Meet the Skorne
Well, the first week back to work was a tough one after two weeks on vacation. It took most of the week just to get my head back around what I needed to be doing, and only strengthened my resolve that I need to make a career shift. Right now I’m thinking “Independently Wealthy Billionaire” sounds like a job I would be good at.
I did manage to sneak out to my FLGS for Thursday Warmachine, and to pick up the new No Quarter and “The Dude.” I played against Skorne this week, for the first time ever. It was later in the evening, so we decided to only play a 500 point game. The lists looked something like this:
Having been the first time I’d ever played Skorne, I didn’t have a very good handle on what all his stuff did, and I ended up focusing on all the wrong things. I went after the Praetorians straight away with the chain lightning shenanigans, killing off most of the unit at the top of turn 2. Of course, when he then put the giant stack of soul tokens on the Ancestral Guardian, I knew that something terrible had just happened. A turn later, the ancestral guardian scrapped Ol’ Rowdy like he was nothing.
I felt a little better on the next turn when Thorn teamed up with my remaining sword knights to gut his Gladiator in one round. Even with the satisfaction this gave me, the damage had already been done. His cannonner had killed off my long gunners (not realizing the cannoneer was an AOE, I packed them too tight), and I was down to only 3 Sword Knights and Thorn. I missed a potential assassination run, because I forgot that Warlocks can’t transfer without Fury – thinking that he would just pass the damage off, I went after the Gladiator instead. I finally took Hailey on a suicide run rather than throw up TB and make his already slow army chase me around the table at a crawl.
So, it was another learning game, and I made a lot of mistakes. It was kind of rough night for me, but still an enjoyable game. I won’t underestimate that Ancestral Guardian or the Cannoneer again. I didn’t like Rowdy at all at 500, at least not in this army. He does a lot of cool stuff, but he costs a lot of focus to run, especially if you want to keep Best Defense up. I think I would have been much happier with Defender (some serious ranged punch) or a Centurion, for the charge-denial and the auto-hitting follow on attacks.
In that vein, I finished painting my Centurion last night. As I was painting the right arm, I realized how much I hate the spear on the model. It just looks stupid – it is way to short. So, I decided to build him a new one! I’ve never been a big modder, but it seems like fun, and I thought I would give it a try. I ended up cutting the speartip and the butt off the existing model, and then clipping the remaining shaft out of the hand. To fashion a new spear, I used a piece of 3/32 brass rod that I picked up at a model railroad/airplane shop, and cut that to length. I then drilled through the model's fist, so I could slide the new shaft all the way through his hand.
I had originally experimented with just extending the spear, but drilling a 3/32 hole into the existing shaft was damn hear impossible. I did manage to drill out the spear tip and the butt, and I glued those onto the new shaft. Finally, I used green stuff to blend both pieces into the shaft, and to create a new grip. My green stuff work is amateur at best, but painted up, I think it works out okay, and It achieved the scale that I was looking for. Take a look:
I did manage to sneak out to my FLGS for Thursday Warmachine, and to pick up the new No Quarter and “The Dude.” I played against Skorne this week, for the first time ever. It was later in the evening, so we decided to only play a 500 point game. The lists looked something like this:
My Cygnar Army (500 pts, 19VPs) Captain Victoria Hailey Squire Ol' Rowdy Thorn Sword Knights (x10) Long Gunners (x6) Long Gunner UA Journeyman Warcaster | Skorne Army (497 pts., 17 VPs) Lord Tyrant Hexeris Titan Gladiator Titan Cannoneer Cyclops Savage Praetorian Swordsman (x10) Preatorian Swordsman UA Ancestral Guardian |
Having been the first time I’d ever played Skorne, I didn’t have a very good handle on what all his stuff did, and I ended up focusing on all the wrong things. I went after the Praetorians straight away with the chain lightning shenanigans, killing off most of the unit at the top of turn 2. Of course, when he then put the giant stack of soul tokens on the Ancestral Guardian, I knew that something terrible had just happened. A turn later, the ancestral guardian scrapped Ol’ Rowdy like he was nothing.
I felt a little better on the next turn when Thorn teamed up with my remaining sword knights to gut his Gladiator in one round. Even with the satisfaction this gave me, the damage had already been done. His cannonner had killed off my long gunners (not realizing the cannoneer was an AOE, I packed them too tight), and I was down to only 3 Sword Knights and Thorn. I missed a potential assassination run, because I forgot that Warlocks can’t transfer without Fury – thinking that he would just pass the damage off, I went after the Gladiator instead. I finally took Hailey on a suicide run rather than throw up TB and make his already slow army chase me around the table at a crawl.
So, it was another learning game, and I made a lot of mistakes. It was kind of rough night for me, but still an enjoyable game. I won’t underestimate that Ancestral Guardian or the Cannoneer again. I didn’t like Rowdy at all at 500, at least not in this army. He does a lot of cool stuff, but he costs a lot of focus to run, especially if you want to keep Best Defense up. I think I would have been much happier with Defender (some serious ranged punch) or a Centurion, for the charge-denial and the auto-hitting follow on attacks.
In that vein, I finished painting my Centurion last night. As I was painting the right arm, I realized how much I hate the spear on the model. It just looks stupid – it is way to short. So, I decided to build him a new one! I’ve never been a big modder, but it seems like fun, and I thought I would give it a try. I ended up cutting the speartip and the butt off the existing model, and then clipping the remaining shaft out of the hand. To fashion a new spear, I used a piece of 3/32 brass rod that I picked up at a model railroad/airplane shop, and cut that to length. I then drilled through the model's fist, so I could slide the new shaft all the way through his hand.
I had originally experimented with just extending the spear, but drilling a 3/32 hole into the existing shaft was damn hear impossible. I did manage to drill out the spear tip and the butt, and I glued those onto the new shaft. Finally, I used green stuff to blend both pieces into the shaft, and to create a new grip. My green stuff work is amateur at best, but painted up, I think it works out okay, and It achieved the scale that I was looking for. Take a look:
Labels: miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine
That's a good looking Centurion. Damn you and your freehand skills! I haven't played much Skorne either, and if anything looks remotely scary, it dies first. We still need to get a Cygnar training exercise in, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to do that. Must work so I have more money for Templecon!
Posted by
Jen |
12:36 AM