn't 100% clear but it seems the RFP effect is conditional upon the zombie effect.
• I like that it is optional, because in general Gatormans don't want stuff staying on the table to gum up the board to block you in.
• It also depends heavily on your opponent's list build and positioning. If they have an ARM 20 heavy, they can just keep it away from their infantry and it will probably never die. I guess you can use that to your advantage. That would also screw with Deadweight, your main way of controlling that heavy target.

Thoughts: Calaban 2.0

Well, this is the Cryx matchup at first glance.
In terms of pairings, you might bring this as your second list and will almost certainly bring it as your third list just to deal with that problematic matchup. I don't know if she is well-rounded enough to replace Maelok or Barnabas in a straight 2 list format, since they match up pretty well vs Circle and Legion.

She also doesn't have any strict anti-shooting tech, much like Maelok. Her way of delivering Gatormans is Ghost Walk and Escort for the beasts, while Maelok has Death Pact and Revive (and feat).

Her attrition comes from either Escort or Grave Wind  (Grave Wind+concealment / Escort+Spiny Growth is a +4 stat swing in either DEF or ARM, which is good), which unfortunately does nothing for Posse.
DEF buffing stuff always make me think about playing Boneswarms, which is inevitably leaves me disappointed.

Her spell list is really swell. Ghost Walk alone makes her really good for Gatormans, and then she has some survivability and speed buffs. Not to mention the problem fixer that is Spellpiercer.


Not a huge fan of the feat. An ARM debuff is pretty good in Gatormans but this is quite possibly the most annoying way to do it. However the 'zombie wall' effect is looking quite sweet as a defensive and disruption tool. Janky, but potent.



Overall I am not Rask-level impressed but think she is neat. There is a good possibility that the other releases in the book will spice things up for her. I will playtest for a few months and then reassess my opinion.

Jaga Jaga + Exigence info

Yay, a thing. Or two things.

Jaga-Jaga has risen to prominence as a high priestess of the Blindwater Congregation. In her talons writhe the spirits of death drawn from the swamps, each eager to comply with her designs. She is an enigmatic creature, whispering into the darkness to converse with ravening things of shadow. Around her the unseen spirits bubble close to the surface, drawn to her as leeches are drawn to disturbances in the water.

So the model looks pretty nice. They've tried to accentuated the femininity of the model by totally covering the space where her mammaries would be (if she were a mammal) and generally made her more slender and less bulky than her male counterparts.

As for rules, we get basically nothing. As far as I can tell, the blurb text may as well be describing the latest cheesy black metal album from Dimmu Borgir, Cryptic Doormat Extinguish. Let's hope she doesn't suck.

UPDATE: TO RELEASE IN OCTOBER 2014.  Woot.


Then there is the blurb for Exigence:

HORDES: Exigence brings you the next thrilling chapter of the HORDES saga. Hold nothing back in your fight for survival with:
•  New warlocks, including new epic versions.
•  Three new character lesser warlocks who bring even more furious support to your army.
•  New units and solos to expand HORDES armies with new strategic possibilities.
•  New narrative fiction picking up directly after the harrowing events of HORDES: Gargantuans.
•  A painting and modeling guide to help you prepare your forces for battle.
•  Theme Force lists for each new warcaster, which allow you to create armies based on specialized forces found in the HORDES world.

There's some fluff stuff beforehand, but I will safely assume that not much happens, nobody anyone cares about dies, nobody feels strongly about things, and the realm is safe for another year.

What is really interesting with the blurb is that it does not mention ANY new beasts. If the "real" factions hadn't received 1-2 new beasts each already, I would probably break out in hysterical laughter as Pigs get screwed again. At this point, I can only hope.

However, you do get a Theme Force list for each new warcaster. I don't expect any new warcasters in a Hordes book, so I will say no new Theme forces. GG PP.

Sacral Vault Battle Engine spoilers

Finally, something actually Gatorman related to write about...

From War Room Beta spoilers:

SPD: 4
MAT:0
RAT: 5
DEF: 9
ARM: 20
CMD: 10
20 health boxes / 9pts

Gunfighter, Eyeless Sight

Ranged Weapon: Spectral Fury
Range: 12, RoF 1, Pow 13
Magical Weapon
Rapid Fire [d3]
Deathly Dominion: Costs 1 soul for the Bone Shaker effect on each ranged attack.

Abilities:
Crypt of Souls: Gain 1 soul for each living model that is destroyed in its command area. If no souls are on it at the beginning of your Control Phase it gains d3 souls. Souls can be spent to boost attack and damage rolls.  (Supposedly 5 souls max)

Arcane Vortex: Spend a soul to negate a spell targeting the Vault or a model within 3'' of it.
 
Soul Sacrifice: Warlock can remove a soul to gain 1 fury point...[then the image cuts off].
 
Soulstorm: While this model has 1 or more soul tokens enemy models entering, or ending their activation within 2'' of the Vault take 1 damage.

Source

The Good

• It's a huge base with a good boostable gun
  Huge bases are not usually good without guns, for logistical reasons. Boostable guns are  very good, because they kill many things from far away. RNG 12 POW 13 is a pretty good weapon for sniping out things
• That boostable gun is magical and has Eyeless Sight
  This allows it to kill incorporeal models and shoot Menoth jacks. This is very nice. Blackbane's will still be a pain in the ass, but now you can just snipe-out Blackbane himself and then stand in front of the rest of them with Soul Storm and be a douche.
  AND IT ALLOWS YOU TO KILL TARTARUS AND GORMAN AND THE BLOOD HAG AND DENNY AT RANGE WITHOUT SACRIFICING YOUR WRASTLER OR SPENDING 3 FURY ON FLESH EATER ONLY TO FIND OUT THE HAG HAS STEALTH. FU CRYX DIAF Aaaaarghhhhhhhh...... *ahem*.
• Soulstorm
  This ability is AMAZING. Probably the best rule on this thing, besides Eyeless Sight. Especially on a huge base, that is a huge FU bubble to small based melee infantry (lol Cryx), and at ARM 20 it doesn't really care about small-based ranged infantry either. Especially since you can probably put it in a Swamp Pit (assuming amphibious) or Spiny Growth it or whatever.
• Always has some souls, and gains them within a large radius
  Very nice - PP seems to have realized that the Skorne BE is a total piece of crap mostly because it doesn't start with any tokens and will die by the time it gets any. The free d3 also helps slightly vs Cryx, which has less living models, and when you want to Zombify all the things for Maelok's feat.
• Gives fury to warlocks
  This is neat for the Maelok Posse spam list, since if for whatever reason one of your Snappers gets killed, you have a little backup plan. Or just in general, free fury when you need it can be better than cutting for a point (like when you are at one box of life left).
• Very large anti-magic bubble
  Again, the huge base is put to work with Arcane Vortex. The thing I like about this ability is that it is preventive as much as it is reactive - if your opponent knows you have it (and you should probably remind him at the right time), then it just messes with his plans.
• I can use my Soles tokens every game!

The Bad

• d3 shots at RAT 5
  RAT 5 isn't that big a deal since at RNG 12 and a desire to get souls, it will probably be quite far up and thus able to sacrifice its movement for the aiming bonus when it actually wants to shoot stuff. Plus it can boost.
  1d3 shots however is a bit of a dick punch and a little too random for my taste. d3+1 would have been quite a bit more reliable for a gun platform. Therefore, what this indicates to me is that the Sacral Vault's primary purpose is not really to be shooting stuff, but to be a huge Soul Storm / Arcane Vortex construct and pseudo-fury battery.
  The gun is to be thought of as a single shot you get to do for free every turn to snipe out an important thing or two, and a way to spend "uneeded souls" if you happen to get extra shots (via the Bone Shaker effect). Keep those souls for the Soul Storm, and situationally the Arcane Vortex, unless you are going all in sniping out that Gorman or Tartarus.
• Does nothing to help vs ARM for non-Rask casters, or buff beasts
  One can dream, right? Maybe we'll get a beast that can actually deal damage later on. Or the new caster can mix-up our list pairings a bit.
• Huge base, gets shot and killed.
  Oh wait, I forgot I play Gatormans, and don't usually get shot. Very nice. ARM 20 is also pretty sweet. Just don't let heavies get to it.

The Other Stuff

If these are correct, which seems likely barring the fine details, then it's a very nice but not fundamentally game changing piece for us Gatormans - just game changing at the non-Rask level. I like it a hell of a lot more than Shamblers anyway, with which it can combo pretty effectively (double dipping on souls/corpse tokens for every living model death).

It helps the Cryx matchup a lot in providing a large anti-magic bubble and a magical gun, as well as stealing their souls and screws over small-based infantry with Soul Storm. I think it'll do some really great things with Barnabas and pushes him up quite a bit as a Cryx matchup, even perhaps taking the place of one Posse unit. Plus, another boostable gun always helps in that old-school KD assassination.
I've always had a slight preference for Barnabas over Maelok as my second list (I like rough terrain creation and I hate getting shot) and this model would certainly push me further towards our patron future god in a two list format. Not to say that Maelok doesn't get a lot from it as well.



I think my Rask lists will remain mostly unchanged, since the tankier factions I bring Rask against (and Ret, because they just can't handle the Jewfish) won't care as much about the Soul Storm or the Arcane Vortex. Unless of course one brings a shooty Rask list with 2 Posse, 3 Spitters and a Sacral Vault. That might be pretty legit.


Summary - would likely buy this model when it comes out in 5 to 11 months. Would be mildly disappointed if the spoilers weren't legit.

Drafting in Warmahordes

I love drafting. Doesn't really matter what shape or form it is in, I just think drafting is a great meta-game. Perhaps the greatest metagame. It adds a huge dimension to any complex game.

When I followed NHL hockey, I was a big fan of the pre-reason draft, and the totally heartless denial strategies employed by these equally heartless mega sports franchise organizations, which no longer in any way represent the regions in their name, like they did in the times when the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup every 3rd year.

I also love watching pro DotA, listening to draft analysis and seeing teams organize their skill + items builds to match their team draft and their opponents' team draft. What is also great in DotA drafts is the ban-draft cycle. It greatly increases competitive game balance to allow each team to progressively ban out 5 heroes which they do not want to be involved in the game at all, and how bans play into the draft strategy:

Here is an explanation video of a DotA Captain's Draft from a team captain's perspective (the drafting process has changed slightly since then, for the better):

If you're not familiar with DotA (or its MOBA progeny), the details might be a little confusing, but suffice to say the draft format requires pro DotA players to be quite flexible in playstyle and have a large pool of heroes they can play well, and also requires team captains to be very flexible in terms of overall strategy since the opposing team can always draft hard counters or ban necessary support heroes before you get to pick them. You also have to be really up to date on the current metagame strategies and combinations. A good draft can greatly increase your chances of winning, and a bad one can make life very difficult for you - much like listbuilding in Warmachine or deckbuilding in card games.

The biggest difference of course, is that in games like DotA everyone has access to all the heroes all the time, whereas in Warmachine you are restricted to your faction and your finite wallet (or rather the function of money/time for most gamers). The one exception is the Iron Gauntlet, where you can have lists from different factions, but because of no other restrictions it basically ends up being a dickslapping match between the 10 or so strongest casters in the game and their toughest lists. I am of the opinion that the intention behind the Iron Gauntlet format was to have list construction have as small an impact on the outcome of the game as possible, thereby leaving dice and player skill to be the biggest factors in the game. The reality however, is quite different given the balance issues in the game (1).

DotA has like 105 unique heroes available, but even within the game there is a limited Captains Draft mode where the hero pool is limited to a third of the total, an even more limited individual Single Draft mode where each player only gets 3 randomized heroes to choose from, and even a completely unbalanced but mechanically interesting mode called Ability Draft mode where you get given a hero + their core stats but have to draft your skills alongside the 9 other players! It is basically a draft heaven game.

Drafting is possibly the only part of Magic: the Gathering I find interesting, since deckbuilding Magic is only balanced at the highest levels (which is stupid expensive), or the pre-made starter decks, on account of the rarity/collectible system leading to a huge gap in the power level of individual cards. Drafting leads to some really interesting deck builds, highly unpredictable deck designs and in my opinion a game experience that puts more emphasis on a player's understanding of the game mechanics and play skill than on "deck piloting". My favourite deck building card game, Android:Netrunner as also just introduced a draft format, so looking forward to trying that someday.

What makes draft formats sweet

1) Zero sum game

If you get something, someone else doesn't get it. You not only have to worry about the options you are taking, but the options you are giving to your opponents.

2) Uncertainty

You can't prepare ahead of time as well as you could with a constructed format, because the specific framework and pieces of the game aren't fully determined until the draft is over. However, this uncertainty is still somewhat in the player's control, since decisions during the draft stage affect the final format.

3) Invisible Hand of Balance

It's a bit like cutting a cake. How do you get a cake cut into completely equal pieces? Assuming self interest, you ask someone to cut the cake and tell them they are getting the last piece.

Drafting works a little bit like Adam Smith's free market theory in that way. Assuming every player is trying to win the game, they are trying to get the strongest draft they can, meaning they will take the strongest hand they can, or at least try to make their opponents' hand weaker than theirs. Individual actors following their self interest eventually leads to an equilibrium, which will lead to a state more balanced than if you randomly gave players a bunch of cards/heroes/models/whatever, and assuming balanced inputs, will lead to a pretty balanced outcome (at least relative to the 'core' constructed format).
Due to the ultimately limited pool, there is more potential for abusive combos since certain counters may be absent, leaving OP options unrestrained, but overall the balance issues are not as steep as you'd expect and things run pretty efficiently.

Drafting in Warmahordes

How do you apply this to Warmachine?  

First of all, you have the Spell Draft format that Privateer Press cooked up. That seems about as balanced and fair as the Ability Draft in DotA, which is to say not in the least bit. But it's fun and allows you to look underneath the hood for a bit. Apart from that, a highly limited and very gimmicky mode, good for a laugh and to break your usual thinking patterns for a while.

The last small Who's The Boss/Beermachine event we ran locally in early April had a really cool limited-drafting mechanic which I enjoyed greatly. Here is how it works:

•  All the available caster cards are shuffled together. The two matched-up players sit down at a table opposite each other, and the TO puts down a caster card in front of each player. 
• This is repeated three times, so each player has the option of three different casters to take with his list that round.
• Each player then 'bans' out one caster from his opponent's pool, leaving the choice of two casters. Each player then chooses one of the two for their next game against each other, then you repeat the draft process each round.

That's it. It was a ton of fun and the drafting rounds where probably even more fun that the actual games as everyone trips over themselves trying to give advice to the players and thinking about list combos and all that (2). I found this even better than the standard Who's the Boss wheel, because it has a level of player interaction and choice in it that the spinning wheel doesn't have, not to mention it is WAY easier to implement.

Next time, I'll see how a full-blown army draft goes - including warjacks, warbeasts, units, UA/WAs and solos. I think the best way to do it would be to have all the available cards laid out on a table by category and then use a snake draft system until all players have drawn all cards. You'd probably have to limit the pool in some way so that it doesn't take forever if your playgroup has an asston of models available like mine does.
Each player then puts together a 50 point army list using their selections. After that, you do the warcaster limited draft as mentioned above and go nuts with some really mental lists. 

I don't think competitive WM really lends itself to drafting due to the rather strict army design rules and synergies. Drafting/banning doesn't really make sense, and is pretty unexciting, when you have a only a tiny number of permutations (ie. a handful of fixed list matchups) to work with. Also it's not a zero-sum game. So basically, this post has doesn't really have much to do with SR Warmachine :P

Framtiden

I have a tournament at end of June where I am subbing in for someone else who wisely decided to leave this country for the experience of a lifetime. I will probably play really badly and rage about it/the state of the game, so tune in then to hear more whining and complaining (see footnotes below for an appetizer).


(1) There's an oft-repeated line about Warmachine that says the 'game is balanced'. It isn't. If it were, we would see a much greater diversity in army builds than we currently see. There is a decent amount of diversity, but relatively speaking it is very small. If we want an interesting metagame, someone will always have an advantage in matchups, but that advantage shouldn't be as great within factions as we currently see.
What we should be saying is that out of all the competitive miniature wargames, Warmachine is the most balanced, and is in my opinion the best one. That doesn't mean it can't be better, and there is always room for improvement.

(2) Also because I was feeling pretty low in Warmachine at the time and decided to make a Blindwater list with no Posse. That list sucks cloacas dry btw, never do that to yourself. That and I spent most of my first 1.5 rounds drinking gin&tonics and imported beer, and most of my last 1.5 rounds drinking water, so either way spent more time thinking about my bladder than I did thinking about how utterly shit my lists were.
I still went 2-1 over the 3 rounds since I managed to pick up Kreoss3 in Round 2 (total boss) and Goreshade1 in Round 3 (amazing caster that nobody gives credit to because he is so boring). My first round was Naaresh, who sucks incredibly badly outside Skorne, and sucks normally within Skorne. The design is cute but it's tuned way too loose, making him all limp in the nether regions.