SoMD Bay Thralls

Changing Locales

2010-04-19T18:50:00.000-04:00

We're moving the blog over to wordpress and it should be our permanent home from here on out. I hope to have more updates in the future with the local game store moving to a better location. It's now local and we should be able to get in more games and thus more stuff to write about.

The new URL is here.

Epic Feora or Feora2...

2010-03-30T20:25:00.000-04:00

Or whatever you like to call her. This is the first epic caster I painted and it was really fun. The one problem I had with the model was the smoke stacks. After spray painting the first layer of primer, she fell from my hands and hit the ground. Ouch! I didn't realize it at the time but one of the smoke stacks came off. I went scurrying about looking for the thing but to no avail. Enough with the talk, here she is.

I hope to have the Testament of Menoth by weeks end as he's about 90% completed.

SoMD Bay Thralls on Facebook...

2010-03-28T10:01:00.002-04:00

So I decided since some of our members are on Facebook more so than the PP forums, to create a page on Facebook for us. I will post updates there as well as on the PP Social Group site.

So if you are interested search us out on Facebook, SoMD Bay Thralls. You need not be from good ole' Southern Maryland to join.

Here is the link to it.

Blood & Steam Circuit for Warmachine/Hordes

2010-03-22T19:44:00.000-04:00

So fellow Bay Thralls, I am posting rules for this neat idea one of our local Press Gangers came up with for a way to get all of us Warmachine/Hordes players to get to know one another. It's an awesome idea and the fact that it is helping build the community in the MD,VA,D.C area for our favorite game is what makes it an even better idea. So without further ado here is the write up PG-Crashtestdummy came up with via NASCAR style and stuff.

Your local Press Gangers/Event Organizers are proud to present:
The 1st Blood & Steam Circuit for Warmachine/Hordes

What is it?
The Blood & Steam Circuit begins March 20th and will run until the end of September. During this time, every time you participate in a Blood & Steam Circuit event you will earn points. At the end of the circuit, the top 16 point getters will be invited to participate in a tournament in October to determine the circuit champ! Details about the exact date in October will come later. We are working to get a Warmachine Weekend type event scheduled in October and this will be a part of it.

How do I participate?
Come out and play! Play at your local store or travel out to the other various venues in the area and get some games in and meet new players!

Details:
At any event that is apart of this circuit, a player will earn 4 points for a win and 1 point for a loss. There will be a player roster posted here on these boards as well as on the PP boards to let players know their stats and their standings. You don't have to register for the circuit or anything. Just make sure the event organizer gets your full name and e-mail address and your points will be tracked.

Participating Stores:
Hobbytown - Frederick,MD - PG_Linrandir
DreamWizards - Rockville, MD - PG_CrashTestDummy
Game Parlor Woodbridge - Woodbridge, VA - Kerwin12
Games, Comics, and Stuff - Glen Burnie, MD - PG_Avatar8481
Game Vault - Fredericksburg, VA - PG_Trigger
Aardvarks - Lusby/Leonardtown - PG_Capsfan34
NOTE: Not all events will be a part of the circuit. It will always be up to the event organizers discretion, so ask them if you are unsure.

Kickoff Weekend!!!
March 20th - Dreamwizards - 35 Points Steamroller Event
March 21st - Games, Comics, and Stuff - 50 Point Event

I will post a list on this site as well as on the PP boards about events that are apart of the circuit as well as any upcoming events that are apart of the circuit as soon as I hear about them.
If you have questions, contact me! nate.oesch@gmail.com
Have fun!

Solo Painting

2010-03-17T13:50:00.009-04:00

Or should I say, something to keep me motivated while I'm busy. This time next month, my wife and I are going to be home owners. Its a daunting task for both of us and we're really excited. With that being said, I don't want to lose touch with my friends in Warmachine and the hobby of painting cool miniatures. Keeping in touch with the guys shouldn't be difficult with all the forms of communication around but I don't want to fall behind when it comes to a painted army.

Right now, half of my Protectorate army is painted and the other half is put together with bases but isn't even primed. There's several solos I could paint to keep me going in the grand scheme of having a fully painted army. Believe me, I want to get there one day and if I manage to paint at least one solo a month, I think I can keep myself motivated.

As of today, I have one Reclaimer, one Paladin, and Vilmon that are unpainted. Throw in Severius and there's four simple models that I could add to my fully painted list. My quest for the next four to five months is to paint one or two of these guys a month. I know there's people out there that can paint a solo in two hours but I'm a slow painter and it takes much longer.

By the time September rolls around, I should have some more painted up miniatures to add to my army. If things go well and I knock them out quickly, I'll pick up another Vassal, two Allegiants, and a couple of Menofixers. I really want to get my hands on a Menofixer, my jacks are begging to be fixed up in the midst of battle.

Lets hope I can do this...Wish me luck.

35 Point Steamroller Tourney - Rockville, MD

2010-03-05T19:54:00.004-05:00

I wanted to start mentioning the local tournaments in the area so here's the first one for the blog. Listed below are the details and here's the official thread.

March 20th
Warmachine Steamroller 2010 Event
Dreamwizards, Rockville, MD
11772 Parklawn Drive
This tournament will use Steamroller 2010 scenarios
Tournament Start time: Registration Starts @ 11 AM Tournament Starts @ 12 PM
# of points - 35 Points / 2 Lists
Painted / Unpainted Miniatures Allowed
Warmachine & Hordes Armies
Prize Support: Steamroller Coins for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd
Entry Fee: $10

Its doubtful that I'll make it but to anyone that lives in the area, it should be a great event.

Custom Bases - A Background

2010-02-28T14:45:00.001-05:00

For a while now, I've wanted to do a tutorial on how I make my custom bases for my Protectorate army. It’s nothing too fancy, just a couple of layers of cork and then some washes here and there. Add a little drybrushing and some flock, then you’re done. First though, I want to explain how I came up with the idea of green turf on top of rock.

When I first started to assemble my Guardian, I thought it would be cool to make a custom cork base to reflect the rough and rocky terrain of the Protectorate land. I had imagined making an army that was deeply involved in the Northern Crusade and them marching across the desert.

I went out and bought some cork from the local department store and then started to sculpt. After thirty minutes or so on working with the cork, I had a desirable look. Then I primed it and started to add paint of various orange, browns, and reds.

This is where it got ugly, I couldn’t get the colours right to convey realistic desert rock or something you’d see in Utah. After doing a google search for cliffs, I stumbled across the Cliffs of Moher. I thought to myself, man I would like to visit these one day and I might even be able to create bases similar to the Cliffs themselves. The base I was working on then got trashed and I sculpted another one and started with a new idea in mind.

After a few tweaks to the process, I ended up with a custom base I'm satisfied with. Next week, the tutorial should be posted with some pictures to show the process.

Darius vs Feora2 - 15 Points and Escalating

2010-02-24T11:28:00.000-05:00

This past Tuesday night, Barrett and I sat down for our first game in our Escalation campaign. Both of us are using new casters and during the course of the game, it was abundantly clear. But that's the whole point of it, to familiarize ourselves with the caster and enjoy the battle at hand.

Here's the two lists.

Feora2
*Guardian
*Vanquisher
Choir - min
Vassal - min

Darius
*Hammersmith
*Ironclad
Sword Knights
Reinholdt

This was the first time that I've ever had more range than his army and the first time he's had more troops than mine. It was a nice change of pace. The table was terrain heavy to try and compensate for the low model count.

Here's a quick recap ot the match.

Starting Positions.

Round 1 - Everyone runs except for the choir who should've anyway. I think I put passage on my jacks thinking Barrett was going to shoot them up like he normally does.

Round 2 - Vanquisher takes some shots at the Hammersmith and comes up short, it was so close we used the new spray template to see if the shot was in range. It literally came up 1 mm short. The deviation drifts off into the distance. All his jacks are out of charge range and Darius takes a shot at the Vassal and comes up short.

Round 3 - The Guardian charges the Ironclad while Ignited and Battle Hymned. I manage to scrap it thanks to the Vassal's ancillary attack. Vanquisher charges and does minimal damage. Hammersmith is loaded up with focus and wrecks the Vanquisher in 3 hits, taking out the Vassal with the chain attack slam. Unfortunately for Barrett, he wasn't able to use the extra focus as he was out of melee range after the slam attack.

Round 4 - Feora pops her feat and manages to take a fire token off the Guardian and Hammersmith and put it on Darius and Reinholdt. The Guardian wrecks the Hammersmith. Darius casts a spell that causes the Guardian to be stationary.

Round 5 - I use a focus to shake off stationary. The Guardian charges Darius and is barely in reach range. The attack hits and does considerable damage. By another attack and I get the critical pitch, throwing Darius towards a house. He survives with 3 boxes left. He gets up and shakes off knockdown. Charges the Guardian and almost wrecks him. It was getting pretty late and we wanted to end the game.

Round 6 - Feora charges Darius and ends the game

Post match thoughts.

It was evident that both of us hadn't played our casters before. We missed out on some opportunities early on to go for the caster kill. I really think Barrett could've got to Feora with the Hammersmith with some better positioning. If that was the case, the game could have ended a lot earlier.

I really like Feora2, she has a good variety of spells and likes to get her battlegroup into the thick of things. Halfway through round 2, I realized that she had a warjack bond. This is the first time I've ever played a game with one so that should tell you something.

Its back to the drawing board for both of us. We're going to be expanding to 25 points next game and the nice part about it is, we can change up our list anyway we want, save for the caster.

Resurgence Recap w/ Pics

2010-02-21T17:15:00.002-05:00

Well, my first tournament in two years was an absolute blast. In total they were sixteen players that should up to play with people coming from Richmond, Woodbridge, and the SoMD Baythralls. We followed all the Resurgence rules and played 25, 35, and 50 point games through four rounds. You can check out my tournament list here.

I won the Protectorate coin by being the de-facto player and ended the day at 1-3. My list was built on a grind it out game and lacked the necessary speed to contest the control zones. It would've been a good idea if read up on the scenario rules to understand the scoring more. Not that it was all that complicated, I just found myself going for the caster kill instead, something I wasn't planning on doing. I guess old habits kick in.

Round 1 - My first game was against Dave from Richmond. Him and his friend John came up and were really cool guys. We got the chance to talk before hand about playing and what caster we're taking then we got matched up to play. Here's Dave's list.

Iron Lich Asphyxious
*Seether
*Deathripper x2
*Stalker
Skarlock
Mechanicthralls - max
Brute Thrall x 1
Machine Wraith x 2

This was my first time playing against the Iron Lich and really Cryx for the that matter. Dave went for the assassination run against the High Reclaimer and didn't realize he was camping nine focus. He still did some considerable damage but left himself open for the High Reclaimer's feat. I feated and brought back some Cleansers and they incinerated the Iron Lich. I won via caster kill but only managed to get one control point to his three.

Round 2 - This game was against Fred and the Iron Lich, surprise surprise. This was rather funny because Darren played against Fred the first round and then played against Dave, my first round opponent. We both got to face off against the Iron Lich two times in a row and oddly enough, we split the games.

Iron Lich Asphyxious
*Deathripper x 2
*Nightwretch x2
*Cankerworm
Mechthralls - max
Necrosurgeon
Soul Hunters - max

Fred went for the caster kill in the second round but ended up running his arcnode out of his control area and had to settle for a contested control zone. The game was a real grind with him winning via scenario 7-3. The lack of pathfinder devastated me and it didn't help that my Cleansers were fleeing for most of the game. This was the only game where I didn't get any damage onto the opposing caster.

Round 3 - After lunch we came back fresh, ready for the final two fifty point rounds. This time around it was against Chris and his Khador army lead by Sorscha.

Sorscha
*Beast 09
*Wardog
Drakhun w/ dismout
Fenris
Doomreavers
IFP max w/ UA
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksmen
Yuri
Manhunter x 2
Reinholdt

This game reminded me how devastating Sorscha's feat can be. By the end of his second turn, over half my army was wiped out. He had a chance to disrupt the High Reclaimer who was stationary and sitting on ten plus soul tokens but rolled snake eyes with Eiryss. Doh!!! I ended up doing minimal damage to Sorscha and he ended the game with a caster kill by a Manhunter. Really this game wasn't even close, and I didn't even get a control point. Hats off to Chris, he really played his army well.

Round 4 - This game was against John from Richmond. He had a fantastic merc army led by Durgen. It ended up being the longest game in the tourney but it was a real slugfest.

Durgen Madhammer
*Baser
*Blaster x2
*Rockram
Thor
*Driller
*Bokur - client to Thor
Boomhowler - max
Steelhead Cavalry - max
Sea Dog Deck Gun x2
Reinholdt
Herne & Jonne

There's so much that went on in this game, it's hard remembering all the details. His feat turn was pretty nasty, I do know that. I tried going for the caster kill with my Cleansers again. For some reason, I thought Durgen's armor was a lot lower than it was. My incinerate did decent damage but it left that lovely cloud effect. This ended up killing my resurrected Cassius (Rhoven's Honour Guard) when he charged in to finish him off. Whoops! He then shot the High Reclaimer to pieces who was sitting at base defense and arm. . It was the best game of the day for both of us and a nice way to finish off the event.

Darren ended up winning the Retribution coin by going 2-2 and having more control points than the other Retribution player with the same record. Unfortunately, Jeremy lost all three matches but won a blister for being the best sport or should I say, best loser. :)

From left to right, Darren, Jeremy, and me with the goofy face.

Tournament Time = Tournament Tray

2010-02-19T23:12:00.003-05:00

Here's a couple of pictures of a miniatures tray I made for the Resurgence tourney tomorrow. I figured it would be a pain to transport all the infantry I have so this should make it a lot better. Enjoy.

A Preview of My First MK II Event - Resurgence

2010-02-15T19:01:00.002-05:00

This coming Saturday, I'm heading to a Resurgence event in Fredericksburgh, VA. Darren and a few other Baythralls will be joining me there and I hope there's a good showing of players. This will be my first tournament in the new MK II setting and really, the first tournament for me in about two years. I'm a little nervous going in but I plan on having a good time and playing my one of my favorite casters, the High Reclaimer.

With that being said, I really like the HR's rules and here's a few reasons why. The grind it out game, I really enjoy longer games and like the fact that he plays an attrition battle. Though he can go for the assasination run, this suits my playing style more and its really fun bringing back Bastions at full health. Another thing is creativity, there's really a lot of good troop and jack choices to bring with him and his army doesn't get stale. I've read about resurrecting Idrians that have the opposing caster as their prey and how its a good assasination attempt. That might sound obvious to any seasoned veteran of the game but it caught me be surprise.

Finally is his ability in scenario play. Those people that have played in Resurgence know the scenario Gaining Ground, where you have to control zones in the middle of the board. I was thinking the HR could resurrect troops and have them go for the zone closest to the opponent's edge. There's a bunch more reasons why I like him but that's good enough for now. Its time for my three lists.

High Reclaimer - 25 Points
*Vanquisher
*Crusader
Hierophant
Choir - min
TFG - max
Cleansers - min
Vassal

High Reclaimer - 35 Points
*Vanquisher
*Crusader
Hierophant
Choir - min
TFG - max
TFG w/ UA
Cleansers - min
Bastions - max
Vassal

High Reclaimer - 50 Points
*Vanquisher
*Crusader
*Guardian
Hierophant
Choir - min
TFG - max
TFG w/ UA
Cleansers - min
Bastions - max
Rhoven and Honour Guard
Vassal
Rhupert

I'm particularly concerned about the lack of any commanders in my 25 and 35 point lists. My TFG and Cleansers are both susceptible to fleeing and I hope that it doesn't happen. The Guardian is in there for arcing spells if I have a ton of focus and for pitching people out of the control zones. Plus, if I can clear out a charge lane for him to an opposing caster, he'll be MAT 10 with Powerful charge and battle hymned. Its all in theory though, now I have to execute my plan.

Here's a picture of my 50 point army. I forgot to add poor Rhupert to the army but its ok. He's only primed and no special base.

I plan on bringing my camera and taking some pics. Battle reports should be posted no later than Monday. Wish me luck...

Temple Con 2010...what a POW 20 blast.

2010-02-10T08:07:00.003-05:00

So this past weekend was Temple Con. I was lucky enough to be able to attend. Glad I did, it was fun times and noodle salad. I got to reunite with a lot of my Press Gang brothers and sisters whom I meet at the PG Invitational last spring, on top of meeting a lot more of them. I got to meet some of the Warstore crew who all in all were a great bunch of guys. I learned how to play Malifaux which is a great skirmish game if you don't know about it. But over all I would say Temple Con was a great con.

Now during the time there I only managed to play three games of Warmachine ( due to helping out at the HQ desk for Eternal War ) First game I played a re-match against my PG buddy Ross aka Capt Caine on the PP forums. He plays Cygnar and I of course used my Retribution. We played on an awesome scenario table (wish I would of got pics ) basically he was the attacker and got to field 50 pts and I as the Defender got to field 35 pts. I know sounds unfair right...wrong the table looked like the beaches at Normandy with my army atop a huge hill and the only access to me was up a rocky path on either side or a tunnel which allowed small base models to come up through a access hatch right by the objective, which btw was for them to destroy a water tower. It was a great game, he of course won by caster kill.

My second game which was by far the best game I have ever played, and my dice couldn't of done me prouder. I got to play against David "DC" Carl who for those who don't know works for Privateer Press and is in charge of the playtesting and field testing and some development. We played a standard 35 pt game. He used Cygnar with the new Kara Sloan caster and me and my Retribution with Ravyn . I tell you the auto includes with Kara make her real nasty. Of course you take a Squire but everyones favorite little gobber is in full effect with her. Giving her two shots with that rifle or allowing her to roll more dice is just *shudders* ewwww. So we went round for round and it wasn't looking good for me...again. As the game went on I still had some of my Housegaurd Riflemen left and with snipe on them they were proving to be a real threat to him. So I managed for the killing blow to position Ravyn where she could catch my Riflemen in her control area and poped her feat while being in LOS of Kara and in range took my shot. I hit of course being it was boosted attack and then managed to do a significant amount of damage enough to drop her to 8 health from being untouched. So feeling good about my dice I declared a 5 man CRA against her with my Riflemen and finished the job. I consider that pulling the victory out of my arse. From what I understand playing against DC is not an easy task. It was a very fun game and I learned a lot playing against him, more so how to use Kara Sloan effectively...so guess who is gonna field Cygnar again :-)?

My third game was against one of my best online friends and the creator of our wonderful banner for the blog. G'daybloke aka Chris Miller also know for his wonderful blogsite Lost Hemisphere, if you haven't been I highly recommend it. He has lots of pics and video of Temple Con up there. You will see me in a few pics and even in a video doing an Interview with Jack Coleman who is the Quarter Master of us Press Gangers. So my third game wasn't to great, 50 pts of Retribution on Retribution the table was awesome, the models looked great both mine and his, well more so his he is a great painter. The table was a canyon with frozen water in the middle and going across from one corner to the other was a train bridge. My objective was to destroy the bridges pillers in 6 turns. Sounds easy right...wrong. I managed to take out two of the three in 4 turns due to really bad damage rolls, my guys might of well been using a hammer and chisel to damage them with me rolling only three to four points each time. But I managed to concede defeat when all I had left was less than half of my Riflemen who were no way in hell gonna take on the rest of his army.

But all in all Temple-Con was great times for all. Next year the SoMD Bay Thralls need to be represented in full force, so start planing for it now guys :-)?

TFG & Vassal

2010-02-04T21:02:00.005-05:00

First off, to all the people attending Templecon, I'm jealous. I hope everyone has a good time and the tournaments go well. And if you're reading this at Templecon, what are you doing?!?! I wanted to attend this year but the timing wasn't right, house buying and stuff sort of got in the way. Next year, I'm definitely going to go.

Here's a couple of pictures of my TFG and Vassal. In the rush of painting the Vassal, I overlooked his ear. You can't tell from the pic but I need to go back and paint it. For whatever reason, I thought he only had hair to paint, silly me.

Here is a picture of my TFG. I just included all the different models since my photo set up isn't the best.

They're all complete except for the flame on the standard bearer's flag. I originally painted it light blue, trying to go for different flame look but it came out a little cartoonish, think Superman with the red and blue. I went back and painted it black and am debating on which colours to try. For now, its fine.

Here's my Vassal Pics

You can see his unpainted ear in the second picture . I'm going to finish painting it this weekend during the blizzard of 2010. I normally don't put up miniatures that aren't 100% complete but it's been a while since I've showed off any of my stuff and figured why not. Now I just need to work on a photo box.

Till next time...

Mangled Metal - Severius vs Seige

2010-01-24T21:45:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Barrett and I played a couple of mangled metal games. Our first one was a 25 point game that saw Reznik vs Nemo. I don't remember too much of that game, other than Reznik getting squished by a Thunderhead. Our second game was an enjoyable, 15 pt match between Severius and Seige.

Severius
*Guardian
*Vanquisher
*Repenter

Seige
*Defender
*Ironclad
*Charger

Here are some of the highlights of the match.

Round One

I won the starting roll and elected to go first. All the Protectorate jacks ran, Severius casts Eye of Menoth and Defender's Ward on the Guardian.

Ironclad runs up, Charger runs to a hill, and the Defender runs up. Seige walks up and casts some AOE spell that made rough terrain in front of the Iron Clad.

Round Two

Severius upkeeps Eye of Menoth, Defender's Ward. Allocates two focus to the Repenter, and Vanquisher, and the Guardian runs for 1. The Vanquisher moves up and shoots the Ironclad, Repenter moves up and shoots the Charger, taking out his right arm. Severius runs for cover, next to a nice cozy house.

Seige gives 1 focus to the Defender, 3 to the Ironclad, and two to the Charger. He moves up and feats, hoping to catch Severius in his control area. He comes up a couple inches short! The Ironclad charges the Vanquisher and is dice plus eight on the damage roll. Ouch!!! He hits, takes out the cortex, and right arm. The Defender moves up to block a charge lane to Seige and takes a shot at the Guardian. He needed a 5 to hit with Defenders Ward, and duffed the attack roll, getting a three on two dice. The Charger did some bad damage to the Repenter, taking out his left arm.

Round Three

Severius upkeeps Eye of Menoth and drops Defender's Ward, a mistake that will come back to haunt me. The Guardian and Repenter both get three focus and the Vanquisher wiffs his attack on the Ironclad. The Repenter charges Seige, boosts his attack, hits and does seven damage. I buy another attack, needing seven to hit and miss. The Guardian charges the Defender and does some pretty hefty damage, taking out his left arm and cortex. Severius sits still and feats, camping one focus.

Seige has no focus and hits the Repenter for some pretty good damage. The Charger shoots into melee and with his aiming bonus, he offsets the penalty by two and succeeds with the attack. He almost takes out the Repenter, leaving two boxes empty, one right arm and one cortex. Lucky me :) The Ironclad then destroys the Vanquisher with his two attacks.

Round Four

Upkeep Eye of Menoth, give three focus to the Repenter and three to the Guardian. I decided to boost my hit on Seige, hit, and boost the damage roll. The damage was pretty significant and Seige was left with three life. The Guardian layed into the Defender and with his last roll, critically pitched him towards Seige. The deviation went right towards the warcaster but I only rolled a 1 for distance, coming up short an inch. Subsequently, the Defender was destroyed with the attack. Doh. Barrett and I wonder how the rules played on thi and decided he would get thrown, land, and then destroyed.

Seige gave three focus to the Ironclad and kept the rest for himself. He finished off the Repenter with one hit and the Ironclad came close to finishing off the Guardian. Leaving him with one movement box and two cortex boxes. Both arms critically disabled.

My Repenter's damage grid right before the fourth round.

Round Five

I upkeep Eye of Menoth and gave three focus to the Guardian. The Guardian boost the hit on the Ironclad, hit, boosted the damage and did minimal damage. I bought a second attack and it missed with only one die. Severius walks up to cast immolation at Seige and comes up short. I desperately missed my Heirophant as I would've had an extra two inches on my spells. I decided to try and do some more damage on the Ironclad but it was a wasted effort. By this time the game was over.

Seige gave three focus to the Charger, Charger stands still and blasts the old man with his two shots, doing 14 damage to him. Seige then shoots the old man dead. Game over.

After thoughts

It was a fun game and reminded of my early days of just starting out, playing a lot of mangled metal. My placement on the Guardian was rather lackluster and it should've been in the middle of the field. It would've survived a lot better if I kept Defender's Ward on it.

In related news, our MK II cards came in and we can say good bye to the PDFs. The cards are fine by my standards and I don't see any need for complaining. I finished up my full unit of TFG and UA and hope to post them soon, along with my Vassal.

Experience and the Element of Surprise

2010-01-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

As Barrett and I are preparing to play in our first official MK II Escalation campaign, the subject of play experience comes to mind. During the next couple of months, we're both going to be using casters that we've never played with nor played against. The idea behind it is, to familiarize yourself with your army and your opponents by table top experience. By the end of the campaign, you should have a good idea of what your caster, units, and solos can do as well as your opponents.

The campaign is mere days away, and as far as I know, Barrett is taking Darius. The only thing I know about Darius is, he likes jacks and can create these little half jacks that look like they're sad. With the release of the MK II PDFs, I have the ability to find out exactly what Darius does and speculate what type of jacks he’ll bring. But do I really want to? If I were to look up what Darius' stats are, I think I'd be selling myself short the element of surprise and fun when playing against him. Plus, I think its better to learn by your mistakes rather than memorizing stats, it’s a more dramatic effect.

That's part of the fun of playing Warmachine and Hordes, facing off against the mass variety of warcasters and warlocks and not knowing what to expect. For instance, my first tourney I ever played in, my first match was against Cryx, with Goreshade being the caster. I asked the guy "what's his specialty?", and he answered "his feat brings a whole unit of Bane Thralls on the table". That was a pretty cool moment for me in gaming, the whole element of "uhhh ok what am I going to do now".

In the end, I think it comes down to play style, and for all intents and purposes I’m a casual gamer. I like to build my lists ahead of time, with the intent of playing the figs I want to play and see how they match up against my opponent. The best part of this is, not knowing what you’re going to face and having to make your army work the way you designed it. You’ll get plenty of surprise moments too, like Kaya2’s “Against All Odds” ability in MKI. I’ll never forget the first time I played against her, the beginning of the round two, I had Reznik surrounded by five choir guys, two jacks, and a vassal. Moments later, Kaya teleported in with the help of Laris, from what seemed to be 20” away, then Reznik disappeared.

If you decide to go this route, it might be a tough go in the beginning but it’ll definitely be fun, for you and/or your opponent.

Decision Time

2010-01-08T09:11:00.007-05:00

Barrett and I are starting up a MK II Escalation Campaign to coincide with the launch of Prime MK II. We initially did one last year when the MK II field test rules were released to the public. It was nice to see how our favorite casters, jacks, solos, and units changed and this time it shouldn’t be any different, save the stats and rules are permanent.

The rules are pretty simple, choose a caster and play with him or her at 15, 25, 35, and 50 point levels. You’re not allowed to upgrade your caster if there’s an epic version nor are you allowed to downgrade if you’re using an epic. I know this differs from typical Escalation campaigns but we decided to keep the same caster throughout. They’re no proxies allowed and we’re thinking about using the killbox scenario from Templecon.

My big dilemma this time is choosing a caster I want to play. At the moment it’s a toss up between two epics I’ve haven’t ever played, Kreoss2 and Feora2 (I think this is how the big boards are naming the epics nowadays). Both forces offer a nice thematic choice in troop selection and should look nice on the table, barring they’re actually painted. This is something I’m also going for, a force that plays well on the table and has a theme to it.

Kreoss2 brings a more troop heavy build with big hitters, specifically Exemplar models, something I don’t have a lot of. To help this out, I’m all set to order some Bastions and Cinerators. The only other Exemplars I have are Guis and Cassius, the two guards for Rhoven. My other big hitters are the Avatar, which is yet to be assembled and Vilmon, who would benefit greatly from Kreoss feat. The main issue with this army is getting the pieces together and assembling them.

Feora2 brings a little more speed and a lot more fire to the table, something I sort of have (fire wise). I have a full unit of TFG w/ UA and my Cleansers only need one blister to bring to a full unit. Throw in a Vanquisher with a Vassal and an obligatory Repenter and I should have the fire part covered. The one key ingredient I’m missing for a nice thematic list is Daughters of Flame. I doubt I'll get the Daughters anytime unless someone wants to unload them for dirt cheap.

The campaign is set to start in a week or two and I’ll have to make a decision before then. The nice part about it is, either caster I choose should bring a different play style and both of them look fun to use. If any of you have some suggestions, I’m all for it.

All for Alzheimers Awareness

2009-12-31T20:00:00.003-05:00

So first off let me introduce myself. My name is Darren and I am the local Press Ganger for the Southern Maryland area. I am known on the PP forums as Capsfan34, and most of the local gamers know me by tubbie, but I am no longer going by that name. So, after thinking long and hard for a color scheme for my new army The Retribution of Scyrah I thought of a good friend of mine's aka Devilsquid on the forums, idea about painting his Legion pink to spread awareness for Breast Cancer and his dedication to his mother who past away from it (R.I.P). So after thinking long and hard I decided to dedicate my army to my Grandmother who past away years ago from Alzheimers and to try and spread awareness of this horrible disease. So the Purple Pain is born and I one day hope to hold events to raise money to donate to Alzheimers research.

Early Christmas Present

2009-12-23T21:30:00.003-05:00

For all you Menites out there, including myself, Privateer gave us a early Christmas present. The new Vice Scrutator Vindictus.

The model itself is pretty rad, it's also hard to describe, at least for me. Some have called him creepy and others have said he looks alien, however you like to describe him, he's definitely unique. This is what I really love about Warmachine, the unique diversity inside a faction.

From the description we're given, he looks to be an infantry caster with some buff to Zealots. That's all fine and dandy with me as I'm hoping to score some for Christmas. I might be one of the few Protectorate players that didn't use Zealots in MK I. I'm also hoping he's at least a 7 focus caster, if not 8, though that might be too much.

Kudos to Privateer for another unique, interesting warcaster. MK II can't come soon enough!!!

A Little Change and Background

2009-12-19T22:41:00.001-05:00

First off, a huge thanks goes out to gdaybloke at Lost Hemisphere for the awesome banner atop the home page. It's pretty much awesome sauce!

We're currently in the works of making some changes to blog, specifically the name and url. The current goal is to have a place for Warmachine/Hordes players in southern MD to post pics of the minis, share battle reports, lists, and the usual stuff associated with the blog. Basically, it's going to be the same blog with more authors, content, and posts. Sort of like a poor man's Kiwi Thralls, if you like.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Southern MD region, it encompasses three counties below D.C. Players can be spread throughout the region, in different counties, and it can be difficult getting people together to play games. The blog will help alleviate this problem with a central, albeit cyber, location.

Author introductions will follow shortly and we anxiously await the release of MK II. I think it's the cards that I wan't the most!!!

In a Rut

2009-12-03T22:37:00.008-05:00

Since the MK II final stat cards have been released, I've been creating lists for most of the casters I have. When doing so, I try to think about the models I have and then some models I don't have. This way, I can proxy the ones I don't have in a game and see if I should buy them.

The recent problem I've come up with is, I'm including the same models over and over again. For instance, the only Exemplar unit I have is Rhoven and I'm not sure he counts because his bodyguards are Exemplar. I rarely ever think about putting Exemplars in a list, save for Bastions. When I do put them in, its normally with Kreoss, Severius, or the High Reclaimer.

My normal list goes sort of like this, Caster, 1 Vanquisher (shocker I know), another heavy, possible Devout, and then choir, vassal, TFG w/ UA, and an assortment of solos. That's pretty much it. The caster I choose normally dictates the jacks I take with them, that's probably true for most players but its nice to mix it up some.

In writing this, I think I found out my problem. I need more units, specifically all the Exemplar ones, Idrians, Daughters, and possibly Croe's Cutthroats. This should give me more variety and a different play style than the one I'm use. Which is a slow methodical, Menoth brick, walking up the field waiting the lay the hurt.

The night before I know I'm going to play, I sit down and make 2 lists. This helps me and my opponent because normally I would do it right before the game. Sometimes it added another 15-20 minutes, just ask Barrett. This way, I know what models I need and it speeds up set up time considerably. There's a chance of me getting in a game this Saturday and if I do, I plan to try out this 50 pt Amon list. Its definitely a change of pace and hopefully it'll be a lot of fun to play.

Amon 50 pts
*Devout
*Castigator
*Crusader
*Crusader
Hierophant
Vassal
Choir - full unit
Idrians - full unit w/ UA
Croe's Cutthroats - min unit
Kell Bailoch
Gorman

New Cygnar Light, the Firefly

2009-11-20T14:25:00.003-05:00

The forums are down for the weekend (what kind of sneakiness is PP up to?), but I gotta talk about this little guy. I just thought I'd check the front page in case anything new came up, and saw this

"The light warjacks commissioned by the Cygnaran Armory set the standard by which all light ’jacks are judged. The original Charger chassis has proven an excellent platform for versatile and deadly machines. The Firefly is the most recent variant of the Charger chassis and possesses cutting-edge electro-mechanika capable of frying opponents to a crisp."

As far as I can tell, no one was expecting Cygnar to get anymore jacks in MkII. I didn't see a leak anywhere, which is odd. But I'm overall very happy and excited about this jack.

First off, it will have reach. It has a spear and has to. We have no need for a light with a ranged weapon and .5" melee. Second, I think it is going to be a spray weapon, though it's description makes it sound like it may have some kind of melta-esque feature. I think Spray, Phill thinks Assault. Both are viable.

I think this jack cannot be more than 5 points. The Charger and Sentinel are both 4. If it costs 6, you'd just take a Lancer. He has reach and, when not engaged, will be an arc-node. So this thing needs to be 5 pts, if not 4. I'm most excited about this Jack because it looks like the Swordknights now have their auto-include. The Centurion is too expensive to be marshalled and too slow to be an effective escort. Marshalling (or even just getting into melee with) the Lancer is overcosted due to the arc node. So now, the SKs will have a melee 2" jack that is cheap enough for marshalling. Very exciting, because I love the Swordknights.

Judging from the look, it is clearly a new mold, which makes me wonder if this is Cygnar's first plastic light jack. No indication shows that it is a 3-in-1 kit, but it could be possible.

The only complaints I have are about the shoulders and the name. The shoulders are comicly round! I mean seriously, this isn't the '90s. Stuffed shoulder pads, on a jack?!? lol. I may have to buy the weapons and head and throw them onto a Charger chassis (since that is what this is supposed to be). But there is very little similarity here.

And what's with the name? We've got Ironclad, Defender, Centurion, Hammersmith, Stormclad, Charger, Sentinel, Lancer, Hunter, Grenadier, Thunderhead... and Firefly! This jack gets beat up a lot, from both sides. I think I'm gonna have to check out PP's parts store and get some suitable wings. Fairy wings.

Joking aside, I am looking forward to this jack. I'll gladly take two of them, and can't wait to find out its price and release date!

Menoth Battlegroup

2009-11-17T23:15:00.005-05:00

My gracious friend Greg was kind enough to take some photos of my minis tonight. He's got a nice photobox setup and the pictures came out really good.

Here's my Menoth battlegroup. I should of had the Repenter facing a different direction as you can't see his duck bill head.

Here's a better picture of my Vanquisher.Thanks again to Greg and I hope you like them.

Revenger - Before and After

2009-11-13T20:04:00.007-05:00

I'm finally finished my before and after painting project, it only took me 6 months to do it. At least its done and here's the final product. The pictures are again washed out by the flash and my lovely wife told me she could help me make a photo box. Lets hope I can take some better pics after that.

Here's the model the first time I painted it. It wasn't that bad of a paint job but I really didn't like the grey on gold. I much prefer the grey on brass in my current scheme.

The second pic has a little photo editing in it to try and bring out some of the detail. I hope to have a battle box group pic later next week with better photos. Let me know what you think.

Fully Painted

2009-11-11T19:25:00.003-05:00

I just finished repainting my Revenger and it got me thinking, will I ever have a fully painted army? Probably not, but the best I can hope for is to have a 50 point army painted to a nice table top standard. Sometimes I look at all the models I have that are unpainted and get a bit overwhelmed. Then I have to realize, I play this game for the fun of it and it shouldn't be a chore or something I'm a slave to, rather than, a fun laid back hobby.

As of now, I have 52 Menoth models and 23 of them are completed painted. As for my Mercs, I have 12 models and only 3 are painted. At this rate, I'll have all my models painted by 2011. I've considered dipping my Menoth but I want to keep a consistent look to my army. Dipping half way is not an option for me but could be for my Mercs.

This gets me to thinking, I'm tempted to trade my Mercs away and finish collecting Menoth. For me, Menoth has enough variety in casters that makes playing them fun and not stale. Another thing to consider is playing time, I get to play maybe once or twice a month and this lets me play a caster a couple times and then move onto someone else. If I were to play weekly or bi-weekly, then I would consider keeping my Mercs.

It's nice to have options but I think I want to have a nice big army with more options rather than two mid size ones that I would switch back and forth on. I actually got to play my Mercs this past weekend and while they were fun, they weren't Menoth. I missed my faithful soldiers.... how sad.

Hordes!

2009-11-03T09:50:00.003-05:00

So with the Hordes Field Test only 3 weeks away, I lucked out on Bartertown and picked up the Battleboxes for both Circle and Legion, along with Rhyas (Legion lock) and a Seraph (Legion light warbeast), along with a huge Cygnar lot. While Phill and I rarely get enough time to play our main faction as it is, we are going to be making a conscious effort to try out the four Hordes factions during the Field test.

I already know I will be going with Legion. I picked up the Circle battlebox for my wife, who likes the furry creatures and wants to try painting them. Since she will not likely play with them, I'll have a small Circle force on the side that should end up seeing as much playtime as my Searforge army (Wait?! You collect Searforge too? See... In other words: No playtime)

I'm not sure what direction Phill is leaning in Hordes, but we'll be switching through all four factions' battleboxes, proxying Trolls and Skorne, and figuring out the Fury mechanic.

I'm looking forward to this. We're planning on a paint-and-play escalation campaign in 2010. Playing the Hordes FT in between games may give me the extra weeks I need to get my army painted. Phill (the wiser) already is nearly finished. Barrett (the buyer/postponer) is still resting on his accomplishments of 1 painted Centurion (out of 3), from a year ago. Oh yeah!

Ranking Menoth Casters in MK II and Brainstorming

2009-11-01T09:34:00.002-05:00

Ok, so there's a thread ongoing in the Menoth section on the big boards, about who is going to be the best caster in a competitive tournament setting. Now, I don't play in a lot of tournaments and for the most part, I'm a casual player so take this into consideration when I rank them.

Tier 1

High Reclaimer
Amon
Reznik
pSeverius
eFeora
eKreoss
Feora
Testament
pKreoss
eSeverius

Tier 2

Harbinger

As you can see, I think all of the Menoth casters are more than capable of doing their job. The only reason the Harbinger is Tier 2 is because of the immensity of putting together the model. It might take someone longer to do this and cut back on playing time.

When people see caster rankings it sometimes sways an individual to not even try to play a caster. That's why I have everyone at Tier 1 save the Harbinger, which is just a joke. It's a good way to encourage people to try out all the faction casters and increase your gaming skills.

Let's not think of reasons why one caster is the top dog but try to come up with new strategies for them instead. It will help broaden your knowledge of models and help come up with the not so obvious combos. In the end, it'll be more rewarding for you as a player. That's my 2 focus for the day.

The Basher

2009-10-28T20:35:00.003-04:00

Privateer unveiled the new Rhulic warjack, Basher, for all of us to see. This little big guy is one unique and awesome jack. I'm in awe of the design aspect of it and it's coolness.

After seeing this new jack and all the new plastic ones, 2010 couldn't come soon enough. Bring on the new jacks and sculpts, next year is going to be fun.

A little to do list

2009-10-26T22:25:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since either Barrett or I posted anything so I thought I'd end the dry run. I'm currently working on removing some paint from some older miniatures, namely TFG, Cleanser, and a few solos.

About two years ago, I commissioned someone to paint 6 Temple Flame Guards and a Castigator. While the paint job was excellent, it doesn't match my current scheme. You might ask, why not copy the same scheme as the TFG and Castigator? Well, it just so happens that I tried to but didn't get it right the first time and I prefer the scheme I have now.

This brings me to my to do list, I have a full unit of TFG ready to be primed and painted. This is going to be my biggest infantry unit I've painted in Warmachine. The TFG are a nice basic unit without so much detail so I'm looking forward to painting them. I've read that it helps to paint them in small batches of 3-4.

Before I paint my TFG, I'm going to try and speed paint my Revenger. I'm not the biggest fan of the model, light warjacks in general don't fancy me, and in MK II, arcnodes aren't that necessary. At least for me they're not.

After the Revenger and TFG, I have 8 Cleansers to paint and I'll most likely make it a full 10 when all is said and done. I'm hoping to have the majority of my eFeora list ready by MKII release. It's a daunting task to paint so many models so hopefully I can get it done.

Did I mention I want to get Bastions and Daughters as well, along with my three epic casters, solos, mercs...... Yeah you get the idea, it's going to be a fun fall and winter full of painting madness. This Saturday I'm starting my to do list and only time what all will get done. If I manage to paint 50% of it, I'll consider it a success.

Going Epic in MK II

2009-10-01T07:08:00.002-04:00

Recently, I was the recipient of a nice bartertown trade where I got epic Kreoss, Testament of Menoth, and Severius. This might not seem like much but I'm a big fan of the epic models and their rules. In the earlier edition of Warmachine, I didn't play epics at all. My main reason was I didn't have them and the second was they had to be played in 750 point games. Now that they can be played at any point level, that's gravy!

I was thinking about it on the way to work, how does epic Feora sound in a mangled metal game? Pretty good right? Not only does it change the meta on a lot of levels, the models normally look better. The Testament of Menoth is a killer sculpt and I can't wait to paint the guy. Epic Severius is also really nice and I even like epic Kreoss. The one I'm waiting to see is epic Harbinger. It's going to be hard to top the original Harbinger but I think Privateer can pull it off.

The only problem with epics is getting use to their rules and abilities. It's one that I won't mind having to due and it by doing so, it should create some good games.

Reznik MK II Style

2009-09-24T23:32:00.005-04:00

After seeing Reznik's new rules, I'm really excited to use him again. He's probably my most experienced caster I've ever used and his spell list is great. I'm liking Iron Aggression and Ignite on him even more than Brand of Heresy and Hate Monger. While it was a great spell, I often whiffed my attack roll and Hate Monger normally only netted me 1 attack when I really needed at least 2. I'm digging the new Reznik, so much so, I painted the guy.

Here he is, the flash drowns out some of the detail. I really need to get a photo box or have my friend take the pictures. It looks a lot better in person.

He was really fun to paint but putting him together, I got lazy. His left arm where the hand attaches to the arm, was put together with green stuff. I got too much of it on the model and it covered up some detail. Somehow when I glued the head on, the glue went over the menofix and messed up some detail as well. It was one of those deals where I wanted to get him on the table and just play the model. Next time, I'll take my time and do it right.

None the less, I'm pleased with the model.

MkII Feedback, Searforge

2009-09-22T22:16:00.001-04:00

Well, not really. As the resident Searforge expert, I'm going to defer to Searforge Chronicles, from our blogroll, for his breakdown. He handled it nicely. There are some very attractive things to see there.

Oh when, oh when, will Brun and Lug be MkII compatible?!?

MkII Feedback, Mercs

2009-09-22T01:14:00.002-04:00

I'm going to give a quick rundown of the few mercs I'm interested in. I won't be touching the Searforge Mercs, since I'll probably have to do that in a separate post. I'm merely interested in the mercs that would work for Cygnar.

But first, pMagnus. Holy Crap! His focus efficiency is insane, and how dare he steal Snipe from me. I don't care if he thinks he is the True Cygnaran. Snipe is mine!

Reinholdt is the same. Eiryss lost Magical on her crossbow (dang you Choir). The Bokur gained Shield Guard, taking an auto-hit from ranged instead of its client.

Aiyanna & Holt each lost 1 ARM and Holt lost Crack Shot. Alexia Ciannor looks like an entirely different unit. I'm definitely picking her up now. This tipped me over the edge. She got a MAT and RAT increase, a hand cannon, Arcane Disjunction (enemy models pay double to cast/upkeep. Take that Menoth!), she starts with 9 Risen in play (instead of 6), and her magic abilities are completely changed. Her Risen got a SPD, STR, and MAT boost. The Thrall Warrior got a SPD boost.

MkII Feedback, Cygnar

2009-09-22T00:00:00.003-04:00

Just a few initial impressions:

Both Nemos got a 1 point strength boost, making them POW 12 in melee. Appreciated. eNemo is sicker than ever. His feat, in the FT cards, used to say warjacks cannot exceed its focus allocation limit (3) as a result of the feat. It no longer says that, which means that I will have 2 jacks with 6 focus and 1 with 4 focus on my feat turn, assuming I allocate all 7 focus. That is disgusting. I'm sure it was an error on PP's part or else eNemo is now our beat stick Jack caster. Yes please.

Darius, my newest caster purchase, gained Repair *action. Makes sense. It is also nice to see that Tremor didn't lose it's single attack roll. Simplicity. Full Throttle lost the 2" of extra movement, but gained boosted attack rolls. I'll take that almost anyday! He lost Jumpstart (the turn and look spell), which merely means I'll be casting Jack Hammer whenever I have a focus left over. No more deliberation.

Seige gained a 4" AOE on his Ground Pounder. Glad to see it. In exchange though, it looks like I have to make a separate roll against each model. 4" is still a small AOE under the formation rules (which I haven't confirmed yet), but hopefully I can catch a Vassal or choirboy hanging too close to a jack. Shockwave became Force Hammer, which means it doesn't push whatever it comes into contact with, but does do POW 12 damage. That will be a great way to hit whatever is hiding behind jacks. It did get 1 FOC more expensive though, but its range increased 2".

The Charger didn't change. The Hunter gained Parry. I'm sure that will come in handy a lot. If I get charged, but not wrecked, I just drop back and AP the jack in the face. Good call, PP. Nothing different for the Lancer, except a wording clarification. Thorn's reaction drive got limited to 3". Probably a good call... My lights stayed at about the same.

Centurion and Defender didn't change. Ol' Rowdy has Aggressive; he can now run or charge without spending focus. His affinity with Stryker wasn't included on the cards. Looks like a typo. Ironclad simply got cleared up a little. For the THead, the Energy Pulse is now an auto-hitting *attack against everything within 6". He also gained sustained attack on his fists. I wonder if the first fist that hits get sustained (and the 2nd initial attack is auto-hit) or if it is only the second hit that is sustained... Either way, THead is gonna be playing a lot more. My Heavies just got a lot better.

GMCA is 2PC, less one ARM and 2" range on his pistols. He ignores only Stealth, and only if he doesn't move. Also, his Phantom Seeker doesn't say it ignores clouds or intervening models, but it does say it ignored LOS. I wonder if that was simple reduplication, because the GMCA was a auto-include against the High Reclaimer. Doesn't look like the Jr or Stormsmiths changed. Squire got a STR and MAT boost. Why? I have no clue. A huge blow to Arlan... He is no longer immune to electricity. Bummer. So much for the Arlan-THead duo.

Sword Knights got the boost I was looking for. They trades Precision Strike (pick the column) for Penetrating Strike, now doing an auto-point of damage against Jacks and Beasts if I so choose. Unfortunately, it is before the damage roll. They a bit more viable now. What good was picking the column if you couldn't exceed the damage? And with the UA, they get Precision Strike back (Tactics). The big question: Did Rangers get any better? Unfortunately, they really didn't. The only change I can see is that they are 1 PC cheaper (5). Still not enough difference to make them worth it. If I'm missing something on them, I'd love to know what, because I really like them and wish I could take them. Stormblades are now ONLY a min unit of 6. Guess that solves the problem of Stormblade blisters. A max unit of Stormguard are 9 PC instead of 10. They now have gunfighter, without any ranged weapon listed. Why? I guess it is for the officer's Electric Discharge. Odd. The Mechanics are 1PC more expensive for both Min and Max units. The Gobbers also lost Bodge and gained Repair[6]. The benefit is that they can now assist each other, though it came at the price of the auto-point of damage removal. The Mechanic has a weird ability that says he now cannot be knocked down and is +2 DEF and ARM when in B2B with a jack. May come in handy, though now that they're 2PC for a Min, I won't likely be taking more than one unit. PK Knights now have Spell Ward, which means they cannot even be targeted by Friendly spells (Arcane Shield). Kneel and Ranked Attack have now blended. I like the new one. Black 13th are cheaper and Ryan lost her Chain Attack for a *Attack. Better off. Like the GMCA, they also lost 2" of range and 1 ARM.

In summary, my MkII jacks are even better than the field test. My Casters are about equal. My solos probably equal out too, with some getting better, one getting a lot worse (Arlan :( ) and some staying equal. Interestingly, my four melee units look to be back where they were in MkI, which I'm happy about. The Stormguard and Sword Knights got better, the Stormblades and PK Knights a little worse. I prefer the SG and SK anyways, so I'm glad I can get them now. The Mechanics, which I was really excited about in the FT, are so-so and the Rangers still look cooler than they can perform. Black 13th was improved. Overall, I'm very happy. I haven't had a chance to read the rules yet, but I like the final versions of my models. The error on Ol' Rowdy's affinity has me wondering if any other typos will be identified. I'm sure they will, which might be the reason they release these before the official cards.

MK II Instant Feedback, Thank you Privateer!!!

2009-09-21T19:25:00.002-04:00

Well well, what a surprise that was!!! I can't believe Privateer made the MK II rules and stats available to the public! Man, that is so awesome! I want to thank the great company for doing that and will definitely be playing some MK II in the future. It goes a long way to show what a great company they are!

Overall, I'm really happy with the way things came out. Now we can all stop whining about Mage Hunter Assassins for crying out loud... Anyways, I'm just going to touch on some of my favorite models and I'll let Barrett create a new post for his.

*Amon - He lost Sandblast and gained Convection, IMO a major boost. His feat now lasts one round which is fantastic.

*Reznik - He lost Brand of Heresy but gained Ignite. IMO a great move to make him more versatile. I don't own a Redeemer and to me, it was kind of a boring tactic. Now he can take some good infantry and make them better.

*High Reclaimer - He pretty much stayed the same. Ritual Sacrifice was reduced to 1 focus and Soulstorm was reduced to 2". His going to be a grind it out caster but I look forward to using him.

*Guardian - Its my favorite warjack sculpt wise and the rules for him are better. It gained powerful charge and critical pitch is worded better. He'll be in my Reznik and Amon lists for sure.

*Vanquisher - 10" range on the Flame Belcher is most impressive. I'll be using this guy a lot.

* Avatar - To quote Podthrall Jim, "Disgusting". It gained reach and only went up one point. He's going to be the bane of a lot opponents.

*Bastions - The gained blessed on their weapons and are now FA:2. Great move for us Menites.

*Rhoven - Their point cost was reduced and they gained Blessed on their weapons and Set Defense. Rhoven's cleanse works on continuous effects and now has Negation, which removes 1 focus or fury.

I'm going to stop there and take a look at some more stuff but I'm most pleased with the way things came out. Barrett informed me that he was really pleased with Cygnar's stuff as well. I want to thank Privateer again for taking the time to listen to their player base and creating such fun and enjoyable game.

A Return Thanks, and My Goal

2009-09-17T11:09:00.003-04:00

A quick return thanks to Clayton for such great deals over on Bartertown. His whole army, the one he threw into my original order of Darius, Ironclad, Centurion (#2), and a Squire, ended up being a Max unit of Trenchers, UA, Grenade Porter, Chain Gun, Finn, Max Longgunners, a Lancer, and Nemo, Haley, and both poses of Stryker. I was really blown away by this "special bonus" as Clayton called it. Grim Angus was the least I could do.

The new acquisitions got me thinking about what my entire force would look like now, if I set them all up. I quickly sketched the whole thing out in Paint, while I was bored at work last week. Here is what I've got:

Starting from left to right, top to bottom:
Units:
Min unit of Stormlances
Max units of Longgunners (x2)
Max unit of Trenchers
Grenade Porter
Chain Gun
UA

Jacks:
Ironclad
Centurion
Centurion
Thunderhead
Lancer
Lancer
(behind the casters)
- Defender
- Charger
- Charger

Solos:
Finn
Stormsmiths x3
Journeyman
GMCA
Female GMCA

Casters:
Darius
Siege
Caine
Haley
Nemo
Stryker
Squire

Over on the far right, I have my mercs, consisting right now of Gorten's Battlegroup and the Alt Eiryss.

In all, by FA, this totals 2384 points MkI. In MkII, it is a slightly less impressive 142 points. My goal for September (which is rapidly coming to an end) is to strip, base, and primer my entire army. At the end of the month, I hope to be able to set the whole army out on a table and take a real picture, just to get an idea of the amount of metal I'm playing with now, after 1 year.

Thanks Clayton and Phill. This whole army is due to the two of you!

Repenter Complete

2009-09-13T14:29:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, Lost Hemisphere ran Repenter week. This inspired me to finish painting the one I had started a couple of months ago. I had originally painted this little fellow up in a less than stellar paint job. He was stripped of paint a while back and primed using Dupli Sandable primer, which is great and cheap.

Here was the first paint job I did and it really wasn't a complete paintjob but it was so bad, I didn't finish him.

This is the finished product and I must say, I like the model. Being one of the original Prime warjacks, he has a pretty cool look to him and I'm looking forward to using him in MK II.

The last model to paint in my "Before and After" session is my Revenger. He's already to be primed and then painted. I'm looking forward to having a complete battle box after and then I'm ready to strip and re-paint the Avatar.

Demo Game Board Done!

2009-09-02T22:35:00.007-04:00

I'm finally finished the demo game board and it's nice to see the finished product. I added more flock to the sides of the road and then washed it with GW Sepia. It could probably stand a little more of the wash on the road but I'm happy with it now. Small rocks were added to the bigger rocks to give a little more authentic look and a few shrubs were added as well.

The sides of felt were stapled to the wood and the excess was cut off to keep it clean. I added some felt pads on the bottom of the board so I won't have to worry about the wood scratching any table. Overall I'm pleased with the project. I hope it'll serve it's purpose well.

Here it is.

Now that I have some terrain making done, It's on to paint the Repenter, Revenger, and Avatar.

Two Lists and a Little Theorymachine

2009-09-01T15:29:00.003-04:00

Phill and I aren't playing much lately. I just started school, Phill's adjusting to a new job, and we're both pretty busy, trying to coordinate our schedules for the odd game in. Until then, I spend free time at work making lists. I thought I'd throw two of them up here and talk about them.

First, the themed army. Aside from an all Ogrun Legion army, nothing excites me fluffwise more than an all Gun Mage themed army. It isn't so much the awesomesauceness of the list or tactics that excite me, as much as the sheer cool factor of squeezing in as many GM units as I can into a list. So here it is:

50 points, MkII
Epic Caine
-Hunter
-Sentinel
-Sentinel
GMCA
GMCA
Journeyman
-Charger
ATGM
-ATGM UA
- Defender
ATGM
Black 13th

Again, I put little thought into how I would play this many gun mages, but the fact that almost all of my infantry would have Gunfighter excites me. The lack of melee is a problem, but the Charger and the Defender aren't shabby in hand-to-hand. The biggest thing I worry about is frustrating Phill at how long my turns would take to measure ranges, but I'm sure he'd be stunned at how cool this force would look on the table. That being said, I have a long way to go to be able to play this without proxy. I'd need eCaine, the Hunter, 2 Sentinels, two units of Gun Mages, the UA, and the Black 13th. But this is my goal list.

The next one is actually playable for me, and has more tactics in mind in its design. I'll use it for my first 35 point battle with my newest caster, Darius. Spoiler Alert, Phill! Thanks to Clayton over at Adventures in Warmachine, I finally got to pick up the Doughboy for a great price. My latest purchase on Bartertown from Clayton also secured me a second Centurion, my first Ironclad (I now have the whole battlebox!), and a Squire. So here goes:

35 points
Darius
-Lancer
-Centurion
-Centurion
-Ironclad
Arlan
Jr
-Charger

The main idea here is to get into Melee quickly and put the hurt out there. Full throttle will get my jacks up there quickly, the Lancer will allow me to cast arc Jack Hammer if they get extended past Darius' measly control area. The idea will be to run the Ironclad with a Centurion on either side in B2B. Upkeeping Fortify on the IC will allow him to Tremor and not knock down the Centurions. Giving focus to either Centurion to start a turn, and using what's left after spells to cast Jack Hammer on the IC after his *Attack will let me clean up quickly. Not much will be able to withstand 2 POW 18 Piston Spears and the odd Quake Hammer. To keep the infantry at bay, I'll keep the halfjacks nearby to repair Jacks or plant themselves in the ground and blow up. It's unfortunate that my "Jack caster" only has 6 focus, but with his ability to make his whole battlegroup rock makes up for it. I really look forward to the look on Phill's face when he leaves 1 damage box open on a Centurion and I wipe its damage clean with my Feat. Oh Happy Day!

I've been reluctant to pick Darius up till now, by the combination of his looks and the price, but now that I've played around with the possibilities a little, I know he and I are going to have a lot of fun together. I wish eNemo's feat overlapped with his spells. *shudder*

Oh Crap! I just rechecked Nemo's card, and it does! His feat doesn't say "in his battlegroup"! Man, Jacks and Beasts Never Rest never sounded so sweet.

Demo Game Board Take 3

2009-08-17T21:49:00.007-04:00

Well, I'm almost finished the board. All I have left is to do is tidey up the road a bit and make it a little more authentic. I'm also going to take a staple gun to the extra felt on the sides and secure it into the wooden base. This should help the felt from coming up on the edges which is easy to do with a simple pull. I don't want this project going to waste with a simple error in transporting it and a side gets snagged and then the felt pops up.

Here's the board after I flocked it with some Woodlands green turf and earth. I tried to cover up all the bright green and make it look a little more real.

It should be officially finished by week's end but for now it'll do.

Demo Game Board Take 2

2009-08-15T21:45:00.009-04:00

I managed to get a lot of work done on my demo game board today and it's almost finished. The big rocks were pretty easy to do but painting felt is another story. Needless to say, it didn't go exactly as planned.

In looking back, I should've flocked the table with some Woodland Scenics green turf before I started painting the rocks and then painted the big stuff. Anyways, here's some WIP shots of the gaming table after today's work.

This is the table after I sprayed black primer on the rocks and put down some brown paint around them. I also glued down some rocks on the road to make it a little more authentic. The rocks are kitty litter if anyone wants to know.

Here's the table after I applied a base coat of grey with a tint of blue onto the big rocks and cliff. The rocks were pretty straight forward. I took some info out of a No Quarter mag to help the process go smoother.

This is the rocks after one layer of drybrushing. In hindsight, I don't know if I would've add a cold grey wash onto them. They were looking great and then I tried to get fancy. Oh well.

Here's the rocks after I added a coat of cold grey and then a wash of devlan mud (I love this stuff) and a little green wash to the big rock. You can see the green in the bottom left hand side of it. I'm not sure If I like this or not. The road also got its first base coat and I tried painting some of the felt a darker green. You can kind of see it in the outline of the board.

Here's a first person shot of the road and its layout. Notice the arch in the big rock... That's pine bark for you.
Finally, this is the current state of the board. It's coming along nicely and I hope to have some green turf put down on it by the end of tomorrow. I'm mainly going to flock the bright green parts and leave the brownish areas alone. It'll add to the scorched look of a battleground.

One more day and couting, here's hoping I can finish it...

Demo Game Table

2009-08-12T22:25:00.012-04:00

Two post in two days, amazing right? It's been a slow summer for me and painting miniatures, so I decided to spark my interest in making a table. Barret is doing one and it got me motivated to try one as well. Before I try my hands at a full size gaming board, I decided to try and make a demo board. Something you could play a quick mangled metal/tooth and claw game on. The original idea spawned from this thread at the PP boards.

My board won't be as in depth or as good looking as that one but I hope it will have good playability and decent aeshtetics. I bought a 2x2 board at Lowes and got some small pieces of trim for the boarder and foam for the center. Barrett pretty much made the board himself a couple of weeks ago with me rooting him on the whole time.

Here's the board after the felt had been glued on, notice the small hill in the top left corner. Barrett made that too.

Here's the board after I made the road and glued down the cliff and a big rock. I was trying to seat the rock in the ground at a angle. It looks a lot better in person and it should give some decent cover. The cliff on the other hand, might be a little too steep but it's nothing a dice won't be able to fix.

Finally, here's a couple of pictures after I glued down the final two large boulders to provide
cover for both sides. The rocks are pieces of pine bark and should look a lot better after I paint them.

I plan on painting it and flocking it in the next couple of days and should have it almost completed by Saturday. Here's hoping that comes true.

They Have a Pulse!

2009-08-11T14:44:00.005-04:00

Just to let our readers know that we haven't died, I'm gonna post on two things here, in a minute. Before that, I'll let everyone (all none of you) know where we're at. My table has sat in my shed for the past three weeks. I haven't done a thing to it. All it really needs at this stage is paint. I'll partially blame in on the stinkin' heat and bit of thunderstorms we've been having, but only partially. I have been painting a little bit and have only a couple more hours to put into my Lancer. I also recently picked up a Defender and two Chargers from Bartertown (Clayton @ Adventures in WM) and have prepped them for priming after de-painting them. Two weekends ago, I helped Phill out with a 2'x2' table for Mangled Metal games. We made a lot of progress on it and Phill is finishing up the painting on it. So we are still active. We've only been able to play every three weeks or so, and that is kinda sad, but we're still playing.

First thing: The Podthralls, after four years and 200 episodes, have quit. They cite MkII and family life changes as their reasons. I understand. They've had a long, great run and it would be painful to have to adjust their episodes to do a top-five MkII feats or detail the Skarre-bomb in MkII. And a Monday night commitment every week for four years is huge. So I'm glad they'll be able to spend more time with their families. As supportive as I am of their decision, I'm going to miss them. I've been catching up on the past episodes over the past year since I began listening and just finished. Between the games Phill and I infrequently play, the Podthralls kept my mind in the game in the meantime. When I couldn't play, I could listen. And I passed a LOT of time at work pretending I was playing instead.

So their presence will be missed. So far, I've listened to an episode of Boosted Damage and Focus and Fury, but both left me unsatisfied, for one reason or another. The other two, Iron Agenda and Guts-n-Gears, are a lot farther into their shows. At this point, I'll probably just start listening to THAC0. Yes, I'm that pathetic.

Second thing: Privateer Press has a "Secret" announcement for Warmachine on Friday, at Gencon. A lot of pixels have been spilled over what this is, and I'm more prone to thinking it is either a video game, novel, or a movie. What I'd love to see, however, is an early release of MkII. I'm tired of waiting for it and I'd love to see that production finished sooner than they thought it would. Phill and I haven't played a MkI game since the rules and cards released. We never had a desire. We've had a great time with MkII and we'd love to get on with it. If nothing else though, I'd like sneak-previews of the promised MkII jacks for each faction. So, not much for wild-speculation, just my thoughts on what I'd like to see.

I'm still looking forward to Grind...

Dog Days of Summer and Break Time

2009-07-14T22:28:00.008-04:00

Well not really, the weather in southern MD during the summer this year, has been exceptionally nice. Along with it comes more time outdoors with friends and family and less time at the painting table. My wife and I just bought some bikes and plan on enjoying some bike trails and the great outdoors.

This leads up to my break time, I'm not stepping away from playing Warmachine, just the painting aspect for a couple of weeks or so. I find myself going in phases where I'll really want to complete some warjacks and then a warcaster and I work hard to do it. Then, out of nowhere, I want to work on terrain. I guess it's because Barret has been working on his table that has inspired me to finish up a couple of wips I've had for a long time.

Specifically speaking, I have a desert terrain hill that looks sort of like a skate board ramp that's almost complete. The idea behind it was to have two of them face each other to make a valley or ravine. My inspiration came from the same article Barret is using for his table. You can see it here. I should have some time in the few weeks to finish it up and then work on other things, if the mood strikes me.

Here is the first stage of the hill.

The second stage after I used a dremel to carve it up and give it shape. Notice a little feline in the back, inspecting things. That's my painting buddy.

Here's a side view of it.

After the hills are completed, I'll probably try to make those tall rocky, desert pillars, not sure the name of them. And then after that, I'll probably finish my Repenter and Revenger, to complete my "Before and After" painting project. Who knows how long this will take but that's the fun thing about table top gaming, there's always something you can be working on.

Hopefully Barrett's table will be finished soon and we could possibly play a game outdoors. How bout that, play Warmachine and enjoy the outdoors at the same time.

A Place To Call Our Own, MkVI

2009-07-14T10:10:00.006-04:00

Last night, I got to work on the most anticipated part of this project for me: the cliffs and the roads. I started off with the pine bark and my hot glue gun. Hot glue will work more effectively when gluing to felt than white glue, and it also allows me continue immediately. So I laid out the bark and attached it. Then, I took a scrap of foam and started to back fill behind the bark. Cut and fit the foam around the bark as well as possible. I used white glue and skewers to hold it. Fill in gaps with small chunks of loose foam. Anything you can fill in with foam will save you on plaster later on. I also worked on three ramps that will allow access to the hill. This is a messy process. Make sure you blow the tables off before you start on the plaster.

After the cliffs were filled in, I started to work on the plaster. I laid it on the bark eccessively. The point here is to bridge the gap between the top surface of the bark to the foam. You want the cliffs to look like they are a part of the hill, not like someone laid them next to it. There were a few spots where the bark was taller than the foam, so I had to double up on the foam. We'll see later if I'll regret that decision visually, but it will give some elevated platforms to shoot from.

Once the cliffs were molded, I started on the roads. Put the plaster in the middle of the road, spread to the edges, the run the spatula down the middle of the road to give it the proper flow. I also ran the edge of the spatula through the road to make ruts, then lightly dragged it over them to lessen its impact.

These boards are nearly done and ready to paint. I will likely hit these (at least the cliffs) with my sander (or sand by hand) just to smooth it out a little. I also have some felt to put on top of the hill. Once these are finished, I am going to hit them with textured paint and start the painting process. Before that, these will need a lot of time to dry, so I likely won't return to this till next weekend.

A Place To Call Our Own, MkV

2009-07-10T10:29:00.004-04:00

One thing I enjoy about focusing on a project with end goals in mind is that you can seem to find spare moments to work on the project. I had some of these moments last night, so I was able to trim the felt and put in the roads. I also undercoated the bark that I will use for cliffs.

Using the edge of the board as a guide, I trimmed up the felt . This is why it is important to leave at least a 1/2" of felt around each side, because anything less will be hard to cut. A good buffer on the sides allows you to hold onto something while trimming and you can pull it away as it separates. Make sure you're using a sharp blade so you won't tear it. Here, you can see the trimmed edge (bottom left) and three more untrimmed edges.

The next step was to draw out the roads with a black Sharpie. I measured out where the roads would join the edge of the board to make sure that the boards are interchangeable. I centered each road at 16" from an edge, and made the roads 3" wide. Then, I free handed the roads on the felt and cut them out with my knife to just the outside of the line. I'm not very good at free handing, so any goofiness in the roads can be fixed when I lay down the plaster surface for the roads. Finally, once the roads are cut out, pull up the felt, keeping your hand on the side that won't be removed. Again, go back with your glue and spot fix anywhere the felt is coming off.

My final step for the night was to apply black spray paint to the pine bark I would be using for the cliffs. I laid out the bark in the design I'd planned, then moved them to my painting surface and sprayed them. I will likely have to wait till Sunday to work on the cliff and roads, but the bark will be attached with a hot glue gun. I'm looking forward to this step the most!

A Place To Call Our Own, MkIV

2009-07-08T21:55:00.003-04:00

A sick daughter canceled my plans for the evening and gave me a chance to work on the table. I'm sorry my Anna had to suffer, but I really am glad I got to work on it! I finally spread the felt! It's starting to look like a real table.

The night started with some sanding. A lot of the plaster started to break off from the vibration, but I was able to smooth out a few rough spots. The part I focused on most was smoothing out the edges to minimize splinters in handling. I had the right idea with the plaster, but it didn't work too well. Once the felt was on, I could really see the indentation where there were gaps. I'm hoping that the paint and effects will draw the eye away from the valley that they'll be moving through... At least it will keep the dice on the table.

First off was to rough cut the felt to the shape needed. I wanted to minimize the waste of the felt, and stretch another 2x4 board out of the 72"x54" piece. For this, I roughly cut where some roads would end up in order to make it last. You can also see where the cliff will eventually go. Once the pieces were cut, with a 1/2" overlap around the edges, I spray them with the hose.

By moistening the felt with water, it prevents the felt from soaking up the glue too quickly. As the glue dries, the felt will stick. I started by spreading the glue around the edges, with a continuous bead, then I spread it everywhere. Don't skimp here. I went through four 4 oz bottles for the two boards. As you can see in the pictures, the glue will seep through the felt in areas where it is really thick. This is fine, because it will dry clear. Work one piece at a time to keep the felt from drying out too quickly.

I decided to add the hill before I covered the felt. Trying out the piece I cut showed that the felt would stretch well. So I shoved a number of penny nails into the base, with the points sticking up, and covered the area with glue. Then I pressed the hill down on the nails. To attach the felt, I focused a lot of glue around the seam where the hill connected with the board and coated the top of the hill. I started the felt on the hill and pressed down into the creases. Keeping one hand on the base of the hill at all times, I worked my way outward to the edges. In this way, I was able to simultaneously keep it from wrinkling and from stretching away from the base. I've now put the two boards away to dry. Tomorrow night looks unlikely, and I promised my wife I'd work on the house all day Saturday if I could work on the board all week. I'm hoping to work on this again on Sunday afternoon.

Next up, I'll cut the felt to its final size and reglue anywhere the felt is pulling away. Then, I will turn my focus towards the cliffs. In order to incorporate then in properly, I think they need to be done before I start on the roads. So I'll build up the cliffs, using pine bark and foam, then work on the roads, cutting into the foam and laying down spackle. Once the roads are laid out, I'll focus on adding some texture, then start painting. Though I know how long painting can take, I feel like the hard part is already behind me! Here's hoping the felt stays glued on...

A Place To Call Our Own, MkIII

2009-07-08T10:06:00.004-04:00

Apologies in advance for the pictures. I was working on this outside at dusk and did not think to compensate for the light balance on my camera.

Day 2 focused on bridging the gap between the edges of the board and the foam, a small gap of maybe 1/8", and building the hill that would be permanently attached to one of the boards.

The day started off well as I was looking for Elmer's White Glue, since I had used my supply the prior day attaching the foam. I checked Target, Michael's, and Office Depot, until I found a great deal at Wal-mart: 4 oz glue bottles for $.25 each. For $3, I picked up the equivalent of a quart of glue (which cost $8 at Michaels). That should last me a while. Sure, it's washable School Glue, but I don't plan on exposing my board to the elements, so it should suffice.

I started working on the board that would have the hill attached to it since I'd need that board first to work on. In retrospect, bridging this gap was probably highly unnecessary, as the gap would probably not be noticed under the felt and it used the rest of my quart of spackle. I'll need to pick up another quart to do the roads and the cliff face now. But I finished the boards and set them aside to dry. I won't be working on these tonight, but I plan on sanding them down on Thursday night. I will also take my sander to the edges of the boards to ensure the trim and the MDF match up and the two boards fit together tightly. If I had focused on getting a tighter fit with the foam, sanding down the trim a little bit would have handled the gap issue without the spackle, and I could have spread felt last night. Oh well. I'm learning.

If a blade is foam's worst enemy, the a sander is its best friend. I started by cutting our a rough shape in my 10"x14" double-thick piece of foam from the prior night. At one point, I got so frustrated with my dull blade that I started hacking chunks off of it with my spackle tool and ripping them off. Real professional, I know. So I turned to my sander. I have a two-handed Orbital Sander that takes a half-sheet of sand paper. I loaded it up with 100-grit paper and started to shape. A rougher grit would have done the job a little faster, but this worked well. As I was sanding, I discovered that the glue from the prior night hadn't set entirely yet, and the hill had very little lateral strength to it. So I decided the reinforce the join to give it more sheer resistance. For this, you could use toothpicks or a wire hanger, though you'd want to watch where you sand with a hanger, as it will eat through your sandpaper. Lacking toothpicks, I went with some wooden kabob sticks I'd saved earlier in the year. When in doubt about something crafty, save it. I shoved 10-12 1" lengths of these through the hill to hold it tight and continued sanding. For this hill, I wanted height and didn't want it to be stepped. So it is a little steep in the ascent, and models likely won't be able to stand on the side of it. I may ease out the slope a little more tomorrow night, but I'm overall pleased with how well the sander worked on this.

So my work for the night is finished. I had my wife check Weather.com to see if there was a chance of precipitation for the night and there wasn't so I left these outside. Sure enough, at 10pm, we heard rain. I was able to get them in without them getting wet, since they were set up under a tree, but I'm thankful my wife thought she heard rain. We checked the radar on Weather.com and sure enough, there was one lone cloud sitting over our town, with not a cloud anywhere else in the state visible. Hilarious. Thursday night will consist of sanding down the spackle and finally spreading the felt! I'm thinking over how I'm going to spread the felt over the hill, at this point. I'm not sure if I should cover the hill separately, or incorporate it under the main felt. I want to minimize cuts and wrinkles in the felt, but don't want it to look like it is a separate part of the landscape.

A Place To Call Our Own, MkII

2009-07-06T20:54:00.002-04:00

Day 1 was off to a running start. It went a lot faster than I thought it would, once I started.

The basic design is 2 pieces of 2x4 compressed board, with a 1"x2" pine frame around it, to protect the 3/4" sheet of polystyrene. Materials and estimated prices follow:

(2) Sheets of Compressed board, $6.50 ea

(1) Sheet of Polystyrene, $10.50

(3) 8' lengths of 1x2 pine, $3 ea

I actually have enough Polystyrene (foam from here on) to do two more boards, since I'm not using a full 4'x8' length. So another $22 and I can have two more modules. I also bought

20 #6 1 1/4" screws for the pine trim, only to discover I had #8s in the same length.

I began by drawing the design on the two boards just to get a scaled idea of the layout. It turns out that the 24"x48" boards are actually 24 1/4" x 49". As much as it bugs me that it'll be off by 1/4" on one side, ripping a 4' length of board, for only a bit more than a blade's width and without a table saw, would bug me even more. Connecting roads won't be off that much. The extra inch on the long side was easily remedied. I then began framing out the board. This would give it more strength and keep the foam from getting banged up.

When I first pictured this board, I had grand visions of perfectly mitered corners and superb craftsmanship (with pine and MDF). Then, I woke up, realized that I did not have the proper tools for miters (I freehanded one with the circular saw), and decided that there was nothing wrong with a simple butt joint.

Someday, I'll make the $5000 table with dovetailed storage drawers, but for now, I'll stick with my strengths. I was able to make it so that the end-grains point toward the deployment edges, so they won't be visible from the side. Small victories... I'm also glad that I made this decision after making only one mitered corner. I was able to correct it, without too much hassle. Anways, I glued the trim, then strengthened the attachment with screws. This board is heavy and durable. After lifting these with only the frame attached, I would definitely recommend 2x2 boards if you are planning on transporting them.

I framed one corner of the board, then cut the foam before framing the other two. This helps to ensure that I have a tight fit for the foam. I framed 1 corner, put a spacer in (of the same width as the trim), and flipped it over on top of the foam to cut it. This worked really well and gave me a straight edge to cut. This foam dulls blades fast, but since the edges will be hidden, I didn't care if they were jagged or at a slight angle. Once the foam was cut, I framed out the other two edges, test fit the foam, then applied glue and pressed it in. At first, I thought gravity and the tight fit would keep the foam in place to dry, but by the time I had finished the second board, the first had popped up in the middle and needed to be reglued. I have an abundance of books, so I took the boards into my office and will now let them dry overnight. I also threw together two 10"x14" pieces of scrap foam for the built in hill.

The hill will be my next step. Also, the foam is slightly smaller than the trim, so I will apply plaster around the edges to smooth it out. This will all be hidden under the felt, and the edges will ensure that the boards are the same heights where they meet up. But this step will prevent models around the edges from being off-balance. So, tomorrow (hopefully) I will work on the hill, smooth out rough edges, and maybe even start on the felt. I am going to do the cliff section after the felt, the hill before. Then, I need to assess my paint supply. I've collected cans of paint over the past few months from the mistake rack and I'm pretty sure I have what I need.

A Place To Call Our Own

2009-07-06T14:45:00.005-04:00

Up until now, the preferred gaming surface of the Smib Thralls has been a glass coffee table with a piece of green felt draped over it. The table is approximately 40" x 48". When we want to play a 48"x48" game, we break out two folding tables, with the 4x4 grid marked out on the felt. For a while now, I have been talking about building some modular gaming boards to play on, but have been delayed by one thing or another.

Today was my final CPA exam for the summer, so I now plan on having a lot of time and mental capacity on my hands. I may even paint a second warjack... But the primary focus of my free time over the next week or so will be the construction of two 2'x4' boards that the Smib Thralls will be able to play on.

Here is a rough sketch of my goal.

The main resource I am using in the design of these boards is a series of articles I found at www.quindia.com. The designer did 12 articles step-by-step through his own 6'x8' board and I've found them very helpful. He makes a short case for 2'x4', instead of 2'x2', stating that the modeling possibilities are greater with the larger surface and I've come to agree with him. I will have enough foam and felt left over from this board that I'll be able to create another 2'x6' with the purchase of only 1 more piece of MDF. This other piece I'll construct in the future (likely next month) is also the reason I took the design steps in these boards that I have. Many people prefer to have open boards and add terrain, like hills, for more gameplay variety. But we've been playing on a flat surface for a year, so I like the instant difficulties that will arise from these boards. The top board will have a cliff surface running along one edge. This will limit the usability of the board, since it cannot be rotated, but I think it'll be worth it visually. The second board will have a permanent hill in it, but since it can be rotated, the hill can be either in the semi-middle of the board, creating a narrow valley with the cliff face, or rotated out to be in the deployment zone, as seen in the picture, allowing a large open playing surface. Future boards will incorporate a river and a swamp, but that is a difficulty level that I need to work up to. The last interesting terrain feature will be a space in between the Y in the road on the top board. This space will allow for an old aged tree to be used, or a pile of rocks, interchangeably depending on our desire for visibility and LOS.

So, I've done the write up. I'm off to get to work on it outside. I'll try to take pictures as I go along, and not just in the between steps.

Grind Speculation

2009-07-01T12:13:00.002-04:00

Phill just pointed this out to me when I called to tell him about the new Retribution models on the front page.

(On that, the models are exciting me a lot more than the jacks did. I really like the warrior models for Retribution. Not going to collect though. Must save up to begin MkII with Skorne/Legion)

But I'm excited also by Grind. I never played the house rules version that was released in NQ10, but as someone who is trying to get as many people interested in playing PP games that wouldn't necessarily invest time in WM/H, Grind excites me. So here is my speculation of what PP will need to do to expand their current customer base.

1) These need to be fully-painted out of the box. The models are already in plastic, and PPS_Kevin revealed on TGN that they are close, but different, to WM in scale. With 32 interchangeable weapons, this will produce only frustration if they all need to be color coordinated between two teams. Fully painted jacks will allow people to start right away.

2) It needs to cost less than $60. I've seen some really wild speculation that this game will cost anywhere from $90-150, but I seriously doubt a price tag like that attracting anyone who isn't already playing PP's line of games. Even if priced at $60, if they scale is obviously different and the details on the model simple enough, those who would try to use these for WM would look like idiots. These cannot be priced comparatively to WM, even WM jacks done in plastic.

I'm looking forward to this game. I'm hoping to use it at game nights at our church and I want to get my wife playing it. I never did MonPoc, even though it has the two features I just speculated on, because I don't care for Godzilla/Alien warfare. But I like Steamjack sports, since it will be close enough to WM/H and the IK theme to perhaps garner interest in diving further in, but not as complicated to turn people away at the beginning.

Me and my wife play Infernal Contraption a lot. I'm looking forward to a game that gets even closer to the WM mechanic and feel, without the hobby aspects that I enjoy so much. Whatever this game will be, I'm sure it will be 100% PP, which means it will be quality.

Two for Tuesday

2009-06-30T22:16:00.013-04:00

I finished up my Vanquisher last week and decided to show him off. Originally, I got the Vanquisher in a trade several months ago and it had a less than stellar paint job. It needed to be stripped and re-painted as you can tell by the picture. After stripping the paint, his morning star chain snapped off so I had to order another right arm. Here is a picture of the model when I first got him.

He's now finished and I'm thinking about getting another one. I really like the first generation Menoth heavy jacks. For me, the side angle is where the real coolness comes in. Here's the end result and ironically enough, the hill/mound he is sitting on got a make over as well. If you can call it a hill.

I'm quite pleased with the end result and if I do get another one, I'm going to try and reverse the color scheme.

A Game of Re-Inforcements

2009-06-29T21:54:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, the Smib Thralls (all two of us) sat down and tried out Re-Inforcements Incoming, the custom scenario in the last post. The game ended up being a real blast and once we started playing, it didn't take too long. There were a couple of rule conflicts that came into play and we're trying to iron them out.

Some things that came up were:

When the re-inforcements come into play, do you roll for continous effects on your 35 pt army?

Feats. We're still trying to iron out the details on these and the ones that have rules going into the other player's turn. Sorcha's feat comes to mind and we'll have to figure this out. It doesn't help that there's only two of us testing this out.

Upkeeping spells from your 35 PC army after they have missed a turn of action.

It's still a work in progress but I'm thinking that we can get these things figured out after talking about it some. I was thinking that the 3rd turn would be the "Re-Inforcement Round " and if a player activated a feat, it would end when he deployed his re-inforcements, that's if it lasted that long. Also, you would resolve any continous effect and upkeep any spell, when you activated your 35 PC army again. This is something I came to a conclusion of and I'll have to run it by CptCalvinus.

The match was Reznik, accompanied by Bart versus Siege, accompanied by Stryker. Here's one of my better rolls in the game, I arced Perdition through the Guardian, boosting to hit a GMCA. My roll failed and I decided to try again with my last two focus and no way to boost. Box Cars baby!!!

Bart and his entourage come on the battlefield and try desperately to make a difference.

Now its Stryker's turn to come on the field and be the difference maker. Too bad Reznik perished because both Stryker and Seige were on fire. Roasting swans is so much fun.

Siege's feat is a real bruiser against my army, here a Defender takes out Bart in one shot! I missed the subsequent tough roll.

We're definitely going to have to play this scenario again. It makes for a lot of different match ups and it adds a little bit of chance to the game. It might not be fair but its a lof of fun!

Barrett's thoughts:

I was really taking a gamble that Phill's 15pt army would deploy on my right side. By the time the third round started, my longgunners and the Defender were the only things able to hold onto my left flank. His TFG and the Guardian were held off on the right side, and were quickly joined by the Pirates. So, I did get lucky here. The kill for Reznik came from earthquaking Ol' Rowdy (with only 2 damage boxes open) with Reznik and 2 Jacks in the AOE. A knockeddown Reznik at half armor really made this too easy. I love the combo of Siege and Stryker's feats, though Siege and Haley would have cleaned up this board even faster.

Re-Inforcements Incoming, A custom Scenario

2009-06-18T20:07:00.006-04:00

As the summer months progress and with the start of a new job, I'm finding less time to paint than I would like. Still the hunger of Warmachine still presides in my appetite and I'm hoping to add more content than painting and battle reports.

Oddly enough, this next entry is going to get it's own battle report in the future. The Smib Thralls first custom scenario for MK II. I know the rules aren't final for MK II but I'm hoping this scenario will be pretty fun to use in the future. And with the current field test rules, it should be no problem to play.

Re-Inforcements Incoming

A custom Warmachine Scenario

Each player starts the game with a standard 35 PC army.
Each player will have a 15 PC army for reserves. This army has to have a warcaster and be able to work for the player’s 35 PC army. IE: A Cygnar player has to use either another faction warcaster or a Mercenary warcaster that is able to work for Cygnar.
Deployment for the 35 PC army is standard.
Field Allowance must not go past the regularly allowed in a 50 PC game. IE: A Cygnar player can only have 2 GMCA between the two armies.
At the beginning of round 3, the player that went first rolls a d6 dice.
If the dice is 1,2, or 3, the player deploys his 15 PC on the left table edge of the table, that is between you and your opponent, anywhere along this edge. Army set up 6 inches from the table edge and no advanced deployment.
If the dice is 4,5, or 6, the player deploys his 15 PC on the right table edge of the table, that is between you and your opponent, anywhere along this edge. Army set up 6 inches from the table edge and no advanced deployment.
The player who’s turn is second, will deploy his 15 PC army on the opposite side of his/her opponent’s 15 PC army, 6 inches from the edge, and anywhere along the table edge.
Players will activate only their 15 PC army during their 3rd turn and then it will be the opposing player’s turn to deploy and activate only their 15 PC army.
The subsequent turns will have the both players activating their 35 PC Army and 15 PC army.
Victory condition is Caster kill on both warcasters.
At the end of round 6, whoever has the most warcasters left on the table wins. If there is a even amount of warcasters, the game is a draw.

Here is a couple of pictures from Vassal to demonstrate the scenario.

It's the end of round 2 and the beginning of Round 3. The Cygnar player went first and at the beginning of his next turn, he'll roll a D6 dice to see which side his reinforcements come out on...

He rolls the dice and it lands on 2. This means he must deploy his troops on his left hand side of the table edge, 6 inches from the table, anywhere along the table edge.

The Cygnar player deploys Stryker, Ol' Rowdy, a Defender, and a GMCA along the left table. He now starts his turn like a normal one, dishing out focus, casting spells, etc..

This is the scene after the Cygnar player has activated his 15 PC army. After activating this portion of his army, his turn is over and its the opposing player's turn to go.

The Menoth player now has to deploy his 15 PC army on the opposite of the map. He now deploys Bart, a Mariner, Nomad, and Dougal McNaile along the opposite side of the table, anywhere along the table edge, 6" from it.

This is the scene of the game, after the Menoth player activated his 15 PC army. After his turn, its the opposing player's turn to activate both his 35 and 15 PC armies.

After his turn, his opponent will get to do the same. The battle is played to 6 rounds or whoever gets caster kill on both warcasters.

Some questions to consider

Q. What happens if one of the casters die during the first two rounds.?
A. Continue playing out the scenario and have non-fearless troopers lose 1 or 2 command.

Q. If my warcaster dies, will my second warcaster be able to re-enable friendly faction warjacks?
A. Sure, why not.

A couple of thoughts on creating the scenario

Originally, I intended for the 15 PC armies to deploy 10" from the table edge, just like normal deployment. I'm glad I did the demonstration on Vassal because it gave me an idea of how close the re-inforcement army could get to the opponent. When I went to deploy Stryker and his army, I realized that this wasn't such a good idea, so I moved it back to 6". Plus, it would be kinda unfitting for a army to pop out of nowhere like that.

I chose a 35 PC army because it wouldn't have too many models on the table, that would clutter it up. Or at least in my experience, and if I'm not playing the HR, there's plenty of room on the table after both players deploy. Second, I like the fluff of a warcaster and one or two of his warjacks, and solo or two, coming to the rescue of another warcaster. It seems to fit the flavor of Iron Kingdoms, you know where you have Caine being told by Siege that he should be elsewhere in Legends.

Lastly, I thought about putting a restriction on the 15 PC re-inforcement army when they first deployed. This restriction was going to be "You can't use your feat the turn you deploy". Obviously this could always change but it went against the whole "Play like you got a pair". A big thank you goes out to the people who created a warmachine module for Vassal. Thanks for all the hard work.

Thanks for looking and let me know what you think. Better yet, try the scenario and let me know what you think.

Kreoss vs Nemo, A 35 PC Game

2009-06-08T20:10:00.001-04:00

This morning, CptCalvinus and I played our first match of a series of 35 PC games with our remaining casters. We decided on 35 PC because it's just enough models for a good game and both of us play pretty slowly. Unfortunately, this match still took a while to play. I'm not sure if its set up time or what but we probably need to start enforcing a time limit on turns.

CptCalvinus' Army
Nemo
*Thunderhead
*Centurion
Squire - proxied by a Mangler Shoulder
Journeyman
*Charger
Arlan Strangeways - proxied by Siege
Field Mechanics - proxied by Long Gunners
Stormsmiths x 2
GMCA x 2

bluecardinal's army
Kreoss
*Revenger - proxied by a Devout
*Vanquisher - proxied by a Mariner
*Crusader
Choir full unit
Bastions full unit - proxied by 3 jacks, Reznik, Bosun
Ruphert
Orin Midwinter - proxied by a Reclaimer
Herne and Jonne - proxied by a Gunbunny and Dougal McNaile

I'll post the highlights of each round and try to keep the battle report rather short. Here's the layout of the battleground at the start of the match. CptCalvinus won the opening roll and elected to go second.

First Round

The Crusader, Revenger, and Vanquisher all run. Kreoss puts Protection of Menoth on the Bastions and casts Lamentation. The Bastions run, Ruphert sings Dirge of Mists, and Choir sings hym of Passage.

Journeyman puts Arcane Shield on Nemo, Nemo puts Disruption Field on the Centurion and Electrify on the Thunderhead. Everyone else advances.

Second Round

Vanquisher gets 2 focus and shoots at the Centurion, boosts to hit and damage. It does 5 damage if I recall, the AOE clips 2 mechanics and a Stormsmith, taking all three out. The Bastions advance in the middle and get Heroic Call. Orin runs to the middle to avoid the GMCAs on the left flank. Choir sings hymn of passage and Vassal puts enliven on the Revenger.

Herne and Jonne wiff at the two GMCAs on the left.

Fire stays on the Centurion and actually damages him for 2. The Squire gives 1 focus to Nemo. The Thunderhead gets 3 Focus, moves up and does his special pulse. He boost the hit and gets all my jacks and Bastions in it. This does minimal damage to the Bastions. It also hits my Jacks and we both wonder if they can be hit by it with Hymn of Passage up and we play that you can. This does minimal damage to them. I forgot totally about enliven. Arlan moves up and repairs the Centurion, removing 2 damage. Centurion gets 5 focus and charges the Bastions. Kills only one of them and another passes a tough roll.

The Charger gets 2 focus and takes some pop shots at the Bastions and does minimal damage. The two GMCAs take a shot Herne and Jonne and kill Jonne.

Third Round

All my jacks are disrupted so no focus for them. Orin runs back to within Melee range of a GMCA. Kreoss doesn't upkeep anything and moves up, pops his feat, knocking down the Thunderhead, Centurion, GMCA, Arlan, and Stormsmith. He gives Ignite to the Bastions. I totally forgot about this spell until mid game (more on this later). Bastions move up and take out the Thunderhead's cortex and right arm.

The Choir sings Battle Hymn and the Vanquisher shoots and kills Arlan. The Revenger moves up and hits the Centurion, doing little damage. The Crusader moves up and hits Centurion and does little damage with both weapons. The Vassal gives one more shot for the Crusader but the Crusader only does 3 damage to the Centurion.

Nemo upkeeps Disruption Field on the Centurion, Centurion gets 5 focus and wrecks the Crusader rather quickly and then takes out two more Bastions as they failed their tough roll. Thunderhead wiffs on the Bastions, Charger gets 3 focus and manages to put some damage on a focus camped Kreoss (he had 5 left over).

GMCA breaks free from Orin and Orin misses the free strike. He then shoots at the Vassal gets him to one life. The second GMCA hits Kreoss and does 4 damage with the extra die. The Stormsmith fails his skill check. Nemo moves forward and pops his feat. All my jacks are disrupted again and take a good bit of damage. He then casts Chain Lightning on the Vanquisher and kills the Vassal in the process.

Round Four

Lets see, all my jacks are disrupted again and I upkeep Ignite on the Bastions. The remaining two Bastions try to disable the Centurion but fail. The Choir sings Battle Hymn again and the Revenger moves into melee range with Nemo. I need a 7 to hit and I roll a six, I think. The Vanquisher moves into melee range with the Thunderhead and does almost enough to wreck him. At this point, the Thunderhead has about 3 boxes left.

Orin moves up and casts Arc Lightining onto the Journeyman and almost takes him out. I forgot Nemo was immune to Lightning so this does nothing. Kreoss moves up and casts immolation on the Journeyman, and wipes him out. Kreoss then casts Protection of Menoth on himself.

The final hooray, Nemo has a whopping ten focus from the three spells that were cast in his control area the turn before. It was a no guts, no glory moment, and CptCalvinus charged Nemo right into melee with Kreoss. He took a free strike from the Revenger that netted him 10 damage.

He boosted all the attack and damage rolls save for the first charge attack that was already boosted. The first attack hits and lands 10 damage to Kreoss. He needs 3 more damage to kill him with 9 focus remaining. With Protection of Menoth up, he then wiffs on his next two attacks bringing his focus count to 5. And then he wiffs on his remaining 3 attacks. It was terrible luck and looking back, I should've lost, big time.

Round Five

Kreoss boosts to hit and boosts damage on Nemo. Nemo falls...

Post Game Analysis

Menoth
To get the post posted, I'll provide the colour commentary for both of us. First off, I should've had Ignite on the Crusader the whole time. I can't believe I forgot about that spell and should've looked over Kreoss card before starting the match. With Battle Hymn going he would've been hitting at PS 22 and the Centurion would've definitely crumbled. Second, I shouldn't have ever casted Lamentation. Nemo sits back and is likely not going to get in the mix and duke it out with someone. Plus, his one offensive spell is usually casted through an arc node and CptCalvinus wasn't running one.

Bastions are still great at soaking up damage and with Protection of Menoth, it only gets better. The next match they're going to take a break so I can try a new unit out. I'm giving up on Herne and Jonne, with a Vanquisher and Orin present, I already had enough crowd control. I'm thinking a Paladin would do just fine next match.

Cygnar
CptCalvinus had a good mix of solos and jacks in his list. He used his GMCAs to great effect in the game and they're a good flanking tandem of two. The Charger didn't really do too much because the Bastions just dispersed any damage done to them. Matter of fact, I'm suprised why he hasn't gone after my choir in the past two matches. I think a Lancer would do him well in a match like this.

Disruption was a real life saver for his jacks this game. After round two, my jacks were relying on the Vassal and Choir to give them any support at all. This ended up saving his Centurion from being wrecked. Clumping up his mechanics next to his Centurion was a bad thing with a 4" auto fire AOE in the game. This took out one of his stormsmiths that could've done damage to my choir.

edited for spelling...

...Countered By A Heavier Dosage Of Lightning

2009-06-01T15:47:00.003-04:00

Now that my time with Stryker has come to an end, I'm looking forward to testing out the MkII versions of my other casters, likely in this order: Nemo, Haley, Caine, then my newest, Siege. I don't have any of the epic versions of these yet, though eNemo would be very handy for what I'm planning.

I think the core of my army is going to continue to center around the THead and the Centurion. Not only are they the two heavies I own, but I think they'll work well together. I haven't Pulsed yet against the Cent, but I'm pretty confident I won't suffer much damage from it most often. And whenever the THead is on the board, you'll likely see Arlan. He's quickly becoming a favorite solo. He gives me options, like the GMCA. The JW, the Stormsmiths, and even the Squire do one thing (very well), but I like the variety of these other two solos.

My List:
Nemo
- Squire
- Cent
- THead
Arlan Strangeways
GMCA x 2 (I don't think I'll ever take just 1 again!)
Stormsmiths x 3
Long Gunners Min
and, drumroll please... Field Mechanics.

Yes, I said Mechanics. I have never (in MkI) been interested in this unit. But with the Gobbers' Bodge ability, and the increased effectiveness of Jacks till they're wrecked, I'm gonna try these out to see if they'll lend Arlan a hand. He's a great mechanic, but he can only repair once a turn, and he has two other skills I want to use. So I think a mechanic and three bodgers running around will work wonders, especially for the Centurion.

So, the goal is to chain lightning and CRA and ePulse the infantry, giving 5 focus to the Cent to wreck jacks, while keeping Feora wary of the GMCAs and Stormsmiths. I could potentially drop the Squire and the Mechanics/1 Stormsmith to take the JW for the focus generation, but, like I said, variety.

Heavy Dosage of Fire

2009-05-31T22:24:00.003-04:00

Moving forward in our MK II campaign, CptCalvinus and I are going to be playing a series of 35 PC games with each of our remaining casters. This is going to give us a chance to try out some oldies but goodies and some new ones as well. Don't tell the Cpt. but I plan on picking up one epic Feora in the next week or two. And with her comes a heavy dosage of hunka hunka burning love. It will also roast me some swans. I love it already...

I've constructed a nice list that incorporates models I have and for the most part painted, save for eFeora.

Epic Feora 35 PC
*Guardian - bonded
*Vanquisher
*Repenter
Choir - maxed
TFG - maxed with UA
Cleansers - min
Vassal
Reclaimer

I might swap out the Cleansers for a couple more support pieces but I'm trying to stick to the whole fire theme. The basic strategy for this list to set things on fire. In all seriousness, I think I would have to play a rather aggressive style and try to get Feora in the mix. The Guardian would most likely get either Ignite or Escort. Both are great spells and I would have to decide when I see my opponents layout.

I'm torn on who I would give Escort to, all three are viable candidates for it but I'm leaning towards the Vanquisher. This way it would have a 14' threat range and possibly longer with the Vassal. Just a FYI, I don't have a Reedemer and don't plan on picking one up soon.

I'm looking forward to trying out eFeora as one of my new warcasters because she brings a different playstyle than the other ones I've been using. Plus, her model is pretty awesome as well. I just have to buy her now.

The 50 PC Throwdown

2009-05-28T17:52:00.004-04:00

Last night CptCalvinus and I sat down for the last leg of our MK II escalation campaign. We both had new models that we were anxious to use and the game turned out to be pretty fun, for me at least.

With the upcoming release of Bastions and the fact that I already have bases for them, it was time to give them a try. To give you a idea of how they were, I found myself laughing maniacally in bed after the game at the thought of CptCalvinus trying to take them down. Yes, they were that sick, espcially with the High Reclaimer bringing them back.

CptCalvinus decided to give the Thunderhead a shot and had constructed a really cool pose with him. No longer is he the master DJ of Club Caspia, he now aims to punch some poor warjack's furnace out. It should look really nice after he paints him up. Speaking of paint, the good ole Cpt. is already looking forward to painting him... I kid, I kid.

Here are the two lists that were played.

High Reclaimer - bluecardinal's army
*Guardian
*Devout
Avatar of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Ruphert, Piper of Menoth
Hierophant
Choir of Menoth (4)
TFG (10) with UA - 2 proxied by Deliverers
Bastions (5) - proxied by a Buccaneer, Talon, Renegade, Reznik, and Bosun Grogspar
Rhoven & Honor Guard
Herne & Jonne - proxied by a Gun Bunny and Dougal McNaile

Stryker - CptCalvinus' army
*Ol' Rowdy - proxied by a Mangler
*Thunderhead
*Centurion
Jr
*Defender - proxied by a Mule
Squire - proxied by a Mangler shoulder pad
Arlan Strangewayes - proxied by Nemo
Stormsmiths (3)
GMCA (2) - one proxied by Caine
Reinholdt - proxied by Gorten

You'll see below, several pictures highlighting the battle. To save time, we didn't write down all of the turns and I'll just pinpoint several key moments. I won the opening roll and decided to go second.

This is the end of turn one, CptCalvinus had his guys ready to land the first strike while the High Reclaimer smoked it up a little.

Ruphert sang a little song that gave the Bastions this smokey haze which some how gave off a terrifying feeling to the enemy.

Both teams rushed for the orange cactus like thing, hoping to find something nice...

At the end of round 2, the Bastions are primed to get a good amount of punishment. Already, Ol' Rowdy's counter charge layed down a good amount of dosage but the hefty Exemplars just dispersed it amongst each other. They ended up taking out a GMCA and prepared for the onslaught.

This was the beginning of my love for them, I know it's only one game but they have some really good staying power. Ruphert sang another song called, "Tough Enough".

The Thunderhead decided to wipe out the two honor guards and Herne & Jonne decided to do a little bit of nothing. My ashes to ashes roll only netted me one more enemy model but coincedentally, it damaged the T-Head.

This is the lay of the land right before turn 3 started. The Thunderhead is in a prime spot to trample the snot of out my TFG. I was thinking this was coming but the Cpt decided to give his new pulse a try.

He only needed a 7 to hit all my guys and (insert drum roll here)....... he rolls a six with 3 dice. Boo for the T-Head. After that, he decides to shoot two TFG grunts and misses his second shot.

The highlight of the round was CptCalvinus trying to take out a full unit of Bastions with Ol' Rowdy, a Defender, Journeyman, and two Stormsmiths. Lets just say it came down to having one left and me needing a tough roll to stay alive. Guess what? I made it and he didn't have anymore models to attack them with. Can you guess what happens next? Oh yeah, he forgot to use Stryker's feat and this is where things turned south.

My Guardian finally got a charge off on the Thunderhead and nearly wrecked it. I got the critical pitch but decided not to do it. Now that it deviates, I didn't want to throw him out of melee range. The Avatar got 4 focus and made short work of the Centurion. Some four Bastions magically came back with full health via the High Reclaimer's feat and decided to beat up on a few things. I decided to put one (Bastion) right in front of Stryker for a slim chance to put some good damage on him, but I missed with the attack.

The final round consisted of Ol' Rowdy and Stryker trying to take out the Bastions. Ruphert's ability to sing whatever song whenever, proved invaluable for the Bastions survival. The Thunderhead's cortex was fried and Arlan did his best to fix him up. At the end of the Cpt's turn, he used his feat to try and stave off the mob of Menoth.

At this point it was around 12:00 at night and we had to work the next day. The good Cpt was gracious enough to let me rethink a move by the Avatar, and I decided to run him forward and activated Menoth's Gaze. The Centurion's wreck marker was in the way but I still had enough room to get in melee with Stryker. I activated the Vassal and gave the Avatar an extra attack. We played "you can use focus at anytime" and the Avatar boosted to hit and boosted damage. Even with Invicibility up, with a infused Avatar, I ended up doing 14 damage to Stryker. My only hope to finish him off was with the High Reclaimer using ashes to ashes. I ended up boosting my damage roll and needed 13 to finish him and got a whopping 14. That was game.

bluecardinal's thoughts

There were two units that really stood out, Bastions and the Choir. First off the Bastions, while they have PS 12 weapon masters, their damage output wasn't that great. They more than made up for it in their staying power. Being able to withstand so much damage was great and not being able to be trampled, even better. At one point, I thought my Guardian was going to get disrupted by a Stormsmith but he elected to go for the Bastions instead.

The choir are self explanatory and in the end, I think I had too many threats going that he forgot to take them out. I'm still interested in proxying Herne & Jonne, just because I thought I would have a lot more squishy troops to fight against. Plus, I played them very poorly and they deserve another chance to do something. In the end, it was a great game for me but not so much for the Cpt. I think the game would've been drastically different if he would've trampled my TFG. This one move alone might have made the difference.

CptCalvinus' thoughts

I'm disappointed in my melee jacks, mostly because I didn't use them the way I should. I tried to keep the THead separate from the other three heavies, because I wanted to use his pulse to wipe out troops. 6 inches doesn't go far enough, especially staying out of the way of reach troops. I should have been less afraid of hitting my own jacks with the POW 12 attack. That way, I can use Ol Rowdy and the Centurion as front line jacks, with the THead behind, ready to get into melee if needed. Too much of my strategy this game was about dividing up my forces. I think the key to heavy survivability is in bunching them together.

The 2 GMCAs worked well. I think that'll be a standard in every game from now on. The JW works nicely, and tying him to a Defender doesn't make his death a huge loss. The Defender is beefy enough without focus. Arlan, the Stormsmiths, and the THead are a good war party with their electric immunity, though it does prevent mobility on the THead to bunch them all together. And with 4 heavies, Ashes to Ashes has plenty of targets to kill my troops.

A battled Crusader

2009-05-23T09:53:00.013-04:00

My first "Before and After" project is completed and I must say, I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. The Crusader, in my mind, is a really cool model so I was eager to re-paint him. This was my first time modeling and painting battle damage and I didn't realize how much small detail would incur during the paint job.

Here's his current incarnation.

Here's his old form.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to enter him into the No Quarter challenge and didn't use any oils when painting him. I simply ran out of time and didn't want to rush the model. Next up on the painting block is the Repenter. He's not going to get battle damage but I did manage to pick up a pot of Mechrite Red, a GW foundation paint. Hopefully, this will cut back on some of my long painting sessions.

Til next time...

Fun painting

2009-05-07T22:03:00.007-04:00

I bought my Devout at the same time as my Guardian. It wasn't my favorite looking warjack but it was the staple of the Menoth army so I thought, I ought to buy the thing. It seems I'm constantly looking for a different pose or some way to give my models a little more character. This guy was no different, I decided to check out Brushthralls to see what they had to offer. Low and behold, they had this nice little article on how to repose your Devout.

Long story short, I had him posed and primed for well over four months. My Crusader project was put on hold because I let CptCalvinus borrow my pin vice set and I needed something to paint. This guy was waiting in the wings and was really fun to paint. I can't really explain it but it just was. It might have been the combination of painting two warcasters and an attachment the past couple months, and my need to start painting warjacks again. None the less, I enjoyed painting him and will probably get another one in the future.

Vassal - First Impression

2009-05-03T20:29:00.006-04:00

If you don't know what Vassal is, I would point you to the following forum topic in the PP forums. Here is the description of it, straight from the thread, "Vassal is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. It allows users to play in real time over a live Internet connection." The author of the thread explicitly states that is in no way a substitute for regular table top play at your FLGS.

My current situation in gaming is this, there's one LGS that's 25 minutes away with one other player besides me and CptCalvinus. It only does special orders and game nights are only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There's another 2 stores that have game days that are an hour away. During this busy time of spring, with yard work, the business of being married, I don't have opportunities to visit these stores and play some games.

I decided to give Vassal a shot because it affords me the time to play Warmachine in a simulated enviroment, without having to spend a whole day doing it. It also gives me a chance to play against armies that I normally don't play against. Literally, I've only played against Cryx maybe five times and didn't really know what Cryx tricks were. Sure, I've heard about them but to actually play against them is another thing. This is by no means a substitute for real table top play, the fun in throwing down the dice is very fun in Geekville.

The first game I played was against pAsphyxious and Amon fell to Breath of Corruption. My opponent was a nice guy and initial reaction was good. It does take some time getting use to all of the hot keys but once you do, its plays pretty quickly. I'm finding myself playing a lot of Mangled Metal in the current MK II ruleset. It's been loads of fun and my third game was against eStryker, who gave Amon the dirt nap of a lifetime.

If you're going to try it out, remember its still the internet and there's always the potential for "that guy". You know the guy that ruins it for you. If you're ever on and want to play, look for me, bluecardinal.

edited for clarity sake...

Home Brew Terrain

2009-04-30T18:26:00.006-04:00

I don't know about you guys but have you seen the price of terrain lately? I went into my LGS and they had these nice little sandbags for sale and they cost 20 bucks! Don't get me wrong, I like nice looking terrain and have thought about buying some but I'll stick to the home made walls and stuff. It's a little more affordable for us gaming geeks.

Then again, they're running a 20% everything in the store sale this Saturday so I might be picking up some to go on my desert terrain board. If anyone knows how to make sand bag walls, let me know.

Here's a nice ( I like to think it's nice ) blue wall I made. The concept was taken from No Quarter #16. If you don't have that issue, I highly recommend it for building good, cheap terrain.

Instead of using the pink insulation foam, I used two pieces of cork board and fitted them in a foamcore base. After that, I added some kitty litter to the front and then primed it black. The stone is Vallejo Sombre Grey. I currently only have two of these pieces as my terrain making goes in waves.

My next project is to finish two fairly large hills/cliffs to make a nice sand stone ravine. These should be finished in month or two, I'm thinking after I finish my Crusader.

Escalating to a 35 PC Game

2009-04-24T22:16:00.003-04:00

We sat down Tuesday night to continue our MK II escalation campaign and raised the encounter level to 35 points. I would say that this would be the close equivalent to a 500 point game in the old point level and it allowed us to add a couple new models to our respective armies.

bluecardinal's army

High Reclaimer

*Crusader

Hierophant
TFG maximum w/ UA
Rhoven & Honor Guard
Gorman

Wracks

Paladin

Avatar
Deliverers for Cleansers

CptCalvinus' army

Stryker

*Centurion

*Lancer

Journeyman WC

*Hunter - played by a Talon

Squire - played by Nemo

Long Gunners decreased to a minimal unit

GMCA x 2 - one played by Caine

Stormsmiths x3

Unfortunately, we didn't take notes so this battle report won't be as descriptive as past ones. CptCalvinus wins the opening roll and decides to go second. Here is the current lay of the land with my Avatar on the right flank with the Paladin right next to him.

Round 1

Avatar gets 3 focus, activates Menoth's gaze and runs, the Paladin follows suit. One focus to the Crusader and he runs up. Everyone else runs up and then the HR decides to smoke it up....

CptCalvinus gives snipe to one of the GMCA, casts blur on the Centurion, Centurion and Lancer run up. The Hunter gets one focus from Jr. and takes a pop shot at the Avatar doing 4 damage to the right arm. Jr. puts arcane shield on Stryker and the stormsmiths advance looking to triangulate some peeps.

Round 2

For some reason or another, my TFG extend out of the HR's control area so the smoke only conceals them and doesn't block LOS. Deliverers, Crusader, and Rhoven move up. The HR moves up and throws some smoke. The Avatar gets 2 focus, activates Menoth's Gaze and runs close to the Centurion. The Paladin goes into Stone and Mortar stance behind the Avatar.

The El' Capitan upkeeps arcane shield, blur, and snipe. One GMCA takes Gorman to one health while one Stormsmith finishes the deal. A second Stormsmith disrupts the Crusader, the Hunter and Jr take some pop shots at the Avatar, doing more damage and the Centurion puts a serious dent in him. A flanking Stormsmith tries to run away but we remember Menoth's gaze and he fails to damage the Paladin with storm call. The Long Gunners stay put, forfeiting their movement to cancel out the concealed TFG. This wasn't good and they took out 5 TFG in the smoke. The Lancer moved up and Stryker started worrying that his little army of puny men would be crushed, so he feated. (awful joke I know)

Round 3

The remaining TFG charge the Lancer and do a little damage. Avatar rolls 2 for focus... sigh and does little damage to the Centurion but uses one focus for Menoth's gaze. I didn't want his GMCA flanking my HR. Rhoven and his two honor guards charge the Centurion and scratch his paint, better yet, they buffed his paint job and stared wonderfully at it. The HR gets 5 extra focus from the TFG getting picked a part and moves up to cast some spells. I miss the journeyman on 5 dice and I don't think it would've mattered. Some more smoke rolls into the playing mix and I think I have the Hunter's LOS blocked by smoke..... Deliverers move up and take out the one Stormsmith flanking my right with a Rocket Volley. The Paladin charges the Stormsmith on my right flank and does a bit of overkill. The Crusader walks up a bit, pondering the little things in life.

He upkeeps Arcane Shield, gives 3 focus to the Centurion and starts to decimate my army. The GMCA puts some damage on Rhoven's Honorguard, the Hunter is sitting in the smoke, so he has LOS to the Avatar. A big doh! on my part. He puts some really good damage on him and the Avatar is left with 4 boxes. The Centurion takes out Rhoven and his two Honor Guard and with his remaining focus, destroys the Avatar. The GMCA on my right takes out the Paladin and the other one shoots at the Crusader, doing minimal damage. I'm not sure what the Long Gunners did at this point. The remaining Stormsmith fails his skill check so no disrupting my Crusader. Stryker moves up and casts Arcane Blast on some TFG but misses... The Lancer misses his attacks on the TFG.

Round 4

HR gets 3 extra focus and things are looking pretty bleak for me but I try to rally my troops, unfortuantely, the HR doesn't know how to do that... The Crusader gets 3 focus and charges the Centurion, doing some ok damage and boxing the left arm. The Hierophant moves up and uses Harmonious Exhaltation and the HR moves up, casts Ashes to Ashes on the Journey again, boosted the hit roll, and missed again. The last focus is used to put a smoke right in front of him, something totally desperate but kind of funny in a ninja way. He then uses his feat and brings back 4 TFG, including the Officer, and they do some pretty decent damage to the Lancer. Deliverers move up and take out 3 Long Gunners and they pass the command check. HR prepares for the worst.

He doesn't upkeep anything and gives 2 or 3 on the Centurion. The Centurion beats down on the Crusader but doesn't box it. The one GMCA puts some good damage on the HR, the Journeyman charges the HR, passes his command check, and puts some good damage on the HR, leaving him with 2 life left. Stryker moves up and shoots the Crusader and disrupts it, casts arcane blast on the HR and missed...The Lancer didn't do anything because he didn't want to give me any souls. Smart move on his part.

Round 5

There's no soul tokens so I'm stuck with 5 focus and the Crusader is disrupted. What to do, what to do. The TFG disengage from the Lancer and try to walk over to Stryker for the CMA, ranked attack. All of them die save for the Officer and Standard Bearer. Oddly enough, the Officer hits with his attack and sets Stryker on fire but didn't do any damage. The Hierophant decides to charge the Journeyman, its a good joke I know, he whiffs. I cast immolation on the Journeyman, boosted to hit and got the hit. It was dice -2 and I couldn't afford to boost damage so it was only two dice. Thankfully, I got enough damage to box the Journyman. I measured my control area and Stryker was in range for a charge, even over the wreck marker. I'm not sure if CptCalvinus saw this one coming but it was my only shot. HR charges and needs a 10 to hit and rolls a 5, 3, and 2. He hits and Stryker takes 12 damage. I roll for one last attack and miss the attack roll.

It's his turn and I'm hoping badly that fire doesn't go out. This was the only way I was going to win it by seeing Stryker go down in flames. He rolls the dice and looky there, a 2. He wants Stryker to end the game, and I can't blame him. Stryker, for one reason or another, hasn't performed up to his task for him. He boosts his first attack, hits, and seals the deal. Finally a win for Stryker.

Post Game Analysis

I for one, am lacking a arc node and it really hurt in this game. I thought I could get a way with it but in the end, it was my downfall. His solos really shined for him and with me not being able to get to them, put me in a bad spot.

The Avatar is really good in MK II. There was no real support piece for him and he was still able to survie a couple of rounds of heavy fire and hitting. I'm thinking a vassal can follow him around and that extra attack would pay off. I was able to pull some focus off the wracks (didn't mention it in the report) but they ended up getting in the way. The Deliverers were a lot more accurate and I'll have to get them on the front line right away next time.

For CptCalvinus, he had a well balanced army. The solos alone, were enough to cause my army some serious problems. It wasn't reported at all, but he was able to use the Squire's reserve accumulator all 3 times. Both GMCAs excelled and I wonder if we'll see a new sculpt down the line? The Hunter didn't move the whole game but was able to wreck havock on my Avatar. Stryker's feat is still really fun to deal with. :)

Until next time....

Crusader Redo

2009-04-20T20:00:00.002-04:00

With my Hierophant painted, Reznik now stands as my last warcaster to paint. I only have four of them(Reznik, Amon, High Reclaimer, and Kreoss) and I'm taking a break from Reznik to redo my original battlebox warjacks. The format is going to be "Before and After". Basically, it'll be a chance to show some improvements of my painting skills. I don't consider myself a great painter by any means, more so, this is a chance to encourage people to keep at it. The difference in a couple of years is pretty amazing.

The Crusader is first up on the chopping block and it's a good time to experiment with new painting techniques. Seeing how this model was purchased some two years ago, I won't be upset if things go badly. I'll be giving him a battle worn look and possibly entering him in the most recent No Quarter painting challenge. There's a nice article on how to use "Chalks Washes and Oil Paints" from Quixotic's blog, and I plan on trying out the oil paints for a good weathering effect.

Here is the current state of my Crusader.

As you can see, it really doesn't match my current scheme, save the same gory red being used. The big difference is the model was primed with white and I found out quickly, I can't paint white very well.

By weeks end, I should have the model stripped, primed, and ready to paint.

Mr. Details

2009-04-15T09:10:00.004-04:00

I just finished my Hierophant a couple of nights ago and the little bugger has a lot of detail. So much so, I'm going to hold off on painting Rhoven and his boys. This guy took longer to paint then some of my warjacks if you can believe it. His base got some red paint on it and my touch up work was a little sloppy. This was my first attempt at wet blending as well and it was a little tricky at first, but not too bad.

The photos are a little dark because I took them just before sunset. You can see my beloved white cat in the background. There's nothing like a deaf white wonder...

My painting vow has now changed, I'm going to strip my Crusader, Repenter, and Revenger. Then I'm going to paint my Crusader. I'm tempted to enter the No Quarter challenge for battle damage as I have some ideas on how to make him look battle worn.

C & C welcome.

Stryker's thoughts......

2009-04-13T18:29:00.016-04:00

"It was a rough place - the seediest dive on the wharf. Populated with every reject and cutthroat from Bombay to Calcutta. It's worse than Detroit."

Airplane anyone???

On a different note, CptCalvinus and I sat down this past Friday for our first MK II battle. We were anxiously awaiting the new rules and eager to get our first game in. Our original plan of playing a campaign in the old set of rules and then the new set, has faded quickly. I don't even think we'll ever go back to MK I.

With that said, here's our first 25 point battle using MK II. I swapped out Ruphert and put in a Paladin for a little more hard hitting power. CptCalvinus maxed his Long Gunners out and added in 3 stormsmiths.

High Reclaimer
*Crusader
Hierophant
TFG maximum w/ UA
Cleansers minimum unit
Rhoven & Honor Guard
Gorman
Wracks
Paladin

Stryker
*Centurion
*Lancer
Long Gunners maximum
Stormsmiths x 3
GMCA

CptCalvinus won the opening roll and decided to go first. Here's the deployment of both our forces.

Round 1

Stryker gives 1 focus to the Lancer and Centurion and they both run. He puts Arcane Shield on himself and casts Snipe on the GMCA. The Long Gunners and Stormsmiths run up, along with the GMCA

HR gives one focus to the Crusader and it runs up. TFG, Cleansers, and Rhoven run. Paladin advances and goes into Stone & Mortar. I should have run with the Paladin but I was a little worried he would get shot down pretty quick. Gorman moves up, throws some smoke. The HR moves up and throws even more smoke.

Round 2

He upkeeps snipe and Arcane Shield, two Stormsmiths take out two TFG, while the third puts damage on Guis. Stryker advances and casts Arcane Blast on the TFG Officer (I still want to call this guy the Preceptor) but misses. It deviates and does nothing, then shoots the TFG Officer. I put the Officer up front thinking he didn't have any wounds because it looked like the Standard bearer had a grid on the statcard, plus, I thought the unit kept ranked attacked and fire but I was wrong. Whoops! GMCA Shoots at Gorman and does 4 damage. LG move up and take out 2 Cleansers. HR gets a good 5 soul tokens.

Cleansers advance and spray 1 LG, killing him. TFG charge the Lancer and w/out ranked attack do 1 damage to him. Rhoven gives the run order and the two honor guards run to engage the GMCA. I could've charged him but I'm not sure if the unit leader has to have LOS to the target or if he just gives the charge order and then the guys charge. Gorman moves up and throws some more smoke. The HR moves up and casts A2A on the Centurion, takes out 2 Stormsmith, and puts 2 damage on Stryker

Round 3

He upkeeps Arcane Shield while dropping snipe. 2 focus to the Lancer and 3 to the Centurion. The Lancer decides to trample some TFG, we didn't realize that only heavies could trample but now we do. The Lancer takes out 4 TFG, misses the Paladin, and fails his extra attack on the Hierophant. Rhoven passes the command check for the TFG. Stormsmith takes out another TFG. The Centurion hits the Crusader with his shield, crits with his spear, and takes out or should I say, system failures the left arm and movement on the Crusader. GMCA moves out of melee with the Honor guard and dies to free strikes. Long Gunners stand still and take out Guiss and Cassian, and 5 Cleansers. Cleansers make their command check from Rhoven. Stryker retreats and shoots the Crusader, disrupting it.

HR has 11 focus for himself, Gorman advances and throws black oil on Stryker and it deviates on top of him and a Long Gunner. HR Feats and brings back 3 TFG, the Preceptor (Captain), and Guiss and Cassian. The HR moves out of melee with the Lancer and the free strike does nothing to him and misses the Hierophant. I cast 3 immolations on Stryker doing no damage, 3, and then 9. Rhoven gives the charge order and Guiss and Cassian make short work of Stryker.

CptCalvinus' thoughts

Had a lot of fun in this game. Stryker is tougher with his MAT increase, so he can get into melee with less fear. I made use of the Trample rules with the Lancer and managed to take out 4 TFG. New snipe allowed me to cast it and AS and still give each jack 1 focus to run in the first turn, so that was a plus. Spreading out the LGs in the new formation rules allows them to live longer, especially against Cleansers and Deliverers. I'm actually glad the Centurion's Polarity Field is a *action now. It makes me think about using it, especially whether it is worth it to forfeit my initial attacks to use it and buy additional melee attacks afterwards. In retrospect, I should have done this in the top of Round 3, since I was charged by the Paladin and a fully rejuvenated TFG Unit after HR's feat. He was still left standing though. We didn't have any terrain that could qualify as cover, so we didn't need to make any use of the new LOS rules. We got the updates just before the game began, but glancing through them, we felt that they made more sense. I was personally glad the moving in formation rule was vetoed.

Bluecardinal's thoughts

My original plan was to use the HR's new feat to good use. It can really catch the opponent off guard because there's a lot of different angles that one can come in from, plus they activate normally. The new formation rules help this out a lot and I hope to use in great effect. In fact, that's specifically why Rhoven and his Honor guard were in the list. You have to keep one of them alive but you can bring them back, behind enemy lines for a great charge. I'll have to double check the charge rules because I'm not sure if the leader of the unit has to have LOS to the target or if it's just a order and they charge whoever. These guys are getting a lot of tough love on the PP forums but they're going to be a auto include for my HR lists.

Another thing is the HR's spell list. It stayed the same for the most part but he lost soulstorm becoming an inherent ability. I like this but it doesn't help if he plans to go on the offensive. The only way to get it back is to goad my opponent into taking a free strike against some grunt. His sacrificial lamb spell, in my opinion, needs to be reduced to one focus. The crusader is a great choice for him because its a cheap, beatstick heavy. I'll normally cast A2A on him and with the Hierophant's "spiritual conduit" effect, it lets this become a 10" spell. Plus, he can always measure his control area to see if the Crusader is in range.

Wracks are really great but I found they got in the way of all the troops on the battlefield. Call me crazy, but I'm not sure if I'm going to bring them in the next game. Speaking of which, the next game is going to be a 35 points. I'm going to be adding one model and replacing one unit with another. Can you guess what it'll be? :-)

I'm planning on getting a Reckoner to go with Reznik/Amon and then it's going to be a second Crusader. For 6 points, it's really a bargain, then maybe a Dervish.

Upon Further Review

2009-04-10T07:24:00.002-04:00

Yes, I'm guilty of being a little bitter about the new MK II model rules and have groaned and griped a little. I've also expressed my discontent for a couple models in particular but lets take a look at the big picture. I got into this game because of the cool warjacks and now they're back and I'm complaining??? Seems kind of wrong doesn't it? Long story short, I'm really starting to get into the new rules and thinking of cool strategies to use with certain models. Heck, I might even pick up another Crusader. I can only imagine 2 or 3 of them in a Amon army now.

With that said, I'm anxious to start play testing. CptCalvinus and I, are going to be playing our first game tonight and I'm looking forward to it. The one thing that I'm not looking forward to is.... my wallet burning up due to all the new jack purchases.

MkII Initial Reaction - Cygnar

2009-04-07T05:08:00.004-04:00

Cpt Calvinus Mk II here. :)

Wow, where to begin! There really are so many changes. It's like it is a whole new game. I'll talk about some of my favorite spells and models under MkI and how they're different.

Snipe

Before, it was 1" of Snipe for 1 Foc spent. This was great, but I only typically cast Snipe once in the game and upkept it. Nothing like a GMCA or the Black 13th with 6" inches (7" with the Squire!). Now, Snipe is strictly 4", but it only costs 2 Foc. At first, I was bummed out. Now, I really love this! Sure, I'll miss the extra 3", but now I won't feel like I'm wasting Foc to recast this midgame. Before, I'd rarely get a chance to have 6 Foc to give someone the full 6". Now, I could technically upkeep Snipe on the GMCA, take his shot. activate Stryker and cast Snipe on the Longgunners and take their shot. All this for only 3 Foc. Then, the next turn, I could reverse it! I like this change.

The GMCA

He lost two of his Effects, but they are the two effects I mentioned in the last game report that I never used. His Long Shot is only 4" (like Snipe), so with the two together, he only has a max range of 20". I don't like that, but it's fair. He is no longer a Commander, but I never used him for that anyways. Two things are disappointing. Under Flash Fire in MkI, it stated that he also ignores obstructions. It doesn't say that anymore. Also, I would have liked his Magelock Pistol to get an upgrade to POW 11. That one point would have made him a lot more effective, IMO. Here's the best part though... He is now FA 2! Sweet! He's my favorite model, both aesthetically and playwise, and now I get two. I really hope they come out with an Alt pose.

nStryker

Finally MAT 7! Also, Blur guards against Magic attacks, Arcane Shield is RNG 6 (not 8) and it looks like Earthquake has to hit everything in its AOE for it to KD. That is unfortunate. Additionally, his Feat is an Aura now, instead of a Pulse. I would've liked him to get more abilities. I don't understand why the central character of the WM story still only has Disruption and a POW 10 Pistol. But the MAT increase outweighs all the negatives.

nHaley

The first thing that stood out to me was Scramble. This spell has been entirely revamped. Under MkI, the warjack activated during the controller's next Cont Phase, ran and then ended its activation. If it came in contact with an obstruction or a Jack (of any size), it was KD. Now, it activates immediately and walks. Since it activates during my turn, it doesn't forfeit its activation. At first I thought the spell was ruined, until I further analyzed the possibilities. Before, the jack would KD any small based warrior model it moved completely through. Now, it knocks down any smaller based model it contacts. Also, instead of being KD by any warjack it runs into, it is KD by any model with an equal or larger base. The problem before (problem? what problem?) was that Darius' halfjacks could "trip" a Heavy. That was great. Now, however, it either trips or is tripped by everything on the board. This will be great against armies of medium based warrior models, such as Trolls and Khador. Sure, a medium can't knock down a heavy, but something is getting knocked down. And - drumroll please - since it occurs in my own activation now, I can KD a whole unit and shoot the crap out of them! I love the new Scramble!

One other thing of significance on Haley is that both TB and her Feat are now Auras. TB got a little nerf (less 1 Foc, doesn't halve movement, and is only -2 Def), but at least I won't feel like I'm spamming a broken spell.

Thunderhead

The biggest thing on the THead is that he lost his Chain Attack - Scramble. This was a lot of fun to do. One game against Khador, I'd Scramble one jack, it'd run, and I'd charge after it and scramble it again. Fun for me, but probably not fair. In return, the THead received a +1 Mat and a +1 P+S on his fists. His energy pulse lost 2" of effectiveness, but I only have to roll 1 attack roll. That could be good and bad. If I roll a two, it works against everything, but so would a 12. But now, I only have to boost 1 roll. Also, as someone on the forums pointed out, the wording on its Sustained attack is such that the hit caused by Energy Pulse causes the 2 subsequent hits that can be made to auto-hit as well. I wish they would've made this an attack that could be done in melee as well, but that would probably be broken. The loss of 2" on this might get me to bring him into Melee faster in MkII. Oh yeah, he's still expensive. He costs 12 points now. With 4 Heavies at 9 pts, and 1 each at 7 and 8, it's really hard to justify now.

This is probably too much for now. I did a deeper study of nHaley and eHaley and came up with a full page of differences and possibilities. General thoughts: 1) I'm not too keen on the icons yet. I thought they were supposed to make the cards easier to read, but now I have to memorize tiny icons. 2) Phill pointed out that you only have a choice of taking a minimum unit or a maximum unit. I don't like this either. I didn't do it often, but I liked the possibility of taking 7 or 8 longgunners. 3) I don't like that Epic casters aren't restricted to larger games anymore. I don't think that is right, either fluff wise or for game play. As someone said on the Forums, if there isn't a point value for casters and I can take eIrusk at a 15 point game, why would I ever play nIrusk. I think the same could be said for me with eStryker. I hope we can get them to change these last two.

MK II Initial Reaction - Menoth

2009-04-06T14:57:00.007-04:00

Hmmmm.... Well its here and I must say that I'm a bit suprised at the point level of things but I won't go into that too much. Overall, I love the new rules for warjacks and their systems. It seems like they're going to have a much bigger presence in this ruleset. With that said, I'm going to look at some of my favorite things from Menoth.

First up the High Reclaimer

I first looked at the High Reclaimer and thought he pretty muched stayed the same. His weapon got reach and they revamped his feat and it appears the troopers can activate normally during the turn.

Things I didn't care about for the HR, Sacrifical Lamb costing two points. With the HR being a infantry heavy caster, it seemed right to keep this at 1 focus. His WJ points could've been bumped a little.

Second up, The Guardian

Wel well, this one was a tough one to take. First off, the good. He keeps critical pitch but it now deviates since its a throw and not double handed throw. His full damage grid is still in tact, which is great. Also, his open hand's pow is increased by 3.

Now the bad, he no longer rallies troops with his banners. This isn't all that bad but it was nice when my Cleansers started blowing up. Critical pitch deviates now.... I'm so sad on this one, I know I put it in the plus category but this was a favorite of mine. Being able to throw things and not have them deviate was great. The last thing he lost is Ward of Retribution. Granted, I didn't use this one much but it did come in handy. Hopefully it was just a typo and they forgot to include it. He's also 9 points in the new MK II rules and only time will tell if this is a big deal.

Third Up, The Choir

With jacks getting a boost it only made sense that they would lose some of their abilities. Unfortunately, the range of their chants is now limited to 3" but their speed got a increase. Each member can effect one warjack and it's going to change the way you played them before. Coincedentaly, you don't have to worry about losing your priest and the whole unit becoming fodder.

Fourth Up, Rhoven and his Bodyguards

Uh....I don't know what to say. The two bodyguards lost their health a little, no more huge armor buff for the whole unit being in B2B with each other but everyone gets one more point of armor. Battle Driven seems a bit strange, I think they'll die if they get damage and won't really benifit too much from this but only time will tell.

*UPDATE*

These guys are fearless and Rhoven's command got bumped up 1 and his MAT bumped up two. I'm thinking of using the two Honor Guards with other units. With the ability to be 10" away and still in formation, this allows for some interesting possibilities.

That's my initial thoughts and I'll have to take a look back after all the smoke has cleared.

350 Escalation Campaign, Remix Style

2009-04-01T17:42:00.032-04:00

Last night, CptCalvinus and I started off our Remix escalation campaign. The rules were pretty simple, caster kill and try to use models we only have or keep proxying to a minimum. The second rule will go away quickly as we move to higher point values and proxying will become a necessity for both of us.

I choose the High Reclaimer over Amon Ad-Raza simply because I have more models that play better with the High Reclaimer. With Amon, I usually run a Revenger, Devout, and possibly Castigator or Guardian. I'm not saying these are bad options but I only own one Devout and not multiples that people usually run him with. With Bastions on the way, I can focus on a troop heavy build with the HR but I'm definitely going to put some jacks in list.

With that said, here's our first game under the current rules.

bluecardinal's 350

High Reclaimer 347/350 VPs: 15
*Hierophant
Cleansers x 6
Temple Flameguard x8 with UA
Visgoth Rhoven and his Bodyguard
Gorman di Wulfe
Ruphert, Piper of Menoth
Wrack

CptCalvinus here. My list was very basic since this is an escalation campaign and I don't own many models. At 500, I'll begin to proxy. I chose Stryker for the campaign because I have had zero success with him. He's got one win on his record, but that was only because I was playing someone who was inexperienced. I've never beaten Phill's Menoth with Stryker, which is odd, since he typically has a good reputation among Cygnar. So I figure the problem is in my tactics. That, and the fact that I like Stryker's Epic form, made me choose to run a Stryker force opposed to the other three casters I run.

CptCalvinus' 350

Commander Coleman Stryker 349/350 VPs: 13
*Lancer
*Centurion
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Long Gunners x 6

CptCalvinus wins the opening roll and decides to go first. Instead of typing out where we put our units, here is a nice picture to show you. Terrain setup is a shallow pond, two walls in the middle, a house on Cygnar's side and a barn on Menoth's side. There's a funky looking orange plant in the middle as well. The GMCA is on the other side of the house.

Round One

He goes first and puts 6" snipe on the Long Gunners, moves up both jacks and runs the GMCA. My turn, TFG move up and goes into shield wall, Cleansers move up, Rhoven & Bodyguard run to keep up with the TFG. Gorman advances and pops a smoke and HR moves up and puts down some smoke as well, pretty much covering my whole front line except for some guys on my right.

Round Two

He decides not to upkeep snipe on the Long Gunners, gives one focus to the Lancer, GMCA picks off a TFG, Lancer runs towards the GMCA, and Stryker gives him 5" snipe. My turn, everyone advances, Gorman throws smoke, Ruphert sings Dirge of Mists for the Cleansers. HR drops smoke in front of the TFG but not the Cleansers.

Round Three

The GMCA moves back some and tries to pick off the Hierophant with flash fire, hits him but fails to do any damage thanks to the extra focus the HR has on him. The Lancer moves back towards the middle and Stryker casts earthquake on the Cleansers, knocking them all down along with Gorman. Long Gunners move up and take out all of the Cleansers.

HR gains six soul tokens, Ruphert sings March on the TFG giving them an extra attack, the TFG charge the Lancer and do considerable damage on him, taking out his spear and arcnode. The standard bearer uses his minifeat. Rhoven and company run up to within a couple of inches of the GMCA and the HR casts Ashes to Ashes on Guiss or Cassian with help from the Hierophant, I rolled 2 for the extra models and boosted the damage on the GMCA to take him out. HR throws smoke on his left side to protect him from the Long Gunners.

Round Four

He gives three focus to the Centurion, Centurion decides to trample through the TFG to get within melee distance of the HR. Centurion takes out 1 TFG and barely takes any damage from the free strikes. He buys another attack and boosts the attack roll, the HR is sitting on three focus and its dice +1 on damage. Odd enoughly, he rolls 3-threes on his attack roll and if he only had used Nemo, the HR would've been dust. He rolls a nine on damage and the HR takes ten damage. Stryker moves toward his Long Gunners and casts arcane shield on himself and pops his feat.

Gorman, who just avoided getting trampled, throws some black oil on the Centurion. I now decide its time to use the HR feat but before that, the HR puts a smoke cloud on the Centurion, dropping his mat to -1. I roll a 6 for bringing back troops and put 4 Cleansers in front of his Long Gunners and Stryker. HR moves out of melee with the Centurion and he rolls for his free strike, needing a twelve to hit. The first dice rolled is a 6 and I almost lost it, thankfully the second one was a 3. HR casts immolation into the back arc of one of the Cleanser and kills all but 2 Long Gunners with the explosion. They fail their command check and turn to head for the hills. At least they're not on fire. :) Stryker is set on fire and the TFG move up and hit him with a CMA, no damage but setting him on fire, again.

Round Five

At this point, I almost thought CptCalvinus would concede the match but low and behold, he almost pulled it off. Fire ends up staying on Stryker but doesn't do any damage thanks to Arcane Shield. He moves Stryker out of melee with the TFG and with all 6 focus, the TFG fail to hurt him with their free strikes. I'm not sure if I'm able to CMA with free strikes so I'll have to look that up.

With Stryker free from the TFG, he casted arcane blast on the HR and successfully hit him without boosting. At this point, I don't think the HR was camping that much focus, maybe 2 or 3 at the most. He opted not to boost damage and did about 5 damage to the HR. He then casted arcane blast again and ended up missing. In looking back, I think if he would've boosted damage on the first try, he would've won. This left Stryker without any focus and out in the middle, ready to be charged by the TFG.

My turn, the TFG get march again from Ruphert and charge Stryker with two CMAs to dish out. He ends up biting the bullet to the TFG and all around it was a good game.

bluecardinal's thoughts

I really like my list and if I'm not facing a lot of high armor, I think I can do ok. My models out numbered him by 2-1 and with the HR 's burning ash spell, my army was rather unscathed in the end. I'm going to be adding a favorite jack of mine to my 500 list and possibly another support solo. Rhoven and company did very little in the game besides being a deterrent. Gorman was pretty much a life saver in the end, and I can't underestimate black oil. The Hierophant goes very well with the HR and can keep up with him just fine. It's also nice that he can benefit from the extra focus the HR can get during a round.

CptCalvinus' thoughts

I had the advantage of knowing Phill was bringing a infantry force before I made my list, but I still brought the Centurion. If I were to proxy, I probably would have swapped in a THead or Ol' Rowdy, or perhaps a plain Ironclad. But the Centurion came in handy on the second to last turn when he trampled through the squad of TFG for a shot at the High Reclaimer. Trample is a tactic neither of us have used before, but it was pretty handy, especially since it was Stryker's Feat turn and its armor was 26. The LGs were largely ineffective due to the HRs clouds. I can see why playing against a Trencher is so frustrating. The GMCA was great, and it was the first time I've really made use of his Flash Fire tactic. I threw five inches of Snipe on him. He is typically my Warpriest killer, but since Phill didn't have a choir, I had so many targets to choose from! I should have focused on taking out Phill's solos with him instead of trying to shoot the HR. Next time, Gorman, the Piper, and the Heirophant are primary targets.

For my next build, I'm going to see about filling in my anti-infantry support. As bluecardinal said, he outnumbered me 2-1 and it showed in how mobile his army was compared to mine. I'll likely be adding a unit of melee troops and consider maxing out the LGs. Between the Lancer and Centurion, I should be able to handle any jacks Menoth might throw at me.

Overall, it was a good game. It got very intricate towards the end, requiring some tough decisions, which is always enjoyable. These kinds of games are why I enjoy this hobby.

Remix and MK II Escalation Campaign

2009-04-01T08:42:00.004-04:00

It turns out that CptCalvinus and I, are changing up the format to our escalation campaign. We were originally going to play two games at the varying point levels, with one under the Prime:Remix rules and the other under MK II rules.

Now we're going to play our first campaign under Prime:Remix and then our second campaign under the MK II rules. Our lists will remain the same, save for any extra jack or jacks that will be available with the new free points in MK II.

High Reclaimer

2009-03-29T10:11:00.009-04:00

It turns out that I never thought once about using the High Reclaimer as a Menoth player. After a year and a half of playing and with Bastions on the way, I thought to myself "man, what a great time to pick up the High Reclaimer". Then I thought, I have a lot of canon fodder troops that would go well with him, Cleansers, Deliverers, and to a lesser extent, TFG.

This is the one of the cool play styles of Menoth, throw sub-par troops to their death and revive later on or just blow them up and then revive them. Either way works for me.

With the upcoming field test of MKII, CptCalvinus and I are going to run a escalation style campaign of Menoth vs Cynar. The format is similar to the Paint and Play campaign in No Quarter and Lost Hemisphere's Warmahordes challenge, but it differs in one way. We're going to play two games at every point level, using the old rules in the first game and the new rules in the second. I'm pretty certain a lot of other people are going to be doing this and I find its a great way to see some of the differences in the game.

With that being said, I finished painting my High Reclaimer and will be using him during the escalation campaign. I'll dive into why I'm using him and not my favorite monk later on...

I'm going to go back and add some badab black wash on his left forearm and touch up a few spots on the robe. In looking back, I should've used green stuff on a couple of places but I'm content with the results.

Here's the 350 list that he's leading in the MK II Escalation Campaign. First game will hopefully start this Tuesday using the current ruleset.

High Reclaimer 347/350 VPs: 15
*Hierophant
Cleansers x 6
Temple Flameguard x8 with UA
Visgoth Rhoven and his Bodyguard
Gorman di Wulfe
Ruphert, Piper of Menoth
Wrack

The basic strategy is to throw as much smoke as possible and hope I can get into melee pretty quick. I'm anxious to see if the new MK II rules will allow enough free points for a Devout or Revenger. Only time will tell.

Schemes

2009-03-21T15:05:00.013-04:00

I found out the hard way what a good scheme can turn out to be. It means various test figures and a lot of time, not wasted per say but time invested. Whenever I was reading through one of the No Quarter magazines that had the paint and play challenge, I remember one of the guys' entry about a consistent scheme. This got me thinking that, I myself, have a lot of models painted to a different scheme and based differently.

My first Warmachine model I ever painted was the Crusader. I like the simplicity of the jack and the front parts of it but I'm not a big fan of the steam furnace. Unlike the other factions, it seemed a little bland for my taste. But I digress, the point is, I primed all my models white thinking I was going to go with the traditional Menoth colors. I found out very quickly how hard it is to paint white good. After doing some searching online for some other Menoth paint schemes, I found a nice dark red that I thought I could do. Take in mind, the only other miniatures I painted before this were some Tau from GW. Here's a look at my first scheme for my Menoth.

My original white scheme that I ditched quickly. The flash really makes it hard to tell that there's a cream colour painted on it. You can also see the traditional Menoth base that I was trying to do.

Here's the same Crusader painted Vallejo Gory Red with GW Shining gold as the metal.

Now onto my Guardian that was primed with Black and painted with Gory Red, Cold Grey, and Brassy Brass. I used cork for the base and flocked it with Woodland Scenics fine turf green grass. The rocks are drybrushed with cold grey along with a little white mixed in.

You would think this would be my final scheme and the paint part is, just the base has changed in this last picture. Here's Kreoss with his base painted a little differently but flocked with the same green turf.

I really hope this is my final scheme or else I'll be wasting a lot more time figuring it out. The base is done by using the following:

1 layer of Tierra Earth
1 layer of Worn Wash - my own creation (4 parts brown Ink, 2 parts smokey Ink, 2 parts thinner, 2 parts water)
1 layer of GW Green Wash on rock part
1 Drybrush layer of 2 parts Tierra earth and 1 part white
1 Drybrush layer of 2 parts white and 1 part Tierra earth
Possible drybrush layer of 4 parts white and 1 part Tierra earth.

And with that, its time to do some more painting....

Back to the Bases

2009-03-11T21:25:00.005-04:00

This past Saturday was the last week of the CTA league I was playing in. I ended up winning the Eliminator award and overall, the league was pretty fun. There was some pretty good scenarios along with some ok ones to say the least.

I played all my games with Reznik, except for the first one, and the big guy did alright. I tried to incorporate Cleansers in my list and I found they're a better second wave unit than first strike. I also really like Reznik's spell list, I find he doesn't have one bad spell, in my opinion.

One last thing to note, epic Kaya's threat range is pretty nasty. I found out the hard way when I played in my first 1000 point game against her and Krueger. The little hippie girl had Lightning Tendrils on her and managed to scrap Reznik sitting on 4 focus. Needless to say, I'll try to avoid that next time, if that's possible.

Here's a glimpse of my painting table and all my precious tools and paints. Its nothing to brag about but I like the simplicity in it. I have all my stuff at arms length and don't have anything really getting in the way. Although my wife's cat likes to sometimes taste the water cup, I haven't had any real disasters on it.

You'll see the current set of bases I'm working on for my future models. Yes I said future, with the upcoming release of the Bastions, I'm stoked to start working on them already. It takes me forever to complete a miniature and there's no better time then now to start on them. By the time June comes around, I should have all their bases completed.

Here's waiting for June and the infamous and awesome Plastions!

Last week of CTA

2009-03-04T19:31:00.006-05:00

This week is the last week of league play at my FLGS and I have to say it's been a fun ride. I had the chance to play against armies I don't regularly play against and I'm hoping the trend will continue. I'm out of the running for the total points award but can still capture the Eliminator award. I failed this past Saturday to up my score when I totally forgot about Brand of Heresy with Reznik. I know I know, how does one forgot a great spell like that but I am still learning to play the guy.

With the hopes of capturing the Eliminator award, I'm going to be playing as many 500 point games as I can with Reznik. I'm also going to be trading away some of my Tau from 40k for a Avatar and Reckoner. In the past, I was using the Castigator as a fill in for Zealot's Rage and it did ok. With Reznik's Perdition spell, I was able to charge the Black 13th last game and take them out with combustion. I'm hoping the Reckoner can make short work of a jack with Zealot's Rage and Brand of Heresy and then move on to another target.

I'll be using the following list this Saturday for my games.

Reznik 500/500 VPs:22
*Hierophant
*Revenger
*Devout
*Reckoner
Choir of Menoth - 6
Vassal of Menoth
Reclaimer
Cleansers - 6
Paladin

Choir Time

2009-02-27T17:22:00.003-05:00

I finally finished painting my choir this past week and I'm happy with the results. They won't woo anyone from a up close look but they're table top quality. It seems I have a habit of taking a long time when painting models and these were no exceptions. Originally, I had planned on painting these guys last May or June and now they're finally done.

In the future, I'm going to try the snowball approach to painting and see if that works better. Its where I'll paint one model at a time instead of a whole unit. Maybe I can squeeze in two but I hope to keep focused because if I don't, I'll have a collection of half painted models.

Next up on the painting block are my warcasters. Its sad to say that I only have one warcaster painted after playing this game for over a year and a half. And to top it off, he was just finished this past week as well......

Envy Time

2009-02-19T21:39:00.007-05:00

Or should I say, the Cygnar list I always wanted to play. I want to thank the Podthralls for coming up with this idea and apologize for blatantly ripping it off. Since my main opponent, CptCalvinus, is a Cygnar player and four other people at my LGS play them as well, I thought I'd do my first envy post with Cygnar.

Basically, this is a Cygnar list that I would want to play some day. Being a Menoth player, you would think I woud have quite a disliking for Stryker but that isn't so. I really like his fluff in the storyline and his rules as a warcaster. Without further adieu....

Stryker 748/750 VPs: 25
*Squire
*Lancer
*Centurion
*Ol Rowdy
Journeyman
*Defender
GMCA
Arlan Strangeways
Stormsmith
Long Gunners full unit with UA

The basic strategy is having the two heavies up front with the Lancer and Stryker following, casting earthquake and other fun stuff. The Defender would be on one side of the heavies and the Long Gunners on the other. Have Stryker cast snipe on the Long Gunners for 7 first turn and then have the GMCA and Stormsmith go solo hunting. Strangeways will provide support to the heavies and might give the Defender that rare ability to make magic attacks with his gun. Really, I have no idea how this list would fair in competitive play but I picked models I really liked and that's all that matters.

One thing I noticed is the point cost and how much more Cygnar units cost than Menoth's. With Menoth, I can effectively put 2 Heavies and a light and then 2-3 more units fairly easily, rounded out with some solos. I couldn't bring myself to include the Black 13th, they're a bit too dirty when it comes to game play. I'll have to play this list one day when we CptCalvinus and I, decide to switch armies.

Thoughts on MK II

2009-02-17T21:47:00.006-05:00

It has come about that Warmachine and Hordes is getting a revamped edition of their rules called MK II. First off, I haven't played the game long enough to see the power creep that a lot of the folks on the big forums are talking about over the years. Second, the local scene where I play is a jack friendly player base. There's some folks that like to tweak their list for sure but its not super competitive.

With that said, I like the ideas of warjacks only getting wrecked and not disabled. I would also like to see a minimum of 1" reach on all heavies and I don't know what I would do with the lights, as far as reach is concerned. There's some warjacks out there that should definitely have reach, at least 1' if not the full 2". Then there is some warcasters and infantry that have reach and it makes you scratch your head as to why they have it.

I'm also wondering what will happen to my favorite models/units. With the general buff going towards jacks, I imagine the choir is going to get a little nerf of some sorts. The Guardian is my favorite warjack and I hope he doesn't lose all his cool abilities, especially critical pitch. I could go on and on about the various Menoth models but I'll keep it to a minimum.

I'm excited about the change and remain optimistic about it. Its a lot of work and I hope that Privateer and the community can make a good step forward in the game. Here's hoping for a good MK II.

Jacks and Beasts Never Rest

2009-02-13T07:52:00.026-05:00

My arch nemisis CptCalvinus and I, sat down on Tuesday night to play a little Jacks and Beasts Never Rest. Its a format taken from this year's Templecon and I must say, this format rocks. If you don't know what it is, its a 750 point game with two warcasters/warlocks and up to 750 points of Jacks/Beasts. Mercs are allowed as long as they can work for your faction. You can use one epic and win conditions are the same as Mangled Metal. Plus, you can have one warcaster not take any warjacks at all and play a super solo. This is rather risky because if the other one dies, its game over due to the warjacks being inert.

We did use a few proxies in this game if anyone is wondering about it. The Hunters were a Renegade and Talon while the Thunderhead was a Mangler. Thorn was a Repenter and my Avatar was a Crusader...

My mercenaries collection is relatively small, with only 3 jacks, 2 solos, and 2 warcasters. Broadsides is my caster of choice because he brings a different play style than my Menoth casters. I decided to pair him with Kreoss for a one two punch of knockdown fun!

Kreoss

*Revenger
*Devout
**Avatar

Bart
*Mariner
*Mule
*Buccaneer

Vs.

Nemo
*Hunter
*Centurion
*Lancer

Haley
*Thorn
*Thunderhead
*Hunter

I'll try to keep this battle report shorter but can't promise anything. I won the starting roll and opted to go first. I set up Kreoss on the left with the Avatar and Revenger up front and the Devout to his right. Bart was set up on the right with the Buccaneer in the middle and the Mule and Mariner up front.

He deploys Haley on my left and Nemo on my right. The two Hunters are on both flanks and he forgot about their double control radius so they don't get deployed the full 22", he's a bit rusty after not playing for a while.

Starting off, I put retribution on the Avatar and protection of Menoth on the Revenger. All the jacks used a focus to run up save for the Devout. Looking back, I should've put ward on the Avatar to save him from being scrambled. Bart put Hotshot on the Mule and all the jacks ran up.

His turn now, he puts accelerate on the Centurion for 3 focus and ran the Centurion up. Both Hunters advanced the Nemo's took a shot at my Buccaneer doing a good bit of damage and almost taking out the right arm. The Avatar was scrambled and was shot at by the other hunter doing minimal damage and I forgot what the Thunderhead did. I think he just moved up.

Bart upkeeps Hotshot, gives one focus to the Mule and one to the Buccaneer. The Buccaneer tangles up the Centurion and the Mule manages to critically devestate the Centurion and Lancer. Bart moves up and casts Broadsides and the Centurion gets critically devestated again! The Mariner moved up and was out of range of the one Hunter... Doh. Meanwhile, Kreoss doesn't upkeep retribution but does upkeep protection of menoth. The Avatar activates and runs into a house. Kreoss cast immolation on the Hunter and misses the critical and does ok damage to it.

Haley gives three focus to the Thunderhead, two to the Hunter and one to Thorn. The Thunderhead moves up and shoots at the Avatar doing some good damage and it barely keeps its right arm. The Hunter shoots some more at the Avatar and does a little more damage. At this point, he was getting really bad attack and damage rolls. The other Hunter moved up and took a shot at the Mule doing some damage to it. The Centurion activated and was in melee range thanks to the Mule and the Devout got a defensive strike on him. Doing really good damage!! He gave four focus to the Centurion and thanks to defensive strike, missed all attack rolls. I think it was wrecked after this.

This is where I messed up, Bart activated before Kreoss and I didn't get to take advantage of all the stuff that was going to be knocked down. The Mule moved up and missed a shot on Nemo, the Mariner moved up but wasn't in base to base with Bart and just sat there. Kreoss went and popped his feat. The Avatar charged Haley's Hunter and made it dissapear.

Both Nemo and Haley popped their feat and all my jacks took minimal damage from it. The Avatar shot a Kreoss and was able to sink in six damage points and Haley rolled snake eyes with scramble. The remaining hunter took a shot at Bart and did about five damage.

Bart moved up and popped his feat while the Mule moved up and was able to get in melee range with Haley and Nemo and missed hitting Haley. The Mariner moved up and whiffed on the Hunter and the Buccaneer missed his net shot on the one Lancer. Kreoss then casted lamentation and tried to beat up on Thorn a little but failed to do significant damage. The Avatar rolled for two focus and charged the Thunderhead. It did some damage but not what I was hoping for.

Haley gave three focus to the Thunderhead and moved to get out of feat range of Bart. The free strike disabled two arms but it still shot at the Avatar only to miss two times. Nemo camped his focus and waited for the beat down.

Bart gave three focus to the Mule and beat down Nemo. He ended up dying to a few couple of hits and then the Avatar charged Haley and made short work of her. In the end, the game was very fun but I don't think I would've done so well if his rolls were even a tad bit better. We did have a visitor come and heckle us during the match....

And the heckler!!!!

Some thoughts after the match. This was the first time we used timed turns and they were set to 12 minutes. Neither of us broke the time limit but we did come close at times. Order of activation seems like the most problematic for me but I am getting better at it. I tend to get engrossed in the battle and forget to plan during my opponent's turn.

The Guardian of Sul

2009-02-11T18:35:00.009-05:00

My Guardian is finally finished after months of working on it, on and off. I originally entered this model in the November monthly painting challenge and didn't realize how much work would go into him. I'm pretty satisfied with the end result and it was my first chance at painting freehand symbols. A quick shout out to the Brush Thralls for their tutorial on painting symbols. I don't know what it would've looked like if I hadn't used it.

Reznik survives....

2009-02-09T20:57:00.007-05:00

Its that time to post my battle report from Saturday and I must say it was a grueling match. I ended up dropping the Deliverers and added a Paladin and Bosun Grogspar for a little more punch. Here was my final list:

Reznik 741/750 VPs: 28
*Hierophant
*Devout
*Revenger
*Repenter
*Castigator
Gorman
Reclaimer
Rupert
Vassal
Bosun Grogspar
Paladin of the Order of the Wall
Full Choir
Flameguard Cleansers 6
Temple Flameguard full unit with UA

My opponents List

Stryker 739/750 VPs: 26
*Squire
*Lancer
*Lancer
Strangeways
Gorman
Stormsmith x3
Black 13th
Precursor Knights full unit with UA
Sword Knights 8 with UA
*Jack Marshaling a Iron Clad

I had changed my Deliverers out before we rolled for scenario and this helped out a lot because we ended up rolling "Mudslide" for the scenario. My opponent made up his list after we had rolled for scenario. I didn't mind because I wanted to see how well I played against a list specific for the scenario and how a run of the mill, fun list would do.

My opponent won the starting roll and opted to go first. He deployed his Sword Knights in the middle towards the right and the Precursor Knights in the middle to the left. The two Lancers were on both sides of the two units. His Ironclad was behind the one Lancer next to the Sword Knights. Stryker was behind both units with the Squire next to him.

Side note, I'm really going to have to come up with a nickname for the squire because I see him all the time now. Toaster might be a good one, considering I've managed to get him on fire the last couple games and that tends to destroy him/she/it....

The last of his army consisted of the Black 13th lining up on the far right with Gorman behind them. The remaining Stormsmiths lined up on the right and two on the left and Strangeways parked behind the Ironclad.

My army had the Castigator in the middle, Revenger to the right of him, Repenter to the left of the Castigator, and the Devout behind the Castigator, next to Reznik. I deployed the Flameguard to Reznik's right, Cleansers to his left, and Ruphert next to the Flameguard. Bosun was on the far right flank and the Paladin was behind the Cleansers.

The first turn pretty much everyone walked up or ran depending if they were going into shield wall. I do believe the Sword Knight guy tried to drive the Ironclad and failed his command check and had to hang back by the Jack. Some arcane shield was casted on the Precursor Knights (we both forgot they can't be targeted by spells).

My turn saw me running up all my jacks save for the Devout and Reznik casting Zealot's Rage on the Castigator. All of my infantry ran up as well and Ruphert sang Heroic Call for the fun of it. I was trying to get the Castigator to attack the Precursor Knights because I knew the Sword Knights would wreck him quick. What I didn't realize was the Storm Knights didn't have CMA or reach and could've used combustion on them.

His turn he moved up everyone and ran the Stormsmith on my far left up almost across the mudslide. He then cast earthquake on the flameguard and that triggered witch hound so the Castigator and Repenter moved forward. The rest of his army moved forward and was a brick wall right in front of the mudslide.

My turn saw me advance my guys up and the Repenter took a shot at the Precursor Knights but came up short. The Castigator ran forward again and the Revenger ran up as well. I tried to Brand the Precursor Knights and that's when we remembered they can't be targeted by spells. The Flameguard advanced ( should've ran ) with March from Ruphert and used Iron Zeal. They were at the begining of the Mudslide about to take on the Ironclad and the Black 13th were within firing range. Bosun moved up trying to get in melee range of the Black 13th to tie them up for a round. I totally forgot about the Stormsmith triangle ability and didn't bother with the one Stormsmith on my left flank. I thought he was going for my wrack.

It was his turn now and he showed me just what that triangle ability does. He managed to wipe out all of my Cleansers, which were going to be handgrenades, and killed my Paladin as well. I wasn't expecting this and it was really well played. He almost won the scenario with the one Stormsmith on my side of the board but my Castigator was barely on his side. His Black 13th shot and killed Bosun and he survived with one tough roll and then died to the other. Ryan managed to get off Mage Storm and it wiped out 4 of my Flameguard. Stryker moves up behind the Precursor Knights and Sword Knights, chills on 6 focus and pops his feat.

I was in desperate need of trying to get someone across the board to stop the win condition. I decided to not upkeep zealot's rage and Reznik gave two focus to the Castigator and kept the rest for himself. The Choir sang infuse and the Castigator went up threw the one Lancer over the Precursor knights onto the Squire. With Stryker's feat up, the throw didn't do much damage at all. The Repenter moved up and sprayed some Precursor Knights and was able to get the Lancer and Squire in it as well. He did two damage to the Squire and one to the Lancer. The Repentor sprayed at the Lancer and caught it and the Squire on fire but didn't do any damage. Reznik casted Zealot's on himsel, then Hate Monger, and managed to charge a Precursor Knight and kill it. I then popped my feat so the Lancers wouldn't do anything and this wasn't such a good move because my turn was basically over.

I was sitting with zero focus and Stryker behind some barbed wire. Thankfully, Reznik was engaged still in melee range with reach and helped out on his defense against ranged attacks. The fire managed to destroy the Squire but went out on the Lancer. He then swarmed Reznik with his Precursor Knights, popping their min feat and beat him up pretty good, getting him down to 7 wounds. He forgot about the push back ability and probably would've won the game due to it. The Sword Knights demolished the Revenger and the Black 13th moved in toward Reznik on his side of the board. Stryker chilled out and kept his 6 focus.

Reznik activated and kept all 6 focus and then disengaged with the Knights and went over towards Stryker. Stryker was less than 3 inches away but not in melee range and Reznik was in rough terrain, so no Zealot's rage. The free strikes did nothing with him camping focus and he walked over towards Stryker hanging back behind terrain that gave him some more defense. I cast Hate Monger, rolled a 1 for initial attacks, needed a 11 to hit, boosted hit and damage, hit and then did 6 damage. I used my last focus for a desperation attempt to kill and missed the melee roll.

Reznik survived due to a Devout taking out a Sword Knight with defensive strike and Stryker rolled really poorly on his damage hits against Reznik. Now Stryker was sitting on no focus in Melee range with Reznik. I casted Hate Monger and rolled another 1 for initial attacks but did 14 damage on the first hit. After that, I bought another attack, boosted, and then Stryker was wracked.

In the end, it was a great game and very fun. In the future, the battle reports won't be so long and I hope to add some pictures.

Reznik at 750

2009-02-06T19:39:00.005-05:00

I have another CTA match tomorrow and I'm certain its going to be 750 points. The problem is, a lot of my Menoth are warjacks and I don't have a lot of the standard infantry, like zealots and Idrians. If only the people on the main boards knew this, they would cry heresy, so don't tell them.

I'm planning on taking Reznik and his cast of characters.

Reznik 742/750 VPs: 28
*Hierophant
*Devout
*Revenger
*Repenter
*Castigator
Gorman
Reclaimer
Rupert
Vassal
Full Choir
Deliverers
Flameguard Cleansers 6
Temple Flameguard full unit with UA

This list is going to take up a lot of time and I probably won't be able to do all my activations in one turn. One thing I've noticed is by proxying models you get a feel for them but you can't use them in tournament play if you don't have them. I guess its time to buy those Idrians with UA or Zealots with Monolith Bearer.

I plan on taking my camera tomorrow for some cool pictures and hopefully a battle report on Sunday. Here's wishing myself good luck...

First CTA Match

2009-02-04T21:58:00.009-05:00

Last Tuesday night, I had the chance to play in my first ever CTA match at my FLGS, which really isn't local, but I digress. I was playing Menoth and had my first game of the league against Cygnar. I originally wanted to play someone other than Cygnar because that's who I play on a weekly basis and was tired of getting thrashed.

My List:

Amon 490/500, VPs: 19
*Revenger
*Devout
*Castigator
*Crusader
Full Choir
Vassal
Gorman
Wrack

*NOTE* I only took one wrack because that's all I have assembled and no proxy's allowed in CTA.

My opponent was kind enough to take Darius, a warcaster I hadn't played against, and the match was 500 points. Since he was taking Darius, I thought I would bring my favorite monk, Amon. This is my first CTA league I've ever played in and didn't realize you had to roll for scenario (from what I read, its something new they implemented). I rather like this idea because it makes you bring a pretty balanced list. Unfortunately for my opponent, we rolled Mudslide for the scenario.

His List:

Darius 488/500 VPs: 17
*Halfjacks
*Centurion
*Hammersmith
*Ironclad
Journeyman
Aiyanna & Holt

The first turn saw me running my jacks up and then the choir sang "no shooty". Gorman threw some smoke and the Vassal put enliven on my Castigator. He then casted full throttle with Darius and ran up his jacks. The journeyman put arcane shield on Darius and Aiyanna and Holt moved up on my right flank.

The second turn saw me sandblast his Guardian with a critical, knocking him back a whopping 5 inches and then doing no damage on his Ironclad. The Vassal then put enliven on the Revenger and the choir sang "no shooty" again.

He proceeded to run up his Jacks again and then shot at my Revenger with Holt, which I forgot about "no shooty" but did remember enliven. This kept my jack safe and then his turn was over. He was in the edge of the mudslide in the middle of the board and I was right off of it.

I don't think he realized how mobile Amon can get his jacks and left Darius wide open for the charge across the rough terrain. I proceeded to set up the turn perfectly with Amon going into meditative stance and pulling a focus from a wrack. He used all eight focus and Darius was about to get thrashed. That is, until I forgot to use my feat and totally blew my turn.

My Crusader then tried to wreck a Hammersmith and started up the synergy spell. He did minimal damage and then he's turn was over. My Castigator still had enough speed to reach Darius and with Infuse and Synergy going, he was hitting on a +4 attack and damage rolls. I only needed fives to hit the marshmellow man and he took a good beating as his armor was up to 23 from arcane shield.

*Side Note* Amon's Synergy spell is +1 to attack and damage rolls per MODEL, not attacks.

My turn then ended and it was Darius' turn to throw down. At this point I forgot what really happened but I do know my opponent chewed up a lot of his clock time with activations and such. I also didn't realize Darius had dismantle and the poor Castigator was a wreck marker with Darius camping on two focus and then his turn was over.

With the Castigator being wrecked, it opened up a charge lane for Amon and the Devout. Amon upkept Synergy and then charged to only do minimal damage. I remembered to use my feat and then the Devout charged and killed Darius.

This match up totally favored Amon with the scenario being Mudslide and his ability to negate rough terrain. I would like to play against Darius in a good ole fashion Caster kill scenario and see what the fuss is all about.

Til next time...

Going Live!

2009-02-04T21:46:00.003-05:00

I originally started a painting journal on my computer at home and it has now transfered over to this blog. The original intent of my journal was to keep me focused on what models to put together and paint. I'm hoping to share some pictures of my painted models, terrain making skills or lack there of, and some battle reports.

I'm currently playing the Proctectorate of Menoth and have roughly 1300 points. My second army is a small amount of Mercs, Talion Charter. I'm hoping to get in a good amount of games in the Call to Arms league being played right now, with Menoth being my faction of choice for this season.