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Buongiorno!

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:29:00 +0000

Well, I've been radio silent for over a month now, so I thought I probably should check in. It seems that real life has caught up with me, and I find myself busy like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. My company just purchased another company, and I was put on the integration team that has to go figure out how we are going to pull them into the mothership, which basically means a lot of travel and a lot of work. At least the company we bought is based in Italy, which turns out to be a pretty cool place to spend time in if you have to be on the road.

Italy has no shortage of Churches, Wine and Italian Food.

All the travel has shifted my gaming to more mobile pastimes. I've spent some time working on my 4E Eberron campaign, and I'm really excited to get back to playing. I was one of the great holdouts on moving to fourth edition, but now that I've made the switch, I'm absolutely hooked. They have put so much thought into making the game easy to run while making it your own. In 3.5, it was almost impossible to come up with custom creatures or items without worrying that you were going to break the balance of the game. 4E has made all of that so much easier that it's actually a lot of fun to come up with your own custom stuff (not to mention that digital tools like the Adventure Tools help a ton).

Speaking of digital tools - if you run a D&D game, you have to check out Masterplan. It is an amazing free application that lets you map out your entire campaign. You can build it out in flowchart mode, map out all of your encounters and experience (so you can see at any point how much XP your party will have earned, making planning level progression a breeze), and keep track of all those little details with the encyclopedia function. It also integrates with WotC's D&D Compendium, so you have all of that information at your fingertips from within the application, making encounter building fast. You can even export handouts or even entire modules at the click of a button. It is by far the best roleplaying tool I have found.

Other than that, I've been playing a ton of Tomb Raider: Anniversary on the PSP. I picked it up to play on the long plane rides, and I've found it completely addicting. Normally, I have a hard time getting into portable games, but I can't seem to put this one down. In fact I've spent the last few nights at home playing that instead of Mass Effect 2. Weird, I know.

Instead of playing Mass Effect 2 on a 42' HD LCD, I'm playing this.

I think I'm back in town for a while now, so I hoping to get back to at least a little more of a routine. I dug out my Warmachine stuff last night and started working on a Khador Decimator. I know this isn't a secret to anyone, but red is really hard to paint well. It just looks so obnoxiously bright while you are working on it, and those Khador 'jacks have such big flat spaces. If I get him done tonight, I'll post some pics. My FLGS is having a 15 point highlander (1-1-1-1) format event in a few weeks, and I'm thinking about playing the Reds in that... I like the occasional small point event - it makes trying out new factions very feasible. I'll keep you posted.

Flying Lead

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:43:00 +0000

I played a second round of tune-up games Thursday night in preparation for this weekends Resurgence MKII launch event. This time we were playing the 50 point lists, 12-minute turns, and using the resurgence scenario, which has 3 different control zones that score progressively more points the further you are into you enemies territory. We played two games, only going to round three both times, so we could have time to tune the lists.

I started out with 50 point list I described a few posts back, and I found myself frustrated on a few points. First, I just wasn't getting the points out the Thunderhead and Thorn. I'm not saying they aren't worth it in Mark II, but so much of this army is built around using Haley to give the rest of army ranged superiority that there isn't a lot of focus left over for the T-Head. Plus, I felt like Prime Haley had better synergies with these units than Epic Haley, so I decided to stick with the regular version all the way through. With a few adjustments, my lists now look like this:

25 Point List (30/30)

Haley (+5)
Squire
Lancer
Journeyman
Stormguard x10
Gun Mages
Gun Mage Captain
GMCA

35 Point List (40/40)

Haley (+5)
Squire
Lancer
Defender
Journeyman
Stormguard x10
Gun Mages
Gun Mage Captain
GMCA
Stormsmith

50 Point List (55/55)

Haley (+5)
Squire
Lancer
Defender
Journeyman
Hunter
Stormguard x10
Gun Mages
Gun Mage Captain
Cyclone
GMCA
Stormsmith x2

By dropping the T-Head and Thorn and replacing with a Defender and a regular Lancer, I free up enough points to fit a hunter in, which is a perfect match for the two focus that the Journeyman has on him every turn. (I may have Jr. run the Defender in round two for the same reason). I debate whether or not I want a Defender or a Centurion, but I like the flexibility of the melee/ranged combo. I wish I could fit Rupert in, but you can't have non-Prime character solos until the 50-point rounds, which means I would have to hold back points in prior rounds to fit him in.

Facing off against a pile of angry elves. Feeling the disparity caused by spending 21 points on 2 jacks. The blue tape marks the corners of the three control zones.

The good news is that my modified list worked out pretty well. Even against overwhelming numbers of ranged infantry I could push through. With this list, Haley's feat turn is an absolute bitch for your opponent. For those not familiar with Haley, her feat allows each model in her control area to have an addition attack at the end of it's activation, regardless of rate of fire. So, turn 3 tends to looks something like: Move Haley up, cast Temporal Barrier (to give all enemies in your control -2 DEF), and put Dead Eye on the Gun Mages. Then, you charge the Stormguard. Each Stormguard is POW 12 and causes a POW 10 electroleap, so they can spawn up to 40 damage rolls (two primary attacks each, two electroleaps). In my games so far I have been able to decimate the front lines, and if the army is packed tight enough, well into the back line.

The gun mages then advance and clean up. They typically use critical brutal shot, and thanks to the extra die from Dead Eye, they roll a fair number of criticals. They get 14 shots this way, with half of the attacks getting the extra attack die. Combine this with True Sight from the UA, and not much can hide. Finally, the marshaled Cyclone gets to go, generating 2d3+1 attack rolls, and thanks to Rune Shot from the Dude, he can use arcane effects as well.

You are starting to get the picture - in one turn 27 models generate up to 76 attacks/damage rolls without spending focus to purchase more. The biggest challenge is getting it all done in a 12-minute timed turn! (You have to resovle an attack every 9 seconds!)

It's great to see 'jacks on the table again, and the Cyclone is already turning into a favorite. Marshaled by The Dude, he's an absolute horror.

At this point I'm pretty happy with the list and how it's playing. It remains untested against a pile of heavy armored jacks, and that's the one thing I fear. I've proved it to be reliable against ARM18 infantry, but I'm worried about a heavy jack swarm. The hunter should help, but I might have to shift tactics and use the Gun Mages to slam things around rather than trying to kill them. A lot of AOEs that can deviate onto my fragile Gun Mages could spell doom as well, but I should be able out-range almost everything but mortars... Yes, I'm afraid of Khador. Hopefully it will hold up!

Epic Nemosity

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:50:00 +0000

I took a few minutes this morning to put the finishing touches on my Epic Nemo. I had this model mostly finished last weekend, but I still needed to do a few small touch-ups and seal him. Of course, immediately after sealing him, I notice a few more touch-ups that need to be done... *sigh*

Epic Angry Old Man about to deliver lightning to your face-hole.

This is what Nemo would look like running away. You will never see this.

As I was playing a game the other day I was looking at my Journeyman Warcaster - he's really well painted (at least by my own personal standards), and I realize the difference is that back then painting was my primary hobby, and I played only the occasional game with a friend. Now that I am more of a player, I think I must be starting to cut corners to get models on the tabletop faster... My models these days don't seem to hold up under the scrutiny of a digital camera, but at least (I hope) they look great on the tabletop.

Tensions Rising

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:56:00 +0000

I played a couple more games this week as I tested out some list ideas for our upcoming Resurgence MKII launch event. It is an escalation format, which means you start with a 25 pt. list, then go to 35, then to 50, by adding models in each time. It forces you to make some hard choices, because you have to keep everything you had the previous round (with some allowances for upgrades - for example you can pay the point difference and upgrade a lancer for Thorn or an Ironclad for Ol' Rowdy). I've been playing with lists all week, and after some playtesting I still have mixed feelings. Here is what I have at each level:

25 Point List (28/30)

Haley (+5)
Squire
Lancer
Journeyman
Stormguard x10
Gun Mages
Gun Mage Captain

35 Point List (40/40)

Haley (+5)
Squire
Lancer
Thunderhead
Journeyman
Stormguard x10
Gun Mages
Gun Mage Captain

50 Point List (55/55)

E. Haley (+5)
Squire
Lancer
Thunderhead
Journeyman
Stormguard x10
Gun Mages
Gun Mage Captain
Cyclone
Strangewayes
Stormsmith x2

The overall idea is to use the Stormguard as the front screen (they have Ranked Attack now) and deliver the Gun Mages behind them. The Stormguard's Electro Leap should help them take out whatever front line forces they meet, and they have combined melee attacks if I run into something heavy. The GunMages will spend most of the game with Dead Eye on them, making it much easier to getthe Critical Brutal Shot. The Gun Mage Captain is in there primarily for Tactics: True Sight to deal with stealthy stuff. I have to go two points light on the first list to fit the T-Head in for round two, which is a little scary in an already small point size.

My two practice games were at the 25 and 35-point level. I won both, but the 25 point level is scary. Normally I lose about half my front line early, making me feel very exposed. Haley's Blitz feat turn (top of 3 for both games) was critical - Dead Eye on the GMs, use Temporal Barrier for the -2 DEF, and then everyone gets two attacks. Even half a unit of Stormguard can take out most of an enemies front row with Electro Leap attacks (on the feat turn, even with only half the unit that is ten POW 12 attacks that generate ten POW 10 electro leaps!). The Gun Mages can usually follow up an annihilate most of the second line infantry with 14 shots, getting a few brutal crits off in the process.

In both of the games my feat turn was truly frightening and I was able to slaughter the enemy troops wholesale. While the list is good at killing armies, it takes a little more work to kill warcasters... I managed to get the job done, but with only a handful of troops left at the end. (Admittedly, the 35 point went much better with the help of the Thunderhead!) I also have no idea what I would do if I faced off against a Khador list with two or three heavy 'jacks. So, at best I think the lists needs some tweaking, and at worst I may head back to the drawing board.

In other news, I forgot to mention in my last post our local group managed to show up on Page 5 of No Quarter this month for our Breast Cancer Brawl tournament! Now I can say I've had my picture in No Quarter (I'm one of those teeny tiny little people in the group shot, which is ironic, because I'm about 6'4" in real life!) Congrats to Bobaferret for putting on an awesome event!

MK II is Upon Us!

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:02:00 +0000

Like everyone else in the Warmachine universe, I picked up the new Prime rule book the day it hit the streets, and I'm pretty happy with the book. Typical for Privateer Press, the book is a gorgeous piece of layout and design, and the art is excellent as usual. there are a few pieces I don't care much for (What is up with Skarre's weird stiletto legs?) but I was happy to see some of the updated warjack art. Either way, it felt great to have MK II in my hands. No more field tests or asking which version someone wants to play. It is upon us.

To celebrate, I played my first "official" MK II game Thursday night, once again against Bobaferret's Retribution army. Our FLGS is having a MK II launch event on the 24th of this month, and it will be a escalation event, where you army goes from 25 pts. to 35 and then to 50. To warm up, we decided to play a 25 pt. game. I didn't get to play at all over all of my holiday time off (How does that make sense, right?), so I felt really rusty. I'm sure my play was a bit clunky - but that's what friendly games are for: Knocking the rust off. Armies looked something like this:

My Cygnar Army (25 pts)

Haley (+5)
Squire
Lancer
Journeyman Warcaster
Defender
Precursor Knights x10
Stormblades

Bobaferret's Elves (25 pts)

Ravyn (+6 pts)
Hydra
Arcanist
Houseguard Halberdiers x10
Houseguard Riflemen x10
Ghost Sniper
Mage Hunter Assassin x2

After playing 750 point games, the smaller size was really challenging to build a list for. The game itself was a rough one... We played a "Mosh Pit" type scenario using this roundish piece of hill terrain to define the mosh pit. I pushed ahead fast, but forgot that you can't run and shield wall on the same turn (I told you I was rusty). When the Houseguard Riflemen started shooting up my Precursors the next turn, I was starting to fear that I had seriously overextended myself.

Round 2 I moved up a little further, and this time I shield walled. Temporal Barrier would assure I didn't eat a charge this turn, and would force the 'Ferret to advance cautiously. I did manage to shoot some lightning around and take out a few enemies, which made me feel better.

Moments before the last of my infantry get wiped out by Rayvn's Thresher attack...

Round 3 was the money round: Haley pops her feat and throws Deadeye on the Stormblades. We wade in and manage to kill off most of the infantry. Suddenly things are looking up. I've got most of Ravyn's infantry dead, and a huge pile of troopers standing in front of her to gank her next round. Unfortunately, I don't know Ravyn very well... She casts Vortex of Destruction and then dives in and threshers my pile of infantry, killing most of them. My Defender (which has had it's heavy barrel destroyed by the Hydra in prior rounds) gets picked up an chucked at Haley, and they both get knocked down.

The assassination attempts drag on for a couple more rounds, both of us unable to get the job done. I finally get off a lucky damage roll to take Rayvn down, but by this time I'm down to Haley, the Defender, the Journeyman, 2 Stormblades and the Lancer. Bobaferret is down to Rayvn, the Hydra, 2 Halberdiers, 2 Riflemen and a Ghost Sniper. A brutal but good game. We were both fighting tooth and nail to stay alive, and it showed.

In other news, I picked up Darksiders on the XBOX 360 yesterday. I've seen this game at PAX for the last couple of years, and both times I knew there was something special about it. The visual style and polish is so far very impressive, and the game is a blast to play. Has a very visceral, Devil May Cry sensibility to it, and the controls are smooth like butter.

Also, went and saw Sherlock Holmes last night, and liked it much more than I expected to. It had a nice blend of steampunk and occult horror, and if you are a fan of either one, there is likely something here to enjoy... I was entertained the whole time (a rare thing these days, especially for movies over a couple hours long.) I approve.

...And Vacation Ends

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:58:00 +0000

I finally got my Precursor Knights completely painted and sealed today. They have been sitting on my painting table and taunting me for over a month now, and it's good to have them finally finished. They are a unit I really enjoy playing, and I think I'm going to be using them even more frequently now in MKII with the reduced power of the Sword Knight.

The gang's all here. Zombies everywhere be a'feared.

For my color scheme, I went with a GW shadow grey and P3 Menoth White Highlight. I wanted them to fit well with my Cygnar army, and yet still stand apart as something different, and I think I've accomplished that. I made liberal use of a Menoth White Base-colored wash to give the whites a very antique ivory look. The white stripe across the bottom of the robes was an afterthought, but I thought it tied the whole scheme together nicely.

The unit leader and the UA. Nice models.

And that pretty much wraps up Christmas vacation for me. I'm planning on setting a new painting and playing goal this year, and hopefully I will do better than last. After taking on a whole unit, I want to take a break and paint some single models - I'm behind on epic warcasters and I need to get my Thunderhead (and soon a Cyclone) painted. Once I've recovered I'll probably tackle the Long Gunners or the Gun Mages. I'd like to get caught up on what I already have before the new wave of trencher stuff hits.

Of course, to acomplish any of this will mean that I have to shake the horrible Dragon Age addiction that current has a hold of me. I loved Mass Effect, and I had high hopes for Dragon Age as well - and I'm happy to say that so far it is living up to those expectations. I'm about 30 hours in and well on my way to saving Ferelden from the Darkspawn hordes. Of course, Mass Effect 2 drops at the end of January, so I'd like to have saved the world by then. At least January won't be boring!

Dragon Age: "Seriously, I thought you would be taller..."

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:20:00 +0000

Happy new year to my friends in the blogosphere! Here's hoping that 2009 treated you well, and that 2010 treats you even better! All told, it was a good year for me - I find myself more than a little disappointed that we are almost a decade into the twenty-first century and I still don't have a flying car or a robot sex slave, but what can a guy do? A new year always makes me feel both nostalgic and hopeful, and this morning I'm sitting at a coffee shop this morning looking back on the year gone by, and thinking a lot about the year to come, and I thought maybe I should put some of those thoughts to digital ink. So here goes...

Last year was my first full year playing Warmachine, and it was a great year. I've made some great new friends down at my FLGS, and I've learned a lot about how important a good community is to the health of a game. When I first started getting interested in Warmachine I was really intimidated. The game had been out for years, and was on it's fifth expansion. I hadn't really played tabletop games before, and I thought there was no way I would be able to get involved in any competitive way - but thanks to a great local community and an outstanding press ganger, I've been able to jump in with both feet. I've won more than I've lost, I've been in the hunt at several tournaments, and even placed third in out Breast Cancer Brawl!

Of course this year looks to be one of the best ever for Warmachine players. Mark II promises to clean up much of the sediment that has built up in the system over the years, and new models and books will revive interest after what felt like a long draught in 2009. We should see even more new players as the new rules level the playing field - at least for a short time. I know that I personally can't wait to get my hands on a Cyclone and a Firefly and put them to work!

I picked up a couple of started fleets for Firestorm Armada, and I'm hoping that game catches on (and that Spartan Games doesn't errata the rules to death like they did with Uncharted Seas). I'm a huge fan of Sci-Fi fleet combat stories like Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series or David Weber's In Death Ground and Shiva Option, and I love the idea of playing out my own fleet-scale broadside battles in deep space. I have no idea if the game will even catch on locally, but I'm hoping I can find at least a few other folks with an interest.

I also finally got my D&D game back on track last fall. I DM a long-running Eberron game that went on hiatus late in 2008 when 4E hit the scene. Between D&D and Warmachine, it has become abundantly clear that a change in core rules (even for the better) is a disruptive thing, and the shift to fourth edition had quite an impact on our game. It was only after playing in a couple of RPGA events at PAX that everything clicked for us, and everyone finally decided that 4E was going to be a good thing. When we got back, we rebooted the game, and we've been having a blast ever since.

So, what's in store for 2010? We'll, I still have the goal of paining my entire Cygnar army (as well as their supporting mercs). I didn't make as much progress on that as I wanted to last year, so I'll have to keep working on that. I like to get a regular schedule and play Warmachine at least one time a week, and I need to do a better job of planning for (and defending) that time. I'd like to get my Khador army on the table and get some play time in there.

On the roleplaying side, I'd like to see my D&D game push well into the paragon tier and finish the current story arc of their campaign. I'd like to host of couple of "NanoCons" and run one-shot games of couple of other systems that I have a lot of interest in - most notably Spirit of the Century and CthulhuTech. I'd love to go to GenCon (I've never been!) but I need to figure out how to do that while still being able to attend PAX (GenCon is a convention, PAX is more like a family reunion.)

Ah, so much opportunity. There is nothing like the first day of a new year. Hope springs eternal, and none of my best-laid plans have had a chance to go completely to hell yet. Here's to a great year!

Snow Days are for Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks I’ve managed to get back to the painting table, and I’m making good progress on my Precursor Knights. The basecoat is done, and I started shading this morning (my favorite part!) They are coming along nicely, although I had forgotten how monotonous painting an entire unit + UA at once can be.

I’ve start to pick up the beginnings of a Khador army, so I’ve been doing quite a bit of pinning and gluing as a result. Cygnar will always be my main faction, and it remains my ultimate goal to have the entire Cygnar range fully painted and at my disposal. So, I’m going to pick up a second army (which I plan to play in naked pewter) to field while I leave my Cygnar on the painting table and not worry about packing/unpacking them every week. Once the Cygnar is done, I can turn my attention to the Reds.

So why Khador? To be honest, I’m a total fluff gamer. When I look at a new faction, I don’t look at the rules as much as I look for an army that has an aesthetic that appeals to me, looks fun to paint, and has characters and back-story that I enjoy - and Khador fits that bill. In fact, my initial army is going to be a berserker army lead by the Epic Butcher and full of things like Doom Reavers, Fenris, berserkers and extreme sculpt warjacks. This is going to be and army that looks imposing, and is as likely to kill itself as it is to kill my opponent.

When I need a break from unit painting, I’ve also been working on painting up my Space Hulk models. I’ve always been a fan of Space Marines and the 40K fiction, but never really could get into the tabletop game. Space Hulk seemed like a nice way to scratch that itch with a very small commitment. If you haven’t seen the game, the components that come with it are beautiful, from the models to the corridor tiles. The space marine models in particular are stunning, and almost demand to be painted. Instead of painting them all at once like I would a unit, I’m going to tackle each one individually, as they deserve that kind of attention. As far as the Genestealers (the alien models), I really don’t know what to do there – I don’t have a lot of interest in painting them myself… They might get sent out for commission work.

(It's too cold to seal him, so he's still a little shiny.)

Foodmachine is tomorrow at my FLGS. At this point I’m planning on playing, but I also feel like I’m getting sick. We’ll see how it goes. Oh yeah, and there are only thirteen days left until Christmas. If you haven’t started yet, it’s time to go buy some crap for the people you love. So get on it.

No Country for Old Men

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:33:00 +0000

It's hard to believe it has been a month since the last time I posted, but sure enough, November has come and gone, Christmas is on the horizon, and it is far past time for me to check in! November was a quiet month for Warmachine – there were no local tournaments, and in-between work and the holiday break I only managed to get a couple of games in. One of those was last Thursday, as did my part to help out with the Hordes MK II Field Test. This time around it was a battle of the Epic Old Men, with my eNemo facing off against Jen’s (Bobaferret) eDoomshaper. It’s been a while since I’ve played MK II, so it was a kind of clunky-but-fun game. Here are the lists we took:

My Cygnar Army (56 pts)

Epic Nemo (+6)
Squire
Ol' Rowdy
Thunderhead
Lancer
Journeyman Warcaster
Ogrun Bokur
Arlan Strangewayes
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Sword Knights (x10)
Sword Knight UA
Rupert Carvolo
Stormsmiths (x3)
Black 13th Strike Team

Jen's Pink Trolls (56 pts)

Epic Doomshaper (+6 pts)
Earthborn Dire Troll
Dire Troll Mauler
Mulg the Ancient
Troll Axer
Troll Bouncer
Farrow Bonegrinders (x4)
Feralgeist
Gatorman Posse (x5)
Troll Whelps

I’m not going to do a full battle report, but here were the highlights: We decided to play a “King of the Hill” scenario, with a 12-inch hill we had laying around. I went first and was able to push my Sword Knights into the middle early. I learned a lot about MKII Sword Knights this game – they are no longer the offensive powerhouse they once were, but when paired with the Piper (who can pipe “tough” every turn in MK II) they become one hell of a tar pit unit. With Flank and a change they can still do some damage (POW 10 + 4d6) but otherwise they are now much more useful for their staying power than their killing power. That being said, I had a hell of a time killing warbeasts, and knew I was going to have to go for the scenario win.

The rush for the hill. Some gatormen are going to die. Rowdy eyes Mulg.
At the bottom of turn three I was pretty sure I have victory locked up when I had a close call. Jen trampled her Earthborn through my line of Sword Knights and into position to deliver two Primal Shocks! (If you haven’t read MK II trample rules yet, do so now… It is far easier and more effective to trample these days!) Luckily eNemo had two focus on him, as the assassination attempt would have been successful otherwise. As it was, he survived with two wounds, and the game ended by scenario.

End Game: Nemo withstands two Primal Shocks FTW.
MK II still feels strong to me, and I’m excited to get on with it come January. In general, I still think it plays smoother and faster than the current version, and I like having less rules per model. Sure, models like Rowdy and Thorn were awesome, but the amount of rules you had to remember was just absurd. I like this way better now. Still getting used to some of the role changes in my army (like Sword Knights changing from offensive powerhouse to defensive tar pit) but I don’t mind them. I was starting to feel like some of the Cygnar units had gotten so strong that there wasn’t much motivation to try other things. MK II feels like it is pushing the game back to more of a combined arms affair, which I really like.

On a side note: I talk about Warmachine quite a bit on this blog because, well, I like it quite a bit. But the truth is, I’m a huge gaming geek and I like a lot of different stuff, and I’m probably going to start talking about more of that other stuff here. I’m a huge fan of roleplaying games, and at one point I had even talked about starting a separate blog for that. As it turns out, keeping up with just one blog is hard enough, so I’ll probably just be posting all of that stuff here. I’ll be using tags, so If you are only interested in following my Warmachine stuff, that’s easy enough, but hopefully you’ll find some other interesting stuff in here from time to time as well.

eHaley vs. Kaelyssa

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:33:00 +0000

I kicked off my weekend with a friendly 750 game. This time around my Cygnar faced Jen's (Bobaferret) Retribution. This is my third game against the Retribution, and I have to admit, I'm really liking that faction. As a Cygnar player, there is an awful lot to find attractive about them, probably because they do most of what my army does, and often more efficiently. Here is what this weeks match-up looked like:

My Cygnar Army (744 pts, 27 VPs)

Epic Haley
Thorn (bonded)
Thunderhead
Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Sword Knights (9)
Sword Knight UA
Rupert Carvolo
Stormlances (x3)
Stormsmiths (x3)
Black 13th Strike Team

Retribution Army (750 pts, 17 VPs)

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
Hydra
Hydra
Phoenix
Narn
Dawnguard Invictors (10)
Dawnguard Invictor UA
Souless Escort (x3)
Mage Hunter Strike Force
Mage Hunter UA
House Shyeel Magister

This army is a variant of the army I used in the Breast Cancer Brawl last weekend. By the end of that event I had started to get a pretty good handle on eHaley, and I wanted to keep playing with her to see if I could really wrap my brain around her. For this game, I traded out the unit of Precursor Knights for a minimum unit of Stormlances. The precursors make a great screen for the ranged elements of the army, but I they tended to get in the way of the Sword Knights. Plus, I thought it would be fun to put a fast striking threat into the list to try and cause issues in my opponents backfield.

Deployment. Notice the cav fear.

Deployment was by the book. Jen won the roll, and made me go first, allowing her to set up army heavily on my right flank, avoiding my cav, and getting her the Thunderhead vs. mage hunter (with their extra damage die vs. jacks) match-up she was looking for. This ended up meaning that my first round was all about re-positioning. I may have given the mage hunters too much respect, but their Phantom Seeker rounds and their advantage in that forest really freaked me out. So, the Black 13th headed to the left while the Stormlances went to the right, and Haley cast Deceleration to help mitigate any early game ranged attacks.

Turn 2: Chinese Fire Drill!

Turn 2 gets ignorant fast. My GMCA hit the Phoenix with a critical thunderbolt round, knocking it three inches back (into Kaelyssa) and onto its ass. I ran Thorn forward and hit Kaelyssa with Timebomb, boosting the damage but rolling weak. At least I had her debuffed for what comes next: I used Domination to grab the Hydra standing next to her, walk it around behind her, and punch her. Thorn yo-yos back and the Sword Knights move up around him. At this point I've got her about half way down, but there is no way to finish it this round. I reposition my ponies, setting up for a next-turn charge through the forest (using the piper's March). Every single one of my Stormsmiths roll 10+, failing their stormcall skill checks. This is the turn I should feat and take away her retaliation options, but I forget.

A little pissed off about the whole getting punched by her own 'jack thing, Kaelyssa moves up and hits Thorn with backlash and then feats, giving her entire army stealth and denying me the charge next turn. Her army proceeds to scrap Thorn with a combination of Hydra ranged attacks, Invictors shots and Mage Hunters, doing 5 damage to Haley in the process. It could have been worst, but they actually killed him too quickly. The remainder of the Mage Hunters move up and put some hits on the T-Head, filling out a few more boxes. The Phoenix gets up and advances, sheltering Narn, Kaelyssa and the Magister, while the pair of Hydras bring up the rear.

End of Turn 2: Losing Thorn this early hurts

Turn 3: I absolutely need to take some pressure off of that right flank. I move Haley up and cast Telekinesis to move the Thunderhead most of the way across that little pond. Unfortunately, I forgot to cast Deadeye first, at at the end of the movement he is now out of range. Note to self: If you intended to use pulse with eHaley, ALWAYS make sure you cast Deadeye first to get that extra die on every single attack roll. Still, I roll crazy high, and manage to kill off seven of the Invictors, but I can't hit the Mage Hunter with their high defense (I bet I would have with Deadeye!) The piper plays march for the ponies, and I charge them through the forest to tie up the Mage Hunters and hopefully protect the T-Head. Sword Knights charge the Phoenix and get through his forcefield, but fail to bring him down. The Stormsmiths fail two out of three stormcalls, which is starting to piss me off.

On Jen's turn, Narn murders my GMCA, and then moves up next to Haley. Kaelyssa moves into the ruined building and uses Phantom Seeker to shoot at Haley. The game might have been over here if she hadn't activated Narn first, but by putting him next to Haley, she now has the "in melee" bonus, and Kaelyssa can't hit her. The embattled Phoenix combusts, but fails to kill off any of the Sword Knights that surround it. Not to waste the oppotunity a giant, flaming jack presents, one of the Hydras grabs it from behind and throws it at my back row of Sword Knights (where the unit leaders are), and manages to kill the unit leader and one of the troopers. The remaining Invictors CRA on the T-Head, while the Mage Hunters battle the cav, doing some damage, but not taking any out.

Turn 3: The Thunderhead does his job

Turn 4: Things are dying fast now, and I don't like the direction it's heading. I still have numerical superiority, but that doesn't mean much against an army that can shoot through anything. This needs to end now. First order of business is to free up Haley from the threat of Narn. Luckily, the Black 13th start in his back arc, and with the aiming bonus the "in-melee" penalty is negated. Ryan kills him with one shot. Haley moves up, and casts Temporal Acceleration on the Sword Knights, giving them three attacks this turn. The piper plays Heroic Call and makes them tough, and they charge in. The extra movement allows them to get across the rough terrain around Kaelyssa, but unfortunately, only two of them can fit into the building with her. Luckily, two is enough - although it isn't until the sixth (and last) attack that one finally connects, bringing her down for the win.

Endgame: Sword Knights FTW!

Wrap-up: I really, really like the retribution. They are have some very cool play machanics, and they make for fun, on-your-toes games. They may be a faction I have to dabble with eventually. As far as my Cygnar, this was a good learning game for me. I finally got good use out of the Thunderhead, and I think I could use him even better if I remeber to Deadeye him. I'm also still struggling to use the Stormlances well. I should have ran them harder and got them around into the backfield. It might almost make sense to put arcane shield on them for the first few turns, and then switch it over to the Sword Knights as the mosh-pit forms.

I'm also getting a good handle on eHaley and her spell list. While her spells can be pretty subtle, once you start to think of all the nasty situations you can use them to set up, they become pretty fun. I definately need to get better at remembering her feat... Much like prime Stryker, I always end up using it a turn later than I really should. The more I play with her, it very much feels like a good turn 2 option, to guarantee you get off the charge.

Saving Second Base

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:54:00 +0000

We had our Breast Cancer Brawl up here in Boise yesterday, and it was an amazing success by almost any standard. We had somewhere between 30-35 players, and were able to raise thousands of dollars for our local hospital's mobile mammogram service, which is just awesome. The spirit of giving at the event was just amazing, and it was fun to watch a bunch of gamers come together and do something so cool.

The event itself was a blast: 750 points, two lists, and kill the caster was the only scenario. On top of that, you could use tickets (at our store they were a dollar each or 12 for $10) to re-roll or kick in other special abilities from a special rule sheet. For example, at the start of the game, you could pay 8 tickets for the "Women are Strong" ability, which makes all of the female models in your army tough. You can also play an equal amount of tickets to cancel anything your opponent does, although they can immediately re-spend and try again. Basically, the more money you donate, the more you can "cheat." I was a big dirty cheater. :-)

Bobaferret, our press ganger, did an amazing job putting this even together and getting some really cool prize support. We had steamroller trophies for the tournament winners, and for the biggest donors she was able to get prints of Deneghra and Ashlynn signed by Matt Wilson, and three original pieces of concept art from Chris Walton (the main artist responsible for the retribution), right out of his sketchbook. We had three pink painted armies up for silent auction, each of which sold for between $250-600. To top it off, everyone who played in the tourney got a really nice BCB: Boise t-shirt featuring more Chris Walton art (the picture at the top of this post.)

Personally, I had a pretty good showing. I ended up taking third place, and taking home one of the Chris Walton originals (sweet!). My pink Epic Haley took second place in the painting contest, and I won an auction for a really beautifully painted, pink-highlighted Eiryss.

I brought two lists, but I only ended up playing one all day. I once again broke my cardinal rule of playing in tournaments with warcasters I don't know very well, but in this case the need for a pretty pink model overruled all else. Here is what I took:

Breast Cancer Brawler 748 pts/26 VP

Pink Epic Haley
Squire
Thunderhead
Thorn
Journeyman Warcaster
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Stormsmiths (x2)
The Piper of Ord
Precursor Knights (x8) + UA
Sword Knights (x8) + UA

The idea was to have a fairly balanced list full of stuff I know well. Between Thorn, the GMCA, the Black 13th and the Stormsmiths you have a lot of options for dealing with stealth, invisibility, etc. The precursors provide a great screen for the ranged elements, they don't give up souls, and they are hell on the undead. Sword Knights are... well, Sword Knights. As for 'jacks, the Thunderhead is hard to ignore, and Thorn makes Haley super-scary. In practice, the list worked pretty well. My games looked like this:

Game 1, Cryx (Win): This was a really tough game vs. Epic Asphyxious, with bane knights and bile thralls and everything else you would expect. I probably would have lost this game, but in the end I used one of the "tournament specials" to allow my T-Head to ignore intervening models when making ranged attacks. My opponent didn't have the tickets to counter me, so he took three lightning coil shots to the face-hole.

Game 2, Retribution (Win): In this game, both my opponent and I had big rolls of tickets, which meant that almost none were spent (we just countered anything the other person tried.) This was a fun game, and I'm still impressed my the flexibility of the retribution. My opponent got a little mis-positioned, and my T-Head was able to tie up the Mage Hunters while the Sword Knights and Precursors rampaged through the lines. Time Bomb and Arcane Bolts took down Kaelyssa in the top of turn three.

Game 3, Trolls (Win): A brutal game against the store owner and his beautiful troll army. Like all games with trolls, it really feels like you are losing up until the point where you start winning. This game went all the way to time, and I won on VPs (by this point the Sword Knights had killed off a Mauler, and by forcing him to transfer damage off Callandra, I killed a Blitzer and an Axer). I will say that Starcrossed may just be the single most frustrating spell in the game for me right now.

Game 4, Cygnar (Loss): It was Cygnar vs. Cygnar this time, with my opponent running a Darius list with 4 (FOUR!) centurions in a block. He played the list very well, and I played mine very poorly. I got some advice from one of our local Cygnar gurus afterward - I should have used to Telekinesis at the top of turn two to turn the centurions backs toward my Sword Knights, and pulled them into charge range. Then I could have hit them with a march-fueled, three attack, five-damage-dice Sword Knight charge. I probably could have scrapped two or three of them right there. I didn't, and he ended up winning by a single VP when time was called (to his credit, he was just starting a trample that would lead him directly to my warcaster - five more minutes and he would have had the kill.)

Game 5, Legion (Win): I have only played vs. Legion one other time, and that was a long time ago, so I had no idea what most of my opponent's army did - which is a bad thing against a dirty tricks army. He was playing an Epic Lylyth list with a ton of archers. On turn 1, he moves Lylyth up, pops feat, and starts shooting an insane amount of arrows. Luckily, Haley had cast Deceleration at the end of turn one, so my Sword Knights are effectively DEF 15, ARM 21 vs. ranged attacks. That forces him to CRA instead of taking individual shots, and he only takes five Sword Knights off the board in what could have been an otherwise devastating turn. At the top of turn two, I run Thorn up close, use Telekinesis to turn Lylyth's back to my army, hit her with Time Bomb to get that defense down, and then hit her with an Arcane bolt. She's about half way there. GMCA moves up, and hits her with a long shot (once I measure, I find out I'm at about 11 inches - wishing I had declared a Blaze round). Finally, from 17 1/2 inches away, Ryan of the Black 13th hits her twice and takes her down.

So, it was a great day. I really started to get my head around Epic Haley, thanks mostly to some great advice I was given along the way. I'm reminded what a fun hobby this is, and what great people enjoy it alongside me. Oh, and if you haven't hugged your press ganger lately, you need to. Yesterday really made me realize how much work they put into making sure we have a good time.

Paint it Pink

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:22:00 +0000

Our local Breast Cancer Brawl event is this weekend, so I thought I would be in the spirit and have at least one model painted pink. Given that Cygnar doesn't have just a whole lot of ladies in lineup, it didn't take me long to settle on Epic Haley. I hadn't got around to playing with her yet, and she is absolutely one of my favorite models in the range, so I figured it was about time to give her a try.

To get warmed up, I played my first game with her over the weekend, and it went pretty well. I was able to use Time Bomb at the top of turn 2 to prevent a Mulg charge, and then I opened turn 3 by using Telekenisis to pick up Epic Hoarluk and turn his back to my long gunners so they could shoot him with three POW 19 CRAs (thanks Temporal Acceleration!) So, I guess I kind of get her schtick.

I'm not sure who I'm going to take for a second list caster... With only two days to go, I need to make up my mind pretty soon. Probably worth taking something I'm really comfortable with... Maybe Striker or Siege - Although I'm starting to feel kind of guilty about my slowly worsening Siege addiction. If it works out like normal, I'll be building my list an hour beforehand over a cup of coffee...

Back in the Saddle

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:04:00 +0000

Well, despite my best hopes for getting back into a more regular gaming routine, it seems that fate has been conspiring against me. Between a massive new project at work and week of business travel, I haven't had a game since my FLGS ran its Call to Arms kick-off event back in the end of September. (An event I did fairly poorly in, BTW).

I did finally manage to find my way back to the painting table this weekend, and mostly finished up Strangewayes. I say mostly, because I still need to do some detail work on the face and add some eyes, but I just ran out of patience. It felt good to be painting again though, and I was happy to see I hadn't lost too much ground having taken the summer off.

We've got our Breast Cancer Brawl event coming up at the end of this month. Bobaferret, our local Press Ganger has done a hell of a job promoting it, and it looks like it is going to be the biggest tournament our store has ever had. Needless to say, I need to start tuning my game back up, so I can at least make a decent showing. I'd like to get some special stuff painted pink (like maybe a pink eHaley with a pink female Jouneyman and a pink Squire), but we'll just have to see what time allows.

PAX POX

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:04:00 +0000

Well, it's been a week since PAX. I had high hopes of really covering the convention - on location blogging from my iPhone that spared no detail. Unfortunately, the wi-fi at the convention was less then co-operative. I think I summed it up well in this almost hiaku-like tweet:

"Sucking on the broadband teat - chapped nipples of wifi... "

So, after a couple of failed updates that cost me long posts that I had typed in with my now near-bloody thumbs, I pretty much gave up on the whole "blogging-from-iPhone" idea. Instead, I figured that I would just post a couple of big updates when I got back, and cover the highlights of the show. I made it home on Labor Day, exhausted, but still awash in a warm post-PAX glow. I caught up on my sleep for most of that day, and I figured that the next day I would catch up on my blogging.

Unfortunately, by the next day my warm post-PAX glow had been replaced by a post-PAX fever... That's right, gentle reader, I had caught the dreaded PAX POX! For those that hadn't heard, there was a hellacious flu outbreak at the show - not during the actual convention, but in the days that followed. Hundreds of people reported (via the #PAX tag on twitter) coming down with nasty cases of the flu. It knocked me out for almost a week.

So, here I am, one week later, and I find that now that I have rejoined "real" life, the motivation to go back in time and discuss PAX in any great detail has left me. It seems that PAX has become like a warm memory of childhood, locked away safe from the harsh light of this working man's reality, only to be brought out over good scotch and in the company of fine friends. To allow one's thoughts to linger over-long on such a happy time is only to invite sorrow it seems, for these days cannot measure against those...

What little I will say: I picked up my Retribution book (only days ahead of the rest of the known universe) as well as the Extreme Juggernaut and a pretty snazzy Cygnar t-shirt. I didn't even make it to any of the Warmachine events (PAX has the odd ability to fold space and time down to a point where you can only accomplish one-quarter of what you had hoped, while still filling your days with 4X the joy of an average day), but my friend Tallyn42 did play in the events, and you can read about that here.

And I find now that even this little bit of reflection is making my heart ache for better days... Alas, I am overwhelmed by emotion (or maybe that is the last bit of the flu). Regardless, I must retire. Fear not, gentle reader, for I will leave you with these images of the neat things you can take pictures of in glass cases. While we have all seen these models a hundred times in magazines and books, I will say that if you have not seen them first hand, it is hard to imagine the mastery apparent in their execution. Every time I get to gaze upon them I am truely humbled and inspired, and my desire to paint is simultaneously rekindled.

Artistry of a different fashion - this was done in sidewalk chalk. Yeah, no shit.

Direct from PAX

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:10:00 +0000

Well, my hopes of blogging real-time from the convention haven't quite played out like I wanted it to. One, we have been super busy, finding far more to do than last year, which has been awesome. Two, the wifi at the show has been terrible, and I've already lost two posts to connection drops when uploading. (My blogging app probably deserves some of the blame for that.)

Anyway, what a great show this year! I'll post more detail on this stuff later, but at a high-level, here is what's happened (along with random sights from the show floor):

We played in a couple of Living Forgotten Realms RPGA games. One was a "convention special," which means it was a more difficult dungeon-crawl type game. The other was set in Cormyr, and involved dealing with a ton of NPC and a bunch of skill challenges with only a single, short combat. It was a blast and totally made me rethink the way I run my games. (I'll probably throw up a more complete post on that one sometime in the future.)

The expo hall is even bigger than last year! Privateer Press has a booth right as you walk in, and they were stocking all the October Retribution releases. I picked up their army book and the new No Quarter. I need to swing by today and see if they have the Extreme Juggernaut on hand...

On the video game front, all the big stuff is here and playable - StarCraft 2, Diablo 3, the new WoW expansion, Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age, Left for Dead 2, Guild Wars 2 and tons more. The most surprising to me was an MMO called Aion, which looks really amazing.

For Panels, we caught the keynote with Ron Gilbert (who wasn't as funny as I thought he should be), and a Q&A with Gabe and Tycho (who are far more funny than they have any right to be).

We went to a "The Art of the Dungeon Master" panel with all the big names from WotC, and I decided that Chris Perkins (the DM for the Penny Arcade guys) scares me just a little. It was a good panel, and it sounds like the DMG 2 is going to be an awesome book for helping people to run better games.

Right now the "Beyond D&D panel is about to start, so more later.... Loving PAX!!!

-- Posted From My iPhone

Painting for PAX

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:46:00 +0000

With PAX only four days away, my preparations have kicked into overdrive. I've have a ton of office work to get done before can I go, and I still have a bunch of painting I'd like to get done as well. Given that, my free time this weekend was all about speed painting.

First off, I'm signed up to play in a couple of different Living Forgotten Realms RPGA sessions. I'm not usually a Realms fan (I'd rather play Eberron or Pathfinder), so I wanted to play something straightforward that I had a good sense for the lore - which for me means dwarves. I can't quite decide what class to play yet (I'm torn between Paladin, Warlord or Cleric) but I knew I wanted a good-looking mini to put on the table.

I was surprised how hard it was to find a good dwarf model (especially considering that I was limited to what I could find locally - as I have no time left to order anything.) I finally settled on one of the Warhammer Fantasy Runelord models. Warhammer dwarves are a little shorter than I'd like, so I mounted him on a fancy Micro Art Studio resin base. I painted him up in just under a couple of hours. Now that I see it in the photo, there are a few little details that I need to touch up, but all in all, I like him, and I think he'll serve me well on the table - especially when put up against the cheap plastic WotC miniatures.

I also put the finishing touches on a lance of battlemechs I've been working on from the BattleTech Introductory Boxed Set. I'd like to have all of the mechs needed the three introductory missions painted up for PAX, but we'll see how far I get. This group represents the mechs required for one side to play the first couple of missions. I'd like to get the opponent mechs painted as well (red, of course, so we can have some iconic Red vs. Blue action.)

275 tons of 1-inch tall plastic fury.

On an unrelated note: Thursday night some folks at my local game store were playing a demo copy of the new Space Hulk, and I have to admit, I was impressed. The game has some nice production values and really great "table appeal." I never played the original, but watching them play this one, I found myself really wanting to pick it up. It might just be able to scratch the 40K itch without having to actually play 40K! Just what I need - another game.

The new Space Hulk. The minis look really great.

Epic Nemo vs. Kaelyssa

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:39:00 +0000

I finally made it back to my FLGS tonight for my first game in a while, and in turn, I'm filing my first battle report in a good long time. This time I was playing Bobaferret's Retribution of Scyrah army that she brought back with her from GenCon. I have to admit, I'm a little intimidated by the Retribution, but at the same time, I figure if they have a mouth-hole, I know where to shoot them.

Here is what the the lists looked like:

My Cygnar Army (745 pts, 27 VPs)

Epic Nemo
Ol' Rowdy (bonded)
Centurion
Lancer
Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Gun Mages + Officer
Sword Knights (8) + UA
Rupert Carvolo
Stormsmiths (x3)

Retribution Army (746pts, 24 VPs)

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
Hydra
Gorgon
Gorgon
Epic Eiryss
Narn
Dawnguard Sentinels (10)
Dawnguard Invictors (8)
Dahlia Hallye & Skarath
Aiyana & Holt

This is my first time playing eNemo, so this list is a bit of an experiment. I wanted to be somewhat 'jack heavy, because Nemo has the tools to make them awesome. The Stormsmith's elite cadre status makes them a must - not only does the extra damage make them dangerous, it also seems highly likely that I might need to deal with some sneaky, high defense stuff (also why the GMCA is in there). Sword Knights are a staple, and the Gun Mages are quickly becoming a new favorite with their UA.

Deployment

Turn 1: I run, pushing my army upfield as quickly as possible. Thanks to eNemo's Energize spell, my 'jacks are finally able to keep up with the infantry (Even the Centurion!) The GMCA rolls snake eyes when he tries to take out Eiryss, and suddenly feels very exposed. Jr. throws an Arcane Shield on him while Nemo puts Polarity Shield on the Sword Knights. Rupert also pipes Heroic Call, making them tough.

Bobaferret opens her turn by rolling snake eyes with Eiryss, making us wonder if it is going to be one of those games. This ends up hurting her worse then I would have guessed - she was hoping to take Polarity Sheild off the the sword knights so Narn could charge his way all the way to Nemo. With that still up, he can't quite make it. The rest of her army just advances, and Boy Toy starts to shoot up Ol' Rowdy. Kaelyssa pops her feat giving everything in her control area stealth and denying me the charge next turn.

The end of Turn 1

Turn 2: Rowdy advances (again, with the help of Energize) into the Invictors and uses his quake hammer to knock all but one of them down. He proceeds to kill a pair of them. On the opposite flank, the Centurion kills off a pair of Sentinels. The Piper plays March to give the Sword Knights the extra movement they need to walk up the front lines, and I manage to kill off five more Sentinels and another Invictor, thanks to the Lancer providing Flank. The GMCA shoots Eiryss right in the face-hole, but doesn't quite kill her, so a Stormsmith has to help him finish the job. The other two Stormsmiths fail to kill Narn, so I have to commit an entire unit of Gun Mages to do the job (which ends up being okay - everything else has Stealth this turn anyway...)

Bobaferret retaliates by killing half of the sword knights and the UA leader with Sentinels and a nasty spray attack from Skarath. Aiyana casts Harm on Ol' Rowdy, and then everyone picks on him: He takes shots from Holt, a CRA from the Invictors, and a shot from Kaelyssa, piling on the damage. Thanks to dynamic capacitor, I am able to choose which column that takes the damage, and I manage to keep him alive (just barely!) with only one open box on each system.

End of turn 2. Only four invictors stand between Ol' Rowdy and Kaelyssa.

Turn 3: I really consider just trampling my way to her warcaster, but as I look at it, I don't think Rowdy could survive it. Still, I load him up with five focus (thanks to his bond), figuring I can always pull it back with Focus Matrix if I need to. If I don't do something with him this turn, he's dead for sure.

First, I kill off the Gorgon engaging the Lancer - If my Ol' Rowdy plan doesn't work, I'm going to use him to spell her to death after I pop Nemo's feat and reload him with focus... Hopefully it won't get that far. The Gun Mages advance, and use Ricochet shots to clean out the Invictors that lie in between Ol' Rowdy and the enemy warcaster. With the Invictors out of the way, Rowdy charges. At a DEF 16 Kaelyssa might be hard to hit, but with five focus I should be able to get it done. Thanks to Gung Ho, I charge for free, boosting the first attack roll. I hit with a critical, dealing 13 wounds and knocking her down. The second buckler attack now auto hits, and with a boosted damage roll it is enough to kill her. Ol' Rowdy FTW!

With only one box left in each system, Ol' Rowdy arrives with five focus to crush Kaelyssa!

Final thoughts: The extra mobility that eNemo and the Piper brought to my army was critical to engaging and killing off a good chunk of infantry in the second turn. The Gun Mage's ricochet shots were also huge in allowing me to open up the game-winning charge lane for the kill. Nemo's polarity shield kept me from eating an early charge, and more importantly, it denied Narn that little bit of extra movement he would have needed to get all the way to Nemo in turn 2.

As far as the Retribution: they are going to be amazing. It feels like they have managed to take the best part of each faction - they have the sword knight's "battle buddy" and Flank, great ranged attacks combined with good melee on the same model, they have weapon masters, and warjacks with strong melee and ranged options. They have stealth, and units with the Circle-like mobility to move through your army. The only downside I saw is that the Myrmidons seem soft - if you can deal a concentrated burst of damage (like a unit of sword knights with a UA can) they go down fast. I also found myself liking the models much more in person that I did from the previews - that is a good looking army. In all, I'm impressed, and I would almost consider picking them up if I wasn't pretty sure that everyone else and their dog will be playing them as well.

PAX Approaches!

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:45:00 +0000

It's almost time for PAX! Last year was my first time at the show (PAX Cherry!) but this year I plan to be back with a vengence. For me, PAX is a chance to hang out until 3 in the morning and play games with a lot of like-minded folks, and play some games that I might otherwise not get around to playing. So what's on tap this year? I'm rolling in with a suitcase full of gaming goodness! Here's what is coming with me:

Living Forgotten Realms: I'm going to be playing in my first RPGA event while at PAX, and a buddy and I are signed up for a couple of different sessions. I've been running a game of D&D on-and-off for the last few years, but I haven't been on the player's side of the DM screen in almost 20 years. I'm realtively new to 4E, having just switched over about a month back, but I think I have a good enough handle on it for this kind of deal. Other than that, I have no idea what to expect from this format, but it should be a good time.

BattleLore: I picked this game up a good while back, but I haven't really had a chance to put through it's paces. It's a nice balance of board game and war game, with a slick card mechanic for orders and tactics and a simple dice mechanic for resolving combat. It really seems like a great "in between" game to play with friends who have some interest in pushing around little men, but not the patience or inclination for full-fledged miniature gaming. You can check out my first impression way back here.

Cutthroat Caverns: "Without teamwork, you will never survive. Without betrayal, you’ll never win." A simple card game that puts the players in the role of an adventuring party that has discovered the "Sacred Item of Unimaginable Marvel" - and of course, you each want it for your own. Unfortunately, nine monsters (randomly drawn from an encounter deck) stand between you and the exit to the dungeon. If you don't work as a team, you won't have the horsepower to make it out, but if you don't backstab the others at just the right moment, you can't claim the prize for yourself. It's straightforward screw-thy-neighbor gaming at it's best.

Infernal Contraption: This is a game I bought at PAX last year in the Privateer Press booth. It's definately a beer and pretzels affair, but is surprisingly fun to play. Another card game, this one has you trying to assemble an "infernal contraption" with the goal of forcing your opponent to consume all of his resources (cards) before you run out of cards yourself. This quickly became our go-to game inbetween events.

Battletech: An old favorite that I haven't played since I was a teenager. This is the granddaddy of big, stompy robot games, and is an interesting mix of board game, wargame and RPG. The game itself has had some rough years, passing from FASA to FanPro, and ultimately to Catalyst Games Labs. The good news is that Catalyst seems to be doing well by the series, and has put out a Introductory Boxed Set that is a great introduction to the game. (You you read my impressions the boxed set, along with my glowing fanboyism here)

And that's about it - and that should be plenty. I think it's going to be a great geek party - they have already sold out all of the three day passes (something like 75,000 passes!) and the daily passes are going fast.

9 days until PAX.

Summer Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:18:00 +0000

It’s been too long since I’ve posted, so I figured I better check in. Summer is finally wrapping up, having been full of family vacations, camping trips and all the other wonderful things that come along with daylight that lasts until 10 at night. It’s been an awesome summer – We spent a week in the Sawtooth Mountains camping, went whitewater rafting by Jackson Hole, I took up kayaking, and I’ve managed to get back into the best shape I’ve been in for ten years. I also managed to get on a much more regular play schedule (with the exception of the last few weeks), making it down to my FLGS more often than not for Thursday Night Warmachine. The additional practice has been great, although Ireally need to get more stuff assembled and painted and try out some new options.

Unfortunately, I’ve accomplished almost nothing on the hobby front this summer. I’ve only painted a couple of models, and I know I’m falling seriously behind. I really wanted to have my entire Cygnar army painted by the end of the year (in time for MK II), but I’ll just have to see if that can still happen. Other that that, I’ve been trying to keep branching out, and learning my warcasters. Here is a quick recap of my Warmachine summer:

I’ve been playing quite a bit with eStryker, and I’m starting to get a handle on him. At first, I was a little too myopic on setting up his assassination run, and probably not getting enough out of the rest of my army. I’ve started running the Gun Mages with him, and they offer a board control/threat quality seem to be a good combination with him.

Of course, when running eStryker, the Stormblades feel almost required, and I’ve been working hard to make them perform. At first, I kept trying to use the "advanced move" that they get from the elite cadre to give them a head start, but whenever I lead with them they seem to get wiped out before I really get any mileage out of them. I’ve had much better luck deploying them behind a Precursor Knight screen, and using that to deliver them (they can still fire lightning blasts through the PKs thanks to kneel). Then, the PKs will either get off the initial charge or absorb it, and as they either push through or evaporate, the Stormblades are set up for a counter charge or a follow up strike. I’ve also done the same to good effect with Trenchers (which does allow you to take advantage of the advanced move). This “Stormblade delivery system” approach seems to be working, and all in all the list seems to be getting stronger.

I also played my first 1,000-point game about a month back. It was an epic affair that pitted my pStryker and pHaley vs. eDoomshaper and Calandra on a really tight “urban” map with a river passing through the center and two bridges. I managed to win that one, but in the process, I acquired a burning hatred for Callandra’s Starcrossed spell. That spell is balls. Even with that, I’ve had a good record vs. Trolls. I think their medium bases give my shooty Cygnar armies somewhat of an unfair advantage – I always get LOS to something, and sometimes you feel almost dirty shooting them up.

Like everyone else, I’ve had the opportunity to face off against the new Bastions a couple of times. They are impressive models and very cool looking, but they aren’t as bad as all talk they are getting. My first game I managed to kill them all off in the first couple turns – which I think is the key – don’t let them get into you too deeply. I started to using a block of Precursors to engage them – the Bastions kill the first rank, then my second rank uses Morrow’s Name and March for an extra attack, doing some hellacious damage in return. They are definitely a tough nut to crack – so tough in fact that you have to have a strategy for them from the start of the game – but nowhere near as bad as Trollkin Champions, which I still have never managed to kill off thanks to their tough rolls. Hell, I’m usually lucky if I can kill half the unit of Champs.

Speaking of tough rolls – the highpoint of my summer games came a few weeks back in a game against Calandra – I had an overloaded eStryker on her just wailing away. She was knocked down, so I was auto-hitting and rolling POW23 overloaded damage rolls, but she kept making tough checks. I’m spending focus for extra attacks, and she just keeps rolling tough rolls! By this point, we’ve got the entire game store around our table cheering every time I spend a focus and she rolls another tough check. Finally, on the sixth check (and my last point of focus!) she fails! eStryker FTW!

So, that’s my summer so far. With August coming to an end and the kids heading back to school, I’m planning to get back to blogging and painting on a much more regular schedule. PAX is only a few weeks away, and my excitement is building! I’ll be taking my iPhone and trying to provide complete mobile coverage of the show. I’m taking a suitcase full of games (more on that in my next post) and I’m already signed up for two RPGA D&D session. Hope you all had a great summer - It’s good to be back!

Mobile Blogging Test

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:36:00 +0000

I'm testing out my how well I can blog from my new iPhone. I'm hoping that it works well enough that I can use it to effectively cover events like PAX, which is coming up in about two months. While the iPhone keyboard is probably going to rule out long posts, I would like to be able to push little updates throughout the various events of the show, giving my coverage more of a "man on the ground" feel.

Also - if you read this blog and are going to PAX, drop a comment! I've talked to quite a few of you through comments, it would be great to meet some people face-to-face and maybe get a game in...

Oh, and to test out how well it deals with pics, here is a snap of my Stormclad I took at one of my last games (pretty happy with the camera on the new iPhone, by the way...):

I'm using an app called BlogPress, just in case anyone is interested. You can find more about it here: http://blogpress.coollittlethings.com/

-- Posted From My iPhone

That's Not Nine Inches

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:58:00 +0000

I managed to sneak into the FLGS for a quick game after work. This one was a "training exercise" with Cygnar vs. Cygnar - my eStryker vs. Bobaferret's Siege. Me and the 'ferret have a long standing tradition of the winner writing the battle report (history is written by the victor, right?). I've been writting quite a few battle reports lately, but I won't be writing one tonight... I got a taste of my own medicine, losing the game with a pair of rockets to the face. So, keep an eye on the ghettokore studios blog for the full battle report.

Tonight my focus was learning eStryker. I played him for the first time in the tournament (yeah, dumb, I know), and realized I needed to spend some time with him. He is my first foray into epic warcasters, and I made the mistake of thinking that epic warcasters are just a jacked up version of the original version. In play, they are nothing alike - prime Stryker is a versatile and ultimately defensive caster, where eStryker is a cruise missile in warcaster armor designed to stick it in and break it off. It was going to take a completely different approach.

Here is what our lists looked like:

My Epic Stryker Army (749 pts.)

Epic Stryker
Squire
Ol'Rowdy
Journeyman
Stormclad
Rupert Carvolo
9 Precursor Knights + UA
8 Trenchers + UA
Black 13th
Stormsmith

Jen's Siege Army (750 pts.)

Siege
Squire
Ol'Rowdy
Journeyman
Defender
Reinholdt
Rupert Carvolo
8 Precursor Knights + UA
7 Sword Knights + UA
Epic Eiryss
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
2 Stormsmiths

In the tournament I lead with the Stormblades, only to realize that they are just too few and a little too fragile to use as a speartip. They need a delivery service. I had originally planned to take Sword Knights (yeah, I love them just a little too much), but at the last minute I decided to swap them out for the Precursor Knights. The Precursors don't have quite the same damage output, but they make a great delivery service - they can't be targeted by spells, they block line of sight to whatever is behind them, and thanks to kneel they allow the Stormblades to shoot electric death from the back row. I liked this arrangement much better, and if not for some shortcomings (more on that in a minute), I think it would have been a great strategy.

I still struggle a little with the stormblades in this list. They do well, but there are so many synergies to remember (elite cadre bonus, UA bonuses, Stormclad bonues) that I will have to play them for a while to remember to use them all. In fact, between all of those synergy rules, all of Ol' Rowdy's rules and all of the Black 13th's rules, preparing to run this list is an awful lot like studying for an exam.

One last note: It's been a while since I've taken a Stormsmith, and I had forgotten how useful that little guy can be. Mine killed both a GMCA and Aiyanna off, more than earning his 12 points. One of bobaferret's picked off Ryan from out of the middle of the 13th, taking the teeth out of that unit. I love the angry old men - Soft targets beware!

So, why the provocative title you ask? Tonight was a night of misjudging distances at key points in the game. First, my March-empowered Precursors fell a half an inch short when charging the enemy's line, leaving them an inch away and out of shield wall. But that wasn't the worst of it: At the top of turn three I had Epic Stryker perfectly set up for his assassination run, only to find out I did not leave a large enough gap between my Stormclad and a stormblade trooper (by a millimeter!) for him to fit through. The charge failed and I took the rocket to the face for the loss on the next turn. When Siege gets to you there isn't much you can do about it - if I have learned one thing from playing him for the last month is that the best strategy against him is just to kill him fast.

Tournament Report

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:22:00 +0000

My FLGS held our regional qualifier for the PAX Invitational on Saturday. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, PAX is a incredibly fun convention put on by the guys at Penny Arcade, and every year they throw this big party, and as part of that party, there is a by-invitation-only tournament. This year our local press ganger managed to finagle a slot for us at the event, so the winner of this tournament would be walking away with a kickass steamroller trophy, a free pass to PAX, and the chance to represent Idaho in the tournament.

The event was a 750 pt. Steamroller 4 event. Being the middle of summer, attendance was relatively small, with only eight showing up to play. That was fine with me, as it meant only three rounds instead of four. (Those 1:45 minute rounds get long…) I was a little disappointed that no out-of-towners showed up, but I guess when you live in Idaho that is somewhat expected (The next major population center is over three hours away).

As I said in my last post, it’s been over a month since I played, and I had a heck of a time putting lists together. I ended up going with a Siege list and a eStryker list. The Siege list I was happy with – I know it well, and I’m pretty successful with it. I have never played eStryker before, but this list is a variant of the regular Styker list I have run very successfully in the past. Unfortunately, I broke the cardinal rule – never run a warcaster for the first time in a tourney. It doesn’t matter how much theory machine you do, you just won’t have a sense of the nuances until you play it. Anyway, here is what the lists looked like:

Siege List (750 pts.)

Siege Brisbane
Squire
Lancer
Defender
Journeyman
Reinholdt
Ogrun Bokur
9 Sword Knights + UA
8 Trenchers + UA
Black 13th

Epic Stryker List (750 pts)

Epic Stryker
Squire
Lancer
Centurion
Ol' Rowdy
Journeyman
Gun Mage Captain
Rupert Carvolo
2 Stormsmiths
8 Sword Knights + UA
Stormblades + UA

Game 1: vs. Ian’s Khador (Scenario: Destruction)

For my first game, I drew Ian and his Epic Vlad list. Yay me. Khador has just got my number – I don’t get to play them much, and I haven’t figured out a good answer to them yet. His list had eVlad and a war dog, a Spriggan and Drago, a unit of Iron Fang Pikemen, widowmakers, Eyriss, the Drakun, and a pair of mortar crews. They may have been a few other pieces in there, but those are the ones that mattered.

I hates me some Khador.

I took my eStryker list, and it just got chewed up. I used the advance move on my Stormblades, and I’m not sure why. I know better than to use them as a speartip, and as they advanced Eyriss and the mortars chewed them up completely. Widowmakers tore up my advancing sword knights and the Drakun charged Rowdy. Long story short: on round three eVlad feats, widowmakers sneak through a gap and shoot eStryker to death. I think I managed to kill one IFP. Blegh.

Game 2: vs. Scott’s Menoth (Scenario: No Man's Land)

I decided that the eStryker list was going back into the case until I had some time playtest it. I would be finishing the rest of the tourney with my Siege list. For this game I would be playing Scott and his Protectorate list, which included (from what I remember) eSeverius and the Hierophant, a Revenger, a full unit of Exemplar Vengers, a unit of Idrians + UA, a unit of zealots with the Monolith Bearer, Vilmon, Gorman, the Piper and DeBray.

Of course, DeBray deployed in the middle of the table, denying me the ability to deploy my trenchers there. I ended up having to deploy them on my far right flank, directly across from his vengers. That was okay with me – my worst nightmare with this list is having calvary wrap around into my backfield. I was hoping the trenchers would be good enough to serve as a tarpit and at least slow down his cav (which, they managed to do for the entire game). I pretty confident that my Sword Knights could take the middle, but I underestimated the speed and toughness of the Idrians, who had outrageous defense through some combination of spells and buffs.

On turn three I went in for the assassination, using Illumination to get LOS through Gorman’s smoke cloud, feating, and letting the rockets fly. The first one took eSevy to within 4 boxes, but I missed with the second (Reinholdt provided) shot! In response, I got black oil in the face from Gorman, assuring that more rockets wouldn’t be coming next round. Suddenly glad I took the Defender, I loaded the jack with focus, stuck him in a gap and shot the old man in the face for the win.

Game 3: Tony’s Cryx (Scenario: Mosh Pit)

The third game was definitely the most enjoyable of the day. The armies were well matched, my opponent was a really nice guy, and we duked it out something fierce. He brought a eGoreshade list with Bane Thralls, Tartarus, bile thralls, Slaughterborn and a unit of Bloodgorgers, two or three bone jacks, the Nightmare, the Withershadow, a Scarlock, and probably some other crap that I’m forgetting.

This time my trenchers managed to advance-deploy the way I wanted them to, and ended up popping smoke most of the game to fend off the Sudden Death-fueled counter charges of the Bane Thralls. I was lucky enough to experience, for the first time, the joy of the bile thrall purge, with two well-placed purges killing off most of my trenchers and a fair number of sword knights. Tony had amazing luck with his tough rolls on the Bloodgorgers, and I ended up having to kill most of them three or four times, allowing them to swamp my Sword Knights for most of the game. The Nightmare managed to sneak into my back lines through some crazy, cryxian bullshit (Phantom Hunter + Spectral Curse), and made me very happy that I had taken the bokur, who made short work of it (it had already been worked over by the sword knights pretty well, which explains why Siege survived in the first place).

The end of the last game. Mosh Pit in red.

This game finally ended when time ran out. We both had about half of our armies sitting off the side of the table, as the killing had been fierce. I ended up winning because I had more VPs in the Mosh Pit (9 vs. his 7), but I think I got pretty damn lucky, because things were falling apart fast for me. Had he been aware of the time, he could have probably killed me outright. Still, a win is a win, and I’ll take what I can get.

Wrap-Up

So, that’s another tournament under my belt! I didn’t place, but I did finish with a 2-1 winning record, which makes me happy. I took Best of Cygnar, but as the only Cygnar player there, I pretty much had that locked up when I walked in the door. I definitely need to get back to playing more regularly to keep the rust off. I used to play on Sundays, but with summer camping trips I need to work out something else. I still think my eStryker list has some potential, but I need to play it in some friendly games before I attempt it again in such a competitive setting.

Also, you can check out Ghettokore Studios for a less one sided version of the tourney...

The Comeback

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:59:00 +0000

Summer is officially upon us, and I've been doing just about everything but playing Warmachine. In fact, I haven't gotten a game in since we had the Mark II tournament back in April. No real reason -I've just been busy with summer stuff and fishing trips, but I wasn't about to miss this week's tournament at my FLGS. This one is a qualifier to the PAX Invitational. It is a 750 pt. Steamroller 4 event, and the winner gets a pass to PAX and earns a spot at the invitation-only tournament. I have no illusions of winning, but I'm going to play anyway, if for no other reason than to get a few games in.

That being said, with over a month off, I am in desperate need of a tune-up. Thankfully, Jen (bobaferret) was gracious enough to throw me a Thursday night game to help me knock the rust of things. I decided to jump back in with a version of the same Siege list I had success with in the MKII tourney, only this one would be a little bigger as we move 750. Here is what our two lists looked like:

My Cygnar Army (750 pts.)

Siege Brisbane
Squire
Lancer
Defender
Thunderhead
Journeyman
Reinholdt
Herne & Jonne
10 Sword Knights + UA
Black 13th

Jen's Mercs (750 pts)

Capt. Bartolo
Mariner
Mariner
Dirty Meg
Dougal MacNaile
Rupert Carvolo
Stannis Brocker
Aiyana & Holt
10 Precursor Knights + UA
10 Steelhead Halberdiers
3 Steelhead Heavy Cavalry

Deployment

Turn 1 (both): Deployment was uneventful with Jen winning the initiative. Nothing fancy on turn 1, with both sides basically running forward to mix things up as fast as possible - I had a unit of halberdiers over there as well as a unit of cav and a cav solo. I started worrying about my noticeable lack of infantry, and my complete lack of a good tarpit unit. I had dropped a bunch of points on the Thunderhead this game, wanting to test the idea that his pulse could eat through infantry fast enough that I wouldn't need the tarpit unit (just so you don't have to wait in suspense let me tell your right now, it can't.)

The end of Turn 1

Turn 2, Jen: We start to get it on, with Jen charging halberdiers into my lines. One gets into melee, but fails to kill anything. The Precursor block continues to creep forward while the twin mariners take advantage of the PK's kneel tactic and blast away at me from safely in their little Morrowan cocoon. One tees up the Thunderhead, who is looking like an obnoxiously big target in the front of my army. The other manages to deviate a shot onto the Black 13th and kills Ryan (oh, sweet Ryan). Meg and McNaile scramble around the whole time, making the 'jacks even better. Calvary sweeps around the right side, crashing by flank and forcing my Defender to deal with them instead of doing what he really needs to be doing.

The top of Turn 2

Turn 2, Me: I think about pulsing with the T-head, but it is just easier to drop a Ground Pounder on the halberdiers. Herne and Jonne try to AOE them to death, and manage to take out a few more. Sword Knights go in for cleanup. All but two die, which makes me mo' happy. Defender kills the cav that is in his grill, but realizes he has two more right behind it. I'm betting on a double-charge on Jen's next turn. I can't actually remember what the T-head ended up doing this turn, but looking at the photo, it must have been completely ineffective.

Bottom of Turn 2

Turn 3, Jen: The halberdiers charge the defender, doing some damage, and more importantly setting up flank for the cav charge, which comes next. Amazingly, the cav charge is an Epic Fail, with neither able to hit. The PK block advances over the fountain, and the Mariner's continue to pound on my T-Head. He's not looking so hot anymore, but he's still standing. Holt shoots a Sword Knight, and sends him to Urcaen. Bart moves up and pops feat, but doesn't catch nearly enough in it to make me nervous. [I forgot to snap a picture at the end of Jen's turn, so you will just have to picture it in your vivid (if slightly twisted) imaginations.]

Turn 3, Me: With Siege, my philosophy is pretty much win or lose, the game is ending in turn 3. Luck favors the bold. I shuffle the Sword Knights to get them out of the way (and out of Bart's feat). The Black 13th sneak up to the edge of Bart's control area, Lynch and Watts both scoring hits, softening him up. Herne and Jonne move up on the hill and take their shot at the boss, but miss wildly. Siege will need to finish it himself (as usual). I swing out around the left side of the sword knights and use Foxhole to sink the front line of Precursors and assure I have a clear line of sight to Bart. Siege feats, and fires off a Ground Pounder, and ends up laying out more damage than Bart's half-armored, already damaged ass can take. That's game.

End game. Rocket to the Face Hole.

While it was a win, it was a rough game. I felt rusty as hell, and I hated this army list. The Thunderhead was a 154 points of big-ass target, and I spent the whole game wishing their were trenchers up there instead (which is probably exactly what I'm going to do for the tourney version of this list). I also wonder about Herne and Jonne, who always seem to fall short of their potential for me. Back to the list-builder for a tune up on this one. Still, it was good to be playing again... Looking forward to some tournament play this weekend.

Paintin' Hordes

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:21:00 +0000

So, picking up from where we left off last time, I'm still thinking about starting up a Hordes faction. Last time, I was debating between Trolls and Skorne, and in the mean time the Circle may have snuck into the running for a few days. I think I'm pretty much back to where I started, and I'm starting to dabble a little with each of them. On Friday I picked up a Trollblood starter box and a blister of Kriel Warriors. I figured I would paint the KWs first to get an idea if my paint scheme was going to work before I dove into the warbeasts.

My very first Kriel Warrior... I'm pretty happy with it.

For a color scheme, I was thinking of doing something grey and almost stone like. What I ended up with actually looks a lot like the troll illustrations in the books (a cold, granite grey-blue) rather than the bright turquise blue of the studio colors. For a base coat I used GW Space Wolves Grey and hit it with a wash of P3 Greycoat Grey. Greycoat Grey is a really interesting color - as you dilute it, it breaks down into almost a cobalt blue. I used GW Shadow Grey to add a little detail in the form of spots on his shoulders, back and his temples.

Yay, tartan! I'm trying to imagine how
many of these I will need to paint.

I also started assembly on my Skorne Titan Gladiator. Wow, what a pain in the butt that is. I'm guessing that will generally be true of Hordes compared to Warmachine, thanks to the more organic nature of the models. Still, I used a half a ribbon of Green Stuff getting his torso caulked together. Okay, I stuffed a bunch down inside him as well, but the joint a the waist makes me nervous - there just is not enough metal there.

Surprsing how much green stuff can fit in there...

I'm not sure what I'm going to take on next. The Gladiator is really appealing to me (I jut love how that model looks), but I would also like to crank out a few more Trolls while I'm feeling the muse. I may keep working on Skorne assembly while I paint up the warbeasts from the Trollblood battle box. At some point I also need to do some work before next week's 750 mangled metal tournament (like assemble Darius and the Thunderhead), but I'm kind of in a groove right now, and I don't really want to stop... Anyway, I'll keep you posted as I make up my mind. I'm not really in a hurry - my focus for play is still Cygnar. My Hordes army is going to be more of a "masterwork" army that I can really take my time painting and lavish attention on. That ends up being hard to do with my primary army, as I feel so much pressure to get things painted up and on the table (as Brother Scott always says - "Painted models play better.")

Feeling Feral

noreply@blogger.com (Dangerfish) — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:41:00 +0000

I'm back from my fishing trip, and barring a little excitement that involved the near-sinking of a boat, I had a good time. I took an extra day to hang around the house and help my wife get caught up with yard work, and then it was back to the grind. Ah, how the shackles of adulthood do chafe...

Anyway, over the long weekend I started thinking about what I wanted to do next. I’ve been paining Warmachine models for the last couple of years, and playing actively since last September, and I think I’m ready to shake things up a little bit. Like a lot of other people right now, I’m feeling the urge to pick up another faction and try something different. I’ve been holding out on getting into Hordes for a long time, mostly because I haven’t been able to decide what faction I wanted to play, but I'm thinking now may be the time. Plus, I need a break from painting Ultramarines blue for a while.

So, what is it going to be? Let’s get the easy decision out of the way first – it won’t be the Legion of Everblight. I already own a bunch of Crxy stuff, and I’ll dig stuff out if I feel the urge to play a dragon-blighted-dirty-tricks-fast-assassination army. While the Legion warbeasts look properly cool, I don’t really feel inspired to paint them, and I strongly dislike the look of most of the nyss models that make up the bulk of the infantry. If I don't feel inspired to paint just by looking at a model, it's probably a bad sign...

Next up, Circle Orboros: I like this faction a lot from a painter’s viewpoint. The models are cool, and there is a huge variety in the range (from Tharn vs. Druids, Constructs vs. beasts, etc.). I like the mobility of the army, and I think they would be my definite choice for a second Hordes army, but right now I’m in the mood to play something really beefy and destructive, which really leaves two options… Trollbloods or Skorne.

The Skorne: From the first time I picked up Primal I liked the look and feel of the Skorne. The titans had me right away – they just didn't look like any of the usual fantasy stuff I had seen before. I dig the samurai-flavored armor and the clean rank-and-file nature of the troops. The Skorne are easily the most “army-like” faction in Hordes, and I like the idea of well-ordered phalanxes of disciplined troops. Their different units all look very similar, and I have to imagine that when they are fully painted and all blocked-up together on the table they would look stunning. In general, they have great armor making them strong defensively, but they also feed off of their own souls, encouraging very aggressive play, which is appealing to me. I’ve been playing a fairly smash-mouth style with my Cygnar lately, and with good success – I’m guessing it would work even better with an army built for it. The downsides: Painting lots of repetitive armor, which is of course loaded with detail. It seems like very technical painting, but not very artistic. I’m also not fond of the heaping amounts of cheese the Skorne received from Metamorphosis. Sure, it made them way more dangerous, but it also pushed them across the line where they are just not fun for opponents to play against. I don't like the cheesy game, and I don't want to play it.

The Trolls: I love me some trolls. I like the look of them, and I like the fluff, and they seem like they would be a lot of fun to paint. The models have a load of personality and a little bit of humor, which I can appreciate. Mechanically, they are tough as nails, which is also pretty appealing, and they have the type of interdependent combined-arms mechanic that I find appealing. They also have some of the largest and most impressive models in the game, which calls out to the painter side of me. While maybe not as disciplined as the Skorne, the Trolls still solve problems the old fashioned way – by caving you skull in – which I can appreciate. Downsides: Unless I do something very different in the color scheme, I’m back to painting blue. On top of that, troll models generally have a relatively low point cost, which means a lot of models, and in turn a lot of painting would be required. Mechanically, they do have a number of abilities that are based on critical hits – combine that with tough rolls, and there is a lot of randomness involved in Troll success. Me, I don’t so much like leaving things to chance.

Not really sure how to decide. I think I could enjoy playing either one, so it comes down to the enjoyment I would get from painting them. For the next few months I expect to get in a lot more painting than playing… I already own a Skorne battle box, which I picked up as one of our local stores liquidated their stuff at ½ off… Maybe I'll just pick up a Trollblood box, paint them both up, and decide which one I enjoy painting more before I sink more money into extra units, etc… I'll keep you posted - feel free to throw in support one way or another.